• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Mike von Bek said:
Ooh, you're embracing Ottomanism - very cool! If ever the Ottomans could have reclaimed their original greatness it was during this period.

Im not sure how closely the VIP replicates the increasing nationalistaion of the Balkans, but Id consider just holding onto them until the end of the game a success - but you are aiming much higher :)

Good to see the fall of the Persians! Uppity little buggers...

Lets see how the Eastern Question resolves itself...


Hehe I am not sure that I am going to "conquer" parts of Austria... domination doesn't mean territorial expansion ;)
 
New tides

With the death of the sultan, his son Abd-ul-Mejid was now the new Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. His realm had been slightly enlarged with the addition of some Persian lands under his rule. However a rising Egyptian threat was under way. The new sultan was reminded of his father’s last words once again; "Keep this young Özgun Dormick close to you! He is the future of our Ottoman Empire. Keep him close and the Ottoman Empire shall live another century. Dismiss him and it will fall!"
Picture of Abd-ul-Mejid:

abdul.jpg


With this in his mind Abd-ul-Mejid was ready to receive this Özgun Dormick.

Özgun was pleasantly surprised by the new sultan. After the meeting which largely consisted of cordially given well wishes and such, the real point was that the new Sultan wanted to keep Özgun as Grand Vizier and thought well of his work so far. Özgun was instructed to deal with England who was regarded as an ally against Russian and French hostility in the Egyptian matter. Özgun had to react with great speed in this case. He immediately took to the British consultate in the central quarters of Constantinople. Having bought plenty of gifts for the consul and his lovely wife, Özgun pressed forth for a deal between England and the Ottoman Empire. England wanted free trade for British merchants in Turkey in order to support the Ottomans. Özgun was no opponent against free trade and he saw that in the length this would both strengthen British-Ottoman relations, but also strengthen Ottoman economy. After some discussion a deal was brokered. The Ottomans had to be willing to let the European great powers hold a conference about this Egypt case, but the Ottomans would get the full diplomatic support of the British in this case. De facto it meant that Egypt would have to let go of Syria, Lebanon and Palestine.

English diplomatic offer:


Egyptian insolence:


Özgun knew what the Egyptian and Mehmet Ali’s answer to such a treaty would be. So he told the military staff to prepare for a campaign in West.
In the mean time a revolutionizing change would happen in the Ottoman mindset of conducting war.

This was ridiculous as the Ottoman cavalry would now break much sooner. This was a severe blow in how the wars the Ottoman empire would now be led.

True enough to his predictions, the Egyptians could not tolerate this and therefore a state of war was now between Turkey and Egypt the 20th April 1839.
This is war:


Özgun praised himself lucky that France had decided not to intervene in this war. The European powers did not want to commit any troops to save any Egyptian sovereignty. Özgun had all the time in the world to deal with the Egyptian threat.

However Ottoman manpower was depleted and new had to be recruited. With this in mind Ottoman forces was on the defense till reinforcements could come.
Status of the war:


The first objective of the campaign was to secure Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. Most Egyptian troops were in this area, so the goal was to envelop the Egyptian troops in Syria and Lebanon. The capture of Palestine would make it impossible for the Egyptian troops to receive reinforcements and to break out from this pocket.
We are winning now:


Aside from some minor mistakes the war was going as planned. Egyptian troops had been able to capture an Arabian province, but it had proven a liability rather than an advantage. Ottoman troops progressed on the campaign with steady hand and all over the line, Egyptian troops were fleeing the battlefields.
Surrounded:


After a few months, the Egyptian presence in Minor Asia was gone. Now was for the second phase of the campaign. The elite of the Egyptian troops had been destroyed and the rest would be a sweep.
 
Annexation!
 
All right, near-annexation!

No BB, right?
 
anonymous4401 said:
All right, near-annexation!

No BB, right?

The best thing is to satellite them... Ottoman have claims on nearly the entire Middleeast area, aside from Meccah, Medina and Sinai. Also since Egypt is uncvi, you don't get BB from demanding provinces unless you annex.
 
