Bleu, Blanc et Rouge: A History of France in Three Colors

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Prologue: From "Restoration and Revolution"

The origin of the contemporary history of France can be traced back to the Restoration of the monarchy in 1815. With the final defeat of Bonaparte, King Louis XVIII was welcomed back after decades of war and political instability. The King, however, did not wish to erase the Revolution but rather control its more fearsome impulses and utilize its best features. As part of this reimagining, he granted a Charter to the people of France whereby they would be guaranteed the rights of equality, religious toleration, freedom of the press and protection of private property. The King also allowed for a bicameral system on the British model where the Deputies could be elected if they possessed a sufficient amount of wealth.

The Congress of Vienna would shape Europe for the decades to come​

In foreign policy, France was invited to the negotiating table at the Congress of Vienna and was accepted as an important player in the concert of nations. The main foreign intervention in this period was the Spanish expedition of 1823 where France, in league with the other Great Powers of Europe, aided king Ferdinand VII in regaining his throne after he was expelled by revolutionaries demanding a constitution.

The following years saw France grow in prosperity in the absence of war and external strife as the population recovered from the effect of the Napoleonic Wars. This peaceful attitude, however, was changed by the accession of King Charles X.

The new King showed little love for the constitutional regime that had been established and attempted to repeal many of the liberties that the people had grown accustomed to in the past generation. Such an upheaval caused resentment to grow within Paris and the rest of the country to the point that the King launched a military expedition into Algeria to improve his image. This was justified by declaring that the Bey had insulted French officials and that it was necessary to deprive Barbary pirates of their principal bases.

While the expedition was a resounding success, it left mainland France free of soldiers to resist the coming Revolution. In July 1830, the people of Paris rose up in defiance of the King and his authoritarian tendencies. During three glorious days between the 27th and the 29th, the crowds managed to seize key points of the capital and force the King to abdicate in favor of Louis Philippe of Orléans who agreed to rule as a constitutional King of the French.

Louis Philippe, King of the French​

French parliamentary politics is now governed by those who emerged from this double movement of restoration and revolution with notable members being: Adolphe Thiers, Victor de Broglie, François-René de Chateaubriand, and Dupont de l'Eure.

Adolphe Thiers was born in Marseilles in 1797 to a family of poor financial means but managed to obtain a good legal education thanks to financial aid from an aunt and a godmother. As a young man, he worked as a journalist for "Le Constitutionnel" which held views in opposition to those of King Charles X. With the revolution of 1830, Thiers participated in government as a Deputy of the Assembly until being chosen by the King as Prime Minister in 1836 at the head of the Orléaniste party.

Prime Minister Adolphe Thiers​

Victor de Broglie was born in Paris in 1785 to a noble family who had suffered much during the Revolution as both his parents were imprisoned during the Terror and his father ended up facing the blade of the guillotine. Victor managed to obtain a good liberal education under the Empire and made his way into French literary society before the restoration. In the political field, he acted as a member of the Council of State under Napoleon and later identified himself with the liberals during the reign of Charles X. After the Revolution of 1830, he served as Prime Minister for King Louis Philippe and now is an influential member of the Orléaniste party.


François-René de Chateaubriand was born in 1768 to an old aristocratic family in Brittany and chose to become an officer in the Royal Navy where he quickly rose to the rank of captain. Initially sympathetic to the Revolution, he briefly fled to North America before returning to Europe to aid the Royalist émigrés in attempting to suppress the Revolution. After being injured during a siege, he was forced to spend the rest of the decade in exile in London. He managed to return to France under Napoleon where he became a prominent literary figure in the salons of Paris, providing inspiration for countless Romantic authors. With the Restoration, he served as Foreign Minister and several times as an ambassador for the Bourbon monarchy but, after the Revolution of 1830, his political influence has begun to wane as a consequence of his refusal to fully accept the new King. Despite this, he still remains a dominant voice in public discourse and is recognized as the virtual head of the Légitimiste party.

Dupont de l'Eure was born in 1767 in Normandy and practiced as a lawyer in the local parlement before the Revolution. His political life began in 1798 when he was chosen for the Council of Five Hundred, and he remained a prominent deputy during the Empire. He continued to serve in the various assemblies under the Restored monarchy and, after the Revolution of 1830, he was briefly appointed as Minister of Justice and is seen as the practical leader of the Liberal opposition.

 

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Bleu

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The first years of the reign of King Louis Philippe saw his majesty consolidate the power granted to him by the people and prove to them that his government had indeed been the right choice for France.

Adolphe Thiers of the Orléaniste faction was appointed as Prime Minister to the King in 1836 and collaborated with his majesty to drive the Algerian pirates out of their lairs in the North African coast.

This was deemed to be necessary after the Ouragan, a French merchant vessel trading between Marseille and Algiers, was assaulted off the Algerian coast. The pirates killed 6 of the ship's sailors and left the remainder of the crew to starve on the gutted ship. The French Royal Navy managed to find and rescue the Ouragan and proceeded to identify the pirate hideout within the territory of the Bey of Algeria.

This affront to French security was met with a vigorous reprimand from Foreign Minister Victor de Broglie to Bey Hussayn together with a request for compensation and permission for the French navy to hunt down pirates on the Algerian coast. These requests were disdainfully refused by the Bey and, as a consequence, the Army of the Alps was prepared for a full invasion of the country.

The Algerian war began in September 1836 and ended in late November, featuring only minimal French losses. During the peace negotiations, de Broglie required the Algerians to abandon all territories on the coast which would then be placed under direct control of the Crown as a colonial territory.

Map of the situation in colonial Algeria
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This great foreign success coincided the completion of the Arc de Triomphe that had started construction back in the days of the Empire. Under the new monarchy, the Arc assumed a novel symbolic role indicating the strength and resilience of the French people paternally guided by their citizen King.

Article about the inauguration of the Arc de Triomphe
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In the early months of 1837, a series of French trade convoys headed to the Spice Islands were held captive by the Dutch authorities off the coast of Bali. De Broglie protested this violation of previous trade treaties with the King of the Netherlands but received no sign of apology from the Dutch government. In reaction, the King declared war and ordered the French fleet to blockade the Dutch coast. The enemy remained resolute in their defiance until the beginning of June when the Army of Picardie threatened a direct siege of Amsterdam. In the peace treaty, King William of the Netherlands agreed that French ships could travel freely to the Far East and was forced to cede the colony of East Java which quickly became a major trade hub for French goods in the Orient.

Map of the new colonies in the Far East
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The rest of the year provided an opportunity for the Kingdom to adapt its new territories to suit the needs of the Metrópole by shipping raw materials to the budding French industries and sending valuable administrators to tame the indigenous people.

The seeds of a greater war were sown at the beginning of April 1838 when the continuing decline of the Ottoman Empire allowed Belgium to be admitted to the table of the Great Powers.

A newspaper announcing the new global opinion of Belgium
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While the King would have preferred a lucrative collaboration with such a nearby power, the Antwerp incident made such a proposition impossible. On April 17th, 1838, a regiment of Belgian soldiers rounded up a number of prominent French businessmen in the city and forcibly confiscated their valuables and the deeds to several businesses citing the government’s order to expel foreign influence from a sovereign Belgium.

A cabinet meeting between the King, Thiers and the de Broglie was called to assess the situation and protect the rights of French citizens. A unanimous decision was reached whereby de Broglie would send an ultimatum to Belgium demanding the restitution of French property within the month. As the 17th of May came along, it was with a heavy heart that the King gave the order to mass troops onto the Belgian border in anticipation of the conflict.

On June 20th the declaration of war was handed to the Belgian ambassador in Paris, thus initiating the Franco-Belgian War.

News announcement of the beginning of hostilities
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With the help from Spanish and Piedmontese allies, the French armies managed to quickly break into Belgian territory and set Brussels under siege. A quick victory seemed imminent, but it was swept away when the United Kingdom and its Hanoverian allies joined on the side of the enemy. A quick reaction by the French navy succeeded in isolating most British ships within their ports on the Channel, thereby eliminating the possibility of an invasion of mainland France. This left only the Hanoverians who were soundly defeated in late November in Hasselt.

A second phase of the war opened up with French troops occupying Belgian land and crippling the economy of what had been deemed too prematurely to be a Great Power. A minor invasion of Britain was attempted but the landing parties were repulsed, and it was decided that the resources could be better used elsewhere.

The final phase of the war was precipitated by the accession of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. This succession caused Hannover to shift from the British to the Austrian sphere of influence and, given the advance of the French army into Germany, this compelled the Austrian Empire to join the war on the Anglo-Belgian side and take over the role of war leader.

Coronation of Queen Victoria of Great Britain
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At this news, King Louis Philippe ordered a full-scale mobilization of the army and its transferal to Lombardie. The Austrians quickly entered the domain of the French-aligned Papal States but were stopped from entering Piemonte long enough that the French army could join the fray. The Austrian army was defeated in a few important but indecisive battles and began a slow, costly retreat into Venetien.

While Thiers was in favor of continuing the war to gain more concessions from Austria, the King and de Broglie were in agreement that French honor had been avenged sufficiently and that colonial concessions could be obtained from the British.

This led to the Treaty of Graz on the 17th of April 1840 where de Broglie, the Austrian Emperor Ferdinand, and British Prime Minister William Lamb agreed upon the capitulation of Belgium and the return of all French property together with the French annexation of British Barbados as compensation for war expenses.

A newspaper announces the triumphant victory against Belgium
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Another result of the war was the decline of Belgium, whose infrastructure had been devastated by the war, from the status of Great Power, reinstating the Ottoman Empire to the position it so recently held.

The Ottoman Empire refuses to fade into the past
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The year 1840 then began with a final reminder of French glory as the King gracefully allowed the return of the body of Napoleon I in a show of reconciliation between the old Revolution and the new Monarchy born by the union of Liberty and the King. The ceremony was attended by officers and soldiers of the Imperial Army together with those who had only heard of Napoleon from their elders. The King and Thiers were joined in welcoming the ashes of the great man to the Pantheon where they could enshrine another part of French history and glory.

 

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The history of the early 1840s is mainly remembered due to subtle shifts in the political climate and the consolidation of a strong France on the global stage.

In France, the election of 1840 saw three main blocs face off against each other. Prime Minister Adolphe Thiers was seeking reelection as head of the conservative Orléaniste party and reminded the public of his successes in the recent wars, promising that he would continue the policy of projecting French power over the Great Powers of Europe. In direct opposition to this line was François-René de Chateaubriand as head of the Reactionary Légitimiste party. He argued that France had no need to expend itself in costly foreign adventures but that it had to be on guard for revolutionaries at home who wished to topple the established order. Finally, Foreign Minister Victor de Broglie drifted out of Thiers' orbit and campaigned on a platform of extending suffrage and fulfilling the spirit of the July Revolution.

In December 1840, the results were announced to be: 44% for the Orléaniste, 37% for the Légitimiste and 19% for de Broglie's new Constitutionnel party. In view of this situation, King Louis Philippe decided to confirm Thiers as Prime Minister.

This balance would not last for long, however, due to a series of seditious protests in early 1841. The Upper House of Parliament, fearing the uprisings that Chateaubriand had warned, experienced a decisive turn towards the Légitimiste party under the parliamentary leadership of Édouard Affré.

Deputy Édouard Affré​

Édouard Affré was born in Amiens in 1809 to one of the first families to set up a textile industry in the area. He started his education after the Restoration and studied law in the hope of being a useful legal asset to the family business. This did not pan out as expected, however, as Édouard chose to join the army upon finishing his studies in 1824. He served honorably in the following years and participated in the first Algerian expedition in 1830, there he was captured during an ambush and he remained in captivity until the peace. He remained in the colony as part of the garrison until 1835 when, thanks to the influence of his family and his legal studies, he was chosen to serve as a Deputy in the Parliament.

In February 1841, Affré pushed through a bill whereby Deputies could be appointed to the Upper House only if they were members of the ruling party and no longer by appointment. This reform served to ensure that the core elements of the ship of state be governed by the firm hand of the King rather than being subject to elites that might not have the state’s best interest at heart.

In March of 1841, with popular and parliamentary pressure mounting, the King sacked Adolphe Thiers of the Orléaniste party to grant the position of Prime Minister to the Légitimiste Chateaubriand.

Prime Minister François-René de Chateaubriand​

Chateaubriand then used his influence in the Upper House by convincing Affré that it was in the best interest of France to curb the mutterings of Jacobin revolutionaries. In March 1842, a bill was passed legislating that, henceforth, misleading private newspapers would be illegal and only well-verified state press would have the right to publish.

In April, the government discovered a series of letters indicating that the Bey of Algeria was financing dissident groups in the coastal territories recently occupied by France. In view of such a blatant violation of the peace terms of 1836, Chateaubriand ordered the War Minister Médard de Valence to prepare for the final annexation of this rogue state.

Minister of War Médard de Valence​

The Marquis de Valence was born in 1810 to a family of noble émigrés who had resided in London since the outbreak of the Revolution. With the Restoration of King Louis XVIII, the family moved back to France and their ancestral holdings where Médard attended the local military academy from 1820 to 1824. Upon finishing his studies, he was sent to the court in Paris where he served as an officer to the palace guard of Kings Louis XVIII, Charles X and Louis Philippe. In 1836, Valence was sent as an observer to the Algerian Expedition where he became well known for his rich and vivid descriptions of the exotic new Colony. This lit an artistic spark in the young man who then proceeded to make a name for himself as an author of Orientalist literature until he was called upon for his first-hand experience of Algeria and the military arts.

On the 15th of May 1842, Chateaubriand finalized the declaration of war and the French army marched across the Algerian border and headed directly for the Bey’s palace.

Newspaper announcing the beginning of hostilities between France and Algeria​

By early June, the Algerian forces were in full rout and half of their territory had been occupied with only minimal pockets of resistance; it was at this point that the Sultan of Morocco threw in his lot with the doomed Algerians. The addition of another uncivilized Kingdom did little to change the result of the war and resulted only in the extension of the conflict up to September 1843 when the last desert strongholds surrendered to French soldiers. The Bey of Algeria and the Sultan of Morocco chose to offer their capitulation personally to Foreign Minister Fabien de Privas on the 23rd.

