Alternate Historical Fiction: GLORY OF THE EMPIRE

[MaximiIian]

basically, the story is an alternate history of the H.R.E. Point of Divergence is in 1790. A 34-year-old Thurungian man named Vandox becomes Holy Roman Emperor. He embarks on several military campaigns during his 50-year reign. He essentially conquesrs the Italian peninsula, and makes France a protectorate after an 11-month war in 1796. In 1798, the Imperial Army invades BRitain.
thats where the story picks up, at the beginning of the invasion of England.

[MaximiIian]

Here's the first installment of it:

Part I
Chapter 1

The year is 1796. In a shocking political move, a Thurungian man known only as “Vandox” was elected “Holy Roman Emperor”. In a few short years, 1790-1795, he managed to unify a land torn by old medieval rivalries, centralize authority, and establish a permanent armed force for the Holy Roman Empire. The Old Reich had finally been brought back to its old glory. This was not all, however, that he accomplished. He led the Imperial Armies to victory over the small Italian states. Then, he proceeded to annex the Hapsburg territories, and then attacked Spain. The Iberian Peninsula was in their hands by 1793. By that time, all of central Europe was one united Empire. Prussia was conquered by 1794. Two years later, Vandox I, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nations, invaded France. His troops crossed the Rhine and obliterated the French Army at several pivotal battles. They have pushed the French to their capitol city, Paris.
“Feuer am Willen! Zweites Bataillon, grenzen nach links an! Drittes Bataillon, grenzen nach rechts an! Bewegen Sie, bewegen Sie! Gelangen Sie Ihren Esel an die vordere Linie, jetzt!” A German officer shouted. The battle was raging outside of the city of Paris, men dying and bleeding. In the fields, the Imperial 5th West Regiment, totaling only 9,000 men, had engaged a force of a hundred thousand French infantrymen. Despite the number disadvantage, the German troops had breech loading rifled muskets, a technological wonder at the time. The Imperial generals also had a better understanding of infantry tactics, and flanking maneuvers. They still were, of course, only human.
“Oberst von Rucker, Verstärkungen sind angekommen! Ich denke, daß wir diese Schlacht gewinnen konnten!” A lower officer said to Colonel Tristan von Rucker, commanding officer of the Fifth Regiment. Von Rucker was a grizzled veteran of the Imperial Wars of Unification, leading the famous charge into Königberg, and was crucial in the Battle of Lyon, securing Burgundy for the Empire. Now, he was faced with possibly the most daunting task of his career: using only nine thousand men, plus a few reinforcements, he must take the fields outside of Paris, in order to successfully besiege the city. Standing in his way were over 150,000 French soldiers, infantry and cavalry. His men had only a few advantages, and many more disadvantages. He needed a miracle to pull this off.
A thousand cuirassiers - heavy cavalry with steel breastplates and swords, rode up to the front to join the battle. It was complete and utter chaos: rows of infantry firing into French lines, men falling, bleeding, and screaming; it was horrifying. Cannons roared in the distance. Explosive shells impacted into the ground, and sent shrapnel flying into enemy soldiers. Hundreds of soldiers lay in the muddy fields, screaming. Their blood mixed with the soil, and soaked the land.
Private Friederich Goldwald, a young, lightly built Bavarian recruit, marched into the battlefield. His light yellow hair fluttered in the wind, obscuring his vision temporarily. His pale gray eyes glared at the wall of French troops, reloading after firing a salvo of musketballs. He heard Lieutenant Rudolf der Geist giving the order to fire, and he brought his rifle to bear. He took aim, and fired. He saw his target, a French cavalryman, fell off his horse, and collapsed onto the ground. The enemy soldiers also fired into them, taking down a few next to Friederich. He heard a deep, rough, trumpet sound. He knew what it meant, and threw himself to the ground. A sudden, deafening thunderclap of cannonfire resounded across the field. Several cannon shells flew over his head, and crashed into the advancing French lines. Explosions shattered the enemy’s morale, and they turned. The French troops were running away, stumbling over one another to get back to the city. Friederich was elated, but not surprised. He, and thousands of other troops pushed themselves up, and started after the enemy troops.
They quickly reloaded their rifles, and fired, taking down several retreating enemies. The Imperial troops were trained since day one at training camp that cowards have no place in the battlefield, nor do traitors. Even the French cavalrymen, long renowned for their bravery under fire, charged up a low rise towards their commanding officer
Suddenly, the French troops stopped at the low rise, and turned. They fired their muskets at the Imperial line. The surprise salvo of lead dropped nearly the entire front line. Many in the second and third line were hit and severely wounded. Friederich felt a sharp pain in his stomach, and his knees buckled. He lost control of his legs, and fell to his knees in the grass. He felt his abdomen getting warmer, and he put his hand on the place he had been hit. He withdrew his palm when he realized that he was bleeding. He looked at his hand, and gasped hoarsely. It was slathered in blood. His off-white coat was stained in the blood, and he collapsed entirely. In his peripheral hearing, he caught the sound of a German yelling, “Wir benötigen einen Arzt! Hier jetzt!”
Two men ran up to him, and lifted him off the ground. His vision started to blur after that, and he noticed that the two men were combat physicians. His sight went black, but he still heard the cries of wounded and dying men. He still heard musket shots, and cannons booming in the distance. He still heard his heart beating and the thuds of dead bodies around him…

