Into the Unseen Era - A Timeline

[Ersatz Sequoyan]

Hello everyone! A quick introduction first, I'm a long time lurker and have finally decided to throw in my hand into writing a timeline of my own. You will have to forgive me if I sometimes stray from a more accuracy-based timeline, while I am trying to be as accurate as possible, my resources to research with are somewhat limited. However, if nothing else, I hope to provide for you all an interesting read!

===(1)===​

Chapter 1. The End of a War

Despite valiant efforts on behalf of King Frederick II,
Prussia would be lead to defeat in the Nine Years War​

By 1765, what would become known as the Nine Years War [1] was finally beginning to shuffle off towards a final closure. The Dismemberment of Prussia in the 1764 Treaty of Prague had smashed the “Iron Kingdom” of Prussia to rusting shards, reducing the Hohenzollern domain to the Electorate of Brandenburg. Hanover, in Union with Great Britain, was overran by combined Franco-Austrian forces later that year as well. The last European theater of the War that remained by 1764 was the Iberian theater, where the fifth invasion of Portugal [2] by combined Franco-Spanish forces finally seized Oporto after a series of catastrophic defeats.

1765 was also proving to be another year of defeats in Europe for Britain and her allies. Attempts by the British and Portuguese to dislodge the Spanish and French from the north of Portugal failed disastrously, with the commander of the Portuguese Army, the Count of Lippe, dying in the Battle of Mira. The Republic of the Netherlands had broken from their neutrality and entered the War against Britain following a crisis regarding the British seizure and privateering of Dutch shipping. [3] While the death of Tsarina Elizabeth on January 10th [4], and the ascension of the eleven-year-old Tsar Paul I [5] to the Imperial throne led to hope that Russia might soon abandon her war allies, the Tsar’s mother and Regent, Catherine, kept Russia in the fight.

Britain did see considerable success at sea and in the colonial arena, but it was proving to not be enough to keep Morale high among the British public. British trade was suffering during the War, and the British economy was beginning to flag under the strain of nearly a decade of warfare. The National Debt had more than doubled, going from a pre-War 75 million pounds to over 150 million pounds, with interest repayments on the Debt exceeding two-thirds of the Government’s expenditure. The government of Prime Minister George Grenville would implement a series of taxes on cider, lead, paper, and glass to keep the Government solvent which only further dampened morale.

Finally, as news that Portugal was seeking an armistice with Spain broke across Britain, public support for continuation of the War imploded. Rumors that a combined Spanish-French-Dutch fleet was preparing to clear the way for an invasion of Britain spiraled into a Panic by September, leading to the collapse of over two dozen banks across Britain, nine from London alone. The subsequent economic crisis led to Grenville resigning his post as Prime Minister to be replaced by William Pitt.

Prime Ministers Grenville (left) and Pitt (right)​

Despite Herculean efforts by the “Great Commoner,” [6] the Pitt Ministry was unable to salvage the situation. As 1765 came to a close, the British Government was finally facing the futility of the War. The economic slump following the Panic was forcing either an end to the War, or the procurement of revenue through even more taxation; the Government would otherwise be unable to pay its debts by June of 1766. With public morale approaching an almost rebellious low, [7] Pitt would bite the bullet and advise Parliament that an armistice with the Franco-Austrian coalition was necessary.

There would be one final defeat for Britain before the year was out however: the unexpected fall of Gibraltar. The British outpost had fallen under siege and blockade in late 1763 and had held firmly. Or, at least, that was believed by London. Typhus would sweep through the garrison in the summer of 1765, along with a gradual increase in scurvy. While reinforcements had made it to the garrison in August, they had proven more of a curse than a blessing. Spanish attacks had managed to prevent most ships carrying provisions from reaching Gibraltar, leading to the garrison becoming significantly short on foodstuffs which the reinforcements had brought perilously little of. The garrison would suffer a significant mutiny among the healthy men in September, with over half becoming casualties or deserting. Facing down the Spanish with a garrison mostly consisting of the starving and sick, the Governor of Gibraltar, Edward Cornwallis, would ultimately surrender to the Spanish on December 12th.

Cornwallis would never again command a governorship,
dying in disgrace in 1776.​

The subsequent Treaty of Versailles would be a rather heavy defeat for Great Britain. In colonial affairs, the British would be obligated to return all the colonies which their forces had seized during the Nine Years War, as well as during the colonial French and Indian War which had begun two years before the Nine Years War had. An exception would be made in India, where Britain was permitted to retain the French holdings that had been seized. However, in a tragic loss to the British Caribbean, Jamaica was stripped from Britain and given to France. In Europe, Spain regained Gibraltar with Minorca remaining under British control. Almost insultingly, Hanover was returned to the British Crown slightly augmented, having gained a small piece of Prussia’s western lands. Outside of territorial exchanges, Britain was forced to recognize the Dismantling of Prussia and to pay an indemnity of roughly six million pounds to her victorious enemies.

With the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, Britain was left in an unfortunate and very precarious situation. The destruction of her only significant European ally, Prussia, left the British more diplomatically isolated than ever before. Coupled with an economy on the brink of collapse and the once seemingly ascendant Britain had been cut down. This period starting with the beginning of the Nine Years War would be the beginning of the “Ignoble Century” in Britain and would play a disproportionately large part in shaping British culture into the late 19th and 20th centuries. Across Britain, public unrest and general anti-government sentiment would spike following the Treaty of Versailles with a notable revival of Jacobite, Republican, and Liberal societies and organizations over the next two decades.

In Britain’s North American colonies, the sentiment was even worse than in Britain proper. Colonial troops had fought alongside the regular army in the conquest and occupation of most of France’s North America holdings to immense pride. Colonists had already begun settling portions of New France, and even expelled the French settlers of Acadia. [8] To suddenly have the vast territories they had seized returned to France was a grave insult to the colonials. The outrage felt by most colonials was more felt towards London than it was Paris, with the colonial attitude being that they suffered a “stab in the back at Versailles” so that London could save face.

Portrayal of a colonial protest in 1765​

The freshly demoted Elector of Brandenburg, now Frederick IV, [9] fell into a grave depression following the Dismemberment of Prussia. Prussia proper was stripped from his control and given to the Russians, who in turn demeaned Frederick even further by giving it to Poland-Lithuania in exchange for large swathes of eastern Lithuania. [10] Prussia’s western holdings outside of Brandenburg proper had been divided among various princes of the Holy Roman Empire, and Saxony annexed the city of Cottbus. Silesia, the valuable province for which Frederick had waged two successful wars previously, was reclaimed by the Habsburg Emperors. Even portions of Pomerania were stripped away and given to Sweden. For the rest of his reign, Frederick would isolate himself from most companionship aside from his pet greyhounds [11] although he never withdrew from actively governing his diminished realm.

Portugal among all the defeated nations suffered the least. Some concessions along the east bank of the Uruguay river in Brazil were the only concessions pressed upon Portugal. However, the guerilla resistance by the Portuguese peasantry during the war with Spain had left much of Portugal’s border regions devastated. Scorched earth tactics and peasant warfare had ruined three years of harvests, razed farms, and turned out the peasants from their land. By the end of the Nine Years War, famine had set in across much of Portugal. Through the rest of the 1760s, Portugal’s east and north would struggle with banditry and peasant uprisings.

Among the allies, it was France who emerged the most triumphant following the Nine Years War, having successfully smashed their perennial enemies once more. The gain of Jamaica and the maintenance of their colonial empire outside of India helped reinforce the perception of strength in the Ancien Régime. Along with the annexation of the Duchy of Lorraine and the spiraling out of the Austrian Netherlands into the Duchy of the Southern Netherlands meant that France was undeniably stronger heading out of the Nine Years War. However, the Kingdom was beginning to fray at the edges. While it wasn’t sufficient to turn into a crisis yet, France too was struggling with debt and escalating economic issues were drastically exacerbated by the wartime collapse of international trade. The rot which had set in was largely ignored however for the rest of Louis XV’s reign, pushed aside with the triumph of victory over Perfidious Albion.

The Duke of Parma, Ferdinand, became the
Duke of the Southern Netherlands.​

With the victory over Prussia, the Habsburgs were secure in their domination of the Holy Roman Empire. The reclamation of Silesia was a triumph for Empress Maria Theresa who would use the prestige and public upwelling in support to further cement the unity of the Austrian and Bohemian regions of the Habsburg domains as well as bully many of the smaller realms of the Holy Roman Empire into being more cooperative with Vienna.

The death of Tsarina Elizabeth spelled a period of Regency in Russia which saw a game of political maneuvering swing Russia’s ambitions and foreign presence back and forth, leading to a lapse in the friendship between Russia and her allies in the Nine Years War. The mother of Tsar Paul I, the Regent Catherine and the late Tsarina’s last appointed Imperial Chancellor, Count Mikhail Vorontsov, competed for influence over the young Tsar and direction of the Empire. Catherine was relatively accepting of improving relations with Britain, while Vorontsov leaned more towards the French and Habsburgs but was unwilling to take independent action without mandate from the Crown, leading to an overall warming with Britain at this time.

Between all the powers of Europe however was a growing concern over the next War. The cost of war for all powers, in terms of both treasure and blood was extremely high and by cold calculation the next war would be impossibly ruinous. As the Duke of Choiseul remarked regarding the economic problems of warfare: “There cannot be another war of such grand nature as that which we have concluded for four generations; the coffers of the whole Earth are empty and without the wealth of Plutus what army can be raised? No, there shall be a new age in the next century, and it will be an era of peace as which has never before been seen.” Choiseul would die in his sleep in 1785, living in the peace he believed would last a century and passing only five short years before his predictions were overturned.


[1] Not to be confused with the other Nine Years War which occurred less than a century previously.

[2] IOTL the three Franco-Spanish invasions of Portugal were called the “Fantastic War” because the French and Spanish armies were soundly defeated without any battles between them and the Portuguese Army.

[3] British depredations on Dutch shipping were one of only several issues during OTL that kept the nominally British-aligned Netherlands neutral during the War.

[4] Our primary POD.

[5] While I personally believe that Peter III was more likely than not assassinated over dying the natural death officially reported, I’m rolling with the natural death explanation ITTL to skip from him straight to Paul.

[6] Pitt is still without a title, having become Prime Minister slightly earlier than IOTL.

[7] IOTL, the 1763 proposal to tax cider alone in was sufficient to cause riots. The tax actually coming into effect, along with the other mentioned taxes and an economic depression would likely be more seriously destabilizing to Britain than it may have otherwise seemed.

[8] This is all just OTL.

[9] It may not entirely be accurate to have Frederick II be turned into Frederick IV when he is forced back down to being a mere Elector, but I believe it fits as an attempt to discredit the legacy of Prussia.

[10] Roughly the lands they gained from the first partition IOTL.

[11] IOTL he behaved similarly as he grew older. It happens earlier ITTL in reaction to the truly staggering defeat he suffered.

 

[Ersatz Sequoyan]

Hello again everyone! Back-to-back updates like this won't be common, but I am ready with another update. We're taking a trip to America, and while yes, I am American and most familiar with American history, I don't want TTL to just be alternate USA v 2000. I'm hoping to be able to give some attention to all corners of the Earth at some point. But, you'll have to bear with me as America takes center stage for the minute.

===(2)===
​

Chapter 2: Crisis in America

With Britain’s defeat in the Nine Years War, the American colonies were forced to surrender the vast swathes of territory which they had wrested from New France back to French control. This was a grave problem for the Americans, as unlike most of the theaters of the Nine Years War, the American theater had largely been peaceful and under American occupation since the collapse of New France in 1760. [1] American settlers, always eager to carve out their own slice on the fringe of civilization, had long been pouring into occupied New France during the conflict, especially Acadia and the Ohio River valley.

The restoration of French rule saw most of those settlers flee back to the fourteen colonies on the eastern seaboard of North America. These returning settlers brought with them often highly exaggerated stories of the brutality of the French and their Indian allies which shocked the societies of Britain’s colonies. Much of the outrage would be directed not at the French, but rather at Britain for their “abandoning” of loyal colonials to the French.

One of the chief proponents of anti-British sentiment at this time was Jonathan Eddy, a captain who had been involved in the conquest of Acadia. Settling in the new land, Eddy would be forced to flee Acadia following the handover back to France. Fleeing to Massachusetts, Eddy would become a prominent activist, being the man to coin “Stab-in-the-Back” to refer to the loss of New France. Arriving in Boston, Eddy would join with prominent critiques of the Treaty of Versailles to form the “Society for the Defense of the Frontier” which would be a precursor to the Sons of Liberty that would be established in late 1766.

While the troubles of the American colonists were often seen sympathetically by many within the English government, the practical realities of the end of the Nine Years War forced a harsher hand with the colonies over the benign neglect which had been in place for decades. [2] The first change was that the mercantile taxes around sugar and rum were tightened, and while technically lowered from what they had been previously, they were now enforced. A following tax on paper, mirroring a similar tax in Britain, was pressed upon Britain’s colonies in 1766, which would prompt only more anger against London among the Americans. Protests and riots swept North America, and tax collectors were attacked by angry mobs. The paper tax, dubbed the Stamp Act as it required seals to be placed on all paperwork for a fee, was a blunder on the part of the fledgling administration of the Marquess of Rockingham, who had succeeded William Pitt as Prime Minister.

Stamp Act protestors often burned effigies of the tax collectors,
when not engaging in other tactics.​

In 1767, during the midst of the growing turmoil, delegates from ten of the fourteen [3] colonies met in New York City to discuss the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act Congress would be the first significant meeting between the colonies since the Albany Congress thirteen years, but beyond petitioning Parliament for an end to the tax, it achieved little. Parliament rejected the petition, additionally issuing the Declaratory Act which stated that the British Parliament had “full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the colonies and people of America ... in all cases whatsoever." The Americans however, rejected Parliament’s statement, claiming that without representation, Parliament had no right to tax the citizens of their colonies.

