Marshal T's 1st TL - The City of Lights, The City of Lies

[Marshal T]

As a a bit of lurker here, this TL is somewhat built as a response to the many cliches of the Great War TLs on this board - such as if the Germans somehow reaching Paris in 1914, they automatically get the Ukraine and Belarus or the Ottoman Empire being randomly partitioned to name a couple. I also encourage hardcore nation wankers to look elsewhere, as here some nations will be somewhat stronger, while others somewhat weaker.

At this point only my research, not much has been accomplished although my outline is pretty concrete. I hope to examine the under explored ideas to come up with rather fresh and creative but still very plausible events. Since my next update won't be until more than a month. The only certainty at this stage is that my PoD is somewhere in the 1860s and that towards the end, the World War will truly be a world war. Heres my first teaser.

Enjoy.

[Marshal T]

reserved for future updates.

[Shawn Endresen]

Ok, you have our attention

[Emperor-of-New-Zealand]

I get the feeling this is going to be one of those wordy timelines full of regions I've never heard of and no maps. Nonetheless, that flag looks freaking cool, and I will wait and see what happens

[SavoyTruffle]

It's obviously France-centric, even though it's clear that they won't be wanked.

[gatoulis]

The flag means a monarchist and catolic France. However it is tricolor and not white: maybe an Orleanist France. The PoD could be an early death of Henri de Chambord
Interesting

[Marshal T]

It is great to know there are people interested. Unfortunately, at very earliest my 1st episode would be in late Thanksgiving weekend.

[MNP]

Originally Posted by Marshal T

It is great to know there are people interested. Unfortunately, at very earliest my 1st episode would be in late Thanksgiving weekend.

Just so you know, you can only edit posts for 1 week after you make them. So you'll have to make a new post rather than editing your second post. In regards to your introduction, I know when planning out the early outline for the Raptor of Spain I looked at the cliche list and tried to do the opposite as often as I had the option... Anyhow, I like timelines where France does better (without being wanked...) so carry on after the holiday.

[Monopolist]

I'll sign on as interested.

[Marshal T]

Napoleon’s Vietnam Debacle

Crown Prince Phuc Canh looks upon Napoleon III

PoD - April 1862 - Vietnamese Emperor Tu Duc refuses to negotiate with the French.


The Franco-Vietnamese War in 1862 marked a pivotal point in Vietnamese history as well as foreshadowing the beginning of the end of Napoleon III’s empire. What was suppose to be a small, punitive task against the Nguyen Dynasty for persecuting Catholic missionaries turned out to be a long and costly debacle, who some historians consider to have distracted Napoleon from the rising thread across the Rhine.


Vietnamese Emperor Tu Duc was have reported to have said “We will not give up one inch of land” to the Franco-Spanish forces and broke off all negotiations with the Western powers. Although many of the upper mandarins were satisfied with his strong sense of sovereignty, many of the lower class, including the Catholic population was not.

Tu Duc was now faced with a dilemma at home as well, rebellions were occurring in the north and he needed to send his troops to put them down. Yet at the same time, the Emperor was also facing advancing French troops from the south [1]. His priority was to quickly crush any rebellion at home first and would hopefully turn his troops southwards to stave off any French advancement further into Vietnam.


Napoelon III, on the other hand, faced no such dilemma and approved Admiral Charles Rigault de Genouilly’s plan, as commander of the French forces in the Far East, to take any actions needed to make an all out advance towards Tonkin and capture the key cities of Hanoi and Hai Phong. The French forces, however were already stretched thin enough in the vast country side of Vietnam in hostile terrain and tropical climate. The admiral however, had an ambitious plan.


First he would request more troops, needed for such a massive undertaking. Napoleon at first hesitated at the Admiral’s plan to transfer 30,000 men from the Mexican expedition to such a backwater but the Admiral insisted that it was Tonkin merely a stepping stone towards becoming Emperor of China.


The second step was to make a deal with the local natives. The Admiral sent a message to the King of Siam, Chulalongkorn. In exchange for a free hand in Cambodia [2] and the Lao borderlands, Siam would send an expeditionary corps to assist the French invasion from the West. Although the King distrusted the intentions of the French, it was the dream of the Thais to secure her natural borders against her hereditary rival, Vietnam. The King agreed to the Franco-Thai Agreement.


