Mecklenburg - The Power of Money

1419 - 1455

In these dark years every little nation like ours has the same "terminus ad quem", the same long term objective, the same plan, the same vision, the same big hope: to stay alive.
Yes, it may sound easy, but it isn't. One province nations like Mecklenburg, and there are many like us in the central and north Europe, are afraid of being conquered. Countries like Austria, France, Burgundy, England, Poland and Bohemia represent a great danger to our independence.

In 1419, we are already the leader of a small alliance with Bremen, Holstein, Pommern, Teutonic Order and their vassal Prussia.
Soon after Kavouras comes to the throne of our Nation, a nasty war breaks out in our neighbourhood. Brandenburg attacks Magdeburg. Magdeburg is allied with Hannover, which honours their alliance and assist Magdeburg by declaring war on Brandenburg.

From this war, it's obvious that the Brandenburg monarch is serious about his dreams of a Brandenburg Empire. It is reported that he says all german nations should unite under his helm. The fool.

This kind of visions are an offence to us. What common do we have with Brandenburg? What common do we have with ANY of the german provinces? They are poor people in search for a reason to exist. We are the Nobles, We are the cultivated, we are the economic power of our realm. If we have an ambitious dream it is not to unite the poor provinces of germany, but to become the greatest economic power in the world. We have one of the 4 BIG Centres of trade in Europe (the others being Venice, Flanders and Danzing). To us, every one of these CoT is much more attractive than any vision of a united Germany.

We help the war against Brandenburg by giving loans to Magdeburg and Hannover. In fact we give loans all over Europe, since we discovered the tremendous benefits of loan interest rates. If there is a war breaking somewhere in Europe we help it keep going by loaning money to (sometimes) both parties.

Hannover shows its militaristic supremacy by conquering Kurstin from Brandenburg. We are very glad to see Brandenburg loosing the war. However Brandenburg, in what would prove a smart diplomatic move, offers Kurstin to Hannover for peace, which Hannover accepts. This leaves Magdeburg alone to fight against Brandenburg. We hope for a white peace between the two, since 8K men from Brandenburg are attacking Magdeburg and 10K men from Magdeburg are attacking Brandenburg's only province. However Brandenburg wins the siege first and with a swift diplomatic move manages to end the war by annexing Magdeburg. We are disappointed and upset at the same time: not only we don't see Brandenburg losing the war, not only we lose the money we lent to Magdeburg, but Brandenburg has now a province neighbouring ours.

The years keep passing by and we keep lending money to nations at war, researching the secrets of trading and getting rich, very rich. Except from the case of Magdeburg the only case we lost money was the case of Orleans which was annexed by the ambitious Auvergne, which now has 5 provinces.

Our diplomatic relations with almost every european country are good. With some great diplomatic manoeuvres and a lot of money spent, we manage to exchange maps with Venice, England, Georgia, Uzbek Kaganate and Taungu. Now we probably have the biggest map of the wold in the world and we can send merchants to exotic CoT, unkown to other europeans, like Delhi. The competition from asian countries is fierce, but the rewards are woth a try - or many tries. Another great achievement of our diplomats and our great financial assets, is the vassalization of Bremen and Holstein. Unfotunately, every attempt at vassalizing Pommern was unsuccessful, probably due to us being a one province country, while they control 2 provinces.

During these years, Teutonic Order , probably the most powerful country in our alliance, has declared war twice against Muscovy , a little known country in the east of europe. Although, we officially honoured our alliance, we decided to sent tons of money to Muscovy (almost 1000 gold coins total). This way not only did we received great interest rates, but we also smother Teutonic Order from becoming too big (btw, hopefully Prussia is no longer a vassal of Teutons). Muscovy proved to be the best client of out "national bank". They have been attacked not only by our alliance but also by the mighty Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, Hannover, Mantua alliance. We want to keep Muscovy alive because we feel their existence helps to balance the power in the area. By the same thinking we lent a lot of money to the Ottoman Empire . Although the are not exactly... our style, with a bit of luck they could become a nice little threat to the arrogance of Hungary and Poland.

The maps

Thank you very much Sharur and Danish king. You encourage me to continue writing this AAR. English is a foreign language to me, so please ignore some spelling/syntax errors.

Sytass, I have read your Holstein AAR, it was very interesting. I remember your efforts to take control of Mecklemburg from Poland.
The historical leaders I added are in fact fantasy leaders: Adorea I - V.

Thank you very much Cockney.
Being a little different is a great compliment.

The Danish war

Suddenly, a rainy day of 1454, Denmark declares war on Holstein. This was unexpected. We have a significant army of 18K men and although we are mostly researching Trading tech, we have higher war tech (3) than the Danes (2). However, our troops are not immediately ready for battle moral wise.

Before we can react, the Danes attack Holstein. Fortunately, due to our alliance wars against Muscovy, Holstein as well as Bremen have amassed a substantial army already. The defence of Holstein is successful. The armies of Holstein and Bremen combined are unstoppable and they reach Aalborg (the main city of the danish province of Jutland) before the end of the year. We send general Adorea with 18K men in order to hasten the siege of the danish city. In a few months Jutland is ours. An army of over 20K danes is waiting for us in Kobenvavn. We resist the urge to attack them. Their army is big and they will defend their capital tooth and nail, no doubt. Bremen army foolishly goes against them. They lose and a few days after they sign a peace treaty. The Danes after their victory against Bremen underestimate us and attack the combined Mecklemburg and Holstein forces in Jutland. They lose. It is a disaster for them, their capital is now defenceless. The Mecklemburg and Holstein forces with a reinforcement of 8K recently-recruited Mecklemburg cavalry arrive in Kobenvavn. In July 1455 the Mecklemburg flag is waving over the danish capital.

