I wonder - will you also edit in possible Wars of Independence in North America?
No doubt about it though, Louis goes down in the historybooks as a success.
No doubt about it though, Louis goes down in the historybooks as a success.
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Truly a golden age now. Unsurpassed in Europe or the New World and the best economy and military in the world. Great to see all the religious issues settled.
Truly great time for France. Will you try to get power in Asia too sometime in the future? And I wonder, will we see a French USA? Or will the name be Greater Quebec then?
Chapter the Eighth
Being on the Early Years of the United Kingdom
After the Act of Union 1707, France entered a new phase of peace and prosperity. The four great nations of France, Holland, Scotland, and England were now united in a common kingdom under the house of Bourbon. Now, with all the wealthiest regions in Europe under control, France found her territorial ambitions largely satisfied. There were those in the Assemblée and at court who agitated for the conquest of the German Rhineland territories, to push the French border to its "natural boundary" and gain permanent security to the east.
Louis XIV and his successors resisted this line of argument in no uncertain terms. The eastern frontier was secured by fortresses manned by the French army, the largest and most advanced in all the world, as well as by the goodwill and military allegiance of the United Kingdom's neighbors. The left bank of the Rhine was the possession of the Lutheran Habsburgs of Bohemia, who were closely allied with the United Kingdom both militarily and familially.
The Habsburg clan had suffered through dark days in the 15th and 16th centuries, as Hungarian invasion robbed them of their Austrian homeland, diplomatic reverses stymied their efforts to marry into the Castillian house of Trastámara, and their last substantial holdings in the Duchy of Holland had been taken by France in 1498. Yet, ill-starred though they had been, the Habsburgs rebounded with the 1526 inheritance of the Kingdom of Bohemia by Ferdinand I, the grandson of the same Maximillian I who had surrendered Holland. By melding their German roots with the culture of their Czech subjects, and later by acting as the champions of Lutheranism in German, Habsburg Bohemia had assumed the leading role in German affairs.
Bohemian Diplomacy, 1778
The Habsburgs directly held territories throughout the Holy Roman Empire, and indirectly controlled still more by mechanism of dynastic alliance and vassalization. Excepting Catholic Bavaria, and foreign-controlled regions like Hungarian Austria, Scandinavian Pommerania and Holstein, and French-dominated Oldenburg, Bohemia controlled the loyalty of the whole of Germany. In this capacity, they were a powerful ally for France, whose control of the Rhine was reassuring rather than threatening. (On this basis of amity France would offer her blessing and support to the Habsburgs as they founded in 1848 a unified Empire of the Germans, with its capital in Prague).
When, in 1770, the Kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary made war on the Ottoman Empire, the United Kingdom's sprang to their support. The Mediterranean Squadron sent the Turkish navy to the bottom, and the King's regiments disembarked their boats to storm the fabled cities of the Near East. In the Balkan Front, Hungarians, Czechs, and Germans marched into Serbia and Wallachia. In two short years of sharp fighting, the Turks were reduced to military impotence. In a treaty signed in French-occupied Jeruselam, the Turks surrendered Serbia to Hungary and agreed to French supervision of their domestic affairs--effectively becoming a vassal to the United Kingdom.
Meanwhile, French colonial expansion continued apace. French settlers completed the taming of the North American east coast and poured into the Ohio River valley. By 1778 French North America stretched from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, and new outposts were being settled on the west coast, in a land called Californie.
A new frontier for French colonization was also opened in South America. This colony was called "L'Argentine," after the Fleuve Argenté around which it was based, itself named for the Incan silver to be found in its upper reaches. L'Argentine itself was not rich in silver, but its rich soil and open spaces would be highly receptive to agriculture and cattle ranching. The colonization of this area brought France into direct contact with the native Incan Empire.
L'Argentine, abutted in the Northwest by Incan lands
The Inca Empire had survived the dreadful plagues brought by European explorers, and in the 17th century it had even rebounded to the point that it began to expand it's borders in all directions. The conversion of the Incans to Lutheranism was enacted by Swedish missionaries, and although pagan holdouts remained high up in the Andes, the country was possessed of a solid Protestant majority, and, though quite primitive by European standards, was the most advanced of any Native American nation.
The Incans could have been a far more powerful barrier than the heathen tribes of North America, who had fought French expansion at each step, but canny French diplomacy prevented this threat. Rather than regarding the Inca as foes, Louis XV offered them financial support and dispatched advisors to the mountain empire, to help bring them into the modern European world. The promise of Potosì silver in exchange for French manufactures was an opportunity to gain great wealth, and indeed the French-Inca partnership in South America would be long and mutually profitable. The issue of the common border was settled, with France taking what had already been incorporated into L'Argentine as well as Eastern Patagonia and the Islands of Fire, with the mountainous Pacific coast of Tchilli being reserved to the Inca.
The Protestant Inca Empire
Epilogue
Whither France?
The United Kingdom was at the end of the eighteenth century possessed of economic and military power unprecedented in history. With the island of Britain and continental provinces of France and the Netherlands taken altogether, the population was nearly sixty millions--and several millions more lived in the North American and Argentine colonies, making the French empire by far the most populous in Europe. This population was polyglot and regionally divided, to be sure, but the national principles of Reformed Christianity and representative government (embodied by the Assemblée) ensured the development of a unified identity.
The French military was the strongest in the world. The fleur-de-lis flew atop masts from the Coral Sea to Hudson Bay, and the French army of half a million men in arms maintained privilige and security on every frontier. The French economy, too, was immense, by far the richest and most productive of any nation on the Earth.
French Income for the Fiscal Year 1778
It was from this position of unchallengable strength, of what the French politician and foreign minister Charles de Talleyrand-Périgord called "super-power", that the United Kingdom of France, England, Scotland, and the Netherlands contemplated the coming 19th century.
