Siegerkranz - An AAR of a first game as Brandenburg [IMAGE HEAVY]

[wzhang29]

A little update with regards to how things are going.

I've played all the way to 1525 (yep, that means the religions spawned, but you'll have to stay tuned for that ). After a bit of a review of the screenshots I took, I've come to the decision that the next five year span is too uneventful to warrant its own chapter. So the next update will take us all the way to 1500, followed afterwards by a World Update. Just looking at the maps I have makes me feel excited about it (or bored, depends on which part of the map you're looking at).

Don't worry, the ten year update is a one-time change; after the World Update you'll start getting five-years' worth of updates again.

Last thing. I've considered moving on from countryballs for a while now. You might have noticed I've gradually started animating animal charges (lions, eagles, so forth) on the countryballs that have one. I'm not sure whether I should take this further.

Anyways, don't be afraid to leave feedback! This is both my method of learning EU4 strategy and figuring out how this AAR will evolve over time. Also it's feeling a bit like I'm talking to myself now.

 

[wzhang29]

Can't believe it's almost been a year since this AAR started (and I'm only about 15% of the way in, which means that this will take seven years to complete ). Thanks for accompanying me on this journey (or otherwise, I can't really deduce anything from this silent crowd.)

On another note, I've managed to play all the way to 1769, and there's loads of surprises and awkwardness in store. I've even updated the table of contents to its full length, with names to be determined at a later stage. But that will have to wait, because Chronos is a fickle being who only allows time to progress in one direction.

But in the meantime, enjoy this brief ten year update. An update on the state of the world will follow after this, and I feel there's plenty to cover.

Spoiler: Here we go again.

-Anhalt spontaneously declares bankruptcy. I take advantage of the resulting diplomatic chaos by eating it and its lucrative trade center in Magdeburg.
-Conveniently, Magdeburg was facing a peasant uprising. I deal with it during my invasion.
-Friedrich II dies eventually and Amalie is 14, so only around two months of regency later and I can get back to war, this time with Brunswick.
-Bohemia rivals and embargoes me. I then embargo him.
-Poland annexes Moldavia after converting it from a march into a vassal.
-Lithuania gets a Rurikovich, hence speaking a Lithuanian version of Nadsat. If you think this is weird, you haven't seen the more esoteric dynasty changes yet.
-Pomerania is seen building a Dock (DIP 6). Other tech advances for this decade include ADM 6 and MIL 8.
-I take Braunschweig (+1) and Hanover from Brunswick, leaving them an OPM after releasing Oldenburg (they were worn into four provinces by what was essentially the Hansa).
-Oh, and I can see the New World now. Yay

Spoiler: Screenshots

 

[wzhang29]

OK, no new chapters this time, just one last announcement.

Yes, last. Because I'm shelving this project. I just can't find the motivation to keep going, what with the high tide of stress known as junior year on my back and the various other activities I'm engaging in, not to mention the lack of viewer engagement making me feel like I'm throwing my time into a black hole, as well as the sheer volume of said time. I've spent many a sleepless night trying to balance my time among these pursuits, and I feel that exiling myself from the Paradox forums would be the best solution to my problems. Besides, it's already sort of a status quo - my last unread notification was from last Saturday.

But this probably won't be the end of my time on this site. Who knows: I might return in late 2020, ready to bring a new story to the forum. I'll probably have improved my EU4+ skills as well by then.

As a closing note, have this GIF, showing the progression of the world from 1475 (the last map you guys got) and the end date of 1821.

And instead of a comic, take these paragraphs that explain how the world evolved.

EUROPE

Central Europe (AKA My Neighbor Brandenburg-Prussia)

Brandenburg would later go on to create the Kingdom of Prussia, originally as an attempt to circumvent regulations regarding the use of the title “King” in the HRE (that title was exclusive to Bohemia). It would grow to become the dominant power in Europe. (Nations annexed on its rise to power include Mecklenberg, Bremen, Saxe-Lauenberg, Lübeck, Hamburg, Bremen, Oldenburg, and East Frisia, among others.)


Hesse, driven to near-destruction by Nassau and Brunswick, accepted Brandenburg’s offer to become a vassal (and later march) of its larger neighbor. At its zenith under Brandenburg-Prussia’s suzerainty, its borders were only a few miles away from the North Sea, and even encompassed the Free City of Frankfurt.


At its height, the Archbishopric of Cologne (in addition to its core holdings) held what was then Cleves, Münster, and (East and regular) Frisia; after siding with the Catholics during the War of the Evangelical Union, it slowly lost the holdings it accumulated to Prussia and the resurgent Hesse.


Trier, one of five Protestant electors at the time of the War of the Evangelical Union, benefitted from the instability of its neighbors; in particular, it conquered states that were released from the Austrian Netherlands, as well as Hainaut, which had a similar origin but had existed prior to said fracturing (Hainaut became a vassal to Trier and was annexed after the War of the Coalition, during which it reconquered the lands it lost to France). It even took advantage of Prussian revocation of Aachen’s Free City status to conquer the state.


Liege (Lüttich) was conquered by Trier in earlier years, but Trier eventually gave its monarch land from a war against Hainaut as compensation. Soon, Trier’s expansionism made an enclave out of it.


Nassau became an elector in the aftermath of the War of the Evangelical Union, taking Salzburg’s place (Salzburg followed Calvinism). It became a target for Prussian wrath from its prior treatment of the nation of Hesse; reduced to Mainz, it was then conquered by Saxony.


