Place In the Sun: What If Italy Joined the Central Powers? (1.0)

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Kaiser Wilhelm the Tenth

Gabingston said:
I'm not sure how many Mexicans lived in Sonora or Baja in the 1920s. Still, the U.S. got a big enough bite out of Mexico to where they didn't need any more of it.
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Occupying Tamaulipas is quite enough for most Americans.

Besides, I'll admit that there's an out-of-universe reason: I don't want to have the 'TL-191' Mexican border, where the Confederates (or Americans in this case) take Sonora and Chihuahua. That just felt like too much of a stereotypical AH cliche... and the Second Mexican War idea itself was already pushing dangerously in that direction.
 

Kaiser Wilhelm the Tenth

Integralism certainly isn't fascist-- the two ideologies are quite different. Integralism places God and Catholicism front and centre; Fascism gives the same position to Il Duce or the Fuhrer. Beyond that, Integralism lacks the inherent aggressiveness of fascism- the idea that our nation is superior and must rule over others.

And though France will likely (not definitely, likely) see Integralism ITTL, it won't be for some time yet.
 

President Earl Warren

From what I’m imagining it’s more along the lines of the Jacobin Regime: Built with a Radical ideology at the core but wrapped up with nationalism and against the Hun and the head of international reaction and Anti Frenchness, the Kaiser! Also deliberately invoking the Revolution no doubt for propaganda purposes. Heck given how far Sorels pal and associate Maurass went (albeit with Monarchism), I can see it going fairly far
 
Gabingston

Gabingston

President Earl Warren said:
From what I’m imagining it’s more along the lines of the Jacobin Regime: Built with a Radical ideology at the core but wrapped up with nationalism and against the Hun and the head of international reaction and Anti Frenchness, the Kaiser! Also deliberately invoking the Revolution no doubt for propaganda purposes. Heck given how far Sorels pal and associate Maurass went (albeit with Monarchism), I can see it going fairly far
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I don't see any staunch Catholics invoking the revolution that brought upon the near-destruction of the French church, but I do however see them invoking Napoleon, who while not exactly friendly to the church (I think he even imprisoned the Pope) was not as persecutory as the Jacobins were.
 
Virginia Liberal

Virginia Liberal

Gabingston said:
I don't see any staunch Catholics invoking the revolution that brought upon the near-destruction of the French church, but I do however see them invoking Napoleon, who while not exactly friendly to the church (I think he even imprisoned the Pope) was not as persecutory as the Jacobins were.
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I like that its always either the Reds or the Bourbons after Farance loses WWI.
 
AntoniousTheBro

AntoniousTheBro

If the French monarchy gets restored by the integralist especially if it is only as figureheads i don't see the prussians being so quick to strike them down. I would actually be really curious to how the French monarchy develops
 

kaizerfox

Gabingston said:
'm not sure how many Mexicans lived in Sonora or Baja in the 1920s. Still, the U.S. got a big enough bite out of Mexico to where they didn't need any more of it.
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I checked Wikipedia (so take this with a grain of salt). The Baja peninsula had a population of over 52,000 while Sonora had 265,000 in 1910. I agree Sonora would be a bridge too far for the U.S. but I'd still argue that the Baja peninsula was sparsely populated enough that the U.S. could annex it and get some American settlers down there to at least form a large English-speaking minority if not an outright majority in the 1910's and 1920's .
 

avernite

Virginia Liberal said:
I like that its always either the Reds or the Bourbons after Farance loses WWI.
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Eh. I could totally see an integralist regime initially aiming to restore the monarchy, finding they can't agree on which monarch (Orleanist, Bourbon, Bonaparte), and some more powerhungry leader just seizing the reins as president and daring any pretender to still claim the throne.
 
Chapter 43: The Second Paris Commune
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    • Kaiser Wilhelm the Tenth

    Chapter Forty-Three: The Second Paris Commune
    ​
    "This will be the final revolution. I draw from two streams to create conditions uniquely suited to a French dictatorship of the proletariat. On the one hand, I draw from the Jacobins. The guillotine, doubtless, will return and the reactionaries will tremble before it once more. Yet, in the century and a quarter which has elapsed since the first revolution, a new stream of thought has infected political life. The people will finish now what Robespierre commenced all those years ago."
    -Georges Sorel musing on the success of his revolution, spring 1918.

