Dreams of Frisian Freedom

Bullfilter · Dec 9, 2024

Chapter 57: The Java Jive (1740-43)

Frisian siegework in Malaya, 1742.

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The War for Pajang

The latest Frisian land grab in the East Indies had begun in January 1939, with a declaration of war on Demak, whose last holding was the province of Pajang in Java. By July 1740 the war remained in its initial phase, though the Frisian effort had been progressing slowly overall despite ceding undefended provinces in Sumatra to Demak’s allies Pahang and Malacca.

This situation continued into September, despite the fall of Pajang. Its seizure would lead to the full annexation of Demak and the war had not gone on long enough to make Demak give up.

Pagarruyung and Padang both fell to Pahang in late 1740 as the Frisian siege of Pajang dragged on.

Friesland was also engaging its old enemy, the once-great Sunda – another Demak ally. Lombok fell after a short siege in February 1741, in turn flushing out a small Sundanese flotilla which was sunk by the blockading fleet of transports only, with one enemy transport captured.

The armies from Lombok were soon embarked and sent by sea towards Malacca and Pahang, the next Frisian targets in the war, even as their armies ravaged Frisian Sumatra.

Those forces disembarked in Johor in mid-May, with neither of the blockaded enemy fleets venturing out to contest the landings. A large Malaccan army was spotted rounding the northern tip of Sumatra: they would eventually make their way back to their homeland.

As May ended the 2nd Army, which had taken Pajang back in September 1740, was embarked and would eventually make its way to Pahang by August (where more troops would be needed to progress the siege a little later) after Johor was occupied by L.V. Surabaya in June.

After a number of reorganisations, there were enough troop to besiege Pahang by 20 August, while L.v. Bali evaded a large Malaccan army crossing back from Sumatra (Johor had somehow been retaken by Malacca in the meantime, though no record exists of how that happened) and moved down to occupy Bintan and were then eventually chased onto the ships by the following Malaccans.

December also brought the first of a number of pleas for peace by Sunda, but the offer of a 180 ducat payment and tribute for 10 years fell short of Frisian expectations – which were for land.

The Malaccan fleet finally moved out to challenge the Frisian blockade in the Straits of Johor on 1 July 1742. The result was a big victory for Admiral Riemersma, who joined the battle with the trade fleet frigates on 7 July in theatrical fashion, ending the fight immediately.

By this time, both Frisian armies had concentrated in Pahang as three enemy armies hovered in the vicinity in Sumatra and Malaya. The siege, which had lasted almost a year, ended in the city’s surrender on 28 July.

The combined armies marched south to Melaka, arriving on 18 August and starting a new siege after brushing away a light cavalry screen after an almost equally large Malaccan 3rd Army evaded ahead of them. The war had now swung heavily in Friesland’s favour: a comprehensive peace was close with Demak [positive 111, negative 112].

So, as the Frisians headed south after the fall of Pahang, the enemy fleet that had been sheltering there was forced out to sea, where on 2 August it was ambushed by the passing Frisian trade fleet of 41 light frigates, led by the flagship Frijheid.

Pahang’s fleet managed to escape by the 13th, at the cost of one frigate and two war galleys sunk. Twelve damaged Frisian frigates were sent to Borneo for repairs while the rest continued their mission.

The Malaccan 3rd Army was seen in Pahang on 6 September but they did not stay to try to retake it, continuing north instead. By 31 October they were far to the north, as a smaller army from Pahang stood off to the west of their captured capital and the siege of Melaka continued.

As at 2 January 1743, Demak’s leadership was evenly split as to whether to accept annexation of not. A month later a separate peace offer of 285 ducats in reparations plus tribute from Pahang was rejected as the enemy alliance tottered.

It took until 11 March for the Federal Republic to secure the expansionist land grab it was after. Not only was Pajang taken, annexing Demak, but Sunda lost two more provinces in eastern Java. A small amount was grabbed from Demak’s treasury and Malacca’s trade league, which had drawn the former Frisian ally into the war, was disbanded.

Casualties had not been exorbitant (with the manpower reserve hanging in at 121,000 of a maximum 169,000) and now Java was almost completely in Frisian hands: the war had dragged on and seen the Sumatran provinces ransacked, but it was deemed a success. Work began immediately to core all three of the newly gained provinces.

Federal President Martena waves his hat to a crowd in Leeuwarden celebrating after news of the victory in the Frisian East Indies, March 1743.

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Africa

As Friesland continued to consolidate its previous gain in Niger, the other colonial powers remained active in West Africa. One of these was Frisian ally Aragon, who sought some quid pro quo support from the Federal Republic in November 1740 as they declared a war of imperialist conquest on Kong and their ally Morocco. The Africans would be very heavily overmatched, so Friesland (concurrently at war in the East Indies) formally answered the call but its colonial armies stayed in place, at the risk of exposing the isolated outpost of the Grain Coast.

Those armies were still required in Niger, as a revolt broke out in Zazzau in early February by well-armed local rebels Air separatists. They were however no match for the nearby L.v. Calabar, who suffered just over 2,000 casualties in wiping out the entire rebel force in just a week of fighting.

Portugal launched its own imperialist war against the weakened Songhai in September 1741, followed soon after by another revolt in Niger, this time far less well-armed Oyo separatists in Ife. As they marched south to Ondo, they were met and easily destroyed by the other Frisian garrison in the south. The whole revolt lasted less than two weeks.

Morocco had gained access to the Grain Coast via Portuguese Guinea and occupied in mid-October – which was ignored by the Frisian commanders in Guinea. Throughout the period from November 1740 to November 1742, each of the new Nigerian provinces was brought under the full control of the colonial administration, which it was anticipated should significantly decrease local unrest after the series or armed rebellions.

Aragon’s war against Kong was progressing well by March 1743, though mainly at Morocco’s expense and with minimal Frisian involvement.

And in May it was all over after the rapid collapse of Kong, which was fully annexed while Morocco had to cede another seven provinces to the victorious Aragon. Where the attributed Frisian casualties recorded had come from remain unknown to history [no idea there – don’t recall and didn’t record any battles or sieges we were involved in during this war].

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Diplomacy and Foreign Developments

After their recent poor showing in Italy, in October 1740 the Ottomans turned south to Somalia in their next imperialist adventure.

Although the Somalis would (of course) be badly outnumbered in overall terms, they had a large and relatively modern army and the Ottomans presumably had most of their forces still in Europe. It would be quite interesting to see how this campaign played out.

The Holy Roman Empire elected a new Emperor in July 1741 – of the Habsburg line but from Naples. Despite the residual effect of previously seized Imperial territory, relations with Naples were not too bad at that time. A diplomat was soon despatched to see if they could be improved further.

In China, the Shu were decisively defeated by Russia in September 1741 after four years of war, resulting in considerable loss of lands in the north, while Korean was reduced to a series of coastal enclaves. This was the first setback for the Shu Emperor after years of expansion and reunification of China.

Soon after this, the now Archduchy of Austria (still an implacable enemy of the Federal Republic) declared a nationalist war against their previous ally (and another Frisian enemy) Switzerland. The President was happy enough to see two opponents hammer away at each other, though the range of Austria’s allies – principally Great Britain – should make the result a foregone conclusion.

A major regional conflict broke out in India in May 1742 as the mighty Deccan Empire attacked their old rival Bengal, dragging in allies on both sides – including Malacca while it was still involved in the war with Friesland.

Closer to home, Mainz annexed the micro-state of Thuringia in August 1742 as the consolidation of Germany continued. In March 1743 the post-alliance truce with Franconia expired at the same time the diplomatic mission to Naples was completed.

A few months later, a diplomatic rapprochement with Malacca commenced following the end of the Demak war.

Around this time, as the annexation of Demak was completed and the Frisian armies were preparing to return home from Malaya.

The war between Frisian ally Brunei and Castile continued, with most of Brunei occupied at the same time they occupied much of the Castilian Moluccas (Philippines). By May, the Frisian troops were home and Castile had the upper hand against Brunei (as Banjar’s ally).

Of the other wars still being fought, it was notable that the Ottomans were currently behind against Somalia; all the other aggressors were winning.

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Domestic Affairs

In a frenetic few days in August 1740, the Government went from one lauded for its brilliance to heated debates about its bad reputation! It seems even back then four days was a long time in politics.

Later that year, the Federal Republic established a professional diplomatic corps to round out its diplomatic ideas group, bringing with it further overall benefits for foreign engagement and new policy options.

Almost a year later, a new Revolutionary Age ability became available, with improved global naval engagement chosen, while the new offensive idea of superior firepower was simultaneously unlocked.

And in December 1741, Friesland had a second cardinal appointed, with his seat in Amsterdam.

In May 1742, the President’s reliance on his favoured diplomatic adviser came into question. Instead of firing him at the cost of over 3,200 ducats balanced by a great project building bonus, President Martena took the prestige hit to retain his highly proficient chief diplomat.

The desire to avoid offending Castile saw the application of one of their great inventors for political asylum rejected and Frisian prestige boosted.

Then in October another round of relentless drill commenced for the Leger commenced, which would improve morale for the next decade.

With the victory over Demak in March 1743, Friesland’s position as number six on the list of great powers was maintained, by a comfortable margin over Castile and Great Britain far back in eighth spot.

In May, the Federal Republic commenced building a new state house and five grand shipyards, but still held over 34,000 ducats in the treasury. A month later three artillery and two infantry regiments began training, which would take the Leger to its force limit of 244 regiments in total (118 infantry, 15 cavalry and 111 artillery when completed).

Soon after, three new generals were hired, while the recent commencement of new shipyards should allow the naval force limit to be brought back into balance (the Navy’s numbers having been swelled by recent ship captures).

Friesland’s course for the next few years now needed to be set: would it be a period of peace and consolidation or a new expansionist adventure in Europe or the colonies? Unless the President’s hand was forced by external developments into an unanticipated path.

Bullfilter · Dec 28, 2024

Chapter 58: Germany on Fire (1743-45)

Austrian line infantry advance into combat during the latest major European war that began in 1743 over a certain claim on Dortmund.

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June-December 1743: The Spark is Applied to the Tinder

As the Federal Republic of Friesland contemplated its next moves after the victory in the colonial war for Pajang in June 1743, an alliance with Poland would have been readily agreed if requested. But the President did not yet wish to commit to the extra risks that may bring. By 10 July, resources were committed to a major new building program: including the four new buildings already under construction, four grand shipyards, five counting houses, two cathedrals, two stock exchanges and a state house were being built. And this still left over 31,000 ducats in the treasury.

However, this peace was not planned to last for long. With the now hostile Franconia aggressively expanding in Germany, Friesland decided it should make its own pitch for regional dominance to counter this. The best target that would not bring in allies such as Great Britain was decided to be Dortmund, which would allow moves on Cologne, Münster and Dithmarschen to be made. All had been long-term Frisian targets for decades.

A formal claim was fabricated on Dortmund and the three main field armies were ordered into position.

When war was declared on 17 August 1743, Friesland got a nasty little surprise after failing to read the fine print: Naples, as the Imperial guarantor of Dortmund, was able to call in its allies – one of which was Austria.

Though favours had been called upon to bring in Scandinavia and Bavaria as part of the Frisian alliance, so the numbers remained to Friesland’s advantage.

Friesland’s first moves all went off according to plan and by 28 August, the field armies of all three of the initial targets had been destroyed and sieges commenced. Cologne’s main army had been nearby, but they withdrew rather than support their allies.

A month later, Aragon indicated it would now be willing to join the conflict if asked: it was, along with Savoy. Using infantry strength as a gauge of overall proportions for each side, Aragon and Savoy would add considerable strength to the Frisian alliance.

For the enemy, Austria was the main power, followed by Naples. The rest had either been deprived of their armies by now or were relatively minor players.

In October, initial lines had been set. Austria, Bohemia and Cologne were ravaging Bavaria, whose army had not remained to be destroyed but was in Flanders, where they had defeated Lorraine’s siege of Gent by mid-November.

Another Bavarian army sheltered in central Friesland while the first wave of Scandinavian troops had begun to work their way down through Denmark. In the south, Savoy had mobilised in its heartlands and had also invaded Naples.

The north-south divide of troops in Germany was entrenched by December, as Scandinavian armies worked their way south and Savoy invested Austrian Trier in the west.

And continued their invasion of Naples, where the sizeable Neapolitan army was nowhere to be seen.

In fact, neutral Franconian territory was the main factor in maintaining this divide, together with the inhibiting influence of forts on movement.

Just two days later, Franconia made its own move, declaring a nationalist war on Saxony, who were mainly being aided by Pomerania, together with the tiny states of Brunswick and Lusatia.

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January-July 1744: Holy War

When Frisian Papal influence rose sufficiently the Pope was asked to sanction its wars, which he granted for the next 20 years, greatly aiding manpower recovery and helping with land maintenance. Useful during a major war such as that they were embroiled in.

A month later, a formal code of public naval punishments was adopted, even though it seemed to bring mixed blessings.

In the war, Bavaria was being infested by multiple enemy armies as March 1744 drew to a close.

From this time onwards, a number of the north German minor enemy states began suing for peace. For now, these were all rejected as a matter of course. And overseas, Portugal took another chunk of territory from Songhai as the colonising powers kept encroaching on the once powerful West African nations.

By the end of April 1744, Bavaria – largely isolated from the rest of Friesland’s allies - was still being eaten alive by the enemy. Scandinavian troops were approaching from the east, having skirted around through neutral territory, but were delayed in Bohemia as they encountered a group of what had originally been an army of around 35,000 Bohemian rebels; a battle the Scandinavians were poised to win.

It was soon after that an opportunity arose to improve the Leger’s professionalism. With a large surplus banked in the treasury, the new advisor was welcomed (though not initially employed as Minister for War).

The first of the initial Frisian sieges ended in victory on 4 June 1744, with Dithmarschen completely removed from the enemy’s order of battle.

It was unfortunate that this coincided with President Martena displaying signs of malevolent behaviour, which would contribute to increasing unrest in the colonies – especially the principal one, New Friesland.

The Bavarians (37 regiments) had been besieging Goslar for some time – its fortress one of the obstacles preventing allied access to relieve Bavaria. But in mid-June they were attacked by a similarly sized Colognian army (40 regiments).

The Bavarians would ultimately lose the battle, with L.v. Latgalia (freed earlier from the siege of Dithmarschen) too late to assist them. With over 110,000 Scandinavian troops in two armies nearby, the enemy had fled and Friesland took up the siege of Goslar on 7 July.

In the wider world, another large regional war continued on the Indian sub-continent, where Deccan ally Persia gained four provinces in a separate peace with Transoxiana. The Deccan-led war against Bengal and its allies went on.

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August 1744 – March 1745: Dortmund, Toulon and Munster

During August 1744, Scandinavia consolidated its now large-scale invasion of Bohemia as Bavaria suffered evisceration. The northern part of the front was dominated by the Frisian alliance and on 20 September Dortmund fell after over a year of siege – the capture of the principal objective of the war tipping the balance more strongly in Friesland’s favour.

While in the East Indies, the long-running war between Castile and a regional alliance supporting Banjar took a turn in favour of the aggressor when Frisian ally Brunei was forced to yield seven provinces in the Philippines and northern Borneo in a separate peace.

In Europe, Austria finally wrapped up its war with Switzerland in mid-October 1744 with a comprehensive victory that saw most of the Swiss provinces absorbed into Austria. A major distraction for Austria had been removed, allowing them to concentrate fully on the conflict with the Frisian alliance.

Their next play saw an invasion of Savoyard northern Italy, while they and their allies continued the steady subjugation of Bavaria. Meanwhile, Scandinavia had established uncontested sieges of the Bohemian and Austrian capitals.

More widely, 1 December 1744 witnessed the concentration of large forces from both sides, though it seemed large Savoyard, Aragonese and Scandinavian armies were gathering in east and southern France to contest the Austrian invasion of northern Italy.

Overseas, the Ottomans [-17% warscore] had few manpower reserves left and were losing their fight against Somalia and their allies Yemen and Mombasa.

The new year of 1745 brought another rebellion in West Africa, but the poorly armed forest warriors of Benin were no match for the experienced L.v. Idah who quickly defeated the rebellion.

Then the largest (though ultimately one-sided) battle known so far to Frisian historians was fought between three of their allies and the Austrian Kaiserliche Armee in Toulon in February 1745. In the initial engagement a Savoyard army began an attack to relieve Toulon from Austrian siege. Though initially outnumbered, they pinned the Austrians down knowing reinforcements were on the way.

After a week, the Austrians were massively outnumbered as Scandinavian King Christian VI took personal command over more than 150,000 allied troops, also including a large Aragonese army. More reinforcements arrived on 20 and 22 February that swelled the allied ranks to a massive 240,000 men! No detailed battle report was available to the Frisians, but by early March the Austrians were fleeing and seemed to have lost over half of their 41,000 men.

Soon after the Battle of Toulon, Franconia concluded their war against Saxony by grabbing two of their three provinces to become the primary alternate centre of power to Friesland in Germany.

Another revolt in Africa was quelled by 4 April when better-equipped rebels were pursued from Wukari to Idah, where they too were destroyed after a somewhat tougher fight against L.v. Calabar on 5 April 1745.

The Frisian siege of Münster was won on 14 March after a siege of 563 days. By this time, the casualties on both sides had mounted into six figures on each side, while the Frisian allies Savoy and Aragon had suffered some heavy naval losses in the Mediterranean to Naples. The vast majority of Frisian alliance casualties (foremost Scandinavian) had been from attrition. For the enemy, somewhat over half had come from field battles, with Austria, Cologne and Naples suffering the most.

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April-August 1745: The Race to Save Bavaria

As the war raged on in Europe, Castile finally won its war against Banjar, annexing the whole country in May 1745.

This made Castile clearly the largest competitor for Friesland in the East Indies, though the two colonial powers had never yet come to blows in the last 300 years.

And the Federal Republic was not keen to see such hostilities break out in the foreseeable future, so Castile’s rapidly growing presence in Borneo was not challenged at this time. Whether it would be in the future was a matter of speculation.

In another setback for the mighty Ottoman Empire, their war with Somalia was going badly and the Somali-Yemen axis was making inroads in Egypt and Arabia by May 1745.

With Goslar still under siege, Friesland hoped to gain access to Bavaria by agreeing a military access agreement with the still-prickly Franconia at the end of May. But this was still not enough to gain direct access to Bavaria through Germany.

By mid-June, Goslar remained under siege and a ‘half-army’ began heading around the long way to Bohemia, where the Scandinavian-besieged fort of Olomouc still presented a barrier to the eastern approaches to Bavaria.

L.v. Cleve (23 regiments) arrived in Opole on 22 July and began its occupation, seeking to augment the Scandinavia invasion of Bohemia. Another full Frisian army of 44,000 men was also on its way by then, passing through Poznan in Poland.

Meanwhile, a large enemy siege of Brügge (a mix of around 35,000 men from different nations) was ambushed by a Scandinavian army of over 100,000 led by Christian VI. By 28 July Christian was winning a hard-fought battle that would lift the siege a few days later.

Then on 4 August 1745, the Ottomans were forced to conclude a rather humiliating white peace with Somalia, having again come off second best in a bid to overpower a smaller regional target.

Two weeks later, the siege of Goslar was finally won, opening up a direct path for L.V. Latgalia through Leipzig to Prag. By 28 August, Scandinavia took Opole in Friesland’s name, allowing access from the east as well as over 60,000 Frisian troops had gathered in Bohemia. The race to relieve Bavaria was now on earnest.

Alas, this was all a bit too late. Despite these recent breakthroughs and the promise of imminent relief, Bavaria could hold out no longer. Just two days later they surrendered and were forced to cede the Bohemian provinces they had won in earlier wars back to the original owner, most significantly including the old capital of Praha (Prag).

So, despite the overall war progressing in Friesland’s favour, one of their old allies had been dealt a heavy blow after being dragged into the latest episode of Frisian adventurism. Though they were not forced to relinquish their alliance with Friesland. All the Federal Republic could do now was to exact some measure of retribution on Bohemia – though that must now fall short of restoring Bavarian losses in the short term.

Bullfilter · Jan 12, 2025

Chapter 59: Tragedy and Triumph (1745-47)

The Siege of Prague, September 1745. [Leonardo AI, from a period painting reference pic]

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September 1745 to January 1746: Bohemian Rhapsody

The Frisian war for Dortmund (and other North German territory) with a Habsburg-led coalition (small c) had begun in August 1743 still raged two years later, with the death toll steadily rising through combat and attrition. And the best and worst were yet to come.

By mid-September 1745 three more Bohemian provinces would be invested by Friesland, including mighty Prague (Praha) itself, whose fort would require a long siege to subdue.

The Frisian alliance’s total strength now far outweighed that of its enemies, but they had also suffered far higher casualties, mainly from the attrition all the siege warfare brought about. The bulk of the enemy’s losses had come in field battles. Attacker morale was high all around (now that the unfortunate Bavaria was out of the war), while that of the enemy was poor or failing.

On land Scandinavia had borne by far the heaviest load, followed by Friesland and Savoy for the attackers, while Savoy and Aragon had some heavy losses at sea. For the defenders, it was Austria, Cologne and Naples bearing the heaviest total burden in the field and Naples losing heavily at sea.

In October 1745 The Savoyard army investing Trier was ambushed by a larger Austrian army. Already under the pump in terms of numbers and the amazing shock value of Austrian Franz Karl I by 6 October, the leaderless Savoyard army was crushed after Colognian reinforcements struck them in the flank three days later.

After taking some toll of the attackers, the entire friendly army was either killed or captured the next day. This would not be the last tragedy to strike the Frisian Alliance in this bloody war.

The long Scandinavian siege of Vienna (Wien) had been under way for some time when they were assailed by a massive peasant rebel force originally consisting of over 80,000 men! By 10 October, the better armed and led Scandinavians were firmly in control of the battle.

They would eventually win the battle (no detailed readout is available) but their 67 regiments were now down to a total of around 36,400 men. By 16 November word reached the Federal Republic that they had broken their siege and were heading eastwards out of Austria through Pressburg.

At around the same time, two more Bohemian provinces had been occupied by Friesland. By 26 October the Scandinavians had won their battle against the Austrian rebels and were still besieging Vienna – though as we have seen they would break off a few days later.

With Austria and Cologne causing problems around Trier, Scandinavian assistance was requested to see if the enemy might be dislodged following the Savoyard disaster there the month before. One of the Frisian armies had been despatched from Bohemia and was already making its way across Germany to assist.

And it looked like one of the Scandinavian armies might be responding, but the rest appeared to be heading north-east to the Baltic coast, where Austrian and Bohemian armies had been reducing their holdings. Others might be heading south-east, towards the enemy Genoan enclave in Crimea. In Bohemia, Brno would fall to Friesland on 12 December.

In other German affairs, Brandenburg was annexed by Magdeburg on 28 November 1745 as the consolidation of Germany continued.