Saxony, the primary Prussian ally during its earlier years, seems to have inherited the expansionist tendencies of its larger neighbor, taking pieces of land from Bohemia and (after the War of the Evangelical Union) Würzburg (another elector) and Nassau.


Ansbach was considered unlawful territory by the emperor Austria, who saw fit to release it from Nassau and restore it to an aging member of the Hohenzollern family… one that would die within a month, transferring his crown to the Prussian ruler’s head. The domain governed by Ansbach would eventually encompass the cities of Nuremberg, Munich, and Heidelberg, before being integrated into Prussia.


Baden, like Trier, was also constantly looking for opportunities to expand into its neighbors. It conquered Ravensburg (which had earlier taken Ulm and was thus no longer eligible for Free City status), Austrian holdings in Sundgau and the majority of Switzerland, even expanding into the holdings of Savoy and Milan.


Despite being a Prussian rival, Bohemia found itself on the same side as its northern neighbor in the War of the Evangelical Union. After said war (during which Bohemia acquired pieces of Austria) attitudes changed, and the two found staunch allies in each other; Bohemia even went to war with its former ally Poland to support a Prussian invasion, receiving land from Hungary in return. The other target for Bohemian expansion was Bavaria (a tendency that started before the Evangelical Union).


Austria, unsurprisingly, bore the brunt of the wrath of Bohemia after the War of the Evangelical Union, losing core areas of its homeland and pieces of the Palatinate, which Austria had acquired after a personal union. Even Vienna Vídeň would be chipped away from the disgraced Emperor in a later war, and the rest of its holdings would be partitioned among various victorious nations; out of its corpse came Styria (which actually was released from Hungarian Carniola), which would soon become an elector and eventually Emperor.


Salzburg, the only Calvinist elector at the time of the War of the Evangelical Union, eventually saw the light of Lutheranism and had its elector status reinstated. It took Tirol from the not-yet-dead Austria, eventually expanding into Ferrara.


Utrecht, even after losing its namesake city to Austria, had plans for conquest in mind. Gelre and Friesland were soon incorporated into its domain, along with Austrian Holland.


Meanwhile, the House of Hohenzollern had better fortunes. Saxony, lacking an heir for its own dynasty, took an heir from its larger neighbor (take that, von Habsburgs). Bohemia also adopted the Hohenzollerns after their last Poděbrad king died heirless. In due time, this dynastic expansion would lead to a personal union between the three nations, and the incorporation of their lands after the death of the Holy Roman Emperor (and that title passing to Styria) led the Prussians to exit the Empire, proclaiming a new nation to represent all German(ic) peoples: Germany. It quickly got into conflict with the eight remaining nations in the empire, before claiming that the Holy Roman Empire had served its purpose and unilaterally dissolving it after bringing its remaining electors into line. Utrecht, Styria, Liege, and the remaining two free cities (Dithmarschen and Memmingen) were annexed over the course of three wars, while Trier, Baden, and Salzburg had large expanses of land taken from them. The three remaining nations from the former HRE seem unlikely to last for long.


Western Europe (AKA France's Revolutionary Service)

France, on the European front, first conquered Navarra to gain an inroad into Iberia, and then gradually conquered Provence’s holdings in Brittany. In the war of the Evangelical Union, France, for supporting the Protestants, obtained parts of the Holy Roman Empire controlled by Austria. After falling into a personal union with Aragon, France obtained more Austrian holdings after the weakened Austria contested said personal union, which it later gained its independence from due to Prussian and Ottoman support. It remained a Prussian ally up until a revolution in the nation upended its monarchy; more on that later.


Aragon exiled its western neighbors, Castile and Portugal, to their holdings in the New World; more on what happens to them later. From then on, the history of Iberia is dominated by the conflict between Aragon and Moorish invaders.


After peacefully annexing Granada (which had by then been pushed back to the Rock of Gibraltar), Morocco obtained a foothold on the Iberian Peninsula from which it slowly expanded its holdings through a weakened Castile and Portugal. From there, it went on an “anti-reconquest” campaign, slowly expanding through Aragonese territory and eventually proclaiming the return of al-Andalus. It had almost expelled the Aragonese from Iberia when France went revolutionary, going on a conquest spree that took the core of Iberia, weakening al-Andalus for many years to come. By 1820, its holdings in Iberia were once more reduced to the Rock of Gibraltar by Aragon, and even its homeland of Morocco was under threat from its eastern neighbors. Aragon, too, hasn’t fully recovered from the Andalusian conquest; its capital is still on Sicily.


England’s campaign on the British Isles eventually succeeded in making it the only country on Great Britain and Ireland. The Kingdom of Scotland has since moved its capital to the Shetland Islands, where it has led a peaceful existence since the 1580s.


France eventually joined its ally Prussia in a “campaign” against Tunis, who happened to be an ally of France’s other ally, the Ottoman Empire. Many years of war later, the people of France became tired of this “German’s War” and overthrew the monarchy, sending the monarchs to die by guillotine. During this revolutionary spurt, France waged aggressive wars against its neighbors in Iberia, taking a large piece of it; it also declared war on Japan for the sake of spreading the revolution, a campaign that ultimately cost France control of the Kuril Islands.


