Chapter 9: Conquest of Iberia (1443-1450)
The situation in Europe, 3 januari 1443.
After the Total war with seven nations, I had to restore order. I therefor sended my cavalery to North Africa, where they could smash the Berber rebels. I had also some uprisings in the Netherlands, especially in Limburg. Luckily I had some men there to keep busy till my cavalery could arrive there.
I trained another 8,000 cavalery, bringing the total on 20,000 horses. With the help of this fast army, I was able to control the uprisings and crush them. It took me two years, but then finally order had been restored.
With the help of my enormous cavalery, I was able to crush the uprisings.
While I had crushed the English army a few years ago, Scottish rebels saw their chance, and fought for independance. In februari 1445 they managed to get what they wanted: once again an independant state in Aberdeen. But their joy wasn't for long: Half a year later the English struck back and recaptured the province.
During peacetime, a lot of things can happen. I had unfortunately bad vintage, but on the other hand, the serves got exploited very well. Also, Firdaus Ibn Muhammad, my statesman advisor, made a breakthrough on the ideas of politics and started to teach my administration the fine details of it. And when some businessmen heared about this new wave of politics, they decided to support my administration and give me 300 ducats. That was quite handy: Now I was able to enhance my fleet.
Firdaus Ibn Muhammad helps me to understand the fine details of government.
Now that my goal was reached, conquering Aragon, I changed focus. The trade center in Lisboa would be nice to have, but I was still under a truce with Portugal. With whom was it allied? Brabant and England. If it was possible, I wanted to avoid a war with England at the moment. So that left Brabant. Brabant was allied with Luxembourg, Savoy and Portugal. Brunswick protected the country, as Holy Roman Emperor. Excelent. I readied my troops and on 1 februari 1446 I declared war on Brabant.
Savoy was the greatest challenge: With 8,000 men and a fleet of three ships they formed the largest threat. That´s why I sended my cavalery towards them. The Brabantian army was defeated within days and I started the siege. The Luxembourgian army sneaked awa, but therefor didn+t prevent me from laying siege on their country. The Portuguese armies were, like those of Brabant, easily defeated, so without any problems I laid siege on Lisboa. Brunswick sended some men to lay siege on Limburg. Well, let them play over there. I will send my men from BRabant and Luxembourg as soon as they were finished conquering those countries.
The first country to fall was BRabant. On 1 june 1446, after 4 months of war, the siege succeeded and I annexed the country.
Brabant has been annexed.
My troops were rerouted to Limburg, where they attacked the men from Brunswick. In the mean time I asked Münster if my men could travel through their lands: that way I could reach Brunswick. They agreed.
Further south, my men occupied Nice. The war with Savoy was going well. This entire war was a piece of cake.
At 16 september 1446 I both occupied Portugal and Luxembourg, so I demanded from both countries their total annexation. They accepted, and my realm expanded once more.
Luxembourg has been annexed.
With the province of Lisboa added to my empire, I also got the trade center. I immediately dispatched all my merchants, so I could profit from it.
Portugal has been annexed.
While the war continued with just Savoy and Brunswick, some astonishing news reached me: Denmark inherited the throne of Norway. This means that Denmark becomes a northern power to be reconned with. What will their neightbour, Sweden, say of it?
Denmark inherited Norway.
At 24 december 1446, the Ssiege of Piedmont was over. There was only one province left before I had Savoy down on its knees. After the Savoy army was destroyed one month later, that didn't formed to be a big problem.
On the 1st of april 1447 Brunswick fell, and on the 23th that month Hannover shared its fate. Now Brunswick was completely occupied, and I had these demands for peace:
Become a vassal and pay 50 ducats.
I could have demanded the province Brunswick, but it would have laid solely in the middle of all those German territories. No, I'd preferred to vassalize the Holy Roman Emperor.
When the other German nations learned of this fact, the immediately elected a new emperor. King Leopold VIII Wilhelm, king of Austria, would be the new Holy Roman Emperor.
Finally, on 14 june 1447, Savoie fell and I could lay my demands for Savoy on the table:
Cede Nice, become a vassal and pay 125 ducats.
With the capture of Nice, I had a nice stepping stone towards the trade center of Liguria. But that was something for the future. For now I had to concentrate on conquering Castille. If I would get them, I would own the entire Iberian peninsula.
It's nice to have Nice.
With these wars done, I wasn't finished. Castille was still free. Something had to be done about it. But it was allied with France, so if I declared war on it, I would have also war with France. Couldn't have that, so I used the same tactic I used with Portugal.
