Capto Iugulum Background Thread

[Luckymoose]

Insulting the Emperors of Brazil, who have defended and maintained democracy far longer than Jacksonia has existed, is a sad view on the world.

 

[Grandkhan]

I'm bored and I don't want to go to sleep just yet, so here's my analysis of Danish politics. I might do some other countries tomorrow, but eh.

To really understand Danish politics and the current situation, we've got to go about 25 years back, all the way to 1907 and the Treaty of Tuilleries. For those who don't remember, Denmark was a participant in the Great War, along with the Confederation, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Spain, Russia, and a whole bunch of other people who aren't really important. Denmark was attacked very early in the opening stages of the war by Brandenburg, who basically took Danish Germany and left Denmark and Scandinavia defending Jutland desperately, while the Confederation and the Netherlands did basically nothing to assist and instead wasted their EP on building ships instead of getting an army together and making a dedicated push on Brandenburg. When they decided this wouldn't work and they had wasted all their EP on a fleet which was sunk by the Brazilians in that same year, they then forced Denmark to sign a treaty of surrender, which gave away all of Denmark's colonial possessions (at the time consisting of a big chunk of China, Korean treaty ports, and Oranjien) and Danish Germany to the allies while only losing a fraction on the parts of Scandinavia, Holland, and the Confederation. Its the ultimate betrayal - Denmark's allies have turned on her, dismembering her and leaving her to total irrelevancy, while literally losing nothing at all. In Denmark, the treaty is called up to now the Dolkestød, meaning 'stab in the back.'

OOC Note: Mind you, this is all from Denmark's perspective, but honestly its not that far off from what happened. I was the weakest member of the alliance, and I couldn't keep the war up on my own, so they just stuck the treaty before me and signed it. There was a bit of wrangling that Spry and ZD managed to do when I got ticked off about being forced to sign a treaty which I wasn't consulted on where I lost everything, and they managed to get the cessation of Danish germany amended to a referendum wherein I kept Kiel, but honestly the FBC and Holland threw Denmark to the dogs in actual fact. This isn't Danish people inventing a legend to justify losing a war a la WW1 Germany, this is actually what happened ITTL.

The Confederation and the Netherlands (and Scandinavia, but for some reason Danes didn't resent them for years afterwards)

So post 1907 - 1924, isolationism was the order of the day. It goes beyond that - its a mantra of "The outside world can walk up to the border, turn around, and march the other way thanks." Sure, there was a brief alliance with Russia, but as far as the average Dane was concerned, the rest of the world was complicit in messing Denmark over, and it can go to hell. The alliance with Russia didn't last long anyway, because apparently Danish voters don't like it when you genocide people, even if they are Germans.

Denmark's hostility to foreigners was so bad that when the government tried to open up Denmark to foreign trade and banking it was met with ambivalence, and the government in question toppled. This was replaced with the conservative Frie Folkeparti government led by Einar Boye, who attempted to make Denmark a locale for foreign tourism by funding plays and theatre productions in Denmark. Sort of turning it into a high-class Hollywood. The response to that was even worse - Danes turned up and flat out called this an attempt at letting the aristocrats take over Denmark. And that attracted Proles.

Just like pictures of rainclouds, italics makes things ominous.

I'm not 100% sure how the revolt started, and whether the Scandinavians actively funded the revolt or just turned up when it started because hey, its an opportunity, but one thing is for sure. In late 1924, Copenhagen was seized by Proletarist revolters. King and government fled to the mainland, gathering forces to destroy the Proles. Scandinavian forces intervened, and Denmark's outnumbered fleet was forced to win a crucial and heroic victory against the Scandinavians while Danish forces recaptured Copenhagen. It was a decisive moment for Denmark, and a shattering of national innocence: Danes could keep the outside world away, but they couldn't keep it out.

After the Copenhagen Upising, (AKA Danish Civil War, Proletarist War, That Thing Where Proles Attacked Us), Danish politics changed almost instantly. What caught them (and I'll be honest, me) by surprise was the suddenness of it all. Relations with Scandinavia were as good as they'd ever been - we had a non-aggression pact and everything. Denmark had no allies, because I didn't see that coming - had I been allied with a powerful friend at the time, the Scandinavians wouldn't have dared. And it made Danes feel... well, afraid. For the first time, Danes looked to the future with dread. If a coup could happen out of the blue, what else might? It had isolated itself for so long, that it never even saw anything like that coming.

Luckily, the Russians were available for an alliance and willing to curb Proletarist aggression. But still, it was scary, and Proles still are. But every confrontation Denmark has with the Proletarists makes it less afraid, and more angry. Scandinavia is the monster under the bead, and you know what you do with monsters - beat them with a stick until they leave. I dunno what fairytales you've been reading.

