The will of a king : a belgian AAR

[Bryaxis]

Well. It's been sometimes since I last wrote an AAR, and all of them were for HoI. Now, I think I need to do a Victorian era AAR, with my native country, Belgium, who was then at the brightest point in her history. But I won't be following the original history of Belgium, for I think Belgium should achieve a greatest rank that what she got in real world.

So, what will my objectives be ? I'll try to get all of northern africa, from Marocco to the Sinai and beyhond, and from the mediteranean coast to the coast of ivory and the corn of Africa.

I'll be using Victoria 1.01 on normal/normal settings.

Hope you'll enjoy !

( as usually, I beg your forgivness for my english which is only a foreign langage for me ! )

[Bryaxis]

The time of the stabilisation : The Independance War ( January 36 - Mai 1936 )



The situation had been tense for years. The dutch king Guillaume 1st of Orange was not ready to accept the loss of half of his european territories. Troops were on a war footing. Guillaume did not want to sign the treaty of London called "Treaty of the XXIV articles" and thus decided in january 1936 to order his forces to engage the belgian rebels. King Leopold 1st of Belgium reacted immediatly by taking the suprem command of his forces. His first reaction was to invade the dutch limburg north of Liege province : historically, Liege was the heart of the belgian revolution and can't be in dutch hands at that time, so I decideand to send his 3 remaining divisons to Antwerpen, the most likely target for the Dutch as it openned the way toward Brussel and was linked to the capital by railroads.



The king had been right, for by the 7th a dutch division was seen in the province of Antwerpen. By the 12th had a first division arrived on scene, and by the 20th had the three divisions arrived. They routed the dutch force in two more days before the force was split to cover the border and invade Maastricht.

At the same time, King Leopold 1st ordered the national railroad company to extend her network in Hasselt to help the belgian forces defending the border. And he ordered mobilization of the single reserve division of the kingdom.

After some battles in Gent and Liege, King Guillaume 1st understood that he had no hopes to win the war and agreed to a peace agreement which was quite good for Belgium : the whole province of Liege and the northern Luxembourg were to become belgian lands, and their independance was to be garanteed by the great powers.

The treaty was signed on the 4th of may 1936 and France and Great-Britain guaranteed it.

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dutch limburg : north of Liege province : historically, Liege was the heart of the belgian revolution and can't be in dutch hands at that time, so I decided that the reason behing the current design of the map was that the province still has lots of the dutch limburg in it.

[Bryaxis]

The time of stabilisation : The first year of peace ( May 36-June 37 )

After this victory, the belgian governement of "union nationale" had to strengthen the country economicaly and politicaly.

It was thougt that with the belgian independance guaranteed by both France and Great Britain, their was no need to have a strong defense. The 1st Cavalery division was disbanded, the national defense budget set at about 50% and the generals told to be happy with that.

Economically, it was decided to build a new industry of fertilizersin Flanders and to devellop the lumber production near the town of Arlon.

The taxes were increased to around 50% for each social class in order to finance the industrial devellopement and the construction of a railroad network.

But, in the higher circles, some were already begining to look far from their borders...

In the rest of the world, there was nothing really important for Belgium : some internal frictions in Peru, some social troubles in Spain, and it was all.

[ToMazaz]

Very nice !!!

[Bryaxis]

The first steps in the great nation's playground ( june 37 - august 39 ) (1)

During a full year did the belgian governement attemp to build a strong economy. The mesures of 36 and early 37 proved themselves to be quite good, and soon money came in the treasuary. But not enough to increase the defense, education and justice budgets. Belgium was simply too small for that.

Knowing this, the higher members of the belgian political elite were looking abroad for a good colony, as it was perceived as the only real solution. But they soon discovred that it would be quite difficult to get a good colony for the pacific island were all occupied or so it seemed, the Americas were too organised to be considered as valuable targets, Asia was a british and russian playground with french ambitions in the middle...

Thus the only availlable continent was Africa. A land full of contrasts, with a lot of uncleared jungles and deep forests and terrible savages, without towns or roads, plagued by many kind of uncurable sickness... Not a great perspective !

