Struggle for Survival - A finnish AAR

The first years of independent Finland



The difficult start
Althought the political situation in Finland had been mostly stabilized, the troubles of Finland were far from over. The rural land was poor and barren to begin with, and now it had been scarred by a long and bloody civil war. Crime rates were throught the roof all over the country. Outside the largest cities different political groups fought each other in brutal clashes, corruption and prostitution were common throughout the land, not to even mention the Åland mafia. During the civil war, those swedish thugs had taken advantage of the chaotic situation on mainland Finland, and were now wreaking havoc amongst the local fishermen, turning boats over and cutting holes to the nets of anyone who didn't pay them off.

The government was suffering from its chaotic situation as well. The country was led by a group of war veterans who had practically no experience in state managament at all, a german king who didn't speak a word of finnish, and 76-year old prime minister Mannerheim, who was suffering from consumption. In the beginning of the year 1836 the government started to form diplomatic relations to find an ally to steer them throught the hard times. The hessian king of Finland, Väinö I made an official visit to Prussia in order to establish diplomatic relations and a possible alliance with Frederick William III, and C. E. Mannerheim travelled to St. Petersburg to ask for Russia's protection. Unfortunately, both of the trips were failures. Tsar Nicholas I wouldn't still have any part in finnish politics, and Prussia didn't want anything to do with a small country in Russia's shadow. Desperate to find someone to guarantee their independence, finnish leaders even turned to their old overlords in Sweden for help, but they weren't interested either. Whatever troubles Finland would face, she would have to face them alone.

After his trip to Königsberg, king Väinö withdrawed to Turku Castle with queen Loviisa, crown prince Fredrik Vilhelmi, and king's three daughters to study finnish. After the immense unpopularity of the previous king Constantine, finnish leaders wanted to restore people's faith in the monarchy by any means necessary. Meanwhile, the government led by prime minister Mannerheim started to tackle the domestic issues of Finland. They began to reform the administration of Finland, and improve the practically non-existant educational system. On 8 August 1836 the new constituion was approved by the Diet of Finland.
It disbanded the absolute monarchy of Constantine's era, and transformed a lot of king's power to the government and prime minister. Elections would now on be held every four years to form the Diet and the government, althought the king had the right to hold new elections or change the government whenever he pleased. Only landholders were allowed to vote. The constitution also guaranteed complete freedom of press and speech, which was extremely rare at the time.

Few steady years
In the end of 1836 the situation of Finland was already a lot better, althought there still was a long way to go. Administration was a lot clearer with the new constitution, the economy had been stabilized, crime rates were finally turning down and local parishes were starting to hold sunday schools for children, whose parents couldn't afford to hire private teachers, which was about 98% of the population. But on 15 January 1837 Finland faced a great tragedy, when prime minister, statesman and the father of independent Finland, Carl Erik Mannerheim died at the age of 77. He was granted a state funeral in Helsinki, which was attended by a few thousand mourners. The minister of justice Robert Henrik Rehbinder was chosen as his successor.


Prime minister Rehbinder

Years 1837 and 1838 were uneventful ones for Finland, except for a new, rich iron deposit that was found in the northern lääni (a finnish administrative region) of Petsamo, and a pandemic flu that hit Finland in November of 1838, and continued to the early 1840.

The first elections
In January 1839, the government decided that Finland's domestic situation had improved enough to hold the first elections, and a nationwide election day was scheduled on 1 July. the competition was mainly between the conservative Suomalainen puolue, (The Finnish party) reactionary Vikingar (Vikings) and Liberaalinen puolue. (The Liberal party) Suomalainen puolue won the elections with 31.60% of the votes, acquiring a 5% lead to the second party, Vikingar. 62-year old prime minister Rehbinder retired after the election, and he was replaced by Alexander Armfelt.


Prime minister Armfelt

The first democratically appointed government of Finland began its term on 1 September. The political situation of Finland was finally as stated in the constitution, and the nation had taken its first steps towards a real civilized european antion.

I apologize for the dullness of these first two updates. It'll get better from now on.

I'm not really very good at Victoria 2 yet, so I don't expect to see Finnish Empire dominating the world stage anytime soon. My only goals are to just finish both the game and this AAR.

Securing a foothold

Formation of a professional army
Armfelt's government spent their first term mostly improvinge Finland's armed forces. Finnish army was still in its civil war-era state, consisting of undisciplened militias armed with whatever they could get their hands on. Reformation of the army was trusted on General Anders Edward Ramsay, and plans were made to arm three infrantry brigades and to build a transport fleet in three years. A shipment of rifles was ordered from Prussia, while the uniforms were made by karelian tailors. Clippers for the navy were all built on the docks of Mariehamn, the capital of Åland islands. Sailors were also almost exclusively natives of the archipelago.


