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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Jun 17, 2018 6:56:00 GMT
Actually, you're not even close. Chuquiago is actually the alternate name for La Paz, Bolivia. Chuquiago is another name in one of the indigenous languages of OTL Bolivia. So basically someone wrote a book and published it in TTL's South Fagundesia.
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lordroel
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Post by lordroel on Jun 17, 2018 7:25:25 GMT
Actually, you're not even close. Chuquiago is actually the alternate name for La Paz, Bolivia. Chuquiago is another name in one of the indigenous languages of OTL Bolivia. So basically someone wrote a book and published it in TTL's South Fagundesia. Sorry my fault then, i taught the Aztec Empire hand invaded and conquered North America and that the Chuquiago name was a alternate name for the city of Chicago, maybe in a different universe.
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stevep
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Post by stevep on Jun 17, 2018 10:47:15 GMT
Actually, you're not even close. Chuquiago is actually the alternate name for La Paz, Bolivia. Chuquiago is another name in one of the indigenous languages of OTL Bolivia. So basically someone wrote a book and published it in TTL's South Fagundesia. Sorry my fault then, i taught the Aztec Empire hand invaded and conquered North America and that the Chuquiago name was a alternate name for the city of Chicago, maybe in a different universe.
Suspect that's extremely unlikely, in TTL or any other where a Christian Europe contacts the Americas. Between the technological gulf, the following pandemics and the revulsion at Aztec religious practices their almost certain to get curb-stomped fairly quickly. Especially given how much they were hated by so many of their neighbours.
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Jun 17, 2018 15:09:53 GMT
True, but the conquest of the Aztecs, Mayans and Incans will be covered in another future update. Right now, the opening stages of the Second Hundred Years' War would be mostly focused on France and England.
At some point, I will also try to create a Hetalia centric fanfiction for this TL.
Update will be published either tonight or tomorrow, Pacific Standard Time.
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Jun 23, 2018 4:55:48 GMT
Case Study #19: The Second Hundred Years' War Part Five
Veyshnoria's turbulent existence on the fringes of Europe had been affected by the Swedish invasion and occupation of the ethnic Lithuanian lands. Many Orthodox Lithuanians, as well as the Savonarolists who resided within the core of Lithuania proper had fled to Veyshnoria, settling in Polotsk, Vitebsk, Grodno, Kiev and Zbarazh. Zbarazh was the most important city within Veyshnoria, as it was the home base of the ruling Vyshnevetsky family. Their value was so highly prized that when the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was restored with Russia's blessing, their first choice as candidate for the Polish-Lithuanian throne was the second son of Dmytro Vyshnevetsky, Petro Dmytrievich Vyshnevetsky, who would eventually lead Poland's revival with such massive effort that he will not only restore the honor that Poland lost, but would serve as the ultimate arbiter of Europe and the barrier between the Catholic side of Europe and the Orthodox Conciliar Apostolic side of Asia. The cultural flowering of Veyshnoria was mainly sponsored by the Kiev-Vyshnevetsky Royal Academy, through many of its students who began to write poems and epic tales in the Veyshnorian dialect of the Ruthenian language. The Veyshnorian language, as it was called in both Veyshnoria and Russia, contained influences from both the White Ruthenian and Great Ruthenian dialects, and variations of the Cyrillic alphabet were adopted for such purpose. In fact, the Russian colony of Alaska (later the Grand Duchy and Kingdom of Alaska) was later colonized by Veyshnorian Cossacks, who brought their language, customs and traditions to the Alaskan Natives. This in contrast to the modern Chernarusian state, which would be colonized by Russians, Balkan and Caucasian Christians, and East Asians like Mongols, Koreans and Japanese, but its main cultural makeup resembles that of the Balkan Christian nations of Serbia and Bulgaria. Veyshnoria's precarious economic condition made them reliant on trade with Muscovy, who encouraged the Veyshnorians to develop their own industries in order to trade with them. However, one common problem that faced both Veyshnoria and Muscovy was the menacing presence of the Crimean Khanate. The Crimean Khanate often raided Veyshnorian territory for slaves to be sold to various slave markets in Astrakhan and the Ottoman territories. The Crimean raids continued until 1515, when in a fit of rage and frustration at another Crimean raid into Muscovite territory, Grand Duke Vasily III approached Grand Prince Mykhailo for a bold proposal: the partition of the Crimean Khanate's territories, where Veyshnoria would receive the western portions and Muscovy would receive the eastern portions. Although Grand Prince Mykhailo complained that Muscovy will gain a larger share in the Crimean plunder, Vasily III offered him the option of expanding into Moldavia, plus future territorial adjustments as well. He also promised to liberate Lithuania as well, though should he die, his successors will continue to work on Lithuania's liberation, and in the long run, the restoration of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Swedish-occupied Lithuania had undergone a significant change in that the Lithuanian population of Swedish Lithuania had now started to experience the same Purgatorial Expeditions that their Polish colleagues had suffered when they were under the boot of the Hapsburgs. The Lithuanian language was suppressed in favor of Swedish, as the Hapsburgs conceded the control of the Baltic to Sweden in order to create another Catholic barrier separating Muscovy from the rest of the members of the Grand Alliance. However, Muscovy still shared a border with Denmark, but there was no road built between Denmark's Norwegian provinces and the far reaches of Muscovite Karelia. In addition, Lithuania's literary elite was forced underground in the face of Swedish attempts to assimilate them into Swedish society, but it proved to be unsuccessful, as Swedish troops were ruthless in their search for anti-Swedish rebels who might be a nuisance in the future. The eventual demise of Lithuania's indigenous literary elite was one of the prime causes for their assimilation into Polish culture, though the Lithuanian language still survives, albeit in its endangered form. It was also partly because of the cultural integration of the Lithuanian state into Poland that the future concept of the United States of Greater Mazovia was conceived by ambitious Polish intellectuals who were inspired by the French model of centralizing its power through the integration of the minority states that are under its direct control, especially Brittany and Occitania. Those same Polish intellectuals would also boast that "although we are Poles in ethnicity, the diverse peoples who live under the protection of the Polish-Lithuanian state shall henceforth be known as Mazovians", giving birth to the Polish political concept of Pan-Mazovianism, or the feeling that everyone is a Mazovian by nationality.