    "We, my friends, are the true revolutionaries. Sorel would be best served nursing his wounds abroad, while propriety forbids me from opining on Comrade General Famride's revolutionary credentials."
    -Ludovic-Oscar Frossard to his SFIO colleagues, January 1918


    Losing the Great War had destroyed French cohesion. The Third Republic, having failed to defend la Nation, was now an object of scorn. It had sucked up Philippe and Jean-Paul in 1914, torn off one of their limbs in the meat-grinder, and sent them home to beg for worthless paper currency two years later. Urban workers blamed the regime for inflation and unemployment; rural villagers isolated themselves from the regime, dodging taxes and building self-sufficiency. Marxists believed defeat in the Great War to be a sign that the historically inevitable revolution was only months away; Catholics believed it was a sign of divine displeasure. Emile Loubet’s civilian government shambled on, a dead man walking, until October 1917. (1)

    The Second French Revolution was both inevitable and the product of accident and miscalculation. On the one hand, the Third Republic had so disgraced itself that it was bound to fall at some point. On the other, the specific trigger for revolution was so small that Loubet cannot be blamed for preventing it. A jailbreak in Dijon escalated into a riot, and within weeks a rebellious growth had formed across France’s heartland. Soldiers sent to crush the revolt defected to it and elected one of their own as leader. If Jean-Jacques Famride provided the brawn, Georges Sorel was the brains of the revolt. A desire to see revolution first hand had brought the Marxist philosopher to Dijon, and his oratory had won him allies. Montbard, on the road to Paris, had given itself to the revolutionaries in late November.

    Meanwhile, Paul Deschanel had been shooting himself in the foot. His Emergency Powers Act #3 (4) had turned France into a dictatorship, with censorship imposed and civil rights restricted. Though it suppressed action, it couldn’t stifle thought. Jumping at shadows did more harm than good. Every politician arrested for “disloyal” sentiment was a sign that the Third Republic had become a tyranny, that like a Tsar, Deschanel could destroy you for no reason. This made the Sorelians seem like a breath of fresh air. Still, secret police knocked on doors and carted people off to detention camps as sacrifices on the altar of the pagan ‘god’ Securité. This harmed Deschanel’s second goal, which was to gain foreign support for his regime. As one Swiss journalist put it, “that Frenchmen are fleeing the French government for the auspices of the German Army is all one needs to know about the situation!” Kaiser Wilhelm II found this quite amusing, and even quipped in private that, “I always knew I was a far superior leader to any frog. The good people of France, it seems, have come to their senses and are aware of strength and good character when they see it!” (5) Eventually, though, fear of an influx of potentially troublesome Frenchmen led to Germany, Italy, and Belgium closing their borders (while Spain and Switzerland established strict refugee quotas). Deschanel’s attempt to live down the embarrassment by claiming that these refugees were fleeing “anarchist Marxism” (6) fooled no one; Georges Sorel gleefully poured gasoline on the fire by highlighting the stories of people fleeing government-held areas to rebel held ones. That the franc wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on thwarted hopes of purchasing foreign arms. While no one had yet extended recognition to the Sorelians, no one was interested in intervention to stop them.

    Deschanel was alone as events pushed the clock towards midnight.

    The French Section of the Worker’s International- la Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière, SFIO- had been driven underground in early November. Paul Deschanel, appointed PM to crush the revolt, believed that giving the far-left a seat at the table in the middle of a Marxist revolt was asking for trouble. Arrest warrants were issued en masse, and much of the SFIO now languished in political prisons. However, the SFIO’s leaders had gone into hiding in anticipation of this. General Secretary Louis Dubreuilh had decamped for rural Normandy, while his right-hand men Ludovic-Oscar Frossard and Marcel Cachin remained in the capital in disguise.

