At the weekend. My exam leave is now over so I won't be able to get back to updating as often as I did in May until the end of June.
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At the weekend. My exam leave is now over so I won't be able to get back to updating as often as I did in May until the end of June.
1848 – The Year of Revolutions
The wave of Revolutions that swept across Europe in 1848 affected a total of 15 states as Liberalism, Nationalism and Socialism combined into a great outbreak of insurrection. Class War and Ethnic Nationalism combined as Europe experienced a truly extraordinary year.
For many years the growth of a class of urban poor, many in utter poverty, accompanied by the rise of ideologies like Liberalism and Socialism had brought Europe into a tense state of uneasiness between the classes, not too dissimilar to the situation prior to the Age of Revolutions. In 1848 all these tensions erupted to the surface.
France
February 1848 was where it all started. In the February Revolution the people of Paris overthrew King Charles XI- a man who would prove to be the last King of France and the last ruling member of the House of Valois.
In the place of the deposed Monarchy the people of France created the Second Republic and began a campaign of heavily subsidising the unemployed masses of France. Unemployment had been one of the main reasons for the Revolution in France, the recession there had left almost one million urban workers out of work bringing poverty on a grand scale. The Republic would create National Workshops to give jobs to these people.
This ideal of Revolution would quickly be exported across Europe. As the famed Austrian statesman Metternich noted ‘’When France sneezes Europe catches a cold’’. Once again the Old Continent had been infected the Revolutionary ideals of the French.
Sadly for the Second Republic it would be a short lived entity. By the middle of the year it was clear that the Republic was failing as business declined yet further (most French capitalists preferred not to invest in such a volatile climate) whilst public finances began to collapse under the great unemployment scheme. The old conservative factions of the French state began to form a solid block around the popular Louis Napoleon – heir to the dynasty of France’s national hero. In the election of 1848 Louis Napoleon became the Second Republic’s First President.
In 1852 he became Napoleon III, First Emperor of the Second Empire. Over the course of Louis Napoleon’s Presidency he had slowly regained control from the masses. As a much more popular ruler than the Valois Kings had ever been Louis was able to rely upon support from the uneducated masses and benefited from the memory of his illustrious ancestor. The Liberal Revolution had been totally reversed in France.
Kingdom of Spain
Spain, like France and the German lands, had experienced some level of industrialisation. However it was largely focussed around the cities of Madrid and Barcelona (with lesser concentrations of industry around Valencia, Lisbon and Seville). As the wave of Revolutions passed over Spain workers in these industrial cities took to the streets in hopes of creating a new Liberal Constitution.
At the time Spain was ruled by Queen Isabella I, a notoriously Liberal leader whose succession was contested by her uncle Carlos. As the problems in the cities escalated Isabella began to panic and in August she began to negotiate with the rebellious leaders. By September she had agreed to a new Constitution which adopted many of the Liberal points established by the revolutionaries. Yet this move caused a wave of anger throughout the country and the exiled, highly conservative, Don Carlos decided to return to Spain to take advantage of the reactionary support in the country.
After landing in Galicia Carlos began to form a large army around himself and marched Southward towards Madrid where he hoped to topple Isabella. The Government army would face his at the Battle of Salamanca. The Government had around 40,000 well trained soldiers whilst the Carlists had a veritable rabble army of 50,000.
Despite his army’s indiscipline Carlos secured a stunning victory at Salamanca as the entire Government army was routed, this left the road to Madrid clearly open. In early 1849 Madrid fell and the Carlists declared Don Carlos King Carlos III of Spain.
The Liberal forces of Isabella would fight on until 1851 when the last major stronghold of the Queen fell in Catalonia. In Spain the counterrevolution had established a much more conservative Monarchy.
Germany
The single most powerful movement during the year 1848 was the Pan-German movement that demanded the nation’s unification. Great riots and battles on the streets erupted throughout the German lands as calls for unification drew great strength.
In Austria the Germans coupled with other National Movements in effectively crippling the state as the Government largely failed to keep order, helping the Empire onward into its descent into utter chaos.
Yet in the first couple of months of the Revolution the Pan-Germans seemed to be fighting a losing battle as no serious gains were being made.
Things all changed in May as the Grand Duchy of Hesse had its government overthrown by the German Nationalists. These Nationalists then invited fellow Pan-German leaders to Frankfurt where they established a Parliament that was known as the Frankfurt Assembly. After much negotiation it was decided that the Assembly required the support of a powerful Monarch in order to protect it and secure the goal of Unification and so on July 18th the Assembly offered the German crown to King Karl I of Prussia.
In spite of the pleas of his talented Chancellor Otto von Bismarck Karl accepted the offer of the Assembly and on July 25th he became Kaiser Karl I of the German Empire. Hesse was annexed into the new German state whilst in August Karl invaded and annexed Saxe-Coburg. Unsurprisingly the Habsburgs threatened war, in any other circumstances the new German state would have faced an invasion by 200,000 Habsburg soldiers yet in mid 1848 Austria could barely move her armies between Munich and Vienna never mind launch an invasion against the best trained army on earth. Indeed, the partial unification only succeeded in further enraging the Pan-German Nationalists into further acts of violent rebellion.
As the Summer wore on it was clear that something drastic had to be done and so Chancellor Albert von Brandenburg resigned from office, paving the way for an election.
The result of the election was a great triumph for the Liberal-Federalists. Strangely, aside from the German Nationalists, all the other Nationalist parties suffered. The Christian Union saw all its seats lost as an independent representative secured the only seat outside of the mainstream groups. The result was one of the worst reverses in Austrian electoral history for the Freedom Party Austria who lost 43 of 52 seats. Prior to the election the Union of Austrian Slavs had actually agreed to become absorbed into the BLP whilst the Conservative message of the Lombard League had convinced many to look to the BLP. Meanwhile the victory of this Liberal faction brought the chaos largely to an end as the majority of German Nationalists had also wanted a more Liberal government in Vienna. Thus the BLP victory left many Nationalists feeling that their wishes had been secured.
The Greek States
In the Greek states there was little actual violence during 1848 however the year saw the birth of the Greek National movement. For so many centuries the Greeks had been defined by their religion but after 1848 Muslim and Orthodox Greek would once again start to look at each other as brothers. This national awakening amongst the Greeks would later give birth to one of Europe’s major players.
