Thande
Donor
I will of course still be going back and adding/changing stuff as I go along, but I thought what's there so far is complete enough to post. Formatting was...annoying, shall we say, so there may be errors.
Part 1: Before the POD
1688-1726
1688-1697
The War of the Grand Alliance, aka the 'Zeroth War of Supremacy' or King William's War, in which a grand alliance of powers fight France to a standstill and forms the framing for the Glorious Revolution.
1688
The First Glorious Revolution, in which the unpopular Catholic King James II of England and VII of Scotland is ejected from the country and replaced with William of Orange and his wife Mary, James' daughter.
1689
William and Mary crowned as co-monarchs with the assent of Parliament. Parliament passes "An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown", which sets down the British Bill of Rights and forms the basis of the British Constitution. Among other things, the Constitution severely limits the rights of Catholics, forbidding them the throne, the vote and public office.
1689-91
The Williamite War in Ireland, which results in the French and James II being ejected from Ireland, and the country brought under effective British control. The siege of Limerick ends the war, with the 'Flight of the Wild Geese' as many Irish nobles flee to Spain or France. The Treaty of Limerick guarantees Catholic rights, but is rejected by the Protestant-dominated Irish Parliament and Anti-Catholic laws are implemented, to much resentment among the Irish populace.
1694
Death of Queen Mary. All English judges wear black in mourning - and never stop. William rules as sole monarch.
1701
By the Act of Settlement, Parliament makes the heir to the throne after the childless Anne Electress Sophia of Hanover, although she dies before Queen Anne and so her son becomes George I.
1702
Death of William III of England after his horse stumbled over a molehill and he broke his collarbone, which became infected. Jacobites will ever after raise their glasses to 'the little gentleman in black velvet'. James II's second daughter Anne becomes Queen Regnant. End of the personal union between England, Scotland and Ireland and the Dutch Republic, as Willem Friso (no close relation to William III) becomes claimant Stadtholder William IV of the Netherlands. However not all the Dutch provinces recognise this, and so the Netherlands is Stadtholderless until 1747.
1707
The Act of Union is passed, which unifies England and Scotland as the [[timelines:Kingdom of Great Britain]]. The Act abolishes the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Royal Navy, and amalgamates them into their English counterparts.
Birth of Carolus Linnaeus in Sweden.
1701-1714 The War of the Spanish Succession, aka Queen Anne's War and the First War of Supremacy. England/Great Britain, the Netherlands, Austria Denmark, Portugal, Savoy, and the Aragonese vs. France, Bavaria, Hungarian rebels and the Castilians. The war is indecisive, with post-Hapsburg Spain receiving a Bourbon monarch but not entering personal union with France as Louis XIV had hoped. Territorial changes include: Britain receives Gibraltar and Minorca from Spain; Austria receives Naples, Sardinia, Milan and the Spanish Netherlands (the future Flanders; Savoy receives Sicily; British colonies in North America receive French Acadia and France gives up claim to Newfoundland and Rupert's Land.
1709
Attempted Jacobite rebellion under claimant James III Stuart is defeated by Sir George Byng. Future rebellions will instead be managed by James' son Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie).
1713
Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria, has no male heir. He issues a Pragmatic Sanction recognising his daughter, Maria Theresa, as heir, and makes all the powers of Europe agree to it. However, it will transpire that quite a lot of them had their fingers crossed behind their backs.
1714
Death of Queen Anne; George I, Elector of Hanover, becomes King of Great Britain and of Ireland. As he does not speak English, Parliament gains more real power during his reign.
In Virginia, the "First Wave of Germanna", as German Protestant religious refugees from the Rhineland and the Palatinate settle there.
1715
Death of Louis XIV; his great-grandson Louis, one of the few to survive a series of deaths in the French royal family in the late 17th century, becomes King Louis XV at the age of five, with Philippe, Duc d'Orléans as regent.
A Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland, led by the Earl of Mar, is crushed by Marshal Wade. More minor outbreaks in Cornwall and Northern England are also subdued.
1717
"Second Wave of Germanna" as more German refugees settle in Virginia.
1720
The South Sea Bubble. Excessive speculation in the South Sea Company causes an economic meltdown in the City of London. Parliament holds an inquiry and several prominent members of the current Whig government are forced to step down, leaving most of the power in the hands of Robert Walpole, the Paymaster of the Forces.
1721
Robert Walpole becomes the first Prime Minister of Britain, i.e. the first minister to dominate a government, although the term Prime Minister is considered vulgar and derisive for years afterward. His official titles are First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons, all united in one.
1722
Williamsburgh, Virginia, becomes the first city in Britain's North American colonies as it receives a royal charter.
Part 2: The Exile
1727-1749
1727
Death of King George I of Great Britain. His son becomes George II of Great Britain. Much like his father, he does not get on with his eldest son, Frederick. At George's coronation **(POD)** the King stumbles and falls and Frederick laughs at his father's public humiliation. This caps a series of violent disagreements from the two, with the result that George II disinherits Frederick, making his younger brother William the Prince of Wales, and sends him into exile to the North American colonies, giving him the sinecure of Lord Deputy of the Colonies.
In Virginia (which has not yet heard the news of Frederick's fall from grace), the new town of Fredericksburg, named in his honour, begins construction.
1728
Prince Frederick arives in Virginia (the "Third Wave of Germanna"). He decides to settle in the town named in his honour (Fredericksburg), at the quite modest house later known as Little St. James'.
1729
Treaty of Seville forbids British ships from trading with Spanish colonies in the Americas - it is very often violated. Spanish ships commonly stop British ones for inspection.
1730
Virginian House of Burgesses passes the Tobacco Inspection Act, which improves the quality of Virginian tobacco overall and places it in high demand in Europe. The scheme is the brainchild of William Gooch, the Royal Lieutenant-Governor (and de facto governor) of Virginia. Prince Frederick, a political ally of Gooch, invests heavily in tobacco plantations and uses the profits to build his still quite meagre funds.
With the assistance of British envoys, the Cherokee people of America politically unify under the leadership of the Chief of Tellico, who becomes Emperor Moytoy II.
1731
A particularly brutal inspection by the Spanish of a British ship in the Caribbean; the British captain, William Jenkins, has his ear cut off.
1732
A scandal almost breaks as Prince Frederick is found to have made Mildred Gregory (twice-widowed sister of the Virginian planter Augustine Washington) pregnant. It would ruin his chances of regaining the kingship if news broke out, so Frederick reluctantly agrees to marry her, and to restore the Washingtons' lost lands and titles in England if he becomes King, in order to keep Augustine quiet. The son will go on to become King George III.
In Sweden, Carolus Linnaeus travels to Lapland for his study of the local flora and fauna.
In Britain, the future Lord North is born. Due to Prince Frederick's disgrace, he is named William rather than Frederick as in OTL.
1733
Prince George Augustine of Cornwall, the future George III, is born. He is nicknamed George FitzFrederick by Williamites who do not recognise his father's marriage as legitimate.
In China, Hongli the Prince Bao, tipped to succeed his father the Yongzheng Emperor, dies when he drowns in a river.
1733-1738 The First War of the Polish Succession. France, Spain and Savoy vs. Russia, Austria and Saxony over whether the elected King of Poland-Lithuania should be Stanisław Leszczyński or Frederick Augustus II, Elector of Saxony (respectively). George II of Britain wants to enter the war, but Walpole refuses, and the infuriated King is only able to assist Austria via his position of Elector of Hanover. Walpole recovers some popularity in Britain thanks to his decision to stay out of the war. Although the French-led side wins, the Saxon becomes King Augustus III of Poland at the compromise peace settlement. Austria receives Tuscany and Palma but transfers Naples and Sicily to Don Carlos, the former Duke of Parma and future King Charles III of Spain. This is the beginning of the end for the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which decays under Augustus III's indifferent rule.
1734
Frederick tours the American colonies, while Mildred remains behind and gives birth to Princess Mildred, the future Queen of Denmark. He forms a political alliance with the Lieutenant-Governor of Pennsylvania, Patrick Gordon, and then becomes involved in New York politics, backing the "Morrisite" opposition party against the tyrannical Lieutenant-Governor William Cosby, a fierce Georgian loyalist. He also visits New England and writes about the questionable loyalties of the French-descended people in British Nova Scotia.
In Britain, Robert Walpole's majority is reduced after he attempts to introduce an unpopular customs and excise tax. A new opposition party, the Patriot Boys, is formed. They support Prince Frederick and are led by skilled political orators such as William Pulteney, William Pitt and George Grenville.
1735
Prince Frederick returns home to Virginia briefly, then tours the Carolinas before finally returning to Fredericksburg at the end of the year.
Linnaeus publishes his seminal work 'Systema Naturae' in the Netherlands. This is a controversial work, as it argues for a purely empirical system of classification, with no regard for the Great Chain of Being.
1738
When Robert Jenkins exhibits his pickled ear in a jar in the House of Commons, British outrage is such that even Robert Walpole gives in and declares war on Spain - the War of Jenkins' Ear, which bleeds into the War of the Austrian Succession.
1740-1748 The War of the Austrian Succession, aka the Second War of Supremacy. After Charles VI of Austria's death, the powers of Europe conveniently forget they agreed to the Pragmatic Sanction, and war is declared. Maria Theresa's accession is really just a casus belli, however - in truth the war is mainly about Prussia's desire to take Silesia from Austria. Prussia, France, Spain, Bavaria, Naples and Sicily, and Sweden vs. Austria, Britain, Hanover, the Netherlands, Saxony, Sardinia and Russia. The war sees Maria Theresa appeal for assistance to her Hungarian subjects and receive important levies - a contrast to the Hungarian rebellion against Joseph I in the War of the Spanish Succession - and the powers of Europe astonished by the performance of the Prussian army under Frederick II. The Prussians use powerful new drills and tactics, and deploy an entirely professional army, not using unreliable (but cheaper) mercenaries. This leads to Maria Theresa, and others, copying the Prussians to some extent.
1741
British general election reduces Robert Walpole's majority, especially in the rotten boroughs.
Admiral Edward Vernon, whose captain of Marines is Major Lawrence Washington (Augustine's elder son), is embarrassingly defeated in an attempted descent on the Spanish city of Cartagena-des-Indes in New Granada. This overshadows his earlier victory over the Spanish at Porto Bello in Darien.
Frederick II of Prussia wins an important victory at Mollwitz, bringing France and Sweden into the war on his side.
1742
Robert Walpole, his government having lost numerous constituencies in the 1741 General Election, resigns as Prime Minister and accepts a seat in the House of Lords as 1st Earl of Orford. He is succeeded by Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington, but real power rests with the Secretary of State for the Northern Department, John Carteret.
Admiral Vernon takes Guantanamo from Spain, but is eventually repulsed by Cuban irregulars.
The Battle of Bloody Fields sees the repulsion of a Spanish attack on Georgia by the local militias. However, Georgian/Carolinian attempts to take Spanish Flordia are equally inconclusive.
A poorly coordinated Franco-Saxon-Bavarian army under Marshal de Broglie manages to take most of Bohemia from Austria.
1743
Sweden knocked out of the war by Russia, which annexes parts of Finland; however Russia also leaves the war soon afterwards. Austria, backed by Hungarian levies, ejects the French and their allies from Bohemia. Britain enters the European war, blockading the Neapolitan fleet in port, while King George II goes to Hanover and raises an army, which he leads into battle personally (though his son William, Prince of Wales and Duke of Cumberland, acts as general).
The Anglo-Hanoverians meet the French, led by the Duc de Noailles, at Dettingen. Despite Noailles' superior generalship, George's forces win the battle, but George himself is killed.
Wilmington dies and is replaced by Henry Pelham as Prime Minister. Pelham shares power with his brother Thomas, the Duke of Newcastle.
Death of Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark in a riding accident, thus making his younger brother Christian the heir apparent to King Christian VI.
1744
In Oman, patriotic forces drive the Persians from the country and it becomes fully independent under the elected Imam Ahmed ibn Sayyid as-Sayyid. In TTL there is no Qais branch of the family and he is peacefully succeeded by his son Sayyid in time: Oman remains united.
1745
Prince William, now William IV, is defeated by Marshal Saxe at Fontenoy. He returns to Britain and puts down the Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland led by Bonnie Prince Charlie.
In North America New England forces, including Prince Frederick, take the fortress of Louisbourg from France.
Death of King Christian VI of Denmark; his second son succeeds him as Christian VII, and enacts a radical reform programme. Christian VII reverses his father's introduction of adscription (essentially serfdom), restores the Danish Diet to play off the commoners against the nobility, and sells off Denmark's overseas colonies to finance a new military buildup in the Baltic.
1746
French forces in India under La Bourdonnais take Madras from the British East India Company.
1747
French invasion of Austrian Netherlands leads to internal dissent in the Dutch Republic. A new settlement is established whereby the stadtholder of the provinces of Friesland and Gronigen becomes Stadtholder William IV, ending the stadtholderless period, and the office is also made hereditary, paving the way for a shift from oligarchic republic to monarchy.
British general election returns a shaky majority for the Pelhamites in the 10th Parliament of Great Britain.
In India, Dupleix attacks British-held Cuddalore, but is repulsed by an army under the British-allied Nawab of the Carnatic, Anwarooddin Mohammed Khan.
1748
Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle. Maria Theresa remains Holy Roman Empress, but Austria loses Silesia to Prussia and various territories in Italy to Parma and Sardinia. France returns the Austrian Netherlands to Austria, a highly unpopular move among the French people. King William IV of Britain agrees to return Louisbourg to France in return for Madras. However, this is equally unpopular with the Americans. Prince Frederick seizes his chance and, backed by American supporters who sign a Declaration of Right, claims the throne. The War of the British Succession begins.
Spain and Portugal enter negotiations aimed at refining the outdated zones of control in the Americas defined by the old Treaty of Torsedillas.
1749
January - Hearing of Frederick's claim, William invokes the Treason Act 1702 and imprisons some of Frederick's most prominent Patriot supporters. This clumsy response makes William less popular with the English people in general.
April - Williamite fleet, under the command of Admiral John Byng, sets sail for America;
Bonnie Prince Charlie leads a Jacobite fleet to Limerick in Ireland and starts a rising there against the absentee William. Fourth Jacobite Rebellion, including a minor rising in Scotland led by Lord Cosmo Gordon, which is rapidly crushed. Ireland, however, rages on.
August - cunning plan by Frederick leads to William being assassinated at range on the deck of Byng's flagship by American riflemen. Frederick smooths things over and the war fizzles out. Byng's fleet winters in America, having turned to Frederick.
In India, Dupleix supports Chanda Sahib in his attempt to overthrow Anwarooddin Mohammed Khan, the Nawab of the Carnatic (and latterly his son Mohammed Ali).
Part 3: King Frederick
1750-1760
1750
March - Byng's fleet, with Frederick and American troops, sets sail for the British Isles.
May - Death of King John V of Portugal. His son becomes King Joseph I of Portugal. He takes an interest in the stalled colonial negotiations with Spain, and real progress begins to be made.
June - Frederick, after hearing about the Irish rising, diverts the fleet to Cork and lands there, seizing towns from Jacobite forces, though Lawrence Washington initially fails to take Limerick.
July - Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Madrid, setting down new colonial borders in the Americas based on the 46th meridian. The key provision is that Portugal will exchange Sacramento for the Spanish Jesuit 'Seven Missions'.
September - Battle of Kilkenny. Frederick's forces win the day. Charles Edward Stuart dead, no serious Jacobite claimants left after James Francis Edward Stuart's death. End of Jacobitism in the British Isles.
November - Triumphal entry of Frederick and American forces into London. Frederick marches into Parliament and dissolves it. Calls a general election, set for February.
December - Frederick's coronation. For the first time this form of the royal title is used... Frederick the First, by the Grace of God King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Emperor of North America, Defender of the Faith, etc.
1751
February - British general election vanquishes the Pelhamite Whigs and returns a handy majority for the Patriots. William Pulteney becomes Prime Minister; William Pitt Secretary of State for the Southern Department; George Grenville for the Northern Department. 11th Parliament passes important acts such as the Act of Suppression (building roads in Scotland and Ireland to help put down further revolts), the Act of Succession (confirming Frederick as King but recognising William as William IV 'until his untimely death') and the Colonial Act, establishing the Empire of North America and some early institutions.
Peerages awarded to American supporters of Frederick, including Lawrence Washington becoming Marquess of Fredericksburg.
European powers reluctantly recognise Frederick's government. Frederick cancels William's signature on the Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle. France keeps Madras in protest, and many British soldiers die from tropical disease and neglect while in French captivity in Madras, including the unknown (in TTL) Robert Clive.
The proxy war continues in the Carnatic. Britain fails to take Arcot, and Chanda Sahib wins the civil war, becoming the new Nawab of the Carnatic. Henceforth French influence in the region is paramount and Britain rarely exerts much influence south of the Circars.
1753
King Frederick of Great Britain makes his first and only visit to Hanover.
Alarmed by French attempts to form alliances with the Indians of the Ohio Country, Iroquois leader King Hendrick approaches the Governor of New York, the Duke of Portland, for more Anglo-American assistance in repulsing French influence. Portland agrees and the Anglo-Iroquois alliance is cemented further.
The French build forts in Virginian-claimed Vandalia, at Fort Presque Isle and Fort Duquesne. Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, after meeting with Portland and the Lord Deputy, sends troops to eject the French from the Ohio Country.
1754
Lawrence Washington, despite his new lands, titles and House of Lords seat in Britain, chooses to return to America. This will set a precedent for later American nobles. The young George Washington remains in Britain and is tutored alongside George, Prince of Wales.
Dinwiddie's Virginian militiamen fail to take the French forts at Presque Isle and Duquesne. Because of this, the Virginian House of Burgesses passes reforms to improve the standard of militia military training, despite the ever-persistent Anglic fear of a standing army.
The Pulteney government in Britain signs a treaty with Prussia, known as 'Les Deux Frédérics' in France. This essentially amounts to the British abandoning their commitment to help Austria if Prussia attacks Silesia, in exchange for the Prussians agreeing to defend Hanover in the event of another German war. Austria and Britain have drifted apart since disagreements over accepting the Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle.
Carolus Linnaeus visits London and meets the young Joseph Priestley, who persuades him to publish his controversial theories about human evolution.
In South America, the Seven Jesuit Missions agree to move from the now Portuguese territory, but their Guarani Indian friends object. A short war between combined Portuguese and Spanish forces and the Guaranis, which results in the defeat of the Guaranis but causes bad blood between the Portuguese and Spanish.
In China, the Yongzheng Emperor dies and is succeeded by his son Hongshi the Prince Zhong, who becomes the Daguo Emperor. Daguo's reign is marked for a programme of building defensive fortifications, 'the Second Great Wall', against the Dzungars, and for the invasion of Burma.
1755
July - Corsican rebels finally eject the Genoese from the island, declaring an independent Republic (technically a kingdom, but with the throne occupied symbolically by the Virgin Mary).
November - the Great Lisbon Earthquake wreaks havoc in Portugal, and indeed across Europe, but is particularly devastating in the city for which it is named. Countless buildings destroyed and people made homeless. José de Carvalho e Melo, the Chief Minister, organises the recovery effort.
1756-1759[/b] The Third War of Supremacy, also known as the War of the Diplomatic Revolution. Britain, Prussia, Ireland, Hanover, Brunswick, Hesse-Kassell and the Empire of North America vs. France, Russia, Austria, Sweden, Naples and Sicily, and Sardinia. Eventual defeat for the British coalition in Europe with the dismemberment of Prussia, though Prussian army tactics continue to educate the world. Total British victory in North America. Minor French victory in India.
1756
May - the British East India Company in Bengal has built up a huge army with which to try and retake the lost cities from the French in the Carnatic. However, this army's existence has made their ally, Siraj-Ud-Daulah the Nawab of Bengal, nervous...
July - In India, Afghan leader Ahmad Shah Abdali conquers Delhi and marries his younger son Nadir to the daughter of his puppet Mughal Emperor Alamgir II.
August - Austria signs a formal alliance with France at Versailles - the 'Diplomatic Revolution', ending a century of Franco-Austrian enmity. In response, Britain declares war on France and Prussia invades Saxony. Start of the Third War of Supremacy.
October - After a lightning campaign by King Frederick II of Prussia, Saxony surrenders to the Prussians.
November - Pulteney announces a Cabinet reshuffle. George Grenville becomes Chancellor the Exchequer and Henry Fox takes over as Secretary of State for the Northern Department.
Frederick II of Prussia, having secured Saxony, launches an invasion of Bohemia.
December - death of Queen Mildred of Great Britain. King Frederick sinks into a depression from which he will never quite recover.
1757
February - Prince George of Wales disappears. Secretly takes up a commission in America under the name Ralph Robinson, fighting alongside George Washington.
French and allied Huron and Algonquin forces under Montcalm invade New York. After failing to be reinforced, the American Fort Frederick William surrenders to the French. However, the Algonquins, having different definitions of the rules of war, then perpetrate a looting and massacre on the British and American forces. This outrage increases the resolve of the American people to win the war, and more regiments and militias are raised.
May - Frederick II of Prussia retreats from Prague after an indecisive engagement with Austrian forces, deciding he does not have the troop numbers to hold the city.
French naval forces in the Mediterranean defeat British Admiral Edward Boscawen and take Minorca, which is later returned to Spain. Boscawen escapes court-martial but is effectively exiled to a West Indian command.
June - Siraj-Ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, betrays his British allies and takes Fort William at Calcutta in a surprise attack. British East India Company officers are trapped in the 'Black Hole of Calcutta', a tiny prison in which many die. Outrage among the Company and at home leads to an all-out attack on the Nawab's forces with the Company's new army, with the result that it is not deployed against the French.
September - Britain attempts a descent on the Isle d'Aix, as part of a strategy of tying up French troops with temporary landings on the French coast. The operation is an embarrassing and expensive failure, as shallow waters make it impossible to reinforce the British troops. Pitt refuses to authorise any more such operations.
The French East India Company takes Fort St David at Cuddalore, decisively ending British power in the Carnatic.
November - Frederick II of Prussia wins a brilliant victory against a numerically superior Austro-French army at the Battle of Rossbach.
December - The outnumbered Prussians under Frederick II win a second victory against Austria at the Battle of Leuthen.
1758:
February - Britain occupies French colonies in Senegal, West Africa.
June - Death of William Pulteney. King Frederick asks William Pitt to form a government. Henry Fox becomes Secretary of State for the Southern Department.
July - A Russian army under Pyotr Saltykov defeats the Prussians under von Wedel at the Battle of Paltzig. In Portugal, King Joseph I survives an assassination attempt, but the wound will trouble him for the rest of his life.
August - In Portugal, a plot by the Távora and Aveiro families against the King is discovered, giving Chief Minister Carvalho an excuse to execute many of their key members and make the rest flee into exile. Their lands are annexed to the Portuguese crown.
September - The British East India Company defeats the Nawab of Bengal's forces in a decisive campaign. The Nawab is killed during the final battle.
October - In a battle with Austria at Hochkirch, the Prussians are defeated and most of their artillery corps fall into enemy hands. The tide of war has begun to turn against King Frederick II.
1759:
The Annus Mirabilis, the Wonderful Year of Victories, in America.
May - the British East India Company takes Calcutta. The EIC seizes direct control over Bengal and parcels it out among a half-dozen puppet princes. End of the Nawabate.
July - Alaungpaya, Burmese King of Ava of the Konbaung Dynasty, conquers and annexes Pegu.
August - Frederick II of Prussia defeated by the Russians and Austrians at Kunersdorf, so decisively that he no longer cares for his own life and goes into battle himself, dying heroically after slaying many enemies.
The Hanoverians, neglected by Britain, are defeated at Minden by the French under the Marquis de Contades. However, the French invasion of Hanover stalls soon afterwards as their supply chains become overextended.
September - James Wolfe defeats Montcalm at Quebec, ending French control of Canada. "Ralph Robinson" is wounded and discovered to be Prince George in disguise. The unknown-in-TTL James Cook is killed in the battle. Wolfe is wounded but survives and is eventually made military governor of Canada.
With the death of Frederick II and the war turning against the Prussians, a newly confident Saxony re-enters the war and attacks Prussia.
October - King Frederick I of Great Britain begins to sicken from a lung infection.
November - a Prussian army is annihilated by the Austrians under Daun, at Maxen.
King Frederick William II of Prussia is a minor, and his uncle Prince Henry is regent. Henry believes the war is lost and sues for peace, knowing it will be harsh.
1760:
January - Treaty of Amsterdam, ending the Third War of Supremacy. This dismembers Prussia, returning Silesia to Austria and giving Cottbus, Liegnitz and the western possessions to Saxony. France fails to receive the Austrian Netherlands, again angering the French people. Britain/America receive the Ohio Country, Senegal and New France/Quebec from France, but the French retain Louisiana. Britain recognises French control of the Carnatic.
February - Death of Frederick I of Great Britain. Rapproachment with his son Prince George, soon to be George III, on his deathbed.
March - King Alaungpaya of Ava (in Burma) dies and is succeeded by his son Naungdawgyi. However, the Konbaung dynasty's rule is now disputed by General Myat Htun, who wants to restore the former Toungoo dynasty.
June - Treaty of Cedar Shoals between the Cherokee Empire and the Carolinian colonists. This is the official end to the Indian wars of the 1760s, which resulted in the virtual destruction of the Creek and Chickasaw nations, and formally divides their former lands between the Carolinians and their Cherokee allies.
Part 4: Frontier George
1761-1778
1761:
January - Third Battle of Panipat in India as Ahmad Shah Abdali's Muslim Afghans fight the Hindu Maratha Empire. The battle is a crushing victory for the Afghans, with the Marathas shattering into a loose confederacy that then begins a slow decline.
February - Seeking to pull France out of her war debts, King Louis XV appoints Étienne de Silhouette as Comptroller-General of Finances. Silhouette largely fails in his attempts to tax the rich, but does succeed in ensuring that French East India Company profits largely go into the royal treasury.
April - Death of King Ferdinand VI of Spain. He is succeeded by his son, who becomes King Charles III. Charles had formerly ruled in Naples and brings with him his chief minister, Bernardo Tanucci - though for the present he reappoints the Marquis of Ensenada as chief minister of Spain.
1762:
March - Death of Empress Elizabeth of Russia. She is succeeded by her nephew, who becomes Emperor Peter III.
April - Matters in Burma come to a head, as Myat Htun's Toungoo forces besiege Ava. The British East India Company offers assistance to the ruling Konbaung dynasty's King Naungdawgyi in exchange for greater trading privileges. Naungdawgyi accepts.
1763-1767: The First Platinean War. Spain fights Portugal; Britain enters the war on the Portuguese side. Little territorial change, but the Spanish failure to defend the Rio de la Plata from an Anglo-American invasion - while the Platineans defeat the Anglo-Americans by besieging them with their own militias and forcing them to retreat - contributes considerably to the growth of nationalism in South America.
1763
A Spanish invasion of Portugal fails, partly due to the Portuguese using scorched earth tactics and burning crops in order to starve the Spanish armies operating in Portugal.
The Konbaung forces in Burma, with BEIC assistance, eject Myat Htun's Toungoo forces from Ava. Myat Htun instead goes north, seeking Chinese help in gaining the throne.
1764
March - British and American troops, including the 51st and 52nd, invade Florida from what will become the Province of Georgia.
April - Lord Fairfax retires as Lord Deputy of North America. He is succeeded by Lord William North, the Earl of Guilford.
May - second Spanish invasion of Portugal begins. This will also be repulsed, this time partly due to a British expeditionary force assisting the Portuguese.
June - many German refugees fleeing religious persecution are settling in Russia, thanks to the Germanophile policies of Emperor Peter III. Among them are a Herr and Frau Kautzman, who settle in the Caucasus near Stavropol.
August - Anglo-Portuguese armies defeat the Spanish at Corunna and conquer Galicia.
1765
May - British expeditionary force under Admiral Marriott Arbuthnot lands in Rio de la Plata.
June - Arbuthnot's forces occupy Buenos Aires. In Saxony, Elector Frederick Augustus II, who is also King Augustus III of Poland, dies. He is succeeded by his son Frederick Christian I in Saxony, but the Poles reject him and their szlachta attempt to elect a new king. However, the Sejm is deadlocked.
July - Spanish armies in South America conquer the last of the Rio Grand de Sul (OTL Uruguay) from Portugal.
August - Anglo-Portuguese siege of Ciudad Rodrigo begins. In Lorraine, Duke Stanisław Leszczyński dies and his territories revert to the crown of France.
September - Spanish break the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, forcing the British and Portuguese to retreat.
October - Start of the Crisis of 1765. The American national consciousness has grown considerably due to the recent and ongoing wars. The various liberal political clubs in the major American cities, with the help of Lord North, call a new Albany Congress and elect a North Commission, which travels to London in order to petition the British Government for greater self-rule for the Emprie of North America. The Committee is led by Ben Franklin.
1766
April - Spanish attempt to retake Galicia from the Portuguese, but after some initial gains are defeated by the British near Santiago de Compostela and are repulsed again.
June - Arbuthnot's army in the Plate suffers its first major defeat, a considerable embarrassment to Britain, in a face-up battle with the Platinean militias as the British attempt to take the city of Rosario.
July - emboldened Portuguese and British armies besiege Badajoz. Start of the Polish Civil War as the Sejm is unable to agree on a compromise candidate for king from among the Polish szlachta itself. In Britain, William Pitt dies, receiving a state funeral (while his heir John Pitt receives staggering debts). King George III asks Charles Watson-Wentworth, the Marquess of Rockingham, to form a new Patriot-Whig government.
August - realising Spanish help is not forthcoming, the people of the Plate organise their own militias and begin attacking the British occupation forces, initially only in small groups. At this time, King Charles III of Spain is forced to flee into France due to food riots in Madrid; his troops soon put these down and he is able to return, but has suffered a considerable loss of face.
September - even without much support from other Spanish armies, the fortress city of Badajoz weathers and defeats the Anglo-Portuguese forces, who retreat to Elvas. In the Plate, the cautious Arbuthnot withdraws most of his troops to Buenos Aires. In Eastern Europe, Frederick William II of Prussia and Peter III of Russia sign a secret treaty aimed at the partition of Poland.
In China, the Daguo Emperor and his ministers agree to help Myat Htun return the Toungoo dynasty to the Avan throne.
October - a second Spanish invasion of Galicia wins a narrow, unconvincing victory, dislodging the Portuguese from most of the province but the Spanish armies being too badly gutted in the process to contemplate further offensive actions. Little movement on the Peninsular Front for the rest of the war.
November - the Americans finally succeed in their long siege of San Agustín, the capital and last redoubt of Spanish Florida. With its fall, the whole peninsula is now British/American-occupied. In Eastern Europe, negotiations begin between the Russo-Prussian alliance and Sweden to secure Swedish neutrality in the Polish war.
December - Buenos Aires besieged by Platinean militiamen.
1767-1771: The War of the Polish Partition. Russia and Prussia fight Austria, with some Poles and Lithuanians fighting on both sides as well as a confusion of private armies behind szlachta candidates for kingship. Russo-Prussian victory; the Commonwealth is divided at the Treaty of Stockholm, which gives Ruthenia to Russia, Krakow to Austria and Royal Prussia and southern Ducal Prussia to Prussia. The remainder of Poland is placed in personal union with Prussia, while Lithuania is separated and the Tsarevich of Russia, Paul, is made Grand Duke as Povilas I.
1767
February - in the Plate, Arbuthnot orders his infamous retreat and abandons Buenos Aires to the Platineans, who raise the Burgundian cross flag in triumph.
March - the Treaty of Copenhagen ends the First Platinean War, signed on the 17th. Spain concedes Florida to the Empire of North America; all other borders status quo ante.
April - Austria enters the Polish Civil War, producing a Hapsburg candidate and occupying Krakow as a necessary first step to Warsaw.
May - Prussia and Russia declare war on Austria. Meanwhile, the Corsican Republic takes the island of Capraia from Genoa, which decides to give up its claim to Corsica and sell it to the French.
June - the Spanish chief minister, the Marquess of Ensenada, is exiled in disgrace to South America due to the lost war. He eventually goes to Buenos Aires and helps start up the radical Porteño school of political thought there. He is replaced with Richard Wall, a Hiberno-Spaniard.
July - in Russia, the Kautzmans' young son Heinrich is kidnapped in a Cossack raid. He will be raised by Yemelyan Pugachev, the Cossack leader.
October - Parliament of Great Britain debates whether to grant further powers of self-government to the Empire of North America. Patriot-Whigs for; Tories against.
1768:
March - In America, the Georgian colonial government apparatus collapses after Savannah is sacked by the Chickasaw Indians. Georgia is reabsorbed into South Carolina, which will eventually itself reunify with North Carolina.
May - the French Army invades Corsica.
June - In Burma a Chinese army, coupled with Toungoo-aligned Burmese forces, marches on Konbaung-controlled Ava.
1769:
April - Death of King Joseph I of Portugal. He is succeeded by his daughter Maria as Queen Maria I, later known as Maria the Mad. She rules as co-monarch with her husband Peter (Pedro) III.
May - Queen Maria of Portugal dismisses the Chief Minister, José de Carvalho e Melo, and replaces him with a stream of incompetent favourites. Carvalho goes into exile in Brazil, eventually moving to Buenos Aires to be with the Porteños.
June - The French army concludes the conquest of Corsica, though some Republican holdouts remain under the leadership of Filippo Antonio Pasquale de Paoli. Corsica will, however, be a poisoned apple for Bourbon France, as Corsican republican ideas will spread back to France via the French troops stationed there.
August - Carlo Buonaparte, a Corsican Republican leader, flees to Britain with his family. He anglicises his name to Charles Bone and converts to Anglicanism so he may read a law degree at Cambridge.
September - The Chinese and Toungoo forces successfully eject the Konbaungs from Ava. King Naungdawgyi is killed in the siege of Ava-town. The Chinese break up Burma in order to better enforce their will: the Toungoo dynasty, in the form of King Mahadammayaza, is restored to a rump Avan state, with Myat Htun as eminence grise. Pegu and Ayutthaya (a Thai state) are freed from Avan control and become direct Chinese vassals. One of Naungdawgyi's brothers, Minhkaung Nawrahta, creates an independent state out of his viceroyalty of Tougou and plays off the Chinese against the British.
November - Another brother of King Naungdawgyi, Hsinbyushin, takes what remains of the Konbaung forces south and west and invades and occupies Arakan, overthrowing the native rulers. A new state, Konbaung-Arakan, is formed and swiftly becomes an ally of the British.
1770:
July - Accession of King Hyojang of Corea. He reverses some of the policies of his predecessor Yeongjo, tolerating the practice of Catholicism and the Silhak Movement, led by Jeong Yak-yong, which combines Neo-Confucianism and Corean nationalism with some Christian ideas.
October - effective end of the War of the Polish Partition after defeat of the Austrian Army of Silesia by the Prussians and the retreat to Krakow on the eastern front. It will take months for the politicians to negotiate a treaty, however.
November - death of Joseph François Dupleix, Governor-General of the French East India Company. He is succeeded by Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau. This is largely an attempt by Paris, invoking Silhouettiste policies, to place more central royal control over the FEIC - Rochambeau is the King's man.
1771
January - Treaty of Stockholm ends the War of the Polish Partition. Austria, Prussia and Russia all annex some territory (Krakow, Royal and southern Ducal Prussia and Ruthenia respectively) while the rump Poland becomes a kingdom in personal union with Prussia, and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is placed under the Russian Tsarevich.
March - after much wrangling, the North Commission publishes the 'North Plan' for the Empire of North America, popularly known as 'One Empire and Five Confederations'. This will be the basis for the American Constitution.
1772-1774 First Mysore-Haidarabad War between Mysorean and FEIC forces on one side and Haidarabad and BEIC forces on the other. This particular war results in a minor Mysorean victory.
1772
February - Emperor Peter III of Russia's wife Catherine makes a failed coup attempt involving the collusion of the Leib Guards. After securing his position and purging the Guards, Peter sends her into exile at Yekaterinburg.
April - In Austria, the demands of the last two wars coupled to some unwise speculation lead to an economic crash. Austrian policy in the Germanies is weakened for a decade or so as the treasury struggles to recover, though Austrian interference in northern Italy continues apace.
August - Moritz Benyovsky, a Slovakian leader of one of the Polish patriotic brigades, flees the destruction of his force by the Prussians and ends up in Lithuania, where he joins the newly reformed Lithuanian Army.
September - Death of Louis XV of France, who dies a deeply unpopular man due to his habit of returning conquered provinces after wars and for failing to reform the French tax system. He is succeeded by his son the Dauphin, Louis-Ferdinand, as King Louis XVI.
November - France's King Louis XVI approves the revival of stalled research into Nicholas-Joseph Cugnot's steam-tractor technology.
1773
March - With the death of Richard Wall, Charles III of Spain appoints his old Neapolitan chief minister, Bernardo Tanucci, as chief minister of Spain. The hardline anti-clericalist Tanucci swiftly proves unpopular, especially in Spain's colonial possessions.
April - John Pitt enlists in the BEIC as a cornet of cavalry.
May - Birth of Aleksandr Potemkin, son of Grigory Potemkin and Empress Catherine of Russia (at least, it is alleged).
June - In Persia, Shah/Advocate Abol Fath Khan defeats the Qajars in Mazanderan. The Qajar leader, Agha Mohammed Khan, is killed in the battle. The future of Zand Persia is secured.
July - Death of Ahmad Shah Abdali, the great Afghan conqueror, from cancer exacerbated by constant travel in his campaigns. The Afghans call a Loya Jirga which splits the Durrani Empire, the Afghan domains going to his first son Timur and the Indian ones to his second son Nadir, who becomes Emperor of the Neo-Mughal Empire.