The then-members of the HRE banded together to stop the French Revolution, and crush it they did, using their remaining leverage to retake part of what France had gained from the HRE. Subsequent wars not only expelled France from HRE territories for the final time, but also isolated its Iberian possessions, so any revolt in the area would doubtless succeed, and succeed they did, restoring both Castile and León to independent status. Castile quickly conquered its smaller neighbor and set about reconquering the peninsula… which it failed miserably at, losing land to Aragon before its mainland was reconquered by France. The Kingdom has since relocated to the Canary Islands, which the King of Aragon gave it after taking it from al-Andalus. Revolutionary ideals still permeate in France, which is now a Grand Republic.


Portugal, after adapting to their new status as a New World power, was eventually granted their former capital of Lisbon by Aragon; the court opted to continue governing their domain from Terça (TN: derives from Portuguese terça-feira (Tuesday), the day of the week of September 7, 1486, when Portugal discovered the island. In-game the island is still called Dominica). Lisbon would eventually be conquered by Aragon.


Northern and Eastern Europe (AKA Tales from the Baltic Sea)

After breaking the back of the Kalmar Union, Sweden has been at perpetual war with its neighbors. It waged a bloody campaign, eventually driving Norway off the peninsula and Denmark off its island into the city of Kolding (and another island). It thus proclaimed (ironically) the Kalmar Union restored once more (albeit under the name of Scandinavia).


But this union wasn’t bound to last. One Prussian invasion brought Norway back from exile; another brought forth a new nation, Finland, and wrested control of the Øresund. When Scandinavia tried to reclaim Finland once, it was countered by a Prussian intervention that gave Lappland to Finland. This was followed by a revolt on Jutland that returned it to Danish control (control that was subsequently broken by a Prussian invasion, exiling the Danes to Gotland). Scandinavia’s second reconquest attempt didn’t involve a foreign intervention, mostly because Prussia was too busy with France to bother. This reconquest was tempered by Norway, who took another swath of Scandinavian land (along the way granting Bornholm back to the Danes).


Poland was a primary enemy of Brandenburg-Prussia’s up until their extermination in the 1600s. It hit its high-water mark after annexing its vassals Mazovia and Moldavia, after which it went nowhere but down.


Lithuania had its homeland torn from it in the 1530s; its Ruthenian and Byelorussian subjects later declared their independence from the broken nation, consolidating into three nations. Of the three, Chernigov sought the protection of Muscovy/Russia, while the other two fought each other and the Ottomans, and existed at various points in time; confused Zaporozhian rebels even found their way into Anatolia and proclaimed that to be their home country. Of the three, only Polotsk existed in 1821.


The Livonian Order had its Estonian territories seized by Russia. After joining the Catholic side in the War of the Evangelical Union, its remaining territories, consisting of Courland and Semigallia, were given to Prussia. Riga met a similar fate.


Muscovy was the dominant power in the east for a while. After annexing the Republic of Novgorod, its vassals, and Ryazan, its ruler declared himself Tsar of All Russia, and set forth a plan of ambitious expansion. Unfortunately, that expansion was checked by many powers, including the Ottomans, Scandinavia, Kazan, and Prussia, which set up a client state called Pleskau. In time, the client state would encompass the majority of what was then Muscovy and Novgorod. Russia still exists, holding on to a part of its homeland, but its capital has since moved to the northern reaches of Siberia.


Southern Europe (AKA Turco Rosso)


The aforementioned Aragon now holds its court in Palermo, Sicily, and annexed Naples around 1500.


Occupying the middle of the peninsula is Tuscany, formed after Siena conquered its rival in Florence (and also Mantua). It was briefly conquered by the Papal States, before Prussia forced it to release Tuscany. Tuscany would later turn around and conquer the Pope’s homeland, exiling him to the walls of the Doge’s palace in Venice. The former occupants of said palace had been exiled to Candia (Crete) by Hungary, and now lead a peaceful existence.


The aforementioned Papal States, after establishing itself in the Italian peninsula, began a campaign in the north to kick Hungary off of the peninsula, gaining a foothold in the Balkans in the process. Its expansion in the region caught the attention of Bohemia, and it was swiftly kicked off the possessions it gained in the process, eventually leading up to the aforementioned exile.


Ferrara was also released from the Papal States by Prussia in a later war, along with Urbino and Mantua. It quickly conquered both other successor states before being forced into Urbino by a growing Salzburg. When Prussia/Germany later went to war with Salzburg and the rest of the HRE, Ferrara moved to reclaim the rest of its homeland.


Milan exiled Genoa to the island of Corsica (where it would be annexed by Aragon) and conquered Savoy before a forced release. Baden would later conquer Milan’s homeland, pushing them along the Ligurian coast.


The aforementioned Hungary was once a large kingdom spanning between the Carpathian mountains. They even made ventures in Italy and built a respectable stronghold there before they picked the wrong side in the War of the Evangelical Union… and then multiple wrong sides during Prussia’s campaigns against Poland. Eventually, it would fracture, releasing Nitra (which Bohemia promptly conquered) and Transylvania. The latter would get a piece bitten off by Bohemia before Hungary returned it to the fold. In 1821, Hungary is split into two pieces by German Transylvania/Siebenburgen, one of which is an enclave of Germany and the other containing Hungary’s capital, Nándorfehérvár.


The Republic of Ragusa conquered Bosnia and parts of Serbia, building a respectable domain before the Pope pushed it out of the Dalmatian coast and parts of Bosnia (those pieces would later be conquered by Bohemia). Disgruntled Serbs formerly under the Ottoman yoke have declared themselves to be part of a new nation of Serbia, based in Priština. Around the same time, Albania declared its independence from the Turks.


