Map Thread XXI
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Fall of Napoleonic France in the 1910s, by Minnesota_Nationalist
I had finished these maps like two and half months ago. I just couldn't get myself to write the descriptions until last night. Cross posting from my World Born at Tilsit timeline, which you can find in my signature.
The world has seen great change since 1913. Millions of men have died in the Russian Wastes, with more dying in skirmishes in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. And now, the Great Nation of Russia is on the brink of collapse. The Empire of France is close to their final victory, to total domination. What has led to this situation?
Upon the death of Alexander III of Russia, he willed that his heir was to be the Russian people themselves, to establish a republic and resist the French and British empires. However, his will was contested, and his brothers Peter and Nicholas, puppets of the British and French respectively, claimed the throne, launching Europe and the World into the greatest war ever known.
France would come to invade Russia and their allies in Poland by land, advancing up to the Dnieper. Britain would invade Russia over the Baltic, and surround the former Imperial capital of Saint Petersburg. In the south, France would attack the great city of Constantinople, but would constantly be repulsed and denied the use of the Dardanelles. In Italy and Portugal, France would conquer and gain decisive control of the continent, but on the Mediterranean and Baltic waters, Britannia would continue to rule the wave. For four years, these lines in Europe would remain.
In the Near East, chaos would reign, as puppets and allies of the Great Powers danced around each others armies. King Faud of Syria would come to become a respected leader, and would slowly gain influence over much of the Arabian people, uniting his own kingdom with that of Iraq and proclaiming himself the new King of Hedjaz.
In the Far East, Japan joined the Russians against France, and they would begin their reconquest and conquest of the the West Pacific rim, from Kyushu to the Philippines and beyond. Britain would attempt to invade Russia from India through Afghanistan, only to face the treacherous Hindu Kush and their native people, a stubborn and proud people, already livid at the loss of their independence, who would harass the invaders at any chance they got.
In Africa, a series of squabbles ran up and down the continent, with the French losing much of their coastal colonies, but keeping the British at bay further inland. The ferocious Zulu people, commended by the French as the most disciplined fighting force in the world, would take on the British Empire and come out victorious, building their own empire in the southern part of the continent.
In the Americas, the old Spanish colonies, having chaffed for too long under rule from Madrid, revolts against the monarchy, a revolution propped up by the British. However unpopular the Spanish kings may be, though, there are still some true believers, and they begin a civil war in the frontiers of the colonies, burning down "treacherous" cities in the name of the King in Spain.
1917 would become the year of many changes. First, the United States of America, pressured by a growing pro-Russian and anti-French movement, declared war on France, and invaded the French allies of Mexico and California. Also in this year, the great city of Constantinople would finally fall, as would the great fortresses surrounding the Sea of Marmara, opening up passage for the French into the Black sea. At the end of the year, French soldiers would be landing on the Crimean peninsula, bypassing the meat grinder known as the Dnieper river. Britain, too, would take Saint Petersburg.
1917 would also mark the beginning of a tumultuous time in France. Early that year, the great French Emperor, Charles the Eagle, would die. His successor, Ferdinand Galtier, would be assassinated on his way from the front to Paris to be crowned as the new emperor. In his place, the young, ambitious, and arrogant Napoleon Justin Bonaparte, with help of a circle of fervent followers, would declare himself the new Emperor of France. The great generals of France, including Napoleon Justin's own father, tentatively accepted this arrangement, not wanting to destabilize France. The generals would focus on the front, and Napoleon IV would rule over domestic matters, including acting on his vendetta against Jean-Marie le Toulonnais.
Now, at the end of 1918, Britain and France are closing in on Moscow and the Republican administrative center just outside of it, in Rimlyangrad. It is generally assumed, by both Russia and her enemies, that if Rimlyangrad falls, then Russia would collapse with it, and the winner of the race to Rimlyangrad will have won the war. Indeed, la victoire finale is just within France's grasp...