And the Pope provided a nice Christmas gift to President Martena when a third Frisian cardinal was ordained, this time in Hamburg. A little Papal influence was exerted to (for the first time by Friesland) to see if they could begin building a case to be the next controller of the Curia.

In early January 1746, the large Austrian army that had fought Savoy in Trier the year before had moved onto besiege Gent. It was being chased by Leger Neubrandenburg, which was now ordered to rendezvous with L.v. Goslar (a reserve army already waiting in the capital).

Up on the Baltic coast, the Scandinavians were busy tidying up the enemy’s mischief in their coastal provinces.

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January to April 1746: Thunderbolt and Lightning

Unfortunately, the absence of Leger Neubrandenburg and the obstacle of the fort in Prague to L.v. Latgalia led to an unpleasant shock for the Frisian ‘half army’ in Ostrava under Geldulf Sems. On 23 January he was hit by an Austrian army almost twice their size under the formidable Franz Karl I.

However, the enemy were attacking over a river and for now, in the fire phase at least, the Frisians were holding their own and indeed their morale was higher than that of the enemy. On the outside chance they might reach them in time – or visit bloody vengeance on the Austrians if they couldn’t – L.v. Latgalia broke its siege of Prague and began a round about march through Franconia and Bohemia to aid them.

If the surprise in Ostrava was the thunderbolt, the lightning was the Frisian attack on the Austrians in Gent just four days later. After linking up on 24 January, it was but a short march for the combined Frisian armies to Gent, where the Austrian Whitecoats would be unable to escape.

The initial Frisian volley was devastating and the Austrians would never recover. By 8 February it was all over, with the entire Austrian army of over 35,000 men either killed or captured. It was one of if not the biggest ever Frisian victory against a major European opponent. Commanding General Luidgod Ripperda would bask in the glory for the rest of his career.

Frisian fusiliers press the attack during the triumphant Battle of Gent, 27 January 1746. [Image from Leonardo AI]

But over in Ostrava, even as the glory in Gent was unfolding, the tide had turned badly against the Frisians. By 31 January the Austrians had already taken a clear edge when horrible news came of a large Neapolitan army of over 50,000 led by the ruthless Albrecht VII von Habsburg approaching from the south.

They hit the Frisians in the flank on 2 February and, despite an attempt to withdraw, the whole army was wiped out by the 9th. 23,000 men had been swept off the board for the loss of around 8,500 enemy troops. Triumph and tragedy had struck within a day of each other.

When news of this disaster reached L.v. Latgalia they turned around and made for the relative safety of North Germany. The invasion of Bohemia was over and any remaining territory occupied there would be at the mercy of the enemy.

By then, Savoy had at least returned to invest Trier and Julich and Gent had been purged of the enemy in emphatic terms. These two major events roughly balanced each other out, but the additional manpower loss to Friesland was grievous.

Immediate steps were taken to recruit 22 new regiments to replace the troop losses (ten each of infantry and artillery, two of cavalry) in the homeland. This reduced reserve manpower to around 89,600.

As a follow-up operation, L.v. Goslar headed south to evict their namesakes from Brügge. Despite some spirited resistance, the enemy was soon overwhelmed, with Flanders cleared of all enemy troops by 15 February.

While that was happening, the enemy had begun a similar exercise in Bohemia, with over 130,000 of their troops infesting their ally’s occupied territory. Brno would be the first to be retaken on 24 March.

At this stage, a peace deal with Dortmund even ceding just that province remained out of reach [84 positive to 122 negative reasons], mainly due to Dortmund’s resistance to being fully annexed. But other members of the enemy alliance would negotiate, so the Federal Republic did so while they still had the leverage.

From 19 February to 23 March, Berg, Dithmarschen and Münster all came to terms, the latter two being fully annexed. Friesland simply didn’t care any longer about the reputation for aggressive expansion this engendered. They decided it was time to grab their own stake in the consolidation of Germany.

By 24 March, there was less leverage on Dortmund to force them out of the war [73 to 125] now the other peace deals had been made. The war would continue, but in the meantime there were more enemy nations willing to deal.

First Bohemia (reparations and ongoing payments) and then Austria (a large one-off payment) were split away, followed by little Goslar. Though at least they retained their homeland. Of these powers, the Austrians had taken the lion’s share of casualties along the way.

Naples still held out, despite a Savoyard army having been ranging across their homeland for months now.

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May 1746 to March 1747: Will you do the Fandango?

The last act of the Landtag expired on 11 May 1746 and debate was begun on the extension of officer commissions. A number of political deals (known colloquially as ‘Dancing the Fandango’) were done first up, but President Martena baulked at the last few: he claimed that “his dance card was full”. The final votes to see the bill passed would have to wait.

"Martena, Martena, will you do the Fandango?"

All three of the Javanese provinces acquired in the previous Pajang war had become a formal part of the Frisian patrimony the day after the Landtag vote reached deadlock.

At that time, other than the last throes of the Frisian-Dortmunder War, the only other known conflict in the world was the large and long-running 2nd Deccan-Bengali Imperialist War. And Friesland now only faced Cologne, Lorraine Dortmund, Genoa and Naples.

As May 1746 ended, Göttingen in Cologne was occupied while Friesland and its allies besieged five other forts across north-western Germany and other allied armies were ranging south through Bavaria.

Genoa – now a single expatriate enclave on the Sea of Azov – continued to refuse peace terms. However, it seemed an avalanche of Scandinavian armies was about to descend upon them. The sledgehammer was about to crack the nut.

Ravensberg was occupied on 9 June while the army moved onto the fortress of Paderborn and the Scandinavians took Berg in July. While a little closer again, any favourable settlement was still some way off. Dortmund was not yet in the mood for a dance.

But Genoa was: they too were forced to make terms and pay reparations and tribute to the victors (presumably mainly Scandinavia, who had gone out of their way to humble them).

The war meandered on until late December, when Paderborn fell – but still Dortmund refused to bend the knee, though they were starting to waver.

As this slow agony played out and no-one was prepared to spare the humble soldiers’ lives from this monstrosity, a new mission was sent to London to once more shore up the relationship with Great Britain in late January 1747.

And more consolidation in Germany seemed on the cards when Mainz declared a nationalist war on the weakened Bohemia. But perhaps their real target was closer to home, in Halle.

In any case, Köln fell to Scandinavia on 19 March 1747 and this was the final nail in Dortmund’s coffin. A hard bargain was made. Dortmund was no more, while Cologne paid the price of its loyalty to their ally by being forced to cede three provinces, including Köln itself.

Around 950,000 soldiers had died on both sides in this horrendous war, around one tenth of them from Friesland. The Federal Republic had expanded widely into north-western Germany and Cologne had been significantly diminished as a regional power. And Friesland’s reputation as expansionist aggressors had plumbed previously unknown depths.

Peace might now reign over an expanded Friesland, but the severe overextension would need to be managed. As would increased liberty desire among the inhabitants of colonial New Friesland, where local officials were soon sending warnings that ‘something must be done’!

These were tunes President Martena was ready to dance to. Steps were taken to include Berg, Dortmund and Köln in the patrimony. Ravensberg would have to wait for more administrative effort to be available.

For New Friesland, a diplomatic mission was re-established to again foster friendly relations. War exhaustion was also addressed to decrease national unrest. And perhaps most importantly tariffs were reduced to appease the merchants of New Friesland.

Together, these initiatives would be enough to take unrest there below the critical level – for now, at least. But nothing could now be done to repair the once close relationship with former ally Franconia. Recent Frisian aggressive expansion into HRE-controlled areas was bad enough: Franconia now rabidly coveted the new provinces Frisia had added to the Republic.

It may not come at once – if Friesland could help it – but a showdown with the other major expansionist in Germany seemed inevitable to the future. At least Friesland still maintained a powerful alliance network, which had shown its formidable potential in the recent war. Franconia was not yet so blessed.

The end of the war saw Friesland maintaining its place in the global pecking order and it may eventually pass the Deccan Empire once the new territories had been absorbed, depending on how the Deccans fared in their own large regional war.

Bullfilter · Jan 16, 2025

Chapter 60: The Year of Living Dangerously (1747-48)

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March-May 1747: Action and Reaction

Following the victory in their latest war of expansion, the Federal Republic’s new border regions remained in a ferment of unrest in March 1747. And it would take time yet for all these new provinces to be brought fully into the Frisian patrimony. Dortmund was also Protestant, elevating its dissent levels. AAchen was not part of the recent acquisitions.

Serious unrest in eastern Java also persisted after the previous conflict there. And the Friesland would be badly overextended until more provinces were cored.

Despite those distractions, action was taken to better organise the recently won lands in Lower Niger, with statehood granted and a new edict enacted to speed up the centralisation process there.

Outside the Federal Republic, there were other forces at play contributing to instability in Europe. From a spark struck originally in Trebine, revolutionary spirit had permeated the Ottoman Empire and had also taken root in northern France.

With Franconia larger and more hostile than ever before, Eilert Stellingwerf was recalled from his long mission in Malacca in anticipation of the plan for closer engagement with Poland, where favours were already being curried.

And due to the added force limit following the addition of recent territories and to ensure the Frisian Leger in Europe could at least match that of Franconia in size, seven new artillery regiments began training that same day, all in the heartland. Concurrently, another six transports would be added to the European based transport fleet, to ensure it could move a full army to or from Africa if required.

In reaction to the recent ‘wanton’ Frisian expansion in Germany, a new coalition was started by Saxe-Lauenburg on 6 April 1747. By the 26th it included six small German and northern Italian statelets. Tensions with the HRE were further increased during this time when the usual demand to relinquish recently gained territory was rejected on 18 April.

Which in turn prompted Friesland to expand its military further on 1 May, with six more infantry regiments put in training. They would in due course link up with the new artillery regiments to form a fourth army in the heartland, based in Oversticht. Even so, another 30 regiments could still be raised before the force limit of 286 was reached.

It was at that point tensions boiled over in restive Madura, where 16,000 Sundanese separatists took up arms on 3 May. One of the two colonial armies then garrisoned in Borneo was immediately despatched for the short trip by sea.

As President Martena continued to try to consolidate after the recent period of conflict, a new age ability became available: improved forced marching was selected, which could become a great tactical advantage in future wars.

Two more German states joined the anti-Frisian coalition that month: the most significant of these was the medium regional power of Pomerania, which fielded an army of around 40-50,000 men, plus the smaller state of Saxony. Friesland put another four more infantry and four cavalry regiments into training in response.

The 2nd Army landed in Surabaya on 25 May and, none the worse for wear for their short voyage, set out straight away to relieve Madura, which still held out against the separatists.

And with Stellingwerf finally back in the capital after his long voyage home from Malacca, a new mission was sent to the good Catholic kingdom of Poland: an alliance would be formalised to provide an eastern counter-weight to the burgeoning German coalition.

A very busy month ended with Friesland taking stock of their friends and rivals in Europe. Outside the formal coalition, Franconia and France remained the most hostile neighbours. Friesland wanted all the friends and allies it could muster, for both deterrence and defence if attacked.

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June-August 1747: Some Like it Hot

A busy May 1747 flowed into a truly frenetic three-month period in world affairs and for Friesland in particular. With overextension still rampant, enough administrative capacity (97) was available on 3 June to begin making Ravensberg, the last of the six recently acquired German provinces, a core of the Republic.

The next day, the short Battle of Madura began where, despite a plucky showing by the rebels, General Galama won a quick but somewhat costly victory to end the rising before Madura could be taken and pillaged.

Even as that battle was being fought, Ulm joined the coalition on 6 June. Then, on the day the battle ended, Aragon launched its latest Holy War against Tunis. Friesland felt both morally and diplomatically obliged to assist the effort, especially given how Aragon had helped them during the recent war. Portugal would also assist: Tunis and its African allies had no realistic chance of winning, but that would not stop them fighting.

With the remnant Granadan state bordering Frisian Niger with its two standing colonial armies, both were soon despatched to ‘do their bit in the war.’ Granada had nothing left with which to oppose them, with one province overrun by rebels and the other guarded by just a fort and no field army.

Of far more immediate danger to Friesland was the perhaps inevitable joining of Franconia to effectively take over the leadership of the opposing coalition on 17 June.

This was starting to get serious and Martena was glad he’d been pursuing a ‘small target’ strategy these last few months after the recent war in Germany. Another four infantry regiments were put into training a week later.

As the latest diplomatic mission to Britain ended on 2 July, the new alliance with Poland would be further boosted with another diplomat sent, this time to once more boost relations.

By the end of the month, both Yola (6 July) and Bauchi (31 July) in Granada were under siege. Elsewhere in the world, the only other wars in progress were the long-running Deccan-Bengali War (+42 to Deccan) and the Mainzian-Bohemian War (+4 to Mainz).

Despite the current mission to New Friesland, liberty desire there rose above the 50% mark again in mid-July. Another diplomat was brought home from a short-lived spy mission against Brunswick to help curry favours with Friesland’s largest and most important colony [thanks for the tip @jak7139], though this would take a while to bear fruit.

It was in early August that the biggest news of the era reverberated around the capitals of the world: the mighty Ottoman Empire had fallen to the only adversary capable of toppling it: its own people. The Age of Revolutions truly began on 5 August 1747. Whether this would be a large but isolated incident or the start of something even bigger was impossible to tell at the time.

In any case, the new regime of Supreme Vizier Hamid was at least reasonably well disposed to the Federal Republic, in large part due to previous Frisian efforts to promote relations, which carried forward to the revolutionary Turkish government.

“The Songs of Angry Men and Women”, Revolution in Konstantiniyye, Turkey, 1747. [Bing AI, Dall-E]

There was also early evidence of significant revolutionary activity in nearby Naples – the seat of the current Holy Roman Emperor!

At home, the last available shipbuilding slot (to take it to the force limit of 292) saw a three-decker begin construction in Amsterdam on 19 August. At the same time, the colonial armies in the East Indies and Africa would see their artillery regiments boosted to match the infantry in numbers, with another three artillery regiments raised in Borneo seven in Niger. This reduced reserve manpower back to 68,400 men of a maximum of 172,000.

In Africa, Friesland had finished in Granada by 28 August, with a siege of just 35 days in Yola and Bauchi wrested from its rebels and occupied. Both armies headed back to Frisian Niger as soon as they could.

But once again, diplomatic news trumped all else, with the year becoming even more dangerous: France joined the anti-Frisian coalition on 23 August 1747. Now, just one precipitous move on either side could set off a huge world war, not just in Europe now but also overseas, especially in North America.

A spare diplomat was sent straight away to Frisian ally Savoy, to ensure their flagging opinion id not drop too low. They would be needed now more than ever as a potential offset against France in the south.

In Africa, despite having Granada at their mercy, as a junior partner in the war Friesland could not conclude a separate peace with Granada. They would have to wait for Aragon to conclude things and Frisian hopes of expanding further east would be on hold.

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September 1747-April 1748: A Desire for Liberty

The Ottoman Pretender rebels trying to launch the counter-revolution in Turkey were reportedly engaging the 4th Revolutionary Army in Karaman in early September 1747. Though winning at that time, several large Turkish armies were on their way. The Ottoman die-hards would most likely do just that: die hard.

[Map from a brief tag over to see what was going on there in the aftermath of the Revolution].

There were reports of unrest in various parts of Revolutionary Turkey, especially in peripheral regions and parts of Anatolia, but the regime itself seemed not to be under serious threat for now.

Barely more than a week later, Granada ‘peaced out’ with Aragon, however Friesland would get little out of it despite having done all the fighting there. At least the attrition casualties had been very low. Thus served, Friesland determined to effectively sit out the rest of the war.

At home, the next focus of attention was on the Landtag. A fortuitous change of heart by the representatives for Brügge decided to support the current bill before the House. With only one more vote needed to clinch the deal, some crown land concessions were made to the MPs from Ostfriesland and the Act to Extend Officer Commissions was duly passed on 1 October 1747. One small Fandango to get the deal done.

Then yet another international event, this time emanating initially from the French colonies in the New World after Turkish revolutionary propaganda reached there. The drama echoed through the subjects through the main colonial powers: France, Portugal, Castile, Friesland and Great Britain.

For the Federal Republic, this had an immediate and dramatic effect in New Friesland, where liberty desire – already high – reached a fever pitch. Urgent action was required and quickly taken to the extent Leeuwarden could. A double tariff decrease of 10% in total was applied, but that was all that could be managed for now. It helped a little and would simply have to do.

A tense period would ensure where the President hoped New Friesland could be persuaded to stay loyal to the Federal Republic in these revolutionary times. Early hints of that came within a week, when a slight easing of tensions was reported (from 70 to 69% liberty desire by 23 October).

To assist with the process, the focus of the government was switched from diplomatic to administrative effort, given the demands of keeping New Friesland loyal and lowering overextension.

Münster was the first of the new provinces to be assimilated on 26 October, with Dithmarschen at about the same time. Overextension was still a problem, but it had now been significantly reduced and more would follow as other cores were completed.

Liberty desire in New Friesland had also inched down a little further in just the last three days. The ‘re-coring’ of the Lower Niger provinces would need to be completed later, but they would be far easier and were not affecting overextension.

Frisian diplomatic prowess also assisted in managing tensions.

As the reserve forces in Friesland proper began to drill to improve professionalism, reports noted that a small revolutionary band was roving the countryside in northern France in early November. There was restrained mirth at this in Leeuwarden – but also concern lest the revolutionary virus spread across the border at some point.

The next spare diplomat was sent to Revolutionary Turkey towards the end of 1747: Friesland had no desire to antagonise their ‘brother republic’ – or its 750,000 troops – the ambassador would tell Supreme Vizier Hamid as he presented his credentials in Konstantiniyye on 11 December 1747.

“The Ambassador and the Vizier”, unknown painter, 1747. [Leonardo AI, Phoenix 1.0 model, text prompt]

Enough administrative effort was available by 21 December for another round of tariff cuts in New Friesland, defusing tension there further (62%). The same day, the Frisian cardinals in the Holy See were authorised to use their ‘influence’ to further increase the chances of Friesland becoming the Papal Controller in the future.

“Papal influence at work.” [Leonardo AI, Phoenix 1.0 model, text prompt]

Further a-field, after a quiet (for Friesland) January, Russia selected its next victim for subjugation when it declared an imperialist war on the Kazakh Sultanate on 5 February.

The rest of February and March 1748 were negotiated without the European powder keg being set off, a secession attempt by New Friesland nor the export of revolution beyond the borders of Turkey. By early April, the Aragon-Portugal axis was well on the way to defeating Tunis and Morocco – yet again.

Bengal was in a bad way, with the Deccan Empire and it allies having destroyed its army and occupied most of its territory. Their other allies fought on, but surely Bengal would be forced into a humiliating peace sooner rather than later.

Friesland had lived in danger for a year now since the end of the Dortmund War and had managed to survive intact, even rising a spot in the ‘world power rankings’, which Revolutionary Turkey now dominated. The turmoil there seemed not to have weakened its power as yet. It had perhaps even been strengthened.

The Frisian flag flies proudly in front of the Landtag in Leeuwarden, Friesland, 1748. [Using Leonardo AI, Phoenix 1.0 model; Frisian flag pasted over a text prompt creation as a reference, then re-imaged.]

Bullfilter · Jan 29, 2025

Chapter 61: The Diplomatists (1748-53)

Ambassador Eilert Stellingwerf: “Be Eilert, not alarmed!” Friesland embarked on a period that stressed diplomacy over war toward the end of Tado Martena’s long Presidency of the Federal Republic. [Leonardo Phoenix 1.0]

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Revolutionary Action

The revolutionary movement that started on the Adriatic coast in the then Ottoman Empire had spread to France, Italy and the western edge of Russia by April 1748.

Its direction of expansion then changed to Arabia around the Persian Gulf by January 1749, while Revolutionary Turkey was coping with separatist counter-revolution in the north-east of its European holdings.

In January 1750 revolution was spreading again France, then in Italy throughout 1751 and into early 1752, while unrest had begun in Bavaria and was spreading once more in France.

In February 1753, there had been a French Particularist uprising in northern France, but the wider revolutionary spread there had mysteriously disappeared. Bavaria was becoming a real hotbed of revolutionary fervour, as had Sicily.

And by October 1753, a major revolutionary war had begun in Bavaria, with a large part of their army seemingly still isolated in northern Germany. It seemed quite possible Bavaria may fall to revolution – and Friesland had neither the access or motivation to intervene.

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Foreign and Colonial Affairs

In April 1748, Friesland still suffered from the overextension sparked by its last land grab in northern Germany. Four provinces still needed to be made core territory (the process was continuing). Provincial unrest there, in Niger and Java persisted, worst in Dortmund and Köln. Two of Friesland’s four European armies were drilling to improve professionalism.

In May 1748, a new demand by the Neapolitan Holy Roman Emperor for the return of Ravensburg saw unrest there spike and relations deteriorate further with the Empire’s members. June saw the relation improvement missions to allies Poland and Savoy completed, with one ambassador sent to Castile to improve relations (in the periodic hope of a rapprochement one day) and the other to curry favours with Revolutionary Turkey. And tariffs in New Friesland were cut another 5% when its liberty desire edged up to 51% again.

The next diplomatic move came in October, when the Turkish relationship mission ended and another diplomat was sent to Castile to curry favours. Friesland would have joined their new war against Songhai too for relationship reasons, but because Friesland remained in Aragon’s war against Tunis, the possibility could not even be explored.

With Castilian relations maximised in December 1748, the next embassy was sent to do the same with the powerful Deccan Empire. Meanwhile, from August to December the four remaining German provinces were fully absorbed into the Federal Republic, removing all overextension penalties, while liberty desire in New Friesland was a little lower at 45%.

The next major event in Europe was the return of the Holy Roman imperial crown to Austria in January 1749, under Franz Karl I.

It was in July 1749 that Friesland continued its campaign to court the hostile Castile by changing the rivalry of them to Franconia. It remained for Castile to reciprocate, their rivalry and hostile attitude the big remaining obstacle to more friendly relations.

And just a few weeks later Portugal renounced its rivalry of the Federal Republic – though its coveting of Friesland’s Australian colonial holdings remained the big obstacle there to better relations.

Regarding the Papacy, Friesland had expended a good deal of influence in Rome that Christmas Day, building its chances of controlling the next Pope so that after the Curia itself, it was the next most likely controller in December 1749.

In the end, it counted for nought. The new dire enemy Franconia not only gained another Cardinal in February 1750 – it also secured control of the Papacy itself in May. The disillusioned Frisians did not feel like expending any other influence in Rome following that disappointing result.

A new relations mission was sent to Aragon in June and the war with Tunis (dealt with further below) had also ended. But Friesland could not use its great power status to intervene for Castile against Songhai as no other great power was involved on Songhai’s side.

In August, the mission to the Deccans finished, followed by one to make nice with the powerful Russian Tsardom. Also in September, the ‘crooked charlatans’ in France sowed discontent in the Frisian population. The mongrel dogs!

