Look to the West : The Timeline

This is the eighth page of the simplified timeline overview for Look to the West.

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1829:

January - Hendrik Cuypers sends a Dutch East India Company fleet under Admiral Willem Zoutman to the Netherlands as reinforcements. En route they raid Portugal's colonial possessions.

A discontented Pablo Sanchez returns to Salamanca. An Enlightenment-minded reactionary lecturer called Víctor Marañón influences Sanchez with his contempt for the 'priest-ridden' lower classes, even though Sanchez considers him a fool.

Paul I, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias, dies. He is succeeded by his son, Grand Duke Peter of Lithuania, as Peter IV. This is not without controversy, as Peter is culturally more than half a Lithuanian and wants to introduce some of Lithuania's governmental reforms to Russia. Peter is succeeded by his son Constantine as Grand Duke of Lithuania.

February - Rebels in Montevideo formally proclaim the Cisplatine Republic, but for the moment the new state's existence remains largely notional as the rebels continue to war with Portuguese loyalists.

“Emperor” Francis II of Austria commands that Bavaria–currently pacified under tight military occupation–be normalised, with the withdrawal of some troops, in preparation for its direct integration into his dominions.

The Confederation of Virginia holds its first gubernatorial election. Because this is the first election of its type in the English-speaking world, there are many candidates, multiple ones from the same parties. Sir James Henry, 3rd Baronet, the Mayor of Norfolk, wins the election with a relatively small percentage of the vote (thanks to the first-past-the-post voting system). Although an ideal Whig candidate on paper (and publicly disliking the institution of monarchy), Henry secretly favours the abolition of slavery, being an ideal trojan horse for the King's conspiracy.

March - With all of Turkey-in-Asia under his control, Abdul Hadi Pasha attempts a siege of Balkan Party-held Constantinople, but his tired and unenthusiastic army does not make much headway.

The secret negotiations at Lima between the UPSA and New Spanish are discovered by the Meridian press, prompting calls of betrayal from many of President-General Velasco's Colorado supporters, who wanted him to help the radical rebels in Brazil only to find him consorting with the UPSA's traditional, conservative enemies.

A brief attempt in Rio de Janeiro to set up a 'Carioca Republic' is crushed by loyalist troops–Rio remains one of the most loyal parts of Brazil.

Ireland holds a general election. Held amidst public anger with Prime Minister Lewis Abbott's policies in the Galway Scandal but coupled to fear over the crisis with Joshua Churchill, the result is a confused mess in which the Liberal-Conservatives lose seats and the Patriots and Radicals gain them. In the end, Patriot leader Augustus Hodges becomes Prime Minister, supported by the Liberal-Conservatives to keep the Radicals out. Hodges tries to make a clean break with the Galway Scandal policies (encouraging poor Catholics to emigrate) but mishandles the affair–now a war with Joshua looks imminent, some people want to leave and resent being told to stay. In response to the government formation, two new groups spring up: the League of Right in Ulster demanding voting rights for Presbyterians and Dissenters, and the Páirtí na bhFeirmeoirí (Farmers' Party) in Connaught and Leinster, poor Catholics demanding land reform. The latter is due to the fact that the Radical Party is now being influenced more by 'New Citizens'–more worldly Catholic voters who moved to the cities due to the potato famine and are becoming petit-bourgeois–so many among the remaining rural Catholics feel the Radicals no longer represent them.

After some success against the collapsing Yunnan warlord regime, the Burmese face an intervention in turn from the Threefold Harmonious Accord (the Siamese and their allies).

April - The VOC fleet under Zoutman attacks Portuguese Zanzibar and does considerable damage with a bombardment. The Portuguese eventually bring in more Persian workers to help rebuild.

In the UPSA, Colorado President of the Cortes, Enrique López, formally disowns President-General Velasco and withdraws the support of the party from him. However, Velasco withdraws his own supporters from the Colorado Party–a significant faction–and is able to gain support from unaligned Blancos in the Cortes and the temporary backing of the Amarillo Party under Rámon Almada. This loose coalition will form the basis of the later Adamantine Party.

Sir James Henry takes office as Virginia's first elected Governor.

May - Zoutman's fleet visits the Cape Colony. Zoutman takes many of the ships stationed there with him, despite the wishes of Governor Adriaan Rhenius, who fears another rebellion if the Cape is stripped of too much military force. Zoutman splits off a quarter of his ships under Rear-Admiral de Vries and sends them to aid Van Nieuwenhuizen in Guyana.

The Treaty of Lima is signed between the UPSA and the Empire of New Spain. Some of its provisions will remain secret for several years, but in the short term the two New World powers pledge to work together against the Portuguese. New Spain formally declares war on Portugal and her allies.

June - The UPSA declares war on Portugal and sends troops across the River Plate to aid the rebels in Cisplatina and Rio Grande do Sul.

The ENA's Continental Parliament passes the Preventive Occupation Act. Spearheaded by Lord President Andrew Eveleigh, this law reacts to Joshua Churchill's regime in Great Britain by pre-emptively taking over the administration of British colonies in the Americas and Antipodea, by force if necessary. In theory this is supposed to be a sop to the Emperor's demand for intervention against Joshua, but in practice it is largely motivated by Eveleigh's desire to expand the power and influence of the now fully independent ENA. The new Imperial Navy is instrumental in enforcing the Act. As a result of this, colonies including New Kent, the Falkland Islands, Jamaica, Bermuda and the rest of the British West Indies fall under American control.

July - Rear-Admiral de Vries' Dutch fleet scouts out northern Brazil and, after finding that order has only recently been restored to the city of São Luís, descends on it and takes it from Portuguese control. Meanwhile, the main Dutch force under Admiral Zoutman rounds Guinea, but is discovered by a Portuguese trader, Felipe Cunhal. Cunhal uses his fast ship to speed back to Lisbon and alert the authorities.

August - With Meridian help, the revolutionaries in the Cisplatine Republic expel Portuguese loyalist forces. The Meridians move into neighbouring Rio Grande do Sul, which is also in revolt.

Alerted by Cunhal of the Dutch VOC fleet's approach, the Portuguese government debates whether to risk their fleet in open combat considering the risk from the New Spanish Armada if the two fleets destroy each other and leave Portugal undefended. The Duke of Aveiro suggests instead sending the Castilian Armada as a sacrificial lamb, with a small elite Portuguese force including new weapons designed by Estêvão Marques.

In Scotland, the Men of Inveraray rebellion is defeated at the place that will retroactively give them their name. Captured in the battle is ex-Royal French General Lewis MacDonald, who had been helping the rebels, in part due to his Scottish ancestry. However, a remnant manages to escape, including the popular commander James Stuart, 6th Earl of Bute.

In America, the Thirteen Fires Confederacy stages a series of attacks on the border of the Susan-Mary penal colony, each seemingly an isolated pinprick but serving to draw out the troops guarding the colony–made up of the 112th Vandalia Fusiliers and the 23rd New Connecticut Hussars. Meanwhile, Joseph Dashwood activates infiltrators in the colony who encourage the convicts to rise up against the few remaining troops there.

September - The traveller and diarist John Byron III famously records his impressions of a Schmidtist protest at the Orangerie in Hesse-Kassel.

Battle of Cape St Vincent between the Castilian-Portuguese fleet under Fernando Díaz and the Dutch VOC fleet under Zoutman. The Dutch outnumber their opponents but are at the end of a long journey, while the Castilians and Portuguese are operating out of nearby home ports. Both fleets are becalmed at first, allowing Estêvão Marques' secret weapons–steam tugs towing sailships equipped with long-range rifled cannon and hot shot guns–to bombard the helpless Dutch from a difference, inflicting some losses. The wind then picks up and a more conventional battle is joined. The battle is judged a Castilian-Portuguese victory, but a Pyrrhic one, with few ships from either side surviving to return home.

The remnants of Admiral Zoutman's fleet arrive in Amsterdam. Oren Scherman tries to suppress the news of the defeat, which only spreads it further due to private operators on the semaphore network. The Nederlands Dagblad openly publishes the news in the form “many telegraphers are discussing…” Scherman sends his bullyboys to shut down the paper's offices, and in the fight an oil lamp is knocked over, burning the building down. This starts an escalation with Vordermanites and Patriots protesting against the government.

Opportunistic Portuguese ships led by Captain Tristão Gonçalves raid the now almost defenceless Dutch coast, prompting more protests and uprisings against Stadtholder William VII and Oren Scherman. William tries to appeal for help from Maximilian II Charles of Flanders, but Maximilian (due to Scherman's regime raising taxes on Flemish traffic through the Scheldt) demands Scherman be dismissed and the Dutch seek peace with Portugal before he will help suppress the revolt.