How the mighty fall. Just a few years prior, the mighty French Empire held domain across the world, and the rule the European continent from Lisbon to the limits of Moscow. Now, they don't even rule their own land any more.
The rule of the young and arrogant Napoleon IV proved more disastrous than any could have ever imagined. His blind fury against Le Toulonnais and his dissidents sparked a fire in France, one that blaze out of control. When the Emperor officially declared Le Toulonnais as a traitor to France and subsequently banned any worship or praise of the much-beloved hero, there was outcry. Le Toulonnais's home city of Toulon actively protested. When the Emperor sent soldiers down to crush the protest, the army rather joined the protest, turning into a revolt. In turn, Emperor Napoleon had to draw forces from the front lines in an attempt to stop this revolt, slowing down the advancing army in Russia from reaching their final victory. Finally, the Parisian get sick of Napoleon the Arrogant, tearing him out of the Tuileries and parading him through down and throwing him in jail. It took the intervention of Napoleon Justin's father, Napoleon Auguste, to save the boy from execution. Thereafter, a council of ten general, including Napoleon Auguste, would command France.
However, the Toulonnais revolt was not yet satisfied. Their own fervor had grown, and now they demanded that Francois de Toulon becoming Emperor of France, a demand that was rejected by the Council of Generals. More soldiers would be pulled back from the front, and as some of these soldiers abandoned France to join the Toulonnais forces, even more forces from the front would be removed, and the French advance would completely stall.
Napoleon IV was just the first Bonaparte to be overthrown. In Cassel, Westphalia, William Bonaparte would be overthrown and executed. The Germans declare a new German Kingdom of Phalia, and would convene to declare a new king. Soon thereafter, they would advance on French Germany, declaring the German Kingdom of Lower Saxony, in union with the German Kingdom of Phalia. On the front, the Westphalian forces are removed from the Armee des Allies for fear of them betraying the French forces, and summarily executed down to the man. This was not the first nor second time that the Armee had done this, but the third, and it made the other members of the Armee nervous.
It would not be long thereafter that Prussia would abandon her French overlords, reading the writing on the wall that France was collapsing. They would secretly agree to ally with the Russians, and subsequently invaded Poland in restoration of Corbinian of the House of Wettin-Poland. Prussian troops in the Armee are executed. To Prussia's south, the ever growing prowess of the German Kingdom of Phalia-Lower Saxony would lead them to conquer the Kingdom of Saxony, citing their constant Francophilia, the "Lapdogs of France in Germany," and would united Upper Saxony in their union. Finally, in Leipzig, the council of the German Kingdom of Phalia and Two Saxonies presents their crown to the one king who dared defy the French, that of the King of Prussia. Shockingly, the Prussians rejected the offer, citing the demands of the German Kingdoms of a constitution and equal representation as unacceptable. Instead, at Leipzig, the Republic of the Three Saxonies is declared.
The Upper Saxons in the Armee are culled, and this was the final straw for all. Their soldiers were ordered to be brough home from the front. This, on top of the French having to pull back their own forces, leads to a collapse of the Russian front. In Italy, the House of Savoy, confined for the last four years in Sardinia, makes a triumphant return to Sicily and starts their march through the Italian peninsula. Italians abandon their Bonapartists lords in favor of the Vittorio di Savoy, who would be crowned in Rome as King of Italy. In Hungary, Louis Bonaparte is forced to abandon his French allies on pressure of the Hungarian populace. In Spain, the monarchy also decided to abandon their former ally in favor of pressing the Bourbonist claim to France, vacant for over a century at this point. Together with Britain, they invade France to press this Bourbonist claim. In Germany, the Monarchies of Southern Germany react to the formation of the Republic of Three Saxonies, a state that proved vengeful towards any ally of the French, by abandoning the French and united together as the United Kingdoms of Germany, colloquially known as South Germany. Austria suffers a revolt from the Czech people, tired of their union with Austria, and rise up for independence. In Russia, Britain abandons their adventure and signs the Treaty of Saint Petersburg. This effectively ends the hostilities of the War of the Russian Succession.
