Remember, Remember, the Third of October...
- Thread starter Mumby
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Scotland may be the bigger member - is it really though? I'm pretty sure Englang's population was more than twice Scotland's at the time. There's no way England has suffered a 50% drop! - now but that's going to shift once England recovers and its population takes off again and the nobles and merchants begin demanding great representation
Less Ulster Plantations in this timeline because James was killed after only a very short time on the throne. The time under Hugh O'Neill and the Elizabethan crypto-Catholics reinforced that, and the extrovertly Catholic Ireland under Elizabeth will make Ulster just another part of the Kingdom of Ireland.
The English depression is rather temporary. They were the most ravaged by the war, the core English cities have been razed and their population have fled. For now, the early British state, economy and identity will be dominated by the more stable Scotland. Needless to say, once the economy recovers, numbers will tell and England will extremely rapidly regain their position within the Union. But I envisage England as not perceiving itself as English but as British to a much greater extent than OTL. This experience will have built a sense of community in Great Britain, and the fact that the Scots (heavily augmented with English guerrillas (smallfighters ITTL), London Trained Bands, etc.) came to the rescue of the divided English, I reckon that English, Scots and Welsh will be considered in the same way that Saxon or Rhenish is now. And the main reason that the Scots have the weight they do is because Northern England emerged very well, and less damaged, and it is their growth and strength that augments Scottish advantages. I can see a lot of migration from south to north in TTL.
The Britannic Church
After the Emperor was crippled in his abortive invasion of Ireland, he devoted himself to religion. He travelled Britain, talking to the radical sectaries in Wales, Catholics in Lancashire, Anglicans and Presbyterians. The deal that the Council of England had signed with the Scots which ensured their allegiance, and his later victory had committed him to reform the Church of England to follow a Presbyterian model.
He held a Holy Convention that made each borough and shire of the Empire elect a holy man to represent them. For the time that the Holy Convention sat, the church seats in Parliament were temporarily suspended. He used this Holy Convention to slowly but surely hammer out a religious settlement. Episcopy was abolished, and the Church was reformed to follow the system of elected councils or presbyteries. The Church of England and all other established churches were abolished and forged into the new Church of Britain or Britannic Church. To appease Catholics and Arminian Anglicans, the Presbyterian power structure was altered to mirror the old Episcopal power structure, allowing some vicars to be considered de facto bishops. Some of the trappings of Anglicanism remained. To appease Puritans and other sectaries, the relationship between clergy and congregation was made less formal with more involvement of the congregation in the proceedings. Extreme Protestantism and Catholicism were both banned, though a certain degree of toleration was included.
The most important and memorable inclusion by the Holy Convention was the commissioning of the Emperor Charles Bible, which was written in 1640. The Emperor Charles Bible is memorable for the poetry of its prose, and its standardisation of English with many Scots inclusions.
After the Emperor was crippled in his abortive invasion of Ireland, he devoted himself to religion. He travelled Britain, talking to the radical sectaries in Wales, Catholics in Lancashire, Anglicans and Presbyterians. The deal that the Council of England had signed with the Scots which ensured their allegiance, and his later victory had committed him to reform the Church of England to follow a Presbyterian model.
He held a Holy Convention that made each borough and shire of the Empire elect a holy man to represent them. For the time that the Holy Convention sat, the church seats in Parliament were temporarily suspended. He used this Holy Convention to slowly but surely hammer out a religious settlement. Episcopy was abolished, and the Church was reformed to follow the system of elected councils or presbyteries. The Church of England and all other established churches were abolished and forged into the new Church of Britain or Britannic Church. To appease Catholics and Arminian Anglicans, the Presbyterian power structure was altered to mirror the old Episcopal power structure, allowing some vicars to be considered de facto bishops. Some of the trappings of Anglicanism remained. To appease Puritans and other sectaries, the relationship between clergy and congregation was made less formal with more involvement of the congregation in the proceedings. Extreme Protestantism and Catholicism were both banned, though a certain degree of toleration was included.
The most important and memorable inclusion by the Holy Convention was the commissioning of the Emperor Charles Bible, which was written in 1640. The Emperor Charles Bible is memorable for the poetry of its prose, and its standardisation of English with many Scots inclusions.
-Ah, so more Scotsmen staying on the Home Island, given less plantations. Gotcha.
-This was what I was getting at; I understand that the Scottish sway over the island won't last forever (or even very long in absolute terms), but it will be enough to make mainstream Britain more overtly Scottish/Northern English (a slightly redundant distinction in practical terms) in character. As alluded to in the Brittanic Church portion, the Scots language and Northern dialects will be a pretty big influence on the English language from what I can tell, and we've already seen some changes effected on British politics. Overall, my impression is that Scotland will end up better off than OTL (not that it means them dominating Britain, just not being overrun by London), and with England's prestige lying north of the Humber instead of by the Thames/Wessex area.
Exactly, my idea is that Britain is rather more equal union, in which Britain is less dominated by England and London. Bristol is growing into an important.
There were three great works that Charles committed himself to during his reign. The first was the forging of the Empire and the elimination of his sister's ability to war against him. The second was the creation of the Britannic Church and his efforts to squash dissent like the first Elizabeth. The last was the care and education of his only son, James Prince of Wales who would on day be crowned Emperor James II had backdated the foundation of the Empire to the coronation of James I and VI, essentially excluding the name of Elizabeth entirely from the historical record.
The young James was a sickly child, and the crippling of his father meant that his parents poured all their efforts into his care and health. Charles had plenty of time to read and had become much enamoured with Plato's idea of philosopher kings. He was determined that James would be educated in all things which a king should know, so that despite his physical limitations he would be able to administer the state effectively. This represented a growing division in British politics. On the one hand, Charles firmly believed in his divine right to the throne and the essential power of that position, an opinion forged in his long struggle for undisputed power. His Lord High Commissioner, Oliver Cromwell believed that power had to be shared between King and Parliament as both were vital parts of the British Constitution, warning against the tyranny that Elizabeth and O'Neill had fallen to at the height of their successes. Slowly but surely, two parties coalesced, known as the King's Men and the General's Men. Cromwell was known as the General for his war hero status.
Alongside this, Charles was determined to align Britain strongly on the side of the Protestant powers of Europe. To this end, he made a fairly nebulous agreement with Gustavus Adolphus to marry his daughter to James. Gustavus Adolphus was by this point the most powerful man in Europe, and Sweden was rapidly ascending to imperial status, with a network of universities and many liberal reforms accelerating the economy. Gustav had a son but he was weak and sickly, even more so than James, and Charles was hesitant to marry his son to the Swedish heir, knowing that with Britain still recovering from the Triplicate Wars, a personal union with Sweden would find Britain subsumed to the Vasa domination of Northern Europe.
Charles himself found himself gravitating more towards the court of France, but realised that despite Louis XIII's reforms the country was still Catholic and his marriage had been deeply unpopular at first. This represented the second dividing line in British politics. Some favoured an alliance with the ascendant Bourbons, while others wanted a closer relationship with the sprawling Vasa Empire. This was largely based on religious division. Charles had an open religious mind, and while vociferous Protestant, he believed that there was little to be actively despised in Catholicism only that Protestantism brought people closer to God. Others thought of non Britannican Protestants as heretics and Catholics as agents of the anti-Christ. This mirrored some of the extreme Lutheran discussions in Sweden.
The young James was a sickly child, and the crippling of his father meant that his parents poured all their efforts into his care and health. Charles had plenty of time to read and had become much enamoured with Plato's idea of philosopher kings. He was determined that James would be educated in all things which a king should know, so that despite his physical limitations he would be able to administer the state effectively. This represented a growing division in British politics. On the one hand, Charles firmly believed in his divine right to the throne and the essential power of that position, an opinion forged in his long struggle for undisputed power. His Lord High Commissioner, Oliver Cromwell believed that power had to be shared between King and Parliament as both were vital parts of the British Constitution, warning against the tyranny that Elizabeth and O'Neill had fallen to at the height of their successes. Slowly but surely, two parties coalesced, known as the King's Men and the General's Men. Cromwell was known as the General for his war hero status.
