Post by MinnesotaNationalist on Aug 31, 2016 21:10:38 GMT
What is Europe but You and We?
The Empires of East and West will drive the Turks from Europe, then march on to Conquer India
Divide the Empire of the World
A scenario where Napoleon and Alexander's Alliance of 1807 doesn't break down as early:
In November of 1807, Napoleon launches a campaign against the Ottomans, aiding his ally of Russia, but the Ottomans proved a tougher fight than suspected, and it didn't help that Alexander and Napoleon were constantly bickering (mostly Napoleon's fault), leading to Napoleon to withdraw from the Ottoman Campaign numerous times for a couple of months, before the Ottomans finally surrendered in 1814.
Alexander and Napoleon met at Sofia to finally try to settle their differences, leading to the "1,000 Agreements of Sofia," where Napoleon and Alexander continuously gave concessions to each other, dividing the influence of Europe. In general, Napoleon wanted influence over the Catholics and Romance people, while Alexander wanted sway over the Orthodox and Slavic people. Well, they'd be butting heads over the Catholic Slavs and the Romanians. While Napoleon did cede concession over Romania, Alexander and Napoleon did debate harshly over Poland and Yugoslavs. They finally came to the conclusion of shared influence over the two states of Poland and Serbia.
Among other things, Greece was declared shared influence in return for Russia getting Constantinople, Russia getting Antioch and Jerusalem (under puppets) for shared influence over Albania, a 'press here to divide button' for Sweden between both France and Russia, and according to legend, Alexander would accept all French annexations up to this point if Napoleon would cut off one of his generals fingers.
With the vast majority of Europe now divided between Napoleon and his allies, Napoleon's ambition seems to be over, if it weren't for that Alexander's and Napoleon's relations started to deteriorate once more, leading to the breaking of the alliance in 1816, although Alexander's embargo of the UK continued (to explain in Alexander's own words, "I hate England, too."), and so the world has divided the world into 3 major spheres: The French Sphere, the Russian Sphere, and the British Sphere (There's also the Post-Turkish Sphere, but their interest tend to remain aligned with the British Sphere).
Alexander of Russia died in 1825, leaving the nation and it's sphere to his younger brother. Napoleon himself died in 1831, leading to the rise of Napoleon II. He was certainly not his father, but was still a good enough ruler to take on the Reigns of Europe
Alexander and Napoleon met at Sofia to finally try to settle their differences, leading to the "1,000 Agreements of Sofia," where Napoleon and Alexander continuously gave concessions to each other, dividing the influence of Europe. In general, Napoleon wanted influence over the Catholics and Romance people, while Alexander wanted sway over the Orthodox and Slavic people. Well, they'd be butting heads over the Catholic Slavs and the Romanians. While Napoleon did cede concession over Romania, Alexander and Napoleon did debate harshly over Poland and Yugoslavs. They finally came to the conclusion of shared influence over the two states of Poland and Serbia.
Among other things, Greece was declared shared influence in return for Russia getting Constantinople, Russia getting Antioch and Jerusalem (under puppets) for shared influence over Albania, a 'press here to divide button' for Sweden between both France and Russia, and according to legend, Alexander would accept all French annexations up to this point if Napoleon would cut off one of his generals fingers.
With the vast majority of Europe now divided between Napoleon and his allies, Napoleon's ambition seems to be over, if it weren't for that Alexander's and Napoleon's relations started to deteriorate once more, leading to the breaking of the alliance in 1816, although Alexander's embargo of the UK continued (to explain in Alexander's own words, "I hate England, too."), and so the world has divided the world into 3 major spheres: The French Sphere, the Russian Sphere, and the British Sphere (There's also the Post-Turkish Sphere, but their interest tend to remain aligned with the British Sphere).
Alexander of Russia died in 1825, leaving the nation and it's sphere to his younger brother. Napoleon himself died in 1831, leading to the rise of Napoleon II. He was certainly not his father, but was still a good enough ruler to take on the Reigns of Europe
North America
Following the victory of Napoleon and Franco-Russian alliance over the Ottomans at the treaty of Sofia, Britain came to realize their chances at victory was close to none. They declared their intention of peace and in the early months of 1815, all the leaders of Europe of met at Amsterdam and fell to three factions, one led by Napoleon and France, one by Alexander and Russia, and one by Spencer Perceval of Britain in the name of George III.
The conditions of the Peace were thus:
Peace remains in Europe after the Treaty of Amsterdam, however tenuous, and Britain has more-or-less conceded the continent to France and Russia. In the Americas, Africa, and Asia however, the three remain in Competition, with Britain and France being the main competitors in America.
The Three minor Republics who gained their independence at Amsterdam; Mexico, Haiti, and California, who were originally intended to be British allies, have ended up in the French Sphere nonetheless.
The Grand prize however is the United States, who, while officially neutral, certainly does have many French leanings, mostly due to lingering British resentment, although there is certainly a possibility of the US leaning back to Britain.
Since the Treaty of Amsterdam, the US and Britain remains in conflict over the US-Canadian border. They hope the most recent treaty of Toronto (1846) will end the conflict, but the US will undoubtedly want to expand her western coast.
The United States have also had some conflict with France (or more specifically, Spain) over Florida. This conflict was able to be resolved diplomatically though, with the US gaining Florida from Spain, Texas from Mexico, and France would aid the US in it’s endeavour to gain a coast on the Pacific (Oregon), but US must make no demands on any other Franco-Sphere state.
British and Anglo-Sphere colonies in the Americas are minimal poor, compared to the vast tracts of land in the Franco-sphere, but if the US realigns to Britain, she could still win on the American Front.
Asia
Since the Treaty of Amsterdam, Britain is looking everywhere for new ports, especially since the Continental Embargo in Europe remains in effect. The land most full of potential: Asia. Britain has had a monopoly on most of India since the 7 years’ war, but China offers even more goods. But, China had longed only for money for their own goods, but had no lust for anything else… Legal anyways.
In 1824, Britain opened the Chinese wars with the First Sino-British war. By 1830, victory had been achieved and Britain gained Hong Kong and forced open many Chinese ports to free trade, in British favor of course.
Nicholas of Russia, seeing how weak China really was, went to war with China next in 1832, with the war ending in 1835. Russia ripped China to pieces, forcing the independence of Tibet and Mongolia (the latter as a direct puppet of Russia), annexed large portions of North-west and North-East China, and made Manchuria and Korea as part of its sphere of influence.
In 1839, France also got in on the Chinese trade, but rather than warring with China, they rather just bought off a piece of land to influence, mostly just to piss off Russia and Britain. Strangely, all Chinese wares seem to be directed to that area for some reason…
Russia and Britain, as OTL, are squaring off over influence over Central Asia and Persia. Russia seems to have the upper hand in this Great Game.
Africa
“Africa: A land created by God for the explicit purpose so that England and France may continue to fight.” -Prime Minister Charles Grey of Britain
While Britain has given up on Europe and is fighting diplomatic battles in the Americas and Asia, Africa is charged with conflict. Between the Treaty of Amsterdam and today (1850), there have been at least 7 recorded incidents, crises, and minor conflicts between France and England in Africa, most notably of which is the Boer Conflict, in which Napoleon II ordered a failed invasion of the Boer Republic, an ally of Britain, in 1843.
While there’s been fairly little expansion in the region since Amsterdam, that isn’t to say there hasn’t been any. In 1825, Napoleon I invaded and conquered the Berber state of Algeria and turned Tunis into a puppet. There has also been expansion of the spheres of influence over the native tribes and Kingdoms. For example, France has been able to get Dahomey, the Zulu, and many Berbers to align with them, while Britain’s gotten Togo, Benin, the Sultanate of Zanzibar and of course the Boers to align with herself, not to mention Portugal’s own satellite of the Kongo Kingdom.
On the Diplomatic front, there’s two current grand prizes for France and Britain: Egypt, part of the Post-Turkish Sphere and as such has much more British-leaning tendencies, whom have a very intriguing position having coasts on two oceans; and the Caliphate of Sokoto, who runs their own minor faction of the Fulani Jihadist States, and they are all very cautious of the Christian Europeans, but there surely must be riches in West Africa, such as the famous gold mines of Mansa Musa.
Following the victory of Napoleon and Franco-Russian alliance over the Ottomans at the treaty of Sofia, Britain came to realize their chances at victory was close to none. They declared their intention of peace and in the early months of 1815, all the leaders of Europe of met at Amsterdam and fell to three factions, one led by Napoleon and France, one by Alexander and Russia, and one by Spencer Perceval of Britain in the name of George III.
The conditions of the Peace were thus:
- Britain would recognize the Treaty of Sofia.
- Britain would make peace with the United States (retain the status quo).
- Britain would respect all French Annexations in Europe and elsewhere up to this point.
- Britain would cede: Heligoland, Channel Islands, and British Guyana to France, surrender all claims on the Kingdom of France and the Electorate of Hannover, and cede Belize to the Spanish Vice royalty of New Spain
- Sweden would cede Swedish Pomerania to the Confederation of the Rhine and surrender her claims on Finland.
- France would cede: Cape Town (West Cape Colony), Sumatra, and West Timor to Britain from former Dutch Territories.
- France and the rest of Europe would recognize the independence of Haiti, Mexico, and California from former French and Spanish Colonies.
Peace remains in Europe after the Treaty of Amsterdam, however tenuous, and Britain has more-or-less conceded the continent to France and Russia. In the Americas, Africa, and Asia however, the three remain in Competition, with Britain and France being the main competitors in America.
The Three minor Republics who gained their independence at Amsterdam; Mexico, Haiti, and California, who were originally intended to be British allies, have ended up in the French Sphere nonetheless.
The Grand prize however is the United States, who, while officially neutral, certainly does have many French leanings, mostly due to lingering British resentment, although there is certainly a possibility of the US leaning back to Britain.
Since the Treaty of Amsterdam, the US and Britain remains in conflict over the US-Canadian border. They hope the most recent treaty of Toronto (1846) will end the conflict, but the US will undoubtedly want to expand her western coast.
The United States have also had some conflict with France (or more specifically, Spain) over Florida. This conflict was able to be resolved diplomatically though, with the US gaining Florida from Spain, Texas from Mexico, and France would aid the US in it’s endeavour to gain a coast on the Pacific (Oregon), but US must make no demands on any other Franco-Sphere state.
British and Anglo-Sphere colonies in the Americas are minimal poor, compared to the vast tracts of land in the Franco-sphere, but if the US realigns to Britain, she could still win on the American Front.
Asia
Since the Treaty of Amsterdam, Britain is looking everywhere for new ports, especially since the Continental Embargo in Europe remains in effect. The land most full of potential: Asia. Britain has had a monopoly on most of India since the 7 years’ war, but China offers even more goods. But, China had longed only for money for their own goods, but had no lust for anything else… Legal anyways.
In 1824, Britain opened the Chinese wars with the First Sino-British war. By 1830, victory had been achieved and Britain gained Hong Kong and forced open many Chinese ports to free trade, in British favor of course.
Nicholas of Russia, seeing how weak China really was, went to war with China next in 1832, with the war ending in 1835. Russia ripped China to pieces, forcing the independence of Tibet and Mongolia (the latter as a direct puppet of Russia), annexed large portions of North-west and North-East China, and made Manchuria and Korea as part of its sphere of influence.
In 1839, France also got in on the Chinese trade, but rather than warring with China, they rather just bought off a piece of land to influence, mostly just to piss off Russia and Britain. Strangely, all Chinese wares seem to be directed to that area for some reason…
Russia and Britain, as OTL, are squaring off over influence over Central Asia and Persia. Russia seems to have the upper hand in this Great Game.
Africa
“Africa: A land created by God for the explicit purpose so that England and France may continue to fight.” -Prime Minister Charles Grey of Britain
While Britain has given up on Europe and is fighting diplomatic battles in the Americas and Asia, Africa is charged with conflict. Between the Treaty of Amsterdam and today (1850), there have been at least 7 recorded incidents, crises, and minor conflicts between France and England in Africa, most notably of which is the Boer Conflict, in which Napoleon II ordered a failed invasion of the Boer Republic, an ally of Britain, in 1843.
While there’s been fairly little expansion in the region since Amsterdam, that isn’t to say there hasn’t been any. In 1825, Napoleon I invaded and conquered the Berber state of Algeria and turned Tunis into a puppet. There has also been expansion of the spheres of influence over the native tribes and Kingdoms. For example, France has been able to get Dahomey, the Zulu, and many Berbers to align with them, while Britain’s gotten Togo, Benin, the Sultanate of Zanzibar and of course the Boers to align with herself, not to mention Portugal’s own satellite of the Kongo Kingdom.
On the Diplomatic front, there’s two current grand prizes for France and Britain: Egypt, part of the Post-Turkish Sphere and as such has much more British-leaning tendencies, whom have a very intriguing position having coasts on two oceans; and the Caliphate of Sokoto, who runs their own minor faction of the Fulani Jihadist States, and they are all very cautious of the Christian Europeans, but there surely must be riches in West Africa, such as the famous gold mines of Mansa Musa.
The Great Gamble- Taiping Revolution 1851-1858
Ever since the First Sino-British War and the Sino-Russian War, the Qing Dynasty of China had been French leaning in alignment. Russia and Britain didn’t like this, as this was one state that was too valuable to be allowed in French hands. But, Russia and Britain couldn’t find a way to break this and move the Qing to their sphere of influence.
At least, that was until the Taipings rose up in early 1851 to remove the Qing dynasty. Suddenly, the European Powers had a chance to make a great shift in the influence over China. If said European powers helped the Qing quash the Taipings, than the Qing would likely be grateful for the help and open up more to them, but if they failed and the Taipings were to win, they’d likely lose all influence over China. The reverse would be true as well.
France was unlikely to aid the Taipings because they were already fairly friendly with the Qing Dynasty, leaving Russia and Britain to decide if they want to gamble on the Taiping to remove French influence from China. Russia and Great Britain were already locked in a Great Game over Central Asia and Persia, but, in the Summer of 1851, they decide to put aside their problems for now and agreed to the Great Gamble: Aid the Taiping, overthrow the Qing, defeat the French in China.
French troops were already deployed in China, under orders of Napoleon II, to police the areas they influenced (he hoped that it would help improve the relations with the Qing if they less territory that their soldiers needed to patrol. Qing didn’t see it that way), but when the Taipings started their rebellion, Napoleon saw it as an opportunity to help and improve relations with the Qing, so ordered his troops to aid the Qing in putting it down. Unbeknownst to him, Britain had landed their first division of troops Canton, quickly capturing the city and setting it up as their center of command in Southern China, their main naval port and main supply port. In the north, Russia prepared for a quick surprise invasion to capture Beijing and force a quick surrender.
French and British troops first fought in September of 1851 near Changsha, on the Taipings’ attempted march on Shanghai*. French troops were able to stop their march, but the Taipings captured Changsha on the retreat. This would become the main command center of the Brits and Taipings in Central China, while Wuhan in the north would become the main command center of the Qing and French in the same region. Russia would invade in October 1851, and by the time snow came to China that year, Beijing was under siege.
*It should be noted, in the European influenced areas, most of the time the only Europeans there were merchants. Only France patrolled their area with their personal soldiers. After Britain and Russia intervened, all Europeans in their former areas of influence were executed unless they could prove to be, in fact, French or French influenced (Spanish, German, etc.)
Central theatre: British vs. French
As you can imagine, most of the war on this front was between the cities of Changsha and Wuhan. The first major full French (to be used for the Central Theatre instead of the Northern Theatre) and British reinforcement-armies arrived in spring of 1852, where they were immediately sent to fight along the Changsha-Wuhan front. The Changsha-Wuhan front went quickly into a deadlock, and would stay like this for years. In 1853, another French contingent arrived in Shanghai, and was determined to march south to capture Hong Kong and Canton and secure every port on the way.
Sadly for the French, another contingent of British arrived in Canton not long later, and was given the same orders. They met near Quanzhou. A hard battle was fought, but the Brits secured victory when another battalion moved in from the Changsha-Wuhan front and secured the victory at Quanzhou. The British army marched north before being stopped at Fuzhou not to far away.
For the next 3 years the fronts had stalled at Changsha and Fuzhou, before finally in 1856, a breakthrough happened for the British as Qing manpower was finally depleting, either running to the enemy or just simply abandoning their post. Wuhan would finally fall in August of 1856, and is seen as the end of the the Central Theatre and the traditional war.
Northern theatre: Russians vs. French
The first French reinforcement to arrive in China came in early 1852, where they went to try to relieve Beijing. In the Relief of Beijing, French troops were able to open a passage, but only long enough to save the Imperial family, after which the opening broke and Beijing would fall in March. The Royal family would be sent to Nanjing to witness their empire collapse around them.
Unlike the Central theatre, the Northern theatre was vast and mobile, stretching from the Tibetan border to the Yellow Sea. Xi’an and Weifang were both major centers of battle, each falling at least three times to the opposing side. Nanjing itself was under threat two separate times.
