Fall of an Empire: Spinoff of ME's Draka TL.


This is my first real TL. Since it is my first TL, any help and criticism is appreciated.

Spinoff of Municipal Engines’s A Crack at Draka TL.
POD: Prince Wilhelm, son of Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia, doesn’t die on 18 January 1586.

Prince Wilhelm was born a healthy boy on June 23rd, 1585 to Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia and Marie Eleonore of Cleves. However, his father had already started to suffer from mental disorders 12 years ago, so while he was still under his mother’s care, his father was unable to care for you. Still, he was able to grow up to a healthy, robust, young man, who married the Swedish princess Catherine on July 14th, 1614. Wilhelm and Catherine only had one son, Prince Karl Wilhelm, born on November 11th, 1622. On Albert Frederick’s death on August 28th, 1618, Wilhelm succeeded him as Duke of Prussia at the age of 33.

John Casimir of Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Kleeburg married one of King Sigismund III’s daughter, Anna Marie, and had four surviving children, Christina, Maria Eufrosyne, Elenora Catherine, and Adolf John. [1]

In 1618, the 30 Years’ War started, and the Duchy of Prussia was able to maintain its neutrality, as it is a fief of Poland and wasn’t interested in interfering in HRE’s problems. However, one thing Duke Wilhelm did do is allow George Wilhelm to travel to Prussia for retirement, as he was in ineffective ruler of Brandenburg who was forced into the war by Gustav II Adolf of Sweden. George Wilhelm died in 1640 at Königsberg, and was succeeded by Frederick Wilhelm as the Elector of Brandenburg. When Gustav II died in battle in 1632, Christina, his daughter, became Queen of Sweden. As a result of the war, many peasants of the Holy Roman Empire looked for a better place to live, and the prosperous Duchy of Prussia, which was neutral during the war, looked like a great place to settle.

In 1637, A Swedish expedition to North America, composed of the two ships Fogel Grip and Kalmar Nyckel, embarked from the port of Gothenburg. They sailed into the St. Lawrence River and bypassed Quebec City, the French settlement on the St. Lawrence River, and Trois-Rivières, the second French settlement on the St. Lawrence, just built in 1634. They landed on the banks of the St. Lawrence in 1638, and set up a settlement there, named Fort Christina, after Queen Christina of Sweden. [2] Over the years, many Swedes, Finns, Dutchmen, Germans, and Prussians immigrated to Fort Christina.

Duchess Catherine died on December 25th, 1638, and Wilhelm on June 5th, 1654.

[1] OTL, she died in 1600. ITTL, she survived to become the ATL wife of John Casimir, because Catherine of Sweden is already married to Wilhelm.
[2] Located near OTL Cornwall, Ontario.

 
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The First Northern War - Part 1

On June 6th, 1654, Christina of Sweden abdicated in favor of Charles William of Prussia. And thus, with the death of both his father and his grand-aunt, Charles William became both the Duke of Prussia and the King of Sweden. Poland-Lithuania protested this move, but couldn’t do anything, stuck in a war against Russia. Sweden, at the time, was a rapidly expanding empire, and an addition of Prussia to the Empire only fueled the flames.

As a result of the fast Russian advances against Poland-Lithuania, Sweden decided to attack Poland-Lithuania on July 14th, 1655. Attacking from two places, one from Prussia, and the other from Livonia, Sweden quickly overrun most of Poland not already occupied by Russia. The nobles of Poland quickly surrendered to the militarily superior Swedes, while Lithuanian Janusz Radziwiłł agreed to place the Grand Duchy of Lithuania under Swedish protection. Joining the armies in Poland, King Charles William X lead it in pursuit of John Casimir II of Poland, who is retreating down south. After numerous battles, most of which resulted in a Swedish victory, John Casimir was exiled to Silesia. In a second treaty with Sweden, ratified on November 1st, 1655, Radziwiłł agreed to recognize Charles William as Grand Duke of Lithuania.

A rebellion by the nobles of Royal Prussia was put down on November 12th, 1655, but rumors started spreading about the ruthlessness and hostility of the Swedish occupiers. Guerilla warfare popped up, with a successful attack on a Swedish garrison at Koscian. On November 20th, 1655, a manifesto was published calling for resistance against the Swedes and for the return of John Casimir, and on January 1st of 1656, John Casimir returned to Poland. His return from Silesia caused the soldiers of Poland to switch sides from Sweden over to John Casimir. While King Charles William was able to defeat John Casimir at Gołąb, he was forced to retreat when the John Casimir’s army threatened to encircle and trap his army. Seeing Charles William stuck in Poland, Russia declared war on Sweden on May 4th, 1656.