The Bey of Algeria and the Sultan of Morocco surrender to Privas​

The Comte de Privas was born in 1789 at the dawn of the dreaded Revolution. Like many loyal nobles, his family emigrated to Great Britain where he received an education in the natural sciences. Upon the coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Counts of Privas returned to France to serve at the newly founded court while Fabien abandoned his original education and practiced as a lawyer for the remaining duration of the Empire. With the Restoration of King Louis XVIII, the family of Privas were imprisoned due to suspicions about their loyalty to the King and later placed under house arrest in Lille after the return of Napoleon. Having proved his innocence to the Royal Court, Privas started to work on a series of travel diaries that began with his residence in the Netherlands and reached their pinnacle with his account of a Grand Tour undertaken in 1832. Under King Louis Philippe, Fabien de Privas was chosen in 1836 for his legal acumen to become governor Picardie where he served until being called to the Cabinet.

Under the terms of surrender, the nation of Algeria was wiped off the map and fully incorporated into the Kingdom of France as a consequence of its continued treachery across the past decades. Morocco’s punishment was less harsh but substantial nonetheless: the Sultan promised to pay war reparations to France together with ceding the lucrative port of Ifni.

Map of the situation in North Africa with the pacified Algeria and newly acquired port of Ifni​

Within international politics, the continued decline of the Ottoman Empire compelled the other Great Powers to exclude the Turks from the decisions necessary to global stability. Their position was taken over by the Empire of Mexico whose industrialization was beginning to turn it into a clear contender for supremacy in the Americas together with the United States.

News of Mexico's ascendance reaches French papers​

In late 1844, French foreign policy shifted its attention from the Mediterranean to Central Europe. Spain, under the indecisive and unstable government of Queen Isabella II, was an unreliable ally and, despite constant pressure by Privas, had contributed only a negligible amount of soldiers to the Algerian War. This, compounded with Spanish refusals to lower tariffs on the products of French industry, led the French Government to conclude that they could not be trusted as allies and, on the 7th of February 1845, King Louis Philippe officially dissolved the alliance between France and Spain. Privas then started work on securing an alliance among other, more trustworthy, powers in Europe and found an enthusiastic supporter in Tsar Nicholas I of the Russian Empire.

Tsar Nicholas I of the Russian Empire​

The Tsar had paid attention to the Franco-Belgian war and had been pleased with the French defeat of Great Britain and, more importantly, the Austrian Empire which had provided a threat to Russia both in Poland and among the Slavic peoples of the Balkans. Privas was personally invited to Saint Petersburg where weeks of fruitful negotiations took place and concluded in a mutual defense pact with special clauses concerning Austria and the German Region. Both nations would collaborate in weakening Austrian power outside of the German Confederation while France would take special care to act as a third pole of influence between the German States. With this deal concluded, it seems as if a new profitable balance has been struck in Europe that will provide peace and stability for the foreseeable future.

 

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The last years of the July Monarchy were characterized by the brutal suppression of dissent under the Légitimiste Chateaubriand government. The elections were steered towards maintaining the reactionary status quo by publishing only positive accounts of the government’s acts and, even in the rare times that the people could not be tricked, the election results could be overturned at the whim of the monarch.

This was egregiously displayed in the election of 1845 where no credible Orléaniste candidate was present, Adolphe Thiers was relegated to the Constitutionnel party and Victor de Broglie was coerced into leaving his own party. As everyone expected, François-René de Chateaubriand was re-elected as Prime Minister with a highly suspicious 68% of the votes where 23% went to the de-fanged Orléaniste. This growth of Chateaubriand's influence had many whispering that he might erase the July Revolution entirely and invite back the Bourbon dynasty in the person of the pretender Louis XIX.

The corruption and stagnation in the continent came to a boiling point in 1847 with the Springtime of the Peoples as the Hungarians threw off the shackles of their Austrian overlords in early July, driving the rest of Europe to demand their inalienable rights.

News breaks of the Hungarian Revolution​

As news of the revolution spread, the oppressed people of Paris made their voices heard and took to the boulevards and the barricades on the 29th of October. The King called upon the army to contain his own people, but the soldiers soon found every street blocked to them and every house containing brave people who would rather die as citizens than live as subjects. On the 30th and 31st, companies of National Guardsmen assaulted barricades across all of Paris, but each wave was cut down by freedom fighters and, when a barricade was breached, there was no shortage of men willing to sacrifice themselves by detonating hidden powder caches and sealing the avenue of assault.

French citizens fight for their freedom​

Seeing the failures of their comrades and recognizing the futility of fighting for a tyrant, the National Guard defected to the revolutionary side on the 1st of November and proceeded to set up a perimeter around the Tuileries Palace where the King resided. The next day saw dozens of Swiss guards falling to the tide of French people until they too saw that the royalist cause was hopeless. On the evening of the 2nd of November, the entirety of the Royal Guard fled the city and abandoned the King to his fate. In the eerie silence of the following morning, Louis Philippe understood that his regime had collapsed and signed his abdication without conditions. The Provisional Government, unwilling to associate with the tragedy of the Jacobin Terror, allowed Louis Philippe to flee with his family to live in exile in London.

Reports of the Revolution spread quickly​

On the 3rd of November 1847, the Second French Republic was declared in a grand ceremony in front of the Tuileries Palace and the Provisional Government, led by former Prime Minister Adolphe Thiers, announced that the Government a Constitutional Assembly would be elected in the coming weeks with universal manhood suffrage. The Assembly was elected with liberal principles enshrined in a secure majority under the guidance of Thiers who stepped down as Provisional President. For the role of President, the French people chose to elect Louis Napoleon Bonaparte who in turn selected Dupont de l'Eure of the new conservative Bonapartiste faction to be his Prime Minister.

Prince-President Louis Napoleon Bonaparte​

Many members of the Constitutional Assembly did not look with favor on the election of a government so content with the status quo and under such a heavy name as Bonaparte and they attempted to firmly establish their political vision within the articles of the Constitution. The Constitution of 1848 was completed in May 1848 but right from the beginning it was possible to see what advances it had made compared to the July Monarchy. The property requirements for voting were entirely abolished for the first time in French history, freedom of the press was guaranteed, and workers were permitted to form trade unions as long as these did not fall prey to Socialist propaganda.

Opening portrait of the Constitutional Assembly​

One matter in which Thiers and his faction could not assert themselves was the manner in which Deputies could be appointed to the Upper House. Here, de l'Eure managed to steer the Bonapartist faction towards voting in favor of an Upper House nominated by the President from a pool of the most notable citizens of each region. Cries accusing the President of counterrevolution quickly arose in the Assembly led by the former Foreign Minister Victor de Broglie. In response to these accusations and to show his commitment to the revolutionary cause, President Bonaparte decided to aid the Hungarians, the very people that started the wave of revolution, in their war against Austria.

A delegation led by the prominent Deputy Édouard Affré was sent to Regent-President Lajos Kossuth in Pest and arrived shortly before the city was placed under siege by Austrian forces. Affré managed to ensure that the new Provisional Government would accept a joint French and Russian intervention according to the agreement stipulated in Saint Petersburg in 1845.

On the 30th of November, Foreign Minister Pierre-Marie Gardet made the official declaration of war on the Austrian Empire in defense of Hungarian independence.

Foreign Minister Pierre-Marie Gardet​

Pierre-Marie Gardet was born in 1802 in Lyon to a family of small silk manufacturers. He had a comfortable childhood far from the front of the Napoleonic Wars and spent his formative years studying the classics and, with the Restoration, he moved to Paris in the hopes of filling a position in the reorganized bureaucracy of the Kingdom. Gardet managed to secure a post as secretary to Louis Antoine, Duke d'Angoulême and proceeded to follow his entourage to Spain in 1823 during the French intervention to restore Ferdinand VII. After the rise of the July Monarchy, he abandoned private service and became an important banker within the Bank of France. Gardet was long considered a valuable public servant and was instrumental in regaining the assets lost at the start of the Franco-Belgian War by personally traveling to Brussels to assess the details of reimbursement. With news of the Revolution, he was elected to the Constituent Assembly and there caught the eye of de l'Eure for his powerful rhetoric and ability of persuasion.

Days after the declaration of war, the Russian Empire respected its commitment and took the role of war leader forcing the Austrians into a war with too many fronts to handle. The French army marched swiftly across Lombardie-Venetien, occupying the most prominent fortresses in their way, while the Russians occupied Galicia and repelled Austrian advances into Hungary. In a matter of four months, the Allied forces were within sight of Vienna and forced the surrender of Emperor Ferdinand and the signing of the treaty of Trieste on April 4th, 1848.

Final victory is achieved against Austria​

The treaty forced the Austrian Empire to recognize the existence of an independent Kingdom of Hungary, Austria also agreed to yield Galicia-Lodomeria to the Russian Empire while ceding influence over Bavaria to the French Republic.

Europe in the aftermath of the year of Revolutions​

The defeat of Austria was serious enough that the international community began considering if it was best to exclude them from future Summits but, fortunately for the defeated empire, global attention was shifted elsewhere. In June 1849, Mexico was defeated by the United States of America in a war for the territories on the Pacific coast. This blow permanently crippled Mexico’s international standing and the Great Powers decided to hand its former position of authority to the stable and European nation of the Netherlands.

 

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The Second French Empire arose as a direct consequence of the Moroccan war.

In Autumn of 1850, several reports had reached the ear of Minister of the Interior Samuel Sardou that Moroccan tribes had been illegally passing through French Algerie and causing much grief to the local population.

Samuel Sardou was born in 1817 at Toulon to a family of influential academics of the University of Marseille. In his youth, he followed his parents' directions and avidly studied the classics before being taken up as a secretary to his father in 1832. His secretarial work saw him gaining important connections in academia until he was finally appointed as Professor of Philosophy alongside his father. With the revolution of 1848, he was elected to participate in the Constitutional Assembly and there became known enough to be chosen for the Ministry of the Interior in the de l'Eure cabinet.

As a consequence of Moroccan trespassing, Foreign Minister Pierre-Marie Gardet requested that the Sultan of Morocco surrender the border territory of Taza to a French governor that would impede any such incursions into Algeria proper. Gardet’s request was quickly denied by the Sultan, prompting Prince-President Louis Napoleon Bonaparte to give the order to mass troops on the border with war being officially declared on the 19th of November 1850.

With a large amount of the army being called abroad, a plot to overthrow the state was hatched by radical members in Parliament, including former Ministers Adolphe Thiers and Louis de Broglie. However, investigations undertaken by Sardou managed to uncover the ringleaders and planned their capture for December 2nd. On that day, the national guard in Paris arrested the MPs and swiftly took apart the barricades that their supporters had hastily erected in the morning.

The rebel barricades are taken down by the army​

In the next days, further dissident members were found and arrested before being publicly tried for their crimes. Thiers managed to obtain an exile in recognition for his service to France during the Franco-Belgian War, but de Broglie was found with radical socialist books in his home and shot on the 6th of December.

In view of these unexpected developments, a series of edicts were promulgated to grant Prince-President Bonaparte enough power to ensure the safety of the country and the possibility to re-write the constitution to limit any future insurrections. Dissident Deputies of the parliament were arrested and barred from participating in political life while a referendum confirmed these emergency powers until the stability of France could be ensured.


With strong doubts about the loyalties of the cabinet, Emperor Napoleon sacked Prime Minister Dupont de l’Eure and elevated the former Minister of War Médard de Valence to head of the cabinet lead by the Légitimiste faction.

In the meantime, French forces in Africa had obtained the expected results and achieved complete military victory over Morocco who agreed to hand over Taza on the 31st of January 1851.

The new province of Taza extends the Algerian possessions​

With peace established, a Constitutional Assembly was called to ensure that there would never again be engulfed by the political turmoil of the previous months. Elections were undertaken under previous electoral laws and soon Édouard Affré, grown in fame since his diplomatic expedition to Hungary, emerged as unofficial director of writing.

The elections coincided with another referendum where 87% of eligible voters accepted Louis Napoleon Bonaparte as Emperor Napoleon III.

Emperor Napoleon III​

The constitutional assembly began its work by abolishing voting rights across France to curb the interference of Socialist dissidents who would foment revolution. The Upper House was maintained as a body with members appointed by the Emperor who would select them among the most prominent citizens of each region. Further measures against Socialist encroachment included the abolition of trade unions, unsanctioned public meetings and the closing of all newspapers that had attacked the person and institution of the Emperor.

The following years of the empire’s life saw a consolidation of the new political order and the growth of the industry and economy of France under the supervision of the Minister of the Interior Yvon Brousseau who pointed out the need for a domestic supply of cotton and coffee to stimulate further development.

Yvon Brousseau was born 1816 to a peasant family in the outskirts of La Rochelle, he would not have moved far from his home village if it weren't for the attention of the parish priest. From a young age, Brousseau demonstrated a significant aptitude for learning and thus the prelate took it upon himself to pay entirely for his education where the young Yvon studied law until graduating in 1832. In these years, he struggled to find legal employment due to his low status, so he chose to join the army to make a name for himself. He served dutifully in Algeria and Europe also becoming a prisoner of war in Belgium during the Franco-Belgian War. In 1842 he retired from military service and began an impressive career as a Realist writer where he described the life of common families in the French countryside together with the unfiltered experiences of what it is like to serve in the army. Precisely for this contact with the common man the Emperor chose Brousseau to direct his Ministry of the Interior.

Minister of the Interior Yvon Brousseau​

Emperor Napoleon found the resources required for France's development in the long-rebellious colony of Haiti who had been resisting French authority since 1791.

In June 1855, after the Haitian government failed to pay the indemnities it owed to former French plantation owners, Foreign Minister Guillaume Renaudin proclaimed that this breach of contract was justification enough to reclaim the rebellious colony.

