Ah a man living in the shadow of the father, a very dangerous man indeed.
Can't wait to see more
Can't wait to see more
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Well, he's been hanging in the wings, and not always been well-regarded by those actually in power (not least his father). I am sure that a few upsets could happen. Perhaps even political reform?
A new era indeed. And here I thought the cliffhanger would lead to something catastrophic. Of course the death of Wilhelm I is painful to his people and family, but most everyone has been waiting for the new Kaiser and now they have him. Excellent!
Rensslaer said:
Frederick the Great made his mark in the world in the arena of military accomplishments. so, does Kaiser Friedrich III make his mark in the arena of military accomplishments, or in the areas of diplomacy and industrialization? i pick the latter!
excellent update!
I've just read the last few pages of this AAR. Nicely done, Renns! I especially like the character development for people like...well, Rennslaer and Friedrich.
As for the Egyptian campaign, wow. Now THAT was decisive! Revenge indeed, and certainly worth the minimal costs.
As for the Egyptian campaign, wow. Now THAT was decisive! Revenge indeed, and certainly worth the minimal costs.
The Scramble for Africa
From The Eagle Rising: The Story of Prussia's Arrival On the World Stage, pub. 1989 by Professor Reinicke Herz
Some of the European colonies in Africa had been established in previous centuries. Then there came a hiatus, during which not many new establishments were made. That began to change during the last half of the 19th Century. There began what has been referred to as “The Scramble for Africa.”
The early African colonizers had been Portugal, Britain, France and Spain. Prussia’s own earliest colonial outposts had been planted in the 1840s. Her colonies in the Gold Coast, Gabon and German Southwest Africa were declared as the result of wartime consolidation of rival claims.
The “scramble” really took hold in the 1870s, when a time of relative peace in Europe allowed those powers to begin expanding once more. By this time it was a three-way contest for new lands, between Britain, Portugal and Prussia. The other powers had given way to wartime losses (France, which kept only Algier and Tunis) or stagnation and inertia (Spain, which kept only Mauretania).
Prussia benefited from the foundation of the Hamburg Central Africa Company, which in 1875 funded construction of a private company fort, Fort Lamy, on the shores of enormous Lake Chad. It was well placed to provide an alternative for the interior tribes of Africa, taking business away from English merchants in British Cameroon and from Hausa traders in the Sokoto Caliphate. A new trade route was forged from Fort Lamy to Prussian outposts in Gabon and German Kameroon.
Then, in the summer of 1876, Foreign Minister Rensselaer was able to negotiate two treaties with Russia, exchanging various claims for mutual benefit. Prussia traded the formerly British island of Sandalwood, in the south Pacific, to Russia in return for the west African outpost of Podor. Prussia also traded three Micronesian islands for the Russian Congo River outposts of Leopoldville and Popokavili.
In 1877, Rensselaer negotiated a similar trade of Prussian claims in the Pacific, given to the United States in return for the long-disputed American claim in what would then become German Kameroon.
These diplomatic coups resulted in vast stretches of the African coast being added to the Prussian colonial empire. But that was just the first step of the Prussian colonial policy.
Ultimately, it was Prussia’s desire to stretch a string of colonial outposts from the Bight of Africa to the Red Sea, thus cutting off British and Portuguese efforts to move up the center of Africa from their southern establishments.
Indeed, while Prussian and Portuguese soldiers never got into a shooting war over these 19th Century colonial maneuvers, they did acquire a military character. Prussia, for instance, began building a fort at Niangara in 1877 (completed 1881) which was directly athwart the Portuguese government’s intended route north through the Great Rift Valley. The implication was clear – “If you come, we will fight.”
Fort Niangara halted Portuguese colonial efforts along that northerly route, deflecting it eastward. In the later 1880s, the Prusso-Portuguese competition in Africa would move east into Uganda and the Sudan. Meanwhile, Prussian designs throughout Africa moved forward apace.
From The Eagle Rising: The Story of Prussia's Arrival On the World Stage, pub. 1989 by Professor Reinicke Herz
Some of the European colonies in Africa had been established in previous centuries. Then there came a hiatus, during which not many new establishments were made. That began to change during the last half of the 19th Century. There began what has been referred to as “The Scramble for Africa.”
The early African colonizers had been Portugal, Britain, France and Spain. Prussia’s own earliest colonial outposts had been planted in the 1840s. Her colonies in the Gold Coast, Gabon and German Southwest Africa were declared as the result of wartime consolidation of rival claims.
The “scramble” really took hold in the 1870s, when a time of relative peace in Europe allowed those powers to begin expanding once more. By this time it was a three-way contest for new lands, between Britain, Portugal and Prussia. The other powers had given way to wartime losses (France, which kept only Algier and Tunis) or stagnation and inertia (Spain, which kept only Mauretania).