The refusal by Parliament to void the Stamp Act, along with the clear statement of intent in the Declaratory Act led to the rise of Committees of Correspondence, Information, and Safety across the colonies. Originally organized to coordinate and enforce boycotts and protests in opposition to the Stamp Act, the Committees would gradually evolve and become far more influential. In most towns and cities, the three Committees would slowly emerge and become shadow governments in opposition to colonial authorities. While the exact nature of most Committees’ functioning had been lost to time, they were known to be effective in opposing Loyalist organization and in the distribution of propaganda. Alongside the Committees would rise the Sons of Liberty, a Patriotic anti-Parliament organization that used intensive propaganda, violence, and intimidation to promote the Patriot cause.

The Sons of Liberty at work.​

The next year, 1768, would see the passing of “North Act” [4] would further inflame tensions. Named after the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord North, the North Act was a further tax placed on tea, lead, glass, and paint when imported from Britain. Since the colonies produced very little, if any of said goods, it was effectively a full tax. In and of itself, the increased tax was merely an increase in “taxation without representation” however the North Act also gave provisions for customs officials to search private property with impunity which stirred the most anger in Americans. [5]

Additional acts to provide enforcement of the new taxes were also passed, and additionally reviled. With tensions rising, the first major act of anti-Parliament violence broke out in 1769, when a winter storm blew the customs sloop Britannia ashore near Boston on January 12th. A mob descended on the ship, despite the cold and foul weather, intending to burn the Britannia. Six members of the mob would die as the crew fired upon them in defense, causing the crowd to flee. The “Britannia Massacre” would see the first Patriot deaths and served as a prime piece of propaganda about the “brutality of Parliament’s brutes” in Patriotic and Sons of Liberty newspapers. While the captain of the Britannia would be demoted, none of the men responsible were ever punished for their actions.

Two customs officials would be lynched by Sons of Liberty shortly after the Britannia Massacre, prompting a harsh response by Governor of Massachusetts, Francis Bernard, who appealed to Parliament for soldiers to maintain order and a revision of the colonial charter of Massachusetts to increase his own power. While Governor Bernard did receive eight hundred [6] soldiers, the colonial charter would be maintained for the time. When word of the Governor’s requests was found out by local Sons of Liberty, the public response was more rioting. The Massachusetts Assembly would respond by sending their own petition to have Bernard replaced in his posting as Governor.

Governor Bernard, Massachusetts' last colonial Governor.​

It wasn’t until April 1770, that Parliament’s response to the petition to remove Bernard would reach Boston. Simply put, Parliament found Bernard to have done nothing wrong and refused to remove him from his post. Bernard would interpret this as proof that his hardline policies were in the right and enforced the problematic taxes more vigorously than before. In many instances, even the innocent were found guilty as officials were given portions of fines that were levied, leading to massive corruption. Angry, the citizens of Boston would simmer through the rest of 1770 as Patriot propaganda fanned their rage higher. On the anniversary of Parliament’s refusal to oust Bernard, the Sons of Liberty would retaliate. On April 12th, 1771, Bostonian Sons of Liberty costumed as Indians stormed aboard two ships carrying sugar from British colonies in the Antilles and threw the entire cargo of both ships into the Boston Harbor. The two ships were chosen as they were owned by Loyalists with the whole event being a deliberate form of intimidation. A leading Son of Liberty, Samuel Adams, did not participate but did witness the event, saying “they dumped the sugar as calmly that one would suppose the Harbor was filled with tea.” The statement would cause the event to be referred to as the “Boston Tea Party.” It also gave rise to another method of torment the Sons of Liberty would use against Loyalists: being forced to drink “Boston Tea,” which was heated salt water. Often a whole macabre "tea party" would be arranged with the "Boston Tea" mockingly poured in teacups, even occasionally with milk or sugar added.

While tensions in Massachusetts were heating up, in the colony of North Carolina, another crisis was brewing. The new taxes imposed by London, along with new taxes imposed by Governor William Tyron, and a poor harvest had led to desperation on behalf of poor farmers in North Carolina. North Carolinian farmers began to organize, calling themselves Regulators, and moving to boycott and ignore the new taxes. Tyron, who personally benefitted from the new taxes as a portion were being set to pay for a new personal house to be constructed in New Bern, [7] would take harsh measures against the Regulators. When the Regulators’ protests shut down the local court in Hillsborough and led to rioting in the town, Tyron decided to respond with force. Further raising taxes, Tyron began to order state militia to protect the courts and disperse Regulator protests.

Reportedly a portrait of Governor Tyron​

By 1771, the situation in North Carolina was reaching a boiling point. Governor Tyron, finally fed up with the growing loss in tax revenue as increasing numbers of farmers refused to pay, would organize a militia force to smash the Regulators. Personally leading the thousand man strong force, [8] Tyron would march his army to the city of Charlotte which was a hotbed of Regulator activity. Nine miles out of the city, the Regulators would meet the Governor’s militia. Outnumbering the Governor’s forces two to one, the Regulators hoped to use their numbers to intimidate the Governor. It was not effective; the Regulators were poorly armed with only half possessing firearms while the Governor’s militia were well-armed and even possessed a few cannons. Spending most of the morning posturing and arguing back and forth, Tyron would grow impatient and ordered his men to fire upon the Regulators. Nine Regulators were cut down instantly, and many began to disperse however some fired back. For eight minutes, the two sides traded a few volleys before a wild shot struck Governor Tyron’s hat, putting a hole through it.

Shocked for a moment, Tyron felt his head. An aide asked the Governor if he were injured, to which the Governor began “No I—” before he would be cut off as another musket ball smashed into his neck, ripping open his windpipe. Governor William Tyron collapsed to the ground, dead. Seeing the Governor die, his officers ordered the cannons to open fire with grapeshot. Eighty-four Regulators would die in the Battle of Charlotte, compared to only six in the Governor’s militia.

While the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Charlotte were going on in America, in Westminster Parliament was finally beginning to consider lessoning their grip on their colonies. While the new colonial revenues had assisted in the slow process of rebuilding the British economy and hammering away Britain’s monstrous debt, it was becoming apparent that the situation in America was more volatile than it was back in Britain proper. While the whole spectrum of anti-government movements still existed in Britain, they had lost some steam in the five years since 1766 and the situation was now stable. The hope that a similar feat could be achieved in America was growing dimmer by the day, and even the now Prime Minister Lord North, who was normally not very charitable to the King’s American subjects, had to admit that Parliament might have to accept a loss. Additionally, the sending of troops to Boston did not bode well in the minds of many in Parliament who were afraid of the potential costs in having to garrison troops across the whole of British North America if the situation continued to escalate. Said expense would effectively negate whatever revenue was already being squeezed from America, a bad outcome for the already nearly bankrupt nation.

Parliament was not planning to back down entirely, but there was growing debate over a possible repealing of the hated Stamp Act. This debated waffled back and forth through Parliament, with radicals arguing it to be insufficient to coerce the colonies back into line, conservatives arguing that the concessions were unneeded and that the colonies “ought to do as they are told,” and a third bloc opposing the repealing of the Stamp Act as it might restart the unrest in Britain. Ultimately however, the debate would go nowhere as news of the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Charlotte reached Westminster. Rocked by the news, Parliament would swing away from appeasement almost instantly, instead resolving to bring the hammer down against their rebellious colonists.

[1] This is how it was IOTL as well.

[2] Somewhat true to OTL, however a critical difference is that the ten-thousand British soldiers stationed in North America don’t exist ITTL due to Britain’s economic woes.

[3] Worse outrage sees New Hampshire join ITTL.

[4] IOTL this was one of the Townshend Acts, named after North’s predecessor. Townshend was dead by 1768 however, so Lord North is now the scapegoat.

[5] A slightly simplified representation of one of OTL’s Townshend Acts.

[6] IOTL Bernard received four thousand when he petitioned for them.

[7] This is true to OTL.

[8] Tyron did this IOTL, with almost the same consequences.

 

[Ersatz Sequoyan]

I know I said back-to-back updates shouldn't be expected, but here we go again! I realize with hindsight I could have waited slightly and perhaps merged two of these updates, or broken up Chapter 2 between Chapter 1 and 3. Are the lengths OK with everyone? I was pushing for around what I've been writing as I expected to be able to keep going at least once a week, but I'm clearly a little faster than expected.

===(3)===
​

Chapter 3: War and Independence

The number of British soldiers garrisoning Boston was small,
but induced outrage nevertheless​

Parliament’s response to the escalating situation in North America was to simply escalate it further. Massachusetts and North Carolina both had their charters revoked and were placed under martial law. Despite not wishing to make the expenditure, six thousand additional soldiers were being sent to North America to ensure stability. [1] Most of these troops were sent to Massachusetts and North Carolina, but noticeably not all of them with some being sent to key positions in New York, Virginia, and South Carolina. In addition, a new act was passed which permitted legal trials of British administration or military personal stationed in the colonies to be tried in England. Officially, this policy was intended to give said personal a fair trial as it was not believed that they would receive one in America. Many Americans however believed this was a dangerous violation of their safety, with veteran of the Nine Years War, George Washington, referring to the new act as the “Murder Act,” [2] a nickname which would stick with many Americans. Finally, a new Quartering Act was passed by Parliament, through which citizens could be forced to provide shelter and food for the expanded garrison. [3]

In North Carolina, the arrival of the soldiers in March of 1772 re-fanned the tensions between the colonial government and the Regulators. While acting Governor James Hasell had finished putting down any armed Regulators, he showed relative restraint in dealing with the Regulators. Indeed, many Regulators had laid down their arms since the death of Governor Tyron and a few even surrendered upon hearing the news of Tyron’s death. Hasell, while showing the appropriately firm response to the murder of one of the King’s appointed Governors, also recognized that Tyron’s death was almost certainly a mistake. The acting Governor had recognized that an overly aggressive crackdown would simply force the Regulators into a corner, while a moderated response would allow tensions to ease. Hasell’s policies had worked, however when the newly appointed Governor Josiah Martin arrived, he did so with orders to crack the whip and smash the Regulators which he would do with zeal. [4]

Governor Martin, the last colonial Governor of North Carolina​

With two thousand professional soldiers at his command, Martin would round up a number of Regulator leaders, mostly minor ones or those not involved in the Battle of Charlotte and have them arrested. Several of the Regulator leaders who had already been sentenced to prison terms instead of being executed were now hanged as traitors. This new round of crackdowns infuriated the poor, western farmers who had predominantly made up the Regulators, and disturbed many of the colony’s wealthier eastern planters and urban citizenry who had otherwise supported the putting down of the Regulators. [5] With Patriotic sentiment already smoldering in North Carolina’s cities and among the educated elite, the flames swiftly roared to life. Despite the revocation of the colonial charter and martial law, North Carolinians turned out in droves to protest and riot. Effigies of Martin were burned, and colonial officials attacked in amazing volume. In the west the Regulators once more began to organize despite the presence of patrolling soldiers.

Massachusetts was equally a hotbed of crisis following the revocation of said colony’s charter. Governor Bernard would become the most reviled man in Massachusetts, [6] forced to live under constant armed guard in fear for his life. Protests and riots became a daily occurrence against the occupying soldiers in the city, with overwhelming hostility being shown to the soldiers and officials. In Massachusetts, Patriot militiamen called “minutemen” began to organize, preparing for a potential armed struggle against the colonial government.

With the situation hurtling towards a potential crisis, by September of 1772, it was agreed by several colonies that an assembly would be called in Philadelphia to “help and ease the strain on the bonds of our collective humanity.” Planned for April of 1773, the calling of the Continental Congress would be the first fully united action of all thirteen of the main British colonies in North America. It would also largely be too late.

As winter snow began to fall across North America, and the people of the continent slumbered in frustration through a hard and bitter winter, news of a new Act of the British Parliament arrived in the seaports. Dubbed the “Necessary Act,” it gave the colonial governors of all colonies a blank cheque to do “All that is Necessary and Right” to maintain order in their colonies. [7] While the act was mainly aimed at North Carolina and putting down the Regulators, it came like a bolt of lighting across the other colonies. Many loyalists, who had up to this point been staunchly in the camp of supporting Parliament, suddenly began to switch to supporting the Patriotic cause. The number of minutemen swelled across the colonies, while the riotous nature of the masses hit a feverous pitch across the whole continent as the rest of 1772 slipped away.

In response to the Necessary Act, Massachusettsian Patriots would organize the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, a full-on counter-government to the government of Governor Bernard. Led by prominent Patriot John Handcock, the Provincial Congress would begin organizing militiamen to prepare and potentially resist the colonial government by force of arms. While some expected that the fighting would begin in Massachusetts any day, the first battle of what would become known as the American War of Independence would be fought in North Carolina.

The first shots of the War for Independence​

On March 14th, 1773, British soldiers were operating near the town of Halifax due to rumors of Regulator activities in the small town. Following the arrest of a supposed Regulator, the soldiers would be confronted by local Patriot militia and after a tense standoff, fighting ensued. Four Patriots and three British soldiers died in the small battle, marking the beginning of open warfare in North Carolina and the American colonies. Confused skirmishing would occur throughout the rest of North Carolina over the next few months, as local Patriot Committees of Safety in the east, and Regulator committees in the west organized and began fighting British soldiers and Loyalist militias across the colony. There would also be skirmishes and tension between the Patriot forces and Regulator forces, especially around Charlotte, with neither fully cooperating.

