Bonaparte-6
Oh man, a new GURPS cover? You are not dreaming, this is not a glitch in the Matrix. It is actually happening. We are so back.
I want to get back into alternate history work this year, and since I am working through a biography of Napoleon Bonaparte[1], I decided to get started on a bunch of scenarios involving the original Short King. Since GURPS has six Napoleon timelines, this was as good a place as any to start. And this one is a rather crazy, and very stupid, one.[2]
Bonaparte-6 diverges from Homeline in 1756, with the death of Pasquale Paoli. His death somehow leads to Corsica never being integrated into the Kingdom of France, and so young Napoleone di Buonaparte never becomes French. Much of history generally follows its OTL course, though with some dates changing and dramatis personae changing. However, the French Revolution is not averted.[3] It goes through many of the same stages, and eventually the French Republic invades Italy. Napoleone is, here, an Italian republican and nationalist: he wishes to overthrow all of the principalities of the Italian peninsula, drive out the old monarchies and the Papacy, and create a unified Italian republic under the French model.[4] The French, under a more moderated government known as the Directory [5], run into some problems with the anti-French forces in northern Italy, and so enlist the help of local Italian nationalists. Napoleone and his band of nationalist brigands get command of some Italian troops, recruited from captured Genoese armies or the countryside generally.
Napoleone proves to be a brilliant commander, and his star quickly rises in both the Italian and French ranks. His talent and force of will manage to draw in admirers among both the Italians and French, and soon he is in charge of his own Army of Italy. [6] The French Republic increasingly leans on Napoleone and his troops for success in Italy, and when Napoleone proclaims the formation of a new Roman Republic, the French have little involvement and are forced to accept the new order Napoleone has created. Napoleone, of course, makes himself First Consul of this new republic.
The Roman Republic is not treated seriously by anyone at first, most viewing it as an unstable product of French conquest.[7] However, Napoleone pledges his support to France when the French make a move on Egypt. Egypt is under the rule of the corrupt Mamluks, who are basically running Egypt like their own personal kingdom and ignoring Ottoman authority. The French view Egypt as a worthwhile venture for several reasons:
- It can be used to as a way for France to prop up the collapsing Ottoman Empire, which is France’s geopolitical counterweight to the virulently counter-revolutionary Austrians and Russians;
- It can be used as a base to cut Britain off from its Indian colonies, and potentially even be used as a staging ground for an invasion of India; and
- Its agriculture can serve as a replacement for agricultural goods that were once shipped in from French colonies in the Americas, which are now cut off thanks to the Royal Navy.
With Rome’s geographic proximity to North Africa, and the proven track record for Buonaparte, the French ask the Romans to join their effort. With dreams of being the next Alexander the Great or Augustus Caesar, Napoleone accepts and joins the war. The much larger Franco-Roman force[8] lands in Egypt to help the Ottoman Empire, but thanks to diplomatic fuckery[9], the Ottomans don’t know that. The Ottomans, believing they are being invaded, join the anti-French coalition and march against the French and Roman armies.
This was a mistake. The large, modern French and Roman forces make mincemeat of Ottoman and Mamluk forces. Napoleone, high on victory, convinces his French counterpart that the Ottoman Empire is on the brink of collapse and that, in order for them to fulfill their mission, they have to march on Constantinople to restore order. In truth, Napoleone sees the opportunity to seize the riches of the Near East for the glory of Rome. After several battles, the Ottoman Empire does start to show signs of collapse, and the Austrians and Russians are both concerned by the chaos, and see much opportunity in it. The British, concerned that India is now under threat, coordinates with the Austrians and Russians to launch their own invasion of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire collapses under the strain. In the meanwhile, the Royal Navy finally defeats the French in the Mediterranean, cutting the French and the Romans off from resupply. It is at this point that Napoleone makes some moves.
Napoleone analyzes the situation, and sees that continuing to ride with France is a losing proposition. He has heard rumors that the Directory’s corruption and incompetence have caught up with them, and that a Second Terror under Louis Antoine de Saint-Just is devastating France. He understands that the crowned heads of Europe would never accept the existence of a French republic and would seek to reverse all of its acts in Europe, including the formation of the Roman Republic. The Royal Navy’s supremacy in the Mediterranean also means that he - and his armies - are stranded in the Near East.
He also understands that he is in a prime position to negotiate with the anti-French coalition a beneficial deal for Rome. Roman armies control the Near East, meaning that the Romans must have a seat at the table when carving up the Ottoman Empire. This same control also means that Rome can choose to allow troops and supplies from India to make it to British ships in the Mediterranean. Rome’s position in the south of France also allows it to pivot against the French, should it choose to switch sides. He also believed that, while revolutionary France could not be allowed to exist, his more moderate Roman Republic was not so inherently offensive to the other European powers.
