Uncharted Territory (Look to the West Book 2)

by Tom Anderson

  A few days later, with most of the French Army defecting to the Jacobins and Sans-Culottes, the Marshal of France Phillipe Henri, the Marquis de Ségur, takes loyal troops and fortifies the Bastille, intending to bring the King there to keep him safe from the mob, but it is too late for this. The Sans-Culottes arrest the royal family, and radical Jacobin troops led by Georges Hébert manage to take the Bastille from Ségur. Ségur is brutally beheaded by an unknown Revolutionary soldier who becomes the iconic image, L’Épurateur.

  On the 15th, the King is executed after a show trial, by the new ‘Rational’ means of phlogistication in a gas chamber.

  Coincidentally, on the same day in India, Nana Fadnavis, chief minister to Peshwa Madhavarao Narayan of the Maratha Confederacy, is assassinated. The loss of his administrative abilities means the young Madhavarao struggles to contain a rebellion led by the pretender Raosaheb.

  July – The Parliament of Great Britain debates responses to the French Revolution as it takes this new radical turn. The ruling Portland-Burke Ministry is strongly opposed to the Revolution, while the Radical Whigs under Fox favour it.

  In the Pacific, Lebedev and Benyovsky set off for Edzo again, but are blown off course, are unable to find the Matsumae Han, and their ship is wrecked in the north of the island. They are attacked by the native Aynyu [Ainu], but Benyovsky makes a parley and is able to convince the Aynyu to trade supplies and protection so that the ship may be repaired for some of the European goods it carries. Including guns.

  August – Execution by phlogistication of Marie-Antoinette, wife of the Dauphin of France (who has fled to Spain from Navarre). Austria declares war on Revolutionary France in support of the exiled Dauphin.

  The French mob targets the British Ambassador and American Consul, Frederick Grenville and Thomas Jefferson respectively. Grenville is badly wounded but escapes; Jefferson is killed. This provokes outrage in London and Fredericksburg.

  In India, Raosaheb’s forces (backed by the Nizam of Haidarabad) run Madhavarao Narayan out of Pune and he flees to Raigad, where he seeks help from the Portuguese East India Company.

  September – First Austrian troops cross into French territory from Flanders and Baden. Furious battles against Revolutionary levies begin almost immediately.

  The Parliament of Great Britain votes to declare war on France (by 385 to 164), although this news will not reach the Mediterranean for a while.

  On the 17th, Royalist Toulon is besieged by Revolutionary armies led by Adam Phillipe, the former Comte de Custine. The French fleet there is led by the indecisive Comte d’Estaing, who hesitates over whether to fight or cleave to the new regime. He sends some of his forces to Corsica in order to bring back more supplies to relieve the siege, but exposure to Revolutionary ideas means that a large part of this force mutinies. Leo Bone, whose crew is having shore leave in Corsica, learns of the events in Toulon.

  October – Leo Bone goes to Toulon and successfully cons Admiral d’Estaing into believing that the British have concluded a deal with the Dauphin to fight the Revolutionaries and restore the throne, so the Royalist French fleet must go to Corsica and join with the British. Bone had intended to pull off the largest and most bloodless prize-taking ever, but is surprised to learn that his lie has become the truth by the time the fleet reaches Corsica. This is due to the implementation of the ‘Burke Strategy’, Edmund Burke’s plan to support French royalists and not snatch their colonies – arguing that the French Republic is too dangerous to allow to exist, even if it means allying with Britain’s old enemy the Bourbons.

  The Sans-Culotte levies of the French Revolutionary army are defeated by General Johannes Mozart and his Austro-German army at the Battle of Laon. Mozart’s army occupies Maubeuge.

  Colonel Ney swiftly rises to prominence as he commands a fighting retreat against a second Austro-German army in the Col de Sauverne, in Lorraine.

  Death of Emperor Peter III of Russia. He is legally succeeded by his son, who steps down as Grand Duke Paul I of Lithuania to become Emperor Paul I of Russia. However, this is contested by the brothers Potemkin.

  In India, Portuguese EIC forces under João Pareiras da Silva attack Raosaheb’s forces with the intention of restoring Madhavarao to the Peshwa-ship.

