NationStates Jolt Archive

Official Long Title: The Empire of No Taxes, Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves, Kingdom of Uruguay and Rio de la Plata, Kingdom of the Slave Coast, Kingdom of Diu, Kingdom of Chittagong and Kingdom of Calcutta

Common Title: Portuguese Empire, No Taxian Empire, No Taxes, Portugal

Political System: Centralized monarchy, though in actuality much of the power is in the hands of the church and the nobility. Recently a new class of merchants and explorers has been gaining sway within the government buoyed by the wealth coming from the colonies.

Ruler: King Afonso III of Portugal

Heirs:
Prince Christain of the Nordic Empire

Siblings:
Catarina, Married to Prince Christain of the Nordic Empire (17)
Joana, Princess of Algarve (promised in marriage in 2 years to the Emperor of Nova Byzantia) (13)
Maria, Princess of Calcutta (13)

Capital: Lisbon

Demographics:

Portugal: 2.3 Million
95% Portuguese
3% African Slaves
1% Spanish
1% Other

Southern American Colonies: 990,000
52% Portuguese
34% African Slaves
6% Spanish
5% Other Europeans
3% Natives

West African Colonies: 2.1 Million
63% Native Africans
28% African Slaves
7% Portuguese
1% Spanish
1% Other Europeans

Diu: 31,000
51% Portuguese
27% Indian Slaves
9% Spanish
6% Native Indians
6% Other Europeans
1% African Slaves

Calcutta: 190,000
44% Native Indians
29% Portuguese
11% Indian Slaves
9% Spanish
7% Other Europeans

Chittagong: 120,000
37% Portuguese
28% Native Indians
13% Spanish
12% Other Europeans
6% Indian Slaves
4% African Slaves

Lhasa Foreign Zone: 496
100% Portuguese

Military

Garrisons:
Portugal
Lisbon: 17,000
Porto: 11,000
Coimbra: 8000
Faro: 5500

Southern America
Montevideo: 15,000
Rosario: 10,000
Buenos Aires: 6000

West Africa
Lome:12,000
Porto Novo: 5000
Lagos: 8,000
Ibadan: 4,000

Indian Possessions
Diu: 14,400
Calcutta: 16,000
Chittagong: 13,000

Additionally in all fortified ports of the Empire a battalion (200~300) troops are stationed.

Standing Forces
21,000 Musketeers
24,000 Pikemen
37,000 Cavalry
1800 Cannons

Fleets:

Home Fleet
-5 Ships of the Line
-18 Frigates
-30 Sloops

South Atlantic Fleet
-4 Ships of the Line
-20 Frigates
-25 Sloops

West African Fleet
-1 Ship of the Line
-17 Frigates
-34 Sloops

Indian Ocean Fleet
-13 Ships of the Line
-32 Frigates
-60 Sloops

Resources and Trade Goods

Portugal
-Cork
-Wine
-Olive Oil/Olives
-Fish
-Tin
-Wheat
-Maize

Southern American Colonies
-Cattle
-Wool
-Rice
-Wheat
-Maize
-Honey
-Citrus
-Timber
-Livestock
-Fish
-Gold
-Granite
-Quartz

West African Colonies
-Slaves
-Cocoa
-Cotton
-Coffee
-Peanuts
-Palm Oil
-Poultry
-Rice
-Corn
-Sorghum
-Yams
-Millet
-Tin
-Copper

Indian Colonies
-Rice
-Vanilla
-Sugar
-Cloves
-Emeralds
-Sapphires
-Salt
-Iron Ore
-Diamonds

He could see it on the horizon, the great many masts penetrating into the midday sky, the massive formations of seagulls shifting through the air, occasionally resting on some boat, rock or dock and of course, the port of Lisbon itself.

Alexandros Constantus II, Emperor of Nova Byzantia, felt a sudden calming sensation come over him. The great harbour reminding him of his home, Constantinople and erasing the mild home-sickness he felt.

