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Post by steve59 on May 13, 2018 13:38:07 GMT
Sounds bad for the moment for the Armenians especially but hints of possibly better days ahead for them and the Georgians.
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on May 13, 2018 15:10:52 GMT
Sounds bad for the moment for the Armenians especially but hints of possibly better days ahead for them and the Georgians. It is indeed, but in this instance the Armenians might have better luck, compared to OTL. Unlike OTL 1915, the Armenians living in Anatolia and Armenia proper weren't affected much, but in a future update we will see how the Ottomans will deal with them. Also, the merchant classes are also intact, so they may play a similar role in Georgia, Armenia and possibly Russia to the Jews in the Western world today.
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on May 15, 2018 4:58:41 GMT
Case Study #9: Eastern Europe Part One
Although the drama in the Georgian statelets was gathering steam, in Eastern Europe the political dynamics there is steadily changing for the worse on part of the Polish-Lithuanian Union. The increasing pressure from the Holy Roman Empire in the face of Maximillian's consolidation of the Hungarian throne and the subsequent Hungarian political integration into the Holy Roman Empire had resulted in a panic among the Polish nobles. Fearing the possible loss of independence, they also have to worry about another geopolitical shift in Elizabeth Jagiellon's marriage to Prince Vasily III of Moscow. The marriage was the result of Muscovy's desire to pry off the Lithuanian lands from Polish control and the potential re-conquest of the lands that consisted of the former Kievan Rus'. With Muscovy setting up plans to drive a wedge between the Poles and Lithuanians plus reintegrating the lost Rus' lands, the Lithuanian portion of the Polish-Lithuanian union has also struggled to find a new ally that would be an enemy of Poland, Muscovy and the Holy Roman Empire.
Between 1494 and 1498, the Muscovite state was mostly focused on preparing Vasily to take over for his ageing father, Ivan III. Influenced by his Jagiellon wife, Vasily started to draw up plans for an ambitious reform of Muscovite and later Russian society, using the Polish and Imperial (read: Hapsburg) models. Thanks to Elizabeth Jagiellon's dynastic and social connections in Poland, she was able to bring in several Italian architects who had experience with designing marvelous buildings that are still standing today in Italy and later on in Lithuania and Russia. Vasily was particularly interested in hearing more about the Magdeburg Laws that the Lithuanian portion of the Polish-Lithuanian union had adopted, seeing it as a valuable tool in which Muscovite towns and cities can be governed and developed at the same time.
To Elizabeth Jagiellon's shock, she was unable to find one single university within Muscovy where most of the nobility could be educated. Before the ambitious Sudebnik of 1509 that was the result of the brainchild of the power couple, the Orthodox Church had only restricted the level of education needed to its priests who intended to join the religious life. In March of 1498, Elizabeth pleaded with her husband and her brother, the newly crowned Jan I Albert of Poland, to allow the admission of roughly 500 students from the Muscovite state to attend the University of Cracow. Jan I Albert accepted the request and even printed official documents for those 500 Muscovite students who were eligible to attend. Among those 500 students selected, one of them was a religious leader by the name of Vassian Patrikeyev. Patrikeyev had once supported the ascension of Dmitry Ivanovich (Ivan III's son through Elena of Moldavia) before switching to Vasily Ivanovich once he learned of the young Prince's sudden interest in Western learning. Patrikeyev had attracted the attention of both Prince Vasily and his wife due to his radical thoughts on what church life should be like. He and another religious leader, Nil Sorsky, had championed the idea that ecclesiastical ownership of property was detrimental to the spirituality of the Orthodox Church. Curiously enough their views almost matched that of their Catholic counterpart in France, Girolamo Savonarola.
Starting in September of 1498, the 500 Muscovite students started their education in Cracow, and immediately they were exposed to a totally different world from which they were used to. Although there was no Orthodox Church for them to go to, they were more curious about the wonders of the printing press, the architectures that dominated Cracow and even the wonders of the newly emerging Renaissance art occurring in the city. A few Muscovite students studied modern architecture while many others chose to study religious and secular laws, mathematics, sciences and even the learning of Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Polish. From 1498 until 1501 when the War of the Polish Succession broke out, more than 1,200 students from Muscovy (another 300 students were accepted on the authority of Jan I Albert and supported by his sister in 1499 and 400 more students were accepted in 1500) would study and graduate from the University of Cracow. Due to the War of the Polish Succession over the competition for the Polish crown between Philip the Handsome (he was Maximillian's preferred candidate over the unmarried Alexander Jagiellon) and Alexander Jagiellon after Jan I Albert died unexpectedly in that same year, most of the Muscovite students had to return to their homelands. Fearing the possible Hapsburg targeting of Polish universities, three quarters of the universities' teaching staff chose to evacuate from Cracow. In April of 1501 when the War of the Polish Succession broke out, one of the teachers from the university named Albert Brudzewski, had been appointed as interim head of the soon to be exiled Cracow university student community.
Upon the advice of Elizabeth, Brudzewski and his students (all of the attendees of the University of Cracow) would relocate to the Byelorussian town of Polotsk where they had to establish a temporary university that would later grow into one of the Polish-Lithuanian union's last great universities established before the dissolution of the union, the Polachak-Brudzewski Royal Academy for Higher Learning. The makeshift university was established on a manor that was owned by a minor noble who was also a student of the University of Cracow, but its building would later be rebuilt in 1578, 1642, 1786, 1832, 1946 and lastly in 2010. Brudzewski continued to teach at the new university, but he realized that such power could also be used to educate Orthodox priests who might be open to the idea of rapprochement with the Catholic Church. Yet in June of 1501 several students from France who lived in the Savonarola villages would attend this university. Silvestro Maruffi, one of Savonarola's fellow accomplices who traveled with him to France, would become a teacher in the Polachak-Bruzewski Royal Academy for Higher Learning, as would Savonarola himself, apparently. It was in Polotsk that Savonarola's ideas began to spread into the minds of the students who studied in Polotsk. Three months later, Savonarola, Mariffi and Vassian Patrikiyev would have the first meeting on Church reforms.
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Excerpts from “From Kievan Rus' to the Russian Imperial Federation: A Detailed History” by: Sergei Simeonov Chorny Medved Printing Press, published 2015
Chapter Nine: The Roots of the Russian Renaissance
Education in the Grand Duchy of Muscovy had been neglected enormously to the point where it was only the Orthodox Christian priests who were educated while segments of the nobility were illiterate. Although various members of the House of Rurik were given basic education, they were ignorant of the things that are occurring outside their borders. During the time of Ivan III, Western learning was forsaken in favor of territorial expansion. Upon the ascension of Vasily III in 1505, he had some idea of how his new Muscovite domain should function. Fate had favored the young prince, whose marriage to Princess Elizabeth Jagiellon had opened another possibility of avoiding the needless bloodshed that would have plagued both Muscovy and the Polish-Lithuanian union. The marriage happened due to Maximillian von Hapsburg's foolhardy decision to sever ties to Muscovy due to religious differences, but even the Kalmar Union chose to maintain its ties. In fact, John II of Denmark had sent envoys to the Muscovite court, pleading to establish a diplomatic mission there, to which Ivan III had granted.
The War of the Polish Succession of 1501-1504 had become an unexpected boon for the Polish religious leaders who favored religious reform. Settling mainly in Lithuania, Byelorussia and Ukraine, the Polish religious reformers feared for their lives should they remain inside the Polish kingdom that is certainly going to end up in the hands of Philip the Handsome. Not only the Polish religious leaders, but the Italian Renaissance figures like Bartholomeo Berecci and the Gucci brothers also took their trade to Lithuania. There, Grand Duke Alexander Jagiellon had commissioned the Gucci brothers to redesign a church that was going to be used by the reformists who will stay there. The Gucci brothers would also be tasked with the construction of new churches, cathedrals, monasteries and even revamping the Kremlin palace alongside Aloisio da Montagnano, whose architectural revolution paved the way for the domination of the tented roof as the default roof design for most of the churches in the Russian Empire and its future colonies.
Unlike the European Renaissance where it was dominated by artists, scientists and architects, the Russian Renaissance was entirely dominated by educated and enlightened religious figures. Vassian Patrikiyev was commonly referred to as the Godfather of Russian Renaissance, and his radical ideas on how a Christian society should function. Moreover, his meeting with Girolamo Savonarola and Silvestro Marruffi in Polotsk in September of 1501 had exposed him to Savonarola's ideas on Church piety, especially its influences on economics and morality. Russian religious leaders who opposed Savonarola's ideas were led by Joseph of Volokolamsk, under whose leadership had petitioned for the Church's right to own property. It was this kind of argument that Patrikiyev was precisely opposed to, having seen the corruption and the parasitic behavior that certain priests who owned property had displayed. So while serfdom was beginning to get entrenched in Muscovy, it was restricted to peasants laboring under the landowners who belonged to the nobility. Patrikiyev also complained that there was no interaction between the clergy and the parishioners who went to their masses. Thus Patrikiyev's ideas included open interaction within Muscovite society across class lines.
While Patrikiyev is known as the Godfather of Russian Renaissance, the true figure who led Russia's cultural revival was oddly enough, not a Russian, but a Bulgarian. A junior priest under the command of the Archbisphoric of Ohrid, Dmitry of Pleven (1469-1547) [1] was well versed in Old Church Slavonic, and thus he was well positioned to help Prince Vasily with the translations of various Christian documents and corrections as well. Unlike Patrikiyev and Savonarola, Dmitry of Pleven wasn't exposed to Western learning but he was well connected with various Christian communities under Ottoman rule. It was Dmitry of Pleven who would later spearhead the Russian language reform, upon which the pronunciations and writing of the Russian language would be simplified on the Bulgarian model. It was also the monk from Ohrid who would later issue a call for the Thracian Bulgarians who launched an uprising against the Turks in the 1572 Rhodope Uprising to resettle in the conquered steppes of southwestern Russia.
Like Patrikiyev, Dmitry of Pleven was exposed to the ideas of Savonarola and agreed with many of his viewpoints. He also sought to enlist Savonarola's help in attempting to combat both the secular Ottoman Turkish oppression of the Bulgarian church and that of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, to which Savonarola could only give advice. At the same time, the Bulgarian monk also became more involved with the religious affairs of the Russian clergy and state affairs of the Muscovite state. A meeting in Polotsk with Albert Brudzewski also exposed Dmitry of Pleven to the educational system of the Western world, particularly the university system that was established in the Polachak-Brudzewski Royal Academy for Higher Learning. He was inspired by such open learning that he made a request to bring 100 to 200 Bulgarian Orthodox monks to Polotsk to study there. Unfortunately, Brudzewski didn't have the power to authorize such a thing, suggesting that he seek an audience with Elizabeth Jagiellon. In January of 1503, Dmitry of Pleven had plead his case with Vasily's wife, emphasizing on what he needed: a modernized, educated elite that would shape a great and long forgotten nation like Bulgaria. Upon his courage and determination, Elizabeth would once again ask her brother for permission to admit more students. Unfortunately, the plea for more students would be gone unheard. Her remaining brother, Alexander Jagiellon, was in a middle of a succession war against the Hapsburgs and one of the news that she received had disheartened her: Cracow University had fell to the control of the Hapsburg armies and was in the process of sacking it. Moreover, Jan I Albert had written another note, giving authorization to his sister for the admission process to the university in Polotsk and any future university that would be opened within the borders of either the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Grand Duchy of Muscovy.
One piece of good news had arrived at the quarters of Dmitry of Pleven while he stayed in Polotsk: Elizabeth was given authorization on who could be enrolled at the Polachak-Brudzewski Royal Academy of Higher Learning and was even appointed the title of Honorary Headmistress of that university. Furthermore, the 100 to 200 Bulgarian students who would come to Polotsk would also have to explain to the Ottoman authorities on why they're leaving the territories of the Ottoman Empire to study abroad. Moreover, all of those students would be given the nickname the Tarnovo Students because a good majority of them came from Veliko Tarnovo, the former capital of the long dead Second Bulgarian Empire.
To one's viewpoint, it would be weird and downright odd that a couple of Bulgarians would play a major role in the emerging era of Russian Renaissance. Yet because the Russian Renaissance era was dominated by reform minded clergymen, it was inevitable that other learned clergymen from the territories under Ottoman control with large Christian populations would play a role as well. It is also because of the actions of Dmitry of Pleven that when the Rhodope Uprising broke out in 1572 and was eventually suppressed by the Ottomans with brute force, Dmitry's spiritual successor Grigori Kubanski (his surname was acquired after settling in the Kuban region in 1575) would become the head of the Bulgarian community in Russia, spearheading another round of cultural emissions. The spiritual awakening among the Bulgarian Orthodox students who traveled to Polotsk were exposed to Savonarolan ideas and began to speak out in condemnation of the Ecumenical Patriarch's collusion with the Ottoman sultan. It was said that the Rhodope Uprising was connected to the Bulgarian attempts at creating a Bulgarian Uniate Church (the term Uniate here meant neither Catholic or Orthodox, but a mix of both worlds added with the influence from Armenian Apostolicism)[2] that would be theoretically autonomous, but would in fact take its marching orders from the newly named Catholicos-Patriarch of Moscow and its French counterpart, the Catholicos-Patriarch of Avignon, but the plan was revealed to the Ecumenical Patriarch himself.
Even before the death of Ivan III and the ascension of Grand Duke Vasily III as head of the Muscovite state, the roots of Russia's eventual transition into the club of European civilization was already planted. The Papacy, while they might be pleased with Poland's attempts at bringing Orthodox Muscovite Russia into the European family, were incensed that the plan to bring the two rival churches together would somehow be hijacked by their heretical enemies, the followers of Savonarola.
[1] Dmitry of Pleven is an expy of Maximus the Greek, who unfortunately will not make an appearance here. However, Dmitry of Pleven (or Dmitri Plevenski) would be fare more outspoken of the corruption that is present within the Russian Orthodox Church, and will also act as a proto-Nikon (OTL Patriarch Nikon who spearheaded the Russian Orthodox reforms that split the church into the mainstream branch and the Old Believers).
[2] The term “Uniate” here will have a radically different meaning. IOTL, “Uniate” was used to denote the Orthodox Christian congregation that swore allegiance to the Roman Papacy, hence the term “Eastern Catholics” or “Greek Catholics”. ITTL, “Uniate” will be used to denote both Orthodox Christian and Roman Catholic congregations that would form a truly reformed Church. In other words, Protestantism with a heavy ritualistic tone.
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on May 19, 2018 17:40:39 GMT
Case Study #10: Eastern Europe Part Two
The origins of the War of the Polish Succession were rather vague and whimsical, but significant. It began when Jan I Albert was still alive in 1499, but his health started to decline back then. A disastrous attempt at placing his other brother Sigismund Jagiellon on the throne of Moldavia had alerted the Ottoman authorities to Poland-Lithuania's intentions to lead a new Crusade against them. In 1501, Jan I Albert was prepared to deal with the Teutonic Order when he unexpectedly died. The news of his death had alerted Maximillian in Budapest, who immediately began to make preparations for an attack on the Polish-Lithuanian union. Thus by June 22, 1501, Hapsburg aligned forces launched an invasion of southwestern Poland from their strongholds in Silesia and northern Hungary.
News of the Hapsburg attack on the Polish-Lithuanian state had shocked Alexander Jagiellon,who was supposed to succeed his brother. Fearing that the Teutonic Order will use the Holy Roman Empire's attack on the Polish-Lithuanian state as a pretext for attacking them, he dispatched Prince Sigismund to deal with the Teutonic Order. Forced into a two front war between the Holy Roman Empire and the Teutonic Order, the Poles sent envoys to France, the Kalmar Union and Muscovy, pleading for help. Though the Kalmar Union declined Poland-Lithuania's request, Muscovy agreed to back them, sending 12,000 soldiers to support the Jagiellons against the Hapsburgs. Though the conflict in Poland was rather brutal, it also exposed the Muscovites to another area of Western expertise: warfare. The power and strength of the modern bombards was first introduced to the Muscovite forces in the Polish defense of Lviv from the approaching Hungarian force of 14,000 led by Philip the Handsome, and another invasion force, this time from the rest of the Holy Roman Empire, led by Eitel Frederick II, the Count of Hohenzollern on July 21st, 1501. The appearance of the Count of Hohenzollern was of great concern to the Jagiellon faction, mainly because it demonstrated to them the growing influence of the Hapsburgs and the marriage between Philip the Handsome (of House Hapsburg) and Duchess Sophie of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach (of House Hohenzollern) had turned the Electorate of Brandenburg into an informal vassal of Austria.
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Siege of Lviv (July 21-July 25):
Lviv marked the beginning of the first phase of Maximillian's attempts at securing the Polish crown for his son, although some historians were perplexed as to why they were besieging a city that is farther than Warsaw or Cracow. Yet some military experts had deduced that Lviv was a diversionary target from Maximillian's true targets: Cracow and Warsaw. Cracow was the seat of the Kingdom of Poland while Warsaw was under the control of the Duchy of Masovia, a Polish vassal. Because the Black Army had been training and expanding itself a couple of months, if not years before the War of the Polish Succession had broken out, they were deemed untested by Maximillian. Thus he sent the regular Hungarian and Austrian troops to Lviv while he would personally lead the Black Army to Cracow.
The siege began with the bombardment of the city's walls by 100 Austrian cannons. Philip the Handsome was camped just outside the city while his second in command, Eitel Frederick II, moved his troops closer towards Drohobych in order to cut off any potential aid to the Polish defenders. Polish reinforcements in the form of the 12,000 Muscovite volunteers arrived by late afternoon, though they were equipped with a few obsolete weapons. Moreover, the Muscovite volunteers were entirely composed of aristocrats and their servant slaves who often wore the same kind of armor as their ancestors did almost three hundred years ago.
The Muscovite volunteers, led by Ivan Chelyadnin, were tasked with stopping the Hapsburg advance into Lviv, but three hours into the operation, Hungarian cavalry forces managed to split the Muscovite forces into two, making it easier to destroy them in battle. A Hungarian cavalry commander named Gyorgy Dozsa noticed the lack of coordination that the Muscovites had often encountered, and most of their infantry troops fared little better than his own infantry forces. Although they were well versed with the composite bow, the Hungarian hussars and cavalry archers possessed better range and a better bow. The defense of Drohobych ended in disaster for the Muscovites as the Hungarians had managed to take not only the city, but two thirds of the Muscovite soldiers as prisoners of war. Ivan Chelyadnin was personally rebuked and disgraced by his superior, Prince Simeon Belsky, whom Ivan III had entrusted with keeping an eye on Chelyadnin. The disastrous performance that the Muscovite landed army had displayed, in sharp contrast to the performance that the Polish forces had put up during a skirmish between Polish and Austrian forces just outside Stryi was one of the main issues that Simeon Belsky had written to the Grand Duke. It was up to Vasily III and his successors to complete the transition of the Muscovite state to what Western European civilization is like, and nothing is to be spared from such modernizations.
With the Muscovite defeat, the pressure on the defenders of Lviv grew stronger. Survivors of the Dorobych disaster limped back to the city where they were met with ridicule by their western Ruthenian counterparts who defended the city. Needless to say, some of the Muscovite soldiers begrudgingly agreed with them in that they failed utterly. The aristocracy who led the Landed Army were appalled by how outclassed they were. Demoted to just helping the defenders with resupply, the Muscovite Landed Army had been rudely awakened to the reality of the warfare of the Early Modern Era. The next three days was mostly consisted of bombardments and attempted defenses of the city's outskirts. However on July 25, one of the artillery shots had knocked open the city's gates. Polish and western Ruthenian troops attempted to block off the gate to the incoming Austrian and Hungarian forces, but additional artillery bombardment had reduced their numbers. Finally, Philip the Handsome called off the attack in order to allow the withdrawal of the Polish-Lithuanian and Muscovite forces from Lviv in order to formally take over the city.
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When news of Lviv's conquest reached Maximillian's camp on the outskirts of Cracow, he was pleased with the progress his son made. He and the Black Army laid siege to Cracow in July 23rd, two days after Lviv was besieged. Like his son, Maximillian had brought cannons to lay waste to the city. It was not until July 29th that Cracow fell to the Black Army. Austrian and Hungarian troops under Maximillian's command proceeded to plunder the city, including Cracow University. It was by luck that the majority of the teaching staff there evacuated from that university, among them Albert Brudzewski who relocated to Polotsk and built a new university that bore his name, the Polachak-Brudzewski Royal Academy for Higher Learning. For the remaining teaching staff, they feared the potential reprisals that the Hapsburgs may dish out to them, but to their surprise and relief, Maximillian opted to bring Cracow University under the control of Augustinian Friars. The Augustinian Friars led the academical purge against teachers who displayed Savonarolist sympathies and carried out the first Inquisition inside Polish territory.
While Maximillian hoped that the Polish crown would be secured by his troops for his son Philip, the Polish Catholic priests who opposed Maximillian had safely retrieved the crown and made their way towards Lithuanian territory. Between July 30 and August 15, the journey made by these Polish priests was perilous and fraught with potential encounters with bandits in the countryside. Luckily, the Polish priests arrived at Prince Sigismund's stronghold in Zakroczym by August 16, just in time for him to launch an offensive against the Teutonic Knights. At that time, the Teutonic Order was led by Frederick of Brandenburg-Ansbach. He not only controlled most of the Teutonic Knights, but also relied on its Livonian counterpart, the Livonian Knights. In addition, as the father of Duchess Sophie, his intentions to fight the Poles for his son-in-law's crown was personal. (In 1498, Duchess Sophie and Philip the Handsome were married in a lavish ceremony in the city of Danzig, a city that is now targeted by the incoming Polish forces under the command of Mikolaj Firlej in August 20, 1501)
Nibork was attacked a day after Danzig was invaded, in which Prince Sigismund had personally led his army over the Wisla River from his base in Zakroczym. Backing his attack was Grand Duke Alexander and 15,000 Lithuanian soldiers crossing over towards Memel from the nearby town of Polaga. The Lithuanians managed to catch the Teutonic Order off guard, and placed an enormous pressure on Frederick of Brandenburg-Ansbach's already overstretched army. Knowing which danger was closer, Prince Sigismund and Grand Duke Alexander agreed that eliminating the Teutonic Order was first and foremost the most important task before dealing with the Holy Roman Empire. It was because of the Teutonic threat that the Polish-Lithuanian armies were dead set on eliminating them entirely as a fighting force and as a geopolitical power. Thus during the battle of Nibork, the entire Teutonic force stationed there were massacred, and no prisoners were taken at all. However, the German civilian population there were spared on the condition that they swear allegiance to the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Needless to say, the worsening situation for the Teutonic Order grew as each of its knights who hailed from different regions of the Holy Roman Empire often bickered with each other. Bavarian and Rhineland-origin warriors were bribed to defect to the Polish side in exchange for their lives when the Polish Army moved on from Nibork to Lubawa. With the aid of the defected knights who now served the Polish side, various towns under the control of the Teutonic Order fell and the last bastion, Koenigsberg, was under siege by December 2nd, 1501.
While the Poles laid siege to Koenigsberg, their Lithuanian counterparts had sent another force of 17,000 under the command of Hetman Konstanty Ostrogski. Hetman Ostrogski had overseen the preparation of the main Lithuanian force for the siege of Koenigsberg, though he rejected any further help from the Muscovite side until they were fully re-trained, re-armed and re-organized along Polish-Lithuanian lines. Therefore, the huge task of the Muscovite Landed Army's complete reconstruction fell under the hands of Prince Mikhail Glinski. Mikhail Glinski was an excellent choice for the role of helping Muscovy rebuild its army mainly because of his personal links to most of Europe's political inner circles, and also because of his knowledge of the Hapsburg military (he once served under them). While the Muscovites retrained their army, the main Lithuanian force led by Ostrogski had finally taken Memel after a long siege, and was on their way to Koenigsberg when news of Maximillian's conquest of Poznan reached the Lithuanian camp just outside the town of Ragneta. Forced to divert half of his army to stop Maximillian and the Black Army, Ostrogski had weakened his forces enough to allow the Teutonic Order to survive the siege of Koenigsberg.
The Black Army had performed admirably under Maximillian's command, and their strength increased with the addition of Italian mercenaries and Czech volunteers who were lured with the prospect of acquiring wealth through looting Polish manors. The adoption of the composite bow for the entire Hapsburg force, along with the increasing adoption of arquebuses as well, had made them a truly formidable army on the battlefield. On the Polish side, arquebuses were limited in use, and most of the Polish forces have ironically relied on the same composite bow as their Muscovite counterparts, with the only difference being the level of tactics used. As a result of the War of the Polish Succession, Maximillian had commissioned a new weapons factory within Hungarian territory and as well as in Austria. Places like Debrecen, Budapest, Vienna and Salzburg emerged as the dominant cities with a new tradition in firearms manufacturing. At the same time, a few arms manufacturers sold some arquebuses and technical know how on making those very same weapons to people connected to Prince Glinski. Even so, the power of the arquebuses and its deadly effect had surpassed the composite bow, and as a result, there were more usages of arquebuses in this conflict than any of the previous conflicts in human history.
Despite the military superiority of the Hapsburgs through the Black Army and their military prowess, their enemies were beginning to adapt quickly to the changes occurring in modern warfare. Seeing as the Poles could not sustain much longer against the Hapsburgs, they opted to use their light cavalry and light infantry for guerrilla warfare to harass and cut down the invading Hapsburg forces. The Polish decision to drag the war longer, though risky, played a pivotal role in the Holy Roman Empire, as Maximillian and Philip the Handsome relied more on regular soldiers from other member states within the Hapsburg realm. States like Brandenburg, Hesse, Bavaria and Pomerania had contributed supplies, money and soldiers to the fight for Philip the Handsome's claim on the Polish throne. Yet with more contributions from those states came more taxes for the citizens of those states, thus potentially setting the Hapsburgs up for some major financial trouble down the road. Another state, Bohemia, was reluctant to contribute its resources or soldiers, due to fears of being dominated by Austria. On the Polish side, besides the Polish, Lithuanian, Muscovite, Ruthenian and a few Tatar troops who joined in the fight, no other nation was willing to fight on behalf of a declining dynasty. France for instance, was too weak to start a fight with the Holy Roman Empire, having just finished helping England deal with the Irish problem and their humiliation at the hands of Scotland's King James IV. The three Iberian kingdoms, while willing, were unable to contribute anything because of their war plans against Morocco. The Ottomans on the other hand, were indirectly helping the Poles, though not for the benefit of the Jagiellon dynasty. While Maximillian and Philip the Handsome were mired in the Polish conflict, the Ottoman forces had finally launched the Siege of Belgrade (1502).
Throughout the War of the Polish Succession, the entire Polish countryside had witnessed carnage on a scale never seen before. Polish peasants who worked for their landlords often saw their crops stolen by Hapsburg troops, and common instances of Hapsburg violence against Polish civilians occurred alarmingly. The common tactic employed by the Hapsburg Black Army whenever they suffered an ambush by Polish irregulars was to burn down seven villages closest to the scene of the ambush. Polish counter-reprisals came in the form of impalement, often impaling captured Hapsburg Black Army soldiers unfortunate enough to fall into Polish hands. As was with the Teutonic Knights who fell under Polish captivity, other forms of punishment would involve blinding, garroting and beheading. Out of the subjects of the Polish kingdom, no other ethnic group suffered the most than the Jewish population that lived within the borders of the Polish state. Back in 1495 Grand Duke Alexander Jagiellon of Lithuania had expelled the Jewish population from its territory. The Jewish population in the Grand Duchy of Muscovy, though small, was subjected to discriminations as well, but the establishment of the Polachak-Brudzewski Royal Academy of Higher Learning had unfortunately produced a new generation of well-educated but fanatical anti-Semites with a vicious rhetoric towards the Jews. Both sides sought to court the Jews in this manner, and lured by the prospect of further economic concessions, the Jews inside Poland began to do business with both sides. Unfortunately their economic opportunities had provoked a violent pogrom in Plock on August 14, 1502 when 2,900 Jews were massacred by Polish peasants for allegedly supplying financial aid to a Hapsburg noble who confiscated 89 hectares of land from a murdered Polish noble with anti-Hapsburg leanings.
Seeing that the knightly order would suffer further massacre if it resisted, the 36th Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, Friedrich of Saxony, surrendered the fortress of Koenigsberg to the victorious Polish and Lithuanian troops on August 17, three days after the Plock pogrom.
The only reason why the Teutonic Order chose to surrender rather than to fight to the death against the Poles was because he made a controversial decision that would ironically enough, save the Teutonic Order as an organization in the long run: he chose to relocate his headquarters to Dresden, Saxony, and from there, he would decide on whether or not the Teutonic Order will continue to exist as an organization. However, the evacuation of the Teutonic Order to Saxony had left its autonomous member, the Livonian Order, in a worse position than ever before, for their territories were now vulnerable to Lithuanian and Muscovite conquest. Having secured Koenigsberg and by extension, the territories of the region later called Prussia, the Polish-Lithuanian forces were now poised to retake the initiative and expel the Hapsburgs from all of Poland. One unintended consequence of the Teutonic Order's evacuation from Prussia was that three quarters of their troops had later joined the Black Army, and their experience in fighting the Poles came in handy. Another remaining quarter of the Teutonic Order would offer their services as mercenaries in the armies of Western and Northern Europe.
Poland's decision to annex all of the lands of the former Prussian Confederation had given them an access to the Baltic coastline, and in the newly conquered Koenigsberg (renamed Krolewiec), the Poles began to rebuild the city by bringing in refugees from southern Poland who survived the Hapsburg rampages. Prince Sigismund and Grand Duke Alexander had donated what remained of their personal wealth to the formation of two separate Polish and Lithuanian naval fleets, though not huge enough, were to be used against the Hapsburgs in a future engagement. Memel on the other hand, was also annexed by Poland and was subsequently renamed Nowojagiello in honor of the reigning Jagiellon dynasty. From the newly annexed Polish Prussia, the Polish land forces began to rebuild itself, often with the help of defected ex-Teutonic Knights who accepted Polish servitude. The growth of Nowojagiello and Krolewiec contributed to Poland-Lithuania's mercantile trade with the Kalmar Union, and they also found themselves entering into a diplomatic relationship with the Danish ruling dynasty there. Their hopes of enlisting the help of the Danes in the war against the Hapsburgs were dashed: though they were not happy with Maximillian's abandonment of the rapprochement with Muscovy, they didn't want to cause any more trouble in the continent. Moreover, their growing partnership with Muscovy wasn't something John II of Denmark wanted to destroy. However, John II did allow a 200 Swedish pioneers who were experienced in construction of harbors to immigrate to Poland, where their expertise was proven useful in expanding Nowojagiello and Krolewiec. Each month, three Polish and four Lithuanian warships (mainly medium sized balingers, or small sea going vessels) were built in those shipyards, while galleys were also built to support the balingers. The Polish-Lithuanian Navy as it was called, was rather small and its potential wasn't fully exploited as none of the shipbuilders in Krolewiec and Nowojagiello were knowledgeable in shipbuilding. On the other hand, the Hapsburgs didn't even own a navy and were hard pressed into finding good privateers to do the job for them. Like their Jagiellon counterparts, Maximillian and Philip the Handsome tapped into their personal wealth to hire the best privateers to besiege the two coastal cities under Polish control.
Throughout 1502 and until July of 1503 the war had acquired a naval angle, as the Hapsburgs with their privateers were able to intercept Polish merchant ships bound for the Kalmar Union while Poland-Lithuania continued to build their own fleets. In August of 1503, a Scottish naval captain by the name of Andrew Wood of Largo had sailed into the port of Lubeck, on a goodwill visit on behalf of King James IV of Scotland. Though the Scottish admiral attracted virtually no attention, his next journey took him to Krolewiec where he and 100 other Scots had introduced a completely new ship design to the Poles: the carrack. Originally designed by the Portuguese, the carrack was well suited for ocean based journeys, as well as within the confines of various European seas. Though the Poles were curious and interested in learning how to build a carrack, the Hapsburgs gained the upper hand in naval development. Two brothers from Scotland who specialized in privateering were among the naval mercenaries that the Hapsburgs had hired for their war against Poland-Lithuania. The Barton brothers, Robert and Andrew, had been hired in December of 1502 as a part of the ongoing war against Poland-Lithuania, though the Holy Roman Empire itself had no experience in naval matters. Not only did the Barton brothers accepted the Hapsburg employment, but they've also shared the design of the carrack with the Hapsburg authorities, in addition to the five galleon ships that was donated by Castile in the same month (eager for more allies, the three Iberian kingdoms had instead decided to donate the ships built in the Granadan shipyards to the Hapsburgs in lieu of resources or soldiers). Lubeck and Stettin became the HRE's two main shipbuilding hubs, each of them specializing in the construction of galleons, carracks and galleys.
