Epilogue
Epilogue:
300 years prior to 1792, King Hans had a dream that was the Union of Kalmar. He was a ruthless tyrant in the truest sense of the words, yet his was a dream of a unified Nordic people who would be bound together and invulnerable to the predations of other powerful countries. His brutal unification of the Union of Kalmar by force was, in his mind, a far better thing than letting the Poles, or anyone else, unify the Nordic peoples under a foreign king.
As the years progressed, the Union would grow stronger. When the issues of religion came up, the Union decided to include in its brotherhood those who practiced the one, true faith, as the Union’s kings viewed it. Wars of intervention would be fought far from the Union’s borders, if only to prevent the fighting from spilling onto the homelands of the Union. With one exception, the Second Baltic War, this goal was accomplished. Massive blood would be shed in lands far from the cities of Copenhagen, Kalmar, Visby, et al. The predations of war would skip over the peaceful lands in Norway and Sweden, leaving only the snow as the Union’s enemy north of Skane.
When the Union became a true empire, issues of trade become more important than religion. In this way, Union merchants made the entire world the “homeland” of the Union. Massive money was poured from the kings of the Union into policies beneficial for trade. This included the settling of areas in the south Pacific and India, huge sums of money to finance merchants in centers of trade across the globe, and the financing of wars to maintain Union superiority in commerce. The acquisition of territories around the globe added to the list of goods produced natively in the Union, reducing the Union’s dependance on resources from beyond its borders. Also, the willingness of monarchs of the Union to finance manufactories led to the creation of the first real industry.
With the reign of King Frederick V, the Citizen-King, the Union would reach its pinnacle. The Union of Kalmar had achieved and confirmed its hegemony in the world with the Union’s victory in the Great War. The Union’s enemies feared her. The Union’s allies praised her. And the world markets were the vine from which the Union plucked its wealth. The specter of nationalism was recognized by Frederick, and he strove to placate it. He also recognized the political reality of the new wealthy classes created by the Union’s vast exploitation of the world’s markets. He made room in the government for the rich merchants, naming them the nobility of the robe. There should not have been a reason in the world for the Union to encounter any insurmountable problems.
Then came the rule of King Christian VII, the Mad. His reckless and insane policies began to weaken the work of almost 300 years to create the most powerful country on the planet. His peaceful annexations of Scotland, Aragon, and Helvetia were not necessary. His military annexation of Nippon was also not needed; simply forcing them to open their markets would have sufficed. The worst was to come out of the Long War. Up until 1792, the war seemed to be going well, despite its wasteful nature. It should not have taken much longer to complete the annihilation of the English and their Parliament. The irony was that their refusal to surrender was forcing more and more hardship upon the people of the Union for continuing the war. This began to be felt even in the heartland of the Union, where the awakening of nationalism caused Swedes, Norwegians, Finns, and even Danes, to see themselves as something different than subjects of the Union of Kalmar. Still, the king refused to end the war.
As years went by, more and more countries would get involved in the Long War. By 1795, vast stretches of Union owned Germany, various parts of France, Poland, and Austria, and provinces in South America, were being set aflame with the fires of war. Rather than settle for peace, Christian the Mad refused to give in. At first, the Union’s armies were victorious as they always had been. The technological edge they had, combined with superior numbers, meant that the coalition against the Union would keep losing battle after battle. The Union’s navies stopped shipping from most parts of the globe, as non-Union ports were shut down by blockade. Yet, the war was causing more and more young lads to be sent away to die, higher and higher taxes, and less and less revenue from trade.
The effects of the war were felt worst in non-Lutheran parts of the Union. From 1798-1800, a civil war broke out in Union owned Ireland, where the converted Lutherans, as loyalists to the crown, would fight against Catholics who were fighting for independence. The Catholics were crushed, but only after the Army of Ireland was nearly wiped out, and Catholic strongholds had been witness to some of the most horrific slaughters in the entire century. The Dutch would also try and rise up, thinking the French would save them. This would turn out not to be the case, and both Union and French armies would loot the lands of the Dutch. The French wanted the land for themselves, and so would wipe out pockets of anti-Union revolt in the former Netherlands just as eagerly as the Union did. The Japanese tried several times to remove the yoke of the Union between 1793-1799, only to finally give up when the Union fleet stationed in Nippon put the island under blockade and refused the landing of any supplies at all until they gave in. With the huge Second Army Group eating all the food on the island, they had no choice but to stop fomenting revolt.
