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Hmmmm.... I'm not sure I want any of the "masochistic options". I'd like a challenge but also one where I have reasonable prospects for "winning".
You always have a chance of victory... you just have to play your cards right. Not like Vinland would be most logical nation if you want to conquer the world? Still, you are currently doing it
*LOL*
Good point! I could probably play ten games as Vinland after this one and not even come half as close to world conquest as I am this time.
Good point! I could probably play ten games as Vinland after this one and not even come half as close to world conquest as I am this time.
Hey, look at me... Sicily is not the best nation to play as well, but still, after 60 years of play i have Italy and most of Northern Africa. Not bad for a poor 2-province island It just takes a bit of luck and a bit of skill, and you have a winner.
It just takes a bit of luck and a bit of skill, and you have a winner.
I propose a Hurra for Vinland!
[standing ovation] Hurra!!! [/standing ovation]
Great AAR and great work
[standing ovation] Hurra!!! [/standing ovation]
Great AAR and great work
I'm here. In fact I just logged on to post an update schedule of sorts. I haven't been able to write any updates but I've played through to 1764. It's slow going with all the BB wars, and consequent crashes. Anyway, I'm going to try to play through to the end and then write up the last century, probably in three installments. If I don't grit my teeth and just get through the incessant crash cycles I don't think I'll ever finish!
Hmmmm... Of course that is amenable to change. I might also decide that the "War of Habsburg Betrayal" is a story that simply has to be told.
In fact I just logged on to post an update schedule of sorts. I haven't been able to write any updates but I've played through to 1764. It's slow going with all the BB wars, and consequent crashes. Anyway, I'm going to try to play through to the end and then write up the last century, probably in three installments. If I don't grit my teeth and just get through the incessant crash cycles I don't think I'll ever finish!Hmmmm... Of course that is amenable to change. I might also decide that the "War of Habsburg Betrayal" is a story that simply has to be told.
Olaf, that truly sounds as an intresting story, so don't hesitate, give us at least one installment
A suggestion, Olaf: slow your game speed down to prevent crashes. Also, if you don't have a program you can use to recover RAM (I do, and I've only ever had one crash ), you might want to reboot before you start playing.
), you might want to reboot before you start playing.
Yes that sounds like a great story, nothing like betrayal to boost up the audience.
Hope you put an installment soon, and good luck.
Hope you put an installment soon, and good luck.
Well I finally finished a 300 year IGC! Strangely enough I didn't have any crashes in the last 15-20 years of the game. Of course there were also fewer countries around to stress the computer's memory. I wonder how that happened? Anyway, I should at least have one or two intallments by this time tomorrow.
Strangely enough I didn't have any crashes in the last 15-20 years of the game. Of course there were also fewer countries around to stress the computer's memory. I wonder how that happened? Anyway, I should at least have one or two intallments by this time tomorrow.
Sharur's suggestion is a good one. Reboot to clear ram, but then go in and close down all programs except explorer, system and your video card driver. Might make it run smoother for you.
The language of war
In the spring of 1693 Aud and I went to the market district in Vaestervik, more to admire the wide selection of wares from all around the world than to actually buy anything. While we were there she turned to me with a quizzical look on her face. “Do you hear that?” she asked.
“Hear what? I hear people haggling and hawking goods. What else is there to hear?”
She smiled and said, “I’ll tell you later. Once we got home she asked, “What language did you hear people speaking in the market?”
I thought about it for a moment and started to answer. Then I realized that what I was hearing was a mixture of at least four languages, Old Norse, English, German, and French with several more languages and dialects contributing a word here and a phrase there. I shook my head and said, “I don’t know! It seems our people are in the process of developing a new language from the languages of their fathers and mothers.”
Aud smiled, nodded and said, ‘Exactly! We’ve never stayed in one place long enough to hear this happen before.” She was right of course. We left Dublin in the 870s and in all the years that followed we rarely stayed in one place for more than 30 years. We returned and found that the language had already changed but never did we stay put long enough to observe the change in progress much less participate in it.
By 1694 our Russian allies were chomping at the bit. The Russian ambassador informed us that the Czarina wanted to settle accounts with the Turks. Sophia was a foolish woman. Russia was in no way ready for a long war. We pledged our support to keep the alliance intact and knew that we were in for another round of wars. We were right. Thankfully we had had time to admit Hungary to our alliance and to accept their fealty.
The war with Turkey allowed us to conquer Samaria and Lebanon. Somehow the Russians managed to conquer Syria. In the meantime Persia had set aside her religious animus and entered the war on the side of the Sunni Turks. We relieved them of Basra and Awhaz. Sweden and Poland both entered the fray as well. Poland surrendered Krakow and Carpathia, which gave us a common border with Hungary. Sweden made some gains at Russia’s expense but we erased those gains with the treaty of Novgorod under which Sweden was left with Svealand and Finland. France and Spain showed uncharacteristic restraint and stayed out of the fray.
The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Novgorod on October 16, 1696. At the ceremony in Vaestervik I took notice of King Torkel’s age, and noted with sudden alarm that he had no sons! In fact he only had one surviving daughter who was married to a Swedish Prince by the name of Johan. To make matters worse Johan was only ten years younger than our aging King Torkel. Princess Kirstin was only 34 but she and Johan also had no sons! The monarchy would soon face a crisis and then might well face another in short order. After the signing I invited Olaf and Jane over for dinner, drinks, and a conference. Jane, having reigned as Queen of England, saw no reason why Kirstin could not reign as queen. I agreed in theory but pointed out that a queen had never ruled Vinland. I pointed out that the Vinthing might well look for another king especially since Johan was a Swede. At the end of the evening we decided to confer with Johan.
