Dirty Politics - Part Four
Because I'm late on the updates I decided to join all small Political Updates into one big update. Next week we go back to the Peninsula to see the Portuguese efforts in Capturing Salamanca. Also no Naples because I couldn't find anything interesting about it so Naples stays OTL, with Murat on the throne, the Netherlands are also OTL but I will mention both the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire for not speaking of the other two.


Dirty Politics - Part Four

In Saint Petersburg the Tsar, was deeply disturber by the events unfolding in Europe and in Russia. For the Russian nobility, for whom Napoleon was the "Enemy of Mankind", the defiance of the Iberian powers, was a stain on their honor, as they felt the peace of Tilsit was a disgrace for Russia and a possible danger, as the new Polish State, could become a beacon for Polish resistance and with the last partition, having been just a decade ago, many on the Tsar's court, saw the Duchy of Warsaw as a possible catalyzer, to another Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. With the Russian nobility, becoming more and more unsatisfied with the Tsar, Alexander, begun to make preparations for another war, to distract the Russian people from his Peace Treaty with Napoleon.

The two obvious targets, were Finland and the Caucasus, the first under Swedish control and the later already being contested by the Russian Empire and Persia. A move to reignite the Persian War, would serve of little interest to the Tsar, as the Caucasus was too far from Saint Petersburg to distract the nobility, a problem that was solved by a war in Finland. Another candidate had been the Ottoman Empire, but the Tsar feared that the French would support the Turks on a possible war, so he left them to their own devices, while increasing the funding to the Serbian Revolt.

Conquering Finland resolved several problems to the Tsar. First it allowed him to unite the Russians, against their old enemy, Sweden, and when victory was achieved the Tsar, would use the Finish Conquest as propaganda to make the people forget the Tilsit Treaty, and the it would also work to convince Napoleon, that Russia was on his side, for Sweden was a British ally.

Ursprungen av Finska kriget, by Asbjörn Ek

The title of "Sick Man of Europe" as been awarded many times by historians, to once powerful countries that felt into severe Decline. In late 1807 several powers, could compete for the tile: Sweden, with their days of being the "Lion of The North" being long gone; Denmark, whose claim to Second Tier Power had been destroyed, when the British had destroyed their Navy; Prussia, whose survival everyone one thought was numbered; Spain, that had been broken into a confusion of competing states, and with unrest growing in the colonies; and the Ottoman Empire, whose strength was going away as Nationalism, was on the rise among their European subjects, specially among the Serbians and the Greeks, and finally the conservative forces of the Empire, specially the Janissaries, worked to stop the modernization of the Empire.

(...)

Sweden, had been on steady decline since the days of Charles XII, and the Swedish bad luck culminated with, Gustav IV Adolf being their leader during the early Napoleonic Wars. This ineffective King, was the embodiment of the Absolutism movement, having even postponed his coronation to avoid summoning a Diet, and his views made even his allies, Great Britain and the Kingdom of Portugal, weary of him and with the Russians turning their gaze to Finland, the fate of Sweden looked more and more dark every day.

(...)

Selim III was the reformer of the Ottoman Empire. A man, that from an early age, had been predicted to expand the Empire to it's former glory, his early reign show how good intentions, usually don't survive the real world. The Austrians and the Russians, tested him as soon as he was on the throne and more Ottoman land was lost on the European border, then the French invasion of Egypt and Syria left those areas in complete disarray, with the Albanian Muhammad Ali, becoming the de-facto ruler of those areas, even if he was a nominal Ottoman subject, and culminating on his assassination attempt by the Janissaries in late 1807. He survived, but was forced to escape from Istambul, where the Janissaries declared his cousin Mustafa, the new Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

Still the Sultan, had the good luck of joining with his loyal Grand Vizir, Alemdar Mustafa Pasha, in Rusçuk, where they gathered the Nizam-i Jedid, that had been fighting in Serbia, to march against the Janissaries.

(...)
The Sick Men of Europe, by George Marshal.
 
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So Selim lives to reform another day? Excellent...

Too bad for Sweden though, they're still free-falling into irrelevance, just like IOTL.
 
So Selim lives to reform another day? Excellent...

Too bad for Sweden though, they're still free-falling into irrelevance, just like IOTL.

I would like to make Swedish future more bright but I really can't see anyway for them to not lose Finland. If anyone as any ideas, please share.
 
I'm going to analyze OTL's Finish War to see if there is any way for a "victory"(basically holding long enough for France to turn against Russia) but I'm not very hopeful on their chances.
A possible way for Sweden to hold on could be incompetence to match theirs on the Russian side.
 
In Sweden's defense, they did get saddled with Gustav IV. While he isn't exactly on the level as say, Carlos IV, (God I hate that man.) he isn't exactly the monarch that would make Swedish absolutism work. After all, IOTL he was forced to abdicate because his policies effectively botched the Finnish War.
 
