An exciting electoral conclusion, always fun when the computer blind sides you! Great stuff and yeah shame about photo-bucket.
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Estonianzulu: The Know Nothings? Ouch... Double ouch if you were playing Ricky and they managed to win in spite of the old "minor party" handicap. I suppose the fact that they've managed to outsmart me this time means that all that money I've pumped into funding education hasn't gone to waste!
Jape: It certainly does make for an exciting change when it does happen, given how dreary and repetitive elections can be in Vicky II. I hope some of the excitement made it into the update.
Gen. M: Funny how you always seem to show up whenever Photobucket decides to pull the plug....
Spiller68: Have no worries, this AAR will continue in due course.
Jape: It certainly does make for an exciting change when it does happen, given how dreary and repetitive elections can be in Vicky II. I hope some of the excitement made it into the update.
Gen. M: Funny how you always seem to show up whenever Photobucket decides to pull the plug....
Spiller68: Have no worries, this AAR will continue in due course.
There, the images for the last update are back up! Don't expect me to do this all the time though - I hate imageshack with a burning passion.
Indeed they can be, but there's absolutely no guarantee that we'll have a minority government...
Apparently so...
. Well, you know what they say about polls. "...they're for strippers and cross country skiers."
I've never had a problem with photobucket if you feel like moving to greener pastures.
Wheee! You managed to make an election exciting! Color me impressed. Now how will Prince Frederik react, I wonder?
Tense vignettes with the individual seats you highlighted. It's nice to see that little old Amersfoort (or was that Utrecht?) has more electors than the entirety of Wallonia. I'm sure there's nothing untoward going on there, nossir, nothing to see here, move along...
Now how will Prince Frederik react, I wonder?Tense vignettes with the individual seats you highlighted. It's nice to see that little old Amersfoort (or was that Utrecht?) has more electors than the entirety of Wallonia. I'm sure there's nothing untoward going on there, nossir, nothing to see here, move along...
Man, that Parliamentary election was exciting. Much better than Congressional elections in America.
Lord Durham: Say what you will about the polls, but they were very accurate when it came to predicting the Liberale vote. Then again, even a broken clock is very accurate twice a day.
Jape: But I'm already at said greener pastures, as the constant "look who's popular" messages throughout this AAR will testify!
Stuyvesant: Far be it for a mere commoner like myself to presume what goes on in the minds of our autocratic betters, but I'd think he would be both pleased that a more "moderate" man than Thorbecke won the day (and that said radical Thorbecke is now out of the house!) and quietly confident that the GLP regime will be able to dam the rising revolutionary tide in such a way as to keep significant amounts of power and influence in his hands. (especially in military and foreign policy, where the heir's interests lie) I think it's important to mention that under the ARP's electoral platform, all Walloons are disenfranchised. So as far as the game is concerned, all of Wallonia would have a total electorate of about three!
MondoPotato: Thanks! It's even more of a compliment given that someone like yourself who writes (and draws) such detailed political updates in his own AAR should think so.
Fingon888: Welcome! In truth, Congressional elections are rather dull compared to Westminster-style Parliamentary ones, where governments and leaders change hands overnight.
Juan_de_Marco: Welcome! (haven't seen you in ages BTW) I'm glad you're liking both the AAR and the rather amateurish graphics.
I intend to preorder EUIV sometime tomorrow and renew my pro account with PB at the same time, so after that we should have no more image issues with nasty little Photobucket.
Expect an update either tomorrow or the day after.
Jape: But I'm already at said greener pastures, as the constant "look who's popular" messages throughout this AAR will testify!
Stuyvesant: Far be it for a mere commoner like myself to presume what goes on in the minds of our autocratic betters, but I'd think he would be both pleased that a more "moderate" man than Thorbecke won the day (and that said radical Thorbecke is now out of the house!) and quietly confident that the GLP regime will be able to dam the rising revolutionary tide in such a way as to keep significant amounts of power and influence in his hands. (especially in military and foreign policy, where the heir's interests lie) I think it's important to mention that under the ARP's electoral platform, all Walloons are disenfranchised. So as far as the game is concerned, all of Wallonia would have a total electorate of about three!
MondoPotato: Thanks! It's even more of a compliment given that someone like yourself who writes (and draws) such detailed political updates in his own AAR should think so.
