The Lords of Prussia: from feudalism to modernity (a MMP2 AAR)

[Merrick Chance']

'That mankind will perceive all of God's creations': Posadofsky and the creation of Prussian Rationalism

Much has been said of Germany's 'unique road' (sonderweg) to modernism. Theorists have claimed that, while in England and France it was the university and the Church which were the main drivers of innovation, in Germany the state-dominated printing press and the Royal Science Academies were the primary intellectual force. Beyond that, there are constructions of the "Western Intellectual" as opposed to the "Eastern Intellectual", where the Western intellectual is some sort of tolerated partisan or artist, while the Eastern intellectual was generally in an apolitical field or the writer of penny-dreadfuls which could hardly be considered 'cultural'. Because of this, the Westerners (and Germans!) have argued, German culture is far more authoritarian than Western culture.

This is at best a half truth, and in many ways says more about Western bias against Eastern Europeans than it does about the facts on the ground. England pioneered the Royal Science Academy, and while Prussians took more to the hard sciences there are a great many Prussian contributions to the field of the Humanities, and many of those contributors were dissidents--consider the example of Marx.

However, there is an authoritarian undercurrent in Prussian philosophy, even considering the great Prussian tradition of tolerance. To explain this I will need to diverge a slight, so allow me my tangent.

In Barry Buzan's transformative work, Security: a New framework for analysis (1), Buzan notes in the section on politics "That much academic blood has been spilled over the definition of politics...therefore, we can attach our definition to neither extreme in what we might label two of the three axises of politics: Arendt VS Easton, Schmitt VS Habermas, and Weber VS Laclau...on the third axis, Weber VS Laclau, we must be more elaborate. This line of controversy is about defining politics as either stabilization of destabilization. On one side of the debate, politics is about the institutionalization of rule and the stabilization of authority...on the other side, writers like Ernesto Laclau define politics as that which upsets established patterns." (Buzan 1997 pg143) Essentially, Laclau believed that, in an argument, people eventually identify with their side of the argument which means that democracy will be continuously moving, while Weber believed that people will eventually reach the better or compromise argument.

German philosophers, from Hegel to Weber to Marx, share a system of ideas which was started by Posadofsky​

Anyone familiar with any German political philosopher will recognize this trend. The trend of stabilization (which appears, under a different definition, in Hegel's idea of sublimation) means that eventually people will reach an ideological singularity where everything worth arguing about will be agreed upon (see also: Marx's communist utopia). This conception of politics has been attacked by historians and philosophers alike, and it is not a common viewpoint within most modern democracies (few modern Germans would agree with the argument). However, this definition of politics is present throughout the existence of Prussia, which at all points in time sought to be a state which homogenized through tolerance, and while he wasn't the first to state the position, Frederich Posadofsky was the first to explicitly state it, and in doing so, he created both the uniquely Prussian school of German Rationalism and, some might say, the Sonderweg itself.

Frederich Posadofsky was born in 1576 in Altmark to a Brentist Prussian printer. This made Frederich a unique man in the city--while he was deeply involved in the Prussian intelligencia through his apprenticeship in the presses, he was separated from them by his minority religious identity, which meant that he was one of the few men in Prussia who was able to view intellectualism from both the inside and outside. This was best, because Posadofsky was born at the beginning of a 20 year conflict between the two intellectual centers of Prussia. In Berlin was the 'popular printing' class and the new invention of weekly journals and newspapers. These newspapers were built for public consumption, and were very much a part of the 'low culture'. However, at the same time, this industry brought many famed poets and writers to the forefront of Prussian culture, and acted to unify the various religious groups in the city.

On the other hand was the Bishopric-City of Altmark. One of the last two bastions of Catholicism in the country, Altmark (due to the unique conditions of its annexation) remained a bastion of Western-style academia, focused in the Parish and in the Catholic school. However, Altmark also had a large Prussian-style journal industry, which was the battlefield for the conventional Catholic intellectuals and the new, Protestant and populist intellectuals. While for a short period after the Constantinal decision this battle created a new standard of art, by the time Frederich had left childhood all that was higher was the standard for polemics. Posadofsky was raised in a world of intellectual and religious conflict, where ones standpoint was everything. However, at the same time, he was a part of an outside group, and so he saw this overwhelming conflict as a waste of time. It was probably due to this intellectual foundation that Posadofsky left Altmark to study the natural sciences in the Brentist Duchy of Modena.

There he studied under Galileo Galilee, learning of astronomy and of physics, eventually helping Galileo discover the consistent velocity which he attributed to gravity. However, he also learned a great deal as a citizen of Modena. The Duchy of Modena was amazingly intolerant, due to being surrounded by Italian rivals the perception that the entire Catholic population could be a 5th column was strong within the government and within the population as a whole. As such, by the 1580s the Catholic population of Modena was small (barely 10% discounting the newly conquered territory of Romagna) and deeply persecuted--the right to movement and to work in the governments were suspended for Catholics. However, it was a stable place--there wasn't the kind of constant argument one could find in Altmark. In fact, looking at Posadofsky's diaries from the time, it seems that he could have spent his whole life in Modena were he not dragged back into the Prussian intellectual sphere.

It all started in 1589, when Catholic jurists claimed that by supporting Protestant journals but not Catholic ones, the Prussian government was breaking spirit of the 1545 law of Religious Toleration, and that the government must give equal levels of media representation. Ferdinand agreed to a 20-year deal where the government would support Catholic as well as Protestant printers.

Some rulers felt strong enough to take a new course...but not me!​

This led to the talented Catholic monk, Julius Von Ruppin, dominating the Kronesohr. Von Ruppin was the teacher of Natural Sciences at the Franciscan Seminary in Potsdam, though this was a new subject for him--he had studied theology for most of his life. Though he was barely passable at physics, he did bring some good policy to Berlin.

The Austrian archduke had allowed the continued existence of the Gnostic Christians so long as they were loyal citizens on the border of the Kingdom of Hungary. Now, however, the Archduke had expanded his Empire deep into the Balkans to the borders of modern day Greece and Albania, and the very existence of the Gnostic religion was in danger. Von Ruppin rode to the Emperor's camp in Ragusa and made a pact with the Arch-Duke: in exchange for the Bishopric of Altmark becoming an official haven for Catholics, Berlin would be the sanctuary for all Gnostic Christians.

The Treaty of Ragusa, 1590​

However, Von Ruppin then made a major mistake. Using the esteem he gained as a diplomat, he printed a book called On the Laws of Motion. In it, he stated that "God has created 2 forces--gravity and inertia. Galileo has proven that gravity is a certain, set, force. Therefore, if we create a machine which goes at a certain speed, we can create a machine of perpetual motion. Such a machine would be able to power all manner of devices."

