Sweden wins at Poltava TL

Some people will recognise the begining from https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=98682&highlight=Poltava and its true. I have taken the start from there and begun a entire new TL

I will continue the TL as far as i can, maybe even the end of days. Give me comments please or the TL ends before 1799.

Some of the names are the same as OTL to make it simpler for the reader
1709. Sweden is at war with Russia and is holding Poltava under a very inefficient siege, mostly to buy time. In June Sweden attacks the Russians and suffer the greatest military defeat ever.

They could have won if the scouted some more, so here goes

The Swedes commanders know the plan, and at dawn they rush through the Russian defensive barrier, cavalry goes north of the big Russian camp and blocks the retreat route. The infantry attacks from the south. The camp has defenses in three directions, east there is almost impossible to go, only one route down to the river. Panic strikes the Russian defenses and Peter decides to surrender.
20,000 Swedes again defeats 40,000 Russians. Russia agrees in the peace talks to give back the Baltic provinces to Sweden, St Petersburg and Ingenmanland is back in Swedish hands, St Petersburg becomes Karlsborg. Sweden takes Novgorod and moves its boder further east and takes Arkhangelsk and the oblast surrounding it. Ukraine becomes a free nation

The swedish army moves back to Poland for reorganisation. It takes 4 months to get there and when they arrive outside Warsaw Charles have 15,000 men left of the 35,000 he started with, but Russia is in turmoil.

In November Russian Tsar Peter is killed in an assassination led by followers of his son Alexei and Russia plunges deeper into chaos and a civil war begins in Russia.

Charles have gone back to Stockholm and gotten a big celebration. He then orders that a swedification of the eastern provinces should begin in the same way as his father and grandfather did in Skane. The orthodox religion would officially be in place, but small things in it would change in more and more to protestantism. The serfdom was to be abolished. In the baltic provinses the priests would begin holding their cermonies in Swedish. In Finland Charles went further, all schools(run by the church) were to teach swedish and not talk any finish.

The swedish ally Poland saw the need for transformation and with a little help from the swedish troops in the country the king of Poland, Stanisław Leszczyński managed to change the constitution so that one nobel couldnt veto a decission.

France asks Sweden to interveen in the war of the Spanish succession, but Sweden is exhausted and can only interveen as a mediator.

1710 The swedification of the eastern half of the swedish empire goes on. The Russian civil war between now crowned Tsar Alexei, count Boris Kurakin and count Menshikov went on and grew in heat. Tsar Alexei asked the swedes for help and count Menshikov asked Poland for help. Both nation sent wellwishes, but no military aid. Denmark begin talks with Prussia about an alliance. Prussia wants to finish the war for the spanish crown before entering another war.

Since it now was peace Charles needed a heir to the swedish throne and sent out diplomats to search for suitable princesses in Europe, but he wanted to avoid Denmark that he didnt trust. He found Charlotte Christine of Brunswick-Lüneburg most intressted and by marrying her he would be related in marriage to the Austrian emperor Charles.
 
Sweden takes Novgorod and moves its boder further east and takes Arkhangelsk and the oblast surrounding it.
While a victory by Sweden at Poltava, may give it Petersburg and the Gulf of Finland, as well as Kerilia/Kola [Maybe]
Novograd would require another whole set of battles, and several more years of Campaigning.
Ukraine becomes a free nation
?Where did this come from?, Sweden had no intrest in this, and Ally Poland would be against it.
 
While a victory by Sweden at Poltava, may give it Petersburg and the Gulf of Finland, as well as Kerilia/Kola [Maybe]
Novograd would require another whole set of battles, and several more years of Campaigning.
?Where did this come from?, Sweden had no intrest in this, and Ally Poland would be against it.

I know its a strech that Novgorod becomes swedish, what if its becomes a bufferstate?

Since the cosacks and Mazepa helped Sweden they were granted independence
 
A little problem there, Finnish was not considered a foreign language
since Finland was simply the eastern part of the realm, so no education
was needed, however the Baltic was a different thing and the Svenskification has already started at least in Estland. Furthermore
Finland was a part of the realm which send their own representatives
to the Riksdag in Stockholm so these things were simply not happening.
 