The Danish perception of Proletarists. This is innacurate, however - Proletarists are much more hairy, and smell far worse.

So now we get to the meat of the issue - Politics. Currently, Denmark's parliament is led by the conservative Frie Folkeparti and the Staatsminister Einar Boye. Einar led Denmark through the Copenhagen Uprising, and is basically receiving the benefits of a Rally Around the Flag effect - they're enjoying their largest majority ever, and Boye could publicly eat kittens and still get elected. He was insanely unpopular pre-Rising too - all his popularity is from being able to stand up to Scandinavian aggression, and fear of a Scandinavian invasion. Elections are slated for 1930, and its likely he'll retain his seat.

Denmark is slowly sliding towards a more autocratic rule - the Frie Folkeparti's power is growing, and they've already begun fiddling with Denmark's economy, including subsidising it in fear of the Brazilian embargo doing some damage. People are willingly bending over backwards for Boye - and at the end of the day, is it really a dictatorship if thats what people want? A little liberty for a lot of security goes a long way, it seems.

Counterbalancing Boye's conservatism is the ultra-liberal King of Denmark, Leopold II. Leopold is about thirty years away from being a bleeding heart hippy, and its served him well - he's supremely popular among Danes. He is, like his father, a liberal at heart, and is partially responsible for keeping Danes away from revanchism - I guess xenophobia is better by a long shot. But he's a liberal, and he's a constitutional monarch, so he forbids himself from interference - but if Boye goes too far, will he keep to his own promises? Must a liberal monarch intervene for the sake of democracy? Who knows.

Thats all predicated on Boye going too far, and he might not. In fact, he probably won't. Boye's a smart guy, and he doesn't want to test the king too much - Leopold is so popular that even Boye wouldn't not survive it.

We now come to a curiosity: Denmark's last surviving colony, Iceland (and Greenland). During the Copenhagen rising, the Danish government decided that it would grant Iceland independence as a Dominion if things got really bad. They didn't, so the talks were stopped and forgotten about. Not by the Icelanders, however. Being divorced from Scandinavia and any real concerns, they decided that the focus on militarisation and warfare was not to their liking, and demanded a referendum on independence - they just had to be different, didn't they?

Parents Copenhageners just don't get it.

Denmark gave them a compromise solution; a referendum, in which one of the choices was that Iceland would stay in the kingdom and just not contribute any EP to military uses. Strangely enough, this option was accepted and the most voted for. I'm not complaining. Which leaves Iceland in an interesting position: its part of Denmark, but not really contributing in any way to its security. Its a weird state of affairs, and unique - no other place on earth has that kind of arrangement.

That's my tongue in cheek review of Danish politics. I'll take a look at somebody else's, any suggestions?

 

[ChiefDesigner]

In a democracy, government generally acts on the modus vivendi that the opposition can say what it wants, but it will ignore it in favour of promoting its own platform

What democracy do you live in?

Because the one I live in is built with veto points where a party constituting a minority of public opinion can, and is, obstructing the will of the majority in the service of its own narrow ideology, and overturning long-held political norms to do so.

 

[talonschild]

America? Understandable, given the discussion-based legislation system.

Though in Canada's debate-based system Jehoshua's statement rings true. However, assorted minority interest groups seem to hold an unofficial veto.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Jehoshua describes a majority government in a parliamentary system- once you have a majority, you can completely ignore the other parties and pass whatever legislation you like until the next election comes.

 

[talonschild]

Ayup. I miss the days of minority governments :'(

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Although we should probably take our Canadian talk to another thread, lest we incur the wrath of EQ.

 

[Nuka-sama]

Either way it prooves my point that your definition is incorrect as a general one. As to Jacksonia, In saying what you do though Nuke, you clearly show you are an idealist even if you don't realise it. Because if Jacksonia truly had no discrimination its government would not impose any law at all and would be anarchist, solely trusting in the moral agency of people to look out for the good of others. Afterall it would be discrimination and against the rights of human liberty would it not to criminalise someone just because he commited some offence no?

The criminal system in and of itself is discriminatory, and rightly so wouldn't you say? This very basic example (which applies to many other aspects of government) is a clear example of the fact that discrimination is a fundamental part of human societies.

Trying to poke holes in "OH THIS PART IS DISCRIMINATORY, YOU ARE DISCRIMINANT" is fallacious at BEST. Call us idealists if you want, but we are creating a paradise of liberty and democracy where a person of any race, religion, or gender. The Bear Flag Republic of Jacksonia is an idealist nation, yes, but it is because of that that we are the true successors of the Founding Fathers and their ideals for liberty, freedom, and democracy.