Chapter 2

Friederich awoke to the sounds of groaning and wailing people. He opened his eyes, and saw that he was in a medical tent. Physicians were working on wounded men, using all sorts of devices to pull musketballs from people’s bodies, and sewing up cuts and gashes. As he tried to sit up in his cot, Friederich felt an ache in his abdomen, and remembered that he had been hit. A doctor walked up to him and said, “Sie waren glücklich, daß Kugel nicht Ihren Dorn schlug. Sie konnten gestorben sein.”
“Ja,” He agreed.
He still heard the sounds of war outside the tent. Dull thumps echoed in the distance. They must be a good way away from the battlefront. He lay on the cot for hours. Suddenly, he heard the doctors talking quickly, muttering things about the enemy moving closer, and that it was imperative that the wounded be moved to a safer place.
A few orderlies came by and picked up his bed. They carried him outside, where a scene from hell was plastered into the surroundings: tents were burning; bodies lay scattered across the camp, full of holes. The French troops had been here, and they would be back to do more harm. The wounded were loaded into medical wagons, and were taken away, to the backup position. If the French troops managed to get to that point, the Imperial forces would have nowhere to go. They would face their first defeat in the French Campaign, if that happened.
The medical wagons moved off to the safe zone, and unloaded the wounded. Colonel von Rucker was there, directing troops. He shouted for the orderlies to set up new tents, and load the wounded men into them. Friederich caught only a glance on the officer’s face. He had combat scars coursing along his forehead, through one eye, and from his mouth to his chin. A sensation of fear and awe ran up Friederich’s spine.
Several hours passed, and no sound was heard. Many more reinforcements came, about five thousand. The Imperial forces were strained on the Danube in the south, and Russia in the east. Only about 100,000 men were engaged in France, compared to over one million troops fighting and dying in the other fronts. Plus, numerous garrisons in the kingdoms and duchies that comprise the Holy Roman Empire, and conquered nations such as Denmark, Holland, and Poland. The regiments at Paris, numbering about 13,000 men now, were significantly outnumbered, were low on ammo, and had no where to retreat.
The soldiers braced themselves for the bloodshed ahead.