Alongside this, Charles was determined to align Britain strongly on the side of the Protestant powers of Europe. To this end, he made a fairly nebulous agreement with Gustavus Adolphus to marry his daughter to James. Gustavus Adolphus was by this point the most powerful man in Europe, and Sweden was rapidly ascending to imperial status, with a network of universities and many liberal reforms accelerating the economy. Gustav had a son but he was weak and sickly, even more so than James, and Charles was hesitant to marry his son to the Swedish heir, knowing that with Britain still recovering from the Triplicate Wars, a personal union with Sweden would find Britain subsumed to the Vasa domination of Northern Europe.
Charles himself found himself gravitating more towards the court of France, but realised that despite Louis XIII's reforms the country was still Catholic and his marriage had been deeply unpopular at first. This represented the second dividing line in British politics. Some favoured an alliance with the ascendant Bourbons, while others wanted a closer relationship with the sprawling Vasa Empire. This was largely based on religious division. Charles had an open religious mind, and while vociferous Protestant, he believed that there was little to be actively despised in Catholicism only that Protestantism brought people closer to God. Others thought of non Britannican Protestants as heretics and Catholics as agents of the anti-Christ. This mirrored some of the extreme Lutheran discussions in Sweden.
Colonisation of the Americas by Country
Britain
Thanks to Cromwell, the sale of baronetcies in the Three Colonies of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and New England was bringing about a great shift of population to the British colonies. Other colonists were coming to New England to escape the new religious settlement of the Church of Britain, and later colonies specifically for them would be set up. A certain weakness remained however, as the British colonies were bound by the Dutch on the Hudson and the French on the banks of the St Lawrence. However, migration into these constricted colonies was boosted by those escaping the terrible economic situation in much of England.
France
Louis XIII had a vision of an empire to rival Spain's built on the banks of the St Lawrence. Unfortunately for him and his principal advisor, Cardinal Richelieu, the land they had chosen was cold and poor for farming. Not only that, but they had ceded Acadia to Britain when Charles married Christine. But it was in Canada that the heart of New France was being formed. Louis was determined to mirror his rise in Europe with a rise in the Americas, and began a policy of selling titles to second sons of nobles, on the condition of bringing peasants to the New World. He also sold rights to land to Jesuits and other religious orders. Alongside that, he established colonial trading companies to co-ordinate the colonial effort. Slowly but surely, the population of Canada grew.
Beyond Canada, a small penal colony was establishing in Guiana, notorious for its inclement climate, irate natives and irritating diseases, it was a good place for Louis to dump those who resisted his new religious settlement, the expansion of his royal power, and his other reforms. Those who returned knew not to brook opposition to The Most Christian King.
Spain
Spain was a waning power and it knew it. They had lost a lot of land to France, and Portugal and its valuable colonies, factories and spheres of influence in Africa and Asia had gone. Spanish behaviour in its colonies remained very much the same, though as interest in the Americas rose in Europe, the Spanish had to be forever on the watch as various power greedily nibbled around the edges of the vast Spanish Empire. To combat this, a pseudo feudal system was constructed, built on the reforms of predecessors that granted more power to the Viceroys and increased the political divisions, as well as demanding more troops to be raised.
Netherlands
The Dutch had done well out of the Twenty Five Years War. Little fighting had occurred in their heartland, and they had won the principal German ports that sat on the North Sea Coast. Alongside that, they had obtained a large chunk of the Northern Portuguese colonies in Brazil. And during the war, Henry Hudson had laid claim to a large swathe of land in North America. New Netherland was defined really only with a settlement on Long Island, and a boundary along the Hudson River. With that, the Dutch potentially could settle an enormous swathe of the North American continent. However, they would soon come into conflict with Swedish and Spanish settlers.
However, the primary focus of Dutch colonisation would be on New Holland, their new colony in South America, from which they would turn their eyes north to the Caribbean, and east to Africa. In time, this along with their domination of North Sea trade would make the Dutch enormously wealthy.
Sweden
Gustavus Adolphus is truly worthy of his title of Lion of the North, having built a great northern empire, stretching from the North Sea to the White Sea and south to the border with Saxony. But now that Lutheranism was secure, Gustav turned his eyes west and sought an empire in the Americas. The land he chose to found New Sweden on was the Chesapeake Bay, and here he settled the more restive peoples of his Empire. Norwegians, Finns, and Muscovites all found themselves here along with Catholic Germans and Swedes.
Sweden also pursued some small interest in the Caribbean, but their focus was always on New Sweden, and the growing tobacco trade. The colony was small and frequently conflicted with the Dutch.
Portugal
Portugal had lost a lot of valuable land in the Twenty Five Years War, so they met with the Spanish and rearranged the Treaty of Tordesillas to shift the Portuguese border west to accomodate their lost ambitions. The Portuguese became increasingly reliant on the slave trade due to the loss of a lot of colonised land, and more importantly because of the greater proximity of Dutch and French colonies to Europe, they were forced to find alternatives to sugar as an exportable cash crop. This diversification and break down of monopolies actually accelerated colonisation.
Britain
Thanks to Cromwell, the sale of baronetcies in the Three Colonies of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and New England was bringing about a great shift of population to the British colonies. Other colonists were coming to New England to escape the new religious settlement of the Church of Britain, and later colonies specifically for them would be set up. A certain weakness remained however, as the British colonies were bound by the Dutch on the Hudson and the French on the banks of the St Lawrence. However, migration into these constricted colonies was boosted by those escaping the terrible economic situation in much of England.
France
Louis XIII had a vision of an empire to rival Spain's built on the banks of the St Lawrence. Unfortunately for him and his principal advisor, Cardinal Richelieu, the land they had chosen was cold and poor for farming. Not only that, but they had ceded Acadia to Britain when Charles married Christine. But it was in Canada that the heart of New France was being formed. Louis was determined to mirror his rise in Europe with a rise in the Americas, and began a policy of selling titles to second sons of nobles, on the condition of bringing peasants to the New World. He also sold rights to land to Jesuits and other religious orders. Alongside that, he established colonial trading companies to co-ordinate the colonial effort. Slowly but surely, the population of Canada grew.
Beyond Canada, a small penal colony was establishing in Guiana, notorious for its inclement climate, irate natives and irritating diseases, it was a good place for Louis to dump those who resisted his new religious settlement, the expansion of his royal power, and his other reforms. Those who returned knew not to brook opposition to The Most Christian King.
Spain
Spain was a waning power and it knew it. They had lost a lot of land to France, and Portugal and its valuable colonies, factories and spheres of influence in Africa and Asia had gone. Spanish behaviour in its colonies remained very much the same, though as interest in the Americas rose in Europe, the Spanish had to be forever on the watch as various power greedily nibbled around the edges of the vast Spanish Empire. To combat this, a pseudo feudal system was constructed, built on the reforms of predecessors that granted more power to the Viceroys and increased the political divisions, as well as demanding more troops to be raised.
Netherlands
The Dutch had done well out of the Twenty Five Years War. Little fighting had occurred in their heartland, and they had won the principal German ports that sat on the North Sea Coast. Alongside that, they had obtained a large chunk of the Northern Portuguese colonies in Brazil. And during the war, Henry Hudson had laid claim to a large swathe of land in North America. New Netherland was defined really only with a settlement on Long Island, and a boundary along the Hudson River. With that, the Dutch potentially could settle an enormous swathe of the North American continent. However, they would soon come into conflict with Swedish and Spanish settlers.
