Sorry guys, but tonight's update has been postponed until tomorrow. It's a geopolitical one which I'm struggling to get my head around so I'm going to need to take a little longer on it :S
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The Cold War Deepens
Just a few days before the final surrender of Egypt, a momentous announcement had rocked the capitals of the world. On the 16th of December 1941 the Austro-Hungarian Empire, after two years of fence-sitting, had finally chosen to align itself with one of the two power blocs now dominating the European continent.
Ten years previously, it would have seemed obvious for Austria to align with Germany. Indeed, their common language and historical alliance all pointed in this direction.
But, though Austria had fought on the side of the Germans in the First Weltkrieg the events prior and after the second had led to a substantive change in opinion within the country. Austria-Hungary’s internal disunity and weakness had been exposed by the First Weltkrieg and the country had only avoided full blown civil war after German mediation of the Ausgleich in 1927 which saw autonomy given to the non-Austrian nationalities of the empire. However, the Ausgleich had also marked the end of the Austrian Empire as a Great Power and had placed it firmly in the economic and military shadow of Germany.
This had led to a growing movement in Austrian politics which sought to free Austria from German influence and re-establish it as a world power in its own right. And, following the Second Weltkrieg, the emergence of the Catholic League had served as the trigger needed for this movement to succeed.
Initially Germany had responded to the emergence of the Catholic League with ambivalence but its position as a rival bloc within Europe had led to a gradually increasing wariness and distrust for the Catholic League within the protestant-dominated German Empire with the Kaiser himself concerned at the risk of a war with the League in the south at the same time that the British were bombing German cities in the north.
The biggest fear of the German government and Kaiser Wilhelm III was that the fundamentally religious nature of the League could lead to massive discontent and unrest amongst the Catholic minority in Germany - particularly in Bavaria which, in contrast to staunchly protestant Prussia, was almost entirely Catholic.
Following the erection of the Occitan Wall and the subsequent increase in tension between the rival power blocs the German government made the decision to revive the Kulturkampf of Bismark against Catholics and other minorities deemed a threat to the protestant Prussian majority.
In practice, this meant a concerted effort to disrupt the structures and authority of the Catholic Church in Germany and to bring it under the control of the Reichstag. Across Germany, and especially in Bavaria, seminaries were closed or brought under strict government supervision and members of the clergy deemed "disloyal" were dismissed from their posts. It was, in effect, the nationalisation of the Catholic Church in Germany.
This, however, had the opposite effect to that intended. The Bavarian population in particular was wracked with discontent at the high-handedness of the assault on the mother Church and, more importantly, so was Austrian society which, as the historic leader of Catholic Germany, suddenly came to regard Germany in a much more negative light.
French diplomats took advantage of this, presenting a proposal to the Austrians where they and the rest of the now federalised Austrian Empire could join the Catholic League and economic bloc, uniting the Catholic powers of Europe under one banner and, crucially, giving Austria access to markets free from German dominance.
This proposal, along with a proposal for readmittance into the Mitteleuropa from the Kaiser, was considered at the highest levels of the Austrian government and, while many of the Catholic and traditionalist governing party, supported the French proposal, it was only the direct intervention of Emperor Otto I which finally swayed the decision in favour of the League - motivated by a desire to free Austria once and for all from dependence on the same Hohenzollern's who had robbed his ancestors of their rightful role as leader of the Germanies.
This one decision radically shifted the balance of power in Europe. Previously the German Empire on its own had boasted, on its own, industry and a military greater than all the nations of the League combined but, with the addition of Austria, Hungary and the other nations of the Austrian Empire to the League, the two power blocs suddenly found themselves evenly matched.
Additionally, Germany’s long border with Austria and Bohemia meant that years of planning by the Prussian Military Academy were now worthless. Previously all contingency plans had assumed a war in France with the Kingdom of France acting as a buffer to absorb the force of any potential League offensive until it could be stopped at the heavily fortified Franco-German border. But, as a result of decades of peace and friendship, there were no such fortifications along the border between Bavaria and Austria, leaving the entire underbelly of Germany now exposed to an attack by the League.