Chapter 3
Eugen von Otterbach stood and watched, his steel-blue eyes glaring over the horizon, waiting for the enemy to show themselves. His “Ritterkreuz von der Heiliges Römisches Reich der deutschen Nationen,” or “Knight’s Cross of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nations,” gleamed on his pale-blue uniform, the uniform of a Bavarian Ranger. The Rangers were a special combat division within the Imperial military, tasked with using unconventional tactics to gain the advantage of the enemy. Eugen was a proud man, coming from a family with a tradition of serving the Emperor, all the way back to the Crusades. His jet-black hair was cropped short, so that it did not get in his eyes. He lay upon a short hill, hidden by tall grasses, and held a Model 1795 breech loading rifled musket, capable of downing a man at 300 meters, unheard of with weapons in use by other nations; it was also equipped with a 5x-zoom scope, and used smokeless gunpowder cartridges.
Then, he heard drums. A fife. The enemy army was coming. A conch shell blew, and the Imperial troops readied themselves at the front line, loading their rifles, and taking positions in the grass, preparing to use a tactic that was quite effective: the spring-up. Emperor Vandox had devised the spring-up tactic while he was in the service of the Austrian military. The key of the tactic was to have a line of soldiers lying down in tall grass, out of view of an advancing enemy. When the enemy gets in range, they “spring-up” and open fire, then duck back down, while the main line of soldiery blasts into the second line of the enemy. It is an ingenious tactic, and usually worked.
Eugen and his squad moved to a more forward position, and began to fire upon the advancing French. He targeted officers and sergeants. This would, in theory, demoralize the enemy and cause fear in their ranks. Hopefully, it would cause them to rout and surrender. The French approached.
As soon as the enemy came within 100 meters, a line of soldiers sprung up from the grass, and fired into the French soldiers. They ducked, and the line behind them fired. The first and second French lines dropped, dead or wounded. The remaining troops loaded their weapons and took aim. The muzzle-loading muskets did not fire quickly enough, and the French troops were felled very quickly, and began to run.
Eugen and his four squadmates ran down the hill, and began to fire indiscriminately, no longer picking their targets. There was no need to, for the enemy troops were in a full retreat. He ran to the rear lines, and asked the Captain permission to lead a charge after them.
“Ja selbstverständlich Leutnant. Setzen Sie an Ihre Rüstung, und folgen Sie ihnen!” the Captain replied.
Eugen ran to the rear lines, and out on his cuirassier’s armor. He mounted his horse and charged into the front. He shouted for the troops to follow him, and they charged after the French enemies. Other cavalry followed him, and gunfire rang out, killing many French troops. Eugen heard many booming reports, and saw cannonballs racing over his head, and crashed into the retreating enemies. He also saw several Frenchmen being tossed into the air by the force of the explosive shells.
Eugen came alongside a French soldier, and lopped off his head. The enemy collapsed, dead. Imperial dragoons and carabineers rode along the flanks of the running French, and opened fire. The short-range muskets tore through several enemies, and dropped a great many of them within minutes.
The Imperials chased the routing French all the way back to the fields, and continued to cut them down. Only 127 French soldiers returned to the gates of Paris, and quickly ran inside; but, not before Imperial Lancers impaled over forty of them.
It was a decisive victory, ending with over a hundred and fifty French casualties, nearly 99%. The Imperial forces had lost a great many, as well. Four and half thousand combined forces from Germany, Western Poland, and Hungary had perished, and nearly twice as many were severely wounded. Still, Eugen thought after the battle, we won.
They had won the battle of Paris, and now the siege began. Total victory was within their grasp.

In the following four-day Siege of Paris, French forces suffered heavy losses, and General Napoleon Bonaparte was finally given the order to surrender. The war in France was over. After ten long months, Western Europe was in their grasp…

[Pyrrus]

is this a full novel and how long have you spent writing it?

[MaximiIian]

1) its going to be.

2) i havent finished it yet. you just read chapter one. chapter two is in the works. im still thinking of stuff to type in.

[Pyrrus]

wow, was a massive amount of research involved?

[MaximiIian]

i had to use wikipedia for afew days to find out a bunch ****** on the Holy Roman/German electoral process and the rules of it.
basically, Vandox forges papers about his grandparents, making them out to be "minor nobles" and he bribes the electors. He becomes emperor in 1790.
Then, at a Reichstag at Vienna, he drafts a new german constitution, based off the Magna Carta, and the American constitution. It basically makes the H.R.E more centralized, and gives the Habsburgs a lot of control over thier territory. It makes italy an electorate under the Savoys. Blah Blah Blah..war happens...gore happens....by Vandox I's death in 1840, he is called "Vandox the Great" and the H.R.E is the most powerful nation in europe.

[the celt]

How do the middle eastern Kingdoms come into play? I'd expect a smart emporer to try to expand his empire eastward to make use of its rich and powerfull lands. *wink*

[MaximiIian]

Well, the Ottoman Empire is beaten beyond the danube to the border of modern-day greece.
That area is annexed too "hungary" which is a massive sub-kingdom managed by the Habsburg Reichkanzlers.
check the map...

if you mean the Barbary Coast States:
im planning to have them have a small role in the invasion of Britain, using thier navy, as well as the Habsburgian Spanish, Danish, and Swedish navies come into play on the side of the H.R.E.

[Homi]

So far i have really enjoyed reading it, thumbs up! :grin

[MaximiIian]

thanks, awesome.
i'd post what i have so far for chap2, but my mum wont let me get on her computer, and thats where i typed it at.
damn.
it.

i only was able to give yall chapter 1 because i had email ch1 to myself earlier, before i started on ch2...

