by Tom Anderson
The Anglo-Hanoverians meet the French, led by the Duc de Noailles, at Dettingen. Despite Noailles’ superior generalship, George’s forces win the battle, but George himself is killed.
Wilmington dies and is replaced by Henry Pelham as Prime Minister. Pelham shares power with his brother Thomas, the Duke of Newcastle.
Death of Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark in a riding accident, thus making his younger brother Christian the heir apparent to King Christian VI.
1744:
In Oman, patriotic forces drive the Persians from the country and it becomes fully independent under the elected Imam Ahmed ibn Sayyid as-Sayyid. In TTL there is no Qais branch of the family and he is peacefully succeeded by his son Sayyid in time: Oman remains united.
Platinum is discovered in New Granada by Antonio de Ulloa y de Torre-Girault and Jorge Juan.
1745:
Prince William, now William IV, is defeated by Marshal Saxe at Fontenoy. He returns to Britain and puts down the Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland led by Bonnie Prince Charlie.
In North America New England forces, including Prince Frederick, take the fortress of Louisbourg from France.
Death of King Christian VI of Denmark; his second son succeeds him as Christian VII, and enacts a radical reform programme. Christian VII reverses his father’s introduction of adscription (essentially serfdom), restores the Danish Diet to play off the commoners against the nobility, and sells off Denmark’s overseas colonies to finance a new military buildup in the Baltic.
Dutch inventor Pieter van Musschenbroek invents the Leyden Jar, the first primitive means for storing electric charge.
1746:
French forces in India under La Bourdonnais take Madras from the British East India Company.
1747:
French invasion of Austrian Netherlands leads to internal dissent in the Dutch Republic. A new settlement is established whereby the stadtholder of the provinces of Friesland and Gronigen becomes Stadtholder William IV, ending the Stadtholder-less period, and the office is also made hereditary, paving the way for a shift from oligarchic republic to monarchy.
British general election returns a shaky majority for the Pelhamites in the 10th Parliament of Great Britain.
In India, Dupleix attacks British-held Cuddalore, but is repulsed by an army under the British-allied Nawab of the Carnatic, Anwarooddin Mohammed Khan.
1748:
Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle. Maria Theresa retains her titles, but Austria loses Silesia to Prussia and various territories in Italy to Parma and Sardinia. France returns the Austrian Netherlands to Austria, a highly unpopular move among the French people. King William IV of Britain agrees to return Louisbourg to France in return for Madras. However, this is equally unpopular with the Americans. Prince Frederick seizes his chance and, backed by American supporters who sign a Declaration of Right, claims the throne. The War of the British Succession begins.
Spain and Portugal enter negotiations aimed at refining the outdated zones of control in the Americas defined by the old Treaty of Torsedillas.
1749:
January - Hearing of Frederick’s claim, William invokes the Treason Act 1702 and imprisons some of Frederick’s most prominent Patriot supporters. This clumsy response makes William less popular with the English people in general.
April - Williamite fleet, under the command of Admiral John Byng, sets sail for America;
Bonnie Prince Charlie leads a Jacobite fleet to Limerick in Ireland and starts a rising there against the absentee William. Fourth Jacobite Rebellion, including a minor rising in Scotland led by Lord Cosmo Gordon, which is rapidly crushed. Ireland, however, rages on.
August - Cunning plan by Frederick leads to William being assassinated at range on the deck of Byng’s flagship by American riflemen. Frederick smooths things over and the war fizzles out. Byng’s fleet winters in America, having turned to Frederick.
In India, Dupleix supports Chanda Sahib in his attempt to overthrow Anwarooddin Mohammed Khan, the Nawab of the Carnatic (and latterly his son Mohammed Ali).
Part 3: King Frederick (1750-1760)
1750:
March - Byng’s fleet, with Frederick and American troops, sets sail for the British Isles.
May - Death of King John V of Portugal. His son becomes King Joseph I of Portugal. He takes an interest in the stalled colonial negotiations with Spain, and real progress begins to be made.