When the four of us met with Johan and Kirstin and explained the situation Aud hinted that the question of Johan’s loyalty might be the unspoken question in the Vinthing. Johan snorted and said, “The Church of Sweden annulled my marriage to Kirstin. My family long along declared that any claim I might have had to the throne was forfeit. Besides, Sweden is a much easier conquest for Vinland than Vinland is for Sweden!” At a holiday reception attended by the leading members of the Vinthing he publicly insulted the Swedish ambassador and faced only limited opposition when his father in law died two years later. We heaved a sigh of relief though it was the first time in over five hundred years that a king had received anything less than a unanimous endorsement from the Vinthing. We imagined we had saved the monarchy. The truth is we were watching its ever-accelerating decline.
Johan did prove to be an able monarch. He was a skilled diplomat and on balance he was probably a more capable king than Aesgir the Great. Aesgir had the advantage of taking Vinland from the status of forgotten outpost to world power and so his deeds seem larger, and in many respects they are. Still, Johan probably added two or three times as much square mileage and up to five times the population to Vinland as Aesgir did. History probably owes him a “the Great” after his name as well.
Johan started by annexing Hungary in 1704. We had large forces built up and moved them in to garrison that strategically important country. In that same year he managed to get the Habsburgs to swear fealty as well. We anticipated adding Austria and Bohemia to the Greater Vinalnd Union in short order. In the meantime, however we had to settle accounts with Spain. Once again they had placed an embargo on goods from Vinland in their trade centers of Andalusia and Magallenes. On March 2, 1705 we declared war on Spain once again. Within a year we had wrested Andalusia and Guatemala from them. In the meantime of course the world had expressed its outrage at us so our Austrian, Dutch, and Russian allies and we once again stood against the usual enemies.
Persia ceded Tabriz and Persipolis while Turkey yielded Aleppo. We occupied all of Portugal and, after signing the Treaty of Rome with Spain we sailed two forces to the Azores and the Cape Verde Islands. With that Portugal and her colonial empire (which consisted of trade posts) were annexed in their entirety. That coup only came after we had also relieved Poland of two more provinces and taken Oporto and Lyonnais from France.
After signing the decree whereby we annexed Portugal Johan looked up at me and said, “I want one final war, a war to end all wars. I want to show the world once and for all that making war upon Vinland is folly at best and suicide at worst. I also want to be able to will my homeland to my children.” It would not be the war to end all wars but he would have the opportunity to a wage a war that would demonstrate what he said and conquer more territory than had been conquered by anyone since Genghis Khan.
In the spring of 1693 Aud and I went to the market district in Vaestervik, more to admire the wide selection of wares from all around the world than to actually buy anything. While we were there she turned to me with a quizzical look on her face. “Do you hear that?” she asked.
“Hear what? I hear people haggling and hawking goods. What else is there to hear?”
She smiled and said, “I’ll tell you later. Once we got home she asked, “What language did you hear people speaking in the market?”
I thought about it for a moment and started to answer. Then I realized that what I was hearing was a mixture of at least four languages, Old Norse, English, German, and French with several more languages and dialects contributing a word here and a phrase there. I shook my head and said, “I don’t know! It seems our people are in the process of developing a new language from the languages of their fathers and mothers.”
Aud smiled, nodded and said, ‘Exactly! We’ve never stayed in one place long enough to hear this happen before.” She was right of course. We left Dublin in the 870s and in all the years that followed we rarely stayed in one place for more than 30 years. We returned and found that the language had already changed but never did we stay put long enough to observe the change in progress much less participate in it.
By 1694 our Russian allies were chomping at the bit. The Russian ambassador informed us that the Czarina wanted to settle accounts with the Turks. Sophia was a foolish woman. Russia was in no way ready for a long war. We pledged our support to keep the alliance intact and knew that we were in for another round of wars. We were right. Thankfully we had had time to admit Hungary to our alliance and to accept their fealty.
The war with Turkey allowed us to conquer Samaria and Lebanon. Somehow the Russians managed to conquer Syria. In the meantime Persia had set aside her religious animus and entered the war on the side of the Sunni Turks. We relieved them of Basra and Awhaz. Sweden and Poland both entered the fray as well. Poland surrendered Krakow and Carpathia, which gave us a common border with Hungary. Sweden made some gains at Russia’s expense but we erased those gains with the treaty of Novgorod under which Sweden was left with Svealand and Finland. France and Spain showed uncharacteristic restraint and stayed out of the fray.
The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Novgorod on October 16, 1696. At the ceremony in Vaestervik I took notice of King Torkel’s age, and noted with sudden alarm that he had no sons! In fact he only had one surviving daughter who was married to a Swedish Prince by the name of Johan. To make matters worse Johan was only ten years younger than our aging King Torkel. Princess Kirstin was only 34 but she and Johan also had no sons! The monarchy would soon face a crisis and then might well face another in short order. After the signing I invited Olaf and Jane over for dinner, drinks, and a conference. Jane, having reigned as Queen of England, saw no reason why Kirstin could not reign as queen. I agreed in theory but pointed out that a queen had never ruled Vinland. I pointed out that the Vinthing might well look for another king especially since Johan was a Swede. At the end of the evening we decided to confer with Johan.