[MaximiIian]

for your enjoyment, i bring you what Vandox looks like:

[Borat]

Thanks for info and pics man!! :cool

[MaximiIian]

thanks for the compliments...
took me a while to do those...

[MaximiIian]

Okay, I've rewritten Part I.
I'll post Part II later on:

Part I
Chapter 1

The year is 1796. In a shocking political move, a Thurungian man known only as 'Vandox'ť was elected Holy Roman Emperor. In a few short years, 1790-1795, he managed to unify a land torn by old medieval rivalries, centralize authority, and establish a permanent armed force for the Holy Roman Empire. The Old Reich had finally been brought back to its old glory. This was not all, however, that he accomplished. He led the Imperial Armies to victory over the small Italian states. Then, he proceeded to annex the Hapsburg territories, and then attacked Spain. The Iberian Peninsula was in their hands by 1793. By that time, all of central Europe was one united Empire. Prussia was conquered by 1794. It was later on, in 1796 that Vandox I, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nations, invaded France. His troops crossed the Rhine and obliterated the French Army at several pivotal battles. They have pushed the French to their capitol city, Paris.
'Feuer am Willen! Zweites Bataillon, grenzen nach links an! Drittes Bataillon, grenzen nach rechts an! Bewegen Sie, bewegen Sie! Gelangen Sie Ihren Esel an die vordere Linie, jetzt!'ť A German officer shouted. The battle was raging outside of the city of Paris, men dying and bleeding. In the fields, the Imperial 5th West Regiment, totaling only 9,000 men, had engaged a force of a hundred thousand French infantrymen. Despite the number disadvantage, the German troops had breech loading rifled muskets, a technological wonder at the time. The Imperial generals also had a better understanding of infantry tactics, and flanking maneuvers. They still were, of course, only human.
'Oberst von Rucker, Verstaekungen sind angekommen! Ich denke, dass wir diese Schlacht gewinnen konnten!'ť A lower officer said to Colonel Tristan von Rucker, commanding officer of the Fifth Regiment. Von Rucker was a grizzled veteran of the Imperial Wars of Unification, leading the famous charge into Koenigberg, and was crucial in the Battle of Lyon, securing Burgundy for the Empire. Now, he was faced with possibly the most daunting task of his career: using only nine thousand men, plus a few reinforcements, he must take the fields outside of Paris, in order to successfully besiege the city. Standing in his way were over 150,000 French soldiers, infantry and cavalry. His men had only a few advantages, and many more disadvantages. He needed a miracle to pull this off.
A thousand cuirassiers - heavy cavalry with steel breastplates and swords, rode up to the front to join the battle. It was complete and utter chaos: rows of infantry firing into French lines, men falling, bleeding, and screaming; it was horrifying. Cannons roared in the distance. Explosive shells impacted into the ground, and sent shrapnel flying into enemy soldiers. Hundreds of soldiers lay in the muddy fields, screaming. Their blood mixed with the soil, and soaked the land.
Private Friederich Goldwald, a young, lightly built Bavarian recruit, marched into the battlefield. His light yellow hair fluttered in the wind, obscuring his vision temporarily. His pale gray eyes glared at the wall of French troops, reloading after firing a salvo of musketballs. He heard Lieutenant Rudolf der Geist giving the order to fire, and he brought his rifle to bear. He took aim, and fired. He saw his target, a French cavalryman, fell off his horse, and collapsed onto the ground. The enemy soldiers also fired into them, taking down a few next to Friederich. He heard a deep, rough, trumpet sound. He knew what it meant, and threw himself to the ground. A sudden, deafening thunderclap of cannonfire resounded across the field. Several cannon shells flew over his head, and crashed into the advancing French lines. Explosions shattered the enemy's morale, and they turned. The French troops were running away, stumbling over one another to get back to the city. Friederich was elated, but not surprised. He, and thousands of other troops pushed themselves up, and started after the enemy troops.
They quickly reloaded their rifles, and fired, taking down several retreating enemies. The Imperial troops were trained since day one at training camp that cowards have no place in the battlefield, nor do traitors. Even the French cavalrymen, long renowned for their bravery under fire, charged up a low rise towards their commanding officer.
Suddenly, the French troops stopped at the low rise, and turned. They fired their muskets at the Imperial line. The surprise salvo of lead dropped nearly the entire front line. Many in the second and third line were hit and severely wounded. Friederich felt a sharp pain in his stomach, and his knees buckled. He lost control of his legs, and fell to his knees in the grass. He felt his abdomen getting warmer, and he put his hand on the place he had been hit. He withdrew his palm when he realized that he was bleeding. He looked at his hand, and gasped hoarsely. It was slathered in blood. His off-white coat was stained in the blood, and he collapsed entirely. In his peripheral hearing, he caught the sound of a German yelling, 'Wir benoetigen einen Arzt! Hier jetzt!'
Two men ran up to him, and lifted him off the ground. His vision started to blur after that, and he noticed that the two men were combat physicians. His sight went black, but he still heard the cries of wounded and dying men. He still heard musket shots, and cannons booming in the distance. He still heard his heart beating and the thuds of dead bodies around him…

