"Instead of figthting among ourselves, we should better conquer the World."
Emperor Michael I of Romania, The Great Powers Conference, Prague, 1626
Europe before the Great Powers Conference
In the previous 25 years, the Old Continent of Europe had witnessed dramatic changes:
- The 1601 Unification of Romania had altered the geopolitical situation in Eastern Europe, paving the way for the almost complete destruction of the Ottoman Power in Europe 23 years later and for the subsequent Imperial greatness of Romania.
- The conquest of the Crimean Khanate had saved millions of Europeans from the fear of Tatar raiding and had greatly empowered Sarmatia (the former Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania), which went on to win more wars against Sweden and Russia.
- The rise of Nationalism had sweeped through Eastern and Central Europe, the National Idea being adopted by the ruling classes of Western Europe as well, with wide-ranging consequences, the most visible of them being the creation of unified, centralized, National States in Romania, Sarmatia and Germany, followed by similar events in Iberia, Britannia and Scandinavia.
- The Unification of Germany had led to the demise of the Holy Roman Empire and massive territorial changes in Central Europe, such asthe disappearance of the Austrian Monarchy and the sea-faring Union of the Netherlands, among other countless States and Statelets.
- Major wars, waged on large territories by huge armies made possible by the emergence of Nationalism and the Levée en masse, had bankrupted most European Powers, leading to a general aversion towards this kind of wars and the need to find alternative means of solving conflicts and settling disputes.
- After the Wars of 1622 - 1625 (The Anti-Ottoman Crusade and the Second German War), known today under the single name of The First European War, Article IX of the 1625 Brussels Peace Treaty had called for a Great Powers Conference to be convened during the following year.
1625 - 1626, Europe
The period between the end of the European War and the opening of the Great Powers Conference was one of intense diplomatic talks, hastened but profound political and administrative reforms in some countries and a few regional crises, all of them luckily defused by diplomacy or threats.
1. Iberia
King Philip IV of Castile and III of Portugal and Aragon had merged his Crowns into the
Crown of Iberia and had proclaimed the
Iberian Empire (Imperio Iberico) with himself as
Emperor Philip I (Imperador Felipe I)
of Iberia, of Italy, of Africa and of the Americas.
He had reversed the policies of his father in respect to Portugal, giving the Portuguese, the Castilians and the Catalans an equal share of power in the new unified State and even moving his Capital City to
Lisbon, in the former Kingdom of Portugal.
His official policies of creating an
Iberian Nation and an
Iberian Language would have mixed results and the empowering of the Portuguese would lead to a revolt in Castile and Aragon in the later years of his reign.
No real unification of his
Italian Realms had been attempted, leaving
Naples,
Sicily,
Sardinia,
Corsica and
Malta as separate States, which would later join the Italian Confederation.
In
North Africa, Tangier, Ceuta, Melilla, Oran, Algiers, Constantine, Bizerte, Tunis and Tripoly were at first administered at separate Colonies, being only united after the conquest of the North African Coast was completed.
In the
Americas, Mexico, Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Granada, Peru, Chile, La Plata and Brazil were maintained as separate entities, owing to the difficulty of having an unified administration over such an enormous territory.
2. France
King Louis XIII of France had not changed the administrative structure of his country, other than disolving the
Crown of Navarre and annexing the
Southern Netherlands (renamed
Belgium),
Lorraine,
Burgundy,
Savoy and various other small states of the former Holy Roman Empire.
Exploration and colonization of
New France and other parts of the World continued during his rule.
No forging of a
French Nation was deemed necessary until the reign of his successor, who inherited an already dire situation in the German parts of the country.
3. Britannia
In the penultimate year of his reign,
King James VI of Scotland and I of England and Ireland had finally fulfilled his old plan of uniting his three Crowns into the
Crown of Britannia.
While the merging of England and Scotland proceeded smoothly, the Catholic Irish vigurously opposed the annexation of their country, leading to a bitter and protracted war which lasted more than a decade.
King James would die during the Great Powers Conference, being succeeded by his son Henry Frederick as
King Henry I of Britannia.
