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The Swiss Peninsula

A very interesting AAR so far. I was considering Switzerland for mine, but I think you're doing it better than I could have. Nice signature too. :D

Interestingly, I was considering Holland! I've been following your AAR, too for a while now. As you said with me, I think you're doing better than I could have ;)


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Switzerland was experiencing a few years of relative peace and quiet. Even the rebels started to dissipate and stopped troubling the countryside of Ancona for a time. This allowed Honegger to shift his focus to the problems at home. One such problem was a Bailiff, or as they called him, a Vogt. This particular Vogt was keeping tax money for himself, and it was obvious for he had built himself a rather large house. Almost a miniature castle. But the people truly got angry when he punished a small boy for stealing a loaf of bread by having him hung. Syndic Honegger quickly became involved when he heard of the cruelty. He did not even have to consider ignoring the complaints and sentenced the Vogt to the same punishment as he had given the boy. Although conflict within the government would lower Switzerland’s reputation on the world stage, Honegger was determined to do what was right and the Swiss applauded him for that.

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With that out of the way, Honegger again focused on micromanaging his state. He sent out merchants to increase money flow, he built up the military, and he tried to improve relations with some of his allies. In all, it was a great term and it led to him being re-elected by the Swiss on April 11, 1411.

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The Swiss were not the only fans of Syndic Honegger. Ferrara was also a great supporter and sent a few casks of wine to Switzerland and some money to show its support. The Tagsatzung saw this as a great improvement of relations and thus shifted its focus north. Lorraine, albeit being a smaller nation that Switzerland, had a larger military than it. Switzerland set forth to correct this before it became a problem.

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Honegger was pleased with the relative peace. He did recruit a few more men to the military, just in case. In February, 1412, Honegger organized the country’s largest Fasnacht ever. Fasnacht is the Swiss equivalent of Carnival. The festivities lasted well over the one day it usually did. In fact, after two weeks of heavy revelry, the military had to be called in to get people to go back to work. The people returned happy despite the stop to the celebrations and resumed work with full stomachs and minds.

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After the festivities, Honegger reviewed the financial report and noted that the inflation rate was rising much too rapidly. He called in two masters of mint, Helberingen and Bischofberger, to combat the inflation and turn English tongues into jelly. The efficiency of the men led Honegger to consider establishing a national bank. But the state simply wasn’t ready for such an idea yet and turned it down. Besides, the bureaucracy was still being fully established.

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In October, the pope excommunicated Luxembourg. Switzerland considered going into the war, but Burgundy was guaranteeing Luxembourg despite the excommunication. It would simply be too much for the Swiss military to handle if Burgundy upheld its guarantee.

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Lorraine failed to see that angle. Burgundy upheld its guarantee to Luxembourg and declared war on Lorraine. Before they knew it, the Lorrainians were overrun by Burgundian forces. They quickly succumbed and lost half their land to the king of Burgundy. The Swiss thus changed their plans to build a larger force than Lorraine to build a larger force than Naples.

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It was just in time, too. Naples broke a trade league agreement, plunging it into multiple wars with the Italian provinces. Switzerland seized the opportunity and declared war itself on the basis of being in an alliance with some of the attackers. The Swiss forces marched in before the other armies could even gather and quickly besieged three of the four provinces. Milan held the other, but they brokered peace with Naples in exchange for 134 ducats. Switzerland’s forces marched back on Napoli and took it quickly. It was a truly bloodless war. With a sword to his gullet, the king of Naples offered peace to Switzerland. Switzerland would gain three of the four provinces for itself.

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This was a shock to the world. Switzerland now controlled the entire southern tip of the Italian peninsula. With the Papal States as a Swiss vassal, Naples was an island in an ocean of Swiss force. Honegger felt justified in what he had done, as he had noticed the French casting a hungry eye on the Italian provinces. In time, he predicted, the Swiss could recreate the Italian nations under their protection.

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With Naples reduced by 75% or so, they disbanded much of their military and the Tagsatzung held another meeting to decide on its course of action. The rational members fell asleep at their desks while the debate raged on. They finally decided on a matter: to annex the Papal States to the rest of Switzerland!

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The rational ones woke with a start.
“Annex the pope!? You have got to be kidding me,” said Honegger himself, “The ENTIRE rest of Europe will come after us. We’re a bit more powerful but not that much! No, forget it! I won’t have it.”
So Switzerland lost a bit of prestige with other nations by shifting its focus again. This time, with Honegger heading the discussion, it was decided that the rest of Naples should be incorporated into Switzerland as well, after the 5 year truce expired. For their protection, of course.

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Ooh the pope

If Switzerland ever converts to Protestantism or Reformism, it may be interesting to see what happens if I continue to control the Papal States...

Nice. A Swiss empire in Italy is certainly a first as far as I've seen.

Once they have ships, the Swiss will be able to go to places you never expected them to be =D
 
Alliances and Emperors

With the great success Honegger had brought the Swiss, Honegger easily won the next election against four other candidates. Not that they weren’t good; in fact, some may have been better. But the Swiss didn’t like taking chances and they knew Honegger was a good man. Besides, he loved his job and people speculated he wouldn’t leave the desk or the frontlines as a general until he died.

