Wrong Type of Kentucky, Wrong Type of France: A TL

Questions, comments, and criticisms are still very much welcome, although the last two updates take quite a time to finish...
Bloody hell ! Are the United Norse Kingdoms going to be the alt-equivalent of Red Hungary?
Glad to see France is bigger in the South, although they will have some trouble with integrating Catalonians with the rest of the French unless they give them extensive linguistic autonomy never seen since Villiers-Coterêt, which Occitania might ask for just afterwards, with Brittany and Alsace.
 
Bloody hell ! Are the United Norse Kingdoms going to be the alt-equivalent of Red Hungary?
Glad to see France is bigger in the South, although they will have some trouble with integrating Catalonians with the rest of the French unless they give them extensive linguistic autonomy never seen since Villiers-Coterêt, which Occitania might ask for just afterwards, with Brittany and Alsace.

I don't think Red Hungary is a fitting analogy here... just another ally of Germany which had another civil war, with no real equivalent in OTL (I did think to some extent of the Polish-Soviet War there, but formed it into a civil war with "just" air and ground support).

And France... well, you will see what happens to France to justify the TL title!
 
"This treaty will forever end the age of war in Europe and North America!"

- Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Lord Kalthane, after the treaty of Sechserstadt was signed on October 15, 1926.

Wrong Type of Kentucky, Wrong Type of France

Chapter 5: April 29, 1919 (Pressburg and Györ, Austria-Hungary) - October 24, 1926 (Sechserstadt, Deutscher Gewerkschafts-Verein)

You must bear the consequences of your own actions, or: How a civil war can turn into a world war...



How it all began...

On March 1, 1919, seven years after the war, the Behördlich genehmigte Eisenstädter Stigl-Motorenfabrik KVmbH (authority-approved Stigl Engine Manufacturing "Capital association with limited liability"), soon after followed by k.u.k. genehmigte und privilegierte Tiroler Radelbauer-Figele Elekrizitätswerke VPG and other Austro-Hungarian companies, mostly in the hithertho booming automobile and electrical (especially "electrical pear") industries, could not pay their dividends to their shareholders. Even though the former had only limited liability, many companies, after this bubble had burst with the "Eisenstädter Stigl" being the first to show this, announced that they would make workers redundant in the hundreds, cut pay, increase working hours and cut into holiday and sickness entitlements. This would have affected minorities the most, not because the demands were explicitly aimed at minorities or foreigners, but because such people had the longest working hours and the most unpaid overtime already, the longest journeys to their families, and the least income.

On April 2, these accumulated announcements led to a first strike of metal and automobile production workers, and then more branches began to strike. As the strikes were, at first, only directed at the companies and their workers' policies, the government did not see a reason to intervene. However, by mid-April, minorities had begun demonstrating against their general living conditions and for some more rights. Women had jumped on this bandwagon to demand womens' suffrage, and by late April, so many companies had either already filed for bankruptcy or announced dramatic paycuts and working hour increases that Sechserists openly demanded regime change. And then came the time when the government intervened: By April 23, the army had to be used, together with special security forces, to ensure food supply to all citizens. But this made the situation worse, not better, as Hungarians, Slovaks and Poles felt that they were discriminated and the food given primarily to "natural" Austrians. Emperor Karl II. attempted to negotiate with the Hungarian, Croat, Czech, Slovak and other monarchs about a new Ausgleich or federation, but this only galvanised the demonstrators. The straw that broke the camels' back was the quite open terrorist attack of April 27. It was one of the first terrorist attacks of history to which there was a public claim of responsibility, and it killed Emperor Karl II. and much of his family while they were on the train from Budapest to Vienna, occurring near Györ.

On this train, a steam train, a bomb was implanted into the steam locomotive, blowing it up (people "helped" with shooting at the locomotive near Monoszentmiklós, some miles west of Györ) and derailing the train. Due to this total derailment of the train, Emperor Karl II. and many of his potential heirs (sons, daughters, brothers) were dead.

