Plus, Britain would see Hannover as a source of enmity with Germany, when she needs Germany on her side to check France and Russia.
Separated at Birth: America and Drakia
- Thread starter Ephraim Ben Raphael
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Plus, Britain would see Hannover as a source of enmity with Germany, when she needs Germany on her side to check France and Russia.
Russia claims it, it's light green on the map, though, which means no one actually controls it and it's sparsely populated.
How likely is it that the Rashidis or Saudis grab Hedjaz from the Hashemites ATM?
Chapter 10
Ephraim Ben Raphael
Banned
Chapter 10
Drakian culture revered the rugged, pioneering spirit. In their minds they were carving civilization out of a vast and dangerous wilderness, bringing civilization to the barbarian and Christ to the unbeliever. By the end of the 1850s a majority of Drakians endorsed the Continental Imperative- the belief that it was their divine right and duty to unify all of Africa. But unlike America- which also reveres the rugged, pioneering spirit- this did not go hand in hand with a belief in individualism. In America it had been possible at times for an individual or a family to buy some supplies, pack up, and carve a new life for themselves on the frontier. American settlers both ITTL and IOTL spread west so fast that government authority was unable to keep up with them, leading in the short term to the lawlessness of the Wild West, and in the long term to an ideology arguing that Americans don’t need the government that has dogged America until the present day. For Drakians however, settling the frontier as individuals or individual families was a much bigger risk and the Natives far more dangerous foes. You did not go out on your own, you settled in armed groups with military assistance not too far away. The American national myth was of settling an “empty” west where the Natives were villains seeking to steal their stuff at worst and childlike primitives at best. The Drakian national myth was that of the conquering crusader, explicitly subjugating dangerous inferiors. Where America was individualist Drakia was collectivist, viewing the group as the primary entity and the individual as secondary. Britain’s Firstborn Dominion considered itself a country under siege, perpetually at war with vast hordes of black people who would overwhelm them if they made the slightest mistake. Against that the pressure to conform, to find your place in society and fill it, not to question, arose naturally. The Anglo culture of Drakia had made room for French influences that it cherished and celebrated, it made no room for anything else. Not for the Afrikaners, or for the descendants of Portuguese colonists in Mozambique and later Angola, or anyone else who wouldn’t assimilate. At least when it came to their white inhabitants, the country expected unity.
There were three pillars to Drakia’s society; the class system, the military, and the church.
It was in the years after the end of the Last Crusade that the Drakian class system began to crystalize into its modern form. It was a complex Frankenstinian production whose existence was central to the anti-republican and anti-enlightenment ideology that had made itself inseparable from the Drakian national consciousness since the first of the United Empire Loyalists placed down roots in the cape. Most Drakians (they were never a monolithic entity) believed that society needed a wise and guiding upper class to rule over the common masses or else demagogues under democracy would drive the nation to ruin and self-destruction in response to popular whims. Of course by this point Drakia regarded that “wise and guiding upper class” to include all or most of the white inhabitants of the dominion (they were a “noble nation” thanks to intermarrying with French Royalist nobility supposedly)- it was only the Natives who needed to be ruled and guided without being granted any say in the matter. But even among the Natives there were differing degrees of necessary guidance, there has never by a system of slavery in which some slaves were not favored above others, nor a system where it was totally impossible for a slave to become free, nor a system where a freed slave could not acquire at least most of the same rights and privileges of the freeborn.
Magic white people coming in to civilize the Native Africans, as imagined by Drakia
Drakia was no different. Their class system was approximately as follows;
1. At the top was the Drakian Aristocracy, most descended from the original United Empire Loyalists, most at least claiming intermarriage with French nobility. They were major land and business owners and generally controlled the dominion’s politics
2. Next were majority of the Drakians, descended from the UELs, Hessian mercenaries, French conservatives, later Confederate die-hards and assimilated persons from a variety of sources. Together with the aristocracy they made up over 1.5 million people by 1855. There was social mobility between the Aristocracy and the greater Drakian community and they were very much the ruling class.
