Uncharted Territory (Look to the West Book 2)

by Tom Anderson

  1807:

  January – Le Grande Crabe, the French offensive aimed at taking the Low Countries, is finally ready – the army is assembled and a vast steam transport fleet has been assembled. The French wait only for the right opportunity to make their move.

  The Guangzhong Emperor's two sons Baoli and Baoyi proclaim themselves the Yenzhang and Chongqian Emperors respectively. As Yenzhang and General Yu are about to fall upon little-defended Beijing with the army they were using to pursue the Russians, Chongqian – heavily influenced by his father's prime minister Zeng Xiang – chooses to flee and relocate his own capital to Jiangnang (OTL Nanjing).

  February – The Boers besiege Kaapstaad and attempt to starve the city out, helped by the fact that most of the VOC's ships have already left for European operations. Governor Cornelisz Jacob van de Graaff institutes a draconian rationing policy which proves highly unpopular.

  General Ballesteros switches sides, supporting the Neapolitans against Drouet's French.

  The Russians launch their Great Eastern Adventure, sending 75,000 troops overland to support the Russo-Lithuanian Pacific Company as China collapses into civil war. This requires new logistical breakthroughs by many clever but eccentric Russian organisers.

  James Monroe steps down as leader of the Constitutionalist Party (and therefore Leader of the Opposition) in the ENA. His replacement is Wade Hampton.

  March – The Boers take Kaapstaad, fighting in the streets against van de Graaff's weakened armies, but the loyalists are saved when a VOC fleet arrives from Batavia with reinforcements.

  Lisieux publicly announces Le Grande Crabe with a declaration of war on Flanders and the Dutch Republic. Boulanger takes command of the army and invades Flanders, while Villeneuve takes France's sailfleet and fights the Dutch under Admiral Carnbee on the 20th. Villeneuve wins a Pyrrhic victory and manages to land a few troops on the Dutch islands off the Zuider Zee, but more importantly Admiral Parker sends part of the British Home Fleet to keep an eye on Villeneuve.

  On the 22nd, calm Channel weather strikes and the chance is there to use the French steamfleet to support Villeneuve's landings, safe from intercept by sail. But Lisieux suddenly sees the vulnerability of Britain and unexpectedly orders the steamfleet to redirect its invasion landings to the Kentish coast. Via France's semaphore network, the changed orders are swiftly transmitted.

  On the 23rd, the French launch their invasion. Surcouf leads a fleet of steamships into the Channel, but is followed by a second fleet under Lepelley – unbeknownst to the British, the French have transported their Mediterranean fleet through the expanded Canal de l’Épurateur to the Channel, doubling the size of their forces there. Hamstrung by the lack of wind, Parker struggles to respond to the French, sinking some of their ships but ultimately facing defeat. His flagship HMS Mirabilis is destroyed by the French rocket ship Enfant de Tonnerre, which also sinks in the process.

  General Hoche, commanding the armies on the French fleet, lands 8,000 Italian troops under General Modigliani on the Kentish coast to distract the British, then sails up the Thames and attacks London itself, landing his main force there. The British garrisons are defeated and all who can, flee. Hoche seizes the gold of the Bank of England. 300 British troops under Ashcroft and Blount hold back the Italians for a day in “Thermopylae-on-the-Downs”. Joseph Dashwood and the Hellfire Club help the French in exchange for revenge attacks on the Church of England. Hoche goes to Fox to receive his surrender, but Fox blows them both up with a magazine. Angrily assuming this was a deliberate trap set by Dashwood, French soldiers hang him, but inexpertly, and Dashwood survives with a hanging scar. In the confusion, London burns down and the fleeing King Henry IX is caught and phlogisticated, along with his queen and daughter, by the French.

  April – Boulanger defeats the Dutch-Flemish forces under Steffen von Wrede at the Battle of La Belle Alliance when his agents successfully persuade the Walloons among the enemy to switch sides.

  What remains of Parliament convenes at Fort Rockingham near Doncaster and proclaims the infant Prince Frederick (then in America) as Frederick II. The makeshift Accession Council then appoints the Duke of Marlborough as regent; Churchill had retreated with his trained militia from Oxford.

  Seven Republican French regiments under General Devilliers launch a rapid invasion of Royal France, which swiftly grinds to a halt as it smashes against Leo Bone's network of border forts.