News of the fighting in North Carolina spread like wildfire, and Patriots sprung to action across the American colonies. Like wildfires, whole towns began to slip entirely out of control of the Governors and colonial administrations. In Massachusetts, Governor Bernard would flee to the safety of a frigate in Boston Harbor as rioting Patriots torched the Governor’s Mansion. On April 22nd, the Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, was forced to flee after attempting to seize a Patriot stockpile of gunpowder. The last colonial governor to remain in office was Sir Robert Eden, the colonial governor of Maryland, who eventually resigned his Governorship on February 17th, 1774. Unique among the colonial Governors, Eden peacefully left his office and would be permitted to return to England. [8]

The Continental Congress debating​

During this period of confusion, the Continental Congress would meet in Philadelphia. As the Congress got underway in May, the chaos mandated swift action. On June 8th, the Congress adopted a petition to King George III to ask for his intervention. In the petition, the Congress swore loyalty to the King and claimed that they were only taking up arms against Parliament. The Congress also claimed that the Parliament had no authority over the colonies, that they were only answerable to the King. King George would flatly reject the petition, not even bothering to read it, instead declaring that the colonies of North America were in rebellion in a speech before Parliament on August 18th. News of King George’s Proclamation of Rebellion would rock the American colonies, dismantling the moderate position and ultimately driving the American colonies towards independence.

During this time, the Continental Congress also established the Continental Army, a united force of all soldiers in the American colonies. General George Washington was appointed to command the Army, with General Washington initially heading south to focus on driving out the British from North Carolina. In the north, General Artemis Ward, Washington’s second in command, was placed in command of driving the British from Massachusetts which he went to with gusto. The first major battle between British soldiers and the newly formed Continental Army would be the Battle of Breed’s Hill, which would actually be fought on Bunker Hill, saw the death of General Israel Putnam during the Battle. Putnam would be replaced by Joseph Warren, who despite being previously commissioned as a Major-General had fought in the Battle as a private. [9] While the loss of Putnam, a popular General in the Continental Army, battered morale among the Continental Army, it did pave the way for Warren’s future rise to prominence.

Commander-in-Chief George Washington​

General Washington’s command in North Carolina proved to be a rather poor showing at first. The territory held by the British had drastically shrunk to some coastal territory centered around New Bern. Determined to drive the British from North Carolina, Washington would begin his campaign on the banks of the Tar River as he sought to wrench the town of Martinsborough [10] from British control. Through three battles in June, on the 6th, 9th, and 11th, the British would rebuff General Washington’s attempts to take the town. Only on the fourth Battle, on the 13th, did Washington finally force the British to retreat. Stopping to regroup and gather more men and supplies, Washington would go on the offensive again in July. The Battle of Eagle Swamp on July 19th would be a costly victory for the British, and Washington successfully countered in the Battle of Hugo three days later. Finally, on July 24th, the Battle of Kingston [11] would commence, with Washington seizing the town. From Kingston, Washington would march down the Neuse River towards New Bern, fighting a series of back-and-forth battles with each creek crossing, hill, and farmstead that the Continental Army came across. It wasn’t until September that the Continental Army reached New Bern, in which the defending British would hold out for nine months before finally surrendering on June 30th, 1774.

Washington’s Neuse River campaign occurred co-currently with the final ousting of the British from Boston. Under General Ward, and Major-General Warren, the Continental Army in the north would lay siege to Boston. Recapturing the Charleston peninsula just across the Harbor from Boston after the loss in the Battle of Breed’s Hill, Ward would slowly prepare for an assault on Boston. The assault would never come; badly outnumbered and already struggling to hold down an unruly Boston, the situation for the British in Boston was grim. Governor Bernard would finally flee on June 24th, and three days later, the British garrison would jump ship as well. Boston would be reclaimed without a fight by the Americans, much to the celebration of Patriots from Maine to Georgia.

With the ousting of the British from Boston, the only forces the British had on the ground in America were in Nova Scotia or bottled up around New Bern. Britain would actively begin preparing to launch a landing and invasion once more, but for the rest of 1773, the fighting would largely die down. Many militiamen and even soldiers in the Continental Army went home, with the attitude across America being that they had licked the British, that there was no more fighting to be had. As the summer turned to autumn, the colonies fell into bickering over whether they ought to declare independence, or if they were still loyal to King George if not Parliament. News of the King’s Proclamation of Rebellion finally began to disperse through the colonies in late September, hardening the lines between Patriots and Loyalists, as well as driving most moderates to the extremes. As winter came and America slumbered through the cold, Americans across the continent began to seriously question their future. By the time the Continental Congress re-assembled in full in Philadelphia, their minds were mostly made up.

In proclaiming independence, the United States became the first
post-colonial nation to emerge on the American continent​

On May 13th, 1774, after a month-and-a-half of drafting, the Congress of the Confederation would issue the Declaration of Independence. Declaring the thirteen colonies of North America (Nova Scotia, the 14th, was firmly under British control and had never sent delegates) free and independent of Great Britain and confederated as the United States of America. For the interval, the Congress of the Confederation would function as the nominal governing body of the United States however the individual colonies-turned-states would hold most of the power. A constitution which would formalize the arrangement between the Union and the States would finally be adopted in 1775 with the promulgation of the Articles of Confederation.

Reaction to the establishment of the United States outside of the United States was mild and ranged from mixed to negative. While most European powers were somewhat willing to tolerate the new United States as yet another blow against Britain, many monarchs were somewhat concerned by the fledgling Republic with its preaching of liberty and freedom. In France, the nineteen-year-old Louis XVI had become King only three days before the United States declared Independence, and he expressed some doubts to the potential success and future of the fledgling Republic. Prophetically, the young King predicted that before he was thirty, the liberty and freedom so heralded would be gone. Nevertheless, King Louis would support the United States via the distribution of weapons and material to the Americans [12] through the few land routes between the United States and New France.

It was in Britain that the strongest reactions to the American Revolt came. Among Liberal and Republican circles in Britain, pro-American sentiment rose in response to the Declaration of Independence. Agitation against the British Government began to grow once again, with some radicals even arguing that if the Americans could put an end to an onerous government via force, perhaps the same could be done in Britain. The British Parliament would recognize the looming specter of a British Revolution in the vein of the American and would begin to slowly become increasingly authoritarian in response; ironically cementing the crisis to come. On the American front, the British were preparing a counterattack against the triumphant and seemingly complacent Americans. Ships and men were being gathered in Bermuda to cleave the new nation apart, with the first assault landing on a warm, summer’s day in July on Long Island. The American War of Independence was entering its second, more devastating phase.

[1] Due to TTL Britain’s financial troubles, OTL’s garrisoning of ten thousand soldiers post-War never occurs. Even though this is a larger number being sent at this point ITTL, that still leaves the colonial garrison weaker than OTL.

[2] A similar act IOTL was similarly dubbed by Washington.

[3] As per OTL, the Quartering Act is an extension/renewal of French and Indian War policies, of course being far less well received at this point.

[4] Hasell seems more hardline IOTL than Martin, however, here Martin is less familiar with the situation on the ground and operating on orders from Parliament, where Hasell is more attune to the situation.

[5] Despite some modern Americans commemorating the Regulators as a prelude to the American War of Independence, many soon to be Patriots IOTL were involved in suppressing the Regulator movement. ITTL, due to the changes in events, the situation is even more muddled.

[6] IOTL Bernard was probably similarly perceived, but since he would resign his Governorship, the anger quickly bounced to his replacements.

[7] With fewer troops in North America ITTL, and the outrage of the murder of Governor Tyron, Parliament is looking to crack down harder than OTL.

[8] This happened IOTL as well. Eden was apparently well-respected by Marylanders and was even allowed to return to Maryland shortly before his death.

[9] Warren did this IOTL’s Battle of Bunker Hill.

[10] Modern day Greenville

[11] Modern day Kinston

[12] Ever seeking to knock the British down a peg, the French will provide some aid to America. French involvement will be more limited however, Louis XVI is even more young and inexperienced than when France was involved IOTL. Plus, without the need to seek revenge against Britain, there’s no real need to drag France back to War less than a decade after peace had come.

 

[Ersatz Sequoyan]

As I said, I won't be posting back-to-back updates regularly. I'm going to make a map of North America soon, I'm not at home at the moment and don't feel confident using my laptop's trackpad to make one. And, for those wondering, the next update will be leaving America and will be a little different, I'm hoping you all will enjoy!

===(4)===
​

Chapter 4: Hurtling Towards Peace

The Battle of Long Island​

The British landing on Long Island was ultimately a short undertaking for the British. Unfortified and unprepared, with the only defenses being a few local militiamen, Long Island fell to British control within three days. Two weeks later, the British would descend on Manhattan Island, successfully seizing New York City in a lightning campaign across the Island. [1] Having captured New York City, the British would launch a series of probing attacks and foraging campaigns up and down the Hudson River valley, but largely contented themselves with building up their resources to launch a campaign in the spring of 1775.

On the American side, General George Washington would also begin preparing to counter a British attack out of Manhattan. This would prove somewhat more difficult than expected. Supplies used by the Continental Army in North Carolina mostly remained in the southern states, as each was preparing for a British invasion which would never come. [2] Coupled with a relatively harsh winter leading to low morale and desertion among the Continental Army, and the preparations for a defense against the British were far less than ideal. The final crisis for the Continentals would be the death of General Washington from pneumonia on January 5th. Having caught influenza when it swept through the Continental encampment in November, General Washington would struggle with the subsequent pneumonia. Despite having seemingly been recovering by the New Year, he passed in his sleep and was discovered by his aides the next morning.

The successor to General Washington,
Horatio Gates​

General Washington’s passing was a significant blow to the Continental Army. The “Hero of North Carolina,” his legacy would be one of victory, and a seeming morality that would be lost in his successor, General Horatio Gates, despite the latter leading the United States to victory against Britain. He is most well remembered in what was North Carolina where he is a folk hero and national symbol; the most obvious example being the modern name for the nation, “Washingtonia,” which was adopted in 1794.

General Gates would assume his position as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army largely thanks to Congressional meddling. While Gates was far from incompetent, he was also not the premier General nor the most popular one and proved a somewhat poor fit with the demoralized Continental Army. [3] Nevertheless, Gates proved rather successful in repelling the initial attempt by the British to cross the Hudson River. This attempt was so disastrous that the commanding General, John Burgoyne, would be captured by the Americans and replaced with William Howe. Howe would successfully cross the Hudson and sweep aside American defenses in the Battle of Newark. While Gates attempted to regroup, successfully defending the road to Trenton in the Battle of Raritan, the British army hammered into the Continental army, eventually throwing them across the Delaware River on June 29th.

The Continental Congress fled Philadelphia with the news that the British were on the banks of the Delaware. Only a few weeks before they fled, the Congress successfully disseminated the first constitution of the United States, the Articles of Confederation, to be adopted by the States themselves. After fleeing, they would re-assemble in Annapolis where Congress continued functioning through the rest of 1775. Congress’ flight was not unsurprising to Howe, but their ability to continue functioning relatively seamlessly did. After rounding up a sufficient supply of boats for the crossing, the British successfully crossed in the Battle of Colvin's Ferry and were on Pennsylvania soil, only thirty miles away from Philadelphia.

The Occupation of Philadelphia​

Despite attempts to stop Howe’s advance, by July 18th, the British were only a mile away from Philadelphia. Fearing the potential destruction of the city, General Gates would retreat past Philadelphia and into Maryland. Howe would capture Philadelphia the next day without a fight. From Philadelphia, Howe initially considered chasing down Gates and the Continental Army, but instead decided to consolidate his position. A portion of the British Army would cross back over the Delaware to consolidate control over New Jersey, while the rest would continue south, hoping to secure control over the Delaware. The southern army, under the command of Howe’s second in command General Henry Clinton would clash with the Continental Army north of Wilmington, yet again defeated. As Clinton advanced south, only a few miles out of Wilmington he was halted in the Battle of New Castle on August 10th. Harrowed back out of Delaware, Clinton would ultimately fall back to Philadelphia.

Gates would begin preparing south of Philadelphia, hoping to launch an offensive to recapture the United States’ capital city. [4] His intentions were not to directly march on the city, once again as to not risk the city’s destruction, but instead to march around the city and hopefully draw out the British. Poor weather, a lack of finances, and the rapidly approaching winter meant that ultimately the Continental Army would never engage in Gates’ planned offensive and instead encamp near Philadelphia for the winter.

Gates’ encampment did not stop the war for the autumn however, as skirmishing between the American and British forces continued near Philadelphia throughout until the 1776 campaign season. The British consolidated control over New Jersey as well through September and October of 1775, along with a few offensives up the Delaware river that were hindered by the continuing threat of Pennsylvania’s riverine navy. [5] On Manhattan there would be a failed raid in an attempt to drive off the British, and a forage war between the British and the Continental Army would be rather fierce in New York during the winter.

General Philip Schuyler​

Forces under the command of General Philip Schuyler consisting of a mix of New York militiamen and Continental soldiers would attack Manhattan Island again on March 4th, 1776, opening up the resumption of hostilities. While General Schuyler failed to liberate New York City, the raids on Manhattan were too much for General Clinton. Fearing that the Americans might pose a threat to New York City, Clinton would abandon Philadelphia in April, retreating across the Delaware unopposed. Despite his preparations, General Gates would not pursue General Clinton or harass the retreating British which nearly saw him sacked as Commander-in-Chief. Nevertheless, Gates would continue as Commander-in-Chief for the rest of the war. [6]

Gates’ failure to harass the British proved far worse than initially expected as more British soldiers reinforced Clinton in May. With the failure of the Philadelphia campaign to put an end to the American War for Independence, a new plan was devised. On May 15th, Clinton would march north up the Hudson River Valley with the goal of cutting off New England from the rest of the rebelling colonies. The overall British plan was to first cut off, then smash New England, followed by a similar divide and conquer tactic over the southern and middle states. Generals Joseph Warren and Schuyler would both try and slow down the British. They were largely unsuccessful however, suffering repeated defeats. On June 1st, the provisional capital of New York, Poughkeepsie, would fall to the British followed swiftly by Kingston. As the British neared Albany, what was effectively the last link between New England and the rest of the colonies, what was supposed to be a small skirmish in Coxsackie [7] rapidly escalated into a full on battle which would finally halt the British. Slowly, the Americans would harry the British back to Poughkeepsie.

