The League of Five Emperors

Hi all,

This is my first post so be patient with me... ...ok the POD of this timeline is that the Philorthodox plot of 1839 succeeds and Othon I of Greece (Otto Wittelsbach) is 1) forced to convert to Orthodoxy, along with his wife Amalia of Oldenburg, 2) the Bavarian advisors are booted out (to be replaced by Russian army officers, British naval officers and French industrialists) 3) the King swears never to grant a constitution and 4) peerages are handed out to the heroes of the Greek War of Independence.

Characters who did not exist in OTL will be introduced with a *

1839 - following the success of the Philorthodox Plot the Russian faction begin a century of dominance of the Greek political landscape that will lead to Greece being more capable of waging war and carrying out policies of industrialisation.

1848 - first and only son Ludovikos (Ludvig)* is born.

1844 - 1855 - sympathetic Philorthodox guerillas in the Dodecanese Islands and Crete wage a war against the Ottomans funded by House Wittelsbach, in return for not assisting Russia in the Crimean War Britain and France pressure Turkey and Egypt into relinquishing these islands to Greece.

1869 - Othon I dies of a heart attack. Ludovikos I succeeds his father to the throne, marrying Princess Louise of Great Britain, as a wedding gift the Ionnian Islands are bestowed upon Greece (in OTL they were given to Greece for choosing pro-British George I as king)

1871 - Ludovikos' first son Othon* is born followed by Christophoros* two years later (died at age three), Goulielmos* four years later and Helena* a year after that.

1877 - 1881 - Greece fights alongside Russia in the Russo-Turkish War, sending an expedition to seize Cyprus and the rest of the Aegean Islands as well as taking the rest of Epirus.

1889 - Crown Prince Othon marries Princess Sophie of Prussia.

1890 - Frederikos* is born to Crown Prince Othon and Sophie, he will be followed by Arthouros* a year later and Henrikos* two years after that.

1896 - Ludovikos I dies of pnuemonia, he is succeded by Othon II.

1910 - Othon II dies in a sailing accident, he is succeded by his son Frederikos I.

1912 - Inspired by Italy's crushing victory over the Ottomans in Tripolitania and Cyrenica Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro enter into an alliance and attack the Ottomans simultaneously. Frederikos leads a brilliant offensive to conquer Macedonia and is killed at it's gates by a stray round, his brother Arthouros assumes command and seizes the city. In a frenzy over the loss of their young king the Greeks slaughter the Ottoman garrison and the city's Turkish inhabitants. Arthouros will continue to lead at the front until the situation stabilises and he can go back to Athens and be coronated at Christmas.

1913 - The Ottoman Empire surrenders and at the Treaty of London Bulgaria gets Thrace, Serbia gets Vardareska and central Albania, Greece gets Macedonia and southern Albania and Montenegro gets northern Albania. Later Bulgaria will be defeated by a coalition of the Ottoman Empire, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Romania. Apart from ceding parts of Thrace back to Turkey, the northern Aegean coast to Greece, eastern Vardareska to Serbia; Bulgaria is forced to drastically reduce it's army. In Corinth, in a secret pact known later as the Corinthian Entente; Greece, Serbia, Romania and Montenegro sign a secret alliance to keep the Austro-Hungarians and Ottomans out of the Balkans and the Bulgarians down.

(To be continued...)
 
Now for War One...

1914 - unaware of the Corinthian Entente the major powers stumble into World War One as in the OTL...

-Austria-Hungary's first forays into Serbia are rebuffed before an Austro-Hungarian assault takes Belgrade. The Serbs take Belgrade back, to the south Greece joins the entente and rapidly invades Bulgaria to neutralise it, Romania and Serbian forces that can be spared also assist, Bulgaria's army, weakened by the treaty placed on it in 1913 is forced to fight a guerilla war and Ottoman forays to free Bulgaria are rebuffed.

- Germany invades France and Belgium, overruning most of the latter and being stopped at paris as in the OTL.

- Germany defeats Russia at Tannenburg and secures their eastern frontiers, Austria-Hungary however loses most of Galicia to the Russians and their eastern front is thrown into chaos as Romanian forces invade and conquer a lightly defended Transylvania. Only hastily sent German reinforcements stop the Austro-Hungarian lines from breaking.

1915 - the year of decision, treteched to their limit the Central Powers will fight their heroically futile attempts to stop the war from turning this year.

- Serbian forces repulse any further Austo-Hungarian attempts to enter their lands.

- Italy joins the Allies, striking into the Tyrol and doing slightly better that in the OTL since some Austro-Hungarian forces in the region have been sent to plug holes in Transylvania.

