Gilded Ambitions: Concert of Europe Part V (Gameplay Thread)

[oldkyhome]

Chronicle

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The Young Government
새정부

The inauguration of Korea's first democratic government proved to be a more troubling affair than many anticipated. Though the President (then First Minister) himself never faced any real opposition for high office, his ideological allies certainly did, and that was in spite the fact Gwon's Liberals were the face of the new Republic and the designers of many of his novel reforms. It would be the explosion of war along the nation's borders that would capture voters' attention in 1901; the Liberals left barely with enough seats to constitute the plurality by the end. To form a government, compromise was in order.

And compromises there were; to the UPF, that is. While the President had initially hoped to carry out a far more ambitious domestic agenda in his tenure, it was agreed that much on the social front would be shelved in return for concessions on the economy at a time that was undoubtedly dire for it. Thus, the government would be thoroughly moderate; its opposition a fringe collection of extremists from polar opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. With an enormous mandate, Jaehyung delivered an inaugural address that championed industrial development and tactful diplomacy, pledging to keep Korea out of the many wars that preoccupied its neighbors.

On both these fronts, Jaehyung's government was an unequivocal success, signing agreements that not only ensured Korean neutrality in the conflict, but also added the participant-nations as trading partners and, further, invested the dividends immediately back into the domestic economy. Markets grew, people flourished, and as they did, so did Jaehyung's popularity. Yet, as his nationalist critics pointed out, the pen "pacifies the realm", but the sword "dominates the world" (The Romance of the Three Kingdoms). Lasting peace can never be won, solely, with ink on paper.

It was the rising sun to its immediate east that concerned the young Republic in 1903. The other democracies of the world had sworn off imperialism long ago, but that nation just clung on, finding itself utterly content to wage war and acquire territory in all the same show and fashion as any empire would. It not only concerned but disgusted contemporary Korean society, even the traditionally liberal Jaehyung, who would be infuriated by the rotating control of hands over the Sunwon Islands and other former possessions that maintained cultural and historic importance to Korea.

In this outrage, he would find himself uniquely allied to the nationalist opposition that had almost assailed his party just a few years prior, but for now, anyway, the President would hope to find support within his own coalition. Whatever the case, it would certainly present the young government with its greatest challenge in the year to come.

[Senator Spiral]

Address from the Grand Vizier for Life Ahmed Muhtar Pasha


Source: Wikimedia

My fellow Turks, and all denizens of this great Empire,

It is with the events of this past year that we have proven Turkish might against all the odds. The Byzantine squeals of the Greek Kingdom have been neutered, obliterated for a generation and beyond. Lest they ever be foolish enough to entertain such fantasies of conquest again, they need only heed to the example we have set of them: from the Aegean to the very heart of Athens! Despite the designs of the imperialists, all those who have subjugated our nation to previous ruin, Turks persisted against two of the most powerful forces on earth. Despite such commanding adversaries, despite this all, never could they break Turks. It is with our new strength and fortitude that we have ceded not an inch of Turkish land!

This newfound peace has provided us not only the recognition as a force never to reckon with, but the path for an ever stronger Turkish homeland. To fellow Turks across the Balkans, I beckon this message: It is time to come home. Join your brothers and sisters in blood for the land of opportunity, where we shall cement our rightful place in self-determination! Our place as a guarantor of Balkan integrity has been secured, and it is now on us to relentlessly pursue order across the lands and seas. Any threat to our people's interests shall receive the gravest of consequences.

Turks, we have come so far in a short number of years. We know all too well the lessons of our guard falling, however. We must continue to march forward on all fronts! Pursue Turkish excellence from the factories, to the fields, to the universities! Protect one another from the evils of imperialism and decadence! Chart our destiny against all who seek to bring us down! With vigilance comes glory, my fellow countrymen! It is on us all to cherish and uphold this for generations to come!

[Spamage]

1903 News of the World

The Colombian Flu

Hospital Scene in France, 1903
(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

   It started in Colombia.
   Given the situation on the ground it is impossible to know where, nor when. In the mass of dislocated, malnourished, and crowded civilians perhaps it had gone unnoticed longer than it would have otherwise. The mix of nationalities made the region a veritable soup of pathogens. Still, this ignorance changed soon enough. In January 1903, several hundred were reporting abnormally strong flu symptoms in Colombia. Within weeks that became thousands, then tens of thousands. Celebrations over the Treaty of Bogota, an agreement that most Colombians saw as at least a draw given the dire state of their realm, only further amplified its spread. An illness more severe than seen in decades swept through Caracas, Bogota, and then Peru itself. Tens of thousands fell victim to the influenza, in particularly elderly and very young, up to 5% of those catching the virus succumbing to its effects. Colombia, attempting to recover in the aftermath of one of the most destructive wars yet seen in modern history was now overwhelmed by the first wave of a new disease. The public, exhausted by the recent conflict and looking for respite, now found themselves embroiled in a very different crisis. Given its origin, many would dub the pathogen the Colombian Flu, though local outbreaks would ofttimes be given unique names.
   With the coming of peace, it spread yet further. French soldiers carried it back to Bordeaux, from there the pathogen being taken to India. Spanish volunteers, likewise crossing the Atlantic, brought it back to Iberia, increasing the suffering in that theater. The Portuguese and Brazilians the illness to their homelands as well, further amplifying its spread. Amidst the global carnage, religious drama at the Conclave at Konstanz, and fitful attempts at economic recovery, the coming pandemic was initially overshadowed. As the casualties started to mount in the summer, including several members of notable European royal families, public awareness began to spread. Perhaps too late.
   The Colombian Flu burned through revolutionary Portugal and the Spanish warzone, the region a breeding ground for the pathogen in a sea of weakened humans. In France, illness exploded across the kingdom. Louis XX and the Court isolated themselves at Versailles, preventing any sort of widespread death in the royal family, but fetid cities such as Paris, Lyon, and Marseille were breeding grounds for yet further death. Tens of thousands of civilians fell victim. From there, the pathogen spread into Italy, Britain, and the Holy Roman Empire, not recognizing borders. Habsburg refugee camps in Lombardy brought the illness through Venetia and into the heartland of the empire. Vienna was shuttered by a particularly bad wave in late autumn, the city grinding to a halt as hospitals were filled. In Schonbrunn Palace, Archduchess Maria Augusta, the 17-year-old older sister of Emperor Maximilian V, died on October 10th. Poland experienced the disease amidst the exciting first election. To the west, London was forced to build more crematoriums in an effort to keep up with burning the numerous corpses. Queen Mary III recovered rather easily, unlike some other leaders. On New Year’s Day 1904, signs of the illness already were creeping into St. Petersburg and Kiev.
   The most dramatic deaths would occur in Stockholm, however. Scandinavia was also the site of a late in the year wave, the illness burning through Stockholm, Copenhagen and then the surrounding countryside. The gravity of the situation became clear when Ivan VII, the aged last Czar of Russia, father-in-law of Charles XIV, and a relic of a bygone age, died coughing violently in Stockholm on November 20th. Almost 60 years since he had been deposed and exiled from Russia as a young man, the last reigning Czar was deceased, his son and heir Frederik an alien to most Russians. With his passing, the era of the Romanovs seemed to be truly at an end. Yet, the situation in the palace worsened further. Charles XIV, the complicated ruler and patriarch of the House of Hanover, fell ill in late November. Aged only 44, most expected him to have an easy recovery, yet the illness was stubborn. After what seemed to be an initial rebound, the sovereign took a turn for the worse in early December. The government in Stockholm could only watch with terror as their king succumbed to the Colombian Flu on December 9th, 1903. The death of so regal a personage rocked Europe, society grappling with the implications of the terrible illness. After a reign of five years, a tenure that had gone a long way to stabilizing the position of the Hanoverians in Scandinavia, Charles’ 28-year-old son would succeed him as King-Emperor John IV of Scandinavia, inheriting a rather challenging global situation. Public opinion would tentatively back the new ruler who, unlike his father, had known no home other than Scandinavia.
   The conclave, dozens of elderly cardinals locked in deliberations for hours together day after day, became the site of a particularly nasty outbreak. The Catholic world looked on in horror as cardinal after cardinal fell victim to the disease in late summer as the first wave of the Colombian Flu ripped through the Empire. An astonishing 15 prelates fell victim to the disease, including the Camerlengo Francesco di Paola Cassetta. His death only furthered to increase the sense of urgency in the proceedings, the Church now symbolically leaderless moreso than with the death of the Pope alone. Those killed were both cross factional and cross national, the final tally being 6 Establishment, 4 Radical, 3 Opportunist, and 2 Conciliatory cardinals from Austria (4), Brazil (1), France (3), Louisiana (1), and Naples (6). While the voting continued to drag on, there was no question that the internal balance of the proceedings had shifted.
   Yet, the Colombian Flu was more than a European phenomena. 1903 witnessed initial waves in South America, Central Africa, and India as well. By the end of the year outbreaks seemed poised to explode in North America, Russia, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. How the world will contend with the widespread death and social havoc wrought by the virus remains to be seen. Whatever the case, it is clear the illness is here to stay.

The Conclave
Alexander IX Elected After Historic 123 ballots

Alexander IX, the new leader of the Catholic World

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

   The eyes of the Catholic World were all on the small Imperial city of Konstanz as the more than 60 cardinals from all across the globe made their way to conduct the Conclave of 1903. It was a novel gathering, only the third time since the 14th Century that the selection of the next pontiff would be conducted outside of Rome. Initially there was a sense of hope in the air, many of the prelates believing that demonstrating unity in the Church through the rapid selection of a pope would help to bridge the divide in the Catholic Church between the establishment and radicals. Yet, from the start, signs of discord were evident. The mistrust between the various Catholic powers was palpable, as evidenced by the ‘guards’ stationed in the city from Austria, France, Poland, Colombia among others. Politicking had begun in earnest in the weeks prior to the gathering and two frontrunners were seen as initial favorites for election, backed, naturally, by France and Austria respectively. The cardinals were locked in for the first ballot on March 20th, 1903.
   Recognizing the distaste many would have for one of their own number, the French delegation was quick to push Cardinal Michelangelo Celesia of Palermo as their preferred candidate. In their eyes, the cardinal checked many boxes. He was already quite old, soon to be 90, so the prospect of a long papacy seemed remote. This meant many of the ambitious cardinals would likely get another try at the big job. As a Neapolitan, he held extensive connections in that delegation. There was a whisper campaign that he agreed that the Church needed to be more representative of the growing Catholic population outside Europe, a bid to win the support of all the American cardinals. To the French, it seemed rather straightforward that Celesia ought to be elected.
   Yet, Austria had a candidate of their own, Cardinal Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto of Venice. Sarto was younger, aged 68, but the Habsburg delegation framed that as a benefit arguing that his election would prevent further internal Catholic discord for years to come. His establishment credentials were unquestionable. Sarto wedded a conservative interpretation of Catholic doctrine with a true sense of personal piety, his diocese renowned for aiding the poor. Though he personally seemed opposed to the potential of his election, this too was framed as a virtue, given he was not a self-promoting aggrandizer seeking self-advancement and quid pro quos from his fellow clerics.
   Only the exact tally of the first vote would somehow leak to the public. Celesia (Palermo) received 32 votes, 24 for Sarto (Venice), 6 for Diomede Falconio, and 5 for Giuseppe Antonio Ermenegildo Prisco (Naples). No one was even close to the 45 votes needed for a majority. Subsequent votes over the next week continued to yield no clear result, black smoke repeatedly erupting from the Konstanz Cathedral.
   There were whispers and veiled accusations that emerged among the various delegations. French cardinals alleged that an Austrian-Neapolitan establishment bloc was effectively vetoing Celesia repeatedly, though the remainder of the clerics were rallying behind him. This was challenged by an anonymous Austrian cardinal who accused the French delegation of bullying tactics and noted that even their vote seemed to be splintering with each progressive ballot. As March turned to April, tensions in the city did begin to increase, several French soldiers reprimanded for a fight with one of the Habsburg guards. Ballots ran into the dozens by the end of April, no clear end in sight. Mudslinging became common. As the situation drug on, public interest did wane a bit, the suspense wearing off with so much time passing.
   Yet, the stubborn status quo continued. There was talk of a compromise election, various individuals floated, though nothing concrete seemed to be occurring. In May, the new story was that most clerics had dropped Celesia, but the French clerics now kept pushing him. Reportedly, the aged cleric had demonstrated signs of senility, forgetting the names of his fellow cardinals and repeatedly requesting to be excused from the balloting due to ill-health. His Neapolitan friends reportedly abandoned the cause once it was deemed that the role of Pope would be too taxing for their respected colleague. Celesia’s star would wane further in coming months with news of the declaration of the Sicilian Republic, many of his remaining establishment backers balking at the idea of electing a Pope from a city awash with Catholic Republicans.
   This was how the spring and summer progressed. There was hope on the morning of July 10th that progress had been made, but the pale gray smoke erupting from the cathedral was not white in actuality, an error on the inside having led to a mistake. Felice Cavagnis of the Neapolitan delegation and Pierre Andrieu of Marseille both left the vote in late July bleeding, reportedly having gotten into a fistfight over mutual accusations. Francesco Cassetta, as Camerlengo, struggled to keep order as tensions flared in the cramped quarters during the summer heat. Some cardinals deemed the election hopeless and called for a resurrection of medieval conciliarism, weakening the Papacy once and for all in favor of Church councils. Yet, this too failed to get off the ground.
   Everything changed in August. Cardinal Henri Pelgé of Poitiers went into the vote that day with a sore throat and slight fever, thinking little of it. Sequestered as they were, the cardinals only had a loose understanding of the Colombian Flu and its symptoms. While there was a general sense of danger, a portion of the clerics also believed that God would protect them, the election of the next Pope outweighing any health concerns. Within three days he was dead, his symptoms worsening rapidly after the vote on August 19th. Establishment cardinals framed this as God’s retribution against the radicals, but were then silenced as Emidio Taliani of the Neapolitan delegation fell ill and died days later. It quickly became evident that Pelgé had started an outbreak at the Conclave. Votes were suspended and most of the clerics started to show symptoms.
   The Church looked on in horror as cardinal after cardinal succumbed to the disease. If there was anything that so clearly separated the Conclave of 1903 into two phases, it was the death of Francesco di Paola Cassetta, the Camerlengo, on September 5th. Now the Church was even more leaderless, that role having been used as a sort of interim head in the absence of a Pope. A sense of urgency was ratcheted up, many questioning why they had wasted the past few months on such personal feuding and indecision when the world needed the guidance of a pontiff during this troubled time.
   When the cardinals reconvened on September 15th, they were 15 fewer in number, funeral masses having delayed much of the proceedings. While none of the papabile had passed, the number of deaths was seen as an inauspicious development. Outside the Cathedral of Konstanz a radical Catholic sect emerged, beseeching the cardinals to hurry up and select a Pope, lest God send more plagues to his people on Earth.
   While the first ballot back reportedly was along the lines of prior votes, a moderate faction recognized that the Franco-Austrian blocs had been weakened. Momentum emerged once more behind an unlikely candidate, Cardinal Édouard-Charles Fabre of Quebec. He seemed to have many attractive qualities to the fed up and frightened electors at this point. As a member of the establishment, many Habsburg cardinals were willing to back him at this point simply because he would not rock the theological boat. Sarto helped broader Fabre’s appeal by personally campaigning on his behalf among members of his former voting bloc. Even the French delegation saw growing defections, a product of recent Franco-Quebecois cooperation and Fabre’s Gallic origins. While the hardcore ideologues on either extreme continued to hold out for their preferred candidates, there was real movement on the 121st ballot on September 20th. The 122nd ballot the following day held yet more promise, the College of Cardinals agreeing unanimously to halt proceedings for a day for yet more deliberation and prayer.
   At long last, on the 123rd ballot and 218 days after the death of Clement XIV, a new Pope was elected. Édouard-Charles Fabre of Montreal won the election with a 2/3rds majority, ending the months-long deadlock. Konstanz erupted into polite applause when the white smoke emerged from the cathedral, that evolving into widespread cheers when it was confirmed that the result was in fact genuine. Church bells were rung all throughout Germany, France, and Italy as word spread. With all the death and misery caused by the Colombian Flu, the election of a Pope was a rare moment of celebration in an otherwise dark year. Fabre took the regnal name of Pope Alexander IX, promising a new, steady era in the future of the Church. He emerged publicly dressed in the white vestments of the Papacy just hours later, the mixed nationalities of the guards greeting him with widespread acclamation. More than anything, there was relief that the conclave was at an end. While the radicals were despondent over failing to elect a Pope openly aligned with them and the establishment Austrians disappointed to see the Papacy go to a French-speaking cleric from the New World, the broader Church has expressed relief. It seems the worst has been avoided.
   Yet, the new Pope found himself in an uncomfortable position. Rome had been liberated by the French for months, but many clerics were reluctant of travelling to Italy, given the peninsula remained an active warzone. There have been calls for a French escort to help guard the Pope as he returns to the Vatican, though in the interim Alexander IX has conducted his role still from Konstanz.