February 1751 brought reciprocation by Franconia of Friesland’s rivalry of them and remained in the anti-Frisian coalition. The relationship breakdown of the former firm friends was almost complete – short of war. From December 1751 to June 1752, relations missions finished in Aragon and Russia, replaced with the establishment of new spy networks in Franconia and Brunswick.

The coalition against Friesland gained three new members from September 1749 to February 1752. The most concerning was the last – Austria, bringing with it the new Emperor. Should it come to war against their combined strength, Friesland could be in trouble if not all their allies joined in to defend them (as it was feared some with divided attention or loyalties may not).

The perfidious French next sabotaged the Frisian diplomatic reputation through ‘fake news’ in October 1752, though this was counteracted by Friesland’s skilled diplomacy to provide some ‘alternative facts’ soon afterwards.

Yet another tariff cut was needed in New Friesland (down to 15%) in April 1753 when liberty desire once more nudged over 50%. The Republic was determined not to lose its most powerful colony to discontent separatists.

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Asian Wars

The long regional war between Deccan and Bengal finally ended after six years when Bengal was forced to cede 13 provinces to the great sub-continent spanning empire in June 1748

Russia had targeted the unlucky Kazakh state in February 1748. Kazakh ally Transoxiana had lost most of their remaining territory to Russia in a separate peace in April 1750, then in December the Kazakhs were annexed and their other ally Delhi forced to give up four provinces.

Delhi sought its revenge elsewhere in March 1751, turning on the unfortunate Transoxiana and former co-belligerent Bengal. Almost two years later, the war ended in Delhi’s victory, taking Gilgit from Transoxiana, leaving it with just a single province in February 1753.

But while that war was still in progress, Persia declared their own war on Delhi, who called in its allies Lan Na, Kham and Sindh into what was becoming a disjointed regional conflict.

This deepened in December 1752 when Dai Viet turned on Kham, with Kham finding itself in three separate wars.

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African Wars

Friesland had been drawn into Aragon’s Crusade against Tunis back in June 1747. After defeating Granada early on, its forces in Frisian Niger had remained onlookers only. Over 40 battles had been fought by May 1749 as Aragon demonstrated its superiority against Tunis and its main ally Morocco.

The conflict formally ended on 1 July 1749, with minimal Frisian casualties and equally minimal reward, with Tunis fully annexed and Morocco losing two more provinces giving Aragon a huge presence in northern Africa.

As discussed above, Castile attacked Songhai in October 1748. By April 1759 either side had occupied terrain from the other. But the effect on Songhai was far greater than on Castile, who could afford to lose many colonial provinces with very little impact.

Songhaian ally Air was forced out in June 1751 while Songhai itself lasted until October 1752 – an impressive four-year resistance. It lost two more provinces to Castile in the settlement.

It only took Castile until September 1753 to start their next African adventure – an imperialist war against Kongo.

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European Wars

Mainz had taken on Bohemia and its various allies in February 1747. Goslar was forced out of the war by Mainz in August 1748, then Magdeburg by Bohemia (a white peace) a year later. But the badly weakened Bohemia could not prevail. They lost their outpost in Halle to Mainz in April 1751, as well as conceding two cores to Bavaria and being forced to convert back to the True Faith.

This did not save them from Franconian imperialism however with a new war following in December 1752. Bohemian allies Brunswick and Lusatia were forced out during the course of 1753. By November of that year Franconia was well on top, with Ragusa and Trent the only minor allies remaining to the now fully occupied Bohemia.

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War in the Pacific

In a quaint side note, France declared war on Scotland in March 1753: for the Marshall and Wake Islands!

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Domestic Affairs

The huge Frisian treasury was used to fund a prodigious building spree in November 1748. A massive 38 town halls were either upgraded or built, plus four training fields and two grand shipyards. This cost around 6,000 ducats of the 32,000 saved. All buildings were completed by September 1749.

During the period two more offensive ideas were unlocked to boost land battle prestige gain and siege ability, though it meant broader Frisian military technology would begin to fall slightly below international benchmarks for the time.

Another large amount of money was spent in September-December 1749 when the opportunity to upgrade the Cologne Cathedral presented itself. This work was fast-tracked and completed by December 1749 (at a total cost of 2,000 ducats).

Another 4,000 ducats was then spent to immediately start the next stage and speed up its work as well., though it would take another 14 years to finish. The next stage of the Dutch Polders would be finished in 1760 unless any more funds were devoted to speeding it up as well.

Relations with New Friesland were in mind when an opportunity to raise tobacco tariffs came up in September 1749 but was rejected. A little while later, the work of Johan Ernst Donia help advance administrative power in the Federal Republic.

A year later, two recently admitted provinces – one in Germany and another in Java – were granted seats in the growing Landtag.

The clergy’s view prevailed [a bit of RP there] in August 1750 when a ground-breaking treatise on natural philosophy was declared to be blasphemous.

While the major victory of the Deccan Empire over Bengal had seen the sub-continental empire once again overtake Friesland in the international great power rankings. Bad news followed soon after with the death of one of Friesland’s three cardinals.

Friesland however continued to embrace (within reason) the Age of Revolutions when it adopted the principle of unrestricted conquest in May 1753.

Friesland continued to be a world leader in diplomatic practice, with joint stock companies being enabled that same month.

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Military Development

A major theme during this period of predominant peace for Friesland was the gradual expansion of the military, in line with growing development and military infrastructure. And new military administration established in the Timor area in April 1748.

Drilling began for the 2nd Army in Java in December 1749 and two heavy frigates and a trabakul upgraded in Europe in 1751. This was followed by trading abundant favours with Scandinavia for troops in March 1752.

Then in August 1752, the doubts of the Landtag about all the recent military expansion were assuaged: they were convinced by the ‘golden arguments’ of President Martena!

From 1748 to 1753, 13 new regiments were steadily raised: nine in Europe, one in Niger and three in the East Indies. In the same period, six new ships were built, all in Europe: four more transports to allow the movement of one ‘full army’, then two more frigates to assist with trade protection in the English Channel.

By November 1753 Frisian manpower had finally reached its maximum potential, sailors nearly so. One more regiment and ship could be deployed. And army professionalism had progressed to the point supply depots could be built [Question: in the right situation, how useful are these?]

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The Presidential Election of November 1753

After a long term (nearly 20 years) and even longer life, the talented (if rather cruel) President Tado Martena passed away, to dream the Dream of Frisian Freedom for eternity. He had presided over six wars, the conversion of many heathens to the Mother Church and the acquisition of 17 provinces spanning Germany, Niger and Java.

As had become tradition in the Federal Republic, the election of his successor was left to the lottery. In part this time because there was little to choose from in ability between the three contenders, none of whom were a match for the great Martena.

The youngest of the three, Albrecht Jongstra, became the new President and quite usefully would count diplomacy as his strong suit. What his term would bring remained an open book at this point, but the continued existence of the opposing coalition remained a significant constraint on any further Frisian adventurism for the time being.

Friesland remained a strong but second-tier member of the ‘great power club’, which remained dominated by Turkey, followed by Russia and Portugal. Otherwise, Friesland was in good shape, though still walking on eggshells after its previous German expansion.

Bullfilter · Feb 9, 2025

Chapter 62: Embracing the Revolution (1753-58)

Frisian light infantry drill in Niger, c. 1753 [Leonardo Phoenix 1.0]

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Revolutionary Action

In January 1754, revolutionary rebels still ran amok in Bavaria, in two armies totalling over 60,000 men. The main Bavarian army remained marooned in Friesland with no way home through either Franconia or Austria, while seven new Bavarian regiments had been raised but remained dispersed in the homeland.

By July, Bavaria had 27,000 troops at home but had not yet concentrated to take on the rebels. In Aragon, the revolution was spreading like wildfire, unrest inflamed by the high degree of absolutism there [105, bringing +25% unrest].

A year later, little had changed in Bavaria, but the revolution was now spreading into Franconia. As 1755 ended, revolutionary spirit was fanning out north and west from the centre of the Franconian theocracy.

By December 1756, Bavaria remained infused with revolutionary spirit but the active rebel armies had all been defeated: the main first Bavarian army remained marooned in Friesland, but over 40 regiments had been amassed in the homeland and had recently defeated the last of the rebels as revolutionary activists continued to spread steadily through Franconia and now in Spain, from Madrid outwards.

Another country declared a revolutionary republic in May 1757: the small state of Regensburg, a one-province power bordered by Franconia to the north and Bavaria to the south.

Next came bombshell news that activists had arrived to spread revolutionary ideas in the great Frisian port city of Hamburg. However, due to the openness and relative liberalism of the Federal Republic, this did not destabilise the government. In fact, local unrest was actually decreased a little from the introduction of this political outlet!

Not so to the east in Pomerania and the small German states to its south, where in August 1758 hotbeds of revolutionary radicalism were now causing trouble. Nor in metropolitan Aragon, where armed revolutionaries had taken to the field in large numbers. And revolution had begun to spread in Denmark and southern Sweden.

Soon afterwards, a renowned philosopher in Brügge published an incendiary treatise. But rather than taking insult and reacting with repression, President Jongstra embraced the moment and tolerated this ‘healthy Republican dissent’. While ever the revolutionary movement remained peaceful and broadly within in the Frisian political mainstream the Federal Republic would deem it no threat to state stability.

This was not the case in the homeland of Frisian ally Aragon, where unrest remained high in the north and the rebels ranged around with seeming impunity as Aragon’s army remained deployed entirely overseas.

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Domestic Matters

The new President, Albrecht Jongstra, quickly gained a reputation as an entrepreneur in November 1753, significantly boosting trade efficiency: a great benefit in a trade-dominated economy. This was complemented a few days later by the introduction of the Rotherham Plough throughout the Federal Republic, which permanently boosted productivity.

With over 29,000 ducats in the treasury, in February 1754 President Jongstra decided to spend some of it to speed up the construction of Friesland two great projects. 500 ducats saw the estimated date for the completion of the third stage of the Dutch Polders in Amsterdam brought forward 1,460 days to 17 August 1756. And 250 more was spent on the second stage of the Cologne Cathedral, now due to be finished on 16 September 1761.

Even more money was siphoned out of the coffers in May when national pride demanded that a court painter be hired.

The following February, the national parliament was expanded yet again, Hoya gaining a seat in the now 17 member Landtag. Meaning even more people with whom to ‘Dance the Political Fandango’.

A long-anticipated local revolt broke out in Köln on 2 September 1755. Unfortunately for these separatist rebels, the Leger Neubrandenburg had been stationed there for some time, commanded by Friesland’s best (and most flamboyant) general. The results were predictable and grisly for the separatists, their revolt over within a couple of days.

Productive rains in East Java in January 1756 spurred a development and construction boom there. In Malang, 26 administrative power improved the tax base by one and allowed a new conscription centre to be commenced. In Kediri, administrative power was spent on development [53 for +2 to the tax base] and another conscription centre was started.

This in turn saw something similar done back in Europe for Oldenburg [104 admin, +4 tax base], new stock exchange) and Cleve [52 admin, +2 tax base]. A few months later, the exceptional year was directed by the entrepreneurial President Jongstra into permanently improving base production in Brügge.

This was followed the next month by more building: a stock exchange for Calabar in Frisian Niger and another for Inhambane in south-east Africa. But the month was capped off by another progressive policy initiative from President Jongstra: the abolition of slavery throughout the Federal Republic. The two slave producing provinces in Africa were converted to other resources, allowing a new mill to be built in Zazzau (Niger) to process tropical wood.

Then on August 1756 a huge amount (many thought it grossly wasteful, others a great tribute to Frisian grandeur) was spent on state patronage. In addition to the great up-front outlay tax receipts would be reduced for years to come. But innovativeness and prestige would accrue for the next 15 years.

Within a month of this, the last stage of the Polders was completed in Amsterdam: another tribute to Frisian Greatness. National pride abounded and, by way of an additional boost for the great commercial hub, a counting house upgrade was commenced.

After all this expenditure, there were still around 24,800 ducats in the Republic’s treasury in January 1757, with over 231/month net receipts, with income lead by trade (400), and production (168). Tax (78) was the only other significant source, with tariff and gold income minimal.

The other long-expected revolt erupted in Dortmund on 8 July 1757. This time, the new general Kai Gauma in charge of Leger Amsterdam was camped nearby and on standby to deal with any trouble. He wasn’t even needed: the Bavarian 1st Army (still stranded in Friesland) happened to be passing through from Berg and arrived to crush the rebels as a favour to their allies. By 13 July it was all over, with another separatist bloodbath.

October 1757 brought the end of the ten-year program of extended officer commissions for the army. A new debate was started straight away to provide for the quartering of troops to reduce maintenance and attrition for Friesland’s burgeoning army. There was no waiting around, with the pork barrel rolled out and largesse distributed among the remaining seats need to pass the legislation.

[The standard EU4 parliamentary illustration and Leonardo Phoenix 1.0’s reinterpretation of it from a reference image.]

A range of bribes and inducements had to be offered to take approval from the starting point of 26% up to the number required for approval. Money, Papal disapproval, Republican tradition, corruption, and national prestige were all sacrificed first, with army and naval traditions the last to be sacrificed and as little as possible. The vote was passed by the end of the day.

But President Jongstra would not be so accommodating in mid-1758 when a cabal of merchants tried to engineer a trade war to promote their own commercial interests. With shipbuilding only sporadic by this time, the advantages for taking this course would be few.

The President did not want to be hemmed into fighting some trade war when the opposition Coalition was still growing all around the Homeland. The hit to national prestige and unrest would be absorbed for the next five years in order to retain strategic flexibility.

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Military Developments

Things remained static for the Frisian military until December 1754, when another advance in military doctrine led to a huge expansion in the maximum land force limit [I don’t believe Friesland has the national characteristics or reforms etc to allow any special units].

The Grand Army of Friesland could now supportably expand from 298 to 340 regiments. And by this point, Frisian manpower reserves had also hit their limits after years of accumulation. This paved the way for the creation of another new European-based army, with 27 regiments immediately put into training.

Another ten regiments (half infantry and half artillery) began training in June 1755 when those were completed. Four more (two infantry, two artillery) were created in Niger. With over 1,900 men recruited each month during this period, the manpower reserve had again reached its maximum of 189,000 by February 1757.

Frisian cavalry effectiveness would be boosted for the next ten years in November 1757 through the introduction of ‘cavalry companions’.

In July 1758, after almost all the new Grand Army recruitment was finished, Friesland’s 346 regiments made it (not counting the colonial armies of the various powers) at 345,000 men the sixth largest army in the world. And Friesland had the largest current manpower reserve (not maximum) of any country.

By October 1758, the Leger had grown from 297 to 347 regiments, with 20 each of infantry and artillery and five cavalry regiments raised in Europe, the four regiments in Niger and one new artillery regiment in East Java. Just five new vessels were built over the five years up to the gradually increasing force limit: two triple-deckers and three great frigates, all in Europe.

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Africa

Africa proved to be a key focal point of Frisian interest and activity for the five years from 1753 to 1758. For a start, there was the continuing Castilian-Kongolese Imperialist War started in September 1753. In November 1754 the Kongo was still slightly ahead (-2%).

Friesland found itself involved in another African campaign in March 1755 when called in by Aragon to take part in its Imperialist war against Songhai and their ally Air. Naturally, Friesland agreed to join but this time they would not be active participants. One of the Niger armies continued to drill, the other moved to a reserve position at Nupa.

With Aragon easily conducting their war themselves, in June 1756 L.v. Calabar relocated back to the Granadan border: Friesland had designs on the last expatriate outpost of the former Spanish enclave. But it transpired that the truce from their last war would not expire until October 1757. Friesland’s rapacious designs would have to wait [breaking the truce would have cost 3 stability]. Both armies were now set to drilling instead.

The truce duly expired on 3 October 1757, when both armies halted their drilling and began reorganising. By 3 January 1758 this was largely completed and a diplomat was called back from curry favours in New Friesland, which would be a long return voyage.

It would be mid-February before all was ready, but before that Aragon was able to end its war against Songhai with another large annexation of the Nigerian hinterland. On one hand this was useful, getting that war out of the way and meaning Aragon would be available if needed for the Granadan venture. But it also put the pressure on Friesland to expand its own colonial holdings lest they be overshadowed further by both the Spanish colonial powers.

Just two days later, Albrecht Tjerkstra had returned from America and was available for the declaration of war against Granada and its allies and guarantor: Morocco, Kanem Bornu and Air. Friesland called in some favours to bring Aragon in to ensure Morocco and Air would be distracted and give the Frisian alliance significant numerical superiority in the region.

L.v. Calabar and Idah were soon marching into Granada’s last two provinces. Both arrived on the same day: 3 March 1758. L.v. Idah began occupying Bauchi, while L.v. Calabar quickly destroyed the 3,000 men Granada had in their capital Yola for the loss of only 61 fusiliers and began a siege of the small fort the next day.

By 17 March, Frisian manpower was holding, with around 200 more soldiers being recruited as we lost in attrition per month. At the start of April, Yola had been taken (ticking warscore started) and Bauchi occupied.

As the invasion of Granada proceeded routinely, at the end of May Castile prevailed against Kongo, annexing most of its territory in a massive land grab. And boosting its place in the world.

A diplomat was called home from Savoy in July to explore negotiation options once more [warscore +6%]. But it was discovered the progress was not even at the minimum level required to send a proposal [+10%] and even then, a demand incorporating the full annexation of Granada and the short length of the war meant even at that minimum level a treaty would have been out of the question [around -90 reasons].

The war would need to go on for some time yet and the two Frisian armies fanned out to do that, with the manpower reserve still holding at its maximum level making it easy to do so indefinitely. By 14 October 1758, Rano and Marghi in Air had both been occupied and the fortress of Bedde was under siege.

Campaign map, March-October 1758.

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Other Foreign Wars

Vietnamese Purge of Kham Heresy

Da Viet had launched a war to ‘cleanse heresy’ from its neighbour Kham involved back in December 1752. By November 1754 Vietnam and its allies (including the Deccans) were well on top [+35%] of Kham and its grouping (which included Shu and Delhi). It would take until October 1756 for the war to end in a decisive Vietnamese victory. Kham was converted, Shu ceded one province to Da Viet and Delhi was forced to concede nine to the Deccan Empire. And they remained at war with Persia, which they were also losing.

Lan Na concluded a separate peace in January 1754, which saw it cede three of its four remaining provinces to the Vietnamese.

2nd Russian-Shun Imperialist War

This was declared on the tiny rump Shun state in March 1754, involving Japan and the over-stretched Kham as Shun’s allies. By later that year Russia had begun to exert its dominance, quickly seizing Shun. Kham, already engaged (and losing) against Vietnam, made a separate peace with the Russians in July 1755, forced to cede a large part of their realm in the north.

Russia was then left to invade Japan as their opposition continued on Shun’s behalf.

Franconian-Bohemian Imperialist War

Franconia had attacked the weakened and diminished Bohemia back in December 1752, peeling away Bohemian allies Brunswick and Lusatia in 1753. The conservative Bishopric completed the conquest of the rest of the Bohemian homeland in April 1754, leaving the once significant regional power with just the single expatriate province of Halle in central Germany.

French-Scottish Imperialist War

France had once again pursued the expatriate Scottish in the islands of the South Pacific in October 1753. It was no surprise when the French won the war in February 1755, taking the Marshall Islands and leaving the last Scottish outpost on Wake Is.

Persian-Delhian Imperialist War

Persia declared war on Delhi, who were supported by allies Lan Na, Kham and Sindh, in August 1752 in another major regional war in the region. In November 1754 the Persians had the upper hand [+19 warscore] and this got worse for the defenders over the next few years. In August 1757 Sindh was forced to capitulate, yielding more than half their territory to the victorious Persia.

By this time, Persia had also made large inroads into Delhi’s western provinces. The war would continue and Delhi remained in big trouble.

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Diplomatic and Colonial Affairs

An assessment of anti-Frisian Coalition opinions in August 1754 showed it would likely be many years before most of them would forget Friesland’s great German land grab. For example, Pomerania’s views of Friesland’s unlawful occupation of HRE territory [-102, +1.7 yearly] and aggressive expansion [-79, +3.4 yearly] were dire. Austria not only wanted Frisian provinces [84 of them, -200] but had even worse views of Frisian expansion [AE -127, +3.4 p/a; unlawful territory the same at -102, +1.7 yearly]. It was not much better with many other coalition members.

On the diplomatic front, a warning was received in March 1755 that the alliance with Poland may be about to collapse. Action was quickly taken to improve opinion after the spy network in Brunswick secured a claim on Hanover and quickly dashed over to Poland.

In June, the spy network in Franconia was making little headway and the Polish alliance was still on a knife’s edge. The diplomats first traded some old favours to build trust with Poland, then hopped across to build a spy network in Berg: in years to come the small border country may be a target of Frisian expansion and if so, they wanted to develop a claim for it.

The Polish influence mission ran its course in November 1755 and a spy network in Cologne was established, for similar reasons.

By February 1756, three more one-province countries had joined the Coalition (as their truces with Friesland ran out) and none had left, providing a considerable hand-brake on Frisian ambitions in Europe.

When a Frisian diplomat returned from Africa in November 1756 after realising it was too early to negotiate peace there, they were sent to improve relations with Coalition member Saxe-Lauenburg, who were a bit less opposed to Friesland than many of the other members.

More generally, Friesland was assessed to be the fourth most developed country in the world by August 1757 (not counting the contributions of colonial or subject states). This was considerably more than neighbour France, whose Great Power ranking was boosted by a very large subject’s development contribution. While much of Friesland’s colonial territory was directly rules, except for New Friesland in America and Frisian Australia.

At the same time, Friesland had the third largest national income in the world (665 ducats per month) after Turkey and Russia.

In March 1758, a spare diplomat returned from another African mission was sent back to improve relations with Frisian ally Savoy.

Castile’s great victory over Kongo had seen its position in the world boosted above that of Friesland by July 1758 (those conquered lands going direct to Castile’s development total). This pushed Friesland back down to seventh place in the Great Power rankings by a very narrow margin. Consolidation of states in Europe had advanced, especially by Franconia.

There had also been more consolidation in Asia over the last five years, with two wars still in progress as the aggressors in both cases neared victories.

While the Americas had remained amazingly stable and peaceful for decades under the rule of a handful of colonial powers, the spectre of liberty desire among some of the subject states had arisen by this time. While energetic management by Friesland had kept its powerful colony largely under control, the same could not be said for some other massive colonial states. For France the crown colony of French Canada was at a fever pitch of independence agitation and Floride was not far behind.

For Portugal, things were looking very dangerous in Portuguese Mexico and Carabais, somewhat less so in Portuguese Louisiana and Peru. England’s large British Columbia colony was also quite unruly. The remaining American colonies of France, Castile, Portugal and Friesland seemed relatively stable by comparison [ie. under 50% Liberty Desire].

Portuguese Australia was also a hotbed of dissent, while there was no liberty desire apparent in its Frisian colonial neighbour.

At that time, Friesland remained in the top eight of most measures (and 6th in the overall victory point count – up from 7th five years before).

