Dimension 398 or How a Few Bacteria Changed the Course of History
- Thread starter Beedok
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The Great Egyptian Revolt
(Oea 1922)
(Oea 1922)
As the war wore on the Ottomans tried desperately to gain French support, however the suppression of Spanish rebellion took up all of France’s attention, forcing them to leave their eastern allies to fend for themselves. With Egypt in rebellion Libya was cut off by land, and the Roman Navy was gradually gaining superiority over the Ottomans, making it difficult for them to support their forces. By the end of 1857 Libya’s coast was entirely under Roman control, though a few rebellious tribes held out in the interior it was not considered a pressing issue. The fight for Egypt proper proved more difficult though, due in part to the success that the Ottomans had had in replacing the more rebellious populations with loyal citizens through previous deportations, as well as the fact that a land route did exist for the Ottomans, even if it was no the greatest one. The fighting in Egypt raged relatively indecisively for a bit over a year before the Romans reasoned a new tactic was needed. Gathering a significant portion of their fleet they launched a naval raid on the Dardanelles. The Ottomans were thrown into a panic, and while they did manage to fight off the Romans the strategic victory still went to the Romans who lost a smaller portion of their overall fleet, if a greater number of ships overall. With their coastline now in jeopardy the Ottomans grudgingly accepted a East British offer to mediate a peace treaty.
In the end the Ottomans were forced to cede all their African possessions, though all inhabitants of those lands who wished to stay in the Empire were to be given free transit by the Romans, and the religious freedoms of the African Muslims were to be respected by Roman authorities.
A Political Overview of the 19th Century
(Mumbay[1] 1987)
(Mumbay[1] 1987)
Many of the world’s major issues today stem from political ideologies that were forged during the 19th Century[2]. If we are to understand the issues of today we must therefore look at history and where they came from. We shall provide introductions to various ideologies before [. . .]
Rationalist[3] Movements:
Standard rationalism is based off a few simple things: all people are born equals; all people can attain greatness given the chance; and an orderly well governed society is the best way to let people reach their full potential. Karl Hilfère/Hilferding’s thoughts were of course based off of how the social mobility available in the New World helped to make people happier, and how the Amerindian peoples’ societies compared to Old World ones, and how they still seemed to seek out Old World technology to make their lives easier. The Rationalist therefore holds that scientific progress is key, and inherently good, and that any individual should have the option to succeed. While the latter has had an undeniably positive effect, the former has been mixed at best due to over enthusiasm for under tested technologies from time to time. As with any ideology there are subsects, and with Rationalism there are many movements considered branches that have had relatively little to do with the base ideology, especially as the dedication to Hilfère’s thoughts waned during the 1800s. Below we shall discuss some of the political parties that emerged in the PRNA, as well as a few efforts to export Rationalism.
The Populist Party: Initially the moderate party, the Populists started off with a view that Hilfère’s ideal society was the goal, but had to come through a slow process of gradual reform. This wound up soon shifting though as linguistic divisions grew starker and the Populists effectively became the Canadien Party. After Bonaparte the Elder’s return to politics the Populist Party was able to return to its roots of being moderates and pragmatists.
The Reform Party: The Reformists started out as dedicated followers of Hilfère’s works, wanting to implement their ideas as quickly as possible. They found themselves the official Yankee party during the period of linguistic tension, but returned to their initial stance of dedicated Rationalism once Bonaparte the Elder rebalanced the nation. They soon found themselves outflanked on the left by the Progress Party, and wound up moving to a more pragmatic approach. Once Castor Bonaparte was elected the Reform and Populist Parties found themselves both heavily weakened and agreeing on most things, and in 1862 the parties merged to form the Popular Reform Party.
The Progress Party: Moving into politics due to the way the Reform Party had begun to lose distinction from the Populist Party in the eyes of many, the Progress Party took up a mixture of Hilfèrian Rationalism and various other progressive movements that had emerged since. The Progress Party based its support heavily on Feminists and immigrants, saying that Hilfère had said everyone deserves an equal chance, and that that included both women and new arrivals forced to flee what they felt were classist reactionary regimes of the old world.