Croatia and Serbia
In the year 1848 Croatia, a nation whose population was almost half Orthodox (most of whom were Serbs), became crippled by the revolts its non-Croat population. In Serbia too the Serb nationalists called for action and unification with their brethren across the border. In March, after an election in Serbia, the Serb nationalists swept to power and in the name of securing the rightful ‘’Serbdom’’ invaded Croatia.
Despite being the major power in the Balkans the Croatian army faced defeat after defeat to the Serbs. A mixture of significant partisan activity and brilliant leadership of the much smaller and worse equipped Serb army led to the Croats slowly withdrawing. As the people in Zagreb began to riot against their government the Croatians decided that they needed to secure peace and so ceded all their Orthodox territories to Serbia.
Italy and Hungary
Whilst Italy and Hungary were affected significantly by the revolutions of 1848 neither state faced any major threat from the revolters as they failed to draw enough support for revolution. The only lasting consequence of the revolution in these states was a major awakening of nationalism and liberalism and the introduction of socialism. The national movements within the two states would set them firmly against Austria for many years to come.
1848 had greatly changed the European continent. In Spain and France new Monarchs ruled, in Austria a government had been toppled whilst in Greece a new idea of Greek nationhood had been born. Meanwhile Croatia had faced military defeat to Serbia whilst the new German Empire had annexed the vital buffer betwixt the two German superpowers.
The wave of Revolutions that swept across Europe in 1848 affected a total of 15 states as Liberalism, Nationalism and Socialism combined into a great outbreak of insurrection. Class War and Ethnic Nationalism combined as Europe experienced a truly extraordinary year.
For many years the growth of a class of urban poor, many in utter poverty, accompanied by the rise of ideologies like Liberalism and Socialism had brought Europe into a tense state of uneasiness between the classes, not too dissimilar to the situation prior to the Age of Revolutions. In 1848 all these tensions erupted to the surface.
France
February 1848 was where it all started. In the February Revolution the people of Paris overthrew King Charles XI- a man who would prove to be the last King of France and the last ruling member of the House of Valois.
In the place of the deposed Monarchy the people of France created the Second Republic and began a campaign of heavily subsidising the unemployed masses of France. Unemployment had been one of the main reasons for the Revolution in France, the recession there had left almost one million urban workers out of work bringing poverty on a grand scale. The Republic would create National Workshops to give jobs to these people.
This ideal of Revolution would quickly be exported across Europe. As the famed Austrian statesman Metternich noted ‘’When France sneezes Europe catches a cold’’. Once again the Old Continent had been infected the Revolutionary ideals of the French.
Sadly for the Second Republic it would be a short lived entity. By the middle of the year it was clear that the Republic was failing as business declined yet further (most French capitalists preferred not to invest in such a volatile climate) whilst public finances began to collapse under the great unemployment scheme. The old conservative factions of the French state began to form a solid block around the popular Louis Napoleon – heir to the dynasty of France’s national hero. In the election of 1848 Louis Napoleon became the Second Republic’s First President.
In 1852 he became Napoleon III, First Emperor of the Second Empire. Over the course of Louis Napoleon’s Presidency he had slowly regained control from the masses. As a much more popular ruler than the Valois Kings had ever been Louis was able to rely upon support from the uneducated masses and benefited from the memory of his illustrious ancestor. The Liberal Revolution had been totally reversed in France.
Kingdom of Spain
Spain, like France and the German lands, had experienced some level of industrialisation. However it was largely focussed around the cities of Madrid and Barcelona (with lesser concentrations of industry around Valencia, Lisbon and Seville). As the wave of Revolutions passed over Spain workers in these industrial cities took to the streets in hopes of creating a new Liberal Constitution.
At the time Spain was ruled by Queen Isabella I, a notoriously Liberal leader whose succession was contested by her uncle Carlos. As the problems in the cities escalated Isabella began to panic and in August she began to negotiate with the rebellious leaders. By September she had agreed to a new Constitution which adopted many of the Liberal points established by the revolutionaries. Yet this move caused a wave of anger throughout the country and the exiled, highly conservative, Don Carlos decided to return to Spain to take advantage of the reactionary support in the country.
After landing in Galicia Carlos began to form a large army around himself and marched Southward towards Madrid where he hoped to topple Isabella. The Government army would face his at the Battle of Salamanca. The Government had around 40,000 well trained soldiers whilst the Carlists had a veritable rabble army of 50,000.
Despite his army’s indiscipline Carlos secured a stunning victory at Salamanca as the entire Government army was routed, this left the road to Madrid clearly open. In early 1849 Madrid fell and the Carlists declared Don Carlos King Carlos III of Spain.
The Liberal forces of Isabella would fight on until 1851 when the last major stronghold of the Queen fell in Catalonia. In Spain the counterrevolution had established a much more conservative Monarchy.
Germany
The single most powerful movement during the year 1848 was the Pan-German movement that demanded the nation’s unification. Great riots and battles on the streets erupted throughout the German lands as calls for unification drew great strength.
In Austria the Germans coupled with other National Movements in effectively crippling the state as the Government largely failed to keep order, helping the Empire onward into its descent into utter chaos.
Yet in the first couple of months of the Revolution the Pan-Germans seemed to be fighting a losing battle as no serious gains were being made.
Things all changed in May as the Grand Duchy of Hesse had its government overthrown by the German Nationalists. These Nationalists then invited fellow Pan-German leaders to Frankfurt where they established a Parliament that was known as the Frankfurt Assembly. After much negotiation it was decided that the Assembly required the support of a powerful Monarch in order to protect it and secure the goal of Unification and so on July 18th the Assembly offered the German crown to King Karl I of Prussia.
In spite of the pleas of his talented Chancellor Otto von Bismarck Karl accepted the offer of the Assembly and on July 25th he became Kaiser Karl I of the German Empire. Hesse was annexed into the new German state whilst in August Karl invaded and annexed Saxe-Coburg. Unsurprisingly the Habsburgs threatened war, in any other circumstances the new German state would have faced an invasion by 200,000 Habsburg soldiers yet in mid 1848 Austria could barely move her armies between Munich and Vienna never mind launch an invasion against the best trained army on earth. Indeed, the partial unification only succeeded in further enraging the Pan-German Nationalists into further acts of violent rebellion.
As the Summer wore on it was clear that something drastic had to be done and so Chancellor Albert von Brandenburg resigned from office, paving the way for an election.