[Spamage]

Iberian Butchery

Royalist Soldiers Enter Madrid, 1903
(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Second Spanish Civil War, 1903
   At the start of 1903 the Spanish Republicans seemed to enjoy a substantial numerical advantage over the Royalist forces, nearly doubling them in size. The opening salvos of the war seemed to be decidedly in Linares’ favor, the Republicans recapturing much of the north and pushing the Royalists back towards Valencia. There was early optimism that the discontent could be quelled and order restored.
   Yet, Louis XX had not forgotten his cousin. The King fulfilled his vow to see the Bourbons restored to the Throne of Spain, flooding the Iberian Peninsula with around 100 divisions. He was determined to avoid his mother’s mistake, allowing the First Spanish Civil War to linger on without decisive intervention. Massing at Bourdeaux, the French Expeditionary Force consisted of a mix of divisions returned from operations in South America and those raised the prior year in France proper. They crossed the Spanish frontier in June, greeted with cheers by their radical and royalist allies.
   French intervention immediately turned the tide of the war. Zaragoza, the old capital of the Spanish Union, fell in mid-July. Then came Burgos and Cuenca in August. Leon and Valladolid collapsed in September, the Royalists reaching the Portuguese border for the first time. The big prize, Madrid, was the next target of the assault. Despite a valiant defense, Linares and the government were forced to evacuate to Seville as news came of a continued Royalist advance. The historic Spanish capital fell to the forces of Henry VI on October 1903. While pockets of resistance endured, particularly in Galicia, Salamanca, and regions north of Madrid, the bulk of the Republican operation was now confined to areas south of Toledo.
   The situation for the republicans soon went from bad to worse. In the chaotic collapse retreat from Madrid, Linares was captured by a division of French scouts. While he and his guard attempted to evade them with a brief firefight, they were outgunned. It was perhaps a symbol of how numerically outmatched the Spanish were in this theater, their president falling prey to foreign captivity. Some have whispered that the Republican military, fed up with Linares’ cautious leadership, had allowed it to occur. Whatever the case, many Republican political figures did make it to Toledo, naming general José Toral y Velázquez as interim President by emergency vote and moving the capital to Seville.
   Toral and his mean, despite the blow to their cause with the capture of Linares, dug in, determined to exact a heavy toll against the advancing onslaught. By the end of the year, the Royalists seem to have struck a major blow against the Republican cause, though not without cost. Still, with much of the country seeming to fall into the hands of them and their French allies, there are now some who question the longevity of Toral’s government in Seville, given numerical superiority on the part of their foe.
   The involvement of the French just served to increase the depravity on the ground. Under strict orders from Linares to leave nothing for the French to conquer or use, retreating Spanish divisions were utterly ruthless and systematic in their destruction of railroads, crops, bridges, and villages. Civilians, loyal to the cause, joined the retreat in the face of the enemy on the ground. Supply difficulties would come to plague the Franco-Royalist forces, many Frenchmen tired from a year of relocation and continued engagement. The misery on both sides was only increased by the arrival of the Colombian Flu and the consequences of its spread. Lethargic and ill French stragglers found themselves murdered in the countryside, while ailing Spanish soldiers on defense were pushed to exhaustion. Demographically, it is estimated that between the war and the disease in the past year, more than a million Spaniards have perished.
   The Spanish Civil War has had implications far beyond the Iberian Peninsula. In far off Mexico, the French and Mexican fleets skirmished in the Gulf of Mexico, the Mexican vessels having been ordered to escort the Spanish soldiers home and refusing French demands to hand over the men. The battle itself was inconclusive, but the consequence of preventing nearly 40 divisions from returning home was a blow to the Republicans. France followed up with a blockade of Mexican ports, instantly alienating the government of Luis II which had considered peace restored just months earlier. Only the 9 Spanish divisions in Colombia were able to return in 1903, immediately deployed in defensive positions in the face of the French onslaught.

Portuguese Revolution
   Portugal had been largely sidelined in the Treaty of Bogota, receiving no gains despite an impressive last-minute entry into the war. Indeed, there was a growing sense among the populace that they were becoming subservient to France. For no reason of national interest, the realm had been wholly mobilized for a campaign against Colombia, thousands sent to their deaths in far-off South America. The wedding of the French Dauphin to Princess Maria in 1902 began to take on a sinister and unpopular sheen, seeming to be a transactional bargain with hindsight. The sole return for Portuguese involvement in South America had been to see their African colonies destabilized. ‘The French embrace is stifling’ said one anonymous dissident in late 1902, giving voice to the growing sense of frustration among many over continued economic malaise and autocratic government.
   Long a bastion of proto-Reactionary Socialism, the House of Braganza had kept the realm stable for decades. Ever since Antonio I had expelled the nobility and established himself as the ‘People’s King’, Portugal’s radical credentials had gone unchallenged. The realm proved itself an able ally to the Catholic-Republican cause during the First Spanish Civil War and managed to expand its colonial empire at the Congress of Copenhagen through the acquisition of Zambeze. Yet, as had been the case for their Spanish neighbors several decades prior, Portugal found itself somewhat stagnant at the turn of the century. Economic growth stalled, the markets flooded with French finished goods and Brazilian resources. Antonio I and his popular son Joao VII were but distant memories by 1903, Antonio II proving far less adept a ruler than his grandfather and namesake.
   It was here that the liberals, democratic socialists, republicans, and factions of the old nobility and Church began to see their first opening in more than 65 years. France, the nominal protector of the regime, was preoccupied with Spain, Naples, India, and developments further afield. They sensed a growing opening, all that was needed was a spark. That came in the summer.
   Leaks in the government revealed Paris was privately but formally requesting Portuguese intervention now in Spain in August. For the newly disembarked soldiers, many plucked against their will from civilian life and having returned from a year of hellish conditions in the Americas, the prospect of now relocating to Spain was unbearable. When Antonio II formally ordered men to the border on August 15th, the obedience of the soldiers evaporated. Two divisions mutinied at Sebutal, formally refusing the orders of their commanders and calling for easing of domestic repression. More men were brought in to restore order, yet they defected too, the mutinous forces now turning their attention north and marching on the capitol, a mere 50 kilometers away.
   As the mass of opposition forces grew, Lisbon proper erupted into chaos, the liberals launching a mass campaign to tear down the government. Barricades proliferated in the streets, the loyalist police now having to contend with angry mobs and mutinous soldiers. Antonio II and the royal family were besieged in the Palace of Ajuda, their servants and guards deserting or defecting all around them. They held out for a day, the king reportedly vowing to fight to the death, before being talked down by his wife. Unable to rally any sort of loyalist faction from their imperiled position, Antonio II formally surrendered on August 19th, 1903. Just hours earlier, the triumphant liberals had declared the Republic of Portugal in Lisbon’s city center, vowing a new era of public openness. José Luciano de Castro was elected as President by acclamation of a self-appointed assembly consisting of liberal leaders, defectors from the former regime, military commanders, and local notables. Eager to bolster his legitimacy, he called for elections in 1904, vowing to reaffirm Portugal’s democratic shift and join the ranks of more open powers.
   With the Portuguese royals out of power, intervention against Spain now seemed off the table. Indeed, the new government was far more sympathetic to the government of Linares than the fire-breathing Reactionary Socialism of the would-be Henry VI. Yet, their first aim was settling scores, not diplomacy. Those associated with the repression of the old regime found themselves imprisoned. King Antonio was separated from the rest of the royal family, the former ruling house scattered in various secure locations throughout central Portugal, despite the distant protests of the Dauphine. Her protests became shrieks of fury as word came that Antonio II had succumbed the Colombian Flu as the disease rolled through Portugal, the veracity of the claim challenged by suspicious Portuguese monarchists.
   The Portuguese Empire, as a whole, responded with a shrug. The easing of certain authoritarian measures was popular, as was the lowering of national mobilization. Colonial officials largely fell in line, preferring a republican government in Lisbon to increased anarchy within Portuguese colonial borders. Their gamble seemed to pay off, the new government maintaining the royal hardline against colonial rebellion.
   The crumbling of the regime has perhaps been overshadowed by dramatic campaigns in both Naples and Spain, but it is no less relevant to European diplomacy. With Lisbon now demonstrating a newfound sense of openness, actively courting ties with more moderate powers, the balance in Western Europe has slightly shifted. How nearby powers, France most of all, but also Britain, Austria and Scandinavia will respond could be critical in determining the future of the young republic.

Asian Developments: Collapse of the Raj

Indian Defectors Fight to Restore Independent Mysore, 1903
(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

   If developments in Naples and Spain were highly favorable for France, the situation in Asia was nothing short of disastrous. Besieged on all sides, and with insufficient support from a busy metropole, the French Raj has been utterly brought to its knees to an extent never before seen. While aid would arrive before the year was out, recapturing the major city of Mumbai, this was tinged with the bitter taste of British treachery and abandonment, London’s promised aid failing to materialize. France concludes 1903 with a difficult dilemma about the future of the Raj.

Surrender at Anqing
   The poor fortune for the French in China continued into 1903. French commanders besieged at Anqing, seeing the hopelessness of their position with the Chinese massing forces all around them, elected to gamble both their own fate and that of their Japanese allies on an all-out assault and attempt to break out to the sea. The men, weakened by their desperate situation and their morale cratering, attempted an assault on the Chinese lines, taking heavy casualties. The Japanese participated in the operation, albeit halfheartedly. The Tokugawa forces recognized the scale of the disaster facing them, unwilling to see the outright death of a quarter of the Japanese armed forces. As a consequence, the French took proportionally higher casualties in the breakout attempt and there was growing discord between the supposedly allied forces. Matter came to a head on August 20th, 1903 when General Kuroki Tamemoto formally surrendered the Japanese garrison at Anqing to the Chinese, tens of thousands of men falling into the clutches of China. ‘It is better to lose one battle than a whole generation,’ one besieged commander reportedly stated. French officers, now more critically outnumbered, had no choice but to follow suit. With the surrender at Anqing, China had largely restored control over the whole of the republic by the conclusion of the year.
   For the Tokugawa government in Tokyo, the defeat at Anqing seemed to herald an end to their war with China. Operations against Colombia had won them back a sizeable Pacific colonial empire and the ongoing operations in Aceh and the Philippines were increasingly taking on a greater priority in the eyes of the government. Indeed, with continued Filipino resistance, land campaigns in China seemed senseless. President Tokugawa Iesato privately viewed Japan’s involvement in China as an unnecessary debacle that had only occurred because of French lobbying, formally calling for a ceasefire and peace with China by the end of the year. Japan had gotten its revenge for Chinese meddling in the Japanese Civil War. A sign of his good faith, the Japanese called off late in the year operations to raid the southern Chinese coast and launch a new front in the war. For the French, this was infuriating, imperiling as it did their blockade of the Chinese coastline, now stretching into its third year.

From Burma to Bengal
   With the collapse of the Kingdom of Siam, the frontline in Burma suddenly became almost entirely undefended. Land so bitterly contested just a couple of years ago fell with a whimper a massive Chinese advance. Rangoon’s capture on July 20th marked a major turning point, symbolizing the fall of Southern Catholic Burma. The Chinese then pivoted, their eyes turning west towards the undefended Bengal region. The worst nightmares of French colonial officials came to pass, Dhaka falling easily in the absence of any significant French efforts for defense. The loss of Bengal, one of the first regions absorbed by the French Crown in the Indian subcontinent back in the 1750s, was seen by remaining loyalist princes as a decisive turning point, most now defecting fully to the Durrani cause. Nepal, only having recently quietly pledged itself a vassal to Louis XX in 1900, saw the way the winds were blowing, expelling French officials late in the year and declaring itself wholly independent once more. This sentiment was only cemented further when Chinese and Durrani troops formally met at Calcutta, their two formerly separate fronts now linked in a common operation.

The Durrani Campaign
   Unchallenged in the heart of India, Timur Shah sought to make good on his coronation promises. But first the realm had to be won. In the absence of significant efforts to defend the interior of India, the year would largely be filled with the fall of city after city. In order to achieve this, the Durrani drew upon the manpower of their new vassals, dozens of Indian divisions from Oudh and Orchha joining the fray. The victory at Calcutta was accompanied by the occupation of vast swathes of central India. A push south saw the collapse of Jabalpur, Nagpur, and Hyderabad by the end of the year. While France would maintain a presence along many coastal settlements to the east, this was more due to a lack of occupation than any sort of latent pro-French sentiment.
   French agents on the ground attempted to incite the vast overwhelmingly majority Hindu populace to revolt, but were largely not taken seriously. After decades of pro-Catholic proselytizing, most Indians viewed Louis XX and his bishops as a greater threat to religious liberty than the Durrani. The Mughal aspects of Timur’s coronation had not gone unnoticed by the populace, many Indians looking back on a supposed lost Mughal golden age in contrast to the desolation and depravations caused by the current conflict. There were further attempts at intrigue as well, an attempt on the life of the Shah through poisoning foiled when a palace cook got cold feet and confessed the whole matter. In the resulting interrogation nearly a dozen French spies were tortured and executed.
   The Durrani Court seemed to bask in the triumphalism, relocating the government formally to Delhi later in the year and taking up residence in the old Mughal Red Fort.
Mysorean Developments
   Mysore, the realm that had started the whole chain of events leading to the current situation, returned to the forefront of developments. With the collapse of Central India to the Durrani, and an aggressive push south by the invaders, the puppet regime erupted into civil war. The Hindu incumbent Wadiyars battled those seeking to restore the recently deposed sultanate. Indeed, efforts to polarize the conflict along religious lines was the only thing that ensured the French-aligned puppet regime maintained control of the capitol city at the end of the year, though much of the outlying regions and other cities such as Bangalore have taken up arms on behalf of the deposed dynasty.

The French Strike Back
   Louis XX, recognizing the utter importance of French India to national prestige and success, was determined to demonstrate that the Raj had not been abandoned. More than one hundred French division were to engage in a bold campaign to cripple the Durrani War effort and bring the Shah’s regime to its knees. This would be done with British support, that reportedly having been tacitly agreed between Queen Mary’s government and the French delegation in the Treaty of Bogota.
   The operation was a debacle from the start. The Durrani had suspected French countermeasures and had been preparing for ample time. When the French navy appeared off the coast of Mumbai, a crucial city in West India, the city was evacuated by Durrani officials. Dozens of divisions of French soldiers began to disembark and land at the harbors, their operations interrupted suddenly when a vessel exploded with a blast along the lines of those that had rocked New York last year. More than ten thousand French soldiers were killed by this horrific development, alongside a fair number of civilians. This was an early blow to their morale, even if the number of dead still paled in comparison to the total troops disembarking.
   Yet, matters went from bad to worse as it became clear that London had acted in bad faith. The British government, for its part, alleged that there was a lack of Parliamentary support for the war. A backbencher-sponsored bill authorizing the operation in Northwestern India failed by an overwhelming majority. Especially as news spread of British involvement in New England, many French officials would assert that Queen Mary had been duplicitous, the Crown never before having waited for parliamentary authorization of military activities. For the second time in two years, a nominal French partner had betrayed their operations in India, leaving their expeditionary force greatly outnumbered on the subcontinent, now teeming with Chinese and Durrani troops, in addition to the soldiers of the defected Princely States.
   While the French would capture land as far north as Karachi, their operations were slowed by unfriendly locals, unfamiliar terrain, and a lack of the expected British cover. Rather than perhaps attempting to rally any remains of French loyalism in India proper, Versailles had instead elected to assault long-term Durrani territory. The Army of Baluchistan, the supposed target of the operation, easily faded into more remote territories as the French advanced along the coast. There would be awkward encounters when the French reached the outskirts of both Portuguese and Russian concessions in the region. The further north they pushed, the more intense local resistance, the Muslim populace to the north rallying against the French ‘crusade’ seeking to subjugate them. In addition to raids on supply lines and scattered guerilla activity, the occupiers would also have to contend with the Baloch and Durrani outright evacuation of some regions, leaving them scarce in terms of supply and intelligence.

[Spamage]

Helen Avenged, New England Burns

Shelling of Boston, 1903
(Made by Me via Midjourney)

   Britain agreed in the Treaty of Bogota to make peace with France, Brazil, Quebec, and -most importantly- New England. When word reached London of the concessions, many found them outrageous. New England, a rogue power that had massacred tens of thousands of British civilians, was to be lightly punished, losing only peripheral territory. Likewise, only Chairman Fitzgerald was to be punished for the heinous assault on numerous ports, not even being tried under British law but before some sort of undefined tribunal in Switzerland. Many felt that Britain had been winning the war and to see so many concessions to the aggressors was shocking.
   The move almost cost Queen Mary her reign. Newspapers lambasted the ‘feebleness of the female heart,’ arguing that ‘the cowardice of a woman’ had led the Queen to let off easy those who had so brutally murdered her sister. Royalists in America, despite being on the front lines of the late conflict, brayed for blood, waving pictures of those killed in the New York Bombing in mass protests. A vigilante gang of American Royalists reportedly formed the ‘Father’s of Helen’ organization, dedicating themselves to tracking down and assassinating those that had plotted alongside Fitzgerald to attack under the flag of neutrality. In Britain, reports emerged that Parliament would act against the Crown, Prime Minister Balfour reportedly debating passage of a Regency Act to name Prince Consort Alfred as regent on behalf of his incapable wife.
   Yet, these murmurs subsided after both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition met the Queen in a private, multi-hour-long meeting in late June. It is not known precisely what information was conveyed, but later developments would give a clear sense of what likely transpired. All talk of Parliamentary disobedience was shelved, the government suddenly working in concert to some new, undefined goal.
   This goal became clear enough later in the year. Without warning, yet in an obviously well-coordinated act, joint British-Austrian-Scandinavian forces assaulted the unsuspecting Confederation of New England. Helen’s relations had come to avenge her at last, forces being sent by her uncle (Charles XIV of Scandinavia) and aunt (Princess-Regent Christina of Austria). The small republic had been in the middle of a heated and polarized campaign, the incumbent government caught wholly unawares as politicians debated the merits of a treaty that Britain had already broken.
   British troops crossed overland in Connecticut, seizing the region as the local government in Hartford was forced to surrender in mere days. Naval operations out of Rhode Island saw Providence rapidly falling to their former colonizer. New Englander resistance was confused and sloppy, British gains being amplified by the disarray. Connecticut and Rhode Island were entirely overrun. Pitched battles inched north, reaching the outskirts of Boston at the year’s end.
   The land assault was not the only surprise for New England. The first sign of activity on the sea was a blockade of the Confederation. Within days, Austrian and Scandinavian vessels joined the British in a shelling of Boston, aiming to weaken the defenses prior to a ground assault. Their attack was more effective than had been imagined, the stunned city falling into anarchy. It was the 1870s all over again, the shelling causing extensive damage and leading to civilian panic. Chairman Douglas and his ministers captured when the city formally surrendered to the Triple Alliance on December 5th, 1903. Former Chairman Fitzgerald, incarcerated in Boston prior to his pending transfer to Europe, likewise was captured by the British. Remaining elements of the Confederation’s government relocated to Bangor, Maine. It was here that loyalists to former Chairman Fitzgerald executed a coup in the interim government, deposing the Centralist-Independent leadership. Patrick Collins, a mentor of Fitzgerald’s named himself Acting-Chairman with the votes of a rump Federalist-dominated assembly. Beseeching Quebecois aid, the shattered New Englander Army has been pushed out of the most populated areas, now operating severely outnumbered out of the forests of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. It is unclear if their cause will be able to hold out for much longer.
   Global reaction to the sudden intervention was quite mixed. While domestic audiences in Britain cheered the move, as did similar groups in both Austria and Scandinavia, public opinion was naturally extremely negative in Quebec, Brazil, and France. Paris, in particular, would only become more incensed after promised British aid to their Indian campaign failed to materialize, hampering their operations in that theater. While diplomats from both Vienna and Stockholm have, correctly, argued that their realms were not bound by the Treaty of Bogota and its provisions, especially when it came to punishment of Fitzgerald, that is less the case for the British. Does the violation of peace in North America mean that the late conflict is now fated to re-erupt? Or will Quebec and her allies cut New England loose, given the dire situation on the ground?