Bonapartism: While there have been four “Bonapartist” presidents[4] for the PRNA, and Bonaparte the Younger and Bonaparte the Elder held somewhat different views, as did the other two Bonapartists, these four presidents still fit together more than they fit with any of the other parties, even if they did ally themselves closely to the Progress Party. Bonapartist Rationalism was certainly more militant than it’s Hilfèrian counterpart, and perhaps even more pro-active. Bonaparte the Elder was certainly quite close to Hilfère, while the Younger was heavily influenced by Equalism, as were his successors, and thus made significant efforts to destroy old class distinctions, trying to weed out what were seen as reactionary forces. However the Bonapartists were also skilled at making it appear that they were giving their opponents benefits when they in fact were not.
European Rationalists: The Rationalist movement in France suffered early on due to it’s republican tendencies resulting in it being heavily monitored by the RSS, however they soon adapted to the environment and gradually shifted from their roots to simply being technology enthusiasts, though many secretly continued to hope that if technology progressed the old reactionary regimes would not be able to adapt and would falter. Moravia and Hungary, despite being enemies, were the two locations where Rationalism could flourish in its more natural form due to both these nations being republics. However Moravia was largely under the ‘protection’ of Prussia and therefore their own internal affairs made little difference. Hungary on the other hand was swept up in nationalism and managed to warp many ideologies into nationalistic offshoots, with things like a belief that everyone was capable of greatness, but Hungarians were more capable. The Hungarian nationalists did adopt the Rationalist love for technology and a disciplined permanent army, but ignored the views of the importance of ethics and morality.
Libertism:
Unlike how Rationalism broke into many schools of thought Libertism was simply vague enough that it could be seen a general guiding principle. Rousseau had more or less simply felt that freedom and liberty were clearly key to one’s life, though he did feel that some connection to nature was beneficial. Following Rousseau’s death some differences on whether total anarchy was what he meant by freedom and liberty, or if simply a functional democracy was enough emerged, and these would form the main basis of political divisions in the Liberal Republics of the Americas.
Preferentialist Libertism: While regular Social Preferentialism was seen as something that involved government infringement on the rights of the individual a school of Libertists did adopt a somewhat unique interpretation of it. Felix Canabal saw the ideals of artificial preferntialism as a foolhardy effort to outdo nature, feeling that breeding a bigger cow was far easier of a task than breeding a better person, because, he asked, “does anyone truly know what a better person is?”.
Rejecting the idea that artificial guidance could lead to proper improvement Canabal instead reasoned that “if the rules of the jungle turned a monkey into a man, just imagine what it could do with a man”, and began advocating that the liberty and freedom that Rousseau had seen humanity craves was the wish to return to the freedom of the jungle where might made right and only the strongest would pass on their genes, strengthening the species. Following the LRA’s victory over the PRNA in the Second North American War Preferentialist Libertism grew reasonably popular amongst those who saw the war as the total defeat of Rationalism by Libertism.
French Political Parties:
National Alliance Party: The PAN (Parti d’Allience National) was a fairly interesting party. It was run by conservative monarchists, but did everything it could to appear to be appeasers and moderates. It mostly maintained power through use of the RSS and other law enforcement being used to break up any true opposition as well as the almost farcical position of the Royal Loyalty Party that opposed them. The PAN stood only for trying to avoid revolt and keep control, being willing to do anything to maintain this.
Royal Loyalty Party: This party stood for effectively nothing but insulting the lower classes. They were popular with the more full of themselves parts of the nobility, who, due to the high property requirements needed to vote, had disproportionate power. The Royal Loyalty Party was only allowed to exist as the PAN did not see it as a threat, and it provide a nice counterbalance to make the PAN seem more progressive than they were. The PLR called for the abolishment of the National Assembly and return to absolute monarchy. Despite this utter disregard for logic they did in fact end up in power following the NAP’s rather poor handling of the 1839 Rebellions, and once in power they abandoned their calls to abolish the National Assembly, not out of a change in belief, but because they felt that the current King Louis XIX was not conservative enough. The fact that they managed to hold on to power for a second term was something of a surprise, but their beliefs on stopping revolution through war sounded good in principle, but when actually attempted turned to something of a disaster. After being almost completely destroyed in the 1857 elections the PLR chose to return to their roots of mocking the institution of the Nation Assembly by having their members show up drunk or unclothed or in similar levels of unprofessional-ness.
