'A Liberal German Empire? Not While I'm King of Prussia!' - an 1848 TL.

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Eurofed

Banned
Uh, dude, I'm the writer. Eurofed only makes the maps.

So very true. OW is the allmighty writer here :D, I'm just a humble collaborator-commentator fan of OW's TLs that makes some maps and gives the author some suggestions about my armchair expertise areas :eek: as I often do for OW's TLs (since they most skillfully realize many of my preferred PoDs :)).
 
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Alright, the last update. Enjoy :D:D:D.




Chapter X: The Rise of China and India, a Deadly Colonial Extravaganza, the Space Race Continues and Globalization, 1970 – 2010.


With the alliance blocks now in their final shapes in which they would persist mostly unchanged until the modern day, China was coming to a full economic boom as well as the other East Asian countries, transforming the EEA into an economic powerhouse. Emperor Pu Yi (r. 1908-1967) who was known by his posthumous name of Wu Huan Tang (武桓湯) had expanded China territorially, giving China a lot of prestige while removing the oppressive Europeans and Japanese from Chinese territory and had also further stimulated the economy further like his predecessor, the Guangxu Emperor, had done before him. The Wu Huan Tang Emperor had sadly passed in 1967 and was revered as one of the greatest Emperors in Chinese history, even more so than his predecessor who had instigated the reforms, and was greatly mourned. The rule of the Wu Huan Tang Emperor or Pu Yi had seen more democratic reform than ever before, economic modernization based on the Guangxu Reforms (光緒改革)which had brought affluence to Chinese society and had put it on an equal footing with the West, victories in the last two world wars, a social welfare state and amazing technological feats that equalled those of the west such as nuclear power and a Chinese presence in space which was soon to be expanded by China’s most brilliant rocket engineers, aeronautics experts, chemists and physicists with a permanent Chinese presence on the moon, something in which they were competing with both the EA and the APP. Under the rule of Emperor Yuyan (r. 1967-1997) also commonly known under his posthumous name of Wen Hui Cheng Ming(文惠成明), China beat both other power blocs to this and established a lunar base, just as their economy surpassed that of the United States in 1970, making China the dominant economic power of the world although the other blocks still rivalled it militarily easily with larger nuclear arsenals. The new Emperor continued to build a social welfare state for his 1.5 billion subjects and also finally made the Chinese Empire a full democracy, completing the process the Guangxu Emperor had begun. Democracy, as in constitutional monarchy, had been difficult to implement considering autocratic China’s ruling tradition and resistance from the old elites who had frequently opposed the Wu Huan Emperor in his reforms. Nonetheless, a bicameral parliament had been created although China had remained fundamentally authoritarian, much like Imperial Japan and Wilhelmine Germany (also due to a strongly paternal society). Emperor Wen Hui Cheng Ming finally empowered the parliament and his cabinet with full legislative and executive power and ended their responsibility to the monarch, reducing said monarch to a symbolic ruler (even if he remained commander-in-chief).

