Jump 406: Europa Universalis

Jump #406: Europa Universalis
>Eight of Wands (Swiftness), reversed: Too much force applied too suddenly.
>Location: London, England, 1444 (-50)
>Identity: Aristocrat (-150)
>Drawbacks: (+600) Import Save Game, DLC Purchase Required, Sunset Invasion
http://youtu.be/j7DVh9IPHqM
>Respect of the King (Free, Aristocrat)
Well I sure as hell hope that I have the king's respect, I was his father. But that's neither here nor there.
>Blissful Ignorance (1300, Aristocrat)
It's always nice that minor things will tend to work themselves out.
>Codes of Chivalry (1100, Aristocrat)
Well, England was one of the first nations to codify chivalry. It helps to ensure that traditions are respected and not watered down.
>Beloved Tyrant (700, Aristocrat)
I've done well enough so far, haven't I?
>Wig (Free, Aristocrat)
>implying a jumper's hair would ever be anything but what they explicitly desire it to be
>Duchy (400, Aristocrat)
It doesn't hurt to be in charge of a large chunk of the country, now does it?
>Jumpsailles (0, Aristocrat)
In other words, the palace I built already, except now it will follow me. Because France a shit, the palace of Camelot is best.

So apparently, the king I'd been died a few moments after my stay in Crusader Kings came to an end and I woke up as a Duke and heir apparent. And anyone who thinks otherwise can talk to my obliviate spell.

The incident that apparently precipitated the formal disintegration of the Holy Roman Empire was the arrival of a second wave of Aztecs, half a century after they'd ceased their attacks. Many of the weapons they'd been using before had been confiscated as spoils of war, and methods to produce hard iron weaponry and armor had been devised, even if they were in relatively early stages and only able to churn out small batches at a time.

Of course, when the Aztecs arrived in a thousand of their ships once more and disembarked with frightful weapons, conquering Spain in the space of three months, it was seen as a prelude to inevitable war, one which they were already sick and tired of.

The splintered nations of Europe felt their doom press onto them, but there is one weapon that stood half a chance of evening the odds: the English longbow. In another time, it would have caused grevious casualties through a hundred years of war with the French. Instead, Englishmen and Frenchmen stood shoulder to shoulder as they pioneered guerilla tactics, longbowmen launching volleys that would pierce Aztec steel defenses. Conflicts went back and forth, but there were enough bowmen and knights who saw how Aztec warriors used their firearms to fight. And when battles went positively for them, some of the weapons were able to be salvaged.

Some of those weapons could be reproduced. Metallurgists weren't able to produce weaponry in great numbers for some time, but what they were able to make were aesthetically superior to the mass produced Aztec muskets. The rifling they used was a complex issue, but figured out in time - and seldom needed but for sharpshooters.

With a handful of months of work and enough examples, alchemists were able to reproduce the Aztecs' smokeless gunpowder. Well, relatively smokeless, at least. It burned more efficiently than the primitive black powder that was available previously, and launched projectiles much further.

By 1455, the Aztecs had been driven from Spain, several of their ships captured for study. A pity that Spain and Portugal had been practically depopulated - over the intervening years, France ended up with ownership of the western European peninsula.

In 1492, Arthur Cross sailed the ocean blue, a trio of ships at his command. On a mission of peace and exploration, he returned to London with two less ships in 1494 and a depressing report: every native port in the western hemisphere had greeted them with hostility at best and violence at worst, often turning cannon upon them. Doubtlessly, invasion would happen in the future, and next time it might not be peaceful.

Great Britain turned its greatest minds toward the art of war. Favors were called in, colonies established in locales in Africa and India (eventually much of India was made a part of the growing British commonwealth). The colonies and England's allies provided manpower, while the old Commonwealth provided the war materiel and manufacturing.

The Black War of the 14th century was every bit as bloody as the Crimson War of the 16th century, even if the new war was half as long as the old. The Aztecs had a massive empire that stretched from what would, in another world, have been Florida to Rio. The Redcoats gave as well as they received, but the Aztec empire had mostly a token presence in most areas outside of Central America - the indigenous populations of North and South America, once liberated, were more than happy to trade ideas and ambassadors while they rebuilt.

The Crimson War ended when the bloodthirsty Aztecs were invaded en masse at the heart of their empire - a beachhead kept Tenochtitlan distracted, while the bulk of the soldiers drove the Aztecs from the northmost and southmost cities toward the heart of their empire. In the end... rather than surrendering, the order of the day was suicidal charges by even the women and children, and mass suicides.

The Aztecs died to a man.

This unsettled virtually everyone - while they knew the Aztecs worshipped dark and bloodthirsty gods, seeing such violence firsthand was traumatic. And so most of the soldiers chose to retire, and the British Commonwealth made sure they were well cared for.

Much of the rest of the jump was simply a matter of establishing the British commonwealth. Sure, much of the empire was virtually autonomous as long as it paid lip service and taxes into the mutual defense of the whole of the commonwealth, but colonies scattered across Africa saw trade and helped make the indigenous population there prosper, while nations formed across the ocean and people began to travel between continents. Many of the nations that would have formed in North America still did, though their makeup was much different, and a heavier hand from authority prevented many of the abuses of power that would have otherwise appeared. All in all, it was a relatively peaceful time, one where secular thought began to take precedence, where power began to become decentralized.

Of course, all good things must come to an end. War on the European continent. France thrown into massive disarray under Napoleon, royal rule ended with his crowning as Emperor. However, his ambition was too great - France eventually deposed him and the Republic was born in a birth cry that sounded like the screech of a guillotine blade.

The British Commonwealth, however, would have none of that nonsense and made it explicitly clear to the new France politicians that if they decided to start exporting their Terror overseas, they would find themselves besieged by a unified nation that saw the Aztecs' end. This helped put a damper on their behavior, and with a small bit of influence, they became rather introspective and intellectual.

And so the jump drew to a close in 1836, though strange things loomed on the horizon that no one knew of yet.