They Come in All Colours: A Timeline
- Thread starter Daeres
- Start date
-
- Tags
- 19th century
I'm glad you're enjoying it. As for food, every time I write about food in a timeline I'm all 'no surely it isn't going to make me hungry, that was just because I hadn't eaten last time' and somehow I never learn that it really does actually make me hungry writing about it, so I'm glad it makes somebody else hungry too!
Kerem Efendi, Tercuman to the Frankish Empire, to Iskender Pasha
12th February, 1860
I was, at last, able to intrude into the Hodinûşûnî ambassador’s busy schedule today, having been attempting to do so for a considerable spell, your appeals were not falling on deaf ears (as I repeatedly insisted they were not)! He’s a popular new arrival, is Dehoniyy Pasha, and as the principle objective of Hodinûşûnistan in Europe is containment of powers interested in transatlantic affairs we are not necessarily terribly high up the waiting list, whilst I was (as I was telling you) doing my level best to expedite our inevitable meeting (or even jump some places up the waiting list) I was rather concerned that I would overplay my hand and come off as somewhat of a beggar pretending at lameness. In any case, my entreaties regarding riding and archery were finally answered this morning in the affirmative, and I hastily cleared my entire schedule to ensure I had the fullest amount of time to spend with my esteemed Hesperidine peer. I must also confess, before I continue, that I was perhaps hasty in my bitter complaints regarding my friend Aragon, and retract my last letter’s somewhat ill-tempered remarks to the effect of claiming his advice on the matter of Dehoniyy Pasha was useless and so forth. We should return to considering him a reliable sort, having definitively proven that he was not either misleading me or acting the buffoon.
I had some idea of what to expect from Dehoniyy Pasha, having seen him from afar in a number of events in Paris, but I must say that he was rather different in a more intimate, private setting (insofar as one can be in private with servants present of course but they were, after all, his servants). Having given off every indication of being a man of few words beforehand, perhaps even taciturn, in our meeting he was both eloquent and even altogether charming from the very start, had I not known him to be a heathen I would have considered him the very model of decorum and decency. I rather suppose that he was more comfortable without the prying eyes of Christians present, or perhaps it was the secure knowledge that the Kayser has never had even fleeting interest in getting involved in Hesperida. If anything I might say that with Christians present he actively aims to make himself quaint, which is a strange conceit to me but I suppose has some merit behind it for those who do not possess the favour of Allah, or indeed the resources of the Kayser and the Empire of Rum. I must confess, however, that the idea of someone so quick having to conceal their qualities so as to seem unthreatening to Christians sounds like a miserable time, and I can’t help feeling rather sorry for the man.
As well as being eloquent and charming, he is extremely comfortable on a horse, which rather confirms the impression one gets from Hesperidine newsletters and communiques that the horse is now found in all corners of that far continent, and to a far greater extent than most Christian governments will officially acknowledge, tsk tsk. Indeed, as one used to the horse from my earliest days (as any Turk would be) I would definitively state that Dehoniyy Pasha has been riding since childhood, so great is his confidence on horseback. Given the distance between Hodinûşûnistan and the Empire of the Plains in Hesperida’s vast interior, it rather belies the notion given by so many Christian governments that the Empire of the Plains is the monopolist of equestrian practice in those far parts. Again, were it not for my continual reminders of his heathen background I would have said that Dehoniyy Pasha was a man of extremely refined stature. This was further reinforced by his skill with the bow. To my understanding, the bow and arrow is still used as a tool of hunting and even war in Hodinûşûnistan in the manner that it once was among the Turks. Having seen Dehoniyy Pasha shoot I wouldn’t dare doubt such a thing, I am only a little ashamed to say that he fair outshot me, a Ruman chelebi schooled in the martial arts since childhood. I will have to wait for another occasion to see how he handles a rifle.
I did not press the Hodinûşûnî on any matters of a truly sensitive matter, as I aim to form a productive relationship with the man, and in this line of work my experience is that there must always be room left for interactions without a strong basis in the affairs of the day, one gets awfully tired of feeling like your only interest to other people is what you can immediately for them. However, I did raise the subject of a diplomatic visit to Hodinûşûnistan from our envoys at some stage, both to see what he had to say and because my impression is that the Hodinûşûnî would be an extremely pious, godly people if shown the path to do so. He was somewhat noncommittal to the idea, but I suspect that similar ideas are proposed to him constantly, and after all we are not a nation involved in Hesperida so I had no need to take offense at a lack of immediate enthusiasm.
