Who should become the first president of new england?


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United Kingdom of Portugal, Amazonia and the Algarves
Thank you guys!
A very small update...

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Sorry if i have not been so active lately. I'm getting married and had to go to nepal for the marriage, and everyone including me are busy for the marriage. The pre-written chapters will be uploaded by the end of the week (hopefully) however after that i cannot guarantee a chapter for sometime. Nonetheless, do not fret, this timeline will continue, and will continue to be updated, just at a slower pace than before.
Congratulations! I hope you and your future spouse have the best of weddings and have a very happy life together.
 
43: the great compromise
Chapter 43: The Great Compromise

***

“The Russians reacted to the Afghan defeat in the Anglo-Afghan War negatively. This brought the British sphere of influence and its frontiers into the central plains of Central Asia, near the gateway into Russian Central Asia and Russian Kazakhstan. Something that Tsar Nicholas I was extremely wary off. He knew that in a conflict with Britain in the future, Britain could possibly reinforce Central Asia and invade Russian Central Asia, though Britain itself never had any motives nor any plans to do so. Therefore, Tsar Nicholas I then turned towards the three Central Asian emirates and decided to use the three as buffer states between Russian Central Asia and Anglo-Afghanistan.

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The Khanate of Khiva

The Emirate of Bukhara, the Emirate of Kokand and the Khanate of Khiva were the three central Asian emirates of Central Asia and Tsar Nicholas I deemed Bukhara and Kokand important to be left alone as buffer states, whilst he was eager to annex the Khanate of Khiva, which had been a pain for Russian authorities in Central Asia with repeated Turkmen raids into Russia taking place via Khiva. In early 1840, Nicholas I ordered around 9,000 Russian troops in Central Asia to be mobilized into battle formations and war readiness to probe into Khiva and attack the Khanate. The Khanate was ruled by the ill leader and old, conservative khan, Allah Quli Bahadur, who had some Nepali and Tibetan blood in him from his mother’s side. This added the delight in the eyes of the Russians for a cause to attack Khiva, as the Empire of the Himalayas was a staunch British ally, and attacking Khiva before Himalaya could rope Khiva into an alliance using their marriage links, it could be eliminated as a threat to Russia.

Russia had previously attacked Khiva two times, both of which had been abject failures. In 1602, a Cossack invasion was kicked out by the Khivans with the aid of the Persians and Ottomans whilst in 1717 a second invasion was headed and led by Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky and was soundly defeated with only a few men escaping to tell the tale. As such among the Central Asian Russians, Khiva had somewhat of a mystical and mythical reputation of being unconquerable and ill-equipped for war.

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Count Vasily Perovsky

On January 4th, 1840, Tsar Nicholas I gave Count Vasily Perovsky mandate to lead the 9,000 men into Khiva and conquer it in the name of the Tsar and the Russian Empire. On February 18 the letter from the Tsar arrived to Orenburg where Perovsky was situated at and the next day the invasion started. Perovsky and his army was resisted with little to no resistance at the borderlands until the point at which they reached Aq Bulaq, where they were attacked by around 2,000 to 3,000 Khivans led by the son of the Khan himself. The Khivans fought bravely, but unfortunately, gunpowder spoke stronger than swords and the khivans were routed in the battle, and the only reason why half the arm survived to retreat was because the baggage train commanded and trained by Kazakh troops, staged a mutiny demanding equal rights to the ethnic Russians within the army and logistical corps, which Perovsky squashed within a few days.

A few weeks later after several harassing attacks from the Khivans, the Russian attack force reached the Khivan stronghold of Fort Emba. Fort Emba was a massive fort, built by the Safavids in their heyday and the Khivans had upkept the fort, with aid from Qajar engineers, and Afghan deserters who had fled to the Khanate. The Russians knew that even with their heavy guns, the fort would not go down easily so Perovsky ordered everything to be fired at without holding back, and a three week long bombardment took place by which time the fort was starting to crumble.

Despite the crumbling of the fort however the garrison held strong repelling many Russian and Kazakh attempts to breach the walls completely and throwing the Russian invaders out. Ottoman and Qajar filibusters arrived to the fort within a few weeks and managed to resupply the fort with small amounts of food, weapons and ammunition providing a small relief to the garrison. However it was a traitor that broke the fort as the Russians bribed the guards of one of the fort sectors and entered the fort quietly at night and slaughtered the garrison. The fort soon fell. With the fall of Fort Emba, the Khivans knew there was no real point in resisting anymore as the capital of Khiva was right open now. The royal family fled into Qajar Persia where they received refugee status and Russian formally annexed Khiva into the Russian Empire.