General Anders Edward Ramsay

Economic development
The next few years were peaceful for Finland. Economy was developing at a steady rate, getting some of the old landowning families to discuss possible new business ventures. There was some talk among aristocrats to build a rail network in Southern Finland, but it would take years before any of these plans could be put to action.

Year 1843 saw a potato blight in the eastern regions of Savo and Karelia, resulting in a terrible famine. At the same time, however, steam engines that had been used in Europe for a long time were finally spreading to finnish mines and saws, balancing the economy with increased efficiency as workers were dying of hunger.

The war of Greenland


Finnish ships on the coast of Greenland

In the spring of the same year, the stability of the Baltic Sea area was shocked by the second Prussian-Danish war, as Prussia invaded Denmark in order to claim the Jutland peninsula for themselves. King Väinö, who had for a long time been looking for an opportunity to increase Finland's standing as a sovereign country, and also to raise his own reputation as competent leader, understood that this was the time he had been waiting for. Armies of Denmark were occupied with the prussian troops on their doorsteps, so their overseas territories would most likely be completely unprotected.

Together with prime minister Armfelt and General Ramsay, Väinö came up with a bold plan. Three thousand men would be shipped over the Atlantic Sea to invade Iceland and Greenland, and this way Finland would attempt to force Denmark to hand over their possessions in the Caribbean and North Atlantic. Official declaration of war would be given after the transports would be safely on the shores of Iceland, since they would have to get past Øresund, right next to the danish capital of Copenhagen.

The plan was put to action in the august of 1843, when three thousand young men boarded ships in the Turku harbour, unaware of their final destination. They were only told that they would be shipped on an overseas military assigment for the sake of Finland. earlier, reports had came from iceland that there was a moderately strong danish garrison on the island, and that it wouldn't be defeated easily. Finnish leadership desided to go straight for Greenland, where they arrived on 13 October, after two months of sailing. led by general Ramsay's brother, Johannes Ramsay, finnish troops landed in Godthåb, the capital of Greenland.

As expected they didn't encounter any resistance as all, as they started to spread along the coast led by local inuit guides, occupying the settlements along the way. As the finnish soldiers were used to working in sub-zero temperatures in Finland, they managed to keep attrition amazingly low in the arctic climate. It took them over a year, but finally in December of 1844 entire Greenland was under finnish control.

In January of 1844 Suomalainen Puolue won the elections again, and Armfelt continued as prime minister. In the may of the same year Prussia and Denmark signed a peace, with Jutland ceded to Prussia. This would have released danish forces to consentrate their full force against Finland, if there had been anything left from them. But after the war with Prussia, danish navy was lying on the bottom of Kattegat, with their army entirely wiped out.

Althought Denmark had her army annihilated, her homeland torn apart and her largest overseas territory under occupation, king Christian VIII still refused to surrender to a country like Filand. King Väinö wouldn't also drop any of his demands, so on 7 February 1845 the Brigade of Vaasa, led by the king himself, landed of the shores of Zealand, beginning the siege of Copenhagen. It took until June before king Christian finally had to give up, and a peace treaty was signed, giving Finland the territories of Iceland, Greenland, Faroe Islands and Danish West indies.

Reactions to the war
Young, upstart nation's victory over a moderate european power with overseas colonies gained huge attention in the courts of Europe. Väinö's reputation as competent ruler grew, and Finland was finally recognized everywhere as a truly sovereign state. In Russia, tsar Nicholas I changed his opinion of Finland being nothing but a worthless piece of land, and withing months of the peace he announced that Russia consideres Finland to be within her sphere of influence, and any meddling with finnish affairs would not be looked upon kindly.

As most european nations didn't mind this little war between two small, northern kingdoms, in Sweden the news of finnish victory were not taken lightly. Swedes had always been jealous of their southern neighbour's overseas possessions, without being able to permanently acquire any of their own. And now Finland, a former dominion of Sweden won all these territories in a single brief war, after only 36 years had passed since Russia released the country from Sweden's clutches. Finnish-swedish relations had been tense before the war, and it certainly didn't improve them.


Kingdom of Finland after the War of Greenland

With accusition of her own colonies and Russia's protection, Finland had somewhat secured her standing in Europe. At this point, Finland was ready to face the future with her head held high.

winsingtonIII said:

Does this mean that from a roleplay perspective your navy is almost entirely made up of Swedes? Might that not be a problem if you ever have to go to war with Sweden?

Click to expand...

They're not actually swedes, they're swedish-speaking finns. You see, in Finland the largest minority group is Finland-swedes. They speak swedish as their native language, but they have a strong finnish identity and would definitely support Finland in a hypotetical war between Finland and Sweden. Most of them live along the coast and of course in Åland, which is entirely swedish-speaking.