Between a Hard Place and a Rock: A Carlist Spain in the 20th Century

13. The beginning of the beginning of the end
13. The beginning of the beginning of the end.


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In the aftermath of the Austro-Hungarian armistice with the Allies, chaos ensued in Central Europe. The German forces on Austro-Hungarian territory (mainly the 14. Armee under General von Below) were offered two options by Vienna: to evacuate or to surrender. Of course, the Germans resisted with force. Soon they found themselves surrounded and under attack. However, the Dual Empire had problems of its own. As the war was over, many soldiers thought, there was no sense of remaning in the army, and desertions skyrocketed. Furthermore, in protest at the imperial government’s change of sides, the Minister President of Austria, Ernst Seidler, resigned and the Reichsrat, dominated by the Christian Social Party and the German National Movement, called for Austrian independence. When the new Minister President, Maximilian Hussarek, attempted to persuade the German Austrians to fight their compatriots, he was unceremouniously sacked and replaced by the Reichsrat president, Dr. Franz Dinghofer, who lambasted Andrássy and the Emperor for their apostasy. Nationalist groups took the streets of Vienna to demonstrate against the government and asking for German intervention. Civil servants refused to work, Austrian officers resigned their commands and numerous Austrian units in the army mutinied.

In Budapest, the Hungarian government also resigned. Dr. Sandór Wekerle, the Prime Minister, resigned, not willing to have deals with the Serbs and Rumanians. The conservative Count Tisza, who possessed the largest number of followers in the Hungarian parliament, refused to consider the idea of assuming office, and the Emperor Karl appointed János Hadik, a colleague of Andrássy, as the new Prime Minister. However, Hadik lacked the confidence of Tisza nor Count Karólyi, the leading Hungarian liberal, and his task was unenviable. Tisza then advocated Hungarian independence and an alliance with Germany to prevent any kind of reforms that would only work in favour of the Slavs and Rumanians. Karólyi, on his part, also wanted an independent Hungary, but one in the Allied side, as he, a Hungarian nationalist himself, feared that if Hungary remained within the Habsburg Empire, it would be enslaved by Austria.

Then, hardly one week later(December 21th, 1917) after the Austro-Hungarian armistice, Wilhelm II ordered his generals to invade the former ally. On the very next day the Reichsrat proclaimed itself to be a "Provisional National Assembly for German-Austria" representing the ethnic Germans in all Cisleithanian lands. The Czechs, who had risen in rebellion in Bohemia, now rallied to support the government in resistance to the German invaders. Poles, Ruthenians, Croats, Slovaks and Slovenes also rushed to fend the German fiend. However, representatives from Bohemia, Moravia and the Austrian Silesia joined the Provisional Assembly of the German-Austria that, on December 23th, called on all German inhabited Lands to form their own provisional assemblies.

Karl, who since that very moment had been source of jeer and hatred, suddenly became a man of peace that was bravely resisting German imperialism. But this ws not to be enough to stoped the German Army, which had occupied most of Bohemia by the first week of January 1918 and was advancing through Austria towards Vienna. Austro-Hungarian units were transferred north in haste to confront the new threat, followed closely by Italian forces but, as they moved through Austrian territory, to their surprise they found themselves to be in enemy lands. Thus, despite the fact that the Austro-Hungarians outnumbered the German invaders, they were forced to retreat to the south of the Elbe River and to the west of the Moldau as Italian forces were deployed to defend Austria to the south of the Inn River. The bulk of the Austro-Hungarian forces gathered north of the Danube to face the German advance on Prague, Linz and Vienna while the Imperial Chief of the General Staff, General der Infanterie Blasius von Schemua, contacted General Franchet d’Esperey placing the hopes of the Habsburg Empire in the fast arrival of the French, British, Serbian, Rumanian and Greek foces.
 
14. The Second Revolution
14. The Second Revolution

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The seeds of the German Revolution were planted as soon as the first German troops entered into Bohemia. As the military commitments of the Reich escalated towards the invasion of Austria-Hungary and the feeling that Germany was, ideed, alone, pushed many to the brink of desesperation. Thus, when the Fourth Marine Division began to board the trains that were to take them south, a mutiny ensued.

It was January 5, 1918. The Fourth Marine Division (1) had been bleed white in Flanders during the Allied offensive. After loosing two thirds of its men, the Division had been withdraw of the front and sent to the North of Germany to recover and to be reinforced with new recruits. When the news of the Austrian betrayal prompted the invasion of the former ally, the Division was one of the many units rushed to Berlin as a reserve to be used in Bohemia. Thus, when on January 5 the Fourth Marine Division was told to be ready to board the trains that were to take them south, a mutiny ensued.

