Of Wittens and Wittelbachs
An MEIOU AAR
The First Article
Introduction
Europe and the Near East in 1603
Religious Map of the West, the 1st of June, 1603.
Alright, let’s do this! This is my second AAR (if you are interested you can read the first in my signature). I have a few notes I want to make before I begin.
An MEIOU AAR
The First Article
Introduction
Europe and the Near East in 1603
Religious Map of the West, the 1st of June, 1603.
Alright, let’s do this! This is my second AAR (if you are interested you can read the first in my signature). I have a few notes I want to make before I begin.
- If you suddenly see writing in this colour it is something I’m saying out of story. Usually I’ll talk about bugs, why I did something instead of something else, or comments on what I didn’t include in the AAR but I still found interesting.
- I'm playing as Meissen, but I'll spend many chapters writing about other nations.
- I suffer from a variety of dys issues, so I apologies if I make stupid spelling or grammar mistakes. If you see something, say something!
- I’m using the excellent mod MEIOU and several wonderful sub mods, including Historical Wars, Island & Costal Trade Nodes, Personality 4x, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, and GSG and Taxes Revival. Try them out! Things are pretty different from vanilla, so if you are ever wondering what is going on don’t hesitate to ask!
- I will actively use the console commands in order to make a better story. This will almost always make the game harder for myself, since one thing I do (maybe every 50 years or so) is sort out each other every power AI nation by helping them out with tech, ideas, cash, and stability. I’ll also help certain nations colonize. Finally, I’ll change certain areas religion from time to time in order to further the story. I will probably never directly buff Meissen.
- Sadly, I decided to start this AAR way after the start of the game, so I won’t be able to include screenshots from the middle of the 14th century, when MEIOU campaigns start, to the start of the 17th.
- I’m not a professional historian and this game doesn’t always make sense, so please forgive me if something happens that makes you go “wait a minute, that couldn’t have happened!”. I’m trying my best here.
- Most importantly, please comment! It gets pretty lonely when I’m the only one posting things, and if people stop commenting I’ll figure I’m messing up and writing an awful story. Which, I mean, if I am I guess it is good to know, but if you like this story please say something.
- Finally, I apologise for the quality of the pictures. I'm not sure why some of them are so blurry.
State of the World in the Year of Our Lord 1603
This chapter will all be about showing you what has happened to the world between 1356, when MEIOU game start, and 1603, when my AAR begins. It'll be a pretty dry post, but I've already posted the next chapter below. If you're short on time, go read that chapter to see if this AAR will be in a style you enjoy.
Holy Roman Empire
Religions in the Holy Roman Empire
The great conciliation of the 16th century resulted in a Holy Roman Empire that looked nothing like the one that existed a hundred years prior. Hundreds of free knights, cities, bishoprics and villages had submitted to larger lords, and the Great Families of the Empire (the Habspburg the Wettin, and the Wittelsbach) now control well over half of Germany. Any hope of unification has long been torn asunder by the Hussite Controversy and the Reformation, but a curious calm has kept four of the major powers aligned against the Hussite Bohemia. That calm was to break forever with the Dutch Uprising, an uprising with monumental consequences for the Holy Roman Empire, Europe, and indeed the world.
Austria
Catholic Austria in 1600 was a nation burdened by its many international obligations. It looked warily on Ottoman Expansion in the Balkans, especially because Hungry and Croatia were ruled by lesser branches of the Hapsburg family. Its northern border was shared with feuding Bavarian petty lords and the aggressive and expansionist Bohemian state. To the south a hostile and power Milan resented Habsburg and Spanish expansion into Italy. In the West, French control and dominion over large parts of the Holy Roman Empire remained a constant thorn in the side of Austria’s ambition. Only its alliance with the powerful nations of Reformed Meissen and Protestant Prussia kept it secure, but these alliances with heretics would be tested in the years ahead.
Spain
Spanish Central America
Spanish Asia
Spanish Italy
The Castilian annexation of Portugal in the 1580s and its unification with Aragon in 1593 lead to the birth of a new superpower. Confident in its power at home and steadily growing abroad, the Spanish state looks hungrily at lands it lost to the French during Iberia’s time of weakness. The declaration of a new Spain, one that inherited both Portugal and Castile’s claims to the new world, threatened every colonial power in Europe.
While no one in the early 17th Century could have known this, it is clear in hindsight that the Spanish state suffered from intractable issues. Its economy was becoming highly dependent on gold imports from its New World colonies, its aggressive military expansionism led to increasing expenditures abroad, and above all its Portuguese subjects chaffed under the rule of Spaniards. In 1600 Spain strode upon the world with swagger, but difficulties waited around every corner.
