Chapter 50: A Time to Build (1723-27)
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Europe in the Year to 1724
Not long after Friesland concluded its separate peace in the Franconian-Bohemian War, Franconia reached a peace of its own with Switzerland on 14 December 1723. No territory was lost by the Swiss, who were forced to break their alliance with Bohemia and pay around 370 ducats in compensation to Franconia and its remaining allies.
And a month later Austria forced Bremen to surrender, enforcing their conversion to Catholicism (of which the Frisians approved). The rest of the Austro-British war against Saxony and Bohemia continued.
On the same day of the Bremen-Austria treaty, the great war between the Ottomans and Russia came to a close. Russia accepted Ottoman terms that saw them lose five provinces but pay no monetary reparations.
Theodoro was left alone, though for some reason it took another four months for them to capitulate and be annexed into the huge Ottoman Empire. Exact numbers were not known, but the Ottomans were left with no manpower reserve and fewer troops than they had when the war started.
With Bremen humbled, this enduring but elusive target of Frisian expansionism was visited by a team of Frisian spies in March 1724 who began developing a network with the aim of once again obtaining a claim on the rich port. Their current alliances were with Poland (a shadow of the power it used to be) and the minor countries of Saxe-Lauenburg, Aachen and Thuringia.
Cologne then concluded a white peace with Bohemia on 20 April, followed just two days later with the final treaty made when Bohemia approached Franconia with terms. Franconia got a few provinces and Bavaria one., with the usual accompanying reparation requirements, including a large cash payout of 1,855 ducats.
Bohemia was even more harshly dealt with by Austria when its war with Saxony was concluded at the start of July. Bohemia lost five provinces and Saxony two, then pillaged and forced to convert to Catholicism. It wasn’t total peace in central Europe, but the two largest wars of the last few years had been concluded.
But just as those treaties were being negotiated, Savoy decided to pounce on a weakened Switzerland, with the help of Tuscany. However, Savoyard allies France, Bavaria and Friesland were not called upon. Savoy had a large army while the Swiss could only muster 32,000 men, though the war would drag on for longer than most pundits expected.
Meanwhile, Saxony’s expensive reprieve from its war with Austria could not protect it from the simultaneous war by Mainz and Magdeburg. Saxony disappeared from the maps of Europe on 8 July 1174.
A far smaller and shorter war was fought in Italy from August to October 1174, when Ferrara and (a revived) Bologna managed to gain independence from Tuscany. Bologna’s resurrection was brief, taken over by Ferrara after a short conflict.
The rest of 1724 and the whole of 1725 would be relatively quiet in central Europe, with the war in Switzerland simmering away on the periphery of Frisian attention.
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Domestic Developments: 1723-25
The first of the new diplomatic ideas was unlocked in June 1724, with the new diplomat soon being put to work on Friesland’s increased international engagement.
Trade in the Malacca zone was given a boost in July 1724 through the Kamminga family, though almost simultaneously a large some of money was paid by the Government to prevent an impending outbreak of smallpox in West Java. The treasury was large and letting disease run rampant when it could be prevented seemed like the right thing to do to the FEI administration.
Shortly afterwards, long-serving foreign minister Popetet Barents died, replaced by a Hindu Sundanese statesman renowned for his diplomatic skills.
[Question: does it matter much that that we have many non-accepted cultures? The default policy has been to ‘Frisianise’ everyone, but is there some compelling gameplay reason to broaden this out?]
Even though relations with the Holy See had never been warm since colonialism had put them off-side with Friesland, enough influence was available to have a Papal Legate sent to Friesland in September 1724 to assist with the diplomatic program.
In October, 80 military power was spent to develop base Manpower in Brügge by two and simultaneously repair the remaining 53.83% devastation that had remained since its heinous sacking by Switzerland. At the same time a mix of administrative and military power was used to develop Meppen (twice), Oldenburg and Stade.
Restive Pontianak in Borneo was converted to the One True Faith in December 1724, with the missionaries sent next to Confucian Meliau.