June - Frederick, after hearing about the Irish rising, diverts the fleet to Cork and lands there, seizing towns from Jacobite forces, though Lawrence Washington initially fails to take Limerick.
July - Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Madrid, setting down new colonial borders in the Americas based on the 46th meridian. The key provision is that Portugal will exchange Sacramento for the Spanish Jesuit ‘Seven Missions’.
September - Battle of Kilkenny. Frederick’s forces win the day. Charles Edward Stuart dead, no serious Jacobite claimants left after James Francis Edward Stuart’s death. End of Jacobitism in the British Isles.
November - Triumphal entry of Frederick and American forces into London. Frederick marches into Parliament and dissolves it. He calls a general election, set for February.
December - Frederick’s coronation. For the first time this form of the royal title is used… Frederick the First, by the Grace of God King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Emperor of North America, Defender of the Faith, etc.
1751:
February - British general election vanquishes the Pelhamite Whigs and returns a handy majority for the Patriots. William Pulteney becomes Prime Minister; William Pitt Secretary of State for the Southern Department; George Grenville for the Northern Department. 11th Parliament passes important acts such as the Act of Suppression (building roads in Scotland and Ireland to help put down further revolts), the Act of Succession (confirming Frederick as King but recognising William as William IV ‘until his untimely death’) and the Colonial Act, establishing the Empire of North America and some early institutions.
Peerages awarded to American supporters of Frederick, including Lawrence Washington becoming Marquess of Fredericksburg.
European powers reluctantly recognise Frederick’s government. Frederick cancels William’s signature on the Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle. France keeps Madras in protest, and many British soldiers die from tropical disease and neglect while in French captivity in Madras, including the unknown (in TTL) Robert Clive.
The proxy war continues in the Carnatic. Britain fails to take Arcot, and Chanda Sahib wins the civil war, becoming the new Nawab of the Carnatic. Henceforth French influence in the region is paramount and Britain rarely exerts much influence south of the Circars.
1753:
King Frederick of Great Britain makes his first and only visit to Hanover.
Alarmed by French attempts to form alliances with the Indians of the Ohio Country, Iroquois leader King Hendrick approaches the Governor of New York, the Duke of Portland, for more Anglo-American assistance in repulsing French influence. Portland agrees and the Anglo-Iroquois alliance is cemented further.
The French build forts in Virginian-claimed Vandalia, at Fort Presque Isle and Fort Duquesne. Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, after meeting with Portland and the Lord Deputy, sends troops to eject the French from the Ohio Country.
1754:
Lawrence Washington, despite his new lands, titles and House of Lords seat in Britain, chooses to return to America. This will set a precedent for later American nobles. The young George Washington remains in Britain and is tutored alongside George, Prince of Wales.
Dinwiddie’s Virginian militiamen fail to take the French forts at Presque Isle and Duquesne. Because of this, the Virginian House of Burgesses passes reforms to improve the standard of militia military training, despite the ever-persistent fear of a standing army in British-derived nations.
The Pulteney government in Britain signs a treaty with Prussia, known as ‘Les Deux Frédérics’ in France. This essenti
ally amounts to the British abandoning their commitment to help Austria if Prussia attacks Silesia, in exchange for the Prussians agreeing to defend Hanover in the event of another German war. Austria and Britain have drifted apart since disagreements over accepting the Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle.
Carolus Linnaeus visits London and meets the young Joseph Priestley, who persuades him to publish his controversial theories about human evolution.
In South America, the Seven Jesuit Missions agree to move from the now Portuguese territory, but their Guarani Indian friends object. A short war between combined Portuguese and Spanish forces and the Guaranis, which results in the defeat of the Guaranis but causes bad blood between the Portuguese and Spanish.
In China, the Yongzheng Emperor dies and is succeeded by his son Hongshi the Prince Zhong, who becomes the Daguo Emperor. Daguo’s reign is marked for a programme of building defensive fortifications, ‘the Second Great Wall’, against the Dzungars, and for the invasion of Burma.
