To the Victor, Go the Spoils

[TheReformer]

To the Victor, Go the Spoils​

Welcome to the world of 'To the Victor', a graphical history of the world following a victory of the Central Powers in the Great War. I came up with this lore over how the Central Powers could have come to victory after playing and discussing Kaiserreich repeatedly for a few weeks and have been pondering it for about a year now. It irritated me that while I was at university learning about Strategic Studies, Military Theory and other area of Geopolitics I was reading a lore that, while in depth, interesting and entertaining; often required me to suspend belief about how a Government might act or how a certain event would pan out. Having spent years studying the consequences of a Nazi victory in the Second World War and with little real knowledge about the details of the First World War therefore I set out to make a realistic scenario where the Central Powers could truly have come out on top without having won decisively in the early war or changing the geopolitical decions of states during the war. For example I did not want to have a different party (such as Bull-Moose) be elected in the United States, or to try and make excuses for Wilson abandoning his global interventionist theory and not join the war when America did - because from a strategic perspective it makes sense that the US did. I took a lot of inspiration therefore from the very impressive timeline A Shift in Priorities by rast, which I encourage you to read if you have not (though it started 12 years ago and is still going so i wish you luck!), though in his timeline Germany manages to crack the science of developing more mobile tanks towards the end of the war.

My point of divergence is simple; On March 22nd 1918 Erich Ludendorff, Quartermaster General of the German Army and effective dictator of the country, awoke, dressed and stormed down the halls after only a few hours sleep in a 48 hour time period. He was exhausted, his own officers had noticed his gradual breakdown in attitude and even sanity from his repeated 4 hour nights or even missing sleep altogether. His offensive, Operation Michael (German Spring Offensive 1918), was already going off to a resounding success - not since the early stages of the war had his men covered so much distance with so much ease. Yet when his hand missed the railing of the staircase and he simply tripped down three steps his war effectively ended. The man was not killed, but five minutes or so later he was leaving on a stretcher after collapsing in front of the general staff and the Kaiser. By simply hitting the side of his head on the railing he had torn a blood vessel and inflicted on himself a small yet often fatal wound.

The reason this POD has been chosen is that I have tried to change history by the smallest amount possible with the POD to avoid unintended butterflies. Thus, this timeline will be Type I to II alternate history on the Sliding Scale of Alternate History Types. I intend to approach this timeline from an almost scientific approach, using studies of German intentions in the post war landscape to create a world that accurately reflects how this post war plan would have panned out. This will not be retrospective timeline, and thus as time progresses suggestions or information will be welcomed. Well researched, detailed and realistic contributions to the timeline may be considered canon if threadmarked; especially if you have a background in strategic studies or other studies of international relations or national politics.

This will be updated intermittently so dont expect anything at specific times, but I hope you enjoy the story!

 

[TheReformer]

The Kaiserschlacht​

With a small but nontheless important numerical advantage, in March of 1918 the German Empire launched it's last desperate attempt to seize victory from the jaws of defeat. From the end of 1917 the Deutsches Heer had been able to divert some 50 divisions from the eastern front, with Russia in disarray and a peace finally in place at Brest-Litovsk, it seemed possible that the Reich could in fact survive what could be a deeply turbulent and difficult year. It would be Quatermaster General of the German Army, General Erich Ludendorff, who would lead the charge and plan the offensive. Ludendorff, a man who's career had been made on the eastern front in the war of movement that the Russian theatre had remained despite the stagnation and trench warfare of the western front, knew that if this offensive failed then the war was all but lost. American forces had begun arriving in France in June 1917, though few in their ranks were prepared or ready for combat and thus extensive training was required before offensives could begin. German intelligence estimated that American forces would be capable of offensive operations by August or even July. Therefore Ludendorff planned an extremely aggressive and targetted offensive using tactics learned from the eastern front. Instead of a general advance, ludendorff would strike in specific places along the frontline where the enemy was known to be weakest or in positions of strategic importance. These came in the form of three planned offensives; Michael, Georgette, Blucher-Yorck and Gneisenau - Michael being the main and most decisive push of the campaign.

Schooled in the battles of the eastern front, Ludendorff had seen how the Russian army could crumple under pressure once a hole opened in the Russian lines. As he explained it himself; "punch a hole, and the rest would follow". Thus while the German army would advance towards the vital strategic intersection in the Entente logistics train at Amiens, the city was not actually designated as a specific target in the campaign. This would change though on March 22nd when, after weeks of poor sleep or no sleep and doctors warnings against continuing the level of work he was putting in, Erich Ludendorff slipped and fell down the stairs at the German high command in Belgium. He did not fall far, but having hit his head on the bannister he soon passed out as a result of a bleed to the brain caused by a fracturing of the skull near the temple, bursting a blood vessel and applying enough pressure to eventually kill the ageing General in the early hours of the 23rd. Immediately Hermann von Kuhl would be appointed as Quartermaster General and the man actually in command, Chief of the German General Staff Paul von Hindenburg, took control of the offensive. Yet unaware of the change in high command, German forces pressed on in the field - now with a new clear target; Amiens. Alienated by Ludendorff and strengthened by the weak authority of Hindenburg, Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria had been able to convince the General Staff of the need for a clear target in the offensive. Now nine divisions intended for the 17th Army under von Below were instead were transferred to the 18th under von Hutier.

