Chapter 191: Absolute Power
(Note: I have changed the flags for India, Yavdi, and Song to the EU4 versions.)
"As of right now, only Hohenzollerns can serve as Senators unless I otherwise decree it."
-Sigismund II, to the 1857 Diet
"Vampires? What's next, evil angels?"
-A prominent Carpathian social scientist
The Roman economy was booming. It was growing faster than it ever had in the last fifty years. The end of the Civil War apparently had fixed all of the Reich's economic problems, for now taxes could be raised to seventy or eighty percent without driving the middle or working class into poverty. The aristocracy and capitalists could be taxed with 100% rates and still find enough money to pay for their daily needs, if not their luxury needs. And although the Roman industry was the largest in the world, Sigismund was still not satisfied. He first turned his attention to foreign-owned factories, a legacy of the Civil War, when the rest of the members of the Concert of Eurasia invested thousands into building up Maximist and Siegfriedist industry by funding factories. Now that the Civil War was over, why were these factories still under foreign ownership? Sigismund declared in December that all such factories were to be nationalized and placed under the ownership of the imperial government while suitable capitalists who were willing to take full ownership and responsibility over them were found. The Kaiser also encouraged the funding of a military-industrial complex to boost research into industrial and military technologies to make Roman industry and the legions utterly unchallenged by any other Great Power.
The Concert of Eurasia in 1855 saw very few changes, other than the fact that all three Chinese empires were Concert members. Russia had the Alliance under its protection, while the Tran had taken over the Ming's tributary system. Other than that, nobody else had a sphere of influence. Metternich sought to change that, sending diplomats to gain influence in Persia.
The convening of the 1856 Diet saw a continued decrease in the number of conservatives. For the first time, conservative senators numbered less than forty percent, and a simple majority over the liberals, who maintained a plurality, was only maintained by an alliance with the reactionary factions.
In Oceania, the Ming and the Indians continued to expand, with the Chinese seizing more land. Prithivipala discussed the colonization of the continent with Sigismund at one point, claiming that the central territories were once supposed to be claimed by India, but thousands upon thousands of Chinese settlers migrating into the region and displacing the Indian settlers forced Delhi to concede the lands. There was still a significant Indian population in central Oceania last Sigismund checked with Prithivipala.
Sigismund also continued on implementing his social reforms. In February of 1856, he decreed that all employees were limited to working for at most eight hours each day, for their own good. Meanwhile, Fylkir Tyke II put his support behind the avant garde intelligentsia of his realm, realizing that they could be useful in furthering Norse cultural progress. In a heavily militarized nation where most of the people followed a highly militarized religion and identified with a highly militarized culture, this focus was probably not Tyke's best choice.
The summer of 1856 saw another spike in "vampyre hysteria" in Dacia, where superstitious citizens claimed to be attacked by undead bloodsucking aristocrats. Non-Dacians saw this hysteria as proof that the Dacians, ancient enemies of the first Roman Empire, were not as modern as other Romans, while a few others claimed that this was just a cover-up for Maximist or even republican or anarchist support. Several imperial legions were sent into the area to help "hunt" the "vampire" and to calm down the people (as well as round up potential Maximist and anarchist sympathizers).
Another event occurring that summer was the discovery of a fossilized skeleton of a man in Germania. Because it was found in the Neander Valley, near Dusseldorf, the man was dubbed "Neanderthal" (from German 'Neandertal', after the Neander Valley). Scientists were amazed by the new finding. They did not know what to think about it. The Bible implied that the earth was around several thousand years old and that man descended from Adam and Eve, but this inexplicably contradicted that. Strange theories on the origins of man and the earth began to circulate, positing that the earth was a few thousand years older than expected and that the skeleton belonged to a man from a time possibly before the Great Flood. Whatever the case, the true story of the Neanderthal would not be known for several more years.
In other news, some cities began paving their streets with wood, for some reason.