  Thanks to General Clinton's strategy, Buenos Aires is now on the verge of starvation, yet it is at this point that the Anglo-Americans learn of the French invasion of Britain.

  The Corsican Republic declares war on France, supporting Nelson's Neapolitan Navy.

  Fernández's Meridian forces are poisoned in the city of Cuernavaca, but nonetheless beat off an attack by the New Spanish Nuevo Ejército. However, when they occupy the deserted City of Mexico, the New Spanish destroy the bridges and trap them in the city, burning it. Much of Fernández's army is destroyed, ending the UPSA's attempt to strike to the heart.

  In the UPSA, British-born electrical researcher Henry Cavendish dies.

  Scattered fighting along the Yellow River between the two Chinese claimants' factions, Yenzhang in the north and Chongqian in the south. This will continue for the rest of the year, hardening up as both Emperors summon their armies.

  Around this time in Freedonia, the radical preacher Gabriel Brown begins preaching his Freedom Theology, which partially blames native African rulers for the horrors of the slave trade and calls for them to be toppled.

  May – Liége, full of radical sympathies, overthrows its Dutch overlords and joins with Boulanger's invading French, along with many other Walloons. At the same time, the Mittelbund and the Alliance of Hildesheim declare war on France and send troops to Flanders.

  Battle of Cambridge: Michael Sackville-West, the Earl de la Warr, refuses orders from Churchill to retreat and consolidate forces, instead attacking the French under General Gabin and being soundly defeated. Cambridge is put to the torch, though most of the damp city survives.

  Sir Lyell Brotherford, commander of the 56th West Norfolk, tries to bring his troops away but is assassinated by the Bishop and Count Palatine of Ely, Philip Matthews, who commandeers the force and then orders the Vermuyden works dismantled so that the Isle of Ely is restored, the waterworks protecting the rest of East Anglia from the French.

  Controversially, the Austrian government imprisons Jozef Graf Radetzky von Radetz for his activities in serving the 'illegal' Bohemian Diet against the Cougnonistes.

  June – Battle of the Solent: Admiral John Jervis, aided by the Royal French and the experimental Whistler ships out of Lowestoft under Commodore Frederick Keppel, destroys much of the Republican French steam-fleet. Admiral Lepelley is killed and Admiral Surcouf is shipwrecked, though he eventually escapes to the UPSA.

  French advance north through England slows thanks to extended supply lines and the water barriers. Rumours of an Irish army landing in Liverpool abound. Edinburgh briefly rises to form the Scottish Celtic Republic under Thomas Muir, which is swiftly crushed by the Oxfordshire Yeomanry under Joshua Spencer-Churchill, the Marquess of Blandford.

  Meridian General Pichegru besieges the New Granadine capital of Santa Fe, but O'Higgins holds him off long enough for Nuevo Ejército reinforcements to arrive. Pichegru withdraws in good order.

  July – Madrid falls to the Portuguese under Vieira. Philip VII is shot by Drouet, who then kills himself. The infant king Alfonso XII falls into Portuguese hands. The Neapolitans swiftly roll up the east of Spain.

  The “Irish” army meets the British at Emley Moor and it turns out to be an allied Anglo-Hiberno-American force led by Sir John Moore, Richard Wesley the Earl of Mornington, and John Alexander of Carolina.

  Devilliers finally breaks through Leo Bone's fortress network into the interior of Royal France. The Royal French retreat to their fortified cities.

  Corsican and Neapolitan forces under Nelson occupy the city of Toulon in a bl
oody amphibious descent, then grimly hold on as Bourcier tries to retake it.

  August – The British and allied counter-attack against the English Germanic Republic begins in earnest with the Relief of Bedford.

  Devilliers besieges Brest, having heard Leo Bone is in the city; however, it soon becomes apparent that the Royal French are moving their commanders by sea and using misinformation to distract the Republicans.

  Lima rises in rebellion against the Meridians with support from American troops, severely hampering the supply line to Pichegru's army through Upper Peru. At the same time, Portugal declares war on the UPSA.

  Phaungasa Min, Konbaung King of Burmese-Arakan, hears of the death of the Guangzhong Emperor and prepares another attack on Ava. For the moment, however, General Sun Yuanchang's Chinese troops remain in the area, and the Konbaung await a moment of weakness.