While war remained highly unlikely, the shock of being caught off guard by the Austrian decision, and their suddenly increased military vulnerability, led to fierce anti-Catholic and anti-Austrian feeling in Prussia with Austrian citizens and businesses effectively drummed out of the country altogether - something which effectively forced Austria to commit totally to the League as its previous bridges with Germany were now well and truly burned.
But anti-Austrian sentiment was not enough to satisfy the immense blow to German pride and so the Kaiser’s ministers looked quickly for a way to boost German prestige and to remind the world that Germany remained the most powerful nation in human history.
The solution they found was the United Baltic Duchy, carved out of Imperial Russia at the end of the First Weltkrieg, governed by a German duke and, by 1941, dominated by German colonists who had come to outnumber the ethnic Latvians and Estonians.
Following the successfully nationalist coups in Lithuania and White Ruthenia which had overthrown the German puppet governments, the Baltic Duchy had lost its land link to Germany and been left precariously trapped between anti-German regimes in Lithuania and Ruthenia on the one hand and the Bolshevik regime of the Soviet Republic on the other.
This, coupled with the German desire to boost their nation’s prestige, led to the triggering of a referendum in the Duchy on a proposal to formally join the German Empire as an Imperial State. With the majority of the population German the decision was never in any doubt - though it did quite sharply illustrate the division between the German settlers, who near universally voted to unify with Germany, and the native population who near universally voted to remain independent.
And so, on the 22nd of December, the United Baltic Duchy was formally incorporated into the German Empire as a reminder to the world that, regardless of Austrian 'treachery', Germany remained the most powerful nation on Earth.
Just a few days before the final surrender of Egypt, a momentous announcement had rocked the capitals of the world. On the 16th of December 1941 the Austro-Hungarian Empire, after two years of fence-sitting, had finally chosen to align itself with one of the two power blocs now dominating the European continent.
Ten years previously, it would have seemed obvious for Austria to align with Germany. Indeed, their common language and historical alliance all pointed in this direction.
But, though Austria had fought on the side of the Germans in the First Weltkrieg the events prior and after the second had led to a substantive change in opinion within the country. Austria-Hungary’s internal disunity and weakness had been exposed by the First Weltkrieg and the country had only avoided full blown civil war after German mediation of the Ausgleich in 1927 which saw autonomy given to the non-Austrian nationalities of the empire. However, the Ausgleich had also marked the end of the Austrian Empire as a Great Power and had placed it firmly in the economic and military shadow of Germany.
This had led to a growing movement in Austrian politics which sought to free Austria from German influence and re-establish it as a world power in its own right. And, following the Second Weltkrieg, the emergence of the Catholic League had served as the trigger needed for this movement to succeed.
Initially Germany had responded to the emergence of the Catholic League with ambivalence but its position as a rival bloc within Europe had led to a gradually increasing wariness and distrust for the Catholic League within the protestant-dominated German Empire with the Kaiser himself concerned at the risk of a war with the League in the south at the same time that the British were bombing German cities in the north.
The biggest fear of the German government and Kaiser Wilhelm III was that the fundamentally religious nature of the League could lead to massive discontent and unrest amongst the Catholic minority in Germany - particularly in Bavaria which, in contrast to staunchly protestant Prussia, was almost entirely Catholic.
Following the erection of the Occitan Wall and the subsequent increase in tension between the rival power blocs the German government made the decision to revive the Kulturkampf of Bismark against Catholics and other minorities deemed a threat to the protestant Prussian majority.
In practice, this meant a concerted effort to disrupt the structures and authority of the Catholic Church in Germany and to bring it under the control of the Reichstag. Across Germany, and especially in Bavaria, seminaries were closed or brought under strict government supervision and members of the clergy deemed "disloyal" were dismissed from their posts. It was, in effect, the nationalisation of the Catholic Church in Germany.
This, however, had the opposite effect to that intended. The Bavarian population in particular was wracked with discontent at the high-handedness of the assault on the mother Church and, more importantly, so was Austrian society which, as the historic leader of Catholic Germany, suddenly came to regard Germany in a much more negative light.