In the Eimericas, the absolutist government that Egill I had presided over after his restoration collapsed to a liberal revolution, which restored the Vinlandic Hogting to power. No sooner did this happen did radical Norse pan-nationalists arise, demanding unification with Scandinavia. As the Royal Kanatan Army was still being rebuilt following both the restoration and the liberal revolution, the rebels made significant and rapid progress, quickly seizing the northern territories and marching south towards the Jormungandr River. In the event of a rebel victory, Sigismund made sure to tell Tyke to decline any attempts by the rebels to offer him the crown of Kanata. To accomplish this, he ordered Metternich to put Scandinavia under the Roman sphere of influence, to render the Norse dependent on Roman military protection and economic strength, to remove any will and ability to largely self-govern (though Scandinavia would not be an outright puppet), and otherwise force Tyke to listen to any and all of Sigismund's whims.
In Persia, though, Metternich had a harder time than in Scandinavia. It appeared that every single Great Power was opposed to the Reich gaining influence over Persia. India's attempts to slander the Reich's reputation in Isfahan was expected, but Metternich did not expect the Ming, Tran, and Russians to join in on discrediting the Reich's name by spreading vicious rumors about Sigismund's attempts to "take over Persia and finish what Heraclius started."
The rest of the year passed without much incident, other than the fact that Wanyan Xiongying decided to grant the Kamchatkan tribes autonomy for seven years. Three tribes--Chukchi, Kamchadals, and Khodynt--gained autonomy status as Jin puppets until roughly 1864 or 1865, at which point the Kamchatkans would hold referendums on returning to direct Jin control.
The 1857 Diet opened with the conservatives continuing to lose control to the reactionaries, alarming Sigismund significantly. He knew that while the reactionaries were firmly anti-Maximist and could help in suppressing the remaining Maximist holdouts in the west, they were also opposed to many of his social reforms and promises of equality to all Roman citizens. He could not let them or the liberals gain control. Therefore, he declared that the Upper House of the Diet would be made up only by Hohenzollern family members unless he appointed another faction to power, which he would not do. This would remain in effect until Sigismund found enough conservatives to maintain the balance of ideologies within the Diet.
Other than the fact that a solar eclipse occurred when the Diet convened (and was predicted in the newspapers nine days ago), causing mass panic that was quickly suppressed by imperial police, not much was of note about the 1857 Diet.
The cotton industry continued to grow, especially in Alexandria, where the cotton produced was of the highest quality in the world. The booming local economy attracted many to the city, which quickly became the largest in the Reich. Vienna, Berlin, and Constantinople were the second, third, and fourth largest cities in the Reich, respectively. All four cities boasted populations well into the millions.
In February, an improved steam turbine was developed by scientists at the Imperial University of Berlin, and the Bureau of Economics ordered it to be quickly integrated into the general economy, boosting farming and mining output significantly.
In March, the first football club, FC Stettin, was founded, coming into immediate conflict with players of rugby football. Developed from the ancient Roman game
harpastum, rugby involved a ball, running, and throwing. It quickly became popular among the working and middle class citizens, who had no time for upper class sports such as
tzykanion, or polo as some called it. The arrival of FC Stettin caused complications between the players of rugby and those of football, a newer game developed from the Chinese game c
uju and the Greek game
episkyros. FC Stettin laid out the rules of association football, setting it apart from rugby football. Membership in the club rapidly increased, and within a few years there were similar clubs in other parts of the Reich, particularly in Hispania, Italia, and Britannia.
As the summer of 1857 began, the Fox continued to expand. Pierremaskin ordered settlers out into the wilderness of northern North Eimerica to claim more land for the Native Eimerican peoples before the Chinese or Norse could claim it. The colonization of the region called "Indian Lakes" by Chinese explorers who mistook the natives for Indians set off a colonization rush all across the Eimericas, with the Jin and Fox sending waves of settlers into the frozen north to deny each other more land and the Tawatinsuyuans and Romans sending expeditions into the Amazon to once and for all set the border between Tawatinsuyu and Neu Rhomania. Over the summer, the "Scramble for Eimerica" saw the last vestiges of Eimerican wilderness incorporated into civilization, whether it be Chinese, Fox, Tawatinsuyuan, or Roman. Kanata helplessly looked on as all of its neighbors expanded, with no way of its own to expand and colonize.
A month later, Egill I of Kanata died of severe stress. He had gone through simply too much in life. First, he had lost over half of his country to the Fox. Second, he had survived multiple revolutions, one of which deposed him, one of which restored him, and two of which threatened to undo his ancestors' work by uniting Kanata with Scandinavia. He could take it no more. And so on 17 July 1857, he passed away. His son, Gandalfr, was crowned the next king.