Fin
Being on the Early Years of the United Kingdom
After the Act of Union 1707, France entered a new phase of peace and prosperity. The four great nations of France, Holland, Scotland, and England were now united in a common kingdom under the house of Bourbon. Now, with all the wealthiest regions in Europe under control, France found her territorial ambitions largely satisfied. There were those in the Assemblée and at court who agitated for the conquest of the German Rhineland territories, to push the French border to its "natural boundary" and gain permanent security to the east.
Louis XIV and his successors resisted this line of argument in no uncertain terms. The eastern frontier was secured by fortresses manned by the French army, the largest and most advanced in all the world, as well as by the goodwill and military allegiance of the United Kingdom's neighbors. The left bank of the Rhine was the possession of the Lutheran Habsburgs of Bohemia, who were closely allied with the United Kingdom both militarily and familially.
The Habsburg clan had suffered through dark days in the 15th and 16th centuries, as Hungarian invasion robbed them of their Austrian homeland, diplomatic reverses stymied their efforts to marry into the Castillian house of Trastámara, and their last substantial holdings in the Duchy of Holland had been taken by France in 1498. Yet, ill-starred though they had been, the Habsburgs rebounded with the 1526 inheritance of the Kingdom of Bohemia by Ferdinand I, the grandson of the same Maximillian I who had surrendered Holland. By melding their German roots with the culture of their Czech subjects, and later by acting as the champions of Lutheranism in German, Habsburg Bohemia had assumed the leading role in German affairs.
Bohemian Diplomacy, 1778
The Habsburgs directly held territories throughout the Holy Roman Empire, and indirectly controlled still more by mechanism of dynastic alliance and vassalization. Excepting Catholic Bavaria, and foreign-controlled regions like Hungarian Austria, Scandinavian Pommerania and Holstein, and French-dominated Oldenburg, Bohemia controlled the loyalty of the whole of Germany. In this capacity, they were a powerful ally for France, whose control of the Rhine was reassuring rather than threatening. (On this basis of amity France would offer her blessing and support to the Habsburgs as they founded in 1848 a unified Empire of the Germans, with its capital in Prague).
When, in 1770, the Kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary made war on the Ottoman Empire, the United Kingdom's sprang to their support. The Mediterranean Squadron sent the Turkish navy to the bottom, and the King's regiments disembarked their boats to storm the fabled cities of the Near East. In the Balkan Front, Hungarians, Czechs, and Germans marched into Serbia and Wallachia. In two short years of sharp fighting, the Turks were reduced to military impotence. In a treaty signed in French-occupied Jeruselam, the Turks surrendered Serbia to Hungary and agreed to French supervision of their domestic affairs--effectively becoming a vassal to the United Kingdom.
Meanwhile, French colonial expansion continued apace. French settlers completed the taming of the North American east coast and poured into the Ohio River valley. By 1778 French North America stretched from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, and new outposts were being settled on the west coast, in a land called Californie.
A new frontier for French colonization was also opened in South America. This colony was called "L'Argentine," after the Fleuve Argenté around which it was based, itself named for the Incan silver to be found in its upper reaches. L'Argentine itself was not rich in silver, but its rich soil and open spaces would be highly receptive to agriculture and cattle ranching. The colonization of this area brought France into direct contact with the native Incan Empire.
L'Argentine, abutted in the Northwest by Incan lands
The Inca Empire had survived the dreadful plagues brought by European explorers, and in the 17th century it had even rebounded to the point that it began to expand it's borders in all directions. The conversion of the Incans to Lutheranism was enacted by Swedish missionaries, and although pagan holdouts remained high up in the Andes, the country was possessed of a solid Protestant majority, and, though quite primitive by European standards, was the most advanced of any Native American nation.
The Incans could have been a far more powerful barrier than the heathen tribes of North America, who had fought French expansion at each step, but canny French diplomacy prevented this threat. Rather than regarding the Inca as foes, Louis XV offered them financial support and dispatched advisors to the mountain empire, to help bring them into the modern European world. The promise of Potosì silver in exchange for French manufactures was an opportunity to gain great wealth, and indeed the French-Inca partnership in South America would be long and mutually profitable. The issue of the common border was settled, with France taking what had already been incorporated into L'Argentine as well as Eastern Patagonia and the Islands of Fire, with the mountainous Pacific coast of Tchilli being reserved to the Inca.
The Protestant Inca Empire
Epilogue
Whither France?
The United Kingdom was at the end of the eighteenth century possessed of economic and military power unprecedented in history. With the island of Britain and continental provinces of France and the Netherlands taken altogether, the population was nearly sixty millions--and several millions more lived in the North American and Argentine colonies, making the French empire by far the most populous in Europe. This population was polyglot and regionally divided, to be sure, but the national principles of Reformed Christianity and representative government (embodied by the Assemblée) ensured the development of a unified identity.
The French military was the strongest in the world. The fleur-de-lis flew atop masts from the Coral Sea to Hudson Bay, and the French army of half a million men in arms maintained privilige and security on every frontier. The French economy, too, was immense, by far the richest and most productive of any nation on the Earth.
French Income for the Fiscal Year 1778
It was from this position of unchallengable strength, of what the French politician and foreign minister Charles de Talleyrand-Périgord called "super-power", that the United Kingdom of France, England, Scotland, and the Netherlands contemplated the coming 19th century.
Fin
Sorry for the very long break in updates, but a loss of interest in playing out the game (I was too rich and powerful), general busy-ness, and a 1778 CTD problem caused me to not update.
I can now call the AAR completed, however.
I can now call the AAR completed, however.