The Swedish expansion into Lithuania however, triggered another kind of rebellion within its territories: the Finns, many of whom were beginning to feel the negative consequences of the Swedish independence movement, clamored for autonomy within Sweden or outright independence. Moreover, during the early stages of the Second Hundred Years' War, some Danish Savonarolists fled their homeland to settle in Finland. Most of the Danish refugees who ended up in Finland were peasants, while the Danish colonists who eventually played a role in the colonization of North Fagundesia (the colder regions, close to the Arctic Circle), were mostly merchants, though a minority of Council Christians also took part in the Danish colonization of the New World. Finland's growing national identity, along with its defense of its Finno-Ugric origin, had cemented both its religion and ethnic identity into one, single Finnish nationality. The other Finnic speakers across the Baltic, especially the Eestis (Estonians), also drew closer to the Finns. Within the growing Finnish nationalist circles, one religious leader of commoner origin arose to lead the nascent Finnish rebels that soon started to fight the Swedish separatists seeking independence from the Kalmar Union. By 1511, the Kalmar Union had effectively collapsed, with Denmark claiming primacy over Norway. The Finnish religious leader who led the movement for Finland's independence, Arvid Kurck, had initially settled for a theocracy based on the Savonarolist ideology (he was among the first Finns to adopt Savonarolism upon the beginning of the Savonarolist missionary works in Finland). However, pressure from the Swedes had forced Kruck to appoint a Swedish Savonarolist defector to the Finnish camp, Erik Fleming, to help lead the Finnish nationalist movement. His son Klaus Fleming would become the first and only regent of Finland before he was succeeded by Erik Sorolainen.
Sweden - The Two Quagmires:
The Swedish forces occupying Lithuania were in for a rude awakening when in January of 1512 the Finns unexpectedly launched their rebellion, though many Finns thought that the rebellion was a bit premature. Yet one of the rebel leaders, a Swedish Savonarolist defector who feared the growth of the Catholic Church, a chap called Klaus Heinrikinpoika, knew too well that if the Finns won't get their independence now, they won't be able to get it in the future, no matter how many times they've tried to fight back. Turku was seized in January 21 by rebels led by Heinrikinpoika and was held for seven months before the Swedes were forced to turn their attention towards Finland, but the overstretch of Sweden's forces would give Lithuanians under Swedish rule some hope that the Kingdom of Lithuania would be restored. Thus Veyshnorian arms smugglers brought in weapons manufactured in Muscovy, towards the border with Swedish Lithuania where Lithuanian irregulars would take charge of the weapons deliveries. Lithuanian irregulars often worked with Veyshnorian regular soldiers in launching devastating raids on Swedish positions. Grand Mykhailo's brother Aleksander Vyshnevetsky was placed in charge of the Veyshnorian Cossack forces that helped the Lithuanians with the raiding, and their specialty in close quarters combat proved to be useful against the hastily built but ill trained Swedish cavalry forces, who were decimated several times during skirmishes involving Lithuanian irregulars, backed by Veyshnorian cavalrymen. In contrast, Finland's rebel army had no cavalry of their own, so Erik Fleming had to send three Finnish envoys to the court of Vasily III in Moscow, in order to seek his support in Finland's independence. By April of 1512, Vasily III was eager to test out his rebuilt army (trained with the help of the Polish exiles) against the Swedes, contributing to the First Russo-Swedish War of 1512-1514. The First Russo-Swedish War became an integral part of the Second Hundred Years' War, as Muscovite forces there were harshly tested against the increasingly battle hardened Swedish forces. In the first few weeks of the conflict between Muscovy and Sweden, Vasily III appointed Prince Mikhail Glinsky as the commander of the Muscovite force poised to invade Swedish Ingria, which had been occupied back in October of 1510 during Sweden's rebellion against Denmark. The news of Muscovy's war against Sweden had pleased the Danish court, as John II of Denmark was counting on Muscovite intervention to crush the Swedish independence movement. Unfortunately, he would not live long enough to see his great rival weakened, as he will die in 1513, leaving the Danish crown in the hands of Christian II. It was for this reason that when John II was still alive, he often relied on Christian to carry out the anti-Swedish offensives designed to cripple the Swedes' fighting ability. Worse though, the Holy Roman Empire's support for the Swedish rebels meant that the Hapsburgs were now able to extend their war to the fallen Kalmar Union by attacking southern Denmark on June of 1512, with the Hapsburg naval siege of Esbjerg being the starting battle of the war.
Muscovy's first entry into Finland was rather slow, as the Muscovite cavalry was unable to operate freely within the thick forests of Finnish Lappland. The First Russo-Swedish War also witnessed the first deployment of the Muscovite infantry units called the streltsy [1]. Originally trained with the bow and arrow, the streltsy had undergone significant chances in training and equipping, thanks to the Polish exiles who fled from Poland after the War of the Polish Succession. Jerzy Radziwill, one of the Polish-Lithuanian exiles who settled in Muscovy, had observed that the streltsy's weakness was the lack of pay that they were given, and since their position in the military is often part-time (most of their time was devoted to farming or engaging in mercantile trade), this reduced their effectiveness in combat. Thus in his report to Vasily III, Jerzy Radziwill recommended that a series of streltsy villages built on a similar pattern to the Savonarola villages be formed in both the borderlands and the hinterlands of Muscovy. Vasily III took the suggestion well, though his wife Elizabeth Jagiellon played a bigger role in Muscovy's war against Sweden, in particular where her native Lithuania was of major concern.
