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

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Kaiser Wilhelm the Tenth

Jaenera Targaryen said:
ITTL, he did something similar after losing the 1916 election. That is, Wilson issued an executive order transferring $500 million from the US Treasury to J.P. Morgan, to cover the latter's losses after the Anglo-French collateral proved only able to cover around ~75% of their debts. And Wilson did so without consulting either the President-Elect or Congress. Naturally, it had Hughes, Congress, and constitutional lawyers up in arms, and which Hughes immediately took J.P. Morgan to court for after he was sworn in as President of the United States.

Typically, J.P. Morgan held his ground and claimed Wilson had every right to do as he did, and it's not any of Hughes' business. He forced the matter to go to the Supreme Court which finally ruled 5-4 that Wilson had no authority whatsoever to do what he did, and ordered J.P. Morgan to return the $500 million to the US Treasury.

The only reason Hughes didn't drag Wilson to court was that he didn't want to set a precedent for personally prosecuting a former president, besides, just setting precedent that big time corporations are not above the law much less the CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES was apparently enough for Hughes. That, and by declaring his actions unconstitutional, Hughes - through the Supreme Court - had already managed to tar Wilson's reputation.

Speaking of which, @Kaiser Wilhelm the Tenth, did J.P. Morgan appeal the Supreme Court ruling? Did the order to return the money to the government account for inflation/deflation?
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No, there was no appeal. The money was returned to Uncle Sam. To be honest, I'm a little surprised this is receiving so much debate- I'd intended it to be a minor little thing. Not complaining, mind you- your participation in this is always appreciated!
Hopefully, a better precedent than OTL can be set with regards to corporate power... although if I'm being honest I still don't think that likely...
 
Jaenera Targaryen

Jaenera Targaryen

Kaiser Wilhelm the Tenth said:
No, there was no appeal. The money was returned to Uncle Sam. To be honest, I'm a little surprised this is receiving so much debate- I'd intended it to be a minor little thing. Not complaining, mind you- your participation in this is always appreciated!
Hopefully, a better precedent than OTL can be set with regards to corporate power... although if I'm being honest I still don't think that likely...
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At the very least, the concept of 'Imperial Presidency' has been given a major reality check, i.e. the President cannot move public funds without consulting with Congress first, and the President-Elect must be consulted on any major policy decisions in the months between their election and inauguration.
 

Noblesse Oblige

Iraiva said:
No problem 👍 Google Translate is terrible at translating Indian languages. Is it the same way with European ones too?
Without Gandhi, the independence movement will be very different. I'm looking forward to it!
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It's a terrible translator in general, but useful for people who really don't know the language they're using otherwise.
 
Kylia

Kylia

Google translate ain't bad for one word or concept, and it has gotten better (to the point where getting a really interesting Google Translate Fail takes more layers than it used to)
 

Kaiser Wilhelm the Tenth



"People of Hyderabad! Today after so many long years, I call upon you to rise and free yourselves from the vicious white man's regime! Our beloved Nizam has declared that we must be free, and it up to all of us to fulfill that dream!"
-Sir Kishen Pershad's message to the people of Hyderabad, 1 July 1917

"If we had more than three old muskets and three quid in our pockets, we would've won this war already. The blighters aren't so strong, and if we're the greatest empire on earth we'd bloody better spend some money and start acting like it!"
-Baron George Lloyd, Governor-General of India, commenting on the lack of support which London gave the anti-insurgency forces.



Ten-year-old monarchs seldom make firm rulers. Children lack the force of will to make their imprint on the institutions of state, and the wisdom to lead their country well. The more fortunate ones have honest and skilled regents acting for them- as with young Otto von Habsburg and his uncle Maximilian- and the less fortunate become overshadowed by rapacious, feuding courtiers, shut up in their bedrooms and ignored to the detriment of their countries.

Such was the fate of Azam Jah, Nizam of Hyderabad.

