TLKNES: Belle Epoque

From USA

Very well. Let us hope that peace can come to the Patagonia region. And if that fails, let us hope that the conflict remains localized and does not intensify to a full-blown war.

 

Great update TLK. More diplomacy to come later, but for now:

To: The United States
From: The Russian Empire

Your insults to our honor are forgiven, but do not think we will soon forget your dishonorable lies and tactics. We thought that the United States was above such nonsense. We were wrong, I see that now.

 

Stats should be up. Answering PMs and working on the front page now.

 

AMERICA

 

Hey,

The Korean Game of Baseball.

The boundary of the baseball field could be defined by the crowd of families that sat at the edge of the foul lines. Colorful silk covered the outfield fence.

Four men sat on a man made hill overlooking the field behind the home team. Seperated from the crowd by a fence. Korean and American bodyguards eyeing the crowd and each other. The men's chairs were lined up in a shallow semicircle on a low wooden porch. Above and behind them was a large silk & canvas pavilion to keep them in the shade.

John Finley watched the baseball game with the intensity of a cat ready to pounce. To him it was a personal war between two men and only one would be victorious. The pitcher and batter locked simple combat. Contests like these had won him a lot of money.

"Strike One!" The crowd voiced the call in a single very loud. "Strike One!"

John Finley's face twisted and a groan escaped his lips with the call. He leaned back in his chair to address the Minister. "The money can be raised if we had the manpower." John Finley was new to Korea. A banking genius from New England.

​

"Take that you little yellow bastard!" Jackson "Fireball" Floyd, star pitcher of the professional Gulf Coast Tides of Biloxi yelled as he received the ball from his catcher. The team was touring Korea on what was called a "diplomatic mission". Spreading good will and baseball to the world. Here in Korea it meant major dealings. Taking the ball from his glove he tucked the glove under his arm. All the while keeping a eye on the runner at third base. Floyd worked his chew into a juicy mass and spat a good amount of tobacco juice on the ball. He worked it in a little and rubbed his glove hand on his heavy uniform. He put on his glove and returned to the mound.

"The time the Emperor has asked us to complete the rail lines is beyond anyone's toil." Said a man wearing the suit of a US gentleman farmer with what was called a deep southern draw. "Herckules himself could not finish such a task."

"Would a large increase of slave labor help in this matter?" Minister Ni Sin said shifting his large form to better talk to Finley. "I have the support of the King for the Iron Rails Act."

"Strike Two." Once again just as every other time the crowd roared the call. "Strike Two!"

"I don't like the idea of using slave labor." Said John Finley, again with a contorted face. "Damn you sir, I missed the pitch." He turned back to watch the game. "The Korean people are trying to make a new future. One of freedom and luxury. Besides. Those poor souls will not meet the numbers we would need."

​

The Korean batter Hyo Jae Seul stepped back to clean the mud from his cleats. The young man had come a long way to be here. Land reform had lost the family its land and they were forced to Hanseong to find work. Work was in abundance at the newly built dangerous and deadly factories. He learned his style of baseball from the rough and offen violent American sailors stationed in the capital. Word spread of his ability and he was awarded with a contract of 45 Goldbacked Imperials. He was now rich and a star for the The Korean Empires.

"Hurry up oriental" Yelled the American umpire at Hyo Jae Seul.

"I do not like the idea of slaves either." Collis Potter Huntington said taking the Cuban cigar from his mouth. He was a Californian railroading genius. and very greedy. "But using the petty criminals is not really using slaves. They are paid and will have the good Chief Hollymede's promised doctors tend to their medical needs." Collis leaned over and elbowed Ni Sin in his fat side. "The money gets my train a rolling." He laughed at his own joke.

"The remaining manpower needed for this venture will be supplied by my slaves." Major Clintus P. Ewell, one of the largest Slave Merchants in the United States, caught his words. "Excuse me gentlemen my foe pah?" He tipped his hat. "My property will fill the remaining needs. Plus the Chief at the Sun has given us the pleasure of his new doctors for all medical needs for them." He leaned forward Finley. "That is three votes to one and its over."

"Strike Three!" This time the crowd finished with "OUT!"

​

"No Major Ewell and friends." John Finley stood and stepped from the porch into the sun. "Its looks like extra innings."



Blaze Injun

OOC I wrote this Twice. The first and truthfully better one was lost earlier. This is fragments from memory. And it was my idea about baseball.

 

We must strongly and firmly request that the United States Immediately withdraws its forces from Patagonia.

No peace is possible except the final offer given to Chile as well as reparations for their crimes against peace and security in the region.

Further attempts by the United States to peddle falsehood and disunity among the European community will be viewed harshely by the United Kingdom.

