Just wondering but did the Anglo Sikh Wars happened this time around as well?
From the Ashes of the Old: The British Republic
- Thread starter President Conor
- Start date
Just wondering but did the Anglo Sikh Wars happened this time around as well?
The Pork Fat Bullet case has been drastically overestimated in cause. Much larger causes include the rising racist attitudes of the British, which cannot be easily butterflied away as it was building up for well over half a century.
What would be interesting is if the puppet Mughal Emperor was retained after the Indian Mutiny, and was further retained into independence.
Chapter 13: Ghost Colonies - Part 2
The final days of the Revolution brought about the swift decapitation of the regime. It was fast, it was effective, and it had, in reality, been coming for some time.
Richard Cobden, Memoirs, 1854
Meeting of Revolutionaries after the London Rising, 1848
As dawn rose on the 18th August 1848, five men crossed over the border under fierce protection under orders from William Beresford. This was the first time since the beginning of the Revolutionary War that Beresford had commanded a force of ordinary Popular Front men - for this challenge, experience was not essential, the ability to cross into the United Kingdom unrecognised, however, was, limiting the effectiveness of some of his elite squad of men.
They reached London on the 21st August and were shocked at what they saw. Immediately, as they entered the city, the sight of ten men, hung from trees with a sign saying ‘Revolutionary’ nailed to their chest. Perhaps they wondered what they had let themselves in for. They reached the agreed location and met with a further five men in an abandoned tavern. They provided explosives, Checker uniforms and a cart with which to complete their task. They shook hands, and wished the five from the Republic the best of luck, and said they would meet them on the outskirts of the City afterwards.
The plan was as follows. Place the cart on the route of Charles Gordon-Lennox’s carriage to work, obtained by informants in his offices, place the explosives in the cart and detonate, killing the High Protector. Afterwards, the men would flee, and be arrested by the false Checker agents, who would sneak them out of the city through an agreed point on the Suffolk border.
The ‘Republican Five’ as they were known, performed superbly, and at 8:48pm on the 21st August, detonated the dynamite and killed Charles Gordon-Lennox. All five were ‘arrested on the scene’ according to the National Press in London. They never reached their jail cell and a city wide man hunt was launched by 10:00pm. It was, however, too late. They were well on their way to the border.
The Regime was in a frenzy after the High Protector was assassinated. Although he had not been in effective control since March, he had excellent connections in the National Front and provided a healthy morale boost to the Volunteers during successive defeats. In the Republic, news of Gordon-Lennox’s death was celebrated as the beginning of the end of the conflict. In the ensuing chaos, between the 24th and 31st August, the Republic led successive military strikes on Cornwall (24th), Devon (25th), Hereford (24th), Worcester (26th), Cambridge (28th), Gloucester (29th), Oxford (30th) and finally, on the 31st, after four days of fighting, captured Dorchester. National Front men fled and returned South of the border, wounded and mentally broken.
“Victory is in our hands” said Fergus O’Connor to a cheering crowd in Glasgow. The Republican Press called it “the Week of Destiny”. Republics were declared along the boundaries of the Bureau’s that ruled the areas liberated, and former Wardens returned to work to administer new territory of the British Republic. In Leicester, the Republic of Avonshire, bringing together the corridor of the River Avon, was declared, followed by the Republic of Nene in Cambridge, and the Republics of Cornwall and Devon in Truro and Plymouth respectively. On the 1st of September, the four new republics accepted the covenant and they were inducted into the British Republic. Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Hereford opted to join the Severn Republic, and were inducted on the 2nd September.
In anticipation of the victory, and out of fear of the make-up of the proposed Secretariat of the British Republic, the new civil service for the post-war period, the General Council met on 3rd September, with new representatives from the Republic to discuss the ‘Loyalist Question’ - what to do about the former Government employees in the new Republic. Fergus O’Connor proposed a “cleansing” of the civil service, and a restriction in the first 5 years of the Republic on the movement of former National Front politicians and men. Attwood however, proposed a different solution;
“We must build a Republic not of victors, but of Britons. If we are to build this nation we must prove we are not the same as the Regime dying in London. We must include, we must assimilate: we must Republicanise”.
His motion - that all non-militia and medial and low ranking members of the civil service, as well as Members of Parliament not affiliated with regime must be given a full pardon post-unification. In a closely contested debate, once again O’Connor was defeated. The ‘Reconciliation Proclamation’ was to form one of the founding tenets of the British Republic - a Republic for all. First to step forward was the former Liberal Conservative MP Robert Peel, himself an advocate in Parliament for the emancipation of rights and property, who stepped forward to aid the Republic. He was invited to speak at the General Council and spoke of his desire to help Britain move forward. “My affinity, Gentleman, is not to this Republic but to the people of Britain - I will be happy to service their demands and I am willing to help this administration help the people of this Island”.
Meanwhile in London, the succession of Gordon-Lennox was entrusted to one of the Oligarchs of the Regime, the Duke of Wellington. Fearing the worst for the regime, he drafted the ‘Wellington Plan’, an emergency plan designed to evacuate key members of the Government and establish a Government in Exile. The plan detailed an evacuation of the Royal Family, and 50-100 members of the Government to the Gold Coast - with key ports in Canada occupied and the United States a key Republican ally, the African Nation would be the only place with striking distance of another British invasion. From there, they would form a Government in Exile and begin exerting control over the colonies and assembling an invasion fleet, drawn from the Cape, Sierra Leone, Australia and India to retake Britain through the Solent. They would create the ‘United Kingdom of the British Empire’ and take direct administrative control over the remaining colonies.
These efforts took a significant blow during August 1848. Van Diemen’s Land, under the governorship of William Denison during the late 1840s had experienced liberal reforms and a commitment to ‘Responsible Government’ - leading to the warrant for arrest for Denison and his removal from office in August 1848. Denison’s supporters, including many of the Garrison on the Island, rebelled against the order and declared their affinity to the British Republic, rather than the Crown. Many had been transported during the Salem days and many Liberals and Revolutionaries were stationed there and in the Colony of Victoria. As New South Wales, under the Governorship of Charles FitzRoy, crossed onto the Island, the Militia loyal to Denison fought back, and pushed them off the Island.
In turn, the growing reactionary stewardship of FitzRoy was ended on the 30th August, when across New South Wales and uprising occurred against his handling of the invasion and his governorship. He was forced to flee to the West of Australia, where he, Frederick Robe and Frederick Irwin reaffirmed their affinity to the crown and declared the ‘Royal Realm of Australia’. In the East of the Country, Denison unified New South Wales, Victoria and Van Diemen’s Land, and declared the ‘Republic of Polynesia’ on the same day. They seized ship and weapons, and recognized the British Republic and Thomas Attwood as the legitimate government of the Motherland. Later in September, Denison would unify New Zealand with the state to form a bloc with greater weaponry and naval power than its rival to the West. He said to crowds in Melbourne “If FitzRoy returns, we shall blow him and his men off the face of the earth”.
In the Cape Colony, a diplomatic argument had ensued. Owing its expansionary strength to the arms and the men provided by the motherland, the Colony held a fierce internal debate about its future. A collective known as the ‘Responsibles’, led by the young, charismatic John Molteno, argued that the Cape could become a progressive republic, liberalise, appease it’s non-British populous and guarantee military support from Britain if it declared its independence. The ‘Loyalists’ did not argue for the continuation of the crown and passionately for supporting the Empire, but instead that the uncertainty could lead to an invasion by surrounding foreign powers. Molteno wrote to Attwood, asking whether the Colony would receive support under the Treaty of Manchester if it were to become a Republic. Attwood said that the Republic and France would ensure the protection of the Republic from the Empire. This was proof enough, in a vote on the 23rd September 1848, the Cape Colony became the Cape Republic - a vital blow to Britain as it cut its empire in two, removed the promise of troops from the Cape, and one of its prized assets. The Cape Republic was one of the few revolutions of 1848 that was entirely peaceful.
