Well, technically, OTL New Netherland was conquered within a few decades
The Silver Knight, a Lithuania Timeline
- Thread starter Augenis
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Well, technically, OTL New Netherland was conquered within a few decades
But that probably won't happen this time around since Brittania entered the colonial game a century later due to focusing on internal developments
as you said.
Cool! Lithuania grows bigger, and might actually NOT end up collapsing like the Romanovs!
Though, I question how much forceful colonization of of the Far North will work. It's bloody cold up there after all, and probably much less fertile than the Pontic Steppe.
Though, I question how much forceful colonization of of the Far North will work. It's bloody cold up there after all, and probably much less fertile than the Pontic Steppe.
Colonization of the north is far from being as intense as the efforts in the Steppe because of what you described, naturally.
Oh god damnit how did I miss all these updates
Sigh Okay, so what did I miss? ...new map style... focusing more on world events now... Britain is finally getting into the colonial games... Nieuw Nederland is starting to go the way of the USA... Amsterdam System is starting to break apart... Conservatism is beginning to return in France... German nationalism is starting to form... Lietuva is still a military diictatorship and they're advancing in the technology and social front, but not on the imperial one... Australia has been discovered and dismissed by the Dutch just like OTL... Yup, the TL is still good.
As an Australian myself I can't help but wonder who will take Oceania. Britain doesn't seem like they'll have too many criminals they'll need to store out in the ass end of nowhere, but they might take in ITTL due to being so late in the colonial game that there isn't anywhere else left, assuming someone else doesn't grab it. Germany, or a HRE state in north-west, might grab it for similar reasons. Uh... France might do it, but I can't imagine them bothering to really settle it, so they'd probably just have one or two cities set up in the best parts for trading/reaching any other nearby colonies and have the rest of it simply claimed.
Maybe one of the asian countries will colonise it ITTL? If so, my bets would be either Japan, Lusang, one of the Indian states if they're even a little bit thalassocratic or Brunei, but at this point who honestly knows? Except for you, of course. You know.
Sigh Okay, so what did I miss? ...new map style... focusing more on world events now... Britain is finally getting into the colonial games... Nieuw Nederland is starting to go the way of the USA... Amsterdam System is starting to break apart... Conservatism is beginning to return in France... German nationalism is starting to form... Lietuva is still a military diictatorship and they're advancing in the technology and social front, but not on the imperial one... Australia has been discovered and dismissed by the Dutch just like OTL... Yup, the TL is still good.
As an Australian myself I can't help but wonder who will take Oceania. Britain doesn't seem like they'll have too many criminals they'll need to store out in the ass end of nowhere, but they might take in ITTL due to being so late in the colonial game that there isn't anywhere else left, assuming someone else doesn't grab it. Germany, or a HRE state in north-west, might grab it for similar reasons. Uh... France might do it, but I can't imagine them bothering to really settle it, so they'd probably just have one or two cities set up in the best parts for trading/reaching any other nearby colonies and have the rest of it simply claimed.
Maybe one of the asian countries will colonise it ITTL? If so, my bets would be either Japan, Lusang, one of the Indian states if they're even a little bit thalassocratic or Brunei, but at this point who honestly knows? Except for you, of course. You know.
Britain forming colonies in the southern hemisphere seems like they was they will go since there is land still available in Patagonia, Australasia, and Madagascar given it's climate.
Chapter 48: The Power of Man
Part 48: The Power of Man (1735-1750)
The Karbauskiai family were wealthy landowners holding a lot of lands in Lithuania Propria, and the 32 year old Paulius Viktoras inherited their estates in 1739. Before this inheritance, the noble was a graduate of the University of Paris and one of the central figures of the Abolitionist movement, and when he gained the massive tracts of land with over 6 000 serfs under his thumb, he decided to create an example of the success that emancipation can provide. The serfs in the Karbauskiai estates were rapidly emancipated and most of the lands were divided between the now free farmers, the old corvée was replaced with monetary rent, the people were given a number of radical rights, like the ability to manage their land by themselves, freely engage in arts and crafts, and even have representatives and vote! Vote, I tell you! Crazy! While Karbauskis remained as the supreme head of state, the "democrat" of the manor, he organized an assembly of representatives, voted in by the peasants themselves, to help him rule. The peasantry also organized courts and a militia force for protecting the manor and hunting. Karbauskis also ordered the foundation of a school for peasant children in the village, as well as a printing house for publishing and spreading literature within the peasantry. Numerous conservative magnates were skeptical of this radical project, but by the end of 1745, five years after the foundation of the so-called Republic of Dotnuva, the income of the manor increased by two times, and no suspected "peasant anarchy" arose - in fact, Dotnuva became exemplary across the entire empire as the proof in favor of the emancipation of the peasantry.