However, the primary focus of Dutch colonisation would be on New Holland, their new colony in South America, from which they would turn their eyes north to the Caribbean, and east to Africa. In time, this along with their domination of North Sea trade would make the Dutch enormously wealthy.
Sweden
Gustavus Adolphus is truly worthy of his title of Lion of the North, having built a great northern empire, stretching from the North Sea to the White Sea and south to the border with Saxony. But now that Lutheranism was secure, Gustav turned his eyes west and sought an empire in the Americas. The land he chose to found New Sweden on was the Chesapeake Bay, and here he settled the more restive peoples of his Empire. Norwegians, Finns, and Muscovites all found themselves here along with Catholic Germans and Swedes.
Sweden also pursued some small interest in the Caribbean, but their focus was always on New Sweden, and the growing tobacco trade. The colony was small and frequently conflicted with the Dutch.
Portugal
Portugal had lost a lot of valuable land in the Twenty Five Years War, so they met with the Spanish and rearranged the Treaty of Tordesillas to shift the Portuguese border west to accomodate their lost ambitions. The Portuguese became increasingly reliant on the slave trade due to the loss of a lot of colonised land, and more importantly because of the greater proximity of Dutch and French colonies to Europe, they were forced to find alternatives to sugar as an exportable cash crop. This diversification and break down of monopolies actually accelerated colonisation.
Politics by Country (includes puppets)
Britain
In Britain, two parties were emerging. Emperor's Men and General's Men. Emperor Charles wanted to increase the powers of the monarchy, and firmly believed in his divine right to the throne, a belief that had been forged by the war which had defined most of his reign and indeed life up till this point. Oliver Cromwell, known as the General, believed that power had to be shared between Emperor and Parliament, and did what he could to force Charles to listen to Parliament. The two groups also divided over foreign policy. Charles, influenced by his wife, wanted a closer relationship with the religiously liberal France, and to distance Britain from Gustavus Adolphus' empire. The General's Men on the other hand, jealously guarded Britain's religious settlement and wanted to decrease the rights of Catholics and gravitated more towards the Lutheran empire of Sweden. Charles was forced to compromise and agreed to a wedding agreement between the heir James, and the daughter of Gustavus, Christina. The idea of two consecutive queens called Christina lead to the foundation of the colony of Christina within New England.
Outside of Europe, Britain pursued an interest in India and the Spice Island, competing with the Dutch and Portuguese for influence. However, their colonial interests became increasingly focussed around Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and New England. A secondary interest in the Caribbean was also developing as an ideal place to send the many people who had been sentenced to transportation and indentured servitude.
Ireland
Ireland was comparatively strong, with a large standing army, a growing navy and a flood of Catholics from Lancashire and other places in Britain coming across the sea. Elizabeth had abandoned her dreams of reclaiming her throne in London as Cromwell and Charles filled their Treasury and secured their reign. Instead she turned her eyes outwards, and looked upon the New World, and other areas greedily. Ireland had only a small population of just under two million people, but a few steps had already been taken. When Elizabeth had been Queen in Lancaster, Hugh O'Neill had sent an expedition to India, where Irish emissaries met with Mughal diplomats. Building upon that meeting, Elizabeth intended to build a trading empire to rival that of Portugal. As part of this, she also encourage Irish co-operation with Spain, and sent indentured labour in the form of Protestant Irish to the Spanish colonies in the New World. Elizabeth claimed her right to the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, and a few Irish settlements sprang up on the coast, but control was always nominal and contested by Sweden. Not only that, but the natives had taken control of the Jamestown fort and were building a more centralised sphere of their own that forced Irish settlers onto the Outer Banks and Islands of the Virginian coast.
In political terms, Elizabeth had established herself as an absolute monarch, having purged Parliament and local government with unpopular Viceroys and then had them purged. She dismissed Parliament permanently in 1637, and took advice solely from her Privy Council. She now had several children, but her husband's health was poor, and he died at the age of thirty. By now she was 41, and hardly of an age to have more children, but she knew the importance of marriage as an alliance building mechanism. Rather than marry a Spanish Hapsburg again, as her children were already Hapsburgs, she decided to marry an Irish noble, Shane O'Neill, the youngest son and heir to her most famous Viceroy. O'Neill had many more heirs to inherit the title of Earl of Tyrone after him, and wasn't too concerned about fathering children with Elizabeth. Their political alliance would strengthen Ulster and the O'Neill Dynasty.
France
Louis XIII had continued his father's policy of religious toleration, but thanks to his mother's influence, his main advisor was Cardinal Richelieu. While the two men usually got on, on the topic of religion, the two men were widely known to argue. France's finances were in a terrible state, and Richelieu wanted to raise revenue by confiscating Huguenot property. Louis preferred other means. Eventually the two men agreed to disagree, and Richelieu agreed to raise money by other means. Castles were dismantled and many of the feudal rights of the nobles were drastically slashed back, delivering ever greater power into Louis' hands. However, because of this, Louis' reforms could go no further than this, and he was forced to maintain the nobility and the clergies rights to lower taxes. France had a growing merchant class, but they suffered oppressive taxation and there was little Louis could do to halt this without angering the nobility. Nevertheless, resentment at he and Richelieu's violations of their traditional liberties began building into a fearsome movement.
In terms of foreign policy, Louis soon found himself competing with wartime allies and enemies alike. Portugal, the Netherlands and Sweden competed with him for influence in Europe and the New World, alongside Spain, Austria and others. In particular outside his designs on building an empire in Canada, Louis established a colonial company for trade in the Moluccas, and actively fought with the Dutch for influence in Asia.
Spain
Under Phillip IV, Spain struggled to meet the challenge of renewing itself. Having lost the Netherlands however, he could concentrate on his Mediterranean possessions, and without the Council of Portugal, he could more easily centralise power into the Council of Castille, and establish juntas in place of other Councils, therefore increasing his power. The reformation of administration in the colonies was delivering more wealth into Spain's coffers and his efforts to find other economic opportunities other than gold and silver were moderately successful. Unfortunately, he did annoy many power brokers in his struggle to reform a waning empire. In particular his abolition of the Councils and his centralisation of power proved extremely disagreeable to many aristocrats and grandees. However, Phillip appealed to the people in his creation of juntas and used the threat of riots and mob rule to cow his rivals. This was particualrly successful in Catalonia.
His reforms to government in the Italies where he essentially united the Spanish possessions there to the Crown of Castille were only successful because he managed to drive the French out of northern Italy, with the exception of Savoy and Pinerolo. This was all to the good as it weakened Piedmont and secured Hapsburg hegemony over the Italies
Portugal
Under John IV, Portugal entered a rennaisance. Brazil was expanded, trade was aggressively pursued in Asia and Africa, and competed with the Dutch, the Spanish and many others. Unfortunately, his reign was characterised by war. Because of Portugal's position as part of the Hapsburg monarchy prior to his restoration many of his former colonies had been seen as fair game. While he mostly restored his possessions in Asia and Africa, the Dutch held onto their territory in Brazil and he was forced to recognise their claims. He also found himself frequently in competition with the Spanish.
In domestic terms, John secured an absolute monarchy based on his own theory of popular acclamation. His people had acclaimed him monarch upon his restoration and therefore rather than a divine right to rule, he had a popular right to rule, for better or for worse. This would establish an interesting precedent in future generations.
Netherlands
The Dutch had won much from the war, assuring their independence, gaining vast swathes of land in the Americas and Asia, and a dominance of the German North Sea trade. Dutch foreign policy after the war brought them close to both Sweden and Britain, but a great distance emerged between them and Portugal, mostly because of the Dutch policy of attacking Portuguese colonies during the Twenty Five Years War. Within the United Provinces, divisions were also emerging. The Orangists wanted to centralise the Republicans under the House of Orange-Nassau, while the Republicans wanted to do away with the pseudo-hereditary system which had entrenched the stadholders in power, and repatriate powers back to the States.
