The Red Crowns: The World of Imperial Socialism

[Major Crimson]

8/10, not enough British Empire.

Hey they've got time to grow And I don't want it to be a complete Brit-wank, it's more of a Brit-pat on the back. I should point out that most of their gains in Africa are empty desert, the big wins here are the Congo and Kampuchea.

Antarctic is not Pink Hersey

Not yet

 

[Omar20]

Cuba is already independent by 1895? How did that happen?

 

[King of the Uzbeks]

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh why did no one tell me red crowns was back

 

[StormStar]

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh why did no one tell me red crowns was back

king king listen to me very carefully I'm about tell you some very very important.

RED CROWNS IN BACK AND HAS BEEN FOR A WHILE

Now you may go and play in the sand pit.

 

[DAv]

Some good updates there with a solid end to the war. Will we get an insight into the treaty that ended the war between Russia and the other powers? Interesting to see how the French election will turn out, although with hints of a series fo 'Great Wars', someone's going to get the short end of the stick and a rather embittered France is usually good suspect for such a scenario, sadly.

 

[saluto]

I'm really enjoying this fascinating TL, keep up the great work!!

 

[BrentiusAtticus]

watched

 

[Major Crimson]

Cuba is already independent by 1895? How did that happen?

Oops! The map may or may not be from 1900...

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh why did no one tell me red crowns was back

Welcome back!

Some good updates there with a solid end to the war. Will we get an insight into the treaty that ended the war between Russia and the other powers? Interesting to see how the French election will turn out, although with hints of a series fo 'Great Wars', someone's going to get the short end of the stick and a rather embittered France is usually good suspect for such a scenario, sadly.

Defo, next update is 100% dealing with Russia and their fallout. Should be up tomorrow.

As for the Great Wars, hopefully they'll be pretty interesting and if I were you I wouldn't bet on any one power getting the complete rough end of it every time. There will be lots of different winners and losers.

I'm really enjoying this fascinating TL, keep up the great work!!

Thank you kindly! Should be more up tomorrow!

watched

Hope you enjoy!

 

[StormStar]

From the original timeline the British Empire wasn't in the next war at the beginning and didn't plan to join at all along with American and Japan nut I am guessing that they will be in the war after that.

Also can there be a great war on the American continents where Europe get dragged in later i.e. A few independent Latin, South American countries and Mexico against the USA and a few allies on the American continents (not any of the colonies) and Europe gets pulled in when one side invades one of the colonies to allow easier access against the other side.

 

[Major Crimson]

Chapter Sixteen
Eastern Fallout
​

Extract from: The People of the Pacific, Vol. XI
By: Winson Spencer-Churchill IV, Published Penguin Publishing 2021


The history of Japan as a modern Empire is usually dated to the Meiji Restoration in the 1860s but their emergence as a global power was undoubtedly achieved following the Treaty of Vladivostok. Their gains from the Treaty of Versailles, particularly that of Dai Vet, gained them a great deal of prestige and expanded the Japanese Empire from a regional one to one that spanned a continent. From the Russians however, they found themselves better suited than ever. The British demands at Vladivostok were simple; the Russians take the blame for the War in Asia, pay concessions and demilitarise a portion of their Central Asian territory. As far as the British were concerned, particularly the British public, not only were the French the main enemy in the conflict but their holdings and areas of influence were the real prizes to be won. The Great Game, whilst still an important part of British foreign policy, had faded from the forefront of their minds compared to the much closer and more historically despised French. It was the Japanese then that truly won out of the Russian defeat. The Treaty of Vladivostok was arranged in a fundamentally different manner to the Treaty of Versailles and outlined the following stipulations:



Containment

• The Port of Vladivostok is to be demilitarised for a period no shorter than 10 years
• Russia is not to excerpt influence or control whether it be political, monetary or military over the regions of:
  • Manchuria
  • Korea
  • Afghanistan
  • Tibet
  • Mongolia
  • The Chishima Islands
  • Karafuto
• Russia is to accept culpability for the War in Asia and their belligerence as aggressors
• The Russian government shall compensate the Japanese Government a sum total to the rate of 3,000 million pound sterling at the current exchange rate (this was a point of great contention and a cunning move from the Japanese as the bolstered Pound and weak ruble ensured that the Russians were paying double what it appeared on paper)
  • The British government is also to be compensated a sum of 1,000 million pounds at the current exchange rate. The Indian Government is also to be compensated a further 500 million pound sterling.
• The Russian Empire is to keep no more than 15,000 troops beyond the line of 100th meridian east
• The Russian Empire is also to deploy no more than 5,000 troops in her central Asian Territories
• Russia is not to construct or acquire any new ports or territory otherwise on the Pacific coast for a period of 25 years.