[Note: this chapter goes up to October 1758, but the various July 1758 summary images, including this, were taken from the last save before that.]

Bullfilter · Mar 4, 2025

Chapter 63: More Revolution (1758-60)

The beginnings of industrialisation in the late 1750s.

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Africa

The Frisian colonial war to annex Granada continued routinely enough as Air provinces were occupied to increase leverage for the desired peace deal. Things were complicated slightly when 13,000 Air separatists rebelled in Zazzau in May 1759, but the rebels were ignored while the two Frisian colonial armies prosecuted sieges in Katsina and Bedde.

Zazzau was occupied by the separatists in June, but this would be temporary as they moved south to Pindinga, which they occupied in October. But when Bedde fell to L.v. Calabar on 24 October, they were finally diverted to deal with the rebels. The Battle of Pindinga only lasted five days, after which Geldulf Jousma returned to the siege war in Air. The Granadans still found more reasons to keep fighting (128) than to surrender their last two provinces by December 1759.

It would take until October 1760 for Granada to finally surrender: Friesland was able to demand not only their annexation but two Air provinces as well, plus securing Moroccan land for Aragon. While more could have been demanded of Air instead, it would have begun register as aggressive expansion among Friesland’s European neighbours, where the situation remained delicate and the coalition undiminished.

Frisian Niger had been expanded at a modest cost in troops, where recruiting levels were now able to match casualties while maintaining almost full reserve manpower and keeping Aragon happy.

Work began to core the four new provinces straight away to whittle away at the small amount of overextension that ensued.

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War in Germany

November 1759 saw recently embattled Frisian ally Bavaria declare war on the revolutionary government of neighbouring micro-power Regensburg, bringing in Regensburg’s allies Magdeburg and Koblenz. The Federal Republic felt obliged to support their allies and duly sided with them in the conflict.

The two nearest ‘ready reaction’ armies were soon on their way to neighbouring Magdeburg, while the third stood guard in Köln and the two reserve armies continued to drill. No opposition appeared when they marched into Magdeburg’s two provinces that bordered Celle. Braunschweig was quickly occupied, while Altmark would take a full siege to reduce.

The first major battle of the war soon followed, with Bavaria (supported by a reinforcing contingent of 17,000 men from Ulm) winning a costly victory in Regensburg against their revolutionary opponents on 29 November.

When word was received soon after of a ‘golden age’ beginning for Revolutionary Regensburg on 7 December, the news was received with a good deal of scepticism in Friesland and Bavaria. Ten days later, reports came of a battle in Urach (just north of Konstanz) where over 40,000 Bavarians would ultimately defeat the 14,000-man Armee von Konstanz by the second week of January 1759: aided by 17 regiments from Ulm and 11 from Savoy who would reinforce the fight.

It took until June 1759 for the main Magdeburgian army to fight a pitched battle. Their 29 regiments came up against 48 from Savoy in the Battle of Innbaiern in south-eastern Bavaria. The entire 29,000-man Armee von Magdeburg would be killed or surrendered by 8 June, for the loss of around 6,900 Savoyard troops.

The rest of the war was largely conducted through sieges. After Altmark fell to Frisian forces on 7 October 1759, Magdeburg gave up the next day in a separate peace.

Konstanz pulled out almost exactly one year later: by this time, following the surrender of Magdeburg, Friesland was taking little further part in hostilities, having ‘played its part’, according to the president. This left Regensburg alone, its capital besieged but not yet fallen and with no field army to contest the Bavarian siege.

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Domestic Issues

In June 1759 Friesland finished developing its suite of offensive ideas, with Esprit de Corps boosting disciple and the speed of army morale recovery increased when all these military reforms were completed. However, the concentration on these reforms had slowed the pace of general military research, which now lagged Frisian diplomatic and administrative developments.

The last available age ability was taken on the same day, though it may not end up being of great benefit to the Republic, as all its colonies were on different continents. In any case, New Friesland’s liberty desire was now well in hand (especially compared to some other colonies in the Americas) and it remained non-existent in Australia.

A locked-in contract from September 1759 for five years of chocolate imports would be welcomed to boost national happiness and aid manpower recovery. The contract was approved over the objections of mercantile economists.

The new year of 1760 began with some momentous news: the start of the industrial revolution was later pinpointed to an obscure province in Russia near the Persian border. It was a time of both political and industrial revolution.

The following month, another big development boom and some associated building projects once more swept through the Federal Republic, taking advantage of surplus political power. In the capital, infrastructure was expanded and impressment offices began construction. In nearby Groningen, spending 118 administrative and 84 diplomatic power boosted development by 5 to 40 and allowed soldiers households to be built.

Amsterdam saw 217 admin power increase development by 3 to 50 with soldiers’ households being built there too. In Brügge, Den Haag and Utrecht, all on the vulnerable French border, the defences were upgraded to star forts. In the Frisian East Indies and New Guinea, development was boosted in Palu (+3), Poso (+2) and Rabaul (+3) for a total of 15 administrative and 117 diplomatic power, with a grand shipyard upgrade beginning construction in Rabaul.

The administration of the Federal Republic was widely recognised in July 1760 as being a ‘shining example’ of honesty, which would decrease the amount needed to maintain the state apparatus for the next decade.

Meanwhile, the further spread of revolutionary ideas in the heart of the Federal Republic was welcomed, further decreasing local unrest a little wherever this happened.

A few months later, the wider use of printing presses help to bolster effort in all three main disciplines.

By early October, there was a little room to further expand the army and navy after the recent development spree. Following the completion of the offensive ideas group, ‘mainstream’ military research, which had fallen behind somewhat, would again become a focus. And the treasury remained fill to overflowing, with monthly net income well over 300 ducats and still dominated by trade.

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Wars in India

The Deccan Empire began a new war in December 1758 to take down the remaining Sindh enclaves left after Persia’s victory over them the year before. With ten times the defenders’ troop numbers, the result appeared certain.

In Persia’s ongoing long war against Delhi (started back in August 1752), Kham was forced out in January 1759. Delhi itself capitulated in March 1759 in a disastrous peace for them. The formerly large regional power was eviscerated, leaving a small enclave in western India and a main rump state north of the Himalayas, the rest either going directly to Persia or relinquished into three independent states.

Sindh lasted until December 1759, at which point it was fully annexed by the Deccans as the Indian sub-continent continued to consolidate into the main Deccan Empire with a powerful Persia on its western flank.

In May 1760, the greatly reduced Bengal (really more Burma and south-western Thailand now) lamented the internal conflict that had plagued them for the last decade.

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Russia in the Far East

Russia had first invaded Shun, quickly overrunning it, in March 1754. By December 1758, the Russians had moved onto their main ally, Japan, to force an end to the conflict.

A few months later the war was over, Shun annexed and the Russians had gained a foothold on the Japanese home islands.

Russia was soon on the expansionist warpath again, taking another crack at the Shu Chinese Empire. The Shu had not been able to rebuild their army as yet, so would be unlikely to mount a credible defence.

And indeed by early October of the following year, swathes of Shu and Korea had been occupied by the Russian behemoth.

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The Colonies Are Revolting!

The previously mentioned colonial discontent in the Americas finally boiled over for Portugal in 1760. Led by Portuguese Mexico and joined by Brazil, Carabais, Rio da Prata, Louisiana and Peru and aided by Britain and its American colonies, the Portugal Mexican Independence War erupted on 22 August 1760.

Portugal would be aided by Aragon and (less relevantly) Kilwa and Sofala, plus the one colony that remained loyal (for now), Portuguese Australia. But overall, it seemed Portugal and its allies would be hugely outnumbered and with no significant base in the Americas.

All this was music to the ears of Friesland, which had been waiting for decades for some of its colonial rivals to start losing their grip, while ensuring their one large self-governing colony in the Americas remained loyal.

By 6 October, Portugal had fallen a little behind, due to Mexico retaining possession of its capital Borrado and losing three naval battles – two to Britain and one to Brazil. Meanwhile, they had landed a small and isolated force (really no more than brigade strength) on the coast of Brazil. Which would be even more precarious if they lost the ability to support it by sea.

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Foreign Relations

In February 1759 the 51,000-strong revolutionary army was still ranging freely in northern Aragon. It had occupied the province of Calatayud in September 1757 and would do so until June 1760. However, how that occupation was ended (whether by force or some other event) and what happened to the rebels remains unclear to historians.

Frisian diplomacy in the first half of 1759 saw new missions to improve relations with Savoy, Britain and the ‘least antagonistic’ coalition member Saxe-Lauenburg improved. And there was celebration in Leeuwarden when the Franconian Pope died in May and was replaced by a Curia insider. A Papal Legate was then sought to boost Friesland’s diplomatic efforts, while a Papal Bull was enacted that would decrease development costs. The federal Republic would take advantage of this in the near future. When relations with Savoy were maximised in June, the next mission was to build a spy network in neighbouring Magdeburg, at which time the siege of Altmark was still in progress.

In 1759, monarchy remained the preponderant form of government in Europe, with Republics small in number but large in influence, especially through the Turks and Frisians. Franconia was the largest theocracy.

In November 1759, Friesland regained its third Cardinal in Hamburg: though they had not yet invested to influence the next Papal succession.

Next to see relations improved was Aragon (alliance maintenance), while in January 1760 Goslar proclaimed another Revolutionary government. By that time, Friesland had fallen marginally behind Castile in the Great Power index to 7th.

Existing spy networks in Cologne and Berg saw two new territorial claims fabricated in 1759-60, ‘just in case an opportunity arose in the future’ for some more expansion in Europe.

By October 1760, the anti-Frisian Coalition remained fully in place. Otherwise, Friesland remained in a strong position militarily and economically, with a strong alliance network to help counteract the Coalition.

In world affairs, the consolidation of larger nations continued in Europe and Asia and colonial conquests progressed in western and southern Africa. The recent development spree by Friesland had once again pushed it above Castile on the great power ladder, while Portugal’s implosion had seen it relegated from the ‘premier league’ entirely for now, with Austria regaining a foothold in 8th place.

With the America’s now unstable again after decades of peace and one of Friesland’s colonial rivals now in considerable trouble, the good burghers of Leeuwarden could only hope the same might happen to France at some point, to help advance the Dream of Frisian Freedom further and perhaps one day see the Low Countries fully liberated from the autocratic French yoke.

Bullfilter · Mar 23, 2025

Chapter 64: Captains of Industry (1760-64)

Three Frisian industrialists celebrate their good – and burgeoning – fortune at their club in Leeuwarden, c. 1762. [Bing AI – DALL-e]

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October 1760 – October 1762: Spies, Industrialists and a Poisoned Chalice

At the end of October 1760, Bonny in Frisian Niger was developed (total 186 monarch points, 5 dev to 20) to allow a new fortress to be built for 600 ducats to ensure the ‘original colonies’ were defended by forts both north and south (in Gabon).

In late 1760, France’s American colonies remained in a state of high tension, with liberty desire strong especially in French Canada and not far behind in Floride, which surrounded New Friesland and had a range of territorial desires on it.

Some Frisian advocates called for agents to be sent to further foment unrest in the French Colonies, but to do so would require a sustained espionage operation. Whether for this or other potential uses, that effort was begun on 9 November 1760 (previous attempts having been futile due to French higher spy detection capabilities).

In January 1761, progress was slow in the Portuguese Mexican War of Independence [+9% for Mexico], largely sustained by British naval blockades and continued Mexican occupation of their capital, Borrado [+2%]. Thirteen battles had been reported so far – all of them at sea and largely in the Mexican Alliance’s favour [+5%].

March 1761 saw the spy network in Cologne discontinued (no more claims could be filed at that time) and redirected to conducting domestic counter-0espionage against the Perfidious French.

Having long since left the last gasp of the Bavarian war to crush the revolution in Regensburg to the Bavarians, its end finally came on 24 May 1761. The treaty ended the revolutionary government in Regensburg, making the micro-state a Bavarian vassal. The Bavarians were duly happy with the earlier Frisian support.

The Far East continued to be a hotbed of warfare during the early 1760s. The Russian war against Shu and its allies, begun in July 1759, was a one-sided affair. Korea surrendered in August 1761, losing another five provinces. A month later, Champasak bowed out. The same day, Frisian agents reported that Japan was preparing to pounce upon the Korean remnants.

The Archbishop of Cologne suggested in November 1761 that another improvement to the Cathedral would further enhance Papal influence and further ensure clerical loyalty. The cost was large but the overflowing Frisian treasury, enriched by international trade, was well able to support the work, which was soon commenced.

That now implacable rival Franconia, the “crooked charlatans” of Germany, used their own spy network in Friesland to sow discontent throughout the country later that month. The President vowed this hostile act would not go without response “in the fullness of time”.

The foretold Japanese attack on the hapless Koreans came in early December of that year as the Russians spread ever further across the northern marches of the Shu Empire, whose years of expansion and Chinese unification now seemed well and truly over.

The largely ignored small Frisian colony in south-east Africa received a little attention as the year ended: though no troops had been stationed there for many years, the current basic fortification in Inhambane [+2] would be expanded to full fortress status [+8] over the next couple of years at a cost of 420 ducats.

The truces with Cologne, Lorraine and Naples from the last German war expired on 3 January 1762. Friesland had been waiting for these and investigated whether it might be worthwhile enforcing their extant claim against Cologne. However, the presence of Austria as Cologne’s imperial guarantor made the prospect unrealistic.

It seemed their entry would not only even up the balance of power, but they would be able to call in powerful allies (including Britain and Poland, both of whom Friesland valued as current or potential allies of their own) and mobilise the Coalition (which included France and Franconia). With only some of the Frisian allies likely to support them, the risk hardly seemed worth gaining a province or two. The powder was kept dry in hopes of a better opportunity at some point.

Portugal surprised Frisian diplomats in February 1762 with an offer of alliance. At another time, Friesland might have been tempted to gain such a powerful colonial ally to balance France in America and (less so) in Europe. And one where Aragon would have been a mutual ally. But now, it seemed to be a poisoned chalice, given they were at war with Britain and in danger of losing the colonial empire that would have been the principal benefit of such an alliance. The offer was politely declined.

Major domestic news soon followed, with Amsterdam becoming the first Frisian city to adopt industrialisation. With reasonable progress being made in other provinces, no additional funds were invested at this time to accelerate the process across the country.

On 10 May, Poland made an offer to exchange a ‘donation’ of 1,300 ducats by Friesland to gain favours with the Poles. With the treasury back up to 31,000 ducats, the offer was accepted. Those favours could come in handy at some point.

Events at home through the middle of 1762 brought a new claim on Coblenz in Franconia (boo, hiss!) and the cautious adoption of new production technology brought a modest bonus to administration: given that was already an area of surplus, the threat of inflation would be kept at bay.

The latest Russian imperialistic expansion seized large swathes of northern China from the Shu when peace was finally agreed in September 1762, with Kham also pried away from Shu political control. It seemed nothing could stop Russian expansion in the Far East as the Shu tide continued to ebb.

At that time, only the Japanese-Korean [-3%] and Mexican Independence Wars [+10%] were being fought.

Aragon was once again beset by rebels in October 1762. With all their own army still abroad (ostensibly supporting Portugal in the Mexican War), they were assisted by the Portuguese who would destroy a rebellion by disgruntled nobles by mid-December.

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November 1762 – April 1764: Industry, Army Expansion and a Turkish Intervention

The end of 1762 witnessed a backdown in Utrecht in favour of profiteering local producers for the sake of friendly relations with Britain and then further support for the already very influential Burghers Estate in a number of Frisian provinces in Europe and abroad.

[Image from Bing AI DALL-e]

The Mexican Independence War, now in its third year, slowly continued in Mexico’s favour, almost solely due to their continuing hold of their own capital which indicated de facto independence from Portuguese control. Many more battles had been fought, again at sea, but the balance of those was now quite close.

The revolutionary alliance continued to hold a heavy overall advantage in troop and ship numbers, though losses at sea were almost exactly even. It seemed improbable that Portugal would be able to retain most of its colonial empire under these circumstances, though it may take years to be formally resolved.

By January 1763, industrialisation had permeated quite a few more Frisian provinces, to the extent that a large investment of government stimulus would allow the Federal Republic to adopt the new institution at the national level. Once more, a large cash injection was authorised and Friesland became the first country to embrace industrialisation.

Soon afterwards, national prestige was boosted and the army force limit increased through the organisational skills of military adviser Raden Wijaya Ratri.

The next day, military technology took a long-delayed leap forward through the introduction of the ring bayonet as standard issue throughout the Leger.

A long simmering threat of revolt in Frisian Indonesia was brought to a head that day, with deliberate provocations by the local governor brining the rebel out into the open. Their numbers were boosted by this confrontational approach but this did not concern Willem Galama as he led the 2nd Army to lance the boil of Sundanese separatism in Malang.

The rebellion was wiped out within five days of his arrival, with Galama being hailed as a ‘hardy warrior’ for his efforts.

By late February 1763, due to the adoption of industrialisation and the organisational reforms of Raden Ratri, the maximum manpower reserve had been increased from 198,000 to 229,000 and the land force limit from 351 to 377 regiments. No wholesale army increase had been implemented as yet though thoughts would soon turn in that direction.

A new development and building program was conducted in April 1763 [excess admin and diplo points] for Cleve (+6 dev to 30, plus training fields for 225 ducats), Dortmund (+3 dev to 30) and Muko-Muko (+1 dev to 10), using a total of 338 monarch points.

Shu, not yet recovered from their disastrous war with Russia, was attacked by Ayutthaya on 11 July 1763, who sought to take the Mandate of Heaven from the Shu emperor. The Shu looked in big trouble at the start.

Increased counter-espionage against France sought to the expulsion of a diplomat building their spy network in August 1763, reducing their spy network [which was still 75 in strength, with the Frisian one in France now up to just 14.5]. The Frisian spy chief in Magdeburg had also recently been discovered and was making no headway, so he was withdrawn and set to conduct counter-espionage against the deplorable Franconians.

After the adoption of industrialism and the recent development work Friesland for now remained third placed in the world list of great powers, with Britain and Persia the other two to have embraced the eighth institution so far. And in October, the four new provinces of Frisian Niger taken in the last war completed their full integration as core territory.

By November 1763, President Jongstra’s skills as a fierce negotiator had been widely acknowledged, which would help negotiate cost-effective contracts with mercenary companies should that ever become necessary ‘in extremis’.

13 November 1763 marked one of the largest single recruitment processes in recent Frisian history when 27 new regiments (12 each of infantry and artillery, three of cavalry) began training, all in Europe. Over the full four years from 1760-64, a total of 34 regiments were raised bringing total strength of the Leger to 380 (175 inf, 31 cav, 174 arty). Other than the European recruitment just mentioned, five of the regiments were raised in Niger and two in Indonesia. For the Navy, five new ships were built: three heavy, one light and one transport split between Europe and Indonesia.

From November 1763 to January 1764, there was a flurry of activity related to the Papacy. A fourth Frisian cardinal was raised and the last Papal Bull expired, while Friesland was not yet able to procure a new one.

The new European army – L.v. Friesland – was almost fully raised and concentrated by March 1764, bringing regular troop strength on the Continent to 200,000 men.

And the prudence at having rebuffed the Portuguese alliance off was demonstrated when Revolutionary Turkey, having declared victory and the end of its revolution in March 1764, entered the Mexican War against Portugal and Aragon shortly afterwards. Already in trouble, this intervention would surely doom Portugal to eventual defeat.

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May to October 1764: Focus in the East

The expansionist Deccan Empire chose Aceh as its next target in May 1764. The Atjehans had some fairly useful regional allies, including Malacca and the Deccani had found it difficult to prosecute overseas campaigns in the past.

This development also interested Friesland, which had long coveted further expansion in Sumatra but had not seemed to find the opportunity to make it happen. And their colonial army (without heavy mercenary support, at least) had not been large enough to handle Aceh’s regional coalition alone: Frisian ally Brunei could provide some assistance, but not enough to tip the scales.

If however the Deccan war turned against Aceh’s alliance, it might make an opportunistic Frisian intervention more attractive. The Franconian counter-espionage mission was halted and influence on Aceh’s ally Malacca restarted. Friesland had wanted to use great power leverage to force Malacca to abandon its alliance with Aceh but that was not yet attainable.

Two weeks later, the two colonial Legers in the FEI began the process of transferring from Borneo and Java to Sumatra, to be in position just in case the sought-after opportunity arose. Work also began on converting the fort in Pagarruyung (defending the northern approach to the Sumatran colonies) to a full fortress (level 8: 300 ducats, 27 months).

Early July witnessed the largest development and building program in recent times [356 admin and 318 diplo points] in:

Utrecht (+1 dev to 40, naval battery for 140 ducats);
Münster (+1 dev to 40);
Berg (+1 dev to 40, training fields for 210 ducats);
Demak (+1 dev to 20, conscription centre for 300 ducats);
Den Haag (+5 dev to 40, grand shipyard for 210 ducats); and
Gabon (+5 dev to 20).

In North Africa, Aragon had been invaded by Turkey and had also been fighting battles at sea with them.

Friesland used some great power influence on Malacca on 24 July to advance their diplomatic push there.

With regular excess administrative points and military technology research still in catch-up mode, Friesland’s national focus was changed to the latter in September 1764 as a new period of military confrontation seemed to be coming into view, whether in the colonies and/or in Europe.

Friesland maintained its third ranking among the great powers by that time and would still have ranked fifth without the benefit of having industrialised.

Unfortunately, the benefits (to contentment and manpower sustainment) of the cocoa trade ended soon after. Though perhaps only a coincidence, accusations in the parliament of ‘too many Presidential liberties’ being taken arose. Jongstra chose to risk opprobrium rather than lose prestige in the face of such upstart arguments.

There had only been marginal progress made in the drive to force Malacca to abandon its alliance with Aceh by the end of that month. The next free diplomat was sent to improve relations once more.

NB: On review, it may be favours I need to mine instead of relations, so they can be used to build trust subsequently?

By late October 1764, revolution still seemed to be spreading in northern Europe (and, off map, in parts of North Africa), despite the Turks having declared the victorious end of their own revolution.

Since 1760, seven more Frisian provinces including the capital had embraced the revolutionary spirit, to the general contentment (on balance) of their populations.

The Deccani-Atjehan War had barely started (no battles recorded) and it remained to be seen whether Deccan power could be effectively projected into either Sumatra or the Malayan Peninsula.

Surprisingly, the most significant land front in the Mexican Independence War, other than the new one in North Africa, was in Australia! The one Portuguese colony that had remained loyal had been invaded. Two large land battles had been fought between Britain and Portuguese Australia in the north of the continent – the British having lost both.

Casualties on land and at sea for both sides were mounting and remained roughly even. Of course, with Turkey having now intervened, the Mexican Alliance had by far the greater total military power and the war had swung further into their favour.

A closer look at the Australian campaign showed the British had landed more forces in the north-east, with Mexican troops also landing in strength and occupying a slice of the east coast while enforcing a blockade of it.

