ED: This is technically from my RDNA-verse TL. While the Habsburgs in OTL briefly claimed Mexico (through Maximillian's ill-fated and tragic "rule"), it tends to be seen more as a foreign occupation compared to the "legitimate" republican government or earlier Iturbide era. At any rate, the idea of an Austrian Habsburg line not only being established in place of the Spanish viceroys, but also thriving, would likely count. Moreover, while the map is taken
from here, the description is taken from
this. Anyway, hope you enjoy!
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The R.D.N.A.: A General Overview
The Royal Dominion of New Austria is considered one of the predominant powers in the Free World. A constitutional monarchy under the long-reigning Archduke Franz Ferdinand II of the ancient Habsburg line, it is also a pluralist “Societal Democracy” whose cultural and socio-political clout make the realm a major power in North America alongside its Commonwealth allies and the republican American Federation. Its heritage, diversity, and traditions likewise serve as living reminders of a
Mitteleuropa now lost to time and the so-called Collectivist Internationale.
Although New Austria’s present state dates to the signing of its current 1928 Constitution, the realm has evolved over centuries, derived from both the old Holy Roman Empire and former Austro-Hungarian Crownlands. The R.D.N.A. itself is comprised of 14 Crown Provinces – previously a varied collection of margraviates, duchies, baronies and other colonial territories until the 1874 Reforms – with the historic city of New Vienna (
Neu Wien) as the capital. The Reichstag is the realm’s democratic legislature, its elective Chamber of Deputies representing a host of political parties and associations, including Revivalists. But while actual power rests firmly in the hands of the Prime Minister, both the Habsburg monarchs and nobility still retain significant formal as well as informal influence in public affairs. Also notable is the Vatican-in-Exile, which has been granted semi-autonomous rule over the religious enclave of Mariazell-am-Meer as a result of the 1927 and 1938 Papal Concordats. The Duchy of Kuba, which in addition to its predominantly Spanish-based culture is also unique in being independent in most respects while remaining a loyal, integrated domain within New Austria; an enduring legacy of the Carriedo Compromise of 1934.
The realm’s economy matches Loyalist Canada in terms of prosperity. Its reliance on specialized agriculture, flexible industries and cultural output, has guaranteed wealth for the 130 million people calling the R.D.N.A. home. From the vineyards of Kalifornien to the factories in New Burgenland and Kuba’s vast plantations, each Province offers its own specialties. While the influence of “Societal Democracy” and generations of labour reforms have ensured that both noble and commoner alike benefit in some manner. Such is New Austria’s wealth that New Austrians are capable of supporting a handful of protectorates, a sizable military and even their Brazilian allies in South America. In fact, it also bears the honourable distinction of being one of the only Free Nations with both orbital and atomics access.
Compared to the realm’s neighbors however, the R.D.N.A. is decidedly “mixed” and home to a diverse, integrated population. “Full-blood” or otherwise, much of the citizenry outside of Kuba in general claim descent from Europeans, whether German, Hungarian, Czech or other colonists from
Mitteleuropa. Mirroring their ancestors’ homelands, this is reflected in the myriad cultures, traditions, tongues and communities that make up the New Austrian identity. The indigenous
Mesoamerikaners meanwhile, though a small proportion, have at large integrated into wider society over generations and since ascended to positions of influence.* All are united, however by common languages (New Austrian
Deutsch in particular), a shared history, religion (the majority remain Roman Catholic with sizable groups of Jews and Protestants) and sense of solidarity. In addition to the consistent popularity of the monarchy, this also fostered a blend of meritocracy and
Noblesse Oblige that seems unique to this part of the world, regardless of one’s status or descent.
At the same time, the turmoil wrought by the Terror has since left a lasting mark on New Austrians, long after chaos the forged the Collectivist Internationale subsided. A sizable number are descended from refugees escaping the Crownlands in the 1920s as the Danube crumbled, Most of the “Non-New Austrians” among the population meanwhile include the Spanish groups in Kuba and Swiss communities across the Crown Provinces. In fact, the countryside still bears preserved traces of the Upheaval that ensured, which threatened to destroy the realm at its darkest hour. Combined with the clout Revivalist organizations have in government and society as well as the constant threat from the Internationale, there is little wonder as to why the monarchy to this day is still referred to as the Throne-in-Exile. Or why, despite unpopular objections from some politicians and fringe republicans, the R.D.N.A. considers itself as such rather than the independent “Archduchy” that it would be in practice.
As certain foreign journalists claim, the desire to reclaim the former Crownlands continues to haunt the national
zeitgeist. But against tremendous odds, New Austria continues to persevere. Both as a memorial to a lost world and a beacon for carrying
Mitteleuropa’s legacy into a better future. Perhaps in the hopes in outlasting those who have torched the Old World in the flames of Revolution.