Territory

• The city of Ryojun is ceded to the Japanese government in perpetuity and the seizure of the Port by the Russian Government is to be acknowledged as an illegal act for which the Russian Government will issue an apology
• Korea is to be recognised by the Russian government an integral part of the Empire of Japan
  • Manchuria is to be recognised as an area of “Special Imperial Interest” and Russian corporations and state agents are not to act within it
• The Governments of the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Afghanistan are to renegotiate their border, with concessions given to the later for the unilateral and unprovoked invasion of their sovereign territory.
  • The United Kingdom is to supply supervisory advice to these negotiations
• The Islands formerly known as the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin (now to be officially referred to in exclusivity as the Chishima Islands and Karafuto) are to be recognised as the property and territory of the Japanese Empire

The Russians dragged their feet far harder than the French, mostly due to the difference in government. The Radical-Republicans in France were a doomed force; Monarchists, Revanchists and Socialists were all booming at their expense and they would be removed from office no matter the deal. This was a fact accepted by the government, top to bottom. In Russia, however, Prime Minister Stolypin clung to his position for dear life. Unwilling to relinquish power to the military and aristocratic cabal that surrounded him and the King, still absent (either under effective house arrest, suffering from severe depression or a combination of the two) made no moves to break the deadlock. Stolypin feared that signing the treaty before he was able to stabilise his position would lead to his removal from office and possibly even his death. Moving quickly, he ensured the loyalty of one General Lavr Kornilov and the tacit (albeit extremely reluctant) support of the now controversial Brusilov. Kornilov, in command of the 1st Army, arranged for the arrest of the entirety of the rest of the High Command as well as their summary execution on the charge of treason. Kornilov and Stolypin produced reams of evidence and clearly not-falsified letters, outlining the “Kuropatkin Plot”, named after its founder and leading Stolypin sceptic Aleksey Kuropatkin, which involved the removal of Stolypin, execution of the Tsar and establishment of a military-led republic. With the “guilty” parties dealt with, Stolypin had a new and silent scapegoat for his failings. The dead generals had undermined the war effort, the dead generals had threatened to remove the Tsar and the dead generals had hurt Mother Russia so badly that Stolypin had no option but to sign the treaty. As soon as he had, however, Russia secured a loan from the Austro-Hungarian Government (itself not in the finest waters but looking to reinforce and expand their growing friendship with Moscow) and began a scheme of heavy industrial and military expansion once more. Stolypin knew that the flames of Russian anger would consume him unless he could stoke them and stoke them and stoke them and throw them a new tribute. The next war was coming and it would be his last chance. As Russia was reshaped into a nation fit only for conflict, Stolypin waited for the next conflict, planned his political suppression and knew that if he could reach the next conflict he could truly create a new Russia.

Once a national hero and until death a patriot, General Kuropatkin was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and died for Stolypin's machinations. ​

The Japanese meanwhile were jubilant. Their victory over the Russians was very much theirs with British help, rather than vice-versa. All of a sudden they had gone from a near-protectorate in the British eye to a valued ally and friend. The cultural stir of the war in the country cannot be overstated, entering into a golden age of victory and opulence, Prime Minister Okuma Shigenobu (who led the Liberal-Imperialist but ultimately moderate and reformists Kenseito party) invested the Russian concessions in industry and, along with a swathe of new workers rights, education. This, combined with large-scale British cultural exchange (building on the new “sisterhood” between the two island peoples) allowed for new cultural expression, particularly in western style theatre, music and literature. Nationalism was stirred no doubt but the government of the day, liberal and forward-thinking tempted to funnel this victory fever into productive and political ideas of unity and confidence. Indeed there was surprisingly little taste in Japan for more war, the people had won their first international one against their only major foe - bar the ancient enemy of China. Japan was content to look outwards, invest and grow.


In Britain, this new Japanese literature exploded onto the scene as a major fad in 1895. Japanese philosophers and theologians were often invited to give talks in London and Edinburgh and again, it became fashionable to be well versed in not only Kant and Socrates but Norinaga and Kukai. Japanese food began to be served on London streets (in inevitably bastardised forms), her students began to attend Oxford and Cambridge in growing numbers and her young women were hired as maids and secretaries- having developed a reputation for hard work and precision, as well as being seen as "naturally submissive" and so well suited to such work. Even Her Majesty, Queen Sybil, played a part; in 1896 hiring a handmaid from Osaka (who’s story was made into the 2011 Drama “Niko and the Queen”) and posing for a series of portraits in her new silk kimonos. The racism persisted and indeed very few saw the Japanese as anything close to equal but nevertheless, this new somewhat Anglicised version of Japanese culture was just palatable and pseudo-Western enough to be appreciated in Britain and even developed similar but considerably smaller followings in Germany in Scandinavia. The bubble had largely burst by 1905, new ideas and fashions pouring in to replace the now tired Japanese “schtick” but nevertheless, Japan had carved herself out a unique place in the minds of the British people.

