Franco-Russian Wars

The Franco-Russian Wars were two wars fought between the Franco-German and Russian empires. Two wars were fought between the empires. The first between 1865 to 1867, which resulted in a Franco-German loss, and the second between 1878 to 1882.

## First Franco-Russian War

The First Franco-Russian War began in 1865, during a border skermish between Russia and Finland. According to the 1855 treaty, the Peace of Finland, Franco-Germany was required to come to Finland's aid when it was attacked, as Russia was doing.

Franco-Germany declared war and began to mobilise their troops, however the wartime Kaiserbahn network was rather poor. The Russian, on the other hand, were already mobilised and moved the bulk of their troops down through the Baltic to engage the Franco-German front lines in Prussia.

With the Russian advances and much of the Empire's resources having been poured into the silver Kaiserbahn lines, Franco-Germany incurred major loses of their Eastern Prussian territories, all the way up to Danzig.

In the space of two years, Franco-Germany lost about a third of the Prussian territory, and were forced to capitulate or risk losing the strategically important city of Danzig to a prolonged siege. In 1867, the Franco-German Empire capitulated and ceded much of the formerly Polish territory in Prussian to the Russian Empire.

With Franco-Germany no longer fighting, the Russians turned their attention to Finland, who had been making admirable gains up until that point. However, with the full might of the Russian Army approaching, the Finnish could barely hold out. Whilst inflicting heavy losses on the Russians, the Finnish were no match for their scale.

The Russians slowly advanced on Helsinki, where King Sven II was forced to flee and find refuge in Franco-Germany, originally sheltering in Sweden, but later moving to Hesse when Russian assassins attempted to kill him there.

## Second Franco-Russian War

The loss of the First Franco-Russian War left a very bitter taste in the mouth of the Franco-Germans. It highlighted the inefficiencies of the Kaiserbahn network being used for military transport, given than none of the rolling stock was compatible with existing rail lines. It also served to highlight the dilution of Prussian's once legendary military by the rest of the Empire.

As such, tensions between Franco-Germany and Russia ran high for a decade, as Franco-Germany coverted went about upgrading the Kaiserbahn network to be more capable of running on quickly laid tracks and of carrying troops to the front line, developing brand new electric locomotives which could run independent of their fuel source, and specific military variants of the locomotives, which were hardier and stronger, but not as fast.

The Second Franco-Russian War began in 1878, on the Empire's annexation of Poland. The Russians had been expected a retaliation, their expectations had been based around the still-rebelling Finnish lands. So Franco-Germany's quick strike into Poland took them by surprise.

The use of the Kaiserbahn was pivotal in both wars, but this time in a favourable manner for Franco-Germany. With the improvements made, along with factories commandeered for use building prefabricated Kaiserbahn rails, the Franco-Germans were able to transfer huge amounts of weaponry, ammunition, and troops. It allowed the Empire to take Poland quickly, and then take Lithuania as well, before the Russian troops had come to defend the Baltic states.

With the front built, the Franco-Germans moved up the Baltic coast, building Kaiserbahn lines through the conquered territory, taking Latvia in 1879 with very little resistance and a lot of Russians captured.

However, as the Franco-Germans moved further north, they began to encounter stronger and stronger Russian resistance, as the Russians were fighting for the motherland, not conquered territory. Estonia fell in 1881, but the fight was far tougher than for Latvia.

Seeing that resistance was mounting, the Franco-Germans made a final push into Russia proper in 1882, striking deep into Russian territory, aiming for St Petersburg. They arrived at and encircled the city, before pushing the Russian forces back to the coast and trapping them on the beaches. With St Petersburg surrounded, Emperor Maximilian II himself ventured to the city to hold peacetalks with Tsar Feodor IV. During these talks, it was agreed King Sven II's son, Prince Halvar, would become King Halvar VI of Finland, with Finnish independence once again guaranteed by the Peace of Finland. The Baltic states won by Franco-Germany would be kept, but any Russian territory itself would be returned to the Emperor. And, in an attempt to build peace, the Emperor agreed to allow the Tsar to marry his eldest daughter, Maria, making her Tsarina. It was hoped that having siblings on two empires' thrones would lead to peace. However, this backfired when Crown Prince Leopold of Europe then died with no male heirs.

Upon the death of Emperor Maximilian, Tsar Feodor made a claim on his wife's behalf to the Franco-German throne. However, with the memory of the Siege of St Petersburg still fresh in mind, the claim was no pursued. However, Russian Tsars continued to style themselves as Tsars of Russia and Franco-German well into the 20th century.