The expansion of their colonial interests forced them to expand the operations of the East and West Indian Companies. In the New Netherlands, they prepared plans for eventually integrating the colonies into the United Provinces. The other colonies were more complex with native monarchies to keep happy, and in the case of New Holland, it had only just been conquered from the Portuguese. Wealth was soon pouring back into the Netherlands, and their involvement in the Baltic trade brought wealth from the Indies to Eastern Europe.
Austria
The Austrian Empire had both gained and lost from the war. They had lost Bohemia and gained much of Hungary. They had lost their enclaves in France, and gained holdfasts on its borders. Most importantly, they had lost their Spanish cousins from within the Holy Roman Empire, and then proceeded to reforge that institution in their own image. Alongside Phillip IV, they had conquered a swathe of Italy and brought the whole peninsula to heel. Swabia had been conquered and a vast swathe of Germany now bent the knee to the Archduke Ferdinand III. Only Bavaria and the Swiss were capable of offering any real resistance to Austria's primacy over the Empire. With his hegemony assured, a number of centralisation policies were enacted that tightened up administration of the Empire. This was stymied by the Westphalia Treaty that forced him to recognise the sovereignty of his vassals. What he could do was bind the states together in a series of political, military and economic treaties that leashed these states to Vienna.
Internally, Austria was forced to crush Swabian rebellion with maximum prejudice. This Protestant state had not faired well from the war, and the methods the Austrians used continue to be controversial to this very day. But once the burnings and bloodshed was complete, Swabia was a compliant and peacable part of the Archduchy and the wider Empire. Outside the Germanies, there was some trouble in Hungary and the Italies. The Italian states were a contestable region with the French, but what with the French busy in the Pyrenees and the Basque Country, they could devote few resources to Italy and the Austrian occupation of the territory allowed them to impose harsher rule on the states which hadn't willingly bent the knee to the Hapsburgs. In Hungary, the Austrians had trouble with the majority Lutheran population, and were forced to adopt a policy of religious toleration. However, considering that the higher nobles were Catholic and the lower nobles were Lutheran, allowed Ferdinand to replace the old Hungarian civil service with more efficient merchant class Austrian bureaucrats. He was also able to secure the loyalty of the Catholic nobles and spread their influence.
Germanies
Outside of the Holy Roman Empire, different situations dominated in different regions. Bavaria, whilst within the HRE was more independent than the Italian state or the smaller German states. The Swiss were too weak to pose any significant threat but the Austrians planned to make the smaller German states a weak confederation, along the lines of the Confederacy. In Bavaria's case, Ferdinand was careful to bind them close to him through allowing them to gain some great victories over their neighbours and then marrying the sons and daughters of the Wittelsbachs into his family. In fact, Ferdinand had plans for his sons to inherit Bavaria and absorb it into their wider German domain.
In Westphalia, their official neutrality protected them from most of the tensions in Europe but nevertheless, the Dutch, Swedes and Austrians all attempted to make their inroads into government. The Dutch were in a particularly good situation, what with dominating the former Westphalian coast. The Westphalians on the other had were very happy for their neutrality and modelled themselves on the Swiss to create a stable confederacy.
Saxony had also won big in the war, regaining swathes of their old territory, annexing Silesia and building a personal union with Bohemia. Saxony-Bohemia was now one of Europe's notable powers, though with little power of projection due to their isolated location and the power of Austria. They were however, allies with Sweden which granted a significant boost to their efforts to unite their realm. There was a degree of rivalry with Prussia, as both states had designs on Poland, as a future front for conquest.
Prussia or Brandenburg-Prussia, was now a key Baltic power and in a matter of a generation had risen from middle rank German electorate to a great kingdom in their own right and a staunch ally of the Protestant alliance. But now that the war was won, they had ambitions of their own. The Prussian military was strong, but their industry was weak. Saxony-Bohemia owned the valuable coalfields of Silesia and Prussia wanted those not only for their potential for industry but as a stepping stone to wider conquests in Poland. Now that both states had been released from the Holy Roman Empire, they were free to pursue their own domestic policies and Prussia was eager to build a bigger, stronger, better trained military capable of going toe to toe with any other rival in Europe.
Swedish Germany technically consisted of only two ports, but their League of Lower Saxony as a Confederacy over which Gustavus Adolphus was suzerain was a de facto part of the Swedish Empire. From here, Sweden harnessed German industry and merchants to expand their own navy and trade interests, seeking to build a great empire to rival any of the empires that the south of Europe had produced.
The greatest thing that this era produced was new national identities. While the Italians and Hungarians arguably didn't the Germans of Austria and the Holy Roman Empire became more and more associated with the name of Germany whilst the Westphalians, Prussians, Saxons, Lower Saxons and so on became considered more and more as separate nations with separate destinies. Languages diverged with the Lower Saxons picking up many Swedish loan words, the Prussian and Saxons absorbing elements of Polish and Bohemian culture respectively. This era lead to an explosion of art and music and local dialects were standardised and altered and cultures from the fringes of Europe were brought to the centre and then thrust outwards again with a new vibrancy.
Sweden
Gustavus Adolphus wasn't even in his forties by the time that peace had come to reign over Europe. He had turned Sweden from a lesser power in debt to Denmark to the greatest empire that the north had ever seen. But now the real epic of his time in power would begin. He came up against enormous resistance as he reduced the power of the nobility and delegated it either to the parish level or into his own hands. He also struggled to produce a son, and he became increasingly estranged from his erratic wife. Fortunately, their relationship lasted long enough for them to produce a male heir, Prince Gustav. This allowed the King to marry his daughter Christina to the British Prince James. Gustavus was concerned with building a lasting Protestant power block put this came up against different interpretations by different Protestant states.
In domestic politics, Gustavus Adolphus was busy building a new network of universities and integrating his conquests. He was forced to recognise the Russian Orthodox faith in Novgorod but he managed to convince the Synod to recognise his puppet Prince as head, rather than the Tsar of Muscovy. From there, he planned to steadily make Novgorod Lutheran by increments. As he grew older, Gustavus grew increasingly intolerant of non-Protestant and non-Lutherans. He was pragmatic enough to use them to colonise his new project in America, though he came up against stumbling block in his relationship with the natives, the Dutch and the Irish.
Sweden continued its rivalry with Austria, but now the greatest threat to its newly gained imperial status was Prussia. With its Baltic coast, and its desire for Polish land it could easily become a rival for Sweden's erstwhile dominance of the Baltic trade. To stop this, Gustavus Adolphus agreed to marry his son to a Prussian princess, hoping that she would be more manageable than his own Brandenburger wife.
Denmark
Denmark still controlled entry to the Baltic but had to contend with the Danish and there was nothing they could do to stop the Swedish from passing through free of charge. Denmark was isolated from Germany, and repulsed by Sweden. They had been relegated to second class status, and sought to re-establish themselves by aggressively pursuing their imperial ambitions in Africa and Asia as well as the Caribbean. Not only this but the kings of Denmark-Norway took this opportunity to establish themselves as absolute monarchs, and took much of Norway's legislative independence away. A brief attempt at Norwegian independence was jointly crushed as the Swedes came to Danish aid.
Denmark is in many ways reliant on Sweden for many things, and they resent this, the newly reformed government looking for ways to one up the Swedes anywhere they can. Notably, they have opened themselves up for immigration by those groups fleeing Swedish absolutism. How much gratitude these exiles will show the Danish absolutist government remains to be seen.
