Episode Four - The Calm Before the Storm (1859-1867)
The
French intervention was a serious blow to Serb plans, yet it remained to be seen how active the French would be. During their last intervention against Russia, no troops were committed just a few naval units on blockade duty. However a lone clipper, the ‘Zorana’, en route to Serbia from Africa was intercepted by an enemy squadron and sunk off the coast of Mauretania, along with the 3000 troops onboard.
At least the war against the Ottoman Empire was going well. General Grujic won a decisive victory at the
Battle of Bitola, although it was becoming clear that the quality of the Serbian army was inferior to that of the enemy.
Another clipper bound for Africa was narrowly able to escape the same fate as the ‘Zorana’ and made it back to Ulcinj. However, the crew could tell of what seemed to be a large invasion fleet gathered outside Marseilles. Based on this information, the Prince of Serbia and the High Command convened at a secret location to discuss options. The map was terrifying to behold, enemies all around.
Little is known of that meeting as no records of the discussions have ever been found. Rumour has it that the prince clashed with the chief of staff; the former wanted an end to the war, fearing for French troops inside Serbia, whereas the latter was confident an invasion could be repelled and the Turks were at the brink of surrender.
What is certain though, is that shortly hereafter the French agreed to
end the war ending in status quo. Serbian morale was at an all time low during spring of 1859.
Later that same year, the Turks surrendered to the Russian, who acquired the Giresun region. Naturally Serbs felt let down and betrayed but the Russians but also by their own prince.
A few months later Prince Aleksandar abdicated due to ‘health reasons’ handing over the reigns of the principality to prince Milos of the Obrenovic family.
Once again diplomats were busy working behind the scenes, and in 1860 Serbia signed an alliance with mighty Krakow. This was quickly bested by the 2nd alliance between Austria and the Ottoman Empire. Several Viennese coffee parlors in Belgrade were looted and burned, while the Belgrade police happened to be at their annual summer pick-nick and unable to prevent this.
Other events in 1860 was the outbreak of the American Civil War, the 2nd Sino-English War (from where the UK would emerge victorious and take a chunk out of western China) and Karl Marx publishing his Manifesto in Sweden, introducing the world to socialism.
Great efforts to integrate Madagascar were made, and slowly more and more local bureaucrats were recruited and trained. Prince Milos was confident it would be only a matter of time before the Ampanihy region would become a fully-fledged state of Serbia.
While much of the world was embroiled in war, the alpine state of Switzerland introduced some guidelines to making war more humane, also referred to as the ‘Geneva Convention’. Being a civilized country, Serbia naturally signed.
Across Serbia factories were still struggling to attract workers and out put remained modest. Cement and wines remained the most profitable, but most income still came from artisans and raw materials. Unfortunately capitalists still didn’t have the technology for producing much sought after product, such as lumber, steel, furniture etc. However in 1861 wise heads discovered Empiricism, which would boost efforts in further research.
By 1863 the Swedish ideas for a more just and equal society had become so popular in Serbia that a coalition of socialists and communists swept to power. The Upper House however, was still dominated by Conservatives and Liberals, so despite the desire for reforming the society things remained relatively unchanged,
Shock waves went through the Serb Foreign Ministry as it became know that both the Netherlands and the United Kingdom had signed military alliances with the Ottoman Empire, who had displaced Sweden as a Great Power. This would make future action against Istanbul even more complicated. At the same time the American Civil War came to an end, at least for now.
In a move to further consolidate Serb presence in SE Asia, the Sultanate of Brunei had long been looking as an interesting candidate for expansion. The swift
Conquest of Brunei followed during spring and summer of 1863, culminating with the Battle of Brunei. Shortly hereafter the Sultan of Brunei would concede defeat and accepted to become a
protectorate of Serbia.
By the mid-1860’s things were calm across Europe, where the North German Federation had formed and swallowed parts of Belgium and the Netherlands. The Ottoman Empire had reclaimed the Ankara region from Egypt and would shortly hereafter also launch a war to reclaim Aleppo and the surrounding areas.
Over the next few years Serb scholars would make a number of significant discoveries. However the focus would now be shifted to more mundane sciences, such as upgrading the flintlock rifle with the more modern Muzzle-loaded rifle. At the same time the literacy was still improving and money was flowing into the state coffers.
But a closer look at dynamics of the Serb economy would reveal a worrying dependency of the overseas belongings. The top three grossing provinces were colonial, and only 3 of the top 10 were non-colonial. Factory output was still dwarfed by export of raw goods.
During the extraordinary warm summer of 1866 tensions once again rose as a Serb merchant was apprehended by Turkish police, but on the wrong side of the border. This triggered a diplomatic incident, which would not go down unchallenged.
Although eager to capitalize on this incident, the Prince of Serbia was reluctant to go to war against the Ottoman Empire and all of their allies; the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and especially of all Austria. Efforts were made to improve relations with the UK bringing the two nations closer together and hopefully make the British think twice before coming to the Ottoman’s help.
And in April 1867 something happened that would change the situation……
With Austria supposedly neutralized, excellent relations with Queen Victoria, and a Netherlands that had been seriously weakened, the time had come to strike again. The
Serb Conquest of Bosnia had begun.