The Golden Eagle, A Napoleonic France after the Peace of Vienna

[SkylineDreamer]

Anyways, who are you rooting for?

Well, for this time, I predict the Germans will get the high ground of this war. The Brits not so much as colonies would start to revolt.

 

[HIM Dogson]

Anyways, who are you rooting for?

Well, Britain needs to fall the most, and France needs to fall most for oppressing the Rhineland and Catalonia. Ideally Russia and Germany would both survive the war.

 

[Whiteshore]

Germany would both survive the war

Many in the forum if they knew about the German Crown Prince and who he's based on will probably not share our sentiments about Germany.

 

[Kaiser of Brazil]

The Dark Continent
​

"Why should I, an Aussie, fight against the French in Nigeria, because a bunch of Germans sunk a ship over the Coast of Canada ?" -Pvt. Charles Johnson, ANZAC, 1913.

((The ANZACs were widely used during the war in Africa until the entry of the Philippines in the War))​

The colonial war was a whole new Frontline, it started with the French invasion of Nigeria and Ivory Coast during the first weeks of the war. Even if France controlled half of the Continent, the other half was controlled by the Germans, and the Anglo-Boer South Africa. The war was particularly brutal in Nigeria and Morocco where French forces invaded and had to fight a brutal guerrilla war against an alliance of locals and colonials, especially in the German Congo where the French colonial forces were never capable of taking areas outside of major roads and cities. Of course it depends on who the French were fighting: The British saw several defeats due to the opposition of the locals after Edward's reign, while the relatively friendly relations between Germans and Natives helped the collaboration.

((Map of Colonial Africa (before the Italo-Ethiopian War)))
​

The French Strategy in the Continent was reduce the number of Frontlines as much as possible, attacking the British West Africa and Morocco while sending a diversionary attack on the German Congo. The plan was actually feasible: The British colonies were devastated by Edward's reign and the remaining native tribes would join the French and attack the British garrisons by pure desire of revenge, and that's what happened. On the year of 1912, the British lost control of most of West Africa except a few enclaves and Biafra. While the Germans and Portuguese saw much greater success by defeating the French offensives and occupying Gabon. The Morocco was a more complicated matter: The French took West Sahara and South Morocco when Infi fell, but were unable to take Al Rif, and worse, the British Navy crossed Gibraltar and Bombarded Algiers, destroying part of the French African fleet at the port, they sailed east and raided Alexandria using Malta as a Base, the French fought the British at the Suez Canal where one of the largest battles of the Mediterranean began: The battle of Suez.

((Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, Commander of the German African Forces))

((German Troops in Africa after capturing Gabon))
​

The French Mediterranean fleet was composed of 47 ships including 5 Steelships and 8 Swordfishes. The British were outnumbered with 39 ships, including 7 Steelships, but the British First Lord of Admiralty Winston Churchill was confident in his bet of sending a fleet to raid the Mediterranean. British ships didn't start the battle against the French ships, but by sinking several boats to block the Suez Canal and make it inoperable, now it was to victory or death. And after an entire day of battle, the British proved their valor by managing to escape the French trap with most their ships. While they lost more ships (which means a tactical French Victory), they managed to finish their mission, escape with most their ships, and making the Canal inoperable, forcing French convoys to go into the British Blockade, which was a strategical major British victory.

((Battle of the Suez))​

 

[Whiteshore]

The New Kaiser was also prone to embarrassing himself in interviews, even insulting King Edward VII once when visiting Britain. "I thought he walked around with Blacks held by chains like dogs for a walk."

To be fair to Wilhelm, he was not wrong, even if it was allegorically and not literally.

 

[Tales Weaver]

Name: Umberto Murat
DOB: May 2, 1893
Nationality: Kingdom of Italy
Title: Crown Prince
Description: heir to the imperial throne to Italy, he has an withdrawn attitude due to overprotective upbringing and a incident in his youth. Due to his introverted attitude, he only had 4 friends on his life: Ignatius Da Savoy, an University student and aspiring Deplomat, Alfonso Ferrero, a photographer and marksman at italian army ,and Spada Paladino Italian army cavalry officer. Him and his friends were asked to accompany a special envoy to Netherlands...

 

[Whiteshore]

@HIM Dogson, any thoughts on the crown princes of Germany and Italy?

