With powers on both sides (Russia, Italy and France ; Britain, Germany and Austria) all getting screwed hard, it will be interesting...
Separated at Birth: America and Drakia
- Thread starter Ephraim Ben Raphael
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now if even the dice endorsed that means its just the natural order of things?
iddt3
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I think with a natural 20 it's less about new acquisitions, then winning the peace. Like for OTL WWI, I would say everyone rolled poorly except the US and Japan, and the US and Japan just didn't botch. Nat 20 in OTL WWII would be the US coming out of the war as OTL and somehow being on super friendly terms with Moscow.
Is it overstretched? Mexico and the CSA was crushed over 50 years ago they have probably been integrated by now. And I doubt that Honduras and Nicaragua is enough to over extend, the US.
With Russia getting screwed hard, say hello to American "West Alaska" (ie. Kamtchatka and possibly more of Eastern Siberia)...
Oh sure I meant more like, if they ate a whole British dominion or something, I think taking Alaska and maybe some banana republics is a given. I just meant that the main effect might be that the international system is more solidly centered on the US.
Wouldn't that be the perfect situation for Drakia to grow stronger, though?
The Entente overall seems to be on the path to win the war in the Old World, but will have the looming threat of a full-fledged war with the titan that is the US in the future. Given the Entente's disdain for US power not coming to their aid and the sheer exhaustion, Drakia's abuses of power might be quietly turned a blind eye to by a vengeful Britain and Germany as well as the pyrrhic victors in France and Russia for the sake of manpower and the resources of so much of Africa, despite their moral outrage. Eventually the problem would be too big for Britain to ignore it, but if everybody's worried about the US for a time, Drakia gets a few more precious years to become its version of the horrific monstrosity of the Draka timelines with the power necessary to uphold it.
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Chapter 14
Ephraim Ben Raphael
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Chapter 14
The World War began with Britain and Germany against Russia. France promptly joined Russia’s side rather than risk an Anglo-German victory that would have seen the French position grow even more precarious than it was. Britain then called in its allies, Spain; Portugal, Sardinia, Rhomania, Austria, and Bavaria, and France and Russia called in their allies; Italy, the Netherlands, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, and Bulgaria. The United States initially stayed out, only joining when Russia agreed to sell it most of Alaska (the fact that most of the Yukon gold was played out by this point made that possible), bringing Japan with it when it did. America’s puppet government in Colombia followed them, as did its ally La Plata. The only major neutrals were the Ottoman Empire, Persia, and Scandinavia- Brazil nominally joined in towards the end just to make sure that it was on the right side.
While there were certain similarities to OTL’s World War I, the World War was a very different conflict. Air power was highly important- drachenflieger were technologically on par with fighter aircraft from the OTL late-1920s and although heavier-than-air bomber technology was well behind OTL, airships could conduct bombing raids on par with smaller ones from World War II. It was also very much a naval war. The Entente navies clashed with the Royal Navy in the Atlantic and the Pacific, pitting dreadnaughts and super-dreadnaughts against each other. Seaplane Carriers - or rather “Seeflieger” carriers- were common on both sides. There were armored cars that rapidly transitioned into early tanks, and flamethrowers that well-predated the start of the war. Major amphibious invasions occurred across the planet, some successful (the Philippines twice, Ireland, and Sicily) some unsuccessful (yet another French invasion of England). Trench warfare proved a major factor in western Europe along France’s borders with Germany and Spain… for about a year and a half.
Have a gander at an early seaplane carrier, the daddy of the aircraft carrier.
France entered the war with a doctrine that called for grand, overly detailed war plans in which her generals attempted to plot out the positions and movements of every company. They planned to break through the German lines using overwhelming numbers, heavy artillery, and chemical weapons coordinated in a massive top-down fashion, while holding off Spain on the Pyrenees. However, Germany had learned something from its dismal failures trying to break through French trenches in the Last Crusade and Danish defense in depth in Jutland during the Schlewig War. Instead the Combined German Army began the war experimenting with a new set of tactics, which it had perfected by the end of 1908. Unlike French human waves German tactics relied on small units of elite soldiers who would attack after a brief artillery bombardment, supporting each other and authorized to make use of tactical initiative, including the ability to call in artillery strikes and airstrikes on their own. These units- called “Blitzsoldaten”- would avoid enemy strong points and instead break through weaker parts of the line, opening the way for forces carrying heavy weapons (portable machine guns, grenades, flamethrowers, recoilless rifles, etc.) to expand on their breakthroughs. Enemy strongpoints could then be surrounded and destroyed once they had been bypassed, making it possible for the Germans to effectively break past the Rhine and into the French Rhineland using infantry with relatively little in the way of new technological inventions other than the “super-solder” pills.