The poor boy’s father had been assassinated on 23 June 1917 while out hunting. The servant who’d detonated the bomb had been just one part of a larger conspiracy, and events moved rapidly in the capital once confirmation of the man’s death arrived. Sir Kishen Pershad (1), an old court favourite who had placed his love for Hyderabad above his affinity to the monarch, declared that a “vast and menacing conspiracy, threatening the lifeblood of our realm” was afoot, and moved quickly to secure the capital. He placed Hyderabad city under lockdown and began searching for the murderers. Of course, this was all theatre- Pershad was the leader of the conspiracy but wanted to blame his colleagues to look innocent. Aditya Deol, the servant who’d killed the nizam, became a scapegoat; he was publicly strangled. The British officials in the realm were told to remain where they were and not to panic. Guards fetched Azam Jah from an algebra lesson to be told the bad news; the poor prince broke down and fell to the floor crying. Shortly after five PM on the 24th, they crowned him as nizam on a balcony in the royal palace; Pershad and a British minister were present, along with a heavy security contingent. Pershad swore an oath of loyalty to the boy, but he was the leader of Hyderabad for all intents and purposes.

Having washed his hands of the dead man’s blood and secured his grip over the princely state, it was time for Kishen Pershad to lead Hyderabad to the independence he’d long desired.

Pershad declared a period of mourning for a month and encouraged Asaf Jah’s widow to commit sati at the funeral. This was ironic given that her husband had despised the practise, but it provided a convenient pretext to do away with a potentially troublesome court figure. The mourning slowed the pace of life in the kingdom, closing shops and reducing business to a crawl. Communications with the British overlords were conveniently slowed on the grounds that the messengers ought to be at home weeping, not performing their day-to-day tasks. Of course, Pershad had planned the old nizam’s death and was no doubt in a jubilant mood, but pretense had to be made. Besides, this offered a convenient cover for him, giving him time to scheme away from prying eyes.

Sir Kishen Pershad, the power behind the throne in Hyderabad.


During the week after the assassination, fighting broke out in Hyderabad between British troops and locals. This was never anything serious- usually just minor scuffles that seldom left more than a few casualties- but combined with the austere silence from the palace, it produced an atmosphere of tension inside the state. British merchants and officials sent memorandums to Governor George Lloyd in Calcutta, asking for protection. Governor Lloyd, having taken over following his predecessor’s assassination, was on edge and more than willing to jump at shadows. To him, Hyderabad was a disaster waiting to happen, and he needed to teach the new regime who was boss. Thus, Lloyd dispatched an emissary on 29 June to meet with the esteemed Nizam Azam Jah… and of course his trusty servant Kishen Pershad. The emissary extended his condolences before asking the government to do a better job respecting British interests and suppressing anti-British sentiment. With just a hint of threat, he added that they had rewarded Hyderabad for its cooperation with protectorate status instead of annexation, and Britain expected that they would pull their end of the deal. Pershad replied famously, “as you have respected our interests, so we will respect yours!”, before showing the emissary the door. He returned to Calcutta, furious but calm. Pershad knew that he had just crossed the Rubicon. This was a massive slap in the face to British authority in their client kingdom, and if they didn’t like the regime, then they’d surely replace it with one more to their tastes… which would mean a grave for Pershad. Conveniently forgetting the mourning period he’d decreed, the power behind the throne dispatched orders to his subordinates across Hyderabad. Things were going from bad to worse vis-à-vis the British, he said, and they needed to be ready to fight.

Hyderabadi troops march to their wartime positions days before the formal start of the rebellion.


Meanwhile, in Calcutta, Governor Lloyd was furious. An arch-conservative and something of a racist, he’d become paranoid in recent months, conjuring in his mind a conspiracy to expel the British from their crown jewel. Of course, the truth was far less sensational, but the image still stuck in his head. The now-deceased Asaf Jah VII had been the ideal nizam: someone who collaborated fully with Britain while also keeping his people happy. Kishen Pershad’s regime was nothing but trouble, and he had to strangle it in the cradle before it led India into revolt.

This meant war.

On the night of 30 June, Lloyd stayed up composing a long telegram to London about the danger posed by Pershad. Exaggerating the danger ever-so-slightly, he said that a vast conspiracy threatened the entire Raj, and could London please dispatch thirty thousand troops immediately? When this reached Whitehall in the middle of the Prime Minister’s tea-time (8:30 PM in Calcutta is three in the afternoon in London), the poor man is said to have nearly choked in surprise on his currant scone. The last thing Prime Minister David Lloyd George wanted was a costly insurgency in India, but it looked as though things were doomed to go that way. Of course, all he had to work with was Lloyd’s telegram, which didn’t exactly convey the truth. From his perspective, though, there was no way London could provide what Calcutta needed. This was only a year after the fiasco of Operation Dynamo had sent much of the BEF to the bottom of the Channel and millions of men into German captivity; those men wouldn’t be eager to put khaki back on. Given that those men were back at their civilian jobs, stripping away that labour force wouldn’t do the economy much good. He wired back that he could scrape up some men, but nowhere near thirty thousand.

