Snuggs,
He was the chief perpetrator of a treason that claimed the lives of nearly four hundred thousand Americans.
If anyone deserved to hang, it was Jefferson Davis.
All,
Another, based (loosely, so loosely you could shake an NDA at it
) on my experiences with the Victoria engine and the recent discussion of Napoleon.
L'Empereur
1835
On August 1st, 1835, the Emperor Napoleon I dies quietly at his country estate, his wife the Empress Josephine by his side. Heralds and journalists and even the fiercest social critics are at a loss in expressing this long expected and momentous expiration. They do not, precisely, know simply how to title him in the many obituaries printed in full, bound editions throughout the world-he has long since grown beyond nomatives of Consul, King or Emperor of France.
His domains stretch from Lusitania to Valencia, from the Straits of Gibraltar to the North Sea, from Sicily to Jutland, from the Atlantic to the Dneiper, and encompass North Africa and Egypt. He has in the space of one lifetime-indeed, in the space of a mere twenty-nine years, abolished the Europe of memory in its thinking and its practice. The Crowns of Spain, Portugal, Austro-Hungary, Prussia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland and Italy are no more.
Beyond this, however, is his surrender of official title in 1826, first to his wife, who administrated with great care to politics and social cohesion, and then to his son by a Polish noblewoman. He had retreated to dictate his memoirs, to write lengthy rules of warfare and of governance, and several political treatises. By 1832, however, his health had so declined that he could no longer perform these perfunctory roles in service of the state and ceased to be a part of it.
His son, Napoleon II, clung to the father's living memory as his greatest source of political capital. Following the year of Mass and general mourning, he comes to face his own inadequacies, both of talent and of birth, and the deep flaws of European administration. It has receded into an aristocratic muddle that is ill-prepared for changing ideas and technology.
From Germany, there are the Several Revolts, loosely cooperative rebellions of regional importance-in Bavaria, Brandenburg, Hesse, Austria and Hannover. In Hungary, there is profound resentment of its new Polish ruler and the centralized authority in Vienna. In Spain, the Netherlands and Portugal national Republican movements have grown into full-fledged revolutions, against the Monarch and the system he represents. In Poland, there is a keen, and only warily disappointed, sense that the Native Son would fill his Ministries with Native Blood, while in France the Old Guard and people watch carefully for just such a move.
From without, too, the threats are overwhelming. The Ottoman Empire, reformed under the brutal and brilliant Anatolian usurper Ahmed Kahn has become a formidable military power, employing the totality of its resources to the armament and progress of a compact, highly disciplined, well-trained force based on the new Sultan's elite Revolutionary Army. His recent moves to internalized political and industrial reforms have created a rapidly growing and mobile population on the verge of modernization. All the ambitious peasant-turned-dictator requires is a fleet and an opportunity, both of which loom ever nearer.
Russia, following the ratification of Alexander's treaty, entered a period of introspection. In 1823, the Tzar freed the serfs, purged the Boyars on the grounds of treason and began a slow, hazardous process of industrialization that, while not as fast and unrelenting as the Turks', presents perhaps greater dangers. The recent alliance with Great Britian demonstrates that the accord with the father does not necessarily extend to the son. Nor, indeed, does the fear of him.
Great Britian, unable to maintain the balance of power in Europe, has doubled the size of its fleet, put an end to the liberal movements and consolidated its hold over India. These measures, however, have succeeded largely by Napoleon's failing ambition and health, and the far less potent powers of his successor. It is clear that a Three Power coalition should be necessary to aide the revolutionaries on the continent, if any is to succeeded.
Across the Atlantic, the United States and Colombia, intact and formidable as a French ally against Spain, grow daily in number and in strength, but both face steep internal and external challenges. The landed, reactive gentry in the South and the highlands perpetually threaten any hope of liberal, democratic government. Both grapple with issues of class and slavery, and face great political instability.
