Pre-BombNES IV: A New Hope

The Empire of Japan: Japan’s first great internecine struggle for the control of the Emperor in the late 12th century resolved in the favor of the Taira clan, who defeated their Minamoto enemies on the battlefield and assassinated the survivors who failed to commit suicide, while also driving their own hated cousins, the Hojo, into the far north of Honshu. They then cemented their reign by moving the Emperor’s court from Kyoto to their stronghold of Kobe, where it would remain until the modern day, even after the Taira clan was extinguished. More problematic was the fact that the Hojo and Takeda clans, two of the main powers in the north, were fiercely opposed to the Taira, and remained so, at one point declaring their own imperial candidate, albeit unsuccessfully.

As such, the Taira Shogunate could only hope to truly control the southern half of Honshu, despite winning several further battles against the Hojo and achieving their token submission. The decline of the Taira came near the end of the 14th century, with the emergence of several powerful new daimyo clans who openly ignored or defied Kobe, with little consequences, while the daimyo’s zone of real control gradually shrunk to the immediate environs of the capital.

In 1405, a minor retainer of the Taira, Yohorsehockyaka Hatakeyama, was appointed kita kanrei, or the northern viceroy of the Shogun, with the responsibility of bringing back to Kobe the heads of the northern lords who had again risen in rebellion, led by the Hojo. Unlike his predecessors, Hatakeyama succeeded, though not in the way his overlord had wanted. Facing overwhelming odds, Hatakeyama first defeated a coalition of Nitta and Takeda forces, then declared the Taira shogun illegitimate. He forged an alliance with the Hojo, promising them rule over the north, and then marched on Kobe, summarily executing the last of the Tairas and all of his heirs.

With the success of his alliances with the northern lords, Hatakeyama created three additional kanrei: In the south (minami kanrei), west (kansai kanrei), and the east (kanto kanrei). Along with the kita kanrei, Japan was roughly divided into four spheres of influence, aesthetically modeled after the square-grid, Chinese influenced Imperial city of Kobe. Rather than defying the shogun, local daimyo were now encouraged to compete for the shogun’s favor and prestige, with the kanrei positions giving them authority over their regional neighbors and rivals. Hatakeyama was also much better at distributing rewards to loyal samurai than his predecessors.

Thanks to this more efficient patronage system, the Hatakeyama Shogunate would remain stable throughout the 15th and 16th centuries. Trade ties were expanded with China, and overseas expeditions carved out sizeable enclaves for ambitious lords in southeastern Korea and Taiwan. The arrival of western explorers and missionaries, including a contingent of Burgundian traders and a group of priests with the Order of Santiago, would destabilize matters significantly.

The Hatakeyama had historically encouraged foreign trade, and these new gaijin and their strange religion were generally seen as little to no threat. However, dissent began to spread when several major daimyo converted to Christianity after several decades of proselytizing, including the minami kanrei. The Buddhist temple organization, supported for hundreds of years by the Shogunate and a military power in its own right, soon openly threatened rebellion if Christianity was not outlawed, as did the northern daimyo, even as the lords of Kyushu, Shikoku, and some of southern Honshu converted en masse, following the example of their kanrei, themselves threatening rebellion if their newfound faith was outlawed. Sumitaka Hatakeyama fatefully decided against the Christians, a decision he would come to regret.

The result of his decision was the Sennin War, a thirty year conflict in which the Christian and Buddhist daimyo fought to the death, the former supported by European guns and mercenaries and the latter with the full weight of the Hatakeyama Shogunate (and most of Japan’s daimyo) behind them. Unparalleled atrocities and the destruction of entire cities would follow. At the climax of the war in 1641, the Christian daimyo (with the support of European carracks) stormed Kobe from the sea, and sacked the city. The last of the Hatakeyama shoguns reportedly committed suicide as this occurred. Portuguese mercenaries killed the Emperor and most of the royal family before their Japanese allies could stop them, spurring outrage and causing the northern coalition to fight with renewed ferocity, setting up a rival court in Kyoto with the survivors.

After a series of further battles ending in stalemate, an accord was finally signed in 1650. The Emperor would return to Kobe, which was to be reconstructed. Buddhism was declared to be the official religion of the Empire, but Christian daimyo were allowed to practice their faith unhindered in the areas of southern Japan where it had become established. Equally so, trade and contact with Europeans would only be allowed in Kyushu, Shikoku, and Shimonoseki. The Shogunate itself was disestablished, and replaced with an Imperial Privy Council consisting of the Four Kanrei and a representative from the Buddhist monasteries, to placate their objections.

