Uh another update in a couple of minutes, thanks perfect lunch reading. Nice map and a very nice writing style
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I might just make up a bio - but no. Don't have the time.
Two thoroughly enjoyable essays. The theme of encircling Meckenburg was interesting indeed, those Danish wars sounded fun.
Two thoroughly enjoyable essays. The theme of encircling Meckenburg was interesting indeed, those Danish wars sounded fun.
Why, he's anarchist of course!
Seriously Director, two very good and thoroughly well-written essays. Coupled with its colonial victories, Bremen's expansion is indeed impressive! Keep up the good work!
This AAR makes for some really nice reading. I'm looking forward to your next essay.
My My, I never thought you would be able to pull anything like that off
I'm very surprised at the size of mecklenburg, I've never seen anything like it.
Still a good read
V
I'm very surprised at the size of mecklenburg, I've never seen anything like it.
Still a good read
V
1473 and the eastern border of Bremen already closely resembles the German border prior to World War Two!
My favorite quote from these last two essays:
I'm thoroughly enjoying reading this. A fun game, by the sound of it, and very well told.
My favorite quote from these last two essays:
I'm thoroughly enjoying reading this. A fun game, by the sound of it, and very well told.
Commandante - Yes, decentralized gives some protection from WE. Being small, Bremen recovers stability quickly so war taxes were constant.
All that early expansion had to be paid for, of course - I've led the world in BB most of the game. Annexing Mecklenburg didn't help; thirty years is a long time when 90% of your kingdom is at 3% nationalism.
Sytass - Any peculiarities in spelling or grammar are entirely the doing of the English-speaking author of the essays. Of what the Doktor might say, we have only scraps of his book. We must assume the title is his.
Stuyvesant - you asked for more... I hadn't intended to post this last essay for another few days, but since you asked I decided to put it up early.
Since Bremen gets only one shield - on Bremen - I decided to make German-cultured provinces a priority. Adding the Catholic south has been a long, grinding chore and the Dutch (added 1731) have been a lot of trouble.
The biggest problem was that people kept giving me things! I even got Surabaja from defection. Maybe I'll run up a list of the multiple religions and cultures for later.
Judge - there are some similarities to the Punic Wars, but as I said this one never came to open conflict.
stnylan - getting control of the Mecklenburg CoT was critical for two reasons. One, for the money a CoT brings and second because Mecklenburg was competing out all my merchants! Vassalizing them helped, but only annexing them stopped it.
The key to fighting the Danes was to wait until their army was committed abroad, then siege Jutland and Sjelland. That always brought them around.
Gjerg Kastrioti - I only took the tricolor flag for HP:WWTBN. And I've been in a really black depression lately - so the black shield fits.
Valdemar - v1.06 seems to have concentrated the game results toward the extremes - either you prosper or you die. I've been beset from every side - it's tough being in the middle - but never from more than one side, and that's been a key. Don't forget I got shredded 6 of 8 tries.
All that early expansion had to be paid for, of course - I've led the world in BB most of the game. Annexing Mecklenburg didn't help; thirty years is a long time when 90% of your kingdom is at 3% nationalism.
Sytass - Any peculiarities in spelling or grammar are entirely the doing of the English-speaking author of the essays. Of what the Doktor might say, we have only scraps of his book.
We must assume the title is his.Stuyvesant - you asked for more... I hadn't intended to post this last essay for another few days, but since you asked I decided to put it up early.
Since Bremen gets only one shield - on Bremen - I decided to make German-cultured provinces a priority. Adding the Catholic south has been a long, grinding chore and the Dutch (added 1731) have been a lot of trouble.
The biggest problem was that people kept giving me things! I even got Surabaja from defection. Maybe I'll run up a list of the multiple religions and cultures for later.
Judge - there are some similarities to the Punic Wars, but as I said this one never came to open conflict.
stnylan - getting control of the Mecklenburg CoT was critical for two reasons. One, for the money a CoT brings and second because Mecklenburg was competing out all my merchants! Vassalizing them helped, but only annexing them stopped it.
The key to fighting the Danes was to wait until their army was committed abroad, then siege Jutland and Sjelland. That always brought them around.
Gjerg Kastrioti - I only took the tricolor flag for HP:WWTBN. And I've been in a really black depression lately - so the black shield fits.
Valdemar - v1.06 seems to have concentrated the game results toward the extremes - either you prosper or you die. I've been beset from every side - it's tough being in the middle - but never from more than one side, and that's been a key. Don't forget I got shredded 6 of 8 tries.
Bremen is a very impressive size for 1473. I would be worried about expanding too fast but then again you either expand or eventually you die. So who’s next on the chopping block?
Joe
Joe
I feel strangely guilty that my electronic pretend-countrymen from an earlier era were the cause of much grief for Bremen...
Looking forward to see what the next essay might bring. This one's definitely worth following.
Looking forward to see what the next essay might bring. This one's definitely worth following.