And the power vacuum from this (despite there being some survivors, they could not immediately come to Vienna) was used on April 29. The (illegal) syndicates that had formed over time united against the "temporary military government" and issued a general strike. As soldiers belonging to minorities in the army had also systematically been discriminated against (e.g. by being issued less self-protection equipment, lesser rations, having to fight directly on the frontlines instead of in safer positions,...), several army regiments defected to the strikers in the first days.

And thus, the Austrian civil war started. Already on April 28, though, the Miliz für die Befreiung der Arbeiter des Donaulandes (Militia for Liberation of the Workers of the Land upon the Danube) claimed responsibility for the attack, which was swept under the rug by authorities who instead presented Ferenc Köröszany and György Bakocz as single perpetrators who were not incited or led by a group. Behind the scenes, Austria-Hungary sent an ultimatum to the DGV and a request for help to the German Empire. The German Empire should mobilise, as should Poland and the Baltic States, and the DGV recieved an ultimatum which, until May 11, demanded (among other things) the following, lest there be war:

- Cession of Saxony
- A referendum of independence in Silesia and East Prussia
- Fullest cooperation in finding and extraditing the true perpetrators of the 4/27 attack; end to supporting violent Sechserist groups in other countries.

Some Austrian "volunteers" were sent into Saxony and Polish volunteers into Silesia to stir up demonstrations and riots for independence from the DGV and, although the astroTurfed independence movements didn't find much support within the population, some radical Catholics could be stirred up to rise up, in arms, against the "godless workers' regime" and they had to be crushed by the Sechserist riot police. The first and second points of the ultimatum were completely unacceptable to the DGV (not because they are against self-determation, but because they, due to badly faked passports and absolutely no poblems with such movements in the years before) and so, the ultimatum was refused. Thus, the k.u.k. Army mobilised on May 12-14 to go to war against Germany. However, this mobilisation and the ensuing troop movements were used by quite a few more soldiers to defect to the minority-affiliated or Sechserist rebels, or even outright to Germany over the Austro-Bavarian border, and by the "civilian" armed insurrectionists to take control of at least the city councils of Györ, Pressburg (Bratislava) and Brünn (Brno), Agram (Zagreb), and Fünfkirchen (Pecs).

The DGV's Armee der Deutschen Gewerkschaften (Army of the German Syndicates) mobilised, and did so more quickly; it was fully mobilised by May 16. Due to alliance obligations, the French Imperial Army mobilised soon after, with the Royal Army and Navy and the Norse Red Army following suit on the side of the Germans. Smaller parties drawn into the war were the Piedmontese and the Papal States on the German side and the Swiss, Polish (see above), Finnish and Baltic on the Austrian side.

There were two notable exceptions to general mobilisation: The Ottoman Empire, despite leaning towards the Austrian side, kept out of this quagmire. And Russia, not really having any alliance obligations (leaning towards the Anglo-German side, though) declared neutrality on May 29 after heated debates among the Russian nobility and the nominal Duma (parliament).

By June 1, Europe was back at killing each other once again.

How war came to the Americas - and ended up entrenched

At first, the soldiers and their leaders were very much confident in quick victory and being able to see them "home by Christmas", and some even thought that war would stay in Europe. However, both was not to be the case. As winter approached in October, the DGV troops were entrenched in parts of Czechoslovakia and, since France had joined the war, in regions near Verdun and at the Somme (near Y).

Next spring, war came to the Americas after an incident in the Royaume Du Florida-Seminole, a state where parties "threatening the state, inciting insurrection or rousing hate against the people", covering mostly parties affiliated with Sechserism, were banned. In this state, people demonstrated for the same degree of legality of Sechserist parties as was the case in Texas, and, in the end, they wanted to reunify with the Equal Syndicative States as they fondly remembered the old USA.
This demonstration took place in Reims-sur-Pensacole (as the French renamed the city of Pensacola) on 18 March 1920, and people in many other cities followed suit. But the Floridian military and riot police fired upon the demonstrators, indiscriminately killing them. This provoked the ESS, but it provoked the ESS even more when Louisianan terrorists of the Grande Armée Franco-Americain (Grand Franco-American Army, GAFA) commited the first known suicide bombing in history. A team of six targeted the newly built International Security and Operations Service (ISOS) headquarters in ..., which had a special department for France and its "dependent states" in North America. All six terrorists simultaneously blew themselves up and nearly the whole building was destroyed, killing 638 people (excluding the terrorists).