When the four of us met with Johan and Kirstin and explained the situation Aud hinted that the question of Johan’s loyalty might be the unspoken question in the Vinthing. Johan snorted and said, “The Church of Sweden annulled my marriage to Kirstin. My family long along declared that any claim I might have had to the throne was forfeit. Besides, Sweden is a much easier conquest for Vinland than Vinland is for Sweden!” At a holiday reception attended by the leading members of the Vinthing he publicly insulted the Swedish ambassador and faced only limited opposition when his father in law died two years later. We heaved a sigh of relief though it was the first time in over five hundred years that a king had received anything less than a unanimous endorsement from the Vinthing. We imagined we had saved the monarchy. The truth is we were watching its ever-accelerating decline.
Johan did prove to be an able monarch. He was a skilled diplomat and on balance he was probably a more capable king than Aesgir the Great. Aesgir had the advantage of taking Vinland from the status of forgotten outpost to world power and so his deeds seem larger, and in many respects they are. Still, Johan probably added two or three times as much square mileage and up to five times the population to Vinland as Aesgir did. History probably owes him a “the Great” after his name as well.
Johan started by annexing Hungary in 1704. We had large forces built up and moved them in to garrison that strategically important country. In that same year he managed to get the Habsburgs to swear fealty as well. We anticipated adding Austria and Bohemia to the Greater Vinalnd Union in short order. In the meantime, however we had to settle accounts with Spain. Once again they had placed an embargo on goods from Vinland in their trade centers of Andalusia and Magallenes. On March 2, 1705 we declared war on Spain once again. Within a year we had wrested Andalusia and Guatemala from them. In the meantime of course the world had expressed its outrage at us so our Austrian, Dutch, and Russian allies and we once again stood against the usual enemies.
Persia ceded Tabriz and Persipolis while Turkey yielded Aleppo. We occupied all of Portugal and, after signing the Treaty of Rome with Spain we sailed two forces to the Azores and the Cape Verde Islands. With that Portugal and her colonial empire (which consisted of trade posts) were annexed in their entirety. That coup only came after we had also relieved Poland of two more provinces and taken Oporto and Lyonnais from France.
After signing the decree whereby we annexed Portugal Johan looked up at me and said, “I want one final war, a war to end all wars. I want to show the world once and for all that making war upon Vinland is folly at best and suicide at worst. I also want to be able to will my homeland to my children.” It would not be the war to end all wars but he would have the opportunity to a wage a war that would demonstrate what he said and conquer more territory than had been conquered by anyone since Genghis Khan.
The War to end all Wars (and the one after)
Johan’s desire to fight one last war “to end all wars” would wait for several years as we recruited forces in Europe and in Asia. In our own hemisphere we were remarkably secure. In some respects we were almost too secure. During the period from 1700-1740 we dealt with no fewer than six revolts in the homeland, usually over religion, or with religion as a convenient excuse for an ambitious noble or a rabble rouser. Rarely did the forces on hand seem adequate and we gradually came to field a larger army than we needed in our home provinces. Of course it didn’t matter. In 1709 the First Lord of the Admirality, a Englishman by the name of Mowbray informed us that our navy was the most modern in the world and that further spending on naval technology would be an extravagant waste since nothing remained to be invented. We had received similar assurances from the Minister of War a few years earlier. Now all income went directly to the treasury and we had an enormous financial advantage. We suffered no inflation as we always had a new province in which to appoint a governor.
When Lord Mowbray informed Johan that everything that could be invented had been invented Aud waited until we were alone and snorted, “I hope that statement gets recorded for history! It will be good for a laugh in a few hundred years when people fly in giant steel tubes.” I looked at her and shook my head, yet I’d seen enough if her far-fetched predictions come true to know better than to argue with her.
In 1710 we launched our “war to end all wars” by declaring war on Persia in retaliation for a trade embargo. We had allied with China in hopes not of receiving their support but of watching them dishonor their alliance to us, thereby giving us a casus belli on them. They did join us in our declaration on Persia. Of course in the end they would prove my judgment correct but it would take several years.
The war with Persia went almost according to plan and they were annexed within a year and a half. Our Dutch allies did secure the province of Lut simply by occupying it last. It was hardly of any great consequence. Sweden joined the fray and proved difficult to subdue. They had mighty fortresses in Ingermanland and Nyland that took several years to besiege. In the end they fell to us and allowed Johan to claim the crown of his homeland when Sweden was annexed in 1713.
Spain and France each declared war and lost provinces in the usual manner but it was Poland that surprised me. They declared war in April of 1712. I expected to nibble a few provinces from them as usual but with the job they had been doing taking provinces from Turkey in the Balkans I certainly did not expect to annex them outright. Within a year it appeared we were poised to do just that. In May of 1714 we annexed all of Poland including the rich provinces in Ukraine as well as several provinces in the Balkans.
China had long since dishonored her alliance but rather than risk diverting our attention too much in yet another theatre we simply resigned them to the alliance and waited. We wouldn’t wait long.
When the war ended with the annexation of Poland on May 18, 1714 we sent 250,000d to princess Marta, Johan and Kirstin’s daughter in Vienna to facilitate “cultural exchange”. What we really had in mind was the annexation of the Habsburg state. That ambition was frustrated on July 12, 1714 with the outbreak of the War of the Habsburg Betrayal. Marta was tried for treason and executed as Austria dissolved the alliance and declared war. Peter the Great of Russia and the Stadtholder of the Netherlands expressed outrage. The emperor of China sent apologies for his inability to assist and broke their alliance. Johan, bereaved and enraged as he was did not need any prompting to declare war on China. The War of the Habsburg betrayal lasted four years. It could have ended much sooner but Johan was intent on punishing Austria as severely as possible. We besieged provinces we knew we didn’t even want in the settlement simply to watch them burn.
By 1716 there were protests against the war in the streets of Vaestervik. By 1718 the chants of “1-2-3-4 we don’t want your #$%^ war! 5-6-7-8 the king will have to abdicate!” had given way to actual revolts in provinces where it would have been unthinkable earlier.
