Glory of the Empire timeline

[Hapsburg]

Okay, a while ago, I made a timeline based around my character Vandox. It was really weird, and had a lot of errors and holes in it.
So, I attempted to fix it, and I set up an actual timeline. Tell me what you think:

1790
February-March: The Electors of the Holy Roman Empire convene at Frankfurt. A young German patriot, Vandox Johann Strohwald von der Saale, is unanimously elected King of the Germans. The young monarch learns quickly. His Wahlkapitulation gives him nearly absolute power and authority in the Empire.
March-April: Vandox dissolves the Regensburg Reichstag and convenes a new one in Vienna. At Vienna, Vandox enacts a constitution for the Empire, which expands his powers, and mediatises some German states into other ones. Vandox personally annexes the Duchy of Eisenach to his family and raises it to an Electorate. He also institutes major reforms in the military, reorganizing the Austrian Army into the nucleus of the new Imperial Army. He was given the right to intervene in Imperial courts, and to veto laws. He instituted a large mandatory draft, swelling the Imperial army by absorbing the core of the Bavarian and Saxon militaries. Essentially, Vandox changes the Empire into an effective federal body.
June: Reichstag at Vienna convenes to decide on the declaration of an Imperial War on Switzerland. Nearly all of the nations do. However, Prussia abstains, and announces that it will defend Switzerland’s independence, in blatant defiance of Vandox’s central government. Imperial, Saxon, Bavarian, and Austrian armies invade Switzerland. In retaliation, Prussian soldiers march into Saxony and Bohemia.
July-December: Imperial and Swiss troops clash in the mountains, and the bitter cold causes tension between the troops and their commanders. Elsewhere, France is reorganized as a constitutional monarchy and subdivided into departments; in the United States, the city of Washington D.C is established; and, the Russo-Swedish War ends.

1791
January 18th: Battle of Geneva. Swiss forces capitulate and Switzerland is divided into various baronies, counties, principalities, and ecclesiastical territories.
February: Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Oldenburg, and the hanseatic cities join with Prussia in alliance. The war drags on.
May 3rd: The Polish Constitution is signed and passed. King Stanislas II is opposed by an alliance of Polish nobles, who rebel and form the Targowica Confederation, supported by Russia. The Polish Civil War begins.
June: The French Royal family makes an attempt to flee France, but is captured at Varennes. The King is imprisoned at the Tulieres Palace and put under house arrest. At Königsberg, Imperial troops under Archduke Charles defeats the Prussian army, and force King Frederick William to sign a surrender treaty, ceding it’s Rhenish territories to the Emperor.
August: Vandox convenes a Reichstag at Vienna. Here, the Empire declares an alliance with Sardinia, and they begin an invasion of the rest of Italy. The Papal States soon declares alliance with the Empire.
September-December: The War of Imperial Unification is waged. Piedmont-Sardinia is accepted as an Imperial state, and the King of Sardinia is made Italian Vicar and Elector of the Empire.
In Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate is completed, and in Haiti, the Haitian Revolution begins.

1792
January: Leopold VII of Austria and Frederick William II of Prussia meet in Brunswick. They draft a letter, which states that if Louis XVI of France is harmed, Prussia & Austria will attack. Emperor Vandox intervenes, and convinces them to revoke the message. War with France must wait, he says, until the time is right.
February-November: Imperial armies sweep through Italy, conquering Genoa, Parma, Venice, and other small states. Most of these are transferred to the Habsburg family. Genoa is, however, annexed by Piedmont-Sardinia. Venice is allowed to remain independent, but is reorganized as a duchy, and most of its northern region is seized by Austrian-owned Lombardy. In March, Leopold VII of Austria dies from a severe fever, and is succeeded in all his titles by his eldest son, Francis II.
November 29th: Bishop Fillipo Visconti crowns Vandox in Milan as King of Italy.
December 25th: Vandox is crowned “Roman Emperor” by the Pope himself, in Rome, the first since Charles V.