French diplomats took advantage of this, presenting a proposal to the Austrians where they and the rest of the now federalised Austrian Empire could join the Catholic League and economic bloc, uniting the Catholic powers of Europe under one banner and, crucially, giving Austria access to markets free from German dominance.
This proposal, along with a proposal for readmittance into the Mitteleuropa from the Kaiser, was considered at the highest levels of the Austrian government and, while many of the Catholic and traditionalist governing party, supported the French proposal, it was only the direct intervention of Emperor Otto I which finally swayed the decision in favour of the League - motivated by a desire to free Austria once and for all from dependence on the same Hohenzollern's who had robbed his ancestors of their rightful role as leader of the Germanies.
This one decision radically shifted the balance of power in Europe. Previously the German Empire on its own had boasted, on its own, industry and a military greater than all the nations of the League combined but, with the addition of Austria, Hungary and the other nations of the Austrian Empire to the League, the two power blocs suddenly found themselves evenly matched.
Additionally, Germany’s long border with Austria and Bohemia meant that years of planning by the Prussian Military Academy were now worthless. Previously all contingency plans had assumed a war in France with the Kingdom of France acting as a buffer to absorb the force of any potential League offensive until it could be stopped at the heavily fortified Franco-German border. But, as a result of decades of peace and friendship, there were no such fortifications along the border between Bavaria and Austria, leaving the entire underbelly of Germany now exposed to an attack by the League.
While war remained highly unlikely, the shock of being caught off guard by the Austrian decision, and their suddenly increased military vulnerability, led to fierce anti-Catholic and anti-Austrian feeling in Prussia with Austrian citizens and businesses effectively drummed out of the country altogether - something which effectively forced Austria to commit totally to the League as its previous bridges with Germany were now well and truly burned.
But anti-Austrian sentiment was not enough to satisfy the immense blow to German pride and so the Kaiser’s ministers looked quickly for a way to boost German prestige and to remind the world that Germany remained the most powerful nation in human history.
The solution they found was the United Baltic Duchy, carved out of Imperial Russia at the end of the First Weltkrieg, governed by a German duke and, by 1941, dominated by German colonists who had come to outnumber the ethnic Latvians and Estonians.
Following the successfully nationalist coups in Lithuania and White Ruthenia which had overthrown the German puppet governments, the Baltic Duchy had lost its land link to Germany and been left precariously trapped between anti-German regimes in Lithuania and Ruthenia on the one hand and the Bolshevik regime of the Soviet Republic on the other.
This, coupled with the German desire to boost their nation’s prestige, led to the triggering of a referendum in the Duchy on a proposal to formally join the German Empire as an Imperial State. With the majority of the population German the decision was never in any doubt - though it did quite sharply illustrate the division between the German settlers, who near universally voted to unify with Germany, and the native population who near universally voted to remain independent.
And so, on the 22nd of December, the United Baltic Duchy was formally incorporated into the German Empire as a reminder to the world that, regardless of Austrian 'treachery', Germany remained the most powerful nation on Earth.
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They should be.
I still feel a tad cheated on this one. The Germans shouldn't be stupid enough to oppress Catholics; trying to disrupt church and Papal authority is fine, but enforcing protestant prayers? Have they gone mad? Not to mention A-H in itself is a religious and cultural hotbed, and aligning itself with a clearly religious organization seems a tad off.
Either way, hurrah for another update and for yet another victory for the French empire! But at this rate, I'm worried that the Germans would be a pushover, no?
I still feel a tad cheated on this one. The Germans shouldn't be stupid enough to oppress Catholics; trying to disrupt church and Papal authority is fine, but enforcing protestant prayers? Have they gone mad? Not to mention A-H in itself is a religious and cultural hotbed, and aligning itself with a clearly religious organization seems a tad off.
Either way, hurrah for another update and for yet another victory for the French empire! But at this rate, I'm worried that the Germans would be a pushover, no?