Using this force of war as his platform, he quickly negotiated a border treaty with Kokand and Bukhara forcing them to remain neutral in the conflict brewing between Britain and Russia, in return for Russian guarantees of their independence.” Central Asia During the Great Game: The Forgotten Front, Penguin Publishing 1997.

“On May 28, 1840 after years of reform and compromises, Prince Felix, the Minister-President of Austria had finally had enough, especially after the attempted secession of Hungary and Venice. He presented the Congress of Austria and the nobles of the realm with the infamous Felixian Ultimatum which asked for the following points:

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Prince Felix.

With the assassination of his Imperial Grace Ferdinand II of Austria, and the attempted war of independence in Buda and Venedig, the situation must be solved immediately with the assent of the noble estate. We, the government of the empire, demand:

  • The implementation of the Personal National Autonomy Law
  • The legalization of ethnic languages within the school system to be respected
  • The recreation of the empire to protect the rights and represent each and every ethnicity equally.
  • The creation of an Imperial Diet that is elected by males of the empire 35 and over to function as the lower legislative house of the empire
  • The creation of an Imperial House of Lords consisting of all nobles of the realm to function as the upper legislative house of the empire.
  • The creation of an Imperial Council to function as the tricameral house of the empire.
  • The renaming of the empire to become ‘the Danubian Empire’ with the prior permission of his Majesty Francis II of the empire
  • The creation of local diets within every province as created by the 3rd Congress of Salzburg and its provincial boundaries
The conservative members of the nobles spluttered and protested against the ultimatum however Francis II was fully behind the idea, and as the imperial army swore allegiance to him and owed loyalty to him, his position was unassailable, and as Felix was an ally of Francis II, so was Felix.

The remaining Hungarian magnates, who were present in the congress of the nobles were the most fierce opponents of the ultimatum and pointed out to the other nobles that Felix was going above his bounds as Minister-President by literally handing an ultimatum to the nobles of the empire and that his actions were causing instability, which made France and Prussia eye up the nation and its disputed territories. The Prince of Schwarzenburg countered ferociously and ruthlessly calling many of the magnates betrayers by pointing out the attempted secession by many of the Magnates from Buda and Pest without the support of much of the Hungarian population.

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The hungarian magnates

The Venetian Nobles also opposed the law but in a more calmer manner and pointed to the congress that whilst they were not against reform, the ultimatum was too radical and attempted to do all things at once, and it would be more prudent to commit to the reforms in a slow and steady manner. Francis II himself rebuked this statement calling out to the former 1st and 2nd Congress of Salzburg which while managed to hammer out the idea of a unified country in Central Asia, failed to implement it properly and pointed out that the time for reform as at the present and not in the future.

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The provinces of the Danubian Empire. The Crownlands of Lombardy-Venice were separated

Finally without much choice in the matter, and with the support of the Croatian, Slovene, Romanian, Ruthenian, Polish and Bohemian nobles, the ultimatum that was presented to the congress was accepted and Francis II declared the Austrian Empire null and void, and declared himself with the aid of Prince Felix, Emperor Francis I of the Danubian Empire with a separate coronation ceremony taking place in Vienna on June 6th, 1840. The Austrian Empire was dead, however the Danubian Empire had taken its place. The Austrian golden and obsidian flag was brought down and the Habsburg obsidian and gold flag was raised as the new flag of the empire. A new era had started in the Europe.” The Great Compromise and Ultimatum: Felix’s Masterpiece, Imperial University of Krakow, 2004

“The island of Sakhalin always had an ambiguous history before 1840. The Russians and the Qing had struggled to take control over the territory ever since the 1600s and the Sakhalin Aino largely paid tribute to both the Tsar and the Celestial Monarch. Then the Japanese got into the picture as well in the 1700s with some Tokugawa engineers and mappers mapping and exploring the island.

As the Chinese faded away from power briefly due to the Tian War, the Russians and the Japanese signed the Treaty of Chumikan in which both the Tsardom of Russia and the Tokugawa Shogunate agreed to allow Russian settlement in the northern tracts of the island and to allow Japanese settlement in the southern tracts of the island, and decided to keep the political situation of the island ambiguous.

The French King Louis XIX took advantage of this. With his growing rivalry with Great Britain over influence in China and Asia, as well as his growing rivalry with the Russians over influence in the European mainland as the main land power on the continent, he needed to be able to have a firm base of command on the eastern pacific and the Sea of Okhotsk provided an opportunity for this ample amounts. Prime Minister Victor de Broglie too was eager for a secure French base of commands in the eastern pacific.

On July 7th, 1840 a group of French flotillas in Pondicherry was given royal approval and the approval of the French Chamber of Deputies to create a permanent colony and settlement in the island of Sakhalin and to create a secure anchorage, and naval base in the area. Around 20 French ships departed Pondicherry carrying some 400 French marines and administrators. Four months later, in the month of October, the French ships arrived on the coast of Sakhalin near the southern shores, which was inhabited by a small amount of Japanese, Russian and Aino residents. As no government held authority in Sakhalin, the French marines and troops came ashore and declared the island French in the name of Louis XIX and the Kingdom of France.