Chapter 2

Friederich awoke to the sounds of groaning and wailing people. He opened his eyes, and saw that he was in a medical tent. Physicians were working on wounded men, using all sorts of devices to pull musketballs from people’s bodies, and sewing up cuts and gashes. As he tried to sit up in his cot, Friederich felt an ache in his abdomen, and remembered that he had been hit. A doctor walked up to him and said, 'Sie waren gluecklich, dass Kugel nicht Ihren Dorn schlug. Sie konnten gestorben sein.'
“Ja,” He agreed.
He still heard the sounds of war outside the tent. Dull thumps echoed in the distance. They must be a good way away from the battlefront. He lay on the cot for hours. Suddenly, he heard the doctors talking quickly, muttering things about the enemy moving closer, and that it was imperative that the wounded be moved to a safer place.
A few orderlies came by and picked up his bed. They carried him outside, where a scene from hell was plastered into the surroundings: tents were burning; bodies lay scattered across the camp, full of holes. The French troops had been here, and they would be back to do more harm. The wounded were loaded into medical wagons, and were taken away, to the backup position. If the French troops managed to get to that point, the Imperial forces would have nowhere to go. They would face their first defeat in the French Campaign, if that happened.
The medical wagons moved off to the safe zone, and unloaded the wounded. Colonel von Rucker was there, directing troops. He shouted for the orderlies to set up new tents, and load the wounded men into them. Friederich caught only a glance on the officer’s face. He had combat scars coursing along his forehead, through one eye, and from his mouth to his chin. A sensation of fear and awe ran up Friederich’s spine.
Several hours passed, and no sound was heard. Many more reinforcements came, about five thousand. The Imperial forces were strained on the Danube in the south, and Russia in the east. Only about 100,000 men were engaged in France, compared to over one million troops fighting and dying in the other fronts. Plus, numerous garrisons in the kingdoms and duchies that comprise the Holy Roman Empire, and conquered nations such as Denmark, Holland, and Poland. The regiments at Paris, numbering about 13,000 men now, were significantly outnumbered, were low on ammo, and had no where to retreat.
The soldiers braced themselves for the bloodshed ahead.