Poland
Poland under Sigismund had gone from a moment of great triumph to humiliation and an object of desire for its neighbours. Imitating John IV's Principle of Acclamation, the Polish Sejm overthrew him and acclaimed a new king, and inaugurated a number of reforms that imitated the reforms that Cromwell had enacted in Britain. The liberum veto was abolished, and many of the nobility's unique rights were abolished. The szlachta was to be expanded by fixing the right to vote to a property qualification rather than a blood right. There was a period of interregnum which secured the new constitution and severely weakened the Polish aristocracy. The end result was the election of Eberhard of Wurtemburg as King. Eberhard's father had been driven off his throne by the Austrians and in Poland, he aligned Poland with the Swedes and their allies, successfully stunting any Saxon or Prussian ambition of conquest. Unlike a great many other monarchs in Europe at this time, Eberhard found his power significantly reduced and power delivered into a new szlachta class that wasn't necessarily noble. While he lost this power, Eberhard worked to increase Poland's mercantile potential and attempted to build an alliance with Swedish Protestant rivals in the hope of eventually regaining a Polish coastline.
Lithuania
While he had been driven out of Poland, Sigismund Vasa secured himself as ruler of Lithuania. It was here that he forged a stronghold of intolerant Catholicism in Eastern Europe, as Poland became more tolerant and open to Protestantism under Eberhard Wurtemburg. Sigismund was isolated and far from a friendly ally. He withdrew the Grand Duchy into itself, proclaiming a policy of neutrality, and withdrawing foreign ambassadors. In this, he was inspired by stories from the far east of Japan. While he succeeded in repulsing foreign influence and secured his reign, he also significantly retarded Lithuanian economic development, as well as leaving the Baltic trade somewhat weakened. His domestic policy was ruthless, coming down hard on heretics, recusants and apostasy. Sigismund built a fearsome professional army and used it to crush the power of Lithuania's szlachta and sejmka, establishing himself as an absolute monarch.
Muscovy
Under a new Tsar, Dmitry Pozharsky , Muscovy had to deal with many problems. It had to deal with its isolation from the Baltic, and the loss of Novgorod, and then they had to deal with the continued rise of the Ottoman Empire in the south, the ravages of war and civil war, and the loss of its Eastern provinces. Dmitry (not a false one this time) dramatically altered the path that Muscovy was on prior to the Time of Troubles and the Twenty Five Years War. He had a great number of horsemen, but he could not yet regard them as entirely loyal, and so decided to retake the Eastern provinces and reward the Tatar and Cossack horsemen who had rode him to victory with land. He could not turn north and attack the Swedes, and so he turned his eyes south towards the Ottoman Empire and Central Asia. Here, he could gain a strong foothold and bound his country at the Caucasian Mountains, and use the great Steppe to raise generations of horse-soldiers to carry on his dreams of conquest. While he succeeded in the former, he failed in the latter. The Ottomans crushed his army and he died with his dreams of Caucasian dominion unfulfilled. His heir, Vladislav would turn Muscovy south into Central Asia.
Domestically, the Neo-Rurikid Dynasty was weak. They made little attempt to repair the damage of the wars, and focussed Muscovy's energies outwards onto the conquest of the East. While the seeds of industry and agricultural revolution were being sown in Britain and Western Europe, Muscovy felt distinctly medieval and primitive, an agrarian economy ruled by horse riding warrior-nobles.
Ottomans
While Dmitry turned south, the Ottomans turned north. Defeating Muscovy in the Caucasus brought a whole new swathe of land under Turkish dominion, which was organised as the Emirate of Imuriti. Persian influence was also forced from the region. The Ottomans now dominated the Black Sea and from this time onwards, the Ottoman Sultans would concentrate on consolidating their empire and keeping their many vassals in line. The effort of the war in Europe and the Caucasus forced them to withdraw from their most distant outposts in Punt and the East, but they did secure Yemen. Internally, the Ottoman Army was restructured to imitate the successful Swedish model, and their navy was reformed and modernised. This was a time of swirling energy in the Ottoman Empire, with the great Caliphate at its height.
Italies
In the Italies, outside of Naples, now fully united to the Crown of Castille, and Austrian Lombardy, there were the small Holy Roman states and the Papal States. Once these tiny principalities and republics had forged great trading empires. Now they were collapsing and were falling into crippling debt. Their armies and navies were forcably reduced and their ability to govern alone was stripped away by the centralising measures of Ferdinand.
The Papal States on the other hand were strengthening. Here, the two Hapsburg spheres met and mingled and as the northern Italian states decayed, Rome thrived. A few things did stick in their craw though. The Protestants had won the Twenty Five Years War, and caused the collapse of the Old Holy Roman Empire. France was reforming the Catholic Church within their borders, and other Catholic states were considering similar measures. And the two Hapsburg Empires could now manipulate the Papacy to their hearts content. In Rome, there was talk of a crusade to unite the peninsula under Papal rule so that the Pope could enforce his edicts. But the Papacy was adaptable. They agreed to the French reforms on the condition that the Primate of France, the head of the Gallican Church was appointed by the Pope, alongside the appointment of Cardinals. Compared to all of the other powers that the French monarchy had gained, these were small fry, and soon became the model for Catholic governance throughout Catholic Christendom.
Britain
In Britain, two parties were emerging. Emperor's Men and General's Men. Emperor Charles wanted to increase the powers of the monarchy, and firmly believed in his divine right to the throne, a belief that had been forged by the war which had defined most of his reign and indeed life up till this point. Oliver Cromwell, known as the General, believed that power had to be shared between Emperor and Parliament, and did what he could to force Charles to listen to Parliament. The two groups also divided over foreign policy. Charles, influenced by his wife, wanted a closer relationship with the religiously liberal France, and to distance Britain from Gustavus Adolphus' empire. The General's Men on the other hand, jealously guarded Britain's religious settlement and wanted to decrease the rights of Catholics and gravitated more towards the Lutheran empire of Sweden. Charles was forced to compromise and agreed to a wedding agreement between the heir James, and the daughter of Gustavus, Christina. The idea of two consecutive queens called Christina lead to the foundation of the colony of Christina within New England.
Outside of Europe, Britain pursued an interest in India and the Spice Island, competing with the Dutch and Portuguese for influence. However, their colonial interests became increasingly focussed around Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and New England. A secondary interest in the Caribbean was also developing as an ideal place to send the many people who had been sentenced to transportation and indentured servitude.
Ireland
Ireland was comparatively strong, with a large standing army, a growing navy and a flood of Catholics from Lancashire and other places in Britain coming across the sea. Elizabeth had abandoned her dreams of reclaiming her throne in London as Cromwell and Charles filled their Treasury and secured their reign. Instead she turned her eyes outwards, and looked upon the New World, and other areas greedily. Ireland had only a small population of just under two million people, but a few steps had already been taken. When Elizabeth had been Queen in Lancaster, Hugh O'Neill had sent an expedition to India, where Irish emissaries met with Mughal diplomats. Building upon that meeting, Elizabeth intended to build a trading empire to rival that of Portugal. As part of this, she also encourage Irish co-operation with Spain, and sent indentured labour in the form of Protestant Irish to the Spanish colonies in the New World. Elizabeth claimed her right to the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, and a few Irish settlements sprang up on the coast, but control was always nominal and contested by Sweden. Not only that, but the natives had taken control of the Jamestown fort and were building a more centralised sphere of their own that forced Irish settlers onto the Outer Banks and Islands of the Virginian coast.
In political terms, Elizabeth had established herself as an absolute monarch, having purged Parliament and local government with unpopular Viceroys and then had them purged. She dismissed Parliament permanently in 1637, and took advice solely from her Privy Council. She now had several children, but her husband's health was poor, and he died at the age of thirty. By now she was 41, and hardly of an age to have more children, but she knew the importance of marriage as an alliance building mechanism. Rather than marry a Spanish Hapsburg again, as her children were already Hapsburgs, she decided to marry an Irish noble, Shane O'Neill, the youngest son and heir to her most famous Viceroy. O'Neill had many more heirs to inherit the title of Earl of Tyrone after him, and wasn't too concerned about fathering children with Elizabeth. Their political alliance would strengthen Ulster and the O'Neill Dynasty.