Thanks Storey and Sytass, the next installment is about how this victory was received by the Mecklemburg leadership.

Lord Durham (!), Magnus: The color coding takes some time, but your positive response makes it worth it.

The Council of 28 July 1455

The subject matter of that council meeting were the proceedings in the danish war and the possibilities of a peace treaty agreement. However the discussion evolved to much more interesting and important matters. The council lasted 5 days and 5 nights non-stop.

In the beginning the choices were only two:
1. Peace agreement with the Danes in return for money
2. Peace agreement with the Danes in return for Jutland

The council consists of 6 high counsellors and the monarch itself. The decision is of course let to the monarch. Two of the counsellors suggested we take 300 to 500 gold coins and offer peace. The rest were sceptical. The military advisor/counsellor, suggested we build ships and invade the rest of Denmark and make them a vassal. The monarch listened the discussion.

It was obvious, that little, rich Mecklemburg was perplexed. This was the first victory of our peaceful nation and we didn't know what to do with it. Every option had pros and cons.

After a 2-day discussion and after the financial advisor/councellor informed the council about the tremendous cost of an invasion operation against Denmark, the monarch dismissed the option to invade Denmark and make them a vassal.

So the question was still
"To annex the province of Jutland from Denmark or not?"

After one more day of discussions the council made a list of the pros and cons of a possible Jutland annexation.

Pros
Increase in Manpower
Increase in Landpower
Possibility of vassalization of Pommern, which till now, hesitated vassalization due to us being a one-province country.

Cons
Lower money/province ratio (lower tech advancement rate)
Stability more difficult to control
Lower diplomatic relations with most nations
Possibility of difficulties in case we try to annex Bremen and/or Holstein, due to our reduced reputation.

Then, monarch Kavouras said:
"In order to decide, we must clarify our "terminus ad quem", our long term objective. How do we want to see Mecklemburg in the future. In 100, 200, even 300 years from now."

A moment of silence followed.

Every coulsellor, deep their heart, had high hopes for our little nation. So far, all these years, none publicly said so. Officially, we only wanted to be an independant oasis in northern Europe. Now it was time to speak, to tell the deepest thoughts straight-out. Some said they wanted Mecklemburg to control the CoT of Danzing (which now belongs to Poland) and Flanders (which is controled by Burgundy) in 200 years from now. The military advisor said that if our financial path keeps being as good as it is now, we could conquer/vassalize half Europe in 50, maximum 100 years from now. The other members of the council, at first, looked at him like he was saying something terrible, but after thorough analysis of his arguments they all agreed the military advisor was sane and had probably been right.

"Anyway" said the king at the fifth day of the council "since every long-term vision we have about our nation involves some form of land expansion and war; I consider Manpower the factor of the greatest importance and thus I suggest that we ask for Jutland in our peace negotiations with Denmark. Now, we all need some sleep."

It was late evening on the 1st of August 1455, the Council of 28 July 1455 was over.

Thanks for following Sharur.

1455-1465

Denmark proved much more difficult to negotiate with than we thought. They wont give us Jutland.
They rejected our... generous peace offer repeatedly, although they were also at wat with the aggressive nation of Sweden, which have been taking danish provinces the one after another.

It was obvious that for getting Jutland we had to invade one of the northern danish provinces. We spent some good money and build 2 ships (1 warship, 1 transport) and avoiding the powerfull danish naval force we transported general Adorea with 2K soldiers to Ostlandet, which was already besieged by swedish forces. Soon after our arrival Ostlandet fall to the Swedes, but our involvment in that siege convinced Denmark we are serious about our war against them and they finally accepted to part with Jutlad. The funny thing is that Jutland, when in our control had typically a manpower of 0. All this mess, all these discussions for a province with a manpower of 0. Anyway we dont regret adding it to our realm.

Remember Auvernne? That 5-province country that annexed Orleans, resulting in us losing the 200 ducats we lent to Orleans? Well Auvernne is now a 1 province country after the organized attack from the France alliance (France, Savoy, Genoa, Bavaria, Milan). It was one of those dishonorable wars only a bully like France could start. We risked our money and helped Auvernne with 200 in that war.

Hannover is a little powerfull german nation with an army of 75K! Can you believe they accepted to be annexed by Poland? Yes, and the worst thing is these 75K, now Polish, soldiers are next to our capital. Fortunately, a few months later they leave Hannover and go to Poland.

Upset by this annexation, our king orders our diplomats to try to arrange the annexation of Bremen. Our diplomats are jealous of the recent diplomatic success of Poland and nervous about what consequences this may have to our future. They are anxious and it shows. They fail miserably to arrange the annexation of Bremen. The monarch of Bremen is really upset by our annexetion proposal, but after a meeting with our monarch he is convinced not to break the vassalization. This failure was a big lesson to our diplomats and they use all that experience to successfully vassalize Pommern.

And while we talk about diplomacy, I would like to inform you about the mess of the diplomatic relations of our alliance. Although we are typically the leaders of the alliance, the fact that other countries of our alliance have initiated war (Teutonic Order against Muscovy) and the fact that war was initiated agaist other countries of our alliance (Denmark against Holstein), we are now the only nation of our alliance not in war.