3. After that you had other Europeans who weren’t culturally Drakian- the Afrikaners, the Jewish community, Lusophone descendants of Portuguese colonists, German and Scandinavian immigrants, and others, they would later be joined by a wave of immigration from Latin America. They were Citizens and had the same legal rights as Drakians but faced barriers to upward mobility unless they assimilated. In 1855 there were around 400,000 in Drakia.
4. Honorary White was the highest rank that a non-white could aspire to and the lowest rank of the Citizen class. Their numbers were made up of communities of Asian descent- mostly Indian immigrants- and Native African collaborators with Drakian rule. They ranged from the descendants of pre-colonial African elites- the rulers and nobles of Drakia’s Princely States- to skilled and successful ordinary free Africans. Most of the mixed race inhabitants of Drakia had Honorary White status, and some African tribes and nations who had allied with Drakia had it for all of their members. Even Bondsmen could gain the Honorary White label by volunteering for military service, although the holder of their bond needed to grant them permission to do so and such permission was commonly used as an incentive. Honorary Whites were Citizens with almost all of the rights of white Drakians, with the exception that they could not vote and they faced marriage restrictions when it came to whites (but not absolute restrictions, if one was mixed race and less than one quarter African, or one half Asian one could marry in and have children who would be full Citizens). They were exempt from the Hut Tax and many served as managers, administrators, bureaucrats, and non-commissioned officers in the colonial administration. There were only about a million of them in 1855, but their numbers would grow rapidly as Drakia expanded to become the largest citizen class by 1870.
5. Non-citizens were officially known as Drakian Nationals. The highest-ranking Nationals were the relatively affluent ones who were able to afford to pay the Hut Tax - although it was no longer connected to Huts in any way- with money. They were generally involved in smaller businesses or employed by larger white owned ones, they were more likely to be educated or to be Christians.
6. The largest segment of Drakian society in 1855 were Nationals who couldn’t afford to pay the Hut Tax with money or stock, and so paid with labor. They were required to work three months of the year for the government- although the government often seconded them out to work for private concerns. While many lived in areas with weak government control and so avoided general mistreatment, they (along with more affluent Nationals) faced restrictions on movement, land ownership, and a limited education designed to prepare them to become a laboring class. They were the largest of the Drakian social classes in 1855, but the massive expansion of Bondsmen as Drakia grew soon relegated them to second place.
7. Bond Labor was slavery. There were ways to escape it, but none were in the control of the Bondsmen and women themselves- you could only escape your bond if the holder of it released you. Most Bondsmen were eventually released after they became too old for their labor to remain profitable, their debts were passed on their next of kin, and they were “freed” to a brief life of penury. Nationals who failed to pay their Hut Tax were vulnerable to becoming Bonded, as were those who fell into normal debts. While the Bonded had some rights under the law, an absence of enforcement meant that effectively that had no rights that Citizens were bound to respect.
Bonded laborers in a factory dormitory
The second pillar of Drakian society was its military. As a paranoid people constantly afraid of the Native Africans who outnumbered them, Drakia elevated its military to one of the most respected institutions of the state. The concept of the Citizen-Soldier and the formation of the militia created a common tie that bound most male Drakian citizens to each other. “What unit did you serve with?” was a normal question on meeting a new person and the experience of military service for all Citizens served as a unifying factor. Military service also dovetailed nicely with the Drakian philosophy that unalienable rights did not exist- you earned your rights through service to the state, you did not acquire them simply by being born- and military veterans occupied a place of prestige and esteem. After the end of the Last Crusade Drakia replaced its militia with a Reserve, requiring all male Drakians to serve two years in the professional military before becoming reservists with twice monthly training to keep their skills sharp should they be needed. The result was a reserve all of whose members had received professional training and experience and enough regular refreshers that when called upon they were superior to most conscript forces fielded by other nations. The regular Drakian military and the Reserve were supplemented by the African Auxiliary (later just the “Auxiliary”), an all-volunteer (because forcibly conscripting Natives and then giving them weapons and military training seemed a poor idea) force of Native troops with training and equipment up to the standards of European regular armies. Service in the Auxiliary was one of the most available routes for Nationals and Bondsmen to Honorary White-ness, but about half of their members were recruited from the ranks of pre-existing Honorary Whites- mostly African nations who had opted to ally with Drakia as it expanded.