The war finally swept into Russian once and for all in 1856 at yet another battle of Xi’an, where Chinese manpower finally ran to low and in September 1856, a month after the fall of Wuhan, Nanjing would fall and the Qing emperor would go into exile in Paris.
The Marauders’ war: The Qing-French resistance
In August 1856, the French armies were getting onto their boats in Shanghai to leave for back home. One army group, under the leadership of General Philippe Sainte-Marie, decided to stay behind however, to fight a guerrilla war. Sainte-Marie and a thousand men, 900 of which were part of the Qing family or the most loyal Qing soldiers, snuck out of the front near Nanjing and made their first attack not to far away. Another 2 years of a lesser war had begun.
The first couple months was made up of heading north on the Yellow toward Beijing, raiding Russo-Taiping army camps and generally pro-Taiping villages. Sainte-Marie’s army always made sure to stay just out of reach of the opposing armies, and couldn’t be caught, no matter how much Russian armies chased them. Sainte-Marie’s army finally disappeared in December of 1856 in Beijing, where they stayed for the winter, blending into the city. Many of civilians in Beijing who were still loyal to the Qing decided to join the cause, and in March of the following year, Sainte-Marie’s army left Beijing, left it by burning it to the ground. With Sainte-Marie’s army grown to 10,000 and committing such a crime as burning Beijing to the ground, the Taiping, Russians, and Brits were to make sure that Sainte-Marie’s army would be stopped. Even Napoleon II, when hearing of what Sainte-Marie did, declared that he and all the Qing family that joined him were no longer welcome in France (unless they won).
After burning Beijing, Sainte-Marie’s army (commonly referred to as the Marauder’s Army, Philippe Sainte-Marie himself gaining the title as “Philippe the Marauder”) headed south to the Yellow River to go up and down that hitting Xi’an, Ordos, Wuhai, then took a shortcut back to raid Xi’an again and heading south to raid the Yangtze. The Marauder’s Army raided Chongqing, and was heading to attack Wuhan, but upon hearing that the Taiping Imperial Army was there waiting for him, the Marauder’s Army turned sharply south to Changsha (how fitting). Again, burning Changsha to the ground, the army headed further south before disappearing somewhere near Canton/Guangzhou in December. The Taiping Imperial Army searched frantically for the Marauder in Guangzhou, but he couldn’t be found anywhere. It sure didn’t help that he was actually hiding in Nanning two hundred kilometers west, but the Taipings wouldn’t figure that out until Nanning was also burned to the ground the following spring, and the Marauders went on another campaign.
Philippe Sainte-Marie thought of a clever plan that instead of heading further west to run away from the Taiping Imperial Army, he was just sneak around it by heading south, attack Zhanjiang and then go on to Guangzhou. This proved to be a mistake, for as soon as the Taiping Imperial Army heard of the attack on Zhanjiang, they would only be about a 6 hour’s travel behind them. There was no attempting to hide, for if they hid they would be found. If they stayed to for too long in a city the TIA would catch them, they could barely actually raid anymore. They had to spend an extra hour each day travelling just to get extra distance on the TIA, but in June they were finally caught in the city they started in, Shanghai. All the Marauder’s were either killed in the skirmish at Shanghai or executed not long later. Philippe the Marauder himself would get special treatment… A lifetime in the Taiping Oubliette.
Ever since the First Sino-British War and the Sino-Russian War, the Qing Dynasty of China had been French leaning in alignment. Russia and Britain didn’t like this, as this was one state that was too valuable to be allowed in French hands. But, Russia and Britain couldn’t find a way to break this and move the Qing to their sphere of influence.
At least, that was until the Taipings rose up in early 1851 to remove the Qing dynasty. Suddenly, the European Powers had a chance to make a great shift in the influence over China. If said European powers helped the Qing quash the Taipings, than the Qing would likely be grateful for the help and open up more to them, but if they failed and the Taipings were to win, they’d likely lose all influence over China. The reverse would be true as well.
France was unlikely to aid the Taipings because they were already fairly friendly with the Qing Dynasty, leaving Russia and Britain to decide if they want to gamble on the Taiping to remove French influence from China. Russia and Great Britain were already locked in a Great Game over Central Asia and Persia, but, in the Summer of 1851, they decide to put aside their problems for now and agreed to the Great Gamble: Aid the Taiping, overthrow the Qing, defeat the French in China.
French troops were already deployed in China, under orders of Napoleon II, to police the areas they influenced (he hoped that it would help improve the relations with the Qing if they less territory that their soldiers needed to patrol. Qing didn’t see it that way), but when the Taipings started their rebellion, Napoleon saw it as an opportunity to help and improve relations with the Qing, so ordered his troops to aid the Qing in putting it down. Unbeknownst to him, Britain had landed their first division of troops Canton, quickly capturing the city and setting it up as their center of command in Southern China, their main naval port and main supply port. In the north, Russia prepared for a quick surprise invasion to capture Beijing and force a quick surrender.
French and British troops first fought in September of 1851 near Changsha, on the Taipings’ attempted march on Shanghai*. French troops were able to stop their march, but the Taipings captured Changsha on the retreat. This would become the main command center of the Brits and Taipings in Central China, while Wuhan in the north would become the main command center of the Qing and French in the same region. Russia would invade in October 1851, and by the time snow came to China that year, Beijing was under siege.
*It should be noted, in the European influenced areas, most of the time the only Europeans there were merchants. Only France patrolled their area with their personal soldiers. After Britain and Russia intervened, all Europeans in their former areas of influence were executed unless they could prove to be, in fact, French or French influenced (Spanish, German, etc.)
Central theatre: British vs. French
As you can imagine, most of the war on this front was between the cities of Changsha and Wuhan. The first major full French (to be used for the Central Theatre instead of the Northern Theatre) and British reinforcement-armies arrived in spring of 1852, where they were immediately sent to fight along the Changsha-Wuhan front. The Changsha-Wuhan front went quickly into a deadlock, and would stay like this for years. In 1853, another French contingent arrived in Shanghai, and was determined to march south to capture Hong Kong and Canton and secure every port on the way.
Sadly for the French, another contingent of British arrived in Canton not long later, and was given the same orders. They met near Quanzhou. A hard battle was fought, but the Brits secured victory when another battalion moved in from the Changsha-Wuhan front and secured the victory at Quanzhou. The British army marched north before being stopped at Fuzhou not to far away.
For the next 3 years the fronts had stalled at Changsha and Fuzhou, before finally in 1856, a breakthrough happened for the British as Qing manpower was finally depleting, either running to the enemy or just simply abandoning their post. Wuhan would finally fall in August of 1856, and is seen as the end of the the Central Theatre and the traditional war.
Northern theatre: Russians vs. French
The first French reinforcement to arrive in China came in early 1852, where they went to try to relieve Beijing. In the Relief of Beijing, French troops were able to open a passage, but only long enough to save the Imperial family, after which the opening broke and Beijing would fall in March. The Royal family would be sent to Nanjing to witness their empire collapse around them.
Unlike the Central theatre, the Northern theatre was vast and mobile, stretching from the Tibetan border to the Yellow Sea. Xi’an and Weifang were both major centers of battle, each falling at least three times to the opposing side. Nanjing itself was under threat two separate times.
The war finally swept into Russian once and for all in 1856 at yet another battle of Xi’an, where Chinese manpower finally ran to low and in September 1856, a month after the fall of Wuhan, Nanjing would fall and the Qing emperor would go into exile in Paris.
The Marauders’ war: The Qing-French resistance
In August 1856, the French armies were getting onto their boats in Shanghai to leave for back home. One army group, under the leadership of General Philippe Sainte-Marie, decided to stay behind however, to fight a guerrilla war. Sainte-Marie and a thousand men, 900 of which were part of the Qing family or the most loyal Qing soldiers, snuck out of the front near Nanjing and made their first attack not to far away. Another 2 years of a lesser war had begun.
The first couple months was made up of heading north on the Yellow toward Beijing, raiding Russo-Taiping army camps and generally pro-Taiping villages. Sainte-Marie’s army always made sure to stay just out of reach of the opposing armies, and couldn’t be caught, no matter how much Russian armies chased them. Sainte-Marie’s army finally disappeared in December of 1856 in Beijing, where they stayed for the winter, blending into the city. Many of civilians in Beijing who were still loyal to the Qing decided to join the cause, and in March of the following year, Sainte-Marie’s army left Beijing, left it by burning it to the ground. With Sainte-Marie’s army grown to 10,000 and committing such a crime as burning Beijing to the ground, the Taiping, Russians, and Brits were to make sure that Sainte-Marie’s army would be stopped. Even Napoleon II, when hearing of what Sainte-Marie did, declared that he and all the Qing family that joined him were no longer welcome in France (unless they won).
After burning Beijing, Sainte-Marie’s army (commonly referred to as the Marauder’s Army, Philippe Sainte-Marie himself gaining the title as “Philippe the Marauder”) headed south to the Yellow River to go up and down that hitting Xi’an, Ordos, Wuhai, then took a shortcut back to raid Xi’an again and heading south to raid the Yangtze. The Marauder’s Army raided Chongqing, and was heading to attack Wuhan, but upon hearing that the Taiping Imperial Army was there waiting for him, the Marauder’s Army turned sharply south to Changsha (how fitting). Again, burning Changsha to the ground, the army headed further south before disappearing somewhere near Canton/Guangzhou in December. The Taiping Imperial Army searched frantically for the Marauder in Guangzhou, but he couldn’t be found anywhere. It sure didn’t help that he was actually hiding in Nanning two hundred kilometers west, but the Taipings wouldn’t figure that out until Nanning was also burned to the ground the following spring, and the Marauders went on another campaign.
Philippe Sainte-Marie thought of a clever plan that instead of heading further west to run away from the Taiping Imperial Army, he was just sneak around it by heading south, attack Zhanjiang and then go on to Guangzhou. This proved to be a mistake, for as soon as the Taiping Imperial Army heard of the attack on Zhanjiang, they would only be about a 6 hour’s travel behind them. There was no attempting to hide, for if they hid they would be found. If they stayed to for too long in a city the TIA would catch them, they could barely actually raid anymore. They had to spend an extra hour each day travelling just to get extra distance on the TIA, but in June they were finally caught in the city they started in, Shanghai. All the Marauder’s were either killed in the skirmish at Shanghai or executed not long later. Philippe the Marauder himself would get special treatment… A lifetime in the Taiping Oubliette.
American Civil War 1861-1865
Since the loss of the Great Gamble, France had been working hard to make sure the United States of America becomes a definitive ally of France instead of a neutral power that generally agrees with them. Britain had been doing the same, trying to ride the momentum of the Great Gamble to make sure America becomes their ally. As such, the two were constantly trying to meddle in American politics, and, oh, it appears America was dividing itself based on their thoughts of Slavery, what a perfect opportunity. Those opposing slavery ended up aligning with France, with those favoring slavery aligned with Britain. French diplomats would go on and on about how evil slavery is, while Britain would say that although they don’t allow slavery, they’re okay with others doing so.
The French and Brits would purposefully try to start conflict, pointing fingers at opposing diplomats and their allies. Personal attacks, like that of Preston Brooks against Charles Sumner, Henry S. Foote and Thomas Benton against each other, and even those on the same side battled each other in a argument over how extreme their sides should become.
The argument eventually came to a head in 1860, when Pro-British, Pro-Slaverly men stormed voting polls across the country, even invading nearby non-slave states, to make sure their candidate, Moise Severin, gets power. While legally, it worked, Moise Severin and his running mate would be assassinated by Pro-French Americans before he get the presidency, leaving the President Pro Tempore of the US Senate - Kenneth Victors, who was Pro-French (but oddly neutral to slavery) - as President to be. The South, understandably, didn’t like this. The North (while celebrating the death of Moise Severin) said that the law is the law and thus that Kenneth Victors should be president, not to mention that the only reason Severin won the election anyways was because of vote-rigging. By the time that Kenneth Victors would ascend to the presidency, blood was already flowing in the streets, and the South gathered an army of Pro-Slavers to march on Washington and get a different president in, while what remained of the true US army gathers to defend Kenneth Victors.
French and British troops were suddenly flowing into the United States to support their respective sides (interestingly, New York was the main staple port for the French and Pro-French America, New Orleans was the staple port for the British and Pro-British America). The first battle was the battle of Alexandria, just south of Washington and the flash of cannons could be seen easily from Washington. This battle contained no French or British troops, though. Instead, the first battle that would contain French and/or British troops would be the battle of New Orleans (1861), in which French sailors flying under the United States banner tried and failed to capture New Orleans, being pushed off by British ships.
There were two main fronts in the American Civil War: The Virginia Front, and the Mississippi front. The American troops mostly focused on the Virginia Front, while they sent the Europeans to the Mississippi front. Now that isn’t to say that Europeans didn’t serve in Virginia (mostly Officers), nor Americans in Mississippi (they still made up a large percentage of the army, though certainly not the majority).
Virginia Front and the Atlantic
The Southern insurgents started off very disorganized, a stark difference to the American Government army, headed by general Robert Scotts. The Southern insurgency can be mostly described as a coalition of self-declared generals and their self-described armies running around trying to beat the government. Not only this, but the North also had an industrial advantage and a discipline advantage (getting most of the army, while only a few defectors joined the Southern Insurgency). The insurgency should have been over by Christmas.
That was before the European Intervention. By June, British officers (most important of which was Alexander Palmer) came and replaced the Southern Insurgent Generals, disciplining them in the same way that Baron von Steuben disciplined the American Revolutionaries almost a century before. The first signs of slowing came in August, right after Richmond was reclaimed, and by Christmas the Virginia Front had almost came to complete halt at the Virginia-North Carolina border and Norfolk.
Britain used her superior navy to try to block out the 3 most important bays in America: Chesapeake, Delaware, and New York bays. While Chesapeake and Delaware were mostly successful, the New York bay blockade was not, as the Brits were unable to block both New York bay and her sister Long Island sound, meaning the whole blockade of New York was for all intents and purposes a failure. But for the blockades that did work, it meant that Washington, Baltimore, Northern-controlled Richmond, and Philadelphia were all blocked out by sea, making the French trek to the front needlessly longer. Not that it really mattered, French and British ships flying French and British flags were almost never attacked out of fear of launching a larger war.
Norfolk sat as a major fortress for a year, Robert Scotts demanding its surrender and Alexander Palmer carefully keeping the defenses up. Two new pieces of weaponry were introduced almost specifically for this siege: the French Flying Shell (a new advanced Howitzer that used relatively advanced indirect fire techniques) and the British Repeating Rifle (Gatling Gun). The Repeating Rifle made assaults on the town costly affairs, while the Flying Shell made it unnecessary to do so. While the siege of Norfolk went on, other parts of the Northern Army marched through North Carolina, capturing Raleigh and Greensboro.
Eventually, the storehouses and supplies at Norfolk became too diminished for Palmer’s liking, and so throughout November, he had part of his garrison army slip out of Norfolk with orders to go to Elizabeth City, North Carolina, just 40 km south. By the end of November, Palmer had escaped Norfolk without Scotts ever being the wiser, and was Scotts ever made the fool when he found out halfway through December that he was bombarding an empty city as his enemy was reinforcing down south. Scotts was sacked for his mistake and moved to the Mississippi front, which was at the time a losing front. He was replaced with Richard P. Geiger.
Geiger believed that Palmer could safely be ignored, and instead of marching his armies to Elizabeth City, he rather decided to turn his men to Raleigh and, more importantly, Charlotte, and try to capture the major population centers throughout the South, leaving Norfolk in January. Now it was time for Palmer to look like the fool as his plan to deteriorate the US government army through only defensive battles would have to be set aside and he made chase with Geiger. Geiger knew that Palmer would chase him all over the front, and so Geiger could place himself anywhere he wished and give himself a week to prepare for a battle. Instead of going to Charlotte, like he intended, he instead fled into the mountains of western North Carolina, quickly capturing Asheville and the surrounding hills, preparing for a grand defense.
The battle of Pisgah was a tremendous success for Geiger and Palmer fled to Charlotte and prepared his own defence. At Charlotte, he wrote to the government of Britain, saying he believed the cause was lost in America, despite Britain’s surprising success on the Mississippi river. Palmer was forced to defend Charlotte from Geiger’s forces and contemporaries in the battles of Belmont, Lake Norman, and Concord. While all narrow victories for Palmer, he was trapped in Charlotte, and forced to push out of the suffocating Charlotte, breaking out and setting up a position to the south at Rock Hill, although that September he was forced to flee from there as well. As fled, the last of North Carolina fell back to the American Government
Palmer sat in Columbia, South Carolina for the winter, with Geiger in Charlotte, North Carolina. Palmer was told that he had one year to turn the war around, or he’d be replaced just as his former nemesis Scotts was. Palmer decided that Columbia needed to become a fortress, so throughout the winter months, Palmer had his army and any volunteers available to make a wall around Columbia, and then another two layers of walls inside, including one of them on an island in the middle of the Congaree river. The fortifications were shifty, but they were better than nothing. The walls were lined with the repeating rifles and standard cannons, and Palmer was ready to fight.