French Foreign Minister Vauguyon goes to London in an attempt to try and establish relations with the Joshua Churchill regime, but is rebuffed, the paranoid Joshua accusing France of complicity in the revolts against his rule, with General MacDonal–who he has publicly executed in front of Vauguyon–as evidence. Vauguyon returns to France in a fury.

The Thirteen Fires warriors surround and trap the two American regiments out of Susan-Mary, exploiting the latter's arrogance and failure to appreciate the Indians' grasp of tactics until it is too late. The two regiments are almost completely destroyed, but inflict grievous losses on some of the Indians in the process, especially the Ottawa and Yanktonai. The incident impresses the importance of horses in warfare on some former sceptics among the Indians.

October - William VII agonises over Maximilian's offer, but eventually agrees. However, Scherman has grown too powerful and launches a coup, imprisoning the Stadtholder (claimed to be on health reasons) and cracking down as an absolute dictator. Maximilian reacts by proclaiming Scherman's regime to be illegitimate and launching an invasion of the Netherlands. The 16th, when Flemish troops crossed the border, is often held to be the true start of the Popular Wars in Europe.

Rumours of the nature of the Battle of Cape St Vincent (i.e. Castile being forced to take a bullet for Portugal) leak out, and boosted by the actions of New Spanish agents, public anger grows…

November - Spanish public fury ignites into the First Spanish Revolution, starting in Salamanca with the university students rising up. Pablo Sanchez attempts to talk them down, and is shocked at the sudden contempt from students who formerly had great respect for him. The incident influences his ideas about the nature of war being like a 'feverish rage' that destroys the capacity for rational thought.

Using Italian mercenaries, Duke William II of Hesse-Kassel captures Pascal Schmidt while he is giving a speech. Although successful, with Schmidt being imprisoned in the Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, the brutality and rumoured depredations of the Italians serves to drive many moderate Hessians to the Schmidtists' side.

Start of the Superior Revolution (and the Superior War): Dashwood's activity is successful and the Susan-Mary colony rises up. Although the colonial authorities manage to hold the southern half of the colony on the Michigan Peninsula, they lose everything on the northern side of Lake Michigan. A bloodied sergeant of the 23rd Hussars, having escaped his regiment's annihilation at the Indians' hands, makes it to the Peninsula to report the event.

December - On Christmas Eve, the “Hessian Revolution” begins as the newly bolstered Schmidtists attack the Schloss Wilhelmshöhe to rescue Schmidt. They succeed, but the battle is bloody and Schmidt's voice has been damaged by torture, meaning he is less of a charismatic speaker than before. Nonetheless they force William II to flee to neighbouring Hesse-Darmstadt, where Duke Ludwig XII sends troops to try and crush the revolt.

Death of Gennaro I of the Three Sicilies at the age of 58 from pneumonia. He is succeeded by his son Charles Louis under the name Luigi I; young and hot-blooded, Luigi dismisses the now-aged Pere de Portolà and replaces him with Leonardo Nelson, son of Horatio Nelson and of like mind. As a compromise he is forced to appoint his uncle Francis Philip as Chancellor of State. With a decent understanding of what is coming, Luigi reforms government in Sicily to prepare for potential revolts there.

1830:

January - Joshua Churchill announces that, as with the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Arran, he will now clear the Channel Islands of their inhabitants and use them as a penal colony as well as a naval base aimed at France. The alarmed Bailiffs and States of Jersey and Guernsey send envoys to France, saying they will switch their recognition to Charles X as legitimate Duke of Normandy and thus their feudal seigneur. There is the legal loophole that Sark, being an absolute monarchy, does not however have this option. Prime Minister Perrier, on his own initiative–and to Charles X's anger when he learns of it–sends a French fleet to the islands to take possession.

With his troops in danger of mutinying, Abdul Hadi Pasha abandons his siege of Constantinople.

John VI of Portugal sends a peace envoy to the UPSA, intending to accept the loss of Cisplatina and Rio Grande do Sul in exchange for the UPSA's withdrawal from the war. However, the envoy's mission is overtaken by events. Meanwhile, the Portuguese attempt to crush the Spanish revolts with small numbers of troops, keeping the majority of their army in Portugal in case of invasion. The attempt is only partly successful, but it does drive some Spanish revolutionaries into Aragon, including Esteban “El Sombro” Flores, which spreads revolutionary activity further in the formerly quiescent Neapolitan-ruled region.

Ludwig XII's Hesse-Darmstadt troops fail to crush the Schmidtist revolt in Hesse-Kassel, with many of them going over to Schmidt's side. With this victory, Schmidt, Brüning, Klein and the other revolutionary leaders officially proclaim the Volksrepublik Deutschland, generally translated as the Populist Republic of Germany.

As the ENA is short on troops due to sending many abroad to enforce the Preventive Occupation Act (1829), Lord President Andrew Eveleigh calls on the Confederate governments to raise more soldiers. Virginian Governor James Henry rallies to his cause and orders the creation of new Virginian regiments. In order to pay for this, he proposes a new super tax which targets slaveholders, using inflammatory language in which he accuses the slaveocrats of always weaseling out of serving in wartime so a heavier tax burden should fall on them.

February - Charles X dismisses Perrier as Prime Minister over the Channel Islands fiasco and demands the Grand-Parlement produce another candidate, but this begins a constitutional crisis. Joshua Churchill is pleased to hear of the French attack on the Channel Islands as it gives him an excuse for further crackdowns and seems to justify his paranoia. He declares war on France and sends a fleet to retake the islands under Admiral Collingwood, who–as soon as the fleet is out of sight of Portsmouth–turns on the remaining Joshua loyalists and leads the fleet off to defect to America.

The Sardinian Revolution begins. Influenced by their Corsican neighbours, the revolutionaries are resentful of both high taxes and King Victor Felix's disdainful attitude for the island he reluctantly rules.

The Carolinian General Assembly passes the Black Code Act, which imposes an anglicised version of the French colonial Code noir throughout the Confederation and therefore ensures more rights for slaves and punishments for those that mistreat them. This is the price for a deal by which Carolina will be able to annex the former British West Indies, now under American imperial-government administration.

The Virginian House of Burgesses angrily votes down Governor Henry's war tax bill, an act condemned by Henry, Lord President Eveleigh and Emperor Frederick. Henry reacts by–unprecedentedly–using his authority to dissolve the House and call a fresh election on the issue of the tax.

March - Constitutional crisis in France, as Parliament (for different reasons between the parties) refuses to accept the dismissal of Perrier and to nominate a new Prime Minister. However, in the short term the remaining cabinet ministers recognise that they must carry on the conduct of the war that Perrier has blundered into, and so dispatch a force under General Fabien Darrieux to take Calais from Britain. However, the British commander Gerald Buckingham manages to fight off the French long enough to escape into Flanders, and Darrieux's pursuit ends up with the accidental clash of French and Flemish troops. A furious Maximilian II, heartened by many Dutchmen welcoming his troops as liberators and confident his northern front will soon vanish, promptly declares war on France.

An informal peace sets in in the Ottoman Empire, with the Balkan Party (led by Sultan Mehmed V and Grand Vizier Ferid Naili Pasha) holding Turkey-in-Europe (including Cyprus) and Constantinople, and everything else being held by Sultan Murad VI and Grand Vizier Abdul Hadi Pasha, with their capital in Bursa. Initially most European countries regard the Balkan Party regime as the 'real', legitimate Ottoman Empire; it will not be until the disparity in power becomes more apparent that recognition shifts to the latter faction and the Balkan Party's regime becomes known as the “Janissary Sultanate”.

A brig reports to the Portuguese and Castilians that a New Spanish fleet is approaching, including troop ships low in the water. Admiral Ferreira is sent to intercept with the entire remaining Portuguese and Castilian fleet, and wins a victory at the Third Battle of Cape Finisterre (future Admiral Francisco Insulza, then a captain, distinguishes himself). However, it then emerges that the fleet was a Meridian fleet under false flag (controversially) with faked troopships artificially weighed down, and it was all a feint as part of the secret provisions of the Treaty of Lima. Almost simultaneously, the real New Spanish fleet sails into the Bay of Biscay and, led by King-Emperor Charles IV in person, the Nuevo Ejército descends on Santander. The 'Reconquista' has begun.

In Austria, the disgrace of Perrier helps dampen the francophobic tensions he had raised up among the ordinary people, and Francis II decides it is time for the seclusion of himself and the Empress in the Schönbrunn Palace to end. On the 13th he appears in public for the first time in months to attend the opera, but he and the Empress are attacked by assassins bearing a “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN” banner and using clockwork grenades possibly developed in Swabia. Though they are not seriously injured, an infected wound (inflicted deliberately by a poisoned bullet) causes Francis to sicken and die several days later. On his deathbed he insists that the Regent to his young son Rudolf be his wife Henrietta Eugenie and not any of the Hapsburg princes, as he has talked over his plans for Germany only with her. With the help of Chancellor Warthausen, Henrieta Eugenie gives the “Caroline Gate Speech” that wins over the formerly hostile people of Vienna, and tries to pin involvement in the attack on Saxony.