1774:
February - Carl Wilhelm Scheele, the Swedish apothecary and chemist, begins his research into lufts [gases]. This will eventually result in the discovery of elluftium [oxygen] and illuftium [nitrogen], as well as a gas known as 'scheelium' at the time which will one day be identified as murium [chlorine]. This is more or less as OTL, but in OTL Scheele's discoveries were never widely publicised.
April - Pavel Lebedev-Lastoschkin, out of Yakutsk, leads a Russian trade expedition to Edzo [Hokkaido], northernmost island of Japan. He is rebuffed by the local Matsumae Han, who indicate they have no authority from the Shogun to conclude such deals and that trade with Japan is only available via Nagasaki. This is unreasonably far away from the Russian ports, and a disappointed Lebedev returns to Yakutsk.
July - Charles Bone receives his doctorate in law from the University of Cambridge and he founds a law practice in London, specialising in defending Catholics from employers who abuse the Test Acts.
1775
January - Birth of Ivan Potemkin.
May - John Acton, a Briton in service with the Tuscan navy, distinguishes himself in an action against Algerine pirates at Algiers itself, in cooperation with the French and Spanish. Soon afterwards, his fame leads him to to leave the Tuscans and go to Naples, where he is employed in reorganising the Neapolitans' own outdated naval forces.
1776:
March - after months of argument between their representatives, the New England colonies of the ENA are amalgamated into the Confederation of New England, with its capital at Boston. This is the first of the Five Confederations to be formally created.
April - Exiled Emperor of Daiviet Le Cung Tong appeals to the Daguo Emperor of China for help in regaining his throne; Daguo agrees.
July - Irish-born war veteran and MP Anthony St. Leger, together with the Prime Minister the Marquess of Rockingham, sets up the St. Leger Stakes, a series of high-stakes horse races, in Doncaster. Rockingham's patronage soon provokes much interest in the stakes from the Westminster political establishment.
1777
Charles Bone's son Leo (Napoleone Buonaparte) enters the Royal Navy as a midshipman and serves on HMS Ardent.
1778-1781 Second Mysore-Haidarabad War between Mysorean and FEIC forces on one side and Haidarabad and BEIC forces on the other. Haidarabad takes back Mysore's gains in the last war, but the BEIC loses influence at the Nizam's court due to mishandling by the British resident there.
1778:
Carl Wilhelm Scheele discovers elluftium [oxygen].
The Qing Chinese army defeats the Nguyen Lords of Daiviet at Than Hoa, restoring Emperor Le Cung Tong to his position as a Chinese puppet ruling northern Daiviet (Tonkin) while the Nguyens are left with the south (Cochinchina).
Part 5: The Age of Revolution
1779-1799
1779-1785: The Second Platinean War. Spain and (theoretically) France vs. Peruvian Indian rebels, Platinean and Chilean colonial rebels, Britain and America, and (unofficially) Portugal. Defeat of the Bourbons with the creation of what will become the UPSA, although Britain suffers some embarrassing naval defeats in the process.
1779:
José Gabriel Condorcanqui, taking the name Tupac Amaru II as Sapa Inca of the Tahuantinsuyo, shoots the tyrannical Spanish Governor of Peru, Antonio de Arriaga, and begins the Great Andean Rebellion. The rest of the year sees an unsuccessful attempt by the colonial authorities to quell the revolt.
1780:
Linnaeus' Taxonomy of Man is published posthumously, in which he argues that man is simply another of the primates. The book causes an uproar, but its impact on natural history and theology is somewhat overshadowed by the fact that the chapters dealing with the different races of men become the kernel of the ideology of Linnaean Racism.
The American Squadron is created by the Royal Navy, a kernel of the later Imperial Navy.
On Christmas Day, Tupac Amaru II takes Cusco from the Spanish colonial authorities and has himself formally coronated.
1781
February - Forces of the Viceroyalty of Peru fail to retake Cusco from Tupac Amaru II's rebelling Indians.
May - In Upper Peru (OTL Bolivia) Tomas Katari, another Indian rebel leader, is defeated before La Paz and, pursued by Spanish regulars, retreats into Lower Peru. He combines his forces with Tupac Amaru II's, strengthening them.
June - In India, after many failed rebellions against the Durrani Afghans, the Sikhs finally win their independence.
August - In Lithuania, Grand Duke Povilas (the future Emperor Paul of Russia) institutes a new shipbuilding programme, known as the Patriotic Fleet as it embodies the idea of a Lithuania which has its own independent forces and is not merely a vassal of Russia.
1782:
January - Carl Wilhelm Scheele publishes, in Swedish, his work on gases. Because of Linnaeus' controversies resulting in many leading European thinkers learning Swedish to read his work in the original, Scheele's discoveries become widely known about.
March - King Louis XVI launches a French expedition to South America, although at the time of launch, it is still unclear which side he is supporting in the war there. The expedition is led by Admiral de Grasse and the Duc de Noailles.
April - The Africa Bubble scandal results in the resignation of the Marquess of Rockingham as Prime Minister of Great Britain. He is replaced by the Duke of Portland, but real power rests in the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Edmund Burke. The ruling Patriot party shifts to the left slightly and renames itself the Liberal Whigs.
May - Birth of Philip Hamilton (son of Alexander Hamilton) in New York City.
August - the French expedition reaches the Plate. The Spanish have told their colonists that the French are their allies, while the French believe that they are there to attack the Spaniards in their moment of weakness, due to crossed wires at the French foreign ministry. The result is a bloody occupation of undefended Buenos Aires by Noailles' army, with the Platineans bitterly blaming the Spanish for the incident. This is amplified by Spanish propaganda praising (invented) victories by the French against Tupac Amaru II.
1783
January - Beginning of the Southern Rebellion, as the Rio de la Plata and Chile both rise in revolt against the Spanish. The Platineans begin building up their old militias again around cadres of veterans of the First Platinean War, and attack the French - initially without much success, as Noailles' forces are numerous and well-equipped.
February - Britain and the ENA enter the war in support of the Platinean rebels, hoping for expanded trade rights with any postwar independent state.
March - Tupac Amaru II takes Lima from the Spanish, but has trouble holding the strongly pro-Spanish city down.
April - Midshipman Leo Bone passes his lieutenantcy examination in Gibraltar. The new lieutenant is reassigned to HMS Raisonnable, where he first meets Lieutenant Horatio Nelson.
May - Maximilian III Wittelsbach, Elector of Bavaria, dies without issue. The electorate passes to Charles Theodore Sulzbach, Elector Palatine. Charles Theodore concludes a deal with the Austrians to swap Bavaria for the Austrian Netherlands, which now become the Duchy of Flanders. Bavaria is integrated into Austria (not very popular with the Bavarians) while Charles Theodore retains the Palatinate as well as Flanders. Although the Prussians would like to declare war over this (as in OTL), they are too busy trying to hold down the latest Polish rebellion to respond.
July - Anglo-American fleet under Admiral Howe defeats de Grasse at the Battle of the River Plate. The British fleet lands an army of mostly American troops led by General George Augustine Washington, who joins up with the Platinean rebels in order to attack the French in Buenos Aires.
September - Franco-Spanish fleet assembles at Cadiz to escort fresh troops to South America. The fleet is ambushed by Admiral Augustus Keppel in the Battle of Trafalgar, which is a shock defeat for the Royal Navy. Keppel is court-martialled and resigns in disgrace. However, the RN has destroyed enough French and Spanish troopships in order that the expedition is called off.
1784-1786 Third Mysore-Haidarabad War between Mysorean and FEIC forces on one side and Haidarabad and BEIC forces on the other. Due to poor communications between the BEIC and Haidarabad, the Mysoreans win a significant victory with blatant French help. The Nizam ejects the French from the Northern Circars in response and puts the British in charge there. The BEIC fights off the French and the British-Haidarabad alliance is subsequently strengthened.
1784:
March - Having caught wind of reports that the Franco-Spanish intend to occupy Malta, the Royal Navy quickly makes its move first and turn the island into what will become an important British naval base. Controversy is sparked throughout Europe at this preemptive strike, even though the British allow the Knights of St John to carry on in a ceremonial role.
April - the Spanish retake Lima from Tupac Amaru II.
May - Disintegration of Franco-Spanish common policy as Louis XV attempts to use the Royal Navy's defeats as an opportunity to invade England. The French armies have still not assembled by the end of the war.
June - Start of the Canadian Rebellion (by Quebecois) against Britain and America.
The rebels in Rio de la Plata announce the abolition of slavery.
July - A French fleet commanded by the Comte d'Estaing, Jean-Baptiste Charles Henri Hector, defeats the British in a dramatic but largely meaningless victory at the naval Battle of Bermuda.
August - Anglo-American siege of New Orleans defeated by the colonial French.
1785:
February - Anglo-American-Platinean-Chilean combined forces take La Paz from the Spanish.
May - after a complicated amphibious invasion from Florida, American (mainly Carolinian) troops take Havana in Cuba.
Michael Hiedler, third son of a Bavarian printer, moves to Lower Austria in order to seek his fortune by enlisting in the Austrian army.
July - Canadian Rebellion crushed by British and New England troops. This revolt will result in Britain ceasing its policy of appeasing Quebecois interests, instead giving a green light to the New Englanders to settle the land. Many Quebecois are forcibly ejected, or choose to leave, and eventually go to Louisiana, where they become known as Canajuns.
August - signing of the Treaty of London, ending the Second Platinean War. A severe defeat for Spain, which is forced to concede the independence of what will become the UPSA with the loss of a third of its colonial empire. The ENA retains Cuba, although its exact status remains up in the air for the moment. France loses little on paper, just the largely unpopulated hinterland of Louisiana, but has drained its treasury, and this will have severe consequences...
September - King Charles III of Spain forced once again to flee to France as the mob rules the streets of Madrid. Bernardo Tanucci is killed in the violence. When Charles returns, with the help of French troops, he is forced to appoint the liberal reformer José Moñino y Redondo, conde de Floridablanca, as chief minister.
October - British chemist Joseph Priestley publishes On the Nature of Phlogiston, in which he attempts to reconcile the established phlogiston-based theory of combustion with Scheele's discovery of illuftium [oxygen].
November - Admiral Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse sets out on a voyage of discovery financed by the King of France. The voyage included La Pérouse's new flagship, d'Estaing, followed by four frigates and a supply ship.
1786 March - John Pitt achieves a Colonelcy in the BEIC army.
May - Death of King Peter III of Portugal in a hunting 'accident'. He is shot down in front of Queen Maria, who is driven mad by the experience. Within a year, power passes to her son, who becomes Peter IV.
June - An attempt by the French East India Company to conquer the town of Masoolipatam, in the Northern Circars, is defeated by the British East India Company and Haidarabad. John Pitt fights heroically at the battle, is wounded, and achieves fame and fortune.
August - Lieutenant Leo Bone is promoted to Master and Commander, and is given the almost obsolete 28-gun frigate Coventry. He is soon marked out as a man to watch by the Royal Navy as he transforms the ship and its crew into a lethal fighting machine with a mixture of discipline, charisma, and unorthodox tactical ideas.
December - La Pérouse's fleet reaches Easter Island and the Galapagos. Lamarck and Laplace, who accompanied the voyage, observe the wildlife of the Galapagos, eventually resulting in their landmark book for Linnaeanism, Observations on the Fauna of the Iles Galapagos.
1787
Death of King Christian VII of Denmark. He is succeeded by his son, who becomes King Johannes II.
Death of the Daguo Emperor of China. He is succeeded by his third son Yongli, who becomes the Guangzhong Emperor.
1788:
March - George III returns to North America.
July - King George III, in his capacity as Emperor George I of North America, opens the first Continental Parliament.
August - Lithuanian Patriotic Fleet, carrying ambassador Moritz Benyovsky, visits the Empire of North America as part of its flying-the-flag world tour.
1789-1791 Fourth Mysore-Haidarabad War between Mysorean and FEIC forces on one side and Haidarabad and BEIC forces on the other. Both sides fight hard and competently in the last of the Mysore-Haidarabad Wars. In the end, Tippoo Sultan of Mysore emerges with a victory, having taken Carnool and Guntoor from Haidarabad.
1789
March - The British Admiralty grants American shipyards the right to build ships of war for the Royal Navy.
June - The Great Famine strikes France. A failure by the King's government to respond coherently, coupled with the fact that the nobles continue to eat well, stokes the resentment of the French people towards the royal system.
July - In Portugal, a plot by the Duchess of Lafões against Peter IV is uncovered; Peter's response is another round of executions and land confiscations, further cowing the Portuguese nobility vis-a-vis royal power.
Maverick Chinese general Yu Wangshan defeats an attempt by the exiled Burmese Konbaung dynasty, led by Avataya Min, to retake Ava from the Chinese-backed Toungoo dynasty. The Guangzhong Emperor, fearing Yu's alignment with neo-Manchu political factions, exiles him to the eastern forts of the "New Great Wall".
August - In North America, the Continental Parliament passes the Anti-Transportation Act, barring the forced transportation and settlement of British convicts in areas claimed by American colonies.
HMS Raisonnable, under the command of Captain Robert Brathwaite, visits Naples. Her first lieutenant, Horatio Nelson, meets Sir John Acton. Nelson is initially offended by Acton's career of fighting for the Mediterranean powers rather than his British homeland.
October - General Assembly of New England passes a law abolishing slavery by gradual manumission.
1790
February - Convention of Cordoba establishes the [[United Provinces of South America]].
March - John Pitt becomes Governor-General of the BEIC (based in Calcutta).
April - Peter IV of Portugal revives the Cortes, using the commoners as another stick to beat the nobility into line with.
May - China under the Guangzhong Emperor begins tightening trade restrictions with Europeans in Canton, irritating the various East India Companies.
June - The Continental Parliament of North America passes a bill instituting an American Special Commissioner to be sent to Britain and Consuls to be sent to France and Spain, essentially a backdoor project for exploring the possibility of independent American ambassadors.
1791
April - Death of Grigory Potemkin, former lover of Empress Catherine of Russia.
May - British general election returns a majority for the ruling Portland Ministry, in which real power rests in Edmund Burke. The ruling party is known as the Liberal Whigs, while Charles James Fox's Radical Whigs also increase their vote share.
Imitating his idol the Kangxi Emperor, the Guangzhong Emperor of China has his wayward son and heir Baoyu stripped of his position and relegated to a lowly position in an attempt to teach him humility; however, Baoyu hangs himself, the Empress dies from a miscarriage upon hearing the news, and Guangzhong withdraws into seclusion with only two heirs, Baoli and Baoyi, left.
July - France is thrown into a panic due to rumours that a comet is due to strike the country.
At the height of a cursory Austro-Wallachian war, cavalryman Michael Hiedler is slightly wounded, decorated, and given the noble title of Edler von Strones. He settles near the village of Strones, marries, and fathers two children.
August - Persecuted by an angry mob for his radical political sympathies, Joseph Priestley flees Britain for the United Provinces of South America, where he will set up a very profitable soda water business.
September - HMS Coventry is paid off. Commander Leo Bone, taking most of his crew with him, is made post and given command of the frigate HMS Diamond.
1792
May - A joint Russo-Lithuanian mission, commanded by Moritz Benyovsky and Pavel Lebedev-Lastoschkin, sets off for Okhotsk from the Baltic the long way around, assisted by Dutch navigators.
June - Captain Horatio Nelson, commanding HMS Habana, visits Naples for the second time. Sir John Acton is now effectively the prime minister of King Charles VI and VIII, and Nelson reaches a rapproachment with him. He also meets the King's daughter, Princess Carlotta, for the first time. Their relationship is debated but she begins to argue for Nelson's interests at court.
August - Death in exile of Empress Catherine of Russia, wife of Peter III.
1793
February - La Pérouse and his crew return to France after their first epic exploration of La Pérouse's Land [Australia]. Hoping to gain popular support from a national project, King Louis XVI agrees to fund a colonial venture there.
May - Captain Leo Bone and the HMS Diamond become famous for a hard-fought action against Algerine pirates off Malta.
Chinese heir Baoli is becoming as wayward as his dead brother; on prime minister Zeng Xiang's advice, the Guangzhou Emperor sends him to Mongolia under General Tang Zhoushou to have his ways beaten out of him on the frontier.
June - Richard Wesley, who had fought in India for the BEIC against Burmese-Arakan and Mysore, returns home to Ireland as his father has died. He is now the Earl of Mornington.
July - The rejuvenated British Royal Africa Company, under Simcoe in Dakar, intervenes in the Koya-Susu War on the Koya side - in exchange for the Koyans ceding the Company key land, which becomes the site of the freed-slave black colony of Freedonia.
La Pérouse, with more ships and carrying the natural philosophers Lamarck and Laplace, sets off once more from France for La Pérouse's Land.
August - Death of Abol Fath Khan, Shah-Advocate of Persia, from an illness. He is succeeded by his younger brother, who becomes Shah-Advocate Ali Zand Shah.
Chinese General Tang Zhoushou is called to Xinjiang to take advantage of the collapse of the Dzungars by the Kazakhs attacking from the west. However, he dies of a stomach ulcer, and his army - including the prince Baoli - comes under the commander of Yu Wangshan.
September - French Revolutionary thinker Jacques Tisserant, known as Le Diamant for his incorruptibility, publishes La Carte de la France, his pictorial manifesto for a new moderate and egalitarian French state.
1794:
February - The French Sans-Culottes, led by Le Diamant, march on the Palais de Versailles to present their demands to the King. Le Diamant's charisma and general discontent mean that the palace guards refuse to fire on the crowd. Louis XVI gives in and agrees to recall the Estates-General. The French Revolution has begun.
March - The Imperial Mint, in Fredericksburg, mints the first golden Emperors. These coins, worth one British pound each, are intended to replace the Spanish dollar as the main currency of the Empire of North America.
In Oceania, La Pérouse's fleet arrives in La Pérouse's Land, in the region called New Gascony [OTL New South Wales/Victoria], and founds the town of Albi, starting the colony.
April - Act of Settlement (in North America) sees New England give up its westward expansion claims in exchange for the right to settle Canada with no restrictions.
July - The recalled French Estates-General conclude that their existing mediaeval system is inadequate, and create a National Constitutional Convention. The Third Estate renames itself the Communes.
August - Anglo-American agreement results in Michigan being turned into a penal colony, later known as Susan-Mary.
October - the Benyovsky-Lebedev Russo-Lithuanian mission sights Nagasaki from a distance, but does not land.
December - the French National Constitutional Convention publishes its constitution, abolishing the Estates-General and replacing them with a new National Legislative Assembly. The Kingdom of France and Navarre becomes the Kingdom of the French People of the Latin Race, a constitutional monarchy.
1795-1796 The Flemish War. Name for the early phase of the Franco-Austrian front of the Jacobin Wars, when the battleground was primarily Flanders and northeastern France. Revolutionary France vs. Austria, French royalists, Piedmont-Sardinia, and German allies from the various states of the Holy Roman Empire. Result: stalemate.
1795:
January - French Constitution comes into force. The Comte de Mirabeau becomes chief minister and struggles to implement it in the face of opposition from the nobles and the Church.
February - Benyovsky-Lebedev mission lands in Okhotsk.
March - The Dauphin of France, Louis-Auguste, travels to Navarre in order to sort out the implications of the new constitution there. Thus he is not present in Paris when subsequent events occur.
Pennsylvania Confederal Assembly abolishes both slavery and the slave trade.
April - Death of the Comte de Mirabeau. France is plunged into a constitutional crisis. The moderates in the NLA favour Jacques Necker as new chief minister while the Jacobin radicals put forward Jean-Baptiste Robespierre.
May - King Louis XVI decides on Jacques Tisserant (Le Diamant) as a compromise candidate for chief minister. However, a miscommunication means that when Le Diamant is sent for, troops arrive to escort him and this is mistaken for Le Diamant being arrested. In the ensuing riot, Le Diamant is accidentally shot, and the radical Jacobins quickly play upon the popular outrage at this to launch the new violent phase of the French Revolution.
A few days later, with most of the French Army defecting to the Jacobins and Sans-Culottes, the Marshal of France Phillipe Henri, the Marquis de Ségur, takes loyal troops and fortifies the Bastille, intending to bring the King there to keep him safe from the mob, but it is too late for this. The Sans-Culottes arrest the royal family, and radical Jacobin troops led by Georges Hébert manage to take the Bastille from Ségur. Ségur is brutally beheaded by an unknown Revolutionary soldier who becomes the iconic image, L'Épurateur.
On the 15th, the King is executed after a show trial, by the new 'Rational' means of phlogistication in a gas chamber.
By coincidence, on the same day in India, Nana Fadnavis, chief minister to Peshwa Madhavarao Narayan of the Maratha Confederacy, is assassinated. The loss of his administrative abilities means the young Madhavarao struggles to contain a rebellion led by the pretender Raosaheb.
July - The Parliament of Great Britain debates responses to the French Revolution as its takes this new radical turn. The ruling Portland-Burke Ministry is strongly opposed to the Revolution, while the Radical Whigs under Fox favour it.
In the Pacific, Lebedev and Benyovski set off for Edzo again, but are blown off course, are unable to find the Matsumae Han, and their ship is wrecked in the north of the island. They are attacked by the native Aynyu [Ainu], but Benyovsky makes a parley and is able to convince the Aynyu to trade supplies and protection so that the ship may be repaired for some of the European goods it carries. Including guns.
August - Execution by phlogistication of Marie-Antoinette, wife of the Dauphin of France (who has fled to Spain from Navarre). Austria declares war on Revolutionary France in support of the exiled Dauphin.
The French mob targets the British Ambassador and American Consul, Frederick Grenville and Thomas Jefferson respectively. Grenville is badly wounded but escapes; Jefferson is killed. This provokes outrage in London and Fredericksburg.
In India, Raosaheb's forces (backed by the Nizam of Haidarabad) run Madhavarao Narayan out of Pune and he flees to Raigad, where he seeks help from the Portuguese East India Company.
September - First Austrian troops cross into French territory from Flanders and Baden. Furious battles against Revolutionary levies begin almost immediately.
The Parliament of Great Britain votes to declare war on France (by 385 to 164), although this news will not reach the Mediterranean for a while.
On the 17th, Royalist Toulon is besieged by Revolutionary armies led by Adam Phillipe, the former Comte de Custine. The French fleet there is led by the indecisive Comte d'Estaing, who hesitates over whether to fight or cleave to the new regime. He sends some of his forces to Corsica in order to bring back more supplies to relieve the siege, but exposure to Revolutionary ideas means that a large part of this force mutinies. Leo Bone, whose crew is having shore leave in Corsica, learns of the events in Toulon.
October - Leo Bone goes to Toulon and successfully cons Admiral d'Estaing into believing that the British have concluded a deal with the Dauphin to fight the Revolutionaries and restore the throne, so the Royalist French fleet must go to Corsica and join with the British. Bone had intended to pull off the largest and most bloodless prize-taking ever, but is suprised to learn that his lie has become the truth by the time the fleet reaches Corsica. This is due to the implementation of the 'Burke Strategy', Edmund Burke's plan to support French royalists and not snatch their colonies - arguing that the French Republic is too dangerous to allow to exist, even if it means allying with Britain's old enemy Bourbon France.
The Sans-Culotte levies of the French Revolutionary army are defeated by General Johannes Mozart and his Austro-German army at the Battle of Laon. Mozart's army occupies Maubeuge.
Colonel Ney swiftly rises to prominence as he commands a fighting retreat against a second Austro-German army in the Col de Sauverne, in Lorraine.
Death of Emperor Peter III of Russia. He is legally succeeded by his son, who steps down as Grand Duke Paul I of Lithuania to become Emperor Paul I of Russia. However, this is contested by the brothers Potemkin.
In India, Portuguese EIC forces under João Pareiras da Silva attack Raosaheb's forces with the intention of restoring Madhavarao to the Peshwa-ship.
In Oceania, La Pérouse visits the Mauré for the second time, learning that the muskets the French sold them before have dramatically changed the pattern of warfare there, catapulting the Tainui to dominance, while they are opposed by the Touaritaux-Touaux Alliance. In order to help feed the new colony, the French give the Tainui not merely guns but the secret of making them, in exchange for crops and seed.
November - Continental Parliament votes 46-9 in favour for an American declaration of war on France.
In France, Pierre Boulanger wins his famous victory against Johannes Mozart at the Battle of Lille, using the new Cugnot-wagon technology to his advantage. This results in the French retaking Maubeuge and halting the Austrian advance into France.
The French inventor Louis Chappe, helped by the fact that his brother is a member of the NLA, receives French government funding to develop a semaphore communications network.
In Russia, the Potemkinites assemble their army and march on Moscow.
First rumours of the United Society of Equals, a republican movement in Ireland that is theoretically secular and in practice dominated by Protestants, especially Presbyterians.
December - On advice by General Sir Fairfax Washington, Viscount Amherst (commander-in-chief of the British Army) recommends that new regiments be raised in America. The Parliament of Great Britain passes the American Regiments Act (1795), which grants Fredericksburg plenipotentiary powers to raise troops.
After a series of indecisive battles along the Flemish border, the Austrian and Revolutionary French armies dig in for the winter.
Paul crowned Emperor of All the Russias in St Petersburg. However, news reaches him that the Potemkinites under General Saltykov have taken Moscow. Start of the Russian Civil War.
1796-1800 The Russian Civil War, which eventually broadens into the Great Baltic War. Romanovian Russians, Lithuania, and Denmark vs. Potemkinite Russians and Sweden. Result: Romanovian victory in Russia; Sweden defeated and forced into personal union with Denmark. The Ottoman Empire and Persia take advantage of the chaos to re-extend their influence into areas contested by Russia, primarily the Caucasus and also Bessarabia and the Khanate of the Crimea.
1796:
January - the people of Liège rise up and overthrow their Prince-Bishop, installing a copycat republic based on disseminated French propaganda.
February - General Mozart leaves winter quarters to besiege Liège, a miserable affair on both sides.
March - Jean de Lisieux, a French Revolutionary leader, publishes La Vapeur est Républicaine, 'Steam is Republican', a pamphlet which enshrines steam power as ideologically correct. Lisieux and Boulanger form a political alliance with Cugnot and other French engineers and radical warriors, such as Blanchard and Surcouf. This research cabal becomes known as La Boulangerie, 'the Bakery'.
Paris sees the start of Robespierre's Reign of Terror, after Royalists holed up in a church/powder store blow up Georges Hébert and his Guard Nationale. The Republican reprisal is swift, with men sent to the chirurgien or phlogisticateur for the most minor imagined crime against the People. Lisieux, using Cugnot's new Tortue 'Tortoise' armoured steam-wagon, crushes part of the revolt and becomes a hero of the Jacobin mob. Lisieux replaces Hébert as third Consul, resulting in Danton being overlooked - he soon goes to the phlogisticateur himself, along with other personal enemies of Robespierre.
Meanwhile, Britain deploys an expeditionary force to Flanders under the command of the Prince of Wales, Frederick George.
In India, the Portuguese General Pareiras defeats Raosaheb's forces in the epic Siege of Gawhilgoor. This breakthrough restores Madhavarao to the Peshwa-ship (in truth, now only ruling the land of Konkan) but Portuguese 'guidance', expressed through a resident in Pune, now truly controls that region.
April - General Boulanger's deputy Thibault Leroux leads an army to relieve the siege of Liège. Mozart's starving army forced back into Flanders, and ravages the Flemish countryside with its marauding. Charles Theodore of Flanders and his minister Emmanuel Grosch take note, and fear for the resentment provoked by the Imperial presence. They enter secret negotiations with Boulanger and with Statdholder William V of the Netherlands.
Robespierre reduces the suffrage of the French Republic to Sans-Culottes only, growing ever more paranoid about there being enemies everywhere. The powers of the National Legislative Assembly are undermined daily.
In North America, the American Preventive Cutter Service is created. This coastguard's main role is to prevent smuggling and piracy, in particular the illegal private transportation of convicts to America. The Continental Parliament also authorises the creation of the Commission for Continental Regiments, the first American 'ministry', which operates out of Cornubia Palace in Fredericksburg.
On the 25th (Gregorian calendar) or 14th (Russian calendar), in Russia, the Potemkinites successfully take the city of Smolensk from the Romanovians in an important victory. Emperor Paul retreats into Lithuania.
May - Full gearing-up of the spring campaign in Flanders. Mozart's Austrians make a second, more half-hearted siege of Liège, but the main force attempts to push deeper into France. Mozart fights Boulanger again at Cambrai and wins a pyrrhic victory with considerable Austro-German losses.
Retreating army of Emperor Paul of Russia is attacked by a Potemkinite force under Suvorov near Vitebsk. Perhaps one-third of Paul's army is destroyed. It is assumed by many that a Potemkin victory in the Russian civil war is now assured.
In America, the Treaty of Sandusky ends the Ohio War. This scattered conflict had been going on since the end of the Third War of Supremacy, and results in the defeat of the Lenape, Huron and Ottawa Indians with the victory of Pennsylvania, New York and the Iroquois. The Lenape and Ottawa are virtually destroyed, but the Huron confederacy fragments into separate tribes, some of which go west to join the Lakota, some go south and are allowed to settle in French Louisiana, and one - the Tahontaenrat - joins the Iroquois, forming the Seven Nations.
June - Mozart orders a retreat and regroup of the Austro-German army, resupplying from Flanders. However, Charles Theodore makes a shock announcement that Flanders is seceding from the Empire, and is supported by William V's Dutch Republic. Cut off and low on supplies, there is little prospect of the Austrians being able to fight their way through (after failing to force a Flemish border fort or retake Liège), so Mozart orders the army to wheel southwards in order to retreat to Trier.
Meanwhile, in North America, HMS Marlborough under Captain Paul Wilkinson and the naturalist Erasmus Darwin II perform the first survey of Michigan, which had been named as a potential penal colony.
In Sweden, the Hat party takes control of the Riksdag for the first time since the 1760s. The Hats fear a future war of the Swedish succession - King Charles XII has no children - and therefore vote to intervene in Russia on the Potemkinite side, to secure Potemkinite Russia as an ally in any future conflict.
July - The Flemings eject the British expeditionary force from Flanders due to their declaration of neutrality. This embarrassment, coupled with Edmund Burke's death, leads to the fall of the Portland Ministry. It is replaced by a new war government under the ageing Marquess of Rockingham, while the Radicals and Radical-leaning Whigs under Charles James Fox become the main voice of opposition.
Meanwhile, the Flemings and Dutch fight to eject the Bavarian army 'of occupation' from Flanders, where it had been waiting to reinforce the Austrians.
August - Bavarian army retreats into the Empire. The Netherlands and Flanders formally sign their alliance into being with the Maastricht Pact. Mozart's army reaches Trier, by now a shadow of its former self after having been harried by the French enroute.
The disgraced Mozart is recalled to Vienna and replaced with Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser.
To the south, the Genoese people overthrow their old oligarchic Republic and declare a Ligurian Republic, which is swiftly occupied by French forces under the mercurial Lazare Hoche.
In Russia, an attack by General Sergei Saltykov on St Petersburg is defeated by Mikhail Kamenski, who destroys the Potemkinite siege train and forces a retreat. This breaks a chain of Potemkinite victories and shows the Romanovians are still in the game.
September - Austrian forces finally break through the Col de Sauverne with heavy losses and spill into Lorraine. Ney is nonetheless recognised for his valiant actions and is promoted to General.
The Ottoman Empire begins its quiet intervention in the Russian Civil War, exerting influence over the formerly Russian-influenced lands of Moldavia, Bessarabia, the Crimean Khanate and Georgia. The Georgians reject the Ottoman demands and King George XII sends Prince Piotr Bagration to Russia, insisting that Russia honours its treaty agreements to defend Georgia.
October - The Netherlands is hit by a brief wave of Revolution, inspired by the French. Flemish troops, fresh from the campaign against the Bavarians, assist Stadtholder William V's own Dutch army in putting down attempted revolts in the Hague and Amsterdam. The Dutch Republic remains.
November - The French under Hoche win some minor victories in Savoy against Piedmont-Sardinia.
Secret treaty of alliance between the Kingdom of Sweden and Potemkinite Russia. The Swedes begin building up their forces in Finland.
1797
January - The Chinese heir Baoli returns to Beijing as a hero worshipper of Yu Wangshan and a supporter of the neo-Manchu movement. The Guangzhong Emperor dithers over whether to instead name his second son Baoyi, less dynamic but also less dangerous in his views, as heir.
February - Prince Bagration is attacked by bandits in the Caucasus, but rescued by Heinrich Kautzman, the 'Bald Impostor'. The Georgians and Cossacks form an agreement, with King George XII of Georgia agreeing to become an Ottoman vassal for the present, committing his army along with the Cossacks to help the Romanovians win the Civil War, so that a Romanov Russia can come in later and reverse the situation.
March - Death of Frederick William II of Prussia, after a long illness. His son succeeds him as Frederick William III. With initial risings in Warsaw and Lodz, Poland immediately rebels, taking advantage of the instability of the change of regime. The rebel armies are commanded by the experienced mercenary Kazimierz Pułaski. The Polish rebellion is discreetly assisted by Lithuanian arms, although the Lithuanians mostly remain loyal to Grand Duke Peter and have little enthusiasm for reforming the old Commonwealth.
Start of the Great Aynyu (Ainu) Rebellion in Edzo (Hokkaido) against the Japanese Matsumae Han, aided and abbetted by Benyovsky's Russians trading guns to the Aynyu.
April - the French launch their Poséidon Offensive, a three-pronged strike consisting of the left under Ney hitting the Ausrians in Lorraine, the centre under Boulanger and Leroux invading Switzerland, and the right under Hoche attacking Piedmont.
In Toulon harbour, Surcouf demonstrates the first steamship, a paddlewheel tug known as the Vápeur-Remorqueur.
The Swedish-Potemkinite alliance is publicly revealed in Russia. Swedish armies based in Finland invade Russia, seeking to encircle St Petersburg. The King of Sweden officially recognises Alexander Potemkin as Emperor of All Russias.
The Continental Parliament creates the office of a Special Commissioner to Britain, essentially an ambassador in all but name, who will represent America's interests in London. The first of these is Albert Gallatin.
May - French under Leroux occupy Geneva and Basel, driving deeper into Switzerland.
In response to the Swedish entry into the Russian Civil War, Denmark declares war on Sweden and the Potemkinites, and officially recognises Paul Romanov as Emperor of All Russias. The Russian Civil War has become the Great Baltic War.
The Prussians begin withdrawing their troops from Austria's pan-German war effort in order to put down the Polish revolt, weakening the Germans on both a physical and moral level.
The Royal Danish Navy sorties and wins its first victory of the war, defeating an inferior Swedish naval force at the Battle of Anholt. The Kattegat falls under Danish control, although the Swedes still hold Malmö with a second fleet.
Death of Elector Frederick Christian II of Saxony. Childless, he is succeeded by his brother, who becomes John George V.
June - Wurmser's army, consisting of combined Austrian, Saxon and Hessian troops, narrowly defeats Ney at the Battle of Saint-Dié.
Hoche begins his celebrated campaign against the Austrians and Sardinians in Piedmont. He divides his forces in order to meet two Austrian armies, the northern one at Omegna under József Alvinczi and the southern under Paul Davidovich.
The Royal Swedish Navy under Admiral Carl August Ehrensvärd blockades Klaipeda and attempts to burn the Lithuanian fleet in harbour. However, the Lithuanian commander, Admiral Vatsunyas Radziwiłł, sacrifices his galleys in order to punch a hole in the Swedish line and allow his sail fleet to escape.
The Polish rebels convene a Sejm and elect John George V of Saxony as King of Poland. John George accepts and declares war on Prussia, withdrawing Saxon troops from the pan-German Austrian war effort in order to accomplish this. Ironically, as the Prussian and Saxon troops do not know for which reason they have been recalled, they often bivouac with each other on the way back across Germany. This begins a domino effect of German states recalling their troops, fearful of their neighbours possessing functional armies, fatally weakening Germany in the face of French aggression.
July - Wurmser occupies Nancy, putting the Austrians in a position to threaten Paris. But there they halt, waiting for reinforcements that will not come.
Hoche's offensive move makes Alvinczi hesitate long enough to smash Davidovich with the full force of his recombined army.
Russo-Lithuanian Romanovian armies under General Barclay de Tolly defeat Swedish invaders at the Battle of Seinai.
August - Leroux defeats most of the Swiss militias and occupies Bern.
Romanovian forces win a victory over the Swedes at the Battle of Alytus.
Hoche's army meets Alvinczi's now-outnumbered forces at Milan, defeats the Austrians and forces them to retreat through the chaos of Switzerland. The Piedmontese royal family, stripped of Austrian support, flees Piedmont for Sardinia.
October - With the withdrawal of the Hapsburgs from much of northern Italy, Hoche attacks and occupies Spanish Parma. In response to news of French atrocities, Spain steps up the war against France.
Concerned about the French victory on the other two fronts, Emperor Ferdinand IV orders Wurmser to retreat from Nancy, conceding the Austrian victory there in order to reassemble his armies to contest French control of Switzerland and Piedmont in the 1797 campaigning season.
The Swedes are defeated by the Romanovians at Trakai. This expels them from the Vojvodship of Trakai, but leaves them in control of the Eldership of Samogita, along with Courland and Swedish Prussia.
November - Jean Marat forced to resign his consulship and is installed as sole consul of the new Swiss Republic, secured by Leroux. Marat is replaced as consul of France by Boulanger, an unconstitutional move which is not contested thanks to Robespierre's Terror.
December - France begins quietly withdrawing troops from Switzerland and transferring them primarily to the German front.
1798:
January - in a calculated piece of spite, the French burn down the Habichtsburg, the ancestral Hapsburg castle in Switzerland.
March - Thanks to Robespierre's paranoia about a British invasion of the unprotected French coast, French raw recruits are marched up and down western France in training to create a visible presence. This plan, however, somewhat backfires as the boorish conscripts' activities inflame the local Vendean and Breton disenchantment with the Revolution...
