Another large heavily infrastructured region, this one stretching through Silesia and linking up with the former density around Krakow, where I was more than two years ago. Going to catch up, though, for it was just east of Krakow that I took a five-month break in 2024. Then I'll only be a year and a half behind.
This is another fascinating trade link-up for those not all-too-familiar with the layout of Europe. In the last post I discussed the two gates that linked the Danube with Poland and the Baltic Sea trade. I've included those gates on this map, one at the left across Carnovia and the other in the bottom mid-right, between Zsolna and Nowy Targ, south of Krakow. The map above shows the start of two rivers: the Vistula on the right, which links with the Narew and Bug rivers, giving tremendous access through East Poland and modern Belarus, before debouching into the Baltic at Gdansk (which is why "Danzig" was prized beyond belief in the 19th century, because of the reach this system has). The navigable waters of the Vistula begin with Krakow (which is why that city exists there) and its tributary the San at Nowy Sacz.
On the left is the navigable head of the Oder, starting at Ostrawa or Ratibor (modern Raciborz), depending on the size of your barge. The Oder of course flows north until it reaches Stettin, another access to the Baltic. So just consider what that means for this region. A trader here had substantial access from the interior of the continent: the Black Sea through the Danube, the Adriatic through Vienna and the corridor to Trieste and the Baltic via Stettin or Gdansk. Plus, just for funzies, Silesia is one of those rare parts of the world where both iron ore and coal are both found in abundance... so that this part of the world exploded in value with the Industrial Revolution. It is the eastern European version of the Ruhr or England's Yorkshire.
So, this is as far north as I've been. The next step is to move another 60 miles north, make a big section of Poland and then head east.
So how independent is the (duchy?) of Carnovia in your world?
ReplyDeleteIt's complicated. It's ruled over by Prince Karl Eusebius of Liechtenstein (brother of Ulrich von, joke, hah hah); but it is a personal fief to the Bohemian Crown, not actually a part of Bohemia the kingdom; and the crown is controlled by the Habsburgs, specifically the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III; but even though Ferdinand controls the Bohemian "crown," he does not privately control Carnovia because things belonging to the Crown do not belong personally to the person wearing the crown (Ferdinand). Ferdinand could not, for example, take it away from Eusebius because the latter has feudal tenure over the property; he would have to act treasonously or rebelliously, or fail to have heirs, or otherwise breach his obligations to the crown to lose it, and therefore Ferdinand cannot sell it to someone else despite his title to it.
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