Chapter 3

Eugen von Otterbach stood and watched, his steel-blue eyes glaring over the horizon, waiting for the enemy to show themselves. His “Ritterkreuz von der Heiliges Roemisches Reich der deutschen Nationen',ť or 'Knight's Cross of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nations',ť gleamed on his pale-blue uniform, the uniform of a Bavarian Ranger. The Rangers were a special combat division within the Imperial military, tasked with using unconventional tactics to gain the advantage of the enemy. Eugen was a proud man, coming from a family with a tradition of serving the Emperor, all the way back to the Crusades. His jet-black hair was cropped short, so that it did not get in his eyes. He lay upon a short hill, hidden by tall grasses, and held a Model 1795 breech loading rifled musket, capable of downing a man at 300 meters, unheard of with weapons in use by other nations; it was also equipped with a 5x-zoom scope, and used smokeless gunpowder cartridges.
Then, he heard drums. A fife. The enemy army was coming. A conch shell blew, and the Imperial troops readied themselves at the front line, loading their rifles, and taking positions in the grass, preparing to use a tactic that was quite effective: the spring-up. Emperor Vandox had devised the spring-up tactic while he was in the service of the Dutch military. The key of the tactic was to have a line of soldiers lying down in tall grass, out of view of an advancing enemy. When the enemy gets in range, they “spring-up” and open fire, then duck back down, while the main line of soldiery blasts into the second line of the enemy. It was an ingenious tactic, and usually worked.
Eugen and his squad moved to a more forward position, and began to fire upon the advancing French. He targeted officers and sergeants. This would, in theory, demoralize the enemy and cause fear in their ranks. Hopefully, it would cause them to rout and surrender. The French approached.
As soon as the enemy came within 100 meters, a line of soldiers sprung up from the grass, and fired into the French soldiers. They ducked, and the line behind them fired. The first and second French lines dropped, dead or wounded. The remaining troops loaded their weapons and took aim. The muzzle-loading muskets did not fire quickly enough, and the French troops were felled very quickly, and began to run.
Eugen and his four squadmates ran down the hill, and began to fire indiscriminately, no longer picking their targets. There was no need to, for the enemy troops were in a full retreat. He ran to the rear lines, and asked the Captain permission to lead a charge after them.
'Ja selbstverstaendlich Leutnant. Setzen Sie an Ihre Ruestung, und folgen Sie ihnen!' the Captain replied.
Eugen ran to the rear lines, and donned his cuirassier’s armor. He mounted his horse and charged into the front. He shouted for the troops to follow him, and they charged after the French enemies. Other cavalry followed him, and gunfire rang out, killing many French troops. Eugen heard many booming reports, and saw cannonballs racing over his head, and crashed into the retreating enemies. He also saw several Frenchmen being tossed into the air by the force of the explosive shells.
Eugen came alongside a French soldier, and lopped off his head. The enemy collapsed, dead. Imperial dragoons and carabineers rode along the flanks of the running French, and opened fire. The short-range muskets tore through several enemies, and dropped a great many of them within minutes.
The Imperials chased the routing French all the way back to the fields, and continued to cut them down. Only 127 French soldiers returned to the gates of Paris, and quickly ran inside; but, not before Imperial Lancers impaled over forty of them.
It was a decisive victory, ending with over a hundred and fifty thousand French casualties, nearly 99% of their defensive force. The Imperial forces had lost a great many, as well. Four and half thousand combined forces from Germany, Western Poland, and Hungary had perished, and nearly twice as many were severely wounded. Still, Eugen thought after the battle, we won.
They had won the battle of Paris, and now the siege began. Total victory was within their grasp.

A 10-day siege consumed Paris, and the French surrendered on November 3rd, 1796. It took twenty more days to pacify the resistance. In the aftermath, France was made a protectorate under the governance of a Savoyard General, from the island Corsica, named Napoleon Bonaparte. A large part of eastern France, including Lorraine, Burgundy, Provence, and Western Flanders was ceded to the H.R.E. The war in Russia continued, as did the war along the Danube. By early 1797, both wars had ended after the sacking of Kiev, and the capture of Sofia.

whaddya think of the rewritten sections?

[SovietDoom]

I, being a member of an alternate history website, find this timeline to be quite unrealistic.

That the Holy Roman Emperor got all those German states to act as a truly cohesive force is a problem, and the fact that they beat France, then the most powerful nation in Europe.

[MaximiIian]

The hinge to it all is Vandox, really.
He's just some person that comes out from the woodwork of the Empire, and manages to unite the electors into a cohesive force.
He just a natural skill in speech, oratory if you will, and is able to get the Elector's attention, and convinces them to act for the better good of the Empire.
In the backstory of it, the Habsburg Elector steps down as cantidate for emperor, and Vandox is unanimously voted as emperor.
He then drafts a consititution for the Empire, and forges a cohesive central government for it, and an early Reichsdeputationhauptschluss merges several small states into larger entities, and makes it even more cohesive.
How they beat france?
Blucher & Buonoparte are both on the side of the Empire. These two great generals manage to beat France & put it under Imperial dominion.
At the time of the Imperial invasion of France, 1796, the French Republic is still kinda in turmoil.

But, the main hinge is Vandox, who is sort of German napoleon, if you will, in the context of the original timeline.
In the alternate timeline, though, Napoleon bonaparte stays in Italy and is known as General Napoleone Buonoparte.

I'll make a chronological timeline for ya to make it easier, hold on.

Oh, and what alternate history site are you part of?

