It looks good to me chief but I also get the impression from the content and structure it's still sort of work in progress. I get the sense you could probably shine a light on the internal crises of the Empire. Being perhaps the least or last touched by the Napoleonic fervor there'd be some hard arguments about the British role in Europe in the world at large or the social or political movements from within the eternal tory rule of England or English society at large.
@Pagemaster, Can I have Lord Byron as King of my Greece? I dislike Otto the Barvarian.
Stop being a pussy and embrace the groundwork for any revolution. That's what the RP is going for.
It looks good to me chief but I also get the impression from the content and structure it's still sort of work in progress. I get the sense you could probably shine a light on the internal crises of the Empire. Being perhaps the least or last touched by the Napoleonic fervor there'd be some hard arguments about the British role in Europe in the world at large or the social or political movements from within the eternal tory rule of England or English society at large.
<Snipped quote by Letter Bee>
Stop being a pussy and embrace the groundwork for any revolution. That's what the RP is going for.
Good point; now I need time and inspiration for a nation sheet.
My ASOIAF RP just received some interest after 7 days of neglect, so there is a slim chance I might be getting another game on my plate just when I was getting interested in this one.
Damn my lack of temperance/self-control; I'll keep you all updated later.
The Russo-Persian wars defined the perilous state of the Qajar dynasty at the turn of the 19th century. Territories in the Caucasus traditionally belonging to Iran had swapped hands at the end of the 18th century as the Georgian monarch Erekle II pledged allegiance to Russia instead of the Persians. Infuriated, the reigning monarch of Persia, Fath-Ali Shah Qajar, declared war on the Russians in 1804. Despite early victories against the Russians, the Persians were quickly outmatched by superior Russian technology and military organization once advanced Tsarist weapons were shipped to the theater.
To this end, the Qajars tried to strike a deal with the British in exchange for assistance in the war. Yet they were denied, as their previous agreements only included help against French invasion, not Russian. Fath-Ali Shah turned to the French, striking a deal with Napoleon in 1807. French forces arrived in Iran to modernize and instruct the fledging Qajar tribal military, in exchange for direct support to a potential French invasion of British India. This invasion never happened, as the French were far more tied up in Europe than anticipated. In 1807, the French schemes to diplomatically pacify the Russians and focus on the British threat were disrupted when Napoleon reneged on agreements made at the Treaties of Tilsit.
Russia, believing that France was in violation of the treaty after its agreements about the Prussian monarchy fell through, was infuriated. No armistice with the Russians was ever signed, and the French continued to work with the Persian military to equip and train them with great haste. Napoleon recognized Fath-Ali Shah’s claims to Georgia in the Caucasus, keeping the Persians on good diplomatic terms while he prepared for continued war with Russia. In the Caucasus, the Perso-Russian War came to a standstill as small fronts of elite French-trained Iranian forces put up fierce resistance against Russian invaders.
In 1812, when Napoleon invaded Russia once again, the situation for the Tsarist kingdom was dire. Napoleon burned down Moscow, sending the Russian state into panic. The Iranians retook large parts of Armenia and Azerbaijan, though were kept from Georgia and Dagestan in the north. A truce between the two countries was settled as the Iranians consolidated their gains and Russia caused great losses against Napoleon’s armies.
Fath-Ali Shah, bolstered by this victory, celebrated all things French. Bribing French diplomats and officials with lavish gifts, gold, and large tracts of land, he declared himself a Francophile and praised the character of the Franco-Persian alliance. French scientists, educators, generals, doctors, and bureaucratic professionals were encouraged to modernize all facets of Persian society. Upper-class Tehranis dressed like Parisians, adopting French slang and language as high fashion. The military changed out their tribal garb for Napoleonic uniforms, organizing their armies after the French.
With French influence in the Persian systems of bureaucracy, the Qajars consolidated their hold over Iran. Traditionally, the Persians lacked a form of centrally controlling the tribes in their borders. The concept of the gendarmerie, imported from France, rapidly improved the reach of the Qajars’ rule. The long arm of the law could now stretch from Tehran to the most remote corners of Persia, thanks to ruthlessly efficient gendarmes patrolling the rural areas by the 1820s. Systems of industrialization, capital employment, and trade turned the Persian Gulf into a series of boom towns. Fath-Ali Shah was, however, criticized for his tendency to allow very high shares of these companies to be owned by the French.