And fight they did, for when Spring came, Geiger came down onto Columbia and was shocked as to what he saw. He bunkered in for a long and seemingly never ending siege. Geiger pushed to take the walls time and time again, only to be mowed down by the repeating rifles, and it seemed that the flying shell was doing minimal damage to the defenders. This was the first battle in the Virginia front for a long time that saw many more Government casualties than Insurgent, and Columbia soon became a symbol of the Southern Insurgency.
Sadly, for the insurgency, that didn’t stop Charleston from being captured, cutting off the Congaree river. The sudden knowledge of the Surprise war and its loss was devastating for British moral, and the loss of British moral affected the insurgents as well. Throughout the summer and fall, Geiger would continue his siege, and more and more insurgents deserted to Geiger. Meanwhile, other cities across South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida fell as well, with British generals deciding to head back home and their armies collapsed from loss of moral. Palmer was the last one in Virginia, and he no longer wanted to be there. On November 3rd, 1864, Palmer surrendered to Geiger under the condition that he could live in America (so that he wouldn’t suffer humiliation at home).
The next week, the first election since the insurgency began were held, with elections taking place in Virginia and North Carolina. Incumbent President Kenneth Victors won in a wild landslide, repeating the phrase “Victors for Victory!”
Mississippi Front and the Gulf
The war in Mississippi started off with a slight French advantage on land and a major British advantage at sea. With the front starting off at the 36th Parallel North, the French army was prepared to march on Memphis. Sadly for the French, they would be stopped just north at Memphis, and the French and Brits were preparing for a repeat of what happened at Changsha and Wuhan, with the French and British armies marching between Saint Louis and Memphis.
Fortunately for the British, it didn’t end up this was, for in the next year, the 1st Explorer’s War in the Congo (or Surprise War) would begin, and French troops and supply would diverted from America to the Congo, with Britain scratching their heads why. Most figured that France was probably preparing for a war elsewhere, or had given up on the American war (hardly a chance). But, nonetheless with the French force limited on the Mississippi Front, Britain gained the upper edge and started the march up the Mississippi River, capturing Saint Louis by Christmas of 1862, and had begun a siege of Chicago the following year.
The Northern Americans fought hard to try to break the siege, cut off British supply lines, or just to negotiate as good of a peace as they still could (thankfully, the Virginia front was still going decently, with large leaps in progress coming in 1863). Chicago did eventually fall in early 1864, which the Brits believed would be the end of the Mississippi front, despite some resistance volunteers coming in from Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. The Brits were wrong to assume.
With the discovery of the Surprise War and France’s victory in it before it even started, many Brits suddenly had a drop in morale, but not enough to take them out of the war. Britain still held Chicago and the entirety of the Mississippi River up to Saint Louis (as far as they really needed to go), and from there, up the Illinois river to Chicago, dividing the United States. But, they would be facing off against a new surge of French Troops, arriving back from the Congo, led by Vincent Durant (Jean-Marie ‘Le Toulonnais’ was out on another mission in the Sahara). But also arriving from the Congo was Joseph Crawford, hoping to regain some of his lost honor.
Durant’s first strike was against Saint Louis, quickly capturing it while the British were still in Chicago. The British armies led by Crawford marched quickly on to Saint Louis and put it under siege. Durant seeked to pull the same trick that Le Toulonnais had pulled on Crawford back at Fort Durant, tricking Crawford into a peace behind French lines so he could be captured, but this time Crawford knew it was a trap, and while Durant stood waiting for his adversary, one of Crawford’s men shot Durant. While he survived, he wouldn’t be able to effectively lead his armies. Crawford was able to regain Saint Louis under the conditions that Durant would get safe passage to New York City so he could more effectively recover, the remaining French forces would surrender all arms, and that said force would get a 2 day’s head start to run to a more effective place to defend and get weapons again.
British forces lined the Mississippi by the time the Virginia front finally ended. The rebellion in the East had finally been put down, and it was time to put down the rebellion in the West. Richard Geiger was put in charge on the Southwest (Louisiana), former general of Virginia Robert Soctts was put in charge of the Northwest (Illinois), and a replacement general for Durant, Philippe Berger, led the center (Missouri).
Crawford, put at the helm of the entire West, stood no chance, and he wished that all British troops in America leave. They had already lost the important front, that in Virginia, any victory in the Mississippi would be minimal, even if Britain could establish a completely separate state west of the Mississippi, the population would be nearly nonexistent and there seems to be no resources in the area.
The British government agreed, but refused a flat-out surrender. Instead, they wanted their troops to return to Britain or Canada before they’ll negotiate (since they technically never declared war, they hoped that a few hundred thousand pounds would work). Thus began the great retreat, in which British soldiers north of Saint Louis would sweep north-west back into Canada (and try to burn Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota on the way), while soldiers south of Saint Louis would collapse the line to the Texan coast, where they’d get on British ship and go on their merry way.
The Northern retreat went as expected, as Robert Scotts chased them from Illinois, but witnessed the destruction of the Upper Mississippi along with the way. The two most infamous incidents were when the entirety of Chicago was burned to the ground, and when British troops in Minneapolis burned the mills, and a good amount of the rest of the city with it. The Southern retreat didn’t go quite as expected, mostly thanks to one major flaw that Crawford couldn’t imagine; an evolved, advanced, and much larger form of cavalry warfare, a much more mobile warfare, where the French General Philippe Berger was able to get around the retreating and harass the northern end of the British armies from the front and rear, and ‘chewed’ down from there. Most of the British army survived, but only by moving in a way Crawford hadn’t intended, clumping together into a giant mass. The British army gathered in Friendship, Texas, where they were to hold out while the French and Americans assaulted the town
In April 1865, the British fleet finally arrived, and the last of the British troops fled America, the de facto end of the American Civil War.
Since the loss of the Great Gamble, France had been working hard to make sure the United States of America becomes a definitive ally of France instead of a neutral power that generally agrees with them. Britain had been doing the same, trying to ride the momentum of the Great Gamble to make sure America becomes their ally. As such, the two were constantly trying to meddle in American politics, and, oh, it appears America was dividing itself based on their thoughts of Slavery, what a perfect opportunity. Those opposing slavery ended up aligning with France, with those favoring slavery aligned with Britain. French diplomats would go on and on about how evil slavery is, while Britain would say that although they don’t allow slavery, they’re okay with others doing so.
The French and Brits would purposefully try to start conflict, pointing fingers at opposing diplomats and their allies. Personal attacks, like that of Preston Brooks against Charles Sumner, Henry S. Foote and Thomas Benton against each other, and even those on the same side battled each other in a argument over how extreme their sides should become.
The argument eventually came to a head in 1860, when Pro-British, Pro-Slaverly men stormed voting polls across the country, even invading nearby non-slave states, to make sure their candidate, Moise Severin, gets power. While legally, it worked, Moise Severin and his running mate would be assassinated by Pro-French Americans before he get the presidency, leaving the President Pro Tempore of the US Senate - Kenneth Victors, who was Pro-French (but oddly neutral to slavery) - as President to be. The South, understandably, didn’t like this. The North (while celebrating the death of Moise Severin) said that the law is the law and thus that Kenneth Victors should be president, not to mention that the only reason Severin won the election anyways was because of vote-rigging. By the time that Kenneth Victors would ascend to the presidency, blood was already flowing in the streets, and the South gathered an army of Pro-Slavers to march on Washington and get a different president in, while what remained of the true US army gathers to defend Kenneth Victors.
French and British troops were suddenly flowing into the United States to support their respective sides (interestingly, New York was the main staple port for the French and Pro-French America, New Orleans was the staple port for the British and Pro-British America). The first battle was the battle of Alexandria, just south of Washington and the flash of cannons could be seen easily from Washington. This battle contained no French or British troops, though. Instead, the first battle that would contain French and/or British troops would be the battle of New Orleans (1861), in which French sailors flying under the United States banner tried and failed to capture New Orleans, being pushed off by British ships.
There were two main fronts in the American Civil War: The Virginia Front, and the Mississippi front. The American troops mostly focused on the Virginia Front, while they sent the Europeans to the Mississippi front. Now that isn’t to say that Europeans didn’t serve in Virginia (mostly Officers), nor Americans in Mississippi (they still made up a large percentage of the army, though certainly not the majority).
Virginia Front and the Atlantic
The Southern insurgents started off very disorganized, a stark difference to the American Government army, headed by general Robert Scotts. The Southern insurgency can be mostly described as a coalition of self-declared generals and their self-described armies running around trying to beat the government. Not only this, but the North also had an industrial advantage and a discipline advantage (getting most of the army, while only a few defectors joined the Southern Insurgency). The insurgency should have been over by Christmas.
That was before the European Intervention. By June, British officers (most important of which was Alexander Palmer) came and replaced the Southern Insurgent Generals, disciplining them in the same way that Baron von Steuben disciplined the American Revolutionaries almost a century before. The first signs of slowing came in August, right after Richmond was reclaimed, and by Christmas the Virginia Front had almost came to complete halt at the Virginia-North Carolina border and Norfolk.
Britain used her superior navy to try to block out the 3 most important bays in America: Chesapeake, Delaware, and New York bays. While Chesapeake and Delaware were mostly successful, the New York bay blockade was not, as the Brits were unable to block both New York bay and her sister Long Island sound, meaning the whole blockade of New York was for all intents and purposes a failure. But for the blockades that did work, it meant that Washington, Baltimore, Northern-controlled Richmond, and Philadelphia were all blocked out by sea, making the French trek to the front needlessly longer. Not that it really mattered, French and British ships flying French and British flags were almost never attacked out of fear of launching a larger war.
Norfolk sat as a major fortress for a year, Robert Scotts demanding its surrender and Alexander Palmer carefully keeping the defenses up. Two new pieces of weaponry were introduced almost specifically for this siege: the French Flying Shell (a new advanced Howitzer that used relatively advanced indirect fire techniques) and the British Repeating Rifle (Gatling Gun). The Repeating Rifle made assaults on the town costly affairs, while the Flying Shell made it unnecessary to do so. While the siege of Norfolk went on, other parts of the Northern Army marched through North Carolina, capturing Raleigh and Greensboro.
Eventually, the storehouses and supplies at Norfolk became too diminished for Palmer’s liking, and so throughout November, he had part of his garrison army slip out of Norfolk with orders to go to Elizabeth City, North Carolina, just 40 km south. By the end of November, Palmer had escaped Norfolk without Scotts ever being the wiser, and was Scotts ever made the fool when he found out halfway through December that he was bombarding an empty city as his enemy was reinforcing down south. Scotts was sacked for his mistake and moved to the Mississippi front, which was at the time a losing front. He was replaced with Richard P. Geiger.
Geiger believed that Palmer could safely be ignored, and instead of marching his armies to Elizabeth City, he rather decided to turn his men to Raleigh and, more importantly, Charlotte, and try to capture the major population centers throughout the South, leaving Norfolk in January. Now it was time for Palmer to look like the fool as his plan to deteriorate the US government army through only defensive battles would have to be set aside and he made chase with Geiger. Geiger knew that Palmer would chase him all over the front, and so Geiger could place himself anywhere he wished and give himself a week to prepare for a battle. Instead of going to Charlotte, like he intended, he instead fled into the mountains of western North Carolina, quickly capturing Asheville and the surrounding hills, preparing for a grand defense.
The battle of Pisgah was a tremendous success for Geiger and Palmer fled to Charlotte and prepared his own defence. At Charlotte, he wrote to the government of Britain, saying he believed the cause was lost in America, despite Britain’s surprising success on the Mississippi river. Palmer was forced to defend Charlotte from Geiger’s forces and contemporaries in the battles of Belmont, Lake Norman, and Concord. While all narrow victories for Palmer, he was trapped in Charlotte, and forced to push out of the suffocating Charlotte, breaking out and setting up a position to the south at Rock Hill, although that September he was forced to flee from there as well. As fled, the last of North Carolina fell back to the American Government
Palmer sat in Columbia, South Carolina for the winter, with Geiger in Charlotte, North Carolina. Palmer was told that he had one year to turn the war around, or he’d be replaced just as his former nemesis Scotts was. Palmer decided that Columbia needed to become a fortress, so throughout the winter months, Palmer had his army and any volunteers available to make a wall around Columbia, and then another two layers of walls inside, including one of them on an island in the middle of the Congaree river. The fortifications were shifty, but they were better than nothing. The walls were lined with the repeating rifles and standard cannons, and Palmer was ready to fight.
And fight they did, for when Spring came, Geiger came down onto Columbia and was shocked as to what he saw. He bunkered in for a long and seemingly never ending siege. Geiger pushed to take the walls time and time again, only to be mowed down by the repeating rifles, and it seemed that the flying shell was doing minimal damage to the defenders. This was the first battle in the Virginia front for a long time that saw many more Government casualties than Insurgent, and Columbia soon became a symbol of the Southern Insurgency.
Sadly, for the insurgency, that didn’t stop Charleston from being captured, cutting off the Congaree river. The sudden knowledge of the Surprise war and its loss was devastating for British moral, and the loss of British moral affected the insurgents as well. Throughout the summer and fall, Geiger would continue his siege, and more and more insurgents deserted to Geiger. Meanwhile, other cities across South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida fell as well, with British generals deciding to head back home and their armies collapsed from loss of moral. Palmer was the last one in Virginia, and he no longer wanted to be there. On November 3rd, 1864, Palmer surrendered to Geiger under the condition that he could live in America (so that he wouldn’t suffer humiliation at home).
The next week, the first election since the insurgency began were held, with elections taking place in Virginia and North Carolina. Incumbent President Kenneth Victors won in a wild landslide, repeating the phrase “Victors for Victory!”
Mississippi Front and the Gulf
The war in Mississippi started off with a slight French advantage on land and a major British advantage at sea. With the front starting off at the 36th Parallel North, the French army was prepared to march on Memphis. Sadly for the French, they would be stopped just north at Memphis, and the French and Brits were preparing for a repeat of what happened at Changsha and Wuhan, with the French and British armies marching between Saint Louis and Memphis.
Fortunately for the British, it didn’t end up this was, for in the next year, the 1st Explorer’s War in the Congo (or Surprise War) would begin, and French troops and supply would diverted from America to the Congo, with Britain scratching their heads why. Most figured that France was probably preparing for a war elsewhere, or had given up on the American war (hardly a chance). But, nonetheless with the French force limited on the Mississippi Front, Britain gained the upper edge and started the march up the Mississippi River, capturing Saint Louis by Christmas of 1862, and had begun a siege of Chicago the following year.
The Northern Americans fought hard to try to break the siege, cut off British supply lines, or just to negotiate as good of a peace as they still could (thankfully, the Virginia front was still going decently, with large leaps in progress coming in 1863). Chicago did eventually fall in early 1864, which the Brits believed would be the end of the Mississippi front, despite some resistance volunteers coming in from Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. The Brits were wrong to assume.
With the discovery of the Surprise War and France’s victory in it before it even started, many Brits suddenly had a drop in morale, but not enough to take them out of the war. Britain still held Chicago and the entirety of the Mississippi River up to Saint Louis (as far as they really needed to go), and from there, up the Illinois river to Chicago, dividing the United States. But, they would be facing off against a new surge of French Troops, arriving back from the Congo, led by Vincent Durant (Jean-Marie ‘Le Toulonnais’ was out on another mission in the Sahara). But also arriving from the Congo was Joseph Crawford, hoping to regain some of his lost honor.
Durant’s first strike was against Saint Louis, quickly capturing it while the British were still in Chicago. The British armies led by Crawford marched quickly on to Saint Louis and put it under siege. Durant seeked to pull the same trick that Le Toulonnais had pulled on Crawford back at Fort Durant, tricking Crawford into a peace behind French lines so he could be captured, but this time Crawford knew it was a trap, and while Durant stood waiting for his adversary, one of Crawford’s men shot Durant. While he survived, he wouldn’t be able to effectively lead his armies. Crawford was able to regain Saint Louis under the conditions that Durant would get safe passage to New York City so he could more effectively recover, the remaining French forces would surrender all arms, and that said force would get a 2 day’s head start to run to a more effective place to defend and get weapons again.
British forces lined the Mississippi by the time the Virginia front finally ended. The rebellion in the East had finally been put down, and it was time to put down the rebellion in the West. Richard Geiger was put in charge on the Southwest (Louisiana), former general of Virginia Robert Soctts was put in charge of the Northwest (Illinois), and a replacement general for Durant, Philippe Berger, led the center (Missouri).
Crawford, put at the helm of the entire West, stood no chance, and he wished that all British troops in America leave. They had already lost the important front, that in Virginia, any victory in the Mississippi would be minimal, even if Britain could establish a completely separate state west of the Mississippi, the population would be nearly nonexistent and there seems to be no resources in the area.
The British government agreed, but refused a flat-out surrender. Instead, they wanted their troops to return to Britain or Canada before they’ll negotiate (since they technically never declared war, they hoped that a few hundred thousand pounds would work). Thus began the great retreat, in which British soldiers north of Saint Louis would sweep north-west back into Canada (and try to burn Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota on the way), while soldiers south of Saint Louis would collapse the line to the Texan coast, where they’d get on British ship and go on their merry way.
