1778-1783 – Misery for Malwa
The start of 1778 saw lengthy negotiations over Scotland’s colonies. Scotland was willing to part with the land as long as it received a fair price. A joint committee determined that the Scottish colonies would cost a total of 20k ducats, a sum that Hispania possessed roughly only a seventh of. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sophia de Trastámara, looked to the colonies for support. Seeing as they would be the greatest beneficiaries of the agreement, it seemed logical that they should contribute. After a meeting of the Colonial Congress, all the Hispanian colonial nations agreed to contribute, with them all meeting half of the sum, as long as tariffs were lowered for a decade. Sanchonia, Nueva Granada, and Nova Hispania paid the most as the ones directly receiving the land. Scotland received the Hispanian portion up front and the colonies agreed to pay their part over time. The agreement was thus struck and the colonies changed hands. The treasury had to take out four loans of roughly 2k ducats each to meet the price, but Minister of Finance Martí de Alvaro ensured that they did not raise inflation any higher.
In other matters, the Parliament in general started to favour bolstering Hispania’s growing trade empire. Trade was the lifeblood of the Empire, with most of its wealth drawing from it. Perhaps this is why a war with Malwa was in the works. India was a land rich in resources and trade goods, with control of the subcontinent being nothing but a boon for Hispania if they could cut out a larger piece. Armies started sailing for India in preparation for the proposed conflict.
Scotland did not take long to start establishing new colonies elsewhere. With Brazil now closed off, they settled farther south in La Plata. Some were quite irate that the Scots would so boldly settle near another Hispanian colony, although there was another nation there already anyway. Scottish settlers were also seen somewhere in Indonesia.
A female troubadour made an appearance at court, scandalizing some of the more conservative members with her risqué performance. The Emperor seemed quite delighted by it and had taken a liking to various art forms over the years.
The nations of East Africa and the Middle East went at each other again, with Yemen declaring war on Alodia.
The colony in Sikumiut reached a state of self-sufficiency, just as the French and Scandinavians set up their own colonial nations on the West Coast, with the establishment of French Columbia and Oregon. The Crown instead focused on Indonesia, a region where colonization had not reached a rapid pace and there was still land to claim.
By September, the first of the four loans was paid off, relieving some of the financial strain on the treasury.
Colonist Joaquin Villanova set off on his own to set up a colony in Taiwan.
At the start of 1779, Emperor Alfons IX shared the joyous news that the Empress had given birth to a baby boy, who the Emperor named Joan.
Once enough armies had arrived in India, with armies from Africa and China sent over and the Exercit Athens on the way, the proposed war was declared. Malwa had Delhi and Bengal backing it up, but both were distracted by other wars, the former against Ming and the latter against Taungu.
The first victory was at sea with one of Malwa’s trade fleets sent to the bottom of the Indian Ocean, followed by another farther east.
Kaffa added to the raging conflict in East Africa by attacking Yemen.
Malwa did not take long to act. An army of 50k was spotted marching south, but it remained beyond the border as one of 23k went after the fort in Vijayanagar. Generals Leon and Saint-Pierre attacked them outside the city walls, providing a clear example of the superiority of Hispanian soldiers and weapons. The entire enemy army capitulated mere days into the battle, with less than a thousand men lost for Hispania.
Hispanian merchants had dominated trade across the world for centuries, and it was truly starting to show off. The merchants were known for their shrewd negotiating and wise business deals.
Persia smacked Genoa around, pushing right up to Lithuania’s borders and dominating the Caucasus Mountains.
With the large army of over 50k looming on the border, they needed to be repelled before reinforcements arrived. 33k from Bengal were already spotted marching west. Leon led a charge against the enemy in Desh with the assistance of Saint-Pierre. The jungle terrain bogged them down and wrecked havoc on the army, but Malwa was no competition for Hispania. Their army fled north, conveniently right before Bengal could arrive. As Bengal attacked Leon’s army, thinking they would have Malwa at their side, they ended up facing the Hispanian force nearly alone and with inferior numbers. Soon they were encircled and forced to surrender.