The book achieved a widespread readership, and alchemists from Lisbon to Moscow started attempts to build a perpetual motion device. Posadofsky, on the other hand, knew that such a device was impossible--that friction eventually would overpower inertia. And though he did not want to, he moved back to his childhood home of Altmark ten years after he had left, planning to write a counter-argument to Von Ruppin's Laws of Motion. His work, Discourse on Method, is widely considered the first rationalist work, but it is also considered a part of the secularizing tradition started by Machiavelli. The first sentence truly marked a watershed in European history, and read "I do believe that Mankind, with all his god given abilities of perception, will one day be able to perceive all of God's creations."

The work itself attempted to be an introductory text into physics, however, most of the book was on the nature of arguments. "While man is capable of knowing a great deal," one quote goes, "His knowledge will never be able to change the facts." This set up the eventual concept of the scientific method, wherein the veracity of ones thesis is determined not by how well argued it is, but in its relation to the facts. "If we were to argue more closely to the facts, perhaps argument would eventually cease."

This did not happen. In fact, there was a widespread scandal through all of Europe over the possibility of perpetual motion. Prussia stood to lose a great deal of its prestige over this At this point, the Kingdom was the most prestigious country in the world, and this prestige was partially a result of the actions of Von Ruppin. Within a month however, Ferdinand pronounced Posadofsky's methodology to be superior, and expelled Von Ruppin from his government as a 'common lie monger'. This shook both the Prussian Catholic community, of which he was the most prominent member, and the Gnostic community, for he was their savior.

What a weird event​

While Ferdinand wanted to employ the philosopher Posadofsky, his brother, while a senile old man, and while an ardent rationalist, was also an ardent Beckist. That Ferdinand created sanctuaries for the Catholics and for the ultimate heretics, the Gnostics, ran completely counter to Frederich's evangelical project. Not wanting a public scandal, Ferdinand waited for the Kingdom to settle down and for his brother to finally die.

On the March of 1596, Ferdinand took a carriage from his palace in Neukoln to the Berlin Cathedral. He was to be one of the speakers for his brothers funeral, and those who expected a safe speech had quite a shock. Ferdinand's speech was deeply influenced by Posadofsky's new book, Meditations on Philosophy.

"We are fallible beings, who only know of our own existence as a fact. Because of this, it is immensely difficult to judge the achievements, failings, and qualities of another. As Jesus said, he who is without sin, cast the first stone. But none of us are saints, not even the saints are saints. We have only the world of our beliefs and the world in which we can interact with each other, and our conceptions of others are not real things, but beliefs. Did I know my brother? I suppose I did. Was he a good man? I suppose he was, but I cannot say for sure. We can only judge a person by what they did."

After this speech was over, Ferdinand rode to the Office of the Kronesohr and signed a Request for the Services of the Philosopher Frederich Posadofsky. In doing so, Ferdinand was underlining all of the cultural achievements of his forefathers--the Humanism of Christian Albrecht, the Tolerance of Cicero, and the scientific approach to which Prussians approached Warfare and Governance.

German Rationalism, and the Services of Frederich Posadofsky (by the way, I am now getting +3.2 prestige a year with 91 prestige, and my intellectuals are perceptually happy which means free artists/philosophers/natural scientists and -2% tech costs)​

This would turn out to be Ferdinand's last major act as King. After the death of his brother he started to grow gravely ill, likely due to pneumonia from riding across his Kingdom. His son, Frederich Wilhelm IV, came to the crown at a young age, but considering that he had spent his youth being taught by Posadofsky, it was clear that he would continue his father's legacy.

Just happened! Not quite a 9/9/9, but perhaps he'll earn 'the great'?​

 

[Merrick Chance']

I agree with Gabor; the real Reformation was at least as widespread as this one, and it's only because in-game the Reformation is generally puny that this looks big. Also, is it just me or does England almost never go Protestant?

Seriously great AAR by the way. I'm really digging the political science stuff, especially since Augustine's City of God is pretty fresh in my mind. Now if only you could somehow reference Heidegger, I'd be in pretentious nerd heaven .

Yeah, I had a 'Political Philosophy I" class a year ago and hated it absolutely. The prof seemed like she was trying an Umbridge impression the whole time, and her assignments were horrible--A misprinting led to her asking me how Cicero was influenced by the early Christians. While I'm a fan of Catholicism (especially post-War Catholicism), this is kind of my way to getting back at that bastard of Hippo.

Great update there, I think you have a great reformation in your game. It really seems to be wide spread (or at least compared to my games).

So are you going for some territorial gains or are you just helping poland out so it stays reformed?

I'm hoping that Poland stays reformed long enough to help me out in the 30 Years War. After that...well, I do like artichokes.

Just a little slice of Poland would go down quite nicely, I think; though perhaps you'll find yourself wanting another one just as soon as you're done digesting the first!

It's starting to get tempting. For some reason the Polish AI hasn't kept soldier at my borders since they converted. Whether I'll create contiguous borders ASAP will be determined by the religious war that's going to come up (in MM there's a War of X League event that's a lead in for the 30 Years War, I don't know if non-German protestants can join in). Also Poland is now a part of a scary anti-German bloc with France.

You should convert again to Reformed, just to mess things up like Johan Sigismund.

It is a tempting prospect. The -2% interest rates that Reformed gives are fantastic even if the trade efficiency bonus is uneeded.

Fantastic AAR.

Thanks for the encouragement!

edit: also does anyone know around when the war of Schmaldik league event happens? The Counter-Reformation event's occurred, is it an early 17th century thing?

 

[Merrick Chance']

The State of the World, 1600 part 1--Italy and France

Note: If I list all the dynamics that occurred, historically, in the 16th century, this would go from being a 10 page double spaced paper to something the size of a term paper. "Russia expanded" could easily take up 2 pages at least, but any EU3 player knows that once Russia unifies they're going to start going East. Therefore, I'm only going to talk about the stuff that's out of place in an EU3 game.

Even in 1600, empires--especially the British, Iberian, and Turkish empires--were becoming global in scope​

The 16th century saw a series of transformations which rocked Europe to its core. The Reformation was but one of these, but simply focusing on the ever shrinking Catholic world, there was one major dynamic

Turnover

While Catholic Europe was facing a great deal of trouble when the 17th century started, it did have a great deal going for it. The two major engines of Catholic expansion--the merchant city states and the crusader states--had been both replaced by groups which were far stronger, both militarily and economically.