On the ground, a logistical crisis was taking effect. German forces, stunned by the avalibility of food and wine, were delayed significantly in their advance by an advance dependent on walking through land with clogged roads and a destroyed landscape. This slowed the delivery of food to the front, causing a bizarre slow retreat of allied forces where neither side wanted to engage and thus just waited for the other to start walking before themselves getting up and moving. The deployment of reserve forces solved this however, forces on the frontline now tacked north; opening up a central route of advance for the reserves whom now flooded into the gap, fresh and ready for combat. It would be these forces that would seize the small town of Villiers-Bretonneux on April 2nd despite fierce resistence of a small Australian brigade tasked with it's defence. With the fall of this vital position the German forces now had a heightened position from which to target Amiens which sat only a few miles away. Shelling began that evening, targetting the rail yard and the town's outskirts in an attempt to soften opposition as German forces once again pressed the attack on the 5th. Amiens itself fell two days later after extensive fighting that concluded with a panicked demolition of the vast Allied Munitions Dump by a British unit, the officer having been explicitly instructed to prohibit it's capture by German forces so as to ensure that they cannot continue their campaign and resupply. British forces now were well and truly cut off.

Then came Georgette, an Operation intended to be the main thrust of the whole offensive under the codename George... a fact that makes it's name easier to understand. Yet despite the downgrading of the size of the operation, it's target now remained the most significant pin holding the Entente war machine together; Hazebrouck. A strategic town of equivalent importance to Amiens due to it's position in the rail network, without which meaning rail supply of everything south of Flanders held by the British Army would be impossible, and thus continued operations in the region also impossible. German forces smashed through British lines using the same methodology used in the Amiens offensive, but this time against a now even less equipped British Expeditionary Force cut off from supply from the rest of France and in a state of flux as supplies were re-routed to Calais and Dunkirk. British forces crumpled under the weight of a German army now motivated not only by their victory at Amiens, but further by their desire to finally defeat the British once and for all. The fall of the town on the 25th therefore came as no shock to a demoralized and defeatist British High Command whom were forced, for the first time, to order the evacuation of the town of Ypres that had been held since the starting shots were fired in the war the next day. The town's abandonment came as an enormous shock to the British public, and prompted rioting in several British cities; notably Birmingham and Manchester, on the 27th. British forces now withdrew to the river Yser and dug in; protecting the channel ports and thus their supply and unable to launch offensive operations, now only holding the coast to deny the Germans access to the closest point to the British mainland and one that the Royal Navy could aid the BEF against any German Offensives.

Elsewhere the offensive halted, German forces were redeployed and a sense of hope finally emerged in Germany after the slow buildup of resentment against the rule of the established order. In France, the Government lapsed into a state of chaotic paralysis, unable to act in any way other than to attempt to slow any potential German offensives by digging in around Paris and deploying stronger forces at weaker positions, now alleviated by the small reduction in the length of the line by the loss of Amiens. This mattered not though, as on May 27th the French 6th Army were attacked at the strategic position of Chateu-Thierry south of Lyon and in many places encircled entirely after the refusal of French General Denis Auguste Duchêne to adapt to modern fighting techniques and deploy a defence in depth with his forces. As such as soon as German stormtroopers breached the front line, entire sections of the 6th Army were systematically encircled and annihilated with no further lines of defence to slow the German advance. German forces now rushed into the gap in the line, capturing Souissons and Reims before being halted briefly by French and American divisions. At this crucial moment, it would now of all times be the French who's morale faltered in the face of defeat when on the 31st, units of the Reserve Army under Émile Fayolle mutinied when ordered to go to the front to fill in gaps left in the French retreat. With the remnants of the French 6th Army in full retreat or having themselves mutinied when ordered to hold their ground against an offensive that could have been stopped, little now stood in the way of the German advance to Paris. Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, the lion of France who acted as the lynchpin holding France together during this difficult time, now resigned that same day. He had been clear he would never seek peace, and having tied himself to the idea of French success in the war and with the country on the verge of defeat he had no future as Prime Minister. He would instead be replaced one of his many wartime predecessors, Aristide Briand, who would try and prepare the country for either a conditional peace or a longer, continued conflict in the face of even greater German occupation. The latter would never need to be prepared for however as, with the half a million men of the French reserve army in Mutiny, an incident near the frontline saw French soldiers fire on Mutineering frenchmen while attempting to arrest ringleaders - an act that drove several divisions of the Reserve Army instead to appoint new officers and choose to march on Paris to demand peace at any cost.