When Napoleon suffered his defeat in Europe and exiled to Elba, it was said that Fath-Ali Shah mourned. Diplomatic relations with the Bourbons were often tense, the Persians refusing to cooperate on much. French companies, weakened from the Empire’s decline, lost their grip to entrepreneurial Persians. Napoleon in Elba, of course, plotted his return to France and eventually succeeded: the Persians were happy to see their friend return, watching the anti-Napoleon coalition’s rout at Waterloo with great interest. They approached France with a proposition: an invasion into the underbelly of Russia utilizing their French-trained military, to take advantage of the postwar chaos. Napoleon agreed, publicly asserting Iranian rights to Georgia and Dagestan.
The Iranians continued their Francophile regime even after Napoleon's final defeat. Encouraged again by the decade-old proclamation by the Emperor of Europe, the Persians took to arms and invaded the Caucasus again in 1832. The war brought some territorial gains to the Persians but was severely hampered by the death of Fath-Ali Shah in October of 1834. His designated heir, Abbas Mirza, had passed away in 1833. His 24-year-old son, Mohammad, was selected to take the throne instead. Drama struck the Peacock Throne shortly after Fath-Ali Shah’s death, as his son Ali Mirza attempted to take the throne in defiance of his father’s choice of heir. Ali Mirza reigned for forty days before being deposed by a court loyalist to Fath-Ali Shah. Mohammad was crowned king: Mohammad Shah Qajar.
This turbulence had distracted the Persian military, who were left defending battle positions in the Caucasus for almost three months in the winter of 1834-1835. The Persians could ultimately not muster the momentum to push fully into Georgia and Dagestan and settled for an armistice slightly more beneficial than a white peace. Some territories were recaptured, but the goal of marching Persian troops into Tbilisi was not accomplished. Napoleon fell to the British coalition during his invasion of the United Kingdom shortly thereafter: the uncertainty put a pause to Persian military ambitions.
Mohammad Shah Qajar had lived his life almost entirely under the Francophile craze in Iran and was no different than his predecessor. Humiliated and disgraced French officers, who could not stand what was being done to France, were gladly accepted by the Qajar dynasty in Persia. French advisors were popular with Mohammad Shah, and he gladly took anyone he could get. With some leverage, Mohammad Shah permanently employed these French expatriates in exchange for loyalty to the Persian monarchy. Such activities concerned the former coalition in Europe, who would rapidly become concerned that the Shah sought to become a Napoleon of his own.
The grand aspirations of the Persian state, headed by the sickly but devoted Mohammad Shah, are enough to trigger interest from the European powers. Mohammad Shah eyes the east, the French advisors to the throne seeking to further Napoleon’s late plan of taking India from the British. Russia, too, is on edge for a Persian reinvasion of the Caucasus and Central Asia. The Ottomans, always wary of their traditional rivals, are on guard against the Iranians.
Inside Iran, the Westernization is enough to drive fault lines between the traditional Shia beliefs and newer Western ideals. The old guard of clergy, bazaaris, and feudal lords eye the new “progressive” Shah with intense hesitation and resentment. At any time, he may feel bold enough to take away their traditional sources of wealth and power. The French foreigners in Tehran are replacing the Iranian tribes, angering those far from the capital. As Persia seeks to play the “great game” at the behest of its Francophile tendencies, many at home are not happy with the choice. How they choose to act out remains to be seen.
Elisabeth I (born Elisabeth Ludovika) is the eldest daughter of Maximilian I Josef (1756-1825) and his second wife Princess Caroline of Baden. She is the current Queen of Bavaria and Princess-Elector of the Palatinate, installed at the behest of the Concert of Europe after the death of her father. Her ascension was due to an agreement by the powers of Europe after a convention to prevent a War of Succession in Bavaria. Her rule is tenuous and many of her actions are at the behest of her ministers, not the least of which being Maximilian von Montgelas. Despite this, she herself is much beloved by many Bavarians, being known as Queen Elise.