Guillaume Renaudin was born in 1800 to a rural family of modest means in the vicinity of Pau. As a boy, he helped his family tend to the fields until moving to Bordeaux at the age of 15, seeking employment as a dockworker. In this line of work, he often found himself in the company of rough men and this caused him to be imprisoned for a period of five months in 1821 for a violent argument he had with a captain about payment. With the conquest of Algeria, Renaudin decided to seek fortune there and became one of the first French colonists in the region. He established himself as a vendor of naval supplies in the city of Algiers where he became a welcome sight to French emigrants who could feel at home in this foreign land. His small store soon grew to become one of the principal providers to the French fleet stationed in the Mediterranean until he managed to produce enough funds to relocate the Renaudin Maritime Supplies to the more comfortable city of Marseilles. Having become a prominent citizen, he was appointed to the Imperial Upper House where he was chosen as Foreign Minister in recognition of his skills in dealing with international business partners.

The war with Haiti began in August 1855 when 20.000 French soldiers performed an amphibious attack on the island of Hispaniola and took control of the main cities and old colonial fortresses. The native response was limited in scale and scope: a rebel army of around 5.000 attempted to re-take the city of Les Cayes but they were repelled by a combined barrage of naval and shore-based artillery. Further resistance was met in the form of small guerrillas in the mountains and forests who harassed the army and attempted to cut supply lines. This offense, however, was readily handled by the general who had studied previous attempts and managed to root out these rebels before any real damage could be done.

The island of Hispaniola is re-incorporated into the Empire​

With the occupation of the island, Brousseau set up offices in both France and the Colony where old plantation owners could re-claim their lost lands and where the inhabitants of the island could prove that they were not the descendants of slaves. All those who could not provide this proof were taken by the occupying army and returned to their owners, if an heir could be found, or sold by the State to those who would wish to be new investors and colonists.

 

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The annexation of Hispaniola provided much needed raw materials to the French industry but still more were needed to keep up with ever-growing demand. In 1856, Renaudin begun talks with the Khedive of Egypt to work out a proposal for the realization of a long-desired canal between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. Such a structure would allow for faster and cheaper access to the French colonies in the Spice Islands while avoiding the port tariffs so often levied on trade convoys that would stop to resupply in the British possessions in Africa. The Foreign Minister assured the Khedive that this project would bring great wealth and modernization to his realm and, to ensure his support, Renaudin financed a railroad that would connect the first cataract on the Nile with Alexandria, thus providing an efficient line of communication across Egypt. These gifts and assurances convinced Khedive Mohamed Sa'id Pasha, who had been himself educated in Paris, to sell France a concession on the isthmus of Suez. The construction project lasted from 1857 until inauguration on the 24th of June 1859. For the occasion, prominent families from across the Empire flocked to see the first ships pass through this wonder of modern engineering while Emperor Napoleon presided as host together with Sa'id Pasha.

The Suez Canal connects East and West​

The occupation and enslavement of Hispaniola caused unforeseen consequences across the Atlantic when it accelerated the slavery debate in the United States. Elements of the Southern States admired the French action in the Caribbean and were anxious to extend American influence and slave plantations across the region. In the North, the extent of French intervention was deemed to be excessive and a dangerous precedent for a European power meddling in American affairs. These tensions ultimately led to the start of the American Civil War in Autumn of 1858.

Emperor Napoleon saw this as a chance to both legitimize French use of slave labor and strike a decisive blow to the quickly growing American influence on the world stage. In a series of cabinet meetings in December 1858, Prime Minister de Valence and Minister of the Interior Brousseau opposed joining the war on the grounds of the navy being insufficient to conduct such a distant war against a Great Power. Intense private discussions followed these common meetings and, for a while, it seemed that the Valence line would prevail but Renaudin finally convinced the Emperor to declare war in the hopes of gaining a powerful political foothold in the Americas.

On the 14th of January 1859, 50.000 French troops set sail for the American South to turn the tide of the war. A first landing near Washington was successful and resulted in the occupation of the capital but, soon after, problems started to arise with the expedition. The French fleet suffered a defeat in Chesapeake Bay that forced them into the Atlantic, leaving the army isolated on the continent. Poor coordination with Confederate forces allowed the Unionist army to isolate the French expeditionary force and, without a navy or Confederate support, the French commander surrendered to save the life of his soldiers.

The French expeditionary force is surrounded and defeated​

With the Americans quickly advancing in the South and a counterattack deemed too costly, the representatives of the CSA accepted unconditional surrender. On the 21st of October 1859, Renaudin, Union President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate President Jefferson Davies signed the treaty of Baltimore whereby France recognized the annexation of the CSA into the Union and agreed to limit its influence on the American continent to the sole colony of Guyana.
A few days later, by encouragement of the Emperor and de Valence, Renaudin resigned his position and it was assigned to the renowned former Deputy Édouard Affré. Affré had long been the leader of the Légitimiste party during the July Monarchy and had been a guiding force in writing the constitution of the Empire. In recent years, he had retired from political life to write a memoir of the recent tumultuous history of France to which he had contributed so much.
In the next couple of years, Emperor Napoleon assigned the reconstruction of the armed forces to the new Minister of War George Fétique who attempted to re-form the army lost during the American War.

Minister of War George Fétique​

Georges Fétique was born in 1816 in Lavalle to a rather unsuccessful local building contractor. His family managed to gather enough savings to send their son to a law school in the hopes of providing the family business with important legal advice. Upon graduation in 1833, Georges returned as a full partner to his father and contributed greatly to the growth of the venture which acquired a certain local prominence. This, however, came to an end in 1842 when Georges' father died suddenly in an accident while visiting a work site and, in the following months, Georges decided to leave the business to his siblings while he would seek election to the National Assembly. Elected in 1843, he became a vocal supporter of the Légitimiste party and was identified by Affré for his political talent. For this reason, his name was suggested to the Emperor as a valid candidate to deal with the sizeable task of managing the logistics of the Imperial Army.

The reconstruction of the army was given particular urgency under the new political climate in Europe. The loss of Hungary had plunged the Austrian Empire into a severe recession and, in early 1860, they were excluded from the concert of Great Powers with their place being taken by the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

The fall of Austria allowed Prussia to extend its already considerable influence in Germany up to convincing the other princes North of Bavaria to join it in the so-called North German Federation. It is, however, clear to all observers that this new Federation is simply a Prussia with more subjects and that it embodies all the militaristic and expansionist tendencies of the old Kingdom. It appears that the states of Southern Germany are still waiting for the dust to settle on this new country before choosing to commit one way or the other while the felled Austria seems to still cling onto some pride. The far-reaching effects of such an upheaval are still hard to determine but they provided a clear incentive for the necessity of a strong France at the heart of Europe.

A new stain appears on the map of Europe​

 

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Starting from the disastrous American War, the so-called Empire was in shambles. An understaffed army provided a constant threat to the sovereignty of France and the loss of prestige had greatly limited France’s ability to garner international attention.

The usurper’s Foreign Minister Édouard Affré attempted to continue the policy of colonial aggression to prop up the failing regime. To do this, he attracted the sympathies of the Greeks, whose desire for Ottoman land was well known, in the hopes of expanding the African possessions. In the meanwhile, he courted Russia with the desire to have them open a second front against the Ottomans.

With the annexation of Libya in mind, Bonaparte discussed war. His Prime Minister de Valence and Minister of the Interior Brousseau, fearing to be called craven at refusing another war, fervently supported the initiative while Minister of War Fétique and Foreign Minister Affré were well aware that the nation could not sustain any conflict, however paltry. This should have dissuaded Bonaparte, but he insisted in pitiable imitation for his uncle and, with the support of his Prime Minister, he declared war on the Ottoman Empire on the 25th of August 1861 under the pretext of giving Cyprus to the Greeks.

War is declared.
​

The conflict began with clear signs of disapproval from the rest of Europe and soon the foreign ministry received the news that Russia had refused to join in the war and that the North German Federation had decided to join on the side of the Ottomans.

In reaction to this news, the French armies on the Rhine attempted an attack on German lands and appeared to be having some success but bad coordination of the Bonapartist regime made it so German reserves reached the front before victory could be achieved. The enemy broke through the front lines and was only halted at Melun, 50km from Paris, on the 26th of January 1862.

Despite the best attempts of the French people, the leadership of Bonaparte allowed for a decisive German victory on the 26th of February with over 60.000 French soldiers left on the field at Fontainebleau. With Paris open to occupation and his folly evident, Bonaparte surrendered to the enemy forces.

Ottoman Foreign Minister Mehmed Emin Ali Pasha and King Wilhelm of Prussia met Bonaparte at Versailles and, on the 11th of March 1862, they forced him to capitulate to surrender Alsace-Lorraine to the Prussians and respect Ottoman sovereignty in the Balkans. The people of Paris were then forced to witness the Prussian King being proclaimed Kaiser of the German Empire with authority over the previous North German Federation and all German lands outside of Austria.

The German menace becomes fully manifest.
​

Having thus handed France to a foreign power, Bonaparte was forced to abdicate by the more reasonable elements of government who then clamored for the restoration of the rightful monarchy.

Europe on the eve of the Second Restoration.​

The head of the Provisional Government Fabien de Privas, Foreign Minister for King Louis Philippe, saw rightly that the only legitimate heir to the throne could be Henri Count of Chambord, grandson of Charles X. The ministers begged the Prince to save the nation in its hour of need and he gracefully accepted on the simple condition of doing away with the dreaded tricolor that had caused France too much bloodshed. This decision was opposed only be Aldolphe Thiers, the radical exile, who was hoping to ingratiate himself with the more revolutionary foreign countries. This blatant attempt to oppose the will of the country, however, fell flat as no-one outside of radical socialist fringes gave heed to these provocations.

With the peace of France secured, a grand coronation was organized in Reims where the sin of revolution could finally be washed away by the chrism of coronation.

Finally, on the 28th of March 1862, His Royal Majesty King Henri V was anointed as the lawful sovereign of the Kingdom of France to the widespread rejoicing of the French people who had finally been reunited with their father.

His Majesty, King Henri V of France.
​

With the collapse of the Bonapartist system, the King saw fit to call upon his people to draft a new constitution for the Kingdom that would ensure the prosperity and future success of France.

First among the deliberations was that of extending the length of military service from one year to ensure the physical safety of the nation. While the motion was widely approved by all members, there remained the decision of how much to extend the service and former Prime Minister Médard de Valence emerged as a prominent voice. Having witnessed the fall of the Empire first hand, he argued that France could only be protected if every citizen was ready to take up arms at any moment and that could be only achieved by a compulsory period of yearly practice for every man of age. No Deputy could find any objection to these arguments and the resolution was the first to be written into law.

Next, former Foreign Minister Édouard Affré advocated, as he had done nearly twenty years earlier, for the restriction of Upper House membership to only those who were of the Prime Minister's party. This way, he stated, the strong hand of the King could properly guide the constitution and protect it from the abuses of short-sighted demagogues. The Légitimiste Deputies wholeheartedly approved this motion and petitioned the King to ensure Affré's position as a Senator in the new Upper House, a motion that was gladly accepted by His Majesty.

The final issue that required reform was that of freedom of the press. While Bonaparte had attempted to limit this evil, he did not go far enough and allowed extremists to publish seditious news that, while not attacking the government directly, greatly contributed to fray the unity of the French people. King Henri demanded that the peace of France be preserved by allowing only approved journalists to communicate the news that the King saw fit and that any other publication would be closed immediately. The Assembly applauded this royal design and finished the writing of the constitution in an emotional ceremony where they all declared their undying devotion to King Henri V and all his successors.

The King's subjects make their vows.​

In the direct matter of government, the King rewarded Privas for his loyalty by nominating him Prime Minister within the conservative Orléaniste party. King Henri also assigned the Foreign Ministry to Léon de Cahors, entrusting him with the goal of returning French prestige to its former greatness.

The Comte de Cahors was born in 1825 to an impoverished noble family who had been unable to buy back its lands after the Revolution. For this reason, he was enrolled in an engineering college where he might learn a trade that could rebuild the family's fortunes. Léon proved to be an effective student and he graduated in 1844. Through familial connections, he managed to become a secretary in the Department of Colonial Affairs where he consulted upon the development of infrastructure for Algeria. In 1856, with the conquest of Hispaniola, Cahors decided to open a private enterprise where he would buy the new undeveloped land at low price and then, after having organized it into efficient plantations, he would re-sell it for an astronomical profit. It was for this acumen in dealing with the colonies that the King named him Foreign Minister

In keeping with his experience, Cahors identified that the Wolof and Futa Jallon of West Africa had long been a nuisance to the French colonies on the coast and that something had to be done for the safety of the colonists.

Reports had come in from the border towns that described numerous unmentionable atrocities perpetrated by the savages and there was no sign that these incursions might cease.

After sending a couple of brigades to these settlements, on the 6th of July 1863 the order was given to attack the savages and pacify Gambia.

The African Pacification is announced.​

The war was quick and decisive as the men advanced for their King, by the 7th of September, the savages had capitulated and accepted to relinquish the borderlands to a proper French colonial governor.

The new borders of French West Africa.​

The news of the victory was greeted by spontaneous demonstrations of gratitude towards the King who had taken France from humiliation and raised it back to its rightful place. Finally, after the Bonapartist regime, the people could rebuild in the hope of a brighter future.

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The later years of the 1860s were characterized by the successful efforts of King Henri V and his cabinet in restoring the glory and honor of France from the state in which Bonaparte had left it. 1864 brought the opportunity to clear some more savages who had been harassing the West African colonies after a particularly vicious raid where a dozen French citizens were killed. On the 26th of May, Foreign Minister Léon de Cahors gave the order for French soldiers to cross into Futa Tooro.

The taming of Africa begins​

The savages offered little organized resistance, and, by the end of July, their raiding positions were firmly in French hands and colonists started building the first civilized settlements in that land.

The West African colony spreads French civilization​

The next years found Cahors spreading foreign goodwill for the restored France and assuring the other great powers that the rule of King Henri V would be long and prosperous, far from the instabilities of the past decades. Cahors’ skills were proven in 1865 when a shift in the power balance of Italy caused the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies to fall out of international favor due to the ascension of the Kingdom of Sardinia who had long been a faithful ally and aid to France.