A few hundred men refused to board the trucks that were to transport them to the train station. However, when some companies of the same division were mustered to act against the mutineers, theyt gave up and were led away without any resistance. Nonetheless, the Fourth Marine Division remained in their barracks as its commander, doubted about theloyalty of the soldiers. However, when pressed on the very next day by the OKL, the CO of the Division was relieved when a whole batallion of the the 4th Naval Brigade boarded the trains without a word and departed to the south. Thinking that he had regained control of his men, he had 20 of the soldiers that he saw as the ringleaders imprisoned, and they were taken to the Arrestanstalt (military prison) in Spandau.

Then, part of the men reacted mutinied then to achieve the release of their comrades; they send delegations to their officers requesting the mutineers' release and to the unions, the SPD and the USPD. By January 12, the marine soldiers met in a mass meeting that was heeded by several thousand people including worker's representatives. When some infantry forces were sent to put an end to the meeting, violence ensued when some shoots were fired by the soldiers against the demostrators, who replied in kind; 7 people were killed and 29 severely injured. Then, the mass protest turned into a general revolt.

On the following day most of the industries of Berlin were closed and their workers on strike, together with many commercial and service enterprises. Furthermore, part of the Berlin garrison joined the mutineers and the rebellion began to spread all over Germany. By January 10 the mutiny had turned into revolution and seized Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Nuremberg, Hanover, Brunswick, Frankfurt on Main, and Munich. Members of the government and of the military suggested to Wilhem II that he had to abdicate. Of course, he refused the request, but to no avail. The events were out of control and, as this was happening, the SPD deputy chairman Phillip Scheidemann proclaimed the German Republic while Karl Liebknecht proclaimed the Soviet Republic in the Berlin Lustgarten almost at the same time. Kurt Eisner proclaimed the Volkstaat of Bavaria on the following morning.

On January 12 a powerless von Bülow was replaced by a Provisional Government led by Friederich Ebert, the leader of the SPD, who wanted to prevent the revolution and to keep the state order. However, the Rat der Volksbeauftragten (The Council of the People's Deputies) challenged Ebert's authority and claimed to represent the will of workers and soldiers. Then, Eisner arrived to Berlin on February 20th.

Meanwhile, there was a war going on.

(1) IOTL, ony three Marine Divisions were organized by the Germany Army.
 
15. Organized chaos
15. Organized chaos

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Startled with their success to create the split between Austria-Hungary and Germany, the Allied strategy change drastically. Now a large front had opened south of the German border, so it was less possible that the bulk of the reinforcements arriving from the East could be deployed in the west. Furthermore, Austria-Hungary also presented a threat to Germany because its proximity. Then, chaos erupted in Berlin with the Revolution. There was not time to waste.

In London, the War Cabinet held an urgent meeting to discuss strategy. Suddenly, the situation had changed and now secondary fronts were dropped and replaced by a demand to attack the German line with all resources available on the western front. Curzon and Bonar Law supported the strategy and, when the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, General Sir Henry Wilson, presented intelligence which suggested that German troop levels in the west would decrease because the defection of Austria-Hungary, Lloyd George was won to their side and gave his approval to a limited offensive, to the changrin of Haig. Of course, Clemenceau and the French generals agreed that the seismic events in Central Europe changed everything and were adamant that now was the time to strike.

They all met at Romilly-sur-Seine in January 1918 to agree upon a new course of action. Haig’s appeal for an offensive was now irresistible and Lyuatey and Wood, who wanted to hold the line while gathering the resources and manpower for a summer campaign, discarded their previous caution and supported an offensive “the earlier, the better”. General Wood, encouraged by Washington D.C., assented to the use of American forces to participate in Allied operations and informed his colleagues that he intended to begin grouping the six army corps serving with British armies into three American army commands under his control. In addition tot his, he offered to his troops to immediately take over a portion of the Allied line with two army corps. Within a week, the American Expeditionary Force began to replace General Maude’s Fifth Army along the Allied line between St. Quentin and La Fère.

Meanwhile, in Germany, there was no way to know what was going on. A series of political crises erupted between population and government and between the Provisional Government and the Räte (the workers and soldiers' councils that, by then, had developed into a nationwide movement with a national leadership) and between the moderate Left and the revolutionary group led by Luxemburg and Liebknecht, which also undermined the authority of the Provisional Government. Just a few members of the USPD agreed to join the new cabinet. However, Ebert was determined to save the order and, for the moment, he saw no way of getting out of the war without causing further trouble and social chaos. Then, Eisner arrived to Berlin and soon he gathered around himself all those who opposed Ebert's policies.