The Riflers:
The Riflers perhaps do not truly belong in a conversation of political movements, as they were not ideological in any significant manner, merely being a group of people who initially wanted Japan to modernise with the Emperor returned to importance, and soon simply becoming a oligarchy that ruled the Japanese Empire with an iron fist. The Riflers were in some ways fairly Rationalist in that they were open to most technologies and were not above accepting individuals from any family into their membership, but they were in many ways more similar to the Hungarian Republic’s general outlook than anyone in the PRNA.
[1] Not a typo, that’s how they spell it here.
[2] Forged does not mean founded, it is easily arguable that the 19th century had a greater effect upon ideologies of the 18th century than the 18th century did due to the massive movements of people and increase in the availability of education resulting in fresh takes on the existing schools of though.
[3] It would seem that our previous translations of ‘Communitarianism’ were actually incorrect. Quite embarrassing really. Trying to figure out what caused it and if we’ve had any other errors.
[4] Some argue that Joseph Binkeley was a fifth Bonapartist.
Hm. . . I'll have to research to see if there was a local term for the region. Obviously the Thai would use a Thai term, and the Vietnamese would use the Vietnamese one, though smaller groups might just use either the Thai or Vietnamese one for official purposes.
I read your timeline, and I think it is awesome.
However, I do have questions:
However, I do have questions:
- Was there a POD that made Vietnam huge? Cause the death of Louis XV is not expected to cause this!
- Will the Cinese monarchy eventually be deposed of?
- What will the colonialism of Africa be like?
- What is Spain's relation to France that despite governmental differences they have the same royal family?
- Will Britain be able to at least get some of its glory back?
- Will Japan modernize in this TL?
- Will the Ottomans lose all of their European possessions including Constantinople?
Thank you, I shall try to answer them.
The French were strong in India, the British needed more allies, and the Tay Son were proving pretty effective at fighting, but were in need of a bit of help, so the British gave them support.
Maybe. Plenty of time for anything to happen. Depends what the rest of the world does with China.
Well there's quite a few players, the Dominion of Africa will obviously be much more hands on than European Powers, so there's several ways it goes (and I'm still working out some of them).
Spain is effectively a French puppet by now with all the interventions and restoration efforts. France however is starting to see them as almost more annoying than they're worth.
There are those who hope so, but as long as the French are able they'll keep it from getting too strong.
Well they've gotten somewhat modernised so far, a bit behind Europe, but not too bad.
That would be spoilers my good friend.
Thank you, I shall try to answer them.
The French were strong in India, the British needed more allies, and the Tay Son were proving pretty effective at fighting, but were in need of a bit of help, so the British gave them support.
Maybe. Plenty of time for anything to happen. Depends what the rest of the world does with China.
Well there's quite a few players, the Dominion of Africa will obviously be much more hands on than European Powers, so there's several ways it goes (and I'm still working out some of them).
Spain is effectively a French puppet by now with all the interventions and restoration efforts. France however is starting to see them as almost more annoying than they're worth.
There are those who hope so, but as long as the French are able they'll keep it from getting too strong.
Well they've gotten somewhat modernised so far, a bit behind Europe, but not too bad.
That would be spoilers my good friend.
Yah! Thanks! Can't wait for the next update. What is it going to be about?
And I do have suggestions for what could happen next in the TL. Spain would probably rebel against French influence and might win or lose depending on the situation.
Russia would probably make attempts to regain lost Siberian territory to the Japanese.
Possibly a Crimean War? Zionism?
Possible Franco-Peruvian War?
Well when I last left them the French were in the processing of dealing with another Spanish uprising. Russia does have some revanchism for Siberia, but Central Asia is their new interest for right now. A crimean style conflict might happen, if the French are free the next time Russia and Rome attack the Ottomans, but so far they've been busy. Zionism might yet emerge, but the Dominionists are doing a decent job of trying to get Jewish settlers to their area (both pragmatically seeing whites of any religion as being acceptable and a religious streak having schemes of Judgement day like Cromwell). As for a Franco-Peruvian war, well the Incan Empire is firmly under the Libertists' thumb, but who knows what south america has in store.