    Now, Georges Sorel wanted to meet with them.

    Locating the leftist leaders proved challenging. The state of emergency meant that all mail was being read while crossing France without papers was difficult. Ironically, Dubreuilh was easier to find than the others- there were far fewer government informers in a Normandy village than in Paris. An SFIO agent entered La Motte-Fouquet- where Dubreuilh was living under an alias- in the small hours of 1 December 1917. Dubreuilh assumed the man to be a government spy and nearly killed him before he said a coded phrase revealing him as ‘one of us’, whence the General-Secretary fell over himself apologising. He’d been following the revolt as best as the censored newspapers would let him and was elated to hear that Sorel wanted to meet with him. That night, the two men began a roundabout journey to Dijon. Disguised as a priest (2), Dubreuilh walked and hitch-hiked down country roads, keeping a low profile. Considering that a month later, he was able to discard his Roman collar and enter Montbard, he must have played his part well enough.

    The three leaders of the French Section of the Workers International
    From top to bottom: Louis Dubreilh, Ludovic-Oscar Frossard, Marcel Cachin
    louis dubreuilh.jpeg
    ​

    ludovic-oscar frossard.jpeg


    51123218468_1cf3f4e50a_k.jpg



    Ludovic-Oscar Frossard and Marcel Cachin were easier to find. Both were bouncing around from one Parisian safe house to another under assumed names. The capital was full of SFIO men who both Frossard and Cachin knew. Frossard had shaved his moustache off and lost weight since being driven underground, and now travelled to Dijon without his glasses (judging stumbling around like a blind man to be a fair price to pay for security). Cachin, who was very attached to his whiskers (3), donned a mask for disfigured soldiers and pretended to walk with a cane- the SFIO agent who found him pretended to be his guide. Thus disguised, the French radicals travelled to Dijon.
    Georges Sorel, who’d lost his left arm to a sniper at Montbard, wasn’t amused by Cachin’s faux injury, but was eager to get down to business. Meeting at his bedside (he was still recovering from his amputation), the four men discussed what the next steps were. Sorel wasn’t altogether comfortable. He had the loyalty of the Dijon rebels, but the SFIO men had far more political experience. Nonetheless, since it was better to befriend a rival centre of power rather than treat it as an enemy, Sorel emphasised what they could accomplish together. Would it be possible for the SFIO to call for a general strike to paralyse the Deschanel regime? How could the SFIO persuade soldiers to change sides? Dubreuilh wanted to know how Sorel’s men could help SFIO members in political prisons, while Cachin mentioned ideological differences between the two which would need to be resolved. The most important point, though, came from Frossard. Jean-Jacques Famride, he said, was clearly “pas un de nous”- not one of us. Sorel nodded slowly. “And what do you propose? He is a military man and I am not.” Ludovic-Oscar Frossard remained silent for a moment before saying, “Marx spoke of two revolutions, n’est-ce pas? One alongside the bourgeois-democrats, one against them.” This was code for collaborating with Famride during the fighting before turning on him. Aware that this conversation had the potential to turn explosive, Sorel changed the subject, but harboured similar thoughts. Famride was a rival, and it was reassuring to know that he’d have support in a struggle for dominance.

    In the end, the men crafted a modus vivendi despite their differences. Sorel knew that the SFIO men were potential rivals but was willing to work with them for the power they brought. Meanwhile, the SFIO saw Sorel as an outsider. As veterans of the French far-left, they were determined to use the revolt for their own causes.

    To this end, they decided upon a second Paris Commune.

    Striking was illegal under Emergency Regulations Act #3, and the Parisian police had been working hard to prevent labour unrest from forming. In taking the easy way out- suppressing popular anger rather than treating it- Deschanel was sowing trouble. Convinced that steel could defeat hearts and minds, he’d ignored all advice to liberalise.
    He was about to pay for that mistake.