Even worse, in spite of his best efforts, Ebert failed to have the "Executive Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Councils" equally filled with SPD and USPD members. Instead of that, the SPD was smashed by the flood of USPD members in the Council, led by Richard Müller and Brutus Molkenbuhr. Thus, Ebert, after talking with General Groerner, who had replaced Ludendorff as Erster Generalquartiermeister, and securing the support of the army, prepared himself to crush the dangerous revolutionaries and to keep the war going on. Ebert was confident that the German Army would be able to inflict a major defeat on the Austro-Hungarians and induce the Germanic and pro-German elements of the empire to secede. If Austria and Hungary could rally behind Germany and if Germany could hold its gains in the west, it would prove to Allied public opinion the futility of continuing the war, paving the way for a negotiated settlement in favour of Germany.
 
16. For bread and salaries!
16. For bread and salaries!

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On 9th February, the German Army attacked along the Elbe, which was crossed on the following day as a great number of enemy soldiers, mainly Austrian, surrendered to the advancing Germans. Reinforcements were rushed to defend the breach as the bulk of the Austro-Hungarian Army fell back to a new defensive line of defensives centered around Kuttenberg (1). General Schemua grouped the Austro-Hungarian forces in Bohemia under the command of Field Marshal Conrad, the former Chief of Staff, and kept making urgent appeals to General Franchet d’Esperey to rapidly deploy French and British reinforcements to Bohemia. With the German flood making way fast in Bohemia, Moravia and Galicia, Karl and Andrássy had too many reasons to fear that further German success would prompt Austria and Hungary to unilaterally declare independence and to align themselves with Germany, so they sent a passionate and terrified plea to George V, Roosevelt and Poincaré for help.

Help, indeed, was on the way, as the Allies were only days from beginning their own offensive in the west. Haig had won approval for his strategy and, along with Lyautey and Wood, he concluded a plan that would involve the gradual application of pressure, as the French were loathe to repeat the mistakes of the Nivelle Offensive and Wood was aware that the AEF would be going into battle with the minimum training necessary. Thus a number of large set-piece engagements were to be launched after a series of small scale attacks to test the defensive capacity and fighting resolve of the German Army.

The German OKL were somehow happy that the defeat in Flanders has shortened their lines and made the western front easier to defend in the short term. Thus, if they were able to defeat Austria-Hungary fast, they woulc be also able to macht the enemy concentration in the west, as, according to their intelligence, after the gruelling operations in Flanders, the Allies would only be in a position to resume the offensive in France on a large scale in April or May.

In Spain, meanwhile, the feared revolutionary wave seemed to have vanished. Jaime III, happy after getting rid of Vázquez de Mella and seeing that the new cabinet had managed to bring peace and order to the country began to have dreams of becoming some kind of peace dealer and delluded himself in his dreams of bring the warrying parties of the Great War by giving them a new enemy: the Bolshevik ghost that was rearing his ugly head on Russia. Thankfully for him, the Spanish revolutionaries disagreed among themselves about what to do next after their failure at showing their muscle and were divided about what to do next.

Thus, by late November 1917, the Spanish main trade unions, the anarchist CNT and the socialist UGT, began to plan another General Strike. Even if they had learnt the lessons of their failure in August, they were still too divided on many issues and the strike did not materialize in the end. Even then, the rumours aobut it were enough to scare the government, the king and the PSOE itself. As the health problems of Pablo Iglesias forced him to reduce his political activity, a fight for the succesion ensued at once between the radical Socialist Francisco Largo Caballero and the moderate Julián Besteiro and filled the pages of the newspaper during most of December.

Then, on January 16th, 1918, the dock workers of Bilbao called for three-day strike after the government said it would delay plans to reform the sector and to study a raise in their wages.

(1) Present day Kutná Hora
 
17. A country without a king.
17. A country without a king.


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Santiago Alba in 1912.​

In the end, the strike developed into a kind of non-declared revolution that was, again, calmed down by no one else than Melquiades Álvarez, that, after his success in Santander, managed to appease the strikers, but not that the example was repeated all over the country, initially int he northern provinces and then spreading itself through Castille and Aragon. Jaime III reacted in the usual way. He fired his prime minister, Romanones, and replaced him with Santiago Alba, who found himself helpless when, five days later, on February 2, 1918, the first signs of revolution began to be appear in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia and Sevilla.

Just as the first strikes began to take place, Alba rushed to the royal palace, where he received the shock of his life. The king had fled and was nowhere to be seen. In fact, the whole Royal Family had fled the country that very morning. The news of the king's flight spread fast and soon there were people on the streets asking for a Republic. Alba raced back to his desk and began a mad rush of phone calls and urgent letters to try to fill the void of power that the king had caused. It was in this explosion of activity that a forged "copy" of Jaime's abdication arrived to Alba's hands.

