TLIAD: Centuries of Shadow

I've finished the update on the Imperial Age. If someone feels like doing a map, be my guest.
 
Very nice.

So is Britain still 'aloof' or does it have a few allies (portugal)

Semi-aloof. It has allies, namely Portugal and Russia, but all three are somewhat isolated from Europe, with Russia the most active in European affairs via its vassals Prussia and Lithuania. There will be some big shake ups as the 20th century dawns that'll get Britain to look at European affairs once more but during the 19th century, so long as other empires don't interefere with her colonies or her trade (especially in slaves) they look the other way.
 
A very short History of India (1770 to 1890)

India from the 16th to 18th centuries was the focus of major European powers, particularly Britain. The collapse of the EIC and the refocussing of resources on West Africa caused European interest to wane, and granted the Indian empires time to recover. The Mughals, who had been suffering a long decline ever since the early 18th century enjoyed a rennaisance, turning their eyes away from Maratha dominated India, and into the east, to Persia, Afghanistan and Central Asia. The Marathas now suffered what the Mughals had had problems with. The Empire had formed in opposition to the Muslim Mughals, and now the Empire had begun to tear itself apart, devolving into a fairly loose Confederacy.

However, clever rulers like Tipoo Sultan and Mihadji made many structural reforms and were able to crush Mughal attempts to regain power in India. The Marathas were however, greatly overextended, and found it nigh on impossible to expand further. The 19th century would be dominated by their struggle to keep their independence while at the same time competing for influence with the French and the Portuguese.

The Mughals on the other hand enjoyed a resurgence under ruthless rulers who purged their courts of corruption and sycophantic, greedy advisers. They found a major ally in the Russian Empire who later in the century would help bring the Mughals back to the world stage in the division of Persia.
 
A very short History of India (1770 to 1890)

India from the 16th to 18th centuries was the focus of major European powers, particularly Britain. The collapse of the EIC and the refocussing of resources on West Africa caused European interest to wane, and granted the Indian empires time to recover. The Mughals, who had been suffering a long decline ever since the early 18th century enjoyed a rennaisance, turning their eyes away from Maratha dominated India, and into the east, to Persia, Afghanistan and Central Asia. The Marathas now suffered what the Mughals had had problems with. The Empire had formed in opposition to the Muslim Mughals, and now the Empire had begun to tear itself apart, devolving into a fairly loose Confederacy.

However, clever rulers like Tipoo Sultan and Mihadji made many structural reforms and were able to crush Mughal attempts to regain power in India. The Marathas were however, greatly overextended, and found it nigh on impossible to expand further. The 19th century would be dominated by their struggle to keep their independence while at the same time competing for influence with the French and the Portuguese.

The Mughals on the other hand enjoyed a resurgence under ruthless rulers who purged their courts of corruption and sycophantic, greedy advisers. They found a major ally in the Russian Empire who later in the century would help bring the Mughals back to the world stage in the division of Persia.

Whoah... even though you don't know of CG, this is getting to look like it, as I've said twice already on this thread. Nice to see India getting out of Big Bad Britain's grip! :)
 
The Great German Awakening

For the duration of the 19th century, a balance of power had been maintained, occasionally adjusted through the Congress of Europe, which met when a problem had been identified. The primary movers and shakers of the Congress were France, the Netherlands, Italy, Hungary-Austria, the Ottomans, Spain and Denmark-Norway. The German states attended but were weak in comparison, and Britain, Russia, Portugal and Sweden were relatively aloof, neutral powers. While the Great Powers rarely agreed, actively competed with one another for power, and occasionally warred with one another, for the better part of a century, Europe enjoyed an unprecedented era of peace. That Era of Good Feelings would come to an end as a threat to the balance of power emerged.

One of the things every one of the Great Powers could agree on, even Britain and Russia, was that German reunification was dangerous. The Republic and then the Empire of Germania had conquered Europe, utterly upsetting the established order. The Congresses of Europe had originally met to divide Germany. This situation had been maintained to the mutual satisfaction of the Great Powers and the Germanies up until the closing decades of the 19th century. Writers unearthed attempts by the Grimm Brothers to codify German folklore and set out on their own mission, gathering tales from across the Germanies. In the process, they and other academics got caught up in a romantic pursuit of a national identity that they had been robbed of. The legends of ancient Germany were couched in language which called for the reunification of German lands. Societies formed to foster German nationalism.