It fell to me to go to Johan and tell him that the war, now being referred to as “The War of Johan’s Spleen” among our people had to end. “Your majesty, we must conclude a peace treaty with Austria and China. I suggest we demand Da Lat and Da Nang from China and Ansbach and Pressburg from Austria.”
As his eyes filled with tears Johan asked, “If you had lost a daughter to such mean betrayal could you accept two provinces from her murderers in compensation?”
I sighed and considered my words carefully, “Sire…. Do you imagine Marta would prefer you accept two provinces or lose the crown?”
With that the tears welled and spilled. He grabbed the crown from his head and threw it with all his might. “If I could trade that %^$& piece of metal for Marta I would! Before you say it… I know I can’t. I will console myself with the knowledge that I will be with her soon and sign the peace treaty.”
He died two years later and was buried beside his beloved daughter in Vaestervik Abbey. When the Vinthing met to choose his successor they passed over his surviving daughters and their husbands and chose a mediocre man by the name of Tord Burlow who was a distant cousin to the daughters passed over. His most recent royal ancestor was the Spoon and he was only marginally brighter.
The immediate verdict of history was that Johan was a failure but that verdict was a reaction to a war that became unpopular and was prosecuted anyway. As I have already said it is my opinion that Johan was one of the two greatest kings in Vinland’s history. Later historians have come to the same conclusion. I would be hard pressed if I had to say which king was the greater.
Johan’s desire to fight one last war “to end all wars” would wait for several years as we recruited forces in Europe and in Asia. In our own hemisphere we were remarkably secure. In some respects we were almost too secure. During the period from 1700-1740 we dealt with no fewer than six revolts in the homeland, usually over religion, or with religion as a convenient excuse for an ambitious noble or a rabble rouser. Rarely did the forces on hand seem adequate and we gradually came to field a larger army than we needed in our home provinces. Of course it didn’t matter. In 1709 the First Lord of the Admirality, a Englishman by the name of Mowbray informed us that our navy was the most modern in the world and that further spending on naval technology would be an extravagant waste since nothing remained to be invented. We had received similar assurances from the Minister of War a few years earlier. Now all income went directly to the treasury and we had an enormous financial advantage. We suffered no inflation as we always had a new province in which to appoint a governor.
When Lord Mowbray informed Johan that everything that could be invented had been invented Aud waited until we were alone and snorted, “I hope that statement gets recorded for history! It will be good for a laugh in a few hundred years when people fly in giant steel tubes.” I looked at her and shook my head, yet I’d seen enough if her far-fetched predictions come true to know better than to argue with her.
In 1710 we launched our “war to end all wars” by declaring war on Persia in retaliation for a trade embargo. We had allied with China in hopes not of receiving their support but of watching them dishonor their alliance to us, thereby giving us a casus belli on them. They did join us in our declaration on Persia. Of course in the end they would prove my judgment correct but it would take several years.
The war with Persia went almost according to plan and they were annexed within a year and a half. Our Dutch allies did secure the province of Lut simply by occupying it last. It was hardly of any great consequence. Sweden joined the fray and proved difficult to subdue. They had mighty fortresses in Ingermanland and Nyland that took several years to besiege. In the end they fell to us and allowed Johan to claim the crown of his homeland when Sweden was annexed in 1713.
Spain and France each declared war and lost provinces in the usual manner but it was Poland that surprised me. They declared war in April of 1712. I expected to nibble a few provinces from them as usual but with the job they had been doing taking provinces from Turkey in the Balkans I certainly did not expect to annex them outright. Within a year it appeared we were poised to do just that. In May of 1714 we annexed all of Poland including the rich provinces in Ukraine as well as several provinces in the Balkans.
China had long since dishonored her alliance but rather than risk diverting our attention too much in yet another theatre we simply resigned them to the alliance and waited. We wouldn’t wait long.
When the war ended with the annexation of Poland on May 18, 1714 we sent 250,000d to princess Marta, Johan and Kirstin’s daughter in Vienna to facilitate “cultural exchange”. What we really had in mind was the annexation of the Habsburg state. That ambition was frustrated on July 12, 1714 with the outbreak of the War of the Habsburg Betrayal. Marta was tried for treason and executed as Austria dissolved the alliance and declared war. Peter the Great of Russia and the Stadtholder of the Netherlands expressed outrage. The emperor of China sent apologies for his inability to assist and broke their alliance. Johan, bereaved and enraged as he was did not need any prompting to declare war on China. The War of the Habsburg betrayal lasted four years. It could have ended much sooner but Johan was intent on punishing Austria as severely as possible. We besieged provinces we knew we didn’t even want in the settlement simply to watch them burn.
By 1716 there were protests against the war in the streets of Vaestervik. By 1718 the chants of “1-2-3-4 we don’t want your #$%^ war! 5-6-7-8 the king will have to abdicate!” had given way to actual revolts in provinces where it would have been unthinkable earlier.
It fell to me to go to Johan and tell him that the war, now being referred to as “The War of Johan’s Spleen” among our people had to end. “Your majesty, we must conclude a peace treaty with Austria and China. I suggest we demand Da Lat and Da Nang from China and Ansbach and Pressburg from Austria.”
As his eyes filled with tears Johan asked, “If you had lost a daughter to such mean betrayal could you accept two provinces from her murderers in compensation?”
I sighed and considered my words carefully, “Sire…. Do you imagine Marta would prefer you accept two provinces or lose the crown?”