Salamanca
Took me far more than what I had hopped but well RL happened and I was never happy about how the update was and in the end I decided to try to write it this way and I think it came out decent. It still lacks some editing but I'm tiered and I hope you guys don't mind if I had the missing comas a bit latter :tiredface:. Again Sorry for the delay :oops::closedtongue::oops:.

If you have any question about the update fell free to ask.

*****

Salamanca
28th of September - 1st of October 1807

(...) as the army marched towards the city of Salamanca, General Castro sent most of his cavalry ahead, to capture the bridge that crossed the river Tormes. According to the General personal letters, he had hopped to catch the Spanish garrison, mostly composed of local militia supported by several groups of Spanish regulars, that had sided with the French Regime in Madrid, off guard. Unfortunately for the Portuguese General, the Spanish, lead by Colonel Jean de Kindelan, had been aware of the approaching army and had already destroyed the bridge, when the 11th Regiment of Cavalry reached the city.

With the loss of the bridge, the Portuguese army was forced to stop it's advance at the town of Carbajosa, some 2 kilometers south of the city. Castro had decided to make the village his headquarters, while considering his option on to what would be his next move. The orders, he had received from Lisbon, had been clear, to take the city of Salamanca and to open the northern road to Madrid, but now the road was closed to him and no one in his staff knew of any other crossings that would be suited for the heavy artillery.

A full day passed, before before the 9th Regiment of Cavalry found a ford to the east of Salamanca, near the village of Santa Marta, but it was guarded by some two hundred regulars, entrenched inside Santa Marta while on the other side, of the river, a small battery of 6th-pounder cannons gave the garrison some cover. Despite the objections of his second-in-command, the Colonel of the 9th, Colonel Manuel Corte Real, tried to capture the ford. The skirmish is recorded to have lasted three hours and ended with the loss of almost two squadrons of the 9th, forcing Colonel Corte Real to order a retreat.

While the Portuguese Cavalry was fighting for the control of Santa Marta, a force of Spanish and French soldiers, some five to six thousand infantry and three squadrons of cavalry, lead by General Duhesme were marching towards Salamanca. They had been sent from Madrid to reinforce Salamanca and there is no indication that they knew that General Castro's forces had already reached the city.

On the 30th of September, General Castro begun preparing a full assault on the city. According to the available documentation, the plan envolved the First Division making a frontal assault, with the support of the available artillery, while 3 battalions of the Second Division would advance towards Santa Marta to capture the ford, which would then allow the Cavalry, to cross the river and to attack the Spanish positions from the rear.

While the Portuguese prepared their assault, the cavalry of General Duhesme reached Colonel de Kindelan. There isn't much documentation of de Kindelan's actions, but most historians agree that he personally went to General Duhesme to decide the course of action of their forces. Duhesme, now aware that the Portuguese were near Salamanca, sent a battalion towards Salamanca while leaving most of his men in Cabrerizos, where they would cross towards the other side of the river to attack the Portuguese on their flank, while they attacked Santa Marta.

On the next day the Portuguese attacked.

Memories written by veterans of the battle from both sides, mention the hard engagement fought at the entry of the city.

From the private journal of Captain Rodrigo de Vieira of the 9th Regiment of Infantry said:
The General had ordered our division to advance, and my Brigade had the honor of leading the attack. As we advanced towards the city, we saw the siluetes of the Spaniards defending the city near destroyed bridge.

(...)

Say what one may of the Spanish, one cannot deny that they are brave. For a long time they denied us the crossing, firing musket and cannon against those of us that were brave enough, to try to cross the river. Eventually we managed to force them to retreat from their positions and I managed to lead my company into the city, where brutal combat followed as the Spanish fought for each inch of land.


(...)

As men in both sides fought and died at Salamanca, in Santa Marta the Portuguese Conscript Battalions had managed to force the Spanish out of the village, when the men of Duhesme begun their attack. The Portuguese, were unable to stop the Franco-Spanish force and quickly lost their right flank.

General Castro tried to lead a counter-attack with the reserves, but he was hit by a musket ball early on, and while his aids managed to take him away from the fighting, the men around him begun to flee believing their General to be dead.

With the flank in complete confusion and with reports coming from Salamanca, saying that the attack had stopped into a standstill, Field Marshal Teixeira ordered the cavalry to attack Duhesme men and to cover the retreating infantry, while sending orders to Field Marshal Lecor to stop his attack and to retreat from the city.

Thanks to the sacrifice of the cavalry, that managed to stop Duhesme attack at great cost, Teixeira managed to regroup the infantry at Carbajosa but the battle was already lost, for Duhesme now controlled the hills around the village, which would allow him to attack Lecor's men from the flank.

As the First Division was engaged in a fighting retreat from city, the two Field Marshals ordered a full retreat from Salamanca.

The Battle of Salamanca ended as a clear Franco-Spanish victory, and would pave the way for the French Invasion of 1808.

Map:
3EsSzbD.png
 
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Just to inform that the editing is done, I hope if you find any mistakes fell free to point them out, and that I added the map I used to write the battle. Next update should be done by this weekend but no promises.

Please comment so that I can know what you think about the update.
 
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