In the Holy Roman Empire, the Konventionsthaler (Convention Dollar) is created, a standard based on the Austrian dollar to which most of the currencies of the other German states are pegged to.
1755:
July - Corsican rebels finally eject their Genoese colonial occupiers from the island, declaring an independent Republic (technically a kingdom, but with the throne occupied symbolically by the Virgin Mary). It is noteworthy for being considered the first state in which women customarily had the vote.
November - the Great Lisbon Earthquake wreaks havoc in Portugal, and indeed across Europe, but is particularly devastating in the city for which it is named. Countless buildings destroyed and people made homeless. José de Carvalho e Melo, the Chief Minister, organises the recovery effort.
1756-1759: The Third War of Supremacy, also known as the War of the Diplomatic Revolution. Britain, Prussia, Ireland, Hanover, Brunswick, Hesse-Kassell and the Empire of North America vs. France, Russia, Austria, Sweden, Naples and Sicily, and Sardinia. Eventual defeat for the British coalition in Europe with the dismemberment of Prussia, though Prussian army tactics continue to educate the world. Total British victory in North America. Minor French victory in India.
1756:
May - The British East India Company in Bengal has built up a huge army with which to try and retake the lost cities from the French in the Carnatic. However, this army’s existence has made their ally, Siraj-Ud-Daulah the Nawab of Bengal, nervous…
July - In India, Afghan leader Ahmad Shah Abdali conquers Delhi and marries his younger son Nadir to the daughter of his puppet Mughal Emperor Alamgir II.
August - Austria signs a formal alliance with France at Versailles - the ‘Diplomatic Revolution’, ending a century of Franco-Austrian enmity. In response, Britain declares war on France and Prussia invades Saxony. Start of the Third War of Supremacy.
October - After a lightning campaign by King Frederick II of Prussia, Saxony surrenders to the Prussians.
November - Pulteney announces a Cabinet reshuffle. George Grenville becomes Chancellor the Exchequer and Henry Fox takes over as Secretary of State for the Northern Department. Frederick II of Prussia, having secured Saxony, launches an invasion of Bohemia.
December - Death of Queen Mildred of Great Britain. King Frederick sinks into a depression from which he will never quite recover.
1757:
February - Prince George of Wales disappears. He secretly takes up a commission in America under the name Ralph Robinson, fighting alongside George Washington. French and allied Huron and Algonquin forces under Montcalm invade New York. After failing to be reinforced, the American Fort Frederick William surrenders to the French. However, the Algonquins, having different definitions of the rules of war, then perpetrate a looting and massacre on the British and American forces. This outrage increases the resolve of the American people to win the war, and more regiments and militias are raised.
May - Frederick II of Prussia retreats from Prague after an indecisive engagement with Austrian forces, deciding he does not have the troop numbers to hold the city.
French naval forces in the Mediterranean defeat British Admiral Edward Boscawen and take Minorca, which is later returned to Spain. Boscawen escapes court-martial but is effectively exiled to a West Indian command.
June - Siraj-Ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, betrays his British allies and takes Fort William at Calcutta in a surprise attack. British East India Company officers are trapped in the ‘Black Hole of Calcutta’, a tiny prison in which many die. Outrage among the Company and at home leads to an all-out attack on the Nawab’s forces with the Company’s new army, with the result that it is not deployed against the French.
September - Britain attempts a descent on the Isle d’Aix, as part of a strategy of tying up French troops with temporary landings on the French coast. The operation is an embarrassing and expensive failure, as shallow waters make it impossible to reinforce the British troops. Pitt refuses to authorise any more such operations. The French East India Company takes Fort St David at Cuddalore, decisively ending British power in the Carnatic.
November - Frederick II of Prussia wins a brilliant victory against a numerically superior Austro-French army at the Battle of Rossbach.
December - The outnumbered Prussians under Frederick II win a second victory against Austria at the Battle of Leuthen.
1758:
February - Britain occupies French colonies in West Africa, including Dakar.