France
Louis XIII had continued his father's policy of religious toleration, but thanks to his mother's influence, his main advisor was Cardinal Richelieu. While the two men usually got on, on the topic of religion, the two men were widely known to argue. France's finances were in a terrible state, and Richelieu wanted to raise revenue by confiscating Huguenot property. Louis preferred other means. Eventually the two men agreed to disagree, and Richelieu agreed to raise money by other means. Castles were dismantled and many of the feudal rights of the nobles were drastically slashed back, delivering ever greater power into Louis' hands. However, because of this, Louis' reforms could go no further than this, and he was forced to maintain the nobility and the clergies rights to lower taxes. France had a growing merchant class, but they suffered oppressive taxation and there was little Louis could do to halt this without angering the nobility. Nevertheless, resentment at he and Richelieu's violations of their traditional liberties began building into a fearsome movement.
In terms of foreign policy, Louis soon found himself competing with wartime allies and enemies alike. Portugal, the Netherlands and Sweden competed with him for influence in Europe and the New World, alongside Spain, Austria and others. In particular outside his designs on building an empire in Canada, Louis established a colonial company for trade in the Moluccas, and actively fought with the Dutch for influence in Asia.
Spain
Under Phillip IV, Spain struggled to meet the challenge of renewing itself. Having lost the Netherlands however, he could concentrate on his Mediterranean possessions, and without the Council of Portugal, he could more easily centralise power into the Council of Castille, and establish juntas in place of other Councils, therefore increasing his power. The reformation of administration in the colonies was delivering more wealth into Spain's coffers and his efforts to find other economic opportunities other than gold and silver were moderately successful. Unfortunately, he did annoy many power brokers in his struggle to reform a waning empire. In particular his abolition of the Councils and his centralisation of power proved extremely disagreeable to many aristocrats and grandees. However, Phillip appealed to the people in his creation of juntas and used the threat of riots and mob rule to cow his rivals. This was particualrly successful in Catalonia.
His reforms to government in the Italies where he essentially united the Spanish possessions there to the Crown of Castille were only successful because he managed to drive the French out of northern Italy, with the exception of Savoy and Pinerolo. This was all to the good as it weakened Piedmont and secured Hapsburg hegemony over the Italies
Portugal
Under John IV, Portugal entered a rennaisance. Brazil was expanded, trade was aggressively pursued in Asia and Africa, and competed with the Dutch, the Spanish and many others. Unfortunately, his reign was characterised by war. Because of Portugal's position as part of the Hapsburg monarchy prior to his restoration many of his former colonies had been seen as fair game. While he mostly restored his possessions in Asia and Africa, the Dutch held onto their territory in Brazil and he was forced to recognise their claims. He also found himself frequently in competition with the Spanish.
In domestic terms, John secured an absolute monarchy based on his own theory of popular acclamation. His people had acclaimed him monarch upon his restoration and therefore rather than a divine right to rule, he had a popular right to rule, for better or for worse. This would establish an interesting precedent in future generations.
Netherlands
The Dutch had won much from the war, assuring their independence, gaining vast swathes of land in the Americas and Asia, and a dominance of the German North Sea trade. Dutch foreign policy after the war brought them close to both Sweden and Britain, but a great distance emerged between them and Portugal, mostly because of the Dutch policy of attacking Portuguese colonies during the Twenty Five Years War. Within the United Provinces, divisions were also emerging. The Orangists wanted to centralise the Republicans under the House of Orange-Nassau, while the Republicans wanted to do away with the pseudo-hereditary system which had entrenched the stadholders in power, and repatriate powers back to the States.
The expansion of their colonial interests forced them to expand the operations of the East and West Indian Companies. In the New Netherlands, they prepared plans for eventually integrating the colonies into the United Provinces. The other colonies were more complex with native monarchies to keep happy, and in the case of New Holland, it had only just been conquered from the Portuguese. Wealth was soon pouring back into the Netherlands, and their involvement in the Baltic trade brought wealth from the Indies to Eastern Europe.
Austria
The Austrian Empire had both gained and lost from the war. They had lost Bohemia and gained much of Hungary. They had lost their enclaves in France, and gained holdfasts on its borders. Most importantly, they had lost their Spanish cousins from within the Holy Roman Empire, and then proceeded to reforge that institution in their own image. Alongside Phillip IV, they had conquered a swathe of Italy and brought the whole peninsula to heel. Swabia had been conquered and a vast swathe of Germany now bent the knee to the Archduke Ferdinand III. Only Bavaria and the Swiss were capable of offering any real resistance to Austria's primacy over the Empire. With his hegemony assured, a number of centralisation policies were enacted that tightened up administration of the Empire. This was stymied by the Westphalia Treaty that forced him to recognise the sovereignty of his vassals. What he could do was bind the states together in a series of political, military and economic treaties that leashed these states to Vienna.
Internally, Austria was forced to crush Swabian rebellion with maximum prejudice. This Protestant state had not faired well from the war, and the methods the Austrians used continue to be controversial to this very day. But once the burnings and bloodshed was complete, Swabia was a compliant and peacable part of the Archduchy and the wider Empire. Outside the Germanies, there was some trouble in Hungary and the Italies. The Italian states were a contestable region with the French, but what with the French busy in the Pyrenees and the Basque Country, they could devote few resources to Italy and the Austrian occupation of the territory allowed them to impose harsher rule on the states which hadn't willingly bent the knee to the Hapsburgs. In Hungary, the Austrians had trouble with the majority Lutheran population, and were forced to adopt a policy of religious toleration. However, considering that the higher nobles were Catholic and the lower nobles were Lutheran, allowed Ferdinand to replace the old Hungarian civil service with more efficient merchant class Austrian bureaucrats. He was also able to secure the loyalty of the Catholic nobles and spread their influence.
Germanies
Outside of the Holy Roman Empire, different situations dominated in different regions. Bavaria, whilst within the HRE was more independent than the Italian state or the smaller German states. The Swiss were too weak to pose any significant threat but the Austrians planned to make the smaller German states a weak confederation, along the lines of the Confederacy. In Bavaria's case, Ferdinand was careful to bind them close to him through allowing them to gain some great victories over their neighbours and then marrying the sons and daughters of the Wittelsbachs into his family. In fact, Ferdinand had plans for his sons to inherit Bavaria and absorb it into their wider German domain.
In Westphalia, their official neutrality protected them from most of the tensions in Europe but nevertheless, the Dutch, Swedes and Austrians all attempted to make their inroads into government. The Dutch were in a particularly good situation, what with dominating the former Westphalian coast. The Westphalians on the other had were very happy for their neutrality and modelled themselves on the Swiss to create a stable confederacy.
Saxony had also won big in the war, regaining swathes of their old territory, annexing Silesia and building a personal union with Bohemia. Saxony-Bohemia was now one of Europe's notable powers, though with little power of projection due to their isolated location and the power of Austria. They were however, allies with Sweden which granted a significant boost to their efforts to unite their realm. There was a degree of rivalry with Prussia, as both states had designs on Poland, as a future front for conquest.
Prussia or Brandenburg-Prussia, was now a key Baltic power and in a matter of a generation had risen from middle rank German electorate to a great kingdom in their own right and a staunch ally of the Protestant alliance. But now that the war was won, they had ambitions of their own. The Prussian military was strong, but their industry was weak. Saxony-Bohemia owned the valuable coalfields of Silesia and Prussia wanted those not only for their potential for industry but as a stepping stone to wider conquests in Poland. Now that both states had been released from the Holy Roman Empire, they were free to pursue their own domestic policies and Prussia was eager to build a bigger, stronger, better trained military capable of going toe to toe with any other rival in Europe.
