Talk:History of Burgundie

Occupation of Wintergen and Kiravian Wars

Main article: Kiro-Burgoignesc Wars

In the early 1820s a devastating bark beetle blight that almost eliminated the remaining forests on the Ile of Burgundie. Desperate for more wood as the demand from timber-producing areas outstripped the locals ability to harvest it, some enterprising NordHallish shipwrights contracted the Burgoignesc North Levantine Trading Company (BNLTC) to occupy the timber camps of the Kiravian island of Wintergen. The timber operations there were well established and those in the newly conquered provinces of Levantine Burgundie were under formed at the mainland wood was considered subpar.

The government of Burgundie offered compensation but Kiravia did not accept terms and set up a government-in-exile. The status of Wintergen remains unsolved between the two nations.

As the reach and influence of the Merchant Marine of Burgundie increased they started to incur the wrath of existing trading powers. Kiravia in particular, with its vast colonial and trading network, saw the resurgence of a powerful maritime Burgundie as problematic. Following the 1823 occupation of the Kiravian island of Wintergen, a tension began to grow between Kiravian and Burgoignesc merchant sailors until war was tacitly declared on both sides resulting in a delayed start to the Kiro-Burgoignesc Wars. This time period coincided with the Punthite Quasi-Wars where Burgoignesc and Kiravian ships started to engage each other in earnest. This erupted with the practice of "clipper baiting" wherein Kiravian ships would capture Burgoignesc ships and their cargoes. After suffering humiliating defeats for years at the hands of the Kiravians the Navy of Burgundie and the shipwrights of Burgundie focused its efforts on building smaller and faster ships, primarily on schooner rigged yachts. These ships, while incredibly fast, housed only three guns and could not engage the Kiravian sloops-of-war in direct combat. Both Kiravia and Burgundie endorsed prize courts in their ports.

Trade Route Empire

An early clipper ship in Vilauristre Harbor in the 1830s The era known colloquially as Le Talosocrasie (Eng. Trade Route Empire) spanned from 1837-1904 and is primarily a reference to the economic format of the time. It differentiated from the Trade Company Empires because trade became a centralized activity of the government. The government purchased majority portions of the various trade companies and directed their policy. This was a direct response to the escalation of the Kiro-Burgundian Wars, which at the time the Burgundians were losing badly. In addition to the international strife, the era was punctuated by internal violence as well. Constant uprisings across the newly acquired lands in Levantine Burgundie led many to abandon any hopes of investing and improving the area. To support the constant policing and military actions, taxes were raised, primarily against the poorer classes. It was assumed that since the majority of those caught rebelling were unskilled laborers or tenant farmers that the tax burden should fall on those classes. If it was observed that these cantankerous actions were organized and led by members of the Ultmarian lesser nobility and the middle class, it was ignored and no evidence of it exists in court documents.

Clipper Ships

The extreme clipper Donnerkeil in Gletchstiknsburg The pseudo-war sparked a ship design frenzy in Burgundie. Faster and sleeker merchant ships were needed to outrun the Kiravian navy. In 1832, the architects of the Doppel Shipyard produced a clipper ship that quickly became the standard of most Burgundian merchant fleets. The ship was unique because it had much more topsail yardage and any previous ship and was comparatively small. This allowed the clipper to achieve incredible speeds. These ships were designed to outpace the Kiravian navy and make the Yytuskia Beef Run in less than 130 days. This was important because even salted the beef would start to rot after the 135-day mark. Yytuskian beef was prized among the elite because it represented the extent of the Trade Route Empire's reach.

The Yytuskia Beef Run consisted of travel down the Fanerian and Urcean coast, across northern Ixprop, criss-crossing the Kindreds Sea, then shooting out from Vahltunskh to Yytuskia. The return leg saw the clippers travel to Akai, along southern Crona then back to Burgundie.

Later, in the 1860s, Doppel Shipyard built extreme clippers to go down the eastern coast of Levantia, over the Levantine Ocean to Santheres and Pukhtunkhwa on the Spice Run. In addition to spices, some enterprising clipper captains started smuggling Pukhtunkhwan heroin in their holds. They would sell the heroin to black markets in Heku and Kiravia. These clipper crews became incredibly rich and would often flaunt their new found wealth upon their return. This drew the ire of the Catholic elite and soon the Revenue Guard was tasked with drug enforcement. Since no heroin touched Levantine soil, they needed a forward operating base.

These trade routes were plagued by piracy. Additional issues arose around 1867 when the first record of "clipper baiting" was recorded. Laden with spices (and sometimes heroin) rival Burgundian and Kiravian clipper ships would lure each other into a pirate-infested territory. The slower of the two would be captured. The pirates would ransom the goods at less than market value to the faster ship. This led to a cutthroat business between clipper captains and Pukhtunkhwan pirate lords. The rash of piracy from Kandara and Pukhtunkhwa and "clipper baiting" spurred the predominantly Catholic Revenue Guard to set up a permanent base on the island of AyerSee and Sodermark in the 1870s. The AyerSee base of operations remains one of the foremost pirate hunting training schools in Greater Ixnay.

While this run did at times include trips to Vespia there was often contentious competition with the Vespian Merchant Navy.