OOC: Time to leave the Commonwealth for a bit..
Expert from: Wars of Empire “The Turkey Shoot” by William, Duke of York
Published: McKinley Brothers, Dublin, UK 1960
Chapter 1: The Beginning
The reasons behind a war are so hard to define in black and white. Typically of these was the start of the Ottoman War (1825-1832) It basically started because the Ottomans and Austro-Hungarian Confederation could not agree over a insignificant piece of Transylvanian Real Estate. Thought the real reason for it was a weakening Ottoman Empire and that the Vultures of Austria and Russia wanted to get a piece of the carcass before it totally disintegrated. Britian’s entry into the whole debacle was to guarantee the independence of the King’s personal pet project of Greece. So we have three powers set to gobble up the Turkey… The only problem is that the Turkey is not quite ready to roll over and die yet.
Austria signed a secret agreement with the Russian Empire in 1824 promising to grant independence to certain Slavic States if war with the Ottoman Empire broke out. That would come to pass on the 18th of September, 1825 when Ottoman troops fired on an Austrian Commercial Aero-Ship* just leaving Constantinople.
1825 would be a year of largely ghost battles occurring between Austrian backed rebel groups in the Balkans and Russian forces that invaded Ottoman Armenia in October. In April of 1826 the United Kingdom officially declared a protectorate over “Greece and all Greek territories in Europe” essentially laying claim to Thrace and the Ionian Isles.
1826-1827 “The End of Turkish Europe” three powers descended on Turkish held Europe in the summer of 1826 with British and Greek forces driving through Macedonia and into Thrace itself, Austria moving across the Balkans towards the Bulgarian Frontier and Russia effectively moving south through Bulgaria and Romania. 1827 would see the embattled Turkish forces withdrawing from Europe after a sound defeat at the Battle of Constantinople. One of sad side effects of the battle was the destruction of the HAGIA SOPHIA.
1828-1829: The Treaty of Constantinople ended Greco-British involvement in the “Turkey Shoot” but other powers would eventually descend on the leftovers of the Ottoman Empire. While Austria and Russia had seen their goals realized it was determined to continue the war to gain further concessions from the Turkish Government. The invasion of Asia Minor was primarily a Russian operation though Austrian forces did participate in the siege of Ankara in December of 1829. The Turkish Government officially capitulated on January 1st, 1830…. Then came the rest of the vultures. Russia, Austria, Netherlands, Lyon, France, Aragon, Castile, and Portugal began a proxy war to control the rest of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey itself was reduced to a rump in Western Asia Minor.
1830-32: The Infighting would actually come to blows in several instances with the various expeditionary forces competing over the carcass of Ottoman Arabia and North Africa.
1833: The Treaty of Ankara would finally end the “Turkey Shoot” most of the powers would gain something. Lyon gained control of Mesopotamia (Northern Iraq), Castile gained Syria, Portugal gained a mandate over Aden, Austro-Hungary gained the Austrian Sahara (Worthless stretch of the Sahara), Egypt became an independent state under mandate by Britian, Cyprus went to the New Byzantine Empire along with mandates over Lebanon and Northern Palestine, Southern Palestine and Gaza went to the Netherlands, The Hashemite Kingdom was placed under an “American Protectorate”, and the rest of Arabia was pretty much left to fend for itself.
* It was later determined that the Aero-Ship had been brought down by an accident in the engine room.