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Coups
Even if it weren’t for all of its other problems, the democratic government of Central America seems to be on its last legs...
Coups! Voice of the People introduces a new Journal Entry that allows unhappy government Interest Groups to seize power and institute a new mode of rule. A Coup can begin when one of your ruling Interest Groups is Powerful, has negative Approval, and fundamentally opposes your democracy - or the ideological foundations of the government. Under these circumstances the Interest Group will typically begin plotting their Coup within a few months. You as the player can choose to either support or resist the coup.
It’s best to be careful who you choose to include in your government, lest they make their discontent known at ballistic speeds.
It will take several months for the instigators to execute their Coup, and their progress is tracked through a Journal Entry. While the instigators remain powerful and angry the progress bar will advance, and if they become appeased or weakened the progress bar will deplete. The Coup will simply fizzle out if the progress bar is fully depleted, or if the Interest Group no longer supports the law they’re trying to institute. The plot will also be put to an abrupt end if you decide to eject the potential traitors from the government, but doing so will immediately cause them to greatly reduce their Approval of the government, which means you may well have a Revolution on your hands.
Sometimes, advice just seems to fall from the sky.
Whilst a Coup is ongoing, events related to it will intermittently appear, allowing the player a chance to either speed along the death of their current government, or fight against it.
An interest group successfully couping the government will lead to their leader becoming the ruler of the country. Here, Central America has just acquired a new, much less amicable President.
If the instigators remain powerful and angry for long enough, they will be able to execute their Coup against the government and institute their desired law(s). These laws can vary, with the “default” coup simply installing an Autocracy with the coupists greatly favoured. However, ideological coups are also possible, and are generally related to governance principles, with a powerful monarchist interest group within the government being able to launch a coup for a monarchy, or powerful republicans doing the opposite to a monarchical government. A coup to change governance principles will, by default, instate the Oligarchy or Single-Party State laws as appropriate, rather than Autocracy.
The Natural Borders of France
Every good French Empire controls land up to the Rhine - can you even call yourself France if you don’t own Brussels?
The idea that the French border ought to extend significantly eastward was a popular one among nationalists of the era. After you research Nationalism and have a suitably jingoistic Interest Group in government, you’ll be presented with the option to pursue just such a border. If this seems like a sensible idea to you, you’ll be offered claims on the relevant State Regions but suffer a penalty to Infamy Decay. Your eastern neighbors, most notably Prussia, are not likely to appreciate this clear sign of imminent aggression.
Why fight, when you can win land without a shot fired?
Your southward expansion, however, need not be won by hostile force. The Treaty of Turin Decision is available to France if they are able to secure strong relations and an Obligation from the owner of Savoy. You might, for instance, benevolently help out Sardinia-Piedmont in their quest to unify Italy or expel the Austrians from the peninsula. If this country happens to also own Nice, they’ll throw that in as part of the bargain.
Finally, we have reached a completely unproblematic solution to the Belgian language problem.
Should France succeed in achieving these “natural borders”, the map of the region will look something like this. Here you have a further look at the changes we’ve made to State Regions in France, but you’ll also note that in order to achieve a truly aesthetic France we’ve split up the North Rhine so that the border matches the river. And since we’re on the topic of setup changes, I’ll also note that we’ve added 2 new cultures to the region. Franco-Provencal (in more modern times known as Arpitan) has homelands in Rhone, Savoy, and West Switzerland, and is the primary culture of the new releasable nation of Savoy. The Alemannic culture has homelands in East Switzerland, Baden, and Wurttemberg. With these additions we’ve removed Swiss culture and given Switzerland both the Alemannic and Franco-Provencal primary cultures.
Hello. This is Victoria, also known as Pacifica, and today I will be covering a selection of new content included in 1.3 and Voice of the People. The new immersion pack primarily focuses on France, but also contains content which can apply to other countries or spread to affect other nations.
Much of what I will cover is the result of us experimenting with more mechanically complex content to create scenarios that both play smoothly and provide a truly unique experience. It includes the Paris Commune, a complex formative event which ties into the reworked revolutions in 1.3, a reworked Belle Époque journal entry containing nearly five times as much flavour as before, and the Pébrine Epidemic, a minor crisis for Europe which requires the use of several interlocking game systems to resolve.