Wallachia has somehow maintained its existence as a small country at the foot of the Carpathian mountains.


The Ottoman Empire, the major bridging three continents of the Old World, built its way up by conquering their way through the various minor powers around it, including various Turkish beyliks, Qara Qoyunlu, and a large piece of the Mamluks. After taking Moldavia from a weakened Poland, the Turks found an opportunity to expand into the formerly Lithuanian territories.


They found themselves in conflict with Prussia three times, and three times they lost. The first war found themselves and their longtime allies in France on opposing sides over the Ottoman ally of Tunis. While Tunis escaped any territorial changes, their allies didn’t. During the first war, French revolutionaries overthrew their monarchy; the same fate befell the Ottomans after the second war, though this revolution was crushed by the Prussians much more quickly.


The Knights of Rhodes have led a peaceful existence since they conquered the island in 1310. While occasionally involved in wars, none of their opponents have dared to land on their islands, and thus they have been for over five centuries, disrupting Ottoman domestic trade in the meantime.


ASIA & OCEANIA

The Middle East (AKA Persia of the Valley of Sand)

At odds with the Ottomans since they broke free from the Timurid Empire in the 1470s, Persia dominates the stage of the Middle East, making forays into the Arabian peninsula thanks to their conquest of Qara Qoyunlu and Jabal Shammar. Their presence now extends to the Red Sea, and they have become custodian for the holy city of Medina.


In their east, the Persians have had to deal with the rest of the Timurid Empire. While they did stretch from the Trucial coast to China at one point, the Timurids collapsed quickly due to the antagonism of their neighbors, their final traces being snuffed out in the 1750s. More info in the Central Asia section.


The custodian of the other holy city, the Mamluk Sultanate, has fallen into an almost irreversible decline thanks to the Ottomans, who also control their former capital of Cairo. They have since made Mecca their capital.


Yemen and Oman formerly covered the south of the peninsula; mainland Yemen then fell to the Ethiopians (who were originally after their possessions on the horn of Africa), followed in short order by Oman and Najd. The Sultanate of Yemen has since been isolated to the island of Suqutra (Socotra) after Ethiopia released it from a Somali state, where it still leads a peaceful existence; Oman and Najd had no such luxury.


The Shamkalate of Gazikumukh used to have a domain stretching from the Don River to Iran. That empire has come and gone, and Gazikumukh is now a borderland buffering Kazan from Persia.


Georgia also used to have such an empire, even controlling Crimea and a region across the Dnieper at one point before it fell to the Russians (and later the Ottomans). Now reduced to a small strip of land along the Black Sea, Georgia was briefly restored to the full extent of its cultural borders before Kazan and Persia once again reduced its holdings, this time to the area around Tbilisi.


Central Asia and India (AKA Whisper of the Hordes)

See also: Timurid Empire (Middle East section).


The aforementioned Timurid Empire fell into decline after Persia broke free from said empire, but the conqueror’s lineage decided to make one last push towards expansion. Conquering Balochistan, Delhi, Multan, the remnants of Nogai, parts of Oman (at least before losing it to revolt), pieces of Yarkent, and various Indian minors, and even Tibet (Guge and Kham), the empire eventually started succumbing to foreign invasions. Over the course of the 1600s it was reduced from the major power in Central Asia to a small nation in the mountains of Afghanistan. Although it did conquer one last territory (the valley of the Amu Darya), its flames would be snuffed out by Persia in the 1750s.


Kazan, once a small horde on the fringe of the Russian Empire, quickly took advantage of its declining neighbors (both with regards to Russia and the Timurids), growing to become a respectable power. It has recently made forays into the territory of the Ottoman Empire.


The Chagatai Khanate was also a quick expander, despite having some troubles with nearby Yarkent and the Timurid Empire at first. They also expanded heavily to the north, dealing with both the Uzbeks and Russian colonists. It also took advantage of a fractured China, conquering one of the claimants to the title of Emperor, the Shun.


In the 19th century, however, it ran into some difficulties with the next Chinese claimant it ran into, the Jin. More on that later.


Kara Del also benefitted territorially from the fall of Yarkand. It eventually became an enclave of the Chagatai after their conquest of the Shun. (Why they weren’t conquered like many other countries but rather gained from their brief enclave status is something left to speculators.)


Punjab begins its existence as a country released by the Timurid conquest of Delhi. It benefitted from the eventual collapse of the Timurid Empire. During its rise and fall, Punjab conquered many Indian minors and part of Mewar.


Mewar, like many other countries, slowly built up a powerbase by conquering weaker Indian minors around it. At their height, they even incorporated Sindh and Balochistan into their domain; however, they collapsed in the 1700s, partly due to Persia and Punjab.


The other half of Mewar was conquered by Andhra (a country that I cannot somehow find a reasonable modern equivalent to). Despite having to deal with the Bahmani Sultanate in the 1500s, their collapse c. 1530 aided Andhra’s expansion quite a bit. Their other expansion targets included Khandesh and Bastar before they were forced back by Mewar. This kept their borders solidified until the 1700s, after which they spead across the subcontinent.


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Vijayanagara (ugh, finally) also benefitted from the fall of the Bahmani sultanate, its major rival, and Mewar. It now dominates the face of southern India. Portugal briefly negotiated the establishment of Goa as a trading post (despite the nearest Portuguese possession being halfway across the world), which Vijayanagara quickly retook.