Parties, Elections, and Politics: Turn IV

Newly Enfranchised Women Vote in Colombia, 1903
(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Quebec
   The calling of the delayed Quebecois election seemed to herald a new period of peace and domestic recovery. Yet, as the campaign began to get underway in earnest, foreign policy developments in New England utterly transformed what had looked to be a fairly uneventful contest. Incumbent Prime Minister Papineau and his left-wing SUQ seemed to be facing the Catholic People’s Party, with the Liberal Party in a distant third, just like every election since 1876. Both parties had deep pockets, expecting to use their mountains of money to maintain the loyalty of the electorate. Yet, the experience of the recent war and its difficulties fueled new ideological channels and political groups.
   One of the early issues in the campaign was immigration. With peace restored, Empress Wilhelmina opened the floodgates for immigrants. In Vaudreuil tens of thousands of Californians fled north, settling at Roquefort or in the Willamette Valley. More than a hundred thousand Dutch, taking advantage of a French offer for resettlement in Quebec, crossed the Atlantic to settle in a more tolerant territory. New Judea, the brainchild of Wilhelmina, even saw several thousand Jews, both from within Quebec and from Eastern Europe, journey to that remote region. Despite the split among Zionists as a result of the Empress’ offer, there were many, especially among Orthodox Jews, who believed settlement on the Snake River Plain was more proper than an attempt to settle en masse in Palestine. While the New Judean Jews were greatly outnumbered by the pre-established population for the time being, their settlements did grow at a rapid rate.
   In addition to the existing parties, a notable new political force entered the scene. The ‘Nouveau Mouvement pour le Québec’ (NMQ) was formed by veterans of the late war with Colombia. Its ideological roots were based on Prussianism and more radical strains of right-wing thought, such as the Cross and Crown movement in neighboring Louisiana. The party very quickly became a source of right-wing political action, vowing to defend the prerogatives of the Crown, cement Quebec’s imperial position, and clamp down on any sort of domestic dissent. To many demobilizing soldiers, uncertain of their role in a shifting economy and wary of the government’s push for mass-immigration, the movement seemed a perfect encapsulation of their beliefs.
   Still, the NMQ probably would have remained a fringe movement at best, had not news arrived of the British and Austro-Scandinavian intervention in New England reached Quebec in the middle of the campaign. Everyone scrupulous to avoid criticism of the Empress, Papineau and the SUQ were blamed for demonstrating national weakness, many arguing Britain would have been unable to intervene had Quebec shown greater military firmness. Henri Bourassa, the leader of the NMQ and a veteran of the conflict, exploded onto the political scene with his denunciation of ‘Chapleauian moderation’. He called for strength and an abandonment of ‘democratic, consensus-based weakness’. He cast the blame for developments in New England on both mainstream political parties and their actions over the past several decades. This included denunciations of the two ‘political machines’ that rigged the election in favor of either the SUQ or CCP for decades. In order to demonstrate strength and increase the size of the Quebecois military, massively increased conscription was demanded. To an electorate confused and scared, this was a siren song that was needed.
   
Quebecois National Assembly Election, 1903: 300 seats, 150 Needed for Majority
New Movement for Quebec (NMQ, Right-Wing Nationalist): 117 seats (+117)
Social Union of Quebec (SUQ, Social Democratic): 98 seats (-58)*
Catholic People’s Party (PPC, Center-Right): 39 seats (-67)
Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ, Liberal): 17 seats (-5)
Independent Assemblymen: 16 seats (+7)
Working Farmer’s Party (PTA, Agricultural Populists): 11 seats (+4)

   The political world was stunned when the returns were counted. The NMQ had won the most seats, though fell well-short of a majority in the National Assembly. For the first time in many years, a coalition government would be required. Electorally, decades-old voting blocs were shattered, a significant portion of both PPC and SUQ voters defecting to the new movement, which garnered more than 1.5 million votes. Papineau and his social democrats trailed closely with 1.4 million, but losing over 50 seats meant that many saw the vote as a repudiation of the incumbent Prime Minister. Though he remained on in a caretaker fashion as government formation began in the new year, most saw his political career rather limited. The PPC, once the darling of the right, was utterly humiliated, garnering less than 600,000 votes. There was little notable in the other returns, save for the increase in strength of the Working Farmer’s Party, a small-scale Anglophone political movement on the Plains aiming to better the lives of rural Quebecers. By the end of the year the empire began to speculate how Wilhelmina would proceed with government formation. Most expect Bourassa to be named the new Prime Minister, though an outside coalition of moderates has been pressuring her to create a grand coalition to keep the untested populists out of office.

Louisiana
   With the Treaty of Mexico City, Louisiana was nearly cleaved in half, the vast territories of California and Liberia being handed over to the hated Mexicans. The early days of the year were rather perilous, the government on clear watch for any attempt to destabilize the social order. The center held in Orleans, the war effort pivoting to the east. All the while on the borders of the Commonwealth, southern Texas and western Colorado were inundated with hundreds of thousands of refugees. Loyalist Liberians, estimated as high as a quarter of that realm’s population, elected to flee to the safety of Louisianan lands rather than risk their lives in Luis II’s mad economic experimentation. Likewise, the lands along the Rio Grande have been settled heavily by Mexicans seeking to escape the arbitrary governance of the Mexican Crown. There is little doubt that in the future these groups and regions will be grateful for royal refuge and staunch opponents of the Red King.
   Determined to catch the opposition off-guard, and not blind to the cries of dissent over his authoritarian turn, Louis-Philippe III promulgated a new constitution and called an emergency election. With the nation at arms, in a fight for its life against Columbian secessionists, perhaps it was not a fair campaign. Nevertheless, it seems from the results that the public has tentatively approved of the Crown’s action over the past year.

Do You Ratify Emergency Order #8?
Yes: 2,193,026 (84.37%)
No: 406,270 (15.63%)

   The vote to ratify the new constitution was overwhelmingly in favor. While members of the opposition, as well as the Columbian government, would denounce the ratification vote as a farce, accusing Louisiana of blatant tampering with the ballot boxes, general Francophone sentiment was in favor of the crown for the time being. The loss of the west was terrible enough, the Louisianans were not about to see the whole of their realm slip away without a fight.

National Assembly Election, 1903: 28 seats (14 needed for a majority)
Anglophone Loyalists (Appointed): 12 seats
Cross and Crown (Francophone Nationalist): 11 seats
Worker’s Party (Social Democratic): 3 seats
United Louisiana Party (Center-Right): 2 seats

   The elections to the vastly reduced National Assembly progressed as the Crown had intended, giving them a mandate to carry on the war against Columbia. Again, many voters were wary of fraud and turnout was notably reduced from the 1898 election, but the King treated the result as a clear vote of support. By coopting loyalists among the Columbian population, he also continued to demonstrate the dual Anglophone-Francophone nature of Louisiana’s government.
   The War in Columbia meanwhile, continued apace. No longer split between two fronts, the bulk of the surviving Louisianan forces engaged in two simultaneous operations, seeking to push back the secessionists and wrest back control of the region. With foreign aid not materializing, the Columbians found themselves on the defensive. They were pushed back amid a spirited defense, losing the bulk of Inner Columbia. Major population centers such as Birmingham and Montgomery were on the frontlines at the end of the year, the Columbian nationalist cause seeming on the verge of collapse. Despairing of recapturing the lost territories, the Columbian government, led by Benjamin Tillman has employed tactics similar to those on the old Texan front, digging in and seeking to force the Louisianan troops into the meat grinder. While this did slow the Louisianan advance by the end of the year, much land had been lost.

Poland
   Sigismund IV demonstrated his royal generosity by proposing substantial reforms to the Polish government system in 1903. While critics would argue that his democratically-elected Sejm was a farce given the continued noble strength in the Senate, supporters charged that the 1903 elections represented a major step forward in Polish political developments. For the first time in decades the realm participated in a free and fair election, one unburdened with accusations of fraud or foreign tampering. Not since the heady days of Kosciuzko and the liberal Third Republic had this feat been achieved.
   Taking advantage of the loosening of royal power, the opposition seemed poised to sweep into power. Their ideas, including more substantial social and economic reforms contrasted greatly with the view of the conservatives as representing a continuation of the stagnant royal dictatorship. Yet, during the peak of the campaign, the eruption of the Colombian Flu forced the government to take preventative measures, such as the banning of mass public gatherings. The boisterous campaign essentially froze in place, momentum on the part of new ideological groups freezing.

Polish Sejm Election, 1903: 444 Seats (222 needed for a majority)
Union of the Polish Crown (Conservative, UKKP): 151 seats
Kościuszko’s Legion (Liberal, LK): 104 seats
Polish Socialist Party (Social Democratic, PPS): 84 seats
Byelorussian People’s Party (National Interest): 38 seats
Farmer’s Union (Agrarian Populist): 27 seats
Jewish Labor Alliance (National Interest): 22 seats
Independents: 18 seats

Polish Senate Election, 1903: 100 Seats (50 needed for a majority)
Union of the Polish Crown (Conservative, UKKP): 68 seats
Independents: 19 seats
Kościuszko’s Legion (Liberal, LK): 13 seats

   While the conservatives won a clear plurality, they remained well-short of a majority. Sigismund IV will be forced to consider how exactly he will craft a government in 1904, the Sejm only being seated formally in December 1903 and immediately deadlocking over the election of the Prime Minister. Yet, whichever way he ultimately suggests the body tilt, the Sejm will be forced to contend with a far more conservative and traditionalist Senate. The result in that chamber was exactly has had been expected, the wealthy nobles and landowners locking out any hint of reformism. The Crown had bent to the public will in 1903 and that had been far enough.

Russia
   The Russian political drama continued into 1903, the republic gripped by news of the Bolshoi Trials and Milyukov's use of that assassination attempt to finally bring an end to the political street gangs that had terrorized the nation for almost a decade at this point. The summer in particular was consumed by the trial. Witnesses were called from all across Russia and every political figure seemed to have their own take on the matter.
   The verdict against Spiridonova and Zasulich was formally handed down on September 15th, after a trial that had lasted most of the year. Death was the only remedy for their crime. Milyukov's government wasted no time carrying out the sentence, zealous officers having the two women executed by firing squad within the month after their appeals were exhausted. To the public, the trial had become surprisingly polarizing. While few denied the guilt of the two women, many on the left castigated the court as biased, framing them as tools of their still unknown compatriot. Still, the trial did go a long ways of mending the fraying ties between the various coalition partners in Milyukov's government, fraught as they were after developments in Bulgaria.

[Spamage]

   The execution of the two women came just as the government began to debate the Extremist Act, as the proposal had become known at this point. For the Red Guard, it was too much. In their view, two comrades had been executed for attempting to highlight the injustice of Russia's stifling political and economic system. Now the republic was to be utterly controlled by the capitalist and conservative elements through the disarming of the left. Strikes in late Autumn brought both St. Petersburg and Moscow to a halt, workers walking off the job sites in protest of the bill, which was framed as a violation of freedom of expression and association, the precursor to a coup against the left. Andrei Argunov joined the protestors on the street, calling for the government to not pass the legislation.
   The local police, right-wing to a man, were all to happy to step in. When their handling of protests became perhaps a bit rough, it was all it took for the hotheaded young elements of the Red Guard to take action. Firefights exploded in some cities in mid-November, the insurrectionists seeking to distribute arms and man the barricades. The man who had aided the Bolshoi women publicly revealed himself. Sergey Nechayev proclaimed the People's Revolution, joining the lines of the militants in Moscow. The rebels were successful in some cities, for a time at least, seizing working class neighborhoods and executing any police that fell into their hands. Yet, it would not last. For starters, the Russian middle class was wholly alienated from them at this point, supporting the democratic government. As the armed forces began to get involved, smashing through the barricades and firing on those remaining under arms, the Red Guard fought in vain. Cynical observers would note that the leftist militants had essentially placed themselves in plain sight for government retribution as they were mowed down. By the end of the year a sense of order would start to return, though a societal purge of the Red Guard seemed in the offing.
   With the unrest in the cities, Milyukov seemed vindicated, the Duma speeding through passage of the Extremist Act by an overwhelming majority. Politicians who had initially supported the mass actions against the bill, such as Argunov, found themselves publicly humiliated by the insurrections that had followed. There was a real sense that the Russian left had just overplayed its hand and neutered itself for the foreseeable future.
   While the Left had given Milyukov what he wanted, the right was more crafty. Nevsky's Sword formally disbanded itself on November 15th, ostensibly bringing an end to its presence in Russian society. While they protested loudly, they argued that they were far greater patriots than the Red Guard had been. Yet, most leaders soon joined 'hunting clubs' that began to proliferate Russia. Completely insisting that they were apolitical gatherings for firearms enthusiasts, and not an armed paramilitary organization, Purischkevich and his men sought to craft a loophole in the Extremist Act, daring Milyukov and his government to challenge them. Indeed, many members of these clubs seemed too poor to have afforded firearms of their own, investigative journalists alleging that the arms stockpile of Nevsky's Sword had been distributed shortly before its 'dissolution'. With many sympathizers in both the police and military looking the other way, it is an open question how Milyukov will react to this blatant attempt to skirt the spirit of the law.

Colombia
   The Treaty of Bogota, despite some less than savory provisions, was celebrated by most Colombians as a victory. Their sacrifices during the horrible first few years of the century had not been in vain, Franco-Brazilian dreams of a carveup of the Holy Republic being largely blocked by the fairly conservative agreement. While the loss of the colonial empire was lamentable, and there was a palpable sense of guilt over leaving the Andean allies to their fate, it was accepted as necessary for the survival of the Colombian nation. Still, the road to recovery would be a long one, as immediately was evidenced by the explosion of the Colombian Flu. With the people crowded into refugee camps, their homes rubble, the illness swept rapidly through the population. The first and second waves rocked the region throughout the spring and summer of 1903, thousands who had somehow managed to survive the war, succumbing to disease.
   Colombia returned to the polls in 1903 a society utterly changed from the last election of five years prior. This was illustrated by political reforms adopted lowering the voting age and granting women the right to vote, recognition for the tremendous sacrifices of the citizens during the last few terrible years. The brutal experience of the Great Patriotic War (as the recent struggle had become known among the Colombian populace) had also shifted political loyalties greatly. The biggest casualty of this would be the Liga Popular de Colombia, few willing to give the Colombian Reactionary-Socialists so much as a glance given the role France had just played in utterly decimating the countryside.

Colombian National Assembly Election, 1903: 75 seats (38 needed for a majority)
Reformist Alliance (Liberal, AR): 38 seats (+25)
People’s Party of Colombia (Socialist, PPC): 19 seats (+8)
Party of Faith and Family (Moderate Catholic-Republican, PFF): 16 seats (-5)
Colombian People’s League (Reactionary-Socialist, LPC): 2 seats (-28)

   When the results were processed, it seemed the people wanted to turn the page. In addition to the complete collapse in support for the LPC, the incumbent PFF was likewise punished by the voters. After contending with Brazil’s more doctrinaire Catholic-Republicanism, few voters wanted to increase the power of the Church. Furthermore, there were some who blamed the PFF and general complacency for the whole conflict in the first place. The party’s standing was not helped by the eruption of the Colombian Flu, many just entirely exhausted of the incumbents at this point. Had Colombia not possessed such a strong democratic outlet, many have speculated the PFF and incumbent government would have been toppled by revolution, along the lines of the Portuguese Crown.
   Instead, it seemed Colombia would head in a new direction for recovery and reconstruction. The minority parties were rewarded at the ballot box. The liberals, presenting their economic policies as crucial for repairing the battered nation, swept into power with an outright majority, something that has never before come to pass in Colombian history. Many noted Archbishop-President Toro seemed particularly pleased by the result, that party most strongly aligning with his policy views moving forward. While undoubtedly the new government would have awkward demands when it came to challenging the supremacy of the Church, the whole of Colombian society set about rebuilding with tentative optimism.