1711 22nd of May Charles XII married Charlotte in Stockholm with big celebrations. They seemed a ideal couple and within a few months Charlotte was pregnant for the first time. The war for the spanish succession was still going on and Sweden was now acting as a mediator and the war effectevly ended after a battle between UK and France were the duke of Malboroguh defeated a french force. In december peacenegotiations began in Stockholm. The swedish army had finished reorganising after the ending of the war. Count Stenbock was sent to the Baltic provinces to be Govenour of the areas taken from Russia.

In the Russian civil war the situation was fluid and apart from the three major parties there were several minor banditarmies marching around. They were no more than battalionsize and mostly consited of criminals etc. Russia was slowly vanishing as a coherent state as the lack of discipline and order grew. The Ottoman empire moved in and took back the fortress Azov and the russian fleetbase at Taganrog. The Crimean Khanate also stepped up their actions and moved in and took back areas lost in 1681.
 
1712 In the spring queen Charlotte gave birth to a boy. He was named Charles Gustav. Charles XII now had a heir and around the swedish empire there were big celebrations. In may the war of the spanish succession ended with the treaty of Stockholm(In words it was the same peacetreaty as OTL). In the summer Charles got news about the Denmark-Prussian alliance from his danish spies but after discussing with ambassadors from the superpowers of Europe he got information that they wouldnt like a war in Northen Europe at this time. Denmark continued to bring in German states in the antswedish coalition, but failed to court Austria since the emperor was talked into not fighting a relative by his wife. The Netherlands didnt like the idea of Sweden controlling both sides of Oresund and allied themselves with Denmark, but it was expressed that it was only a defensive alliance and that it wouldnt be valid if Denmark attacked first.
 
1713-20 The alliances grew, Sweden allied themselves with Austria and the United kingdom while Denmark courted Spain, but they didnt want to get entangled in the cold North. France joined Denmark. The german smaller states allied themselves with mostly Sweden. In Russia the civil war ended and Count Kurakin crowned himself Tsar of all the russians. But even though Russia had a leader again the countyr was shattered and Kurakin didnt try to modernise Russia and the country fell back into Medieval times. Even so he made an alliance with Austria directed against the turks. Charles got a second heir, the boy Gustav Adolf. Charlotte fell ill after the delivery but survived and 2 years later gave birth to the girl Anna Sofia. Poland and Ukraine had had bordedisputes since the peacesettlement and soon there was war. Sweden didnt interfer and soon Poland had taken Ukraine and annexed it.
 
1721-23 Austria and Russia went to war agains the Turks. Unfortunally all advances Russia had made in the military during Peters time was forgotten and Russia didnt gain much from the war. Austria took some minor areas on the balkan, but mostly the war was a dissapointment from Austrias wiew. Tentions between Prussia and Poland.
 
1724 Tentions between Prussia and Poland grew bigger and bigger and in november Prussia declared war on Poland. Sweden declared war on Prussia due to Poland beeing their ally. Denmark realising they had no other choise declared war on Sweden. Unfortunally for Denmark the Netherlands saw this as a breach of the alliance because Denmark declared war and was the agressor. The Netherlands thus declared neutrality. And when Austria remained neutral UK and France stayed on the fence.

The Scandinavian front: Involved Sweden and Denmark. Upon hearing that Denmark had declared war on Sweden Charles ordered mobilisation. The mobilisation went almost as smoothly as in 1700. Only this time the target wasnt Copenhagen, it was Norway. In the middle of january 1725 a swedish army of 20,000 men moved from the staging point in Uddevalla towards Norway. Another smaller army of 8000 men moved from Jamtland toward the Norwegian town of Trondheim. General Lewenhaupt was stationed in Skane with 15,000 men in case Denmark would invade. Charles had hoped the norwegian campaign would go fast so that the energy could be focus on landing in Denmark. The Norwegian defences had been neglekted and the total of defense forces in Norway was 5000 men. This was because Denmark had rewied the strategy of Sweden from the last wars and seen that Norway had been a secondary front. In March the major fortresses in Norway had fallen.

In April the navalwar began and it began with a bang. The entire swedish navy went on the offensive and attacked the main danish navyport located in Copenhagen. The danes were caught unprepared, but the fortresses guarding the town fought back. Sweden lost 4 ships sunk and numerous damaged. Unfortunally Denmark lost 55% of their ships, mostly because Sweden used burnships and set the anchorage on fire. Many civilian wessles also went up in smoke. The threat of danish invasion was thus avoided. But since Denmark had a sizable navy remaining a swedish invasion of Denmark was impossible. Denmark had other plans and in May their army marched into Holstein, the dutchy that was a thorn in their side. The dutchy lacked a fieldforce and Swedens nearest army was positioned near Stralsund, but it was a small force of 8,000 men led by count Horn and he saw that his force would be better use if used in defense. The dutchy surrendered in June.