The Northern retreat went as expected, as Robert Scotts chased them from Illinois, but witnessed the destruction of the Upper Mississippi along with the way. The two most infamous incidents were when the entirety of Chicago was burned to the ground, and when British troops in Minneapolis burned the mills, and a good amount of the rest of the city with it. The Southern retreat didn’t go quite as expected, mostly thanks to one major flaw that Crawford couldn’t imagine; an evolved, advanced, and much larger form of cavalry warfare, a much more mobile warfare, where the French General Philippe Berger was able to get around the retreating and harass the northern end of the British armies from the front and rear, and ‘chewed’ down from there. Most of the British army survived, but only by moving in a way Crawford hadn’t intended, clumping together into a giant mass. The British army gathered in Friendship, Texas, where they were to hold out while the French and Americans assaulted the town
In April 1865, the British fleet finally arrived, and the last of the British troops fled America, the de facto end of the American Civil War.
1st Explorers' War-Congo War 1862-1864
Since the Treaty of Amsterdam, Africa remained the most contested continent between the French and the British, especially due to the vast, unclaimed and unexplored land that both sides desired if only to keep it from the other. And do to limits in technology and the stubbornness of the locals, this was how it was suppose to remain, at least for a while.
The first step to ending this status quo came, in hindsight, in 1844, when developments in medicine made it so that European men could enter Central Africa without being completely wiped out from disease. The Second development came in 1862, when the long reigning king of the Kongo finally died. He refused access to British ships to allow them to venture up the Congo, despite him being officially part of the Anglo-Sphere. When he finally died, his heir came to power and agreed to sell a part of their land north of the Congo River, giving the river access to British Ships. Britain immediately started to organize an expedition to explore the Upper Congo, led by General Joseph Crawford.
When Napoleon II of France heard that the Kingdom of the Kongo sold that land to the Brits, he immediately knew what was going on and organized an expedition of his own led by General Vincent “Le Malouin" Durant. They hoped that do to the fact that the Mouth of the Congo was shared between two states, that France could get away with calling it International Territory (an excuse that Britain would never accept, but maybe the Kongolese could)
Crawford and Durant left from their respective ports at approximately the same time (Crawford from Lisbon, Durant from Barcelona). Their fleets met off the Coast of Guinea, and they tensely followed each other for a day until Crawford’s finally broke off to port in the Gold Coast. Durant’s fleet continued on to a small port on the island of Corisco.
The two would take off once again and meet at the Mouth of the Congo. The two then realized what their adversary's mission was in direct conflict of their own. They started firing upon each other, but Britain won the day and Durant fled south. Little did Crawford know that this victory would indirectly lead to disaster of the British Expedition.
While Crawford started building a fort on the Mouth of the Congo (he named the fort as “Fort Anne,” after the current Queen Anne II), Durant fled south and landed on the Kongolese coast, where he founded a small supply port so that his ships could be fixed, and once fixed they could establish a supply line with Durant. Durant led his army through the Kongo and overthrew the new Kongolese King, replacing him with pro-French King.
Crawford sailed up the Congo River while Fort Anne was being finished, and Durant’s army made it to the Inner Congo River with Crawford’s fleet not to far ahead. Durant’s army mostly had to get around on foot, which certainly made it much more difficult. Throughout their trek along the Congo River, Durant’s Army consistently removed any British Flags that hung from trees or primitive flag poles, marking Crawford’s British claims. Finally, at the confluence of the Congo and Kasai Rivers, Durant founded a fort known as “Fort Durant” (after himself), although the fort had been more popularly been called “La Forte Fort (Fort Strong/ Strong Fort).”
Durant had found that British Force had continued up the Middle Congo River, and so decided that Durant would lead his force up the Kasai River, leaving behind a small garrison at Fort Durant led by then unknown Major Jean-Marie “Le Toulonnais” Lachance.
Far from Fort Durant, on the Upper Congo and Lomani Rivers, two separate French Exploration/ Scouting parties discovered similarly sized British forces, who were unaware that the French had returned to the Congo River after the Battle of the Mouth of the Congo. The French attacked the Brits off guard and the British fled. At the same time, a British ship was heading back to Fort Anne to bring supplies back to General Crawford, only to be surprised by the Fort Durant Garrison. They tried to get by, but the ship was heavily damaged, and so headed back upstream to General Crawford. When Crawford heard that French were in the Congo, he panicked and headed downstream with his full force to besiege Fort Durant. Similarly, when General Durant heard of the skirmish between French and English scouts, he knew Crawford would be heading back downstream, so marched his men back to Fort Durant. Sadly, the return of General Durant would take quite a while, so it was left to Major Jean-Marie Lachance to save Fort Durant, but he did have a plan up his sleeve...
When General Crawford returned to place Fort Durant under siege, Jean-Marie came out and offered a truce, naming himself as General Durant. Crawford accepted his truce and entered the Fort to speak of the conditions of surrender, but was captured and held hostage by “Le Toulonnais” and his garrison. The British Force kept up the siege for several months, but under very demoralized conditions, and when the relief force led by the actual General Durant came, the Brits fled back up river.
It was at this point that Fort Anne realized that something was amiss, so sent out a small force to investigate the Congo River. They came just in time for the original British Force to return back to Fort Durant, and the combination of the armies besiege Fort Durant once more.
General Durant finally came out offering peace: The Brits and French would divide the Congo among themselves, each side get the areas they explored (Kasai Basin and Southern Kongo Kingdom to France, Middle Congo Basin and Northern Kongo Kingdom to Britain).
Major Jean-Marie “Le Toulonnais” would be declared the Hero of the Congo and was promoted to Colonel. Vincent Durant would also be praised, but not to the extent of Le Toulonnais. General Crawford would be shunned by the British Military and was almost forced to retire. France was the one got away with the most in this war, with the areas they gained having the majority of Congolese Rubber and Ivory.
In Britain, the war is often called the ‘Surprise War,’ due to the fact that nobody knew that the war was going on until after the conflict was over, due to information not being able to escape the Congo region
Since the Treaty of Amsterdam, Africa remained the most contested continent between the French and the British, especially due to the vast, unclaimed and unexplored land that both sides desired if only to keep it from the other. And do to limits in technology and the stubbornness of the locals, this was how it was suppose to remain, at least for a while.
The first step to ending this status quo came, in hindsight, in 1844, when developments in medicine made it so that European men could enter Central Africa without being completely wiped out from disease. The Second development came in 1862, when the long reigning king of the Kongo finally died. He refused access to British ships to allow them to venture up the Congo, despite him being officially part of the Anglo-Sphere. When he finally died, his heir came to power and agreed to sell a part of their land north of the Congo River, giving the river access to British Ships. Britain immediately started to organize an expedition to explore the Upper Congo, led by General Joseph Crawford.
When Napoleon II of France heard that the Kingdom of the Kongo sold that land to the Brits, he immediately knew what was going on and organized an expedition of his own led by General Vincent “Le Malouin" Durant. They hoped that do to the fact that the Mouth of the Congo was shared between two states, that France could get away with calling it International Territory (an excuse that Britain would never accept, but maybe the Kongolese could)
Crawford and Durant left from their respective ports at approximately the same time (Crawford from Lisbon, Durant from Barcelona). Their fleets met off the Coast of Guinea, and they tensely followed each other for a day until Crawford’s finally broke off to port in the Gold Coast. Durant’s fleet continued on to a small port on the island of Corisco.
The two would take off once again and meet at the Mouth of the Congo. The two then realized what their adversary's mission was in direct conflict of their own. They started firing upon each other, but Britain won the day and Durant fled south. Little did Crawford know that this victory would indirectly lead to disaster of the British Expedition.
While Crawford started building a fort on the Mouth of the Congo (he named the fort as “Fort Anne,” after the current Queen Anne II), Durant fled south and landed on the Kongolese coast, where he founded a small supply port so that his ships could be fixed, and once fixed they could establish a supply line with Durant. Durant led his army through the Kongo and overthrew the new Kongolese King, replacing him with pro-French King.
Crawford sailed up the Congo River while Fort Anne was being finished, and Durant’s army made it to the Inner Congo River with Crawford’s fleet not to far ahead. Durant’s army mostly had to get around on foot, which certainly made it much more difficult. Throughout their trek along the Congo River, Durant’s Army consistently removed any British Flags that hung from trees or primitive flag poles, marking Crawford’s British claims. Finally, at the confluence of the Congo and Kasai Rivers, Durant founded a fort known as “Fort Durant” (after himself), although the fort had been more popularly been called “La Forte Fort (Fort Strong/ Strong Fort).”
Durant had found that British Force had continued up the Middle Congo River, and so decided that Durant would lead his force up the Kasai River, leaving behind a small garrison at Fort Durant led by then unknown Major Jean-Marie “Le Toulonnais” Lachance.
Far from Fort Durant, on the Upper Congo and Lomani Rivers, two separate French Exploration/ Scouting parties discovered similarly sized British forces, who were unaware that the French had returned to the Congo River after the Battle of the Mouth of the Congo. The French attacked the Brits off guard and the British fled. At the same time, a British ship was heading back to Fort Anne to bring supplies back to General Crawford, only to be surprised by the Fort Durant Garrison. They tried to get by, but the ship was heavily damaged, and so headed back upstream to General Crawford. When Crawford heard that French were in the Congo, he panicked and headed downstream with his full force to besiege Fort Durant. Similarly, when General Durant heard of the skirmish between French and English scouts, he knew Crawford would be heading back downstream, so marched his men back to Fort Durant. Sadly, the return of General Durant would take quite a while, so it was left to Major Jean-Marie Lachance to save Fort Durant, but he did have a plan up his sleeve...
When General Crawford returned to place Fort Durant under siege, Jean-Marie came out and offered a truce, naming himself as General Durant. Crawford accepted his truce and entered the Fort to speak of the conditions of surrender, but was captured and held hostage by “Le Toulonnais” and his garrison. The British Force kept up the siege for several months, but under very demoralized conditions, and when the relief force led by the actual General Durant came, the Brits fled back up river.
It was at this point that Fort Anne realized that something was amiss, so sent out a small force to investigate the Congo River. They came just in time for the original British Force to return back to Fort Durant, and the combination of the armies besiege Fort Durant once more.
General Durant finally came out offering peace: The Brits and French would divide the Congo among themselves, each side get the areas they explored (Kasai Basin and Southern Kongo Kingdom to France, Middle Congo Basin and Northern Kongo Kingdom to Britain).
Major Jean-Marie “Le Toulonnais” would be declared the Hero of the Congo and was promoted to Colonel. Vincent Durant would also be praised, but not to the extent of Le Toulonnais. General Crawford would be shunned by the British Military and was almost forced to retire. France was the one got away with the most in this war, with the areas they gained having the majority of Congolese Rubber and Ivory.
In Britain, the war is often called the ‘Surprise War,’ due to the fact that nobody knew that the war was going on until after the conflict was over, due to information not being able to escape the Congo region
2nd Explorers’ War- Berber Wars 1865-1871
Starting almost immediately after the end of the 1st Explorers’ War, Colonel Jean-Marie “Le Toulonnais” was sent on a mission into the Berber lands, Sahara, where he was introduced to a small nomadic tribe of Berbers, led by their King Izem, chosen because Izem’s perceived loyalty and good relations with the French (including being able to speak the language). Jean-Marie was given 5000 men (which was equal in size to the entire Berber tribe) and one instruction: “Make them an empire,” and that he planned to do.
Working alongside King Izem (who also acted as translator), Le Toulonnais was able to annex large swaths of the Western Sahara, either through conquest or, later on, convincing them to subjugate themselves to King Izem. Although the army Le Toulonnais was given was quite small, it was still equal in size to most of the rival Berber tribes, and on top of that he had far superior technology in almost every way, so any 1-on-1 match would be a complete slaughter for the opponents, and the couple times they did come across a larger army, they would be slaughtered as well.
Two years following joining King Izem, this small Berber tribe had united all the independent Berber people, and was able to wield an army of it's own. Le Toulonnais was promoted to General and commander of the newly created Armée des Allies (comparable to our French Foreign Legion), and was given permission by Napoleon II to return home, but Le Toulonnais and King Izem were already plotting to expand the Berber Empire, and with Napoleon’s permission, in November 1867, the Berber Empire declared war upon and invaded Morocco.
The first year of the conflict was going well for the Berbers, capturing Marrakesh in April and was besieging Fez the following November. Britain hadn’t intervened, believing it just a war between what few neutrals there were. But, as soon as Britain heard that it was a French General leading the Berbers, they were preparing for war once more. Leading the expedition was going to be General Crawford, who had retired after the American Civil War, but was more than ready to get revenge on the Frenchman that embarrassed him at Fort Durant three and a half years prior.
Crawford and his army arrived in Tangiers in January of 1869, and quickly relieved the siege of Fez. He then went on to try to cross the Atlas Mountains, hoping to push Le Toulonnais from Morocco. Le Toulonnais responded by attacking them in the Atlas passes. Crawford retreated, but Le Toulonnais wasn’t able to counter.
The war quickly devolved into a series of mini-campaigns in the Atlas Valleys, and that’s how it was throughout the summer of 1869 (which was actually kind of nice, the mountains were much cooler than the rest of Morocco, making the mountains fine locations to fight during the summer). While both sides would have liked all of Morocco, in September 1868, Crawford and Le Toulonnais came to compromise which saw the Berber Empire take all of Morocco south of the High Atlas mountains (although this still leaves yet more Berbers lived on the far side of the High Atlas mountains), and left the rest of Morocco alone.
Both sides claimed victory. Britain was able to get a new ally out of Morocco and Crawford was finally able to retire with honor. The Berber Empire was able to capture a large population of Berbers (a huge concentration in fact, about 50% of the population now was in the newly conquered regions) and effectively cemented its staying power. Napoleon II once more gave permission to Le Toulonnais to return home, but once more he and King Izem were plotting, this time against the Sokoto caliphate and her allies to the south. The Berber Empire wanted Timbuktu and Gao, traditional centers of power in West Africa, in order to become the prominent power across all of West Africa, both realistically and ceremonially. France, in return, could do whatever they wanted with the rest of it, raze it for all they care. Napoleon II, once more, agreed and King Izem and Le Toulonnais were again marching off to war.
In October of 1870, the Berber Empire went to war with the Sokoto Caliphate and their Fulani Jihadist allies. While the Berber Empire, aided by the Armee des Allies. marched from the Sahara, other French armies marched from their colonies, even the French ally of Dahomey went on the warpath. Britain, upon hearing the news of another war, went up in arms as well, but surprisingly, not for Sokoto, but against. Britain had figured that they could do more harm to the French by trying to steal as much of the Fulani Bounty as possible, rather than trying to save it, as they had done in America and Morocco. France simply had too much power to compete with in a direct war.
By May, just seven months after French declaration of far, the Fulani States had completely crumbled between France, Britain, and their respective allies in the region. Unclaimed or uncivilized lands in the greater Guinea region would be eaten up as well. Any independent states left in the region now had to choose a side or threaten to be eaten along with the Fulanis. For the next year, a couple of border disputes would occur in the region, only to be sorted out when Napoleon II, with King Izem and Le Toulonnais on his side, met with British PM Harold Livingston in Tangiers. There, they sorted out the borders of the Guinea and River Niger regions, as well reconfirm Moroccan borders and confirm spheres-of-influence. When the Treaty of Tangiers was finished, Napoleon made sure to take Le Toulonnais with him back to France, just to make sure he couldn’t plot another war with King Izem.
Starting almost immediately after the end of the 1st Explorers’ War, Colonel Jean-Marie “Le Toulonnais” was sent on a mission into the Berber lands, Sahara, where he was introduced to a small nomadic tribe of Berbers, led by their King Izem, chosen because Izem’s perceived loyalty and good relations with the French (including being able to speak the language). Jean-Marie was given 5000 men (which was equal in size to the entire Berber tribe) and one instruction: “Make them an empire,” and that he planned to do.
Working alongside King Izem (who also acted as translator), Le Toulonnais was able to annex large swaths of the Western Sahara, either through conquest or, later on, convincing them to subjugate themselves to King Izem. Although the army Le Toulonnais was given was quite small, it was still equal in size to most of the rival Berber tribes, and on top of that he had far superior technology in almost every way, so any 1-on-1 match would be a complete slaughter for the opponents, and the couple times they did come across a larger army, they would be slaughtered as well.
Two years following joining King Izem, this small Berber tribe had united all the independent Berber people, and was able to wield an army of it's own. Le Toulonnais was promoted to General and commander of the newly created Armée des Allies (comparable to our French Foreign Legion), and was given permission by Napoleon II to return home, but Le Toulonnais and King Izem were already plotting to expand the Berber Empire, and with Napoleon’s permission, in November 1867, the Berber Empire declared war upon and invaded Morocco.
The first year of the conflict was going well for the Berbers, capturing Marrakesh in April and was besieging Fez the following November. Britain hadn’t intervened, believing it just a war between what few neutrals there were. But, as soon as Britain heard that it was a French General leading the Berbers, they were preparing for war once more. Leading the expedition was going to be General Crawford, who had retired after the American Civil War, but was more than ready to get revenge on the Frenchman that embarrassed him at Fort Durant three and a half years prior.