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the extents of the aino people.

The settlement was called Nordville by the French (in otl Poronaysk) or ‘Northern City’ in English and was settled down by around 60 Frenchmen. The Aino and Japanese living near the area found the settlement an upfront to their new homeland and was extremely angry at the colonization attempt, and gathered around 200 warriors and attacked the settlement in late November, amidst heavy snowfall. The French marines held the attackers away and managed to successfully defeat the warriors and managed to drive them away and into the interior of the island, forcing the Aino and Japanese to give up on the area next to Nordville.

This colonization attempt sparked massive anger and worry in St. Petersburg and Kyoto. The Russian government saw this colonization as a flagrant attempt to seal the Russians in the Sea of Okhotsk and to alienate Russian from Russian Alaska. The Russians were not at all happy with the colonization attempt and Tsar Nicholas I demanded the French ambassador to withdraw its colonial territory in Sakhalin calling it a fragrant disregard of the Treaty of Chumikan. France refused, and Prime Minister de Broglie basically told the Russian Emperor through letter correspondence that the treaty had no effect on France because France was not a signatory to the treaty.

The Japanese State of the Tokugawa Shogunate also expressed its massive misgivings regarding the colonization and the attack against ethnic Japanese in the area by the French marines. France, naturally was not going to listen to an Asian power and did not respond at all, inflaming tempers in Kyoto. This opened the avenue for the Russians to court the Japanese. British influence in the Japanese isles were waning in favor of the commercially more beneficial Ryuku and Formosa, and the Russians found it easy to court the Japanese court.

The Treaty of Kyoto signed on May, 1841, solidified a new era in the Far East as the Russo-Japanese Alliance was born in order to combat British and French influence in the Far East.” The Russo-Japanese Alliance: The Anomaly of the 19th century. University of Nordville, Republic of Sakhalin, 2019

“On December 25th, 1840, on an auspicious day, so to speak, right on Christmas, the King of All Louisianans, King Louis Philippe I died of lung disease. He had been sick ever since 1836 and his health had deteriorated. His eldest son had died in a small campaign against the unruly plain natives and his heir apparent diverted to his second son, Crown Prince Louis, the Duke of St. Louis.

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Louis II of Louisiana

Crown Prince Louis was not as popular as his deceased older brother or his father, however he was still accepted, and he ascended to the Louisianan Throne as Louis II of Louisiana on January 1, 1841, becoming the second monarch of the nation. Under Louis Philippe I, the nation of Louisiana had flourished and had managed to become an economic trade center with the nexus of New Orleans acting as one of the most important trade centers of North America.

Louis II ascended the throne during a troubled time for the kingdom. The kingdom was being forced to look for another patron as France became increasingly distracted with China, Austria and Britain and as relations with Mexico and America remained cool. The old Minister-President of Louisiana, Jacques Dupre also resigned after his father’s death and a snap elections elevated the Progressive Party to power, and Andre D. Roman assumed the premiership of the kingdom and was made head of government. Roman and Louis II were good friends and coordinated with one another on administration and foreign policy. In regards to their patronage, both discerned that either Britain or Russia would be a good choice, considering Britain had a vested interest in the commercially highly valuable New Orleans and a Russian duchess was now the Queen of Louisiana.

However both Britain and Russia spurned the diplomatic approaches of Louisiana. Britain did not wish to alienate its Mexican ally and felt that Louisiana would be too vulnerable to become a reliable ally, and Russia, with its growing rivalry with France, felt that Louisiana was too close to France to become a reliable ally. As such, Louisiana was forced to remain alone. This scared the living daylights of the Louisianan government, and this prompted Louis II into action.

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Andre D. Roman

Louis II and Andre D. Roman passed several laws into place to make sure that the country could industrialize faster. The government took several loans from Spain and Portugal and invested the loaned money into lucrative industries such as maritime trade in the Mississippi and the budding rail lines in the nation. Compulsory military conscription was made law and ‘Military Independence’ was made a top economic priority of the nation. The navy was also developed slowly but surely to make sure that the country could defend the Mississippi river and its portion of the Gulf of Mexico. The country soon became a heavily militarized state and would eventually be called the ‘Prussia of North America’ due to its heavy industrialization focus and military focus as it became diplomatically isolated.” A Military and Economic History of Louisiana, University of New Orleans, 1999

“The Ottoman position in the Balkans was weakening in front of nationalistic sentiments. Whilst Mahmud II had done his best and had managed to overhaul the country and its systems the uprisings in Hungary and Venice had sparked new nationalistic sentiments among the Serbian and Bosnian population of the empire. There was also another problem. Sultan Mahmud II himself held the loyalty of the people, and when he died in 1839 the people didn’t consider their loyalty transferable to his successor and son, Abdulmejid I viable unless the new sultan proved his mettle for the people.

