In the Sikh Empire TL I was working on, (though the last entry got eaten up and erased by an internet D/C bug just when I attempted to post it, a few months ago now; with the frustration I felt about this, combined with the general lack of interest in it, driving me to finally give up on any further attempts to continue it here), one of the central figures who's set to have a far greater lasting impact on world history than he did IOTL is Ernest Frank Mevius, the (then still self-styled) 'Baron De Mevius'.
Born in 1795 in the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald, in Western Pomerania, Ernest Mevius was a direct descendant of Freidrich Mevius and David Mevius, both of whom had been Professors of Law at the eponymous University of Griefswald and held in high esteem (with the latter having been the founding Vice President of the Wismar Tribunal). However, his own branch of the family had fallen upon hard times, having invested a great deal of capital into shares in the then newly founded Emden Company (formally, 'The Royal Prussian Asiatic Company in Emden to Canton and China', and informally, also known as 'The Prussian East India Company'); which had been a fairly successful enterprise, but had been destroyed by the outbreak of the Seven Years' War and Emden's occupation by French troops in 1757 during the Invasion of Hanover, forcing its dissolution after the end of the war in 1765.
Early in 1813, Mevius had joined the newly founded Lützow Free Corps, and served in the German Campaign of the War of the Sixth Coalition until its dissolution after the Peace of 1814, participating in the Battles of The Göhrde and of Leipzig under the Army of the North commanded by Crown Prince John of Sweden; after which, he had succeeded in being accepted to, and graduated from, the Kreigsschule at Königsberg. However, he'd submitted his resignation from the Prussian army in 1819, along with the generals he'd fought in battle under, Boyen and Grolman, after Frederick William III had ended their reform movement by reducing the militia's size and placing it under the control of the regular army. And in the 1820s, having heard of the Sikh Kingdom of Lahore, Mevius decided to pursue his destiny in a voyage to the East; travelling by way of Ludhiana to Lahore, where he arrived in March 1827, and made enough of an impression on Maharaja Ranjit Singh that, after having agreed to the usual terms and conditions under which foreigners were admitted into Sikh service, he was employed in the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, assigned to training his own infantry battalion.
Mevius was an harsh and unyielding taskmaster, who firmly believed in the importance of instilling 'Prussian Virtues' through the use of draconian discipline, in accordance with Frederick the Great's assertion that "a soldier must fear his officer more than the enemy"; confident that by doing so, he could achieve superior results than the more lax and libertarian methods employed by the 'French Brigade', but with little consideration for engratiating himself to the men who'd been placed under his command. And eventually, things came to a head when, in the summer of 1830, Mevius was charged with using a whip against a Sikh soldier, which led to an open revolt among the soldiers of his battalion, and compelled to seek refuge in the Maharaj's tent. Ranjit Singh saved his life, but refused to retain him in his employ, discharging Mevius from his service. And that's more-or-less where the tale of his fortunes as an adventurer ended IOTL; unable to find another employer in India, with few if any remaining outside the direct influence of the British, Mevius retired from his career as an adventurer, using his savings to return to Greifswald.
In my story though, whilst the revolt against his command still happens ITTL, for the same reason, the fact that this happens during the build-up to an imminent invasion of Northern Sindh helps to minimize the scale of the revolt, and the resulting fall-out. And after the Sikhs emerge victorious in the First Sikh-Talpur War (in which the performance of the Sikh 'Prussian battalion' trained by Mevius is assessed and found to be more than satisfactory) in the terms of the peace-treaty which ends the conflict in March 1831, the ruling Shahdadani Talpurs of Hyderabad are forced to recognize the independent sovereignty of both Khairpur (which is greatly reduced in extent- forced to surrender control over Shikarpur and all of its territories west of the Indus to the Lahore Darbar, with the North-Eastern tehsils of Ubauro, Daharki and Mirpur Mathelo, also ceded to Bahawalpur in perpetuity in exchange for payments to cover its remaining war-indemnity) and Mirpur Khas; both of which thenceforth become vassal states under the formalized protection of Lahore in separate treaties (much like Bahawalpur 30yrs earlier).
As a result of the conflict, the terms of the treaty which had been signed between the Mir of Hyderabad and the British East India Company in 1809, barring all Europeans from entering the territory of Sindh and all Balochis from entering British territories, no longer applies to either Khairpur or to Mirpur Khas; allowing Europeans access to these Mirdoms. Mir Sher Muhammad, of Mirpur Khas wastes little time in inviting European adventurers to his dominion, seeking to emulate Ranjit Singh and Pasha and create a model brigade of his own; and ITTL, decides to employ Ernest Frank Mevius (who arrives here seeking employment, rather than simply waiting around in Ludhiana for the next 3-4yrs before giving up and travelling back to Germany as IOTL), who swiftly gets elevated to the rank of general and becomes the leader of the European officer corps in the Mir's service, much like Jean-Francois Allard back in the Sikh Empire; forming a 'German Brigade' of his own, with a few others including Henry Steinbach and Dottenweiß (a short, portly German who came to the Punjab in the early 1830's, but was employed by Maharaja Ranjit Singh as a military tactician in 1835- in spite of his field of expertise having been as a canal engineer- only to be found unequal to the appointment and dismissed from the service soon afterwards) joining him there ITTL rather than ending up in Lahore as they did IOTL.
