The War of Austrian Succession {Part 2}

{Map of War of Austrian Succession by June 1742}

By April of 1742, many had assumed the war to be over. While the HRE was still split in two, there was an overwhelming consensus over much of the non-involved states that the HRE was now headed by Emperor Charles VII. Although this assumption was founded on simply looking at the war from a two-sided perspective, while in reality, there had been a third side that was claiming the throne. That had been the side of King Augustus III of Poland, better known as the Husband of the claimant Empress Maria Amalia.

In the first act of the war, they had stayed mostly silent, while they had intended to re-take silesia from Empress Theresa, they were beaten to the punch by Emperor Charles' coalition. Maria Amalia's goal was simply to unite the Poland-Lithuanian union with the Electorate of Saxony and re-establish the HRE under a Polish rule. The plan of execution was simply a brutal show of force in Silesia, but since the Prussians had taken it first, they had a rash decision to make; give up their claim, or declare war on both the Empress and the Emperor. By Mid-Summer of 1742, there had been a clear triumphant out of the first act of the War.

On July of 1742, the Polish-Lithuanian/Saxony coalition of armies started building up their armies on the border of Silesia. The Prussians had accepted the perception of Poland-Lithuania not going to join the war. Naturally, this meant the Prussians were off-guard in the region. 

The Silesian Offensive of Prussian Silesia was commenced on early August. The Saxons marched and met the polish armies with relative ease and little resistance. They set siege to the town of Breslau and proceeded to rout the Prussians in the Battle of Lubin, to which the Prussians were routed with relative ease due to their lack of an efficient Artillery force. Breslau fell on September 3rd, which following it led the Polish-Lithuanians on a campaign to cut off the Prussians on the Northern Oder.

While this had the effect of playing into the advantage of the Poland-Lithuanians, this sparked reactions throughout Europe. At this point, they believed that Poland-Lithuania was conspiring with the Hungarian-Empire (Former HRE), in an attempt to restore Maria Theresa as Empress. Maria Theresa assumed Maria Josepha had simply decided to retake Silesia, and used this as a ploy to use her newly-trained Hungarian conscripts and set a marching path for Graz. The English, assuming that Maria Josepha was on the Hungarian side, Declared War on France, Prussia, and the Holy Roman Empire. The Hanoverians and Dutch took the English side and declared war as well. The Wurttembergers seized this opportunity to seize the Swabian lands of Northern Tyrol and declared war on the Holy Roman Empire, which inspired their fellow Swabians, the Swiss, to form an alliance in an effort to retake Swiss lands from Habsburg hands. All of these followed in the same week, a week which would come to be remembered as the 'Week of Widows'.

The War of Austrian Succession had now become a Free-For-All for the livelihood of the continent of Europe.

A Thousand Views

Thank You All!

It has not been easy posting regularly now, but it certainly has been fun! Thanks to you guys we are hitting our first big milestone at 1,000 Page-Views, almost all within the past two months! Please consider following the blog!

-Zachariah Bouanani-

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The Kingdom of Wurttemberg {Part of the War of Austrian Succession}

{Map of War of Austrian Succession by January 1742}

In February 1742, the heir to the Duchy of Wurttemberg, Carl Eugen, vanished. The Wurttemberger people had previously not supported the takeover of the Bavarians, yet the regent of the throne refused to get militarily involved in supporting Empress Theresa. With no rightful heir in sight, there was a power vacuum inside of Wurttemberg. Yet, this power vacuum didn't last for very long. The Self-Proclaimed 'King of Wurttemberg' who had been ignored by authorities and the HRE for being a mad street-rambler, had started gaining support. The Wurttembergers had enough of being treated like ants under the HRE throne and being involved in the senseless drama that they weren't allowed to have a say in no matter how hard they tried.'King' Carl Frederick started trying to legitimize his claim, he would hold street rallies, gaining a good following of his doctrines when he is named king. Eventually, this landed him not on the throne, but in a cell. To Rot. Or so the Regent of the throne presumed. Little did he see that what followed was an armed siege of the jail by Carl's supporters. 