Of course, it's not like Dotnuva did not have to go through opposition. Fearing that the example that this peasant republic would set can incite a revolution, the conservative nobility petitioned to the military numerous times, requesting that this experiment would be shut down by force. Paulius Viktoras Karbauskis stood in front of the court six times, magnates accused him of "spreading dangerous thoughts", "breaking serfdom laws" and other accusations, but the court stood on his side, claiming that the young noble legally exercised his right to treat his serfs in whichever way he chose. Even the Grand Hetman himself was worried about this experiment - but so far, everything seemed to be stable. The fact that Dotnuva now paid far more in taxes than what it used to was also a nice bonus.
While the foundation of the Republic of Dotnuva was the big news domestically, Lithuania was also active on the foreign front - and by "active", meaning "going to war". After the Four-Year War between Lithuania and the Ottoman Empire, one of Ottoman protectorates, Circassia, broke away from Turkish domination, and managed to keep up it's independence for a while despite being surrounded by powerful foreign powers. The situation of Circassia was a great worry to the Lithuanians and to Hetman Songaila, however, who feared that the tiny nation's history of being a Turkish protectorate could lead to them ending up back under Ottoman domination, creation a two-front situation in a potential future war with the Sultanate - this problem had to be solved immediately, while the Ottomans were busy fighting a war in Central Asia. The War of Circassian Annexation, stretching for nine months in 1744 and 1745, was successful for the better armed and organized Lithuanians, even though they were not necessarily familiar with the Caucasian terrain, and the tiny Islamic state was annexed. The war war won! But what the Lithuanians didn't count for was the tenacity and determination of the Circassian people - a hardy folk. A wide war of resistance continued in the following decades. In some ways, it was a repeat of the Teutonic attempts to conquer Lithuania - the locals, while outnumbered and equipped with weaker weapons, employed the environment to their advantage to successfully resist the occupants for a long time.
In half a millennia, the small, weak nation had become the conqueror of nations, the same thing it fought to resist for so long.
Grand Hetman Algimantas Songaila, almost 80 years old by that time, died in his bed in 1749. While not the greatest ruler of Lithuania, he was capable of leading it well, and his rule marked many significant changes in Lithuanian society. The Enlightenment was roaring, and the country recovered from the crisis at the end of the 17th century. Not to mention the great expansion of the territory of the empire, and if counting the sparsely developed northern territories, almost doubling it since his appointment. Unlike before, this time it was expected from the Council of Lords to choose the next Grand Hetman of Lithuania - although the choice was certainly contentions. Numerous generals and marshals were "campaigning", but in the end, the Field Hetman under Songaila's rule (pretty much the second in command), Augustas Velniukas, was chosen to be the next dictator.