A meeting with the leaers of the other main political parties (Manuel Garcia Prieto for the Liberal Party, Eduardo Dato for the Conservative one, Francesc Cambó for the Catalan Nationalist Lliga Regionalista and Ignacio de Rotaeche for the Basque Nationalist PNV) agreed at once that the country was in a dire situation and that a deep reformation of its social and political structures was needed inmediately. Of course, they disagreed on the reforms and upon the way to implement those. Then, on February 4th, part of the fleet based in Cartagena mutinied, lead by his commander, Admiral Juan Cervera. Cervera was soon supported by Garcia Prieto, who travelled to Cartagena on the very next day, just as the news of the mutiny of the garrisons of Cadiz and the Canary islands arrived to Madrid. The mutinieers demanded that prince Alfonso, grand grandson of Fernando VII was crowned as the new king of Spain.

Soon the troops of Barcelona joined the mutiny, followed by the garrison of Sevilla, where a strange and uneasy calm ensued between the forces of the revolution and the "mutinieers". Then, when Alba discovered that in spite of all the promises and sewar of loyalty, not a single general was willing to follow his orders, he resigned on February 6th as the news of the advance of a powerful force uner the command of Admiral Cervera had left Cartagena and marched over Madrid.

By February 8th a new government had been formed in Madrid. It included, of course, Garcia Prieto, Dato and Cambó, but also Admiral Cervera. That very day, Pablo Iglesias, the leader of the PSOE, proclaimed the Spanish Socialist Republic, forcing the rushed annoucement made by Garcia Prieto of the creation of the Provisional Government of the Spanish Republic and the promise of a new Magna Carta for the country. Soon Iglesias came under fire for being too moderate and the PSOE suffered a split that led to the creation of the Communist League led by the young Dolores Ibarruri and Angel Sopeña.

Then, as Garcia Prieto and Dato began to give shape to the new Republican government, Cambó and Cervera began to conspire to bring it down and to have the return of the Borbones to the Spanish throne. On her part, Ibarruri began to gather forces around her first to replace Iglesias as the main leader of the Spanish Left and, then, to depose the government.
 
I wondering if that's not heading the 1st Republic way rather than the second. The Republic sounds here more a by default choice than a rooted trend in TTL Spanish politics.
Plus, I'm surprised at this sudden flight of the Royal Family. Up so far, Jaime III looked rather confident.
 
I wondering if that's not heading the 1st Republic way rather than the second. The Republic sounds here more a by default choice than a rooted trend in TTL Spanish politics.
Plus, I'm surprised at this sudden flight of the Royal Family. Up so far, Jaime III looked rather confident.

It's going a bit like the 1st, but with some outward elements to make it even more interesting...

Indeed, Jaime's sudden departure may sound a bit surprising, but I picked up that solution for that very reason ;)

Shouldn't this be in the Before 1900 forum considering the PoD.

The POD is pre-1900, indeed, but 99% of the whole tale takes place in the 20th century. IMHO, it would be a bit awkard to move it there, but I defer to the opinion of the mods.
 
It seems that the polítical system is parlamentarian. Wouldn't be more carlist something like an organic Parliament?
 
It seems that the polítical system is parlamentarian. Wouldn't be more carlist something like an organic Parliament?

Perhaps the first kings would have done so, but I guess that, eventually, they would have moved to a true parlamentarian system. Perhaps I've been too optimistic here and I have advanced the change quite a bit...
 
18. The breaking up of the Hindenburg Line
18. The breaking up of the Hindenburg Line

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When the Allies attacked on the Western Front, they caught the Germans by surprise, as it has been suggested before. On 14th February the British and the AEF assaulted the German lines. At St. Quentin, General Maude’s Fifth Army and General Bullard’s First US Army attacked the town not only to take it but also to establish a bridgehead on the eastern side of the River Oise. Progress was slow, in part because of the limited nature of the attacks imposed by Haig but also because of the dodged German resistance. Thus, when St. Quentin fell on 17th February, the Americans were still unable to cross the Oise. However, something had changed. Even if the advances were quite small, the attackers captured a large yield of prisoners. As the numbers of German soldiers surrendering was out of proportion with the scope of the attacks, the Allied Generals felt that this was a clear indication that the morale of the German Army was severely mauled.