Members of an African Auxiliary unit in Somalia. Although they served in segregated units with white officers, the experience of fighting for Drakia helped to cement the loyalty of favored Native groups.
The final leg that held up the Firstborn Dominion was the Church. A couple different churches as a matter of fact, although most Drakians were members of the Anglican Church of Drakia. The second largest group were Catholics- descendants of the French conservatives who had settled there- the third members of the Church of Christ the Savior, a Christian church founded in the 1840s in Drakia. The churches in question had different doctrines and answered to different leadership, but (in Drakia at least) they shared a belief that the “civilizing” of the Africans was divinely and biblically mandated. For the Catholics this meant only a belief that the Natives needed to be converted to Christianity, for the Saviours it meant the natural dominance of the true Israelites (the Drakians) over the descendants of Ham. For Drakia church was a social fixture, the place where everyone went to see or be seen, the center of the community. For most- including women who didn’t do military service (not with the pressure on them to have babies)- the Church was a common institution and experience that acted as a unifier. Together with the military and a class system that put white Drakians on top, religion helped to cement the nation together as a single unit.
St. Mary's Cathedral in Capetown, seat of the Catholic Apostolic Vicariate of Cape of Good Hope and later the center of the Sedevacantist Catholic Church.
The end of the Last Crusade was the beginning of the break between Britain and its Firstborn Dominion.
The British people were left angry after the heavy sacrifices of blood and treasure needed to… carve up the Ottoman Empire and acquire new colonies in North Africa apparently. It didn’t seem worth it, and after the death of King Earnest I two years following the war, previously suppressed calls for democratic reforms resurfaced with a vigor. Unlike his father, George V (not to be confused with the OTL George V) was more open to parliamentarianism, to expanding Westminster democracy to more of the people, manumitting the British Catholics and reducing the property qualification to vote. From Drakia’s perspective this was the start of when the home country began its degeneration, although at least it was not yet ready to push reforms on its colonial subjects. Britain’s victory in the Last Crusade had been close- exceptionally close- won solely thanks to a new and experimental weapon. But more chemical weapons like white phosphorus and chlorine gas require research, and how better to pursue that research than with human subjects? However, they could hardly experiment in Britain itself lest word escape.
In the end it was Great Britain that imposed scientific rigor and legitimate experimental protocols on Drakia’s research using Native Africans. The research they conducted was designed to create new war-winning chemical and biological weapons and later- with the import of usually Irish criminals- to find ways of dealing with the effect of the diseases of Africa on Europeans.
But speaking of diseases.
Rinderpest.
Rinderpest is a virus that is harmless to humans but deadly to two-toed ungulates, including cattle, oxen, sheep and goats. It probably originated in Asia during the Neolithic, but by the 19th century had not yet spread to Africa and the susceptible species there had developed no degree of immunity to the virus. During the Last Crusade the movement of people and animals in and out of Drakia introduced rinderpest to Mozambique by way of goats from Britain carried onboard Royal Navy ships as a source of fresh milk. Over the next few years rinderpest swept through Sub-Saharan Africa from South Africa to Ethiopia, wiping out 90% of the cattle in the region as well as large numbers of wild two-toed ungulates including wildebeests, buffalo, and giraffes.
Cattle lying dead of rinderpest during the epidemic (technically epizootic, but who actually says that?)
The impact to the Native peoples was incalculable.
For the pastoralists their cattle were their primary source of wealth and food, and the epidemic meant starvation. Hungry pastoralists with no other options descended on agricultural communities who had just lost the beasts of burden they relied on for farm work, massively cutting into their own food production. Waves of violence convulsed the continent as starving people fought each other for food, including several substantial uprisings against colonial rule. The migration of impacted groups seeking food helped to transmit smallpox, cholera, typhoid, and other European diseases that many parts of Africa had not yet become accustomed to, which tore through human populations whose immune systems had been weakened by famine. The vast reduction in grazing allowed expanses of African grassland that had been formerly used as pasture to turn into woody thornbush- which permitted tsetse flies to dramatically expand their range over the next decade, carrying with them sleeping sickness that affected humans and animals such as pigs and horses who were immune to rinderpest. A second wave of death and famine followed.