Paulius Karbauskis reads the Statute of the Republic of Dotnuva to his serfs
The biggest news that came at this time, however, were once again the friction between France and Germany. In 1746, the newly elected Director of the Estates-General of France, François Rousseau, had to immediately deal with a yet another crisis in the Holy Roman Empire. A representative from Geneva, Rousseau was one of main leaders of the Blue Party, though he had been an independent candidate for most of his career, and he rose to the position of Director on the agenda of pro-bourgeoisie policies and negotiating with the Germans rather than suppressing them. The bourgeoisie - business owners, bankers and wealthy artisans, for example - were centered in Wallonia, which was a border region next to North German Rheinland, and they feared that a war would result in their businesses getting attacked or, even worse, nationalized. So they were against a full out war with the eastern neighbours. In 1746, chaos erupted in Saxony after the ascension of a new duke, Friedrich Augustus I. Unlike most other North German states, Saxony stayed in the HRE and did not join the NGC, because it had a large Reformist population that was best not irritated. The dukes, however, stayed Catholic, a unique occurrence in the HRE. And while previously Saxony was presented as an example of peace between Catholics and Reformists, the new Duke was a devout Catholic and aligned with Visegrad and the NGC, he didn't care about upholding the peace and thus renewed oppression of Reformism. The Reformists in Saxony took arms, now ready to tear down the old monarchy and replace it with a Reformist republic, in what is nowadays known as the Saxon Crisis. Austria stood in favor of the Reformists and moved in the army of the HRE to the duchy. Rousseau, instead of intervening and kicking the HRE in the curb like his predecessors would have done, instead supported the German efforts to defeat the rebellious Catholic duke. This brought great anger from the interventionist Red Party, numerous protests were staged in Paris demanding swift action, but the Directorate's choice stood strong, and the bourgeoisie were supportive. Rousseau was reelected in 1750, and began talks of restoring relations with the HRE.
Can peace in Europe be saved? Probably not. But one can still try.
While the Republican rebellion in Saxony was big, it did not start a world revolution, unlike a whole other event at this time.
While it was hardly a single event - more of a conclusion of multiple factors - it ended up becoming the most important development in the history of humanity since the dawn of agriculture. There's a lot to tell about this...
The creation of the Republic marked an important change in the history of France. During English rule, the nation stayed as a feudal society, dominated by aristocrats, where the majority of the population was unfree and locked to farms. The English Kings were not very interested in the ideas of capitalism or modern consumerism that were developing in Italy and the Netherlands, so the creation of a capitalist system was slow and weak. This changed with the creation of the Republic - the abolition of serfdom and the redivision of the lands in the countryside in favor of the farmers greatly increased agricultural output and freed many hands, leading to rapid urbanization, the inclusiveness of the republican system helped the rapid evolution of modern entrepreneurial spirit and customer-consumer relations, and the Flammantian faith encouraged hard work and liberty, further boosting the development of capitalism. France became one of the fastest growing countries in Europe, Paris soon solidified itself as the heart of business, culture and science in the entire continent. The incorporation of Wallonia, a rich mining region, meant that the country obtained a stable source of coal and steel, too. This is what we know as the "French Golden Age", taking place during the 17th and 18th centuries - science and culture was flourishing, competition between businesses encouraged rapid adoption of the latest technological innovations, and French democracy allowed the rich to push through laws that benefited them, creating a system favoring anyone, no matter their birth, race or nationality, as well as creating a system of "patents" to protect the rights of the inventor to his inventions. While the rest of Europe was dipping into absolutism or oligarchy, France was a beacon of democracy, and this was their greatest advantage in the incoming era.
The first field where the great revolution began was textile. After the Puritan coup in Britannia, the island nation closed itself off from the rest of Europe, ending an important source of wool and textiles and forcing entrepreneurs to look for alternatives. Southern France, already an important source of wool beforehand, became that alternative, and the French Golden Age was also a golden age for the French textile industry. Fighting with fierce competition from India, Spain, Lithuania and other sources, as well as each other, French farmers and textile manufacturers had to constantly seek for innovation to keep up, and the constantly rising demand for textiles meant that the field was very profitable. France became a leading textile producer, outproducing all other countries in Europe, but at the beginning of the 18th century, their capitalists reached a brick wall - there weren't many ways left to increase production without hiring more workers. The problem was that spinning and weaving were still done by hand, ineffectively, and usually in households, slowing down the rate of production by a lot. What do you do now? Turn to technology, of course! The breakthrough in the field was done by one inventor, Isaac de Lure, an entrepreneur from Languedoc. de Lure accurately guessed that the best way to increase production is to make it so one worker can work on multiple threads at once, and after employing a number of fellow inventors, he constructed the world's first "spinning frame" in 1741, a mechanical wool spinner that would produce numerous threads at once. It even worked with cotton, not just wool. It proved to be too heavy and powerful to be powered by a person, however, and after experimenting with a few other sources of energy, de Lure adapted a water wheel to the frame, creating the water frame. The entrepreneur constructed an experimental water-powered wool mill on the Cèze river, and it proved to be not only commercially viable, but also far more efficient than what his competitors could provide. Textile was the first field to begin the process of industrialization.
