Muhammad XIV 1596-1645
The rider dismounted and bowed before the governor of the Frontiers of Fez, Ali Ibn Khawajah. He was obviously unhappy about something.
"A rider on a camel came out of the desert yesterday," he said, "and brought news from Moulay Nadruddin in the mountains, the enemy of the Turks..."
He seemed reluctant to speak.
"Tell me the news," the official replied, beginning to suspect it was not good.
"He brought with him a sack. He spoke some words and then rode away before we could converse with him."
"A sack?"
"At first," said the messenger, "we hoped that it contained gifts of some kind. That it might be a way of showing that... but no, it did not."
"What was in the sack?" asked Ali Ibn Khawajah
"A terrible thing, sir, a terrible thing!" came the reply, "In the sack were nine severed heads. The head of our emissaries, all of them, God have mercy upon them, I hope their deaths were not painful..."
"You are saying," the other said, "that Moulay Nasruddin has murdered them all?"
The messenger nodded.
"These were good men. Well liked and favoured by the King. He will be angry. Many people will be angry, and their anger will fall on the head of this bandit in the mountains! Ride on to Fez, and publish the news. Make sure everyone hears."
Ali Ibn Khawajah turned away. The messenger was given a fresh horse and did as he was instructed.
Muhammad XIV ascended his grandfather's throne at the age of twenty three, two years after his father's death and his reign was to last almost fifty years. Throughout his long reign he struggled to centralise power at the expense of local governors, often playing them off against the merchant class in the cities, always making sure no-one but himself ended up with their authority enhanced. The policy was a failure in Porto, however, where the Christian nobility revolted and seized control of the town, defeated a royal expedition at the battle of Vieira do Minho and held the city for several months before another expedition was sent against them. The rebel army was beaten in the field as the Granadans crossed the Douro and the city sent word asking for help from the King of Portugal. The surrender of the city to Portugal was a fait accompli; Muhammad did not want to risk losing any of his colonies and resigned himself to the city's loss. The union with the crown of Asturias in 1620 extended Portuguese power further.
The expanding colonies in the West Indies served Granada well in 1614 when the Aztec Emperor Ocelopan Abdullah called for help in a war against the Mayans and Tlaxcalans. Wary of the trouble that had been caused for his grandfather, Muhammad avoided any movement in the direction of calling a jihad and went to war simply in the name of honouring his alliances. Troops were now able to be raised on the island of Cuba itself as well as transported more quickly across the Atlantic, but nevertheless the war proved very costly to Granada's finances. The influential nobles agitated against the war and used this as an excuse to try and win more or less feudal privileges in some cases. In 1617 when the King attempted to levy extra taxes, a gathering of provincial governors met and refused to obey, citing both legal and relgious reasons for their defiance. Faced with this, Muhammad opted for his usual policy of playing off one side against the other: he backed down over taxation, but invited the governors to join with him in denouncing various magnates whose schemes threatened both their authority and that of the royal government. The so-called Red List was produced and some important nobles, both Muslim and Christian, were arrested and executed. The war drew to a close the following year with Mayan defeat gaining Granada important footholds in Central America on the edge of their territory.
Two more minor wars followed. In the first, Granadan troops became involved in a Catalan - Castilian conflict: Barcelona was captured but the war soon simply ground to a halt without any major shifts in the balance of power. The second followed a successful rebellion in the Atlas Mountains by Berber tribal chiefs against the Ottoman bey in Algiers, led by Moulay Nasruddin. Granada sent an emissary to them, but for reasons which are not altogether clear the mission went badly and in 1623 the rebels returned the severed heads of the delegation. This provoked outrage, and Granada sent troops into the mountains to besiege and capture the stronghold of Moulay Nasruddin. After several weeks of siege it fell, and the Berber leaders were captured and executed as bandits. Despite a rising the following year, Granada remained in firm control of the region.
Towards the end of Muhammad's reign, contact seemed to be lost with the Central American colony of Matagalba which had been established after the Mayan war. It was later discovered a native attack had wiped out the entire settlement. Relations with the native peoples had until this point been good, but this situation was to change. A punitive expedition left Cuba commanded by Idris bin Idris in 1643. Over the next few months his troops indiscriminately attacked native settlements: at least 1,500 were killed and a similar number captured and sold into slavery. A new colony was established in 1645, defended by several hundred troops.