Maximilian Karl Josef von Montgelas is the ailing and aged Minister of Foreign Affairs as well as the godfather and trusted confidant of Queen Elise. A Savoyard and Francophone by birth, he nevertheless has spent most of his life since childhood in Munich. He came into the most trusted non-regal position in Bavaria through his former dealings with a declining Bavarian Illuminati throughout the 1790's, which introduced him to Maximilian I of Bavaria, then Duke of Zweibrücken and eventually first King of Bavaria. Montgelas was often manipulative and underhanded, forcing the impressionable Maximilian I into decisions such as supporting Napoleon's Confederation of the Rhine, nationalizing swathes of Catholic Church land in Bavaria, and passing a (largely powerless) Constitution. He long held a similar power over Elise, but the Queen is long past being a naive young noblewoman, and Montgelas is nearing his 77th year alive. The push and pull of the relationship between Montgelas and Queen Elise is what turns the gears of the Bavarian state.
History
Bavaria was the battleground of the War of the Third Coalition, and so submitted willingly to the French victors who drove the Austrians from the Bavarian Alps. Then-Elector Maximilian IV of Bavaria, under counsel from Maximilian von Montgelas, openly supported the supposed ‘liberation’ which the Bavarian Wittelsbach family believed to be their freedom from an often stifling Holy Roman Empire. Gaining territory in Tyrol and being elevated to the status of Kingdom, the Elector was crowned King Maximilian I of Bavaria. The Bavarians raised 30,000 men for a Bayerische Legion, forming a veteran rear guard of Napoleon’s Grande Armee.
The consequences of the subjugation of the German states was not all beneficial for the Bavarians, as the Treaties of Tilsit forced the drafting and passing of a Constitution in 1808. The Constitution was largely powerless, and while the land reforms and revising of the tax system were already underway before Tilsit, these forced demands upon the Confederation of the Rhine filled the King with unease. Montgelas managed to convince the King that the demands were a means to an end to render the Prussian Junkers (which Bavaria long despised) extinct.
After the Russian refusal to submit to Tilsit any longer, it was the Bavarians who followed the legions of French, Poles, and fellow Germans into the Russian plains. The campaign, while a success which neutered the Russian ability to rise against the Continental System, came with a cost. Of the 30,000 Bavarians who marched into Russia, only 4,000 returned alive and unharmed. The exhaustion of war had a stranglehold on Bavaria, and an uprising in Tyrol during the Russian Campaign had destabilized the border with Austria. King Maximilian shut out Montgelas, turning to his son, Ludwig (an absolutist and Bavarian division commander), and Karl von Wrede (the Marshal of all Bavarian military forces). His son and most trusted general both advocated a betrayal of the French, and the Bavarians, coordinating with Austria, joined the War of the Sixth Coalition.
The Bavarians formed a Corps of the Austrian Army, who intended to surround the embattled French forces at Leipzig at the village of Hanau, but were engaged when the French attempted a fighting retreat westwards. Marshal von Wrede, put in command of the joint Austro-Bavarian Army, positioned his troops for a fight, but the positions were predicted by Napoleon, who forced through and annihilated the joined allies. What remained of Bavaria’s army evaporated, and both of Maximilian I’s sons, Ludwig and Karl Theodor, were killed in the battle. Marshal von Wrede, for his part, was shot and managed to survive an infection, however was permanently immobilized.
Bavaria could fight no longer, and what few Bavarians were left fought under an Austrian banner for the remainder of the campaign. Upon the emancipation of the German states from the Confederation of the Rhine, Bavaria found itself with a generation lost to warfare, coffers rapidly draining, and with its Tyrolian province now returned to Austria. King Maximilian I, so drowned in grief, all but handed the day-to-day affairs of the kingdom to Montgelas. This grief plagued the King for the remainder of his life, reportedly having hastened his own passing in 1824.