The world the was left remaining was a peculiar one. No empire had any strength or will to enforce its might across the world. France, in particular, would continue to collapse in on itself, as the Council of Generals itself would start to dissipate, with France becoming a series of warring states that no one dares intervene in, described as a the most viscous of man-eating machines.
China would not fare much better. Although the Blue Banner rebellion was successful, the generals there, too, would turn on each other, dividing formerly Taiping China into it's own collection of warring states.
In Arabia, King Faud of Syria-Iraq had managed to defeat his enemies across the Arabian Peninsula and had declared himself as Qaysr of Arabia, carefully choosing his title as to offend the fewest people possible. He did not consider himself a Caliph of the Sunnis or Shias, nor an Emperor like the French whom he fought against. No, he was Caesar of the Arabian people, a man to rally behind as a national, not religious, figure.
The United States had grown on the World Stage, and was officially seen as a Great Power in its own right, and grown close to fellow republic in Russia. As the nation to face the least suffering through the seven terrible years of war, she came out very powerful and prosperous indeed, becoming the World's Foundry and Market. Things looked only up for the United States of America.
The colonies in Africa had to be abandoned by all parties, and the Spanish retreated from the Americas. There was simply no strength or will to control them anymore. Instead, the natives came to control their own destiny. Or, at least partially. In Africa, many of the pre-established native empires, namely that of the Zulus, but also the Mossi and the Sokotoites took the place of their former colonial masters in ruling over Africa. Initial celebration turned into distraught over still being ruled, this time by those closer to home. But, many of the those colonial powers left weapons behind. Years of strife would remain in Africa.
Only in India did Britain retain the will to hold onto the Jewel of the Crown, much to the chagrin of the Indians. But here, too, the colonizers had armed their subjects in order to wage their wars. Too many Indians had died in the passes of the Hindu Kush in vain just to be told to surrender their weapons and return to subjugation. Here too, there would be strife. Britain fights to retain the last European (non-settler) colony, but it is a losing battle. Britain still retains its settler colonies of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, though.
In the Western Pacific, Japan has proven itself a formidable presence. From control three of the four main islands of the Japanese Archipelago to controlling all four as well as the Philippines, and asserting influence over the Malaynesians and Indochina. Japan, too, had burst onto the scene as a Great Power, ready to take on the position that Europe had just abandoned in Asia.
In Russia, once the most autocratic and tyrannical of the former Great Powers, suddenly finds itself the more democratic than Britain. The new Russian Republic would find itself in company with many sister republics some of which sprouted from within the Russian Republic itself, such as Finland, Armenia, or Azerbaijan. As President Isaac Petrov would say "They were not Russian, so why should they be ruled by the Russian Republic?" However, it wasn't all benevolence in Russia, for when the people of Belarus and Ukraine approached Petrov, stating that they, too, weren't Russian and thus should be independent, Isaac Petrov replied that of course they were Russian, spitefully driving a wedge between what should have brother peoples and leading towards resentment...
And so, while the world we once knew has shattered, history goes on...
The world has seen great change since 1913. Millions of men have died in the Russian Wastes, with more dying in skirmishes in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. And now, the Great Nation of Russia is on the brink of collapse. The Empire of France is close to their final victory, to total domination. What has led to this situation?
Upon the death of Alexander III of Russia, he willed that his heir was to be the Russian people themselves, to establish a republic and resist the French and British empires. However, his will was contested, and his brothers Peter and Nicholas, puppets of the British and French respectively, claimed the throne, launching Europe and the World into the greatest war ever known.
France would come to invade Russia and their allies in Poland by land, advancing up to the Dnieper. Britain would invade Russia over the Baltic, and surround the former Imperial capital of Saint Petersburg. In the south, France would attack the great city of Constantinople, but would constantly be repulsed and denied the use of the Dardanelles. In Italy and Portugal, France would conquer and gain decisive control of the continent, but on the Mediterranean and Baltic waters, Britannia would continue to rule the wave. For four years, these lines in Europe would remain.