  In Oceania, La Pérouse visits the Mauré for the second time, learning that the muskets the French sold them before have dramatically changed the pattern of warfare there, catapulting the Tainui to dominance, while they are opposed by the Touaritaux-Touaux Alliance. In order to help feed the new colony, the French give the Tainui not merely guns but the secret of making them, in exchange for crops and seed.

  November – Continental Parliament votes 46-9 in favour for an American declaration of war on France.

  In France, Pierre Boulanger wins his famous victory against Johannes Mozart at the Battle of Lille, using the new Cugnot-wagon technology to his advantage. This results in the French retaking Maubeuge and halting the Austrian advance into France.

  The French inventor Louis Chappe, helped by the fact that his brother is a member of the NLA, receives French government funding to develop a semaphore communications network.

  In Russia, the Potemkinites assemble their army and march on Moscow.

  First rumours of the United Society of Equals, a republican movement in Ireland that is theoretically secular and in practice dominated by Protestants, especially Presbyterians.

  December – On advice by General Sir Fairfax Washington, Viscount Amherst (commander-in-chief of the British Army) recommends that new regiments be raised in America. The Parliament of Great Britain passes the American Regiments Act (1795), which grants Fredericksburg plenipotentiary powers to raise troops.

  After a series of indecisive battles along the Flemish border, the Austrian and Revolutionary French armies dig in for the winter.

  Paul crowned Emperor of All the Russias in St Petersburg. However, news reaches him that the Potemkinites under General Saltykov have taken Moscow. Start of the Russian Civil War.

  1796-1800: The Russian Civil War, which eventually broadens into the Great Baltic War. Romanovian Russians, Lithuania, and Denmark vs. Potemkinite Russians and Sweden. Result: Romanovian victory in Russia; Sweden defeated and forced into personal union with Denmark. The Ottoman Empire and Persia take advantage of the chaos to re-extend their influence into areas contested by Russia, primarily the Caucasus and also Bessarabia and the Khanate of the Crimea.

  1796:

  January – the people of Liège rise up and overthrow their Prince-Bishop, installing a copycat republic based on disseminated French propaganda.

  February – General Mozart leaves winter quarters to besiege Liège, a miserable affair on both sides.

  March – Jean de Lisieux, a French Revolutionary leader, publishes La Vapeur est Républicaine, ‘Steam is Republican’, a pamphlet which enshrines steam power as ideologically correct. Lisieux and Boulanger form a political alliance with Cugnot and other French engineers and radical warriors, such as Blanchard and Surcouf. This research cabal becomes known as La Boulangerie, ‘the Bakery’.

  Paris sees the start of Robespierre’s Reign of Terror, after Royalists holed up in a church/powder store blow up Georges Hébert and his Guard Nationale. The Republican reprisal is swift, with men sent to the chirurgien or phlogisticateur for the most minor imagined crime against the People. Lisieux, using Cugnot’s new Tortue ‘Tortoise’ armoured steam-wagon, crushes part of the revolt and becomes a hero of the Jacobin mob. Lisieux replaces Hébert as third Consul, resulting in Danton being overlooked – he soon goes to the phlogisticateur himself, along with other personal enemies of Robespierre.

  Meanwhile, Britain deploys an expeditionary force to Flanders under the command of the Prince of Wales, Frederick George.

  In India, the Portuguese General Pareiras defeats Raosaheb’s forces in the epic Siege of Gawhilgoor. This breakthrough restores Madhavarao to the Peshwa-ship (in truth, now only ruling the land of Konkan) but Portuguese ‘guidance’, expre
ssed through a resident in Pune, now truly controls that region.

  April – General Boulanger’s deputy Thibault Leroux leads an army to relieve the siege of Liège. Mozart’s starving army forced back into Flanders, and ravages the Flemish countryside with its marauding. Charles Theodore of Flanders and his minister Emmanuel Grosch take note, and fear for the resentment provoked by the Imperial presence. They enter secret negotiations with Boulanger and with Statdholder William V of the Netherlands.

  Robespierre reduces the suffrage of the French Republic to Sans-Culottes only, growing ever more paranoid about there being enemies everywhere. The powers of the National Legislative Assembly are undermined daily.

  In North America, the American Preventive Cutter Service is created. This coastguard’s main role is to prevent smuggling and piracy, in particular the illegal private transportation of convicts to America. The Continental Parliament also authorises the creation of the Commission for Continental Regiments, the first American ‘ministry’, which operates out of Cornubia Palace in Fredericksburg.