[SovietDoom]

Its called AlternateHistory.com

We like to call timelines like this edging on Alien Space Bats(essentially, it just happens, no reason for it) territory, but not quite.

Hmm....How about I be your editor for historical info? You come up with the results, and I come up with how he got them.

[MaximiIian]

Oh I'm on that thing. I've been on there for months. My name on there is also "hapsburg"
For some reason, there's some kind of database error on althist.com that won't let me on.
And, I know what ASB is.

[SovietDoom]

Alright, good.

[MaximiIian]

Anyway.
Here's a rough timeline of warfare up until the mid-1780s. Most things are generally the same as OTL, but I have changed a few crucial things in a few wars.

1688-1697
War of the Grand Alliance is waged. France invades Palatinate in 1688, and begins a war against the League of Augsburg. In 1689, England joins the war on the side of the League after the Glorious Revolution ousts James II, and places William III of Orange and his wife, Mary, on the throne of England and Scotland. The League binds England, Spain, Savoy, Portugal, Austria, Sweden, the Holy Roman Empire, and Holland together as a cohesive allied force. The German states stall the French along the Rhine, and the Dutch force the French to retreat back to the border. The harshness of the French troops caused the Germans to rally behind the Emperor, Leopold I, and a nationalist sentiment arose.
While the French were tied up in Germany and the Netherlands, Louis XIV sent soldiers and equipment to Jacobites in Ireland, and a civil war of sorts consumed English-controlled Ireland, but the so-called Williamite War ended in 1691.
The French marshals managed to achieve several successes on land by 1690. The King himself assisted in several battles, taking many cities, but by 1695, the allied offensives under William of Orange forced the French to retreat. Spanish and Savoyard fighting in the war severely hampered French efforts, but the Treaty of Turin in 1696 freed up French troops to fight in Germany, but it ended in a stalemate.
The Treaty of Ryswick ended the war, and the French were forced to surrender seized Palatine territory and to cede Franche-Comté to the Habsburgs.

1699
The Great Turkish War ends with the signing of the Treaty of Karlowitz.

1700-1721
Great Northern War is fought. Swedish victory at Narva starts the war off, but the advance into Russia slows as the Swedish army turns its attention to Poland. Russian victories along the Baltic lead to the capture of the Gulf of Finland, and the founding of St. Petersburg. In 1708, the Russians eventually forced Charles of Sweden to flee to Istanbul. He returned later, in 1713. Yet, in 1721, Russia had conquered all of Sweden’s the Baltic coast territory, and much of Finland. The war ended with the Treaty of Nystad, in which Sweden ceded Bremen and Verden to Hanover, Pomerania to south of the Peene to Prussia, and Livonia, Estonia, Ingria, and Eastern Karelia to Russia. The war replaced Sweden with Russia as the preeminent power in the Baltic.

1701-1714
The War of the Spanish Succession is waged as Charles II, a Habsurg king of Spain, dies. He left his possessions to Phillip of Anjou, a grandson of King Louis XVI. Louis saw this as chance to expand, and sent troops into the Spanish Netherlands to “secure them fro Phillip”, but the British and the Dutch also sent soldiers into the region, and full-scale war ensued. The French were forced out of the Netherlands by 1711. Austria sent armies against the Franco-Bavarian alliance, and put the Duke of Bavaria under a ban, and suppressed the peasantry of Bavaria. The French suffered defeat after defeat along the Rhine. The Austrians invade Spanish territory in Italy, with support from Piedmont/Savoy, early in the war, and have control of the Spanish holdings in Italy by 1708.
The Treaties of Utrecht (1713) and Rastatt (1714) ended the war, and Spain ceded Naples, Milan, Lombardy, and Spanish Netherlands to Austria, and Sicily, Sardinia, and Parma to Piedmont-Savoy.

1707- Britain is declared by Act of Union, which unites the crowns of England, Scotland, & Wales as one.

1718-1720
The War of the Quadruple Alliance, which is sometimes known as an attempted revenge by Spain after the 1701-1714 War, is waged. It began when Spanish forces land a small force of soldiers on Sardinia, forcing the Austro-Savoyard occupiers out, 1717. In 1718, Austria, Britain, Holland, and France conclude a Quadruple Alliance against Spain. The British fleet defeated the Spanish at Cape Passaro near Syracuse; Austrian troops then took Messina on Sicily. A French force invaded the Spanish Basque territory. A Spanish attempt to land a force in Scotland and ignite yet another Jacobite rebellion failed due to a storm. A British fleet landed a small Austrian army near Messina, which was besieged by the Austrian forces. British and French forces invaded Spain from the north, but were forced back from disease. The Austro-British force captured Sicily, and retook Sardinia. In early 1720, Spain signed a peace treaty at The Hague, and Sardinia was handed to Piedmont, and Sicily to Austria.

