1694-1700 – The Crown Jewel of Hispania
As the court was dismissed for the time being, Emperor Joan III went ahead with his plan to provide greater rights and freedoms to the various ethnic groups of the empire. His brother, Pere, was adamant that this would weaken Hispania, but Joan had the full backing of the court. The emperor thus granted the provinces greater autonomy over local affairs, and the benefits in Italy were almost instantaneous. Within a month, the Sicilian people, led by Dukes Montségur and Alvaro, saw a noticeable increase in prosperity and production, benefitting greatly from the greater autonomy and recognition. Such progress was not seen elsewhere yet, but it was expected with some attention from the Crown, the various peoples of the empire could prosper on equal terms.
While Hispania was looking inward, Sweden was looking to expand. It declared war on Pomerania early in January. This also pitted Sweden against their hated enemy, Lithuania, who still held many of their core provinces. Bohemia also came to the aid of Pomerania. Sweden only called on France for help, and some wondered when Hispania would be called upon. This could be another chance to weaken Lithuania.
Meanwhile, Hispania shifted its focus overseas. The valuable Indonesian port of Makassar had been coveted by the court, and with that in mind Chancellor Andrés de Alvaro sent a demand to Sunda, informing them that if they did not hand over the province there would be war. Unwilling to get dragged into a war with the world’s foremost colonial power over a single province, Sunda acquiesced and handed over the province without a fight. The chancellery had achieved another victory, one that saw Hispanian trade flourishing. For the time being, the Crown set its sights on aiding the Montségur family in its funding of colonial ventures in Australia.
The trade fleets also saw a massive restructuring under Grandmaster Sancho de Burgundy-Ivrea-Orange. The massive fleets operating out of Genoa and Alexandria were split up. 40 remained in Genoa and only 20 in Alexandria, while the remainder was split up into 20 for Venice and another 20 for the Gulf of Aden. That left 4 ships unaccounted for, which were sent to the Baleares to await reassignment once more ships were constructed.
With trade fleets now operating outside the Mediterranean, merchants needed to come up with new methods of trade when dealing with foreigners. Investment was encouraged to pursue these new ideas, although this saw Hispania’s growing inflation increase even further.
The Trans-Atlantic Trading Company continued to butt heads with the Church of Jesus Christ. The Crown had granted missionaries permission to establish the Church within Africa, which often led to power struggled between the local clergy and merchants. Trade tended to get disrupted during this time, threatening the TATC’s control over trade routes on more than one occasion. ((I have to remove provinces from the trading company to convert them, which often dropped the region below the required 51% trade power for a monopoly.))
Chancellor Alvaro had made plans for attacking Bahmanis, but due to the size of the enemy army, more than just the Exercit Colonial would be needed. The Exercit Athens, currently sitting in Africa, was to sail to Ceylon once the Flota Colonial arrived. ((Finally renamed the fleets because transport fleet and main fleet sounded lame.
))
Sweden made the decision to call upon Austria for help by the summer of 1694, but as of yet, no word was sent to Hispania. The Quadruple Entente, as some had started calling the alliance bloc, was not to be used this time. While the other three members focused on Sweden’s ambitions in the Baltic, Hispania could turn elsewhere.
The death of the emperor’s key military advisor saw him replaced with Ferran Amic, a man who knew how to best stretch the resources of the army to support as many men as possible. This would help alleviate the overburdened army.
As for the navy, there had been some confusion as both the grandmaster and grand admiral ordered the construction of new ships. Fortunately, the treasurer, Andronicus Mandromenos, had been willing to allow both to go ahead, provided the court granted him the power to mothball forts and fleets to lower maintenance costs. When that was granted, and all forts in Hispanian and the Flota Principal were mothballed for the time being, the ship-building continued. As for the naval expansions, it was carried out in stages, with 16 light ships placed under construction first to be added to the unassigned 4 for deployment to the Ivory Coast.
Sweden seemed to be facing some problems as a large Pomeranian and Lithuanian force marched towards their capital.
With focus now placed on India, a merchant was sent to the Gulf of Aden to try directing trade towards Europe. ((Because we kept losing and gaining monopolies, I had to keep reassigning merchants. I couldn’t remember where they were, so I placed them where it seemed appropriate. It might be smart after the update for us to properly assign each merchant so I can have a list of where they should go.))
