Insane_Panda
Deity
LA GRANDE INTRIGUE
The Great Intrigue
A View of the World, circa 1792 A.D
The Great Intrigue
A View of the World, circa 1792 A.D
In 1792, the world was in chaos. The eighteenth century was coming to a close, and with it, the last vestiges of peace and order. In Europe especially, was this chaos most pronounced. France, the arbiter of Europe, had fallen into disarray. In the years preceeding, an unpopular and incompetant King, Louis XVI, gorged himself on foods as the people of France starved due to famine and the shortage of money. The state was bankrupt, having funded the American Revolution in Louis XVI grand vision to attempt and thwart British interests around the world. That, however, backfired, and though the revolution did suceed, it did nothing to help the condition of France, infact, it simply worsened it. For as these Americans rebelled against the old order, so did the hearts of many in France. They saw that the Monarchy was corrupt, ineffecient, and that it had to go, and they, in the coffee houses of France, plotted to bring about an end to the hated ancien régime. This was not simply a rebellion of the poor, it was a war against the old order. Burgeoisie and peasent alike took up the ideals of Liberté, Egalité, et Fraternaté, and soon, France was set ablaze.
As this revolution was occuring, and as the Louis XVI dismissed Necker, his reform-minded minister, leading to an open revolution in the streets of Paris, the world as a whole, was undergoing change. Britain having lost its American colonies, was forced elsewhere, towards India, where it channeled its Imperial ambitions. In North America, the United States, a nation still in its infancy, struggled with the question of unity, and the question of a new government. The Articles of Confederation had shown themselves to be useless, and a new Constitution was ratified. It was yet to be seen, however, if this constitution would actually work, and whether this experiment in democracy could hold itself together. Spain still controlled its vast territorial empire in the Americas, yet both at home and abroad, it was crumbling from within. Spain, once the hegemon of the world, had fallen far from its high pedestal atop the world, and now was but a poor nation in the corner of Europe, a poor nation with vast, rebellious territories. In Europe itself, the balance of power was crumbling altogether, and as France descended into Chaos, Austria and Prussia held domain over central Europe, watching the west with fearful eyes. Italy was disunited and weak, most of it under an Austrian boot. The Ottoman Empire, once the great beast of Europe, was slowly becoming its sick man, and though the decay had not set as rapidly as it would in years to come, it was clearly evident. Russia, meanwhile, began an upward ascenscion as one of the great European powers. And what of Poland? She was, unfortunately, caught in the middle of these rising powers, yet she herself was not ascending. In Africa, much remained the same as it had for thousands of years, the Europeans just barely beginning to explore this unknown continent. The Middle east, once home to the great Mughal and Safavid empires, had seen said empires collapse. Here, numerous successor states fought eachother to reclaim the glories of the past. In the Far East, Qing China was still a force to be reckoned with, with a vast army, vast industry, and a huge population. However, to run such a large empire is no easy job, and the Qing, though the Emperor of this time was a strong and willfull one, began to see their power slowly eclipsed as the European powers moved into the region.
However, enough of that, and back to France. After the storming of the Bastille, and after the execution of the mayor of Paris, things seemed to calm down, well, atleast temporarily. The King, seeing France spiral into chaos, backed down, and a reconciliation of sorts began. Unfortunately, this reconciliation was to be short lived, and the King, disliking the course which the Revolution was taking (an increasingly radical one, completely with attempts at the de-christianisation of France), attempted to leave Paris, and link up with other Royalists. The king, though dressed as a servant, was recognized, and on his escape, both him and his wife, the hated Marie Antoinette, were arrested and sent back to Paris, their rule suspended by the National Constituent assembly. For the next few months, there was a constant push and pull of the governing forces of France, the King being restored once again, however this time only as a figurehead. As this was going on, Prussia and Austria issued the declaration of Pilnitz, declaring that the cause of Louis was their own cause, and calling for the dissolution of the Assembly and the full liberation of the King. This was not well recieved in France, yet for now, it was ignored.
The Legislative assembly (replacing the National Constituent Assembly) was now beginning to devide along the ideaologies. The Feuillants, constitutional monarchs, were set up against the Girondins, the liberal republicans, and the Jacobins, radical revolutionaries. This assembly, with its various, conflicting ideaologies, would not last. Louis XVI needed something to hold it together, and that something was war. And indeed, for awhile, it did unite the nation, as Feuillants and Girondins alike clamored for war against Austria and Prussia, the former believing that war would increase the King's popularity, whilst the later wished to export the revolution. Only a few Jacobins, wishing to consolidate at home, stood against conflict, and they were not enough to stop the tide of popular support.
On April 20th, 1792, France declared war on Austria. Prussia soon joined the war on Austria's side. Europe was now firmly entrenched in chaos.
Yet at home, there was still chaos. On the night of August 10, 1792, insurgents, supported by a new revolutionary Paris Commune, assailed the Tuileries. The king and queen ended up prisoners and the Legislative Assembly suspended the monarchy: little more than a third of the deputies were present, almost all of them Jacobins. What remained of a national government depended on the support of the insurrectionary Commune. When the Commune sent gangs of assassins into the prisons to butcher 1400 victims, and addressed a circular letter to the other cities of France inviting them to follow this example, the Assembly could offer only feeble resistance. This situation persisted until the Convention, charged with writing a new constitution, met on September 20, 1792 and became the new de facto government of France. The next day it abolished the monarchy and declared a republic.
On the same day, at the mill of Valmy, in eastern France, Prussian and French forces converged together. The earlier battles of the war had been a disaster for France, but here, a decisive turning point would be made. The Prussians, numbering 35,000, attempted to attack the French position of 47,000. And here, the French artillery, proving itself to be the best in the world, repulsed the Prussian attackers in the famous Cannonade of Valmy. This battle, though both sides suffered a total of some 500 dead, caused the Prussian Army to retreat from France. Soon, with the general advance of the French Army, there were no more foriegn armies in France. There was, however, still a state of war. The day after the victory, the First French Republic was proclaimed in Paris.
Prussia and Austria, meanwhile, licked their wounds, and waited for their next chance at attack. The French armies, having routed the invaders, and having become huge in size due to a general conscription the likes of which were never seen before in a Europe of limited, professional armies, were now poised for an invasion of the Prussian and Austrian dominated Netherlands, Germany and Italy. Within France, Royalist insurrections continued in the south, and Louis XVI, former King of France, saw all of this happen from a jail cell in Paris, his fate undecided, as England watched from behind the channel, not yet choosing sides in this monstrous struggle.
And that is the end of our history. What happens next, is entirely up to you.
