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Mamelukian AAR 1419 - 1433
The End of the Crusaders
The Kingdom of Jerusalem was to see her last days of existence in the early 1420s. The great Abbasid Caliphate declared war in February 1419 and launched a major invasion. Henri de Lusignan was up to the challenge. But when the Mameluks joined the Jihad in 1420, the story was over. The glorious galleys from Alexandria sailed away towards Cyprus, on board the Elite Slaves of the realm. But alas, Henry de Ligny had taken a stand on the island, and his 5,000 men easily stopped the large Mameluk invasions, and the idea had to be abandoned.
But with their resources tied up on Cyprus, the Kingdom succumbed to the Abbasids, and fell apart. The Mameluk Sultan made sure to peace out for a bit of gold. But when Abbasid administration was to be put up in Sinai, official protests rose from Egypt, and under diplomatical pressure, Sinai was made Mamelukian.
A Jihad along East Africa
The Ethiopians had long been a thorn in the eye for the Sultan and his closest religious advisors. Plans had been made time and again to put an end to their heathen ways once and for all, but it was not until 1424, when the Nubians, who earlier had been quite liberal to their Muslims subjects, introduced heavier taxes on the poor followers of Muhammad in Batn al Hadjar. This could not be tolerated. The Sultan declared the heathens war.
The troops, under leadership of the great general al-Kansur and filled with the strength of the Jihad, marched swiftly and devastatingly through Nubia, laying waste and dead heretics in their wake. Soon Nubia were beaten and her cities under siege. It would take several years, but eventually full control was achieved by the Sultan, who declared Jihad terms in the peace. An Egyptian noble was put to the throne in Nubia, and he was commissioned to take care of the remaining heathens in the realm. In the meantime, the Mamelukian army gathered in the South parts of Nubia, near Massawa, to prepare to bring Islam to Ethiopia as well.
The movements and battles of Mameluk forces, led by al-Kansur and al-Beybalaz
The war against Ethiopia went according to plan. A swift invasion, where al-Kansur and al-Beybalaz, the son of the newly appointed Nubian King, won battle after battle, chasing and wearing the Ethiopian army down. The Elite Slaves had been reinforced after the Cypriot slaughter, and it soon besieged and took control of Axum, the Ethiopian capital. The Patriarch there was executed in a very exotic manner, worthy of Allah. The vast riches of the heathen church were taken to Al-Qahirah for cleansing. The Sultan ordered it to be used to fund the conversion of the Cataract Orthodoxians.
A bright future
With Africa being now completely free from Orthodox states, the only work remaining is now to make sure there are no more subjects following anything other than the great Allah. The Ethiopian conquest provided the Sultan with vast maps of Southern East Africa, and riches that are not so far out of reach...
The End of the Crusaders
The Kingdom of Jerusalem was to see her last days of existence in the early 1420s. The great Abbasid Caliphate declared war in February 1419 and launched a major invasion. Henri de Lusignan was up to the challenge. But when the Mameluks joined the Jihad in 1420, the story was over. The glorious galleys from Alexandria sailed away towards Cyprus, on board the Elite Slaves of the realm. But alas, Henry de Ligny had taken a stand on the island, and his 5,000 men easily stopped the large Mameluk invasions, and the idea had to be abandoned.
But with their resources tied up on Cyprus, the Kingdom succumbed to the Abbasids, and fell apart. The Mameluk Sultan made sure to peace out for a bit of gold. But when Abbasid administration was to be put up in Sinai, official protests rose from Egypt, and under diplomatical pressure, Sinai was made Mamelukian.
A Jihad along East Africa
The Ethiopians had long been a thorn in the eye for the Sultan and his closest religious advisors. Plans had been made time and again to put an end to their heathen ways once and for all, but it was not until 1424, when the Nubians, who earlier had been quite liberal to their Muslims subjects, introduced heavier taxes on the poor followers of Muhammad in Batn al Hadjar. This could not be tolerated. The Sultan declared the heathens war.
The troops, under leadership of the great general al-Kansur and filled with the strength of the Jihad, marched swiftly and devastatingly through Nubia, laying waste and dead heretics in their wake. Soon Nubia were beaten and her cities under siege. It would take several years, but eventually full control was achieved by the Sultan, who declared Jihad terms in the peace. An Egyptian noble was put to the throne in Nubia, and he was commissioned to take care of the remaining heathens in the realm. In the meantime, the Mamelukian army gathered in the South parts of Nubia, near Massawa, to prepare to bring Islam to Ethiopia as well.
