Chapter 2: The Eagle spreads its wing. (1460-1481)
After the war with the Teutonic Order and its allies, reclaiming Neumark, and gaining various allies, Brandenburg found itself in a peculair position. Many of the Northern Germanic nations, such as the Hansa, Mecklenburg, Anhalt, and Saxonny were waging war amongst themselves. This would allow Brandenburg to expand of course, but would leave the Germanic nations to be quickly manipulated by larger and more dominating nations, such as France and Austria. To ensure Germanic unity, Brandenburg began down the path of getting the Germanic people onto one side.
However, before Brandenburg could go to war, the king fell ill and died, probably due to a heart attack. This left Brandenburg being led by a regency council. This meant that Brandenburg could declare war, which hampered Brandenburg's plan on reclaiming Mecklenburg.
But thankfully the small nation of Anhalt felt Brandenburg's desire to unite the Germanic nations, and declare a war on Magdeburg, a nation that Brandenburg hated, as it was similar to the Teutonic Order, an archbishop nation.
Thankfully, none of Magdeburg's allies came in to intervene, which meant that Brandenburg's armies came in to crush the weak state.
Magdeburg's armies were quickly crushed by the alliance, and soon the capital was sieged. However, Brandenburg didn't desire to annex the minor nation. Rather it wanted to wait for something that would come to sweep the nations, as mentioned by the Regency council's note;
March 1st, the year of our lord 1461,
We sent our envoy to deliver our peace deal to the besieged state of Magdeburg, of annulling its various treaties and paying us a considerable amount of ducats. Many in the council declined to annex the minor nation, as some felt that the Church was going to change. Many of the bishops in our nation are growing weary of the Papal influence, and desire to form a new church. We are suppressing these thought, but secretly, we wonder if they could be used to unite the Germanic nations. What if we become the leader of the Holy Roman Empire, and force them to change to our new religions? It would unite the Germanic nations to this new belief, and allow us to avoid the issue of Catholic zealot if we were to change religions and have all these lands. It is a thought.
A blow came to Brandenburg's plan in 1462. Following a devastating war with Poland and its allies, the Teutonic Order became a vassal of the Eastern Giant. This caused much alarm to the Regency council, who saw that despite that the Order was a threat, that it was still German, and needed to be in the arms of Brandenburg. Thus, efforts to unite the Germanic nations double efforts, with a alliance deal with Saxonny being signed.
After the allinace was signed, Brandenburg reviewed its stance in the HRE, and made a mission to get Cologne, a minor HRE member state that was an elector, to vote for Brandenburg. This would grant Brandenburg a 4-1-2 vote against Bohemia (who were selfish to being the Holy Roman Emperor), and Austria, who was the current head of the HRE. But the mission eventually failed, due to the distance between each nation and Brandenburg feeling that Cologne was being overly-aggressive in its wars with other HRE states.
The state of the HRE, 1463
Following the review of the HRE, Brandenburg got dragged into a war with Saxxony against Mecklenburg and its allies. Brandenburg didn't fear any of these nations, as its army was on the rise, and saw an chance to take Mecklenburg despite the regency council.
Sadly for Brandenburg, Saxonny got what it wanted, and left the state of Mecklenburg alive, and didn't give anything to Brandenburg, something that Brandenburg wouldn't forget anytime soon.
Thankfully for Brandenburg, the prince was now old enough to become king, and soon Brandenburg began planning its next few wars.
Following the King's rise to power, the state of Pomerania became a part of Brandenburg following a lengthy annexation process. Now, Brandenburg owned a sizable coastal region, which may prove vital in the years to come. In any case, it improved Brandenburg trade power.
In 1467, Brandenburg formed an alliance with Triet, in the hopes of getting another elector of the HRE to be a puppet of Brandenburg. In addition to this, in 1468, the Palptine states sent a bribe, which improved Brandenburg's relations with them.
However, the beginning of a long series of incidents involving the three major electors, Austria, Bohemia, and Brandenburg would begin in 1469. After laying claims on the province of Niedelausitz, a major province in Bohemia, Brandenburg began gathering its allies to begin the mother of all battles.