The Piedmontese cause ripples in international politics​

While certain factions in the new power advocated a break with France, Cahors managed to convince the court of King Victor Emmanuel II that the only way for their Kingdom to stand strong on the world stage was with the aid of France as a shield against German imperial ambitions.
The Foreign Minister continued to serve the King in the Orient as well and, in February 1867, he promptly responded to the expulsion of French missionaries from the Kingdom of Joseon under orders from their Qing masters. A declaration of war was issued with the clear aim of expelling Qing officials from the Kingdom of Joseon and the demand of reparations for the insult to France.
The expeditionary force was organized by the new Minister of War Georges Fétique who had been recommended by Prime Minister Fabien de Privas since they both had counseled Bonaparte against the disastrous Ottoman War. Fétique ordered the 42.000 men of the Army of the Alps to embark at Marseilles and head for the Orient. The expeditionary force landed near Shanghai in early December and quickly occupied the main fortresses of the area. The Qing emperor attempted to resist by sending an overwhelming force four times that of our men, but French spirit triumphed over the Eastern masses and victory was assured by mid-January 1868. The Treaty of Shanghai provided the total capitulation of the Qing with the passing of the Kingdom of Joseon under French tutelage and the ceding of the port of Shanghai in reparation of war expenses.

France gains a presence in the Far East​

More recent years provided another test of France’s diplomatic prowess. On the 9th of February 1868, Queen Isabella of Spain was expelled by violent extremist republicans who proclaimed the so-called Spanish Republic. The liberals of Spain disputed Queen Isabella's right to take an active role in government and claimed that the role of a ruler was to meekly wave at crowds as is the custom in Britain. Preferring to stand tall rather than be a puppet, the Queen attempted an armed resistance but was soon overtaken by the unruly mobs. Seeing no possibility for victory, Queen Isabella, Prince-Consort Francis and their son Alfonso, Prince of Asturias fled to France to their Bourbon relatives seeking shelter.
The cabinet urged King Henri to prepare an invasion of Spain to restore his family to the throne but, in his wisdom, His Majesty chose not to risk the lives of French citizens on a people so ungrateful as to refuse their God-given monarch. Instead, he hosted the members of the Spanish royal family as permanent guests of the court in Paris.
Dynastic matters were further addressed when in February 1868, with no children of his own, King Henri chose Louis Philippe Albert, Duke d'Orléans and grandson of King Louis Philippe, as his Dauphin. The thirty-year-old Prince, however, had not yet married and it was becoming increasingly obvious that a match was needed to continue on the royal line.

Louis Philippe Albert, Dauphin of France​

With the shifts in the Italian political sphere, the King decided that it would be wise to gather the peninsula under French protection and avoid any foreign encroachments. To this end, he sent the Dauphin, to the court of King Francis II of the Two Sicilies with the aim of securing a bride for the Prince.
The Neapolitans provided a lavish welcome for the Dauphin as it was clear that their fall from grace in favor of the Piedmontese had opened them up to unitary insurrections and foreign control. King Francis, only a couple of years older than Prince Philippe, was well aware of the purpose of the visit and chose to present his sisters to him at the first possible occasion. At the grand feast in his honor, Philippe was presented with Francis' two eligible sisters: the nineteen-year-old Maria Pia and the thirteen-year-old Maria Luisa. The latter was first to court the Dauphin and began to extoll the virtues of her country and treated him as an equal member of the Bourbon dynasty. This familiarity, however, did not sit well with Philippe who reacted with offense at the suggestion that the true Bourbons of France were in any way equal to the cadet branch of a cadet branch that is the house of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. At this point, King Francis tried to control the situation by presenting the Dauphin with Princess Maria Pia. The elder sister proved to be more understanding of her position and praised the virtues of King Henri and those of King Louis Philippe. After this introduction, it is said that the two got on excellently with each other, so much so that they were betrothed within the week. It was like this that, in May, the Dauphin Philippe and Princess Maria Pia of the Two Sicilies were proclaimed husband and wife during a lavish ceremony in Notre Dame Cathedral.

The Dauphin and Dauphine shortly after their marriage​

 

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The year of 1869 was one of great interest to the House of Bourbon. On the 6th of February, churches all over France rang their bells in celebration at the announcement of the birth of a son in the royal family. The Dauphine gave birth to a healthy young boy who was baptized as Louis Philippe Robert, likely to become king after his father. The news was greeted with supreme joy by King Henri who created the newborn as Philippe, Duc d'Orléans.

The Dauphine with a young Duc Phillippe.​

On another branch of the family tree, the expulsion of the Bourbons from Spain caused much more than just the birth of the Spanish Republic by forming ripples and waves that would crash upon Europe in the following years. The first ripple hit France as, in May 1869, the continued insistence by Fabien de Privas that France should restore the Spanish monarchy forced King Henri to sack the Prime Minister. He was substituted by Georges Fétique, twice Minister of war and now leader of the Modéré party.

The situation in Spain continued to unfold as the German Empire proposed that a Hohenzollern should be placed upon the vacant throne. The new Foreign Minister Valentin de Melun sent vigorous protests to the German ambassador for attempting to interfere with Bourbon affairs.

The Duc de Melun was born in 1827 to one of the most prominent French noble families who had managed to rebuild their fortunes after the First Restoration. Valentin was sent at a young to a military academy in the hopes of a successful career in the army. Upon graduation in 1845, he managed to be assigned at court as an officer in the royal guard. It was in this capacity that Melun attempted to resist the riots of 1847 and was severely injured while defending the King from the mob. During the Second Republic and the regime of Bonaparte, he served with distinction as a colonel in the National Guard until 1853 when he saw the corruption in the regime and sought to change it. He was elected to the Imperial Senate and was sent as an envoy to Hispaniola to ensure that the province had been properly subjugated. After the Ottoman War, he was among those who voted to ensure the return of King Henri and thus continued to be a member of the Upper House until he was chosen as Minister of War for the distinction he showed in his military career.

With a German conflict looming, Melun opened diplomatic channels with allies in the Russian Empire to ensure their support in the eventuality of war. In early 1870, the movement of German soldiers towards the border of Russian Poland provided the final provocation in a year-long escalation. On the 9th of February 1870, the Russian ambassador to Berlin handed in an official declaration of war with the aim of stopping aggressive German expansion in Europe.

Europe rallies against the German menace.​

On the next day, Russian envoys came to King Henri asking for military aid to conduct a two-front war. The King consulted with War Minister Marius de Agen who assured him that there would be no repeat of the dishonor of the Ottoman War.

The Marquis d'Agen was born in 1814 just as his family had returned to France with Louis XVIII. The First Restoration allowed a great deal of opportunities for a young noble and Marius was sent to study the law of the new Kingdom. An accomplished student, he graduated in 1834 and made a name for himself as a lawyer with a particular eye towards ensuring that the constitutional limits on the people were properly observed. With the Rebellion of 1847, Agen left the public eye and retired to private life in his family estates in Southern France. There he began writing poetry in praise of the simple lives of the farmers who dutifully tended to the prune orchards close to his home town. He rose to the political scene with the Second Restoration when King Henri required loyal nobles to govern France. Agen was thus appointed as governor of the African colonies where he accrued a certain military experience in defending the settlements from raids. Under the new Fétique government, he was then chosen as Minister of War for the twin virtues of experience and loyalty.

Within the cabinet, support was unanimous for joining the fray since the people of France were anxious to take revenge for the loss of Alsace-Lorraine. Thus, on the 23rd of February, Melun handed the declaration of war to the German ambassador in Paris as soon as Agen had massed the regular army on the German border.

In the first phase of the war, the French army rushed through Alsace-Lorraine, liberating the oppressed French people there, and began to lay siege to the German heartland. The first serious signs of resistance were encountered in late May at Heilbronn and Mannheim where it was considered prudent to stop the advance and fortify these positions in anticipation of a more vigorous German counterattack.

The French advance in the first phase of the war.​

Days of tension followed the advance as news leaked that the German Empire had offered annexation to Austria, a staunch French ally, in the name of their common heritage. Before a decision could be reached, Melun rushed to Vienna and delivered an impassioned speech about the friendship that Austria and France share and further praised their spirit of collaboration while pointing to the Prussian tyranny that had fallen upon other German nations. Such a fate would also befall the proud Empire if they accepted submission to a neighbor rather than collaboration with a more distant friend. The speech moved the Austrian government and, shortly after the battle of Heilbronn, they sent back their response that Austria would remain independent of Germany and reject its imperial ambitions.

Austria shows where her loyalties lie.​

Austria’s loyalty denied valuable troops to the German Empire and they were forced to peel off soldiers from the Russian front to deal with the French advance in Baden-Württemberg. In June, counterattacks in Colmar and Heilbronn were halted by brave French soldiers in their diligently constructed trenches, denying Germany any further access to Alsace-Lorraine. Fresh gains were made by the army in Mannheim who managed to occupy Aschaffenburg and expelled the German garrison there.

France resists German assaults and pushes on.​

The coming of August saw valuable breakthroughs that came close to eliminating German military capabilities. The Russians were able to push back enemy gains in Poland as the Eastern front began to show signs of bending towards Berlin. On the French front, the Prussians attempted one final counterattack on Mannheim but were repulsed by the valiant French soldiers who would not yield to the forces of tyranny. The foolish attack left the field open for further French advance that culminated in the occupation of Stuttgart and Nürnberg.

France pushes into the German heartland.​

The final blows of the war came in November when French victories at Siegburg and Aachen broke all German resistance in the West just as Russian soldiers started flooding through Prussia.

The German front breaks.​

Germany opened diplomatic channels and by the 19th of November 1870, an armistice was signed with the unconditional surrender of the German Empire to the Kingdom of France and the Russian Empire. In a meeting at Dortmund, Tsar Alexander II and King Henri V forced Kaiser Wilhelm to sign a treaty that would restrict German aggression for the next decade. Under the terms of the pact, the German Empire would relinquish its claims of influence over Spain, restore Alsace-Lorraine to the Kingdom of France, pay a significant war indemnity to the Russian Empire and be required to reduce its army size to, at most, 150.000 soldiers.

France is finally returned to her former glory.​

 

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The years between 1871 and 1874 were characterized by a period of peace and reconstruction after the Russo-German War. The cabinet of Georges Fétique counseled the King to rectify certain injustices that were still relics of the Bonaparte regime. In August 1873, the Parliament was reinstated to ensure that the King might have the largest number of qualified councilors. It was decided that the members would be appointed by the King every six years and chosen among the ranks of the French nobility whose skill and wisdom is widely known. One of the first matters on which the Parliament advised the King was the matter of slavery in the colonies, especially Hispaniola where over 80% of the population was composed of slaves, with Liberal Senator Anges de Mâcon heading discussions on the matter in October of 1874.

The Comte de Mâcon was born in 1834 within a minor noble family attempting to climb the social ladder under the July Monarchy. He studied law in the hopes of a political career at court but, with the rise of the Second Republic, he was forced in a different direction. Upon the death of his father, Anges used his considerable rhetorical skill to become a journalist in Paris when Bonaparte still kept the pretense of a Republic. When this façade was dropped, Mâcon thought it best to escape these influences and he continued his journalism by reporting on the colonial conditions to be found in West Africa. In his thirties, having become a household name in Dakar, he turned his pen towards poetry and praised the blessed union between his birth home and the one he had more recently adopted. It was through these writings that King Henri learnt of him and chose him for his acumen and experience in colonial matters.

Senator Anges de Mâcon.​

Mâcon's repudiation of slavery was birthed of his firsthand experience of the practice as he had often seen the way in which slaves were both captured and later used and had been horrified by the conditions that they had to endure. He pleaded to the assembly to consider that these people would be of much greater use to France if they could be added to the ranks of proper Frenchmen rather than abusing of them through menial labor that machines could now undertake. The only prominent figure who spoke in favor of maintaining slavery was Yvon Brousseau who had been Minister of the Interior for Bonaparte and overseen the enslavement of Hispaniola. He stated that full abolition would doom many small slave-owners to bankruptcy by confiscating a large portion of their property. He proposed, rather, that only the making of new slaves be outlawed and that those already in bondage should not be freed so as to allow their owners to divert their investments. King Henri, however, could not be deaf to those who yearned to be his loyal subjects and stated to Parliament that slavery was not worthy of the new Kingdom which had already freed so many Frenchmen from prior oppression. It was with this spirit that, on the 19th of October 1874, King Henri V signed the bill into law and rendered former slaves into free and equal French subjects.

Haitian slaves celebrate their liberation by the King.​

The immediate emancipation caused an uproar among several nobles whose colonial holdings were mainly worked by slaves and had thus been deprived of their labor. These aristocrats petitioned the King to dismiss Fétique as Prime Minister and appoint one of their own in his stead.

Anxious to maintain the cohesion and solidarity of his subjects, King Henri accepted the request and substituted Fétique with Édouard Affré, a prominent landowner who was Foreign Minister under Bonaparte and had counseled against the Ottoman War.

Outside of France, the Spanish Republic showed the consequences of expelling one’s monarch as it was replaced by Austria in the negotiations among Great Powers.

Apart from these formal changes, the most relevant political upheaval in Europe after the Russo-German War was the birth of a new national entity. In June of 1872, a plebiscite among the states of the Italian peninsula granted the title of King of Italy to Victor Emmanuel II, formerly King of Sardinia-Piedmont. The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies melted away without much effort as the royal family boarded a ship taking them to Marseilles where they were greeted by the Dauphin and Dauphine who proceeded to escort them back to Paris where they could join their Spanish relatives as rulers in exile. The only Italian ruler to resist the birth of Italy was Pope Pius IX who decried the usurpation. This led to a brief war in August of the same year where the Italian forces occupied Rome and forced the Pontiff to surrender his temporal power.

Italy joins the concert of nations.​

The new French government reacted to the political upheavals in Europe by improving its military and stabilizing its interests in the uncivilized world.

The new Minister of War, Armel de Chartres, oversaw the modernization of the army and its growth back to the size it was before the Russo-German War with around 200.000 regular soldiers and reserves amounting to further 750.000 men.