The Regent, Charles Rudolph (who had just barely survived a bout of catarrh a year prior), sought to quell the rising tensions. He did this in a way he had been known for, making an example of one of the participators of this movement. A public execution was held for a supporter he had picked out of the street, the execution had consisted of hanging the supporter from a badly tied rope, so he would suffer instead of dying immediately. This, however, had the polar opposite effect of what the regent had hoped. King Carl Frederick used this to rally a greater percentage of people, citing Charles as a "Bloodthirsty, empire supporting, threat to our people".

{Die Volksflag}

The Wurttemberger Revolution starts on April 21st, 1742. King Frederick had little to no resistance in taking over, with the exception of a few skirmishes, and one siege. The Siege of Ludwigsburg Palace {May 2nd, 1742-June 5th,1742} or "The Duke's Palace". While some might presume this kind of siege would be relatively short, they would be wrong. The defenders, behind Regent Charles Joseph, fought valiantly, and with various pieces of artillery stationed inside the palace, it was almost as if King Frederick were besieging a land-ship. After multiple waves of men trying to break the defenses, he finally managed a week from the start of the siege. From there, harsh interior battling occurred, the Regent not willing to surrender, even used the artillery he had stationed inside the building, to prevent Frederick and his army from moving further. The siege took the lives of many due to rupturing of eardrums, the significant amount of smoke in the air, which caused many to pass out of Nitroglycerin poisoning, and short contained fires which would occasionally occur. The siege ended when the Regent passed due to a large uncontained fire which occurred on June 1st. Following this, as more defenders learned the news, they surrendered to the besieging army. 

The Kingdom of Wurttemberg is born

The King of Wurttemberg declared complete independence from any Imperial claims. He called upon the Swabian people to join his nation - nay - movement. His ultimate goal to unite the Swabian people under one flag, and nothing and no-one was going to stop this from happening.

The War of Austrian Succession {Part 1}

The HRE, previously one of the strongest nations, if not the strongest, in Europe at the time had been struggling with a wide variety of problems disuniting the previously fairly united states in the HRE*. Most impactful being the ban on any other family besides the Habsburgs inheriting the throne. This all culminated in 1741. The Emperor, Charles IV, passed away. Charles hadn't left any male heirs, but rather, left a female heir who was supported by HRE law, the Pragmatic Sanction. This, however, hadn't been supported by many, leaving what would become a power struggle, or rather a race-to-power. 

While France publically supported the law, they had allied themselves secretly with the claimant ruling Bavaria. Prussia's King Frederick had plans to unite what he deemed to be his lands under one flag. Austria itself was divided between three potential heirs, Maria Theresa (the rightful inherent), Maria Josepha, and Maria Amalia. Self-Proclaimed King Carl Frederick of Wurttemberg-Oels saw Austrian rule as humiliating and set out to liberate his people, the Swadians, from the rule of the Eugen and Habsburg families. The British had set out to take whatever side the French were opposed to in order to counter the humiliation dealt in the American War of Independence.  The Hanoverians simply aligning themselves with the British king, George II. The Swedes were set out to take any side if the Russians decided to take a side. The Dutch Republic was split in two, with the Orangists {Royalists}, who were in power, supporting the British, and the Republicans simply anti-Orangists. Genoa was set on supporting the secretly brewing Republican revolt in the Netherlands. While Sardinia was prepared to support Maria Theresa, in word, yet not prepared to in sword.

Everyone in Europe knew what was coming, and when it finally happened that Maria Theresa was crowned to the throne of Empress of the Holy Roman Empire, war broke. France declared war following Emperor Charles VII and his wife Maria Josepha declaring war on Austria. The British declared war on France following the French declaration of war. The Russians joined sides with Austria, who had previously supported them in the Russo-Ottoman War two years prior. The Swedes declared war on Russia, and Austria following. 