First, I had to prepare. I had to position my troops. Since Austria was the new Holy Roman Emperor, I needed to station quite a lot of troops over there, at their border. So I asked Lorraine and Tirol if my troops could move through their territory, which they allowed. With all the pieces put in place, I was ready for another war.
By the end of september, there was an innovation wave throughout the country. Everywhere people became smartasses and got great ideas. I had to profit from that.
An innovation wave boosts technology.
At 1 januari 1448 I declared war on Gelre. It was allied with Utrecht and Castille, and protected by Austria, so I was at war with them too. My troops were in position, so I quickly marched into all teratories.
As I had expected, Gelre and Utrecht didn't proved to be much of a challenge. I beat their armies and laid siege. I hadn;t put much manpower in the campaign against castille. It wasn;t necessary: Their army went away to lay siege on one of my provinces, while I attacked all their provinces at once. The real problem was Austria, where I had sended 32,000 men.
The Austrians pulled back, so they didn't have to face my cavalery. They trained quite a lot of units on the fly, but I was able to kill them all seperately. By pulling their armies back, they were able to attack Luxembourg. But their main forces were just regrouping in Wien, so they could strike back very hard. Luckily my cavalery was able to withstand them.
The first country to fall, was Utrecht: on 19 august 1448 they accepted full annexation.
The second country I totally occupied, was Castille. But since they were the leaders of their alliance, I didn't made a peacedeal with them. Yet.
Unfortunately some of my ships sunk in the Adriatic sea. A storm had arisen and they were caught in it. Next time I would have to pay closer attention to them.
The war in Austria wasn't going well. My cavalery wasn't doing fine in the Alps, and their army was able to push me back into Tirol. But on the other side of Europe, things were going a lot betetr. I occupied Gelre, and annexed them on 24 september 1448.
Utrecht and Gelre have been added to my Dutch territory.
It seemed that I just wasn;t able to conquer Austria: Their men were too powerfull in those mountains. So finally I made the peacedeal with Castille:
Cede Salamanca and Madrid. Renounce your claims on Galicia, Asturias, Léon, Vizcaya, Pirineo, Castilla La Vieja, Badajoz and Almería. Also, pay 50 ducats.
They accepted on 2 januari 1449. The only province they had left was Toledo: I needed to get that one to. One more war.
I noticed that in the mean time, Cornwall had separated itself from England. First Scotland, now Conrwall... Those English were having a hard time keeping their country together.
On 14 march 1449, I declared war on Friesland. They were allied with Castille, and this way I could quickly conquer the Iberian peninsula. And also gain one more Dutch province. They were also protected by Austria. Let's hope it will go better this time, else I will have to be satisfied with a white peace.
Toledo fell quite fast: on 29 juli 1449 I occupied the city, a day later I annexed it. The Iberian peninsula was finally in my posession.
The entire Iberian peninsula under Granadan control.
A few months later, on 1 ocotber 1449, Friesland fell and a day later that country was anexed too. Save for Liège, I had conquered the Netherlands.
The Netherlands are almost entirely under muslim control.
My armies weren't able to crush the Austrian military, so I needed to get a white peace as fast as possible. As soon as one of my diplomats was available, I sended him towards Austria with the offer. On 3 februari 1450 they accepted white peace.
The wars are finally over!
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Some sidenotes:
germanpeon: Good to hear that you all like the long updates
. I will try to keep te good work up.rcduggan: Padishah is indeed the title the game gave me when I transformed my 30+ province country into an empire. And yes, it is great to have the caliphate back.
EURO007: That's indeed the idea behind getting the coastal provinces. If I get them, I only have to worry about English colonists. I guess I have to do something about that too.
Enewald: If islamic countries keep on declaring war on me, they will indeed be united
. And I will surround those Franks, and crush them in due time.comagoosie: Thanks! Thinks were really looking bad when all those wars happened at once, and quite a lot of rebels got on the loose too. But I managed to make a victory out of it
.Cordoban Inca: If I succeed, the New World will indeed be wide open to me. But we'll see if I manage that. England will a great challenge, and let's not forget France.
I annexed just before 1450 the last province needed to form Spain. Now I need to wait 50 yars, so by the end of 1499 I would be able to form Islamic Spain. A few years before the real Spain would have been formed.
I almost got the Benelux, so I need to conquer Liège. But I also need Brittany, to create an Islamic westcoast. But for now my reputation is quite bad: I need to lower that.
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