For Drakia, the rinderpest epidemic would end up being a positive development. It reduced Native populations massively and shattered many of the organized Native states that had emerged in eastern and central Africa who had halted colonial expansion. The Drakians themselves were largely unaffected by the famine- they had the military capabilities to simply take food by force to feed their white population if they needed to- and hungry Africans eagerly signed up to join the Auxiliary for the promise of regular meals, providing Drakia with soldiers it needed to suppress famine-inspired uprisings and then to expand. Expansion into areas weakened and depopulated by hunger and disease was relatively rapid, further eased by new advances in Malaria prophylaxis in the 1860s and 70s, and by basic anti-tsetse fly protections (wearing long-sleeves and early bug spray to keep the flies from biting, essentially. Don’t knock it, that what the WHO recommends). Immigration (sponsored by the Drakian government) from the United States began at this time, composed of ex-Confederates who sympathized with Drakia’s white supremacy and social system, and provided an extra hundred thousand loyal white citizens. A British government dealing with the popular and economic after-effects of the Last Crusade (not a Great Depression by any means, but the war was very expensive) was happy to cut costs by transferring the administration of its colonies in the area over to Drakia, shifting Britain’s colonial focus to West Africa and the East Indies.
From Britain’s perspective Drakia had done well at pulling its weight during the war, contributing weapons and munitions to the Confederacy, and sending troops to fight in North Africa and in India when a massive uprising threatened British rule over the subcontinent. The war in India led to the death of over a million Indians in the rebellion and its aftermath from acts of cruelty by Drakians putting down the rebels and India’s own famines and epidemics that followed. Attitudes in TTL’s more racist and white supremacist Britain (while there were reforms to colonial policy in India, no equivalent of Victoria’s OTL promise that Indians would receive the same rights as other British subjects materialized) were largely positive towards Drakians, albeit with the usual sense of superiority of Britons born in Britain over the descendants of colonists (Rudyard Kipling complained a lot about this OTL). Calls for political and labor reform in Drakia were limited to the radical wing of the Liberal Party and some human rights-minded activist groups.
Indian rebels being executed by "blowing from a gun"- tying a person to mouth of a loaded cannon and firing it.
But the post-rinderpest struggle that closed out the Middle Wars of Expansion south of the Sahara, impacted Drakian society in other ways than just the acquisition of new territory. Partly this included an expansion of the role of women- with men being called out to fight women were needed to fill civil managerial positions and their rights to own and administer land, business, and property grew. Partly it included a greater willingness to look the other way on issues of male homosexuality- the demand for white soldiers meant that provided he was willing to fight and fight hard for the empire a man could do what he liked in his spare time (women OTOH were expected to be producing children). But perhaps the largest and darkest influence of the Middle Wars of Expansion were in the revival of Bonded Labor at a time just before mechanization could start reducing the need for it.
Drakia’s expansion into the tsetse belt brought it into a region where animal husbandry was all but impossible due to rinderpest and sleeping sickness. In the long run the dominion would rely on Zebroids- the crossbred offspring of Zebras and horses- that were immune to sleeping sickness and rinderpest, but in the short term military logistics required large numbers of porters to transport supplies for the troops. Agriculture in the tsetse belt was also human heavy, as was construction, and basically anything that in another region could have at least partially made use of work animals. Population losses among free Nationals and Bondsmen during the epidemic and famine meant that there was already a labor shortage in Drakia, and the acquisition of tsetse infested territory only intensified it. The result was increased pressure to push free Nationals into Bondage for non-payment of the Hut Tax, and the wholesale capture of large numbers of “prisoners of war” (most of whom were civilians) in newly conquered areas who were then enrolled as Bondsmen through various excuses (“it cost money to capture and imprison you and you have to pay it back” was the most common). Straightforward human trafficking with forged bond papers for its victims flourished as much of the official establishment turned a blind eye. For the first time significant numbers of non-Africans entered Drakian Bondage in the form of a revived Indian Indenture wherein unlike previous Indian indentured servants who had faced treatment no worse than OTL, the debts incurred in transporting Indian workers were treated like those of African Bondsmen (i.e. permitted to grow through high interest and crooked book-keeping, and then passed on to the children of the original workers) and the Indians involved found themselves trapped in slavery.
