Greece 2 .
The war was initially a naval one where in the world expected an easy British victory .The British proved them right when they defeated the Austrian navy at the battle of Athens on 12th June 1864 .
But the Austrian navy surprised everyone by defeating the British in the battle outside Athens and forcing the British to retreat to the secured port of Athens .Then the Austrian navy retreated to SGF lands .
Then the SGF first army was deployed to Greece itself to defeat the Russian faction while Army group 2 would defend against the NGF ,Russian troops with French help .
The French were particularly successful in the Rhine front where they defeated the NGF armies in various battles between late June and late August .
On the Russian front ,early Russian victories were negated by the massive bloody battle of Galicia where 45000 SGF and 67000 Russian casualties forced the war on that front into a temporary stalemate .
On the Greek front itself ,the British had no answer to the superior land armies of the SGF ,who ,supported by the French faction defeated the Russian faction in several short and bloody battles and by 2nd September occupied Athens while the Russian faction(Which at that point was considered to be the legitimate government by neutral powers) was exiled to London .
After their losses in Greece ,the British mindset changed .The new British plan was that ,instead of a long struggling urban war in Greece ,the army would ,with the help of the so called powerful armies of the NGF and Russia attack the Austrians on the NGF-SGF front and after a quick war ,occupy Vienna itself .
From the start ,this looked like a poor idea ,as the weakened and spent armies of Russia could contribute little and the NGF was outnumbered by the vast and powerful militaries of France and the SGF .British armies would be a very small addition to this .
On 10th September 1864 ,the diplomatic negotiations on the other side of the world failed and the war known as 'Russian annexation of outer Manchuria' started .
The British managed to land successfully at Oldenburg on 20th of September 1863 after a short battle with the French(Who had occupied most of Western North Germany earlier) .The French tactically retreated .
The British army then pushed through along with North German armies and managed to get some victories in the southern Rhineland .The initial impulse meant that by late November ,the British had managed to reach the SGF-NGF front .
But there were many issues ,the London armchair generals had failed to take into account many factors about the future .
1)The SGF forces mobilized very fast on the front .
2)The almost non existant Russian presence .
3)Their stretched supply lines .
4)Most of the French retreats had been tactical rather than routs .
By the time the war would be over in late March 1864,the British had suffered a humiliating defeat on the NGF-SGF front ,Russia (Unable to fight on the front) had surrendered ,the NGF had catipulated .
This was due to a series of battles known as the NGF-SGF frontier battles .
About 140000 men lost their lives on this frontier .
On 19th April 1864 the treaty of Athens was signed .
According to this treaty ,Britain would pay war reparations to all the combatants on the winning side .
The occupying SGF army would place Luitpold on the throne of Greece as King Luitpold I .
The Prince William and his descendants would forever relinquish all claims to the Greek throne .
The resulting treaties eliminated the NGF as a power in European affairs and it was transferred to the SGF sphere of influence .Though German unification was still a few years away ,it had been initiated in 1864 itself .
For about a year ,Luitpold reigned with absolute authority ,but by May 1865 ,the SGF armies had left and the demands of the corrupt French faction had made his position untenable .Finally in July 1865 a major uprising took place against the government in Northern Greece led by the Russian faction(Which had previously been declared illegal but pardoned in January 1865 and allowed to take a role in politics) and the reactionary rebels .
With the SGF stuck in diplomatic negotiations about German unification ,the work of crushing the rebels had to be achieved by Greek steel itself .
The main issue was that ,Luitpold I had only about 7500 loyal men under his command and an additional 400-500 Bavarians who had remained there as mercenaries .But the rebels numbered between 20000 to 25000 .He know that the only way to defend against such odds was to make maximum use of the terrain and of the superior skills of his own armies .
But he needn't had worried .The rebels themselves were low on morale and they did not possess the muzzle loading rifles that the state army had .They were still using old flintlocks .