The next stage of the naval expansion went underway in October, with the construction of 10 heavy ships. This massive naval expansion also unintentionally aided the emperor’s efforts to uplift the Italian people on an equal level of prosperity as the Iberians. With the Iberian ports focused on constructing trade ships, it was the shipyards of Italy that were tasked with building the new twodeckers. The Italian shipbuilding industry saw a revival after their fall from grace a century ago as the shipbuilders of the empire. These ships would also help replace the 15 heavy ships that were summarily sent to Ceylon to protect the Flota Colonial as it transported troops during the future war.
As funds became available, Steward Andronicus Mandromenos started his massive construction projects, starting with conscription centers to help support the incredibly large imperial army. Only a few were constructed, mostly in the untapped parts of the empire where little infrastructure existed. Eastern Naples received the bulk of attention, especially after the Crown invested so much into the region, followed by Castile.
The Palatinate found itself in a tight spot as Trier declared war on them, conveniently as they were fighting off both the massive Swedish alliance and Munster in two separate wars. It seemed Sweden was already winning its own war, with the first peace signed with Frankfurt. War reparations were extracted to further fuel the war effort. The Palatinate followed shortly after, losing a province to Austria as well as their treasury. Trier was sure to benefit now. On the plus side, they no longer had to worry about Munster, who finally ended their war with East Frisia by annexing them completely.
By June of 1695, the next stage of naval expansion was already underway. The shipyards of Iberia were tasked with constructing 15 galleys for the Flota Principal.
Pomerania found itself in a tight spot as Poland decided to pounce on their weakened neighbour. This eventually saw Lithuania at war with Poland again, an advantageous circumstance.
Hispania wasn’t the only one struggling with cultural divisions. Byzantium was also attempting to deal with the minorities within its borders, although their strategy differed greatly from Hispania’s. Instead of greater autonomy and acceptance, the Greeks pursued a policy of assimilation and resettlement. The Bulgarian people had been targeted for decades now, with laws designed to assimilate them and Greeks encouraged to settle in the region. They were all but extinct by now. Similar policies were being pursued against the newly acquired Croatian population in the northwest. The Kurds of eastern Anatolia were not so lucky. They were actively terrorized, an attempt to force them over the border into Persia. Only the Turks escaped such policies, and in fact benefited from it. They were far too large to assimilate or resettle, so they were essentially allowed to exist as the dominant group in Anatolia. They were even migrating into the lands where the Kurds once lived, for no Greeks wanted to live there.
The colony of Salto in La Plata finished, with resources shifted north to Santiago, one step closer to cutting off the French from further expansion north.
With a fleet now operating out of Venice, it seemed logical for a merchant to be stationed there as well. ((Yet again, couldn’t remember where the merchant went, so Venice it was. Seemed like a good place to collect if we have a fleet there.))
Utrecht was the next in a series of peaces for Sweden, yet again extracting financial retribution. They needed it, with Pomeranian and Lithuanian forces having occupied a large chuck of their land. Only the fact they had an army trying to retake the capital and the major successes in the HRE were winning the war for Sweden.
It was becoming a common practice now to make use of the army as a workforce in times of peace. Seeing as the army consumed so much funds, it seemed logical for them to contribute back. The Exercit Valencia was used to build up infrastructure in the capital.
The colony in Cameroon was completed finally at the request of the Saint-Pierre family for the TATC. Africa was still important to Hispania, but the Montségur family seemed to have piqued the interest of the emperor, who set up a Crown colony in Australia north of existing ones.
On March 2 of 1696, Martinus VI was proclaimed the new Pope. A master of diplomacy, it was hoped he could best mend ties between the Holy See and Hispania. ((Does anyone know if there is a way to see what county the pope comes from without tag-swapping to a Catholic country?))
The trend of extracting reparations from the losers to fund the ongoing war continued, with Gelre the latest victim.
The end of March saw the last of the naval expansions, with the construction of 30 light ships for a new trade fleet operating out of Ceylon.
Speaking of Ceylon, the Exercits Colonial and Athens had landed on the island and the Flota Colonial was now backed by 15 heavy ships, meaning that war could be pursued. Chancellor Alvaro sent a war declaration to Bahmanis. Hispania’s next major step into India had begun.
Bahmanis’s trade fleet sailed unawares into the Flota Colonial, a move that saw them sunk and Hispania victorious.
