Edge of the World epilogue: A MEIOU and Taxes AAR

Author: Yoper101
Published: 2017-02-02, edited: 1970-01-01

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Edge of the World, a MEIOU and Taxes AAR

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Game: Europa Universalis IV

Edge of the World part 11: a MEIOU and Taxes AAR. An execution

Images: 24, author: Yoper101, published: 2017-02-02, edited: 1970-01-01

The Chronicle of Georgia
Upon his ascension to the throne in the June of 1541, Teimeruz, 1st of that name, ordered a chronicle to be created detailing how Georgia ascended from the chaos that followed after the withdrawal of the Tartar empire.
The first Polish crusade
In 1446 the First Polish Crusade began against the Ottoman Empire. This crusade was motivated by border incidents between Wallacia and the Ottomans, as well as significant political pressure from Lithuania to liberate their fellow Orthodox nation of Tarnovo.

The war ended in a crushing defeat for the Turks, causing their sphere of influence to shrink significantly. At this time, king Erekle began to again consider war.

He had been perusing a policy of peace with the Ottomans, fearing their armies marching on Georgian soil. This defeat emboldened him, and he set down plans for a war with the Turks, but was unable to pursue these plans to completion. His legacy is instead marked with the two universities in Tbsili and Hayastan, which he ordered constructed to educate the nobility in the classical arts and sciences.

King Erekle's dedication to learning has been greatly over-emphasised amongst the commoners of Georgia, particularly those living furthest from the capital. They have taken to calling him Erekle 'the teacher'.
King Vakhtang 'The Brutal'
In the December of 1466, king Vakhtang I was crowned and sensing weakness from the Turks, he set about readying for war immediately. A revolution amongst the Turkish nobility had weakened the Ottomans, and their army was kept to defend their capital in the west.

The Georgian attack sacked thousands of villages and towns, turning a vast amount of money to the Georgian coffers. After this pillaging, Vakhtang sued the Sultan for peace, a deal which he readily accepted.

After this particularly cruel war, peoples of other nations began calling Vakhtang 'The Brutal'.
The Ottoman Rebellions
The Turkish court found itself unable to administer to as much land as it had occupied, so it had began to decentralise ruling, only to find that local nobles were too ambitious.

A significant number of leaders emerged, each trying to rule over his own area of the Empire as if he were the Sultan himself. The two decades over which this status quo remained is down to this day called 'the time of the Ten Sultans'.
The collapse of the White Horde and the partitioning of the steppes
During the latter half of the fourteenth century the White Horde had been shedding land left and right like a dog sheds its hairs in the summer.

The Rus' state of Galich managed to gain the most from this slow collapse. Ryazan and the Turkomans also made gains.

The Autokrator of Trebizond approached Vakhtang and suggested a treaty between them, which they named the Azov Pact. They divided all that remained of the White Horde between them, with Georgia gaining, at least nominal control of the Trade city of Astrakhan.

However, the king found that his already over stretched administration could not integrate the new land properly, and so the land remains Georgian in name only down to this day.
The second Turkish war
In his old age Vakhtang conducted a second war against the Turk, this time with the goal of taking land. The conflict was launched at a time when the Ottomans were reeling from yet another crusade, and lacked an effective army.

At the peace conference, Trebizond was granted back their original lands on the south of the black sea, whilst Georgia took a small port city and a number of Agean islands.

The title Moslem Beylik of Aden was created in order to administer to the new island holdings; a sure necessity given how far these lands are from Tbsili.
The collapse of the Ottomans
After this war the Ottomans ceased to be an empire in anything but name. Their army was non-existant, their nation was in open rebellion and to top it all off, a great famine cause widespread starvation across Anatolia in 1509 and 1510.

One could say that their kebab had been removed.
The freedom of Constantinopel
The Third Polish Crusade lead eventually to the capture of Constantinople by Poland's crusader state in the Balkans. Finally after well over a hundred years of Exile, the Patriarch was able to return.

Whilst this was going on, king David X had taken the throne, died unexpectedly and been replaced by Simon I, who took the Moslem Beylik of Candar as a vassal to expand Georgian influence amongst the ruins of the Ottomans.
Great Georgia
After the 3rd crusade had ended, the Ottomans found themselves completely removed from the Balkans, barely hanging on to life. King Simon immediately pushed for war and took land for his subjects.

The Beylik of Aden is down to this day a rising star in the Georgian court, ruling vast territories from his island fortress.

The Beylik of Candar has proven less loyal, but the King chose to reward him anyway, which proved a wise move, helping to bring Northern Anatolia under the control of Georgia.

And up to the crowning of Teimeruz little changed with the situation of Georgia.

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Images: 23, author: Romanclay, published: 2017-02-02, edited: 1970-01-01