As you may have guessed, I'm concentrating on the Centralisation and Free Trade sliders now, while slowly colonising the West Indies. The Iberian penninsula is fairly quiet for the moment and I decide to send a Missionary to Oporto. What happens to the mission will determine what I do next - Navarre, which was still owned by Asturias has revolted away and captured their other province. There is no way that Asturias, because it has such a small navy, will ever get it back, but because Navarre has no ports, they can't build any ships and attack Galicia, so the war will go on and on forever with no battles actually fought, but an occupied province keeping it going. Before long, Havana has our first colonial city, Diyar al Mu'minin (which I hope is Arabic for "abodes of the faithful") and after a burned trading post setback, colonisation of Cuba continues. The missionary fails and Oporto revolts. What I decide to do is let it leave to tidy up the map: it should defect to Portugal which will then annex one province Asturias. The only expansion I'm going to will be in the direction of Valencia, whose capital is now rebel held again because of their habit of putting their entire army in the Balearic Islands. Sure enough, Porto defects and Portugal now has a border with Asturias.
Meanwhile, having abandoned all my other allies, the Aztecs ask for help against the Maya and I send some men from Cuba and across the Atlantic. Again, attrition and combats against huge armies take their toll, but after a while we've done sufficient damage to force them to surrender - the Aztecs get a couple of provinces and I get a city in Honduras and a colony in Costa Rica - the Maya must have had a random conquistador at some point. An Explorer, Adrar, appears in 1619 who can be used to fill in some of those annoying dark blobs in the stolen Portuguese maps - and speaking of the Portuguese they diplo-annex one province Asturias in 1620. The war with the Maya cost loads of money and we got no indemnities. No wonder there was a political crisis.
Abroad, can you believe it - the government of Austria collapses! Hungary and Bohemia both declare independence, and Bohemia is rather large and has a CoT. Looks like the Catholics just lost the 30 years war in this alternate history! Not long afterwards the Netherlands forms. I slow down colonisation to save up for a Refinery in Andalusia, which gets completed in 1625. Algeria is always rebelling against the Ottoman Empire. Before long, the two mountain provinces have declared independence and the OE invades them. They capture one but their army attritions away so it's too small to capture the other. While this is happening I find myself getting involved in another Castillian-Catalan war but in the end take some money and walk away. During the war I get a Diplomatic Insult from the new Algeria and decide to use it as an excuse to grab some more territory and declare war on them.
Can a colony be massacred? I thought that only happened to traders... anyway, my colony in Nicaragua is wiped out. I cull the natives and send in more colonists, the second attempt succeeding. The rest of Spain goes to war again and the OE and Austria carve up Hungary.
The rider dismounted and bowed before the governor of the Frontiers of Fez, Ali Ibn Khawajah. He was obviously unhappy about something.
"A rider on a camel came out of the desert yesterday," he said, "and brought news from Moulay Nadruddin in the mountains, the enemy of the Turks..."
He seemed reluctant to speak.
"Tell me the news," the official replied, beginning to suspect it was not good.
"He brought with him a sack. He spoke some words and then rode away before we could converse with him."
"A sack?"
"At first," said the messenger, "we hoped that it contained gifts of some kind. That it might be a way of showing that... but no, it did not."
"What was in the sack?" asked Ali Ibn Khawajah
"A terrible thing, sir, a terrible thing!" came the reply, "In the sack were nine severed heads. The head of our emissaries, all of them, God have mercy upon them, I hope their deaths were not painful..."
"You are saying," the other said, "that Moulay Nasruddin has murdered them all?"
The messenger nodded.
"These were good men. Well liked and favoured by the King. He will be angry. Many people will be angry, and their anger will fall on the head of this bandit in the mountains! Ride on to Fez, and publish the news. Make sure everyone hears."
Ali Ibn Khawajah turned away. The messenger was given a fresh horse and did as he was instructed.
Muhammad XIV ascended his grandfather's throne at the age of twenty three, two years after his father's death and his reign was to last almost fifty years. Throughout his long reign he struggled to centralise power at the expense of local governors, often playing them off against the merchant class in the cities, always making sure no-one but himself ended up with their authority enhanced. The policy was a failure in Porto, however, where the Christian nobility revolted and seized control of the town, defeated a royal expedition at the battle of Vieira do Minho and held the city for several months before another expedition was sent against them. The rebel army was beaten in the field as the Granadans crossed the Douro and the city sent word asking for help from the King of Portugal. The surrender of the city to Portugal was a fait accompli; Muhammad did not want to risk losing any of his colonies and resigned himself to the city's loss. The union with the crown of Asturias in 1620 extended Portuguese power further.
