From Lisbon to Minsk - A Napoleonic Alternate Timeline

[Masterknife7]

This is a revamp of my Alternate History of Napoleon winning
Original: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/a-napoleon-victory-scenario.522519/#post-22697080

*This AH is ongoing and I will be constantly changing things which can vary from small edits to entire sections being added or removed*

*If anything seems too improbable or bad, I will take suggestions*

So in our TL, Napoleon unsuccessfully tried to arrange a marriage between his niece Charlotte and Spanish Prince Ferdinand of Asturias. In this alternate TL however, the marriage arrangements work out and Charlotte is set to marry Ferdinand in like a few years (because she was too young at the time). This allows Napoleon to use Charlotte as a political bargaining tool and increase Spanish cooperation; as well as his influence without needing the unpopular Spanish Minister Manuel Godoy.

When Spanish King Carlos was told that the marriage arrangements between his eldest son Ferdinand of Asturias and the niece of French Emperor Napoleon Charlotte worked out, he was about to tell Ferdinand about it but before that, he found out about the El Escorial Conspiracy, a plot to overthrow him. Carlos was furious and in response, imprisoned Ferdinand. This imprisonment outraged many people in Spain who now saw Ferdinand as the rightful King.

This anger culminated in the Tumult of Aranjuez, a revolt seeing the overthrow of Carlos and Godoy which also saw Ferdinand become the king as King Ferdinand VII. Shortly there after, Napoleon secretly met with Ferdinand. Napoleon agreed to recognize Ferdinand as the legitimate King of Spain in exchange for Ferdinand marrying Charlotte some time in the future and to ratify the Treaty of Fontainebleau. Ferdinand, eager to get a 1-up over his father (who still claimed the throne), agreed to the offer and so Spain remained an ally of the French

So with Spain and France now working together again, the British plans to land in Lisbon are scrapped entirely and without support, nor do any Portuguese rebellions happen (yet). Napoleon and Ferdinand then met in Madrid to fully ratify the Treaty of Fontainebleau. Manuel Godoy, regardless of being hated by literarily everyone including Ferdinand, was also allowed to rule the Principality of the Algarves but on the condition he never return to Spain again. The Kingdom of Northern Lusitania was also kept.

And with Napoleon not in a resource and manpower draining war, he was now free to consolidate his power across Europe. However, Napoleon was still worried that his continental system was not was not working well enough and so he annexed the North German states. Since one of the North German states Oldenburg was meant to be left alone as part of the Treaty of Tilsit with Russia, the Russians was outraged and broke their half of the Treaty of Tilsit and started to trade with the British. And let's just say Napoleon wasn't too happy about that...

Napoleon gathered an army of over 1,100,000 men and began plans for an invasion of Russia in order to punish the Tsar aka Alexander I. Although Napoleon wanted to send as many of his Marshals to the war as possible, Marshal Moncey remained in charge of the French forces in Spain and Marshal Junot remained in charge of the French forces in Portugal.

In response, Alexander quickly ended the Russo-Ottoman War. He also began talks with Britain, Sweden, and Austria to form a new coalition. And it was agreed that upon Napoleon beginning his invasion, the 5th Coalition would be formed. However, the Tsar authorized Austria to wait for a little bit and then attack France. That way, the Austrian army could occupy the Duchy of Warsaw and incircle Napoleon and block his supply chains, which could lead to his army being destroyed and maybe, Napoleon himself. In order to open up more fronts, the British prepared naval invasions in the Netherlands and Portugal.

Because Napoleon had so much more troops and Marshal's available, Napoleon took much longer to prepare and began his invasion in June 1813. Napoleon had just defeated the Russians in the Battle of Vitebsk when he suddenly was alerted of the Austrian Army crossing into Poland. Napoleon was furious and seeing Austria as a slightly greater threat, he quickly retreated to his forces in Lithuania, gathered 300,000 of them as well as some of his Marshals and went to go defeat Austria leaving the now remaining 339,252 forces to hold against Russia alongside the Prussian Army (which wasn't really doing much).

Because Napoleon was far from Vienna and that the Austrian Army had improved, Napoleon somewhat struggled. He managed to defeat the Austrians at the Battle of Wagram but Russian support motivated the Austrians to fight a little longer. Plus, Archduke Charles's forces hadn't been entirely defeated anyway so he could still continue fighting. Napoleon eventually reached the Hungarian capital of Buda which was being guarded by some Austrian forces and pro-Hapsburg Hungarians who were led by Prince Nikolaus II Esterházy. In the resulting battle, Esterházy was captured and Napoleon forced him to be King of Hungary to which he reluctantly agreed. He remained imprisoned in Buda until the end of the war.

Shortly there after, Austria agreed to an armistice. Napoleon left some of his forces near Austria to make sure that Austria didn't try to attack France again after which he sent some of his Marshals to go crush coalition-supported rebellions and the British. Napoleon then went to Galicia and Lodomeria and met with Polish Prince Józef Poniatowski. At this point, Napoleon was getting worried that the Russians would never surrender and so with some encouragement by Poniatowski, he decided to try to cease the grain-rich region of Little Russia so he could keep suppling his men with food.

Napoleon, despite fierce resistance from the locals, managed to push to the city of Kiev. However, the defending Cossacks were ordered to burn the grain fields so the French Army would starve and hopefully retreat. Napoleon then appointed Poniatowski as Governor of Kiev and also sent reinforcements to the other major occupied cities. He then returned to Lithuania but saw that his men hadn't really endured the winter too well and so Napoleon decided to temporarily halt any push into Russia. Alexander, believing that Napoleon was vulnerable because he wasn't pushing any further, sent his generals to go in for the kill. At the resulting Battle of Minsk, Napoleon obliterated the Russian Army.

On top of that embarrassing defeat, remember those grain fields that were set on fire? Well, the fire from the burning grain fields suddenly spread and grew out of control and as a result, destroying Russia's main food supply which lead to a famine. Napoleon's victory pretty much assured that he had won and so Alexander, despite the British pressuring him not to do so, agreed to an armistice. Alexander didn't just agree to an armistice only because his army had been defeated, he was also concerned that Napoleon would restore the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth (although he had no intention of doing so) and in general, didn't want a stronger or bigger Poland. Although Poland never actually gained any territory, it was still elevated to a Kingdom.

As punishment, Napoleon forced the Russians to pay a huge amount of money and rejoin the Continental System. And just to make sure that Russia wouldn't try to betray the French again, French forces occupied the Russian Governorates of Courland, Livonia, Estonia, and St. Petersburg (where most of Russia's trade with Britain happened) until Britain made peace. He also placed the Governorates of Volhynia, Podolia, and Kiev under French governance. As compensation well, there was no compensation.

When the British found out about this peace treaty, they were horrified. To the British, although Russia was an imperial rival, it was also seen as a useful ally because as demonstrated in the Great Northern War, invading Russia generally lead to disaster. Also, considering that the St. Petersburg Governorate contained the port city of Kronstadt which hosted the Baltic Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy, the British feared Napoleon would take the Baltic Fleet for himself and use it to invade Britain. And so, the British sent a large fleet of warships and obliterated the entire Baltic Fleet, effectively ruining their alliance with Russia.

Napoleon also forced Alexander to threaten Sweden, lest they made peace which they did shortly there afterwards although given its location, Sweden did not have harsh terms. Napoleon agreed to have mild terms such as allowing Sweden to be neutral instead of rejoining the Continental System and having Sweden allow the French forces to keep occupying Swedish Pomerania until Britain made peace where it would then be returned. Bernadotte or Charles John as he was now known also wanted Norway as compensation for the loss of Finland in 1809 but Napoleon refused to allow it because he didn't trust his former Marshal with such a big coastline but did agree to pay him instead.

Because of Napoleon's success against Russia, the Sublime Porte of the Ottoman Empire decided they should probably be on the winning side and so agreed to a non-aggression pact but not an alliance due to the fact that the Ottomans had just recently been defeated by the Russians and so were not ready for anymore war. However, Napoleon still tried to win over the Ottomans with friendly gestures like giving Bukovina as part of the partition of Austria.