    * * *

    Paulette Vidal dreaded going home. She could have taken a back-road, she could’ve slept rough. But there was no choice- she had to explain. Her father had charged Boche machine-guns for two years and, judging by his Legion d’Honneur, done a fair bit of damage. If he could put the fear of le bon Dieu into the invaders, what would he do here? Paulette crumpled the pink paper. Throwing it away would only delay the explosion until tomorrow. No, there was only one thing for it. Heart in mouth, Paulette pushed the door open and began the climb to her fourth-story flat. “Bonjour, papa! C’est moi!”

    “Bonjour, Paulette.” Alfred Vidal was built like an ox, with a scar crossing his face. “How was the factory today? Come to think of it, today was your pay-day, n’est-ce pas?” He grunted. “And about time too. Here”- he rubbed his hands together- “donnez-moi.” Paulette handed him the money with her left hand, hiding the pink paper in her right. She tried not to look at where her father’s right leg had once been. “Only thirty million? Degoutant. How, Paulette, are we supposed to keep this family fed if they do not give you more? Why, the government gave me one hundred million last month for this”- he tapped his pinned-up trouser leg- “and what can I buy for that now? Absurd.” Alfred blew his nose on a 1,000,000-franc note with Deshcanel’s face on it. “And anyhow, my daughter, how is, er…” He gestured at her bulging belly.

    “Assez bien, vraiment.” That was a lie- she’d been nauseous the whole day, and the baby hadn’t helped by kicking. No sense in making papa worry, though. He’d have enough to worry about soon. “Er, papa…”

    “What is it, Paulette?” Her father’s eyebrows jumped up. “You are not ill, I trust?”

    “The… the father spoke to me today.” Her father frowned. Every word had to be forced out, but Paulette carried on, her throat tightening. “The… the father. He said that, that… oh, papa! He said that because, well, I am carrying this baby, that he will not let me work any longer!” Tears ran down her face as Paulette handed her father the crumpled pink paper. “Oh, what are we to do?” She buried her face in her hands.

    “That bastard! That utter bastard!” Just as she’d feared, Alfred Vidal hit the roof. His voice like rolling thunder, he called the factory foreman several things he’d picked up in the trenches as he waved his cane around furiously. She stood there, helpless and alone. “The swine! He is responsible for getting you into this mess. When you realised that you were carrying this child, he promised us that you would still have work. Now he proposes to throw you out and harm not just you and this family, but his unborn child as well?”

    “I do not care about his child!”, she shrieked. “I care about us, papa! You said it yourself. A hundred million francs cannot buy a thing now and our savings are worthless. We shall have nothing!”

    “We will see about this”, muttered Alfred Vidal. “We will damn well see about this.”

    * * *

    Poor Paulette’s story got out quickly. Many of her fellow factory girls, having suffered similar injustices, were sympathetic, and they staged a walk-out on 15 December 1917. Apoplectic, the foreman called the police. A “Dijonite disturbance” had broken out and needed to be crushed at once! It was a classic example of the Third Republic’s over-reaction. The image of mounted policemen wading into a crowd of striking women and swinging bludgeons around was a propaganda disaster. When SFIO men began shouting from the rooftops about the “massacre of innocent women”, people paid attention. Parisian workers viewed the mugshots of the arrested female strikers in the papers, and saw weary eyes, haggard faces, skin turned yellow by chemicals and hair turned grey by stress. In short, they saw themselves.

    Instinct told the Parisians what to do next. Protests erupted the next day where the women were being held, calling for their release and for the foreman whose droit de seigneur had started this whole mess to be sacked- amongst them was the one-legged Alfred Vidal. This is where the SFIO came in. Chairman Louis Dubreuilh, Ludovic-Oscar Frossard, and Marcel Cachin had been lying in wait for an opportunity, and leapt at it like an animal ambushing its prey. How long, they asked, “are the workers to tolerate oppression of those like them in every particular, whose place they may take tomorrow?” The three men enjoyed the respect of the working classes and their words went far. Many joined the protests the next day (the 17th), while others held solidarity strikes. Paulette Vidal and her compatriots were nearly forgotten; what mattered was giving two fingers to the Third Republic.