Tea, ever a shared interest, was also changed by the war and its aftershocks. Once opium dens often reformed into "Nippon Tea Houses" and the most fashionable of British society attended in their very own, genuine silk kimonos. ​

Trade and cultural links grew with not only Britain proper but also her colonies of India, Australasia and Westralia. The British and Indian populations took well to this whilst the Australasian response was mixed (Japanese dining, fashion and even music began to develop a major following in both New Zealand and the capital whilst on the rest of the mainland it was treated with a great deal of contempt and fear) whilst Westralia only panicked. The “yellow menace” seemed to be infiltrating their society, converting their easterly brothers. The resultant “Jap Bill of 1899” was one of the most restrictive and hateful in the Empire, institutionalising White Westralians as a racially dominant class and banning all immigration from Japan and their Empire. Via Hawaii (which served as an eastern edge for Japanese trade and influence and a western edge of American interests) American-Japanese links began to grow as well though the popular and political response was much closer to Westralia than anywhere else. Confident at home and newly popular abroad, Japan began to distinguish herself as a unique culture. As put by the great (then Governor) Theodore Roosevelt in 1899: “The Japanese are a people Eastern in their thought, Western in their action and comfortable in their abundance”.

 

[Major Crimson]

Back again! Sorry for the delay and that it doesn't include all promised, I always end up being busier than I expected! Maybe more tomorrow, definitely more soon, so sorry for the gap but hope the above is quality and we enjoy. Comments and critiques always appreciated (as is blind praise) but yeah, enjoy and hope I'm keeping you all entertained!

 

[AmericanAdam]

Excellent update, well worth the wait!

 

[DAv]

Hopefully this'll calm down the rampant expansionism Japan felt OTL in some part due to feeling slighted after the Russo Japanese War. A more rational Japan during this period wouldn't be a bad thing.

 

[Grammar Kaiser]

Go Japan! Tennoheika Banzai!

 

[Analytical Engine]

It's "exert influence", not "excerpt influence".

Otherwise,

 

[Major Crimson]

Wow I am the worst at updating things. I'm getting really really stuck into an update rn and I remain very committed to the project so I promise you'll have an update today and one or two more this week, hopefully even more if I feel super inspired!

Excellent update, well worth the wait!

Glad you enjoyed it, lets hope today's can live up to your expectations!

Hopefully this'll calm down the rampant expansionism Japan felt OTL in some part due to feeling slighted after the Russo Japanese War. A more rational Japan during this period wouldn't be a bad thing.

Thats part of the direction Japan is going They're still broadly similar to OTL but more success/recognition from the Brits and west in general, more western cultural links and (it was mentioned very briefly earlier on) a less-Prussian, more-British constitution should all lead to more liberalism. Having said that, Weimar Germany was pretty damn liberal and we all know how that ended up...

Go Japan! Tennoheika Banzai!

Jiyū banzai!

It's "exert influence", not "excerpt influence".

Otherwise,

Oops! Thanks for the heads up! And I'm glad you think its good!

 

[AvatarOfKhaine]

Subbed, intriguing and well written. Nice going.

 

[Major Crimson]

Chapter Seventeen
The Twin Titans​

Extract from: Twin Titans - Death of the Third French Republic
By: Pete Hughes, Published 1999, Oxford University Press

The argument that the last French election of the Third Republic was truly a two horse race is, at the same time, perfectly accurate and a little misleading. Bonaparte and Boulanger were immensely polarising figures and this, combined with the the fact that both men wanted the end of the Third Republic led to a scramble of centrist politicians to put together their own platform. In the end, the centre-left took front stage as the right coalesced more easily around Boulanger. As Prime Minister, Boulanger had been a Republican and a member of the mainstream right, his isolation and subsequent wrath proved to divide them less than pragmatism united them and so, with many of their leaders relegated to background roles or bowing out quietly, the vast majority of the Republicans singed on to the Revanchiste Republican ticket. Bonaparte encountered no such luck from the left. Most of France's socialists and social democrats were out and out republicans, Imperial Socialism had started to build a popular following but this was not reflected in the political classes.

The new, centrist coalition - known as the Popular Republican Front - organised around Emile Combes, a respected orator and popular speaker with a penchant for compromise. Combes was a tried and tested man, a true believer in the Third French republic and (even to today) a major hero of French and European Republicanism. He was excluded from the famous Parisian Radio debate but went on a whistle stop tour of the city, attacking both of his opponents as ideologues, self obsessed radicals who cared little for the people of France. Combes talked of peace - which Bonaparte echoed - but was able to increasingly win the support of the middle classes. As the poor fled to the big promises of left and right and the upper classes were split between Bonaparte loyalists and authoritarian breakaways, it was not just the middle of the political system but of the class system also. His tour was a success, providing a model that politicians varying from American Republicans and British Liberals would embrace in an attempt to generate more of a "man of the people" vibe. Combes shunned the big name endorsements or the massive rallies that his opposition revelled in and instead spoke in town halls, in front of barns and schools. Boulanger wanted a top-down republic and Bonaparte would bring back the Empire, surely this new man could save the French people? In the end, Combes was fighting a futile war. France was swinging away from moderate politics, radical solutions were needed.

