The Glorious IOTer made althist HOI4 mod thing thread

[Double A]

I give my claims to snek

 

[JohannaK]

Dibs on California and the Pacific Northwest, I guess.

 

[tobiisagoodboy]

Here are the claims for my glorious nations (holy horsehocky Brasil is gigantic)

Green = Empire of Brasi
Red = Ethiopian Empire
Purple = Kingdom of Siam
Grey = ze Kingdom Neukaiserwillhelmland

 

[jackelgull]

Ottoman Empire:
History: Britain intended to use the unfolding Ottoman-Egyptian Crisis to its advantage by forcing the Ottomans to give Britain generous economic concessions, however, when a massacre by Ali Pasha's forces against Christians in Palestine occurred, and the story became a hot topic in British presses provoking strong anti-Egyptian sentiment, Britain's hands became tied. In the end Britain managed to extract limited concessions - tariffs on British textiles were lowered, and British investments were guaranteed by the Ottoman state to be protected, and the Ottomans agreed that all the Greek territory freed from the Egyptians would go to the Greek state. With British aid, the Ottomans managed to drive the Egyptians to the Sinai peninsula. The resulting treaty recognized Egyptian independence, and set its borders.
The treaty of Balta Lima and the ensuing Oriental Crisis marked the beginning of a decade of modernization. Financial investments by British investors poured in, and soon a patchwork of railroads and factories sprouted in the Ottoman Empire. Alot of initial investment went to the Balkan territories in the Ottoman Empire but a fair amount were concentrated in Western Anatolia and Palestine. This helped give rise to a modern financial sector in the Ottoman Empire, as cash waqfs grew in size and importance as secure financial institutions for the lending of money. Also important was the adoption of modern agricultural tools and techniques during this time period - food production in the Palestine alone nearly doubled. Surplus wealth was placed into modernizing the army and by the 1850, the artillery corps was modernized with accuracy and range comparable to their European counterparts. In 1853 the Crimean War occurred over a conflict between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches in the Holy Land, although the real causes of the war as historians like to point out has less to do with religion than it does with Russia's desire for a submissive Ottoman Empire, Britain's desire for uncontested naval power in the Mediterranean Sea and France's desire for prestige under Napolean III.
Russia initially held the advantage because it had mobilized first and was more prepared for the war, but at this time, the Ottoman infrastructure in the Balkans was much better than Russia's and it was able to bring resources there better. And while the Ottoman navy was hardly the equal of the Russian Black Sea navy, it was able to hold its own until the British and French fleets arrived (In this alternate timeline, the Battle of Navarino never happened, and the Ottomans lost a lot of ships but by and large preserved their navy). The Caucus front ends up being aside show to the Balkan front, but the Ottomans manage to defeat the Russians there, making extensive use of Kurdish cavalry.
The Ottomans come out of the war in a bad position - the war has strained their domestic liquid financial reserves and left them in deep foreign debt, with most of these loans to British banks. However, the Ottoman Empire had also gained from the war - the Russian Black Sea navy was neutralized as a threat and the Ottomans Balkan position was secured for the moment. More long term gains though was the relegation of the Ottoman Empire to a useful ally in the minds of the Great Powers of Europe, and the development of a combined arms doctrine for the army.
The post Crimea world would be marked by another shift in alliances. This would be spurred on by the war of words between the French and British press over the Sepoy mutiny which the French criticized the British heavily for. Furthermore, Napoleon III naval building programs was looked upon suspiciously by the British government. Combined with Napolean's Mexican Empire which was threatening to British free trade interests in South America, and the British - French alliance that had won the Crimean war was falling apart. The Ottomans too were changing dance partners in the game of allies, with the British breeding resentment due to their heavy handed methods of debt collection and their unwillingness to compromise in that area. Furthermore, Napolean III saw it vital to its self interest to gain a local counterweight to Austria, thus increasing its diplomatic power in any negotiations with the Austrians. Thus the French began courting the Ottomans by helping it gain economic self sufficiency from the British and backing it in seeking and sometimes outright forcing more lenient terms on its debtors. This created a period of bad relations between the Ottoman and British Empires, and were it not for the series of political crises that rocked Britain in the 1860's leading to the creation of the Tory government in 1868, Ottoman actions may have very well lead to a war.