Super-soldier pills (as they were commonly known) came out of Drakia. Amphetamines were discovered in Japan, and methamphetamine hydrochloride by the Japanese chemist Uyeno Koetsu, but methamphetamine joined the ranks of overseas discoveries learned of by the Bureau for Technical Progress and then pioneered for practical use in Drakia before anywhere else. Through human experimentation protocols- part of the general Drakian project of giving disposable subjects various substances to study their effect on the human body- Drakian scientists became aware of the effects of methamphetamine on human beings. Initially it was looked into as something to give to Bondsmen to increase productivity, leading to the discovery of its addictive potential which was regarded as a positive development- if you could addict the Bonded to a substance then you could use that as an additional means to control them. When the World War broke out Drakia expanded its use of meth to the military- particularly the auxiliaries. Give a three-milligram dose to a tired, miserable soldier who had been sleeping in mud and filth for months while his friends and comrades died around him and his exhaustion faded, his attention sharpened, and he was “infused with a sense of well-being”. He was also energized and excited, capable of fighting harder- sometimes unbelievably so- and going without sleep, at least until the dose wore off and he had to deal with a brutal two-day hangover. To avoid addiction (the long-term side-effects of meth weren’t fully known, but its addictive potential was) Drakia only dispensed it to the troops right before major attacks, particularly if those attacks were at night, prohibiting regular reliance on the drug. Use of super-soldier pills spread to Britain and Germany and was institutional among the Blitzsoldaten.
This was the beginning of Drakian attempts to enhance human capabilities through science- it would not be the end.
Blitzsoldaten pushing forwards whilst blitzed out of their minds.
Russia had attempted to base its war strategy around new technology- investing large amounts of resources into various boondoggles- but ended up battering its forces hopelessly against the defensive lines of Rhomania in the Balkans, and against the Indian Empire during a poorly-thought-out attempt to invade India by violating the neutrality of (a very pissed off) Afghanistan. Faced against the Germans- who were of course bolstered by British troops- Russia performed even more poorly, giving ground rapidly as its military faced an actual modern foe (as opposed to merely bandits and rebels in Central Asia, Manchuria, or Mesopotamia) for the first time since the Last Crusade. Not that the Entente in Europe was entirely unsuccessful, France won a series of stunningly asymmetrical victories against the Spanish as the absolutist government of Spain flung large numbers of troops at reinforced French positions in the Pyrenees mountains to virtually no avail. Austria and Bavaria held back the efforts of Italy (whose nominal head of state had- despite some soul searching- come out firmly in favor of the war against the wicked British Empire and its Drakian lackeys) but crumpled in the face of a Russo-Hungarian advance. Still, despite being forced to split its forces three ways Germany was able to advance up the Baltic coast towards St. Petersburg and deep into France towards Paris.
Meanwhile America pressed the war against Britain and its dominions- at sea and across the world.
This time the invasion of Newfoundland was swift and successful, Bermuda followed. The US Navy achieved rapid dominance of the Caribbean, before pushing into the bloodier and more drawn-out struggle for supremacy over the Atlantic. In the Pacific Britain had some limited initial success but America and Japan co-operated in the Liberation of the Philippines after a campaign of island hopping that created a safe route from California to East Asia. While America had a disadvantage to Britain in terms of tonnage, the USN’s greater willingness to adopt the use of indirect naval artillery fired from beyond line-of-sight (aimed using seeflieger that would find British ships and radio back the co-ordinates) at the beginning of the war gave it a major advantage. The pivotal Battle of the Celtic Sea was the first major sea battle in which opposing ships only laid eyes on each other in a few incidental contacts and the fighting was mostly conducted in the air or with super-dreadnaught artillery. It ended with a crushing defeat for the Royal Navy and the rise of American dominance at sea. Control over sea lanes made it possible for the United States to land expeditionary forces in British colonial possessions, which were joined by Native uprisings that tore through Northern and Western Africa and the East Indies. It also opened the way for seaborne attacks such as the Raid on Capetown that forced the Drakian government to relocate (temporarily in theory, but they never left) inland to Aurica (ATL Johannesburg).