Crawford and his army arrived in Tangiers in January of 1869, and quickly relieved the siege of Fez. He then went on to try to cross the Atlas Mountains, hoping to push Le Toulonnais from Morocco. Le Toulonnais responded by attacking them in the Atlas passes. Crawford retreated, but Le Toulonnais wasn’t able to counter.
The war quickly devolved into a series of mini-campaigns in the Atlas Valleys, and that’s how it was throughout the summer of 1869 (which was actually kind of nice, the mountains were much cooler than the rest of Morocco, making the mountains fine locations to fight during the summer). While both sides would have liked all of Morocco, in September 1868, Crawford and Le Toulonnais came to compromise which saw the Berber Empire take all of Morocco south of the High Atlas mountains (although this still leaves yet more Berbers lived on the far side of the High Atlas mountains), and left the rest of Morocco alone.
Both sides claimed victory. Britain was able to get a new ally out of Morocco and Crawford was finally able to retire with honor. The Berber Empire was able to capture a large population of Berbers (a huge concentration in fact, about 50% of the population now was in the newly conquered regions) and effectively cemented its staying power. Napoleon II once more gave permission to Le Toulonnais to return home, but once more he and King Izem were plotting, this time against the Sokoto caliphate and her allies to the south. The Berber Empire wanted Timbuktu and Gao, traditional centers of power in West Africa, in order to become the prominent power across all of West Africa, both realistically and ceremonially. France, in return, could do whatever they wanted with the rest of it, raze it for all they care. Napoleon II, once more, agreed and King Izem and Le Toulonnais were again marching off to war.
In October of 1870, the Berber Empire went to war with the Sokoto Caliphate and their Fulani Jihadist allies. While the Berber Empire, aided by the Armee des Allies. marched from the Sahara, other French armies marched from their colonies, even the French ally of Dahomey went on the warpath. Britain, upon hearing the news of another war, went up in arms as well, but surprisingly, not for Sokoto, but against. Britain had figured that they could do more harm to the French by trying to steal as much of the Fulani Bounty as possible, rather than trying to save it, as they had done in America and Morocco. France simply had too much power to compete with in a direct war.
By May, just seven months after French declaration of far, the Fulani States had completely crumbled between France, Britain, and their respective allies in the region. Unclaimed or uncivilized lands in the greater Guinea region would be eaten up as well. Any independent states left in the region now had to choose a side or threaten to be eaten along with the Fulanis. For the next year, a couple of border disputes would occur in the region, only to be sorted out when Napoleon II, with King Izem and Le Toulonnais on his side, met with British PM Harold Livingston in Tangiers. There, they sorted out the borders of the Guinea and River Niger regions, as well reconfirm Moroccan borders and confirm spheres-of-influence. When the Treaty of Tangiers was finished, Napoleon made sure to take Le Toulonnais with him back to France, just to make sure he couldn’t plot another war with King Izem.
3rd Explorers’ War- Muslim War 1875-1880
In 1873, Napoleon II suffered a stroke at the age of 63. While he survived, it did make the aging emperor truly realize his mortality, and that he might not have much longer to live. He planned that for the last war of his reign would be to fulfil his father’s destiny, to go and conquer Egypt in the name of France. He was too old to lead any sort of expedition into Egypt, and so he decided to let the popular Jean-Marie “Le Toulonnais” Lachance and the Armee des Allies to lead the expedition.
Throughout the rest of 1873 and almost all of 1874, while Le Toulonnais was preparing for the expedition in Otranto (and a sub-commander, Karl von Eger, preparing in Tunis), Napoleon II had gone out to Warsaw to meet with Russian Emperor Alexander II (Nicholas I of Russia had died in 1860). Napoleon wanted to see if Russia would agree to invade Egypt with him (or, at the very least, secure Russian neutrality in the war). In return of Russian intervention on the side of France, the Russian puppet of the Patriarchies would be expanded to have more of the Egyptian Holy Land, including the city of Alexandria. While promises of holy lands would have captivated his uncle, Alexander II was much more shrewd and demanded, rather than Alexandria, the entirety of the Levant. He wanted a full scale invasion of the entire Turko-sphere, with Syria, Palestine, Iraq and Sinai going to Russia and her puppets, as well as greater Russian control of the Marmara and her straights (Alexander’s threat of not doing so equated to going to tell on him to Britain). Napoleon II didn’t want to see Russia getting such easy access to the Indian Ocean as annexing Iraq would do, but since he was going to get Tripoli and Egypt out of the agreement (and with it, their own easy connection to Indian Ocean), it was still worth it.
After the Warsaw Pact [hush you] was finished and agreed upon in January of 1875, Napoleon II gave the order to Le Toulonnais and von Eger to march on to Egypt, and sent the declarations of war to the Turko-sphere. Von Eger invaded Tripolitania from Tunis, and Le Toulonnais set off from Otranto and landed in Alexandria. Russia declared war the following month, invading Turkey from Constantinople and Armenia, and invading Iraq from Kurdistan
Although Tripolitania fell quickly, the other three were different degrees of difficulty, all more so (it doesn’t help that they were probably being helped by someone). Le Toulonnais and von Eger were having trouble getting much further into Egypt. The French march to Cairo took much longer than expected in the Nile Delta campaign, and required many detours. It took all the way to April 1877 for Cairo to finally be captured, by which point the Egyptian court had already moved south to Luxor, with preparations already made to head even further to Khartoum if necessary.
Throughout the Nile Delta campaign, Napoleon II would follow in his father’s footsteps (almost literally) and often visited the areas they occupied, especially Rosetta when that was taken, even threw a public festival in Alexandria when news of the capture of Rosetta. He constantly organized archaeological expeditions into the region to see if any more grand discoveries on par with the Rosetta Stone could be found. Possibly the most important discovery wasn’t historical in nature, but rather geographical. The scientists in Egypt corrected the findings of Napoleon I’s expeditions in Egypt 75 years prior, learning that the Mediterranean and Red Seas were actually rather level with each other, instead of the 10 meter difference originally estimated.
Meanwhile, in Iraq, Russia was having much more success, capturing Kuwait in early 1876, and in the 1877 had just retaken occupied Antioch. When Russia captured Kuwait, Napoleon II and Prime Minister August Garrard of Britain started a line of communication, with Napoleon wanting Britain to go to war with Russia, hinting that Persia might be open for attack. And so, just a couple days after Cairo fell in 1877, Britain launched an invasion into Persia, forcing Russia into a second front.
From here on, there’s two main front, the Persian War and the Arab War (along with the lesser Turkish front, which we’re not going to focus on).
Arab War: French vs. Arabs
With Russia more-or-less abandoning the Arab war to confront Britain in Persia (hell, Baghdad fell back to Iraq in December 1877), the Arabs (and Turks) could focus more on the French armies in Egypt than the Russians. After Jerusalem fell in January 1878, the Arabs made their first counter-attack and took Damietta. The French Army, already on their way to Luxor and had taken Asyut, was forced to turn around and fight back in the Nile Delta.
Cairo was put under siege in March, but luckily for the French they came not long after. The first major battle in the second phase of the Nile Delta Campaign was the Battle of Helwan, and Cairo was relieved a week after. The French armies attempted to recapture Damietta, but found Cairo was once again under threat thanks to another Arab army coming from Luxor. Le Toulonnais came to the conclusion that as long as the Armee remains together, the Armee will never go any further, and so decided that the Armee should divide into two forces. Le Toulonnais himself will fight on in the Nile Delta Campaign, while Karl von Eger would go on to fight in the Upper Nile.
Le Toulonnais was able to push back the Arab offensive, and under the orders of Napoleon II fought on past the Sinai, establishing a defensive line from the port of Aqaba to Gaza in January 1879. With the defensive line built, Napoleon II started sending thousands of researchers, engineers and workers to Egypt to create a miracle: A canal that connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. From this point on, Le Toulonnais would be mostly sitting snugly and calmly, for any Arab attack would easily be repulsed, and before a true, new offensive could be forced upon them, Russia would go to war with the Arabs once more.
Meanwhile, in Upper Egypt, Karl von Eger had finally successfully taken Luxor in December 1878, but the Egyptians had already retreated and reorganized in Khartoum. What’s more, when von Eger attempts to go after Khartoum, an Egyptian army charges out of the deserts around Luxor and recaptures it, and when he returns back to Luxor, the city would be abandoned and all supplies taken, any garrison left massacred. It took until March for von Eger to finally realize they were following a path along the Red Sea, and then crossed the desert to attack Luxor. Von Eger decided to leave Luxor to the Red Sea. Von Eger was able to capture the remaining Egyptians off guard, and easily defeated the Egyptian Army. To further add insult to injury, von Eger used the same tactic to march on Khartoum, marching along the Red Sea until reaching Suakin, and then crossed the desert again to Khartoum. The city was under siege before the Egyptians knew that they were coming.
Von Eger, angered at how hard it was for him to get to Khartoum, wished to make the siege as quick as possible, even if some of the population of Khartoum had to die. To do this, he incorporated a new resource, petroleum, or crude oil. Oil had recently become a fairly profitable resource across the world, mostly used to light lamps, but von Eger, along with most of the French and foreign militaries, believed there was a possible militaristic use behind it as well. The French, or at least von Eger, believed that this oil was the secret behind Greek Fire, therefore called this weaponized petroleum after it, though other popular names include Feu d’Eau or Eau de Feu.
And so von Eger had one of his experimental weapons used on the battlefront for the first time, a hollow artillery shell where the inside was filled Greek Fire. The French called these Comets or Flying Fire, and when they worked, they would fly into the city, and when they hit, they’d spill the Greek Fire everywhere, causing things surrounding it to catch on fire. But these rudimentary Flying Fire shells often didn’t work, often blowing up in mid air or not blowing up at all, and many of the early attempts often blew up the artillery cannon themselves, and when it did work, the effects were fairly minimized given the architecture.
Nonetheless, the Flying Fire still scared the citizens of Khartoum, and many of them and even the soldiers fled from the burning Khartoum. One set of deserting troops in September 1879 broke into the home that the Egyptian Sultan, pulled him out, dragged him through the streets before finally delivering him to von Eger. Von Eger made sure that the trip back to Cairo was slow, and paraded the Egyptian soldier through each town they passed. When they finally reached Cairo, Napoleon II made sure that he would attend the welcoming ceremony of von Eger, with the Egyptian Sultan being given the same treatment as every other city. After the ceremony, he was locked away in a palace in Alexandria. From this point on, the Franco-Arabic war was more or less over, but many important things should still be gone over before the official treaty was signed.
After dropping off the Egyptian Sultan, in August 1880, Karl von Eger desired to move back down to Luxor. His official reason was to search for more Greek Fire and to explore the ancient tombs of the region recorded during Napoleon I’s 1799 expedition, but in reality, he was just going on vacation. He believed that the 1799 and earlier reports of the tombs were fake, exaggerated, or were based off local legends and nothing more, but much to his surprise, after only two weeks of giving his soldiers vague orders to go into the desert and report anything interesting they found, they found a valley filled with grand monuments built into the hill sides. He had to check out these reports for himself, and found the Valley of the Kings.
Napoleon II himself was going to go on another visit to Egypt to look at the newfound Valley of the Kings, when in October 1880 he suffered another stroke. Once again, he lived, but his doctors and physicians told him he needed to stay in France from now on, preferably remain in Paris, or even better, stay in his palace at Saint-Cloud. Nonetheless, Napoleon II ordered a whole new army of archaeologists to go to the Valley and to discover its secrets.
With Napoleon II’s October stroke, he sought to end the conflict, and had the Egyptian Sultan shipped over to Paris. There, the sultan signed over all land that was, at that time, currently under the control of the French. He was then shipped off back to what remain of his empire, whose capital currently sat at Jerusalem. The other 3 leaders of the Post-Ottoman sphere then arrived; Tripolitania, Turkey, and Iraq. Tripolitania agreed to become another member of the French Sphere, while Turkey and Iraq signed a white peace with France.
With the peace signed and the Great Canal being constructed, Napoleon II felt that his legacy was complete and secure. His final instruction was, along with the Great Canal, to also build a grand fortification to protect this canal, from both land and sea. Napoleon II thusly peacefully died in his sleep in July of 1881, just a few days after Bastille day.
Succeeding Napoleon II was his 43 year old son, Napoleon III, infamous for his womanizing and his rambunctious partying. Napoleon III was disinterested in running the country (rather he’d prefer to do that pre-mentioned womanizing and partying), and so organized an ‘advisory’ council, who would more or less run the country with Napoleon III rubber-stamping everything. This advisory council was made up of 7 advisers, along with a “Prime Adviser,” who, as long as Napoleon III was rubber-stamping everything, was the de facto head of France. Who else would be better for this position than a general growing ever more popular, Jean-Marie “Le Toulonnais” Lachance.
The Great Canal of Suez was completed in 1888, with the last of the accompanying fortifications finished within a couple months. This grand series of fortifications was collectively known as Fort Revolutionary, and this fort truly was revolutionary. It used updated plans from the greatest defensive general of the time, the former British general who defected to the Americans (and therefor, to the French), Alexander Palmer, who had died in 1878. This “Palmerian” Fortress was potentially the best fortress in the world, and many in France, and even those outside, said that Fort Revolutionary was impenetrable. This sparked the Russians and British to construct similar Palmerian fortresses, most notably with British increasing the defences of Malta (Fort Saint John), and Russia building fortresses on either side of the straits of Dardanelles and Bosphorus (Fort Alexander).
Persian War: Russians vs. British
The 1877 British invasion of Persia wholly locked Persia into the Russian sphere, and as such, Russia had to go and protect them. Britain attacked with two main prongs, the first attacking from India, through the Afghan mountains, and besieged Kabul, and the second launched from Oman, crossed the straits of Hormuz, and landed in Bandar Abbas, specifically so they could cut off any unwanted trade from going through the straits of Hormuz. The Russians and Kurds quickly rushed to the help of Persia, with the first battle between Russian and British soldiers being at Bandar Abbas. Russia was successful, and thus put Bandar Abbas under siege, although the siege was pretty ineffective do to not being able to block the sea.
But, as the siege of Bandar Abbas was beginning in June 1877, the siege of Kabul was also coming to a quick end. Such an important bastion in Afghanistan was invaluable for British needs, for the British defense of India from Russia. And in September, the first Russian Army had come to try to take back Kabul. The British Repeating Rifles tore the Russian army apart, and they had to run quickly.
After the battle of Kabul, Britain started a march on Kerman, to see if they can get the war over with quickly. In December 1877, Kerman had fallen as well, and Brits across the world rejoiced, believing the war was short and successful. They were mistaken, for the month before the Russian Army had moved the Qajar family to Tabriz, just for a short while. No matter, though, if they could simply occupy the rest of the country (or only a good amount of it), they would be fine.
The first thing the Brits did after the fall of Kerman was to head south and attempt to relieve the Siege of Bandar Abbas (you know, if only to get a pest off their shoulder). But a trap had been laid for the British, as the Russian army surrounded them and caused fear and alarm. The Brits quickly turned around back to Kerman, which was found to already be under siege from another Russian relief force. After successfully getting the Kerman garrison out of the siege, the British army came to the conclusion that the initial invasion, in hopes of conquering all of Persia in one push, was a failure. But, they could still consolidate their holdings in Afghanistan, a land built for prepared defence.
In May 1878, the British Army returned to Kabul, with the Russian cavalry harassing their rear. At Kabul, the simple sound of the Repeating Rifles was able to turn back the cavalry, but the Brits knew the Russians would return. As such, they set up a hastily built collection of fortifications that are, in some regards, the first set Palmerian fortress, or rather Proto-Palmerian. Nonetheless, this was enough for the Brits.
The first Russian army returned to the mountains around Kabul in July 1878, but, again, was torn apart. The Russian army ended up setting shifty (more so than the British) and provisional fortifications just outside of the read of the British Repeating Rifles and even Flying Artillery.
And so, the two sides bunkered down in the hill and mountains of Afghanistan. British and Russian troops would often try to sneak close to the other’s fortresses to try to destroy them with newly discovered Dynamite, or climb to the peak of the nearest mountain and rain shells upon them. The British found more luck in the strategy than the Russians, and a year after the retreat to Kabul, the Brits made another, smaller offensive into Baluchistan, although it grew larger until it eventually evolved into a march to finally relieve the several years long siege of Bandar Abbas.
It was here that a treaty was finally signed between the Russians and British in December 1879. Britain would get the Afghan and Baloch regions from Persia, along with Bandar Abbas, Russia would annex other, smaller regions in the furthest north east corner of Persia, and Persia itself would be locked into the Russian sphere of influence.
With Russia being freed from the war with Britain, Russia from free to return to the war with the Arabs. The month following the peace of Bandar Abbas, Russia went to war with the Arabs once again, starting a massive offensive that would see Iraq fall in only two months. The Iraqi emir was forced to flee to the court of the last remaining member of the Post-Ottoman Sphere, that of Turkey itself, also the only republic among them. The Russian armies then marched on to reoccupied Antioch and free her once more.