Oh yeah since the Arabic nationalities in VIP0.4b are split up into different groups. The Ottoman Empire no longer have so many state cultures. Therefore as an European country it cannot build factories in Egypt or North Africa. There is no chance you can get enough Turks to migrate to Northern Africa unfortunatly. Therefore the Empire is pretty limited to a geographical spot in the near Middle-East.
 
BBBD said:
Clamp well fought, after the sattelite of Egypt what will be the next goal?
Hehe the war can still be lost you know ;).

Well... the Ottoman economy is pretty bad... no factories of note... the exports are mainly based on raw goods. But since no machine parts are available on the world market I cannot flaunt them around... also I am primarily researching cultural techs at the moment... I cannot go around building railroads and what not because I haven't gotten the tech yet! So the main goal after the defeat of Egypt (HOPEFULLY... HUBRIS LEADS TO NEMESIS) would be to somewhat stabilize things... Unless of course mr. Dormick decides to go looney and DoW some African state or what not.
 
A General's Dream

Usman Bey was born to a wealthy family in the European part of the Ottoman Empire. His father owned a small olive farm in the province of Edirne. As young he witnessed his country be kept out of European affairs as the Napoleonic wars had waged on without real Ottoman participation. Sure the relations between Imperial France and the Ottoman Empire had been good, but there had never been an alliance between those two.

With Ottoman help the French might have been able to force the Russian bear into defeat, but help was not asked for and therefore not given. The Ottomans were considered a liability rather than an asset in the mind of Napoleon. Usman had experienced the fall of the janissaries and praised this change in how things worked in the Ottoman state. The janissaries had become too much a burden and a reactionary force in an Empire that needed everything else than that.

Usman had joined the Ottoman cavalry forces that had been established shortly after the fall of the Janissaries. An influx of enthusiastic young men had joined along with the them, as they were seen as the main reason for the downfall of the old order.

As young officer cadet in that force Usman had been sent to Tripolitania to get his spurs. There he had witnessed the lack of a central power and a near stalemate in how things were. Nothing were progressing, people didn't work if they didn't have to. You could see most young men sitting on the street cafés drinking Turkish coffee and playing chess all day without doing anything. At night they would go home eat dinner, perhaps have a nice time with their wives and then next day things would be the same. There was no progress only the dullness of the desert wind coming from the big Sahara desert in the south.

Usman finally got his officer title in 1828 and was sent back to serve in the Bulgarian Army as a captain.
 
The end to the beginning

As the first part of the Egyptian campaign was over the time was now to launch an invasion into Egypt itself. Despite the regular Egyptian infantry formations had by now been destroyed, there was still some few irregular Egyptian divisions left to defend the Egyptian heartland.

Özgun had made it clear from the start that the objective of this war was not to dismantle the Egyptian state, but to make it loyal once again to the Ottoman Empire. Also the subjects of Palestine and Syria was to be brought under Ottoman rule instead. Another goal came into Özgun's mind as the campaign progressed. An Ottoman occupation of Meccah and Medina would perhaps calm some of the muslim voices in Ottoman Turkey. It would certainly please the clergy who was the prime factor in educating the Ottoman population.
The islands of Cyprus and Crete was also important objectives but so was a door into the interior of Africa where the vast continent just waited to be claimed.

However first this had to be taken care of.


Of course Özgun could not let the Europeans find a solution now. To do that would be to recognize Egypt as an equal. That was not to be. Egypt was and would always be an subordinate to the Ottoman Empire. That was one of the most important goals for this campaign to fulfill.



After some months of fighting, Ottoman troops had finally breaken into the capital of Egypt.

From there it was a matter of mere months, before the Egyptians finally decided on a peace treaty. Egypt was to recognize the Ottoman Empire as superior negotiator on foreign matters. It was to hand over the control and administration of Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and the Muslim sacred lands. It was to hand over 2 provinces opening for Ottoman expansion into the African interior to Ottoman control. The islands of Cyprus and Crete was to remain under Egyptian administration.