On the news of Francis' death, uprisings begin across Bavaria, though not necessarily very coordinated or effective ones. Indeed, for reasons nobody understands until much later, many of the rebels fight each other as much as they do the Hapsburgs.

James Stuart, 6th Earl of Bute, is now in command of a “Scotch Army of Freedom” which actually consists mostly of English volunteers fleeing oppression in Northumberland.

The Battle of Pu'er is a Siamese and allied victory over the Burmese. The Burmese withdraw from their attack on Yunnan with minor gains. The Siamese declare that Yunnan will join the Threefold Harmonious Accord as a member, which enrages the Feng Chinese leadership and relations between the two begin to collapse.

April - Although the New Spanish troops in Spain are relatively few, the psychological effect of their feint coming off perfectly against the Portuguese lends their supporters morale, and a second wave of uprisings begin across Spain. The Portuguese and their remaining Castilian allies fight hard to hold the cities, but now it is a losing battle. The Portuguese almost manage to crush a Kleinkrieger uprising at Burgos, but the New Spanish troops arrive in time and rescue the city, another important symbolic moment.

Hapsburg rulers including Archduke Charle of Krakau and Servia, King Leopold of Italy and King Joseph of Spain all reject the legitimacy of Empress Henrietta Eugenie's regency. In particular they all blame France and Swabia for the assassination attempt and say (not perhaps without merit) that she is simply trying to redirect public fury against Saxony to avoid her homeland coming under attack. This is the start of the “Hapsburg Fracas”, a relatively minor civil war and power struggle over the regency of the young Rudolf III. Italy and Lorraine are therefore now effectively at war with France.

With France now at war against at least three powers and with no Prime Minister, the King accepts a plan suggested jointly by the Blancs and Rouges that Napoleon Bonaparte (Leo Bone) be asked to return as a temporary wartime 'Dictateur', acting in the name of all three parties in a government of national unity, and the name of the King himself. The King agrees and Bonaparte agrees to return. He liases between the King and a triumvirate of the three party leaders (Émile Perrier, Claude Devigny and André Malraux). One of Bonaparte's first moves is to ask the strategist Jules Maille to draw up a grand strategy based on his “Guerre de tonnere” (War of Thunder) ideas. This basically amounts to the Jacobin-style “War of Lightning” but with the supply train moving at the same speed as the army to avoid the negative effects of la maraude. The war plan, codenamed Neptune (a reference to the Poséidon Offensive of a generation earlier) involves three attack prongs directed at Flanders, Lorraine and Piedmont.

The Battle of Mackinac is fought between New York troops and militiamen under General Smith and the Superior Revolutionaries and their Thirteen Fires Confederacy allies. The battle is a shocking defeat for the Americans due to Smith underestimating his enemy and not waiting for reinforcements from other Confederations. Lord President Eveleigh condemns the failure of Virginia to supply troops, lending support to Governor Henry's pro-tax campaign by allowing him to paint the slaveocrats as traitors.

June - Marshal Richelieu, commanding the Armée de Centre attacking Lorraine, employs John Byron III as an Exploring Officer. Byron helps distribute propaganda to encourage the Lorrainers to rise up.

In Britain, Joshua Churchill releases Lord Mostyn, formerly a vocal opponent of his, from imprisonment in the Phoenix Tower. To the surprise of many, Mostyn makes a speech defending Joshua, saying that despite past disagreements, he is now the only thing standing between Britain and Jacobin chaos. This serves to somewhat shore up Joshua's creaking regime.

With it seeming as though Scotland is temporarily pacified with the defeat of the Men of Inveraray, King Richard IV makes a royal tour of northern England and Scotland. He is shocked by what he sees and how Joshua has lied to him.

King Gwangjong of Corea dies and is succeeded by his less capable son Uijong. As a consequence of this, a rebellion begins by ethnic Han Chinese in the north against their Corean overlords. For various reasons, the Beiqing Chinese regime fails to take advantage of this.

July - Admiral Collingwood's fleet arrives in the ENA and is received into the Imperial Navy under the provisions of the Naval Settlement Act (1828).

While Volksrepublik Deutschland (VRD) forces are warring against the armies of Nassau and Würzberg, Pascal Schmidt encourages them with his famous “If the war cost the lives of every German save one” speech.

King Augustus II Frederick of Saxony, taking advantage of Hapsburg internal division, proclaims an independent Bavaria 'by the will of the people' (with his brother Xavier Albert as its monarch Albert VII) and announces that he will move to protect it–which means send an army to invade and attack the remaining Austrian troops there still holding large portions of the country. The army uses a new flag that mixes the existing Saxon “pro-German unification” flag from the Watchful Peace (white cross on green) with the Bavarian colours of blue and white. This will eventually become recognised as a symbol of a united Germany.

King Leopold of Italy leads the bulk of his army to the Brenner Pass, with the intent of marching on Vienna to remove Henrietta Eugenie as Regent. However, his cousin Maria Sophia, Countess of Tyrol, supports Henrietta Eugenie and so blocks Leopold's troops at the Pass.

The Confederation Society, a Swiss patriotic group, rises up in Bern and attempts to recreate the pre-Jacobin Wars Swiss Confederation.

King Richard IV's party is attacked by the Runnymede Movement and the King is captured. What Joshua Churchill does not realise at first is that the King actually made contact with the movement and organised his own kidnapping, ashamed of what he has helped Joshua do. Joshua attempts make Richard IV's young son William King William V, but finds that the King's wife and son have fled Windsor, eventually turning up in exile in France.

Virginia holds a Confederate election on the issue of the war tax. Governor Henry's supporters, a coalition of pro-Henry Whigs, Hamiltonite Patriots, Radicals and Neutrals, all stand under the 'magnolia coupon' and win a workable majority. As soon as the House of Burgesses reconvenes, the 'magnolia coalition' votes through the war tax bill amid strident protest from the Carterite Patriot and anti-Henry Whig slaveocrat opposition. The new regiments are finally officially created (having been unofficially been raising troops and training them based on loans for some months already) and are sent off to join General Long's army.

August - Having gathered her troops, France officially launches the Neptune Offensive against Flanders, Lorraine and Italy. Pro-French uprisings in Lorraine begin.

The Castilian puppet king Alfonso XII has sent away too many of his troops piecemeal in an ineffectual attempt to crush the uprisings, and now Madrid is rising up in turn. Alfonso is forced to flee with his remaining bodyguard, and though he attempts to reach Portugal, he ends up holed up and besieged in Badajoz. It is possible that a republican commune may have been set up in Madrid at this point, but its historicity is uncertain.

The famous incident where John Byron III and aeronaut Clément “Fou” Gasse use a steerable balloon to drop packages to pro-French rebels in Lorraine, then attacks the Palais Rohan in Strassburg with grenades and by luck manages to kill the Hapsburg governor. This is the first recorded aerial bombing and catapults Byron to instant fame. The Hapsburgs appoint Major Antonio Rizzi to examine countermeasures for such steerable attacks overseeing the development of many seminal weapons such as the star shot shell and Vespa anti-air rifle.

In Switzerland the Confederation Society takes control of the Bernese Oberland from Swabian loyalists.

French Marshal Philippe Forgues, commanding the Neptune plan's Armée du Nord, has been following Bonaparte's orders to limit his actions against Flanders for propaganda reasons (as France is historically known for having imperial ambitions on Flanders and Bonaparte did not want France to be seen as attempting a land grab). However, the French-speaking Walloons in Flanders–subject to discrimination by the government during the Watchful Peace–start to rise up and expect French help which, due to Bonaparte's policy, does not materialise. Only Triumvir André Malraux argues that an intervention should be made, which forms the basis of the later Malraux Doctrine.

Meanwhile, Bonaparte gambles that his reading of Joshua Churchill's position is accurate (it is) and that so he will not have sufficient loyalty from the Royal Navy to use it to attack France. This allows Bonaparte to send much of the French Atlantic Fleet through the Burgundy Canal (the former Canal de l’Épurateur) to support the French Mediterranean Fleet against the Italians.

In Wales, the “Red Dragon Legion” is swelled by many English volunteers fleeing reprisals in their own homeland. At this point Llewelyn Thomas, a former coal miner, first rises to prominence as a military leader within the Legion.

One year after the defeat of the Men of Inveraray, the new Scotch Army of Freedom stages a series of well-organised attacks on Glasgow that successfully take the city from Joshua Churchill's browncoats. In the moment of glory, King Richard IV reappears and addresses the people, apologising for what Joshua did in his name and officially renouncing the throne. Joshua initially cannot believe this is true and his propaganda response is focused around assuming the King was a fake, meaning it fails to bite effectively as many people have firsthand evidence it was the real King.