With mutineering units of the French Army arriving in Paris on June 4th, the French Government itself was forced to flee it's own men when loyal units simply refused to put a stop to the Mutineer's advances, or were overcome from numbers and defeated when they tried, with the Government repeating their actions in the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 by fleeing to the city of Tours. On June 7th, with the Socialist Party declaring outright revolt against the Government in favour of a 'Peace Government', French Prime Minister Aristide Briand made the fateful decision to finally request an armistice from Germany. This came as Germany concluded their offensive against the French by ceasing their advance on June 6th at the town of Montreuil-aux-Lions, some thirty miles from Paris. For Briand, this would make him one of the most distrusted politicians in France - and yet one of the most powerful. With so much blame being pinned on him, nobody dared see him removed from power for fear of themselves having to be 'the man that made peace', and thus when German terms were accepted on June 8th 1918 and an armistice officially went into effect, he remained in power to oversee the transition.

That same day, both Belgium, Portugal and the United States too sought armistice, being offered similar terms to that of the French; withdrawal from the frontline, demobilization, evacuation from France and the surrender of large amounts of arms to German soldiers. All accepted; in the Belgian case there no longer remained a point in fighting, if France was lost soo too was all of the continent, in the American and Portuguese cases the same could be said - after all why fight an enemy who has for all intents and purposes won when your contribution was so small you may actually save money and face by leaving. In Italy, Prime Minister Vittorio Emanuele Orlando resigned the same day, making way for the anti-war and more German-friendly Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti to take power once again and immediately seek an armistice. For Britain there was a different approach, German hegemony on the continent was so terrifying that the British Cabinet, and especially Prime Minister David Lloyd George, went into a state of denial. Instead throw their lot into defeating the Ottomans and seek a favourable peace for all sides. But that is a story for another time...

Spoiler: The Armistice at Verberie (France, Portugal, Belgium, USA)

1) All French, Portuguese, American & Belgian forces currently manning the front line to a depth of 35 km will retreat 35 km to the rear. Special conditions to units within 50km of the city of Paris will apply where units will only be required to withdraw 15km. Belgium shall accept total and unconstrained occupation until such a time as peace may be negotiated. This move must be complete by June 14th, 18:00 hours Berlin time.
2) All guns with a calibre greater than 105 mm will remain in position as will their ammunition and ancillary equipment and will not be moved to the rear.
3) No French or American forces additional to those which are present in France on June 8th, 24:00 hours Berlin time, will enter the country. French forces from other theatres of war, such as Italy and Macedonia, will be garrisoned in Algeria or home territories where applicable. Other allied forces shall be immediately withdrawn from non-national territory and garrisoned in home territories.
4) All German prisoners of war and internees in French, Portuguese, Belgian or US custody will be released and repatriated immediately. This also applies to prisoners of war and internees from other Central Power states.
5) The Governments of the France and Belgium shall in good faith and with due haste inform Entente Governments of French and Belgian unwillingness to harbour Entente forces so long as Entente forces remain in a state of war with the Central Powers.
6) The Governments of the French Republic and Kingdom of Belgium will immediately start to demobilise their respective armies to the peace time level of 1914. Demobilisation must be complete on July 1st, 1918.
7) The Governments of the French Republic, United States of America, Portuguese Republic and Belgium agree to enter negotiations for a permanent peace treaty with the Governments of the Central Powers. The negotiations will be hosted by the Royal Dutch Government and will commence at Brussels on June 17th 1918.
8) This Armistice is in effect until June 15th, 1918, and may be prolonged if the French, Belgian, Portuguese and US governments have complied with the terms listed above.

*Due to amendments, the dates on this image are now slightly outdated.

 

[Godot]

Sounds very interesting with some fantastic writing. Followed, looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

 

[Onerom]

Watched, I love your style of writing and wish you the best luck with this TL!

 

[Wolfleaf]

This looks great! I will definitely be watching this.

 

[Jacob2003]

Watched! This is very good so far, and the writing is excellent!

 

[LordCalner]

Watched!

 

[Pragmatic Progressive]

Excellent! I'll follow this closely.

 

[jolou]

cursed timeline

 

[TheKutKu]

Looks awesome so far! I loved your paralysed in darkness TL so i’m Hyped

cursed timeline

Indeed

 

[Zauberfloete]

Excellent premise! I'm watching this!

 

[patch_g]

Looking forward to more. I am particularly amused/impressed by the wikipedia entry.