Two nationalist strains of thought existed in Germany at this time. The first was Kleindeutsch, which called for the 'Pure German' states of Saxony, Bavaria, Hanover and the Rhine to be united. The ideology of this group was more focussed around 'scientific' racial theory that excluded non-German races or mixed races. The other were the Grossdeutsch who had a far broader idea of the new Germany, consisting of the above, but also majority German regions of France, Denmark, and Italy, and the addition of the Netherlands, Switzerland, Hungary-Austria, Bohemia and Prussia. The ideas of this group were founded to ancient German mysticism, but also in a romanticisation of Bismarckian Germania, a far more cultural form of nationalism that embraced Greater Germany's eclecticism. These two extremely different visions of Germany would clash but in their pursuit of German reunification they had many common goals.

Due to overlap the states with the largest German nationalist movements were Hanover, Bavaria, Saxony and the Rhine. To a certain extent the government of Saxony tolerated the growing German nationalist movement, but in Hanover, Bavaria and the Rhine, the governments reacted with hostility. The Confederation of the Rhine was dominated by the Bourbon Kingdom of Westphalia, and was in turn dominated by France. France did not want a reunited Germany, taking note of the number of German speakers who lived in France, and remembering the toll of the Bismarckian Conquest of France. Bavaria's king was under Italian protection, and while the Italians to a certain extent sympathised with the Germans (the monarchy being descended from a German general from the Bismarckian Empire) they also took note of the numbers of Germans in the Tyrol Province, and that at the height of the Empire of Germania they were little more than a German client state whereas now they were one of Europe's Great Powers. Hanover was a de facto British client state and was the homeland of Britain's royal family. The Kingdom of Hanover was seen as an integral part of Britain's global empire, and was a shoe in for British influence in Europe. Losing it to a burgeoning German nationalist movement could not be tolerated.

Hungary-Austria was extremely Germanophobic. The Hapsburgs had integrated into Magyar society since their flight to Buda in the Germanic Wars, and the former Austrian Empire had become Hungary dominated. The Austrians were a troublesome minority but were a vital part of Hungary-Austria's continued relevance as a Great Power, lending them some degree of influence on German affairs, and therefore into Europe. Hungarian arms were used to put down German nationalist rebellions in Bavaria especially in the 1890s and 1900s.

However, the Ottoman Civil War in 1905 caused enormous distraction in Europe, and allowed the German nationalists a certain leeway. German nationalists attained a majority in the Saxon Reichstag, and forced the King of Bavaria to abdicate in favour of his German nationalist brother. Far more momentously, an Austrian German nationalist group called the Black Hand were formulating an audacious plot which would turn the European order on its head and change the world for ever...
 
The Ottoman Civil War

The aged empire of Turkey finally fell apart in 1905 as nationalists ripped the country apart. Not only were nationalists biting off chunks on the fringes but the Turks themselves wanted to overthrow the House of Osman. With the empire crumbling, the great European powers flocked like vultures round a corpse. The Russians went through their ally of Romania to invade Bulgaria and 'liberate' it, imposing a Romanov Tsar and adding it to its list of 'allies'. Italy went into Albania, adding it to its Mediterranean Empire and collaborating with the French and the Greeks in the expansion of the Principality of Hellenes. The French helped the Arabs, dividing the land between the Hashemites and the Saudis. And the Hungarians added Serbia to the Archduchy of Bosnia, renaming it the Archduchy of Slavonia.

While the Great Powers were distracted as the divided the Turkish Empire, Germany reshaped itself. The seeds of the German Confederation were laid as nationalists came to power in the Kleindeutsch states.

The Assassination of the Emperor Maximilian

The Black Hand were an Austrogerman nationalist group that was in favour of German reunification, and of reasserting Austria as the leading part of the Empire of Hungary-Austria. Their greatest enemy in their view was the liberal Hapsburg monarch Maximilian who had lead the transition of the Empire was Austrian to Hungarian domination. The leader of the group was Gabriel Schickelgruber, a former clerk who had been drawn into extreme nationalist circles as his office became increasingly irrelevant.

Schickelgruber orchestrated an incredibly elaborate scheme. He recruited a group of dedicated covert operators, and chose as their leader the mixed German-Hungarian Rupert Willem von Starnberg. His Hungarian mother was well known, but his heart truly lay in Germany. Starnberg and Shickelgruber manufactured a paper trail which implicated the possibility of a Slovak plot to assassinate the Emperor. Then, they recruited (through deception) a retired British secret agent, who had helped evacuate the cousin of the Emperor when he was caught up in a colonial war when touring British West Africa. This man would enable the plotters to get close to the Emperor, and would implicate the British if all went well.