September - New Spanish forces march into already-freed Madrid.

John Byron III publishes an (edited, censored) version of his European travel diaries as My Grand Tour. Despite the upheaval of the wars, Byron's newfound fame means the book is an instant hit. It is also well regarded in years to come for its insights into the European social undercurrents in the Watchful Peace that prefigured the Popular Wars. It also contains thinly disguised attacks on Joshua Churchill.

The Dutch territory of Munster enthusiastically rises up and joins the Schmidtists, ensuring the remaining ancien regime statelets in the former Mittelbund are now surrounded.

With the French making good progress in Piedmont and rebellions seething all around, frightened Hapsburg administrators flee Turin for Milan–which of course only boosts uncertainty and tension, fuelling the fires of revolution. Genoa rises and proclaims the restoration of the old Republic (converted into a 'Ligurian Republic' in 1796, then subsumed into the Italian Latin Republic in 1798 by Lazare Hoche).

Zürich is conquered by the Confederation Society.

October - Widespread rebellion spreads into Aragon. The Catalans remain loyal to Naples but southern Aragon begins to fall into New Spanish hands.

Battle of Nuoro in Sardinia between revolutionary rebels and Savoy loyalists. The latter lose. King Victor Felix effectively gives up, flees for Toulon and attempts to inviegle himself into the French court to find support for a French-backed restoration, especially with the French attacking his family's former territory of Piedmont.

Grand Duke Carlo II of Tuscany dies. He is succeeded by his son Carlo III, but the old rumours about Carlo III possibly not being legitimate, combined with the general climate of Italian revolt, means Tuscany starts to rise in rebellion. Carlo III flees to Naples. The revolutionaries look to the Etruscans as their inspiration, proclaiming an Etrurian Republic and using a red flag bearing a black Etruscan swastika. The rebellion also spills over into Lucca, the Papal States, and the Neapolitan enclaves of Piombino and Orbetella.

Archduke Charles of Krakau-Servia approaches Vienna with an army, to find the city more loyal to Henrietta Eugenie's regency than he expected and with more troops on her side. He lacks overwhelming force as Leopold cannot come up the Brenner Pass to meet him. Therefore he hesitates, encamped outside the city, with neither side officially acknowledging the other.

Possibly due to Britain's empty throne, rumours of legendary monarchs returning sweep the country. Most famously a girl claiming to be the long-dead Princess Augusta claims the throne, employing an image that draws upon the influences of Boudicca and Lady Godiva. She becomes the leader of a fanatical group of anti-Churchill fighters.

In America, troops under General Long (including the new Virginian regiments) move into the town of Susan-Mary and drive away the Superior Revolutionaries and their Indian allies. Though largely an enemy tactical retreat in the face of overwhelming numbers, this is spun as a victory in the American press, and leads to praise from Lord President Eveleigh and Philip Hamilton for Governor Henry's policies.

November - Turin falls to the French. Venice revolts against the Hapsburgs, proclaiming a new Venetian Republic which rapidly becomes taken over extremists and becomes the Venetian Commune.

Using the Baden-Zürich railway (although the Zürich end has been damaged by the Confederation Society), Swabian troops take Zürich back from the Confederation Society. However, Michael Elchingener has somewhat miscalculated and there is public revulsion due to the bloody reconquest of Zürich.

In a bitter fight, Munich falls to the Saxons, an event that shocks many in the Hapsburg dominions unfamiliar with how rapid and successfuly Saxony's modernised army can be.

Cologne rises up against Dutch rule, forming the Schmidtist-inspired “Kölnerrepublik”.

December - With the conquest of the final petty states of the Mittelbund by Schmidtist revolutionaries, the Mittelbund officially ceases to exist. Now there is only the Volksrepublik Deutschland (VRD). Frankfurt becomes its de facto capital and the seat of its governing council, whose members include Manfred Landau, Wilhelm Brüning and Pascal Schmidt himself.

All of Lorraine is now reconquered by the French under Marshal Richelieu, though defeating a few Hapsburg holdouts takes time.

The Swabians have retaken St Gall but are bogged down in a miserable fight with the Confederation Society in Lucerne.

The Saxon victory at Munich convinces Archduke Charles to perform what will later be known as a “Carolian Turnaround”. He sends Colonel István Orosz into Vienna to negotiate. They hammer out a new scheme whereby a council of three people–Henrietta Eugenie, Maria Sophia and Charles himself–will jointly head the Regency. This is considered the end of the “Hapsburg Fracas”–Leopold of Italy condemns it, but is too concerned with his own rebel problems to do much about it.

1831:

January - Defeated by Maria Sophia holding the Pass against him, and hearing of the revolts against his rule, Leopold abandons his attempt on Vienna and turns south, first putting down the Venetian Commune. The end of the Commune in fire and the sword will be long remembered, but the detail of the Communards' ideas much debated.

On Dictateur Bonaparte's orders, Marshal Richelieu offers French support to Swabia, warning that (some of) the Hapsburgs see the two countries as complicit in Francis II's assassination. However, Frederick IV and Michael Elchingener rudely rebuff the offer, viewing the French as being an inspiration for the Confederation Society and wanting to preserve Swabian neutrality. Swabia makes a proclamation of not being involved in Francis II's death, but in a way that implies the same cannot be said of France. Insulted by this, the French respond by actually starting to help the Confederation Society, with John Byron III leading the way.

With the Hapsburg government reunified, they focus on driving the Saxons from Bavaria.

The Superior War has stabilised as both sides dig in for the winter. In Virginia, the leader of the Radical Party in the House of Burgesses, Clement Clay, gives his famous “Footnote of History” speech in which he calls for the end of slavery not because of what it does to blacks, but because of what it does to whites, and to Virginia. To the shock of many, the House of Burgesses narrowly votes to approve Clay's manumission bill. This becomes known as the “31-31 vote” as it was held on January 31st 1831. Clay's speech changed a few minds, but this is more thanks to Henry, the Emperor and the Virginia Freedom League having installed many like-minded candidates in last year's election.

In South America, with Meridian attempts at pressing into Minas Gerais having failed and an election looming (in which the opposition Amarillo Party favours seeking peace), outgoing President-General Velasco's cabinet discuss their options. It is decided that, assuming the election is won, the ambitious plan of Admiral Agustín Calvo to amphibiously invade Pernambuco will be pursued. Felipe Riquelme is chosen as the coalition's candidate to succeed Velasco rather than Rámon Almada, who is disappointed but agrees to continue to support the coalition, which Riquelme chooses to dub the Adamantine Party.

February - With the last loyalists in Cagliari surrendering to the revolutionaries, the Sardinian Republic is officially proclaimed.

One of many failed assassination attempts on Joshua Churchill, in this case by poison, possibly engineered by his brother Arthur, who flees Britain and takes up a role as part of the Royal Africa Company. Having already lost control of Scotland, Joshua sees more and more of England slip through his fingers as rebel groups including the Runnymede Movement (and its affiliates like the Manchester Democratic Association and the Red Dragon Legion), the Scotch Army of Freedom, and the Wyndham-led Outlaws continue to roll up his decreasing number of loyal troops.

Start of the Virginia Crisis as many refuse to accept the House of Burgesses passing Clay's manumission bill (signed into law by Governor Henry). The imperial Whig Party's response is hampered due to being led by Andrew Eveleigh, whose single-minded fanatical obsession with the issue alienates many undecided Virginians who would have supported an attempt by moderate southerners like Sinclair or Carter to overrule the bill. Eveleigh virtually abandons oversight of the Superior War due to the Crisis.

The UPSA holds its presidential election. In the first round, Orlando Giménez (Amarillo) tops the poll, Felipe Riquelme (for Velasco's coalition, now the Adamantine Party) comes second, and Enrique López (Colorado) is eliminated.

March - The Dansheng Emperor of Feng China (born Wen Kejing) is succeeded by his choice of heir, his second son, who becomes the Xiaohong Emperor.

Schmidtists in Schwerin take over Schwerin Castle and raise the VRD flag. They represent an independent Mecklenburg movement taking inspiration from Schmidt but are not under the direct command of the main VRD in the former Mittelbund. The Danish response is hampered by the fact that the authorities assumed the movement was more conservative in character and intended to restore the former Duke to his throne, and so focused on guarding against the Duke's return from exile in Saxony.

Liége rises up in revolution against the Flemish government, a far more significant and dramatic step than the existing scattered Walloon uprisings. This strike at the heart of Flanders leads to Maximilian II planning a direct intervention. Marshal Forgues does not intervene, partly due to Bonaparte's policy and partly because the rebels take Jacobin inspiration and call their new state the Liégois Latin Republic.

The war hero Alexander Cochrane joins the Outlaws in Britain and helps lead them to victories over Joshua's browncoats.