June - Death of William Pulteney. King Frederick asks William Pitt to form a government. Henry Fox becomes Secretary of State for the Southern Department.
July - A Russian army under Pyotr Saltykov defeats the Prussians under von Wedel at the Battle of Paltzig. In Portugal, King Joseph I survives an assassination attempt, but the wound will trouble him for the rest of his life.
August - In Portugal, a plot by the Távora and Aveiro families against the King is discovered, giving Chief Minister Carvalho an excuse to execute many of their key members and make the rest flee into exile. Their lands are annexed to the Portuguese crown.
September - The British East India Company defeats the Nawab of Bengal’s forces in a decisive campaign. The Nawab is killed during the final battle.
October - In a battle with Austria at Hochkirch, the Prussians are defeated and most of their artillery corps fall into enemy hands. The tide of war has begun to turn against King Frederick II.
1759:
The Annus Mirabilis, the Wonderful Year of Victories, in America.
May - The British East India Company takes Calcutta. The EIC seizes direct control over Bengal and parcels it out among a half-dozen puppet princes. End of the Nawabate.
July - Alaungpaya, Burmese King of Ava of the Konbaung Dynasty, conquers and annexes Pegu.
August - Frederick II of Prussia defeated by the Russians and Austrians at Kunersdorf, so decisively that he no longer cares for his own life and goes into battle himself, dying heroically after slaying many enemies.
The Hanoverians, neglected by Britain, are defeated at Minden by the French under the Marquis de Contades. However, the French invasion of Hanover stalls soon afterwards as their supply chains become overextended.
September - James Wolfe defeats Montcalm at Quebec, ending French control of Canada. “Ralph Robinson” is wounded and discovered to be Prince George in disguise. The unknown-in-TTL James Cook is killed in the battle. Wolfe is wounded but survives and is eventually made military governor of Canada. With the death of Frederick II and the war turning against the Prussians, a newly confident Saxony re-enters the war and attacks Prussia.
October - King Frederick I of Great Britain begins to sicken from a lung infection.
November - A Prussian army is annihilated by the Austrians under Daun, at Maxen. King Frederick William II of Prussia is a minor, and his uncle Prince Henry is regent. Henry believes the war is lost and sues for peace, knowing it will be harsh.
1760:
January - Treaty of Amsterdam,
ending the Third War of Supremacy. This dismembers Prussia, returning Silesia to Austria and giving Cottbus, Liegnitz and the western possessions to Saxony. France fails to receive the Austrian Netherlands, again angering the French people. Britain/America receive the Ohio Country, Senegal and New France/Quebec from France, but the French retain Louisiana. Britain recognises French control of the Carnatic.
February - Death of Frederick I of Great Britain. Rapproachment with his son Prince George, soon to be George III, on his deathbed.
March - King Alaungpaya of Ava (in Burma) dies and is succeeded by his son Naungdawgyi. However, the Konbaung dynasty’s rule is now disputed by General Myat Htun, who wants to restore the former Toungoo dynasty.
April – Under the terms of the Treaty of Aalborg, the Danish crown sells Greenland and Iceland to Britain. Both are in legal limbo for some years, with Greenland eventually becoming part of the ENA and Iceland its own small kingdom in personal union with Britain.
June - Treaty of Cedar Shoals between the Cherokee Empire and the Carolinian colonists. This is the official end to the Indian wars of the 1760s, which resulted in the virtual destruction of the Creek and Chickasaw nations, and formally divides their former lands between the Carolinians and their Cherokee allies.
Part 4: Frontier George (1761-1778)
1761:
January - Third Battle of Panipat in India as Ahmad Shah Abdali’s Muslim Afghans fight the Hindu Maratha Empire. The battle is a crushing victory for the Afghans, with the Marathas shattering into a loose confederacy that then begins a slow decline.
February - Seeking to pull France out of her war debts, King Louis XV appoints Étienne de Silhouette as Comptroller-General of Finances. Silhouette largely fails in his attempts to tax the rich, but does succeed in ensuring that French East India Company profits largely go into the royal treasury.