 

[Kaiser of Brazil]

"Over by Christmas"

"They said that by Christmas, we would be back in our homes eating turkey with our families, but I say that by then, this bloody river will be our graves."
Diary of François Laroque, page 78, "The first Winter".
​

A quick, glorious war, that was the promise made by the French High Command, believing in the Davout Plan that would knock the Germans out in a few months. But for the French, they lost hundreds of thousands men during the year in offensives trying to cross the river, they all followed a similar pattern: French forces would massively bombard the enemy lines in concentrated areas, snipers and machine guns would provide a covering fire, several rowboats boats would transport thousands of men at a time to the other side, these men would try to take the first trench (often succeeding) and create a bridgehead for several more troops cross. That until a German counter offensive forced them to either try to retreat while under artillery, sniper, and machine gun fire, or to fight to the last man, often surrendering by the thousands. That happened across all the western front every offensive lasting around a week until the status quo was restored, and the same happened for the Germans, still with the hope that something similar to Catalonia would happen on the Rhineland.

When the Christmas arrived on December 1912, the troops were ceasing fire at several places across the Frontlines. German troops put small Christmas trees outside of the trenches while singing "Stille Nacht", or "Silent Night" in English, even the snipers ceased their shots, a similar behavior happened on the French side. And on the morning of the 25th, they went out of the trenches, even some boats giving transport to crossing the other side, troops exchanged cigarettes and chocolate. The Royal Family of both sides, especially the princesses, gave gifts for the soldiers, like Coffee, blankets, and letters. Some events included German soldiers on the Danish front giving the gifts of the Scandinavian Princess Leonora to the Scandinavian soldiers. The Eastern front was another matter: The Orthodox Christmas happened only on the 7th of January, Russian and Ukrainian troops were confused on the German gestures, and many didn't risk leaving their positions, with the Germans celebrating amongst themselves. While the Polish, Lithuanian, and other Catholic troops decided on leaving their trenches and celebrating the Christmas, one soldier even bringing Turkey from his house.

((Some troops even played football))​

But there was opposition to it, some soldiers just crossed the lines to spy the enemy positions, breaking the Christmas spirit. Others, especially officers, were opposed to all that nonsensical celebrations. "Why are you all going soft and go celebrate with the enemy ? Don't you have any sense of honor and duty left ?" Yelled one German Lieutenant, not surprisingly the same commander didn't participate Christmas celebrations and instead coordinated artillery fire to forcefully break the truce on the following morning of the 26th, that was 2nd Lieutenant Adolf Hitler of the 3rd Bavarian Corps. While something much more brutal happened on the Catalan front, where vengeful French troops under General Joffre were preparing for one of the most infamous acts of Modern Warfare on the next year, when a few Catalans tried to leave their trenches they were cut down by machine gun fire, with French troops even launching offensives on the unsuspecting Catalans while they sang Christmas songs. On one incident, a lone Catalan soldier risked crossing to the French trench, with his body brought back stabbed several times in the back, a clear message of what the French felt for the Catalan people, and a prelude of what was to come.

And then, the second year of the war arrived...

The year of 1913 would bring new players to the war, the Eastern front intensified, and a new weapon started to be used over the bloody Rhine: Gas. While the French would start one of the worst genocides of the 20th Century, when Napoleon's legions unleashed their fury against the Catalan people, their revenge would be brutal.

The Year started on the 16th of January, when the German High Command, led by Generals Hindenburg, Moltke, and Lundendorff, planned to end the Danish front, transferring over 600,000 men to the Northern Front led by General von Mackesen, with a total of German troops already numbering more than the Danish population, the Germans planned to bleed Scandinavia White, knowing them to be the weakest Entente member. The Outnumbered and outgunned Nordic forces would collapse to the German attack, with a chaotic retreat to the North of the peninsula, where they held off the Germans for 2 weeks awaiting for the navy to save them, but they would never come. At the night of the 23rd of January, the German Ostseeflotte intercepted the Nordic fleet, the battle of the Sund ended with a fourth of the Nordic fleet at the bottom of the sea with some ships being scuttled due to heavy damage. No ships would come help the Scandinavian army trapped on the Judtland peninsula and on the 7th of February of 1913, over 300,000 men were taken Prisioneer by the German forces, and Scandinavia lost their control over mainland Europe, stuck on the peninsula and the Danish islands thanks for a timely Russian support army that strengthened the defenses of the remaining lands of the Kingdom, but the Nordic state would not recover from the catastrophic German Winter offensive.