1793
January: In France, King Louis XVI is executed by guillotine. Poland, still wracked by the civil war, is invaded by Russia. The Russian Empire annexes Lithuania, leaving only the Polish crown. Prussia and Austria maintain their neutral stance, at the behest of the Caesar.
February: Vandox calls a Reichstag at Vienna, and he gives a rousing speech, convincing most of the Imperial princes to go to war with Denmark in order to place both Schleswig and Holstein within Imperial borders. Prussia, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Oldenburg, the remains of the Hanseatic League, and East-Frisia side with Denmark-Norway. Sweden decides to ally with the Empire. The Danish-Imperial War begins. Elsewhere, France declares war on Britain, and breaks off ties to the Batavian Republic in Holland.
March-October: The war rages throughout Prussian territory. Meanwhile, war rages in Western Europe as France declares war on Spain, and invades Navarre and Catalonia. Andorra is annexed by France, but Republic forces are stalled at Barcelona and the Ebro River.
October-December: The Terror begins in France, and tens of thousands are slaughtered. French forces advance along the Spanish coast, and make a surprise assault on Grenada. After a long and bloody fight, French troops are repulsed. Bolstered by the victory, the Spanish army sends the French fleeing. The two nations call an armistice.

 

[Hapsburg]

Continuing, from where I left off to January of 1796.

1794
January-July: Imperial forces defeat Prussian troops in Silesia, and force them into a surrender treaty. Prussia is forced to surrender the conquered territories of Ansbach and Bayreuth. Oldenburg is ceded to Sweden. Schleswig and Holstein are brought within the Empire, though they are still in personal union with Denmark. In France, Maximilien Robespierre is overthrown and executed. The directory is created in place of the national assembly. In June, Austrian diplomat Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz dies, ending the career of a great statesman.
August: Imperial forces invade the Dutch Republic, and place the Prince of Orange back in power, now as the “Grand Duke of Batavia”, which is absorbed into the Empire’s borders. Elsewhere, in the United States of America, the Whiskey Rebellion is crushed bloodlessly. In Spain, Vandox’s agents manage to infiltrate the Spanish court, and set up several scandals to occur which inflame the Spanish people.
September-December: The United States army defeats various Indian tribes in the Battle of Fallen Timbers. They and the United Kingdom sign a treaty that clears up lingering disputes after the Revolutionary War. In November, war resumes between France and Spain, culminating in the French victory in the Pyrenees at the Battle of San-Lorenzo.

1795
January: The Spanish Revolution occurs due to the public outcry at the recent Royal scandals and the horrible way the War is going for them. The Bourbon monarchy is overthrown, and the Interim Spanish Republic strikes a peace with France, provided that France pulls out of Spain and Andorra. The Interim Spanish Congress votes to decide which family will replace the Bourbons, and they decide on the Habsburg family, who reigned during Spain’s colonial Golden Age. They choose the head of the family, Francis II, to be King of Spain. Francis travels to Spain and is crowned in Madrid.
February: The Spanish-Portuguese War is waged. King Francis of Spain, at the suggestion of Emperor Vandox, sends a large force of Spanish troops, now freed from the Pyrenees, to Portugal, supported by Austro-Italian regiments. The King of Portugal, John VI abdicates and flees to Brazil, declaring himself King John I of Brazil. Francis takes the Portuguese throne for himself, and in late March, declares himself “Iberian Emperor”. Vandox quietly approves.
March: Stanislas II Augustus of Poland, after defending against Russian incursion and the Targowica rebellion, is assassinated. The Russians place their support behind Stanislas Potocki, the head of the Targowica Confederation. The Imperials, including Prussia, support the Elector of Saxony. Almost the entirety of the Empire joined Vandox is declaring war on Russia, along with Denmark-Norway and Sweden. Most of the Polish loyalists sided with the Imperial coalition, voicing their support for the Wettin family.
April-July: War rages throughout Poland, and the Imperials continue to push into Lithuania, retaking much territory. In Hungary, Austro-Hungarian forces, supported by contingents from the Rhenish states, invade Rumania and Bosnia. In early July, the Grandmaster of the Teutonic Order abdicates his position, and passes it to Emperor Vandox I. Vandox changes the order’s rules, and abolishes the monastic vows as a necessity for knighthood, so that he can safely maintain his claim to the title of Grandmaster. Vandox revitalizes the Order, arranging for Kurland to be part of a new Order State, and begins a rigorous training process for the Knights. He sends the Knights, led by a young General, Johann von Windeck, to aid imperial and Hungarian troops in the Balkans.
June-November: Coalition forces destroy the Russians, after several chaotic draws, at the Battle of Witebsk. The November Treaty renders Poland’s borders to how they were prior to 1793, and ends the civil war in Poland. A new constitution is made, and Poland is reshaped as a hereditary monarchy under the Wettin dynasty, binding it forever with Saxony. Stanislas Potocki is executed for treason.
December: The so-called Danubian War ends. The coalition makes peace with the Ottoman Empire. Wallachia and Bosnia are ceded to Hungary.

