Difference between revisions of "Second War of Insolence"

Revision as of 19:37, 13 February 2005

The Second War of Insolence was a war fought between Pantocratoria and the United Provinces of Knootoss from 1713 to 1715.

Prelude

The First War of Insolence had humiliated Pantocratoria and demonstrated the superiority of Knootian naval power. The war had demonstrated the vitality and determination of the United Provinces of Knootoss as a modern state and great player on the world stage, and Pantocratoria's defeat had conversely demonstrated the decay of the aging Byzantine system. However, at the start of the 18th Century, a revolution was occuring in Pantocratorian society, brought about by the young Emperor Manuel V. Coming to the throne at the age of seven in 1699, he grew up the idol of the court and his ego took on the proportions of a living demi-god. Declaring himself an adult in 1712, Manuel V longed to reshape the entire world to his whim, starting with Pantocratoria. He employed artists, experts, artisans, architects, shipwrights, and military thinkers from Europe, particularly from France, and turned the Empire on its head. Obsessed with modernity, he even forced his people to abandon the Greek language they had spoken for a thousand years - the past and all its failures would be cast aside, from now on there would only be Manuel the demi-god, his vision and his accomplishments! Naturally, this social revolution couldn't have happened in isolation. In 1703, the Fourth Pantocratorian Crusade had (predictably) failed to capture Constantinople, but it had made contact with the modern world, and after it returned it was soon followed by a flood of foreign ambassadors and ideas. Emperor Manuel V had taken these foreign ideas and innovations and set about forcing them on his own country with the enthusiasm that only a young man certain of his own infallibility could muster.

Manuel V's shining glory still had one long shadow cast over it - the ignominy of the defeat of the Pantocratorian Imperial Navy in the War of Insolence. Determined to emerge from that shadow, the Emperor ordered the building of a modern navy according to the designs of his panel of foreign experts. Simply rebuilding the navy wasn't enough, however - Manuel had to demonstrate the superiority of his new navy by defeating the nation which had defeated it fifty years before. He determined to provoke a war with United Provinces of Knootoss, and ordered a squadron of his new ships to set about scouring the seas for Knootian targets (even though his new navy was still nowhere near completion).

In August, 1713, the squadron came across a Knootian payroll ship, Meerpaal, and two escorts. After saluting the Knootian colours, the Pantocratorian squadron opened fire while the Knootians were returning the salute. After a brief but bloody skirmish, one escort was sunk, the other left a burning wreck, and the Meerpaal was forced to surrender. It was brought back to New Constantinople, where Emperor Manuel V hosted a public fête celebrating the victory, in which he appeared dressed as the pagan god of the sea, Neptune. It was then decided to return the Meerpaal with its cargo of gold coins under the terms of the treaty which ended the War of Insolence - more or less. The ship was towed back to the Knootoss in the dead of night and cut loose - the Pantocratorian ship which towed it slipping away before the Knootians even had a chance to board the Meerpaal. When they did board it, they found a scene of horror. The crew of the Meerpaal had been executed, and their bodies were hanging from the ship's mast and beams. The ship's cargo of gold coins had been returned - melted down and recast as a statue of Emperor Manuel, and in the hands of the statue was a Pantocratorian naval ensign soaked in the blood of the murdered crew. The outraged people of the United Provinces screamed for the outrage to be avenged, and clamoured for the blood of the young upstart Emperor, whose defaced statue was dragged through the muddy streets of The Hague.

During the second War of Insolence the United Provinces had also entered its second Stadtholderless Era, which would last for nearly fifty years. The regents had suffered from a loss of power under the powerful leadership of Prince Jan of Knootcap the first, and with his passing they declared the stadtholdership vacant for the second time, using a quarrel about the title Prince of Knootcap between several contestants as an excuse.

Economically, the once mighty Republic had started a long but steady decline, with heavy competition over colonies and trade monopolies with some of the new rising powers. The lives of the regents themselves had not yet been affected, and they spent ever more funds into maintaining their comfortable lifestyle with grand summerhouses by the waterside and works of art glorifying themselves and the familiar Knootian life, all instead of investing in the daring journeys of the Knootian East India Company or – worse even- to contribute to a centralistic army and navy for the entire nation. A central army had always been seen by the regents as an instrument of power for the princes, and with the princes gone the power as well as the organisation of the military was transferred to the provinces and cities themselves, in whose richly adorned Houses resounded only the voices of the regents: the merchants and those rich enough to buy themselves titles of nobility.

At the same time, unrest was growing amongst the people in the Provinces and already some fights had erupted in between the common people (with whom the House of Knootcap was still popular) and city guards led by the regents. Dutch Reformed churches were split as well, with some churches preaching a more sober and Calvinistic approach to life – implicitly condemning the extravagance of the regents. As the Staten-Generaal met, the regents were faced with a diabolical dilemma. The state of the Navy was dreadful after budgets for the building of new ships had been cut significantly, and they realised that they were facing a war they were likely to lose.

The War

TO BE COMPLETED