Sweden had to be rolling in the dough with the amount of war reparations they were getting out of their enemies. With the French and Austrian armies starting to march up into Sweden, it seemed their land would be reclaimed and Lithuania placed on the defensive soon.
As the two Hispanian armies moved into the subcontinent, Bahmanis’s army was spotted marching down from the north. The larger Exercit Athens was tasked with capturing the fort at Mysore first to secure passage to their capital, while the Exercit Colonial was to take the unprotected southern provinces. What ensued was a game of capture the provinces. Every time the Exercit Colonial captured one, Bahmanis’s army reclaimed another in an endless cycle over the same four or five provinces. It was meant as a distraction to keep the enemy force from interfering with the important siege further north.
The powerful enemy of Bohemia was peaced out of Sweden’s war, leaving just Pomerania and Lithuania.
When it was decided that enough conscription centres had been established to sustain the army as is, focus was placed on training the new recruits. Training fields were set up in provinces yielding the greatest number of men for the army, most of them being in Castile, with a few in Italy.
Brunei was practically dismantled by Sunda, a show of strength to make up for their loss of Makassar to Hispania.
Despite being attacked by both the Mamluks and Persia, Yemen managed to capture a few provinces from Ajuuraan.
In May of 1697, the crucial province of Mysore was taken. With the way open to Bahmanis’s capital, an assault on the enemy army was ordered. Both the Exercits Colonial and Athens attacked at the same time. The enemy put up a tough fight, but was eventually forced to retreat north. With Mysore captured, the Hispanian armies pursued. Trapped in Goa, the inferior Indians were wiped out. A day later, Basileus Ioannes IX made a surprise appearance in Goa, although a bit late for the battle.
With Bahmanis bereft of an army, the two Hispanian armies were split up, with five armies of roughly 10-11k each. The parts of the Exercit Athens were to focus on the capital and two nearby forts, while the remainder of the Exercit Colonial worked its way down the coast.
Colonial ventures in Africa continued to flourish, with the TATC and Crown’s lax approach to the natives inspiring cooperation with the locals.
Poland was not as merciful towards its enemies as Sweden was. Instead of simply extracting war reparations, they claimed a province on Bohemia’s eastern border. The HRE was finding many of its provinces in the hands of Poland and France.
Despite a valiant effort to fend off Morocco, Tunis was forced to concede, handing over their western provinces. It seemed likely Hispania would have to go head to head with Morocco if it wanted to connect its North African provinces.
As the western coastline of Bahmanis was captured, their fleet was forced from port. They were no match for Hispania’s navy, seeing half their fleet sunk and a single transport captured. The fleet was pursued, fleeing out to open waters before being caught as they attempted to return to the coast.
The loss of Hispania’s diplomatic advisor saw a new man, Didac de Alagon, hired to help bolster funds brought in from the colonies.
Trier’s attempt to attack the Palatinate backfired, as the latter allowed Aachen to annex their enemy.
Many straggler regiments were caught and defeated over the months, but a larger force was able to gather from time to time. One was met in battle in Morasanadu. Ultimately though, without the higher numbers from earlier, they stood no chance. Another was similarly taken care of in Kongu.
In January of 1698, the capital of Savanur fell, a breakthrough in the war effort. Bahmanis was close to breaking, although many of their border forts still held out.
The recent success in India was overshadowed by events in Valencia. The empress had given birth to another daughter two years earlier, another reminder of Joan’s continuing lack of ability to sire a son that survived childhood. He had come to accept that his brother Pere was likely to continue to be his heir, and thus he kept trying to groom him for succession. Pere was quite stubborn and the two continued to butt heads over everything. He remained adamant that centralization and a concentration of power within the monarch was the key to good government, not decentralization and catering to minorities. Joan eventually gave up on the whole endeavour when Pere’s embarrassed him by publicly denouncing the Church of Jesus Christ as an abomination and refused to be formally admitted into its ranks, something that had become a part of imperial rule.
The colony if Bundjalung reached completion, furthering Hispania’s presence in Australia. The Crown set out to strengthen Nuevo Leon’s hold on La Plata by colonizing Florida Blanca. ((I underestimated how much time it’d take to complete this mission, so it won’t be done by the end of the update. I try to pick these colonial missions during the middle of updates to get easy bonuses before we can vote on a new mission.))