But what happens when there are not enough rivers nearby, like in Wallonia? How do you power a factory then? This question was solved around this time, too, and once again in France. For millennia, people have wondered about the power of boiling water and if man could employ it. The ancient Greeks and Romans created experimental devices using steam power, like the Aeolipile, but they achieved nothing spectatular, and the earlier centuries saw a few rudimentary devices with a similar motion being created. The first practical steam engine, however, was created in 1705. The miners in the Sambre-Meuse valley often had to fight the problem of water seeping into their mines and flooding them, and a Picard inventor, Jean-Pierre Duhamel, constructed a simple steam-powered pump as a solution, and it proved to be effective enough to spread across the country. However, it was also very inefficient and rudimentary in it's construction, and it was up to an another engineer, Roland Beaugendre, to continue Duhamel's path. The biggest innovation in the Beaugendre steam engine, finished in 1748, was the introduction of a condenser into the system, and a rotary motion. Such simple improvements almost doubled the efficiency of Duhamel's engine, and while the former was important, the latter was revolutionary. It was the first time in human history that man's machines surpassed the average amount of solar radiation per square meter, this being 1.361 kilobeaugendres (kBG). Man has defeated the Sun. And that's not all - even Beaugendre himself noted that "the properties of the steam engine could be successfully employed for rotary motion in wagons, ships and industrial machines".
A revolution is looming. An Industrial Revolution. The age of man is truly beginning.
Map of the world in the year 1750
It has come to my attention that the chapters in my TL are, on average, um... very long. Even compared to other TLs I read on this site. Does that bother any of you?
Hmm, Lietuva is starting to modernize while France is starting to Industrialize... interesting.
Nah, not really.
Nah, not really.
Hmm, industrialising France - very interesting! I'm particularly wondering how your very different colonization from OTL (notably with only sparsely populated countries settling northern America - although Dutchland is not small, it's hard to believe they could send as much immigrants ITTL as Britain could IOTL) will influence the future powers of the New World. Could you please do a chapter about the New World colonies?
EDIT: also, with the long-lasting Franco-Dutch alliance, I would not be surprise if there was an important French population in Dutch North America: they share a religion, so the Dutch would not object, and you mentionned population growth in France, which would probably prompt immigration - and French South America it not really suitable ground for important European settlement.
Also, the length of your updates is fine. How can you have too much to read anyway?
EDIT: also, with the long-lasting Franco-Dutch alliance, I would not be surprise if there was an important French population in Dutch North America: they share a religion, so the Dutch would not object, and you mentionned population growth in France, which would probably prompt immigration - and French South America it not really suitable ground for important European settlement.
Also, the length of your updates is fine. How can you have too much to read anyway?
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Once the main event of the 18th century passes and the pace slows down, I have a number of special chapters planned on the fields that I forgot to develop on. The Jews, changes in art, some less touched regions... so the Vespucias could get a spotlight.
As for New Netherland. I might not have mentioned this, at least not enough, but while the Dutch are the main colonizers in that colony, they are far from the only nation populating it. In particular, the French make up a sizable portion of the colonists arriving - France and the Netherlands are friendly nations, allies pretty much since France's inception, and during the English era, the Dutch used fleeing French Flammantians as the basis for their colonies.
Your updates are awesome, that's what they are. France leading industrialization, i wonder whether this is going to flip America's geography of wealth: a rich South and a less developed North?
So Lithuania is under a shogunate-type system? Or is the emperor even around anymore?
I was just thinking, the USA and Canada grew out of (mostly) British colonies IOTL, and IOTL Britain was the most entrepreneurial and capitalist country.
If ITTL France is the leader of the industrialising pack, maybe that affects their Vespucian colonies, too? I don`t know about the natural resources of Venezuela and Columbia (other than Venezuela`s oil wealth), but it would be fascinating to see them adapting much faster to the changing world economy than Spain`s Northern colonies. Imagine glittering skyscrapers and a powerful banking district in alt-Caracas, while alt-Miami is just a place where rich French-Vespucians go on their holidays for cheap booze and girls.