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Sirmore

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The Dark days of the empire
An Ottoman AAR


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Ottoman Empire January 1st 1836​


The starting days of 1836 were filled with uncertainty in the Ottoman Empire, as the two main political positions in the empire the Sultan and the Grand Vizier were vacant or in a transitional period. The Sultan on January 1st was 13 year old Abdulmecid the son of Mahmud II the previous Sultan. Abdulmecid ascension to the throne was caused by his father’s decreasing health which kept secret from everyone but a select few. He passed away on the 21st of December 1835 from what would later be diagnosed as tuberculosis, before passing he stated that his son Abdulmecid would take control of the Sultanate. The position of Grand Vizier was left vacant after Mehmed Emin Rauf Pasha was forced to resign after being found of compromising the integrity of the position, because he let other western powers(Britain and Austria primarily) to corrupt officials or those in direct contact to the sultan including himself. He officially left his office on the 5th of November after a long investigation on the matter. With Mahmud’s failing health he focused more on the smooth transition between him and his son than appointing a new Vizier, but left a list of suitable candidates for his son to pick. With a young Sultan with no Grand Vizier yet to guide him the future of the empire is unclear, Abdulmecid could either return the empire to its former glory or to a darker place than it was on his ascension

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Hello everyone and welcome to my second AAR, my first ended when I lost my game files, hopefully that won't happen again. My first AAR gave me some experience and should help with this AAR, and as shown above it is one on the Ottoman Empire. In my time playing Vic 2 I realized I hadn't played as the "Sick man of Europe" and thought it would be a fun experience to have an AAR on my first play through, this is interesting because I don't know many events after the Oriental crisis for them. Of course my rules are that I don't reload unless the game crashes(or something similar) I don't plan on going over the infamy limit and finally try not to be too gamey. My goal is to make the Ottoman Empire be a dominate power again. So with that out of the way I hope you enjoy.

Chapters
Chapter I
Chapter II
 
Last edited:
Chapter I
The First Steps

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Istanbul 1836​

Abdulmecid may have been only 12 when he ascended to the throne but many around him saw hope, hope that he could be the next great Sultan. Abdulmecid was a fan of history mostly of his own empire, and the fact that it took several European to defeat them. He was more shocked by the fact that the Europeans were no longer afraid of them than anything else during the start of his regime, thus it was his goal to repair this reputation and needed to find a Grand Vizier who would be supportive of the direction that he wanted to take. Although the leader of the reactionaries would easily support conquests for the empire thus making it appear stronger, but Abdulmecid wanted more than just conquests he wanted Istanbul to be the envy of the other powers. He believed he need to take a middle approach to best achieve his goals, so he chose Mesut Mehmed Solak Pasha as the new Grand Vizier who was known to be more progressive than the previous reactionary Viziers.


Solak was only 27 when he took the Position but was regarded by many as one of the brightest young minds, he won over the Sultans favor with is plan for restoring the empire’s glory. The Details of this plan have been lost to history but the main points are known, it included Ottoman expansion into the Arabian Peninsula and possibly east into Persia. It also called for major reform in the military modeled around Western doctrines and structure. Lastly it included a large plan to modernize and keep up with its long-time rival Russia. Solak was truly in charge of the empire for the first few years of Abdulmecid’s reign, as Abdulmecid took more of a backseat role in the running while getting tutored so he would be capable by his 16th birthday. Even though the revolt in Tripoli was still on going and appeared to continue for at least another year but posing no threat to the empire the plan to occupy Zaydi in the south of the Arabian Peninsula. For this operation to start Solak need to start his reform and this called for higher taxes from everyone poor to rich, this was not well received in non-Turkish ethnic regions and in the Ottoman puppet of Egypt.


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A Portrait of Mesut Mehmed Solak Pasha​

After setting a deadline for an army to be ready to invade Zaydi by the years end, Solak quickly turned his attention to the Diplomatic side of his duties, mostly the relations with the other powers.

