alternatehistory.com
Chapter 56: Status Quo
Part 56: Status Quo (1776-)
The Battle of Sopron was a blow like no other to the German was effort. Their leader was captured and their army almost completely destroyed, and the government of the republic was in chaos. A new leader for the provisional cabinet was quickly found - Sigismund Blacher, a general who previously served as the Minister of War under Maximilian Schwarzburg. However, he soon found himself having to solve the Herculean task of saving the Republic in this chaos, and one thing was sure about him - he was not capable of succeeding in such a mission. Positive news arrived from the East - because of the loss of their commander and dictator, the Lithuanians stopped at Sopron and moved back. However, as soon as Lithuania backed off, France began a new offensive, pushing towards the Rhine and beyond, and this time it was the Frenchmen who had the superior morale.
The new French invasion force outnumbered the Germans three times - Schwarzburg may have potentially salvaged this situation, but he was no longer here. The German Revolutionary Army tried to resist the invasion at the beginning, but it was more of a delaying action rather than a realistic attempt to stop the western attacks, and after the Battle of Aachen, where an entire German army of 50 000 men was encircled and destroyed, the GRA was no longer a major threat. France began an offensive from North Italy, too, and this time the attacks were more successful - the French soon broke through the Alps, and by the time that September arrived, troops under the command of Matthieu Bertillon were marching across the streets of Vienna and raised their flag above the Congress. Germania was overrun, and on September 25th, Sigismund Blacher declared the nation's surrender to the overwhelming French and Lithuanian onslaught. The German Revolutionary Wars came to an end, leaving three million people dead across Central Europe and the political and social landscape of the continent changed forever.
Meanwhile, the former leader of the Republic of Germania was sent off from the front, where he was held captive by Lithuanian forces since the Battle of Sopron, and to the Empire itself. When the news of the surrender of Germania came, Maximilian Schwarzburg was in Vilnius, under constant supervision of the Lithuanians - and according to a few sources, the defeat came as no surprise to him. While the Council of Lords, which was still in the middle of electing a new Grand Hetman, was discussing on what to do with him, the German general was treated with reasonable respect - after all, this was the man who made countries like France and Visegrad kneel before him. He was a bachelor, and quite a handsome one at that, and the Chronicle of Lithuania mentions that when this information spread across the city, a number of local magnates came up to him and offered the hands of their daughters to him, for the sake of prestige by having such a renown man in their family. Schwarzburg declined all offers, and soon the decision on his fate arrived - he was deported to Lithuania's recently acquired Northeastern Territories, situated along the White Sea. These lands were still in the process of integration into the nation, and the distance and harsh climate of the region meant that it had been used to get rid of unwanted criminals ever since it's acquisition. Schwarzburg lived here in a few years, in a frontier fort supervised by local guards, before he caught pneumonia (a death sentence in such a cold climate) and died three years after the end of the Revolutionary Wars. He has since solidified himself as one of the most impactful men in history - he revolutionized warfare, he built up a myth of near invincibility on the battlefield that has placed him along the likes of Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great, the revolution that he protected had changed Europe forever, and his legacy shines above the German people until today. He is a German national hero, one of the most famous ones, in fact, and without him, the Great German Revolution would have likely been strangled in it's cradle.
While this was happening, both reactionary powers were going through major political changes.
Despite the victory in the German Revolutionary Wars, Director Arthur Bachelot's approval was dropping at an all-time low. He ruled without a popular mandate, and allegations of corruption, fraud and backdoor intimidation to get rid of political rivals were starting to come to light. People were tired of six years of constant war, many empathized with the struggle of the German people, and this gave the opposition in the Estates-General to wipe the dust off Bachelot's promise to hold an election as soon as the war was finished. The next French legislative election took place in December of 1776, and in a historical upset, Bachelot and his Red Party were defeated in the election, securing only 38% of the seats in the Estates-General and losing the mandate to the leader of the opposition, the pro-capitalist, liberal Blue Party, which appointed Christopher Baudelaire as the new Director. Baudelaire was an experienced diplomat and an ambassador to a number of countries before his service in the Estates-General, and he accurately guessed that the new order in Europe had to be achieved through diplomacy, rather than war.