South America
After the country of Portugal was absorbed into the growing Spanish state, their final king and his heir fled to only remaining independent colony of Portugal, the Kingdom of Brazil. The Protestant population of Portugal, which was a large minority by 1560, fled both Catholic oppression the coming of Spanish troops, and many ended up settling in the New World. When independence came for Brazil in 1586, its population was majority Protestant, and forced old king to abdicate and his son to become Protestant. Spain’s failed attempts to bring the Portuguese colony to heel led to the birth of the New World’s first nation: the proudly Protestant nation of Brazil. While Spain’s growing colonies in South America and Brazil remained in a wary peace for now, their lands would soon run up against each other, a situation that inevitably lead to conflict.
France
France's Religious Map
The Lowlands
French North America
France is a nation at war with itself. By pure numbers the most powerful realm in Europe, France had struggle for over a century with radical Catholics who rose in armed conflict against their Calvinist Kings. Nowhere was this resistance stronger than in the French Lowlands. The inhabitants of these lands began a low-level guerrilla warfare against their heretical French overlords, killing French soldiers and civilians alike. If France could ever escape this cycle of religious warfare it could take over the world: its colonies in the New World were growing, its might in the Western Holy Roman Empire looked unbreakable, and its economy was the strongest in Europe. But the years ahead for France in 1605 were dark, and none darker than the years of the Dutch revolt.
The British Isles
English North America
English India
The British Islands, long lands of conflict and strife, had settled into a peaceful existence with the Ulster unification of southern Ireland. The Ulsterman unification was an event that no one could have predicted even ten years before the start date: the Reformist Christian states of Ireland that pledged allegiance to the French King allied together and declared war on their Catholic brethren. With the soul of the Irish people at stake the Catholic Ulstermen defeated the combined Reformist/French force at the Battle of Adare and quickly obtained dominion over the Emerald Isle. The French state, unable to finance its former vassals, abandoned them, and the heretics of Ireland now look to a new savior: the Protestant English Crown. The victory of the Yorkist claimants in the English War of the Roses resulted in nearly a century of extended peace for the English. Henry IV De la Pole ruled not only over the English, but the Scottish as well, the result of the la Pole’s expedient marriage policy with its northern neighbor. Henry IV ruled over a rapidly expanding economy, colonies that continue to prosper in both India and the New World, and a military policy that avoided entanglements on the continent. Given Scotland’s control of Northern Ireland the Ulster Problem would need to be settled at some point, but in 1603 the English had every reason to be confident.
Scandinavia
Sweden and Finland, Denmark and Norway: nations that had long been at war. Since the breaking of the Danish-led Union in 1370, Sweden had slowly encroached on Norwegian and Danish territory. When the Reformation swept through Sweden and Norway during the first half of the 16th century, the Danish crown, fearing that a heretical Norway would be easy prey for the Reformist Swedes, founded the Order of Jesus (also later known as the Jesuits) in order to fight this new heresy. Slowly, Danish and Norwegian identity would begin to merge with their Catholic faith, and Protestantism and Reformism was wiped out of Norway.
After the death of the childless Carl III, Sweden’s thrown was inherited by his closest relative, the hated and feared Wittelsbachs of Bohemian. The Swedish Nation is isolated, its King opposed by both international sentiment and noble opposition. Confident in their ability to withstand Swedish aggression, the combined crowns of Denmark-Norway began to plan the reconquest of Swedish held territories and the destruction of Protestantism Birthplace.
Northern Italy
Russia
Suffering for centuries under the Mongolian Yoke, a combined army of Russia’s princelings achieved a devastating victory in 1555 at Zvenigorod where the Khans of the White and Blue Hordes were killed and the leading heir of the White Horde was captured. The Hordes fell into a state of acrimony and chaos, and the combined Russian forces marched through their hated enemies’ lands and annexed all that remained. A devastated and backwards country, Russia still teems with natural resources and potential. It prepares to take back lands long held by the Lithuanian throne, and its thrust into Siberia began to pick up steam. Russia in the first years of the 17th century is neither a threat nor a concern for the powers of Central Europe, though in the decades ahead that would suddenly and irreversibly change.
Lithuanian
Like Austria, Lithuanian is a power surrounded by enemies. The Crowns of Sweden and Bohemia stand united against the Lithuanians. Protestant Prussia and its vassal Livland eye Lithuanian land greedily. Russia has long desired to reclaim its lost territories, and, to the south, one of the last remains of the Mongolian Horde raid Lithuanian land with impunity. Its majority Orthodox territories bridle under Catholic rule. With a weak economy, underpowered army, and no allies to call upon, the fate of Lithuanian in the 17th century looked bleak indeed.