With these factors in mind, Napoleone negotiates an about face with the anti-French coalition. The Romans would turn on their French allies and march with the other European powers to put an end to the French Revolution, it would restore certain powers and privileges to the Catholic Church, and it would assist the other European powers in maintaining the delineated spheres of influence in the former Ottoman Empire. In exchange, the European coalition would recognize the Roman Republic as a legitimate, independent state; they would relinquish any and all territorial claims on its territory; the European powers would recognize Roman control over Egypt; and the Royal Navy would ferry Napoleone and his armies back to continental Europe. The Coalition accepts, and the Romans arrest their erstwhile French allies, who are caught unaware.
The chaos of the Second Terror and the coordinated attacks by the Coalition against France led to its quick downfall. The Bourbons were restored and it was agreed among all European powers that France would never become a military power again. French territories were stripped away, and the French forbidden from having any military force capable of invading any of their neighbors. In the east, Constantinople became a free city, and the Ottoman Empire’s territories were divvied up between the victorious powers.
It was hoped that peace would last, but the Romans would challenge this with their unilateral invasion of Greece. Greece, claimed by both Rome and Russia, became an independent, neutral republic. Napoleone, seeing the strategic value in controlling Greece, invaded anyway. The quick invasion meant that, before war-weary Europe could react, the Roman annexation of Greece was a fait accompli. Rome reorganized its government such that each of its three constituent republics - Egypt, Greece, and Italy - each had one executive - a Consul - as part of a triumvirate, itself overseen by the First Consul.
Both the invasion of Greece and the rise of Russia put Europe into a state of tense peace for much of the 19th century. Britain had unchallenged rule over the world ocean, but Rome owned the Mediterranean. European colonialism was mostly a British affair, and did not start in earnest until the late 19th century, when the newly unified Germany would challenge all of the established European powers. Rome would expand through northern Africa, while maintaining a shaky balance of power with Britain in the Middle East: both sides positioned themselves such that neither of them could be master of all of the Middle East. Persia, caught between the three powers of Britain, Rome, and Russia, becomes the target of intrigue.
The balance of power in Europe is upset with the unification of Germany and the fall of the Russian Empire. Prussia, a longtime military power and significant nation, was building up its strength and became the core of the rising German unification movement. Suddenly, central Europe - a relative backwater made up of bickering German statelets - was now home to a new great power. The German Empire was not shy about the exercise of its power, antagonizing its neighbors with its expansionist aims. Its colonial games in Africa and Asia even sparked a colonial scramble with Rome and Britain. Perhaps more destabilizing is the German victory against the Russian Empire in 1881. The Russian Empire, powerful though backward, fell to the military might of the new Germany in a matter of months. The humiliated Russians were then doubly hit with the successful assassination of the Tsar and a subsequent workers’ revolution, which destroyed the Russian Empire forever. Germany was now the new rival of Britain and Rome, and the two became closer as a result. Both nations felt that they had to defend the old international order from the newcomer.
The War of 1914 [10], so named by a sardonic British post-war press, did not end by the end of the year. Instead, it lasted for five bloody years, and effectively destroyed the British Empire. Fought between Rome, Britain, and the United States against Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey [11], the war brought ruin to all of Europe. Rome and the United States emerged the winners, as the former was defended from most of the fighting by geography, and the latter only joined to seize German territories in the Pacific and contributed nothing else to the war effort. Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the revanchist regime in Turkey were defeated utterly, with Rome filling the power vacuum in Europe afterwards.
Ever since the war, Rome has become the supreme power on Earth. The fall of the German and British empires led to its unchallenged control over Europe and the Middle East. With control of much of the world’s oil, the Romans could control most of the world’s politics. Decolonization in Africa did not make way for liberation for Britain’s and Germany’s former colonies, but Roman domination. Roman private entities established control over former British colonies, with Roman government support, where they extract the natural resources of the continent for Rome’s benefit. The Romans are trying to establish a European economic union, with all of Europe using a single, Roman-controlled currency. Britain, once Rome’s rival, is now its lapdog. With the development of the atomic bomb by the Romans, Rome’s future was further secured. Rome was, effectively, the world’s sole superpower. [12]
The modern Roman state is somewhat different from its initial incarnation. Though Buonaparte established a dictatorship, after his death he left no heirs - hereditary or otherwise - for his throne. None of his successors matched his caliber, and thus the First Consul position atrophied in importance and, eventually, was abolished entirely as a separate office. The three Consuls, each representing one of the three constituent republics of Rome, run the government together. Once acting as governors of the three constituent republics, the Consuls are now exclusively national offices, with elected governors governing the constituent republics in their stead. Each is elected from one of the constituent republics; along with the Roman Senate, these are the only national-level elected positions in Rome. One among them is chosen to be a First Consul [13], who serves indefinitely until he either dies, retires, or is voted out by the Senate. The First Consul is succeeded by one of the other two Consuls, as selected by the Senate, and another Consul is elected to ensure there are always three Consuls. Non-constituent republics are entirely governed according to Consular and Senate dictates. The Buonapartes, the founding family of Rome, are still prevalent in politics, though they are not proper monarchs.