The expanding colonies in the West Indies served Granada well in 1614 when the Aztec Emperor Ocelopan Abdullah called for help in a war against the Mayans and Tlaxcalans. Wary of the trouble that had been caused for his grandfather, Muhammad avoided any movement in the direction of calling a jihad and went to war simply in the name of honouring his alliances. Troops were now able to be raised on the island of Cuba itself as well as transported more quickly across the Atlantic, but nevertheless the war proved very costly to Granada's finances. The influential nobles agitated against the war and used this as an excuse to try and win more or less feudal privileges in some cases. In 1617 when the King attempted to levy extra taxes, a gathering of provincial governors met and refused to obey, citing both legal and relgious reasons for their defiance. Faced with this, Muhammad opted for his usual policy of playing off one side against the other: he backed down over taxation, but invited the governors to join with him in denouncing various magnates whose schemes threatened both their authority and that of the royal government. The so-called Red List was produced and some important nobles, both Muslim and Christian, were arrested and executed. The war drew to a close the following year with Mayan defeat gaining Granada important footholds in Central America on the edge of their territory.
Two more minor wars followed. In the first, Granadan troops became involved in a Catalan - Castilian conflict: Barcelona was captured but the war soon simply ground to a halt without any major shifts in the balance of power. The second followed a successful rebellion in the Atlas Mountains by Berber tribal chiefs against the Ottoman bey in Algiers, led by Moulay Nasruddin. Granada sent an emissary to them, but for reasons which are not altogether clear the mission went badly and in 1623 the rebels returned the severed heads of the delegation. This provoked outrage, and Granada sent troops into the mountains to besiege and capture the stronghold of Moulay Nasruddin. After several weeks of siege it fell, and the Berber leaders were captured and executed as bandits. Despite a rising the following year, Granada remained in firm control of the region.
Towards the end of Muhammad's reign, contact seemed to be lost with the Central American colony of Matagalba which had been established after the Mayan war. It was later discovered a native attack had wiped out the entire settlement. Relations with the native peoples had until this point been good, but this situation was to change. A punitive expedition left Cuba commanded by Idris bin Idris in 1643. Over the next few months his troops indiscriminately attacked native settlements: at least 1,500 were killed and a similar number captured and sold into slavery. A new colony was established in 1645, defended by several hundred troops.
As you may have guessed, I'm concentrating on the Centralisation and Free Trade sliders now, while slowly colonising the West Indies. The Iberian penninsula is fairly quiet for the moment and I decide to send a Missionary to Oporto. What happens to the mission will determine what I do next - Navarre, which was still owned by Asturias has revolted away and captured their other province. There is no way that Asturias, because it has such a small navy, will ever get it back, but because Navarre has no ports, they can't build any ships and attack Galicia, so the war will go on and on forever with no battles actually fought, but an occupied province keeping it going. Before long, Havana has our first colonial city, Diyar al Mu'minin (which I hope is Arabic for "abodes of the faithful") and after a burned trading post setback, colonisation of Cuba continues. The missionary fails and Oporto revolts. What I decide to do is let it leave to tidy up the map: it should defect to Portugal which will then annex one province Asturias. The only expansion I'm going to will be in the direction of Valencia, whose capital is now rebel held again because of their habit of putting their entire army in the Balearic Islands. Sure enough, Porto defects and Portugal now has a border with Asturias.
Meanwhile, having abandoned all my other allies, the Aztecs ask for help against the Maya and I send some men from Cuba and across the Atlantic. Again, attrition and combats against huge armies take their toll, but after a while we've done sufficient damage to force them to surrender - the Aztecs get a couple of provinces and I get a city in Honduras and a colony in Costa Rica - the Maya must have had a random conquistador at some point. An Explorer, Adrar, appears in 1619 who can be used to fill in some of those annoying dark blobs in the stolen Portuguese maps - and speaking of the Portuguese they diplo-annex one province Asturias in 1620. The war with the Maya cost loads of money and we got no indemnities. No wonder there was a political crisis.
Abroad, can you believe it - the government of Austria collapses! Hungary and Bohemia both declare independence, and Bohemia is rather large and has a CoT. Looks like the Catholics just lost the 30 years war in this alternate history! Not long afterwards the Netherlands forms. I slow down colonisation to save up for a Refinery in Andalusia, which gets completed in 1625. Algeria is always rebelling against the Ottoman Empire. Before long, the two mountain provinces have declared independence and the OE invades them. They capture one but their army attritions away so it's too small to capture the other. While this is happening I find myself getting involved in another Castillian-Catalan war but in the end take some money and walk away. During the war I get a Diplomatic Insult from the new Algeria and decide to use it as an excuse to grab some more territory and declare war on them.
Can a colony be massacred? I thought that only happened to traders... anyway, my colony in Nicaragua is wiped out. I cull the natives and send in more colonists, the second attempt succeeding. The rest of Spain goes to war again and the OE and Austria carve up Hungary.
wonderful work!I tip my hate for your accomplishments 
