Royal Tenenbaum
Write your Own History
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2012
- Messages
- 2,749

Index
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Chapter 1: Democracy a la Mode
• 1760 - Fair Dalliance with the River Folk (Coming soon!)
• 1760 - Catholic Oppression in French Guiyana
Chapter 2: TBA
Italics are written by contributing writers
Info:
Statements made in the story are not historically accurate. This story takes place in an alternate history where France evolved into a republic in the 1400s, and became a full democracy in the 1750s when Louis XV abolished the central bureaucracies and installed direct democracy and representative elections. The story starts in 1760, with France the home of the Statue of Liberty, Protestantism, and the Sistine Chapel. Although France rapidly excelled economically and technologically, the acceleration is nearly over, and France is currently relative to 1780s-era technology. France controls Mexico, New France extends from the Great Plains of North America to north Brazil, Quebec is under strong control, and French colonies extend through Africa and Asia. Stability is declining though, and the vast French Republic is on the peak of its success, looking down into the ruins of civilization. Can the people of France succeed in history where previous Royal civilizations have tragically failed?
Helpful quotes from the story that may help establish environment:
Spoiler :
See, the world is not a good place anymore. Look at me! Blind in one eye and hopelessly addicted to opiates. Your Narrator wishes to tell you of how we got here. Let me start off at the peak of the French Republic, right after His Majesty Louis XV abolished the constitutional powers of the famille royale and installed a national assembly composed of local representatives and the Conseil des Ministres, composed of high ranking Protestant politicians. The year is 1760. It was a crossroads for French history. France's stability was dwindling due to recent political unrest, unstable neighbors, and rapid expansion. The economy, although better than the economic crashes in the decades before, was stagnating. France was an economic monopoly, with French merchants bringing in mountains of wealth from colonies far and wide. As France's Andean and Mexican colonies began to collapse, so did France's monetary system. When Louis XV finally reformed the mercantile system into a modern free market, liberalism and innovative ideas flooded the country but the economy never returned to its former glory.
At that time, some revolutionary movements were growing as Louis XV's extreme popularity clashed with his democratic reforms. There were pro-royalists, anti-royalists, conservatives and liberals, anti-church and pro-church, and most importantly, nobles and those who no longer recognized nobles. Paris, the capital of the Protestants, the city that stood up to the Vatican and told them "enough is enough!" was so successful in converting the world to protestantism, that there are only two Catholic nations left: Spain, and the Congolese territory. Nearly 40% of the world is Protestant. France still has blood on its hands from the prosecution of Catholics from Northern France, who eventually would settle in French Guiyana; there is strong resistance there, and strong prejudice.
The military is in flux. There is strong argument over whether nobles should still be acknowledged, and the mess of the French armies were made up of mercenaries, nobles, and standing army. The King still had control over the armies, although he no longer had control of the government. The Native attacks in the Louisiana Territory during Louis XV's reforms left tens of thousands of Frenchmen dead, and drew attention to His Majesty's faults, and the declining military power of France, and the rising instability of the republic. Currently, France has military campaigns in Southeast Asia, skirmishes with pirates around the world, stations in Mexico to prevent it from collapsing, and England's colonies are beginning to get aggressive next to the New French territory (which extend from Minneapolis to New Orleans).
Unlike my last story, this story will be rated teenager-and-up friendly. Please refrain from excessive imagery or vocabulary.
More informal comments and discussion can be redirected to this group discussion. Contact Royal for an invite to the group.
Optional:
You can give yourself an identity in this story. Simply post a picture, name, and bio and I will add it here. It will be added to the Hall of the Honored below, and I will incorporate your character into the story. Your decisions will drastically change the course of French history!
If you do that, I will contact you asking you how your character would respond to situations -- in fact, watching peoples' walls will give sneak peaks to the next story! Optionally, you could just contact me and tell me how you wish your character would react in the story.