Swedish Germany technically consisted of only two ports, but their League of Lower Saxony as a Confederacy over which Gustavus Adolphus was suzerain was a de facto part of the Swedish Empire. From here, Sweden harnessed German industry and merchants to expand their own navy and trade interests, seeking to build a great empire to rival any of the empires that the south of Europe had produced.
The greatest thing that this era produced was new national identities. While the Italians and Hungarians arguably didn't the Germans of Austria and the Holy Roman Empire became more and more associated with the name of Germany whilst the Westphalians, Prussians, Saxons, Lower Saxons and so on became considered more and more as separate nations with separate destinies. Languages diverged with the Lower Saxons picking up many Swedish loan words, the Prussian and Saxons absorbing elements of Polish and Bohemian culture respectively. This era lead to an explosion of art and music and local dialects were standardised and altered and cultures from the fringes of Europe were brought to the centre and then thrust outwards again with a new vibrancy.
Sweden
Gustavus Adolphus wasn't even in his forties by the time that peace had come to reign over Europe. He had turned Sweden from a lesser power in debt to Denmark to the greatest empire that the north had ever seen. But now the real epic of his time in power would begin. He came up against enormous resistance as he reduced the power of the nobility and delegated it either to the parish level or into his own hands. He also struggled to produce a son, and he became increasingly estranged from his erratic wife. Fortunately, their relationship lasted long enough for them to produce a male heir, Prince Gustav. This allowed the King to marry his daughter Christina to the British Prince James. Gustavus was concerned with building a lasting Protestant power block put this came up against different interpretations by different Protestant states.
In domestic politics, Gustavus Adolphus was busy building a new network of universities and integrating his conquests. He was forced to recognise the Russian Orthodox faith in Novgorod but he managed to convince the Synod to recognise his puppet Prince as head, rather than the Tsar of Muscovy. From there, he planned to steadily make Novgorod Lutheran by increments. As he grew older, Gustavus grew increasingly intolerant of non-Protestant and non-Lutherans. He was pragmatic enough to use them to colonise his new project in America, though he came up against stumbling block in his relationship with the natives, the Dutch and the Irish.
Sweden continued its rivalry with Austria, but now the greatest threat to its newly gained imperial status was Prussia. With its Baltic coast, and its desire for Polish land it could easily become a rival for Sweden's erstwhile dominance of the Baltic trade. To stop this, Gustavus Adolphus agreed to marry his son to a Prussian princess, hoping that she would be more manageable than his own Brandenburger wife.
Denmark
Denmark still controlled entry to the Baltic but had to contend with the Danish and there was nothing they could do to stop the Swedish from passing through free of charge. Denmark was isolated from Germany, and repulsed by Sweden. They had been relegated to second class status, and sought to re-establish themselves by aggressively pursuing their imperial ambitions in Africa and Asia as well as the Caribbean. Not only this but the kings of Denmark-Norway took this opportunity to establish themselves as absolute monarchs, and took much of Norway's legislative independence away. A brief attempt at Norwegian independence was jointly crushed as the Swedes came to Danish aid.
Denmark is in many ways reliant on Sweden for many things, and they resent this, the newly reformed government looking for ways to one up the Swedes anywhere they can. Notably, they have opened themselves up for immigration by those groups fleeing Swedish absolutism. How much gratitude these exiles will show the Danish absolutist government remains to be seen.
Poland
Poland under Sigismund had gone from a moment of great triumph to humiliation and an object of desire for its neighbours. Imitating John IV's Principle of Acclamation, the Polish Sejm overthrew him and acclaimed a new king, and inaugurated a number of reforms that imitated the reforms that Cromwell had enacted in Britain. The liberum veto was abolished, and many of the nobility's unique rights were abolished. The szlachta was to be expanded by fixing the right to vote to a property qualification rather than a blood right. There was a period of interregnum which secured the new constitution and severely weakened the Polish aristocracy. The end result was the election of Eberhard of Wurtemburg as King. Eberhard's father had been driven off his throne by the Austrians and in Poland, he aligned Poland with the Swedes and their allies, successfully stunting any Saxon or Prussian ambition of conquest. Unlike a great many other monarchs in Europe at this time, Eberhard found his power significantly reduced and power delivered into a new szlachta class that wasn't necessarily noble. While he lost this power, Eberhard worked to increase Poland's mercantile potential and attempted to build an alliance with Swedish Protestant rivals in the hope of eventually regaining a Polish coastline.
Lithuania
While he had been driven out of Poland, Sigismund Vasa secured himself as ruler of Lithuania. It was here that he forged a stronghold of intolerant Catholicism in Eastern Europe, as Poland became more tolerant and open to Protestantism under Eberhard Wurtemburg. Sigismund was isolated and far from a friendly ally. He withdrew the Grand Duchy into itself, proclaiming a policy of neutrality, and withdrawing foreign ambassadors. In this, he was inspired by stories from the far east of Japan. While he succeeded in repulsing foreign influence and secured his reign, he also significantly retarded Lithuanian economic development, as well as leaving the Baltic trade somewhat weakened. His domestic policy was ruthless, coming down hard on heretics, recusants and apostasy. Sigismund built a fearsome professional army and used it to crush the power of Lithuania's szlachta and sejmka, establishing himself as an absolute monarch.
Muscovy
Under a new Tsar, Dmitry Pozharsky , Muscovy had to deal with many problems. It had to deal with its isolation from the Baltic, and the loss of Novgorod, and then they had to deal with the continued rise of the Ottoman Empire in the south, the ravages of war and civil war, and the loss of its Eastern provinces. Dmitry (not a false one this time) dramatically altered the path that Muscovy was on prior to the Time of Troubles and the Twenty Five Years War. He had a great number of horsemen, but he could not yet regard them as entirely loyal, and so decided to retake the Eastern provinces and reward the Tatar and Cossack horsemen who had rode him to victory with land. He could not turn north and attack the Swedes, and so he turned his eyes south towards the Ottoman Empire and Central Asia. Here, he could gain a strong foothold and bound his country at the Caucasian Mountains, and use the great Steppe to raise generations of horse-soldiers to carry on his dreams of conquest. While he succeeded in the former, he failed in the latter. The Ottomans crushed his army and he died with his dreams of Caucasian dominion unfulfilled. His heir, Vladislav would turn Muscovy south into Central Asia.
Domestically, the Neo-Rurikid Dynasty was weak. They made little attempt to repair the damage of the wars, and focussed Muscovy's energies outwards onto the conquest of the East. While the seeds of industry and agricultural revolution were being sown in Britain and Western Europe, Muscovy felt distinctly medieval and primitive, an agrarian economy ruled by horse riding warrior-nobles.
Ottomans
While Dmitry turned south, the Ottomans turned north. Defeating Muscovy in the Caucasus brought a whole new swathe of land under Turkish dominion, which was organised as the Emirate of Imuriti. Persian influence was also forced from the region. The Ottomans now dominated the Black Sea and from this time onwards, the Ottoman Sultans would concentrate on consolidating their empire and keeping their many vassals in line. The effort of the war in Europe and the Caucasus forced them to withdraw from their most distant outposts in Punt and the East, but they did secure Yemen. Internally, the Ottoman Army was restructured to imitate the successful Swedish model, and their navy was reformed and modernised. This was a time of swirling energy in the Ottoman Empire, with the great Caliphate at its height.
Italies
In the Italies, outside of Naples, now fully united to the Crown of Castille, and Austrian Lombardy, there were the small Holy Roman states and the Papal States. Once these tiny principalities and republics had forged great trading empires. Now they were collapsing and were falling into crippling debt. Their armies and navies were forcably reduced and their ability to govern alone was stripped away by the centralising measures of Ferdinand.