One of the main advantages that the HRE possessed over Poland-Lithuania was their abundant supply of timber, which was crucial for their naval construction. The other minor states within the HRE who didn't contribute soldiers or resources had participated in the economic activity of logging. In the Rhineland, several tonnes of lumber were being hauled through the Rhine river and into the port of Hamburg where they were cut down into plywood and shipped it to Lubeck. The production of sails was mainly in the Schleswig-Holstein region, while the training of sailors was mainly done in the HRE's Low Countries region. The sailors who crewed these warships were mainly Dutch speaking, but a few of these sailors also came from Hesse and Cologne. On the other hand, Poland's sailors took a lot longer to train, partly because none of their instructors had any naval experiences. Thus an additional school for training naval cadets was established in Krolewiec, with the sole intention to train future military leaders. Other naval academies would open in the Lithuanian lands as well, though its staff would entirely consist of either French or English naval instructors. At the same time, the Hapsburgs were also capable of building more ships than their Polish counterparts, and the ratio of ships built between the Hapsburgs and the Poles was usually 5:1. Thus by the end of 1503, the Holy Roman Empire had possessed a 5:1 naval advantage over the Poles.
The decisive moment for the HRE and the Poles came during the Sieges of Warsaw (February 13, 1504) and Krolewiec/Koenigsberg (February 15, 1504) when for the first time, artillery was used by both sides. In the case of Krolewiec/Koenigsberg, it also marked the first naval engagement between the two powers, and aided by their hired privateers, the Hapsburgs had seized the upper hand. Following the destruction of the entire Polish fleet, Andrew Barton's new fleet proceeded to besiege the port city while his brother Robert led another fleet to bombard Nowojagiello. This time the Poles and Lithuanians were at a disadvantage as the Black Army had managed to fully pacify most of Poland with the exception of Warsaw and the Lithuanian lands. The naval and land blockades of the two port cities had resulted in the dwindling of supplies, and by February 19, Prince Sigismund and Grand Duke Alexander formally surrendered to Maximillian in Krolewiec.
In the Treaty of Warsaw of 1504, the Jagiellon brothers were compelled to give up the Polish crown but were allowed to acquire the Lithuanian crown and to raise the status of Lithuania from Grand Duchy to a Kingdom. However, they were forbidden from regaining the Polish crown and were also banned from entering Polish soil, even for business. In exchange, the Jagiellon brothers were to recognize Philip the Handsome as the new King of Poland, and to acknowledge the Hapsburg hegemony over both Poland and Hungary (the two Jagiellon brothers were also forced to pay reparations to the Kingdom of Hungary for losing the War of the Hungarian Succession as well). Grand Duke Alexander had formally abdicated from the Polish throne and in February 24, the two brothers made their way to Lithuania where they were met with happy onlookers, many of whom were pleased that the two brothers will finally take care of their fellow Lithuanian citizens.
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on May 21, 2018 22:00:18 GMT
Case Study #11: Ottoman Empire, Persia and Central Asia
In between 1494 and 1501, the Ottoman Empire had slowly gotten themselves into the meat grinder that was the Croatian conflict, imposed on them by a weak king with little legitimacy. The story of the Komoroglu clan was not unusual for its time, as various Croatian noble families faced two difficult choices of re-aligning themselves with the Hapsburgs or becoming Ottoman vassals. As was with their Serbian counterparts who became Turkish vassals, the Croatian noble families who submitted to Ottoman rule now became more important in the conflict against John Corvinus. In March of 1495 Zagreb was besieged by Gazi Husrev Beg's army while Sehzade Ahmet and Sehzade Korkut moved their forces towards the Adriatic, but another order from Sultan Bayezid II to Sehzade Korkut had instructed him to make his way towards the Republic of Ragusa. Sehzade Ahmet on the other hand, was given instructions to conquer the mountainous terrain of Dalmatia in order to acquire naval bases from which he can strike at the Italian Peninsula. Bayezid II's decision to attack Dalmatia however, had triggered a hostile reaction from the Republic of Venice, whose control of Dalmatia was rather shaky at its finest. In the Ottoman-Venetian War of 1495-1503, the Ottomans were more than just contesting land in the Adriatic and the Aegean Seas region: they were determined to expel any potential Venetian influence in the region that may give Ottoman Rumelia's Balkan subject any thoughts of rebellion. In addition, the Ottomans also expanded their navy through constructions of galleys in various Turkish coastal cities with the hope of taking on the might of Christian Europe. Venetian military forces were mostly naval, so they had to seek help from the other powers. The three Iberian kingdoms had just finished conquering Granada, and were in no condition to help. The Holy Roman Empire had also finished securing the Hungarian kingdom for Maximillian, and thus they couldn't help as well. While France was interested in helping, they were more concerned with courting England and keeping the Auld Alliance afloat. The rest of the Italian states could only send monetary support, meaning that Venice would have to expand its fleet in order to protect its possessions. Kemal Reis was an Ottoman admiral who made a name for himself in this conflict with Venice. Having worked in the Ottoman navy for most of his life, his appointment as the admiral of the Ottoman fleet by Bayezid II was crucial in his career, as he would be credited with most of the maritime victories won by the Ottomans. In fact, his first mission in the Ottoman-Venetian War of 1495-1501 was to support the ground invasion of Dalmatia undertaken by Sehzade Ahmet by providing naval support through bombardment of Dalmatian port cities. In the first few months between July and September of 1495, half of Dalmatia between Zadar and the border with the Ragusa Republic fell under Ottoman control. Unlike previous engagements between the Ottomans and their Christian enemies, their occupation of Dalmatia had a different approach. Because of their valuable position as a trading hub between the two sides of the Adriatic and their proximity to Venice itself, the Ottomans kept the existing structures in place, with the Venetian traders being evacuated to Venice while the Croatian inhabitants of Dalmatia became Ottoman subjects, subjected to the same restrictions as other Ottoman Christians living in Ottoman Rumelia. In fact, Mirko Kasun or Azad Komoroglu, the Croatian-born convert to Islam, was appointed as the advisor to the new Ottoman Sanjak Bey of Dalmacya, Hadim Suleiman Pasha. It was Kasun or Komoroglu who helped Hadim Suleiman Pasha with crafting the policies that protected the Croatian population of Dalmatia and even advocated for religious tolerance. It was said that the policies of both Komoroglu and Hadim Suleiman Pasha had allowed the Savonarolists who were based in France to set up a base in Dalmatia. A Friar Domenico, another one of Savonarola's friends who didn't leave France yet, was appointed as the new head of the Savonarolist movement in Dalmatia. Though his mission was to acquire followers from among the Croats of Dalmatia, the propagation of Savonarolian ideas also attracted a few Serbs who lived in the area. Dalmatia became the first region under Ottoman control to recognize the Savonarolist movement as a legitimate movement, but their presence in Dalmatia had only added the anger to the Papacy. It also added a bit of anger and irritation to the Patriarch of Constantinople because their message of piety and charity, along with advocating for challenging the traditions of that era would have threatened his position. The Orthodox Christians living under Ottoman rule were automatically lumped together into the Rum millet, under the control of the same Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. To have a movement that challenged their authority was intolerable, and even more so, to tie such a radical movement like Savonarolism (as the main branch of the Uniate movement eventually became known) to ethno-nationalist sentiments with historical grievances against the fallen Byzantine Empire (ie: Bulgarians, Serbs), it was practically a ticking time bomb waiting to explode into the Ottoman Empire. Christians in Bosnia, whether Catholic Croat or Orthodox Serb, eventually grew more receptive to the ideas that the Savonarolists of Dalmatia were preaching. A few of them made the journey into the Dalmatian mountains where Savonarolan missionaries began preaching. Among the Christians of Bosnia who made the journey was a religious priest from the town of Rudo by the name of Dmitrije Sokolovic. Dmitrije was fascinated by the ideas that the Savonarolists of Dalmatia were preaching that he even joined their group, taking his family along with him on their journey. Dmitrije, his family, and his close followers, started to build Savonarola villages along the Dalmatian coast, and some of its islands. Korcula, Makarska, Sibenik, Biograd na Moru and Zadar became the center of Savonarolist activity within Ottoman occupied Dalmatia, and a militia consisting of 3,000 locals were recruited to help the Ottomans with law enforcement, though their reputation slowly degraded since the other locals who didn't join them viewed the 3,000 local militiamen as collaborators who forsake the Christian faith. Yet at the same time these militiamen were diverse: Italians, Croats, Serbs, even a few Albanians, Bosnian Christians who were formerly Bogomilists, and Jewish converts to Christianity consisted of the Dalmatian militia. They aided Sehzade Ahmet in the subjugation of other parts of Dalmatia while the Ottoman navy made raids as far as Venice itself. The devastation of Venice contributed to its economic and social decline as Ottoman raids had disrupted Venetian mercantile trade with its neighbors. Unfortunately for the Ottomans, the Venetians were far from being beaten. Quite the opposite: it aroused anti-Muslim feeling in Europe, and buoyed by the recent Castilian-Aragonese-Portuguese victory over the Granadan Emirate, there were calls for a new Crusade against the Ottomans, but Pope Alexander VI was more concerned with the Savonarolists than the Ottoman menace. Venetian naval dominance was still strong, leading to several naval engagements between the two powers: Corfu (May 23-26, 1497), Modon (July 21, 1497), Herceg Novi (September 19, 1498, though it was a Venetian attempt to capture the town from the Ottomans) and the major victory that the Ottomans acquired was the Conquest of Naxos in February 14, 1499. The fall of Naxos also resulted in the other Greek islands around the Dodecanese region surrendering to Turkish control. However, the final years of the campaign between the Ottomans and the Venetians would take place in the Adriatic. By August of 1499, the Ottomans had landed troops in the vicinity of Rijeka and began the Siege of Rijeka. Rijeka at that time belonged to the short lived Kingdom of Croatia that was ruled by John Corvinus. His presence at Rijeka didn't raise the morale of the troops stationed there, and in fact a mutiny broke out in that city, which led to his murder at the hands of angry Croatian nobles who insisted on having Maximillian himself show up with the Black Army. A mixed Ottoman-Dalmatian force hastily built on orders from Azad Komoroglu and Hadim Suleiman Pasha was led by the former while the latter later joined Sehzade Korkut on their way to Zagreb. With the death of John Corvinus, the Croatian nobles responsible for his murder then turned on each other as they fought for the Croatian crown. The ensuing chaos would eventually lead to the rapid capture of Zagreb by September 23, 1499, as the Ottomans found the city in such a horrendous condition that Azad Komoroglu was appointed the provisional head of Zagreb. For his contributions to the development of the Dalmatian region and his expertise in anything related to Croatia, Bayezid II would bequeath him the rank of Bey in the same month. The fall of Croatia was the heavy price Maximillian paid for the acquisition of the Hungarian crown, which only made his determination to put Philip the Handsome on the throne of Poland a lot stronger. It also sent him into a collision course with Bayezid II directly as the Ottomans now controlled Slavonia, and were now within striking range of Vienna itself. Croats who now found themselves under Ottoman rule faced the similar conditions that their Bosnian and Serb neighbors faced when they were conquered by the Turkish forces that now control their land. Unlike the Serb Orthodox Christians who were lumped into the Rum Millet and were under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Croatian Catholics had a rather mixed status. Because they were Catholics of the Latin Rite, they cannot be lumped into the Rum Millet. Even worse, they began to face harsher persecutions due to their ties to the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary. As a result, the Ottoman authorities quietly gave approval for increased efforts at making the Croatian Catholic Church independent of the Vatican and even allowed the Savonarolists to take up positions within the newly created Autocephalous Catholic Church of Croatia. The independent Croatian church became the first serious attempt at combining the practices of both Catholicism and Orthodoxy, but giving allegiance to neither the Vatican nor the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Many of the Croatian Savonarolists who lived in Savonarola villages were chosen to attend the Polachak-Brudzewski Royal Academy for Higher Learning, but they wouldn't be able to attend until 1506, after the War of the Polish Succession had died down. --- While fears of the Georgian civil war was brewing, the fallout from the defeat of the Aq Qoyunlu at the hands of Ali Reza Safavi and his Shirvan allies was significant: Persian civilians who saw the decline of their overlords now began to champion for Ali Reza to liberate them from the oppressive rule of the declining Aq Qoyunlu. Moreover, the death of Gazi Beg in Kapan had resulted in Ali Reza taking control of the Shirvanshah, much to the protest of the late Gazi Beg's brothers who saw Ali Reza as a usurper. Fortunately, Ali Reza managed to kill his opponents quickly before they could gather more support. In December of 1498 the Safavids annexed the Shirvanshah and attached it to Ardabil, creating the core of what would become the Safavid Empire. Not wanting to stay idle, Ali Reza sent a Qizilbash military officer named Husayn Beg Shamlu on a cross-Caspian expedition to find a suitable place to build a new fortress and port to facilitate cross-Caspian trade and to set up a future base for the implementation of the Shia Muslim faith. In July of 1499 Husayn Beg Shamlu and 3,000 Qizilbash troops plus 5,000 Shirvan auxilliaries had landed on the mouth of the Amu-Darya River and declared it the first territory of the new Safavid state. He named the new settlement Alirezabad[1], in honor of Ali Reza, and gave orders for the construction of a new fort there. Another Qizilbash force landed further south and constructed another fort there on the settlement later named Celeken. Taking advantage of the internal turmoil that gripped the declining Timurid Empire, Alirezabad and Celeken became the first Safavid attempts at colonizing Central Asia, from which they would build their bases for the conquest of Persia. The two settlements also became the center of the Shia Muslim faith, with the construction of madrassas in addition to mosques staffed by Shia clerics invited by Ali Reza from all over the Middle East, primarily in eastern Mesopotamia and Khuzestan where the Musha'sha'iyah were the strongest. Invitation for all Shias living under Sunni Muslim rule, particularly in the Timurid and Ottoman territories were also extended, including the Persophone but Turkic looking ethnic group called the Hazaras. Descendants from Genghis Khan's armies who settled in Afghanistan, the Hazaras would eventually consist of one of the major ethnic groups that dominated the Safavid Empire, and an additional Hazara population would later be settled in the Ural River border area, courtesy of the Kazakh Khanate. In 1500, Ali Reza and several tens of thousands of soldiers, including Qizilbash, his own personal army and Dagestani auxilliaries, made their way to the important city of Tabriz. Just at the age of 19 (he was probably born in 1482), Ali Reza would launch an attack on the important economic hub of the Aq Qoyunlu, resulting in its fall within just three days from June 13, to June 16. Claiming the title Shah of Azerbaijan, he would consolidate his rule through stabilizing missions and proclaiming the Twelver School of Shia Islam as the main faith of the new Safavid state. However, he also allowed the Zaidiyyah and Ismaili sects to flourish within his territory, hoping to take from each school of Shia Islam every good points to create a brand new reformed Shia Muslim faith. Though Ali Reza Shah of Azerbaijan had under his rule the many diverse groups, such as the Azeris, Persians and other Circassian migrants who moved to his domains, he had to cultivate good relations with every one of them. For that matter, he began to integrate the Qizilbash and Persian soldiers into a single, cohesive unit with the hopes of forging a strong bond. Unfortunately, this solution posed a new set of problems, as the Qizilbash were mostly illiterate. Luckily the madrassas in Alirezabad and Celeken also invited most of the Qizilbash troops to learn how to read and write. Husayn Beg Shamlu himself was taught the Perso-Arabic script by an Ismaili imam who also knew the Azeri Turkic language in addition to Persian and Arabic. Finally, Ali Reza started to persecute the Sunni brotherhoods who dominated each Sufi order by forcefully converting them to Shia Islam or killing them outright. Ali Reza Shah, true to his word, respected the independence of the Georgian statelets and even supported in their endeavors to resurrect the Armenian state as a a debt of gratitude to the Armenians of the former Melikdom of Karabagh who fought against the Aq Qoyunlu. Between 1501 and 1505, Ali Reza Shah would launch a campaign to bring northern Persia under his control, and the campaign would take years to complete. In addition, Ali Reza Shah had taken for himself an Armenian noblewoman, who was the daughter of a minor noble who was among the slaughtered victims in the infamous Slaughter of the Meliks. Originally named Anush, she was converted to Shia Islam and adopted the name Faizura. Faizura Khanum, as contemporary sources named her, was surprisingly smart for a woman of her generation. She would be a moderating influence on Ali Reza Shah, just as her Jagiellon counterpart, Elizabeth Jagiellon, would have a moderating influence on Vasily III. In the midst of the northern Persian campaign, Faizura Khanum (1484-1567) would give him four children: - Rustam Mirza (1503-1548): the Crown Prince of Persia, Rustam Mirza was the oldest son, but he was tragically killed during the Persian campaign against the Baluchis to the south in 1548. - Soraya Khanum (1506-1573): the eldest daughter of Ali Reza Shah, she would eventually marry a son of Qasym Khan of the Kazakh Khanate. - Afsarara Khanum (1510-1513): another daughter who died in infancy. - Jahangir Mirza (1515-1578): Ali Reza Shah's successor as the Shah of Persia. It would be Jahangir Mirza who would initiate a groundbreaking pact with a European power: Muscovy. --- Kazakh Khanate – A New Power in Central Asia:
The Kazakh Khanate had arisen from the steppes of Central Asia to become the dominant regional power there. Initially a part of the Golden Horde, it later broke away from the Uzbek-led confederation under the command of the two brothers, Janibek and Kerei Khan. However, Kerei Khan had died first, leaving Janibek Khan as the sole leader of the Kazakh Khanate. The Kazakhs had for the first time, organized themselves into a single cohesive entity and were nominally Sunni Muslim until Khanzade Qasym 's fateful encounter with a Qizilbash soldier in Alirezabad. Khanzade Qasym was the son of Janibek Khan who would become influential in the cultural development of the Kazakh Khanate, as his partnership with the Safavids in Persia (established in 1511 during the early years of his reign) would inevitably bring in numerous Persian influences on his state, including Shia Islam. Muhammad Shaybani, the leader of the Uzbek Khanate, tightened his control of the remaining territories in the Khorasam region and viewed the emergence of the Safavid state as a dangerous rival for the control of all of Persia. Unlike the Safavids, the Kazakh Khanate would host a multitude of Muslim sects who co-existed with each other. Whether Sunni, Sufi or Shia, these sects of Islam had enriched the cultural diversity of the Kazakh Khanate. Ironically, the Kazakh Khanate would give refuge to Sunni Muslim refugees who fled from the forced conversion to Shia Islam at the hands of the Safavids. Their religious tolerance would also play a role in the hosting of several Christian communities within the state, especially Russian Orthodox Christian merchants based in the western provinces of the khanate. In fact, the Kazakh Khanate was so well organized that even the Muscovite state (and later Russian Tsardom) preferred to seek them as allies in their wars against the remaining Tatar states. Qasym's father, Janibek, had initially appointed his older son, Buryndyq, as the new khan of the Kazakhs but Qasym's military experience through wars with the Uzbeks made him more popular, as was their other brother, Khanzade Adiq. Ultimately, it was Khanzade Adiq who would succeed both of his brothers as the Khan of the Kazakhs. In April of 1502, Qasym led an army in the defense of Taraz against an Uzbek invasion force led by Muhammad Shaybani, another one of the Genghisids who was the descendant of Genghis Khan's eldest son Jochi. However, in the midst of the battle, Qasym was shot with an arrow right through his lung, killing him instantly. Though the Uzbeks would eventually conquer the city of Taraz, a month later Khanzade Adiq would retake the city and even move towards Tashkent, pillaging it until they were compelled to retreat. Sozak was established as the main capital of the Kazakh Khanate, and thanks to the plundered treasures taken from Tashkent, Khanzade Adiq would make Sozak the center of trade inside the Kazakh state. However in 1504 Adiq would authorize the construction of a new capital city, far from the reaches of the Uzbeks, but still economically competitive within the Silk Road area. A fort was built there, followed by a marketplace, a mosque, a madrassa and several relief stations for caravans to rest up. Situated along the Aral Sea, Adiq will name this new city Saray-Qasym [2], or Qasym's palace, in honor of his late brother. Saray-Qasym was built from 1504 until 1514 because of the difficulties in transporting resources needed to build the city. The same problem presented itself in the construction of another city called Saray-Janibek [3], but unlike Saray-Qasym, Saray-Janibek had an easier access to much needed resources. As a city located in the steppes, Saray-Janibek is well suited to become the agrarian center of the Kazakh Khanate, which persisted to this very day. These two new cities were linked to each other through the constructions of new roads and extensions of the Silk Road were also made possible, thereby allowing them to establish trade links with the other Tatar statelets and later on, the Grand Duchy of Muscovy. Trade caravans were relieved that they can sell their goods in those market places and it was also much easier to go through Saray-Qasym and Saray-Janibek than to go through Timurid territory in order to reach Europe. The Kazakh society was almost egalitarian in nature, partly due to their policy of religious tolerance and their nomadic lifestyle. Though sedentary lifestyle was difficult to accept, it gradually caught on. In the Kazakh Khanate, the Sunnis and Shias lived side by side, and within the Twelver School of Shia Islam, there was even a man who advocated for social and spiritual reform for Islam. Originally born in Shirvan but of Azeri Turkic origin, the reformer originally belonged to the Alevi school of thought. His name was Derbentolu Aybek Hodja (1463-1531), and his religious education was completed in southern Mesopotamia, under the watchful eye of the Musha'sha'iyah mullahs. Aybek Hodja had championed for a more progressive form of Islam that moves away from the heterodoxy of the Sunni and orthodoxy of the Shia faiths. However, one of his controversial statements made regarding the four caliphs was that while Muhammad had the authority to appoint a successor, the council had appointed Abu Bakr without any legitimacy at all. While this isn't meant to curse the other three first caliphs as was required in Shia Islam, the statement had aroused Sunni accusations of Aybek Hodja being a Shia sympathizer. Yet in another statement Aybek Hodja also said that the age and experience had to be taken into account, and that Muhammad's appointed successor Ali, was inexperienced and young and that the council that appointed Abu Bakr was necessary in order to prepare Ali for his role. Such a confusion had already complicated matters within the Islamic world. The Qizilbash soldiers who stayed in Alirezabad and Celeken eventually became permanent settlers there, spreading the Alevi faith, to which Aybek Hodja depended on for his ideas. Though it is naive to say that Aybek Hodja would have been the Islamic equivalent to Girolamo Savonarola, the stark difference is that under Islam, there was no corruption imbedded within the Sunni and Shia clerics, though intolerance remains a reality. Aybek Hodja's adoption of certain Alevi tenets, along with the policies and thoughts from the other Shia Muslim schools of thought, and mystic elements of Sufism had made the new movement called the Aybekki school of thought mostly a mix of Shia-Sufi faiths. The Aybekkis as their followers were known, had also watched their cousins in the Ottoman Empire, the Bektashis, develop their doctrines and were encouraged to come to the Kazakh Khanate in order to spread their influence. Aybek Hodza's daughter Gulnaz Khatun would eventually marry Adiq, from whom the union would give birth to three children: Nurasyl (1505-1567), Shamil (1508-1566) and Ayaulym (1511-1571). The growing influence of the Aybekki sect, along with the Kazakh Khanate's growing power, had made the other Tatar statelets and successor states to the former Khanate of the Golden Horde nervous and fearful that the sect would become popular in their own lands. The first flag of the Kazakh Khanate. The Kazakhs changed their flag three times in their history.--- [1] Alirezabad is TTL's name for Turkmenbashy, Turkmenistan. It is also known at one time as Kyzyl-Su. [2] Saray-Qasym is TTL's name for Aralsk, Kazakhstan. [3] Saray-Janibek is TTL's name for Shalkar, Kazakhstan
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on May 25, 2018 5:15:11 GMT
Case Study #12: Eastern Europe
Lithuania after the War of the Polish Succession was left weakened with a huge war indemnity to pay to the Holy Roman Empire Totaling around 3 million ducats, the Lithuanian senate realized that such a huge amount of reparations will take almost a hundred years to pay off, and with a smaller population than their Polish neighbors, Lithuania is hard pressed to rebuild itself. On the other hand, Muscovy has received an extremely rude awakening to the reality it faced when it sent volunteers to help prop up the Jagiellons: unless they press forward with their reforms, Muscovy will find itself left behind by ten to a hundred years. The separation of Poland and Lithuania had caused more economic hardships for the Lithuanians, but the ones who were mostly affected were the Byelorussian and Ruthenian/Ukrainian subjects of the now-declared Lithuanian Kingdom. Their hard won conquests in the region of Prussia was sadly reversed with the 1504 Treaty of Warsaw when Maximillian insisted that the lands formerly belonging to the Teutonic Order were to be ceded to the Holy Roman Empire, from which they would create a new state called the “Duchy of Prussia”, under the rule of Albert von Hohenzollern. For a while the Prussian state managed to establish itself throughout its existence until the realization that the Teutonic Order had in fact given up their lands by the previous Grand Master's decision to evacuate to Saxony had forced Maximillian to reconsider. So while Poland was allowed to keep its conquered Prussian lands, they had to allow the expelled Germans who were kicked out of their homes to come back, often expelling the Poles who took their homes in exchange.
At the same time, another problem had arisen from the acquisition of the Polish crown on behalf of Philip the Handsome: the decentralized nature of the Holy Roman Empire itself had resulted in a large amount of electors who chose a new emperor every time the previous emperor dies. The status of the Free Cities had also made it harder to administer, so in 1505 the Reichsreform was introduced. Maximillian had originally wanted to introduce it back in 1495 but the recent acquisition of the Hungarian crown forced him to delay, and the recent acquisition of the Polish crown had added yet another delay. Luckily, the delays had given Maximillian enough time to come up with a new centralization plan that would eventually solve the problems caused by decentralization. Thus in one of the Reichsreforms of 1505, Maximillian's proposed semi-centralization of the HRE would be as follows:
- The new establishment of Imperial Circles consisting of: the Saxon Circle (Lower and Upper Saxon merged together), the Netherlands Circle (Lower and Upper Netherlands), the Rhineland Circle (both the Westphalian and Upper Rhenish Circle merged together, although a later Reichsreform in 1515 would split it into the Upper Rhineland and Lower Rhineland Circles), the Swabian Circle, the Austrian Circle, and the Greater Bavarian Circle (Bavarian and Franconian Circle merged together).
- A Perpetual Peace that outlawed feuds as a part of the conflict resolution methods that were often used during medieval times. The Imperial Judicial system would be overhauled to meet the increasing demands of court settlements from feuding families now affected by the Perpetual Peace.
- The lands belonging to the Polish and Hungarian crowns would have their affairs taken care of by the Saxon and Austrian Circles, respectively. As Maximillian realized the potential problems of ruling the HRE, Poland, and Hungary at the same time, the marriages between the Houses of Hapsburg and Hohenzollern would allow the ascendance of the Hohenzollerns should the House of Hapsburg become extinct (ie: if Philip the Handsome died without siring any children at all, the next heir in line would either be Duke Casimir or Duke Georg). Thus the Edict of Dresden made in July of 1505 declared the Hohenzollern family as the potential successors to the Hapsburgs should they become extinct.
- Religious tolerance for the Jews living within the Holy Roman Empire would be extended, and invitations for the Jews from the Kingdom of Poland and the Kingdom of Hungary to settle within the territories of the Holy Roman Empire would be extended. This would also allow the Jews to gain prominent positions within the Holy Roman Empire, as well as to allow them to govern the HRE's finances.
- The establishment of additional Imperial Circles to help administer the Italian territories under its control: the Padanian Circle (Po River valley region), the Ligurian Circle (lands surrounding the Ligurian Sea) and the Holy See (the autonomous Papal States under the direct jurisdiction of the Roman Pope). In 1578, the Kingdom of Sicily and the Kingdom of Naples, both of which were under the personal union of the Crown of Aragon, would be transferred to the Holy Roman Empire in exchange for recognition of the Viceroyalty of San Lazaro as a separate portion of the Spanish Empire.
The Reichsreform also allowed Maximillian to ease up on the collection of taxes and the recruitment of soldiers into the army. A unified Holy Roman Army was established with the Imperial Circles being in charge of the soldiers from those areas. For example, a Bavarian army would consists of troops from the Bavarian circle, and troops from the Franconian region would be under the jurisdiction of the Bavarian circle. In addition, the Reichsreform officially outlawed the Savonarolan sect and Maximillian would be given Papal approval by the Pope to call for new crusades, either against the Ottomans, the Muscovite-Lithuanian alliance or the Savonarolists themselves. In effect, Maximillian would introduce the Inquisition to the territories of the Holy Roman Empire, and in what became known as the Era of the Great Bloodshed, over 19,000 dissident Catholics who opposed the Pope would be murdered, between 1505 and 1525. Reformist minded clergymen were not spared from the carnage, and heretical sects were subjected to the worst torture of all: impalement, being drawn and quartered and beheadings. Some of the German dissident Catholics who managed to evade the Inquisition found refuge in the Kalmar Union, France, England and in Lithuania where some of them who worked as teachers would eventually help establish different universities in other parts of Lithuania and Muscovy.
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Kalmar Union – The Great Alliance:
The Kalmar Union was among one of the two European nations to establish relations with the Grand Duchy of Muscovy, and unlike the Holy Roman Empire, the Kalmar Union had continued to maintain diplomatic ties with Muscovy, even after they transformed into the Tsardom of Russia in 1547. Back in 1496, Ivan III of Moscow had imprisoned the merchants belonging to the Hanseatic League and was pressured by John of Denmark to start a war against the Swedish rebels, to which Muscovy agreed. Yet the promised territories that was assigned to Muscovy was in fact denied to them by the Kalmar Union. The breach of the Concert of Budapest had complicated matters because of Vasily Ivanovich's marriage to Elizabeth Jagiellon, and the subsequent growing ties between the Jagiellons and the Rurikids. At the same time, various Danish nobles and even his eldest surviving son, Christian of Oldenburg, who eventually became Christian II of Denmark, was displeased with his father's broken promise made to Muscovy and led a negotiation team to Muscovy where the Danish and Muscovite delegates worked out on details regarding the territories that was originally promised to the Muscovites in exchange for their support in cracking down on the Swedish separatists. In another blockbuster deal that was reminiscent of the deal made between Muscovy and the former Polish-Lithuanian union, Ivan III agreed to hand over his daughter Helena's hand in marriage to Prince Christian. Another segment of the deal stated that Helena isn't required to convert to Catholicism and her children would be free to choose which religion they wanted to be raised as. Though Helena was five years older than Christian, the marriage was a strategic move that cemented another great alliance: the one between Denmark and Muscovy, later on Russia.
In addition to the declining power of the Kalmar Union, Denmark had also strengthened its alliance with France in the face of the growing power of the Holy Roman Empire. In fact, it was because of Prince Christian's initiative that the English and French envoys would be sent to help establish diplomatic ties with the Muscovite state. By 1515, both England and France would eventually build diplomatic missions within Muscovite territory. There were also talks of trade treaties between the three nations, but the main problem was the lack of access to Muscovy from either England or France, but Denmark certainly did have a common border with them. By 1521, Danish tradesmen, English merchants and French shipbuilders would expand the Muscovite port of Kola as the only port in the Arctic. Meanwhile, Sweden's pro-independence factions began to organize themselves politically and militarily as the clashes with Muscovy had demonstrated to them that neither the Muscovites nor the Danes would be willing to give them independence. Thus back in 1503, Sten Sture the Younger, the Regent of Sweden, would travel to the Holy Roman Empire to seek an audience with Maximillian, who saw the Swedes as another potential ally in the struggles within the Catholic Church. In a meeting in Lubeck, Sten Sture and Maximillian had discussed a series of issues that they themselves felt needed to be addressed, namely the spread of Savonarolist heresies in Denmark (thanks to the Franco-Danish informal alliance there) and Sweden's decision should they become independent, to stick with the Catholic Church. It was even suggested that the current Archbishop of Uppsala, Gustav Trolle, should become the Bishop-Prince of Sweden until a suitable candidate would be selected. However, Maximillian also suggested the candidate for the Swedish throne would come from the House of Hohenzollern, as they have more chances of installing princes into various thrones, as opposed to the House of Hapsburg.
Denmark's unique position as the gateway between the North and Baltic Seas meant that it is able to control the flow of maritime trade that goes through the Danish straits wedged by the islands of Zealand (where the capital Copenhagen is located) and Funen. As a result, it has been able to levy an extra fee on merchant ships seeking to cross through the Danish straits in either direction while carrying their goods. Moreover, its control of Norway also allowed the Danes to annex the territories of Greenland and Iceland, placing it under direct Danish rule. Overall, its growing mercantile culture would also play a pivotal role in the modernizing economies of Europe in centuries to come. At the same time, its border with the Holy Roman Empire is heavily fortified: the territories of Schleswig-Holstein is under Danish rule but is claimed by the HRE. Furthermore, Denmark's own territorial design on the Holy Roman Empire wasn't helping with the growing anti-Hapsburg crisis since the acquisition of the Polish crown meant that the HRE is now surrounded by enemies on all sides. Thus it is odd that Denmark would find itself being grouped together with France and the Ottoman Empire in the anti-Hapsburg camp. In addition, the Pact of Ravenna's provisions was later revised in 1517 to include any anti-Catholic power with designs on Imperial territory.
