The New Athens - An Alternate North America

[AmericanAdam]

After a bit of a hiatus, I stopped procrastinating and finished the post.
The End of The Peace - The Saxon War of Succession​

The territories under control of the Saxon Crown.​

Germany was, extremely surprisingly, at a relative peace for many, many years. In fact, there were a little under 10 separate wars since 1626, the end of the Great European War, as religion was no longer much of contention internally. Of course, though, this was not going to last. It was Germany, after all.


The von Wettin dynasty, and her cadets, proved to be a powerful one throughout the years, controlling many territories across Europe, including the crowns of Saxony, Poland, and Saxe-Coburg. Their dynasty went back all the way to the 10th century. They also, despite their proximity to their home region, had rather cordial relations to the Habsburgs. This meant that they often would join their wars and fall under their sphere of influence, and they remained content with that. This was until John George III. He was the elector of Saxony, and some said he was not sound of mind occasionally, although he seemed to be fit to rule.


However, as he entered his older years, it seemed that he began growing less aware of his surroundings. He would often march through the halls yelling random orders or obscenities. He also began to get a very serious eating problem, which, along with his mental ailment, made him appear to age far faster, and he appeared as if he was in his 90s when he became 50 years old in 1678.

The last king of Saxony of his line.​

Another serious part of his rule was the fact that he refused to have children (making him one of the many leaders remembered throughout history for being homosexual or possibly asexual) but it would be no matter as his nephew was open to claiming the throne.


Despite this, he still retained power as rule, and he would excercise this on his deathbed. As John George was left dying, both deeply unwell mentally and physically, he would spell what could lead to the end of the Wettins. He designated his heir as Charles VI, heir apparent to the Holy Roman Empire and heir to the Archduchy of Austria. Coincidentally, his father would die of cardiac arrest a week later. This led to him claiming the Saxon throne shortly after his coronation in 1686. This was contested by Johann Adolf of Saxe-Weissenfels-Querfurt, a tiny duchy ruled by the Wettins. He claimed the throne, saying that his uncle was mad and did not truly wish to give the throne to the Habsburgs. He was soon backed by the Brandenburgers, with them not wishing to see an entire other kingdom absorbed by the Habsburg Empire. The states of the Holy Roman Empire would follow Austria into battle, causing a very one-sided war sparking, that is, until several more nations would join.


First, Venice would join, seeking to claim the title of the Kingdom of Croatia and adding it to their trading empire. Next, the Poland-Lithuanians would follow, led by their new vigourously anti-Austrian ruler, who desired to retake lost Polish territory, as well as take Transylvania if they were lucky. The big power that could offset the power balance was the Kingdom of France, led by Louis XIV, “The Sun King”. Louis and his advisors would spend several days debating on whether or not to join the war against Austria, however it was eventually decided that he should instead pursue an alliance with the Catholic power, and soon an envoy was sent asking the Habsburgs for some spoils from the war in exchange for mercenaries, all paid for by France to Austria.(This may seem ASB, but several deals during this time period between the French and Austrians appeared to be, in fact, very unlikely to a typical historian)


Salzburg would soon join Austria as well, due to being under their protection, and hours after joining, the first skirmish would occur. A Brandenburg-backed attack would begin in Bohemia, with a large regiment of cavalry with several infantry following would make their swift advance past the Sudetic mountain range and into the plains of northern Bohemia. This culminated in the First Battle of Reichenburg, between the enlarged Austrian garrison of Liberec, supported by 40,000 strong Holy Roman Guard(formerly the Army of the Holy Roman Empire, changed in 1622) would encounter the Brandenburger army, quickly taking them off guard. After sending in a mass of cavalry and disorganizing the opposing army, Imperial troops would smash into all flanks, pushing them against a steep hill, which led to a slaughter of all but some of the left regiments, who were able to get the message across that they wanted to surrender. The defeat was devastating for Brandenburg. Not only did it destroy much of their army, it also significantly diminished the morale of their troops that still remained.