Considering Russia's humiliating defeat happened on their own turf, resulted in St. Petersburg being occupied, and ruined the Russian economy caused riots and protests all across Russia. The ruined Russian economy and the blockade also forced Alexander to raise taxes which lead to a few peasant revolts. Some rebellions were minority groups like the Tatars who were taking advantage of a weakened Russia although these rebellions eventually failed. The Persians even managed to push the Russians back for a while. Russia's inability to crush the rebellions easily was mostly due to the high death toll from the war with France and that some soldiers flat out refused to fight because they now hated the Tsar.

There was also a small but significant rebellion in Smolensk. What set this rebellion apart from the rest was that it wasn't led by some minority group or angry peasants, it was lead by Serfs. The fact that the Serfs were revolting confirmed Alexander's worst fears: The ideas of the French Revolution were now seeping into Russia. However, Napoleon did not support this uprising and so after crushing the rebellion, Alexander appealed to Napoleon for help. Napoleon agreed to crush any and all uprisings against the Tsar (unless they were too far away) and even defend the Winter Palace with his best soldiers in exchange for Alexander pledging his loyalty to him. This in turn basically made the entirety of Russia a French client state.

Alexander's pledge of allegiance to Napoleon was meant to be kept a secret but an angry palace servant spread rumours about it and soon, a majority of people in Russia now knew about this. The Tsar was now extremely unpopular. Military failure was already bad enough. But now, he was nothing but a puppet to Napoleon which in turn led to more and more revolts. But since these revolts mostly happened near the French occupied or major cities, Napoleon kept his word and crushed all of the uprisings.

After a few months, Napoleon was growing impatient of the British and decided to further lean them towards peace. Napoleon forced the Tsar to make peace with the Persians so he could rebuild the alliance with them and agree to their demands such as Russian troops leaving the South Caucasus and recognizing Persian domination of the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti. This defeat was already humiliating but it was about to get worse. As the Russian troops were returning back home, they started to get attacked by the Ossetians and Kabardians who were hoping to get some revenge. These raids forced the Russians even further out of the Caucasus then they wanted and even saw the Ossetians and Kabardians regain territory.

Anti-Russian revolts also broke out in the Georgian Principalities mostly led by the former King of Imereti, Solomon II. The relatively small army there struggled to maintain order and so they were soon evacuated. Since the Russians had now basically abandoned the Georgian Principalities, about 5 seconds after, the Ottomans invaded. Solomon took this as the Ottomans helping him and so despite the Persians agreeing to recognize the restored Kingdom of Imereti, he agreed to pay tribute to the Ottomans. Now normally, such a situation would lead to another Ottoman-Persian War. However, the Persians were exhausted from their war with Russia and so they just kind of let it slide.

The British became enraged upon hearing of this peace treaty with the Persians because they wanted Persia in their sphere of influence but were also fearful of a French invasion of British India through Persia. And so, after LOTS of arguing in parliament and by George IV, the British begrudgingly sued for peace alongside Sicily and Sardinia officially ending the Napoleonic Wars.

Numerous treaties were signed for each member of the coalition and they weren't usually that harsh.

- Sicily gained the Balearic Islands as compensation for losing Naples

- Sardinia was paid as compensation for losing Piedmont

However, Austria's terms on the other hand, were very harsh. See, Napoleon felt that since he had let Austria grow too powerful and didn't want Austria to be powerful again, he decided to dismantle it to which:

- Poland gained Galicia and Lodomeria and some of Austrian Silesia

- Bavaria gained Salzburg in exchange for losing parts of Tyrol

- Austria's Coastal lands plus the Venetian territories were grouped together into the "Illyrian Provinces" which was a part of France

- The Kingdom of Hungary was officially made independent

- Napoleon would marry Austrian Emperor Francis's daughter (although mostly because Napoleon was desperate for an heir)

France and Russia signed the "Treaty of Eternal Peace" where both Empires agreed to leave each other alone. Russia also recognized the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Lithuania, and the duchies of Volhynia and Podolia in exchange for France leaving the occupied Governorates and returning the Duchy of Kiev. France would also leave the Duchy of Oldenburg and allow Russia to trade again. However, Alexander wasn't being protected by the French anymore and so after the Russian Imperial Guards returned to the Winter Palace, they were just done with him. And so, just like his father, he was murdered. As a result, he was succeeded by his younger brother Konstantin.

And just a bit later, France and Britain signed the Second Treaty of Amiens to which Britain didn't really have much of harsh terms, if not at all. The British would be allowed to keep pretty much everything they occupied with the exception of:

- the Dutch East Indies

- the Ionian Islands

- most of the Guyanas

The British also had to stop protecting Sicily and Portugal as well as cede Trinidad and Gibraltar to Spain and Ceylon to France. However, the British also wanted Napoleon to reduce his empire a little to make things fair. So Napoleon agreed to leave Northern Germany, the Kingdom of Holland, and pretty much any territory that the French Empire had annexed to maintain the Continental System. The British also wanted Napoleon to bring back Brunswick and the Principality of Nassau-Orange-Fulda, because the Duke of Brunswick Fredrick William had fought alongside the British and Prince Willem Frederik still needed compensation for not getting the Dutch throne back.

Napoleon agreed to bring back Nassau-Orange-Fulda on one condition: The House of Orange renounce its claim to the Dutch Throne which Willem Frederik reluctantly agreed to. To make sure that Hanover wasn't too big, Napoleon also gave independence to the Free Cities of Bremen, Hamburg, and Lübeck. and to make sure that the British would shut up about not getting any more land, Hanover was elevated to a Kingdom. The Grand Duchy of Frankfurt also regained Regensburg and the Principality of Erfurt as compensation for losing Nassau-Orange-Fulda.

Finally, the British wanted to make the Confederation of the Rhine less of a French puppet. Although Napoleon was allowed to keep his title of "Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine," after his death, the title of "Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine" would be elected through a process similar to the Holy Roman Empire (except without the bribing).

Europe

Confederation of the Rhine

With the British agreeing to stay out, France and Spain could finally begin the final parts of the treaty of Fontainebleau; making Portugal a puppet of Spain and dividing its empire based of their imperialist ambitions, strategic importance, and trade. Spain got Cabo Verde, São Tomé and Principe, The Azores and Madeira, and Angola. France got Mozambique, Portuguese India, Portuguese Guinea, Portuguese Timor, and Macau. As for Brazil, it was to remain autonomous to Portugal as Spain gaining Brazil could cause lots of revolt. Soon though, Brazil wouldn't be the only place with revolt in the americas...

French, Spanish, and British Empires

 

[Flosgon78]

Wonderful !

 

[Nivek]

No negative options in the poll? Really?

 

[Masterknife7]

No negative options in the poll? Really?

What do you mean?

 

[Nivek]

What do you mean?

That the most strong negative world is meh at best

 

[Masterknife7]

That the most strong negative world is meh at best

I wanted to feel more like my many hours of research was worth it when making this AH. "Could be better" is meant to mean "I don't like it" because idk, I guess I didn't want to be hurt more if people selected it...

 

[Masterknife7]

Also, if you don't like it, I'm free to take suggestions on how to improve my AH.

 

[Masterknife7]

A Decade of Peace (well, almost)
With a stroke of a pen by the British, more than two decades of war in Europe, was finally over. In the beginning, France was merely a kingdom. But now, it was an Empire. Napoleon was confident that due to his alliance with Persia, the British would not fight France for a long time, maybe even never again. This was comforting for the Emperor as he had major plans to grow the French Empire (the colonial one this time) and once again, rival the British. In 1816, Napoleon's new wife Marie Louise also bore him an heir; Prince Napoleon which he gave the title of "King of Rome". Napoleon also had even before Prince Napoleon was even born, began working on an enormous and magnificent palace which he called the "Palace of the King of Rome".

Desperate to keep his branch of the House of Bonaparte intact, Napoleon immediately sought to find his son a wife similar of age to marry in the future. Since his enemies were not willing to give them their daughters, Napoleon had to look towards his allies. In particular, he sought to keep the German states in the French orbit, especially the South German states. After a while, Napoleon made a deal with Charles, the Grand Duke of Baden where his recently born daughter Marie Amelie would marry Prince Napoleon once they were of age.

Napoleon was also confident that his enemies would never try to fight him ever again and had good reason to. After the Napoleonic Wars, the former Coalition members started blaming each other for failing to defeat Napoleon. Austria was mad at Russia because the Austrians believed they did not send enough troops, Russia was mad at Britain for destroying their Baltic Fleet, everyone was mad at Prussia for not joining in the War of the Fifth Coalition, and Britain was mad at all the continental European countries for suing for peace in the first place. Although this defeat was quite embarrassing for the British, considering that the terms weren't even that harsh, it was the kind that the British could quickly recover from. Austria and Russia's defeat's on the other hand, were much worse.

