Chapter 7: Claiming the Dutch provinces
March 1, 1717: France sends the first insult. We get another in April, June, July, and September, at which point France breaks their alliance.
November 1: Albrecht IV rises to the throne, and our union with France is broken.
Now we are surrounded by:
- The Netherlands, who hate us
- Spain, who hates us
- France, who hates us
- Austria, who hates us
- Poland, who hates us
- Sweden, who hates us
- Denmark, who hates us
No problems! At least some people like us, right?
June 1, 1718: Austria now has a disputed succession as their heir has a weak claim. We start sending gifts to get an RM. A PU/Inheritance of Austria fits in our plans of uniting all German cultured provinces.
August 6: August Wilhelm is our new heir.
September 1, 1719: While burning off infamy, our Land tech hits 34, letting us pick between Grenzer, Caroline, and Line infantry. We pick Caroline, due to heavier offensive stats.
A look at the world's armies:
August 5, 1720: France cancels our Military Access. Our attempts to get Austria happy is stymied by a Diplo stat of 3 - we just now got Austria from -170 to above 0.
August 19, 1721: We pick up 2 Discipline advisors (4* and 3*) for 14% more discipline, bringing our discipline to 149%.
July 15, 1722: We take a slider move to Centralization, and lose stability.
August 4, 1723: RM with Austria.
October 1: We claim Austria's throne.
December 22: Austria DoW's Bavaria, using a Reconquest CB on Konstanz. Bavaria loses Konstanz and releases Ansbach within a month.
April 23, 1724: Switzerland cedes Schwyz to Austria.
May 10: The Ottomans declare war on Spain, using the Imperialism CB. Interesting.
July 22: DoW Netherlands using the Nationalism CB, since Dutch provinces are in the German culture group.
August 29: The Dutch are whipped in Utrecht, and are wiped out in Holland 10 days later.
February 5 , 1725: Not having learned from the last war, a Polish army is wiped out in Neumark.
May 29: Another Polish army surrenders after being chased through Danzig and Warmia.
December 1: Sweden has declared war on Poland, and has landed in Kurland.
January 1, 1726: Oldenburg gives us 131 ducats for peace.
January 21: Boundary Dispute in Metz.
March 7: We take Utrecht, Breda, and Friesland from the Netherlands, along with 725 ducats. This leaves the Netherlands with Holland and Zeeland in Europe.
April 20: Sweden grabs Kurland, Samogita, and Trakai from Poland, giving us a border with them again. Crap.
September 1: We repay our loan, after forgetting to raise the money to pay it off last time.
November 1: Government 41: another idea. We take Smithian Economics. We also switch out Grand Army (which we started with) for Scientific Revolution, since we can afford the stabhit (we will get 1 stab/5 months.
November 25: Austria takes Slevig, Fyn, and Jylland from Denmark.
January 8, 1727: Austria's heir has died recently - if Josef I dies, we get a PU.
May 22: DoW Spain to take the Spanish Netherlands from them. Spain has the world's largest army and military access through France (but 7 WE), however, only Austria is capable of doing anything to me. Thankfully, Austria stays out.