Muscovy - Vasily III's Family:
The married life of Vasily III and Elizabeth Jagiellon could be described as something out of a fairy tale told by an illiterate peasant with a large imagination. Yet that kind of 'fairy tale' was real, and Vasily III often relied on his wife's counsel in anything related to politics, as she was more Westernized than he was. Within the Grand Duke's family though, it was Elizabeth Jagiellon who was the luckiest woman of the Early Modern Era, as she was known to have given birth to six children, all of whom would grow to adulthood, unlike the other Queens of various European kingdoms who often lost their children in their infancy. The first born son, Yuri Vasiliyevich (1508-1541), was groomed to succeed his father until he met an untimely demise in 1541, during the Muscovite offensive against the Astrakhan Khanate in which he was struck by an arrow, just as he was about to lead a cavalry charge into the walled city. It was fortunate that he didn't marry, for a potential succession crisis would have unfolded had he married. The first daughter of Vasily III and Elizabeth Jagiellon, Elena Vasiliyevna (1511-1563), would marry the firstborn son of Bagrat III of Armenia (of the House of Mukhrani), Prince Ashot, who would become King Ashot IV of Armenia. Another daughter, Anna Vasiliyevna (1514-1567), had married Prince Giorgi of Imereti, cementing the royal ties between the Houses of Rurik and Bagrationi (though Grand Duchess Elena's marriage to Ashot of Mukhrani-Darbinyan also cemented the royal ties between the Rurikids and the House of Mukhrani). Vasilisa Vasiliyevna on the other hand, had married a young cavalry Cossack of Serbian origin by the name of Bajica Sokolovic. Bajica, being the oldest son of the Savonarolist convert, Dmitrije Sokolovic, had fled along with his family from Ottoman Rumelia, through Wallachia and Moldavia, before settling in Zbarazh in Veyshnoria, though upon the recommendation of the Jaksic family (whom Dmitrije had befriended and gained support from), Bajica and later on Makarije, would resettle in Muscovy. Bajica took up military service in the Muscovite army while Makarije studied religion and was one of the major figures in the rise of the Conciliar Apostolic branch of the Savonarolist-Dmitriad-Melanchthonite thought before the Makarian Reforms had standardized the main ideas of the Conciliar Apostolic sect, as well as the standardization of the Russian grammar and alphabet that made it easier for commoners to write in. Another son, Boris Vasiliyevich, had gotten lucky: his marriage match was Barbara Radziwill, the daughter of the Polish exile Jerzy Radziwill. The match between the next Grand Prince of Muscovy and the daughter of the Radziwill family had also increased the power and influence of the latter (the Radziwill family would also become prominent in Russian Alaska as they would produce military officers and even governors), all at the same time ensuring that the Radziwill family maintained its existence by the time the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth arose from the grave. The youngest son, Simeon Vasiliyevich (1521-1584), had married a daughter of a minor Circassian Christian nobleman, who went by the name of Sophia Chukhovna. Surprisingly, it was notable in a sense that Simeon Vasiliyevich's marriage to a Circassian woman had marked the beginning of the cultural, political and social integration of Circassians into both Russian and Georgian societies, as Circassian women were also chosen to be wives of successive Georgian and Armenian kings.
Unlike children of previous monarchs, Vasily III's children were rigorously educated by the tutors who went to the Polachak-Brdzewski Royal Academy for Higher Learning, though their father had also insisted that they also attend the same schools as commoners, under different identites in order to learn more about the lives of their subjects. Although much of the nobility was outraged and scandalized by their sovereign's decision to let his children mingle with the commoners, it made sense in the fact that each Grand Duke or Grand Duchess became aware of the main problems that their peers had faced. It also allowed them to formulate future social and economic policies that will benefit the entire nation in the long run, as well as to expose them to different ideas. It was said that by the time Boris had succeeded his father as Grand Prince of Muscovy and later the Tsar of Russia, he had an ambition to spread western style learning to any new territories that would come under control of the future Russian state through conquest. In addition, the exposure that Vasily III's children also faced allowed them to make connections with foreign nobles who might one day settle in Russia or would be asked to play a significant role in foreign affairs. Polish students at the school in Polotsk also took note of the Muscovites who studied there as diligent, though a bit paranoid and secretive. In fact, Barbara Radziwill, the future wife of Boris Vasiliyevich, also studied in that very same school. Physical and mental education was emphasized in the male students, although female students were also permitted to study such physical arts as well, provided that they would only use it when defending a town from an invading army, and not for offensive purposes.
First Russo-Swedish War - Defense of Finland:
When Prince Mikhail Glinsky left Muscovy for Finland on May 23, 1512, along with 15,000 infantry troops and 2,300 cavalry forces (mainly Don Cossacks) and hundreds of artillery pieces (mostly manufactured within Muscovy), he knew too well what his task was going to be: aiding the Finns in their fight against the Swedish separatists. Although there was no territorial goal set by Vasily III (he was more concerned with creating another buffer state between the Muscovite state and the Catholic camp), he was more concerned with Sweden's potential targeting of Veyshnoria for its next offensive. To make matters worse, the Holy Roman Empire also planned an invasion of Veyshnoria in order to force its people into submission under Papal authority, but Philip the Handsone and Maximillian now faced a prospect of a fully fledged Polish national uprising against the Hapsburgs. Polish irregulars started to increase their raids on Hapsburg positions throughout the Polish territories under the control of the HRE. Although there was an attempt by the Polish revolutionaries to incite an anti-Hapsburg revolt within Hungary, it didn't come to fruition until 1516 when Gyorgy Dozsa, disillusioned with the Hapsburg rule in Hungary, hatched a plot to overthrow Maximillian and to replace him with a suitable, native-born Hungarian noble who would become the new King of Hungary. In the meanwhile, Hungarian Black Army units under Maximillian's personal command began to enter into skirmishes with Polish light cavalry units, who often armed themselves with captured Hungarian weapons (composite bows were often prized for their deadliness among the Polish irregulars), as well as a few arquebuses. Three days after the Muscovite Army headed for Finland, the first all-cavalry battle erupted in the Polish-Hungarian bordertown of Zakopane. Initially the Black Army was favored to win the battle, as they had both the numbers (the Black Army numbered around 9,000 cavalrymen to the Polish irregulars' 7,000 cavalry troops) and the weapons. However, the Poles also had the advantage in geography, as they mostly hid their infantry within those mountains, forcing the Black Army into unfavorable territory, leaving them vulnerable to the lightly armed Polish light cavalry units. Moreover, the heavy armor that the Black Army wore worked to their disadvantage, as the Polish irregulars moved faster than them, resulting in the worst defeat that Maximillian had been inflicted in his life, as 7,212 cavalrymen from the Black Army were killed, compared to the relatively light losses of 3,193 dead Polish cavalrymen.