The first offensive being the Prussian Campaign of Silesia in February 2nd, 1741, nearly a week after the breakout of the war, without a formal declaration by the Prussians. King Frederick was convinced that he had to move as quickly as possible, due to the concern over Maria Amalia's armies would invade Silesia to unite her Husband's Kingdoms of Saxony and Poland-Lithuania. In what could only be described as an Eighteenth Century Blitzkrieg. The Austrian armies had only numbered in around 6,000, and the Prussian force was able to capitulate all Austrians with their combined occupying forces consisting of nearly 40,000, 40% of their entire military. The last remaining Austrian foothold in Silesia was Breslau, which would continue to fight hard against Prussian sieges for nearly four months, until the Prussian forces decided to allow them to continue their occupation in hopes that the Austrian government would accept their proposal of Silesia in exchange for recognition of the Austrian government and Empress Maria Theresa. 

Maria refused, and launched the Austrian offensive of Silesia, in hopes of scaring the Prussians, who had signed a treaty of cooperation with the French a month prior on June 18th, 1741. This offensive resulted in the Battle of Mollowitz** which ended in a Prussian victory, pushing the region out of formal Austrian influence for the coming years.

Meanwhile, on August 27th, 1741, the French marched their army across the Rhine, in hopes of meeting with the Bavarian army in order to march straight for Vienna. The combined forces met on the Danube and started to make their way towards Vienna, but upon capturing Linz, the plan was averted in favor of a two-prong march towards Prague. The French would advance through the Amberg-Pilsen path towards Prague, and the Bavarians would march through Budweis, via the newly captured region of Silesia by the Prussians. This became wildly successful, the French had split in two, with one army prepared to siege Vienna, and the other continuing with the Bavarian armies and capturing Prague (November 21st, 1741), which was not able to be reinforced in time, given the placement of the Austrian forces in the Hungarian/Italian/Polish regions. Charles VII now naming himself Emperor of the Holy Roman Emperor, sent for the coalition of French and Prussian troops to crush the remaining main Austrian army outside of Innsbruck. Charles moved to march on the city of Vienna.

The Combined French and Bavarian armies captured the city of Vienna after a brief siege (January 20th - 29th, 1742) and proceeded to imprison Francis Stephen, the Husband of Maria Theresa. They proclaimed the war was over and called upon the rest of the remaining Holy Roman armies to surrender themselves along with Maria Theresa.

But the true war had only just begun!

Extra, Extra! Read all about it! {Crowning of Queen Alexandra}

[April 5th, 1756]

Following the aging of the Queen of the British family to 18, she was finally given a crowning ceremony. 

The ceremony was large and tedious, in fact, the most planned ceremony since the Elizabeth I herself! The proceeds included a massive show of military force! Which in relative is puny, given the American might over the English army! Regardless, this show of force was to intimidate the 'Enemies of the British Empire' as one reporter stated, yet in actuality, it was just an attempt to quiet the newly independent Principality of Ire into giving up its God-given Sovereignty.

The first day of the ceremony concluding with an execution of the leader of the ongoing Scottish unrest! On the receiving was a massive applause for the Queen as she stood on the stand to personally fire one of the guns in the squad! While I despise the presence of our former 'Masters' across the big blue, I have got to say, this is quite the bold and commendable move!

Not all Women are able to show such a great amount of personal strength as what the new royal has shown!!!

Upon the second day arriving, loud cannon-fire had been blasted as early as Pre-Mid-Day! The Queen aired blanks throughout the streets, and kept them ringing throughout the second day until the Royal Commencement Banquet was hosted! The tables ran well into the marketplaces up to two blocks away from the palace! Almost everyone in the city got to eat at the mercy and discretion of Her Highness!

A rather detestable move, given how many providers they had stolen the food from!

On the last day, crowds were gathered on mid-day in front of the Palace of Westminster. The Queen held a rather educated and passionate speech, here's an excerpt grabbed by one of our own in the crowd:

"It is time for us to end the mistakes which are repeated by our ancestors! Invading lands, but not only invading, failing at invading! It is truly disgusting and bastardizing. We lost to, of all people, the Celts of Ire! No! I refuse! I'm going to personally end this nonsense! WE are going to personally end this nonsense! We need to RECLAIM our place in this world, and I will be in the forefront of this, whether the World appreciates it or not!"