The new year of 1725 saw coal discovered in Bengkulu in southern Sumatra. It seemed to be a very lucrative trade good and the Burghers of Friesland pondered whether it might have greater potential value in the future.
[Question: is coal now or later any more significant than just trade value? Or just another good?]
The rest of the year passed quietly enough on the domestic front as it had in Europe. In December more administrative power was spent developing Verden (x2), Meppen (x2) Oldenburg and Celle. The principle applied was to spend the effort in the cheapest locations in mainland European Frisian provinces, as it was uncertain how secure the more far-flung colonies may be in these uncertain revolutionary times. This latest expansion allowed a new cavalry regiment to be raised in Amsterdam within the force limit (now 218 regiments).
The year ended with the expiry of the Landtag’s first issue. No time was wasted plying the hold-out members with various favours to see the new motion passed straight away: the Quartering of Troops which may come in handy in any impending wars over the next ten years.
Military Upgrades: 1724-25
A phased program of upgrades for the frigates fleets protecting trade in the English Channel and Malacca zones saw half of each fleet sent to port at a time. In the FEI, 19 heavy frigates (342 ducats) began their works in December 1723, then 21 frigates from the English Channel fleet in January 1724 (378 ducats). The Lubeck trade fleet was already in port for their upgrades.
In April 1724, as the recovery of manpower reserves was in its early stages, four new soldiers’ households were commenced in European provinces at 250 ducats each, with construction due to take four years.
The trade fleets were swapped over in December 1724 when the first round of upgrades were completed, with similar numbers and costs for the second tranche in Europe and the FEI.
An improvement of another kind came in December 1725 when Frisian artillery doctrine was further improved.
[Note: I think I know what this does, but it may only be practically useful if I have huge batteries available for sieges.]
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Europe: 1726 to June 27
It was not until mid-1726 that the pace of activity started picking up again in Europe. The Swiss-Savoy war continued: the Swiss had either increased their forces or hired mercenaries in the meantime, strengthening their resistance.
Then in July 1726, Franconia once again activated its alliance network after declaring a nationalist war on the small North German state of Berg, who brought in its own allies and guarantors. By then, the Frisian manpower reserve had already recovered to just over 38,000 men and it was not expected their involvement in this conflict should be too costly. As usual, the long-standing alliance was honoured but on the basis of ‘not another Switzerland’.
Three of the four European Legers (in Hoya, Den Haag and Cleve) had been drilling, so would take some time to be ready for combat. But L.v. Latgalia’s 29,000 men had been in readiness in Loon for a possible revolt in former Liege. They were ready to march straight away – which they did.
Being conveniently camped right next to Berg, they arrived there a week later. The small local army surrendered without a fight as the siege began, with the combined Frisian and Franconian armies mustering 21 regiments of artillery between them for the ensuing siege.
In September 1726, the Ottomans had barely begun to rebuild their reserves when they launched a new adventure, this time against the much put-upon Lithuania. While they had only 80,000 troops to hand, the Lithuanians had a powerful and nearby ally: Scandinavia, who mustered almost 330,000 men and had a sizeable reserve. Another big and costly conflict in Eastern Europe beckoned.
On 5 November the Bergan seat of Jülich fell to Friesland after a relatively short siege by the standards of the day. This considerably boosted the warscore, which would now ‘tick over’ with time.
L.v. Goslar was fully battle ready by this time and had closed up to stand by in Upper Guelders. Thus they were ready when the anticipated Liegian separatist revolt broke out in in early December.
Led by Friesland’s best general Enhard Sytstra, the Frisians had crushed the revolt before the end of the month after they were brought to bay in Loon, with Sytstra picking up more valuable battle experience.
Meanwhile, Berg accepted the inevitable on 16 December 1726. The unfortunate Palatinate was the one that lost a province to the victors, with Berg only forced to pay reparations. Frisian casualties had been minimal, which was reflected in the very small payout they received: something they were not at all worried about. The rebuilding of the manpower reserve had hardly been affected; and Franconia owed another favour.