The Comte de Chartres was born in 1839 to an impoverished family of ancient nobility. As was tradition, he was sent to Paris to study the classics from a young age in a course of study that lasted into the Bonapartist regime. Under this same regime, there was not much place for the old nobility and, as such, Chartres was forced to work as a clerk in the War Department. With the Second Restoration, he was assigned some of the property sequestered from the usurper and his cronies to match his station with the dignity of his title. He quickly reinvested this money by opening a small arms factory for the supply of the French home armies.

These newly rebuilt armies soon found there use when, in January 1875, Foreign Minister Omer de Évreux was contacted by French missionaries in Cambodia who were being harassed by the local government.

The Duc de Évreux was born in 1830 to a prominent noble family with a strong military tradition. For this reason, he was sent to the military academy of Saint-Cyr from the age of ten. There, he chose a naval specialization and graduated in 1852, becoming a Ship-of-the-Line Lieutenant in the then-Imperial navy. His military career proceeded with honor until 1859 when, during the American War, he was captured after the defeat at Chesapeake Bay and kept as a prisoner of war for the duration of the conflict. After this experience, he was transferred to Indochina where he rose up the ranks to become Admiral of the Eastern Fleet. This experience would prove invaluable in the opening years of his Ministry.

When the arrogant Cambodian locals refused Évreux' ultimatum, a French division was sent to ensure the security of French citizens. A few brief skirmishes forced the Cambodians to surrender and it was decided that half of their kingdom would be directly administered by the Kingdom of France to ensure the continued well-being of Christians in Indochina.

The new French possessions in Indochina​

Shortly after, the interest of the international community was captured by the demands of the Basque minority in Spain to have its own state. A congress was called in Vienna to settle the matter, with Great Britain championing the independence front and The Netherlands leading the defense of Spain. It quickly became apparent that the self-determination of European peoples was of the utmost importance and that the Basques were right to desire a state free from a new unstable republic. Thus, on the 15th of November 1875, the foreign ministers of all the Great Powers signed a document declaring the birth of the Basque Country under the protection of Great Britain.

France gains a new neighbor.​

The next year brought with it a further improvement to the defenses of French colonies in Western Africa when Évreux authorized the destruction and permanent occupation of raiding bases belonging to the Wolof and Futa Jallon tribes which had already been pushed back in past decades. The military operation lasted from June to August 1876 and is sure to bring stability to such an uncivilized region.

The taming of Africa continues.​

Back in Europe, the third war between the Kingdom of France and the German Empire began in the context of further political upheaval among the great powers. In Japan, Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu succeeded in expelling the ceremonial Emperor Meiji after the brief Boshin War before installing himself as the leader of a Western-style military state. Under Yoshinobu, Japan quickly industrialized and modernized its army to the point that, in August 1876, it was invited by the international community to take the place of Austria for the deliberations among Great Powers.

Europe takes note of the rising sun.​

Early August also saw the passing of the Suez Canal into French hands when Foreign Minister Omer de Évreux seized the opportune moment to buy a majority share in the Suez Canal Company. This was quickly succeeded by the establishment of a French military garrison in the area to ensure a flow of ships and tariffs in accordance with French interests.

This decision alarmed German Emperor Wilhelm who feared French power increasing beyond what his nation could handle and the exclusion of the German Empire from the lucrative markets in the far east. In reaction to this concern, the Kaiser's military staff urged him to declare war and strike before France became too powerful. Convinced by his sycophants, Kaiser Wilhelm formally declared war on the 20th of August and ordered the invasion of Alsace-Lorraine.

German aggression continues.​

The German advance was quickly halted on the 10th of September in Metz where it soon became clear that the men of France would not relinquish their homeland quite so easily. The German attack ground to a halt while the French reserves massed on the border with the aim of cowing the enemy once and for all.

Seeing their chances diminish every day, the Germans attempted one further push on the 7th of October and attempted to overwhelm Colmar but, by the noble sacrifice of 35.000 Frenchmen, the attack was repulsed, breaking the enemy line irreparably. The sons of France swarmed through the gap and swiftly took control of the Rheinland and Baden-Württemberg. This lightning offense forced the German foreign ministry to beg for an armistice and negotiations for surrender.

King Henri V himself met with Kaiser Wilhelm in Mainz and, having mercy on a senile Emperor he had twice defeated, he allowed the Germans to pay for their crimes with a yearly sum sufficient to reimburse the French people.

 

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The years after the Germano-French war are widely accepted to have been the most glorious and prosperous in the history of the Kingdom. War Minister Armel de Chartres quickly managed to, once again, prepare the French army to its full potential with 250.000 regular soldiers and 750.000 reserves. For the first time, France could supply a million men for the defense of the homeland and its sacred mission. These men would soon have their chance to prove their valor after the London Conference in July of 1880.

This Conference collected all the major rulers of Europe and concluded that it was the sacred duty of any generous ruler to bring civilization to the savages of the World with special attention towards Africa. King Henri V understood better than any the humanitarian necessity of freeing the natives of these lands from their barbarous ways and introducing them to the French ideal.

In the following months, King Henri coordinated the subjugation of Indochina in the East while establishing four African protectorates: the Protectorate of West Africa in 1881, the Protectorate of Egypt and the Protectorate of Central Africa in 1882 and the Protectorate of Madagascar in 1883. Even now, new cities spread civilization to these distant lands as railroads start to cross the continent and bring the rich natural resources of the land where they can be of use to the Métropole.

The extent of France's Protectorates.​

In 1880 the world also witnessed the fall of the Ottoman Empire: Germany and Britain led a concerted effort to dismember that ancient state and divide up its middle eastern territories. As an unintended consequence, the power vacuum in Istanbul resulted in Socialists exiling Sultan Abdul Hamid II and taking control of the government with the establishment of the Turkish Socialist Republic. That such a radical ideology would gain prominence in a country so steeped in absolutism caused great preoccupation across the courts of Europe. In France, King Henri chose to use a strong hand together with mercy for those who had been misguided. Several Socialist-leaning newspapers were closed down and their collaborators were put under special police surveillance until their innocence could be proved.

News breaks of the chaos in the East.​

In the political scene, discussions on Socialism came to the front during the sensitive year of 1881. In April, Socialist Senator Mathieu Baudelaire proposed the creation of a national school system that would guarantee the continued scientific advancement of France in the new global world by ensuring obligatory public education up to the age of 8.

Mathieu Baudelaire was born in Carcassonne in 1847 to one of the richest vineyard owners in the region. He was sent to an engineering college from which he graduated in 1870 with a thesis upon the construction of new steam ships. This got him a position as Naval Engineering Officer in the Royal Navy where he served with distinction, being shot in the arm while holding the blockade at Hamburg during the Germano-French war. For his valiant service he was promoted to the rank of Frigate Captain in 1873 in which capacity he became respected enough to be suggested as a Senator in the Upper House.

Baudelaire's education proposal was fiercely opposed by the more reactionary senators who feared that this would be the first step in the spread of Socialist propaganda that would risk turning France into what Turkey had become. They argued that giving out education to those of low birth would be dangerous as they do not have the necessary context to understand ideas developed by their betters.

King Henri understood the risks presented by Socialism but also accepted the need for France to lead the world in technical and scientific endeavors. To best join these two purposes, he ensured that all teaching would be strictly subjected to government monitoring to stop any dissident educators from poisoning the minds of their pupils.

King Henri sought to formalize the proposal with the Cabinet of Édouard Affré but encountered opposition to this modernization. In the midst of these talks, the 72-year-old Affré became ill with consumption and passed away in October of 1881 after 45 years of public service for the Nation.

The last picture of Prime Minister Édouard Affré.​

The loss of the Prime Minister persuaded the King to dissolve the Government and search for a new one that would carry out his projects for France. To substitute a Ministry so unwilling to reform, the King chose to reinstate Georges Fétique as Prime Minister, remembering his previous contribution with the abolition of slavery in the colonies.

The following year saw King Henri gradually pull back from public life as the administration of the Kingdom began to take a toll on his health. It is said that he frequently would be struck by fits of fatigue and piercing headaches after long days spent attending to his duties when he often neglected to take meals. At the beginning of 1883, the King began to hand off control of colonial matters to the Dauphin as his symptoms began to worsen with an almost total loss of appetite as he raced against time to cement his legacy.

On the 24th of August 1883, after 21 years of glorious reign, the realm was shocked to hear that the most beloved King Henri V had tragically died in his sleep. A myriad adoring obituaries were published throughout France lamenting the loss of such a great man with all agreeing on the King’s virtues and dedication to his country. He had taken France from the fallen state in which Bonaparte had left it and raised it up by avenging the German defeat time and again. He had spread the name of France across innumerable new colonies and blessed the Nation with two decades of strong and stable government. Hundreds of thousands of loyal subjects attended the funeral procession with the sound of weeping only tempered by the respectful silence of those more stoic. The body of the King was then placed in the Basilique Saint Denis where he shall lay with Kings of his caliber such as Clovis and Louis XIV.

The funeral procession for Henri V moved the people of France to days of mourning.​

With the passing of King Henri V, the main branch of the House of Bourbon was extinguished, and the crown needed to be transferred to Orléanist branch under the guidance of the Dauphin Louis Philippe Albert d’Orléans, grandson of King Louis Philippe.

After respecting the proper mourning period, on the 7th of October 1883 the Prince was crowned as Philippe VII in a Grand ceremony at the Cathedral in Reims. Some had suggested that the King take up the regnal name of Louis Philippe II or Louis XX, but he decided that he did not want to take the name of monarchs so recently overthrown and did not wish to dim the France of Henri V with the imperfection that was the July Monarchy.

King Philippe VII takes the throne.​

The King confirmed all of the appointments of his predecessor and took stock of the situation of the Kingdom. His analysis led him to believe that Henri’s colonial project could not and should not be interrupted.

King Philippe faced his first challenge at the end of the year as a consequence of the Haiphong Episode. On December 21st 1883, French warships were denied access to Cambodian ports where they had planned to resupply. The officer in charge ignored the demands of the locals and attempted to make port at Haiphong but was repelled by cannon fire from the port defenses. This act of aggression could not go unpunished and Foreign Minister Valentin de Melun demanded that the King of Vietnam surrender the city to French authorities that may guarantee the free passage and resupply of ships. This request was refused, and, on the 16th of February 1884, King Philippe declared war on the Kingdom of Vietnam.

The French Fleet in the South China Sea was immediately redirected to blockade all Vietnamese ports while the Army of Egypt was ferried over to aid the Colonial Garrison. The loyal natives proved their devotion to France as they managed to repel any attack they received and began an advance as soon as the Egyptian Army occupied Haiphong. The following campaign cost France little in terms of lives and resources since the main cities of the Kingdom were occupied in a couple of months and their King was captured in late April. King Gian Tông accepted to relinquish his claims upon the region of Vietnam and hand it in trust to the French Governor of Indochina who would ensure that French might be felt in all regions of the globe.

King Philippe makes himself known in the Orient.​

 

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After the success of the Vietnamese War, King Philippe VII turned his attention to issues of internal government as he consulted with the newly appointed members of the Upper House. In December 1884, a bill was proposed by former Foreign Minister Léon de Cahors to rescind the law of 1863 that prohibited public meetings and demonstrations by the subjects of His Majesty. He justified this request by stating that France had not suffered any serious rebellion under Henri V and that maybe this indicated that the people of France had finally earned that right, so accustomed they had been to loyalty. The King considered this proposal intently and consulted with his Cabinet and found a broad agreement that it was time for the King to give some independence to his subjects like a father who sees that his children have grown. In February 1885, the details of the law were formalized, and the people were once more allowed to congregate and manifest their opinion to the King.

The King’s pursuit of reforms was interrupted in May 1885 when the faithful Prime Minister Georges Fétique, who had served France for over 25 years, died of pneumonia and left the Cabinet headless. To replace him, the King chose the Foreign Minister Valentin de Melun who had worked for so long with Fétique and assigned the Foreign Ministry to Omer de Évreux who had held the position under the Affré government.

The late Prime Minister Georges Fétique.​

The march of reform proceeded onwards once the dynamics of the new Government were settled and, in September 1885, Deputies Anges de Mâcon and Mathieu Baudelaire presented the King with two ambitious proposals. The first of these was the increase of Government spending for public schooling with the clear aim of ensuring that France not be left behind in the scientific race towards the future. All the members of the Cabinet and the King himself saw the merit in this proposal and it was passed into law after only the week necessary to define its formal details. For the second proposal it was suggested to institute an economic subsidy to those who were unemployed; this, the proponents argued, would both be humane to the poor of France and would provide a wider market for French industry. This law, however, proved to be more controversial with Évreux fervently opposing it and petitioning the King to refuse such openly Socialist ideas and the King himself having strong reservations towards adopting concepts from such a destructive ideology. An impassioned verbal duel between Baudelaire and Évreux occupied the agenda of the Upper House for the next couple of weeks, each day earning new converts and undecideds to the cause. The matter was finally settled in late October when the King decreed that he would adopt the Baudelaire-Mâcon proposal with the justification that the measure could not be Socialist since it was being adopted by a just and lawful father of the people.

King Philippe addresses his Parliament.​

Having modernized the State, King Philippe turned his eyes to the colonies that had been so recently instituted by his predecessor. Agents of Évreux had long been in contact with chiefs of the wild people of the Sahara and the encroachment of British forces upon the area convinced these tribal leaders that it would be within their best interest to hand over their land to agents of the French Crown. The new territory was added in February 1886 and, for the first time, the colonies of Algerie and West Africa were joined by a land route through the desert that, thanks to copious investments from French capitalists, was swiftly crisscrossed with modern railways.