By the end of 1801, the nobility of the sword and the robe all had enough of the antics of Christian the Mad. The nobility of the robe, guided by new ideas of republicanism, conspired with the nobility of the sword to remove the king. On January 1st, 1802, the king was found murdered in the royal bedchamber. Immediately, the nobility of the sword put his son on the throne, declared a regency, and offered generous terms of peace to end the fighting. In exchange for leaving England 100% intact, despite the occupation of 99%of their lands, the Union would get a peace treaty with all belligerents. They all agreed, and the Peace of Cologne was signed within days.
This does not end the story of the Union, however. The nobility of the robe had gone along with the plot to remove the king only because they were given assurances that there would be republican reforms in the government. Instead, the nobility of the sword took the initiative to begin reclaiming old privileges from the feudal era. They also began a systematic repression of all nationalistic identities within the Union, including Lutheran Germans in lands such as the former Brandenburg and Saxony. These brutal purges only stoked the fires of nationalism. The German nobility and middle class, seeing their own people being treated brutally, began plotting to make a mass secession from the Union. Also, the people in Aragon, Helvetia, and Scotland refused to go along with idea that they were now subjects of the Union of Kalmar. The Regency government used the army and navy to try and keep order, but without the support of the nobility of the robe, it was only a matter of time until the problems broke the dam.
The dam would break on June 30th, 1805. On that day, the nobility of the robe used elements of the army loyal to themselves to occupy Copenhagen. They declared the old government of the Union invalid, and named themselves the new Council of the Republic. Immediately, the Kalmar Wars broke out. The Kalmar Wars took three fronts. On one hand, there was the civil war between Gallants (supporters of the nobility of the sword) and Capitalists (supporters of the nobility of the robe). On another front, the secession movements in Ireland, Germany, Aragon, Scotland and Nippon broke out into open conflict. On a third front, the European powers were quick to seize upon the weakness of the Union, and they all broke their treaties by declaring war.
The warfare was exceedingly brutal, but a clear pattern of splintering emerged. At first, Gallants and Capitalists would fight together against the Secessionists, and would court favor with factions outside the Union. By 1807, both Gallants and Capitalists had splintered along nationalistic lines, even to the point that Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians, the founding groups of the Union, were all at each other’s throats and using money and arms from other countries to feed the fire. First, Scotland, Aragon, and Nippon would break away. Then, in 1809, Eire seceded from the Union, only to splinter itself into Catholic Eire and Protestant Ireland. By 1810, most of the Union’s non-European possessions were occupied by foreign armies. By 1811, most of Germany was a mix of occupied provinces and rebel uprisings. Then, in early 1812, Sweden and Norway declared independence from the Union, in an attempt to distance themselves from the collapsing government in Copenhagen. By March, the “government” of the Union of Kalmar sued for peace from all powers in the world. This government was headed a military dictator that had emerged to occupy the capital when the civil war factions splintered.
The Peace of Kalmar, which was signed in the Union city of Kalmar, formally ended the existence of the Union of Kalmar on April 4th, 1812. The resulting peace was made in accordance with the politics of balance of power. Instead of their being a Union of Kalmar, the country of Denmark was formed, along with an independent Norway and Sweden. Also, the former German provinces of the Union were bound into a weak body called the Confederation of Berlin, which replaced the defunct Holy Roman Empire. Aragon would become independent, only to be made a Spanish “client” (vassal) state. The same would happen to the new Netherlands, which became an English “client” state. Eire would be ordained by the Peace of Kalmar as a Catholic country, to be a “client” of France. Scotland would gain full independence, as would Nippon. The rest of the Union’s colonial empire was divided up between Spain, France, England, Poland and Russia. Dominance over the Confederation of Berlin was given to Austria, so they would not feel left out of the peace process. The final stipulation of the treaty was the Denmark, Norway, and Sweden would never be allowed to be allied with one another.
Within a 20 year period, the Union fell from a position of complete hegemony to non-existence.
All of this politicking was an attempt to preserve peace from future aggression. This was not to be, and within a few years it was back to business as usual. The Nordic countries, especially Denmark, would remain apart from all of this, becoming a center for complete neutrality in European affairs. This story, however, belongs to another age.
). Perhaps you could take it up through modern times just to satisfy a desperate reader?
