1779-1785: The Second Platinean War. Spain and (theoretically) France vs. Peruvian Indian rebels, Platinean and Chilean colonial rebels, Britain and America, and (unofficially) Portugal. Defeat of the Bourbons with the creation of what will become the UPSA, although Britain suffers some embarrassing naval defeats in the process.

1779:

José Gabriel Condorcanqui, taking the name Tupac Amaru II as Sapa Inca of the Tahuantinsuyo, shoots the tyrannical Spanish Governor of Peru, Antonio de Arriaga, and begins the Great Andean Rebellion. The rest of the year sees an unsuccessful attempt by the colonial authorities to quell the revolt.

First deployment of the Ferguson breech-loading rifle by the British Army. Initially the rifle is not widely adopted due to its high cost and long production time, although it sees some use by frontier forces in the ENA. Breech-loaders will not be popularised until the 1820s. At the same time, the Austrian army first deploys the Repetierwindbüchse (repeating air rifle) designed by Bartholomäus Girandoni, which though not suitable for general adoption, sees considerable use by skirmishers.

1780:

Linnaeus' Taxonomy of Man is published posthumously, in which he argues that man is simply another of the primates. The book causes an uproar, but its impact on natural history and theology is somewhat overshadowed by the fact that the chapters dealing with the different races of men become the kernel of the ideology of Linnaean Racism.

The American Squadron is created by the Royal Navy, a kernel of the later Imperial Navy.

On Christmas Day, Tupac Amaru II takes Cusco from the Spanish colonial authorities and has himself formally coronated.

1781:

February - Forces of the Viceroyalty of Peru fail to retake Cusco from Tupac Amaru II's rebelling Indians.

May - In Upper Peru (OTL Bolivia) Tomas Katari, another Indian rebel leader, is defeated before La Paz and, pursued by Spanish regulars, retreats into Lower Peru. He combines his forces with Tupac Amaru II's, strengthening them.

June - In India, after many failed rebellions against the Durrani Afghans, the Sikhs finally win their independence.

August - In Lithuania, Grand Duke Povilas (the future Emperor Paul of Russia) institutes a new shipbuilding programme, known as the Patriotic Fleet as it embodies the idea of a Lithuania which has its own independent forces and is not merely a vassal of Russia.

1782:

January - Carl Wilhelm Scheele publishes, in Swedish, his work on gases. Because of Linnaeus' controversies resulting in many leading European thinkers learning Swedish to read his work in the original, Scheele's discoveries become widely known about.

March - King Louis XVI launches a French expedition to South America, although at the time of launch, it is still unclear which side he is supporting in the war there. The expedition is led by Admiral de Grasse and the Duc de Noailles.

April - The Africa Bubble scandal results in the resignation of the Marquess of Rockingham as Prime Minister of Great Britain. He is replaced by the Duke of Portland, but real power rests in the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Edmund Burke. The ruling Patriot party shifts to the left slightly and renames itself the Liberal Whigs.

May - Birth of Philip Hamilton (son of Alexander Hamilton) in New York City.

August - the French expedition reaches the Plate. The Spanish have told their colonists that the French are their allies, while the French believe that they are there to attack the Spaniards in their moment of weakness, due to crossed wires at the French foreign ministry. The result is a bloody occupation of undefended Buenos Aires by Noailles' army, with the Platineans bitterly blaming the Spanish for the incident. This is amplified by Spanish propaganda praising (invented) victories by the French against Tupac Amaru II.

1783:

January - Beginning of the Southern Rebellion, as the Rio de la Plata and Chile both rise in revolt against the Spanish. The Platineans begin building up their old militias again around cadres of veterans of the First Platinean War, and attack the French - initially without much success, as Noailles' forces are numerous and well-equipped.

February - Britain and the ENA enter the war in support of the Platinean rebels, hoping for expanded trade rights with any postwar independent state.

March - Tupac Amaru II takes Lima from the Spanish, but has trouble holding the strongly pro-Spanish city down.

April - Midshipman Leo Bone passes his lieutenantcy examination in Gibraltar. The new lieutenant is reassigned to HMS Raisonnable, where he first meets Lieutenant Horatio Nelson.

May - Maximilian III Wittelsbach, Elector of Bavaria, dies without issue. The electorate passes to Charles Theodore Sulzbach, Elector Palatine. Charles Theodore concludes a deal with the Austrians to swap Bavaria for the Austrian Netherlands, which now become the Duchy of Flanders. Bavaria is integrated into Austria (not very popular with the Bavarians) while Charles Theodore retains the Palatinate as well as Flanders. Although the Prussians would like to declare war over this (as in OTL), they are too busy trying to hold down the latest Polish rebellion to respond.

July - Anglo-American fleet under Admiral Howe defeats de Grasse at the Battle of the River Plate. The British fleet lands an army of mostly American troops led by General George Augustine Washington, who joins up with the Platinean rebels in order to attack the French in Buenos Aires.

September - Franco-Spanish fleet assembles at Cadiz to escort fresh troops to South America. The fleet is ambushed by Admiral Augustus Keppel in the Battle of Trafalgar, which is a shock defeat for the Royal Navy. Keppel is court-martialled and resigns in disgrace. However, the RN has destroyed enough French and Spanish troopships in order that the expedition is called off.

1784-1786: Third Mysore-Haidarabad War between Mysorean and FEIC forces on one side and Haidarabad and BEIC forces on the other. Due to poor communications between the BEIC and Haidarabad, the Mysoreans win a significant victory with blatant French help. The Nizam ejects the French from the Northern Circars in response and puts the British in charge there. The BEIC fights off the French and the British-Haidarabad alliance is subsequently strengthened.

1784:

March - Having caught wind of reports that the Franco-Spanish intend to occupy Malta, the Royal Navy quickly makes its move first and turn the island into what will become an important British naval base. Controversy is sparked throughout Europe at this preemptive strike, even though the British allow the Knights of St John to carry on in a ceremonial role.

April - the Spanish retake Lima from Tupac Amaru II.

Prince Lee Boe of Palau visits the Netherlands and is an instant celebrity, leading to renewed European interest in the South Sea islanders.

May - Disintegration of Franco-Spanish common policy as Louis XV attempts to use the Royal Navy's defeats as an opportunity to invade England. The French armies have still not assembled by the end of the war.

The Hanoverian-British composer and astronomer William Herschel dies while taking part on an astronomical mission in the South Seas.

June - Start of the Canadian Rebellion (by Quebecois) against Britain and America.

The rebels in Rio de la Plata announce the abolition of slavery.

July - A French fleet commanded by the Comte d'Estaing, Jean-Baptiste Charles Henri Hector, defeats the British in a dramatic but largely meaningless victory at the naval Battle of Bermuda.

August - Anglo-American siege of New Orleans defeated by the colonial French.

1785:

February - Anglo-American-Platinean-Chilean combined forces take La Paz from the Spanish.