The movements and battles of Mameluk forces, led by al-Kansur and al-Beybalaz
The war against Ethiopia went according to plan. A swift invasion, where al-Kansur and al-Beybalaz, the son of the newly appointed Nubian King, won battle after battle, chasing and wearing the Ethiopian army down. The Elite Slaves had been reinforced after the Cypriot slaughter, and it soon besieged and took control of Axum, the Ethiopian capital. The Patriarch there was executed in a very exotic manner, worthy of Allah. The vast riches of the heathen church were taken to Al-Qahirah for cleansing. The Sultan ordered it to be used to fund the conversion of the Cataract Orthodoxians.
A bright future
With Africa being now completely free from Orthodox states, the only work remaining is now to make sure there are no more subjects following anything other than the great Allah. The Ethiopian conquest provided the Sultan with vast maps of Southern East Africa, and riches that are not so far out of reach...
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Cossack AAR: 1419-1433
The free peoples of Zaporozhia were a drop of hope in an ocean of despotism. The Tartar envoys that came to acknowledge the accession of Hetman Mykhaltso and collect the yearly tribute were sent back to the Khan - with their own severed heads as tribute. The Cossacks' status of vassals and border-keepers of the Golden Horde was thus revoked in this manner.
Anticipating a revengeful invasion by the Golden Horde, war was made on the Romanian states to steal their treasury and gain more manpower. The principalities were subdued without much ado; their treasuries emptied, Bujak incorporated and their dukes forced to accept Mykhaltso as sovereign.
Next, it was Halych-Volhynia's turn to taste some hoofs. The unsuspecting Volhynians, who had been valiantly fighting the Teutonic Knights, were quickly overrun by Cossack cavalry.
The next targets were Kiev and the Golden Horde but an alliance pact with them prevented honourable declarations of wars. In order to make them defy their own treaties and oaths and make them look wicked in the eyes of The Allmighty, war was declared on the Teutonic Order and they, fearing the might of the Knights or the pointlessness of this war, dishonoured as was expected and desired.
War was declared on Kiev immediately which led to the entire destruction of their army in the Battle of Kiev. As soon as the siege started, the Duke of Kiev ran to Volhynia to hand his duchy to the Volhynian duke. However, the latter refused the proposition in an attempt to gain favour from the occupying Cossacks and hope for a lighter peace treaty. This situation, rather than favouring the Cossacks, put them in further disrepute, making them appear as aggressors on two fronts.
A harsh treaty was sanctioned on Halych-Volhynia. Vassalship and annexation of most of their territory. Kiev was annexed and established as capital. A great ceremony was subsequently held which marked the emergence of a regional Orthodox great power not seen since the days of the Kievan Rus and Vladimir the Great.
What had been expected came at last. The Golden Horde proclaimed Jihad and quickly congested Kiev and Donetsk with large over-enthusiatic armies. Initial cavalry attempts at warding them off failed and the Cossack army retreated deeper to replenish itself with more cavalry. When the desired stength was attained, thrusts in the sieging armies destroyed every single Tartar lamb and a counterattack initiated which led to the occupation of Bogutjar and Belgorad. When the Khan realised how miserably the Jihad had failed, he had no choice but cede those provinces.
Following this peace treaty, the Khan, thinking himself smart, started a policy of oppression towards his Orthodox subjects in an attempt to take the last laugh. He clearly misunderstood his enemies. Mykhaltso actually, literally, ate the peace treaty he himself had signed and declared war immediately. The flabbergasted Khan now faced the Cossack army, the Orthodox subjects he had been oppressing and even Muslim rebels furious with the poor manner in which diplomacy had been conducted.
Province after province - Astrakhan itself - fell to the Cossack army. The days of the once so mighty Golden Horde are now numbered.
The free peoples of Zaporozhia were a drop of hope in an ocean of despotism. The Tartar envoys that came to acknowledge the accession of Hetman Mykhaltso and collect the yearly tribute were sent back to the Khan - with their own severed heads as tribute. The Cossacks' status of vassals and border-keepers of the Golden Horde was thus revoked in this manner.