In the Near East, chaos would reign, as puppets and allies of the Great Powers danced around each others armies. King Faud of Syria would come to become a respected leader, and would slowly gain influence over much of the Arabian people, uniting his own kingdom with that of Iraq and proclaiming himself the new King of Hedjaz.
In the Far East, Japan joined the Russians against France, and they would begin their reconquest and conquest of the the West Pacific rim, from Kyushu to the Philippines and beyond. Britain would attempt to invade Russia from India through Afghanistan, only to face the treacherous Hindu Kush and their native people, a stubborn and proud people, already livid at the loss of their independence, who would harass the invaders at any chance they got.
In Africa, a series of squabbles ran up and down the continent, with the French losing much of their coastal colonies, but keeping the British at bay further inland. The ferocious Zulu people, commended by the French as the most disciplined fighting force in the world, would take on the British Empire and come out victorious, building their own empire in the southern part of the continent.
In the Americas, the old Spanish colonies, having chaffed for too long under rule from Madrid, revolts against the monarchy, a revolution propped up by the British. However unpopular the Spanish kings may be, though, there are still some true believers, and they begin a civil war in the frontiers of the colonies, burning down "treacherous" cities in the name of the King in Spain.
1917 would become the year of many changes. First, the United States of America, pressured by a growing pro-Russian and anti-French movement, declared war on France, and invaded the French allies of Mexico and California. Also in this year, the great city of Constantinople would finally fall, as would the great fortresses surrounding the Sea of Marmara, opening up passage for the French into the Black sea. At the end of the year, French soldiers would be landing on the Crimean peninsula, bypassing the meat grinder known as the Dnieper river. Britain, too, would take Saint Petersburg.
1917 would also mark the beginning of a tumultuous time in France. Early that year, the great French Emperor, Charles the Eagle, would die. His successor, Ferdinand Galtier, would be assassinated on his way from the front to Paris to be crowned as the new emperor. In his place, the young, ambitious, and arrogant Napoleon Justin Bonaparte, with help of a circle of fervent followers, would declare himself the new Emperor of France. The great generals of France, including Napoleon Justin's own father, tentatively accepted this arrangement, not wanting to destabilize France. The generals would focus on the front, and Napoleon IV would rule over domestic matters, including acting on his vendetta against Jean-Marie le Toulonnais.
Now, at the end of 1918, Britain and France are closing in on Moscow and the Republican administrative center just outside of it, in Rimlyangrad. It is generally assumed, by both Russia and her enemies, that if Rimlyangrad falls, then Russia would collapse with it, and the winner of the race to Rimlyangrad will have won the war. Indeed, la victoire finale is just within France's grasp...
How the mighty fall. Just a few years prior, the mighty French Empire held domain across the world, and the rule the European continent from Lisbon to the limits of Moscow. Now, they don't even rule their own land any more.
The rule of the young and arrogant Napoleon IV proved more disastrous than any could have ever imagined. His blind fury against Le Toulonnais and his dissidents sparked a fire in France, one that blaze out of control. When the Emperor officially declared Le Toulonnais as a traitor to France and subsequently banned any worship or praise of the much-beloved hero, there was outcry. Le Toulonnais's home city of Toulon actively protested. When the Emperor sent soldiers down to crush the protest, the army rather joined the protest, turning into a revolt. In turn, Emperor Napoleon had to draw forces from the front lines in an attempt to stop this revolt, slowing down the advancing army in Russia from reaching their final victory. Finally, the Parisian get sick of Napoleon the Arrogant, tearing him out of the Tuileries and parading him through down and throwing him in jail. It took the intervention of Napoleon Justin's father, Napoleon Auguste, to save the boy from execution. Thereafter, a council of ten general, including Napoleon Auguste, would command France.
However, the Toulonnais revolt was not yet satisfied. Their own fervor had grown, and now they demanded that Francois de Toulon becoming Emperor of France, a demand that was rejected by the Council of Generals. More soldiers would be pulled back from the front, and as some of these soldiers abandoned France to join the Toulonnais forces, even more forces from the front would be removed, and the French advance would completely stall.