The Popular Front and British Republican Army men now pierced through the country and began to encircle London, aside from a small, heavily fortified corridor between London, stretching south to the Solent. Attempts to evacuate the Government through the Thames, the preferred option, were blocked because of Coastal Confederation, Dutch and French ships along the mouth of the river. On the 21st September, hearing that Popular Front had reached the edge of the city, the local units in London of the Republican Brotherhood launched an uprising, and began to be armed by Popular Front soldiers breaking through and providing arms. They began to seize Government Buildings, Checker and Police stations and began to fight their way to Buckingham Palace and Whitehall.
Reluctantly, Wellington informed Queen Victoria he was enacting the Wellington Plan, before travelling back to his residence in the city, and swallowing a cyanide pill. Many more in Whitehall followed, and Popular Front fighters who reached Whitehall described “a corpse in every room”. The Queen was evacuated, disguised, through a off-track fortified route. She was delivered to a ship waiting at Southampton, destined for the Gold Coast. Popular Front men were met with little resistance and, on the steps of Whitehall, declared the ‘Free City of London’ and raised the British Republican Flag on the 25th September 1848 - Liberation Day. Southampton and much of the South-Coast surrendered quickly after and the Solent Republic was declared in the Port City that day, encompassing much of the South-East Coast. The British Republic was finally unified.
On the 1st October 1848, the Wellington Plan ships reached the Gold Coast, similar ships set sails for British Guiana, the West Indies and Sierra Leone. They sought to solidify support in so-called ‘colonies of domination’ - colonies where a small British-led administration ruled over a majority of natives. As they arrived, within the first six weeks they launched a wide-scale purge of accused liberals and revolutionaries, killed 13,000 administrations during this time. On the same day, Thomas Attwood arrived in London to declare an end to the conflict, saying “our strife is over, we are united and the slaughter of the British People has ended. Peace and the Republic shall reign”.
A final shipment of Wellington Plan officials set sails for India, where they were to inform the British East India Company that their Raj rule was to be temporarily halted while an ‘ongoing emergency’ was handled on the mainland. With access to the continent restricted after the declaration of Independence of the Cape Republic, the officials sailed through the Cape, lowering their flag to avoid suspicious, and when pressed, said they were a merchant ship. They passed, however when they reached India, some 6 months later, they were stopped at the gates. They were arrested by East India Company men, who took them inland informed them that they were the sole sovereign power on the Continent, Ceylon and the Straits was now the company, who were supported by the British Republic. They presented the men with a signed copy from Henry Hardinge, Governor of the British East India Company, of the Treaty of Newcastle, co-signed by the Republic, the Coastal Confederation and the Company.
“You, sirs, are invaders of Company territory, do you know what we do to people like you?” said the Companymen to the Officials. As he pointed to the window, the men saw four men in Royal Navy uniforms, hanging from a gallows. The Company had taken control.
The final days of the Revolution brought about the swift decapitation of the regime. It was fast, it was effective, and it had, in reality, been coming for some time.
Richard Cobden, Memoirs, 1854
Meeting of Revolutionaries after the London Rising, 1848
As dawn rose on the 18th August 1848, five men crossed over the border under fierce protection under orders from William Beresford. This was the first time since the beginning of the Revolutionary War that Beresford had commanded a force of ordinary Popular Front men - for this challenge, experience was not essential, the ability to cross into the United Kingdom unrecognised, however, was, limiting the effectiveness of some of his elite squad of men.
They reached London on the 21st August and were shocked at what they saw. Immediately, as they entered the city, the sight of ten men, hung from trees with a sign saying ‘Revolutionary’ nailed to their chest. Perhaps they wondered what they had let themselves in for. They reached the agreed location and met with a further five men in an abandoned tavern. They provided explosives, Checker uniforms and a cart with which to complete their task. They shook hands, and wished the five from the Republic the best of luck, and said they would meet them on the outskirts of the City afterwards.
The plan was as follows. Place the cart on the route of Charles Gordon-Lennox’s carriage to work, obtained by informants in his offices, place the explosives in the cart and detonate, killing the High Protector. Afterwards, the men would flee, and be arrested by the false Checker agents, who would sneak them out of the city through an agreed point on the Suffolk border.
The ‘Republican Five’ as they were known, performed superbly, and at 8:48pm on the 21st August, detonated the dynamite and killed Charles Gordon-Lennox. All five were ‘arrested on the scene’ according to the National Press in London. They never reached their jail cell and a city wide man hunt was launched by 10:00pm. It was, however, too late. They were well on their way to the border.
The Regime was in a frenzy after the High Protector was assassinated. Although he had not been in effective control since March, he had excellent connections in the National Front and provided a healthy morale boost to the Volunteers during successive defeats. In the Republic, news of Gordon-Lennox’s death was celebrated as the beginning of the end of the conflict. In the ensuing chaos, between the 24th and 31st August, the Republic led successive military strikes on Cornwall (24th), Devon (25th), Hereford (24th), Worcester (26th), Cambridge (28th), Gloucester (29th), Oxford (30th) and finally, on the 31st, after four days of fighting, captured Dorchester. National Front men fled and returned South of the border, wounded and mentally broken.
“Victory is in our hands” said Fergus O’Connor to a cheering crowd in Glasgow. The Republican Press called it “the Week of Destiny”. Republics were declared along the boundaries of the Bureau’s that ruled the areas liberated, and former Wardens returned to work to administer new territory of the British Republic. In Leicester, the Republic of Avonshire, bringing together the corridor of the River Avon, was declared, followed by the Republic of Nene in Cambridge, and the Republics of Cornwall and Devon in Truro and Plymouth respectively. On the 1st of September, the four new republics accepted the covenant and they were inducted into the British Republic. Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Hereford opted to join the Severn Republic, and were inducted on the 2nd September.
In anticipation of the victory, and out of fear of the make-up of the proposed Secretariat of the British Republic, the new civil service for the post-war period, the General Council met on 3rd September, with new representatives from the Republic to discuss the ‘Loyalist Question’ - what to do about the former Government employees in the new Republic. Fergus O’Connor proposed a “cleansing” of the civil service, and a restriction in the first 5 years of the Republic on the movement of former National Front politicians and men. Attwood however, proposed a different solution;
“We must build a Republic not of victors, but of Britons. If we are to build this nation we must prove we are not the same as the Regime dying in London. We must include, we must assimilate: we must Republicanise”.
His motion - that all non-militia and medial and low ranking members of the civil service, as well as Members of Parliament not affiliated with regime must be given a full pardon post-unification. In a closely contested debate, once again O’Connor was defeated. The ‘Reconciliation Proclamation’ was to form one of the founding tenets of the British Republic - a Republic for all. First to step forward was the former Liberal Conservative MP Robert Peel, himself an advocate in Parliament for the emancipation of rights and property, who stepped forward to aid the Republic. He was invited to speak at the General Council and spoke of his desire to help Britain move forward. “My affinity, Gentleman, is not to this Republic but to the people of Britain - I will be happy to service their demands and I am willing to help this administration help the people of this Island”.
Meanwhile in London, the succession of Gordon-Lennox was entrusted to one of the Oligarchs of the Regime, the Duke of Wellington. Fearing the worst for the regime, he drafted the ‘Wellington Plan’, an emergency plan designed to evacuate key members of the Government and establish a Government in Exile. The plan detailed an evacuation of the Royal Family, and 50-100 members of the Government to the Gold Coast - with key ports in Canada occupied and the United States a key Republican ally, the African Nation would be the only place with striking distance of another British invasion. From there, they would form a Government in Exile and begin exerting control over the colonies and assembling an invasion fleet, drawn from the Cape, Sierra Leone, Australia and India to retake Britain through the Solent. They would create the ‘United Kingdom of the British Empire’ and take direct administrative control over the remaining colonies.