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Soon after, Bavaria offered Switzerland a military alliance. The Swiss refused, for their focus was on the southern Italian states, not on central Europe. Bavaria wasn’t too disturbed anyhow. Allies were easy enough to find in other parts of Europe. Switzerland had merely looked powerful due to its recent conquests.

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The populace of the territory that had once belonged to Sicily began to get restless as the thought of belonging to Switzerland sunk in. Many felt it was alright, as Italian was one of Switzerland’s four languages. But others longed to re-join the kingdom of Sicily to the west. Chief of these dissenters was Roberto Grimaldi. He was able to rally 8000 people to join him, 1000 of which were mounted units.

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Honegger decided to recruit another cavalry division before sending the military to disband the revolution. Meanwhile, a chief advisor of Switzerland died. He had been a man who brought the merchants much progress, with ideas that increased their chance to compete in foreign markets. He was replaced by Albert Herbert, a man focused on increasing the efficiency of production.

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News from the West came to Switzerland as well. It turned out that the king of Brittany had no legitimate heir. Since Aragon had the largest claim to the throne, the king of Aragon proclaimed the former territories of Brittany as Aragonian. The news did not trouble Honegger. They were far away and his focus was on Italy, not France.

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In January, 1416, the military was finally ready to march upon the Sicilian revolutionaries. The horses rode up so fast that they surprised the units of Grimaldi. However, while the battle was won by the Swiss, they also suffered some heavy casualties. Thus, it was decided that Grimaldi be hung from the gallows in Sicily as an example to other would-be revolutionaries.

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With that done, Honegger returned to Bern and sat down at his desk.
One year later, he received a letter with barely legible writing. It looked like someone had written it with white ink of all things. Squinting to read it, he made out that Bohemia was working on some sort of Reichsreform. Since there was no monarchy in Switzerland, they voted for reform. However, after he sent in the letter, he never heard about it again. Indeed, it was as if it had been some elaborate prank.

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Two months passed by and he received another letter, this time from Milan. It read:
“Dear Syndic Honegger,
Although we have had a great alliance, except for that incident where we didn’t come to your aid and all, we regret to inform you that it must be ceased. This is due to your decision to vote yes for Reichsreform.
So long,
Milan”
Honegger was confused. There was that mention of Reichsreform again. He still had no idea what it meant or why he should vote for it. But apparently Milan was angry about it. He racked his mind for something on the subject but came up shorthanded. He asked the Tagsatzung and his advisors but they were all oblivious as well. He would have shrugged off the loss of the alliance, but a week earlier he had heard that the French had seized the port off of Milan as their own. This was troubling news, as it meant the French had an interest in the peninsula now as well.

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Honegger shook his head and had a cup of strong tea to clear his mind. He looked upon his nation and realized that they were focusing too much on the offensive when there weren’t that many wars to be fought. He decided to rebuild some walls in the fortifications.

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On May, 1417, one a man appeared who proclaimed himself the Emperor of Switzerland. Strangely, the deranged man was able to raise up a small army of 8000 men. The Swiss army descended on his and a large battle was fought that ended up on the front steps of the Tagsatzung itself. The Emperor of Switzerland was not captured, however. He was wearing a mask and disappeared before the battle was over. This would probably not be the last of his shenanigans.

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Following the conflict, the Emperor of The Holy Roman Empire and King of Bohemia suddenly decided that Switzerland would be a great ally. The large nation sent an offer and Switzerland readily accepted it.

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Sicily, a long-time ally of Switzerland’s, viewed this new alliance as a threat to itself. They argued that they would also be dragged into Bohemia’s wars, and that besides, Naples belonged to them. The Swiss frowned on this and saw it as a reason to declare war, but did not want to lose another ally. Besides, it would be hard to reach Sicily over the ocean without ships.

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In July 1418, the Genoese League decided to set up yet another trading post to Venice through Swiss territory. This one would be in the Swiss province of Abruzzi.

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Over the next two years, nothing much happened for Switzerland. They did learn that Bavaria was fighting many wars in the name of the empire and that Switzerland could join them if they wished. However, the Swiss did not want to get involved in wars with neither Austria nor France. Both were far too powerful.

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On April 8, 1419, another election was held. Yet again, Charles Honegger won by a landslide vote.

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He was able to prove his successes soon after in November when it was found that the bureaucracy was increasing the taxes able to be gained from the populace. This was welcome news to the Tagsatzung.

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Switzerland received another alliance offer from Bavaria in early 1420. They decided to accept this time, as they were to be involved in the north anyways thanks to Bohemia. They also gained a casus belli against many of the northern German states.

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Honegger frowned at the large amounts of casus bellis. He asked for a member to investigate and he came back with the following intelligence report:

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So Bohemia was fighting four different wars, two of them with major countries in the world and many of them with Holy Roman Empire nations… This could be trouble for Bohemia. Its prestige among other countries was already plummeting due to these facts. If situations did not improve, perhaps Bohemia would have to give up its crown as Emperor when the king died…
 
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