The Battle of Reichenberg​

However, the war was, of course, not just occurring in the north. Poland-Lithuania had also sent some troops of it’s own into Hungary, past the Carpathian mountains. In this case, they had sent a much larger army than the Brandenburgers, at 35,000 strong, full of infantry, and a good number of artillery, but somewhat lacking in cavalry-power. An early feat of intrigue caused the Austrians to think that they were to attack Moldavia, however the attack was, as stated, in eastern Slovakia, in places of the Carpathian range that were much easier to pass. They would lay siege to much of Slovakia, and take quite a few cities before getting deeper into Hungary. Austria responded by quickly sending the army of 27,000 in the east to the invading Poles, but found that the army was not enough, and once the battle began, it was clearly not in Austrian favor.


The battle ended conclusively in Poland’s favor, and they continued to push into the Carpathian mountains. Despite this, the Austrians were continuing to make gains in Brandenburg, and several regiments were planned to be removed from the German front and relocated.


Otto Ferdinand Graf, an Austrian Field Marshal, also was leading these armies. He and several generals and high-ranking officers would gather in Vienna to formulate a plan for the crushing of Poland, as they seemed to be a thorn in their side if they were going to try and take all of Saxony. So, they came to the conclusion that he would lead a large army directly from Saxony and march straight to Warsaw, where the claimant to Saxony was, and also where the Polish had their power center in. They would hopefully catch them off guard, and something this risky had never been tried before, so they were just hoping that they could make this as some sort of breakthrough. After all, they didn’t NEED Saxony, so it was a matter of luck, this war could finish by next year, December of 1690.


And so, their plans to relocate troops to the Carpathians were changed, and the armies there just went on the defensive, trying to stop them from making their way to Austria proper. This would be important later on, as they didn’t care much for protecting the Hungarians from getting their farms pillaged and set ablaze. They simply wanted to protect themselves from the Poles. The king of Poland-Lithuania, Jan III, had plans to push their way through Hungary, and hope that the Austrians would think of the war as futile, and surrender after they started helping Brandenburg as well.


Leopold’s Army, led by Otto Graf, would hold a huge army of Imperial and Austrian troops. It would begin it’s drive through in early spring, where he would send his armies reeling in the other direction, around through Krakow, and up the roads to Warsaw, after avoiding the fort near Krakow. The plan went surprisingly well, and they were very lucky not to get caught sooner. The huge army would reach the gates of Krakow by Summer, and they would soon lay siege to the city, not letting a single person leave the city. After several weeks of the slow slog of siege, their artillery would break through the walls, and the troops would flood in. In a cinematic scene, they fired shrapnel through the gates, one of the first recorded instances of it being used, although not neccisareily in warfare. The army, led by Otto, would operate similarly to the Russians in Czargrad, formerly Constantinople, and reach the Palace after fighting through the streets in brutal guerilla warfare. Similarly to what they had planned, the Poles were caught completely off-guard, and the armies had soon held both rulers hostage, in which they, as directed by the Emperor Leopold, would take them both under house arrest, demanding the immediate revoking of the crown from the Saxon claimant.


They also managed to negotiate the ceding of parts of Moldavia to the Habsburg Crown, and the entirety of Silesia under Bohemian claims. Johann Adolf would be taken by horse to Leipzig, where he would meet Emperor Leopold, cede the crown of Saxony to him, and have a large coronation ceremony, declaring “Elector Leopold I von Habsburg of Saxony” now the ruler.

Coronation of the new Saxon ruler​

The war ended much sooner than planned, and the Leopold was gleeful at his new possession in Saxony. The Emperor now had another title in his domain, and the many powers around him feared. The Austrian Eagle now left it’s huge shadow over Europe, where things like feudalism and the social hierarchy were to be questioned, and a new book was starting to become popular in the defeated countries...