On 19th February, the French began their part of the offensive when General Duchêne’s Ninth Army and General Debeney’s Seventh Army attacked south of the River Aisne, That day General Byng’s Sixth Army advanced against the Hindenburg Line when the British divisions attacked Craincourt and Anneux, southwest of Cambrai, as both villages had to be taken if any advance on Cambrai itself was to be carried out. Also, attacking Anneux was intended to serve as a diversion from the much larger offensive about to start to the north, as Haig planed to attack the Hindenburg Line at Drocourt and then Douai, which lay behind it. For this task, 450 tanks and numerous batteries of heavy artillery had been amassed.

The Hindenburg Line, composed of six defensive lines surrounded by belts of barbed wire and dotted with concrete pillboxes, was a formidable obstacle. No surprise could be achieved here, so sheer fire power had to do the trick: a sixty hour bombardment along ten thousand yards of the front would precede the infantry. By this stage of the war British artillerymen had turned the preparatory bombardment into a form of science and their heavy guns could now fire astounding quantities of shells with increasing accuracy, providing the infatrymen with greater margins of safety during the attacks.

Thus, when the Third Army attacked Drocourt on February 21 with hundreds of tanks in the vanguard and the Royal Air Force dominant in the skies, the battered defences were overrun. In less than a day, the most potent defensive obstacle in the west was breached by the British Army. Further south, Byng’s Sixth Army overwhelmed the defenders of Anneux in similar style, capturing Cantaing and Fontaine with the support of Lieutenant-General Kavanagh’s Cavalry Corps. Broken, the battered German forces sought to hastily arrange defensive measures while thousands of Germans were captured. It goes without saying that this reverse caused a significant political turmoil in Germany, which encourage the Allies to apply more pressure to exploit the apparent weakness of the enemy.

Troubles didn't end here for Berlin. Douai fell on February 22, the same day that Bing's forces captured Cambrai, forcing the Germans to withdraw from Bullecourt, Queant and Bourlon Wood. Then, on Flanders, on February 24 General Horne’s First Army and General Rawlinson’s Fourth Army opened up their offensive against the German lines with an attack on Turcoing and Roubaix, northeast of Lille. After a number of limited attacks during a fortnight of operations in which Neufchâtel was captured, the French Army reached the River Aisne on 27th February, an objective which had been outlined by Joffre prior to the offensives in Spring 1915, with Byng advanced towards Le Cateau before capturing the town on February 28.

The news of the defeat had an deep impact on Germany. The rumours about the lack of confidence and misgivings with the Provisional Government reached a crescendo which was worsened by the growing shortages of food, supplies, and other materials. Several strikes took place in Berlin and the Ruhr and many factories came under control of the workers in what amounted to a social revolution. On March 1st, 10,000 workers of Berlin demonstrated under banners reading "Down with the war!" and "all power to the Räte!". Thus, Ebert turned more and more reliant on the support of the army. To prevent the collapse of the industry, Union leaders under Karl Legien met wit representatives of the of the big industry represented by Karl Friederich von Siemmens. The meeting put a temporary end to the strikes, reduced the influence of the councils, prevented a nationalisation of means of production and introduced the eight-hour day that the workers had demanded since a long time ago.

Thus, with a part of the problem solved, Ebert could turn his attention to the frontline. Then, on March 5, shoots were heard on the streets of Berlin.
 
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19. The Skirmish of the Brandenburger Tor
19. The Skirmish of the Brandenburger Tor

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Since the early days of the revolution, many German Generals mistrusted Ebert and hoped for a more unified form of government. Many of the German officers feared that the spectre of a revolution which followed the Russian example. Also, the worrying situation of the Western Front and the Austrian betrayal made them even more willing to act before it could be too late. They demanded the abolition of the various soldiers' committees that had sprung up in since the beginning of the revolution and also wanted to put an end to any signs of revolution in Germany, particularly in regard to the Bolsheviks. Thus, in adittion to the Imperial Army, numerous units of volunteers, the so-called Freikorps, were formed as a stop gang mesure to keep the order in the cities and ready to be used against the revolutionary threat.

The Freikorps were made by veteran soldiers that were recovering from injuries, by recruits and by Naval personnel, as the members of the II.Marine Brigade, formed by around 6,000 men under the command of Korvettenkapitän Hermann Ehrhardt. This unit, along with the Garde-Kavallerie-Schützendivision, leded by Generalleutnant Heinrich von Hofmann, were quartered in Berlin itself and together were to spearheaded what became known as the Lequis Putsch, when, General der Infanterie Arnold Lequis, in command of all the regular troops in and around Berlin, ordered on March 4 his units to "restore peace in Berlin" with the support of several Freikorps, the two already mentioned plus the Marinebrigade Loewenfeld. However, when Lequis issue4d his orders, most of the soldiers refused to follow orders and only the Freikorps, along with some regular battalions, marched on their own. To face them was the Volksmarinedivision, made up by revolutionary naval troops from Kiel, and some Red Guard militias.