 

[J.K. Stockholme]

@Grandkhan: I vote a German history next, if you'll take it on.

 

[ChiefDesigner]

Jehoshua describes a majority government in a parliamentary system- once you have a majority, you can completely ignore the other parties and pass whatever legislation you like until the next election comes.

I hear Westminster systems also have upper houses, which can exercise effective vetoes (even in the Age of Harper).

 

[m.t.cicero]

I'd be willing to make a comprehensive history of China if there's any interest

 

[JohannaK]

Yes there is here.

 

[J.K. Stockholme]

@EQ: would you be willing to do a general update on all the academic, philosophical, scientific and commercial states we are in right now? Like has psychology come into the behaviouralist phase, have people discovered synthetic rubber (among many other synthetics), what are main literary movements, and do factories yet operate on a kind of Fordist model?

I think it would be very useful to give everyone perspective on the development of culture and technology.

 

[Nuka-sama]

I'd be willing to help collaborate on the Brandenburg side of Germany, pre unification

 

[Jehoshua]

I hear Westminster systems also have upper houses, which can exercise effective vetoes (even in the Age of Harper).

Well Queensland (a State of Australia) where I live, and a couple of other jurisdictions that use a westminster system don't have an upper house, but generally yes thats how the system works.

However the upper house very rarely prevents something passing through, and thus you see, despite some tinkering around the edges on some laws in some cases and the occasional obstruction of the most controversial policies, the major thrust of the dominant groups (not nessecarily a majority, as I think I pointed out before) positions being advanced along the terms I described, and the opposition can do very little about it. Ergo, the fact a senate (or House of Lords for the Brits amongst us) can prevent a law passing, or impose a specific alteration in specific instances doesn't really change the general trajectory, since the ideological positions of the majority group still proceeds regardless (and where they become obstructionist and prevent this forward march, you have things like the Whitlam constitutional crisis occur, which is a sanitised version of what happened in Chile). This I think applies to US style systems as well, since the dominant party (not necessarily the majority, again I stress) dictate the direction of policy.

-

Germany would be good, and yes there is interest in one of China. I would also find interesting a historio-political analysis of the Holy See/Papal States (two separate entities, one is the sovereign party [Holy See] the supreme authority of the Catholic Church, the other is the state wihich exists under that sovereignty.) Not excluding the events of the 19th century ofc, the wars, counter-crusades, boring times, wars again, barely hanging on to survival and then more recent times with the Holy See becoming once more one of the more powerful entities on the world would be an interesting read

 

[EQandcivfanatic]

@EQ: would you be willing to do a general update on all the academic, philosophical, scientific and commercial states we are in right now? Like has psychology come into the behaviouralist phase, have people discovered synthetic rubber (among many other synthetics), what are main literary movements, and do factories yet operate on a kind of Fordist model?

I think it would be very useful to give everyone perspective on the development of culture and technology.

I could take a look at it, but there's a problem in that some elements of research are classified to various nations. So, in the vaguest sense: we're approximately 5-10 years ahead of OTL technologies in the consumer markets, whihc could be a cause of the continuing prosperity despite global political conditions. In terms of military technology, most modern doctrines use tech roughly equal to OTL 1939 at this point. Mechanization is starting, though a large amount of nations still do rely on the horse, trucks and cars are a real presence in most countries. Similarly there are numerous profitable airlines doing quite well, though most are still headquartered in Argentina or Brazil.

 

[m.t.cicero]

A Century of Humiliation: A History of China from 1830 to Today

Background​

Three decades into the 19th century, the Qing dynasty was nearly two centuries into its reign over the Middle Kingdom. The prevailing attitude was, as it had been for millennia, that China was the heart of civilization, the literal center of the world beset on all sides by its cultural inferiors and barbarians. China had been governed for over 2000 years by the Mandate of Heaven; the fall of one dynasty heralds the rise of the next. The new dynasty governed for a few centuries or so, making its contributions to culture, technology, and governance until nature intervened; floods and famines occurred, signaling that the ruling dynasty had lost Heaven’s Mandate. From this point on rebellion became a just cause, and if the rebellion gained enough momentum through consistent victories it seized the mandate. Once the rebellion had gained control of most of China and captured at least one of its Four Ancient Capitals, the rebellion was considered by the general populace to be China’s new ruling dynasty. This cycle had continued for millennia, and though there had been periods of disunity, the Chinese state ultimately always emerged intact.