The Austrians begin their spring offensives, primarily on the Swiss and Italian fronts. They are initially highly successful. In Italy, Archduke Ferdinand proves his generalship when, together with Wurmser, he surrounds Hoche and forces him to retreat.
But, contrary to Austrian expectations, the French's own "Rubicon" offensive focuses on the Lorraine front. Two armies under Leroux and Ney sweep around from north and south, for the first time utilising the 'War of Lightning' doctrine that reduces the need for a supply train by making the troops live off the land. This means they often outrun the news of their coming.
Kiev falls to the new Cossack/Georgian Romanovian army.
The Battle of the Erbe Strait between the Russian and Lithuanian fleets on one side and the Swedes on the other. The Russo-Lithuanians win a pyrrhic tactical victory that is strategically a far greater gain - both navies are devastated as fighting forces, but this leaves the Swedes unable to oppose the Danes.
April - Ney's army takes Karlsruhe, capital of Baden, and the Badenese Margrave's family are publicly executed on Robespierre's orders. The French win several key battles against Austrian and local Swabian forces, the flatter terrain now lending deadly effect to their Cugnot weapons.
Supported by amphibious descents by the Spanish Navy, General Cuesta's Spanish army in Gascony besieges Bordeaux.
May - Ney's army occupies Stuttgart, capital of Württemberg, but the Duke and his family have already fled.
Now ruling the waves of the Baltic, the Danes perform a descent on Swedish Pomerania and swiftly seize the province.
Voronezh surrenders to Kautzman's army.
L’Épurateur, a French second-rate ship of the line, arrives in Madras and Republican envoy René Leclerc orders Governor-General Rochambeau to cleave to Paris' line. Rochambeau rejects him, and a fuming Leclerc goes to Mysore in order to gain the help of Tippoo Sultan, an admirer of revolutionary ideals.
June - With the French advance having reached Franconia, Boulanger orders Ney's army to disperse in order to occupy the territory gained, while Leroux's continues on towards Regensburg.
Having defeated the Danish army in Norway, the Swedes besiege Christiania.
July - A French army under Custine breaks the Siege of Bordeaux; Cuesta's Spaniards retreat southwards.
Fall of Ulm to the French. Emperor Ferdinand IV desperately reinstates General Mozart.
Fall of Kazan to Kautzman's army.
United Society of Equals (USE) rises to prominence in Ireland; they are contacted and supplied with weapons and pamphlets by Lisieux. These are transported using co-opted Breton fishermen to beat the British blockade; however, some of the pamphlets end up staying in Brittany, and inflame Breton opinion against the Republic (which there was largely only a rumour).
August - Battle of Burgau between Davidovich's Austrians and Leroux's French. The result is a punishing French victory, Davidovich's infantry almost totally destroyed by the rapidly shifting enfilading and plunging fire afforded by the French Cugnot artillery. Ferdinand IV finally acquiesces to Mozart's demand that everything be pulled back for a last-ditch defence of Vienna, abandoning Regensburg. The Emperor leaves for the latter city.
Surrounded by Austrians thanks to Archduke Ferdinand's gambit, Hoche retreats into the Terrafirma of Venice.
Full-scale seaborne Danish invasion of Scania. The Swedish government hastily begins recalling armies in order to try and prevent the Danes from breaking out further.
A small Spanish force under Major Joaquín Blake y Joyes defeats part of Custine's French army at the Battle of Bayonne.
Guarded only by a token Potemkinite force, Vitebsk is retaken by the Romanovians.
September - Hoche's troops fall upon Venice the city and pillage it. End of the Venetian Republic, its territories annexed to Hoche's purported Italian Republic. The Venetian territories in Dalmatia immediately become a sore point between Vienna and Constantinople. In response to the 'Rape of Venice', the Venetian fleet under Admiral Grimani flees to the port of Bari in Naples, and after negotiating with King Charles VI and VIII, takes up service with the Neapolitan navy.
Kautzman's army moves into the Moscow region. Rumour exaggerates this into the idea that he has actually sacked the city.
October - On the 9th, the Vendée and Brittany explode into royalist revolt - the Chouannerie - against the French Republic. Britain prepares to intervene on their side.
General Alvinczi attempts to fight a delaying action against Leroux west of Regensburg, but is defeated - though he saves most of his army, which retreats southward. Emperor Ferdinand IV gives a passionate but insane speech in the Reichstag about the coming destruction, in which he declares the end of the Empire, before falling over dead from a heart attack. As he does so, the French advance on Regensburg and take the city...
Archduke Ferdinand prepares to besiege Hoche in Venice, but is recalled thanks to the success of the French Rubicon offensive in Germany. Hoche pursues the Austrians but is held back at the well-defended Brenner Pass. He is now nonetheless the undisputed master of northern Italy.
The second Battle of Smolensk between the Romanovians and Potemkinites. After three hard, gruelling days of combat, the Potemkinites are on the brink of victory, when news of Kautzman's supposed sacking of Moscow spreads and Potemkin's mostly Muscovite left wing collapses. Though the bulk of the Potemkinite army withdraws in good order, Alexander Potemkin is captured by the Romanovians.
Great Ulster Scare. Ireland explodes into rebellion as the USE seize key points all over Ulster and Leinster. The British garrison in Belfast, a strongly USE-supporting town, goes down fighting.
November - After being rebuffed by Surcouf, Robespierre nominates the fey Admiral Villeneuve to lead an outnumbered Republican naval force against the Anglo-Royal French fleets massing in British ports.
The USE take Dublin, burning the assembled Irish parliament to death inside their own building. The British garrison in Dublin, which had been cut back considerably due to the troops assembling for an invasion of France, is defeated and massacred by the vengeful USE. First reports of the Great Ulster Scare reach London, but it is already too far-gone to contain easily.
Death of the cautious Sultan Abdulhamid II of the Ottoman Empire. He is succeeded by his more maverick nephew, who becomes Sultan Murad V. He appoints Mehmed Ali Pasha as Grand Vizier and the two of them begin eyeing the debated former Venetian territories in Dalmatia...
1799
January - Richard Wesley, Earl of Mornington, survived the Dublin attack because he was at home in Galway. He now assembles a Royalist army against the USE and is widely praised for managing to call Irish Catholics to his banner - indeed his army is majority Catholic.
February - Britain launches the Seigneur Offensive. Four fleets, one Royal French, all protecting troopships, leave the southern ports for Brittany and the Vendée. Villeneuve manages to intercept one of the British fleets under Admiral Duncan at the Battle of Wight, before it forms up with the others, and sinks or disables most of its troopships.
Villeneuve then throws everything that remains at the Royal French fleet within the formed-up British forces, with the intention of killing Louis XVII, but though he does manage to board the latter's flagship and kill Admiral d'Estaing, his attack is successfully deflected by Leo Bone, who draws one of Villeneuve's ships away. Bone's ship defeats the enemy days later off the coast of France, but is holed and has to be beached.
The victorious British and Royal French, having defeated Villeneuve, attack Quiberon. Louis XVII lands and declares himself King.
Having reached the end of their supply lines, Leroux's army's offensive towards Vienna slows, but inexorably continues.
March - Leroux's army besieges Vienna. The French succeed in destroying several Austrian forts and other defences, but lose some of their artillery to a Hungarian attack at night.
Last Potemkinite armies disintegrate.
Wesley holds back the USE armies at Rosscommon and Kilkenny. This encourages the British government not to slow their planned Seigneur Offensive against France, but instead to send Wesley only three regular regiments to support him. These arrive in Limerick towards the end of the month.
April - The Battle of Vienna. As the French begin breaking down the capital's walls, General Mozart leads an army out in a desperate gamble to attack them on the field of battle. The French engage him and are on the brink of victor, but the Austrians are saved by the 'Miracle on the Danube', when Archduke Ferdinand returns from Italy in the nick of time with Croat cavalry, who break up the undisciplined French conscript infantry. Leroux is killed and Mozart mortally wounded.
The French army retreats under Cougnon, but the latter is killed by the maniacal Lascelles, who takes most of the army and retreats into Bavaria, setting up a tyrannical 'Bavarian Germanic Republic'. The rest, the 'Cougnonistes', under St-Julien, go north into Bohemia and effectively set up their own fiefdom around Budweis.
Panic in Matsumae-town in Edzo thanks to the Aynyu successes. The Daimyo decides to beg help from Edo in order to put down the rebellion, but is assassinated by one of his lieutenants who fears a purge by the Shogun. Matsumae dissolves into civil war.
Grand Duke Carlo of Tuscany, in support of his fellow Hapsburgs, attacks Lazare Hoche in the rear while the latter is engaged along the Alps, and manages to liberate Lucca, Modena and Mantua.
May - Thanks to Lisieux's and Boulanger's plotting, two deliberately inexperienced French armies under Paul Vignon and Jacques Pallière are sent to drive back the British in the Vendée.
Ottoman Empire declares war on Austria, invading Austrian-held Bosnia and sending troops under Dalmat Melek Pasha to seize the former Venetian territories in Dalmatia.
Battle of Carlow between Wesley's Royalists and the USE. Wesley now has artillery to match the USE's, and wins a limited victory. The USE, under the French General O'Neill, retreats. This is the end of the USE's victory streak and raises enthusiasm for Wesley elsewhere.
With the Swedish armies besieging St Petersburg being stripped of forces for the home front, Romanovian generals Kamenski and Kurakin begin to drive back the reduced enemy forces.
Emperor Paul re-enters Moscow, held by Kautzman. Paul agrees to some of Kautzman's demands for serf emancipation in order to secure his support. He exiles Ivan Potemkin and Sergei Saltykov to Yakutsk, and installs Alexander Potemkin as Duke of a restored independent Courland. End of the Russian Civil War.
June - The two French armies in the Vendée are decisively defeated by the British, although part of Pallière's army escapes to the south. It is later defeated by a local militia organised by the shipwrecked Leo Bone and his crew, pressed into service using his ship's guns as artillery. This launches Bone as a hero and celebrity in the Vendean imagination.
Richard Wesley's army takes Kildare.
On North America's Pacific coast, the fur-trading operation of the British adventurer John Goodman on the island of Noochaland [Vancouver Island] is stopped by a Spanish expedition out of New Spain, who place him under arrest. Goodman is eventually released, but the incident highlights the importance of claiming the Pacific seaboard to the Americans and Russians. Goodman eventually goes to Hawaii.
An attack by the Austrians on Lascelles' troops, encamped on the Enns near Admont, is bloodily repulsed, demonstrating that Lascelles can fight.
July - The Apricot Revolution in France. Robespierre has no-one else left to blame for the failure in the Vendée. Lisieux smoothly maneouvres him out of power - he either commits suicide or is murdered - and Lisieux becomes sole Administrator of France. Having purged everything he can of Robespierre loyalists, Lisieux orders Boulanger to now send the full force of the Republican army against the British.
An Irish Royalist army under George Wesley (Richard's younger brother) takes Wicklow. A USE army to the south panics, congregates on Wexford and then disintegrates or flees to France.
The Swedes have held the Scanian front against the Danes, but the Russo-Lithuanians have begun to roll up their armies in the Baltic lands.
General election in America returns a majority for the Constitutionalist Party. The Lord Deputy, the Duke of Grafton, asks Constitutionalist leader James Monroe to form a government as Lord President.
August - In Japan, Benyovsky's Russo-Lithuanian ships attack Matsumae-town, defeat the defenders and install their own puppet Daimyo.
Leo Bone's irregulars near Saint-Hilaire fight regular Republican troops for the first time, and win.
September - British forces take Caen in Normandy.
Last Swedish army in Livonia surrenders, leaving the Russians and Lithuanians in control of the Swedes' former Baltic possessions. The Swedish army in Finland repulses an attempted attack by Kurakin.
After getting into numerous fights at King's College over political and philosophical disagreements, Philip Hamilton is sent by his father to work for the Royal Africa Company.
October - Battle of Caen. Boulanger, assisted by new Cugnot weapons, decisively defeats the British and Royal French. The Prince of Wales is killed in the battle, meaning Prince Henry William is now the heir apparent. The British are swept out of Normandy.
The Austrians draw up a new army under General Giuseppe Bolognesi to drive Lascelles' rogue French troops farther away from Vienna. Lascelles, outnumbered, retreats through the Waldviertel. His troops perform a particularly vicious maraude as a scorched-earth policy against Bolognesi's army, and in the process murder many civilians, including the family of Michael Hiedler. He was hunting at the time and escapes, but is driven catatonic by the experience.
Dublin besieged and retaken by Wesley's forces. New York rifleman James Roosevelt shoots down General O'Neill; he later decides to stay and settle in Ireland.
Swedish King Charles XIII assassinated by a madman. His death, leaving no heirs, plunges Sweden into a constitutional crisis that only exacerbates the war defeats.
Death of Dharma Raja, King of Travancore. He is succeeded by his son Balarama Varma, but the Tippoo of Mysore declares he is too young to rule and uses this as a casus belli to invade. This belligerent move is part of a plan by Leclerc to force Rochambeau to back down or lose the FEIC's trade interests in Kerala.
November - On hearing of his favourite son's death, King George III of Great Britain descends into madness and is dead by December. At the same time, the ageing Prime Minister Rockingham works himself to death. The country is plunged into a constitutional crisis.
Boulanger's advance is stopped at Mayenne by the British. The front stalemates as the armies settle into winter quarters.
Further south, Leo Bone defeats a Republican French army at Angers, later earning him the title Viscount d'Angers from Louis XVII.
The Danish Diet negotiates directly with the Swedish Riksdag to reach a peace settlement.
The Austrian army of Bolognesi defeats Lascelles on the Ischl, but Lascelles saves the majority of his army and retreats into Bavaria.
December - Henry William crowned King Henry IX of Great Britain.
Richard Wesley's armies finally take Belfast, last city held by the USE. The aftermath of the siege is bloody and rapine, the frustrated armies unleashed on the populace.
Peace between Denmark and Sweden. The treaty restores a personal union between the kingdoms, with Johannes II becoming John IV of Sweden. However, aside from losing the most Danish-loyal part of Scania and her Baltic possessions, Sweden's territorial integrity is respected. This ends the Great Baltic War, and leaves Denmark as the dominant naval power in the Baltic.
Part 6: The Administration
1800-1809
1800:
January - Charles James Fox becomes Prime Minister. He immediately seeks peace with France.
General Wurmser liberates the Prince-Bishopric of Salzburg from the French splinter force under Lascelles. Due to the death of the Prince-Bishop, the future of the state is in flux.
February - In India, the Pitt-Rochambeau Accord is negotiated in Cuddalore, in which the BEIC and FEIC form an alliance against Mysore. Thus begins the War of the Ferengi Alliance.
March - Peace of Caen between Britain and France. This allows a rump royal France in Brittany and the Vendée, which Republican France of course does not officially recognise.
La Pérouse hears of the rumour of peace (though not the actual treaty, of course) from a Dutch merchantman, and decides to return to France.
Francis II, King of the Romans and claimant Holy Roman Emperor, declares the annexation of Salzburg to the Hapsburg dominions in an attempt to recoup face after losses to the Ottomans. However, this deals a death blow to the Imperial system and begins the Mediatisation of Germany.
April - Lisieux holds his first cabinet meetings, deciding the fate of the war. Thouret's plans for Rational square départements with elected Modérateurs is implemented. Ney is ordered to attack northwards from Swabia, and the Spanish front is given top priority. Hoche refuses to recognise Lisieux's regime.
General Bolognesi attacks Lascelles once more at Rosenheim in Bavaria. Lascelles' forces have by now acquired captured German artillery, however, and win the day. Bolognesi retreats to Reichenhall and requests orders.
May - The Austrians decide not to pursue Lascelles further into Bavaria, as they consider the Turkish front to be more important. However, this lack of regard for the Bavarians suffering under Lascelles' reign of terror both seriously injures Vienna's image in the Germanies, and brings about a change in Michael Hiedler. When he hears of the policy, he snaps, reverts from his stunned state and declares a War to the Knife against Lascelles. He becomes Der Führer, first and greatest of the Kleinkriegers, those Partisans who fight the Little War.
John Spencer-Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough - a former member of the anti-Rockinghamite faction in Parliament - first rises to public prominence with the publication of the Churchill Letter, a fiery broadside against the nascent Fox Ministry.
June - Ney opens up his campaign to the north, attacking the Hesses, Nassau and Würzburg.
Boulanger opens up his offensive against Spain.
Lisieux orders the expansion of the Canal de Bourgogne to connect the Mediterranean to the Atlantic by a series of canals. The new work is named the Canal de l'Épurateur.
July - Swiss Rising after Marat is killed by a flying bath. Lisieux backs down and agrees to deal with Hoche. The Treaty of Savoy divides Switzerland between France, Swabia and Italy, all of which put down the rising.
Boulanger breaks the Spanish Siege of Toulouse.
The British Government pays the Danes to act as protectors of Hanover in Germany in the face of the mediatisation wars, but this fails to curb the Danes' own territorial ambitions elsewhere.
The first election is held in the Kingdom of Ireland since the USE rebellion, under new rules introduced by de facto Lord Deputy Richard Wesley, the Earl of Mornington. This produces a more reformist-minded Irish Parliament, and Wesley creates the informal office of an Irish prime minister, with Henry Grattan taking the role.
August - The French Republican Army defeats the Spanish at the Battle of Pau.
Peace between America and France. In order that future American Commissioners to Britain may have the authority to sign such treaties themselves, the office is upgraded to Lord Representative.
Lisieux sends Admiral Villeneuve on a flag-flying mission around the world, which includes quietly distributing Revolutionary propaganda to many places, including Royal French Louisiana.
In India, the Royal French retake Trivandum from Mysore, while the British and Haidarabad beat the main Mysorean army under General Yaar Mohammed at Bangalore.
Treaty of Minden signed between the Dutch Republic and the Electorate of Saxony. This hands the Saxon possessions of East Frisia and Cleves to the Dutch in exchange for Dutch recognition of Saxon influence in Westphalia.
Lazare Hoche turns south and attacks the Italian regions occupied by Grand Duke Carlo's Tuscans.
September - Mysoreans defeat British in the Battle of Charmapatna, but fail to achieve any lasting gains, as the French are pressing in from the west.
Marshal Ney overruns Ansbach and Würzburger Mainz.
The Austrians eject the Ottoman army under Dalmat Melek Pasha from the siege of Zagreb.
Disgusted by the peace between Republican France and Britain and inspired by his friend Leo Bone's service with Royal France, Horatio Nelson resigns from the Royal Navy and takes up Sir John Acton's offer of service in the Neapolitan Navy.
October - In the face of successes from Ney, the leaders of Hesse-Kassell, Hesse-Darmstadt, Nassau and Würzburg sign the Pact of Mainz, later to become the Mittelbund, an anti-French military alliance.
At the Battle of Carcassonne, Boulanger beats Cuesta's Spanish army.
The Danes make territorial demands upon Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz, which reject them out of hand. The Mittelbund supports both Mecklenburgs.
November - The French take Llançà in Catalonia, the only place over the Pyrenees they take before the campaign season ends.
La Pérouse returns to France and is horrified by the excesses of the Revolution, though Lamarck and Laplace disagree. He is sent back by Lisieux with Surcouf, to raid Dutch ships under pirate flag from bases in La Pérouse's Land.
Tippoo Sultan moves his capital from Mysore-city to the fortress of Seringapatam, which is besieged by the British and French.
In response to the Dutch and Saxons dividing the region into spheres of influence, Waldeck, Wittgen and Eichsfeld join the Mittelbund.
December - Lazare Hoche has retaken the Tuscan-occupied Italian territories of Modena, Mantua and Lucca, but has sustained considerable casualties among his French veterans in the process. He begins raising all-Italian regiments throughout the Italian Latin Republic, who fight under a green banner and are known as the Italian Patriotic Army.
1801
January - Boulanger recruits the new Admiral Lepelley for his new plan against Spain.
Storming of Seringapatam. The Tippoo's plan to blow up the British and French invaders is sabotaged by a treacherous minister, and he is killed in the battle. Mysore is carved up between Britain, France and Haidarabad, with the rump Mysore having the Hindu Wodeyar dynasty restored.
February - Conference of Hagenow defuses the Danish-Mecklenburger crisis, although the provisions of the treaty signed there will not become public for some time.
Admiral Villeneuve's fleet calls in at Norfolk, Virginia and apologises to the Continental Parliament for the death of Thomas Jefferson in a PR exercise.
Von Lützow's Prussian thrust into Saxony is defeated at the gates of Dresden. The Prussian efforts become dispersed thanks to Denmark-Sweden's entry into the war.
March - Death of Rochambeau; Julien Champard succeeds him as de facto Governor-General of French India.
Grand Duke Carlo of Tuscany appeals to King Charles VI and VIII of Naples for help as Hoche's new Italian Patriotic Army invades Tuscany. Charles hesitates and decides against intervention for fear of having his army encircled.
April - In response to Hagenow, the British governor of Hanover, William FitzGeorge, institutes his own defensive alliance against mediatisation. This is called the Alliance of Hildesheim and includes Hanover, Hildesheim, Brunswick, Bremen and the Schaumburgs. The Alliance is aligned with the Mittelbund but not part of it.
Emperor Francis II orders General Alvinczi to attack Wallachia in an attempt to draw the Ottomans into a broader war with Russia. However, the Russians are already in the process of negotiating with the Ottomans, and Constantinople secures Moscow's neutrality in exchange for withdrawing their influence from parts of the Caucasus they obtained during the Russian Civil War, primarily Georgia.
Denmark makes a descent on Danzig and takes the strategic port.
May - Boulanger launches two new offensives against Spain, Assaut-du-Sud and Tire-Bouchon. The first sees a general attack under Eustache against the Spanish forces north of the Pyrenees. The second is launched on a windless day, after the Spanish General Ballasteros has forced French General Drouet out of Llançà and the Spanish army is strung out thinly in pursuit: the new steamships under Lepelley carry French armies to land on the Catalan coast and sweep up Ballasteros from the rear. During a battle with Spanish conventional galleys, damage to the French steam-galley Palmipède's screw produces by chance a more effective propeller design, which swiftly becomes dominant.
Ney is halted for the first time by a joint Hessian-Würzburger army at Erbuch. The Franco-Swabian advance fails, and soon collapses.
The First Fleet of convicts leaves Britain, bound for the new penal colony in Michigan (Susan-Mary).
Paul François Jean Nicolas, the Vicomte de Barras, returns from French India having made his fortune serving under Rochambeau in the FEIC. He quickly ascends to a position of power in Royal France, becoming Comptroller-General to Louis XVII.
June - General Eustache killed at the Battle of Lourdes, in which the French are defeated by the Spanish under Joaquin Blake.
UPSA general election returns a Cortes dominated by the Partido Solidaridad, led by Juan José Castelli, which sympathises with the French Revolution and advocates territorial expansion at the expense of the Spanish colonies.
July - Mittelbund forces liberate the eponymous city from Ney's Swabia.
Admiral Villeneuve's fleet arrives in Nouvelle-Orléans and tries to demand the Governor-General, Charles-Michéle Ledoux, cleave to the Republican line. Ledoux calls Villeneuve's bluff and refuses.
August - Fall of Barcelona to Drouet's army. Elements of the Spanish fleet in Mediterranean ports flee to Naples, including the experimental rocket ship Cacafuego under the Catalan inventor Josep Casanova i Llussà.
Lazare Hoche's Italian Patriotic Army conquers Florence, capital of Tuscany. Tuscany is formally added to the Italian Latin Republic. However, the Tuscan army holds on in the south.
According to his orders, Admiral Villeneuve arms Haitian rebels in an attempt to undercut the Royal French in Louisiana.
September - Death of Philip VI of Spain; in his maddened last hours, he is heard to disinherit his eldest son Charles in favour of his second son Philip, but this is disputed. While France invades Aragon, Spain is plunged into civil war.
The Mittelbund armies are defeated by Ney at Ansbach.
Leo Bone a.k.a. Napoleone Bonaparte shocks public opinion in Royal France by being appointed de facto admiral of the fleet by King Louis XVII.
October - Alexandru Morusi, Prince of Wallachia and Moldavia, has raised an army and now halts Alvinczi's Austrian offensive.
HMS Enterprize, under the command of George North, sets off from Gosport Yard in Virginia on a mission of mapping and claiming the Oregon country for the Empire of North America.
November - Swabia and the Mittelbund sign the Treaty of Stuttgart. Swabia is left with Ansbach and Nuremberg but no Würzburger lands. The treaty defines the first strict borders for the republic. Afterwards, the Mittelbund nations look towards closer cooperation in the face of more direct aggression from France.
The First Fleet of convicts lands in Michigan after sailing up the St Lawrence and through the Great Lakes.
December - With Madrid burned half to the ground, the Felipistas are victorious. The Infante Philip is crowned Philip VII, and the Principe de Asturias Charles (the claimant Charles IV) flees to the northwest with his favourite the Count of Aranda and his general Javier Castaños.
1802:
January - Spanish General Cuesta ignores orders to attack the French and instead pursues the Carlistas into Asturias and Galicia, leaving Spain underdefended.
The Tuscan army under Grand Duke Carlo has been forced back to the port of Follonica and is surrounded by Hoche's forces. The Tuscan fleet attempts to evacuate them but is faced by Hoche's own Genoese-derived fleet. The two clash at the Battle of Elba and the Tuscans win a Pyrrhic victory, with too few ships left to perform the evacuation.
Admiral Villeneuve's fleet leaves the West Indies as Haiti erupts into rebellion under black leader Vincent Ogé.
**Feburary** - President-General Azcuénaga of the UPSA is assassinated.
La Pérouse and Surcouf land in Albi in La Pérouse's Land.
The Neapolitan-Venetian fleet under Nelson sails to Follonica and evacuates the Tuscan army to Naples. Nelson wins particular renown for a daring marine action that silences Hoche's shore batteries to make the evacuation possible.
Hoche appeals to Lisieux for French troops, despite the strained relations between the French and Italian Latin Republics, arguing that an Austrian invasion is around the corner. This is a lie, but Lisieux sees an opportunity and gives Hoche some of the Sans-Culotte Jacobin veterans he is trying to get rid of.
March - In the U.P. presidential election, Juan José Castelli defeats conservative opponent Juan Andrés to become President-General. He immediately being a programme of armament.
La Pérouse takes a sloop and goes with some supporters on a trading mission to the Mauré. He never comes back, having renounced the Republic, and he and his men act as advisors to the Mauré - both the Tainui and, due to some disagreeing with La Pérouse's leadership, the Touaritaux-Touaux Alliance.
Alvinczi withdraws from Wallachia.
In one of the Fox Ministry's greatest triumphs, the Parliament of Great Britain votes to abolish the slave trade.
Leo Bone marries Jeanette Debauvais, cementing his link with Royal France.
April - The French open the campaign season in Spain. Still fighting the civil war on the side, the regime of Philip VII and Saavedra is unable to resist the French advance, and three battles are lost in rapid succession. Most Spanish armies are surrounded and forced to surrender, with actual losses being relatively light.
Jean de Lisieux publishes his famous "25 Years" monograph, setting forth his vision for France's future - after the securing of all borders by the neutralisation of neighbouring states and the establishment of buffers, France needs 25 years to make its republican institutions entirely 'rational', and only after this will she attempt to replicate them elsewhere. This, it is implied, will require the defeat of Flanders and Royal France, and therefore Britain and the Netherlands as well, which will in turn require large armies. Lisieux believes the Spanish situation is secure and thus continually reduces the troops there, hampering French efforts to hold Spain down.
The Austrians, under General Pál Kray de Krajova et Topolya, successfully defend Zagreb against another offensive by the Turks' Dalmat Melek Pasha.
A new Irish constitution is signed into law. This repeals much of the old anti-Catholic legislation, but discrimination against non-Anglican Protestants remains.
General von Lützow fails to prevent the fall of Magdeburg to Saxon invaders thanks to Frederick William III's dispersal of his forces in Poland. He is upbraided and stripped of his rank and peerage by the king, and in fury at this treatment joins the "Berlin Plot" conspiracy.
May - In Britain, the British Army quietly begins constructing Fort Rockingham at Finningley, near Doncaster. After viewing the effects of the French War of Lightning on other countries, the Parliament of Great Britain is quite certain they need a fortified alternative seat of government a long way from anywhere.
Hoche, supported by his new Jacobin troops from France, invades the Papal States. In the north, the Austrians try a cursory attack over the Alps, but are beaten back by Hoche's Italian levies.
August - French troops enter Madrid. Philip VII and Saavedra have abandoned the city for Cordoba.
The Enterprize visits Hawaii and Captain North meets John Goodman, whose requests for direct Anglo-American intervention in Noochaland are rejected. Annoyed, Goodman turns to other sources instead.
Prussian General Albrecht von Gessler's army is pounded to pieces by the Saxons when they intercept him as he tries to cross the Elbe at Wittenberge.
September - Fall of Civitavecchia and Ancona to Hoche's army.
In the face of successes by Benyovsky and Lebedev, Tsar Paul declares the formation of the Russo-Lithuanian Pacific Company, granting them official status. He steps up his policy of sending his political enemies to Yakutia to serve as labour for the RLPC. The RPLC also includes Aleksandr Baranov's fur-trading operation in Alyeska.
All Prussian lands west of the Elbe is now lost to Saxony and her allies. The Berlin Plot reacts by arranging Frederick William III's death on the parade ground 'to a misfiring cavalry carbine'. His infant son Henry William becomes king, with plotter-in-chief Lützow as regent. However, this results in civil war and the complete degeneration of Prussian unity, with the anti-Lützow forces led by foreign minister Ludwig von Stülpnagel.
October - The French take Cordoba, the Spanish government having relocated in turn to Seville.
Naples finally intervenes directly, sending troops to try and save the Papal States as Hoche continues to easily defeat the small Papal army.
November - The Spanish under Bernardo de Gálvez win an epic victory over the French under Drouet at Granada. However, this is too little too late to stem the French tide.
The Rape of Rome. As Hoche himself is campaigning in Bologna, his Jacobin troops go rogue, torch the city of Rome rather than trying to take it, and murder both Pope Benedict XV and countless senior Catholic clergy in the streets. This is perhaps the most catastrophic PR disaster in history, with the winter of 1802 seeing countless numbers of Hoche's Italian troops defecting or deserting, and widespread condemnation of the Italian Latin Republic.
December - With the fall of Seville to the French, Philip VII and Saavedra finally retreat to the fortress city of Cadiz.
In France, Lisieux reacts to the Rape of Rome by launching his long-planned purge of the Republican leadership on December 25th, known as La Nuit Macabre. At least eighty senior army officers and politicians of suspected Jacobin sympathy are assassinated. Lisieux blames the atrocities in Rome on the Sans-Culottes and begins his campaign to rewrite history and abominate Le Diamant, banning his La Carte. In this he is assisted by France's growing shutter semaphore communications network.
1803
January - Portugal approaches the Carlistas in Spain with the offer of an alliance. Charles IV hesitates.
February - The Neapolitan army wins its first major victory over Hoche at the Battle of Frosinone, helped by Hoche's desertions.
Philip Hamilton, on assignment to Liberty City in Freedonia, meets Olaudah Equiano.
March - The French take Cadiz and Philip VII surrenders. By the Treaty of Cadiz, the French allow a Kingdom of Spain to remain, but annex much of the border region to France and keep an armed presence in the major Spanish cities.
U.P. navigator José Rodriguez-Decampo, working for the Persians, is the first person to map the Shatt al-Arab using modern scientific techniques.
Hoche attempts to invade Naples but is defeated at the Battle of Teramo by Prince Mario Pignatelli Strongoli. Soon afterwards, however, he holds against an attempted Neapolitan follow-up at Ascoli Piceno.
The Austrians are defeated by the Turks before the gates of Sarajevo, finishing their attempt to retake Bosnia or southern Dalmatia.
Lützow's Prussian forces withdraw to Ducal Prussia with the infant King Henry Frederick as Stülpnagel rules in Berlin over a vanishing electorate of Brandenburg.
April - Saavedra assassinated, probably on French orders, leaving Philip VII bereft of advisors. He does the bidding of the French occupiers, issuing death warrants against Charles and the other infantes.
New York Assembly rather reluctantly abolishes slavery by gradual manumission, though the law does not apply to unincorporated territories or the Iroquois protectorate.
Archduke Ferdinand leads another small Austrian army over the Alps into the Venetian Terrafirma, but as of yet Hoche's forces in that region still hold firm.
A Louisianan force, together with allied Indians, is defeated by Vincent Ogé's Haitian rebels and the Haitian African Republic is proclaimed.
May - With a combined Felipista/French army approaching, Charles IV agrees to the Portuguese demands, assenting to a Portuguese occupation of Galicia and the border cities, in exchange for ships to take him and the other infantes to the New World.
Edo, capital of Japan, hears that the situation in Edzo has stabilised and there is a new Daimyo of Matsumae. Emperor Tenmei and Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi are rather relieved, as they are still struggling to make the Japanese economy recover after several devastating natural disasters in the last two decades, and did not want to finance a military expedition. Little to they know that the Daimyo is only a puppet of Benyovsky's Russians, who have seized the city...
Austria and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of Bucharest, ending the Austro-Turkish War; the treaty is very favourable to the Ottomans, who obtain the vast majority of the former Dalmatian territory of the Venetian Republic and also increase their holdings in Bosnia. The euphoric aftermath of the war in Constantinople, however, leads to a sense of victory disease and military conservatism.
The Cuba Question comes to a head in the ENA. The ruling Constitutionalists want to annex Cuba to Carolina and institute slavery and anti-Catholic laws. They win the parliamentary vote, but the Lord Deputy refuses to grant Royal Assent. Lord President James Monroe resigns and calls a general election.
June - Nelson, having successfully argued that the French steamship base at Mahon in Minorca is too much of a danger, takes the Neapolitan fleet and attacks it on the night of the 15th. The attack is spearheaded by the Cacafuego's rockets and the new technology helps to confuse and panic the French, who are mostly celebrating ashore. Nelson sails his own Siracusa straight into the harbour, giving his famous orders "Tactics? Damn the tactics, sir - full speed ahead!" and sinks or burns a large portion of the French steam fleet almost single-handedly. He loses the use of his left arm after a vicious fight with one of the steamships whose crew was aboard and alert. The Neapolitans retreat in victory on the morning of the 16th. Admiral Lepelley is furious...once he gets back from his rendezvous with his mistress on the other side of the island.
The Saxons buy the neutrality of the Lützow regime by guaranteeing it all former Prussian territory outside the boundary of the HRE, removing a key front (and annoying the Danes and Poles).
July - Ivan Potemkin, exiled in Yakutia but working his way up to effective governor status, visits Matsumae in Edzo to observe Benyovsky's operations there. He agrees to support some of Benyovsky's less crazy plans.
The Portuguese General Julio Vieira attempts to take Badajoz from its maverick Spanish commander, Mateo María Núñez y Blanco, but fails.
News of Nelson's attack on Minorca splits the British ruling Reform Coalition, with the Liberals tending to praise Nelson and the Radicals attacking him. This rift slowly heals, but is instrumental in the fact that the Fort Rockingham project is very much a brainchild of only the Liberal half of the government.
The American general election returns a surprise increased majority for the Constitutionalists, even though their abolitionist wing breaks away under Bejnamin Rush to form the American Radical Party. In view of this, royal assent is reluctantly granted to a second, slightly watered-down Cuba Annexation bill.
August - Newfoundland petitions to join the Confederation of New England as a province, worried about the establishment of the Cloudborough penal colony in the north of the island. This request is eventually approved, meaning Newfoundland is no longer used as a penal colony.
Lisieux, in response to Nelson's attack, begins a new 'Rational' shipbuilding programme under Jean Jacques Coloumb. This involves the construction of the new, improved "Surcouf" class steam-galleys in Marseilles and Toulon, mainly using the slave labour of Jacobin-sympathising political prisoners.
September - Jean de Lisieux publishes his "Nouvelle Carte".
The Dutch Navy begins assembling a fleet under Admiral Willem van Heemskerk at the Cape Colony in order to take action against Surcouf's privateers.
October - The Infante Charles of Spain, claimant King Charles IV, lands in the port of Veracruz in the Viceroyalty of New Spain. He, his four brothers and their soldiers begin a leisurely march to the City of Mexico.
Admiral Villeneuve's fleet briefly visits La Pérouse's Land to resupply Surcouf's privateer colony at Saint-Malo (on the site of OTL Albany, Western Australia).
November - Mutterings throughout southern Russia on the emancipation of the serfs finally erupts into violence, as Count Kirill Klimentov openly rebels in Voronezh. The Russian response is swift, to avoid looking weak to the Ottomans, but carefully organised by Heinz Kautzman to fit with Tsar Paul's propaganda of Slavic superiority to appease the former Potemkinite supporters.
Hoche, faced by his position disintegrating due to the fallout from the Rape of Rome and his poor political skills meaning that he cannot react as Lisieux can, moves his headquarters to Viterbo. Meanwhile, Cardinal Henry Benedict Stuart, the Jacobite claimant to the throne of England, is elected Pope Urban IX while in exile in Naples. He immediately issues a Papal bull urging Italians to turn against Hoche.
Lascelles' bullyboy general Cavaignac is killed by a Kleinkrieger woman he tried to rape, signalling a great victory for Michael Hiedler's forces in Bavaria.
December - Infante Charles arrives in the City of Mexico. After negotiations with the Viceroy, Martín de Gálvez, new constitutional reforms are announced on December 26th to better facilitate the raising of a colonial army, the Nuevo Ejército, to take back Spain. This, the brainchild of the Duke of Aranda, is known as the Arandite Plan: the Spanish colonies in the New World are grouped together as an Empire of the Indies, ruled by the King of Spain as Emperor. The old Viceroyalties are abolished and new Kingdoms are created - Mexico, Guatemala and New Granada - each ruled by one of the junior Infantes. Gálvez is made Imperial Secretary.
Urban IX's plan for an Italian uprising is facilitated by Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo, who organises an 'Army of the Faith', and Michele "Fra Diavolo" Pezza, who leads the Neapolitan Kleinkriegers.