Japan’s development over the next two and a half centuries was somewhat stilted. While the Emperor’s power had been theoretically restored independent of a shogun, his Privy Council ruled Japan, and the Four Kanrei were by no means in agreement as to the future path that Japan should take. Perhaps unintentionally, this formalized the division of the Empire of Japan into four semi-autonomous kingdoms, all nominally led by the Emperor.

Generally speaking, the south flourished as an entrepot of maritime trade with Europe and China, accepting trading concessions for the Portuguese and Burgundians, and adding the French after the 1730’s. Consequently, while southern Japan rapidly became the most modern part of the Empire, the minami kanrei (controlled after 1680 by the Ichijō clan) was often deeply in debt to his European advisors. The Korean and Taiwanese colonies were lost to a resurgent China and its allies, though the minami kanrei now boasts an ironclad fleet staffed with French officers, strong enough to equal that of China, (or so the French promise) and more than enough to intimidate his domestic rivals. The French have also begun to encourage the separatists in the Ichijō daimyo’s court at Kagoshima.

The kita kanrei of the north (typically a Hōj&#333 pursued a strikingly separate path, keeping the traditional samurai lifestyle fully intact for northern Honshu, even allowing low-level wars to continue among his subjects to propagate this. The kita kanrei’s one concession to modernity has been allowing the Matsumae clan on Hokkaido, an offshoot of the Takeda, to take a fur trading lease in the far north, which has unintentionally given them access to a vast wealth of mineral resources, perhaps enough to challenge the Hōjō for northern Japanese dominance. The Matsumae problem aside, the Hojo have the largest standing army of the Four Kanrei, and have begun to adopt modern artillery and firearms while transitioning their samurai into an elite mounted cavalry corps.

The kanto and kansai kanrei are seen to be lower in strength than the viceroys of the north and south. They have also pursued more of a middle way policy, eschewing both the slavish European imitation and the backwards isolationism of the southern and northern ends of the country. Telegraph wires and railroad tracks are slowly spreading (with some resistance) across the island of Japan, and European tactics, if not uniforms, (with the exception of the southerners) have been adopted on varying levels by the armies of the kanrei and their retainers. Industrialization has begun as well. Though mostly in the south, and mostly under the eyes of foreign overseers, the benefits have begun to trickle down even if they are mostly denied to the Japanese people.

Some believe that southern Japan will break away and form a Christian, western-oriented constitutional monarchy if the Privy Council pushes them too far. Others say that the Matsumae will invade Honshu at the head of a barbarian army. Still others say that one of the kanrei will attempt to defeat the others and establish a new Shogunate. Only time will tell.

Bartica (The Commonwealth of Bartica): Born out of the Burgundian colonies in South America, the Commonwealth of Bartica (which means “Red Earth” in a native tongue) is a White European dominated society that extends from Mauritsstad (Recife) on the coast to deep into the Amazon River Basin. Although Bartica’s plantation based economy was originally built on the backs of native slaves, disease and assimilation soon forced the European colonists to import slaves from Africa, and later after the outlawing of the slave trade, cheap labor from Java and Ceylon as well.

Following the independence of Carolina from Britain and the creation of the United Dominions in North America, whites in Bartica began to demand more political rights from Antwerp. Having witnessed the chaos that was the North American War, the Burgundian Parliament promptly agreed to Bartican demands, granting the colony commonwealth status in 1852. Predictably, the first actions taken by the new Bartican Parliament were to affirm the European population as the only full citizens and place legal restrictions on the rights of all non-whites. It was also during this period that Bartica made its first major efforts to secure its claims to the Amazon basin, bringing it into conflict with Charcas in 1861 and again 1868.

Today, Bartica continues to maintain a highly regimented society built on institutional racism and wide scale discrimination against non-whites. Although some liberal elements within Burgundy itself have called for an ultimatum to the government of Bartica to end some of its harsher policies, this appears to be far off as long as many of elite in Antwerp continue to have financial interests within the commonwealth.

Burgundy (The Kingdom of Burgundy): The dominions of the Burgundians have been as varied as the fortunes of its rulers. A series of advantageous Flemish marriages during the 13th and 14th centuries solidified the power base of the Burgundian Dukes in the Low Countries, while their southern, Rhenish territories were constantly under threat from an expansionist France.

