Rule, Britannia! (Europa Universalis II AAR)

Rule, Britannia!




"All of these stars... these vast worlds that remain out of reach. If I could, I would annex other planets." - Cecil Rhodes

His Royal Majesty, King George III, emerged from the Seven Years War with the grandest Empire in contemporary Europe. Spain was crumbling and France lay maimed. British influence was spreading from Canada to Africa and India on the back of the mighty Royal Navy. The true pride of Great Britain, however, was not half a world away in Asia. The American colonists and their Revolution would fundamentally alter the course of British history.

Just across the Atlantic the North American colonies had developed into a booming and populous semi-nation. The old national attitudes towards colonial ventures were no longer applicable in this self-sustaining area and the rapidly spreading teachings of Enlightenment philosophers only served to complicate matters even further. Costly border wars with local native tribes and the horrendously expensive Seven Years War had drained the Royal Treasury. In contrast to the relatively modern laissez-faire economic methods taking hold in the mother country, the American colonies were held under a strict policy of oppressive Mercantilism, typified by the Navigation Acts of 1651. Seldom enforced before, the Royal Government began to crack down on the smuggling of any goods that could be taxed. Further measures such as the 1764 Sugar and Currency Acts provoked a boycott of British goods. Continued degeneration of relations culminated in the passing of the 1765 Stamp Act, the first truly direct tax levied on colonists. Intense protests by British manufactures suffering from the boycott spurred a repeal of the bill but relations remained tepid.


The 13 American Colonies.

The accidental killing of five colonists on March 5, 1770 by members of the armed forces in Boston polarized the already fractured dependencies. The blacklisting of tea imports from India enraged Parliament and caused them to award the East India Company powers to undercut all colonial merchants. Similarly angered citizens of Boston secretly boarded the new tea freighters on the night of December 16, 1773 and dumped their cargoes into the Atlantic. The Royal Government's response, the Punitive Acts, harshly punished the entire city of Boston and convinced most hitherto neutral citizens to join the Rebel cause.

Townspeople all over Massachusetts took to arms and removed town officials loyal to the Crown. By the time a garrison from the Islands arrived in the Americas the colony was unofficially taken by rebels. Their attempt to seize weapons in the towns of Lexington and Concord erupted in the first real armed conflict of the Revolution on April 19, 1775. Militias from the immediate areas rushed to Boston's defense and a pitched engagement ensued. The Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17 ended in the professional British Regulars overrunning the hastily assembled colonial forces but proved to the Royal Government that the rebellion would not be easily stopped.


The Battle of Bunker Hill changed the tide of the unfolding conflict.

All 13 colonies convened the Second Continental Congress on May 10 and attempted to address their grievances with the King. Though their deliberations raised a Continental Army to combat the King's, they attempted one last outreach for peace. This letter, the Humble Petition, would save or destroy the Empire.

Colonial ideology was rooted in the Republican writings of John Locke and his "social contract". Written by a student of the Enlightenment, Thomas Jefferson, the petition reflected their belief in a dawning of a new age dominated by liberalism, equality, and parliamentarians. Prime Minister Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, received the letter on July 2. A night of thorough contemplation resulted in an impassioned speech to the House of Lords and George. In it he called for the equal constitutional and economic rights of colonists in order to benefit the entire nation and fulfill their duties as leaders to represent the interests of all men. Liberal members convened in Westminster rose in open applaud. More conservative men and the King only grumbled in a general idealistic agreement. The retreat of the military from its occupation of Boston would force their hand. The Royal Government assented to the petition and a cease-fire proclaimed.


Thomas Jefferson, the father of modern Great Britain.

Nearly one year later, on July 4, the 1776 Act of Union was officially passed by both houses of Parliament. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was born into existence and all current and further colonial holdings became an extension of Great Britain. The House of Commons was thoroughly restructured to allow Canadian and American representation and a uniform set of Smithian economic laws applied to the whole Empire. The Revolution had ended, but its achievements would reverberate through the world for eternity.


The World of 1776.

 

II.

The vast enigma of the Pacific Ocean was one of the last great unknowns of the world. The remaining blank spots on the map were slowly being filled in as the nations of Europe struck out across the seas in all directions. Spanish, French, and Dutch ships established contact with a myriad of South Pacific locations throughout the centuries but a definitive mapping of the area had never been attempted. By late 1776 the continual growth of Dutch power in the Spice Islands spurred a flurry of interest in the famed land of Terra Australis. The lost continent was believed to hold great riches and the repeated landfalls of Dutchmen worried the Crown to no end. Finally, flush with soaring revenues in the Americas, the British Government commissioned Captain James Cook to search the seas west of Tahiti for any locations capable of sustaining colonization.