Fingon888: Welcome! In truth, Congressional elections are rather dull compared to Westminster-style Parliamentary ones, where governments and leaders change hands overnight.
Juan_de_Marco: Welcome! (haven't seen you in ages BTW) I'm glad you're liking both the AAR and the rather amateurish graphics.
I intend to preorder EUIV sometime tomorrow and renew my pro account with PB at the same time, so after that we should have no more image issues with nasty little Photobucket.
Expect an update either tomorrow or the day after.
I have been perusing the threads all along, in seclusion.
I think I speak for AAR authors everywhere when I quote the words of stnylan: (I think it was he who said it first) "To read is human, to comment is divine." Make of that what you will.
Okay guys, sorry for the wait but here's the next update. Henceforth, there shall be no image issues with Photobucket. This update shall deal with the war with Siam and domestic events while the next will deal solely with politics and the GLP's first term in office. I deliberately separated the two for a reason, as you may discover upon reading the title of this update.
The Siamese-Dutch War of 1840:
Technically at war for the duration of the conflict with Aceh, Johor, Brunei and Bali, the Siamese and Dutch East Indies armies didn't actually face each other on the fields of battle until January 1840, due to reasons discussed in the appropriate chapter. Hence, the conflict is known to historians of both combatants as the war of 1840 (or 2383, according to the Siamese calendar introduced in the late 1880's.)
At the time the Royal Siamese Army had little experience of modern war, and only a select few regiments possessed anything approaching an antiquated arquebus, let alone a modern rifle. By one of the many ironies of history, the bulk of Siam's limited number of firearms were first introduced by Japanese mercenaries active in the Indochinese subcontinent from about the early 18th Century onwards, who in turn imported them from Dutch merchants and manufacturers via the trading port on the isle of Dejima in Nagasaki. Dutch troops active in the Malayan theatre therefore found themselves in some cases the victims of fire from their own guns!
Artillery was something of an unknown concept to the Siamese during this time (though they would in later years take to the concept with a level of imagination and enthusiasm approaching abandon, mounting batteries on the backs of elephants for instance) so their armies continued to use the sorts of medieval massed infantry formations long abandoned in European warfare ever since the advent of battlefield artillery and grapeshot. The first conflict between the two sides took place at the Battle of Kuantan, where the well-trained Dutch gunners could at first hardly believe their eyes as line upon line of dense ranks of opposition soldiers marched into view. The gunners' fire into the massed columns provoked their Siamese opponents into an early charge, and to their full credit those warriors who arrived at the Dutch lines without being shot, killed, maimed or trampled under foot by their over-zealous comrades fought with vigour. Over four-thousand brave colonial troops died in the ensuring battle, as opposed to a little over twice as many Siamese warriors slain.
Dutch forces stationed in Brunei and Bali were ferried from their garrisons to the tip of Johor in order to ensnare the retreating Siamese. A massive army of over 32 thousand Dutch and East Indies troops sprung the trap at Johor Bahru, leading to the slaughter of the entire six-thousand strong Siamese division within only two hours of less-than-bitter fighting.
Two KNIL divisions – one cavalry; one infantry – headed north to engage the 2nd Royal Siamese Army, with the swift-moving hussars moving on ahead at their own pace, hoping to divert and harass the bulk of the enemy before they reached the strategically important provincial capital of Shah Alam. The two sides met near the Klang Valley, at the confluence of the Klang and Gombak rivers. Malay auxiliaries travelling with the main Dutch army would give the battle its name: Kuala Lumpur, which allegedly means “muddy convergence” in the local dialect. Unlike the defensive positioning of the Royal Siamese Army, the name would stick.
The main KNIL army on the other hand moved east to board unto the ships of the East Indies squadron. The plan, enterprisingly enough, was to sail the ships right into the heart of Siamese territory – the royal capital known to outsiders as Bangkok – and after a lengthy period of naval bombardment march in, occupy the city and force the King to sue for peace.
As it turns out, this bold and brilliant plan never even needed to be put into action. With a battle of a rather more peaceful kind back home reaching a four-year ceasefire under Gerrit Schimmelpenninck, the Prince, acting in his father's stead, gave the new Prime Minister the opportunity to make peace with the Siamese, advising him only to take as much land from the Siamese as he felt was fair. Frederik as ever cast a clear eye over the current European geopolitical situation, and felt rightly that taking too much land from Siam (which of course it must be remembered, shared a land border with Greater British India) in light of his other recent acquisitions in the region, would lead to diplomatic protests (or worse) from the representatives of the great powers. In the end, Frederik's advice was very much in line with the PM's own thinking, and he in turn advised the colonial government in Java to only seek the annexation of those territories which the Siamese themselves had seized from the Malay people as recent ago as 1821.