The Russians were about to march on Damascus when they heard the most excellent news: Napoleon II had yet another stroke and was left unable to leave the Palace of Saint-Cloud! The French were to sure to back out of the war now! And indeed, they did, through the fall of 1880 and winter of 1881, France made peace with the Post-Ottoman sphere, and throughout this, Russia mopped up what was left. In July of 1881, just a day after the passing of Napoleon II, Alexander II would meet with the member of the Post-Ottoman sphere (including the one that had recently been introduced into the French Sphere, Tripoli), and made peace with them on the following conditions:
1: The Two Patriarchies would annex the remainder of Egypt.
2: The Iraqi State would be put under the sphere of influence of Russia.
3: The Turkish State would release the Syrian State as a member of the Russian Sphere.
4: Russia would annex the Turkish coastlines of the Dardanelles and the sea of Marmara, as well as Cyprus.
5: What remained of Turkey would be part of the Russian Sphere.
Following the Treaty of Constantinople, Alexander II and his spies noticed the French construction of Fort Revolutionary, and began the construction of Fort Alexander. Alexander II himself would pass away in 1885, leaving Russia to his still childless son Alexander III.
In 1873, Napoleon II suffered a stroke at the age of 63. While he survived, it did make the aging emperor truly realize his mortality, and that he might not have much longer to live. He planned that for the last war of his reign would be to fulfil his father’s destiny, to go and conquer Egypt in the name of France. He was too old to lead any sort of expedition into Egypt, and so he decided to let the popular Jean-Marie “Le Toulonnais” Lachance and the Armee des Allies to lead the expedition.
Throughout the rest of 1873 and almost all of 1874, while Le Toulonnais was preparing for the expedition in Otranto (and a sub-commander, Karl von Eger, preparing in Tunis), Napoleon II had gone out to Warsaw to meet with Russian Emperor Alexander II (Nicholas I of Russia had died in 1860). Napoleon wanted to see if Russia would agree to invade Egypt with him (or, at the very least, secure Russian neutrality in the war). In return of Russian intervention on the side of France, the Russian puppet of the Patriarchies would be expanded to have more of the Egyptian Holy Land, including the city of Alexandria. While promises of holy lands would have captivated his uncle, Alexander II was much more shrewd and demanded, rather than Alexandria, the entirety of the Levant. He wanted a full scale invasion of the entire Turko-sphere, with Syria, Palestine, Iraq and Sinai going to Russia and her puppets, as well as greater Russian control of the Marmara and her straights (Alexander’s threat of not doing so equated to going to tell on him to Britain). Napoleon II didn’t want to see Russia getting such easy access to the Indian Ocean as annexing Iraq would do, but since he was going to get Tripoli and Egypt out of the agreement (and with it, their own easy connection to Indian Ocean), it was still worth it.
After the Warsaw Pact [hush you] was finished and agreed upon in January of 1875, Napoleon II gave the order to Le Toulonnais and von Eger to march on to Egypt, and sent the declarations of war to the Turko-sphere. Von Eger invaded Tripolitania from Tunis, and Le Toulonnais set off from Otranto and landed in Alexandria. Russia declared war the following month, invading Turkey from Constantinople and Armenia, and invading Iraq from Kurdistan
Although Tripolitania fell quickly, the other three were different degrees of difficulty, all more so (it doesn’t help that they were probably being helped by someone). Le Toulonnais and von Eger were having trouble getting much further into Egypt. The French march to Cairo took much longer than expected in the Nile Delta campaign, and required many detours. It took all the way to April 1877 for Cairo to finally be captured, by which point the Egyptian court had already moved south to Luxor, with preparations already made to head even further to Khartoum if necessary.
Throughout the Nile Delta campaign, Napoleon II would follow in his father’s footsteps (almost literally) and often visited the areas they occupied, especially Rosetta when that was taken, even threw a public festival in Alexandria when news of the capture of Rosetta. He constantly organized archaeological expeditions into the region to see if any more grand discoveries on par with the Rosetta Stone could be found. Possibly the most important discovery wasn’t historical in nature, but rather geographical. The scientists in Egypt corrected the findings of Napoleon I’s expeditions in Egypt 75 years prior, learning that the Mediterranean and Red Seas were actually rather level with each other, instead of the 10 meter difference originally estimated.
Meanwhile, in Iraq, Russia was having much more success, capturing Kuwait in early 1876, and in the 1877 had just retaken occupied Antioch. When Russia captured Kuwait, Napoleon II and Prime Minister August Garrard of Britain started a line of communication, with Napoleon wanting Britain to go to war with Russia, hinting that Persia might be open for attack. And so, just a couple days after Cairo fell in 1877, Britain launched an invasion into Persia, forcing Russia into a second front.
From here on, there’s two main front, the Persian War and the Arab War (along with the lesser Turkish front, which we’re not going to focus on).
Arab War: French vs. Arabs
With Russia more-or-less abandoning the Arab war to confront Britain in Persia (hell, Baghdad fell back to Iraq in December 1877), the Arabs (and Turks) could focus more on the French armies in Egypt than the Russians. After Jerusalem fell in January 1878, the Arabs made their first counter-attack and took Damietta. The French Army, already on their way to Luxor and had taken Asyut, was forced to turn around and fight back in the Nile Delta.
Cairo was put under siege in March, but luckily for the French they came not long after. The first major battle in the second phase of the Nile Delta Campaign was the Battle of Helwan, and Cairo was relieved a week after. The French armies attempted to recapture Damietta, but found Cairo was once again under threat thanks to another Arab army coming from Luxor. Le Toulonnais came to the conclusion that as long as the Armee remains together, the Armee will never go any further, and so decided that the Armee should divide into two forces. Le Toulonnais himself will fight on in the Nile Delta Campaign, while Karl von Eger would go on to fight in the Upper Nile.
Le Toulonnais was able to push back the Arab offensive, and under the orders of Napoleon II fought on past the Sinai, establishing a defensive line from the port of Aqaba to Gaza in January 1879. With the defensive line built, Napoleon II started sending thousands of researchers, engineers and workers to Egypt to create a miracle: A canal that connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. From this point on, Le Toulonnais would be mostly sitting snugly and calmly, for any Arab attack would easily be repulsed, and before a true, new offensive could be forced upon them, Russia would go to war with the Arabs once more.
Meanwhile, in Upper Egypt, Karl von Eger had finally successfully taken Luxor in December 1878, but the Egyptians had already retreated and reorganized in Khartoum. What’s more, when von Eger attempts to go after Khartoum, an Egyptian army charges out of the deserts around Luxor and recaptures it, and when he returns back to Luxor, the city would be abandoned and all supplies taken, any garrison left massacred. It took until March for von Eger to finally realize they were following a path along the Red Sea, and then crossed the desert to attack Luxor. Von Eger decided to leave Luxor to the Red Sea. Von Eger was able to capture the remaining Egyptians off guard, and easily defeated the Egyptian Army. To further add insult to injury, von Eger used the same tactic to march on Khartoum, marching along the Red Sea until reaching Suakin, and then crossed the desert again to Khartoum. The city was under siege before the Egyptians knew that they were coming.
Von Eger, angered at how hard it was for him to get to Khartoum, wished to make the siege as quick as possible, even if some of the population of Khartoum had to die. To do this, he incorporated a new resource, petroleum, or crude oil. Oil had recently become a fairly profitable resource across the world, mostly used to light lamps, but von Eger, along with most of the French and foreign militaries, believed there was a possible militaristic use behind it as well. The French, or at least von Eger, believed that this oil was the secret behind Greek Fire, therefore called this weaponized petroleum after it, though other popular names include Feu d’Eau or Eau de Feu.
And so von Eger had one of his experimental weapons used on the battlefront for the first time, a hollow artillery shell where the inside was filled Greek Fire. The French called these Comets or Flying Fire, and when they worked, they would fly into the city, and when they hit, they’d spill the Greek Fire everywhere, causing things surrounding it to catch on fire. But these rudimentary Flying Fire shells often didn’t work, often blowing up in mid air or not blowing up at all, and many of the early attempts often blew up the artillery cannon themselves, and when it did work, the effects were fairly minimized given the architecture.
Nonetheless, the Flying Fire still scared the citizens of Khartoum, and many of them and even the soldiers fled from the burning Khartoum. One set of deserting troops in September 1879 broke into the home that the Egyptian Sultan, pulled him out, dragged him through the streets before finally delivering him to von Eger. Von Eger made sure that the trip back to Cairo was slow, and paraded the Egyptian soldier through each town they passed. When they finally reached Cairo, Napoleon II made sure that he would attend the welcoming ceremony of von Eger, with the Egyptian Sultan being given the same treatment as every other city. After the ceremony, he was locked away in a palace in Alexandria. From this point on, the Franco-Arabic war was more or less over, but many important things should still be gone over before the official treaty was signed.
After dropping off the Egyptian Sultan, in August 1880, Karl von Eger desired to move back down to Luxor. His official reason was to search for more Greek Fire and to explore the ancient tombs of the region recorded during Napoleon I’s 1799 expedition, but in reality, he was just going on vacation. He believed that the 1799 and earlier reports of the tombs were fake, exaggerated, or were based off local legends and nothing more, but much to his surprise, after only two weeks of giving his soldiers vague orders to go into the desert and report anything interesting they found, they found a valley filled with grand monuments built into the hill sides. He had to check out these reports for himself, and found the Valley of the Kings.
Napoleon II himself was going to go on another visit to Egypt to look at the newfound Valley of the Kings, when in October 1880 he suffered another stroke. Once again, he lived, but his doctors and physicians told him he needed to stay in France from now on, preferably remain in Paris, or even better, stay in his palace at Saint-Cloud. Nonetheless, Napoleon II ordered a whole new army of archaeologists to go to the Valley and to discover its secrets.
With Napoleon II’s October stroke, he sought to end the conflict, and had the Egyptian Sultan shipped over to Paris. There, the sultan signed over all land that was, at that time, currently under the control of the French. He was then shipped off back to what remain of his empire, whose capital currently sat at Jerusalem. The other 3 leaders of the Post-Ottoman sphere then arrived; Tripolitania, Turkey, and Iraq. Tripolitania agreed to become another member of the French Sphere, while Turkey and Iraq signed a white peace with France.
With the peace signed and the Great Canal being constructed, Napoleon II felt that his legacy was complete and secure. His final instruction was, along with the Great Canal, to also build a grand fortification to protect this canal, from both land and sea. Napoleon II thusly peacefully died in his sleep in July of 1881, just a few days after Bastille day.
Succeeding Napoleon II was his 43 year old son, Napoleon III, infamous for his womanizing and his rambunctious partying. Napoleon III was disinterested in running the country (rather he’d prefer to do that pre-mentioned womanizing and partying), and so organized an ‘advisory’ council, who would more or less run the country with Napoleon III rubber-stamping everything. This advisory council was made up of 7 advisers, along with a “Prime Adviser,” who, as long as Napoleon III was rubber-stamping everything, was the de facto head of France. Who else would be better for this position than a general growing ever more popular, Jean-Marie “Le Toulonnais” Lachance.
The Great Canal of Suez was completed in 1888, with the last of the accompanying fortifications finished within a couple months. This grand series of fortifications was collectively known as Fort Revolutionary, and this fort truly was revolutionary. It used updated plans from the greatest defensive general of the time, the former British general who defected to the Americans (and therefor, to the French), Alexander Palmer, who had died in 1878. This “Palmerian” Fortress was potentially the best fortress in the world, and many in France, and even those outside, said that Fort Revolutionary was impenetrable. This sparked the Russians and British to construct similar Palmerian fortresses, most notably with British increasing the defences of Malta (Fort Saint John), and Russia building fortresses on either side of the straits of Dardanelles and Bosphorus (Fort Alexander).
Persian War: Russians vs. British
The 1877 British invasion of Persia wholly locked Persia into the Russian sphere, and as such, Russia had to go and protect them. Britain attacked with two main prongs, the first attacking from India, through the Afghan mountains, and besieged Kabul, and the second launched from Oman, crossed the straits of Hormuz, and landed in Bandar Abbas, specifically so they could cut off any unwanted trade from going through the straits of Hormuz. The Russians and Kurds quickly rushed to the help of Persia, with the first battle between Russian and British soldiers being at Bandar Abbas. Russia was successful, and thus put Bandar Abbas under siege, although the siege was pretty ineffective do to not being able to block the sea.
But, as the siege of Bandar Abbas was beginning in June 1877, the siege of Kabul was also coming to a quick end. Such an important bastion in Afghanistan was invaluable for British needs, for the British defense of India from Russia. And in September, the first Russian Army had come to try to take back Kabul. The British Repeating Rifles tore the Russian army apart, and they had to run quickly.
After the battle of Kabul, Britain started a march on Kerman, to see if they can get the war over with quickly. In December 1877, Kerman had fallen as well, and Brits across the world rejoiced, believing the war was short and successful. They were mistaken, for the month before the Russian Army had moved the Qajar family to Tabriz, just for a short while. No matter, though, if they could simply occupy the rest of the country (or only a good amount of it), they would be fine.
The first thing the Brits did after the fall of Kerman was to head south and attempt to relieve the Siege of Bandar Abbas (you know, if only to get a pest off their shoulder). But a trap had been laid for the British, as the Russian army surrounded them and caused fear and alarm. The Brits quickly turned around back to Kerman, which was found to already be under siege from another Russian relief force. After successfully getting the Kerman garrison out of the siege, the British army came to the conclusion that the initial invasion, in hopes of conquering all of Persia in one push, was a failure. But, they could still consolidate their holdings in Afghanistan, a land built for prepared defence.
In May 1878, the British Army returned to Kabul, with the Russian cavalry harassing their rear. At Kabul, the simple sound of the Repeating Rifles was able to turn back the cavalry, but the Brits knew the Russians would return. As such, they set up a hastily built collection of fortifications that are, in some regards, the first set Palmerian fortress, or rather Proto-Palmerian. Nonetheless, this was enough for the Brits.
The first Russian army returned to the mountains around Kabul in July 1878, but, again, was torn apart. The Russian army ended up setting shifty (more so than the British) and provisional fortifications just outside of the read of the British Repeating Rifles and even Flying Artillery.
And so, the two sides bunkered down in the hill and mountains of Afghanistan. British and Russian troops would often try to sneak close to the other’s fortresses to try to destroy them with newly discovered Dynamite, or climb to the peak of the nearest mountain and rain shells upon them. The British found more luck in the strategy than the Russians, and a year after the retreat to Kabul, the Brits made another, smaller offensive into Baluchistan, although it grew larger until it eventually evolved into a march to finally relieve the several years long siege of Bandar Abbas.
It was here that a treaty was finally signed between the Russians and British in December 1879. Britain would get the Afghan and Baloch regions from Persia, along with Bandar Abbas, Russia would annex other, smaller regions in the furthest north east corner of Persia, and Persia itself would be locked into the Russian sphere of influence.
With Russia being freed from the war with Britain, Russia from free to return to the war with the Arabs. The month following the peace of Bandar Abbas, Russia went to war with the Arabs once again, starting a massive offensive that would see Iraq fall in only two months. The Iraqi emir was forced to flee to the court of the last remaining member of the Post-Ottoman Sphere, that of Turkey itself, also the only republic among them. The Russian armies then marched on to reoccupied Antioch and free her once more.
The Russians were about to march on Damascus when they heard the most excellent news: Napoleon II had yet another stroke and was left unable to leave the Palace of Saint-Cloud! The French were to sure to back out of the war now! And indeed, they did, through the fall of 1880 and winter of 1881, France made peace with the Post-Ottoman sphere, and throughout this, Russia mopped up what was left. In July of 1881, just a day after the passing of Napoleon II, Alexander II would meet with the member of the Post-Ottoman sphere (including the one that had recently been introduced into the French Sphere, Tripoli), and made peace with them on the following conditions:
1: The Two Patriarchies would annex the remainder of Egypt.
2: The Iraqi State would be put under the sphere of influence of Russia.
3: The Turkish State would release the Syrian State as a member of the Russian Sphere.
4: Russia would annex the Turkish coastlines of the Dardanelles and the sea of Marmara, as well as Cyprus.
5: What remained of Turkey would be part of the Russian Sphere.
Following the Treaty of Constantinople, Alexander II and his spies noticed the French construction of Fort Revolutionary, and began the construction of Fort Alexander. Alexander II himself would pass away in 1885, leaving Russia to his still childless son Alexander III.
4th Explorers’ War- Swahili War 1889-1891
With France building the Great Canal of Suez, Britain feared that this could be detrimental to her grasp on India. One way or another, France would undermine Britain with the Suez Canal, and the best way Britain could think to prevent the inevitable French assault was to prevent any more French expansion on the East African and Arabian Sea coasts, and to do this Britain was going to make allies and puppets of the remaining East African states and conquering and distributing the unclaimed territory. But, it was apparent that this was not made aware to the French (or, more likely, the French simply chose to ignore it), for throughout the construction of the Great Canal of Suez, they plotted on their conquest of the Swahili Coast.