Mexico In the Balance

Royal Forces During the Battle of Merida, 1903
(Wikimedia Commons)

  The newly-forged Empire of the Mexicans, was in a state of utter crisis throughout 1903. While the Treaty of Mexico ended the threat of Louisianan invasion, the government’s erratic policy decisions only served to foster further domestic turmoil. Many Mexican officials would also point to potential foreign interference as preventing the realm from stabilizing even after peace had been declared.
   Perhaps the only thing that saved Luis II and his Throne during these most perilous points of the crisis was the Treaty of Mexico City. The tremendous territorial gains were a signal to many that Mexico had won the war with Louisiana, satiating the nationalists and saving the Crown in general public opinion. While he was plagued with several assassination attempts throughout the year by lone Catholic Republican plotters, the sovereign survived. The opposition forces, which remained highly active throughout the ruined ‘empire’, were weakened by hundreds of thousands electing to relocate to Quebecois Vaudreuil or Louisianan Texas and Colorado per Article 5 of the peace. While both the Catholic-Republicans and Augustinians remained under arms, their manpower reserves cratered as many Mexicans, seeing the situation in the Red King’s realm beyond repair, elected to forge a new life elsewhere.
   From his exile in Oaxaca, the self-proclaimed ‘Huey Tlatoani’ sought to bring an end to discord and retake his capitol. In a bid to relieve some of the strain on the nation, mobilization was decreased, thousands of men returning to their homes amidst the continued civil strife. While initial hopes for the rebels laying down their arms and surrendering were dashed, the remaining Mexican Army set about systematically crushing the Catholic Republican pockets throughout the empire. Mexico City and Puebla were reconquered in early Summer, while rebel bases at Merida, San Juan, and San Salvador were mopped up by peacekeeping forces.
   The signing of peace did not mean an end to hostilities in the Caribbean. With the withdrawal of the Louisianan garrison, the war in Cuba now consisted solely of the nationalists and the Mexicans. Fighting remained tough, the islanders seeking to expel the occupiers, especially as news of the Luis II’s proclamations reached their shores. Yet, they faced 11 well-armed Mexican divisions that brutally stamped out dissent. Havana fell to the Mexicans in late summer, the opposition operating primarily out of the island’s center as the periphery fell into the hands of the government.
   Discontent with the new border arrangements manifested itself on the hinterlands as well. In California, after news of the seizure of all private property in the newly annexed region on the part of the Crown reached stunned residents, domestic upheaval ensued. Thousands of Californios have taken up arms, using the Sierra Nevadas and forests of Northern California as a base for a low-level guerilla resistance against the regime. They call for Californian independence from the ‘Aztec Tyrant’. While the Mexican Army of California has ensured that most of the Central Valley and major population centers such as San Francisco and Sacramento have remained in line, it is in outlying areas that bands of rebels operate in defiance of the government. Many have suspected that the Quebecois government has been providing tacit aid to the rebels, given their surprisingly well-armed status and familiarity with foreign military equipment, though barring further developments the accusation remains conjecture.
   Each despairing over their respective position, the Augustinians and Catholic-Republicans signed the Pact of Ures on September 10th, 1903. The Augustinians abandoned their royalism while the Catholic-Republicans compromised on their intolerance. Their causes, thought of formerly as separate, were to be bound together in a joint push to topple the monarchy and establish the Republic of Mexico. From there, the people would be given the choice of choosing between Catholic Republicanism or more moderate democratic governance. In addition, the rebel factions publicly reaffirmed their commitment to private property, denounced Luis II as a radical tyrant, and called for the protection of the Church from Luis II’s ‘Aztec pagan influences’. The continued vitality of rebellion in Mexico was underscored with the relief of Mexican sieges of Zacatecas and Mazatlán. Follow-up operations in the north saw much of the Mexican state of Arizona occupied. Thus, at the end of the year, while the south had largely been brought into line, the north continued to remain in rebellion. The Texas border with Louisiana, meanwhile has fostered a major network of weapons shipments between Mexican emigres and their former compatriots still at arms in Mexico. Given the mass confusion with population transfers in the region, Louisianan officials have been largely helpless to stem the technically illegal activity, focused as they are with handling Columbia.
   Matters have not been helped by the French blockade of Mexican ports, Paris determined to keep the Spanish volunteers in Mexico bottled up in the various port cities. While the Mexican Navy admirably attempted to escort them back to Iberia, they were blocked by several vicious engagements with the French Navy that saw them forced back into port, from whence a French blockade has proceeded. Many have begun to question if Mexico is truly at peace with France, or if Luis II had been taken advantage of by his French cousin. With the Atlantic ports still strangled, any attempt to recover the mercantile industry has been strangled in its cradle.
   Mexico bleeds, though to a neutral observer it seems the royal position has improved over the course of the year. While the rebels still control an impressive amount of territory, much of it is lightly populated compared to the stabilized south. This problem has only been further accentuated by the mass emigration of populations hostile to the Mexican regime. Yet, the extent of current damage cannot be ignored. The constant civil strife and dislocation caused by the war has driven Mexico proper’s population down by 2 million since the turn of the century.  The advent of the Colombian Flu at the end of the year seems to bode even worse news for the realm in 1904. Will Luis II finally be able to make good on his promises and make his realm a true empire, not just a self-titled one?

Italian Bloodbath

Neapolitan Soldiers Fighting the French, 1903
(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

   France battered Naples repeatedly throughout 1903, employing both its northern and southern armies in offensive operations over the course of the year. The year opened with scuffles on the sea, the French seeking to shatter the Neapolitan blockade of the Tyrrhenian Sea. They were initially unsuccessful, the arrival of Spanish ships saving the Neapolitans, forcing France out of the body of water, and allowing the blockade to continue. It would only be later in the year, disorders in Naples proper and the loss of important port cities, that Louis XX’s vessels would be able to finally resupply their beleaguered forces to the south.
   France advanced, at an extremely heavy cost. For decades, Neapolitan war planning had focused on defense. While the landings in the south had been unforeseen and thrown the war effort into disarray, commanders on the ground were well-versed on how to slow the advance of a hostile foe. Indeed, their initial isolation was a heavy cost for the French soldiers, especially as the Colombian Flu began to wreak havoc in Italy. Still, advance they did. The capture of Rome on May 20th was a major symbolic victory for the French, Reactionary Socialist troops parading through the Eternal City and a major blow to Neapolitan morale. Naples did not lack for creativity in its defense, though. Fighting in upland areas saw the mountainside shelled, landslides falling onto unsuspecting French soldiers in Northern Italy. This only fostered further brutality when Italian troops fell into the hands of the occupiers, the tit for tat nature of the violence ratcheting up the stakes in the region. In North Africa, meanwhile, Tunis quietly fell into French hands as the locals looked on with quiet stoicism.
   Neither side had any scruples about who they worked with. French forces in the south blatantly cooperated with local turncoats and Catholic Republicans. The government in Florence, not to be outdone, formed an alliance with the local factions of the mafia, which made life a living hell for the French. Mob violence and low-level subversion consumed the cities occupied by the French and their Catholic Republican allies in Sicily and southern Naples. Thousands were killed by the violence, French officers in particular proving to be notable targets for attack.
   The Neapolitan war effort, despite initial resilience during the start of the year fell into disarray during the summer. King Francis III, taking to fire-breathing anti-French screeds in mass public rallies, was killed in stunning fashion by a suicide bomber in Florence during one of his most heated addresses on September 15th. Mid-sentence denouncing Louis XX as the spawn of Satan and a bane of Italian existence, his words were cut off with the explosion. Pieces of the sovereign were blasted everywhere, dozens killed alongside him.
   To the south, the murder of Francis III coincided with yet another attempt by the Catholic Republicans to seize control of Sicily. The Sacred Sicilian Republic was declared in the center of Palermo on September 17th. Lightly garrisoned, the bulk of troops to the north, the radicals then seized Syracuse, Marsala, and Messina with little resistance. Yet, there was pushback on the ground, the inland of the island disdaining cooperation with the French and fighting for the Neapolitan cause. It was clear to most that France was backing the Sicilian Rebellion, especially as similar risings erupted in Sardinia. Those, however, lacked genuine popular support and were swiftly crushed. Still, with the situation on the water shifting in favor of Versailles, French forces were disembarked in both Corsica and Sardinia, attempting to bring the restive islands to heel, despite the efforts of the locals to maintain their resistance.
   The death of Francis III left the throne to his son, Alfonso IV. The new king, just 29, was faced with an impossible task. Just weeks after he succeeded his father, the French achieved a decisive break in the northern front, bypassing the defensive lines and bludgeoning into Tuscany proper. To the south, news worsened as the French broke the blockade and fostered insurrections on the various island possessions. With tacit Russian promises, and seeing no hope for the Neapolitan cause, Alfonso IV was ferried away under the cover of darkness alongside his wife and young children to a waiting Russian vessel off the coast of Ravenna. He resurfaced in Konstantingrad several weeks later, a guest of the Russian government. In the meantime, the remainder of the Neapolitan government was placed under a Regency Council consisting of Alfonso’s uncle Charles of Naples, General Armando Diaz, Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti, and the absent Cardinal Manara of Ancona. They operated out of Ravenna, the remaining Neapolitan forces digging in on a pocket stretching in an arc from Modena to Ancona. The Neapolitan fleet, unable to base effectively out of the Tyrennhian Sea, has likewise relocated to the Adriatic to defend the coastline there.
   As the year comes to a close, Italy has been wholly ravaged by the war. While military situation continues to worsen for the Neapolitan government, their sovereign in exile and divisions collapsing, insurrectionary activity has begun to pop up all throughout southern Italy, the French unable to be everywhere at once. Indeed, the people of Naples have been inculcated with anti-French propaganda for decades, they will not take lightly to occupation by the hated regime of Louis XX. Many have taken note that the partisans seem to have received some sort of foreign training, their methods too advanced for simple Italian peasants. They also have benefited from the prevalence of the Colombian Flu in the French-occupied urban areas, spreading more there than in the insurrectionary countryside.
      Bloodshed consumes Italy once more, on a scale unseen since the 1790s. For the first time in more than a century it seems a decisive break has been made in Italy, the government of the kingdom collapsing after the death of Francis III. France is seeming the tentative master of the peninsula, Louis XX’s men occupying the region from Turin to Palermo. Yet, Vienna has not yet stirred itself. Many question if Louis-Henry will truly allow for the Italian peninsula to fall wholly into French hands, overturning more than a century of precarious three-way balancing.

[Spamage]

Feasting on the Corpse: Iran 1903

Iranian Artistic Rendition of Celebrations Over the Declaration of the Republic, 1903
(Made by Me via Midjourney)

Collapse of the Qajars & Republican Revolution
   While both Mozaffar and Kamran decried the stories of foreign intervention to their west, neither was willing to devote troops to defend Mesopotamia or the Levant. Their family struggle continued, the fate of the dynasty hanging in the balance. Kamran began to gain the clear upper hand throughout the spring, capturing several key cities such as Kashan and Qom. Tehran seemed just a stone’s throw away.
   In the capitol, Mozaffar descended into utter paranoia as the situation crumbled around him. He shocked even his most loyal supporters by having his elder captive brother Mass’oud strangled to death in his cell, then further murdering any of his nieces and nephews at hand. There were whispers of a pro-Kamranian coup in Tehran, putting an end to the madness at last, but the paranoid Shah was ahead of his foes. Kamran himself was slain in his camp on July 10th, 1903. Aided and abetted by a particularly widespread spy network, the Shah demonstrated there was no length to which he would not go to defend himself.
   News of Kamran’s death had the opposite effect Mozaffar intended. Rather than disbanding in disorganized chaos, the opposition faction pivoted. Clearly the Qajar Dynasty could not be trusted with governance. Rather than naming one of Kamran’s underage sons as Shah, more radical elements seized control over the army. Najaf-Qoli Khan Bakhtiari, one of the slain Kamran’s close advisors, declared the birth of the Persian Republic, met with acclamation by the men. There would be no more dynastic niceties, no more tepid calls for a constitution. If reform was to come to the realm, it would have to be enacted by force. News of the declaration of the Persian Republic destabilized Tehran. Mozaffar was at long last murdered, his guards mutinying and opening up the capitol city to the coming revolutionary government.
   Bakhtiari’s declaration of a ‘Persian’ republic inherently alienated many of the ethnic minorities in the border of the old Qajar state. There were fears among these groups that they would be sidelined and outvoted by Persian majoritarian rule. The Lur people declared their independence as a free principality, electing a locate notable as their own Shah. To the northwest, the Iranian Azeri’s refused to respond to the republic’s commands and declared themselves nominally independent, likely seeking to follow in the steps of their pro-Turkish brethren to the north. Amidst all of this, pockets of Mozaffarian loyalists still operated, naming his son Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar as their titular ruler, even if he was in republican custody.

Russian Intervention
   In the collapse of their regional rival, the Russians saw opportunity. Eager to demonstrate a muscular foreign policy, especially after embarrassment over his perceived lack of protection for Bulgaria, President Milyukov determined to involve Russia. His strike was clean and surgical, clear goals in the region being attained by the end of the year before anyone could even question Russian expansionism.
   It took mere weeks for the Georgian Republic to respond in support of their brothers under arms in nominal Iranian territory with the blessing of the Russian government. Ethnic Georgian regions in the area were declared integral parts of the republic by Georgian President Dmitry Bagration. General Mikhail Alekseyev then led Russian soldiers into the region to make good on the promise, going entirely unchallenged in a further demonstration of growing Qajar impotence.
   Russia then successfully offered the Armenians protection in an arrangement along similar lines to the Georgians. The Prince of Armenia had already been discredited through his consent to Iranian annexation in 1900, so the shift towards a republican government was not too much of a leap. The Regency Council of Armenia formally disbanded itself on August 11th, 1903 and declared the Republic of Armenia. Russian soldiers then poured into this region as well, expelling any remaining Kurdish occupiers and enforcing a peace on the region. With Russia now involved, the Armenian-Kurdish feuding began to subside, the Armenians reabsorbing their former borders under the Qajar Empire, including the highly controversial city of Diyarbakir that had ignited their feuding in the first place.

Turkish Intervention
   Russia was not alone in seeing opportunity in the Near East. Turkey, fresh off of its peace with the Greeks, pivoted and embarked on a wide-ranging campaign to their east. The old Ottoman Empire may have been dead, but the Turks were back nonetheless, determined to reassert their authority in regions where they have not been present for decades. Their operations in 1903 consisted of a several stabs into Iranian territory that largely went off without any major setbacks.
   Yet, before military action was taken, Ahmed Muhtar Pasha had scores to settle elsewhere. With the signing of the Treaty of Konstantingrad, Albania had seen its territorial position greatly reduced. The loss had utterly discredited the monarchy. Turkey sought to soothe their beleaguered friend, offering a defensive garrison to ease the minds of the Albanians. Yet, this was a ruse. In concert with local officials discontented with the status quo, the Turkish forces in Albania toppled the monarchy on June 4th, 1903 and formally petitioned for annexation into the Turkish Empire. Observers in both Serbia and Greece howled over Turkish duplicity, but with their Austrian and Scandinavians occupied elsewhere, no formal acts of retribution took place.
   Confident that his western front was now secure with the annexation of Albania, the Turkist government turned its eyes towards the Kurds. That group, looking for foreign protection along the lines of the Armenians with their Russian patrons, defected, formally declaring their independence from Mozaffar. While the Turks and Kurds had a complicated and mixed history, there was optimism that cooperation could pave a new path in the history of their relations. Kurds themselves with their shared Sunni Islamic faith and their gamble seemed vindicated as Turkish troops achieved gains to the south that the Kurds had coveted for decades.
   Meanwhile, the Turkish Army proper smashed into Cilicia following the invitation of local Turks seeking to take advantage of the republic’s division and incoherent governance. Cilicia, a region for which tens of thousands of Turkish lives had been extinguished during the Qajar-Ottoman War a decade earlier, fell into Turkey’s lap. Within a matter of weeks, Adana was back under Turkish control, now Syria and northern Iraq looking ripe for the taking. The Turks spent the remainder of the year firing on all cylinders, city after city falling into their hands. Small former Qajar vassals states such as the Alawite puppet regime proved incapable of slowing the advance, finding themselves either occupied or coerced into surrendering to the numerically superior foe.
   The biggest gain would come further to the east, though. The Qajar family may have been ethnic Azeris, but with the collapse of the dynasty and the declaration of the Persian Republic, many Iranian Azeris suddenly found themselves seeing the Turks, not the Persians, as far closer allies. Both sides made great hay over the shared Turkic origins and historical commonalities between the Turks of Anatolia and the Azeri in the Caucuses.

The Race to Baghdad (Scandinavian Intervention)
   With so many powers invading the rotting corpse of the Qajar Empire, things began to get extremely competitive between the nominal allies. Everyone wanted to seize as much as they could take as fast as possible. Coupled with existing regional ethnic rivalries, it made for awkward scenarios.
   Ever the opportunist, the Scandinavians elected to get involved on the action as well. Stockholm privately let their Hashemite vassals of their leash, urging them to cross into Syria and preempt any attempt by the Saudis to seize the region. The initial news seemed promising, the historically crucial Syrian city of Damascus falling to Hashemite control as a substantial buffer was established beyond their holdings in Palestine. Stockholm followed up with a landing at Basra, aiming to roll up the remainder of Qajar Mesopotamia in the name of their Hashemite vassals, creating an alternative Arabic nation-state to the Saudis.
   When news reached the Saudis of these developments, they were viewed as hostile acts. Eager to demonstrate his strength, and not wanting to be encircled by a Scandinavian Mesopotamia and Levant, Abdul Rahman bin Faisal Al Saud saw Baghdad as key to his plans. When news arrived of Scandinavian landings at Kuwait, the two powers raced for the major Iraqi city. The Scandinavians seized Basra and moved up the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, while the Arabs crossed the desert and emerged at Karbala. They won the sprint, capturing Mozaffar’s garrison off-guard, the Shah having sent most of his men into Iran proper. The Arab seizure of Baghdad paved the way for the capture of further cities to the north in concert with the Turks, frustrating Stockholm’s regional plans for now.