1796
January 19th: Emperor Vandox I convenes a Reichstag in Rome. The Caesar gives an incredibly convincing speech, and declares that the German and Italian peoples must take revenge for France’s incursion into traditional Teuto-Italian territory over the past seven centuries. The entirety of the Empire declares war on France, and is soon joined by Iberia, Denmark, Sweden, and Britain.

 

[Hapsburg]

Oh, come on, there's 70-someodd views. Surely someone has a voiceable opinion?

 

[Max Sinister]

Well, except for the fact that Vandox would have to be an Übermensch to let that happen, it's a nice little TL.

 

[Hapsburg]

Well, except for the fact that Vandox would have to be an Übermensch to let that happen, it's a nice little TL.

And here we go again...
If you think of him as a German version of Napoleon, and the whole thing gets a bit more plausible. The whole "great man" thing that happens every once in a while, like Napoleon or Alexander or Caesar.
I just have that Vandox has a knack for speechcraft, and is very, very charismatic. He has some military experience, but a great natural ability at leading. This kinda helps.
Seeing as he's a fictional character, I can make him be however I want him, anyway.

Now that that's out of the way, does TTL jive well with the OTL? Is it plausible, considering the circumstances of Vandox's character?

 

[Max Sinister]

A German Napoleon - no problem. But the electors forgetting their own ambitions and voting for a nobody (sounds as if he was a minor noble)... even Napoleon had to defeat the various kings and princes of Europe until they accepted him.

 

[Hapsburg]

True, it is kinda odd...but you have to remember, there still was a kind-of low German national awakening starting to happen. Also, I have that Vandox personally corresponded with the Electors, hoping to spread his message of Germanic national unity. One of the electors, the Archbishop of Mainz, who happens to be one of the more influential ones, was in a crowd at one of Vandox's speeches at Frankfurt in the 1780s. The archbishop was, in my TL, so taken by the message, and so captivated by the young man's stirring speech, that he informed the other electors. The electors schemed and planned, and secretly decided that, in the interest of thier people (remember, this is the Age of Enlightenment), they would make Vandox the Emperor, because, as the archbishop of mainz puts it, "The best man to enact these proposals is the man who thought of them!"
However, you are mistaken in that Vandox is nobody before his election. I have that he, though only a minor noble, does have a voice in the reichstag, being a Graf. Also, his career as a political speaker and leader makes him famous within Germany, and he becomes a very popular sort-of leader of the Volk. About as far from nobody a minor nobleman can get, really.
You also have to remember, that the first Habsburg emperor, Rudolf I, was just a minor noble, the count of Habichtsburg, prior to his election. It is through his influence with powerful individuals, that he became emperor. And so it is with Vandox.

 

[Max Sinister]

I know of Rudolf. He also became king (not emperor), because the other electors feared the strong candidate Otakar of Bohemia. They voted for Rudolf because he was less dangerous. But in 1806, the Habsburgs practically held a monopoly on the emperor's title, and besides, it was a prestigious post without any real power.

 

[Hapsburg]

But in 1806, the Habsburgs practically held a monopoly on the emperor's title, and besides, it was a prestigious post without any real power.

Good point. The problem is, none of the Habsburg emperors in 1790+ could've done much to make the Empire a revitalized and working body. I had to create a character for that.
As you said, anyway, the title is more a prestigious one without real power, so the Habsburg family would really have little to lose from passing the torch, so to speak, to a new generation.
Now, I am not going to change the part about Vandox himself, so, please, may we continue to the other parts of the TL insofar?

 

[Wozza]

ok, so you want an opinion: the story is fine it's just ASB.

 

[Kabraloth]

It could work, but Vandox is too successful too fast. If you start with a POD 10 to 20 years (7 years war, Joseph's Bavarian adventure heats up more) earlier, you could have Vandox become important and popular enough to be considered an alternative to the Habsburgs.
But then you'd pretty soon have to have a spat with them, not Prussia (which during this time is very unlikely to do anything, as it has become complacent under the Frederick Wilhelms).
Say, if he becomes popular during the 7 years war (say, his minor duchy allies with Prussia and kicks some French butt which is massively blown out of proportion), he could paint himself as the true heir to Frederick the Great and greatly capitalize from the incompetents in Berlin and Vienna. That is, if he does not scare his support off too soon - being emperor during that time was much like herding cats with your hand tieds behind your back, and the cats would have hated it if you could untie yourself.

