Age of Revolution 1789
In the spring of 1789, the King of France, out of money, summoned the Estates-General for the first time in 175 years. That July the people of Paris stormed the Bastille, and for the next twenty-six years Europe was turned upside down by revolution and war.
The shape of the age
The Enlightenment shook the belief that a king's right to rule came from God. As the idea spread that a man could rise by ability rather than birth, an artillery officer from Corsica really did become an emperor. That is why so many lives in this era begin as an officer, and why there is a Crossroads of Fate that can make you a general of the Revolution.
In the east, Russia, Prussia and Austria carved up Poland in three partitions until it vanished from the map, while in the south the Ottoman Empire was slowly losing its strength.
Great events in the game
- The French Revolution and the Reign of Terror The monarchy falls, Louis XVI is executed, and the Revolution sends its own children to the guillotine.
- The Partitions of Poland With the partitions of 1793 and 1795, Poland-Lithuania ceased to exist.
- The Napoleonic Empire The Grande Armée triumphed at Austerlitz and was destroyed in the Russian campaign of 1812.
- Waterloo and the Congress of Vienna After Napoleon's final defeat in 1815, the great powers met in Vienna and redrew the map.
- The Revolutions of 1848 Revolution broke out at once in Paris, Vienna, Berlin and Budapest.
How to enjoy this era
States are large and strong, so it is hard to keep conquering from a small holding. Instead, alliances, marriages and a careful balancing act between the great powers are the keys to survival.
Major powers
| Power | In the game |
|---|---|
| France | From kingdom to republic, and on to empire. Fights the whole of Europe. |
| Britain | Master of the seas. Bankrolls its continental allies to hold France back. |
| Austria · Prussia · Russia | The three royal houses that divided Poland. Fearing the spread of revolution, they make and break alliances. |
| Ottoman Empire | Still vast, but wavering between reform and rebellion. |
| Spain · Sweden | Former great powers, now dragged along in the quarrels of others. |
Life in the age
Salons and coffeehouses were places for sharing ideas. Nobles and bourgeois, scholars and writers debated politics and science side by side, and newspapers and pamphlets carried those conversations into the streets. The game's salon and secret society (Masonic lodge) events capture this atmosphere.
The way wars were fought changed too. Revolutionary France conscripted hundreds of thousands through the levée en masse, and Napoleon divided that vast army into corps and moved it with speed. Even without noble birth, a man who distinguished himself on the battlefield could become a general. It was also in this era, in 1796, that Jenner developed the smallpox vaccine.