The trading states, particularly the Hansa and the small Northern Italian states, became astonishingly rich during the 15th century through trade. Lubeck, Bremen, Venice and Genoa made their cities into beautiful cosmopolities with their wealth. But over the course of the 16th century it became clear that wealth was not enough. For one, its ephemeral nature meant that new competitors could easily break in to the traditional markets--the battle in the mid 1500s between Bremen, supported by the Emperor and the Hansa, showed both that more competitive foes can easily make gains in trade, and that, in a rapidly collapsing international order, wealth matters for nothing when it isn't guarded by might.

However, a new set of powers emerged during the 16th century, combining the wealth of trade and the might of empire. Lisbon, London, and Seville were, by 1570, the primary trade cities of Europe. The rise of the Western Periphery made up for the Catholic church's utter failure on the continent.

The Reformation expands

By 1600, the only major Catholic powers left were Austria, Spain, England and Portugal​

By the mid 1500s it seemed that the Reformation had finally ceased expanding. Eastern Europe, with its proximity to Berlin's printing press, to Polish Jewry, and to Orthodoxy's heresy, had always stood apart from its Western brethren. The loss of it, while a blow to Christian Unity, was in some ways expected. Two conversions, however, were not.

Venice

Soon after the military takeover of Venice, Orthodox territories outnumbered Catholic ones​

Venice had always been a trouble for the Pope. On one hand, it represented the ideal Catholic trading city--she'd funded the later Crusades and her positions in the Eastern Mediterranean were the jumping points of Christiandom's Wars against the Turk. At the same time, Venice was an outcast from the Empire and had, at several points, been the main rival of the Pope and the Emperor in Italy.

The conversion of Venice was closely related to the weakening of the traditional trading states. As Venice's trading power waned, so did the power of the traders in Venice's ruling class. Soon the admiralty and officer corps were the true movers of power, and Venice's loss of Treviso and Dalmatia to the Emperor in the war of 1584 put Venice's weakness into light. The admiralty and the major noble houses made an attack on the merchant class, saying that their international ways were distracting Venice from its true strength--the strength of its navy. They argued that the military needed more stability than a republic could provide. The merchants resisted until the Lombard nobility rose up against them. Isolated from Venice, they threatened to defect to the Austrian emperor unless a Lombard prince was made the Duke of Venezia. The merchants eventually agreed, feeling that an alliance between the nobility and the military would solve Venice's ills. The speech that the last Doge of Venice gave in from of the Arsenal could be summed up with the idea that, in order to protect the common wellgood and security of the Venetian populace, it was necessary for a change to a more militaristic, stable government.

The speech given in front of the Venetian Arsenal had unforseen implications in both Italian and European history
​

This was a huge mistake. The problem was that the so called "Lombard Alliance" between the Italian nobles and the military was not an alliance at all, and was not even vaguely representative of the Venetian nobility and military. For a long time, the oarsmen of Venetian ships were recruited from the Orthodox islands of Crete and Euboa. By this point, however, Orthodox Christians were a large part of the Venetian navy, and with the annexation of Albania and Naxos, the majority of the Venetian navy and aristocracy were Orthodox Christians who were now disenfranchised.

Soon the Primarch of the Mer territories declared open rebellion against the Venetian duchy, and when the Duke sent the navy to deal with them, the Orthodox admirals rebelled as well. Thomas De Brescia, the only duke of Venice, soon surrendered to the Venetian military for the same reasons as his predecessor. The first Prince of Venice declared the city a haven for Orthodox Christians all across Europe.

(A sideline--while many have criticized the Venetian Capitulations, it's note worthy the language used in both. In both, the argument was "for the security of the people this must be done", rather than for the traditional state or for national interest. This was astonishingly ahead of its time, and gave precedent to the later works of Hobbes and Rousseau)

Two Venetian capitulations in less than a decade utterly destroyed the position of the Catholic Church in Italy. While Venice had always been a regional rival to the two major Catholic institutions, it was still a Catholic stalwart in an area increasingly threatened by a Protestant Genoa and Reformist Switzerland and Modena. Now the only major Catholic player in the region was the Kingdom of Naples, which, while empowered by the Sicilian rebellion of 1592, was no match for the series of heretical states in Northern Italy.

This was nothing, however, compared to the conversion of France.

France

France, her ally Poland, and her vassals Savoy and Trier, formed the center of Reformist politics​

While the Reformation in Eastern Europe came out of a populist fervor, and the Republikanin Christians in Poland created one of the largest Republics in recent history, France's Reformation came from above and brought unheard of Absolute rule to the King of France. Beyond this, while the Protestant order of the Northern continent brought temporary stability to the states which put aside their claims and rivalries with each other and cooperated, the French reformation brought a time of troubles in France, as an autocratic nobility and bureaucracy attempted to bring the King's religion to the masses.

France's annexation of Brittany in the 1580's was what started the process. The French king, Henri II, was just now fighting the Savoyard estates for an additional levy on the Italian burghers. During the writing of the treaty of Vendee, the Breton nobles held that it was their right to form another separate estate within the Kingdom of France. Henri was disgusted at this. "Am I not the King of the French? Is is not wrong for these minor Breton counts to consider themselves my equal?"

The Savoyards pounced upon this. Within the integrated Duchy of Savoy, there were two major factions. One, the Guelphs, were an ancient organization holding that the strength of the Empire, coming through independent Italian states, was preferable, and the other, the Valoizinnis (sorry for the butchering of Italian), supported France's control of Savoy as beneficial, and in general supported stronger Kings. The Valoizinnis were led, at the time, by a Reformist priest by the name of Pancetti. Pancetti sought audience with the King, explaining that he wanted to help the Kingdom deal with the Breton petty-lords.

Within the palace at Paris, Pancetti explained to Henri that God, who is infinitely powerful, would not allow such a man as a King to rise to the throne unless that man was meant for that position. In such a way, Kings were ordained not by their fellow noblemen but by God himself, and it was Right, in the theological sense of the word, for the King to take his right as the sole absolute ruler of his Kingdom.

This was a masterstroke. The King Henri had been enraged at the state of France for his whole time in rule. The multitude of estates (coming from the Kingdom of France's history as a state which integrated and inherited rather than annexed its possessions) meant that, though France had a huge potential, it was never able to achieve it. The very next week, Henri convened the estates in Paris for an announcement, an announcement made later that year. "You think that the state rests on your shoulders, that, in effect, you are the state. This is a mistake. I am the state." With this, he dissolved the estates of France and set about creating a new government.

As the 1580s dragged on, Pancetti got closer and closer to the King, and his Reformist views involving predestination and the absolutism of authority became more and more a part of Henri's views. When the Emperor and the Pope combined forces to "take this Valois upstart to heel" as the Emperor Ferdinand said it in a private conversation, the French king was enraged. That "a minor prince in Italy would demand that I change utterly my domestic affairs" was an affront to Henri, and at this moment Pancetti dealt his last blow--he argued that "the Catholic throne will only ever stand in front of the French throne", in effect, that the international Catholic order was a final check against the authority of the French executive.