Britannia would continue to focus on the exploration of the seas and colonization of far away lands.
4. Germany
A large federal structure, the
German Empire (Keiserreich Deutschreich) had been forged by the sword in two consecutive bloody wars which permanently altered the European balance of power and acted as a catalyst to the Great Powers Conference.
The power of
Emperor Siegfried Augustus I of Germany (Deutschreichs Keiser Siegfried Augustus I) was limited by the German Princes, some of which still enjoying considerable autonomy inside their Federal German States.
The
German Nation was probably the only one which raised on its own thus creating its Country, unlike the other European Nations which were themselves creations of their Countries and Sovereigns.
The loss of the entire Dutch Fleet, which refused to sail back to Germany from England after the annexation of their country meant the de facto loss of all the
Dutch Colonies as well. This situation created a great bitterness in Germany towards their former British allies and would be one of the main points of contention at the Great Powers Conference.
5. Sarmatia
King Sigismund III of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania had been the first to take Mihai's example and unify his country into the
Commonwealth of Sarmatia (Rzeczpospolita Sarmacja), with himself as
King Sigismund III of Sarmatia (Król Zygmunt III).
The process of creating a single
Sarmatian Nation speaking a common
Sarmatian Language would mostly fail, leading to the emergence of three Nations, largely faithful to their common country:
- The
Poles (including all the other West Slavic Peoples in Western and Northern Poland);
- The
Lithuanians (including all the other Baltic Peoples);
- The
Ruthenians (including all the East Slavic Peoples of Sarmatia which had United with the Roman Catholic Church, i.e. the White Russians, the Little Russians and even some Great Russians).
This ethno-linguistic structure had left aside most of the Russians (still Orthodox), the Tatars (Muslim), the Germans and the Estonians (mainly Protestant).
In 1625, Sarmatia sold
Finland (with the exception of
Finnish Ingria, retained by Sarmatia) to Scandinavia (Denmark-Norway) in exchange for
Danish Osel Island, a rather large amount of money and the perpetual right of free passage for all Sarmatian ships through the Baltic Sea and the Danish Straits.
The exchange was successful because of several factors:
- Sarmatian control over Finland had been only nominal;
- Finland was 100% Protestant and did not fit into a declared Catholic State (the former Swedish Estonia was Protestant as well but much smaller and contiguous with the core Sarmatian territory);
- Sarmatia had an empty treasury and needed money for the ongoing campaign in Circassia;
- Osel Island was important because of its proximity to the core Sarmatian territory;
- Scandinavia needed more population in order to achieve Great Power status;
- Scandinavia wanted to prevent Sweden from reclaiming Finland and to get Sweden completely encircled in Scandinavian territory, thus putting more pressure on Sweden to join its planned Scandinavian Union;
- In the following decades, Sarmatia would mostly concentrate on the Caucasus, against Circassia, Persia and the Ottoman Empire.
6. Romania
A quarter of a century previously, the Romanians lived in the Ottoman Vassals of
Wallachia and
Moldavia, the foreign-ruled
Transylvania and in other territories directly under Ottoman rule.
At the time of the Great Powers Conference, Romania was an
Imperium as large as Germany, larger than Iberia, France and Britannia and a Great Power itself.
Almost all the Romanians lived in their
National State since
Imperator Mihai I reigned over a huge territory streching from the Adriatic and Ionian Seas to the Black Sea and from the Northern Carpathians to the Aegean Sea.
7. Scandinavia
King Christian IV of Denmark-Norway had unified his realms into a single Kingdom called Scandinavia, composed of all its European territories (
Denmark proper,
Norway proper,
Schleswig,
Scania,
Bornholm,
Gotland,
Osel,
Iceland and
Feroe).
He acquired
Finland in 1625 (and ceded Osel) and explored and claimed the Coasts of the White Sea (
Whiteland) between 1620 and 1633.
After the death in battle of
King Gustavus Adolphus, his sister became
Queen Catherine of Sweden.