Luitpold and his war cabinet choose the plains of Palaia Fokaia to give battle .Trenches were dug in ,artillery positions were made up and then ,using decoys ,the rebel army was forced to enter into the saw mill .
Even before they got to the trenches ,half of the enemy army was either crushed or fled .The rebels then decided to make one last brave cavalry charge hoping to conquer against all odds like the knights of old .
The charge went just as expected and ended in the slaughter of some 5100 cavalrymen before the rebels army came to its senses and fled .
Safe to say ,that the dreams of an absolute monarchy in Greece were at last crushed .
In February 1866 ,the SGF declared war on France over the question of Alsace Lorraine .
Luitpold was now in a dilemma about whom to support .
His prime ministers and cabinet of the French party urged him to support France ,but he was bound to support the SGF .Hence on 18th February 1866 he scrapped the power of the French party and exiled them to Paris ,he instead appointed as president Alexandros Koumoundouros of the new nationalist party .
Thus ,within all the confusion he also dared to declare complete neutrality .The SGF declared its contempt ,but wasn't interested in taking back the alliance by force .
This move however also broke Luitpold's relation with his own family ,who as rulers of Bavaria ,where members of the SGF .
Alexandros Koumoundouros
The nationalist party and Koumoundouros at last brought lasting peace to Greece .
New roads were built ,shipyards were constructed ,the military was strengthened ,social order was stabilized ,reactionary sentiments were gently rubbed out and jingoism was given a new nationalist meaning .
By 1868 ,Greece ,which had once ranked as 58th in the list of countries(In 1863) was now ranked as 22nd .
The president was seen as the father of the nation .In 1869 ,the war ended with an SGF victory and Napolean III surrendered unconditionally .The vast German lands were at last united as one political entity since 1803 and one absolute political entity for the first time since the Franks .
That same year ,a new bill was passed in Greece according to which Luitpold I now declared the nation ,a fully constitutional monarchy .
A month later ,a new revolution sprung up demanding a return to Prussian constitutionalism .
Thus by 1870 ,Greece was a wonderfully peaceful nation !
The war was initially a naval one where in the world expected an easy British victory .The British proved them right when they defeated the Austrian navy at the battle of Athens on 12th June 1864 .
But the Austrian navy surprised everyone by defeating the British in the battle outside Athens and forcing the British to retreat to the secured port of Athens .Then the Austrian navy retreated to SGF lands .
Then the SGF first army was deployed to Greece itself to defeat the Russian faction while Army group 2 would defend against the NGF ,Russian troops with French help .
The French were particularly successful in the Rhine front where they defeated the NGF armies in various battles between late June and late August .
On the Russian front ,early Russian victories were negated by the massive bloody battle of Galicia where 45000 SGF and 67000 Russian casualties forced the war on that front into a temporary stalemate .
On the Greek front itself ,the British had no answer to the superior land armies of the SGF ,who ,supported by the French faction defeated the Russian faction in several short and bloody battles and by 2nd September occupied Athens while the Russian faction(Which at that point was considered to be the legitimate government by neutral powers) was exiled to London .
After their losses in Greece ,the British mindset changed .The new British plan was that ,instead of a long struggling urban war in Greece ,the army would ,with the help of the so called powerful armies of the NGF and Russia attack the Austrians on the NGF-SGF front and after a quick war ,occupy Vienna itself .
From the start ,this looked like a poor idea ,as the weakened and spent armies of Russia could contribute little and the NGF was outnumbered by the vast and powerful militaries of France and the SGF .British armies would be a very small addition to this .
On 10th September 1864 ,the diplomatic negotiations on the other side of the world failed and the war known as 'Russian annexation of outer Manchuria' started .
Russo Chinese war .
The British managed to land successfully at Oldenburg on 20th of September 1863 after a short battle with the French(Who had occupied most of Western North Germany earlier) .The French tactically retreated .
The British army then pushed through along with North German armies and managed to get some victories in the southern Rhineland .The initial impulse meant that by late November ,the British had managed to reach the SGF-NGF front .
