Lions and Eagles: An Alternate Twentieth Century

Holy shit, you're right. the 48th parallel is right in the middle of that part of Sakhalin that goes extremely narrow before expanding out again:

Ah yes. This is a consequence of the Japanese not taking as much land in Manchurcia as OTL, and having to get less of Sakhalin to get gains in Manchurcia.
 
Part X - Britain, 1906-1908 and Irish Home Rule

~~ Liberals, Lords and Irish Home Rule ~~

In 1906, the British Liberal party under the leadership of Herbert Asquith, which had recently entered power, passed the Irish Home Rule bill by a healthy margin in the House of Commons. However, the bill was blocked in the house of the lords, which had a conservative majority. Despite attempts to come to an agreement between the two houses, the Conservatives refused to back down. Though this, and other issues, including the delay of the School Meals act (1908), a broadly popular scheme with Liberal voters and the Working class, but hated with a vengeance by many of the Lords, who amended a finance bill to stop the act, something almost unheard of, sparking a constitutional crisis.

The Liberal party asked the king to flood the house of Lord with liberal peers, which the king said he would only do if the liberals called a general election to gain a public mandate for Irish home rule. The Liberals were expected to win the election, but at a cost, as there was a chance they would lose seats to the Conservatives. The Liberal government also realised that an influx of Liberal peers would help them to pass a series of progressive measures they were planning such as National insurance, which it was suspected the Lords would not pass.

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Herbert Asquith

However, the conservative party leadership proposed a compromise, in which the conservatives would pass the bill on the condition that the mainly protestant province of Ulster was excluded from the bill. A new Home rule bill with the Ulster amendment added was duly passed by both Houses, though several Irish Parliamentary party MP’s voted against it due to what they saw as the partial nature of the act, and the bill was only just passed in the House of Lords as many Conservative peers rebelled. The Conservatives also agreed not to interfere with Finance bills, though a small group of ten peers took it along themselves to interfere with any Liberal legislation they didn’t like.

It also preserved the House of Lord veto, but the general view of the Liberal party was that another issue would come up in the future which would force the conservative’s hand. In hindsight, this was the best outcome for Ireland, as many protestants in Ulster would have taken up arms to prevent home rule, and many British officers held sympathies with the Ulster protestants, and would have be very reluctant to follow orders.

Irish home rule was a popular policy in Ireland with the catholic Irish, but not as much with the protestant elite. Many Protestants in the south moved north, and many Catholics in ulster moved south or emigrated to the USA or Canada.

Many Loyalists attempted to stop the agreement though refusing to recognise the home government, often though violent action. Irish Catholics would be sometimes obstructed from voting. In a small village near Queenstown, the situation became so dire that some Catholic farmers carried their shotguns to the polling station in the first election for the Irish parliament after a large mob of protestant dockworkers blocked their way, rumoured to be in the pay of a local aristocrat. Several of the dockworkers threw stones at the farmers, and were soon on the wrong end of the shotguns. By a miracle no one was killed, but it was no means the only mishap in the 1908 election, as extremists on both sides attempted to disrupt the election.

Within the Dublin parliament there were three main parties. The socialist and relatively non-sectarian Irish Labour party, with 10% of the seats, the Irish Nationalist party with 52%, the British Conservative party with 7%, and the Radical Republican Party, with 31% of the seats. The Radical Republican party came about from a rift within the Nationalist party, and didn’t agree with the separation of Ulster, as well as being in theory Marxists and therefore further to the left than the Irish Nationalist party. The British Conservative seats, apart from one were all university seats.
Some Ulster Catholics felt like military force was the best way to solve the problem and several terrorist groups were founded, the most prominent being the Ulster Republican army, which carried out several bombings in Northern Ireland until the Londonderry Rebellion.

~~ The Londonderry Rebelion~~

On Sunday 23 July 1911, all around Londonderry, URA Members stormed important buildings. Several went into Churches, and handed out rifles to anybody willing to fight. Small groups armed with explosives blew up railway bridges in Ulster. By the 25th, Londonderry was under Catholic control. However, the URA found little support, and on the 26th, a naval flotilla came and landed a large number of Soldiers outside Londonderry, who put down the rebellion within three days. Several atrocities took place, the one which stuck in the public imagination the most was the shooting of several magistrates in Londonderry. The Londonderry trials were held at the Old Bailey in London. Several leaders of the rebellion were sentenced to death, but most were commuted to a life sentence on appeal, apart from those deemed to have committed murder of civilians.
Such acts provoked outrage across Britain and Ireland, and started Anti-Catholic riots in Belfast and in other parts of Britain. Many Irish nationalists were upset by the revolt, and John Redmond commented that the Londonderry uprising set back Irish nationalism by quarter of a century.