-Austo-Hungarian and German forces desperately struggle to prevent the fresh Russo-Romanian advances into Hungary and Silesia.

-Greek forces invade Ottoman Thrace and beseige Constantinople, lead by Arthouros I and supported by British, Anzac and French forces landing in the Dardanelles.

-Desperate to defend their capital Ottoman forces are diverted from Israel and Mesopotamia to Thrace, the British offensives in these regions advance faster than in OTL.

- In the west Allied forces manage to make sustained but costly offensives against the Germans at Champagne and Artois.

1916 - the the year of victory and efeat.

In the winter of 1915 - 1916 the Central Powers suffer major social upheavals as all but the most fanatical realise that the end is near.

- Able to return veterans from Bulgaria, the Serbs break through Austro-Hungarian lines and invade Bosnia, supported by Serb peasants in the Bosnian highlands.

- After a massive Italian build up the Italian army forces a breakthrough in the Alps and threaten Vienna's southern approaches.

- Simultaneously Austro-Hungarian forces in the east collapse in the face of Brusilov's advance on Budapest as they are overtretched. Austria-Hungary disintegrates as Franz Josef I abdicates and his heir struggles to hold Vienna as various factions and nationalities fight against one another.

- Russian forces in Poland laucnch an attack towards Danzig, cutting off German forces in East Prussia and then turning and fighting their way towards Berlin, reaching as far as Landsberg by the time of the German request for an armistice.

- On Christmas day Constantinople was liberated by the Greeks as the Sultan died trying to flee the city, Greek and Entente forces invade the Anatolian Peninsula.

- British advances on the Somme and French attacks against areas north of Verdun break Germany's back and their ability to maintain a strong line in the west, contributing decisively to the German request for an armitice.

1917 - the Year of Hateful Peace.

At Versailles Germany is forced to surrender it's colonies to the Allies, Eupen-Malmedy to the Belgians, Alsace-Lorraine to the French, Schleswig-Holstein to the Danes and East Prussia and the region around Posnan to Russia. Needless to say the Allies demand German demilitarisation and massive reparations.

At St Germain Austria (or at least the Imperial government holding Vienna) are forced to accept the de facto independence of the Czechs, to surrender Tyrol and Istria to the Italians, to surrender Galizia to the Russians and Bosnia to the Serbs as well as to accept the de facto independence of Croatia.

At Trianon the Hungarians (the Royalist government holding Budapest) are forced to surrender Transylvania to Romania and Banat to Serbia.

At Neuilly the Bulgarians lose no territory but are forced to maintain the severe limitations on their armed forces.

At Severes the dying Ottoman government is compelled to cede European Turkey and Asia Minor to Greece, Syria and Lebanon to France, Israel, Jordan and Iraq to Great Britian and recognise the de facto Kurdish and Armenian nations. However Greece and the Ottoman Empire will fight an on going war of 1917 - 1922 which will see Greece also overrun the Anatolian Black Sea coast.
 
1916 - Arthouros I of Greece marries Olga Romanova, a year later his brother Henrikos will marry Maria Romanova.

1923 - Following Greece's victory in the Anatolian War millions of Turks flee the wrath of Greeks into the rump Turkish state where a new civil war begins led by Turkish republicans led by Mustafa Kemal that succeed in defeating the Ottoman regency by 1927.

1924 - Arthouros I is crowned the Emperor of Greece in Constantinople marking the beginning of the Greek Empire.

1927 - In response to a thawing in relations between the absolutist eastern allies and the democratic western allies the Empires of Russia and Greece and the Kingdoms of Italy (under Benito Mussolini), Hungary, Ethiopia, Armenia, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, the Emirates of Kurdistan and Xingjiang and the Khanate of Mongolia form the Eurasian Axis.

1931 - With Russian support the Japanese invade China to restore the Qing Dynasty, this alienates the Japanese from the west.

1933 - Imperial Japan and it's puppet Imperial China join the Eurasian Axis.

1936 - Imperial Persia joins the Eurasian Axis. Spain will also join once Franco leads a sucessful coup against the Republican government and scatters the Republicans, although sporadic fighting will continue until 1938.

1938 - The German Imperial League led by Alfred Hugenburg and it's charismatic speaker Adolf Hitler lead a coup to restore Kaiser Wilhelm II, though they fail they take Berlin and hold most of Prussia, Saxony and Hannover, the elected communist regime form a new government in Munich sparking the German Civil War. Kaiser Wilhelm is forced to accept an alliance with his former enemies to get his throne back and thus becomes the Fifth Emperor.