Inside Finland, the Muscovite army focused their energy on attacking the Swedish supply routes, starting with the tiny village of Kouvola, where the main Swedish army was camped. Don Cossack units started to stage raids along the vicinities of this town, while at the same time a growing Finnish cavalry unit, nicknamed the Finnish Hussars by the Muscovite forces, also began to raid Swedish garrisons as well. Like their Muscovite colleagues, the Finnish cavalry units were lightly armed, but they also adapted well to the harsh weather conditions by learning how to forage in the cold. Their choice of horses were also unusual: mares were often used by the Finns due to their production of milk, which the Finns had to drink while on the campaign. While the Finns were not relying on cavalry to decimate their Swedish enemies, they relied on foot soldiers to do the job. A typical Finnish irregular would arm himself with an arquebus, a pike, a sword or a set of bow and arrow, and light armor as well. Since most Finnish villages were sparsely populated, the Swedes had little trouble capturing them and using it for their armies. On the other hand, the streltsy regiments inside Finland had seen surprisingly little action since they were deployed, although the Polish officers who staffed the streltsy regiments noticed their tendency to wander around without any direction. Yet their strict insistence of maintaining order within the ranks had saved them from any further embarassing defeats whenever they have gotten themselves into skirmishes with Swedish infantry forces. Moreover, the Swedish supply routes were often attacked by both streltsy troops and Finnish irregulars, resulting in the lack of supplies that the Swedes had suffered from. Fearing the collapse of Sweden's war effort in Finland and Lithuania, the Holy Roman Empire began to send their own resources to help keep the Swedes fighting, even as their own positions were being threatened in all directions. The march through France had become a quagmire as Hapsburg regular forces were often bogged down by the mud, slowing the cavalry's march and allowing French irregulars to inflict significant casualties. In Norway, Danish troops had managed to link up with Muscovite forces in Kola by August of 1512, forcing Sweden to recall half of its troops in Lithuania and Finland to defend its northern frontier. Sweden however, was lucky that the Muscovites did not have a naval presence in the Arctic Circle, a kind of luck that was eventually cut short a hundred years later when a nearby port was constructed beside Kola. In May of 1612, during the reign of Tsar Dmitry I Mukhrani-Obolenskiy, construction of this port began, mainly by employing captured prisoners of war from the Holy Roman Empire, Hungary, and Sweden, to build it. The port, later called Vladisever [2], would serve as the base for the Russian Northern Fleet, though another base in Novomangazeya was built fifteen years after Vladisever was completed.
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Jurchens - The Path to Unity
The sudden influx of Korean yangbans into Jurchen-dominated territory during the Joseon Civil War had also opened up new possibilities for the Jurchens to develop themselves as a people, and as a civilization. In addition to the Korean yangbans, pottery makers who suffered from the loss of customers within the Joseon territories had fled up north, where their skills in pottery production was introduced to the Yeren Jurchens. Moreover, the adoption of the Korean hangul to the Jurchen language had resulted in the growth of literacy among the Yeren Jurchens to the point where Ayaneje Khan felt that he can share this newly discovered knowledge cultivated through their Korean guests to the Haixi and Jianzhou Jurchens. For example, the literary schools that Lee Tae Hyun had built within the territories controlled by the Yeren Jurchens had seen the admission of four hundred Jurchen children into the school, with the result being that the Yeren Jurchens started writing poems and epic tales of their own people, using Hangul. Most of the Korean peasants who also moved to the Jurchen territories had integrated well into the Jurchen lifestyle, though their sedentary mindset made it hard for them to adjust. Ayaneje Khan himself had commissioned several more literary schools to help educate his own people, though that resulted in jealousy and hostility towards him from the Haixi and Jianzhou Jurchens. For seven years, since 1511, Ayaneje Khan and his clan, the Sartuk Hala, had steadily gained power through intermarriages between them and the Korean emigrants who settled inside the Yeren Jurchen territories. Although Ayaneje had not established relations with the Ming and the Northern Yuan, trade between the Northern Yuan and the Yeren Jurchens began as early as 1510, though this was interrupted by the Gyeongin War of 1590-1599[3], when the Northern Yuan was allied with the Japanese against the Chinese and Koreans. However, the Jurchens had made first contact with the Europeans as early as 1584 (most likely Russians), while the first contact between the East Asians and the Spaniards was in the 1550s during the early years of Nueva Asturias's existence.
Meanwhile, another Jurchen clan, the Tongala Hala from within the Yeren Jurchen clan, had been in the middle of a power struggle with the Irgen Gioro clan over the right to rule the entire Yeren Jurchens. Both clans were closely tied to the Sartak Hala clan through intermarriages (Ayaneje's mother for example, came from the Irgen Gioro clan while an aunt of Ayaneje had married into the Tongala Hala clan), but both of them also had divergent interests. The Tongala Hala favored closer relations with the Ming while the Irgen Gioro favored closer relations with the Joseon dynasty. Despite Joseon's loyalty to the Sinocentric tributary system, the Irgen Gioro also wanted to pry Korea out of the influence of the Ming and integrate it into their own system. The power struggle turned deadly when Ayaneje's mother was murdered by members of the Tongala Hala in 1513, leading to Ayaneje's brutal purge of the Tongala Hala. With most of the clans that dominated the Yeren Jurchens, Ayaneje would continue to divulge into Korean culture through closer interactions with the Korean peasants who settled within his territory. It was notable for Ayaneje to see Korean peasants adopting the Manchu queue (the horse tail like hairstyle) to symbolize their newly profound freedom while the yangbans who also settled in were careful not to become too closely integrated to the barbarians. With the Yeren Jurchens forming their own powerbase and recruiting more soldiers to fight for the glory of Ayaneje and the Yeren Jurchens, he felt that the time has come to conquer the Haixi and Jianzhou Jurchens. Thus he struck at the Haixi Jurchens on November 12, 1512, triggering the Jurchen Unification Wars that would ultimately mold the Jurchen people's lives together.
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[1] ITTL, the formation of the streltsy is much earlier than IOTL, primarily due to the disastrous Muscovite performance in the War of the Polish Succession.
[2] Vladisever is TTL's version of Murmansk.
[3] Gyeongin War of 1590-1599 is TTL's version of the Imjin War, but much earlier. I have also used the formula to convert the Gregorian calendar year to whichever year corresponds to the Chinese or Korean calendar cycle.