Rioting in Britain​

News of the failure of the Philadelphia and Hudson Valley campaigns would filter into Britain. The British Parliament would debate heavily over the continuing war, the failure of the British to regain a hold on their colonies being a considerable humiliation on the international scene for Britain and many warhawks aggressively campaigned for a continuing of the War. In order to do so, it was deemed necessary to raise taxes even higher in Britain which would prove the final breaking point. When news of the new proposed taxes reached the public, riots would break out in London and many other cities in Britain. In some instances, the rioting would last for over two weeks. The riots also attacked the French Embassy in London, with some rioters blaming the French for provoking the Americans to rebel in the first place. This sparked a significant diplomatic crisis between the two rivals.

The government of Lord North in Britain would finally collapse under this strain. The Duke of Grafton would return to being Prime Minister after several weeks of contentious division. [8] Grafton would put forward a measure to Parliament to end the War between Britain and her former colonies, which would pass by only eight votes. The peace proposal would quickly be accepted as one of the last acts of the Continental Congress, with one of the first acts of the Congress of the Confederation in 1776 being to also accept the peace proposal before organizing delegates to the peace negotiations in London.

The peace debates between the British and Americans would take four months. The American delegation would arrive in London on May 12th and begin negotiations. The British would propose to keep New York City while the Americans would propose the concession of Nova Scotia to America. Neither side would end up conceding any territory to the other. The Americans did win fishing rights off of Newfoundland, and the British won favored nations status with trade between the United States and Britain. [9] In the end, the Treaty of London would be drafted in Britain on November 19th, and signed on May 30th, 1777. The signing of the Treaty marked the effective end of the American War of Independence but legally the treaty would continue for several more months.

While the peace was celebrated across the United States, the treaty almost failed to be ratified. The Congress of the Confederation struggled to gain a quorum to function, let alone one necessary to ratify the Treaty of London. [10] After almost a month of inaction, the delegations from seven states were present in Annapolis and would begin to debate ratifying the Treaty. However while some delegates in the Congress believed that the Treaty could be ratified, a faction of delegates led by Thomas Jefferson would block the ratification as there were insufficient delegations present to do so. [11] By October, the Treaty remained unratified and the rapidly approaching deadline for ratification: six months after the Treaty’s signing, was drawing near. Finally, the last necessary delegate to achieve quorum, John Bull of South Carolina, would arrive on October 14th and ended the stalemate. The War for Independence was over and secured by International treaty.

The United States had emerged triumphant, the first nation in the New World to overthrow their colonial masters. But while the War had been won, the Peace had yet to be conquered.

[1] The fall of NYC being a little quicker ITTL can mostly be chalked up to a lack of preparedness and overconfidence on the American side.

[2] Sorry for all of you Southern Campaign fans, but the idea that there is a vast well-spring of Loyalist support in the South won’t materialize ITTL and without British control of the Floridas, there simply isn’t a good time for a British Southern Campaign before the War draws to a close.

[3] I do not wish to demean General Gates, this is merely for TTL.

[4] Yes, the USA technically didn’t have a capital but Philadelphia was de facto in this position and seen as the capital thanks to the future ITTL.

[5] This existed in OTL as well, although the Pennsylvanian navy never proved to be very effective.

[6] Not the most original as this is roughly paralleling OTL.

[7] Coxsackie the town didn’t exist at this point, but there seems to have been a Coxsackie district in existence at this time.

[8] Grafton had resigned his post in Lord North government IOTL over his pro-concession stances to the American colonists.

[9] More or less what was conceded IOTL’s Treaty of Paris.

[10] Slightly worse than OTL’s Congress of the Confederation, if you can believe it.

[11] Jefferson did this IOTL.

 

[Ersatz Sequoyan]

Helloooo Everyone! As I've said before, I wanted to try something a little different for the next update but I've decided to detach the different portion while I'm working on finishing up a full, normal update. I don't think they flow together very well if I'm being honest. We're going to Russia now, where the earlier rise to Tsar Paul I are going to produce some serious butterflies. A few of my plans for the Russian Empire are likely bleeding through. I hope you all enjoy something a little different: a brief conversation between a mother and son.

===(5)===
​

Chapter 5: The Bear Balancing on a Pin, part 1

The room was quiet save the ticking of the clock, and the scratching of the pen. Paul, the Emperor and Autocrat of All-Russias, worked steadily at his desk. Despite the furled brow and scrunched face, he actually enjoyed his work; the strange look of seeming-frustration was actually an appearance of concentration. The peace and quiet was relaxing to the Tsar, who otherwise was often quite busy dealing with the endless hoards of hangers on and coattail riders who hung around the Russian court.

A knock at his door jolted the Tsar from his relaxation. Paul had told the servants that no-one was to disturb him, meaning this was either something extremely important or her. “Enter” he said, and the door swung open. His mother entered and Paul swore internally. He hated the woman, couldn’t stand the sight of her. She had killed his father, tried to usurp his position, and just a week ago had killed his wife and child. [1]

Catherine smiled at her son, and he simply looked back down at his work. “What is it, mother?” Paul asked as he struggled to hold back his contempt. She came and sat down at his desk before responding.

“I wanted to see how you are doing. I’m worried for you, Paul.”

“I am fine. And if that is all you wanted, you may take your leave.” Paul glanced up; his mother had not moved nor dropped the clear attempt to give him what no doubt seemed to her to be a comforting smile.

“You have barely left this room Paul, I’m concerned for you. I know Natalia-” The faint sound of the pen’s tip snapping was like the thunder of a cannon.

Glowering, Paul said once again “I am fine, mother!” His voice cracked slightly and he swore again internally. “Damn this whore, she is making a fool of me.” There was silence between the two as Paul re-sharpened the quill’s nib.

Speaking somewhat softer, Catherine changed the topic. “What is it that you are working on today, Paul?” She knew that whatever it was, it likely held enough interest for him to overcome his frustrations with her.

“It is a new edict, regarding our subjects.” Paul began, “I am abolishing the corvee on the Lord’s Day. [2] The peasantry should be permitted to tend to their souls appropriately.” When he glanced up again, his mother’s smile had turned to a frown.

“Paul…” was all she managed to say before he cut her off.

“I am as much their master as any boyar. I am Emperor, the heir of Peter and Augustus, by the Will of the Lord himself.” His voice was pitching upwards as his composure slipped. “I will not be questioned in this, I am Emperor of All-Russias, father of all people, and that includes the serf.”

His mother’s frown only deepened. “Paul, if you don’t consider the nobility in this, they may turn against you.”

The Emperor laughed, a harsh shrill sound like a raven’s screeching. “You would love that, wouldn’t you mother? To see your own son unseated from his Godly appointment.”

“Paul!” His mother said, rebuke clear in her voice and shock stamped on her face. “I would never, you are my son and I love you. I am merely trying to look out for your future.”

In that moment, the Emperor’s eyes rested on the fireplace. A glimpse of him thrashing his mother with the poker flickered through his mind. Well-deserved revenge for his father, wife, and child whose blood were on her hands. He pressed down his rage, responding colder and more controlled “And I am looking out for my Empire’s future. How long can Russia remain a land of the boyars? Those petty, small men would sell the Empire for thirty pieces of silver. We will become a second Poland if they are not curtailed, and the throne given to the next Didius who can bribe and cheat their way into office.” [3]

There was silence between the two again. Catherine put a hand to her temple. Paul was stubborn, hasty, and hotheaded when the mood struck him. She blamed his grandmother, her mother-in-law, for this. The late Empress Elizabeth had removed Paul from her care and proven totally incapable of raising a child. [4] What was even worse was the influence the bastard Robert Gunning, the Ambassador from that wretched island, who had colored too much of Paul’s opinion. Gunning had convinced Paul that Russia was backwards, that the decadent society of that island of shopkeeps was anything to strive for. She felt too old to argue with her son on this anymore, regretting having even asked about it in the first place. “I just hope that you are considering the weight of your actions.” She said. “Don’t rush into things, Paul.”

When Paul looked up again at her, his voice was far calmer, and the hate had faded from his eyes. “Do not worry mother, I have, and I will. If I was being hasty, I would have simply freed all serfs from their bondage.” He said the last with an almost wry tone, a half-joking statement. Catherine smiled, but she shuddered internally.

“I will take my leave then.” Catherine said, rising from her chair as Paul nodded. She had just turned her back when Paul spoke again.

“Oh, mother, one more thing. I know it is far too early for this thing, but you need not strain yourself and search for a wife for me.” He said. Catherine turned and he continued. “It is far too early to formally ask, but I have decided on who I shall ask for a second wife so that I may achieve my duty and have an heir.” Paul paused for a moment before finishing. “I shall ask for the sister of the English king, Princess Caroline Matilda, as my wife.”

“No!” Catherine exclaimed. “She is wholly unsuited to being consort in Russia, not to mention she is four years older than you!” Catherine did not mention that she had actually considered Caroline Matilda once for her son’s wife, but had ultimately abandoned such plans when rumors of the Danish court’s interest in her came to light. [5]

“My mind is quite set on this matter. If she and her brother are willing, she will be my new wife.” Bewildered and horrified, Catherine simply left the room, much to Paul’s surprise. He had expected a longer fight with his mother.

But Catherine, shocked and worried, had to leave. Her son was an Anglophile, that much had become obvious long ago. But now, now he had gone insane! He wanted an English woman as wife! Surely, such a creature would infect his mind, drive him increasingly in imitation of the English. That would be a disaster for Russia, a true disaster that might see the entire Romanov dynasty unseated.

No, it would not do. And as Catherine walked away from her son’s room, she resolved to do something. Anything. Whatever it would take to keep her son from being toppled in a putsch by the nobility, and thus her own position overturned.

[1] Usurping Paul, of course, occurred IOTL. The death of Paul’s father, OTL’s Peter III, was probably a murder by Catherine or one of her supporters. The death of Paul’s wife during birth was almost certainly a problem thanks to her having a birth defect, but rumors that Catherine had prevented the doctors from properly treating her were common.

[2] An actual edict by Paul, although the timing is changed.

[3] IOTL, Paul was influenced by ideas of chivalry and subsequently came to loathe the Russian nobility. ITTL he’s developed a similar hatred of the nobility, but he’s more influenced by different ideas.

[4] Colored by opinion, but broadly a true statement.

[5] IOTL these led to marriage. ITTL, instead of changing interest from Caroline Matilda’s sister Louise Anne to Caroline Matilda, Christian VII marries Louise Anne.

 

[Ersatz Sequoyan]

Hello Everyone! The rest of the Russia story comes, and we get to see how Russia is changing under the rule of Tsar Paul. Reforms, setbacks, and an actually more peaceful period in Russia have sent the worlds largest Empire down a new path! I'm covering a little more ground in this post, but I'm hoping that it still holds up.

===(5)===​

Chapter 5: The Bear Balancing on a Pin, part 2

Fighting in the Danubian Principalities
during the Sixth Russo-Turkish War​

The game of thrones centered around the young Russian Tsar, Paul, turned sixteen and came of age to rule the vast Russian Empire. Despite attempts by his mother, Catherine, to hang on to the Regency, Paul quickly began to assert his position in monarch chiefly regarding the ongoing Sixth [1] Russo-Turkish War. Russia had seen considerable success in the Danuban Principalities, even routing the armies of Ottoman Grand Vizier Mehmed Emin Pasha and occupying the capital of the Principality of Wallachia. In the Caucasus however, the Ottomans had been rather successful, leaving the war a mixed bag when Paul took charge.

The Habsburg domains began meddling in the war in 1771 [2] and threatened to upend both Russia’s influence in Poland and their potential victory over the Turks. Fearing the loss of Poland, despite his personal dislike of the Polish King, Stanislaw II, Paul would accept Habsburg offers of mediation. The results were surprisingly generous to the Russians, as while it took no territory directly from the Ottoman Empire, the city of Azov and the Kuban region were ceded to the Russians out of the Ottoman-vassal Crimean Khanate. [3]

The Tsarina Natalia​

Hailed as a hero for reclaiming Azov, Paul’s popularity soared during his early reign. Coupled with his marriage to Wilhelmina Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt, who took the Orthodox name of Natalia Alexeievna, and the young Tsar’s early reign seemed to be getting off on the right foot. Additionally, aside from the odd uprising against the puppet King Stanislaw in Poland, the early period of Paul’s reign after the end of the Russo-Turkish War was peaceful.

It was not to be however as on the 23rd of April, 1776, Tsarina Natalia would die during childbirth of their first child, a stillborn son. Tsar Paul would be distraught, reportedly refusing to have her body taken away as he did not believe she had died. [4] The death of Tsarina Natalia would drastically widen the gap between Paul and his mother, with Paul believing widespread rumors blaming his mother for her death. [5] In defiance of his mother’s wishes for him to marry the child of another German princeling, the Tsar would seek out the sister of King George III of Britain, Caroline Matilda, to marry.

Princess Caroline Matilda​

Despite some doubts, King George III would ascent to the marriage in hopes of further improving relations between Britain and Russia. Caroline Matilda would become Alexandra Feodorovna, [6] Paul’s second Tsarina. The two would quickly fall in love, with the Tsarina remarking that despite the fears of the Russian Emperor’s reported eccentricities, he was a kind and gentle man with her. Paul, for his part, would praise the Tsarina’s beauty and intelligence. [7] It would quickly become noted by many that the Tsarina was the only person capable of truly talking the Tsar out of a course of action, and that she was one of the few people he spared his vindictive and erratic rages.

The Tsarina would, unfortunately, fall very ill only six months after the two were married. Only by a stroke of luck was it discovered that the Tsarina had been poisoned, and a plot to assassinate the Tsarina was soon unraveled. Quickly, the plot was traced back to a clique of nobles and to the Tsar’s horror, although not necessarily surprise, his mother. Several nobles were executed, and his mother was exiled to Yekaterinburg. Tsarina Alexandra would slowly recover over the next year.