With that the tears welled and spilled. He grabbed the crown from his head and threw it with all his might. “If I could trade that %^$& piece of metal for Marta I would! Before you say it… I know I can’t. I will console myself with the knowledge that I will be with her soon and sign the peace treaty.”
He died two years later and was buried beside his beloved daughter in Vaestervik Abbey. When the Vinthing met to choose his successor they passed over his surviving daughters and their husbands and chose a mediocre man by the name of Tord Burlow who was a distant cousin to the daughters passed over. His most recent royal ancestor was the Spoon and he was only marginally brighter.
The immediate verdict of history was that Johan was a failure but that verdict was a reaction to a war that became unpopular and was prosecuted anyway. As I have already said it is my opinion that Johan was one of the two greatest kings in Vinland’s history. Later historians have come to the same conclusion. I would be hard pressed if I had to say which king was the greater.
War and Revolution
Beginner historians are generally inclined to write history as if peace is naught but a necessary prelude to war. They treat the brisk four to six year war as if it were the purpose of the preceding twenty years of peace. For the most part they ignore what was, without a doubt, the most brutal period of European history, the period about which I am about to write. Maybe that is because this period gives the lie to the notion that war is glorious.
The fifty years war began in 1725 in the fourth year of Tord Burlow’s reign. It began with Vinland declaring war on Spain over yet another trade embargo. It ended with the fall of the Vinland monarchy. For over fifty years Vinland never knew a full year of peace and in that time Europe never experienced three months of peace. Historians generally get confused trying to sort out when who was at war with whom. I do too and I lived through it. The series of wars fueled by vainglorious and sometimes deranged monarchs left Vinland in a position from which she could have easily conquered the world. In the end she chose a far more glorious national vocation.
The first cycle of wars ended with Vinland humiliating Spain, and devastating what remained of France. In this war, as in every other war in the cycle, Austria came in for special attention and was left with most of her cities in flames. “Remember Marta!” was a battle cry that rang over the battlefields of Central Europe for almost thirty years. That war ended in October 1729. In March of 1730 our troops were once again on the march, this time against Turkey. That war ended with Dubjak and Rumelia being ceded to Vinland and the Uzbeks fully annexed. When the last gun fell silent on the Balkan front in 1733 King Tord begin planning another war against Spain for having the temerity to establish a trading post in Tallahassee. In March of 1734 we declared war on Spain and fought the usual war against the usual European enemies. Although these wars resulted in great gains they were far from glorious. The usual strategy was assembling several siege armies, besieging the enemy’s cities, recruiting more men and feeding them into the sausage grinder. I began to doubt that the conquests were worth the cost in lives, treasure and popular support but Tord would not hear any of it. When I tried to suggest a political solution for the tortured continent Tord simply said, “We must conquer more than the Swede who came before Us!” He was a pompous, vainglorious fool. His only redeeming quality is the fact that his son was worse.
In 1740 the king looked around and realized we didn’t have a casus belli against anyone in Europe, save our Dutch allies who had built a trading post in Tallahassee. The only casus belli we had was against the Empire of the Rising Sun for a trade embargo. Naturally we declared war and set sail with two large forces that went to the north and south of the island chain. The sieges in the Japans dragged on and on with no end in sight. It took four years to wrest the provinces of Kyushu and Honshu from Nippon.
In the meantime of course Europe erupted again. By the time we had wrapped up that series of wars the king was itching to reopen Mascate and Thrace to trade. When we declared war on Turkey in 1750 our Russian and Dutch allies informed us that they were withdrawing from the alliance and that we should expect no aid from them in the future. Tord was outraged and wanted to declare war. I suggested he wait.
On May 3, 1750 as Tord berated a joint session of the Vinthing demanding a declaration of war against Russia and the Netherlands a diplomatic courier came in and gave me a dispatch from The Hague. It was the Netherlands’ declaration of war. I laughed out loud and then held it up to catch the king’s eye. When he paused and I told him what it was he seemed genuinely shocked.
By this time we began to field a more impressive breed of generals. We commissioned Prussians like von Steuben, Poles like Pulaski, and the sons of English émigrés such as Washington, Lee, and Greene. Still, we managed to lose several battles during this period. At one point an Austrian army of 20,000 or so annihilated three of our armies of comparable strength. Of course a great general led that Austrian army. There would be one great and climactic battle between great generals but that would be twenty some years in the future and would effectively end the 50 years war.
By the 1760s our people were restive. I was able to prevent any war from dragging out more than five or six years and so kept actual rebellions to a minimum but in this effort the new king, George Burlow, opposed me. In several cases I negotiated the peace and slipped it in to a stack of papers for George to sign. He never wanted to bother with actually reading anything so it always worked.
When George first came to the throne in 1753 I sensed that he would be catastrophic. I never dreamed he could continue to build an empire and then lose it because his people had grown war weary. In my first meeting with him he announced that he intended to conquer all, “those lands of the unrighteousnessed (sic) sinners… which is our illegitimate right!” He dreamed of finishing the job his father started and conquering Nippon and imagined he would conquer China in one campaign. He also had a special hatred for Russia and Rome as centers of “pompitous (sic) religion and wickedness”. He once told me that he had it on reliable authority that the Czarina Katerina the Great was the great harlot mentioned in the book of Revelation and that the Pope was the Antichrist. He was as dull witted as he was bigoted and it pained me to see him wearing the same crown as Aesgir and Johan. He was the most unworthy king I ever tried to counsel. By 1768 I no longer cared about the wars. We had wrested Novgorod from Russia, annexed Austria and diplomatically annexed Helvetia. We stood completely alone in the world. Had we not also stood astride it like a colossus we would have been in extremis.