Prussia benefited from the foundation of the Hamburg Central Africa Company, which in 1875 funded construction of a private company fort, Fort Lamy, on the shores of enormous Lake Chad. It was well placed to provide an alternative for the interior tribes of Africa, taking business away from English merchants in British Cameroon and from Hausa traders in the Sokoto Caliphate. A new trade route was forged from Fort Lamy to Prussian outposts in Gabon and German Kameroon.
Then, in the summer of 1876, Foreign Minister Rensselaer was able to negotiate two treaties with Russia, exchanging various claims for mutual benefit. Prussia traded the formerly British island of Sandalwood, in the south Pacific, to Russia in return for the west African outpost of Podor. Prussia also traded three Micronesian islands for the Russian Congo River outposts of Leopoldville and Popokavili.
In 1877, Rensselaer negotiated a similar trade of Prussian claims in the Pacific, given to the United States in return for the long-disputed American claim in what would then become German Kameroon.
These diplomatic coups resulted in vast stretches of the African coast being added to the Prussian colonial empire. But that was just the first step of the Prussian colonial policy.
Ultimately, it was Prussia’s desire to stretch a string of colonial outposts from the Bight of Africa to the Red Sea, thus cutting off British and Portuguese efforts to move up the center of Africa from their southern establishments.
Indeed, while Prussian and Portuguese soldiers never got into a shooting war over these 19th Century colonial maneuvers, they did acquire a military character. Prussia, for instance, began building a fort at Niangara in 1877 (completed 1881) which was directly athwart the Portuguese government’s intended route north through the Great Rift Valley. The implication was clear – “If you come, we will fight.”
Fort Niangara halted Portuguese colonial efforts along that northerly route, deflecting it eastward. In the later 1880s, the Prusso-Portuguese competition in Africa would move east into Uganda and the Sudan. Meanwhile, Prussian designs throughout Africa moved forward apace.
One has to wonder how long Sokoto and the other unciviliseds with survive the scramble
And the rest of Africa as well, eh?
As Ghostwriter said, quite impressive expansion in the "Dark Continenant", Renss. One wonders if while the Prussians and the Portuguese never got into a shooting match in Africa, did the Prussians and the Brits get into an occasional scuffle?
I'd say you are doing far better than Germany did in RL, especially not having to worry about France as Germany did. A place in the sun quite early, it seems. Well done!
Good stuff, apart from the loads of prestige what is the use of Africa, I never really bother myself
Draco...
It's been almost two weeks!
Are you ready?
Are you sitting down? :rofl:
Renss
It's been almost two weeks!
Are you ready?
Are you sitting down? :rofl:
Renss
About three dozen young men and women lazed around a small college classroom with small writing tables and stadium seating. Two or three more students entered hesitantly, finding their way to seats. There was some quiet conversation, but most of them seemed too tired to engage in more than blank stares. A few of the students tapped away at laptop computers. One was playing a colorful world conquest game which quietly played a classical music soundtrack.
Two-thirds of the attendees – the male portion – came awake the moment a tall, pertly attractive, forty-ish woman entered. Her loose white blouse, brown knee-length skirt and matching jacket showed off her smart figure. Her long, raven black hair was gathered up in a pony tail.
She strode confidently from the right to the left side of the room, took up a blue marker, and stretched to reach the very top of the white board. Several young men parodied her, craning out of their seats to see as the woman exposed more of her shapely calves.
“HIST 3420 – Prussia Survey II – Unification and Democracy,” she wrote.
The woman turned and smiled, evaluating her students. “Good morning, class.” She had a slight, and charming, German accent.
“Good morning, Dear,” came a boy’s voice from somewhere in the middle row.
The woman quirked an amused smile, but otherwise ignored the flirt. “For the life of me, I do not know why they would choose to begin classes on a Friday. But I do know that some of you weren’t here last week, when we did a lot of the introductions and preliminaries for the class. So, for your benefit, my name is Dr. Reinicke Herz. I will be your instructor for this Prussian Survey class.”
“Here is a syllabus and some overview material.” She took up a small stack of pages, handed half of them to a student at one corner of the room, then stalked breathtakingly to the other corner to hand out the rest. “I will expect you to have read each chapter in full before class on the days specified.” She kicked a foot back and in one smooth, obviously practiced move, wielded her shoe in her hand threateningly. “I wear heels only so I can use them on the slackers!”
To the sound of nervous tittering, she replaced her shoe and went on boldly. “I know that not all of you are declared history majors. I know we have a mathematician, and a couple of engineers, business students, et cetera. Welcome! I want to say something, for those of you who may have been told that studying history is about as useful as studying a dying language, like French. The study of history is the study of everything – business, psychology, literature, people, science, culture, law… There is no more useful tool for living your lives than a reasonable knowledge of the lessons of history.” She waited for her assertion to sink in. “Any questions, so far?”
“Do you have plans for this evening?” came an unintimidated male voice.
“I was just about to ask for volunteers to help me grade about a hundred underclassmen quizzes,” she said, matter of factly.
“Dawg!” the guy said. “I don’t mind. Glad to be of service!” The room chuckled.