Tsar Peter shortly before
his ascension to the throne​

By 1779, the Tsarina had well and truly recovered, giving birth to the first of their children, a son Peter. The two would ultimately have five children between 1779 and 1786, Peter, Constantine, Maria, Alexander, and Paul. Tsarina Alexandra was, by most accounts a very loving mother to her children, trying to raise them with an appreciation of English liberalism in addition to the culture of their homeland. Tsar Paul, on the other hand, was often somewhat less capable of a parent but nevertheless was still regarded as a decent father. Shortly after Paul’s death, Peter III would remark that he appreciated his father far more as an adult than he had as a child; his father’s strict and tyrannical nature being good at breeding discipline, but not well liked in a child’s mind.

In addition to raising his family, after marrying the Tsarina, Paul would pass a series of reforms regarding the Russian peasant and serf population. Having developed into an astute Anglophile, Paul would prove far more supportive of the common population than any Russian monarch before him. For several years after marrying Alexandra, the Tsar would pass a series of reforms that restricted the corvee, protected the serfs from many abuses, and revoked many immunities the nobility possessed. In 1785, Paul would issue his most troubling edict yet, at least for the Russian nobility. The Edict of May 18th, 1785 proclaimed that on the death of a Russian noble, the serfs of their estate were to be given the option of either remaining on the estate, or immigrating to one of the insecure frontiers of the Empire (where they would still be serfs) as part of a campaign to Russify the south and east.

This was the final straw for many Russian nobles, and the rumblings of discontent slowly brewed towards revolt. That autumn, when a man claiming to be Paul’s father, Peter, appeared in Nizhniy Novgorod and began to promise that if he were installed in his rightful place as Peter III, he would roll-back the reforms. While there had been a previous attempt at impersonating Peter III by a Cossack, Yemelyan Pugachev, that failed miserably, [8] this new attempt would roar into success. The claimant Peter III would be installed as Emperor of All-Russias in Nihzniy Novgorod on October 2nd, and quickly began to amass a following among Russia’s nobility. Supporters of the false Peter would begin to turn out as far away as Tver and Kiev, although most of the revolt would remain isolated.

The False Peter holding court​

Upon hearing the news of the claimant Peter, the Tsar is reported to have been thrown into a rage and attempted to personally lead an army against his father’s impostor. Although talked down from doing so, he would press for the revolt to be crushed with as extreme of prejudice as possible. The smashing of the Revolt of the False Peter would be dragged out however, with the False Peter’s support from the nobility preventing a rapid defeat. The vast size of Russia slowed down the response, allowing the army of the False Peter to reach as far as the town of Vladimir before facing serious resistance. While his identity has remained an unsolved mystery, the False Peter was a decently skilled military commander and his drive to capture Moscow remarkably successful. His advance was only finally halted in Pokrov where the Tsar’s armies smashed those of the pretender.

False Peter however managed to escape, fleeing in disguise as a peasant to Kazan, where he would again helm a local revolt. In order to appeal to the local Tatar population, and the disenfranchised nobles, in Kazan he would style himself as Tsar and Khan, reviving the old Tsardom of Kazan [9] and presenting himself as supportive of the Tatar population. Unfortunately for the local Tatars, he would prove wildly successful, and the Tatars rose en masse alongside the Russian supporters of Peter. The revolt in Kazan would last for several months until the final surrounding and siege of Kazan. Peter was known to be in Kazan, and his loyalists would fight fanatically to maintain the siege. When it was finally broken on February 20th, 1787, the False Peter was again nowhere to be found having somehow slipped the noose around his neck once again.

The Tatars would suffer pogroms along with the Jews for decades to come​

For their support of the False Peter, Tsar Paul would order the expelling of all Tatars from Kazan and any other city which had supported him. Tatars across Russia would be massacred in pogroms, and under extreme persecution over the following decade. Many would be forced to flee their ancestral lands in the Kazan region for the further frontiers of the Russian Empire, while many more would be forced to convert to the Orthodox faith and abandon their culture. The prosecution of the Tatars would only truly end during the reign of Paul’s great-grandson and namesake, Tsar Paul II.

False Peter would never be found after Kazan, much to the frustration of the Tsar. Rumors and legends about his fate would abound for decades, and claims he was alive would continue long past when he would have expired. When Paul’s mother, Catherine, died of a stroke, it was rumored that she had collapsed upon seeing False Peter in disguise in Yekaterinburg, dying of the shock of seeing her husband still alive. Another legend among the Tatars was that the False Peter had actually been in Kazan when the siege was broken, and was almost cut down by Russian soldiers during a last stand, only for a blinding flash of light to spirit him to Heaven. Modern historians have suggested the possibility that the False Peter was one Joseph von Godesberg, a Palatine military officer who had migrated to Saratov as part of Paul’s settlement program of Germans on the Volga. [10] Von Godesberg was noted as having been an adventurer of sorts, and for disappearing from his home in 1785, presumed dead, only to return in 1791 with a decent amount of treasure. Whether or not von Godesberg was the False Peter however, is a question long lost to time.

The revolt of the False Peter would prompt an even harder reaction by Tsar Paul against the nobility. In imitation of Ivan IV, [11] who would begin to be venerated by Paul’s regime, the Oprichnina was revived and brought mass repression of the “boyar menace” to his reign. Nobles who had supported the False Peter, were suspected of supporting the False Peter, or failed to sufficiently bribe the Oprichniki investigating them, would be stripped of their lands and imprisoned or executed. The land seized from the nobility would not be given to the serfs or peasants living on it however, instead half would be divided among various Oprichniki while the other half became a part of the direct Imperial Demesne with the land-bound serfs being transferred along with the land.

Because most serfs and peasants were illiterate,
Paul's reforms were often proclaimed audibly and spread via word of mouth​

Inspired by Tsarina Alexandra, Paul would issue several more reforms regarding the future of Russia, most of which were regarding the rights of free Russians, serfs, and peasants. Serfs on the Imperial Demesne were to be granted freedom following Tsar Paul’s death, the amount of corvee and taxation the serfs could be leveraged for was restricted, and the ability for serfs to earn their freedom was expanded upon. The power of the Orthodox church and the Priestly classes were expanded in this time, along with the burgher-urban class; both gaining power at the expense of the noble classes. Paul also expanded the Table of Ranks to make it easier for small-landowners, burghers, and even the clergy to gain personal and hereditary nobility, largely with the hope of breaking down the “old boyars” with a wave of “new boyars.” One of the largest reforms, at the encouragement of the Tsarina, Tsar Paul would abolish the Assembly of the Nobility and replace it with a more mixed sets of “Imperial Councils” which would include representatives of the clergy and burghers.

It is critical to note that these “enlightened reforms” as they would come to be known, and Tsar Paul I’s status as “The Old Liberator” which would be promoted during the reign of Peter III and Paul II were not born out of an attempt to be a humanitarian leader. Instead, the often mercurial and undeniably vindictive Paul was motivated by hatred against the nobility. This can most easily be seen following the death of Tsarina Alexandra during her pregnancy with the couple’s sixth child in 1789. Grief-stricken, and growing increasingly paranoid and erratic, Paul would slowly stop enacting further reforms. As the French Revolution occurred and grew increasingly radical, Tsar Paul would grow increasingly reactionary and paranoid.

Fearing that he had possibly set the stage for a Russian Revolution by ignoring the threat of a peasant uprising, Paul would re-direct the Oprichnina. From a focused instrument of terror against the nobility, by 1795 the Oprichnina became a blind instrument of terror as Paul retreated into a more reactionary mentality. Peasants and burghers would suffer Oprichniki attacks alongside their noble counterparts, most often on accusations of “Jacquesism.” While the Oprichnina Terror peaked with the “Great Pogrom” in the summer of 1796 which saw several thousand Jews and Tatars massacred by Oprichniki. The Oprichniki would be reigned in following the Great Pogrom, but for the remainder of Paul’s reign, the Oprichnina would continue as an instrument of oppression and terror.

[1] You could easily debate the numbering but going by my own count this Russo-Turkish was the sixth.

[2] True to OTL.

[3] Azov and surrounding territory were ceded IOTL, while the Kuban is an effort to try and focus Russian attention away from Europe and into the Caucasus region. The other Turkish concessions from OTL were not given ITTL.

[4] Roughly OTL.

[5] The rumors were quite widespread IOTL, and I see no reason why they wouldn’t be ITTL.

[6] I have a poor grasp on how Orthodox names work, if this is unfitting please let me know.

[7] Tsar Paul gave similar praise to his OTL wife, and Caroline Matilda was also noted as intelligent IOTL, so this fits.

[8] Pugachev’s revolt is less successful ITTL, failing to seize Kazan as it did IOTL.

[9] Kazan had been reformed into a governate long prior, but the new Tsardom is to imply the increased importance of Kazan should Peter take the throne.

[10] This settlement program existed IOTL and was part of the reason for the Volga German community to come into existence.

[11] AKA Ivan the Terrible

 

[Ersatz Sequoyan]

Good morning everyone! I was working on writing up TTL's French Revolution when I realized that I probably ought to catch America up first. Of all regions ITTL, it is the United States which is most rapidly diverging from OTL, so there's a little more coverage needed to cover the change. And of course, while the French Revolution is largely its own matter, there was some inspiration from the American Revolution and ITTL the same can be said.

In TTL however, the American Revolution means something quite different than IOTL. What lessons the French will take from it can only be seen soon.

===(6)===​

Chapter 6: The American Revolution

Following their victory in their War for Independence, the United States began to settle uneasily into their newfound independence. As chaos and confusion descended in Great Britain, the United States’ economy slumped. [1] Despite having just waged war against her, Britain remained America’s primary trading partner [2] and as Britain tottered on the brink, trade between the two suffered drastically. Kicking the Americans while they were down, both the French and Spanish would enact harsh tariffs and trade restrictions to force concessions from the young republic, which only further hampered trade. [3] The diminished trade was destructive for the United States as before the War for Independence, the Americans relied on an extractive economy, trading natural resources and agricultural products for finished goods from abroad. Under Britain, there was a massive trade deficit in this system which only worsened following Independence and sapped wealth from the nation. [4]

One of the most prominent of the new oligarchs,
James Bowdoin​

The collapse of trade was disastrous to the fledgling nation, but with wise action by the citizens and government of the United States it could have been mitigated. Unfortunately, the Congress of the Confederation had no method of enforcing economic policy, or any policy at all ultimately. Meanwhile the states themselves generally began retreating from the initial heady days of Independence. Oligarchy would return in most states, with the common man being shut out of the government once more. [5] The new oligarchic regimes would generally enforce economic policies which enforced their position. Most harmful was the use of heavy, regressive taxation to make up for the lost income from the trade deficit. [6] These new taxes would see what little wealth the common population possessed be funneled back into the oligarchic regimes.

While the common American grumbled under the new tax burdens, the situation on the disputed border between the United States and New France began to smolder. Settlers seeking to escape the increasingly overbearing state governments, or simply seeking new lands to call home, began immigrating across the Appalachian Mountains into a broad swathe of land south of the Ohio River. [7] This land was predominantly inhabited by French-aligned native tribes who were understandably hostile to the intruding settlers. Fighting between the two groups broke out before the American War for Independence was truly even over but continually escalated in pitch. In the Appalachians claimed by what was then North Carolina, fighting between settlers and the Cherokee natives was particularly aggressive. The local “Overmountain” settlers however received little if any support from New Bern, and so on July 4th, 1778, a collection of Overmountain towns would declare their Independence as the “Free State of Frankland.”

The Marquis de Lafayette​

When word of the Free State reached the word of the Governor of Louisiana, Louis Antoine Crozat de Thiers, de Thiers [8] would order a small force of Louisianan militia to assist their native allies and expel the American settlers. Commanded by the adventure-seeking Marquis de Lafayette, the Louisianans would march into Frankland and raze the towns of Jonesborough and Elizabethton before leaving. The destruction of the two towns gave the Cherokee sufficient breathing room to regroup and begin pushing back the Overmountain settlers, leaving Lafayette’s mission a general success. The Marquis would not, however, live to see it as he was assassinated by Franklanders shortly after the razing of Elizabethton.

News of the American intrusions into their colonial holdings would begin filtering slowly back to France. The Viceroy of New France, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, [9] would petition King Louis XVI for assistance. In 1779, the French King would send Anne-César de La Luzerne to the United States to demand the Congress of the Confederation reign in their settlers. Despite his personal sympathies to the United States, La Luzerne would report to Paris that the Americans were incredibly disorganized to the point that they almost certainly couldn’t stop the flow of settlers west, and too recalcitrant to even consider trying to do something about it.

There was limited ship action
during the Quasi-War​

The French would respond simply. Fifteen-hundred troops would be sent to Louisiana, and several French ships diverted from their usual business patrolling the Caribbean to harass American ships. This would be the “Quasi-War,” an undeclared conflict between France and the United States. The War would be a disaster for the United States. French ships would seriously harm the already diminished American trade. The navies of the individual states proved unable to stand against French warships, and the few ships of the American navy had already been sold off. [10] French troops, along with their native allies would not only expel Americans from the disputed trans-Appalachian regions, but even cross the Appalachians themselves and raid American towns. The Continental Army itself had also been dissolved, most troops demobilized and the small remnant, the Legion of the United States, [11] proved too small and underfunded to halt the French and Indian attacks. The most dramatic event of the French attack on Charleston, on August 1st, 1780, where six French ships sailed into Charleston Harbor and after damaging or sinking most ships in the Harbor began firing onto the town itself. While the conflict technically wouldn’t come to an end until the 1785 Treaty of Madrid between the two nations, the conflict mostly cooled by 1782 as the expulsion of the American settlers was almost entirely completed by that point.