Ambassador Dehonigonrathe in Paris to Ambassador Gaiant’wak in Praha
12th February, 1860
I had reason to encounter the Ruman ambassador to the French court today, after persistent attempts had been made to gain an audience with me. I had been deflecting these attempts for some weeks until I had made myself reasonably certain he would neither behave condescendingly nor attempt to convert me to his faith. It is difficult enough to be in a city full of Christians in the first place, and in the very heart of Catholic Europe no less, and I did not feel like being subject to attack from another angle. It made me think of what you told me about being caught in arguments between Christian fractions when you first arrived in Praha. However, I was given assurances on this matter by Lion de Caller, the ambassador from Aragon, and given the grievances that run between Christians and Muslims I thought it reasonably judicious to take a Christian ambassador vouching for a Muslim at his word, so I finally gave in to this charm offensive.
He has something of a layer of pomposity, I would say, but he rides well and shoots well. Indeed, I was curious to encounter a Turk, being one of the few peoples of these parts who still consider skill with bow to be a martial art of high status. He is I think not quite so skilled in courtly French as he supposes, but plays the part of charming fop well enough that I think this smooths out his impression among the Christians considerably. He is also attentive, and not one of those so common creatures here who primarily talks to others in the hopes of boasting of themselves, actually taking care to ask me questions about our homeland, my experiences in Paris, and such. I will have to ponder the actual merits of discourse with Rum for a time, as I must understand how and where they might be able to affect action upon European powers in the near future.
Is all well in Bohemia? Do you need any sums of money or anything sent over? How are matters progressing subsequent to recent events in Brandenburg? Let me know how your affairs are progressing.
Kingmer’s Wordbook, 4th Edicion, Rochester Universitee Press 1862,
OCCIDENTALISM, also Hesperiphilia- A lasting fascinacion with all that pertens to Hesperidine peoples, their habits, their countenaunce, and their modes. It is specially evident in those countrees as engage in frecuent discours with Hesperidines, but holds potence in most of Europe, specially after the stablishment of permanent Hesperidine ambassy in citees capital such as in Chatham, Pragh or Paris, and the resulting incounters with the said ambassadors and their modes. This is resultant from a nocion of such peoples representing a kind of beautiful savagery, or a closer relacionschip with the natural world, but also the yet same vulgare gawing as is shewn to any which nacion exhibits uncustomable delites and so becometh the appel in the eye. Chefly manifests in the wering of bucskyn, a relentles fascinacion with fethers, or in the imitacion of such architecture as belongs to the yet more antient peoples of Hesperida such as the Maya, Meshiko and so forth.
TURKERY, also Turqerie, also Tourcery- An period of grete borowing, specially among Europe, of Turkish formes in architecture, abiliment, fortniture, and modes, that span across the 16th and 17th centuries, being chefly brought upon by the Hungarian Croizery’s favorable resolucion in the Year of Our Lord 1504. The resultant produccions were somewhatly vulgare, yet may be allowed as introducing certein formes that proved more lasting and swayful, such as those formes coud be purposed towards creacion of an altogether hegher sort. Also used in reference to excessif ornamentacion of a general kind. Not to be confused for, though it is somewhatly interlaced with, the recent facions for contemporary Ruman wares and modes, which can accurate described as a pompous, crooked recapitulacion of classickal modes and formes as transformed by Turkish vulgarety.
12th February, 1860
I was, at last, able to intrude into the Hodinûşûnî ambassador’s busy schedule today, having been attempting to do so for a considerable spell, your appeals were not falling on deaf ears (as I repeatedly insisted they were not)! He’s a popular new arrival, is Dehoniyy Pasha, and as the principle objective of Hodinûşûnistan in Europe is containment of powers interested in transatlantic affairs we are not necessarily terribly high up the waiting list, whilst I was (as I was telling you) doing my level best to expedite our inevitable meeting (or even jump some places up the waiting list) I was rather concerned that I would overplay my hand and come off as somewhat of a beggar pretending at lameness. In any case, my entreaties regarding riding and archery were finally answered this morning in the affirmative, and I hastily cleared my entire schedule to ensure I had the fullest amount of time to spend with my esteemed Hesperidine peer. I must also confess, before I continue, that I was perhaps hasty in my bitter complaints regarding my friend Aragon, and retract my last letter’s somewhat ill-tempered remarks to the effect of claiming his advice on the matter of Dehoniyy Pasha was useless and so forth. We should return to considering him a reliable sort, having definitively proven that he was not either misleading me or acting the buffoon.
I had some idea of what to expect from Dehoniyy Pasha, having seen him from afar in a number of events in Paris, but I must say that he was rather different in a more intimate, private setting (insofar as one can be in private with servants present of course but they were, after all, his servants). Having given off every indication of being a man of few words beforehand, perhaps even taciturn, in our meeting he was both eloquent and even altogether charming from the very start, had I not known him to be a heathen I would have considered him the very model of decorum and decency. I rather suppose that he was more comfortable without the prying eyes of Christians present, or perhaps it was the secure knowledge that the Kayser has never had even fleeting interest in getting involved in Hesperida. If anything I might say that with Christians present he actively aims to make himself quaint, which is a strange conceit to me but I suppose has some merit behind it for those who do not possess the favour of Allah, or indeed the resources of the Kayser and the Empire of Rum. I must confess, however, that the idea of someone so quick having to conceal their qualities so as to seem unthreatening to Christians sounds like a miserable time, and I can’t help feeling rather sorry for the man.