Final peace:
 
Not to be the bearer of bad news, but actually if you had taken choice A in the European intervention and the Egyptians refused deal (which is the A choice both times it is offered to them) a short war breaks out that in the end results in EGY accepting the treaty. You would have received not only all the land you got in Syria, Palestine and arabia, but also Crete, Cyprus and EGY would have become your satellite.

Oh well, so much for what was behind door #1 :D

EDIT - misread that you still made EGY a satellite. you got most of the benefits then.
 
OHgamer said:
Not to be the bearer of bad news, but actually if you had taken choice A in the European intervention and the Egyptians refused deal (which is the A choice both times it is offered to them) a short war breaks out that in the end results in EGY accepting the treaty. You would have received not only all the land you got in Syria, Palestine and arabia, but also Crete, Cyprus and EGY would have become your satellite.

Oh well, so much for what was behind door #1 :D

EDIT - misread that you still made EGY a satellite. you got most of the benefits then.
Ah yeah, but I also got two egyptian heartland provinces instead of those two small islands!
 
clamp2004 said:
Ah yeah, but I also got two egyptian heartland provinces instead of those two small islands!

Ah I missed those. Clever, and now that Egypt is your "bitch-boy" as a satellite there won't be much worry about need for defense.
 
An army with no war to fight

Having won the war against Egypt, Özgun's power in court was firmly secured under the new Sultan. The main step for developing the Ottoman empire into a modern state was now done. However becoming a modern state was not enough. Özgun wanted to secure the Ottoman Empire its place in the sun. The vastness of the African continent was incomphrehensible to mere mortals. The jungles... the vast desert of Sahara, the savannahs. There were plenty of resources and land in Africa for any state that would lay claim to the area. A control of Africa would mean that a country's place in the sun would be secured for centuries to come.
However there was still plenty of oppurtunities that the Ottoman army could be used on. They could also strive for dominance on the Arabian peninsula. Or they could force try annex the sattelite state of Tunis.
The state of the Ottoman economy was pretty good after the war with Egypt. The renewed trust in Ottoman economy led to many academic circles to be found. Most notable of these were the school of Constantinople that was a philosophical movement disputing the necesity of religion in issues such as morality and consciouness.


Özgun judged that the importance of Africa could not be neglected and decided to bring the King of Abysinnia under Ottoman jurisdiction.

A new ride
The main Ottoman cavalry army was still in Egypt and riding towards the Sinai, when Usman Bey the commander of the armies saw a courier hastily riding towards him. Before the courier even started speaking, Usman instantly knew that he and his army would be needed once more. They would be needed in service to their country once more.
The kingdom of Abysinnia was to be subjected to Ottoman supremacy.

The cavalry army of the Ottoman empire turned back to the south under the leadership of Usman.

Somewhere in Bulgaria a notable composer showed up writing a magnificent tune of marching melody to the Ottoman army:


Meanwhile the Ottoman military staff would be formed by this military doctrine:


Oh no how terrible! The cavalry armies of the Ottoman empire would now break much more often! Instead of glory and trying to break the opponents morale, war had become much more dirty. Hastily Özgun decided this would be offset by building 5 new artillery divisions.

The war against Abysinnia was supposed to be an easy one. It was. Abysinnian military power was by no means as nearly modernized as the Ottoman. Ottoman rifles were far superior to the pikes and bows that the Abysinnian military used. Only in some occassions did the Abysinnians have cannons or smaller firearms at disposal and they could not utilize them to much effect. Against this came the newly formed cavalry army of the Ottoman empire, employing handguns, modern cavalry charges and tactics. The Abysinnians never had a chance.
In the ending days of year 1843 Abyssinia was annexed by the Ottoman empire:

 
Clamp, this is one of those scenarios I'd always wanted to try. I'll be watching!

Rensslaer