 

[TheReformer]

The Summer Anarchy Begins​

The end of the war for several states in Europe came as a shock, especially in states where fighting had not reached much of the country or had not been raging as recently as it had in France. To have your political leaders suddenly resign, or come out one day announcing that your country had been defeated after all the lost sons, brothers and fathers despite your country barely having even lost a fifth of its land surprised and angered many - especially those who had called for the war in the first place. Needless to say, the chaos that ensued tore apart the continent.

As mentioned in the last edition, first to see revolt would be France who's own army. When faced with the task of once again pushing back an enormous German offensive right after the loss of Amiens and with it any help the British could provide, the impact on morale proved too much for the French Reserve Army. With the French Sixth Army in utter flight following their commander's failure to implement defence in depth as recommended by the Allied War Council, many reserve army units simply refused to go to the front on May 31st, prompting French Prime Minister Clemenceau to resign. It is worth noting, the Reserve Army was not a small force, numbering around 400,000 men with the majority simply refusing to engage the enemy - instead, choosing to stay put and demand a peace deal be achieved immediately. This, however, was not good enough for the new French Government of Aristide Briand who desperately urged the army to follow orders, halt the German advance and save the nation from certain defeat. For Briand this was perhaps somewhat a naive hope, however, it is thought that in reality Briand was preparing for a truce already anyway - and thus this was merely his attempt to get a better position for negotiations. For some this was enough to get them to follow orders, but the vast majority refused - and in doing so sparked an incident at Bresles, just north of Paris, where a unit of Military Police and regimental officers attempted to arrest mutineering ringleaders. Needless to say, this failed miserably and resulted in a significant firefight in which several soldiers died before the Military Police and the unit's officers were themselves arrested, with several being executed for charges of Treason on the spot. In 1917 several divisions of the French Army had attempted a Mutiny in the same manner, only to fail when eventually the Government managed to crack down on the idle and stationary mutineering divisions - unlike that time, this would not be repeated. Instead, the Mutineers, fighting for their lives now, opted for a new strategy; they would march on Paris and demand peace.

Despite the radicalism of this choice, it was not one motivated by ideology or the desire for a Communist takeover as many seem to suggest to this day. Many of these soldiers simply wanted to go home, having been conscripted years prior to serve in a brutal and miserable war against an enemy who had only gained ground in France throughout the conflict rather than lose it. Pride in the nation had been crushed at Verdun, the Aisne and now in the Kaiserschlacht, loss of the war didn't seem so bad if you got to live in peace after it. As such, for many French soldiers the conflict by June 1918 seemed like an inevitable defeat; the Americans were unprepared for combat and few had actually arrived in France yet, and yet Germany seemed stronger than ever - especially now it had divided the French and British armies so decisively at Amiens. Thus when these mutineering units, lacking a united leadership or any clear motivation other than the demand of peace, arrived at Paris after days of marching they were shocked to find nothing stood in their way. In fact not only had the French units sent to halt their advance either been defeated easily by the sheer weight of numbers of men marching on the city which stood at well over 15,000, but many had also simply allowed them to pass or joined them - unwilling to kill fellow soldiers and countrymen in the name of a lost cause. The Government had even fled the city, repeating their embarrassing flight from the Paris Commune in the Franco-Prussian War fifty years earlier by moving to Tours. Thus the mutineering Army quickly found itself surrounded by friendly, supportive Parisians and the politicians who wished to bank on their political capital; this notably included the French Section of the Workers' International (Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière, SFIO).

SFIO Leader Louis Dubreuilh found himself in a strange situation, facing a party that had struggled to support the war in the first place and one that was overwhelmingly supportive of the Mutineer's demand for peace, he had proposed an emergency conference of party delegates in Paris the day the Army had mutinied on the 31st to discuss the issue at hand. He quickly found himself overwhelmed by supporters of the Mutineers and peace, a consequence of the almost exclusively Parisian delegates tendency to favour radical political solutions, with Jean Longuet's 'Peace Motion' to the albeit smaller than usual conference being voted for overwhelmingly on June 6th. Dubreuilh would resign the same day, with the Conference overruling existing rules of 'succession' and appointing the grandson of Karl Marx and proposer of the peace motion Jean Longuet as party leader instead, in an emergency motion. A pacifist, Longuet's immediate goal was to emulate the decisive action of the Bolsheviks in Russia who had set the standard for taking power in states by simply declaring themselves to be the Government and gaining the support of the masses behind popular issues, notably; peace, land and bread. Longuet thus, with the support of thousands of assembled mutineering soldiers in Paris, would declare the creation of the French People's Republic the same day, calling on Frenchmen to establish workers and soldiers councils nationwide in order to seek peace with Germany, thus beginning the French Civil War.