The result of the election was a great triumph for the Liberal-Federalists. Strangely, aside from the German Nationalists, all the other Nationalist parties suffered. The Christian Union saw all its seats lost as an independent representative secured the only seat outside of the mainstream groups. The result was one of the worst reverses in Austrian electoral history for the Freedom Party Austria who lost 43 of 52 seats. Prior to the election the Union of Austrian Slavs had actually agreed to become absorbed into the BLP whilst the Conservative message of the Lombard League had convinced many to look to the BLP. Meanwhile the victory of this Liberal faction brought the chaos largely to an end as the majority of German Nationalists had also wanted a more Liberal government in Vienna. Thus the BLP victory left many Nationalists feeling that their wishes had been secured.
The Greek States
In the Greek states there was little actual violence during 1848 however the year saw the birth of the Greek National movement. For so many centuries the Greeks had been defined by their religion but after 1848 Muslim and Orthodox Greek would once again start to look at each other as brothers. This national awakening amongst the Greeks would later give birth to one of Europe’s major players.
Croatia and Serbia
In the year 1848 Croatia, a nation whose population was almost half Orthodox (most of whom were Serbs), became crippled by the revolts its non-Croat population. In Serbia too the Serb nationalists called for action and unification with their brethren across the border. In March, after an election in Serbia, the Serb nationalists swept to power and in the name of securing the rightful ‘’Serbdom’’ invaded Croatia.
Despite being the major power in the Balkans the Croatian army faced defeat after defeat to the Serbs. A mixture of significant partisan activity and brilliant leadership of the much smaller and worse equipped Serb army led to the Croats slowly withdrawing. As the people in Zagreb began to riot against their government the Croatians decided that they needed to secure peace and so ceded all their Orthodox territories to Serbia.
Italy and Hungary
Whilst Italy and Hungary were affected significantly by the revolutions of 1848 neither state faced any major threat from the revolters as they failed to draw enough support for revolution. The only lasting consequence of the revolution in these states was a major awakening of nationalism and liberalism and the introduction of socialism. The national movements within the two states would set them firmly against Austria for many years to come.
1848 had greatly changed the European continent. In Spain and France new Monarchs ruled, in Austria a government had been toppled whilst in Greece a new idea of Greek nationhood had been born. Meanwhile Croatia had faced military defeat to Serbia whilst the new German Empire had annexed the vital buffer betwixt the two German superpowers.
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The Seeds of war have been sowed. I think you should start looking for friends to counter the Germans, Italians, and the Hungarians. Personally I think Britian, France, Poland, and the Byzantines would make great allies. Britian cause they are a huge world power and you would also get the backing of the swedes and Dutch (also please don't tell me the ruler of Brits is a Victoria we already got Victor we don't need to confuse the two) the French so that they could keep the italians distracted in the south (mostly the islands), the Poles, well cause they are Poles Austria's bros for life. And finally the Byzantines cause if any one faction is going to unify Greece it going to be them or the Islamic Republic. Why? Cause they have a huge industry and my guess they have the largest population. They could fuel Greek Unification with the fires of Neo-Byzantium. But that is only my two cent piece. Great update Tommy 
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NOOOOOO!
Freedom Party! Freedom Party! Freedom Party!
Paid for by the Freedom Party of Austria
Freedom Party! Freedom Party! Freedom Party!
Paid for by the Freedom Party of Austria
Viva la revolucion! Long live the Revolution! Death to the monarchist pi-
Dang it. How many republics are there in this world now?
Dang it. How many republics are there in this world now?
Second Austrian Government
Election of 1848
The Austrian Election of 1848 took place in a backdrop of revolution and anarchy. The FPO was utterly crushed whilst both the GDDP and BLP experienced significant increases in their power in the Reichstag. The election also seemed to sweep away the weaker parties in the Reichstag – The Union of Austrian Slavs united with the BLP, the Christian Union lost its last seats whilst the Lombard League failed to add to its 5 seats despite the outbreak of a wave of Italian Nationalism (the BLP benefitted instead).
This left the untested, rather young, BLP leader – Konrad Graf – as Chancellor of the Austrian Empire.
Konrad Graf
Lived: 1819-1904
Chancellor of the Austrian Empire: 1848-1852
Political Party: Federal-Liberal Party
Government: Federal-Liberal Party (1848-1852)
When Graf became Chancellor he was presented with a terrible situation. The newly formed German Empire had invaded two friendly, and sovereign, states to the North and now looked ominously Southward whilst throughout the Empire riots still raged and government authority continued to dwindle.
Yet young Konrad moved quickly to settle his populace as he introduced a reform that transformed Austria into a far more Federal Empire.
1. Rhineland
2. Baden-Württemberg
3. Bavaria
4. Saxony
5. Silesia
6. Bohemia
7. Slovakia
8. Austria
9. Carinthia
10. Lombardy
Austria was divided into 10 separate states. Each state (6 of which were almost entirely German) was granted an Imperial Council. This Imperial Council effectively functioned as a local Reichstag as local elections decided the members of the Councils and the Councils required the Emperor’s permission for any Acts passed. However the Councils lacked both funding and power. At the outset they could have little effect on their regions and their pitiful budgets were often largely absorbed by the cost of maintaining themselves. However by creating these Imperial Councils Graf had taken an important step towards his dream of a Federal Empire.
Konrad also moved to shrink the term between elections as he now changed the law so each election must take place at a maximum of four years from the last.
Over the course of Konrad Graf’s reign as Chancellor a new, extremely dangerous, ideology began to explode in popularity among the slums and factories of the Industrial sprawls throughout the Empire. Socialism had arrived. In 1849 Austria’s new Socialists, inspired by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel’s Communist Manifesto from the year before, formed the Socialist Workers Party (SAP). This new force greatly shook up politics as its rapid rise and anti-establishmentarianism destabilised the political system. It seemed only the Marxists could promise the workers what they needed; not the Liberals, not the Emperor, not the Church. Both Marx and Engels were Austrian citizens, official members of the SAP and the Socialist movement’s Patriarchs. Yet the pair were in many ways at odds with the SAP leadership. Both the Marxists and the SAP leaders agreed that the SAP would first need to be elected however the Marxists had a rather more violent image of what would happen following the SAP’s electoral victory. For the rest of its history the SAP would struggle to hold together the varying branches of Socialism in Austria as it strove towards the creation of a worker’s utopia.
In the late Summer of 1849 Konrad Graf sent a team of diplomats (as well as representatives from the Viceroyalty of California) to Boston for the great International Council that would determine the fate of the North American Interior.