HMS Endeavour, HMS  Resolution,  and HMS Sutherland left Kent on September 6th, bound for Polynesia. The small fleet group traveled under the auspices of a scientific expedition with the intent to observe and record the transit of Venus across the Sun and successfully cleared Spanish authorities without arousing suspicions. The trio rounded Cape Horn on January 3rd of the next year amid intense gales. Cook, wary of the prevailing winds off the Cape, turned northwest from Tierra del Fuego and sailed for roughly 100 miles before resuming his southerly course and probing the Antarctic Circle. He narrowly missed water inlets on numerous occasions and for the remainder of the journey to Tahiti would only come into contact with endless icepack. The British anchored off the idyllic island on April 27th and completed their astronomical measurements several weeks later. The crew traded metal objects and alcohol for fruits and other island delicacies. Of far more importance, though, was the acquisition of a young Tahitian guide by the name of Tupaia. Extremely knowledgeable, his experience with Pacific geography would prove invaluable to the expedition.


HMS Endeavour in heavy seas off the coast of Spanish Chile.

Cook became the second European to sight New Zealand on September 2nd, anchoring near Whangarei. The first landing party was immediately attacked by enraged Maori natives and was eventually forced to withdraw to the waiting flagship. He abandoned any hopes of interaction with the inhabitants and instead set about plotting the coastline. Initial theories proposing the land to be a peninsula of a larger continent were shattered when the fleet�s southerly course brought them to the straight separating the North and South Islands. Frustrated, he set sail for Van Diemen�s Land farther west. Again avoiding overpowering prevailing winds the expedition turned north, expecting to plunge southward once clear. Instead, on the morning of December 18th, 1778, Lieutenant Zachary Hickes of the Endeavour sighted a rocky headland jutting out from what appeared to be a massive coastline curving to the southwest. The fleet had uncovered the eastern coast of Australia, the first recorded occurrence of European contact with the area. The crews of all three ships were afire with rumors and Cook eagerly maneuvered them farther south in search of evidence declaring the new land to be the coveted continent. Nine days later the fleet encountered a large but shallow natural harbor that appeared to be a perfect candidate for settlement. The British cautiously entered the inlet and within an hour the first landing parties were on the shore.

Teams of scientists fanned out through the beach area and instantly a flood of unique discoveries overwhelmed the crew. New species of flora would prove to be the most numerous and the Captain�s initial name of Stingray Bay gave way to Botany Bay. Also scattered among the sand dunes lining the beach was a tribe of Australian Aboriginal inhabitants. A scuffle broke out and the natives fled almost immediately, setting the tone for a century of race relations.  Cook marked the location for future exploration and the fleet was soon on their way once more. He reached Van Diemen�s Land on February 7, 1779 and quickly discovered it to be a separate island. The expedition rounded the southeast corner of Australia and found the remaining land to be arid or otherwise useless. At this point the Captain notes that that the legend of Terra Australis is surely a fanciful myth and while there is indeed another large landmass it is of no great wealth. Turning back, the fleet made their way up the east coast, past Papua New Guinea and the Straits of Torres, on to Batavia for restocking, and eventually found their way to England in 1780.


Cook�s landing at Botany Bay opened the South Pacific to British interests. The first Australian Colony was founded in Sydney Cove in 1782.

Upon returning, the Royal Society blanketed the crew in scientific accolades that overshadowed the disappointment concerning Australia. Cook was hailed as a national hero and fascinating new discoveries unleashed an explosion of public curiosity. Expansion was the buzzword of the times and Parliament furiously searched out opportunities for new endeavors into the unknown. The British East India Company came under increasing scrutiny and the haphazard method of African exploration previously adopted was tossed aside. But the new flurry of jingoism did not go unnoticed in the rest of Europe. The old powers of the world would make a stand and attempt to stem the rising tide of British Imperialism.


Cook�s first voyage set the stage for his future plunges through the Pacific.

IV.

George III was concurrently the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Prince-Elector of Hannover, and Duke of Brunswick. All the same, he had never once in his lifetime set foot in the German possessions. Ruler only in name, a Royal Viceroy was charged with managing the day-to-day affairs of the Duchy. Manpower and taxes raised on the continent never left Germany for fear of mass rebellion and the drastic social and legal changes brought about by the Act of Union were not applied to the region. The common head of state did surprisingly little to foster cultural ties and a popular post-revolutionary wave of disdain regarding the "backward" nature of the German people only widened the gulf between the two nations. So great had the resentment become that most members of Parliament came to consider the Electorate a drain on the national economy. A fifty thousand man standing army, the King's German Legion, was supplied directly out of the Royal Treasury with attempts to make the local state responsible for its maintenance fiercely rebuffed. Ostensibly, they were needed to ensure prompt resistance should war erupt. All the King's auditors and inspectors could find, however, was an unruly group of troublemakers that destroyed the surrounding economy and harassed citizens wherever they went. With both houses of Westminster, the British people, and George all frustrated, the Crown had little choice but to take drastic action. The government could either overhaul the entire region and make it profitable, or officially distance themselves from the troublesome Duchy. As fate would have it, the Portuguese crisis in India provided an undeniably beneficial answer for them.