But there were many issues ,the London armchair generals had failed to take into account many factors about the future .
1)The SGF forces mobilized very fast on the front .
2)The almost non existant Russian presence .
3)Their stretched supply lines .
4)Most of the French retreats had been tactical rather than routs .
By the time the war would be over in late March 1864,the British had suffered a humiliating defeat on the NGF-SGF front ,Russia (Unable to fight on the front) had surrendered ,the NGF had catipulated .
This was due to a series of battles known as the NGF-SGF frontier battles .
About 140000 men lost their lives on this frontier .
On 19th April 1864 the treaty of Athens was signed .
According to this treaty ,Britain would pay war reparations to all the combatants on the winning side .
The occupying SGF army would place Luitpold on the throne of Greece as King Luitpold I .
The Prince William and his descendants would forever relinquish all claims to the Greek throne .
The resulting treaties eliminated the NGF as a power in European affairs and it was transferred to the SGF sphere of influence .Though German unification was still a few years away ,it had been initiated in 1864 itself .
For about a year ,Luitpold reigned with absolute authority ,but by May 1865 ,the SGF armies had left and the demands of the corrupt French faction had made his position untenable .Finally in July 1865 a major uprising took place against the government in Northern Greece led by the Russian faction(Which had previously been declared illegal but pardoned in January 1865 and allowed to take a role in politics) and the reactionary rebels .
With the SGF stuck in diplomatic negotiations about German unification ,the work of crushing the rebels had to be achieved by Greek steel itself .
The main issue was that ,Luitpold I had only about 7500 loyal men under his command and an additional 400-500 Bavarians who had remained there as mercenaries .But the rebels numbered between 20000 to 25000 .He know that the only way to defend against such odds was to make maximum use of the terrain and of the superior skills of his own armies .
But he needn't had worried .The rebels themselves were low on morale and they did not possess the muzzle loading rifles that the state army had .They were still using old flintlocks .
Luitpold and his war cabinet choose the plains of Palaia Fokaia to give battle .Trenches were dug in ,artillery positions were made up and then ,using decoys ,the rebel army was forced to enter into the saw mill .
Even before they got to the trenches ,half of the enemy army was either crushed or fled .The rebels then decided to make one last brave cavalry charge hoping to conquer against all odds like the knights of old .
The charge went just as expected and ended in the slaughter of some 5100 cavalrymen before the rebels army came to its senses and fled .
Safe to say ,that the dreams of an absolute monarchy in Greece were at last crushed .
In February 1866 ,the SGF declared war on France over the question of Alsace Lorraine .
Luitpold was now in a dilemma about whom to support .
His prime ministers and cabinet of the French party urged him to support France ,but he was bound to support the SGF .Hence on 18th February 1866 he scrapped the power of the French party and exiled them to Paris ,he instead appointed as president Alexandros Koumoundouros of the new nationalist party .
Thus ,within all the confusion he also dared to declare complete neutrality .The SGF declared its contempt ,but wasn't interested in taking back the alliance by force .
This move however also broke Luitpold's relation with his own family ,who as rulers of Bavaria ,where members of the SGF .
The nationalist party and Koumoundouros at last brought lasting peace to Greece .
New roads were built ,shipyards were constructed ,the military was strengthened ,social order was stabilized ,reactionary sentiments were gently rubbed out and jingoism was given a new nationalist meaning .
By 1868 ,Greece ,which had once ranked as 58th in the list of countries(In 1863) was now ranked as 22nd .
The president was seen as the father of the nation .In 1869 ,the war ended with an SGF victory and Napolean III surrendered unconditionally .The vast German lands were at last united as one political entity since 1803 and one absolute political entity for the first time since the Franks .
That same year ,a new bill was passed in Greece according to which Luitpold I now declared the nation ,a fully constitutional monarchy .
A month later ,a new revolution sprung up demanding a return to Prussian constitutionalism .
Thus by 1870 ,Greece was a wonderfully peaceful nation !
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