Chapters 28 and 29 were written as one chapter, but you can't have more than twenty illustrations per post so I was forced to break it up.
I like to imagine in this timeline that Flight of the Valkyries is a Prussian piece inspired by the Balkan Wars titled "Last Stand of the 300 Spartans."
CHAPTER 28
THE REVOLUTIONS OF THE 1840s AND THE BALKAN WARS
Greek mural celebrating the toppling of Muslim rule
Europe was on edge after the English Revolution. Many feared unrest would spread all across Europe, just as it had in the days of the French Revolution. The Bonapartes now saw themselves in the ironic position of stifling reform and revolution. Almost immediately following the English Revolution, Wales saw immense political turmoil and violence just short of civil war. In Denmark-Norway, revolution swept in with the Norwegians demanding independence. All at the same time, Sultan Mahmud II of the Ottomans was barely holding his grip in Greece and the Balkans. The Industrial Age had brought progress and technology such as the steamship, telegraph, and train. Now it would bring warfare and revolution.
As England picked itself up and Chancellor Brown and the Senate started working on a new constitution, the momentum of change was afoot. Denmark-Norway had seen an era of success and growth, expanding their operations in Africa's Gold Coast and generally being respected on the world stage. However, a new movement of Norwegian nationalism was building that was coming to a head. On February 13, 1844, Norwegian citizens began protesting new heavy-handed taxes and military conscription. Revolts in the Gold Coast were causing more and more problems and were forcing the government to spend more coin and life there. The Norwegians had had enough and on February 27 demanded that a new constitution be drawn up allotting Norway more autonomy to levy its own taxes, to end conscription, and to have their own legislative assembly. This incensed King Christian VIII, who reigned with the absolute power that the Danish-Norwegian kings had ruled with for 400 years. He was determined not to budge and to keep his authority respected.
Danish troops in Copenhagen hold a final parade before shipping out for Norway
Christian rallied his army and dispatched them to Norway. Upon their arrival, they were to arrest the leaders of the protests for treason and to burn all copies of the so-called Norwegian Constitution. The Norwegians, unsurprisingly, didn't go along with this quietly, and armed confrontation soon turned into open street battles in the large cities of Norway. Within months, the Norwegian War of Independence had begun. The people of Norway soon began following Thorlief Strand, a popular general and veteran of the Gold Coast conflict. He was held up by the people as their leader and became the public face of the rebellion.
Strand soon saw secret funding from Sweden, who was seeking to stick their old rival Denmark in the eye. With this cashflow he purchased new weapons and supplies from the Commonwealth of England. He also called for international volunteers to help "combat the cancer of absolute monarchy and bring about a Norwegian Republic." As it was asked, so it was given, and thousands of English and American volunteer veterans of the English Revolution landed in Norway to join Strand's forces. Milo Miles led the American Fundamentalist Brigades, while General Thomas Foxbridge led the "Cromwellite Volunteer Republican Army." Together, they launched the Winter Offensive in December of 1844, kicking the Danes out of the port cities of Bergen and Haugesund and raising the morale of the Norwegian people. As revolutionary fervor swept Norway, Denmark was starting to feel the burden of fighting in Norway and in Africa against the rebellious tribes. Strand hoped that if he kept up the fight long enough, Denmark would finally pull out and focus on trying to stabilize their colonies.
Meanwhile, the Althing was re-established in Iceland against the King's orders. As Denmark dealt with Norway and the Gold Coast, a stealthy rebellion had formed in Iceland. In the spring of 1845, the Althing overthrew the Danish garrison there and proclaimed Iceland a republic. Greenland, now cut off from the mother country, followed suit, declaring independence in June. Immediately, American troops moved into Greenland to "secure their independence from European invaders." This greatly disturbed Napoleon II, as American ships and troops in Greenland could cut off Canada from the Empire. However, Napoleon II personally despised the King of Denmark and refused to stop the revolts.
Norwegian revolutionaries in Oslo
Flag of the Republic of Iceland
Flag of the Republic of Greenland
Flag of the Republic of Norway
Finally, with no other choice and facing bankrupting his kingdom, Christian back down and brought his troops home. Norway and all the other regions that had rebelled were now independent. The Kingdom of Denmark-Norway was no more after 400 years. Now, in Denmark itself there was a clamor for reform. They saw Christian as out-of-control and a ruler in need of checks and balances. In early 1846, Christian signed the new Danish Constitution into law, abolishing absolute monarchy forever in Denmark. He would die in 1848 a broken man and failed ruler. His son Frederick VII would take power and would be much more popular and would finally secure the Gold Coast as Denmark's last overseas holding. He would become known as one of the most enlightened kings of Europe, despite practicing much brutality in his African colony. Despite his shortcomings, he also officially banned slavery forever on Danish soil, bringing an end to one of the greatest sources of slaves for the American Southron nations.