Austria annexed the lands to the West of the Rocky Mountains, gaining pretty much what it had expected. New England received large tracts of prairie land, yet without railways this area had little hope of prosperity. Meanwhile Mexico, much to the consternation of both the Austrians and Louisianans, gained a significant amount of land to its North. Neither the Spanish speaking citizens of the CSA or the French speaking men of Louisiana received anything. However the powers agreed to a deal that solved what both the CSA and New England called ‘’The Indian Problem’’. Essentially the increasing populations of the two states had put serious pressure upon the native populations (which were much larger in these states than elsewhere) and so both nations were eager to remove these Indians. So by creating a nation for the Indians the hope was that the troublesome locals could be removed so the European colonisation of America could continue. All the North American nations granted their guarantee of independence to the Indian Nation, agreed to ‘encourage’ their native populations to move to the nation and also agreed to contribute to the ‘civilisation’ of the Indian nation. Essentially advisors from all the nations were sent to the new state to help the Indians set up a European style nation-state in the Mid-West.
Between 1849 and 1856 as many as one million Native American tribesmen made the journey to the Indian nation as they were forced off their land, largely through the use of US and CSA cavalry. Roughly one in every three to make the journey died on route. This event is commonly known as the Trail of Tears.
In 1851 Konrad finally faced down the enormous elephant that haunted every room in which he walked – he travelled to Berlin for talks with the self proclaimed German Emperor. Graf moved to face a Monarch who claimed sovereignty over half of Austria’s people, who had invaded Austrian allies without so much as a warning and who possessed the most powerful army on earth (although one admittedly smaller than that of Austria).
The talks were icy as Graf tried and failed to make Kaiser Karl of Germany give up the lands he had occupied and abandon his provocative title. However as the talks wore on and over a month passed things began to improve. By the Autumn of 1851 the two Germanic Empires had a consensus:
Karl would continue to rule as the German Emperor, his nation would be called the German Empire and its borders would be recognised as those of Prussia with the additions of the lands in Central Germany conquered in 1848. However Karl would openly surrender his claims to the German speaking lands of Austria and to the German people of the Habsburg domain. The Germans also secretly agreed to support Austria in a plot to annex the Duchy of Alsace (Konrad felt this move would appease the almighty German Nationalist voice in the Reichstag and on the streets).
As expected the agreement – which effectively ruled out any form of German unification for the foreseeable future – caused quite some anger amongst the supporters of the GDDP. This is why Graf had looked to ensure Northern support for his move against Alsace.
Austria quickly moved to attempts of provocation against the small Duchy on the French border. The Duke faced insults and a large Austrian troops build up whilst Austrian soldiers frequently crossed the border and raided Alsatian towns and villages. On May 5th 1852 Graf seemed to have received the casus belli he needed to invade as a squad of Austrian soldiers on the West Bank of the Rhine were killed by Alsatian forces. However just as he moved to declare war the inevitable backlash from the French appeared. President Louis Napoleon had just ascended to the status of Emperor Napoleon III weeks before and was eager to flex his Imperial muscles.
Napoleon III had 50,000 men march into the Duchy of Alsace, at the Duke’s request, whilst a further 100,000 men were sent to Wallonia on the Franco-Austrian border and the Alpine forts in the South of the country were reinforced. The French Emperor then warned Vienna that any attack on Alsace would be considered an attack upon France.
This is where Konrad Graf sorely miscalculated. The clear baiting of Austria by the French enraged the press, sending it into a jingoistic rage meanwhile in the Reichstag both GDDP and FPO MRs riotously called for war. Yet Konrad Graf had no intention of leading the Empire into a bloody slaughter over a single German Duchy.
Konrad therefore decided to resign, calling the election and campaigning upon a slogan of peace and compromise. He was doomed to failure.
Election of 1848
The Austrian Election of 1848 took place in a backdrop of revolution and anarchy. The FPO was utterly crushed whilst both the GDDP and BLP experienced significant increases in their power in the Reichstag. The election also seemed to sweep away the weaker parties in the Reichstag – The Union of Austrian Slavs united with the BLP, the Christian Union lost its last seats whilst the Lombard League failed to add to its 5 seats despite the outbreak of a wave of Italian Nationalism (the BLP benefitted instead).
This left the untested, rather young, BLP leader – Konrad Graf – as Chancellor of the Austrian Empire.
Konrad Graf
Lived: 1819-1904
Chancellor of the Austrian Empire: 1848-1852
Political Party: Federal-Liberal Party
Government: Federal-Liberal Party (1848-1852)
When Graf became Chancellor he was presented with a terrible situation. The newly formed German Empire had invaded two friendly, and sovereign, states to the North and now looked ominously Southward whilst throughout the Empire riots still raged and government authority continued to dwindle.
Yet young Konrad moved quickly to settle his populace as he introduced a reform that transformed Austria into a far more Federal Empire.
1. Rhineland
2. Baden-Württemberg
3. Bavaria
4. Saxony
5. Silesia
6. Bohemia
7. Slovakia
8. Austria
9. Carinthia
10. Lombardy
Austria was divided into 10 separate states. Each state (6 of which were almost entirely German) was granted an Imperial Council. This Imperial Council effectively functioned as a local Reichstag as local elections decided the members of the Councils and the Councils required the Emperor’s permission for any Acts passed. However the Councils lacked both funding and power. At the outset they could have little effect on their regions and their pitiful budgets were often largely absorbed by the cost of maintaining themselves. However by creating these Imperial Councils Graf had taken an important step towards his dream of a Federal Empire.
Konrad also moved to shrink the term between elections as he now changed the law so each election must take place at a maximum of four years from the last.
Over the course of Konrad Graf’s reign as Chancellor a new, extremely dangerous, ideology began to explode in popularity among the slums and factories of the Industrial sprawls throughout the Empire. Socialism had arrived. In 1849 Austria’s new Socialists, inspired by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel’s Communist Manifesto from the year before, formed the Socialist Workers Party (SAP). This new force greatly shook up politics as its rapid rise and anti-establishmentarianism destabilised the political system. It seemed only the Marxists could promise the workers what they needed; not the Liberals, not the Emperor, not the Church. Both Marx and Engels were Austrian citizens, official members of the SAP and the Socialist movement’s Patriarchs. Yet the pair were in many ways at odds with the SAP leadership. Both the Marxists and the SAP leaders agreed that the SAP would first need to be elected however the Marxists had a rather more violent image of what would happen following the SAP’s electoral victory. For the rest of its history the SAP would struggle to hold together the varying branches of Socialism in Austria as it strove towards the creation of a worker’s utopia.