Reconquest of Africa: Congo, Ethiopia, and the Cape

Battle of Debra Tabor, 1903
(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Abyssinia
   Embarrassed by the Ethiopians in 1902, Louis-Henry was determined to exact revenge. Austria could not let its colonial rule be challenged by what they perceived to be a primitive government. Having learned the advantage of numerical superiority, given that the typical Habsburg brigade would crush an Ethiopian one of the same number of men, more divisions were dispatched to that theater. 25 Austrian divisions advanced inland once more, swatting aside small guard regiments left on the border by the Solomonid monarchs.
   The Habsburg rebuttal to their defeat at the Battle of Beheret was their victory at the Battle of Debra Tabor. Menelik II had again tried to rally a critical mass of Ethiopian men to expel the invaders and, while numbers were comparable to their victorious operation the prior year, they faced far more Habsburg soldiers. Debra Tabor, a major center of population in the Ethiopian heartland was a key target for Austrian occupation. Dozens of Ethiopian divisions advanced in turn, hoping to weaken the Habsburg defense, but they were repulsed over the course of the first day. On the second morning, the Austrians went on the offensive. Artillery batteries stunned and scattered the local troops, thousands perishing as their commanders were unable to keep order. By the afternoon on May 27th, 1903 the Ethiopians were in retreat. With the breaking of their only sizable, combined army the country lay open to Habsburg occupation. While local guerilla resistance has begun to pop up, the Ethiopian government was unable to prevent the Austrians from seizing most populated regions. The situation deteriorated further as Menelik II and his government found themselves besieged at Addis Ababa by the Austrian soldiers. The siege of the Ethiopian capital would drag on past the new year into 1904. While most of the more remote regions remain outside of Louis-Henry’s grasp, 1903 has gone a long way towards repairing the Habsburg confidence in Africa.

Congo
   Brazil soon discovered the operation would not be so simple as marching back into the regions and cowing the Africans back into submission, operations resuming in short order. Instead, the further into the Congo Brazilian generals advanced, the more evidence of ruined infrastructure, equipment, and plantations were discovered. Vulcanization machines in the inland were entirely trashed, while the crops of landolphia vines withered, neglected by locals. Brazilian soldiers advanced up the Congo River, easily recapturing settlements on the waterway, but finding territories further inland more restive. Small scale warlords resisted the Brazilian incursions into their territories. The people had not forgotten their harsh treatment at the hands of the missionaries for decades. There was no desire on the ground to return to the status quo. Matters were fairly similar in both the Kalahari in Limpopo Mission-States as well, though that was more a matter of local terrain posing difficulties than resistance from the far smaller local populace in those regions.
   Brazilian operations were not helped by the arrival of the Colombian Flu upon their return to Central Africa. Locals, even in the more pacified coastal regions, blamed the Brazilian Army for importing the disease, which wrought havoc on both sides, especially in regions where medical care remained rudimentary.

Second Cape War
   There was a genuine sense of betrayal felt by the Cape Republic, its erstwhile allies peacing out of war with Britain and having refused to entertain real concessions for New Brandenburg. Louis XX, once a hero to the settler nation, was castigated as a treacherous villain. As the French Navy evacuated Cape ports, they were loudly berated and sometimes outright assaulted. The Cape Prussians likewise returned to their old hostility towards Brazil. ‘One can never trust a Catholic power,’ President Hermann Wissmann stated to the populace, now bracing for British retribution. Indeed, with the lifting of the French blockade, New Brandenburg had to lift the siege of the city. Britain poured tens of thousands of men into their Cape Colony, easily reasserting control over their old borders. They were aided by several Colombian divisions, dispatched in a show of support for the Anglo-Colombian alliance after their shared sacrifices of the past few years. There was an uneasy stalemate, the now cowed Cape Prussians retreating and not firing a shot, seeing themselves outnumbered. The two powers now face one another along their shared border. Not at peace, but also not engaged in hostile operations for the time being.

[Spamage]

Gilded Ambitions: Concert of Europe Part V
Turn 5: 1904

Map of the World in 1904
(Source: Made by Me)

Cast and Characters
Kingdom of France: King-Emperor Louis XX de Bourbon (X)
Habsburg Monarchy: Archduke-Regent Louis-Henry von Habsburg-Lothringen (Dereich)
Russian Republic: President Pavel Milyukov (KaiserDave)
Kingdom of Scandinavia: King-Emperor John IV of Hanover (Ypestis)
United Kingdom of Great Britain, Ireland, and the Americas: Queen Mary III of Hanover (S019)
Empire of Quebec: Empress Wilhelmina von Hohenzollern (Lumine)
Divine Republic of Brazil: Archbishop-President Joaquim Arcoverde de Albuquerque Cavalcanti (Windjammer)
Commonwealth of Louisiana: King Louis-Philippe III de Bourbon-Orleans (Dkrol)
Empire of the Mexicans: Huēyi Tlahtoāni Luis II of Montezuma (Laki)
Chinese Republic: President Kang Youwei (HCP & DevoutCentrist)
Republic of Japan: Sōsai Tokugawa Iesato (GoTfan)
Holy Republic of Gran Colombia: Archbishop-President Federico González Suárez (Kuumo)
United Provinces of New Holland: Stadtholder Samuel van Houten (SuzerainOfSwat)
Turkist Empire: Grand Vizier for Life Ahmed Muhtar Pasha (Spiral)
Republic of New Brandenburg: President Hermann von Wissmann (OBD)
Kingdom of Serbia: King Joseph I von Habsburg-Lothringen (LouisvilleThunder)
Durrani Empire: Shah Timur III Durrani (AverageFoodEnthusiast)
Republic of Korea: President Gwon Jung-hyeon (oldkyhome)

Popularity
Grand Vizier for Life Ahmed Muhtar Pasha: High, Divisive
Archduke-Regent Louis-Henry von Habsburg-Lothringen: High, Impassive
President Gwon Jung-hyeon: High, Impassive
Shah Timur III Durrani: High, Impassive
King-Emperor Louis XX de Bourbon: Moderate-High, Divisive
President Kang Youwei: Moderate-High, Impassive
Stadtholder Samuel van Houten: Moderate-High, Impassive
Queen Mary III of Hanover: Moderate-High, Impassive
President Pavel Milyukov: Moderate, Divisive
Sōsai Tokugawa Iernari: Moderate, Impassive
King-Emperor John IV of Hanover: Moderate, Impassive
Empress Wilhelmina von Hohenzollern: Moderate, Divisive
Archbishop-President Joaquim Arcoverde de Albuquerque Cavalcanti: Moderate, Divisive
King Louis-Philippe III de Bourbon-Orleans: Moderate, Divisive
President Hermann von Wissmann: Moderate, Impassive
King Joseph I von Habsburg: Moderate, Impassive
Archbishop-President Federico González Suárez: Moderate-Low, Impassive
Huēyi Tlahtoāni Luis II of Montezuma: Moderate-Low, Divisive

Economic Standings
Russian Republic: Strong
Republic of Korea: Strong
Habsburg Monarchy: Moderate-Strong
Republic of New Brandenburg: Moderate
United Provinces of New Holland: Moderate
Turkist Empire: Moderate
Kingdom of Serbia: Moderate
Kingdom of Scandinavia: Moderate-Weak
Kingdom of France: Weak
Durrani Empire: Weak
Republic of Japan: Weak
Empire of Quebec: Weak
United Kingdom of Britain, Ireland, and the Americas: Weak
Holy Republic of Gran Colombia: Very Weak
Chinese Republic: Very Weak
Divine Republic of Brazil: Very Weak
Commonwealth of Louisiana: Devastated
Kingdom of Naples: Devastated
Spanish Republic: Devastated
Kingdom of Mexico: Devastated

Kingdom of France

(Source: Made by Me via Midjourney)

-King Louis, France seems on the cusp of utter glory in Europe proper. For centuries a fight for supremacy over both Italy and Iberia has been waged, now some believe it is near an end. France sought to nab Italy in the 1400s in a fight against the Trastamaras, the War of the Spanish Succession in the 1700s saw the Sun King try to bring the whole of Spain into his orbit, and more recently the struggle against Verri’s Sardinian Republic brought Padania into being. The present struggle against Naples and Spain seems to outshine all of these past wars in both scope and scale. Yet, pockets of resistance remain and the war is not yet complete. The remnants of Francis III’s govern out of Ravenna as their divisions melt in the wake of the French advance, while the Spanish Republicans continue to hold out in Seville, a source of inspiration for partisans all across Iberia. More concerning stories have come out of Portugal, where the father-in-law of the Dauphin has been deposed and, seemingly, killed. How will you navigate European diplomacy in the coming months?

-If Europe was a triumph, Asia has been a disaster. British treachery has left a bitter taste in the mouth of your officials, a betrayal that will perhaps not be soon forgotten. Much of India has been lost, French presence reduced to the coasts, parts of Mysore, and Ceylon. Burma, Central India, and most of the vassal states have now shifted towards Durrani-Chinese cooperation. Given the role of India in both bolstering the French economy over the past century, as well as national prestige, the loss of it is unthinkable. Yet, it seems on the cusp of coming to pass. While it is understandable Europe has been more pressing, with advances there, some now wonder if you will seek to salvage the situation in the Raj? What will you do in this theater?

-War is expensive and the intensity of French operations during the past few years has undoubtedly been a strain on your finances. Still, the situation was largely sustainable until disruptions to the tax base caused by the Colombian Flu last year. Yet, your gains in Europe have perhaps presented a unique opportunity. Some have proposed a seizure of bullion, artwork, and currency from the occupied regions in order to fund the French military machine. Onetime taxes against the Italian and Spanish people have also been proposed, a payment for your liberation of them from Republican and Neapolitan tyranny. While living off of the occupied population is not a new idea, such a move on this scale has never before been attempted. Will you extract wealth from the occupied regions, potentially angering both the elites and the Church (a good portion of the material wealth in Spain and Italy sitting in monasteries and parish churches), or is it best to avoid provoking the populace further? Beyond that, there has been talk of using Haiti to fund the war effort. Efforts to get the sugar industry back off the ground have been slowed by local reluctance to work for the French. Perhaps enforced labor laws against the idle Haitians could bring about greater compliance? There’s also the prospect of an increased toll on the newly-reopened Panama canal, though this could provoke the ire of some American nations.

Habsburg Monarchy

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

-Louis-Henry, the past year has seen the French utterly triumph in Europe with their rapid gains in both Italy and Iberia. Francis III is dead and Linares sits in French custody as his Republican successors fight on. Not since the days of Louis XIV has French dominance over Europe seemed so imminent. Indeed, did your forebears not fight the War of the Spanish Succession from preventing this exact development from coming to pass? The mood in Austria has changed somewhat over the past few months as the prospect of a French-dominated Italy has come into view. For almost a century there has been a three-way balance in the peninsula, an equilibrium Paris seems well on the way to shattering. While the French would charge these complaints come from a place from envy, there are at least some genuine concerns about how developments in the west are unfolding. Will you maintain stability by standing aside and letting France have its way with a power that, admittedly, did attack it? Or will the Monarchy stir itself to keep your rival in Versailles in check? Others believe that a middle ground could be best, perhaps by isolating French gains through recognition and protection of the infant Portuguese Republic, ensuring the Reactionary-Socialist contagion remains confined. What will be done?

-Your men have reversed the humiliation of 1903 in Ethiopia, sweeping into that realm and placing the so-called ‘Emperor’ Menelik II under siege in his capital Addis Ababa. Yet, this victory comes as war on other fronts seems increasingly likely. Some in Vienna have argued for a compromise peace at this juncture, perhaps through the formal fealty of the Abyssinian Emperor. Others believe that only by utterly smashing the old order in the region will the people truly become loyal, pliant colonial subjects. The prospect of a compromise peace, dividing the kingdom, also remains on the table. How will you proceed in Africa in 1904?

-The general sentiment at Court is that it is time to consider marriage plans for young Emperor Maximilian V, who has just celebrated his 15th birthday. The young man is rapidly approaching the age of majority. Undoubtedly one of the most eligible bachelors in the world, marriage to him could be a major tool in Austrian diplomacy. There is no shortage of potential brides overall, though those from major powers are a bit lacking. Princess Sophia of Serbia is one option, though marriage to her would likely achieve little in terms of foreign policy. More provocative advisors have pushed Louisa of the exiled House of Orange-Nassau as a potential bride, calling on you to follow Scandinavia’s example and wed into a deposed royal dynasty. There’s also Irene of Grece, Viktoria of Saxony, Isabella of Chile, and numerous minor noblewomen. Princess Charlotte of France, daughter of King Louis XX, is also seen by some as a dark horse candidate. Who do you believe it is best to betroth the young emperor to?

Russian Republic

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

-President Milyukov, the great Russian Republic was held hostage last year by the actions of left-wing terrorists who disdain democratic governance and the will of the people. Even worse, misguided idiots such as Argunov, demonstrated parts of the democratic order feel they have more in common with the Red Guard than the rest of the electorate. Russia remains in a state of suspense at the start of the new year. While the insurrection seems to have been crushed, it is not known if other waves lay in the future. Nechayev is dead, but many of his subordinates now sit in Russian custody. Are more out there? There are calls for the suppression of the left in Russia, including sanction on their political parties and mass-arrests, the elder Suvorin and his supporters particularly supportive. Meanwhile, the Nevskyites have proven sneaky, clearly trying to avoid the provisions of the new laws through legal creativity and a sudden desire to go ‘hunting’. There are fears challenging them could lead to a real break in Russia, but to allow them to operate unmolested. What will you do about the recent disquiet in Russia over the past few months?

-Diplomatically, the past year has been one of surgical Russian success. The intervention in Armenia and Georgia went off without any major snags, expanding Moscow’s influence in the region. Indeed, it seems the embarrassments of the early Balkan War are now a distant memory. Still, the region remains volatile. Without a formal peace, the Iranians could very well prove to be a continued annoyance and borders with the Turks are nothing more than a vague understanding. Will you take the initiative to push for a formal settlement in the Near East? Or is this premature, especially as further Russian gains in Northern Iran do seem feasible. Perhaps you could even follow the advice of your most radical counsellors and march straight to the Persian Gulf. How will you handle the situation in the Caucuses and beyond in the coming months?

-The Colombian Flu is knocking on Russia’s door, outbreaks beginning in both St. Petersburg and Kiev. Your officials have watched in dread as the disease has swept through South America, Africa, and Europe. Russia, it is feared, could be exceptionally vulnerable, given the sometimes-rudimentary living conditions of those on the outskirts of society and in rural areas. Yet, too much action could hamper your fairly decent economic situation. With the advent of the first wave seeming inevitable, what, if anything, is to be done?  

Kingdom of Scandinavia

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

-King John IV, your beloved father has passed, dying alongside your grandfather and thousands of other Scandinavian civilians in a particularly nasty wave of the Colombian Flu. He leaves you with a difficult situation. Both at home and abroad, crises about. Scandinavia embarked on operations against New England, punishing that government for the brutal murder of your cousin, Helen, yet the move has provoked the ire of Quebec and other nearby powers. While your African holdings have remained stable, continued chaos in the Congo and further south seems to have the potential to spill into your own holdings. There are also still fears that the newly assertive Asian republics, now including Iran in their number, will move against Scandinavian concessions. Closer to home, the economic resilience in the face of the general warfare has been battered by the recent wave of the Flu. All of these matters will require addressing in the coming years. Where will you begin?

-The new reign coincides with the end of the term of the Riksdag, the people of Scandinavia going to the polls yet again. Much has changed since the last vote, both in the realm and the world at large. With economic shifts, demographic issues caused by the recent pandemic, and the world seeming to descend into chaos, the results are anyone’s guess. This is without mentioning the seating of the Hanoverian delegates in the body or the developments and questions over sovereignty in the Imperial Reichstag to the south. Yet, as sovereign, you perhaps have a unique influence in swaying the electorate. To what extent will you utilize this ability? Will you seek to bolster incumbent Tage Reedtz-Thott’s conservatives or is it time perhaps for a different direction? One relief is that the German People’s Party seems set to boycott the election out of protest. How will you proceed?

-Scandinavia has been highly successful with operations in the Levant and Mesopotamia, catching the crumbling Qajar Empire off-guard. Yet, such great gains have to some extent soured relations with nominal allies. The Arabians upstaged you in Iraq by racing ahead and seizing Baghdad as a key Arab city. Likewise, their dynamism cut off potential Hashemite gains further to the north. While you have clear goals in the region, including perhaps linking up your various possessions, this now seems frustrated. Will you do something to counter this insolence? Beyond that, with the Persian Republic emerging and striking a somewhat conciliatory note, will you seek to negotiate with the Iranians to rearrange the political situation in the region? How will you direct Scandinavian foreign policy in this theater during the coming year?

United Kingdom

(Source: Made by Me via Midjourney)

-Queen Mary, while you have been castigated loudly by New England, France, and Quebec over the acts of the past year, the avenging of Helen has proven popular among a militant populace. New England has been utterly battered, the government essentially collapsing and reforming in the north. Yet, where you go from here, in concert with your Scandinavian and Habsburg allies, is an open question. The Americans call for further action and some would have you annex the whole of the Confederation back into the United Kingdom, undoing more than a century of unnatural separation from the remainder of British America. Yet, such a move would no doubt further infuriate other powers and is less popular with the public in Britain proper. Others believe that a more moderate settlement ought to be on the table, as a means of assuaging Quebecois ire. How will you handle the immediate situation on the ground and what actions will you take regarding the future of New England?