The Qing dynasty was, like the Yuan Dynasty before it, a foreign, “barbarian” dynasty. The Qing emperors were ethnic Manchus, a culture from the northeast of China which was distinct from the majority Han. The Manchus had invaded China during the collapse of the Ming dynasty in the early to middle 17th century, and through a brutal campaign the Manchu Aisin Gioro family took the throne of China, proclaiming their Qing dynasty. The Qing benefitted from a string of competent emperors who consolidated the Chinese state and managed to extend their control over Tibet, though they did not have the same success in conquering the nomadic tribes in the northwest, which had by 1830 consolidated into the formidable Zunghar Khanate.

The Decline of the Qing​

In 1830 the Qing were beginning to feel the pressure of European expansionism, with its traditional sphere being encroached upon by Spain, the Netherlands, and Great Britain. These powers were also involved in the opium trade, which had started to be a major source of social ills in southern China. China had still not been subjected to any major defeats by the western powers, which made the attempts by Crown Prince Mianning to reform the army along “barbarian” European lines all the more surprising. In the eyes of the army and the bureaucracy there was no reason to believe that the western barbarians posed any real threat to China’s central position; when coupled with the fact that these reforms would threaten the positions of these bureaucrats and soldiers this led to significant resistance and instability in the political and military establishment. This conflict within the Qing government marked the beginning of China’s steep decline relative to the western powers.

Prince Mianning of Qing​

By 1831 the resistance to the prince’s reforms manifested into an assassination attempt on the crown prince perpetrated by members of China’s military and political elite. Prince Mianning survived the attempt, but the conspirators immediately sprung into open rebellion. The rebels captured Beijing, forcing the Jiaqing Emperor and Prince Mianning to flee north. It took months for the emperor to rally his forces and disperse the rebels. In the same year distressing reports about the opium trade were addressed, buying the Qing a temporary respite. Resistance to European encroachments continued in southern China through both official and unofficial channels; the government hanged a crew of Swedish smugglers and there was a spate of brutal murders committed against Europeans. Predictably these actions increased tensions between the Qing and the west, and Qing attempts to defuse these tensions would prove disastrous.

The Treaty of Nanjing, signed in 1834, was considered to be a national humiliation by the military and political elite of China. In an unprecedented move the emperor had made unilateral concessions to the barbarian outsiders. It had not taken a military defeat or even a threatening military posture by the British for the Qing to cede to them significant economic rights, which crippled trade with other western nations, and the island of Hong Kong to the United Kingdom. China’s elite saw this cession of territory as a sign of the Qing’s weakness, and the Mandate of Heaven began to slip from the dynasty’s grasp in the eyes of both the elite and the common people. A peasant rebellion in southern China allowed the British to seize de facto control of yet more territory, extending their influence over the islands of Taiwan and Hainan. Further rebellions in the next year around the Yangtze River Delta left little doubt that China was entering yet another transition, and it appeared that China’s cyclical, bloody history would continue as it always had.

The War of the Ascendancy

China at the height of the War of the Ascendancy, 1841​

A familiar foe arrived in 1836 to take advantage of China’s instability and the Qing’s incompetence. The Zunghar Khanate, a collection of Mongol tribes, rode into China as their predecessors had centuries earlier. This invasion instigated the crippling rebellions of 1837, when three rebel states emerged in Qing China. The bandit-led Nian Realm, the Han Fujian Emperor, and an Islamic state in Yunnan all threatened the Qing state even as the Zunghars pressed in from the northwest. In 1838 two more rebellions emerged, one in Guangzhou and one in the west, the Ascendant Kingdom of Holy China, led by General Kong, who had built his Kingdom by capitalizing on the main underlying cause of China’s unrest: resentment of the West.

General Kong, later King Kong of the Ascendant Kingdom of Holy China​

The Ascendant Kingdom emerged victorious in what is most commonly called the War of the Ascendancy (1838-1848), also called the War of Three Emperors, as the governor of Guangzhou also declared himself Emperor with British backing in 1841. Certainly among the bloodiest wars in history, perhaps only surpassed by the Great War, the War of the Ascendancy went on for a decade with astronomical annual casualties. Even numerous European interventions were not enough to stop the advance of the Ascendant Kingdom. Indeed, the Europeans were unable to hold on to their own territories in China, as even Hong Kong, the jewel of Britain’s trading empire, fell to General Kong’s fervent forces. The civilian toll of this war was horrifying as well, with now King Kong being the worst offender with his purges of both western colonies and western sympathizers. Several cities in southern China, including Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Guangzhou were brutally purged because of their western influences. By 1848 the Ascendant Kingdom of Holy China was the undisputed ruler of China. King Kong’s staggering brutality has yet to be matched by any modern ruler, yet his dominion over China would not last.