The danish army led by king Fredrik IV moved with 13,000 into Swedish Pomerania to capture the province. Horns army met him on the battlefield in the early days of July. Fredrik IV started the attack with a massive bombardment of artillery. But the summer was rainy and the cannonfire had little effect. Fredrik then attacked with his infantry, but the attack was repulsed several times. Horn then used his cavallery and a portion of his infantry to attack the danish left flank. The flankattack was a success and a disaster for Denmark as the king was one of the casualities and the battle ended. Sweden lost 800 men, Denmark 2400 men including the king. The new danish armycommander Rantzau decided to withdraw from the province. Denmark was now in chock upon hearing about the king. The new king Kristian VI wanted peace and in September the peacesettlement was written. Sweden accepted Holstein as a danish province in exchange for Norway. Since Sweden wouldnt controll both sides of the straights after the peace the major powers saw no point in interveening, something the swedish diplomats had thought possible if their demands were to high.
 
So Sweden now holds all from Bergen to Archangelsk, from Ystad to Nordkap and has more of the Baltic Sea coast than ever? And there's an active swedeification policy from the early 1700s? najs!

How big would Karlsborg be? and how Russian would the city be still?
 
Havent thought of Karlsborg. It would still be populated by the people Peter forced there as they wouldnt want to go home to a country going backwards
 
Read up a bit about the city's history. By 1709 it was only 6 years old and tens of thousands of serfs were getting orders to go there every year. Still, the mortality rate was very high. So Karlsborg would not be a real city by then as far as I can gather, and the surrounding provinces wouldn't be russified yet. There would be a real fort at the site tho and the beginnings of a city. would Karl keep up the work, or would in languish into small-town-ness?
 
Read up a bit about the city's history. By 1709 it was only 6 years old and tens of thousands of serfs were getting orders to go there every year. Still, the mortality rate was very high. So Karlsborg would not be a real city by then as far as I can gather, and the surrounding provinces wouldn't be russified yet. There would be a real fort at the site tho and the beginnings of a city. would Karl keep up the work, or would in languish into small-town-ness?
Small heavily fortified town to hold Ingermanland..Viborg is likely to become the pre-eminent city on that end of the Baltic serving Swedish Karelia. And its already an established city at this point.
 
The Prussian-polish front: Prussia and Poland took their time to mobilise armies. Both countries major armies was to be led by their respective kings. In early September Prussia had gathered 50,000 men outside Berlin and marched towards Poland. Poland had gathered 45,000 men, but unlike before the majority of the army was infantry. The armies manouvered and tried to get the better position on the other. In December Prussia marched towards Danzig to make the polish army come to them. Poland had asked Sweden for help but since the Baltic Sea had frozen Sweden couldnt send any major units, only the Livonian corps of 9,000 men had a chance of reaching Poland but it was put in place near the russian borde just in case Russia would like to interveen.

Poland thus was on their own and had to react and led by their king Stanisław Leszczyński their main army marched toward the now besiged city of Danzig. Prussia had invested the town with 10,000 men and sent the rest to fight it out with the poles. Poland might have gotten a new goverment and an alliance with Sweden, but it army lacked the training the swedes had so when the polish army on december the 2nd attacked the Prussian defenses a few kilometers south of Danzig they were easily beaten back loosing 9,000 men in the process. Prussia lost 1,200 men. The polish armymoral shrank and the day after Prussia opened up with all guns and attacked. The polish center couldnt hold and broke after 30 minutes. The polish left flank broke a few minutes later but the right flank fought on led by count Jarosewsky who ordered the entire wing into a square and buy time for the rest of the army to get away safe. The force fought on for another hour until when completly surrounded and ammunition all but gone they surrendered. Prussia lost 6,500 men that day, Poland lost 6,000 men in POW, 9,000 other casualities. Poland now retreated back to the walls of Warsaw. On january 20th 1725 Danzig surrendered.
 