Then, in during the month of april 37 th prime minister, the chief of army and the leaders of the liberal and catholic groups of the governement of national union were summoned by the King.

Arriving in a single car, the three men talked a lot, curious about what the king had to tell them. For it was the first time that all three men were ordered to come to the king's cabinet.

When they came in the Royal Palace, they immediatly saw that something was wrong for they were not led to the king's office but to the king's library, where they found a great map of the world. They immediatly recognized the map as a political map of the world, with the various nations borders and claims. Then came the king.

" - Gentlemens, I thank you for being here today. I hope you have no other apointment today for we have much to discuss. If you have to cancel something, I've got some messengers next door for your use.
With that said, let's sit down and enter the subject without any preambule."

The three very surprised men sat while the king stayed on his legs.

"As you can see on this map, Belgium is small. Very small. Well, it's a kingdom, and it's bigger than some german or italians states, but it's still very small. And powerless. For what do we own except some coal and iron under our feets ? Nothing ! No cotton, no precious stones or minerals, no cafe,... We don't even grow enough food to feed our population ! This has to stop. But how ? Like you, I've been thinking about a colony. And I've come to the same conclusion than the governement on the continent where this colony must be founded. But where I don't agree with you gentlemens is the exact localisation of this colony. For I think that looking toward Madagascar or southern africa is looking too far...

- But Sire, if I might, they are no other free lands...
- In your eyes not. But there is. The solution came to my mind while looking young Leopold showing his younger brother Philippe his new toys, small lead soldiers showing crusaders and sarrasins.
- You don't think about a new crusade, do you Sire ?
- Yes I am. But not to Jerusalem, at least not now... Maybe in the future but not now. The Ottomans are too powerfull and leading a war so far is currently impossible for our small forces. 3 divisions can't seriously hope to beat such a power ! But let me show you this map..."

The king then showed the three men a new map on which Africa was drawned as far as the junction between Egypt proper and the Sinai. All of Africa north of a line drawn between mount Cameroun and the Corn of Africa was stripped in brown, the color that had been applied to Belgium on the previous map. The three men gapped : their king wanted more than half of a continent for colony !

The king then said : " Well, gentlemens, this is our objective for the next 25 years. All must be done in order to accomplish it. Let's get to buisness. And I tell it to you here and now, they will be no opposition, no obstacles to this plan that I will not see silenced or destroyed in blood ! It includes any belgian citizen. It includes you. You are dismissed."

[Bryaxis]

The first steps in the great nation's playground ( june 37 - august 39 ) (2)

The first target of the Belgian army was Marocco. The country was wide, strategically placed, and had very little military forces. It would suffise to show those africans who was superior to get them working for Belgium greater glory. Or so was it tought...



The three belgian divisions had embarqued on every ship availlable in Ostende, the main military port of belgium. They had then sailed toward the maroccan coast and there did a simultaneous three pronged amphibious disbarquement in Tangiers, Kasr el Kebir and Rabat.

Less than a year later, 6 provinces were under belgian control. The local chieftains then met and decided to offer peace, making great sacrifices, but their offer was rejected. What Belgium wanted was total control over their lands.



Finally, on the 10th may 1839 did the maroccan leaders accept to be annexed to the belgian possessions.



During all this time, the world did not stay quite : numerous civil war errupted in central america, Texas was quite humilied in the international eyes by the powerfull mexicans armies, a great crisis errupted when the egyptian califate and the ottoman empire went at war, with England and France joining in, England that also went at war against the Chinese Empire for a opium trade question...

In Belgium proper did something happen that would have huge consequences on the later history of the country : the flemish writted Henry Consciance published a book in flemish, thus helping the creation of a flemish nationalist movement...

At the end of this period, Belgium had become a important if not major player on the european international theater, and was a lot richer with railroads running through the whole country and industry working at full power.

[Bryaxis]

The War against Prussia ( augustus 39 - march 43 )



The great achievements of the young nation did not please some nations. One of those was the powerfull Prussian Empire. Seing that the whole belgian army was occupied in Marocco, the prussian Kaiser declared war against his small neighbour.

