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A HISTORY OF THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE
Part 6: The Division of Poland (1677-1727)


The Alliance War on Hessen (1677-1678)

With the help of the Hanseatic Alliance, the duke of Hannover seeks a revenge on Hessen; he declares war on his Western neighbor on March 3rd, 1677, and both the Hansa and Sweden intervene. Hannoverian troops pour to Hessen, and in June, a Hanseatic siege force reaches the former Hannoverian province of Oldenburg.

Sieges in both provinces go on unharassed through the summer and the winter; instead of fighting in their own territory, a large army force from Hessen starts a siege of Hannover in February 1678. As the Hannoverians do not have men to spare, the Hansa orders its armies to the rescue, and in April, the invaders are driven away. At that time, forts in both Oldenburg and Hessen start showing first signs of collapse, and on August 30th 1678, just days after the fall of their capital, Hessen agrees to pay an indemnity of 250 ducats to the temporarily Hannover-led Hanseatic alliance. This premature end to the war is not what we were looking for; the fall of Oldenburg was just a matter of weeks at the time of the peace treaty, and the alliance could easily have gained a much more decisive victory.

In the following years, the Hansa and its allies keep a low profile. Colonization of the New World is now a top priority, as we want full access to Yukon gold as soon as possible.

September 1684 marks a new milestone in the history of the Hanseatic League, when the local natives in Yukon meet with our colonists in the province, and agree to live under our protection as Hanseatic citizens. The natives are skilled fishers and hunters, and this new development allows us to switch more of our colonial labor force to gold washing.

Europe is unusually peaceful in the early 1680s. Part of this may be attributed to a Turkish civil war, which seriously hampers any expansionist plans the Ottoman Sultan may have had. Even France and Spain leave each other alone; Russia and Austria continue to eat up Polish territory, but that really is not even news anymore. However, the Hanseatic Regent is fully aware of the fact that the Polish territories in the Baltics are, historically speaking, ours; a weakened Poland might be a prime target for future expansion, even though we would gain an aggressive and powerful neighbor, Russia, along with those Baltic territories. But first, the Hansa has to deal with Hessen, and this time, we take the initiative.

The Second Alliance War on Hessen (1688-1689)

War is declared on February 27th, 1688, and both Hannover and Sweden honor the alliance and join in. We immediately send a siege force to Oldenburg, while the entire Hannover army marches to Hessen. Again, the Hessen army leaves both siege forces alone, and thanks to a joint effort by Hanseatic and Swedish forces, Oldenburg falls already on November 24th. However, Hessen refuses to give it to us in peace, and in December, their army starts a siege in Hannover. Again a Hanseatic field army liberates the province, and as their capital is about to fall and their army is in shambles, Hessen offers us Oldenburg in exchange for peace in February; the peace treaty is signed on March 6th, 1689.

The 1690s is almost as peaceful as the previous decade. Only a couple of short wars are fought, and this time Spain and France are the main culprits; there is, however, no significant change in their balance of power. The Hansa expands its foothold on the eastern part of North America, forming colonies where we previously had trading posts. The first colonial manufactory is built in 1697 in Shenandoah, an iron-producing province, which now also produces high-quality muskets and protective gear to our colonial forces.

In March, 1699, the Hanseatic Alliance expires after 10 peaceful years. We try to re-establish it in April, only to find that the Swedes had already signed a treaty with the Netherlands. However, Hannover is still willing to ally with us. While we gladly accept an alliance with our friends, this is not what we were after; we are happy to provice protection for Hannover, but the Regent would sleep much better if we had a large military power willing to do the same to us. However, none seem to be available.

In the next decade, the Hansa finds that being independent from major military powers does have its advantages. If the 1680s and 1690s were peaceful, Europe seems to do its best to balance things out in the first decade of the new century. Wars rage on everywhere, including our immediate neighborhood; Austria and Russia take on Hungary and Brandenburg, France fights first England and then Spain and the Netherlands both at once; the former war wins them some territory in North Africa, but in the latter both France and their ally, Venice lose provinces to the Netherlands. Russia and Austria also start a long, drawn-out war against the Ottomans, which has disastrous consequences for Russian domestic policy: in 1709, the Russian government falls, and in the following turmoil, Denmark declares independence.