The Time of Troubles
From the first hesitant expedition of Halle in 1587 until the final breakup of the Global Customs Union in the 19th and 20th centuries, Bremen’s character shaped – and was shaped by – its expansion overseas. Of the great colonial powers, by which we mean Bremen, England, Spain, France, Genoa, Venice and Portugal, only Bremen was able to continuously expand a colonial empire. The reasons for this are simple in their roots if somewhat complex in their interaction, and it is this interplay that we will examine.
The first colony was established in what would later be the province of Carolina and served three purposes. Firstly, the excellent harbor of Karlstadt provided a forward base for further exploration. Secondly, the settlement was able to establish a profitable trade with the native inhabitants and export small amounts of sea island cotton. Later (after the invention of the cotton ‘gin’) to become the ‘white gold’ of the southern provinces, cotton at this time was difficult to clean and only marginally profitable, but did help defray some of the enormous cost of founding the colony. Thirdly, the exploding population of the German states led to immense pressure for emigration, and the peculiar nature of the Colonial Corporation and the provincial Proconsulates gave this pressure a ready outlet.
Where the Latins – the Portuguese, Spaniards, French, Genoese and Venetians –went to the New World to trade, rule and convert the natives, the English and Germans came to settle, build and occupy. So the flow of German colonists became a river and then a flood, lured in by the Colonial Corporation’s promise of land grants and the Proconsuls’ desire to see their provinces grow and prosper.
With the accession of the former French settlements on the Gulf Coast, Bremen’s colonial holdings began to assume the complexion of a multilingual and polycultural empire. The French holdings, Spanish Matagorda and Rio Grande and English Delaware were easily accommodated because so little effort was made to ‘Germanize’ those territories. Proconsuls were appointed, trade regulations enforced and customs collected, and little else was changed. Of course, over the years, Germans settled there in large numbers and the overall character of those lands changed – all those provinces are now overwhelmingly of the Protestant faith, for example. Yet Galveston retains its Spanish look and feel as Nouvelle Orleans remains flamboyantly French, even if a majority of their citizens now have German surnames.
The reader may reasonably ask what Bremen’s colonization program had to do with the European Time of Troubles. Since the greatest single expansion of the Bremen colonial empire came during that era, it will be instructive, I think, to examine the linkages in some detail.
The Time of Troubles, a period roughly spanning the years 1650 to 1750, saw an ongoing struggle among European states for internal security and order as well as external expansion in power and extent. Chief among the aspirants for power in Europe was France – so-called ‘an Army in pursuit of a State’ in von Holmann’s famously pithy snub. And the record of France during this period is a weary cycle of war, rebellion, disaffection among the dukes and war to reestablish royal power – similar to virtually every European power except Bremen.
Why did Bremen escape the Time of Troubles? Without going into a level of detail inappropriate for this essay, we may say that Bremen’s territorial ambitions in Europe were largely satisfied by this date. Peaceful expansion of the GBCU (Greater Bremen Customs Union) did occur, but almost all of Bremen’s military operations in Europe in this period were defensive in nature. Her burgeoning population – and all of her disaffected elements – found ready sponsorship by the Colonization Corporation. Thus while her neighbors ground up their youth and treasure in the mills of war, Bremen flooded North America and the Far East with settlements and profited from world-wide trade.
The chief checks on the expansion of France were England and Bremen. Austria was fully occupied with her eastern and southern borders, and Spain with the ragged remnants of a once-vast overseas empire. English possession of Normandie, Poitou and Gascogne meant that France could never be free of threat from the west while Bremen’s stout defense of the Rhinelands ensured no French expansion to the northeast and east. Had France been free to concentrate on one enemy at a time, she might well have overrun western Europe, but so long as England and Bremen stood together, France could be contained.
Thus, the central tenets of Bremen’s foreign policy were the creation of an English alliance and the prevention of an alliance between Austria and France. The central pillars of Bremen’s grand military strategy were defense of the Rhine, naval defense of the Channel and aggressive war only in the colonies.
Although the English alliance was lost during the Cromwell Protectorate it was warmly reestablished when James II came to the throne and was held unwaveringly until early in the twentieth century. Only during the Time of Troubles did frictions threaten to split the two partners, and revealingly these frictions had their base in colonial policy.
England initially settled on an inexpensive militia for colonial defense. However, native raids in the 1670’s and the nearby Bremen garrisons (some 25,000 Bremen troops were permanently stationed in North America during this period) required the English to begin an expensive program of garrisons and fortifications in their North American provinces. This program, begun in 1700, of course had to be paid for – and while Bremen’s colonial defense was funded through duties and fees that were assessed worldwide, the English government decided that colonial defense should be paid for solely by the colonies involved.
The resumption of the Bremen-English alliance in 1685 should have led to an easing of tensions and lesser need for armament in the colonies, except for one factor: Denmark. In that same year the English negotiated a protectorate over the Danes to the dismay and consternation of Bremen, who had been seeking such a protectorate for generations. The alliance endured, however, chiefly because of the danger from France and because Bremen hoped that English influence in Denmark might be some day overturned.