The one weakness of Longuet's plan was his perhaps naive belief that the establishment would roll over and permit this people's movement for peace. While in many cases significant parts of the country did turn over to the new People's Republic; notably in Perpignan, Montpellier, Marseilles, Vichy, Orleans, and Lyon, many other parts of the country did not. Thus conflict would be needed to seize the remainder of the country, a conflict that this People's Republic was far from prepared for, and that its leader was uninterested in fighting. The Government would react quickly; announcing solemnly on June 7th that France would seek an armistice with the Central Powers after a brief but nontheless heated discussion with British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, though the British would be slightly more sympathetic to the situation when the news that Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks had recognized the French People's Republic on the 7th reached London a few days later. The United States, Belgians and Portuguese would join the French in their request for an armistice; the war was clearly lost where it mattered and thus for the US and Portugal there was little to no sense continuing a conflict that was for all intents and purposes now over. Belgium meanwhile found itself now totally occupied by a foreign power whom had breached it's neutrality, a grave insult and a deeply saddening day for the Belgians who had lost so much over the previous four years in the hope of eventual victory - hopes that had been dashed within the space of only a month. This did leave Germany in an entertainingly unique position though; whether to negotiate with the Socialist Government of France or the legitimate one. Naturally, not thinking a socialist state on both ends of their empire would be a wise strategic decision, the Germans opted to negotiate with the legitimate Government first, but still sent representatives to see what Longuet's Government would be willing to offer out of mere curiosity.

For Italy however, the news of the Entente's desire for an armistice was a crushing blow. For three years the country had fought in a war that was essentially all but a gamble, a roll of the dice that had seen the country abandon it's German and Austrian allies in favour of a long previously negotiated secret treaty with the French promising lands across the Adriatic for Italy - land that would now never seen an Italian flag. With the French out of the conflict, it would only be a matter of time before the Germans would come for Italy too, and thus on June 7th the Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, seeing the writing on the wall, gave in and resigned. His replacement would be a strategic choice by the King in the form of Giovanni Giolitti, who had served as Italian Prime Minister four times already throughout his long political career and had been an architect of friendly negotiations with Germany prior to the war. Having been the man who led the 'neutralist' coalition prior t Italy's entry into the conflict, he would immediately set to work seeking a truce with the Central Powers, with a truce being sought that very same evening and signed at San Michele Al Tagliamento on the 8th - near enough simultaneously to the armistice at Verberie between the Central Powers and the western Entente.

The very next day in Turin the Socialist Party leader Costantino Lazzari announced the formation of the Republic of Italy. Ever the revolutionary, Lazzari gambled that now of all times would be his best shot at establishing a Socialist Italian state, and sought to instead first exploit the political opposition against the Government to unite republican forces against the monarchy that he could then use to engineer a second, later coup to establish a Socialist state - inspired by the Bolsheviks. This proved popular among Italian soldiers and the northern Italian working class, with Milan quickly falling into Republican hands and much of the northern industrial base of the country being captured by workers syndicates within days - yet began the third European civil war in less than a year. The Italian Civil War proved to initially be decidedly less 'rapid' than many outside observers had assumed it would be; with swathes of troops backing the Republican cause, yet a significant number of loyalist forces doing the same. General Armando Diaz, one of Italy's few celebrated Generals of the war, quickly abandoned the front with a large force of loyalists being assembled at Bologna in the name of protecting the official Government on June 11th, while the truce stunted support for the republicans somewhat - especially due to their socialist leanings. Nonetheless, riots in Rome on June 12th would prove too much of a risk for Italy's Government that would follow the French example and flee to Naples, despite the city remaining under Government control after a moderate crackdown of sorts. The civil war would begin in earnest though with the formation of the Italian Republican Army (ERI) on the same day, unifying a host of Republican, Socialist and Anarchist militias into a more cohesive force - notably including the 'Camicie Nere' led by one Benito Mussolini, the man once hailed by Lenin as the 'only man strong enough to lead a revolution in Italy'. The Republican Congress would meet for the first time on June 15th too - officially declaring Lazzari as their leader through a vote of the executive council of the congress, made up of members of each of the largest factions in the body, at Turin.