As well as being eloquent and charming, he is extremely comfortable on a horse, which rather confirms the impression one gets from Hesperidine newsletters and communiques that the horse is now found in all corners of that far continent, and to a far greater extent than most Christian governments will officially acknowledge, tsk tsk. Indeed, as one used to the horse from my earliest days (as any Turk would be) I would definitively state that Dehoniyy Pasha has been riding since childhood, so great is his confidence on horseback. Given the distance between Hodinûşûnistan and the Empire of the Plains in Hesperida’s vast interior, it rather belies the notion given by so many Christian governments that the Empire of the Plains is the monopolist of equestrian practice in those far parts. Again, were it not for my continual reminders of his heathen background I would have said that Dehoniyy Pasha was a man of extremely refined stature. This was further reinforced by his skill with the bow. To my understanding, the bow and arrow is still used as a tool of hunting and even war in Hodinûşûnistan in the manner that it once was among the Turks. Having seen Dehoniyy Pasha shoot I wouldn’t dare doubt such a thing, I am only a little ashamed to say that he fair outshot me, a Ruman chelebi schooled in the martial arts since childhood. I will have to wait for another occasion to see how he handles a rifle.
I did not press the Hodinûşûnî on any matters of a truly sensitive matter, as I aim to form a productive relationship with the man, and in this line of work my experience is that there must always be room left for interactions without a strong basis in the affairs of the day, one gets awfully tired of feeling like your only interest to other people is what you can immediately for them. However, I did raise the subject of a diplomatic visit to Hodinûşûnistan from our envoys at some stage, both to see what he had to say and because my impression is that the Hodinûşûnî would be an extremely pious, godly people if shown the path to do so. He was somewhat noncommittal to the idea, but I suspect that similar ideas are proposed to him constantly, and after all we are not a nation involved in Hesperida so I had no need to take offense at a lack of immediate enthusiasm.
Ambassador Dehonigonrathe in Paris to Ambassador Gaiant’wak in Praha
12th February, 1860
I had reason to encounter the Ruman ambassador to the French court today, after persistent attempts had been made to gain an audience with me. I had been deflecting these attempts for some weeks until I had made myself reasonably certain he would neither behave condescendingly nor attempt to convert me to his faith. It is difficult enough to be in a city full of Christians in the first place, and in the very heart of Catholic Europe no less, and I did not feel like being subject to attack from another angle. It made me think of what you told me about being caught in arguments between Christian fractions when you first arrived in Praha. However, I was given assurances on this matter by Lion de Caller, the ambassador from Aragon, and given the grievances that run between Christians and Muslims I thought it reasonably judicious to take a Christian ambassador vouching for a Muslim at his word, so I finally gave in to this charm offensive.
He has something of a layer of pomposity, I would say, but he rides well and shoots well. Indeed, I was curious to encounter a Turk, being one of the few peoples of these parts who still consider skill with bow to be a martial art of high status. He is I think not quite so skilled in courtly French as he supposes, but plays the part of charming fop well enough that I think this smooths out his impression among the Christians considerably. He is also attentive, and not one of those so common creatures here who primarily talks to others in the hopes of boasting of themselves, actually taking care to ask me questions about our homeland, my experiences in Paris, and such. I will have to ponder the actual merits of discourse with Rum for a time, as I must understand how and where they might be able to affect action upon European powers in the near future.
Is all well in Bohemia? Do you need any sums of money or anything sent over? How are matters progressing subsequent to recent events in Brandenburg? Let me know how your affairs are progressing.
Kingmer’s Wordbook, 4th Edicion, Rochester Universitee Press 1862,
OCCIDENTALISM, also Hesperiphilia- A lasting fascinacion with all that pertens to Hesperidine peoples, their habits, their countenaunce, and their modes. It is specially evident in those countrees as engage in frecuent discours with Hesperidines, but holds potence in most of Europe, specially after the stablishment of permanent Hesperidine ambassy in citees capital such as in Chatham, Pragh or Paris, and the resulting incounters with the said ambassadors and their modes. This is resultant from a nocion of such peoples representing a kind of beautiful savagery, or a closer relacionschip with the natural world, but also the yet same vulgare gawing as is shewn to any which nacion exhibits uncustomable delites and so becometh the appel in the eye. Chefly manifests in the wering of bucskyn, a relentles fascinacion with fethers, or in the imitacion of such architecture as belongs to the yet more antient peoples of Hesperida such as the Maya, Meshiko and so forth.