In what is becoming known as the Great Alliance, it was Denmark who initiated it in 1507 with the signing of the GA treaty in Copenhagen on April 4, with England, France and Denmark as the signatories of this alliance. Muscovy would join this alliance in 1510, making it one of the most ambitious geopolitical alliances made in the Early Modern Era. The Pact of Ravenna responded by admitting Philip the Handsome's Polish domain three months later, expanding the pro-Catholic alliance further, while in 1512 a surprising addition was made to the Pact of Ravenna: James IV's Kingdom of Scotland, who had grown rather disillusioned with the growing alliance between England and France, as well as its victories over them in Ireland. The two opposing sides became entrenched in the earlier form of a cold war, where covert actions dominated the geopolitical struggle instead of open warfare. The Savonarolists who gradually acquired all positions of power in the member states of the Grand Alliance had fully expanded the Savonarola villages to the entire alliance. Problems that led to various peasant revolts were tackled effectively, allowing the peasants to produce more crops to sell and give to their landlords as payment in lieu of money. Denmark's unforgivable weather conditions in its Norwegian, Icelandic and Greenlandic territories forced them to rely on fishing as their main industry, though in the 1600s whaling also became a popular form of industry. In the area of mercantile trade, Denmark had taught Muscovy how to negotiate trade treaties with other nations, as well as introducing them to the art of shipbuilding. Because both Denmark and Muscovy are closer to the Arctic, polar sailing techniques were jointly conducted in the port of Kola and the trading post of Mangazeya. The Arctic sailing techniques that both nations developed eventually became useful for their later explorations. For Denmark, it helped them explore and locate the fabled Northwest Passage, a western route to Asia. For Muscovy, it helped them navigate and chart the northern coasts of the vast Siberian lands that would later be claimed and colonized by the succeeding Russian Tsardom.
The expanding relations between Denmark and Russia had garnered panic and hostility on the part of the fledgling Swedish independence movement, who now believed that only the Holy Roman Empire would be able to help them secure their independence. Among the leaders of the Swedish independence movement was the Archbishop of Uppsala, Gustav Trolle. Initially a believer in the unity of the Kalmar Union, he changed his mind once Denmark began to give refuge to the English Lollards and the Italian Savonarolists who didn't flee to France. In 1508, Denmark officially became the first country to give political asylum to prominent Scottish Christian reformists who were fleeing from James IV's increasingly anti-reformist state. In fact, Gustav Trolle and James IV of Scotland advocated for closer relations with the Holy Roman Empire as a result of the growing tide of anti-Papal anger and the popularity of Savonarola's ideas. Swedish Christians in favor of religious reform were forced to move to Denmark, while Danish anti-reformist Catholics moved in the other direction. The decline of the Kalmar Union also contributed to the language development of the Danish and Swedish language respectively, and with it, the connection between religion and ethnicity. Danes now began to see themselves as Danes with the Reformed Christian faith (as the Uniate faith was called in its earliest days), while Swedes began to see their nation as one that is tied to the Catholic Church. The Dano-Swede split also had an effect on the other two Scandinavian entities, Norway and Finland. Finns who were a part of Sweden were subjected to assimilationist policies imposed on them by the Swedes, while Norway was torn apart between Catholics and Reformists. The final nail in the coffin of the Kalmar Union would be struck when in 1510 a riot occurred in Oslo where Norwegian Catholics were involved in a theological argument with the Reformists. One of the overzealous reformists struck a Catholic parishioner with a blunt object, causing him to die. Ten Catholics lynched five Reformists in return, escalating the conflict further until the gendarmes were called in to stop the fight. In what became known as the Oslo Bloodbath, thirty Catholics and fifty pro-Savonarolists were murdered. The event happened on November 10, 1510. A similar event happened in Finland, but under different circumstances.
Finland's pressure to succumb to Swedish cultural integration had resulted in an enormous backlash as the Finns feared the loss of their language and ethnic identity once they accepted the offer for cultural integration into Swedish society. Although the Finns had been devout Catholics, some of the Finns began to question some aspects of their faith. However, Finland was the last country to become influenced by Savonarolan ideas as they took in the Savonarolists who lived in Denmark between 1510 and 1525. Additionally, Finland was also influenced by the events taking place in neighboring Muscovy and the Kingdom of Lithuania, where the main source of educational reforms were also taking place. Lithuania's batch of university students who were educated at the Polachak-Brudzewski Royal Academy of Higher Learning would go on to establish several more universities throughout Lithuania and Muscovy. Finnish students like Erik Fleming were sent to the school mentioned above for higher learning, and it was he who would build Finland's first university modeled on the one in Polotsk and its spiritual ancestor, the Cracow University. In 1513, work was started on the building of the Helsinki-Fleming National Academy, and the first teaching staff there was educated in Polotsk. Erik Fleming would eventually become the first headmaster of Helsinki-Fleming National Academy, and that academy would create future Finnish leaders like Erik Sorolainen [1], who would rise to become the first Prince of Finland (then King of Finland).
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[1] Erik Sorolainen IOTL was the Bishop of Turku.
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on May 27, 2018 0:32:18 GMT
Case Study #13: The Caucasus and the Far East
Although Persia was on its way to resurrection following the victory of Ali Reza Safavi against the Aq Qoyunlu, unresolved issues remained unsolved in the Georgian statelets. The Three Georgian Kingdoms Period, as it was known in Georgia and Armenia, had its origins in the War of the Kartlian Succession when it erupted in 1498. The main reason for that succession war was because of Alexander I of Kakheti's death during the campaign against the Aq Qoyunlu in Shusha and the seizure of the Kakhetian throne by his infamous son, George II, or George the Kinslayer. David X of Kartli prepared his nation for the inevitable civil war that would change the fate of the entire Caucasus region. Although the regions of Circassia was left untouched during this period, three main contenders fighting for control of all of Georgia arose to court the Circassians: David X of Kartli, George II of Kakheti and Kaikhosro I Jaqeli of Samtskhe. Kaikhosro I Jaqeli came to power in 1498 after his father Qvarqvare II Jaqeli had died. In addition, Alexander II of Imereti also had ambitions to reunite the Georgian lands but found himself confronted by David X of Kartli. It is also worth noting that during the campaign against the Aq Qoyunlu in Karabagh, the previous king of Georgia, Constantine II, was also killed in this fight. Both the fledgling Safavid state and the Ottomans watched the conflict with interest as they waited to see who would emerge victorious.
Surprisingly, it was David X of Kartli who launched the first attack against George II of Kakheti when he launched an attack on Telavi, the main stronghold of Kakheti. The attack began on May 21st, 1498, with 12,000 Kartlian troops against 9,000 Kakhetian defenders of the city. Taking advantage of their mountainous barrier, the Kakhetian defenders laid traps to impede the Kartlian advance into their city. George II had surprisingly put up a fierce resistance to the city, which withstood the siege after just five days of siege. Though Kartli was slow to reinforce its armies, Kakheti managed to fortify most of its cities. Thus George II's strategy of forcing David X of Kartli to expend his resources on taking every single fortress in his domain would work well for him. In addition to the fortresses, George II also recruited a small but effective amount of irregular troops who actually carried out the guerrilla warfare in the mountains. It was these guerrillas who made life difficult for the Kartlians whenever they advanced into a village, a river, a valley or a mountain pass. Casualties among the Kartlians reached 3,000, mainly through these attacks. Once the Kartlians had decided to retreat, George II decided to launch his offensive. By January 6, 1499, the Kakhetians finally moved against the Kartlians by attacking the border village of Satischala, which they managed to take after just twenty hours of fighting. However, like his Kakhetian enemy, David X of Kartli opted to fortify most of his cities in order to slow him down, and George II of Kakheti realized this too well when he lost over 3,500 regular troops during the advance on the village of Vaziani. Tblisi was well fortified at this point, but David X of Kartli also kept an eye for any potential Imeretian incursions into his domains. While Alexander II of Imereti wanted to join in the war against David X of Kartli, he wasn't comfortable letting George II of Kakheti take over all of Kartli, and so he decided to keep his forces in reserve in case things went awful.
Unlike most of the wars of successions that Europe has seen so far, the War of the Kartlian Succession only lasted for a year and a half. The main reason for that was because George II of Kakheti had made promises of restoring the unity of the Georgian nation-state after he dispatched all of his rivals. When it appears that the Kakhetians would emerge victorious, Ali Reza Safavi had sent him a message, giving him support in any future diplomatic tussles involving a third party. Thus in March of 1499 the Georgian-Persian Treaty of Diplomatic Relations was officially signed, with Persia, or rather, the Safavid state of northern Persia, recognizing the independence of Kakheti, as well as the recognition of George II of Kakheti as the rightful king of the reunited Georgian lands. Not wanting to be upstaged by the Safavids, Sultan Bayezid had sent an envoy to Alexander II of Imereti, promising him aid in exchange for an alliance with the Ottoman Empire. Seizing on the potential loss of Imereti to the hated Turks, George II of Kakheti would make plans for war with the Imeretians after he disposed of David X of Kartli. Two months after Kakheti and the Safavids established diplomatic ties, George II would besiege the Kartlian capital of Tblisi. The Siege of Tblisi, from May 19th to July 15th, was the bloodiest siege in Georgian history. Out of 23,000 Kartlian and 29,000 Kakhetian troops (both regular and irregular), 21,250 Kartlians and 25,310 Kakhetians would perish in the siege. It was at this very siege that George II and David X of Kartli would duel each other to the death, and the legendary slaying of the Kartlian king would forever brand George II of Kakheti the epithet of 'the Kinslayer' in reference to the slaying of a rival king who would technically be considered a family member.
The fall of Tblisi to George II of Kakheti had resulted in the annexation of Kartli to George II's Kakhetian state, which was made official on August 23rd, 1499. Yet the sudden rise of Kakheti as a potential player to reunite the Georgian lands had made Alexander II of Imereti's fears come true, and with the news of Imereti's closer relationship with the Ottomans, George II of Kakheti only needed to make a few negotiations with Kaikhosro I Jaqeli of Samtskhe in order to convince him that a war with Imereti to stop the Ottoman presence there was needed. Thus the War of Imeretian Conquest happened a year later on April 24, 1500.
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Georgia – Of Bagrationi and Mukhraneli
Within the House of Bagrationi, there was a cadet branch that would later grow to become one of the most powerful Caucasian based royal dynasties in the world. Its origins lay with Prince Bagrat himself, whom he was entrusted with the castle of Mukhrani by George II of Kakheti for his neutrality. However, it was merely a facade, for Bagrat of the House Bagrationi was furious and vengeful at his supposed overlord for killing his brother and annexing Kartli. At the same time, he also feared Alexander II of Imereti's growing relations with the Ottomans and rallied the survivors of the Siege of Tblisi and journeyed into the border between Kartli and the Armenian inhabited lands. Seeking support from the other survivors of the anti-Aq Qoyunlu conflict, Bagrat of Mukhrani managed to gather 6,000 Armenian highlander warriors in addition to the measly 1,500 soldiers that survived Tblisi's fall. By the time the conflict between Kakheti and Samtskhe on one side and Imereti on the other side began, Bagrat would slowly take control of the ancient Armenian city of Yerevan and make it his headquarters while the conflict in neighboring Kakheti erupted.
Imereti under its ruler, Alexander II of that state, had been wary of entangling his country with the great powers of the Middle East, particularly the growing Safavids and the Ottomans. However, a new threat arose from Kakheti as George II the Kinslayer had taken over Kartli and was in the process of eradicating his opponents. The result was that Imereti and Kakheti went to war with each other, and Samtskhe had joined in, hoping to stop Alexander II of Imereti's pro-Ottoman policies from destroying any hope of a Georgian reunification. In the midst of the civil war, George II of Kakheti's younger brother Demetre began to make his journey towards Ottoman territory, hoping to convince the Ottoman authorities there to invade with the intentions of deposing George II and even offers himself in Ottoman service. Unfortunately George II had caught wind of what has happened and apprehended his brother on June 3, 1500 while making his way to Ottoman territory. After revealing what he wanted to do, George II would execute him by impalement, as a warning to Kakhetians who betray their own country.
News of the execution had reached Bagrat of Mukhrani's camp in Yerevan, where he was currently staying. While he stayed in Yerevan, he had a fateful encounter with a noblewoman whose father died during the defense of Kapan from the Aq Qoyunlu. The woman was called Elena, from a minor clan called the Darbinyan clan, hailed from the Karabagh region and were one of the few Armenian clans who survived the Aq Qoyunlu onslaught. Elena Darbinyan though, was one of the two last surviving members of that clan, the other one being her younger sister Lucine. A chance meeting with Bagrat, Prince of Mukhrani happened on one ordinary summer night in 1500 while he rode his horse throughout Yerevan. He approached Elena for directions to a church, to which she gladly showed him the way. The interaction continued until he boldly asked for her hand in marriage, to which she reluctantly accepted. The couple was married inside the church later revealed as Katoghike Church in December of 1500, though their first child wouldn't be born until 1505. The Armenian population of Yerevan had long dreamed of rebuilding their homeland, and Bagrat, through Elena's persuasion, had finally proclaimed the revival of Armenia as a kingdom, under the House of Mukhrani. Crowning himself “King of Armenia”, officially Bagrat would be called Bagrat III of Armenia, while Elena would be declared the Queen of Armenia. He also switched from Georgian Orthodoxy to Armenian Apostolicism in order to make common cause with his new Armenian subjects, but the 1,500 Mukhranian soldiers weren't happy with their prince's supposed apostasy. Bagrat III of Armenia as he was officially known now, sent envoys to the Ottomans, the Safavids, the Muscovites, and to Europe for recognition. Unfortunately, only Ali Reza recognized the independence of the Armenian state and even made the same deal that he made with George II of Kakheti. In another bold move, Bagrat III of Armenia offered to aid George II of Kakheti in reunifying the Georgian statelets in exchange for his recognition as the new King of Armenia, to which the Kinslayer reluctantly did. Now encouraged by the arrival of Armenian reinforcements, George II of Kakheti, along with Kaikhosro I Jaqeli of Samtskhe and Bagrat III of Armenia (formerly of Mukhrani), launched an offensive against Imeretian positions. Gori and Borjomi were attacked by Bagrat III while Kaikhosro I Jaqeli moved towards Batumi and Poti, and by February of 1501 Imereti was being besieged on two sides. In Gori, Alexander II of Imereti made his last stand against the incoming forces of George II of Kakheti and Bagrat III of Armenia. While George II and his cavalry made their advances, Imeretian pikemen moved to stop the advance, and arrogantly presuming that the pikemen will melt away before his advance, George II galloped faster, unaware that one of the pikemen was aiming for his horse. The pikeman who struck the Kakhetian king's horse in the legs fell down, causing him to fall. Though he survived the fall, an Imeretian archer had shot an arrow through his neck. The King of Kakheti paid for his arrogance with his life, but not before Bagrat III of Armenia led his own cavalry charge towards the Imeretian position. This time he began to duel Alexander II of Imereti, and in a surprising twist, when the Imeretian King lost the duel, he surrendered.
The peace terms that was offered to Imereti was surprisingly light, given that Alexander II was not the instigator of the war. However, he was forced to sever ties with the Ottomans in exchange for Bagrat III of Armenia's recognition of his authority on the Imeretian throne. In exchange, Alexander II was given Kartli and Kakheti while recognizing the sovereignty of Armenia. Thus Alexander II of Imereti now became the King of both Kartli and Kakheti, and on February 28, Alexander II declared the reunification of the Georgian lands. He once again became known as King Alexander II, Sovereign of All Georgia. The situation in the Caucasus is now calm.
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Northern Yuan – Resurgence
Across from the massive Eurasian continent, there was a state that was the shell of its former self. The relic of a medieval empire that brought massive chances to Europe and Asia has now settled just north of the Great Wall of China. The Northern Yuan Dynasty was a Mongol entity that arose after the collapse of the Yuan Dynasty and the rise of the Ming Dynasty in 1368, and subsequently the Ming and the Northern Yuan had constantly fought against each other. Before the rise of the one they later call Dayan Khan, the Mongols were split into several tumens, each with an ambition that outmatches the other. The Oirat supremacy over the eastern Mongols collapsed with the efforts of Dayan Khan and his wife Mandukhai the Wise. It was Mandukhai Khatun the Wise who actually called the shots in the Northern Yuan Dynasty while her younger husband reigned. In 1496 there was a plot to assassinate the newly proclaimed Jinong (or Crown Prince), Ulusbold, carried out by a Mongol double agent who actually worked for the Ming. The general's name was Esmel, or Ismail, and before he could carry out his plot, Mandukhai summoned him to her yurt where she charged him with attempted murder on her eldest son. Though the plot was legitimate, Mandukhai viewed it as a convenient excuse to carry out the most brutal purges in Mongol history by eliminating her enemies through assassinations of her own. Her loyal agents carried out the purges, targeting the Three Right Wing Tumens for their relations with the Ming Dynasty while simultaneously bringing the Khalkhas to prominence, replacing the murdered leaders of the Three Right Wing Tumens with Khalkha nobles who proved their worth on the battlefield.
Throughout both Dayan Khan and Mandukhai Khatun's joint reign, trade with the Ming decreased while seeking new allies everywhere. In 1502 when Adiq Khan of the Kazakh Khanate rose to power, he sent envoys eastwards to seek diplomatic relations. One of those envoys ended up in the Northern Yuan Dynasty, where he met the representatives of the Mongol state. Dayan Khan in return sent three Khalkha envoys to the Kazakh Khanate in order to reciprocate, allowing the establishment of diplomatic ties between the Kazakh Khanate and the Northern Yuan Dynasty. While maintaining a close watch on the Ming in northern China, Dayan Khan decided to focus more on establishing a stable society, mainly through stopping the raids on Ming territory for a while. During the same year as the establishment of relations between the Northern Yuan and the Kazakh Khanate, Dayan Khan also approached the Ming on a Forty Year Non-Aggression Treaty between the two nations, promising not to launch raids in the future in exchange for the Ming to open up Chinese markets for Mongol merchants to trade in. Another reason why Dayan Khan was desperate to pry open the access to Chinese markets was so he can direct the Kazakh merchants to head towards Beijing and Luoyang with goods coming from Europe through Kazakh and Northern Yuan territories. The Mongol judiciary system was reformed to allow the sentencing of criminals and to speed up the process of giving justice to the victim of a crime.
Dayan Khan also sent envoys to the Joseon Kingdom where the current king, Seongjong, had reigned. Though there were legal obstacles for the Mongols of the Northern Yuan in terms of sending an envoy through Ming territory into a tributary state like Joseon, the Mongol envoys were able to arrive safely in the Joseon capital of Hanseong. There, Seongjong told the Mongol envoys to return to their homeland and even gave them gifts to be given to Dayan Khan. The gifts Seongjong gave to the Mongol envoys consisted of three treasures of gold and silver coins minted in China and Korea, as well as jewelry. Upon returning to Karakorum, the Northern Yuan used the treasures brought from Korea to initiate a series of public building projects in the capital in order to legitimize the Northern Yuan state.
Ming Dynasty – The Unheard of Son
In 1495, there was a young boy who lived in the vicinity of the Forbidden City who was sickly and thought to be dying soon. The unknown boy was known as Zhu Houwei, the second son of the Hongzhi Emperor who ruled the Ming Dynasty. For a year, Zhu Houwei suffered from various illnesses until March of 1496 when a healer was sent to the Imperial court from a distant province within China. Throughout the night, the healer worked constantly on curing the younger son of the Hongzhi Emperor, while the aforementioned ruler was always by his son's bedside. After a couple of hours of meditation and constant vigilance, Zhu Houwei finally survived the illness. The Hongzhi Emperor thanked the healer and had her placed in charge of the young prince's well being. Zhu Houwei eventually became more interested in the human anatomy as he wanted to learn how diseases came to being and how to cure them. In addition to his Confucian classic studies, Zhu Houwei also learned about biology from several Muslim tutors who stayed in Beijing upon the recommendation of the Hongzhi Emperor himself. Though he wasn't interested in religion in particular, he finally understood the disease that nearly killed him. Sweating sickness was something that he feared throughout his life, and with his father's encouragement, Zhu Houwei also began to study martial arts in order to keep himself healthy.
Although his elder son Zhu Houzhao was just as talented as his younger brother, he suspected that Houzhao became more jealous of his younger brother. That jealousy showed whenever the two brothers sparred in hand to hand combat, or with wooden swords. The relationship between the two brothers was never amicable at best, even coming close to borderline hostile.
By 1505, the Hongzhi Emperor died at the age of 34. Contemporary Chinese sources claimed that the Hongzhi Emperor died from an undisclosed illnes, but a few skeptics claimed that he was poisoned by rival courtiers as a part of an ongoing power struggle. Zhu Houwei's daughter Zhu Xiurong, the Princess of Taikang, also survived her illness by the same healer who healed Houwei. Upon the ascension of their brother as the Zhengde Emperor, Zhu Houwei made his way to Suzhou where most of the scholars were gathered and began studying law, mathematics and military arts. When Houwei began his formal military training, he was placed under the supervision of a veteran military general called Qi Jingtong [1], who was descended from a military leader who fought for the Hongwu Emperor when they overthrew the Yuan Dynasty. The veteran general noticed how Houwei had picked up the techniques that was taught to him, but he wasn't well adapted to fighting with spears, preferring either swords or arrows. While Houwei was proficient with the bow and arrow, he nearly lost his arm during an exercise involving a three eyes cannon, or the San Yan Chong. Though no one knows when the San Yan Chong was first invented, it was a powerful weapon that was just as deadly as the European arquebuses. Such power had terrified the young Houwei, which was why he didn't want the weapon to be the mainstay of the Ming army. It was not until the first interaction between the Ming and the Spanish (or rather, the Portuguese sailing from the east and the Aragonese sailing from the west) that he became enamoured by the power of the Spanish arquebuses that he purchased 100 of them and commissioned a Spanish gunsmith to build an arsenal where arquebuses can be manufactured.
While Houwei was also being trained in military related matters, the Zhengde Emperor and his new empress became involved in a lot of indulgent activities to the point where even his ministers were powerless and frightened by his irresponsibility. Though the prosperity continued, there was corruption everywhere in the Ming court. Zhu Xiurong was particularly furious at one of the eunuchs who tried to bribe her elder brother with land in exchange for giving positions of power to the eunuch's friends. In 1510 Zhu Xiurong fled from Beijing and took up residence in Shaanxi, where the Prince of Anhua resided. The eunuch who bribed the Zhengde Emperor was called Liu Jin, and he led a clique called the Eight Tigers, a group of notorious eunuchs known for their corruption. The Zhengde Emperor's disinterest in the daily responsibilities of ruling a large empire like China allowed Liu Jin and his Eight Tiger colleagues to reform the tax system that not only increased state revenue, but it also introduced a military tax rate where soldiers were required to pay a large sum of money to support the state treasury funds. This created resentment among the soldiers stationed in Shaanxi, and coupled with the appearance of Zhu Xiurong in that province, it seemed that the rebellion was fast in brewing. On the other hand, Houwei and Qi Jingtong relocated to Jiangxi province in the summer of 1510 to supervise the formation of another army there. Qi Jingtong experienced first hand of what the corruption that Liu Jin had brought into the state and agreed to hatch a plan to get rid of the Zhengde Emperor. In what would become known as the Revolt of the Two Princes, both Zhu Xiurong and Zhu Houwei would be pitted against the Zhengde Emperor in a struggle that would be brutal and costly.
Joseon Dynasty of Korea – From Tyrant to Fratricide
Korea after the death of Kong Seongjong had resulted in the rise of his eldest son, Crown Prince Yeonsan, or Yeonsangun as his contemporaries had called him. Although he was a gifted young man, the trauma of his mother's death had awakened a violent side of the Crown Prince, and seeking answers as to what really happened to the unfortunate Lady Yun, Yeonsangun began to target officials and concubines opposed to his mother for assassinations. He became so violent that he even killed his grandmother, the Dowager Queen Sohye, by pushing her down on the ground. The violent side of the Crown Prince also manifested in the first political purges of the Joseon Dynasty, in what was to become the Two Korean Literati Purges. The first purge was the result of the criticism of the usurpation of Joseon's throne by his ancestor, King Sejo, in which the Hungu faction had manipulated Yeonsangun into arresting and executing the entire Sarim faction (the opponents of Sejo of Joseon). However, the purge not only killed the Sarim faction, but many yangbans suspected of harboring animosity towards the memory of Sejo and for that matter, the dignity of Yeonsangun, were also killed. Political opponents responded by making anti-Yeonsangun slogans written in Hangul and Hanja (the Korean name for Chinese characters), causing the unstable king to ban both scripts from being written. The second literati purge was even more violent than the first because it was related to the discovery of his mother's fate. In a sense of rage and insanity, Yeonsangun ordered the mass execution of the Hungu and Sarim remnants by beheading in 1506. Not only was the order carried out, but several Seodangs (elementary schools) were also burned down as to deprive the youth of Joseon of a much needed education. The burning of several Seodangs had aroused fury and outrage from Yeonsangun's own siblings, as they had friends who studied in the burnt Seodangs. In another violent episode that was to result in the Joseon Civil War of 1507-1511, Yeonsangun had personally killed his half-brother Yi Yeok in another altercation that was far more brutal than the accidental death of Dowager Queen Sohye. The fratricide within the Joseon court was recorded in the Annals of the History of Joseon, and it was this kind of violence that finally provoked a civil war. By 1511, both the Ming and Joseon Dynasties would face rebellions and civil wars as a result of court intrigues and irresponsible management of the state.
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[1] Qi Jingtong is the father of the famous Qi Jiguang, the man credited with wiping out the Wokou piracy in the East China Sea. Here, butterflies might create a different situation for the Wokou.
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on May 31, 2018 5:35:42 GMT
Case Study #14: Japan and Western Europe
Japan during this time period was locked in a series of battles involving various daimyos who were in reality vassals of the Ashikaga Shogunate. Often, various vassals and other samurai clans often resorted to violence and murder in order to advance the interests of their own clan. The Ashikaga Shogunate fell into a crisis when its previous shogun, Ashikaga Yoshihisa, had died childless. The Hosokawa clan had supported one candidate, Ashikaga Yoshizumi, while Ashikaga Yoshitane was supported by the Ouchi clan. The latter ascended to power in 1490, but three years later in 1493 he was overthrown and replaced with the candidate backed by the Hosokawa clan. The downfall of Ashikaga Yoshitane had provoked a war between the Hosokawa and Ouchi clans, to which both sides suffered great losses. Yet the reign of Ashikaga Yoshizumi would ultimately fail when the Ouchi clan, together with various supporters of the deposed shogun, launched an attack on the Hosokawa stronghold in Kyoto, where the Ashikaga shoguns resided. Though the attack was successful, the Ouchi clan sustained severe losses in their struggles against the Hosokawa. However, in 1496 several assassins hired by the Ouchi clan had succeeded in assassinating Hosokawa Masanaga. Retaliatory measures were taken by the Hosokawa clan, resulting in the murder of Ouchi Yoshioki's father in the outskirts of Yamaguchi. The Ouchi clan were also known for being one of the two clans who utilized sea power in their campaigns. Another clan, the Mori, also used their sea power to their advantage. Realizing the potential of uniting the two maritime based domains, the Ouchi and Mori clans formed an alliance in what has become known as the Pact of Kurashiki of 1498, where the Ouchi and Mori clans would provide assistance to each other in the event that a third party attacks either one of them. It was this alliance that provoked the Hosokawa clan into attacking the Mori clan in the summer of 1498, precipitating the Mori-Hosokawa War. Though that clan war only lasted three weeks, the reactions of the Hosokawa had forced the two allied clans into a realization that the Hosokawa posed a threat to their ambitions. Therefore, the Mori-Ouchi alliance decided to take matters into their own hands and attack the Hosokawa directly. In the winter of 1498, the two allied armies struck at Kyoto where the Hosokawa kept their positions. The Siege of Kyoto of December 1498-January 1499 was as bloody as any other sieges that occurred in Europe and Asia. When Kyoto finally fell to the Ouchi-Mori alliance, the first thing they did was to round up the entire surviving Hosokawa clan and had them summarily executed. Even the cadet branches of the Hosokawa clan like the Saikyu clan was not spared the brutal reprisals that followed. The offspring of Hosokawa Masanaga were murdered, but not before Hosokawa Takakuni was spirited away from Kyoto with the help of a few supporters and made his way into the port of Osaka. There, Hosokawa Takakuni met up with a group of masterless samurai called the ronin and three ships full of Wokou pirates. Seeing the main Japanese Home Islands as unsafe, Takakuni would abandon all pretenses to his clan's leadership and blend in among the Wokou, choosing to use his childhood name Rokuro as his cover.
Before the advent of the Three Japanese Domains where three dominant super-domains were established of Satsuma, Choshu and Echigo, most of the Japanese provinces were controlled by other surviving clans. The fall and destruction of the Hosokawa clan had resulted in two other clans who were vassals of the extinct clan were forced to swear allegiance to the Ouchi-Mori alliance. As a result of this forced subjugation, one of those clans, the Chosokabe clan, was rewarded with the entirety of Kyushu. Within Kyushu, the Ouchi clan also managed to make a peace treaty and an alliance with another Kyushu-based clan in the summer of 1499, the Shimazu clan. Though they were neutral in the Mori-Hosokawa War, the promises of greater wealth and an expansion of the Ouchi-Mori alliance to include the Shimazu, Shimazu Yoshihisa accepted the offer. The later Satsuma Principality's territory composed of the lands controlled by the Chosokabe and Shimazu clans while the later Choshu Principality's territory consisted of the Chugoku and Kansai regions, controlled by the Ouchi-Mori alliance. The largest Japanese principality was the Echigo Principality, and it was not established until the early 1560s with the lands coming under the control of the Uesugi and Takeda clans through the marriage of Nagao Kagetora and Takeda Shingen's youngest sister Nene. Though central authority lies with the Ashikaga clan, the foundations that would be built for the rise of Satsuma, Choshu and Echigo were already laid through the alliances of these clans. Within Japanese society during the Sengoku period, agriculture dominated the landscape, and there were relatively few industries that produced mostly weapons, though luxury items were also made within Japan. Trade with China and Korea was handled through the Kyushu based merchants, often with ties to the Shimazu and Ouchi clans. There was also an independent nation that also conducted trade with the other two East Asian giants called the Kingdom of Ryukyu, though in reality they were a vassal state of the Ming Empire. Mercantile trade was the dominant life blood of Ryukyu's economy as its geographic position between East Asia and Southeast Asia also allows them to be influenced by outside events beyond their borders. For instance, the ruler of Ryukyu at that time, Sho Shin, had been alerted to the presence of pirates from southern Japan arriving at his domain's shores. Among those pirates was a man who went by the name of Rokuro, but when 'Rokuro' was brought before the presence of Sho Shin, he noticed the mannerisms that the young man displayed. Upon further interrogation, 'Rokuro' was forced to reveal his true name as Hosokawa Takakuni, the survivor of the Hosokawa Clan Massacre that occurred when Kyoto fell to the Ouchi-Mori alliance. Although Sho Shin was not impressed with the impromptu appearance of the last Hosokawa heir, he allowed 'Rokuro' safe refuge as long as he proved himself useful. He also allowed the Hosokawa survivor to join the Ryukyu military, seeing his prowess and abilities as useful for future campaigns.
In 1501, Sho Shin began to expand his naval force in an attempt to bring in the rest of the outlying islands under his control. For this purpose, he hired half of the Wokou pirate fleet to bolster his own, something that was controversial as it was terrifying. Most of the Wokou were ronin, or masterless samurai, so Sho Shin's proclamation that he will become the new master of all the ronin was tremendously popular with most of Ryukyu's military force, though it was something his successors would have to deal with when the Wokou raids eventually picked up and in 1547 one of the future Wokou pirates who went by the name of Kohata Kusaka would eventually descend upon a tiny Japanese trading post called Aparri and in an insane attempt to build a personal 'kingdom' for himself and his followers[1]. In the meanwhile, the other ronin who were skeptical of Sho Shin's offer to become their master were eventually lured in by promises of money, a home of their own and personal favor of the king himself. The next year, Sho Shin went further and created an all-ronin palace guard to protect not only the king, but several Imperial palace staff. It was said that the presence of the now ex-ronin in Sho Shin's court had intrigued and irritated the visitors from the Japanese Home Islands, who were not accustomed to seeing masterless samurai reduced to bodyguards and mercenaries. However, the ronin who refused Sho Shin's services opted to remain as mercenaries, operating on behalf of various minor states throughout Asia. The presence of the ronin and the wokou also had a large effect on the Ryukyu military as well: Japanese style katanas and kodachis were adopted by the main Ryukyuan military units, and ronin in the service of Sho Shin began to teach their apprentices how to forge a good katana. Japanese sword making skills became dominant in Ryukyu, as well as sailing prowess. Eventually most of the ex-ronin had intermarried with the local Ryukyuan people and mixed children arose from this union. A large number of the mixed Japanese-Ryukyuan people have also settled in the future Viceroyalty of Nueva Asturias[2], as well as Borneo and Malacca where they kept their culture but adopted the religions of the host nation. Even a few Japanese-Ryukyuan women had been reported to have ended up as slaves in the Imperial Harem of the Ottoman Empire, though it was rare. In fact, in the 1700s a Japanese noblewoman originally called Haruka Yasaka had been captured by rival clansmen and sold as a slave to a Malaccan slave ship, but was purchased by a wandering Ottoman merchant ship who also specialized in the acquisition of 'indentured servants' from among the Japanese-Ryukyuan population of Malacca. Haruka Yasaka would eventually rise from within the Ottoman Imperial Harem to become the wife of Sultan Orhan III. She came from the minor Yasaka clan originating from eastern Kyushu but moved to the Ryukyu Kingdom.
