France in the 1870's Beyond the Andes War and the Start of the Steelclad Race
Franco-Spanish Empire
The France the 1870’s would start out as a time of marvel, as France jumped out ahead of everyone else with the Commissioning of the world's first Steelclad Battleships the l'Armure and
L'incassable in 1871. They would be followed by three more such ships being laid down towards the end of the same year. However the decade was quickly consumed by the Andes War that broke out when Peru declared war on France and invaded New Aquitaine. France, faced with war for the first time, would mobilize and send the fleet and reinforcements to South America. The war would prove to be a bloody affair as the first mechanical machine guns had appeared and both sides were armed with bolt action repeating rifles. The French people as well as the French General staff would grow quite concerned by the casualty reports coming back to Europe from the South American Front. The French Generals had not been idle in the years since the end of the Bloody Decade and had implemented changes that they believed would relieve the casualties in any future war.
However the Andes war would show them that any modern war was going to be a bloody affair. Still after the Peace Treaty of 1873 the French general staff would seek to improve what they could. The first change was the adoption of a modern steel helmet as a means to decrease the number of traumatic head wounds that so many soldiers had suffered from. There was some thought of bringing back the Cuirass for infantry however after testing in the later years of the decade this was discarded. These tests would result in the adoption of the M1879 Helmet to replace the kepi in the standard french battle uniform, the Kepi would remain in the dress uniform. The bright blues and golds of the battle uniform would also be replaced by a muted Horizon blue M1879 uniform. The Bright blue and gold uniforms would be retained in the dress uniforms. Finally the tubular magazine of the Clovis Rifle was at a disadvantage when compared to the Clip based or Top fed magizings of other repeatign rifles that had been introduced into service over the last two decades. This would see the start of the development of a new rifle to replace the Clovis Rifle however as the decade ended this rifle was still on the drawing boards.
On March 7,1874 King Charles X would pass away. At seventy five years Charles had been king for just eighteen years. He had led The Kingdom during a period where the Republicans, not the monarchist, had held power and had seen the House of Peers become a partially elected institution. Upon his father’s death the Crown Prince Francis would declare himself unfit for the crown. Francis had always been a sickly person and his doctors believed that the stress of the Kingship would send him to an early grave. His eldest son had been killed in the fighting in South America So it was his second son Christophe who would be crowned King Christophe on October 5,1874. Aside from the way in which he came to the throne the biggest change was that he was just nineteen years old and still unwed. This meant that until he married the heir to the throne would be his fifty nine year old uncle Henri, and gave the tabloids of Paris many issues of stories on who the young King would wed. Would he take a princess to be his queen or would he a princess from another country? The daughter of a French noble? Or would she be a modern Cinderella story and come from the third estate?
The General Election of 1875 would also see the Constitutional Monarchist regain the majority in the National Assembly, after over two decades in the minority. The Andes War having convinced the bulk of the residents of New Aquitaine that the government needed to invest more money in the military than the Republicans had done over the last twenty years. This mandate would see a series of major defense bills passed. The French Royal Army was enlarged to number on the scale of its peak during the Bloody Decade. The Royal Army of New Aquitaine was also created. The French Royal Navy would also receive a large budget allowing it to expand its docks and lay down twelve more Steelclad battleships before the end of the decade it would be this bill that would give France the clear lead in the Steelclad Arms Race that was starting amongst the industrialized nations of the world in the 1880s