Lloyd George panicked at the thought that the Raj might be dying.

Meanwhile, the dreaded step was taking place. At five AM on 1 July 1917, the State of Hyderabad declared its independence from British rule. Militiamen who’d moved into position during the night seized key points in the cities and exchanged fire with colonial troops. Gunfire awoke people who foolishly rushed out into the street… few had the chance to regret their mistake afterwards.The British fought back with everything they had; the betrayal had caught them off-guard, but they had no intention of going down quietly. Meanwhile, their Indian opponents had received their orders “from our glorious Nizam” only hours before, and many were sceptical about taking up arms; however, they had a long list of grievances against the whites and the fighting had a personal dimension for many. Watching their brothers, husbands, and sons take up arms, many Hyderabadis followed suit, grabbing kitchen knives or old pistols. A fire started in the chaos, and as the sun rose over Hyderabad City, the capital was ablaze… no fireman was foolhardy enough to try extinguishing the flames.

In the countryside, events were less dramatic. Small towns often had only token British garrisons; rebels surprised these men in their barracks, and they entered captivity with minimal fuss, knowing that they couldn’t win. There were cases of trigger-happy Englishmen resisting the foe and burning down entire villages, but these were fortunately very much the minority. For remote farmers who made their living growing crops or cotton, 1 July was hardly an unusual day… few had access to news from the capital, and the farm and animals had to come first. Nonetheless, it was painfully clear as the day dragged on that ample reinforcements would be needed if the Union Jack was to stay above Hyderabad, and no one seemed to know where to get them from.

Governor Lloyd in Calcutta was informed of Hyderabad’s secession barely an hour after the fact, and his first comments- preserved by one of his secretaries- were hot enough to put the climate to shame. Once he’d spent a good ten minutes venting his spleen, the governor got dressed and issued a “Declaration of National Emergency in the Raj”. British troops- white British troops, he stressed- were to invade Hyderabad as soon as possible, and were to show no quarter. In his eyes, there was a vast conspiracy amongst the peoples of the subcontinent to expel the whites, and it was just now taking shape. Bonar Law’s assassination had been the first step; now Hyderabad’s secession was the second. Delving further into la-la land, Lloyd imagined that there was an organised, pro-independence network in virtually every city and all over the countryside, who would revolt within days. He would stamp these subversives out by any means necessary!

India was going under martial law.

While the vice-governor composed a telegram to London, Governor Lloyd screamed into the telephone at various governors and commanders. The cities were to come under effective military rule, with no one being given the benefit of the doubt. Anyone who seemed the least bit “subversive” was to be clapped in irons, and protests were to be met with bludgeons. In the countryside, the governor dictated, he wanted regular patrols to stamp out banditry- which was surely connected with the events in Hyderabad- and to ensure the loyalty of the peasants. Particular care was to be paid to the princely states- Lloyd hinted that white officials shouldn’t feel afraid to mount coups d’etat if the local prince seemed to tilt towards revolt. He also decreed that governors would have to do all this with one hand tied behind their backs, as he was stripping substantial amounts of men to use against Hyderabad. Many pointed out that he was asking the impossible- they had few white men and even less money at their disposal. How were they supposed to increase security? The livid governor used words not becoming of an upper-class Englishman before throwing down the receiver and sending yet another telegram to London. He needed more men!

Meanwhile, Hyderabad continued to fight for its independence. As the hot July days dragged on, the few stubborn British troops left all threw up their hands and passed into captivity. Sir Kishen Pershad knew that he would have to face a British invasion eventually, and that the only way to secure independence was to make the foe realise that conquering Hyderabad would be more trouble than it was worth. Thus, he became determined to mobilise the state for a long war. Acting in the boy nizam’s name, Pershad conscripted rural peasants and city-dwellers alike, making no distinction between Hindus and Muslims. They put captured British rifles to good use, although there was still a tremendous disparity in equipment, and supply issues would forever plague the Hyderabadis. Worse than that, though, was one simple fact: it was Hyderabad versus the rest of the British Raj. Pershad might’ve ruled the largest state in India, but the enemy had the rest of the subcontinent under his grip, and if it came down to a war of attrition, the revolt would surely be defeated.