In the late Summer of 1849 Konrad Graf sent a team of diplomats (as well as representatives from the Viceroyalty of California) to Boston for the great International Council that would determine the fate of the North American Interior.
Austria annexed the lands to the West of the Rocky Mountains, gaining pretty much what it had expected. New England received large tracts of prairie land, yet without railways this area had little hope of prosperity. Meanwhile Mexico, much to the consternation of both the Austrians and Louisianans, gained a significant amount of land to its North. Neither the Spanish speaking citizens of the CSA or the French speaking men of Louisiana received anything. However the powers agreed to a deal that solved what both the CSA and New England called ‘’The Indian Problem’’. Essentially the increasing populations of the two states had put serious pressure upon the native populations (which were much larger in these states than elsewhere) and so both nations were eager to remove these Indians. So by creating a nation for the Indians the hope was that the troublesome locals could be removed so the European colonisation of America could continue. All the North American nations granted their guarantee of independence to the Indian Nation, agreed to ‘encourage’ their native populations to move to the nation and also agreed to contribute to the ‘civilisation’ of the Indian nation. Essentially advisors from all the nations were sent to the new state to help the Indians set up a European style nation-state in the Mid-West.
Between 1849 and 1856 as many as one million Native American tribesmen made the journey to the Indian nation as they were forced off their land, largely through the use of US and CSA cavalry. Roughly one in every three to make the journey died on route. This event is commonly known as the Trail of Tears.
In 1851 Konrad finally faced down the enormous elephant that haunted every room in which he walked – he travelled to Berlin for talks with the self proclaimed German Emperor. Graf moved to face a Monarch who claimed sovereignty over half of Austria’s people, who had invaded Austrian allies without so much as a warning and who possessed the most powerful army on earth (although one admittedly smaller than that of Austria).
The talks were icy as Graf tried and failed to make Kaiser Karl of Germany give up the lands he had occupied and abandon his provocative title. However as the talks wore on and over a month passed things began to improve. By the Autumn of 1851 the two Germanic Empires had a consensus:
Karl would continue to rule as the German Emperor, his nation would be called the German Empire and its borders would be recognised as those of Prussia with the additions of the lands in Central Germany conquered in 1848. However Karl would openly surrender his claims to the German speaking lands of Austria and to the German people of the Habsburg domain. The Germans also secretly agreed to support Austria in a plot to annex the Duchy of Alsace (Konrad felt this move would appease the almighty German Nationalist voice in the Reichstag and on the streets).
As expected the agreement – which effectively ruled out any form of German unification for the foreseeable future – caused quite some anger amongst the supporters of the GDDP. This is why Graf had looked to ensure Northern support for his move against Alsace.
Austria quickly moved to attempts of provocation against the small Duchy on the French border. The Duke faced insults and a large Austrian troops build up whilst Austrian soldiers frequently crossed the border and raided Alsatian towns and villages. On May 5th 1852 Graf seemed to have received the casus belli he needed to invade as a squad of Austrian soldiers on the West Bank of the Rhine were killed by Alsatian forces. However just as he moved to declare war the inevitable backlash from the French appeared. President Louis Napoleon had just ascended to the status of Emperor Napoleon III weeks before and was eager to flex his Imperial muscles.
Napoleon III had 50,000 men march into the Duchy of Alsace, at the Duke’s request, whilst a further 100,000 men were sent to Wallonia on the Franco-Austrian border and the Alpine forts in the South of the country were reinforced. The French Emperor then warned Vienna that any attack on Alsace would be considered an attack upon France.
This is where Konrad Graf sorely miscalculated. The clear baiting of Austria by the French enraged the press, sending it into a jingoistic rage meanwhile in the Reichstag both GDDP and FPO MRs riotously called for war. Yet Konrad Graf had no intention of leading the Empire into a bloody slaughter over a single German Duchy.
Konrad therefore decided to resign, calling the election and campaigning upon a slogan of peace and compromise. He was doomed to failure.
Grr, New England got too much land.
The advanced 2000 km westwards, Kalifornia getting 1000 km eastwards? Wtf?
Federal republics are the worst form of nations!
*cry*
The advanced 2000 km westwards, Kalifornia getting 1000 km eastwards? Wtf?
Federal republics are the worst form of nations!
*cry*
spock2: Surely with a mighty fleet and army Austria is in a good position to hold onto her Empire?
dinofs: You shall see in the election of the next update. It is very big for such a young movement and will only grow ....
Enewald: New England mostly got (at this stage) utterly useless land that no other nation would want. Indeed the MidWest was almost totally worthless for all players here. So I think advancing Habsburg lands to the Rockies was a good outcome.
JDMS: The Freedom Party is pretty beaten up, however with its campaigning focussed upon support for a war it will have to deliver if the the party wins the election.
Also, why do you like the Freedom Party so much?
dinofs: You shall see in the election of the next update. It is very big for such a young movement and will only grow ....
Enewald: New England mostly got (at this stage) utterly useless land that no other nation would want. Indeed the MidWest was almost totally worthless for all players here. So I think advancing Habsburg lands to the Rockies was a good outcome.
JDMS: The Freedom Party is pretty beaten up, however with its campaigning focussed upon support for a war it will have to deliver if the the party wins the election.
Also, why do you like the Freedom Party so much?
JDMS: The Freedom Party is pretty beaten up, however with its campaigning focussed upon support for a war it will have to deliver if the the party wins the election.
Also, why do you like the Freedom Party so much?
I have no idea. I guess I decided it would be fun to attach myself to a party and support it, and the Freedom Party matched my ideals the most besides the Christian party (forgot the name
o) which was incorporated into the Freedom Party anyway. 
Still following the AAR, and I have to say that the last few updates were perhaps the best since the 1750's.
Third Austrian Government (Part 1)
Election of 1852
The Election of 1852 was dominated by one issue – should the Empire go to war with France over the Duchy of Alsace. The BLP bravely campaigned against war and therefore suffered. The Lombard League, the last truly powerful party of a minority group, alongside the Christian Union called for a diplomatic solution to the crisis whilst the Socialist Worker’s Party (SAP) called for all out pacifism with Engels even coming out to openly speak to crowds in order to convince them to avoid war (many believe this pacifist front really boosted the SAP’s vote in what was its first election). Meanwhile the GDDP played heavily on German nationalism as it fought in favour of war; the GDDP hoped it could preserve its powerful Reichstag presence gained in the 1848 election. Finally the FPO, that grand old party of the Austrian conservatives, campaigned for war, although they did so in a much less vigorous manner than the GDDP.
