Senators,
Let Us tell you of the wars of the past few years.
Heeding the Senate's desire for expansion in the Far East, and noting the difficulties the Empire's factories were having in procuring dye, We set some agents to work on Sulawesi, where they documented the local population's desire to be a part of the Empire instead of part of Hedjaz. When the agents' efforts came to world attention, this was viewed negatively.
While this was under way, Poland requested Our help in reclaiming lands of theirs that were occupied by Bavaria. Not only seeking to keep an ally, but also seeing a chance to weaken Bavaria, We agreed.
XXVII. Legio moved into the Alps to block Bavarian incursion, while XXIII. Legio moved through German lands to strike the Bavarian east. When Thuringia agreed to help Bavaria, X. Legio moved to occupy their small territory.
XXVII. Legio was never able to force a battle, but they frightened several Bavarian forces away from occupying alpine territories. XXIII. Legio captured Brno. X. Legio completed occupied Thuringia and scattered their miniscule army. This was enough for Bavaria to agree to the Polish claims.
The attack on Hedjaz was slightly delayed as the upgrades of the border fortifications had been using up the supply of artillery, leaving the legions under-supplied. But provisions were redistributed, and the legions were ready in August of 1849.
In the east, XI. Legio moved island to island.
In the west, I. Legio and XIX. Legio both attacked the Hedjaz homeland.
By November, Hedjaz was ready for peace.
Agents were then sent to the Iraqi holdings in the Philippines. Iraq, suspicious of us after the war with Hedjaz, found our agents nearly immediately. But this did not deter Us in the least.
It was October 1850 before the legions were recovered and in position.
But in September of that year, the UTA had declared war on the Empire of Mexico, as they now claimed that the central part of North America from ocean to ocean was theirs by right. We could not abandon our ally, even though this also brought us into was with Biru, Colombia, and New England.
XV. Legio marched along the Colombian coast, pacifying the lands it marched through. Though it did not capture much before beginning to repel Colombian armies from both Imperial territory and captured territory. Once defeating the entirety of the Colombian armies, they again moved along the coast, and then marched inland towards the Colombian capital of Bogota. Eventually, in November of 1851 Colombia agreed to a simple peace with no concessions.
IX. Legio initially assisted against New England by defeating their armies. Again, occupying their territories would be left to the UTA.
XII. Legio had set sail towards Biru's capital. In their eagerness to fight, they convinced Admiral Theodoros Mavrocordatos to sail at top speed, leaving the western fleet behind. At the Antofagasta coast, they were intercepted by the Biruvian navy. Fortunately Biru's ships were, if not yet obsolete, badly out of date and our transport fleet was able to withdraw in good order with the loss of only one ship. Even better, that ship was carrying supplies and not soldiers. Unfortunately, the nearest port was the Falklands, so XII. Legio would not soon be attacking Biru.
In that time, IX. Legio had arrived in Texas to begin repelling Mexican armies. After it did so, it began occupying Mexican territory. They spent the rest of the war doing so. Once nearly all of central Mexico was occupied, they returned to Lisboa.
By October 1851, a new ship had been built, and XII. Legio again struck at Biru. This time the West Fleet was keeping the Biruvian fleet in their port. XII. Legio proceeded to occupy much of Biru, additionally driving their fleet from their port into the guns of the West Fleet. But the stubborn Biruvians did not agree to peace until July of 1852.
Meanwhile, XV. Legio had been shipped from Colombia to the southernmost regions of Mexico to occupy their lands. When they had occupied the whole South of Mexico, they returned home to Georgetown.
In August of 1842, New England finally agreed to annexation. The UTA had a secure northeastern territory.
XII. Legio had been shipped north to Oregon, where they defeated one of the last Mexican armies and then moved to free American towns from Mexican occupation. Once this was complete, they headed home to Tangier.
The war with Mexico did not dissuade us from war with Iraq. This war was declared on October 4th 1850. XI. Legio did its usual work of occupying the island of Southeast Asia.
And I. Legio occupied the Iraqi heartland.
And those small occupations were all it took for Iraq to surrender on the 11th of November, 1850. Γιώργος Γκρέυ, son of SenatorΣτήβεν Γκρέυ, was made governor of this new colony.
Before the Mexican war had yet ended, Poland asked for Our help in freeing Lietuva from Russian domination. We could not refuse them.
As in former wars, XXIV. Legio marched to occupy Moscow, while II. Legio cut off Russian access to the sea.
XXIII. Legio moved against Hungary when they decided to help Russia. I. Legio moved against Persia when they did the same. Both X. Legio and XVII. Legio moved to defeat Hungarian armies in western Germany.
XXIV. Legio was then intercepted at Kursk on their march to Moscow. They won the ensuing battle, but need to turn back in order to recuperate. When they were attacked again as they withdrew, they were routed and forced back to Moldavia.
Fortunately, enough damage was done on enough fronts that Russia surrendered in June of 1853.
However the Mexican-American war still went on, as We waited for the Americans to declare enough terms to give Mexico a harsh peace.
After an intermission, We shall tell you of domestic affairs during this time.