    Paul Deschanel was determined to quench the flames. Though he’s been justly criticised for his tendency to overreact, unrest in the middle of Paris was menacing enough that he can be forgiven for seeing Georges Sorel’s hand in this. He sent the police in at 10:30 AM. However, today’s protestors- who were mostly young men and greater in number than the previous day’s- fought back, and the police withdrew after half an hour. When they returned at noon, they found a terrifying sight waiting.
    Barricades were going up in Paris.

    The people had finally had enough. If Paul Deschanel was going to send armed men against them for having a sense of justice, then they would fight back. People donated bricks, furniture… anything a man could take cover behind. When the police captain in charge of the second attack, a man named Humbert, saw, he turned pale. “Les barricades- ils sont la révolution!” has been popularised, but “Merde!” is closer to the truth. Fighting raged throughout the afternoon, after which the police were repulsed again. The rebels- for that is what they were- now controlled two square miles of Paris.

    The aptly titled Night of 17-18 December, painted six months after the fact when France was still in the afterglow of revolution, depicts men standing around a bullet-ridden red flag atop a barricade in a cobble-stone street. Silver moonlight illuminates the figures as they wait for a government attack. In reality, the night of 17-18 December was a bloody mess. Confused street fighting reigned as more barricades went up. Soldiers shot first and asked questions later; attempts to detain potential suspects only led to more violence. Deschanel had no more control over events than Georges Sorel hundreds of miles away. The fighting died down at midnight as both sides rested, but when the sun rose everyone returned with vigour. Street fighting ripped through Paris all throughout the 18th. Labourers defending their workplaces fired on any and all intruders; they were then treated as enemies by the Army men in the streets. Cognisant of which way the wind was blowing, soldiers defected en masse to the revolutionaries. For the second time in fifty years, the cobblestone streets of la ville lumiere were witness to violence. Gunshots replaced accordions; cordite replaced food and flowers. Chaos reigned.

    The SFIO triumvirate had mixed feelings. On the one hand, all professed Marxism and believed revolution inevitable. By that metric, they told themselves, what they were doing was not just a milestone, it was profoundly moral. Yet on the other hand, they’d always been career politicians working inside the system. Socialism, to them, had meant Party congresses, political debate, and winning elections. Burning the system down felt, if not wrong, then alien. (9) Nonetheless, like Sorel in Dijon they had crossed the Rubicon of revolution. On the twentieth, the three declared themselves “representatives of the revolutionary working peoples of Paris”, who would “steer the ship of popular rule in a stable and prosperous declaration.” The city was declared to be under siege. Men young and old were conscripted into an “Armed Committee for the Defence of Paris”, supplied by opening the city’s armory. One of the paramilitary’s first tasks was guarding the city’s food supply- that was one thing the masses couldn’t be allowed to redistribute. Food was distributed three times a day under bayonet-point. However, no one was disconcerted by this. Paul Deschanel’s soldiers had guarded the granaries too, but to deny food to the hungry rather than feed them. The masses appreciated the regime’s “On Redistribution”, issued on Christmas Day. Anything which had belonged to “class enemies” (that term was never properly defined, so as to encourage a broad interpretation) was declared “the property of the people”. Chaos ensued as poor Parisians grabbed at the luxury they’d seen but never enjoyed. Wealthy urbanites who hadn’t fled were forced to watch mobs tearing through their homes taking what they pleased- fear and shame drove more than one aristocrat to suicide. Objets d’art which had survived the madness of 1789 fell victim to the mobs of 1917 while mansions were burned. That said, there were limits to the damage- most paintings and antiques, not being seen as worth destroying, survived, while the new regime took care to protect cultural sights. Once the initial pent-up anger of rebellion had been released, the destruction quietened as people of Paris had no desire to destroy their home city.

    Rebels clash with incoming mounted police during the Second Paris Commune​
    secondcommune.jpeg


    Amidst all this, the main question amongst loyalists was, “Where is the Prime Minister?”