 

[AmericanAdam]

The Absolutist War - Part 3 - Enter the Irish​

A very significant part of the Absolutist War was religion. Specifically, the Anglican-Catholic divide, which of course would culminate to a degree in Ireland. Consequentially, the northern regions in Ulster and parts of Leinster and Connacht would be relatively pro-royalist to some degree, while the parliament and their reformist stances were significantly supported by the southern Catholics. Despite northern Ireland’s pro-monarchist standpoint, many remained wary, as the king still upheld some of the characteristically Anglo-monarchist anti-Irish ideals.


The first Irish revolts in the south were for the parliament, as one would expect, and they first seized the city of Cork. However, the groups of peasants and aristocracy would begin to have a notable split. The aristocracy was pro-parliamentary, as were a few of the peasants, although there were more radical pro-Irish groups who argued for full and complete independence, and a peasants’ republic based off of the old Dithmarschen state. The radical peasants in support of the creation of an Irish state had gathered in a pub in Cork, where they had immediately began coming up with ideas for what ideals the government would have. It, as they decided, would consist of a confederation of various peasant families, who would all gather in various meeting halls in the country. It also took on somewhat of an early anarchist ideal, dubbed “proto-Diggerism” by modern scholars, historians, and political scientists. It is the baseline for modern-day Diggerism (OTL Anarcho-communism with a lot of agrarian ideals). The early ideology called for heavy landscaping, by flattening much of Ireland and turning everyone to a one-class system of farming, with various rural communities having control, each electing their own leader from the peasants within that are ruling it.


These radical Irish revolutionaries remained small and relatively divided, but they still were able to make significant gains throughout the south of Ireland, and they even came close to taking Dublin. However, they remained divided and eventually collapsed later in the war. Although, they made a lasting influence, allowing for increased popularity in Ireland for a certain book…


In the more moderate, conservative areas of the parliamentarians, they were much more inclined to support their faction, and they did do well against the northern royalists, who were small in number, and the Catholic Church formally recognized the parliamentarians as the true rulers of England, despite the fact that the Anglican Church still had dominance over the Catholic one.


Throughout the war, northern Ireland was a battleground, and battles consistantly took place between the two opposing sides, who wracked the landscape and turning it into somewhat of a wasteland in the north. Brawls in the local pubs also broke out, with members of the aristocracy; in particular their children in their early 20s, who were most likely drunk; fighting with the large amounts of peasants, who would overwhelm pro-royalist factions. The most famous of these brawls was the Belfast Brawl of 1679, where almost 30 people were dead, and many more injured. It was indecisive, with both sides seeming to pass out, either of being knocked out by a punch in the head, or knocked out drunk. As documented by a passerby, it was “gruesome yet ha’ an odd bit o’ hilari’y”. And so, the war continued all over the British isles, and support for certain sides began coming from various countries…


(Sorry for the shorter post, I wanted to get an update out on the Absolutist War before working on some other updates)

 

[AmericanAdam]

Back across the Atlantic...

Flag of New England under colonial administration. The five trees represent the five colonies of New England: Maryland, Plymouth, New Cornwall, New Scotland, and New Anglia.​

During the periods of peace in Europe, a time which lasted about from the end of the Great European War in 1626, all the way to the 18th century, the overseas colonies of the European powers seemed to grow exponentially, with increased incentives to travel there. Many of the overseas companies had used a lot of false advertising, promising gold and other riches if they were to travel there and start a family. Each colony seemed to become whole other worlds, not simply colonies of their respective countries.


A farming culture began to develop in the southern regions of the Cotton Coast, and the many immigrants there began sending ships of their own to the coasts of Africa to trade with the various kingdoms in Ghana and the Congo for slaves, leading to a booming African population, albeit in a very harsh way of immigration. However, the brought with them their culture, and Carolinian Voodoo culture started to develop in the lower regions of society.


The Spanish colonies south of Carolina also developed a branch off of their culture, a mix of Catalan(who were the primary settlers of the region, simply due to the fact that the language became popular there and many settlements speaking it were propped up), African, and some Basque culture.