Pro-slavery mobs strike in Williamsburg and force the Virginian House of Burgesses to flee down the James River and then up the Delaware to Pulteney, Pennsylvania, where they form a government in exile. A remnant of the pro-slavery Whigs tries to govern as a shadow government in the Capitol, but several of them are killed and the Capitol damaged in a counter-attack by forces loyal to Governor Henry. Meanwhile further west the “Battle” of Shippingport is fought between Virginian Confederate militiamen and supporters of the local and powerful Baker family of slaveholders who refuse to comply with the new law. As a result of this, the Bakers are one of the families to have their slaves and parts of their estates confiscated without financial compensation at the end of the Crisis.

Second round of the Meridian presidential election. Felipe Riquelme defeats Orlando Giménez, meaning the Adamantine government will continue. The Pernambuco operation is approved.

April - After the loss of Schwerin to the Schmidtists, the Danish chief minister Poul von Krogh resigns. He wis replaced by Thorvald Rasmussen, who spearheads an aggressive response to the Schmidtists.

The Relief of Willisau, where French troops and irregulars led by John Byron III rescue besieged Confederation Society fighters from the Swabians.

Moldavia revolts against Russian rule.

The Kölnerrepublik votes to merge with the expanding VRD, ending its brief existence as an independent republic.

Genoa is reconquered by the Hapsburg Italians. The invasion is relatively restrained due to the Hapsburgs not wanting to damage the city's important port facilities for their navy.

The province of Maryland, which was always sore about being made part of the Confederation of Virginia and is one of the most pro-slavery parts of that Confederation, remains largely unscathed by the street violence plaguing most of eastern Virginia (including Fredericksburg). Speaker Norman Savage and the provincial General Court react by passing an Act of Secession, declaring a withdrawal from Virginia and seeking separate representation for Maryland in the Continental Parliament.

The Virginian government in exile meets with King-Emperor Frederick II in Philadelphia. With the King's help and support from Speaker Phineas Jenks, the Pennsylvanian Council and General Assembly vote to support a military intervention to restore order in Virginia.

Launch of the Pernambuco Mission by the UPSA. A large naval force under Admiral Agustín Calvo is dispatched to Pernambuco to support the anti-Portuguese rebels there in an attempt to carve out a Meridian puppet state. This requires a careful political balancing act as the rebels are a mixed bag of black Maroons, white liberals, conservative white peasants protesting taxes and much more.

In China, after five years of inconsequential fighting, the Anqing Incident is resolved with what is technically a Beiqing victory (their favoured candidate becomes Governor of Anhui) but in practice is a draw, as he acts as neutrally as his predecessor.

May - Danish chief minister Thorvald Rasmussen attempts to to subdue the Schmidtist uprising in Mecklenburg. Danish naval forces descend on the ports of Mecklenburg, while the army is sent overland from Jutland. More regiments are recalled from Sweden to support the attack.

After a bitter fight, using overwhelming numbers to overcome the superior equipment and tactics of the Saxons, the Hapsburgs reconquer Munich. However, they are unable to press much farther north than the Franconian Jura. This leads to a stalemate in Bavaria in which both sides suffer more from attacks by local Kleinkriegers than from each other.

The Pennsylvanians launch the “Pennsylvanian Legion of the Restoration of Order”–made up of troops that had been raised with the intention of sending them to fight in the Superior War–and send them to Virginia, primarily to restore order in the would-be breakaway province of Maryland. The ensuing battles will create a romantic image of heroically dying on Pennsylvanian bayonets in the minds of Maryland nationalists in years to come.

June - The full brunt of King Leopold's Italian Hapsburg army is now directed against the French, and Turin is retaken by the Hapsburgs. The anti-Hapsburg rebellions across the Kingdom of Italy stutter and start to fail as news of the important victory–as well as fear of the punishing defeat of the Venetian Commune–drive moderates away from the revolutionaries. This is considered the start of the Guerre des cauchemars (“Nightmare War”) as both France and Italy funnel large numbers of men into the Piedmont front and the result is a bloodbath and some early examples of primitive trench warfare.

With the Hapsburgs largely ignoring the travails of Tuscany and southern Aragon seemingly irretrievable, Luigi of the Three Sicilies decides to intervene on behalf of Grand Duke Carlo II, using the revolutionaries' spilling over into Neapolitan enclaves as a casus belli. His troops are commanded by the brilliant Sicilian general Antonio Falcone.

Joshua Churchill's browncoat army under Colonel Reginald Saltington retreats to Rotherham where it attempts to requisition Wentworth Woodhouse, the stately home of the Marquess of Rockingham. Rockingham refuses and is killed by Saltington. This enrages much of the local population and the browncoats are bloodily defeated by an alliance of Runnymede and Outlaw groups at the Battle of Retford. The Marquess' son (generally known as Stephen Watson-Wentworth) joins the rebels as a commander. As a result of this, Joshua has lost the entire North of England.

July - With the withdrawal of many regiments from Sweden to support Rasmussen's anti-Schmidtist force in Mecklenburg, the conservative “Stockholm Conspiracy”, led by Over-Governor of Stockholm Adolf Siöblad, strikes, launching a coup and seizing control of the Swedish Riksdag.

The people of Brandenburg-Stettin rise up against Duke Adolf Frederick VI, who swiftly flees into exile in Denmark. They call for Henry Frederick of Prussia to return as their rightful Hohenzollern monarch.

In Russia, Prince Theodore–Governor-General of Moscow–has seen how unpopular and controversial some of his brother Tsar Peter IV's policies are. He invites Peter to visit him in Moscow so he can advise him. However, Peter's train is attacked by bandits (identity uncertain, but probably Russian conservatives; they use misinformation to suggest a Jewish connexion) and both he and the Tsarina are killed. One of his wounded ninzya bodyguards manages to get to the nearest Optel tower to report the attack, but the rumour mill rapidly turns this into suggesting a Yapontsi traitor killed the Tsar, which creates a current of anti-Yapontsi feeling across Russia in years to come.

The French Navy raids Genoa, briefly occupying the city long enough to burn the port facilities that the Hapsburgs tried so hard to preserve and block the harbour. This gives an advantage to the French Navy over its Italian counterpart in their struggle to dominate the western Mediterranean.

August - Neapolitan forces under General Falcone retake Orbetello, allowing them to push into Tuscany proper.

The Stockholm Conspiracy seizes control of other Swedish cities, including Gothenburg, Uppsala, Kalmar and Åbo (OTL Turku). The Conspiracy proclaims the restoration of a separate Kingdom of Sweden, having invited the deposed Ludvig XII of Hesse-Darmstadt to be their King, as Ludvig I. However, many Swedes remain loyal to King Valdemar V and II due to the more liberal mode of government and economic opportunities the Union had introduced during the Watchful Peace. The result is the Swedish Civil War, with the loyalists gradually being supplemented by more Danish regulars as the Schmidtists in Danish Germany are subdued and troops are freed up.

Start of the “Route des Larmes” (Way of Tears) as the Flemish government begins a policy of racial purging (ethnic cleansing) against the Walloons in the south, whether rebel or no. There is no official help for the Walloons from the French, but many sympathisers form the “Pâquerettes” (Daisies) society, identified by use of the flower in their symbol, who help the Walloons escape. Many of the Walloons end up in the city of Charleroi in French-occupied Flanders. The act is commemorated on August 12th in coming years because this was the day when an old man named Michel Lefalque refused to be moved from his house and was shot down by panicky Flemish troops, prompting a riot.

Henry Frederick of Prussia marches into Stettin and is proclaimed King in Prussia over all the former Prussian lands.

In Russia, the death of the Tsar prompts a succession crisis. Legally Peter IV's son Constantine (Grand Duke of Lithuania) should succeed him, but Constantine is only 22, even more culturally Lithuanian, and that would leave no-one to be Grand Duke of Lithuania. Prince Theodore is far more popular but has strong legitimist principles. Therefore this starts the brief, farcical “War of the Russian Succession” in which each candidate wants to put the other on the throne, and most just view it as an excuse to riot and loot and pillage as troops move indecisively about along the border.

The Jews in Russian-occupied Crimea react to the death of the Tsar–which the real killers tried to pin on them–by seizing the opportunity of the distraction of the succession war to pre-emptively revolt before a revenge pogrom can begin. Rebel leader Yitzhak Volynov sends his deputy David Levitin to the 'Janissary Sultanate' to ask Khan Devlet VI, in exile there, to return and lead a restored Crimean Khanate. But Devlet knows they have no chance of success and now cares more for his political ambitions within the Ottoman polities. A furious Levitin persuades Volynov to crown himself 'Isaac I' and proclaim a 'Kingdom of Israel' over the Crimea just to spite Devlet and rile the Russians.

With Governor Henry having granted them authority to do so, the western provinces of Virginia (especially fiercely anti-slavery Vandalia province) send militiamen to restore order in Richmond and Williamsburg provinces.