Gandalfr I of Kanata
Back in the Reich, following the establishment of FC Stettin, a mountain climbers' club, the first in the world, was established. Many of its members planned to scale at least twenty mountains in the Alps in their lifetime. It was around this time that many came to realize that despite having suffered greatly over the past few decades, especially in the liberal agitation of the 1840s, the Maximist wars, and the Roman Civil War, all citizens suffered equally. They were all in this together. A sense of national unity arose out of this feeling of togetherness, with citizens joining together in their quest to work for a better future for all Romans.
By October, the Scramble for Eimerica had been completed. In the Amazon, Tawatinsuyu had clearly won the Scramble, having taken much of the land for itself, but Neu Rhomania had significantly expanded as well.
In North Eimerica, the Jin finally brought the Great Basin under their control and began looking north again, towards the frozen wastes of the Yukang (or Yukon) territory. The Fox, though, were paralyzed by the waves of Kanatan separatists and Norse pan-nationalists that frustrated attempts by Michigan City and Chicago to maintain order. Meanwhile, Markland and much of southern Kanata were overrun by Norse pan-nationalists.
The Scramble, despite its name, was not limited to the Eimericas. The Reich also expanded in West Africa. After receiving word that Mali had sent an expedition to claim a patch of desert on the border with Mauretania, Sigismund ordered troops deployed to secure the region and connect the Roman enclave at Arguin with the rest of Provincia Mauretania. The operation was a success; Bamari conceded the territory without a single shot being fired.
In November, a large creature called the "Hadrosaurus" was discovered by the prominent Roman scientist Dr. Laudrich. Like the discovery of the Iguanodon and the Neanderthal in the previous year, this find challenged the accepted notion of the origins of man and the earth. Even the Church was at a loss at how to explain this, with some patriarchs commenting that the fossils could be those of men and creatures living before the Flood.
In December, Gandalfr conceded to the demands of the pan-nationalists, who had taken over his palace and held his family hostage. The pan-nationalists eagerly took the opportunity to strip him of his crown and present it to Fylkir Tyke II, hoping that he would accept it and take control over Kanata. To their disappointment, Sigismund "convinced" Tyke (on pain of economic sanctions) to turn down the crown. The pan-nationalists awkwardly handed the crown back to Gandalfr before being brutally slaughtered by the Royal Kanatan Mounted Police.
The 1858 Diet was the first Diet in a long time where the conservatives had a majority. In fact, the conservatives were the only senators in the Diet, all other senators being sidelined for now. This naturally angered many in the government, but Sigismund assured them that this arrangement was only temporary until all Maximist sympathizers were eliminated.
As the year got underway, scientists at the Imperial University of Berlin finished their research into basic medicine, which would hopefully boost the supply limits of the legions and make them easier to keep equipped in the event of a war.
It looked like this year would be another quiet one. No battles were discussed in the papers, and no revolutions took place. Instead, journalists wrote about the canal system of the Reich and how it was in decline. They also discussed a meeting of prominent lawyers in Berlin, where they would discuss potential updates and amendments to the Augustinian Code. Finally, as if acknowledging that the coming year would be uneventful, they wrote about the state of the Balkans, where Germans and Greeks gathered together to celebrate the long peace that had existed in the region since the reign of Friedrich the Glorious.
However, 1858 would be far from quiet and uneventful.
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Cowards. A good war would have been fun.
At least Persia has some sense. They know who to cozy up next to.
If only India knew to stop screwing around with my influence.
Regaining the land from Scandinavia and Lithuania without a single war is an excellent sign that the world is aware the Reich is back in proper form, ready to enforce the status quo. It's kind of nice seeing Persia align with you; perhaps this is the first step in repairing relations and forgiving the ancient past.
Kind of bummed Kanata going back to normal. So much for being unique...
That was completely unexpected. I know that I buffed the reactionary rebels slightly so that the constitutional monarchies might revert to absolutism, but I did not foresee that it would affect Kanata as well. Oh well...but let me say here that this is not the death of anarchism yet.