1804:
January - Philip Hamilton is appointed to one of the junior-lieutenancies in the Royal Africa Company's Gold Coast possessions, where he meets lifelong friend James Wayne (son of Isaac Wayne II).
February - The Russian army and its allies under Heinz Kautzman defeats Kirill Klimentov's rebels at Somovo.
Infante John of Spain's entourage arrives in Maracaibo as he takes up his new role as King of New Granada.
March - Klimentov executed in Red Square. Tsar Paul's minister Count Rostopshchin decides to reunite the Russian peoples by unifying them against an enemy - their Jewish neighbours.
Hawaii is unified as a kingdom under King Kamehameha, assisted by European adventurers including John Goodman.
The French forces in Spain, led by Drouet, launch 'Le Nouveau Poséidon', an operation aimed at striking the Portuguese and Carlistas simultaneously in Badajoz, Ciudad Rodrigo and Galicia.
King Louis XVII, on the urging of his ministers, marries Hélène, daughter of the Duke of Rohan. Their marriage will be loveless but will produce heirs.
April - Archduke Ferdinand finally gets a sizeable army from Vienna and proceeds to roll up the Italian Latin Republic in the north, occupying Venice.
General Ballesteros, fighting for the French, rescues Cuesta from a Portuguese army near Ponferrado and Valdés. However, Cuesta refuses to take orders from Ballesteros.
British Parliament passes the Reform Act (1804), increasing the franchise in England to all who own property worth 20 shillings (rather than 40).
Berlin falls to the Saxons and their allies and Stüpenagel surrenders.
John Spencer-Churchill has his friend Colonel Douglas Moore help in training the Oxfordshire yeomanry he is responsible for up to higher standards.
May - Treaty of Berlin divides the former Electorate of Brandenburg between Saxony and the Mecklenburgs, while the coastal Mecklenburger lands are given to Denmark-Sweden.
Death of Admiral Campbell, First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy. He is replaced by Sir Humphry Pellew, hero of the Second Platinean War, who ends the standoff with the government about steam innovations and commissions an experimental steamship project based in Lowestoft.
The Bohemian Estates illegally convene and appoint Jozef Graf Radetzky von Radetz to lead a militia to drive the Cougnonistes from Budweis, Austria having refused to spare any troops.
Leo Bone begins his programme of building border forts to seal Royal France's defences in the event of a renewal of war with the Republic, using guns taken from scrapped ships. His political opponents dub him "Le petit Vauban" for this.
June - The summer sees violence against Jews in all major Russian cities and many smaller towns. In Krementchuk, Yitzhak Volynov survives an attack that killed the rest of his family and has a vision. Despite his youth, his charisma leads to him becoming a leader of many of the survivors of the pogrom. He leads them out of Russia and into the Khanate of the Crimea. Khan Devlet V is happy to gain so many skilled workers.
Neapolitans take Rome and Pope Urban IX is blessed in the ruins of St Peter's.
Ballesteros is forced to fight and kill Cuesta in battle at Allande before he can amalgamate their armies - while the Portuguese gain time.
General Devilliers storms Ciudad Rodrigo and takes it from the Portuguese.
Admiral Heemskerk's Dutch fleet falls upon Surcouf's privateer colony at Saint-Malo in La Pérouse's Land and burns it, but only a few French ships are caught there and the colony is rapidly rebuilt.
July - On the 24th, after months of preparation and recognising the fragile state of the newly reorganised Spanish colonies to their north, the UPSA declares war on the Empire of the Indies.
Ballesteros defeats Vieira at Lugo.
Italian Latin Republic disintegrates. Although Hoche and his core of loyal troops continue to win battles, they cannot be everywhere, and the Republic is being attacked simultaneously by Austria from the north and Naples from the south.
The British Parliament first convenes the Borough Committee, aimed at reassigning rotten boroughs' representation to the new industrial cities.
August - Hoche withdraws his remaining loyalists to Genoa.
Bourcier besieges Badajoz, but General Blanco continues to defend the fortress city against the French.
September - First Meridian troops, under the command of General Pichegru, cross the border into the newly declared Kingdom of New Granada, a constituent part of the Empire of the Indies. General O'Higgins, commanding the New Granadine force in the region, decides to withdraw in the face of numerical superiority.
Hoche takes what is left of his army and evacuates from Genoa to Mataró in Spain using the Genoese fleet. Nelson pursues with the Neapolitan fleet.
Trying to take the Portuguese fortress city of Almeida before winter sets in, Devilliers is bloodily repulsed and forced to retreat to Ciudad Rodrigo.
Radetzky's Bohemians retreat from a battlefield rather than face the Cougnonistes. Radetzky spends the winter training them as St-Julien, leader of the Cougnonistes, grows complacent.
October - Hoche marches inland. Nelson attacks and burns the Genoese ships in Mataró, then strikes at the French in Catalonia, escalating the conflict further.
Bourcier, despite his lack of much artillery, finally makes a practicable breach in the walls of Badajoz and attacks it, but the Portuguese sally from Elvas and destroy much of Bourcier's siege preparations.
Ballesteros defeats Vieira's Portuguese once more at Ourense.
Admiral Villeneuve's fleet finally returns to France after their three-year worldwide voyage.
Queen Hélène of Royal France gives birth to a son, ensuring an heir for King Louis XVII. In a break from tradition he is named Charles Louis Philippe rather than being yet another Louis.
November - As part of a steady grinding campaign northwards through Lower Peru, Pichegru's Meridian troops take the town of Caraz. However, the poor countryside means his troops are starving, and so he leads the bulk of his army over the Andes to the coast to winter there - harried by O'Higgins enroute.
Bourcier retreats to Mérida for the winter, harried by the Portuguese. Blanco reluctantly agrees to work with the Portuguese.
Vincent Ogé's Haitian African Republic finishes overrunning and absorbing the Spanish half of Hispaniola, uniting the island under black rule.
December - Ballesteros pursues Vieira all the way to Vigo, but the Portuguese army is there evacuated by the Portuguese navy. Lisieux is unwilling to release any of France's slowly building new navy for what he sees as a sideshow, so the Portuguese enjoy near-impunity at sea.
1805-1808: The Third Platinean War. The United Provinces of South America fights the Empire of the Indies/New Spain, with Britain, the Empire of North America and Portugal eventually joining in on the New Spanish side. Though the Meridians win on several fronts, particularly in New Granada, they eventually succumb. The UPSA loses Upper Peru to the New Spanish, yields a few border adjustments to Portuguese Brazil, and significantly revises its political system to introduce term limits for the President-General. In addition, the Partido Solidaridad is discredited and conservative rule sets in.
1805:
February - O'Higgins' New Granadine troops retake Caraz from the small garrison Pichegru had left there.
March - The Neapolitan and Austrian armies meet on a line between Ancona and Orbetello, effectively dividing Italy between them.
Death of Pasquale Paoli, President of the Corsican Republic and icon of moderate republicanism. He is succeeded by Carlo Andrea Pozzo di Borgo.
Radetzky's Bohemian fighters make a surprise attack on Budweis and defeat the Cougnonistes. St-Julien is executed in Prague.
April - Pichegru stops O'Higgins' reconquest at Yungay.
Hoche appeals to Lisieux to re-enter the mainstream French forces, and the Administrateur reluctantly agrees.
The Royal Africa Company, on the advice of Alexander von Humboldt, transplants cinchona trees from UPSA-controlled Peru to West Africa in an attempt to supply the country with quinine in order to defeat the endemic malaria.
At Swellendam in the interior of the Dutch Cape Colony, the over-taxed frontier Boers (colonial farmers) rebel against the government in Kaapstaad and, influenced by the Racialist writings of Sijbren Vorderman, declare an Afrikaan Germanic Republic.
Treaty of Baton Rouge between the ENA and Royal French Louisiana (with tacit New Spanish assent) sees the Louisianans and New Spanish abandoning all claim to Hispaniola to the Empire in exchange for recognition of their other holdings.
May - Daimyo Hidoshi of Matsumae finally visits the ailing Emperor Tenmei in Kyoto to give him homage.
Pichegru deploys mountain troops recruited from the Tahuantinsuya against O'Higgins, forcing the New Granadines to abandon their mountain warfare attacks against the Meridian regulars.
Ballesteros continues his string of victories against the Portuguese in Galicia and northern Portugal.
Anglo-Dutch accord leads to British recognition of Dutch control of the Cape. The BEIC decides to plant a halfway-house-to-India colony further east, at Natal.
Admiral Surcouf returns to France from La Pérouse's Land, with many privateering successes to his name but ultimately having failed to draw the Netherlands into a war.
June - Ballesteros' army threatens Oporto.
Hermanus Potgieter, a Boer military leader, becomes effective consul of the Afrikaan Germanic Republic. He begins organising an army to take Kaapstaad.
A ship carrying Persian pilgrims to Mecca is attacked by Arab pirates, who slaughter several, including the son of Persian Grand Vizier Mirza Reza Khan Sadeghi. Mirza Reza wants to hold the Porte responsible, but for now Shah-Advocate Ali Zand Shah counsels peace, fearing a Durrani attack and a war on two fronts.
The Chinese learn of the Russian encroachment in the Amur Valley thanks to the Russo-Lithuanian Pacific Company, and dispatch troops.
July - Daimyo Hidoshi travels on to Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi in Edo. However, his "Aynyu servant" is recognised by the Dutch trader Pieter Roggeveen as Ulrich Münchhausen, captain of marines on the Lithuanian ship Skalvis. Tokugawa has the two of them arrested, but Münchhausen succeeds in a prison break and flees with the Daimyo after commandeering a fishing boat. The Shogun orders the drawing up of an army to retake Matsumae.
The Portuguese retake Ciudad Rodrigo, helped by Lisieux ruthlessly withdrawing French troops from Spain for operations elsewhere.
August - The assembled naval forces of the Empire of the Indies fight a battle with the Meridian Armada off Paita and win a narrow victory.
Castelli advocates the formation of a new fleet to sweep the imperials off the waves and then land an army in Mexico to win the war by taking the City of Mexico.
An American force led by General Isaac Wayne II (OTL Anthony Wayne) lands on Hispaniola and defeats Vincent Ogé's rebels, though a bitter Kleinkrieg conflict continues.
On the 18th, in light of Surcouf's failure to draw the Dutch into a war, Lisieux outlines a new strategy to the Boulangerie: France will assemble a great fleet of steam transports to land an army on the Dutch coast (on a windless day when sailships are of little use), while concentrating a large new army to simultaneously invade Flanders, ensuring the two allies cannot come to each others' aid. The plan is named Le Grand Crabe, the great crab, after its two 'pincers'.
September - At Trujillo, the New Granadines fight hard but are unable to prevent Pichegru from winning a strategically crucial victory. O'Higgins' forces are evacuated by ship. The whole Lower Peruvian coastal plain now lies open to the Meridians, who are protected from malaria by quinine supplies from Noailles' plantations.
Oporto falls, after a siege, to Ballesteros.
The remnant of Hoche's Italian Latin Republic is reorganised as the Piedmontese Latin Republic, nominally ruled by Boulanger, who successfully manages to hold it against further advances by Archduke Ferdinand.
The Bavarian Germanic Republic is reduced to its capital Eichstätt as Lascelles' troops fear the Kleinkriegers more than him and desert, fleeing the country.
October - As part of Castelli's policy for neutral ships to be seized to help boost the Meridian Armada's size, Captain Alejandro Mendez attacks the Malvinas in order to obtain the pirate ships there. However, he also takes two Nantucket whalers, and his subordinate Captain Eduardo Alvarez inadvertently attacks a British ship with a largely American crew, HMB Cherry under the command of Lieutenant Jeremy Hayward. Alvarez tries to cover the incident up, but it soon gets out.
The Kleinkriegers in Bavaria finally launch an all-out attack on Eichstätt, and though they take casualties, defeat the French. Lascelles is killed and Michael Hiedler weds Petra Schickelgruber.
Reluctantly, drawn along by Nelson's policy of raiding the Spanish Mediterranean coast, King Charles VI and VIII of Naples and Sicily agrees to send an army under Pignatelli to Barcelona, proclaiming himself Charles IV of Spain.
November - First BEIC colonists land at Natal.
News of the Cherry Massacre outrages Fredericksburg. The Constitutionalist Party splits between pro- and anti-UPSA factions, with many MCPs believing that the UPSA should be supported so American settlers can gobble up New Spanish Mexico. A bill for an intervention against the UPSA is passed only with the support of the Patriot opposition. Having lost control of his party, James Monroe resigns as Lord President and the Lord Deputy calls another general election.
December - American election topples the divided Constitutionalists and Lord Hamilton's Patriots return to power. The American Squadron is withdrawn from Haiti to prepare for operations against the UPSA. The Third Platinean War has begun.
1806-1809: The Turco-Persian War of 1806-09. Persia, with Portuguese backing, fights the Ottoman Empire, with unofficial support for the Ottomans from Oman. After the Durrani Empire and Kalat stab the Persians in the back, the war ends with an Ottoman victory and Persian territorial losses - Ilam, Khuzestan and Azerbaijan to the Ottomans, Panjdeh to the Durranis and Jask to the Kalatis. Persia moves closer to the Portuguese; the Ottomans get victory disease, cementing Dalmat Melek Pasha's conservative militarist faction into power with strong Janissary support.
1806:
January - News of the Cherry Massacre hits London. Though Fox is reluctant, Britain joins America in declaring war on the UPSA. The Mediterranean Squadron strips the garrison from Gibraltar and Malta and transports it to the Falklands in support.
February - Treaty of Rome formalises the division of Italy between the Hapsburgs and Neapolitan Bourbons. Hoche's former Italian Latin Republic is recreated as the Hapsburg Kingdom of Italy under Archduke Ferdinand. Tuscany is separated and returned to Carlo I, but though Hapsburg he remains in the pocket of the Neapolitans, and his son Carlo II marries Princess Carlotta, daughter of Charles VI and VIII. The Papal States are reduced to Lazio.
The French under Drouet win a tactical victory over Pignatelli's Neapolitans at Albacete, but fail to fling them back into the sea.
The Turkish Grand Vizier, Mehmet Ali Pasha, dies - possibly from poison. Sultan Melek V appoints Dalmat Melek Pasha, hero of the war with Austria, as the new Grand Vizier. At first it appears that a Turco-Russian war is on the cards, and both sides mass troops on their borders.
March - Able to concentrate his forces by Franco-Spanish disarray elsewhere, Vieira succeeds in driving Ballesteros out of Oporto and the whole of northern Portugal.
By this point, Leo Bone has effectively become prime minister of Royal France.
Philip Hamilton and James Wayne, among many other American volunteers, temporarily leave the Royal Africa Company to take up commissions with Admiral Perry's fleet as it docks in the Company's ports enroute to the Third Platinean War.
April - The Japanese launch an attack on Edzo across the Strait of Tsugaru. However, their lack of a serious navy means that their transports virtually commit suicide against the Russo-Lithuanians' dozen or so ships of the line and frigates. A small portion of the Japanese army successfully lands, but is defeated by the Russo-Lithuanian force, which includes Aynyu and Japanese sympathisers trained in European warfare.
A punitive expedition by the Dutch East India Company aimed at bringing the Boers back into line is badly defeated by Hermanus Potgieter at Tulbagh - the VOC had severely underestimated the Boers' manpower and leadership.
First elections to King Louis XVII's experimental Grand-Parlement in Royal France produces a largely conservative assembly.
Battle of Ciamberì: Collapse of the Piedmontese Latin Republic as General Bourcier is defeated by the Archduke Ferdinand and withdraws to the Saône.
A Royal Navy taskforce under Admiral Sir William Byng and Commodores John Harrison and Christopher Perry reaches Falkland's Islands, swiftly capturing them from the small Meridian garrison and stationing most of his troops there. The fleet divides into three.
Battle of Cocos: the Meridian Armada under Admiral Ramírez defeats the remnants of the New Spanish fleet under Admiral Ruiz.
Shah-Advocate Ali Zand Shah of Persia dies from an infected insect bite. He is succeeded by his son Zaki Mohammed Shah, who goes along with Grand Vizier Mirza Reza Khan Sadeghi's plans for war with the Ottomans.
May - Humboldt's plan pays dividends for the Royal Africa Company when quinine dramatically heals the King of Dahomey, who had been dying from malaria. The drug immediately becomes popular among Africans, with the Company both reaping profits and gaining much volunteer labour to grow more cinchonas.
Drouet reacts to dwindling French troops in Spain and defeats on all fronts by withdrawing his forces to Madrid and defending the 'French road' that stretches northwards to the border.
Dutch Stadtholder William V dies and is succeeded by his son, who becomes William VI. A more conservative and paranoid ruler, he exiles Dutch Linnaean thinker Sijbren Vorderman to Denmark.
The Republican French colony of Saint-Malo has by now recovered from Heemskerk's attack, and is now self-sufficient - while Albi suffers under Lamarck's "scientific" principles and Bieraroun is burnt by the Ouarandjeré people.
June - Death of the Emperor Tenmei of Japan. This, coupled with the spreading news of the shocking defeat in the Strait of Tsugaru, leads to a breakdown of order, with the Daimyos of the Hans on the islands of Sikoke and Kiusiu asserting their independence. The Emperor's son Yasuhito, considered unsuitable by many for his absolutist philosophy, is displaced by the noble Kojimo, who (it is claimed) was adopted by the Emperor on his deathbed. The Imperial court's ministers are divided between the two. Yasuhito flees to the south and is supported by the rebels, led by the Satsuma and Choshu Hans. The Second Warring Courts period begins, with the southern court being supported with Dutch weapons from Nagasaki and the northern court, despite the irony, buying from the Russians. The RPLC's position in Edzo is, for the moment, secure.
Battle of Valdes: Admiral Perry's flotilla destroys a Meridian Armada force off the Valdes Peninsula. Philip Hamilton distinguishes himself.
The Chinese surround several Russian forts in the Amur valley and march their inhabitants - including Lebedev - back to Beijing.
July - By means of an amphibious descent, the Portuguese take Cadiz.
With the withdrawal of the American fleet from Haiti, Haitian Kleinkriegers are able to resupply and spread their rebel message to the slave plantations on nearby British islands. Accordingly, a British squadron and three British regiments are deployed there to bring the island under control. Lord Hamilton refuses Carolinian requests to send their own troops there (obviously to presage another annexation as with Cuba) and instead sends the Carolinian regiment (the 101st) to Ireland for training. At the same time, Irish troops are used to resupply the Gibraltar and Malta garrisons and half the Home Squadron is used to create a new Mediterranean Squadron under Admiral John Jervis, based at Corsica. The remaining Home Fleet is under the command of Admiral Michael Parker.
The Austrian advance into southeastern France is curtailed with General Bourcier's defeat of Alvinczi at the Battle of Rives. The front stabilises for a time as the Austrians instead plan an attack on the Swabian Germanic Republic via what was Switzerland.
15,000 Meridian troops led by General Hector Fernández are landed at Acapulco.
August - British general election returns the Foxite Reform Coalition with a slightly increased majority both for the Radical and Liberal factions: the Tory opposition remains divided and cannot put together a credible agenda beyond knee-jerk reactionism.
Admiral Byng's fleet burns and occupies Valvidia in the UPSA and then begins performing random amphibious descents along the coast, hampering the UPSA's ability to fight its war in New Granada via resupply from Lima.
September - American troops led by General Andrew Clinton begin landing on the Atlantic coast of the UPSA with the intent of marching on Buenos Aires.
October - Admiral Ramírez launches a daring surprise attack on Byng's fleet in Valvidia harbour, sinking several ships, including the British flagship ''Royal Frederick''. However, Commodore Harrison's fleet returns at exactly the wrong moment and the Meridians are completely wiped out, leaving General Fernández's troops in Mexico stranded without resupply.
General Clinton's forces begin their attack on Buenos Aires.
Turco-Persian War of 1806-09 breaks out.
November - Meridian forces under General Miguel Bautista successfully repulse an attempted attack by Clinton, who retreats and instead tries to cut Buenos Aires off from resupply.
General Fernández successfully intercepts a Manila galleon bound for the exilic Spanish in Mexico, but after this strategy of attempting to bankrupt the Spanish fails, resumes his march on the City of Mexico.
December - The Guangzhong Emperor of China sentences Lebedev to death as a persistent treaty offender, but the Emperor is killed in his sleep by Cossack bodyguards who still held debts to Lebedev. The Russian captives are killed in their escape, but China descends into civil war as chief minister Zeng opens the tablet on which the heir's name is written, only to find the Emperor never changed it from his dead first son. The War of the Three Emperors begins.
1807:
January – Le Grande Crabe, the French offensive aimed at taking the Low Countries, is finally ready - the army is assembled and a vast steam transport fleet has been assembled. The French wait only for the right opportunity to make their move.
February - The Boers besiege Kaapstaad and attempt to starve the city out, helped by the fact that most of the VOC's ships have already left for European operations. Governor Cornelisz Jacob van de Graaff institutes a draconian rationing policy which proves highly unpopular.
General Ballesteros switches sides, supporting the Neapolitans against Drouet's French.
The Russians launch their Great Eastern Adventure, sending 75,000 troops overland to support the Russo-Lithuanian Pacific Company as China collapses into civil war.
March - The Boers take Kaapstaad, fighting in the streets against van de Graaff's weakened armies, but the loyalists are saved when a VOC fleet arrives from Batavia with reinforcements.
Lisieux publicly announces Le Grande Crabe with a declaration of war on Flanders and the Dutch Republic. Boulanger takes command of the army and invades Flanders, while Villeneuve takes France's sailfleet and fights the Dutch under Admiral Carnbee on the 20th. Villeneuve wins a Pyrrhic victory and manages to land a few troops on the Dutch islands off the Zuider Zee, but more importantly Admiral Parker sends part of the British Home Fleet to keep an eye on Villeneuve.
On the 22nd, calm Channel weather strikes and the chance is there to use the French steamfleet to support Villeneuve's landings, safe from intercept by sail. But Lisieux suddenly sees the vulnerability of Britain and unexpectedly orders the steamfleet to redirect its invasion landings to the Kentish coast. Via France's semaphore network, the changed orders are swiftly transmitted.
On the 23rd, the French launch their invasion. Surcouf leads a fleet of steamships into the Channel, but is followed by a second fleet under Lepelley - unbeknownst to the British, the French have transported their Mediterranean fleet through the expanded Burgundy Canal to the Channel, doubling the size of their forces there. Hamstrung by the lack of wind, Parker struggles to respond to the French, sinking some of their ships but ultimately facing defeat. His flagship HMS Mirabilis is destroyed by the French rocket ship Enfant de Tonnerre, which also sinks in the process.
General Hoche, commanding the armies on the French fleet, lands 8000 Italian troops under General Modigliani on the Kentish coast to distract the British, then sails up the Thames and attacks London itself, landing his main force there. The British garrisons are defeated and all who can, flee. Hoche seizes the gold of the Bank of England. 300 British troops under Ashcroft and Blount hold back the Italians for a day in "Thermopylae-on-the-Downs". Hoche goes to Fox to receive his surrender, but Fox blows them both up with a magazine. In the confusion, London burns down and the fleeing King Henry IX is caught and phlogisticated, along with his queen and daughter, by the French.
April - Boulanger defeats the Dutch-Flemish forces under Steffen von Wrede at the Battle of La Belle Alliance when his agents successfully persuade the Walloons among the enemy to switch sides.
What remains of Parliament convenes at Fort Rockingham near Doncaster and proclaims the infant Prince Frederick (in America) as Frederick II, then appoints the Duke of Marlborough as regent; Churchill had retreated with his trained milita from Oxford.
Seven Republican French regiments under General Devilliers launch a rapid invasion of Royal France, which swiftly grinds to a halt as it smashes against Leo Bone's network of border forts.
Thanks to General Clinton's strategy, Buenos Aires is now on the verge of starvation, yet it is at this point that the Anglo-Americans learn of the French invasion of Britain.
The Corsican Republic declares war on France, supporting Nelson's Neapolitan Navy.
Fernández's Meridian forces are poisoned in the city of Cuernavaca, but nonetheless beat off an attack by the New Spanish Nuevo Ejército. However, when they occupy the deserted City of Mexico, the New Spanish destroy the bridges and trap them in the city, burning it. Much of Fernández's army is destroyed, ending the UPSA's attempt to strike to the heart.
May - Liège, full of radical sympathies, overthrows its Dutch overlords and joins with Boulanger's invading French, along with many other Walloons. At the same time, the Mittelbund and the Alliance of Hildesheim declare war on France and send troops to Flanders.
Battle of Cambridge: Michael Sackville-West, the Earl de la Warr, refuses orders from Churchill to retreat and consolidate forces, instead attacking the French under General Gabin and being soundly defeated. Cambridge is put to the torch, though most of the damp city survives.
Sir Lyell Brotherford, commander of the 56th West Norfolk, tries to bring his troops away but is assassinated by the Bishop and Count Palatine of Ely, Philip Matthews, who commandeers the force and then orders the Vermuyden works dismantled so that the Isle of Ely is restored, the waterworks protecting the rest of East Anglia from the French.
June - Battle of the Solent: Admiral John Jervis, aided by the Royal French and the experimental Whistler ships out of Lowestoft under Commodore Frederick Keppel, destroys much of the Republican French steam-fleet. Admiral Lepelley is killed and Admiral Surcouf is shipwrecked, though he eventually escapes to the UPSA.
French advance north through England slows thanks to extended supply lines and the water barriers. Rumours of an Irish army landing in Liverpool abound. Edinburgh briefly rises to form the Scottish Celtic Republic under Thomas Muir, which is swiftly crushed by the Oxfordshire Yeomanry under Joshua Spencer-Churchill, the Marquess of Blandford.
Meridian General Pichegru besieges the New Granadine capital of Santa Fe, but O'Higgins holds him off long enough for Nuevo Ejército reinforcements to arrive. Pichegru withdraws in good order.
July - Madrid falls to the Portuguese under Vieira. Philip VII is shot by Drouet, who then kills himself. The infant king Alfonso XII falls into Portuguese hands. The Neapolitans swiftly roll up the east of Spain.
The "Irish" army meets the British at Emley Moor and it turns out to be an allied Anglo-Hiberno-American force led by Sir John Moore, Richard Wesley the Earl of Mornington, and John Alexander of Carolina.
Devilliers finally breaks through Leo Bone's fortress network into the interior of Royal France. The Royal French retreat to their fortified cities.
Corsican and Neapolitan forces under Nelson occupy the city of Toulon in a bloody amphibious descent, then grimly hold on as Bourcier tries to retake it.
August - The British and allied counter-attack against the English Germanic Republic begins in earnest with the Relief of Bedford.
Devilliers besieges Brest, having heard Leo Bone is in the city; however, it soon becomes apparent that the Royal French are moving their commanders by sea and using misinformation to distract the Republicans.
Lima rises in rebellion against the Meridians with support from American troops, severely hampering the supply line to Pichegru's army through Upper Peru. At the same time, Portugal declares war on the UPSA.
September - The French occupying the town of Cervera, after many years of unusually peaceful coexistence, are set upon by the furious townsfolk due to Philip VII's death. The town's mayor, Francisco José Sanchez y Rodriguez, is branded a traitor and collaborator and his family is killed by the mob - all except his young son Pablo Rodrigo Sanchez y Ruiz.
Battle of St Albans: English Germanic Republic, cut off from resupply from the Continent thanks to the Royal Navy once dominating the Channel, swiftly begins to collapse.
President-General Castelli is killed while trying to withdraw from the besieged Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires surrenders to the Americans a few days later.
Lamarck dies of a snake bite while on a botanical expedition in La Pérouse's Land; the governorship passes through the Lascelles wannabe René Demoivre.
October - Saxony and Denmark-Sweden declare war on France in support of the Dutch and Flemish.
Descent on Harwich: Major Alexander Cochrane and Commodore Keppel's steamships take the town, encircle General Gabin's army, and destroy it.
La Roche falls to General Devilliers' army.
Political chaos in Cordoba. General Ayala manages to hold back the Anglo-American forces from the city while a new conservative political alliance, the Reagrupamiento por la Unión (“Rally for the Union”) seizes power from the collapsing Partido Solidaridad.
November - Battle of Islington: Saissons is defeated by Wesley while Moore takes London from the rear. Saissons and Dashwood are executed, with other suspected collaborators shipped to Susan-Mary.
Keppel's steamships sink General Modigliani in his attempt to flee.
The Saxons and Danes attack Swabia, pre-empting an attempt by the Austrians under Alvinczi to invade via the former Switzerland. In a bit of diplomatic jiggery-pokery behind the scenes, Ney surrenders the Republic without a fight in exchange for amnesty for his men. The Swabian Germanic Republic becomes the Duchy of Swabia under Frederick IV, exiled Duke of Württemberg.
December - Final destruction of the last remnants of the English Germanic Republic. Privy Council meeting convened in the ruins of London. Churchill speaks of the need to take the fight to the enemy once more.
General Pichegru is surrounded near San Francisco de Quito by combined New Spanish and Portuguese forces, and is forced to surrender.
Reagrupamiento’s leader, Miguel Baquedano y Zebreros, seizes control of the UPSA while pledging to rule for no more than three years and hold new elections and a constitutional convention. He seeks immediate terms with the UPSA's enemies.
1808:
January - General Thomas Græme is sent to descend on Ostende with 20,000 men to attack Boulanger's flank, in a typically quixotic Churchill scheme. Græme is defeated by General Armand Poulenc at the Battle of Dixmuyden and is evacuated from Dunkerque. The whole business is a disaster, meaning Charles Bone's view of supporting Royal France gains supremacy in the Privy Council.
Charles Theodore II and Steffen von Wrede withdraw to the Palatinate, allowing Brussels to fall to Boulanger without a fight. The Dutch implement their Water Line defences, preventing Boulanger and Poulenc from invading the heart of the United Netherlands.
General Marceau tries to retake Toulon from the Neapolitans and Corsicans and is bloodily repulsed.
February - Five British and allied regiments under Wesley occupy Granville in Normandy, distracting Devilliers from his growing successes against the Royal French fortress cities. Devilliers reconstitutes his army and marches to confront them. Simultaneously, another British force under Sir John Moore lands at Nantes and relieves the besieged cities.
March - Informal agreement between Portugal and Naples to divide Spain once more as Castile and Aragon, with Castile being ruled by the Portuguese puppet Alfonso XII and Aragon as another dominion of Charles VIII and VI (and now IV).
Battle of Draguignan: the Archduke Ferdinand and Alvinczi finally achieve a decisive victory over Bourcier.
Another attempt by Marceau to retake Toulon is on the verge of success when he is forced to retreat to Marseilles to support Bourcier.
Revolution in Albi against the tyrannical governor Demoivre. Revolutionary leader Locard re-establishes contact with La Pérouse in Autiaraux and the colony's famine is finally relieved through trade.
April - Devilliers fights Wesley at Laval and wins a Pyrrhic victory. Wesley makes a strategic retreat southwards, Devilliers pursuing.
Treaty of Rio de Janeiro formally ends the Third Platinean War. The UPSA surrenders Upper Peru to the Empire of New Spain, while Portuguese Brazil receives several favourable border adjustments both from the UPSA and New Spain. The Anglo-Americans get nothing beyond trade concessions and confirmation of British possession of Falkland's Islands.
May - Devilliers finally catches Wesley at Angers. Devilliers is killed at extreme range by sharpshooter James Roosevelt in the "shot heard 'round the world" and the Republicans are routed.
June - All Republican forces thrown out of Royal France.
July - A Dutch naval squadron sails to Ostende and helps temporarily relieve the French siege of Bruges. Poulenc is sent to defeat them.
August - The armies of the Mittelbund confront Boulanger in occupied Flanders.
The Royal French take the strategic town of Royan on the Gironde Estuary.
October - Battle of Adenau: French General Henri Trenet defeats the Mittelbund General Konrad von Löwenstein.
November - Battle of Mersch: The French are driven back by General von Wrede. Boulanger combines his armies at St. Hubert for a counter-attack, but then retreats to Brussels to winter, unwilling to give up such a forward position.
1809:
January - Brussels, now starving and resentful thanks to the huge French armies encamped there, is attacked by the forces of the Mittelbund, Flemings and Alliance of Hildesheim. Bitter winter urban fighting sets in.
Petersburg Colloquy in the capital of Russia. Emperor Paul and his ministers decide to enter the war in Europe, sending ten regiments directly to France using Danish transport ships.
February - Pascal Schmidt, then a young Hessian soldier, controversially kills General Poulenc when the Frenchman is captured.
A newly assembled French army under Stéphane Pelletan attempts a defensive campaign against the advancing British and Royal French.
March - The French are thrown out of Brussels and retreat in the greatest defeat of Boulanger's career thus far.
April - Pelletan's army suffers a series of defeats to the western allies.
Second Meridian Constitutional Convention in Cordoba makes significant revisions to the U.P. constitution, restricting the president-general to three-year terms and re-elections rather than being a life position.
End of the Turco-Persian War of 1806-09 with a Persian defeat.
May - Pelletan arrives in Paris to deliver his report in person to Lisieux, only to find that L'Administrateur is nowhere to be found, and no-one can account for his location. Lisieux's disappearance will be an unsolved mystery to baffle the historians and conspiracy theorists of the future.
Bourcier seizes power, reverses most of Lisieux's constitutional changes and reconvenes the National Legislative Assembly, presided over by René Apollinaire.
June - Bourcier's new Republican regime delivers a plea to the western allies offering the crown to Louis XVII, seeking a bloodless transfer of power rather than suffer under the rhetoric-spewing Germans advancing from the east. Louis accepts and 50,000 allied troops march on Paris.
Russian force under Heinz Kautzman lands in Dieppe and heads towards the capital.
July - The British, Royal French, Americans and Irish occupy Paris and Louis is crowned King of all France.
Boulanger hears of the change of power, goes berserk and turns his remaining army around, planning one last quixotic attack in an attempt, if nothing else, to ensure the Revolution is remembered as something more than a bunch of pragmatic turncoats. He will march on Paris.
Philip Hamilton and James Wayne return to the Royal Africa Company as heroes.
August - On the 4th, the last and greatest battle of the Jacobin Wars is met before Paris. Eighty thousand Republican troops under Boulanger face fifty-five thousand Allied troops defending the city. It is the first major engagement in which both sides deploy steam cannon against each other. The Allies hold to breaking point, only to be rescued at the eleventh hour by Kautzman's Russo-Dano-Lithuanian force taking Boulanger's army in the rear. Seizing an opportunity in the thick of battle, Lord Mornington challenges Boulanger to a duel in a gamble to keep the French commander from reorganising his forces. Boulanger defeats him, but is shot down by Carolinian general John Alexander, who argues that the Jacobins long since abandoned any claim to be treated according to the laws of war and honour. General Trenet takes over the Republican remnants and surrenders. The war is over.
November - The Congress of Copenhagen is held in the eponymous Danish capital, in which the postwar settlement for Europe is hammered out. France escapes serious dismemberment, its only major loss being the Duchy of Lorraine detached by the Hapsburgs. The Russians possess disproportionate influence thanks to their key role at the Battle of Paris, and split off a "kingdom of Navarre" around Bayonne, under a Lithuanian noble, to effectively give themselves a warm-water port. A shaky Franco-Austrian pact, put together by the nations' foreign ministers, manages to exclude most of the north German states from possessing much influence at the Conference, forcing them to band together. Broadly, the status quo as of the closing stages of the war is allowed to serve as the peace.
Part 7: The Watchful Peace
1809-
1810:
February - Elections in the United Provinces of South America. Acting president-general Baquedano resigns in a Cincinnatian move, recognising his own lack of popularity for ending the war three years before. The elections are won by the new conservative Amarillo Party, rising from the core of the looser Reagrupamiento alliance which had ruled the country since 1807. The new President-General is Roberto Mateovarón. The opposition soon rallies as the progressive Colorado Party, led by the former general Luis Jaime Ayala Santa Cruz. A number of moderate deputies remain aloof from both political poles, being unofficially known as the Blanco Party.
March - The Congress of Copenhagen concludes.
April - While vetting former Republican officials for their suitability to continue service, the new French Royalist regime encounters Georges Galois, Lisieux's former colonial director, who advises that La Pérouse's Land be brought under direct control. Leo Bone agrees and a fleet under Admiral de Foix is dispatched.
May - Philip Hamilton and James Wayne visit the Kingdom of Benin and negotiate a trade with King Ogbebo of palm oil for modern European firearms.
1812:
January - Admiral de Foix arrives in La Pérouse's Land (Antipodea) and meets with the aged La Pérouse himself, bringing him back to France. Meanwhile, Europe reawakens to the fact that the matter of this colony must be dealt with.
August - Philip Hamilton and James Wayne set out upriver from Dakar in search of the fabled city of Timbuktoo. They eventually find it, but are discovered as non-Muslims, and only escape thanks to a friendly Ashanti minister being present.
1813:
March - Treaty of Blois divides Antipodea between the French south-east, British west and Dutch north.
August - British forces take Saint-Malo in Antipodea, renaming it New London and the surrounding colony New Kent. Some Republican diehards keep up a Kleinkrieger offensive in the hinterland, with native help.
1814:
October - La Pérouse finally returns to France and is honoured by King Louis XVII, dying a national hero a few months later.
1815:
January - Philip Hamilton and James Wayne return from their explorations of the African interior to find that their enemy Philip Lawrence has been building support among the RAC's board of directors.
1815:
February - Death of Thomas Space of old age. His partner Filling tries to name Philip Hamilton as his successor, but is overruled by Lawrence's dominance of the Board of Directors. Lawrence fobs Hamilton off with governorship of Natal, which Hamilton in turn gives to a subordinate, swears off African affairs, and finally returns to America.
1819:
January - The northern part of the British Antipodean colony of New Kent is split off as New Virginia in anticipation of American colonisation.