Abdulmejid I certainly tried and inaugurated the first Ottoman General Elections in 1840 in which the results were:-

  • Young Ottomans Party: 48% or 276 seats
  • Muslim Conservative League: 18% or 103 seats
  • Greek Nationalist Party: 14% or 80 seats
  • South Slavic Nationalist Party: 13% or 74 seats
  • Christian Democratic Party of Armenia: 5% or 28 seats
  • Independents: 2% or 14 seats
The elections allowed men of age over 38 to vote in the elections and the major victories of the Greek Nationalist Party and the South Slavic Nationalist Party was very worrying as the Serbian region and the Epirus region showed massive nationalist sympathies. The Young Ottomans and the Christian Democratic Party of Armenia formed a coalition government formed the government of the Ottoman Empire.

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Abdulmejid I

Meanwhile religious riots broke out in ottoman Serbia against the results of the election and tried to force a recount of the ballots, calling the ballot counters ill-equipped to count the votes. The situation turned into deadly ethnic riots as the Ottoman Serbs in the region began to turn against the local Turkish, Rumelian and Muslim population in deadly ethnic attacks against them.

On 13 July, 1840, the London Straits Convention was signed under pressure from the European Countries which deprived Russia of its right to block warships from passing into the Black Sea in case of war, and the black sea was now wide open for British and French ships as well. Tsar Nicholas I was also very aggressive in his expansionist policies, and his public proclamation of solidarity with the Serbian orthodox population made tensions between the Sublime Porte and Russia rise up by a significant amount.

The Straits Convention had also deprived Russia of a key economic asset and the military was eager to regain it, through means of war as well, and aggressive military exercises on the border in the Caucasus and the Besserabia forced the Ottomans to reinforce their borders. This military threat from Russia united the erstwhile foes of Great Britain and France together against the Russians. Mikhail Pogodin, a professor in Moscow University writes in a letter to Nicholas I:-

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Mikhail Pogodin

France continues to take more and more from the Mauritarian coast of Africa, and settles in Sakhalin. Almost every year, a new indian principality is added to Britain’s empire; none of this disrupts the balance of power, but when Russia acts in its interests much like France and Britain that disturbs the balance of power. The English and French quarrel in China, but that doesn’t disrupt the balance of power and no one else has the right to intervene, but Russia is obliged to ask Europe permission if it quarrels with its neighbor. England threatens Greece and the Sublime Porte to support the false claims of a miserable jew, but that is a justifiable action it seems whilst Russia demanding a treaty to protect the orthodox population of the Ottoman empire is unjust and not justifiable it seems. We can expect nothing from the West but blind hatred and malice.

Nicholas I replied by simply stating ‘That is the whole point.’

Meanwhile as tensions rose over the Sakhalin Dispute and the Russo-Japanese alliance, Louis XIX sent a French fleet into the Black Sea in February 12, 1842 thereby violating the straits convention and using French economic power within the Ottoman Empire, forced Sultan Abdulmejid I to accept a new treaty in which France’s monarch was made the supreme authority over Catholic holy places in the Ottoman Empire. Inflamed that Russia’s own offer for the very same just for Orthodox Christians had been rejected but France’s proposal for Catholics had been accepted, the Russians began to move troops to the border. Nicholas I sent a bunch of abrasive diplomats to Constantinople where the diplomats demanded the handover of the Danubian principalities to Russia and the independence of Serbia and Bosnia. Abdulmejid I was amicable to religious rights however firmly said no to the occupation of the Danubian principalities and independence of Serbia and Bosnia supported by the French and British ambassadors.

Using this as justification, Nicholas I declared war on the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire declared war on the Russians in return. Citing his duty to support the Catholics of the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of France under Louis XIX declared war on Russia, and in order to protect the Straits Convention, Britain declared war on Russia. The Ottoman vassals of Egypt, Attica, Moldavia, Wallachia and Algeria too declared war on Russia. The Eastern War had started.” The Eastern War of 1842-45, the Great Deluge, University of Sinope, 1999.

****
 
just a headsup, since this war is very important for the timeline, the pacing of the chapters until this war ends will be very very slow!
 
An alliance between Russia and Japan, is, in the words of Sheev Palpatine, "ironic".

Also, is there any reason why Kokand is calling itself an emirate ITTL, as opposed to a khanate?
 