A Brief History of New Austria
Although one could point to the ancestral kingdoms of today’s
Mesoamerikaners or the Spanish
conquistadors of the early 16th Century, New Austria’s origins can be traced to 1554, when the budding settlements of what was called “New Spain” were delegated to the Austrian Habsburgs. This proved to have tremendous consequences, as it opened up potential opportunities for nobles, missionaries and aspiring colonists from across
Mitteleuropa. By the time New Austria was formally placed under Imperial sovereignty in 1611, German had become the lingua franca among the educated and the remaining Spanish settlers had either moved to Kuba or married into the growing number of new arrivals. The stage was set for the burgeoning colony’s rise to prominence in North America.
Over the course of the 17th Century, the growing territories of New Austria were organized into a varied patchwork of fiefs, margraviates, duchies, and baronies that, with the approval of the then-Holy Roman Emperor, swore fealty to both the Habsburgs in New Vienna and their counterparts across the Atlantic. In contrast to the French and English settlements being founded further north, both mutual co-existence and intermingling were at the very least tolerated (the latter made into official policy in 1697) to ensure order as well as further stabilize colonial rule. Thus, as the realm’s territories began to prosper and more colonists arrived, its demographics likewise began changing, gradually defining New Austrian notions of ethnicity and in time, rendering issues like the color of one’s skin irrelevant. And while scattered uprisings from rogue nobles or disgruntled bandits weren’t unknown, New Austria’s growing clout and loyalty to its liege in
Mitteleuropa meant that by the 18th Century, the colony was considered an Imperial domain. A status further solidified with the absorption of the Spanish Governorate of Cuba (now the Duchy of Kuba) in 1726.
By then, even as the Habsburgs’ New World lands continued to expand, more challenges – and opportunities – emerged. While New Austria’s southern borders with the colonies in so-called Mittelamerika had always been relatively stable, the Caribbean Sea and the sparsely-populated, let alone explored northern frontiers remained vulnerable, especially from its burgeoning neighbors to the north. Skirmishes with American privateers and settlers grew in intensity, culminating in the War of the Western Frontiers in 1859-66; fierce resistance from New Austrian regiments as well as reinforcements from what was then the Austro-Hungarian Crownlands and British intervention contributed to the Treaty of Ottawa and present day borders with the American Federation. Closer to home, controversies like the infamous Sugar Cane Question in Kuba (which led to the outlawing of slavery across New Austria in 1793) and growing clamor for civil representation from both commoners and nobles continued the drive for further reforms. While the New Austrians at large remained loyal to their sovereigns, the foundations were laid for both the colony’s democratization and its elevation into a Royal Dominion in the 1820s. By the 1874 Reforms, which among other changes consolidated the various territories into Crown Provinces, the R.D.N.A. had already become all but equal to the realms of
Mitteleuropa and was well on the road to becoming an Archduchy independent but united with the Crownlands.
The events of the Terror in the 1920s, however, proved to be one of the darkest moments in New Austria’s history. While the origins and initial events leading up to Collectivism’s horrid notoriety remain muddled and disputed to this day, what is certain is that over the course of less than a decade, entire countries and empires were erased from the map by a warped ideology promising the salvation of labour and Revolution through the so-called “Will of the Workers.” As the Crownlands crumbled, the R.D.N.A. escaped the worst of the chaos. But food shortages, simmering social tensions and the influx of refugees fleeing the “Reds” across the New World contributed to a horrid period of disorder known only as the “Upheaval;” in the midst of which Archduke Franz Ferdinand – one of the handful of surviving Habsburgs left from the Crownlands – ratified the 1928 Constitution. It wasn’t until 1934 with the signing of the Carriedo Compromise, itself the consequence of the bloodied Kuban Insurrection that the last traces of those riotous times were put to rest.
A sense of normalcy began to return in the 1930s-40s. But the trauma of those years took longer still to mend. The United Kingdom, one of the few isolated European realms that escaped the clutches of what had become the Collectivist Internationale, was attacked in late 1942. Alongside the Americans and British Imperial Commonwealth forces in Loyalist Canada, R.D.N.A. soldiers with the Throne-in-Exile’s approval were sent to Britain the following year to stop the invasion. While the campaign was successful in throwing Collectivist influence back across the English Channel in 1944, it was a pyrrhic victory. For the brutal “scorched earth” and “pacification” tactics employed by the New Austrians contributed to the U.K.’s reluctant protectorate status under the Canadians as well as the Throne-in-Exile’s realm being made a pariah. A tragically low point in their history next to the Terror that forced New Austria to re-evaluate itself until Canadian delegates renewed the long-standing alliance between the two dominions in 1949.
Despite such chaotic episodes, the R.D.N.A. refused to give in to self-destruction. Soon it rose back into prominence, eventually rejoining the other Free Nations as a great power in its own right even while keeping vigil over the Collectivist territories in what was once Panama. A distinguished and honourable position that the realm has maintained throughout the 20th Century and to this day.
- “Atlas Sans Frontieres: The Gaspereau-Thomson Guide to the New World.” Loyalist Canada. 2023.
* The Mayan and Nahuatl peoples in particular have benefited considerably from New Austrian "peerage" and have a sizable population in certain Crown Provinces.