Bullfilter · Apr 4, 2025

Chapter 65: No Place for Small Countries (1765-68)

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The Mexican War of Independence against Portugal

The War for Independence from Portugal that Mexico had begun in August 1760 had rapidly brought the rest of the Portuguese American colonies into the fight against their colonial master. Only Portuguese Australia had remained loyal to the Old Regime. Aragon had sided with its ally Portugal, while Britain threw its support behind the independence movement.

Mexican infantry on the attack against Portuguese-Australian positions in Eastern Australia, c. early 1765. [Leonardo AI, Phoenix 1.0]

Already in some trouble and unable to make any serious inroads back into the Americas, the Portuguese cause had been dealt an apparent death blow in December 1764 with the entry of the massive Revolutionary Turkey against them, commencing with a ground invasion of Aragonese North Africa and naval operations in the Western Mediterranean.

By March 1765, 40 battles had been fought in the war on land and at sea, while Turkish and British blockades were in force. The Turkish invasion of North Africa was gathering pace, while Australian had been invaded by Revolutionary and British forces at a number of points. The Portuguese cause was apparently hopeless after over four years of warfare where they had been almost completely on the defensive.

By August that year, on the fifth anniversary of the war’s start, large Turkish armies were swarming across North Africa while Aragon back-pedalled and was subject to heavy Turkish blockades of its home coastline and the British did the same to southern Portugal.

Less than two months later, the British had also joined the North African invasion and were advancing along the coast, west from Tunis. It appeared the main Aragonese army in Africa had been either destroyed or evacuated by this time.

At the end of January 1767, the Turks had invaded Aragon itself from the north as the overall Portuguese position deteriorated further. No large Aragonese army was seen to be ready to defend the homeland: it still had a large fleet at sea, but it was dwarfed by the nearby Turkish fleet.

Less than a month later, Aragon had been forced out of the war, losing land in Africa to Turkey as part of the peace deal. Their armed forces had not been completely destroyed (good news for Friesland, who remained allied to them) and the Portuguese could still muster significant numbers. But even a fraction of Turkish might, let alone the British and array of powerful independence regimes, would be enough to doom Portugal’s ambitions to retain its huge American empire.

At the end of the year, large sections of Portuguese Australia remained under occupation and Portugal itself had been invaded by the Turks even as the battles raged at sea. After the peeling off of Aragon early in the year, Mexico’s allied front had substantially rebuilt its bargaining power in the war.

This pattern would continue through to August 1768, with the war still continuing eight years after its start.

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Other Foreign Wars and Diplomacy

Although Turkey had declared its own revolution ‘won’, revolutionary sentiment still steadily spread outside its borders, having followed the Turkish incursion into Aragonese North Africa by March 1765. The only place outside this region the revolution had spread to was in a couple of small, isolated pockets in Bengal.

The spread of the revolution within Friesland (where such thought was cautiously welcomed) and the rest of the world will be reviewed again as at 1771.

Frisian counter-espionage operations against France uncovered a network in October 1765, but this only reduced their estimated strength in Friesland to 75 operatives.

From September 1766 to April 1768, Russia fought another lop-sided imperialist war, this time against the last remnant of Transoxiana, which was fully annexed.

In Europe, things remained largely peaceful, though the once-powerful Switzerland was further reduced when Trent, backed by Austria in what would otherwise have been an even match-up, grabbed Wälsh-Bergen after war that lasted from September 1766 to January 1768. Along the way, Swiss ally Ulm lost its capital to Austria in an earlier settlement.

A war that had dragged on since December 1761 ending in Japanese victory when they ended up claiming a single province in the north of their Home Islands in January 1767. A long conflict for a small reward.

Even without a dedicated counter-espionage team, a Franconian spy network was discovered in March 1767, bringing its strength down to 25.

In East Asia, Japan in April 1767 decided to take advantage of the chronic weakness of the Shu Chinese Empire, which had been devastated by two large losses to Russia in recent years and was now in trouble against Ayutthaya, which was challenging it for the Mandate of Heaven.

Back on the Frisian border, the government of its old enemy Cologne (now just two provinces) was overthrown to become a Revolutionary Republic in June 1767 but remained within the anti-Frisian coalition.

Following their defeat in the Mexican Independence War, Aragon asked Friesland in December 1767 for some military assistance in the form of nearly 9,000 soldiers in return for diplomatic favours. Given the maximum manpower reserves (now 241,000) and monthly recruitment of 2,130, this request was (for once) agreed to in the hope it might speed up the recovery of an important ally.

In April 1768, four wars continued to be fought. Three of them have already been discussed: the Deccani-Atjehan conflict, of close interests to Frisian ambitions in Sumatra, will be discussed separately below.

At that time, Friesland was once again ranked fifth among the world’s great powers, as their other competitors had all embraced industrialisation by then. Turkey remained the clear top hegemon, with Russia a strong second. Next came a group of four relatively close powers, including Friesland, with Aragon a significant way back leading the ‘bottom quartile’ of the ‘G8’.

Russia’s gobbling up of small bordering countries continued in East Asia as well, when the remote state of Kamchandals was attacked in August 1768. Its annexation would not even take a year to complete.

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Aceh and Malacca

The Deccan Empire had declared war on Aceh in May 1764, dragging in Malacca, Pattani and Pahang to help their defence. This had interested Friesland, which had long-term designs on expanding in Sumatra and had begun preparations to intervene against Aceh, while using diplomacy to try to shift Malacca, the major local power in that region, away from its alliance with Aceh.

By May 1765, a year of the conflict had seen the Deccani making relatively slow progress. The Andamans had been occupied but Friesland had limited and intermittent visibility of other Deccani movements through passing Frisian and subject trade protection fleets.

In August, Friesland withdrew its diplomat from Malacca for re-briefing. By October he was back in country, having changed the mission from relation improvement to currying favours in order to later build trust.

A sighting was made of two large Deccan armies (around 90,000 men each) working their way down the Bengal coast (modern day Thailand) towards Malaya. No attempt was (or would be) made by the Deccani to directly invade their war objective in Aceh at the tip of northern Sumatra.

A massive Deccani army was making its slow progress towards the Malayan peninsula in the first half of 1765. [Leonardo AI, Phoenix 1.0]

Between April 1766 and September 1768, the Deccan tide began to sweep over Aceh’s allies. Pattani was besieged in April 1766 and peaced out by 7 June 1767. They then worked through Gerik before engaging in a large battle against Malacca in Penang a week later, which saw one of Malacca’s two major field armies completely destroyed.

Another major battle was fought in Kelantan in July, with Malacca’s other field army and a contingent from Pahang also destroyed, rendering both virtually defenceless from that point onwards. Kelantan and Perak had been occupied by the end of August 1768 and the massive Deccan fleet was lurking off Singapore.

As that was happening, Frisian preparations for their own adventure were gradually coming together. Their two FEI colonial armies were posted at the northern and southern ends of their Sumatran holdings, as was the main FEI battle fleet. On 21 August 1766 the new fortress in Pagarruyung (on the border with Aceh) was completed.

In June 1768 an assessment was made of war prospects against Aceh. At that point, Pattani had pulled out of the Deccan war but remained allied to Aceh and Malacca had yet to lose the crushing Battle of Kelantan. Three mothballed forts on the coast of south-east Borneo were brought back into full operation that day.

On 9 July, a mercenary army was raised in Pagarruyung to begin training up, which it had largely completed two months later. In the event of war, it would lead the advance to take the main casualties of attrition or battle, with the Frisian regulars as back-up.

And in early September the battle fleet split from the transports to head north, ready for interdiction and blockade duties. All was in almost in readiness should the President ‘pull the trigger’.

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Domestic Affairs

Given the extension of the period of (comparative) peace in the Federal Republic beyond 1764, much of the focus and occurrences in Friesland remained at home and in the colonies. With manpower reserves high and increasing unrest in Niger, a rebellion was provoked in Yola in July 1765 to bring these trouble-makers out into the open so they could be crushed.

The increase in numbers this provocation caused was of little concern to the Frisian Niger authorities. The battle to destroy the rebels lasted only two days.

There was a good deal of activity on the religious front during these years. A scandal in early May 1766 was caused by the supposedly allied Scandinavians bribing a Frisian cardinal to defect, simultaneously causing a damaging rise in corruption.

While offended, the Federal Republic’s otherwise strong and long-lived alliance with its northern neighbours was not seriously endangered. Especially not while the anti-Frisian coalition remained unaffected.

Military research had recently been boosted and the offensive ideas group completed, allowing military technology to come ‘up to speed’ by June 1766. With the development of cuirassiers, shock and manoeuvre were increased and improved cavalry and infantry organisation became available.

Cavalry was updated first, so both arms were not undergoing reform and reorganisation at the same time. Latin Chasseur regiments were chosen.

Cultural life and national prestige were also enhanced with the hiring of a court painter in June 1766, with President Jongstra’s strong negotiating skills allowing a significant of the cost.

In the colonies, the Frisian Company in the East Indies was renowned for its buccaneering commercial methods. Frisian factors were given full reign to exploit this, though the current corruption levels might have benefited from a crackdown. It seems the President was quite happy to see shady practices flourish if the economy benefited.

In Niger, another revolt was provoked in October 1766, this time Kanem Bornuan separatists were the victims of another harsh crackdown by star general Geldulf Sems.

Diplomatic technology advancement had come back in reach by early 1767 and this was used to introduce midshipman cadets into the Republican Navy. Morale was boosted and the additional maintenance impost was easy enough for the rich Frisian economy to manage. Being so advanced in diplomatic development also meant Frisian trade and anti-corruption capacity would be boosted for decades to come.

In February 1767, the infantry was also reformed, with impulse infantry adopted to give offensive operations a small boost compared to the more defensive infantry square formations.

From January 1765 to August 1768, the Frisian armies in Sumatra would see five new infantry and five artillery regiments added as the force limit increased over than time.

More technological advances, this time in administration, came in March 1767 with the Rights of Man being embraced in revolutionary-leaning Republican Friesland. With the heavy focus on diplomacy and espionage, that ideas group was adopted, while being ahead of its time again allowed Friesland bonuses for many years to come, this time in productive efficiency and anti-corruption efforts.

In April 1767, Friesland’s considerable influence in the Vatican allowed a Papal Blessing to be granted to benefit army morale and boost national prestige. Just the following month, a new Pope Innocentius X was elected – a pro-Castilian candidate.

After staying out of the last election, with a new blessing in place and some influence still retained, a strong play was made to make Friesland a leading early contender to control the next Pope.

From June 1767, another large building program was begun to help use the massive treasury savings (over 34,000 ducats). Directed at military expansion, two new conscription centres and nine grand shipyards were commenced. Then in August, three town halls, three stock exchanges 14 cathedrals were commissioned – in all available provinces except the isolated outposts of Thubaqt and Grain Coast.

October saw the end of the last Landtag law for the Quartering of Troops. From those available this time, President Jongstra chose to introduce a bill to reduce trade regulation so as to boost trade efficiency and power.

With 70% initial support in the Landtag, only another four members had to be ‘persuaded’. As usual, this was done in a way that avoided impacting the military as far as possible. The positive effect on trade income was soon clear.

More building was funded in November 1767, with seven counting houses started (again, in all provinces available except for Thubaqt and Grain Coast). These were all upgrades from existing improvements. Even after all this recent spending, the Frisian coffers still held over 30,000 ducats.

In December, a new cardinal in Utrecht brought Friesland’s loyal Princes of the Church back up to four. Although by then, the Curia itself and other Catholic powers had come in to influence the next Papal selection, diluting Frisian influence from its early high point.

At home though, the Clerical Estate saw its influence decline.

By February 1768, the Frisian economy was still generating healthy surpluses but the growth in corruption was eating into revenues. Despite this, a full effort on anti-corruption policies had seen this brought back considerably under control just two months later, with cost reductions adding 60 ducats to the monthly bottom line.

Image: a Frisian official weighs up the pros and cons of accepting a ‘confidential management overhead for miscellaneous services rendered’ from one of the many Frisian trading magnates in Leeuwarden, February 1768. [Leonardo AI, Phoenix 1.0]

In April 1768, a review of the Republican Navy showed it was the second largest in the world as measured by overall ship strength, though it had the best morale of any navy. However, its fourth ranking in heavy and light warships and the recent boost in force limit generated by the completion of the new grand shipyards allowed a wave of new construction.

Fourteen new vessels were commissioned. Overall, the navy would build 20 new ships from 1765-68, all in Europe: 13 three-deckers and seven heavy frigates.

In May 1768, cutting edge Frisian economic thinking led to Hendrik Stijl writing the seminal work The Wealth of Nations. Frisian prestige was boosted enormously by seeing the work spread throughout the world, bringing many benefits to the Federal Republic across the board.

Next, with the Coalition still fully in force, Frisian expansionist ambitions would now be turned to Sumatra, where local developments seemed to be leading to a major colonial adventure. After all, many of the other great powers seemed to be doing the same and Friesland did not want to miss out!

Bullfilter · Apr 17, 2025

Chapter 66: Never Try, Never Know (1768-71)

‘Never Try, Never Know’ - an emblematic Sumatran motto. Friesland adopted this attitude when they declared war against Aceh in 1768. [Leonardo AI, Phoenix 1.0]

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The Mexican War of Independence against Portugal

After over eight years, the Mexican War of Independence that had rapidly expanded to South America, then involved Aragon and Britain and finally Turkey, came to a disastrous end for the colonial power in March 1769.

The great majority of Portugal’s colonial empire was granted independence. In addition, they lost three of their home provinces including the capital itself and Porto, plus islands in the Atlantic and Pacific. Britain also picked up a province in South America. It was a massive humiliation for the once-great power, reduced now to a second-tier kingdom.

Portuguese Australia was the only significant (though the smallest in strength) self-governing colony they retained, which remained on par in power to Frisian Australia.

From April to May 1769, the six former colonies in the Americas all renamed themselves as they established their independent governments and national identities. We will take a closer look at these new countries and their diplomatic alignments at another time. Because by then, Friesland was involved in a war of its own on the other side of the world.

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Other Foreign Wars and Diplomacy

In Africa, another small independent country was swallowed up by a large neighbour in the Castilian conquest of Zulu from March 1769 to January 1771. The only surprise was it took that long for Castile to annex them.

Dai Viet sought to ‘cleanse heresy’ from Jarai in June 1769, but that war had saw little apparent progress over the next couple of years.

Turkey decided to see if it could spread the revolution to Yemen in July 1769 but in doing so drew Somalia – quite a strong regional power – into the conflict. Despite Turkey’s great superiority in numbers, this conflict would also extend into 1771.

Smarting from its terrible defeat to Mexico and its allies, Portugal decided to pick on a former large power that had fallen on even tougher times. Their holy war to annex the last couple of Moroccan provinces in West Africa took slightly less than a year to complete from July 1769. Portuguese Northern Africa was now their largest directly ruled Portuguese overseas territory.

Ayutthaya had taken advantage of Shu weakness following successive losses to Russia in the mid-18th century to launch a war in July 1763 to claim the Mandate of Heaven from the Shu Empire, now in eclipse after having briefly united China after claiming the title earlier from the now defunct Shun Empire, in August 1769.

After six years Ramaracha VII Chet Ton succeeded in this bid, expanding their enclave in south-east China and forcing the already weakened Shu to release four small independent states into the bargain. The Shu had never been able to consolidate and safeguard their gains in time to become an enduring regional power.

In southern Africa, the remnant of independent Kongo would be claimed by its neighbour Luba after a brief war in 1769-70. Muslim Luba would have been at a disadvantage to Christian Kongo if not for their alliance with Kilwa and Sofala. Kongo was fully annexed in March 1770.

Just a few months after their release from their Shu overlords, the small and briefly independent Jin state – which had barely begun to raise their own army – was invaded by the Russian behemoth. Ayutthaya had done nothing to protect it. The fact it took even 11 months for them to be annexed must have been solely due to the siege work required.

There was good news for Friesland in February 1770 when France – the largest power in the Coalition – pulled out of the agreement. Should it now come to blows between Friesland and whatever allies might support them against this group, the odds would now be far more favourable for the Federal Republic.

Another of the ex-Shu micro-states, Hsenwi (neighbouring Bengal) was attacked by the latter on 18 March 1770. Like Jin, their army only consisted of a single regiment while Bengal (though much reduced by Deccan encroachment in recent years) mustered 20,000 men. The war would extend into 1771, but only just.

Next came another post-Shu aftershock, with the small state of Miao attacking their neighbour Yi in April 1770. Miao may only field five regiments, but as yet Yi fielded none at all. This conflict too extended into early 1771 without resolution.

By January 1771, the Turkish-Yemen war continued, with Turkey on top and likely to succeed in their aims.

The Revolution was now spreading quite extensively in northern Africa, while nine more provinces in Friesland embraced it from July 1769 to May 1770. Scandinavia also had a considerable Revolutionary spread, as did Franconia and Pomerania. If revolutionaries seized power there, would the long-standing alliance with Friesland be maintained? The Frisian President was unsure.

At that time, Asia remained the target of most of the conflicts still in progress, which included the slow-burning war Japan had launched against Shu in 1767 – but seemed to be losing despite the distractions and defeats Shu had suffered since their grand plan to reunite China had come asunder under Russian pressure.

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The Frisian-Atjehan Imperialist War

The deliberate build-up to hostilities over recent months culminated in a Frisian declaration of war on 28 September 1768. Aceh’s allies Malacca and Pahang, now fully preoccupied with their war against the mighty Deccan Empire, did not join in. Only the minor Pattani state in Malaya, who had already been defeated by the Deccani, heeded their ally’s call.

Despite this, Aceh had been virtually untouched by Deccan military action, which had focused on its allies. They retained a sizeable army and navy while of course only a fraction of Friesland’s Leger was based in the FEI, though it had been built up recently. Friesland also called in some favours with Brunei to gain their support. After all this time, the local alliance would be put to good use.

On the day war was declared, two Pattani frigates were ambushed by the 43 frigates of the Frisian Malaccan trade protection Vloot van Surabaya in the Palawan Passage. One was captured and the other sunk after a three-day action. The Independent Army mercenaries also began marching north into Aceh from Pagarruyung.

As they marched up the west Sumatran coast, on 23 October the FEI battle fleet Vloot van Demak was sent north to begin a blockade of Aceh’s ports in the north – and to ‘spot’ for the army as it advanced. On 31 October, the regulars of the 2nd Army marched from Padang following the mercenaries but timed not to overlap and thus worsen attrition on the march.

By mid-November the blockade was in place and Atjehan army deployments identified, the Independent Army had arrived in Barus to commence a siege and the battle fleet was used to fire a barrage on the fortress. 2nd Army was still not out of Padang.

Batak fell to the 2nd Army on 2 January, then they had moved back south to occupy Pariaman after the Independent Army had been reinforced to roughly match the Atjehan army facing them. On 3 February, the main Bruneian army had landed in southern Sumatra and began marching up the east coast through neutral Malacca and Pahang.

From the end of March to late May 1769, the next phase of the Aceh campaign developed. The fleet had picked up as many of the 2nd Army regiments as it could (33) and headed around to outflank the Atjehan defences by landing in the north-east. However, this had caused the main enemy army to shadow them, with landings aborted on 8 and 17 April before the army was disembarked on 15 May further south, before heading back up the coast towards Deli.

Pariaman had been occupied on 1 May by a smaller detachment of troops left behind when 2nd Army sailed. These men then moved up to Batak to be ready to reinforce the Independent Army should they be attacked in Barus. 2nd Army arrived in Langkat on 27 May.

By late June the Bruneians had arrived in the north Sumatra, moving through the recently occupied Langkat to the next province of Peureulak. Friesland was happy for mercenaries and allies to take up the forward positions, either of which could be reinforced if Aceh attacked. The battle fleet had returned to the west coast to resume that blockade and spot for the troops in Barus.

The other regular Frisian army that had been stationed in southern Sumatra, Leger van Bengukulu, had made the long march up the east coast during the year and arrived in Deli in early September, joining the queue waiting for a break in Aceh’s fortress line. The siege of Peureulak was dragging on with little progress and the battle fleet, which had redeployed, were unable to assist their ally with a barrage.

This state of affairs persisted for the next year, with no ground attacks by Aceh as the two sieges gradually made headway. Pahang peaced out to the Deccani for reparations on 26 July 1770, who remained at war with Malacca and Aceh. The same day the 2nd Army re-embarked to be ferried back to the west coast, where the siege of Barus was advancing more quickly.

Barus finally fell on 15 August after a mammoth siege of 641 days. And the Independent Army mercenaries vented their frustration by indulging in a vicious sack of the city. In response, Friesland simply rounded up some scapegoats and had them executed, rather than sacrificing ducats by going too hard or losing army professionalism and prestige plus complete devastation of a city they intended to bring into the Republic.

The Independent Army was soon sent away from the scene of their crime, teaming up with the recently arrived 2nd Army to advance north with enough numbers to take on the entire Atjehan field army in a decisive battle. The made it to Gayo on 30 August and kept going up to Kelantan, where the enemy awaited.

The Frisian rate of march varied slightly between the two armies, with the troops of 2nd Army arriving in Kutaraja on 8 September to be outnumbered for two days until the Independent Army reinforced on the 10th. In the final tally, after both sides had sent in all available reinforcements, 87,000 Frisian soldiers (regulars and mercenaries) confronted 61,000 Atjehans.

Despite some inspired leadership from both the Atjehan generals who commanded at different times, Wiege Kamstra’s superior skills and numbers offset any disadvantage sufficiently to win a complete victory in just ten days. The entire Atjehan field army was killed or captured, for the loss of around 15,000 attackers. After this, it was a matter of mopping up. The navy bombarded the fort a Kutaraja on 22 September while the 2nd Army headed out to occupy the rest of Aceh’s lands.

The Atjehan fleet had not been in port when Kutaraja fell, having slipped away earlier. It reappeared on 12 October off the Coast of Sumatra, where the trade protection Vloot van Surabaya ran into them while on patrol. In a 12-day engagement, the presence of Atjehan heavy ships and galleys was enough to see the Frisian fleet of entirely light ships defeated, though it actually contained more warships than the enemy had.

After eight Frisian and two Atjehan frigates were sunk, V.v. Surabaya was able to escape to port. But vengeance followed soon after as the battle fleet V.v. Demak had been following up. They missed being able to help their comrades by just two days, Kai Barents falling on the unfortunate Atjehans just two days after the first battle had ended. The result was not pretty with four Atjehan vessels captured and 23 sunk. A reduced V.v. Surabaja would resume trade protection duties on 9 November while the rest of ships repaired.

Malacca begged peace from the Deccani on 13 October, lucky enough to suffer only pillaging and reparation payments (though over 1,000 ducats) rather than losing any territory. The Deccani now only remained at war with Aceh itself – which it is believed they had only ever attacked in the Andaman Islands.

On 2 November Gayo fell to Friesland and the fort of Peureulak to Brunei a month later. Then the war came close to a close when the Atjehan capital of Kutaraja was taken by Friesland on 9 December.