These efforts took a significant blow during August 1848. Van Diemen’s Land, under the governorship of William Denison during the late 1840s had experienced liberal reforms and a commitment to ‘Responsible Government’ - leading to the warrant for arrest for Denison and his removal from office in August 1848. Denison’s supporters, including many of the Garrison on the Island, rebelled against the order and declared their affinity to the British Republic, rather than the Crown. Many had been transported during the Salem days and many Liberals and Revolutionaries were stationed there and in the Colony of Victoria. As New South Wales, under the Governorship of Charles FitzRoy, crossed onto the Island, the Militia loyal to Denison fought back, and pushed them off the Island.
In turn, the growing reactionary stewardship of FitzRoy was ended on the 30th August, when across New South Wales and uprising occurred against his handling of the invasion and his governorship. He was forced to flee to the West of Australia, where he, Frederick Robe and Frederick Irwin reaffirmed their affinity to the crown and declared the ‘Royal Realm of Australia’. In the East of the Country, Denison unified New South Wales, Victoria and Van Diemen’s Land, and declared the ‘Republic of Polynesia’ on the same day. They seized ship and weapons, and recognized the British Republic and Thomas Attwood as the legitimate government of the Motherland. Later in September, Denison would unify New Zealand with the state to form a bloc with greater weaponry and naval power than its rival to the West. He said to crowds in Melbourne “If FitzRoy returns, we shall blow him and his men off the face of the earth”.
In the Cape Colony, a diplomatic argument had ensued. Owing its expansionary strength to the arms and the men provided by the motherland, the Colony held a fierce internal debate about its future. A collective known as the ‘Responsibles’, led by the young, charismatic John Molteno, argued that the Cape could become a progressive republic, liberalise, appease it’s non-British populous and guarantee military support from Britain if it declared its independence. The ‘Loyalists’ did not argue for the continuation of the crown and passionately for supporting the Empire, but instead that the uncertainty could lead to an invasion by surrounding foreign powers. Molteno wrote to Attwood, asking whether the Colony would receive support under the Treaty of Manchester if it were to become a Republic. Attwood said that the Republic and France would ensure the protection of the Republic from the Empire. This was proof enough, in a vote on the 23rd September 1848, the Cape Colony became the Cape Republic - a vital blow to Britain as it cut its empire in two, removed the promise of troops from the Cape, and one of its prized assets. The Cape Republic was one of the few revolutions of 1848 that was entirely peaceful.
The Popular Front and British Republican Army men now pierced through the country and began to encircle London, aside from a small, heavily fortified corridor between London, stretching south to the Solent. Attempts to evacuate the Government through the Thames, the preferred option, were blocked because of Coastal Confederation, Dutch and French ships along the mouth of the river. On the 21st September, hearing that Popular Front had reached the edge of the city, the local units in London of the Republican Brotherhood launched an uprising, and began to be armed by Popular Front soldiers breaking through and providing arms. They began to seize Government Buildings, Checker and Police stations and began to fight their way to Buckingham Palace and Whitehall.
Reluctantly, Wellington informed Queen Victoria he was enacting the Wellington Plan, before travelling back to his residence in the city, and swallowing a cyanide pill. Many more in Whitehall followed, and Popular Front fighters who reached Whitehall described “a corpse in every room”. The Queen was evacuated, disguised, through a off-track fortified route. She was delivered to a ship waiting at Southampton, destined for the Gold Coast. Popular Front men were met with little resistance and, on the steps of Whitehall, declared the ‘Free City of London’ and raised the British Republican Flag on the 25th September 1848 - Liberation Day. Southampton and much of the South-Coast surrendered quickly after and the Solent Republic was declared in the Port City that day, encompassing much of the South-East Coast. The British Republic was finally unified.
On the 1st October 1848, the Wellington Plan ships reached the Gold Coast, similar ships set sails for British Guiana, the West Indies and Sierra Leone. They sought to solidify support in so-called ‘colonies of domination’ - colonies where a small British-led administration ruled over a majority of natives. As they arrived, within the first six weeks they launched a wide-scale purge of accused liberals and revolutionaries, killed 13,000 administrations during this time. On the same day, Thomas Attwood arrived in London to declare an end to the conflict, saying “our strife is over, we are united and the slaughter of the British People has ended. Peace and the Republic shall reign”.
A final shipment of Wellington Plan officials set sails for India, where they were to inform the British East India Company that their Raj rule was to be temporarily halted while an ‘ongoing emergency’ was handled on the mainland. With access to the continent restricted after the declaration of Independence of the Cape Republic, the officials sailed through the Cape, lowering their flag to avoid suspicious, and when pressed, said they were a merchant ship. They passed, however when they reached India, some 6 months later, they were stopped at the gates. They were arrested by East India Company men, who took them inland informed them that they were the sole sovereign power on the Continent, Ceylon and the Straits was now the company, who were supported by the British Republic. They presented the men with a signed copy from Henry Hardinge, Governor of the British East India Company, of the Treaty of Newcastle, co-signed by the Republic, the Coastal Confederation and the Company.
“You, sirs, are invaders of Company territory, do you know what we do to people like you?” said the Companymen to the Officials. As he pointed to the window, the men saw four men in Royal Navy uniforms, hanging from a gallows. The Company had taken control.
Company India will be interesting. I wonder how much of it's structure was set in stone, and how much of it can be reformed.
But then again, The Republic has the Cape, and it has India. It has a Navy. It can project power. But would it?
What would the Republic's attitudes be towards the Indians/colonised people in general?
But then again, The Republic has the Cape, and it has India. It has a Navy. It can project power. But would it?
What would the Republic's attitudes be towards the Indians/colonised people in general?
Well the Cape and East Oceanic colonies did have building up resentment to the British. So it's not much of a surprise.
Newspaper Compact, 1848
The following contains selections from the archives of the free press in the British Republic over the year of 1848. The revolution was one underpinned by a need to speak free, and soon after the Republic took control, Newspapers became a crucial method of spreading information about the new Government's actions.
In just a few months, Newspapers became sophisticated news-gathering machines. Many reporters were revolutionaries who travelled to Europe to explore the continent, and found themselves threw into a year of upheaval and revolution. Their letters became captivating reading for war-weary Britons in the Republic. Often featuring letters by key figures in the Republic, the Politicians harnessed the power of mass communication through the papers.
In Manchester, the Daily Chronicle, opened by Progressives aligned to Thomas Attwood, and Manchester Guardian, supportive of the more left-leaning Thomas Farrar, began publishing up to five editions per day. Much of the archives of other papers, The Northern Star (published in Leeds), The Birmingham Mail, and the Glasgow Worker were destroyed during bombing raids in the Second World War. However these two papers established the Journalistic Archives in 1851, allowing us to delve and see contemporary opinions on the events of 1848.
Manchester Daily Chronicle, February 9th 1848
UNIFICATION TALKS FAIL, REBELLION AND RIOTING AFOOT IN MILAN SPREADS AROUND THE PENINSULAR
Talks between the Piedmontese delegation and the Austro-Hungarian Empire failed this week to create a consensus over the future of the Italian States between Carlo Cattaneo, head of the City Council of Milan and Marshall Radetsky of the Garrison in the city. The Council, which had been preceded by an attempt to create a unified front to face against the Habsburg Empire across all Italian States, has declared a General Strike following the breakdown in talks, and the City Council has barricaded itself in the city.
Roving street battles occurred as the middle-classes and workers united on the streets to banish their occupiers from the city, in the North of Italy. As dawn rose on January 16th, Radetsky and his Garrison had retreated to Verona, where they intended to re-enter the city the next morning. The City Council declared they were the sole Responsible Government for the city, and all Austrian Subjects were to be rounded up and expelled.