The young Republic of India, like China, still had relatively low wages compared to western Europe and North America and was becoming a fourth power bloc in this previously tripolar world. With almost 700 million inhabitants as a pool of cheap labour, India was increasingly competing on the world markets by providing cheap consumer goods such as cars, kitchen appliances, electronics, cars, textiles and even the first personal computers and also heavy industry products such as petroleum, natural gas, steel, machinery and so on. India, however, was still behind on China in terms of affluence since a large proletariat still existed despite measures to counter it. India had seen a lot of modernization with all the problems it entailed if it was carried out in a previously agrarian society and voices of protest coming from conservative, religious circles. They pointed out the problems of industrialization to which the left responded by propagating societal change as the old ways were to blame for India’s problems such as poverty and instability. The caste system for example was a major to hurdle to India’s growth and had been abolished officially, but remained in widespread use resulting in the fact that the poor had no way of climbing the social ladder. The progressive and strongly leftwing Indian government wanted to strengthen India and combated what they saw as a remnant of superstitious beliefs, pointing out their earlier successes through social revolution (better education among other things) such as the achievement of atomic power in 1962 and India’s first satellite in 1971. India had been going into a more leftwing course ever since independence and was very progressive as opposed to the strongly paternalistic societies in China and Japan, the former of which opposed rising Indian power. In 1977, the regime banned many of the traditional, conservative religious splinter parties who were blamed for holding India back for so long and created a new democratic and very socialist constitution in which they founded the Social Republic of India with a largely social-democrat character although a large Marxist party and an environmentalist party also existed. This process did not progress peacefully everywhere as there was some armed resistance, but the army (which had profited from all the modernizations) remained loyal to the state. A brief civil war erupted in the more rural parts of India causing widespread chaos, damage and anarchy in what was known as the Hundred Days Counterrevolution or Cultural Revolution which was squashed. The nascent Social Republic of India would remain at odds with China, not only due to fierce competition but marked differences between the two societies, China being very hierarchal and paternal while India was much less so with the outlawing of the caste system and severe punishment for caste based discrimination. India rose to overtake countries like Russia, Brazil, Japan and Italy to take the place of fourth economic power behind China, the US and Germany. One of the immediate results was that Pakistan and Afghanistan looked to the Ottomans and, by extent, the EA for protection. Nepal, Butan and Bangladesh, however, drifted into India’s sphere of influence and engaged in a customs union and military alliance.

Japan was also growing once more as a strong player on the world stage with a large economy which was in many ways similar to China’s, India’s and Brazil’s albeit with a higher living standard when compared to the latter two. Japan, in the peace treaty, had lost its overseas possessions (and gained Kamchatka), but had not been imposed anything in terms of military restrictions and the Home Islands had been left untouched, much to the chagrin of the Chinese whose relations with Tokyo were still chilly at best. Japan was resurgent as a military power although Tokyo recognised full well that any kind of futile attempt at naval parity with the China and US would exhaust them. International politics, however, had changed a lot since the end of the war and Beijing and Washington DC were now no longer friends, but fierce competitors for world dominance and so Japan strove to regain some of its former power by allying with America under the motto ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’. Japan joined the APP under the condition that it could become a directory member too alongside the US and Brazil. The US were not completely happy with the arrangement although their South and Central American allies had no qualms with Japan joining and getting a seat since Japan would be second power in the APP behind the US and just before Brazil, a good addition that strengthened the APP. In this period, Brazil detonated an atomic bomb in a test to reaffirm its status in the APP while also making it the first South American nuclear power and a great power. Japan, in its position as an American proxy in Asia, was allowed to field a small nuclear deterrent of some 300 nuclear weapons and conducted a test in 1975 which caused strong opposition from the Chinese who moved to station MRBMs and IRMBs in Korea with which they could target the Home Islands while leaving Japan only few minutes warning at best. China further responded by starting nuclear testing again and expanding its own arsenal. With this, Japan entered a new era known as the Era of Peace, Prosperity and Strength (時代的和平,繁榮和改革, Shídài de hépíng, fánróng hé gǎigé).

The European Alliance or EA, in the meantime, sat between these two power blocks and was struggling in Africa to maintain its colonial empire, even with the combined resources of the Middle East, and most of Eurasia at their disposal. Spain’s empire was the smallest and had a very low population density because it was mostly desert and some islands, but Germany and Italy had much more trouble. The Congo and the Bight of Benin region were the scene of uprisings as well as the Horn of Africa and East Africa. The European colonial powers responded brutally to these uprisings with chemical retaliation, scorched earth tactics, concentration camps and carpet bombing (with napalm) among other things. Even so, in many of the jungle areas they were pushed back although their armies retained the core areas of the colonies. In the Maghreb, resistance was nearly nonexistent due to the fact that over the decades, by means of similarly nefarious tactics, European settles had come to outnumber the natives in places like Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. The wars in Africa continued for much of the 70s while protests erupted at home from the large youth movements who didn’t want to fight in Africa and oppress the people there.