The Middle East
By the start of the 17th century, only two powers of note survived in the Middle East: the powerful Ottoman Empire, which reigns from the halls of Athens to the Holy City of Mecca, and the newly unified Persian state. Renewed focus on the contribution of Persian society has led many historians to believe that the Shia Persians, more than any other factor, saved much of Europe from being invaded and conquered by the mighty Sunni Turks.
The Subcontinent
India at the start of the 16th century was a land divided between powers both great and small. The great Hindu kingdoms of the past fell one by one to invading Islamic powers, and now only Vijayanagara remains, tenaciously holding out against Islamic attack from the south, north, and east. Delhi, fabled land of great wealth and power, has grown decadent and weak, and now enters what might be its final days as wars from both within and without threaten to topple its great halls. Bengal, Malwa, and Madurai reign over their Hindu subjects from their great palaces, but the explorers of Europe and their great warships threaten to change India forever. As storm clouds grow on the horizon, a small band of Sikh rebels have raised their banners against their oppressive overlords. To war!
The Spice Islands
I have less to say about the Spice Islands, East Asia, and Africa, since I haven't been paying much attention to what is happening over there. I share these pictures with you to sate your curiosity.
East Asia
Africa
This chapter will all be about showing you what has happened to the world between 1356, when MEIOU game start, and 1603, when my AAR begins. It'll be a pretty dry post, but I've already posted the next chapter below. If you're short on time, go read that chapter to see if this AAR will be in a style you enjoy.
Holy Roman Empire
Religions in the Holy Roman Empire
The great conciliation of the 16th century resulted in a Holy Roman Empire that looked nothing like the one that existed a hundred years prior. Hundreds of free knights, cities, bishoprics and villages had submitted to larger lords, and the Great Families of the Empire (the Habspburg the Wettin, and the Wittelsbach) now control well over half of Germany. Any hope of unification has long been torn asunder by the Hussite Controversy and the Reformation, but a curious calm has kept four of the major powers aligned against the Hussite Bohemia. That calm was to break forever with the Dutch Uprising, an uprising with monumental consequences for the Holy Roman Empire, Europe, and indeed the world.
Austria
Catholic Austria in 1600 was a nation burdened by its many international obligations. It looked warily on Ottoman Expansion in the Balkans, especially because Hungry and Croatia were ruled by lesser branches of the Hapsburg family. Its northern border was shared with feuding Bavarian petty lords and the aggressive and expansionist Bohemian state. To the south a hostile and power Milan resented Habsburg and Spanish expansion into Italy. In the West, French control and dominion over large parts of the Holy Roman Empire remained a constant thorn in the side of Austria’s ambition. Only its alliance with the powerful nations of Reformed Meissen and Protestant Prussia kept it secure, but these alliances with heretics would be tested in the years ahead.
Spain
Spanish Central America
Spanish Asia
Spanish Italy
The Castilian annexation of Portugal in the 1580s and its unification with Aragon in 1593 lead to the birth of a new superpower. Confident in its power at home and steadily growing abroad, the Spanish state looks hungrily at lands it lost to the French during Iberia’s time of weakness. The declaration of a new Spain, one that inherited both Portugal and Castile’s claims to the new world, threatened every colonial power in Europe.
While no one in the early 17th Century could have known this, it is clear in hindsight that the Spanish state suffered from intractable issues. Its economy was becoming highly dependent on gold imports from its New World colonies, its aggressive military expansionism led to increasing expenditures abroad, and above all its Portuguese subjects chaffed under the rule of Spaniards. In 1600 Spain strode upon the world with swagger, but difficulties waited around every corner.
South America
After the country of Portugal was absorbed into the growing Spanish state, their final king and his heir fled to only remaining independent colony of Portugal, the Kingdom of Brazil. The Protestant population of Portugal, which was a large minority by 1560, fled both Catholic oppression the coming of Spanish troops, and many ended up settling in the New World. When independence came for Brazil in 1586, its population was majority Protestant, and forced old king to abdicate and his son to become Protestant. Spain’s failed attempts to bring the Portuguese colony to heel led to the birth of the New World’s first nation: the proudly Protestant nation of Brazil. While Spain’s growing colonies in South America and Brazil remained in a wary peace for now, their lands would soon run up against each other, a situation that inevitably lead to conflict.
France
France's Religious Map
The Lowlands
French North America
France is a nation at war with itself. By pure numbers the most powerful realm in Europe, France had struggle for over a century with radical Catholics who rose in armed conflict against their Calvinist Kings. Nowhere was this resistance stronger than in the French Lowlands. The inhabitants of these lands began a low-level guerrilla warfare against their heretical French overlords, killing French soldiers and civilians alike. If France could ever escape this cycle of religious warfare it could take over the world: its colonies in the New World were growing, its might in the Western Holy Roman Empire looked unbreakable, and its economy was the strongest in Europe. But the years ahead for France in 1605 were dark, and none darker than the years of the Dutch revolt.