Schickelgruber's plan was to bring chaos to Europe. With the Emperor dead, supposedly due to a combined Slovak-German plot (he knew he would not be able to cover up von Starnberg's involvement), the disgruntled German population of Hungary-Austria would rise up. And with Britain implicated, war would inevitably break out. The British would end up supporting the German nationalists in Austria, lending legitimacy to German nationalists all over Germany. The weight and power of the Imperial Alliance would be brought to bear, overwhelming the fractious, weak, liberal states of the Congress of Europe, restoring the Austrian Empire and reunifying Germany. At least, that was the plan.

What actually happened was a very near miss for the British agent. Realising while guarding the Emperor's room that his weapon had been tampered with, he attempted to kill von Starnberg and his men. For his trouble, he was shot in the shoulder, but he managed to raise the alarm. Von Starnberg realised that he now had nothing to lose, and in an immense act of daring fought his way through the Emperor's manse and eventually killed him. His men took control of the building and withstood a three day siege of Hungarian police who were informed by the British agent. Von Starnberg's last words were 'Never shall I rest, while Germania is still unfree'.

While the British (and the Slovaks) had freed themselves of the implications that Schickelgruber had so carefully laid, they had created a legend, a host of martyrs and they would still have their war. Von Starnberg's Raid is a mythic episode of German history, which has been adapted for radiophone, radiovision and kinema. The brutality of Maximilian's heir Franz Ferdinand did not help. He became convinced that Austria was riddled with agents of the Black Hand, and adopted the name Ferenc Nandor when he took the throne. His attempts to root out the Black Hand alienated those who would have remained neutral and his insistence that all of Germany must be cleansed of nationalism lest the destruction of Bismarck return caused those who thought his regime to be cruel to think that maybe Germany should be reconstituted in some way.

The German nationalist leaders in Kleindeutschland inaugurated the German Confederation in 1911, which was accompanied by protests from Hungary. The Confederation was formed with the blessing of the Great Powers especially France and Italy, who believed a small weak Germany would be a valuable ally. But everything went to hell in a handcart when Slavic nationalists assassinated the Emperor in 1913. The discovery that Bulgarians were responsible caused an international crisis. Russia was forced to support her ally against the demands of Hungary and war broke out. What the Great Powers could not know as the continent descended into war was that Schickelgruber had had his victory. Noting the success that even his flawed plan had had, he repeated and fine tuned it, this time collaborating with Pan-Slavic nationalists who he saw as kindred spirits. Everything that he had wanted in 1906 with the assassination of Maximilian he had now achieved with the assassination of Ferenc Nandor. War had come to Europe, and the world would never be the same again.
 
The Great War

In 1913, Europe descended into war, for the first time since the Germanic Wars. But unlike previous wars there were three sides, all equally belligerent to one another. But one side could decide who won the war. The battle was officially between the Imperial Alliance on one side, and the Congress of Europe on the other. But a third side consisted of the Patriotic Covenant. A fluid alliance of nationalist movements scattered across Europe, there was little that united these movements except a common desire for national self-determination. The most prominent of the movements were the Germans and the Slavs. But even these groups were divided. The Germans were arguing over what Germany was, and the Slavs didn't know whether they wanted a Pan-Slavic state or separate Slav nation-states. The Covenant was a precarious attempt to present a united front.

The situation was that the Imperials and the Congress were roughly equally matched, and as the early stages of the war proved, the conflict was to be long, bloody and grim. But if one side could win enough of the Covenant to their side, they would have access to a formidable fifth column of troops. Germany and the Balkans would fall like a deck of cards, instantly giving the advantage to whatever side had won them over. But due to the divisions in the movement and the desires of the various members of both alliances, most of the alliance brokered with the Covenant collapsed after a few months and the advantages gained in the German and Balkan theatres would collapse and return to the gory stalemate.

Most of the fighting took place in Europe, on three fronts. The first was in Germany, fought primarily between Russia and her vassals on one side, and France, the Netherlands and Hungary on the other. Germany collapsed into Civil War just as the Great War began and within a year, the area of the German Confederation was one vast battlefield with lines drawn roughly through the middle. Support also came to Russia from Britain, via Hanover, though Britain's contribution in Europe was small. The second front was in the Balkans, fought between Russia and her vassals on one side along with the Turks and the Hungarians, French, and Italians on the other. The last front was in Iberia, between Portugal and the Spanish. British aid poured into Portugal, and the Portuguese had some successes against her divided neighbours but a stable front was established in which there was little movement.