South of Vijayanagara are the islands of the Maldives, which have been left untouched both by Indians and by the Europeans colonizing the other Indian Ocean islands (which for the purpose of this will be placed under the Africa section.)


Andhra has also recently taken land from the Jaunpur Sultanate. In earlier years, Jaunpur (despite some stagnation in the 1500s) expanded its holdings across the Gangetic Plain, conquering Bengal and the parts of Pegu that were in Bengal. Having recently faced incursions from Andhra and Arakan, Jaunpur seems unlikely to last the 19th century.


East Asia (AKA When Ming Was There)
See also: Chagatai Khanate (Central Asia).

China had been dominated by the Ming since the Red Turban Rebellion in 1368, but instability and a growing horde in Yarkand contributed to its fracturing into multiple states fighting over the title of Emperor.


The first sign of cracking came in the first decade of the 1500s, with various people proclaiming Shu (burgundy), Qi (green), and Min (light teal) as independent states in (modern) Sichuan, Shandong, and Fujian, respectively. Ming made no effort to recover the lost territories, and over the next decade more saw the opportunity to claim the Mandate of Heaven (or independence) for themselves, and thus came more nations. Of them, Yi (orange in Yunnan and Guizhou) and Changsheng (lime green in Guangxi) were motivated by independence from a Han-dominated country, while claimants to the title of Emperor came in the forms of Jin (yellow in Shanxi), Yan (red in Zhili), Shun (blue-gray in Gansu), Liang (gray in Henan), Chu (pink in Hunan), Wu (purple in Zhejiang), and Yue (blue in Guangzhou). The next years were a constant battle for the fate of China.


Shu was, right away, on the receiving end of both a foreign invasion (from the Tibetan nation of Kham) and a domestic invasion (from Chu). Yi and Ming then chipped off pieces of the faltering country, and while Shu would regain the piece it lost to Ming, it would lose that same area, along with the rest of the country, to Chu. Shu would briefly return as rebels against the Ming, but that, too, would be conquered by Chu in the 1560s. It would once again be revived in the 1610s before once again being swallowed by its neighbors.


Qi gained a piece of Liang while Ming was busy restoring order to Henan, and eventually a piece of Ming itself. However, it immediately lost Shandong to the Yan, and most of the rest was returned to Ming. The remaining portion would be split between Wu and Yan. It would briefly make a return in Yan’s moment of weakness, but Yan would restore order after 25 years.


Despite conquest by Yue, the Min would make a return after another decade. It conquered Jiangxi, which had recently declared independence as the Ning, but would eventually get partitioned by the Ning (which declared independence a second time, this time from the Chu), Wu, Yue, and Changsheng. Its capital moved to the island of Hainan briefly before Changsheng finished it off.


Yi would expand into Kham. When the Timurids blocked further expansion into Tibet, they turned east towards the Chu, partitioning it with Changsheng. Changsheng and Mong Yang then expanded into Yi, forcing it to start expanding into Shun territory. It then retook the land that got taken by Mong Yang. It still stands in 1821.


Changsheng conquered a large chunk of Ming territory and gradually finished off Yue, before succumbing to Lan Xang and Mong Yang invading its territory. It eventually reconquered that territory in full, and even made forays into Indochina.


Jin would eventually grow to encompass a lot of land held formerly by Ming, Liang, and Qi, also conquering a large slice of Yan, Korchin, and the Yeren Manchus. In the 1800s it got into a war with the Chagatai Khanate and won, pushing its borders west into . Both Jin and Yan still stand in 1821, and Yan and Jin held Beijing at verious points (the current holder is Yan).


Wu would eventually encompass the lands held by Min and Ning, and still stands in 1821.


Korea, like Chagatai, took the chaos in China as an opportunity to expand, and gradually ate pieces out of the neighboring Manchus (Jianzhou and Yeren). It then took Liaoning from Yan.


The Haixi are the only Manchu tribes left independent, and created their domain by exploiting weaknesses in their neighbors Korchin and Yeren.


Korea briefly had part of its land occupied by Japan, which quickly unified under the Ashikaga Shogunate despite the squabbled of the various daimyos. They were then expelled from Korea, before getting into a very long war with a revolutionary France over Hokkaido, during which Japan got the Kuril Islands.


Legend has it that Chavchuveny, after dealing with their rival in the Kamchadals, has remained frozen in time since the 1500s.


Ryukyu has stayed static since its inception in 1429, oblivious to everything going on around it.


Annoyingly for nearby Wu, the Ottomans (for some unknown reason that only Mustafa III would know) sent expeditions to the island of Taiwan; despite stagnation resulting from bankruptcy, the Ottomans eventually succeeded in colonizing the northern two-thirds of the island (the southern third was colonized by a country we’ll get to later).


Southeast Asia and Oceania (AKA Ocean Waves)

Pegu was the dominant power in Burma. After the Bengals invaded the coastal area, it was Pegu who pushed them back, before taking the fight to their homeland. Mong Yang, a minor in North Burma, thus decided to invade nearby Hsenwi and Sadiya to counteract the threat on its southern border. It didn’t need to, however; the southern threat has a southern threat of its own in the form of Ayutthaya, who invaded Pegu and forced it to release another country, Arakan. From there, Pegu declined, falling to invasions on all fronts. Ayutthaya then turned its sights north to Mong Yang, which would once more be reduced to northern Burma after being forced out of China and India.