March - In Britain, Shrapnel and Philips develop the hail shot (known as case shot in OTL), a potent anti-infantry weapon that remains a British military secret for a generation.

Birth of Thorvald Nielsen, a legendary adventurer, in Trondheim.

May - after a complicated amphibious invasion from Florida, American (mainly Carolinian) troops take Havana in Cuba.

Michael Hiedler, third son of a Bavarian printer, moves to Lower Austria in order to seek his fortune by enlisting in the Austrian army.

July - Canadian Rebellion crushed by British and New England troops. This revolt will result in Britain ceasing its policy of appeasing Quebecois interests, instead giving a green light to the New Englanders to settle the land. Many Quebecois are forcibly ejected, or choose to leave, and eventually go to Louisiana, where they become known as Canajuns.

August - Signing of the Treaty of London, ending the Second Platinean War. A severe defeat for Spain, which is forced to concede the independence of what will become the UPSA with the loss of a third of its colonial empire. The ENA retains Cuba, although its exact status remains up in the air for the moment. France loses little on paper, just the largely unpopulated hinterland of Louisiana, but has drained its treasury, and this will have severe consequences…

September - King Charles III of Spain forced once again to flee to France as the mob rules the streets of Madrid. Bernardo Tanucci is killed in the violence. When Charles returns, with the help of French troops, he is forced to appoint the liberal reformer José Moñino y Redondo, conde de Floridablanca, as chief minister.

October - British chemist Joseph Priestley publishes On the Nature of Phlogiston, in which he attempts to reconcile the established phlogiston-based theory of combustion with Scheele's discovery of illuftium [oxygen].

November - Admiral Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse sets out on a voyage of discovery financed by the King of France. The voyage included La Pérouse's new flagship, d'Estaing, followed by four frigates and a supply ship.

1786 March - John Pitt achieves a Colonelcy in the BEIC army.

May - Death of King Peter III of Portugal in a hunting 'accident'. He is shot down in front of Queen Maria, who is driven mad by the experience. Within a year, power passes to her son, who becomes Peter IV.

June - An attempt by the French East India Company to conquer the town of Masoolipatam, in the Northern Circars, is defeated by the British East India Company and Haidarabad. John Pitt fights heroically at the battle, is wounded, and achieves fame and fortune.

July - Death of King Uthumphon of Ayutthaya. He is succeeded by his son, Maha Ekatotaphak, who places much power in the hands of his minister Prachai Tangsopon (possibly his bastard half-brother). Prachai tames rebellious nobles, establishes the Kongthap Bok (Royal Army) and establishes more state control over trade.

August - Lieutenant Leo Bone is promoted to Master and Commander, and is given the almost obsolete 28-gun frigate Coventry. He is soon marked out as a man to watch by the Royal Navy as he transforms the ship and its crew into a lethal fighting machine with a mixture of discipline, charisma, and unorthodox tactical ideas.

December - La Pérouse's fleet reaches Easter Island and the Galapagos. Lamarck and Laplace, who accompanied the voyage, observe the wildlife of the Galapagos, eventually resulting in their landmark book for Linnaeanism, Observations on the Fauna of the Iles Galapagos.

1787:

Death of King Christian VII of Denmark. He is succeeded by his son, who becomes King Johannes II.

Discovery of the habitable regions of Antipodea by La Pérouse, who names the land New Gascony.

Death of the Daguo Emperor of China. He is succeeded by his third son Yongli, who becomes the Guangzhong Emperor.

1788:

March - George III returns to North America.

June - King Peter IV of Portugal appoints Jaime de Melo el Castro as Viceroy of Brazil. Melo becomes a reforming viceroy and is responsible for effectively creating a unitary Brazilian colonial entity, Brazil formerly having been a loose arrangement of separate colonies.

July - King George III, in his capacity as Emperor George I of North America, opens the first Continental Parliament.

August - Lithuanian Patriotic Fleet, carrying ambassador Moritz Benyovsky, visits the Empire of North America as part of its flying-the-flag world tour.

1789-1791: Fourth Mysore-Haidarabad War between Mysorean and FEIC forces on one side and Haidarabad and BEIC forces on the other. Both sides fight hard and competently in the last of the Mysore-Haidarabad Wars. In the end, Tippoo Sultan of Mysore emerges with a victory, having taken Carnool and Guntoor from Haidarabad.

1789:

March - The British Admiralty grants American shipyards the right to build ships of war for the Royal Navy.

April - Charles Darwin discovers light-sensitive silver salts, the beginning of the science of asimcony (photography).

May - Under pressure from the French and Spanish, Pope Gregory XV issues the papal bull Discidium which condemns the separation of the UPSA from Spain. This drives many Meridians towards Jansenist Catholicism, as any Catholic clergyman in the UPSA who rejects the bull is effectively considered a Jansenist by default.

June - The Great Famine strikes France. A failure by the King's government to respond coherently, coupled with the fact that the nobles continue to eat well, stokes the resentment of the French people towards the royal system.

July - In Portugal, a plot by the Duchess of Lafões against Peter IV is uncovered; Peter's response is another round of executions and land confiscations, further cowing the Portuguese nobility vis-a-vis royal power.

Maverick Chinese general Yu Wangshan defeats an attempt by the exiled Burmese Konbaung dynasty, led by Avataya Min, to retake Ava from the Chinese-backed Tougou dynasty. The Guangzhong Emperor, fearing Yu's alignment with neo-Manchu political factions, exiles him to the eastern forts of the “New Great Wall”.

The city state of Toungoo supported Avataya Min during the war, so its ruler Shin Aung is toppled by the Chinese and replaced by his more pliable (but unpopular) nephew Hkaung Shwe.

August - In North America, the Continental Parliament passes the Anti-Transportation Act, barring the forced transportation and settlement of British convicts in areas claimed by American colonies.

HMS Raisonnable, under the command of Captain Robert Brathwaite, visits Naples. Her first lieutenant, Horatio Nelson, meets Sir John Acton. Nelson is initially offended by Acton's career of fighting for the Mediterranean powers rather than his British homeland.

October - General Assembly of New England passes a law abolishing slavery by gradual manumission.

1790:

February - Convention of Cordoba establishes the United Provinces of South America.

March - John Pitt becomes Governor-General of the BEIC (based in Calcutta).

Charles Town, capital of the Confederation of Carolina, is officially renamed Charleston.

April - Peter IV of Portugal revives the Cortes, using the commoners as another stick to beat the nobility into line with.

May - China under the Guangzhong Emperor begins tightening trade restrictions with Europeans in Canton, irritating the various East India Companies.

June - The Continental Parliament of North America passes a bill instituting an American Special Commissioner to be sent to Britain and Consuls to be sent to France and Spain, essentially a backdoor project for exploring the possibility of independent American ambassadors.

1791:

April - Death of Grigory Potemkin, former lover of Empress Catherine of Russia.

May - British general election returns a majority for the ruling Portland Ministry, in which real power rests in Edmund Burke. The ruling party is known as the Liberal Whigs, while Charles James Fox's Radical Whigs also increase their vote share.