The French socialists meanwhile were in a somewhat less conformable position. Despite the mutiny of virtually the entire French fleet at anchor in Marseilles on June 10th, the end of the war had cut off a significant factor of their support base at the knees, and the French Government was unwilling to give up just yet. Concerned by the uprising, Generals Petain, Humbert and Marshal d'Espèrey had on the 9th declared their intention to honour the armistice with Germany, but also to secure the Republic from Socialist revolution, with General Petain advancing on Paris within days of the truce being signed with his diminished and unhappy, but nonetheless determined forces. Petain's message to his men simple; save the Republic, strengthen France's hand at the negotiating table and this will all be over sooner with fewer consequences - and for the men of his army who actually admired him as a General that had proven enough. By June 13th, Petain was at the outskirts of the city arresting hundreds of mutineering soldiers often found drunk, asleep, or in the arms of french women more than they were on ramparts or barricades prepared to repel his forces. To the more dutiful men of Petain's force, this came as a welcome surprise rather than the massacre of their countrymen they expected - which drove them on further in the belief that this could all be wrapped up quickly. The city would soon be surrounded, yet the soldier's hopes would be somewhat dashed when British forces completed their withdrawal from Dunkirk and Calais on June 14th, only to be replaced immediately by socialist militias. It was this minor event though that would inadvertently trigger one of the more unusual agreements of the era - that being the German offer of aid to France on June 15th. Caught between a rock and a hard place, the French eventually would accept German aid the next day on the 16th, permitting Germany to 'breach' the terms of the truce for both sides in order to destroy Socialist cells on the border and secure the channel ports. Doing so primarily out of the desire to end the war, while also hoping that by defeating the rebels the negotiating hand of the French would be stronger against the Germans, German forces would begin offensive actions again on June 17th with Operation Gneisenau, targeting the Channel ports and Socialist occupied Franche-Comte to great effect, driving back or destroying socialist cells due to disorganization more than anything else.

With French forces surrounding Paris, Italian forces mustering for a defence against the new Italian Republican Army and German forces ploughing into parts of northern France in order to deal with socialist threats, few in Europe had much to celebrate for. The war continued to a degree, men still died by the day, and yet some men had much to celebrate. In Britain, the Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Armies are demobilized, sending two million men home for good from the frontlines, and in Germany, the streets were packed for days after the signing of armistices at Verberie and San Michele Al Tagliamento on June 8th, with German and Entente negotiators meeting on June 17th in Brussels to begin hashing out the terms for peace. Little did many know though - this was certainly the end of one chapter, but merely the beginning of another.

Spoiler: French People's republic Wikibox

 

[TheReformer]

Yes, it's been like a year exactly but clearly I have annual phased periods of interest in certain areas of history

Can't promise I'll update this extremely often, but who knows! Guess you'll just have to watch the thread!

 

[Kaiser Wilhelm the Tenth]

Yes, it's been like a year exactly but clearly I have annual phased periods of interest in certain areas of history

Can't promise I'll update this extremely often, but who knows! Guess you'll just have to watch the thread!

Wow, just read through all this and it's really, really good! I look forward to more.
How did you make those faux Wikipedia pages? I know how to create an infobox but not an entire page!

With such a late-war victory, Germany has some problems coming its way. The economic and social damage done to the country is already quite immense; this is only worse in Austria-Hungary. And with America and Britain allied against her, Germany faces a pretty firm bit of opposition, which will make the postwar world rather tricky. Nonetheless, I'm sure you've got plans as to how to deal with this...

Anyhow, I eagerly await an update.

 

[TheReformer]

How did you make those faux Wikipedia pages? I know how to create an infobox but not an entire page!

I essentially take a screen capture of the real wiki page, then write up the new text using Wikipedia's editor, which I then screen capture too and edit over the existing text using Paint.NET. Can be tedious at times but does the job.

Nonetheless, I'm sure you've got plans as to how to deal with this...

I do indeed! Glad you enjoyed anyway.

 

[LordCalner]

And its back! What a welcome surprise! Great piece!

 

[TheReformer]

Peace in Our Time?​

June 17th arrived sooner than some men might have liked, but no man dreaded that date more than French Prime Minister Aristide Briand. Despite having no political challengers, after all, who would want to lead France through the end of a major war and a civil conflict, Briand knew that his legacy not just as a French politician but also as a man would depend on the outcome of the 'negotiations' at Brussels. He would later remark to an aide of the event that; "The issue at hand is that we might not have gone into this conflict as the aggressor in action, but we did so in spirit". In this, Briand identified the key factor in the post-war environment; that being that when France lost Alsace-Lorraine in the first place it birthed a movement of anger against the Government and the establishment like no other, and created widespread support for Revanchism, and this war would be no different. Germany might have gone into this conflict as the attacking side, but they were most certainly not the one that expected vast annexations of land from France bar some minor changes - even if some of their radical nationalists called on them. No, they would instead ask for a different pound of flesh, for they had no interest in governing millions of Frenchmen when the Frenchmen could merely destroy themselves from within. Thus, Briand knew he was on borrowed time - the moment the treaty was signed, he would be dead in the water, as Germany would seek to make France either politically fractured, financially dependent, or both - and he would by signing that treaty sign his own political death certificate. Yet, these negotiations would not take long; after all, Germany was negotiating essentially alone. It held all the cards and had no interests in the Balkans or Italy and thus it's partners there would be able to ask and receive what they wanted, removing the need for long periods of hashing out what peace should look like, unlike how it would have been for the Allies.