1823:
February - Virginian colonists arrive in New Virginia in Antipodea, establishing Norfolk as their capital.
Part 1: Before the POD
1688-1726
1688-1697
The War of the Grand Alliance, aka the 'Zeroth War of Supremacy' or King William's War, in which a grand alliance of powers fight France to a standstill and forms the framing for the Glorious Revolution.
1688
The First Glorious Revolution, in which the unpopular Catholic King James II of England and VII of Scotland is ejected from the country and replaced with William of Orange and his wife Mary, James' daughter.
1689
William and Mary crowned as co-monarchs with the assent of Parliament. Parliament passes "An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown", which sets down the British Bill of Rights and forms the basis of the British Constitution. Among other things, the Constitution severely limits the rights of Catholics, forbidding them the throne, the vote and public office.
1689-91
The Williamite War in Ireland, which results in the French and James II being ejected from Ireland, and the country brought under effective British control. The siege of Limerick ends the war, with the 'Flight of the Wild Geese' as many Irish nobles flee to Spain or France. The Treaty of Limerick guarantees Catholic rights, but is rejected by the Protestant-dominated Irish Parliament and Anti-Catholic laws are implemented, to much resentment among the Irish populace.
1694
Death of Queen Mary. All English judges wear black in mourning - and never stop. William rules as sole monarch.
1701
By the Act of Settlement, Parliament makes the heir to the throne after the childless Anne Electress Sophia of Hanover, although she dies before Queen Anne and so her son becomes George I.
1702
Death of William III of England after his horse stumbled over a molehill and he broke his collarbone, which became infected. Jacobites will ever after raise their glasses to 'the little gentleman in black velvet'. James II's second daughter Anne becomes Queen Regnant. End of the personal union between England, Scotland and Ireland and the Dutch Republic, as Willem Friso (no close relation to William III) becomes claimant Stadtholder William IV of the Netherlands. However not all the Dutch provinces recognise this, and so the Netherlands is Stadtholderless until 1747.
1707
The Act of Union is passed, which unifies England and Scotland as the [[timelines:Kingdom of Great Britain]]. The Act abolishes the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Royal Navy, and amalgamates them into their English counterparts.
Birth of Carolus Linnaeus in Sweden.
1701-1714 The War of the Spanish Succession, aka Queen Anne's War and the First War of Supremacy. England/Great Britain, the Netherlands, Austria Denmark, Portugal, Savoy, and the Aragonese vs. France, Bavaria, Hungarian rebels and the Castilians. The war is indecisive, with post-Hapsburg Spain receiving a Bourbon monarch but not entering personal union with France as Louis XIV had hoped. Territorial changes include: Britain receives Gibraltar and Minorca from Spain; Austria receives Naples, Sardinia, Milan and the Spanish Netherlands (the future Flanders; Savoy receives Sicily; British colonies in North America receive French Acadia and France gives up claim to Newfoundland and Rupert's Land.
1709
Attempted Jacobite rebellion under claimant James III Stuart is defeated by Sir George Byng. Future rebellions will instead be managed by James' son Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie).
1713
Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria, has no male heir. He issues a Pragmatic Sanction recognising his daughter, Maria Theresa, as heir, and makes all the powers of Europe agree to it. However, it will transpire that quite a lot of them had their fingers crossed behind their backs.
1714
Death of Queen Anne; George I, Elector of Hanover, becomes King of Great Britain and of Ireland. As he does not speak English, Parliament gains more real power during his reign.
In Virginia, the "First Wave of Germanna", as German Protestant religious refugees from the Rhineland and the Palatinate settle there.
1715
Death of Louis XIV; his great-grandson Louis, one of the few to survive a series of deaths in the French royal family in the late 17th century, becomes King Louis XV at the age of five, with Philippe, Duc d'Orléans as regent.
A Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland, led by the Earl of Mar, is crushed by Marshal Wade. More minor outbreaks in Cornwall and Northern England are also subdued.
1717
"Second Wave of Germanna" as more German refugees settle in Virginia.
1720
The South Sea Bubble. Excessive speculation in the South Sea Company causes an economic meltdown in the City of London. Parliament holds an inquiry and several prominent members of the current Whig government are forced to step down, leaving most of the power in the hands of Robert Walpole, the Paymaster of the Forces.
1721
Robert Walpole becomes the first Prime Minister of Britain, i.e. the first minister to dominate a government, although the term Prime Minister is considered vulgar and derisive for years afterward. His official titles are First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons, all united in one.
1722
Williamsburgh, Virginia, becomes the first city in Britain's North American colonies as it receives a royal charter.
Part 2: The Exile
1727-1749
1727
Death of King George I of Great Britain. His son becomes George II of Great Britain. Much like his father, he does not get on with his eldest son, Frederick. At George's coronation **(POD)** the King stumbles and falls and Frederick laughs at his father's public humiliation. This caps a series of violent disagreements from the two, with the result that George II disinherits Frederick, making his younger brother William the Prince of Wales, and sends him into exile to the North American colonies, giving him the sinecure of Lord Deputy of the Colonies.
In Virginia (which has not yet heard the news of Frederick's fall from grace), the new town of Fredericksburg, named in his honour, begins construction.
1728
Prince Frederick arives in Virginia (the "Third Wave of Germanna"). He decides to settle in the town named in his honour (Fredericksburg), at the quite modest house later known as Little St. James'.
1729
Treaty of Seville forbids British ships from trading with Spanish colonies in the Americas - it is very often violated. Spanish ships commonly stop British ones for inspection.
1730
Virginian House of Burgesses passes the Tobacco Inspection Act, which improves the quality of Virginian tobacco overall and places it in high demand in Europe. The scheme is the brainchild of William Gooch, the Royal Lieutenant-Governor (and de facto governor) of Virginia. Prince Frederick, a political ally of Gooch, invests heavily in tobacco plantations and uses the profits to build his still quite meagre funds.
With the assistance of British envoys, the Cherokee people of America politically unify under the leadership of the Chief of Tellico, who becomes Emperor Moytoy II.
1731
A particularly brutal inspection by the Spanish of a British ship in the Caribbean; the British captain, William Jenkins, has his ear cut off.
1732
A scandal almost breaks as Prince Frederick is found to have made Mildred Gregory (twice-widowed sister of the Virginian planter Augustine Washington) pregnant. It would ruin his chances of regaining the kingship if news broke out, so Frederick reluctantly agrees to marry her, and to restore the Washingtons' lost lands and titles in England if he becomes King, in order to keep Augustine quiet. The son will go on to become King George III.
In Sweden, Carolus Linnaeus travels to Lapland for his study of the local flora and fauna.
In Britain, the future Lord North is born. Due to Prince Frederick's disgrace, he is named William rather than Frederick as in OTL.
1733
Prince George Augustine of Cornwall, the future George III, is born. He is nicknamed George FitzFrederick by Williamites who do not recognise his father's marriage as legitimate.
In China, Hongli the Prince Bao, tipped to succeed his father the Yongzheng Emperor, dies when he drowns in a river.
1733-1738 The First War of the Polish Succession. France, Spain and Savoy vs. Russia, Austria and Saxony over whether the elected King of Poland-Lithuania should be Stanisław Leszczyński or Frederick Augustus II, Elector of Saxony (respectively). George II of Britain wants to enter the war, but Walpole refuses, and the infuriated King is only able to assist Austria via his position of Elector of Hanover. Walpole recovers some popularity in Britain thanks to his decision to stay out of the war. Although the French-led side wins, the Saxon becomes King Augustus III of Poland at the compromise peace settlement. Austria receives Tuscany and Palma but transfers Naples and Sicily to Don Carlos, the former Duke of Parma and future King Charles III of Spain. This is the beginning of the end for the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which decays under Augustus III's indifferent rule.
1734
Frederick tours the American colonies, while Mildred remains behind and gives birth to Princess Mildred, the future Queen of Denmark. He forms a political alliance with the Lieutenant-Governor of Pennsylvania, Patrick Gordon, and then becomes involved in New York politics, backing the "Morrisite" opposition party against the tyrannical Lieutenant-Governor William Cosby, a fierce Georgian loyalist. He also visits New England and writes about the questionable loyalties of the French-descended people in British Nova Scotia.
In Britain, Robert Walpole's majority is reduced after he attempts to introduce an unpopular customs and excise tax. A new opposition party, the Patriot Boys, is formed. They support Prince Frederick and are led by skilled political orators such as William Pulteney, William Pitt and George Grenville.
1735
Prince Frederick returns home to Virginia briefly, then tours the Carolinas before finally returning to Fredericksburg at the end of the year.
Linnaeus publishes his seminal work 'Systema Naturae' in the Netherlands. This is a controversial work, as it argues for a purely empirical system of classification, with no regard for the Great Chain of Being.
1738
When Robert Jenkins exhibits his pickled ear in a jar in the House of Commons, British outrage is such that even Robert Walpole gives in and declares war on Spain - the War of Jenkins' Ear, which bleeds into the War of the Austrian Succession.
1740-1748 The War of the Austrian Succession, aka the Second War of Supremacy. After Charles VI of Austria's death, the powers of Europe conveniently forget they agreed to the Pragmatic Sanction, and war is declared. Maria Theresa's accession is really just a casus belli, however - in truth the war is mainly about Prussia's desire to take Silesia from Austria. Prussia, France, Spain, Bavaria, Naples and Sicily, and Sweden vs. Austria, Britain, Hanover, the Netherlands, Saxony, Sardinia and Russia. The war sees Maria Theresa appeal for assistance to her Hungarian subjects and receive important levies - a contrast to the Hungarian rebellion against Joseph I in the War of the Spanish Succession - and the powers of Europe astonished by the performance of the Prussian army under Frederick II. The Prussians use powerful new drills and tactics, and deploy an entirely professional army, not using unreliable (but cheaper) mercenaries. This leads to Maria Theresa, and others, copying the Prussians to some extent.
1741
British general election reduces Robert Walpole's majority, especially in the rotten boroughs.
Admiral Edward Vernon, whose captain of Marines is Major Lawrence Washington (Augustine's elder son), is embarrassingly defeated in an attempted descent on the Spanish city of Cartagena-des-Indes in New Granada. This overshadows his earlier victory over the Spanish at Porto Bello in Darien.
Frederick II of Prussia wins an important victory at Mollwitz, bringing France and Sweden into the war on his side.
1742
Robert Walpole, his government having lost numerous constituencies in the 1741 General Election, resigns as Prime Minister and accepts a seat in the House of Lords as 1st Earl of Orford. He is succeeded by Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington, but real power rests with the Secretary of State for the Northern Department, John Carteret.
Admiral Vernon takes Guantanamo from Spain, but is eventually repulsed by Cuban irregulars.
The Battle of Bloody Fields sees the repulsion of a Spanish attack on Georgia by the local militias. However, Georgian/Carolinian attempts to take Spanish Flordia are equally inconclusive.
A poorly coordinated Franco-Saxon-Bavarian army under Marshal de Broglie manages to take most of Bohemia from Austria.
1743
Sweden knocked out of the war by Russia, which annexes parts of Finland; however Russia also leaves the war soon afterwards. Austria, backed by Hungarian levies, ejects the French and their allies from Bohemia. Britain enters the European war, blockading the Neapolitan fleet in port, while King George II goes to Hanover and raises an army, which he leads into battle personally (though his son William, Prince of Wales and Duke of Cumberland, acts as general).
The Anglo-Hanoverians meet the French, led by the Duc de Noailles, at Dettingen. Despite Noailles' superior generalship, George's forces win the battle, but George himself is killed.
Wilmington dies and is replaced by Henry Pelham as Prime Minister. Pelham shares power with his brother Thomas, the Duke of Newcastle.
Death of Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark in a riding accident, thus making his younger brother Christian the heir apparent to King Christian VI.
1744
In Oman, patriotic forces drive the Persians from the country and it becomes fully independent under the elected Imam Ahmed ibn Sayyid as-Sayyid. In TTL there is no Qais branch of the family and he is peacefully succeeded by his son Sayyid in time: Oman remains united.
1745
Prince William, now William IV, is defeated by Marshal Saxe at Fontenoy. He returns to Britain and puts down the Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland led by Bonnie Prince Charlie.
In North America New England forces, including Prince Frederick, take the fortress of Louisbourg from France.
Death of King Christian VI of Denmark; his second son succeeds him as Christian VII, and enacts a radical reform programme. Christian VII reverses his father's introduction of adscription (essentially serfdom), restores the Danish Diet to play off the commoners against the nobility, and sells off Denmark's overseas colonies to finance a new military buildup in the Baltic.
1746
French forces in India under La Bourdonnais take Madras from the British East India Company.
1747
French invasion of Austrian Netherlands leads to internal dissent in the Dutch Republic. A new settlement is established whereby the stadtholder of the provinces of Friesland and Gronigen becomes Stadtholder William IV, ending the stadtholderless period, and the office is also made hereditary, paving the way for a shift from oligarchic republic to monarchy.
British general election returns a shaky majority for the Pelhamites in the 10th Parliament of Great Britain.
In India, Dupleix attacks British-held Cuddalore, but is repulsed by an army under the British-allied Nawab of the Carnatic, Anwarooddin Mohammed Khan.
1748
Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle. Maria Theresa remains Holy Roman Empress, but Austria loses Silesia to Prussia and various territories in Italy to Parma and Sardinia. France returns the Austrian Netherlands to Austria, a highly unpopular move among the French people. King William IV of Britain agrees to return Louisbourg to France in return for Madras. However, this is equally unpopular with the Americans. Prince Frederick seizes his chance and, backed by American supporters who sign a Declaration of Right, claims the throne. The War of the British Succession begins.
Spain and Portugal enter negotiations aimed at refining the outdated zones of control in the Americas defined by the old Treaty of Torsedillas.
1749
January - Hearing of Frederick's claim, William invokes the Treason Act 1702 and imprisons some of Frederick's most prominent Patriot supporters. This clumsy response makes William less popular with the English people in general.
April - Williamite fleet, under the command of Admiral John Byng, sets sail for America;
Bonnie Prince Charlie leads a Jacobite fleet to Limerick in Ireland and starts a rising there against the absentee William. Fourth Jacobite Rebellion, including a minor rising in Scotland led by Lord Cosmo Gordon, which is rapidly crushed. Ireland, however, rages on.
August - cunning plan by Frederick leads to William being assassinated at range on the deck of Byng's flagship by American riflemen. Frederick smooths things over and the war fizzles out. Byng's fleet winters in America, having turned to Frederick.
In India, Dupleix supports Chanda Sahib in his attempt to overthrow Anwarooddin Mohammed Khan, the Nawab of the Carnatic (and latterly his son Mohammed Ali).
Part 3: King Frederick
1750-1760
1750
March - Byng's fleet, with Frederick and American troops, sets sail for the British Isles.
May - Death of King John V of Portugal. His son becomes King Joseph I of Portugal. He takes an interest in the stalled colonial negotiations with Spain, and real progress begins to be made.
June - Frederick, after hearing about the Irish rising, diverts the fleet to Cork and lands there, seizing towns from Jacobite forces, though Lawrence Washington initially fails to take Limerick.
July - Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Madrid, setting down new colonial borders in the Americas based on the 46th meridian. The key provision is that Portugal will exchange Sacramento for the Spanish Jesuit 'Seven Missions'.
September - Battle of Kilkenny. Frederick's forces win the day. Charles Edward Stuart dead, no serious Jacobite claimants left after James Francis Edward Stuart's death. End of Jacobitism in the British Isles.
November - Triumphal entry of Frederick and American forces into London. Frederick marches into Parliament and dissolves it. Calls a general election, set for February.
December - Frederick's coronation. For the first time this form of the royal title is used... Frederick the First, by the Grace of God King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Emperor of North America, Defender of the Faith, etc.
1751
February - British general election vanquishes the Pelhamite Whigs and returns a handy majority for the Patriots. William Pulteney becomes Prime Minister; William Pitt Secretary of State for the Southern Department; George Grenville for the Northern Department. 11th Parliament passes important acts such as the Act of Suppression (building roads in Scotland and Ireland to help put down further revolts), the Act of Succession (confirming Frederick as King but recognising William as William IV 'until his untimely death') and the Colonial Act, establishing the Empire of North America and some early institutions.
Peerages awarded to American supporters of Frederick, including Lawrence Washington becoming Marquess of Fredericksburg.
European powers reluctantly recognise Frederick's government. Frederick cancels William's signature on the Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle. France keeps Madras in protest, and many British soldiers die from tropical disease and neglect while in French captivity in Madras, including the unknown (in TTL) Robert Clive.
The proxy war continues in the Carnatic. Britain fails to take Arcot, and Chanda Sahib wins the civil war, becoming the new Nawab of the Carnatic. Henceforth French influence in the region is paramount and Britain rarely exerts much influence south of the Circars.
1753
King Frederick of Great Britain makes his first and only visit to Hanover.
Alarmed by French attempts to form alliances with the Indians of the Ohio Country, Iroquois leader King Hendrick approaches the Governor of New York, the Duke of Portland, for more Anglo-American assistance in repulsing French influence. Portland agrees and the Anglo-Iroquois alliance is cemented further.
The French build forts in Virginian-claimed Vandalia, at Fort Presque Isle and Fort Duquesne. Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, after meeting with Portland and the Lord Deputy, sends troops to eject the French from the Ohio Country.
1754
Lawrence Washington, despite his new lands, titles and House of Lords seat in Britain, chooses to return to America. This will set a precedent for later American nobles. The young George Washington remains in Britain and is tutored alongside George, Prince of Wales.
Dinwiddie's Virginian militiamen fail to take the French forts at Presque Isle and Duquesne. Because of this, the Virginian House of Burgesses passes reforms to improve the standard of militia military training, despite the ever-persistent Anglic fear of a standing army.
The Pulteney government in Britain signs a treaty with Prussia, known as 'Les Deux Frédérics' in France. This essentially amounts to the British abandoning their commitment to help Austria if Prussia attacks Silesia, in exchange for the Prussians agreeing to defend Hanover in the event of another German war. Austria and Britain have drifted apart since disagreements over accepting the Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle.
Carolus Linnaeus visits London and meets the young Joseph Priestley, who persuades him to publish his controversial theories about human evolution.
In South America, the Seven Jesuit Missions agree to move from the now Portuguese territory, but their Guarani Indian friends object. A short war between combined Portuguese and Spanish forces and the Guaranis, which results in the defeat of the Guaranis but causes bad blood between the Portuguese and Spanish.
In China, the Yongzheng Emperor dies and is succeeded by his son Hongshi the Prince Zhong, who becomes the Daguo Emperor. Daguo's reign is marked for a programme of building defensive fortifications, 'the Second Great Wall', against the Dzungars, and for the invasion of Burma.
1755
July - Corsican rebels finally eject the Genoese from the island, declaring an independent Republic (technically a kingdom, but with the throne occupied symbolically by the Virgin Mary).
November - the Great Lisbon Earthquake wreaks havoc in Portugal, and indeed across Europe, but is particularly devastating in the city for which it is named. Countless buildings destroyed and people made homeless. José de Carvalho e Melo, the Chief Minister, organises the recovery effort.
1756-1759[/b] The Third War of Supremacy, also known as the War of the Diplomatic Revolution. Britain, Prussia, Ireland, Hanover, Brunswick, Hesse-Kassell and the Empire of North America vs. France, Russia, Austria, Sweden, Naples and Sicily, and Sardinia. Eventual defeat for the British coalition in Europe with the dismemberment of Prussia, though Prussian army tactics continue to educate the world. Total British victory in North America. Minor French victory in India.
1756
May - the British East India Company in Bengal has built up a huge army with which to try and retake the lost cities from the French in the Carnatic. However, this army's existence has made their ally, Siraj-Ud-Daulah the Nawab of Bengal, nervous...
July - In India, Afghan leader Ahmad Shah Abdali conquers Delhi and marries his younger son Nadir to the daughter of his puppet Mughal Emperor Alamgir II.
August - Austria signs a formal alliance with France at Versailles - the 'Diplomatic Revolution', ending a century of Franco-Austrian enmity. In response, Britain declares war on France and Prussia invades Saxony. Start of the Third War of Supremacy.
October - After a lightning campaign by King Frederick II of Prussia, Saxony surrenders to the Prussians.
November - Pulteney announces a Cabinet reshuffle. George Grenville becomes Chancellor the Exchequer and Henry Fox takes over as Secretary of State for the Northern Department.
Frederick II of Prussia, having secured Saxony, launches an invasion of Bohemia.
December - death of Queen Mildred of Great Britain. King Frederick sinks into a depression from which he will never quite recover.
1757
February - Prince George of Wales disappears. Secretly takes up a commission in America under the name Ralph Robinson, fighting alongside George Washington.
French and allied Huron and Algonquin forces under Montcalm invade New York. After failing to be reinforced, the American Fort Frederick William surrenders to the French. However, the Algonquins, having different definitions of the rules of war, then perpetrate a looting and massacre on the British and American forces. This outrage increases the resolve of the American people to win the war, and more regiments and militias are raised.
May - Frederick II of Prussia retreats from Prague after an indecisive engagement with Austrian forces, deciding he does not have the troop numbers to hold the city.
French naval forces in the Mediterranean defeat British Admiral Edward Boscawen and take Minorca, which is later returned to Spain. Boscawen escapes court-martial but is effectively exiled to a West Indian command.
June - Siraj-Ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, betrays his British allies and takes Fort William at Calcutta in a surprise attack. British East India Company officers are trapped in the 'Black Hole of Calcutta', a tiny prison in which many die. Outrage among the Company and at home leads to an all-out attack on the Nawab's forces with the Company's new army, with the result that it is not deployed against the French.
September - Britain attempts a descent on the Isle d'Aix, as part of a strategy of tying up French troops with temporary landings on the French coast. The operation is an embarrassing and expensive failure, as shallow waters make it impossible to reinforce the British troops. Pitt refuses to authorise any more such operations.
The French East India Company takes Fort St David at Cuddalore, decisively ending British power in the Carnatic.
November - Frederick II of Prussia wins a brilliant victory against a numerically superior Austro-French army at the Battle of Rossbach.
December - The outnumbered Prussians under Frederick II win a second victory against Austria at the Battle of Leuthen.
1758:
February - Britain occupies French colonies in Senegal, West Africa.
June - Death of William Pulteney. King Frederick asks William Pitt to form a government. Henry Fox becomes Secretary of State for the Southern Department.
July - A Russian army under Pyotr Saltykov defeats the Prussians under von Wedel at the Battle of Paltzig. In Portugal, King Joseph I survives an assassination attempt, but the wound will trouble him for the rest of his life.
August - In Portugal, a plot by the Távora and Aveiro families against the King is discovered, giving Chief Minister Carvalho an excuse to execute many of their key members and make the rest flee into exile. Their lands are annexed to the Portuguese crown.
September - The British East India Company defeats the Nawab of Bengal's forces in a decisive campaign. The Nawab is killed during the final battle.
October - In a battle with Austria at Hochkirch, the Prussians are defeated and most of their artillery corps fall into enemy hands. The tide of war has begun to turn against King Frederick II.
1759:
The Annus Mirabilis, the Wonderful Year of Victories, in America.
May - the British East India Company takes Calcutta. The EIC seizes direct control over Bengal and parcels it out among a half-dozen puppet princes. End of the Nawabate.
July - Alaungpaya, Burmese King of Ava of the Konbaung Dynasty, conquers and annexes Pegu.
August - Frederick II of Prussia defeated by the Russians and Austrians at Kunersdorf, so decisively that he no longer cares for his own life and goes into battle himself, dying heroically after slaying many enemies.
The Hanoverians, neglected by Britain, are defeated at Minden by the French under the Marquis de Contades. However, the French invasion of Hanover stalls soon afterwards as their supply chains become overextended.
September - James Wolfe defeats Montcalm at Quebec, ending French control of Canada. "Ralph Robinson" is wounded and discovered to be Prince George in disguise. The unknown-in-TTL James Cook is killed in the battle. Wolfe is wounded but survives and is eventually made military governor of Canada.
With the death of Frederick II and the war turning against the Prussians, a newly confident Saxony re-enters the war and attacks Prussia.
October - King Frederick I of Great Britain begins to sicken from a lung infection.
November - a Prussian army is annihilated by the Austrians under Daun, at Maxen.
King Frederick William II of Prussia is a minor, and his uncle Prince Henry is regent. Henry believes the war is lost and sues for peace, knowing it will be harsh.
1760:
January - Treaty of Amsterdam, ending the Third War of Supremacy. This dismembers Prussia, returning Silesia to Austria and giving Cottbus, Liegnitz and the western possessions to Saxony. France fails to receive the Austrian Netherlands, again angering the French people. Britain/America receive the Ohio Country, Senegal and New France/Quebec from France, but the French retain Louisiana. Britain recognises French control of the Carnatic.
February - Death of Frederick I of Great Britain. Rapproachment with his son Prince George, soon to be George III, on his deathbed.
March - King Alaungpaya of Ava (in Burma) dies and is succeeded by his son Naungdawgyi. However, the Konbaung dynasty's rule is now disputed by General Myat Htun, who wants to restore the former Toungoo dynasty.
June - Treaty of Cedar Shoals between the Cherokee Empire and the Carolinian colonists. This is the official end to the Indian wars of the 1760s, which resulted in the virtual destruction of the Creek and Chickasaw nations, and formally divides their former lands between the Carolinians and their Cherokee allies.
Part 4: Frontier George
1761-1778
1761:
January - Third Battle of Panipat in India as Ahmad Shah Abdali's Muslim Afghans fight the Hindu Maratha Empire. The battle is a crushing victory for the Afghans, with the Marathas shattering into a loose confederacy that then begins a slow decline.
February - Seeking to pull France out of her war debts, King Louis XV appoints Étienne de Silhouette as Comptroller-General of Finances. Silhouette largely fails in his attempts to tax the rich, but does succeed in ensuring that French East India Company profits largely go into the royal treasury.
April - Death of King Ferdinand VI of Spain. He is succeeded by his son, who becomes King Charles III. Charles had formerly ruled in Naples and brings with him his chief minister, Bernardo Tanucci - though for the present he reappoints the Marquis of Ensenada as chief minister of Spain.
1762:
March - Death of Empress Elizabeth of Russia. She is succeeded by her nephew, who becomes Emperor Peter III.
April - Matters in Burma come to a head, as Myat Htun's Toungoo forces besiege Ava. The British East India Company offers assistance to the ruling Konbaung dynasty's King Naungdawgyi in exchange for greater trading privileges. Naungdawgyi accepts.
1763-1767: The First Platinean War. Spain fights Portugal; Britain enters the war on the Portuguese side. Little territorial change, but the Spanish failure to defend the Rio de la Plata from an Anglo-American invasion - while the Platineans defeat the Anglo-Americans by besieging them with their own militias and forcing them to retreat - contributes considerably to the growth of nationalism in South America.
1763
A Spanish invasion of Portugal fails, partly due to the Portuguese using scorched earth tactics and burning crops in order to starve the Spanish armies operating in Portugal.
The Konbaung forces in Burma, with BEIC assistance, eject Myat Htun's Toungoo forces from Ava. Myat Htun instead goes north, seeking Chinese help in gaining the throne.
1764
March - British and American troops, including the 51st and 52nd, invade Florida from what will become the Province of Georgia.
April - Lord Fairfax retires as Lord Deputy of North America. He is succeeded by Lord William North, the Earl of Guilford.
May - second Spanish invasion of Portugal begins. This will also be repulsed, this time partly due to a British expeditionary force assisting the Portuguese.
June - many German refugees fleeing religious persecution are settling in Russia, thanks to the Germanophile policies of Emperor Peter III. Among them are a Herr and Frau Kautzman, who settle in the Caucasus near Stavropol.
August - Anglo-Portuguese armies defeat the Spanish at Corunna and conquer Galicia.
1765
May - British expeditionary force under Admiral Marriott Arbuthnot lands in Rio de la Plata.
June - Arbuthnot's forces occupy Buenos Aires. In Saxony, Elector Frederick Augustus II, who is also King Augustus III of Poland, dies. He is succeeded by his son Frederick Christian I in Saxony, but the Poles reject him and their szlachta attempt to elect a new king. However, the Sejm is deadlocked.
July - Spanish armies in South America conquer the last of the Rio Grand de Sul (OTL Uruguay) from Portugal.
August - Anglo-Portuguese siege of Ciudad Rodrigo begins. In Lorraine, Duke Stanisław Leszczyński dies and his territories revert to the crown of France.
September - Spanish break the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, forcing the British and Portuguese to retreat.
October - Start of the Crisis of 1765. The American national consciousness has grown considerably due to the recent and ongoing wars. The various liberal political clubs in the major American cities, with the help of Lord North, call a new Albany Congress and elect a North Commission, which travels to London in order to petition the British Government for greater self-rule for the Emprie of North America. The Committee is led by Ben Franklin.
1766
April - Spanish attempt to retake Galicia from the Portuguese, but after some initial gains are defeated by the British near Santiago de Compostela and are repulsed again.
June - Arbuthnot's army in the Plate suffers its first major defeat, a considerable embarrassment to Britain, in a face-up battle with the Platinean militias as the British attempt to take the city of Rosario.
July - emboldened Portuguese and British armies besiege Badajoz. Start of the Polish Civil War as the Sejm is unable to agree on a compromise candidate for king from among the Polish szlachta itself. In Britain, William Pitt dies, receiving a state funeral (while his heir John Pitt receives staggering debts). King George III asks Charles Watson-Wentworth, the Marquess of Rockingham, to form a new Patriot-Whig government.
August - realising Spanish help is not forthcoming, the people of the Plate organise their own militias and begin attacking the British occupation forces, initially only in small groups. At this time, King Charles III of Spain is forced to flee into France due to food riots in Madrid; his troops soon put these down and he is able to return, but has suffered a considerable loss of face.
September - even without much support from other Spanish armies, the fortress city of Badajoz weathers and defeats the Anglo-Portuguese forces, who retreat to Elvas. In the Plate, the cautious Arbuthnot withdraws most of his troops to Buenos Aires. In Eastern Europe, Frederick William II of Prussia and Peter III of Russia sign a secret treaty aimed at the partition of Poland.
In China, the Daguo Emperor and his ministers agree to help Myat Htun return the Toungoo dynasty to the Avan throne.
October - a second Spanish invasion of Galicia wins a narrow, unconvincing victory, dislodging the Portuguese from most of the province but the Spanish armies being too badly gutted in the process to contemplate further offensive actions. Little movement on the Peninsular Front for the rest of the war.
November - the Americans finally succeed in their long siege of San Agustín, the capital and last redoubt of Spanish Florida. With its fall, the whole peninsula is now British/American-occupied. In Eastern Europe, negotiations begin between the Russo-Prussian alliance and Sweden to secure Swedish neutrality in the Polish war.
December - Buenos Aires besieged by Platinean militiamen.
1767-1771: The War of the Polish Partition. Russia and Prussia fight Austria, with some Poles and Lithuanians fighting on both sides as well as a confusion of private armies behind szlachta candidates for kingship. Russo-Prussian victory; the Commonwealth is divided at the Treaty of Stockholm, which gives Ruthenia to Russia, Krakow to Austria and Royal Prussia and southern Ducal Prussia to Prussia. The remainder of Poland is placed in personal union with Prussia, while Lithuania is separated and the Tsarevich of Russia, Paul, is made Grand Duke as Povilas I.
1767
February - in the Plate, Arbuthnot orders his infamous retreat and abandons Buenos Aires to the Platineans, who raise the Burgundian cross flag in triumph.
March - the Treaty of Copenhagen ends the First Platinean War, signed on the 17th. Spain concedes Florida to the Empire of North America; all other borders status quo ante.
April - Austria enters the Polish Civil War, producing a Hapsburg candidate and occupying Krakow as a necessary first step to Warsaw.
May - Prussia and Russia declare war on Austria. Meanwhile, the Corsican Republic takes the island of Capraia from Genoa, which decides to give up its claim to Corsica and sell it to the French.
June - the Spanish chief minister, the Marquess of Ensenada, is exiled in disgrace to South America due to the lost war. He eventually goes to Buenos Aires and helps start up the radical Porteño school of political thought there. He is replaced with Richard Wall, a Hiberno-Spaniard.
July - in Russia, the Kautzmans' young son Heinrich is kidnapped in a Cossack raid. He will be raised by Yemelyan Pugachev, the Cossack leader.
October - Parliament of Great Britain debates whether to grant further powers of self-government to the Empire of North America. Patriot-Whigs for; Tories against.
1768:
March - In America, the Georgian colonial government apparatus collapses after Savannah is sacked by the Chickasaw Indians. Georgia is reabsorbed into South Carolina, which will eventually itself reunify with North Carolina.
May - the French Army invades Corsica.
June - In Burma a Chinese army, coupled with Toungoo-aligned Burmese forces, marches on Konbaung-controlled Ava.
1769:
April - Death of King Joseph I of Portugal. He is succeeded by his daughter Maria as Queen Maria I, later known as Maria the Mad. She rules as co-monarch with her husband Peter (Pedro) III.
May - Queen Maria of Portugal dismisses the Chief Minister, José de Carvalho e Melo, and replaces him with a stream of incompetent favourites. Carvalho goes into exile in Brazil, eventually moving to Buenos Aires to be with the Porteños.
June - The French army concludes the conquest of Corsica, though some Republican holdouts remain under the leadership of Filippo Antonio Pasquale de Paoli. Corsica will, however, be a poisoned apple for Bourbon France, as Corsican republican ideas will spread back to France via the French troops stationed there.
August - Carlo Buonaparte, a Corsican Republican leader, flees to Britain with his family. He anglicises his name to Charles Bone and converts to Anglicanism so he may read a law degree at Cambridge.
September - The Chinese and Toungoo forces successfully eject the Konbaungs from Ava. King Naungdawgyi is killed in the siege of Ava-town. The Chinese break up Burma in order to better enforce their will: the Toungoo dynasty, in the form of King Mahadammayaza, is restored to a rump Avan state, with Myat Htun as eminence grise. Pegu and Ayutthaya (a Thai state) are freed from Avan control and become direct Chinese vassals. One of Naungdawgyi's brothers, Minhkaung Nawrahta, creates an independent state out of his viceroyalty of Tougou and plays off the Chinese against the British.
November - Another brother of King Naungdawgyi, Hsinbyushin, takes what remains of the Konbaung forces south and west and invades and occupies Arakan, overthrowing the native rulers. A new state, Konbaung-Arakan, is formed and swiftly becomes an ally of the British.
1770:
July - Accession of King Hyojang of Corea. He reverses some of the policies of his predecessor Yeongjo, tolerating the practice of Catholicism and the Silhak Movement, led by Jeong Yak-yong, which combines Neo-Confucianism and Corean nationalism with some Christian ideas.
October - effective end of the War of the Polish Partition after defeat of the Austrian Army of Silesia by the Prussians and the retreat to Krakow on the eastern front. It will take months for the politicians to negotiate a treaty, however.
November - death of Joseph François Dupleix, Governor-General of the French East India Company. He is succeeded by Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau. This is largely an attempt by Paris, invoking Silhouettiste policies, to place more central royal control over the FEIC - Rochambeau is the King's man.
1771
January - Treaty of Stockholm ends the War of the Polish Partition. Austria, Prussia and Russia all annex some territory (Krakow, Royal and southern Ducal Prussia and Ruthenia respectively) while the rump Poland becomes a kingdom in personal union with Prussia, and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is placed under the Russian Tsarevich.
March - after much wrangling, the North Commission publishes the 'North Plan' for the Empire of North America, popularly known as 'One Empire and Five Confederations'. This will be the basis for the American Constitution.
1772-1774 First Mysore-Haidarabad War between Mysorean and FEIC forces on one side and Haidarabad and BEIC forces on the other. This particular war results in a minor Mysorean victory.
1772
February - Emperor Peter III of Russia's wife Catherine makes a failed coup attempt involving the collusion of the Leib Guards. After securing his position and purging the Guards, Peter sends her into exile at Yekaterinburg.
April - In Austria, the demands of the last two wars coupled to some unwise speculation lead to an economic crash. Austrian policy in the Germanies is weakened for a decade or so as the treasury struggles to recover, though Austrian interference in northern Italy continues apace.
August - Moritz Benyovsky, a Slovakian leader of one of the Polish patriotic brigades, flees the destruction of his force by the Prussians and ends up in Lithuania, where he joins the newly reformed Lithuanian Army.
September - Death of Louis XV of France, who dies a deeply unpopular man due to his habit of returning conquered provinces after wars and for failing to reform the French tax system. He is succeeded by his son the Dauphin, Louis-Ferdinand, as King Louis XVI.
November - France's King Louis XVI approves the revival of stalled research into Nicholas-Joseph Cugnot's steam-tractor technology.
1773
March - With the death of Richard Wall, Charles III of Spain appoints his old Neapolitan chief minister, Bernardo Tanucci, as chief minister of Spain. The hardline anti-clericalist Tanucci swiftly proves unpopular, especially in Spain's colonial possessions.
April - John Pitt enlists in the BEIC as a cornet of cavalry.
May - Birth of Aleksandr Potemkin, son of Grigory Potemkin and Empress Catherine of Russia (at least, it is alleged).
June - In Persia, Shah/Advocate Abol Fath Khan defeats the Qajars in Mazanderan. The Qajar leader, Agha Mohammed Khan, is killed in the battle. The future of Zand Persia is secured.
July - Death of Ahmad Shah Abdali, the great Afghan conqueror, from cancer exacerbated by constant travel in his campaigns. The Afghans call a Loya Jirga which splits the Durrani Empire, the Afghan domains going to his first son Timur and the Indian ones to his second son Nadir, who becomes Emperor of the Neo-Mughal Empire.
1774:
February - Carl Wilhelm Scheele, the Swedish apothecary and chemist, begins his research into lufts [gases]. This will eventually result in the discovery of elluftium [oxygen] and illuftium [nitrogen], as well as a gas known as 'scheelium' at the time which will one day be identified as murium [chlorine]. This is more or less as OTL, but in OTL Scheele's discoveries were never widely publicised.