Because he feared the possible leak of information regarding his true identity would reach his enemies back in Japan, 'Rokuro' had instead adopted the rarely used surname Kinjo to indicate someone who lives in Ryukyu. To the wokou who settled in the outlying islands around the kingdom, Rokuro Kinjo was just another pirate, but an educated pirate with an outstanding ancestral pedigree. The former Hosokawa survivor did more than just tended to his farms: he also built merchant ships carrying manufactured Ryukyuan goods bound for China and SE Asia, especially the Malaccan Sultante, where Ryukyuan goods were highly prized. In addition, 'Rokuro Kinjo' was also responsible for helping the Ryukyuan authorities track down and detect any agent from the Japanese Home Islands among the refugees who made their way into the islands. Impressed with his work, Sho Shin had promoted 'Kinjo' to captain of a Ryukyuan fleet of 12 ships guarding the islands. In addition, the Ryukyuan king also gave 'Kinjo' the task of exploring areas beyond Ryukyu for suitable human habitation. In May of 1503 'Kinjo' and 200 Wokou pirates along with 1,200 Ryukyuan soldiers sailed from Shuri southwards. During the expedition, Yaeyamajima and Miyakojima were conquered and annexed into the Ryukyu Kingdom, with the various lords there submitting to the authority of Sho Shin. The expedition took seven years to complete, mostly because one of Kinjo's ships had reported back to him about an existence of an unknown island that was much bigger than all of the islands of the Ryukyu Kingdom combined. It all started with the journey from Yaeyamajima and the ship was meant to sail southward, but a strong wind had veered it off course until the spotted land several days later. The spotted land, when explored around the coast, was much bigger than most of Ryukyu's islands. Upon arriving at the northeast region of the unknown island, the Wokou noticed the eerie silence and were ambushed by a lowland tribe called the Kavalan tribe. The Kavalan tribe was Austronesian in ethnic origin, but they were lowlanders, as opposed to the various highland tribes of the unknown island that Kinjo would later name it Kawahatajima [3], after the area that they landed, which was a flat field divided by a river flowing into the sea. Most of the Wokou and regular Ryukyuan soldiers eventually built settlements in the city that was later called Tohohoshi [4]. The Kavalan tribe and the Ryukyuan soldiers formed an alliance where both sides pledged to respect each other's terrain in exchange for resources. The settlement also attracted hostility from two more tribes that made this discovery: the Atayal and the Truku. In the winter of 1503, Kinjo and his army was forced to defend Tohohoshi from an approaching force of 300 Truku tribesmen and the Kavalan tribesmen intervened to find out what happened. It was clear that the two hostile tribes didn't want the Ryukyuan presence on their island, so Kinjo decided to make a deal with the Atayal and the Truku tribes: he would bring them into an alliance alongside the Kavalan in exchange for a non-aggression treaty. The chiefs of those two tribes were hesitant to accept, but when Kinjo threatened to bring in his fleet to clear them out, they instead chose to fight. Thus a short campaign was launched by Kinjo and his men with the aim of consolidating control of eastern Kawahatajima and expelling the two hostile tribes positioned close to Tohohoshi. Within two and a half months, both sides sustained significant losses and both Kinjo and the two tribes fighting his army reached a new deal: the Ryukyuans would provide supplies to the tribes now under their control in exchange for their allegiance to Sho Shin and the Ryukyu Kingdom. The two chiefs accepted, and in January of 1504 Kinjo and the Atayal and Truku chiefs sailed for Shuri where they bowed down in front of Sho Shin. Impressed by the report of a new discovery of Kawahatajima, Kinjo would be appointed as the first “Aji” of Kawahata, or petty ruler. Kawahatajima, and especially the cities of Tohohoshi (translated as eastern star) and Kitahoshi [5] (translated as northern star) would become the center of economic activity in Kawahatajima, but they would also acquire a notorious reputation as a den where most of the pirates would congregate. It was the huge presence of the Wokou in Kawahatajima that led to the Ming-Ryukyu War of 1559 (the Chinese name for Kawahatajima), in which a Ming invasion force attempted to invade the Ryukyu Kingdom in order to crack down on piracy in the East China Sea.
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Western Europe – The Age of Colonization
Although the rise of the exploration missions began with the Columbus brothers coming under the service of the Crown of Aragon, the man most credited with the discovery of the New World as it was called was the Portuguese sailor Joao Alvares Fagundes, in whose honor the new continent was called Fagundesia. The journey started in Lisbon in the spring of 1497 when Fagundes led a fleet of seven ships and sailed in the northwest direction. The journey went through the Azores Islands where Fagundes restocked supplies and recruited more sailors for his project. His journey went a little northward but kept it in a westward direction, but he had to deal with unfriendly winds and three storms were recorded by one of his crew. In the midst of this exploration, Fagundes lost two ships to the storm, with the survivors of the sunken ships taken in by Fagundes's own ship. Finally by the spring of 1498 Fagundes spotted land within the vicinity. The land that Fagundes and his crew discovered was rather strange: the weather there reminded them of the ones that are common in northern England and even in the Low Countries. The Mikmaq tribe was the first tribe to encounter the Portuguese expedition crew, and the meeting was rather tense before Fagundes asked them where they were. The Mikmaq war chief replied that they were in the land under the inhabitation of the Mikmaq tribe, and that they are defensive when it comes to strangers. Even so, Fagundes insisted on building a small port to repair his ships and build a supply depot for further explorations. To make the deal sweeter, one of Fagundes's crew gifted the war chief a horse he rode on and told the Mikmaq that should they come back to their home in Portugal, they will petition the king there to allow the export of horses to the lands of the Mikmaq. The Mikmaq chiefs finally agreed, and the first settlement in Fagundesia was offically built as the town of San Venerio [6], officially under the control of the Crown of Portugal until the Second Hundred Years' War when England seized the port and annexed it to their growing empire under the new name Warwicksville. San Venerio was named in honor of St. Venerius, and because the port town was built and completed on the 4th of May, 1498. From San Venerio, Fagundes and the surviving ships continued to sail along the coast, mapping it out in the process. Sailing eastwards towards another unknown island that Fagundes would call San Valerian [7], he noticed a much colder weather there, and another different tribe that settled there long ago. Fagundes was forced to call off the expedition due to the unpreparedness of his fleet for the Arctic weather, he opted to return to San Venerio where he can recuperate and make another exploration round southward instead.
At the same time, the Columbus brothers also started their journey at the same time as Fagundes did in 1498. Unlike their Portuguese counterpart, the Columbus brothers too much longer due to stopping by the Canary Islands for resupplying followed by a southern journey before turning westwards. Like Fagundes though, the Columbus brothers also encountered three storms and unfriendly winds. However, they were unluckier because four ships out of the original nine were sunk in the storm. BY the same time as the discovery of Fagundesia, the Columbus brothers had spotted land. Though they tried to explore it by the coastline, they were shocked at the absence of inhabitants of the region and wondered if they had made it to any outlying islands far away from China or Japan. Finally discovering one of the actual islands in the region, Christopher Columbus christened it San Salvador Island and began to explore the adjacent islands. In 1499 Christopher had made another discovery: an island south of San Salvador island had an unusually long coast, but when it was drawn on a map, it looked like a piece of flesh that was cut into strips. The island was discovered on July 5th, which was the feast of St. Numerian, which is how the island was christened San Numeriano [8]. The Columbus brothers sailed in the opposite direction, intending to discover more of San Numeriano's secrets while exploring the coastlines. Unlike Fagundes, the Columbus brothers had no intention of merely setting up a place to stay while there were more lands to discover. By the time the San Numeriano exploration mission was completed, it was decided that Bartholomew Columbus would stay in San Salvador to administer the new colony while Christopher would return to Castile and Aragon to report on his findings to Ferdinand II of Aragon. In San Salvador, Bartholomew realized the importance of building a new town as a symbol of national prestige in a changing world. To this end, he authorized the construction of a port, a church and several small houses to shelter the entire crew of his ship. The settlement, which eventually grew into the center of economic activity in the region, was christened as San Alfonso [9] in honor of the heir, Prince Afonso of Portugal. The naming was controversial, as Prince Afonso was from a Portuguese dynasty, and such a name was rather inappropriate, considering that San Salvador and the nearby San Numeriano were now colonies under the control of the Crown of Castile. Yet the pioneers who came from other parts of Castile, as well as the annexed region of Granada, proved valuable in the construction of the new colony. It was in San Salvador that another exploration northward was planned and launched with the aid of Diego Columbus, Christopher Columbus's firstborn son.
Unlike Portugal and Castile, Aragon itself didn't have an explorer to help charter a new colony. Although Ferdinand II of Aragon employed the Columbus brothers, their employment came under the authority of the Crown of Castile, meaning that the Crown of Aragon didn't have any authority to give its own exploration project to the Columbus brothers. That didn't stop Ferdinand II from seeking out Aragon's own explorer for hire. By a stroke of luck, Amerigo Vespucci was employed by the Florentine House of Medici's financial branch in Seville and was about to head towards Cadiz to establish a new branch when Lorenzo Medici had given him a letter, telling him that instead of Cadiz, he would build a new financial office in Barcelona. Barcelona made perfect sense, as its location close to France and the Italian states made it easier for the Medici family to expand their banking operations. Seeking connections through his Italian links, Ferdinand II of Aragon contacted the Medici family in August of 1498 to see if they would find someone that could fund an exploration mission on behalf of the Crown of Aragon. Lorenzo wrote back, saying that Amerigo Vespucci would be a suitable explorer for Aragon, but another surprising news was uncovered: the House of Medici would personally become the sole financier of all exploration missions for the Crown of Aragon only. The House of Altoviti subsequently became the sole financier of Castile's exploration missions while the Gondi family, another Florentine banking family, would finance Portugal's exploration missions. The three Florentine families also benefited from the expansion of new shipyards that would build exploration ships for the sole purpose of helping the three Iberian kingdoms with their ambitions. Starting in 1500, the Crown of Aragon would send Amerigo Vespucci and seven ships on an exploration mission in the newly discovered continent of the Fagundesias. Tracing the same route that Christopher Columbus took, Vespucci also encountered the same problems his predecessors did, namely the storms and unfriendly winds. However, the storm also had an unintentional effect of sending him on a rather different direction, as his own discovery of the land had brought him to what is now the northern coast of South Fagundesia. Arriving at a spot where his ships had spotted a local indigenous tribe, Vespucci and his fleet would later set up their own settlement, Nueva Ragusa in the land Vespucci will eventually call Nueva Majorca. Unlike San Alfonso and San Venerio, Nueva Ragusa (later renamed to Reina Isabella after Prince Afonso's wife Isabella of Aragon) started out as a relief station where sailors had built huts for themselves. Nueva Ragusa/Reina Isabella [10] was also the first settlement in all of the Fagundesias to allow the immigration of Iberian Jews, and in fact in 1521 the first 500 Sephardic Jews from all over Spain will settle in northwest Nueva Majorca in the newly created Autonomous Captaincy General of Nueva Sidonia, in the new town built primarily by Sephardic Jewry called Nuevo Toledo [11]. Out of the three colonies administered by each separate Spanish Crown, Nueva Majorca would grow to become one of the most vibrant and diverse colonies in the Spanish Empire while Nueva Alhambra would be the most homogenous colony, with mostly Castilian but a few Basque and French Catholics fleeing from Savonarolist inspired anti-Catholic violence.
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[1] As it will be covered in future updates, Kohata Kusaka is a fictional character on the same vein as Mirko Kasun/Azad Komoroglu but he would serve as a Japanese Wokou expy of the infamous Chinese pirate Limahong, who attempted to create a state in what is now Pangasinan Province of the OTL Philippines called the Wangdom of Pangasinan.
[2] Viceroyalty of Nueva Asturias is TTL's name for the Spanish East Indies. Of course, it would also be fought between various powers as well, from the Ming, the Spanish (or rather, either the Portuguese or the Aragonese), the Ottoman Empire and Russia.
[3] Kawahatajima, or Kawahata Island, is TTL's name for Taiwan/Formosa.
[4] Tohohoshi is TTL's name for Yilan County, Taiwan.
[5] Kitahoshi is TTL's name for Keelung city, Taiwan.
[6] San Venerio is TTL's name for Sydney, Nova Scotia.
[7] San Valerian is TTL's name for Newfoundland.
[8] San Numeriano is TTL's name for Cuba.
[9] San Alfonso is TTL's name for Nassau, Bahamas.
[10] Nueva Ragusa/Reina Isabella is TTL's name for Carupano, Venezuela.
[11] Nuevo Toledo is TTL's name for Barranquilla, Colombia.
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on Jun 4, 2018 4:33:52 GMT
Case Study #15: The Second Hundred Years' War Part One
The Second Hundred Years' War, as contemporary historians today have coined the term, refers to the most destructive conflict of the Early Modern Era. Unlike the First Hundred Years' War where England and France fought each other in French territory, the Second Hundred Years' War not only occurred in Europe, but even in the Fagundesias, Africa and Asia, where European colonies were also established. Why it was considered the most destructive is because of new innovations that had been introduced to the battlefield, as well as the socio-political and economic consequences that occurred as a result of the battles that took place. Various names of legendary generals arose from out of nowhere during this war, and many of them would play vital roles in their nations' histories. For the Savonarolist bloc, this war was a baptism through fire, a war for their literal survival against the Catholic Church. For the Catholic loyalists, this was a war to stop the Savonarolist heresy from spreading like wildfire. For the Ottoman Empire, this was a war they needed to fight in order to expand their lands at the expense of Christian Europe. For Muscovy and later on, the Tsardom of Russia and its neighbors, this was a conflict that brought them fully into the European house of civilizations. For East Asia, this was a conflict that paved the way for contact between themselves and faraway Europe. For everyone else, this was a history making moment.
The growing Catholic-Savonarolan rivalry had already reached high peak with the occassional violence breaking out between the two groups throughout France, and the Savonarolists have also made inroads into the Low Countries where their ideas were caught on by the Dutch population there. However, it was in the region of Wallonia where the Savonarolists were the strongest and in Flanders and the northern regions of what is now the German Netherlands, Catholicism was the strongest there. In addition, the Swiss Confederation was at a loss about the news of the Reichsreform, and needless to say they were unhappy with the proposed changes. The biggest problem with the Catholic-Savonarolist rivalry was in foreign policy. The Holy Roman Empire's expansion to include the acquisitions of the Polish and Hungarian crowns came at a hefty price: the rise of the anti-Catholic coalition of England, France, Denmark and Muscovy/Russia in the form of the Grand Alliance had literally surrounded the territories of the HRE with enemies. Moreover, the House of Hapsburg wanted to retain the autonomy of the HRE's member states while their in-laws in the House of Hohenzollern viewed the current arrangement as a form of weakness that was easily exploited by its enemies. For the French, an ideal expansion at the HRE's expense was up to the Rhine River and up to Wallonia. For the English, any piece of Continental territory would be good to compensate for the loss of its Irish holdings. For the Muscovite state, the Kingdom of Lithuania's crown was something they desired because of dynastic links.
Economic competition also played a key role into the fueling of the Second Hundred Years' War, mainly because of the establishment of new colonies in the new continent of the Fagundesias. The Crown of Portugal had established a trading post in what was then San Venerio before the English conquered the Portuguese trading post and renamed it to Warwicksville in 1548. Meanwhile, the Crown of Castile was beginning to establish several colonies along the San Salvador island chain while the Crown of Aragon started to explore the regions of northern South Fagundesia. In essence, the Catholic bloc was miles ahead of its Savonarolist rivals in terms of building a global empire, but the Savonarolists were building a new kind of society without financial exploitation or incentive for peasant revolts. With the focus on Fagundesia, the three Iberian kingdoms were more invested in exploring the new lands rather than to seek an alternative route to Asia. The explorations to Asia was consequently taken up by the English and the French, many of whom also hired Italian explorers for their exploration eastwards. Giovanni Caboto, also known as John Cabot, led the first English exploration mission to Africa where he navigated its coasts and documented his daily discoveries. The French hired Giovanni da Verrazano to follow the English in the race to find another route to Asia. In 1503 da Verrazano sailed from the port of Bourdeaux on his way eastward, taking an eight month journey southwards to the southern tip of Africa. He brought with him 300 Savonarolists eager to build a new colony for themselves. In February of 1504, da Verrazano had spotted a good coast to stop his ships so they can explore its inlands. The Savonarolan colonists had landed on the coast, and found their position to be a good place to build a new settlement. Da Verrazano, along with Count Louis II of Montpensier, christened the new French settlement as “Nouvelle Auvergne”[1], after the region of France where Montpensier was located. Nouvelle Auvergne became the first French settlement in southern Africa, and it was the place of refuge for most of the Savonarolists who fled from Europe or wanted to seek their fortune elsewhere. The entirety of the colony in which Nouvelle Auvergne was located in eventually became the French Royal Dominion of Nouvelle Provence, or New Provence. It was a colony that was almost dominated by the French and Italian Savonarolists, and in one of their main core idea, they rejected the idea of slavery because of its negative effect on society. In addition, the Savonarolists had pointed out that the Roman overreliance on slaves had made them softer until their empire fell. They would not make the same mistake again, as the Savonarolists would insist time after time.
The interaction between the Savonarolan colonists and the African tribes whom they have encountered was shaky at best, though the only times they did interact was when they needed certain supplies that only the Xhosa, Zulu and the Ndebele tribes can provide. At the same time, the fertile lands and the suitable climate made it feasible to plant European crops like wheat and rye, as well as grapes that are mainly used for wines. There were a few missionary work made towards the three tribes of Nouvelle Provence, but the new converts were rather few and most of them were young indigenous women who were curious about the way the Savonarolists had lived. Though the Savonarolan colonists brought modern farming techniques, they mostly kept to themselves and only preached the word of God to the indigenous tribes when they were curious enough. There were hostile tribes that reacted negatively to the presence of the Savonarolists, which is why the Count of Montpensier was assigned 1,300 French troops and 800 Italian mercenaries to help protect the colony. From 1504 to 1508, Nouvelle Auvergne had grown to 5,000 people (with the inhabitants consisting of the soldiers, the Savonarolists and the navigators who helped Da Verrazano with the exploration mission). Finally in July of 1508 Louis II of Montpensier was assigned the interim Governor of the Nouvelle Provence colony while Da Verrazano continued his eastward trip, taking him to East Africa where he found another suitable landing and found it run by indigenous Africans and surprisingly enough, a few Muslim merchants. Most of the Muslim merchants came from the Arabian peninsula, which hasn't fallen to the Ottomans just yet. The merchant who greeted Da Verrazano was named Abu Rahman (no last name was given), and it was through this individual that Da Verrazano learned of the Middle East, the Ethiopian Kingdom, and the riches of India. Abu Rahman also added that the Muslims often come to this mercantile town they called Quelimane to trade and make a profit. Da Verrazano then struck a deal with Abu Rahman: they would trade in the port of Quelimane in exchange for export of French goods to Muslim states. The Arab merchant agreed, paving the way for the French colonization of eastern Africa. Beside Quelimane, another port was acquired and a new settlement was also built within the vicinity of the area. Sofala was the next port acquired by Da Verrazano in September of 1508, while the new settlement of Nouvelle Guyenne [2] soon emerged as the first Savonarolist colony in eastern Africa, and the second in the entire African continent. The two existing ports in French Southern Africa also became as important as Nouvelle Auvergne in that they provided relief for French ships when they're sailing to Asia.
France's emerging colonial policy was reflected in King Charles VIII's official letter to the Savonarolan colonists who were encouraged to create new Savonarola villages in areas where there is no Christian activity, where he advised them to 'always lead by example, for words alone will not win converts'. This policy was codified in the French Edict of Vichy, made in September of 1508, that highlighted France's official colonial rules regarding interaction with indigenous tribes. Out of all the nations that had excellent relations with the indigenous peoples of the world, French policy was the most enlightened. Ironically, the Spanish policy of assimilation of their indigenous population into the Spanish culture through conversion to Roman Catholicism was also seen as enlightened despite the opposite rules from the ones the Savonarolists have followed. It was so helpful that when France later conquered the Indian region of Kerala, they also helped revitalize the local Indian Orthodox Church, where the main rite was that of the Syriac Rite. The Savonarolist presence in Kerala also helped increase the ties between France and the Church of the East, particularly with the Indian Christians there. Savonarola's doctrine also caught on with the hierarchy of the Church of the East that there was talk of an ecclesiastical rapprochement between the French Catholic Church (though Charles VIII hasn't yet revived the Avignon Papacy or turned it into an Avignon Catholicosate), the Eastern Orthodox Churches of Russia and Georgia, the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Church of the East. Arriving in the port of Cochin on December of 1508, the French found themselves in the presence of a curious arrival party of 200 Keralite civilians. The King of Cochin, Unniraman Koyikal II, had welcomed the French to his palace, and was surprised by the objects Da Verrazano had brought to the king. 50 French knights and 200 French infantry troops armed with arquebuses displayed their weapons in front of curious Cochinese warriors, who were also impressed with the deadly power of the arquebus. Da Verrazano offered to build a gunsmith factory and help train the king's army in exchange for additional trade treaties between the Kingdom of Cochin and the Kingdom of France. Unniraman Koyikal II accepted the terms, but insisted that the Savonarolists build their quarters close to the other Malankaran Syriac Christians who lived within his territory. The religious tolerance of Cochin would also result in the systematic attempt by the Savonarolists to win over new converts to Christianity of the Uniate rite from among the social 'untouchables' of the Indian caste system. However, trouble between the Cochin king and the French began when a newly converted 'untouchable' who was christened as Chanan explained the harsh nature of the Hindu caste system where the upper classes, the Brahmin, would often look down on the untouchables. The marginalized 'untouchables' were most seduced by the Savonarolan ideology that they began their missionary work in conjunction with the Malankaran Syriac Christians who also became dedicated Savonarolists. Surprisingly, a few people from the Kshatriya class of warriors were also receptive of the new faith, but the Brahmins were the most hostile. It also didn't help that the Brahmins were the biggest backer of the Cochin king and insisted that the French intruders would upset the traditional order of Hinduism. Thus in the winter of 1510 a plan was made for the Cochin army to expel the French, the converted 'untouchables' and the Christians of Kerala through a surprise attack. However, the plan was foiled because a Cochin army officer who converted to Christianity notified Da Verrazano of the plot. In response, the French deposed the king with the backing of the Cochin military, and turned Cochin into a French protectorate.
France's creation of an enclave in southern India had aroused hostility from the nearby Vijayanagara Empire, which was dealing with the Muslim invasions from the north. Vijayanagara's king, Vira Narasimha III, was already facing revolts from within his territories, especially the Deccan Sultanates. The addition of the French enclave was not only an unwelcoming intrusion, but the growth of Christianity in southern India and its particularly seditious message of anti-caste rhetoric, made Vijayanagara an enemy of both France and the Deccan Sultanates.
The French race towards Asia had been known only among a few people in both French and English political circles, but in the three Iberian kingdoms the news of France's emerging Afro-Asian empire was that of outrage and horror. John II of Portugal blamed himself for getting caught up with the race for the discovery of the Fagundesias to neglect the Portuguese goal of reaching Asia through an eastern route that he practically handed the path to the Asian spice trade to the French. Ferdinand II of Aragon on the other hand, was also shocked by Charles VIII's decision to pursue his fortunes in Asia and Africa that the three Iberian kingdoms feared the annexation of Navarre to France becoming a reality. Yet because France was surrounded by Catholic enemies, it also maintained a large army and invested a good amount of money in maintaining naval parity with the three Iberian kingdoms, the Kalmar Union and England. French soft power, in contrast to the Spanish hard power, was more popular. It was the fear of France securing a route to the Spice Islands that accelerated the path towards the Second Hundred Years' War.
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Excerpts from King Charles VIII's Edict of Vichy:
“To My Subjects Seeking Fortunes in Other Lands:
As we observe the laws enshrined by the talented and prodigal reformer, Girolamo Savonarola, we must show the world how we redefine the meaning of Christian morality. Actions speak louder than words, and by mixing our actions with the words we preach in our Bibles to heathens in need of salvation, we will win over the skeptical heathens and soften the hearts of hostile ones. Unlike the Papal-friendly Catholic states, with the backing of the most insufferable bunch of monsters in the Inquisition, we do not subject the offender to torturous punishments. Should a Christian observing Savonarolan rules go astray, it is our duty to bring him or her back on the right path. Through gentle guidance and patience, we will bring civilization to the far corners of the world.
Let us not forget that we Savonarolists also view the Christians of the Greek Eastern Church and that of the Church of the East, the fabled Nestorians, as brothers in need of support. In fact, it is through our efforts that we will pursue the dream of reunification of the two Christian churches. Catholic, Orthodox, it won't matter if we share the same dream of unity. Thus we declare our religious reforms as that of moving towards unity. It is to our declaration that we name this movement the Uniate path. The term 'Uniate' being the movement seeking to reunite the two churches, but neither Avignon nor Moscow would become its seat. Both Avignon and Moscow will become the two seats of power in this new movement, but we do not believe only in the power of one man to lead the church. There shall be a Synod to help and advise the Catholicos Patriarch, or in our case, the Catholicos Archbishop. This, we hold our dreams to be.
Your King,
Charles VIII de Valois”
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SEVILLE, KINGDOM OF CASTILE JANUARY 12, 1511
The atmosphere inside the king's palace was almost covered in such political toxicity. Everywhere, the advisors were yelling at each other while the guards were at a loss as to how to proceed from there. Even Ferdinand II of Aragon and his wife Isabella of Castile couldn't resist the urge to scream at their temper proned advisors.
“This is unacceptable! How is it that the Portuguese have neglected their trade routes to Asia that badly to allow the damned French to pick up the slack!?” one advisor screamed. “At this point, Portugal might as well be stuck in the new continent, searching for gold and land while Charles VIII of France gets the wealth of the Spice Islands!”
Another advisor stomped his foot on the floor. “Do you think I don't know that? What's more concerning is Savonarola's heresy spreading even beyond this whole continent! How are we supposed to deal with them and the detested Turks at the same time!”
“That's enough!” Ferdinand II of Aragon yelled back, causing everyone to become silent. “We are not going to accomplish anything as long as we scream at each other like this. Now, can we proceed with what we need to do next, as it is clear that France may eventually defeat us in the race for the Spice Islands”
A third advisor spoke up: “Your Majesty, the only thing we can truly do is to build on our new colonies and use them as a springboard for our search into the western route to Asia. From what our explorers have reported, this whole new land that they've discovered is definitely not an extension of Asia. They have encountered Indians, but not a sign of a Chinese or Japanese in sight. For that matter, I do believe that once our warriors have been sent to the new continent, they could claim the land for themselves and turn the natives there into serfs. Of course, we will bring many priests from the various friar orders to do so.”
No one had spoken up right after the third advisor explained himself. At a hindsight, it made sense that the new discoveries that were made by the various explorers in employment of the three Iberian kings would be put to use. The Castilians, with their possessions in the San Salvador island chain area, might be interested in the lands north of their position, while the Portuguese were just as interested in the lands that are under their control in North Fagundesia. The Aragonese on the other hand, are curious about their new discovery, and it was also rumored that they would allocate a bit of land for the Sephardic Jews to settle in. Still, the news of France's growing power and alliance with the Savonarolists remained a menace.
“One thing is clear: the Savonarolists must be exterminated. They are not only radicalizing the dissidents within our territories, but if we let them continue their heresies, then even we will fall victim to it. Therefore, we must prepare ourselves for a long war against the French,” said Ferdinand II of Aragon.
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Excerpts from “A Reformation Attempted: The Savonarolan Revolution” by: Jean-Claude de Olympe De Coligny Printing Press, published 2015
Chapter Nine: Savonarolism Within the Holy Roman Empire
The arrogant rulers of the Holy Roman Empire had expected that the forces of the Savonarolan Revolution would fail in their attempts to spread their influence into the territories within the Holy Roman Empire. To their dismay and outrage, the Savonarolists had managed to make inroads into areas that were under the control of the Hanseatic League, but for different reasons. The trade guilds and financiers who lived within the territories controlled by the Hanseatic League had to compete with their Jewish counterparts, many of whom would often charge interest in loans that are given to the public. Gentile merchants and tradesmen have also complained of unfair advantages that the Jews have acquired for themselves. The revolutionary message of enforcing the ban on usury had made the Savonarolan ideology decently popular, but because of their open mindedness and their religious tolerance, the Savonarolists managed to become popular within the tradesmen and the Gentile financiers. In addition, the ports of Amsterdam, Antwerp and Rotterdam have emerged as the center of the Savonarolist stronghold in the Low Countries, particularly where the Dutch were concerned. Although Charles VIII of France had encouraged the spread of Savonarolism into the territories of the Holy Roman Empire itself, he didn't know that within a hundred and fifty years, Savonarolism would have spread like wildfire throughout the German portions of that empire, contributing to the brutal collapse of the Holy Roman Empire into several successor states. Ironically, the Savonarolist ideology would be destroyed in France itself after the Second Hundred Years' War had ended.
The regions of Wallonia and Flanders also saw the influential rise in Savonarolist ideology, and indeed it was the House of Nassau who became the first European nobility after the House of Valois to publicly join the Savonarolist sect. Moreover, the 17 provinces that make up of the northern Dutch entity had grown resentful towards the Holy Roman Empire in light of the acquisition of the Polish crown and their attempt to create numerous new electorates who would in reality become little more than puppets for the Houses of Hapsburg and Hohenzollern. William I, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg, had initially praised the French for taking the initiative in spearheading the attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church until Pope Alexander VI's death in 1503 when his successor Raffaele Riario was elected as the new pope, under the name Augustus I. Augustus I was known for his violent anti-Savonarolist stance to the point where he declared that whoever destroys the Savonarolists shall gain the right to lead Catholic Europe in secular terms. The new Pope also sent a note, congratulating Prince Afonso of Portugal for his heroic deeds in the final conquest of Granada from the Muslims. However, Augustus I harshly criticized Maximillian's decision to grant John Corvinus the Croatian lands to rule in exchange for his support of the Hapsburg candidate's ascension into the Hungarian throne because it led to the increase in Ottoman power and the loss of Venetian colonies to the Turkish menace. Yet he fell short of issuing an order of excommunication against the Hapsburg King of Hungary because he realized that while Maximillian's decisions had been a disaster in the end, he needed allies in the long crusade against the Ottoman Empire. Thus he and several other cardinals began to secretly back the Hohenzollern faction within the Holy Roman Empire. In fact, most of the German lands consisted the major theaters of the conflict. The deaths of various dukes and counts of areas that have remained under Catholic control or joined the Savonarolist camp created an enormous power vacuum that allowed the House of Nassau to position itself as the dominant player in western Germany. The Italian portion of the Holy Roman Empire, despite Savonarola's origins, never caught up to his ideas becoming popular, and only Florence was the seat of Savonarolan power before events of the Second Hundred Years' War had ensured the Catholic supremacy over the Savonarolist sect through violent purges that saw 50,000 Catholic dissidents, regardless of whether or not they joined the Savonarolists, murdered without a trial. Augustus I and his successors saw the mass slaughter of Savonarolists as a 'purification campaign' of the Roman Catholic Church and that kind of campaign nearly destroyed any hope of reunifying the Catholic, Armenian Apostolic and Eastern Orthodox Churches altogether.
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Excerpts from “Para Bellum: The Dramatic Rise of Britannia” by: Robert Smythe Patterson Publishing Press, published 2014
Chapter Four: The Scottish Question
When King James IV of Scotland had won over the Irish clans to his domain, the English were left humiliated. Shorn off the Irish territories they've held for so long, some of the English nobles began to question Edward V's alliance with the French. Moreover, the traditional rivalry between England and France preceded over any thoughts of a alliance between the two powers in the face of the growing power of the Holy Roman Empire. Of course, the Grand Alliance was still in its early phase, but by the time the Second Hundred Years' War had concluded, the Grand Alliance was effectively destroyed. However, the Catholic League would also decline within the hundred years they fought the Savonarolan revolutionaries because certain popes feared the Savonarolist takeover of the Roman Catholic Church and made serious attempts to address certain issues without handing them over to the Savonarolists. In addition, the Lollard alliance with the Savonarolists took a different turn when in 1510 a riot in Paris when several Savonarolists were killed by pro-Papist French Catholics. However, the anti-Savonarolist pogroms were masterminded by the Catholic Church in an attempt to create a justification for war against the Savonarolists. Thus in the Paris tragedy, one of the major events that would lead to the outbreak of the Second Hundred Years' War.