Queen Anne came to the English throne in 1702 and the English secured the Meuthen Agreement in that same year, reducing Portugal to the status of vassal. Again, Bremen was left envious and shaken. Only a cool appraisal of the relative size of their colonial empires – that of England, Denmark and Portugal combined being scarcely a third that of Bremen alone – enabled the alliance to be renewed in 1704.
In 1708, while the French and Spanish alliances were at war, Bremen moved to link her Atlantic and Caribbean holdings. This meant forcibly incorporating the lands of the Creek Indians in a belligerent and unprovoked war, and fixed her full attention on this theater.
And then Civil War broke out anew in England.
Despite the tranquility of the surface, the political waters of England in 1708 were turbulent, muddy and deep. The religious Civil War had been fought between Catholic and Protestant, roundhead and cavalier and the Protestants had won… only to see a monarch reinstated who was sympathetic to the Catholic cause. By the time James II - an avowed Catholic - came to the throne, all the old hatreds were ready to bubble over again. His own daughters, Mary and Anne (raised staunchly Protestant), supported his overthrow and Mary (with William of Orange) came to rule in his stead after the Glorious Revolution. With the death of Mary and then William, Anne came to the throne in 1702.
Widely viewed as a good-hearted, somewhat simple woman, she soon displayed a positive genius for political infighting. Her dismissal of ministers, disdain for Whigs and royal vetoes became the most talked-about subjects in London. Her marriage to Prince George of Denmark was popular, and they seem to have genuinely loved each other. She bore him some seventeen children, but all perished in miscarriage or childhood. Thus, the heir to the throne of England was Sophia, electress and dowager-duchess of Hanover and her eldest son, George Louis – both citizens of Greater Bremen.
Given the deaths of all her children, it is perhaps understandable that Anne failed to warm to the German ‘cousins in waiting’. As a political maneuver, the Whigs induced George to ask to take his place in the House of Lords as the Duke of Cambridge in 1708, and the Queen exploded. Anne wrote to Sophie, asking the cousins not to come to England in her lifetime, and the Whigs then foolishly made that letter public. The leaders of that party quickly came to understand what ‘royal displeasure’ truly meant; within weeks half the Whigs in Parliament were in prison or cowering in Scotland.
And in the midst of this, James III launched an attempt to regain the throne of Scotland, and England simply went mad.
Rather than dwell on the ugly details of this Second Civil War, let us look to the effects on Bremen and on England’s international position. With the Indian Wars raging in North America and English garrisons stripped for service at home, it was only natural for the colonies’ German neighbors to assume the burden of defense. This quickly came to include port control, duties, customs fees and – with most of the English merchant ships occupied by the war – the shipping of goods in Bremen hulls. There is no record of any concerted takeover by Bremen interests, just a recognition that essential services needed to be provided and paid for. Only Bremen was able to fill the political and military vacuum.
But the net effect was that by the end of the decade of the Second Civil War, England’s provinces of Manhattan, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Penobscot were firmly integrated into the GBCU and showed no enthusiasm for a return to English rule. Given the debilitated state of the country after the long and bitter war, the English chose to swallow their bilious humiliation and decided not to press the issue.
Rebounding swiftly from the war and Anne’s death, England turned her attention away from the lost Atlantic colonies and back to Europe. She maintained and strengthened her Canadian holdings and the inland provinces that ran down the Adirondacks to Powhatan, but the explosive growth was over. Instead, she established a protectorate over Sweden in 1717 to match her claims to Denmark and Portugal. Predictably, Bremen was outraged at being outmaneuvered in what they had long considered their sphere of influence, but given their recent gains in North America, they again chose to ‘say nothing and wait for a better hand of cards,’ as First Consul Johann von Reden observed.
The English Alliance held through wars with Genoa (1718-1719, with Aragon and Scotland), Austria (1742-1747, with Prussia and Poland) and the French-sponsored Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745.
And finally, in 1757, came the showdown with France.
Wars with France had been a regular fact of life for Bremen for generations, and they all had assumed a similar form. The French would attack in waves up the narrow channel of Luxembourg into the Palatine, Bremen would occupy the French trading posts in North America, and a peace would be settled. Usually the French would then spend a decade putting down revolts and independence movements before making another attempt. Other than requiring Bremen to maintain a large standing army, none of these wars had any serious outcome.
So the Bremen political and military leadership can be forgiven for being a bit slow on the uptake in 1757. French annexation of Alsace and Lorraine (and subsequent claims, through marriage, to Baden and the Palatinate) had fixed Bremen’s attention on the expanded theater of the Rhinelands. It was only after the first, half-hearted invasion of the Palatine was turned back that the Germans began to wonder what the French – and their allies Genoa, Scotland, Eire and Aragon – were really about.
The strategic goal of France was no less than the total destruction and dismemberment of England. The Scots put 50,000 men into Northumberland, the Irish were retaking Connaught and Ulster, and the French had committed 100,000 men to Normandie alone.