On May 4, 1770 I witnessed the last straw. A group of students were protesting our imbecilic king’s latest insane war when a group of soldiers marched onto the University Commons and opened fire. Four students lay dead and several others were wounded. The image forever burned into my mind is of the impossibly young female professor leaning over the body of one of her students and lifting her head with a look of horror on her face. It took many, many years for poor Jane to recover from the shock of seeing her students gunned down by soldiers her husband had once commanded. After that I made contact with a group known as the Sons of Liberty and began plotting the downfall of King George.
In December of 1775 I could sense that the end game had begun for King George. The House of Jarls had agreed to invest the Speaker of the House of Commons with the power to “formulate and execute the fiscal and international policy of Vinland”. The King fumed that it was treason. An orator by the name of Patrick Henry quipped, “If this be treason let us make the most of it!”
From December to July there was an uneasy standoff. Then, On July 4, 1776 the newly styled “Hemispheric Congress” adopted a “Declaration of Deposition” which deposed King George. The King summoned, Henry (“Light Horse Harry”) Lee, the new commander of the Vaestervik garrison and instructed him to arrest the members of the Congress. “I am sorry your majesty. This I cannot do. I have already received orders to arrest your majesty for treason. I choose to obey the orders of the Congress.” In the end I prevailed upon the members of the special court to declare the Burlow family outlaws and effectively banish them rather than become regicides. That choice paid rich dividends within two years.
On October 22, 1778 Nathaniel Greene commanded an army of 35,000 near Novgorod as an army of 45,000 under the command of Alexander Suvarov marched from Moscow. The eight-day battle of Novgorod ended with Greene commanding a force of 11,000… and victorious! As Suvarov limped back to Moscow with nothing but an artillery train of some 55 canon Katarina sent a request for peace in exchange for Pskov and Estonia. We eagerly accepted and thus ended the 50 years war. Vinland would not fight another war in the 18th century. During the next 14 years Vinland adopted a new constitution that only extended full citizenship to those in the western hemisphere. I did not know it but there was a reason for that.
On the occasion of his second inauguration as President in March of 1793 George Washington addressed a joint session of what was now known as the Congress of the United States of Vinland.
“698 years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and possessed of the strength that comes from democratic traditions. In the name of survival we have embraced monarchy, raised the largest armies in world history, become entangled in the European web of alliances and become the greatest empire in world history…” As the crowd roared I beamed with pride. George held his hands up for quiet and continued. “Yet all of our glory threatened something more precious than our power or our standing in the world. It threatened our freedom. While we must acknowledge our debt to those who engineered our rise to power” at this point he looked directly at Aud and me as if to acknowledge us, “we must also recognize that the price of their gift is a great risk of losing liberty again. Large standing armies are not compatible with democracy, neither are alliances with despots. To retain the empire we would need to follow this path. Therefore, in November of the next year the peoples of Europe shall hold an election and choose freely to be admitted as states or to secede. This decision shall be binding…”
As he continued I noticed tears flowing down Aud’s cheeks. I reached over and took her hand and squeezed. She turned and smiled. After the speech I tried to console her and she said, “Oh Ole! You don’t understand. I couldn’t have been more proud of this George if he were my son! Do you remember when we left Dublin? We said we would search the world for a place to call home? We have finally found a people who value freedom more than power. We are home Ole! We are finally home.”
Beginner historians are generally inclined to write history as if peace is naught but a necessary prelude to war. They treat the brisk four to six year war as if it were the purpose of the preceding twenty years of peace. For the most part they ignore what was, without a doubt, the most brutal period of European history, the period about which I am about to write. Maybe that is because this period gives the lie to the notion that war is glorious.
The fifty years war began in 1725 in the fourth year of Tord Burlow’s reign. It began with Vinland declaring war on Spain over yet another trade embargo. It ended with the fall of the Vinland monarchy. For over fifty years Vinland never knew a full year of peace and in that time Europe never experienced three months of peace. Historians generally get confused trying to sort out when who was at war with whom. I do too and I lived through it. The series of wars fueled by vainglorious and sometimes deranged monarchs left Vinland in a position from which she could have easily conquered the world. In the end she chose a far more glorious national vocation.
The first cycle of wars ended with Vinland humiliating Spain, and devastating what remained of France. In this war, as in every other war in the cycle, Austria came in for special attention and was left with most of her cities in flames. “Remember Marta!” was a battle cry that rang over the battlefields of Central Europe for almost thirty years. That war ended in October 1729. In March of 1730 our troops were once again on the march, this time against Turkey. That war ended with Dubjak and Rumelia being ceded to Vinland and the Uzbeks fully annexed. When the last gun fell silent on the Balkan front in 1733 King Tord begin planning another war against Spain for having the temerity to establish a trading post in Tallahassee. In March of 1734 we declared war on Spain and fought the usual war against the usual European enemies. Although these wars resulted in great gains they were far from glorious. The usual strategy was assembling several siege armies, besieging the enemy’s cities, recruiting more men and feeding them into the sausage grinder. I began to doubt that the conquests were worth the cost in lives, treasure and popular support but Tord would not hear any of it. When I tried to suggest a political solution for the tortured continent Tord simply said, “We must conquer more than the Swede who came before Us!” He was a pompous, vainglorious fool. His only redeeming quality is the fact that his son was worse.
In 1740 the king looked around and realized we didn’t have a casus belli against anyone in Europe, save our Dutch allies who had built a trading post in Tallahassee. The only casus belli we had was against the Empire of the Rising Sun for a trade embargo. Naturally we declared war and set sail with two large forces that went to the north and south of the island chain. The sieges in the Japans dragged on and on with no end in sight. It took four years to wrest the provinces of Kyushu and Honshu from Nippon.