(To be continued...)
 
world_of_1936_by_301rstspartan-d8zqxmf.jpg
 
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The world in 1936, not sure if I got the islands of the Pacific 100% but the Pacific islands of 1936 is exactly as in OTL. Not sure how to upload maps so I used a friend's deviant art website to upload map.
 
Welcome to the board!

I like it, although I find the idea of a Hitler supporting the monarchy a bit difficult to swallow - OTL he saw the German royals as a means to an end, and for a while the restoration seemed like it could happen, but Hitler and Goebbels (I think) were both staunchly anti-royal. Plus, the kaiser detested Hitler, as did the crown prince and most of his brothers. Also, Hitler's alliance with Mussolini (whom the Führer disliked, but he disliked royalty more) resulted in the scuttling of Il Duce's support for a restoration of the Austrian monarchy.
 
Thanks, :)

I'm thinking perhaps the royalists may have decided to serve Kaiser's son instead. Not too sure to go in this direction though. This timeline still needs a lot more back story as I've been thinking it out a lot before I joined the forum.

In this timeline I'm making Germany more analogous to the Spain of 1936 - 1939. Hitler in this timeline is more like the Hitler of Soviet Bavaria where he is serving right-wing reactionaries even though they're monarchists and never got the chance to join the German Worker's Party because the Stahlhelm's dominate the German right wing. Especially since in this timeline Russia would now be ruled by Czar Aleksei, who on death's door because of his haemophilia, is suceptible to the advice of the hard core Orthodox advisors (most of whom are black hundreds, including an Alfed Rosenburg that converted to Orthodoxy and stayed in Russia) who want to send arms and money the Stahlhelm's way rather than see a communist Germany on the doorstep of neo-feudalist Russia. Which by the way would have never suffered the revolution of 1905 as in this universe the Black Hundreds are far stronger and have more heavily infiltrated the Russian Army because groups of this kind would have been prospering in the Orthodox world since the Philorthodox coup POD.
 
Also Hugenburg's Imperial league would be more in the nazi vein of mystical German nationalism than the OTL DVNP because they would have absorbed the Himmler types that would have been spread to the NSDAP, Thule society and elsewhere in the OTL. Since Germany wouldn't have experienced as much of the the hunger and economic hardship that our longer World War One entailed they would not only see things more as "Germany fought the good fioght and held out valiantly but was dogpiled on by half the world at once..." but they would put much more blame on their non Germanic allies being defeated and sapping the Germans of their strength. In regards to his native Austria-Hungary overwhelmed by her enemies Hitler would say his ATL signature phrase that the reich was "Shackled to a corpse." (as opposed to being stabbed in the back) And "Next time we won't be so hindered."
 
Thanks :)

"Nothing had symbolised the death of Ottoman Turkey more than the ignomious death of its last Sultan Mehmed V as he lost his nerve and tried to flee his beseiged capital, Constantinople. Amidst the explosions of the Allied artillery that ringed Constantinople's landward side the nerve wracked and thoroughly demoralized Sultan boarded the last great warship of his navy, the Turgut Reis on Constantinople's Black Sea Coast with the intention of escaping to Asia Minor, turning no thought to to his family or cabinet. And yet that is not what fate would have in store for the last Sultan. As an errant Greek shell slammed into the Turgut Reis' rear turret, penetrating the armour and igniting the bags of propellant carelessly piled around the guns. The Sultan and over five hundred men perished instantaneously in the maelstrom...

...King Arthouros entered the ancestral capital of Greece with the ominous charisma of a dark messiah. For the several subsequent months that Allied personnel remained within the City of Men's desires the King had kept the Greek forces in check. But the weight of history was far too heavy a burden. Greece had for too long been under the Turkish yoke, a mighty and proud people had suffered far too much. The Turkish had been too cruel, too self assured of the longevity of their Caliphate. What followed the departure of Allied forces would go down as one of the bloodiest chapters in modern history as Greek forces would crush a Turkish revolt with the bluntest force. What began as a feud where a band of Turks had killed their Greek employer would lead to nine days and nights of fire and blood as the Greek Army exacted a heavy handed reprisal for three-centuries of oppression, rape and murder as the hands of the Ottomans. The rape of Constantinople would eventually sour the relations with Orthodox Russia and Greece and the west at a time when the Allies should have been jubilant in their victory. Sowing the seeds for future hostilities..."
- Maurice Baillioud, Nightmares in the City of Men's Desires, 1924
 
Oh and I just realised Amalia of Oldenberg could not have kids so I'll stick to the original history where the Philorthodox plotters wanted Amalia put aside.
 
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