Anticipating a revengeful invasion by the Golden Horde, war was made on the Romanian states to steal their treasury and gain more manpower. The principalities were subdued without much ado; their treasuries emptied, Bujak incorporated and their dukes forced to accept Mykhaltso as sovereign.
Next, it was Halych-Volhynia's turn to taste some hoofs. The unsuspecting Volhynians, who had been valiantly fighting the Teutonic Knights, were quickly overrun by Cossack cavalry.
The next targets were Kiev and the Golden Horde but an alliance pact with them prevented honourable declarations of wars. In order to make them defy their own treaties and oaths and make them look wicked in the eyes of The Allmighty, war was declared on the Teutonic Order and they, fearing the might of the Knights or the pointlessness of this war, dishonoured as was expected and desired.
War was declared on Kiev immediately which led to the entire destruction of their army in the Battle of Kiev. As soon as the siege started, the Duke of Kiev ran to Volhynia to hand his duchy to the Volhynian duke. However, the latter refused the proposition in an attempt to gain favour from the occupying Cossacks and hope for a lighter peace treaty. This situation, rather than favouring the Cossacks, put them in further disrepute, making them appear as aggressors on two fronts.
A harsh treaty was sanctioned on Halych-Volhynia. Vassalship and annexation of most of their territory. Kiev was annexed and established as capital. A great ceremony was subsequently held which marked the emergence of a regional Orthodox great power not seen since the days of the Kievan Rus and Vladimir the Great.
What had been expected came at last. The Golden Horde proclaimed Jihad and quickly congested Kiev and Donetsk with large over-enthusiatic armies. Initial cavalry attempts at warding them off failed and the Cossack army retreated deeper to replenish itself with more cavalry. When the desired stength was attained, thrusts in the sieging armies destroyed every single Tartar lamb and a counterattack initiated which led to the occupation of Bogutjar and Belgorad. When the Khan realised how miserably the Jihad had failed, he had no choice but cede those provinces.
Following this peace treaty, the Khan, thinking himself smart, started a policy of oppression towards his Orthodox subjects in an attempt to take the last laugh. He clearly misunderstood his enemies. Mykhaltso actually, literally, ate the peace treaty he himself had signed and declared war immediately. The flabbergasted Khan now faced the Cossack army, the Orthodox subjects he had been oppressing and even Muslim rebels furious with the poor manner in which diplomacy had been conducted.
Province after province - Astrakhan itself - fell to the Cossack army. The days of the once so mighty Golden Horde are now numbered.
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The Hanseatic League - Birth of an Ideal
The collection of free city states collectively known as the Hansa, had had a long and difficult road to nationhood. For hundreds of years the Hansa was a purely mercantile organisation, with no claim to sovereignty over its members, the addition of the remnants of the Republic of Novgorod and the free state of Flanders ought to have forever destroyed any chance of that. After all, how could a single Prince claim to speak for the French, Germans and Russian, and what power would he have to defend them at any rate?
Yet the gaining of these footholds had the opposite effect on the Hansa, it was made obvious that the old Kingdoms of Europe were ending, France, England, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, none were recognisable even if they did exist. War and strife was bound to envelop Europe as new countries strived for greatness. And in troubled times there was always profit to be made for those clever enough to see, so under the inspired leadership of Jordan Pleskow wholesale changes were enacted to the structure of the league, the Stadholder became in effect a Prince, albeit one with severely limits on their powe, with control over all aspects of the League.
Internationally, this declaration of a new entity was followed by diplomatic offensives to all quarters, Normandy was most happy to have London and its surroundings bought off them, as were the Medici to allow Florence to become a full member. The Bavarian Emperor was approached and gave his blessing to the formation and offers of friendship and co-operation. Unfortunately not all went as smoothly; as Gotland were annexed by Nordrige (Sweden and Denmark combined) before they could accept membership, and Norway and the Teutonic Order both refused offers for trading stations in their lands.
Nonetheless the first years of the League were considered a success, especially with the victory over Pommern and the acquisition of Vorpommern, long considered a part of the league. But the only real war of note was the one caused by the imposition of the Sund Toll by Nordrige, despite the threats of eternal emnity from the Stadholder. Threats that were most certainly carried through by the newly formed Hanseatic Military, two wars in the first half of the 15th century left Nordrige reeling and shattered, as it lost everything south of Stockholm to the Leage. It barely had time to recover before Finland moved in taking a finnish province and lappland, reducing the once proud to state into the servitude of its once arch enemies, the Hansa.