Napoleon IV was just the first Bonaparte to be overthrown. In Cassel, Westphalia, William Bonaparte would be overthrown and executed. The Germans declare a new German Kingdom of Phalia, and would convene to declare a new king. Soon thereafter, they would advance on French Germany, declaring the German Kingdom of Lower Saxony, in union with the German Kingdom of Phalia. On the front, the Westphalian forces are removed from the Armee des Allies for fear of them betraying the French forces, and summarily executed down to the man. This was not the first nor second time that the Armee had done this, but the third, and it made the other members of the Armee nervous.
It would not be long thereafter that Prussia would abandon her French overlords, reading the writing on the wall that France was collapsing. They would secretly agree to ally with the Russians, and subsequently invaded Poland in restoration of Corbinian of the House of Wettin-Poland. Prussian troops in the Armee are executed. To Prussia's south, the ever growing prowess of the German Kingdom of Phalia-Lower Saxony would lead them to conquer the Kingdom of Saxony, citing their constant Francophilia, the "Lapdogs of France in Germany," and would united Upper Saxony in their union. Finally, in Leipzig, the council of the German Kingdom of Phalia and Two Saxonies presents their crown to the one king who dared defy the French, that of the King of Prussia. Shockingly, the Prussians rejected the offer, citing the demands of the German Kingdoms of a constitution and equal representation as unacceptable. Instead, at Leipzig, the Republic of the Three Saxonies is declared.
The Upper Saxons in the Armee are culled, and this was the final straw for all. Their soldiers were ordered to be brough home from the front. This, on top of the French having to pull back their own forces, leads to a collapse of the Russian front. In Italy, the House of Savoy, confined for the last four years in Sardinia, makes a triumphant return to Sicily and starts their march through the Italian peninsula. Italians abandon their Bonapartists lords in favor of the Vittorio di Savoy, who would be crowned in Rome as King of Italy. In Hungary, Louis Bonaparte is forced to abandon his French allies on pressure of the Hungarian populace. In Spain, the monarchy also decided to abandon their former ally in favor of pressing the Bourbonist claim to France, vacant for over a century at this point. Together with Britain, they invade France to press this Bourbonist claim. In Germany, the Monarchies of Southern Germany react to the formation of the Republic of Three Saxonies, a state that proved vengeful towards any ally of the French, by abandoning the French and united together as the United Kingdoms of Germany, colloquially known as South Germany. Austria suffers a revolt from the Czech people, tired of their union with Austria, and rise up for independence. In Russia, Britain abandons their adventure and signs the Treaty of Saint Petersburg. This effectively ends the hostilities of the War of the Russian Succession.
The world the was left remaining was a peculiar one. No empire had any strength or will to enforce its might across the world. France, in particular, would continue to collapse in on itself, as the Council of Generals itself would start to dissipate, with France becoming a series of warring states that no one dares intervene in, described as a the most viscous of man-eating machines.
China would not fare much better. Although the Blue Banner rebellion was successful, the generals there, too, would turn on each other, dividing formerly Taiping China into it's own collection of warring states.
In Arabia, King Faud of Syria-Iraq had managed to defeat his enemies across the Arabian Peninsula and had declared himself as Qaysr of Arabia, carefully choosing his title as to offend the fewest people possible. He did not consider himself a Caliph of the Sunnis or Shias, nor an Emperor like the French whom he fought against. No, he was Caesar of the Arabian people, a man to rally behind as a national, not religious, figure.
The United States had grown on the World Stage, and was officially seen as a Great Power in its own right, and grown close to fellow republic in Russia. As the nation to face the least suffering through the seven terrible years of war, she came out very powerful and prosperous indeed, becoming the World's Foundry and Market. Things looked only up for the United States of America.