Clearly, she seems passionate. But seeing as how two heads of the throne of those over the big blue lost to us, she wouldn't be able to force our great Union to succumb! Even if she personally landed here!

May God Continue to Bless the Union and prevent our fate from being the fate of the Tyrants over the sea!

Your weekly writer, 

- Benjamin Franklin -

The Fulani Wars of Expansion and the Following Civil War

{Map of North/West Africa Pre-Civil War}
{See Legend at bottom of Page}

In the years encompassing the range of 1730-1734 the Fulani Caliphate had a massive series of Wars of Expansion, and with their quickly growing arsenal of modern weaponry, they would have an easy shot at many of the tribes. In fact, the whole series of wars only cost them 2,000 of their own Fulanis, while numbering in the 10,000s for the many conglomerations of tribes taken over by the Fulanis. They had assumed this rapid expansion was going to last a good while, they were intimidating the tribes within by selling some as slaves as a scare tactic, while also providing a simple and straightforward living system, where they would simply pay the Caliphate 'protection salt', basically rare minerals and gold, and they would be allowed to continue doing whatever they pleased with limited interference. 

The Caliph, Alfa Ibrahim, assumed the expansionism would only lead to good things, being someone who was studied in the successes of his northern neighbors. His expansion north had hit a halt as he could not cross ottoman territory, while his expansion west was just starting to fruition. Very slowly he had been amassing troops on the border of Grand Bassam, the only nation who he had required to call in a council in order to strategize against seeing as they had an open trade to much of the western world, with France wanting to keep them alive. In February 1735, just two months before the invasion was set to commence, an uprising among some of the Chad tribes had occurred, but Ibrahim decided onto leave one of the Caliphi {Trusted Advisor/Generals}, Abdellah Min-Al Boke, to deal with them. Which started to work out fine, until the uprising of Kanuri-Hausa, a combined group of some of the most oppressed people in the Caliphate. Tired with the frequency at which their people were being rounded up, they decided to rebel while there was a lack of Garrison. Quickly the situation escalated, Abdellah was ambushed at Muonduo on October 7th of the following year and swiftly dealt with, violently and brutally slaughtering everyone including Abdellah. Further instigating other tribes to succumb to the Kanuri-Hausa, and join the war against the Fulani.

Ibrahim had trust in his other two Caliphi, sending them to meet the majority of the Kanuri-Hausa around the river Chari, and to deal with them for good. For if one swift deadly blow was dealt against the Kanuri, all tribes following them would likely give up. 

{Battle of Lake Tchad's final movements (the Triangular piece is artillery, with each Rectangular Piece being around 3,000 men) Red; Caliphi Razak, Purple; Caliphi Amed, Yellow; Kanuri Army}

While the Battle of Lake Tchad seemed it would be easy, everyone had misrepresented the true forthcoming size of the Battle. Caliphi Razak started the action by bombarding the encampment, with his three artillery pieces, something which was rare to be able to afford/craft in Africa in general, and it demonstrated it well. In the first week, there had been massive holes implanted into the palisade erected by the Kanuri, and they had decided to charge at this weakened defense. This resulted in the first massive engagement in the area, the artillery piece had misfired and struck Razak as he was leading the charge, crippling him and the morale of the first ranks. Never-the-less the charge continued, to which they managed to breach the wall, but was met by a fierce melee encounter, to which they hadn't been prepared for since many were equipped with simply Wheellock rifles and not much else. 

Regardless, they fought fiercely, until they started receiving fire from their flanks, to which they were required to retreat back to the coast of Tchad. The Kanuri decided to hold until they allowed the Razaki army to take in the shock of the monumental encounter. Four days ahead of the charge of Razak, the Kanuri decided to advance at night with one of their armies in an effort to take out the artillery pieces which had been continuously bombarding them and securing a spot along the area so as to be able to catch the main armies off guard. They succeeded in dismantling the artillery, although much to their shock, they were met with the army of Caliphi Amed while shifting supplies, and another encounter ensued, they took fortification as well as they could and returned fire on the army of Amed, both were initially shocked to have encountered each other. The firefight lasted until morning, a long tense 9-hour encounter, only ending once the Razaki armies managed to come up onto the off-guard Kanuris and force them into a rout. 