Austria lost an enormous amount of territory including their coastline and Hungary, their largest domain. And despite Prince Nikolaus II Esterházy initially remaining loyal to the Hapsburgs, that loyalty soon faded when after the war, not only did the Hapsburgs blame the Hungarians for losing the fight against Napoleon, they even removed Esterházy's title of "Imperial Prince". These actions angered Esterházy and lead to him renouncing his loyalty to the Hapsburgs. But this was a bad decision since generally, you shouldn't isolate your own country when it is also barely recovering from years of war. Desperate to fix Hungary's economy, Esterházy appealed to Napoleon for help and Napoleon agreed to open up trade, establishing a strong economic link between France and Hungary.

Russia's defeat was so bad, Tsar Alexander was hated to the point where he was murdered by his own guards and was succeeded by his younger brother Konstantin. Konstantin ascended the throne not with excitement since he was now the Tsar, but with reluctance since he didn't really want the throne and this was mainly due to the fact that his older brother and his father were murdered due to their relations with Napoleon. And considering Konstantin had supported the Russo-French Alliance, was a big fan of Napoleon, and even wanted a quick peace with France during its invasion, Konstantin was sure to keep his Pro-Napoleon sympathies to himself so he wouldn't end up like his father and brother.

Konstantin oversaw Russia somewhat recover from the Napoleonic Wars and he also decided to begin some reforms. He abolished serfdom in the Baltics and even drafted a constitution. Unlike his predecessors, Konstantin did not want to pursue an aggressive foreign policy because he wanted to focus on putting Russia back on its feet first. And so, when the Greek Rebellion of 1821 began, despite his younger brother Nicolas demanding him to do so, Konstantin did not intervene in the rebellion, partially also because he was concerned that Napoleon would back the Ottomans.

The British initially didn't want to help the Greeks but as the brutality of the Ottomans grew each day, Britain decided to aid them but eventually stopped also out of fears that the French would help the Ottomans. Resistance continued in Morea until 1827 when the Greek Rebellion was firmly crushed. However, resistance continued in the Aegean Islands and many Greek rebels even fled there to continue the fight. With there being clearly no chance that the Greeks would surrender, the Ottomans had no choice but to fight a brutal island hopping campaign until all Greek resistance was eliminated. Despite the Greeks fierce resistance, they were eventually crushed in 1828. However, this gave the Greek government just enough time to flee and set up a government in exile in London, who still supported the Greeks.

Upon the end of the rebellion, the roughly 50,000 remaining Greeks who had fought in the rebellion were rounded up and executed. Numerous Greek rebel leaders who had refused to flee with the Greek government were also captured and killed. And it wasn't just the rebels who were being killed, thousands of innocent civilians were also being brutally massacred and sold into slavery. These massacres caused many Greeks (mostly merchants) into fleeing to cities such as Marseilles, Livorno, Odessa, St. Petersburg, London, and Liverpool which had large Greek communities. These massacres were mostly committed by the Egyptians soldiers in Morea who were being led by the son of the Governor of Egypt Muhammad Ali Pasha, Ibrahim.

In the now decimated and empty villages and cities where Greeks once lived, anything Greek was destroyed. Historical structures built by Greeks? Burned to the ground. Greek Orthodox churches? Burned to the ground. Greek sculptures or paintings? Burned to the ground. The Greeks were understandably horrified and revolts broke out in nearly every Greek-populated City, even the ones decimated by the Ottomans and Egyptians. Despite these revolts being easily crushed, it showed that that the Greek national spirit, even through this time of darkness, would not be broken...

Spain but without the "S"
Although Europe was for the most part quite peaceful, the Americas were in absolute chaos. During the Napoleonic Wars, the British tried to weaken Spain by supporting rebellions in their colonies which were spurred on by the ideas of the French Revolution. Before, many people in the Spanish colonies were loyal to Spain. However, the success of Simon Bolivar and other leaders demonstrated that Spain was just too weak to defend their empire. And so, more and more revolts began. Things grew even worse when revolts in Brazil also started to spring up which were mostly lead by the Portuguese Prince Pedro. By the 1830s, it was very clear that Spain, despite several reconquest attempts, could no longer hold on to its colonies and so, they left.

Spain had tons of difficulty crushing these revolts because of political turmoil. A Spanish general named Rafael del Riego who was meant to be sent to the America's suddenly mutinied against Ferdinand VII, demanding the creation of a Spanish Constitution. After months of marching across Spain, Ferdinand finally agreed to create a Constitution in 1820. A few years went by after and as Ferdinand started losing more power, he feared a repeat of the French Revolution and so in 1822 he decided to attempt to flee to Portugal (because his older sister was Queen of Portugal) where he could then try to assemble an army and take back his power.

Unfortunately for Ferdinand, just like Louis XVI, he was recognized and takin back to Madrid where his already shaky reputation plummeted. Despite Ferdinand failing to escape, his siblings were successful with his younger brothers Carlos and Francisco de Paula taking separate routes to Portugal and his older sisters Maria Amalia and Maria Luisa who fled to Northern Lusitania. The Cortes were furious with Ferdinand and so they further reduced his powers so that he would be nothing but a figurehead. This angered the Royal Guards who revolted in Madrid but their revolt was quickly suppressed by the National Militia, the Spanish version of France's National Guard. Believing that Ferdinand was too dangerous to be out and about, the Cortes then decided to imprison Ferdinand and his family.

This angered the absolutists of Spain who just like Ferdinand feared a repeat of the French Revolution, a fear that was shared by Portugal and Lusitania and so in 1823, revolts and mutinies broke out all over Spain. During this turmoil, a mob of absolutists broke into the prison where Ferdinand was being held where they then freed him and his family. Upon hearing of the King's escape, the Spanish Cortes was furious and soon began calling for the King and even the entire Spanish royal family to be executed once he was captured.

Spain was now embroiled in a brutal Civil War. Luckily for the Cortes, most of the army actually supported their cause. And while most of the Great Powers backed the absolutists and wanted to intervene, Napoleon wasn't interested in the conflict and so they pretty much did nothing more than declare their support. But anyway, after Ferdinand was released, he raised an army of absolutist volunteers and attempted to march on Madrid, but after some fierce resistance by the National Militia, he was defeated. The tides further shifted in favour of the radicals when Portugal also descended into Civil War after the death of the King John VI and had to withdraw its support alongside Lusitania.

Fearing that they would lose, the absolutists desperately launched a fierce guerrilla war campaign with the aim of weakening the Spanish government until they could strike back and capture Madrid where Ferdinand could then be restored. But without much support, the absolutists weren't able to make any significant progress. Fighting continued until 1830 when the last of the uprisings were crushed and Ferdinand was captured. With their position now much more secure, the Cortes decided to put Ferdinand on trial where he was found guilty of high treason. Despite many in the Cortes wanting to outright abolish the monarchy and even execute Ferdinand, they soon grew fearful that this would cause Napoleon to want to intervene and so they decided to simply pressure Ferdinand to abdicate which he did.

The Cortes began introducing numerous reforms such as allowing freedom of the press as well as abolishing slavery. They also purged the Spanish army to avoid anymore mutinies and they also expanded the amount of people in the National Militia to the tens of thousands. Aside from reform, the Cortes also looked towards diplomacy. The Cortes suddenly remembered that they were still at war with their own colonies and so diplomats were sent to the America's to negotiate a peace treaty. After a while, it was agreed that Spain would recognize the independence of the former Spanish colonies but also keep good relations and continue trading with them.

Upon Ferdinand's abdication, the Absolutists flocked to his younger brother Infante Carlos and thought that he would succeed Ferdinand since he was Ferdinand's oldest younger brother. But the Cortes did not trust Carlos because he was a fierce absolutist who believed in the "divine right of kings" (which is also why the Absolutists wanted him) and so they instead decided that Ferdinand's youngest brother Infante Francisco de Paula would be better since he had more liberal views and was supported by the liberals of Spain (although he had previously supported Ferdinand's absolutist views). So Francisco de Paula returned from Portugal and was crowned King of Spain. Considering that Carlos and his sons was technically next in line, Carlos and his supporters became enraged. As a result, he declared himself to be King Carlos V and begun an insurrection against the Spanish government but it was soon crushed by the National Militia and so Carlos fled to France.