And in one of its first military operations, Mir Sher Muhammad entasks Mevius with leading a taskforce down the course of the intermittent Puran River to reassert Mirpur Khas' dominion over its southernmost and easternmost territories, which it'd lost its control of in the aftermath of the devastating Rann of Kutch earthquake in 1819 (with the British East India Company having opportunistically seized Lakhpat, Nagarparkar and Bakhasar and added them to their Kutch Agency, entirely cutting off Mirpur Khas' access to the Rann of Kutch and to maritime trade). Whilst the Kingdom of Kutch had technically come under the protection of the British East India Company in 1818, the British had withdrawn what little presence they had in Kutch, including the British Resident at Bhuj, after being decimated in the First Cholera Pandemic, selling their lands there back to the Jadeja chiefs in exchange for an annual tribute in 1822. With the BEIC being even less inclined to assist Kutch than they were when it came under attack by marauding bands from Sindh and Nagarparkar in the early to mid 1830s IOTL (prioritizing diplomatic rapprochement with Mir Sher Muhammad, in the hopes of diminishing his hostility against them, securing a subsidiary alliance with the Mirdom of Mirpur Khas, and gaining suzerainty over it that way), Rao Deshalji II of Kutch has ilttle choice but to accept this.
In the aftermath of this successful operation, Mevius gets rewarded by being awarded with a Jagir over the Tehsil/Taluka of Lakhpat (which includes those portions of Abdasa Taluka west of Jakhau, for a total area of c.3,000km2- roughly the same size as Wituland, but with around 4-5x Wituland's 1890 population of c. 13,000). And with Mevius inviting German traders in particular to establish trading posts/Kontors there, leading to the creation of a new 'German East India Company', this territory effectively provides the starting base for 'German India' ITTL; with the colonial settlements of Danish India subsequently being purchased by this German East India Company by the end of the 1840s, rather than by the BEIC as IOTL. How much of an impact do you lot think this is likely to have on world history, particularly colonial history? What do you reckon'd be the likeliest fate for 'German India' ITTL, after this point? And what do you reckon the best case scenario'd be for 'German India' in my TL?
Born in 1795 in the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald, in Western Pomerania, Ernest Mevius was a direct descendant of Freidrich Mevius and David Mevius, both of whom had been Professors of Law at the eponymous University of Griefswald and held in high esteem (with the latter having been the founding Vice President of the Wismar Tribunal). However, his own branch of the family had fallen upon hard times, having invested a great deal of capital into shares in the then newly founded Emden Company (formally, 'The Royal Prussian Asiatic Company in Emden to Canton and China', and informally, also known as 'The Prussian East India Company'); which had been a fairly successful enterprise, but had been destroyed by the outbreak of the Seven Years' War and Emden's occupation by French troops in 1757 during the Invasion of Hanover, forcing its dissolution after the end of the war in 1765.
Early in 1813, Mevius had joined the newly founded Lützow Free Corps, and served in the German Campaign of the War of the Sixth Coalition until its dissolution after the Peace of 1814, participating in the Battles of The Göhrde and of Leipzig under the Army of the North commanded by Crown Prince John of Sweden; after which, he had succeeded in being accepted to, and graduated from, the Kreigsschule at Königsberg. However, he'd submitted his resignation from the Prussian army in 1819, along with the generals he'd fought in battle under, Boyen and Grolman, after Frederick William III had ended their reform movement by reducing the militia's size and placing it under the control of the regular army. And in the 1820s, having heard of the Sikh Kingdom of Lahore, Mevius decided to pursue his destiny in a voyage to the East; travelling by way of Ludhiana to Lahore, where he arrived in March 1827, and made enough of an impression on Maharaja Ranjit Singh that, after having agreed to the usual terms and conditions under which foreigners were admitted into Sikh service, he was employed in the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, assigned to training his own infantry battalion.
Mevius was an harsh and unyielding taskmaster, who firmly believed in the importance of instilling 'Prussian Virtues' through the use of draconian discipline, in accordance with Frederick the Great's assertion that "a soldier must fear his officer more than the enemy"; confident that by doing so, he could achieve superior results than the more lax and libertarian methods employed by the 'French Brigade', but with little consideration for engratiating himself to the men who'd been placed under his command. And eventually, things came to a head when, in the summer of 1830, Mevius was charged with using a whip against a Sikh soldier, which led to an open revolt among the soldiers of his battalion, and compelled to seek refuge in the Maharaj's tent. Ranjit Singh saved his life, but refused to retain him in his employ, discharging Mevius from his service. And that's more-or-less where the tale of his fortunes as an adventurer ended IOTL; unable to find another employer in India, with few if any remaining outside the direct influence of the British, Mevius retired from his career as an adventurer, using his savings to return to Greifswald.