 

​

General Ma Xinyi (馬新&#36029, one of the most able Chinese military commanders, has been appointed Commander in Chief who Pacifies the Island Barbarians (总司令谁的安抚岛夷 - Zǒng sīlìng shuí de ānfǔ dǎo yí). Ma Xinyi was one of the most trusted and able lieutenants of Supreme Commander Li Bu Bai, and this is one of the main reasons why he has been given a so important command at the (relative) young age of 38. His mission will be to pacify the Barbarians in New Guinea and expand the colonial influence of China.

China is now taking it's place among the great powers of the world and has become a colonial nation. Although it faces many problems, it's huge land and even huger population makes it a formidable nation. Ma Xinyi is the face of China in the Pacific and will have to work hard to maintain and expand the Chinese colonies. Of course, Ma Xinyi will strive to achieve this goal without antagonizing our European partners, who are friends of China.

​

Meanwhile, the Taoist Priest Yang Li, has been appointed Minister of War and he and Commander Li Bu Bai shall make sure that any anti-opium movement is crushed. Yang Li will visit himself the coastal cities in which the workers went to strike and shall slay the ones who led the workers to do this despicable act. No one will be spared.

Emperor Guangxu, commenting on the recent anti-opium movement, has ordered local governors to say to those who complain that if you do not want opium, do not buy it. Those who want it, buy it. Those who do not want it, are free not to buy it.

 

Happy belated Canada day!

Hey!

And yeah, the baseball thing was Blaze Injun's. I make no claims to creativity.

 

To: the Transvaal Republic
From: the United Kingdom

While we are willing, in the interests of peace, to recognise the Republic's current gains, any further expansion into territory mandated by the Treaty of Genoa as British will be considered an act of grave hostility by the United Kingdom and will result in grave consequences for Transvaal.

@TLK: if the cruiser design I came up with didn't end up happening, then the money I spent on the cruisers should have been banked, right? Should I have 60EP more in my bank?

 

Excerpts from A History of New Zion

Cohen, A., Strauss, R., Oxford University Press, 1982

... the first Zionist Congress voted strongly in favour of accepting the British offer of settlement, with the backbone of the vote coming from the delegation from Eastern Europe and Russia. Despite Theodore Herzl, considered by many of the delegates as the founder of the Zionist movement, speaking against the proposal, the Congress awaited further offers from the British government of settlement...

... In 1883, the British government formally set aside the Kimberleys as exclusive to Jewish settlement, offering up land grants to Jewish settlers from around the world. The Second Zionist Congress voted overwhelmingly to accept the offer, with several delegates gaining land grants on the spot and preparing to immigrate. Another 3000 British jews accepted the offer over the first year alone, and arrived in the new Colony of New Zion in 1883. In an effort to encourage settlement and protect the Jews of Eastern Europe, the British government sent a group of employees of the British New Zion Board to Poland and Russia, in an attempt to convince Jews at risk in Eastern Europe to immigrate. At first, the New Zion Board found many Jews skeptical, and several had difficulties communicating - most Board employees did not speak Yiddish, and the Jews of the shtetl frequently had poor Russian or Polish language skills, but in the first three months of 1883 591 Jews took land grants.

Land grant uptake did not pick up until mid-year. The catalyst was the now famous Militsev Pogrom. One of the Board employees, one Thomas Price, arrived at the city of Militsev, near Poltava in Russia, on the 24th of May. Initially, the response was frosty - the local Jews thought that Price was attempting to scam them and though word of the New Zion settlement had reached them, they were suspicious of his attempt and some thought it was merely a British attempt at setting up a new Jewish Pale. However, it was during this time that a Ukrainian girl from the nearbuy town of Kremlik went missing. The Ukrainians blamed the Jews, and in what was considered at the time a typical pogrom, descended on the town and burned it to the ground, resulting in the deaths of 6 people, of which 3 were women and 2 were children. In the aftermath of the Militsev Pogrom, the entirety of Militsev, nearly 3000 people in all, took the Land Grants and moved to New Zion. Among the new immigrants were Roman Levi, who became one of the most successful cattle farmers in the region in later years and will be discussed later in the book, an infant Avraham Stern, future Governor of New Zion...

... The very first migrants to New Zion were pastorialists, who accepted the British Governments land grants and purchased cattle from the local European settlers and from the East. Many families collaborated, pooling their funds together to purchase a herd of sheep or cattle and combining their land grants to form large open-field cattle-stations where all the families lived and worked. Among the early stations were those founded by extremely religious communities such as the Hasidim. Many of these stations have since grown into towns, such as the town of Nowy Krakow, which started as a cattle-station for Hasidic Jews from Poland and later expanded to become New Zion's largest entirely Hasidic town. Other Jewish settlers were early socialists, and attempted to use their cattle-stations and land grants to form their vision of socialist cooperatives. These 'Kibbutzim', as they were known, began to spring up in the interior and many still survive in this form until today...