TURKERY, also Turqerie, also Tourcery- An period of grete borowing, specially among Europe, of Turkish formes in architecture, abiliment, fortniture, and modes, that span across the 16th and 17th centuries, being chefly brought upon by the Hungarian Croizery’s favorable resolucion in the Year of Our Lord 1504. The resultant produccions were somewhatly vulgare, yet may be allowed as introducing certein formes that proved more lasting and swayful, such as those formes coud be purposed towards creacion of an altogether hegher sort. Also used in reference to excessif ornamentacion of a general kind. Not to be confused for, though it is somewhatly interlaced with, the recent facions for contemporary Ruman wares and modes, which can accurate described as a pompous, crooked recapitulacion of classickal modes and formes as transformed by Turkish vulgarety.
Okay, I don't know why: I'm a PhD student at the University of Aberdeen and just got back to school from the US yesterday. Anyway, I got a thrill seeing Aberdeen on the detailed UK map 
(and an even bigger thrill reading about Scotland and Ireland in this TL). Great job!
When (if) you get around to protraying North America, I'm sure I will be excited to see the state of my beloved home state of Wisconsin as well
(and an even bigger thrill reading about Scotland and Ireland in this TL). Great job!When (if) you get around to protraying North America, I'm sure I will be excited to see the state of my beloved home state of Wisconsin as well
Reading the experiences of two 'outsiders' in the heart of a Christian empire was a great way to show more of their own motivations and biases. The sense of the Haudenosaunee as the diplomatic leaders of the Hesperidine states clearly comes across. Love the exonyms and endonyms too!
What is the territorial extent of the Turkish state? Do they hold Constantinople, for example?
Really great to see more TTL written English. With a medieval POD, what would you say are the key features of the language's evolution up to the 19th century? I imagine the close relationship with the Dutch provinces has led to the somewhat more Germanic vocabulary and the different (in some cases) grammar on display.
What is the territorial extent of the Turkish state? Do they hold Constantinople, for example?
Really great to see more TTL written English. With a medieval POD, what would you say are the key features of the language's evolution up to the 19th century? I imagine the close relationship with the Dutch provinces has led to the somewhat more Germanic vocabulary and the different (in some cases) grammar on display.
At present, the Empire of Rum is fairly extensive, maintaining a European frontier stretching from Bosnia through to Bulgaria. Its frontier with Hungary has been reasonably stable for some time, but the two states compete for influence over the client state of Wallachia and this remains the main 'acceptable' form of competition between Hungary and Rum in the present time. They do hold Constantinople, and it's their capital. Otherwise they also stretch into the Near East proper, and the Persian Gulf is their main means of projecting power into the Indian Ocean and beyond. At one point they held vassals and colonies stretching as far east as the Philippines but the high tide of that has been reached and has since ebbed, though they do still have a few concessions in South East Asia and maintain control over their vassal state of Sumatra. They've never been able to extend their control over Egypt, despite several attempts.
In the case of TCIAC's English, as well as having a closer relationship with Dutch speaking polities compared to OTL there's also a relatively severe rewrite of a number of key English institutions in the wake of the French occupation of the country and the establishment of the Commonwealth, along with a decentering of London as a political capital and potentially giving more opportunity for London dialect to not become the primary arbiter of emergent standard English. However, there is also the fact that a number of OTL English orthography decisions across early Modern English, and even in some cases beyond, were just so fundamentally arbitrary. In any situation where there's an opportunity to rewrite English history prior to the development of Standard English there is an opportunity to treat a number of what became OTL Modern English's written forms as being as mutable, in the same way that we generally treat OTL people being born after a PoD as being unlikely to exist in the same form.
One major caveat with the flags is that those are not exhaustive, at the time I was making the flags there was a lot of stuff still under construction (and there wasn't a deliberate intent to create a timeline yet), and also with a number of non-European states I've been having to consider whether some nations might very well not have a flag at all.Okay, this is great.
That being said, Milan *is* a deliberate exclusion from the flags that have been compiled so far. Italy has a very different history ITTL, both relatively early due to the lack of Habsburg Dukes of Austria, and even more so later on given the lack of a Habsburg connexion between Iberia and central Europe, France's position as HRE, etc. By the present date of the setting there is a general French hegemony over most of northern Italy, and in the case of Milan it is indeed part of Savoy's domains, but that's a relatively recent development. There was a time in which the territory went back and forth between Savoyard and French control, aided and abetted by Aragon who used Savoy to help contain French ambitions in Italy, but geopolitical changes across the past while has led to the French allowing Savoy permanent control over Milan- the expansion and centralisation of the Bohemian Empire has led France to develop a different approach to the HRE it leads, in which it encourages a smaller number of more powerful HRE member states in much closer co-operation with France than in previous times where the French-led HRE still mostly resembled the HRE as we're familiar with it OTL. This is also partially a legacy of the movement known as Rationalism, which has only very tenuous connections to something approaching the philosophical school we'd called rationalism IOTL, and which I'll get into in another update.