The Ottoman sultan also received military aid from France in the form of officer training. This would be the beginning of Republican tendencies in the Ottoman military, and the impetus for the 1878 Liberal Revolution. Of course this aid did not come cheap, and France did impose some terms including an effort to making Christians equal subjects of the Ottoman Empire. Under Abdulmecid and Abdulaziz modest reforms in the legal system and the creation of a bureaucratic apparatus to ensure these reforms were carried out occurred.
The 1870's would lead to another shake up of the international order, beginning with a political crisis in the Ottoman Empire. The assassination of Abdulaziz in 1874 by a Balkan nationalist threw the Empire into turmoil as the democratic reformers battled the traditionalists in a game of intrigue to put their respective candidates on the throne. Mehmed Murad V made it on the throne and for a short while it seemed the Democrats had triumphed, but the traditionalists managed to convince his ministers to depose him in favor of Abdul Hamid III. The ensuing political chaos invited Russia to strike and avenge itself for the Crimean war and using the chaos unfolding in the Balkans as rebellions broke out, the Russo-Turkish war was declared in 1877. The Empire was in no shape to fight the war. It had serious political infighting, there had been a drought and famine in the Empire, and resources were stretched thin.To add to that, atrocities committed to put down the revolts in the Balkans made the great Powers hostile to the Empire. To many European observers, it looked like the end of the Empire.
However, the Ottomans proved them wrong with the Empire's usually ability to survive what would spell the end of another nation. They held several advantages - the Ottomans had better arms, imported from France and America, and the Ottoman navy under the leadership of its previous sultans had grown to the fifth largest in the world, while Russia's Black Sea treaty meant its naval presence was limited.
Also, Ottoman High Command correctly predicted that the Russians would march down the Danube and cross the delta, building fortifications there in preparation. Another advantage the Ottoman military had was that it was not the same Ottoman Army that faced the Russians in the Crimean war. Many of the French trained officer believed in the ideals of "Active Defense". The idea that while taking the defensive vis-a-vis Russia was an intelligent plan, it should not lead the army to cede the strategic initiative to the Russians.
The initial Russian advance of 185,000 troops was repulsed bloodily, and Russian high command soon took defensive action because it did not have the reserves to push the offensive. In the end it took nearly half a year for the campaign to progress. Russian progress was further delayed by the siege of Pleven, in which an Ottoman counter attack destroyed the Russian bridge through the Danube and significantly delayed Russian progress. Despite these tactical victories however, it seemed clear the Ottoman would lose this war. Partition seemed inevitable.
In 1878, to gain some desperately needed sympathy from the Great Powers, Abdulhamid III allowed for an Ottoman Parliament, fulfilling some of the wishes of the Democratic faction of his court. The result was an outpouring of sympathy across Europe, and even previously hostile powers were decidedly against partition. Furthermore, Austria-Hungary's alliance with Russia had survived the Crimea war, but Austria was growing alarmed at increasing Russian influence in the Balkans, and realizing that after the Ottoman Empire was gone, they'd be the only obstacle, thus the Austrians amassed an army of 200,000 prepared to intervene in favor of the Ottomans. The Holy League that had upheld the international order after Napoleon Bonaparte was a dead letter.
After the treaty of Paris, the Ottoman Empire loses control of Bosnia and Serbia, with Serbia falling under increasing Austrian influence and Bosnia becoming de facto independent, though nominally a Ottoman Principality. Bulgaria remains an Ottoman possession though the Ottoman State loses Romania to Russian influence and the Russians occupy Southern Besserabia.
The Russo-Turkish war's consequences would be vast and wide reaching. For one thing, France's abandonment of the Ottoman Empire to Russian mercies soured Ottoman opinion's of the French. Furthermore, with Austria abandoning Russia, the French had no more real reason to fear Russia. And so the Franco-Ottoman alliance died a quiet death.
Also, the Parliamentary form of government the Ottomans adopted to invoke intervention by the Great Powers lead to sympathies within Britain. These sympathies were deepened when Abdul Hamid III tried to shut down the parliament, and was forced to abdicate in favor of his more democratically inclined brother in 1880. It was dubbed the Liberal Revolution and drew numerous comparisons to the Glorious Revolution. Trade deals between the Ottomans and the British became popular again. The British was granted a naval base in Cyprus to help them base their fleet and the Ottoman-British alliance was signed.