The Election itself delivered another hung Parliament as the days of single party rule once again came to an end. The FPO recovered strongly from their 1848 humiliation as they increased their share of the Reichstag from 9 seats to 24. The GDDP largely preserved their vote as they lost just 4 seats despite the clear decline in radical nationalism since the exuberance of 1848. The BLP meanwhile suffered badly, despite remaining as the largest party in the Reichstag, they lost 21 seats. Meanwhile the minor parties of the Christian Union and Lombard League both had good elections as the Lombard League lost just one seat and the Christian Union returned to the Reichstag with 2. However the main force that changed things in 1852 was the rise of the SAP, before the recent emergence of socialism Austria’s workers had tended to associate themselves either with the GDDP (if they were nationalistic, rightwing, Germans) or the BLP (if they were more liberal) but the SAP provided a new, much more attractive option. A party for the workers. The impressive early showing of the SAP, claiming 10 of the 100 Reichstag seats, showed to the nation that socialism was a real force and pointed towards future victories for the ideology. Karl Marx claimed that the election of 1852 marked the beginning of socialism’s march to victory in Europe.
However it was not the left but the right that succeeded in 1852 as the GDDP and FPO united for war and governance. Despite the protests of the FPO, whose aristocratic hierarchy looked down upon the less well bred GDDP leadership, the GDDP was allowed to provide Emperor Victor with the Chancellor. That man would be the relatively young Georg Fichte (42 in 1852) was a true member of the emerging Austrian middle classes. These were the new rich, self made men benefitting from the Empire’s rapid industrialisation. Fichte himself had been born as the son of a reasonably wealthy master craftsman and had gone on to found a textiles Empire which left him with enormous wealth and factories in Milan, Prague, Dresden, Nuremberg, Cologne and Frankfurt.
The latest Coalition would be known as the National Front.
Georg Fichte
Lived: 1810-1865
Chancellor of the Austrian Empire: 1852-1860
Political Party: Greater German Democratic Party
Government: National Front (1852-1860)
The new Chancellor quickly began to manoeuvre himself to make good on his promise of French blood. A large force, around 60,000 men, was sent to man the Alpine forts on the Austro-French border in Italy. Meanwhile as many as ¼ of a million men were prepared along the border between Wallonia in the North and Alsace in the South. On this front the Austrians greatly outnumbered the French, the French could muster perhaps 160,000 with a further 10,000 men coming from Alsace whilst Austria had 250,000. Therefore Fichte had reason to be confident that his army could easily crush the eternal enemy of the Empire – the perfidious Franks.
The Austrian declaration of war came within months of Fichte’s ascension; the Emperor’s Generals had devised a simple and apparently foolproof plan. They would striker with one almighty hammer blow through Alsace. The French had sent a large force into the area but the defences of Alsace remained much weaker than those of Wallonia, it was also notable that the French lacked a strong reserve behind their lines in Alsace. This meant that should victory be won in the Duchy then the road to Paris would be largely open for the Imperial Army. Surely it would be impossible for Austria to lose?
It did not take long for it to become clear that the war would not be won quite as easily as the Austrians had hoped. The crossing of the Rhine was an ordeal, poor command meant that it took almost an entire week before enough Austrian troops had managed to cross to begin the offensive in earnest – this allowed the French time to react to the Austrian offensive and prepare defences further inland from Alsace. Then the Austrians were drawn into a long siege of Metz which lasted from August 1852 until January 1853. This meant that it wasn’t until the second year of the war that the great offensive deep into French lands could truly begin.
In the Spring things greatly improved for the Austrian army as they struck deep into French territory, eventually pinning the French army in the Battle of Chalons (South-East of Rheims). The Austrians had perhaps as many as 100,000 men to a French force of roughly 80,000. Victory would leave Paris in serious danger and give the Austrians a truly great chance of total victory.
The Austrian Army secured just what was required of it as the French were routed. A fateful charge by the French light cavalry in a vain attempt to silence the German artillery that battered the French lines ended in glorious failure and set the French on their way to defeat. After two more hours being battered by the Austrian guns, and several skirmishes with the Austrian infantry the French withdrew from the field.
The Austrians might have continued to march onwards to Paris had they not faced threats on their flanks. In the North the Austrian Generals had hoped to bypass the border forts and attack Wallonia from the South, thus removing the threat of attacks on the Rhineland and bringing the area’s hefty garrison into play, but these plans had been dashed before the rocks as the Austrian Army faced a terrible defeat at Luxembourg. Meanwhile, despite controlling both Metz and Strasbourg, the Duke of Alsace remained a thorn in the flank of the Austrian advance as he held out in Mulhouse and continued to threaten the Austrians as the advanced deeper into France. The French continuously harassed the thin Austrian supply line making any further advances impossible.
It was at this time that Napoleon III decided to take to the field as the commander of the Army of the North – some 60,000 crack French troops placed strategically to the to the South of Brussels.
Napoleon march Southward in tandem with a further French army marching Northward to cut off the Austrian salient and isolate around 90,000 Austrians at Rheims. The pendulum had swung suddenly in favour of the French and for the rest of 1853 the Austrians would lie besieged in Rheims as further, ever more desperate, attempts were made to relive them.
In November the Austrian army finally surrendered and the Empire suffered its single worst Post-Napoleonic defeat of the 19th century. Between November and the Spring the two Empires would uneasily watch each other as troops were moved around, the French preparing for an offensive and the Austrians preparing to face it.
The campaign of 1853 was by far the bloodiest of the war as the now inflated armies of the French and Austrians both suffered horrendous casualties in a series of sieges and pitched battles that changed virtually nothing. The one major change was the fall of Mulhouse to the Austrians, through treachery rather than military brilliance as a group of German nationalists betrayed the French garrison and allowed the Austrians the opportunity to enter the city. However this success merely buoyed the Austrians on to an attack into France that ended in disaster.
By the end of 1853 both armies were exhausted but the peoples of both Empires still demanded victory. It would require outside influence to end this conflict.