Edward V never forgot the humiliation that the Scots had handed to him, and so preparations for a new conflict began with the investment in England's fortifications, as well as an ambitious military reform that made all able bodied English males, regardless of class status, liable for conscription. Arquebus production went through the rood, the English knights were being phased out in favor of dividing the cavalry into two groups: light and heavy. Though most of the English knights would become a part of the heavy cavalry, the English light cavalry would be the most feared units in the armies of Western Europe. Taking an inspiration from the Muscovite and Polish cavalry units, Edward V would arm these English light cavalry units only with a sword, two pistols and the composite bow 'purchased' from Hungarian bowmakers. Nicknamed the Watchers due to their primary role as sentries guarding the border between England and Scotland, these English light cavalry would be used as the main force in the attempt to conquer Scotland and during the Second Hundred Years' War when faced off against the Spanish tercios. It was only in 1510 when English troops were engaged in the attack against Dumfries against Scottish forces did Edward V Plantagenet refer to the English light cavalry as the “Yeoman”, or a cavalryman who tended to his own land. Though it was not intentional, the English Yeoman light cavalry was built on the model of the Turkish timariot light cavalry units that was used on various raids, though the akinci were more common. The English Border Reivers were also being recruited heavily into Edward V Plantagenet's new army, and their lightning speed allows them to stage raids along the border with Scotland. Mass production of warships increased, with new shipyards being built on all sides of the English coast, with Hull and Grimsby emerging as the new shipbuilding centers alongside Liverpool, Blackpool, Lancaster, Newport in Wales, Plymouth and Brighton. Swansea and Cardiff also saw the increase in military activity, particularly naval patrols between the Welsh and Irish coasts. The massive expenditure in defense had also allowed England to develop new industries that were dedicated to arms manufacturing. However, the heavy defense spending was placing a strain on the English economy, and the peasants are struggling to keep up with the payments. Thus Edward V Plantagenet authorized peasants to leave their landlord's property in order to migrate into the cities where they were recruited by shipbuilders. In Wales, the Welsh peasants who left their farms also contributed to the growth and expansion of Anglesey, but landlords are complaining about the lack of manpower needed to harvest the crops. Reluctantly, the king was forced to curtail the peasants' movement, almost causing a new peasant revolt in the process. In what was to become the first trigger that set off the Second Hundred Years' War was an uprising in the small Scottish town of Lockerbie.
The Lockerbie Rebellion of 1510 was largely religious in nature, as Scottish Lollards were being persecuted by the pro-Catholic government of James IV Stuart. He viewed the heretics as agents of the English and began to mobilize his forces. News of the Lockerbie Rebellion reached London in April of 1510, giving Edward V Plantagenet the justification he needed to get his revenge on Scotland. Thus when seven Scottish Lollards fled to English territory, the Scottish Border Reivers crossed the border and slain six Lollards, except for one survivor who notified the English Border Reivers and began to engage their Scottish adversaries. Incensed by the blatant raid on their territory, the English Border Reivers proceeded towards Lockerbie and captured the town, massacring the Catholic population there.
Edward V Plantagenet formally declared war on Scotland on April 24th, allowing James IV Stuart to reciprocrate. Moreover, the English attack also gave Scotland the justification for sending envoys to other members of the Pact of Ravenna for a declaration of war against England. Consequently, the Grand Alliance was notified by English envoys that they're at war with the Pact of Ravenna, spiraling out of control until all of Europe descended into war. That was how the Second Hundred Years' War had begun, and the attack against Scotland was just a diversion: Edward V Plantagenet had amassed 48 warships and 19,000 infantry soldiers, plus 2,300 cavalry units for a reconquest of Ireland. Their target however, wasn't Dublin, but Dungarvan and Youghal. The civilians living within the Savonarola Villages inside England began to join the army, though there was no policy on Savonarolists going off to war. However, the king's letter had confirmed the Savonarolists' worst fears: unless they take up arms to defend their faith, the Catholic Church will show no mercy on them.
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[1] Nouvelle Auvergne is TTL's name for Cape Town, South Africa.
[2] Nouvelle Guyenne is TTL's name for Beira, Mozambique.
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on Jun 5, 2018 4:25:06 GMT
Case Study #16: The Second Hundred Years War Part Two
Although Europe had officially descended into the Second Hundred Years War, most of the fighting had been confined to the British Isles, with the Scots and English fighting each other once again after Edward V Plantagenet's disaster in Ireland that allowed James IV of Scotland to gain the allegiance of the new Irish subjects. However, since the English defeat, Edward V Plantagenet had built up his army, even almost breaking the economic and financial stability of his country in order to enact his revenge on the Scots. In the first phase of the Anglo-Scottish conflict, the new English light cavalry, the yeomans, had unleashed devastation inside Scottish territory controlled by the Catholic loyalists. Scottish Lollards and Scottish Savonarolists joined in the uprising against James IV and his Catholic backers alongside Perkin Warbeck and a few English soldiers. In Ireland, the English invasion force was led by Sir Richard Pole, the husband of Margaret Pole, and true to Edward V Plantagenet's plan, the two Irish coastal towns of Dungarvan and Youghal fell to English control on June 14, 1510. Unlike the previous English invasions of Ireland, Sir Richard Pole was explicitly ordered not to slaughter Irish civilians, but to carry out missionary works through the Savonarolists and the Lollards. English Savonarolists who were single men among the invasion force were encouraged to court local Irish women and to marry them in order to create a new kind of Anglo-Irish identity. English soldiers caught raping and plundering were summarily executed, as to soothe and appease the Irish public. Likewise, the Scottish soldiers who were also stationed in Ireland were encouraged to take up Irish wives, creating a religious split within the Irish state. As a result, Ireland became a host to three major ethnic groups: the Scots, the indigenous Irish and the English. The Anglo-Irish took up the identity of the Leinsterians, after the region of Leinster where Dublin is located. The Scots-Irish took up the identity of the Ulsterians, after the region of Ulster, close to the Scottish kingdom, and finally the indigenous Irish who remained Catholic. Yet in 1516, a dramatic event in the Holy Roman Empire would create a schism within the Savonarolist movement when a young German monk by the name of Martin Luther had written two theses: one that criticized the Roman Catholic Church for its corruption, and one that criticized the Savonarolist movement for being too idealistic in its dreams of reuniting the Christian Churches. Initially Martin Luther and later on Philip Melanchthon (both of whom were influenced by Savonarolist ideas) remained dedicated to the spread of Savonarola's ideas, but before he wrote the infamous Thirteen Main Points, in which he correctly pointed out the flaws of Savonarolism, primarily the emphasis on the ban on ecclesiastical ownership of property. He argued that such a ban had made the emerging Savonarolist clergy more dependent on state power in order to flourish, and in the case of England and France, the ceasaropapist influence would leave the Savonarolist Church reduced to nothing more than the mouthpiece for their respective kings. In addition, Martin Luther accused Girolamo Savonarola of being the agent of the Ottomans, due to his connections to the Eastern Orthodox clergy (though such connections were rather small, and mainly through Dmitry of Pleven), and of being a fraud, things that Savonarola himself denied.
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Excerpts from an Interview with Father Petar Zografov, Chernarusian Oriental Orthodox Apostolic Church Musyanko Denyuza Rossiskoy Imperatorskaya Federatsiya [1], June 19, 2014
Interviewer – Kiril Mirkulov: Father Petar, you have stated that in the past the Savonarolist movement had split off in the same way that Dmitry of Pleven and his movement has split with that of the Josephites, though the difference is rather trivial. Yet you have also stated that the split was more significant, as it exposed the critics of Savonarola as being too greedy. Can you elaborate on that, please?
Rev. Petar Zografov: Certainly. The Josephites were easily seduced by material things, and yet in a sense of irony the Josephites and their colleagues in the Lutheran movement had created an idea that led to the growth of capitalism in Western Europe. Though in Russia capitalism also kind of existed, but it was within the limits of state authority. The Russian tsar had the right to intervene in the economic development of the nation, though he often gets counsel from his ministers. Did you know that the modern ideology of National Solidarism had its roots in the teachings of both Savonarola and Dmitry of Pleven?
Kiril Mirkulov: I didn't know that, although our regime that adopted National Solidarism had an unfortunate sense of anti-Western paranoia, despite the fact that Russia itself was coaxed into the European family through the actions of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Rev. Petar Zografov: 'Coaxed' wouldn't be the right term. It's more likely that Russia was 'enticed' by Poland to enter the club of civilized European nations, but when Russia tried once again to normalize relations with the Holy Roman Empire, the current Hohenzollern dynasty chose to slam the door to the Russian state. That had an effect on the Russian psyche, as the succeeding Russian branch of the House of Mukhrani had effectively decided to model the Russian Empire more on the Ottoman Empire, Persia and China.
Kiril Mirkulov: It sounds absurd for us to have been told that we'd adopt the same kind of practice that our neighbors in the south have done. In addition, our Polish-Lithuanian colleagues have done an excellent job of acting as the arbiter of Europe and as the drawbridge between the Catholic league and our empire, plus the Ottomans. Can you also explain your words?
Rev. Petar Zografov: Our Polish-Lithuanian colleagues, as you call them, had been holding back against the resurgent tide of Papal Catholicism, and in fact they emerged as the new Savonarola-influenced state after the fall of the Grand Alliance. However, the Peace of Kiev made in 1654 had clearly made a demarcation between Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Poland-Lithuania would become the arbiter of Europe and Russia would become the arbiter of Asia. It had a major effect on the rest of Europe. To the rest of the Catholic world, Poland-Lithuania had replaced Russia as the main villain in Europe.
Kiril Mirkulov: All right. So what else can you tell us about the split within the Savonarolist movement?
Rev. Petar Zografov: The anti-Savonarolists within the Christian Reformation movement had also dabbled into something dangerous. Through their links with various Christian priests who were experts in Greek and Hebrew studies, they have also advocated a thorough 'Judaization' of Christianity, returning it to the ancient roots it enjoyed prior to the Edict of Milan in 313 AD when Constantine had officially made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire, even before the Nicene Creed arose. Ironically, the 'Judaizers' also existed within the Roman Catholic Church today.
Kiril Mirkulov: How is it that the 'Judaizers' have come to dominate both the anti-Savonarolist movement that later grew into the movement we call “Shaddaism”, or basically the new kind of reformed Christianity with heavy Jewish influences?
Rev. Petar Zografov: Well, we must remember that Shaddaism had its roots with Johann Reuchlin, and one of the main tenets of Shaddaism is the complete return to the Jewish roots of Christianity. It also influenced the laws governing finance, in that it is acceptable to charge a certain amount of percentage on the loans given to financial borrowers, and that the moneylenders have the right to charge additional percentage if they were late in their payments or if they were unable to make the payment. In essence, it is a complete opposite of the Savonarolist insistence on charity, or giving aid to the poverty stricken people. Reuchlin himself coined that term, but its real godfather was Paolo Riccio. Erasmus was also a staunch Shaddaist, but he incorporated Shaddaist ideas into Catholicism, so now we have this split within the Catholic Church where it is divided into the 'Judaizer' camp and another camp, the 'Conciliares', or Conciliarists. The latter term was used to denote Catholics with pro-Savonarolist and pro-Orthodox sympathies. Although they are supporters of Savonarola's ideas, they could not officially declare themselves Savonarolists due to their positions within the Catholic hierarchy.
Kiril Mirkulov: Philip Melanchthon was one of the supporters of the Conciliarists, if I remember. However, Martin Luther was a long time skeptic of the movement. How was he able to initiate another split? The Early Modern Era is best known for the complete division of both Western and Eastern Christian Churches, so why did Luther went on a third option, so to speak?
Rev. Petar Zografov: The modern Lutheran faith was what you would call a form of Council Christianity, where there is no clear leader, and instead there is a synod where it decides on the doctrines and rituals. In Scotland today there is a strong Presbyterian movement that drew from Luther's teachings, but the Lutheran movement was confined only to a few places in northeastern Germany and Ireland. Scotland itself however, subscribes to the “Shaddaist” school of Catholicism while England is staunchly Conciliarist. What we need to remember is that the Conciliarists are practically Western Christians who enter into communion with the Patriarchate of Moscow, while the anti-Savonarolists within the Orthodox Church, the Josephites, have also declared allegiance to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, earning the nickname the 'Ecumenicalists'. The 'Ecumenicalists' are common within Greece, a few areas in Serbia and most commonly in the lands of what was the short lived Veyshnorian Kingdom before it was re-integrated into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Today the Russian Orthodox Church is classified as an “Conciliar Apostolic” church, meaning that it subscribes to the teachings of Savonarola, Dmitry of Pleven and Philip Melanchthon. It shares this classification with the Georgian Orthodox Church, the Armenian Orthodox Church and our own Chernarusian Orthodox Church, though we always add 'Apostolic' after 'Orthodox'. Hence, the ROC's official name is the Russian Orthodox Apostolic Church.
Kiril Milyukov: Before we wrap up this interview, can you also tell us about Armenia's influence on both the Russian and Chernarusian Orthodox Apostolic Church?
Rev. Petar Zografov: Of course. Armenia's mainly Miaphysite influence was something that we didn't really agree on, but in the Council of Yerevan in 1676, the Russian Orthodox Church eventually made significant efforts in reconciling the dyophysite doctrines with the monophysite and miaphysite ideologies that have dogged the Eastern Christian world. However, it was mainly the rituals that nearly caused the derailment of the Council of Yerevan, as the Russian clergy accused their Armenian counterparts of practicing iconoclasm. It was not until one of the Russian priests, a certain Fyodor of Tobolsk who advocated the melding of the two distinct rituals. From the Eastern Orthodox Church, we have the adoption of the “Templon” or the temple like doors where inside, Orthodox priests conduct their rituals. There are also benches for the elderly to sit on, but no pews, like the Catholic Churches. We've also banned musical instruments inside the church to ensure that the church choir would sing with their hearts open and minds dedicated to glorifying God. However, from the Armenian Church, we've adopted the use of the Bishop's throne, mainly used when the Archbishop or the Metropolitan comes by to visit. In the Armenian Church, there are normally up to five or ten priests that normally conduct the services. To service such a large number of parishioners inside various churches throughout Russia, Alaska and Chernarus, we've decided to have seven priests help out with the church service. The construction of church buildings remained in the Byzantine model for most of the churches built in Chernarus, with the exception of Saint Tryphon Church in Samtoyevo, which was built on the model of the Armenian Church buildings. Finally, during communion, we've adopted from the Armenians the use of wine without added water.
Kiril Milyukov: Thank you, Father, for the interview today. That will be all.
Rev. Petar Zografov: And thank you too, Kiril.
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[1] Translates to “Radio Television of the Russian Imperial Federation”, TTL's version of Russia Today.
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on Jun 10, 2018 4:11:20 GMT
Sorry for the long delay, here's the next update. Be warned: this is a bit longer than the other updates, because I had to touch base once again on the situation in China and Korea.
Case Study #17: The Second Hundred Years' War Part Three
Excerpts from King Charles VIII of France's Diary Entry Number 127, July 17, 1510:
The moment my English ally had gone to war with the Scots once again, the might of the Holy Roman Empire has come full swing on my borders. Calais was under attack, with only 3,000 English troops garrisoned inside the city. My own forces were hard pressed against the HRE's Italian contingent forces and are currently besieging Marseille. It was by sheer luck that I have a larger fleet than the Hapsburgs, but the Italian ships are a major headache. I am aware of the fact that the Hapsburgs have started to experiment with warships, having subjugated poor Poland in order to acquire the Polish crown, and with it, the Polish warships. My friend Edward V de Plantagenet on the other hand, nearly bankrupted his own country in order to take his revenge on the Scots. Yes, the very same Scots that we were allies with until James IV had foolishly placed his trust in the damned Papacy. In these times, even my beloved wife Anne and my children are safe in Vichy while my forces are busy fighting the Imperial Army. Perhaps in a couple of months I too, shall join in the fighting.
Young Margaret has been busy with her tutors, while Henri is taking after me in my strength. They were playing with the children of other nobles who have come to visit me while I direct the war effort. I also worry that the Hapsburgs might kidnap some of my children and force them into a life they truly don't want. I wanted my children to grow up happy, but at the same time the forces of politics and nature have other ideas. Anne has constantly told me to spend more time with her, which I graciously do, every second. I don't know if I will remain alive after this war ends, but I pray to God for France to go through this torturous process of fighting off multiple enemies on two fronts. There is news that the Spaniards might join the war and invade us from the south, but they are still recovering from the war with the Granadans. At the same time, their discovery of a new land west of Europe has caused me to panic. Hence, it was my justification that I send da Verrazano on his trip to find the eastern route to the spice islands without running into any Turkish naval patrols in the area. From what I learned in da Verrazano's trip to southern Africa and even India, there are plenty of ports to use and new lands to colonize. Da Verrazano also tells me in his letters that he plans on arriving in China and Japan in the future, and to sell any guns he brought with him on his journey.
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Excerpts from “Christian Reformation After Savonarola: A Guide” by: Hans Miklassen Polachak-Brudzewski State University Printing Press, published 2016
Chapter Three: The Many Branches of Western and Eastern Christianity
Few had thought that after Girolamo Savonarola had died in 1521, his movement would have survived, and many skeptics had predicted that the movement might be crushed by the boot of the Vatican. Yet at the same time the many critics of the Savonarolist ideology had also gone on to either improve on the ideology or to make a counter-argument against such a thing. Since the interview with Father Petar Zografov on Russian state television, he has written several articles about the weaknesses of the Christian faith, and its comparisons to that of Islam and Judaism. He has been a staunch advocate of Dmitry of Pleven's most cherished idea of what it means to develop a true Christian community through the labor of love. Dmitry of Pleven's ideas, along with Savonarola's idea of charity and Philip Melanchthon's idea of Christian harmony through dialogue with the other Christian sects, particularly the Miaphysite, Monophysite and Nestorian sects, have been the backbone of the Eastern Orthodox Christian movement today. It is not surprising that although modern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Korea, Alaska, Chernarus and Zilenarus are economically behind their Western European and even Polish counterparts, they are well ahead in socio-political development. It is the Savonarolist ideas that allowed the Orthodox nations to avoid the destructive peasant revolts and anti-nationalist rhetoric that have also been present in modern European and Fagundesian societies today. Here are the main schools of thought that have arisen after Savonarola's death:
- Conciliar Apostolicism of the Dmitriad, Savonarolan and Melanchthonite Thought: The mainstream idea that has dominated the Eastern Orthodox nations had its roots in Savonarola's teachings, as well as that of Dmitry of Pleven and Philip Melanchthon. It was Melanchthon himself who codified all of his teachings plus his predecessors and turned it into the Book of Spiritual Reform that has been a popular best seller in the world today. It advocates the idea of the Church involving itself in the spiritual development of their communities through the labor of love (ie: voluntary labor for the improvement of the community) and the filial piety of God and country. Although certain tenets of this school of thought has been subjected to criticism, its apologetics have pointed out that the lack of ecclesiastical ownership of property have freed the monks and priests from the temptation of worshiping money over God. Jewish scholars have also pointed out that its anti-usury rhetoric, along with the condemnation of the Jewish people for their role in Christ's death, have been the driving force of the anti-Semitic nature of Conciliar Apostolicism within the Orthodox Church, and it wasn't surprising that in the 1930s Russia had a political upheaval that led to the rise of the National Solidarists as a response to the Communalist and Equalist dictatorships that have arisen in both Europe and Asia.
- Ecumenicalism of the Josephite Thought: Formed in opposition to Dmitry of Pleven, the Josephite thought was formed by Joseph of Volokolamsk, and it defended ecclesiastical ownership of property, plus the introduction of the Orthodox version of the infamous Spanish Inquisition. The Josephite thought is also rooted in the slavish loyalty to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, since the Ecumenical Patriarch himself was opposed to the ideas that Savonarola had introduced. It was the Josephites who lost in the religious power struggle of the 1530s, resulting in their exile to the Ottoman Empire where they found support from the Greek clergy, although other Greek Orthodox Christians themselves who were opposed to the Ecumenical Patriarch's subservience to the Ottoman Sultan also found the Savonarolist ideology appealing. Ecumenicalism also found its way into the short lived Kingdom of Veyshnoria where the landed nobility was often closely aligned with the Ruthenian Orthodox clergy there, but the presence of the Conciliar Apostolic faction in Veyshnoria had also resulted in the rise of two rival Orthodox Churches there: the short lived Veyshnorian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (Josephite branch, though it was informally known as the Kievan Exarchate) and the other short lived Veyshnorian Orthodox Apostolic Church (Savonarolist-Dmitriad-Melanchthonite branch, and it was under the Moscow Patriarchate). When the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was re-established in 1592 with the help of the Tsardom of Russia, the Veyshnorian churches were subsumed into the PLC's religious structure, though Savonarolists have started to infiltrate Polish society in 1549, despite the Polish state being under the control of the Hapsburgs. Unlike the Savonarolist-Dmitriad-Melanchthonite school of thought, the Josephite school of thought eventually withered throughout the former Veyshnorian state and in parts of Serbia that were loyal to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Today the Josephite school of thought is virtually extinct.
And here are the main school of thought within the Roman Catholic Church:
- Shaddaist Catholic Branch: The “Shaddaist” school of thought is an example of the attempt to 'Judaize' the Christian faith by re-introducing certain traditions found in Judaism. Adherence to the Torah laws, and Jewish practices were re-introduced through the Greek and Hebrew studies teacher, Johann Reuchlin. However, it was Paolo Riccio who had cultivated the Judaized influence into the Catholic Church. The Shaddaist school of thought had effectively reversed the ban on usury, and allowed the charging of interests on monetary loans to both Jews and Gentile Catholics, as well as addition of interests on loans that couldn't be repaid on time. Unsurprisingly enough, the Catholic nations that subscribe to the Shaddaist school of thought were subjected to peasant rebellions and tax revolts, often followed by pogroms against the Jewish minority within those Catholic states. The Shaddaist branch have been established in the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Sweden, the Spanish Empire, and the Kingdom of Scotland (though the Scots themselves have been placed under the protection of the HRE in exchange for their subservience to the Papacy). However, the Shaddaist branch does not adhere to the ideas of Nohaidism, unlike their cousins in the Council Christian movement. (See below)
- Conciliar Apostolic Branch: Also known as the “Western Uniate” branch, the Conciliarists were originally Savonarolists who re-entered the Catholic Church when Francois de Tournon was elected in 1532 as Pope Eusebius II. Pope Eusebius II had initially been a supporter of Savonarola until Martin Luther's anti-Savonarolist essays had awakened him to the flaws within that system. Yet at the same time, Eusebius II had also witnessed the growing corruption within the Catholic clergy and the peasant riots over being unable to pay back their loans and the sales of indulgences had prompted him to realize that the Savonarolists had a point. His unique position as the 'Savonarolist' Pope allowed him to introduce certain aspects of the Savonarolist ideology into Catholic teachings, including the enforcement on the ban of usury. It was not until 1535 that a rival cardinal named Francisco de Quinones was rumored to be chosen to succeed Eusebius II without a papal conclave. In what was to become the Eusebian Controversy of 1536, the followers of Eusebius II relocated back to Avignon while de Quinones was elected as the new pope under the name Pope Valentine II. The Conciliarists believe in the rapprochement of the two rival Christian churches and the restoration of the five original Patriarchates after the reconquista of the Holy Land from the Ottoman Turks in a new crusade. Yet their Shaddaist enemies had correctly accused the Conciliarists of being crypto-Savonarolists and their infiltration was meant to break the Catholic Church into two parts, one of which would be open to infiltration by pro-Savonarolist and pro-Orthodox agents. Philip Melanchthon was also a member of the Conciliarist faction, and his election in 1549 as the Avignon Pope had effectively made the Conciliarists a purely French institution. One of the ideologies of the Conciliarist branch was the idea of synarchism, or the joint rule between the king and the pope. Synarchism was common in England with the ascension of the Anglo-Conciliarist Church under the authority of Edward V Plantagenet's successor, King Richard IV Plantagenet. The strong ties between the Yorkist branch of the House of Plantagenet and the English clergy was instrumental in preventing England from falling under the control of the Holy Roman Empire until 1591, when the last Plantagenet King, James I Plantagenet, died without an issue, leading to the Second War of the English Succession and the ascension of the first Council Christian King of England, King John II of the House of Dudley. Like their Conciliar Apostolic cousins in Eastern Europe, the Conciliar Catholics were also prone to anti-Semitism. Today, Conciliar Catholicism (later renamed Conciliar Apostolicism in order to unite the Christian churches within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that are both Catholic and Orthodox) is found only in France, Denmark, Finland and Poland-Lithuania (later called Greater Mazovia).
- Paleo-Catholic Branch: The unreformed Catholic Church that escaped from the Judaizing influences that led to the establishment of the Shaddaist sect and Council Christianity, this branch is notorious for its ultra-conservative and anti-reformist attitude. However, the Paleo-Catholics are the only Christian sect to have an autocephalous status within Western Christendom, having established itself in Ireland during the 1570s in what was then the Irish Counter-Reformation. The Paleo-Catholics adhere to the traditions of the Catholic Church prior to the rise of Girolamo Savonarola, and its ties to Irish national identity is immense in the face of the Anglo-Scottish cultural divide that created the subgroups of Liensterians and Ulsterians. Curiously enough, the Spanish Empire also tolerates the Paleo-Catholics and even competed with the Irish and the Italians for the title of 'leader of Catholicism'. It is also prone to anti-Semitism, like its Conciliar Apostolic counterparts in both Eastern and Western churches. However, its anti-Orthodox stance makes the Paleo-Catholics widely hated by both the Conciliar Apostolics of the Orthodox movement and the Council Christians. Paleo-Catholicism is also popular in Italy and the Crown of Aragon, as well as the Spanish and Portuguese colonies.
Different Kind of Christianity:
- Council Christianity: As the name suggest, Council Christianity is unique in the fact that it has no clear leader for the parishioners to follow. Instead, it is governed by what is known as the Council of Elders, which consisted of old men who have been selected due to their intellect and dedication to God. Although it shares some characteristics with the Shaddaist branch of the Catholic faith, it is significantly different in that Council Christians have also adopted the Noahide Laws in addition to the various Jewish traditions that was also adopted in the Shaddaist movement. Council Christianity is divided into three school of thoughts: Tyndalean, named after the English Reformer William Tyndale, Lutheran, named after Martin Luther, and Hubmaierian, after another German Reformer and prominent Anabaptist, Balthasar Hubmaier. The most notable places in the world that follow Council Christianity are England (after the fall of the House of York and the rise of the House of Dudley, which subscribed to the Tyndalean branch of Council Christianity) and certain parts of what is now modern Germany, in the Schleswig-Holstein region. Historically, Council Christians have faced hostility from both Shaddaist and Conciliarist movements, primarily due to the more influential leaders that arose from this movement. Martin Luther is most credited with the creation of this movement, due to his close interactions with the Jewish community in Nuremberg. To the Shaddaist movement, Council Christians have been thoroughly Judaized that it is reduced to nothing more than Judaism in the guise of a Christian sect. To the Conciliarists, the Council Christian movement is a heresy that has no place in Christendom, and coupled with the anti-Semitic influences within the Conciliarist movement, it is not surprising that Council Christianity also gave birth to the modern Communalist and Equalist movements[1]. The Socialist Federal Republic of Britannia in the 1990s fell apart due to the religious differences that was tied to ethnic nationalist rhetoric coming from both London and Glasgow, with Ireland becoming the scene of the worst atrocities since the Second Great World War.
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Excerpts from “France's Hand in Asian Piracy” by: Malcolm Ragnarsson Black Pigeon Publishing Press, published 2014
Chapter Four: The Franco-Ryukyuan Exchange
Da Verrazano's journey throughout Africa and India had given France an opportunity to build a new power center in the absence of an existing possibility that they might have been able to carve for themselves a new stake in the race for the New World. From his role in the establishment of several colonies in southern Africa that later became known as the French Royal Dominion of Nouvelle Provence, or New Provence, Giovanni Da Verrazano also played a key role in establishing the first French protectorate/enclave in southern India, in the Kerala region the French designated as the Colony of Kerala. It was the French presence in Kerala that Da Verrazano and several other French navigation crew were able to find the nearby island the Sinhalese called Sri Lanka, though it was control by the Kingdom of Kotte. The Kingdom of Kotte controlled most of the island, but its strategic position between the Spice Islands and Africa also gave the French an incentive to establish a relationship with the local kingdom. The local king there, Vijayabahu VII of Kotte, was anxious and fearful of the French presence there, but Da Verrazano was able to secure a favorable trade deal with the king of Kotte that included the sale of firearms to the Kotte state in exchange for the acquisition of pearls. In addition, Vijayabahu VII also gave the French permission to build a fort and harbor in the northern region of the Kingdom of Kotte, and between May 1511 and August 1511 a new fort was completed, named Fort Normandy, after the region of Normandy in northern France. Subsequently, the harbor's completion also led to the founding of Yalpanam as a French settlement, though the existing city of Nallur was the capital of another Sri Lankan kingdom of Aryacakravarti.
With most of the Sri Lankan island under French influence, Da Verrazano continued his journey into the Far East, with the French navigation fleet consisting of twelve new ships that joined him from Nouvelle Provence plus his original fleet. All of his warships were armed with cannons and they've also stocked enough ammunition in case they get in trouble with any local resistance movement there. However in January of 1512 when Da Verrazano had set out once again, this time to search for a route to China or Japan, they came across a rather large island while another ship spotted a narrow strait between two land entities. It was at this time that Da Verrazano's fleet had come across the Straits of Malacca, though they were careful not to sail too close to either side of the straits. After just twenty hours of careful navigation, the fleet moved northeast, as far away from the Malay Peninsula as possible. By February of 1512, Da Verrazano's fleet arrived in the Ryukyu Kingdom, amidst the Ryukyuan colonization of Kawahata Island and the growing Ryukyuan control over that region. Da Verrazano and the French delegation presented themselves to Sho Shin's court and the King of Ryukyu was impressed by the size of the French navigation ships that accompanied the Italian born navigator all the way to Ryukyu. As in the Kingdom of Kotte, Da Verrazano offered Sho Shin the same trade deal terms he offered Vijayabahu VII: sales of French weapons in exchange for goods from the buyer country. In Sho Shin's case, the French offer to build a weapons factory to mass produce French arquebuses for Ryukyu's army was more than just a lucrative offer: it also opened up the possibility of Ryukyu selling those same French-built arquebus and later matchlock rifles to the various daimyos of Kyushu and Shikoku. However, the French themselves beat the Ryukyuans to the punch when Da Verrazano left three days later to make his way into Japan, landing in the small port of Makurazaki, in the Satsuma Domain under the control of the Ouchi-Mori alliance. In Makurazaki, Da Verrazano was met by an entourage led by Ouchi Yoshioki himself. The clansman asked the strange foreigner of his purpose for visiting his domain. Da Verrazano responded by asking for a trade deal with him, but Yoshioki himself stated that he was not authorized to do so, and that the French delegation should travel to Kyoto under heavy guard in order to meet the Shogun himself, who was Ashikaga Yoshizumi. In Kyoto, Da Verrazano and Ashikaga Yoshizumi had a long conversation on the travels he made all the way from France. Like his dealings with Sho Shin, the Shogun was interested in the weapons the French brought with them, like the arquebus and matchlocks. However, to Da Verrazano's surprise, the Shogun had presented the French a well made naginata, plus a newly forged katana that Da Verrazano assumed that was meant to be a gift to his overlord (Charles VIII of France), as well as a wakizashi. In addition, Japanese silk and tea were also given to Da Verrazano and his French colleagues, and one sailor even expressed interest in staying with the Japanese in order to learn more about them, as well as to teach French to interested Japanese nobles who might one day have to speak to other Europeans who would eventually come to Japan. Originally named Jacques Cartier, upon his stay in Japan he was given the Japanese name of Anzai Masahiro [2], and under him, a new Japanese clan was founded, the Anzai clan. The Anzai clan was the first Japanese clan to be founded of European origin, with Jacques Cartier also becoming the first foreign born samurai to be employed by the Ashikaga Shogunate as a shipwright, with the foundation of the first Japanese shipyard in Matsuyama. Matsuyama subsequently became the new fief that was awarded to Anzai in 1515, which was a requirement for Anzai to build his new shipyard that specialized in the production of French style galleons and carracks, though by 1556 fortress ships known as Yosaisens (basically a hybrid of a frigate and a Korean panokseon ship) were built, making it Japan's first fully fledged sail based warship. Yosaisens were also used as cargo ships, though sekibunes were also preferred.