... When more settlers began moving into New Zion, larger towns began springing up. The largest of these became Roebuck Bay, which prior to the Jewish Homeland Act was a small town largely composed of East-Asian pearl divers. Roebuck Bay became the departure point for most immigrants to New Zion, and a great many stayed. The town became a significant port, and is to this day the largest in the region. Roebuck Bay also swiftly became home to the first synagogue in New Zion, which still stands as the Roebuck Bay Central Synagogue, though it has been remodelled and expanded greatly several times. Initially, some conflicts did erupt between local Anglo settlers, who considered the Jewish immigrants to be interlopers, but these largely quieted down as the sparsely settled Anglo-communities rapidly became the minority. The town of Port Keats, however, attempted to expel the Jewish settlers to the region in a contravention of the Jewish Homeland Act, which prompted the Governor of New Zion, Paul Kennings, to deploy a small squadron of volunteer officers to the town. The resulting 'Battle of Port Keats', fought between a Jewish militia of 36 and the town's militia of 28, caused two deaths before the people of Port Keats aquiesced to the Governor's authority and stood down. There was to be no repercussions to the instigators of the Battle, though the ringleaders saw the writing on the wall and moved to Sydney.

The lack of consequences for the anti-semites of Port Keats stands in strong contrast to treatment of Indigenous Australians who resisted Jewish settlement. The Aboriginal Australians who lived in region were not consulted during the program of land grants, and were thus treated as a non-entity by the Board - Board advertising referred to the region as 'uninhabited' and neglected to mention the presence of Indigenous peoples at all. The result was that Jewish settlers found themselves in conflict with Indigenous groups frequently as they attempted to stake out their land grants. With early New Zion being sparsely settled and the great distances involved, the settlers found themselves relying on themselves for defence and policing. There were many low-burning wars of raid and counter-raid carried out by the early settlers of New Zion, who formed posses of armed men to variously drive out Indigenous Australians or defend themselves. The religious communities were particularly guilty of this, and were in the end able to drive out Indigenous Australians from the region. Most Indigenous Australians were killed or fled to the rest of Australia, however, some secular communities were able to live in peace or even intermarry - particularly notable is the town of Chayyim, where a great many Indigenous peoples from the local group converted to Judaism and took up residence in the nascent town. However, peaceful coexistence was not the norm. Other Jewish settlements allowed actual authority to make rulings on the rights of Indigenous peoples on settler land - Kennings ruled in favour of the Jews in every single case, and the Indigenous peoples were driven off into the rest of Australia...

 

Hey all, my 4th of July festivities got a little intense, so I haven't been around the past two days really. I fully intend to start being active again sometime tonight or tomorrow, and I'll respond to all the PMs I got and whatever else around then.

I'd like to set the deadline for this Thursday.

 

OOC: Ah, I see you've added issues to the stats (just looked at them now). Nice touch, it looks like it'll be useful. By the way, it's capital for the seat of the government of a country, not capitol as you've written in the stats.

 

From: The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
To: The French Empire, the Austrian Empire
CC: Padania

The assassination of our beloved King is obviously due to the barbaric Italian nationalists that Padania has been playing host to for so long. We demand answers from them, and support from you all.

Bulgaria announces it's intent to help the Greeks against the Turks in the Balkans.
Paraguay announces it's intent to annex the northern half of Sul.

I have officially updated the front page for real this time.

Welcome all you new players, please PM me with any questions you have, or talk to other players. You are tentatively the nation's you requested, though if you don't send in orders, you give up your spot.

 

The Treaty of Omsk

• The Persian Empire and the Russian Empire agree to end hostilities.
• An independent Kurdish State shall be created, and will be under Russian protection in perpetuity
• The Persian Empire agrees to cede the lands labeled on the map.
• The Persian Empire agrees to give the Russo-Persian Petroleum Company sole production rights in Persia
• The Persian and Russian Empires agree to a 25 year non-aggression pact

Signed, Tsar Alexander II, Emperor, and Autocrat of All of The Russias

 

Hey,


The Dreams of Fish and Men.

"Let us not make this harder then it needs to be." Ambassador Gi Seok Joo said stepping from the train followed by his three bodyguards. He turned back to a young man left on the train. "Officer Woo." The man dressed in a Korean naval uniform leaned from the large open window of the private rail car. "Travel on to New Haven and make sure the ships are ready to move. A telegram will be waiting with further instructions."

"Yes. Ambassador. The ships will be ready one way or another." The man retreated and closed the window.