In the following hours, up to 20,000 men were armed and began to round up the Austrian subjects in the city. Around three o’clock the following morning, Radetsky and his garrison, summing 9,000 men, returned to Milan, where the untrained militia of men repelled the force and they failed to retake the city, some hours after the reached the city limits. Some men in the city approached me to inform me that Radetsky had been killed in the skirmishes earlier in the morning.
The Hofkreigsrat was informed on January 18th 1848 that the city of Milan could not be retaken without 150,000 men. Radetsky was confirmed as being killed and the garrison had suffered 5,000 casualties. The Hofkreigsrat informed them they would not be able to send 150,000 men to the country, without fear of more losses. It has been a turbulent week for the Empire, with leading figures in the regime meeting next week to meet to discuss the situation. It is anticipated that the Head of the Imperial Council, Prince Metternich, a long-time allie of the British Congress regime, will lose his post.
March 8th 1848, Manchester Guardian
EMPIRE IN RUINS: AUSTRIAN PREMIER METTERNICH RESIGNS, DOBLHOFF-DIER APPOINTED ON POLICY OF REFORM
After the events which saw a pro-Nationalistic uprising in Northern Italy this week, and the spreading of revolt to Rome, protests began in Vienna demanding the removal of Prince Metternich from his role and demands political and economic reform.
The Protesters, similar in composition to those in Milan in January and those that sparked the uprising of Workers in this city, demanded freedom of the press, assembly and reform to political institutions. They cited similar reforms in the Netherlands as a model for how Austria should progress in a post-British Empire world.
The Imperial Council has responded by urging Prince Metternich, who has been influential on his position for over 30 years, to resign and be replaced by Baron Doblhoff-Dier. The Baron, considered a liberal in court, promised a balanced programme of ‘Liberalisation with Order’. Insiders have said that his programme will be based around attracting foreign investment and dealing with the Hungarian Question through a potentially Federal Solution.
16th April 1848, Manchester Guardian
ITALY: REVOLUTIONARIES RISE TO POWER ON THE PENINSULA
Foreign reporters were invited to the Headquarters of the Unione de Consiglios d’Italia on the 13th April. The previous day, they had declared their Republic delegations from 120 cities, who had formed Councils in the aftermath of the Austrian withdrawal to govern affairs. They were keen to establish communication with Birmingham and Manchester, and wanted any Britons to be known that the Union was open for business.
“Democratic Communalism” said Carlo Armellini, one of the three heads of the Supreme Council of State, the highest body. They unveiled plans for a pyramid of authority, where local Councils, formed on a local level, would elect Regional Councils, who would in turn elect a the Supreme Council.
“We are keen to establish friendly relations with all, including Austria” said Saffi, another member of the Council. Outside the Teatro Argentina, where the Union had been basing itself, a man approached me informing me he was a representative of the regime. It seemed as if local people had organically formed this government around the power vacuum. Everyone was a member of the Government.
In early stages, this democratic revolution occurred purely as a solution to the anarchy in Rome. It has since developed into a progressive, radical revolution that has expelled Monarchy from the Peninsula in an attempt to avoid “replacing one tyrant with another”. A confederation of Italians governing themselves has ascended.
Birmingham Mail, 23rd May 1848
PRUSSIA RIOTS: FREDERICK WILLIAM IV DECLARES “OUR NORTHERN NATION SHALL RISE”
Prussian citizens have been promised a new constitution that excludes “dangerous, erratic reforms” designed at “destabilizing the continent”. In an address to rioting crowds in Berlin, the Kaiser, Frederick William IV, known as a moderate reformer, said that reforms would allow the wealth creators to have “the right to create wealth” - liberal reforms designed at protecting the Prussian Economy from the “new dawn of liberalism” across Europe.
He spoke about creating a “Reformed Protestant Homeland” in the North of Germany in an attempt to quell nationalistic hysteria in Prussia. The Kaiser has caused controversy across the German states by the invasion of Mecklenburg in December of last year, alienating a number of the Southern States who saw the move as an attempt at creating a Protestant dominated Northern German state.
Prussian officials pair the new velvetisation of the economy with a plan being a crack-down on liberal dissidents. A number of these dissidents have recently been dispersing to Austria, where a significant thaw of repression has occurred. A number have also fled to Britain, where 5,000 Liberals Prussians have arrived in the past three months.
Prussia has been the subject of criticism from Republican leaders such as Thomas Attwood, who claim that the regime in Berlin has been undermining attempts at unifying the country under the Republican leadership. Its relationship with the Austrian Empire inside the Confederation has been another bone of contention between German states, who seem less unified now than at any other time since the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire.
Reports from Vienna say that the Austrian Regime under new Minister-President Baron Doblhoff-Dier say that Vienna is preparing to withdraw from the German Confederation and possibly pursue an expansion of the Treaty of the Hague, recently signed by Thomas Farrar, George Robinson of the Coastal Confederation, France and Netherlands.
28th June 1848, Nottingham Examiner
CENTRAL GERMAN CUSTOMS UNION COLLAPSES, DOBLHOFF-DIER TO SOUTHERN GERMAN STATES: JOIN WITH US AND THE NEW ZOLLVEREIN
Bavaria, Wurttemburg and Baden today resigned from the German Confederation and Central German Customs Union, stating their intent to form a new Southern German Customs union to resist Prussian and Protestant dominance in the economic block. The declaration was partnered with a statement by Austrian Premier Doblhoff-Dier to join a new customs union, comprising of the Empire of Austria and the three states.
Doblhoff-Dier has indicated in recent weeks that he will attempt to sign the Treaty of the Hague and join the Western European alliance of the British Republic, Netherlands and France. He will put the case over the next few days to Bavaria, Wurttemburg and Baden to gather support for a Southern Zollverein that can have access to the Hague Economic Union.
Richard Cobden, of the General Progressive Union, has stated his support for such a move, noting the significant liberal shift of the Empire of Austria and part of a growing movement to influence mainland Europe into replacing the United Kingdom diplomatic sphere on the continent with a Republican one.
The following contains selections from the archives of the free press in the British Republic over the year of 1848. The revolution was one underpinned by a need to speak free, and soon after the Republic took control, Newspapers became a crucial method of spreading information about the new Government's actions.
In just a few months, Newspapers became sophisticated news-gathering machines. Many reporters were revolutionaries who travelled to Europe to explore the continent, and found themselves threw into a year of upheaval and revolution. Their letters became captivating reading for war-weary Britons in the Republic. Often featuring letters by key figures in the Republic, the Politicians harnessed the power of mass communication through the papers.
In Manchester, the Daily Chronicle, opened by Progressives aligned to Thomas Attwood, and Manchester Guardian, supportive of the more left-leaning Thomas Farrar, began publishing up to five editions per day. Much of the archives of other papers, The Northern Star (published in Leeds), The Birmingham Mail, and the Glasgow Worker were destroyed during bombing raids in the Second World War. However these two papers established the Journalistic Archives in 1851, allowing us to delve and see contemporary opinions on the events of 1848.
Manchester Daily Chronicle, February 9th 1848
UNIFICATION TALKS FAIL, REBELLION AND RIOTING AFOOT IN MILAN SPREADS AROUND THE PENINSULAR
Talks between the Piedmontese delegation and the Austro-Hungarian Empire failed this week to create a consensus over the future of the Italian States between Carlo Cattaneo, head of the City Council of Milan and Marshall Radetsky of the Garrison in the city. The Council, which had been preceded by an attempt to create a unified front to face against the Habsburg Empire across all Italian States, has declared a General Strike following the breakdown in talks, and the City Council has barricaded itself in the city.
Roving street battles occurred as the middle-classes and workers united on the streets to banish their occupiers from the city, in the North of Italy. As dawn rose on January 16th, Radetsky and his Garrison had retreated to Verona, where they intended to re-enter the city the next morning. The City Council declared they were the sole Responsible Government for the city, and all Austrian Subjects were to be rounded up and expelled.