The II.Marine Brigade reached fast the Brandenburger Tor and then moved into the deserted Reichskanzlei, as Ebert and his government had fleed to Dresden when they heard about the putsch. Supported by a battalion of the regular army, the putschists occupied the government quarter, just to find themselves surrounded by the sailors and the Red Guards. Shortly before 8 am of the following day, the sound of gunfire was heard as a cannonade signalled the attack of the Volksmarinedivision. According to reports, some putschists soldiers sides and joined the revolutionary forces, which were also reinforced by armed and unarmed civilians. Around noon, the skirmish ended as the II.Marine Brigade withdrew and the Volksmarinedivision held the field.

Lequis had to resign his post as commander of the city's forces and Ebert replaced him by Otto Wels. The putsch had not only failed to put an end to the revolution, but also fueled the Bolsheviks' popularity in the Räte, both in and out of Berlin, and weakened the stance of Ebert and his cabinet. On the following day, March 6, the Spartacists severed their remaining links with the USPD and set themselves up as the new Kommunistische Partei (KPD). Eisner, then, began to plan how to get rid of Ebert and to assume power in Germany.

Meanwhile, King Albert’s Army Group, consisting of the British Second Army (General Maxse) and the Belgian Army, attacked the River Lys on March 5. After a two day engagement, the Belgians entered Ghent before pushing along the north bank of the Scheldt while Maxse crossed the Lys after a surprise bombardment. Facing the enemy pressure, the Germans retreated, settling on the River Escaut on March 8. However, the British commanders were to attack the Germans again before their positions on the Escaut could be strengthened, so they tried to cross the Escaut on March 10, facing and even tougher opposition from the Germans than on the Lys. However, two days later, the German were again withdrawing. Further south, General Lomax’s Third Army resumed its advance, after nearly a fortnight of well deserved rest. His target was the symbolic town of Mons, that was captured after a brief but vicious fight along the Mons-Condé Canal to the west of the city.

The deteriorating position of Germany, both in the field against the enemy and at home, forced Ebert and the OKL to agree upon a strategy of democratising and to end the war. Even if they had stumbled from setback after setback, the German army had not sustained a decisive, catastrophic defeat at the hands of the Allies. The British had sustained 75,000 casualties since March 5. Lloyd George and Roosevelt were delighted at the continuing success of the Allied Armoes, but the British premier still believed that Germany was still determined to fight unless the German Army was utterly routed in battle. Thus, on March 11, the Allies commenced a general advance along the length of the front in France and Belgium.

As news that the Rhineland was aflame with revolutionary spirit arrived to Berlin on March 13, Ebert instructed Matthias Erzberger to obtain a ceasefire at any price and sent him westwards to inform the Allies of Germany’s willigness to negotiate a settlement. Erzberger crossed the front line and was escorted to the forest of Compiègne on March 16.
 
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20. The end of the Great War.
20. The end of the Great War.

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At Compiègne, Matthias Erzberger, who had Count Alfred von Oberndorff of the Foreign Ministry by his side, was received by the French Chief of Staff, General Ferdinand Foch, Admiral Rosslyn Wemyss representing Britain and Colonel Charles Kilborne, for the United States. Having read out the terms, Foch made a number of token concessions when Erzberger begged for modifications. However, as he was under heavy pressure from Ebert to conclude an armistice with all haste, was ready to sign the document. At 7:38pm, the German delegation added their signatures to the armistice and Foch dismissed them. The terms would come into effect at 5am the next morning, March 16, 1918.

In France and Belgium, the Allied forces rejoiced at the end of hostilities. However, in contrast to the happines that ran thorugh the trenches, Haig kept true to himself and in the followig morning he met his army commanders and discussed with them the plans for an advance to the German frontier in preparation for the occupation of the Rhine bridgeheads. Meanwhile, American, French and British troops fraternised with locals, dining on food and drink offered by the grateful Belgian and French villagers. Soldiers sung and danced as bonfires were lit up and down the line. As many officers and men indulged in revelry together, the emotions were mixed. A lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards, Alex Wilkinson, wrote in his diary ‘The jolly old war has come to an end at last, and a good end too.’ Acting brigadier general Adrian Carton de Wiart simply stated "Frankly, I had enjoyed the war." Captain Edmund Blackadder recounted how he ‘went round the trenches and told the news to the NCOs and men. As an example of the calmness with which it was received, when I met Corporal S. Baldrick walking across the support trench and told him the news, he merely halted, saluted, said “very good, sir” and walked on to take care of his turnips.’