The Papal States on the other hand were strengthening. Here, the two Hapsburg spheres met and mingled and as the northern Italian states decayed, Rome thrived. A few things did stick in their craw though. The Protestants had won the Twenty Five Years War, and caused the collapse of the Old Holy Roman Empire. France was reforming the Catholic Church within their borders, and other Catholic states were considering similar measures. And the two Hapsburg Empires could now manipulate the Papacy to their hearts content. In Rome, there was talk of a crusade to unite the peninsula under Papal rule so that the Pope could enforce his edicts. But the Papacy was adaptable. They agreed to the French reforms on the condition that the Primate of France, the head of the Gallican Church was appointed by the Pope, alongside the appointment of Cardinals. Compared to all of the other powers that the French monarchy had gained, these were small fry, and soon became the model for Catholic governance throughout Catholic Christendom.
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Stolengood
Banned
...I thought I'd told you before, sorry; neither of the Dmitris were Sweden's puppet. The Poles, however, were the ones trying to gain influence in Russia.
The subsequent Tsar Vasili, however, did attempt to make a military alliance with Sweden OTL, due to which he ended up getting forced out; may that be what you're referring to?
The subsequent Tsar Vasili, however, did attempt to make a military alliance with Sweden OTL, due to which he ended up getting forced out; may that be what you're referring to?
There isn't a Dmitri in power in Novgorod. But IOTL, the Swedes did try to put a puppet king in power there. That puppet king is some distant relative of Gustavus Adolphus. Really, Novgorod only exists at the moment because Muscovy is too weak to take it back and Sweden is one of Europe's greatest powers now.
katchen
Banned
Have the Dutch in this TL managed to take Belem and thus the Amazon delta, with the kind of rich land that only the Dutch know how to reclaim, as well as entree to the Amazon Basin itself? Or the Orinoco Delta, from Dutch Guiana?
Have the Swedes reached China and Manchria via Siberia? How might this affect the Manchu vs possibly the Mongol conquest of China?
Are the Swedes exploring Hudson's Bay using their expertise and that of their subjects, the Finns and Saami, at surviving in cold climates to good purpose: to build a profitable fur trade? If so, are Lutheran missionaries travelling with them?
Great timeline!
Have the Swedes reached China and Manchria via Siberia? How might this affect the Manchu vs possibly the Mongol conquest of China?
Are the Swedes exploring Hudson's Bay using their expertise and that of their subjects, the Finns and Saami, at surviving in cold climates to good purpose: to build a profitable fur trade? If so, are Lutheran missionaries travelling with them?
Great timeline!
While your points are intriguing ones, only the Dutch one seems even slightly plausible. Sweden is very much an Atlantic Power and is blocked to Eastern expansion by the Muscovites. Not only that, but few people want to cross an ocean to live in the same conditions. They want adventure and the Swedes want wealth. The land they are settling will be good for growing cash crops.
The Stadholder is currently Frederick Henry, and as OTL, he is a great soldier and statesman and is seen by some Dutchmen as solely responsible for the United Provinces' rise to power. How that will change when they realise that many of the the Republic's conquests aren't being turned into provinces quite yet...
Men like Hugo Grotius form a seedbed for the republican opposition.
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Thank you! I wonder if Hugo still has his emergency bookcase close by...
But it seems like the newly acquired land is not quite passive enough for province status? Exciting stuff.
Thank you! I wonder if Hugo still has his emergency bookcase close by...
But it seems like the newly acquired land is not quite passive enough for province status? Exciting stuff.
Well, they were conquered and most states don't like being conquered. And if they were to become full Provinces then they would likely form a core of opposition to the Stadholder.
Well now that I've completed the Twenty Five Years War, and its immediate after effects, I'll need to take a short, and I do mean very short, hiatus while I accumulate notes for phase two which should take us up to the dawn of the 18th century.
A teaser to keep you excited.
Matoaka cast her eye over her town. A few years ago, this had been little more than a wooden fort, built by the white men who came across the sea. Now it was the bustling heart of the Powhatan Confederacy. While her people had been successful that wasn't to say that they hadn't suffered. Disease had claimed hundreds of people, squaw and brave alike. In that chaos, after her father died, she had been able to seize power for herself. She married a white man, a mutually beneficial relationship that provided her men with guns and medical knowledge, while he and his few remaining allies were desperate to survive.
He had died years ago. But they had a child together, a boy that she had named Wahunsenacawh after her father. Those had been dark years indeed. A young mother, surrounded by desperate men with no wives to call their own. Many times her honour had threatened, and many times she had used her axe and flintlock to defend it. Even she had succumbed to disease eventually, an illness that had left her scarred, but had tempered the steel in her. With the help of her husband's men, her people had resurged from those dark times.
Farms were abundant in the Powhatan Confederacy. Crops of maize and squash flowed as tribute to her capitol. For years after those dark times, she had been content to concentrate her energies on cultivating this side of her realm. Her son had grown into a fine man, a tall muscular brave, with the face of his father but the skin and eyes of her. But now that darkness which had slipped into the shadows of her mind was returning.
White men had returned to her country, and while her people had adapted to the diseases that they had brought the first time, new ones chewed on her people and she feared that renewed plagues would leave precious few men to maintain the Confederacy. White men had settled to the south and to the north of her. In the south, she had driven the white men onto the islands on the coast, but in the north the settlers were growing and becoming too powerful to directly fight.
Her only hope was to build her Confederacy into an ever larger, ever more powerful nation, capable of fighting the white men on their terms not just hers. But those were problems of the future. Those would be the battles of her son, not hers. She was growing old, the steel in her was growing brittle and the illness that had once made her strong now made her weak.
Looking out across the town once known as Jamestown, the woman once known as Pocahontas closed her eyes and tried to remember a day when life was simpler...
A teaser to keep you excited.
Matoaka cast her eye over her town. A few years ago, this had been little more than a wooden fort, built by the white men who came across the sea. Now it was the bustling heart of the Powhatan Confederacy. While her people had been successful that wasn't to say that they hadn't suffered. Disease had claimed hundreds of people, squaw and brave alike. In that chaos, after her father died, she had been able to seize power for herself. She married a white man, a mutually beneficial relationship that provided her men with guns and medical knowledge, while he and his few remaining allies were desperate to survive.
He had died years ago. But they had a child together, a boy that she had named Wahunsenacawh after her father. Those had been dark years indeed. A young mother, surrounded by desperate men with no wives to call their own. Many times her honour had threatened, and many times she had used her axe and flintlock to defend it. Even she had succumbed to disease eventually, an illness that had left her scarred, but had tempered the steel in her. With the help of her husband's men, her people had resurged from those dark times.
Farms were abundant in the Powhatan Confederacy. Crops of maize and squash flowed as tribute to her capitol. For years after those dark times, she had been content to concentrate her energies on cultivating this side of her realm. Her son had grown into a fine man, a tall muscular brave, with the face of his father but the skin and eyes of her. But now that darkness which had slipped into the shadows of her mind was returning.
White men had returned to her country, and while her people had adapted to the diseases that they had brought the first time, new ones chewed on her people and she feared that renewed plagues would leave precious few men to maintain the Confederacy. White men had settled to the south and to the north of her. In the south, she had driven the white men onto the islands on the coast, but in the north the settlers were growing and becoming too powerful to directly fight.
Her only hope was to build her Confederacy into an ever larger, ever more powerful nation, capable of fighting the white men on their terms not just hers. But those were problems of the future. Those would be the battles of her son, not hers. She was growing old, the steel in her was growing brittle and the illness that had once made her strong now made her weak.
Looking out across the town once known as Jamestown, the woman once known as Pocahontas closed her eyes and tried to remember a day when life was simpler...
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