“Some of my colleagues complain that they can’t find student volunteers to help grade papers. I don’t know why.” She smiled, wryly.
Herz looked away, back to business, and took a moment to open a planner and a textbook on the lectern. Donning a professorial pair of glasses, she peered down at the materials for a moment. “Today we are going to talk about Prussian Kaiser Frederick III – or as we say, Friedrich III – and his social reforms.” She removed her glasses, and began gesturing with them toward the class. “Kaiser William the First has always been considered the ‘Father of Modern Prussia.’ He built Prussia into a world power over the course of forty years. Your first reading will give you the background about the Napoleonic Period and Kaiser William, in case you haven’t been through Survey One.
“But if his father built modern Prussia, it was Frederick the Third who sustained it, strengthened it, and gave Prussia the tools it needed – unity, democracy, economy – to survive into the 20th Century. When William died, he left Prussia with power and promise. But it was still relatively backward in many ways. It remained an absolute monarchy, for one – sharing with Habsburg Austria and Ottoman Turkey the distinction of being the last of a dying breed of European governments ruling at the pleasure of the king.” She placed her glasses back on her face. “It was an archaic form of rule, and if you do know anything about history, you should know what happened to those other two governments.
Herz snatched her glasses off, and paced across the front of the room, pondering the floor as she decided how to approach her next point. Lifting her head, her glasses remained in her hand. She began gesturing again. “The world underestimated Frederick Three. And so did almost everybody within Prussia. He had always, as Crown Prince, been popular with the people – they called him ‘Our Fritz.’” She set her glasses on the lectern. “But most didn’t expect major changes under his authority. In some sense, this helped him achieve his earliest reforms, because the opposition wasn’t expecting his vigorous leadership, and were not prepared to challenge it.
“In the first five years of Frederick’s reign, he managed to shake the foundations of Europe.” She shook an imaginary façade with her hands. “He reshaped it in a distinctly Prussian character. These years culminated in 1884, with his introduction of democracy and management of a staged German unification which made Prussia the undisputed master of Europe, politically, militarily and economically.
“Frederick Three was an enlightened, liberal ruler, which was against the grain of Prussian history.” Herz spread her hands wide, to indicate a broad brush. “He patronized the arts and learning throughout the Empire. He built museums, and sponsored events to encourage young people to explore their horizons.”
She picked up her glasses again, and shook them at the audience in emphasis. “If Frederick had not died tragically, he might well have led Europe to the kind of stability and prosperity that would have avoided the bloody struggles between freedom and totalitarianism we saw in the 20th Century.” The students were engaged, and furiously taking notes.
“In early 1881, after only about a half a year in power, Frederick made the difficult decision to back major populist reforms unlike any the world had yet seen. These were more sweeping and more progressive…” Herz shook her head to emphasize, whipping her ponytail from side to side. “No one else even came close! He instituted government-funded health insurance. He established extensive regulations for worker safety. He mandated and regulated retirement pensions.
“Frederick believed strongly in these reforms, and he implemented them in the face of opposition from most of his ministers out of a sense of fairness to the German people who had been entrusted – as he saw it – to his protection.
“It should be noted that these reforms were expensive. And for a country with a debt load, and a track record, like Prussia, that was no small consideration. The creation of widespread public entitlements and the trust funds to back these reforms not only tripled the amount of money Prussia spent each year on social programs, but it doubled Prussia’s already sizeable public debt. Frederick was forced to increase taxes, which were already high, in order to continue a debt repayment program.
A bell rang, but most of the students didn’t even move. Taking advantage, Herz finished, “One last thing before you go… Frederick Three also reached out to Catholics in southern Germany, who comprised about 40 percent of the population, ending a divide that had handicapped the acceptance of Prussia as a leader of the German people. It was especially meaningful that Frederick did this, because he had been fighting major Catholic rebellions for decades. This move had important consequences for the growth of Prussia through the end of the 19th Century.”
She smiled and waved, “Thanks everybody! We’ll see you Wednesday.” She turned to the student who had “volunteered” to grade her papers. “If you’re serious about helping grade quizzes, Eric, let’s talk.”
Eric grinned.
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Lucky boy, that Eric. I nice way to get this info across.
And it sounds as though Freddy III's reign is an eventful and fruitful one until this tragic early death. Was he killed because of the massive amounts of reform? I guess we'll find out.
And it sounds as though Freddy III's reign is an eventful and fruitful one until this tragic early death. Was he killed because of the massive amounts of reform? I guess we'll find out.
Can I be Eric??? Please??? What? Oh, never mind that angry looking woman with three boys under the age of four about her feet, she's only my wife and won't mind. Especially when I let her know that you forced me into it! :rofl:
Actually, very nice format, Renss, very nice.
Like coz1, I'm a little saddened to hear of Our Fritz's early demise. Mayhap we'll find out what that's all about here soon?
Actually, very nice format, Renss, very nice.
Like coz1, I'm a little saddened to hear of Our Fritz's early demise. Mayhap we'll find out what that's all about here soon?