Throughout the Alsatian War the British Lion had been in slumber. It was tradition and indeed international policy to stick out of conflicts between the Europeans unless one side looked set for Continental Domination yet in 1854 an exception would have to be made. Put simply – the war was bad for business. As both Empires began to feel the pinch of war taxation demand for British goods in Europe had started to fall while the worldwide skirmished of the French and Austrian navies disrupted British trade. Finally the war had created a great spike in demand for armaments. Britain’s arms industry was comparatively small considering the size of its other industries and exported very little, British industry tended to concentrate on consumer goods like textiles and liquor. However Germany had a very large arms industry and was making a real killing from the conflict, indeed the German government had invested heavily in industrial expansion to meet the demand for bullets and rifles from the combatants. It was clear that after the war these industries could switch to peace time manufacturing and bring greater competition for British goods. Therefore it was imperative for Britain to bring the war to as swift an end as possible.
To do this Britain would have to flex her not inconsiderable military muscle. Whilst the British wanted peace now they realised that Alsace would forever be a point of friction between the two powers and this was beneficial as it guaranteed Britain’s position as the kingmaker in Europe – whoever was favoured by Albion would be Europe’s primary superpower, therefore the British decided that the Duchy could not continue to exist as an independent entity. The greater strength and size of the Austrian fleet also meant that it would be better to favour Austria (as France would be easier to pressurise) so in early 1854 the British sent an ultimatum to France: make peace with Austria, allow the peaceful exchange of prisoners of war and accept an indemnity to pay for the costs of war on France or face the introduction of the British Empire to the Alsatian War. This comparatively fair deal, that left no clear winner as the Austrians gained some land that was not actually owned by France but paid war indemnities, was eagerly accepted by Napoleon III who had started to fear that a clear defeat would bring his reign to a premature end.
The war had been costly but a comparative success. Fichte’s popularity had been tied to the bloodbath and afterwards the GDDP saw a slump in its support. Only confusion and incompetence at the top of the BLP prevented any major long term swing against Fichte. Indeed the Chancellor was, perhaps wrongly, regarded as a diplomatic genius for securing Alsace despite a poor Austrian showing in the War.
In the two years before the 1856 election things really improved in Austria following the harsh years of the Alsatian War. Despite the war indemnity payments to France Austrian coffers quickly became healthy once more following the war allowing for greater public spending. This balancing of government finances was caused by greater funds from the Empire.
Gold had been at the heart of a mass movement towards Austria’s colonies. Gold had been discovered in California (1849), Austrian Columbia (1850) and South-Eastern Australia (1851) this had encouraged 100,000s of settlers to come to these colonies in search of gold. The change was perhaps most significant in Australia were the population increase from just 40,000 (Europeans) in 1851 to 150,000 in 1854. Whilst people arrived in greater numbers to California that region already had large populations, meaning the demographic impact was less pronounced. The government now had more colonials to tax, gained tax on the gold and most importantly charged a small fee for each new person arriving in a colonial port.
Meanwhile improvements in the administration of the Raj improved government profits in India by 5%. Heading into the election Georg Fichte’s Coalition looked in good shape to remain in power, in spite of the war and of the ever more popular SAP.
Election of 1852
The Election of 1852 was dominated by one issue – should the Empire go to war with France over the Duchy of Alsace. The BLP bravely campaigned against war and therefore suffered. The Lombard League, the last truly powerful party of a minority group, alongside the Christian Union called for a diplomatic solution to the crisis whilst the Socialist Worker’s Party (SAP) called for all out pacifism with Engels even coming out to openly speak to crowds in order to convince them to avoid war (many believe this pacifist front really boosted the SAP’s vote in what was its first election). Meanwhile the GDDP played heavily on German nationalism as it fought in favour of war; the GDDP hoped it could preserve its powerful Reichstag presence gained in the 1848 election. Finally the FPO, that grand old party of the Austrian conservatives, campaigned for war, although they did so in a much less vigorous manner than the GDDP.
The Election itself delivered another hung Parliament as the days of single party rule once again came to an end. The FPO recovered strongly from their 1848 humiliation as they increased their share of the Reichstag from 9 seats to 24. The GDDP largely preserved their vote as they lost just 4 seats despite the clear decline in radical nationalism since the exuberance of 1848. The BLP meanwhile suffered badly, despite remaining as the largest party in the Reichstag, they lost 21 seats. Meanwhile the minor parties of the Christian Union and Lombard League both had good elections as the Lombard League lost just one seat and the Christian Union returned to the Reichstag with 2. However the main force that changed things in 1852 was the rise of the SAP, before the recent emergence of socialism Austria’s workers had tended to associate themselves either with the GDDP (if they were nationalistic, rightwing, Germans) or the BLP (if they were more liberal) but the SAP provided a new, much more attractive option. A party for the workers. The impressive early showing of the SAP, claiming 10 of the 100 Reichstag seats, showed to the nation that socialism was a real force and pointed towards future victories for the ideology. Karl Marx claimed that the election of 1852 marked the beginning of socialism’s march to victory in Europe.
However it was not the left but the right that succeeded in 1852 as the GDDP and FPO united for war and governance. Despite the protests of the FPO, whose aristocratic hierarchy looked down upon the less well bred GDDP leadership, the GDDP was allowed to provide Emperor Victor with the Chancellor. That man would be the relatively young Georg Fichte (42 in 1852) was a true member of the emerging Austrian middle classes. These were the new rich, self made men benefitting from the Empire’s rapid industrialisation. Fichte himself had been born as the son of a reasonably wealthy master craftsman and had gone on to found a textiles Empire which left him with enormous wealth and factories in Milan, Prague, Dresden, Nuremberg, Cologne and Frankfurt.
The latest Coalition would be known as the National Front.
Georg Fichte
Lived: 1810-1865
Chancellor of the Austrian Empire: 1852-1860
Political Party: Greater German Democratic Party
Government: National Front (1852-1860)
The new Chancellor quickly began to manoeuvre himself to make good on his promise of French blood. A large force, around 60,000 men, was sent to man the Alpine forts on the Austro-French border in Italy. Meanwhile as many as ¼ of a million men were prepared along the border between Wallonia in the North and Alsace in the South. On this front the Austrians greatly outnumbered the French, the French could muster perhaps 160,000 with a further 10,000 men coming from Alsace whilst Austria had 250,000. Therefore Fichte had reason to be confident that his army could easily crush the eternal enemy of the Empire – the perfidious Franks.
The Austrian declaration of war came within months of Fichte’s ascension; the Emperor’s Generals had devised a simple and apparently foolproof plan. They would striker with one almighty hammer blow through Alsace. The French had sent a large force into the area but the defences of Alsace remained much weaker than those of Wallonia, it was also notable that the French lacked a strong reserve behind their lines in Alsace. This meant that should victory be won in the Duchy then the road to Paris would be largely open for the Imperial Army. Surely it would be impossible for Austria to lose?