This was the last straw for the ESS. The French puppet state of Florida-Seminole refused to ocooperate with any ESS authorities on uncovering or destroying more of the GAFA group, and this meant war. The ESS invaded Florida-Seminole, Texasse, and Louisiana. In Texasse, invasion was easy because the locals greeted the ESS more as liberators than anything else. Battles had to be fought against the Franco-Mexican military units and against some diehard Texasse nationalists, but both groups were without a chance in hell and thus, Texasse was the first state which was readmitted into the ESS on May 6, 1922.

Somewhat more difficult was the invasion of Florida-Seminole, as this state did start to develop a culture of independence with the many Hispanic and French immigrants. Nevertheless, most Floridians remember something about the rights that states had in the old United States, and France could also not hinder Information, whether it was true or blown-up propaganda, from the Clijstersist-Sechserist ESS to filter into Florida-Seminole. However, as the King (=the Prince de la Vendée) was very popular, many Floridians (except for those that were wanting Sechserism, naturally) rallied around the flag and voluntarily fought the ESS. However, as France was invaded at home and could not really supply troops to the Americas, Florida was overwhelmed by the sheer might of the ESS forces, the last important battle, the Battle of the Camargue du Sud (as the French called the Everglades), was won in October 1923 and reintegration could begin, at first as a territory, on November 5, 1923.

The most difficult aim in the American theatre of war was reconquest of Louisiana. Its population had spoken French even before the First American Civil War, and thus, they were pretty much affiliated to The French Empire. Also, infleunce from Paris on local and even on national politics were significantly lower in this country as in the other two countries, because Paris regarded Louisiana as loyal enough that Baton Rouge could (as long as it didn't directly contradict Paris' interests or policies) mostly do what it wanted. Another hindrance was that the invasion only started in March of 1923 and the fact that this summer season was particularly hot, humid, and hurricane-prone. Namely, on September 17, 1923, a particularly bad hurrican, later named "Gerald" and, as one would know later, starting off formal naming of hurricanes, devastated the ESS Army on the coasts of Florida-Seminole and, on September 19, in the southern part of Louisiana (east of New Orleans). Despite Louisianan troops being relatively weak (just like those of Texasse and Florida-Seminole), the people were much more loyal and so, troops of the Louisiana Armée and popular volunteer brigades having taken up arms were able to hold out until the day of the armistice in Europe, March 15, 1924, despite the odds of the harsh winter being against them.

This meant that France could send their last ships, only recently thawed out of an iced-over Channel, to Cuba to support their allies of Cuba and Lousiana. Despite all odds, the courageous Louisianan Armée and population fought the ESS to a standstill by September 1924 and could force the much bigger state to recognise the independence, albeit now neutralised, of their homeland.

MEanwhile in Europe...

As Russia declared neutrality, the Deutscher Gewerkschaftsverein (DGV) drove into the southern German Empire and into the k.u.k. Empire first, before acting on France. England was "tasked" to deal with the French in case they got uppity in any way or violated the neutralities of Belgium, Luxembourg or the Netherlands.


Kentucky or France 1926.png
 
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Is that a Papal colony in *Benin? :eek:

Also you never finished your other update! Or started it for that matter.
 
Is that a Papal colony in *Benin? :eek:

Also you never finished your other update! Or started it for that matter.

Thanks for confirming your interest! And yes, this is a Papal colony in Benin and Nigeria. Quite honestly, this is a Church State wank! Not something you see often on here, or? :rolleyes:
 
List of Leaders of the German Workers (Führer der Deutschen Arbeiter):

Günther Sechser (1911-1931) (Deutsches Arbeiter-Syndikat)
Friedhelm Körding (1931-) (Christliches Syndikat der deutschen Arbeiter)

 
I have started the first of the two updates now. Any questions and criticisms are welcome! This also applies to any support in the form of infoboxes, propaganda or other posters, pictures and other material!
 