That glimpse of Russia in the last screenshot makes me shudder. I don't suppose it gets anymore interesting over there?
Excellent (if a bit short)! I can't wait until next week. The Cold War is now officially a holy one. I agree with Hyo that I can't see a moderate Kaiser like Wilhelm III actively forcing Protestant customs on German Catholics; to make it work, I suggest that you mention something to the extent that the Kaiser only approved such measures because of extreme pressure from the GDVP, which readily seized on the anti-Catholic rap and demanded drastic action (these demands receiving popular support from both the Protestant clergy and the Prussian nobility).
As for the "cultural hotbed," I imagine that Hungary and the lesser states are allowed to be less committed to the League on the basis that they don't have a solid Catholic majority like Austria (i.e.they are exempt from adopting Catholic policies mandated by the League, and their participation is only in a military and economic sense, not a religious one).
As for the "cultural hotbed," I imagine that Hungary and the lesser states are allowed to be less committed to the League on the basis that they don't have a solid Catholic majority like Austria (i.e.they are exempt from adopting Catholic policies mandated by the League, and their participation is only in a military and economic sense, not a religious one).
Excellent AAR, I just read it entirely and I will follow it. I like how the cold war seem to be settled
I'll be honest, when I wrote the event for this one I gave the Austria AI an even chance of choosing to align with Germany or the League but I didn't realise that it meant that the whole Austrian Empire would join the League as well - so things are a bit out of balance now. That said, a human playing as Germany could still probably take on the League and win but yeah, the balance is wacked.
Also, I'm afraid I wasn't really too sure exactly how the Germans would got about disrupting papal authority - protestant prayers in schools was a bit of lazy writing on my part so I'm going to go back and fix it this evening.
However, I should point out that the League isn't anywhere near as united as it seems. France and Austria are both Catholic but are fairly secular semi-democracies. Spain, Italy and Portugal, on the other hand, are autocratic police states run by zealots. Couple that with the fact that the Austrian and French empires have a very large non-Catholic population, you're going to see some tensions very soon within the League between the nations which just use it as a military alliance and those nations which want to use it to enact strict religious laws throughout the League. I can safely say that the Austrian Empire won't remain united for long, for example.
Duke of Awesome, the Soviet Republic is going to continue to grow over the next few years so, without giving away too much, I can predict that things are going to start to look up for syndicalism in the future. In fact, I'm going to be giving the Soviets a little extra help in order to make the game a bit more interesting.
But yeah, sorry to everyone who feels a bit cheated by the last update. I can promise, however, that I'm going to make sure that the League's current fortune doesn't last for too long.
I've just given a quick fix to the update - please have a look and let me know if you all think it's a bit more plausible.
Indeed, quite better. At any case, I will be keep looking foward to what happens; because Austria especially seems interesting in its position towards the rest of the league:
A former CP country, religious hotbed, strongly dislikes the Pope, and is more or less despised by the Italians themselves. Could we have a League civil war soon?
A former CP country, religious hotbed, strongly dislikes the Pope, and is more or less despised by the Italians themselves. Could we have a League civil war soon?
Indeed, quite better. At any case, I will be keep looking foward to what happens; because Austria especially seems interesting in its position towards the rest of the league:
A former CP country, religious hotbed, strongly dislikes the Pope, and is more or less despised by the Italians themselves. Could we have a League civil war soon?
Lets not forget that the authoritarian democracy of the French Empire is very different to the theocratic autocracies of Italy and Spain as well and that French society - particularly after a generation of syndicalism - is much more secular. Do you think that might have anything to do with the reason why France invited Austria into the League at all?
We shall claim reclaim the rightful territories of the First French Empire! Let the drums of war be heard, to war, to Waaaaaaar!!!!!!
war is not the way, violence is not the answer. let's negotiate, let's sit down and talk
I don't think the entirety of the Austrian Empire should join the Catholic League. Austria and Bohemia (which would probably Germanize in a couple decades) makes sense, at a stretch, the entirety of Cisleithania. I don't know if Hungary should tag along. It doesn't stand to gain much except a generation of casualties from a League-German war.
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