Monday 31 August 2009

De Dietsche Unie

Today I’m serving up history with a twist. This post roughly explains the origins of the Imagi-Nation part of my armies. Later posts will expand on the army, it’s colours, flags, maybe even a rough map of the area, etc…

After the War of the Austrian succession the southern provinces of the Dutch Republic changed hands and became part of the Austrian Habsburg empire. The reforms imposed by Austria, the treason of Austria wanting to dispose of the southern Lowland provinces in exchange for Bavaria, went down badly with middleclass and new upper class merchants which held the real power.
After a badly organised revolt in the Brabant province, which diverted the attention of the Austrian administrators, the people of the main Limburg cities on the Meuse saw their chance and in their turn started a revolt. But they had no intention of joining the northern Dutch Republic. Their movement, originating from a number of cities along the Maas (Meuse) river soon expanded to include the whole of the Limburg region and the eastern part of Brabant. England and the Dutch Republic -thinking a buffer was a useful thing- secretly, but effectively supported the uprising. Due to the economical power of the cities along the Maas, the regions depending on those quickly joined the uprising. A year after the War of Succession the Dietsche Unie was a fact.
The Dutch republic, Prussia and especially Britain now officially recognised the importance of a possible buffer state -able to support armies in winter quarters so near the channel coast and having a main river for transport- by signing a treaty with the new Union, mainly supporting the fledgling army of the De Dietsche Unie (DDU) with equipment and instruction. This gave rise to the first European standing military training camp called Leopoldsburg (named after Leopold van Loon, the first “elected” Citizen-Regent of the DDU) amidst the scarcely populated heath of the Kempa region.
The old colours of the Graafschap van Loon (horizontal bands of yellow and red) were taken as a field sign for the army.

I also see that already 19 visits have been made to my blog...I must admit that in all the excitement of starting a blog, at least 15 counter hits are by myself, showing unsuspecting friends and family what I'm up to. Makes me wonder...maybe Stokes over at the Duchy of Stollen really hasn't reached 70000 hits yet...

Happy gaming
Pjotr

9 comments:

  1. Aha! You got me! I've been sitting here clicking away on the link to my blog for days now. Still not to the 100,000 mark though. Click, click, click!!! ;-)

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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  2. See? You're now up to 58 visits!

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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  3. Welcome to the world of wargame blogs. Look forward to following your adventures. Being of similar age and having visited Dover as a school kid I recognise a lot of your personal history. I went on one of the first Wargames Holiday Centres so have played with Peter Gilder and his impressive armies. Never did the Warhammer route but have a SYW French Army I plan to mutate into an Imagination at some point.

    All the best

    Andy

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  4. I'm not an imaginations player at all, finding history enough of a challenge, but I enjoyed what you have thought out so far and wish you well with it. Whatever stimulates the game is a good thing so I look forward to seeing how things pan out - and I always find other people's armies fascinating.

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  5. Welcome! Another wargaming blog to add to my ever growing number of blogs to keep track of.
    :-)

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  6. A man who has fun in the forefront of his mind, good luck, will be back often.

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  7. Welcome to the world of ImagiNations! It's a lot of fun, in no way serious and you can work it just as you please, as often as you like. You've got off to a great start with the reasoning/history behind your nation. I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops.

    Ah, Airfix, Peter Gilder, the Siborne diorama! Those names are a real blast from the past. Wishing you many happy years of imagineering!

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  8. Best wishes for your project and a welcome from the Duke of Tradgardland and his Court...
    Good to have you onboard
    Alan

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  9. Good luck with your new blog and I hope that you have as much fun with it and the building of armies as I have had.

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