Henri then called for a conversion of France to Reformist Christianity, a cal which was only heard in the edges of he country. The ensuing rebellions left France moderately smaller, and Henri was asked to cede his recent acquisition of Avignon to the Empire. By 1600 Henri was wishing that he had never converted, even though he enjoyed greatly the new freedom he had as Absolute King. However, the instability of France meant that the conversion at Paris would not be overturned for quite some while, if ever.

(Cut a bit short, but one other thing--France is being effected by the slow death spiral that happens to the MM Western powers. I've rarely seen France, England, or Spain at positive stability and France has sat at -3 for all of 1590. I'll continue this later...these things are getting longer each time I write them, and now I have work to deal with. This isn't saying that I will stop, just that the flow I was keeping with will not continue at revious speeds)

 

[unmerged(90806)]

Now I may admit the Reformation got really powerful. I see France taking place of England, and the Reform affecting smaller states makes up for Bohemia remaining Catholic. I wonder how are you going to go about it. Any plans to try to take the HRE crown? Will we see a major war of religion?

Anyway reading about the press circulation and political debates it feels as if it was the time of enlightment rather than late 16th / early 17th century. Aren't we a century ahead of time?

 

[Merrick Chance']

Now I may admit the Reformation got really powerful. I see France taking place of England, and the Reform affecting smaller states makes up for Bohemia remaining Catholic. I wonder how are you going to go about it. Any plans to try to take the HRE crown? Will we see a major war of religion?

Anyway reading about the press circulation and political debates it feels as if it was the time of enlightment rather than late 16th / early 17th century. Aren't we a century ahead of time?

I'm 8 years ahead, but I've been avoiding attacking Poland because I'm hoping that they will side with me in a war of religion. And I feel that going for the HRE crown goes against the spirit of playing a Prussia game, personally.

There are divergent effects in play that jump-started European intellectualism, starting with way more Jews coming to Germany than Turkey in the 1450s. Also I know more about the Enlightenment than the weird post-Renaissance pre-Enlightenment period we're in =p

 

[unmerged(33767)]

I'm 8 years ahead, but I've been avoiding attacking Poland because I'm hoping that they will side with me in a war of religion. And I feel that going for the HRE crown goes against the spirit of playing a Prussia game, personally.

There are divergent effects in play that jump-started European intellectualism, starting with way more Jews coming to Germany than Turkey in the 1450s. Also I know more about the Enlightenment than the weird post-Renaissance pre-Enlightenment period we're in =p

And it really shows

Great AAR so far, I like it how try to maintain a historical logic of events and you are really doing a great job. Your AAR resembles the history of an alternative world, where events were different from ours, but nevertheless followed their own historical and intervined path.

The only thing that irked me was the explanation of the Venetian conversion. The Venetian political system, that was partially democratic and where all people were free to make their fortune (e.g going from oarsman to smalltime trader to major merchant), was always a source of stability. The people felt part of the Republic and enjoyed its benefits. Even if the political power remained among the ennobled families, other citizens also felt involved in the life of the republic as they were supporting its main pillars e.g. the navy, the trade or the crafts/manufacturies (e.g. glass, printing, textiles etc)

Don't get me wrong, I am a strong fan of historical AARs and I believe that yours is the best I have ever read, despite my small poke about Venice

I just got back from Berlin where I could see and touch Prussian history, seeing Frederik the Great's study, library, music room and the chair he died in was amazing. Standing in the music hall where the famous painting of Frederick the Great playing the flute was made is unbelievable.

Anyway, I got carried away. Prussian history has always had a place in my heart and I love it how you are writing your AAR, keep up the good work!

 

[Omen]

A fascinating update. I can't wait to see how it all shakes out in the end.

 

[Merrick Chance']

And it really shows

Great AAR so far, I like it how try to maintain a historical logic of events and you are really doing a great job. Your AAR resembles the history of an alternative world, where events were different from ours, but nevertheless followed their own historical and intervined path.

The only thing that irked me was the explanation of the Venetian conversion. The Venetian political system, that was partially democratic and where all people were free to make their fortune (e.g going from oarsman to smalltime trader to major merchant), was always a source of stability. The people felt part of the Republic and enjoyed its benefits. Even if the political power remained among the ennobled families, other citizens also felt involved in the life of the republic as they were supporting its main pillars e.g. the navy, the trade or the crafts/manufacturies (e.g. glass, printing, textiles etc)

Don't get me wrong, I am a strong fan of historical AARs and I believe that yours is the best I have ever read, despite my small poke about Venice

I just got back from Berlin where I could see and touch Prussian history, seeing Frederik the Great's study, library, music room and the chair he died in was amazing. Standing in the music hall where the famous painting of Frederick the Great playing the flute was made is unbelievable.

Anyway, I got carried away. Prussian history has always had a place in my heart and I love it how you are writing your AAR, keep up the good work!

I have a vaguely passing knowledge of Venetian history, but the problem is how, in that context, to explain a conversion to Orthodoxy. The first several times I've seen it in MM it took me completely aback, and even in this context it's not like I can explain it through the Reformation or through a conversion to a dynamic, new, religion (not insulting Orthodoxy), so I made it a choice between Wealth and Empire. Neither capitulation directly involved the Venetian people or, really, the Venetians at all--it was the swinging of a pendulum between Venice's two main territories--northern Italy and the Eastern Med.

Anyhoo that's the logic I decided to go with. There will most certainly be innacuracies in this--I am, afterall, an undergraduate and even if I were a doctor of history I wouldn't know anywhere close to everything even about a singular topic. As such, I welcome people poinitng out where I'm wrong, especially in this case.

And @Gabor: Well, if France goes into positive stability they'll be able to convert back to Catholic. So I suppose you're right, they're basically stuck as Reformed.

 

[Scrollreader]

This is /amazing/. I've just caught up, and am incredibly impressed with the versimilitude you've given this branching from the OT. I shall most definitely continue to follow this, and perhaps, give forming Prussia a try myself.

 

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I have a vaguely passing knowledge of Venetian history, but the problem is how, in that context, to explain a conversion to Orthodoxy. The first several times I've seen it in MM it took me completely aback, and even in this context it's not like I can explain it through the Reformation or through a conversion to a dynamic, new, religion (not insulting Orthodoxy), so I made it a choice between Wealth and Empire. Neither capitulation directly involved the Venetian people or, really, the Venetians at all--it was the swinging of a pendulum between Venice's two main territories--northern Italy and the Eastern Med.

Anyhoo that's the logic I decided to go with. There will most certainly be innacuracies in this--I am, afterall, an undergraduate and even if I were a doctor of history I wouldn't know anywhere close to everything even about a singular topic. As such, I welcome people poinitng out where I'm wrong, especially in this case.