A series of grinding wars ended in the loss of the Franche-Comté by the end of the 15th century, but the House of Burgundy (by then, Princes) reinvented itself as a servant of the German Emperor, and was, in part through early adoption of modern artillery, able to repel French attacks in Flanders. An alliance with the Hanseatic cities (one which would endure for the next 300 years) resulted in widespread commercial prosperity, and as the 17th century began Burgundy entered the colonial game with high hopes. However, the latter half of the 17th century and beginning of the 18th saw another mostly unsuccessful round of wars with France to try and recapture Upper Burgundy, which resulted in military defeat and the loss of several colonies. A partial recovery was found with the success of other colonial ventures in Sinhalen, South America and the Far Indies, which accompanied the revival of the fleet to make Burgundy the third-strongest naval power in the Atlantic.

Following the Theodosian Wars, during which the Burgundians (now Kings) fought unsuccessfully to prevent French dominion over western Germany, Bremen and Oldenburg elected to become autonomous, federated provinces of Burgundy rather than joining the fractured, foreign-dominated German Union, honoring their longstanding ties with Antwerp. Furthermore, the Burgundian guarantee of independence for Hamburg, another allied, post-Hanseatic city, made it a significant powerbroker in Germany, a role which it retains to this day. The protection of Hamburg has made enemies in Denmark, of course. Burgundy remains fiercely anti-French, even if it is not as significant a threat as the other Great Powers, and it is mostly centered upon not losing further ground to anyone else. However, if any of its rivals stumble, Burgundy will be quick to seize her old claims, both in Europe and across the wider world.

Carolina (The Kingdom of Carolina): In 1601, Alfred Millhouse was granted a charter to colonize the Southeastern coast of North America by the British Emperor, David II. Naming the settlement for the Emperor’s only daughter, Caroline, the new colony was soon plagued by hardship. Raids by the region’s native peoples, revolts by the indentured servants and several attempts by both the French and Spanish to seize the surrounding area nearly led to the failure of the endeavor, but the value of tobacco back in the mother country proved too great and after several influxes of new settlers, the colony was finally able to find its legs.

In 1621, African workers first arrived in the form of indentured servants, sold into labor by West African Chieftains as a means to pay off debts to the British for modern arms. These indentured servants soon turned to slaves, as laws forcing their descendants into permanent servitude were put in place. In 1700, all British colonies south of Chesapeake were placed under the jurisdiction of a royal governor in the now bustling town of Millhouse (Charleston).

In 1720, the development of a simplified cotton gin directly led to a massive increase in the size of plantations. Along with this, coastal settlements grew and prospered while adventurous colonists made claims further and further inland. By 1800, all the land to the east of Appalachians had been claimed, often at the expense of the land’s native peoples.

In 1805, Britain declared war on France, using their rival’s distraction with the Theodosian Wars to seize all the French colonies in North America. The Carolinians were only too happy to support this move as it would give them a chance to extend slavery past the Appalachian Mountains, greatly securing the institution against political attacks by the more urbanized north and London. Despite the successful seizure of Louisiana, the Carolinians would soon be disappointed to learn that the British would not be extending the borders of Carolina itself and no additional land grants would be given to settlers for the time being. Louisiana would be governed as a separate colony. This was the first of many events that Carolina would see as betrayal by their mother country.

The next thirty years would also witness the institution of slavery coming under attack, both in the Northern colonies as well as in London itself. Though wealthy Carolinians fought tooth and nail to prevent any measures restricting slavery, their best efforts were ultimately unsuccessful and in 1841, The Universal Abolition Act was passed, making slavery illegal across the entire empire.

Within less than a day of hearing of the passing of the law, the wealthy elite of Carolina met in Millhouse and declared a unilateral declaration of independence from the Empire of the Britons, kicking off the Great North American War. Although London was relatively unsurprised by Carolina’s UDI (the Carolinians had been threatening it as much as a decade before the passing of the Act), Britain was caught off guard when the French population of Louisiana, Quebec and Ohio also revolted, seeing this as their chance to secure their own independence. This was fortunate for Carolina, not only because it added another distraction for Britain, but because it brought France into the war on their side as well.

The Great North American War lasted for six years, and proved to be almost as bloody as the Theodosian Wars, a half a century earlier. It took mass revolt in the Northern colonies over conscription to finally bring Britain to the table and acknowledge the independence of Louisiana and Carolina, but not before the rebellions in Ohio and Quebec had been utterly squashed. In 1847, the Kingdom of Carolina was formally declared, with Robert Osborne, a man of noble birth and general in the war for independence, as the first King.