Speaking of Ayutthaya, while now it is the major power in Indochina, before that title belonged to Lan Xang, which earned that title by bashing through the minors of Champa, Dai Viet, and Khmer (Cambodia). Ayutthaya started building up its power base by invading the then small state of Nakhon Si Thammarat (Ligor). Afterwards it won in a war against Lan Xang, marking the start of its rise. Multiple subsequent wars saw Lan Xang pushed against the South China sea, split into three (and later two) pieces by Ayutthaya.


Recall the state named Nakhon Si Thammarat (or Ligor) from earlier. After being invaded by Ayutthaya, its leaders sent out fleets in an effort to find a land where they would be safe from incursion, and their explorers delivered on that by finding a large archipelago to the east. The first colonists from the kingdom landed on the island of Belitung in Indonesia as a test, before settling one of the islands (Chinese sources call it Mayi [modern Mindoro]), and from there they spread across the archipelago, colonizing the entirety by 1755. From there they colonized the southern third of Taiwan. Only after that did the far-seeing Abd al-Jalil Shah I’s worst fears come true - Kedah conquered their last possession on the mainland, forcing the court onto the islands. Perhaps this history was what caused Britain to make an ally of the archipelago.


The aforementioned Kedah, like Ligor formerly a small nation on the Kra Isthmus, instead opted to scramble by through a combination of conquest and colonization. They actually lost a majority of their territory to Ligor before reconquering it. Their first colony was started in the 1610s on the island of Bangka, earlier than Ligor’s first colony on Belitung, and from there they spread across the uncolonized portions of Sumatra and Borneo. They conquered Java from the slowly falling Mahajapit Majahapit Mapajahit Mahapajit Mapahajit Majapahit (which formerly controlled the islands Kedah occupies now) before landing on Sulawesi, where it conquered Makassar.


Kedah’s colonization on Borneo got it into conflict with Kutai, which was the sole power on the island after it conquered the sultanate of Brunei. The first large-scale manufactories were developed in its city of Tarakan.


Sharing Sumatra and the Malay peninsula with Kedah is Pagarruyung, the power formerly limited to the center of Sumatra. It conquered part of Pasai after Malacca weakened it, and then challenged Malacca itself, taking it over in three wars. It has now inherited Malacca’s mantle of controlling its namesake strait.


The countries on the Spice Islands, Ternate and Tidore, also got into the colonization game. Tidore sent explorers out first, claiming the island of Halmahera between the two, followed by Ternate which claimed Buru. Tidore then conquered Ternate and burned Buru to the ground, after which it started aggresively colonizing. While it did get into conflict with Kedah over Java and Bali, it managed to colonize most of the minor islands in the Malay archipelago (the major exception being French Sumba). It eventually got into a colonizing dispute with the UK over parts of New Guinea and Australia, conceding Australia but winning its part of New Guinea.


In the middle of all this was Sulu, like Ryukyu oblivious to everything around it. (Willing to bet every not-America continent has one of these.)


The actions of European colonizers in this area cannot be discounted either. Four nations total sent their settlers halfway across the world. Of these, Britain and France split the grand prize of Australia, while Britain alone got both islands of New Zealand. New Guinea was split between Britain, Aragon, Portugal, and Tidore. Of the minor islands, Aragon took the Marianas, Palau, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Samoa, and the Tuamotu Islands; Britain took Tonga, Rapa Nui, the Society Islands, Hawaii, the Andaman Islands, part of the Nicobar Islands, and Christmas Island; France got Fiji, the Cocos Islands, and Sumba; and Portugal got the Solomon Islands, the New Hebrides, the Caroline Islands, the Marshall Islands, and Nauru.


AFRICA

North and West Africa (AKA The Moor Returns)

See also: Andalusia (Europe, Western), Mamluk Sultanate (Asia, Middle East).


Tlemcen is currently the dominant power in the Maghreb, despite being knocked back by Tunis at first. It then conquered Tuqurt, after which it struck back at Tunis, driving it out of its capital. While Tunis still exists, its land is restricted to Tripolitania, having been driven out of Cyrenaica by the Mamluk Sultanate.


Mali is the major power in west Africa. While relatively silent in the 1400s, it invaded recent breakaway Yatenga, Jenne (which had recently taken land from Zafunu), and Fulo (which had recently conquered the rest of Jolof). It then suffered a setback from the country that Yatenga had broken from, Songhai. After conquering the rest of Zafunu, it struck back at Songhai, annexing its territory completely.


Timbuktu similarly ate at Zafunu and Songhai.


Nupe also expanded slowly at first, consuming Dagbon and a large part of Benin. In the meantime, Kong conquered Bonoman, Mossi (like Yatenga a breakaway from Songhai) and when the Ashanti appeared to its south, Kong conquered that as well. Nupe and Kong would eventually clash, with Nupe coming out as the victor.


Yao occupied the area around Lake Chad, driving the Kanem-Bornu Empire out of the area; that empire would later fall to Aïr and Katsina as well. Aïr would then be attacked by the other two. Afterwards, Katsina started invading Yao and Timbuktu, but would lose those territories soon after, releasing Hausa in the same peace deal (Hausa would be conquered by Mali). The remains of Katsina would be partitioned between Mali and Yao.


Mali, after conquering half of Katsina, turned its sights south towards Nupe, tearing half the country away. Fortunately for Nupe, Mali would be too busy with European colonizers to finish it off.