It was at this crux that the notorious diplomatic mission of the Comte de Raymond arrived in Bremen. Their proposal – that Bremen retain any Genoese and French colonial possessions in return for remaining north and east of the Rhine – must have been sorely tempting. After all, a reduced England might have found herself unable to retain her dominance of Denmark, Sweden and Portugal, and who but Bremen could profit from that?
In their extremity the councilmen sent First Consul Volhard Mindemann to consult with Archbishop Friedrich III, still titular ruler of Greater Bremen. And from those three days came the response that literally shaped our modern world: it was a stinging, contemptuous rebuke of France, and it had teeth.
Unless France and her allies negotiated an immediate treaty, in good faith, Bremen would reinforce her squadrons in the Channel and move immediately on all enemy overseas possessions. The 250,000 men of the Rhine armies would be launched immediately into Artois, Luxembourg and Alsace, and England would be encouraged to seek a permanent solution to the Irish and Scottish questions. She would be supplied with interest-free credit of some 2000g and every resource that Bremen could muster, to that end. To say that the French were stunned by the ferocity of this response is a vast understatement.
As every schoolchild knows, France returned a virulent diplomatic response but secretly began negotiating in earnest. The final Peace of Heidelberg ended the war virtually status quo ante bellum with France paying a small indemnity and undoubtedly preserved England from destruction.
From this, Bremen derived little immediate gain. She was secured in a long-standing friendship and spared an enlarged, triumphant France but her dreams of hegemony over Denmark and Sweden were forever ended.
No essay would be complete without at least one quote from our shadowy master of the shadowy arts of war and governance. “Honoring an alliance is always expensive, but sacrifice of honor for expediency is a transitory profit. Honor is a coin that, once expended, can never be regained. A nation that chooses expediency over right action may only hope to be served the same.”
From the first hesitant expedition of Halle in 1587 until the final breakup of the Global Customs Union in the 19th and 20th centuries, Bremen’s character shaped – and was shaped by – its expansion overseas. Of the great colonial powers, by which we mean Bremen, England, Spain, France, Genoa, Venice and Portugal, only Bremen was able to continuously expand a colonial empire. The reasons for this are simple in their roots if somewhat complex in their interaction, and it is this interplay that we will examine.
The first colony was established in what would later be the province of Carolina and served three purposes. Firstly, the excellent harbor of Karlstadt provided a forward base for further exploration. Secondly, the settlement was able to establish a profitable trade with the native inhabitants and export small amounts of sea island cotton. Later (after the invention of the cotton ‘gin’) to become the ‘white gold’ of the southern provinces, cotton at this time was difficult to clean and only marginally profitable, but did help defray some of the enormous cost of founding the colony. Thirdly, the exploding population of the German states led to immense pressure for emigration, and the peculiar nature of the Colonial Corporation and the provincial Proconsulates gave this pressure a ready outlet.
Where the Latins – the Portuguese, Spaniards, French, Genoese and Venetians –went to the New World to trade, rule and convert the natives, the English and Germans came to settle, build and occupy. So the flow of German colonists became a river and then a flood, lured in by the Colonial Corporation’s promise of land grants and the Proconsuls’ desire to see their provinces grow and prosper.
With the accession of the former French settlements on the Gulf Coast, Bremen’s colonial holdings began to assume the complexion of a multilingual and polycultural empire. The French holdings, Spanish Matagorda and Rio Grande and English Delaware were easily accommodated because so little effort was made to ‘Germanize’ those territories. Proconsuls were appointed, trade regulations enforced and customs collected, and little else was changed. Of course, over the years, Germans settled there in large numbers and the overall character of those lands changed – all those provinces are now overwhelmingly of the Protestant faith, for example. Yet Galveston retains its Spanish look and feel as Nouvelle Orleans remains flamboyantly French, even if a majority of their citizens now have German surnames.
The reader may reasonably ask what Bremen’s colonization program had to do with the European Time of Troubles. Since the greatest single expansion of the Bremen colonial empire came during that era, it will be instructive, I think, to examine the linkages in some detail.
The Time of Troubles, a period roughly spanning the years 1650 to 1750, saw an ongoing struggle among European states for internal security and order as well as external expansion in power and extent. Chief among the aspirants for power in Europe was France – so-called ‘an Army in pursuit of a State’ in von Holmann’s famously pithy snub. And the record of France during this period is a weary cycle of war, rebellion, disaffection among the dukes and war to reestablish royal power – similar to virtually every European power except Bremen.
Why did Bremen escape the Time of Troubles? Without going into a level of detail inappropriate for this essay, we may say that Bremen’s territorial ambitions in Europe were largely satisfied by this date. Peaceful expansion of the GBCU (Greater Bremen Customs Union) did occur, but almost all of Bremen’s military operations in Europe in this period were defensive in nature. Her burgeoning population – and all of her disaffected elements – found ready sponsorship by the Colonization Corporation. Thus while her neighbors ground up their youth and treasure in the mills of war, Bremen flooded North America and the Far East with settlements and profited from world-wide trade.