It did not take long for it to become clear that the war would not be won quite as easily as the Austrians had hoped. The crossing of the Rhine was an ordeal, poor command meant that it took almost an entire week before enough Austrian troops had managed to cross to begin the offensive in earnest – this allowed the French time to react to the Austrian offensive and prepare defences further inland from Alsace. Then the Austrians were drawn into a long siege of Metz which lasted from August 1852 until January 1853. This meant that it wasn’t until the second year of the war that the great offensive deep into French lands could truly begin.
In the Spring things greatly improved for the Austrian army as they struck deep into French territory, eventually pinning the French army in the Battle of Chalons (South-East of Rheims). The Austrians had perhaps as many as 100,000 men to a French force of roughly 80,000. Victory would leave Paris in serious danger and give the Austrians a truly great chance of total victory.
The Austrian Army secured just what was required of it as the French were routed. A fateful charge by the French light cavalry in a vain attempt to silence the German artillery that battered the French lines ended in glorious failure and set the French on their way to defeat. After two more hours being battered by the Austrian guns, and several skirmishes with the Austrian infantry the French withdrew from the field.
The Austrians might have continued to march onwards to Paris had they not faced threats on their flanks. In the North the Austrian Generals had hoped to bypass the border forts and attack Wallonia from the South, thus removing the threat of attacks on the Rhineland and bringing the area’s hefty garrison into play, but these plans had been dashed before the rocks as the Austrian Army faced a terrible defeat at Luxembourg. Meanwhile, despite controlling both Metz and Strasbourg, the Duke of Alsace remained a thorn in the flank of the Austrian advance as he held out in Mulhouse and continued to threaten the Austrians as the advanced deeper into France. The French continuously harassed the thin Austrian supply line making any further advances impossible.
It was at this time that Napoleon III decided to take to the field as the commander of the Army of the North – some 60,000 crack French troops placed strategically to the to the South of Brussels.
Napoleon march Southward in tandem with a further French army marching Northward to cut off the Austrian salient and isolate around 90,000 Austrians at Rheims. The pendulum had swung suddenly in favour of the French and for the rest of 1853 the Austrians would lie besieged in Rheims as further, ever more desperate, attempts were made to relive them.
In November the Austrian army finally surrendered and the Empire suffered its single worst Post-Napoleonic defeat of the 19th century. Between November and the Spring the two Empires would uneasily watch each other as troops were moved around, the French preparing for an offensive and the Austrians preparing to face it.
The campaign of 1853 was by far the bloodiest of the war as the now inflated armies of the French and Austrians both suffered horrendous casualties in a series of sieges and pitched battles that changed virtually nothing. The one major change was the fall of Mulhouse to the Austrians, through treachery rather than military brilliance as a group of German nationalists betrayed the French garrison and allowed the Austrians the opportunity to enter the city. However this success merely buoyed the Austrians on to an attack into France that ended in disaster.
By the end of 1853 both armies were exhausted but the peoples of both Empires still demanded victory. It would require outside influence to end this conflict.
Throughout the Alsatian War the British Lion had been in slumber. It was tradition and indeed international policy to stick out of conflicts between the Europeans unless one side looked set for Continental Domination yet in 1854 an exception would have to be made. Put simply – the war was bad for business. As both Empires began to feel the pinch of war taxation demand for British goods in Europe had started to fall while the worldwide skirmished of the French and Austrian navies disrupted British trade. Finally the war had created a great spike in demand for armaments. Britain’s arms industry was comparatively small considering the size of its other industries and exported very little, British industry tended to concentrate on consumer goods like textiles and liquor. However Germany had a very large arms industry and was making a real killing from the conflict, indeed the German government had invested heavily in industrial expansion to meet the demand for bullets and rifles from the combatants. It was clear that after the war these industries could switch to peace time manufacturing and bring greater competition for British goods. Therefore it was imperative for Britain to bring the war to as swift an end as possible.
To do this Britain would have to flex her not inconsiderable military muscle. Whilst the British wanted peace now they realised that Alsace would forever be a point of friction between the two powers and this was beneficial as it guaranteed Britain’s position as the kingmaker in Europe – whoever was favoured by Albion would be Europe’s primary superpower, therefore the British decided that the Duchy could not continue to exist as an independent entity. The greater strength and size of the Austrian fleet also meant that it would be better to favour Austria (as France would be easier to pressurise) so in early 1854 the British sent an ultimatum to France: make peace with Austria, allow the peaceful exchange of prisoners of war and accept an indemnity to pay for the costs of war on France or face the introduction of the British Empire to the Alsatian War. This comparatively fair deal, that left no clear winner as the Austrians gained some land that was not actually owned by France but paid war indemnities, was eagerly accepted by Napoleon III who had started to fear that a clear defeat would bring his reign to a premature end.
The war had been costly but a comparative success. Fichte’s popularity had been tied to the bloodbath and afterwards the GDDP saw a slump in its support. Only confusion and incompetence at the top of the BLP prevented any major long term swing against Fichte. Indeed the Chancellor was, perhaps wrongly, regarded as a diplomatic genius for securing Alsace despite a poor Austrian showing in the War.
In the two years before the 1856 election things really improved in Austria following the harsh years of the Alsatian War. Despite the war indemnity payments to France Austrian coffers quickly became healthy once more following the war allowing for greater public spending. This balancing of government finances was caused by greater funds from the Empire.
Gold had been at the heart of a mass movement towards Austria’s colonies. Gold had been discovered in California (1849), Austrian Columbia (1850) and South-Eastern Australia (1851) this had encouraged 100,000s of settlers to come to these colonies in search of gold. The change was perhaps most significant in Australia were the population increase from just 40,000 (Europeans) in 1851 to 150,000 in 1854. Whilst people arrived in greater numbers to California that region already had large populations, meaning the demographic impact was less pronounced. The government now had more colonials to tax, gained tax on the gold and most importantly charged a small fee for each new person arriving in a colonial port.
Meanwhile improvements in the administration of the Raj improved government profits in India by 5%. Heading into the election Georg Fichte’s Coalition looked in good shape to remain in power, in spite of the war and of the ever more popular SAP.
Been a bit of a lurker for a while, and I thought I would de-lurk just to say that I've been enjoying this AAR and your D'Albion AAR as well