A much more historic upset took place in Lithuania at that time. Martynas Pacas's death in the Battle of Sopron led to chaos within the highest echelons of the empire's society, as it was so sudden that no candidate was even projected as a potential successor to the young and now dead Grand Hetman. While the Council of Lords gathered to resolve the situation, it had to face a threat from outside. Jonas II, the Emperor of Lithuania, had been steadily increasing his influence and strength in the nation's government throughout Pacas's reign, especially during his campaign against Germania, and he gained a following among the more moderate and liberal officers in the army, aristocrats and the small, bur growing bourgeoisie. At the beginning of 1777, the Emperor led the dissolution of the Council of Lords and the dismissal, in many cases also execution, of over 150 of the most disloyal generals and courtiers, and with the help of his supporters, he finalized an almost bloodless coup that tore down the Hetmanate and returned the power of the Emperor, the Imperial Restoration. One of the Emperor's first acts dealt with something that, in his opinion, should have never even started - the existence of "that peculiar institution" that was rapidly losing support even among the aristocracy. Many feared that Serfdom and all that came with it would lead to widespread discontent among the peasantry and eventually an attempt at revolution, so there was reason to prevent that and please the farmers. This led to the Emancipation Manifesto, publicly released in 1777, that declared the end of the institution of serfdom and the emancipation of the serfs under strict guidelines, which included having serfs buy out their land partially through their money and partially through government funding. They all also gained the rights of full citizens, including the rights to marry without noble consent, the right to create businesses and own property. It marked an end to over two centuries of widespread serfdom, starting with the Volok Reform back in the 16th century.
Serfs in Pskov listen to the proclamation of the Emancipation Manifesto (1907 painting)
The German Revolutionary Wars informed the powers of Europe of one important thing - the Amsterdam System has become obsolete. It needs to be rebuilt and redrawn to fit the needs of the modern age, and that is why Director Baudelaire arganized an official meeting of representatives from all powers in Europe, including the recently restored imperial Lithuania, Netherlands, Spain, Italian states, Sweden and others, in Paris to organize the beginning of the Second Amsterdam System, or the Paris System. Representatives from Germania and Visegrad, which were occupied by France and Lithuania respectively, were not invited, although a few still arrived, even if they were soon shunned and forced to leave. Director Baudelaire hoped to reorganize Europe to meet the new balance of powers, considering the downfall of Visegrad and Lithuania's rise as the second great power of Europe, but not all countries in the meeting agreed with him. Some, like the Lithuanian delegation, led by diplomat Juozas Vareikis, just wanted to increase their nation's powers at the expense of others, while others, like the Spanish and Swedish delegations, hoped to prevent the two juggernauts from becoming too powerful.
The question of Germania was where France's opinion was the most respected. Under the orders of the delegates in Paris, the Republic of Germania shall be dismantled by splitting it into two - into the Republic of North Germania, composed of the former North German Communion, and the Kingdom of South Germania, built from the former Holy Roman Empire. The law systems and constitutions for both of these nations were written by the representatives in the Paris meeting - the North was constructed to be a French-style parliamentary republic, representing the French wishes to control that nation and play it off it's southern neighbour to prevent a second German reunification, while the South had a kingdom installed. Not wishing to repeat the same mistake that helped create the Revolution, the French denied Jean I nor any of his relatives the chance to return to the throne, instead backing the son of the last German Holy Roman Emperor, now crowned as Charles III of South Germania.
Of course, these news came as a huge shock to the German people, and even though they already had plenty of reasons to hate France before, it reached a new low. There was no hope left of a return of the Franco-German friendship that existed for a while after the Twenty Years' War, it was now replaced by mutual hate and mutual disgust. Of course, Lithuania was the second on Germania's "hate list", right after France.
"Germania", painting by the artist Johannes Sebastian Gruber (1865). The two women, representing North and South Germania, are about to be deported to the Northeastern Territories.
One region presented a dilemma, however - the Rhineland. During the years before the German Revolutionary Wars and throughout most of them, France occupied these territories, and it is no secret that a big number of politicians from both the Blues and the Reds wished to see the Rhine as France's new eastern border. However, French occupation of the land proved to be very unpopular, so unpopular that the people even organized rebellions against the occupiers. This dilemma continued on into the negotiations on the French system, and France itself was unsure on which path to take. In the end, however, the Rhineland ended up split into two - Alsace and most of the southern Rhineland was annexed into France directly, while Nordrhein was left into a sort of "limbo". This was the Temporary State of the Rhine, and as the name suggests, the territory was given temporary independence, with a public vote scheduled in 10-20 years that would decide the fate of the region - either it stays separate and is granted full independence, it joins France, or it joins one of the German states. Before that could happen, the region was treated as an unofficial autonomous region of France - very autonomous, even with it's own army.