The chief checks on the expansion of France were England and Bremen. Austria was fully occupied with her eastern and southern borders, and Spain with the ragged remnants of a once-vast overseas empire. English possession of Normandie, Poitou and Gascogne meant that France could never be free of threat from the west while Bremen’s stout defense of the Rhinelands ensured no French expansion to the northeast and east. Had France been free to concentrate on one enemy at a time, she might well have overrun western Europe, but so long as England and Bremen stood together, France could be contained.
Thus, the central tenets of Bremen’s foreign policy were the creation of an English alliance and the prevention of an alliance between Austria and France. The central pillars of Bremen’s grand military strategy were defense of the Rhine, naval defense of the Channel and aggressive war only in the colonies.
Although the English alliance was lost during the Cromwell Protectorate it was warmly reestablished when James II came to the throne and was held unwaveringly until early in the twentieth century. Only during the Time of Troubles did frictions threaten to split the two partners, and revealingly these frictions had their base in colonial policy.
England initially settled on an inexpensive militia for colonial defense. However, native raids in the 1670’s and the nearby Bremen garrisons (some 25,000 Bremen troops were permanently stationed in North America during this period) required the English to begin an expensive program of garrisons and fortifications in their North American provinces. This program, begun in 1700, of course had to be paid for – and while Bremen’s colonial defense was funded through duties and fees that were assessed worldwide, the English government decided that colonial defense should be paid for solely by the colonies involved.
The resumption of the Bremen-English alliance in 1685 should have led to an easing of tensions and lesser need for armament in the colonies, except for one factor: Denmark. In that same year the English negotiated a protectorate over the Danes to the dismay and consternation of Bremen, who had been seeking such a protectorate for generations. The alliance endured, however, chiefly because of the danger from France and because Bremen hoped that English influence in Denmark might be some day overturned.
Queen Anne came to the English throne in 1702 and the English secured the Meuthen Agreement in that same year, reducing Portugal to the status of vassal. Again, Bremen was left envious and shaken. Only a cool appraisal of the relative size of their colonial empires – that of England, Denmark and Portugal combined being scarcely a third that of Bremen alone – enabled the alliance to be renewed in 1704.
In 1708, while the French and Spanish alliances were at war, Bremen moved to link her Atlantic and Caribbean holdings. This meant forcibly incorporating the lands of the Creek Indians in a belligerent and unprovoked war, and fixed her full attention on this theater.
And then Civil War broke out anew in England.
Despite the tranquility of the surface, the political waters of England in 1708 were turbulent, muddy and deep. The religious Civil War had been fought between Catholic and Protestant, roundhead and cavalier and the Protestants had won… only to see a monarch reinstated who was sympathetic to the Catholic cause. By the time James II - an avowed Catholic - came to the throne, all the old hatreds were ready to bubble over again. His own daughters, Mary and Anne (raised staunchly Protestant), supported his overthrow and Mary (with William of Orange) came to rule in his stead after the Glorious Revolution. With the death of Mary and then William, Anne came to the throne in 1702.
Widely viewed as a good-hearted, somewhat simple woman, she soon displayed a positive genius for political infighting. Her dismissal of ministers, disdain for Whigs and royal vetoes became the most talked-about subjects in London. Her marriage to Prince George of Denmark was popular, and they seem to have genuinely loved each other. She bore him some seventeen children, but all perished in miscarriage or childhood. Thus, the heir to the throne of England was Sophia, electress and dowager-duchess of Hanover and her eldest son, George Louis – both citizens of Greater Bremen.
Given the deaths of all her children, it is perhaps understandable that Anne failed to warm to the German ‘cousins in waiting’. As a political maneuver, the Whigs induced George to ask to take his place in the House of Lords as the Duke of Cambridge in 1708, and the Queen exploded. Anne wrote to Sophie, asking the cousins not to come to England in her lifetime, and the Whigs then foolishly made that letter public. The leaders of that party quickly came to understand what ‘royal displeasure’ truly meant; within weeks half the Whigs in Parliament were in prison or cowering in Scotland.
And in the midst of this, James III launched an attempt to regain the throne of Scotland, and England simply went mad.
Rather than dwell on the ugly details of this Second Civil War, let us look to the effects on Bremen and on England’s international position. With the Indian Wars raging in North America and English garrisons stripped for service at home, it was only natural for the colonies’ German neighbors to assume the burden of defense. This quickly came to include port control, duties, customs fees and – with most of the English merchant ships occupied by the war – the shipping of goods in Bremen hulls. There is no record of any concerted takeover by Bremen interests, just a recognition that essential services needed to be provided and paid for. Only Bremen was able to fill the political and military vacuum.
But the net effect was that by the end of the decade of the Second Civil War, England’s provinces of Manhattan, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Penobscot were firmly integrated into the GBCU and showed no enthusiasm for a return to English rule. Given the debilitated state of the country after the long and bitter war, the English chose to swallow their bilious humiliation and decided not to press the issue.