Meanwhile, in Spain, the monarchist propaganda had achieved an unexpected sucess. Suddenly, the idea of return of the Borbon family to the Spanish throne with Prince Alfonso became quite appealing for not only for the Spanish monarchists, but also to those who hoped for a deep reform of the state. This attitude was reinforced when Alfonso, from his golden exile in Britain, made public his Manifiesto de Sandhurst (Sandhurst Manifesto), where he set the ideological basis of the Bourbon Restoration and proclaimed himself the sole representative of the Spanish monarchy.
 
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21. The First Spanish Republic
21. The First Spanish Republic

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Since February 2, 1918 Spain was a Republic in all but for its name. Apparently, no one thought about it in the rush of those days, and that is hardly surprising. Threatened with a Red Army that controlled most of the North, Catalonia and Andalucia, and with the officer corps and a big part of the armed forces united only by their common desdain, and even hatred, towards the new republican government and with Cambó and his allies pressuring Garcia Prieto for the return of the monarchy with prince Alfonso de Borbón, the new regime hardly had time to think about anything but of sheer survival issues.

That changed, as we have seen, on February 8th, when a new government was formed in Madrid and Garcia Prieto announced the creation of the Provisional Government of the Spanish Republic. It goes without saying that many hated at once that turn of events, even more when Alfonso's Manifiesto de Sandhurst (Sandhurst Manifesto) was known in Spain. The announcement of the reform of the Spanish constitution to give more powers to the elected parliament hardly managed to compete with the Manifiesto on the front page of the main newspapers, which were also busy informing about the formation of soldiers and workers councils in the areas controlled by the "Red" revolutionaries modeled after the Russian Soviets and the German Räte.

Even worse, the centre-left to center-right coallition government was divided at its very core as Cambó was determined to bring back the monarchy as the only way that could keep the country united and to avoid the spectre of a revolution. The fear of a rebellion caused great fear in the establishment and in the middle classes, who feared that the country looked to be on the verge of a communist revolution. This fer was reinforced when, due to the course of events and the popular support to the councils, Garcia Orieto was forced to add to the coalition government three representatives of the councils members. Even then, the radicals led by Dolores Ibarruri and Angel Sopeña were still against the Garcia Prieto cabinet.

A programme of progressive social change, introducing reforms such as the eight-hour workday, the releasing of political prisoners, the abolition of press censorship, increases in sick and unemployment benefits, a weak agricultural labour reform, a new system of social welfare relief and the creation of trade unions took place during this period, the so-called revolutionary period. Then, a rift developed between the members of the government after some street clashes in several cities between members of the militias creted by the Councils and the security forces and the army. Soon the Councils claimed that the government had joined with the anti-communist military to suppress the revolution and his representatives left the cabinet after only three weeks, on March 2, 1918.

Then Garcia Prieto called for new General elections to take place on June 10.
 
22. The General Elections of 1918.
22. The General Elections of 1918.

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Soon the call for the Spanish General Elections of June 1918 displeased everybody. The conservative politicians thought and feared that the mere existence of the soldiers and workers councils would grant a deluge of revolutionary propaganda that would grant the victory to the Leftish parties. Of course, this had not only to be avoided, but also crushed as soon as posible. The liberal minded politicians feared that the conservatives and the army were to panick at the perspective of the rise of the Lefitsh votes that, also, would take away many votes from the Liberal candidates. Finally, the Left forces, revolutionaries included, were afraid that they elections were too close in time and there was no room for the needed "education" of the voters. Also, Pablo Iglesias thought that the Elections were rigged by the "traditional" parties and refused to participate, in spite of the advice of his close supporters.

A strike in Barcelona seemed to confirm the fears of all of the parties involved. It all began in Barcelona, when eight workers were fired. They worked for the Barcelona Traction, Light and Power Company (BTLP), a Canadian utility company that operated light and power utilities in Spain and they were fired when they didn't accept that their wages were lowered by the company and asked the CNT trade union to represent them. This soon spiralled out of control and, by March 16, the strike had parallized the BTLP. Two weeks later, the strike had paralyzed 80% of the Catalan industries. (1)

Initially, the government had recommended the BTLP to be hard with the workers, fearing that any negotiation would be interpreted by the Revolutionaries as a sign of weakness. Then, as we have seen, the strike extended to many other industries and sectors and paralyzed Catalonia. The Garcia Prieto cabinet panicked. Was this the beginning of the feared revolution? Not really.