The King of Siam was, to be fair, a humanitarian, a principled philosopher-king who abhorred the thought of making his people suffer through unnecessary conflict. Perhaps it was the shock of seeing his armies annihilated, or perhaps it was the fear of losing land Siam proper – either way we'll never know – but the King's diplomats soon gave word in Batavia that the Dutch terms were acceptable to their monarch, and peace was duly signed[1].
From Abdication to Coronation:
The end of the war with the “savage Siamese” was met with much jubilation on the streets of Batavia, Brussels, Antwerp and Amsterdam, (the people of Charleroi were said to have been less than jubilant upon hearing the news) and in the colonial capitals parades were held to welcome home our victorious soldiers. The King's Malayan subjects were said to have been particularly exuberant in celebrating the return of the “lost provinces” from the clutches of Bangkok rule, as opposed to Batavian or Amsterdam rule, which was infinitely preferable.
With peace at hand and his subjects in a festive frame of mind, Prince Frederik thought that now was as good a time as any to push forward his own political agenda. He had been de facto King of the Netherlands for some years now, and had earned much in the way of popular support from his subjects as a result of his good governance. It was not uncommon for young schoolchildren when asked who the King of The Netherlands was, to answer Frederik rather than Willem! There was a growing feeling both inside and outside the palace that the time had come for the King to abdicate in favour of his son; Willem, for his part, wasn't getting any younger or healthier. With the blessing of both the people and his most loyal advisors in the Tweede Kamer, Prince Frederik put forward a bill in the Ridderkamer “suggesting” that his father should abdicate in favour of himself, and setting a date for the Prince's coronation; November the 28th, 1840.[2] With such powerful opposition against him keeping the crown, it is most unlikely that Willem could have hung unto it even if he wanted to.
The coronation itself was by all accounts a splendid affair, and was well-attended by dignitaries from all over the world including all the major royal houses of Europe, and dignitaries from some of the lesser nobles and Maharahjas from the Dutch and British Asian colonies. Queen Victoria herself was of course present, but she caused a bit of a stir (to put it nicely) by inviting her uncle Leopold to attend as one of her guests! Suffice it to say that the old king and the new king didn't exactly hit it off. Also attending were the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition of both Britain, Prussia and The Netherlands, with the former member for Leiden West also earning himself an invite. President Van Buren of the United States found time to attend in person in spite of the ongoing war with Mexico while the neighbouring French President (as he then still was) Bonaparte made the flimsy excuse of being preoccupied with conflicts in the Balkans to avoid attendance. Among artists first and foremost among them was the Dutch painter Nicolaas Pieneman, who for his coronation gift presented the newly-crowned king with a souvenir of the proceedings in the form of oil on canvas.
Science and Technology in the Early Reign of King Frederik I:
Perhaps the most notable facet of King Frederik's (as we must now call him) early reign were the numerous advances The Netherlands made in the fields of science, particularly medicine. By far the most practical and important was an easy-to-administer treatment for malaria which was put to much use in the colonies in Africa and the East Indies. [3]
This one trickle of an advance led to a stream of advances in the field of medical science by Dutch scientists. Shortly after the discovery of anti-malaria treatments two new breakthroughs, one in medial equipment and another in genetics, were made by researchers at Leiden University.
Ever motivated by practical rather than ethereal or theoretical concerns, the brightest minds in Holland studied the experiences of soldiers fighting in the recent East Indies conflicts to come up with novel ways of improving battlefield hospitals and reducing the chance of casualties resulting from infected wounds. The revolutionary idea that prevention is preferable to cure, and that exposure to small amounts of disease leads to one developing a tolerance against more powerful strains led to the invention of vaccinations, a military discovery which would soon prove to have many civilian applications.