Imitating his idol the Kangxi Emperor, the Guangzhong Emperor of China has his wayward son and heir Baoyu stripped of his position and relegated to a lowly position in an attempt to teach him humility; however, Baoyu hangs himself, the Empress dies from a miscarriage upon hearing the news, and Guangzhong withdraws into seclusion with only two heirs, Baoli and Baoyi, left.

June - While making observations of sunspots, the Neapolitan astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi accidentally discovers paraerythric (infra-red) light. His discovery will remain controversial for years to come.

July - France is thrown into a panic due to rumours that a comet is due to strike the country.

At the height of a cursory Austro-Wallachian war, cavalryman Michael Hiedler is slightly wounded, decorated, and given the noble title of Edler von Strones. He settles near the village of Strones, marries, and fathers two children.

August - Persecuted by an angry mob for his radical political sympathies, Joseph Priestley flees Britain for the United Provinces of South America, where he will set up a very profitable soda water business.

La Pérouse visits the Kingdom of Corea, performing a little trade with King Hyojang. This includes artillery.

September - HMS Coventry is paid off. Commander Leo Bone, taking most of his crew with him, is made post and given command of the frigate HMS Diamond.

1792:

May - A joint Russo-Lithuanian mission, commanded by Moritz Benyovsky and Pavel Lebedev-Lastoschkin, sets off for Okhotsk from the Baltic the long way around, assisted by Dutch navigators.

June - Captain Horatio Nelson, commanding HMS Habana, visits Naples for the second time. Sir John Acton is now effectively the prime minister of King Charles VI and VIII, and Nelson reaches a rapproachment with him. He also meets the King's daughter, Princess Carlotta, for the first time. Their relationship is debated but she begins to argue for Nelson's interests at court.

July - British scientist Henry Cavendish, disappointed in fading interest in electricity research in his home country, goes to the UPSA to join his acquaintance Joseph Priestley.

August - Death in exile of Empress Catherine of Russia, wife of Peter III.

1793:

February - La Pérouse and his crew return to France after their first epic exploration of La Pérouse's Land [Australia]. Hoping to gain popular support from a national project, King Louis XVI agrees to fund a colonial venture there.

May - Captain Leo Bone and the HMS Diamond become famous for a hard-fought action against Algerine pirates off Malta.

Chinese heir Baoli is becoming as wayward as his dead brother; on prime minister Zeng Xiang's advice, the Guangzhou Emperor sends him to Mongolia under General Tang Zhoushou to have his ways beaten out of him on the frontier.

June - Richard Wesley, who had fought in India for the BEIC against Burmese-Arakan and Mysore, returns home to Ireland as his father has died. He is now the Earl of Mornington.

July - The rejuvenated British Royal Africa Company, under Simcoe in Dakar, intervenes in the Koya-Susu War on the Koya side - in exchange for the Koyans ceding the Company key land, which becomes the site of the freed-slave black colony of Freedonia.

La Pérouse, with more ships and carrying the natural philosophers Lamarck and Laplace, sets off once more from France for La Pérouse's Land.

August - Death of Abol Fath Khan, Shah-Advocate of Persia, from an illness. He is succeeded by his younger brother, who becomes Shah-Advocate Ali Zand Shah.

Chinese General Tang Zhoushou is called to Xinjiang to take advantage of the collapse of the Dzungars by the Kazakhs attacking from the west. However, he dies of a stomach ulcer, and his army - including the prince Baoli - comes under the commander of Yu Wangshan.

September - French Revolutionary thinker Jacques Tisserant, known as Le Diamant for his incorruptibility, publishes La Carte de la France, his pictorial manifesto for a new moderate and egalitarian French state.

October - Former slave Olaudah Equiano is appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the Crown Colony of Freedonia by the Governor of Dakar. This sets a precedent for the freed-slave colony to always be headed by a black leader.

1794:

February - The French Sans-Culottes, led by Le Diamant, march on the Palais de Versailles to present their demands to the King. Le Diamant's charisma and general discontent mean that the palace guards refuse to fire on the crowd. Louis XVI gives in and agrees to recall the Estates-General. The French Revolution has begun.

March - The Imperial Mint, in Fredericksburg, mints the first golden Emperors. These coins, worth one British pound each, are intended to replace the Spanish dollar as the main currency of the Empire of North America.

In Oceania, La Pérouse's fleet arrives in La Pérouse's Land, in the region called New Gascony [OTL New South Wales/Victoria], and founds the town of Albi, starting the colony.

April - Act of Settlement (in North America) sees New England give up its westward expansion claims in exchange for the right to settle Canada with no restrictions.

In Corea, after the successful trade experiment with La Pérouse's fleet, King Hyojang opens the port of Pusan for foreign trade - mainly that of the Dutch East India Company.

Birth of Frederick Paley, son of the philosopher and Christian apologist William Paley.

June - In the UPSA, Joseph Priestley and Henry Cavendish, together with many local Meridian scientists, found the Solar Society of Cordoba, a mirror to the old Lunar Society of Birmingham of their youth. The Solar Society will be a centre for collaborative scientific research and knowledge exchange in the UPSA.

July - The recalled French Estates-General conclude that their existing mediaeval system is inadequate, and create a National Constitutional Convention. The Third Estate renames itself the Communes.

August - Anglo-American agreement results in Michigan being turned into a penal colony, later known as Susan-Mary.

October - the Benyovsky-Lebedev Russo-Lithuanian mission sights Nagasaki from a distance, but does not land.

December - the French National Constitutional Convention publishes its constitution, abolishing the Estates-General and replacing them with a new National Legislative Assembly. The Kingdom of France and Navarre becomes the Kingdom of the French People of the Latin Race, a constitutional monarchy.

1795-1796: The Flemish War. Name for the early phase of the Franco-Austrian front of the Jacobin Wars, when the battleground was primarily Flanders and northeastern France. Revolutionary France vs. Austria, French royalists, Piedmont-Sardinia, and German allies from the various states of the Holy Roman Empire. Result: stalemate.

1795:

January - French Constitution comes into force. The Comte de Mirabeau becomes chief minister and struggles to implement it in the face of opposition from the nobles and the Church.

February - Benyovsky-Lebedev mission lands in Okhotsk.

The French astronomer Charles Messier discovers the seventh planet, which he initially names “Étoile du Diamant” (the Diamond Star) after Le Diamant. This name is not widely accepted and the planet eventually becomes known as Dionysus.

March - The Dauphin of France, Louis-Auguste, travels to Navarre in order to sort out the implications of the new constitution there. Thus he is not present in Paris when subsequent events occur.

Pennsylvania Confederal Assembly abolishes both slavery and the slave trade.

April - Death of the Comte de Mirabeau. France is plunged into a constitutional crisis. The moderates in the NLA favour Jacques Necker as new chief minister while the Jacobin radicals put forward Jean-Baptiste Robespierre.