The strike remained within Catalonia. There were hardly any shock waves in the rest of the country and the government, feeling more secure, send the army to control the situation. It became a failure. The military governor fo Catalonia, General Joaquín Milans del Bosch, sided with the employers and ignored the orders of Madrid, until he had to be removed from the post as it was thought that his attitude would just fuel the revolution around Spain. In the end, after 44 days of strike, the strike was over after the eight workers recovered their jobs and a small rise on the wages were granted to the strikers.

This was to be the worst trouble during the electoral campaign. In comparison, the few strikes and riots that followed in Andalucia and the Basque Country paled in comparison. Then the election day came and many were surprised and relieved when the Liberal Party and García Prieto in one side, and the Conservative Party and Dato in the other, gathered together 56,7 % of the popular vote. The moderate Socialist under Melquíades Álvarez hardly reached the 8.5% of the turnout. It was then when Pablo Iglesias realized about his mistake when he refused to participate in the "sham elections of the bourgeoisie ".

(1) IOTL, this happened in 1919, but I have advanced the schedule a bit.
 
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23. The Spanish bubble (1918-1922),
23. The Spanish bubble (1918-1922)

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From 1918 to 1922 Spain had four governments when the Liberal and the Conservative parties formed the so-called Frente Nacional (National Front), built around two main idreas: patriotism and fear of the Bolshevism. From March to July 1918 the main effort was placed in consolidating the reforms that the revolutionaries had enforced upon the previous cabinet. Its effects were out of proportion to the effort placed to make them real. The workers were appeased and their support to the Trade Unions was thus weakened, which, in turn, put the Soldier and Wokers Councils in a unfavorable position, as they were reduced to be just the "supporters" of the government and led to their final auto-dissolutoin towards the end of that year. Ironically, the workers supported the measures of the bourgeois government and turned their back to the revolutionaries. Now that the crisis seemed to be a thing of the past, the average Spaniard was mightly glad to go back to the routine of "bussines as usual", even more when, in April 1918, an enabling Act was approved for an eight-hour day and a six-day week, although farmworkers were excluded from the Act.

When García Prieto resigned to run for the Presidency of the Republic, Joaquín Sánchez de Toca became the new prime minister. A young rising star of the Conservative party, Sánchez de Toca worked hard to implement the reforms and to improve them, so he extended the eight-hour day for seamen and farmers and saw the split of the PSOE after the death of Pablo Iglesias. The vacuum of power that followed made Julián Besteiro to rise to replace Iglesias but at a heavy price. As Besteiro moved away from the true Marxist tradition, Largo Caballero left the PSOE and with him a great number of Socialists and then joined the Communist League led by Ibarruri and Sopeña. However, Sánchez de Toca was deemed too "radical" by his conservative peers and was replaced by Antonio Maura, who became the new prime minister in January 1919. Supported by business and finance and friendly toward the army and the Church, Maura had no troubles during his five-months tenure, when he resigned to incorporate Besteiro into the Frente Nacional, who was branded by Largo Caballero and Ibarruri as a traitor to the workers.

Besteiro, in any case, workerd hard to ensure the recovery and enhacement of the economy of the Spanish Republic. He began a reform of the Spanish Navy and put into work two large scale programs, one devoted to infraestructure construction and the other one to increase the industrialization of the country. However, under him the taxation policies were to reach new heights of inefficient, with widespread evasion, that were to explode in the crisis of 1922. In the end, when Besteiro resigned in January 1920, he went to be remembered as the "Great Ambassador" of Spain as during his tenure the international standing of Spain rechead new heights and established new and strong relations with France and Italy.

Álvaro of Figueroa, earl of Romanones, who was the last prime minister before the elections of June 1922, also worked hard to improve the relations with France, even if his efforts were hardly succesful, and to strenght the national unity of the country. His vicious criticism of the "revolutionary defeatism" was another trademark of his tenure, as he blamed the Bolshevisks for any trouble that the country underwent and stating that those troubles were caused by the Communist Party in its effort trying to undermine the development of Spain.

Romanones also unleashed the dogs of war in Morocco when, under pressure of the Army to reinforce the forces there and then to advance towards Alhucemas bay to crush there the riffi irregular forces, he ordered a huge reinforcement of the Spanish forces deployed in the North of Africa, which opened theway for the advance along the coast. The campaign and the occupation costs were to prove to be a burden too heavy for the Spanish economy, and the Spanish peseta (1) collapsed in 1922, The following inflation and the economical chaos were to decide the fate of not only the General Elections of that year, but also of the governments that ruled Spain until 1924.

(1) The peseta was the currency of Spain between 1869 and 2002. Along with the French franc, it was also a de facto currency used in Andorra.
 
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