In the following hours, up to 20,000 men were armed and began to round up the Austrian subjects in the city. Around three o’clock the following morning, Radetsky and his garrison, summing 9,000 men, returned to Milan, where the untrained militia of men repelled the force and they failed to retake the city, some hours after the reached the city limits. Some men in the city approached me to inform me that Radetsky had been killed in the skirmishes earlier in the morning.
The Hofkreigsrat was informed on January 18th 1848 that the city of Milan could not be retaken without 150,000 men. Radetsky was confirmed as being killed and the garrison had suffered 5,000 casualties. The Hofkreigsrat informed them they would not be able to send 150,000 men to the country, without fear of more losses. It has been a turbulent week for the Empire, with leading figures in the regime meeting next week to meet to discuss the situation. It is anticipated that the Head of the Imperial Council, Prince Metternich, a long-time allie of the British Congress regime, will lose his post.
March 8th 1848, Manchester Guardian
EMPIRE IN RUINS: AUSTRIAN PREMIER METTERNICH RESIGNS, DOBLHOFF-DIER APPOINTED ON POLICY OF REFORM
After the events which saw a pro-Nationalistic uprising in Northern Italy this week, and the spreading of revolt to Rome, protests began in Vienna demanding the removal of Prince Metternich from his role and demands political and economic reform.
The Protesters, similar in composition to those in Milan in January and those that sparked the uprising of Workers in this city, demanded freedom of the press, assembly and reform to political institutions. They cited similar reforms in the Netherlands as a model for how Austria should progress in a post-British Empire world.
The Imperial Council has responded by urging Prince Metternich, who has been influential on his position for over 30 years, to resign and be replaced by Baron Doblhoff-Dier. The Baron, considered a liberal in court, promised a balanced programme of ‘Liberalisation with Order’. Insiders have said that his programme will be based around attracting foreign investment and dealing with the Hungarian Question through a potentially Federal Solution.
16th April 1848, Manchester Guardian
ITALY: REVOLUTIONARIES RISE TO POWER ON THE PENINSULA
Foreign reporters were invited to the Headquarters of the Unione de Consiglios d’Italia on the 13th April. The previous day, they had declared their Republic delegations from 120 cities, who had formed Councils in the aftermath of the Austrian withdrawal to govern affairs. They were keen to establish communication with Birmingham and Manchester, and wanted any Britons to be known that the Union was open for business.
“Democratic Communalism” said Carlo Armellini, one of the three heads of the Supreme Council of State, the highest body. They unveiled plans for a pyramid of authority, where local Councils, formed on a local level, would elect Regional Councils, who would in turn elect a the Supreme Council.
“We are keen to establish friendly relations with all, including Austria” said Saffi, another member of the Council. Outside the Teatro Argentina, where the Union had been basing itself, a man approached me informing me he was a representative of the regime. It seemed as if local people had organically formed this government around the power vacuum. Everyone was a member of the Government.
In early stages, this democratic revolution occurred purely as a solution to the anarchy in Rome. It has since developed into a progressive, radical revolution that has expelled Monarchy from the Peninsula in an attempt to avoid “replacing one tyrant with another”. A confederation of Italians governing themselves has ascended.
Birmingham Mail, 23rd May 1848
PRUSSIA RIOTS: FREDERICK WILLIAM IV DECLARES “OUR NORTHERN NATION SHALL RISE”
Prussian citizens have been promised a new constitution that excludes “dangerous, erratic reforms” designed at “destabilizing the continent”. In an address to rioting crowds in Berlin, the Kaiser, Frederick William IV, known as a moderate reformer, said that reforms would allow the wealth creators to have “the right to create wealth” - liberal reforms designed at protecting the Prussian Economy from the “new dawn of liberalism” across Europe.
He spoke about creating a “Reformed Protestant Homeland” in the North of Germany in an attempt to quell nationalistic hysteria in Prussia. The Kaiser has caused controversy across the German states by the invasion of Mecklenburg in December of last year, alienating a number of the Southern States who saw the move as an attempt at creating a Protestant dominated Northern German state.
Prussian officials pair the new velvetisation of the economy with a plan being a crack-down on liberal dissidents. A number of these dissidents have recently been dispersing to Austria, where a significant thaw of repression has occurred. A number have also fled to Britain, where 5,000 Liberals Prussians have arrived in the past three months.
Prussia has been the subject of criticism from Republican leaders such as Thomas Attwood, who claim that the regime in Berlin has been undermining attempts at unifying the country under the Republican leadership. Its relationship with the Austrian Empire inside the Confederation has been another bone of contention between German states, who seem less unified now than at any other time since the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire.
Reports from Vienna say that the Austrian Regime under new Minister-President Baron Doblhoff-Dier say that Vienna is preparing to withdraw from the German Confederation and possibly pursue an expansion of the Treaty of the Hague, recently signed by Thomas Farrar, George Robinson of the Coastal Confederation, France and Netherlands.
28th June 1848, Nottingham Examiner
CENTRAL GERMAN CUSTOMS UNION COLLAPSES, DOBLHOFF-DIER TO SOUTHERN GERMAN STATES: JOIN WITH US AND THE NEW ZOLLVEREIN
Bavaria, Wurttemburg and Baden today resigned from the German Confederation and Central German Customs Union, stating their intent to form a new Southern German Customs union to resist Prussian and Protestant dominance in the economic block. The declaration was partnered with a statement by Austrian Premier Doblhoff-Dier to join a new customs union, comprising of the Empire of Austria and the three states.
Doblhoff-Dier has indicated in recent weeks that he will attempt to sign the Treaty of the Hague and join the Western European alliance of the British Republic, Netherlands and France. He will put the case over the next few days to Bavaria, Wurttemburg and Baden to gather support for a Southern Zollverein that can have access to the Hague Economic Union.
Richard Cobden, of the General Progressive Union, has stated his support for such a move, noting the significant liberal shift of the Empire of Austria and part of a growing movement to influence mainland Europe into replacing the United Kingdom diplomatic sphere on the continent with a Republican one.
I believe they will be forced to depend on indians far more without constant suppy of British citizens from motherland. Also I can see in future they turn india into republic. After all British republic supports them they might use softpower to infuence company.
Chapter 14: Rising from the Ashes (Part 1)
"A settlement for India was long a goal of the Old Regime. Now the Company arrives, cap in hand, to us. If we're going to share the wealth, they will need to share the power"
Thomas Farrar to George Robinson, December 1848.
Coastal Confederation postcard featuring the Pier and Humber Dock, Hull in 1848. This was built as part of a number of Coastal Confederation projects during George Robinson and the Chartist Party's policy of 'municipal communalism' era of 1848-58.
As a revolt turned crisis worsened throughout January and February 1848, diplomats, aristocrats and bureaucrats went in search of their Indian Summer. Through the winter, opportunists launched regular sailings to India, ferrying those who understood that the Great Empire was rapidly approaching its end. As they reached India, news of the state collapse arrived with them. Many of them assumed control of key positions within the British East India Company, the dominant bureaucracy on the subcontinent.
This influx had marked a key change from the previous five years in the company. The death of Ranjit Singh in 1839 sparked a breakdown in the consensus in India. A twelve month skirmish began in 1845, and the East India Company sided against the Sikh Empire of Punjab and built up its military reserves. Initially attempting to bring in troops from the motherland, events in the White Dominions and a need for military resources in Newfoundland saw the attempt rejected.
Opportunistically, the Company began to recruit from the local populous, and became swelled with natives. As the regimists arrived in 1848, they saw a multicultural organisation that had began to see natives and British working, with near equality. Under the Governorship of Henry Hardinge, the Company with a military, began also operating Schools, Hospitals and began developing the railway system to move goods around. In 1846, largely without Crown support, the internal market in India had developed hugely, and the Sikh Empire was absorbed in its entirety into the British East India Company territory.
