If you are wondering, my main source for the future Ottoman PoD is “The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire” by Alan Palmer, and I found a major PoD that could improve the Ottoman chances of survival in the future.
Empire of Freedom: The History of the American Empire
- Thread starter Kaiser of Brazil
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last admiral
Banned
A not Ottoman-screw? In this age of "Fuck Islam" trend in this forum?
ITS A MIRACLE!!!
*Proceed to play earrape Ottoman anthem on max*
I will vote for the Civil War ending too, though Ottomans is a fine alternative as well. Good luck on your exams, Antonio!
XXIV: THE SULTAN AND THE JANISSARIES
XXIV: THE SULTAN AND THE JANISSARIES
(Selim III inspecting Nizam-i Djedit troops)
(Selim III inspecting Nizam-i Djedit troops)
Ever since the failed attempt to take Vienna in 1683, and the defeat on the “Great Turkish War”, the Ottoman Empire entered an slow decline, with its institutions growing corrupt and backwards compared to Europe. The Sublime Porte was still a formidable Empire extending from Algiers to the Kars mountains, but in reality many provinces (especially in Northern Africa) were de facto independent states. By the end of the 18th century, the Empire was sick and one man was trying to cure it. Selim III was enthroned Sultan following the aftermath of the Disastrous Russo-Turkish War, where the weaknesses of the Empire were exposed as the Russians reached Bucharest and the Janissary troops collapsed. Like Ahmed III before him, he knew that the Empire needed urgent reforms or it would eventually see its end, but he needed to be careful in order to avoid the fate of the Tulip Sultan. In 1797, Selim would create what would become the main strength of his reign: The Nizam-I Djedit, the New Order Army. The army was a stark contrast to the Janissary corps, keeping discipline, dressed in western Uniforms and adopting Napoleonic tactics.
In comparison, the Janissary corps was becoming more and more corrupt, taking control of Serbia after killing it’s Governor and installing a brutal corrupt government in 1801. The Serbs became increasingly hostile, and fear came to the Janissaries that the Sultan would soon purge their ranks and use the Serbians against them. In a “preemptive strike”, several Serbian nobles were killed, sparking a revolt against Janissary rule led by Karadorde Petrovic, a Serbian noble who started the revolt in the name of the Sultan to remove the Janissary domination of Serbia. The rebels managed to defeat the Janissaries and Petrovic was appointed Governor of Serbia in 1806, sparking outrage amongst the Janissaries.
In foreign policy, the Ottomans were caught in the middle of the Napoleonic Wars even having been invaded by Napoleon in 1798. But the Ottoman Empire was a historical ally of the French, indeed the Westernization policies made by Selim were made in order to emulate France. It didn’t take long for their relations to be restored by 1805 after the Battle of Austerlitz, with Napoleon being seen as the new Master of Europe by Selim III and much of the Ottoman nobles. In 1806, Selim approached France in more friendly relations thanks to the efforts of French Diplomat Horace Sebastiani, drawing the ire of Britain and Russia, the Ottomans joined the Continental system and went to war with Russia.
In May 1807, Selim would have to face his greatest crisis yet. When the New Order army (numbering 23,000) marched to Edirne where the local Janissaries refused acess, in response the Army attacked the city and massacred the local Janissary garrison. The “Edirne Incident” was a breaking point for the Conservative forces (Ulema, Janissaries and Feudal aristocrats) who attempted to launch a coup against Selim, surrounding him in the palace and ordering him to dissolve the New Order military units and go back on several reforms. Selim III was no fool, he knew that the New Order units were his greatest asset and the coupists would never trust him to remain with his reformist ideas, they wanted him disarmed to overthrow him. Instead he refused the demands of the coupists led by Kabakçi Mustafa, Mustafa was commander of a group of rebellious Yamak troops, but the reactionary rebels were still in a smaller number compared to the New Order troops quartered in the city. The minister of Interior, Köse Musa, had ordered those troops to stand down, but upon hearing this, the Sultan accused him of treason and ordered his execution by strangling, sending his troops to crush the reactionaries.