The invention of the yosaisen was not merely by accident: in the autumn of 1514, a Korean ship belonging to a navy deserter who fled from the chaos unfolding in Korea had landed in Matsuyama, seeking refuge. The unnamed deserter was met by one of the samurais who served the Shimazu clan who was taken to Anzai's manor to meet Anzai himself. Curious at the presence of a ship much bigger than the atakebune, though slightly smaller than the Yosaisens, Anzai started to investigate the design and appearance of the panokseon and started to interrogate the deserter on how it was made. Through the questioning of the deserter, Anzai was able to learn a new kind of technique that was risky, but effective: the usage of wood pegs to hold the ship together, making the hull of the ship much stronger and longer lasting. In addition, the deserter also explained that oak and pine wood are the best type of wood to be used in the construction of ships, a fact that many in Europe have declared it common knowledge. Moreover, the panokseon was built with two types of hull: the lower hull for the rowers and the upper hull for the cannon loaders. Anzai and ten apprentices that were hired from among Japan's lowest caste (the burakumin) started to design such a ship. Furthermore, Anzai's decision to hire burakumin and other low caste peasantry for construction of the Yosaisens was subject to a much debated controversy within the old school daimyo circles, who viewed the gaijin's view on the Japanese caste system as radical and menacing, began to plot for his murder. However, the Ashikaga shogun had explicitly forbade such actions, threatening them with execution if they did so. Some minor clan lords though, were impressed by Anzai Masahiro's innovative design for the new ships of the Ashikaga shogunate's navy. In October of 1515 when the first Yosaisen was completed, Anzai and the burakumin ship crew demonstrated its power and ability in front of an amazed Japanese public. In addition to the shipyard in Matsuyama, a cannon foundry was also built to produce artillery pieces for the Yosaisens, although various matchlock guns and large pistols were also made for various armies of all daimyos. Such an enterprise had allowed the Anzai clan to establish themselves also as the noveau riche of medieval Japan, and was rumored to have become as rich as the Ashikaga shogunate, although Anzai himself had always invested his wealth in procuring more arable land for his burakumin servants and construction of Buddhist temples.
The influence of the Yosaisen was rather large that it became synonymous with Asia's rise to prominence and parity with Europe. It also symbolized the new kind of interaction between European and Asian civilizations, although yosaisens were also notorious for its adoption by the Ryukyu Kingdom's main naval fleet and wokou pirates were also known to work aboard yosaisens. In fact, in 1518 Anzai himself sailed to Ryukyu on a trading mission from the Ashikaga shogun to deliver fifty new matchlocks to Kinjo Rokuro, upon the request of Sho Shin himself. In Ryukyu and in Kawahata Island, the yosaisen had won admirers from the wokou, and Anzai's first interaction with the wokou was over a cup of sake. Anzai himself had accepted the offer for the construction of ten more yosaisens to Kinjo, unaware that 'Kinjo' was actually Hosokawa Takakuni. It also helped 'Kinjo' that Anzai was not interested in court politics that killed off most of the Hosokawa clan members. The adoption of the yosaisen by the wokou had contributed to the massive increase in wokou raids along the Chinese and Korean coastlines, and were also pivotal in the defense of Ryukyu from the Ming invasion. However, Anzai had never forgotten his French roots and had requested to the Ashikaga shogun to allow the sale of his yosaisen to the French should they ever come back again. The shogun agreed, seeing the French as a capable ally. In 1523 when Da Verrazano returned to Japan with the news of the Second Hundred Years' War involving Anzai's native France, Anzai donated three yosaisens to Da Verrazano, pleading with him to bring the blueprints as well to Charles VIII of France, and to France's other allies in the Grand Alliance. The news of a French style ship made in Japan had caused an uproar in London, Copenhagen, Paris and Moscow, along with Da Verrazano's delivery of Japanese style large matchlock pistols, which were nicknamed 'Cartier guns' in honor of Anzai's original identity. Finally, the introduction of the nagamaki and the light weight naginata as pole weapons for the newly created French yeomanry assembled in 1524 in preparation for the French attack on Charleroi, when a French force led by Prince Henri de Valois staged a daring raid behind Hapsburg lines, armed with French crossbows and the nagamaki was used to fight two armed enemy cavalry at the same time. The devastation from the weapons introduced from Japan had resulted in the stalemate between the Pact of Ravenna and the Grand Coalition, and the nagamaki was also adopted by the English and Danish cavalry, but not the Muscovite cavalry (both the Muscovite and Polish-Lithuanian cavalries opted to use the naginata style fauchard polearms, as well as lances and sabers, but by 1615 the succeeding Russian Tsardom would create a double sided sovnya polearm for their cavalry unit, taking inspiration from the nagamaki).
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France – Entrenched and Invaded:
When Charles VIII of France learned of the conflict in the British Isles and the Hapsburg advance towards French territory, he immediately mobilized his army to counter the Hapsburg threat. Savonarolists within France understood that the new war that was brought upon them was the first major test to see how the Savonarolist movement will survive the fires of war, especially with the inevitable rise of the Inquisition in Europe. News of the three Iberian kingdoms' plans to enter the war right away were leaked through French spies, but the truth was that each king of those respective crowns were too busy trying to create new colonies to care about the Second Hundred Years' War until their entry in 1516 when Charles VIII launched an attempt to conquer the small kingdom of Navarre in order to stop a possible Spanish invasion (the Seville Decree had officially established the United Kingdom of Greater Spain in 1515). In the early stages of the Second Hundred Years' War, the Holy Roman Empire launched an attack on Marseille in order to capture it so they could provide a safe passage for the Neapolitan troops who volunteered to fight alongside their fellow Italian and German comrades against the heretical French Kingdom. The situation was further inflamed when Pope Alexander VI in his statement during the Siege of Marseille, explicitly said that the war against the French is a holy war to rid the world of the toxic Savonarolist ideology and to exterminate the Savonarolan adherents. Indeed, when Toulon fell to the Hapsburgs in October of 1510 after a three month siege that started back in July, the Hapsburg armies rounded up every Savonarolist they could find, and after a kangaroo court trial that was similar to the Inquisition found 1,900 Savonarolists guilty of heresy, they were impaled and had their legs burnt alive. The Toulon Massacre of 1510 had aroused outrage from Savonarolists around Europe, and a tit-for-tat retaliatory attack was launched, with the French offensive against the Hapsburgs in the capture of Mulhouse in December 14, 1510, and the capture of 2,300 German Catholics by French troops, who subsequently proceeded to slaughter them with their swords. Though this was before the introduction of Da Verrazano's Japanese 'exchange gifts' to the court of Charles VIII, the French royal army acquired a reputation for savagery against their Catholic enemies. Savonarolists also joined the French army, and were among the earliest members in the formation of the French yeomans that were equipped with the nagamaki swordstaff (apparently the Savonarolan yeomans decided to rename it the Pontian lance, ironically in honor of the man who condemned Jesus to death). During the Second Hundred Years' War, the Savonarola villages suddenly became legitimate targets for Hapsburg troops to plunder and burn, forcing the Savonarolists to adopt the survival tactic of foraging. Most of the time, the Savonarolan yeomans and irregular troops (also called 'Righteous Armies') launched daring raids on occupied French cities under Hapsburg control.
The French navy also expanded its fleet size, with the shipyards mass producing warships faster than they could be destroyed, but constant raids by Hapsburg ships had forced Charles VIII to authorize the construction of fortresses along France's borders with the Holy Roman Empire, and on the northern coast, facing the English Channel. At the same time, most of the admirals were already in far flung places like Nouvelle Provence and Japan, and had no idea that the war had already started. For the first few years of the Second Hundred Years' War, the French mostly stuck to taking defensive measures while resorting to guerrilla warfare in order to weaken the Hapsburg invasion. Meanwhile, its English ally was also hard pressed against the Scots until Denmark's entry into the war on the Grand Alliance side allowed John II of Denmark to deploy its naval force in order to help the English by staging raids against Scottish positions in its northern regions. With Scotland possessing a smaller fleet, the Danish diversions was immensely helpful to the English, who took advantage of the Scottish distraction to advance into the rest of the Scottish lowlands. Starting in December 28, Dumfires and Gretna Green fell to English control. Norwegian auxilliary troops serving under the Danish crown landed in Montrose by January 9, 1511 in order to force the Scots into a two front war at the same time. Because Scotland barely had troops to defend its home territory, James IV started to rely more on Irish auxilliaries for the defense of Ireland, but even they were no match for the well prepared and well trained English forces, who proceeded to move past their occupied territories in southern Ireland. Cork was besieged by the English Army under Richard Pole's command while the combined English and half of the French fleet provided the naval bombardment. English yeomans harrassed Scottish garrisons throughout Ireland, though their effectiveness was neutralized by the emergence of the Irish light cavalry units. Like their English adversaries, the Irish yeomans were also lightly armed, and often raided English forces whenever they felt like it. However, the only difference is that the Irish yeomans had no light armor to wear while the English yeomans were equipped with chain mail armor. The Irish heavy cavalry that served the Scottish crown were more effective when dealing with regular English cavalry (ie: non-yeomans), and in the raid on the English occupied city of Youghal, the Irish heavy cavalry managed to inflict significant casualties upon the English troops in the area.
Because of the Holy Roman Empire's invasion of France, Charles VIII could not spare any soldiers to help the English with their Irish reconquest. He did however, provided five French warships (galleon sized, not yosaisen sized) for the naval bombardment. In addition, he also authorized the construction of the smaller sized carracks that could be used for raiding Hapsburg merchant ships, and later on they were used in the raids on Spanish ports by 1532. The Savonarolists who were within the French Army eventually developed their own military tradition that the other nations within the Grand Alliance had coveted. For instance, a French Savonarolist by the name of Odet de Coligny had been responsible for introducing Huguenot style military doctrine to the armies of Denmark and Russia in the 1560s, while Gaspard II de Coligny had built the famous Colignian Naval Doctrine that was in use, even today. His experience came from the infamous Japanese Wokou raids against Chinese and Korean ports while working as an observer with the Wokou fleet that included the famous Kohata Kusaka, the man who would build a short lived Wokou state in northern Luzon called the Kingdom of Shonan, or the Kingdom of the Southern Light. The emergence of the de Coligny family occurred during the Second Hundred Years' War, with the brothers becoming prominent French emigre military leaders.
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East Asia - Civil Wars
Three years before the Second Hundred Years' War had begun, there were two separate civil wars that broke out in China and Korea. In China, the civil war was caused by the power struggle between the three surviving siblings of the late Hongzhi Emperor, and the indifference of the succeeding Zhengde Emperor to the affairs of the state had aroused hostility from both Zhu Houwei and Zhu Xiurong. With the Ming Civil War of 1507-1509 breaking out, Zhu Xiurong had proclaimed a rival government in Anhua, with the Prince of Anhua acting as its provisional leader. Zhu Houwei would do the same, by throwing support for the Prince of Ning in the emergence of another breakaway state called the Kingdom of Ning in southern China. In addition, various peasant rebellions over the corruption of the eunuchs in the Ming court had erupted, with various cities like Luoyang, Wan, Chengdu and Xi'an becoming centers of peasant rebellions. The Zhengde Emperor tried to restore order there, but the intrigues of the Prince of Anhua had prevented him from sending Ming troops to quell the peasant rebellion. In fact, the Prince of Anhua had recruited these very same peasant rebels for his army, though they were poorly trained and poorly equipped. Zhu Houwei and the Kingdom of Ning on the other hand, had access to the Ming troops who mutinied against their commanders and proclaimed their loyalty to him and to the Kingdom of Ning. To add insult to injury, the Ming also lost Qi Jingtong to the rebels, emerging as the head of the army of Ning.
Hanyang was attacked by the Anhua forces on July of 1509 when the Prince of Anhua besieged the city. Although the siege lasted only six hours (the poor condition of the Anhua military was not taken advantage of by the Ming loyalist forces because their officers were also outraged by the logistical problems they faced and by the eunuchs who often overrule them), neither side was able to gain the upper hand. However, a good amount of peasant soldiers were killed by the Ming forces, thus technically the tactical victory went to the Ming loyalist forces. Unfortunately, peasant revolts occurred in the coastal areas of China, and buoyed by the news that the eunuchs had essentially turned the Zhengde Emperor into their plaything, they launched a massacre against the upper classes. In an incident called the Bloodbath of Taizhou, twelve noblemen and forty merchants were slaughtered by angry peasants. In retaliation, the surviving army commander of Taizhou who belonged to the nobility had launched an attack on the nearby village of Wenzhou and slaughtered 300 peasants.As the Zhengde Emperor began to resort to more authoritarian methods of suppressing the peasant rebellions, the surviving peasants who escaped the pro-Zhengde massacres found themselves serving the breakway kingdoms arisen in opposition to the Zhengde Emperor.
Unlike the civil war in Joseon, the civil war in China only ended with the abrupt Mongol raids into Chinese territory. Dayan Khan's expedition into Beijing had started back in late 1508 and early 1509, with the sole intention of dealing as much damage as possible to the Ming while they had a civil war. Gansu however, was conquered permanently under Dayan Khan's forces, and while the Zhengde Emperor launched ineffective raids into Mongol territory. During the expedition against the Khalkha Mongols in Kokegota, the Zhengde Emperor and 500 cavalry troops fell into an ambush laid out by Dayan Khan himself. The ineffectiveness of the Zhengde Emperor was costly: he was captured by the Mongols and brought to Karakorum where Dayan Khan had him whipped and had his back broken as a symbol of humiliation. With the death of the Zhengde Emperor, Zhu Houwei was formally enthroned as the next emperor. Zhu Houwei was given the regnal name of 'Qianshou', or 'thousand hands', referring to his hands-on learning when he was still a prince. Since the Qianshou Emperor was only fourteen, his regent was the Prince of Ning, Zhu Chenhao, who was happy to rein in place of the 14 year old Zhu Houwei. Zhu Xiurong on the other hand, was married off to a minor Chinese general who was stationed at the border with the Northern Yuan.
Meanwhile in Korea, the insanity and tyranny of Yeonsangun of Joseon had caused a civil war to break out in the first place. During the same time as the Ming Civil War, several surviving brothers like Yi Gwan, or Prince Yiseong, Yi Jeon/Prince Yeongan and Yi Hui/Prince Yangwon had raised separate armies of their own and took control of four areas of Korea. Yeonsangun controlled the central heartland of Korea while Prince Yeongan took over the lands surrounding Pyongyang. Prince Yangwon took over the southeastern area of Korea, around the Busan area, and Prince Yiseong took over the northern borderlands overlooking the Manchu heartland. Prince Yiseong also won the loyalty of the elite Korean Army of the North, a specially trained cavalry unit that specialized in the combat against Jurchen raiders. Most of the yangbans who feared the rage of Yeonsangun gravitated towards the other brothers' domains in order to survive, although the four brothers also complained and grew irritated at their apparent uselessness against Yeonsangun. Yeonsangun's army attacked Pyongyang on October 19, 1507, with the sole intention of destroying Yeongan's forces and killing his brother in the process. Prince Yangwon took over most of the naval fleet that guarded the southern coasts from Japanese Wokou pirates and began to blockade several areas of Korea still under the control of Yeonsangun. To make matters worse for Yeonsangun, the Army of the North began to stage raids into territories controlled by Yiseong's other brothers who viewed him as a threat to their positions. While Korea's neighbor to the north, the Jurchen tribes that often raid Korean territory, would have loved to take advantage of the internal turmoil inside, the Jurchen people as a whole were divided into the Yeren, Haixi and Jianzhou subgroups. All three of these Jurchen groups often fought each other for supremacy until 1508 when a Yeren Jurchen warrior who was named as Ayaneje had rallied his tribe and began attacking both the Haixi and Jianzhou Jurchens. Ayaneje belonged to the Sartuk Hala clan, a clan that dominated the furthest region of what is now the Russian Autonomous Principality of Manchuria. Although he, like many other Jurchens, was illiterate, he took it upon himself to search for a scholar from either the Chinese, the Mongols or the Koreans to help him achieve his goal of learning how to read and write. A chance meeting with a captured Korean Yangban taken by the Jianzhou Jurchens in March of 1508 was brought into the home of Ayaneje. It was by sheer luck that the Yangban in captivity was capable of writing both in the Chinese characters and the Korean script known as the Hangul. Seeing the beauty of the Hangul, Ayaneje and the captive Yangban started spending time studying the Hangul and how to write it. Even as Ayaneje divulged into acquiring literacy for himself and his people, the Yeren Jurchens continued its struggle against the other Jurchens until an envoy from a local Korean town was brought to the border with the Jurchens and asked for the captured Yangban to come back. However, the captive Yangban, who happened to have escaped from the destruction that Yeonsangun had brought into the Korean learning institutions, chose to stay with Ayaneje. The brutal conflict between the princes had resulted in more Korean peasants choosing to gamble on their lives by moving northwards, into the territories that was controlled by the Jianzhou Jurchens.
Back in Korea, Yeonsangun's offensive against Yeongan in Pyongyang had finally succeeded in capturing the vital city. Once inside, Yeonsangun's forces rounded up every Yangban they could find (the ones who weren't lucky enough to escape to the Jurchen-held lands) and slaughtered them. Their entire families were also massacred, just for having a child who became a yangban. Yeongan himself wasn't lucky, as Yeonsangun's agents had quickly located him in a Buddhist temple. He was dragged out of the temple and was promptly beheaded by Yeonsangun himself. For harboring the defeated prince, Yeonsangun torched the Buddhist temple and massacred its inhabitants entirely. Not a single Buddhist monk was spared, especially the children apprentices. When news of Yeongan's execution reached Princes Yangwon and Yiseong in their respective bases, they only increased the recruitment of soldiers into their armies, aware of the growing insanity that their brother had now. However, the soldiers who served the executed Yeongan were split: some of them defected to Yeonsangun's army while the other half defected to Yiseong's camp. The brutal civil war also had a huge effect on the average Korean peasantry, as Yeonsangun's anti-Yangban campaigns had also garnered support from the lower classes as they constantly resented the privileged lives that the yangbans had led. The areas south of Hanseong erupted in anti-yangban violence as peasants, buoyed by the propaganda emitted by the Yeonsangun loyalists, and in the Daegu Massacre of June 15, 1508 where 70 yangbans were murdered by the peasantry, the rebellions also had a class warfare rhetoric inserted in it. Modern Korean Equalist activists have placed an emphasis on the anti-yangban rebellions that was tied to the Joseon Civil War as the first example of class warfare, though the peasants themselves had no clear goals on what they wanted to do once the yangban class was virtually eliminated.
The massacres of yangbans had a profound effect on the Korean literary class, as the junior ranked yangbans who were lucky enough to escape to Jurchen territory, brought with them their knowledge of Confucian and Buddhist classics. However, the very same Jurchen hosts from the Haixi, Jianzhou and Yeren entities grew irritated and hostile when the yangbans tried to recreate their lifestyle at the expense of the Jurchen peoples and threatened them with deporation back to Joseon, which meant a possible death sentence, unless they learned to embrace the virtue of physical labour. One such yangban who became a trusted advisor to Ayaneje was a man called Lee Tae Hyun, who also helped build the first literary school to teach Jurchen children how to write using Korean Hangul. Even in the southern regions, anti-yangban rebellion had spread its deadly influence. One such incident was the mutiny at Hansan island where a panoksun crew revolted over lack of food and pay. The captain of this panoksun, was the same man who led the crew away from Joseon and sought refuge in Japan, leading to the exchange with Anzai Masahiro, formerly known as Jacques Cartier. The mutiny at Hansan Island was one of the main contributor to the growth of the Wokou piracy, as the designs of the panoksun was later combined with the structure of the French galleon ship to create the infamous Yosaisens[3]. Throughout Korea, Princes Yiseong and Yangwon spent more time suppressing the peasant revolts than fighting Yeonsangun, a factor that almost led to Yeonsangun's victory over his brothers. It was not until 1510 when Prince Yiseong launched an offensive to retake Pyongyang from Yeonsangun that the peasant revolts began to die down, although Yiseong's decision to hire the Jianzhou Jurchen mercenaries only enflamed further anger from the peasants who became more supportive of Yeonsangun. Additionally, Prince Yangwon's naval offensive to restore order in southeastern Korea became successful with the rapid reconquest of Wonsan and Hamhung, with the help of Prince Yiseong's Jurchen mercenaries. 1511 saw the final battles of the Joseon Civil War between Yeonsangun and his two remaining brothers as Pyongyang fell to Prince Yiseong's forces, forcing Yeonsangun to make his final stand in Hanseong. The Siege of Hanseong in May 27, 1511, was literally Yeonsangun's last stand. The siege lasted just five days, though there were mass desertions from Yeonsangun's own army once his insanity took a toll on his health and started executing innocent military leaders for even a tiny mistake. The only success on Yeonsangun's part was the accidental death of Prince Yangwon when his ship went through a hurricane in Korea's southern coast, just outside Namhae. The ship he commanded had struck a rock, and the turbulence caused him to fall into the sea, and with no help forthcoming, he drowned. He died one day before Yeonsangun and his family were slaughtered by Prince Yiseong's army once they captured Hanseong.
The aftermath of the Joseon Civil War was tragic: almost half of Korea's scholarly elite were wiped out, three quarters of Korea's schools were burned down and 120,000 ordinary peasants died in the conflict. The social issues that have plagued the Korean state was addressed by Prince Yiseong, who took the throne on June 4, 1511, and in one of his planned reforms, he abolished the yangban class, seeing them as educated parasites who benefited from the labour of the lower classes. In addition, the Joseon Civil War had also alerted Prince Yiseong to the woeful reality that Korea had no proper formal army in the south. Starting in July of 1511, Prince Yiseong, now King Yiseong, along with Park Won Jong and Seong Hui Ahn, reformed the Korean legal code and instituted a mandatory military training for aspiring government officials seeking civil service. In essence, Korea became the first nation in the world to institute the policy of mandatory military service for those seeking to enter civil service. Korean military personnel who excelled in both academic and marital studies were also elevated to the rank of nobility, and were also given land and several peasants to govern. King Yiseong's new socio-political reform addressed the main problem of the yangbans refraining from physical labour, as it allowed them to experience first hand the hardships of the peasantry. Buddhist temples that were burned down during the reign of Yeonsangun were rebuilt, often with the monetary contribution from former Yeonsangun supporters who were stripped of their wealth and titles. Confucian studies were becoming less relevant, paving for the rise of secular studies instead. New schools were also built, with another siginificant new law passed down by King Yiseong, making formal education for all of Korea's children, regardless of social status, mandatory. This ambitious project would allow the recovery of Korea's literary elite to the level it had before the Joseon Civil War broke out. As for Yiseong himself, he also initiated a controversial rule of succession that was reminiscent of the Ottoman practice whenever a new Sultan arose to succeed the previous ruler: upon the ascension of a new king, the king's brothers were to be killed to prevent a succession war. It was quickly repealed in 1589, when his grandson, King Yeonghwan, quickly abolished the law, replacing it with the policy of exiling princes to either Jeju Island or Hansan Island.
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[1] Communalism is TTL's mixture of communism and anarchism. Basically libertarian socialism, where as Equalism is TTL's version of communism and socialism.
[2] Anzai Masahiro is basically OTL Jacques Cartier, only if he had decided to stay in Japan and assimilate instead of staying in French service.
[3] Yosaisen is technically the fusion of a Korean panoksun and a European galleon ship. Although it boasts a European style mast to help it navigate around the open seas, its two decks are inspired by the panoksuns. It is translated to as 'fortress ship'.
[AUTHOR's NOTE: There will be constant retconning in this update due to the additions to one of the segments. Concerning England, that was the hardest part since ITTL there may not be the rise of the Netherlands, but at the same time the Dutch would have a role to play, though in a similar setting to OTL Prussia. I actually wanted England to become the mercantile nation that was almost like its OTL counterpart, but minus the unity with Scotland and Ireland. I will also create a short segment on the alternate history within the alternate history on the question of "What if the Holy Roman Empire had accepted the rapprochement with Russia?", leading to a completely different result from the one in this timeline. After much consternation, I have decided to keep France intact as a great power as to flex their muscles in Africa and Asia, replacing Portugal.]