The Partition of China

China from its partition after the Korean War to the Confederation-Polish War, 1870​

Japan had taken advantage of China’s chaos by invading Korea, which had traditionally been a client kingdom in the Chinese sphere. As soon as General Kong had finished consolidating his rule over China, he committed his exhausted Kingdom to all-out war against Japan in 1849, seeking to "rescue" Korea by bringing it back into the Chinese sphere. Several western armies intervened on the side of Japan, seeking to prevent the expansion of the Ascendant Kingdom’s rabid anti-western policies into Korea. At first General Kong succeeded in driving the Japanese alliance to the end of the Korean peninsula, but the Europeans subsequently began to arrive in force. The coalition pushed the Ascendancy back out of Korea in 1850 and entered Manchuria in 1851 ultimately driving the Ascendant Kingdom of Holy China back into the western hinterlands by 1854. The remaining territories were divided between the Japanese in Manchuria, Paris Burgundy around Beijing, Poland in Hebei, the Netherlands in Shandong and northern Henan, Denmark in southern Henan, northern Jiangsu and northern Anhui, Scandinavia in strips of Jiangsu, Anhui, and Hubei, Portugal in Shanghai, Spain in Zhejiang and Fujian, and Great Britain in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Guizhou, and Yunnan(1).

Eastern China, the center of the Middle Kingdom and the Han cultural homeland, had been crudely carved up by the victors. Korea, which the Ascendant Kingdom initially sought to defend, now lay in the hands of the Japanese, with the other European powers holding smaller concessions throughout the peninsula. This was not the first time China was divided, but it was the first time China had been divided between foreign powers and ruled from outside of China. While the Han could absorb smaller cultures such as the Mongols and Manchu, who adopted many Chinese customs and consolidate their rule by becoming more “Chinese,” European colonization was an entirely different matter. Ruled from the royal courts of Europe, China had no hope of assimilating their new overlords. In fact, the opposite was now true. To hope for any kind of advancement, the Chinese now had to learn the language of their rulers. It seemed that the Heaven had given up not just on the rulers of the Chinese, but on all Chinese. It had decided to grant the Mandate to a cadre of foreign, barbarian powers. Few believed that the situation could become any worse.

The Colonial Wars

China from the Confederation-Polish War to the Great War, 1900​

The fates of the Chinese people now rested in the hands of European monarchs and their parliaments. The Han people were now another pawn in a world that had become a chessboard for the Great Powers, and the decisions of the western rulers now directly affected the lives of millions of Chinese. In the late 19th century the Confederation-Polish War (1871-1873) resulted in Polish China being absorbed into the Franco-Burgundian and Dutch colonies in 1874. The Great War (1905-1908) was felt severely in China, as the British and Japanese launched a pincer campaign on the colonies of the various other Chinese colonial powers. This war between distant Great Powers led to considerable bloodshed in China, as thousands upon thousands died for the pride and prestige of these powers. As a result of the war, China was now divided on the Yangtze, with the Japanese in the north and the British in the south.

General Yehao Ma, military ruler of the Unified Realm of China​

While the European colonizers were conducting their wars in eastern China, the remnants of the Ascendant Kingdom of Holy China brooded in Lanzhou, their capital in the west. The death of King Kong in 1857 nearly precipitated the collapse of the Ascendant Kingdom. China was again engulfed in civil war until 1861, when Liu Wen emerged victorious. King Wen continued to organize limited raids against the European colonizers in order to maintain his legitimacy. Technology, once China's greatest strength, became its bane in 1870 when King Wen tried to capitalize on the Confederation-Polish War. Liu's troops were mowed down by French machine guns, forcing the Chinese into full retreat. Machine guns soon made raids on any European power unfeasible. Liu Wen died in 1889, leading to another three year civil war. Sun Xiang became the new Ascendant King in 1892, and reigned for nine years before a military coup in 1901. The military established the new Unified Realm of China, and close ties with Russia ended the isolationism of the Ascendant Kindom. Over the next couple decades rule of the Unified Realm was contested between various generals, hindering any attempts at modernization or reunification of China and resulting in significant casualties. In 1924 General Yehao Ma overthrew General Wei Jiang, and has since ruled the Unified Realm. During this period western China has experienced relative stability and been able to complete economic and military modernization.

Foreign Rule

China from the Great War to today, 1930
​

The Japanese started a program of aggressive cultural reeducation in their newly won Chinese territories, prompting a severe backlash from their Chinese subjects. Intensive infrastructure improvement was also undertaken by Japanese colonial authorities in 1909, building railroads in their new Chinese concessions to connect to those already built in Manchuria and Korea. These railroads were meant to ease the deployment of troops to counter attempts by the British or the Unified Realm to attack Japanese China. Resentment of Japanese rule has become increasingly violent in recent years, with the Traditional Proletarist Red Army taking the lead among Chinese nationalists. The Red Army has been experiencing increasing success in its operations in Japanese China recently. The Japanese have since reformulated their program so that it now more closely resembles the programs enacted in Korea and Manchuria during the last century, with a focus on coastal and university cities.