About Carniola, what's the language of government and politics? That slice of Mediterranean being what it is, you'd have to be very careful not to put any people on a pedestal; I can see Istriot being used as a lingua franca, only because it's neither Friulian nor Slovenian, or even German (as it was in OTL, but without a House of Habsburg, that could change).
That's something I imagine to have changed several times over the centuries; despite the lack of Habsburgs the ruling dynasty and nobles of Carniola were primarily German descended until relatively recently (and many of them still consider themselves to be), so I'd imagined a period of Latin usage giving away to German by the late 15th or early 16th centuries at the very latest. However, after a Valois branch inherited the Carniolan throne, and with the country's continued Catholicism and the growth of France's power, I imagine there was a phase of French as the language of court and politics that ultimately didn't last very long, as despite its utility as not elevating any people within the kingdom there's a) a distinct lack of speakers and b) the unpleasantness of feeling too in-hock to the Emperor's tune, which would have been a worry given the new dynasty's direct relation to that of France. In my head I've imagined a return to German as courtly language, but that it's actually relatively infrequently used outside of aristocratic and courtly settings in favour of Istriot (i.e with signage, newspapers, literature etc), and that this is a source of pressure towards governmental reform, as the King's government may very well be made up of Slovenes, Croats, Friulians, and Istriots but it's another thing entirely to feel like one's King can't speak the language of most of their subjects (with the exception of Gottschee Germans but they are not well represented at court, and their language very different to the aristocratic Court German spoken in Carniolan high circles).
How is Iran, the Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia faring in this timeline? I would assume there must be some tension between the Empire of Rum and the local power in Iran. Who are the major players in the subcontinent? I would assume things are much different with colonialism/trade happening a lot differently in the 600 years or so since the POD as you mentioned non-European powers have done a lot better TTL.
Iran I am in the final stages of figuring out, mostly because it turns out messing about with the Golden Horde has a really big set of implications for what goes on in western Central Asia and accordingly on the Iranian Plateau, who knew, but I've at least figured out who succeeded the Ilkhanate ITTL to a reasonable degree of solidity, and I'm suspecting a period of (temporary) Ruman power expressed beyond the Zagros that probably heavily disrupted whichever state was extant there at the time. I just need to figure out 19th century Iran and what led up to it. And, considering I'm imagining a continued Ruman presence in the Arabian peninsula and ownership of Hormoz island, it's definitely safe to imagine a fair amount of tension.
This is also true for me figuring out northern India and the Indus region, because 'no Mughals' is pretty enormous in its chained implications in its own right, even without factoring in the big changes to European history. So that I would consider an early WIP as well.
But also, India is *big*. When one is committed to not just smashing it all together under a hegemonic colonial authority of some kind and calling it 'India' there's quite a lot of moving parts, it *is* a subcontinent after all. It's not a criticism of your question, by the way, just a slight remonstration at the number of timelines I've seen that really have no conception of the fact that India is only a little smaller than all of continental Europe in landmass, there is a LOT going on.
The area of the subcontinent I have currently set out in the most detail is north-east India, which is where Bengal is considered a Big Deal, and also projects itself into parts of Central Asian and South East Asian affairs. Whatever else is set out regarding the Indian subcontinent, Bengal is certainly one of the most visible and potent polities on the subcontinent ITTL. The Kingdom of Ahom continues to exist as an independent state despite Bengalese power, but is nonetheless still aligned with Bengal due to Big Scary Things happening in Central Asia.
South-East Asia, by contrast, is something that I have mapped out in a fair amount of detail. In a nutshell, there is a fair range of independent states in SEA, both maritime and mainland, but both regions are heavily influenced by the Toyotomi Shogunate, and the Shogunate also actively controls a range of territories in maritime SEA, such as Brunei and Sulawesi. The former, along with a significant portion of the Philippines, was taken earlier in the 19th century from Ruman control, or the control of major Ruman vassals. Rum still retains an interest in SE Asia, directly controlling Penang island and retaining its vassal of Sumatra, but compared to its late 18th/early 19th century presence in SE Asia its influence is considerably reduced. There are a few European possessions in Maritime SE Asia; the island of Java is under United Commonwealths control, as is Buru, and the Kingdom of Aragon retains Seram and some nearby islands, but otherwise that's it, the Pacific is very much the two Shogunates' back yard, and they're generally more interested in keeping other international powers out than taking direct territorial control with notable exceptions. Otherwise, the mainland is primarily divided between Dai Viet, Malacca, Mrauk-U, Kampuchea, and Ayutthaya, with some smaller kingdoms and also some pressure from the Dali Sultanate further north. Rather than direct European colonialism, particularly with the Toyotomi presence immediately nearby, mainland SEA has tended to see more of an extensive commercial relationship with Europeans (particularly on the littoral) and the usage of European mercenaries in various conflicts across the 17th and 18th centuries.
This is also true for me figuring out northern India and the Indus region, because 'no Mughals' is pretty enormous in its chained implications in its own right, even without factoring in the big changes to European history. So that I would consider an early WIP as well.