The Social Republic of India actively supported anti-colonialist movements in Africa which earned them the anger of the European powers as well as the Americans who still held possessions in Asia. Their possessions were somewhat less under threat though since they were more accepted as overlords; the Philippines were on the verge of being given statehood like Australia and New Zealand had already been given. American Borneo retained Territory status and would have to wait until 1990 since certain elements were rather reluctant to admit a large Muslim minority into the government of an otherwise Christian state, fearing that they might receive some kind of privileged status. Fortunately, much of the American populace had become a lot more open to other cultures and seeing how religiously diverse the US already were with Catholics, Protestants, Puritans, Anglicans, Mormons and a number of other Christian denominations and also atheists, agnostics and New Age neo-pagan environmentalist groups and also how ethnically diverse the US were with Americans, African-Americans, Canadians, Mexicans, Filipinos, Cubans, Quebecois, Costa Ricans, Nicaraguans and so on, a small Muslim community wasn’t a problem. In any case, India agitated for independence and struck a chord in Africa with Berlin, Rome and Madrid condemning it. As the 1980s arrived, the two decade long war was bearing down on the EA’s economies and finances which were also needed for a welfare state and space program. Rome, Berlin and Madrid approached the revolutionaries with a proposal the three of them had concocted which was more or less an idea they had blatantly ‘plagiarized’ from the Americans: they would grant the colonies total autonomy in fully internal matters, political matters, judicial matters, education, economy, relations with other colonies and so on while maintaining foreign policy and military under their wing while matters concerning both would be settled through mutual consensus. A customs union was included and the Emperors of Italy and Germany remained the symbolic heads of state, all in all a very effective if not totally satisfactory arrangement. Most revolutionaries in Africa accepted since they now had a legal framework to work for full independence (although the Europeans were extremely reluctant about changing the new status quo even more and losing control fully).

Throughout this now quadrupolar Cold War, the space race went on with Japan, Brazil and India as new participants with all three launching satellites of their own into space in the 70s and 80s. Where the great powers were expanding their permanent presence on the moon, these new states in the space race sought to emulate them. India announced a manned mission to the moon for 1986 and Brazil and Japan followed suit in the late 80s/early 90s. In the meantime, the main competitors China, the US and Germany-Italy continued to Mars while sending exploratory probes and robots to the Saturnian and Jovian moons in the search for extraterrestrial life. This was a competition that was a mirror to the economic integration that was taking place. A magnificent example is the Beijing Conference called by China in 1992 to discuss the climate change as the separate measures taken by the three blocs had to be increased; the leaders assembled here (Emperor Friedrich Wilhelm V, Umberto IV of Italy, the Chinese and Japanese Emperors, the US president among others) agreed to a reduction of greenhouse gas to 1960 levels by 2025 by investing yet even more into nuclear power, solar power, wind power and hybrid cars (already very popular in China with its high fuel prices). Trade links were established between the great powers as well as the InfoWeb which connects just about all of the world by today thanks to trends started in the late 1980s which perhaps (hopefully) has put off a clash between the great powers for good.
 

Eurofed

Banned
Very nice. A reasonable mix of realism and utopia up to the end. :D China gets democratic, India uproots the remnants of the caste system, Africa avoids the post-colonial hellhole through a more efficient Euro commonwealth (the colonial wars are harsher, but they probably cause no worse suffering and loss of life than the post-colonial OTL mess).

I would like a bit more detailed coverage on the exploration and colonization of Mars in the TL, though. When the manned missions to Mars happen and when the Mars bases get built ?

Given the much larger industrialization and First-World consumerist affluence ITTL, I guess that their 1960s greenhouse gases equate our 1990s ones or so.