The Ambassador then focused his attention on the first bodyguard. "Go straight to the Irish. Show Mr. O'Connor whats in the box and set up a time for trading the rest of the property." The guard showed the box from under a long coat. "He will be in a hurry to sell but will try to up the selling price." The Ambassabor rubbed his eyes. "So agree to most of his demands short of declaring war." He smiled at what O'Connor was trying to do. "No mistakes or misunderstandings in this deal."

"Yes Ambassador." Said the man pulling up his collar and disappeared into the crowd as best as a Korean could do in New England.

"We have a meeting to attend." He turned checking the time on a large clock above the train station platform. 2:43. "And Holland is not the type of person to waste time."


The Dreams of Fish and Men.
Part II:

At the Irish.
"You stupid fools!" Yelled the Korean bodyguard finding his self laying on his back in the muddy filth of the street. He sat up. "I am Korean!"

"Japanese? Korean?" The Irish thugs pointed his thumb at him. "Don't makes no difference. You all be British lapdogs!"

"The Ambassador has acted in good faith with your organization Mr. O'Connor. He will not be pleased at your actions." The bodyguard stood backing up to gain distance.

"I don't give a hoot what your boss thinks!" O'Connor pulled a small revolver from his suits waist pocket. "I'll keep the money and the ships. Tell Holland he'll never get the ships." O'Connor raised the gun and fired into the air. "Never!"

The bodyguard turned and ran until he was out of the crazy Irishman's sight. "Plan B as the yankees say." The plan was to buy a new suit and make his way to Holland's research shed at the harbor. There he would inform Ambassador Gi Seok Joo that the Irish were going to be a obstacle to their venture.


Holland Meeting
"I assure you Mr. Holland." Ambassador Gi Seok Joo said walking the worn planks of the floating covered dock. More then a dock. A floating research and shipbuilding dock. Steampowered even. "I did not come here to fail in hiring you."

"You give me all that I ask for and I will go to Korea with you." The old man took his monocle from his eye and cleaned it with a rug from his tool and paper covered desk. "I will be financed and left alone to design and build my own designs."

"Agreed!" Yelled Gi Seok Joo, now at the far end of the building were the doors were open to the river. "Investors are ready to invest without any attachments to your creativity."

"You will get my ships from those Irish Hooligans." Holland replaced his monocle and stroked his mustache "And my new workshops?"

"As we speak a deal is being made to purchase the two ships." The Ambassador took a deep breath and looked up and down the river. "The area for your Korean workshop is ten times that of what you can see from here. Any building or machine needed will be yours for the asking."


New Haven
"As my gun boss would have said, M'moma'a buskits with gravry." Said Officer Woo as he walked around the boat shed. He had made his way from the train station to the river were the Irish had Holland's ships. The huge shed held both ships and he had stood amazed at the iron beasts. He examined unhindered the strange ships. The Irish had not placed guards around because no one other then Holland could operate the machines. "How are we going to get this to Korea?"


Blaze Injun

 

To Paraguay
From Secretary of State James Ewell Brown Stuart, of the United States of America

By what rights do you make claims upon Sul?


To Paraguay
From Secretary of War Longstreet, of the United States of America

Bully! Bully i say!


.

 

In the three previous years, we have seen a suprising phenemenon in the East Asian economies of Japan and Korea.

Powered by large reforms and massive foreign investments, their economies and industries have displayed growth rates never seen before.

The total output of Korean industry nearly doubled in these years but perhaps the most spectacular leap forwaps was that of Japan, that saw its industry and trade grow by 35% in the single year of 1881.

These spectacular growth rates can be explaines firstly by the sudden and total reforms and opening to the world of these nations, and the large influx of British and American money that this brought about, the cheaper cost of east Asian labor comparatively to their Western counterparts and the large sums that the governments inversted in their own industry. Japan has also been able to take advantage of Western appetite for East asian luxuries, making a industry out of the traditionnal crafts of silk and porcelain.

Though these growth rates can and wil not be sustained because of the exceptionnal conditions that created them, East Asia has brought about huge changes to its economy. If Japan and Korea are able to cope with their internal problems with the conservative crowd, the could very well compete economical with the West quicker than anyone would have thought.

-Front page of the Economist International-

 

This is the 48 Hour Warning

I'm not going to be as lenient on late submissions as I was last time. Get everything in order, I want to try to get a quick update out.

 

To Paraguay
From Brazil

As these are former Brazilian territories, you have absolutely no right to them. Rescind your claim and nothing more need come of this.

 

From: Paraguay
To: Brazil

Focus on one war at a time. As you said, the territories are former Brazilian lands, currently a part of the Republic of Sul, a nation that has antagonized and attacked us. We will not back down.