Furthermore, the ability of the ottomans to hold their own against the Russians lead to renewed respect in the European community - the Ottomans were no longer the Sick Man of Europe. They were not Great Powers the likes of Russia, France and Britain, but they were a great power, similar to Austria.
1878 to 1907 were quiet years on the international front. The Ottomans had the lion's share of influence in Egypt because they owed debt to both France and Britain and neither trusted the other with full control. They made power plays in Iran and tried to hold Libya in their sphere, while backing Great Britain in its Great Game with Russia. The Suez canal became a joint Ottoman-French-British venture, with all sides gaining some sort of concession for its use.
In 1907 Britain declared war on France after a series of escalating hostile words and actions on both sides. The immediate causes of the war was the murder of the French duke by Italian nationalists who had infiltrated high levels of the Italian governments in many French vassals. When the Italian governments refused to allow the French to prosecute the Italian nationalist in foreign courts, the French declared war. This lead to a war declaration by Austria who was backed by Britain. The French drew in the Russians and the British drew in the Ottoman Empire in 1909, after the Ottoman Parliament argued on whether joining the war was a good idea.
The Ottoman Empire began the war with several advantages - its navy was actually in decent shape for a war with France. The Ottoman Empire had the third largest navy in the world after Britain and France. Also while the Ottoman Empire had fewer capital ships than France their armor class was generally higher, and the Empire's lack of a global empire meant that it had more of its forces to bring to bear in the Mediterranean. Furthermore, the Ottoman navy had a competent naval staff which had implemented several key reforms. Still the French fleet was a formidable foe, and its destroyers could bring to bear enough fire power to destroy Ottoman capital ships despite their armor. It was not a foe to be taken lightly. The Ottoman navy could not press its advantages in the early phases of the war. The French navy acting in the Mediterranean had been given the orders to conserve their naval strength and any engagements that happened were small in scale or ended in a few hours after the French managed an orderly retreat. The frustrated Ottoman naval high command thus began acting more aggressively, even when it was unwise to do so, leading to the battle of Sicily, in which an Ottoman fleet chasing a French patrol found itself ambushed in the Strait of Sicily. The actual losses were not catastrophic. The Ottomans lost one capital ship, three light cruisers and seven destroyers. But it was the last time the Ottoman navy had the strategic initiative in the Mediterranean and the rest of the war would be spent trying to keep the French from completing a total blockade.
The war on land was much worse. The post 1880's balkans was an open sore, and by 1907, Macedonia was in open rebellion, Serbia was running the terrorist Black hand organization and destabilizing Ottoman control wherever possible and the region was only under Ottoman control thanks to the five hundred thousand men in the Balkans. It didn't take much Russian arms and money for the Balkans to break into open revolt. The ottoman military did the best it could but with their supply lines increasingly unstable and the psychological pressure of an increasingly hostile civilian population and they gave ground. The front line stabilized in Bulgaria where it remained for much of the war.
The Caucus front was a different story. With Iranian help and Kurdish cavalry, the Russians were unable to move froward and in fact lost alot of ground. This front was also the first test for bi planes in a military capacity. The Ottoman Empire used them to scout the enemy, and their reconnaissance role was essentially to dedicating where resources went to hold the line.
The war was a strain on the Ottoman empire's liquid financial reserves, and even with British help and all the steps the ottomans had taken to increase their financial reserves it might have been unable to prosecute the war to its full conclusion had it not been for Brazilian loans. The great debt the Ottoman Empire owed Brazil lead to the Sao Paulo pact, in which the Ottoman Empire agreed to respect Ethiopian independence and Ethiopia agreed to respect Ottoman influence in Sudan.
The end of the war in 1916 was a bitter pill to swallow. The Ottoman Empire had no diplomatic cards to play in the Balkans and most of the Balkans broke free except for Bulgaria. This would be granted increased autonomous status leading to independence in 1920 after the first elections were set up and held. Ottoman bitterness at the Balkan situation would manifest itself in the utter break up of Russia which had already de facto fractured into multiple states after British and Ottoman arms and money aided rebels. In Arabia, the Ottomans had to agree to grant important Arab chieftains their own state to suppress French funded unrest in the region, and the removal of French influence in Egypt would almost certainly lead to conflict with Britain in Egypt.