An another dilemma dealt with a victim of the Great German Revolution - Visegrad, or what was left of it. Juozas Vareikis and the Lithuanian delegation wished to annex Poland into the Lithuanian empire and create the independent states of Bohemia and Hungary, but the rest of the representatives vehemently opposed this plan, fearing that this would make Lithuania too powerful. In addition, the French delegation hoped to surround Germania with powerful, compact states to prevent the events of the Great German Revolution from occurring again - and neither Bohemia nor Hungary would be strong enough to fight off a German invasion. In the end, the Lithuanians had to bite the dust, only allowed to take a number of border territories that they lost in the Galician War, while Visegrad was restored as the previously disestablished union of three kingdoms. A cousin of the last King was installed and crowned as Franciszek I, and the nation was left on it's own, albeit with a lot of Lithuanian influence over it's affairs.
Hoping to surround Germania with powerful states, France and Director Baudelaire turned towards Italy. Many of the North Italian stated had been occupied by France during the German Revolutionary Wars as a way of opening a second front with Germania, and the French didn't exactly wish to let them be. Despite heavy, very heavy complaints from Spain, France reorganized the North Italian states into the Italian Confederation, uniting countries like Savoy, Milan and Venice into a decentralized federation, similar to the HRE (just without a monarch) and aligned with France. Of course, the Italians themselves weren't much in favor of this outright interference in their affairs, but could they really oppose France's wishes? Lithuania didn't object, so there was nobody in Europe who could prevent France from working like that. Even Spain eventually backed off, knowing that a war with France over North Italy would be insane - but they still held a grudge.
With the last territorial changes finalized and the delegates returning home, the Paris System was put into place. France and Lithuania were it's gendarmes.
The Great German Revolution has come to an end and the dust of the Battle of Sopron has settled, but the ideals of liberty, equality and nationalism that it brought are here to stay and grow stronger. As the world comes closer and closer to modern day, as the march of science and technology grows more and more unstoppable, people shall soon cast doubt on ideas and beliefs that were held sacred since time immemorial. New dogmas will arise, the old will fall and the new will rise. And it isn't just Europe that is limited to these changes. Far across the briny foam, the riches of Africa, Asia, Oceania and Vespucia await for those who dare to venture there.
Maestro, choose your instrument, and let the music play.
View attachment 326658
The world in 1780
---
It's time for a bit of an intermission, as we have about a hundred slow years ahead of us.
To not waste time with meaningless updates, I shall spend this time developing the world of the TL through a number of special chapters, as I have already said in the thread before. Of course, there will still be events happening, but they're a bit isolated from one another, so we'll cover them in a similar, special chapter manner.
The next chapter is going to be called "The Fourth Nation"
Part 56: Status Quo (1776-)
The new French invasion force outnumbered the Germans three times - Schwarzburg may have potentially salvaged this situation, but he was no longer here. The German Revolutionary Army tried to resist the invasion at the beginning, but it was more of a delaying action rather than a realistic attempt to stop the western attacks, and after the Battle of Aachen, where an entire German army of 50 000 men was encircled and destroyed, the GRA was no longer a major threat. France began an offensive from North Italy, too, and this time the attacks were more successful - the French soon broke through the Alps, and by the time that September arrived, troops under the command of Matthieu Bertillon were marching across the streets of Vienna and raised their flag above the Congress. Germania was overrun, and on September 25th, Sigismund Blacher declared the nation's surrender to the overwhelming French and Lithuanian onslaught. The German Revolutionary Wars came to an end, leaving three million people dead across Central Europe and the political and social landscape of the continent changed forever.
Meanwhile, the former leader of the Republic of Germania was sent off from the front, where he was held captive by Lithuanian forces since the Battle of Sopron, and to the Empire itself. When the news of the surrender of Germania came, Maximilian Schwarzburg was in Vilnius, under constant supervision of the Lithuanians - and according to a few sources, the defeat came as no surprise to him. While the Council of Lords, which was still in the middle of electing a new Grand Hetman, was discussing on what to do with him, the German general was treated with reasonable respect - after all, this was the man who made countries like France and Visegrad kneel before him. He was a bachelor, and quite a handsome one at that, and the Chronicle of Lithuania mentions that when this information spread across the city, a number of local magnates came up to him and offered the hands of their daughters to him, for the sake of prestige by having such a renown man in their family. Schwarzburg declined all offers, and soon the decision on his fate arrived - he was deported to Lithuania's recently acquired Northeastern Territories, situated along the White Sea. These lands were still in the process of integration into the nation, and the distance and harsh climate of the region meant that it had been used to get rid of unwanted criminals ever since it's acquisition. Schwarzburg lived here in a few years, in a frontier fort supervised by local guards, before he caught pneumonia (a death sentence in such a cold climate) and died three years after the end of the Revolutionary Wars. He has since solidified himself as one of the most impactful men in history - he revolutionized warfare, he built up a myth of near invincibility on the battlefield that has placed him along the likes of Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great, the revolution that he protected had changed Europe forever, and his legacy shines above the German people until today. He is a German national hero, one of the most famous ones, in fact, and without him, the Great German Revolution would have likely been strangled in it's cradle.