The moderate, far too oft forgotten. ​

Boulanger's campaign was slow and steady. As his endorsements from military figures built he began to outline a policy program and the specifics of his new constitution. Compulsory, 5 year service in the military. Political and social education would instil "French values" in the youth and boys groups would be set up to teach young Frenchmen to shoot and hunt. Initially tight lipped, Boulanger published a series of weekly articles outlining further ideas. Military positions in the Senate and the abolition of the office of Prime Minister. The vote would be restricted to only those who had served their time in the army and the idea of "Service Citizenship" was key to his plans to reforge France as a militarist state. Oddly enough, Boulanger echoed much of the first Napoleon's ideas, even proposing to rename the President to First Consul. The General called not only for strong defence but for an active policy of war and expansion. Looking eastwards he wanted to humiliate the Germans, Boulanger hated the British no doubt but his plans for France were as European hegemony, champion of enlightened thought and military might in the face of "decadent peace" and "archaic kings". Boulanger made quite the point of his non-monarchical ambitions. In a speech in Lyon a week before the polls opened he stated "All serving citizens of France have the chance to be great, I will not stare down at you from a throne but command you, as any general would his men". The speech was controversial but not quite so controversial as the many stumbling points of Bonaparte.

Respected and well liked, Bonaparte ran a modern and energetic campaign.​

Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte was the third man of his family to aim for the highest position in a French Republic and hoped to be the fourth to claim the French throne. Whilst Boulanger's campaign trudged ever onwards, bit-by-bit revealing plans for a new France, Bonaparte's campaign was erratic. he bounced from point to point, place to place, visiting the most dramatic sights and sounds and letting fourth a torrent of - occasionally contradictory - Bonaparte was to give women the vote and he met with suffragist leaders across the nation. His rallies were huge and colourful, full of music and celebration. His endorsements came from old friends of his father, from socialites and celebrities and from many of France's peace advocates. The policies of nationalisation of heavy industry, new taxes on the wealthy, wealth redistribution and a reform of the French electoral system were all made into lavish presentations with in depth explanations, aided with visuals and far more pomp than was necessary. Despite being a prospective Emperor, Bonaparte was far from an Imperialist. "France," he said at his final Parisian rally before the votes were cast "is a large and mighty country already. She has wealth and lands the envy of the world. The dear General wants to 'restore' France but I tell you she is already grand! The issue comes in sharing that grandness and that magnificent wealth out. As you Emperor I will swear an oath to emancipate all the people of France from their economic shackles!" The speech, and many others, echoed the thoughts and words of Britain's Fabians and Bonaparte did little to hide his ties to them. This was fine, for a long while until the full depth of his personal links to British politicians became clear. In the final lead up to the election Boulanger hit him again and again with the same talking points; for years Bonaparte had lived in London, his friends and pen-pals were either linked to or a part of the British government, that same government that France had just been at war with. How could this man be trusted, when his friends and allies had but weeks ago slain French men? Over time, the papers began to pickup on this line of attack adn the general tone turned further and further against this "foreign infiltrator". Try as he might, Bonaparte could not shake off the criticisms and, by the election, it was only his name and personal charisma that kept the campaign from falling apart.

​

When Boulanger won, he won big and set to work immediately recasting France. His new constitution was drafted over the coming weeks and, by March, was put forward to the senate who, having retained a Republican majority who obediently signed on to the Revanchiste cause, passed it with little opposition. The other parties railed against the undemocratic nature of this, predicting violence and rioting (which indeed did occur) and even civil war. The move was, undoubtedly to modern historians, an unconstitutional one but it is important to note that "General Revanche" had the unwavering support of the military who, after January 7th, could be seen in increasing numbers on patrol and parade. Paris became a hotspot for violence as protests to the new constitution and to Boulanger's rule escalated. A lightning fast and extremely effective military crackdown followed with 11 protesters shot on March 14th. On the first of April the new constitution was finally ratified and France began anew. With the firm hand of the military on his side, Boulanger was nearly all-powerful. The "Fourth French Republic", came to be one rainy day and Europe was changed forever.

The First Consul, now absolute in his power. ​

 

[AmericanAdam]

Vive la France! France est revanche!

 

[The God-Emperor]

A shame Bonaparte didn't win, but I guess the conflict has to come from somewhere. I'll be eagerly waiting for the victory of imperial socialism over the reactionary forces.