Chapter 44: The Battle For the Danubian Principalities
Chapter 44: The Battle For the Danubian Principalities

***

Excerpts from Britain’s Political History and Apparatus

“…….Immediately after the British declaration of war, Grey’s government started to fall apart. After that 1837 General Election, the Whigs had led forward a minority government in the House of Commons that needed the support of the independents in parliament to survive. Many of the independents in parliament were outraged by the declaration of war and did not support the declaration of war against Russia, and instead told Grey that he had been rash alongside his parliament in declaring war on Russia.

Grey defended his actions by stating that Britain could not allow Russia to gain supreme hegemony over the Balkans, as that would allow the Russians to gain a port in the Mediterranean and then hamper British naval dominance and trade in the Mediterranean Sea, which would be a massive problem unlike any other. He also pointed out that this was the most opportune moment to cement British influence in Central Asia during the height of the Great Game. The opposition Tories who were tired of sitting on the opposition benches for far two long (two long decades in fact) rebelled against the act and demanded a snap election to take place in the UK. Grey worried that such an act would hamper the war process of the British war machine against the Russians, however the Tories, led by Sir Robert Peel agreed to allow the government to administrate the doings of war before holding the elections.


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After wartime measures had been put into place by March 21, 1842, the parliament passed legislation for a new snap election to take place. The elections took place on April 15 to 20 throughout the country and was fiercely contested between the Tories and Whigs. The Tories mainly campaigned on the strengths of Peel’s leadership which had proved itself after the London Police Reform which had been spearheaded by Peel, whilst the Whigs emphasized an impersonal platform of reforming the import duties on agriculture and replacing the existing sliding rate with a uniform rate of sliding pricing. The Whigs however were losing support. The Eastern War brewing in the Balkans was unpopular and many blamed the Whigs for dragging them into the war. The Irish regionalist party, Irish Repeal Party led by Daniel O’Connor. Ireland’s economy was mostly agricultural, and even though industrialization was growing in Dublin, Belfast, Wexford, and Limerick, the rest of the country was still agrarian, and as such needed a mixture of balanced protectionism and free trade to grow economically. The total slant towards free trade championed by the Whigs led to a decline in Irish economics and as such the Irishmen were more willing to vote for the Tories than the Whigs.

Grey unfortunately lost the re-election stand and the Whigs came in second in comparison to the tories who retook power. Sir Robert Peel was later sworn in as the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.


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Sir Robert Peel, the first Tory PM of UK in a very long time.

Peel immediately promised to execute the war on a more efficient footing and allow the UK to come out of the war faster and victorious as well……”

“……..As soon as conflict was declared, the Danubian Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia were caught between a rock and hard place. Both were Ottoman vassal states, however Moldavia had been occupied by the Russians partially ever since 1812, and the Wallachian Principality held little love for the Ottoman Turks which had subjugated them since the 1400s. On April 7th, the Moldavian Principality declared themselves for the Russians, under pressure from its pro-Russian government and people, and the Wallachian Principality declared themselves in favor for the Ottomans, unwilling to have its lands occupied by a new oppressor. In the mind of the Wallachians, better the devil that they knew, i.e. the Ottomans, rather than the devils they didn’t know, i.e. the Russians. This allowed the gathering Ottoman Army in the Balkans, a 58,000 strong army led by Heyreddin Pasha, a veteran of the North African War and the Albanian Revolts to enter Wallachian territory. On April 15, Heyreddin Pasha and his army entered Bucharest where they were joined by a Wallachian Army some 15,000 strong bolstering the numbers of the Ottoman army. However Heyreddin Pasha, who had been accustomed to the empire’s professional army troops after Mahmud II’s reforms found himself disgusted with the poorly equipped and poorly trained Wallachian Army, and instead ordered the Wallachians to become the rearguard of the Ottoman Army. The Wallachians, affronted by the slight, nonetheless agreed knowing they would not be able to stand up to the Russians in head to head battle.


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Prince Gorchakov

At the same time a Russian army led by Prince Mikhail Gorchakov numbering some 70,000 entered Moldavia and grouped with the 9,000 strong Moldavian Army, bolstering its own numbers. Gorchakov was a strong leader, and a strong commander, much like his counterpart, Heyreddin Pasha, however was a more cautious general. He instead started the construction of multiple redoubts and defensive positions in Moldavia and instead settled on the defensive until his defenses and logistics could be brought up to speed for an offensive campaign.

And as Gorchakov settled down for a defensive war, Heyreddin Pasha smelled weakness and instead in a daring move decided to cross into Moldavia and attack the Moldavians and Russians head on in their garrison centers and their defensive positions. He split his army into two, with he himself leading some 40,000 men whilst his second in command, Omar Pasha, led an army of 33,000 consisting of the Wallachian Army as well. Heyreddin Pasha ordered Omar Pasha to stay put in Wallachia and form his reserve corps, whilst Heyreddin Pasha moved north to attack the Moldavian positions.