Elsewhere some limited expansion was seen in Germany, were Hannover was vassalised and annexed, Magedburg was conquered and Oldenburg made a protectorate. In Italy a series of wars was intiated by the Genovese Doge, helped by forces of the Hansa based in Florence that saw the annexation of Milan and the formation of Italy into two blocks, one led by the Doge of Genoa and the other by the Pope in Rome commanding an army equal to any in Europe.
Internally the Hanseatic League had never been healthier, its traders were reknowned throughout the world and brought back the wealth of India, Iberia and the Orient for the gain of all. It used this influx of wealth to construct great refineries in Bremen, Jutland, Skane and Vastergotland, showing the trust that the Stadholder placed in the new acquired member states of Scandanavia. Its navy was first rate, and unchallenged outside of the Mediterrean powers, and its army prepared to deal with any threat, leading the world in tactics and weaponry.
With rumors of the New World just beyond the British Isles, and its unimagined riches, the eyes of the Hanseatic Merchant Houses was perhaps beginning to shift outside of old lands.
The collection of free city states collectively known as the Hansa, had had a long and difficult road to nationhood. For hundreds of years the Hansa was a purely mercantile organisation, with no claim to sovereignty over its members, the addition of the remnants of the Republic of Novgorod and the free state of Flanders ought to have forever destroyed any chance of that. After all, how could a single Prince claim to speak for the French, Germans and Russian, and what power would he have to defend them at any rate?
Yet the gaining of these footholds had the opposite effect on the Hansa, it was made obvious that the old Kingdoms of Europe were ending, France, England, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, none were recognisable even if they did exist. War and strife was bound to envelop Europe as new countries strived for greatness. And in troubled times there was always profit to be made for those clever enough to see, so under the inspired leadership of Jordan Pleskow wholesale changes were enacted to the structure of the league, the Stadholder became in effect a Prince, albeit one with severely limits on their powe, with control over all aspects of the League.
Internationally, this declaration of a new entity was followed by diplomatic offensives to all quarters, Normandy was most happy to have London and its surroundings bought off them, as were the Medici to allow Florence to become a full member. The Bavarian Emperor was approached and gave his blessing to the formation and offers of friendship and co-operation. Unfortunately not all went as smoothly; as Gotland were annexed by Nordrige (Sweden and Denmark combined) before they could accept membership, and Norway and the Teutonic Order both refused offers for trading stations in their lands.
Nonetheless the first years of the League were considered a success, especially with the victory over Pommern and the acquisition of Vorpommern, long considered a part of the league. But the only real war of note was the one caused by the imposition of the Sund Toll by Nordrige, despite the threats of eternal emnity from the Stadholder. Threats that were most certainly carried through by the newly formed Hanseatic Military, two wars in the first half of the 15th century left Nordrige reeling and shattered, as it lost everything south of Stockholm to the Leage. It barely had time to recover before Finland moved in taking a finnish province and lappland, reducing the once proud to state into the servitude of its once arch enemies, the Hansa.
Elsewhere some limited expansion was seen in Germany, were Hannover was vassalised and annexed, Magedburg was conquered and Oldenburg made a protectorate. In Italy a series of wars was intiated by the Genovese Doge, helped by forces of the Hansa based in Florence that saw the annexation of Milan and the formation of Italy into two blocks, one led by the Doge of Genoa and the other by the Pope in Rome commanding an army equal to any in Europe.
Internally the Hanseatic League had never been healthier, its traders were reknowned throughout the world and brought back the wealth of India, Iberia and the Orient for the gain of all. It used this influx of wealth to construct great refineries in Bremen, Jutland, Skane and Vastergotland, showing the trust that the Stadholder placed in the new acquired member states of Scandanavia. Its navy was first rate, and unchallenged outside of the Mediterrean powers, and its army prepared to deal with any threat, leading the world in tactics and weaponry.
With rumors of the New World just beyond the British Isles, and its unimagined riches, the eyes of the Hanseatic Merchant Houses was perhaps beginning to shift outside of old lands.