The colonies in Africa had to be abandoned by all parties, and the Spanish retreated from the Americas. There was simply no strength or will to control them anymore. Instead, the natives came to control their own destiny. Or, at least partially. In Africa, many of the pre-established native empires, namely that of the Zulus, but also the Mossi and the Sokotoites took the place of their former colonial masters in ruling over Africa. Initial celebration turned into distraught over still being ruled, this time by those closer to home. But, many of the those colonial powers left weapons behind. Years of strife would remain in Africa.
Only in India did Britain retain the will to hold onto the Jewel of the Crown, much to the chagrin of the Indians. But here, too, the colonizers had armed their subjects in order to wage their wars. Too many Indians had died in the passes of the Hindu Kush in vain just to be told to surrender their weapons and return to subjugation. Here too, there would be strife. Britain fights to retain the last European (non-settler) colony, but it is a losing battle. Britain still retains its settler colonies of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, though.
In the Western Pacific, Japan has proven itself a formidable presence. From control three of the four main islands of the Japanese Archipelago to controlling all four as well as the Philippines, and asserting influence over the Malaynesians and Indochina. Japan, too, had burst onto the scene as a Great Power, ready to take on the position that Europe had just abandoned in Asia.
In Russia, once the most autocratic and tyrannical of the former Great Powers, suddenly finds itself the more democratic than Britain. The new Russian Republic would find itself in company with many sister republics some of which sprouted from within the Russian Republic itself, such as Finland, Armenia, or Azerbaijan. As President Isaac Petrov would say "They were not Russian, so why should they be ruled by the Russian Republic?" However, it wasn't all benevolence in Russia, for when the people of Belarus and Ukraine approached Petrov, stating that they, too, weren't Russian and thus should be independent, Isaac Petrov replied that of course they were Russian, spitefully driving a wedge between what should have brother peoples and leading towards resentment...
And so, while the world we once knew has shattered, history goes on...
I think that by that point Flanders and Piémont-Savoie would be quite heavily Francified, and would be quite unfriendly to the powers controlling them.
For Piedmont at least, definitely. Italy's hold on it is very tenuous, with there being constant raids from Warlord France. Italy really clings on to it become of the symbolic significance to the House of Savoy, but many really just want to abandon the region to Warlord France and retreat behind the Alps.
Flanders had a Francophone elite for at least a good century before the Napoleonic conquest. Add in another century of French ownership, and I think it would be as French as Dunkerque.
Coolness, but I notice that a couple of boxes in the bottom right haven't been labelled.
'Look at me, I'm Bob, and I'm amazing. Loot at my shit!'
But for real, wow, just wow, and thank you!
Intriguing. So what happened to the remaining Southern African-American population in Dixie? There were a few million survivors, I believe, and should have grown a few more by 2022. And I'm not sure many would feel open about a Second Dixie . . .
If anything, the US would definitely support freeing Southern African-Americans from white ethno-rule, probably around the Black Belt.
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Maybe you are confusing Savoy (the region) and Piedmont this is the italian region with Turin and is already behind the alps; while i agree for Savoy on being left, leaving Piedmont meant opening the rest of North and Center Italy to any invasion and basically forfeit one of the most defensible terrain in the continent...plus i always thought that taking all Piedmont and Liguria plus Rome and a good chunck of central Italy was ridicolously too much for France and not really susteinable in the long term
Interesting idea. Well, I was inspired by the ideas of modern TL-191 USA as Putinist Russia and created my own take on that idea.
Well, in my take, Dixie is sending the message to the world that they are good right now and the UoA is a fascistic, nationalist country that is still in a hangover after the collapse of the USA, trying to destroy their sovereignty. Also, many black people hold various positions in the government, the highest one is the leader of the Dixie's National Assembly.
Oh, so it's reformed. Interesting clarification and map nonetheless but yes, I agree with the other person that Canada would probably be a better analogy, mostly since Southern history in TL-191 is bit more... racially complex and not as easily placed with Ukraine's.
Good take, tho. 👍
Probably as close as we could get to a real-life "Northern and Southern Water Tribes"
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