April - Pavel Lebedev-Lastoschkin, out of Yakutsk, leads a Russian trade expedition to Edzo [Hokkaido], northernmost island of Japan. He is rebuffed by the local Matsumae Han, who indicate they have no authority from the Shogun to conclude such deals and that trade with Japan is only available via Nagasaki. This is unreasonably far away from the Russian ports, and a disappointed Lebedev returns to Yakutsk.
July - Charles Bone receives his doctorate in law from the University of Cambridge and he founds a law practice in London, specialising in defending Catholics from employers who abuse the Test Acts.
1775
January - Birth of Ivan Potemkin.
May - John Acton, a Briton in service with the Tuscan navy, distinguishes himself in an action against Algerine pirates at Algiers itself, in cooperation with the French and Spanish. Soon afterwards, his fame leads him to to leave the Tuscans and go to Naples, where he is employed in reorganising the Neapolitans' own outdated naval forces.
1776:
March - after months of argument between their representatives, the New England colonies of the ENA are amalgamated into the Confederation of New England, with its capital at Boston. This is the first of the Five Confederations to be formally created.
April - Exiled Emperor of Daiviet Le Cung Tong appeals to the Daguo Emperor of China for help in regaining his throne; Daguo agrees.
July - Irish-born war veteran and MP Anthony St. Leger, together with the Prime Minister the Marquess of Rockingham, sets up the St. Leger Stakes, a series of high-stakes horse races, in Doncaster. Rockingham's patronage soon provokes much interest in the stakes from the Westminster political establishment.
1777
Charles Bone's son Leo (Napoleone Buonaparte) enters the Royal Navy as a midshipman and serves on HMS Ardent.
1778-1781 Second Mysore-Haidarabad War between Mysorean and FEIC forces on one side and Haidarabad and BEIC forces on the other. Haidarabad takes back Mysore's gains in the last war, but the BEIC loses influence at the Nizam's court due to mishandling by the British resident there.
1778:
Carl Wilhelm Scheele discovers elluftium [oxygen].
The Qing Chinese army defeats the Nguyen Lords of Daiviet at Than Hoa, restoring Emperor Le Cung Tong to his position as a Chinese puppet ruling northern Daiviet (Tonkin) while the Nguyens are left with the south (Cochinchina).
Part 5: The Age of Revolution
1779-1799
1779-1785: The Second Platinean War. Spain and (theoretically) France vs. Peruvian Indian rebels, Platinean and Chilean colonial rebels, Britain and America, and (unofficially) Portugal. Defeat of the Bourbons with the creation of what will become the UPSA, although Britain suffers some embarrassing naval defeats in the process.
1779:
José Gabriel Condorcanqui, taking the name Tupac Amaru II as Sapa Inca of the Tahuantinsuyo, shoots the tyrannical Spanish Governor of Peru, Antonio de Arriaga, and begins the Great Andean Rebellion. The rest of the year sees an unsuccessful attempt by the colonial authorities to quell the revolt.
1780:
Linnaeus' Taxonomy of Man is published posthumously, in which he argues that man is simply another of the primates. The book causes an uproar, but its impact on natural history and theology is somewhat overshadowed by the fact that the chapters dealing with the different races of men become the kernel of the ideology of Linnaean Racism.
The American Squadron is created by the Royal Navy, a kernel of the later Imperial Navy.
On Christmas Day, Tupac Amaru II takes Cusco from the Spanish colonial authorities and has himself formally coronated.
1781
February - Forces of the Viceroyalty of Peru fail to retake Cusco from Tupac Amaru II's rebelling Indians.
May - In Upper Peru (OTL Bolivia) Tomas Katari, another Indian rebel leader, is defeated before La Paz and, pursued by Spanish regulars, retreats into Lower Peru. He combines his forces with Tupac Amaru II's, strengthening them.
June - In India, after many failed rebellions against the Durrani Afghans, the Sikhs finally win their independence.
August - In Lithuania, Grand Duke Povilas (the future Emperor Paul of Russia) institutes a new shipbuilding programme, known as the Patriotic Fleet as it embodies the idea of a Lithuania which has its own independent forces and is not merely a vassal of Russia.
1782:
January - Carl Wilhelm Scheele publishes, in Swedish, his work on gases. Because of Linnaeus' controversies resulting in many leading European thinkers learning Swedish to read his work in the original, Scheele's discoveries become widely known about.
March - King Louis XVI launches a French expedition to South America, although at the time of launch, it is still unclear which side he is supporting in the war there. The expedition is led by Admiral de Grasse and the Duc de Noailles.
April - The Africa Bubble scandal results in the resignation of the Marquess of Rockingham as Prime Minister of Great Britain. He is replaced by the Duke of Portland, but real power rests in the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Edmund Burke. The ruling Patriot party shifts to the left slightly and renames itself the Liberal Whigs.
May - Birth of Philip Hamilton (son of Alexander Hamilton) in New York City.
August - the French expedition reaches the Plate. The Spanish have told their colonists that the French are their allies, while the French believe that they are there to attack the Spaniards in their moment of weakness, due to crossed wires at the French foreign ministry. The result is a bloody occupation of undefended Buenos Aires by Noailles' army, with the Platineans bitterly blaming the Spanish for the incident. This is amplified by Spanish propaganda praising (invented) victories by the French against Tupac Amaru II.
1783
January - Beginning of the Southern Rebellion, as the Rio de la Plata and Chile both rise in revolt against the Spanish. The Platineans begin building up their old militias again around cadres of veterans of the First Platinean War, and attack the French - initially without much success, as Noailles' forces are numerous and well-equipped.
February - Britain and the ENA enter the war in support of the Platinean rebels, hoping for expanded trade rights with any postwar independent state.
March - Tupac Amaru II takes Lima from the Spanish, but has trouble holding the strongly pro-Spanish city down.
April - Midshipman Leo Bone passes his lieutenantcy examination in Gibraltar. The new lieutenant is reassigned to HMS Raisonnable, where he first meets Lieutenant Horatio Nelson.
May - Maximilian III Wittelsbach, Elector of Bavaria, dies without issue. The electorate passes to Charles Theodore Sulzbach, Elector Palatine. Charles Theodore concludes a deal with the Austrians to swap Bavaria for the Austrian Netherlands, which now become the Duchy of Flanders. Bavaria is integrated into Austria (not very popular with the Bavarians) while Charles Theodore retains the Palatinate as well as Flanders. Although the Prussians would like to declare war over this (as in OTL), they are too busy trying to hold down the latest Polish rebellion to respond.
July - Anglo-American fleet under Admiral Howe defeats de Grasse at the Battle of the River Plate. The British fleet lands an army of mostly American troops led by General George Augustine Washington, who joins up with the Platinean rebels in order to attack the French in Buenos Aires.
September - Franco-Spanish fleet assembles at Cadiz to escort fresh troops to South America. The fleet is ambushed by Admiral Augustus Keppel in the Battle of Trafalgar, which is a shock defeat for the Royal Navy. Keppel is court-martialled and resigns in disgrace. However, the RN has destroyed enough French and Spanish troopships in order that the expedition is called off.
1784-1786 Third Mysore-Haidarabad War between Mysorean and FEIC forces on one side and Haidarabad and BEIC forces on the other. Due to poor communications between the BEIC and Haidarabad, the Mysoreans win a significant victory with blatant French help. The Nizam ejects the French from the Northern Circars in response and puts the British in charge there. The BEIC fights off the French and the British-Haidarabad alliance is subsequently strengthened.
1784:
March - Having caught wind of reports that the Franco-Spanish intend to occupy Malta, the Royal Navy quickly makes its move first and turn the island into what will become an important British naval base. Controversy is sparked throughout Europe at this preemptive strike, even though the British allow the Knights of St John to carry on in a ceremonial role.
April - the Spanish retake Lima from Tupac Amaru II.
May - Disintegration of Franco-Spanish common policy as Louis XV attempts to use the Royal Navy's defeats as an opportunity to invade England. The French armies have still not assembled by the end of the war.
June - Start of the Canadian Rebellion (by Quebecois) against Britain and America.
The rebels in Rio de la Plata announce the abolition of slavery.
July - A French fleet commanded by the Comte d'Estaing, Jean-Baptiste Charles Henri Hector, defeats the British in a dramatic but largely meaningless victory at the naval Battle of Bermuda.
August - Anglo-American siege of New Orleans defeated by the colonial French.
1785:
February - Anglo-American-Platinean-Chilean combined forces take La Paz from the Spanish.
May - after a complicated amphibious invasion from Florida, American (mainly Carolinian) troops take Havana in Cuba.
Michael Hiedler, third son of a Bavarian printer, moves to Lower Austria in order to seek his fortune by enlisting in the Austrian army.
July - Canadian Rebellion crushed by British and New England troops. This revolt will result in Britain ceasing its policy of appeasing Quebecois interests, instead giving a green light to the New Englanders to settle the land. Many Quebecois are forcibly ejected, or choose to leave, and eventually go to Louisiana, where they become known as Canajuns.
August - signing of the Treaty of London, ending the Second Platinean War. A severe defeat for Spain, which is forced to concede the independence of what will become the UPSA with the loss of a third of its colonial empire. The ENA retains Cuba, although its exact status remains up in the air for the moment. France loses little on paper, just the largely unpopulated hinterland of Louisiana, but has drained its treasury, and this will have severe consequences...
September - King Charles III of Spain forced once again to flee to France as the mob rules the streets of Madrid. Bernardo Tanucci is killed in the violence. When Charles returns, with the help of French troops, he is forced to appoint the liberal reformer José Moñino y Redondo, conde de Floridablanca, as chief minister.
October - British chemist Joseph Priestley publishes On the Nature of Phlogiston, in which he attempts to reconcile the established phlogiston-based theory of combustion with Scheele's discovery of illuftium [oxygen].
November - Admiral Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse sets out on a voyage of discovery financed by the King of France. The voyage included La Pérouse's new flagship, d'Estaing, followed by four frigates and a supply ship.
1786 March - John Pitt achieves a Colonelcy in the BEIC army.
May - Death of King Peter III of Portugal in a hunting 'accident'. He is shot down in front of Queen Maria, who is driven mad by the experience. Within a year, power passes to her son, who becomes Peter IV.
June - An attempt by the French East India Company to conquer the town of Masoolipatam, in the Northern Circars, is defeated by the British East India Company and Haidarabad. John Pitt fights heroically at the battle, is wounded, and achieves fame and fortune.
August - Lieutenant Leo Bone is promoted to Master and Commander, and is given the almost obsolete 28-gun frigate Coventry. He is soon marked out as a man to watch by the Royal Navy as he transforms the ship and its crew into a lethal fighting machine with a mixture of discipline, charisma, and unorthodox tactical ideas.
December - La Pérouse's fleet reaches Easter Island and the Galapagos. Lamarck and Laplace, who accompanied the voyage, observe the wildlife of the Galapagos, eventually resulting in their landmark book for Linnaeanism, Observations on the Fauna of the Iles Galapagos.
1787
Death of King Christian VII of Denmark. He is succeeded by his son, who becomes King Johannes II.
Death of the Daguo Emperor of China. He is succeeded by his third son Yongli, who becomes the Guangzhong Emperor.
1788:
March - George III returns to North America.
July - King George III, in his capacity as Emperor George I of North America, opens the first Continental Parliament.
August - Lithuanian Patriotic Fleet, carrying ambassador Moritz Benyovsky, visits the Empire of North America as part of its flying-the-flag world tour.
1789-1791 Fourth Mysore-Haidarabad War between Mysorean and FEIC forces on one side and Haidarabad and BEIC forces on the other. Both sides fight hard and competently in the last of the Mysore-Haidarabad Wars. In the end, Tippoo Sultan of Mysore emerges with a victory, having taken Carnool and Guntoor from Haidarabad.
1789
March - The British Admiralty grants American shipyards the right to build ships of war for the Royal Navy.
June - The Great Famine strikes France. A failure by the King's government to respond coherently, coupled with the fact that the nobles continue to eat well, stokes the resentment of the French people towards the royal system.
July - In Portugal, a plot by the Duchess of Lafões against Peter IV is uncovered; Peter's response is another round of executions and land confiscations, further cowing the Portuguese nobility vis-a-vis royal power.
Maverick Chinese general Yu Wangshan defeats an attempt by the exiled Burmese Konbaung dynasty, led by Avataya Min, to retake Ava from the Chinese-backed Toungoo dynasty. The Guangzhong Emperor, fearing Yu's alignment with neo-Manchu political factions, exiles him to the eastern forts of the "New Great Wall".
August - In North America, the Continental Parliament passes the Anti-Transportation Act, barring the forced transportation and settlement of British convicts in areas claimed by American colonies.
HMS Raisonnable, under the command of Captain Robert Brathwaite, visits Naples. Her first lieutenant, Horatio Nelson, meets Sir John Acton. Nelson is initially offended by Acton's career of fighting for the Mediterranean powers rather than his British homeland.
October - General Assembly of New England passes a law abolishing slavery by gradual manumission.
1790
February - Convention of Cordoba establishes the [[United Provinces of South America]].
March - John Pitt becomes Governor-General of the BEIC (based in Calcutta).
April - Peter IV of Portugal revives the Cortes, using the commoners as another stick to beat the nobility into line with.
May - China under the Guangzhong Emperor begins tightening trade restrictions with Europeans in Canton, irritating the various East India Companies.
June - The Continental Parliament of North America passes a bill instituting an American Special Commissioner to be sent to Britain and Consuls to be sent to France and Spain, essentially a backdoor project for exploring the possibility of independent American ambassadors.
1791
April - Death of Grigory Potemkin, former lover of Empress Catherine of Russia.
May - British general election returns a majority for the ruling Portland Ministry, in which real power rests in Edmund Burke. The ruling party is known as the Liberal Whigs, while Charles James Fox's Radical Whigs also increase their vote share.
Imitating his idol the Kangxi Emperor, the Guangzhong Emperor of China has his wayward son and heir Baoyu stripped of his position and relegated to a lowly position in an attempt to teach him humility; however, Baoyu hangs himself, the Empress dies from a miscarriage upon hearing the news, and Guangzhong withdraws into seclusion with only two heirs, Baoli and Baoyi, left.
July - France is thrown into a panic due to rumours that a comet is due to strike the country.
At the height of a cursory Austro-Wallachian war, cavalryman Michael Hiedler is slightly wounded, decorated, and given the noble title of Edler von Strones. He settles near the village of Strones, marries, and fathers two children.
August - Persecuted by an angry mob for his radical political sympathies, Joseph Priestley flees Britain for the United Provinces of South America, where he will set up a very profitable soda water business.
September - HMS Coventry is paid off. Commander Leo Bone, taking most of his crew with him, is made post and given command of the frigate HMS Diamond.
1792
May - A joint Russo-Lithuanian mission, commanded by Moritz Benyovsky and Pavel Lebedev-Lastoschkin, sets off for Okhotsk from the Baltic the long way around, assisted by Dutch navigators.
June - Captain Horatio Nelson, commanding HMS Habana, visits Naples for the second time. Sir John Acton is now effectively the prime minister of King Charles VI and VIII, and Nelson reaches a rapproachment with him. He also meets the King's daughter, Princess Carlotta, for the first time. Their relationship is debated but she begins to argue for Nelson's interests at court.
August - Death in exile of Empress Catherine of Russia, wife of Peter III.
1793
February - La Pérouse and his crew return to France after their first epic exploration of La Pérouse's Land [Australia]. Hoping to gain popular support from a national project, King Louis XVI agrees to fund a colonial venture there.
May - Captain Leo Bone and the HMS Diamond become famous for a hard-fought action against Algerine pirates off Malta.
Chinese heir Baoli is becoming as wayward as his dead brother; on prime minister Zeng Xiang's advice, the Guangzhou Emperor sends him to Mongolia under General Tang Zhoushou to have his ways beaten out of him on the frontier.
June - Richard Wesley, who had fought in India for the BEIC against Burmese-Arakan and Mysore, returns home to Ireland as his father has died. He is now the Earl of Mornington.
July - The rejuvenated British Royal Africa Company, under Simcoe in Dakar, intervenes in the Koya-Susu War on the Koya side - in exchange for the Koyans ceding the Company key land, which becomes the site of the freed-slave black colony of Freedonia.
La Pérouse, with more ships and carrying the natural philosophers Lamarck and Laplace, sets off once more from France for La Pérouse's Land.
August - Death of Abol Fath Khan, Shah-Advocate of Persia, from an illness. He is succeeded by his younger brother, who becomes Shah-Advocate Ali Zand Shah.
Chinese General Tang Zhoushou is called to Xinjiang to take advantage of the collapse of the Dzungars by the Kazakhs attacking from the west. However, he dies of a stomach ulcer, and his army - including the prince Baoli - comes under the commander of Yu Wangshan.
September - French Revolutionary thinker Jacques Tisserant, known as Le Diamant for his incorruptibility, publishes La Carte de la France, his pictorial manifesto for a new moderate and egalitarian French state.
1794:
February - The French Sans-Culottes, led by Le Diamant, march on the Palais de Versailles to present their demands to the King. Le Diamant's charisma and general discontent mean that the palace guards refuse to fire on the crowd. Louis XVI gives in and agrees to recall the Estates-General. The French Revolution has begun.
March - The Imperial Mint, in Fredericksburg, mints the first golden Emperors. These coins, worth one British pound each, are intended to replace the Spanish dollar as the main currency of the Empire of North America.
In Oceania, La Pérouse's fleet arrives in La Pérouse's Land, in the region called New Gascony [OTL New South Wales/Victoria], and founds the town of Albi, starting the colony.
April - Act of Settlement (in North America) sees New England give up its westward expansion claims in exchange for the right to settle Canada with no restrictions.
July - The recalled French Estates-General conclude that their existing mediaeval system is inadequate, and create a National Constitutional Convention. The Third Estate renames itself the Communes.
August - Anglo-American agreement results in Michigan being turned into a penal colony, later known as Susan-Mary.
October - the Benyovsky-Lebedev Russo-Lithuanian mission sights Nagasaki from a distance, but does not land.
December - the French National Constitutional Convention publishes its constitution, abolishing the Estates-General and replacing them with a new National Legislative Assembly. The Kingdom of France and Navarre becomes the Kingdom of the French People of the Latin Race, a constitutional monarchy.
1795-1796 The Flemish War. Name for the early phase of the Franco-Austrian front of the Jacobin Wars, when the battleground was primarily Flanders and northeastern France. Revolutionary France vs. Austria, French royalists, Piedmont-Sardinia, and German allies from the various states of the Holy Roman Empire. Result: stalemate.
1795:
January - French Constitution comes into force. The Comte de Mirabeau becomes chief minister and struggles to implement it in the face of opposition from the nobles and the Church.
February - Benyovsky-Lebedev mission lands in Okhotsk.
March - The Dauphin of France, Louis-Auguste, travels to Navarre in order to sort out the implications of the new constitution there. Thus he is not present in Paris when subsequent events occur.
Pennsylvania Confederal Assembly abolishes both slavery and the slave trade.
April - Death of the Comte de Mirabeau. France is plunged into a constitutional crisis. The moderates in the NLA favour Jacques Necker as new chief minister while the Jacobin radicals put forward Jean-Baptiste Robespierre.
May - King Louis XVI decides on Jacques Tisserant (Le Diamant) as a compromise candidate for chief minister. However, a miscommunication means that when Le Diamant is sent for, troops arrive to escort him and this is mistaken for Le Diamant being arrested. In the ensuing riot, Le Diamant is accidentally shot, and the radical Jacobins quickly play upon the popular outrage at this to launch the new violent phase of the French Revolution.
A few days later, with most of the French Army defecting to the Jacobins and Sans-Culottes, the Marshal of France Phillipe Henri, the Marquis de Ségur, takes loyal troops and fortifies the Bastille, intending to bring the King there to keep him safe from the mob, but it is too late for this. The Sans-Culottes arrest the royal family, and radical Jacobin troops led by Georges Hébert manage to take the Bastille from Ségur. Ségur is brutally beheaded by an unknown Revolutionary soldier who becomes the iconic image, L'Épurateur.
On the 15th, the King is executed after a show trial, by the new 'Rational' means of phlogistication in a gas chamber.
By coincidence, on the same day in India, Nana Fadnavis, chief minister to Peshwa Madhavarao Narayan of the Maratha Confederacy, is assassinated. The loss of his administrative abilities means the young Madhavarao struggles to contain a rebellion led by the pretender Raosaheb.
July - The Parliament of Great Britain debates responses to the French Revolution as its takes this new radical turn. The ruling Portland-Burke Ministry is strongly opposed to the Revolution, while the Radical Whigs under Fox favour it.
In the Pacific, Lebedev and Benyovski set off for Edzo again, but are blown off course, are unable to find the Matsumae Han, and their ship is wrecked in the north of the island. They are attacked by the native Aynyu [Ainu], but Benyovsky makes a parley and is able to convince the Aynyu to trade supplies and protection so that the ship may be repaired for some of the European goods it carries. Including guns.
August - Execution by phlogistication of Marie-Antoinette, wife of the Dauphin of France (who has fled to Spain from Navarre). Austria declares war on Revolutionary France in support of the exiled Dauphin.
The French mob targets the British Ambassador and American Consul, Frederick Grenville and Thomas Jefferson respectively. Grenville is badly wounded but escapes; Jefferson is killed. This provokes outrage in London and Fredericksburg.
In India, Raosaheb's forces (backed by the Nizam of Haidarabad) run Madhavarao Narayan out of Pune and he flees to Raigad, where he seeks help from the Portuguese East India Company.
September - First Austrian troops cross into French territory from Flanders and Baden. Furious battles against Revolutionary levies begin almost immediately.
The Parliament of Great Britain votes to declare war on France (by 385 to 164), although this news will not reach the Mediterranean for a while.
On the 17th, Royalist Toulon is besieged by Revolutionary armies led by Adam Phillipe, the former Comte de Custine. The French fleet there is led by the indecisive Comte d'Estaing, who hesitates over whether to fight or cleave to the new regime. He sends some of his forces to Corsica in order to bring back more supplies to relieve the siege, but exposure to Revolutionary ideas means that a large part of this force mutinies. Leo Bone, whose crew is having shore leave in Corsica, learns of the events in Toulon.
October - Leo Bone goes to Toulon and successfully cons Admiral d'Estaing into believing that the British have concluded a deal with the Dauphin to fight the Revolutionaries and restore the throne, so the Royalist French fleet must go to Corsica and join with the British. Bone had intended to pull off the largest and most bloodless prize-taking ever, but is suprised to learn that his lie has become the truth by the time the fleet reaches Corsica. This is due to the implementation of the 'Burke Strategy', Edmund Burke's plan to support French royalists and not snatch their colonies - arguing that the French Republic is too dangerous to allow to exist, even if it means allying with Britain's old enemy Bourbon France.
The Sans-Culotte levies of the French Revolutionary army are defeated by General Johannes Mozart and his Austro-German army at the Battle of Laon. Mozart's army occupies Maubeuge.
Colonel Ney swiftly rises to prominence as he commands a fighting retreat against a second Austro-German army in the Col de Sauverne, in Lorraine.
Death of Emperor Peter III of Russia. He is legally succeeded by his son, who steps down as Grand Duke Paul I of Lithuania to become Emperor Paul I of Russia. However, this is contested by the brothers Potemkin.
In India, Portuguese EIC forces under João Pareiras da Silva attack Raosaheb's forces with the intention of restoring Madhavarao to the Peshwa-ship.
In Oceania, La Pérouse visits the Mauré for the second time, learning that the muskets the French sold them before have dramatically changed the pattern of warfare there, catapulting the Tainui to dominance, while they are opposed by the Touaritaux-Touaux Alliance. In order to help feed the new colony, the French give the Tainui not merely guns but the secret of making them, in exchange for crops and seed.
November - Continental Parliament votes 46-9 in favour for an American declaration of war on France.
In France, Pierre Boulanger wins his famous victory against Johannes Mozart at the Battle of Lille, using the new Cugnot-wagon technology to his advantage. This results in the French retaking Maubeuge and halting the Austrian advance into France.
The French inventor Louis Chappe, helped by the fact that his brother is a member of the NLA, receives French government funding to develop a semaphore communications network.
In Russia, the Potemkinites assemble their army and march on Moscow.
First rumours of the United Society of Equals, a republican movement in Ireland that is theoretically secular and in practice dominated by Protestants, especially Presbyterians.
December - On advice by General Sir Fairfax Washington, Viscount Amherst (commander-in-chief of the British Army) recommends that new regiments be raised in America. The Parliament of Great Britain passes the American Regiments Act (1795), which grants Fredericksburg plenipotentiary powers to raise troops.
After a series of indecisive battles along the Flemish border, the Austrian and Revolutionary French armies dig in for the winter.
Paul crowned Emperor of All the Russias in St Petersburg. However, news reaches him that the Potemkinites under General Saltykov have taken Moscow. Start of the Russian Civil War.
1796-1800 The Russian Civil War, which eventually broadens into the Great Baltic War. Romanovian Russians, Lithuania, and Denmark vs. Potemkinite Russians and Sweden. Result: Romanovian victory in Russia; Sweden defeated and forced into personal union with Denmark. The Ottoman Empire and Persia take advantage of the chaos to re-extend their influence into areas contested by Russia, primarily the Caucasus and also Bessarabia and the Khanate of the Crimea.
1796:
January - the people of Liège rise up and overthrow their Prince-Bishop, installing a copycat republic based on disseminated French propaganda.
February - General Mozart leaves winter quarters to besiege Liège, a miserable affair on both sides.
March - Jean de Lisieux, a French Revolutionary leader, publishes La Vapeur est Républicaine, 'Steam is Republican', a pamphlet which enshrines steam power as ideologically correct. Lisieux and Boulanger form a political alliance with Cugnot and other French engineers and radical warriors, such as Blanchard and Surcouf. This research cabal becomes known as La Boulangerie, 'the Bakery'.
Paris sees the start of Robespierre's Reign of Terror, after Royalists holed up in a church/powder store blow up Georges Hébert and his Guard Nationale. The Republican reprisal is swift, with men sent to the chirurgien or phlogisticateur for the most minor imagined crime against the People. Lisieux, using Cugnot's new Tortue 'Tortoise' armoured steam-wagon, crushes part of the revolt and becomes a hero of the Jacobin mob. Lisieux replaces Hébert as third Consul, resulting in Danton being overlooked - he soon goes to the phlogisticateur himself, along with other personal enemies of Robespierre.
Meanwhile, Britain deploys an expeditionary force to Flanders under the command of the Prince of Wales, Frederick George.
In India, the Portuguese General Pareiras defeats Raosaheb's forces in the epic Siege of Gawhilgoor. This breakthrough restores Madhavarao to the Peshwa-ship (in truth, now only ruling the land of Konkan) but Portuguese 'guidance', expressed through a resident in Pune, now truly controls that region.
April - General Boulanger's deputy Thibault Leroux leads an army to relieve the siege of Liège. Mozart's starving army forced back into Flanders, and ravages the Flemish countryside with its marauding. Charles Theodore of Flanders and his minister Emmanuel Grosch take note, and fear for the resentment provoked by the Imperial presence. They enter secret negotiations with Boulanger and with Statdholder William V of the Netherlands.
Robespierre reduces the suffrage of the French Republic to Sans-Culottes only, growing ever more paranoid about there being enemies everywhere. The powers of the National Legislative Assembly are undermined daily.
In North America, the American Preventive Cutter Service is created. This coastguard's main role is to prevent smuggling and piracy, in particular the illegal private transportation of convicts to America. The Continental Parliament also authorises the creation of the Commission for Continental Regiments, the first American 'ministry', which operates out of Cornubia Palace in Fredericksburg.
On the 25th (Gregorian calendar) or 14th (Russian calendar), in Russia, the Potemkinites successfully take the city of Smolensk from the Romanovians in an important victory. Emperor Paul retreats into Lithuania.
May - Full gearing-up of the spring campaign in Flanders. Mozart's Austrians make a second, more half-hearted siege of Liège, but the main force attempts to push deeper into France. Mozart fights Boulanger again at Cambrai and wins a pyrrhic victory with considerable Austro-German losses.
Retreating army of Emperor Paul of Russia is attacked by a Potemkinite force under Suvorov near Vitebsk. Perhaps one-third of Paul's army is destroyed. It is assumed by many that a Potemkin victory in the Russian civil war is now assured.
In America, the Treaty of Sandusky ends the Ohio War. This scattered conflict had been going on since the end of the Third War of Supremacy, and results in the defeat of the Lenape, Huron and Ottawa Indians with the victory of Pennsylvania, New York and the Iroquois. The Lenape and Ottawa are virtually destroyed, but the Huron confederacy fragments into separate tribes, some of which go west to join the Lakota, some go south and are allowed to settle in French Louisiana, and one - the Tahontaenrat - joins the Iroquois, forming the Seven Nations.
June - Mozart orders a retreat and regroup of the Austro-German army, resupplying from Flanders. However, Charles Theodore makes a shock announcement that Flanders is seceding from the Empire, and is supported by William V's Dutch Republic. Cut off and low on supplies, there is little prospect of the Austrians being able to fight their way through (after failing to force a Flemish border fort or retake Liège), so Mozart orders the army to wheel southwards in order to retreat to Trier.
Meanwhile, in North America, HMS Marlborough under Captain Paul Wilkinson and the naturalist Erasmus Darwin II perform the first survey of Michigan, which had been named as a potential penal colony.
In Sweden, the Hat party takes control of the Riksdag for the first time since the 1760s. The Hats fear a future war of the Swedish succession - King Charles XII has no children - and therefore vote to intervene in Russia on the Potemkinite side, to secure Potemkinite Russia as an ally in any future conflict.
July - The Flemings eject the British expeditionary force from Flanders due to their declaration of neutrality. This embarrassment, coupled with Edmund Burke's death, leads to the fall of the Portland Ministry. It is replaced by a new war government under the ageing Marquess of Rockingham, while the Radicals and Radical-leaning Whigs under Charles James Fox become the main voice of opposition.
Meanwhile, the Flemings and Dutch fight to eject the Bavarian army 'of occupation' from Flanders, where it had been waiting to reinforce the Austrians.
August - Bavarian army retreats into the Empire. The Netherlands and Flanders formally sign their alliance into being with the Maastricht Pact. Mozart's army reaches Trier, by now a shadow of its former self after having been harried by the French enroute.
The disgraced Mozart is recalled to Vienna and replaced with Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser.
To the south, the Genoese people overthrow their old oligarchic Republic and declare a Ligurian Republic, which is swiftly occupied by French forces under the mercurial Lazare Hoche.
In Russia, an attack by General Sergei Saltykov on St Petersburg is defeated by Mikhail Kamenski, who destroys the Potemkinite siege train and forces a retreat. This breaks a chain of Potemkinite victories and shows the Romanovians are still in the game.
September - Austrian forces finally break through the Col de Sauverne with heavy losses and spill into Lorraine. Ney is nonetheless recognised for his valiant actions and is promoted to General.
The Ottoman Empire begins its quiet intervention in the Russian Civil War, exerting influence over the formerly Russian-influenced lands of Moldavia, Bessarabia, the Crimean Khanate and Georgia. The Georgians reject the Ottoman demands and King George XII sends Prince Piotr Bagration to Russia, insisting that Russia honours its treaty agreements to defend Georgia.
October - The Netherlands is hit by a brief wave of Revolution, inspired by the French. Flemish troops, fresh from the campaign against the Bavarians, assist Stadtholder William V's own Dutch army in putting down attempted revolts in the Hague and Amsterdam. The Dutch Republic remains.
November - The French under Hoche win some minor victories in Savoy against Piedmont-Sardinia.
Secret treaty of alliance between the Kingdom of Sweden and Potemkinite Russia. The Swedes begin building up their forces in Finland.
1797
January - The Chinese heir Baoli returns to Beijing as a hero worshipper of Yu Wangshan and a supporter of the neo-Manchu movement. The Guangzhong Emperor dithers over whether to instead name his second son Baoyi, less dynamic but also less dangerous in his views, as heir.
February - Prince Bagration is attacked by bandits in the Caucasus, but rescued by Heinrich Kautzman, the 'Bald Impostor'. The Georgians and Cossacks form an agreement, with King George XII of Georgia agreeing to become an Ottoman vassal for the present, committing his army along with the Cossacks to help the Romanovians win the Civil War, so that a Romanov Russia can come in later and reverse the situation.
March - Death of Frederick William II of Prussia, after a long illness. His son succeeds him as Frederick William III. With initial risings in Warsaw and Lodz, Poland immediately rebels, taking advantage of the instability of the change of regime. The rebel armies are commanded by the experienced mercenary Kazimierz Pułaski. The Polish rebellion is discreetly assisted by Lithuanian arms, although the Lithuanians mostly remain loyal to Grand Duke Peter and have little enthusiasm for reforming the old Commonwealth.
Start of the Great Aynyu (Ainu) Rebellion in Edzo (Hokkaido) against the Japanese Matsumae Han, aided and abbetted by Benyovsky's Russians trading guns to the Aynyu.
April - the French launch their Poséidon Offensive, a three-pronged strike consisting of the left under Ney hitting the Ausrians in Lorraine, the centre under Boulanger and Leroux invading Switzerland, and the right under Hoche attacking Piedmont.
In Toulon harbour, Surcouf demonstrates the first steamship, a paddlewheel tug known as the Vápeur-Remorqueur.
The Swedish-Potemkinite alliance is publicly revealed in Russia. Swedish armies based in Finland invade Russia, seeking to encircle St Petersburg. The King of Sweden officially recognises Alexander Potemkin as Emperor of All Russias.
The Continental Parliament creates the office of a Special Commissioner to Britain, essentially an ambassador in all but name, who will represent America's interests in London. The first of these is Albert Gallatin.
May - French under Leroux occupy Geneva and Basel, driving deeper into Switzerland.
In response to the Swedish entry into the Russian Civil War, Denmark declares war on Sweden and the Potemkinites, and officially recognises Paul Romanov as Emperor of All Russias. The Russian Civil War has become the Great Baltic War.
The Prussians begin withdrawing their troops from Austria's pan-German war effort in order to put down the Polish revolt, weakening the Germans on both a physical and moral level.
The Royal Danish Navy sorties and wins its first victory of the war, defeating an inferior Swedish naval force at the Battle of Anholt. The Kattegat falls under Danish control, although the Swedes still hold Malmö with a second fleet.
Death of Elector Frederick Christian II of Saxony. Childless, he is succeeded by his brother, who becomes John George V.
June - Wurmser's army, consisting of combined Austrian, Saxon and Hessian troops, narrowly defeats Ney at the Battle of Saint-Dié.
Hoche begins his celebrated campaign against the Austrians and Sardinians in Piedmont. He divides his forces in order to meet two Austrian armies, the northern one at Omegna under József Alvinczi and the southern under Paul Davidovich.
The Royal Swedish Navy under Admiral Carl August Ehrensvärd blockades Klaipeda and attempts to burn the Lithuanian fleet in harbour. However, the Lithuanian commander, Admiral Vatsunyas Radziwiłł, sacrifices his galleys in order to punch a hole in the Swedish line and allow his sail fleet to escape.
The Polish rebels convene a Sejm and elect John George V of Saxony as King of Poland. John George accepts and declares war on Prussia, withdrawing Saxon troops from the pan-German Austrian war effort in order to accomplish this. Ironically, as the Prussian and Saxon troops do not know for which reason they have been recalled, they often bivouac with each other on the way back across Germany. This begins a domino effect of German states recalling their troops, fearful of their neighbours possessing functional armies, fatally weakening Germany in the face of French aggression.
July - Wurmser occupies Nancy, putting the Austrians in a position to threaten Paris. But there they halt, waiting for reinforcements that will not come.
Hoche's offensive move makes Alvinczi hesitate long enough to smash Davidovich with the full force of his recombined army.
Russo-Lithuanian Romanovian armies under General Barclay de Tolly defeat Swedish invaders at the Battle of Seinai.
August - Leroux defeats most of the Swiss militias and occupies Bern.
Romanovian forces win a victory over the Swedes at the Battle of Alytus.
Hoche's army meets Alvinczi's now-outnumbered forces at Milan, defeats the Austrians and forces them to retreat through the chaos of Switzerland. The Piedmontese royal family, stripped of Austrian support, flees Piedmont for Sardinia.
October - With the withdrawal of the Hapsburgs from much of northern Italy, Hoche attacks and occupies Spanish Parma. In response to news of French atrocities, Spain steps up the war against France.
Concerned about the French victory on the other two fronts, Emperor Ferdinand IV orders Wurmser to retreat from Nancy, conceding the Austrian victory there in order to reassemble his armies to contest French control of Switzerland and Piedmont in the 1797 campaigning season.
The Swedes are defeated by the Romanovians at Trakai. This expels them from the Vojvodship of Trakai, but leaves them in control of the Eldership of Samogita, along with Courland and Swedish Prussia.
November - Jean Marat forced to resign his consulship and is installed as sole consul of the new Swiss Republic, secured by Leroux. Marat is replaced as consul of France by Boulanger, an unconstitutional move which is not contested thanks to Robespierre's Terror.
December - France begins quietly withdrawing troops from Switzerland and transferring them primarily to the German front.
1798:
January - in a calculated piece of spite, the French burn down the Habichtsburg, the ancestral Hapsburg castle in Switzerland.
March - Thanks to Robespierre's paranoia about a British invasion of the unprotected French coast, French raw recruits are marched up and down western France in training to create a visible presence. This plan, however, somewhat backfires as the boorish conscripts' activities inflame the local Vendean and Breton disenchantment with the Revolution...
The Austrians begin their spring offensives, primarily on the Swiss and Italian fronts. They are initially highly successful. In Italy, Archduke Ferdinand proves his generalship when, together with Wurmser, he surrounds Hoche and forces him to retreat.
