Chapter 38: An African Safari (1698-1702)
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European Affairs
Following victory in the Frisian-Magdeburgian Nationalist War of 1696-98, Friesland looked to consolidate in Europe and try to ride out the wave of local regional antagonism its actions would inevitably generate.
However, with some policy advocates having discussed the possibility of a future conflict with Portugal, in October 1698 the prospects there were analysed. Of interest, Portugal had at some point recently ended its alliance with France, though it did maintain one with Frisian ally Aragon – and rival Kilwa. They remained in a colonial war in the East Indies but were not performing very well.
However, Portugal’s directly ruled empire generated a force of 276,000 soldiers and 125 ships, with a healthy manpower reserve. Then its six colonial subjects could contribute another 417,000 troops and 204 ships. This would dwarf the military support of Friesland and its own two colonies by an enormous margin.
Unless their empire started to fragment or they became involved in a very major war, there seemed little prospect of taking on Portugal in the near future.
Austria demanded Verden be returned to the HRE as ‘unlawfully occupied territory’ on 30 December 1698. This was of course ignored but the opprobrium of this ‘illegal occupation’ would further inflame local German opinion, though Frisian allies Franconia and Bavaria remained supportive.
In April 1699, One of Friesland’s diplomats was sent to Liege to establish a spy network. Its two provinces of Liege and Loon were part of the Low Countries region, so a network and possible later claim may one day prove of use.
In November, news came that Magdeburg had finally lost its attempt to overrun Brunswick. Not only did they lose but they were forced to hand over Braunschweig and then Altmark broke free under a re-established state of Brandenburg. With these recent losses, Magdeburg was reduced to a single province.
However, the new regime in Altmark was soon challenged by a noble rebellion. In January 1700 young Count Johann Georg I of Brandenburg’s forces were destroyed in a battle with the Rebels and Altmark placed under siege.
The Rebels would win their siege in late October and force Count Johann Georg to submit to their demands (for more influence in the Estates, provincial autonomy and a large grab of crown land) on 1 November. The horror!
On 3 November, long-standing Frisian ally Scandinavia was acclaimed as having entered a Golden Era that would last for another 50 years. Then on 1 January 1701, the Frisian claim on Bremen lapsed: the threat of Austrian entry, dragging in Great Britain and other allies to oppose any Frisian attempt to annex it, had prevented the Burghers of Leeuwarden from ever acting on it.
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Home and Colonial Affairs
In early October the colonist working on settlement growth in Hamburg had been swapped to Oldenburg instead, then the other two from Friesland and Amsterdam (both at 5% improvement chance) were transferred to Meppen (24.2%) and Cleve (12.3%), along with Oldenburg (25.5%).
With the national mission to unite the Lowlands still prevented largely by French obstruction in Flanders and Brabant, the possibility of chartering the WIC was revisited. This would involve taking at least two more provinces in the Guinea region – with Granada being the obvious target.
That would then lead to the easy fulfilment of subsequent ambitions in the Caribbean and North America.
Manpower recovery after the recent war remained a pressing factor limiting Frisian preparedness for more ventures (colonial or otherwise), when army growth was also on the agenda. In late October, the reserve was just above 42,000 men out of over 98,000 maximum with a gain of around 860/month. New training fields in Osnabrück and Indrapura began construction and would take a year to complete.
The monthly balance was under 100 ducats and with the war finished almost half the forts in areas believed to be at lesser immediate threat were mothballed in January 1699, delivering a large saving to fort maintenance and improving the budget bottom line.
The Estates were well in hand by this time and Burgher loyalty was increased even further when the completion of the stock exchange in Hamburg fulfilled the Diet agenda.
A major milestone was reached in the progress of Frisian ideas of state with the institution of marcher lords in February 1699. Given Frisia had no vassal states at this time, the major benefit was the completion of the influence ideas branch and the opening up of a new policy option, where a ‘free slot’ was available under administrative ideas.
Of the two such now available, overseas dominions was chosen, which would at least increase tariffs across the board.
With 2,276 ducats in the treasury, another major round of building works was commissioned on 20 June. Universities were started in Oversticht and Geldern, a counting house in Makassar, conscription centres in Swellendam and Zeeland and a military administration in the Banten area.
With all the recent and anticipated demands on administrative power, when Friesland was able to change its national focus again, it was switched to administration in August 1699.
One of those demands was in the conversion of recently annexed territories into core provinces. That work started on Upper Guelders (68 admin power) in August 1699 – which would eventually be completed in December 1700. Stade (February 1700) and Verden (April 1700) became core provinces and work started on Celle (118 admin, as there had not been a legitimate claim) began when Upper Guelders finished in December 1700.
Republican tradition and the loyalty of the Estates was boosted in August 1699 when the Diet was summoned again. Once more, the Burghers’ agenda was adopted. It would take four and a half years to build the required plantation in distant Frisian Papua.