French West Africa takes shape.​

A further expansion was triggered due to a continuing disrespect by the Qing for French missionaries in the region as, on the 13th of May, a group of French priests was lynched by a mob in Canton. Despite repeated prompts by Évreux, the Emperor Guangxu refused to provide adequate compensation for the incident and guarantee the safety of French citizens. This act of hostility forced the King to issue a declaration of war upon the Qing and order the immediate transport of the Army of Egypt to aid the Army of Indochina in occupying the Guangdong province. Chinese forces initiated several waves of attacks on the French defenses but time and again, despite their numerical advantage, they were repelled, and a stable occupation of Southern China was achieved. On the 17th of June 1886, the Emperor Guangxu agreed to reimburse France for the loss of life and means that it had had to endure and also accepted to hand over the concession of Kouang-Tchéou-Wan as a trading outpost to be managed by the Colony of Indochina.

The Colony of Indochina with its new Chinese possession.​

While returning of the Army of Egypt to its post, the Asian Fleet was struck by a Cyclone in early September and required urgent repairs and, as a consequence, the admiral directed the fleet to the city of Bossaso within the Majeerteen Sultanate. During the laborious process of re-fitting and re-supplying the ships, the men of the Army of Egypt established themselves in the city and began to mingle with the locals soon forming tight bonds. The relationship was so prosperous that, when the army had to leave in December, many men did not wish to leave; this was compounded by Sultan Osman Mahamuud developing a deep personal friendship with the admiral who had introduced him to the most prominent features of French culture. A week before the scheduled date of departure, the Sultan formally sent a request to King Philippe to be placed under French protection, thus transforming his Kingdom into the Protectorate of Majeerteen and showing the world once more that the French way is the envy of the World.

The Protectorate of Majeerteen enters the French Colonial Empire.​

 

[slothinator]

The new year began in the spirit of optimism as the new territories started their process of integration into the wider French colonial empire. Such prosperity, however, would be threatened by the belligerent imperialism that the German Empire was undertaking in the heartland of Europe. In late January 1887, the German ambassador to Austria presented veiled threats suggesting that Austria should betray its French allies and join their Empire. As was expected, Emperor Franz Josef refused such an outrageous proposal and informed King Philippe of this plot while assuring his undying loyalty. The French armies on the Rhine were notified of a potential conflict and plans were made for an invasion of German soil in defense of Austrian independence.

On the 8th of March, the dreaded announcement came: the German Empire had declared war upon Austria with the stated aim of conquering Böhmen-Mähren. Upon the same day, the King called a cabinet meeting to ensure support of the war from his ministers and found opposition only from Omer de Évreux who feared German treachery. Nonetheless, the Foreign Minister accepted to publicly announce France's support for its ally while the army moved across the German border.

The Germans begin their march on Europe.​

It soon became apparent that the Germans had planned for such an eventuality: the bulk of the Teutonic army was ready to march on Alsace-Lorraine and a secret agreement was revealed whereby Italy and Belgium would join any war against France. The unexpected extension of the front to the entire Eastern frontier forced the armies in Alsace-Lorraine to rush to counter the Italian and Belgian forces who had begun streaming across the border. The first important battle of the war presented itself on the 25th of March in Strasbourg where the German advanced force was repelled by the long-entrenched defense army. This victory was short lived, however, as news arrived of a defeat at Cambrai at the hands of the traitorous Belgians on the 27th. The following months did not provide the chance for an honorable fight and saw the enemy armies slowly push back the defenders through sabotage and the theft of supplies.

The Battle of Cambrai ends with much blood spilled.​

On the Eastern front of the war, German forces had managed to occupy all of Bohemia and the Austrians were mounting a desperate defense of Vienna, confiding their safety in a French victory. On the 6th of September, the Germans and Italians staged a great push to break French lines with spearheads at Chaumont and Besançon. After much fighting, the Italian attackers at Besançon were held back but the Huns had managed to break Chaumont and rushed through the breach. New defensive lines were drawn to avoid total collapse and an attack was prepared at Nancy to ensure the security of Paris. On the 27th of September, a full assault was taken out against the entrenched Germans. Thousands of Frenchmen perished under machine gun fire as each regiment attempted to exploit any gap that might have presented itself. The battle raged on for two days between heavy shelling and infantry charges but on the dawn of the third day the result was clear. The Germans managed to blast through the center of the battlefield and the French rearguard was being overwhelmed, leaving the road to Paris wide open. To save his people from such a siege, King Philippe surrendered to the invading forces and ordered the cessation of hostilities on all fronts.

The treaty of Nancy on the 7th of November 1887 was personally signed by King Philippe VII, Emperor Franz Josef of Austria and the octogenarian Emperor Wilhelm of Germany and stipulated the passage of Böhmen-Mähren from Austrian to German hands together with the French cessation of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany and Corsica to Italy.

The new Europe marred by unjust foreign demands.​

With peace came reflection on the war: the King sacked the Melun government and appointed Évreux, now head of the Droite Nationaliste party, as Prime Minister for his foresight on German treachery and military experience that would be invaluable in restoring the army. For this purpose, the new Prime Minister chose to appoint Vivien de Vannes as Minister of War.

The Marquis de Vannes was born in 1854 to a noble family chafing under the oppressive regime of Bonaparte. His education mainly featured engineering and the other sciences with a particular eye out for the more military applications of such matters. Upon graduation he decided to join the navy where he was routinely commended for his skill in directing and improving upon naval artillery. He served with distinction in the Germano-French war until losing a leg during a battle in the North Sea in 1877. While recovering from his wounds, Vannes managed to befriend the French ambassador to the Netherlands. The old man then recommended him for the same position upon retirement and the request was duly accepted by the Affré government. Through contacts in the diplomatic corps, Évreux first heard of the Marquis and decided to appoint him to a ministerial position.

Minister of War Vivien de Vannes.​

In the next two years, the government attempted to bring the French armies into the condition necessary to contrast the expansion of the German Empire, but it appeared as if such a point could not be reached. Évreux attempted to excuse his failure by stating that France had neither the resources nor the manpower to conduct an independent war against the Germans and that the way forward was one of conciliation with the enemy and a search for allies. Vannes disagreed. He managed to assure the King that France had all the resources that were necessary but that foreign agents and those that would rejoice at seeing France fall were plotting and undermining the advances that were being made. A clear solution presented itself but Évreux was unwilling to take it and chose to resign his post rather than accept Vannes' proposal. The Minister of War was thus elevated to Prime Minister and set to work rooting out the enemies of the Homeland. To execute this task, he selected Ange de Metz as Minister of the Interior for his cabinet and prompted him to find those who were secretly plotting France's demise.

The Duke de Metz had significant reasons to desire for a strong France. Born in 1845 in Alsace-Lorraine, he studied at the military academy in Paris before joining the army in 1863 and saw active duty in every continental war up to the recent Germano-Austrian War. All the while, he climbed the ranks of the army until being promoted to Colonel in the Army of the Rhine in 1882. However, this promotion felt hollow as, during the Germano-French war in 1877, Metz witnessed the death of his family first hand as a consequence of German shelling of his estate. Such understanding of the German threat proved to be the chief element that Vannes sought in the man who would provide security to France.

All through 1890, Metz searched for all those people who had caused the defeat of 1887 and cut them out of the French body like the tumor they were. All Italians, Belgians and Germans who had infiltrated the Kingdom were charged with aiding their respective countries in undermining French defenses while all Basques and Catalans spilling out from republican Spain were exposed for their treason against the King.

The search was quick and effective and, before long, the problem was no more.

 

[slothinator]

With the reconstruction of the Nation underway, France's prosperity managed to return to the levels it had enjoyed in before the Germano-Austrian War but this brought particular attention to the plight of the veterans who had suffered and received permanent injuries during that horrendous conflict. It did not seem just that, while France was rebuilding, the bodies of those who fought for her should be forced to suffer far beyond the country they had sacrificed for. With these arguments, Socialist Senators Anges de Mâcon and Mathieu Baudelaire proposed a bill in February 1891 that would ensure that the government would pay for one tenth of the medical expenses incurred by each citizen for, they argued, surely a healthy population was the best way to ensure that ailing veterans are cared for. As with previous proposals by these same Senators, this too was greeted with vast opposition, not least from Prime Minister Vivien de Vannes and Minister of the Interior Ange de Metz. Metz, especially, declared that suggesting such a waste of resources on those who were too idle to work for their health was dangerously close to treason and that the Senators should be ashamed of identifying with the radical and subversive school of Socialism. King Philippe saw the merits of both sides of the argument and no final decision could be reached until May of the same year. The King, as had happened in 1885 with the schooling law, fell on the side of Baudelaire and Mâcon and approved the law but he assured his cabinet and his people that, as long as he would live, the specter of Socialism would never stalk France and that all these laws were only to the benefit of the country.

Internal political discourse was soon matched by the external when, in December 1891, an international congress was organized in Paris by Foreign Minister Lucien de Chartres.

Foreign Minister Lucien de Chartres.​

Lucien de Chartres was born in 1859 to Armel de Chartres, former Minister of War for the Affré government. The proceeds from his father's arms business allowed Lucien to study law at the Sorbonne where he showed a clear talent for legal matters and graduated cum laude in 1880. While Armel was serving as minister, Lucien was introduced to the Royal Court where he dutifully served King Henri V as a member of his entourage. Upon the accession of Philippe VII, he was sent with his father to inspect the status of the new African colonies and ensure their proper civilization in matters of law. After returning to court, he was lauded for his diplomatic performance in the Colonies and the King personally suggested appointing him as Foreign Minister.

The Congress of Paris was headed by France on one side and Great Britain on the other, respectively arguing the case against and for the re-constitution of the Basque Country that had been abolished by Spain in past years. Chartres argued that adding a nation that had already failed once was a clear way to ensure a second fall which might even cause greater collateral damage down the road. He also stated, with attention to the German and Russian Empires that, if every cultural minority were to gain their own nation, soon anarchy would spread across Europe and allow an easy hegemony of the British over the continent. Lord Salisbury replied for Great Britain and affirmed that the Basque Countries had fallen after an illegal occupation by Spain and that, this time, his country would act as protector to the fledgling nation. As for the accusations of dividing Europe, he stated that Britain was more than ever committed to the balance of powers in the continent. When it came time to vote for a resolution, only the Russian Empire saw the wisdom of Chartres' words while the other European powers were seduced by the British and thus Spain agreed to peacefully allow the Basque Countries to regain their independence under the hegemony of Great Britain.

The Basque Countries return to the map of Europe.​

This diplomatic insult persuaded King Philippe that it was time for France to show the world that it was still a force to be reckoned with and would not be slighted by countries who had only come onto the world stage in the last century.

The chance arose in August 1892 when it was revealed that Italy was abusing and attempting to integrate the French population of Nice and Savoy, forcing them to abandon their heritage. Delegations from these regions came to the King and begged him for assistance in maintaining their identity. The King reacted by requesting to buy the regions off of Italy in the hopes that they would recognize their position but, emboldened by their recent victories, the Italians flatly refused. A final ultimatum was delivered by Chartres who warned king Umberto that France would stop at nothing to protect its people but, once again, the Italians dared King Philippe to challenge them. Thus, on the 13th of September 1892, Chartres handed the declaration of war to the Italian ambassador in Paris. It appears that the Italians did not believe in an invasion and were woefully unprepared for the first phase of attack such that Nice and Savoy were occupied by the end of the month and the first serious resistance was organized in early October. The battle of Torino on the 15th of the same month was a resounding success for the French forces who pushed the enemy back from Piemonte all the way to Tuscany and, in so doing, cut off most of the Italian reserves from the main army.

While the Army of the Alps marched on Milan, news came that Greece, a longtime satellite of France, had declared war upon Bulgaria, itself a satellite of the Russian Empire, and was requesting French aid in the war.

News of the Greek War arrives to France.​

A conflict between the two great powers would permanently sever the long-cherished ties of friendship between them and could not be accepted. Channels were opened between King Philippe VII and Tsar Alexander III to resolve the conflict and it was concluded that Russia would defend Bulgaria but France would not aid Greece as they had been the unlawful aggressor. With this diplomatic crisis settled, the war in Italy proceeded with constant methodical success as the French armies built a front across the peninsula and pushed it ever further South. At the beginning of the new year, with Rome about to be besieged and no sign of foreign aid in sight, Italian Foreign Minister Benedetto Brin called for an armistice which soon lead to the Treaty of Torino on the 23rd of January 1893. The treaty, signed by Foreign Minister Lucien de Chartres and Italian Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti, formally ceded Nice and Savoy to the Kingdom of France and wiped clean the stain of the Italian invasion of six years prior by re-taking Corsica and annexing Sardinia as a reparation.

With justice delivered upon one of the aggressors of 1887, King Philippe set his eyes on punishing Belgium for their arrogance in attacking their betters. In February 1893, as the Army of the Alps was redirected to the Belgian border, the Belgian government declared their nation bankrupt and thus cancelled all outstanding debts with France. This latest affront pushed the King over the edge and convinced him that war was the only solution and that, even if Germany were to join, the occupation of Belgium would end the conflict in a few months. Upon calling a cabinet meeting, the King took stock of the support of Vannes and Chartres but was taken aback by Metz' resistance to the idea under the justification of wishing to improve the fortresses on the border. Despite this reticence, the King knew that there would not soon be a better opportunity and, on the 2nd of March 1893, the II Franco-Belgian war begun.

The Franco-Belgian War begins.​

The conflict began inauspiciously as the Russian Empire chose to interpret the terms of the intervention in the Greco-Bulgarian War as suspending the alliance until that particular conflict came to an end and that they would only agree to join when that moment came. Despite this, the main three French armies managed a deep advance into Germany and Belgium where they were greatly aided by their Spanish allies. On the 12th of July, the battle of Lille crushed the meager Belgian resistance and confirmed the occupation of half of the country while the Armies of the Rhine and of the Alps advanced to occupy Kolmar and Freiburg.

The state of the front in July 1893.​

Until August, no real resistance was encountered on the German side and a quick end to the war seemed in sight but, with the coming of September, all that changed. The German armies arrived from the East, bolstered by copious reserve troops and began a vigorous push through Belgium and Lorraine. Almost all the gains in Flanders were lost as the Army of Belgium was isolated and forced into a disastrous rout at the battle of Liege on the 28th of September. On the German front, the Army of the Rhine was pushed back in a fighting retreat to Nancy while the Army of the Alps was not so lucky and met its end at the battle of Freiburg on the 2nd of October.