And @Gabor: Well, if France goes into positive stability they'll be able to convert back to Catholic. So I suppose you're right, they're basically stuck as Reformed.

Actually, the interesting thing is that Venice considered moving the seat of the Doge to Constantinople during its occupation by the crusaders. So I can see your logic now.

Keep up the good work, hoping to read your next update!

 

[Merrick Chance']

Paper Lions: Poland and the Ottomans

It seems ironic, that while the Reformation tore through the East, it was the West which fell into revolt--Hegel

With a single blow, I have exposed the Turk as a hollow threat.--Ferdinand Hapsburg, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire

The new consensus in security studies is that there are multiple kinds of security which threaten different sectors--while a country may not be threatened by military threats, it may be in a recession, or sections of its society may be threatened by new migrants. This analytical lens can be immensely useful, especially when one discovers dynamics such as that of Europe in the 16th century. To paraphrase Hegel, Eastern Europe dealt with a colossal societal upheaval (the Reformation), while Western Europe had a far more traditional kind of revolt.

Hegel states, however, that this is not 'ironic', "for the two revolts, the one of mind and the one of body, were two sides of the same spirit, the failed Peasants War of the 1510s". However, the two sides created very different political cultures for most of the 17th century--for while the Eastern Reformation was transformative, the Western revolts created a reactionary political elite which would not give up their reigns until their deaths late into the 1600s.

Poland

No country saw a greater pacification than Poland. This can be attributed, primarily, to the Polish Wars of Religion, which ended the lives of ~90,000 Poles and was caused by the enthusiastic authoritarianism of the Polish king. The next King to be elected (Vladislav V) was a Rigan Anabaptist. While his ascension did not lead to a conversion (this was agreed as a part of his election, beyond this Anabaptist Christianity is not a missionary religion), he brought the Anabaptist belief in non-violence into his administration. Not only did he prescribe to Kreyitzan beliefs of a bloodless state, he brought this belief into Poland foreign policy--Poland did not go to war for 40 years after the Polish War of Religion.

Vladislav IV's proto-pacifism influenced Polish policy in several other key ways. The Polish army was downsized to 40,000 men, and the saved money was used to expand Poland's trade. Tariffs were slowly eliminated between Prussia, Riga, Bohemia and the Korona. Beyond this, Poland's wealth was used to build a large series of canals and state-sponsored markets. Presses were imported from Prussia and Vladislav V passed state funding for Polish art. By 1590, Gdansk was not only a center of trade which netted the Polish Korona tens of thousands of ducats a month, it was also a center of art and culture.

Vladislav's kingship sparked a Golden Age in Polish art.​

Vladislav's trust in Kreyitzan political philosophy went so far as for him to trust the Catholic Emperor to protect him. Gdansk entered the Empire as the Free Merchant City of Danzig in 1580, and with this he accepted the by now venerable institution of Imperial Law. While Imperial law was, by the dawn of the 17th century, more and more all-encompassing, many laws were left to local governments. The addition of Polish territories to the Empire led to a large controversy--the institutions of the Empire, especially the Courts, were still largely Catholic. This is even though the Reichscourt was located in Nassau, one of the most religiously diverse cities in the Empire. While this dilemma was one of the highest priorities of Imperial jurists, the nominal addition of Republikanin Poland and the conversion of France to "Absolutist Christianity" made this an even harder problem. France especially was a problem. Henri II argued that "the Empire's Catholic laws have no claim to jurispresence in my Kingdom", and this argument led to widespread French gains within the Empire during the 1580s, and the Imperial Exclusion of France into the Empire's trading cities only served to isolate Reformist princes even farther from Imperial Law. Already, a parallel court system based on Protestant Law was being created in the Theocracy of Cologne, and the King in Prussia was making moves that indicated that he would support the parallel system. Clearly a compromise had to be reached, or else all of the Protestant princes in and around the Empire would soon be claiming what Ferdinand called "The Right to Lawlessness".

The compromise, which was named the Imperial Law Act of 1592, was called by Huntington 'the moment when the Western world transcended above the religious dominance of the other civilizations'. Though religious law would still dominate local concerns, a 'parallel system' would be created which was based off of semi-secular Imperial precedent. The system was, by no means, perfect--Imperial precedent was largely Catholic, as were most Imperial judges. Beyond this, Absolutist traditions were starting to creep into Imperial rule, as displayed in the provision--'the Emperor reserves the right to appoint and to fire Imperial jurists'. This meant that an Absolutist Emperor would be able to control Imperial law, which headed the way to the Imperial Religion Wars.

However, in the short run, the Imperial Law Act created a renaissance of law, especially in Poland, which was still 30-40% Catholic. Vladislav's acceptance of Imperial law meant that in disputed areas, such as the Duchy of the Ukraine or the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the law system would still be able to function, which further cemented his reputation as "Vladislav the Great".

The beginnings of Imperial secular law allowed Poland's multi-cultural society to thrive under the auspice of a seemingly neutral state.​

At the same time, Vladislav presided over a dramatic weakening of Poland with regards to her neighbors. His pacifist policies meant that by 1597, the Polish army was weaker than that of the Prussian, Russian, Swedish and Austrian armies. Vladislav did not worry about this, as he depended on the Empire's guarentee of any Imperial territory's independence. This became a huge issue, however, when the Prussian-Russian alliance was announced in 1598.

Turkey

While Poland's descent into military irrelevance was not obvious until the First Partition of Poland in the early 17th century, the Ottoman Empire was facing the fact of its weakness all throughout the 1500s. This seems odd--and many histories have been written asking why Turkey, which started the century as the largest and most technologically advanced land power in Europe, was defeated by the far smaller Austrian army several times.

There were two primary causes--firstly, most of the Ottoman gains of the 15th and 16th centuries were against the weaker Berber states, and through the collapse of the Mameluke kingdom. Because of this, far more effort was used administering the thousands of miles of new territories than creating an army that could defend against outside aggressors.

Even after the loss of her Balkan territories, the Ottomans expended infinitely more money on the administration of her gargantuan empire than reforming her army, which by now had become such a political force that any modernizations were met with wide-spread revolts.​

Beyond this, while most of the Christian powers could count on some degree of international stability and the trust of their neighbors, the Ottoman Padishah was met with a new crusade every time that the Italian states of the Emperor faced internal discord. This brings me to the second 'turnover'. Gunther's theory, that states with large armies and large navies, were a better foe for the Turk than the elite Crusader orders, was proven during the 6th Crusade in the 1560s.