At the border with Moldavia, at the Buzau River, he encountered a small Moldavian and Russian garrison guarding the path to Posta Calnau at Maracineni and attacked the redoubts at Maracineni forcing the Moldavians and Russians back, mopping up resistance at the border, and moved inland in Moldavia, plundering the area.

Whilst many Romanian nationalists look at the plundering as an act of atrocity and in many levels it was, Heyreddin Pasha did not commit the plundering without cause. The local resources of the area was re-supplying the Russians, and he wished to plunder the area so that the Russians would not be supplied, thus starving them out of the area. He moved north and neared the regional town of Sarat, which was an important Russian and Moldavian town, and strategically and militarily very important as well.

Gorchakov was caught off guard by the Ottoman advance, however he immediately rallied his army south and managed to muster an ad hoc defense of Sarat and the nearby area. He managed to rope in Mikhail Sturdza, the Prince of Moldavia to lead the Moldavian Army in the battle as well, wishing to raise the morale of the Moldavian troops as well. When Heyreddin arrived on the outskirts of Sarat, he found the Moldavian and Russian soldiers ready to meet them. Heyreddin was certainly annoyed by this new development, however he was not deterred, and did not seem to remember his own numerical inferiority. He commanded a force of 41,000 against the Russo-Moldavian force of 63,000.

Heyreddin commenced the Battle of Sarat on April 27th, 1842 when he released his light Rumelian and Macedonian cavalry to probe the Russian defenses and the Moldavian redoubts to find a sign of weakness. The Russians and the Moldavians managed to repel the probes and stood their ground however Heyreddin managed to notice something. He found that his cavalry found it easier to probe and break into the Moldavian lines than the Russian lines, and as the Moldavians held the left flank of the Russian defenses, an idea started to bloom into the head of the Ottoman commander. He ordered his Anatolian and Epirot infantry to move forward and pin the Russian forces down and instead moved his heavy cavalry and heavy infantry troops to his own left flank in a move to attack the Moldavians.


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Prince Mihail Sturdza

The Epirot and Anatolian soldiers (both Greek Anatolians and Turkish Anatolians) moved forward and attacked with fierce courage and pinned the Russians into place, and manage to engage them. The Heavy Rumelian and Macedonian cavalry then raced forward, with the heavy elite Ottoman troops trailing behind to attack the Moldavian flanks and attacked. The Moldavians at first managed to hold their ground against the heavy Ottoman attack, however soon amidst the battle, their commander, Prince Mihail Sturdza, the Prince of Moldavia was struck by a cannonade, and his hand was separated from the rest of his body. Dying from blood loss, the loss of their head of state demoralized the Moldavian army heavily. The Moldavian militiamen had been coerced into fighting by the government and the Russians and had little interest nor goal in fighting beyond protecting their home, their way of life, and their families. Without their leader to command them and hold them together, the Moldavian units quickly disintegrated and left the Russian left flank wide open.

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Russian troops during the battle.

Heyreddin Pasha cashed in on this immediately and ordered the cavalry and infantry on the left flank to attack the Russian’s exposed flanks and the cavalry cut right through the Russian center like a knife going through hot butter, killing several Russian troops along the way. Although Gorchakov tried to restore order among the troops, and tried to rally them together, the panicked troops ignored his orders, and the Russians were routed by midday, and the battle was effectively over after that. Some rearguard fighting took place after the initial battle, however the Russians were forced to retreat from Sarat and the Ottomans entered the town victorious the next day……..” Excerpts from The Ottoman War in the Principalities during the Eastern War

“While Mahmud II had left behind a truly massive and powerful Ottoman Army, the Sultan had neglected the modernization of his navy, and whilst the Ottoman Navy remained a powerful force, in comparison to the French, Russian and British navies, the Ottoman navy was paling. Pavel Nakhimov, the Admiral of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, and the Russian Admiralty knew this. And they also knew that they had to attack before the Anglo-French navies entered the Black Sea.


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Admiral Pavel Nakhimov

Tsar Nicholas I and the Russian Admiraly ordered Nakhimov to muster the Russian Navy in Sevastopol and to interdict the Ottomans. From 1 to 23 April, the Russian naval squadrons were dispatched to the Black Sea, and to establish control. Two ottoman vessels, the Osman Pasha and Beirut were defeated by the Russians easily and captured by the Russian in small, detached and short engagements. Russia was able to establish operational and naval control of the naval sea lanes in the Black Sea using these small sea lanes. Nakhimov also knew that Osman Pasha, the Kapudan Pasha of the Ottoman Black Sea Fleet was somewhere in the South Black Sea escorting convoys for the upcoming battles in the Caucasian mountains. On 12 May, Osman Pasha’s flag was sighted returning to harbor at Sinop, and Nakhimov immediately ordered his ships to deploy themselves into a blockade and sent a frigate back to Sevastopol to ask for reinforcements from the rest of the Black Sea Fleet.