May - King Louis XVI decides on Jacques Tisserant (Le Diamant) as a compromise candidate for chief minister. However, a miscommunication means that when Le Diamant is sent for, troops arrive to escort him and this is mistaken for Le Diamant being arrested. In the ensuing riot, Le Diamant is accidentally shot, and the radical Jacobins quickly play upon the popular outrage at this to launch the new violent phase of the French Revolution.

A few days later, with most of the French Army defecting to the Jacobins and Sans-Culottes, the Marshal of France Phillipe Henri, the Marquis de Ségur, takes loyal troops and fortifies the Bastille, intending to bring the King there to keep him safe from the mob, but it is too late for this. The Sans-Culottes arrest the royal family, and radical Jacobin troops led by Georges Hébert manage to take the Bastille from Ségur. Ségur is brutally beheaded by an unknown Revolutionary soldier who becomes the iconic image, L'Épurateur.

On the 15th, the King is executed after a show trial, by the new 'Rational' means of phlogistication in a gas chamber.

By coincidence, on the same day in India, Nana Fadnavis, chief minister to Peshwa Madhavarao Narayan of the Maratha Confederacy, is assassinated. The loss of his administrative abilities means the young Madhavarao struggles to contain a rebellion led by the pretender Raosaheb.

July - The Parliament of Great Britain debates responses to the French Revolution as its takes this new radical turn. The ruling Portland-Burke Ministry is strongly opposed to the Revolution, while the Radical Whigs under Fox favour it.

In the Pacific, Lebedev and Benyovski set off for Edzo again, but are blown off course, are unable to find the Matsumae Han, and their ship is wrecked in the north of the island. They are attacked by the native Aynyu [Ainu], but Benyovsky makes a parley and is able to convince the Aynyu to trade supplies and protection so that the ship may be repaired for some of the European goods it carries. Including guns.

August - Execution by phlogistication of Marie-Antoinette, wife of the Dauphin of France (who has fled to Spain from Navarre). Austria declares war on Revolutionary France in support of the exiled Dauphin.

The French mob targets the British Ambassador and American Consul, Frederick Grenville and Thomas Jefferson respectively. Grenville is badly wounded but escapes; Jefferson is killed. This provokes outrage in London and Fredericksburg.

In India, Raosaheb's forces (backed by the Nizam of Haidarabad) run Madhavarao Narayan out of Pune and he flees to Raigad, where he seeks help from the Portuguese East India Company.

September - First Austrian troops cross into French territory from Flanders and Baden. Furious battles against Revolutionary levies begin almost immediately.

The Parliament of Great Britain votes to declare war on France (by 385 to 164), although this news will not reach the Mediterranean for a while.

On the 17th, Royalist Toulon is besieged by Revolutionary armies led by Adam Phillipe, the former Comte de Custine. The French fleet there is led by the indecisive Comte d'Estaing, who hesitates over whether to fight or cleave to the new regime. He sends some of his forces to Corsica in order to bring back more supplies to relieve the siege, but exposure to Revolutionary ideas means that a large part of this force mutinies. Leo Bone, whose crew is having shore leave in Corsica, learns of the events in Toulon.

October - Leo Bone goes to Toulon and successfully cons Admiral d'Estaing into believing that the British have concluded a deal with the Dauphin to fight the Revolutionaries and restore the throne, so the Royalist French fleet must go to Corsica and join with the British. Bone had intended to pull off the largest and most bloodless prize-taking ever, but is suprised to learn that his lie has become the truth by the time the fleet reaches Corsica. This is due to the implementation of the 'Burke Strategy', Edmund Burke's plan to support French royalists and not snatch their colonies - arguing that the French Republic is too dangerous to allow to exist, even if it means allying with Britain's old enemy Bourbon France.

The Sans-Culotte levies of the French Revolutionary army are defeated by General Johannes Mozart and his Austro-German army at the Battle of Laon. Mozart's army occupies Maubeuge.

Colonel Ney swiftly rises to prominence as he commands a fighting retreat against a second Austro-German army in the Col de Sauverne, in Lorraine.

Death of Emperor Peter III of Russia. He is legally succeeded by his son, who steps down as Grand Duke Paul I of Lithuania to become Emperor Paul I of Russia. However, this is contested by the brothers Potemkin.

In India, Portuguese EIC forces under João Pareiras da Silva attack Raosaheb's forces with the intention of restoring Madhavarao to the Peshwa-ship.

In Oceania, La Pérouse visits the Mauré for the second time, learning that the muskets the French sold them before have dramatically changed the pattern of warfare there, catapulting the Tainui to dominance, while they are opposed by the Touaritaux-Touaux Alliance. In order to help feed the new colony, the French give the Tainui not merely guns but the secret of making them, in exchange for crops and seed.

November - Continental Parliament votes 46-9 in favour for an American declaration of war on France.

In France, Pierre Boulanger wins his famous victory against Johannes Mozart at the Battle of Lille, using the new Cugnot-wagon technology to his advantage. This results in the French retaking Maubeuge and halting the Austrian advance into France.

The French inventor Louis Chappe, helped by the fact that his brother is a member of the NLA, receives French government funding to develop a semaphore communications network.

In Russia, the Potemkinites assemble their army and march on Moscow.

First rumours of the United Society of Equals, a republican movement in Ireland that is theoretically secular and in practice dominated by Protestants, especially Presbyterians.

December - On advice by General Sir Fairfax Washington, Viscount Amherst (commander-in-chief of the British Army) recommends that new regiments be raised in America. The Parliament of Great Britain passes the American Regiments Act (1795), which grants Fredericksburg plenipotentiary powers to raise troops.

After a series of indecisive battles along the Flemish border, the Austrian and Revolutionary French armies dig in for the winter.

Paul crowned Emperor of All the Russias in St Petersburg. However, news reaches him that the Potemkinites under General Saltykov have taken Moscow. Start of the Russian Civil War.

1796-1800: The Russian Civil War, which eventually broadens into the Great Baltic War. Romanovian Russians, Lithuania, and Denmark vs. Potemkinite Russians and Sweden. Result: Romanovian victory in Russia; Sweden defeated and forced into personal union with Denmark. The Ottoman Empire and Persia take advantage of the chaos to re-extend their influence into areas contested by Russia, primarily the Caucasus and also Bessarabia and the Khanate of the Crimea.

1796:

January - the people of Liège rise up and overthrow their Prince-Bishop, installing a copycat republic based on disseminated French propaganda.

February - General Mozart leaves winter quarters to besiege Liège, a miserable affair on both sides.

March - Jean de Lisieux, a French Revolutionary leader, publishes La Vapeur est Républicaine, 'Steam is Republican', a pamphlet which enshrines steam power as ideologically correct. Lisieux and Boulanger form a political alliance with Cugnot and other French engineers and radical warriors, such as Blanchard and Surcouf. This research cabal becomes known as La Boulangerie, 'the Bakery'.