The Quasi-War only further sent the American economy spiraling downwards, which in turn saw the oligarch regimes of the states further bleed the population dry in taxation. Ironically, some of the worst impacted were the very veterans of the War of Independence who had earned the United States’ freedom. What little pay they had received was in Continental Dollars, which were literally worth less than the paper they were printed on, [12] and most had fallen into debt as they were forced to pay for their own food, clothing, and equipment during the War. [13] Having also not received their promised pensions, these veterans were frequently finding themselves either dispossessed of their land or thrown into debtors’ prison, if not both. [14] This was far more prevalent in the northern states, as the northern merchant oligarchs were somewhat more desperate for funds than their southern planter counterparts. The southern planters were also willing to accept payment in kind for taxation, while in the north, it was often demanded that taxes be paid in hard currency which was extremely difficult for the impoverished common citizens to come by.

An attack on a tax-collector​

In response to the increasingly burdensome taxation, the veterans of the War of Independence would begin forming Soldiers’ Committees to organize protests against the government excesses. The Soldiers’ Committees would coordinate actions to disrupt the arrests and seizure of lands, including terror attacks not reminiscent of those the Sons of Liberty waged against the British. As the tension between the Soldiers’ Committees and the state governments escalated through 1781-1782, the ruling oligarchs would begin organizing their own private militias to try and restrain the Soldiers’ Committees. These private militia, usually recruited from ruffians and social outcasts were only partially effective as they simply spurred on the Committees to organize further. Importantly however, the private militias signaled to many that the oligarch governments were unwilling to back down and would use force to hold their positions. Seemingly a showdown was guaranteed as tensions continued to ratchet higher and higher.

Alexander Hamilton​

The Congress of the Confederation itself both lacked any real authority to try and resolve the crisis and was too divided to take action regardless. One delegate to the Congress, however, would begin organizing to try and save the United States: Alexander Hamilton. A bastard son from the West Indies, Hamilton had risen to be among the most prominent nationalists trying to secure a stronger central government of the United States. Hamilton argued that the government of the Confederation, were it stronger, would be able to resolve not only this current crisis but maintain tranquility and peace both between the states and with foreign nations. To this end, in 1782, Hamilton would successfully secure the support of eight states’ delegations and the personal support of Doctor Benjamin Franklin [15] to call for a constitutional convention the next year between the states.

Doctor Benjamin Franklin​

The convention would assemble in Philadelphia in 1783 to an air of optimism and fear. Massachusetts and Rhode Island stood on the verge of Civil War between the governments and Soldiers’ Committees while in North Carolina, the Regulator movement had once more sprung to live. Talk of Dissolution of the United States was whispered on the streets, and the fear of a general civil war was on the mind of all. The convention however would prove a failure. With the situation already on the verge of cracking, most delegates were unwilling to take significant action while the nationalist faction led by Alexander Hamilton pushed too far. After several months of debate, the convention fell apart and no new constitution for the United States was adopted. For many of the Soldiers’ Committees, this was the final straw. The Committees had slowed their action during the convention, like most they held out an optimism for a potential solution to emerge in the convention. With the convention’s failure, there seemed to be no solution aside from civil war.

Yet, 1784 came and there was still no war. The country stood, suspended seemingly on the edge of crisis but refusing to fully tip over. At least, until a spark finally tipped the balance. In Massachusetts, Captain Daniel Shays was a relatively prominent member of the Massachusettsian Soldiers’ Committees however he was a moderate who had been important in calming tensions. [16] Like most veterans, Shays was in debt but had successfully skirted attempts to imprison him for several months when typhoid swept through his hometown of Brookfield. His wife, Abigail, and children perished. Grief-stricken and “in a state of great disturbance,” Shays killed a debt-collector who paid Shays’ homestead a visit only three days after his wife perished. The exact events are largely lost to speculation and poor reporting, however modern historians believe the debt-collector attempted to seize a belonging of Abigail Shays, for which the debt-collector was slain with an ornamental sword given to Shays by General Gates himself.

Militiamen flee in
the Battle of Brookfield​

Most were sympathetic to the Captain, and as the story spread it was wildly exaggerated. By the time it was reported in New York City, the reporting was so twisted that the debt-collector was blamed for having killed Shays’ wife. Nevertheless, after a short trial, Shays was convicted of murder and sentenced to hang. However, on the day of his hanging, the local Soldiers’ Committee would attempt to disrupt the hanging. Having prepared for this, private militias were also prepared to ensure the hanging went through. The two sides would clash, with the Committeemen successfully ousting the militia and freeing Shays. Four men, three militia and one Committee, would die in the fight, which would become known as the Battle of Brookfield. The first shots of the American Revolution had begun.

Quickly across the United States, confused fighting had begun to break out from Maine to Georgia. The whole republic, scarcely ten years old, began to fall into chaos. As chaos reigned in Pennsylvania, the national capital Philadelphia stood on the verge total anarchy. Fighting in the streets became common, and the city’s militia struggled to maintain order. In response, the Legion of the United States was called from Pennsylvania’s western frontier to restore order. It was a desperate move, but there were few other options remaining to either the Congress of the Confederation or the government of Pennsylvania.

The Hero of the Revolution,
General Horatio Gates​

As chaos reigned, one man would begin making his way to Philadelphia as well. He was likely the only man who could save the United States, the Hero of the War of Independence, the Victorious General, Horatio Gates. Meeting up with the Legion on the outskirts of the city, Gates would take command and ride in front of the column of the Legion. Cheers and shouts of jubilation followed him, and the scene was as Caesar marching into Rome. The column marched up to the State House, the meeting place of the Congress of the Confederation. Gates and several soldiers would enter, and after a number of minutes, Gates would emerge from one of the upper windows of the State House. Here he would proclaim to the waiting crowd below that Congress had appointed him “Supreme-Marshal of the Confederation” and that a new Constitution would be adopted. One which would provide for all citizens of the United States, not just the wealthy elite. America would be a new Empire of Liberty and the Union would be maintained for a thousand years. The ten-year-old Ancien Régime had fallen to cheers and proclamations of joy.

The teeming multitudes below, shouting and cheering themselves virtually apoplectic as they celebrated General Gates, could hardly imagine the true future that this spelled. Many would live to see the consequences of their Caesar — and the rise of his Odoacer.

[1] IOTL there was an economic crash as well post-Independence, but it would be recovered from relatively painlessly.

[2] True to OTL.

[3] Having never received assistance from the two Bourbon powers, aside from some small lumps of military aide from France, neither of the powers are too keen on the nation espousing Enlightenment values on the borders of their colonies.

[4] OTL early American economics.

[5] A worse form of similar tendencies IOTL. With the War of Independence being more chaotic in buildup and execution, the new post-Independence state governments slide backwards quicker as the new ideas are never properly entrenched.

[6] A colorful description but based on OTL’s policies of several New English states expanded across most of the USA.

[7] Based on OTL trends, ITTL the process is arguably a little slower due to the French presence.

[8] A descendant of Antoine Crozat who had been the proprietary owner of Louisiana.

[9] IOTL, just like the Marquis de Lafayette, the Marquis de Vaudreuil fought alongside the Americans in the War for Independence.

[10] IOTL it took the piracy of the Barbary states to see the United States rebuild its navy under OTL’s Constitution. The Articles of Confederation government almost certainly couldn’t pull it off ITTL.

[11] OTL.

[12] Inflation of the Continental dollar shot well past a factor of one-hundred by the time they were withdrawn from circulation IOTL. With the worsening economy ITTL, the inflation is likely worse.

[13] Based on OTL.

[14] Based on OTL.

[15] Franklin’s support ITTL is probably the closest equivalent to getting George Washington’s backing IOTL.

[16] Despite being the effective leader of the revolt which bears his name, Shays was not among the radicals who first urged action, instead becoming the leader as he was well-respected by his fellow veterans.

 

[Ersatz Sequoyan]

Good evening everyone! I hope you can forgive me, this update despite being the longest so far (almost double the usual length!) is not ending the story of the Supreme-Marshal as I expected and I will have to leave you on a bit of a cliffhanger. At least my original goal of bridging the story of the USA up to the French Revolution has been achieved and that means we can focus more on America's Odoacer!

===(7)===
​

Chapter 7: Caesar Triumphant

When General Horatio Gates ascended to the office of Supreme-Marshal of the Confederation on July 2nd 1784 via his coup d’état, he was broadly supported by the Soldiers’ Councils which were rising across the United States and opposed by the established state governments. Gates’ proclamation that there would be a new Constitution, and that the rights and liberties of the common man would be respected had earned him sufficient support from the mass-population of the United States that the whole Confederation did not immediately come crashing down.

In New England, the region where the oligarchs most jealously guarded their positions, the states descended into out-and-out civil war as Committee and government militias fought for control. In New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Georgia, the local governments were toppled without significant fuss by the Soldiers’ Committees, while Delaware and Maryland saw their governments kowtow to the new government in Philadelphia. Virginia, New Jersey, and North Carolina all stood defiant against the new government. A “Provisional Legal Congress” would be established in Richmond, nominally claiming to be the legal version of the Congress of the Confederation. This anti-Gates government was primarily organized by Governor of Virginia and author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was always a leading voice in preventing any further centralization of the Confederation, and as head of the most populous state in the United States, his revolt posed the greatest current threat to the new Gates government.

The Supreme-Marshal’s response was to rally the Legion of the United States and as many loyal Committee militias as possible, then march on Richmond and depose Jefferson. On the advice of Marshal Gates, a resolution passed by the Congress of the Confederation declaring Jefferson and his government to be “traitors to the United States” and the army of the “Marshalate” would march out from Philadelphia to quell the rebellion. Two of Gates’ most trusted Generals, Philip Schuyler and Joseph Warren, would be placed in charge of working with local Soldiers’ Committees to pacify New Jersey and New England respectively as Gates marched south.

The first challenge to Gates’ march against Jefferson would occur north of the Potomac. While Maryland had overall kowtowed to Gates’ new government, some members of the Marylander government had not. Allying with the Virginians, the anti-Gates Marylanders would base themselves on the Potomac River, being commanded from the Virginian city of Alexandria. During the initial days of the American Revolution, the Marylanders and allied militias seized control of a few points along the Potomac including Georgetown, Indian Head, and Fort Foote. From here, with creation of the Jeffersonian “Legal Government,” a new “Provisional Government of Maryland” had been proclaimed and slowly seized several small towns near the Potomac border with Virginia. Several hundred Virginian militiamen had crossed the Potomac and with militiamen loyal to the Provisional Government, they attempted to try and topple the Marshalate government of Maryland. They had not been quite successful and were stuck trying to lay siege to Annapolis as Marshal Gates’ army passed by. This somewhat ragtag army would be drawn into battle by Marshal Gates and smashed. With the victory, Maryland would be totally secured and ultimately be the strongest bastion of Gates’ new government.

Virginian militiamen would attempt to stop Gates as he crossed the Potomac. The militia, despite the capable command of George Clark, would be broken by the veteran soldiers of the Legion of the United States. With half his force fleeing on the battlefield, Clark would retreat south, leaving swathes of northern Virginia to fall to Gates uncontested. Hoping to regroup in Fredericksburg and possibly stop Gates from crossing the Rappahannock, Clark would prove a victim of treachery. Militiamen around Fredericksburg would turn against the Jeffersonian government and stop Clark’s retreat. Several miles south of the town of Dumfries, Clark would himself caught between Gates in the north, Fredericksburger militia in the south, and the Potomac in the east. Surrounded and unwilling to lead his men to the inevitable slaughter which would occur if they stood their ground, Clark would surrender to Gates.

Upon hearing the news of Clark’s surrender, the mood in Richmond soured dramatically. Conversely, the local Virginian Soldiers’ Committees would regain their morale and begin rising once more. The only positive news for the Jeffersonians was from New Jersey where Brigadier General William Alexander had successfully held off an invasion by Philip Schuyler despite being outnumbered three to one. Many began to fear the worst as Gates seemed unable to be stopped, at least at the current moment. Jefferson was urged to go into hiding so that he might be able to resist the Gates regime from the shadows, which Jefferson would refuse to do. Thomas Jefferson, so long a proponent of liberty and freedom would not cower before tyrants whether in London or Philadelphia.

Turning over authority of the Virginian militia to Lieutenant Colonel Sampson Mathews, Jefferson would don a private’s uniform to fight alongside his people. In the Battle of Byrd Mill just north of Richmond, Mathews would take his stand. Outnumbered and outgunned, the Virginians would fight like devils. Jefferson’s position fighting alongside the militiamen kept their morale up despite the impossible odds, with the Virginians only breaking when Legionnaires overran their makeshift fortifications. In the close-quarters combat, Jefferson would be slashed by a saber and clubbed unconscious with the butt of a musket. Perhaps to Jefferson’s frustration, neither wound was fatal. Upon coming to, Jefferson found himself imprisoned by the forces of the Marshalate.

Richmond fell the following day, and what little remained of the needed campaigns to smash the Legal Congress’ forces in the south were left to pro-Gates militias and the Soldiers’ Committees. Gates and the Legion would march north, Gates returning to Philadelphia and the Legion assisting General Schuyler in finally cracking the resisting New Jerseyites. Upon returning to Philadelphia, Gates would slowly begin the transition into civilian matters. Thomas Jefferson and several of his supporters were exiled from the United States, [1] most fleeing to Britain however Jefferson would immigrate to France. Gouverneur Morris, a hesitant supporter of Gates, would be dispatched to France with the goal of securing a proper settlement of the border-disputes and the Quasi-War. John Temple, the British Minister to the United States, would comment in a letter to London that the new American regime was “reminiscent of the Commonwealth of [Cromwell] but popular with the common masses.”