Why may I ask has German maintained control over its Southwest african colony despite it going red? And Is Bolivia Spanish or....? Because It looks similar to the Spainish Empire's normal color.
 
Why may I ask has German maintained control over its Southwest african colony despite it going red? And Is Bolivia Spanish or....? Because It looks similar to the Spainish Empire's normal color.

When Germany went red, it lost control of South-West Africa to Austria-Hungary, however, the red version of Germany regained control after the war that I will describe in the first of the two unfinished update.

Bolivia is not Spanish, but independent. It is also not under Spanish influence, puppet status, dominion, or any other relationship. I took this Bolivia colour off Ashtagon's colour scheme.
 
Wrong Type of Kentucky, Wrong Type of France

October 24, 1926 (Sechserstadt, Deutscher Gewerkschafts-Verein) - June 15, 1937 (London, United Kingdom)

"Religion is the root of all evil. It is a treacherous, and far too often lethal, disease that befalls many people. I have come to eradicate this cancer!"

- Polish "Areligionisme patriotique" dictator Zbigniew Łyżrom
, the first leader of his ideology.

The Peace negotiations

After a long and bloody war, negotiations for a peace treaty began in late 1925, after arms had fallen silent in August of that year, in Sechserstadt, Germany. This city was once known, and will likely be better known to people from parallel universes, as Braunschweig. It was renamed after the revolution, in 1912, as it was the city Günther Sechser hailed from and near it, in the steel and heavy industrial areas near it (Peine, Salzgitter,...), the revolution had its origin.

The war had, relatively clearly, been won by the Deutscher Gewerkschaftsverein (DGV) and its allies, namely Spain, the Equal Syndicative States (with a capital now called Eisener, S.D.), the United Kingdom, California and other powers. With some of these other powers, mainly the Kingdom of the Six Sicilies, you cannot determine whether the war was a success or a defeat (at least not yet), as they had both won and lost territory.

There had, back in 1919/20, been three (or two, depending on the definition) main causes for the war: The first was radical French or French-sponsored interventionism against movements for cultural and linguistic autonomy at home and abroad. Most notably, the Basque people were enraged when their pro-autonomy and slightly left-wing leader Iñaki Etxebarria, was, supposedly by pure accident, run over by a lorry in the centre of Biarritz. More fury was added to the basque people, and they rose up in arms, when their "Ministre pour les droîts Basques, a charismatic and healthy man of 43 years by the name of Bixente Iñnurrategi, who was pro-autonomy as well, supposedly died of "anaphylactic shock after having eaten a meal containing hazelnuts" (so the official claim by the French government). Such interventionism also took place abroad, namely in the Americas, where pro-"Communist" riots in the French puppet states of Florida-Seminole and Texasse were brutally crushed at first.

During the war, despite the battles being rather entrenched, it was not as bad as the "World War One" they talk about in some parallel universes. it seems more like a mishmash between the First and Second World Wars of those universes: Warplanes (first crude, and until the end of the war ever more sophisticated and ever more distance- and load-capable) made out of metal instead of wood soon after the start of the war, but still generally following the Brunner/Higl-developed concepts, and specialised Rojonos (after the name of a notable construction firm); airships made specificially for the purposes of war (=war zeppelins or war airships in a parallel universe), were used to bombard the enemies, especially their soldiers but also their civilian infrastructure (such a campaign was especially undertaken by the DGV in the later stages of the war against diehard German monarchist and Austro-Hungarian cities, so that cities like St. Pölten, Innsbruck, Bregenz, Füssen, Memmingen, Augsburg or Dachau lay in ruins by the end of the war) into oblivion. These planes and Rojonos became ever more developed, so that a plane could, by the end of this war, fly from for example London to Vienna or Hamburg to Florence without having to refuel, and could throw off deadly fire- and explosive bombs over its target. Night-flight capability was also developed towards the end of the war by the DGV side, against which Austria-Hungary and other powers remained incapable of defending themselves.

However, ground warfare was by far not as advanced as the aerial part of it, the first Bodenschiffe (lit. earth ships) and Verstärkte Schlachtzüge(basically a tank on rails) only being developed in February 1925. Despite their late development and crude state (it also had to do with the later development of the automobile), they proved crucial in defeating powers like France as, with such devices, Spanish troops and firepower were able to pass the Pyrenees through the few rail passes that they had, while France was (except for dynamiting rail) defenceless against such vehicles.