But also, India is *big*. When one is committed to not just smashing it all together under a hegemonic colonial authority of some kind and calling it 'India' there's quite a lot of moving parts, it *is* a subcontinent after all. It's not a criticism of your question, by the way, just a slight remonstration at the number of timelines I've seen that really have no conception of the fact that India is only a little smaller than all of continental Europe in landmass, there is a LOT going on.
The area of the subcontinent I have currently set out in the most detail is north-east India, which is where Bengal is considered a Big Deal, and also projects itself into parts of Central Asian and South East Asian affairs. Whatever else is set out regarding the Indian subcontinent, Bengal is certainly one of the most visible and potent polities on the subcontinent ITTL. The Kingdom of Ahom continues to exist as an independent state despite Bengalese power, but is nonetheless still aligned with Bengal due to Big Scary Things happening in Central Asia.
South-East Asia, by contrast, is something that I have mapped out in a fair amount of detail. In a nutshell, there is a fair range of independent states in SEA, both maritime and mainland, but both regions are heavily influenced by the Toyotomi Shogunate, and the Shogunate also actively controls a range of territories in maritime SEA, such as Brunei and Sulawesi. The former, along with a significant portion of the Philippines, was taken earlier in the 19th century from Ruman control, or the control of major Ruman vassals. Rum still retains an interest in SE Asia, directly controlling Penang island and retaining its vassal of Sumatra, but compared to its late 18th/early 19th century presence in SE Asia its influence is considerably reduced. There are a few European possessions in Maritime SE Asia; the island of Java is under United Commonwealths control, as is Buru, and the Kingdom of Aragon retains Seram and some nearby islands, but otherwise that's it, the Pacific is very much the two Shogunates' back yard, and they're generally more interested in keeping other international powers out than taking direct territorial control with notable exceptions. Otherwise, the mainland is primarily divided between Dai Viet, Malacca, Mrauk-U, Kampuchea, and Ayutthaya, with some smaller kingdoms and also some pressure from the Dali Sultanate further north. Rather than direct European colonialism, particularly with the Toyotomi presence immediately nearby, mainland SEA has tended to see more of an extensive commercial relationship with Europeans (particularly on the littoral) and the usage of European mercenaries in various conflicts across the 17th and 18th centuries.
The Rochester Aegis
10th October, 1817
Altercacion between ‘Narow’ and ‘Nesh’ in Blue Ankor Publick House
Serjeants of the Steadholder’s Watch were sominned to the Blue Ankor on the High Street around eight a’clock this past night after the eruption of a violent incident. One Janus van Heusden and one Christoph Baker, both of the Racionalist persuasion, apparently came to rancor as a result of too much drink alloyed with the gravity of F. van Heusen’s conviccions, likening the body of England to a primatif engine sustained beyond its yeres by the diligent yet servile ministracions of gildsmen. At this grave exchange the yet more patriotick F. Baker coud not help but answer with fists, at which time the altercation began in ernest. This paper hopes that F. Baker is not assayed too greviously for his staunch defense of the Commonwealth’s honur, and that his recovery from wunds sustained is swift. This paper also hopes that a rekening will soon be forthcoming with the most exceeding of the Racionalist set, who take our grete republick’s hospitality from king, duke, and emperour yet instead than, as with many of their Racionalist brethren, appretiate the majesty of our Commonwealth fail to respect this grete republic’s birthing of the very nocions of liberty and good governance, enstede becoming narow, insensible, venster-smashers who woud scarse recognise a living custom of good government in favor of a theoretical Empire of the Factory.
A History of Europe by Stanislav Jacubsson, Gdansk Union Publications 1862
The Birth of Rationalism
It was often said by its opponents that the entire Rationalist movement was little more than a peasant’s revolt with a veneer of learning, or a Commonwealther plot aimed at rewriting the map of Europe, and it is clear that a strain of this thought persists in many of Europe’s states that proved resistant to Rationalist charms or Rationalist force, little disguised in its contempt for what they see as an attempt at government by rabble, or an attempt of lessers to covet what their greaters had earned. Similar thoughts predominate even in our own discourse from the earliest part of this century, and few scholars have subsequently taken up the subject in the wake of our present tumults. But to understand our present tumults is to understand Rationalism, and to understand Rationalism’s origins one must first admit that it does not represent a sudden, violent rupture with the prior order so much as the inexorable buildup of pressure within Europe’s states that, without release, detonated with astonishing force across most of the continent. Rather than immediately pin that pressure on the actions of a few important individuals, I feel we must instead look to that which factored in the long term and across the broadness of society.