On the March of 1913, the French forces unleashed a new weapon against the Germans: Chlorine Gas. Gas machines on the Western front would wait for favorable winds to come and create a gas cloud that crossed the Rhine and stuck the Enemy lines, followed by an offensive. This was tested on the Dutch section of the Rhineland, but it proved not being enough to achieve a breakthrough, with the offensive following the old standard of attack and counter-attack. Nonetheless, it wasn't the only moral weapon employed by the French, that started to create massive "Dirigible" ships that crossed the skies of German cities, massive balloons inspired by the projects of the Brazilian scientist Santos Dumont presented on the 1900 World fair to the then Prince Napoleon V. The airships flew so high that nothing could hit it, allowing for indiscriminate bombing of military and civilian targets alike, still, it was more of a morale weapon than a destructive one, with the damage caused being limited.

((French Gas Machines))

((French "Dirigible" raid over Westphalia))
​

Another new weapon was the armed plane, invented in 1905 by Santos Dumont (Which was pretty much the leading aviation pioneer of the world), a flying machine that was initially used only for reconissance, it was now started to be armed by Machine guns and built by stronger materials, resulting in the first air battles of the world. The "Dogfights" were confrontations of several planes of different squadrons into massive air duels with the pilots being considered modern "knights" as most of them descended from nobility and treated their enemy with cordiality. Sometimes two of the pilots would make a deal before the battle to not shoot the other, but such deals and chivalry would reduce by the end of the war.

((A painting of a dogfight))
​

The Eastern Front didn't stay static for long, after almost eliminating the Nordics from the War, Mackesen led his troops to the Russian front, where a concentrated attack managed to take Krakow on the 3rd of April, and a second offensive over Warsaw finally took the city on the 28th. The new German attacks forced the Russian army to retreat to avoid an encirclement over the south, retreating from Western Galicia and Poland, to the other side of the Vistula. The shortened Frontline allowed the Russians to strengthen their defenses and halted the German advance over Poland.

((New Eastern Frontline))
​

But also on April, something far darker started: The Catalan offensive. General Joffre and over 1,2 million men attacked Catalonia with the mission of killing anything that moves. The offensive of gas attacks, and artillery was planned for months, and the Iberian lines were broken. What followed next was taken from horror movies, soldiers invaded villages, rounded up the citizens in a church, imprisioned them inside, and put fire on the wooden structure and those inside, shooting anything that tried to leave the building. Barcelona suffered the worst, with planes and zeppelins gassing the city while the French navy and artillery destroyed the city and the army surrounded it, a column of refugees was seen marching to the west, with General Joffre ordering the bombardment of artillery and an attack by cavalry and airplanes. Officers received a quota of killing, with companies unable to bring the heads of Catalans required by the end of the week being transferred to be the first line of attack against the trenches. A million refugees tried to escape the fury of Bonaparte, clogging the roads and ending up in the "no man's land" between the French and Spanish lines, caught in the crossfire and minefields. French troops made no discrimination, killing from babies to elderly, some soldiers trained their bayonets on the bodies, blinded by hate caused by propaganda and lust for revenge. The offensive was halted on the Ebro river, with Napoleon V himself ordering over 300,000 men to stay behind to rampage the countryside, burn all symbols of Catalan history and culture, burning books and entire cities, scorched land tactics were applied in a scale not seen since the fall of Rome and the Viking raids. By the end of June, its estimated that about 75% of the Catalan population was dead, with the rest either hiding or fleeing to Spain, most settling in Valencia. And that would backfire hard against Napoleon.

((A Catalan woman mourning her dead son))
​

In Rome, the Catalan Genocide hit hard against any Pro-French feelings at the nation, even the Murat Dynasty decided to distance themselves from their French past, changing name to the "Di Napoli" Dynasty. The Parliamentary Jingoists were quick to scream bloody murder and demand a declaration of war, especially citing the French control of Milan and Turin, fearing that something similar would happen to the Italians. On the 15th of April, on the birthday of the sinking of the Titan, the Pope Benedict XV excommunicated Napoleon V, and on the following day, the King authorized the declaration of war and troops crossed the Po, opening up the Italian front.