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stevep
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Post by stevep on Jun 23, 2018 11:28:29 GMT
Interesting developments. Seems a bit odd seeing Muscovy/Russia as a liberator for Poland and I suspect also Finland but that's the way AH can work out. Also sounds like a good time ahead for the eastern Europeans compared to OTL.
One small quibble in the footnotes as you have two (1)'s in the text but the 1st, presumably saying more about the streltsy - in the 2nd paragraph of the Sweden - the Two Quagmire - but looks like you forgot to put the actual footnote in.
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Jun 23, 2018 18:17:27 GMT
Interesting developments. Seems a bit odd seeing Muscovy/Russia as a liberator for Poland and I suspect also Finland but that's the way AH can work out. Also sounds like a good time ahead for the eastern Europeans compared to OTL.
One small quibble in the footnotes as you have two (1)'s in the text but the 1st, presumably saying more about the streltsy - in the 2nd paragraph of the Sweden - the Two Quagmire - but looks like you forgot to put the actual footnote in.
Thanks for spotting the error. I will change it when I get a chance. However, anything can happen at this point, as the HRE is fully backing the Swedes against what is left of Lithuania, Muscovy and the Finnish separatists. Either way, Muscovy could only do so much before the full might of the HRE strikes the Muscovite and Veyshnorian states. I was also planning on making Russian presence in Europe negligible in terms of territory, with the Arkhangelsk-Moscow-Astrakhan line as the plausible border, but this might require a vast overhaul of the HRE in terms of centralization, something that wouldn't be achieved with limited resources.
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stevep
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Post by stevep on Jun 23, 2018 19:06:37 GMT
Interesting developments. Seems a bit odd seeing Muscovy/Russia as a liberator for Poland and I suspect also Finland but that's the way AH can work out. Also sounds like a good time ahead for the eastern Europeans compared to OTL.
One small quibble in the footnotes as you have two (1)'s in the text but the 1st, presumably saying more about the streltsy - in the 2nd paragraph of the Sweden - the Two Quagmire - but looks like you forgot to put the actual footnote in.
Thanks for spotting the error. I will change it when I get a chance. However, anything can happen at this point, as the HRE is fully backing the Swedes against what is left of Lithuania, Muscovy and the Finnish separatists. Either way, Muscovy could only do so much before the full might of the HRE strikes the Muscovite and Veyshnorian states. I was also planning on making Russian presence in Europe negligible in terms of territory, with the Arkhangelsk-Moscow-Astrakhan line as the plausible border, but this might require a vast overhaul of the HRE in terms of centralization, something that wouldn't be achieved with limited resources.
Bloody hell that would really gut Russia! Especially if its some form of ultra-HRE doing it and controlling lands to the west of the that line. Such a Russia would lack virtually all its population and resources centres in Europe and at most only really have the east bank of the Volga so would probably be a 2ndary power at best.
Sounds more like things will go considerably differently but then, while the HRE has been greatly strengthened it is also fighting a powerful and well-organised France, plus Denmark and probably fairly soon England as well, although the latter is still a fairly minor power at the moment. Plus, despite the Russian/Veyshnorian plans for the Crimean Tartars, which it sounds like will work, clearing their own southern flank, I suspect the Ottomans are still going to see the HRE as their primary threat. Although that may be less important as it sounds like the empire is going to have problems in Hungary as well as Poland anyway. Their lost a lot of the Black Army already by the sound of it.
Steve
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Jun 23, 2018 20:34:02 GMT
It's similar to the OTL German plans for Russia during WWII, but the only difference here is that Russia in this case would keep Moscow, Ryazan, Tver and Yaroslavl as its European cores. The southern region though, I am thinking of an enlarged Crimean Khanate, plus a potential Ottoman conquest of the Caucasus.
Let us not forget that Siberia might also be settled much easier in this way, but this is just a plan and I might not use it. It's a good way to make the Russian presence in Europe small but huge in Asia.
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stevep
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Post by stevep on Jun 23, 2018 22:31:34 GMT
It's similar to the OTL German plans for Russia during WWII, but the only difference here is that Russia in this case would keep Moscow, Ryazan, Tver and Yaroslavl as its European cores. The southern region though, I am thinking of an enlarged Crimean Khanate, plus a potential Ottoman conquest of the Caucasus. Let us not forget that Siberia might also be settled much easier in this way, but this is just a plan and I might not use it. It's a good way to make the Russian presence in Europe small but huge in Asia.
That would need a huge build-up east of the Urals, which north of China can't really be supported I would say. Even in modern times I think Soviet Siberia maxed out at ~60 million and as soon as controls lapsed population started moving out of the region.
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Jun 23, 2018 23:04:35 GMT
That is true, which is why that remains a plan for the future. I may also have future TL projects as well.
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Jul 1, 2018 7:33:18 GMT
This isn't an update, but I have something to say here:
Update number 20 is taking a bit longer than expected due to other interests that have been brought up, as well as an online course that I am taking that isn't related to school but is related to future career opportunities (ie: film). As such, it might take longer to finish because I have to cover the Africa portion, as well as the aftermath of the civil wars in China and Korea, and of course, what's happening in the British Isles. So apologies for this non-update.
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stevep
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Post by stevep on Jul 1, 2018 8:42:57 GMT
This isn't an update, but I have something to say here: Update number 20 is taking a bit longer than expected due to other interests that have been brought up, as well as an online course that I am taking that isn't related to school but is related to future career opportunities (ie: film). As such, it might take longer to finish because I have to cover the Africa portion, as well as the aftermath of the civil wars in China and Korea, and of course, what's happening in the British Isles. So apologies for this non-update.
TRS
No problem. Take your time and definitely have real life needs come before the TL here. We can all wait until you have time to post.
Steve
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Jul 1, 2018 19:15:04 GMT
Thanks, and there is also the World Cup as well. (Unexpected results make my predictions completely and utterly wrong!)
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Jul 13, 2018 5:02:25 GMT
Sorry for the long delay, due to the World Cup, a few games being played and some real life stuff to take care of. Without a further ado, the new update is here.