King Frederick VII of Denmark
Now, all the while in the Balkans a new spirit of revolution was brewing. In the case of Greece, a long-standing bloody feud with their Turkish masters was supposed to be resolved at the ill-fated Congress of Paris in 1838. It's abrupt cancellation upon the Austrian Imperial family's assassination saw to it that the Sultan, Mahmud II, just grew more and more brutal in his reprisals against Greek rebels. In 1839 he had had 300 revolutionaries slaughtered publicly in the streets of Athens. When he died and Abdul Mejid II came to power, things grew even worse. After the English Revolution, the new Sultan feared that the Greeks would be energized and so executed some 500 political prisoners in late 1842 to send a message to the Greek people. Instead of making them cower, this only emboldened them, and by the spring of 1843 the Greeks were rallying behind General Lavrentios Marinos, a fierce fighter for Greek Independence, head of the Greek People's Army, and an outlaw with a death sentence on his head from Istanbul. Finally, in June a Greek independence supporter tried to assassinate the Sultan during a state visit. Abdul Mejid immediately carried out brutal reprisals and murdered hundreds of people, many of whom had nothing to do with the plot whatsoever. Outraged, Marinos and his followers stormed Athens in a surprise attack, massacred the Turkish garrison, and declared Greek independence from the top of the Acropolis.
Marinos' sheer popularity and charisma alone would not win Greek independence, however. He knew he must seek international aid to supply and fund his army. He rejected the idea of French backing out-of-hand, knowing this would result in his nation being a French puppet. Ironically, the anti-Slav, anti-Orthodox Republican Union came to his assistance. America had little interest vested in the Balkans and simply saw it as a way to make a quick buck off a foreign war. The Colonel Pierce Munitions Company supplied thousands of rifles and guns to the Greeks. Prussia also agreed to help, sending a few ships down to Athens to be the foundation of a Greek Navy. Russia, however, was the most eager to help and sent not only ships and arms but several thousand volunteers to Greece to train and reinforce Marinos. Russia's longstanding hatred of the Turks made them a natural ally, despite their conflicting Orthodox faiths. Little did Marinos know that Russia hoped a collapse of the Ottoman Empire in Europe would open up the path for a potential taking of Istanbul and the repulsion of Muslim rule from Europe forever. Also, the Kingdom of Italy, of which Napoleon II was the titular monarch, also sent arms and supplies as a good-will offering, hoping to eventually win over the Greeks.
the Liberation of Athens by General Lavrentios Marinos
Unfortunately for the Greeks, their revolution was not as easy or fast-paced as the Norwegians, and a bloody, bloody, war ensued with many massacres on both sides. In 1846, a newly-formed Greek Parliament voted to install Marinos as Lavrentios I, King of the Greeks. This was the creation of the House of Marinos. Russia was the first to officially recognize his sovereignty. By 1847, the unrest had spilled over into the rest of the Balkans. The Turks were now overwhelmed and no amounts of massacres could hold back the bloody tide of revolt. In 1855, the Sultan officially recognized the Balkan states' independence. Abdul Mejid was fearing revolt back in Istanbul and he saw no further point in throwing away his troops into a meatgrinder of a war with no end in sight. Turkey was praised for this action, but still brought international condemnation down upon itself for its bloody reprisals and backwards tactics. This would end in the Franco-Ottoman War.
Balkan States at the End of the Balkan Wars
- Macedonia declared independence as a Republic in 1850, but was quickly absorbed by Marinos' Kingdom of Greece.
- In 1856, Romania became an absolute monarchy under the idolized King Simion I. Bulgaria adopted a constitution and a Holy-See approach to elect their first monarch, Tsar Timotei I, from a "College of Generals."
- Albania followed a similar strategy, which ended with Joakim I being crowned King.
- Montenegro almost immediately started suffering internal problems as several generals and politicians fought for control after it declared independence in 1851, ending in Serbia moving in and annexing it.
- Serbia became a Republic in 1852 under, surprisingly, the female republican Tatjana Trkulja, but she was assassinated in 1853 by Muslim reactionaries. This saw General Ivan Radovan Ateljević overthrow the Republic in 1854 and then he made himself king.
Almost all these new countries were a new style of dictatorship, ruled by the military and with little to no free speech or religious freedom. Crude propaganda posters lined the streets, and anyone who questioned the new orders were labeled traitors and Turkish sympathizers.
The Republican Union took advantage of the persecuted groups and told them more stories than ever before about the "Land of Opportunity." Goodyear was about to get more "New Slaves." Seeing this happening, the governments eventually banned Union citizens from entering the Balkans, something which the Union used as "proof" that the dictatorships just wanted to keep their people "in chains." .
King Lavrentios I of Greece (born 1808)
King Simion I, King of Romania (born 1808)
Joakim I, King of Albania (born 1810)
Serbian revolutionary and republican martyr Chancellor Tatjana Trkulja (1825 - 1853), first modern female head of state
Ivan I, King of Serbia (born 1802)
Timotei I, Tsar of Bulgaria (born 1799)
Flag of the Empire of Bulgaria
Flag of the Kingdom of Romania
Flag of the Short-Lived Republic of Montenegro
Flag of the Kingdom of Albania
Flag of the Republic and then Kingdom of Serbia and Montenegro
Flag of the short-lived independent Macedonia region