The effects of this liberal Spain were felt all across Europe. Many countries in Europe suddenly found themselves having to deal with many protesters who were calling for reform and in some cases, much more radical things such as the end of the monarchy or even outright independence. These protests would also sometimes lead to a revolt. This wave of Revolution was known as the Revolutions of 1830. In most cases, the protesters were fired upon but in some cases, the government would agree to the demands of the people such as in Hungary, where people demanded that King Nikolaus Esterházy abdicate mostly due to recently leaked scandals involving his womanizing as well as his lavish spending which in turn made him deeply unpopular. Esterházy eventually caved into the pressure and abdicated in favour of his son Pál Antal Esterházy and would die only three years later.

The German Election of 1831 and the Four Year's War
By this point, Napoleon was approaching the end of his life and so he began preparing for his death and succession. He had two final orders: The first was for his son to see him and the second was to put the French Army on high alert. Napoleon explained to his son as much as he could about France's political situation so he would know how to respond to certain events. In 1831, Napoleon died and Konstantin followed suite later that year. Prince Napoleon who by the way, was only 16 years old, was crowned Napoleon II, Emperor of France and Konstantin's younger brother Nicolas was crowned Emperor of Russia soon after. Also, the Kingdom of Italy ended its personal union with France and crowned Auguste de Beauharnais as the new King of Italy, as Napoleon wanted.

Another important change happened to another one of France's puppet states. The Kingdom of Holland had been suffering under French dominance and despite the end of the Continental System in 1815, still hadn't fully recovered. Louis Bonaparte had tried to get his brother Napoleon to grant more autonomy to the Kingdom of Holland but Napoleon would never allow it. Now officially, the Kingdom of Holland was still a French puppet state even after Napoleon's death. But unofficially, since Napoleon II didn't really try to exert influence in the Kingdom of Holland, it was basically independent. Louis made sure that the Kingdom of Holland would be neutral no matter what; a fact that will become important very soon...

Now, when the British signed the Second Treaty of Amiens, both sides were pretty happy. Napoleon was able to secure a long peace and the British gained the Cape Colony which the monarchy had had its eyes on since the 1700s. However, no treaty or concessions would wash away the simple fact that the balance of power was still very much in favour of their biggest rival. However, the British noticed that French influence was diminishing faster than they expected which they saw as an opportunity to strike at some point in the future.

The problem was, despite the French Empire’s diminishing influence and the deaths of many of its Marshal's, its overall military might was still mostly the same. France also held the resource-rich Rhineland, had numerous key allies, and a loyal population. Well, mostly that is because there were still some Royalists still around, mostly in the more rural and western parts of France. Despite their support for the heir to the Bourbon Dynasty aka Charles, the Count of Artois, considering the power of the French Army, there seemed like there would be no chance for the Bourbons to be restored.

That was until Napoleon’s death in 1831. Many Royalists were hoping that with the death of Europe's greatest general, the Great Powers would invade and restore the Bourbons. Napoleon’s death also quickly caught the attention of the British who, although coming to terms with the fact that the Bonapartes couldn't be ousted, they could try to weaken the French Empire with similar to how the Battle of Lepanto of 1571 was done not to completely destroy the Ottoman Empire, but to simply slow it down so it would be less of a threat.

Since Napoleon was now dead, the Confederation of the Rhine now had to pick a new Protector. The election system in the Confederation of the Rhine was quite a bit different to the Imperial Elections of the Holy Roman Empire. The major German State leaders were designated as the "successors" of the main head of the German states and as such, would decide on which one of them would be the successor. Unlike with the Holy Roman Empire however, there were efforts made to avoid bribing from happening, mostly by Napoleon who didn't want the Hapsburgs to just bribe everyone.

The current electors of the Confederation of the Rhine also known as the "Collage of Kings" were:
- William IV of the United Kingdom and Hanover
- Leopold of Baden
- Ludwig of Bavaria
- Achille of Berg
- Louis II of Hesse
- Auguste of Frankfurt and Italy
- Anthony of Saxony
- Jerome of Westphalia
- William of Württemberg
- Leopold of Würzburg

The former coalition members saw the election in Germany as an opportunity to pounce on the French. Despite their differences, they decided to work together and vote for Leopold of Würzburg who was a Hapsburg. Then, Austria could basically use Leopold as a puppet to unite the German states against France and at the same time, restrengthen their control over the German states. Also, if Jerome were to win, he'd also be basically a French puppet and that was something the Great Powers could simply never allow.

At the start of the election, William IV immediately voted for Leopold of Würzburg and so did Ludwig. Leopold of Baden and William of Württemberg also voted for Leopold of Würzburg. Since only Anthony, Achille, and Auguste voted for Jerome, it seemed that maybe Leopold of Würzburg would win the election. However, Louis II voted for Jerome and thus, it was a tie. And so, it was decided that the Princes of the Confederation of the Rhine also referred to as the "Collage of Princes" would vote. The German Princes didn't really like the Hapsburgs and as a result, they mostly voted for Jerome which meant now he was the Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine.

The Great Powers were infuriated. As an excuse to stop Jerome from becoming Protector, they claimed the French rigged the election by bribing the princes but when this accusation failed, the Great Powers considered intervening as the balance of power in Europe was now even more unbalanced and especially now since France was currently unprepared for war. Fearing that the Great Powers may attack, Jerome signed the Treaty of Kassel with the French which allowed French troops to move freely throughout the Confederation of the Rhine which angered some of the German states. But since France and the Confederation of the Rhine were now prepared for war, the Great Powers had to back down. But this did not mean war was not going to happen...

Ever since the Napoleonic Wars, Ferdinand III of Sicily always kept a claim on the throne of Naples but Napoleon had made it very clear to Ferdinand that he wasn't going to give it back to him. Upon Napoleon’s death, his grandson Ferdinand IV saw an opportunity to get the throne of Naples back. Ferdinand pressed his claim to the throne of Naples and then sent a letter to Joseph Bonaparte asking him if he could have Naples. Joseph’s response was a resounding no and he also requested Ferdinand drop his claim to the throne. This was because Joseph Bonaparte was actually quite popular in Naples and the people there didn't want him to go.

Ferdinand IV was furious and so after Joseph Bonaparte left Naples to attend the coronation of Napoleon II, Ferdinand sent spies into Naples with the purpose of starting a rebellion, overthrowing Joseph's appointed governor, and have a new government ask him to annex Naples which he felt was a more subtle way of getting his throne back. Plus, it was a win-win. If the rebellion was crushed, Sicily would be backed by the Great Powers who by this point, were ready for a war. If Joseph yielded, that would mean Ferdinand would get his throne. Despite Joseph taking longer to return because of the rising tensions in Europe, the rebellion didn't really go well and was crushed by the time Joseph returned to Naples. Through a little torture, the spies confessed to Ferdinand's plan which angered Joseph Bonaparte. With no apology by Ferdinand IV, the French began assembling a fleet to attack Sicily.

Unsurprised, Ferdinand requested that the British stop the French fleet before it was too late. And the British agreed to help because at this point, they were itching to go to war with France and they wanted to throw the first punch. Problem was, they were obligated by the Second Treaty of Amiens to not protect Sicily. Well, no problem! The British never really cared about that part of the treaty anyway because to them, it wasn't for the French to dictate who the British could protect and not protect. Without any hesitation, the British broke the treaty and sent warships towards the small French fleet heading towards Sicily and obliterated them.

This angered Joseph Bonaparte and the people of Naples as well as Napoleon II and so he declared war on Britain who immediately began assembling a coalition. Luckily, Sardinia, Prussia and various other German states were all too happy to help weaken the French Empire. Even the Russians agreed to join as Nicolas was devoutly anti-French. With the coalition ready, the Four Years War also referred to as the "War of the Sixth Coalition" had begun only a month after Napoleon's death. A little while later, the Royalists also started their uprisings in the west of France.

Despite being surrounded, Napoleon II was genuinely excited about going to war because this meant he could finally bring his love for war to an actual battlefield. However, Napoleon II was not exactly healthy. He had previously been stricken with bouts of illness which concerned his doctors who suggested that the young Emperor should not participate in any kind of battle. Napoleon II however, refused and suggested that his doctors shut up and not tell him what to do. And so, Napoleon II took command of the Grande Armée and prepared for battle. He also ordered that the Palace of the King of Rome be prepared for him when he returned.