It took until the new year of 1771 for Aceh to finally agree peace with the Deccan Empire – predictably losing the Andamans and some money but nothing else. Their allies had been devastated militarily in the process, however.

On 20 January 1771 a diplomat was withdrawn from counter-espionage against Franconia to transmit Friesland’s surrender demands to Aceh. They would be harsh. Peureulak would have been ceded to Brunei for their assistance, however they indicated they did not want it. The temporary overextension and then diplomatic impact on local powers of the land grab would be huge but only very minor in Europe. The Frisians would therefore demand everything they could!

The terms were accepted on 23 January heralding a complete victory for the Federal Republic and the largest single expansion of the FEI in decades, with seven provinces seized and Aceh eviscerated as a local power. Frisian casualties had been moderate, many absorbed by the mercenaries (who were immediately discharged) and the rest no great challenge for the healthy manpower reserve. The war had lasted less than two-and-a-half years.

All seven new restive provinces were started on the road to being cored straight away as Frisian administrators poured in.

The Frisian presence in Sumatra (‘Frisian Malaya’) was now significant and the Burghers of Leeuwarden would no doubt aim to make the whole island part of the greater FEI as soon as could be managed.

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Domestic and Espionage Matters

Most diplomatic work in the period involved either espionage or counter-espionage, especially in France (both) and Franconia. On 28 November another French spy ring was exposed, reducing their network to just 25 (a quarter of its maximum size a few years back).

In February 1769, with the war in Aceh inflating combined army, navy and fort expenses to around 530 ducats per month, the monthly surplus was still running at 188 ducats: still very sustainable (trade alone was providing 539 ducats per month).

The first espionage idea was unlocked in August, boosting Frisian claim fabrication capabilities.

A brief uprising in Rano in Frisian Niger lasted for just four days until 7 December, when the rebels rose with the 33 regiments of L.v. Idah already waiting for them in the province.

On 22 December, a Frisian agent was exposed in France, reducing the network to 50. Three days later a Franconian agent was exposed in Friesland (their network to 50). The spy effort in France was suspended soon after with it being pointless to bother, the diplomat sent instead to Aceh in January 1770 to assist with spying behind the lines.

In March 1770, the monthly budget surplus had reduced somewhat to 174 ducats due (on balance) to increased army maintenance costs.

In June 1770, a Sunni Muslim ‘rising star’, was brought into in the diplomatic service despite the objections of some critics. The wisdom of this hire was soon confirmed. Just a few months later the old Foreign Minister died and Popetet Japisk was selected for the role: he was a skilled spymaster and very grateful, seeking only half the ‘going rate’ in sign-on fee and salary of his equally skilled rival for the post.

The clergy, long the lesser of the two estates in Friesland, got a boost in influence in September 1770 with an educational initiative that would also promote innovation.

For reasons not explained at the time, trade income had taken dive by December 1770 (down to 442 ducats per month) as war costs remained high and corruption-fighting absorbed 73 ducats. This left the monthly surplus at just 27 ducats – the lowest for many years and another reason an end to the war was soon sought.

By January 1771, the espionage crackdown in France was over and the spy mission there renewed, where the strength had sunk to 37. Later that month, around 2,100 ducats were spent on four new cathedrals, a stock exchange and a conscription centre in various locations mainly around the colonies of the Republic. This still left around 35,000 ducats in the treasury vaults.

After the peace with Aceh was concluded and army maintenance reduced, the surplus only recovered to 134 ducats. Corruption was still taking a sizeable hit from the bottom line but would hopefully reduce fairly quickly. And fort maintenance would soon be revisited, with more mothballing likely. And there would also be a review to see if it could be discovered what was affecting trade income [though it could just be the expiry of some modifier that I didn’t keep track of].

The State still controlled around two thirds of the Republic’s land holdings. The Burghers remained the most influential of the two estates, though Clerical influence had recently made a bit of a comeback. Both seemed loyal enough.

Bullfilter · May 3, 2025

Chapter 67: Watch and Wait (1771-74)

‘The President Considers’, a portrait of the President of the Federal Republic of Friesland, March 1772. [Bing AI, DALL-E3]

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Somalian Wars

For some years Somalia had been a growing regional power in East Africa, even managing to come out on top of the Ottomans in their war back in 1740-45. In July 1769 they had been dragged into a war in defence of their ally Yemen against Revolutionary Turkey: that conflict was not going so well by early 1771 when the other regional contender Kilwa pounced on the distracted and weakened Somalis.

Along the way, Somalia had at least managed to force isolated Turkish ally Mombasa out of that war in July 1771. But Somalia was forced into a humiliating peace in December 1772 and Yemen capitulated five days later, made to pledge their loyalty as a vassal to their new Turkish masters.

By October 1774 Kilwa had occupied large swathes of Somali territory and was firmly on top in the war for regional dominance.

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Asia

East Asia remained a hotbed of conflict between old and new countries throughout the early 1770s. Often the prey were small (either reduced or newly formed) states beset by opportunistic larger neighbours.

An example of this was Bengal’s attack on the newly released ex-Shu state of Hsenwi in March 1770. The minnow’s resistance did not even last a year as the declining Bengal absorbed a target it could indeed pick on.

Similarly, another declining power, the once-significant Delhi, was able to peacefully vassalise Limbuwan in September 1771.

The rising power of Dai Viet had another gain in January 1772 when it forced Champasak to become a vassal.

More consolidation followed a couple of months later with the annexation of Muang Phuan by the growing Vietnamese state, who also had some powerful allies in their war against the small but stubborn country of Jarai, who had the new Chinese Emperor Ramarcha VIII of Ayutthaya on their side.

It would take another year for Jarai to finally be subdued, with the precursor being the humbling of Ayutthaya in January 1773, who had to yield much of their core empire in a devastating peace that must surely have weakened Ramarcha’s recently acquired Mandate of Heaven.

Jarai lost one of its two provinces to Dai Viet in March 1773, by which time only four other wars were in progress around the world. Two were old Asian conflicts, the ongoing Kilwan-Somalian War and a newer one that will be discussed later between Portugal and Songhai.

The great power of the Deccan Empire, for immediate reasons not clear to historians (other than it being the stronghold of Hinduism), changed its name to Hindustan on 22 April 1773. It remained the third most powerful nation in the world after Turkey and Russia.

Less than six months later it was flexing its muscles again with an imperialist grab for Assam and its allies U and Bengal, with Dai Viet and their vassal Champasak as allies. It of course dwarfed its enemies as the Bengalis were again reminded that ‘there is always a bigger fish’.

Assam had managed (through Bengal) to occupy some territory in southern Champasak by October 1774, but U and Assam had both been occupied by then, as had most of Bengal. The war was nearing its inevitable end.

An old war did finish in November 1773 – that between Japan and Shu. Japan had misjudged its strength and failed in its bid to slice territory off the depleted Shu, who actually managed to take some land in Taiwan from Japan, forcing them to release a new microstate of Kikuchi and annul their alliance with Ayutthaya.

The ever-voracious Russians soon decided Kikuchi was a fresh opportunity for an imperialist expansion and was at war with Kikuchi (and through them Japan) by May of the following year. By October, the Russians were just beginning to edge ahead in the calculations.

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American Surprise

Britain had greatly aided the rebels in the independence war that had seen all of Portugal’s American colonies liberated in March 1769. By February 1773, Britain was supporting independence in French Canada and was allied with Cuba. Britain and France were by now implacable opponents for that and other reasons.

If another large war was to break out in the Americas, many pundits thought (and the Frisians certainly hoped) that in would be in the two disaffected French colonies. In the interim, the calculus for a potential Frisian-British alliance remained essentially unchanged: for Friesland, it would mean dropping both Scandinavia and Savoy as allies.

It was therefore a big surprise – with big implications – when on 19 June 1773 Britain announced it had declared war on Chile with Rio de la Plata as their ostensible war target. Meaning erstwhile British ally Cuba was now an enemy, along with former friends Mexico, with Castile involved as Britain’s ally. Colonial bust-ups in both North and South America were certain to follow.

The break-down of infantry numbers on either side gave a good indication of relative army strengths, while the British-Castilian alliance would have a significant advantage in total naval power.

Early developments, other than many sea battles and blockades, included British Colombia occupying Cuban Trinidad on 6 August and Castile taking Mexican Oporto (one of their ‘reverse colonies’ in Portugal) on 10 September. By early October, Mexico was making significant inroads into Castilian California, with British Colombian Mosquito occupied by late November [net warscore for GB -3], though it had been retaken by the following April.

Lisbon fell to the Castilians on Christmas Day 1773 but to balance that, both Mexico and Chile were occupying most of Castilian California by June 1774. As stock was taken of the situation on 6 October, British-Castilian gains (from battles, blockades and territorial gains in Mexican Portugal, and Northern Mexico and Cuba outweighed losses in Peru and Castilian California to see the British marginally ahead and what would doubtless be a protracted war.

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Diplomacy, Espionage and Revolution

After the end of the Atjehan War, Friesland had been hoping to spark a colonial war between Frisian Australia and its Portuguese counterpart. But it seemed not to be an option for Frisian Australia to do so. [Any help in explaining how this mechanic is meant to work and why Portuguese Australia does not appear as an option would be appreciated.]

A declaration of war would involves taking in both Kilwa (a threat to the South African colony) and in addition to Portugal itself. But worst of all, Aragon remained a Portuguese ally and there seemed little prospect of forcing them (or indeed Kilwa) to abandon that link, or to force Portugal to do so either. For now, this frustrated Friesland’s preferred next colonial expansion.

The trajectory of Frisian diplomacy from 1771-73 moved from an emphasis on spying and counter-espionage through a number of phases. Due to a legislative policy change (explained later in more detail) an additional diplomat was available from September 1771 as this area continued to be a key focus of Frisian attention during this period.

A rise in liberty desire in New Friesland took them over the threshold to 52% in December 1771. The President swiftly reacted by lowering tariffs again (-5% LD) and then trading favours for trust (+5% trust for -2% LD, down to 45%). Some change was forced by the breaking of spy rings in France and Franconia that made spying there temporarily impractical) to improving relations and currying favour with friends (such as Britain) and – sometimes – hostile powers, Castile notable among them.

The defensive coalition against Friesland evolved over this period. Not surprisingly, Malacca led a regional group of small powers in reaction to the massive recent land grab in Aceh, with another four countries joining between March and December 1771. This was offset a little by Lusatia and Trent pulling out of the European group in 1773-74.

Portugal declared war on Songhai (and thus their ally Air) in December 1771. Another look was taken by Friesland to see if the situation could be exploited – either in Africa or indeed in Australia. As a first step, both Frisian Nigerian armies were position near the Songhai-Air border, in case some opportunity for mischief arose.

But the same diplomatic problems weighed against intervening against Portugal, who quickly shipped a lot of troops into the battle area, fully occupying Songhai and making encroachments into Air by January 1773. This also mitigated against a Frisian intervention against the defenders. Air still had almost 100,000 men in the field and it would be their territory Friesland would have to attack to make any gains. Instead, they sat back and hoped the Africans could inflict some casualties on the colonial invaders.

Another idea was to try to engineer a ‘defensive’ war with Portugal by seeking to enforce a white peace in the hope that either Portugal would be thwarted or became upset enough to declare war on Friesland over this interference. But relations with Songhai were too poor to allow Friesland to act as ‘honest brokers’ in the matter.

Ironically, relations were far better with Portugal, who once again offered alliance in February 1774 and were again rebuffed: not only did the Federal Republic have designs on them, but it was felt they brought too much diplomatic baggage with them to risk it.

Renewed diplomatic engagement was also pursued, as seen above.

In September 1772, a potentially embarrassing incident with Castile – long the reluctant target of Frisian relationship-building – was turned to diplomatic advantage and prestige gain. To have done otherwise would also have antagonised Castile allies – notably Britain and Aragon (France would have simply been just as hostile as ever).

Another mildly favourable development came when Frisian ally Savoy became the seat of the Holy Roman Empire in June 1773, maintaining it after another succession election a year later. Though it was uncertain how much potential advantage (or hazard) this introduced into regional politics.

And another Frisian ally, Bavaria, later annexed the one-province Revolutionary Regensburg in March 1774.

Britain and New Friesland remained important targets of friendly diplomacy, while more Franconian interference prompted increased counter-espionage against the, in August 1774. The resumption of spying in France and Franconia was anticipated soon, now that the year of ‘cooling off’ for those two operations had expired.

The revolution spread steadily through the European part of the Federal Republic, with another four provinces taking it up in 1772-73. By 6 October 1774 it covered almost all of European Friesland, but only just over half of the entire Republic, much of which was constituted by non-autonomous colonies, especially in Niger and the FEI. Nearer home, the revolution remained widespread in Scandinavia, Franconia, Bavaria and Pomerania but had not yet led to further regime change in any major country.

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Domestic Issues

There would be moderate naval growth, mainly in trade-related frigate building, during 1771-74. Ten frigates were laid down in FEI ports in June 1771, to help replace the losses incurred in the recent war when the Malaccan trade fleet was ambushed.

Current policies were reviewed in September of that year. Most that had been in place and left to drift for some decades were changed in the areas of administration and diplomacy. Though the search for vassals (as opposed to subjects, which I assume are a different beast) went on with no candidates having yet been brought to this. The current military policy was left in place.

Another long-neglected area, cultural policy, was addressed soon after with Javanese culture promoted to accepted status. This allowed the temple of Borobudur in Kotagede to be upgraded: and with such a replete treasury, why not?

In this time, the lapsing of previous bonuses meant the land force limit remained a lot lower than the current force (390 regiments, 379 LFL) in October 1771, meaning 12.12 ducats extra was being paid in monthly maintenance. At this time, the Frisian Army had the best morale in the world (8.89), but ranked far lower in discipline (110% vs the top of 129%).

With liberty desire still very low in Frisian Australia, the President gave a rare win to the mercantilists by restricting trade there. This was unpopular but remained far from posing a real security threat.

During this period of watching and waiting, the end of an era came on 18 March 1772 with the passing of long-serving and successful President Albrecht Jongstra. He had fought four major wars, three of them imperialist in aim, variously described as epic, triumphant, bloody and brutal. He had abolished slavery in the Federal Republic and added 11 new colonial provinces.

As usual, the power-brokers of Leeuwarden considered the last three candidates and decided to let the lottery decide the election. The bureaucratic candidate Siemen Martena emerged the winner and it soon emerged he also brought a keen mind for intrigue to the job which would help efforts to build foreign spy networks in due course.

Perhaps all the previous building activity (and some continuing, not documented in this chapter) led to the architectural boom that benefited Frisian advancement after a substantial investment was made in June 1772.

The following month, a review of trade in the English Channel showed that current trade power in the node had slipped to 44%. Five more frigates were ordered to help boost the trade fleet there to 66 ships (naval force limit to 340/341). By the end of 1773 the share had risen to 52%.

Frisian likelihood of controlling the next Pope sat at 8% in October 1772, equal with five other nations – including the despised French and Franconians. More influence was invested to once more edge Friesland ahead of the pack. [A question: does the number of Cardinals matter or have any impact on either the Papacy or anything else useful?]

A small discovery in late November 1772 allowed new military technology to be researched, bringing it up to the same standard as the other two branches. Defence in depth allowed for the introduction of the flying battery to the Leger, a good improvement in fire and shock over the royal mortar which had been the mainstay of the artillery for many years.

Another large investment was made just after Christmas 1772 when price gouging came to the fore as an issue of concern. Not wishing to either deeply offend the Burghers nor to provoke a huge popular uprising, the government stepped in to pay for a bread ration to calm the situation.

Dortmund gained a seat in the expanding Landtag in April 1773, while in September a loss of stability was averted and a large windfall regained for the treasury – at the expense of republican tradition, which would recover in time – with the old whipping boys of the nobility blamed and much of their assets seized.

A revolt had been brewing in northern Sumatra ever since the end of the Atjehan War and it was allowed to come to a head in November 1773. The nearby L.v. Bengkulu, commanded by one of Friesland’s best generals, was on hand to quickly put them down. Though after quite a stiff fight at the Battle of Pasai.

One more frigate was laid down in Leeuwarden later that month, bringing the navy up to its force limit of 341 vessels. January-February 1774 saw all the Sumatran provinces become Frisian cores, removing the considerable overextension that had affected the Republic for the last three years.

Next came the unlocking of the second espionage idea – with state propaganda to ameliorate the aggressive expansion impact of future conquests.

By June 1774 the economy was booming, with 41,000 ducats in the treasury and net monthly surplus of 295 ducats – nearly 500 ducats in trade being the largest component of income, almost 200 from production and 110 from tax.

More helpful news came from a good harvest in September.

And Friesland remained fifth in the great power rankings, not too far behind France and Hindustan. Turkey and Russia remained the dominant world superpowers. Could a takedown of France be achieved in the coming years? President Martena contemplated his options - but only in private.

Bullfilter · May 12, 2025

Chapter 68: Conclave (1774-76)

The Princes of the Catholic Church met on 29 April 1776 to elect a new Pope.

An eerie parallel to what was going on in our present time. Another coincidence: the game date was 29 April … as was the actual date the session was played! You can see why I finished the session then and decided to use it as the end point of a shorter chapter.

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The British-Chilean Imperialist War

Britain had declared war on Chile in June 1773 with the ostensible aim of taking their capital, Rio de la Plata. This dragged Cuba and Mexico in as Chile’s allies, while Castile backed Britain, bring in their respective large colonies in the Americas. On 8 December 1774, Castile completed the conquest of the Algarve, the last of the Mexican ‘reverse colonies’ in Portugal it had won after the War of Independence.

At that time, Chile and Mexico had occupied Castilian California and was working up the West Coast to Pacifico Norte. Meanwhile, it seemed Castile and Britain had sent forces across country via French Canada (with whom they had military access) to take some Mexico’s remote northern provinces.

At the end of April 1776, a large chunk of Pacifico Norte had been taken by Mexico and Chile, while the Castilians and British had been expelled from northern Mexico. Britain, which seem to have little realistic hope of taking and holding the Chilean capital, was now somewhat behind in the war.

In South America, Chile had occupied much of the small enclave of British Peru.

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Other Foreign Wars

Kilwa had declared war on Somalia back in March 1771 at a time the Somalis were already in trouble trying to defend Yemen from Revolutionary Turkey. In August 1775, Kilwa enforced peace on Somalia, taking four of its southern provinces for themselves as an enclave. Additionally, Somalia was made to release six small states in their north, which security guarantees provided by Kilwa.

Just three months later, Kilwa may have been regretting that last clause of the treaty, as the Turks attacked one of them, Revolutionary Jimma. This in turn brought in the weakened Somalis into another war against Turkey, along with Kilwan ally Sofala and another two of the new revolutionary states.

The multiplicity of new revolutionary states (in green, below) spawned out of northern Somalia in 1775. Clearly, being fellow revolutionaries was no protection against the rampant Turkish behemoth.

By February 1776, there were four wars in progress around the world. Of these, the Portuguese imperialist invasion of Songhai was nearing its end. The rest were still in their early stages, including the two we have already examined and the Russian attack on Kikuchi (in southern Japanese island of Kyushu) started in May 1774.

Illustration: a Japanese coloured lithograph print showing Russian infantry advancing and firing in Kyushu, c. 1776. [Leonardo AI, Phoenix 1.0. prompt only]

Just two days later, the growing expansionist regional power of Dai Viet was on the warpath again, cleansing heresy once more, this time in the small neighbouring state of Lan Na. The declining Ayutthaya and Kham were dragged in on Lan Na’s side, while the Vietnamese had the support of Asian superpower Hindustan.

In April 1776, around four-and-a-half years of warfare came to an end with Songhai and their more powerful allies Air made to bend the knee to Portugal, who were keen to recoup some of their huge colonial losses by conquering land in Africa. They had annexed and eliminated another former regional state and taken a wedge of land from Air as well.

In Asia, at the end of April 1776 one new and one old war continued with the impressive Dai Viet on top in their conflict but the Russians surprisingly slow to exert their undoubted might in Kikuchi, who had Japan's support.

[Image: Leonardo AI, Phoenix 1.0. prompt only]

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Diplomacy, Espionage and Revolution

The free city of Konstanz, by that time completely surrounded by Austria, would not accept vassalisation by Friesland. But they were willing to enter into an alliance, which the Federal Republic proposed as 1774 drew to a close. In truth, this was largely in the hope that Austria might be tempted to attack them, thus allowing Friesland a chance to crush their long-standing rivals without invoking the Coalition or other Austrian allies.

If not, then it may at least deter Austria from trying to absorb them.

The diplomatic delegation from Konstanz (right) being greeted by their Frisian hosts at the entrance to the State House in Leeuwarden, December 1774. [Bing AI, DALL-E3]

Early the following year, Friesland made a bigger diplomatic play in Asia when they sent diplomats, just back from trying to mend fences with Castile, to push the impressive Dai Viet just that little bit more to make them amenable to an alliance pact.

As that work was being done, the long-term mission to turn Castile from rival to friend continued though some trust-building engagement.

It took only a few months for the Vietnamese (who were not yet at war with Lan Na and its allies at that point) to agree to the alliance proposed by Friesland through their Governor-General in the FEI.

A painting to commemorate the meeting between the Frisian Governor General and Vietnamese Foreign Minister in Batavia, July 1775, to sign the alliance between the two powers. [Leonardo AI, Phoenix 1.0]

Then an oh-so-sweet moment came in April 1776 when a spymaster from the mortal enemy Franconian Theocracy defected to Friesland in a stunning diplomatic coup. His request for asylum and protection were enthusiastically accepted. He could well find himself employed in the future, as his skills were a good match for anticipated diplomatic tasks.

“I fart in your general direction!” A political cartoon from the Leeuwarden Herald, April 1776, showing a stout Frisian Yeoman ‘accidentally’ but gleefully breaking wind in the face of an outraged Franconian theocrat as he plays ‘the dice of diplomacy’ and wins. [Bing AI, DALL-E3]

In April 1776 Friesland remained placed a competitive fifth in the great powers list, with a diverse network of European and Asian allies.

The tiny ‘rump state’ of Revolutionary Bohemia had left the anti-Frisian Coalition in March 1776. The Federal Republic believed in had achieved a good balance for this hostile grouping in both continents.

As we saw earlier, the revolution had spread recently into East Africa and also further across North Africa. Revolutionary spirit remained strong in Franconia and so too in Friesland; though it had not spread any further there in the last year and a half.

Despite Frisian hopes to the contrary, the rampant liberty desire in France’s two North American colonies had once more failed to materialise into rebellion.

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Home Affairs

In November 1774, Friesland was heavily over its land force limit (as favourable modifiers fell away and few new buildings were available to extend it), at a noticeable – though sustainable- cost to the budget. Only future development and/or expansion were likely to increase the threshold as infrastructure options had been almost completely fulfilled.