September - Seeking damage control, and concerned of reports about republican societies influenced by the Brazilian rebels and the UPSA blooming in Lisbon and Oporto, King John VI of Portugal makes a U-turn. He dismisses the Duke of Aveiro as chief minister, replaces several other ministers, effectively abandons Castile and focuses on trying to defend Portugal's own borders.

The people of Berlin rise up against Grand Duke Frederick William II, who (like his counterpart in Brandenburg-Stettin) goes into exile in Denmark. Henry Frederick of Prussia is delighted but fails to realise that this rebellion is primarily Schmidtist in character and has no more affection for him than for Frederick William II.

The Red Dragon Legion throws Joshua Churchill's forces out of Wales. Llewelyn Thomas becomes known for winning a victory at a skirmish in Monmouthshire. The war between Joshua and his enemies now sees Joshua holding firmly only the South of England, with the Midlands contested.

In Virginia, Caesar Bell's band of outlaw black fighters based in the Wilderness of Spotsylvania begin intervening in the Virginia Crisis, ultimately with the intention of securing a seat at the post-crisis negotiating table but in practice mainly for revenge attacks. They effectively turn Spotsylvania and Orange Counties into offshore colonies of Freedonia. Scare stories of counter-enslavement of whites by blacks and the rape of white women circulate, leading to pro-slavery forces focusing on attacking Bell's men.

October - After a major defeat of the 'Etrurian Republic' revolutionaries, the Neapolitans overrun much of southern Tuscany.

The Liégois Latin Republic is destroyed, with the city being bloodily reconquered by the Flemings.

With the Pennsylvanian Legion of the Restoration of Order having secured Baltimore and Anapolis, the remaining Maryland secessionists surrender and submit to occupation.

In Britain, William Wyndham's second-in-command of the Outlaws, Thomas Pelham-Clinton, 11th Earl of Lincoln, grows overconfident after the success of Retford and believes Joshua's forces are weaker than they are. He leads the Outlaws into the Battle of Warwick against Joshua's loyalists, not realising the latter include the 52nd (West Kent) Regiment, the so-called “Diehards, and are commanded by the skilled general Sir Rupert Harding. The Outlaws are badly defeated and the result is Joshua's support briefly rallying, particularly given the iconic role of the 52nd. Many peers previously on the fence come out in favour of Joshua, Joshua's control of the Optel network allowing his propagandists to exaggerate the importance of the battle as a turning point. However, it is just a flash in the pan and the decline of Joshua's power soon resumes.

November - Georg Erhardt, the leader of the republican regime now holding Brandenburg-Berlin, states that he only intends to build a republic in one region (perhaps also including the remaining Mecklenburg Schmidtists) and does not seek to join the VRD. This incenses the VRD leaders in Frankfurt, especially Pascal Schmidt himself, who views this as a betrayal of his movement–if Germany is to remain divided and infighting, it makes little difference if it is under kings or republics. Schmidt views the Brandenburg republic as a bigger threat to Germany's future than the petty monarchies.

The quinquennial term of the Continental Parliament of the Empire of North America expires, but no new election can be called due to the chaos of the Virginia Crisis and the Superior War, so Parliament passes emergency legislation prolonging their term by one year.

For a while, Joseph Dashwood has managed to restrain the Thirteen Fires Confederacy into the sort of hit-and-run raids they are very good at and they have thus seen limited successes against the Americans in the Superior War. However, this strategy chafes at the younger and more hot-blooded fighters, and around this time Dashwood is largely superseded by the authority of young warriors such as Peter Williams among the whites and Tsongyatan among the Indians, who favour a direct attack.

With a bitter winter exacerbating the struggles of the already immobilised and Kleinkrieger-stricken Saxon and Austrian armies in Bavaria, Augustus II of Saxony and his government realise that the war cannot be won in Bavaria proper. Long-serving Chancellor Gottfried von Lingenthal resigns and is replaced by Herman von Beust. They start drawing up plans for stealthily withdrawing troops from Bavaria for use in Silesia. Beust also opens up diplomatic channels with Casimir V of Poland about the possibility of cooperation; though the Poles are still somewhat suspicious of the Saxons after their actions in the 1822 potato famine, they recognise that this represents a rare opportunity to make gains from the normally militarily superior Hapsburgs.

In Ireland, the Farmer's Party and the League of Right stage mass protests against the unpopular government: as Britain has slid into anarchy, the government can no longer use the excuse of remaining strong and united against Joshua Churchill to rally the people. There are complaints of miltiary brutality when troops untrained for the purpose try to restrain the marching protestors.

December - By this point the New Spanish 'Reconquista' is in control of all pre-Jacobin Wars Spain except Catalonia, the Balearics, Badajoz, Ciudad Rodrigo and Galicia.

Henry Frederick of Prussia marches into Berlin. He attempts to enter the Stadtschloss, but the Schmidtist rebels inside refuse to open its doors to him. Henry Frederick, furious, forces entry with artillery, prompting a firefight between his (few) troops and rebel militias. This ends with the Stadtschloss being practically destroyed, Berlin on fire, and Henry Frederick felled by a musket ball to the shoulder: alive, but unconscious and feverish from an infected wound. His chief minister Wilhelm von der Trenck decides the closest reasonably friendly place with doctors capable of treating the wound is Hanover, and the remnant of the Prussian army marches there with their wounded king.

Joshua Churchill pardons the imprisoned George Hamilton-Gordon, 5th Earl of Aberdeen, and receives support from him–a coup given that he is a Scottish peer and Joshua's reputation in Scotland. The peerage continues to favour Joshua as the lesser of two evils, fearful of the Runnymede Movement.

1832:

January - Facing widespread condemnation for France's failure to act to help the Walloons, Bonaparte makes a U-turn and makes two pledges: to never return the currently conquered territory in Flanders to the Flemings and to turn it into a homeland for displaced Walloons, and also to defend the Netherlands' right to exist as an independent nation aside from Flanders. The second pledge will have major consequences later on.

Henry Frederick of Prussia's party reaches Hanover and is received by Charles II, Duke of Brunswick and would-be King of Hanover, though at present he is struggling to get the Hanoverian government to submit to a full political union. The Schmidtists in the VRD are also pushing into the edges of his domain. Henry Frederick receives medical care and recovers from his fever.

The Hapsburg Italians restore order in Genoa and begin repairing its port facilities.

February - Ciudad Rodrigo, held by the Portuguese and their remaining Castilian loyalist allies, succumbs to a New Spanish siege.

The Etrurian Republic rebels in Italy have reorganised their army considerably over the winter and now hold strong against further attempted attacks by the Neapolitans.

Saxon Chancellor Hermann von Beust sends a mission, led by his predecessor Gottfried von Lingenthal, to Hanover in order to offer a closer alliance with the new King Charles. The remnant of the Prussian army in Hanover starts working for Duke Charles as his enforcers, eventually led by Henry Frederick himself once he recovers.

Defeated by overwhelming numbers of white militiamen, Caesar Bell's black outlaws retreat back into the Wilderness of Spotsylvania. Nobody will attempt to drive them out until after the Crisis.

Unable to quell the protests in Ireland, Prime Minister Augustus Hodges resigns and pledges to support a Radical Prime Minister, though not the Radicals' more extreme leader Fergus O'Connell. As a compromise–and because he is a war hero against the USE and thus cannot be accused of being soft on Presbyterians if he emancipates them–Radical MP James Roosevelt becomes Prime Minister of Ireland.

In Britain, Grantham is conquered by the Runnymede Movement's militiamen. In response, Joshua Churchill's advisor Andrew Wilson suggests London is growing restless and they go to Oxford. Joshua angrily calls him a coward and tells him to go to Oxford alone, which Wilson does.

George Washington Alexander, the nineteen-year-old son of John Alexander, travels across the interior of Cuba in the first of his great adventures (to receive parental backing). In coming years he goes on to travel throughout the Americas and to Cygnia.

March - The symbolically important Santiago de Compostela in Galicia falls to the New Spanish. However, the Portuguese are fighting tooth and nail for Galicia, pouring most of their strength into the province, and so this is where the 'Reconquista' is most bitter and bloody.

The Treaty of Bern between France and the Confederation Society's provisional government. The Society reluctantly allows Lower Valais and Lausanne to be annexed by France in return for French help at retaking the former Italian cantons.