On 20th of May, Vice Admiral Fyodor Novosilliski rallied six more ships to Nakhimov completing the Russian naval force in a loose semi circle in a blockading maneuver. Additional ships were requested as well, however Nakhimov decided to act before the Ottomans got wind of the trouble they were in. Osman for his part was well aware of the Russian presence using scouting ships, however received outdated information of the Russian fleet before Novosilliski had reinforced it, making him believe that the Russians would not attack, especially at port in Sinop. Sinop had substantial harbor defenses and forts with interlocking fields of fire, and ample cannon. Osman did little to break the weak Russian blockade either, and even allowed many of his crewmen to disembark and walk around to refresh themselves.

On the 24th of May, Admiral Nakhimov decided alongside his officers that this was the moment to attack the Ottoman fleet before the British and French navies could reinforce the Black Sea. Strengthened by reinforcements, Nakhimov consolidated over 700 cannon in six ships of the line, two frigates and three armed sloops. The ottoman forces included seven frigates, three corvettes, and two armed sloops. The Russians deployed their ships in two columns and started to advance to within close range of the enemy vessels before dropping anchor and opening fire. Under Nakimov’s command, the 84 gun ship of the line, Imperatritsa Maria was the first to engage when she fired on the 44 gun Ottoman flagship, Auni Allah.

Nakhimov had placed his ships ingeniously. The dual triangular maneuver that his ships were taking part in made sure that his ships were in between the Ottoman vessels and the Sinop harbor defenses, covering the entire harbor with interlocking fields of fire. Russian gunners then began to attack all scores of Ottoman targets among the ships and harbor defenses. The Ottoman crews were taken by surprise, and panic seized them as they tried to douse the growing fires instead of firing back at the Russians to drive them away from the port.


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The Battle of Sinop.

Only one Ottoman vessel, a small corvette named Taif e Islam managed to escape the battle properly using her fast sails to escape from port from the rear while all the others were sunk or purposely ran ashore to prevent sinking. She fled to Constantinople, and arrived on June 2, informing the Ottoman government of the disastrous naval defeat. Once the enemy fleet surrendered, the Russians fully engaged with the Ottoman shore batteries and destroyed most of them before retreating back from the harbor, having won a massive naval victory. During the fighting, around 47 Russians were killed, and around 258 were wounded and 1 Ship of the Line (2nd Rate) had been sunk. The Ottomans by contrast lost some 2200 men killed, 150 taken prisoner, and their leader Osman Pasha was also captured.

The attack was seen as a massive affront by the French and British governments, both of whom prided themselves for their naval prowess in battle, and there also remained the fact that around 60 Britons had also died or had been wounded in the shore bombardment, alongside 35 Frenchmen. This act and battle strengthened the war faction of the British government, and allowed the new government under Robert Peel to actually seek war.” Excerpts from Naval Combat in the Black Sea during the Eastern War.


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Imam Shamil.

“Like all Russo-Turkish War before the Eastern War, the Caucasian Front would remain a secondary front to the Balkan theatre, however nonetheless the government of Abdulmejid I and the first democratically elected Grand Vizier, Ali Suavi. The government knew that the Caucasian front was advantageous to the Ottomans, as the people of the Caucasus, consisting of the Chechens, Ossetians, Dagestanis and Circassians were all Muslims, and more inclined to aid the Ottomans than the Russians, as they were caught in a multi-generational conflict with the Russians known as the Caucasus War. When war was declared, the leader of the Caucasian Immamate, Imam Shamil, the Imam of Grimly, immediately ordered the Immamate to be on the side of the Ottomans and declared a renewed holy war against the heretic Russians invading their homeland.

The Russian troops in this region was commanded by Prince Mikhail Vorontsov and had around 40,000 troops under his command. Vorontsov was infamous in the Chechen, Circassian and Dagestan regions for his brutal manner of warfare which led to multiple guerilla bands being snuffed out against the full might of the Caucasian Russian Governate. The Ottoman troops in the region, commandeered from the Kars vilayet was led by Mehmed Ali Pasha, another veteran of the North African War, and commanded an army of 37,000 of mixed Turkish, Iraqi, Syrian, Armenian, and Lebanese troops. He was given the order to advance up to the Caucasian mountains and attack the Russian positions, and group up with pro-Ottoman muslim tribes in the region.


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Prince Mikhail Vorontsov.