-Ailing and exhausted, your Prime Minister Lord Salisbury has finally announced his intention to retire with the end of the current term in 1904. Indeed, Britain faces its first election of the new century, only the second of your reign. The incumbent conservatives face a wide variety of electoral opponents. Both the Liberals and newer Labour Party have demonstrated increased strength in recent by-elections. The Labour movement is particularly viewed with concern in royal circles, given their expressed desire to dilute royal authority in favor of yet further parliamentary power. Yet, there is little doubt that the Conservatives remain the favorites for the time being heading into the vote, especially in America. Meanwhile, the Irish political scene operates parallel, loyalists and pro-home rule factions both seeking to outmaneuver on another. Historically, your predecessors have alternated between intervention in the campaign and neutrality. The Crown has always been well-positioned as an arbiter between the interests of the American and British MPs. To what extent will you involve yourself in the 1904 election? Will you tacitly aid one side or the other? What would the Crown’s ideal government look like?

-The Cape situation has proven rather tricky. While the New Brandenburgers did not engage in a firefight with the men sent to relieve the siege of Cape Town, they have likewise refused to entertain offers of peace. This awkward ‘Silent War’, as some have come to call it, contrasts greatly with the British experience in the First Cape War. Given developments elsewhere, there is the sense among some in the Foreign Office that the Cape Republic is tying down regiments that could be better deployed elsewhere. The situation will require great care to handle. The prospect of a lightning strike against the Brandenburgers has been raised, perhaps brining them to the table, such risks becoming a debacle and extended engagement. In the wake of the assault on Boston, there is also the fear that an offensive British action could further alienate other European powers. Yet, withdrawal of men from the region could merely lead to a second attempt to seize Cape Town. Some have proposed offering territorial concessions, perhaps of remote and less inhabited portions of the colony, could be a solution, though there is a fear that it could set a precedent for opportunism against Britain both here in the future and in the broader world. What will you do about the situation at the Cape, Queen Mary?

[Spamage]

Empire of Quebec

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

-Quebec has been utterly shocked by the British treachery, assaulting your New English allies in an act of depravity that either rivals or exceeds Fitzgerald’s actions in 1902. The sight of the Confederation under siege has caused great fear throughout the Empire. Yet, a militant upswing (as best evidenced by the recent election results) has been balanced with an attitude of self-preservation, most Quebecois fearful of engaging with Britain unsupported. While you had hoped for stability and recovery, yet again major diplomatic questions will dominate another year of your reign. Will you involve Quebec in the struggle and teach the wretched Brits as lesson? Or is it best to keep your head down and survive, especially in a year that will likely see the Colombian Flu roll through Quebec? Perhaps you could exercise the roll of mediator as the largest, undistracted armed power in North America? What will you do about the situation on your southern border?

-The election results have given you quite a dilemma. While the right-wing extremists have succeeded by far in securing the most votes, mainstream Quebecois political parties are hesitant to work with them barring some sort of royal sanction. There are concerns Bourassa and his minions could do real damage to the hard-won freedoms of the empire. Yet, paradoxically, democratic precedent would suggest they be involved in government moving forward. What actions will you take regarding government formation? Upon doing so, what should the new administrations priorities be? Will you follow through on implementing the Papineau-approved social reforms or instead pivot to his son-in-law’s more austere measures?

Divine Republic of Brazil

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

-Archbishop-President, the reconquest of Uruguay has put to rest dreams of the Montevidean Spring. The question now is how the region is to be handled moving forward. While there are some who would have you restore the old status quo, a nominal Brazilian puppet republic, others have advocated for outright annexation, as clearly the locals cannot be trusted with autonomy. Yet, this also has implications for the Republic of the Parana as well, which remained stable last year but arguably has a stake in the future of their sister-republic. Hawks in Rio would see that region added to Brazil as well, though this would be with far less justification. Will you do so? What will the fate of your two vassal republics be?

-While you have made gains in the Congo and Kalahari, the locals remain defiant, many refusing to return to the old order. Warlords have exploited this, whole areas falling under either their or tribal sway. The progress has not been helped by the initial wave of the Colombian Flu. It seems both the rubber and timber industries will require some extensive investment to get back off the ground after colonial sabotage. Commanders on the ground request greater freedom to use methods that may be deemed by the civilized world, arguing that fear will be the only thing to bring your colonial subjects back in line. These include forced labor and extreme punishments for those aiding the various rebel factions. The doves in Rio argue instead that reconciliation ought to be promoted, perhaps through concessions and offers of localized self-governance. Yet, the fear with reforms is that they could just serve to embolden the opposition both there and at home. How will you handle the African crisis?

Commonwealth of Louisiana

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

-Louis-Philippe, 1903 saw both the Columbians pushed well away from the capital and the domestic situation greatly stabilized. Indeed, there is hope in the government that the worst of the crisis has passed, though with the coming of the Colombian Flu this may not necessarily be the case. Regardless, the war continues as the Columbian cause remains defiant, still holding the key regional hub of Atlanta. What will your military plans be in the coming months? How will you subdue the rebel swine? Or will you listen to more cautious advisors, some proposing a compromise peace to bring the Columbians back with limited bloodshed?

-The elections have seemingly legitimized your rule and given you a pliant, small National Assembly. Now the delegates look to you for leadership, intent on helping you restore the domestic situation. Some have called for changes to the citizenship laws, enabling the vast Mexican exodus in Texas to become citizens outside of the usual methods, though others fear this could stir up nativist resentment. Beyond that, money must also be allocated in Western Colorado, where thousands of your Liberian subjects have settled rather than live under Mexican rule. What should the government’s domestic policy priorities be in 1904?

Empire of the Mexicans

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

-Luis, you successfully subdued many of the southern pockets of Catholic-Republican rebellion in southern and central Mexico last year, your Court reentering Mexico City in triumph late in the year. Yet, developments elsewhere have been more alarming. The rump Augustinians and the Catholic-Republicans have become allies, sweeping across much of the north and eliminating your land connection with both Liberia and California. In California, meanwhile, the people have rebelled against your seizure of property, calling for their full independence and an expulsion of your men. Matters have not been helped by the relative openness of the borders with Quebec and Louisiana, some in your government expecting emigrants to Vaudreuil and Texas of sending aid to their brethren still operating in your realm. Cuba also yet burns, though there is hope for progress in that theater this year. How will you handle the rebellions? Some have proposed concessions, others call for brutal repression. Beyond that, what does this mean for the elections scheduled this year, the National Assembly looking extremely vacant at this point due to the numerous defections and abstentions among members elected back in 1900?

-An attempt to return the Spanish volunteers to fight for their home resulted in scuffles with the French Navy in the Gulf of Mexico. Subsequently there has been a blockade of the Mexican Atlantic ports when your admirals elected to flee back to the safety of Veracruz. The public has been outraged by French actions, raising the very real possibility that your two governments may find themselves at war once again, perhaps formally this time. How will you respond to the blockade? What will be done about the Spaniards still stationed in Mexico? Will you risk confrontation with the French juggernaut, or is it best to play safe for the time being, left they and their Brazilian ally be provoked?

Chinese Republic

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

-President Kang, your men have occupied both the entirety of Burma and Bengal. In concert with your Durrani allies, the French position in Asia seems to have been greatly weakened. This has been accompanied by the capture of thousands of emaciated Japanese and French soldiers at Anqing, your vast numerical superiority in that theater preventing a breakout and making the situation hopeless. Yet, the war continues. With France having dealt both Spain and Naples serious blows, there are concerns their attention will return to the French Raj and perhaps operations against yourself. Indeed, they still have a presence in southern and western India. Closer to home, while Japan refrained from any sort of misguided attack to relieve its men last year, you remain in a state of war against that republic as well. What will be your diplomatic actions in 1904? How will the war be prosecuted moving forward?

-Your forays into economic and social policy has begun to strain the broad coalition government forged in 1901. With the immediate threat of the French on the Chinese homeland seeming to abate and Japan no longer looking as menacing, there are talks of the Black Banner Movement and the conservatives leaving the government in protest. Will you let them go, or is to best to try to assuage their concerns by holding off on implementing such government policies until peace is fully at hand? Ma Yukun has demanded that in return for continued support you abolish the autonomous regions, which he views as unnecessary and performative, as well as directly annex Tibet and place it under Han administration. What will you say to this? Is the cost worth it to keep a united administration during this time of war?

Republic of Japan

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

-Welcome Sōsai Tokugawa Iesato. Japan now more than ever requires your leadership in the face of a dangerous diplomatic situation. After several years of back-and-forth fighting, 1903 saw the capture of more than a quarter of the Japanese Army, giving China valuable hostages and substantially weakening your war effort. While some factions cannot bear the thought of defeat, a growing portion of the government has begun to accept that a *just* peace would be a suitable enough reason to exit the war. Indeed, with continued insurrections raging in both the Philippines and Aceh, carrying on an endless struggle in China without French support is seen as less than ideal. What diplomatic actions will you take in the coming year? Will the struggle be continued or should some accommodation be reached with the Chinese government in Wuhan?

-There is no question that the declaration of the Republic in 1885 brought great stability to a Japan ravaged by 4 years of civil war. Your regime effectively purged the imperial aspects of Japanese government and established a rational, republican system. Yet, it has always been a noble republic, no room for public participation in government affairs. The current system is dominated by the old daimyo and samurai, some wondering if it has not gotten a bit stale after almost a quarter century. While the idea of full-blown participatory democracy remains somewhat alien to most Japanese, there are agitators on the margins of society arguing that should be the direction of policy. Other, more conservative elements fear the instability of a fickle public, pointing to the success of both the Black Banner Movement in China or recent socialist upheaval in Russia. What actions will you take in regards to the government? Should the status quo be defended at all costs, lest instability spread once more, or is it time for the republic to mature yet further?

Holy Republic of Gran Colombia

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

-Archbishop-President Gonzalez, the elections have yielded a moderate, liberal majority. Despite all the horrors of the last few years, and there have been many, it is finally hoped that the nation can at long last begin to recover. Who will you name as the head of government and what will be your policy goals for the coming term? How will you rebuild Colombia, putting the devastation of the past five years behind you once and for all? What efforts will be taken to reduce the loss of manpower experienced over the prior term, a result of death, famine, disease, and dislocation. Reform is clearly expected, but beyond economic measures, it is expected that the liberals will want some concessions regarding the strength of the Church in Colombia as well. Will you entertain these?

-While Colombia has experienced losses as a result of the late war, that is no reason for the Holy Republic to be diplomatically impotent. While London no doubt remains a crucial partner, there are some who believe it would be prudent to reach out to more of the liberal South American nations to the south to further improve relations. Perhaps mending fences with the Louisiana or the new Portuguese government could also help win other potential partners. In a broader sense, there are concerns over the diplomatic situation, especially as British action in Boston undoubtedly has some in Rio and Paris already questioning whether or not the treaty is a dead letter. What will be your response to the developments in North America during 1903?

Turkist Empire

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

-Ahmed Muhtar Pasha, the Turkist forces triumphed over the past year, putting to rest whispers that their strength was not as great as had been feared in the aftermath of the Balkan War. The Kurds have been subjugated, alongside much of Azerbaijan and the northern Levant. Yet, you technically remain in a state of war with the new Persian Republic. There are some who would have you capitalize on the chaos in the Iranian heartland by plunging in headfirst towards Tehran or even subduing the Lur people. Meanwhile, just as you have been strengthened, so too have your nominal allies of Arabia, Scandinavia, and Russia. How will you respond to their gains in the region and alleviate any potential disputes within the alliance? What will be your military and diplomatic goals for 1904?

-With the triumph in Iran, any questions over the merits old Ottoman-Qajar War have been put to rest. With the public in pure ecstasy, you being adored as a savior of the Turkist cause, elements in your government are proposing handling the Sultan situation once and for all. Sultan Ibrahim II has been kept isolated for the past 11 years, a nominal but absent figurehead leader. The onetime teenage captive is now a full-grown man in his thirties, spending his days in idle study away from the company of others, lest he coordinate an escape or father a child. Yet, his continued existence is always a risk to you, especially if he somehow worked to restore the power of his prestigious position. While the obvious inelegant solution of doing away with him always perhaps remains on the table, exile could be a proposition as well. Others have proposed restoring him as Caliph but removing him from the role of Sultan, shifting him to a dependent religious leader, like the Abbasids under the Seljuqs, though the Arabs would likely not take kindly to this. Will you deal with the Sultan, once and for all?

Durrani Empire

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

-1903 was a triumph. The dreams of almost a century of Durrani leaders seems to have been fulfilled, at least for the time being, with the gains in India over the past year. Indeed, your men have gone further than they ever thought possible back in the 1870s. While there is hope for the future, this is tempered with the understanding of developments in distant Europe. France has smashed two more of its foes, potentially freeing up manpower that could very well be deployed against you and your Chinese allies. How will you handle the war in the coming year? Beyond that, what are other diplomatic initiatives that you deem important in coming months? How will you respond to developments in Iran and Arabia?

-The pageantry of the Imperial Durbur and the submission of the Indian Princes has represented a major shift for your government, as has the relocation of the capital to Delhi from Kabul. The shift from an Afghan to an Indian realm comes with many decisions. To what extent will you empower the Hindus of India or will they remained sidelined from most affairs as they were under the French or will they be permitted to serve in administration as they had under the Mughals? What state duties will be expanded to the portion of the Indian population? Should they be subject to taxation or military service? What system of local administration do you deem most feasible? Some in your government have proposed carving out more Princely state vassals in the occupied regions, a means of outsourcing local administration to loyal vassals? Will you do this?  

Republic of Korea

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

-Your cooperation with the Thai Republic, specifically in an anti-Japanese direction, has attracted the attention of many foreign policy observers. While this has won you a potentially valuable ally, should the republican regime in Bangkok endure, they are rather distant. With Japan now hinting at peace with China, Korea suddenly seems more vulnerable. There are a wide variety of options on the table to further bolster domestic security. Some have proposed mending fences with New Holland, though this means probably recognizing the East Indies have been lost for good. Others have argued for a conciliatory approach to Tokugawa Ienari, perhaps using friendship as payment for the return of the Sunwon Islands. Or, as always, the Chinese and Russians could be yet further cultivated. Will you continue with your active foreign policy in 1904 or return to an attitude of cautious patience?

-Korea, thankfully, was spared the Colombian Flu in 1903 alongside most of East Asia, but the prospect of it reaching your borders has many concerned. There is a broad spectrum of options on the table for how to handle the disease. Some have argued that trade must be restricted in the short-term, Korea temporarily isolating itself from the wider world until the situation has improved elsewhere in a fallback to old Joseon policies. Indeed, given your status as a neutral power, and one of growing self-sufficiency thanks to economic progress, this does remain a feasible option, though it would undoubtedly have negative effects moving forward. Others have argued the disease is best ignored, unwilling to sacrifice the economic progress of your past few years, though the disease may well do this regardless. There are also calls for the government to take preemptive action to bolster the sanitation in Korea proper, many of your industrializing cities having grown too rapid for their own good. What steps will you take regarding this potentially pressing issue in 1904?

Republic of New Brandenburg

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

-Welcome, President von Wissman. The Cape Republic stands defiant in the fact of a second British attempt to meddle in the region. Three decades on from their unjust and illegal assault on New Brandenburg, they now have several dozen divisions stationed in their colony as a means of deterrence against you. A state of war between you two continues, France and Brazil seemingly abandoning you to your fate without the smallest consolation. How will you handle this highly tricky diplomatic situation, as isolated as you are from the rest of the world?

-The Republic of New Brandenburg has long been governed in the old Prussian tradition of your forebears. While there is no king, that does not mean that the government has been anything close to a participatory democracy along the lines of Russia or New England. The old Junker families, of which you yourself are a member, have governed as an oligopoly for generations now, elections being largely subdued affairs conducted infrequently and with low participation. Yet, with the stakes of the current war, some in your government believe that it is time for a change. Perhaps through broadening the democratic participation in government you can give more New Prussians a stake in the struggle. There have been calls for a new constitution, increasing suffrage to a higher proportion of society, and you appointing compatriots of a lower social standing to government positions. Will you entertain these propositions, or should such matter wait until a time of greater stability?

[Spamage]

Kingdom of Serbia

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

-King Joseph, welcome. Serbia has had a tumultuous and difficult history, your nation only reemerging as an independent state in the 1870s as the Ottoman Empire was entering its death knell. Having to build the state up from scratch necessarily involved the monarchy taking the lead in Serbian affairs. While your reign thus far has seen limited-suffrage elections, the government still largely operates as an extension of the crown. There have been calls for further opening up of the political system, though this could also entail weakening your royal prerogatives and strengthening voices of extremism. What course will you chart for the domestic political structure? Is the status quo acceptable or should constitutional reform be the order of the day?

-The Kingdom of Serbia was initially created to represent Austrian interests in the Balkans, your family name being the whole reason your late father was offered the throne. Yet, with the passage of time, many wonder whether the diplomatic bearhug of Vienna will be sustainable for the next quarter century. There have been some Serbian nationalists who believe you ought to adopt a greater attitude of distance towards Austria, perhaps through partnerships with Russia, Naples, Scandinavia, or even France. What will be your government's foreign policy, now that you have emerged as a sizable regional power? Given developments to your immediate west, the matter is acquiring greater importance than ever before.

United Provinces of New Holland

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

-Welcome Stadtholder van Houten. After your brief involvement in the Colombian War during the last several years, the United Provinces has returned to a peace footing. The elections of 1903 were delayed with universal consent by the outbreak of war, but with peace they are expected to be held in 1904. The vote poses an opportunity, some calling for a fresh start after your rather lengthy several-decades-long tenure. New Holland boasts numerous political movements, from your own liberals to the SANH Socialists, Heutsz's right-wing PVDO, and the old-fashioned conservatives. Will New Holland shift in a new direction under your leadership, or are the United Provinces best left under the steady, guiding hand of moderate liberal governance?