American naval artillery blazing away at Capetown.
It was Drakia that took point in fighting against the Americans and their rebel allies. The belief in the Firstborn Dominion was that if the Drakians proved themselves in the World War by fighting for the British Empire then Britain would reward them by backing down in its demands that they reform their labor system and society. The fact that calls for Drakian reforms were shelved in London during the war tended to encourage this view. At the same time Britain believed that the war would demonstrate Drakia’s need for Britain’s protection and that the excuse of wartime exigency would be used by the Drakians themselves to make the necessary reforms. The fact that Drakia considerably reduced its Euthenasia program during the war encouraged this view among British leaders.
Regardless of these crossed wires, Drakia mobilized and went to war with a vengeance. To increase the labor pool available for the Auxiliaries it permitted Bondsmen to volunteer- if you survived then your bond was forgiven and you were at the very least a National if not an Honorary White Citizen. The logistics of waging war in West Africa were difficult to say the least but they made it work with forced labor extending roads and railroads, the use of airships to carry supplies, and tried and true methods of porters and zebroid-drawn carts and wagons. North Africa was more straightforward- the Cape to Cairo line and the Nile made it so- but in both places the fighting was vicious. Anti-insurgency tactics by the Drakians used chemical weapons and flamethrowers to wipe out villages. Frequently they simply identified which ethnic groups were most engaged in rebellion, allied themselves with said groups’ enemies, and then ethnically cleansed those groups from whole regions, reducing the survivors to Bondage. But that was against the Natives- the Yankees were a whole different story.
For the first time American and Drakian forces faced each other in major engagements where other nations forces played a minor role.
In the Drakian mindset Americans were bogeyman. They were the rapacious revolutionary hordes driving the Loyalists from their homes, inspiring the French Republicans to slaughter the nobility, tearing down the honorable society of the Old South. America was both a weak, corrupt nation of mongrelized Inferiors and a lethal threat to the Noble Nation of the Firstborn Dominion. In the minds of those Americans who bothered to care about who and what the Drakians were, they were regarded as the losers of history. America’s enemies who had fled to the bottom of Africa with their tails between their legs.
Drakian and American opinions of each other in the early 20th century, colorized.
Ultimately while both countries were surprised by the effectiveness of the their enemies, Drakia took America more seriously than America had taken Drakia and the American expeditionary force in West Africa (continued British/Rhomanian control over the Mediterranean made sending an expedition to North Africa impossible) wasn’t large or heavily armed enough to carry the day. But for all of Drakia’s trumpeting their great victory over the Yankees, the truth was that the Americans never considered Africa to be an important front and withdrew their forces in good order when New York decided that the men and material more needed elsewhere.
Like the Liberation of Ireland.
Had it not been for the United States, it’s likely that the Entente would have lost the war. Paris fell to the meth-fueled shock troops of the Blitzsoldaten towards the end and the Combined German Army drew close enough to St. Petersburg that the Czar fled to Moscow. Mass conscription in Russia had mixed men from all backgrounds and beliefs together, making it easy for radical ideas such as Socialism, Utopianism, Geoism, and Rodinaism to spread to individuals who had never been exposed to them before, even as they received military training and combat experience. Russia had clung to an absolute autocracy instituted earlier than OTL out of fear of French Republicanism, and there was plenty of discontent among the Russian public before the World War even began- made worse by greater demands for taxation and labor fueled by the larger Russian Empire. The Flight of the Czar prompted mass mutiny and rebellion, and soon the second largest country on Earth was plunged into civil war. This led to the collapse of Russian lines in the Balkans and opened the way for Rhomania to advance rapidly into Italian Albania, Serbia, and Bulgaria. A desperate all-out offensive by the Hungarians (who had already taken Vienna a year earlier with Russian help) captured Rome to the utter astonishment of all, but came short of capturing Munich and immediately fell apart.