On June 14th, 1656, Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg and King Charles William X of Sweden made an alliance. In the Treaty of Marienburg, Charles William granted Frederick William Greater Poland, in exchange for military aid. However, shortly after John Casimir attacked Warsaw, now under Brandenburgian garrisons, and Brandenburg was forced to join the war. On July 2nd, 1656, Alexis of Russia invaded Livonia, and by the end of the week, has reached Dünaburg. Two weeks later, a combined Dutch-Danish fleet broke the naval blockade imposed on Danzig by King Charles William X. On August 1st, 1656, a small combined Brandenburgian-Swedish army was able to defeat John Casimir and his Polish-Lithuanian army, but unfortunately Frederick William I died in the battle. With no heirs after Frederick William I, the electorate of Brandenburg passed over to King Charles William X of Sweden of the house of Hohenzollern.
 
What I will be covering next:
First Northern War - Part II
First Northern War - Part III
Developments in New Sweden
First Chinese War
Great Northern War (Possibly in parts)
British Succession after the Stuarts
Netherlands-Bavaria Trade
More Developments in New Sweden
Second Chinese War
War of the Austrian Succession (Possibly in parts)
War of the Polish-Lithuanian Succession (Possibly in parts)
[TBD] War (Possibly in Parts)
American Revolution
Dutch Revolution and Dutch Civil War
Drakian Revolution

List subject to change.
 
I just had this very interesting idea for this TL, and since I didn't want to lose it, I'll just write it here.

Excerpted from "The Threeist Wars", by E.A. Blair (Rothschild Books, Dominion of Carolina, 1948)

The Threeist Wars can be attributed back to colonial times, when the maritime powers of Spain, Portugal, and Sweden were all expanding on the South American continent. Spain and Portugal were the first ones on the continent, with Portugal landing on the east side of South America and Spain on the Northwest side of South America. There were border disputes on how to divide up South America between themselves, but they were eventually resolved in the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494. Spain and Portugal were united in 1580. While the Dutch came and invaded sometime during the 1600s, they were repulsed by the Portuguese when Portugal finally became independent in 1640.

Sweden came a little later, around the 1700s. A growing power at the time, it looked to expand, and having already expanded into North America, it looked south, and came upon the Plate River of South America. From there, the entire southern part of South America became a Swedish colony, called Patagonia by English speakers. In 1786, after Sweden watched what happened in the American Revolutionary War, the Swedish King John William II the Great sent his second son Prince Adolf over to rule Patagonia instead of ruling Patagonia from Sweden on the other side of the world.

Then the Spanish Revolution came in 1788.

There were drastic changes in Europe, like the unification of Italy, the flight of the Pope and his cardinals to first France, then the Kingdom of Poland, and the Spanish invasion of French Algeria. Among those were the assassination of the entire Spanish Bourbon royal family, except for one Francis of the House of Bourbon, who fled to the Viecroyalty of New Granada. Instead of returning to Spain after Emperor Napoleón was defeated, he decided to remain at New Granada, forming the Kingdom of New Granada soon afterwords and becoming King Francis I.

One other effect of the end of the Revolution and the ascension of General Napoleón Bonaparte as Emperor of Spain and Italy is the invasion of Portugal. While there were guerrilhas who remained to fight against the Spanish under Napoleón, the Portuguese royal family fled to Brazil, with the aid of the British. Like Francis I in New Granada, King John's son Peter didn't want to go back to Portugal, having been raised in Brazil most of his entire life. Therefore, he stayed back in Brazil, while the rest of his family left for Portugal. The Kingdom of Brazil was formed in 1820.

By the 1830s, Patagonia and Sweden have diverged in foreign policy, so each went their own way, Patagonia now forming the Kingdom of Patagonia under King Adolf John I.

The Threeist Wars were basically a continuation of the land wars between the three colonizer countries. From the 1830s on, the two weaker kingdoms on the South American continent would ally together and team up on the strongest country. However, once one country in that alliance becomes too powerful, the alliance falls apart, and the process repeats. The reason why the alliance falls apart is because the weaker member of the alliance fears that if the third country gets annexed, they will be next. The balance is maintained because of first British prevention of any other European country meddling in American affairs, to protect its position in the sea, and later because of American influence through the Clay Doctrine.
 
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