The Paris Commune
The Voice of the People immersion pack will allow for a France player to experience a formative moment in the history of the socialist movement - the Paris Commune. Once Socialism and Anarchism have been researched, if sufficiently beaten and destabilised, a revolution in France will unleash a tidal wave of proletarian anger in the city of Paris, leading to a major crisis that will threaten the future of the French nation.
Whilst the Paris Commune exists, the player will be able to influence both the workings of the Commune and the responses of the Versailles government, molding the crisis soon to come as they wish. A player controlling a reactionary France may wish to repress and sabotage the Commune as much as possible, in order to see through a successful occupation of Paris, whilst a player who wishes to side with the Commune may embolden it as much as possible, so that the National Guard may march on Versailles and seize power with a minimum of bloodshed. Advancing the bar as much as possible will allow for the latter outcome, whilst reducing it to zero will lead to the former, as was historical.
Pictured: So long as a revolution is not entirely reactionary, it will be able to spur the upheavals in Paris that lead to the establishment of the commune.
The Paris Commune, whilst radically progressive and opposed to the status quo of the conservative government which spawns it, is not entirely mature when it appears. Through events associated with the journal entry, the player will be given control of laws enacted by the Commune and the influence of factions within Paris’ barricades, choices that will both strengthen or weaken the Commune, and may have consequences even outside of Paris. The Commune possesses a wide cast of characters, from Louis Charles Delescluze to Louise Michel, all representing the various tendencies of the Commune.
Pictured: Whilst the Paris Commune starts as a simple progressive Parliamentary Republic with Universal Suffrage, many socialist figures within it call for the establishment of a true proletarian dictatorship. Rejecting Republicanism and embracing the Internationale will alienate some moderates, but will also allow for the Commune to immediately become one of the world’s first Council Republics.
If the Paris Commune endures for long enough for revolution to break out across the country, but does not progress enough to carry out an uncontested march on Versailles, the leaders of the Commune will be able to seize control of the uprising, granting Paris to the revolutionaries and allowing it to create a new France through a conventional civil war. If this outcome arrives, the player may either continue to play as the French central government or switch over to the Paris Commune, and decide the future of France on the battlefield.
Pictured: A powerful revolution by radical Industrialists, Intelligentsia, and Rural Folk declares itself for Paris, and strikes against the last remnants of the conservative monarchist government in Bretagne and Savoy.
If the Commune triumphs over the former government of France, the new France may take many shapes - but, whatever that is, it is certain to be one that rejects the conservatism of the traditional country, and, born in revolution, seeks to blaze a new path in a tumultuous world.
Pictured: A communist France, in its new wine-red, will no longer be more or less indistinguishable from Britain on the map.
Belle Époque Rework
The Belle Époque, formerly a journal entry tied to the Eiffel Tower, has received a comprehensive and entirely free makeover in 1.3. Sixteen new flavour events have been added to the journal entry, covering topics from early films to art-nouveau metro stations. The new events are intended to walk the player through the cultural and technological achievements of the late 19th century.
Whilst these events are written primarily for France, many of them also have generic variants which will be available for any other country that fits the conditions to unlock the Belle Époque. It would be cruel, after all, to deny the joys of roller-skating and steam tricycles to cities like St. Petersburg, New York, or Guangzhou.
Pictured: Just two examples of the new events added to the reworked journal entry.
The Pébrine Epidemic
In the mid to late 19th century, an epidemic of the silkworm disease pébrine spread through Europe, devastating the French and Italian silk industries. The identification of the cause of the disease was the work of Louis Pasteur, and a notable early application of the newly-developed germ theory.
The Voice of the People immersion pack will add the pébrine epidemic as a journal entry for various European nations, similar to the Spanish Flu journal entry. The disease will spread through Europe across borders and through markets, devastating silk plantations and kicking off tensions between suddenly-destitute workers and plantation owners. Successfully curing the disease through the power of newly-developed sciences will serve as a great bonus to national prestige.
Pictured: The finest silkworm-based content that Victoria 3 has to offer.
Greetings! My name is Hansi, known to a select few as Lufthansi, and I’m here to take you through some of the upcoming changes to France and Algeria.