To further add insult to injury, the freed Balkan states banded together in a Balkan League to protect their independence from the Ottomans. The only thing the Balkans hated more than each other, it seemed, were the Turks.
The peace deal caused much bitterness at home, and the civilian government gained alot of blame. The conservative party was thoroughly beaten in the polls in favour of the liberals, which lead to an increasing amount of democratic representativeness in the Empire. Property requirements were abolished, districting lines were drawn according to ethnic back ground (not perfectly of course, lines were drawn to over represent Turks, Arabs and Kurds, and under represented other minorities). The war had also been a shot in the arm to the woman's suffrage movement and in 1919, women gained the right to vote.
Foreign policy after the war was divided. There was a strong peace movement, but politicians of all stripes and colors were pro-military. Some would bleat on about the outrageous threat of the Balkan League and use the horrid treatment of Turks by those governments as political clout for a strong military for more mundane interventionist purposes in keeping Egypt and Iran in Ottoman influence and ensuring Ethiopia doesn't break its agreement vis-a-vis Sudan. Others were genuine in their demands for Slavic blood. These would not constitute a particularly influential bunch until 1922, when the national populist party was established by Alim Avcki. A general who fought in the Balkan front, he had become bitter about the local hostility. His unit had been accused of committing atrocities in Macedonia, but after the war he became a war hero and the Ottoman government refused to allow Macedonia to try him.
His manifesto was quite clear about his intentions. He wrote about how there can be no peace between the Turk and the slav until one is destroyed. In 1924, he was granted a lucky break when the heir to the Ottoman sultanate Abdul Hamid IV read his writings, and decided to help fund the party. This caused quite the stir and the government threatened to take this to court. Alim turned the spectacle to his advantage. He accused the government of trying to silence a veteran's voice and how during the war the government had done all it could to fail its soldiers and now after the war it was doing all it could to fail them too. This appeal increased his popularity, and the legislature backed down. By 1927 his support had increased to 12% of the seats in the legislature. The national populists might have remained minor players in the government, held together by the charisma of their leader Alim and the public's approval of his showboating, until the 1930's Depression hit the Ottoman Empire hard, since it was one of Great Britain's largest trading partners. The disaster nearly destroyed trust in the legislature. Furthermore since 1916 the legislature had basically just - ceased to function. The liberal majority fell apart soon after it managed to form, croaking after its two big aims were accomplished - enfranchising all men (over the age of 21) and women(over the age of 25), and a fairer redistricting. On the rest of the issues the Liberals were an incoherent mess, and the coalition was defeated by the conservative coalition in 1924. The conservative coalition however, could not provide much unity of purpose beyond increasing the navy's budget for power projection in the Red Sea and free trade with Britain and South America. They might have squeaked through had it not been for a series of scandals that rocked some very important members before the election, giving the liberals a narrow win after some defections from the conservatives. The 1928 to 1932 coalition was much more stable. It could agree broadly to free trade, interventionism and some kind of concessions to the growing power of unions in order to steer them away from socialism and social liberalism. The penalty for homosexuality was lessened though not decriminalized, unions were made legal, and the experience of the Ottoman Empire is putting down the Asyut rebellion in Egypt helped develop tank doctrine and a theory of mobile warfare, while the potential of aircraft was discovered in propping up the shah against a tribal revolt. However, in the last year of the liberal coalition, Kurdish coal miners went on strike. The government tried desperately negotiating for a year as electricity prices steepened. The strike made the government look weak and introduced fears of creeping communism. When the government finally moved to put the strike down, the resulting images of Turkish military shooting Kurdish coal miners awakened the Kurdish ire and the liberals lost ground in Kurdish majority districts. The 1932 liberal coalition barely squeaked by when the British economic downturn affected Turkish markets. The resulting economic crisis lead to a swelling of National populist support, who would spend 1932-1936 blaming Armenian bankers for the problems and quietly plotting for a chance to seize power in the 1936 elections.
Politics: Democrat Party (Nationalist)