And so the French Advisory Council waited and planned, and when the Great Canal of Suez opened, Napoleon III officially ushered in a new arm of the French Military, the Flotte des Alliés, with their first mission to transport the Armée (headed once more by Jean-Marie Le Toulonnais Lachance) through the Great Canal and on to Lindi, just south of old Kilwa. Lindi was part conquered and claimed by Portugal as part of the British organization effort of East Africa, and as such was seen by many as, technically, an invasion of Portugal.
When this invasion was discovered, the British and Portuguese fleets set sail to Lindi and had blockaded the city’s bay, leaving almost the entire Flotte in the bay (3 ships had escaped, initially intended as supply ships they quickly became the Free Flotte). British Admiral Arvel H. Tyson politely asked that Le Toulonnais pack-up and leave back to France. Tyson would allow them all to go with no fight, telling them that the land they were trying to claim were already claimed by other nations. Le Toulonnais responded by saying that all territory in East Africa claimed after the 1879 Treaty of Bandar Abbas was unrecognized by the French, so according to France the territory they stood in was unclaimed. Tyson tried to remain neutral and tried to Le Toulonnais to sign a treaty for France to recognize the new claims, but Le Toulonnais refused.
The Anglo-sphere and Portugal especially was suddenly on high alert. They considered this a true, proper invasion of their sphere, rather than an invasion of a second-rate or potential ally. Britain, Portugal, Sardinia-Sicily, and all those other Anglo-sphere countries started to mobilize, believing that an invasion of their homelands was coming. While it is known now that invasion of English and Portuguese homelands would never happen, that mentality sure struck hard at the homeland, and Brits had to prove to the French that they can’t attack their direct ally, or else the homeland may actually be next.
And so Tyson was ordered to capture Le Toulonnais and bring him back to Britain. Tyson gave an attack on Lindi, and had successfully defeated the Flotte des Alliés with a minimal fight. The Armée, on the other hand, had disappeared. Admiral Tyson looked up in down the coast for a hundred kilometers in either direction from Lindi, from old Kilwa to Mikindani, but Le Toulonnais and the Armée had yet to be found.
As it turned out, Le Toulonnais had disappeared deeper into Swahililand. Not even he knew where they were exactly in the Swahililand, but in the Swahililand he founded a city that he called a various number of names (although this could also be a sign that he had built multiple towns, it is rather unknown); Saint-Cyprien, Sainte-Jeanne, and Domrémy, with Saint-Cyprien being the most popular name.
It was at Saint-Cyprien that Le Toulonnais successfully started a communication line from the Swahililand, through the French Congo, and from there onto France, a trip that took 6 months there and back. This caused several problems as the de facto ruler of France, Prime Advisor Le Toulonnais, wasn’t able to effectively run the country. Without Le Toulonnais, France was led only by the advisory council, something that he didn’t want necessarily (Le Toulonnais specifically set up the advisory council so that the Prime Advisor would be the only one that really mattered).
It was also at Saint-Cyprien that Le Toulonnais started building his “second army,” an army of native Swahilais. As Le Toulonnais wasn’t able to get reinforcements and supplies from back in France (or at least very easily), Le Toulonnais recruited some of the local Swahilis to join. According to the official French History, Le Toulonnais convinced them to join, to fight for glory and the such, but some of the Swhiliais say otherwise, that Le Toulonnais marched into their towns and villages and threatened to kill them if they didn’t help him. Same goes for food and many other supplies, some saying that Le Toulonnais either bought or was given food, while others say that he took them by force. One way or another, this helped Le Toulonnais keep his army supplied, at least to the minimalist extent.
With these supplies and a base at Saint-Cyprien, Le Toulonnais launched operations once more to attack the Swahili port towns, mostly consisting of raids and the occasional proper siege. These sieges were always cut short with Admiral Tyson approaching from the sea. As such, not much progress was made for the French along the coast. Even with Le Toulonnais getting supplies and reinforcements from the natives, every loss was a loss to much.
Just beyond the coast (as in, a region ranging about 10-100 or 150 km from the coast) Le Toulonnais was doing better, although not overwhelmingly so. The British once and while reinforced this region, but with what few they sent it were well supplied compared to the French armies, a boon that made sure that when Le Toulonnais did raid the coasts, it was still a costly operation to attack and retreat through this region.
Le Toulonnais’ true victories came from far beyond this region, beyond the Swahili mountains, as they were called. The Brits rarely ventured there, for they thought that Le Toulonnais had his base closer to the coast than that. No, Saint-Cyprien was beyond these Swahili Mountains, and here, what few Brits did venture beyond there, were destroyed. Along with that, Le Toulonnais also united these land under the flag of France, or rather French Protectorate that was directly ruled by Le Toulonnais. It was beyond the Swahili Mountains that Le Toulonnais explored the Central African region, making some visits west as far as the French Congo.
But this “Protectorat des Swahilais,” would be short lived, for in 1891, Le Toulonnais would launch another strike to the Swahili Coast. By this point, he realized that conquest of the Coast proper would be futile, but he still hoped that he could force the Brits to concede Transswahilia and the African Great Lakes. But, in 1891, Le Toulonnais launched an attack to Mombasa, but on the way there, the Brits launched an ambush at Voi, about 150 km from Mombasa. Le Toulonnais was surrounded and was forced to the negotiating table.
He and the army he had brought with him from France were carted off to Mombasa, where Le Toulonnais met with Admiral Tyson and, shockingly, his old rival, the old and retired General Crawford, who was well into his 80’s now. Crawford, when he heard that his rival of Le Toulonnais was losing in East Africa, decided to head there for a vacation, and to join the negotiation table to see Le Toulonnais go through the same embarrassment that he went through at Fort Durant almost 30 years prior.
Admiral Tyson was fairly lenient on Le Toulonnais, but he came to the conclusion that the Explorers’ Wars had to stop, and what remained of Africa had to be carved up once and for all. And so, Admiral Tyson unfurled a map of Africa, and Le Toulonnais and Tyson argued over what would be French and belong in the Franco-sphere, and what would British and belong in the Anglo-sphere. The negotiations went on for a month, but the two finally came to an agreement. Africa was carved between the two powers once and for all, every nook-and-cranny was agreed upon (at least to some extent). Also part of this agreement was that Admiral Tyson would personally carry Le Toulonnais and what remained of the Armée proper back to France.
And so, while Tyson gathered the ships to escort Le Toulonnais back to France, Le Toulonnais and old General Crawford had time to chat. In the single week they spent talking in Mombasa, the hate between the two melted away. Crawford himself would write “in this blasted Swahili port, this bastard Frank of whom I’ve hated for the better part of three decades has come to make me respect him. That same cunning tongue that convinced me to enter Fort Durant and be captured is what’s making me befriend my old nemesis. And what’s more, I could tell that he hated me before we conversed at this port, but now he has come to respect me as well. I almost think I’ll miss him when le leaves back to Europe.” In August of 1891, Le Toulonnais did indeed leave back to Europe, and General Crawford would die in the next month.
While this war was, at the time, seen as a failure for France, and closed the Explorers’ Wars with a whimper rather than a bang, it would later go on as one of the most romanticised tales of France. As the Mythology of Le Toulonnais grew greater and greater, one of his greatest blunders also became more and more mythologized, and to this day, the lost and abandoned city of Saint-Cyprien has become a wonder that more and more search for, the El Dorado of Africa.
With France building the Great Canal of Suez, Britain feared that this could be detrimental to her grasp on India. One way or another, France would undermine Britain with the Suez Canal, and the best way Britain could think to prevent the inevitable French assault was to prevent any more French expansion on the East African and Arabian Sea coasts, and to do this Britain was going to make allies and puppets of the remaining East African states and conquering and distributing the unclaimed territory. But, it was apparent that this was not made aware to the French (or, more likely, the French simply chose to ignore it), for throughout the construction of the Great Canal of Suez, they plotted on their conquest of the Swahili Coast.
And so the French Advisory Council waited and planned, and when the Great Canal of Suez opened, Napoleon III officially ushered in a new arm of the French Military, the Flotte des Alliés, with their first mission to transport the Armée (headed once more by Jean-Marie Le Toulonnais Lachance) through the Great Canal and on to Lindi, just south of old Kilwa. Lindi was part conquered and claimed by Portugal as part of the British organization effort of East Africa, and as such was seen by many as, technically, an invasion of Portugal.
When this invasion was discovered, the British and Portuguese fleets set sail to Lindi and had blockaded the city’s bay, leaving almost the entire Flotte in the bay (3 ships had escaped, initially intended as supply ships they quickly became the Free Flotte). British Admiral Arvel H. Tyson politely asked that Le Toulonnais pack-up and leave back to France. Tyson would allow them all to go with no fight, telling them that the land they were trying to claim were already claimed by other nations. Le Toulonnais responded by saying that all territory in East Africa claimed after the 1879 Treaty of Bandar Abbas was unrecognized by the French, so according to France the territory they stood in was unclaimed. Tyson tried to remain neutral and tried to Le Toulonnais to sign a treaty for France to recognize the new claims, but Le Toulonnais refused.
The Anglo-sphere and Portugal especially was suddenly on high alert. They considered this a true, proper invasion of their sphere, rather than an invasion of a second-rate or potential ally. Britain, Portugal, Sardinia-Sicily, and all those other Anglo-sphere countries started to mobilize, believing that an invasion of their homelands was coming. While it is known now that invasion of English and Portuguese homelands would never happen, that mentality sure struck hard at the homeland, and Brits had to prove to the French that they can’t attack their direct ally, or else the homeland may actually be next.
And so Tyson was ordered to capture Le Toulonnais and bring him back to Britain. Tyson gave an attack on Lindi, and had successfully defeated the Flotte des Alliés with a minimal fight. The Armée, on the other hand, had disappeared. Admiral Tyson looked up in down the coast for a hundred kilometers in either direction from Lindi, from old Kilwa to Mikindani, but Le Toulonnais and the Armée had yet to be found.
As it turned out, Le Toulonnais had disappeared deeper into Swahililand. Not even he knew where they were exactly in the Swahililand, but in the Swahililand he founded a city that he called a various number of names (although this could also be a sign that he had built multiple towns, it is rather unknown); Saint-Cyprien, Sainte-Jeanne, and Domrémy, with Saint-Cyprien being the most popular name.
It was at Saint-Cyprien that Le Toulonnais successfully started a communication line from the Swahililand, through the French Congo, and from there onto France, a trip that took 6 months there and back. This caused several problems as the de facto ruler of France, Prime Advisor Le Toulonnais, wasn’t able to effectively run the country. Without Le Toulonnais, France was led only by the advisory council, something that he didn’t want necessarily (Le Toulonnais specifically set up the advisory council so that the Prime Advisor would be the only one that really mattered).
It was also at Saint-Cyprien that Le Toulonnais started building his “second army,” an army of native Swahilais. As Le Toulonnais wasn’t able to get reinforcements and supplies from back in France (or at least very easily), Le Toulonnais recruited some of the local Swahilis to join. According to the official French History, Le Toulonnais convinced them to join, to fight for glory and the such, but some of the Swhiliais say otherwise, that Le Toulonnais marched into their towns and villages and threatened to kill them if they didn’t help him. Same goes for food and many other supplies, some saying that Le Toulonnais either bought or was given food, while others say that he took them by force. One way or another, this helped Le Toulonnais keep his army supplied, at least to the minimalist extent.
With these supplies and a base at Saint-Cyprien, Le Toulonnais launched operations once more to attack the Swahili port towns, mostly consisting of raids and the occasional proper siege. These sieges were always cut short with Admiral Tyson approaching from the sea. As such, not much progress was made for the French along the coast. Even with Le Toulonnais getting supplies and reinforcements from the natives, every loss was a loss to much.
Just beyond the coast (as in, a region ranging about 10-100 or 150 km from the coast) Le Toulonnais was doing better, although not overwhelmingly so. The British once and while reinforced this region, but with what few they sent it were well supplied compared to the French armies, a boon that made sure that when Le Toulonnais did raid the coasts, it was still a costly operation to attack and retreat through this region.
Le Toulonnais’ true victories came from far beyond this region, beyond the Swahili mountains, as they were called. The Brits rarely ventured there, for they thought that Le Toulonnais had his base closer to the coast than that. No, Saint-Cyprien was beyond these Swahili Mountains, and here, what few Brits did venture beyond there, were destroyed. Along with that, Le Toulonnais also united these land under the flag of France, or rather French Protectorate that was directly ruled by Le Toulonnais. It was beyond the Swahili Mountains that Le Toulonnais explored the Central African region, making some visits west as far as the French Congo.
But this “Protectorat des Swahilais,” would be short lived, for in 1891, Le Toulonnais would launch another strike to the Swahili Coast. By this point, he realized that conquest of the Coast proper would be futile, but he still hoped that he could force the Brits to concede Transswahilia and the African Great Lakes. But, in 1891, Le Toulonnais launched an attack to Mombasa, but on the way there, the Brits launched an ambush at Voi, about 150 km from Mombasa. Le Toulonnais was surrounded and was forced to the negotiating table.
He and the army he had brought with him from France were carted off to Mombasa, where Le Toulonnais met with Admiral Tyson and, shockingly, his old rival, the old and retired General Crawford, who was well into his 80’s now. Crawford, when he heard that his rival of Le Toulonnais was losing in East Africa, decided to head there for a vacation, and to join the negotiation table to see Le Toulonnais go through the same embarrassment that he went through at Fort Durant almost 30 years prior.
Admiral Tyson was fairly lenient on Le Toulonnais, but he came to the conclusion that the Explorers’ Wars had to stop, and what remained of Africa had to be carved up once and for all. And so, Admiral Tyson unfurled a map of Africa, and Le Toulonnais and Tyson argued over what would be French and belong in the Franco-sphere, and what would British and belong in the Anglo-sphere. The negotiations went on for a month, but the two finally came to an agreement. Africa was carved between the two powers once and for all, every nook-and-cranny was agreed upon (at least to some extent). Also part of this agreement was that Admiral Tyson would personally carry Le Toulonnais and what remained of the Armée proper back to France.
And so, while Tyson gathered the ships to escort Le Toulonnais back to France, Le Toulonnais and old General Crawford had time to chat. In the single week they spent talking in Mombasa, the hate between the two melted away. Crawford himself would write “in this blasted Swahili port, this bastard Frank of whom I’ve hated for the better part of three decades has come to make me respect him. That same cunning tongue that convinced me to enter Fort Durant and be captured is what’s making me befriend my old nemesis. And what’s more, I could tell that he hated me before we conversed at this port, but now he has come to respect me as well. I almost think I’ll miss him when le leaves back to Europe.” In August of 1891, Le Toulonnais did indeed leave back to Europe, and General Crawford would die in the next month.
While this war was, at the time, seen as a failure for France, and closed the Explorers’ Wars with a whimper rather than a bang, it would later go on as one of the most romanticised tales of France. As the Mythology of Le Toulonnais grew greater and greater, one of his greatest blunders also became more and more mythologized, and to this day, the lost and abandoned city of Saint-Cyprien has become a wonder that more and more search for, the El Dorado of Africa.
The Beautiful Coup
Jean-Marie “Le Toulonnais” Lachance finally arrived back in France in January of 1892, Admiral Tyson dropping him off at his home town of Toulon. Le Toulonnais spent his first week back making sure that French troops would go and make good on French gains at the Treaty of Voi, but afterwards he shortly retreated from political life. While still did his basic duties as Prime Advisor, he spent the rest of January and February mostly with his family and close friends, including his fellow general and Eagle and French Militaristic Advisor, Karl von Eger. When he wasn’t doing this, he was doing one of his favorite pass-time activities: go to the local tavern and drink, dance, and socialize with the locals. Le Toulonnais always loved to do this, and he always made it clear that when he socialized with them, he wasn’t socializing as politician, but rather as just another patron in the local tavern. This was one of the things that made Le Toulonnais so popular across France.
It had been so long since he had done this activity in Toulon. For so long, he was stuck in Paris, doing this over and over again. While he the people were generally pleasant to speak to, and they themselves always loved to speak with such a popular icon, it was still such a relief to finally converse with another Toulonnian once more. They spoke of what had changed in Toulon during his absence, and he spoke of his travels. They spoke of how proud of their native Toulonnais had grown to such power and gave such prestige to Toulon, and he spoke of that, in his eyes, the power and prestige of Toulon couldn’t raise his love, pride, and respect towards the town since he had already loved and respected and was proud of the Southern French Town.
And they asked him of what happened in the Swahililand.
Every time this question inevitably came up, Le Toulonnais couldn’t help but remain silent. The other Toulonnians understood, that he had tried all he could, and now the shame of the loss would stay with him for the rest of his life.
At the same time, news came down that Napoleon III was holding yet another ball up at the Palace of Saint Cloud. Normally, this news would simply come and go, Napoleon III was infamous for his parties after all, but not this time. A national shame had fell upon the country, and the fact he was seemingly celebrating during this time of shame just poked the entire French populace the wrong way. It was because of this that Le Toulonnais decided his vacation in Toulon had to come to an end, and he and his family started packing for Paris.