“Queen Augusta” leads Runnymede Movement troops in a march on London. With most of Joshua's support having melted away (except in Oxfordshire where men remain loyal to the memory of his father), the chief opponents of the Runnymede Movement are Archbishop of Canterbury Frederick Byng and his “Altar Boys” militia, who fight to the bitter end and Byng is imprisoned. This is known as the Battle of London. William Wyndham and the Outlaws also intervene, seizing the New Palace of Westminster in the midst of rioting and fires, and Wyndham makes his famous quote in the dusty abandoned House of Commons: “As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted…”

Andrew Eveleigh recognises that the Virginian pro-slavery nullifiers are on the verge of defeat. To that end he urges Richmond and Williamsburg provinces to join the Confederation of Carolina, and Carolinian troops (supposedly without any orders from the Carolinian General Assembly) cross the border. This scheme backfires, outraging many formerly pro-slavery Virginians with a contemptuous view of upstart Carolina (in particular the respected veteran Thomas Charles Lee), and only quickens the end of the war and estranges Eveleigh from his party.

The Battle of Fort Kaministiquia (near OTL Thunder Bay) is fought between the Thirteen Fires Confederacy and the American regulars and militiamen under General Long. An attempt at the sort of direct attack favoured by men like Peter Williams and Tsongyatan, it is a disaster for the Confederacy, with much of their manpower being lost and the Americans triumphing on the battlefield despite their own problems. The Americans are sufficiently damaged that they are unable to pursue the fleeing Confederacy forces from the battlefield, however.

Feng China, enraged by Siam's attempt to create an independent allied state in Yunnan Province, declares war (the First Sino-Siamese War, 1832-1838).

April - Around this time, Danish chief minister Thorvald Rasmussen pioneers the “Rasmussen Strategy” of using troops recruited from one end of an empire to put down a rebellion at the other end, in order to avoid testing the conflicted loyalties of local troops. He uses Danes and Germans spearhead the fight against the Stockholm Conspiracy Swedish rebels.

Also roughly the time at which it is generally considered that the “Route des Larmes” ended, although actions against remaining Walloons in rural areas will continue for years to come.

Pascal Schmidt concocts a plan that involves engineering the kidnap of Henry Frederick of Prussia (with the tacit consent of Charles of Hanover and Brunswick in exchange for the Schmidtists turning away from his lands), then trading him to the Saxons so they can put him back on the throne of Brandenburg-Berlin as a puppet, both destroying the deviationist Brandenburg republicans under George Erhardt and distracting the Saxons with another war front, opening up Saxony proper to a VRD invasion. The first stage of the plan goes ahead and Henry Frederick is captured, but an increasingly disillusioned Schmidt finds himself liking the man as he talks with him in his cell.

As part of this plan, the Schmidtists try to intimidate Charles by having three of his ministers assassinated, but this inadvertently helps him because they happened to be those most opposed to his plans for the full merger of Hanover and Brunswick.

Launch of the Silesian Offensive by the combined forces of Saxony under Franz von Nostitz, “the Young Fox”, and Poland under Ignacy Pulaski. The Saxons employ many troops that they had quietly withdrawn from the Bavarian front over the winter. Initially the attack sees great success. Archduke Charles moves in the Army of Bohemia under General Quosdanovich, which he had held in reserve in case of a Silesian front opening up.

Joshua Churchill is besieged in the Phoenix Tower by the Runnymede Movement under “Queen Augusta”. At this time many of the MPs and Lords imprisoned there are murdered under unclear circumstances. Joshua comes out on a balcony to confront “Augusta”, sprays the crowd with fire from a revolving pistol–killing “Augusta”–and is shot in turn, toppling to his death.

May - Andrew Eveleigh is removed as Lord President by a 'death-vote' (no confidence). The Lord Deputy, Lord Fingall, promises a new election as soon as possible, but in the short term makes Albert Sinclair Lord President as the least bad option. Sinclair backs a bill to have Eveleigh removed from his seat and tried for treason.

Populist revolts break out in Sicily. However, King Luigi anticipated this and his pre-emptive reforms ensure the revolt is a damp squib, swiftly put down.

The Poles succeed in taking control of Krakau, aided by an internal rebellion against the Hapsburgs.

The negotiations between Gottfried von Lingenthal representing Saxony and King Charles of “Hanover-Brunswick” succeed, resulting in the Treaty of Osnabrück or, as Manfred Landau will call it “The Great Stitch-up”. Essentially the treaty enshrines cooperation in defining what postwar Germany will look like to the benefit of both states.

As Bohemia is now stripped of troops, Archduke Charles sends Croatian levies to replace them. However, this sends decidedly the wrong message to the already somewhat seething Bohemian populace, as Croats are normally used to quell rebellions.

June - With a conventional frontal assault having failed, Leonardo Nelson successfully outflanks the Etrurian Republic rebels, drawing their army to the south with one force while landing a second behind enemy lines at Piombino, staging from Elba. The Republic is cut in half, and begins to crumble.

Loyalist Virginian and allied Pennsylvanian forces march into Fredericksburg and restore order to the imperial capital with the assistant of General Lee (who had switched sides). Seeing the fall of Eveleigh, Emperor Frederick leaves for Ireland with the tacit consent of Parliament that he may use the American troops stationed there to intervene against Joshua Churchill. None know yet that is already dead.

With the Thirteen Fires Confederacy reeling from their defeat at Fort Kaministiquia, Joseph Dashwood decides to give himself up to the Americans in exchange for pledges that they will allow the Confederacy to retreat westwards and settle there.

The Army of Bohemia under General Quosdanovich inflicts several defeats on the Saxons, using raiding tactics to counter the Saxons' technological superiority. For now, Quosdanovich successfully prevents Nostitz's Saxons from meeting up with Pulaski's Poles in Silesia. The new offensive quickly bogs down and at first it seems like a failure.

July - Emperor Frederick arrives in Liverpool with troops–Irish regulars and Americans not yet technically authorised to be there, but sent by Eveleigh as part of the Irish defensive garrison (their use will be retroactively authorised in December). He is shocked to find his country ruined and the soldiers he brings have little to do but restore order.

August - The New Spanish are repulsed from La Coruña in Galicia. It will be retained by Portugal (as Corunha) as an exclave though they lose most of Galicia.

Due to the French and Swiss Confederates' focus on retaking the Italian counties, the Swabians are able to regain control of most of the former Three Leagues (the OTL county of Grisons).

In Sweden the decisive Battle of Norrköping is fought between the Stockholm Conspiracy and the loyalists and their Danish allies. At first the Stockholm Conspiracy is on the verge of victory, but then the loyalists are saved by a force loyal to them coming up out of Norrköping itself. This represents the beginning of the end for the Stockholm Conspiracy's attempt to restore pre-Union Sweden.

Sir Rupert Harding surrenders with honour to King-Emperor Frederick II's Hiberno-American army at Nottingham. Respected as the “Good Phoenix” by his enemies, Harding is allowed to go into exile rather than face treason charges, and eventually becomes Lord Deputy of Cygnia. The former King Richard IV also appears in chains beside Frederick as he travels through the country, renouncing his former life. In private the two get on quite well, and Frederick allows Richard's son William to go to India and join the BEIC administration there.

September - Two weeks into the latest siege of Badajoz, its governor Miguel de Cruz switches sides (claiming he was a secret Carlista all along), opens the city to the New Spanish, and hands over Alfonso XII to Charles IV. With the fall of Badajoz, Portugal sues for peace. As fighting in Aragon had died down to a status quo with Catalonia remaining loyal and the rest having been conquered by New Spain, Naples also joins the negotiations.

Duke Charles II of Brunswick manages to engineer the merger of the states of Hanover and Brunswick as he hoped, in part due to misjudged Schmidtist assassinations of ministers who happened to be the most intransigent. As of yet though the name of the new kingdom remains undecided.

Frederick II arrives in London, under the shaky control of the Council of State. Although the King faces much criticism for his actions in fleeing the country, he works hard to regain his position and helps prevent infighting in the Council, as well as spearheading attempts to restore order throughout the kingdom.

October - Considered to be the end of the Virginia Crisis. The period ends with the abolition of slavery in Virginia being accepted, in part due to its defenders being tarred with the brush of treason and Eveleigh's extremism, but the actions of Caesar Bell and his ilk during the war favours a position in which freed blacks are deported to Africa rather than trying to integrate them into society.

The farcical War of the Russian Succession comes to an end with a meeting between the two sides in Courland, hosted by Alexander Potemkin. It is agreed to change the succession so that Theodore will become Tsar and Constantine will give up him claim and continue as Grand Duke of Lithuania. This officially severs the direct connection between Russia and Lithuania.

In Silesia, Nostitz's Saxons have finally managed to join up with Pulaski's Poles despite the best efforts of Quosdanovich's Austrians, yet Quosdanovich wins a spectacular victory over the combined forces at the Battle of Breslau.