With Russia in chaos, Paris in German hands, Constantinople in Rhomanian hands, the first Papal Renunciation in almost five centuries in Rome, and an Anglo-Drakian invasion of Sicily, there was a genuine possibility that the war might end with a Central Powers victory in Europe.
While the Royal Navy largely handled transport, it was Drakian troops who made up almost all of the invasion force that landed in Sicily.
But the Liberation of Ireland proved a success, with the US Army (and a small Japanese expeditionary force) greeted as liberators south of Ulster and Dublin falling towards the end of 1910. Britain was placed under blockade and the British Dominions began seeking separate peace with New York. American troops landed in France and were rushed to the front, retaking Paris and pushing the overstretched Germans (who were still fighting on all sides of their country) back. In the end Britain sued for peace rather than face an invasion of Great Britain itself that might have succeeded. America cut a deal with Rhomania that sold out Italy and Russia, and Berlin and Paris (under pressure from their Americans liberators who wanted a swift end to the war) cut an agreement that let Germany keep some of the German-majority territory west of Rhine and avoided a drawn-out Entente invasion of Germany.
It appeared briefly that the bloodied countries of Bavaria and Austria might join the German Confederation, but America and France nixed that and they merely united with each other under King Ludwig IV of Bavaria as the country of Bavaria-Austria.
The World War ended with the world under a general American hegemony. All the other Great Powers were either defeated, broken, allied to the United States, or some combination of the above, including the British and Russian Empires (although the British Empire didn’t break right away). Peace had been achieved, but the First Russian Civil War was still ongoing, the Anglo-Drakian War was yet to come, and instability elsewhere would end in revolution in France, Spain, and Italy. There was no League of Nations ITTL, American triumph admitted no equality in the post-war order and in doing so planted the seeds for the conflicts of the mid-twentieth century.
The Bavario-Austrian Flag, because such a nation must exist somewhere in the multiverse.
The war profoundly affected many nations’ understanding of the world. For Japan it proved beyond a doubt that the Japanese were capable of going toe-to-toe with Europeans and removed the looming threat of the British Empire. For Rhomania it was the glorious culmination of the Neo-Byzantine aspirations, with the relocation of their capital to an (ethnically cleansed) Constantinople and the creation of an empire stretching from the Adriatic to the Black Sea. The Italian national identity was severed from that of the Papacy, the war left the Catholic Church to a period of soul searching and ultimately a withdrawal from temporal affairs after the removal of its symbolic executive over Italy and the schism of many Drakian and British Catholics into Sedevacantist Catholicism.
But let’s talk about Drakia.
From Drakia’s perspective, the World War was one victory after another, albeit often difficult and hard-fought victories. It was Britain who had failed them- it was the Royal Navy that had been unable to protect Capetown or keep the Yankees from landing in West Africa, it was the Drakian Army who had defeated the American invaders and put down Native revolts across the continent. In the eyes of the Drakian nation the World War proved that they could protect themselves without British help, and even that the mother country was a liability. After all, hadn’t Drakia been winning when the government in London sued for peace? That peace came as a great frustration for the government of Premier Lloyd Mcrae, who watched the gains his homeland had achieved undone one by one at the peace table. The empire was to lose ownership over the holy land, withdraw its forces from Sicily, and even grant “independence” to colonies in West and Northern Africa (they were to become protectorates of America and France). The inclusion of a requirement that Drakia abolish Bonded Labor and its Euthenasia program was to many a final betrayal. The Firstborn Dominion was in a pivotal moment, questioning its old beliefs and loyalties even as a new political ideology began to coalesce from the national zeitgeist. Elvira Naldorssen’s The Final Society had come out in the last year of the war, and booksellers couldn’t keep it in the shelves. Paul Delacroix was giving speeches across Drakia and the other African dominions. Father Vern Schönberger had launched the Saviorite Revival.
It was then that a twenty-eight-year-old Englishwoman named Audrey Ratcliff stepped off a boat in London and immediately burst into tears.
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@Ephraim Ben Raphael So how much clay did the US annex? And which clay did they annex?
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