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British Troops during the rising

Most of the arms used were French, which whipped up a round of Anti-French feeling. Five new coastal defence forts were being built, known as the Haldane forts, and, the largest, Fort Bembridge on the Isle of Wight was armed with 10 twelve inch guns, and public fervour led to five more of varied size being built, though none of were complete by the outbreak of war.

Modern Historians, however, consider the French arms to be relatively coincidental, many citing around 20% of the arms were German, and some were British.

The URA however weren’t quite crushed. A minority of Irish people in Ulster were inspired by their revolt, and Irish nationalists in Ulster continued to engage in small scale, mainly civil resistance across ulster. This led to an element of distrust about Catholics in Ulster, which caused more hatred across both sides. These problems would quietly simmer for the next forty years.
 
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I wonder what's going to happen in 40 years...

I only have a very vague idea of what's going to happen then, and anyway, I might only cover the latter half of the Twenty Century in a postscript.

Training a bit for Easter?;)

I didn't mention anything about discontent in southern Ireland, and considering that Sinn Fein were anti home rule, you might have a point...

I'm glad people like this update, as I spent a lot of time fidding with it to get it right over the weekend. Irish home rule is a common AH "Trope", but hopefully I put enough uniqueness on it to make it different. Next Fortnight's update is on the Congo Crisis.
 
Hi readers. Due to the Götterdämmerung of the old board, the next update shall be posted this weekend. In the meantime, I shall clean up the previous chapters, and make a proper frontpiece.
 
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Part XI - Trouble in the Congo

~~The Congo Crisis~~

The Congo crisis is considered by some historians the nearest the European alliances came to all out conflict in the 1900’s. In September 1907 King Leopold Congo Free State had been denounced as a despotic state ran as King Leopold’s private fiefdom, where murder and mutilation were common practise as well as rare instances of cannibalism by native Force Publique troops. Something had to be done, but what?

In Belgium, many called for its annexation, which there was much public support for. So it came as a surprise to many when it was announced in February 1908 that the Congo Free State was to be sold to the French government. The French cited that they had right of first purchase, as they helped fund its colonisation in the 1890’s, but offered Britain and Germany trading rights in the Congo, and suggested making the river an international waterway.

Germany and Britain challenged this meagre suggestion. The Congo Free State was one of the largest producers of rubber in the world, and French control of the colony could result in a shift in the balance of power in Africa.

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King Leopold II of Belgium​

Britain and Germany both agreed that it was not worth fighting a war over the Congo, but that they could not allow France to gain the entirely on the Congo. Instead they both hoped that with resolve, the French could be forced to back down and at less hand over some of the land to Germany and Britain. This was not without risk, but reckoning on the fact that Austria-Hungary would reluctant to bleed itself white in a colonial war, the British and Germans considered a war over the Congo unlikely.

France didn’t want to go to war over the Congo either, but realised that providing some resistance to the calls would serve two aims; firstly the British and Germans would demand less if the French actually looked like they would be prepared to go to war over the Congo, and a war scare might force more money to be spent on the French army and navy, an area which the Chamber of Deputies were being somewhat reluctant to raise the military budget after large rises in 1899.

The Belgium people were also somewhat outraged by the suggestion of their King, especially when they found out that the king intended all the money from the sale to go to him and certain investors in the Free State. Several conservatives were also upset by the loss of Belgium’s colonial empire, and were not happy with the King for selling an object of Belgium pride to the French.

The British therefore responded by holding week long manoeuvres in the channel with the channel fleet and some of the reserve fleet. Leading the ships was HMS Dreadnought, a new breed of battleship which could outcompete anything the French could put out. One of the Admiral-class ironclad battleships, antiques which struggled to keep even 10 knots were dwarfed and out sped by the new ship. The Admiral class were sent to the breakers within 5 years.

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HMS Dreadnought​


France sent more troops to the German border, and Germany did likewise. At the same time, the British and the Germans kept pressuring France in diplomatic memos to hold a conference to share out the Congo. The French refused, and for two months, both sides continued the military posturing, until the French, concerned that central powers showed no signs of backing down, suggested extending the concessions and carrying out some minor border amendments. Therefore, the British, the French and the Germans met in Nice on the 6th of July 1908.

~~Treaty of Nice~~

The French offered the Germans territorial concessions in the Congo which would give them direct access to the Congo River, as well as some of French Congo. The Germans considered this a decent proposal, and informed the French with some further territorial concessions, they would be prepared to accept it. The British were offered some of Katanga: the British strongly told the French that this wasn’t enough.

Instead the British and the Germans gave their own counter proposals. The British and German negotiators said that the proposal was the general areas they were interested in but suggested to the French negotiators that they would be prepared to comprise.

The French soon returned with another proposal. The Germans were privately annoyed that the French were not prepared to cede them any land in Kivu, but told the French that they were prepared to accept the deal. Britain also saw a large rise in the size of British Katanga by about 75%.

The British however still wanted more land in Katanga, and were concerned at the amount of the Congo that the French would be left with. However, the British delegation realised that with the Germans reasonably content with the land the French were prepared to cede, they may find themselves forced to accept the offer.