There does not seem to be much need for end-TL maps, except perhaps a revised world one putting Japan in the AAP and the last neutral states in South Asia in the respective blocs. Does Switzerland remain neutral up to the end ?
 
Very nice. A reasonable mix of realism and utopia up to the end. :D China gets democratic, India uproots the remnants of the caste system, Africa avoids the post-colonial hellhole through a more efficient Euro commonwealth (the colonial wars are harsher, but they probably cause no worse suffering and loss of life than the post-colonial OTL mess).

I would like a bit more detailed coverage on the exploration and colonization of Mars in the TL, though. When the manned missions to Mars happen and when the Mars bases get built ?

Given the much larger industrialization and First-World consumerist affluence ITTL, I guess that their 1960s greenhouse gases equate our 1990s ones or so.

There does not seem to be much need for end-TL maps, except perhaps a revised world one putting Japan in the AAP and the last neutral states in South Asia in the respective blocs. Does Switzerland remain neutral up to the end ?

Well, the space race bit shows up in just about all my TLs so I didn't feel like going into detail again about that, but you can assume lunar bases by the start of the 70s and Martian bases a decade later. A

A map is indeed in order to put Japan and the last neutral Asian states into their respective blocs and yes, Switzerland remained neutral to the end (as the only nation on the entire friggin' planet :p) so all power blocs have a place to do financial dealings under the table and stuff like that.
 

Eurofed

Banned
Well, the space race bit shows up in just about all my TLs so I didn't feel like going into detail again about that, but you can assume lunar bases by the start of the 70s and Martian bases a decade later.

Well, you know, I'm a sucker for space colonization, I can never get enough. For me it's one of the surest signs that a TL is turning utopic, mankind escaping its cradle to make its first steps among the stars.
:cool::D

A map is indeed in order to put Japan and the last neutral Asian states into their respective blocs and yes, Switzerland remained neutral to the end (as the only nation on the entire friggin' planet :p) so all power blocs have a place to do financial dealings under the table and stuff like that.

Easily done. Although it was unmentioned, I assumed that Sri Lanka went into the Indian bloc, too.

Another very nice utopian point about the outcome of this TL is that with relatively little hardship, all considered, mankind ends up in a non-Balkanized yet democratic and affluent world, where, provided the few global powers can find an agreement, an effective embryonic world government can be realized by a directory of democratically elected heads of government, presidents, and constitutional monarches. The G-8 equivalent can effectively rule the world and deal with global problems like the environment while providing democratic accountability and with no need of the OTL horrible mess that is the UN. The picture warms my heart quite a lot.

:D:D:D:cool::cool::cool:

2rh48xf.png
 
Well, you know, I'm a sucker for space colonization, I can never get enough. For me it's one of the surest signs that a TL is turning utopic, mankind escaping its cradle to make its first steps among the stars.
:cool::D


Never read anything by Stephen Baxter then.
 

Eurofed

Banned
Switzerland remained neutral to the end (as the only nation on the entire friggin' planet :p) so all power blocs have a place to do financial dealings under the table and stuff like that.

Switzerland, the neutral money-laundering hub of the multiverse. :D

The good old gnomes never fail to secure to secure their indpendence in any post-Napoleon TL I've seen (they even managed to escape the clutches of the NaziCommies in the "Great Mistake" TL) thanks to the fact that even the most deranged dictator likes expertise to manage his soft money. :cool:
 
Humm, the liberal constitution was deliberately dividing up power to the old states of the old holy roman empire, not allowing for a central power being in control.

It would be rather difficult to allow this union even a central military force of any consequence. It surely could be worked around, much as with the united states.. but expect that work to take atleast a century.

Meanwhile the pacifist nature of a liberal germany would be a economical powerhouse, and perhaps despite itself end up with a very strong military... much in the way of modern japan, but even then strictly for self defence.

The constitution and way of governance just doesnt lend itself to military adventures. Especially not abroad among the barbarians without culture. (only germans have any culture ;))
 
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