But now, peace should reign across Europe, across the entire world. Negotiations, mainly undertaken at Sechserstadt, but also in its suburbs and in Rheinisch-Marxstadt (the city will be better known in parallel universes as Cologne), as well as in Luxembourg and Zurich, proved difficult and lengthy: It took nearly a year (December 4, 1925 - October 24, 1926) to hammer out the diverse peace treaties.

The most important one, concluded in Sechserstadt, dealt with Central Europe, mainly the Deutscher Gewerkschafts-Verein and The Empire of Austria-Hungary. Its main points were:

  • Cession of a corridor-shaped piece of territory, plus Slovakia, to the DGV.
  • Full recognition of the voting and other basic human rights for the minorities in Austria-Hungary
  • Recognition of independence and Universal Workers' Council (UWC) administration of the Free City of Venice.
  • Limitation of the Austro-Hungarian army to 300,000 men. Air forces were allowed to a very limited extent, but no naval force was allowed. Instead, a to-be-created UWC naval force should guard the ports of Rijeka, Split and Zadar.
  • The Federal Republics of Bohemia and Moravia were to be a fully neutral, but armed, independent state.
  • Switzerland was to, once again, be an armed state that was fully neutral, like it had been from 1815 to 1912.
  • The German Empire will no longer exist as a state. All its territory is to be ceded to the DGV.
  • The Austro-Hungarian Empire is to disavow any and all alliance with the Free state of Poland, the Kingdom of Lithuania, the Duchy of Courland, or the United Baltic Duchies.

Often confused or convoluted with the Treaty of Sechserstadt is the, just as important and in some aspects even harsher, Treaty of Turin imposed on France by the winning powers of the United Kingdom, the DGV, Spain, and others.

It contained quite a few points that were quite a bit harsher than the Sechserstadt Treaty:

  • France has to recognise the independence of the Neutral Republic of Occitania and the Free Corsican Republic
  • Its army will be restricted to 100,000 men. No air force is allowed, a navy is only allowed to go up to 20 nautical miles off the coast and only to consist of lightly built ships.
  • France is to take the main blame for the war, along with Austria-Hungary. France unjustly crushed the "national self-determination" movements in Catalonia and Euskadi.
  • The full and total independence of Catalonia and the Great Patriotic Republic of Euskadi will be recognised.
  • France has to introduce a Republic, the Emperor and King of the French has to abdicate. No nobility titles are allowed anymore.
  • Brittany must be demilitarised. Corsica will be an independent state, but there will be a referendum in between fifteen and twenty years of time about whether to join France, join the Kingdom of the Six Sicilies, or remain independent.
  • Occitania is barred from uniting with France.

This treaty and its consequences would have profound effects on the remaining Second Republic of France...

France:

The war had ended with armed Sechserists founding Syndicats Populaires which did indeed rule for periods of weeks or even months over several cities, most notably Lille, Rouen and Reims. However, with the troops coming home, right-wing patriotic conservative Libertéens formed in order to restore order. And they murdered two of the most notable Marciennaiste agitators for a Marciennaist-Sechserist takeover in France: Martina Marcienna herself and her accomplice Charles Dutroux. This mostly ended the hopes of communist takeover in France, as the first constitution-writing body of the to-be-infamous Angers Republic convened in said city. Its first, pretty strongly powered, President was William Carannes (Parti des Travailleurs Democratiques, PTD). He officially took the oath of office on December 16, 1926.

But soon enough, instabilities showed: The PTD had already split into two parties (the majority "normal" PTD and the PITD), and then, the infamous Coup Delamatanne attempt by an association of Libertéens, old elements of the Grande Armee, and other right-wing and far-right forces, was nearly successful: The legitimate government had to flee to Saint-Etienne, and Arthur Delamatanne and his cronies had taken over control in Paris. However, they didn't reckon with the immediate, effective and radical action of PSF, PITD, PTD, and the French workers, who called a general strike on March 18, 1928. It was very much successfull in making Delamatanne and his cronies abundantly clear that they had little support in the general population, and the would-be-leaders had to give up after four days, restoring the legitimate government around Carannes.

