Chapter 14 – Ordeal
June 1829 to May 1830
(more or less) active players list:
Netherlands - warluster
Egypt - Peasant Phill
United Kingdom - King Kurt
France - kagemusha
Polish parliament - Centurion 1
Prussia - Subotan
Austria – Prince Cobra
Russia and Poland - Vladimir
Sardinia, Savoy and Piemont – Master Magic Mage
Denmark - warman
There are many changes all over Europe. Most obvious is the growth of population. London, the biggest metropolis of the world, grew from 1 million citizens at the beginning of the century to 1.5 million in 1820 and will probably reach 2 million in 1840. Actually, these are only estimations, as nobody is able to control these numbers. Paris will grow from 500,000 in 1800 to around a million in 1840. In the same period, Berlin will grow from 200,000 to 400,000 and Vienna from 220,000 to 470,000. Other important capitols are Istanbul with about 500,000 and Petersburg 300,000 citizens.
As industry is growing, it produces a new social class of educated people with high income. This class benefits of the progress of sciences and technology. Its members shape the cities with new amusements. For example, a man called Howard Staunton started to organize the first international chess tournament.
On the other side there are the poor ones, artisans and farmers, ruined by the industrial production or the population growth in the country. They come to the cities to make themselves a living and find famine wages for 15 hours of hard work per day as well as child labor. These people do not have much amusement; many spend their free hours with a new game called football.
The undamped growth of the population leads to big problems for the administration. The infrastructure is completely overstrained, the living conditions in most of the quarters are chaotic and the megacities are ideal ground for crime and epidemic plagues. The exploding numbers of people in Europe leads to shortage of food, which cannot be compensated by increasing the numbers of field or using new methods of farming. The price for food is rapidly rising and the distribution between the classes is very uneven.
While the well-off people believe, that technology will help to overcome these problems, other want political reforms. Some believe that mankind has to return to the good old days of the medieval, with strong barriers to control the economy. Others, utopians, believe that all men should have the same rights and that the people should control the politicians. Some even go so far to say that private property was the root of all evil and had to be abolished.
Regardless how perverse any idea is, it will surely be spread all over by the growing number of papers.
This leads us to the riots.
The occupation of Luxembourg by soldiers of the French King has a diplomatic aftermath. The Prussian King, obviously offended by the presence of French troops so close at his border, blames Louis-Philippe to violate the treaty of Vienna and to disturb the order of Europe.
The French monarch repulses the accusation in a very sharp note, followed by a series of notes from both sides, each one published by the press. The diplomatic crisis comes to a head when the other nations of the concert join and adopt the position of France. This makes clear, that Prussia is widely isolated within the concert and that even England as her closest ally prefers to keep distance.
During the discussion, the Prussian King came out of the limb and obviously lost his face. During a couple of weeks it was very likely that this situation would lead to another war, but then Prussia gave in completely.
While failing on the diplomatic parquet, the French King tries to calm the riots at his own provinces. He offers the Catholics to abolish the privileges of the protestant subjects, only to suffer another defeat. The Protestant Church and the squires, which both see themselves as the columns of the Prussian state and monarchy are offended and show their protest in a series of articles and petitions.
The Catholics, represented by the church, refuse to give in and insist that marriage and education have to be under the control of the church.
The situation escalates when there are new riots at Berlin. The commander tries to put down the riots by sending forces of the local garrison, but even soldiers of the guard refuse to open fire.
The Prussian King allows elections for the parliament at Frankfurt, but the rules he gives are anything but democratic. Therefore, most of the deputies are royalists.
The Frankfurt parliament, which wants to make a constitution for a German national state, has the blemish, that there are only deputies from about one third of Germany, as countries like Austria refused to support this revolutionary idea. Further more, many of the deputies are not elected in a proper democratic way.
The work of the parliament goes slowly, blocked by discussions of principle issues, like the frontiers of the new empire, as well as by discussions about actual issues, like the Luxembourg affair.
Under the leadership of the Prussian deputies, the parliament asserts, that Germany will have include all provinces of the Holy Roman Empire, except the Netherlands and Belgium. Especially Luxembourg and Schleswig-Holstein are seen as purely German. The parliament authorizes the Prussian monarch to reconstruct suzerainty at Luxembourg.
This of course does not relieve the situation of the Prussian King.