Paris sees the start of Robespierre's Reign of Terror, after Royalists holed up in a church/powder store blow up Georges Hébert and his Guard Nationale. The Republican reprisal is swift, with men sent to the chirurgien or phlogisticateur for the most minor imagined crime against the People. Lisieux, using Cugnot's new Tortue 'Tortoise' armoured steam-wagon, crushes part of the revolt and becomes a hero of the Jacobin mob. Lisieux replaces Hébert as third Consul, resulting in Danton being overlooked - he soon goes to the phlogisticateur himself, along with other personal enemies of Robespierre.

Meanwhile, Britain deploys an expeditionary force to Flanders under the command of the Prince of Wales, Frederick George.

In India, the Portuguese General Pareiras defeats Raosaheb's forces in the epic Siege of Gawhilgoor. This breakthrough restores Madhavarao to the Peshwa-ship (in truth, now only ruling the land of Konkan) but Portuguese 'guidance', expressed through a resident in Pune, now truly controls that region.

April - General Boulanger's deputy Thibault Leroux leads an army to relieve the siege of Liège. Mozart's starving army forced back into Flanders, and ravages the Flemish countryside with its marauding. Charles Theodore of Flanders and his minister Emmanuel Grosch take note, and fear for the resentment provoked by the Imperial presence. They enter secret negotiations with Boulanger and with Statdholder William V of the Netherlands.

Robespierre reduces the suffrage of the French Republic to Sans-Culottes only, growing ever more paranoid about there being enemies everywhere. The powers of the National Legislative Assembly are undermined daily.

In North America, the American Preventive Cutter Service is created. This coastguard's main role is to prevent smuggling and piracy, in particular the illegal private transportation of convicts to America. The Continental Parliament also authorises the creation of the Commission for Continental Regiments, the first American 'ministry', which operates out of Cornubia Palace in Fredericksburg.

On the 25th (Gregorian calendar) or 14th (Russian calendar), in Russia, the Potemkinites successfully take the city of Smolensk from the Romanovians in an important victory. Emperor Paul retreats into Lithuania.

May - Full gearing-up of the spring campaign in Flanders. Mozart's Austrians make a second, more half-hearted siege of Liège, but the main force attempts to push deeper into France. Mozart fights Boulanger again at Cambrai and wins a pyrrhic victory with considerable Austro-German losses.

Retreating army of Emperor Paul of Russia is attacked by a Potemkinite force under Suvorov near Vitebsk. Perhaps one-third of Paul's army is destroyed. It is assumed by many that a Potemkin victory in the Russian civil war is now assured.

In America, the Treaty of Sandusky ends the Ohio War. This scattered conflict had been going on since the end of the Third War of Supremacy, and results in the defeat of the Lenape, Huron and Ottawa Indians with the victory of Pennsylvania, New York and the Iroquois. The Lenape and Ottawa are virtually destroyed, but the Huron confederacy fragments into separate tribes, some of which go west to join the Lakota, some go south and are allowed to settle in French Louisiana, and one - the Tahontaenrat - joins the Iroquois, forming the Seven Nations.

Alain Carpentier, wastrel son of Louis XVI's physician Henri Carpentier (who had risen from common birth to riches) escapes Robespierre's reign of terror and arrives in Nantes, much to the displeasure of many aristocrats like the Duke of Berry.

June - Mozart orders a retreat and regroup of the Austro-German army, resupplying from Flanders. However, Charles Theodore makes a shock announcement that Flanders is seceding from the Empire, and is supported by William V's Dutch Republic. Cut off and low on supplies, there is little prospect of the Austrians being able to fight their way through (after failing to force a Flemish border fort or retake Liège), so Mozart orders the army to wheel southwards in order to retreat to Trier.

Meanwhile, in North America, HMS Marlborough under Captain Paul Wilkinson and the naturalist Erasmus Darwin II perform the first survey of Michigan, which had been named as a potential penal colony.

In Sweden, the Hat party takes control of the Riksdag for the first time since the 1760s. The Hats fear a future war of the Swedish succession - King Charles XII has no children - and therefore vote to intervene in Russia on the Potemkinite side, to secure Potemkinite Russia as an ally in any future conflict.

July - The Flemings eject the British expeditionary force from Flanders due to their declaration of neutrality. This embarrassment, coupled with Edmund Burke's death, leads to the fall of the Portland Ministry. It is replaced by a new war government under the ageing Marquess of Rockingham, while the Radicals and Radical-leaning Whigs under Charles James Fox become the main voice of opposition.

Meanwhile, the Flemings and Dutch fight to eject the Bavarian army 'of occupation' from Flanders, where it had been waiting to reinforce the Austrians.

August - Bavarian army retreats into the Empire. The Netherlands and Flanders formally sign their alliance into being with the Maastricht Pact. Mozart's army reaches Trier, by now a shadow of its former self after having been harried by the French enroute.

The disgraced Mozart is recalled to Vienna and replaced with Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser.

To the south, the Genoese people overthrow their old oligarchic Republic and declare a Ligurian Republic, which is swiftly occupied by French forces under the mercurial Lazare Hoche.

In Russia, an attack by General Sergei Saltykov on St Petersburg is defeated by Mikhail Kamenski, who destroys the Potemkinite siege train and forces a retreat. This breaks a chain of Potemkinite victories and shows the Romanovians are still in the game.

September - Austrian forces finally break through the Col de Sauverne with heavy losses and spill into Lorraine. Ney is nonetheless recognised for his valiant actions and is promoted to General.

The Ottoman Empire begins its quiet intervention in the Russian Civil War, exerting influence over the formerly Russian-influenced lands of Moldavia, Bessarabia, the Crimean Khanate and Georgia. The Georgians reject the Ottoman demands and King George XII sends Prince Piotr Bagration to Russia, insisting that Russia honours its treaty agreements to defend Georgia.

October - The Netherlands is hit by a brief wave of Revolution, inspired by the French. Flemish troops, fresh from the campaign against the Bavarians, assist Stadtholder William V's own Dutch army in putting down attempted revolts in the Hague and Amsterdam. The Dutch Republic remains.

November - The French under Hoche win some minor victories in Savoy against Piedmont-Sardinia.

Secret treaty of alliance between the Kingdom of Sweden and Potemkinite Russia. The Swedes begin building up their forces in Finland.

1797:

January - The Chinese heir Baoli returns to Beijing as a hero worshipper of Yu Wangshan and a supporter of the neo-Manchu movement. The Guangzhong Emperor dithers over whether to instead name his second son Baoyi, less dynamic but also less dangerous in his views, as heir.

Pablo Sanchez is born in Cervera, Spain.

February - Prince Bagration is attacked by bandits in the Caucasus, but rescued by Heinrich Kautzman, the 'Bald Impostor'. The Georgians and Cossacks form an agreement, with King George XII of Georgia agreeing to become an Ottoman vassal for the present, committing his army along with the Cossacks to help the Romanovians win the Civil War, so that a Romanov Russia can come in later and reverse the situation.