In Austria, the ex-husband of the Emperor’s sister came to the throne, claiming the title of Holy Roman Emperor in the process despite the irrelevance of that title.
Bengal was just as bold at sea as on land. Their navy went after the trade fleet operating out of Ceylon, after leading Admiral Liu Binhan on a merry chase around the Indian Ocean. Perhaps sensing that they were almost caught, they fled to port rather than continue the battle. Of course, it could have been the fact that the trade fleet did more damage than their own navy.
In November, the first of the enemy forts had fallen in Rayalaseema, followed by Bidar and Kosta a month later. This was soon met with more unfortunate news as Manchu and Ming settled their differences, with Manchu coming out on top and their ally Delhi stronger too. Now Delhi would no longer be preoccupied. In celebration of their defeat of Ming, Manchu declared itself the Qing Dynasty, the true rulers of China, especially now that the city of Beijing was in their hands.
The assessment of Delhi proved to be correct. An army of 30k arrived soon after in Canton. With the army usually defending the area now in India, Delhi had free reign over the Chinese provinces.
As the year turned to 1780, the fort at Warangal fell and Hispania spread out its armies to lay siege to all the border provinces. Malwa returned with a vengeance though, 80k men gathered in a mish-mashed army that marched south and waited for an opportunity to strike. They circled around, trying to find an opening without attacking an army. When Admiral Liu sighted a Bengal army of 48k heading towards India, it seemed possible that Malwa was waiting for reinforcements.
It was Bengal that decided to make the first move. They launched an attack on the army in Konaseema, perhaps bolstered by the nearby presence of Malwa’s army. Leon was in the area though and marched to assist. This still left the Hispanians outnumbered 2:1. The other armies rushed east to reinforce, and their timely arrival played its part. The enemy force lost over 40k men and fled towards Bengal, with Hispania losing less than half that number. Pursuit was given to clean up the straggler armies lingering nearby, with the largest of 5k succumbing to Saint-Pierre’s force.
Some clergymen were claiming that Hispania’s trade practices were heretical. They shut up once it was suggested that the Churches could start providing funds to the Crown equal to what the merchants were bringing in.
Byzantium had always shown its willingness to fight alongside Hispania in its wars, and this war was no exception. The Byzantine fleet sailed all the way to Indonesia and hunted down Malwa’s fleet, catching it outside Ternete. There the Greeks showed an hereto unknown level of naval skill as they decimated the enemy navy. Not a single ship sailed away from the encounter.
In financial news, the second loan was paid off in May of 1780.
Lieutenant General Dias captured Marathwada, making his way north towards Malwa’s capital. He was nearing his goal, but it remained just out of sight. The rest of the army was securing land near the border and pushing towards Bengal.
Canton could not hold out alone against Delhi, giving in in August. Nothing was left to defend Hispania’s Chinese provinces.
By September, the forts in East Berar and Garjat had fallen, leaving most of central India in Hispanian hands. A Bengal army of 60k had made its way into the interior to liberate provinces, with another 60k from Malwa on the way. Bengal made its way farther south while Malwa held back. Delhi then showed up with its own force and made a foolish attack on Captain General Saint-Pierre’s army. Leon arrived with help, and Delhi found itself outmatched and surrounded. The entire enemy force capitulated after a week of fighting, another large force taken out of the war.
The colony in Llanos became self-sufficient, allowing resources to be shifted to the far reaches of North America.
Morocco had taken a page out of the handbook used by many other backwards nations and started stealing ideas from Hispania to become more westernized.
With Delhi pushed back and Malwa’s army unwilling to engage, that left an opening to take on the Bengal army that had been foolish enough to go behind enemy lines. Saint-Pierre launched the initial attack on the enemy army in Bidar, with Leon and the rest of the army arriving shortly after. Clearly outnumbered by superior men, Bengal had no choice but to retreat. Another Hispanian victory.
The colony in Santo Antonio de Mange became self-sustaining, and with Scotland gone there was no reason to continue focusing on the area. The Crown could focus its full attention on Indonesia.