The King had been largely despondent for his last few years of life, failing to establish a concrete succession in absence of any living male heirs or nephews in the Wittelsbach line. The succession would’ve fallen either to Caroline, who was the wife of the Emperor of Austria, or Augusta, who had at one point married a Napoleon but had her marriage annulled, instead managing to be married off to a Bourbon in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. The newly-established European Congress System stepped in with its 1825 Convention, aiming to prevent a War of Bavarian Succession, decreeing the surviving daughters Caroline and Augusta unfit for inheriting the Bavarian Crown, instead putting the burden upon the first daughter of the deceased king’s second marriage, Elisabeth, twenty years of age and still without engagement to any suitor.
With the Crisis of Succession solved, the affairs of Bavaria could move forward. Montgelas, Elisabeth’s godfather and now her new confidant, retained much of his power on the management of the Kingdom. He ‘honored’ the Constitution, even submitting amendments for approval of the Queen and the House of Councilors (which consisted entirely of wealthy landholders and personal friends of Montgelas). The reforms of Montgelas, known as the Ansbacher Acts, managed to save Bavaria from destitution by reorganizing the civil service, including establishing a tax enforcement service which properly carried out the reformed British-style tax system. Taxation was imposed on Catholic organizations as well as on members of the clergy. Montgelas was only saved from the personal ire of the Catholic Church due to his connection with the Bavarian Crown and sham legislature, which both brought legitimacy to the decrees. Montgelas also allowed for Protestants to claim Bavarian citizenship (primarily in the interest of collecting more taxes, however the minister also held Reformation ideologies), as well as allowing limited citizenship for Jews and other non-Christians.
The ramifications of the reforms were not felt overnight, but the brewing resentment for the civil service and the policies of Montgelas (colloquially termed the Dienstpragmatik) eventually fueled the rise of a Ultramontanist party. The Ultramontanes were staunch Catholic supremacists, believing in the absolutism and infallibility of both the Bavarian monarch and the Pope. Appealing to the Catholic masses which still constituted a majority of all Bavarians, Ultramontane candidates flooded the largely powerless lower house of the Bavarian Parliament, becoming a majority of all members. Despite the weak lower house having little power, the pressure of the Ultramontanists forced a reversal on certain policies, such as reverting Protestants to limited citizens and returning monasteries to their status as untaxed and Church-owned land, all at the decree of Elisabeth I, who then controversially dissolved the parliament and called for new elections and appointments. While most statesmen immediately regained their positions by election or appointment, the shake-up of the legislature served to temper many of the more radical elements.
It is now 1836, and the new Parliament of Bavaria has been seated in Munich. Montgelas is old, and his health is failing, while the Queen is gaining confidence in her rule. Elements in Bavaria call for more radical reforms. Ultramontanes call for a return to the absolutism of the monarchy and the return of ‘Catholic morality’, students and liberal Protestant professors dubbed ‘Nordlichers’ preach for a return of the Ansbacher Reforms and the institution of a true republic, while rumors of subversive gentlemen’s societies fuel the public fear of an autocracy, neither royal nor republic. Acts from Austria and France balance the kingdom once again between two competing powers which may not have the best interests of Bavaria in mind. Day by day, the Catholic bastion slips closer to Revolution.
Great app. Small error: Napoleon's final defeat was in 1822, not 21. Unless even I messed something up somewhere.
Edited, thanks.
@CaptainBritton, So, what will be your reaction to me eventually sending your countryman back to Bavaria from his 'Kingdom' in Greece?
Otto would've been raised essentially by Montgelas and the surviving Wittelsbach royals in the absence of his father (who died shortly before he was born in this timeline). He would likely not be as much of a Philhellene this time line due to his father not having that influence upon him, but nevertheless Otto took a lot of exiled Bavarian ministers with him (namely former Minister of Finance Josef Ludwig von Armansperg who was the willing scapegoat for Montgelas' disastrous tax on Catholic land and clergy). I'd imagine the Bavarian government would welcome Otto and his ministers back readily but the people of Bavaria aren't fans of Otto or his ministers.
@Yam I Am, can I have a member of the Cantacuzino Family to play with? They're Orthodox and have actual Imperial Blood, so...
LB...you do know the whole point of the RP is to get those types of guys shot, right?
And you do know the entire point of the Rebellion of 1821 and 1828 was to get rid of those guys - and they're gonna be kicking off again real soon, right?