((Italian troops setting up an Machine gun))​

 

[Whiteshore]

But also on April, something far darker started: The Catalan offensive. General Joffre and over 1,2 million men attacked Catalonia with the mission of killing anything that moves. The offensive of gas attacks, and artillery was planned for months, and the Iberian lines were broken. What followed next was taken from horror movies, soldiers invaded villages, rounded up the citizens in a church, imprisioned them inside, and put fire on the wooden structure and those inside, shooting anything that tried to leave the building. Barcelona suffered the worst, with planes and zeppelins gassing the city while the French navy and artillery destroyed the city and the army surrounded it, a column of refugees was seen marching to the west, with General Joffre ordering the bombardment of artillery and an attack by cavalry and airplanes. Officers received a quota of killing, with companies unable to bring the heads of Catalans required by the end of the week being transferred to be the first line of attack against the trenches. A million refugees tried to escape the fury of Bonaparte, clogging the roads and ending up in the "no man's land" between the French and Spanish lines, caught in the crossfire and minefields. French troops made no discrimination, killing from babies to elderly, some soldiers trained their bayonets on the bodies, blinded by hate caused by propaganda and lust for revenge. The offensive was halted on the Ebro river, with Napoleon V himself ordering over 300,000 men to stay behind to rampage the countryside, burn all symbols of Catalan history and culture, burning books and entire cities, scorched land tactics were applied in a scale not seen since the fall of Rome and the Viking raids. By the end of May, its estimated that about 85% of the Catalan population was dead, with the rest either hiding or fleeing to Spain, most settling in Valencia. And that would backfire hard against Napoleon.

Why do I have a feeling that in TTL's 2019, French nationalists will be denying that the Catalan Genocide ever occured akin to Turkey's denial of the Armenian Genocide IOTL?

 

[SkylineDreamer]

Why do I have a feeling that in TTL's 2019, French nationalists will be denying that the Catalan Genocide ever occured akin to Turkey's denial of the Armenian Genocide IOTL?

I don't think so. Many states are fully acknowledge of the genocide, it is also said that the Pope even excommunicated France. I guess it would be how OTL Germans viewed themselves regarding the Final Solution.

 

[SkylineDreamer]

And boi... the French are far worst than British Leopold.

 

[Kaiser of Brazil]

And boi... the French are far worst than British Leopold.

I am going to spoil it: Depending of the results of the War, something far worse than any of them can rise.

 

[HIM Dogson]

At this point Coalition Gang rise up, IMO it's a damn shame that Russia didn't join the Coalition to finish what Alexander started but they are traitors to monarchism anyway.

Also this world has no Herero Genocide so I can be a Kaiserboo without any guilt

At any rate, France is done, literally all their neighbors except Switzerland are at war with them, even if Russia wins France can't survive this.

 

[Kaiser of Brazil]

At this point Coalition Gang rise up, IMO it's a damn shame that Russia didn't join the Coalition to finish what Alexander started but they are traitors to monarchism anyway.

Also this world has no Herero Genocide so I can be a Kaiserboo without any guilt

At any rate, France is done, literally all their neighbors except Switzerland are at war with them, even if Russia wins France can't survive this.

Did you forget the Ottomans are part of the coalition ? They just didn't join the war yet for mobilization.

 

[HIM Dogson]

Did you forget the Ottomans are part of the coalition ? They just didn't join the war yet for mobilization.

I actually did forget that. Well, guess it's time to cur off the Bosphorus

 

[Kaiser of Brazil]

Also this world has no Herero Genocide so I can be a Kaiserboo without any guilt

Also, you forgot the British.

 

[HIM Dogson]

Also, you forgot the British.

I've made my feelings on the Brits quite clear. Once Wilhelm is done smacking around the upstart Bonapartes the time shall come to bring glorious legitimate monarchism that doesn't sell out to capitalists to the British isles.

 

[Kaiser of Brazil]

Swordfishes and Yankees
​

The United States was in a electoral period when the Great War began, once again the Whigs and the Republicans went for a fight and the Whigs could finally have a chance to put their representative on the White House. In 1900, William McKinley was reelected for another 4 years, with the Whigs winning again in 1904 by the election of McKinley's VPOTUS, Theodore Roosevelt, the New York governor and the poster boy of the rising Progressive movement inside the Republicans. Roosevelt's government is generally placed on the top 10 best, his achievements internally include the breaking of Monopolies and antitrust laws, the creation of Wildlife reserves for preservation, and the "Roosevelt Doctrine", claiming American dominion over the continent with the right to intervene when it's interests are threatened, further reinforcing the King Docrine. That was shown nowhere better than the Mexican Civil War, where the US decisively intervened for the Texan and Californian republics, the US intervened also against Emiliano Zapata and the Monarchists, on the December of 1911, the United States forced the 3 sides to sit and reach a compromise: Mexico would undergo a Land Reform and distribution of much of it for peasants, Reyes and his military Junta would create a provisional government that would eventually make a referendum between an Republic, or the restoration of Monarchy (With a close result for the Republic in 1917).