Outside Europe, Britain was the primary fighter. In North America and the Caribbean, British forces fought in Santo Domingo, and in New Spain. Invasions were also launched into Guatemala, and into the Panama Province of New Granada. In South America, the British fought alongside the Portuguese in the Amazon, fighting the Venezuelans, and further south against the Kingdom of Paraguay. Support was sent to rebels in Chile who had long resented the rule of Lima.

In Africa, in an early stage of the war, Britain took control of the Mediterranean. This severely weakened supply from the Congress to the war effort in the Balkans. Britain occupied Italian Libya, the Balearics and launched an invasion of Egypt. Britain suffered terrible rebellions in Africa throughout the war as France funneled aid to slaves and native kings. These rebellions were put down with ruthless violence which became more brutal and extreme as the war went on. The British reacted to this rebellion by sending aid to the Islamic preacher in the French Sudan who called himself the Mahdi. They promised him that if he pledge loyalty to Britain they would send aid in his war against the French, and give him complete autonomy and freedom to fight his Grand Jihad. The Portuguese and Dutch fought over Zambezia, in a terrible ti for tat war which simply worsened the displacement problems which had plagued the region since the last war. This would spread after the war into the Congo region. The Italians in Somalia and Aden would find themselves cut off and existed only with the support of the Spanish. The Russians were equally overstretched so the war here was far more primitive and waged through proxies as opposed to the highly technological war fought in Europe and the Americas.
 
Thought I'd bump this. You gonna revive CoS at some point, Mumby? It'd be interesting to see how the *Great War ends here. :cool:
 
The Great War (cont.)

With Britain in control of the Mediterranean, they could now more easily funnel aid to allies on the continent. Specifically the Slavs and the Portuguese. The Portuguese advanced into Galicia and Leon, freeing up even more coastline to British smugglers. And in the Balkans, a British blockade cut off Italy from her Dalmatian outposts, allowing Russia to relaunch a renewed invade of Slavonia. The Congress was on the retreat.

Italy was the first of the Congress to withdraw from the war. With the Imperials advancing into Hungary with the fall of Slavonia, the destruction of her fleet and the loss of Tripolitania, they sought terms. The Italians were allowed to retain Shkiperia but Montenegro and her Dalmatian territories were annexed to Russia's Balkan catspaw. The Italians declared their neutrality, and were rewarded with the newly seized island of Corsica given to them as a reward and compensation.

With Italy now neutral and the Balkans being mopped up, more resources could be devoted to Africa and Germany. The Russians marched into Germany and a compromise Grossdeutschland was created, lacking Prussia, the Netherland and Switzerland and with no foreign conquests. After that, Hungary was surrounded, and was forced to surrender her military no longer up to the job.

Overseas, the British had driven France out of the Middle East and North Africa, adding these conquests to the domains of the Royal Africa Company for now. The Congo was conquered soon after this. The Italian colonies in Arabia and East Africa were divided between Britain, Russia and Ethiopia.

British gains from the war were colossal. As well as now ruling almost half of Africa, they had conquered Guatemala and in the peace treaties at the end of the war, New Spain was made a British protectorate. Russia and Portugal both extended their domains, in Asia and the Americas respectively.

But it wasn't all plain sailing. The British campaigns in France Antarctique went badly wrong and the French retained the valuable colony. Britain's remaining Asian possessions were lost to the Netherland with the exception of Formosa. The Dutch came to a separate peace with the Portuguese in which they took control of Timor and divided Zambezia between them.

France surrended when invasion of the homeland was threatened. She escaped with her most valuable colonies and only some small losses in Europe. Spain got out worse, losing Galicia and some other border provinces to Portugal as well as losing land in Africa and the Americas. But it is really the colonial peoples who suffered the worst. With Britain now in control of half of Africa, and the demands of a labour intensive but rather mechanically inefficient economy, millions of individuals were yoked to Britain's industrial machine virtually overnight.
 
I'd like to see this TL revived again.

With Britain in control of the Mediterranean, they could now more easily funnel aid to allies on the continent. Specifically the Slavs and the Portuguese. The Portuguese advanced into Galicia and Leon, freeing up even more coastline to British smugglers. And in the Balkans, a British blockade cut off Italy from her Dalmatian outposts, allowing Russia to relaunch a renewed invade of Slavonia. The Congress was on the retreat.