Germany's approach to peace was based on three main goals in the west; first, to ensure that their eastern conquests were recognized. Second, to ensure that France had limited, if any ability to challenge Germany's position from the west in the foreseeable future. Third, to do so without driving the Americans from the table, and in a way that was deemed 'legitimate' on the world stage in the wake of Woodrow Wilson's popular 14 point manifesto on peace. Why did Germany care about the latter? The answer is simple, Germany's largest political party was the SPD, yet the SPD had been held out of Government intentionally by the Anti-Socialist Kaiser Wilhelm II despite strong election performances. This might not normally matter for the German establishment, however, Frederich Ebert, the SPD leader, had made it clear that this would change in a post-war environment. In the Reichstag, the SPD had grown strong enough that they were virtually governing, without being in Government, and popular support for the party remained at an all-time high due to the fallout effects of the war. Ebert had already since the armistice began calling for fresh elections, and the SPD would almost certainly win such a vote. The Kaiser, however, sought to change this; aiming to quickly conclude a peace satisfying to both the Conservatives such as Admiral Tirpitz and his Nationalist 'Fatherland Front' by taking significant new colonies in Africa, while satisfying the desires of both the liberal and socialist-leaning electorate by annexing lands in Europe 'legitimately'; winning the war but without looking bad. This had already begun through the creation of a network of client states in Eastern Europe at Brest-Litovsk, notably including Baltic territories that were intended for later annexation into Germany as 'member states' of the Empire, and this would be repeated now in the west - primarily through the small nation of Luxembourg. By doing this, the Kaiser and his Government intended to drive down the appeal for the SPD in the election, and thus result in a more friendly Reichstag for the post-war environment, maybe even a non-socialist Governing coalition. Finally, the Kaiser's Conservative backers also recognized that a socialist-led Government was extremely likely, even if he refused to accept one, and thus they sought to make a peace deal which would not immediately be undone by an SPD Government - primarily by avoiding lebensraum driven policies in Poland as they had initially sought when Ludendorff advocated for the annexing of 'the strip' of Polish land on the Silesian and Prussian border.

Luxembourg was of special interest to German negotiators as, despite its size, it had legitimate but albeit weak claims over a significantly larger part of Belgium which had been handed to the Belgians in 1839 after Luxemburgian independence. Germany sought to reverse these territorial changes, while then bringing Luxembourg into the Empire as a member state equivalent to Bavaria or Baden. In doing so, Germany would be able to make European land annexations under at least a pretence of legitimacy in the name of self-determination by bringing the former Zollverein nation of Luxembourg into the Empire at the Treaty of Wasserbillig - in which the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, Marie-Adélaïde, would abdicate the throne to her sister Charlotte. This too would provide for a better defensive line against future French aggression and would enable Germany to more easily connect their holdings to the one valuable piece of land Germany would demand from France; the Longwy-Briey-Thionville triangle. This small piece of land, which alone produced 90% of France's pig iron ore and was the sixth richest iron ore deposit in the world by 1900, would be central to German plans to control French aggression in the future; by encouraging a climate of dependence and long-lasting security against French military revanchism. The triangle would be thus annexed by the Reichsland of Elsaß-Lothringen, placing it under 'federal' control under Prussia, enabling Germany to control the flow of iron to France or force France to look elsewhere for imports of the vital product which would undoubtedly be more expensive than German imports. Germany too would push forward the border of Elsaß-Lothringen across the board by an average of 7 miles, adding some extra breathing room between their core and any potential future French aggressor, along with taking the hilltop positions of the Alsace border that had proven impossible for German forces to break throughout the entire conflict.

From Belgium, Germany would make exceptionally punitive demands considering the reason for Belgian entry into the war despite being neutral and invaded by Germany - though of course, Germany would maintain that Belgium was invaded by France before they intervened. Belgium would concede the entire Congo to Germany, cementing their 'Mittelafrika' project dramatically. Additionally, Belgium would, as aforementioned, return a significant chunk of land to Luxembourg - now doubling the small nation's size for about five minutes before their 'annexation' by Germany. Prussia would then further annex much of the Liege region as a Reichsland up to the Meuse, taking everything east of the river and establishing Reichsland Lüttich - a less 'legitimate' land grab than Luxembourg, yet one that provided Germany a very strong defensive position to their west. Belgium further would guarantee Germany 'most favoured nation' status for trade in specific valuable resources such as Steel and Coal, essentially latching the Belgian economy to Germany, while the country would be constitutionally dismembered through the creation of two separate legislative bodies in the Walloon and Flemish Parliaments - the Flemish holding authority over the nation's power centre in Brussels. This left Belgium held together in the manner of Austria-Hungary; more as a personal union of Flanders and Wallonia than a nation as King Albert I was forced to abdicate to his 17-year-old son Leopold III, making the young King the sole constitutional figure that held power in both Flanders and Wallonia. This, of course, was also done in the name of 'self-determination', but in reality was simply both a divide and rule decision by the Germans to weaken the Belgian state and thus its ability to separate from the German political grip it found itself in and a means by which to encourage pro-German Flemish nationalism to ensure long term Channel port access for Germany without annexing any ports. While placing a member of the German royal family on the throne of Belgium was an attractive prospect, ultimately it was decided that doing so would be seen as so illegitimate on the world stage that America may just remain in the conflict, and thus the idea, while pressed by the Kaiser, eventually found its way out of the proposed treaty, with the young new King being placed into a highly pro-German Regency.