Starting in late August 1699 and stretching through to July 1700, 12 new regiments would be trained up, with two infantry in Friesland, five infantry and one artillery in Frisian Guinea and four infantry in South-West Africa, gathering in Inhambane. The policy here was to begin creating armies in both those locations that would suffer no attrition through transport, as had worked well in the FIE for many years. Of course, this slowed down reserve manpower accrual but was deemed necessary for future contingencies.
A series of economic events – none of them favourable and not always offering choices of response – were dealt with from September 1699 to April 1700. The most significant of these was a corruption scandal – which Potestaat Stiensma decided to sweep under the carpet to avoid destabilising the government, though at an ongoing cost to the economy.
By November 1699, the maximum manpower reserve limit had increased to 105,000 accruing at 927/month, but the expansion of the army had caused the reserve to fall to just 33,163. It would take some time to get it back up again – especially as a few more army builds (noted above) were made after this point.
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The Enlightenment Dawns
As the new century began, the first stirrings of the Enlightenment were detected, starting in Naples. The days of Absolutism were (literally) numbered, with about ten years left to run. Though only embraced in Naples so far, the Enlightenment had begun to spread more widely – and in a few places in Frisian territory.
Meanwhile, the monthly balance was back down to around 100 ducats, with trade showing the largest decrease in income (for reasons not explored in detail by Frisian economists at the time). Nonetheless, there was enough money available for another university – this one in the capital Leeuwarden itself – in February 1700, given this would help boost the embracing of the Enlightenment there, for example in Utrecht (also in seven other Frisian provinces in Europe), with the universities in Brügge and Gent also nearing completion.
By May, the spread of the new school of thought was spreading more quickly around the country, including in Geldern, celebrated at the birthplace of the printing press. In the FIE, Indrapura’s university was also (more slowly) spreading the Enlightenment there.
The increased focus on administration in the Republic allowed the Potestaat to increase stability
[to +3 for 173 admin] in November 1700.
More government decisions were made in the following months, the most significant being to reject the the minting of new higher purity coins, at the cost as heft increase to inflation. Republican tradition was only just now recovering from a previous hit. Instead, it was decided to immediately counteract the inflation increase through a state administrative intervention.
Finally, engineers advised in August 1701 that the Dutch Polders in Amsterdam could be upgraded again
[from ‘Noteworthy’ (Level I) to Level II], but to do so would cost almost all the current treasury reserve of 2,300 ducats. The idea was shelved for now, as those cash reserves may be needed for other contingencies …
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The FIE and Asia
Friesland was still eyeing off extending its Javanese holdings at the expense of Sunda in October 1698. But Malacca’s continued involvement in a local war in Borneo meant it would most likely not be available to assist a Frisian war of aggression there and thus not be available to offset the power of Ayutthaya and Sunda’s other smaller allies of Palembang, Kutai and Lanfang. Given Friesland only had its FIE naval and army detachments available in this theatre, war now (with manpower reserves still quite low) was not considered prudent.
But this did not stop the Potestaat from using his considerable spy network in Sunda to create two new claims, to add to that on Kotagede, in September 1699. For when a suitable opportunity may arise.
With military manpower a key concern during this period, some ‘benign neglect’ allowed a long period of increased recruiting in Demak to begin in July 1700.
In regional news, Portugal concluded a white peace with Sunda in August 1700, leaving them at war with Blambangan, now alone against the colonial superpower – but still ahead in this small corner of the East Indies.
In a divided China, Shun and its ally Korea were forced to accept a punishing peace imposed by Russia in November 1700, allowing the Tsar to annex 14 Shun and 9 Korean provinces!
But in better geopolitical news for Friesland, not long after Portugal agreed to a humiliating peace with Blambangan, having to pay reparations for ten years and actually ceding the island of Sumba to the small Javanese country. At this stage, the whole world was almost at peace, with the Malaccan-Berau war and a small border war in Africa being the only two known international conflicts in the world. This would not last, of course!
Indeed, in March 1701 the spy network in Sunda reported (due to the ‘loose lips’ of Sunda’s indiscreet ruler) that they were planning to attack the much-persecuted Scottish expatriate state. This rumour was proven true in early June 1701.
The once-great (and Imperial) but now much reduced Kingdom of Wu was reported in July 1701 to be beset by internal strife that would plague it for the next ten years.
And the opportunistic Ayutthaya proved that a jackal was always ready to attack a wounded animal when they declared an imperialist war on Wu just a month later.
Developments in Africa
With further expansion in Europe on the back-burner and the time not ripe for war in Java in October 1698, consideration of the WIC Charter Mission led to a new appraisal of the situation in the Granadan expatriate realm on the Ivory Coast.