Apart from Rome, there are other powers which stand apart from its hegemony. Chief among these is the United States, the other great republic of the world and one which has spent much of the 19th and 20th centuries securing its hegemony over the Western Hemisphere. After expelling the British from their North American holdings in the early 19th century, the Americans would later suffer a civil war, when the abolitionist states of New England and Canada seceded from the Union over the issue of slavery. With British intervention, the New England-Canadians won the conflict. The United States, driven to take more land southward at the behest of large plantation owners, conducted several wars against the weak Latin American countries, and even established colonies in Africa. Even after the abolition of slavery, the United States took advantage of general European distraction and Latin American weakness to establish a commercial and military empire which eclipsed Rome’s in size, but was largely separate from the Old World. The United States only emerged from its Western Hemisphere isolation towards the end of the 19th century, when it started expanding into the Pacific and, later, Asia. The United States is the only power which is truly independent of the Roman system, and the only other power with nuclear weapons. Though a democratic constitutional federal republic, the United States has only recently outlawed segregation on a federal level and its politics are as beset by corruption and oligarchic practices as their Roman rivals. The American government also retains a paternalistic, pseudo-colonial mindset towards the former British Empire, believing they can replace the old Anglophone masters.
The Russian Workers’ Republic is an isolationist state, which is theoretically a democratic republic, but has been run by a series of dictators since its inception. Though ideologically hostile to the “bourgeois” world, it had no desire to involve itself with the outside world until industrialization made it dependent on Roman technology, markets, and oil. The Russians have turned to the Americans as allies of convenience, each hoping that the other would counterbalance Rome.
The retreat of the British Empire has left numerous post-colonial states. Most powerful among these are Bharat, West Africa, and the East Indies. Each is a post-colonial state which has retained British administration and institutions in order to weld different ethnic groups together into one state. Though very young states, optimistic voices believe that these are new centers of power that can challenge the old Roman order. The Americans certainly think so, to an extent, and have invested in future growth of these countries.
In Asia, Rome was the inspiration. As the Qing Dynasty fell apart, the nations of Korea, Japan and Vietnam took their cue. Copying British, Roman, and American practices and technologies and mixing them with their own, the “Asian Tigers” stood poised to replace China as the center of East Asia. Initially working together, and then at odds with one another, the Asian Tigers carved up China, eventually leaving a weak, neutered republic. Though no all-out war has ever happened between the Asian Tigers, they are ready for one.
In 1971, the Romans and the Americans are in a race to see who can be the first to put a man on the Moon. There is a color television in every house, at least in Rome. Personal computing has become all the rage in Europe and America, with both hopes and concerns as to the effects of this technology. Jet aircraft zip between the major metropolitan areas of the planet, and everyone is keenly aware that nuclear missiles can make the same trip, only much more quickly. Rome and America both strip Africa for resources, and the problems of insurgency grow worse as weapons make their way from Asia and Russia to the hands of the rebels. Thanks to modern agriculture, food has never been more plentiful and populations are booming, particularly in Africa and Asia. It seems that the modern world is good and, for all its faults, will only get better. What could possibly go wrong?
[1] I will tackle the other great Napoleon, Napoleon Dynamite, at a future time.
[2] I think I have put more thought into this scenario than the GURPS authors themselves. I’m not sure who the loser is here.
[3] The implication I got from the GURPS entry is that the French Revolution happens in Italy instead. Not only is this ridiculous, given that the social, political, and economic conditions of France and the Italian peninsula were completely different, it implies that Napoleon’s presence somehow supernaturally dooms a nation to bloody revolution and war, or that Napoleon was an instigator of the French Revolution. Napoleon was a committed revolutionary, but he was not one of the men which made it happen.
Instead of the above, I have the French Revolution happening as IOTL, and this becoming the catalyst for Napoleone’s rise to power.
[4] With certain improvements. As with his OTL cousin, Napoleone is horrified by the excesses of the Jacobins, and unimpressed with the greed and corruption of its more moderate successor.
[5] Convergent naming; I couldn’t come up with a better name!
[6] During the OTL Italian Campaign, Napoleon often acted on his own, and sometimes even against the orders of the Directory, and commanded people he had no legal authority over. They still listened.
[7] Similar republics appear in Germany, Spain, and the Low Countries.
[8] Which also has better luck against the Royal Navy than IOTL.
[9] Talleyrand, tasked with informing the Ottomans that the French were only there to help, conveniently forgets to mention this. Talleyrand knows that the French Directory is on its way out, and is setting them up to fail in Egypt.
[10] This is the name provided by GURPS. A very stupid name.
[11] I would have loved to add Russia to this, and keep the US out, but these are the alliances provided by GURPS. This motivated me to keep France as a neutral country.
[12] GURPS refers to Rome as the world’s “first” superpower after inventing the atomic bomb. I do not think the authors understand what a superpower is.
[13] Distinct from the historical position held by Buonaparte and more a customary title.