The British, already sitting on the world’s most far flung empire, quickly decided that they would benefit from placing their Chinese holdings under local control, and therefore they created the Dominion of Guangxi. This Dominion, the first of its kind in the world, would have a parliamentary system modeled on Britain’s, and like Britain would have a constitutional monarch. To rule Guangxi they chose the current head of the Aisin Gioro family, a descendant of the last Qing emperor. King John I Aisin Gioro, whose Manchu name was Aisin Gioro Zaitian, had been born in exile in London, where his grandparents had fled to via Korea and Hong Kong after the Qing’s defeat in the War of the Ascendancy. In order to become king of Guangxi, Zaitian converted to Anglicanism and pledged allegiance to the king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the British Empire. For him it was perhaps a small price to pay to rule one of the most populous countries on Earth, but it was a dramatic departure from the times when his ancestors were the undisputed rulers of the entire Middle Kingdom, civilized center of the world.

The Dominion and the Realm

Aisin Gioro Zaitian, here as King John I Aisin Gioro of Guangxi​

King John was strongly influenced by his British advisors and his parliament, which was filled with legislators in the pocket of the British. He initiated a compulsory English language education program, attempting to linguistically unify a linguistically diverse Guangxi(2). Similarly to what happened in Japanese China, nationalist resistance emerged to this cultural imperialism, led again by the Red Army who managed to disrupt Guangxi administration in several outlying provinces. King John’s main legacy however is the construction of Xinjing. As he had none of the Four Ancient Capitals safely under his rule, with Nanjing lying just across from the might of the Japanese army, the king decided that a new capital should be built, to signify that Guagnxi marked a new beginning for China, separated from the chaos of the Mandate of Heaven and the cycle it created. Xinjing was built over the village of Zhuhai, and incorporated both western and Chinese influences into its architectural style and urban structure. King John died in 1919, and was succeeded by King Henry, born Aisin Gioro Puyi, who proceeded to die in 1921 during an outbreak of influenza which ran rampant through Guangxi.

Aisin Gioro Nurhachi in 1920, later King Richard I Aisin Gioro of Guangxi​

King Henry was succeeded by King Richard I in 1921, born Aisin Gioro Nurhachi, who proceeded to complete the construction of Xinjing and moved his capital there in 1923. Realizing the unpopularity of the compulsory English program and the gravity of the Red Army threat, Richard suspended the program and merely kept English as a “recommended language,” which was still necessary for any chance of advancement in Guangxi. In an unprecedented move, and another attempt to quell Red Army activity, Richard also reached an agreement with General Yehao Ma of the Unified Realm in 1928, normalizing diplomatic relations between the two Chinese governments. After ninety years, a formal peace had finally been made between the descendants of the Qing emperors and the successors to General Kong’s Ascendant Kingdom. Guangxi still makes a point to omit the word “China” from the Unified Realm’s name, not recognizing it as the legitimate government of all China. According to government sources, negotiations for this treaty began by accident, when a General Yehao’s new Chief of Staff, the inexperienced Colonel Hsiao Yi, accidentally made contact with Quentin Liang, the Minister of Chinese and Internal Affairs, who took advantage of the situation to initiate talks. After much wrangling between the two Chinese powers, and their patron states Britain and Russia, the two negotiators came up with a skeleton of the original agreement. Realizing the importance of reaching a détente between Guangxi and the Unified Realm, the two insisted that it be formalized, resulting in the Treaty of Kunming, now considered the greatest Chinese diplomatic victory of the last century.

China Today, China Tomorrow

Military buildup has continued unabated in China on all three sides. Here a segment of the Royal Guangxi Army drills in Hangzhou.​

China stands now divided and on the brink, as one of the last nations in the world still experiencing the pan-nationalist agitation which had caused so much upheaval in the West in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is perhaps far more threatening than any previous incarnation of pan-nationalism however, as a unified China will be the most populous country on the planet and be prepared for an economic boom unprecedented in history. And, regardless of who unifies China and how, this new Great Power will almost without doubt have scores to settle, as China has a glut of legitimate grievances against many of today’s Great Powers. Split between three radically different factions, China’s future is more uncertain now than at any point previously in its history, as any of the three powers could, with enough ambition and enough guns, overtake the other two and become the first ruler of a unified China in a century.