By 1847, the Company was at the completely at the mercy of the markets and dues paid for by local residencies. It suffered heavily from sluggish economic growth in the Empire through 1847, as the Crown lost began rapidly diminishing its reserves on military spending. Throughout the Empire trade declined, and this impacted on the Company massively. They began relying more and more on the vast internal market and by the end of 1847, the finances of the Company had slightly improved.
This attitude of the company was despised on the mainland. British Congress Press derided Hardinge as a traitor and said that he was an embarrassment to the Empire. Even his close confident, the Duke of Wellington, was unable to persuade him that the policy was acting against the Empire. Hardinge brought in James Broun-Ramsay, a known liberal, in March 1847 to the position of advisor. He advocated the building of Bath-houses and Public Gardens and the establishment of the Department of Public Works.
As the immigrants, or ‘New British’ arrived, they began to impose themselves on the Company, and particularly, impose themselves on Hardinge and Broun-Ramsay. Most arrived in armed convoys, and had many munitions. They assumed positions in many presidency towns and began to create their own style of governance, on a more local level. Many began attempting to roll back reforms that had marked the Broun-Ramsay and Hardinge era. Many of them were in well armed militias, and often imposed themselves by force.
In May 1848, an attempt by immigrant Companymen to remove two local natives from their positions sparked anger in the Jaitpur, Bihar. Protests quickly turned violent, and the New British attempted to seize control. Violence spread throughout the country and some 23,000 New British immigrants attempted to seize company arms and remove Hardinge. The Company, backed by native-born soliders, fought back, and quickly rounded up New British immigrants and stopped boats from entering the port towns. Between May and August, they executed 8,000 insurgents, with 10,000 arrested.
The Company were indebted to the local populace who kept them in power. Broun-Ramsay and Hardinge responded by making a significant change to the make-up of the ruling of the continent. They approached Attwood in October 1848 and announced the wished to begin trading at Coastal Confederation ports. They also wished to trade through the Free Trade network developed by the Republic. As Broun-Ramsay noted, they were at the mercy of the markets, and the largest market was within the Republic’s sphere of influence. They also allowed greater autonomy for Presidencies, allowing them to be part of the Company territory with their own, local government.
The British Republic signed the Treaty of the Cape, signed in the Cape Colony in December 1848, amid fierce debate in the General Council. Backing the Company was seen as the continuity approach, a softer revolution than the majority of the public in the Republics wanted. Most supported Indian Independence in an ‘arc of Republics’ stretching over Polynesia, India, Newfoundland and Canada. Broun-Ramsey travelled to Manchester in an attempt to quell fears of the Republic sponsoring a econocracy in India.
“We in the company are aware of our role on this Earth” he said to a General Council meeting. “We owe ourselves not to the crown, they are the ones who deserted us when we needed them. We owe ourselves to the men and women in our presidency towns, and we intend to honour that debt.”
Support for the treaty came from Thomas Attwood and Richard Cobden, who argued the economic consequences of control over one of the largest internal markets in the world would be a terrifying prospect for the Old Empire. “If we sign this treaty, we will be able to spread the wealth of the jewels of the crown around the Republics” said Cobden in a speech to Republican Business Leaders on 17th December, 1848.
Thomas Farrar led opposition to the Company’s inclusion in the treaty, and lobbied that restrictions be put in place to ensure that India be transitioned into a functioning republic as part of the Treaty’s terms. He shared an increasingly rare platform with Fergus O’Connor, who used his press connections to ramp up public pressure to “defend the international revolution”. As the vote date neared, an amendment was proposed to include a granted access to Coastal Confederation ports in the Republic and across the Western Coast of Europe for a limited time, to be renewed once India had been granted full republic status.
Crucially, this amendment, put forward by Thomas Farrar, was supported by the Socialist Republic’s in Yorkshire and Scotland, Liberal-leaning Free Cities in Birmingham and Manchester, and the Coastal Confederation. Controlling the ports, the Confederation demanded that their Port Towns be free of Empire ships by 1860. Facing defeat and opposition in his home city of Birmingham, Attwood recommended to the General Council that the amendment be passed, and informed the Company of the amendment. They agreed, stating that an ongoing reform of the Company’s lands was ongoing, and they sought to unite the subcontinent under the United States of India, stretching from the edge of China to Afghanistan.
Hardinge and Attwood agreed that no Imperial Ships or traders would pass through company waters until 1860, after which the Indian States would agree to restrict Imperial Movement into Port Towns. In return, the Company had 12 years of access to Treaty of the Hague port-towns as Coastal Confederation-affiliated ships. It was signed on 18th December, and ratified by the General Council two days later by a majority of 5 votes. Prominent in the campaign for the amendment to be included was 42 year old economist John Stuart Mill, who argued that any trade deal excluding native borns would restrict equality, a defining principle of his philosophy. He received traction in the press and in London, his home city, he was treated as a Republican hero in the post-unification delirium by workers. Although his national breakout was a few months away, many in the capital referred to him as ‘the Chancellor of the Revolution’.
"A settlement for India was long a goal of the Old Regime. Now the Company arrives, cap in hand, to us. If we're going to share the wealth, they will need to share the power"
Thomas Farrar to George Robinson, December 1848.
Coastal Confederation postcard featuring the Pier and Humber Dock, Hull in 1848. This was built as part of a number of Coastal Confederation projects during George Robinson and the Chartist Party's policy of 'municipal communalism' era of 1848-58.
As a revolt turned crisis worsened throughout January and February 1848, diplomats, aristocrats and bureaucrats went in search of their Indian Summer. Through the winter, opportunists launched regular sailings to India, ferrying those who understood that the Great Empire was rapidly approaching its end. As they reached India, news of the state collapse arrived with them. Many of them assumed control of key positions within the British East India Company, the dominant bureaucracy on the subcontinent.
This influx had marked a key change from the previous five years in the company. The death of Ranjit Singh in 1839 sparked a breakdown in the consensus in India. A twelve month skirmish began in 1845, and the East India Company sided against the Sikh Empire of Punjab and built up its military reserves. Initially attempting to bring in troops from the motherland, events in the White Dominions and a need for military resources in Newfoundland saw the attempt rejected.
Opportunistically, the Company began to recruit from the local populous, and became swelled with natives. As the regimists arrived in 1848, they saw a multicultural organisation that had began to see natives and British working, with near equality. Under the Governorship of Henry Hardinge, the Company with a military, began also operating Schools, Hospitals and began developing the railway system to move goods around. In 1846, largely without Crown support, the internal market in India had developed hugely, and the Sikh Empire was absorbed in its entirety into the British East India Company territory.
By 1847, the Company was at the completely at the mercy of the markets and dues paid for by local residencies. It suffered heavily from sluggish economic growth in the Empire through 1847, as the Crown lost began rapidly diminishing its reserves on military spending. Throughout the Empire trade declined, and this impacted on the Company massively. They began relying more and more on the vast internal market and by the end of 1847, the finances of the Company had slightly improved.
This attitude of the company was despised on the mainland. British Congress Press derided Hardinge as a traitor and said that he was an embarrassment to the Empire. Even his close confident, the Duke of Wellington, was unable to persuade him that the policy was acting against the Empire. Hardinge brought in James Broun-Ramsay, a known liberal, in March 1847 to the position of advisor. He advocated the building of Bath-houses and Public Gardens and the establishment of the Department of Public Works.
As the immigrants, or ‘New British’ arrived, they began to impose themselves on the Company, and particularly, impose themselves on Hardinge and Broun-Ramsay. Most arrived in armed convoys, and had many munitions. They assumed positions in many presidency towns and began to create their own style of governance, on a more local level. Many began attempting to roll back reforms that had marked the Broun-Ramsay and Hardinge era. Many of them were in well armed militias, and often imposed themselves by force.