March - Death of Frederick William II of Prussia, after a long illness. His son succeeds him as Frederick William III. With initial risings in Warsaw and Lodz, Poland immediately rebels, taking advantage of the instability of the change of regime. The rebel armies are commanded by the experienced mercenary Kazimierz Pułaski. The Polish rebellion is discreetly assisted by Lithuanian arms, although the Lithuanians mostly remain loyal to Grand Duke Peter and have little enthusiasm for reforming the old Commonwealth.

Start of the Great Aynyu (Ainu) Rebellion in Edzo (Hokkaido) against the Japanese Matsumae Han, aided and abbetted by Benyovsky's Russians trading guns to the Aynyu.

April - the French launch their Poséidon Offensive, a three-pronged strike consisting of the left under Ney hitting the Ausrians in Lorraine, the centre under Boulanger and Leroux invading Switzerland, and the right under Hoche attacking Piedmont.

In Toulon harbour, Surcouf demonstrates the first steamship, a paddlewheel tug known as the Vápeur-Remorqueur.

The Swedish-Potemkinite alliance is publicly revealed in Russia. Swedish armies based in Finland invade Russia, seeking to encircle St Petersburg. The King of Sweden officially recognises Alexander Potemkin as Emperor of All Russias.

The Continental Parliament creates the office of a Special Commissioner to Britain, essentially an ambassador in all but name, who will represent America's interests in London. The first of these is Albert Gallatin.

May - French under Leroux occupy Geneva and Basel, driving deeper into Switzerland.

In response to the Swedish entry into the Russian Civil War, Denmark declares war on Sweden and the Potemkinites, and officially recognises Paul Romanov as Emperor of All Russias. The Russian Civil War has become the Great Baltic War.

The Prussians begin withdrawing their troops from Austria's pan-German war effort in order to put down the Polish revolt, weakening the Germans on both a physical and moral level.

The Royal Danish Navy sorties and wins its first victory of the war, defeating an inferior Swedish naval force at the Battle of Anholt. The Kattegat falls under Danish control, although the Swedes still hold Malmö with a second fleet.

Death of Elector Frederick Christian II of Saxony. Childless, he is succeeded by his brother, who becomes John George V.

June - Wurmser's army, consisting of combined Austrian, Saxon and Hessian troops, narrowly defeats Ney at the Battle of Saint-Dié.

Hoche begins his celebrated campaign against the Austrians and Sardinians in Piedmont. He divides his forces in order to meet two Austrian armies, the northern one at Omegna under József Alvinczi and the southern under Paul Davidovich.

The Royal Swedish Navy under Admiral Carl August Ehrensvärd blockades Klaipeda and attempts to burn the Lithuanian fleet in harbour. However, the Lithuanian commander, Admiral Vatsunyas Radziwiłł, sacrifices his galleys in order to punch a hole in the Swedish line and allow his sail fleet to escape.

The Polish rebels convene a Sejm and elect John George V of Saxony as King of Poland. John George accepts and declares war on Prussia, withdrawing Saxon troops from the pan-German Austrian war effort in order to accomplish this. Ironically, as the Prussian and Saxon troops do not know for which reason they have been recalled, they often bivouac with each other on the way back across Germany. This begins a domino effect of German states recalling their troops, fearful of their neighbours possessing functional armies, fatally weakening Germany in the face of French aggression.

July - Wurmser occupies Nancy, putting the Austrians in a position to threaten Paris. But there they halt, waiting for reinforcements that will not come.

Hoche's offensive move makes Alvinczi hesitate long enough to smash Davidovich with the full force of his recombined army.

Russo-Lithuanian Romanovian armies under General Barclay de Tolly defeat Swedish invaders at the Battle of Seinai.

August - Leroux defeats most of the Swiss militias and occupies Bern.

Romanovian forces win a victory over the Swedes at the Battle of Alytus.

Hoche's army meets Alvinczi's now-outnumbered forces at Milan, defeats the Austrians and forces them to retreat through the chaos of Switzerland. The Piedmontese royal family, stripped of Austrian support, flees Piedmont for Sardinia.

October - With the withdrawal of the Hapsburgs from much of northern Italy, Hoche attacks and occupies Spanish Parma. In response to news of French atrocities, Spain steps up the war against France.

Concerned about the French victory on the other two fronts, Emperor Ferdinand IV orders Wurmser to retreat from Nancy, conceding the Austrian victory there in order to reassemble his armies to contest French control of Switzerland and Piedmont in the 1797 campaigning season.

The Swedes are defeated by the Romanovians at Trakai. This expels them from the Vojvodship of Trakai, but leaves them in control of the Eldership of Samogita, along with Courland and Swedish Prussia.

November - Jean Marat forced to resign his consulship and is installed as sole consul of the new Swiss Republic, secured by Leroux. Marat is replaced as consul of France by Boulanger, an unconstitutional move which is not contested thanks to Robespierre's Terror.

December - France begins quietly withdrawing troops from Switzerland and transferring them primarily to the German front.

1798:

January - in a calculated piece of spite, the French burn down the Habichtsburg, the ancestral Hapsburg castle in Switzerland.

March - Thanks to Robespierre's paranoia about a British invasion of the unprotected French coast, French raw recruits are marched up and down western France in training to create a visible presence. This plan, however, somewhat backfires as the boorish conscripts' activities inflame the local Vendean and Breton disenchantment with the Revolution…

The Austrians begin their spring offensives, primarily on the Swiss and Italian fronts. They are initially highly successful. In Italy, Archduke Ferdinand proves his generalship when, together with Wurmser, he surrounds Hoche and forces him to retreat.

But, contrary to Austrian expectations, the French's own “Rubicon” offensive focuses on the Lorraine front. Two armies under Leroux and Ney sweep around from north and south, for the first time utilising the 'War of Lightning' doctrine that reduces the need for a supply train by making the troops live off the land. This means they often outrun the news of their coming.

Kiev falls to the new Cossack/Georgian Romanovian army.

The Battle of the Erbe Strait between the Russian and Lithuanian fleets on one side and the Swedes on the other. The Russo-Lithuanians win a pyrrhic tactical victory that is strategically a far greater gain - both navies are devastated as fighting forces, but this leaves the Swedes unable to oppose the Danes.

April - Ney's army takes Karlsruhe, capital of Baden, and the Badenese Margrave's family are publicly executed on Robespierre's orders. The French win several key battles against Austrian and local Swabian forces, the flatter terrain now lending deadly effect to their Cugnot weapons.

Supported by amphibious descents by the Spanish Navy, General Cuesta's Spanish army in Gascony besieges Bordeaux.

Charles Messier is executed by phlogistication, one of many French scientists to meet this fate under Robespierre's terror.

May - Ney's army occupies Stuttgart, capital of Württemberg, but the Duke and his family have already fled.

Now ruling the waves of the Baltic, the Danes perform a descent on Swedish Pomerania and swiftly seize the province.

Voronezh surrenders to Kautzman's army.