In the meantime of course Europe erupted again. By the time we had wrapped up that series of wars the king was itching to reopen Mascate and Thrace to trade. When we declared war on Turkey in 1750 our Russian and Dutch allies informed us that they were withdrawing from the alliance and that we should expect no aid from them in the future. Tord was outraged and wanted to declare war. I suggested he wait.
On May 3, 1750 as Tord berated a joint session of the Vinthing demanding a declaration of war against Russia and the Netherlands a diplomatic courier came in and gave me a dispatch from The Hague. It was the Netherlands’ declaration of war. I laughed out loud and then held it up to catch the king’s eye. When he paused and I told him what it was he seemed genuinely shocked.
By this time we began to field a more impressive breed of generals. We commissioned Prussians like von Steuben, Poles like Pulaski, and the sons of English émigrés such as Washington, Lee, and Greene. Still, we managed to lose several battles during this period. At one point an Austrian army of 20,000 or so annihilated three of our armies of comparable strength. Of course a great general led that Austrian army. There would be one great and climactic battle between great generals but that would be twenty some years in the future and would effectively end the 50 years war.
By the 1760s our people were restive. I was able to prevent any war from dragging out more than five or six years and so kept actual rebellions to a minimum but in this effort the new king, George Burlow, opposed me. In several cases I negotiated the peace and slipped it in to a stack of papers for George to sign. He never wanted to bother with actually reading anything so it always worked.
When George first came to the throne in 1753 I sensed that he would be catastrophic. I never dreamed he could continue to build an empire and then lose it because his people had grown war weary. In my first meeting with him he announced that he intended to conquer all, “those lands of the unrighteousnessed (sic) sinners… which is our illegitimate right!” He dreamed of finishing the job his father started and conquering Nippon and imagined he would conquer China in one campaign. He also had a special hatred for Russia and Rome as centers of “pompitous (sic) religion and wickedness”. He once told me that he had it on reliable authority that the Czarina Katerina the Great was the great harlot mentioned in the book of Revelation and that the Pope was the Antichrist. He was as dull witted as he was bigoted and it pained me to see him wearing the same crown as Aesgir and Johan. He was the most unworthy king I ever tried to counsel. By 1768 I no longer cared about the wars. We had wrested Novgorod from Russia, annexed Austria and diplomatically annexed Helvetia. We stood completely alone in the world. Had we not also stood astride it like a colossus we would have been in extremis.
On May 4, 1770 I witnessed the last straw. A group of students were protesting our imbecilic king’s latest insane war when a group of soldiers marched onto the University Commons and opened fire. Four students lay dead and several others were wounded. The image forever burned into my mind is of the impossibly young female professor leaning over the body of one of her students and lifting her head with a look of horror on her face. It took many, many years for poor Jane to recover from the shock of seeing her students gunned down by soldiers her husband had once commanded. After that I made contact with a group known as the Sons of Liberty and began plotting the downfall of King George.
In December of 1775 I could sense that the end game had begun for King George. The House of Jarls had agreed to invest the Speaker of the House of Commons with the power to “formulate and execute the fiscal and international policy of Vinland”. The King fumed that it was treason. An orator by the name of Patrick Henry quipped, “If this be treason let us make the most of it!”
From December to July there was an uneasy standoff. Then, On July 4, 1776 the newly styled “Hemispheric Congress” adopted a “Declaration of Deposition” which deposed King George. The King summoned, Henry (“Light Horse Harry”) Lee, the new commander of the Vaestervik garrison and instructed him to arrest the members of the Congress. “I am sorry your majesty. This I cannot do. I have already received orders to arrest your majesty for treason. I choose to obey the orders of the Congress.” In the end I prevailed upon the members of the special court to declare the Burlow family outlaws and effectively banish them rather than become regicides. That choice paid rich dividends within two years.
On October 22, 1778 Nathaniel Greene commanded an army of 35,000 near Novgorod as an army of 45,000 under the command of Alexander Suvarov marched from Moscow. The eight-day battle of Novgorod ended with Greene commanding a force of 11,000… and victorious! As Suvarov limped back to Moscow with nothing but an artillery train of some 55 canon Katarina sent a request for peace in exchange for Pskov and Estonia. We eagerly accepted and thus ended the 50 years war. Vinland would not fight another war in the 18th century. During the next 14 years Vinland adopted a new constitution that only extended full citizenship to those in the western hemisphere. I did not know it but there was a reason for that.
On the occasion of his second inauguration as President in March of 1793 George Washington addressed a joint session of what was now known as the Congress of the United States of Vinland.
“698 years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and possessed of the strength that comes from democratic traditions. In the name of survival we have embraced monarchy, raised the largest armies in world history, become entangled in the European web of alliances and become the greatest empire in world history…” As the crowd roared I beamed with pride. George held his hands up for quiet and continued. “Yet all of our glory threatened something more precious than our power or our standing in the world. It threatened our freedom. While we must acknowledge our debt to those who engineered our rise to power” at this point he looked directly at Aud and me as if to acknowledge us, “we must also recognize that the price of their gift is a great risk of losing liberty again. Large standing armies are not compatible with democracy, neither are alliances with despots. To retain the empire we would need to follow this path. Therefore, in November of the next year the peoples of Europe shall hold an election and choose freely to be admitted as states or to secede. This decision shall be binding…”
As he continued I noticed tears flowing down Aud’s cheeks. I reached over and took her hand and squeezed. She turned and smiled. After the speech I tried to console her and she said, “Oh Ole! You don’t understand. I couldn’t have been more proud of this George if he were my son! Do you remember when we left Dublin? We said we would search the world for a place to call home? We have finally found a people who value freedom more than power. We are home Ole! We are finally home.”