But, contrary to Austrian expectations, the French's own "Rubicon" offensive focuses on the Lorraine front. Two armies under Leroux and Ney sweep around from north and south, for the first time utilising the 'War of Lightning' doctrine that reduces the need for a supply train by making the troops live off the land. This means they often outrun the news of their coming.
Kiev falls to the new Cossack/Georgian Romanovian army.
The Battle of the Erbe Strait between the Russian and Lithuanian fleets on one side and the Swedes on the other. The Russo-Lithuanians win a pyrrhic tactical victory that is strategically a far greater gain - both navies are devastated as fighting forces, but this leaves the Swedes unable to oppose the Danes.
April - Ney's army takes Karlsruhe, capital of Baden, and the Badenese Margrave's family are publicly executed on Robespierre's orders. The French win several key battles against Austrian and local Swabian forces, the flatter terrain now lending deadly effect to their Cugnot weapons.
Supported by amphibious descents by the Spanish Navy, General Cuesta's Spanish army in Gascony besieges Bordeaux.
May - Ney's army occupies Stuttgart, capital of Württemberg, but the Duke and his family have already fled.
Now ruling the waves of the Baltic, the Danes perform a descent on Swedish Pomerania and swiftly seize the province.
Voronezh surrenders to Kautzman's army.
L’Épurateur, a French second-rate ship of the line, arrives in Madras and Republican envoy René Leclerc orders Governor-General Rochambeau to cleave to Paris' line. Rochambeau rejects him, and a fuming Leclerc goes to Mysore in order to gain the help of Tippoo Sultan, an admirer of revolutionary ideals.
June - With the French advance having reached Franconia, Boulanger orders Ney's army to disperse in order to occupy the territory gained, while Leroux's continues on towards Regensburg.
Having defeated the Danish army in Norway, the Swedes besiege Christiania.
July - A French army under Custine breaks the Siege of Bordeaux; Cuesta's Spaniards retreat southwards.
Fall of Ulm to the French. Emperor Ferdinand IV desperately reinstates General Mozart.
Fall of Kazan to Kautzman's army.
United Society of Equals (USE) rises to prominence in Ireland; they are contacted and supplied with weapons and pamphlets by Lisieux. These are transported using co-opted Breton fishermen to beat the British blockade; however, some of the pamphlets end up staying in Brittany, and inflame Breton opinion against the Republic (which there was largely only a rumour).
August - Battle of Burgau between Davidovich's Austrians and Leroux's French. The result is a punishing French victory, Davidovich's infantry almost totally destroyed by the rapidly shifting enfilading and plunging fire afforded by the French Cugnot artillery. Ferdinand IV finally acquiesces to Mozart's demand that everything be pulled back for a last-ditch defence of Vienna, abandoning Regensburg. The Emperor leaves for the latter city.
Surrounded by Austrians thanks to Archduke Ferdinand's gambit, Hoche retreats into the Terrafirma of Venice.
Full-scale seaborne Danish invasion of Scania. The Swedish government hastily begins recalling armies in order to try and prevent the Danes from breaking out further.
A small Spanish force under Major Joaquín Blake y Joyes defeats part of Custine's French army at the Battle of Bayonne.
Guarded only by a token Potemkinite force, Vitebsk is retaken by the Romanovians.
September - Hoche's troops fall upon Venice the city and pillage it. End of the Venetian Republic, its territories annexed to Hoche's purported Italian Republic. The Venetian territories in Dalmatia immediately become a sore point between Vienna and Constantinople. In response to the 'Rape of Venice', the Venetian fleet under Admiral Grimani flees to the port of Bari in Naples, and after negotiating with King Charles VI and VIII, takes up service with the Neapolitan navy.
Kautzman's army moves into the Moscow region. Rumour exaggerates this into the idea that he has actually sacked the city.
October - On the 9th, the Vendée and Brittany explode into royalist revolt - the Chouannerie - against the French Republic. Britain prepares to intervene on their side.
General Alvinczi attempts to fight a delaying action against Leroux west of Regensburg, but is defeated - though he saves most of his army, which retreats southward. Emperor Ferdinand IV gives a passionate but insane speech in the Reichstag about the coming destruction, in which he declares the end of the Empire, before falling over dead from a heart attack. As he does so, the French advance on Regensburg and take the city...
Archduke Ferdinand prepares to besiege Hoche in Venice, but is recalled thanks to the success of the French Rubicon offensive in Germany. Hoche pursues the Austrians but is held back at the well-defended Brenner Pass. He is now nonetheless the undisputed master of northern Italy.
The second Battle of Smolensk between the Romanovians and Potemkinites. After three hard, gruelling days of combat, the Potemkinites are on the brink of victory, when news of Kautzman's supposed sacking of Moscow spreads and Potemkin's mostly Muscovite left wing collapses. Though the bulk of the Potemkinite army withdraws in good order, Alexander Potemkin is captured by the Romanovians.
Great Ulster Scare. Ireland explodes into rebellion as the USE seize key points all over Ulster and Leinster. The British garrison in Belfast, a strongly USE-supporting town, goes down fighting.
November - After being rebuffed by Surcouf, Robespierre nominates the fey Admiral Villeneuve to lead an outnumbered Republican naval force against the Anglo-Royal French fleets massing in British ports.
The USE take Dublin, burning the assembled Irish parliament to death inside their own building. The British garrison in Dublin, which had been cut back considerably due to the troops assembling for an invasion of France, is defeated and massacred by the vengeful USE. First reports of the Great Ulster Scare reach London, but it is already too far-gone to contain easily.
Death of the cautious Sultan Abdulhamid II of the Ottoman Empire. He is succeeded by his more maverick nephew, who becomes Sultan Murad V. He appoints Mehmed Ali Pasha as Grand Vizier and the two of them begin eyeing the debated former Venetian territories in Dalmatia...
1799
January - Richard Wesley, Earl of Mornington, survived the Dublin attack because he was at home in Galway. He now assembles a Royalist army against the USE and is widely praised for managing to call Irish Catholics to his banner - indeed his army is majority Catholic.
February - Britain launches the Seigneur Offensive. Four fleets, one Royal French, all protecting troopships, leave the southern ports for Brittany and the Vendée. Villeneuve manages to intercept one of the British fleets under Admiral Duncan at the Battle of Wight, before it forms up with the others, and sinks or disables most of its troopships.
Villeneuve then throws everything that remains at the Royal French fleet within the formed-up British forces, with the intention of killing Louis XVII, but though he does manage to board the latter's flagship and kill Admiral d'Estaing, his attack is successfully deflected by Leo Bone, who draws one of Villeneuve's ships away. Bone's ship defeats the enemy days later off the coast of France, but is holed and has to be beached.
The victorious British and Royal French, having defeated Villeneuve, attack Quiberon. Louis XVII lands and declares himself King.
Having reached the end of their supply lines, Leroux's army's offensive towards Vienna slows, but inexorably continues.
March - Leroux's army besieges Vienna. The French succeed in destroying several Austrian forts and other defences, but lose some of their artillery to a Hungarian attack at night.
Last Potemkinite armies disintegrate.
Wesley holds back the USE armies at Rosscommon and Kilkenny. This encourages the British government not to slow their planned Seigneur Offensive against France, but instead to send Wesley only three regular regiments to support him. These arrive in Limerick towards the end of the month.
April - The Battle of Vienna. As the French begin breaking down the capital's walls, General Mozart leads an army out in a desperate gamble to attack them on the field of battle. The French engage him and are on the brink of victor, but the Austrians are saved by the 'Miracle on the Danube', when Archduke Ferdinand returns from Italy in the nick of time with Croat cavalry, who break up the undisciplined French conscript infantry. Leroux is killed and Mozart mortally wounded.
The French army retreats under Cougnon, but the latter is killed by the maniacal Lascelles, who takes most of the army and retreats into Bavaria, setting up a tyrannical 'Bavarian Germanic Republic'. The rest, the 'Cougnonistes', under St-Julien, go north into Bohemia and effectively set up their own fiefdom around Budweis.
Panic in Matsumae-town in Edzo thanks to the Aynyu successes. The Daimyo decides to beg help from Edo in order to put down the rebellion, but is assassinated by one of his lieutenants who fears a purge by the Shogun. Matsumae dissolves into civil war.
Grand Duke Carlo of Tuscany, in support of his fellow Hapsburgs, attacks Lazare Hoche in the rear while the latter is engaged along the Alps, and manages to liberate Lucca, Modena and Mantua.
May - Thanks to Lisieux's and Boulanger's plotting, two deliberately inexperienced French armies under Paul Vignon and Jacques Pallière are sent to drive back the British in the Vendée.
Ottoman Empire declares war on Austria, invading Austrian-held Bosnia and sending troops under Dalmat Melek Pasha to seize the former Venetian territories in Dalmatia.
Battle of Carlow between Wesley's Royalists and the USE. Wesley now has artillery to match the USE's, and wins a limited victory. The USE, under the French General O'Neill, retreats. This is the end of the USE's victory streak and raises enthusiasm for Wesley elsewhere.
With the Swedish armies besieging St Petersburg being stripped of forces for the home front, Romanovian generals Kamenski and Kurakin begin to drive back the reduced enemy forces.
Emperor Paul re-enters Moscow, held by Kautzman. Paul agrees to some of Kautzman's demands for serf emancipation in order to secure his support. He exiles Ivan Potemkin and Sergei Saltykov to Yakutsk, and installs Alexander Potemkin as Duke of a restored independent Courland. End of the Russian Civil War.
June - The two French armies in the Vendée are decisively defeated by the British, although part of Pallière's army escapes to the south. It is later defeated by a local militia organised by the shipwrecked Leo Bone and his crew, pressed into service using his ship's guns as artillery. This launches Bone as a hero and celebrity in the Vendean imagination.
Richard Wesley's army takes Kildare.
On North America's Pacific coast, the fur-trading operation of the British adventurer John Goodman on the island of Noochaland [Vancouver Island] is stopped by a Spanish expedition out of New Spain, who place him under arrest. Goodman is eventually released, but the incident highlights the importance of claiming the Pacific seaboard to the Americans and Russians. Goodman eventually goes to Hawaii.
An attack by the Austrians on Lascelles' troops, encamped on the Enns near Admont, is bloodily repulsed, demonstrating that Lascelles can fight.
July - The Apricot Revolution in France. Robespierre has no-one else left to blame for the failure in the Vendée. Lisieux smoothly maneouvres him out of power - he either commits suicide or is murdered - and Lisieux becomes sole Administrator of France. Having purged everything he can of Robespierre loyalists, Lisieux orders Boulanger to now send the full force of the Republican army against the British.
An Irish Royalist army under George Wesley (Richard's younger brother) takes Wicklow. A USE army to the south panics, congregates on Wexford and then disintegrates or flees to France.
The Swedes have held the Scanian front against the Danes, but the Russo-Lithuanians have begun to roll up their armies in the Baltic lands.
General election in America returns a majority for the Constitutionalist Party. The Lord Deputy, the Duke of Grafton, asks Constitutionalist leader James Monroe to form a government as Lord President.
August - In Japan, Benyovsky's Russo-Lithuanian ships attack Matsumae-town, defeat the defenders and install their own puppet Daimyo.
Leo Bone's irregulars near Saint-Hilaire fight regular Republican troops for the first time, and win.
September - British forces take Caen in Normandy.
Last Swedish army in Livonia surrenders, leaving the Russians and Lithuanians in control of the Swedes' former Baltic possessions. The Swedish army in Finland repulses an attempted attack by Kurakin.
After getting into numerous fights at King's College over political and philosophical disagreements, Philip Hamilton is sent by his father to work for the Royal Africa Company.
October - Battle of Caen. Boulanger, assisted by new Cugnot weapons, decisively defeats the British and Royal French. The Prince of Wales is killed in the battle, meaning Prince Henry William is now the heir apparent. The British are swept out of Normandy.
The Austrians draw up a new army under General Giuseppe Bolognesi to drive Lascelles' rogue French troops farther away from Vienna. Lascelles, outnumbered, retreats through the Waldviertel. His troops perform a particularly vicious maraude as a scorched-earth policy against Bolognesi's army, and in the process murder many civilians, including the family of Michael Hiedler. He was hunting at the time and escapes, but is driven catatonic by the experience.
Dublin besieged and retaken by Wesley's forces. New York rifleman James Roosevelt shoots down General O'Neill; he later decides to stay and settle in Ireland.
Swedish King Charles XIII assassinated by a madman. His death, leaving no heirs, plunges Sweden into a constitutional crisis that only exacerbates the war defeats.
Death of Dharma Raja, King of Travancore. He is succeeded by his son Balarama Varma, but the Tippoo of Mysore declares he is too young to rule and uses this as a casus belli to invade. This belligerent move is part of a plan by Leclerc to force Rochambeau to back down or lose the FEIC's trade interests in Kerala.
November - On hearing of his favourite son's death, King George III of Great Britain descends into madness and is dead by December. At the same time, the ageing Prime Minister Rockingham works himself to death. The country is plunged into a constitutional crisis.
Boulanger's advance is stopped at Mayenne by the British. The front stalemates as the armies settle into winter quarters.
Further south, Leo Bone defeats a Republican French army at Angers, later earning him the title Viscount d'Angers from Louis XVII.
The Danish Diet negotiates directly with the Swedish Riksdag to reach a peace settlement.
The Austrian army of Bolognesi defeats Lascelles on the Ischl, but Lascelles saves the majority of his army and retreats into Bavaria.
December - Henry William crowned King Henry IX of Great Britain.
Richard Wesley's armies finally take Belfast, last city held by the USE. The aftermath of the siege is bloody and rapine, the frustrated armies unleashed on the populace.
Peace between Denmark and Sweden. The treaty restores a personal union between the kingdoms, with Johannes II becoming John IV of Sweden. However, aside from losing the most Danish-loyal part of Scania and her Baltic possessions, Sweden's territorial integrity is respected. This ends the Great Baltic War, and leaves Denmark as the dominant naval power in the Baltic.
Part 6: The Administration
1800-1809
1800:
January - Charles James Fox becomes Prime Minister. He immediately seeks peace with France.
General Wurmser liberates the Prince-Bishopric of Salzburg from the French splinter force under Lascelles. Due to the death of the Prince-Bishop, the future of the state is in flux.
February - In India, the Pitt-Rochambeau Accord is negotiated in Cuddalore, in which the BEIC and FEIC form an alliance against Mysore. Thus begins the War of the Ferengi Alliance.
March - Peace of Caen between Britain and France. This allows a rump royal France in Brittany and the Vendée, which Republican France of course does not officially recognise.
La Pérouse hears of the rumour of peace (though not the actual treaty, of course) from a Dutch merchantman, and decides to return to France.
Francis II, King of the Romans and claimant Holy Roman Emperor, declares the annexation of Salzburg to the Hapsburg dominions in an attempt to recoup face after losses to the Ottomans. However, this deals a death blow to the Imperial system and begins the Mediatisation of Germany.
April - Lisieux holds his first cabinet meetings, deciding the fate of the war. Thouret's plans for Rational square départements with elected Modérateurs is implemented. Ney is ordered to attack northwards from Swabia, and the Spanish front is given top priority. Hoche refuses to recognise Lisieux's regime.
General Bolognesi attacks Lascelles once more at Rosenheim in Bavaria. Lascelles' forces have by now acquired captured German artillery, however, and win the day. Bolognesi retreats to Reichenhall and requests orders.
May - The Austrians decide not to pursue Lascelles further into Bavaria, as they consider the Turkish front to be more important. However, this lack of regard for the Bavarians suffering under Lascelles' reign of terror both seriously injures Vienna's image in the Germanies, and brings about a change in Michael Hiedler. When he hears of the policy, he snaps, reverts from his stunned state and declares a War to the Knife against Lascelles. He becomes Der Führer, first and greatest of the Kleinkriegers, those Partisans who fight the Little War.
John Spencer-Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough - a former member of the anti-Rockinghamite faction in Parliament - first rises to public prominence with the publication of the Churchill Letter, a fiery broadside against the nascent Fox Ministry.
June - Ney opens up his campaign to the north, attacking the Hesses, Nassau and Würzburg.
Boulanger opens up his offensive against Spain.
Lisieux orders the expansion of the Canal de Bourgogne to connect the Mediterranean to the Atlantic by a series of canals. The new work is named the Canal de l'Épurateur.
July - Swiss Rising after Marat is killed by a flying bath. Lisieux backs down and agrees to deal with Hoche. The Treaty of Savoy divides Switzerland between France, Swabia and Italy, all of which put down the rising.
Boulanger breaks the Spanish Siege of Toulouse.
The British Government pays the Danes to act as protectors of Hanover in Germany in the face of the mediatisation wars, but this fails to curb the Danes' own territorial ambitions elsewhere.
The first election is held in the Kingdom of Ireland since the USE rebellion, under new rules introduced by de facto Lord Deputy Richard Wesley, the Earl of Mornington. This produces a more reformist-minded Irish Parliament, and Wesley creates the informal office of an Irish prime minister, with Henry Grattan taking the role.
August - The French Republican Army defeats the Spanish at the Battle of Pau.
Peace between America and France. In order that future American Commissioners to Britain may have the authority to sign such treaties themselves, the office is upgraded to Lord Representative.
Lisieux sends Admiral Villeneuve on a flag-flying mission around the world, which includes quietly distributing Revolutionary propaganda to many places, including Royal French Louisiana.
In India, the Royal French retake Trivandum from Mysore, while the British and Haidarabad beat the main Mysorean army under General Yaar Mohammed at Bangalore.
Treaty of Minden signed between the Dutch Republic and the Electorate of Saxony. This hands the Saxon possessions of East Frisia and Cleves to the Dutch in exchange for Dutch recognition of Saxon influence in Westphalia.
Lazare Hoche turns south and attacks the Italian regions occupied by Grand Duke Carlo's Tuscans.
September - Mysoreans defeat British in the Battle of Charmapatna, but fail to achieve any lasting gains, as the French are pressing in from the west.
Marshal Ney overruns Ansbach and Würzburger Mainz.
The Austrians eject the Ottoman army under Dalmat Melek Pasha from the siege of Zagreb.
Disgusted by the peace between Republican France and Britain and inspired by his friend Leo Bone's service with Royal France, Horatio Nelson resigns from the Royal Navy and takes up Sir John Acton's offer of service in the Neapolitan Navy.
October - In the face of successes from Ney, the leaders of Hesse-Kassell, Hesse-Darmstadt, Nassau and Würzburg sign the Pact of Mainz, later to become the Mittelbund, an anti-French military alliance.
At the Battle of Carcassonne, Boulanger beats Cuesta's Spanish army.
The Danes make territorial demands upon Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz, which reject them out of hand. The Mittelbund supports both Mecklenburgs.
November - The French take Llançà in Catalonia, the only place over the Pyrenees they take before the campaign season ends.
La Pérouse returns to France and is horrified by the excesses of the Revolution, though Lamarck and Laplace disagree. He is sent back by Lisieux with Surcouf, to raid Dutch ships under pirate flag from bases in La Pérouse's Land.
Tippoo Sultan moves his capital from Mysore-city to the fortress of Seringapatam, which is besieged by the British and French.
In response to the Dutch and Saxons dividing the region into spheres of influence, Waldeck, Wittgen and Eichsfeld join the Mittelbund.
December - Lazare Hoche has retaken the Tuscan-occupied Italian territories of Modena, Mantua and Lucca, but has sustained considerable casualties among his French veterans in the process. He begins raising all-Italian regiments throughout the Italian Latin Republic, who fight under a green banner and are known as the Italian Patriotic Army.
1801
January - Boulanger recruits the new Admiral Lepelley for his new plan against Spain.
Storming of Seringapatam. The Tippoo's plan to blow up the British and French invaders is sabotaged by a treacherous minister, and he is killed in the battle. Mysore is carved up between Britain, France and Haidarabad, with the rump Mysore having the Hindu Wodeyar dynasty restored.
February - Conference of Hagenow defuses the Danish-Mecklenburger crisis, although the provisions of the treaty signed there will not become public for some time.
Admiral Villeneuve's fleet calls in at Norfolk, Virginia and apologises to the Continental Parliament for the death of Thomas Jefferson in a PR exercise.
Von Lützow's Prussian thrust into Saxony is defeated at the gates of Dresden. The Prussian efforts become dispersed thanks to Denmark-Sweden's entry into the war.
March - Death of Rochambeau; Julien Champard succeeds him as de facto Governor-General of French India.
Grand Duke Carlo of Tuscany appeals to King Charles VI and VIII of Naples for help as Hoche's new Italian Patriotic Army invades Tuscany. Charles hesitates and decides against intervention for fear of having his army encircled.
April - In response to Hagenow, the British governor of Hanover, William FitzGeorge, institutes his own defensive alliance against mediatisation. This is called the Alliance of Hildesheim and includes Hanover, Hildesheim, Brunswick, Bremen and the Schaumburgs. The Alliance is aligned with the Mittelbund but not part of it.
Emperor Francis II orders General Alvinczi to attack Wallachia in an attempt to draw the Ottomans into a broader war with Russia. However, the Russians are already in the process of negotiating with the Ottomans, and Constantinople secures Moscow's neutrality in exchange for withdrawing their influence from parts of the Caucasus they obtained during the Russian Civil War, primarily Georgia.
Denmark makes a descent on Danzig and takes the strategic port.
May - Boulanger launches two new offensives against Spain, Assaut-du-Sud and Tire-Bouchon. The first sees a general attack under Eustache against the Spanish forces north of the Pyrenees. The second is launched on a windless day, after the Spanish General Ballasteros has forced French General Drouet out of Llançà and the Spanish army is strung out thinly in pursuit: the new steamships under Lepelley carry French armies to land on the Catalan coast and sweep up Ballasteros from the rear. During a battle with Spanish conventional galleys, damage to the French steam-galley Palmipède's screw produces by chance a more effective propeller design, which swiftly becomes dominant.
Ney is halted for the first time by a joint Hessian-Würzburger army at Erbuch. The Franco-Swabian advance fails, and soon collapses.
The First Fleet of convicts leaves Britain, bound for the new penal colony in Michigan (Susan-Mary).
Paul François Jean Nicolas, the Vicomte de Barras, returns from French India having made his fortune serving under Rochambeau in the FEIC. He quickly ascends to a position of power in Royal France, becoming Comptroller-General to Louis XVII.
June - General Eustache killed at the Battle of Lourdes, in which the French are defeated by the Spanish under Joaquin Blake.
UPSA general election returns a Cortes dominated by the Partido Solidaridad, led by Juan José Castelli, which sympathises with the French Revolution and advocates territorial expansion at the expense of the Spanish colonies.
July - Mittelbund forces liberate the eponymous city from Ney's Swabia.
Admiral Villeneuve's fleet arrives in Nouvelle-Orléans and tries to demand the Governor-General, Charles-Michéle Ledoux, cleave to the Republican line. Ledoux calls Villeneuve's bluff and refuses.
August - Fall of Barcelona to Drouet's army. Elements of the Spanish fleet in Mediterranean ports flee to Naples, including the experimental rocket ship Cacafuego under the Catalan inventor Josep Casanova i Llussà.
Lazare Hoche's Italian Patriotic Army conquers Florence, capital of Tuscany. Tuscany is formally added to the Italian Latin Republic. However, the Tuscan army holds on in the south.
According to his orders, Admiral Villeneuve arms Haitian rebels in an attempt to undercut the Royal French in Louisiana.
September - Death of Philip VI of Spain; in his maddened last hours, he is heard to disinherit his eldest son Charles in favour of his second son Philip, but this is disputed. While France invades Aragon, Spain is plunged into civil war.
The Mittelbund armies are defeated by Ney at Ansbach.
Leo Bone a.k.a. Napoleone Bonaparte shocks public opinion in Royal France by being appointed de facto admiral of the fleet by King Louis XVII.
October - Alexandru Morusi, Prince of Wallachia and Moldavia, has raised an army and now halts Alvinczi's Austrian offensive.
HMS Enterprize, under the command of George North, sets off from Gosport Yard in Virginia on a mission of mapping and claiming the Oregon country for the Empire of North America.
November - Swabia and the Mittelbund sign the Treaty of Stuttgart. Swabia is left with Ansbach and Nuremberg but no Würzburger lands. The treaty defines the first strict borders for the republic. Afterwards, the Mittelbund nations look towards closer cooperation in the face of more direct aggression from France.
The First Fleet of convicts lands in Michigan after sailing up the St Lawrence and through the Great Lakes.
December - With Madrid burned half to the ground, the Felipistas are victorious. The Infante Philip is crowned Philip VII, and the Principe de Asturias Charles (the claimant Charles IV) flees to the northwest with his favourite the Count of Aranda and his general Javier Castaños.
1802:
January - Spanish General Cuesta ignores orders to attack the French and instead pursues the Carlistas into Asturias and Galicia, leaving Spain underdefended.
The Tuscan army under Grand Duke Carlo has been forced back to the port of Follonica and is surrounded by Hoche's forces. The Tuscan fleet attempts to evacuate them but is faced by Hoche's own Genoese-derived fleet. The two clash at the Battle of Elba and the Tuscans win a Pyrrhic victory, with too few ships left to perform the evacuation.
Admiral Villeneuve's fleet leaves the West Indies as Haiti erupts into rebellion under black leader Vincent Ogé.
**Feburary** - President-General Azcuénaga of the UPSA is assassinated.
La Pérouse and Surcouf land in Albi in La Pérouse's Land.
The Neapolitan-Venetian fleet under Nelson sails to Follonica and evacuates the Tuscan army to Naples. Nelson wins particular renown for a daring marine action that silences Hoche's shore batteries to make the evacuation possible.
Hoche appeals to Lisieux for French troops, despite the strained relations between the French and Italian Latin Republics, arguing that an Austrian invasion is around the corner. This is a lie, but Lisieux sees an opportunity and gives Hoche some of the Sans-Culotte Jacobin veterans he is trying to get rid of.
March - In the U.P. presidential election, Juan José Castelli defeats conservative opponent Juan Andrés to become President-General. He immediately being a programme of armament.
La Pérouse takes a sloop and goes with some supporters on a trading mission to the Mauré. He never comes back, having renounced the Republic, and he and his men act as advisors to the Mauré - both the Tainui and, due to some disagreeing with La Pérouse's leadership, the Touaritaux-Touaux Alliance.
Alvinczi withdraws from Wallachia.
In one of the Fox Ministry's greatest triumphs, the Parliament of Great Britain votes to abolish the slave trade.
Leo Bone marries Jeanette Debauvais, cementing his link with Royal France.
April - The French open the campaign season in Spain. Still fighting the civil war on the side, the regime of Philip VII and Saavedra is unable to resist the French advance, and three battles are lost in rapid succession. Most Spanish armies are surrounded and forced to surrender, with actual losses being relatively light.
Jean de Lisieux publishes his famous "25 Years" monograph, setting forth his vision for France's future - after the securing of all borders by the neutralisation of neighbouring states and the establishment of buffers, France needs 25 years to make its republican institutions entirely 'rational', and only after this will she attempt to replicate them elsewhere. This, it is implied, will require the defeat of Flanders and Royal France, and therefore Britain and the Netherlands as well, which will in turn require large armies. Lisieux believes the Spanish situation is secure and thus continually reduces the troops there, hampering French efforts to hold Spain down.
The Austrians, under General Pál Kray de Krajova et Topolya, successfully defend Zagreb against another offensive by the Turks' Dalmat Melek Pasha.
A new Irish constitution is signed into law. This repeals much of the old anti-Catholic legislation, but discrimination against non-Anglican Protestants remains.
General von Lützow fails to prevent the fall of Magdeburg to Saxon invaders thanks to Frederick William III's dispersal of his forces in Poland. He is upbraided and stripped of his rank and peerage by the king, and in fury at this treatment joins the "Berlin Plot" conspiracy.
May - In Britain, the British Army quietly begins constructing Fort Rockingham at Finningley, near Doncaster. After viewing the effects of the French War of Lightning on other countries, the Parliament of Great Britain is quite certain they need a fortified alternative seat of government a long way from anywhere.
Hoche, supported by his new Jacobin troops from France, invades the Papal States. In the north, the Austrians try a cursory attack over the Alps, but are beaten back by Hoche's Italian levies.
August - French troops enter Madrid. Philip VII and Saavedra have abandoned the city for Cordoba.
The Enterprize visits Hawaii and Captain North meets John Goodman, whose requests for direct Anglo-American intervention in Noochaland are rejected. Annoyed, Goodman turns to other sources instead.
Prussian General Albrecht von Gessler's army is pounded to pieces by the Saxons when they intercept him as he tries to cross the Elbe at Wittenberge.
September - Fall of Civitavecchia and Ancona to Hoche's army.
In the face of successes by Benyovsky and Lebedev, Tsar Paul declares the formation of the Russo-Lithuanian Pacific Company, granting them official status. He steps up his policy of sending his political enemies to Yakutia to serve as labour for the RLPC. The RPLC also includes Aleksandr Baranov's fur-trading operation in Alyeska.
All Prussian lands west of the Elbe is now lost to Saxony and her allies. The Berlin Plot reacts by arranging Frederick William III's death on the parade ground 'to a misfiring cavalry carbine'. His infant son Henry William becomes king, with plotter-in-chief Lützow as regent. However, this results in civil war and the complete degeneration of Prussian unity, with the anti-Lützow forces led by foreign minister Ludwig von Stülpnagel.
October - The French take Cordoba, the Spanish government having relocated in turn to Seville.
Naples finally intervenes directly, sending troops to try and save the Papal States as Hoche continues to easily defeat the small Papal army.
November - The Spanish under Bernardo de Gálvez win an epic victory over the French under Drouet at Granada. However, this is too little too late to stem the French tide.
The Rape of Rome. As Hoche himself is campaigning in Bologna, his Jacobin troops go rogue, torch the city of Rome rather than trying to take it, and murder both Pope Benedict XV and countless senior Catholic clergy in the streets. This is perhaps the most catastrophic PR disaster in history, with the winter of 1802 seeing countless numbers of Hoche's Italian troops defecting or deserting, and widespread condemnation of the Italian Latin Republic.
December - With the fall of Seville to the French, Philip VII and Saavedra finally retreat to the fortress city of Cadiz.
In France, Lisieux reacts to the Rape of Rome by launching his long-planned purge of the Republican leadership on December 25th, known as La Nuit Macabre. At least eighty senior army officers and politicians of suspected Jacobin sympathy are assassinated. Lisieux blames the atrocities in Rome on the Sans-Culottes and begins his campaign to rewrite history and abominate Le Diamant, banning his La Carte. In this he is assisted by France's growing shutter semaphore communications network.
1803
January - Portugal approaches the Carlistas in Spain with the offer of an alliance. Charles IV hesitates.
February - The Neapolitan army wins its first major victory over Hoche at the Battle of Frosinone, helped by Hoche's desertions.
Philip Hamilton, on assignment to Liberty City in Freedonia, meets Olaudah Equiano.
March - The French take Cadiz and Philip VII surrenders. By the Treaty of Cadiz, the French allow a Kingdom of Spain to remain, but annex much of the border region to France and keep an armed presence in the major Spanish cities.
U.P. navigator José Rodriguez-Decampo, working for the Persians, is the first person to map the Shatt al-Arab using modern scientific techniques.
Hoche attempts to invade Naples but is defeated at the Battle of Teramo by Prince Mario Pignatelli Strongoli. Soon afterwards, however, he holds against an attempted Neapolitan follow-up at Ascoli Piceno.
The Austrians are defeated by the Turks before the gates of Sarajevo, finishing their attempt to retake Bosnia or southern Dalmatia.
Lützow's Prussian forces withdraw to Ducal Prussia with the infant King Henry Frederick as Stülpnagel rules in Berlin over a vanishing electorate of Brandenburg.
April - Saavedra assassinated, probably on French orders, leaving Philip VII bereft of advisors. He does the bidding of the French occupiers, issuing death warrants against Charles and the other infantes.
New York Assembly rather reluctantly abolishes slavery by gradual manumission, though the law does not apply to unincorporated territories or the Iroquois protectorate.
Archduke Ferdinand leads another small Austrian army over the Alps into the Venetian Terrafirma, but as of yet Hoche's forces in that region still hold firm.
A Louisianan force, together with allied Indians, is defeated by Vincent Ogé's Haitian rebels and the Haitian African Republic is proclaimed.
May - With a combined Felipista/French army approaching, Charles IV agrees to the Portuguese demands, assenting to a Portuguese occupation of Galicia and the border cities, in exchange for ships to take him and the other infantes to the New World.
Edo, capital of Japan, hears that the situation in Edzo has stabilised and there is a new Daimyo of Matsumae. Emperor Tenmei and Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi are rather relieved, as they are still struggling to make the Japanese economy recover after several devastating natural disasters in the last two decades, and did not want to finance a military expedition. Little to they know that the Daimyo is only a puppet of Benyovsky's Russians, who have seized the city...
Austria and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of Bucharest, ending the Austro-Turkish War; the treaty is very favourable to the Ottomans, who obtain the vast majority of the former Dalmatian territory of the Venetian Republic and also increase their holdings in Bosnia. The euphoric aftermath of the war in Constantinople, however, leads to a sense of victory disease and military conservatism.
The Cuba Question comes to a head in the ENA. The ruling Constitutionalists want to annex Cuba to Carolina and institute slavery and anti-Catholic laws. They win the parliamentary vote, but the Lord Deputy refuses to grant Royal Assent. Lord President James Monroe resigns and calls a general election.
June - Nelson, having successfully argued that the French steamship base at Mahon in Minorca is too much of a danger, takes the Neapolitan fleet and attacks it on the night of the 15th. The attack is spearheaded by the Cacafuego's rockets and the new technology helps to confuse and panic the French, who are mostly celebrating ashore. Nelson sails his own Siracusa straight into the harbour, giving his famous orders "Tactics? Damn the tactics, sir - full speed ahead!" and sinks or burns a large portion of the French steam fleet almost single-handedly. He loses the use of his left arm after a vicious fight with one of the steamships whose crew was aboard and alert. The Neapolitans retreat in victory on the morning of the 16th. Admiral Lepelley is furious...once he gets back from his rendezvous with his mistress on the other side of the island.
The Saxons buy the neutrality of the Lützow regime by guaranteeing it all former Prussian territory outside the boundary of the HRE, removing a key front (and annoying the Danes and Poles).
July - Ivan Potemkin, exiled in Yakutia but working his way up to effective governor status, visits Matsumae in Edzo to observe Benyovsky's operations there. He agrees to support some of Benyovsky's less crazy plans.
The Portuguese General Julio Vieira attempts to take Badajoz from its maverick Spanish commander, Mateo María Núñez y Blanco, but fails.
News of Nelson's attack on Minorca splits the British ruling Reform Coalition, with the Liberals tending to praise Nelson and the Radicals attacking him. This rift slowly heals, but is instrumental in the fact that the Fort Rockingham project is very much a brainchild of only the Liberal half of the government.
The American general election returns a surprise increased majority for the Constitutionalists, even though their abolitionist wing breaks away under Bejnamin Rush to form the American Radical Party. In view of this, royal assent is reluctantly granted to a second, slightly watered-down Cuba Annexation bill.
August - Newfoundland petitions to join the Confederation of New England as a province, worried about the establishment of the Cloudborough penal colony in the north of the island. This request is eventually approved, meaning Newfoundland is no longer used as a penal colony.
Lisieux, in response to Nelson's attack, begins a new 'Rational' shipbuilding programme under Jean Jacques Coloumb. This involves the construction of the new, improved "Surcouf" class steam-galleys in Marseilles and Toulon, mainly using the slave labour of Jacobin-sympathising political prisoners.
September - Jean de Lisieux publishes his "Nouvelle Carte".
The Dutch Navy begins assembling a fleet under Admiral Willem van Heemskerk at the Cape Colony in order to take action against Surcouf's privateers.
October - The Infante Charles of Spain, claimant King Charles IV, lands in the port of Veracruz in the Viceroyalty of New Spain. He, his four brothers and their soldiers begin a leisurely march to the City of Mexico.
Admiral Villeneuve's fleet briefly visits La Pérouse's Land to resupply Surcouf's privateer colony at Saint-Malo (on the site of OTL Albany, Western Australia).
November - Mutterings throughout southern Russia on the emancipation of the serfs finally erupts into violence, as Count Kirill Klimentov openly rebels in Voronezh. The Russian response is swift, to avoid looking weak to the Ottomans, but carefully organised by Heinz Kautzman to fit with Tsar Paul's propaganda of Slavic superiority to appease the former Potemkinite supporters.
Hoche, faced by his position disintegrating due to the fallout from the Rape of Rome and his poor political skills meaning that he cannot react as Lisieux can, moves his headquarters to Viterbo. Meanwhile, Cardinal Henry Benedict Stuart, the Jacobite claimant to the throne of England, is elected Pope Urban IX while in exile in Naples. He immediately issues a Papal bull urging Italians to turn against Hoche.
Lascelles' bullyboy general Cavaignac is killed by a Kleinkrieger woman he tried to rape, signalling a great victory for Michael Hiedler's forces in Bavaria.
December - Infante Charles arrives in the City of Mexico. After negotiations with the Viceroy, Martín de Gálvez, new constitutional reforms are announced on December 26th to better facilitate the raising of a colonial army, the Nuevo Ejército, to take back Spain. This, the brainchild of the Duke of Aranda, is known as the Arandite Plan: the Spanish colonies in the New World are grouped together as an Empire of the Indies, ruled by the King of Spain as Emperor. The old Viceroyalties are abolished and new Kingdoms are created - Mexico, Guatemala and New Granada - each ruled by one of the junior Infantes. Gálvez is made Imperial Secretary.
Urban IX's plan for an Italian uprising is facilitated by Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo, who organises an 'Army of the Faith', and Michele "Fra Diavolo" Pezza, who leads the Neapolitan Kleinkriegers.