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on Jun 16, 2018 22:37:10 GMT
Case Study #18: The Second Hundred Years' War Part Four
The Ottoman Empire watched the events in Europe with a fearful gaze while Christian Europe gleefully slaughtered each other over its religious differences. However, the main reason why they watched with fear is because of the effects of the Second Hundred Years' War on the Christian population within the Ottoman Empire. Reluctantly, the Ottomans began to crack down on the Savonarolist population, forcing them underground. Ottoman Bulgaria became the hub for the Savonarolist movement within the Ottoman Empire, and the hostile attitude of the Ecumenical Patriarch towards the Savonarolist movement had only intensified the efforts by the Savonarolists to preach in Bulgaria. The sudden 180 degree turn by the Ottoman authorities was one of the reasons by the Rhodope Rebellion erupted, making it one of the reasons for the increasing persecution of Orthodox Christians within the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman Serbia also had its Savonarolist movement within its borders, thanks to the Serb converts to Savonarolism who came from Dalmatia, eager to spread this new idea. The Croats who converted to Savonarolism were also eager to spread the ideas among their people, and in fact the Croatian, Serbian and Bulgarian Savonarolists began to meet each other in secret. Meanwhile, the Venetian Republic's fortunes declined with the Ottoman conquests of Dalmatia and most of the Greek islands that were under their control. With the loss of those territories, the Venetians were more vulnerable to the intrigues from their Genoese and Milanese rivals, who formed the nucleus of the Kingdom of Padania, a northern Italian state that was established in the aftermath of the Holy Roman Empire's demise in the 1700s, although the reigning House of Hohenzollern still kept the regnal title of 'Holy Roman Emperor'. The Ottoman conquest of Croatia also had a profound effect on Maximillian's reign in Hungary, and various Hungarian junior nobles had grown to resent the man who gave away their borderlands to a man who shouldn't even be allowed to reign in the first place. The Hungarian kingdom also had to deal with the heavy taxes imposed upon them to keep the Black Army of Hungary well funded, even though despite Maximillian's own efforts to invest in their weaponry and armor. In Poland, Philip the Handsome's shaky reign was further complicated by his inability to understand the Polish language, forcing the Polish nobles to speak to him through their translators. Polish universities were often ransacked and its professors who chose to stay were often beaten and killed for espousing anti-Hapsburg rhetoric. The Polish Inquisition, introduced back in 1509, proved ineffective as Inquisitorial agents were often killed by Polish irregulars in retaliation for the deaths of Polish martyrs, leading to Philip the Handsome's notorious 'Purgatorial Expeditions', which was nothing more than an early modern version of reprisal killings seen in the 1940s, during the Second Great World War. The Purgatorial Expedition went like this: an agent of the Inquisition is killed, the Hapsburg authorities in Poland locate the village or city of the guilty offender, round up the guilty party and their families, execute them, and burn down their homes. The whole of western and southeastern Poland was subjected to Purgatorial Expeditions, which only made Polish determination to free their country. Polish exiles in Lithuania and Muscovy brought the plight of their people to the attention of the new Lithuanian King, Sigismund I (Grand Duke Alexander Jagiellon had died in 1503), as well as Grand Duke Vasily III of Muscovy. The brutal and tragic consequences of the Purgatorial Expeditions were that Poland started to experiment with the Savonarolist ideas, purely out of hatred of Papal authority. The Savonarolist experiment in Poland also grew exponentially, despite the official ban on the Savonarolist ideology under the Hapsburgs. Finally, another event that broke out in Lithuania had an effect on Poland. Veyshnoria's origins lay with the growing resentment from the weakening power of the Jagiellon dynasty, and their inability to manage what's left of the Lithuanian Kingdom after they lost the War of the Polish Succession. A group of Orthodox nobles within the Lithuanian state, led by the influential Vishnioveckai clan, of which the future Grand Prince of Veyshnoria, Grand Prince Dmitry Ivanovich Vyshnevetsky, belonged to, started to clamour for more rights for all citizens of Lithuania, regardless of origin. Their home base was in Zbarazh, in southwestern Ruthenia, and they were among the few Rutheno-Lithuanians who advocated for keeping Lithuania's independence. The other Rutheno-Lithuanians who wanted closer relations with the Grand Duchy of Moscow were the influential Sapieha and Olshanski families, whose powerbase was further north in northern Veyshnoria. In the first stages of the Second Hundred Years' War, the Swedish separatists gained support from the Holy Roman Empire in their ambitions to declare the political independence of the Swedish nation and their designation by the Holy Roman Empire as the guardian of the Baltic regions, led to an uprising in Uppsala in April of 1511. The Uppsala Uprising of 1511 had taken the Kalmar Union by surprise, although the Danish royal family had long forseen the inevitablity of the Kalmar Union's collapse. However, the Danes responded by initiating their own kind of Purgatorial Expeditions, slaughtering Swedish nobles who resisted Danish authority, culminating in the massacres around Sundsvall and Umea. Furthermore, Denmark's founding of the Danish Conciliar Apostolic Church three months after the Uppsala Uprising had cemented Denmark as the first openly Savonarolist nation in Europe (France wouldn't have that honor, due to their official 'status' as a Catholic kingdom), leading to Sweden choosing Catholicism (though later Shaddaist Catholicism) as their official religion. The Holy Roman Empire also gave the Swedish separatists authority to invade what's left of the Kingdom of Lithuania, which they did in September of 1511. Operating from the region the Swedes would later call Baltenmark, the Swedish revolutionary army invaded northern Lithuania, causing a crisis that would later culminate in the rise of the Grand Principality of Veyshnoria, under the leadership of Mykhailo Zbarashkiy Vyshnevetsky, on September 21. The rise of Veyshnoria had also prompted the now rump Lithuanian state under Sigismund I to fiercely resist the Swedish invasion, leading to his death during the Swedish offensive against the Lithuanians in the defense of Zarasai. With Lithuania officially 'wiped off' the map' Veyshnoria claimed itself as the successor to the Kingdom of Lithuania, but instead of adopting the Pahoniya as its official coat of arms, they opted to adopt a simple Orthodox cross with a blue stripe between the two white stripes. Grand Prince Mykhailo declared Kyiv as the capital of Veyshnoria, also staking a claim to the legacy of the former Kievan Rus', although this irritated the Muscovite state, which also claimed the same Kievan Rus' legacy as well. In October of 1511, Grand Prince Mykhailo sent envoys to Muscovy for diplomatic recognition, to which Vasily III accepted. Muscovy and Veyshnoria also began to prepare for the long war with the Holy Roman Empire and the Swedish separatists, mainly by recruiting more soldiers. In a controversial move, Vasily III proposed to grant the Muscovite military personnel under its service land in lieu of monetary payment. Though this proved initially unpopular, it also allowed landless peasants who may not have a chance to work for various landlords, to join in exchange for a small plot of land. This system was similar to the Ottoman timar system where the timariots were granted land in exchange for military service, but in the Muscovite case, it grew to more than just the cavalrymen: it also gave infantrymen and artillerymen a chance to own land. The adopted flag of Veyshnoria during its short existence before Muscovite (later Russian) forces liberated the ethnic Lithuanian lands and freed the Poles, leading to the restoration of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.Veyshnoria's religious struggles were also controversial: the Orthodox population there was divided between the Josephites and the Dmitriads (followers of the pro-Savonarolist Dmitry of Pleven) over doctrinal differences. The more influential Josephites, or the Possessors, were wealthy landowners who have acquired land during the time of the previous Jagiellon dynasty, and were more inclined to oppose the Dmitriads. Moreover, the Possessor movement of Veyshnoria was also connected to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, resulting in the Dmitriads' insistence that the Veyshnorian Possessors are nothing but Ottoman spies. It also didn't help that within Veyshnoria, there were also minor nobles and Cossacks from the Zaporozhian region who opposed closer ties to Muscovy and wanted to maintain its position as the barrier between Europe and Asia, with Muscovy being considered an Asian civilization in Zaporozhian Cossack circles. What brought Veyshnoria over to the Dmitriad camp, and by extension, the Savonarolist camp, was the presence of the Polachak-Brdzewski Royal Academy for Higher Learning in Polotsk, which became Veyshnoria's only place for education so far, until 1515 when Grand Prince Mykhailo Vyshnevetsky laid the foundations for another college in Kiev, the Kiev-Vyshnevetsky Royal Academy [1], modeled on the university in Krakow and Polotsk. In the same year, Vasily III would also found two universities in Moscow and Vladimir: the Moscow-Plevensky Royal Academy (later the Moscow Imperial University) [2] and Vladimir-Suzdal Royal Academy (later Vladimir Imperial University) [3]. Those two universities were built from 1515 until 1518, mostly from scratch, as Vasily III preferred to test the skills of his Muscovite subjects who have completed their education at the Polachak-Brdzewski Royal Academy. In addition to those universities, a proto-military academy was also set up, in the town of Nizhny Novgorod, that still stands today, although other military academies were set up throughout Russia several centuries down the road. The proto-military academy was initially called the Military Science Academy until it became known as the Imperial Military Academy in 1721. The Military Science Academy was initially staffed by veterans of the War of the Polish Succession until the Savonarolists from France who were also military veterans also became instructors there. What's more, the French Savonarolists who have fled to places like Denmark and Russia assimilated into the local culture through conversion to Conciliar Apostolicism. Exiled Poles who didn't want to live under Hapsburg (and later Hohenzollern) rule also settled in Muscovy, mainly as military instructors, but also as tradesmen and new noble families were established there. Muscovites and Veyshnorians also began to trade with each other, with Veyshnoria becoming the middleman between Muscovy and the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman Empire - The Reign of Ahmed the Wise:Although the Ottoman Empire was safe from external threats as a result of the Second Hundred Years' War, they were not safe from internal threats due to ambitious princes seeking to establish themselves as the successors to their fathers. This was true in the case of Sehzade Selim, whom Sultan Bayezid II has sent to the Levant in order to stop a potential Mameluk invasion of Ottoman Anatolia. However, an unforseen event had occurred in 1504 when Sultan Bayezid II had unexpectedly died from an undisclosed illness. Rumors had it that one of the Sehzades had poisoned him. Others say that it was a rebellious pasha who did it. Whatever the result would truly be, it resulted in a second Ottoman civil war where Sehzade Selim, Sehzade Ahmet and Sehzade Korkut would fight each other for the throne. Like the Joseon Civil War later in 1507, the Ottoman Second Interregnum involved various princes who would kill each other over the right to succeed their father. Sehzade Selim had acquired a reputation that wasn't as terrifying as that of his Korean contemporary, Yeonsangun, but his epithet of "the Grim" indicates of his hot temper. Sehzade Ahmet on the other hand, received support from the soldiers who fought with him in the Croatian campaign. Moreover, the Komoroglu clan of which Azad Komoroglu had now hailed from, had thrown his support behind his benefactor. On November 12, 1504, Sehzade Ahmet rode back to Istanbul with 50,000 Ottoman soldiers, leaving Rumelia under the administration of Malkocoglu Yahya Pasha, who was appointed as the Beylerbey of Rumelia. Azad Komoroglu came to Yahya Pasha's attention due to his experience with working alongside Hadim Suleiman Pasha. Hadim Suleiman Pasha's handling of the Savonarolan expansion within the Ottoman Empire however, became more of a liability as the fallout from the Second Hundred Years' War had resulted in the Ecumenical Patriarch's insistence on cracking down on the Savonarolists who've managed to convert a large amount of Ottoman Rumelian Christians (mainly Bosnian Christians who haven't converted to Islam yet, but the majority of the Savonarolan converts were Croats and Serbs) to their sect. The Savonarolists were also fearful of being extradited to the Holy Roman Empire, since they knew too well the penalty for opposing Papal authority. At the same time, Sehzade Ahmet had no particular interest in the affairs of the Christian community within the Ottoman Empire and was focused mostly on creating more loyal Muslim subjects out of the Balkan Christians. Once Sehzade Ahmet arrived in Constantinople, he received news that Sehzade Korkut was preparing to seize power, and that Sehzade Selim had acquired the services of Arabian mercenaries plus the auxilliary troops of the Crimean Khanate. Sehzade Selim launched a blitzkrieg attack on southeastern Anatolia, taking Dulkadir province, and making it his temporary headquarters. Sehzade Korkut was not so lucky however, has Sehzade Ahmet had sent bostancis to execute him, which they did on December 9, 1504. With most of Rumelia and northwestern Anatolia under Sehzade Ahmet's control, he proceeded to slaughter the rest of his brothers and their families until not even their daughters were left alive. The sheer cold bloodedness of the soon to be Sultan Ahmet I was comparatively minor to the violent behavior of his Korean contemporary, Yeonsangun. Unlike the First Ottoman Interregnum, the Second Ottoman Interregnum was surprisingly short. For Sehzade Selim, his fortunes sharply fell when his army was caught in an ambush by Qizilbash troops who operated independently of Shah Ali Reza Safavi on January 21, 1505. Sehzade Selim was about to finish off the Qizilbash with a cavalry charge, his horse was stabbed by a Qizilbash pikeman, resulting in his fall. Three Qizilbash infantrymen impaled him in the chest with their spears, ironically securing the succession for Sultan Ahmed I. The official date that was given for Sultan Ahmet's ascension into the throne was on February 14, 1505. Once Ahmet I[4] had gained the throne, he started to consolidate control of the Ottoman state by introducing a set of fiscal reforms that created the foundation for one of the most ingenius Ottoman fiscal system that was ever created. Built primarily on the Islamic rules governing financial transactions, the Ottoman state is authorized to confiscate any property belonging to any debtor who is unable to repay the loan he or she has undertaken. Though it was similar to the ones that the Savonarolists have introduced, the major difference is that Ahmed I had also attached the debtor's debt on his children or grandchildren should he die while failing to keep up with his payment. The weapons arsenal built in Rumelia have continued to produce firearms and cannon, while horse ranches in Anatolia have continued to bred fine horses to be used by the Sipahi cavalry forces. On March of 1505, Ahmed I officially granted Azad Komoroglu the lands around the area of Bosnia on the west side of the Drina River. Though this was meant to secure his loyalty, Ahmed I's decision to grant Azad Bey the lands deep within Rumelia was meant to protect him from any vengeful Croatian Christians who have known him personally in the past. Bratunac Fortress was built during Azad's lifetime, and in fact it was often used by both the Komoroglu and Malkocoglu families as a summer retreat. It was at this time that Azad and Almira settled down and had children of their own. The eldest child, a daughter by the name of Fatma, was born in 1506, and would grow up to become the wife of Sahib I Giray, the last Khan of Crimea before its conquest by the Grand Duchy of Muscovy, with the aid of Veyshnoria. In 1510 their first son was born, Sahin, the later Komoroglu Sahin Kapudan Pasha who would become the Ottoman Admiral in charge of the first Ottoman attempt to launch an expedition to SE Asia alongside Kurtoglu Hizir Reis, and the first Ottoman governor of the Sanjak of Melaka [5]. Another son, Zehir, would later found Aslanabad [6], as an important Ottoman trade post, and would become one of the prominent commanders in the war between China and the Ottoman Empire. The second daughter, Ayse, born in 1512, married Ragusoglu Yakup Pasha (a fellow Croatian convert to Islam), who also played a vital role in the Ottoman naval battles involving the Spaniards and the Chinese. The Komoroglu family also became influential in Ottoman imperial circles as the men who fought under Azad Bey eventually grew to become sanjak beys and pashas in their own right. One of those men who trained with Azad Bey and his sons was the future Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, Koca Sinan Pasha. The main reason why the first six years of Ahmed I's reign was marked by relative peace within the Ottoman state was because he was carefully planning the next campaign. Belgrade was the next target on his list, as well as the Mameluk Sultanate. He also embarked on the expansion of the Ottoman Navy, having witnessed its rather dismal performance, through the modifications on some of its warships. The Ottoman galley was widened to withstand enemy cannon fire, while a new Ottoman galleon ship was constructed with the help of Ragusan shipbuilders conscripted into Ottoman service. The significance of the Ottoman galley's modification was that while its maneuverability has declined, it compensates itself with better durability and the installment of medium sized cannons into the deck. While the Ottoman galley might not be as big as the Korean Panoksuns, it has a much better durability than European galleys and it's also the same size as the Japanese atakebunes (the Ottomans had taken into account the need for survival instead of speed). The most important aspect of the Ottoman Navy is its leadership: Barbary pirates who often raided Mediterranean shipping were often courted by Ottoman officials and enticed them to join them in exchange for monetary compensation. Some of the Barbary pirates also rose to become pashas in their own right, but this was a rare case. The river flotilla was also expanded for the purpose of conquering Belgrade, though in the 1550s it was also used in the Hungarian campaign. In addition, the akinci corps also expanded to include other recruits with a background in ranching. Azad Bey's own regiment came from Macedonia and southwestern Serbia, where the ranchers were originally from, though a few Ottoman Arabs were also included into his own regiment. Finally, the Janissary Corps also expanded its numbers while Ahmed I also made plans to create another branch of the Ottoman military that would consist of ethnic Turks, Kurds, and Arabs. He knew well enough that relying on the human resources of Ottoman Rumelia in the long run would in fact alienate the more traditional segment of the population of Ottoman Anatolia. Moreover, the borderlands with the growing Safavid state had been subjected to repeated raids from renegade Qizilbash cavalry forces who operated independently from the Shah's control. Therefore, the akinci corps was sorely needed in the fringes of Ottoman Anatolia. One of the main reasons why Sultan Ahmed I was called 'the Wise' was because of his domestic policies that largely benefited the rural population of the Ottoman Empire. Although serfdom in the Islamic world didn't work the same way it did in Europe, the peasants within the Ottoman state didn't pay as much rent and crops as their European Christian counterparts did. Ahmed I also began to initiate a collection of old Ottoman laws and engaged himself in a serious conversation with the Islamic council over what set of laws that have to be kept and what other laws that could be abolished. Although the jizya tax was kept, Ahmed I proposed that certain privileges for Christian vassals within the empire could be awarded in exchange for loyalty to the sultan. Ottoman Rumelia was ripe with the desire for such privileges, particularly among its Serb subjects. The Croats, having been conquered recently, were also key candidates for the same kind of privileges. At the same time, the Wallachian and Moldavian vassals watched with fear as to what kind of tricks that Ahmed I would pull in terms of autonomy. However, the Ecumenical Patriarch's audience with the sultan regarding the Savonarolists living within the Ottoman Empire had ensured that any kind of homegrown Savonarolist Revolution wouldn't survive. For instance, Savonarola Villages were banned inside the Ottoman state, in accordance to the Islamic and secular Ottoman laws there. In place of the Savonarola villages, there existed an underground community of hidden Savonarolists who thrived in makeshift homes built inside caves. Bulgaria's caves provided an excellent refuge for the Savonarolists who couldn't build their community in the open, and specially trained guards taught by veterans of the Second Hundred Years' War were formed to protect their underground community. The presence of the cave hayduks, along with the growing intolerance from the Ecumenical Patriarch, would constitute one of the several reasons for the Rhodope Uprising. The Bulgarian Orthodox Christian community chafed under the double suppression of the Ottoman authorities and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. Several Bulgarian monks complained of being discriminated against by other Orthodox monks for speaking their language. One of these monks who thrived in such a stressful environment was a man who hailed from Pleven. Dmitry of Pleven was born to a family of Bulgarian intellectuals, during the time that Bayezid II still reigned. Though he was not a typical character befitting a Bulgarian nationalist, Dmitry of Pleven was fascinated by the histories of the First and Second Bulgarian Empires. One of his ancestors had once served the Bulgarian Tsar Kaloyan during the Latin Empire's ravages against Bulgaria, and another ancestor had once fought alongside the Serbs in the Battle of Kosovo. When Dmitry of Pleven expressed his desire to leave his homeland in search of a better life as a monk, one of the Savonarolists whom he had contact with suggested that he travel north, through the Wallachian and Moldavian Principalities, and into the lands of Muscovy. Though his journey was tough, he was well received by Vasily III. The main reason for his departure from the Ottoman Empire was that the Bulgarian monk had been immensely influenced by the teachings of Savonarola and viewed the Savonarolist ideology as something that the Orthodox Church needed. Furthermore, his growing anti-Ecumenical Patriarchate stance, tied in to his anti-Greek sentiment and Slavophile tendencies, had made him a useful man in the Muscovite court. Dmitry of Pleven and three hundred other Bulgarian monks who joined the Savonarolist sect settled in Muscovy, and later on in the lands of the conquered Crimean Khanate. It was through the Bulgarian monks that the development of the Russian Orthodox Church, along with the influences from the Western Christian Savonarolists and the Orthodox Churches of Georgia and Armenia, that shaped it to what it is today. As of today, there are 500,000 Bulgarian emigres living in southern Russia, in the Fanagoriya Autonomous Krai[7], most of whom formed the Don-Kuban Bulgarian Cossack community. Moreover, the Don-Kuban Bulgarians also consisted the majority of the soldiers in the Imperial Russian Army that took part in the Eight Years' War from 1755 to 1763, retaking bits of southern Alaska and played a pivotal role in the conquest of the Viceroyalty of Nueva Asturias in 1763, with the official annexation being valid by 1764. In addition, the genetic makeup of the modern Chernarusian nation revealed in a DNA test conducted in 2010 that 64% of the Chernarusian population could trace their lineage to the Balkans and southern Russia. --- Excerpts from Dmitry of Pleven's Speech to the Bulgarian refugees settling in Russia: "People of the Danubian Bulgarian lands! For too long that the Ottoman Empire has brought unheard of suffering to us, ever since the fall of the Second Bulgarian Empire. The corrupt officials in Tsarigrad who have colluded with the Sultan have seen to it that our movement to reform our Christian society, be crushed! Though many of our comrades have died defending our people's honor and dignity in the mountains of Rhodope, they showed the world that we as Bulgarians have continued to struggle. We've even encouraged our Serb and Croat brethren to revolt as well, though with predictable results. But now, the foolish actions of Sultan Mahmud [8], in his vicious treatment of Christians living throughout the empire, had played into the hands of our saviors!
Bulgarians! That foolish action of the vengeful one has allowed our French and Russian friends to give us refuge when the rest of Europe is dead set against us! As the great French King Philip VII de Valois had once commented on the Ottoman expulsion of Christians from the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Rumelia: "It is quite a pity that a man who claims to be the protector of the peoples who worship all three Abrahamic faiths would resort to such savage treatment of those who believe in the one, true God, as well as those who cling on to the ideals of Girolamo Savonarola that redefined what it means to live in a Christian society. A society without exploitation and without slavery to the moneylenders is what we should strive for!
Here, in the lands of our ancestors who once ruled an entity called Old Great Bulgaria, we have essentially come back to reclaim this ancient land. However, we do not seek to recreate the Bulgaria of old, but to build a new home within the Russian state. As our people continue to settle down in the steppes of southern Russia, I will plead with the Russian Tsar to let us form an autonomous province. We shall call this new province Fanagoria, after the old capital of ancient Old Great Bulgaria. Here, we will thrive where even Khan Kubrat's people had failed. Long live Fanagoria! Long live our people! Long live the advancement of Orthodox Christendom!"
--- Excerpts from "Gold, Silver and Servants: The Rise of United Spain's Colonial Empire"
by: Enrique Salcedo
University of Chuqiago Printing Press, published 2014
Chapter Two: The Growth of the Three Viceroyalties Spain during the early 16th century was just getting started in its colonial expansion, although the separate discoveries of the land were claimed under the separate crowns and had no authority over the other's colonies. For example, the Crown of Aragon had no authority when it comes to issues relating to the newly emerged Viceroyalty of Nueva Lusitania while Portugal cannot issue orders under its authority in the Viceroyalty of Nueva Alhambra. Amerigo Vespucci was later named the first viceroy of Nueva Majorca, while Diego Columbus was appointed as the first viceroy of Nueva Alhambra, with the town of San Numeriano acting as his personal headquarters. Nueva Lusitania however, wasn't discovered until 1505 when in a second expedition from Portugal, Joao Alvares Fagundes was supposed to resupply in Nueva Ragusa, but had accidentally went off course and somehow landed on the mouth of the Amazon River. Curious at the sight of such a large river, Fagundes and a crew of fifty armed conquistadors traveled further inland into the Amazon region until they were ambushed by several hundreds of indigenous tribes, presumably from the Apiaca tribe. Unfortunately, the expedition failed, forcing Fagundes to retreat back into the mouth of the Amazon and decided to build a settlement there so he could resupply his ships, as well as to give his crew a much needed rest. While Fagundes was building the settlement on the mouth of the Amazon, another tribe, the Tupi, had ran across a Portuguese sentry and asked harshly what they were doing there. When none of the Portuguese crew members were able to answer, the Tupi attacked them. Fagundes was forced to call in his ships (armed with cannons this time) and to give the order to fire at the Tupi. Once the ships began bombarding the Tupi tribesmen, they began to retreat, not knowing how to counter the power of the Portuguese cannons.
The new settlement, which was completed in May of 1506, was named Sao Leonardo [9], after the lead ship that Fagundes piloted. It emerged as one of the major Portuguese trading posts in the area, and coupled with the economic activities that emerged in the other colonies controlled by the Crowns of Aragon and Castile, Sao Leonardo became profitable in the long run. Unlike the other colonies however, the future Viceroyalty of Nueva Lusitania will develop in a much different direction in that the Portuguese colonial authorities there tried seriously to integrate the new indigenous tribes that have come under Portuguese control. Sao Leonardo was built on the model of all other Portuguese towns: one town square, one church, one city hall and several houses, manors and farms where indigenous tribesmen recruited as farm labourers could work. Several more towns were late built under Fagundes's authority, and in January of 1508 Fagundes was surprised to hear that he was not appointed the first governor of Nueva Lusitania: that honor went to one of his crew who distinguised himself: Vasco de Gama. To make up for his lack of accomplishments, Vasco de Gama was placed in charge of exploration of the lands beyond Sao Leonardo while Fagundes would be recalled to Europe in order to lead and train a Portuguese navy armada that was going to join in the Second Hundred Years' War. Vasco de Gama, surprisingly enough, proved to be a well adjusted governor, though his penchant for hiring indigenous servants to the point where he was viewed as a de facto slave owner, had infuriated the more jealous other crew members who wanted to enslave more indigenous peoples. At the same time, Vasco de Gama himself would commission the project for more settlements: Presepio [10](founded in 1510 and completed within one year, emerged as a shipbuilding and agricultural hub), Sao Afonso [11](founded in 1512, and completed within six months, emerged as a major hub of Catholic missionary activity in the region) and Santa Felicia [12](founded in 1513, completed within a year and a half, construction often delayed due to native attacks on the settlement, emerged as a major trading hub between Nueva Lusitania and Nueva Toledo).
In contrast to the Portuguese who brought in mainly peasants from mainland Portugal to settle the new lands in Nueva Lusitania, the Aragonese who controlled the Viceroyalty of Nueva Majorca had brought in Italian and Catalan peasants seeking to escape from the chaos that is unfolding in Europe. The Italian peasants, as well as merchants, emerged as the financial backbone of Nueva Majorca. It was said that the colonists who helped build Nueva Majorca hailed from the Crown of Aragon's Sicilian and Neapolitan kingdoms, and most of these merchant colonists were experienced in scouting for future spots for building ports, harbors and even new towns. It was in these Nueva Majorcan towns that the population that would later provide the soldiers for both the battles of the Second Hundred Years' War and the Spanish Conquest of the Incan Empire (though that campaign was mainly handled by troops from the Crown of Aragon, including several hundreds of Neapolitans, Sicilians, Catalans and Valencians). Interaction between the Aragonese colonial authorities and the indigenous tribes they've encountered were similar to the interaction between the Portuguese colonial authorities and their indigenous tribesmen, with only one difference: the Aragonese encouraged the intermarriages between indigenous men (provided they convert to Catholicism) and Aragonese women in order to help integrate them into Aragonese society, and later on the same policy was done with indigenous women marrying Aragonese men. The expansion of Nueva Majorca was a bit faster than the expansion of the other two Spanish colonies mainly because of the larger military presence of the Aragonese forces in the region (though the Aragonese military was bolstered by the inclusion of indigenous auxilliaries). In particular, the autonomous colony of Nuevo Toledo, reserved for Spain's Jewish population, was explored by another prominent conquistador and future Second Hundred Year War hero, Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba. Cordoba befriended several Sephardic Jews while he journeyed into the Fagundesias. However, he had to turn over his documentation on the new land that was discovered, including the strip of land that separated the Atlantic Ocean from the Pacific Ocean, to the Nueva Majorcan colonial authorities (de Cordoba was a subject of the Crown of Castile, and thus he could not claim this section of land in the name of the Crown of Castile). In exchange, de Cordoba was allowed to claim any other lands north of the future boundaries of the autonomous colony of Nuevo Toledo. In effect, this was the first start of what will become known as the Spanish Conquest of the Mayan civilization, starting from 1510 (several years after Nueva Majorca appointed Amerigo Vespucci as its first governor) until 1513.
In the colony of Nueva Alhambra, the Columbus brothers' venture had turned into a profit making machine as the Castilians who dominated the exploration mission had scouted the lands around the gulf area. Operating from San Numeriano, several Castilian ships began to sail along the coasts of the southern regions of North Fagundesia. At one point in 1508, a fleet led by Juan de Grijalva had arrived at a mouth of a large river that in his words, 'was unlike anything that I've ever seen in my life'. Though he spotted several indigenous tribes of a different kind living in the region, he took a gamble and decided to approach them with his ships to see where they are. To his astonishment, one of the tribesmen offered him a new kind of crop for him to try. The crop in question was chewy and yellow on the inside, but covered in green leaves. De Grijalva and his crew tried it, and to their surprise, it tasted well. One of the crew members asked the tribesman what it was, but all he heard was 'mahiz'. Little did De Grijalva and his crew member knew, they've made the first discovery of a New World crop in the form of the maize, or corn. Impressed with the taste, De Grijalva asked how the tribe had cultivated it, and one thing led to another, and soon enough, the Castilians and the tribe that was revealed to be the Choctaw, had started to teach each other the basic agricultural practices that they made. For the Choctaw, they were introduced to wheat cultivation, as well as cattle ranching (the cattle ranches in the Fagundesias was first built in San Salvador, despite the unsuitable conditions there). For the Spaniards, they were introduced to the cultivation of corn, sugar and poppy cultivation that resulted in the rise of the opiate production, one of the leading notorious drugs that plagued most of human society today. Opiate addiction remains one of the leading causes of death in most of the developed world, along with alcoholism and various other man made diseases as well. In addition, the Choctaw also benefited from the Spanish introduction of horse breeding and horse ranching. The adoption of horses for the Choctaw was crucial in their way of life, as they were now able to cover longer distances while hunting. It also allowed the Spanish, or rather, the Castilian portion of the Spanish colonial empire, to train future native cavalry units for further expeditions against other tribes within the southeastern region of North Fagundesia. The Choctaw would also emerge as one of the most loyal Native Fagundesian tribes of the Spanish Empire, with a significant portion of them becoming assimilated into Spanish culture through the conversion to Catholicism. Spanish friars were also taught the Choctaw language in order to speed up the conversion process.
European diseases such as small pox began to decimate the Choctaw community as early as 1507, though the epidemic of such diseases wasn't recorded until 1543 when the Spanish colonial authorities reported that 5,000 Choctaw, 3,200 Creek, 2,900 Seminole and 1,700 Chickasaw natives died from small pox between 1540 and 1543. Likewise, the early Castilian settlers in Nueva Alhambra also died from yellow fever and chagas disease between 1540 and 1542. The ravages from the New World and Old World diseases had nearly killed the future of the entire Nueva Alhambra colony until the Crown of Castile made a controversial decision of importing African indentured servants to work on the plantations and farms owned by Castilian nouveau riche tycoons who confiscated the land from the rest of the indigenous tribes. Although slavery in the Fagundesias was hotly debated, slavery under the Castilians was relatively harsh, but it was nothing compared to the life of a slave under the Portuguese or Aragonese. The brutal nature of slavery also played a key role in redefining the Savonarolist ideology regarding slavery, which Philip Melanchthon wrote in 1550. In his famous "African Redemption" thesis of 1550, he insisted that slavery in its exploitative condition was not only morally repugnant, but it would create a new kind of class conflict that will lead to a totalitarian environment where the oppressed slaves would initiate a series of slave revolts. Melanchthon's anti-slavery stance would become one of the most defining points of the Savonarolist ideology: in line with the anti-exploitation rhetoric, it was no wonder that the French in Nouvelle Provence had excelled in integrating the African tribes there through conversion to the Conciliar Apostolic branch of Christianity.
--- [1] Kiev-Vyshnevetsky Royal Academy is TTL's name for the Kiev-Mohyla Academy. [2] Moscow Imperial University is TTL's version of Moscow State University, only founded in 1515 rather than 1755 of OTL. [3] Vladimir Imperial University is TTL's version of Vladimir State University. [4] Sultan Ahmed I is different from its OTL counterpart, because this Sultan Ahmed is the son of Bayezid II, while its namesake counterpart is the son of OTL Sultan Mehmed III. However, this Sultan Ahmed will be completely different in character. [5] Sanjak of Melaka is practically the same territory as OTL Sultanate of Melacca. [6] Aslanabad is TTL's name for Singapore. [7] Fanagoriya Krai consists of the other half of the lands that were formerly ruled by the Crimean Khanate. It stretches from the Don River region to the Kuban River region, and into Crimea itself. Fanagoriya Krai also includes the OTL Donbass region. [8] Sultan Mahmud of TTL would be the son of Sultan Kasim I, who in turn is the youngest son of Sultan Ahmed I. [9] Sao Leonardo is TTL's name for Macapa, Brazil. [10] Presepio is TTL's name for Belem, Brazil. [11] Sao Afonso is TTL's name for Sao Luis, Maranhao, Brazil. [12] Santa Felicia is TTL's name for Afua, Brazil.
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on Jun 23, 2018 4:55:24 GMT
Case Study #19: The Second Hundred Years' War Part Five
Veyshnoria's turbulent existence on the fringes of Europe had been affected by the Swedish invasion and occupation of the ethnic Lithuanian lands. Many Orthodox Lithuanians, as well as the Savonarolists who resided within the core of Lithuania proper had fled to Veyshnoria, settling in Polotsk, Vitebsk, Grodno, Kiev and Zbarazh. Zbarazh was the most important city within Veyshnoria, as it was the home base of the ruling Vyshnevetsky family. Their value was so highly prized that when the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was restored with Russia's blessing, their first choice as candidate for the Polish-Lithuanian throne was the second son of Dmytro Vyshnevetsky, Petro Dmytrievich Vyshnevetsky, who would eventually lead Poland's revival with such massive effort that he will not only restore the honor that Poland lost, but would serve as the ultimate arbiter of Europe and the barrier between the Catholic side of Europe and the Orthodox Conciliar Apostolic side of Asia. The cultural flowering of Veyshnoria was mainly sponsored by the Kiev-Vyshnevetsky Royal Academy, through many of its students who began to write poems and epic tales in the Veyshnorian dialect of the Ruthenian language. The Veyshnorian language, as it was called in both Veyshnoria and Russia, contained influences from both the White Ruthenian and Great Ruthenian dialects, and variations of the Cyrillic alphabet were adopted for such purpose. In fact, the Russian colony of Alaska (later the Grand Duchy and Kingdom of Alaska) was later colonized by Veyshnorian Cossacks, who brought their language, customs and traditions to the Alaskan Natives. This in contrast to the modern Chernarusian state, which would be colonized by Russians, Balkan and Caucasian Christians, and East Asians like Mongols, Koreans and Japanese, but its main cultural makeup resembles that of the Balkan Christian nations of Serbia and Bulgaria. Veyshnoria's precarious economic condition made them reliant on trade with Muscovy, who encouraged the Veyshnorians to develop their own industries in order to trade with them. However, one common problem that faced both Veyshnoria and Muscovy was the menacing presence of the Crimean Khanate. The Crimean Khanate often raided Veyshnorian territory for slaves to be sold to various slave markets in Astrakhan and the Ottoman territories. The Crimean raids continued until 1515, when in a fit of rage and frustration at another Crimean raid into Muscovite territory, Grand Duke Vasily III approached Grand Prince Mykhailo for a bold proposal: the partition of the Crimean Khanate's territories, where Veyshnoria would receive the western portions and Muscovy would receive the eastern portions. Although Grand Prince Mykhailo complained that Muscovy will gain a larger share in the Crimean plunder, Vasily III offered him the option of expanding into Moldavia, plus future territorial adjustments as well. He also promised to liberate Lithuania as well, though should he die, his successors will continue to work on Lithuania's liberation, and in the long run, the restoration of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Swedish-occupied Lithuania had undergone a significant change in that the Lithuanian population of Swedish Lithuania had now started to experience the same Purgatorial Expeditions that their Polish colleagues had suffered when they were under the boot of the Hapsburgs. The Lithuanian language was suppressed in favor of Swedish, as the Hapsburgs conceded the control of the Baltic to Sweden in order to create another Catholic barrier separating Muscovy from the rest of the members of the Grand Alliance. However, Muscovy still shared a border with Denmark, but there was no road built between Denmark's Norwegian provinces and the far reaches of Muscovite Karelia. In addition, Lithuania's literary elite was forced underground in the face of Swedish attempts to assimilate them into Swedish society, but it proved to be unsuccessful, as Swedish troops were ruthless in their search for anti-Swedish rebels who might be a nuisance in the future. The eventual demise of Lithuania's indigenous literary elite was one of the prime causes for their assimilation into Polish culture, though the Lithuanian language still survives, albeit in its endangered form. It was also partly because of the cultural integration of the Lithuanian state into Poland that the future concept of the United States of Greater Mazovia was conceived by ambitious Polish intellectuals who were inspired by the French model of centralizing its power through the integration of the minority states that are under its direct control, especially Brittany and Occitania. Those same Polish intellectuals would also boast that "although we are Poles in ethnicity, the diverse peoples who live under the protection of the Polish-Lithuanian state shall henceforth be known as Mazovians", giving birth to the Polish political concept of Pan-Mazovianism, or the feeling that everyone is a Mazovian by nationality.
The Swedish expansion into Lithuania however, triggered another kind of rebellion within its territories: the Finns, many of whom were beginning to feel the negative consequences of the Swedish independence movement, clamored for autonomy within Sweden or outright independence. Moreover, during the early stages of the Second Hundred Years' War, some Danish Savonarolists fled their homeland to settle in Finland. Most of the Danish refugees who ended up in Finland were peasants, while the Danish colonists who eventually played a role in the colonization of North Fagundesia (the colder regions, close to the Arctic Circle), were mostly merchants, though a minority of Council Christians also took part in the Danish colonization of the New World. Finland's growing national identity, along with its defense of its Finno-Ugric origin, had cemented both its religion and ethnic identity into one, single Finnish nationality. The other Finnic speakers across the Baltic, especially the Eestis (Estonians), also drew closer to the Finns. Within the growing Finnish nationalist circles, one religious leader of commoner origin arose to lead the nascent Finnish rebels that soon started to fight the Swedish separatists seeking independence from the Kalmar Union. By 1511, the Kalmar Union had effectively collapsed, with Denmark claiming primacy over Norway. The Finnish religious leader who led the movement for Finland's independence, Arvid Kurck, had initially settled for a theocracy based on the Savonarolist ideology (he was among the first Finns to adopt Savonarolism upon the beginning of the Savonarolist missionary works in Finland). However, pressure from the Swedes had forced Kruck to appoint a Swedish Savonarolist defector to the Finnish camp, Erik Fleming, to help lead the Finnish nationalist movement. His son Klaus Fleming would become the first and only regent of Finland before he was succeeded by Erik Sorolainen.
Sweden - The Two Quagmires:
The Swedish forces occupying Lithuania were in for a rude awakening when in January of 1512 the Finns unexpectedly launched their rebellion, though many Finns thought that the rebellion was a bit premature. Yet one of the rebel leaders, a Swedish Savonarolist defector who feared the growth of the Catholic Church, a chap called Klaus Heinrikinpoika, knew too well that if the Finns won't get their independence now, they won't be able to get it in the future, no matter how many times they've tried to fight back. Turku was seized in January 21 by rebels led by Heinrikinpoika and was held for seven months before the Swedes were forced to turn their attention towards Finland, but the overstretch of Sweden's forces would give Lithuanians under Swedish rule some hope that the Kingdom of Lithuania would be restored. Thus Veyshnorian arms smugglers brought in weapons manufactured in Muscovy, towards the border with Swedish Lithuania where Lithuanian irregulars would take charge of the weapons deliveries. Lithuanian irregulars often worked with Veyshnorian regular soldiers in launching devastating raids on Swedish positions. Grand Mykhailo's brother Aleksander Vyshnevetsky was placed in charge of the Veyshnorian Cossack forces that helped the Lithuanians with the raiding, and their specialty in close quarters combat proved to be useful against the hastily built but ill trained Swedish cavalry forces, who were decimated several times during skirmishes involving Lithuanian irregulars, backed by Veyshnorian cavalrymen. In contrast, Finland's rebel army had no cavalry of their own, so Erik Fleming had to send three Finnish envoys to the court of Vasily III in Moscow, in order to seek his support in Finland's independence. By April of 1512, Vasily III was eager to test out his rebuilt army (trained with the help of the Polish exiles) against the Swedes, contributing to the First Russo-Swedish War of 1512-1514. The First Russo-Swedish War became an integral part of the Second Hundred Years' War, as Muscovite forces there were harshly tested against the increasingly battle hardened Swedish forces. In the first few weeks of the conflict between Muscovy and Sweden, Vasily III appointed Prince Mikhail Glinsky as the commander of the Muscovite force poised to invade Swedish Ingria, which had been occupied back in October of 1510 during Sweden's rebellion against Denmark. The news of Muscovy's war against Sweden had pleased the Danish court, as John II of Denmark was counting on Muscovite intervention to crush the Swedish independence movement. Unfortunately, he would not live long enough to see his great rival weakened, as he will die in 1513, leaving the Danish crown in the hands of Christian II. It was for this reason that when John II was still alive, he often relied on Christian to carry out the anti-Swedish offensives designed to cripple the Swedes' fighting ability. Worse though, the Holy Roman Empire's support for the Swedish rebels meant that the Hapsburgs were now able to extend their war to the fallen Kalmar Union by attacking southern Denmark on June of 1512, with the Hapsburg naval siege of Esbjerg being the starting battle of the war.