Following this, the armies gathered themselves, and two weeks later, they launched a charge on the Kanuris, exchanging gunfire every step of the way until they were finally within the palisades, and although they managed to put the Kanuris in an awkward position and therefore push them into a final retreat, given a minor flank of the northern-most army, they lost nearly all of their men, making this a very Pyrrhic victory. A whopping 9,000 men combined, while the Kanuris had only lost a sad-in-comparison 6,000 men.

While this was appearing turning point, in the first section of what would come to make up the full Fulani Civil War, there was massive unrest rising in the main trading centers, over their children being so carelessly thrown into battles.

The true civil war had only just begun

The trading centers started encountering mass armed resistance to occupation, people demanding the Fulani change what they are doing, or they'd separate. Forcing Abdellah to re-assign his border-garrison to where the unrest was growing, in order to allow the two remaining Caliphis to deal with the massive insurrection among tribes in the north-east. In response to this increased armed presence, some of the trading cities started attacking the garrisons. War had been declared, and the leader of this group of tradesmen arose to challenge the rule of the Caliph, stating him as weak, and careless, and not fit to rule such a wide, varying, and wealthy nation. The map had become blotting. Battles would occur back and forth, the Ottomans sending troops in, the Algerians sending support for some of the northern tribes. This civil war was now Africa's first proxy war and the Western nations didn't like it. 

The Idowo-supporters, who held much of the trade, refused to trade in slaves, stating it was Anti-Islamic, and overall an insult to the people of the coast. This had caused the United States (against much of slavery, or well the term moreover, since much of their previous 'slave-labor' is now achieved by 'serfs')  to send support and spare weaponry to the people supporting Kwasi Idowo, while the Western Europeans sent weaponry to the Caliph Abdellah. 

This combination of different wars into one huge Civil-War caused a massive un-shifting stalemate in the country, not to be broken until the siege of Benin-City, which was the capital of Abdellah's regime, was decided upon the storming of the Caliph's palace in 1745. 

This left the whole of the ivory coast in shambles. Much of the deeper Niger territory was reclaimed by tribes, while the ivory coast was devastated by the decade of warfare.

The Idowo traded the first and last nine slaves that they would ever trade

As a punishment for the disastrous expansion, and the suffering of the people of what would be called the Isowo Isokan (Trade Union). Trade head -Kwasi Idowo- sold the Caliph, his main council, and his two living Caliphis to slavery. The Fulani Civil War had ended. The only real Fulani left being forced to flee to the Mauritius region of the Sahara.

{{Post Civil War}}

Extra, Extra! Read All About It! {The American Flag Referendum}

The Provincial Stripes "The Flag of the Bloody Stars" {Colorized}

This Morning {November 16th 1755} the Government has finalized the results of the Flag Referendum, with a majority of the Provincial districts counting a whopping win for the new flag over the old Revolutionary flag the 'Stars And Stripes'.

This was decided a year after the controversial Vote to redraw provincial lines along a new set of boundaries, decided by the People, and for the People of the United Provinces of America.

{Map of the Six Provinces Post-Anglo-American War}

Many provinces giving up their previous Provincial flags, and replacing city flags with the 'Flag of the Bloody Stars'. Our destiny has truly manifested itself well! 


The flag stands for the current Six Provinces--Comptonia*, Carolina, Erie**, Three Lakes,  New England, and New Amsterdam***--under one American people. Hence, the Seven Stars. The Red stripes representing the blood of our brothers and fathers from all of our Provinces! The Navy stripe standing for the Democracy, our Democracy, the one and only! The White being our nation surrounded by innocence and our purity in the eyes of God!

Long live, and God Bless, the United Provinces of America!

*Georgia being renamed into Comptonia after the contributions of Spencer Compton

**Erie, formally known as the Province of Jersey, although it was taken down, following a wave of Anglo-Phobia that hit in 1748

***^Following the wave of Anglo-Phobia, they changed the name of New York to New Amsterdam