Speaking of Europeans, they played a heavy hand in shaping the region. Although the first Europeans in West Africa were Portuguese settling in an isolated place (Arguin), the first Europeans to come into contact with the West Africans were the British, who colonized (modern) Sierra Leone and Beafada. Aragon came later, taking most of the rest (including Sierra Leone from the British), while Andalusia came last; its colonies, however, were swiftly taken by Mali.


The rest of Africa (AKA I’m running out of Studio Ghibli movies help me)

See also: Yemen (Asia, Middle East)


Medri Bahri conquered Alodia to its west; after that, the tribes to its west coalesced into Funj, which was swiftly invaded by both Medri Bahri and Ethiopia. After finishing its conquest, Medri Bahri was invaded by Ethiopia and Makuria, the latter writing Medri Bahri as a footnote in history.


Makuria also invaded Beja before joining the Ottoman Empire in an invasion of Mamluk Egypt. The Ottomans then invaded Makuria, taking the formerly Mamluk coastline, before it was retaken in the late 18th century.


Ethiopia, which now dominates East Africa (being basically the only country in the region) started as a Coptic nation attempting to resist the tide of Islam. It started by incorporating Ennarea and Hadiya before turning its sights east to counter Yemen, which had crossed the Gate of Tears and was busy attempting to subdue the Muslims in Somalia. One war later and it would be the Ethiopians crossing that same strait, this time spreading Oriental Christianity to the southern tip of Arabia.


Marehan, at this time, was facing the Yemeni invasion head-on. It lost most of its holdings to Yemen, along with the Ajuuraan Sultanate, but won the Ajuuraani exclaves via revolt, and then conquered Mogadishu’s coastline before tackling another Yemeni invasion. However, Marehan faced better luck on the third try due to Ethiopia; not only was Yemen reduced to two areas on the coast, but Marehan also obtained the remaining lands of the Ajuuraan Sultanate.


Ethiopia also got the idea to take the Somali Coast to strengthen its new hold on Aden, invading Adal and now-landlocked Mogadishu before setting its sights on Marehan; in a few wars’ time it would be fully integrated.


While Ethiopia was hacking its way down the African coastline, the Kilwa Sultanate (which controlled a sizable portion of coastline itself) was expanding inland. Despite facing a minor setback in the form of Mutapa, and then losing small portions of land to Tumbuka and Malindi after conquering Maravi, the Sultanate eventually conquered Makua, afterwards subduing Malindi, Tumbuka, and a large part of Mutapa. Kilwa even went north and grabbed a piece of Marehan’s coastline.


But this sultanate was not to last; Ethiopia soon turned its attention south and conquered Kilwa piece by piece. During this time, Mutapa, now a minor nation, took the opportunity to reclaim what it had lost.


Separated from the rapidly expanding Ethiopia by untamed wilderness was the nation of Buganda, which slowly absorbed all of its rivals in the region save for Basoga. (Nations known by the names Nkore, Bunyoro, Burundi, and Rwanda all left the map in this way.)


While only a short distance across Lake Tanganyika away from Buganda, Luba never looked to the east, instead invading nearby Kikondja, Chokwe, and Kuba. The conquered nations, however, made their resurgence; Kuba reconquered its lands from both Luba and Kongo before being pushed back again, while Chokwe regained its full independence before Kasanje forced it into uncolonized territory to the east. Chokwe has stayed on that land since.


Meanwhile, the aforementioned Kongo was also expanding, conquering Tyo, Yaka, and a piece of Kasanje as well as the majority of Kuba; it soon got into conflict with Luba and took the majority of that, leaving the nation of Lunda an enclave of Kongo. Out of that conflict would be born Kazembe, which Kongo would conquer in another decade.


Europeans, as always, left their mark on the region. While the first colonies in Southern Africa, set up by competing British and French interests, would be far away from the African nations, the British would eventually inch ever closer to the Kilwa Sultanate/soon-to-be Ethiopia, a move that almost led to their expulsion from the region. Britain initially held the Cape until it handed that to France after two colonial wars, a decision likely influenced by a Prussian invasion of the Isles and a contemporaneous succession war with Milan over Aragon. It would take some very confused Norwegians, however, to open contact with Central Africa, as they established colonies around Kongolese coastline. Norway went so far as to take an Andalusian colony in South Africa. Aragon also established a colony in the vicinity of Angra Pequena.


The colonization game extended to the islands around Africa as well. Andalusia’s only major colony is on an island (modern Bioko) next to the Norwegian settlements in Cameroon. France took Maurice, St. Helene, St. Thomas, Diego Garcia, and Île Bourbon, while the British took the Seychelles and Comoros (which they lost to Ethiopia).


The largest island next to Africa, meanwhile, was left untouched by Europeans, as Antemoro had unified Madagascar in the earliest years of the 16th century by defeating Sakalava, Merina, and Betsimisaraka.


AMERICAS (AKA The Secret World of Native Minors—at least until 1810)


Over three and a half centuries, the Americas would be turned from a land filled to the brim with native cultures to a mirror image of Europe. Many nations were involved in the colonization of the continents, and the influence of each one (save for Castile) persists.