However the most influential discovery as far as the rest of the world was concerned was not in medicine, nor in any field in which we would consider “traditional” sciences; but in economics. Again it was Leiden University which led the way, with none other than professor of history Johan Thorbecke (not a name with which one hitherto associated with economics) presenting an influential treatise on free trade and the so-called “invisible hand” – which he termed classical economics, being something of a revival of the economic systems of the classical world; Greece, Carthage and Rome. His work, to which he laboured upon night and day after his defeat on election day, proved an instant success among the middle classes in The Netherlands and abroad. Editions were soon published in English, French, German and Latin, and were well received by foreign intellectuals, which in turn reflected well on Thorbecke, Frederik and The Netherlands as a whole. As it would turn out, the publishing of this little treatise would affect the standing of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in ways in which the author never could have imagined when he first put pen to paper...
Notes:
[1] All this actually happened during the election campaign and not after it! It's difficult for me to keep a close eye on the electorate vote at the pop screen and fight a war at the same time, so what I did was save the game, let the Siamese do whatever they wanted in Malaya while I kept a close eye on the electorate vote and recorded the figures. Once the election was over, I reloaded the game, ignored the electorate vote completely and fought the war with Siam. On the off chance that one of the other parties won the “fake” election while I was busy beating back the Thai hordes, I would have appointed the GLP in-game as the ruling party, since they were the rightful victors of the “real” election.
[2] This was the actual date of King Willem's abdication in real life.
[3] Unfortunately I can't colonise anything due to lack of colonisation points.
A very entertaining update - and congratulations once again on your awAARd win.
Interesting that Thorbecke came up with with invisible hand 87 years after Smith - maybe his discoveries don't count due to their Britishness I also liked the little Kuala Lumpur mention - I always enjoy little fictional imaginings of why things have come to be.
Looking forward to the next one.
Interesting that Thorbecke came up with with invisible hand 87 years after Smith - maybe his discoveries don't count due to their Britishness
I also liked the little Kuala Lumpur mention - I always enjoy little fictional imaginings of why things have come to be.Looking forward to the next one.
Cool stuff. Are you going 'Maintaining the Monarchy' now that Thorbecke is out?
colonization tip: build better naval ships, commerce raiders and other advanced ships yield more colonial points than frigates and men of war. And to support your commerce raiders, you need naval bases.
colonization tip: build better naval ships, commerce raiders and other advanced ships yield more colonial points than frigates and men of war. And to support your commerce raiders, you need naval bases.
Densley: Well, the event description says that he's been compared to Smith and Ricardo, so no, it's not as if Thorbecke has "discovered" free market economics in the same way Leibnitz "discovered" calculus. (perhaps not the best example, don't kill me Leibnitz fans...) Because Thorbecke was a historian by trade, I theorised his treatise as the first to place free-market theory firmly in a historical context and to coin the term "classical economics" - as opposed to say, "The Wealth of Nations" which, when it does cite historical precedent, focuses more on post-Classical history. I perhaps should have explained that better, but I hought the event description did that for me!
Juan de Marco: Have you noticed that virtually everything you've just suggested is actually in the GLP election manifesto? (obviously Commerce Raiders couldn't be mentioned by name and will have to wait for a bit, since they haven't been invented yet.) Are you a propagandist for Schimmelpenninck or something?
As for "maintaining the monarchy", absolutely not! Political reform makes for more interesting election updates, and is therefore desirable. The GLP do have their own agenda when it comes to political reform and the navy which will be elaborated upon in full in the next update.
Juan de Marco: Have you noticed that virtually everything you've just suggested is actually in the GLP election manifesto? (obviously Commerce Raiders couldn't be mentioned by name and will have to wait for a bit, since they haven't been invented yet.) Are you a propagandist for Schimmelpenninck or something?
As for "maintaining the monarchy", absolutely not! Political reform makes for more interesting election updates, and is therefore desirable. The GLP do have their own agenda when it comes to political reform and the navy which will be elaborated upon in full in the next update.
Good to see the Dutch didn't overestimate the savage Siamese and suffer a defeat of Isandlwana type proportions. So how did Willem react to being ousted as King? Relieved? Outraged? Tend some tulips? Did he attend the coronation? And what's up with Victoria bringing along Leopold? Sending a message? Usually there was intent behind actions like this. Burning questions, I know...
And what's up with Victoria bringing along Leopold? Sending a message? Usually there was intent behind actions like this. Burning questions, I know...
It's probably because Tanzhang knows that Leopold is one of my favourite figures from the 19th century, and needed to keep me interested after the mind-numbingly dry election updates
I'm joking, of course. The electoral updates have been some of my favourite.