    Paul Deschanel was dead. His mental health had been declining for some while (7), and the recent stresses of the civil war had proven too much. His last order had gone out at 10:30 PM on 17 December; his body was found at 4:15 AM on the 18th. Though his cause of death would formally be listed as heart attack, one cannot rule out the possibility that he killed himself, but was assigned a less ‘shameful’ cause of death for the world to see. (8) Président de la République Louis Marin took up his predecessor’s banner in Nantes. The war, Marin declared, would be fought to its successful conclusion, and “the integrity and structure of the French State thereby secured.” Events spoke louder than politicians. Apathy swept over France as the truth sank in. Soon, it would be Sorel and the SFIO who ruled over them, not Marin. People did their best to ignore his government, only acknowledging its existence to prevent it imposing its will on them. Soldiers continued to form councils and desert, peasants continued to eat their foodstuffs, not sell them, and the cities teetered on the brink of anarchy. The regime lacked the strength to crush the Second Paris Commune, much less advance on Dijon. Marin was fated to be one of those grey men whose failure to hold back the tide sums up the Third Republic.

    Georges Sorel, meanwhile, was learning a great deal about how to fake a smile. Since the SFIO were his nominal allies, he had to applaud their seizure of Paris. Yet, they were his political and ideological competitors. While he’d taken Dijon and become bogged down in Montbard, a rival centre of leftist power had conducted a second Paris Commune. Yet because they shared a mutual foe in Deschanel, he had to treat this like a good thing.

    A desire to outperform his rivals led Sorel to the most radical step of the Revolution yet.

    On 1 January 1918, Georges Sorel issued another of his famous manifestos. The Second Paris Commune had only been the beginning. “After all, only two of France’s cities- Dijon and Paris- have liberated themselves thus far. Yet, how many are in France? How many metropoles with their teeming masses are left, waiting to be liberated?” A nationwide General Strike was needed to “bring the machinery of the Third Republic to a halt and establish national liberation for all of France.” People listened. The first week of 1918 saw walkouts en masse across the country. Trains stopped running, the factories stopped producing goods, and students were not taught as was left of France’s economy was killed by the very people who made it function. In certain key areas, mostly to do with energy production and basic transportation, the regime diverted badly-needed soldiers to force people to work. Train engineers did their jobs with an officer’s pistol to their heads; miners were escorted by armed men to ensure that government-held regions stayed warm. Aside from that, though, the Sorelians were right. Georges Marin lacked the soldiers to establish a military dictatorship, and so the general strike carried on. The harvest had already been brought in and farmers had enough for themselves- there was nothing to lose by bringing food to the cities (albeit less than in calmer years). In exchange, they received not a billion francs but something physical and tangible. France had been sliding to a barter economy ever since the spectre of hyperinflation came, and the new year saw this extended and deepened. One could eat a loaf of bread; one could merely blow one’s nose with a banknote. In such uncertain times, which had more value? Depending on the buyer, a farmer might get a pair of gloves, a hat, or brand-new horseshoes in exchange for two loaves of bread and a pint of milk. Thus, the city-dwellers of France found themselves with calories in their stomachs, minimal work, and a political vision before them. Montpellier, Toulouse, Nantes, Bordeaux, and other cities all found themselves gripped by riots as people turned on the Third Republic. The entire system was collapsing before Georges Sorel’s eyes like a colossus in an earthquake. “Urban councils” were declared in many places, with union leaders, local radicals, or the man with the key to the granary taking charge backed up by a few guns. Soldiers were attracted to these places like moths to a flame, wanting nothing more than to return home and forget that they’d ever had anything to do with defending the Third Republic. Rebel political commissars and soldiers were greeted with open arms as they integrated these towns into Sorel’s state. Young men flocked to the rebel army; many officers brought their units over en masse when they deserted.

    The Third Republic died in February 1918.