In May 1848, an attempt by immigrant Companymen to remove two local natives from their positions sparked anger in the Jaitpur, Bihar. Protests quickly turned violent, and the New British attempted to seize control. Violence spread throughout the country and some 23,000 New British immigrants attempted to seize company arms and remove Hardinge. The Company, backed by native-born soliders, fought back, and quickly rounded up New British immigrants and stopped boats from entering the port towns. Between May and August, they executed 8,000 insurgents, with 10,000 arrested.
The Company were indebted to the local populace who kept them in power. Broun-Ramsay and Hardinge responded by making a significant change to the make-up of the ruling of the continent. They approached Attwood in October 1848 and announced the wished to begin trading at Coastal Confederation ports. They also wished to trade through the Free Trade network developed by the Republic. As Broun-Ramsay noted, they were at the mercy of the markets, and the largest market was within the Republic’s sphere of influence. They also allowed greater autonomy for Presidencies, allowing them to be part of the Company territory with their own, local government.
The British Republic signed the Treaty of the Cape, signed in the Cape Colony in December 1848, amid fierce debate in the General Council. Backing the Company was seen as the continuity approach, a softer revolution than the majority of the public in the Republics wanted. Most supported Indian Independence in an ‘arc of Republics’ stretching over Polynesia, India, Newfoundland and Canada. Broun-Ramsey travelled to Manchester in an attempt to quell fears of the Republic sponsoring a econocracy in India.
“We in the company are aware of our role on this Earth” he said to a General Council meeting. “We owe ourselves not to the crown, they are the ones who deserted us when we needed them. We owe ourselves to the men and women in our presidency towns, and we intend to honour that debt.”
Support for the treaty came from Thomas Attwood and Richard Cobden, who argued the economic consequences of control over one of the largest internal markets in the world would be a terrifying prospect for the Old Empire. “If we sign this treaty, we will be able to spread the wealth of the jewels of the crown around the Republics” said Cobden in a speech to Republican Business Leaders on 17th December, 1848.
Thomas Farrar led opposition to the Company’s inclusion in the treaty, and lobbied that restrictions be put in place to ensure that India be transitioned into a functioning republic as part of the Treaty’s terms. He shared an increasingly rare platform with Fergus O’Connor, who used his press connections to ramp up public pressure to “defend the international revolution”. As the vote date neared, an amendment was proposed to include a granted access to Coastal Confederation ports in the Republic and across the Western Coast of Europe for a limited time, to be renewed once India had been granted full republic status.
Crucially, this amendment, put forward by Thomas Farrar, was supported by the Socialist Republic’s in Yorkshire and Scotland, Liberal-leaning Free Cities in Birmingham and Manchester, and the Coastal Confederation. Controlling the ports, the Confederation demanded that their Port Towns be free of Empire ships by 1860. Facing defeat and opposition in his home city of Birmingham, Attwood recommended to the General Council that the amendment be passed, and informed the Company of the amendment. They agreed, stating that an ongoing reform of the Company’s lands was ongoing, and they sought to unite the subcontinent under the United States of India, stretching from the edge of China to Afghanistan.
Hardinge and Attwood agreed that no Imperial Ships or traders would pass through company waters until 1860, after which the Indian States would agree to restrict Imperial Movement into Port Towns. In return, the Company had 12 years of access to Treaty of the Hague port-towns as Coastal Confederation-affiliated ships. It was signed on 18th December, and ratified by the General Council two days later by a majority of 5 votes. Prominent in the campaign for the amendment to be included was 42 year old economist John Stuart Mill, who argued that any trade deal excluding native borns would restrict equality, a defining principle of his philosophy. He received traction in the press and in London, his home city, he was treated as a Republican hero in the post-unification delirium by workers. Although his national breakout was a few months away, many in the capital referred to him as ‘the Chancellor of the Revolution’.
Thomas1195
Banned
At least one of the Continental Powers other than Russia still became a monster
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Nice to see India receive a fair or fairer deal. Will the British Republic start sending people to India spread the ideals of the Republic? Will they allow Indians to come to the Republic?
I was wondering if this would get updated or of it would be one of the TL's that catch my interest and never take off.
I'm happy to know it's the first option. Glad to see it back.
I'm happy to know it's the first option. Glad to see it back.
Thomas1195
Banned
Well, O'Connor's proposal is tough but necessary, although the scale must be limited to only those who are directly involved in National Front.
1. what is the state of raja, maharaja and nabobs under the new rule? They are arch-conservatives, they won't like the new situation?
2. what is the current attitude of the missionaries? are they curtailed in India or not?
3. does British still believe in "white man's burden"?
4. how republic dealing with reprehensible practices like child marriage, Untouchability, Sati etc? are they implementing progressive ideas like women education, widow remarriage etc?
P.S. maybe you can write about how Indians is dealing with this new situation, more about their perspective. Personally, i think Anglo-Indians will be most profited by this situation.
2. what is the current attitude of the missionaries? are they curtailed in India or not?
3. does British still believe in "white man's burden"?
4. how republic dealing with reprehensible practices like child marriage, Untouchability, Sati etc? are they implementing progressive ideas like women education, widow remarriage etc?
P.S. maybe you can write about how Indians is dealing with this new situation, more about their perspective. Personally, i think Anglo-Indians will be most profited by this situation.
Chapter Fifteen: Rising from the Ashes (Part 2)
"By far, Attwood's finest hour."
Richard Cobden on the Congress of Vienna, 1853
The violent protests of the 1848 in Vienna were the catalyst for the Dolbdoff-Dier regime's liberalisation programme that led to the creation of the United Austrian Empire in 1867.
In December, Thomas Farrar and Attwood travelled to Vienna for a two week visit with representatives from all signatories of the Treaty of the Hague, in a major test of the British Republic’s lasting position in the Concert of Nations. They went to meet the new Minister-President Baron Dolbdoff-Dier. Dolbdoff-Dier was in many respects a liberal, and in the early days of the Revolution, spoke of the British fixation with order rather than prosperity and warned that consequences might be oncoming. It was this analysis of the situation, and the Baron’s ability to appear in the right place at the right time, which ensured him the highest political position in the Empire.
He also was in the midst of balancing ethnic tensions within the Empire with economic stagnation and the humiliation of losing the Italian Peninsular to a radical republican regime significantly to the left of the British Republic. In the lead-up to the visit, chatter in the courts were about three things; how to contain and harness popular republican support rather than be overthrown by it, Austria’s economic position in the world, and growing Prussian remilitarisation in the north of the German states. A suspicion that the majority Protestant Britain would side with a new Prussian Protestant homeland in the north of the German states was quickly quelled by both Farrar and Attwood.
“The situation that our colleagues in the Republic face was sown with Prussian aggression. We are still fighting weapons from Berlin in the north of our country.” said Attwood to the Minister-President. “We believe in the liberalisation program you are imposing on this country, and we believe, as with the Kingdom of the Netherlands, we can protect each-other economically and militarily.”
The Minister-President insisted that protection must come from both sides, and the naval power of the Republic and the economic power of the Coastal Confederation must come hand in hand. “I don’t think you quite realise to what commitment you are signing this document, Sir” said Dolbdoff-Dier to Attwood in a meeting a week into the visit.
The document in question was the Treaty of Vienna, an extension of the Hague Trading Area to include the Southern German states and Austria, creating an free market that stretched from Galway to the Balkans. Austria, seeking a military deterrent to Prussia, insisted that both itself and the Southern German states including Bavaria, have complete military support in the event of a strike on its lands from the Netherlands, France, Britain and her satellite republics. Britain was willing to agree, but the Netherlands raised concerns about a coalition taking on a fellow Protestant nation. Austria responded with an assurance that the Treaty would be used in defence, not in aggression.