Italy was the first of the Congress to withdraw from the war. With the Imperials advancing into Hungary with the fall of Slavonia, the destruction of her fleet and the loss of Tripolitania, they sought terms. The Italians were allowed to retain Shkiperia but Montenegro and her Dalmatian territories were annexed to Russia's Balkan catspaw. The Italians declared their neutrality, and were rewarded with the newly seized island of Corsica given to them as a reward and compensation.

With Italy now neutral and the Balkans being mopped up, more resources could be devoted to Africa and Germany. The Russians marched into Germany and a compromise Grossdeutschland was created, lacking Prussia, the Netherland and Switzerland and with no foreign conquests. After that, Hungary was surrounded, and was forced to surrender her military no longer up to the job.

Overseas, the British had driven France out of the Middle East and North Africa, adding these conquests to the domains of the Royal Africa Company for now. The Congo was conquered soon after this. The Italian colonies in Arabia and East Africa were divided between Britain, Russia and Ethiopia.

British gains from the war were colossal. As well as now ruling almost half of Africa, they had conquered Guatemala and in the peace treaties at the end of the war, New Spain was made a British protectorate. Russia and Portugal both extended their domains, in Asia and the Americas respectively.

But it wasn't all plain sailing. The British campaigns in France Antarctique went badly wrong and the French retained the valuable colony. Britain's remaining Asian possessions were lost to the Netherland with the exception of Formosa. The Dutch came to a separate peace with the Portuguese in which they took control of Timor and divided Zambezia between them.

France surrended when invasion of the homeland was threatened. She escaped with her most valuable colonies and only some small losses in Europe. Spain got out worse, losing Galicia and some other border provinces to Portugal as well as losing land in Africa and the Americas. But it is really the colonial peoples who suffered the worst. With Britain now in control of half of Africa, and the demands of a labour intensive but rather mechanically inefficient economy, millions of individuals were yoked to Britain's industrial machine virtually overnight.

It's kind of a shame that this TL fell by the wayside again. Did you have anything planned for Japan, by the way? I'd be interested to see how the Japanese Empire fared here. Oh, and what of South America as well? Is Brazil still Imperial, or not? And what is the status of the former Spanish colonies, as well?
 
It's kind of a shame that this TL fell by the wayside again. Did you have anything planned for Japan, by the way? I'd be interested to see how the Japanese Empire fared here. Oh, and what of South America as well? Is Brazil still Imperial, or not? And what is the status of the former Spanish colonies, as well?

I don't think I'll be revisiting CoS any time soon. But I am happy to answer questions.

I had a notion of Japan becoming a British ally in the East against Russia and the various Europeans who hate Britain. I saw war eventually breaking out between Britain and Russia, ending in a stalemate which favours Britain, by destroying Russia's navy, and forcing them out of Africa. I could see a few other states fighting alongside Russia to try and defeat Britain, but failing. In particular I could see Spain fighting Britain due to their proximity to Portugal and so on. Spain's Dominions in South America become British protectorates, and they lose their African colonies, their Asian ones going to Japan. I would see the Chinese Empire collapsing in that situation, with a rump state under Japanese influence. I think another war would be on the cards after that, with Russia and Europe outside of Iberia uniting against Britain. Brazil is still Portuguese and is united with Portugal in a similar fashion to Britain with her colonies. Bolivia down to Patagonia is ruled by France.

The modern day of Centuries of Shadow is purely theoretical. But on the fly, heres my idea. Japanese militarism catches on in Britain herself, and she becomes increasingly dominated by the military-industrial complex which is tied into the already powerful colonial corporations. The Third World War results in victory for Britain and Japan, with Japan expanding into Asia, and Portugal conquering French and Dutch colonies in South America and Africa. Europe ends up basically cordoned off, and Russia is humiliated. A Cold War emerges between Britain, Japan and Portugal, along with the weak European Federation and Indian Confederacy. If that came to blows, I would see Portugal defeated, but Japan might be able to bring Britain to the negotiating table. Portugal's defeat would see the Americas united under British rule, as well as all of Africa, and the beginning of renewed British interest in Asia. Japan's moderate victory could see the Europeans and Indians divide in their support for one of either superpower. Ultimately, Britain has become ideologically devoted to the ideal of world conquest, and might well achieve it. On the other hand, the Third World War might be a defeat for Britain, and her empire collapses and democracy returns to the world. Or maybe they lose and go Communist, with Britannia and Russia becoming the primary players in a reversal of our world's Cold War. Who knows.
 
Heres a map.

centuriesofshadowmap.png
 
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