The contented state of many monarchies throughout Europe, weaned away from regular warfare and fattened instead on international trade and tax revenue, and the suffocating weight of ceremony and tradition that many of those nations then fostered, led to the maintenance of estates and social order at total contrast to the lives of many of their contemporary subjects, subjects who had been experiencing seismic changes to the fabric of their lives through the birth of industrial production and, by the 1790s, the development of the petroleum engine. These new industrial modes and their associated technologies were, though at times funded by noble patronage, primarily gestated from the work and talents intelligentsia and artisans of society, not those born to high title, and the actual maintenance and construction of these vast new infrastructures were at the hands of a drastically expanding labouring class. In these ossified monarchies none of these teeming masses could expect speedy redress to their concerns, ample reward for their labours, let alone representation. Additionally, there was a weariness towards the confessional rupture of Europe that, as we have seen earlier, caused so much warfare and wanton destruction across the continent for more than three centuries. Those states in which ecclesiastical power, aristocracy, and state power aligned frequently remained hostile to even cursory tolerance of the opposing denomination, and had indeed further radicalised Hussites who had otherwise sought a measure of reconciliation with Catholic Europe, as we saw earlier in our history with the Chalice Wars of 1552-1661, the Massacre of Carcassone in 1571, and with the Banate War of 1673.
Despite the uneasy peace that had settled between Hussites and Catholics in the late 17th century, and the Council of Perugia’s development of the Doctrine of Alloyed Grace in 1706, this had only really resulted in a change to affairs between nations, not the treatment of subjects within Europe’s many kingdoms. In the Kingdom of Bohemia a Catholic could not legally bear arms, whilst in the Duchy of Bavaria a Hussite could not own a horse, and in Romandy a Hussite could neither own a horse nor inherit property. In addition, whilst the practice was becoming rarer this was still an age in which one could fall asleep in Scotland and wake up in Ireland, as was the case in 1709 with the dissolution of the union of those Kingdoms, and where dynastic inheritance could at a stroke redraw entire borders, splitting apart communities or even nations. In an era in which Europe’s population continued to grow at unprecedented space the sheer violence this could inflict on individuals became enormous, whilst to the people so affected it was a completely arbitrary method of determining state ownership. Last, but not least, we must acknowledge the role that the United Commonwealth, the Kingdom of Carniola, and the Empire of Rum had to play in providing examples of alternate models of societal organisation and government. The former for its relative success in spite of its Republican nature (as contrasted to the fortunes of Genoa, Venice, and Ancona which had greatly suffered by the late 18th century) and its demonstration of a social mode in which the power of the labouring classes was, if not paramount, sizeable; the middle for its tolerance of Hussites despite both its Catholicism and its dynasty having direct connections to France; the latter for its ability to redefine and reform itself, and the ability for peoples who considered one another heathens, let alone heretics, to successfully co-operate for common purpose.
The men who helped convert these general pressures into an inevitable explosion were undoubtedly Istvan Szabo, Victor Fabio Bettencourt, and Gironi Acrosofos, first in their relative union of purpose, second in their fixing upon a relatively common Rationalist mode, and third the impact of their combined powers upon their extended social circles, though of the three men only Acrosofos and Bettencourt were ever to meet, and only twice- once in 1792 and then on Bettencourt’s deathbed in 1806. However, we must be clear, if it had not been these three individuals it is manifestly clear that others would have taken on the same roles. However, the individual choices and personalities of these men did affect precisely what arose from the tensions wracking Europe, and what became the specific and at times revolutionary movement of Rationalism. We must then make an account of their personal histories.
The Abolition of Pomp by Epictetus (widely believed to be a pseudonym for Gironi Acrosofos), Pamphlet 1807
For too long the common purpose of man has been dammed, diverted and diluted by the tools of ritual, thoughtless tradition, and the whims of those born to title! In service of this aim, the ermine cloak, the cardinal’s hat, the servile bowing and scraping, the binding of spiritual conscience with the state, rulership determined by lineal descent, are all the same! The shape of society must be returned to that which is rational and logical, that which serves the will and need of the people, that which confounds sentiment by embracing that which is sensible and right! We who are for a rational government of rational purpose must abolish pomp, and in doing so restore that which is derived from man’s reason and wisdom! The common purpose of man must be restored to its natural flow!