We have spoken before of how slavery begins for economic reasons but then can be defended- as it was in the South OTL- for purely ideological ones. As de facto slavery became more and more widely employed in Drakia and more and more money came to be invested in the “debts” of a continent, ideology intensified, and the human loathing for cognitive dissonance did its wicked work.
Ephraim Ben Raphael
Banned
As @Mr_Fanboy pointed out, it's a quote illustrating how anti-imperial arguments were often made in America on very racist grounds.
Well we'll have to see what happens.
Thank you, I'd forgotten that the Congo was part of Atlantropa and for some reason thought it was a different project.
Some excellent speculations.
And some excellent speculation from you as well.
We'll see.
No crap, You combined two of the most pointless wars in European history into a absolute shit sandwich....
Congratulations Ephiram welcome Offically to the association of Steam Punk afficiandos.
Enjoyed this quite Abit, how supplies can backfire.
Did are Generals still suck? Also how brutal were the Confederates in Georgia? Any mass enslavments?
Yugoslav wars in North America...not fun. How were natives regarded in the war?
So interesting, will Comacheria be the leader of the "Indian caucus" basically the people from native nations.
Good on him...
Horrifying enough to see this ITTL but to know it was on OTL...it's just horrible.
Sad to see that occur, still kinda to be expected once you attach your self to a dumb war...
Poor Mexico... Hopefully some of their culture can be perserved.
It won't be long before you basically have two categories in Drakia - the citizens who are "white" and the bondservants/serfs/slaves (however you choose to call them) who are non-white and those lines are drawn hard. Withing the two categories there will, of course, be gradations with significantly more mobility among the citizens than the serfs. Among the former, talent and hard work can allow one to rise, and sloth and dissipation cause one to fall but never out of the citizen category. Furthermore as "virgin" lands are opened up, the possibility exists for those of more humble backgrounds to acquire large landholdings, with attendant serfs. Among the serfs, those lucky enough to have some talent or get more than a rudimentary education can aspire to "nice" slavery, likewise the military serfs will hold a special position. However however nice or special, the specter of torture or death or becoming a lab animal is always there, and for the females (and some males) being used sexually is a given. The reality will become rapidly that there is no way out, and while some elderly serfs will be kept for child care or simply for sentimentality, rather than turning them out to starve on the street (which has negative consequences), I expect those too injured, demented, or otherwise useless will be euthanized like any no longer useful beast of burden.
The number of "nationals" who exist in the twilight between these two classes is already being narrowed down. I expect those nationals with enough money will leave Drakia to return to India, go to the UK or USA, anywhere. Those without the resources to do so will eventually go in to bondage, eliminating this twilight zone. There may be some citizens who have a trace of "non-white" in their background, I expect as time goes on hiding that shame will be a big thing, not that they would lose citizen status but would you want your daughter to marry one of them touched by the tarbrush...
As the Draka absorb all of Africa, they will have "brown" bondservants (the Arabs), but still they are not white. Like in the books, the crunch and ugly reality will become unmistakable when they absorb territory with "whites" who are made in to serfs. That is a while innthe future - they still have Africa to control and then Arabia...
The number of "nationals" who exist in the twilight between these two classes is already being narrowed down. I expect those nationals with enough money will leave Drakia to return to India, go to the UK or USA, anywhere. Those without the resources to do so will eventually go in to bondage, eliminating this twilight zone. There may be some citizens who have a trace of "non-white" in their background, I expect as time goes on hiding that shame will be a big thing, not that they would lose citizen status but would you want your daughter to marry one of them touched by the tarbrush...