It all started when the Turkish Janissaries staged a revolt against Mehmet IX's modernization of the military. At the same time, the Austrian Emperor Ferdinand (The Austrian Emperor right now is also called Frederich. God damnit, Germany, can't you have more different names for your leaders?) was faced with the constant threat of the Hapsburgs since the Reformation. The Protestant electors, hoping for weaker rule, unanimously supported the King of Bohemia for Emperorship, which would mean the collapse of Catholic rule in the Empire under a weak Emperor. He needed support, and a crusade was the perfect way to show that the Austrians would be able to defend against the Turk. The Catholic Coalition, a Military Union of Naples, Spain, Austria, England, Venice, and France, swept upon the Ottoman Empire like vultures on a corpse.

France's Egyptian campaign was one of the first overseas campaigns that France would hold, and led to the militarization and revivification of the Italian states​

This brought the true proof to Schreuser's theorem. While Austria was the biggest conqueror in the war, Spain and France's allies, Venice and Naples, also succeeded in retaking nearly all of the lands of the old Crusader states. Spain even succeeded in becoming the de facto protector of the city of Jerusalem. Continued wars brought ever more territories to the crusaders, until both Austria and Venice had large Orthodox territories. The fate of the Catholic Coalition was, by the dawn of the 17th century, in question, with its loss of Venice and France. However, what was not in question was the humiliation of the Ottoman Empire. Unless the Janissary became a modern soldier rather than a pre-modern warrior, the fate of the empire was in question.

 

[Merrick Chance']

Coin Ascendent: Frederich the Great, the First Polish Partition and the breaking of the international order

Part 1: Set up

Frederich Wilhelm IV​

The early 16th century was time of realpolitick. The new ideas of Protestantism and Reformism had effected, by this time, merely minor states and those who defended against it and protected it did so in a deeply dynamic political order. Austria made and broke alliances all along the Empire, even including the alliance between Sweden (the defender of the Protestant faith) and Austria against the rise of radical Reformist Christianity. This time was marked by attempts to bridge the gap, failed attempts (see the 7th Papal Council, which lost the East in order to bolster the West) But as the Reformation moved on, it became clear that the political philosophies of the Catholic, Protestant, and Reformed states were too different to have working bilateral relations. Soon the dynamic and chaotic political situation of Europe transformed into one dominated by 4 blocs--

The Catholic Bloc, consisting of the Hapsburg states, Naples, the former Hansa, Southern Germany, Thuringia and Bohemia,
The Protestant Bloc, consisting of Prussia, Denmark, Sweden, and the small northern German states
and the Reformist bloc, consisting of France & her vassals, Poland, and Hesse
And the spoilers, IE, England (who's policy of tolerance for the Jews was quickly becoming a foreign policy issue), Venice, and Russia.

By 1600, England was the only country who's foreign policy did not go on denominational lines​

Some of these alliances were, by 1610, multiple generations old. Beyond this, the Imperial Law Act seemed to have struck a religious compromise, creating an international system where it seemed that there were more benefits to peace than to war. Frederich the Great disagreed with this concept, and while many have focused solely on his conquests and his rivalry with the Emperors, he transformed Prussian society in a very important way.

The common balance of power in Prussia was between the two colossal institutions of the Doppelkorps and the Kronesohr, which represented the foreign and the domestic, respectively. The Kronesauge, Prussia's nascent central bank, was widely seen as the "purse with which Prussia bought its development and conquests", a quote from Weber hundreds of years later which echoed the statement by Walter Below, who had risen to the head of the Kronesohr through his brother's military victories, that "a purse had no geist, no will, and a purse cannot say no". In some ways, this benefited Prussia. The regular acquisition of loans from Hamburg greatly expanded the Prussian police force, as well as the ranks of the tax collectors.

At the same time, if Prussia were ever to be disconnected from these cheap loans, as it was at several points, most notably during the reign of Johann Georg I and at several points during the Brothers reign, then the Prussian economy had to go into overdrive just to keep up. By now, the Royal Prussian Loan Association had taken 76 Prussian banks and firms as collateral, and Frederich's first priority was find a way to make Prussia independent of these foreign loans.

He was the perfect man for the job. While it was common at this point for Prussian kings to be raised by the Doppelkorps, preparing them for the strains of diplomacy and leadership on the battlefield, Frederich asked at an early age to work in the Kronesauge. And, unlike Cicero who went off on a grand tour of Europe's universities, Frederich stayed in the Kronesauge through the whole of his life as a prince.

The Prussian kings had always been unique amongst their pre-modern brethren in that while the Kings of France or Spain, or the Emperor of Austria, may have spent a good deal of their time working as a Lord, the Prussian kings were consumed by their work, and spent most of their time thinking on stately matters. However, even with this in mind, Frederich was a busy-body. He was one of the first famous drinkers of coffee, which had just recently spread to the continent and was criticized as 'a Muslim drink'. He used this Muslim Drink to fuel his accounting sessions which would regularly pass into the morning.

While Kronesauge accountants were spread amongst all of the Prussian territories by this point (even the military district of Silesia), the ever increasing urbanization meant that these singular accountants were perpetually understaffed, which meant that large portions of each province's economy would occur without any knowledge of the realm. Beyond this, many kinds of taxes had already been devoted to a particular sort of spending--in the cities of Berlin and Konigsberg, all taxes were to be spent on local projects, all taxes collected from printing presses were to be devoted to state-funded art, and all of Silesia's taxes and tariffs were put directly into the army.

Clearly, at this point the original Prussian bureaucracy was considered a third-rate institution, behind the politics of the Kronesohr and the Doppelkorps' duty to defend the realm. This angered Frederich to no end--it meant that, while nearly every other country had a huge treasury that could be used for larger projects, a good 10% of Prussian money went uncovered every month. Because those most apt to make policy decisions were kept by the wayside, Prussia was left at the whims of 'a series of self-important mayors who preside over their urban feifs"

Frederich's ascension was a sparse affair. Only the cabinet, the Silesian estate, and the Danish and Swedish royal families were invited, and the feast was kept to a comparatively small 7-course meal. Frederich, famously, had the head of the Kronesohr, Andrew Below, pass him acts for him to sign while he was at the dinner.

Reorganization

The newly created Prussian Financial Administration, known as the "Koniglich Munze", or "Munze Archiv"​

Frederich's first priority upon becoming King was 'to bring those fools at the Kronesohr to heel'. After a series of requests to build and staff courthouses through Silesia (a part of the Kronesohr's play at administering the area), the Kronesohr requested of Frederich that he diplomatically 'vassalize and subjugate Pomerania'. Pomerania was in a similar position that Silesia had been in decades hence, with only foreign heirs to the throne, and while Prince Johann was the only Protestant candidate, it was clear from the get-go that the Pomeranians were not going to give their realm over to the Prussians who had fought to hard to take their land by force.