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Britain, Austria and even rival Russia were quite supportive of the new regime whereas the French were more inclined to lobby for the independence of Egypt than to greet the Sultan and the Vizier and support the empire like the other powers. This was noted in a journal entry by Solak

15 January 1836
I’m truly worried about the state of affairs in Egypt, with the French delegation only ever talking about that the Egyptian people should rule themselves. If the French were to support an Egyptian revolt the empire might just collapse and see its territories separated. I should, no I must try to talk to the other delegations to support us if this were to happen Britain and Austria seem quite friendly and possibly potential Allies. Other than this I think the empire is running just fine with the situation in Tripoli under control. This is easier than I thought

Also reminder to get myself a fancier western outfit I felt upstaged by the other diplomats even the Russians looked better, I even think I saw some laughing at me, I’ll show them


By November Solak had his army of 18,000 to attack Zaydi who only had a force of 6,000 this operation was looking like it was going to be an easy victory for the Ottoman Empire. The first reports of Ottoman troops entering Zaydi territory was in February and by March the main force of 12,000 was engaging the Zaydi Army in Sana, while a second force of 6,000 marched south to take control of the coast and the rest of the Taizz region doing so without any resistance. The battle for Sana if you want to call it a battle was best described by a solder in the Zaydi army

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We were told to attack and charge the enemy center so the Calvary could flank the Turks left side, this proved to be a grave choice as Turkish artillery and the rifle fire caused a full scale route of the infantry within a few minutes of the charge, only the Calvary reached the Turkish position but they didn’t outflank them the Calvary was met with a wall of rifle fire. They too routed but after this disaster and the army just disbanded as no one wanted to be part of something like that again, I know I didn’t

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After the battle the region came under Ottoman control and officially by the end of November in 1837, this was paired with the success in the long Tripoli revolt. But these small victories would be eclipsed by the next few years and the conflict that was coming.

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I bid you luck in trying to save the "sick man" of Europe (even though the term was not used until the Western powers of the UK and France came to the aid of the OE against Russia in the Crimean War in 1853).

Cheers!
 
Yay! I can get my VicII Ottoman fix again!
What is this, the third one I've subscribed to now? And not a one managed to bring the Ottomans into their proper glory in this new age. You should break that streak.
 
I've been dreaming of writing a Turkish AAR since not too long after I finished my own AAR. I wish you luck, because it looks pretty tricky to succeed as the Turks.
 
Chapter II​
The Start of Oriental Crisis

When Egypt issued the ultimatum to the empire that either Egypt would be recognized an independent state or conflict would arise, for the sake of not appearing weak and stopping potential European expansion in the Middle East and Arabia conflict was unavoidable. Abdulmecid was only a few months away from turning fifteen when he issued Ottoman troops to enter Egypt to provide stability to the region and remove all disrupters of the peace. Still not fully in charge of the Empire this course of action and the majority of the decision making was left to Solak but mostly the top generals of the army like Narmik Pasha and Omar Pasha, both of which would engage in the most fierce part of the war.

The first military actions taken were in early January when twenty-four thousand men under Halil Bey marched from just north of Antioch in Adana west along the coast to disrupt ports and hopefully out maneuver the only Ottoman force in the region another twenty-four thousand man force which was essentially leaderless. These two armies would play a game of cat and mouse for several weeks, twice the ottoman army almost caught Halil Bey first by blocking his ability to move further west and secondly when raiding a small port. This only bought the Ottoman’s time, Halil ran out of room to maneuver and was forced to engage in a battle, knowing everyday he waits more Ottoman troops would be coming from The Balkans and Arabia. Forcing himself up into the hill to prepare and draw the Ottoman Army in for an ambush.