Bahmanis had been gather regiments to retake Mysore, but they could not manage such a thing with Hispanian troops rampaging across their country. They were dispatched easily enough, with the aid of Ioannes IX.
By April, Vijayanagar had fallen, one of four forts left to capture.
With the HRE increasingly finding it hard to find something suitable to lead its members, they chose to elect the pathetically weak Utrecht as emperor. Only Alsace showed some sense, backing the powerful Austria for the imperial crown, but then again they were a Catholic elector.
The Swedish alliance was making massive headway into Lithuania, although Sweden neglected to retake most of Finland. Poland was also pressing in from the south in their own war, since Pomerania had little left to occupy.
Raichur Doab fell in May, the last northern fort. Only the eastern coastline remained, with two forts in the way.
As July came around, Sweden decided to press its advantage to end the war. It only took Seeland from Pomerania, given it greater control of the straits, but most of its gains were from Lithuania. Sweden reclaimed four of its cores, most notably securing its former Baltic provinces and reconnecting them to Finland. This also had the effect of cutting off Lithuania from a port in the Baltic. The White Sea had no warm water port, meaning they’d have to rely on the Black Sea for most of their trade and naval presence. Tension with Byzantium, the holder of the Bosphorus, was certain to ensue in the future.
Back at home, Steward Mandromenos’s plans continued on uninterrupted. The army had received enough attention for now, so the focus was shifted to trade. To strengthen the financial market, stock exchanges were set up in key provinces throughout Iberia and Italy, wherever the trade tended to flow. Later Africa was given equal attention, an attempt to strengthen the TATC’s hold on the continent.
The last holdout army was defeated in Coromandel, where Ali III of Bahmanis was forced to accept his failure. With the war all but won, the heavy ships were returned to the Flota Principal back in Europe and the Exercit Athens was eventually sent back to Africa after the fall of Gingee.
Sweden’s war with Pomerania and lengthy occupation by enemies saw revolutionaries rise up throughout their country, mostly in the north and west.
As the end of 1698 approached, Byzantium’s dedication to Hispania turned out to have a price. Basileus Ioannes IX caught a tropical illness while leading troops in India and eventually succumbed on December 27. His passing at 56, considered quite elderly for the usually short-lived Palaiologoi, shook Byzantium. His successor and son, Manuel IV, was well qualified to take over, the man only in his 30s and considered a genius. The rumours that he was a babbling idiot were soon dispelled when he ascended to the throne, mostly because he crushed them utterly. For a time, there was resentment towards Hispania over Ioannes’s loss, but it disappeared over time. ((It seems that RNGesus has intervened. In the mod files, it clearly says he was supposed to have 0/5/4 stats, but the game gave him 6/5/4. I seem to remember this happening before. The Palaiologoi are cheating!
Also, Byzantium’s liberty desire temporarily went over 50% when we lost the royal marriage, but dropped back down when we set up another one.))
Manuel IV’s ascension also brought other problems. The man did not have a son, but only a year-old daughter. While the Greeks had never adopted a formal primogeniture succession, it was generally followed in practice, usually with the current basileus naming his son as co-emperor. Seeing as the new basileus did not have one, it was assumed he would name his younger brother, Maurianus, as co-emperor and thus his successor. For the time being though, he refused to name anyone. Some speculated he was waiting out for a son, while others believed he did not want to share power. Either way, it left succession unsure, with a young baby girl as heir. ((I had to look some things up about succession in Byzantium because I wasn’t sure whether a daughter would inherit here or they’d go to the brother. It seems succession was quite loose and naming a co-emperor could change it. For now, I have his daughter Zoe as heir. If anyone understands succession in Byzantium, please feel free to share your knowledge. I might also consider making use of “born in purple”, since I forgot about that. Any thoughts?))
The Mamluks finished their war with Yemen, securing plenty of land for their ally Najd. The land they took for themselves was interestingly placed. They decided to take the two provinces at the very entrance of the Red Sea, ones they could only access by sea. It did mean they controlled the straits, a strategic advantage if they could hold it.
The colony in the Grain (Fish) Coast reach a suitable level of self-sufficiency. Yet again, the Crown funded a venture in Australia, this time Baiali. There was general support for the establishment of a colonial administration for the colonies on the island.