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Case Study #20: The Second Hundred Years' War Part Six
In a curious twist, the HRE's decision to back the Swedish independence movement and its expansion into Lithuania had resulted in their own overstretch, as they struggled to find resources for their own usage in their ability to wage war against France. Although the Italian and German soldiers who fought France were battle hardened, Maximillian refused to deploy the Hungarian Black Army to the French front, fearing the loss of Poland if he had done so. Yet the maintenance of the Hungarian Black Army was beginning to take a toll on the Hapsburg King of Hungary's own treasury as he was running out of gold to pay them. It was not surprising to hear certain leaders of the Black Army complain about the declining pay they received from their overlord, and his promises of more gold from the plundered treasures of the HRE's enemies rang hollow when Polish gold was safely evacuated from Cracow after the War of the Polish Succession had ended despite the huge reparations bill that the HRE had imposed on Lithuania, but with Sweden occupying Lithuania and the rise of Veyshnoria, the Hapsburgs were uncertain of how they would keep the Black Army running smoothly. It was the financial problems that Maximillian had with his maintenance of the Hungarian Black Army that was one of the reasons why most of the Catholic Church had started to flirt with the new ideology of Shaddaism. As of this moment, the HRE, or rather, Maximillian, needed more funds, and most of Europe's finances were managed by its Jewish minority. The change in the attitude towards the Jews on part of the three Iberian kingdoms also influenced certain Catholic rulers of various German states within the Holy Roman Empire, as the Savonarolist ideology had now borne such terrible fruit in the new pogroms that were carried out against the Jews in countries that had a strong Savonarolist influence. In France during 1513, a massive pogrom in Bourdeaux had resulted in 1,500 Jews being killed by Savonarolist 'Righteous Armies' in their own version of the infamous Hapsburg 'Purgatorial Expeditions'. Unfortunately, one huge blow was struck that would permanently change the nature of the Holy Roman Empire.
On November 22, 1513, during the first Hapsburg campaign against Veyshnoria (the Holy Roman Empire extended its war to Veyshnoria, despite the protests from Philip the Handsome's Hohenzollern in-laws), Philip the Handsome was preparing to lead his army to besiege Grodno. During his advance into Veyshnorian territory, his main army was ambushed by Veyshnorian troops led by Grand Duke Konstanty Ostrogski. Several cavalry charges were repelled before Philip the Handsome would meet his untimely end when the Grand Duke himself stabbed him in the throat with a sotnya polearm, causing him to lose unconsciousness and ultimately ended in his death. The Veyshnorian troops saw the horrified reactions from the Hapsburg forces who began to panic, allowing Ostrogski to rout them in such a way that weakened the Hapsburg forces beyond repair. When Maximillian learned of his son's death five days later, he mourned so much that he stopped eating for a bit. His grief also distracted him from managing the war, and he too, had met his untimely end when in a fit of sheer drunkenness, Maximillian slipped down the stairs from his bedroom inside a castle in Upper Austria and died on December 7. The deaths of the Hapsburg family members also put an end to the influential Hapsburg dynasty that had ruled the Holy Roman Empire, and the HRE's member states and electorates were forced to call in a new election. Only three candidates placed their names forward: Frederick I, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach (the brother in law of the dead Philip the Handsome), Duke William IV of Bavaria (of the House of Wittlesbach) and Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse. The election was notorious for its massive use of gold in bribing other electors to vote for the candidate who gave them the money in the first place, and such corruption was one of the factors that ultimately led to the abolition of the elective monarchy in favor of a hereditary monarchy when Frederick I, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, was elected on December 25, 1513. Although the other defeated candidates reluctantly congratulated the victor of this clearly corrupt election, they've also made it clear that any attempted reforms that Frederick will pass would be voted down by both Hesse and Bavaria. At the same time though, those very same states whose rulers lost out to the House of Hohenzollern had expanded their responsibility of prosecuting the war against the French, and it was Bavarian infantry that played a key role in Marseilles's fall to the HRE on January 8, 1514. Hessian troops also took part in the offensive that saw Calais fall to the HRE five days after Marseilles was conquered. However, the fall of Calais had affected England greatly, as it was the only territory in continental Europe that was under direct English control. Without Calais, the potential for an invasion of England increased slightly.
With Calais under the control of the Hapsburgs, the HRE expanded their naval operations to include raiding English ports, causing Edward V Plantagenet to recall most of his fleet in order to defend the entire English coast. At the same time, James IV of Scotland had began to recall most of his troops from Ireland when news of the Danish invasion had reached him. When the Scots retreated from Ireland, Edward V Plantagenet ordered a major offensive into the Scottish lowlands in conjunction with the Danish force that landed in Scotland's northern sector, and by January 24, the Scots were literally fighting on two fronts: the Danes in the north, and England in the south. Their holdings in Ireland was quickly overrun by English troops who were occupied in southern Ireland, but Irish cavalry raids remained devastating for them. Even so, Richard Pole, the man who led the English troops in the Irish campaign, was entrusted with the role of reconquering Ireland by the King of England himself while Edward returned home to defend the northern border against the Scots. Scotland at this time had started to lose territory in the south, as the Scottish lowlands became a hotbed of Savonarolist activity there, with the Lollards returning and carrying out anti-Catholic pogroms that saw 200 Catholics slaughtered. Scottish soldiers in return launched an attack on the English border town in Cornhill-on-Tweed and savagely killed 400 English Savonarolists who lived there. Despite the increase in atrocities on both sides, James IV had insisted that 'no Scotsman should surrender to the English enemy, especially one that is a heretic'. His insistence on fighting the English to the death will ultimately prove fatal for the House of Stewart, as the next battle on February 13 in the Siege of Dundee.
The Siege of Dundee (1514):
07:00: The battle began with the advance of the English forces under Baron Edward Stanley. 24,000 English soldiers faced off against 21,000 Scottish troops, backed by 1,800 Irish auxilliaries recruited to fight for the Scots. King James IV of Scotland took command inside Broughty Castle while Baron Stanley had built a camp to house the officers and himself while the regular English forces were taking part in the siege. English yeomans had led the offensive that saw half of the Scottish lowlands fall under English occupation. The English intended to control the lowlands in order to blockade and force the Scots into an untenable position from which they would be forced to use the highlands to their advantage. English cannons began bombarding the castle, while Scottish cannons pounded the English positions and reports of old trebuchets also reached the English camp.