The overall strategy for the coalition was similar to the Fifth Coalition: Force the French and their allies on as many fronts as possible. Alongside the German and Polish campaigns, the British tried to add more fronts. The British and Russians managed to get Austria in the war despite Austrian Emperor Francis's hesitation as well as the South German states. And Francis's Foreign Minister Klemens von Metternich was very helpful since his pro-Ottoman Empire stance helped keep the Ottomans (who were by this point an ally of the French) out of the war. The British begun the war by trying to capture Corsica but they failed miserably. But after capturing the Ionian Islands and the Montenegrin Coast, the British and Sicilian forces launched naval invasions into Naples which actually succeeded in landing although the British didn't make much progress and the British and Sicilians only got as far as Bari.

The Russians weren't doing much better. As part of the plan to defeat the French, the Russians were tasked with crushing Poland. The Russians initially expected that Poland would collapse the second they invaded but despite winning several victories against the Poles, the Polish Army managed to hold off the Russians until winter. This was not exactly ideal as the coalition wanted Russia to overrun Poland quickly so it could turn its full might towards the French.

Poland's greater performance in the war compared to previous wars was due to multiple reasons. First, the Polish Monarchy had a mass conscription law policy similar to France's "Levée en masse" although some didn't like the policy. Second, due to the recent acquisition of Galicia and Lodomeria, Poland's population had nearly doubled which allowed for a larger amount of manpower. Third, the abolishment of Serfdom also allowed for even more manpower to which its adversary Russia had still not done.

The French made sure to make it even harder for the Russians to turn their full might towards them by inviting the Persians and the Ottomans into the war. The Persians had by this point, recovered from the Russo-Persian war of 1804 and had also started trading with the French and through this trade, had even acquired modern firearms. However, the French were unable to get the Ottomans help despite improving relations. The Persians started by launching an invasion of Afghanistan to scare the British out of the war and also to try to bring Afghanistan back into the Persian sphere of influence although little came of it. It did get the attention of the Russians who declared war on Persia in 1831. With the Russians now unable to turn their full might towards Persia, the fighting in the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti was for the most part, a stalemate. The Persians as a result, turned more attention to Afghanistan where they then laid siege to Herat. Under orders by the French, the Persians also made sure to raid Russian-occupied lands to keep the Russians focused on them rather than Poland.

Unlike the rest of the coalition, Prussia was far more successful in the beginning because this was not the ill-prepared Prussia from the Fourth Coalition. This was the Prussia which had been modernizing for more than a decade. The Prussians were able to make very quick progress and quickly capture the cities of Cottbus and Magdeburg. The Prussians also managed to capture Leipzig and while encircling a Westphalian Army, captured Halle. Prussian armies were sent to fight in Hanover and push the Westphalian troops to Detmold. However, before the Prussians could keep going, the French sent some reinforcements and JUST managed to hold them back. The Prussians also invaded Poland and captured Poznań, Danzig, and Siewierz but didn't go any further due to them needing more troops for the Northern German frontier.

Now despite Napoleon II not being as skilled as his father, he had distinguished himself as quite a decent general whose love for war reminded many Marshals of Napoleon himself. Despite this, the Empire was still preforming poorly and it was causing discontent with the monarchy. This eventually culminated in a rebellion in Paris in 1832. This political turmoil was luckily, not too bad as France easily crushed the revolt. Despite this revolt in Paris being crushed, the Royalist Rebellions were still going on and some were starting to doubt that the French could win this war...

But as the war dragged on, there was a HUGE influx of Frenchmen joining the Army. This was mainly due to the Royalist Rebellions. See, the British began sending TONS of supplies to the rebels to keep them fighting, to which many people came to believe that this meant the British were trying to restore the Ancien Regime. This was followed by the French Empire creating propaganda about the British restoring the Bourbons which further convinced the French that they needed to fight for their country. And because of this, the French were able to very easily replace their losses. With the increasing French numbers, the Royalist Rebellions were soon overwhelmed and defeated.

And despite the French being initially stunned by the success of the Prussian Army, the French Army was able to get its act together and even launch a successful offensive in Saxony that saw the recapture of Leipzig. After months of back and forth attacking, the French launched the Leipzig Offensive which saw Napoleon II leading the Grande Armée to Berlin. The several battles leading up to Berlin weakened the Prussian Army and so they were forced to simply abandon Berlin. Napoleon II's successful march on Berlin was a huge propaganda win for the French and it also severely demoralized the coalition. After the capture of Berlin, the French Army then split up into two with one army sent to aid the Poles, and the other army sent to invade the Mecklenburg states and parts of Prussian Pomerania, the former of which sued for peace shortly there afterwards.

This sudden success by the French surprised the Austrians considering the French were previously barely holding them off. Seeing the caution of the Austrian Armies as an opportunity, the French sent delegates to Austria to negotiate with Francis and Metternich. And it was agreed that in exchange for giving the Illyrian Provinces to Austria (and allowing trade between Hungary and France) and not punishing them, Austria would pull out of the war. And sure enough, the Austrians took the Illyrian Provinces and left the war. This absolutely horrified the coalition and also the South German States because now they were about to get overrun by hundreds of thousands of Frenchmen. The South German States as a result, sued for peace without any further bloodshed but this didn't save them from getting punished.

With the Austrians and now the South German states out of the war, France could now finally turn its full attention towards Prussia and the North German states. However, Napoleon II wouldn't have much time to celebrate since he suffered from yet another bout of illness. This time, he was heavily pressure by not just his doctors but also his Marshals and even his own men to rest. Since his soldiers didn't want to fight for a sick Emperor, Napoleon II extremely reluctantly agreed to rest under the condition that he could go to wherever the peace negotiations were held upon the end of the war. He was taken to the nearest French controlled hospital where he hoped to stay for only a few months but was forced to stay until the end of the war although until then, he was allowed to have visitors to keep him company. Since he couldn't really rule, his mother Marie Louise sorta acted as a temporary regent.

And with Austria out of the war, Metternich was no longer able to negotiate with the Ottomans. Previously, the Ottomans had secretly allowed communications between the French and the Persians under the condition that the Ottomans check these messages before they went to either France or Persia because the Ottomans were paranoid about the Franco-Persian alliance. But, after the French sweetened the deal by promising Bessarabia and Yedisan as well as some cash, the Ottomans finally agreed to help and so they declared war on Russia in 1833.

The main reason that the Ottomans had hesitated to go to war though was the Greek independence movement. During the Greek Rebellion of 1821, many in the French government wanted to help the Greeks but were unable to persuade Napoleon to get involved. Now the young Napoleon II was Emperor, if there was a major Greek uprising, he might be persuaded to support them. But despite these issues, the Ottomans were actually quite helpful in the war as another front against the Russians put even less pressure on the Poles who were planning a huge counter-offensive against the Russians. Unfortunately for the Ottomans, the war gave the Greeks an opportunity to rebel and so they did shortly there after.

By this point, the fronts in Northern Germany were beginning to collapse. After combined attacking from Westphalia, Brunswick, and Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the Northern German frontier collapsed and Hanover was occupied. A large part of the Prussian Army was captured in Hanover although some managed to escape by boat. The French Army then continued pursuing the Prussian Armies in the East. The French demanded the Russians sue for peace but Nicolas refused thus continuing the war with British support. In 1835, the Polish launched an offensive which saw major success with Polish troops pushing the Russians back to the Neman River and even the city of Minsk. Under orders by the French, the Polish troops then dogpiled into East Prussia where Prussian King Frederick William III and his family were hiding. After a short battle at Königsberg, Frederick William III was captured by the Polish which resulted in the Prussians surrendering. Not long after, Herat fell to the Persians and with the road to India now wide open, the British made peace alongside Sicily and Sardinia. Now without British support, Russia sued for peace and also annexed Kabardia and Ossetia because why not.

Negotiations took a while but ultimately led to the Treaty of Paris of 1835. In order to avoid war with the British, Napoleon II pressured Joseph Bonaparte to abdicate as King of Naples and let Ferdinand and his descendants rule Naples again and in exchange, Napoleon II made Joseph Bonaparte the heir to the French throne. To make sure that France couldn't use its military to defend the Confederation of the Rhine, Jerome Bonaparte was also forced to repeal the Treaty of Kassel and would not be allowed to make any treaty like that ever again.