While most of Europe is one big battle ground, the Hansa-Hannover alliance manages to stay out of skirmishes. However, we do not plan to stay in peace forever – instead, we are building an attack fleet to take our troops to the Polish provinces on the Baltic coast.

The Second Polish War (1710-1714)

Poland has nearly collapsed during the late 1600s and early 1700s, thanks to a series of wars against the Russo-Austrian alliance, and in 1710 their nation, once the largest in Europe, is down to five provinces. The Hanseatic Regent decides that if there is to be some kind of a division of Poland, the Hansa wants its share; therefore, we declare war on March 20th, 1710, when a Hanseatic assault force had already set sails for Eastern Prussia. Poland, in turn, quickly sends troops to Western Pommerania, where they start a siege in July.

The Polish force in Western Pommerania is eventually defeated by the third wave of attack by the Hanseatic field armies, but the Hansa siege army in Eastern Prussia is left almost unharassed through 1710. The province continues its resistance well into the year 1711, when Poland gets another enemy to worry about. Parma had gained Western Prussia and Posen in the Franco-Spanish alliance wars in the early 1600s, and now they are apparently looking for a bigger peace of Poland; they start a war of their own in June.

In November, we accept an invitation Swedish-Ottoman Alliance, but do not require assistance from our new allies in the war against Poland. Eastern Prussia surrenders on December 16th, 1711, and Poland sends us an immediate peace proposal; they are willing to give us the province. However, we are not yet done, as our Regent has set his eyes on Danzig. The conquerors of Eastern Prussia receive some reinforcements in January 1712, and before the end of February, Danzig is under siege. Parma sends some forces to the province as well, and with their help, our army successfully storms the fortress just after New Year's Day 1713. Danzig is ours on January 8th, but Poland refuses to give us both Danzig and Eastern Prussia. However, nothing less than that will be good enough to us; new troops are shipped to Danzig, and our army is ordered to give us more leverage in the negotiations by taking Warsaw.

By now, the Polish army is totally destroyed, as is their will to fight. The siege of Warsaw starts in April 1713, and on January 5th, 1714, the capital of Poland surrenders. Shortly afterwards, on January 15th, we gain both Eastern Prussia and Danzig in a peace treaty.

The conquest in the Baltic had taken a serious toll on our army, and immediately after the peace treaty, we start to rebuild our forces. Originally, this was intended to protect us from Russian and Austrian aggressions, but as things turn out, we need the new troops elsewhere.

The Fall of Denmark (1718-1719)

The recently regained independence has obviously filled the Danes with foolhardy nationalistic pride, as they, along with their ally, Kleve, declare war on us on May 16th, 1718. Kleve agrees to an immediate white peace, so we decide not to bother our allies with what should be a minor annoyance.

The entire Danish army of some 14000 men attacks Jylland in June, but is almost totally destroyed by our field army once they reach the province in August 1718. Unfortunately, our siege force was stationed in Danzig at the time of the war declaration, so our troops do not reach the Danish capital (and only) province, Sjælland, until February 1719. The fortifications in the province are minimal, and the Danish capital surrenders on September 26th; Denmark loses its independence for the second time on October 4th, 1719.

Following the annexation of Denmark, the Hansa starts planning for another offensive, directed at the last Polish possession in the Baltic Sea, Memel. The Regent orders Danzig and Eastern Prussia to draft a new siege force for this purpose. However, as the interests of trade must come first, we start work on a new kind of manufactory, a cigar manufactory, near our tobacco plantations in Chesapeake in North America in 1720.

In October 1722, Sweden declares war on Russia. The Ottoman Empire intervenes on Sweden's behalf, and Austria joins in to help the Russians. We feel that we are not strong enough to defend ourselves in such a war, and decide not to honor the alliance; however, the Swedish King does not seem to hold this against us, as we are accepted to the alliance again a few months later. The war proves to be a short affair, as it ends in a white peace after only six months.