L’Épurateur, a French second-rate ship of the line, arrives in Madras and Republican envoy René Leclerc orders Governor-General Rochambeau to cleave to Paris' line. Rochambeau rejects him, and a fuming Leclerc goes to Mysore in order to gain the help of Tippoo Sultan, an admirer of revolutionary ideals.

June - With the French advance having reached Franconia, Boulanger orders Ney's army to disperse in order to occupy the territory gained, while Leroux's continues on towards Regensburg.

Having defeated the Danish army in Norway, the Swedes besiege Christiania.

Death by drowning of Myeongjo, first son of King Hyojang of Corea and champion of conservatives. Foul play is probable.

July - A French army under Custine breaks the Siege of Bordeaux; Cuesta's Spaniards retreat southwards.

Fall of Ulm to the French. Emperor Ferdinand IV desperately reinstates General Mozart.

Fall of Kazan to Kautzman's army.

United Society of Equals (USE) rises to prominence in Ireland; they are contacted and supplied with weapons and pamphlets by Lisieux. These are transported using co-opted Breton fishermen to beat the British blockade; however, some of the pamphlets end up staying in Brittany, and inflame Breton opinion against the Republic (which there was largely only a rumour).

August - Battle of Burgau between Davidovich's Austrians and Leroux's French. The result is a punishing French victory, Davidovich's infantry almost totally destroyed by the rapidly shifting enfilading and plunging fire afforded by the French Cugnot artillery. Ferdinand IV finally acquiesces to Mozart's demand that everything be pulled back for a last-ditch defence of Vienna, abandoning Regensburg. The Emperor leaves for the latter city.

Surrounded by Austrians thanks to Archduke Ferdinand's gambit, Hoche retreats into the Terrafirma of Venice.

The Bohemian inventor Wenzel Linck miniaturises and improves the Girandoni's 'wind rifle', making a short-range repeater that can be more easily pumped up by one person for more rapid fire. The 'Linck gun' is particularly popular with Austria's elite skirmishers, the Grenzers.

Full-scale seaborne Danish invasion of Scania. The Swedish government hastily begins recalling armies in order to try and prevent the Danes from breaking out further.

A small Spanish force under Major Joaquín Blake y Joyes defeats part of Custine's French army at the Battle of Bayonne.

Guarded only by a token Potemkinite force, Vitebsk is retaken by the Romanovians.

September - Hoche's troops fall upon Venice the city and pillage it. End of the Venetian Republic, its territories annexed to Hoche's purported Italian Republic. The Venetian territories in Dalmatia immediately become a sore point between Vienna and Constantinople. In response to the 'Rape of Venice', the Venetian fleet under Admiral Grimani flees to the port of Bari in Naples, and after negotiating with King Charles VI and VIII, takes up service with the Neapolitan navy.

Kautzman's army moves into the Moscow region. Rumour exaggerates this into the idea that he has actually sacked the city.

October - On the 9th, the Vendée and Brittany explode into royalist revolt - the Chouannerie - against the French Republic. Britain prepares to intervene on their side.

General Alvinczi attempts to fight a delaying action against Leroux west of Regensburg, but is defeated - though he saves most of his army, which retreats southward. Emperor Ferdinand IV gives a passionate but insane speech in the Reichstag about the coming destruction, in which he declares the end of the Empire, before falling over dead from a heart attack. As he does so, the French advance on Regensburg and take the city…

Archduke Ferdinand prepares to besiege Hoche in Venice, but is recalled thanks to the success of the French Rubicon offensive in Germany. Hoche pursues the Austrians but is held back at the well-defended Brenner Pass. He is now nonetheless the undisputed master of northern Italy.

The second Battle of Smolensk between the Romanovians and Potemkinites. After three hard, gruelling days of combat, the Potemkinites are on the brink of victory, when news of Kautzman's supposed sacking of Moscow spreads and Potemkin's mostly Muscovite left wing collapses. Though the bulk of the Potemkinite army withdraws in good order, Alexander Potemkin is captured by the Romanovians.

Great Ulster Scare. Ireland explodes into rebellion as the USE seize key points all over Ulster and Leinster. The British garrison in Belfast, a strongly USE-supporting town, goes down fighting.

November - After being rebuffed by Surcouf, Robespierre nominates the fey Admiral Villeneuve to lead an outnumbered Republican naval force against the Anglo-Royal French fleets massing in British ports.

The USE take Dublin, burning the assembled Irish parliament to death inside their own building. The British garrison in Dublin, which had been cut back considerably due to the troops assembling for an invasion of France, is defeated and massacred by the vengeful USE. First reports of the Great Ulster Scare reach London, but it is already too far-gone to contain easily.

Death of the cautious Sultan Abdulhamid II of the Ottoman Empire. He is succeeded by his more maverick nephew, who becomes Sultan Murad V. He appoints Mehmed Ali Pasha as Grand Vizier and the two of them begin eyeing the debated former Venetian territories in Dalmatia…

1799:

January - Richard Wesley, Earl of Mornington, survived the Dublin attack because he was at home in Galway. He now assembles a Royalist army against the USE and is widely praised for managing to call Irish Catholics to his banner - indeed his army is majority Catholic.

Birth of future Great American War General Alf Stotts in Congaryton, South Province, Carolina.

February - Britain launches the Seigneur Offensive. Four fleets, one Royal French, all protecting troopships, leave the southern ports for Brittany and the Vendée. Villeneuve manages to intercept one of the British fleets under Admiral Duncan at the Battle of Wight, before it forms up with the others, and sinks or disables most of its troopships.

Villeneuve then throws everything that remains at the Royal French fleet within the formed-up British forces, with the intention of killing Louis XVII, but though he does manage to board the latter's flagship and kill Admiral d'Estaing, his attack is successfully deflected by Leo Bone, who draws one of Villeneuve's ships away. Bone's ship defeats the enemy days later off the coast of France, but is holed and has to be beached.

The victorious British and Royal French, having defeated Villeneuve, attack Quiberon. Louis XVII lands and declares himself King.

Having reached the end of their supply lines, Leroux's army's offensive towards Vienna slows, but inexorably continues.

March - Leroux's army besieges Vienna. The French succeed in destroying several Austrian forts and other defences, but lose some of their artillery to a Hungarian attack at night.

Last Potemkinite armies disintegrate.

Wesley holds back the USE armies at Rosscommon and Kilkenny. This encourages the British government not to slow their planned Seigneur Offensive against France, but instead to send Wesley only three regular regiments to support him. These arrive in Limerick towards the end of the month.

April - The Battle of Vienna. As the French begin breaking down the capital's walls, General Mozart leads an army out in a desperate gamble to attack them on the field of battle. The French engage him and are on the brink of victor, but the Austrians are saved by the 'Miracle on the Danube', when Archduke Ferdinand returns from Italy in the nick of time with Croat cavalry, who break up the undisciplined French conscript infantry. Leroux is killed and Mozart mortally wounded.