In exchange, Nassau-Orange-Fulda lost Dortmund, the British lost Osnabruck, Prussia lost a tiny part of Silesia to Saxony, and Poland annexed West Prussia and gained Kiev as a separate duchy but in personal union with Poland. Since Leopold of Würzburg was more or less a puppet of the coalition, he wasn't punished. Baden also didn't like French influence but was more or less forced to join the coalition as it didn't want to be absorbed into Bavaria who alongside Württemberg were punished with Bavaria losing the remainder of Tyrol and paying a large amount of money and Württemberg also paying a large amount of money.

Persia also made peace with the British and Russians and gained Herat. The Ottomans made peace with the Russians and as they hoped, they gained Bessarabia and Yedisan and some cash. To keep Baden allied to France and since Napoleon II was now old enough, he also married Marie Amalie. After this marriage, Napoleon II and his wife finally moved into the Palace of the King of Rome and held a huge party there to celebrate France's triumph over the Great Powers.

This war, despite being relatively short, demonstrated that the Prussian Army had significantly improved since the War of the Fourth Coalition although now with the loss of West Prussia, Frederick William III had to change his title back to "King in Prussia" because he was no longer King of all of Prussia. This war also cemented the Bonapartes as the legitimate Royal House of France although there still were some Royalists left over even after this war. This also showed the power of the Franco-Persian Alliance which swayed the British from starting any more wars. Napoleon II also became quite popular and many people even began comparing him to his father.

An Independent Greece
Despite the brutal aftermath of the failed Greek Rebellion of 1821, Greek disereMahmud II had not entirely destroyed the Greeks nor had he destroyed Greek culture. This was manly due to the Greek Orthodox Church and the Greek independence organization Filiki Eteria whose surviving members while preparing for another major uprising, also sought to preserve as much of Greek culture as possible. They did actions such as hiding Greek artifacts, hiding Greek priests, writing and safeguarding documents about Greeks, and constantly revolting to give the Ottoman authorities a headache. And as Napoleon began nearing the end of his life, Mahmud decided to halt the Greek Genocide in 1830 to avoid an intervention by their successors. Regardless, around 500,000 Greeks; one-fifth of all Greeks in the Ottoman Empire, were deported or killed.

The halting of the Greek Genocide gave the revolutionaries a bit of breathing room since now they could solely focus on rebellion. And Mahmud actually kind of helped because since he had killed so many Greek rebels, he ironically helped unite them; turning them from a bunch of separated groups who sometimes hated each other to a truly united independence movement. And not long after, the Greeks were already ready to revolt and were simply waiting for an opportunity to do so. When the Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia and Ottoman troops left the Greek cities to go fight, the Greeks took their chances and once again rebelled against Ottoman rule in 1833. In response, Mahmud II declared the resuming of the Greek Genocide. In order to avoid more Greeks being killed, Britain and Russian quickly jumped onto helping the Greeks and even after the Four Year's War ended, the British did not make peace and the Russians were quick to declare war on the Ottoman Empire in 1836.

Despite fighting alongside the Ottomans in the Four Year's War, the French had pleaded to the Ottoman Sultan to leave the Greek people be and even grant more autonomy to them like with the Serbs. But despite pressure from Britain, Russia, and now France, Sultan Mahmud ignored these pleas. Napoleon II was outraged and so despite previously fighting alongside each other, France declared war on the Ottoman Empire and awkwardly joined the British and Russian's alliance against the Ottomans. This new alliance had two main goals in mind: Invade the Ottoman Empire and save the Greeks from total extinction and establish a fully independent Greek State. As for the leader of this new Greek State, the Great Powers chose Leopold of Saxe-Coburg who agreed to rule under the condition that the islands of Samos, Crete, and Chios were added to the Greek State.

The Alliance started by severally damaging the Egyptian-Ottoman Fleet. With naval dominance secured, the French landed troops in Morea, the British landed troops in Samos, Crete, and Chios, and the Russians invaded the Ottoman Empire's recently regained lands. As you can imagine, the combined attacking from the three major powers of Europe was pretty much impossible to deal with and so, Mahmud II sued for peace in 1839. The Ottomans were punished with France gained Algeria and Russia gained Yedisan and the Circassian coast as well as influence over the Georgian Principalities. And finally, after 389 years of Ottoman rule, the Greeks finally had an independent state. Only a few months after this humiliating defeat, Mahmud II died and was succeeded by his son Abdulmejid.

A Rebellious Vassel
Muhammad Ali had been eyeing Ottoman Syria ever since his seized power in 1805. So when the Egyptian-Ottoman Fleet was damaged by the Great Powers, Muhammad Ali demanded that the Sultan give him Ottoman Syria as compensation for the damage done to the Egyptian-Ottoman Fleet. He was refused and so, Muhammad Ali revolted in 1841. The Ottomans did absolutely terribly and in the Battle of Konya, the Grand Vizier Reşid Mehmed was even captured by Muhammad Ali's son Ibrahim. The Ottomans could not stop Ibrahim because the Ottoman Army was significantly weakened and still had not recovered from fighting in the Four Year's War and the Greek Rebellions. Abdulmejid who was only 18 years old, desperately appealed to the Great Powers for help but they refused.

After the Battle of Konya, Muhammad Ali ordered the newly rebuilt Egyptian Navy to secure the Dardanelles and Bosporus straits. Ibrahim continued advancing through Anatolia, crushing any army that dared appose him until he reached the Bosporus. After a brief naval skirmish, the Egyptians secured the Bosporus and carried Ibrahim and his army to the other side, allowing Ibrahim to land in Constantinople and capture it with little to no resistance. When Abdulmejid heard about Ibrahim's landing in Constantinople, he was quick to surrender. Ibrahim however, was not done with his ambitions. Acting against his father wishes, Ibrahim forced Abdulmejid to abdicate and declared himself Sultan. Capitalizing on the situation, the Senussi Order led revolts against the Ottomans and managed to kick the Ottoman authorities out of Tripolitania where they then declared the creation of the Emirate of Senusiyya.

To avoid war with his own son, Muhammad Ali invited Ibrahim and Abdulmejid to the Egyptian capital. In the resulting Treaty of Cairo of 1843, the Ottomans agreed to recognize Egypt as an independent Sultanate with Muhammad Ali as its Sultan and give Ottoman Syria and on top of that, Tripolitania (which was now ruled by the Senussi Order), Arabia, and even Tunisia. In exchange, Abdulmejid would keep his throne despite Ibrahim's protests and that Muhammad Ali initially wanted him deposed and finally, the alliance between Egypt and the Ottoman Empire would continue despite their differences. Not long after, Muhammad Ali sent a letter to the Emir of Senusiyya where he demanded tribute since they were his vassal now. The Emir of Senusiyya who was also the leader and founder of the Senussi Order aka Muhammad ibn Ali al-Senussi refused to pay tribute since he did not like Muhammad Ali. In response, Muhammad Ali sent Ibrahim to deal with the Senussi Order. Since Ibrahim had fought Arabs in the desert before, he didn't have much trouble fighting the Senussi Order. After only a few months, Ibrahim was able to easily defeat the Senussi and so Al-Senussi sued for peace. Despite being humiliated and forced to pay extra tribute, Egypt ruled with a light touch and didn't even take any territory.

 

[Flosgon78]

A Decade of Peace (well, almost)
With a stroke of a pen by the British, more than two decades of war in Europe, was finally over. In the beginning, France was merely a kingdom. But now, it was an Empire. Napoleon was confident that due to his alliance with Persia, the British would not fight France for a long time, maybe even never again. This was comforting for the Emperor as he had major plans to grow the French Empire and once again, rival the British. Also, in order to strengthen his alliance with Poland and get an heir, he married the daughter of Fredrick Augustus of Saxony and Poland aka Maria Augusta.

Napoleon was also confident that his other enemies would never try to fight him ever again and had good reason to. After the Napoleonic Wars, the former Coalition forces never really rebuilt relations with each other mostly due to them blaming each other for losing. Austria was mad at Russia and believed they simply did not send enough troops, Russia was mad at Britain for destroying their Baltic Fleet, everyone was mad at Prussia for not joining in the War of the Fifth Coalition, and Britain was basically mad at all the continental countries for suing for peace in the first place.