Mehmed Ali Pasha invaded on May 27th, 1842 and marched through the mountains using the growing summer season to his advantage and pushed through the mountain passes, taking the Russians by surprise. The Ottoman Army Reforms were showing their results in full as the Ottomans pushed the Russian garrisons on the border backwards and forced the Russians to flee back to the Erivan Oblast, where Vorontsov was based at. Vorontsov was worried by the sudden blitz that Mehmed Ali Pasha was leading in the Caucasian mountains and decided to lure the general into a major battle near the Erivan Oblast’s borders in Gyumi and its surrounding areas.

Mehmed Ali advanced through the Yerlivak region and entered the Armenian town of Voghji amidst great cheers from the Armenian populace. Everyone knew of the ongoing democratization of the Ottoman Empire, and the newfound freedom of Armenians in the empire. In contrast, the Russian Empire continued to be a feudal absolutist and oppressive empire which the Armenians hated. Many in Armenia now called for the Ottoman Empire to liberate the Armenian peoples of Russia, and form a new Armenian state under Ottoman suzerainty. Abdulmejid I’s brother, Sehadze Abdul Hamid, enthusiastically backed this proposal, and formed the Armenian Militia Regiments (AMR) which was soon filled with 3,000 Armenian volunteers. After Voghji, Mehmed Ali led the Ottoman army down south towards Voskehask, and fought the small garrison placed there, and defeated them. He then turned to the east, intent on capturing Gyumi. However there, Prince Vorontsov was already preparing a defense, and was going to stand his ground there. He prepared defenses at Arapi, and Azatan, the western approaches to Gyumi and placed his reserves within Gyumi itself, and faced the 40,000 strong Ottoman army, numerically equal to his own Russian force.

The Ottomans attacked first on June 4, 1842 and after heavy fighting drove the Russians away from Akhurik and forced the Russians back to their second line of defense in outer Arapi. Vorontsov reinforced outer Arapi with Cossack reinforcements and sent a message for aid and reinforcements from his fellow generals and commanders based in Lusabhyur in the east. However it is here that the Chechens and Circassians became necessary, as the Chechen and Circassian raiders, working on the side of the ottomans, intercepted the message and killed the message convoy column, making the other generals in Lusabhyur clueless to Vorontsov’s needs and orders.

Down south, the Ottoman Armenian divisions attacked headlong into Azatan, and the Russians repelled their attacks with ease at first. However when Mehmed Ali allowed the Ottoman 2nd and 3rd Divisions to fly the Armenian Colors of Tigranes of the Great, the Armenian troops present in the Russian army started to slink off and desert, or even defect. The colors had been made meticulously by Ottoman Armenian artisans and Mehmed Ali, displaying Tigranes’s crown consisting of the star of divinity, and two birds of prey, associated with Tigranes’s Khvarenah, i.e. kingly glory. It also displayed the colors of the ancient Indo-Iranian deity associated with Tigranes, Verethragna. This gap in the Russian lines was soon filled to the brim with Ottoman troops, and the Ottoman sappers exploded the Russian defenses beneath them, and with the Ottoman troops attacking, Azatan was lost as well, forcing Vorontsov to withdraw back to the city of Gyumi itself, and readied himself for a last stand to protect Russian western Armenia. The Black Fortress was manned and defended and the Ottomans laid siege to the Black Fortress, which protected Gyumi.


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Russian and Ottoman cavalry clashing near Azatan.

Then soon night fell, and the battle entered a small stalemate. The next day however, the news was exceedingly bad for the Russians. Ottoman heavy artillery had arrived from Erzurum and the 48 pounder guns pounded the Black Fortress, creating small breaches where plugged in by the Russian garrison, but the distraction of Russian forces proved to be fatal, when Mehmed Ali moved his last reserves, the 5th Lebanese Division towards the southern front near the fields of Shirak, and attacked the Russians from there, breaking the Russian flanks, and breaking the Russian lines entirely. Seeing that his army was breaking, Vorontsov managed to rally his army and thankfully led a successful evacuation of Gyumi and led the battered remains of the Russian army, now reduced to only 23,000 fighting men back to Vanadzor.

The Ottoman army reforms undertaken by Mahmud II were showing their fruits in battle and now the Russian Caucasus was wide open for the taking.” Excerpts from The Ottoman Wars in the Caucasus.

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Notes:-

i. The Battle of Sinop ITTL is very similar to otl, however somewhat different as well.
ii. Ottoman army performed well due to Mahmud II's reforms, however focus on the army also led to disregard of the navy.

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I am wondering if defeat here ITTL will kickstart Russia's development.

i also wonder if Jackson will get up too something with France and Britain distracted. I can't see Jackson attacking the BNA or the British vassals. But aparently Louisiana and the Union have multiple conflicts. This might be the time with Britain likely ordering its people in North America to not fire unless fired upon, and New Orlean's friends in pAris and St Petersburg preoccupied.
 
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