1726 The effects of the taking of Danzig was that Austria began to feel a bit uneasy and told Preussia that if they took any more offensive actions against Poland or Sweden Austria would attack. Prussia felt a bit uneasy and didnt want a two fron war yet. April 2nd Prussia signed a peacetreaty with Poland and got Danzig. A week later Sweden and Prussia signed a peacetreaty based on Status quoe.

Effect of the war:The effect of the war was that the union between Denmark and Norway that had existed for hundreds of years war now broken. Denmark began to wake up to a new reality, that they were now in effect depending on the will of Sweden and the growing threat of Prussia to the south. The new goverment lacked the will to fight wars, something that in the future would be seen often.
Sweden came out of the war holding on to Norway. As soon as the treaty was signed Sweden went to work of removing everything danish from Norway and began a slow swedification of Norway. Slow in a way so it was hardly noticed until it was to late. Sweden knew that they would be in a war soon again and this time with Prussia and they knew that the alliance with Poland was still needed.
 
1726-1740 Sweden now made a transition. Charles XII grew older and less agressive and the alliances shifted. Sweden, Poland, Austria and France allied against the new alliance between United Kingdom, Prussia and Russia. But things were coming that would change who allied with whom. Swedish scientist in 1739 started working on a better weapon that would go faster to reload so overcome the shortage of manpower for Sweden.

ooc: Next chapter will involve a Great war and i will not post anything else before the war is finished since i think it will take a long time to finish. Its almost the 7 year war a decade early
 
ooc: i lied, i have to post something about the origins of the war so i can continue writing. Have finished the first year of battles and now the second year takes place. I intend to have a revolution 40 years early and start massconscriptions wery early. Oh, and i havent decided if USA is to be created or not.

1741 Spains Royal Family was killed by separatists from katalonian rebells in early January. Spain was thrown into chaos as no heir was to be found. Normally some distant relative of the royal family would step up, but this wasnt normal times.

France and Portugal saw their chance to gain influence in Spain and decided to act. In the accord of Lissbon they signed a alliance to carve Spain up. Upon hearing this from spies the king of United Kingdom George II wanted in on the agreement, but he didnt trust France to much. In Late July the kings of Great britain, Portugal and France met to come to an understanding. Unfortunally events were already happening in Spain. Katalonia went into an open rebellion and asked for asstance from France. The spanish goverment was still in a state of shock but sent in an army commanded by General Aragones. The southern army of France led by Count De Ville acted on its own and marched into Katalonia to bring that area into France.

Austria along with Prussia now declared war on France. Sweden wanted to stay out, but both sides wanted swedish aid and promissed different thing. In the end it wasnt Swedens main choice but Poland that choosed. Poland declared war with Prussia and Austria. Sweden soon joined them. Europe was now in a total war not seen for a long time. It would take part in several parts of the world and was named after the war as the Great war for controll of the world. Great Britain declared war on France only and remained friends with Portugal and Sweden

Sides: One one side there was France, Portugal, Sweden and Poland. The other side had Prussia, Austria, Great Britain(at war with France only) and the remaining parts of Spain loyal to the goverment(that also tried to find a suitable heir) in Madrid.
 
OOC: If anyone is a good mapmaker i would appreciate if that person could help me draw some maps. Contact me first so i can ok it.

The spanish front:. After De Villes army had reached the outscirts of Barcelona in the middle of August their advance halted. The katalonians saw them as liberators, but De Villes army didnt act that way and whatever sympathy they had in the begining soon was washed away. The spanish army led by general Aragones was moving closer to the city and De Ville took up defensive positions. Both sides numbered nothing more than 10,000 men and the battle was a poorly led and executed affair. Both sides claimed victory but nobody could follow up on their gains. The casualities were light, only about 500 men each.

On September 1st Portugal went into action and moved their main army led by general Alfonso towards Madrid and it counted 50,000 men. The provisional goverment in Madrid had mobilised and called people to the colours as more nations attacked. They had managed to mobilise 70,000 men otuside Madrid led by count Vasques, 40,000 men near Cadiz led by general Valderamma and another 25,000 men near Ebro led by baron Escobar. Baron Escobar couldnt move towards Barcelona as expected because of a Basque uprising so he had to move toward Bilbao. General Valderamma moved his men towards the south of Portugal. The begning of the war was riddled with the lack of speed and organisation on both sides and neither side made any big gains for the entire year.
 
Top