The British Isles
English North America
English India
The British Islands, long lands of conflict and strife, had settled into a peaceful existence with the Ulster unification of southern Ireland. The Ulsterman unification was an event that no one could have predicted even ten years before the start date: the Reformist Christian states of Ireland that pledged allegiance to the French King allied together and declared war on their Catholic brethren. With the soul of the Irish people at stake the Catholic Ulstermen defeated the combined Reformist/French force at the Battle of Adare and quickly obtained dominion over the Emerald Isle. The French state, unable to finance its former vassals, abandoned them, and the heretics of Ireland now look to a new savior: the Protestant English Crown. The victory of the Yorkist claimants in the English War of the Roses resulted in nearly a century of extended peace for the English. Henry IV De la Pole ruled not only over the English, but the Scottish as well, the result of the la Pole’s expedient marriage policy with its northern neighbor. Henry IV ruled over a rapidly expanding economy, colonies that continue to prosper in both India and the New World, and a military policy that avoided entanglements on the continent. Given Scotland’s control of Northern Ireland the Ulster Problem would need to be settled at some point, but in 1603 the English had every reason to be confident.
Scandinavia
Sweden and Finland, Denmark and Norway: nations that had long been at war. Since the breaking of the Danish-led Union in 1370, Sweden had slowly encroached on Norwegian and Danish territory. When the Reformation swept through Sweden and Norway during the first half of the 16th century, the Danish crown, fearing that a heretical Norway would be easy prey for the Reformist Swedes, founded the Order of Jesus (also later known as the Jesuits) in order to fight this new heresy. Slowly, Danish and Norwegian identity would begin to merge with their Catholic faith, and Protestantism and Reformism was wiped out of Norway.
After the death of the childless Carl III, Sweden’s thrown was inherited by his closest relative, the hated and feared Wittelsbachs of Bohemian. The Swedish Nation is isolated, its King opposed by both international sentiment and noble opposition. Confident in their ability to withstand Swedish aggression, the combined crowns of Denmark-Norway began to plan the reconquest of Swedish held territories and the destruction of Protestantism Birthplace.
Northern Italy
Russia
Suffering for centuries under the Mongolian Yoke, a combined army of Russia’s princelings achieved a devastating victory in 1555 at Zvenigorod where the Khans of the White and Blue Hordes were killed and the leading heir of the White Horde was captured. The Hordes fell into a state of acrimony and chaos, and the combined Russian forces marched through their hated enemies’ lands and annexed all that remained. A devastated and backwards country, Russia still teems with natural resources and potential. It prepares to take back lands long held by the Lithuanian throne, and its thrust into Siberia began to pick up steam. Russia in the first years of the 17th century is neither a threat nor a concern for the powers of Central Europe, though in the decades ahead that would suddenly and irreversibly change.
Lithuanian
Like Austria, Lithuanian is a power surrounded by enemies. The Crowns of Sweden and Bohemia stand united against the Lithuanians. Protestant Prussia and its vassal Livland eye Lithuanian land greedily. Russia has long desired to reclaim its lost territories, and, to the south, one of the last remains of the Mongolian Horde raid Lithuanian land with impunity. Its majority Orthodox territories bridle under Catholic rule. With a weak economy, underpowered army, and no allies to call upon, the fate of Lithuanian in the 17th century looked bleak indeed.
The Middle East
By the start of the 17th century, only two powers of note survived in the Middle East: the powerful Ottoman Empire, which reigns from the halls of Athens to the Holy City of Mecca, and the newly unified Persian state. Renewed focus on the contribution of Persian society has led many historians to believe that the Shia Persians, more than any other factor, saved much of Europe from being invaded and conquered by the mighty Sunni Turks.
The Subcontinent
India at the start of the 16th century was a land divided between powers both great and small. The great Hindu kingdoms of the past fell one by one to invading Islamic powers, and now only Vijayanagara remains, tenaciously holding out against Islamic attack from the south, north, and east. Delhi, fabled land of great wealth and power, has grown decadent and weak, and now enters what might be its final days as wars from both within and without threaten to topple its great halls. Bengal, Malwa, and Madurai reign over their Hindu subjects from their great palaces, but the explorers of Europe and their great warships threaten to change India forever. As storm clouds grow on the horizon, a small band of Sikh rebels have raised their banners against their oppressive overlords. To war!
The Spice Islands
I have less to say about the Spice Islands, East Asia, and Africa, since I haven't been paying much attention to what is happening over there. I share these pictures with you to sate your curiosity.
East Asia
Africa
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