Rebounding swiftly from the war and Anne’s death, England turned her attention away from the lost Atlantic colonies and back to Europe. She maintained and strengthened her Canadian holdings and the inland provinces that ran down the Adirondacks to Powhatan, but the explosive growth was over. Instead, she established a protectorate over Sweden in 1717 to match her claims to Denmark and Portugal. Predictably, Bremen was outraged at being outmaneuvered in what they had long considered their sphere of influence, but given their recent gains in North America, they again chose to ‘say nothing and wait for a better hand of cards,’ as First Consul Johann von Reden observed.
The English Alliance held through wars with Genoa (1718-1719, with Aragon and Scotland), Austria (1742-1747, with Prussia and Poland) and the French-sponsored Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745.
And finally, in 1757, came the showdown with France.
Wars with France had been a regular fact of life for Bremen for generations, and they all had assumed a similar form. The French would attack in waves up the narrow channel of Luxembourg into the Palatine, Bremen would occupy the French trading posts in North America, and a peace would be settled. Usually the French would then spend a decade putting down revolts and independence movements before making another attempt. Other than requiring Bremen to maintain a large standing army, none of these wars had any serious outcome.
So the Bremen political and military leadership can be forgiven for being a bit slow on the uptake in 1757. French annexation of Alsace and Lorraine (and subsequent claims, through marriage, to Baden and the Palatinate) had fixed Bremen’s attention on the expanded theater of the Rhinelands. It was only after the first, half-hearted invasion of the Palatine was turned back that the Germans began to wonder what the French – and their allies Genoa, Scotland, Eire and Aragon – were really about.
The strategic goal of France was no less than the total destruction and dismemberment of England. The Scots put 50,000 men into Northumberland, the Irish were retaking Connaught and Ulster, and the French had committed 100,000 men to Normandie alone.
It was at this crux that the notorious diplomatic mission of the Comte de Raymond arrived in Bremen. Their proposal – that Bremen retain any Genoese and French colonial possessions in return for remaining north and east of the Rhine – must have been sorely tempting. After all, a reduced England might have found herself unable to retain her dominance of Denmark, Sweden and Portugal, and who but Bremen could profit from that?
In their extremity the councilmen sent First Consul Volhard Mindemann to consult with Archbishop Friedrich III, still titular ruler of Greater Bremen. And from those three days came the response that literally shaped our modern world: it was a stinging, contemptuous rebuke of France, and it had teeth.
Unless France and her allies negotiated an immediate treaty, in good faith, Bremen would reinforce her squadrons in the Channel and move immediately on all enemy overseas possessions. The 250,000 men of the Rhine armies would be launched immediately into Artois, Luxembourg and Alsace, and England would be encouraged to seek a permanent solution to the Irish and Scottish questions. She would be supplied with interest-free credit of some 2000g and every resource that Bremen could muster, to that end. To say that the French were stunned by the ferocity of this response is a vast understatement.
As every schoolchild knows, France returned a virulent diplomatic response but secretly began negotiating in earnest. The final Peace of Heidelberg ended the war virtually status quo ante bellum with France paying a small indemnity and undoubtedly preserved England from destruction.
From this, Bremen derived little immediate gain. She was secured in a long-standing friendship and spared an enlarged, triumphant France but her dreams of hegemony over Denmark and Sweden were forever ended.
No essay would be complete without at least one quote from our shadowy master of the shadowy arts of war and governance. “Honoring an alliance is always expensive, but sacrifice of honor for expediency is a transitory profit. Honor is a coin that, once expended, can never be regained. A nation that chooses expediency over right action may only hope to be served the same.”
This is just so good! The game itself is interesting (Bremen as a major colonial power?), the style of writing is great...
I love the way you create a backstory to the game: the negotiations between France and Bremen in 1757, the support in North America Bremen gives England during the Second Civil War, the politicking between the various factions in England that led to that civil war... All those things that don't really happen in the game, but that help to make the story credible.
The references to modern times are also cool, because again they make the alternate history sound credible. This quote for example:
Great, great writing. Great, intelligent writing at that.
I love the way you create a backstory to the game: the negotiations between France and Bremen in 1757, the support in North America Bremen gives England during the Second Civil War, the politicking between the various factions in England that led to that civil war... All those things that don't really happen in the game, but that help to make the story credible.
The references to modern times are also cool, because again they make the alternate history sound credible. This quote for example:
It just sounds believable. Okay, a German New Orleans? Not really. But you know what I mean. It COULDA happened the way you describe it.
Prussia, France, what's in a name?
Great, great writing. Great, intelligent writing at that.
Maps and Illustrations
The following maps were bundled into the original folio. No information on their provenance is available. They are included, along with Doctor Barton’s notes, for the sake of completeness.
All wars such as ‘1st English War’ were declared on Bremen.
All wars such as ‘War with Baden’ were declared by Bremen.
Provinces listed in parenthesis were taken by Bremen for peace.