It was time to escalate the war.

A map of the Raj, showing the different princely states and direct British possessions



Hyderabad’s ethnic makeup gave it an interesting position in relation to the other states- it was Muslim-led but majority-Hindu. Surprisingly, the two groups actually got on fairly well. Thus, Pershad- himself a Hindu- calculated that he could appeal to both groups in his call to rebel. With the princely state in chaos throughout July, slipping in or out surreptitiously was an easy enough matter, and three diplomats were dispatched to three different places: Mysore to the south, the vast land of Rajputana to the north, and one to Constantinople.

Mysore was none too receptive to the idea of revolt. Under the rule of their Maharaja, the princely state was in the middle of a golden age, widely regarded as a cultural hub in India. Few were enthusiastic about the current situation- on the contrary- but even fewer were willing to subject the kingdom’s economic boom to the flames of war. Some violence did break out in the province that July, but the British garrison suppressed it. Mysoreans would fight on both sides of the war with Hyderabad, and British troops and supplies would arrive in the region’s ports, but the kingdom remained formally neutral.

The diplomat sent to Rajputana enjoyed more success.

Unlike the other princely states- kingdoms which had been occupied and puppetised by the British- Rajputana was a confederation. The local princes all controlled small kingdoms dominated by British administration, and most of them had remained loyal to their overlords during the great revolt of 1857.

It wasn’t to be repeated.

Like everywhere else on the subcontinent, the people of Rajputana were sick and tired of British rule- something only exacerbated by Governor Lloyd’s declaration of martial law. Already, some of the princes were discussing the possibility of revolt amongst themselves, and when the emissary from Hyderabad arrived, his message was well-received. Meeting with the rulers of the four largest states- Udiapur, Jaipur, Jodhpur, and Bikaner- the emissary extracted a promise that they would “do everything in their power to end the status quo regarding the British.” Unlike in Hyderabad, the rulers of these states were not particularly pro-British, and supporters of revolt needed no conspiracies. They agreed to co-ordinate the uprisings for the same day to catch the British off-guard; the day selected was 26 July.

Meanwhile, a Hyderabadi diplomat was en route to Constantinople. Fleeing the rebel state under the guise of a Muslim making the hajj, he made his way to a port on the eastern coast and boarded a ship bound for Cairo. Meeting with Turkish agents on the banks of the Nile, the two men travelled to the Ottoman capital, where the hulking Foreign Minister Halil Mentese met him. The two were an odd pair- one a short, swarthy Central Indian in poor man’s garb, the other a polished European-style diplomat (2), but they had a common goal. In three sessions throughout the last days of July, the Hyderabadi diplomat asked the same question over and over through different interpreters: how much help could the Ottoman Empire give the Hyderabadi revolt? Playing the “brother Muslim” card, he reminded Mentese that a holy jihad (3) had been declared during the Great War; surely that was still in effect? Smiling, Mentese said that he’d do his utmost with the Foreign Ministry, before letting the emissary gather dust in a plush hotel room.

They would keep him waiting for quite some while.

Hyderabad was thousands of miles away from Constantinople, and lacked so much as a connection to the ocean. Even if it were possible to ship a substantial number of Ottoman troops to India, to do so would be to make war on Britain, which Enver Pasha and his clique had no intention of doing again. Even sending money or supplies would arouse London’s ire, and for what gain? The Ottomans had never had leverage in India, and there was nothing in the subcontinent they needed. Conservatives in the Foreign Ministry added that Hyderabad was Hindu-majority, so arguments about Islamic fraternity were pointless. After being kept waiting for three weeks, Mentese summoned the emissary to his office, giving him a platitude, a firm handshake, a cup of tea, and a ticket home.

The Hyderabadi attempt to raise diplomatic support for their uprising had been a total failure.