In autumn, an Austrian army under Hohenzoller tries once again to gain the upper hand against the rebels in South and Western Germany. Leaving Munich in October it marches along the Danube, occupies Württemberg and Baden, then turns northwards to threaten Hessen and Frankfurt. The republicans hastily mobilize their forces and in December 25,000 revolutionary forces try to stop the Imperial Army. They build barricades at Rüsselsheim and prepare themselves for defense. At this time, Hohenzollers army consists of about 14,000 men. The Austrian general tells his men to build trenches, while he sends parts of his cavalry in the rear of the town to cut off the connection with Frankfurt. Then his artillery begins to bombard the town. This goes on for a whole day, then the Austrian infantry begins to assault. However, it comes into crossfire from the flanking vineyards. The assault stocks and the Austrians retreat. An hour later, an Austrian regiment tries to break through the lines at the same place, supported by the Austrian artillery, but once again crossfire slows down the advance and causes high casualties. Right then, an Austrian division assaults the hill on the right flank. Step by step, it fights its way through the lines of the defenders and around noon it reaches the top of the hill, where it stops and begins to pepper the defenders in the valley. Now the lines of the republicans begin to fade away and as soon as the Austrians fetch some cannons on top of the hill, the republicans turn to flight. Soon Austrian hussars penetrate the city and the rest of the republican army turn toward Frankfurt. There, news about the fall of Rüsselsheim leads to panic. The parliament decides to leave the town before the Austrians reach Frankfurt. The members of the parliament and the rest of their army turn to Hannover, where they hope to find shelter by the Prussian King.
Hohenzoller occupies Frankfurt and gathers his troops. He sends messages to the government and the other military commanders. Soon other parts of the Imperial Army are on the march and take positions along the border to Prussia.
At Belgium, there is a kind of equilibrium as the citizens continue to complete the new nation and hope to be recognized by the grand nation. A republican army is built and trained. The Dutch King remains quiet, trying to avoid any further escalation.
The Prussian King is down for the count, but as a blessing for him, most of the public attentions turns to the crisis on the Balkan, where the siege of Istanbul continues and more and more nation become involved in this affair.
Istanbul is far from the capitols of Europe and the still uneasy situation of the Balkans make it difficult to get reliable news in time. Some papers send their agents to the battleground, but their reports come with big delay. During autumn, the siege of Istanbul goes on. The British army, too weak to assault the town, tries to cut off the supply and to weaken the defenses. However, it is unable to block the town completely. Each night, small boat cross the straits in the cover of darkness, breaking through the patrols of the Royal Navy, bringing food to the suffering defenders and returning with news and wounded before the sun returns. The British also fail to cut off the land side.
Nevertheless, the defenders of Istanbul and the remaining civilians suffer hard. On the other side of the walls, the British have similar problems. There is a lack in food, ammo, tents, blankets, drugs etc. This autumn it rains a lot and the soldiers of His majesty have to learn to live in mud. Diseases cause more casualties than combat and the British commander is glad when the first troops of the allies arrive. The first Russian troops come from Moldavia, others straight from Russia, some are even veterans from the war against Persia. During December, the front becomes quiet, as the besiegers wait for more troops and the arrival of the Russian czar. Among the Russian troops, a new disease spreads.
In January, the Russian czar Nicolas arrives with 1,000 soldiers of his guard. He is shocked to see these fields of destructions. About the same time, a contingent of Austrian soldiers arrives. The commanders of the three allies meet to discuss their strategy. Nicolas claims to be the commanders and asks his allies to agree to an immediate assault. The English commander warns him. He tells him that an unknown disease is raging among his troops. There are companies with only 30% of their nominal combat strength. At some companies, 50% of the soldiers died.
The czar is angry and blames his ally to be a coward. Then he asks the Austrian general to support him, cause he is going to assault the town next morning together with the brave Russian soldiers. The Austrian commander replies, that he had the order to stay in the background, but he was willing to support Nicolas as much as possible as long as the Austrians do not join the assault. He even offers that Austrian cannons may join the bombardment. Angrily, the Russian monarch leaves the tent to talk with his generals. However, they are also painting black. The Russian brigades are also fighting against the disease. They have only one third of their nominal strength and even this third is not in the physical condition to assault Istanbul.
Nicolas orders his men to make a concrete plan how to take the town until next morning. Next morning, however, when he wakes up, he first receives the news, that two soldiers of his personal guard have caught the disease. Nicolas is taken by horror. He consults his physician, who explains that this disease must be caused by insalubrious vapor coming from the ground. He expects that the disease will become even worse when the temperatures are going up.