(1) It's interesting to note that, much like during the colonization of Africa, China was divided up arbitrarily, with no regard for administrative divisions which had existed for centuries. Colonial administration might have been more efficient if the colonizing powers had co-opted the existing administration

(2) Compulsory English language education was largely unsuccessful, but it did give rise to the use of Guangxi Pidgin English, which generally incorporates Cantonese and English.

 

[talonschild]

OOC: Lots of good stuff there; I'm really understanding China way better now. Thanks, and well done.

 

[Jehoshua]

indeed, it was comprehensive from the Qing to the present and quite illuminating. kudos.

 

[Lord of Elves]

A Brief History of Scandinavia Part I
"We have become accustomed to inconvenience." - Empress Christine II of Scandinavia​

In 1830 the Swedish Empire was a nation in decline. Victories won at home in Europe and abroad on the high seas against enemies of the House Vasa and the hardworking, God-fearing Protestants of Sweden were turned to stagnation and a crisis of the faith. The aging Gustavus Adolphus had declined further and further from his youth as the "Lion of the North". His senility, potentially insanity, was the rumor of the courts of Europe. In Sweden itself the resources of the state that future regimes would be so keen to muster were being wasted under landholding aristocrats and an increasingly complacent and fat-bellied officer corps that was resting on the laurels of Sweden's historic army. Sweden was in those days still very much an absolutist state, more reminiscent of the Russian Empire than the Workers' Commonwealth. Though its power was significantly tempered by the landed elite and the military, the monarchy insofar as it represented the interests of both groups, ruled unopposed. The state apparatus was in need of reform, but fresh-faced and reform-minded aristocrats were hard to come by in those times. King-Emperor Gustavus began to delegate more authority to the Royal Army, arguably leading to the debacle of the War of the Catholic League. In order to quell rumors of his insanity the face of House Vasa became a network of bureaucrats, courtly officials and army generals.

Portrait of the Last Gustavus Adolphus, the "Lion of the North" painted in his youth, roughly 1785​

Challenges faced by the crumbling and incapable national leadership of the Swedish Empire were multiple. Reform-minded individuals in the empire were increasingly radicalist, republicans with armed revolution in mind. The rising class of landless merchants and businessmen found themselves increasingly aligned with the hotheads and were disillusioned with the foreign wars of the monarchy. Abroad, Swedish power was threatened on multiple sides by the power and influence wielded by the Empire of Holy Spain in Europe and by the expansion of the United States of America. Historic Swedish allies were deserting their allegiances and compacts with the empire, especially in Germany, where allies Brandenburg and Prussia came to blows with each other and Sweden over Swedish control of Pomerania. The Royal Army sought to vouchsafe Swedish power by aligning it more directly against Spain and therefore more directly with would-be competitors Britain and the Netherlands. This resulted in the infamous War of the Catholic League, which was a humiliation for the "Northern Sea Alliance" powers of which Sweden was a member even if it did result in the dissolution of the Catholic League as an international force.

Swedish ships fight the Spanish in the Battle of Manila, a historic defeat for the Royal Navy​

What resulted was a comprehensive scaling back of foreign policy ambitions. The humiliation of the defeat resulted in the fall from grace of the military camp, and briefly more power was given back to the hands of court officials and aristocrats. The army would be given its opportunity to prove itself on the battlefields of Pomerania and Prussia during the First Pomeranian Crisis. In order to secure Swedish power in the Baltic Sweden transferred sovereignty over Pomerania to the weakest of the German states, Prussia, so as to maintain the gratitude of Prussia's rulers to Stockholm. It was hoped that doing so would send a message to neighboring states that loyalty would be rewarded by House Vasa above all else. What happened was of course the opposite, when the last Hohenzollern king of Prussia (or anything, for that matter) used his new-found resources in Pomerania to foster dissent and rebellion in Swedish Livonia. Consequently Swedish-speaking liberals, merchants and businessmen (factions looking for an excuse to escape from servitude to one of the most retrograde kings in Europe), in Pomerania rebelled against Prussia's yoke and appealed for Swedish support. Sweden, in concert with Poland, declared war against Prussia for its betrayal of Sweden's good faith. Pomerania was returned to Sweden, while Poland gained direct access to the Baltic Sea. The last Hohenzollerns were exiled to Normandy.

Swedish-armed Pomeranians rally against the Prussian oppressors​

What followed was a significant recovery of international prestige and self-confidence for the Swedish Empire. The next few years were largely peaceful. Swedish power abroad expanded, if slowly and sometimes in ways that were unexpected, as colonies were founded throughout Africa and settlement of the Vinlandic interior continued. Wars against the natives of Vinland were for the large part inconsequential in the greater scheme of history at this time, as they constituted only minor annoyances to Swedish policy.