After this failed coup attempt, reparations became a hotly debated topic in the Angers Republic: France could not possibly pay all those reparations, and if it did not, the victorious powers threatened occupation of Pas-de-Calais down to Lille, Rouen and other important industrial cities. Nevertheless, 1929-31 showed the method of Résistance passive being employed by the workers in the main mining areas of the country. Promptly, the allied victorious Nordseebund powers threatened occupation to force the workers back to work and France to pay their annual indemnities in coal, steel and other goods. This didn't fail, however, hyperinflation ensued due to the high war costs, the costs of fighting the revolts, and the reparations to be paid and their harsh enforcement.

Onto the scene comes Mathieu Lacassagna, a Piedmont-born (admittedly directly over the border) Occitan and French double national who had quickly risen to the forefront of the Parti Marxiste Et Égalitaire Patriotique(PMEP).

7530867.jpg


Mathieu Lacassagna, leader of the PMEP, at one of his first speeches that were widely recognised by the public. October 14, 1930.

This party, originally founded by Michel Antoine Cousier, was at the beginning absolutely ignificant, but it is characterised by the fiery anti-religious, anti-Sechserist and Marxist rhetoric. Mathieu Lacassagna put the blame for the last war and the French defeat with the following Turin Treaty wholly on "being stabbed on the back" by the "Christian Sechserist conspirators who wanted to overthrow our government". He was strictly against all religions and built on the "ideals of the French Revolution of 140 years ago". He reviled the Gregorian calendar because it was "built on the foundations of the pest of religion", the only cult that would be allowed under him would be the Cult of Reason. Also, he followed a skewed interpretation of the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich engels, which was supposed to say that the class struggle will end with the Proletarian Class not only establishing Dictatorship of the Proletariat, but all following "reason" and, with the help of the leader of the Proletarian Class and their vanguard party, automatically - or by the will of everybody - adhering to the volonté generale. The monarchy was another frequent scapegoat of Lacassagna.

On July 14, 1931, he and his followers, assembled in Lyon, planned first to take control of Lyon and then, in a quasi-military manner, establish a "March to Paris" ousting the Paris-based government. This failed dramatically when the police forces on the streets of Lyon opened fire on the armed marchers, killing three. Lacassagne, however, was nearly completely unharmed.

By surprisingly mild courts - at least as far as the far right (The PMEP, although having a far-left sounding name, were mostly classified as far right or as "indeterminable") is concerned - Lacassagna was sentenced to five years in hard labour prison. However, due to extremely generous, even outright sympathetic, guards and judges, he only served nine months of this sentence and, during this, he was allowed to write his famous and infamous book: La Tromperie, in which he presented his ideology. At the same time, it is some sort of autobiography, but mainly a book describing his ideology and plans for the future: Make France great once again, without religion and under his own ideology, with him as the leader of the vanguard party of the proletariat class.​

Kentucky or France 1937.png
 
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What is happening in East Africa, and that territory running from Libya to Camerun, East Africa originally looked like a German Remnant but I'm not sure.
 
What is happening in East Africa, and that territory running from Libya to Camerun, East Africa originally looked like a German Remnant but I'm not sure.

The pinkish territory from Libya to Cameroon belongs to the Kingdom of the Five/Six Sicilies. And Eastern Africa was indeed a remnant colony of the German Empire (in Southern Germany) and then, when this state was defeated, changed into Sechserist hands.
 
What's with the Finnish colony in Patagonia?

Well, Patagonia was Austro-Hungarian, and it was distributed by the DGV to one of its allies... quite honestly, I chose Finland because I found Finnish Patagonia cool more than anything else. I have also considered switching it to the Norse Syndical States; would that be better?

EDIT: This is a "Rule of Cool" TL with some level of plausibility rather than a hard-line plausible TL.
 
Some more progress was made on the interwar update before my esophagos operation tomorrow... I hope I can resume writing soon! If I possibly can, I will do so!
 
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