The Restoration of Belonging by Aesara (pseudonym, true author never identified), Published Letter 1807
It is true that the common purpose of man has been dammed, diverted, and diluted on many occasions, and that this has frequently been perpetrated by those men who possess heritable power on this Earth. However, I must inquire of Epictetus several questions on his vehement suggestions so widely distributed, so that I might further inform my acquaintance with ‘rationality’. Of the first instance, is it not true that, rather than being motivated by sentiment, that to those with heritable power these systems so described are in fact, to that estate, a rational and perhaps even logical means with which to extract wealth and power from the remainder of those nations? And that, whilst those forms might well provoke irritation of the common sense with their arcaneness, their ossification, that in the truest sense what most people who oppose these systems are motivated by is an abiding sense of disgust and anger that is perhaps shaped by rationality but is also reliant on sentiment? Are sentiment and logic not, in the human condition, allies that must be balanced rather than opponents in which logic is an oppressed estate yearning for freedom? Furthermore, would Epictetus agree with me that to many with heritable power, and indeed those with momentary power, the matter of women, their treatment and freedoms and the evaluation of their powers is a matter of alleged rationality and logic based on ‘common sense’ wisdoms about the female sex, both our bodies and minds? Would Epictetus share my conclusion that to restore the purpose of man to its natural flow women must also be removed from the shackles to which we are subject, shackles we are told are rational and logical? In finality, would Epictetus not agree with me that the seeking after common sense solutions to the organisation of society and the nature of society lacks drive, resolve, and meaning without a simultaneous cultivation of a sense of belonging to that society, that they are not merely permitted to exist within it but valued, wanted even? And, that being the case, would Epictetus not agree that this cannot merely be the province of a logic devoid of sentiment but instead stoked by an alliance of sentiment and rationality that will, in good time and order, overcome all that is set against it that is neither capable of sentiment nor rationality?
An History and Survey of Kentisch Towns and Citees by Montague Graham, Peter Naylor Publishing 1857 Edicion
Hippodamian Maidstone
It was in 1831 that Edward Solon Grey became Boroughmaster of the citee-to-be. Inspight his aristocratick lineality he had been the unawned chef among England’s Racionalist moderats since at least 1818, chefly influenced by the school of Sensiblility and the works of (the somewhat mysterial) Aesara in his youth, and himself had given name to what he at first called Hippodamian Racionalism, founding what is now called solely Hippodamianism, or the Hippodamian school. His chef apprehencion was the connexion between a planned and orderly citee, in the mode of the antient Hippodamus, and a planned and orderly feerschip of those who dwelt within that same citee, and indeed conceaving of the nacion as one grete citee in a similar maner. However, his nocion of ‘planned’ and ‘orderly’ encluded the joy of those burghers, that he might not simply introduce order but formosity and pleasur to the English feerschip, and cared to retain that which was not simply practical but vernacular. In Maidstone he had a first occasion in which he might make his nocions in practice, and he certainly did not delay.
To the considerable dismay of many burghers Grey, in essence, began again with Maidstone’s axial rodeways, gretely widening them into fulsome avenues, but also iniciated the construccion of electrick cariageways to folow those same avenues along their full length, and the electrick of Maidstone went operatif in 1835. He insularised the grete part of the previous bloks that adjoined those axial rodeways, and prodigiously amplified the number of those bloks into the hinterland of the borough. Each of these new bloks either held gardens within inner court or was surrounded by gardens almost as a curtain, or in numerous cases both. By 1848 Maidstone had amplified from perhaps nine thousend burghers to two-and-twenty thousend. Nor had this been the sum of Grey’s artifice. In 1836 a civil bathouse was compleet, whilst in 1841 and 1849 the Commonwealth Theater and the Barming Theater were raised respectively, and in 1851 a motorene electrick farm sufficient to electrify the citee entire.
The crowning achievance that Grey sought but never made compleet was the creacion of a grete civil gardens out of Moat Park, whose owners would not part with it inspight considerable effort being employed to perswade otherwise. This had not been settled by 1852, whereupon Grey was made Consul for Publick Works, much to his displeasure. However, the purchas of Moat Park was compleet not many yeres after, and nonetheless Grey had formed Maidstone from a notable town to England’s first Hippodamian citee outside of London.
Last edited:
Effectively it was a born from the notion of trying to consider an alternate angle for a revolutionary ideology to emerge from in Europe, one that was responding to a much more widespread (although arguably less severe) religious schism across Europe and a much more long-lived HRE state model replicated across a wider stretch of Europe. Accordingly, even though you're quite right to make comparisons to the OTL Enlightenment, there is a much angrier and radicalised component to it, being an explicitly anti-monarchy, pro-secular, anti-aristocratic/upper class movement from the moment it became codified. However, the general philosophical basis of Rationalism is actually fairly amorphous, as Aesara illustrated in her publicised letter what precisely can be defined as rational, logical, and common-sense is to some degree in the eye of the beholder.
Accordingly, in a similar way to the OTL French revolution, Rationalism is the womb to many subsequent ideologies and philosophies that are not just markedly different from one another but actively contradictory. We might describe Hippodamians like Edward Solon Grey as having similarities to OTL Utopian Socialists, the Garden City Movement, and the empiricism movement within OTL British philosophy. On the other hand there are also ideologies that have derived from Rationalism that we would consider to be a kind of technocratic homogenising nationalism, and in the case of Bohemia the Rationalist movement succeeded in its goals of introducing secularism and revoking moribund ritual and ceremony, but the end result of that was not only the retention of the Imperial throne but instead the wholesale reform of the Bohemia-ruled HRE into a centralised imperial state with considerable ambition, so that you could call 'Bohemian' Rationalism, in the end, something akin to 'Radical Imperial Reformism'.