That said, the young monarch found no shame in the nervous rearranging of his cuff-links. He was rather hard-pressed to try and make a good impression, being that his future-wife would be here and all.

It didn't quite help that she was thirteen friggin' years old either, a child, whereas he was a young man and a well-traveled one at that (his uncle had periodically sent him away to learn various things from various tutors from various parts of the Imperium).

It was then that all the 'What if's began to play in his head. What if the family resented him for his homeland's Orthodoxal beliefs as opposed to the Roman Catholic faith? he didn't want his fiancee to feel alienated for 'marrying the Greek'. What if she disliked him? they would inevitably spend the good most of their time together and... well, they'd have to procreate...

And, for the love of god, WHAT THE HELL DID SHE LOOK LIKE?

"Calm down, Alex, or you'll die before we even reach port." Came a voice from behind, forcing the young Emporer out of his reverie.

"Yeah, yeah Sajiid..." he replied turning to face the man, a Turkish looking fellow garbed in a general's uniform coloured the Imperial blue, a cutlass sheathed at his side. "And remember, it's 'My Emperor' when we hit land, right?"

"Yes, yes..." Sajiid responded deftly, clearly amused by the nervousness in his former-student. Though, he did give him a quick once over to make sure everything was in order.

An officer's uniform similar to his own, with the addition of a silken red sash and a special medal on his left breast that showed his royal stature. His brown hair was cut short and neat while his skin was tanned. Frankly, between the boy's strong build, bright green eyes and fast wit, any common girl who didn't feel the urge to latch onto his ankle and demand to be whisked off to the bedroom would have to be deranged, mad or something best left not spoken of.

"You'll be fine, Alex." Sajiid declared giving him a reassuring pat on the back "Just don't tempt the fates"

"Yeah, yeah, I know..."

When news that the Byzantium ship had been sighted reached the palace, Prince Afonso headed down to the docks with a small contingent of the royal guard to greet the Emperor, his future brother in-law. Prince Afonso was 18 and even though he was certainly full-grown, he had an air of youthfullness and roguishness about him, unlike his older brother, the heir, who looked the part of a prince, dignified and noble. Everyone agreed that it was good that the older brother Teodosio had been born first so that he was the heir, not Afonso, a sentiment shared by Afonso who relished the freedom from responsibility he had. At the docks, he watched as the ship sailed in and prepared to meet the Emperor of Nova Byzantia.

Setting foot on the dock, Alexandros took in his surroundings.

'Les'see, a few merchants looking at me funny... a few kids fishing at the edge of the pier... ah, there he is.' He performed the mental checklist, looking for the man that was supposed to meet him.

Of course, seeing that the royal guard was accompanying the man made him stiffen slightly, the presence of the royal guard implied the man was obviously of the royal family, that or a very close relative or friend of it.

He put on his diplomatic face as he felt Sajiid's hand grasp his shoulder firmly, a standard security proceedure (Most Europeans out of the Imperium were terrified of the Turks... and being that Sajiid was at least six foot-seven with arms the size of children, he became a very effective tool in discouraging hostilities).

The overt seriousness of the whole situation drew mad laughter in his mind, though it's only physical manifestation was a warm smile.

"Eh, can't be that bad."

Seeing Alexandros stiffen at the sight of the guards Afonso smiled and said, "Welcome, you must be the Emperor of Nova Byzantia. Don't worry about these fancy-looking guards behind me, they're just for ceremony. Whenever a foreign dignitary or royal comes we have the royal guard escort them to the palace. If you'll come with me I'll take you to the palace to meet your future wife and then discuss business."

(The Portuguese hate Moors because of the Reconquista)

Tension somewhat crashed, Alexandros broke out into a wide grin. Patting his mentor/bodyguard's hand (the unspoken 'stand down' order) he approached the other man.

"Well then my friend, lead on." he replied warmly.