“There will always be a collective security of democratic societies around Europe, we will always defend democratic states as long as they are just that” said Attwood, a thinly-veiled threat that the Treaty’s protection would come at a power cost to the Austrian, and Dutch elites. The Attwood Doctrine of ‘Collective Security’ would become a British Foreign Policy mainstay for well over 150 years, it was seen in Britain as a warning shot to the Company to make good on their promises of Republicanisation in India.
Meanwhile, in Britain, co-option took place to select the Constitutional Convention, scheduled for Manchester in January 1848. Half of the General Council and Half of the Regional Councils would be selected to design the model for Government in the British Republic. Thomas Attwood, Thomas Farrar, Fergus O’Connor, John Thedeus Delane, Robert Owen, John Stuart Mill and surprisingly Robert Peel were selected as the co-chairs of the Convention. Eight-hundred men and women were to meet after Attwood and Farrar returned from Austria on the 1st January 1849.
In Vienna, discussions about the military consequences of an Austro-Hague Alliance were turning into a conversation about the potential depths of ‘Collective Security’. Attwood proposed that funding a unified, Economic Zone Protection Force could protect the lands with a collective outlook. This was dismissed by France and the Dutch, but entertained by Dolbdoff-Dier. After the Italian Rebellion, their army had been exposed as underfunded and weak, and the new administration sought to improve at a rapid rate. A compromise was reached, and the alliance would share training methods and create an internal munitions market at reduced rates between allies. This would create a cheaper army with more modern weapons and training provided by two of the deadliest armies in Europe, the British Republican Army and the French Army. They would guarantee their allies defence and seek to work together to protect their own interests.
The Treaty of Vienna was signed on Christmas Eve, 1848. As the year drew to a close and the two returned, Attwood presented the Treaty to the General Council, asking for their approval. The Treaty’s full name: Treaty for the Creation of a Hague Customs Union, HCU, later ECU (European Customs Union) was born with the ratifying of the Treaty on Christmas Day 1848. The Austrian Empire, French Republic, the British Republic, Kingdom of Bavaria, Baden-Wurttemberg and the Kingdom of the Netherlands had begun the creation of an association that would assure all of their continued existence well into the 20th Century. Perhaps Attwood’s greatest legacy, he wrote in his diary on Boxing Day 1848:
“We have not just taken our seat at the Concert of Nations, we have built the table”
Coming soon: The Secretariat Question (Part 1 & 2), Proxy Games and the Burned Crown
Side note: Thanks for all the positive feedback so far. I'm taking a domestic look for the next couple of updates, going through till about April-May 1849. After that, we'll look at the political situations in each of the new Republics and the Administration Colonies. To preview the next three updates, look out for a look at John Stuart Mill and Thomas Farrar's 'Utilitarian Republic Manifesto', published during the Constitutional Convention, 14th February 1849...
"By far, Attwood's finest hour."
Richard Cobden on the Congress of Vienna, 1853
The violent protests of the 1848 in Vienna were the catalyst for the Dolbdoff-Dier regime's liberalisation programme that led to the creation of the United Austrian Empire in 1867.
In December, Thomas Farrar and Attwood travelled to Vienna for a two week visit with representatives from all signatories of the Treaty of the Hague, in a major test of the British Republic’s lasting position in the Concert of Nations. They went to meet the new Minister-President Baron Dolbdoff-Dier. Dolbdoff-Dier was in many respects a liberal, and in the early days of the Revolution, spoke of the British fixation with order rather than prosperity and warned that consequences might be oncoming. It was this analysis of the situation, and the Baron’s ability to appear in the right place at the right time, which ensured him the highest political position in the Empire.
He also was in the midst of balancing ethnic tensions within the Empire with economic stagnation and the humiliation of losing the Italian Peninsular to a radical republican regime significantly to the left of the British Republic. In the lead-up to the visit, chatter in the courts were about three things; how to contain and harness popular republican support rather than be overthrown by it, Austria’s economic position in the world, and growing Prussian remilitarisation in the north of the German states. A suspicion that the majority Protestant Britain would side with a new Prussian Protestant homeland in the north of the German states was quickly quelled by both Farrar and Attwood.
“The situation that our colleagues in the Republic face was sown with Prussian aggression. We are still fighting weapons from Berlin in the north of our country.” said Attwood to the Minister-President. “We believe in the liberalisation program you are imposing on this country, and we believe, as with the Kingdom of the Netherlands, we can protect each-other economically and militarily.”
The Minister-President insisted that protection must come from both sides, and the naval power of the Republic and the economic power of the Coastal Confederation must come hand in hand. “I don’t think you quite realise to what commitment you are signing this document, Sir” said Dolbdoff-Dier to Attwood in a meeting a week into the visit.
The document in question was the Treaty of Vienna, an extension of the Hague Trading Area to include the Southern German states and Austria, creating an free market that stretched from Galway to the Balkans. Austria, seeking a military deterrent to Prussia, insisted that both itself and the Southern German states including Bavaria, have complete military support in the event of a strike on its lands from the Netherlands, France, Britain and her satellite republics. Britain was willing to agree, but the Netherlands raised concerns about a coalition taking on a fellow Protestant nation. Austria responded with an assurance that the Treaty would be used in defence, not in aggression.
“There will always be a collective security of democratic societies around Europe, we will always defend democratic states as long as they are just that” said Attwood, a thinly-veiled threat that the Treaty’s protection would come at a power cost to the Austrian, and Dutch elites. The Attwood Doctrine of ‘Collective Security’ would become a British Foreign Policy mainstay for well over 150 years, it was seen in Britain as a warning shot to the Company to make good on their promises of Republicanisation in India.
Meanwhile, in Britain, co-option took place to select the Constitutional Convention, scheduled for Manchester in January 1848. Half of the General Council and Half of the Regional Councils would be selected to design the model for Government in the British Republic. Thomas Attwood, Thomas Farrar, Fergus O’Connor, John Thedeus Delane, Robert Owen, John Stuart Mill and surprisingly Robert Peel were selected as the co-chairs of the Convention. Eight-hundred men and women were to meet after Attwood and Farrar returned from Austria on the 1st January 1849.
In Vienna, discussions about the military consequences of an Austro-Hague Alliance were turning into a conversation about the potential depths of ‘Collective Security’. Attwood proposed that funding a unified, Economic Zone Protection Force could protect the lands with a collective outlook. This was dismissed by France and the Dutch, but entertained by Dolbdoff-Dier. After the Italian Rebellion, their army had been exposed as underfunded and weak, and the new administration sought to improve at a rapid rate. A compromise was reached, and the alliance would share training methods and create an internal munitions market at reduced rates between allies. This would create a cheaper army with more modern weapons and training provided by two of the deadliest armies in Europe, the British Republican Army and the French Army. They would guarantee their allies defence and seek to work together to protect their own interests.
The Treaty of Vienna was signed on Christmas Eve, 1848. As the year drew to a close and the two returned, Attwood presented the Treaty to the General Council, asking for their approval. The Treaty’s full name: Treaty for the Creation of a Hague Customs Union, HCU, later ECU (European Customs Union) was born with the ratifying of the Treaty on Christmas Day 1848. The Austrian Empire, French Republic, the British Republic, Kingdom of Bavaria, Baden-Wurttemberg and the Kingdom of the Netherlands had begun the creation of an association that would assure all of their continued existence well into the 20th Century. Perhaps Attwood’s greatest legacy, he wrote in his diary on Boxing Day 1848:
“We have not just taken our seat at the Concert of Nations, we have built the table”
Coming soon: The Secretariat Question (Part 1 & 2), Proxy Games and the Burned Crown
Side note: Thanks for all the positive feedback so far. I'm taking a domestic look for the next couple of updates, going through till about April-May 1849. After that, we'll look at the political situations in each of the new Republics and the Administration Colonies. To preview the next three updates, look out for a look at John Stuart Mill and Thomas Farrar's 'Utilitarian Republic Manifesto', published during the Constitutional Convention, 14th February 1849...