11:00: Reports poured into Baron Stanley of approaching Danish reinforcements, backed by fourteen warships. Numbering around 2,700 troops, mostly infantry (as the Danish cavalry was mainly used to repel the Holy Roman Empire's invasion of southern Denmark), they also bring with them artillery and foodstuffs the English needed to sustain the siege. Meanwhile, the Scottish fleet was commanded by James IV to intercept the Danish reinforcements.
13:00: English infantry began to advance into the castle's walls while English artillery continued to pound away at Scottish defenses. At this point, mounting casualties on both sides reached the 1,000 mark, although it is the English themselves who bore the bigger brunt of the casulaties while the Scots managed to sustain significant losses. Irish auxilliary troops were secretly deployed to harass the English camp, just outside Dundee.
15:00: Irish troops managed to catch the English off guard in their camp at Longforgan, mainly through small scale raids that resulted in seven English cannons captured by the Irish, as well as 20 horses and 50 pounds of food falling into their hands. While the Irish were hauling their captured booty back to the castle, another English force stationed in Kingoodie ambushed the Irish troops and recovered their lost goods. In addition, all of the Irish troops who tried to ambush the English were themselves executed. Half an hour later, Wormit and Newport-on-Tay saw the arrival of the Danish reinforcements.
18:00: A fleet of seventeen English warships arrived at Newport-on-Tay and Tayport while Danish infantry landed in Monifieth. At this point, both sides had consumed three quarters of their food supplies and had used up one third of their ammunition. It was then that Baron Stanley decided to send his reserves into Kingoodie so they could surround and blockade Broughty Castle from Monifieth and Kingoodie. English cannons took the longest amount of time to haul in, due to their sheer weight.
22:00: Extra guns delivered to the English in Kingoodie began their march, while the English infantry besieging the castle managed to place their ladders into the walls. A slow advance up the ladder was accompanied by devastating counter-attacks that saw boiling water and hot oil poured down on the unfortunate victims. Scottish archers lit their arrows with flame and shot it at the hot oil below, incinerating the unfortunate English soldiers to death.
01:00 (February 14): Another attempt at breaching the castle was made, this time from the north. Danish cannons that were positioned on land began to bombard the walls, while at the same time the river current had made naval bombardment of the castle impossible. Thus Baron Stanley gave his authorization for the deployment of the English yeomans to start raiding the city of Dundee itself. Several pounds of food and three chests full of silver fell into English hands, allowing the yeomans to continue their advance. Scottish irregulars suddenly pop out of nowhere, ambushing the yeomans. Fifty yeomans were killed, while seventy five Scottish irregulars perished in the ambush.
04:00 (February 14): English sappers began digging underneath in order to blow the wall open. At the same time, the first English breach was made when twenty English infantrymen successfully climbed up to the ramparts and engaged the Scots and their Irish allies in a close quarters combat. Forty five minutes later, news of the successful repelling of the Scottish irregulars reached the English camp. Baron Stanley personally rode out to meet the English yeomans who carried the captured loot.
08:00 (February 14): The English sappers reached the bottom of the fortress while digging. They reported their success to the English officers, who gave the order to retreat from the fortress while the sappers lit up the gunpowder. English and Danish guns suddenly stopped firing. It was only when a Scottish infantryman noticed a hole on the ground that he yelled out a warning to his comrades that the English had planted explosives underneath the walls. The walls exploded and collapsed.
10:00 (February 14): With the walls blown apart, the English and Danish advance proceeded as planned. The Scottish defenders of the castle fought ferociously against the incoming invaders, with their Irish allies dealing with the arrival of the English yeomans who resorted to launching a volley of arrows while riding on horseback. However, the bows that the English yeomans used were regular bows, and not longbows. Danish infantry spotted James IV engaged in a fight with ten English swordsmen. Luckily, Scottish irregulars arrived in time to engage the Danes in an open pitch battle.
13:00 (February 14): With most of the Scottish and Irish troops dead inside the castle, James IV and the last 300 surviving soldiers and irregulars charged head on towards the enemy. Baron Stanley himself entered the fight, carrying a sword while his yeomans carried polearms. However, the Baron himself dismounted from his horse and engaged the irregulars in close quarters combat. Just as he was about to slay another Scottish irregular, one of the English infantrymen carrying a halberd had managed to wound James IV in the leg, before Baron Stanley himself swung his sword, slicing the King of Scotland's head off his shoulders.
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Hafsid Dynasty - A New Islamic Rival:
In the ashes of the fallen Granadan Emirate, the three Iberian kingdoms (now unified to form the Spanish state) expanded their operations against the Muslims in North Africa. Although they had already completed the Reconquista in the Iberian peninsula, some of the Crowns had occupied territory in North Africa. The Crown of Portugal for instance, controlled a few Moroccan ports while the Crown of Castile had gained control of an island later called Gibraltar. Although the Crown of Aragon mostly consigned themselves to piracy against North African Muslim commerce in the western Mediterranean Sea region, they also played a key role in ensuring that the Moroccans would not only suffer for the Muslim occupation of the Iberian peninsula, but that they would also bear the full fury and power of the unified Spanish state. The current ruler of the Hafsids, Muhammad IV, was rather moderate in his dealings with Christians and Jews until the fall of Granada when he began to persecute them as retaliation for the massacres of Muslims by the Christian powers within Spain. Indeed, it was in early 1501 that Muhammad IV had issued the infamous Edict of Bizerte [1], where the Hafsid Empire's Christian and Jewish populations would be forcibly expelled, and their properties were confiscated and given to Muslim refugees expelled from Christian Spain.
When King Alfonso de Avis (Afonso VI de Aviz in Portugal, Alfonso XII de Aviz in Castile and Alfonso VI de Aviz in Aragon) heard of the news that the Hafsid Kingdom had expelled its non-Muslim population, he immediately brought forth the Spanish fleet to transport the Christian and Jewish refugees into Spanish territory. Upon greeting the embattered refugees, he boasted in such a way that future pan-Hispanists would remember: "he calls himself an enlightened ruler, but exposes himself as a tyrant. He claims to be pious, but in reality the fool has only strengthened my kingdom at the expense of his own!" [2]. Although the survivors of the Reconquista adjusted to their new lives in the Hafsid territories, they were not as skilled in economics as their Christian and Jewish counterparts who left for Spain were, and the economy of the Hafsid state started to decline. However, the plight of the Muslims in the Hafsid state had alerted the Ottoman Empire, and in particular, Ahmed I the Wise, who quickly offered to establish diplomatic relations with the Hafsid state, in addition to the economic deals that were also inked between them.