The state of the front after the German autumn offensive.​

In view of these disasters, the King sacked Vannes and replaced him with Metz whose military experience would be necessary to succeed. Metz took personal control of the military planning and formed a new front along the Belgian border and towards Lorraine with the Army of the Rhine providing a stable defense force at Nancy. Hundreds of Kilometers of barbed wire were laid out across this front and, together with the construction of trenches and machine gun nests, there is hope that France will be defended. Recent news, however, indicates that the main German force has attacked Nancy on the 20th of December where 100.000 Frenchmen now are embroiled in a fight for their country against 150.000 invaders. One can only hope that God will intercede on the side of his King and deliver us from defeat.

 

[slothinator]

The Battle of Nancy ended on the 15th of January 1894 and left 100.000 between dead and wounded on the field. Through this immense sacrifice, however, the day was won and France was saved.

This victory marked the high-point of the German advance into the homeland. In the early months of 1894, the French front lines withstood almost daily attacks but, time and time again, the enemy was forced to retreat away from the fiercely entrenched defenders. The war slowed to a crawl as all the momentum with which Germany had violated France was absorbed by the machine guns, trenches and blood of the French people.

French soldiers hold the line at Nancy.​

Meanwhile, in the East, the Hungarian allies managed no such feat. By March, most of Hungary had been occupied and no Hungarian armies could be seen in the field. It was at this moment that, acknowledging the impossibility of fighting on, the Hungarian government formally surrendered to the German Empire and managed to leave the war while maintaining their territorial integrity. This peace allowed for the disengagement of tens of thousands of German soldiers who soon began to head for the French front in the hope of breaking the line of defense.

While such a hammer was about to fall upon the exasperated French defenses, Providence displayed her favor to those on the just side of the war. On the 25th of April 1894, the treaty of Thessaloniki ended the Greco-Bulgarian war in the defenders' favor and thus removed any justification for Russian non-intervention in the Franco-Belgian conflict.

In a series of hastily written telegrams, Foreign Minister Lucien de Chartres urged Tsar Alexander III to enter the war and crush Germany once and for all. The reply was awaited impatiently until the 3rd of May when finally, the Russian Empire agreed to declare war on Germany and Belgium.

The German armies who had so recently left Hungary now turned to the Eastern front where they quickly overtook several border provinces while the Russian war machine gathered its forces. With the Russian front being pushed back, the French forces planned a minor push upon Freibourg to test the German defenses and see how to best coordinate a front-wide attack.

In early May, the French front line moved for the first time in a year as 50.000 Frenchmen overwhelmed the 20.000 German defenders at Freibourg and managed to capture the fortresses around the region.

The glorious charge at Freibourg.​

The victory in Freibourg had shown that the German front could be pierced by concentrating the resources of a whole section of the front into a single weak point. The rest of May was dedicated to tireless planning of a great push that would break the German line and force them into a retreat back out of French territory. King Philippe could not participate in the planning due to health reasons, but the Dauphin Philippe played a fundamental role in defining the two main directions of attack.

On the 7th of June 1894, the French artillery across Alsace and Flanders stopped firing allowing for a rare moment of quiet just before the order to charge was given. At that point, over 300.000 French soldiers on the German and Belgian fronts began their attack on the enemy positions in a front-wide charge against the invaders. By the 21st, Alsace-Lorraine was re-taken with Strasbourg and Colmar becoming valuable holding points in case of attack. On the 27th, news arrived that the Belgian offensive had been successful and Charlerois had fallen. Brussels itself was under siege after a brutal battle involving 100.000 Frenchmen and 50.000 Belgian and German forces where the defenders were surrounded and slaughtered to a man after the noble sacrifice of 60.000 French soldiers. The June offensive had one last breath as the armies stationed in Strasbourg and Nancy launched a coordinated assault on Metz on the 29th that expelled the invaders from French soil once and for all.

The June offensive expels the aggressors from France.​

The army was allowed to rest for all of July and August with plans to advance in September, but it soon became clear that that would not occur.

On the 8th of September 1894, King Philippe VII died of pneumonia in his apartments at the Tuileries Palace. The loss of the Nation's father negated all the enthusiasm that had been born of the victories in June with soldier and civilian alike grieving that the King would not be able to see victory. The 25-year-old Dauphin, now King, was on the front lines planning for an attack into Germany when he received the news. Both national and filial piety compelled him to return to Paris for the funeral, but he knew that his duty was to France now and his mission could not be interrupted under any circumstance.

The Dauphin Philippe remained fixed in his dedication to France.​

The month of October saw a series of small attacks up North expel all enemy forces from Belgium and finally put the whole country under French occupation. Belgium was now reduced to a collection of bombed out cities and abandoned trenches, their defiance of France finally laid to rest in the fields of Flanders. This news was joined by reports that the Russians had halted the German invasion of their land and had begun to push back towards Prussia.

French high command identified this as the moment to organize a new assault and advance into the German lands from Alsace-Lorraine. On the 5th of December, the bulk of the French army charged at the German positions at Kaiserlautern. The fighting was fierce and bloody on both sides but, on Christmas Eve 1894, the Germans surrendered their fortress and the Fleur de Lys was raised proudly atop it. The enemy collapse was so great, however, that the soldiers had no time to rest. In the first days of 1895, French forces pushed on and captured Mainz before a defense could be arranged and reached the gates of Frankfurt.

After this assault, the German front was well and truly broken: each new week brought news of another city taken and another defense crushed as the French people began to look forward to peace and justice.

The German spine is finally broken.​

The last gasp of the German defiance came in July when 60.000 German soldiers assaulted the 40.000 French just outside Detmold. In a final display of modern warfare, the enemy were mowed down by machine guns wave after wave until none were left. The glorious regiment of the 5th Hussars then managed to capture the German artillery thus allowing for a full infantry assault that cut down any remaining resistance.

The finishing shots of the war were heard on the 27th of July 1895 when the city of Wiesbaden finally fell and the German plenipotentiaries begged King Philippe for an armistice.

The treaty of Frankfurt was settled throughout August and September with King Philippe VIII and Foreign Minister Lucien de Chartres negotiating for the Kingdom of France, Tsar Nicholas II for the Russian Empire, Prime Minister Jules de Burlet for the Kingdom of Belgium and Kaiser Wilhelm II for the German Empire. In the terms of the treaty, Belgium was punished for its role in starting the war by paying a quarter of its yearly revenue to France and another quarter to Russia. It was also forced to disarm and accept French military occupation for a duration of five years. Germany's role in escalating the war caused her to return Alsace-Lorraine to France together with war reparations for both France and Russia. Prime Minister Ange de Metz urged the King to punish Germany further, but the new monarch could see that the French people have no desire for unlawful conquest and that Russia would look unkindly upon further acquisitions. The terms thus defined, the treaty of Frankfurt was signed on the 16th of September 1895, finally bringing peace to a weary Europe.

Europe rejoices from a humbled Germany.
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The Treaty of Frankfurt allowed for a much-desired peace to fall upon France and permit the nation to greet its new King. The former Dauphin, who had been baptized as Louis Philippe Robert, was 26 years old at the time of his accession but presented all the virtues of a proper ruler. He had shown great bravery and acumen during the Belgian War and was widely praised for having a wisdom beyond his years. Like his predecessors, he chose a traditional coronation in the cathedral at Reims and gave aid from his own pocket to the populace who had suffered from the recent conflict. During the majestic ceremony, the King chose the regnal name Philippe in honor of his father, and the Dauphin was consecrated and King Philippe VIII of the Kingdom of France.

King Philippe VIII.​

With the wartime emergencies over, the King chose to remove Ange de Metz from the position of Prime Minister and appoint Vivien de Vannes who had already held the office before the war and was now head of the Royaliste party.

This appointment was soon followed by news from the African colonies where the governor of Egypt Gaston d'Albi had managed to convince the tribes South of Libya to submit to a French protectorate.

The Comte d'Albi was born in 1848 with the Second Republic having dealt a serious financial blow to his family. A bookish child, Gaston spent his youth studying the classics and soon became enamored with Cicero and the other great orators. This love propelled him into an early career as a lawyer after the Second Restoration when he proved his natural talent in the most high-profile cases of the '70s. This success allowed him to found his own law firm which rarely left the pages of the Parisian news. In 1895 he was chosen by King Philippe VII to govern Egypt in recognition of his oratory prowess and in the hopes of taming that land. The King's hopes were thus satisfied in a couple of years as the colonies of West Africa and Egypt were finally united from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. For this great service to the nation, Vannes chose Albi to become his Foreign Minister for the new King Philippe.

France dominates the African continent.​

The year 1896 saw the King listening to the concerns of the Parliament to address the changes that a new King and a new party would entail.

The Parliament often witnessed the familiar display of Senators Mathieu Baudelaire and Anges de Mâcon presenting innovative motions for the welfare of the people. The first such proposal was that of extending the token public healthcare granted to all citizens into a more comprehensive service that would ensure a dignified life for the sick and injured of France. This idea struck a chord with the King who had witnessed first-hand many comrades leave for the front and return with missing limbs or other life-changing injuries. The law was approved unanimously as King Philippe pledged that no Frenchman who had served his country would ever lack a dignified life.

In this spirit, Baudelaire argued that this royal munificence should extend to the French workers whose tireless dedication had furnished the armies with badly needed weapons, ammunition and supplies by setting a nationwide minimum wage. This request, however, was not greeted with quite the same enthusiasm as the previous one. So controversial was it that it drove Mâcon away from his longtime collaborator and towards the opposing camp. He joined the voices of Metz and Lucien de Chartres in opposing the law on the grounds that it was not wise to constrain the capitalists with such obligations and that any worker would receive the pay that their work was worth without it being inflated by some arbitrary charity. The debate raged on for several days as minor issues were set aside in favor of this most schismatic of proposals.

When all the arguments had been made, the King stepped forward with the verdict that caring for the people of France was his chief goal and that it was only just that those who work should be given a wage that they can survive on. As for the worries of the capitalists, he stated that a richer working class would certainly result in a wider market for goods and that small initial losses would be paid for tenfold when the economy will have grown.

French workers can now enjoy a more stable income.​

With the Parliament's issues having been addressed, King Philippe turned to review the condition of the armed forces one more time. The Royal Navy had not suffered particular losses during the Belgian War and had enjoyed supremacy with German ports being blockaded for most of the conflict. The army, however, had suffered greatly from the fighting both on home soil and in foreign lands. For the purpose of rebuilding the military and planning for a future where Germany could return, the King chose Jacob de Toulouse to act as his Minister of War.

The Comte de Toulouse was born in 1856 to a noble family that had managed to buy up a large amount of the land in Hispaniola and had thus become unfathomably rich. With a future of living on the fat of the land in mind, Jacob's parents allowed him to grow up enjoying the finer things in life without any sort of formal education. Upon turning 16, he moved to Paris where he sought to gain political experience by rubbing elbows with members of the government. Thanks in part to his family's reputation, he managed to become the personal secretary to the then-Prime Minister Georges Fétique. Life proceeded uneventful until his father's death in 1882 when it was discovered that the old Comte had been slowly selling off his plantations to pay for his hobbies and that only scraps had been left to his family. This forced Jacob to find alternate means of income and so, selling the remaining plantations, he built a state-of-the-art arms factory by taking advantage of the knowledge accumulated in his years in Paris. Through his political connections, Toulouse managed to become the principal supplier of the French armed forces and even sold considerable quantities of weapons to Russia before the Belgian War.

Minister of War Jacob de Toulouse.​

As new Minister of War, Toulouse began organizing a grand system of fortifications from the Channel to Switzerland to halt any possible foreign invasion across that border. Each fortress would be furnished with 10.000 soldiers whose role it would be to hold off any attacker long enough for the main royal armies to arrive and send the enemy running back whence he came.

After a year where he had stabilized the kingdom and ensured that France would grow from the tragedy of war, King Philippe could consider personal matters and begin thinking about the succession. Though he was 27 years old, he remained a bachelor and had not yet produced an heir. He correctly identified that this situation could be utilized to strengthen ties with France's greatest ally: Russia. It was with these intentions that the King and his entourage set sail from Le Havre on the 17th of February 1897 and arrived in Saint Petersburg on the 23rd. King Philippe VIII and Tsar Nicholas II met for the first time since their respective coronations and congratulated each other on the occasion while renewing the bonds of friendship between the two nations. The sovereigns then retired to a hunting chateau of the Tsar's and spent their days rapt in conversation, with Philippe espousing the virtues of reform to Nicholas and both quickly learning to admire and respect each other. Ten days into this retreat, King Philippe mentioned to the Tsar that he had been enamored with his sister Xenia Alexndrovna and would be honored if he could get to know her better. Nicholas wished to please his new friend and gave his blessing for the two to spend some time together. What followed was a whirlwind love story that was reported in all the gossip magazines of Europe with the King charming the Princess with his courtesy and wit. So successful was this courtship that, on Xenia's birthday on the 6th of April, King Philippe asked Tsar Nicholas for her hand in marriage. The royal couple returned to France in the following week and were lawfully married in a festive ceremony in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

Queen Xenia Alexandrovna on her wedding day.​

At the beginning of August of the same year, a delegation of French people from the Italian-controlled Valley of Aoste presented a petition to the King for annexation into the Kingdom of France in the name of their shared heritage. The King clearly saw the merits of joining all French people under his protection but preliminary talks with the Kingdom of Italy proved fruitless. This reticence forced Toulouse to order the occupation of the region to protect its French population and managed to do so with little incident. The Italian government protested this act but, with Germany humbled, it found no foreign support and thus agreed to formally cede the region with the Treaty of Torino.

The Aoste Valley is added to France as its influence spreads through Europe.​

1898 saw France come fully into her post-war recovery with the economy booming and a serene political atmosphere in Europe. The only wrinkle that appeared was the expulsion of French merchants from Shanghai by Qing officials who could no longer bear the sight of an advanced civilization in contrast to their own. Foreign Minister Albi responded to this by ordering North the 42.000-man Army of Indochina which managed to repel any opposition with great ease. This frontier spat resulted in confirmation of French authority over Shanghai and the cession of the port city of Ningbo to the French colonial government.