However, Frederich used the mission in order to further his own objectives. Under the auspice of increasing bi-lateral relations between Prussia and Pomerania, Frederich re-opened the northern portion of the Oder, creating freer trade. This was a highly necessary decision. The Kings Road, built by Cicero in order to weaken Pomerania, was a road which cut off from the Oder right at the Pomeranian border and went to the Baltics via Ostpomern. This not only created huge amounts of smuggling, it also made Prussian trade highly inefficient.

Thuringia's inheritance of Pomerania was a foregone conclusion​

When Thuringia inherited the lands of Pomerania, the Kronesohr summoned Frederich in order to admonish him. When asked why he failed to succeed in his given objective, Frederich made a speech which was used as precadent by later Absolutist kings for the next 3 centuries. "You do not order me," said Frederich. "I am the King, I make the laws. You are an advising body, and yet you have taken that you are an estate. I owe you nothing. You have no power over me." With this, he announced that he was taking the power of purse and the responsibility of administration away from the Kronesohr, making it purely an advisory committee. He gave the responsibility for administration to the Kronesauge, which was newly expanded into the MunzArchiv. After this point, the Munzarchiv was in charge of everything in the Kingdom involving money.

The creation of the Munze Archiv cost the crown a great deal of money, and in the long run made innefficient regulations institutional, but it gave stable and consistent leadership.​

The creation of the Munzarchiv showcased both Frederich's greatest flaw and his greatest achievement: his constant search for governmental efficiency, which led, in excess, to Absolutism and authoritarianism, but which also created a more comprehensive and rationalized government. The Munze Archiv was a microcosm for all of Prussian politics: it was a nominally apolitical organization which was given the rule of a great deal of the realm. Under its watch, Frederich drastically expanded the Kronesauge, putting Provincial Accountants in every major city. Efforts were started, by 1607, to take control of the Prussian police force and put its tax-collecting element under the Munze Archiv. Soon, the MA would be a sprawling bureaucracy worthy of the name German.

Up next: the First Partition of Poland

 

[Chris Taylor]

I continue to be amazed at the speed with which you can put out highly detailed updates! Well done!

Maybe it was just my MMP games, but I always seemed to find one Italian minor or another going religion-bonkers during the Reformation's wars. Once Genoa converted to Sunni Islam, which was horrifyingly implausible but simultaneously knee-slappingly funny. I can at least see Venice turning Orthodox given that a big chunk of its "overseas" territories had majority Orthodox populations.

Please tell me France doesn't get to keep those big chunks of Libya and Egypt it has occupied. I am very concerned that there are two huge Reformist superpowers but only one and a half Protestant superpowers (there's you, of course, and Sweden). It seems likely to me that you are going to end up butting heads with one or both of them in the future.

I have never seen the "Central Office for the Provinces" event before. Does it provide any long-term benefits or trigger other follow-on events?

 

[Milites]

Stunning progress I must say and seeing the reformed France just brought a tear to mine eyes. Personally, I think the Protestant and Reformist Blocs should shake hands on dispersing their Catholic counterpart, if the Madrid/Vienna axis decides to suddenly go all counter-reformation.

 

[Rabid]

I have never seen the "Central Office for the Provinces" event before. Does it provide any long-term benefits or trigger other follow-on events?

No, it's a straight up 'your sliders are too far from the middle so have a bad event'.

 

[Merrick Chance']

Man, now that I've finally taken a chunk out of Poland you guys are telling me to ally with them? You're worse than the missions.

Also, I'm putting quotes from this thread into my sig, so that I can advertize it movie style.

@millites: It is sad. I just finished my Polish history, and the bad feeling of subjugating such a country was made even worse when they guaranteed me right after the end of the war, which I think has something to do with the Great Power AI--they got the 'we don't like you anymore' event a couple of years later.


@Chris: France didn't take any of those gains, but Austria's constantly taking chunks out of Turkey, which is getting worrysome. The Ottomans hold nearly all of Northern Africa (their territory ends at Morocco) and nearly all of the Middle East, and yet they're not able to fight even a non-Imperial Austria?

and now, a preview-

Poland after the First Partition

 

[Rabid]

Put me in as the voice of Prussian 'reason': Poland must die! Just don't let Austria get in on the spoils. Even if it would make your mutual borders look pretty neat, given their ownership of that Romanian province

Not sure why the OE is getting stomped but I do recall that happening in almost every game where both Austria and the OE become big and powerful. I forget what the starting NIs / sliders for them were like in MMP2, that might explain the difference. The Ottomans do usually end up fighting solo against multiple Christian powers, which probably doesn't help. If they don't have Syrian/Egyptian as accepted cultures yet then that would definitely explain it; they're just not going to be getting much manpower and wealth from those provinces and they'll be producing rebels and making stab costs soar.

What are your aims after presumably partitioning Poland into non-existence? Bohemia and Thuringia both look like great, rich areas to expand into and border your 'heartland'.

 

[unmerged(33767)]

Can't wait to read the story behind the German conquest of Danzig!

PS. I see you put my comment into your signature, I am honoured. But I would like to ask you to correct my name as well

 

[Merrick Chance']

Can't wait to read the story behind the German conquest of Danzig!

PS. I see you put my comment into your signature, I am honoured. But I would like to ask you to correct my name as well

It's not as epic as the War of Danish Aggression, as I said the Poles have a REALLY small army considering that their economy was like 2x mine before I took Gdansk.

Spelled your name right =[

Not sure why the OE is getting stomped but I do recall that happening in almost every game where both Austria and the OE become big and powerful. I forget what the starting NIs / sliders for them were like in MMP2, that might explain the difference. The Ottomans do usually end up fighting solo against multiple Christian powers, which probably doesn't help. If they don't have Syrian/Egyptian as accepted cultures yet then that would definitely explain it; they're just not going to be getting much manpower and wealth from those provinces and they'll be producing rebels and making stab costs soar.

I think that the major problem is that the Ottomans get an event that gives them the NI "Bureaucracy" roughly around the point when you need to go up 10-12 gov't techs to get the next one. This means that the Ottomans don't get the naval/army idea that they need to fight off the Christians.

 

[Merrick Chance']

The First Partition of Poland and the Breaking of the International Order

Part 2: Ripped Asunder

Counter-Reformation

The 11th Papal Council was the last council called by the Pope for several hundred years. Held in the newly recaptured Avignon in the year 1584, it impressed several things upon the visiting Bishops.