Algeria
With the old Regency shattered by the initial French invasion six years prior, Algeria in 1836 is a land in chaos. Say goodbye to the old unified Algeria of pre-1.3, and say hello to this mess of a political setup, featuring nations such as the Emirate of Mascara under Abdelkader, the Berber kingdom of Ait-Abbas under the Mokrani family, and the Beylik of Constantine under Ahmad Bey. And who can forget the horse-riding, pistol-wielding, hemp-smoking mother-regent Aisha of the Sultanate of Touggourt?
Welcome - to the Algerian thunderdome.
Like France, Algeria has also received a state region makeover. The old state regions, lacking any real roots in historical administrative divisions, are gone. Instead, we are left with ones based on the mid 19th century départements of Oran, Algiers, and Constantine, which in turn roughly corresponds to the pre-French beyliks of the Regency of Algiers.
Like France, Algeria has also received a pops rework
Your goal as any of the players in the Algerian game, be they French invaders or Algerian defenders, will be to firstly consolidate your rule over Algeria proper. Needless to say, the French are more likely to come out on top, but should you manage to prevail as one of the Algerian minors, you will be rewarded, with your rewards depending on which nation you succeeded as.
The Regency-successor state in Constantine f.ex. will be able to restore the old Deylik.
As the French player, however, conquest alone is not enough. If Algeria is ever to become an integral part of France, you must also embark on a project of development, integration, and colonization. Whether you do this by supplanting the original population or through integrating it remains up to the player, although in any case, it will be a lengthy project.
A series of Journal Entries and events will accompany any would-be conquerors of Algeria
The Dreyfus Affair
Possibly the most infamous miscarriage of justice in modern history, the so-called “Affair” viciously tore through fin de siècle French society. Thoroughly embittering French political life, the Affair radicalized large portions of society and exposed and amplified the deep divides that characterised French society at the time. In 1.3 you get to re-experience this national trauma in the form of a Journal Entry, staking your way through a crisis characterized by antisemitism, deceit, stubbornness, and pride.
Shall the “march of truth” succeed, or will the forces of reaction bring it to a halt?
Guiseppe Garibaldi
Hardly in need of an introduction, Guiseppe Garibaldi is perhaps one of the most iconic characters of the 19th century. 1.3 sees his introduction as an agitator, with some extra content to boot. Should you find yourself fighting the good cause against enemies of liberty or enemies of Italy, there’s a chance “the Hero of the Two Worlds” will pop by and offer his services. The more conflicts he’s been a part of, the better a general he will become. Just don’t expect him to stay around for too long during peacetime. The enemies of liberty hardly rest after all, so neither can Garibaldi.
French Monarchism
While many associate France primarily with republicanism and revolution, throughout the 19th century it represented but one half of the domestic political spectrum. The other would be occupied by conservative thinkers and politicians usually coalescing around one of the many squabbling monarchist factions, each backing their own claimants to the throne of France.
To model this in game we have replaced the Royalist ideology with three new France-specific ideologies:
Orleanists represent the supporters of the Orléans cadet branch of the House of Bourbon, who came to power in France after the 1830 July Revolution. The Orleanists are for the most part supporters of a moderate-to-liberal constitutional monarchy, and it is the faction that starts in control of France in 1836.
Legitimists are the supporters of the deposed main branch of the House of Orléans. Thoroughly reactionary and anti-revolutionary in nature, they are in many ways the ideological heirs of the ultraroyalistes of the Bourbon Restoration, and desire a restructuring of France along traditionalist lines.
Bonapartists espouse the dynastic claims of the line of Napoleon Bonaparte, through his brother Louis. Historically brought to power in 1852 through the efforts of Louis-Napoléon, the Bonapartists believe in a strong government capable of restoring France to the heights of glory.
This ideological split will remain until one of the three factions successfully cements their hold on power. Doing so however, is not an easy task, as it will require careful political maneuvering to ensure that your faction remains on top in a notoriously politically unstable country, where many, frankly, would rather just do away with any and all monarchs, whether they’re Louis-Philippes or Napoleons.
Enthroning your pretender will not automatically delegitimize the others, that takes additional effort.
To accompany the French monarchist Journal Entries we have also added a series of events that will either aid or impede any attempts at getting the “right man” in power.
To accompany the French monarchist Journal Entries we have also added a series of events that will either aid or impede any attempts at getting the “right man” in power.
And that is all for today! Next week you’ll hear from Max, our Art Director, who will talk about the visual features coming in Voice of the People such as the
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