As the Draka absorb all of Africa, they will have "brown" bondservants (the Arabs), but still they are not white. Like in the books, the crunch and ugly reality will become unmistakable when they absorb territory with "whites" who are made in to serfs. That is a while innthe future - they still have Africa to control and then Arabia...
Love how you twisted both Manifest Destiny and the pioneering spirit for this.
I'd love to see actual French Nobility explain to these people "uh, No none of this ever happened..."
Interestingly horrible class system. Not like Cannon where literally everyone not a Draka or Janissary were slaves to be treated as such.
You know it's actually kinda ironic, considering their origins: this is essentially the Minute Man concept codified into law.
Interesting how this is changed from Canon. I'm guessing as time goes on the Government will get more involved in Church and promote the Saviors.
wonder when these bozos start up...ITTL Vatican 2 or earlier when the church says definitvely that Racism is evil...
So Africa gets it's small pox... Horrifying to see what a disease to affect farm animals could do...
Yeah The Brits will have alot to answer for once this is done with...
Alright I'm suing, first you introduce me to that shcaps concept and now this... This is obviously an attempt to get me to loose my bowels joking obviously please don't bite my head off mods
Interesting... keeping some aspects from Canon but not all
Okay I'm loathe to give this but here you go Draka: Official Award for coolest ride animal ever...
Interesting to see them branch out... wonder if they'll add Irish when rebellion breaks out...perhaps one of the conflicts for the Sedevanctists, after all you don’t want to go to church with a dirty Irish Serf and you won’t like the Pope complaining about it.
and here we go...
I wonder if the zebroid bit is foreshadowing more Drakian experiments with genetic engineering and hybridization. Maybe not anything quite so far-fetched as the half-human shock troops of the books, but if they do become obsessed with eugenics, it could lead to a great deal of interest in that sort of thing.
Ephraim Ben Raphael
Banned
You know what annoys me? The world is too big. I wanted to just focus on America and Drakia, but I need to cover new ideologies in Europe, and new developments in Latin America, and China, and it won't fit into my next chapter on the post-ACW USA. Too much writing.
I'll respond to comments tomorrow!
I'll respond to comments tomorrow!
You know what annoys me? The world is too big. I wanted to just focus on America and Drakia, but I need to cover new ideologies in Europe, and new developments in Latin America, and China, and it won't fit into my next chapter on the post-ACW USA. Too much writing.
You're telling me. I'm descending down a rabbit hole regarding 1830's Burmese mining and agriculture right now, but I can't even get to writing about it because I committed to focusing on half a dozen other countries first.
Ephraim Ben Raphael
Banned
Fixed that for you.
I was into it in high school, then I figured that the goggles were dumb.Our generals were about evenly matched, but the Confederates hit us partially by surprise and we also had Mexico to deal with, and the Anaconda plan was a failure so the CSA was able to bring in a lot more in the way of foreign supplies. The Confederates were exceptional brutal in Georgia- no mass enslavements, but mass executions of captured black soldiers and black politicians and intelligensia.
More positively by the Mexicans who were allied with Comancheria, but while they weren't specifically targeted they weren't exactly treated nice either.
Quite possibly seeing that Jefferson was on the losing side of the war, Red River is closer to the Francophone bloc, and Yankton isn't a state yet.
Well it was only proposed OTL- ironically by the same Admiral Cochrane that Stirling had capturing the Dutch Cape was he was a small child- Britain chose not to do it because it was a dishonorable and inhuman way to wage war. ITTL Britain is a lot less secure after two French invasions and a war they were starting to lose, so they went with it.
I do intend for there to be more gradations in the Drakian social system than in the Drakaverse. The honorary whites will stick around and there will always be some nationals moving on the path up or down. This is going to look more like OTL American slavery crossed with South African apartheid than anything else.
Thanks.
Like I said in the chapter; there's never been a society that practiced slavery where slaves couldn't become free somehow, and there's never been a society that practiced slavery where freed slaves couldn't get at least some of the rights and freedoms of the freeborn population. And you need more than just the Janissaries for your collaborator class.
Quite so.