    Georges Marin was left broken by this. He hadn’t wanted the job of state president any more than Deschanel had wanted to be Prime Minister- adverse circumstances had forced it on him. Just like his predecessor, Marin had been forced to build a brick wall to keep the revolutionaries out of power, yet he had been given no straw. Despite his best efforts, Marin knew that his name would go down alongside Louis XVI, Napoleon III, Joseph Caillaux, Emile Loubet, and Paul Deschanel- Frenchmen who, through their failures, brought calamity on la Nation. (10) At 6 AM on 1 March 1918, he led his family and government aboard the destroyer Bouclier- the entire French Navy, down to the last ship, escorted them to Algiers. This was not just for security- dispersing the fleet across the North African coast would deny it to the rebels.

    France was now divided. Valiant government units fought delaying actions all through the spring, francs-tireurs slipping into the woods to harass the new regime. Banditry continued to be a problem, as armed men decided to go their own way rather than submitting to Sorel. The Vendee, haven of monarchism during the Revolution, held out the longest- Comrade General Famride (as he took to styling himself) wasn’t pacified until the early summer. Yet, by the end of March the deed was done. Half a year after a Dijon jailbreak had sparked a riot, a red shadow had covered France. It remained to be seen what would happen next.

    Across the Mediterranean, the Third Republic lay prostrate. Their own people had turned on them; the soldiers of France had proven bigger foes than the soldiers of Germany. Though France of course had a long history of regime change, this seemed different from the conservative perspective- never had so radical an ideology seized the mainland. Yet, shielded by the remnants of la Marine Nationale, the ancien regime survived. Though stalemate ensued for now, the Third Republic’s leaders were determined to neither forgive nor forget. In this, they were inspired by their cousins across the Atlantic, in la belle province de Québec. The Quebecois national motto- je me souviens- spread around Algiers like wildfire that spring and summer.

    I will remember.

    Comments?

    1. Chapter 17 reveals all…
    2. OTL, Zhou Enlai did this to get out of Shanghai in 1927, so there’s something resembling precedent.
    3. And rightly so!
    4. See chapter 23
    5. Because he’s Egoistic Kaiser Wilhelm II™! Incidentally, I’ve been reading The Guns of August as of late, and the first chapter is replete with little anecdotes depicting what a character Wilhelm was in OTL…. worth your time!
    6. I’m perhaps the furthest thing from a Marxist possible and even I can spot the contradiction here. ;)
    7. As his Wikipedia article makes clear
    8. Less shameful from the perspective of someone in 1917, anyway.
    9. Especially Chairman Louis Dubreuilh- from what I can gather a reasonably conservative man within the Socialist context
    10. Caillaux was the Prime Minister who signed the Treaty of Dresden while Loubet was PM when the revolt began.
     
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    • Kaiser Chris

    Kaiser Chris

    Even though we kind of got the stereotypical Commie France and Nationalist Algeria Kaiserreich ending, I at least appreciate that in here the Revolution went off with the leaders having the best intentions in mind and generally focusing their efforts on just overthrowing the government and providing immediate relief to the people then becoming the Second Coming of Robspierre. A lot of Germany Wins WW1 stories just have the French Commune become reverse Nazis with them shooting rich people, nobles, Catholics, and anyone who isn't a hyper-Leftist for the Revolution. While lots of innocent people did suffer, the damage was limited and most actions were taken in the name of ending the violence and bringing food back to the people, not killing for the sake of killing. There was a time where the Soviets could have been a highly flawed but benevolent force for Russia and at least for now it seems that as messy as France is, that the Metrepole isn't going to become Stalinist France anytime soon.

    Good job. Hopefully, Britain stays Democratic to shake things up.
     

    PobreCesar

    Glory2Cabinda said:
    Yes the Germans have no reason to provoke the yanks has that would fuck them over. Its basic geopolitics that powers will not try to fuck themselves over.
    Click to expand...
    Tell that to OTL Germany and Japan. (Though I guess their plans seemed like good ideas at the time)

    Is there any possibility of Russia beating Germany in the next war? I mean, they did in our world, though Germany was weaker OTL.
     
    Lisowczycy

    Lisowczycy

    I assume Marin didn't at least give orders for key infrastructure to be destroyed or disable if possible.

    Though at least he still got the navy out of there mostly intact.
     
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