For now, its reasonably sized army (23 regiments) and powerful African allies Tunis and Morocco both still mitigated against a war of expansion in Guinea. But as noted above, this did not stop Frisian planning for a future conflict, with a local colonial army soon under training in Frisian Guinea.
In order to provide some time to react in case of a Kilwan thrust into Inhambane, the small colonial army being built there would be supported by the construction of a castle there, with three manpower development increases
[42, 43 and 45 military power] and an expansion of infrastructure
[46 admin power] allowing construction to commence on 22 December 1700. The same was planned for Bonny on the Granadan border in Guinea, but there was insufficient power available to start this yet.
Then in March 1701, the situation in Africa began to change radically. First, Morocco declared war on the small coastal realm of Jolof. The very same day Aragon launched a ‘Holy War’ against Tunis, creating a much wider conflict that brought Castile and Portugal in against Tunis and its major allies Morocco and Granada.
This changed the equation considerably and, hoping to exploit this major distraction, Friesland began to assemble an expeditionary force to send to Guinea as soon as word reached them of the broader wars. A combined battle and transport fleet would rendezvous with 22 regiments in Den Haag.
And having learned from past lessons, a willing Castile was asked for and granted basing rights for passing Frisian fleets, to break up the long journey and lower seaborne attrition.
In addition, it was ensured that only coastal routes were used, to again minimise the toll on the troops being transported, who left port in mid-March aboard the combined 2nd Fleet.
In the period from late March to early June 1701, Kaabu, Granada, Kanem Bornu and Morocco all asked for military access to Frisian territory (presumably to get at the Castilians in South Africa). All these requests were rejected, or course. But a Castilian request for the same on 6 June was happily approved.
When 2nd Fleet docked in Coruña, only 1% of the 22,000 troops embarked had succumbed to attrition. But a longer voyage was now at hand all the way to Guinea on 1 May, as the inimical Portuguese would not countenance a similar basing arrangement.
[Game note: They started on the 1st of the month to get as much time on the monthly ‘attrition clock’ as possible.]
By 6 June they were half way past Morocco and had suffered another 1% attrition. Leger van Geldern pulled into Bonny on 9 August, having lost only 1,100 men since leaving Coruña (5%). They would combine with the colonial force already in place and use the rest of the month to recuperate from their voyage.
The fleet returned to Friesland straight away, in anticipation of another contingent being sent.
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War with Granada
Not wishing to waste any time, war was declared on Granada soon after the army in Guinea had fully recovered its strength. They were soon marching across the border to Warri. As expected, Granada’s allies came to their aid – though Frisian planners were betting on the existing distractions in the north to prevent major interventions in Granada by Morocco or Tunis.
But in an unexpected bonus, Savoy offered to join the war although pre-war consultations had not been so promising. The invitation was gladly issued and promptly accepted. Their favourable views of Friesland just outweighed the distance of the war and the foibles of Savoy’s ruler.
This would considerably rebalance the total forces on either side and gave the Potestaat a far greater sense of confidence that the opportunistic gamble would pay off.
My mid-September, the 2nd Fleet was able to identify the main Granadan army moving north-west through Portuguese Guinea, just as Leger van Geldern was about to enter Warri unopposed.
By 2 October, the Granadans were in Sierra Leoa and the bulk of the Moroccan army was there and to the north.
Savoy had started with a range of useful blockades of enemy ports, though not all of these would be maintained in coming weeks. They would however later engage in a couple of large sea battles.
And the other African war had already seen Moroccan and Tunisian territory taken in the north as large Portuguese and Castilian armies advanced.
Two weeks later, a Castilian colonial army of 13,000 men entered southern Frisian Guinea, taking advantage of their military access agreement and were in Cameroon by the 18th. That day, Warri fell to a short siege. Eight days later Leger van Geldern started its siege of Benin.
Benin was duly occupied a month later as the army pushed on to the capital, Ijebu, which was reached on 6 December. An large artillery barrage was ordered soon after arrival, considerably advancing the siege on the rudimentary capital fort.
The 2nd Fleet reached Den Haag on 5 January 1702 and immediately embarked another 20,000 troops for the long voyage to Guinea. Things there may have started well, but the Potestaat wanted some additional insurance for his invading army so far from home.
The war’s progress was considerably advanced just three days later with the fall of Ijebu and assistance from a New Frisian fleet of 14 frigates blockading Granadan ports also helped the cause, as did some renewed blockades by Savoy and some battles at sea won by the Savoyards. The Castilian army had moved further east to do some besieging of its own of Granadan territory.
The first phase of the war had gone off like clockwork. But a long way lay ahead before Frisian objectives – the annexing of at least two Granadan provinces in Guinea – could be realised.
Endnote: I played somewhat past this point in the session, but will not spoil re what comes next when replying to comments.