Constantinople became a battle zone, with troops clashing in the streets and nobles backstabbing one another over politics, a fire broke out in the Janissary quarters by the Nizam troops and that fire spread to burn half of the city. Between the 25th and the 29th of May, the city burned until Kabakçi was captured and strangled in the presence of the Sultan, who discovered that his brother Mustafa IV was to be installed by the reactionaries in a coup. The old ottoman tradition of Fraticide came back when Mustafa IV was strangled by the order of the Sultan. Selim’s fury spread over the Empire as army units (recently returned from an inconclusive war with Russia ended with the Treaties of Tilsit) and even locals attacked the quarters of Janissary corps around the Empire, with the Emperor calling for the “Dissolution of the corrupted and vile institution”. The purge of the Janissaries lasted for 2 months with loyalists of the Sultan destroying the centuries-old institution corrupted with decadence, estimates of the deaths during this period range from 14,000 to over 120,000, but the latter historians ignore that most of the Janissaries didn’t resist the destruction of the institution. Selim had suspected of their betrayal long ago, and for that he underwent a decade-long process of quietly filling the Janissary command with loyalists to facilitate the future destruction, it was the “Auspicious Incident” as it was called, greatly hastening the downfall of the Janissaries.
Janissary musketeer, c.1800
The reactionary defeat in May 1807 is considered a turning point in the Ottoman history, Selim III would be able to continue his military reforms, and they would soon be useful when the Ottoman troops joined Napoleon in the Russian Campaign of 181. But while the Janissaries were gone, it wasn’t the end of reactionaries in the Sublime Porte, especially inside the state institutions like the Ulemas. Nor would that be the end of the Imperial troubles, especially as two rising Beys in Epirus and Egypt would soon threaten the House of Osman and it’s control over the Empire.
First of all, this is excellent I think it is great. And if this whole creating your own character is still on the table I got one
Name: Karl Fredrikson
Birthplace: Eskilstuna Sweden
Date of Birth: (27/09/1768)
Sex: Male
Culture: Swedish
Political Leaning: conservative
Background: Coming from a wealthy Swedish family who made there living by selling lumber he got the best education of the time and was supposed to take over his father's business. He never really was a religious man until his family died in a tragic accident. when he was around 16 years old which resulted in him turning to god and thus the church. But he saw their interpretation of the bible as wrong and when he was around 26 he started to preach his own interpretation and quickly gathered a small following and he started getting visions that he should take his followers to the new world and make a new life for them. So in 1800 at the age of 32, he sold his father's business and used plus his savings to take him and his now 200 followers who call themself the Karlenites to settle the American frontier.
just in case you need a religious fanatic
Name: Karl Fredrikson
Birthplace: Eskilstuna Sweden
Date of Birth: (27/09/1768)
Sex: Male
Culture: Swedish
Political Leaning: conservative
Background: Coming from a wealthy Swedish family who made there living by selling lumber he got the best education of the time and was supposed to take over his father's business. He never really was a religious man until his family died in a tragic accident. when he was around 16 years old which resulted in him turning to god and thus the church. But he saw their interpretation of the bible as wrong and when he was around 26 he started to preach his own interpretation and quickly gathered a small following and he started getting visions that he should take his followers to the new world and make a new life for them. So in 1800 at the age of 32, he sold his father's business and used plus his savings to take him and his now 200 followers who call themself the Karlenites to settle the American frontier.
just in case you need a religious fanatic
![[totally a legit person]](/forum/data/avatars/m/134/134906.jpg?1617940240){kind=avatar}
Well if the Ottomans are reforming, this will be a very distinctive timeline for Europe. I wonder if modernizing Russia and Austria will become a bigger goal of them since now they can't expand south.
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Well then, a surprise to be sure, but a pleasant one. Always cool to see the Ottomans not collapse as fast as they would've IRL. Let's see how Napoleon does.
I forgot about that, sorry, just ignore that part, also, with no Austrian enemy in the north and a reformist in charge, the Ottomans might actually be able to expand their borders, in the future that is, maybe into Arabia and North Africa.
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XXV: CIVIL WAR III
XXV: CIVIL WAR III
On the 1st of March of 1807, the decisive last battle of the American Civil War would happen in the outskirts of Richmond, and the resulting miraculous victory of the Grand Army of the Republic is generally accepted by Historians as where the Empire had its defeat. But that’s not the full history, with many Military Historians supporting that the Empire could never win the war: The Imperial troops were tied down with the occupation of Canada and the Imperial Army of the Potomac was already in dire straits after the heavy losses in North Anna, only going to Richmond due to the stubbornness of Emperor Thomas. But many religious and spiritual leaders, especially during the Second Great Awakening, including Emperor Thomas himself, had another version.
Days before the battle, Thomas came to the south to lead the army, he wanted to be like Bonaparte, a monarch leading in the frontlines. On the night before the Battle of Richmond, while the two armies were sending skirmishers to fight one another, Thomas was leading an escort group to a local farm for supplies, when an artillery shell landed, missing Thomas’ face by an inch, he fell off his now headless horse and the men came under fire by a group of Republican skirmishers, the Emperor was the only one of a group of 4 of his guards that survived. He looked for a way to go back to the army in the middle of the cold night, only coming across a church, he got inside and found that he was alone. He looked for food and found nothing, instead, found only a man dressed as a Priest, he couldn’t recognize his face in the dark.