Despite victory in the war for independence, the Carolinians soon found that governing a new nation was not as simple as they had hoped. Faced with embargos, exhausted soil and a breakdown of relations with Louisiana after they had snubbed a Carolinian attempt at an alliance, the new nation found itself in dire straits. This economic slump would continue for a decade and a half, nearly prompting the Carolinian Parliament to attempt to vote itself back into the British Empire. Fortunately for the Carolinians, by the 1860s, most tensions with the British and Louisianans had settled down and a resumption of trade was able to somewhat alleviate the economic troubles.

By the 1880s, slavery was again being called into question, this time within Carolina itself by a new younger generation which had never lived under British rule. The depletion of soil and increasing industrialization provided further substantiation that the slave plantation was quickly becoming obsolete. In 1885, a Carolinian explorer from Florida, Armand Taylor, claimed most of the Congo River Valley in the name of the Kingdom (except for a large section to the south, which he kept as his own personal estate). While at first the claim was rejected by parliament, a proposal to use it as a dumping ground for the country’s African population quickly grew in popularity. In 1889, the province of Congo was officially declared with its capital at the newly created outpost of Osborne, along the Congo River. Despite the (not quite so) altruistic reasoning for the founding of the colony, it did not take long for it too to become corrupted with institutionalized racism and oppression. With the rubber boom of the 1890s, came the introduction of several large Carolinian firms to the Congo, taking advantage of the native population as forced labor and using former African slaves from Carolina as overseers. Conditions for workers in the rubber plantations remain typically very harsh even to this day.

Since the rubber boom, Carolina’s economic prospects have picked up slightly. The influx of capital back home has allowed for the growth of some other industries in Carolina itself, as well as an unprecedented amount of public spending on parks and public goods by the current King, Robert III.

Charcas (The United Provinces of Charcas and Atacama): When the Spanish monarchy collapsed in the Revolution of 1803, the provinces of Charcas rose up in rebellion against the viceroy, ousting him from power and taking control of the region. This was soon followed by a similar uprising in the neighboring region of Atacama, which was quickly co-opted by newly established Charcan Revolutionary Army, now led by the young and charismatic Adolfo Ricardo Torrelio.

Though Spanish forces from Lima made several attempts to reclaim the wayward provinces, logistical failures and a lack of support from the mother country made this virtually impossible. By 1805, all attempts at reconquering the region had been abandoned and the United Provinces of Charcas and Atacama was soon declared with Torrelio serving as the new state’s unchallenged leader.

Upon taking his seat as the new “Comandante de la Revolución”, Torrelio immediately declared that despite their earlier victories, the revolution would not stop until all of South America had been liberated. Torrelio soon set about an invasion of Peru, only to find that his force had been beaten there by an army from the new nation of Maracaibo, which had also set its sights on “liberating” the only remaining Spanish colony in South America. The two forces quickly came into conflict, and though Torrelio was able to oust the Marabinos, he was unable to secure Peru as a whole. The Treaty of Lima was signed shortly thereafter by the two nations, guaranteeing the independence of a Peruvian buffer state, though not before the two carved out large pieces of the country for themselves, allowing both to claim victory.

Rebuffed in the North, but still popular at home, Torrelio soon turned his attention southward, and in 1815 invaded Santiago, hoping to liberate it from the rule of the Order of Santiago. Unlike his previous adventure, Torrelio found himself totally outclassed by the Order’s forces, and was shortly forced return home to lick his wounds.

Upon returning to Potosi, Torrelio was greeted with an attempt on his life by dissenting generals. Following the failed assassination and coup, Torrelio launched a major purge of his armed forces that soon extended to the population as a whole. Though this undoubtedly hurt the new nation’s prospects, it did succeed in elongating his reign by wiping out his opposition, paving the way for nearly fifty years of uncontested rule.

The next half century would see the development of the copper and phosphate industries with Mexican aid, several interventions into Peru and several minor but ultimately inconclusive wars with the Order of Santiago and Patagonia over borders.

In 1861, at the age of 83, Adolfo Torrelio passed away leaving the country to his son, Bernardo Torrelio, who continued most of his father’s more unpleasant policies but directed a generally more peaceful foreign policy besides two brief and indecisive wars with Bartica over Amazonian borders. In 1898, Bernardo passed, and like his father, left his country to his son, Alberto. Alberto’s reign has thus far been uneventful.