In May of 1699, the last of Bahmanis’s provinces fell, meaning that peace could be pursued. Chancellor Alvaro negotiated an ambitious settlement, wanting to take as many provinces as Hispania could manage without overextending itself. Bahmanis’s entire southern half was taken, as well as the rest of Ceylon. Most importantly, the forts at Mysore and Gingee were included, providing a line of defence to fend off invasions from the north, although the forts were fairly small by European standards. Such a peace did strain Hispania’s administration resources and nearly overextend it beyond its means. ((99% overextension and there goes all our admin points.))
Nova Hispania saw this as an appropriate time to set up its own colonial assembly, a worrying notion.
The acquisition of southern India was a great boon to the Crown’s Indian Trading Company, allowing it to secure a majority of the trade for the region. ((We have so many merchants now.
))
The last stage of the steward’s plan saw the construction of cathedrals all over Europe and North Africa.
At the dawn of a new century, new designs for galleys were drawn up and immediately implemented, with all galleys in the Flota Principal placed in the drydock for modification. As for the army, new tactics were designed for protecting forts, along with a new design for a fortress that rivalled the current bastions. Once funds were available, the forts within Iberia would be outfitted with these improvements.
And as this all went on, France continued its subtle colonization of the world, claiming the Galapagos and Andaman Islands with little notice. ((I honestly didn’t even know they had colonized them until I happened to spot some unexpected dark blue while glancing at the world map.))
The end of the year also brought yet another tragedy. The emperor had finally sired a son the year before, but as the century turned, the boy passed away, barely a year old. The emperor came to accept that he was likely never to sire another.
Presenting His Imperial Highness, Joan III de Trastámara, Emperor of Hispania, Caesar of Rome, and Protector of the Greeks.
Our presence in India has been greatly expanded, a great boon to our growing trade empire. The wealth that will flow into our treasury will be unmatched. Soon there will be no corner of the globe we will not touch. We should be careful though not to overextend ourselves. I have heard word of growing discontent in the colonies, and the Greeks have recently felt slighted by the loss of Basileus Ioannes IX in India. I can only hope we remain united in cause and purpose.
As for the matter of my brother, I assure you that despite certain public spectacles, I will ensure he is properly prepared to succeed me if something were to happen to me. We may not see eye to eye, but I am certain he will make a strong emperor.
There has also been word of a growing movement in Hispania. For centuries, slaves from Africa have been used across the empire, and increasingly in our New World colonies. The humanists amongst us have argued that this practice is barbaric and inhumane, to force another into slavery. Despite the economic benefits, perhaps we should consider abolishing slavery. ((I noticed the decision for abolishing slavery is now available. I know it can’t currently be enacted, but that’s just because our overextension is too high. We’ll be able to enact it in a few years, so we can have a vote on it if people want to suggest it. I’ll include the details below.))
((A few things I need to address right off the bat. The list of colonies I have is now empty, so players should start submitting new provinces to colonize, otherwise the Crown will determine them all. Also it is likely Australia will form a colonial nation soon, so we should start suggesting names. I’m also thinking it might be a good idea to write up a list of where all our merchants should go so when we lose one temporarily, I know where to send it. I’ll leave that to the grandmaster,
@BelisariustheGreat, although he can get help from others too. It should also be noted that while we’re under our force limit for once, it is artificially inflated by our new advisor. It’s actually closer to 160 than 177. We could also consider upgrading some forts. Some are still level 2, mostly those outside Iberia and Italy.
In other more interesting news, now that we’ve reached 1700, I’m formally allowing the revolution coup, so if you want to lop off the monarch’s head, form a revolutionary republic, and rampage across Europe in a never-ending quest to spread our enlightened ideals of religious tolerance and multiculturalism, you now can. Of course the revolt risk is still too low for that and the number of votes needed is quite high, so it’s a long shot. I’ll get to reworking the coup system sometime soon.
Random note, but I’m going to put the church aspects and policies in a separate post and link to them in the table of contents. They rarely change, so there’s no point in putting them in the spam screenshot every time. I’ll change them when something new shows up. Also, because someone asked this before, I usually post our diplomatic relations on the spam screenshot around where the generals are. It’s kind of a small thing to find a spot for.
I’m going to give ministers until
Sunday at 12PM PST to post plans, and players may propose laws in that time period too. I’ve pushed it up a day earlier because I most likely won’t be around next Thursday to do the playthrough. If people would prefer more time though, I could instead delay the next playthrough until after I return on Friday and give everyone more time.
))
