L’Aigle Triomphant: A Napoleonic Victory TL
- Thread starter KingSweden24
- Start date
Very true!
Absolutely! Brazil is high on the list of places we'll be visiting soon so I can rearrange my planned order if you'd like
Portugal under Bourbon-Parma is actually going to come out ahead, all things considered, compared to OTL!Great , i am portuguese , please dont screw us
I wanted Portugal a bit (for now) in my other TL too, they realize the Pink Map 😃… what can I say I have a soft spot for Iberian states?
I would prefer portugal to be ruled by a portuguese dinasty , but is better than nothing i guess , but the braganzas will survive in brasil right ?
Correct, the split shall be permanent, which opens up some interesting opportunities
I am very interested to see what happens , keep up the good work 👍
It would by very cool to see some maps too
Thank you!
Not too many changes warranted in maps quite yet… and my command of QBAM is quite limited as well
The View from Vienna
The View from Vienna
"...it is key to the order of Europe that Austria's course be one inherently of pragmatism; that is what she shall endeavor to give, and as such that is all Europe can expect to receive..."
- Klemens von Metternich
Austria, of all the powers, was in a strange gray area of discomfort with the new Napoleonic order but not entirely inconvenienced by it. The revocation of the Milan Decree had freed up its trade under neutral flags, creating new opportunities now that the Holy Roman Empire was not of Vienna's concern, but her economy recovered slower than the European average. Not having faced war since Pressburg, the Austrian Army had been given time to undergo substantial modernizing reforms and revise its budgets, but the war indemnity from the Third Coalition had taken a bite and there was little for the army to do, what with France at peace but able to mobilize within weeks if war were declared. Austria had been driven from influence in Italy and lost substantial influence within Germany, reduced tremendously in prestige, but had no natural enemies save for the Ottomans on their southwest flank and no immediate intersections of interest with potential allies. Prussia was defanged, and Russia seemed content for the time being with the status quo. Only Britain dispatched agents to the court of Francis I to attempt to goad his state into another conflict, but there was no plain cassus belli that could induce such an event without placing Austria at the mercy of much of Europe. The Habsburgs had lost power, yes, but not enough to cow them entirely.
In Metternich, then, Francis found an able ambassador to France who served as a sort of second foreign minister, allowing him influence in Paris and most importantly a figure close to Talleyrand. A quiet struggle emerged in the Napoleonic Peace that was emerging in the early 1810s, where Metternich sought ways to excite Napoleon's passions for dominance over Germany and thus weaken his position with wary German kings and princes, hopefully in doing so rolling back some of the revolutionary reforms brought to fore in those states. The plan, as it were, was to chip away at the position of French clients within the Confederation of the Rhine over time, to allow Austria pole position again, and if goading Napoleon into a clash with Russia was part and parcel with that, then so be it. Italy was a harder target, but Austrian merchants were kind to the reactionary island kingdoms of Sicily and Sardinia, rewarding their absolutism with open friendship, but not outright alliance that would implicate them in what the French angrily regarded as "British schemes."
The dance of the powers, then, had at least some of its music playing from Vienna; Metternich proved canny, effusive in his congratulations in early 1812 for the birth of two more children to Empress Catherine, twins - a boy, Louis-Joseph Napoleon, and a girl, Catherine Leticia Josephine - while also nudging his French peers, including those such as Marshal Ney who had the restless Emperor's ear, in hopes of forcing a much-desired confrontation between France and Russia over the slow-boiling question of Germany's leading state what with the complications introduced by the Baltic League...
(Recall: there has been no Fifth Coalition ITTL)
Deleted member 143920
Great update!
It seems as though tensions are slowly (and rather quietly) rising, with Austria taking the initiative.
Prussia is understandably unwilling to partake in a coalition war, while Russia is not fully convinced, yet. Spain remains allied with Napoleon while all others are too small to pose a threat to him.
Could however, Austria (with/or the British) potentially support the Sicilian Bourbons in an expedition to Southern Italy? And perhaps start a 5th coalition from there...
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Great chapter. The only question is why Napoleon would be interested in geopolitical opinions expressed by Ney. I’d say by almost any of his marshals but Ney was not the brightest apple even on that tree and his area of expertise was along the lines of how to break a stone wall with a naked head. 😂
Would Austria be insane enough to go to war in this TL framework where:
1. The French are not distracted in Spain.
2. Austria is benefitting financially from the existing status quo.
3. The only allies are the Sicilian Bourbons (pathetic) and Brits with an ability to land a whooping 30-40,000 troops (but just as often simply few thousands as was the case in Italy in 1806) somewhere outside the main theater of actions and then sail away when the things are getting itchy. Anyway, in the Naples, even if Massena is gone (is he?), Joseph still had Jourdan and probably St. Cyr and Reynier and there is Bernadotte administering Rome.
4. While an intensive love affair between Napoleon and Alexander is over, there is a very serious chance that in the case of war he may side with his brother-in-law and get a piece of Austrian territory.
OTOH, if the Austrian government is feeling a need for some successful military activity to maintain its prestige, this can be achieved by a war with the Ottomans in which Russia may be a willing ally and which may provide some tangible benefits like annexation of Bosnia and/or Serbia or conquest of Wallachia (with Moldavia or at least Bessarabia and conquests on theCaucasus being a carrot for Russia) and a freedom of navigation on the Danube. While the Bosnian option may cause some objections from Napoleon, being close to the Illyrian Provinces, he would definitely applaud the Danube options because not only are they far away from any place he cares about but there would be a bonus of keeping his most dear brother in law far away from the European affairs.
Political games with the Confederacy of the Rhine are, of course, the entertaining activities and they may keep Nappy politically busy (as an alternative to having his brain completely free to contemplating some new military activities) but it seems that in this TL most of its members have vested interest in a continued status quo (and a much lessened burden of maintaining the French garrisons is not an insignificant factor for maintaining their continued happiness).
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This hits the nail on the head… what Austria is up to here is more about gamesmanship to make sure A) their interests in Germany are protected and B) to make Francis feel important rather than impotent. And if said gamesmanship chips away at the Franco-Russian detente? All the better.
To say nothing of the fact that the worsening situation in the Spanish Americas for Britain makes landing even a token force in Italy a huge difficulty