As July turned into August, the days grew longer and hotter, and stalemate pervaded the Hyderabadi front. The rebels had dispatched agents to all the major cities of the Raj, and these men were busy conducting a campaign of terrorism. The “elephant bomb” trick which had been used to kill Asah Jah VII was deployed time and time again, with predictably grisly results; eventually the colonial authorities banned the animals from entering cities. Servants accidentally put poison in their white master’s cocktails, and in one especially nasty case, a visiting duchess was killed when a viper somehow found its way into her bed at night… when her husband found her corpse in the morning he ordered all the servants arrested. Riots broke out in Calcutta, Bombay, and elsewhere, straining the local police beyond measure and forcing many ministers to flee into subterranean offices or perform their duties aboard naval vessels. India was no longer safe for anyone who was white, and many Englishmen- even those who’d been born in the subcontinent- fled during these months: some to Singapore or Hong Kong, others to the Motherland. (4) Suppressing all this took an immense toll on the army’s manpower, but Lloyd George continued to drag his feet with regards to the promised reinforcements. Two brigades arrived in the middle of July and were committed to “aggressive patrolling” at the front, but that was it. A desire in London to keep the books somewhere close to balanced (5) meant that, to put it bluntly, Whitehall was fighting this war on the cheap.

Three young lads in British Burma, typical English boys who happened to be born in the colonies. The one furthest to the right is future writer Eric Blair, whose literary career would be greatly influenced by his experiences as a boy during the Indian revolt of 1917


The Hyderabadi people weren’t enjoying their revolt as much as they should have been, either. While an educated, nationalistic intelligentsia frowned on the British for historic and cultural reasons, the average man-in-the-street had had less to gripe about. The war had opened his eyes to the fact that a better world was possible, and that was largely why he’d agreed to join the revolt in the first place. However, what had changed a month in? The nizam was still thousands of times richer than he, and he was now in the army, away from his family and in more danger than he’d ever been. Added to this were the religious tensions in rebel Hyderabad; the Hindu masses had never quite learned to love the fact that their overlords prayed facing Mecca. Some wondered if perhaps it was time to lay down their arms, even if that meant living under the Union Jack?

Nothing formally changed throughout August, but disillusionment with the revolt was building…

Meanwhile, the situation in Rajputana remained a mess. As mentioned above, the region was a confederacy of princely states, and only the largest four had joined the revolt. Fighting had evicted the British from their positions there, but this left sixteen minor principalities in league with the colonisers. Combined with white troops, these statelets provided some 100,000 men to the British cause; these were of varying quality, however, and many were little more than home guards. These were now the victims of attacks from the four rebel states. Claiming that they were “British sell-outs unworthy to be called Indian”, the Rajputana rebels set about conquering their smaller neighbours. Regional rivalries long suppressed erupted once more, and both sides fought with considerable fury throughout July and August. This was done out of a self-serving desire to expand their individual realms, not out of any sense of solidarity with the men in Hyderabad, and it contributed surprisingly little to the rebellion. Eradicating these little pockets of resistance cost Rajputanian lives, and meant that those men weren’t attacking the British directly. Had they had hurled those men at territory directly administered by Great Britain, the revolt might’ve taken a very different turn.

This was the situation in August 1917. The British Raj had lost two of its most important members, and terrorism racked the “loyal” regions, but they still maintained central control from Calcutta. Militarily, a stalemate was in effect, as military weakness and political division kept Hyderabad or Rajputana from making military strides, while the British were fighting this war on the cheap- they really ought to have had more. However, things were about to change, and the men in London offices were about to start paying to protect the Crown Jewel of the Empire…

Comments?



  1. Made Prime Minister of the kingdom in 1919 OTL.
  2. With rather a lot of Armenian blood on his hands- we’ll get back to him!
  3. Forgive the oxymoron.
  4. Including a young man named Eric Blair
  5. Yeah, I need to do an update about the UK proper. So much to do, so little time!
 

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Khaine

Kaiser Wilhelm the Tenth said:
Excerpt from Eric Blair's short story The Jungle Boy (1940). Blair's family fled India, where he'd grown up, in the summer of 1917, and the story, while disguised as a children's tale, is an allegory of the violence and betrayal of that revolt, which saw Indians turn on innocent white men.
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Why'd Orwell start riffing of Kiplings work rather than write his own stuff?
 
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