-Your recent alliance with Britain and Colombia benefitted the realm handsomely, further cementing your presence in the East Indies. Yet, conversely, the Treaty of Bogota has had the secondary effect of weakening the Colombian presence in the Asia-Pacific. With this in mind, some in the government would have you seek new foreign partners. Russia, Austria, Scandinavia, and even Japan have all been floated, though others have suggested perhaps you engage in a rapprochement with France. How will you handy the tricky issue of diplomacy in a rather complicated world?

Army Strength:
Russian Republic
20 division Army of Mishchenko (Vladivostok)
20 division Army of Kuropatkin (Moscow)
18 division Army of Alekseyev (Armenia)
10 division Army of Linevich (Mongolia)
15 division Army of Krodatenko (Ukraine)
10 division Army of Smirnov (Konstantingrad)
10 division Army of Ivanov (St. Petersburg)
10 division Army of Subotic (Turkestan)
3 division Army of Fok (Bulgaria)
(116/638 divisions possible raised, 18% mobilized)

Chinese Republic
157 division Army of Central China
144 division Army of Bengal
20 division Tibetan Defense Force
19 division Army of Southern Burma
(340/491 divisions possible raised, 69% mobilized)

Habsburg Monarchy
19 division Army of Abyssinia
17 division Army of New England
10 division Army of Hungary
9 division Army of Lombardy
8 division Army of Ruthenia
8 division Army of Austria
4 division Army of Bohemia
2 division Army of the Suez
2 division East Africa Reserve
1 division Army of Singapore
1 division Army of the Sahel
1 division Army of Ningbo
1 division Gibraltar Garrison
(83/489 divisions possible raised, 17% mobilized)

Kingdom of France
157 division Army of Baluchistan
99 division Army of Anzio
89 division Army of Andalusia
80 division Army of Florence
15 division Army of Haiti
10 division Army of the Netherlands
10 division Army of Rome
3 division Army of Sicily
3 division Army of Sardinia
3 division Army of Corsica
4 division Army of Tunisia
**29 divisions interned by the Chinese, excluded from totals**
(473/482 divisions possible raised, 98% mobilized)

Great Britain, Ireland, and Americas
77 division Army of New England
52 division Home Guard
30 division Army of the Cape
(159/278 divisions possible raised, 57% mobilized)

Republic of Japan
59 division Army of the Philippines
18 division Army of Osaka
15 division Army of Tokyo
14 division Army of Nagasaki
5 division Imperial Guard
5 division Army of the Pacific
1 division Army of Hokkaido
**40 divisions in Chinese custody, excluded from total**
(117/173 divisions possible raised, 68% mobilized)

Kingdom of Scandinavia
18 division Army of Syria
10 division Army of Iraq
10 division Army of Connecticut
9 division Army of Boston
5 division Army of Sweden
4 division Army of Hanover
5 division Army of Central Africa
2 division Army of East Africa
2 division Army of Cameroon
(65/161 divisions possible raised, 40% mobilized)

Durrani Empire
112 division Army of India
9 division Army of Baluchistan
5 division Royal Guard
4 division Army of Herat
4 division Army of the Indus
27 division Army of Oudh, allied
18 division Army of Orcha, allied
17 division Army of Gwalior, allied
(134/134 divisions possible raised, 10% mobilized)

Empire of Quebec
5 division Army of Montreal
3 division Army of Vaudreuil
2 division Army of Hawaii
2 division Army of the Plains
1 division Imperial Guard
1 division Army of Alexander Island
1 division Army of Tierra del Fuego
6 division Quebecois Foreign Legion
(21/115 divisions possible raised, 18% mobilized)

United Provinces of New Holland
10 division Home Guard
9 division Army of Borneo
7 division Army of Sumatra
7 division Army of Malaya
5 division Army of Batavia
3 division Army of Willemstad
(41/114 divisions possible raised, 36% mobilized)

Divine Republic of Brazil
26 division Army of Uruguay
18 division Army of Africa
(44/105 divisions possible raised, 40% mobilized)

Turkist Empire
28 division Army of Anatolia/Kurdistan
28 division Army of Northern Iraq/Syria
12 division Army of Arabia/Western Persia
7 division Army of Albania
5 division Army of Ankara
5 division Army of Cyrenaica
3 division Army of Izmir
2 division Army of Sinope
(90/93 divisions possible raised, 45% mobilized)

Korean State
4 division Army of the Capital
4 division Army of the North
(8/87 divisions possible raised, 10% mobilized)

Empire of the Mexicans
16 division Army of Mexico City
9 division Army of Cuba
5 division Army of California
3 division Army of Merida
3 division Army of San Juan
3 division Army of San Salvador
3 division Army of Veracruz
34 division marooned Spanish volunteers, excluded from totals
(42/86 divisions possible raised, 48% mobilized)

Holy Republic of Gran Colombia
7 division Army of the Cape
4 division Army of Venezuela
4 division Army of Colombia
4 division Army of Ecuador
4 division Army of Peru
(23/84 divisions possible raised, 27% mobilized)

Persian Republic
62 division Army of Tehran
20 division Army of Southern Iran
(82/82 divisions possible raised, 100% mobilized)

Commonwealth of Louisiana
56 division Army of the South
17 division Army of the North
(73/80 divisions possible raised, 91% mobilized)

Kingdom of Naples
31 division Army of Ravenna
6 division Army of Ancona
6 division Army of Sicily
3 division Army of Sardinia
2 division Army of Malta
2 division Army of Corsica
(49/49 divisions possible raised, 100% mobilized)

Kingdom of Spain
27 divison Army of Madrid
4 division Army of Valencia
(31/31 divisions possible raised, 100% mobilized)

Holy Union of Spain
27 division Army of Cordoba
(27/27 divisions possible raised, 100% mobilized)

Confederation of New England
21 division Army of New Hampshire
3 division Army of Vermont
(24/24 divisions possible raised, 100% mobilized)

Kingdom of Portugal
15 division Army of Lisbon
3 division Army of Angola
3 division Army of Mozambique
2 division Army of Goa
(23/35 divisions possible raised, 64% mobilized)

Andean Free State
10 division Army of Upper Peru
(10/36 divisions possible raised, 27% mobilized)

Kingdom of Bulgaria
10 division Army of Bulgaria
(10/44 divisions possible raised, 22% mobilized)

Kingdom of Siam
20 division Home Guard
(20/51 divisions possible raised, 39% mobilized)

Columbian Rebellion
31 division Army of Columbia
(31/31 divisions possible raised, 100% mobilized)


Republic of New Brandenburg
15 division Army of the Cape
(15/15 divisions possible raised, 100% mobilized)

Kingdom of Poland
5 division Army of Krakow
5 division Army of Warsaw
5 division Army of Gdansk
(15/155 divisions possible raised, 10% mobilized)

Kingdom of Serbia
5 division Army of Belgrade
(5/56 divisions possible raised, 10% mobilized)


Naval Strength*:
Naval Technology
First-Rate: This navy employs all of the latest technologies across its fleet including new tactics, equipment, and training. Truly among one of the best seafaring fleets in the world.
Innovative: New strategic ideas are planned and tested, further modifications have been made to equipment for more efficient operation.
Advanced: Ships are modernized and equipment is top of the line. Overall better organized than modernized fleets.
Modernized: Navy is at standard levels of development for time period.
Reformed: The naval equipment is near-modernized, though experience and training with new supplies is lacking.
Modified: Although still dominated by old ships and methods, efforts have been made to reform the navy, including the purchase of ships from more advanced powers.
Traditional: This navy still employs tactics, methods, and equipment from the 1870s or earlier. Limited sea capabilities and stagnant mindset.

Naval Size
Dominant: This power truly has a global naval reach. Advanced fleets at various points of the world and the ability to supply said vessels with relative ease. More than two hundred vessels in active service
Massive: Extensive naval reach, able to operate in most areas, assuming supply is secured. Around two hundred vessels.
Sizable: Naval reach includes most of surrounding seas. Roughly one hundred and fifty vessels, with the ports able to supply them.
Standard: Naval strength can be projected in the region, with further excursions when necessary. Around one hundred ships.
Limited: Several dozen ships. Extensive and long-distance operations are possible, but only on rare occasions.
Small: A dozen major ships, limited regional navy.
Nonexistent: Primarily applies to landlocked countries. No navy in existence.*

*-Not applicable for anyone right away


Navies of the World
United Kingdom of Britain, Ireland, and the Americas (First-Rate, Massive)
Kingdom of France (Innovative, Massive)
Kingdom of Scandinavia (Innovative, Massive)
Confederation of New England (Innovative, Small)
Republic of Japan (Advanced, Sizable)
Kingdom of Naples (Advanced, Standard)
United Provinces of New Holland (Advanced, Standard)
Holy Republic of Gran Colombia (Advanced, Limited)
Russian Republic (Modernized, Massive)
Divine Republic of Brazil (Modernized, Standard)
Commonwealth of Louisiana (Modernized, Standard)
Kingdom of Quebec (Modernized, Standard)
Kingdom of Mexico (Modernized, Standard)
Holy Union of Spain (Modernized, Limited)
Habsburg Monarchy (Modernized, Limited)
Korean State (Modernized, Limited)
Kingdom of Poland(Modernized, Small)
Kingdom of Serbia (Modernized, Small)
Chinese Republic (Reformed, Standard)
Qajar Iran (Reformed, Limited)
Turkist Empire (Reformed, Small)
Durrani Empire (Reformed, Small)

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Mexico responds to the flu

The Empire of the Mexicans takes note of the ravaging pandemic terrorizing the globe. God has punished the Catholic-Republicans for their defiance by unleashing the most horrifying horrors upon them. The Catholic-Republicans spread their typhoid disease wherever they go and wherever they please, posing a menace in an ever-expanding state. This is what happens when Catholic-Republicans take power. They bring nothing but diseases and the horror of war to every corner of the world. We must resist the Catholic-Republican menace.

To protect the Mexicans of this ever-expanding threat, the following emergency measures will be taken:

1. The Catholic-Republican Party will immediately be banned throughout the entire realm.
2. The Catholic-Republican ideology will be an ideology that is banned throughout the realm.
3. All remaining Catholic-Republican terrorists will be arrested and sentenced for their crimes.
4. Mexico suspends all trade & shipping for the remaining time with the international community, shutting down all ports
5. All borders with other nations will be closed, all travel from & towards Mexico being suspended until further notice.

[Lumine]

Wilhelmina inspects the Imperial Guard
Midjourney, made by Spamage

New England calls for aid,
and Québec answers!

Her Imperial Majesty expresses her utter outrage at the outrageous, deceitful, and duplicitous behaviour of Queen Mary of Britain, whom we judge no longer worthy of being taken at her word of honour.

We equally denounce the so-called punitive expedition against the Commonwealth of New England and the feeble disguise used to justify it, behind which lies a cynical gambit to allow Queen Mary to impose her will on a fellow North American power, and to bury her own mistakes behind the butchery of innocent civilians and the theft of their property.

The Empire of Québec has had the privilege of counting New England as a friend and ally for over thirty years, a period during which we have shed blood as brothers. Though we do not condone or justify the acts of former Chairman Fitzgerald, who must face justice for his acts, neither will we accept the destruction and annexation of our ally.

It is the will of Her Imperial Majesty, firmly backed by her people, that further acts of aggression  against, or the annexation of, the Commonwealth of New England, either by the Allied expedition or any other power, will be treated as a declaration of war on the Empire of Québec.

As a result, the Imperial military will be partially mobilized and readied up to back up this statement, and legislation will be sent to parliament to greatly increase conscription and military service.

Additionally, the following measures will be implemented with immediate effect:

-The immediate severance of all diplomatic relations with Britain, and the immediate expulsion of the British ambassador to Québec. 

-The recall of our ambassadors to Vienna and Stockholm, and the declaration of the Austrian and Scandinavian ambassadors to Québec as persona non grata for the duration of this crisis.

-By virtue of British non-compliance with the terms of the Treaty of Bogota, the Empire will declare itself freed from any war reparations payments to Britain.

-The imposition of a 50% tariff on all British imports, as well as on all British goods arriving or passing through Québecois ports.

-A 25% tariff will also be imposed on Austrian and Scandinavian goods for as long as the occupation of New England continues.

-The immediate abrogation of the Austro-Québecois Aeronautical Accord of 1900. A formal ban on helium exports to Austria, Britain and Scandinavia will be established.

-The immediate abrogation of the Scando-Québec Commercial Agreement of 1876.

Though we stand firm and resolute in aid of our ally, we nonetheless state the the Empire is prepared to  attend diplomatic talks to reach a solution to this crisis, protect the continued existence of the Commonwealth of New England, and avert war.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

The Day of Judgment has arrived

The Day of Judgment has arrived, and the Catholic-Republicans, in their arrogance, have earned the ire of divine forces for their defiance against the rightful rule of God. Behold, the devil has returned to the Earth, raising an unholy army. This flu is not merely a disease, but a plot by the Catholic-Republicans to defy the divine order, a vile manifestation of the evil that has consumed them.

In the weeks and months to come, Huey Tlatoani Luis II shall journey throughout the realm, delivering speeches that herald Mexico's defiance against insurmountable odds and its triumphant vanquishing of foes. Luis II shall proclaim support for the masses, promising respite from economic upheaval and vowing steadfast protection for the Mexican people amidst these dire times.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Mexico's response to British agression

Mexico denounces the so-called punitive expedition of the British against the Commonwealth of New England. Mexico additionally adds it will refuse to recognise any cession of territory or the full annexation of New England into the British Empire or any of its allies, re-iterating its support for the independence and territorial integrity of the Commonwealth of New England and any of its former North American allies. Mexico will not treat clear acts of agression lightly. While not intending to directly participating in a war, Mexico will support military responses by any of its North American neighbours if such a response is made.

Additionally, due to the closure of our ports, for the time being, all trade in & from the Mexican Empire to the British, Austrian and Scandinavian empires will be shut down till tensions alleviate and/or the pandemic comes to an end.

[KaiserDave]

New Year's Address of the President

In keeping with the Public Health Security Act of 1903, the speech was delivered at the reconstructed Bolshoi Theater to a socially distanced crowd of 500 including deputies of the Duma, cabinet Ministers, and journalists. The address was subsequently published in all newspapers and posted in public.


Greetings all. It is an honor to address you from this pinnacle of our national culture. But the Bolshoi has also taken on new meaning not only as a symbol of the resiliency of the Russian people against terror and fear. Not long ago, terrorists using explosives attacked this building. They murdered the Prime Minister and the Chairman of the State Duma, the murdered the wife of the Foreign Minister, they severely injured many other deputies of the Duma, and they also killed or injured workers at this theater, who they supposedly committed the act in solidarity with. It was a callous, cruel crime based on deranged fantasies of violence and catharsis through fire and smoke.

It also represented part of a struggle between two conflicting ideas, this conflicted severely escalated in the year 1903. This is the conflict between constitutional rule of the whole Russian people, or rule of loud voices with the sharpest sticks. This country is a Republic, political power comes entirely from the Russian people, who express their will through democratic constitutional votes and majorities. This way, the popular will is expressed and the people possess the power to elect or dissolve any government as they so please, peacefully and deliberately. This year, those deplorable co-conspirators and allies of those responsible for the attack on the Bolshoi gathered together all their guns, clubs, and bombs, and tried to overthrow the constitutional rule of the whole Russian people. Their design was simple, if their small conspiratorial minority could make their screaming loud enough, set off enough bombs and assassinate enough police officers, they could overrule the will of the people and assert rule by violence.

The cause of the crushing defeat of 1903's criminal insurrections is simple. It was opposed by the overwhelming majority of the people.  The actions of a few violent malcontents are utterly foreign to the Russian people, who keep faith with democracy and the Republic. Thanks to the wisdom of the Russian people, and the duty and good service of the Army and Police, our streets and countryside are safe again, the guns have gone quiet, and the people may return to their lives without fear of disturbance. I tell you today that the Constitution has survived this feeble attempt to replace it with rule of the sword. Might does not make right. Only the people govern Russia! Not conspiratorial extremists, who are now dead or in custody. There will be a comprehensive investigation into this autumn insurrections and we will determine all of the facts and punish all those involved.

Now, what is next? We must certainly continue to enforce the Law on Extremism. The Duma has been decisively vindicated by the violence of the last year that such a law is a needed component of our constitutional system. This government will not be intimidated by anarchists and thugs. We must continue, perhaps above all else, to maintain the competency of local government. Streets must be cleaned, sewers must run efficiently, power must be consistent, and the storefronts must be plentiful with food and appliances. And this is where I must address the invisible enemy that Russia must now do battle with.

From across the sea comes a terrible plague. Though it may have started abroad, it would be extremely foolish to think that it will not affect Russia. But Russia is an advanced, modern, capable country. We will survive this sickness, this terrible influenza, and we will come out better for it. But it will cost much, it will require sacrifices from us all. But I pledge to you the state will take its share of sacrifices, and fulfill all of its responsibilities to the Russian people. Firstly, to keep the people safe from unnecessary infection. The Public Health Security Act places regulations on mass gatherings, imposes quarantines and new rules at ports and harbors, and requires face masks in certain medical spaces. These rules will fall upon the rich and poor alike. It is not only new laws and restrictions which the government must adopt, but also expenditures. We have accrued a rainy-day fund for this reason. The government will have no shortage of funds to provide for more hospital beds, medical equipment, and money to support struggling Russians in the face of possible economic trouble. We will prove to the whole world the durability of our state, our system of government, and our great country. The nations will ask, what has become of Russia? The answer will be simple, Russia has become more powerful, Russia has become stronger, and Russia defeats any challenge to her prosperity and unity, and her freedom.