“Father, I need help, how can I get to Elmont ?” Asked the Emperor, trying to find a way to get back to his army camp.
“Worry not my child, the others of your kind are looking for you around here.” Said him in a calm but authoritarian voice.
“My kind ?” Asked the Emperor in a confused expression.
“The kind that worries more about what is in here than what will come after, my angel of death is very occupied with your kind.” The “Priest” was not facing him, he was occupying himself in reading the Bible.
“Your angel of death ? What do you mean, you are not God, are you ?” The Emperor said in a jokingly tone, he probably had just met an crazy hermit.
“Many didn’t believe me when I came down last time, they mocked me all the way till my death, and they couldn’t believe when I resurrected even when I repeatedly told them that such things would happen. Such is the way that your kind works.”
“Yeah right, so do you have any proof of that ?”
“Tomorrow, in the battle that you will lose, a man in horseback by your right side will be hit by a cannon ball in the left arm, he will be crippled but he will live, his name will be George Weston and right now he is praying that I spare his life tomorrow. Tell him I have heard his prayer.”
“Well, that’s... very specific... but why shall I lose the battle tomorrow ? Haven’t you, if you are really who you claim you are, placed me to rule over America ? Isn’t this nation set above all others ?” He was still a bit skeptical, probably this crazed man had chosen a completely random event, but he went with it.
“Because I have not set you to be a Monarch to rule in the conquest of lands or the defeat of your enemies, that was the mistake of Saul, David and Solomon, they thought I have made them King only for the conquests. But you, like George Washington, is set as ruler to lead my new chosen people, while George had set the foundations of the New Jerusalem, you will save the souls of it’s citizens, while your firstborn will not rule, instead your second son will be a great conqueror. For I have set your nation to be my Kingdom on earth until the day comes that I return.”
“Well, I thank you for thrusting me. But I have to go back, if you could use your “omnipresence” to show me the way...” He was still skeptical.
“You will learn the truth soon, for now head into that direction, that’s where your camp is my child.” The figure pointed outside and he left, but soon it started to get colder and colder, with the clock going past midnight, a hungry and exhausted Emperor Thomas fell into the floor exhausted. That couldn’t be it, he was about to crush the rebels and unite the nation, he couldn’t just die so pathetically in the middle of the Virginian forest, he closed his eyes and waited for his fate.
He woke up hours later back in his camp, his men carried him back to the camp, he told them of the story of the church but he only saw confusion in the face of General Jackson when he told him about it. The soldiers found him surrounded by 4 of his guards in the ground, suffering of shell shock after almost being hit by a Republican canister. Thomas would go back into the battle, watching from distance as the Republicans repelled one charge after the other when suddenly a cannon ball came from inches of hitting him. It instead hit an unfortunate soldier to his right, Thomas went down from his horse and checked the boy, he was a bloody mess with much of his left arm gone.
“Calm down soldier. Medic !” He screamed the last part as two men came to carry him. “What’s your name ?”
“G-George W-Weston y-you- Argh !” And in that moment, Thomas remembered the prophecy given by that strange man in the church. As he was in shock, thinking of the revelation, General Jackson sounded the retreat, the rebels had heavily entrenched the city outskirts, managing to repeal 3 charges of the Imperial army.
Thomas and his defeated army crossed the Potomac again, back to Philadelphia, where Thomas sent an official peace offer to the United Republics of America: The Empire of America would recognize the independence of the Commonwealths of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida Territory, Mississippi Territory, and Tennessee, while the Commonwealth of Kentucky would remain subject of the Empire. The hawks of both sides agitated, especially the northerners who felt betrayed by their ex-jingositic Emperor, while the southerners refused to give up Kentucky, but moderates from both sides prevailed. The Empire has just fought a war with Britain and had to keep several thousand troops to fight remaining guerrillas in Canada, there was also the problem of the crippling debt of the Empire and a possible return of Britain. While the Southerners won a great victory in Richmond, Jefferson had no ambition of invading the north and adding millions of urban monarchist Federalists in his southern agrarian Republic, they also knew that it was unlikely Thomas would give him a better offer if he ended the sudden bout of generosity.
On the 12th of March of 1807, the American Civil War was over with the treaty of Columbia, chosen as a neutral ground in the border where Thomas and Jefferson meet to divide America for the next decades. On the very next day, Thomas signed the creation of the Grand Duchy of Quebec, an autonomous region inside the Empire ruled by the Québécois themselves under nominal allegiance to the Emperor.