King George III on his coronation.

Once staunch allies in defense of Catholicism, Spain and Portugal maintained an unusual relationship well into the 18th century. The wounds of the Seven Years' War were only a temporary hiccup and post-war revitalization drove the two even closer together. Spanish King Carlos III pledged to come to Maria's aid in the event of foreign aggression and French entry into a full alliance with Spain gave their support-by-proxy to the Queen. In effect, the Portuguese Empire had a free hand in its Far East dealings around Macao and the Spice Islands of Timor and Flores. The Netherlands entered into a brief entente with the French in pursuit of colonial protection from the British but were soon pushed away by hostile postures from Louis XIV. Threats of naval action out of the Philippines confirmed Dutch suspicions that France and Spain were actively supporting Portugal and forced King Willem V into the arms of the Prussians and Austrians. Flaring tensions in the Baltic brought Sweden in league with Paris and Madrid and by the outbreak of war in India the continent had solidified into three blocs of power. France, Spain, Sweden and Poland were all openly aligned with a promise of support to Portugal. Austria, Prussia, and the Netherlands united based largely on the threat of the Spanish coalition while Denmark and Russia independently attempted to contain Swedish power. The United Kingdom, if it chose to act in India as Royal honor demanded, was faced with the risk of evoking an international coalition that could probably be defeated but at ruinous cost.


The Spanish Alliance posed a serious threat to British colonial interests.

Pitt the Younger, through his brilliant speaking and constant championing of progressive ideals, rose to the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer in the government of William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne. Charles James Fox, Foreign Secretary under the previous Rockingham administration, became Pitt's lifelong political rival and formed a coalition with the Tory Lord North. The duo engineered the downfall of Shelburne and caused the King, who utterly hated Fox, to offer the position of Prime Minister to Pitt. He refused, afraid of a popular backlash against such opportunism, and the Coalition rose to power under the false leadership of William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland. Pitt, stripped of his appointment, destroyed the Coalition through political maneuvering in the Commons and arose from the ashes to become Prime Minister on December 19, 1783. The youngest ever, he held the firm support of George until he embarked on a fateful two month tour of Hannover and the outlying German possessions in the fall of 1784. Dismayed by the blatant lack of pride in anything British, he became thoroughly convinced a clean break was the best solution for both states. Pitt met with Frederick II of Prussia in the winter of the same year and it is believed that during their private discussions the still impressionable Prime Minister came to believe that the Germanic states and the Hapsburg Empire were natural allies for the United Kingdom. The Prussian King argued that, if the British had no ambitions on the continent, their rivals could be engaged by allies in Central Europe while the Royal Navy isolated colonial holdings and dealt with them at will. France and, by extension, Spain would be extremely cautious in provoking all three powers. Neither man claimed to know where Dutch allegiances would lie but both agreed that they would have little effect on a general war. Frederick consulted with Austrian Emperor Josef II and presented Pitt with an official proposition of alliance on November 17th, 1784.

The Briton immediately returned to London and began promoting the deal in a series of speeches before the House of Commons. The bulk of the terms passed without any great outcry until the final requirement spurred an explosion of debate. The Crown was to abandon all titles to German land and an all-encompassing independent Duchy was to be released. The new Elector would be chosen by the King and would remain a British vassal, but George adamantly refused to surrender any of his noble claims. Parliament split across House lines with only a few of the most conservative Tory members of the Commons supporting George. The House of Lords unanimously vetoed the proposal and urged the King to dismiss Pitt. A popular coalition in the Lower House pledged to walk out if any attempt was made to remove the Prime Minister. When the monarch did just that on December 2nd, the representatives kept their promise. An enraged George announced the dissolving of the Commons and began the search for a member of the Lords to appoint Prime Minister. The move backfired and British citizens flooded into the streets of London en masse in a show of fervent support for Pitt. Union Jacks waved from every rooftop and George's selfishness was decried as detrimental to the good of the United Kingdom.


Rioters across London, outraged over George's blatant intrusion into national affairs.

Eventually, under intense stress, the King collapsed on December 18th and became delirious. A danger to his own life, he was put under supervision and Pitt marched back into Westminster a national hero. He independently agreed to the alliance with Prussia and completely ignored the raucous protests of the House of Lords when he also joined the Austrian war against Venice. The monarchy had been irrevocably cowed by the Prime Minister, although the search for a new Regent began in earnest. As the Royal Navy set sail for the Mediterranean there were no choruses of "God Save the King!". Instead, from London to New York to Sydney, triumphant cries of "Rule, Britannia!" carried the peoples of the British Empire...