Muscovy's first entry into Finland was rather slow, as the Muscovite cavalry was unable to operate freely within the thick forests of Finnish Lappland. The First Russo-Swedish War also witnessed the first deployment of the Muscovite infantry units called the streltsy [1]. Originally trained with the bow and arrow, the streltsy had undergone significant chances in training and equipping, thanks to the Polish exiles who fled from Poland after the War of the Polish Succession. Jerzy Radziwill, one of the Polish-Lithuanian exiles who settled in Muscovy, had observed that the streltsy's weakness was the lack of pay that they were given, and since their position in the military is often part-time (most of their time was devoted to farming or engaging in mercantile trade), this reduced their effectiveness in combat. Thus in his report to Vasily III, Jerzy Radziwill recommended that a series of streltsy villages built on a similar pattern to the Savonarola villages be formed in both the borderlands and the hinterlands of Muscovy. Vasily III took the suggestion well, though his wife Elizabeth Jagiellon played a bigger role in Muscovy's war against Sweden, in particular where her native Lithuania was of major concern.
Muscovy - Vasily III's Family:
The married life of Vasily III and Elizabeth Jagiellon could be described as something out of a fairy tale told by an illiterate peasant with a large imagination. Yet that kind of 'fairy tale' was real, and Vasily III often relied on his wife's counsel in anything related to politics, as she was more Westernized than he was. Within the Grand Duke's family though, it was Elizabeth Jagiellon who was the luckiest woman of the Early Modern Era, as she was known to have given birth to six children, all of whom would grow to adulthood, unlike the other Queens of various European kingdoms who often lost their children in their infancy. The first born son, Yuri Vasiliyevich (1508-1541), was groomed to succeed his father until he met an untimely demise in 1541, during the Muscovite offensive against the Astrakhan Khanate in which he was struck by an arrow, just as he was about to lead a cavalry charge into the walled city. It was fortunate that he didn't marry, for a potential succession crisis would have unfolded had he married. The first daughter of Vasily III and Elizabeth Jagiellon, Elena Vasiliyevna (1511-1563), would marry the firstborn son of Bagrat III of Armenia (of the House of Mukhrani), Prince Ashot, who would become King Ashot IV of Armenia. Another daughter, Anna Vasiliyevna (1514-1567), had married Prince Giorgi of Imereti, cementing the royal ties between the Houses of Rurik and Bagrationi (though Grand Duchess Elena's marriage to Ashot of Mukhrani-Darbinyan also cemented the royal ties between the Rurikids and the House of Mukhrani). Vasilisa Vasiliyevna on the other hand, had married a young cavalry Cossack of Serbian origin by the name of Bajica Sokolovic. Bajica, being the oldest son of the Savonarolist convert, Dmitrije Sokolovic, had fled along with his family from Ottoman Rumelia, through Wallachia and Moldavia, before settling in Zbarazh in Veyshnoria, though upon the recommendation of the Jaksic family (whom Dmitrije had befriended and gained support from), Bajica and later on Makarije, would resettle in Muscovy. Bajica took up military service in the Muscovite army while Makarije studied religion and was one of the major figures in the rise of the Conciliar Apostolic branch of the Savonarolist-Dmitriad-Melanchthonite thought before the Makarian Reforms had standardized the main ideas of the Conciliar Apostolic sect, as well as the standardization of the Russian grammar and alphabet that made it easier for commoners to write in. Another son, Boris Vasiliyevich, had gotten lucky: his marriage match was Barbara Radziwill, the daughter of the Polish exile Jerzy Radziwill. The match between the next Grand Prince of Muscovy and the daughter of the Radziwill family had also increased the power and influence of the latter (the Radziwill family would also become prominent in Russian Alaska as they would produce military officers and even governors), all at the same time ensuring that the Radziwill family maintained its existence by the time the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth arose from the grave. The youngest son, Simeon Vasiliyevich (1521-1584), had married a daughter of a minor Circassian Christian nobleman, who went by the name of Sophia Chukhovna. Surprisingly, it was notable in a sense that Simeon Vasiliyevich's marriage to a Circassian woman had marked the beginning of the cultural, political and social integration of Circassians into both Russian and Georgian societies, as Circassian women were also chosen to be wives of successive Georgian and Armenian kings.
Unlike children of previous monarchs, Vasily III's children were rigorously educated by the tutors who went to the Polachak-Brdzewski Royal Academy for Higher Learning, though their father had also insisted that they also attend the same schools as commoners, under different identites in order to learn more about the lives of their subjects. Although much of the nobility was outraged and scandalized by their sovereign's decision to let his children mingle with the commoners, it made sense in the fact that each Grand Duke or Grand Duchess became aware of the main problems that their peers had faced. It also allowed them to formulate future social and economic policies that will benefit the entire nation in the long run, as well as to expose them to different ideas. It was said that by the time Boris had succeeded his father as Grand Prince of Muscovy and later the Tsar of Russia, he had an ambition to spread western style learning to any new territories that would come under control of the future Russian state through conquest. In addition, the exposure that Vasily III's children also faced allowed them to make connections with foreign nobles who might one day settle in Russia or would be asked to play a significant role in foreign affairs. Polish students at the school in Polotsk also took note of the Muscovites who studied there as diligent, though a bit paranoid and secretive. In fact, Barbara Radziwill, the future wife of Boris Vasiliyevich, also studied in that very same school. Physical and mental education was emphasized in the male students, although female students were also permitted to study such physical arts as well, provided that they would only use it when defending a town from an invading army, and not for offensive purposes.
First Russo-Swedish War - Defense of Finland:
When Prince Mikhail Glinsky left Muscovy for Finland on May 23, 1512, along with 15,000 infantry troops and 2,300 cavalry forces (mainly Don Cossacks) and hundreds of artillery pieces (mostly manufactured within Muscovy), he knew too well what his task was going to be: aiding the Finns in their fight against the Swedish separatists. Although there was no territorial goal set by Vasily III (he was more concerned with creating another buffer state between the Muscovite state and the Catholic camp), he was more concerned with Sweden's potential targeting of Veyshnoria for its next offensive. To make matters worse, the Holy Roman Empire also planned an invasion of Veyshnoria in order to force its people into submission under Papal authority, but Philip the Handsone and Maximillian now faced a prospect of a fully fledged Polish national uprising against the Hapsburgs. Polish irregulars started to increase their raids on Hapsburg positions throughout the Polish territories under the control of the HRE. Although there was an attempt by the Polish revolutionaries to incite an anti-Hapsburg revolt within Hungary, it didn't come to fruition until 1516 when Gyorgy Dozsa, disillusioned with the Hapsburg rule in Hungary, hatched a plot to overthrow Maximillian and to replace him with a suitable, native-born Hungarian noble who would become the new King of Hungary. In the meanwhile, Hungarian Black Army units under Maximillian's personal command began to enter into skirmishes with Polish light cavalry units, who often armed themselves with captured Hungarian weapons (composite bows were often prized for their deadliness among the Polish irregulars), as well as a few arquebuses. Three days after the Muscovite Army headed for Finland, the first all-cavalry battle erupted in the Polish-Hungarian bordertown of Zakopane. Initially the Black Army was favored to win the battle, as they had both the numbers (the Black Army numbered around 9,000 cavalrymen to the Polish irregulars' 7,000 cavalry troops) and the weapons. However, the Poles also had the advantage in geography, as they mostly hid their infantry within those mountains, forcing the Black Army into unfavorable territory, leaving them vulnerable to the lightly armed Polish light cavalry units. Moreover, the heavy armor that the Black Army wore worked to their disadvantage, as the Polish irregulars moved faster than them, resulting in the worst defeat that Maximillian had been inflicted in his life, as 7,212 cavalrymen from the Black Army were killed, compared to the relatively light losses of 3,193 dead Polish cavalrymen.
Inside Finland, the Muscovite army focused their energy on attacking the Swedish supply routes, starting with the tiny village of Kouvola, where the main Swedish army was camped. Don Cossack units started to stage raids along the vicinities of this town, while at the same time a growing Finnish cavalry unit, nicknamed the Finnish Hussars by the Muscovite forces, also began to raid Swedish garrisons as well. Like their Muscovite colleagues, the Finnish cavalry units were lightly armed, but they also adapted well to the harsh weather conditions by learning how to forage in the cold. Their choice of horses were also unusual: mares were often used by the Finns due to their production of milk, which the Finns had to drink while on the campaign. While the Finns were not relying on cavalry to decimate their Swedish enemies, they relied on foot soldiers to do the job. A typical Finnish irregular would arm himself with an arquebus, a pike, a sword or a set of bow and arrow, and light armor as well. Since most Finnish villages were sparsely populated, the Swedes had little trouble capturing them and using it for their armies. On the other hand, the streltsy regiments inside Finland had seen surprisingly little action since they were deployed, although the Polish officers who staffed the streltsy regiments noticed their tendency to wander around without any direction. Yet their strict insistence of maintaining order within the ranks had saved them from any further embarassing defeats whenever they have gotten themselves into skirmishes with Swedish infantry forces. Moreover, the Swedish supply routes were often attacked by both streltsy troops and Finnish irregulars, resulting in the lack of supplies that the Swedes had suffered from. Fearing the collapse of Sweden's war effort in Finland and Lithuania, the Holy Roman Empire began to send their own resources to help keep the Swedes fighting, even as their own positions were being threatened in all directions. The march through France had become a quagmire as Hapsburg regular forces were often bogged down by the mud, slowing the cavalry's march and allowing French irregulars to inflict significant casualties. In Norway, Danish troops had managed to link up with Muscovite forces in Kola by August of 1512, forcing Sweden to recall half of its troops in Lithuania and Finland to defend its northern frontier. Sweden however, was lucky that the Muscovites did not have a naval presence in the Arctic Circle, a kind of luck that was eventually cut short a hundred years later when a nearby port was constructed beside Kola. In May of 1612, during the reign of Tsar Dmitry I Mukhrani-Obolenskiy, construction of this port began, mainly by employing captured prisoners of war from the Holy Roman Empire, Hungary, and Sweden, to build it. The port, later called Vladisever [2], would serve as the base for the Russian Northern Fleet, though another base in Novomangazeya was built fifteen years after Vladisever was completed.
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Jurchens - The Path to Unity
The sudden influx of Korean yangbans into Jurchen-dominated territory during the Joseon Civil War had also opened up new possibilities for the Jurchens to develop themselves as a people, and as a civilization. In addition to the Korean yangbans, pottery makers who suffered from the loss of customers within the Joseon territories had fled up north, where their skills in pottery production was introduced to the Yeren Jurchens. Moreover, the adoption of the Korean hangul to the Jurchen language had resulted in the growth of literacy among the Yeren Jurchens to the point where Ayaneje Khan felt that he can share this newly discovered knowledge cultivated through their Korean guests to the Haixi and Jianzhou Jurchens. For example, the literary schools that Lee Tae Hyun had built within the territories controlled by the Yeren Jurchens had seen the admission of four hundred Jurchen children into the school, with the result being that the Yeren Jurchens started writing poems and epic tales of their own people, using Hangul. Most of the Korean peasants who also moved to the Jurchen territories had integrated well into the Jurchen lifestyle, though their sedentary mindset made it hard for them to adjust. Ayaneje Khan himself had commissioned several more literary schools to help educate his own people, though that resulted in jealousy and hostility towards him from the Haixi and Jianzhou Jurchens. For seven years, since 1511, Ayaneje Khan and his clan, the Sartuk Hala, had steadily gained power through intermarriages between them and the Korean emigrants who settled inside the Yeren Jurchen territories. Although Ayaneje had not established relations with the Ming and the Northern Yuan, trade between the Northern Yuan and the Yeren Jurchens began as early as 1510, though this was interrupted by the Gyeongin War of 1590-1599[3], when the Northern Yuan was allied with the Japanese against the Chinese and Koreans. However, the Jurchens had made first contact with the Europeans as early as 1584 (most likely Russians), while the first contact between the East Asians and the Spaniards was in the 1550s during the early years of Nueva Asturias's existence.
Meanwhile, another Jurchen clan, the Tongala Hala from within the Yeren Jurchen clan, had been in the middle of a power struggle with the Irgen Gioro clan over the right to rule the entire Yeren Jurchens. Both clans were closely tied to the Sartak Hala clan through intermarriages (Ayaneje's mother for example, came from the Irgen Gioro clan while an aunt of Ayaneje had married into the Tongala Hala clan), but both of them also had divergent interests. The Tongala Hala favored closer relations with the Ming while the Irgen Gioro favored closer relations with the Joseon dynasty. Despite Joseon's loyalty to the Sinocentric tributary system, the Irgen Gioro also wanted to pry Korea out of the influence of the Ming and integrate it into their own system. The power struggle turned deadly when Ayaneje's mother was murdered by members of the Tongala Hala in 1513, leading to Ayaneje's brutal purge of the Tongala Hala. With most of the clans that dominated the Yeren Jurchens, Ayaneje would continue to divulge into Korean culture through closer interactions with the Korean peasants who settled within his territory. It was notable for Ayaneje to see Korean peasants adopting the Manchu queue (the horse tail like hairstyle) to symbolize their newly profound freedom while the yangbans who also settled in were careful not to become too closely integrated to the barbarians. With the Yeren Jurchens forming their own powerbase and recruiting more soldiers to fight for the glory of Ayaneje and the Yeren Jurchens, he felt that the time has come to conquer the Haixi and Jianzhou Jurchens. Thus he struck at the Haixi Jurchens on November 12, 1512, triggering the Jurchen Unification Wars that would ultimately mold the Jurchen people's lives together.
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[1] ITTL, the formation of the streltsy is much earlier than IOTL, primarily due to the disastrous Muscovite performance in the War of the Polish Succession.
[2] Vladisever is TTL's version of Murmansk.
[3] Gyeongin War of 1590-1599 is TTL's version of the Imjin War, but much earlier. I have also used the formula to convert the Gregorian calendar year to whichever year corresponds to the Chinese or Korean calendar cycle.
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on Jul 13, 2018 5:02:50 GMT
Sorry for the long delay, due to the World Cup, a few games being played and some real life stuff to take care of. Without a further ado, the new update is here.
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Case Study #20: The Second Hundred Years' War Part Six
In a curious twist, the HRE's decision to back the Swedish independence movement and its expansion into Lithuania had resulted in their own overstretch, as they struggled to find resources for their own usage in their ability to wage war against France. Although the Italian and German soldiers who fought France were battle hardened, Maximillian refused to deploy the Hungarian Black Army to the French front, fearing the loss of Poland if he had done so. Yet the maintenance of the Hungarian Black Army was beginning to take a toll on the Hapsburg King of Hungary's own treasury as he was running out of gold to pay them. It was not surprising to hear certain leaders of the Black Army complain about the declining pay they received from their overlord, and his promises of more gold from the plundered treasures of the HRE's enemies rang hollow when Polish gold was safely evacuated from Cracow after the War of the Polish Succession had ended despite the huge reparations bill that the HRE had imposed on Lithuania, but with Sweden occupying Lithuania and the rise of Veyshnoria, the Hapsburgs were uncertain of how they would keep the Black Army running smoothly. It was the financial problems that Maximillian had with his maintenance of the Hungarian Black Army that was one of the reasons why most of the Catholic Church had started to flirt with the new ideology of Shaddaism. As of this moment, the HRE, or rather, Maximillian, needed more funds, and most of Europe's finances were managed by its Jewish minority. The change in the attitude towards the Jews on part of the three Iberian kingdoms also influenced certain Catholic rulers of various German states within the Holy Roman Empire, as the Savonarolist ideology had now borne such terrible fruit in the new pogroms that were carried out against the Jews in countries that had a strong Savonarolist influence. In France during 1513, a massive pogrom in Bourdeaux had resulted in 1,500 Jews being killed by Savonarolist 'Righteous Armies' in their own version of the infamous Hapsburg 'Purgatorial Expeditions'. Unfortunately, one huge blow was struck that would permanently change the nature of the Holy Roman Empire.
On November 22, 1513, during the first Hapsburg campaign against Veyshnoria (the Holy Roman Empire extended its war to Veyshnoria, despite the protests from Philip the Handsome's Hohenzollern in-laws), Philip the Handsome was preparing to lead his army to besiege Grodno. During his advance into Veyshnorian territory, his main army was ambushed by Veyshnorian troops led by Grand Duke Konstanty Ostrogski. Several cavalry charges were repelled before Philip the Handsome would meet his untimely end when the Grand Duke himself stabbed him in the throat with a sotnya polearm, causing him to lose unconsciousness and ultimately ended in his death. The Veyshnorian troops saw the horrified reactions from the Hapsburg forces who began to panic, allowing Ostrogski to rout them in such a way that weakened the Hapsburg forces beyond repair. When Maximillian learned of his son's death five days later, he mourned so much that he stopped eating for a bit. His grief also distracted him from managing the war, and he too, had met his untimely end when in a fit of sheer drunkenness, Maximillian slipped down the stairs from his bedroom inside a castle in Upper Austria and died on December 7. The deaths of the Hapsburg family members also put an end to the influential Hapsburg dynasty that had ruled the Holy Roman Empire, and the HRE's member states and electorates were forced to call in a new election. Only three candidates placed their names forward: Frederick I, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach (the brother in law of the dead Philip the Handsome), Duke William IV of Bavaria (of the House of Wittlesbach) and Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse. The election was notorious for its massive use of gold in bribing other electors to vote for the candidate who gave them the money in the first place, and such corruption was one of the factors that ultimately led to the abolition of the elective monarchy in favor of a hereditary monarchy when Frederick I, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, was elected on December 25, 1513. Although the other defeated candidates reluctantly congratulated the victor of this clearly corrupt election, they've also made it clear that any attempted reforms that Frederick will pass would be voted down by both Hesse and Bavaria. At the same time though, those very same states whose rulers lost out to the House of Hohenzollern had expanded their responsibility of prosecuting the war against the French, and it was Bavarian infantry that played a key role in Marseilles's fall to the HRE on January 8, 1514. Hessian troops also took part in the offensive that saw Calais fall to the HRE five days after Marseilles was conquered. However, the fall of Calais had affected England greatly, as it was the only territory in continental Europe that was under direct English control. Without Calais, the potential for an invasion of England increased slightly.
With Calais under the control of the Hapsburgs, the HRE expanded their naval operations to include raiding English ports, causing Edward V Plantagenet to recall most of his fleet in order to defend the entire English coast. At the same time, James IV of Scotland had began to recall most of his troops from Ireland when news of the Danish invasion had reached him. When the Scots retreated from Ireland, Edward V Plantagenet ordered a major offensive into the Scottish lowlands in conjunction with the Danish force that landed in Scotland's northern sector, and by January 24, the Scots were literally fighting on two fronts: the Danes in the north, and England in the south. Their holdings in Ireland was quickly overrun by English troops who were occupied in southern Ireland, but Irish cavalry raids remained devastating for them. Even so, Richard Pole, the man who led the English troops in the Irish campaign, was entrusted with the role of reconquering Ireland by the King of England himself while Edward returned home to defend the northern border against the Scots. Scotland at this time had started to lose territory in the south, as the Scottish lowlands became a hotbed of Savonarolist activity there, with the Lollards returning and carrying out anti-Catholic pogroms that saw 200 Catholics slaughtered. Scottish soldiers in return launched an attack on the English border town in Cornhill-on-Tweed and savagely killed 400 English Savonarolists who lived there. Despite the increase in atrocities on both sides, James IV had insisted that 'no Scotsman should surrender to the English enemy, especially one that is a heretic'. His insistence on fighting the English to the death will ultimately prove fatal for the House of Stewart, as the next battle on February 13 in the Siege of Dundee.
The Siege of Dundee (1514):
07:00: The battle began with the advance of the English forces under Baron Edward Stanley. 24,000 English soldiers faced off against 21,000 Scottish troops, backed by 1,800 Irish auxilliaries recruited to fight for the Scots. King James IV of Scotland took command inside Broughty Castle while Baron Stanley had built a camp to house the officers and himself while the regular English forces were taking part in the siege. English yeomans had led the offensive that saw half of the Scottish lowlands fall under English occupation. The English intended to control the lowlands in order to blockade and force the Scots into an untenable position from which they would be forced to use the highlands to their advantage. English cannons began bombarding the castle, while Scottish cannons pounded the English positions and reports of old trebuchets also reached the English camp.
11:00: Reports poured into Baron Stanley of approaching Danish reinforcements, backed by fourteen warships. Numbering around 2,700 troops, mostly infantry (as the Danish cavalry was mainly used to repel the Holy Roman Empire's invasion of southern Denmark), they also bring with them artillery and foodstuffs the English needed to sustain the siege. Meanwhile, the Scottish fleet was commanded by James IV to intercept the Danish reinforcements.
13:00: English infantry began to advance into the castle's walls while English artillery continued to pound away at Scottish defenses. At this point, mounting casualties on both sides reached the 1,000 mark, although it is the English themselves who bore the bigger brunt of the casulaties while the Scots managed to sustain significant losses. Irish auxilliary troops were secretly deployed to harass the English camp, just outside Dundee.
15:00: Irish troops managed to catch the English off guard in their camp at Longforgan, mainly through small scale raids that resulted in seven English cannons captured by the Irish, as well as 20 horses and 30 kilograms of food falling into their hands. While the Irish were hauling their captured booty back to the castle, another English force stationed in Kingoodie ambushed the Irish troops and recovered their lost goods. In addition, all of the Irish troops who tried to ambush the English were themselves executed. Half an hour later, Wormit and Newport-on-Tay saw the arrival of the Danish reinforcements.
18:00: A fleet of seventeen English warships arrived at Newport-on-Tay and Tayport while Danish infantry landed in Monifieth. At this point, both sides had consumed three quarters of their food supplies and had used up one third of their ammunition. It was then that Baron Stanley decided to send his reserves into Kingoodie so they could surround and blockade Broughty Castle from Monifieth and Kingoodie. English cannons took the longest amount of time to haul in, due to their sheer weight.
22:00: Extra guns delivered to the English in Kingoodie began their march, while the English infantry besieging the castle managed to place their ladders into the walls. A slow advance up the ladder was accompanied by devastating counter-attacks that saw boiling water and hot oil poured down on the unfortunate victims. Scottish archers lit their arrows with flame and shot it at the hot oil below, incinerating the unfortunate English soldiers to death.
01:00 (February 14): Another attempt at breaching the castle was made, this time from the north. Danish cannons that were positioned on land began to bombard the walls, while at the same time the river current had made naval bombardment of the castle impossible. Thus Baron Stanley gave his authorization for the deployment of the English yeomans to start raiding the city of Dundee itself. Several pounds of food and three chests full of silver fell into English hands, allowing the yeomans to continue their advance. Scottish irregulars suddenly pop out of nowhere, ambushing the yeomans. Fifty yeomans were killed, while seventy five Scottish irregulars perished in the ambush.
04:00 (February 14): English sappers began digging underneath in order to blow the wall open. At the same time, the first English breach was made when twenty English infantrymen successfully climbed up to the ramparts and engaged the Scots and their Irish allies in a close quarters combat. Forty five minutes later, news of the successful repelling of the Scottish irregulars reached the English camp. Baron Stanley personally rode out to meet the English yeomans who carried the captured loot.
08:00 (February 14): The English sappers reached the bottom of the fortress while digging. They reported their success to the English officers, who gave the order to retreat from the fortress while the sappers lit up the gunpowder. English and Danish guns suddenly stopped firing. It was only when a Scottish infantryman noticed a hole on the ground that he yelled out a warning to his comrades that the English had planted explosives underneath the walls. The walls exploded and collapsed.
10:00 (February 14): With the walls blown apart, the English and Danish advance proceeded as planned. The Scottish defenders of the castle fought ferociously against the incoming invaders, with their Irish allies dealing with the arrival of the English yeomans who resorted to launching a volley of arrows while riding on horseback. However, the bows that the English yeomans used were regular bows, and not longbows. Danish infantry spotted James IV engaged in a fight with ten English swordsmen. Luckily, Scottish irregulars arrived in time to engage the Danes in an open pitch battle.
13:00 (February 14): With most of the Scottish and Irish troops dead inside the castle, James IV and the last 300 surviving soldiers and irregulars charged head on towards the enemy. Baron Stanley himself entered the fight, carrying a sword while his yeomans carried polearms. However, the Baron himself dismounted from his horse and engaged the irregulars in close quarters combat. Just as he was about to slay another Scottish irregular, one of the English infantrymen carrying a halberd had managed to wound James IV in the leg, before Baron Stanley himself swung his sword, slicing the King of Scotland's head off his shoulders.
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Hafsid Dynasty - A New Islamic Rival:
In the ashes of the fallen Granadan Emirate, the three Iberian kingdoms (now unified to form the Spanish state) expanded their operations against the Muslims in North Africa. Although they had already completed the Reconquista in the Iberian peninsula, some of the Crowns had occupied territory in North Africa. The Crown of Portugal for instance, controlled a few Moroccan ports while the Crown of Castile had gained control of an island later called Gibraltar. Although the Crown of Aragon mostly consigned themselves to piracy against North African Muslim commerce in the western Mediterranean Sea region, they also played a key role in ensuring that the Moroccans would not only suffer for the Muslim occupation of the Iberian peninsula, but that they would also bear the full fury and power of the unified Spanish state. The current ruler of the Hafsids, Muhammad IV, was rather moderate in his dealings with Christians and Jews until the fall of Granada when he began to persecute them as retaliation for the massacres of Muslims by the Christian powers within Spain. Indeed, it was in early 1501 that Muhammad IV had issued the infamous Edict of Bizerte [1], where the Hafsid Empire's Christian and Jewish populations would be forcibly expelled, and their properties were confiscated and given to Muslim refugees expelled from Christian Spain.
When King Alfonso de Avis (Afonso VI de Aviz in Portugal, Alfonso XII de Aviz in Castile and Alfonso VI de Aviz in Aragon) heard of the news that the Hafsid Kingdom had expelled its non-Muslim population, he immediately brought forth the Spanish fleet to transport the Christian and Jewish refugees into Spanish territory. Upon greeting the embattered refugees, he boasted in such a way that future pan-Hispanists would remember: "he calls himself an enlightened ruler, but exposes himself as a tyrant. He claims to be pious, but in reality the fool has only strengthened my kingdom at the expense of his own!" [2]. Although the survivors of the Reconquista adjusted to their new lives in the Hafsid territories, they were not as skilled in economics as their Christian and Jewish counterparts who left for Spain were, and the economy of the Hafsid state started to decline. However, the plight of the Muslims in the Hafsid state had alerted the Ottoman Empire, and in particular, Ahmed I the Wise, who quickly offered to establish diplomatic relations with the Hafsid state, in addition to the economic deals that were also inked between them.
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Ryukyu - The Epoch of Sho Shin
Ryukyu after the interaction with the French had witnessed the growth in its mercantile activity. The shipbuilding industry also thrived, mainly in Kawahata island where the majority of the ships were being built. Rokuro Kinjo himself had overseen the development of both the cities of Tohohoshi and Kitahoshi, while more Kawahatan indigenous tribes began to explore their curiosity at the presence of the Ryukyuans. In early 1515, Kinjo and 500 Ryukyuans had set off on another expedition to explore the southern area of Kawahatajima when they came across three more indigenous tribes in the hinterlands: the Bunun, Thao and Sediq. Those three inland based tribes were hostile to the Ryukyuans' presence, and so Rokuro Kinjo had to travel back to Shuri in order to obtain permission from Sho Shin on a pacification expedition. In May of 1515, Sho Shin had granted the desired authorization and also gave Kinjo 3,000 more ronin (many of whom fled from Japan after their respective lords were killed in battle) plus 50 cannons to finish them off.
The Kawahata Expedition of 1515 was marked by the first use of artillery against indigenous tribes in Asia (the Ryukyuan cannons were copies of their French models), and the ronins' deployment into the hinterlands gave them a taste of what their adventure against other indigenous tribes will be like in the future. Among the ronin who fought for Kinjo in this expedition was Kojiro Kusaka, the father of the famous Kohata Kusaka. Kojiro Kusaka, like his overlord Kinjo, was a former samurai who lost his master in the Sengoku conflicts. In his case, his master was a minor noble who was allied to the Takeda clan. Kojiro also joined the wokou pirates after he left Japan and somehow ended up in Ryukyu, where his skill in forging swords, as well as his ability to sneak into enemy castles attracted the attention of Sho Shin himself. As a reward for his service to Ryukyu, Sho Shin gave him authority to claim new lands in Kawahata and to turn it into his own fiefdom. Thus Kojiro had joined Rokuro Kinjo in Kawahata in June, and began to plan for an all out conquest of the remaining unchartered lands in the southwest. The Ryukyuans proceeded slowly throughout the island, mostly because there were lack of roads in the unchartered territories, in sharp contrast to the newly built dirt roads that were built by Ryukyuan colonists and Japanese social undesirables (ie: burakumin) seeking to leave their homelands to escape from social discrimination. The campaign itself took surprisingly as little as four months, but by then most of the indigenous tribes of Kawahata Island were conquered and subjugated. It could have taken much shorter, but the resistance of the highlander tribes within the hinterlands of Kawahata had provoked a harsh response from the ronins who saw their comrades killed in such terrifying manner that they showed no mercy towards the civilians who they have encountered. Most controversial of all, was Kojiro's personal participation in the brutal mass slaughter of those civilians that he was nearly arrested and executed for excessive corruption and abuse, but the timely intervention of Rokuro Kinjo in Kitahoshi had saved Kojiro from further punishment. Perhaps it was fitting that the modern city of Chigawa-shi in what is now modern Yasuhira Province [3] was named as a memento to the massacre of those civilians by the ronin under Kojiro's command. Unlike the earlier development of the older Kawahatan cities, Chigawa was developed as a military centric city, with multiple barracks, horse ranches, forges, a harbor, shipyards to build yosaisens, and in addition to animist temples, a fortress that would later serve a role in the war between the Ming Dynasty and Ryukyu. In addition to the newly emerging military city of Yasuhira, the Ryukyuans also tried to attract other people from mainland China, southeast Asia and even Korea to come and settle in the new Kawahatan lands. Most of the new settlers were Chinese pirates, some of whom have also joined the predominantly Japanese dominated Wokou pirate groups. A few Vietnamese adventurers and even Korean army deserters who fled from Korea after the fallout from the Joseon Civil War had also settled in Yasuhira province. Kojiro was well aware that his new domain could not sustain itself without economic activity, so he authorized the construction of another port in the south in October of 1515. This new port, later christened as Kyushigai [4], became Kawahata's economic lifeline to southeast Asia. Kyushigai and Chigawa came under the control of Kojiro himself, and when Kinjo visited the new cities to the south, he was impressed with the amount of commercial activity that had occurred there. It was so prosperous that Kyushigai and Chigawa would surpass Shuri as the largest cities in the Ryukyuan Kingdom, and there was even talk of relocating the capital to one of those cities, or even Kitahoshi, but Sho Shin had shot down that idea.
Sho Shin's reaction to the expansion of Kawahata and its complete conquest was that of amazement. Most of the indigenous tribes were already subjugated, and some of them carried on resisting the Ryukyuans until 1573 when Sho Kan ascended to the throne and passed down a law that started the process of integrating the indigenous tribes of Kawahata into Ryukyuan society. It helped the indigenous tribes that the Ryukyuans were also animistic in their religious practices, so they were able to introduce their own religious customs to the Ryukyuan religion. However, certain indigenous practices that the Ryukyuans deemed unhygienic were banned in order to teach them about cleanliness. The Ryukyuan language was also being taught to indigenous children as early as 1524, although difficulties with the writing system remained unsolved until well into the 1700s when there was a proposal to ditch the kanji script and to adopt an entirely new script, though in the end only katakana and hiragana were chosen. Ryukyuan agrarian practices were also introduced to Kawahata, with rice farms being established by landless farmers from southern Kyushu, while fishing became a dominant livelihood in the coastlines. Within twenty years, Kawahata became the new rice bowl of the Ryukyuan state, and trade between Kawahata island and the rest of the Ryukyuan islands increased. A few wokou pirates also took up fishing as a side job, in addition to various pirate raids on the Chinese and Korean coasts while taking care to avoid where they came from by disguising themselves as mercenaries from various Japanese clans that were by now extinct.
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[1] The Edict of Bizerte is TTL's analogue to the Alhambra Decree, but with roles reversed.
[2] Guess the quote's allusion. It shouldn't be that hard.
[3] Chigawa is TTL's name for Anping, Taiwan.
[4] Kyushigai is TTL's name for Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
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