Although this defeat was quite embarrassing for the British, considering that the terms weren't even that harsh, it was the kind that the British could quickly recover from. Austria and Russia's defeat's on the other hand, were much worse. The Austrians lost their largest domain Hungary as well as the coastline. Although Austria and Hungary still kept good relations, it was still a major loss.

Russia's defeat was so bad, Tsar Alexander was hated to the point where he was murdered by his own guards. His successor, his younger brother Konstantin was crowned Konstantin I, Emperor of Russia. Konstantin ascending the throne not with happiness, but with constant fear. This was because his older brother was murdered due to his relations with Napoleon. And considering Konstantin supported the Russo-French Alliance, was a big fan of Napoleon, and even wanted a quick peace with France during its invasion, Konstantin was very careful at keeping his Pro-Napoleonic sympathies to himself.

Konstantin oversaw Russia somewhat recover from the Napoleonic Wars and he also decided to begin some reforms. He abolished serfdom in the Baltics and even embraced some of the ideals of the French Revolution and drafted a constitution. Unlike his predecessors, he wasn't conquering any land except for Siberia because Konstantin wanted to focus on putting Russia back on its feet. And so, despite his younger brother Nicolas demanding him to do so, Konstantin did not intervene in the Greek Revolt and neither did Napoleon simply because he didn't care for the rebellion and still favoured close relations with the Ottomans.

This left only the British, who could only provide naval assistance but could do nothing else. And so, the Greek Revolt was brutally crushed and the Ottomans did not hesitate to massacre more Greeks and sell woman and children into slavery. Many of the Greek rebels were executed while some managed to flee into exile. However, this would not break the Greek national spirit and the exiled Greeks began plotting for another uprising...

Although Europe was for the most part quite peaceful, the Americas were in absolute chaos. During the Napoleonic Wars, the British wanted to weaken Spain by supporting rebellions in their colonies and leaders such as Simon Bolivar. Before, many people in the Spanish Colonies were loyal to Spain. However, the success of Simon Bolivar and other leaders demonstrated that Spain was simply too weak to defend their empire. And so, more and more revolts began. Things grew even worse when revolts in Brazil also started to spring up which were mostly lead by the Portuguese Prince Pedro. By the 1830s, it was very clear that Spain, despite numerous reconquest attempts, could no longer hold on to its colonies and so, they left.
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Back in Europe, Napoleon by this point was getting older and he began preparing for his succession. Since Napoleon had no children, he made his older brother Joseph Bonaparte heir apparent to the French throne. Napoleon also put the French Army on high alert just in case his former enemies tried to attack. In 1831, Napoleon died and Konstantin followed suite later that year. Joseph was later crowned Joseph I of France and Konstantin's younger brother Nicolas was crowned Nicolas I of Russia. Also, the Kingdom of Italy ended its personal union with France and crowned Auguste de Beauharnais as the new King of Italy.

The French War of Succession
When the British signed the Second Treaty of Amiens, both sides were pretty happy. Napoleon was able to secure a long peace and the British gained the Cape Colony which the monarchy had its eyes on since the 1700s. The British however, didn't like that despite their efforts, the balance of power was very unbalanced and worse, in favour of their biggest rival. However, the British noticed that French influence was diminishing very quickly. The Franco-Spanish Alliance near immediately broke apart because Ferdinand VII was still harbouring some French Royalists and since he refused to hand them over, Napoleon broke off all diplomatic relations with Spain, forcing them to crush the rebellions in their colonies on their own.

The thing was, although the French Empire’s influence was being weakened, its overall military might was still the same. France also still had some key allies and a loyal population. Well mostly that is because there were still some Royalists still around, mostly in the more rural and western parts of France. However, these Royalists wouldn't be able to do anything or have a leader.

That was until Napoleon’s death in 1831. The heir to the French throne was residing in Sicily and his mother Marie-Caroline wanted him on the French throne. So she went to France in disguise and managed to gather a large group of Royalists to help. Napoleon’s death also quickly caught the attention of the British who, although coming to terms with the fact that the Bonapartes couldn't be ousted, they could try to weaken the French Empire with war similar to how the Battle of Lepanto was done not to completely destroy the Ottoman Empire, but to simply slow it down so it would be less of a threat. However, the British needed some allies and more than that, a reason to attack France. Luckily for the British, a reason would soon be found…

Ever since the Napoleonic Wars, Ferdinand III of Sicily always kept a claim on the throne of Naples. Napoleon had told Ferdinand like a million times that he wasn't going to give it back to him. Upon Napoleon’s death, he saw an opportunity to get his rightful throne back. Ferdinand pressed his claim to the throne of Naples and then sent a letter to Joseph Bonaparte asking him if he could have Naples since Joseph was now Emperor. Joseph’s response was a resounding no and he also told Ferdinand to shut up. Ferdinand was furious and so, he asked the British if they could help.

The British, who were concerned about French influence in the Mediterranean (and French influence in general), agreed and began assembling a coalition. Luckily, numerous countries like Sardinia, Sweden, and Prussia were all too happy to help weaken the French Empire. Even the Russians and Spanish agreed to join as Nicolas I was devoutly anti-French and despite Ferdinand VII slowly dying, he agreed to join the war. With the coalition ready, Ferdinand III declared war on France, beginning the War of the French Succession. A little while later, the Royalists also started their uprings in the west of France.
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The overall strategy for the coalition was similar to the Fifth Coalition: Force the French on as many fronts as possible. Alongside the Spanish, German, and Polish campaigns, the British tried to add more fronts. The British first tried to capture Corsica and invade Holland but both attempts failed. However, after capturing the Ionian Islands and the Montenegrin Coast, the British and Sicilian forces launched naval invasions into Naples which succeeded although the British didn't make much progress and the British and Sicilians only got as far as Bari.

The Russians and Spanish weren't doing much better. The Russians at first made good progress during the invasion of the Polish buffer states but as the Russians drew closer to Poland itself, the Russians encountered much fiercer resistance and although the Russians were able to take most of Lithuania, Volhynia and Podolia, the Poles continued resisting, probably because Joseph Bonaparte had promised them Kiev as a reward for keeping the Russians back. This was not exactly ideal as the coalition wanted Poland to fall quickly so Russia could turn its full might towards the French The Spanish also barely made any progress and really only managed to occupy Roussillon.

The French made sure to make it harder for the Russians to turn their full might towards them by inviting the Persians and the Ottomans into the war. Persia had by this point, had recovered from the Russo-Persian war of 1804 and had also started trading with the French and had even acquired modern firearms. Joseph Bonaparte was unable to get the Ottomans help. The Persians started by launching an invasion of Afghanistan to scare the British out of the war and also to try to bring Afghanistan back into the Persian sphere of influence although little came of it. It did get the attention of the Russians who were pressured by the British to send some armies into the Caucasus to help which they did.

The Russians marched through Kabardian and Ossetian lands with little resistance because due to a major outbreak of disease, the populations of Kabardia and Ossetia were drastically reduced and there were barely any people left as a result. With the Russians unable to turn their full might towards Persia, the Russian armies were unable to make much progress and the fighting in the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti was for the most part, a stalemate. The Persians as a result, turned more attention to Afghanistan where they then laid siege to Herat.

Unlike the rest of the coalition, Prussia was far more successful because this was not the Prussia from the Fourth Coalition. This was the Prussia which had been modernizing for more than a decade. The Prussians were able to make very quick progress and quickly capture the cities of Cottbus and Magdeburg. The Prussians also managed to capture Leipzig and while encircling a Westphalian Army, captured Halle. Prussian armies were sent to fight in Hanover and push the Westphalian troops to Detmold. However, before the Prussians could keep going, the French JUST managed to hold them back. The Prussians also invaded Poland and captured Posen, Danzig, and Siewierz but were unable to go further due to them needing more troops for the Northern German frontier.

But as the war dragged on, there was a HUGE influx of Frenchmen joining the Army. This was mainly due to the Royalist Rebellions. See, the British began sending supplies to the rebels to keep them fighting, to which many people came to believe that this meant the British were trying to restore the Ancien Regime. And to be fair this was pretty much true because the British made a deal with Marie-Caroline where her son would become King of France upon victory by the coalition. This was followed by the French Empire creating propaganda about the British restoring the Bourbons which further convinced the French that they needed to fight for their country. And because of this, the French were able to very easily replace their losses.