With Jefferson in exile, and the suppression of the various revolts against his government, Marshal Gates would make true on his promise for a new Constitution, assembling a second Constitutional Convention. This was, in truth, a convention in name only as it consisted of only six members. Marshal Gates, Generals Schuyler and Warren, Alexander Hamilton, Nathaniel Gorham, and Aaron Burr. Several more prominent Americans were invited but refused to participate. The Second Convention would meet over the winter of 1784-1785, and promulgated a new Constitution on Independence Day, May 13th, 1785. This new Constitution, officially the Fundamental Laws and Constitution of the Republic of the United States of America, [2] was more commonly known as the Bayonet Constitution as it was promulgated by Gates’ military government.

The Bayonet Constitution was broken up into several articles, each detailing a portion of the official structure of the new regime. In truth, despite the preamble proclaiming to “secure the Blessings of Liberty,” the Constitution was oftentimes ignored by the new strongman government as dissent, rebellion, and revolt plagued the new government.

The first Article ordained the establishment of the new legislature. The legislature was broken up into two bodies, the “Popular House” and the “State House” which were elected via separate mechanisms. The Representatives of the Popular House were elected via popular vote from each state, with the number of Representatives being sent to the House being based on each state’s population and serving for five years. The portioning was that each state would receive on Representative by default, and for every fifty-thousand eligible voters [3] they would receive an additional Representative. The relatively high standards for receiving additional Representatives were chosen to try and compromise between the want to represent each states’ interests, and the interests of the general population.

The State House on the other hand was not elected by the population. Instead, the State House was selected via three separate manners. The first was that the Soldiers’ Committee from each state would elect one-third of Delegates, the second was that the Popular House would elect one-third of the Delegates, and the final being that the Supreme-Marshal would choose one-third of the delegates. Delegates of the State House served for life, unless otherwise impeached and removed from office.

Only the Popular House could create laws, although the State House and Supreme-Marshal could “recommend” new laws which was de facto the method of law creation under the Bayonet Constitution. Any law passed by the Popular House would then be sent to the State House, and if given the stamp of approval by the State House, it would then pass to the Supreme-Marshal for ratification. The Popular House could also approve new amendments to the Constitution, which if approved by two-thirds of the Popular House would then pass to the State House where it required four-fifths of verification, and finally to the Supreme-Marshal. The Popular House had no other powers, however the State House had several more. The Delegates of the State House had the authority to wage war, ratify treaties, levy taxation, impeach and remove government officials, and mediate controversies between the individual states. [4]

Article Two of the Bayonet Constitution delt with the Executive. Executive power was invested in the office of the Supreme-Marshal. Supreme-Marshals were to serve for life, something which none of the four holders of the office achieved. Nominally appointed by the Popular House, none of the Supreme-Marshals ascended to their positions in the legal manner either. The Supreme-Marshal could veto laws absolutely, was Commander-in-Chief of the army, and censure members of the legislature. De jure checks on the Supreme-Marshal’s powers existed, however were rarely used, with the true limits of the Supreme-Marshal’s powers being the patience of the army. Finally, there was the curious provision that a Supreme-Marshal could not be succeeded by a descendant, an attempt to prevent the position de-evolving into a monarchy.

Article Three dealt with the Soldiers’ Committees, solidifying them into an institution of the new government. The Committees were re-organized to serve as a military-administrative apparatus, being given authority to conduct the census, organize recruitment, oversee state-militias, and administer arsenals. Elected from veterans, the Committees were now intended to somewhat serve as a bridge between the common soldiery and the state governments. The effect of the enshrinement of the Committees however was to effectively turn them to parallel administrations to the existing State governments, not unlike the Committees of Safety in the buildup to the War of Independence.

Article Four outlines the relationship between the state governments and the federal government, granting the states moderate autonomy in internal affairs but giving the federal government avenues to intervene. It also guaranteed freedom of movement across the state borders, something which was not existent under the Articles of Confederation. The process for admitting new states was also listed within Article Four, along with a guarantee that the states would be permitted a “Republican” government.

Articles Five, Six, and Seven were smaller affairs. Article Five outlined the amendment process of the Constitution, Article Six provided for the Constitution to be the Supreme Law of the United States, while Article Seven provided the process of adoption.

The new Constitution would officially come into effect on May 13th, 1785, with a ceremonial first meeting of the two Houses of the new Congress. Technically, the specifications of Article Seven required the approval of all states which was not finished by May 13th, but this was largely ignored for the ceremonial meeting. Dutifully, all of the states would ratify the Constitution without serious fuss. Green Mountain, [5] the unrecognized sovereign republic whose territory was disputed between France, New York, and New Hampshire, would also ratify the Constitution. Green Mountain would become the fourteenth state on September 5th that year.

With his regime’s new Constitution promulgated without fuss, Gates would pursue several large-scale reforms. First and foremost was the reform of the system of taxation and debts which provoked the American Revolution in the first place. High import tariffs were placed on manufactured goods from Britain, while export tariffs were lowered, with the primary intention being to stimulate domestic manufacturing. Additionally, this policy produced a considerable revenue for the new government, a welcome additional feature. A new currency, the Eagle, [6] was created and based entirely on specie than fiat, with the silver one-Eagle coin being roughly pegged to the British Pound. Continental Dollars would be exchanged with two-hundred dollars being converted into one Eagle. The backpay of veterans and their promised pensions (admittedly trimmed down to one-quarter from the original one-half) [7] were paid in the new Eagles. Another important reform was that the United States was finally able to begin paying off its debts, which after absorbing the individual state debts was roughly fifty-five million Eagles.

Along with the economic reforms, Gates oversaw a diplomatic shakeup with the 1785 Treaty of Madrid. Signed between the United States and the two Bourbon monarchies whose colonies bordered the United States, the Treaty “settled” the border problems. The United States conceded most of the disputed territories with France in exchange for 9.4 million Eagles, while the border with Spanish Florida was re-affirmed to be where it had already been delineated. Importantly, the Treaty granted American settlers who had immigrated into Louisiana or Florida the right to live in the territories so long as they swore an oath of loyalty to their respective kings. These American settlements, which would become known as “Louisvilles” due to the typical proof that a town was loyal to the French being a small monument bearing the French king’s name, would prove a dramatic headache in the years to come for the Louisianian and Floridian administrations.

Despite the Treaty of Madrid officially ending the conflict between United States and her colonial neighbors, the new Marshalate would use the newly gained government revenues to also embark on a campaign of strengthening the army proper. The current existing army, the Legion of the United States, would be restructured slightly with the existing Legion becoming one of four Legions of the United States. Each Legion was a roughly four-thousand-man brigade-equivalent intended for independent operation. The term Legion had been chosen to reflect how the Legion combined all classes of land-forces of the time, infantry, riflemen, cavalry, and artillery, [8] and the new system of multiple Legions continued to reflect this. Broken up into four sub-Legions, each additionally capable of independent action, the Legions were intended to be versatile and relatively autonomous fighting units. Thanks in part to several reforms proposed by Wilhelm von Mayr, [9] a former Prussian Captain and immigrant to America, strict Prussian-style discipline was enforced across the Legions which harmed recruitment but dramatically improved fighting capacity. By 1788, the Legions of the United States were well proving their worthiness in keeping the western frontiers safe and maintaining order.

One of the most important among the developments of the early Marshalate was the growing development of anti-slavery and anti-black sentiment. Slavery was perceived as being a decaying and moribund institution following the American War for Independence, [10] with some states moving to abolish slavery following the War. The growing bitterness towards slavery had two primary causes. The first was that during the chaos in Virginia, a slave revolt broke out near Norfolk. Led by a slave named Braddock who lent the revolt its name, Braddock’s Revolt would be only a relatively small affair, with the number of slaves having rebelled never exceeding a hundred. Despite this however, the revolt was relatively violent and publicized massively. The second was the populist leanings of the American Revolution leading to the holders of most slaves, the planter elite, being perceived in a negative light.

Seizing on the growing bitterness would be one Ebeneezer Caller, a Rhode Island newspaper printer, who would begin writing anti-slavery tracts. These tracts, while they would be quite influential in driving forward the anti-slavery motivation, they were exceptionally racist even for the time. Caller would argue a series of increasingly insane positions on slavery. The tracts started from a relatively reasonable position in 1786, where Caller argued that slaves were a risk to national security due to the potential of foreign powers exploiting the weakness that a slave revolt would bring on. Over the next two years, Caller would grow increasingly conspiratorial, outlandish, and obscene in his claims. His next arguments involved the presence of mixed-raced individuals, referring to them as a “blasphemous fusion of the son of Ham and the daughter of Japheth” and blame their existence for the recent hardships the United States was facing. Later on, Caller would begin claiming that the black population would outbreed the white population as black women were supposedly able to “produce infants by the litter.” [11]

While each of these claims were false, Caller began attracting a large degree of support across the United States, particularly from the poor whites of the south. Before the Revolution, the poor whites of the south had been kept down by the planter elite and had only tolerated said abuses because of racist propagandizing; [12] now the bitterness long suppressed was spilling out but still channeled along the old lines. By 1788, anti-black pogroms were rocking the southern United States, with free blacks and slaves alike being attacked. These pogroms were growing to such intensity that the 3rd Legion had to be dispersed across the south to try and maintain order. Caller’s final widely published tract would claim that the planter elites were in fact secretly Moors in disguise, and that slavery itself was a Trojan horse to import blacks to America so they could “conquer the Saints of America in the name of Mahomet and Satan.” [13] This set off a whole new round of pogroms which now also saw planters threatened or attacked. In response, Caller’s works would be censured and Caller himself arrested.

Across the southern states, the pogroms would only escalate in response, and riots began to rock many southern cities. Caller’s arrest seemingly confirmed the idea of grand conspiracy in the minds of many, prompting the slow accumulation of the myriad small racist organizations into a larger movement, the White Man’s League. The WML proved to be quite effective in organizing pogroms and the violence escalated into near rebellion. Finally, in the Independence Day riots, May 13th, 1789, the insanity reached its crescendo. WML members would attempt to storm the local Charleston Arsenal, only to be bloodily cut down. Philadelphia would order the arrest of the WML leaders and the dissolution of the organization, which would prove more difficult than expected. Thanks to local sympathizers forewarning them, the WML’s leaders were able to escape and flee west into Louisiana along with their most radical supporters. From their isolated western communities, they would prove a continual trouble for the Americans for decades to come; the failure to wipe out these WML remnants would seriously harm the reputation of the Marshalate.

Anti-slavery and anti-black sentiment continued on past the dissolution of the WML, albeit more moderated. New laws passed by the Marshalate would see both the abolition of the international slave trade, and the restrictions on the activities of free blacks and slaves. The event of gravest consequence however would be the emergence of the Society for the Repatriation of the Ethiopian. The SRE would advocate for the deportation of all blacks, free and slave, back to Africa, an idea which would some appreciation from Marshal Gates himself. Gates would, in the last few months of his administration, pass an edict to adopt the SRE’s advice and slowly begin deporting the black population to Africa, an edict which largely went ignored following his overthrow. Nevertheless, the ideas of the SRE would re-emerge decades later to a more successful implementation.

What was wrought in the American Revolution would survive the domestic crises which threatened it, and successfully even issued long-needed reforms, to the surprise of cynics in Europe. As France descended into its own Revolution however, America’s Revolutionary government would find itself put under a different strain than those which existed previously. A strain which would finally bring the American Revolution to a bitter, screaming end.

[1] Executing them was seen as being too far, with Gates trying to prove his regime is an enlightened and progressive one.

[2] While not used commonly, “Republic of the United States” functions as an alternative name for the Marshalate era, contrasting the “Confederation of the United States” of before.

[3] The provision that it is based on voters was intended to encourage decreasing voting requirements, yet another component of the populist leanings of the American Revolution.

[4] Without provisions for a judiciary, this provision is the closest thing for any interstate conflict in the Marshalate.

[5] Vermont, obviously, but it kept its English name out of anti-French sentiment.

[6] Equivalent to OTL’s Dollar.

[7] Debatably better than OTL, where there pensions were eliminated and replaced by five years pay.

[8] This surprised me to learn, for some reason it had always been in my head that the Legion was so named based on America’s Romanophilia.

[9] TTL’s equivalent to Baron von Steuben. Von Steuben never assisted the USA ITTL as France never would get involved.

[10] More or less how it was IOTL before the Cotton Gin.

[11] If Caller’s claims sound more irrational and insane than typical racialism, that’s deliberate. Caller initially played a slightly larger roll and intended to be loosely based on Francis E. Dec, a notable paranoid schizophrenic.

[12] Somewhat less of an entrenched system than it would be in the 19th century of OTL, it still was the prevailing by this point in American history.

[13] As insane as it is, this is actually a modification of claims of some racists IOTL. Slightly out of its time, but rooted in reality nevertheless.

 

[Ersatz Sequoyan]

Good evening Citoyens! The Era of Revolutions has come, and while the American Revolution may have preceded it, it is the French Revolution which will truly begin the era of unrest. You will have to forgive that this is more of an introduction to the next "arc" of this timeline than anything else, and only truly is beginning to split with OTL at the end.

===(8)===​

Chapter 8: The Curse of Notus

The rumblings of Republicanism and Revolution, such as that seen in the United States and Corsica during the 1770s and 1780s, had not truly registered in the minds of most Europeans as the final decade of the 18th century began. Many European monarchs had looked leerily at the Corsican Republic as it finally shook off the last chains of Genoese occupation, [1] nervous what a torch of Enlightenment ideals in the center of the Mediterranean might bring to their dominions. When Corsica cracked up and descended into clannish violence, they cheered the island’s spasm of violence. The United States, on the other hand, was too far away from Europe to truly be a threat; a strange nation living on the frontier of civilization could hardly be the torchbearer of change to their regimes. Their own Revolution was looked upon as seeming proof that the people cried out for at least a quasi-monarch in the line of the Dutch Stadtholders or the Venetian Doges.