Firstly, their numbers were greatly reduced. When once a veritable army of theologians crossed the Oder and the Vistula in order to attend the Papal Councils. Now only the Bishop of Altmark attended. The conversions of France, Poland, Sweden and Prussia all together ended the careers of a third of the Catholic Bishops, and all together the number of Bishops in the 11th Council was one half that that attended the 4th, which was the first council after Becke penned his 94 theses. In fact, the reason that the council was moved to Avignon was that Scotland had recently been forcibly converted to Protestantism by Sweden.

Second was the importance of the Austrian Emperor to the fate of Catholicism. Avignon was only a Catholic city again because the French king surrendered it to the Empire, as well as the now-Reformist states of Luxembourg and Savoy. While Portugal, Spain, and England had done much to spread Catholicism to the New World, the population of the colonies was sparse, and the more populated areas of Peru and Brasil were not taking to conversion. This put Catholicism in a weak position, especially because it was clear that the Bohemian King, backed by duplicitous Protestant electors, was to inherit the Imperial Crown.


Lastly, to get to Avignon one had to cross into the newly converted lands of France. This made the threat of the Reformation obvious. To the English and Iberian Bishops, Beckism, Absolutism, and Republikanism were far away threats, scarcely ideas in their heads. However, whatever notions the Bishop of York had about Reformists were quickly dispelled when he was killed in a riot. The French records say that he was caught trying to convert the parish of an Absolutist priest when a rock was thrown at his head. He was later dragged to the town square and burned alive. Such a crime loomed greatly over the last Papal Council.

The burning of the Bishop of York. He was later canonized.​

The last three councils had gone at a slow pace, dealing with corruption in a tangential way, but the common position amongst Catholic Bishops was that the Reformation was being orchestrated by the Princes of Europe in order to increase their power. This diverged with the Emperor's position which was that Heresy needed to be stomped out of the Empire unless it spread, and it seems almost too obvious that Ferdinand chose what he called "the first redoubt against heresy" as the place where the council would take place. And indeed, the riot in Dauphine set a far more aggressive tone in the Council, where the Bishop of Bremen argued that "the doctrines of the Beckists have gone beyond the pale, and I would define it as a heresy to be fought rather than an opportunity for reform". Emperor Ferdinand went farther and suggested that the Reformers were heretics in disguise, trying to transform the Church from within.

Either way, the 11th Council ended with the decision to denounce the heretics, and provided the official start of the Counter-Reformation.

The Counter Reformation​

This did not start the policy of fighting heresy, however, and beyond this, it did not (as some say) create the international order that was broken by the 30 years war. The Catholic Coalition and the Prusso-Scandinavian alliance, the two mainstays of the Catholic and Protestant blocs, were both created during the 1560s, and while the Franco-Polish axis was only 6 years old by this point, it functioned using the same logic as the old Anti-Hapsburg bloc of the early 1500s. Beyond this, cooperation between the two heretical blocs was set when king Frederich III intervened in the Polish wars of religion. This was a part of the reason for Poland's pacified nature during the later 16th century--they did not believe that Prussia would go to war with them.

Indeed, the policy of both of the Brothers Hohenzollern was that the strength of the Reformist Polish state was an important counterweight to the Austrian Emperor. And as Emperor Ferdinand started acting more and more aggressive (because of the lack of legitimacy for his chosen heir and the need to create support for another Hapsburg Emperor), Prussia went through a policy of 'enlightened neutrality' towards the Polish Korona.

Torn apart

Frederich's motives for partitioning up Poland were legion, but there were several main ones--

1.Poland's small army was no longer an effective counter-measure against Austria
2.The Russo-Prussian alliance was made with the assumption that it would lead to conquests in the near future
3.'Because I can'

While Frederich's uncle and father were reticent to listen to their military advisers on the subject of Poland, Frederich listened to their arguments of 'creating a land bridge between East and Western Prussia' with a gleam in his eye. Long had the Doppelkorps tried to get the Hohenzollerns to retake Danzig--the founders of the Doppelkorps themselves felt that selling the province had been a huge mistake, which had greatly limited Prussia's development. Beyond this, the industries popping up on the Vistula basin, as well as the large amount of manpower in the province of Posen, made for tempting acquisitions.

Green indicates highest priority, red lowest. note: this is in an alternate scenario I did to see who would follow Pomerania into war if I DoW'd them. It was a lot​

Beyond this, Prussia's greatest assets were dying fast. The veterans of the War of Danish aggression, as well as the new Chief of the Doppelkorps, the Grand Captain Juan D'Estavera (another Spanish Beckist migrant), were all old men, and while a new generation of officers were coming up, they were far smaller in number. Prussia would have to act soon while their officer corps was still dangerous.

The only new general, Kurt Von Anhalt-Dessau represented the Prussian Army's new focus on fire tactics (with a 6 star Grand Captain, 3 offensive, and Siege Gangs, I have roughly +3 fire per general. I later switched to Artillery-based formations which means I have +4 fire per general​

The lack of a large Polish army meant that the Prussian battleplan was straightforward compared to thee war plan in the War of Danish Aggression--the Armee Von Silesia, led by Frederichc IV himself, would remain in Neukyau, tying up some 12,000 Polish soldiers in Krakow. While this would happen, the Armies of the Mark and Prussia would occupy the Vistula territories, while the Konigsgarde would besiege Danzig. This plan went amazingly well, and gains were quickly made.

The War of Polish Partition was not known for its battles.​

The utter collapse of the Polish army on the Western front brought a swift diplomatic coup. When it became clear to the French Army that to march into Altmark would be to march far out of supply and that Poland could barely defend itself, they offered a white peace to Frederich IV, who promptly agreed.

Reaping the benefits of quick sieges and a France that hasn't discovered military access​

On the beginning of the Spring of 1611, Frederich IV got two letters--the siege of Torun and Danzig were over, and the Armies of Prussia and the KonigsGarde were moving to Wilno and Warsaw, respectively. The second letter came from his cavalry--the Polish Army was moving in a desperate attempt to break the siege of Kalisz. Frederich moved to intercept them and met them on the battlefield just outside of the city of Sandomierz. The Battle of Sandomierz showed both the strengths and weaknesses of fire tactics--Prussian line infantry manage to repulse ten Polish charges before being struck. But when the Polish cavalry finally succeeded in drawing close to the Prussian line infantry, all of the discipline fell apart and command collapsed. While the battle was won, the Prussian infantry was decimated, and the Armee Von Silesia would remain a reserve for the rest of 1611.

The Battle of Sandomeirz​

However, by July, Poland was in dire straights. The battle of Sandomierz destroyed nearly all of Poland's infantry, who would be needed if Poland wanted to retake the lower Vistula. As time went on it became increasingly assumed that the Lower Vistula would

The War by July. Riga and Russia are also fighting, and I think that most Polish troops are fighting Riga.​

Now seems like as good a point as ever to take a pause. Now being 3:30 =p