Also, after many months of negotiations, Joseph Bonaparte finally managed to get the Ottomans into the war. Previously, the Ottomans had only agreed to allow communications between the French and the Persians although they ended up taking longer because of the Ottomans constantly checked these messages due to their paranoia about the Franco-Persian alliance as it was a lot more closer then it was back in 1815. But, after promising Bessarabia and Yedisan as well as some cash, the Ottomans agreed to help and so they declared war on Russia in 1833. The Ottomans were quite helpful in the war as another front against the Russians put even less pressure on the Poles who were planning a counter-offensive against the Russians.

And despite the French being initially stunned by the success of the Prussian Army, the French Army was able to get its act together and even launch a successful offensive in Saxony that saw the recapture of Leipzig. The French also managed to put down the Royalist Rebellions and push the Spanish out of Roussillon and even briefly push further than that. After months of back and forth attacking, the French finally managed to punch through the Prussian frontier in Saxony and push to Berlin. The French Army then split up with one army sent to aid the Poles while the other army invaded Swedish Pomerania and besieged Stralsund and attacked Mecklenburg-Schwerin who sued for peace shortly there afterwards.

By this point, the fronts in Northern Germany were beginning to collapse and this was made worse with the death of Ferdinand VII. His successor caused a crisis in Spain (which will be talked about later) which forced the Spanish troops to leave. The French troops who were previously fighting against Spain were then sent to attack the Northern German frontier. By the way, Spain was still technically at war with France, but for the most part, was out of the war. The combined attacking from Westphalia, Brunswick, and Mecklenburg-Schwerin led to a collapse of the Northern German frontier and the occupation of Hanover.

A large part of the Prussian Army was captured in Hanover although some managed to escape by boat. The French Army then continued pursuing the Prussian Armies in the East. Posen was retaken by the Poles and they even managed to retake Vilnius. Also, Stralsund fell to the French and Sweden made peace. Because there were now much more French forces in Poland, the Russians sued for peace and also annexed Kabardia and Ossetia because why not. Prussia sued for peace because most of its lands were occupied and Russia was out of the war.

The British then sued for peace due to the fact that Herat fell to the Persians which resulted in the Treaty of Paris of 1834. In order for the British to not use Naples as an excuse for another war, Joseph agreed to abdicate as King of Naples and make Ferdinand III King of Naples again. In exchange, Nassau-Orange-Fulda lost Dortmund, the British lost Osnabruck, Prussia lost a tiny part of Silesia to Saxony, and Poland annexed West Prussia and gained Kiev as a separate duchy but in personal union with Poland. Persia also made peace with the British and Russians and gained Herat. The Ottomans made peace with Russia and as hoped, they gained Bessarabia and Yedisan and some cash.

This war, despite being relatively short, demonstrated that the Prussian Army had significantly improved since the War of the Fourth Coalition although now with the loss of West Prussia, Frederick William III had to change his title to "King in Prussia" like before because he was no longer King of all of Prussia. This war also cemented the Bonapartes as the legitimate Royal House of France although there still were some Royalists left over even after this war. This also showed the power of the Franco-Persian Alliance which swayed the British from starting any more wars.
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An Independent Greece
Ever since the failed Greek Revolt of 1821, the Greeks had been planning another uprising and were simply waiting for another opportunity to do so. When the Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia and Ottoman troops left the Greek cities, the Greeks revolted against Ottoman rule in 1833. The British and Russians quickly jumped to helping the Greeks by damaging the Egyptian-Ottoman Fleet but sued for peace not long after. This left the Greeks on their own and despite fierce resistance, the Ottomans managed to suppress the revolt in 1836.

Despite fighting with the Ottomans, Joseph Bonaparte pleaded to the Ottoman Sultan to leave the Greek people be and even grant more autonomy to them like with the Serbs. However, Sultan Mahmud II had had enough with Greeks and felt that the only way to pacify them once and for all was by destroying Greek culture entirely. And so, Mahmud II ordered the Greek Genocide to take place where Ottoman Soldiers were ordered to go into Greek populated cities like Athens and slaughter every Greek that they could find. Very soon, the death toll reached the hundreds of thousands and the total death toll was more than a million.

Mahmud II tried to keep the Genocide a secret from the great powers, but as you can imagine, its not really easy to keep destroying an entire race a secret. Plus, Mahmud II also ordered anything Greek to be destroyed. Historical structures built by Greeks? Burned to the ground. Greek Orthodox churches? Burned to the ground. Greek sculptures or paintings? Burned to the ground. Mahmud II even went as far as rename Greek sounding cities to their Turkish names including Athens which became Atina. This was too much for the Greeks and revolts broke out in nearly every Greek-populated city. Some Ottoman troops even joined in the revolt because to some of them, the Sultan had gone too far.

When the great powers heard about what was going on, they were absolutely horrified, especially Joseph Bonaparte. He formed a secret alliance with his former enemies Britain and Russia. This new alliance had three main goals in mind: Invade the Ottoman Empire and save the Greeks from total extinction, establish a completely independent Greece, and finally, increase each others influence in the Ottoman Empire. The Alliance started by destroying what was left of the Egyptian-Ottoman Fleet at the Battle of Navarino.

The French invaded Bosnia through the Illyrian Provinces and landed troops in Morea, the British made sure the Ottomans didn't make anymore ships, and the Russians invaded the Ottoman Empire's recently regained lands. As you can imagine, the combined attacking from the three main powers of Europe was pretty much impossible to deal with and so, Mahmud II sued for peace in 1839 and died only a few months later. France gained Algeria and Russia gained Yedisan and the Circassian coast. And finally, after 389 years of Ottoman rule, the Greeks finally had an independent state.

The Revolutions of 1830
This war also had overturned what else was happening in Europe, mainly the Revolutions of 1830. These were small revolts happening all across Europe which called for reforms, a constitution, or both. They mostly happened in the various German states and sometimes Italian states. But nowhere else did the effects of these Revolutions impact a region more than the Iberian Peninsula. Spain and Portugal historically, had been divided between Liberalism and Absolutism. However there had recently been a growing pro-Liberal movement in Spain and Portugal.

This growing pro-Liberal movement was quite evident when Ferdinand VII died and since he had no heirs, was succeeded by his younger brother Carlos who was crowned Carlos V of Spain. This would not last long however as Carlos started his reign by rejecting the Spanish Constitution of 1820 and restoring the power of the King. This was because Carlos was a fierce reactionary and believed in the “divine right of kings”, the idea that kings were chosen by God and as such, should be obeyed no matter what.

He also increased the support for the Miguelists who were the Absolutist faction in the Portuguese Liberal Wars. This angered literally everybody except for the Absolutists leading to a Civil War. Since mostly everyone was mad at Carlos, his forces were ultimately defeated and so were the Miguelists. Carlos and Dom Miguel were kicked out of Spain and Portugal. Portugal’s Maria II remained in power and Carlos was succeeded by his younger brother Francisco de Paula. De Paula, despite his support to Carlos, was actually quite pro-Liberal and he agreed to restore the Constitution of 1820. He also officially ended the war with France.

The First Egyptian-Ottoman War
Governor of Egypt Muhammad Ali Pasha had been eyeing Ottoman Syria ever since his seized power in 1805. So when the Egyptian-Ottoman Fleet was destroyed at the Battle of Navarino, Muhammad Ali Pasha demanded that the Sultan give him Ottoman Syria as compensation for losing the Egyptian-Ottoman Fleet. Mahmud II refused and so, Muhammad Ali Pasha revolted in 1841. The Ottomans did absolutely terribly but the great powers who had literarily just fought the Ottomans like a month ago intervened on behalf of them. Muhammad Ali Pasha reluctantly agreed to peace in 1843 but was given Ottoman Syria.

Really wonderful ! I loved it

 

[Sceonn]

Title: From Lisbon to Minsk - An Napoleonic Alternate Timeline

 

[Masterknife7]

What do you guys think of the AH so far?

 

[lusitano 1996]

Great stuff , i am just sad that portugal got screwed

 

[Masterknife7]

Great stuff , i am just sad that portugal got screwed

Ngl, I felt bad for Portugal after writing that part lol

 

[Masterknife7]

Hey everyone just to let you know I'll probably release the next part to my Alternate History sometime during the summer break of 2023