In my story though, whilst the revolt against his command still happens ITTL, for the same reason, the fact that this happens during the build-up to an imminent invasion of Northern Sindh helps to minimize the scale of the revolt, and the resulting fall-out. And after the Sikhs emerge victorious in the First Sikh-Talpur War (in which the performance of the Sikh 'Prussian battalion' trained by Mevius is assessed and found to be more than satisfactory) in the terms of the peace-treaty which ends the conflict in March 1831, the ruling Shahdadani Talpurs of Hyderabad are forced to recognize the independent sovereignty of both Khairpur (which is greatly reduced in extent- forced to surrender control over Shikarpur and all of its territories west of the Indus to the Lahore Darbar, with the North-Eastern tehsils of Ubauro, Daharki and Mirpur Mathelo, also ceded to Bahawalpur in perpetuity in exchange for payments to cover its remaining war-indemnity) and Mirpur Khas; both of which thenceforth become vassal states under the formalized protection of Lahore in separate treaties (much like Bahawalpur 30yrs earlier).
As a result of the conflict, the terms of the treaty which had been signed between the Mir of Hyderabad and the British East India Company in 1809, barring all Europeans from entering the territory of Sindh and all Balochis from entering British territories, no longer applies to either Khairpur or to Mirpur Khas; allowing Europeans access to these Mirdoms. Mir Sher Muhammad, of Mirpur Khas wastes little time in inviting European adventurers to his dominion, seeking to emulate Ranjit Singh and Pasha and create a model brigade of his own; and ITTL, decides to employ Ernest Frank Mevius (who arrives here seeking employment, rather than simply waiting around in Ludhiana for the next 3-4yrs before giving up and travelling back to Germany as IOTL), who swiftly gets elevated to the rank of general and becomes the leader of the European officer corps in the Mir's service, much like Jean-Francois Allard back in the Sikh Empire; forming a 'German Brigade' of his own, with a few others including Henry Steinbach and Dottenweiß (a short, portly German who came to the Punjab in the early 1830's, but was employed by Maharaja Ranjit Singh as a military tactician in 1835- in spite of his field of expertise having been as a canal engineer- only to be found unequal to the appointment and dismissed from the service soon afterwards) joining him there ITTL rather than ending up in Lahore as they did IOTL.
And in one of its first military operations, Mir Sher Muhammad entasks Mevius with leading a taskforce down the course of the intermittent Puran River to reassert Mirpur Khas' dominion over its southernmost and easternmost territories, which it'd lost its control of in the aftermath of the devastating Rann of Kutch earthquake in 1819 (with the British East India Company having opportunistically seized Lakhpat, Nagarparkar and Bakhasar and added them to their Kutch Agency, entirely cutting off Mirpur Khas' access to the Rann of Kutch and to maritime trade). Whilst the Kingdom of Kutch had technically come under the protection of the British East India Company in 1818, the British had withdrawn what little presence they had in Kutch, including the British Resident at Bhuj, after being decimated in the First Cholera Pandemic, selling their lands there back to the Jadeja chiefs in exchange for an annual tribute in 1822. With the BEIC being even less inclined to assist Kutch than they were when it came under attack by marauding bands from Sindh and Nagarparkar in the early to mid 1830s IOTL (prioritizing diplomatic rapprochement with Mir Sher Muhammad, in the hopes of diminishing his hostility against them, securing a subsidiary alliance with the Mirdom of Mirpur Khas, and gaining suzerainty over it that way), Rao Deshalji II of Kutch has ilttle choice but to accept this.
In the aftermath of this successful operation, Mevius gets rewarded by being awarded with a Jagir over the Tehsil/Taluka of Lakhpat (which includes those portions of Abdasa Taluka west of Jakhau, for a total area of c.3,000km2- roughly the same size as Wituland, but with around 4-5x Wituland's 1890 population of c. 13,000). And with Mevius inviting German traders in particular to establish trading posts/Kontors there, leading to the creation of a new 'German East India Company', this territory effectively provides the starting base for 'German India' ITTL; with the colonial settlements of Danish India subsequently being purchased by this German East India Company by the end of the 1840s, rather than by the BEIC as IOTL. How much of an impact do you lot think this is likely to have on world history, particularly colonial history? What do you reckon'd be the likeliest fate for 'German India' ITTL, after this point? And what do you reckon the best case scenario'd be for 'German India' in my TL?