The Third Polish War (1723-1727)

While we are not strong enough to fight the Russo-Austrian alliance, our troops are well-prepared for a final showdown against what remains of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. War is declared on July 7th, 1723, and as the Poles have no allies, we do not bring ours along, either.

The small defending army in the Polish capital province of Mazovia is slaughtered in September 1723, and the province is immediately set under siege. By now, Poland has no army, and the disspirited defenders of Warsaw surrender on May 17th, 1724; our siege force is then ordered to Memel.

The defenders of Memel put up a better fight, but as we know their defeat is only a matter of time, our troops are in no hurry. In fact, while waiting for the fall of Memel, the Hanseatic Regent is free to pursue other goals; therefore, we agree to intervene when the Ottoman Empire declares war on the Knights of St. John in Feburary 1626. We do, however, sign an immediate separate peace with the Knights.

The continued resistance of the Polish garrison in Memel causes some alarm among the commoners throughout the nation. Therefore, their surrencder on October 3rd, 1727, is welcome news to everybody. On October 11th, we sign a peace treaty with Poland, gaining not only Memel but also their entire treasury, 90 ducats. The once mighty Poland is now an insignificant two-province nation.

With a foothold in the Baltics, the Hansa may now be in a position to resume its former glory; the historically Hanseatic cities of Riga and Reval are within striking distance. There is, however, one major obstacle in our way: the gigantic albeit backwards Russian Empire. To defeat them and their allies, the Austrians, the Hanseatic League will need all the resources it can get. The opening of a new North-American trade center in our colonial city of Shenandoah will help us along in our path, but we do need more.

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I'll put up a screenshot of Central Europe in 1727 later tonight.
 
Looking forward to that screenshot. Why don't you eat the swedes for dinner, by what you have written they're not THAT strong...

Cheers,
valdi.

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Some guys play hard to get, I play hard to want.
 
How is this part 6?

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'We must do more than defeat their armies, we must destroy them.' General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson
 
Not as honourable as Ottomans, right? Hitting poor Poland when he is down on his knees? Not the nicest thing you can do. Even though being nice isn't the option when you are playing minor.
Is it much harder playing a small nation then major power?
 
Allright, I couldn't hook up to my ISP from home last night, so the screenshot is a bit late...
http://users.utu.fi/timhau/europe1727.JPG

The colors are a bit unfortunate here: Hansa is darkish green, but so are a lot of other countries, some of which border on the Hansa, so look for the thin red border lines. Hessen is the landlocked dark green two-province country east of the Netherlands (pinkish beige), and the two dark green provinces south of the Eastern Hansa provinces in former Poland are actually Parma. Hungary, Tuscany, and Milan are also the same color as the Hansa.

If you look for significant winners at this point, number one in Europe is the Russo-Austrian alliance (Russia has taken most of current-day Finland from Sweden; Sweden, in turn, has all of current Norway). The Netherlands are also doing very well both in Europe and elsewhere; not only have they managed to take all of the Spanish Netherlands, but they've also expanded into France. The Eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea is also Dutch.

Of the majors Poland is in most trouble (although technically it isn't a major here, since I replaced it with the Hansa as a playable nation), which is now down to two provinces. Southwestern England is French, and the English have also had a hard time with Scotland, a faithful French ally. However, England has a colonial empire, Poland has nothing. Of the minors who often do well, Denmark has disappeared from the map entirely. Tuscany, on the other hand, is well on its way to unifying Italy.

I haven't taken on the Swedes for two reasons: first, they're one of the few nations I have a good relationship with, so they might be more useful as an ally. Second, they have a pretty good fleet in the Baltic, and launching an assault on Sweden might be costly (remember that Hanseatic infantry is among the most expensive in the game). And no, I have no honor -- in Star Trek terms, the Hanseatic League are the Ferengi, not the Klingons. :) Besides, the Hansa doesn't really lend itself to honorable play, as it has no permanent casus bellis against anybody; their only core province is the capital, Mecklemburg -- even losing Eastern Pommerania to France doesn't give me an acceptable reason for war.