In 1469, Brandenburg began the war y invading and beginning the siege of Niedelausitz. Before Bohemia could properly react, Polish and Lithuanian soldiers poured into the Eastern Borders, and they, along with the Teutonic order, began the massive siege effort of the entire state of Bohemia.
The compairson of the armies showed how unprepared Bohemia was for war. With five times as many infantry and seven times as many cavalry units, Bohemia had no chance of winning the war.
An excerpt from a passing bard tells of the war,
I thought I had seen some nasty wars during the 100 years war, but the fighting in Bohemia was unparalleled. Polish soldiers were run down Bohemian men that tried to resist, Brandenburgan troops laid siege to the northern Province with brutal efficiency, and no where was the Bohemian army to be seen. It was as if they had given up any hope of resisting the will of Brandenburg's nasty alliance. When will the war end, and what will become of Bohemia?
The war came to an end in 1470, with Brandenburg getting improved taxes and diplomatic relations before wars end as new ideas. But the peace that Bohemia had to pay were harsh. They had to release Silesia as a sovereign nations, release Niedelausitz to Brandenburg, and pay 88 ducats for losing the war. However, later on, Austria would demand Brandenburg to return the land, which Brandenburg would refuse.
Following the success of the war, Brandenburg turned to a nation they waged war against a few years ago; Mecklenburg. The goal was clear, annex the minor state for the glory of Brandenburg. It also served as a means to get close in to Luebeck for a follow-up war, war with the Hansa. The war lasted from 1472 until 1473, and ended with the nation of Mecklenburg getting annexed.
In the following year, Brandenburg began forming claims to Luebeck and Oberlaustiz, and then it became clear to Brandenburg's elite that Oberlaustiz must be theirs. Also, Brandenburg got Silesia to become a vassal of the mighty state.
In the year 1476, Brandenburg declared war on Bohemia, whose only ally was Magdeburg, a state that Brandenburg had experience suppressing quickly.
It wasn't long until Magdeburg quickly peace out, paying ducats to Brandenburg for peace. This allowed Brandenburg to finish the conquest of Oberlaustiz, robbing Bohemia of much needed land. Again, Austria tried to convince Brandenburg to return the land robbed from Bohemia, but once more Brandenburg stood firm, not fearing the split Austrians, who were no match for Brandenburg's web of alliances.
In 1476, Brandenburg began the process of annexing Silesia into Brandenburg, by allowing Silesia to become a vassal of the state. A noted official had this to say at the time;
The Annexation of this vital region will allow Brandenburg to prepare for any major defensive operations in Eastern Europe. They border along a longer stretch of Poland than any of Brandenburg's provinces, so it is of the utmost importance to the nation to annex them.
In 1478, a Bishop paid the state of Brandenburg 28 ducats to be allowed to preach. This caused some to feel that reforms to the church was coming. Some praised the coming change, others feared it, but the leaders of Brandenburg wish it would happen soon so they could enact the plans thought of during the regent council's reign.
But in 1478, something that affected the entire nation began. Brandenburg began the war for Luebeck against the Hansa. While it by itself was weak, it was its allies that threatened Brandenburg. To the far east was the Livonian Order, but that wasn't the concern. The Concern came from across the Batlic Ocean, to the North. The threat was Sweden. the Juggernaught had the ability to wipe Brandenburg off the map should it chose to.
however, Sweden didn't become involved. The reason were probably due to Denmark pushing north into Sweden, and due to a fractured alliance with the Hansa. But this proved to be enough for Brandenburg, as the war became a completer victory for Brandenburg. In 1479, the Livonian Order paid Brandenburg considerable amounts of Ducats for peace. Then following that, Hansa accepted the peace deal sent forth by Brandenburg; Luebeck would become a province in Brandenburg, and the Hansa would become a vassal of Brandenburg.
A look into what Brandenburg became in the year 1481 showed a massive expansion of terrotires. From the 1444 size of three province soon became a 12 province Germanic major nation by 1481, soon to become a 15 province nation. The diplomatic relations changed little for Brandenburg, other than losing the alliances with Bohemia and Saxonny (due to Saxonny being cowards and never joining the war efforts of Brandenburg). Also, Bohemia became a TPM due to a war with Saxonny.