One (of a number of) thing(s) that didn't make sense to me in the vanilla Drakaverse was how the Draka abandoned Christianity so quickly and easily. Especially given what a major role versions of Christianity (not to suggest that all version of the religion are like this because they aren't) historically played in imperialism, colonialism, and slavery in the 19th century.
This happened OTL in the 1880s when the Italians accidentally introduced rinderpest to Somalia. TTL it's earlier and a little worse, but otherwise basically the same right down to the subsequent expansion of the tsetse belt and the demographic devastation making colonialism easier.
OTL Mughal method execution adopted by the British to put former sepoys to death after the Sepoy Mutiny. I don't make this shit up.
One starts to suspect that Stirling intended the Draka to be "liberals" with their embrace of non-traditional sex, equality for women, atheism, paganism, and even environmentalism at one point in opposition to the religious and socially conservative Americans. There's no real way to explain why he shoe-horned some of this stuff into the Domination otherwise- some bits make sense and I'm keeping them, but others don't.
Zebroids are awesome and deserve more attention in AH.
I was quite slow to see the new updates, sorry.
Nice job, I liked the description of TTL WWI and to see the Roman empire revived
Thank you.
I'm tempted to just ignore certain regions of the world and have the map change there with no explanations.
So has the Last Crusade effectively killed the idea of an "Honorable War" like the OTL Great War did?
OTL's Great War didn't so much kill the "honourable" war as it did make the toss the idea of the colonial war and limited wars between great powers into the wastebasket
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Interlude: "Grant us the means to do and we will do."
Ephraim Ben Raphael
Banned
Interlude
Let us consider Brigadier-General Evan Pharrish of the United States Army.
Evan Pharrish was a lieutenant in the Massachusetts State Militia who enlisted in the US Army when the civil war began. As a captain he distinguished himself for bravery in an early Union defeat while it was trying desperately to reach Georgia with reinforcements, winning a promotion to major. In the Battle of Moorehead, Virginia he was rallying troops who were on the verge of breaking when a Confederate shell went off mere feet away from where he was standing. The explosion lifted Evan Pharrish’s body into the air before slamming it back onto the ground, shattering his spine and breaking almost every bone in his body. Carried with the retreating Union troops, he was given a deathbed promotion to Brigadier-General by General Raymond Marchand. Such promotions were a common practice in the United States Army, a final way to honor dying men for their courage and to ensure that their widows received a larger pension. After promoting him as high as he felt he reasonably could, General Marchand left the Massachusetts man with the assumption that he would never see him again in this world.
Only Brigadier-General Evan Pharrish refused to die.
Despite the unbelievable damage to his body and an infection usually considered a death sentence by most doctors he recovered after a months-long fight, defying all medical predictions. His survival was hailed as a miracle. Unfortunately for Brigadier-General Evan Pharrish the damage to his spine proved too severe to heal and he was left paralyzed from the neck down, able to speak but do little else. At a loss for what to do with a quadriplegic Brigadier-General who refused to resign or retire, and not wanting to discharge a war-hero against his will, the army put him in command of Fort Chittenden in Illinois well away from the fighting. There he could oversee the training and outfitting of new recruits despite his inability to move a limb.
And there Brigadier-General Evan Pharrish remained, at least until the Illinois Campaign of Confederate Lieutenant-General Deliver-Me-From-Evil MacLathagain.
MacLathagain’s goal in invading Illinois was not to conquer and hold the state, but to deal as much strategic damage as possible, and so to break the Union’s resolve to carry on the war. He led a relatively small force mostly composed of cavalry and mounted infantry that out-maneuvered the larger but slower Union armies meant to keep him confined to Missouri. As he went in Illinois he operated without supply lines, relying on forage to keep his men fed, and dealing as much strategic damage as he feasibly could. The cavalry units that the Union sent to stop MacLathagain- the only forces they had capable of catching him- weren’t capable of beating his mounted infantry whose breech-loaders multiplied the pre-existing advantage of (relatively) modern infantry over cavalry which made nice big targets. He wouldn’t be able to keep away from them forever, but he could do a lot of damage in the short-term.