Then, the failed liberal revolution. Over the course of these peaceful and prosperous years for the empire, Swedish liberals increasingly felt the bony hand of monarchist oppression upon their backs and were in the middle of the 1830's prepared to reach for freedom. Swedish good fortunes abroad had not been so good as to banish dissent at home, and a republican uprising was timely quashed by the good fortune of death. In 1835, King-Emperor Gustavus Adolphus passed away in his sleep, the victim of a sudden stroke. He was succeeded by his daughter, Christine II, who would become nearly a decade later the Empress of Scandinavia. Christine, who was young, beautiful and above all impressionable. Overnight she became a heroine for her good luck to have succeeded the senile and old-fashioned Gustavus Adolphus.

Portrait painted of the young Christine II as Princess-Imperial of Sweden, shortly before her accession to the throne​

Christine's accession, while temporarily banishing dissent at home, would not vanquish Swedish foes abroad. The Anglo-Swedish relationship had, after Britain bore the brunt of the defeat in the War of the Catholic League, rapidly deteriorated. The international lockstep in which Sweden and Britain had previously been marching was irrevocably broken and with it the religious geopolitical paradigm of Europe. It became of primary concern to the advisers of the new Queen-Empress to acquire access to the markets of east Asian states like the Qing Empire, Siam, Vietnam and Korea. Promises between Sweden and Britain were broken and lines were drawn. Over the course of the 1830's a secret war of ultimatums, manifestos and alliances was fought over access to east Asia. The success of Sweden's quick and easy change of the guard in the royal department was met with the abysmal failure of Swedish foreign policy when Sweden's prospective allies against British power in east Asia, the Netherlands and Spain, deserted Sweden. This betrayal would tarnish relations with both states, but only briefly.

The Second Pomeranian Crisis would occur in the later years of the 1830's, instigated by another former Swedish ally, the Kingdom of Brandenburg. Brandenburg's disloyalty to Sweden's geopolitical patronage would form the basis for the short-lived Northern League between Sweden, the Netherlands and Burgundy. The Northern League would be joined by Denmark, Hanover and Brandenburg before its dissolution. As the 1830's wore on, Brandenburg nursed its wounds regarding Pomerania, and consequently a grudge against Sweden. Increasingly Brandenburg's emissaries in the Swedish court would make overtures to working against Sweden in Pomerania, and in response, Queen-Empress Christina was hastily married to the prince of Poland. This marriage would end poorly later down the road but managed to abate Brandenburg for some time. Records released many years later would reveal that other possible candidates included the kings of Britain and Denmark. In any case, Brandenburg would ultimately demand access to the port of Stettin.

Sweden granted access to Stettin under the condition that Brandenburg would use the port solely as its port of call into the Baltic Sea. What resulted was the mutiny of Hanoverian nobles, whose allegiance to Brandenburg was based around tax income accumulated by traffic of Dutch and Danish merchants through their lands. The Northern League formed between Sweden, the Netherlands and Burgundy originally to reaffirm the Swedish-Dutch alliance and the Netherlands' peaceful relationship with Burgundy became an instrument of power against Brandenburg. Brandenburg was forced to acknowledge the independence of Hanover, and Brandenburg, Hanover and Denmark were all brought into the League before it was quickly dissolved. After its successes in Europe it became clear to Burgundian and Swedish officials that the League had no utility to either power, tying both to potentially-smothering relationships with hostile states. The League faded into history for some time.

The good times could not continue. As the 1840's dawned Sweden entered another period of crisis, specifically, the Union Crisis. Norwegian nationalists began to rally under the banner of an independent Kingdom of Norway, as the idea of Norway as a separate nation emerged from the writings of romanticists and liberal intellectuals in Oslo. A certain Harald was proclaimed the "True King of Norway" and riots erupted throughout Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim.

Norwegian rioters fight police and army at the height of the Union Crisis​

The Union Crisis was only briefly abated by collective outrage against the United States regarding the Bodeborg Incident, where American soldiers slaughtered a settlement of Norwegian colonists in the Vinlandic interior. The riots continued, however, and as the situation became increasingly dire a compromise was met. Queen Christine met with the "True King of Norway" under house arrest in Oslo following major riots. What followed was either the most successful marriage of convenience in history or the most unlikely royal romance in history.

Portrait painted of Empress Christine and Emperor Harald shortly after the Union​

Either way, within weeks, the Union Crisis was resolved by the marriage of the King of Norway to the Queen-Empress of Sweden, resulting in the creation of a new order. The Empire of Scandinavia had been born, and no whining on the part of divorced Polish princes could diminish the effect that would have on northern Europe's history.

The Union flag of the Empire of Scandinavia, flew from the 1840's to the December Coup of 1909​