1459: [COLOR=FF0000]Bremen after the death of Doktor Gropius[/COLOR]
1473: [COLOR=FF0000]After the Bohemian War (Erz), Saxon War (Anhalt), 4th Danish War; Mecklenburg vassalized[/COLOR]
1500: [COLOR=FF0000]After 1st and 2nd Austrian Wars, 5th Danish War (Jylland), 1st English War (Oldenburg); Annex Kleves and Mecklenburg[/COLOR]
1545: [COLOR=FF0000]After 2nd English War, 1st Polish War (Danzig), War on Palatine (Hesse), Religious War of 1521, 3rd & 4th Austrian Wars (Silesia, Sudeten)[/COLOR]
1584: [COLOR=FF0000]After Phoney War with France, 5th & 6th Austrian Wars, War with Mainz (Wurzburg), Swedish War; Annex Norway[/COLOR]
1617: [COLOR=FF0000]After 7th Austrian War, French Wars of 1601 (Bayou, Biloxi, Mobile), 1608 and 1613 (90-Day War); Annex Saxony, Palatine[/COLOR]
1680: [COLOR=FF0000]After Austrian War of 1630, War with Baden (Baden), War with Oman (Table, Kalimantan), French Wars of 1637, 1658, 1664 (Seminole), 1670 and 1680, War with Spain (1662: embargo lifted; 1678: Everglades, embargo lifted); Annex Mainz, Wurttemburg[/COLOR]
1780: [COLOR=FF0000]After War on Bavaria and Koln (Ansbach), War with Creek (Savannah, Tallahassee), Genoese War of 1718 (Yaraguey, Caribe, Mazatlan), War on Malacca (embargo lifted), Prussian War of 1742, French War of 1752, Polish-Spanish War of 1785 (Baja, Honduras, Isthmus); Annex Bavaria, Gelder, Koln, Friesland[/COLOR]
1790: [COLOR=FF0000]The western hemisphere of the Global Customs Union: A is for Aztec, H is for Huron[/COLOR]
Colonies taken by defection:
Spain, 1613: Matagorda, Rio Grande (CoT)
England, 1624: Delaware
England, 1712: Manhattan (CoT), Connecticut, Massachusetts
England, 1713: Penobscot
Spain, 1715: Tampico
Mataram, 1715: Surabaja
Spain, 1716: Sierra Madre (CoT), San Bernadino, Altar, Ensenada (TP)
France, 1746: Mtawa
Venice, 1783: Bas St-Laurent
Colonies taken by war:
France: Mobile, Biloxi, Bayou (colony)
Creek: Savannah, Tallahassee
Genoa: Mazatlan, Yaraguay, Caribe
Oman: Table, Kalimantan
Spain: Baja, Honduras, Isthmus (plus TP’s of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Les Cayes, Tortuga, Barahona, Maroni, Surinam, Cuyuni)
The following maps were bundled into the original folio. No information on their provenance is available. They are included, along with Doctor Barton’s notes, for the sake of completeness.
All wars such as ‘1st English War’ were declared on Bremen.
All wars such as ‘War with Baden’ were declared by Bremen.
Provinces listed in parenthesis were taken by Bremen for peace.
1459: [COLOR=FF0000]Bremen after the death of Doktor Gropius[/COLOR]
1473: [COLOR=FF0000]After the Bohemian War (Erz), Saxon War (Anhalt), 4th Danish War; Mecklenburg vassalized[/COLOR]
1500: [COLOR=FF0000]After 1st and 2nd Austrian Wars, 5th Danish War (Jylland), 1st English War (Oldenburg); Annex Kleves and Mecklenburg[/COLOR]
1545: [COLOR=FF0000]After 2nd English War, 1st Polish War (Danzig), War on Palatine (Hesse), Religious War of 1521, 3rd & 4th Austrian Wars (Silesia, Sudeten)[/COLOR]
1584: [COLOR=FF0000]After Phoney War with France, 5th & 6th Austrian Wars, War with Mainz (Wurzburg), Swedish War; Annex Norway[/COLOR]
1617: [COLOR=FF0000]After 7th Austrian War, French Wars of 1601 (Bayou, Biloxi, Mobile), 1608 and 1613 (90-Day War); Annex Saxony, Palatine[/COLOR]
1680: [COLOR=FF0000]After Austrian War of 1630, War with Baden (Baden), War with Oman (Table, Kalimantan), French Wars of 1637, 1658, 1664 (Seminole), 1670 and 1680, War with Spain (1662: embargo lifted; 1678: Everglades, embargo lifted); Annex Mainz, Wurttemburg[/COLOR]
1780: [COLOR=FF0000]After War on Bavaria and Koln (Ansbach), War with Creek (Savannah, Tallahassee), Genoese War of 1718 (Yaraguey, Caribe, Mazatlan), War on Malacca (embargo lifted), Prussian War of 1742, French War of 1752, Polish-Spanish War of 1785 (Baja, Honduras, Isthmus); Annex Bavaria, Gelder, Koln, Friesland[/COLOR]
1790: [COLOR=FF0000]The western hemisphere of the Global Customs Union: A is for Aztec, H is for Huron[/COLOR]
Colonies taken by defection:
Spain, 1613: Matagorda, Rio Grande (CoT)
England, 1624: Delaware
England, 1712: Manhattan (CoT), Connecticut, Massachusetts
England, 1713: Penobscot
Spain, 1715: Tampico
Mataram, 1715: Surabaja
Spain, 1716: Sierra Madre (CoT), San Bernadino, Altar, Ensenada (TP)
France, 1746: Mtawa
Venice, 1783: Bas St-Laurent
Colonies taken by war:
France: Mobile, Biloxi, Bayou (colony)
Creek: Savannah, Tallahassee
Genoa: Mazatlan, Yaraguay, Caribe
Oman: Table, Kalimantan
Spain: Baja, Honduras, Isthmus (plus TP’s of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Les Cayes, Tortuga, Barahona, Maroni, Surinam, Cuyuni)
Nice work, Director. I like your writing, and it seems like you're having a great game.