Even then, 6 years for all of that is too much. Germany at the time is not a centralized country like France that a Napoleon could build upon, but a twice destroyed (1256 by Charles de Anjou, 1648 by Louis XIV) mess. I think that it should take at the very least 10 years to clean up the little statelets and building up imperial power projection without the whole country descending into civil war (with the Great Powers' smiling support).
Even if the whole thing does not explode in his face and the people support him, the petty nobles will hate him. He needs to be pretty ruthless.

 

[Hapsburg]

The problem with having that is that I Vandox born in 1756, so SYW would be too soon. Far too soon. The closest time of an Emperor's death would be 1790; 1765, with Francis I would still be too soon.
Now, I do have that he does fight in the Dutch army as a mercenary during the Netherlands war with Britain in 1780-83, and in the austrian army during an austro-turkish war in the 1780s. These kinda help add to his popularity.
You also have to remember that, in the not-to-distant-past, Adolf Hitler, a very charismatic individual, took only a few years to catapult the NSDAP from a third party to being the majority party and take control, and took an equally short amount of time to restrenghten Germany (of course, this was post-industrialized germany, but still).
So, it can be done, it's just like a once-in-a-long-assed-while kinda thing that Vandox wouldn't have had a chance to do again. He rides on his success as a popular speaker, a war hero, and as a man of the enlightenment to make himself influential with the electors. You only need to have friends in high places to make yourself succesful, eh. The minor nobles that complain are either intimidated by the electoral powers or compensated and pacified by Vandox's legislation in his first Vienna reichstag.

Hmmmm. Perhaps this would be better in the ASB section?

 

[Kabraloth]

Adolf Hitler was an entirely different matter and it took him (depending on from when you count) 12 years to seize power. He took over an already unified Germany and had the support of vast parts of the wealthy and important people. Your character (it would really help if you posted his history, since much of it hinges on whose support he has) is hampered by the fact that by all logic, the people in (real) power would oppose him, especially the Habsburgs.

That said, my best guess at how he could win support is by aligning himself with Prussia against Joseph II's bavarian ambition. If Frederick the Great is more eager for war or Maria Theresia succumbs sooner and it really starts turning into fighting, he could profit from it. Say, instead of Frederick II as in OTL, he founds the Fürstenbund (seeing as he is just one minor ruler among others, he'd be the perfect negotiator), which he turns into his support base for further amibitions. Since after Joseph's mismanagement, large parts of the Habsburg Empire were in unrest, he could try to usurp or draw into his orbit at least portions of it (Belgium?) and then get elected as a counterweight against an increasingly erratic Austria.

 

[Max Sinister]

A quite crazy idea: A revolution sweeps the Rhineland, the electors of Cologne, Trier, Mainz and the Palatinate are toppled, they make Vandox their leader, and he claims that he's the new emperor, since he has four of the electoral votes. (OTOH, IIRC at that time there were already eight or nine electors, so that's not enough yet, someone else would have to vote for him too...)

 

[Kabraloth]

That's actually not that far-fetched, afaik, the 1780s and 1790s were quite instable as a whole. If he can get the Bavarian king to vote for him too (which could be possible with the other events), he is emperor, although still a very shaky one.

 

[Hapsburg]

it would really help if you posted his history, since much of it hinges on whose support he has

Hmmm. I have his bio on a winword document. I'll post it.
The thing you have to remember about this is that, the Elector of Mainz was more or less the 'chief' of the electors. He's the one that calls them to Frankfurt. Hell, Frankfurt is within his territorial borders. So, he's one of the more influential of the Electors. Vandox's success hinges on this and that the electors have a kinda change of heart, and decide to work for the betterment of the people, which they think Vandox would help do if he were Emperor (in addition to circimventing a revolution).

Vanodx's biography

 

[Kabraloth]

A MSN sign-in message is not really that impressive.

 

[Hapsburg]

What are you talking about? You don't need to be an MSN member to view that. I've set my site to "public". The link should work.
I think you're bullshittin' me.

 

[Max Sinister]

He isn't. I don't get anything but the "Sign In" message behind your link either.

 

[Kabraloth]

Errr... Screenshot necessary?