Far north of them, the Danish were very unique, as they were not used to the land, and used interesting older systems of production, and they had to reform. Their new systems were partly inspired by the Italian colonists to the north, leading to a close bond of friendship between the two sets of colonies, a strange friendship nonetheless. They would form somewhat of a mercantilist culture, which began getting influenced by Genoese and even Venetian forms of government, which eventually evolved into an admiration of Roman government, and even their architecture, language, and culture. This merged with the old Viking cultures of Denmark, and an extremely bizarre mix of ideals between the Nords and the Romans created a warrior-mercantalist culture, which meshed Italo-Scandinavian culture together. Soon enough, the higher classes of Danish society overseas were speaking Latin and Genoese and Savoyard dialects of Italian, and the aristocracy of Lombardia began speaking Danish in some cases, or even old North Germanic and various Nordic languages. This scared the peoples back home to some degree, and the distinct culture of “Thamlikgard” or “Romlicia” or even “Thamlika” in the merging dialect, would develop, and even envelop the ruling classes there.

A mid-19th Century depiction of the early Danish colonies, titled "Thamlika"​

Finally, to the north was the giant of North America, New Netherland. It had gained a vast population, with immigrants coming from countries all over Europe, due to excellent advertisement campaigns. The Dutch at home were capitalizing on their colony as well, and used the money to their advantage, by expanding trading colonies around the world and expanding their sphere of influence deep into Germany. New Netherland itself was, by 1700, dominated by the massive trading hub of New Amsterdam, which had several major North American companies, with each spreading it’s arms across the colonies, as far south as the Spanish La Plata Viceroyalty, as far North as the Danish outposts in Greenland, as far west as the Pacific, and as far East as the Cape of South Africa.


The colony also boasted a few other large cities, including Willemstadt, which was increasingly being called simply Willem. The city was the primary administrative center, with much political development occurring in the city. The city of Delavaar, which was located along the Susquehanna River(OTL Philadelphia) was also getting larger. It grew a significant liberal population, with a certain book becoming popular in the city, with it being sold out very quickly in many libraries. A book written by a Frenchman… Anyways, the city was more cordial to the native populations, and grew to have a largely cosmopolitan population, with a significant Anglo population, followed by a Native population, followed by a French population, all working together in one city. These large cities dominated politics in New Netherland, as well as cultural and economic things in the colony. However, there were other settlements gaining prominence too. Among these was firstly the small settlement along Lake Ohio(Lake Erie OTL). The settlement was called Geloofe, or “Faith”. It was a highly religious settlement, hence the name. It would start off relatively small, but eventually the city would grow in size signficantly…


To continue northward, the colony of New England was continuing to grow, although it was slow. Dominated by a traditionalist fishing culture, they didn’t send many colonists into the interior, and the colony continued to stagnate. However, the city of Boston still grew in size, and became a center of power for England overseas. It was rather conservative itself, and also vehemently anti-French, which New Englanders pride themselves for even today.


They still were, however, overshadowed by the French behemoth of a colony to their north, which had claimed vast territory, blocking any sense of a path past the Mississippi. The administrative, economic, and cultural center of Northern New France was the city of Quebec, which housed the governor. It was the largest city of New France, with New Orleans in a close second.


The colonies would continue their ascent, and as rivalry grew between all of them, so would their sense of nationalism, militarism, spirit, and yet still a sense of friendship and the working-togetherness of being all colonies, all on the same continent, together.

 

[AmericanAdam]

I'm sorry everyone I haven't been inspired lately, thanks for everyone that follows the timeline, here's a short little update for now before I get my bearings straight after the holidays <3

Siberia and East Asia

As the new giant of Europe, now calling itself a true “Third Rome”, reeled backwards from the period of war that they embarked on, they began an era of increased development and expansion economically, diplomatically, etc.

One of these interests held by the Russian government was the vast untapped wilderness to the east. The region of Siberia had very few natives, and massive amounts of lumber and land ready to be expanded into. The first explorers sent by Russia actually went back to the 15th and 16th century, but mass-colonization efforts by them were deemed unnecessary at the time. However, Russia now had the willpower to begin to expand eastward.