The Hispanian army was not giving the enemy time to settle in and retake land, launching attack after attack any time an army got too close to occupied territory. Malwa had split their force, leaving some in Marathwada and a smaller force north in Khandesh. As before, Saint-Pierre engaged the enemy first and lured them into battle, leaving Leon time to move in and surround the enemy. The strategy worked brilliantly, the entire enemy army encircled and forced to surrender.
As the year turned to 1781, Delhi finished occupying the Chinese provinces, but the army stayed behind regardless.
There was still one last significant enemy army to eliminate. Leon and Saint-Pierre attacked it in Baglana, dealing it a major blow. Thousands of enemy soldiers threw down their weapons rather than fight any further.
Near the start of 1781, the heir to the Bavarian throne passed away, leaving Duke Ferdinand I without a son. Succession seemed likely to pass on through his daughter, Viktoria, who was married to Emperor Alfons’s cousin Carles, presenting the possibility of the throne passing into the hands of a Trastámara.
The Hispanian armies focused their attention on the various forts, while also taking out any straggler armies they could find. Malwa had decided that gathering one large army would spell certain doom and instead decided to send dozens of tiny regiments wandering the countryside to retake land captured by Hispania. It proved more effective in retaking land, although it only delayed the inevitable. It didn’t, however, stop Hispania from finally taking Malwa’s capital of Mandu.
Bengal lost its own distraction with Dai Viet annexing Taungu. An army of 60k soon marched over the border to work on retaking Garjat.
By the time the forts in Rewakantha and Surat fell, Malwa had gathered many small armies to pour into the war theatre. Dias attacked the largest gathering, eliminating that threat before it grew.
France turned its gaze overseas as it declared war on Miami.
Bengal managed to reclaim Garjat, but by then the Hispanian armies were moving east to eliminate the threat. Bengal made the foolish decision to attack a Hispanian army with reinforcements nearby. Saint-Pierre and Dias engaged shortly after the other armies drew Bengal in. Yet again, the enemy allowed themselves to be outnumbered and surrounded. The Bengal army had no choice but to surrender or be eliminated.
Losing so drastically at home, Malwa had no choice but to end their futile war with Ternate. They gave up a province to end that conflict to focus on the greater threat.
Delhi started sending troops down south, and as with all enemy forces they were engaged quickly and with superior numbers. Dias took charge of this assault, greatly weakening the enemy but unable to force a surrender.
A message arrived on the front in November that proved a surprise to all. Byzantium, instead of sailing its army to India, had opted to march through either Persia or Lithuania and attack Delhi from the west. They had already broken through into the interior and were nearing the border with Malwa. The Basileus himself had taken command of the army. The Greeks had yet again proven how far they’d go when fighting alongside Hispania.
Despite the many defeats they had been dealt, enemy armies kept attempting to break past the front lines and retake Malwa’s land. Dias led the latest in one of many attacks, targeting a force in Mandsaur. The joint Delhi-Bengal army stood no chance and capitulated rather than fight to the bitter end.
Garjat was retaken in December, but in better news the work Byzantium had done in the Delhi interior had worn out their willingness to fight. Delhi agreed to pay war reparations to get out of further punishment, leaving Malwa and Bengal alone to fight. With the treasury taking in extra funds, the third of the four loans was paid off.
Bengal accidentally ran into Dias’s army, and it’s safe to say they didn’t make it out of there alive. Another gathering of men for Malwa was engaged in Mahakoshal and eliminated.
Near the start of 1782, the Archduke of Austria passed away, leaving his infant son on the throne and as Holy Roman Emperor. The mother of the new Archduke took the opportunity to write a rather scathing letter to Princess Sophia de Trastámara, flaunting how she had stolen the woman’s husband and now had her son on the throne.
Another army had gathered in Mandla and was dispatched before it could wander into occupied lands.
The enemy was throwing away lives at an increasing rate just for a chance to break through the lines and make headway into Malwa, with countless victims falling before the Hispanian armies.
Hispanian armies had reached as far as Delhi’s border by capturing the fort at Chittor. Men marched west to securing the untouched regions of Malwa there, as others secured what was left on Northern Malwa before turning towards Bengal.