Afonso lead them up into the city and pointed out several of the more important places in Lisbon. The palace was located on a hill on the northern side of Lisbon, only about a 20 minute walk from the docks. The King João IV and Princess Joana were waiting outside to greet them. Joana was tall for her age, with dark hair and eyes and pale skin. She was certainly very pretty, though she had not yet fully grown into womanhood.

King João spoke first, "Welcome to Portugal, Alexandros, if you want to come inside you can freshen up and we can talk over dinner."

"Thank you, m'lord." Alexandros replied, before looking to the young princess, pausing briefly as his eyes locked unto hers as if he were looking for something.

"Ah, so you must be Joana" he said with a smile and a gentleman's bow "T'is a pleasure to finally meet you."

Even during mid-bow, he could tell from the subtle change in Sajiid's breathing patterns that he was going to be the butt-end of many a joke from him and by proxy, his personal bodyguard all the way home.

Had it been anyone else, they'd most likely be given a beating for the ages.

Joana mumbled a polite reply and the Emperor and his guard were led inside to their quarters, until Prince Afonso and an attendant burst in some hour and a half later.

He had a look of shock upon him and some of his earlier easy confidence was gone, "You must forgive my sudden intrusion but, the King has died; he just keeled over suddenly. They think it might have been poison, but we have no idea who the conspirators were. This means that Teodosio, my older brother, is now the King, but he is in Africa hunting so right now I have to make sure the church or the nobles don't try anything because there are some nasty rumors floating around. My friend Salvatore hear can make sure you have whatever you need and show you the city if you want. I'll hopefully be back tomorrow with more news for you. Once again, I am very sorry you had to be hear for this and I am assigning several guards to you to make sure nobody tries anything."

With that he swept out of the room, leaving Salvatore there and the guards outside.

(OOC: I hope you don't mind that I assumed your Emperor would want to go to his room first and freshen up.)

(OOC: The death of João is your pretext to go to war with Spain, right?)

The Emperor, to his credit, managed to sit there with a dumbstruck expression for three seconds at the most.

The king was dead.

The king of Portugal was dead.

His mind immediately began pulling up what he knew of the country, trying to piece together what could have happened...

The Church may have had a hand in this, he knew that they had disapproved of a marriage between an Orthodoxal emperor and a Catholic princess, but this was far too extreme...

The nobles? they had nothing to gain from the king's death, infact, they stood to make a profit from a union between the two nations.

An outside power perhaps... but who would go so far as to slay the Portugese king? Someone who would profit from the instability that followed, someone who could enforce their dominance over the region...

Someone like the Spanish.

Ofcourse, it was just a hunch, and you can't really decide foreign policy on a hunch.

"Salvatore, could I make a request?" The emperor began, ending his trail of thought. "Do you have a sword I could borrow?"

But it always pays to be prepared.

In light of the recent events that have taken place in West Africa, I, Sofia Alexeevna, propose a treaty be signed between all modern nations with possesions on the African continent where slaves are traded. This treaty would make it illegal for any slave to bare or own arms. Furthermore, regulations would be set in place so that slaves would be kept under tighter leash and would ensure no armories would be constructed within 70 miles of the nearest slave operated plantation or slave market. This is to ensure an incident like the one that occured in West Africa recently would never be repeated. These precautions will tighten security in Africa so foriegn powers may operate freely there for years to come. I hope Russia has the support of the rest of the modern, colonial world in this descion.

(see thread on West African revolt for more details)

OOC: Yes that is the main reason for his death.

Salvatore grinned, "Prince Afonso thought you might want one and left it with me," he said, handing it to the Emperor.

Prince Afonso returned several hours later quite a different man. Where before he had a youthful roguishness about there was now a manic glint in his eyes and a determined air in the way he carried himself, his royal family showing some of itself in him.