Nikolai Spathari, who made himself known through his strict and well-organized division handling, was fascinated with the expansion of Russia into the east. He was able to procure an official grant from Czar Peter, who was now getting into his ‘60s and suffering a few physical impairments after a close encounter with some Turkish patriots in Tsargrad (Sometimes referred to nowadays as Konstantiyopl). Nikolai began his expedition with a full force of 7,600 Russian and Ukrainian guards, leaving from Omsk, with great fanfare.

The Russian expedition was able to make its way through the vast steppes and forests of Siberia, before reaching to Pacific Ocean about 2 months later, having little to no issues with the journey. They claimed all the land, from about the northern of frontiers of the Ming, who inquisitively communicated with the Russians. Russian companies began establishing their own businesses along a long path, being constructed from Omsk to Novmoskva, on the Pacific Ocean. Several logging corporations established their businesses along the road, as well as several more naval-focused organizations that helped build up the various villages and towns along the Pacific. Before long, a firm Russian stronghold was established over the Russian Far East.


As these expeditions continued to connect Russia and the far eastern nations, Russian artifacts traded from the Chinese became highly valued in Europe, reinvigorating the desire to travel to “Cathay and Nihon”. Spanish ships and colonists continued to push northwards from their bases in the Philippines, and Dutch ships traveled northwards from their Spice Colony, and France and Britain began looking into establishing cities in the east. Nouveau-Bretagne was created on the western tip of New Guinea, and France built it up to use it as a staging area for trade with the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, and Indians. The islands would become a future contest area between the French and Dutch.

 

[AmericanAdam]

The Re-emergence of Buddhism - The life of Abhayaraj, and his rise to power


At the age of 22, the young Abhayaraj claimed to have gone through the same process as the Buddha when he traveled from his palace and thought to himself for nearly a week. He told many of his friends and family that through this thought, an unknown voice, which he believed to have been the Buddha himself, told him to teach as many people as he could of his thoughts, and that violence was temporarily justified, in order to purge quote “monkeylike” thought from India, referring to the great Mughal Empire. His followers seemed to follow along his tremendous oratory, and he gained a significant following.


The unstable Ladakh tribal federation, which still followed a smattering of different Buddhist beliefs, saw Abhayaraj and his alliance of cult-like followers depose the current ruling leader and establish what he called “The Mindful State”, often referred to in English as Buddhesha. He became similar to an absolute monarch, being able to garner mass-support within 3 years of his formation of his way of thought. He vastly upgraded the military, ruling and directing orders himself often. Abhayaraj quickly ordered an invasion of the neighboring horde to the west, and they were quickly overrun out of sheer numbers from the state to their east and their unpreparedness.


Following this, he claimed himself to be the true leader of Buddhism and was able to successfully convert and convince many Tibetans of his “leadership” of the religion. Abhayarajism, as it is called, declared an enemy in Tibet as they followed “false Buddhism” and the few “enlightened” ones there needed to be liberated. He followed his statement with an official declaration of war on Tibet, and the fragmented, unstable state quickly buckled under the might of Abhayaraj’s vast armies. The borderlands were annexed into the Ming Dynasty and Myanmar, as Abhayaraj offered it in exchange for a non-aggression treaty, which was of course kept as a secret.


The last of the conquests during this period was Abhayaraj’s invasion of Nepal, which was rather uneventful, with the leader being kicked out after a small force marched into Kathmandu. By now he was only 32, and it was a decade since his revelation. He now had to centralize his conquests, something he proved to do very well.


Abhayaraj first established a unified currency system, which the various local governments implanted very quickly. He centralized the military and began to utilize the rocket technology learned of from the south, and was able to perfect parts of it, making it somewhat utilizable in warfare, useful for destroying large clusters of people. He also began looking into more gunpowder weapons which were learned of from other countries nearby. Finally, he worked on an intensive propaganda campaign to convert any of the remaining people to his cult.

(I'll put in more pictures on the European ones, because, well, they had more paintings survive )