  September – The French occupying the town of Cervera, after many years of unusually peaceful coexistence, are set upon by the furious townsfolk due to Philip VII's death. The town's mayor, Francisco José Sanchez y Rodriguez, is branded a traitor and collaborator and his family is killed by the mob – all except his young son Pablo Rodrigo Sanchez y Ruiz, known to history simply as Pablo Sanchez.

  Battle of St Albans: the English Germanic Republic, cut off from resupply from the Continent thanks to the Royal Navy once dominating the Channel, swiftly begins to collapse.

  President-General Castelli is killed while trying to withdraw from the besieged Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires surrenders to the Americans a few days later.

  Lamarck dies of a snake bite while on a botanical expedition in La Pérouse's Land; the governorship passes through the Lascelles wannabe René Demoivre.

  HMS Dauntless visits Fort Washington in Drakesland. It brings home Morton and the feverish naturalist Weston, suffering from snakebite.

  October – Saxony and Denmark-Sweden declare war on France in support of the Dutch and Flemish.

  Descent on Harwich: Major Alexander Cochrane and Commodore Keppel's steamships take the town, encircle General Gabin's army, and destroy it.

  La Roche falls to General Devilliers' army.

  Political chaos in Cordoba. General Ayala manages to hold back the Anglo-American forces from the city while a new conservative political alliance, the Reagrupamiento por la Unión (“Rally for the Union”) seizes power from the collapsing Partido Solidaridad.

  John Goodman visits Fort Washington and informs Lewis that he has established a Russian fort to the north (OTL Vancouver) called Baranovsk.

  November – Battle of Islington: Saissons is defeated by Wesley while Moore takes London from the rear. Saissons is executed, while suspected collaborators (including Dashwood) are shipped to Susan-Mary.

  Keppel's steamships sink General Modigliani in his attempt to flee.

  The Saxons and Danes attack Swabia, pre-empting an attempt by the Austrians under Alvinczi to invade via the former Switzerland. In a bit of diplomatic jiggery-pokery behind the scenes, Ney surrenders the Republic without a fight in exchange for amnesty for his men. The Swabian Germanic Republic becomes the Duchy of Swabia under Frederick IV, exiled Duke of Württemberg.

  The Yenzhang Emperor's forces besiege the Chongqian-held city of Xi'an.

  December – Final destruction of the last remnants of the English Germanic Republic. Privy Council meeting convened in the ruins of London. Churchill speaks of the need to take the fight to the enemy once more.

  General Pichegru is surrounded near San Francisco de Quito by combined New Spanish and Portuguese forces, and is forced to surrender.

  Reagrupamiento’s leader, Miguel Baquedano y Zebreros, seizes control of the UPSA while pledging to rule for no more than three years and hold new elections and a constitutional convention. He seeks immediate terms with the UPSA's enemies.

  1808:

  January – General Thomas Græme is sent to descend on Ostende with 20,000 men to attack Boulanger's flank, in a typically quixotic Churchill scheme. Græme is defeated by General Armand Poulenc at the Battle of Dixmuyden and is evacuated from Dunkerque. The whole business is a disaster, meaning Charles Bone's view of supporting Royal France gains supremacy in the Privy Council.

  Charles Theodore II and Steffen von Wrede withdraw to the Palatinate, allowing Brussels to fall to Boulanger without a fight. The Dutch implement their Water Line defences, preventing Boulanger and Poulenc from invading the heart of the United Netherlands.

  General Marceau tries to retake Toulon from the Neapolitans and Corsicans and is bloodily repulsed.

  The wandering orphan Pablo Sanchez is recruited by a local Catalan Kleinkrieger group as a drummer boy.

  February – Five British and allied regiments under Wesley occupy Granville in Normandy, distracting Devilliers from his growing successes against the Royal French fortress cities. Devilliers reconstitutes his army and marches to confront them. Simultaneously, another British force under Sir John Moore lands at Nantes and relieves the besieged cities.

  The rump Parliament of Great Britain moves from the Doncaster Mansion House to the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford. As a consequence of these cramped venues not allowing voting lobbies, a new voting method is developed involving holding up a white or black paddle.