Having concluded their negotiations with Saxony, it is now time for the VRD to hand over Henry Frederick, according to Schmidt's plan. Schmidt however has now changed his mind; his conversations with Henry Frederick has led him to conclude that he is no longer the man he was and would be a valuable part of the VRD if he discarded his titles. This horrifies the rest of the Schmidtist leadership and Schmidt is outvoted on the council. Henry Frederick is sent off before Schmidt can say goodbye to his unlikely friend. Depressed about losing control of his own movement and about all the blood shed in his name, Schmidt uses Duke William II of Hesse-Kassel's old phlogisticateur to commit suicide. An ambiguous will throws the VRD into a chaotic power struggle between Wilhelm Brüning, Manfred Landau and Albert Dornberger (Schmidt's “voice” when giving speeches since his own voice was damaged through torture).

King Frederick II earns back some respect from his people for negotiating the surrender of the last Joshua Churchill loyalists in Oxfordshire–although the desire on the part of Oxford to get rid of Andrew Wilson may have played a part. This can be considered the end of the “Inglorious Revolution”, though many former fighters on both sides continue to plague the country as bandit gangs.

November - A year late, the ENA holds a general election. The election sees a severe defeat for the Whigs everywhere outside Carolina, Philip Hamilton's faction of the Patriots crushing Solomon Carter's (including Carter himself being defeated by his estranged son Jethro as an independent) and, most importantly, the breakthrough of the Radicals and Neutrals on an unprecedented scale. Radical leader Eric Mullenburgh becomes Lord President. Mo Quedling first enters the Continental Parliament as a Radical.

Prince Theodore of Russia is crowned Tsar Theodore IV (or Fyodor in Russian).

Resentment in Bohemia that goes back to Radetzsky and the Cougnonistes, intensified by the potato famine and the Croat occupiers, finally detonates into the Bohemian Revolution. Revolutionaries led by Ernst Hirsch and Tomas Stamitz storm Prague Castle and defenestrate the Hapsburg administrators. Most of the Diet goes over to the revolutionaries and a hybrid provisional governing council is established.

With the defeat of the last Portuguese loyalists, the Pernambuco region is brought fully under the control of Admiral Calvo's Meridians and their local rebel allies. Attempts to push the frontier further south, however, do not meet with success as Viceroy Abrantes sends his remaining soldiers north from still-loyal Bahia. The conflict bogs down.

December - Treaty of Madrid between New Spain, Portugal and Naples recognises the restoration of the exilic Carlistas to the throne of a reunited Spanish kingdom, “Old Spain”, though Portugal retains parts of Galicia and Naples retains Catalonia.

The new American Radical-Neutral government passes the Intervention Act (1832) which finally authorises military internvention in Britain to topple Joshua Churchill's regime. In fact many troops have already been sent, ostensibly part of the Irish defensive garrison but going over to Britain.

Joseph Dashwood arrives in Fredericksburg as a prisoner and is feted as a celebrity despite his infamy.

1833:

January - The Bohemian revolutionary government debates whether to allow the Saxons in to protect them against Austrian reprisals, but the decision is made for them by unconnected rebels among the proto-Mentian miners in the Ore Mountains, who allow the Saxons through the mountains into the Bohemian basin.

The anti-Corean revolt in Liaodong concludes with the successful liberation of the peninsula from the Coreans. Due to Beiqing China refusing to directly intervene on the part of the provisional government, it becomes what is eventually called the Liaodong Republic, with its capital in Lushun.

February - The Saxons surge into Bohemia, using the troops withdrawn from Bavaria and quickly aided by the revolutionary government.

Responding to some Flemish raids on unprotected Normandy and Italy's failure to support its navy well thanks to the loss of Genoa and Venice's harbour facilities, Bonaparte returns a portion of the French Atlantic Fleet through the Burgundy Canal back to the Atlantic.

Joseph Dashwood is condemned to death and publicly executed. His final speech on the gallows in praise of freedom makes him a popular and colourful figure in the American cultural imagination, despite having been on the other side of a war.

Emperor Frederick II arrives in Liverpool with a Hiberno-American army, only to find his country ruined and the reinforcements he brought too late to do more than help restore order, with Joshua already overthrown.

March - Andrew Eveleigh, having been given a six-year prison sentence for his actions during the Virginia Crisis, commits suicide after one of his supporters smuggles a pistol into his cell.

Following the death of Pope Clement XVI, he is succeeded by his namesake Clement XVII after a Papal Conclave that is almost up to its pre-Rape of Rome (1802) numbers for the first time.

April - Manfred Landau recognises that he enjoys little support in the VRD power struggle, with most siding either with Brüning or Dornberger. Unwilling to compromise with either and viewing the VRD's doom as inevitable, he forms his remaining supporters into a mercenary group and decides to raise money from this to buy ships, and then go into exile in the UPSA.

May - Start of the Siege of Stockholm, as loyalists and Danes besiege the Stockholm Conspiracy capital.

With both English-speaking colonies in Antipodea now under American control after the Preventive Occupation Act of 1829, they are reorganised with a single overarching authority, Cygnia.

June - Populist revolutionaries in Naples proclaim the Calabrian Republic. However, as with Sicily, the Neapolitan government's response is swift and competent without inflaming tensions further, and the Republic is defeated and reabsorbed within a month.

A hasty Austrian counterattack under the Croat General Marko Bunić starts to slow the Saxon surge in Bohemia, eventually stopping them in Moravia.

Manfred Landau's mercenaries are employed by Oren Scherman's Dutch regime.

July - End of the Siege of Stockholm–Swedish loyalists and Danes conquer the city and the Stockholm Conspiracy government is forced to flee. It seems the end is in sight for their movement. However, at this point secret negotiations held in Helsingfors (OTL Helsinki) come into play and Russia declares its support for the Stockholm Conspiracy government. The Swedish Civil War expands. Lithuania under Grand Duke Constantine declares neutrality, partly because it has little to gain and partly because Constantine is making a point about shifting Lithuania out from Russia's sphere of influence a little.

With Bohemia going over to the Saxons, Breslau and the rest of Hapsburg-held Silesia is now an island in a sea of Saxons, Poles and their allies.

August - Tsar Theodore IV's armies successfully finish crushing the Jewish revolt in the Crimea amid many brutalities. Yitzhak Volynov stays fighting to the end, but sends David Levitin to lead many of the Jews into exile in Abdul Hadi Pasha's faction of the Ottoman Empire. They settle in the city of Sinope.

Battle of Oppeln in Silesia: General Quosdanovich attempts to break his army out of the shrinking Hapsburg island of Breslau. He fails but still inflicts more damage on the Saxons and Poles than he takes.

Oren Scherman's Dutch regime is aided by a French naval force under Admiral Raoul Moreau from the north, sent by Bonaparte as part of his political move to defend the existence of an independent Dutch state. The ground forces are commanded by the disgraced Marshal Forgues, allowing Bonaparte to quietly exile him. Forgues becomes friendly with (now) mercenary leader Manfred Landau, the two being increasingly appalled at some of the deviant proclivities of the man they are supposed to be helping.

Charles IV is officially crowned King of Old Spain in Madrid. The coronation is attended by all his brothers, come over from the New World, and his son, the future Ferdinand VII.

The destruction of Colquhoun's Band in Scotland by government forces. This act is very controversial, with the government claiming Colquhoun (who had previously fought against Churchill as part of the Men of Inveraray) had become a rogue bandit, while Scots claim the attack was ordered to prevent Scotland having a bigger voice at the table of the new Britain.

September - Treaties are signed organising a series of land exchanges in favour of the Kingdom of the Three Sicilies, outraging the Hapsburgs. The Grand Duchy of Tuscany is abolished and annexed to Naples, with the former Grand Duke Carlo III being made Duke of Barcelona and Viceroy of Catalonia (unofficially known as 'Carles', and officially changing the name of his house to 'Hapsburg-Bourbon') by way of compensation. Lucca is purchased by Naples from Casimir V of Poland. Parts of the Papal States' territories are also transferred to Neapolitan rule.

General Quosdanovich finally surrenders.

The New Spanish kings disagree on what to do with the imprisoned Alfonso XII. In the end he is stripped of all titles and sent into exile at Santa Fe [Bogota] in the Kingdom of New Granada.

October - With the loss of Bohemia and Silesia and the defeat of Quosdanovich, Austrian Chancellor Warthausen resigns and recommends peace be sought: though the Saxons could conceivably still be beaten, it is too great a risk considering the additional rebellions stirring throughout the Hapsburg dominions.

Portugal signs the Treaty of Toledo, recognising the return of Charles IV of New Spain to the throne of Old Spain. This officially ends the war, though fighting had long since died down in any case. It frees up the Portuguese to try and retake parts of Brazil from the Meridians, but John VI decides against pushing his overtaxed and rebellious army (and people) any further. He sends peace envoys to Cordoba.

November - Defeat of the last remnants of the Etrurian Republic rebels at the hands of Neapolitan forces, though they had long since been driven to the fringes of their former domain.

December - A ceasefire is declared between the Austrians and Saxons/Poles.

Philip Hamilton returns to West Africa after his long political interlude in the ENA.

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