"It was the Spaniards. We caught one of the conspirators and after confessed after we tortured him for a while. We are beginning preparations to go to war with Spain, in a joint invasion with Alversia." At this point, a quiet note of determination crept into his voice, "I will make those people pay for this, I swear. And we just got word from the West African colonies, there is a massive slave uprising there and," his voice wavered ever so slightly, "the heir, Prince Teodosio was killed, which means that I am now king and last male heir to the throne. As soon as I am done with these Spaniards, I will personally lead an army down to West Africa and devastate it." He smiled slightly, "If the slaves thought they had it bad before, they will soon be in for a bit of a surprise. But don't let any of this bother your stay, feel free to explore the palace and the city, it will be perfectly safe now. Hell, unless I marry and have a son, you'll be second in line to the Portuguese throne once you marry my sister." And with that King Afonso III marched from the room.

Something burned.

Oh yes, something was burning behind Alexandros' eyes.

"Sajiid..." he damn-near growled, his voice dripping with something malevolent "Get back to the ship and sail back to Constantinople, I only want to see you again if you have at least two legions with you."

Sajiid sighed in response, and spoke in a calm tone; "Your uncle is currently fighting a war in the east, he's not going to let you just up and mobilize the legio-"

"Then I'll revoke his goddamn regency!" the emperor roared, his hand coming down hard enough on the hardwood table between them to form a sizeable crack in it's surface. The Turk could only stare agape at his young friend; while he did certainly have the power to depose of a regent, the sudden shift of power would cause turmoil, even moreso because it had never been done before.

He suddenly felt a twinge of pride fill him, the boy certainly kept to his commitments.

"Yes, my emperor." he replied with a respectable bow, before turning and leaving the room.

That done, Alexandros turned to Salvatore, the initial malevolence in his voice now replaced by a hardened determination.

"I'd appreciate it if you could take me to your king, I believe we have a war to plan..."

King Afonso III thought he had seen a kindred spirit earlier and now seeing that the Emperor had come confirmed his suspicions.

"So, Salvatore here tells me that you will help us in our fight against the Spaniards and I sincerely thank you for the help. The sooner we can defeat the Spaniards the sooner I can relieve the West African colony. But before we begin to make plans for the war, how many men do you expect to be able to bring to the fight?" asked Afonso.

"Well..." Alexandros began "With my uncle's campaign in the East, our regiments from the Caucasus and northern Turkey are too busy to be reassigned."

He paused for a moment to catch his breath.

"However, the regiments in the Ukraine and indeed, the legions in the Balkan heartland are quite free for deployment. When Sajiid returns he'll be bringing at least 10,000 men with him, though you will have to wait a week at least for mobilization."

Another breath, and he took on a thoughtful expression.

"Of course, I can't take too many men out of the Balkans, as it would both leave us dangerously under-guarded and under-manned if my uncle's war takes a turn for the worse; so the most I can guarantee is 50,000, not counting any volounteer militias I can drum up."

(Ugh, long post X_x)

"That is very good, even just 10,000 men would help."

Afonso spread out two maps in front of them, one (http://www.top-tour-of-spain.com/images/new_regions.jpg) showing the regions of Spain and another physical map (http://www.stvincent.ac.uk/Heritage/1797/places/iberia.jpg) of Spain.

"Alversia will be attacking the provinces of Navarre, Basque, Aragon, Catalonia, La Rioja, Valenican, Murcia and Andalucia which makes our job much easier. Now as you can see, Spain is a very mountainous place, which is why we have to plan our attacks around these mountains. I plan on going into Spain on two main thronts, one in the south towards Badajoz and Extremadura and one in north along the Douro River into Castile and Leon. The southern front will make for Toledo and Madrid, while the northern one will eventually cut across Castile and Leon to Santander on the northern coast. The Spanish would easily be able to defeat one of these armies if they concentrated their forces against it, but between two different fronts and with Alversia attacking in who knows how many places the Spanish will either have to divide and weaken their army to face all attacks or keep it concentrated and ignore all but one. And if you can spare any of your fleet to help blockade the Spanish ports that would be appreciated. We attack in one week."