Storey - I hope these maps answer your question.
Stuyvesant - I'm glad you're enjoying this. I'm having a lot of fun creating the background.
You do know that modern-day New Orleans is only slightly French? The character of the city changed forever around 1900 when all the Italians moved in to work the docks. That's why the famous 'Nawalinz' accent sounds so much like Brooklynese. The city now is overwhelmingly American; the remnants of the old French families are all but gone (and extensively married into other cultures).
It's pretty common for people who move to an area to become 'more-so' than the people who actually live there. Take Memphis and Elvis-fans, for example.
France built itself, dissolved and rebuilt itself so many times the only way I can describe it is that the Army created the State. Even more so than Prussia, whose army was powerful but rarely used. France must have been at war almost continuously.
Stage Puppet - thank you! The game is over now - I ended it in the early 1790's when I maxed out every tech. It was fun, but exceedingly nerve-wracking because of all the wars.
Stuyvesant - I'm glad you're enjoying this. I'm having a lot of fun creating the background.
You do know that modern-day New Orleans is only slightly French? The character of the city changed forever around 1900 when all the Italians moved in to work the docks. That's why the famous 'Nawalinz' accent sounds so much like Brooklynese. The city now is overwhelmingly American; the remnants of the old French families are all but gone (and extensively married into other cultures).
It's pretty common for people who move to an area to become 'more-so' than the people who actually live there. Take Memphis and Elvis-fans, for example.
France built itself, dissolved and rebuilt itself so many times the only way I can describe it is that the Army created the State. Even more so than Prussia, whose army was powerful but rarely used. France must have been at war almost continuously.
Stage Puppet - thank you! The game is over now - I ended it in the early 1790's when I maxed out every tech. It was fun, but exceedingly nerve-wracking because of all the wars.
Impressive progress and a wonderful AAR, Director!
As always, very well-written and original! I loved the dry, academic style.
As always, very well-written and original! I loved the dry, academic style.
Actually, I had the great luck to visit New Orleans recently, so at least I know what the French Quarter feels like. Reading your AAR and imagining the French Quarter filled with Bavarian beerhalls and German polka bands in Lederhosen was quite a nice experience.
Does this mean the AAR is finished as well? If so, I greatly enjoyed it. Well done!
Commandante - Little Bremen and how it grew... if they kept DoWing me, can I be blamed for profiting from them?
Sytass - thank you! I would have settled for a lot less territory - in fact I usually offered to end wars for little or nothing. But you know the AI - it refuses your offer of WP and then offers you six provinces and 800g... *sigh*.
stnylan - Glad you like the maps. Sorry they aren't full-screen shots, but I just can't spare the space.
Stuyvesant - the game is finished - I stopped in the 1790's when I maxed out every possible tech.
The AAR is NOT finished. We haven't even talked about the Trade Wars, the Protestant Reformation, the Oversight (Hand, Eye and Heart) or the Colonial Corporation. I have a lot more to write about - the question is whether the readers want to read it.
The French Quarter now is a parody of itself. There's still some of the old magic there, but not like it was in the old days... ooops. Guess I'm now officially old.
What you should be imagining is a French Quarter that is aggressively 'French' and filled with Germans who use phoney French accents to talk to the tourists. The beer halls and polka bands would be west of Canal where the tourists never go.
Sytass - thank you! I would have settled for a lot less territory - in fact I usually offered to end wars for little or nothing. But you know the AI - it refuses your offer of WP and then offers you six provinces and 800g... *sigh*.
stnylan - Glad you like the maps. Sorry they aren't full-screen shots, but I just can't spare the space.
Stuyvesant - the game is finished - I stopped in the 1790's when I maxed out every possible tech.
The AAR is NOT finished. We haven't even talked about the Trade Wars, the Protestant Reformation, the Oversight (Hand, Eye and Heart) or the Colonial Corporation. I have a lot more to write about - the question is whether the readers want to read it.
The French Quarter now is a parody of itself. There's still some of the old magic there, but not like it was in the old days... ooops. Guess I'm now officially old.
What you should be imagining is a French Quarter that is aggressively 'French' and filled with Germans who use phoney French accents to talk to the tourists. The beer halls and polka bands would be west of Canal where the tourists never go.