And so Lieutenant-General Deliver-Me-From-Evil MacLathagain set his sights on the major industrial city of Chicago.
He had successfully drawn away the better part the garrison assigned to defend it and hoped to sack the capital of Illinois before abandoning it and returning south. He was almost there when he found the 27th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment of not-yet-entirely-trained Union soldiers under the command of Brigadier-General Evan Pharrish blocking his way.
Pharrish had correctly guessed where MacLathagain was headed and set off with his recruits to get there first. His was now the only major force between the Confederates and Chicago, a unit of out-numbered, less maneuverable troops who were so green that in his words “they still had sap oozing out their ears”.
The battle that followed would enter into the annals of American warfare as the quadriplegic Massachusite- he issued orders from his litter- successfully fought the Confederates to a stand-still through calculated but brazen use of his small army and a nearly supernatural ability to guess what his counterpart was going to do before he did it.
Lieutenant-General Deliver-Me-From-Evil MacLathagain eventually withdrew- concerned over the loss of men and ammunition that he could not replace through forage- and made an attempt to reach Chicago by using his superior speed to go around the 27th Illinois. He got away from them but was forced to abandon his plans to take the city when the extra delay allowed reinforcements from Ohio to reach Chicago by boat.
Brigadier-General Evan Pharrish became a hero to the Union and in particular to Chicago and the State of Illinois. He was personally decorated by President Mackenzie and on his request received a combat command for the rest of the war in which he served ably and competently, albeit without any great drama. After the war he served as the military governor for Arkansas, and after retirement pursued a successful political career as a US Representative for Massachusetts’ 15th Congressional District. A spokesman for the new Fascist ideology, he spent much of his time in Congress speaking on behalf of physically disabled Union veterans, arguing that the country owed a debt to such men and that the loss of a limb or an eye or the use of either should not stand in the way of being a productive citizen.
In 1878- a few years before his death when modern eugenic principles were just starting to be debated globally and the disabled were being dubbed a “social burden” by some- he said at a meeting of the American Society for the Blind;
“The crippled are only a burden on society when society chooses to make them such. Grant us the means to do, and we will do.”
Ah, I don’t prefer to wear my nerdyness on my sleeve, just read it online and cry in my room when I realize I’m all alone in my liking for it...Fixed that for you.
Interesting, I assume will be meeting some of the US badasses in the post war era...Suprised they did not go in for enslavments, guess only the Draka can get away with that in the eyes of the Brits.
This could produce some tensions between Jefferson and Comancheria, especially if the latter lauds there status as Favorite native group.
I mean their was Sparta (the Society I think the Draka were modled on) with it's Helots but even then their were some options to become Spartan during war and they lived in constant fear of Helot revolts, limiting their expansion.
Yeah, Personnally I do like the Atheist part of them but they need to have it develop over decades as part of a bit by bit cultural developments (such as gaining abelism and Eugenics becoming the rage, growing arrogance in their own superiority from the young etc etc), not "alright we're all Atheists now" on a whim.
Okay then transferring my suit to her majestys treasury, I can get more money out of them anywaysOTL Mughal method execution adopted by the British to put former sepoys to death after the Sepoy Mutiny. I don't make this shit up.
Personnally I think that's not him knocking on liberals but going for his perffered fetishes. In ISOT, his main character was a lesbian, who got into a couple and raised kids and in the Blackout series (ya know the one where were suddenly reduced to the medevial time period by abunch of pagan gods) Paganism is the main religon of the good guys (at least for the first three books) and given a huge wank and their are a couple of gay couples. Still he lays it on Abit thick and it does not make for good writing in my view...
Sad to see them ride for the bad guys though.Zebroids are awesome and deserve more attention in AH.
Yes Kieth Ledgers Joker is going to love the misery and chaos
Another member of the Earl Warren's AH Bad Ass Club, he gets to graduate into Premium membership for fending off a Confederate invasion while a quadriplegic and becoming a awesome politician.
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What's this, the beginning of cyborgization? Sure looks like it.
Also, nice sneaking in something titled fascism.
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