The British put forward a plan, in which Britain would receive slightly more land in Katanga, as well as French Damohey would be awarded to Belgium. This was a completely unexpected move. With a small Belgium delegation milling about the nearby area, who had spent the entire conference attempting to win special rights in the Congo. When contacted by the British, the Belgium government were wary, but accepted the idea on the grounds it would give them a colony, which would satisfy the Colonial agitators who were in favour of retaining the Congo.

The French cabinet debated if French Damohey was worth giving up for the Congo, while the Negotiators waited for a reply. The French agreed to the British proposal, only performing minor adjustments to the border between the French Congo and British Katanga in their favour, and agreeing to cede Damohey to the Belgians. The British considered this agreement tolerable.

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The evolution of the Treaty of Nice​

With an agreement found, all four sides signed the treaty of Nice on the first of August. The treaty of Nice, as well as providing for the territorial changes agreed at the conference, also allowed for the Congo to be a free trade area between all four signatories, with tariffs forbidden in the area. The Congo was made an international waterway. It also settled several minor issues.

The Congo and Damohey were all under the control of their respective colonial masters by the end of October.

~~The Aftermath~~

Many French people were upset with the sale, but many people put it down to the lack of military strength. Therefore, the French prime minister (1) used it to force though a large naval expansion bill in the jingoist months that followed, and an army expansion bill in 1909.

The Germans were the least effected by the Congo crisis, as unlike Britain and France, Germany wasn't a massive colonial power. However, the 1907 election had seen an end to the 15 years of Liberalism that Germany had seen, and Germany entered a period known as the Conservative years, as a Centre party and Conservative party alliance commanded a strong minority of the seats in the Reichstag. The state of the German navy was an area of major concern, with only seven Battleships having been built since 1900. (2) Therefore, the 1908 navy law provided for the construction of six battleships and two battlecruisers by 1912, with the German Kaisermarine having plans for a 12 – 4 fleet by 1918, capable to defeat a revitalised Russian navy, and at least hold France at bay in case of a Franco-German war without Britain.(3)

In Britain, public opinion supported the actions which took place. Katanga was a mineral rich area, and the area saw a small boom, though even in 1915 it was no rival to mineral rich South Africa. Katanga soon became ‘Yet another colony.’ Britain also saw an increase in naval construction, and the army was to be expanded to allow for another division at home. The number of Home service territorials was to be expanded, and isolated fractions of both the Liberal and Conservative parties began calling for continental style conscription.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

1)Not gonna name him as I know little about third Republic politics apart from the fact Prime Minsters lasted months, not years.

2) Around half of OTL production

3) Similar to the Japanese 8-8 fleet concept, but with the realities of North Sea and Baltic warfare taken into account.
 
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Ryan

Donor
nice update :)

one thing though:
The Germans were the least effected by the Congo crisis, as unlike Britain and France, Germany was a massive colonial power.

shouldn't that be "Germany wasn't a massive colonial power?
 
I must admit I've been surprised by the Congo being sold to France.

France must be quite worried if, as it seems, it ring of alliance has failed her in this crisis.
 
nice update :)

one thing though:

shouldn't that be "Germany wasn't a massive colonial power?

Fixed.

I must admit I've been surprised by the Congo being sold to France.

France must be quite worried if, as it seems, it ring of alliance has failed her in this crisis.

From what I read on wikipedia, the French supported Leopold's efforts in the congo on the ground that if they failed (As was considered likely at the time) the area would revert to France. When the whole mess came out, ITTL France offered Leopold a big pile of money, citing this reason, and Leopold said yes.

As for your second point: Austria-Hungary, with no colonial empire of her own is very relucant to get involved in colonial spats, something the french are well aware of, and the Austrian-French alliance is mainly to defend against Germany, and to a less extent Italy. The Austrian government would have of course supported the French in the event of war against Germany, but considering that no one really wanted war, with the French hoping that a war scare would result in a jingoist wave of Miltary, and most importantly, insure that the Central powers would not demand a division of the Congo. France, I would argue is reasonably happy with the results at Nice, as they preserved the majority of the Land they gained off the French. So France doesn't see it as a failure of alliances, but a decent success.

Interesting developments?

Glad you enjoyed.

This is great, I've subscribed. Was Portugal not at all involved in the Congo Crisis?

Portugal wasn't involved or invited, as they are considered a second rate colonial power, and they weren't that interested in getting another colony. They were given special trading rights in the Congo basin though however, to chuck a metaphorical bone to them.
 
It's.... possible. Issue is, they'd be risking Russia taking this as an excuse to acquire the Straits, and Britain intervening to maintain the balance of power. And Germany also deciding to invade while their army is engaged in Turkey.

Yep, definitely risky. What with a Berlin-St. Petersburg/Petrograd alliance.
 
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