I would like to include this speech by welcoming our Armenian brothers into the Russian world. Armenians and Russians are deep kin. We must remember the Armenians were the first nation to accept our Lord, and they have kept faith for centuries in the face of brutal oppression from foreigners, cultivating ancient and powerful tradition of faith. Now, Armenia is free, free forever from the imperial dictates of Sultans and Shahs. They have now joined the Russian world, where the people have freedom, faith flourishes, and princes and despots have no power. In the Russian world, people rule, and culture flourishes. I wish to commend the brave soldiers of our army, and General Mikhail Vasilyevich Alekseyev for his strong leadership and flawless victories. Armenia has been liberated and Georgia unified without any battles or losses. What a glorious day it is. Let nobody have any illusions, Russia possesses the most powerful army on the face of the Earth, and it will not hesitate for even a moment to defend her interests.

While aware of the sacrifices we may be called to make for our neighbors and countrymen, with great love for our country and our exceptional system of government, let us welcome 1904. Long live Russia, and long live the Republic!

[KaiserDave]

Memo of the Office of the Foreign Minister of the Russian Republic M. A. Suvorin


The Russian Republic hereby recognizes the Republic of Portugal as an independent nation-state, and recognizes the existence of positive similarities between the Portuguese Revolution and the Russian Revolution.  

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

“The Kingdom of France declares war upon the murderous, monstrous rebel regime in Portugal.  Order shall be restored and if they will not unconditionally surrender, then we shall rid Portugal of this demon horde.  There shall be no negotiation on this point.  The House of Braganza shall be restored.” - The  French Foreign Ministry

[Lumine]

Empire of Québec

Proclamations and Statements from Her Imperial Majesty

REGARDING THE NEW GOVERNMENT

Monsieur Henri Bourassa, Leader of the New Movement for Québec, is hereby appointed Prime Minister of a majority coalition government with the Catholic People’s Party and the Working Farmer’s Party.

Her Imperial Majesty will be working closely with Prime Minister Bourassa in the coming weeks to address several urgent matters, including the pandemic, the New England crisis, and the upcoming legislative measures to be enacted.

REGARDING THE OUTGOING GOVERNMENT

It is the will of Her Imperial Majesty to pay tribute to Monsieur Amedee Papineau, who has had the distinction of serving as Prime Minister of the Empire for almost a decade, serving with distinct energy, zeal, and a lifelong preoccupation with the lives of the working class that has culminated on the construction of the État-social.

The Empress extends a warm invitation to her first Prime Minister for a farewell dinner at the Imperial Palace, an honor she intends to reserve solely for her greatest premiers. At such a point in which M. Papineau decides to retire from the National Assembly, royal appointment to the Senate and the title of Duke of Montebello will be his, should he desire them.

REGARDING THE IMPERIAL SUCCESSION

All loyal citizens of the Empire rejoice today, for the Imperial Family has been blessed with a second child to further the lawful succession.

Her Highness Princess Augusta Louise of the House of Hohenzollern, the Empress’ first daughter, is now second in line to inherit after Prince Imperial Frederick. In the absence of a second male heir, Princess Augusta will be styled as Princess of Mont-Royal.

REGARDING THE 1903 CONCLAVE

The Empire of Québec warmly congratulates His Holiness Alexander X over its historic election, the first American-born Prince of the Church to reach the Chair of St. Peter. As the Archbishop of Québec, the until recently Cardinal Fabre was a guiding voice and a source of moral inspiration, and we can think of no better man to lead Christendom at a particularly difficult moment.

In recognition of the increased relevance of the Americas in the affairs of the Church, the achievements of the Empire of Québec in defense and in protection of the Faith, and the Empress’ well-known devoutness; Pope Alexander X has been pleased to bestow upon the Empress of Québec and her successors the permanent title of “Most Devout Majesty”.

[Lumine]

Wikimedia Commons

The État-social, Phase II
Empress Wilhelmina outlines a pro-natalist agenda for the Empire

Following the appointment of Henri Bourassa as Prime Minister, Her Imperial Majesty addressed another joint session of the National Assembly and the Senate, in which she outlined the need to resume the État-social agenda and to take it into a novel direction that reflects the change in government.

In the view of the Empress, one of the biggest challenges faced by the Empire is the relative lack of population compared to other regional powers, an issue that prevents Québec from “unleashing its potential and fulfilling its manifest destiny”.

This, in turn – argued the Empress – is fuelled by issues like child mortality rates, lack of support for mothers, a decrease in moral values and the promotion of family as the basis for society, and a lack of incentives for “the patriotic duty of procreation”. In Her Majesty’s view, to not address this “crisis of natality” would mean disaster for the Empire in the long term.

To correct this, Her Imperial Majesty announced the start of a major pro-natality agenda as the second phase of the État-social, mixing incentives for families and mothers, increased social and health protection, a crackdown on “immoral practices”, and a major long term propaganda campaign to invite citizens to form large families as part of their duty to the Empire and nation.

For the year 1904, the Empress announced an ambitious “Family Code” (Code de la familie) sustained by several pieces of legislation under a “pro-natalist” banner, outlining the following policies:

-The establishment of a “Mother’s Day” as a national holiday to celebrate motherhood, including large civic festivities.

-Mass government propaganda promoting procreation as a patriotic duty, as well as praising mothers as doing an essential contribution to the nation equal to serving in the battlefield.

-Providing free health care to pregnant women, as well as deliveries free of cost to poor or middle-class women.

-A complex system of tax benefits, societal incentives, and public service advantages to couples with more than three children.

-The provision of long-term marriage loans to couples, with 25% of the original loan being forgiven for every new child.

-The provision of maternity leave of one month before and after the birth, paid for in equal parts by the employer and the state, as well as generous maternity grants.

-A 15% income tax increase on unmarried men above the age of 25 who do not belong to the clergy.

-Incremental tax exemptions to heads of families with more than five children.

-Stringent abortion bans with exceptions solely for cases of mortal danger to the mother’s life. Inducement to abortion will also be considered illegal. Abortionists that practice after the ban will be prosecuted as having committed a capital crime.

-A ban on the sale, production and promotion of contraceptives, with anti-natalist propaganda criminalized.

-Working alongside the Church to promote the pro-natalist agenda at every level of society.

-A substantial expansion of schools, maternity wards, and any infrastructure that may be put under strain by increases in the birth rates.

Aside from these policies, Her Imperial Majesty also introduced the “Electoral Fairness Act 1904”, a bill that will, at long last, enshrine female suffrage in the Empire to take place at the next General Election.

*DISCLAIMER: Believe it or not, most of these policies were enacted in RL and I've had to tone down one or two out of decency. At one point Third Republic France was sending abortionists to the guillotine!

[Lumine]

Wikimedia Commons

Rebirth of the Papal States

A Concordat between the Vatican and the King-Emperor of France

For eleven centuries, the Papacy brought light and stability in the Italian peninsula by virtue of the Donation of Pepin, in which the brave and illustrious King of the Franks transferred vast dominions from the Lombards to the wise rule of the Holy Mother Church.

For eleven centuries this endured, until a contemptible conspiracy in the year of our Lord 1836 brought the Eternal City and all Papal territories under the control of the Neapolitan Crown. Over the next seventy years, the Church languished because of it, enduring decades of mismanagement and ruin due to the disastrous acts of the Neapolitan Royal Family.

Today, this historic injustice is being corrected. A Concordat has been signed between His Holiness Pope Alexander X and the King-Emperor of France, the Most Christian King Louis XX; under the mediation of the Empress Wilhelmina of Québec.

Under the terms of this Concordat, His Majesty Louis XX will resuscitate the Papal States under the wise, autonomous and independent leadership of the Pope. The new Papal States will comprise the regions of Lazio, Tuscany and Romagna, in a vast extension of Papal authority.

His Holiness will govern these vast dominions with the assistance of his Cardinal Secretary of State and a new Papal bureaucracy. The new Papal States and the Pope will be guarded by a Papal Army comprised of Catholic volunteers from across the world, itself led by a Captain General of the Church.

By virtue of this generous donation to Christendom, His Holiness, who has just returned to the Apostolic Palace to commemorate the return of Rome to Papal rule, celebrates the wisdom of the Most Christian King, which will go a long way in restoring the temporal power of the Holy Mother Church. His Majesty Louis XX is to be crowned Defender of the Christian Faith and Protector of Latin Europe by His Holiness in recognition of his efforts.

[KaiserDave]

Memo of the Office of the Foreign Minister of the Russian Republic M. A. Suvorin
______________

The Russian Republic will not recognize any unilateral reorganization of the state status of the Italian peninsula, and continues to recognize the Kingdom of Naples as the only political entity that represents the will of the Italian people within the territory of the Kingdom.

The Russian Republic is pleased to welcome the King of Naples, His Majesty Alfonso IV and his family to Konstantingrad, where they have taken up residence under Russian protection in a villa in the municipality of Zelenyyvinogradnik, which is abundant in Greeks and vineyards, which may remind the young monarch of home, where his people long for representative, legitimate government.



A Memo of the Office of the Prosecutor-General
______________

All members of so called "Narodnoye Delo" terrorist organization now in state custody as a result of the criminal Autumn Insurrections will be charged under the Law on Extremist Anti-Russian Organizations and preexisting statute regarding treason and rebellion. The State will seek the minimum of 15 years imprisonment for all members of this organization in state custody, and additional prison time for all those directly involved in violence against the state or state officers.

Pursuant to the decision in Regarding "Krasnaya Gvardiya" of the Moscow District Court, the so called "Krasnaya Gvardiya" are designated a criminal organization for violations of Part I, III, and IV of the Law on Anti-Russian Extremist Organizations, in addition to the crimes of insurrection and rebellion. The state has in custody numerous individual members of the Red Guard, who will face various charges including but not limited to Treason, Murder, Conspiracy to Foment Rebellion, Rebellion, Terrorism, and Violence Against Officers of State.

These individuals include:

A. K. Soloviev
N. I. Podvoisky
L. D. Bronstein
F. E. Dzerzhinsky
M. S. Kedrov
G. M. Dimitrov
N. I. Muralov
S. V. Balmashov
A. I. Ulyanov

The state will bring cases against these individuals immediately, as well as others whose names will be published in short time.


A Memo of the Office of the Chief of Police V. D. Nabokov
______________

The State Police will conduct a comprehensive and total investigation into the Autumn Insurrections, and will seek to bring every member of so called "People's Cause" into state custody, as well as create an accurate account of all individuals involved in violence against the state and the people. This investigation will be carried out in full compliance with the law and the Constitution of the Republic.

State Police will continue to enforce the law and uphold law and order in Russia.

[Dereich]

On the Developing Situation in Italy

The Holy Roman Emperor has maintained retained a preeminent role in serving as a guardian for the Italian People as King of Italy for 952 years and, more recently, as Kings of Lombardy-Venetia and Grand Dukes of Tuscany. While the role as protector of the Italians has sometime resulted in discord and strife, including with his cousin the late King of Naples, it is still one cherished and important to the very identity of the Emperor. It is therefore with deep sorrow that the whole of the Empire has viewed the recent suffering of the Italian people. The Emperor has personally met with some of the many refugees of the recent violence who have sought shelter within His realms and all of the constituent peoples of his Empire have opened their hearts and hearths to aid those seeking peace and security. It is in this capacity above all others that the Emperor looks on with astonishment at the recent proclamations and developments regarding areas within the Kingdom of Naples.

That the King of France, in his arrogance, would believe he has the right to unilaterally reorganise governance of the Italian peninsula merely because he has defeated the King of Naples in battle is as laughable as it is offensive. The Emperor, as King of Italy, will not permit the Italian people to be treated as disposable trash in the way that King Louis and his mother have treated the Dutch since they came to rule over them. As recently as three years ago the people of Naples expressed their unforced desire to maintain the popular monarchical government under the late King Francis. That knowing this, King Louis would impose manifestly unpopular and out-of-touch "Catholic Republican" regimes in parts of Naples where those promoting those ideologies were just recently laughed out of the public square (despite obvious and clumsy attempts by the King of France to support them) shows the profound lack of respect for the people of "Latin Europe" whom the King Louis is now supposedly to protect. Indeed, from Portugal to Italy, all of the peoples of Latin Europe would evidently prefer to fight and die rather than submit to the "protection" of King Louis or his associates.

It is here that the Emperor must address the crowning disappointment regarding the Church. There is no way to read the so-called "Concordat" establishing a new Papal State on top of Italian corpses other than as something imposed on the faithful by those with profoundly superficial and shallow faith. His Holiness would well know, as would the rest of the Curia, that their "restored temporal power" could only survive by the threat of the bayonet against His Holiness's new subjects. Perhaps ruling by the fear of ones own subjects is so ingrained in the King of France that he sees no issue with having His Holiness rule the same way; to the free Catholic world it can only be a travesty. And that the agreement would seek to sully the immortal souls of the most faithful by making them complicit in repressing the innocent peoples of Lazio and Romagna against their wills, all while pretending such tyranny is noble, is an outrage. The decision to incorporate Tuscany, a region long associated with the House of Hapsburg, in this coerced Concordat can only be treated as a personal slight against the Emperor created not by the faithful contemplation of His Holiness but by the arrogance of the French or the cunning of the Quebecois. Indeed, the ever-impressive Queen of Quebec is to be commended in crafting an agreement so guileful and odious that it could at a stroke end the ancient agreements ensuring peace for longer than her kingdom has existed. It is the position of the Emperor that this "Concordat" is illegitimate. His Holiness could not have agreed to such a foolish scheme willingly; indeed no rational man could have done so.

The Emperor and his Government hereby pledge to investigate all potential options regarding the future of the Italian peoples except acceptance of the so-called "Concordat" recently promulgated. Christendom can be assured that His government will take all action to protect the rights and freedoms of the Italian people.

[Lumine]

Her Imperial Majesty naturally hopes for a peaceful diplomatic resolution to the present situation in the Italian peninsula.

It is her personal view that Christendom has great motive to rejoice at seeing a strengthened Church, a restored Papal States, and a Papacy with greater autonomy, and believes this to be an excellent example of how our shared, common faith can prevail over - and transcend - narrow personal interests.

Convinced as she is that no man - or woman - would ever dare to threaten or intimidate the Vicar of Christ instead of pursuing proper avenues, Her Imperial Majesty remains confident that reason and faith will eventually and inevitable prevail in the hearts of men, and fervently prays for it.

[Devout Centrist]

Treaty of Shimonoseki (1904)

I. Armistice Terms:

A. The Republic of Japan and the Republic of China hereby agree to a final peace and cessation of hostilities between their respective armed forces.

B. The Republic of China agrees to release all soldiers and sailors of the Republic of Japan, including prisoners of war and all tangible goods, munitions, and other such equipment, back to Japanese custody.

C. The Republic of China shall help ensure safe passage of all Japanese soldiers and sailors back to the Japanese Home Islands.

D. All soldiers and sailors of the armed forces of Japan in Chinese custody will be discharged to Japanese custody under the term of “honorable soldier/sailor; no surrender offered or accepted” for the purposes of bureaucratic note keeping.

E. President Kang Youwei offers his sincere appreciation and respect of the fighting spirit of all Japanese soldiers and sailors who participated in the Chinese theater.

F. The Republic of China agrees to recognize all Japanese conquests in the Pacific theater, including the Philippines Islands and other territories acquired by force between 1900 and 1903.

G. The Republic of China agrees to respect any Japanese acquisitions in the Indonesian archipelago.

H. Following the final conclusion of the Greater East Asian War, The Republic of Japan agrees to recognize any and all Chinese territorial acquisitions

I. This agreement shall take effect on January 31, 1904.

II. Trade and Investment:

A. The Republic of China shall lower tariffs on all Japanese goods, including raw materials, intermediates, and finished products, to 5%

B. The Republic of Japan shall lower tariffs on all Chinese goods, including raw materials, intermediates, and finished products, to 5%

C. The Republic of China shall invest 25 million in foreign currency into the Japanese Development Bank as a token of diplomatic goodwill.

D. The Republic of China shall acquire a 10% stake in Nippon Oil.

E. This agreement shall take effect on January 31, 1904.

X Plenipotentiary for Eastern Affairs, Huang Xing

[GoTfan]

Treaty of Shimonoseki (1904)

I. Armistice Terms:

A. The Republic of Japan and the Republic of China hereby agree to a final peace and cessation of hostilities between their respective armed forces.

B. The Republic of China agrees to release all soldiers and sailors of the Republic of Japan, including prisoners of war and all tangible goods, munitions, and other such equipment, back to Japanese custody.

C. The Republic of China shall help ensure safe passage of all Japanese soldiers and sailors back to the Japanese Home Islands.

D. All soldiers and sailors of the armed forces of Japan in Chinese custody will be discharged to Japanese custody under the term of “honorable soldier/sailor; no surrender offered or accepted” for the purposes of bureaucratic note keeping.

E. President Kang Youwei offers his sincere appreciation and respect of the fighting spirit of all Japanese soldiers and sailors who participated in the Chinese theater.

F. The Republic of China agrees to recognize all Japanese conquests in the Pacific theater, including the Philippines Islands and other territories acquired by force between 1900 and 1903.

G. The Republic of China agrees to respect any Japanese acquisitions in the Indonesian archipelago.

H. Following the final conclusion of the Greater East Asian War, The Republic of Japan agrees to recognize any and all Chinese territorial acquisitions

I. This agreement shall take effect on January 31, 1904.

II. Trade and Investment:

A. The Republic of China shall lower tariffs on all Japanese goods, including raw materials, intermediates, and finished products, to 5%

B. The Republic of Japan shall lower tariffs on all Chinese goods, including raw materials, intermediates, and finished products, to 5%

C. The Republic of China shall invest 25 million in foreign currency into the Japanese Development Bank as a token of diplomatic goodwill.

D. The Republic of China shall acquire a 10% stake in Nippon Oil.

E. This agreement shall take effect on January 31, 1904.

X Plenipotentiary for Eastern Affairs, Huang Xing

X Tokugawa Iesato, President of the Japanese Republic.