A fusilier of the Frisian Leger, in Leeuwarden c. 1774. [Bing AI, DALL-E3. NB, Bing produced four pretty good versions from the first prompt, some of which I’ll be using in later chapters]

Trade continued to boom during this time, maintaining itself steadily through 1774-75. Only the increasing burden of supporting a large army was decreasing the monthly surplus. Though it was still healthy, while the treasury reserves continued to grow to over 42,000 ducats by March 1775.

Frisian merchants gather on the docks at Amsterdam while one of their cargo ships unloads in the harbour, c. 1775. [Leonardo AI, Phoenix 1.0]

Trade income had grown slightly by April 1776. Most of this same from the English Channel followed by Chesapeake Bay, where Frisian trade share dominated. The other source of direct income came from the Malacca trade hub, though there it was Malacca itself that held the largest share. Friesland’s other four merchants were employed directing trade onwards, principally to the English Channel.

NB: Please let me know if, prima facie, any of these merchants seem to be mis- or under-employed where they are. I’m still very sketchy on the details of how trade works in EU4.

Frisian research was ahead of the game in all three areas and innovation remained at 100%. Diplomatic research would continue to be slowed by the pursuit of espionage ideas, the next of which would boost Frisian spy network creation even further, while also assisting in sieges.

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The Papacy

In December 1774, Friesland’s cardinals exerted more influence within the Holy See as they sought to get one of their own into the role when the current Castilian Pontiff went for his personal interview with Saint Peter. This put them behind the Curia itself, but ahead of other competitors like Franconia, France, Austria and Portugal.

This campaign of influence was put to the test on 29 April 1776 when the old Pope passed away and the ancient Conclave process was initiated.

“Habemus Papam!” was the announcement from St Peters after white smoke was seen to rise from the small chimney above the Sistine Chapel. Pope Clemens X emerged onto the balcony to be greeted by a happy roar from the faithful assembled below.

The first ever native Frisian Pope had been elected – a joyous day for the Federal Republic.

Clemens pontificate would bring some specific benefits to Friesland itself. Two powers – of excommunication and to call crusades – would be subject to Frisian influence. Though it seemed neither of those might be of immediate practical use – especially against France, which the President would love to have ‘suggested’.

However, one duty that fell to Clemens was to pick a new Papal Bull. It might not only ameliorate any future Frisian (and of course other Catholic) aggressive expansion but should bring the option of launching a Crusade back into play.

Bullfilter · May 30, 2025

Chapter 69: Building the Colonies (1777-81)

The late 1770s and early 17803 saw a major development and building boom in the Federal Republic, especially in the Frisian East Indies and Niger. [Bing AI, DALL-E3]

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The Dai Viet-Lan Na Cleansing of Heresy War

Vietnam had launched another religious war on a neighbour, this time Lan Na with its allies Kham, Taungu and Ayutthaya in February 1776. They had the support of the Asian superpower Hindustan and two other minor powers. Kham was forced into a separate peace in September 1776 while Taungu was effectively annexed by Hindustan in November of the same year.

The one-sided conflict ended in July 1777 with Ayutthaya losing land in southern China and Indo-China to the Vietnamese and Kedah in Malaya going to Hindustan. Lan Na was forced to convert to Mahayana Buddhism.

At that time, the British-Chilean War was still going, as was the Russian attack on Kikuchi and Japan and the Turkish War against Jimma and its allies in the Horn of Africa.

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The British-Chilean Imperialist War

Britain, supported by Castile, had begun a war against Chile and its allies Cuba and Mexico in June. For the next three years had seen most of Castilian California and Pacifico Norte occupied by Mexico and Chile, the British objective seemingly distant and forlorn. But by March 1779 Britain had turned this around, with Castile occupying large swathes of Chile and southern Mexico.

By then, it was one of only three wars in progress around the world – internal revolutionary uprisings aside.

Just four months later Mexico had pulled out of the war, cutting a separate peace with Britain for a small reparation payment.

Chile and Cuba did not last much longer, with the peace treaty of 30 August 1779 forcing Cuba to cede Trinidad to British Colombia, with Britain gaining territory in Peru and northern Chile after six years of war.

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The Turkish-Jimma Annexation War

The aggressive Turkish expansion in the Horn of Africa had continued in November 1775 with a bid to annex the small revolutionary state of Jimma, one of many that had spawned from the defeat of Somalia in a previous war. This had roped in a range of Jimma’s allies who were forced to confront the might of Revolutionary Turkey. But Turkish ally Mombasa had been isolated and was eventually overwhelmed by the growing Kilwa in August 1777, forced to cede some land and leave the war.

By then, Jimma had been long occupied by the Turks, as had much of Somalia. In May 1778, Revolutionary Ethiopia was fully annexed by Turkey.

The once-powerful Somalia was next to capitulate, losing a large slab of its provinces to the Turks in August 1778 and now reduced to a minor regional footnote.

Due to Kilwa’s continued participation it took until November 1780 for Jimma to concede defeat. Its neighbours had been devastated and devoured just so Jimma could fail in its attempt to not become a Turkish vassal: their allies had suffered far more than they had for their commitment!

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Hindustani Wars

Hindustan-Dai Viet ‘cabal’ turned to the Shu Chinese kingdom as its next victim in February 1779. Shu had only partly recovered from its past losses against a range of rapacious enemies by this time and were vastly outnumbered by its principal opponents.

Shu resistance only lasted a year and a half, though their concessions were comparatively limited. They lost one isolated province on the border with Hindustan and were forced to give up their overlordship of Bengal: probably releasing them from some future damaging obligation they would have been unable to fulfil anyway.

The Hindustan-Dai Viet axis next bullied the minor Malayan state of Pattani just three months later, dragging Bengal and Malacca into what would doubtless be another fist-beating!

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Austrian-Swiss Counter-Revolutionary War

Revolutionary regimes took over the governments of Switzerland (now reduced to a two-province minor) and Lorraine in May 1777. In August 1779 this had become too much to bear for the reactionary Austrian Archduchy, who with British support set out to crush the Swiss revolution. The Austrians alone now commanded over 330,000 troops and the result was never in doubt.

Lorraine’s resistance only lasted until the end of January 1781 with them forced to convert to Catholicism, with Switzerland defeated barely a month later. Their short-lived revolution was ended and they became an Austrian vassal.

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Other Wars

After almost five years, Russia’s weight had finally been brought to bear against Japan. Not only was Kikuchi annexed, but Japan was also forced to yield nine provinces in its south. No eastern power had yet been able to stand up to the Russian juggernaut.

[Image from Leonardo AI, Phoenix 1.0]

The two minor former Shu-Chinese kingdoms of Miao and Yi were fighting against each other again in February 1781 – even though Yi didn’t even field a standing army.

And in East Africa, Turkey was at it again a few days later, this time seeking to annex Revolutionary Harar, who only had Funj as an ally. Two more minor powers likely to be annexed or vassalised by the ever-expanding Turks, their revolutionary governments giving them no moral protection.

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Diplomacy, Espionage and Revolution

April 1776 saw another attempt to explore the option of instigating a colonial war between Frisian and Portuguese Australia. First, a spy network would have to be developed in Portugal before a new claim could be fabricated.

The expanding bevy of Frisian diplomats was active during this period. The recent gaining of control over the Papacy granted an extra diplomat by the start of May 1776 – who was the one sent to build the spy network in Portugal. In June, spice trading granted a very useful increase of 25% in spy generation. Over the next three years, diplomatic missions came and went as some were fulfilled or networks were discovered and recalled.

Relations were improved with both allies and former enemies at different times, while the long-term campaign to dispel Castilian rivalry continued on and off, including trust-building initiatives. Enmity with Franconia was a constant theme, as was keeping New Friesland from developing a dangerous level of liberty desire.

The new claim in Portuguese Australia was gained in August 1777 – before the network was degraded a year later – and it seemed this was automatically also adopted by Frisian Australia. But any action was forestalled when a review of the relative strengths showed Portuguese Australia had gained considerably in strength over the last few years and an inter-colonial war was no longer looking desirable.

The Federal Republic at least tried to boost their colony’s manpower and officer corps, which it was hoped might encourage them to grow their own army and did at least act to significantly suppress liberty desire. Otherwise, a more suitable opportunity to grab some land in Australia would have to be waited for.

Espionage – especially spy network construction – was further enhanced in October 1777 with another idea unlocked: this now made spy-building efforts very efficient indeed in combination with the President’s skills, an effective spymaster and spice trading.

And with diplomatic power at a premium, the next skilled diplomat recruited in December was kept at court to provide advice to the President.

The last mainland Frisian province to have the revolution spread to it was Meppen in May 1778. And by July, the Portuguese Australian army had grown further to 50,000 men, delaying any move there to the more distant future [unless anyone has any bright ideas on anything further I can do to improve the odds without going to war directly with Portugal itself].

In September-October 1779 there was something of a surge in potential unrest in New Friesland. Revolutionary upheaval there had to be met with the use of favours owed and another tariff reduction to keep thing in check in late September.

Just a month later, mercantile interests were sacrificed to ensure more unrest did not eventuate.

When the spy network in France reached the required threshold, some agitation for liberty in Floride was considered. But given it was already at 100% it was assumed this would not make any material difference for now. So it was decided to corrupt the French bureaucracy instead. [For what good that would do.]

From November 1779 to March 1781 the usual fluctuations in missions occurred, with a major event being the gaining of an eighth diplomat in October 1780. From late 1780, attention was turned to Africa, with spy networks started in Air in November and then Kanem Bornu in January 1781. By March 1781, two diplomats were still returning after the end of their missions.

In September 1780, New Friesland was once again complaining about trade and again, with liberty desire only just under control, the Federal government compromised once more.

The previously mentioned idea breakthrough of improved agent training in October 1780 not only increased the number of diplomatic operatives but also decreased advisor costs.

Having not suffered much from its at-a-distance conflicts with Turkey, in November 1780 Kilwa was now the leading East African regional power. And saw fit to declare Friesland to be a rival. The President hoped it would go no further than that. The Republic now had five enemies, including Castile (still) and three declared rivals.

Between January 1777 and March 1781, the long lasting anti-Frisian coalition, started by Saxe-Lauenburg way on 6 April 1747 after Friesland’s extensive conquests in Northern Germany, continued to break up at an increasing rate. Bengal left in January 1777; followed by Pomerania (Feb 1778); then a gap until Malacca (Nov 1780); and a flurry of Berg, Saxe-Lauenburg, Mainz, Austria, Magdeburg, Brunswick, Cologne and Deli (Feb 1781); followed by Saxony, Goslar, Pahang, Franconia and Kedah in early March. This formally dissolved the coalition which had lasted almost 34 years.

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Domestic and Economic Affairs

Based on the advice of economic experts, in April 1776 Friesland began to adjust its trade flows in the hope of making them more efficient and lucrative. The merchant assigned to Chesapeake Bay started to transfer trade to the English Channel instead of collecting. The merchant in Burgundy was recalled and three days later was on his way to the Cape of Good Hope, where he arrived on 1 July with instructions to transfer to the Ivory Coast, which already fed the trade route to the English Channel.

At that point, Sjoerd Ripperda who ran the Indonesian Charter from Malacca was switched from collection to forwarding trade to the Cape. Other factors may have affected trade income during the period of reorientation, but net trade collections from the previous three collection nodes had been 441 ducats and was 461 by 1 July through the English Channel alone: the adjustment seemed to have worked.

Over four days in September 1776, two major events saw a conservative approach to education gain a one-off administrative boost, while a large sum had to be allocated from the treasury to deal with some political ructions that threatened to undermine Friesland prized AAA-rated stability.

At the start of 1777, yet more funds had to be allocated, this time to deal with the effects or urbanisation in six provinces across the Republic in both Europe and the colonies. And to keep the burghers happy and gain some longer-term tax revenue.

To follow up the recent trade moves, the 18 frigates of the Lubeck trade protection fleet were ordered to join the larger English Channel fleet in June 1777, where the British had been slowly eroding Frisian trading influence.

The ten-year debate timer in the Landtag ran out in October 1777. The President did whatever it took – money, influence peddling, appeasing the clergy and outright bribes – to quickly bring the new debate to a successful close. Quartering of Troops was enacted for the next ten years: especially important at that time as the Frisian standing army far exceed its support limit.

And the following month another member was added to the expanding Parliament: a colonial seat from the FEI. The Landtag would later expand again with the addition of Verden in March 1779. For reasons that were not entirely clear (or explored much) at the time, by February 1778 trade income had fallen to 446 ducats per month after having climbed as high as 479 in June 1777.

A long process of conversion in Pasai ended in July 1778 and this gave a boost of Papal influence – enough for a Frisian-controlled Pope to happily grant a sanction for increased taxes, which would also aid in a modest construction program that persisted throughout the period.

A big mission to convert the Sunni province of Kutaraja followed. As did a bountiful harvest a few months later, which helped to replenish a good deal of the recent expenditure from the already healthy treasury.

Recent frigate builds and the transfer of the Lubeck fleet to the English Channel had boosted the Frisian trade power there to 63% (up from 49% in April 1776) with monthly trade income up again to 463 ducats by September 1778.

Despite the adoption of the Enlightenment and parliamentary republicanism in Friesland, some superstitions still persisted in the late 18th century: the sighting of a comet in June 1780 sparked a nationwide panic. The loss of stability was soon remedied by the President of course, at the cost of considerable (though affordable) administrative power.

From 1776 to 1780, Friesland’s ranking among the world’s great powers remained unchanged in 5th place. The increase in their score had come through development in the colonial provinces, seeing Friesland improve more that France above them and the three powers below them. However, the top three behemoth powers had grown significantly more over that time, fuelled principally by conquest.

In terms of Friesland’s position over the long stretch of time since 1444, they also ranked 5th though there was some variance in the other positions of the top contenders. Friesland’s administrative rating, boosted in particular by their very large monthly income, was their strongest suit. Waning or def7unct powers like Portugal, Morocco and Poland were descending on the list, while Turkey, Hindustan, Russia, Friesland and Great Britain (in that order) led those on the upward trend.

Again for reasons not fully explored, by September 1780 the fluctuating trade income had ‘fallen off a cliff’ again, down to just 393 ducats/month and had only risen slightly a few months later.

A heavy program of development and building ran from January 1778 to November 1780, using a combination of surplus administrative and military power that could not yet be spent on further research advances, where Friesland was well already ahead of the international benchmarks. In January 1778, 546 admin and 165 military power was spent to develop Pekalongan (+6 dev), Poso (+7), Karta (+4), Surabaya (+5), Pindinga (+2) and Banten (+8) enabled four new conscription centres to be built in Karta, Surabaya, Pindinga and Banten to help redress the large land force limit (LFL) deficit. A cathedral also began construction in Poso. The completion of those builds in November 1778 saw the LFL raised to 365 regiments – still 25 short of the current establishment, which cost the budget an extra 25.59 ducats/month.

Another 59 admin and 105 military power saw Paul developed by +8 to 20 in April 1779, with another conscription centre commenced. The same was done in Ondo (in Frisian Niger) in August 1780 (70 admin, 70 military, +4 dev to 10) and Wakari (35 admin, +1 to 10 dev), with two more conscription centre builds commenced. At the same time, the withdrawal of the colonist from Gabon allowed grand shipyard to be built there as the development program moved into West Africa. The last development in 1780 came in Idah (again in Frisian Niger) a few months later (72 admin, 72 military, +6 dev to 10) for yet another conscription centre build.

Navy builds over this period were all of frigates in Europe, to support the protection of trade in the English Channel, as the naval force limit gradually increased. One was laid down in May 1777 and three in March 1778. Given the LFL overrun, no new regiments were trained. Instead, the focus shifted to drilling to increase army professionalism. From February 1779, eight of the ten Frisian Leger were drilling with army professionalism then at 33.89%.

As Friesland waited for the coalition to wither away and with the prospect for a colonial war in Australia on hold, the expiration of old truces meant a major attack on Air (army strength 68,000 from Air and its minor allies) was again on the cards. An assessment in November 1780 showed the prospects were good, so a diplomat was sent to set up a spy network. L.v. Idah stopped drilling and was moved up to the border; with the other Nigerian colonial army, Friesland had 65,000 troops in the region.

To ensure better odds and get mercenaries to soak up some of the inevitable casualties, the Grand Company (30 regiments) was hired in early February 1781, which deployed by 15 February but would take some time to organise. This put the book strength of the Frisian army to 420 regiments – 51 over the LFL, so therefore considerable extra costs incurred above the mercenary fees. By 5 March 1781 monthly net income was down to 144 ducats (trade at 395), with 50,000 in the treasury. The monetary cost could be sustained indefinitely, though it did dent the army’s professionalism.

On 15 March 1781, Friesland was ready. War was declared and the three armies poised on the border began heading towards their objectives. Two large Air border forts would have to be taken before further progress to the interior could be made. Aragon was not called in to support for now, as the Frisian leadership hoped to garner all the glory and gains for themselves, but the option remained if required.

Bullfilter · Jun 15, 2025

Chapter 70: The Air War (1781-84)

A contemporary drawing of an engagement between Frisian and Air infantry at the 2nd Battle of Logone, 1782. [MS Copilot]

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Air War Phase One: Gone to Logone

The first phase of the war saw Frisian forces occupy their initial siege lines on the Air border by 27 March 1781, with a barrage directed onto the major fort in Katsina.

In late April, the first Air army appeared in Borno and L.v. Idah, having just occupied Biram, marched to meet them, arriving in Marghi a month later.

By early June L.v. Idah was advancing on Logone, the sole remaining province of Air ally Kanem Bornu, where a chance to knock out their army was being taken.

At this point, it was decided to raise another (smaller) mercenary company in Zazzau to augment the defences. The budget remained in healthy surplus despite rising army maintenance costs.

The 1st Battle of Logone lasted just three days, with the only partly-prepared and heavily outnumbered Kanem Bornu army wiped out despite putting up a furious fight.

But a few weeks later, the main Air army had swung south-east to confront the Frisians in Logone and more enemy reinforcements had appeared to the east. The Free Company had not even made it out of Zazzau yet, so the Grand Company ended its siege of Bedde early in order to assist L.v. Idah. However, they would have to swing around to the south first due to the fort, delaying their approach.

The 2nd Battle of Logone began on 30 June, with General Sibracht Bergsma putting up a stout defence which began to wear down the enemy’s morale. Despite being outnumbered, by 12 July the Frisians were winning, despite heavy losses.

Unfortunately, it was at this point that the first wave of Air reinforcements finally arrived, swinging the battle in their favour. And yet another column of 19 regiments had appeared east of Logone as Air amassed its whole army in the sector.

The Grand Company was still slogging its way through Bauchi at that point and could not hope to relieve L.v. Idah. A heavy defeat was suffered on 21 July. The GC reached the border at Marghi on 29 July and halted there.

By 7 September, the GC still faced off with a similar sized Air army sitting in Mandara, while L.v. Idah had finally rallied in Bonny with just 13,100 men in its 33 regiments and began the long return march. The Free Company was in Bauchi at that point and by late September had joined the GC and together they marched forward into Mandara, which the enemy had vacated.

Finding Logone occupied by a smaller army on 6 October they were ordered to advance, perhaps with the Frisian leadership more willing to risk the lives of their mercenaries this time to wear down the enemy than sacrificing more Frisian soldiers.

The 3rd Battle of Logone was joined ten days later, but on arrival the mercenaries got a very nasty surprise: an even larger Air army had been lying in reserve to the east. And they were unable to retreat any time soon.

The first column of enemy reinforcements arrived two days after the battle commenced and the rest had piled on by the 21st. Another even heavier defeat had been suffered by the time the carnage ended on 5 November.

Logone was becoming known as a Frisian graveyard by this time. Yet another mercenary outfit, the Asafo Company, was raised in Marghi but would take until mid-December to deploy.

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Air War Phase Two: The Republic Strikes Back - Carefully

In mid-December, the new Frisian defensive deployment was coming into shape. L.v. Idah had returned to the front and was approaching full strength again, besieging Bedde. The Asafo Company had just deployed in Marghi and was organising, while the other two mercenary companies were still routing south in Idah. L.v. Calabar continued its long and so far uneventful siege of Katsina.

A month later, with the war stalled, Aragon was given and accepted a belated invitation to join in.

Things progressed in February 1782, with the fall of Katsina and siege barrages conducted in Daura and Bedde and Biram having to be reoccupied, by the returning GC and FC mercenaries. The cumulative effect of all the mercenary hiring had reduced the monthly balance to a small surplus. But the war had begun to turn in Friesland’s favour at last.

By May the Aragonese were arriving in force as the Frisians spread eastwards – and no Air armies had been spotted in some months.

The reason for this lull was soon explained. A report arrived that enemy forces had arrived in the Libyan outpost of Thubaqt. It was there and in the adjacent Aragonese territories that Air had decided to try its hand, effectively abandoning their heartlands.

To the south, this allowed Friesland to get on with the job of occupying as much of Air as they could. And a small revenge was taken in Logone, where the Asafo Company engaged a regiment of local troops on 31 May, destroying them and starting a new siege.

On the northern front, Thubaqt fell on 12 June as Air took that and Aragonese provinces without opposition, as yet. By early September, Air and smaller armies from its two allies continued to take land without opposition as Tunis was threatened.

Illustration: a soldier from Air in the North African campaign, 1782. [MS Copilot]

However this was outweighed by Frisian gains in the south as they and their allies continued to reduce Air’s homeland and secure the northern approach to it through the Sahara.

Illustration: a Frisian line infantryman from Leger van Idah during the Air War, 1782. [MS Copilot]

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Air War Phase Three: Denouement

In the early months of 1783, the Frisian choke-hold on Air itself was almost complete, with a small force of Air’s allies destroyed on 8 April in a skirmish in Yao.

In the north, Aragon had finally reacted to the Air invasion. They had defeated the enemy some time earlier and by 30 April had begun the task of retaking lost provinces while the main enemy routed south – towards the Frisians in Air.

Illustration: “¡Aragón al Rescate!” (Aragon to the Rescue!), Aragonese court artist, 1783. [MS Copilot]

The remnant Air force fled around the blocking force in northern Air and was not brought to bay until 5 August 1783, when they were run to ground in Al-Junayah. A ferocious defence by the enemy commander Yunus Kel Ouzzeyn took a heavy toll on the attackers, though the nearby L.v. Idah in Darfur broke its siege there to aid their comrades.

This was just as well, as Yunus’ tactical acumen continued to inflict heavy casualties even as the morale of his troops failed against the renewed Frisian onslaught. A very expensive victory was won on 24 August as the war moved into its final stages.

L.v. Idah remained relatively unscathed from the last battle and they attacked Yunus in Darfur on 11 September. Once more, the enemy commander showed his mastery of the battlefield but could not prevent the destruction of his army the following day after a heroic last stand.

By mid-December Friesland was on the brink of total mastery in the vicious war for Air [99% warscore] after the enemy capital of Air fell after a 488-day siege. On Christmas Day 1783, the Free and Asafo Companies were disbanded, with the former not available again until 1788 and the Asafo in 1786 while they recouped their losses. The monthly balance recovered to a 115-ducat surplus.