The French army retreats under Cougnon, but the latter is killed by the maniacal Lascelles, who takes most of the army and retreats into Bavaria, setting up a tyrannical 'Bavarian Germanic Republic'. The rest, the 'Cougnonistes', under St-Julien, go north into Bohemia and effectively set up their own fiefdom around Budweis.

Panic in Matsumae-town in Edzo thanks to the Aynyu successes. The Daimyo decides to beg help from Edo in order to put down the rebellion, but is assassinated by one of his lieutenants who fears a purge by the Shogun. Matsumae dissolves into civil war.

Grand Duke Carlo of Tuscany, in support of his fellow Hapsburgs, attacks Lazare Hoche in the rear while the latter is engaged along the Alps, and manages to liberate Lucca, Modena and Mantua.

May - Thanks to Lisieux's and Boulanger's plotting, two deliberately inexperienced French armies under Paul Vignon and Jacques Pallière are sent to drive back the British in the Vendée.

Ottoman Empire declares war on Austria, invading Austrian-held Bosnia and sending troops under Dalmat Melek Pasha to seize the former Venetian territories in Dalmatia.

Battle of Carlow between Wesley's Royalists and the USE. Wesley now has artillery to match the USE's, and wins a limited victory. The USE, under the French General O'Neill, retreats. This is the end of the USE's victory streak and raises enthusiasm for Wesley elsewhere.

With the Swedish armies besieging St Petersburg being stripped of forces for the home front, Romanovian generals Kamenski and Kurakin begin to drive back the reduced enemy forces.

Emperor Paul re-enters Moscow, held by Kautzman. Paul agrees to some of Kautzman's demands for serf emancipation in order to secure his support. He exiles Ivan Potemkin and Sergei Saltykov to Yakutsk, and installs Alexander Potemkin as Duke of a restored independent Courland. End of the Russian Civil War.

June - The two French armies in the Vendée are decisively defeated by the British, although part of Pallière's army escapes to the south. It is later defeated by a local militia organised by the shipwrecked Leo Bone and his crew, pressed into service using his ship's guns as artillery. This launches Bone as a hero and celebrity in the Vendean imagination.

Richard Wesley's army takes Kildare.

On North America's Pacific coast, the fur-trading operation of the British adventurer John Goodman on the island of Noochaland [Vancouver Island] is stopped by a Spanish expedition out of New Spain, who place him under arrest. Goodman is eventually released, but the incident highlights the importance of claiming the Pacific seaboard to the Americans and Russians. Goodman eventually goes to Hawaii.

An attack by the Austrians on Lascelles' troops, encamped on the Enns near Admont, is bloodily repulsed, demonstrating that Lascelles can fight.

July - The Apricot Revolution in France. Robespierre has no-one else left to blame for the failure in the Vendée. Lisieux smoothly maneouvres him out of power - he either commits suicide or is murdered - and Lisieux becomes sole Administrator of France. Having purged everything he can of Robespierre loyalists, Lisieux orders Boulanger to now send the full force of the Republican army against the British.

An Irish Royalist army under George Wesley (Richard's younger brother) takes Wicklow. A USE army to the south panics, congregates on Wexford and then disintegrates or flees to France.

The Swedes have held the Scanian front against the Danes, but the Russo-Lithuanians have begun to roll up their armies in the Baltic lands.

General election in America returns a majority for the Constitutionalist Party. The Lord Deputy, the Duke of Grafton, asks Constitutionalist leader James Monroe to form a government as Lord President.

August - In Japan, Benyovsky's Russo-Lithuanian ships attack Matsumae-town, defeat the defenders and install their own puppet Daimyo.

Leo Bone's irregulars near Saint-Hilaire fight regular Republican troops for the first time, and win.

September - British forces take Caen in Normandy. Alain Carpentier, largely due to being in the right place at the right time, manages to become a hero by leading a successful cavalry charge against the Republican French, achieving grudging acceptance for himself and his drunkard son Joseph at the Royal French court. He is made Comte de Toulouse (a largely meaningless title for the moment) in recognition of this.

Last Swedish army in Livonia surrenders, leaving the Russians and Lithuanians in control of the Swedes' former Baltic possessions. The Swedish army in Finland repulses an attempted attack by Kurakin.

After getting into numerous fights at King's College over political and philosophical disagreements, Philip Hamilton is sent by his father to work for the Royal Africa Company.

Around this time, due to his strong Confucian beliefs, the Guangzhong Emperor of China starts leaning on the 'Hongmen' of Canton in an effort to discourage the foreign trade which he perceives as a weakness.

October - Battle of Caen. Boulanger, assisted by new Cugnot weapons, decisively defeats the British and Royal French. The Prince of Wales is killed in the battle, meaning Prince Henry William is now the heir apparent. The British are swept out of Normandy.

The Austrians draw up a new army under General Giuseppe Bolognesi to drive Lascelles' rogue French troops farther away from Vienna. Lascelles, outnumbered, retreats through the Waldviertel. His troops perform a particularly vicious maraude as a scorched-earth policy against Bolognesi's army, and in the process murder many civilians, including the family of Michael Hiedler. He was hunting at the time and escapes, but is driven catatonic by the experience.

Dublin besieged and retaken by Wesley's forces. New York rifleman James Roosevelt shoots down General O'Neill; he later decides to stay and settle in Ireland.

Swedish King Charles XIII assassinated by a madman. His death, leaving no heirs, plunges Sweden into a constitutional crisis that only exacerbates the war defeats.

Death of Dharma Raja, King of Travancore. He is succeeded by his son Balarama Varma, but the Tippoo of Mysore declares he is too young to rule and uses this as a casus belli to invade. This belligerent move is part of a plan by Leclerc to force Rochambeau to back down or lose the FEIC's trade interests in Kerala.

November - On hearing of his favourite son's death, King George III of Great Britain descends into madness and is dead by December. At the same time, the ageing Prime Minister Rockingham works himself to death. The country is plunged into a constitutional crisis.

Boulanger's advance is stopped at Mayenne by the British. The front stalemates as the armies settle into winter quarters.

Further south, Leo Bone defeats a Republican French army at Angers, later earning him the title Viscount d'Angers from Louis XVII.

The Danish Diet negotiates directly with the Swedish Riksdag to reach a peace settlement.

The Austrian army of Bolognesi defeats Lascelles on the Ischl, but Lascelles saves the majority of his army and retreats into Bavaria.

December - Henry William crowned King Henry IX of Great Britain.

Richard Wesley's armies finally take Belfast, last city held by the USE. The aftermath of the siege is bloody and rapine, the frustrated armies unleashed on the populace.

Peace between Denmark and Sweden. The treaty restores a personal union between the kingdoms, with Johannes II becoming John IV of Sweden. However, aside from losing the most Danish-loyal part of Scania and her Baltic possessions, Sweden's territorial integrity is respected. This ends the Great Baltic War, and leaves Denmark as the dominant naval power in the Baltic.

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