After recent wars had rolled back Protestantism even further, in early 1727 Catholicism dominated Western and Central Europe even more.
Bohemia had been badly weakened after its recent defeats to Franconia and Austria. So much so that in March 1727 the co-religionists in Wolgast decided to kick them while they were down. Bohemia’s only partly rebuilt army still had no reserves and would be outnumbered around 2-1 when the war broke out.
Soon after this, Lithuania had been fully occupied by the Ottomans as had some of Scandinavia’s possession on the southern shore of the Baltic. But one Lithuanian army remained in the field and the Scandinavians were gradually mustering their response.
The East: 1724 to June 1727
Friesland’s newly expanded diplomatic corps was partly employed in June 1724 to build a spy network in Demak in central Java to promote an eventual claim on the small realm that had long been on the FEI’s target list.
France’s began a colonial war against Palembang in April 1724. The latter had a couple of small regional allies but the deciding factor would be how many of France’s vast army would be applied to the imperialistic push.
Like the Ottomans, the Russians had recovered enough to launch a new campaign of their own in Central Asia in mid-May 1724. The small Uzbek state would be overwhelmed and annexed within six months.
Early the following year the Tsar was at it again, this time in the Far East, where the Korchin realm was assailed in March 1725.
Later in the year, the Shu Emperor launched one of their most ambitious efforts yet to unify China: the Shun alone were badly outnumbered, but they had the support of Japan in this conflict. Shu was still favoured but it may prove a challenging campaign.
By May 1727 both the aggressors had made significant progress but the wars would continue into the second half of the year.
Africa: December 1723 to August 1727
The expanded Frisian spying arm was quickly at work in Africa also, with spies despatched to Air in December 1723 to build a network aiming to eventually concoct a claim on the coastal province of Benin against the pesky rival.
Portugal’s war against Granada ended in a major victory in August 1725, with Granada’s toehold in South America fully annexed, while their ally Aragon won major gains in the Ivory Coast region. Granada was reduced to a couple of isolated enclaves.
Eight months later it was Tunis’ turn, with the once large realm also much reduced by recent wars and this punitive peace, where Aragon was the main beneficiary.
The claim for Benin was ready by the end of 1726 and was immediately lodged by Friesland. If it came to war, Air had a fair-sized army: Friesland would need allies or more troops to be confident of taking on their African rival.
Morocco was the third and final of Portugal’s enemies to agree terms with them in the great holy war they had waged in alliance with Aragon (principally). This time it was Portugal that gained large new territories in West Africa, though Aragon also did well of the deal.
Air pounced on Tunisian weakness in June 1727 by declaring an imperialist war. This presented a possible opportunity for Friesland, who started to ‘do the numbers’ on a campaign to expand northwards from Guinea.
The first actions were diplomatic. Morocco was happy to grant fleet basing rights for a small monthly fee, to facilitate any long naval voyages from the homeland. Of more importance was the renewal of the old alliance with Aragon, which could prove useful against both France and any African adversaries.
If France did attack, it was hoped enough of the European allies might be available to help Friesland at least keep them at bay.
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An Election: 1726-27
With underlying fears of possible French aggression worrying the Burghers of Friesland, work began on expanding the star fort in Gent (from level 6 to 8) in January 1726. This would take a little over two years to complete.
Just a few months later the long, eventful and quite successful life term of Fokke Galama ended, with land in Borneo, Liege and Java added to the Republic during his time.
As usual, the subsequent election was left up to the lottery system to decide rather than exerting improper influence, though Eilert Van Uylenburgh would have been the definite preferred candidate.
Alas, Albrecht Banda name was ‘pulled out of the hat’ – and a cruel streak soon emerged that had the whole Republic more restive.
Early the following year, research power was adjusted to ensure the in-demand diplomacy stream was given priority to support the current ideas group and balance the new Potestaat’s skills – which were poorest in diplomacy.
The conversion of Meliau in Borneo was finished in January 1727 and the missionaries moved across to the last province – the Hindus of Sambas.