1729-1732
The Corsican Revolt (1729-1732), fostered by Genoese mistreatment of the citizens of Corsica, was fought in 1729 to 1732. In 1732, the Genoese army managed to defeat the rebels, but decided to sell Corsica to the highest bidder, and Savoy won out. Corsicans were given citizenship by the Savoyard monarchs, which pacified the peasants.

1733-1735
The War of the Polish Succession began when the majority of the Polish nobles elected Stanislas Leszczynsky as King, but a powerful minority elected Augustus III (son of Augustus II, duke of Saxony) as King. Austria, Russia, and Prussia backed Augustus. Civil war broke out in Poland. France, Spain, and Savoy backed Stanislas. Once again, France invaded the Rhine. This time, they penetrated deep into Germany, and took Lorraine. In Northern Italy, a Franco-Sardinian force defeated an Austro-Prussian army. By 1735, the war was over, but a peace agreement was not reached until 1738.
In the 1738 Treaty of Vienna, Augustus was confirmed as king of Poland, Stanislas being compensated with the Duchy of Lorraine (which would thus pass, on his death, through his daughter to the French), while the former Duke of Lorraine, Francis Stephen, was made heir to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, which he inherited in 1737. Charles of Spain was forced to give up not only his rights to Tuscany but also his previous Duchy of Parma, which was given to the Austrians, but he was richly compensated by being confirmed instead as king of Naples and Sicily. The French (and their allies), hoping for détente and good relations with the Austrians, now recognized the Pragmatic Sanction that would allow Emperor Charles VI's daughter Maria Theresa to succeed him. This proved a hollow guarantee, however, as the French decided to intervene to partition the Habsburg Empire following Charles's death. The acquisition of Lorraine for the former Polish king, however, proved of lasting benefit to France, as it past under direct French rule with Stanislas's death in 1766.

1740-1748
The War of the Austrian Succession is waged. The Habsburg Empire was left in the hands of Maria Theresa, daughter of Charles VI. Few recognized the Pragmatic Sanction that Charles issued, and several princes claimed the title of Archduke of Austria. France supported several of these Princes, in the hope that the powerful Habsurg Empire would collapse.
Frederick II of Prussia invaded Silesia in 1740, sparking the conflict. Within a couple of months, the entire region of Silesia belonged to Prussia. France allied with Prussia soon after. The elector-duke of Bavaria attempted to take the throne of Austria, but managed only to become Holy Roman Emperor in 1742, but he died in 1745. Saxony invaded Bohemia in 1741, with Polish support, but soon switched sides and became an ally of Austria, fighting Prussia.
Spanish troops attempted to regain lost territory in Italy, but to no avail. French forces, in 1744, invaded Austrian Netherlands & the Dutch Republic in an attempt to seize territory. Austro-Dutch and British forces defeated the French by 1748, and forced the French out of Germany.
The Treaty of Aachen, in 1748, ended the war, and France was forced to surrender most of the territory it had taken. Prussia annexes Silesia, and Maria Theresa manages to hold on to the Habsburg territories.

1756-1763
The Seven Years War, a global conflict, is waged between an Anglo-Prussian alliance and a Franco-Austro-Russian entente. The war technically began in Ohio as a conflict between British and French colonists. Prussia learned of the coalition against it and England, and struck first, invading Saxony. King Frederick II of Prussia counterattacked Austrian and French troops, but was nearly destroyed by the Russians. Spain joined the war in 1761, albeit tardily. The Russian Tsar, Peter III, made peace with Prussia when he came to the throne.
The war continued until 1763, with the treaties of Paris and Hubertsburg. Europe’s boundaries were reverted to their prewar state, which meant that Prussia kept Silesia. French Canada was allocated to Britain.

1770-1772
The Russo-Polish War is fought. Russian forces plow through Lithuania and Poland, and a treaty is arranged at Warsaw that forces all of Poland-Lithuania to be annexed by Russia.