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Ryukyu - The Epoch of Sho Shin
Ryukyu after the interaction with the French had witnessed the growth in its mercantile activity. The shipbuilding industry also thrived, mainly in Kawahata island where the majority of the ships were being built. Rokuro Kinjo himself had overseen the development of both the cities of Tohohoshi and Kitahoshi, while more Kawahatan indigenous tribes began to explore their curiosity at the presence of the Ryukyuans. In early 1515, Kinjo and 500 Ryukyuans had set off on another expedition to explore the southern area of Kawahatajima when they came across three more indigenous tribes in the hinterlands: the Bunun, Thao and Sediq. Those three inland based tribes were hostile to the Ryukyuans' presence, and so Rokuro Kinjo had to travel back to Shuri in order to obtain permission from Sho Shin on a pacification expedition. In May of 1515, Sho Shin had granted the desired authorization and also gave Kinjo 3,000 more ronin (many of whom fled from Japan after their respective lords were killed in battle) plus 50 cannons to finish them off.
The Kawahata Expedition of 1515 was marked by the first use of artillery against indigenous tribes in Asia (the Ryukyuan cannons were copies of their French models), and the ronins' deployment into the hinterlands gave them a taste of what their adventure against other indigenous tribes will be like in the future. Among the ronin who fought for Kinjo in this expedition was Kojiro Kusaka, the father of the famous Kohata Kusaka. Kojiro Kusaka, like his overlord Kinjo, was a former samurai who lost his master in the Sengoku conflicts. In his case, his master was a minor noble who was allied to the Takeda clan. Kojiro also joined the wokou pirates after he left Japan and somehow ended up in Ryukyu, where his skill in forging swords, as well as his ability to sneak into enemy castles attracted the attention of Sho Shin himself. As a reward for his service to Ryukyu, Sho Shin gave him authority to claim new lands in Kawahata and to turn it into his own fiefdom. Thus Kojiro had joined Rokuro Kinjo in Kawahata in June, and began to plan for an all out conquest of the remaining unchartered lands in the southwest. The Ryukyuans proceeded slowly throughout the island, mostly because there were lack of roads in the unchartered territories, in sharp contrast to the newly built dirt roads that were built by Ryukyuan colonists and Japanese social undesirables (ie: burakumin) seeking to leave their homelands to escape from social discrimination. The campaign itself took surprisingly as little as four months, but by then most of the indigenous tribes of Kawahata Island were conquered and subjugated. It could have taken much shorter, but the resistance of the highlander tribes within the hinterlands of Kawahata had provoked a harsh response from the ronins who saw their comrades killed in such terrifying manner that they showed no mercy towards the civilians who they have encountered. Most controversial of all, was Kojiro's personal participation in the brutal mass slaughter of those civilians that he was nearly arrested and executed for excessive corruption and abuse, but the timely intervention of Rokuro Kinjo in Kitahoshi had saved Kojiro from further punishment. Perhaps it was fitting that the modern city of Chigawa-shi in what is now modern Yasuhira Province [3] was named as a memento to the massacre of those civilians by the ronin under Kojiro's command. Unlike the earlier development of the older Kawahatan cities, Chigawa was developed as a military centric city, with multiple barracks, horse ranches, forges, a harbor, shipyards to build yosaisens, and in addition to animist temples, a fortress that would later serve a role in the war between the Ming Dynasty and Ryukyu. In addition to the newly emerging military city of Yasuhira, the Ryukyuans also tried to attract other people from mainland China, southeast Asia and even Korea to come and settle in the new Kawahatan lands. Most of the new settlers were Chinese pirates, some of whom have also joined the predominantly Japanese dominated Wokou pirate groups. A few Vietnamese adventurers and even Korean army deserters who fled from Korea after the fallout from the Joseon Civil War had also settled in Yasuhira province. Kojiro was well aware that his new domain could not sustain itself without economic activity, so he authorized the construction of another port in the south in October of 1515. This new port, later christened as Kyushigai [4], became Kawahata's economic lifeline to southeast Asia. Kyushigai and Chigawa came under the control of Kojiro himself, and when Kinjo visited the new cities to the south, he was impressed with the amount of commercial activity that had occurred there. It was so prosperous that Kyushigai and Chigawa would surpass Shuri as the largest cities in the Ryukyuan Kingdom, and there was even talk of relocating the capital to one of those cities, or even Kitahoshi, but Sho Shin had shot down that idea.
Sho Shin's reaction to the expansion of Kawahata and its complete conquest was that of amazement. Most of the indigenous tribes were already subjugated, and some of them carried on resisting the Ryukyuans until 1573 when Sho Kan ascended to the throne and passed down a law that started the process of integrating the indigenous tribes of Kawahata into Ryukyuan society. It helped the indigenous tribes that the Ryukyuans were also animistic in their religious practices, so they were able to introduce their own religious customs to the Ryukyuan religion. However, certain indigenous practices that the Ryukyuans deemed unhygienic were banned in order to teach them about cleanliness. The Ryukyuan language was also being taught to indigenous children as early as 1524, although difficulties with the writing system remained unsolved until well into the 1700s when there was a proposal to ditch the kanji script and to adopt an entirely new script, though in the end only katakana and hiragana were chosen. Ryukyuan agrarian practices were also introduced to Kawahata, with rice farms being established by landless farmers from southern Kyushu, while fishing became a dominant livelihood in the coastlines. Within twenty years, Kawahata became the new rice bowl of the Ryukyuan state, and trade between Kawahata island and the rest of the Ryukyuan islands increased. A few wokou pirates also took up fishing as a side job, in addition to various pirate raids on the Chinese and Korean coasts while taking care to avoid where they came from by disguising themselves as mercenaries from various Japanese clans that were by now extinct.
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[1] The Edict of Bizerte is TTL's analogue to the Alhambra Decree, but with roles reversed.
[2] Guess the quote's allusion. It shouldn't be that hard.
[3] Chigawa is TTL's name for Anping, Taiwan.
[4] Kyushigai is TTL's name for Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
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