But Roosevelt also did controversial actions, like the statehood of Texas and California, the creation of the income tax, and his demands to declare war on the Coalition by the late days of his Presidency (he later said to regret it after the Catalan Genocide). And in 1912, he refused to go a 3rd term, keeping the Washington tradition, and the Whigs had their first shot to win the White House in a long time. Roosevelt's popularity was high but Republicans were divided on the succession, and if they could get Conservative Republicans to vote Whig, then the Republican almost uninterrupted domination of Washington would be over. The nominations of the 2 parties had their issues: Who would be Roosevelt's successor for the Republicans ? And who would be able to defeat him ?

The Whigs went into the 1912 election with William Jennings Bryan, "The Great Commoner", refusing to run a 3rd time. In the background, the President of Princeton and Governor of New Jersey, Woodrow Wilson, managed to make a deal for Bryan to give him support in return for a Ministry. Wilson went for a fight with Champ Clark for the nomination, finally winning it as a compromise candidate, dedicated to banking reform, antitrust law reform, and especially keeping America out of the Great War.

((Woodrow Wilson, the Whig Presidential nominee))
​

The Republicans were another matter, the War in Europe made the divide between Taft's Conservatives and the Progressives larger than ever, with the latter wanting the entry into the war. The party would end up splitting apart, between Roosevelt's "Progressive Party" and Taft's Republicans, Roosevelt changed his mind and choose to run for a 3rd term due to his personal rivalry with Taft. This change of heart of Roosevelt would prove costly.

((President Roosevelt campaigning in 1912))

((William Howard Taft, Republican Nominee))

((Republican cartoon claiming the Whigs would take the pensions of the people))
​

The Campaign was fierce, especially between Roosevelt and Wilson. Roosevelt's voters were divided, with Taft taking many of them, but it was the best chance for a 3rd party to finally end the 2-Party system, and Roosevelt was not gonna waste it. He campaigned hard, and it seemed like he could make it, grabbing New York and California, but that wasn't enough to compensate the split of the Republican vote, giving Wilson the Presidency of the United States of America.

​

Wilson would take the White House on the 4th of March, promising America a time of peace and "No to the European War", but in 1913, he would receive news from Catalonia on the following month, and American trade started to be threatened: At the beggining of the War, the United Kingdom had instituted a blockade over all members of the Entente, especially France. Forcing trade ships to return back or get sunk, America's trade interests being interrupted was almost enough for Roosevelt to declare war on the Entente, which was prevented by the Majority Whig House. But Wilson decided to not force the issue and opted to recognize the Blockade, he would be followed by most American countries.

As France started to slowly get cut off their supply routes, Napoleon V authorized, on the 7th of May of 1913, the "Unrestricted Swordfish Warfare" (USW), unleashing the Swordfish fleet against Britain, planning their own Blockade to cut off the Island from supplies and slowly starve them out. The French fleet started to sink trade and supply ships in a democratic manner: Every nation not at war with Britain would have their convoys sunk, there would be no distinction of a cruise or a ammunition ship (sometimes they were the same as we shall see later), the first American ships would start to sink.

((The Sinking of the Lusitania))
​

One of these ships was the Lusitania, a British Cruiser that was transporting about 1,700 passengers, and tons of bullets and artillery shells at the bottom secretly. Informed of the latter and ignoring the first, the Crew of the Swordfish "S-17" would torpedo the boat, hitting the ammmunition storage and causing a massive explosion, the ship would sink in less than 30 minutes, taking the lives of a thousand passengers, including 213 Americans. Wilson was livid, the French provocations were going too far, one week after the Lusitania sinking, on the September 18th of 1913, France was forced to end the USW after the United States threatened to enter the Coalition if the attacks didn't cease. The entry of America was avoided, for now.

 

[SkylineDreamer]

As similar to OTL, Roosevelt would be ranting by this time, pushing the US for war.

 

[Halo117]

Entente or Coalition ? Who will win ?​

Long live the KAISERREICH!!! So yeah I'm for germany woohoo!!!