I have to say this TL really awesome. Not what I thought it would be at first but still good.
I have questions for the TL is far:
Who is the OTL US in terms of world power status going to be? LRA or the North American republic?
When will the Suez Canal be built?
Is there going to be a Sepoy Mutiny in French India or East Britain?
Who will gain Morocco and/or Libya?
Will there be a world war?
When is the next update?
I know I have lots of questions, but it's good to learn!
Once again, glad you like it. You certainly have a lot of questions, I'll answer the ones that don't give too many spoilers.
Well who said it was an 'or' question. Both have potential: large populations, decent natural ressources, and a sense of common ideology.
Probably rather soon.
If either one had one the other would swoop in, so they very much want to avoid that.
Libya is pinned between "Carthage" and Egypt, so probably the Romans. Morocco, well that's more of a mystery.
There've already been three by their count.
This one I can properly answer. Probably not until late november or mid december. I've got a whole swarm of projects over the next few weeks. (Including one I should probably be working on right now.)
You certainly do. I like discussions, so I'm glad for the questions, and would also be curious as to what people are expecting to happen next.
On a totally unrelated note, when did this thread get like 20 000 more views? Has AH.com really grown that much?
Once again, glad you like it. You certainly have a lot of questions, I'll answer the ones that don't give too many spoilers.
Well who said it was an 'or' question. Both have potential: large populations, decent natural ressources, and a sense of common ideology.
Probably rather soon.
If either one had one the other would swoop in, so they very much want to avoid that.
Libya is pinned between "Carthage" and Egypt, so probably the Romans. Morocco, well that's more of a mystery.
There've already been three by their count.
This one I can properly answer. Probably not until late november or mid december. I've got a whole swarm of projects over the next few weeks. (Including one I should probably be working on right now.)
You certainly do. I like discussions, so I'm glad for the questions, and would also be curious as to what people are expecting to happen next.
On a totally unrelated note, when did this thread get like 20 000 more views? Has AH.com really grown that much?
Hahaha probably the fact you're popularity is growing.
BTW how did the TL get it's name? What TLs did you work on in the past?
I thought that if France managed to beat up Britain and Austria during the First World War Britain and Austria would be too weak to prevent the Franco-Spanish Union Louis XVI should establish. Why did not he do that?
Always wondered if the Indian Ocean might become a "French lake". I mean because the importance of India France would ensure its control, so maybe they would control colonies around the Indian Ocean? I mean they COULD NOT control all lands, but at least enough to ensure this term can be enforced?
I doubt the Stuarts can hold Britain for long. Will they?
How long can the French hold on to Spain?
In one of your recnt maps, a country labeled 1 is labeled a country. What country is that?
The Opekums have formed a new country, right?
Will the North American Republic eventually redeem itself after its loss against the LRA?
Well it is supposed to be within a greater meta-universe. I had Dimension 459 as my first moderately succesful timeline, and have been trying to wrtie the tail of the discovery of Dimension 2, but the battle between dramatics and realism has me at a deadlock.
Louis XVI was working on reforming France, adding Spain wouldn't necessarily help.
Well that is their plan. What the East British have to say about it is another matter though.
A question for the ages.
Depends how much they care.
That would be the Inuit Confederacy. The French gave them guns to annoy the HBC, and they've sort of got some sense of unity, but are more a French declaration than a true nation.
They're working on it.
Time will tell for that as well.
Will a doctrine similar to the Monroe Doctrine will ever be enacted? And if so by which nation?
Will something like the Napoleonic Code ever appear?
If there is unclaimed lands in the Americas, why can't the French get dibs on it?
When will the Russians begin governmental and social modernization?
Have the riches of South Africa been mined yet?
In the "game" for Germany, who will win? France, Prussia, or Saxony?
Will the Habsburgs stay in power for long?
Will the Vietnamese empire hold to all these races for long?
When will the next world war be?
You'll have to wait and see. Some waits will be longer than others. The only one I feel comfortable answering is the Munro Doctorine one. The LRA and PRNA have North America well controlled (apart from Alas(a)ka and the Inuit), while South America has enough of a French presence, along with Brazil/Portugal, to make any efforts to keep others out pretty much dead before they start.