While this was happening, both reactionary powers were going through major political changes.
Despite the victory in the German Revolutionary Wars, Director Arthur Bachelot's approval was dropping at an all-time low. He ruled without a popular mandate, and allegations of corruption, fraud and backdoor intimidation to get rid of political rivals were starting to come to light. People were tired of six years of constant war, many empathized with the struggle of the German people, and this gave the opposition in the Estates-General to wipe the dust off Bachelot's promise to hold an election as soon as the war was finished. The next French legislative election took place in December of 1776, and in a historical upset, Bachelot and his Red Party were defeated in the election, securing only 38% of the seats in the Estates-General and losing the mandate to the leader of the opposition, the pro-capitalist, liberal Blue Party, which appointed Christopher Baudelaire as the new Director. Baudelaire was an experienced diplomat and an ambassador to a number of countries before his service in the Estates-General, and he accurately guessed that the new order in Europe had to be achieved through diplomacy, rather than war.
A much more historic upset took place in Lithuania at that time. Martynas Pacas's death in the Battle of Sopron led to chaos within the highest echelons of the empire's society, as it was so sudden that no candidate was even projected as a potential successor to the young and now dead Grand Hetman. While the Council of Lords gathered to resolve the situation, it had to face a threat from outside. Jonas II, the Emperor of Lithuania, had been steadily increasing his influence and strength in the nation's government throughout Pacas's reign, especially during his campaign against Germania, and he gained a following among the more moderate and liberal officers in the army, aristocrats and the small, bur growing bourgeoisie. At the beginning of 1777, the Emperor led the dissolution of the Council of Lords and the dismissal, in many cases also execution, of over 150 of the most disloyal generals and courtiers, and with the help of his supporters, he finalized an almost bloodless coup that tore down the Hetmanate and returned the power of the Emperor, the Imperial Restoration. One of the Emperor's first acts dealt with something that, in his opinion, should have never even started - the existence of "that peculiar institution" that was rapidly losing support even among the aristocracy. Many feared that Serfdom and all that came with it would lead to widespread discontent among the peasantry and eventually an attempt at revolution, so there was reason to prevent that and please the farmers. This led to the Emancipation Manifesto, publicly released in 1777, that declared the end of the institution of serfdom and the emancipation of the serfs under strict guidelines, which included having serfs buy out their land partially through their money and partially through government funding. They all also gained the rights of full citizens, including the rights to marry without noble consent, the right to create businesses and own property. It marked an end to over two centuries of widespread serfdom, starting with the Volok Reform back in the 16th century.
Serfs in Pskov listen to the proclamation of the Emancipation Manifesto (1907 painting)
The German Revolutionary Wars informed the powers of Europe of one important thing - the Amsterdam System has become obsolete. It needs to be rebuilt and redrawn to fit the needs of the modern age, and that is why Director Baudelaire arganized an official meeting of representatives from all powers in Europe, including the recently restored imperial Lithuania, Netherlands, Spain, Italian states, Sweden and others, in Paris to organize the beginning of the Second Amsterdam System, or the Paris System. Representatives from Germania and Visegrad, which were occupied by France and Lithuania respectively, were not invited, although a few still arrived, even if they were soon shunned and forced to leave. Director Baudelaire hoped to reorganize Europe to meet the new balance of powers, considering the downfall of Visegrad and Lithuania's rise as the second great power of Europe, but not all countries in the meeting agreed with him. Some, like the Lithuanian delegation, led by diplomat Juozas Vareikis, just wanted to increase their nation's powers at the expense of others, while others, like the Spanish and Swedish delegations, hoped to prevent the two juggernauts from becoming too powerful.