In no royal regime of Europe did the monarch seem more secure than in that of France. The long, stable reigns of Louis XIV and XV seemed to entrench a feeling of supremacy in the Ancien Regime scarcely found anywhere else in the world. Coupled with the successes France had seen in the Nine Years War, and France seemed to be a rising star, unstoppable and invincible. However, a tree can rot from the inside but show no outward sign of decay until the storm-blast knocks it over. The Ancien Regime was simply waiting for the storm.

The troubles France faced were myriad, but that of the chief importance was the increasingly ossified noble system that existed in France. While Louis XIV had centralized the French state into an effective absolute monarchy, his grandson Louis XV failed to keep the regime powerful and noble interests were able to begin interceding. The Parlements, a local system of courts, which Louis XIV had suppressed re-emerged during Louis XV’s reign. While Louis XV did take a few faltering steps to suppress the Parlements during the end of his reign, they maintained enough power to openly defy the King at the time of his death. In addition to the Parlements lending the nobility power, the nobles were exempt from two taxes which weighed heavily on the common population, the salt tax and the land tax, which meant that the wealthiest figures in the nation did not contribute to the national coffers proportionally. In addition to the nobility being exempt, whole towns could be exempt from taxes thanks to an assortment of privileges. The final significant problem with the noble system as it existed were the assorted internal tariffs across France which made it difficult to export grain across the nation. If a region had a poor harvest, the internal tariffs slowed or outright halted the flow of grain from areas with sufficient grain to alleviate the food shortages. The internal tariffs also meant it was frequently easier to export grain to foreign markets than domestic ones, which caused considerable trouble as the nobility would often choose profit over their subjects’ well-being. [2]

None of the above problems were impossible to fix for a properly dynamic and capable monarch. Unfortunately, the man who succeeded Louis XV, Louis XVI, was well-meaning but not sufficiently capable — a sentiment he himself personally felt. This did not keep Louis XVI from trying to bring about good intentioned reforms, most prominently the demolishing of the Bastille fortress in Paris and the issuing of the Edict of Tolerance which gave Jews, Huguenots, and Lutherans legal rights. [3] One of Louis’ well-intended reforms would prove quite troubling for his reign; out of an effort to appeal to the common population who viewed the Parlements as a positive check on the King’s power, Louis would undo the restrictions his grandfather, Louis XV, placed upon the Parlements. These Parlements subsequently began to ride entirely roughshod over the King, with even direct in-person appeals by the King failing to see the Parlements enforce his laws.

The primary issue over which the King and Parlements came to clash was the matter of taxation. King Louis intended to reform the French system, restructuring the land tax and abolishing the corvee, and the Parlements sought to block any such reforms as it would harm the nobility who controlled them. The Parlements justified their actions by claiming the King had no legal right to unilaterally make tax policy, [4] and demanded that such a thing be put through via the Estates-General. Louis would not call the Estates-General and so the two factions remained stalemated for most of Louis’ reign. It could have remained in this manner for the entirety of Louis’ reign as the French government was solvent enough without the tax reforms to maintain functioning and the common public whom Louis was trying to appeal to were relatively happy with the actions the King had already taken. [5]

Beginning in 1786 however, the slow buildup of a crisis began to threaten the Kingdom. For a six-year period between 1786 and 1792, French harvests were less productive than normal. While not yet a full-on crisis in 1786 through 1788, France nevertheless felt the pinch of poorer than normal harvests as the years dragged on. With three-fourths of the French economy being agricultural in nature, this loss in productivity significantly impacted the French economy. The cost of bread rose as supply diminished, and the nobility began to turn to increasingly gouging their serfs to make up the losses. Louis was not idle during this time, overseeing the direct import of grain from abroad to make up the losses or even outright purchasing it from his subjects to redistribute. [6]

In 1788, the poor harvests failed far worse than the previous years. In some parts of the country, yields were less than half the usual amount. The mounting food shortages would see the French state take increasingly drastic actions and import ever growing quantities of grain from abroad. Nevertheless, the price of bread rose across France. As the winter of 1788-1789 set in, it proved to be among the worst on record. Wine and cider would freeze, trees withered, and grain stores were spoiled by the bitter cold. Even worse for the French, when the weather would begin to warm up once more, the melting snow and a series of torrential storms through March caused vast floods which prevented the movement of food and destroyed further stockpiles. [7]

The peasantry, to some degree, could mitigate the lower yields of their crops by holding on to more of their production. France’s urban population, however, relied on the food sold in the markets. With the shortage of grain, the price of bread doubled in Paris by February, 1789, [8] and French workers could be paying as much as ninety-percent of their wages for food. Riots and upset would begin to rock French cities and towns as the starving poor grew increasingly desperate. Struggling to take the decisive action needed to alleviate the crisis, King Louis would approve increasingly expensive imports of foreign grain and the requisition of grain from the stores of the farming peasants. In the lean times of an ongoing famine, that was an effective death sentence.

Between the option of slowly starving to death, or meeting a quick end via musket or sword, many peasants would begin to choose the latter. Peasant uprisings slowly began to break out across France in the spring and summer of 1789; the Second Jacquerie had begun. While peasant risings weren’t particularly rare, or individually a threat to the Kingdom, the sheer volume of risings was – especially when coupled with the ever-growing tension in the cities and towns. The French army during this time became increasingly untrustworthy, most of the common soldiers were sympathetic to the peasantry, and increasingly soldiers refused to assist in the seizure of grain or putting down the peasantry revolts. Corruption with grain distribution even meant some army units weren’t receiving full rations, with many of the army units who otherwise would have cooperated turning to banditry.

France’s financial state went from tolerable to bad as the nation hemorrhaged its wealth, sucking in foreign grain and mercenaries to maintain a semblance of order. In desperation, Louis would call an Assembly of Notables to try and hammer out a compromise of reforms to stabilize the Kingdom. This too backfired, with the Assembly digging in their heels, with the nobility doubling-down on their demand to the call the Estates-General to engage in any reforms. With few options remaining, Louis finally assented to the calling of the Estates-General for next year.

The harvest of 1789 was a marked improvement over the harvest of the past three years, and along with brutal crackdowns by the “Hessois,” [9] the predominantly German mercenaries hired to counterbalance the increasingly disloyal army, the Second Jacquerie seemed to be on the downswing. The Ile-de-France was the predominantly stabilized region, along with the northeast while banditry and Jacquerian cliques continued to plague the countryside of the south and west. The Breton regions were particularly hard hit, being the only district of France which did not see a good harvest. Many historians consider the start of the Regionationalist Movement in France to be the divisions created by the Second Jacquerie, although events of the Revolution undeniably played their role.

The meeting of the Estates-General would be rocky from the beginning. The nominal system of elections for the Estates had been carried out haphazardly across France due to the ongoing Jacquerie, but most delegates successfully arrived when the Estates-General opened on May 1st, 1790. In a scene which hinted at events to come, the members of the Estates refused to remove their hats to honor the King. Louis XVI responded by removing his to honor the Estates. [10] After the opening however, the situation swiftly began to go downhill. The First Estate and the Second Estate, the clergy and nobility, refused to cooperate with the Third Estate, the commoners, as a bloc while reformist members of both the First and Second Estates began to cross the lines and join with the Third. Furthermore, instead of debating the reforms of taxation which his Majesty proposed, the Estates quickly began debating the nature of their legislative authority.

While all three Estates believed that the Estates-General held legislative authority, the nature of the voting quickly proved a stumbling block. The Third Estate insisted that each delegate of each Estate be permitted to vote, while the First and Second Estates demanded that the Estates vote as a block. The debate over voting dominated the Estates-General into June. By June 12th, the Third Estate declared itself the National Assembly, claiming the right of legislature in their own right. A week later, King Louis declared the Estates-General dissolved. The newly proclaimed National Assembly refused to disperse, moving to the Palais Bourbon in Paris. From here, the National Assembly would invite the members of the other two Estates to join them however this was refused – at least until King Louis requested they join the National Assembly in an attempt to negotiate his way out of the ongoing mess.

Louis XVI would propose the establishment of a French Constitution of relatively conservative nature to the National Assembly, attempting to get ahead of the Assembly’s growing movement. This proposed constitution would be rejected by the Assembly. [11] The Assembly then issued a vow to each of its members to refuse to dissolve until France had adopted a proper Constitution. Slowly over the next month, the Assembly would begin to work on a new Constitution as events churned in Paris. By July, rumors began to circulate that the King intended to use the Swiss Guard to forcefully dissolve the Assembly. Riots broke out across Paris, and on July 9th after the local Guard failed to disperse the unruly crowd, the city broke out into urban fighting. The Guard and mobs of Parisians bloodily fought, accumulating in the storming of the Hotel de Ville, the city hall of Paris where the Provost of the Merchants of Paris, [12] Jacques de Flesselles, was killed. Flesselles’ corpse was decapitated, and his head paraded around the city. The French Revolution had begun.

This dark celebration would shock and horrify France’s nobility and Louis XVI. Along with the ongoing Jacquerie violence, now once more beginning to pick up steam as revolutionary sentiment began to spread out from Paris, the attack on the Hotel prompted most of France’s reactionary nobility to begin fleeing the country. With much of nobility fleeing, the National Assembly would abolish feudalism in France that August, canceling all noble obligations and church tithes. From this point, the Jacquerie peasant rebels would begin to pledge their loyalty to the Assembly, with pure Red flags being used in place of the Bourbon white in the countryside to signal loyalty to the new regime the Assembly had promised.

While the National Assembly’s various reforms had helped ease tensions and nominally brought the Jacquerie back into the fold, the situation continued truthfully to spiral out of control of either the King or the National Assembly. Orders by the King to bring more Hessois to patrol the Ile-de-France only prompted French army units to attack the Hessois throughout September, driving the foreign mercenaries loyal to King Louis away from Paris. The army regiments responsible then marched into Paris, straight up to the Palais Bourbon. Having thrown out their old commander and elected a new leader, Pierre de Ruel, this new “Revolutionary” army then proceeded to demand that the National Assembly take action against the King for his “treachery against the People of France.” Most of the Assembly’s delegates would hesitate, fearing any serious breach of the peace with the King.

Seeing the hesitation of the crowd, de Ruel would then proclaim that take the appropriate action would then be taken by the Army and the People of France. Whipping his soldiers and the surrounding crowds into a frenzy, de Ruel began a march on Versailles. A crowd of approximately two-thousand soldiers and fifteen thousand civilians [13] began making their slow procession to Versailles. Upon reaching the gates, the King himself stood at the other side and attempted to negotiate with the crowd. Asking for a deputation of the crowd, the King would order the gates opened to permit the entry of those requested. Before the gates could be closed once again however, something – still unknown to historians – would provoke the crowd who would surge forward, storming the Palace grounds. Attempts by the Palace guards to stop the crowd saw them overwhelmed; the first guard literally torn to pieces by the crowd as several others were beaten and subsequently beheaded. King Louis was roughed up by the crowd somewhat, and almost beheaded at this time himself, however de Ruel ordered him guarded and under arrest.

The bloodied crowd was not satisfied with the death of a few palace guards however and stormed the Palace properly. Palace guards would be killed, the rich palace itself looted and ransacked, and many servants were injured. Queen Antoinette would be the chief victim of the day however, caught by the crowd and beheaded. Her head, along with many palace guards were placed on pikes. Fortunately, despite being present for the murder and beheading of his mother, the Dauphin [14] was not killed. Instead, like the King, the young Dauphin was placed under arrest and brought out with his father. Upon seeing his wife’s head as it was paraded out by the crowd, King Louis broke down in a display of emotion that turned the rage of the crowd inward. De Ruel would be beaten by the crowd, ultimately dying of his wounds two weeks later.

After de Ruel’s death, the crowd would take a despairing King and his children back to Paris in a sort of revolutionary triumph, with the King being forced to reside in the Palace of the Tuileries in Paris. Versailles would be ravaged by fire only two days after the violence in the palace, with alternating claims that this action was performed by straggling looters or by deliberate action to prevent any consideration of a Royal return being floated among the crowds in Paris. In the Tuileries, Louis XVI and his children would effectively become prisoners of the newly established “People’s Guard” which was the officialized version of the Revolutionary Army that de Ruel had created.

The death of the Queen sent shockwaves across France and the international community. For an instant, it seemed as if the Holy Roman Emperor, Joseph II, might declare war on France (or at least France’s revolutionaries) in response. While this did not come to pass as Emperor Joseph was busy with the ongoing turmoil in Hungary, many nations began to leerily eye the situation in France, fearing that the storm blast which had cracked the Bourbon Oak might not now be whistling through the branches of their own glades.

No one understood the dire situation more than King Louis. Upon settling into the Palace of the Tuileries, the still-despairing King would request a book be brought to him: a history on Charles I of England.

[1] Not fearing the British in the Mediterranean, the French never buy Corsica to serve as a naval base.

[2] More or less this is OTL’s France.

[3] Louis XVI did the same IOTL.

[4] To my understanding this was true, but it had simply been ignored historically.

[5] Not joining the American War of Independence, plus additional incomes from Jamaica and their puppet Duchy of the Southern Netherlands have kept French finances in “not great, not terrible” shape.

[6] Similarly to OTL, the late 1780s have been a period of bad harvests and hard times for France. ITTL however, the French are actually worse off.

[7] This is broadly OTL as well, I am never sure how much weather patterns, and shorter-term climate should be varied by butterflies.

[8] Worse than OTL.

[9] I do not speak French, but this seems to be the correct translation of Hessian. Google translate though says “Toile de jute” which is a type of burlap and seems very wrong.

[10] This happened OTL.

[11] Louis XVI did so IOTL as well.

[12] The de facto equivalent of a mayor.

[13] A far larger crowd than OTL’s march on Versailles

[14] This corresponds to Louis Joseph, the OTL eldest son of Louis XVI. His ATL cousin does not get tuberculosis and as such does not die quite as young.