What they had not counted upon was the intervention of both France and Great Britain. Yet they had time to invade both Liege and Arlon provinces before anybody could challenge their forces. It was not until January 40 that belgian forces could intervene.

9 months and many offensives and counter-offensives later, the situation seemed balanced. But, on the 7th of september, a peace proposal came from the prussian's allies in Hannover. Needless to say that this peace was quickly signed !

By christmas 40 had the prussian be thrown out of Belgium and they then began a long retreat toward Berlin...

Berlin which was under direct threat because of the british disbarquement on the baltic coast ! Still, the Prussian fought bravely, and the war was still raging by december 42 !

Finally, in March 43, the Prussian came with a peace proposal that was accepted.


During this war, the belgian forces did nothing but defend the national border and fight against the rear line prussian forces that tried to retake the french controlled lines. No new units were produced, because the governement preffered to improve the railroad network and devellop his colonies on the mauretanian coast... The governement did also some techs and lands trading with the french and british governements.

No great events took place during this period in the rest of the world, with the exception of the implosion of Peru.

[Bryaxis]

The Great Colonial Extension : the mauretanian and senegalian questions ( March 39 -

i meant to begin this chapter tonight but am too tired ... so you'll get it tomorow ! Sorry

[ToMazaz]

Go go Bryaxis !!

[stnylan]

I'll happily wait. I'm just playing Belgium right now, and might well make an AAR of it, so I am interested in seeing how things turn out for you (of course, I know next to nothing about Belgian history).

[Bryaxis]

The Great Colonial Extension : the mauretanian and senegalian questions ( March 39 - April 51 )

I must warn you that I forgot to take sreenshots during those years, so it'll be quite short...

During and after this long war against Prussia, the last fight for independance, the Belgian governement decided to quicken the colonisation process. Orders were given so that great amounts of glass were bought on the world markets, and missionaries were sent to the southern maroccan and mauretanian coasts. Yet money was not flowing as wished, and the Spanish governement had the time to build a colony in mauretania that had to be bought. Luckily, the great technological advance of Belgium allowed the governement to spend very little money in this deal. A second one was even signed for the spanish possessions in northern marocco.

Then an industrial disaster took place in Brussel : a great fire destroyed the cement factory there, leaving lots of poeple unemployed.

The governement then decided to build a new steamer factory, to help the colonial devellopement. What had not been suspected was the great revenue that came from this industry ! With more than 200£ of daily revenue, the colonisation process got a real boost.

Numerous negociations took place with France, Britain and Portugal, in order to buy Senegal and all the coastal lands to the coast of Ivory. The colonisation of Algeria also began, as well as the one of Mali and Niger. Slowly, the empire wished by king Leopold 1st was taking form.



During this period, Belgium took care of always behing close to both France and Britain, and to always allies with them in order to assure the safety of the country. Research was well funded as was justice, and reforms were made toward a good health system and new good security regulations on the work sites.

[Bryaxis]

The Great Colonial Extension : The Algerian and Tunisian questions

The next step on the belgian colonial agenda was the full controll of the north african coast as far as the lybian gulf. Three nations held on those lands : Al Djazair, France and Tunisia. If the french lands could easily be traded, war would be needed in order to get the possessions of the other two countries. And war there was, quick and successfull thanks to the 5 new dragoons divisions who fell on the back of the Tunisian who were unable to resist while the infantery rolled the algerians toward their capitol, which soon fell. During this time, social reform and normal colonial expension continued.

[Bryaxis]

I'm sorry, but a computer virus just stuck my playing computer and destroyed every savefile/text/screenshot I had on it. I thus won't be able to finish this AAR, which I had played until 1860 when I had all of the northern half of Africa under my domination, Egypt excepted, and added Luxembourg to my european realms. I'm really sorry.

[Morpheus506]

That's too bad ... oh well.

[Bryaxis]

I promise you that I'll start a new belgian game and aar once I'll have restored everything on my gaming computer ! It'll be my vengeance against the virus !

[Lord of Lindum]

Keep em comming, so far this one was great