With a war being fought to secure valuable trade goods for Hispania, support for mercantilism grew. If Hispania controlled the flow of trade, from source to the customers, the Empire would prosper.
France settled a peace with Miami, taking a single province.
Despite their defeat all but determined, Malwa and Bengal continued to throw lives away in a futile attempt at resistance. Small armies threw themselves in the way of Hispania and were mowed down.
Yemen was unable to hold off Kaffa’s invasions and conduct their war against Alodia, losing land on the Red Sea in the process.
Gird was the next fort to fall, leaving just those on the western and eastern borders.
In September of 1782, the last of the four loans was paid off, only a few months before the payment was due. Hispania was officially out of debt. With money now available, Minister of Trade Joaquin Villanova ordered the construction of great frigates for every trade fleet.
A poor harvest in the colonies saw an influx of colonist migrated back to Europe.
Continuing the old age tradition, Emperor Alfons met with the governor of Nueva Sicilia and asked to pray with him, bringing the two closer together.
The merchant class was growing rapidly over the years. With trade so profitable, the merchants were doing well for themselves and becoming much more influential in Hispania.
Colonization could have a nasty impact on the local population. Illnesses considered common or treatable in Europe proved deadly for the natives in the New World. Hispania had followed a policy of cohabitation for centuries, believing that it was best to cooperate and live alongside the natives rather than drive them from the land. Due to this, the Crown felt responsible to care for them. Funds were set aside to provide treatment for those afflicted by these ailments.
The fort in Kathiawar fell in December of 1782, leaving little defending the western lands of Malwa. Enemy soldiers continued to fall in vast numbers, with Hispania’s toll being a mere fraction of what the enemy was experiencing.
February of 1783 brought an important turn of events. Duke Ferdinand I von Frankenstein of Bavaria passed away without an heir. While it was originally expected that succession would pass on through the Duke’s son and into the hands of the Trastámaras, the Poles had had other ideas. Also married into the Bavarian royal family, the Polish king had a claim to the throne. As the Duke had gotten sicker, the Polish king had demanded that the crown pass to him and that he would rule Bavaria directly. The alternative, he stated, was to become a pawn of Hispania’s under the rule of the Emperor’s cousin. The Duke, without telling anyone, took action of his own. When he finally passed away, it was revealed that he had not left his crown to the Polish king or even his son-in-law, Carles de Trastámara, but to Emperor Alfons himself. It was suspected that the Duke had believed Alfons was the only one powerful enough to ensure a succession crisis did not erupt and also protect Bavaria from invaders. Of course, this decision was not entirely accepted. A diplomat from Hispania had been spotted around the Duke shortly before his death, and some suspected the Empress Dowager had negotiated with the Duke to ensure the Bavarian throne went to her son and no one else. Even with dissent, no one was influential enough to dispute both the will of the late Duke and the Emperor of Hispania. Bavaria would take its orders from Valencia from now on. ((The tooltip kept saying that Poland was going to inherit Bavaria if the Duke died, but we ended up with this pleasant surprise instead. The Valois aren’t the only ones who can play the game of dynastic succession.
))
Although Bengal’s land had been mostly untouched, they had lost thousands of men and it was starting to show. Rather than suffer any longer, they agreed to pay war reparations to bring an end to the conflict, leaving Malwa at the mercy of Hispania.
History repeated itself as yet another Basileus died in the jungles of India. Alexandros II succumbed to some dreadful illness while on campaign, leaving the throne to his son Ioannes.
Apparently the Genoa trade fleet had been neglected for years and some much needed repairs were conducted. ((I must have missed upgrading them the last time we got new ships. My bad.
))
When Jaunpur fell in June, leaving just a single fort left, Malwa finally caved. Combined, Malwa, Bengal, and Delhi had lost roughly 570k men, with many surrendering during the course of the war. Hispania saw closer to 100k casualties, a far lower number than the enemy. Peace was eventually signed, with Malwa surrendering much of its lands to Hispania. The coastline all the way up to Surat on the west coast and Konaseema on the east was taken, while the border north was moved up to the line of forts Malwa possessed, providing Hispania with better defenses for its new territory.