Epilogue
It was an altogether pleasant day in April of 1861. I sat with the general in chief of the remarkably small US army at his estate overlooking the new capital city of Washington DE (District of Erickson) with the unfinished white marble Capitol Building. He commanded a grand total of 150,000 men in all locations including the African, Indian and Far Eastern colonies. We were discussing military developments with a professor from the Powhattan Military Institute, a man by the name of Thomas Jackson and sipping lemonade. I’d have preferred mint juleps but the professor was an ardent teetotaler.
Much had happened, yet we had been blissfully oblivious to most of it. I enjoyed the easy life of a gentleman farmer. From time to time I would have a recurring nightmare in which Fannah would plead with me to “Let my people go!” I considered myself a “good” owner. I would manumit my slaves after 20 years of service and would never break up families either by buying or selling. I regarded them more as indentured servants. The general also had slaves who were to be freed upon the death of his wife under the terms of his father-in-law’s will. His father-in-law was the stepson of the great Washington. Of course his father was also the legendary hero of the revolution “Light Horse Harry”.
As we spoke Aud noticed a dispatch rider leaving the White Executive Mansion and pointed. “It looks like he’s in a hurry!”
“It looks like he’s heading this way,” the professor said. “I hope he’s bringing news of war!”
Aud looked at him in horror and asked, “You want war?!?”
The professor raised his hand over his head in a jerky motion and gave the appearance of a child asking to answer the teacher’s question. “As a Christian man of course I do not! As a soldier yes I do! Yes I do!” His blue eyes seemed to flash.
We watched as the rider crossed the bridge and made his way up to the general’s estate. He dismounted and panted, “General Lee… President... President Davis requests … you come to the White House at once! The… The secessionists have fired on Fort Greene in Vaestervik harbor sir!”
General Lee thanked the rider and told him to go inside and get some lemonade. Then he turned to Professor Jackson. “I will request that Governor Fletcher appoint you to command the state militia. I want you to assemble your forces at Harper’s Ferry. Secure the arsenal and raid Tuscaroora if at all possible. We need to win battles early to discourage the English from siding with those people. You will be my right arm general.”
The professor saluted and said, “It will be an honor to serve! May Providence bless our arms.”
As the newly appointed general departed Aud began to cry. “This war will be terrible!” she exclaimed.
General Lee watched “Old Blue Light” Jackson lead his horse from the stable and said, “It is well that war is so terrible, else we should grow too fond of it.”
I thought back to the fifty years war and shuddered as I replied, “Amen.”
It was an altogether pleasant day in April of 1861. I sat with the general in chief of the remarkably small US army at his estate overlooking the new capital city of Washington DE (District of Erickson) with the unfinished white marble Capitol Building. He commanded a grand total of 150,000 men in all locations including the African, Indian and Far Eastern colonies. We were discussing military developments with a professor from the Powhattan Military Institute, a man by the name of Thomas Jackson and sipping lemonade. I’d have preferred mint juleps but the professor was an ardent teetotaler.
Much had happened, yet we had been blissfully oblivious to most of it. I enjoyed the easy life of a gentleman farmer. From time to time I would have a recurring nightmare in which Fannah would plead with me to “Let my people go!” I considered myself a “good” owner. I would manumit my slaves after 20 years of service and would never break up families either by buying or selling. I regarded them more as indentured servants. The general also had slaves who were to be freed upon the death of his wife under the terms of his father-in-law’s will. His father-in-law was the stepson of the great Washington. Of course his father was also the legendary hero of the revolution “Light Horse Harry”.
As we spoke Aud noticed a dispatch rider leaving the White Executive Mansion and pointed. “It looks like he’s in a hurry!”
“It looks like he’s heading this way,” the professor said. “I hope he’s bringing news of war!”
Aud looked at him in horror and asked, “You want war?!?”
The professor raised his hand over his head in a jerky motion and gave the appearance of a child asking to answer the teacher’s question. “As a Christian man of course I do not! As a soldier yes I do! Yes I do!” His blue eyes seemed to flash.
We watched as the rider crossed the bridge and made his way up to the general’s estate. He dismounted and panted, “General Lee… President... President Davis requests … you come to the White House at once! The… The secessionists have fired on Fort Greene in Vaestervik harbor sir!”
General Lee thanked the rider and told him to go inside and get some lemonade. Then he turned to Professor Jackson. “I will request that Governor Fletcher appoint you to command the state militia. I want you to assemble your forces at Harper’s Ferry. Secure the arsenal and raid Tuscaroora if at all possible. We need to win battles early to discourage the English from siding with those people. You will be my right arm general.”
The professor saluted and said, “It will be an honor to serve! May Providence bless our arms.”
As the newly appointed general departed Aud began to cry. “This war will be terrible!” she exclaimed.
General Lee watched “Old Blue Light” Jackson lead his horse from the stable and said, “It is well that war is so terrible, else we should grow too fond of it.”
I thought back to the fifty years war and shuddered as I replied, “Amen.”
Thanks, Olaf, for sharing your story with us. It was a true pleasure to read, and i have enourmously enjoyed Vinland's rise to power.
Could you please post one final screenshot as well showing your land. And could you look up how many of your soldiers have died in these wars?
Thanks again. And one just must wonder, where will Olaf and Aud move next?
Could you please post one final screenshot as well showing your land. And could you look up how many of your soldiers have died in these wars?
Thanks again. And one just must wonder, where will Olaf and Aud move next?