  On the 25th (Gregorian calendar) or 14th (Russian calendar), in Russia, the Potemkinites successfully take the city of Smolensk from the Romanovians in an important victory. Emperor Paul retreats into Lithuania.

  May – Full gearing-up of the spring campaign in Flanders. Mozart’s Austrians make a second, more half-hearted siege of Liège, but the main force attempts to push deeper into France. Mozart fights Boulanger again at Cambrai and wins a pyrrhic victory with considerable Austro-German losses.

  Retreating army of Emperor Paul of Russia is attacked by a Potemkinite force under Suvorov near Vitebsk. Perhaps one-third of Paul’s army is destroyed. It is assumed by many that a Potemkin victory in the Russian civil war is now assured.

  In America, the Treaty of Sandusky ends the Ohio War. This scattered conflict had been going on since the end of the Third War of Supremacy, and results in the defeat of the Lenape, Huron and Ottawa Indians with the victory of Pennsylvania, New York and the Iroquois. The Lenape and Ottawa are virtually destroyed, but the Huron confederacy fragments into separate tribes, some of which go west to join the Lakota, some go south and are allowed to settle in French Louisiana, and one – the Tahontaenrat – joins the Iroquois, forming the Seven Nations.

  Alain Carpentier, wastrel son of Louis XVI’s physician Henri Carpentier (who had risen from common birth to riches) escapes Robespierre’s reign of terror and arrives in Nantes, much to the displeasure of many aristocrats like the Duke of Berry.

  June – Mozart orders a retreat and regroup of the Austro-German army, resupplying from Flanders. However, Charles Theodore makes a shock announcement that Flanders is seceding from the Empire, and is supported by William V’s Dutch Republic. Cut off and low on supplies, there is little prospect of the Austrians being able to fight their way through (after failing to force a Flemish border fort or retake Liège), so Mozart orders the army to wheel southwards in order to retreat to Trier.

  Meanwhile, in North America, HMS Marlborough under Captain Paul Wilkinson and the naturalist Erasmus Darwin II perform the first survey of Michigan, which had been named as a potential penal colony.

  In Sweden, the Hat party takes control of the Riksdag for the first time since the 1760s. The Hats fear a future war of the Swedish succession – King Charles XII has no children – and therefore vote to intervene in Russia on the Potemkinite side, to secure Potemkinite Russia as an ally in any future conflict.

  July – The Flemings eject the British expeditionary force from Flanders due to their declaration of neutrality. This embarrassment, coupled with Edmund Burke’s death, leads to the fall of the Portland Ministry. It is replaced by a new war government under the ageing Marquess of Rockingham, while the Radicals and Radical-leaning Whigs under Charles James Fox become the main voice of opposition.

  Meanwhile, the Flemings and Dutch fight to eject the Bavarian army ‘of occupation’ from Flanders, where it had been waiting to reinforce the Austrians.

  August – Bavarian army retreats into the Empire. The Netherlands and Flanders formally sign their alliance into being with the Maastricht Pact. Mozart’s army reaches Trier, by now a shadow of its former self after having been harried by the French enroute.

  The disgraced Mozart is recalled to Vienna and replaced with Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser.

  To the south, the Genoese people overthrow their old oligarchic Republic and declare a Ligurian Republic, which is swiftly occupied by French forces under the mercurial Lazare Hoche.

  In Russia, an attack by General Sergei Saltykov on St Petersburg is defeated by Mikhail Kamenski, who destroys the Potemkinite siege train and forces a retreat. This breaks a chain of Potemkinite victories and shows the Romanovians are still in the game.

  September – Austrian forces finally break through the Col de Sauverne with heavy losses and spill into Lorraine. Ney is nonetheless recognised for his valiant actions and is promoted to General.

  The Ottoman Empire begins its quiet intervention in the Russian Civil War, exerting influence over the formerly Russian-influenced lands of Bessarabia, the Crimean Khanate and Georgia. The Georgians reject the Ottoman demands and King George XII sends Prince Piotr Bagration to Russia, insisting that Russia honours its treaty agreements to defend Georgia.

  October – The Netherlands is hit by a brief wave of Revolution, inspired by the French. Flemish troops, fresh from the campaign against the Bavarians, assist Stadtholder William V’s own Dutch army in putting down attempted revolts in the Hague and Amsterdam. The Dutch Republic remains.