Hispania was at peace once more and the armies headed to the coast to sail home. Rebels had popped up in Malwa right before peace was signed and now Hispania how to push some from the newly acquired lands. Before Hispania could get back on track, two events threatened that return to peace.
First, a call-to-arms arrived from France. The French had decided it was time to take on Austria again, declaring a second war on them. Germany and Scandinavia had already answered France’s call, while Scotland, Lithuania, and Silesia had come to Austria’s defence. Hispania would have to decide yet again whether they would help their ally against Austria and let them call the shots.
Word then arrived from Arabia. The Emperor had sent a message to the governments of Persia and Yemen, the two dominant Arabian powers, requesting that they assist in tracking down men who had attacked Hispanian convoys. These requests fell on deaf ears, for tensions that had been building for decades finally erupted. Long had the people of Arabia suffered due to the influx of opium brought in by TATC. The population was addicted in growing numbers and efforts to curb the trade proved mostly unsuccessful. Despite this, Hispania seemed content to keep selling this addictive product to the people of Arabia with impunity. The governments of Persia and Yemen had had enough. Hispanian merchants were suddenly ejected from Arabia and their opium stocks confiscated and burned. Hispanians were no longer welcome in the region. If Hispania wanted to continue selling such a dangerous and addictive substance to the people of Arabia, they’d have to do it by force.
Presenting His Imperial Highness, Alfons IX de Trastámara, Emperor of Hispania, Caesar of Rome, Duke of Bavaria, and Protector of the Greeks.
The war in India has proven to be a major success. Despite the vast armies arrayed against us, we won every battle and inflicted staggering losses on our enemies. That war shall forever serve as an example of Hispanian might and how far we have outdistanced the backwards nations of Asia.
Now we see two conflicts rising on the horizon. The French asked for our assistance against Austria again. Surely we would see ourselves at war with Austria at some point, for they have done nothing but try to antagonize us since our break in relations. I have not forgotten how they treated my sister. I am not certain I relish allowing France to decide the peace again though.
News from Arabia has not been pleasant. I am not certain of the full extent of events that have been going on in the region, but it seems that Persia and Yemen do not approve of our trade presence in their nations and have expelled our merchants. This may warrant some attention, either through diplomatic efforts or military intervention, although we must also ask ourselves who is at fault here before we proceed.
I would also like to take the opportunity to speak to my Bavarian subjects. I did not expect the crown of Bavaria to be handed to me, but I shall reign over them as fairly and justly I would any Hispanian. I believe it only fair that for the time being the Bavarians be granted a level of autonomy, allowing them control of their own internal affairs. I shall strive to ensure their interests are considered here in Valencia.
I’d also like to ask the Minister of Religious Affairs as to the reasoning behind his decision to focus solely on one group of Coptics in Egypt while those in our Polish lands still refuse to accept the Church of Jesus Christ? I certainly hope the Church’s expansion into India is not neglected in the coming years, for it seems a shame to not attempt to enlighten the heathens of India.
We must always consider how we wish to proceed going into the future. Our trade empire continues to grow, and perhaps could grow even more if given due attention. Our recent expansion may have also overburdened the Empire, so perhaps a time spent consolidating our recent additions should be considered. Peaceful colonization in Southeast Asia could benefit the Empire as well.
((Another war down. We have quite a few things to consider. France has asked us to help, so we will be voting on that later. I’ll leave it to everyone to decide how to respond to events in Arabia. As for Bavaria, that was a welcome surprise.
Now for our usual business, ministers have until
Wednesday at 12PM PST to post their plans, and players may propose laws in that time period. We might also want to consider changing our national focus, which is currently set to military, something we don’t need anymore. As for the elections, I shall post the results of the 1780 election some time after the update. I don’t want to delay updates to tabulate the results. We also have an election coming up in 1784, so consider using the opportunity to campaign for that, keeping in mind that many of this update’s events will impact the results.
Pensioners:
@Dadarian
@wzhang29
))