Victory in the East was soon matched by the joyous news that the Queen was with child and, on the 15th of March 1899, the nation was blessed with the birth of a male heir. The new Dauphin was christened Henri Charles Nicolas and presented to France as a symbol of the rebirth and future prosperity of the nation.

Queen Xenia with the new Dauphin.​

 

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The century began with winds of change blowing from all directions. In May of 1900, former Foreign Minister Lucien de Chartres, now Deputy and head of the Royaliste Libéral Party, put forth a revolutionary proposal in Parliament. He suggested that it was high time for France to take its place among modern nations and allow its people to vote for their own government. Even before the last sentence was finished, the chamber erupted with cries of "Traitor" and calls to arrest Chartres for crimes against the King. It seemed as if the Deputies would come to violence, but King Philippe demanded silence and ordered that Chartres be left alone. The King continued by pointing to the portrait of Henri V and telling the Deputies that they should be ashamed of themselves since Henri had instituted this body as a counsel to the King and that it was the King's prerogative to decide if someone is a traitor or not. After this speech, deliberations on the proposal proceeded with more protocol but the tempers were no less heated. Former Prime Minister Ange de Metz emerged as the leader of the opposition and stood firm in denouncing this bill as a perversion of monarchy and a sure sign of the Socialists desiring to destroy France from within. The government itself remained on the fence about the motion with only Minister of War Jacob de Toulouse acting as a voice of mediation. He proposed an amendment to Chartres' proposal by which only Nobles and the more respectable Bourgeois should be allowed to vote. After all, he argued, if the King trusted these men to advise him in legislation, then it would be a logical next step to allow the nobility to advise him in the choice of the Ministry.

The parliamentary decision ushers in a new age for France.​

When it the time came to vote on the proposition, the King proclaimed that he would abide by the decision of his Parliament, but he admitted that it seemed to him that the world was changing and questioned the wisdom of ordering back the tide. The vote proved to be an astounding success when 82% of Deputies chose to approve the proposal and called for Elections to begin in October 1900. The King appeared to be pleased with this result and chose not to stop Ange de Metz as he stormed out of the chamber but rather, he wished good fortune to all the candidates that would choose to step forward.

Before the election could start, however, Chartres proposed one last constitutional amendment. To ensure that the voters be well informed about their options and not be swayed to vote for those who control the means of information, it would be necessary to consent the publication of newspapers and pamphlets by anyone with the means to do so. Clearly, the content of these publications would require the approval of a censor but should otherwise allow for each contender to best express how they think the country should be run. This request was accepted by the King without need for a vote as he decided that the only true way to have a voting system was to ensure all candidates have the opportunity to express their views.

The first French election in 45 years galvanized the aristocracy and soon all the main candidates were travelling across the country to spread their respective messages. Prime Minister Vivien de Vannes acted as candidate for the Royaliste party and was campaigning on a platform of maintaining the reforms undertaken by the King and also continuing the stabilization of Europe under a strong French hand. To the right of the Royaliste lay the Droite Nationaliste with Metz as their champion. Their campaign was based on outrage that elections would be called at all and denunciation of the weakness of Vannes' plan for a meek domination of the continent. The last major block in the race was that of the Royaliste Libéral party under Chartres. This modernizing group took particular pride in the electoral process and was advocating for its regularization by ensuring a greater freedom of choice and the possibility of elections to be held for the Upper House as well.

When the results were officially announced in January 1902, it was revealed that the Royaliste had gained 34.5% of the seats in the National Assembly, the Droite Nationaliste 37.9% and the Royaliste Libéral 27.6%. One obvious coalition emerged with Vannes accepting the Foreign Ministry under a new Metz government blessed by the King's approval.

Ange de Metz assumes the role of Prime Minister.​

The election of a strongly nationalistic government preoccupied the Germany of Kaiser Wilhelm II who had long been planning to capture Alsace-Lorraine and now feared that a more aggressive French government might attempt to break Germany once and for all. The feverish preparations on the Alsatian border did not go unnoticed by French intelligence and the details were communicated to Minister of War Anatole de Montpensier who ordered the mobilization of French forces to counter any invasion attempt.

The Marquis de Montpensier was born in 1860 during the death throes of the Bonapartist regime. Shortly after the Second Restoration he went to study at the École Navale in Brittany until his respectable graduation as Corvette Captain in 1886. He spent most of his military career in the French fleets in the Manche but really came into his own during the II Franco-Belgian War. There, in his capacity as Vice-Admiral, he organized the blockade of Belgium in superb coordination with the Russian fleet. This service earned him the promotion to Admiral and a post-war position in Saint-Petersburg as a representative to the Russian government.

The suspicions of a further German conflict were verified on the 9th of August 1902 when the German ambassador formally handed in the declaration of war of his country. Immediately the German advance was shown to be poorly prepared as successive waves of attack on Alsace-Lorraine were stopped by well-prepared trenches and well-aimed machine-gun fire. By late September, the German advance had been halted in Russia while the Alsatian defense had exhausted the Prussian resources on the Western front. This prompted French high command to plan a massive advance to stab into the heart of Germany. On the 15th of November 1902, French armies executed coordinated attacks centered on the cities of Koblenz and Darmstadt where the German line collapsed entirely thus allowing French forces to flood into the country.

News of the German collapse displays French superiority.​

An armistice was called on the 17th of December when the Kaiser realized that no defense was possible. During the formulation of the peace treaty, King Philippe had no desire to humiliate Germany and he realized that his subjects were also unwilling to incorporate such a people into the Kingdom of France. Together with the Tsar, they concluded that the best course of action was to ensure the reduction of the German army for five years together with the payment of an annual indemnity to the victorious powers.

1903 came and went without any indication of the storm to come with political life growing lively in preparation for the parliamentary elections of 1905 and the people enjoying the well-earned fruits of strength and stability.

The idyll was broken, however, by news coming out of Spain as a consequence of the growing tension between the Republic and the recently formed Basque Countries. On the 14th of October 1904, Spanish President Nicolás Salmerón y Alonso was travelling by train to Zaragoza for the inauguration of a new theater but, 40km from its destination, the President's train car was rocked by a terrible explosion which managed to derail the convoy and rip open several neighboring wagons. A group of around 50 gunmen then emerged and shot among the survivors leaving 160 dead including the President himself.

Few survivors were found in the aftermath of the attack.​

An investigation was called upon the matter and it soon became apparent that this heinous attack had been planned out by the famed Basque nationalist Ontzaluxe Behocaray who advocated for a Greater Vasconia encompassing the most part of the Bay of Biscay. The Spanish government wrote a declaration to its Basque counterpart demanding the extradition of such a dangerous terrorist together with the introduction of a Spanish military garrison to dissuade further radicalization and interrupt the spread of anti-Spanish propaganda. In response to this ultimatum, the Basque Countries asked for British aid as had been stipulated in the 1892 Congress of Paris. This clear Basque threat forced Spain to notify the French ambassador of the evolving situation. By the 2nd of November, King Philippe had called an emergency cabinet meeting of the Metz government to consult upon which action to take. The members of the cabinet were unanimous in declaring that no country would ever respect France again if she were seen to back down on her promises and that it was imperative to contact the Russian ambassadors to form a united continental front against British interference. As soon as Tsar Nicholas voiced his support for the Spanish cause, British diplomacy contacted the Japanese Shogun who began to mobilize the Nipponic navy off the coast of Sakhalin. This display of Japanese aggression was corresponded by the Russian army moving towards Siberia and the French navy taking position at strategic points along the Manche all the while Basque and Spanish forces prepared their defenses. On the 16th of November 1904, the Republic of Spain officially declared war on the Basque Countries thus beginning what has come to be known as the Great War.

 

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The opening moves of the Great War were all naval in nature. In the West, the French fleet inflicted a sound defeat upon the Royal Navy and began an extensive blockade of all the ports on the Manche to prevent a British invasion. In the far East, the Battle of Okhotsk pitted a defensive yet outdated Russian navy against a modern and aggressive Japanese assault and saw Japan gain almost full control of its home waters. On the Basque front, Spanish armies easily broke through the defensive positions and began the process of occupying all the main cities with the British fleet incapable of sending any help lest they be engaged by French ships. In the colonies, the conflict veered against France as Indian and Japanese forces overpowered Indochina while, in Africa, the British-trained natives engaged in brutal fighting in every corner of that continent.

In early December 1904, French high command conceived of an ambitious plan to take Great Britain out of the War and end the conflict before Easter. A massive landing force of about 200.000 French soldiers on the coast of Sussex would coordinate with naval artillery to establish a beachhead on the British Isles before rushing to London and forcing a surrender.

French troops land on British soil.​

The Army of Belgium, bolstered by conscripts from all over the Kingdom, embarked at Dunkerque on the 17th of December and made its first assault around Brighton where it encountered fierce resistance from the entrenched Tommies. This opposition was soon overpowered by an intense naval bombardment that thwarted any attempt at constructing a defensible position and allowed the Expeditionary Army to capture the city and prepare for the march on London. The advance inland proved to be more laborious than the initial landing because, without naval support, the British were able to construct an elaborate trench system between Brighton and London. The new year passed without any gains being made in Europe but rather a crystallization of the situation without anyone being able to push the other back. To avoid a repeat of the slow brutal nature of the Belgian War, the French chiefs of staff decided that it would be best to ship the remaining French armies across the Manche to break the British lines and capture London before the costs of war became excessive. On the 7th of February 1905, the 500.000-man strong Expeditionary Force executed a massive assault of the defenses in Crawley staffed by 300.000 Britons. The assault proceeded for 9 weeks with either side bringing on more and more of their forces reaching at its height the number of 1.3 million men engaged in battle with 800.000 of them being French. Finally, on the 16th of April, the British forces broke and retreated leaving London undefended and attempting to regroup at Coventry. The rest of April saw the French army forming an extended front from Norwich to Southampton with the High Command being stationed in the city of London.

The extent of French gains in May 1905.​

The capture of the British capital did not bring the desired fruits for the French war effort: the royals, government and most members of Parliament managed to escape when they noticed that the battle was turning against them thus depriving France of valuable hostages. Furthermore, news from the East gave heart to the British and kept them in a war that they were otherwise losing. Japan had been able to break Russian resistance in Siberia and it was steadily marching across the country and defeating every army sent to stop it. This unbalanced war would mean that France had to endeavor to crush the British entirely to balance the scales and one such proposal was presented to King Philippe for consideration. With London occupied, the soul of Britain was in French hands and it would be feasible to destroy certain symbols such as the Parliament and Royal Palace to extreme effect on British opinion and willingness to continue the war. The King reacted with horror at such a proposal, he declared that the Kingdom could not lower itself to barbaric actions even for victory. The Belgian War had been won without destroying Brussels or Berlin and this latest Great War would be won while maintaining the dignity and civilization that the World expects from France. This declaration came a few days before the long-awaited announcement that Pamplona had fallen, and Spain had chosen to annex the Basque Countries back into itself.

All of these issues came to the attention of the French public during the parliamentary campaign that begun in May 1905.

The 1905 candidates from left to right: Chartres, Vannes, Metz and Montpensier.​

This election presented four main candidates and a new Reactionary party called Roi et Pays with wildly different views on the current conflict. To the Left of the political spectrum, Lucien de Chartres remained as leader of the Royaliste Libéral party and advocated for a swift end to the war. After all, he claimed, the Basque Countries no longer existed while French honor had been avenged and this made it preferable to end such a large-scale war before its cost in lives and means became excessive. To the Right of Chartres stood Foreign Minister Vivien de Vannes at the head of the Royaliste party who broadly agreed with Chartres' desire to end the war but wished for it to continue on long enough for France to demand reparations from Great Britain while accepting minor territorial concessions to Japan in Siberia. The reactionary camp had been split in two with the Droite Nationaliste led by Prime Minister Ange de Metz standing in opposition to Le Roi et le Pays led by Minister of War Anatole de Montpensier. Both parties advocated for a continuation of the war but disagreed on the extent. Metz believed that a great victory was necessary in Britain to ensure the payment of reparations while preserving the honor and territorial integrity of Russia who had so many times come to the aid of French unity. Montpensier believed that this would not be sufficient and that only a total victory with the dismantling of the British Empire would be able to guarantee security in Europe. Once Great Britain will have been humbled, he claimed, it would be a simple matter of marching to Russia and clawing back Siberia from the Japanese. King Philippe did not wish to influence the election by openly favoring any one party, but he made it known that he did not wish to see this war take too great a toll on the people of France as the Belgian War once had.

The results came in in December 1905 and provided a clear victory for the pro-war camp with 21.6% of votes going to the Royaliste Libéral, 29.7% to the Royaliste, 16.2% to the Droite Nationaliste and 32.4% to Le Roi et le Pays. A large right-wing coalition was formed with the King making Montpensier Prime Minister, Vannes Foreign Minister and Metz Minister of War.

Electoral results for 1905.​

The new government had to deal with troubles from the very beginning as news arrived of a massive British advance towards London consisting of 800.000 soldiers from the rest of the British Isles. It was deemed prudent for the wide front across the island to be reduced to a line from Southampton to Chelmsford with London being heavily fortified with a force of 650.000. The Battle of London began in March 1906 and lasted until February 1907 leaving around 600.000 dead on the field with an estimated 200.000 of them being French. The region remained in French hands but the cost in lives had been extreme and now several specialized divisions could no longer be accounted for while the city of London itself had become a vast military hospital. Beyond this, news came from the colonies that British forces had broken through the main armies stationed in those regions and now a significant proportion of dominion troops were being transported to Europe. A dilemma presented itself now to French High Command on whether to Blockade the British Isles entirely to stop any possible reinforcement or to use the fleet to protect the French homeland. Given that the bulk of the French army is stationed in Britain, it was decided to ensure no landing in France while attempting to push the land front northwards. The armies of France are now engaged in a push across the whole line to attempt to gain Wales and the Midlands for a final attack that might ultimately take the British out of this war.