1804:
January - Philip Hamilton is appointed to one of the junior-lieutenancies in the Royal Africa Company's Gold Coast possessions, where he meets lifelong friend James Wayne (son of Isaac Wayne II).
February - The Russian army and its allies under Heinz Kautzman defeats Kirill Klimentov's rebels at Somovo.
Infante John of Spain's entourage arrives in Maracaibo as he takes up his new role as King of New Granada.
March - Klimentov executed in Red Square. Tsar Paul's minister Count Rostopshchin decides to reunite the Russian peoples by unifying them against an enemy - their Jewish neighbours.
Hawaii is unified as a kingdom under King Kamehameha, assisted by European adventurers including John Goodman.
The French forces in Spain, led by Drouet, launch 'Le Nouveau Poséidon', an operation aimed at striking the Portuguese and Carlistas simultaneously in Badajoz, Ciudad Rodrigo and Galicia.
King Louis XVII, on the urging of his ministers, marries Hélène, daughter of the Duke of Rohan. Their marriage will be loveless but will produce heirs.
April - Archduke Ferdinand finally gets a sizeable army from Vienna and proceeds to roll up the Italian Latin Republic in the north, occupying Venice.
General Ballesteros, fighting for the French, rescues Cuesta from a Portuguese army near Ponferrado and Valdés. However, Cuesta refuses to take orders from Ballesteros.
British Parliament passes the Reform Act (1804), increasing the franchise in England to all who own property worth 20 shillings (rather than 40).
Berlin falls to the Saxons and their allies and Stüpenagel surrenders.
John Spencer-Churchill has his friend Colonel Douglas Moore help in training the Oxfordshire yeomanry he is responsible for up to higher standards.
May - Treaty of Berlin divides the former Electorate of Brandenburg between Saxony and the Mecklenburgs, while the coastal Mecklenburger lands are given to Denmark-Sweden.
Death of Admiral Campbell, First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy. He is replaced by Sir Humphry Pellew, hero of the Second Platinean War, who ends the standoff with the government about steam innovations and commissions an experimental steamship project based in Lowestoft.
The Bohemian Estates illegally convene and appoint Jozef Graf Radetzky von Radetz to lead a militia to drive the Cougnonistes from Budweis, Austria having refused to spare any troops.
Leo Bone begins his programme of building border forts to seal Royal France's defences in the event of a renewal of war with the Republic, using guns taken from scrapped ships. His political opponents dub him "Le petit Vauban" for this.
June - The summer sees violence against Jews in all major Russian cities and many smaller towns. In Krementchuk, Yitzhak Volynov survives an attack that killed the rest of his family and has a vision. Despite his youth, his charisma leads to him becoming a leader of many of the survivors of the pogrom. He leads them out of Russia and into the Khanate of the Crimea. Khan Devlet V is happy to gain so many skilled workers.
Neapolitans take Rome and Pope Urban IX is blessed in the ruins of St Peter's.
Ballesteros is forced to fight and kill Cuesta in battle at Allande before he can amalgamate their armies - while the Portuguese gain time.
General Devilliers storms Ciudad Rodrigo and takes it from the Portuguese.
Admiral Heemskerk's Dutch fleet falls upon Surcouf's privateer colony at Saint-Malo in La Pérouse's Land and burns it, but only a few French ships are caught there and the colony is rapidly rebuilt.
July - On the 24th, after months of preparation and recognising the fragile state of the newly reorganised Spanish colonies to their north, the UPSA declares war on the Empire of the Indies.
Ballesteros defeats Vieira at Lugo.
Italian Latin Republic disintegrates. Although Hoche and his core of loyal troops continue to win battles, they cannot be everywhere, and the Republic is being attacked simultaneously by Austria from the north and Naples from the south.
The British Parliament first convenes the Borough Committee, aimed at reassigning rotten boroughs' representation to the new industrial cities.
August - Hoche withdraws his remaining loyalists to Genoa.
Bourcier besieges Badajoz, but General Blanco continues to defend the fortress city against the French.
September - First Meridian troops, under the command of General Pichegru, cross the border into the newly declared Kingdom of New Granada, a constituent part of the Empire of the Indies. General O'Higgins, commanding the New Granadine force in the region, decides to withdraw in the face of numerical superiority.
Hoche takes what is left of his army and evacuates from Genoa to Mataró in Spain using the Genoese fleet. Nelson pursues with the Neapolitan fleet.
Trying to take the Portuguese fortress city of Almeida before winter sets in, Devilliers is bloodily repulsed and forced to retreat to Ciudad Rodrigo.
Radetzky's Bohemians retreat from a battlefield rather than face the Cougnonistes. Radetzky spends the winter training them as St-Julien, leader of the Cougnonistes, grows complacent.
October - Hoche marches inland. Nelson attacks and burns the Genoese ships in Mataró, then strikes at the French in Catalonia, escalating the conflict further.
Bourcier, despite his lack of much artillery, finally makes a practicable breach in the walls of Badajoz and attacks it, but the Portuguese sally from Elvas and destroy much of Bourcier's siege preparations.
Ballesteros defeats Vieira's Portuguese once more at Ourense.
Admiral Villeneuve's fleet finally returns to France after their three-year worldwide voyage.
Queen Hélène of Royal France gives birth to a son, ensuring an heir for King Louis XVII. In a break from tradition he is named Charles Louis Philippe rather than being yet another Louis.
November - As part of a steady grinding campaign northwards through Lower Peru, Pichegru's Meridian troops take the town of Caraz. However, the poor countryside means his troops are starving, and so he leads the bulk of his army over the Andes to the coast to winter there - harried by O'Higgins enroute.
Bourcier retreats to Mérida for the winter, harried by the Portuguese. Blanco reluctantly agrees to work with the Portuguese.
Vincent Ogé's Haitian African Republic finishes overrunning and absorbing the Spanish half of Hispaniola, uniting the island under black rule.
December - Ballesteros pursues Vieira all the way to Vigo, but the Portuguese army is there evacuated by the Portuguese navy. Lisieux is unwilling to release any of France's slowly building new navy for what he sees as a sideshow, so the Portuguese enjoy near-impunity at sea.
1805-1808: The Third Platinean War. The United Provinces of South America fights the Empire of the Indies/New Spain, with Britain, the Empire of North America and Portugal eventually joining in on the New Spanish side. Though the Meridians win on several fronts, particularly in New Granada, they eventually succumb. The UPSA loses Upper Peru to the New Spanish, yields a few border adjustments to Portuguese Brazil, and significantly revises its political system to introduce term limits for the President-General. In addition, the Partido Solidaridad is discredited and conservative rule sets in.
1805:
February - O'Higgins' New Granadine troops retake Caraz from the small garrison Pichegru had left there.
March - The Neapolitan and Austrian armies meet on a line between Ancona and Orbetello, effectively dividing Italy between them.
Death of Pasquale Paoli, President of the Corsican Republic and icon of moderate republicanism. He is succeeded by Carlo Andrea Pozzo di Borgo.
Radetzky's Bohemian fighters make a surprise attack on Budweis and defeat the Cougnonistes. St-Julien is executed in Prague.
April - Pichegru stops O'Higgins' reconquest at Yungay.
Hoche appeals to Lisieux to re-enter the mainstream French forces, and the Administrateur reluctantly agrees.
The Royal Africa Company, on the advice of Alexander von Humboldt, transplants cinchona trees from UPSA-controlled Peru to West Africa in an attempt to supply the country with quinine in order to defeat the endemic malaria.
At Swellendam in the interior of the Dutch Cape Colony, the over-taxed frontier Boers (colonial farmers) rebel against the government in Kaapstaad and, influenced by the Racialist writings of Sijbren Vorderman, declare an Afrikaan Germanic Republic.
Treaty of Baton Rouge between the ENA and Royal French Louisiana (with tacit New Spanish assent) sees the Louisianans and New Spanish abandoning all claim to Hispaniola to the Empire in exchange for recognition of their other holdings.
May - Daimyo Hidoshi of Matsumae finally visits the ailing Emperor Tenmei in Kyoto to give him homage.
Pichegru deploys mountain troops recruited from the Tahuantinsuya against O'Higgins, forcing the New Granadines to abandon their mountain warfare attacks against the Meridian regulars.
Ballesteros continues his string of victories against the Portuguese in Galicia and northern Portugal.
Anglo-Dutch accord leads to British recognition of Dutch control of the Cape. The BEIC decides to plant a halfway-house-to-India colony further east, at Natal.
Admiral Surcouf returns to France from La Pérouse's Land, with many privateering successes to his name but ultimately having failed to draw the Netherlands into a war.
June - Ballesteros' army threatens Oporto.
Hermanus Potgieter, a Boer military leader, becomes effective consul of the Afrikaan Germanic Republic. He begins organising an army to take Kaapstaad.
A ship carrying Persian pilgrims to Mecca is attacked by Arab pirates, who slaughter several, including the son of Persian Grand Vizier Mirza Reza Khan Sadeghi. Mirza Reza wants to hold the Porte responsible, but for now Shah-Advocate Ali Zand Shah counsels peace, fearing a Durrani attack and a war on two fronts.
The Chinese learn of the Russian encroachment in the Amur Valley thanks to the Russo-Lithuanian Pacific Company, and dispatch troops.
July - Daimyo Hidoshi travels on to Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi in Edo. However, his "Aynyu servant" is recognised by the Dutch trader Pieter Roggeveen as Ulrich Münchhausen, captain of marines on the Lithuanian ship Skalvis. Tokugawa has the two of them arrested, but Münchhausen succeeds in a prison break and flees with the Daimyo after commandeering a fishing boat. The Shogun orders the drawing up of an army to retake Matsumae.
The Portuguese retake Ciudad Rodrigo, helped by Lisieux ruthlessly withdrawing French troops from Spain for operations elsewhere.
August - The assembled naval forces of the Empire of the Indies fight a battle with the Meridian Armada off Paita and win a narrow victory.
Castelli advocates the formation of a new fleet to sweep the imperials off the waves and then land an army in Mexico to win the war by taking the City of Mexico.
An American force led by General Isaac Wayne II (OTL Anthony Wayne) lands on Hispaniola and defeats Vincent Ogé's rebels, though a bitter Kleinkrieg conflict continues.
On the 18th, in light of Surcouf's failure to draw the Dutch into a war, Lisieux outlines a new strategy to the Boulangerie: France will assemble a great fleet of steam transports to land an army on the Dutch coast (on a windless day when sailships are of little use), while concentrating a large new army to simultaneously invade Flanders, ensuring the two allies cannot come to each others' aid. The plan is named Le Grand Crabe, the great crab, after its two 'pincers'.
September - At Trujillo, the New Granadines fight hard but are unable to prevent Pichegru from winning a strategically crucial victory. O'Higgins' forces are evacuated by ship. The whole Lower Peruvian coastal plain now lies open to the Meridians, who are protected from malaria by quinine supplies from Noailles' plantations.
Oporto falls, after a siege, to Ballesteros.
The remnant of Hoche's Italian Latin Republic is reorganised as the Piedmontese Latin Republic, nominally ruled by Boulanger, who successfully manages to hold it against further advances by Archduke Ferdinand.
The Bavarian Germanic Republic is reduced to its capital Eichstätt as Lascelles' troops fear the Kleinkriegers more than him and desert, fleeing the country.
October - As part of Castelli's policy for neutral ships to be seized to help boost the Meridian Armada's size, Captain Alejandro Mendez attacks the Malvinas in order to obtain the pirate ships there. However, he also takes two Nantucket whalers, and his subordinate Captain Eduardo Alvarez inadvertently attacks a British ship with a largely American crew, HMB Cherry under the command of Lieutenant Jeremy Hayward. Alvarez tries to cover the incident up, but it soon gets out.
The Kleinkriegers in Bavaria finally launch an all-out attack on Eichstätt, and though they take casualties, defeat the French. Lascelles is killed and Michael Hiedler weds Petra Schickelgruber.
Reluctantly, drawn along by Nelson's policy of raiding the Spanish Mediterranean coast, King Charles VI and VIII of Naples and Sicily agrees to send an army under Pignatelli to Barcelona, proclaiming himself Charles IV of Spain.
November - First BEIC colonists land at Natal.
News of the Cherry Massacre outrages Fredericksburg. The Constitutionalist Party splits between pro- and anti-UPSA factions, with many MCPs believing that the UPSA should be supported so American settlers can gobble up New Spanish Mexico. A bill for an intervention against the UPSA is passed only with the support of the Patriot opposition. Having lost control of his party, James Monroe resigns as Lord President and the Lord Deputy calls another general election.
December - American election topples the divided Constitutionalists and Lord Hamilton's Patriots return to power. The American Squadron is withdrawn from Haiti to prepare for operations against the UPSA. The Third Platinean War has begun.
1806-1809: The Turco-Persian War of 1806-09. Persia, with Portuguese backing, fights the Ottoman Empire, with unofficial support for the Ottomans from Oman. After the Durrani Empire and Kalat stab the Persians in the back, the war ends with an Ottoman victory and Persian territorial losses - Ilam, Khuzestan and Azerbaijan to the Ottomans, Panjdeh to the Durranis and Jask to the Kalatis. Persia moves closer to the Portuguese; the Ottomans get victory disease, cementing Dalmat Melek Pasha's conservative militarist faction into power with strong Janissary support.
1806:
January - News of the Cherry Massacre hits London. Though Fox is reluctant, Britain joins America in declaring war on the UPSA. The Mediterranean Squadron strips the garrison from Gibraltar and Malta and transports it to the Falklands in support.
February - Treaty of Rome formalises the division of Italy between the Hapsburgs and Neapolitan Bourbons. Hoche's former Italian Latin Republic is recreated as the Hapsburg Kingdom of Italy under Archduke Ferdinand. Tuscany is separated and returned to Carlo I, but though Hapsburg he remains in the pocket of the Neapolitans, and his son Carlo II marries Princess Carlotta, daughter of Charles VI and VIII. The Papal States are reduced to Lazio.
The French under Drouet win a tactical victory over Pignatelli's Neapolitans at Albacete, but fail to fling them back into the sea.
The Turkish Grand Vizier, Mehmet Ali Pasha, dies - possibly from poison. Sultan Melek V appoints Dalmat Melek Pasha, hero of the war with Austria, as the new Grand Vizier. At first it appears that a Turco-Russian war is on the cards, and both sides mass troops on their borders.
March - Able to concentrate his forces by Franco-Spanish disarray elsewhere, Vieira succeeds in driving Ballesteros out of Oporto and the whole of northern Portugal.
By this point, Leo Bone has effectively become prime minister of Royal France.
Philip Hamilton and James Wayne, among many other American volunteers, temporarily leave the Royal Africa Company to take up commissions with Admiral Perry's fleet as it docks in the Company's ports enroute to the Third Platinean War.
April - The Japanese launch an attack on Edzo across the Strait of Tsugaru. However, their lack of a serious navy means that their transports virtually commit suicide against the Russo-Lithuanians' dozen or so ships of the line and frigates. A small portion of the Japanese army successfully lands, but is defeated by the Russo-Lithuanian force, which includes Aynyu and Japanese sympathisers trained in European warfare.
A punitive expedition by the Dutch East India Company aimed at bringing the Boers back into line is badly defeated by Hermanus Potgieter at Tulbagh - the VOC had severely underestimated the Boers' manpower and leadership.
First elections to King Louis XVII's experimental Grand-Parlement in Royal France produces a largely conservative assembly.
Battle of Ciamberì: Collapse of the Piedmontese Latin Republic as General Bourcier is defeated by the Archduke Ferdinand and withdraws to the Saône.
A Royal Navy taskforce under Admiral Sir William Byng and Commodores John Harrison and Christopher Perry reaches Falkland's Islands, swiftly capturing them from the small Meridian garrison and stationing most of his troops there. The fleet divides into three.
Battle of Cocos: the Meridian Armada under Admiral Ramírez defeats the remnants of the New Spanish fleet under Admiral Ruiz.
Shah-Advocate Ali Zand Shah of Persia dies from an infected insect bite. He is succeeded by his son Zaki Mohammed Shah, who goes along with Grand Vizier Mirza Reza Khan Sadeghi's plans for war with the Ottomans.
May - Humboldt's plan pays dividends for the Royal Africa Company when quinine dramatically heals the King of Dahomey, who had been dying from malaria. The drug immediately becomes popular among Africans, with the Company both reaping profits and gaining much volunteer labour to grow more cinchonas.
Drouet reacts to dwindling French troops in Spain and defeats on all fronts by withdrawing his forces to Madrid and defending the 'French road' that stretches northwards to the border.
Dutch Stadtholder William V dies and is succeeded by his son, who becomes William VI. A more conservative and paranoid ruler, he exiles Dutch Linnaean thinker Sijbren Vorderman to Denmark.
The Republican French colony of Saint-Malo has by now recovered from Heemskerk's attack, and is now self-sufficient - while Albi suffers under Lamarck's "scientific" principles and Bieraroun is burnt by the Ouarandjeré people.
June - Death of the Emperor Tenmei of Japan. This, coupled with the spreading news of the shocking defeat in the Strait of Tsugaru, leads to a breakdown of order, with the Daimyos of the Hans on the islands of Sikoke and Kiusiu asserting their independence. The Emperor's son Yasuhito, considered unsuitable by many for his absolutist philosophy, is displaced by the noble Kojimo, who (it is claimed) was adopted by the Emperor on his deathbed. The Imperial court's ministers are divided between the two. Yasuhito flees to the south and is supported by the rebels, led by the Satsuma and Choshu Hans. The Second Warring Courts period begins, with the southern court being supported with Dutch weapons from Nagasaki and the northern court, despite the irony, buying from the Russians. The RPLC's position in Edzo is, for the moment, secure.
Battle of Valdes: Admiral Perry's flotilla destroys a Meridian Armada force off the Valdes Peninsula. Philip Hamilton distinguishes himself.
The Chinese surround several Russian forts in the Amur valley and march their inhabitants - including Lebedev - back to Beijing.
July - By means of an amphibious descent, the Portuguese take Cadiz.
With the withdrawal of the American fleet from Haiti, Haitian Kleinkriegers are able to resupply and spread their rebel message to the slave plantations on nearby British islands. Accordingly, a British squadron and three British regiments are deployed there to bring the island under control. Lord Hamilton refuses Carolinian requests to send their own troops there (obviously to presage another annexation as with Cuba) and instead sends the Carolinian regiment (the 101st) to Ireland for training. At the same time, Irish troops are used to resupply the Gibraltar and Malta garrisons and half the Home Squadron is used to create a new Mediterranean Squadron under Admiral John Jervis, based at Corsica. The remaining Home Fleet is under the command of Admiral Michael Parker.
The Austrian advance into southeastern France is curtailed with General Bourcier's defeat of Alvinczi at the Battle of Rives. The front stabilises for a time as the Austrians instead plan an attack on the Swabian Germanic Republic via what was Switzerland.
15,000 Meridian troops led by General Hector Fernández are landed at Acapulco.
August - British general election returns the Foxite Reform Coalition with a slightly increased majority both for the Radical and Liberal factions: the Tory opposition remains divided and cannot put together a credible agenda beyond knee-jerk reactionism.
Admiral Byng's fleet burns and occupies Valvidia in the UPSA and then begins performing random amphibious descents along the coast, hampering the UPSA's ability to fight its war in New Granada via resupply from Lima.
September - American troops led by General Andrew Clinton begin landing on the Atlantic coast of the UPSA with the intent of marching on Buenos Aires.
October - Admiral Ramírez launches a daring surprise attack on Byng's fleet in Valvidia harbour, sinking several ships, including the British flagship ''Royal Frederick''. However, Commodore Harrison's fleet returns at exactly the wrong moment and the Meridians are completely wiped out, leaving General Fernández's troops in Mexico stranded without resupply.
General Clinton's forces begin their attack on Buenos Aires.
Turco-Persian War of 1806-09 breaks out.
November - Meridian forces under General Miguel Bautista successfully repulse an attempted attack by Clinton, who retreats and instead tries to cut Buenos Aires off from resupply.
General Fernández successfully intercepts a Manila galleon bound for the exilic Spanish in Mexico, but after this strategy of attempting to bankrupt the Spanish fails, resumes his march on the City of Mexico.
December - The Guangzhong Emperor of China sentences Lebedev to death as a persistent treaty offender, but the Emperor is killed in his sleep by Cossack bodyguards who still held debts to Lebedev. The Russian captives are killed in their escape, but China descends into civil war as chief minister Zeng opens the tablet on which the heir's name is written, only to find the Emperor never changed it from his dead first son. The War of the Three Emperors begins.
1807:
January – Le Grande Crabe, the French offensive aimed at taking the Low Countries, is finally ready - the army is assembled and a vast steam transport fleet has been assembled. The French wait only for the right opportunity to make their move.
February - The Boers besiege Kaapstaad and attempt to starve the city out, helped by the fact that most of the VOC's ships have already left for European operations. Governor Cornelisz Jacob van de Graaff institutes a draconian rationing policy which proves highly unpopular.
General Ballesteros switches sides, supporting the Neapolitans against Drouet's French.
The Russians launch their Great Eastern Adventure, sending 75,000 troops overland to support the Russo-Lithuanian Pacific Company as China collapses into civil war.
March - The Boers take Kaapstaad, fighting in the streets against van de Graaff's weakened armies, but the loyalists are saved when a VOC fleet arrives from Batavia with reinforcements.
Lisieux publicly announces Le Grande Crabe with a declaration of war on Flanders and the Dutch Republic. Boulanger takes command of the army and invades Flanders, while Villeneuve takes France's sailfleet and fights the Dutch under Admiral Carnbee on the 20th. Villeneuve wins a Pyrrhic victory and manages to land a few troops on the Dutch islands off the Zuider Zee, but more importantly Admiral Parker sends part of the British Home Fleet to keep an eye on Villeneuve.
On the 22nd, calm Channel weather strikes and the chance is there to use the French steamfleet to support Villeneuve's landings, safe from intercept by sail. But Lisieux suddenly sees the vulnerability of Britain and unexpectedly orders the steamfleet to redirect its invasion landings to the Kentish coast. Via France's semaphore network, the changed orders are swiftly transmitted.
On the 23rd, the French launch their invasion. Surcouf leads a fleet of steamships into the Channel, but is followed by a second fleet under Lepelley - unbeknownst to the British, the French have transported their Mediterranean fleet through the expanded Burgundy Canal to the Channel, doubling the size of their forces there. Hamstrung by the lack of wind, Parker struggles to respond to the French, sinking some of their ships but ultimately facing defeat. His flagship HMS Mirabilis is destroyed by the French rocket ship Enfant de Tonnerre, which also sinks in the process.
General Hoche, commanding the armies on the French fleet, lands 8000 Italian troops under General Modigliani on the Kentish coast to distract the British, then sails up the Thames and attacks London itself, landing his main force there. The British garrisons are defeated and all who can, flee. Hoche seizes the gold of the Bank of England. 300 British troops under Ashcroft and Blount hold back the Italians for a day in "Thermopylae-on-the-Downs". Hoche goes to Fox to receive his surrender, but Fox blows them both up with a magazine. In the confusion, London burns down and the fleeing King Henry IX is caught and phlogisticated, along with his queen and daughter, by the French.
April - Boulanger defeats the Dutch-Flemish forces under Steffen von Wrede at the Battle of La Belle Alliance when his agents successfully persuade the Walloons among the enemy to switch sides.
What remains of Parliament convenes at Fort Rockingham near Doncaster and proclaims the infant Prince Frederick (in America) as Frederick II, then appoints the Duke of Marlborough as regent; Churchill had retreated with his trained milita from Oxford.
Seven Republican French regiments under General Devilliers launch a rapid invasion of Royal France, which swiftly grinds to a halt as it smashes against Leo Bone's network of border forts.
Thanks to General Clinton's strategy, Buenos Aires is now on the verge of starvation, yet it is at this point that the Anglo-Americans learn of the French invasion of Britain.
The Corsican Republic declares war on France, supporting Nelson's Neapolitan Navy.
Fernández's Meridian forces are poisoned in the city of Cuernavaca, but nonetheless beat off an attack by the New Spanish Nuevo Ejército. However, when they occupy the deserted City of Mexico, the New Spanish destroy the bridges and trap them in the city, burning it. Much of Fernández's army is destroyed, ending the UPSA's attempt to strike to the heart.
May - Liège, full of radical sympathies, overthrows its Dutch overlords and joins with Boulanger's invading French, along with many other Walloons. At the same time, the Mittelbund and the Alliance of Hildesheim declare war on France and send troops to Flanders.
Battle of Cambridge: Michael Sackville-West, the Earl de la Warr, refuses orders from Churchill to retreat and consolidate forces, instead attacking the French under General Gabin and being soundly defeated. Cambridge is put to the torch, though most of the damp city survives.
Sir Lyell Brotherford, commander of the 56th West Norfolk, tries to bring his troops away but is assassinated by the Bishop and Count Palatine of Ely, Philip Matthews, who commandeers the force and then orders the Vermuyden works dismantled so that the Isle of Ely is restored, the waterworks protecting the rest of East Anglia from the French.
June - Battle of the Solent: Admiral John Jervis, aided by the Royal French and the experimental Whistler ships out of Lowestoft under Commodore Frederick Keppel, destroys much of the Republican French steam-fleet. Admiral Lepelley is killed and Admiral Surcouf is shipwrecked, though he eventually escapes to the UPSA.
French advance north through England slows thanks to extended supply lines and the water barriers. Rumours of an Irish army landing in Liverpool abound. Edinburgh briefly rises to form the Scottish Celtic Republic under Thomas Muir, which is swiftly crushed by the Oxfordshire Yeomanry under Joshua Spencer-Churchill, the Marquess of Blandford.
Meridian General Pichegru besieges the New Granadine capital of Santa Fe, but O'Higgins holds him off long enough for Nuevo Ejército reinforcements to arrive. Pichegru withdraws in good order.
July - Madrid falls to the Portuguese under Vieira. Philip VII is shot by Drouet, who then kills himself. The infant king Alfonso XII falls into Portuguese hands. The Neapolitans swiftly roll up the east of Spain.
The "Irish" army meets the British at Emley Moor and it turns out to be an allied Anglo-Hiberno-American force led by Sir John Moore, Richard Wesley the Earl of Mornington, and John Alexander of Carolina.
Devilliers finally breaks through Leo Bone's fortress network into the interior of Royal France. The Royal French retreat to their fortified cities.
Corsican and Neapolitan forces under Nelson occupy the city of Toulon in a bloody amphibious descent, then grimly hold on as Bourcier tries to retake it.
August - The British and allied counter-attack against the English Germanic Republic begins in earnest with the Relief of Bedford.
Devilliers besieges Brest, having heard Leo Bone is in the city; however, it soon becomes apparent that the Royal French are moving their commanders by sea and using misinformation to distract the Republicans.
Lima rises in rebellion against the Meridians with support from American troops, severely hampering the supply line to Pichegru's army through Upper Peru. At the same time, Portugal declares war on the UPSA.
September - The French occupying the town of Cervera, after many years of unusually peaceful coexistence, are set upon by the furious townsfolk due to Philip VII's death. The town's mayor, Francisco José Sanchez y Rodriguez, is branded a traitor and collaborator and his family is killed by the mob - all except his young son Pablo Rodrigo Sanchez y Ruiz.
Battle of St Albans: English Germanic Republic, cut off from resupply from the Continent thanks to the Royal Navy once dominating the Channel, swiftly begins to collapse.
President-General Castelli is killed while trying to withdraw from the besieged Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires surrenders to the Americans a few days later.
Lamarck dies of a snake bite while on a botanical expedition in La Pérouse's Land; the governorship passes through the Lascelles wannabe René Demoivre.
October - Saxony and Denmark-Sweden declare war on France in support of the Dutch and Flemish.
Descent on Harwich: Major Alexander Cochrane and Commodore Keppel's steamships take the town, encircle General Gabin's army, and destroy it.
La Roche falls to General Devilliers' army.
Political chaos in Cordoba. General Ayala manages to hold back the Anglo-American forces from the city while a new conservative political alliance, the Reagrupamiento por la Unión (“Rally for the Union”) seizes power from the collapsing Partido Solidaridad.
November - Battle of Islington: Saissons is defeated by Wesley while Moore takes London from the rear. Saissons and Dashwood are executed, with other suspected collaborators shipped to Susan-Mary.
Keppel's steamships sink General Modigliani in his attempt to flee.
The Saxons and Danes attack Swabia, pre-empting an attempt by the Austrians under Alvinczi to invade via the former Switzerland. In a bit of diplomatic jiggery-pokery behind the scenes, Ney surrenders the Republic without a fight in exchange for amnesty for his men. The Swabian Germanic Republic becomes the Duchy of Swabia under Frederick IV, exiled Duke of Württemberg.
December - Final destruction of the last remnants of the English Germanic Republic. Privy Council meeting convened in the ruins of London. Churchill speaks of the need to take the fight to the enemy once more.
General Pichegru is surrounded near San Francisco de Quito by combined New Spanish and Portuguese forces, and is forced to surrender.
Reagrupamiento’s leader, Miguel Baquedano y Zebreros, seizes control of the UPSA while pledging to rule for no more than three years and hold new elections and a constitutional convention. He seeks immediate terms with the UPSA's enemies.
1808:
January - General Thomas Græme is sent to descend on Ostende with 20,000 men to attack Boulanger's flank, in a typically quixotic Churchill scheme. Græme is defeated by General Armand Poulenc at the Battle of Dixmuyden and is evacuated from Dunkerque. The whole business is a disaster, meaning Charles Bone's view of supporting Royal France gains supremacy in the Privy Council.
Charles Theodore II and Steffen von Wrede withdraw to the Palatinate, allowing Brussels to fall to Boulanger without a fight. The Dutch implement their Water Line defences, preventing Boulanger and Poulenc from invading the heart of the United Netherlands.
General Marceau tries to retake Toulon from the Neapolitans and Corsicans and is bloodily repulsed.
February - Five British and allied regiments under Wesley occupy Granville in Normandy, distracting Devilliers from his growing successes against the Royal French fortress cities. Devilliers reconstitutes his army and marches to confront them. Simultaneously, another British force under Sir John Moore lands at Nantes and relieves the besieged cities.
March - Informal agreement between Portugal and Naples to divide Spain once more as Castile and Aragon, with Castile being ruled by the Portuguese puppet Alfonso XII and Aragon as another dominion of Charles VIII and VI (and now IV).
Battle of Draguignan: the Archduke Ferdinand and Alvinczi finally achieve a decisive victory over Bourcier.
Another attempt by Marceau to retake Toulon is on the verge of success when he is forced to retreat to Marseilles to support Bourcier.
Revolution in Albi against the tyrannical governor Demoivre. Revolutionary leader Locard re-establishes contact with La Pérouse in Autiaraux and the colony's famine is finally relieved through trade.
April - Devilliers fights Wesley at Laval and wins a Pyrrhic victory. Wesley makes a strategic retreat southwards, Devilliers pursuing.
Treaty of Rio de Janeiro formally ends the Third Platinean War. The UPSA surrenders Upper Peru to the Empire of New Spain, while Portuguese Brazil receives several favourable border adjustments both from the UPSA and New Spain. The Anglo-Americans get nothing beyond trade concessions and confirmation of British possession of Falkland's Islands.
May - Devilliers finally catches Wesley at Angers. Devilliers is killed at extreme range by sharpshooter James Roosevelt in the "shot heard 'round the world" and the Republicans are routed.
June - All Republican forces thrown out of Royal France.
July - A Dutch naval squadron sails to Ostende and helps temporarily relieve the French siege of Bruges. Poulenc is sent to defeat them.
August - The armies of the Mittelbund confront Boulanger in occupied Flanders.
The Royal French take the strategic town of Royan on the Gironde Estuary.
October - Battle of Adenau: French General Henri Trenet defeats the Mittelbund General Konrad von Löwenstein.
November - Battle of Mersch: The French are driven back by General von Wrede. Boulanger combines his armies at St. Hubert for a counter-attack, but then retreats to Brussels to winter, unwilling to give up such a forward position.
1809:
January - Brussels, now starving and resentful thanks to the huge French armies encamped there, is attacked by the forces of the Mittelbund, Flemings and Alliance of Hildesheim. Bitter winter urban fighting sets in.
Petersburg Colloquy in the capital of Russia. Emperor Paul and his ministers decide to enter the war in Europe, sending ten regiments directly to France using Danish transport ships.
February - Pascal Schmidt, then a young Hessian soldier, controversially kills General Poulenc when the Frenchman is captured.
A newly assembled French army under Stéphane Pelletan attempts a defensive campaign against the advancing British and Royal French.
March - The French are thrown out of Brussels and retreat in the greatest defeat of Boulanger's career thus far.
April - Pelletan's army suffers a series of defeats to the western allies.
Second Meridian Constitutional Convention in Cordoba makes significant revisions to the U.P. constitution, restricting the president-general to three-year terms and re-elections rather than being a life position.
End of the Turco-Persian War of 1806-09 with a Persian defeat.
May - Pelletan arrives in Paris to deliver his report in person to Lisieux, only to find that L'Administrateur is nowhere to be found, and no-one can account for his location. Lisieux's disappearance will be an unsolved mystery to baffle the historians and conspiracy theorists of the future.
Bourcier seizes power, reverses most of Lisieux's constitutional changes and reconvenes the National Legislative Assembly, presided over by René Apollinaire.
June - Bourcier's new Republican regime delivers a plea to the western allies offering the crown to Louis XVII, seeking a bloodless transfer of power rather than suffer under the rhetoric-spewing Germans advancing from the east. Louis accepts and 50,000 allied troops march on Paris.
Russian force under Heinz Kautzman lands in Dieppe and heads towards the capital.
July - The British, Royal French, Americans and Irish occupy Paris and Louis is crowned King of all France.
Boulanger hears of the change of power, goes berserk and turns his remaining army around, planning one last quixotic attack in an attempt, if nothing else, to ensure the Revolution is remembered as something more than a bunch of pragmatic turncoats. He will march on Paris.
Philip Hamilton and James Wayne return to the Royal Africa Company as heroes.
August - On the 4th, the last and greatest battle of the Jacobin Wars is met before Paris. Eighty thousand Republican troops under Boulanger face fifty-five thousand Allied troops defending the city. It is the first major engagement in which both sides deploy steam cannon against each other. The Allies hold to breaking point, only to be rescued at the eleventh hour by Kautzman's Russo-Dano-Lithuanian force taking Boulanger's army in the rear. Seizing an opportunity in the thick of battle, Lord Mornington challenges Boulanger to a duel in a gamble to keep the French commander from reorganising his forces. Boulanger defeats him, but is shot down by Carolinian general John Alexander, who argues that the Jacobins long since abandoned any claim to be treated according to the laws of war and honour. General Trenet takes over the Republican remnants and surrenders. The war is over.
November - The Congress of Copenhagen is held in the eponymous Danish capital, in which the postwar settlement for Europe is hammered out. France escapes serious dismemberment, its only major loss being the Duchy of Lorraine detached by the Hapsburgs. The Russians possess disproportionate influence thanks to their key role at the Battle of Paris, and split off a "kingdom of Navarre" around Bayonne, under a Lithuanian noble, to effectively give themselves a warm-water port. A shaky Franco-Austrian pact, put together by the nations' foreign ministers, manages to exclude most of the north German states from possessing much influence at the Conference, forcing them to band together. Broadly, the status quo as of the closing stages of the war is allowed to serve as the peace.
Part 7: The Watchful Peace
1809-
1810:
February - Elections in the United Provinces of South America. Acting president-general Baquedano resigns in a Cincinnatian move, recognising his own lack of popularity for ending the war three years before. The elections are won by the new conservative Amarillo Party, rising from the core of the looser Reagrupamiento alliance which had ruled the country since 1807. The new President-General is Roberto Mateovarón. The opposition soon rallies as the progressive Colorado Party, led by the former general Luis Jaime Ayala Santa Cruz. A number of moderate deputies remain aloof from both political poles, being unofficially known as the Blanco Party.
March - The Congress of Copenhagen concludes.
April - While vetting former Republican officials for their suitability to continue service, the new French Royalist regime encounters Georges Galois, Lisieux's former colonial director, who advises that La Pérouse's Land be brought under direct control. Leo Bone agrees and a fleet under Admiral de Foix is dispatched.
May - Philip Hamilton and James Wayne visit the Kingdom of Benin and negotiate a trade with King Ogbebo of palm oil for modern European firearms.
1812:
January - Admiral de Foix arrives in La Pérouse's Land (Antipodea) and meets with the aged La Pérouse himself, bringing him back to France. Meanwhile, Europe reawakens to the fact that the matter of this colony must be dealt with.
August - Philip Hamilton and James Wayne set out upriver from Dakar in search of the fabled city of Timbuktoo. They eventually find it, but are discovered as non-Muslims, and only escape thanks to a friendly Ashanti minister being present.
1813:
March - Treaty of Blois divides Antipodea between the French south-east, British west and Dutch north.
August - British forces take Saint-Malo in Antipodea, renaming it New London and the surrounding colony New Kent. Some Republican diehards keep up a Kleinkrieger offensive in the hinterland, with native help.
1814:
October - La Pérouse finally returns to France and is honoured by King Louis XVII, dying a national hero a few months later.
1815:
January - Philip Hamilton and James Wayne return from their explorations of the African interior to find that their enemy Philip Lawrence has been building support among the RAC's board of directors.
1815:
February - Death of Thomas Space of old age. His partner Filling tries to name Philip Hamilton as his successor, but is overruled by Lawrence's dominance of the Board of Directors. Lawrence fobs Hamilton off with governorship of Natal, which Hamilton in turn gives to a subordinate, swears off African affairs, and finally returns to America.
1819:
January - The northern part of the British Antipodean colony of New Kent is split off as New Virginia in anticipation of American colonisation.
1823:
February - Virginian colonists arrive in New Virginia in Antipodea, establishing Norfolk as their capital.