The other participants at Brussels would get off comparatively lightly. The United States, having pretty much no reason to surrender, but equally no reason to stay in the war at all given that it's main theatre was lost completely, would be offered a 'status quo ante bellum' - essentially going back to exactly how things were before, except with one caveat. Germany asked that the United States kindly return all their cargo vessels that the US had confiscated, even saying that the US would be free to use those ships to transport their hundreds of thousands of soldiers who had been training, and in some cases, fighting in France at the time home - provided they repair them before sending them back to Germany. This was perfectly acceptable to the US, who took their terms and ran home, with President Wilson remarking at the White House that the United States had "for all intents and purposes achieved what it sought to achieve" in France. By that meaning that peace had been restored in Europe, while more often than not upholding the values of the 14 points, without a significant loss of American life, and while protecting American traders at sea from German attacks - for which Germany would actually apologise during the Brussels conference. Obviously, the US people did not quite see things as 'clearly' as President Wilson did, however, the consequences of which would not become apparent until later. Portugal meanwhile, despite having actually quite actively fought on the western front, would simply be asked to concede the small Congolese port of Cabinda and the surrounding Portuguese enclave to Germany as part of their Mittelafrika project. Unable to force the country into any commercial arrangements due to lack of ability to enforce them - at least temporarily - Germany would leave terms at that.

Spoiler: Europe Following the Treaties of Wasserbillig, Brussels, Zurich & Belgrade

Finally; an elaboration on the state of Africa. Having annexed the Congo from Belgium and the port of Cabinda, Germany had established their long sought after Mittelafrika project - yet they had further demands to make. First, they would annex the entire French Congo, along with southern French Equatorial Africa, dividing the territory roughly along the 13th parallel north. Second; Germany would annex French Dahomey, further seizing from France much of the Upper-Volta region, demanding the lands east of the Black Volta River and west of the Niger River. Third; Germany would demand French Somaliland. Finally, in retribution for the French embarrassments of Germany at the First and Second Moroccan Crises, Germany demanded France evacuate Morocco, not because the Germans actually wanted it, but instead leaving it to the Spanish and British who maintained influence in the region in an act aimed at befriending a cautious Spain in the post-war environment, and as a boost to national prestige while landing an embarrassing and petty blow on French global standing. This would establish a significant German colonial presence, seizing all claimed territories in Africa Germany had sought at the Berlin Conference and past conflicts, while vastly diminishing the French colonial Empire.

Spoiler: Middle and South Africa Following The Treaties

This of course didn't really matter at the moment - as so long as Britain remained in the conflict, Germany had very little ability to actually enforce the conquest of these colonial provinces. Instead, Britain would just begin marshalling forces into the previously French and Belgian territories to prevent Germany from deploying submarines or other forces to the area. Belgian and French administrators would thus spend the next few months under orders from their home Governments essentially just to continue business as usual, waiting to be relieved.

Two further treaties would be required for war in Europe to officially draw to a close. The first being negotiated at Zurich between the Central Powers and Italy, yet with Italy's civil war the implementation of this treaty became drawn out - and thus shall be discussed in a later text. The second Treaty, the Treaty of Belgrade, would soon after be signed in the city's famous old fortress, between the forces of the Central Powers and the Serbs, Montenegrins, Albanians and Greeks. Yet with fighting still raging down south, this would take a few more weeks to achieve. All the while though, Britain sat back and watched the continent envelop itself in German arms - and it would choose it's next actions wisely. In Brussels however, on a dull and rainy July 14th, an irritable Prime Minister Briand did his duty, sat down, and signed the document - and in doing so began a new era for France, and Europe.

 

[TheReformer]

Man I'm on a roll!

Anyway that update was getting way too long, was intended to be all the peace treaties at once, but hey I guess I'll just fold the other two into the Italian and Balkan updates I have planned. As ever, enjoy the content! Until next time.

Oh and for those who wonder, I've moved this out of Maps and Graphics as, despite my love of both, I don't want to always do them! Writing is just as entertaining.

-TR

 

[Analytical Engine]

I don't know why there are red borders for Rwanda-Burundi. Weren't they considered part of German Tanganyika?