The question of Germania was where France's opinion was the most respected. Under the orders of the delegates in Paris, the Republic of Germania shall be dismantled by splitting it into two - into the Republic of North Germania, composed of the former North German Communion, and the Kingdom of South Germania, built from the former Holy Roman Empire. The law systems and constitutions for both of these nations were written by the representatives in the Paris meeting - the North was constructed to be a French-style parliamentary republic, representing the French wishes to control that nation and play it off it's southern neighbour to prevent a second German reunification, while the South had a kingdom installed. Not wishing to repeat the same mistake that helped create the Revolution, the French denied Jean I nor any of his relatives the chance to return to the throne, instead backing the son of the last German Holy Roman Emperor, now crowned as Charles III of South Germania.
Of course, these news came as a huge shock to the German people, and even though they already had plenty of reasons to hate France before, it reached a new low. There was no hope left of a return of the Franco-German friendship that existed for a while after the Twenty Years' War, it was now replaced by mutual hate and mutual disgust. Of course, Lithuania was the second on Germania's "hate list", right after France.
"Germania", painting by the artist Johannes Sebastian Gruber (1865). The two women, representing North and South Germania, are about to be deported to the Northeastern Territories.
One region presented a dilemma, however - the Rhineland. During the years before the German Revolutionary Wars and throughout most of them, France occupied these territories, and it is no secret that a big number of politicians from both the Blues and the Reds wished to see the Rhine as France's new eastern border. However, French occupation of the land proved to be very unpopular, so unpopular that the people even organized rebellions against the occupiers. This dilemma continued on into the negotiations on the French system, and France itself was unsure on which path to take. In the end, however, the Rhineland ended up split into two - Alsace and most of the southern Rhineland was annexed into France directly, while Nordrhein was left into a sort of "limbo". This was the Temporary State of the Rhine, and as the name suggests, the territory was given temporary independence, with a public vote scheduled in 10-20 years that would decide the fate of the region - either it stays separate and is granted full independence, it joins France, or it joins one of the German states. Before that could happen, the region was treated as an unofficial autonomous region of France - very autonomous, even with it's own army.
An another dilemma dealt with a victim of the Great German Revolution - Visegrad, or what was left of it. Juozas Vareikis and the Lithuanian delegation wished to annex Poland into the Lithuanian empire and create the independent states of Bohemia and Hungary, but the rest of the representatives vehemently opposed this plan, fearing that this would make Lithuania too powerful. In addition, the French delegation hoped to surround Germania with powerful, compact states to prevent the events of the Great German Revolution from occurring again - and neither Bohemia nor Hungary would be strong enough to fight off a German invasion. In the end, the Lithuanians had to bite the dust, only allowed to take a number of border territories that they lost in the Galician War, while Visegrad was restored as the previously disestablished union of three kingdoms. A cousin of the last King was installed and crowned as Franciszek I, and the nation was left on it's own, albeit with a lot of Lithuanian influence over it's affairs.
Hoping to surround Germania with powerful states, France and Director Baudelaire turned towards Italy. Many of the North Italian stated had been occupied by France during the German Revolutionary Wars as a way of opening a second front with Germania, and the French didn't exactly wish to let them be. Despite heavy, very heavy complaints from Spain, France reorganized the North Italian states into the Italian Confederation, uniting countries like Savoy, Milan and Venice into a decentralized federation, similar to the HRE (just without a monarch) and aligned with France. Of course, the Italians themselves weren't much in favor of this outright interference in their affairs, but could they really oppose France's wishes? Lithuania didn't object, so there was nobody in Europe who could prevent France from working like that. Even Spain eventually backed off, knowing that a war with France over North Italy would be insane - but they still held a grudge.
With the last territorial changes finalized and the delegates returning home, the Paris System was put into place. France and Lithuania were it's gendarmes.
The Great German Revolution has come to an end and the dust of the Battle of Sopron has settled, but the ideals of liberty, equality and nationalism that it brought are here to stay and grow stronger. As the world comes closer and closer to modern day, as the march of science and technology grows more and more unstoppable, people shall soon cast doubt on ideas and beliefs that were held sacred since time immemorial. New dogmas will arise, the old will fall and the new will rise. And it isn't just Europe that is limited to these changes. Far across the briny foam, the riches of Africa, Asia, Oceania and Vespucia await for those who dare to venture there.
Maestro, choose your instrument, and let the music play.
View attachment 326658
The world in 1780
---
It's time for a bit of an intermission, as we have about a hundred slow years ahead of us.
To not waste time with meaningless updates, I shall spend this time developing the world of the TL through a number of special chapters, as I have already said in the thread before. Of course, there will still be events happening, but they're a bit isolated from one another, so we'll cover them in a similar, special chapter manner.
The next chapter is going to be called "The Fourth Nation"
- Augenis
- Word Count: 2.5k