He and his family arrived back in Paris in March with minimal festivity. While he went back into a more active role as Prime Advisor, it was clear he was focused on a different matter. Throughout the month, he talked to his soldiers in the Armée, he talked to his friends, he even sent letters to many of the other leaders of the Francosphere telling them of his plan. He planned, plotted, and schemed, and finally, on April 3rd, he sent a letter to Emperor Napoleon III.
Two days later, Le Toulonnais and his troop of a hundred men, the men that were supposed to be the guards of the Palace of Saint Cloud, were walking through the halls of Saint Cloud. He and his army were wearing slippers rather than boots to keep the sound of their footstep minimal. Before they turned any corner or crossed in front of any door or intersecting hallway, Le Toulonnais was scout to see if anyone was coming, as although he had the palace guards, that doesn’t mean that someone else could be here to warn the Emperor of his plans.
Finally, they arrived at their destination, the grand ballroom of Saint Cloud, a room that most of the nation believed that the Emperor never left. Le Toulonnais peered around the corner into the room, scanning it for his selected target. There he was, just as he told him to be, pacing around patiently. Le Toulonnais had sent a letter requesting to meet him there, that he had something private to discuss with only the Emperor himself. Le Toulonnais grinned, “How naive” he thought to himself. He then gestured for his troop to follow him, and he walked inside.
“My good emperor, Napoleon III!” Le Toulonnais greeted, spreading his arms out in an exaggerated fashion (as is like him, to have all of his movements exaggerated).
Napoleon’s tone was initially happy at first when he saw his Prime Advisor, but as Le Toulonnais’s troop moved in, it got more and more concerned, “Ah, General Lachance, what do you wi- What are you doing?” It couldn’t be, no, Le Toulonnais was to loyal. He had no ambitions, he had disloyalty, he hadn’t even shown an ounce of disrespect. But, then why would he have an army with him? Is this some new personal guard he had assigned himself? No...
Le Toulonnais clapped his hands together and paused. He had prepared a speech for this moment, and was trying to recollect it, “You see, ever since you’ve come to power you have been ignoring your people, ignoring your duty, and instead have been passing it on to other people in the country. Well that’s all fine and good, it’s better for someone else to run the country than none at all, but it still concerns some of the citizens of France. They believe in the concept of ‘One Empire, One Emperor,’ that the Emperor should indeed run the country.”
“Okay, than I will join some of the meetings with you and the advisory council to help the country. That should be enough right? Still to have you consult me and for the most part still run the country?” Napoleon shivered as he spoke, worried.
“Sadly, I don’t think you have the popularity anymore, you certainly don’t have the popularity of your grandfather, and I don’t think your father did you any favors. I don’t think the people are going to let you stay in power. BUT! But, there has been one general who has been growing in popularity for quite some time, maybe he can become emperor. I don’t remember his name though…” Le Toulonnais turned to his men, “do you men know?”
“I do not know his name, but I know of his deeds. I hear he has saved the French armies on several occasions!” One man shouted, playing along with Le Toulonnais’s game.
“Yes, yes, I do believe that’s true!” Le Toulonnais replied.
“I hear every man in France loves him, while every man in Britain despises him!” Another man yelled.
“Oh, I can think of one man in France that hates him,” Le Toulonnais turned his head to Emperor Napoleon, giving him a smug grin. The Emperor’s face had turned from concern to anger as he watched what was once his loyal general and Prime advisor betray him.
“I hear he is one of the greatest generals in French history, second only to Napoleon the first!” Yet another man said.
“Oh, I don’t know if I’d go that far. I know he’s a good general, but still.”
Finally, one man in his troop ended the game, “sir, I believe the name of this great general is Jean-Marie Lachance, or as every man in the world better knows him as ‘Le Toulonnais.’”
“That’s it!” Le Toulonnais yelled, the yell echoing in the hall. He pointed excitedly at the man who finally said his name before calming down, acting as if he had a revelation, “wait a second, my name is Jean-Marie Lachance, and everyone calls me ‘Le Toulonnais,’ and I’m a general. I must be the general they are talking about,” He finally spun around to face Napoleon III, whose expression was now wholly angry.
“What do you want, Lachance?” He asked spitefully.
“The crown, the throne, and the title. You’ve already given me the power, so I don’t need that.”
“I still have the power!” Napoleon screamed, desperately hoping to grasp for some last minute power, then pointed to the army behind Le Toulonnais, “Men, arrest this traitor!”
Le Toulonnais gave a slight chuckle, “You gave up the power basically the moment you were coronated. Now, the crown.”
“And if I refuse?” Napoleon shouted again.
Le Toulonnais was almost stunned by what he perceived as such an idiotic question. He made a quick glance back to the men behind him, and then back to the Emperor, sighed, and took a moment to think of what he was going to say. He finally replied with, “you see the army behind me, correct?” He sighed again and took another moment to collect his thoughts. He had always known that the Emperor was incompetent, but surely not stupid. Perhaps it’s just that he is so stunned at this that his mind needs help thinking. He then said, “the way I see it, there are three options for you, one way or another I’m getting the crown. The first is you accept to hand the crown over to me, and I let you go on your merry way to continue out your life as a not-emperor. I’ll even give you a million francs to get you started. What do you like to do, throw parties, yes? Go and be the greatest party organizer the country has ever known. I’m sure you can make good money from it, I might even hire you to organize a couple. I do hope you pick this option, for it is the best for both of us to end on as good of terms as we can.
“Another option is you refuse, but you don’t annoy me too much. I’ll have these good men back here come up and arrest you and have you thrown in jail. For how long is dependent on, again, how much you annoy me, but likely about a year to ten years.
“The last option, which I dearly hope it won’t come to, is that you refuse to give the crown, and then you go on to complain, annoy, and yell like a brat. I will then be forced to move over there,” he pointed to the side of the room, “and have the good men back there fire in that general direction,” he gestured to the emperor.
“Again, I dearly hope you choose the first option.”
Emperor Napoleon continued to stare at Le Toulonnais angrily, before finally saying, “fine, go and have your crown and your throne.” He then led Le Toulonnais and his small army to the grand throne room of Saint-Cloud. When they arrived, Napoleon III gestured his arms to present Le Toulonnais the throne, sitting a couple steps up from level. Sitting on one arm of the chair sat haphazardly the imperial crown, likely not moved since Napoleon III’s coronation, only seen when the servants come in to clean off the place.
Le Toulonnais climbed up the few steps, picked up the crown, sat upon the throne, before finally setting the crown upon his head. He was shivering nervously a little bit, never could he have ever imagined that he’d be sitting in the same spot that once sat the Bonaparte family, Napoleon I ‘the Great,’ Napoleon II ‘the Schemer,’ and Napoleon III ‘the Uninterested.’ Here he now sat was meant only for the Emperor of the French, the most powerful person in the world, and therefor he was Emperor of the French, the most powerful person in the world.
He took a long breath, and in a voice he had never used before, a calm, relaxed, yet dead serious voice, he whispered his full title to himself, “His Imperial Majesty Jean I de Toulon, By the Grace of God and the Constitutions of the Empire, Emperor of the French, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, Mediator of the Helvetic Confederation, Protector and Defender of the Common Man.” And then he repeated this again, louder, so everyone in the throne room could hear, “Long live his Imperial Majesty Jean I de Toulon, By the Grace of God and the Constitutions of the Empire, Emperor of the French, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, Mediator of the Helvetic Confederation, and Protector and Defender of the Common Man.”
And everyone repeated it to him. He could feel the nation already accept him, and he could already hear the nation repeat, “Vive l’Empereur Jean de Toulon.”
Jean-Marie “Le Toulonnais” Lachance finally arrived back in France in January of 1892, Admiral Tyson dropping him off at his home town of Toulon. Le Toulonnais spent his first week back making sure that French troops would go and make good on French gains at the Treaty of Voi, but afterwards he shortly retreated from political life. While still did his basic duties as Prime Advisor, he spent the rest of January and February mostly with his family and close friends, including his fellow general and Eagle and French Militaristic Advisor, Karl von Eger. When he wasn’t doing this, he was doing one of his favorite pass-time activities: go to the local tavern and drink, dance, and socialize with the locals. Le Toulonnais always loved to do this, and he always made it clear that when he socialized with them, he wasn’t socializing as politician, but rather as just another patron in the local tavern. This was one of the things that made Le Toulonnais so popular across France.
It had been so long since he had done this activity in Toulon. For so long, he was stuck in Paris, doing this over and over again. While he the people were generally pleasant to speak to, and they themselves always loved to speak with such a popular icon, it was still such a relief to finally converse with another Toulonnian once more. They spoke of what had changed in Toulon during his absence, and he spoke of his travels. They spoke of how proud of their native Toulonnais had grown to such power and gave such prestige to Toulon, and he spoke of that, in his eyes, the power and prestige of Toulon couldn’t raise his love, pride, and respect towards the town since he had already loved and respected and was proud of the Southern French Town.
And they asked him of what happened in the Swahililand.
Every time this question inevitably came up, Le Toulonnais couldn’t help but remain silent. The other Toulonnians understood, that he had tried all he could, and now the shame of the loss would stay with him for the rest of his life.
At the same time, news came down that Napoleon III was holding yet another ball up at the Palace of Saint Cloud. Normally, this news would simply come and go, Napoleon III was infamous for his parties after all, but not this time. A national shame had fell upon the country, and the fact he was seemingly celebrating during this time of shame just poked the entire French populace the wrong way. It was because of this that Le Toulonnais decided his vacation in Toulon had to come to an end, and he and his family started packing for Paris.
He and his family arrived back in Paris in March with minimal festivity. While he went back into a more active role as Prime Advisor, it was clear he was focused on a different matter. Throughout the month, he talked to his soldiers in the Armée, he talked to his friends, he even sent letters to many of the other leaders of the Francosphere telling them of his plan. He planned, plotted, and schemed, and finally, on April 3rd, he sent a letter to Emperor Napoleon III.
Two days later, Le Toulonnais and his troop of a hundred men, the men that were supposed to be the guards of the Palace of Saint Cloud, were walking through the halls of Saint Cloud. He and his army were wearing slippers rather than boots to keep the sound of their footstep minimal. Before they turned any corner or crossed in front of any door or intersecting hallway, Le Toulonnais was scout to see if anyone was coming, as although he had the palace guards, that doesn’t mean that someone else could be here to warn the Emperor of his plans.
Finally, they arrived at their destination, the grand ballroom of Saint Cloud, a room that most of the nation believed that the Emperor never left. Le Toulonnais peered around the corner into the room, scanning it for his selected target. There he was, just as he told him to be, pacing around patiently. Le Toulonnais had sent a letter requesting to meet him there, that he had something private to discuss with only the Emperor himself. Le Toulonnais grinned, “How naive” he thought to himself. He then gestured for his troop to follow him, and he walked inside.
“My good emperor, Napoleon III!” Le Toulonnais greeted, spreading his arms out in an exaggerated fashion (as is like him, to have all of his movements exaggerated).
Napoleon’s tone was initially happy at first when he saw his Prime Advisor, but as Le Toulonnais’s troop moved in, it got more and more concerned, “Ah, General Lachance, what do you wi- What are you doing?” It couldn’t be, no, Le Toulonnais was to loyal. He had no ambitions, he had disloyalty, he hadn’t even shown an ounce of disrespect. But, then why would he have an army with him? Is this some new personal guard he had assigned himself? No...
Le Toulonnais clapped his hands together and paused. He had prepared a speech for this moment, and was trying to recollect it, “You see, ever since you’ve come to power you have been ignoring your people, ignoring your duty, and instead have been passing it on to other people in the country. Well that’s all fine and good, it’s better for someone else to run the country than none at all, but it still concerns some of the citizens of France. They believe in the concept of ‘One Empire, One Emperor,’ that the Emperor should indeed run the country.”
“Okay, than I will join some of the meetings with you and the advisory council to help the country. That should be enough right? Still to have you consult me and for the most part still run the country?” Napoleon shivered as he spoke, worried.
“Sadly, I don’t think you have the popularity anymore, you certainly don’t have the popularity of your grandfather, and I don’t think your father did you any favors. I don’t think the people are going to let you stay in power. BUT! But, there has been one general who has been growing in popularity for quite some time, maybe he can become emperor. I don’t remember his name though…” Le Toulonnais turned to his men, “do you men know?”
“I do not know his name, but I know of his deeds. I hear he has saved the French armies on several occasions!” One man shouted, playing along with Le Toulonnais’s game.
“Yes, yes, I do believe that’s true!” Le Toulonnais replied.
“I hear every man in France loves him, while every man in Britain despises him!” Another man yelled.
“Oh, I can think of one man in France that hates him,” Le Toulonnais turned his head to Emperor Napoleon, giving him a smug grin. The Emperor’s face had turned from concern to anger as he watched what was once his loyal general and Prime advisor betray him.
“I hear he is one of the greatest generals in French history, second only to Napoleon the first!” Yet another man said.
“Oh, I don’t know if I’d go that far. I know he’s a good general, but still.”
Finally, one man in his troop ended the game, “sir, I believe the name of this great general is Jean-Marie Lachance, or as every man in the world better knows him as ‘Le Toulonnais.’”
“That’s it!” Le Toulonnais yelled, the yell echoing in the hall. He pointed excitedly at the man who finally said his name before calming down, acting as if he had a revelation, “wait a second, my name is Jean-Marie Lachance, and everyone calls me ‘Le Toulonnais,’ and I’m a general. I must be the general they are talking about,” He finally spun around to face Napoleon III, whose expression was now wholly angry.
“What do you want, Lachance?” He asked spitefully.
“The crown, the throne, and the title. You’ve already given me the power, so I don’t need that.”
“I still have the power!” Napoleon screamed, desperately hoping to grasp for some last minute power, then pointed to the army behind Le Toulonnais, “Men, arrest this traitor!”
Le Toulonnais gave a slight chuckle, “You gave up the power basically the moment you were coronated. Now, the crown.”
“And if I refuse?” Napoleon shouted again.
Le Toulonnais was almost stunned by what he perceived as such an idiotic question. He made a quick glance back to the men behind him, and then back to the Emperor, sighed, and took a moment to think of what he was going to say. He finally replied with, “you see the army behind me, correct?” He sighed again and took another moment to collect his thoughts. He had always known that the Emperor was incompetent, but surely not stupid. Perhaps it’s just that he is so stunned at this that his mind needs help thinking. He then said, “the way I see it, there are three options for you, one way or another I’m getting the crown. The first is you accept to hand the crown over to me, and I let you go on your merry way to continue out your life as a not-emperor. I’ll even give you a million francs to get you started. What do you like to do, throw parties, yes? Go and be the greatest party organizer the country has ever known. I’m sure you can make good money from it, I might even hire you to organize a couple. I do hope you pick this option, for it is the best for both of us to end on as good of terms as we can.
“Another option is you refuse, but you don’t annoy me too much. I’ll have these good men back here come up and arrest you and have you thrown in jail. For how long is dependent on, again, how much you annoy me, but likely about a year to ten years.
“The last option, which I dearly hope it won’t come to, is that you refuse to give the crown, and then you go on to complain, annoy, and yell like a brat. I will then be forced to move over there,” he pointed to the side of the room, “and have the good men back there fire in that general direction,” he gestured to the emperor.
“Again, I dearly hope you choose the first option.”
Emperor Napoleon continued to stare at Le Toulonnais angrily, before finally saying, “fine, go and have your crown and your throne.” He then led Le Toulonnais and his small army to the grand throne room of Saint-Cloud. When they arrived, Napoleon III gestured his arms to present Le Toulonnais the throne, sitting a couple steps up from level. Sitting on one arm of the chair sat haphazardly the imperial crown, likely not moved since Napoleon III’s coronation, only seen when the servants come in to clean off the place.
Le Toulonnais climbed up the few steps, picked up the crown, sat upon the throne, before finally setting the crown upon his head. He was shivering nervously a little bit, never could he have ever imagined that he’d be sitting in the same spot that once sat the Bonaparte family, Napoleon I ‘the Great,’ Napoleon II ‘the Schemer,’ and Napoleon III ‘the Uninterested.’ Here he now sat was meant only for the Emperor of the French, the most powerful person in the world, and therefor he was Emperor of the French, the most powerful person in the world.
He took a long breath, and in a voice he had never used before, a calm, relaxed, yet dead serious voice, he whispered his full title to himself, “His Imperial Majesty Jean I de Toulon, By the Grace of God and the Constitutions of the Empire, Emperor of the French, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, Mediator of the Helvetic Confederation, Protector and Defender of the Common Man.” And then he repeated this again, louder, so everyone in the throne room could hear, “Long live his Imperial Majesty Jean I de Toulon, By the Grace of God and the Constitutions of the Empire, Emperor of the French, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, Mediator of the Helvetic Confederation, and Protector and Defender of the Common Man.”
And everyone repeated it to him. He could feel the nation already accept him, and he could already hear the nation repeat, “Vive l’Empereur Jean de Toulon.”