On 7 March 1784, Air’s emissaries arrived to offer their unconditional surrender, prompting peace negotiations and an end to the three-year war. Eleven Air provinces and the annexation of Logone were demanded by Frisia, while Aragon was allocated the province of Taharji in the north as a reward for their support. The aggressive expansion penalty for this big land grab would be quite localised with any coalition risks hopefully minimal.

Frisian Niger had been greatly expanded again, with a big administrative effort going into the coring of many new provinces to reduce the huge amount of ensuing overextension that resulted. Friesland had taken the bulk of the allied casualties during the war, but manpower levels were not too badly dented (260/275 reserve manpower).

Post-war administration was soon in full swing: the Grand Company was also dismissed (not available again until 1789), increasing the monthly balance to 178 ducats. The big expansion of territory meant the Army force limit had almost caught up with the standing army strength again (390/388) and at home, the Pope was asked to provide Papal sanction for the government, boosting Republican tradition and helping with improving diplomatic relations.

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Foreign Wars

Revolutionary Funj surrendered to Turkey and was annexed in July 1781. The original war against their ally Harar continued.

Bengal suffered yet another humiliation at the hands of Hindustan in August 1781, losing another nine provinces as Hindustan and Dai Viet continued their war against Malacca.

Russia continued its aggressive Far Eastern imperialism with a declaration of war against the Shu and Korea in March 1782. As that war moved in Russia’s favour, minor Chinese power Miao defeated Yi and annexed it in October of the same year.

Just over a year later, Shu lost another large chunk of its northern lands to Russia and Korea lost most of its remaining territory to the Tsar.

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Domestic and Diplomatic Affairs

With eight diplomatic teams now on a range of missions, in March 1781 spying resumed in Franconia (espionage at its height of effectiveness and taking up half the diplomatic effort). Another returning diplomat was sent to do some alliance maintenance in Scandinavia soon afterwards. The ‘blown’ spy in Austria in June was left spare until January 1782 when the ring in Franconia was also compromised again and the call to arms to Aragon in the Air War was issued. The effort switched back to France and currying favours in Frisian Australia.

Brunswick then replaced France on the spy circuit and Russia swapped in for Scandinavia on the influence missions, with another free spy retained after the war with Air was largely done. Towards the end of the period, a major breakthrough was made with Castile. After years of diplomacy, they renounced their long-standing rivalry with Friesland. They were not yet ready for an alliance, but the possibility was a big step closer.

While there was war in Africa, the FEI were quiet for now, with a large sum out-laid in September 1781 to upgrade the Borobudur Temple site in central Java.

January 1782 saw the Burghers gain even more influence in Frisian political circles. While they remained solidly loyal, some began to wonder whether they might soon pose a risk to the political establishment.

Question: is this something I need to worry about, decrease their influence a bit? Or is it OK so long as they remain loyal?

In any case, President Martena seemed to have risen to the military challenges of the day and in March 1782 became known as an effective martial educator. Meanwhile, all the recent mercenary recruiting in Niger had considerable diluted the overall professionalism of the army.

And later in the year, a master recruiter joined the army staff, ready to take on a higher role (for less money) should a cabinet vacancy arise.

The nobles of Friesland, marginalised within the political system, stirred up trouble in late 1782 and undermined the Republic’s prized national stability. Considerable political capital was immediately expended to reassure the populace.

Recent development and a shipyard building enabled four new Great Frigates to be laid down in the European ports at the same time. They would be employed in trade protection in the English Channel when commissioned.

A large revolt broke out in Frisian Australia on 5 January 1784 with 20,000 revolutionaries rising in Nukunu. However, all 27 regiments of the FA army marched west to confront them and by the end of March the revolt had been crushed at the cost of around loyalist 3,000 casualties.

Following the end of the Air War on 7 March 1784, Friesland still ranked fifth in the list of great powers, but once the new provinces had been integrated it appeared likely that the Federal Republic would surpass France on that list.

By the end of the month, liberty desire was well under control in the two main main self-governing colonies in America and Australia.

Bullfilter · Jul 8, 2025

Chapter 71: Tensions Rising (1784-85)

With their administration overextended following the end of the Air War, tensions rose across the Republic, including in Europe, Africa and Indonesia. Above, a contemporary lithograph shows a Frisian officer attempting to keep the peace at the regional capital of Kutaraja in Aceh, Sumatra. [MS Copilot]

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Rebellions Abound

The first uprising to strike the Federal Republic broke out close to home in Bremen. A large army of Frisian Particularists assembled in the city, whose fort had been mothballed, on 4 May 1784. Three Frisian armies were close by and began to surround the province. However, they had all been drilling and would require weeks to get back to combat readiness.

All three armies were in position by 10 May: well-trained but almost completely unprepared for combat. They were only around 50% ready when Bremen fell on 14 June after just a 42-day siege.

Vengeance was delayed but completed by 15 August after a short battle which saw the entire rebel force eliminated for around 5,000 Government casualties. But the rebels still holed up in the reconstituted fort would not be winkled out until the following April.

The period of almost universal army training was coming to an end, with a rising revolt risk in Aceh leading to L.v. Bengkulu ending drilling in mid-December 1784 to be ready to intervene in internal security if required. This was well-timed, as the first Indonesian revolt broke out early in the following February in Kutaraja.

Though outnumbered and taking around 8,000 casualties, the attack was driven home successfully, with those rebels not killed outright melting back into the jungle and order restored by the end of March.

Even as order was restored in Kutaraja, a few days later religious extremists revolted in neighbouring Gayo. L.v. Bengkulu did not even wait to reorganise and reinforce before marching on to stamp out the latest threat, which it had done by 15 April.

And over in Frisian Niger, a rebellion in Borno erupted on the same day as in Gayo. L.v. Idah was nearby but still drilling, so a long wait ensued before they were ready to march. Borno had already fallen to the rebels by the time the Leger could react but the battle was over quickly and the separatists wiped out by 22 June. However, rebel activity in the neighbouring (and not yet cored) Air lands remained elevated.

Indeed, in July 1785 unrest remained high across Africa and Indonesia. Less than three months later, a ‘double’ uprising of Air separatists occurred in Biram and Daura. The two colonial armies converged first on Biram, with only one of them required to quell the revolt easily by 18 October.

They then marched north to Daura to confront the larger of the two rebellions, which was defeated over a week (no battle report saved) in early November. By that time, unrest elsewhere was abating and only Madura off eastern Java remained a hotbed of dissent.

But of course Madura also then revolted just as the Air campaign was reaching its end. Ships needed to be sent to pick up L.v. Bengkulu from Gayo, which would delay the response until the new year. The Sundanese separatists occupied the island on 16 December, just as L.v. Bengkulu was boarding their transports in Gayo.

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Turkey Takes on the Pope

As Friesland was largely preoccupied with a spate of revolts in from 1784, on 18 July Revolutionary Turkey launched a war to spread the Revolution to the Papal States, of all places! But the Pope had some powerful friends on his side, even if they could not hope to fully match Turkey’s military might (of over 1,200,000 troops). The Pope’s main allies would be Aragon, Castile and … Franconia!

Friesland actually had the opportunity to enter the war on Turkey’s side if it wished: tempting perhaps against Turkey, but it would involve taking on long-time ally Aragon and recently mollified Castile, both in Europe and in the colonies. Not a particularly attractive prospect, especially with a string of revolts wracking the Republic.

By the end of the year, the Papal alliance had managed to take a little Turkish land in southern Italy and Croatia as armies gathered and the Turks made an incursion into Tuscany. Interestingly, a New Frisian army was still stranded in North Africa after the recent war.

There was also action at sea, with both Castile and Aragon clashing with Turkish fleets in the central Mediterranean, the while the Turks had invaded Aragonese North Africa, where armies were gathering on both sides.

Turkish and Aragonese ships engaging each other south of Sicily, 30 December 1784. [MS Copilot]

By the end of March 1785, occupations and blockades by each side balanced the other out, but after ten battles the Papal alliance was ahead after [+14% warscore]. In North Africa, by mid-April both sides were massing large forces but Turkey was gaining the advantage in numbers as a major battle (which Turkey would win) approached.

By October 1785, the fortunes of the war had begun to turn in Turkey’s favour: they were just ahead [+2% warscore] including in battles [+1% after 19].

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Other Foreign Wars

Before they went to war with Turkey, Castile (assisted by France) declared war on Blambangan and its small regional allies in April 1784.

A year and a half later, Blambangan was forced to surrender the island of Sumba to the Castilians.

The Hindustan-Pattani War had been going for five years before the final victory for the great sub-continental power in November 1785. Not only was the small state of Pattani annexed but all of Malacca’s Malayan holdings were also seized. This brought them into close proximity with the FEI – and tensions between the two would soon build.

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Diplomacy

The range of Frisian diplomatic missions went through its normal cycle of positive and negative efforts. Major changes included rebuilding the spy network in Franconia (after a previous discovery had exposed the last mission) improving relations with Castile in April 1784. Another spy mission was compromised in France in November 1785 and those diplomats transferred to Turkey to ensure relations with the belligerent revolutionary nation.

By this time four diplomats were currying favours, two spying, one improving relations and one on standby.

Also in April 1784, informal negotiations with Castile had indicated they would have finally accepted an alliance offer if Friesland had been able to make it. But it wasn’t, because Frisian opinion of Castile remained too low [-78 and it needed to be positive]. Friesland may not have been ready for such an alliance at that. A few months later the point was moot after they went to war on the Pope’s behalf – though Friesland wouldn’t have been obligated to support them.

July 1784 saw another advance in espionage ideas, with improved vetting boosting foreign spy detection and helping to fight corruption: useful in the murky political dealing of the Federal Republic.

Before the spy network was discovered in France, its large network of spies was used fabricate two claims in two French-held lowlands provinces. Just in case an opportunity arose at some point …

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Domestic Events

The Clergy gained some influence and the Republic improved administration with the appointment of a Cardinal to the Cabinet in May 1784.

The good reputation of Frisian merchants boosted trade power in July and would do so for the next ten years.

Only for the merchants in the English Channel zone to provoke the opposite reaction, leading to a big sum being lost to the treasury.

By next March, the coring of newly acquired provinces in Africa was in progress, the last mission launched in March 1785. But it still had some time to go and until then, Frisian overextension continued to fuel the unrest being manifested in part by the rash of revolts.

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Military Development and Border Tension with Franconia

In March 1784, recent advice to help build Frisian Australia’s military was implemented: almost 1,900 ducats was spent on building or upgrading six conscription centres and three training fields. But by December 1787 FA still fielded only 25 regiments and actually had 6,000 fewer men in their manpower reserve.

After general growth and a new grand shipyard was completed, two new three-deckers and four regiments were begun.

In July 1785 a decision was taken to position for a possible surprise attack on Franconia – not as an ally of the Turks, but as a separate venture. Armies started moving to the frontier and those that had recommenced drilling after the Bremen revolt began working back up to operational readiness, but a final decision was not taken yet.

By mid-August, the front-line Frisian armies were in place along the Franconian border, but four of the five were still reorganising. But it seemed Franconia had lost over 40,000 troops in less than a month, presumably in combat against Turkey. The delay wasn’t doing much harm.

And in September 1785 new military technology became available – and it was a significant one for the Leger. The adoption of impulse warfare allowed drill infantry to become the new standard battalion organisation.

This gave the Frisians the edge in firepower over shock, which they hoped would give them an advantage in future combat. However, in the short term it set back the organisation of all the Frisian armies after the new doctrine was implemented and all infantry regiments had to re-train in the new tactics.

Not long after, the Landtag began complaining about high military expenses: clearly, cutbacks when war was being contemplated would simply not do. It seemed the extra expense of a round of large bribes to the complaining parliamentarians was entirely acceptable!

On 2 October 1785, Friesland stood at fourth in the global power rankings. Though when it tried exerting some of that power on Franconia’s allies, they were not remotely interested in breaking their pledges.

Franconia had lost another 24,000 troops by this point as the war with Turkey bled them dry.

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The Frisian-Franconian Nationalist War

Friesland’s armies were finally ready after their series of reorganisations by early November 1785. By then, Franconia’s army had been even further depleted due to the war with Turkey, though two of them were stationed in the west of the country at that time. And only Saxony was prepared to help them at that time. Savoy was otherwise occupied with Turkey and was not prepared to support either party, with whom they were both allied.

Even though their European army now easily outnumbered their enemy’s, the powerful assistance of Scandinavia, Poland and the now Revolutionary Bavaria was enlisted. This would be a major war against a large regional power, even if depleted, especially in the siege work required. No chances would be taken.

As soon as the declaration of war was issued on 9 November, Frisian troops began crossing the border with Franconia at three points. They would all be in position in western Franconia six days later.

The lead elements of a column numbering 44,000 Frisian troops cross the border into Franconia near Nassau on 9 November 1785. [MS Copilot]

Interestingly, though an extant claim on Coblenz in south-western Franconia was due to expire on 1 July 1787, it later transpired that it would remain in force beyond that date. It seemed the act of declaring war may have kept it in play, even if its end would come afterwards.

By the end of the month, two large Polish armies were besieging Franconian provinces in the east. Franconia had avoided a confrontation with the Frisian invaders, instead striking south into Bavaria with one army: the whereabouts of the other was unknown. The Turks had also begun to attack in the east.

Coblenz had fallen by the end of December and at that point the three depth armies began a sweep around to the south via France and Austria, with whom ‘collateral military access’ had been obtained through grants in other wars.

By then, the second known Franconian army had joined its colleagues in a siege of Regensburg in Bavaria. The war remained in its early days and would last for a few more years yet.

Bullfilter · Tuesday at 12:55

Chapter 72: War and Rebellion (1786-87)

While war with former ally and now implacable foe Franconia raged abroad, tensions on the streets of the Frisian Republic’s heartland also reached fever pitch. In this contemporary painting from 1787, armed rebels take to the barricades in the streets of Amsterdam while Republican troops are forced to confront them. [MS Copilot]

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Colonial Revolts and Foreign Wars

An earlier revolt in Madura by Sundanese separatists in December 1785 required the shipment of one of the armies in Sumatra back to Java to put it down. L.v. Bengkulu had landed in January 1786 and by early February were ready to attack across the narrow strait to the island of Madura.

The battle to restore order lasted only three days and was a walkover under the expert leadership of General Thiadulf Banda.

Not long after, Persia declared war on the depleted and fragmented remainder of the once-powerful Delhi and its two small Himalayan allies. Given the disparity in strengths, Delhi’s eventual defeat was expected to be a formality.

In parallel to the Frisian-Franconian War, Franconia was also sorely beset by large Turkish armies. And another Papal ally (and friend of Friesland) Aragon was also caught up in that conflict, where in April 1786 one of their armies had run into a huge Turkish army of 180,000 men in Mainz.

Western Franconia was certainly a crowded locale at that time, with similarly large numbers of Frisian, Scandinavian and Bavarian troops also ranging around.

By February 1787, the Turks were generally well on top of the Papal alliance and had won the majority of the 37 field and naval battles. Meanwhile, the partly intermixed Frisian-Franconian War was moving more heavily in favour of the Federal Republic, as we will see below.

Then Austria declared war on Saxony, Franconia’s minor ally against Friesland, in April 1787, removing a pest small enough to pose no threat anyway. At the time, a Franconian army was trying to retake Frankfurt from Bavarian occupation.

In Africa, a short-lived rebellion in Yawuri by poorly equipped tribesmen was easily put down by L.v. Idah in early May just under a month after it broke out.

While by mid-July, Turkey had increased pressure further on the Papal Alliance, occupying a significant amount of territory in eastern Franconia.

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The Frisian-Franconian War: January 1786-February 1787

The war was still in its early stages when the Frisian swing into the south-west of Franconia culminated in a great battle at Zweibrücken on 20 January 1786. Despite a river crossing and good defensive terrain, the well-drilled Frisian armies outnumbered their adversaries by 2-1.

After some heavy initial skirmishing, the Franconian army was over-run and wiped out within eight days.

The fighting at the front, despite its early successes and on top of previous recent wars and rebellions, led to the desertion of some disillusioned officers in January and increased inflation a few days later.

After these initial sieges and battles, Franconian total casualties had climbed rapidly and their morale was already starting to sag. And the first Turkish incursions into the east had started to bite.

By May, western Franconia was awash with Frisian and allied armies and six provinces in the south had already fallen to Frisian occupation.

He may have started the war, but President Siemen Martena would not live to see the end of it. After 14 years at the top, he passed away on 10 June 1786. His great legacy was the great addition of land in Africa following the Frisian-Air War.

Once more, the lottery was trusted and the burghers of Leeuwarden were well pleased with the result, as Reginhard Sems ascended the Presidential Chair. Suitably enough for the times, he soon showed his skills as a martial educator.

The primary objective of the invasion, the fortress of Westfalen, surrendered to Frisian occupation on 28 August 1786. This would begin to swing the war increasingly in Friesland’s favour, in addition to the fall other provinces to that point, the victory at Zweibrücken on 28 January and a Bavarian victory at Regensburg on 6 March 1786.

By the end of October, the two main remaining Franconian field armies had attempted to escape the furnace in Franconia by striking north towards Denmark. Unfortunately for them, they were confronted by a number of approaching Scandinavian armies that would soon force them away again.

They had returned south by February 1787 to see what they could do to stave off the wave of enemies engulfing their homeland. Their task would be an extremely difficult one.

This would result in their investment of Frankfurt, which they would try to regain from the Bavarians.

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Diplomacy, Espionage and Domestic Matters

The main new initiatives during the period were missions to improve of relations with Hindustan and Great Britain. The latter was completed after a year, but that to Hindustan had run into a problem early, though it continued in October 1787…

The Emperor of Hindustan berates a Frisian ambassador and his entourage, 1786. [MS Copilot]

… being Hindustan’s selection of Friesland as a rival in July 1786. It seemed this antagonism stemmed from their recent takeover of most of the Malayan peninsula, which led to them desiring a swath of Frisian East Indies provinces in Sumatra.

Though a little concerned about the burgeoning influence of the Burgher Estate, economic policy was pushed to allow their influence to further increase in January 1787 to further rein in mercantilist policies. The alternative would have been to see a considerable slide in the loyalty of the dominant estate in the Federal Republic.

Poland, one of Friesland’s allies in the war against Franconia and an active one at that, had its government taken over by radical republicans in March 1787. But relations with Friesland remained strong and the alliance in place.

From April-July 1787, the African provinces won in the war against Air began to be fully integrated into the Frisian Republic, which eventually resulted in the state’s previous over-extension disappearing. Though there would be one more rebellious episode left over from that period that has not yet been mentioned …

Only one building project was begun during this short period, new training fields in Upper Guelders, in June 1787.

The current ten-year Quartering of Troops regulations expired in October 1787. The new debate in the ever-growing Landtag was over a bill to reduce trade regulations. This time eight MPs had to be ‘encouraged’ by various pledges to get the vote through. The costs came in diplomatic power, ducats, prestige and some gain in influence by the Clerical Estate.

Some of the money lost in recent payouts and war costs would be recouped in December 1787 when the National Bank of Friesland paid a very large dividend to the government.

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The Frisian-Franconian War: April-December 1787

Just before Frisian over-extension abated, a last rebel hurrah literally resounded through the streets of Leeuwarden and Amsterdam on 3 April 1787. The largest single rebellion in Frisian history broke out, with a total over 160,000 peasants taking up arms in two of the Republic’s greatest centres.

This came at a time when the entire Frisian leger in Europe was committed in Franconia. In reaction, three mercenary companies were immediately hired, though it would take some of them weeks to muster and then organise for combat. The walls of Leeuwarden should be strong enough to hold out for many days yet, but there were no such fortifications in Amsterdam.

Three days later, two of the armies in southern Franconia were summoned back home as the mercenaries gathered, taking care not to disturb any of the major sieges then in progress.

By 18 May, the Scandinavians had reacted to the rebellion in Friesland itself, having attacked with over 60,000 men with another 50,000 rapidly approaching from the south. This left only the 70,000 rebels in Amsterdam, where four Frisian regular and mercenary armies totally 100,000 had muster just south of the city and were approaching it to attack. This meant the last mercenary company that had just arrived could be disbanded: the allied intervention showed they would not be needed after all.

Those Scandinavian reinforcements would arrive in Friesland on 21 May. On 2 June, two more Scandinavian columns were approaching and by the 8th, a massive 230,000 men had destroyed the leaderless rebellion there.

And on 22 May, General Sibraht Jongstra led the Frisian army to the attack against the mob in Amsterdam. His inspirational leadership saw a rapid victory with relatively few Government and mercenary casualties as the entire rebel force was wiped out in just six days of urban fighting. The other two mercenary companies were soon also disbanded.

As the two regular Frisian armies moved back to the front, on 13 June yet another large Scandinavian army struck the Franconians in Frankfurt and would overwhelm the Bishopric’s forces a few days later.

By the end of November, no more Franconian troops were left in the field, with only a small Saxon army remaining, which had stayed well north for the entire conflict and was probably evading Austrians at that point.

By mid-December, President Sems was contemplating the formulation of a peace ultimatum to the obviously vanquished enemy, most of whose territory was occupied by either Frisian and her allies or the Turks. But he would never do so: after only 16 months in power, he died in his sleep on 14 December 1787. The messenger who came to deliver the good news about the National Bank dividend found the President cold and past caring.

This election proved one of the few occasions where the leadership of the Republic was faced with two mediocre candidates and one outstanding one. The vote was rigged in favour of Sikke Jousma, a very talented and multi-skilled politician.

Within two days, he had reviewed the progress made since the last major assessment back in August 1786. It was significant and showed that there was little more to be done after the inroads by the Frisian alliance and the Turks all across the Bishopric.

When it came to the proposed settlement, Friesland would have been happy to demand Frankfurt for Bavaria, but the Revolutionary Bavarian government was not interested (due to its isolated situation and the inability of Bavaria to core it).

And including Fulda in the list of demands would have exacerbated aggressive expansion (and over-extension) again and, most significantly, likely prompted Austria to join a new coalition against Frisian expansionism.

The terms were adjusted, with reparations sought instead of Fulda, but a sizeable chunk of western Franconia still demanded. There would still be some aggressive expansion and over-extension but any coalition was likely to be manageable and should not (it was hoped) include Austria.

The final settlement did reward Poland, who would get to keep the two provinces they had occupied in eastern Franconia. Allied and Frisian casualties had been heavy but quite manageable for the Republic, whose recruiting base remained strong.

And Frisian reach into the rich lands of western Germany had been significantly increased.

Measures were immediately taken to begin reducing the over-extension that would once more irritate the government and provisions would need to be made to have forces ready to quell new rebellions in the conquered lands over the next few years as they were integrated into the Republic.

The great regional adversary of Franconia had been crippled and was still at war with the Turks. Friesland maintained its place in the top four powers of the world. And the aggressors in the three remaining extant wars would all likely win them in due course.

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