 

[KaiserElectric]

戊
Wu China​

After the humiliating defeat of the Opium Wars, the Qing Dynasty was in dire straits. The failure of the reigning Manchu government to prosecute a war combined with crop failures and a series of natural disasters painted the Manchus as corrupt and ineffective in the eyes of native Han Chinese, especially the Hakka in Southern China who had suffered greatly from a stagnating agricultural sector combined with a massive population increase. Court officials began distancing themselves from the ailing Daoguang Emperor, who became increasingly fierce in his suppression of dissent to quell rumors that the Qing had lost the Mandate of Heaven.

Tensions finally snapped in 1855 when the Yellow River burst its banks, devastating the province of Jiangsu and drowning thousands. Enraged at the inability of the Qing to protect its citizens and the government's attempts to ask European powers for help dealing with the crisis, a group known as the Nian movement, led by a wealthy landlord and salt smuggler Zhang Lexing, finally revolted against the Qing dynasty. Capitalizing on the Qing armies being stationed in the South, the Nian overtook large tracts of land in the North before the government could mount a response to the uprising. Fighting went back and forth for a year, but the tide turned when the Nian won a decisive battle in Hunan, crushing the Ever Victorious Army and capturing the enemy General Sengge Rinchen. This victory inspired the Hakka to rise up in support of the Nian rebels, and by the end of the next year the Nian armies had marched on Beijing, violently deposing the ruling Manchus and ejecting them from China. Zhang Lexing claimed victory against the wicked Qing and announced that the Mandate of Heaven had fallen to him, the new emperor of China. Taking the name of Nezha, the new emperor formally declared the beginning of the Wu Dynasty in 1856.

The immediate priority of the Wu, as Nezha declared at the moment of victory, was to 'right the wrongs inflicted on China by the barbarians', referring to both the Manchu and the Western powers. This led to what has been called the Year of Iron, the dynamic first year of the Wu Dynasty that saw massive government programs aimed at correcting the ailments that faced China, including infrastructure repair, famine control, and the dismantlement of ethnic restrictions established by the Qing. The mild success of the first year led to further dynamic government programs, including a modernization program that expanded on the new techniques and technology employed by the Ever Victorious Army of the Qing era. By the time of the Nezha emperor's passing and the ascension of his son as the new Emperor, Wu China had returned to a position of regional power, not strong enough to challenge European hegemony as the Ming once did, but strong enough to resist it and establish some semblance of control of the region.

(to be very continued)

 

[Tsar Max]

My claims:
Ukraine-caucasus
hungary-slovakia-transylvania
whats left of poland
czech republic
bulgaria-northern greece-macedonia-little bit of romania
Latvia-Lithuania

 

[JohannaK]

Who are you?

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

Anyone actually know what became of this?

 

[JohannaK]

Approximately nothing.

 

[Omega124]

Anyone actually know what became of this?

Cived made a discord based on the project, got a bunch of people somewhat involved in the project- both in and out of IOT, and then eventually abandoned work on it after initially getting involved with Red World before moving on to other pastures. There was more completed than "approximately nothing", but it was never much more than an extremely barebones alpha and a bunch of design documents. I still have access to the discord if you're looking for anything in specific.

At this point, she is working on a new mod idea, entirely by herself, based on a pod in the thousands BC. I forgot the exact details, but it naturally creates a world wholly unrecognizable to us in terms of cultures present, let alone ideologies. She has been sharing me small snippets of portraits she made and in-game screenshots for the past year or so.

 

[Terran Empress]

She has also been sharing with me snippets and whatnot, and its really interesting actually, I do like the concept, but I also bet its a lot of work.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

Yeah, I was allegedly part of the coding team and I have whatever version was posted to the chat. Correspondence just abruptly stopped and I wondered if they'd moved and hadn't told me.

 

[Double A]

til cived's trans

 

[JohannaK]

Me too.

 

[Terran Empress]

Yeah, she didn't realize until after leaving IOT... I feel a little bad about outing her tbh.

 

[Double A]

if anyone's a transphobe and still here they are very noncommittal about it

 

[Omega124]

You didn't out her, ter. I've said she was trans on chat numerous times before I sent that message. The "TIL" people either missed the numerous messages or forgot.