As for difficulty, the Hansa is by far the most challenging nation I've played at any serious length so far, which doesn't really tell you much -- only that it's harder than Austria, Russia, Denmark, France, or Turkey. It's also more fun; you have to keep on your toes, because there are a lot of nations with significantly more military power than you.
 
They really should have had a little bit more map colours :)
How about a screenshot of your colonies as well?
Without casus belli, was it -2 stability drop when declaring war?
And who need honour when you can have power :)
 
There is a screenshot of the Hansa possessions in Eastern North America in the previous part; things really haven't changed much since. Only Yukon (extreme Northwest) is a new territory.

Yup, you get a -2 stability drop if you declare war without a casus belli. That can get expensive in the long run, and it also hurts you diplomatically.
 
On the screenshot we nicely see the 'Austria problem'. An unwanted sideeffect of the vassalisation restrictions (concerning relative strenght) introduced in one of the patches (don´t know exactly which one) is, that Austria does not get Hungary into vassalisation/annexation anymore. So it expands a bit weirdly in other regions than the balkans (which is the preferred region according to the habsburg.ai).
In older versions we mostly had a nice Austria/Turkey showdown on the Balkans. I hope we will get this back someday...

Hartmann
 
Up to the point shown in the screenshot, I had been using v. 1.05b; I didn't switch into the new version until about 10 years before the end.
 
Excellent AAR, I cannot wait for the next Part, keep it going, Have you any other AAR archived that I can read? This kind of stuff can really keep the intrest in the game going,taking on russia should be ok so long as the turks and swedes join in on the fight, ever think of taking on the dutch or making a new germanic reich??

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Sean
Capre Diem.
 
Originally posted by Kekkonen:
Up to the point shown in the screenshot, I had been using v. 1.05b; I didn't switch into the new version until about 10 years before the end.

Yes, this is compatible with what I posted, because the restriction I spoke of was introduced with 1.04 already:

Changes to Version 1.04
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* AI has become better to determine if it should be annexed or vassalised.

Hartmann
 
Originally posted by ciaus:
Excellent AAR, I cannot wait for the next Part, keep it going, Have you any other AAR archived that I can read? This kind of stuff can really keep the intrest in the game going,taking on russia should be ok so long as the turks and swedes join in on the fight, ever think of taking on the dutch or making a new germanic reich??

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it. I've written an AAR as the Ottoman Empire (do a search on 'When Ottomans Ruled the Earth'). I played that game to the end (and I've also finished the Hansa game now, I just haven't gotten around to writing the end of the AAR yet); I also wrote 2 parts of an AAR from a game where I played Austria, but I never finished the campaign -- the game crashed on me at the end of a long playing session, and I hadn't turned the autosave feature on. My last savegame was really old, and I just didn't have it in me to start from there again.

At this point in the Hansa game, I was actually eyeing Russia -- after all, they controlled Riga (in Livonia), Reval (Estonia) and Visby (Gotland), all of which are, I believe, old Hanseatic cities. The problem was their alliance with Austria -- Russia had huge but primitive troops, and I thought I might be able to take them on. However, Austria could crush me like a bug, and I don't think the Ottomans would've been much help there.

As for the Dutch, I don't dare to touch them. I had a royal marriage with them, and saw that they had enormous armies (60-80k) parked in their home provinces, and their tech level (which you can roughly see by looking at the soldier icon -- a halberdier is the most primitive, then you get a musketeer, and finally a grenadier) was at least equal to mine. The Dutch also had a very large colonial army in North America, so going to war against them would've probably meant kissing my best colonies goodbye.
 
Yes, you must liberate Tallinn from evil Russians and bring it back to Hansaetic league. But Piskov, Novgorod and Tartu were members of Hansa as well, so don't forget them too!!!
 
Wow...
That's a dark green screenshot!!! :)
The dark green patch south of Austria is Hungary????
Hmmm... You're getting cornered both by the eastern alliance and by France... How do you plan to get out of that squeeze?

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Dom Dede III

Magno Rex of the Brazilian Empire