  November – The French under Hoche win some minor victories in Savoy against Piedmont-Sardinia.

  Secret treaty of alliance between the Kingdom of Sweden and Potemkinite Russia. The Swedes begin building up their forces in Finland.

  1797:

  January – The Chinese heir Baoli returns to Beijing as a hero worshipper of Yu Wangshan and a supporter of the neo-Manchu movement. The Guangzhong Emperor dithers over whether to instead name his second son Baoyi, less dynamic but also less dangerous in his views, as heir.

  Pablo Sanchez is born in Cervera, Spain.

  February – The Georgian Prince Bagration is attacked by bandits in the Caucasus, but rescued by Heinrich Kautzman, the ‘Bald Impostor’. The Georgians and Cossacks form an agreement, with King George XII of Georgia agreeing to become an Ottoman vassal for the present, committing his army along with the Cossacks to help the Romanovians win the Civil War, so that a Romanov Russia can come in later and reverse the situation.

  March – Death of Frederick William II of Prussia, after a long illness. His son succeeds him as Frederick William III. With initial risings in Warsaw and Lodz, Poland immediately rebels, taking advantage of the instability of the change of regime. The rebel armies are commanded by the experienced mercenary Kazimierz Pułaski. The Polish rebellion is discreetly assisted by Lithuanian arms, although the Lithuanians mostly remain loyal to Grand Duke Peter and have little enthusiasm for reforming the old Commonwealth.

  Start of the Great Aynyu (Ainu) Rebellion in Edzo (Hokkaido) against the Japanese Matsumae Han, aided and abetted by Benyovsky’s Russians trading guns to the Aynyu.

  April – the French launch their Poséidon Offensive, a three-pronged strike consisting of the left under Ney hitting the Austrians in Lorraine, the centre under Boulanger and Leroux invading Switzerland, and the right under Hoche attacking Piedmont.

  In Toulon harbour, Surcouf demonstrates the first steamship, a paddlewheel tug known as the Vápeur-Remorqueur.

  The Swedish-Potemkinite alliance is publicly revealed in Russia. Swedish armies based in Finland invade Russia, seeking to encircle St Petersburg. The King of Sweden officially recognises Alexander Potemkin as Emperor of All Russias.

  The Continental Parliament creates the office of a Special Commissioner to Britain, essentially an ambassador in all but name, who will represent America’s interests in London. The first of these is Albert Gallatin.

  May –
French under Leroux occupy Geneva and Basel, driving deeper into Switzerland.

  In response to the Swedish entry into the Russian Civil War, Denmark declares war on Sweden and the Potemkinites, and officially recognises Paul Romanov as Emperor of All Russias. The Russian Civil War has become the Great Baltic War.

  The Prussians begin withdrawing their troops from Austria’s pan-German war effort in order to put down the Polish revolt, weakening the Germans on both a physical and moral level.

  The Royal Danish Navy sorties and wins its first victory of the war, defeating an inferior Swedish naval force at the Battle of Anholt. The Kattegat falls under Danish control, although the Swedes still hold Malmö with a second fleet.

  Death of Elector Frederick Christian II of Saxony. Childless, he is succeeded by his brother, who becomes John George V.

  June – Wurmser’s army, consisting of combined Austrian, Saxon and Hessian troops, narrowly defeats Ney at the Battle of Saint-Dié.

  Hoche begins his celebrated campaign against the Austrians and Sardinians in Piedmont. He divides his forces in order to meet two Austrian armies, the northern one at Omegna under József Alvinczi and the southern under Paul Davidovich.

  The Royal Swedish Navy under Admiral Carl August Ehrensvärd blockades Klaipeda and attempts to burn the Lithuanian fleet in harbour. However, the Lithuanian commander, Admiral Vatsunyas Radziwiłł, sacrifices his galleys in order to punch a hole in the Swedish line and allow his sail fleet to escape.

  The Polish rebels convene a Sejm and elect John George V of Saxony as King of Poland. John George accepts and declares war on Prussia, withdrawing Saxon troops from the pan-German Austrian war effort in order to accomplish this. Ironically, as the Prussian and Saxon troops do not know for which reason they have been recalled, they often bivouac with each other on the way back across Germany. This begins a domino effect of German states recalling their troops, fearful of their neighbours possessing functional armies, fatally weakening Germany in the face of French aggression.