The first country to start colonization projects in the Americas was Portugal, who used their base in the Azores as a springboard to the island of Terça. Aragon conquered Lisbon in 1533, and the royal court fled to that island, from which they directed the colonization of the rest of the Caribbean, and eventually La Plata, (modern day) Louisiana, and parts of Mexico. Their unique status as a kingdom based in the New World afforded them direct control over the affairs of their overseas possessions, unlike the other colonizers.

(Native minors conquered: Mapuche, Guaraní)


Castile had a similar story as Portugal did, although with significantly less success. They moved their capital into modern-day Brazil, and did colonize afterwards for a while, at least until they were conquered by the British.

(Native minors conquered: unsurprisingly zero)


England was the third to establish permanent colonies in the Americas, doing so in Brazil, in the same vicinity as Castile, which they quickly eliminated. Britain also set up enterprises in Colombia, northern Mexico, and “Amherst” (Louisiana, named after their first conquistador), as well as a region to the east of Amherst that they termed the “Thirteen Colonies”.

(Native minors conquered: Tapuia, Muisca (which had earlier conquered Carib and Arawak), part of Quito, Wichita, Osage, Chickasaw, Shoshone, Choctaw (which earlier conquered Creek), Potawatomi, Pawnee, Chinook, Susquehannock, Mikmaq, Navajo, Pima)


France quickly followed England to the west, setting up colonies right next to Terça in the Caribbean and grabbing Porto Rico and half of Cuba (amalgamating them into a colony simply called Antilles) before settling Brazil. They would eventually add to their holdings with the lands of the Inca and Mesoamerica, as well as a region to its north they would term Californie, and a region to its north they would call Alasca.

(Native minors conquered: Tupinamba, Tupiniquim, Charca, Chimu, Cajamarca, Aztec, Zapotec, Colima, Xiu (both Colima and Xiu were vassals to Revolutionary France at one point), Haida)


Norway became the fifth to get colonies in the New World after confused Icelandic fishermen found their way to a land their Viking predecessors discovered in the past. They named the area Vinland (once again) and began expanding their colony in the general vicinity.

(Native minors conquered: Sioux, Lenape)


Old rivalries never seemed to fade, either, for Aragon, upon discovering the New World, decided to follow Portugal to the area, landing in an area they called Florida. Aragon then went north of the Thirteen Colonies, settling in a land they called San Lorenzo, and then south past the now-Portuguese Caribbean, a land called Venezuela.

(Native minors conquered: half of the Pequot


Portugal quickly ran into problems with its former ally in Great Britain; it, at various points, held land colonized by the Thirteen Colonies and British Mexico. It would eventually be pushed off the mainland, but in return took the majority of the land that made up the French Antilles.


France engaged in two wars with Great Britain. While ostensibly fought over the southern tip of Africa, they were definitely fought over the New World as well. While the first war was a loss for France, the second war had incredible timing, as the king of Aragon would die within a few months of the war’s start; his throne passed to the ruler of Milan, but the UK would contest that claim out of overconfidence. At the same time, France’s ally Prussia had amassed a force in Picardy, and this time dared to cross the Channel; the British not only conceded the Cape but also all of Brazil and parts of Colombia.


The colonies’ overlords, at various points, attempted to assert control over colonies which had been left alone as part of a policy of salutary neglect. As a result, the colonies began actively vying for independence; the first colonies to do so were the thirteen colonies of the British on the eastern seaboard. After almost a decade of next to nothing happening, the British decided the rebellious colony wasn’t worth it and granted independence to the colonies, who organized themselves under the name of the United States. It immediately began invading neighboring colonial nations and native tribes, pushing Vinland and Florida off the map and San Lorenzo far into the interior, not to mention all the wars against Amherst, British Mexico, and Portugal. The United States would come to dominate the eastern half of North America. (Interesting sidenote: while the treaty also stated that Britain should grant independence to the colonies that rebelled alongside the US (namely, Amherst, English “Brazil”, British Mexico, and Colombia), this was put into the treaty phrased as a recommendation by the British, who then proceeded to keep everything.)

(Native minors conquered: Haudenosaunee, Cherokee, Pequot, Chinook)


France would have its own woes with its colonies. Shortly after the formation of the nation of Germany on its eastern border, its possessions in Peru, Mexico, Brazil, and Californie declared independence simultaneously; the colonies quickly overran their loyalist counterparts while the Germans knocked down the gate to Paris for the umpteenth time, and the colonial nations gained independence. Both Brazil and Mexico simply threw the word “French” off their name, and California required no major change to its name; French Peru, however, would name itself after a river on its frontier, the Paraguay, supposing that all of the southern portion of South America belonged to it. To secure its claim, it started invading Portugal and the French colonies to its north and south, wiping out the last fully sovereign native nation (Charrua) in the process.


In the meantime, French Mexico fought its British counterpart, and then the United States, to secure its claim to all of Mexico; surprisingly, it won against its larger neighbor, cutting off most of its access to the Pacific Ocean. (It also fought British Colombia over central America, but shhh.)

——————

For those of you who did come along for the ride, thank you. I could not have done this without your support and feedback. And thus I bid you all farewell. Unless you happen to be in one of the Discord servers I still frequent.

 

[Luis de Aveiro]

I fully understand. Since 2013 I have almost no time to play, on account of my two jobs, while doing my masters degree and, since 2015 my ongoing PhD... and since 2017 I became a father. So, I followed some AARs (and yours was one of the most original I've read) while commuting, since it was the only thing I have time to do: a sort of "play by proxy" kind of thing.
I hope you my find the time you need to do what you like to do.