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Halil Bey setting up the ambush​

The lack of leadership in this army lead it to walk right into a trap. The Egyptian army had no artillery but a large amount of Calvary at its disposal something that the Ottoman army did not have. The Morning of March 30 the ottoman army march up hill to meet the Egyptian army which had hid around four thousand members of its calvary to flank the Ottomans after they had charged the Egyptian formation. The Ottoman Infantry was superior to the Egyptians in every way and when the skirmish started several Egyptian solders fell, this part of the battle was the cause of 80% of Egyptian infantry losses. After exchanging blasts back and forth for over an hour the leaders of the ottoman army decided to start a charge to take the Egyptian position thinking that there enemies moral was low, as true as this was Halil’s trap was ready to be sprung. The Calvary came over the hill with the sun to their backs and almost immediately shattered not on the ottoman charge but the whole army was in a whole from a planned counter charge lead by the other five thousand mounter solders causing the Egyptians to win the first true battle of the war.

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The First Battle of Mersin​

The lack of preparedness from the ottomans for a war against Egypt is easily show when looking at the position of their armies. Two were along the northern frontier, one in Istanbul, Bagdad, Tripoli and Zaydi. Within a week of the loss the Russians intervened at the request of Solak who asked for support from almost every major power in Europe except France who Solak feared would join the Egyptian cause. The fear about the Russian and other intervention is that this would be the first step into the Europeans trying to control the Middle East like they did in the America’s and essentially cause the ottomans to fade away.

By May the majority of Ottoman troops were at or near the front lines in Libya or Adana. Halil Bey was still at large along the coast but Narmik Pasha was but in charge of a force of Fifty-seven Thousand to remove Halil without any doubt. The 15th of May the two meet on the field of battle, this time not in the hills but in an open field, Halil was caught in the open due to a lack of Intel on the position of Narmik’s Army. The weakened Egyptian army only number shy of twenty thousand Narmik at full strength, this battle was won by simple formation and numbers on the ottoman side, the ottoman line simple made a horseshoe shape around the Egyptian position and with superior fire power completely remove the threat that Halil was. Halil did escape capture and did several other Egyptian men but they had neither the will nor the numbers to regroup and so they went home to Egypt.

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The Second Battle of Mersin​

Halil quickly regained command of an army this time its goal was to stop the fall of Antioch to the Moldavian army. This was also the start of the campaign in Mesopotamia which would hopefully draw troops from the Levant to ease the pressure. Narmik was informed of that the Egyptians were putting up a defensive force to stop the fall of Antioch and marched south to put an end to it. The battle was as large as it was lopsided. Over eight thousand men fought at Antioch, this would be the largest battle in terms of men but the numbers favored the ottomans by three to one, mostly from Narmik’s force from when he defated Halil a week earlier. Three weeks of constant skirmishes but no major battles would leave Narmik to steam roll his way to taking control of Antioch but upon reaching the city new that his army was to be spilt up to take care of the threat in Mesopotamia.

The last of three engagements over the course of the spring-summer of 1838 would take place in August in the province of Hama. This time the numbers were a lot closer than their last two engagements with Narmik controlling just over thirty thousand and Halil twenty-two thousand. Narmik’s true ablity was shown in this battle by his use of artillery verses his opponents lack of heavy guns. The quick maneuvering by Halil kept losses to a minimum while still inflicting some casualties on the route to the main battle field. Narmik issued a full scale attack after a large bombardment on the Egyptian camp. This attack crushed the Egyptian army, but more importantly Halil was hit by shrapnel after an explosion nearby, the wounds would cause Halil to die before the day was over.

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The Final Battle of Halil Bey​

The rest of the year was mainly outlined by the small series of victories of Omar Pasha and the vassal states in the Levant. The only down point was when the army running around in southern Mesopotamia defeated the force sent to remove it, despite being isolated after the battle of Hama. But the happiest news came in October when the rebels in Tripoli surrender was announced to the Sultan. This meant that the forces could organize a strike from the west to take Cairo, with the ottomans in the position they were in victory looked in sight.

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The Peace of Tripoli​