The final step was to secure some of the Vietnamese cooperation. Many vague, if sometimes contradictory, promises were made to agitate distrust against Tu Duc. The biggest asset proved to be the Vietnamese Catholic population weary of persecution. In hopes of winning some support of the Vietnamese overall, Phuc Anh Nhu, a grandson of the Catholic Prince Canh [3], was promised the throne.


The Franco-Thai invasion proved to be a success as Tu Duc’s forces were defeated by the Thais at Bien Dien Phu and the French with the bombing of Hai Phong and costly siege of Hanoi.


Tu Duc, the last independent ruler of Vietnam was deposed and Phuc Anh Nhu was installed as the next Emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty. France had conquered all of Vietnam. Siam achieved it’s new borders and Spain was compensated with the transfer of France’s Pacific Islands [4]. The occupation of Vietnam proved to be a different matter. Disposing one monarch and replacing him with another was quite unpopular with much of the Vietnamese population. Guerilla attacks and the insurgency forced Napoleon to keep a large force permanently stationed to keep order. The Admiral suggested a troop surge be sent to keep order. This time Napoleon III agreed hesitantly and without the enthusiasm as before. Before the end of the 1860s, as many as 60,000 troops stationed to occupy Vietnam although later sources proved it to be a liberal estimate [5]. The invasion into China was outright canceled.


Although most of Napoleon’s cabinet approved of such an invasion for prestige, the general will of the French public did not. Nearly 10,000 French casualties were suffered. Taxes were increased and leaks of the brutality of the insurgency and counter-insurgency gave the public a distaste for such foreign debacles that would affect French foreign policy towards such “colonial adventures” for decades. Even more dangerously, it shifted France’s focus away from the rising eagle.




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[1] Tu Duc initially favored negotiations of the French in order to put down the rebellions, here he is trying to fight both the French and the rebels.

[2] Cambodia initially applied to become a French protectorate in order to avoid partrion between Vietnam and Thailand. ITTL, it now is a territory of Thailand. Roughly the French conquest of Indochina but 30 years early and without Laos and Cambodia.

[3] Prince Canh was a guest at the court of Versailles, proving very popular with the Bourbons during the era of French assistance to the early Nguyen Dynasty. Since he died young and was a Catholic, his father’s sucessor was instead his younger half brother. IOTL, there were rebellions to restore the Canh linage to the Nguyen Dynasty. His portrait at Versailles will have minor affects on France later on.

[4] Tonkin was initially suppose to be a Spanish colony.

[5] Something I sort of made up. There were around 40,000 troops in Mexico soo… yea.

[KCammy]

You have my interest. MOAR!

[gatoulis]

you have my interest. Interesting POD

[Marshal T]

Originally Posted by KCammy

You have my interest. MOAR!

Originally Posted by gatoulis

you have my interest. Interesting POD

Updates will be steady so no worries. It might be a little predictable at first... but it will stray a lot towards the end .

This episode is kinda short though but the later ones will be longer for sure.

Napoleon's Prussian Debacle

The Franco-Prussian War started in 1870 when Napoleon III declared war on Prussia in hopes of restoring the popularity of his regime after the Vietnamese debacle. The outbreak of the war began poorly for the French as the Germans quickly managed to capture the Emperor at the Battle of Sedan, yet the provisionary republic of France insisted to continue the fight. Bismarck wanted to quick end to the war and that unfortunately for him, meant the Siege of Paris.


Lacking much manpower and supplies stationed in France, no serious attempt to break the siege [1] was made by any remaining French forces forcing the Parisians to surrender before the end of the year. The German Empire was born through blood and iron and France was forced to give up Alsace-Lorraine as well as pay hefty reparations. This would in turn, create Franco-German animosity for decades.


Napoleon’s regime was discredited and more importantly his ideas and policies were blamed for causing France’s downfall. There would need to be a new direction for France to take. Or even perhaps, the return of the old order.


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[1] Some attempts were made to relieve Paris - none were successful OTL. ITTL, the manpower and resources are still stuck in Vietnam and came too late to affect the war.

[Marshal T]

"Le revolution c'est moi", Henri,Comte de Chambord (1871)

[SavoyTruffle]

So no Third Republic, but we have another Bourbon Restoration?

[Marshal T]

Originally Posted by SavoyTruffle

So no Third Republic, but we have another Bourbon Restoration?

Yup! But that's not to say that there won't be political problems like the Third Republic.. next chapter .

[FDW]

Interesting, I can't wait to see how this work unfolds.