Nicolas tells his generals to break up the siege and to lead the men home. He himself hurries ahead with his guard to return to his capitol.
After his depart, the Austrian commander decides to leave too. He marches as fast as possible back to Vienna. However, before he reaches the capitol, the disease has caught his army.
When the Austrian army returns, together the disease comes with the soldiers and before spring, two thousand citizens die from this unknown disease.
Left alone, the English commander decides to break up the battle and to lead his men southwards to Greece. Before the army decamps, the English commander dies. His staff has to organize the retreat.
The citizens of Istanbul are overjoyed to the besiegers leave. They assault the camps of their plaguer trying to find something to eat. What they do not know is, that they are threatened by another force, a force they cannot stop with city walls. Soon, the disease occupies the town,
At Turino, the Sardinian monarch publishes a speech to encourage the idea of a united Italian monarchy. His words cause demonstration at several Northern Italian cities. At Venice, troops of the Austrian garrison open fire at the demonstrators. The governor blames the protestors.
The King of the two Sicilies, Franceso I., dies and is replaced by Francesco II.
At northern Italy the construction of the new railroad proceeds. A new project starts to improve the connection between Genoa and Nice.
King George of England dies.
At Vienna, Prague and Salzburg, there are protests and strikes against the government. People protest against the military actions against the German parliament and demand national unity. Further more they protest against the high prices, esp. for potatoes and corn.
The French parliament blames the King to support the reaction at Luxembourg and asks him to call back the troops immediately. At January, the French secret police averts an assassination attempt.
France and England start a joined naval program in the Channel.
At Poland, the government spends a lot of money to support the economy including programs in infrastructure and ship yards. This creates new jobs and attracts workers from Russia, Prussia (Pommern and Schlesia) and Austria. The Kingdom of Poland becomes very attractive for the Poles under “foreign” rule.
However, there are also some problems. The programs cause a high deficit. The naval program ceases, as the parliament has still not ordered a concrete number of ships. The Catholic Church protests against the attempt of the government to control the education of the people.
The announcement of England, Russia and Austria to divide the Ottoman Empire into three European controlled spheres of interest mobilizes the Muslims. At Turkey, hundred thousands of people found volunteer regiments, often led by local mullahs. The official government is forced to recognize them and to integrate them under the supreme military command. The government at Ankara declares war at Austria and Russia and concentrates troops at the borders to Russia and at the Asian part of Istanbul.
The Mahdi at Levant calls all Muslim to start a holy war under his leadership. He tells that he was chosen by Allah to crush the Christian intruders and to lead the Islam to the final victory. Thousands join him. The Arabian tribes offer him support and many of the North African tribes make alliances with him.
The Arabian tribes ally with the governor of Levant and thousands of Turkish nationalists form volunteer brigades. The Turkish government is forced to ally with these forces and declares war against England, Austria and Russia.
This wave soon reaches Egypt. At Cairo and Alexandria ten thousand of protestors, spurred on by the priests, demand that Egypt should join the Holy War. Many Egyptians leave their country to join the forces of the Mahdi. The relationship between the Mahdi and the Egyptian ruler becomes more and more difficult as the Mahdi arrests and executes several Egyptian spies and blames the Egyptian to be nothing but a puppet in the hands of the unbelievers.
In the meanwhile. Egyptian troops try to gain upper hand at Crete by using small commando units to penetrate into the country and fight and kill the rebels. Cretan nationalists answer this by sending small platoons into the Egyptian controlled bases to kill soldiers or to do acts of sabotage. So, the situation at Crete stays bloody, without either side gaining ground.
At South Africa, the Egyptian expedition forces go on exploring the country, putting claims on a large part of the country.
Furthermore the Egyptian government starts several programs to support the local industry, esp. the steel and cloth industry. Furthermore it begins with the preparation of a new program to connect the Med and the Red Sea with a railroad. It already founds the new National Egyptian Trade Company, which starts to hire foreign engineers and builds a new port at the Red Sea.
There is also another expedition founding a fortification at Bab-el-Mandeb at the mouth of the Red Sea.
At South Africa, the Boers found a new republic.
Re: Concert of Europe
Originally Posted by Drone
Err ... the chapter with the sentence is getting bigger and bigger. Hope I will make it on Wednesday!
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