The
Unionist Movement in Sweden gained more traction because of four different events:
- The death of their King and the accession to the throne of the rather unpopular Queen Catherine;
- The financial collapse brought about by a string of lost or useless wars (the War with Poland-Lithuania, the First German War and the Anti-Ottoman War);
- The Scandinavian purchase of Finland;
- The desire to be recognized as a Great Power (only possible together with Denmark and Norway).
In January 1626, the Riksdag decided to pursue the Union with Scandinavia. Queen Catherine was forced to decide between abdication and divorce followed by marriage with King Christian. She chose the latter.
In June, King Christian of Scandinavia married Queen Catherine of Sweden. As she was 18 years older than him, the marriage was nothing more than a political trick and both monarchs continued to reside in their respective Capitals.
Several days after the Royal Marriage, the Kingdoms of Scandinavia and Sweden were officially united into the
Commonwealth of Scandinavia or the
Union of Scandinavia. King Christian became
King of United Scandinavia and Queen Catherine became
Queen Regnant of United Scandinavia.
Until the death of Queen Catherine, the Scandinavian Union would be a de facto Federal State, smoothly transitioning into a Unitary State after her death.
Taking into consideration the Union of Scandinavia and Sweden, the other confirmed Great Powers accepted the resulting Commonwealth as a fellow Great Power (at the insistence of Britannia and the German Empire).
The Great Powers were thus seven:
- Three Catholic (Iberia, France and Sarmatia);
- Three Protestant (Britannia, Germany and Scandinavia);
- One Orthodox (Romania).
8. Russia
By 1626, the Russian Civil War had been finally over and the authority of
Tsar Ivan V had been recognized by all important factions.
The country however was still in total disarray, important territories had been lost (
Ingria,
Smolensk,
Severia, the
Azov Steppe to Sarmatia, the
Arctic Lands to Scandinavia and the
Cossacks had de facto independence), almost three million people had been killed by wars, famine and diseases and the treasury was completely empty.
The Great Powers decided to postpone the recognition of Great Power Status to Russia until its eventual internal stabilization.
9. Slovakia
10. Croatia
11. Greece
These countries could in no way be considered Great Powers.
They have nonetheless sent observers to the Conference.
12. Italy
In 1626, Italy was divided into several States:
- the
Papal States (Rome);
-
Venice (including territory in Dalmatia, Adriatic Islands, Ionian Islands, Crete, etc);
- the
Italian Confederation (under some French and Venetian influence);
-
Piedmont and
Nizza (under French military occupation and unilaterally annexed by France);
-
Savoy (annexed by France and recognized as French territory by the Brussels Peace Treaty);
-
Naples,
Sicily,
Sardinia,
Corsica and
Malta (parts of the Iberian Empire).
The situation in Italy was extremely complex because three Great Powers (
Iberia,
France and
Germany),
Venice,
Rome and the
Italian Nationalists, all wanted to unite Italy under their control or influence.
One of the main points on the agenda of the Great Powers Conference would be the
Italian Question.
During the Conference, Venice declared itself a member of the Italian Confederation, quickly followed by Rome.
Most of the Italian States had sent observers to the Conference and petitioned the Great Powers for an
United Italy with Great Power Status.
The final settlement would be viewed by some Italians as a success and by others as an unfortunate setback.
13. The Hungarians
14. The Georgians
15. The Armenians
The
Hungarians (from Romania, Germany and Slovakia, strongly supported by Germany), the
Georgians (autonomous vassal of Sarmatia) and the
Armenians (from the Ottoman Empire and Persia) petitioned the Great Powers for states of their own, with some success.
28 August - 13 September 1626, Prague, German Empire
Heads of States, Plenipotentiaries and various representatives from all over Europe converged in Prague for the greatest diplomatic encounter the World had ever seen.
15 September 1626 - 10 December 1627, Prague
The workings of the Great Powers Conference produced a vast amount of
definitions,
standardizations,
rulings,
proclamations and
treaties, set the grounds for the emergence of
International Law and created the permanent institution of the
Great Power Council.
The World changed for ever.
Note: The most important proceedings and results of the Conference will be discussed in the following Chapter.