  The siege of Xi'an is relieved by Chongqian's reinforcements from the city of Chongqing. Yenzhang's forces retreat in good order but continue to hold the northern bank of the Yellow River.

  After the Konbaung advance into Burma has bogged down thanks to General Sun's resistance, Phaungasa Min has his troops withdraw to a defensive position and await a new opportunity to strike.

  March – Informal agreement between Portugal and Naples to divide Spain once more as Castile and Aragon, with Castile being ruled by the Portuguese puppet Alfonso XII and Aragon as another dominion of Charles VIII and VI (and now IV).

  Battle of Draguignan: the Archduke Ferdinand and Alvinczi finally achieve a decisive victory over Bourcier.

  Another attempt by Marceau to retake Toulon is on the verge of success when he is forced to retreat to Marseilles to support Bourcier.

  Revolution in Albi against the tyrannical governor Demoivre. Revolutionary leader Locard re-establishes contact with La Pérouse in Autiaraux and the colony's famine is finally relieved through trade.

  Hawaii stabilised as an effective Russian vassal state.

  April – Devilliers fights Wesley at Laval and wins a Pyrrhic victory. Wesley makes a strategic retreat southwards, Devilliers pursuing.

  Treaty of Rio de Janeiro formally ends the Third Platinean War. The UPSA surrenders Upper Peru to the Empire of New Spain, while Portuguese Brazil receives several favourable border adjustments both from the UPSA and New Spain. The Anglo-Americans get nothing beyond trade concessions and confirmation of British possession of Falkland's Islands.

  The Dauntless rounds Cape Horn on the way back to Fredericksburg; Weston wakes up from his fever and proclaims what will be the beginnings of the Moronite religion.

  The Kingdom of Ireland holds its first election since the new constitution came in in 1801. The election returns a more solid majority for Henry Grattan and his supporters. This encourages Grattan to pursue more muscular reforms, including allowing Catholics to stand as candidates for election as well as voting.

  May – Devilliers finally catches Wesley at Angers. Devilliers is killed at extreme range by sharpshooter James Roosevelt in the “shot heard 'round the world” and the Republicans are routed.

  The Dutch astronomer Arjen Roelofs discovers the first 'sub-planet' (asteroid) although their precise classification will not be settled for some years and he initially tries to claim it is a planet. It is eventually named Agamemnon (OTL Ceres), with astronomers using the names of mortals from Greek legendary history for such bodies.

  June – All Republican forces thrown out of what was Royal France.

  The band of Catalan Kleinkriegers who adopted Pablo Sanchez are folded into the regular Neapolitan army.

  July – A Dut
ch naval squadron sails to Ostende and helps temporarily relieve the French siege of Bruges. Poulenc is sent to defeat them.

  In China, Yenzhang begins withdrawing his Manchu Banner soldiers from Manchuria proper and assembling them for an attack on Kaifeng. The Coreans under the ambitious King Gwangjong take note.

  August – The armies of the Mittelbund confront Boulanger in occupied Flanders.

  The Royal French take the strategic town of Royan on the Gironde Estuary.

  In an audacious move, King Gwangjong's Coreans attack Manchuria with grand irredentist aims on the historically Corean region of Balhae.

  October – Battle of Adenau: French General Henri Trenet defeats the Mittelbund General Konrad von Löwenstein.

  November – Battle of Mersch: The French are driven back by General von Wrede. Boulanger combines his armies at St Hubert for a counter-attack, but then retreats to Brussels to winter, unwilling to give up such a forward position.

  Yenzhang launches the Kaifeng campaign.

  December – Corean forces conquer the city of Andong (“Eastern Pacification” of the Coreans), which they rename Seoseungri (“Western Victory” over the Chinese).

  The Portuguese government sends a mission to re-establish diplomatic relations with Great Britain after the former Portuguese ambassador was killed during the French invasion the previous year. A junior member of the mission is the young Duke of Aveiro, sent away by Peter IV's ministers in part due to paranoia that he was growing too close to Peter's son John. However, this backfires and only makes John dislike Peter's ministers and resolve to dismiss them when he becomes king. Meanwhile, Aveiro's experiences in Britain–in particular how he notes that the Americans no longer consider themselves to have much of a shared identity with the British–will influence his ideas about colonial government, the 'Aveiro Doctrine'.