Thats good, ive wondered what was happening in Oceania. If I might make a recomendation. A long time ago i mentioned the kingdom on Tahiti. Maybe they restored the kingdom during the great war?
Of Rajahs and Hornbills: A timeline of Brooke Sarawak
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After a night and day of on-and-off reading, I'm not sure.
From what information that's available, I think the continuation of the Tahiti kingdom (and all its surrounding states) hinges on at least two distinct factors: how were the royals treated under French rule, and whether the British would care for the institution at all.
Under French rule, the Tahitian royal family was entirely sidelined in governing the island and were exempt from all decision-making purposes. With that said, they were given generous pensions and some (like Pōmare V) were even given the Légion d'honneur, indicating at least a mediocrum of respect by their new authorities. While this does preserve the family line, if not their lives, it also makes them - or at least most - somewhat beholden/associated to the French colonial empire. If there was ever a foreign invasion, even by the British, a fair number would rather side with the devil they know, which may end up discrediting the entire royal family.
And speaking of the British, there are two ways in which they could see the royal houses of French Polynesia: as a useful figurehead to which they could indirectly govern (likely), or as a frivolous obstacle that could be done away with for ease of administration (very likely). And the final decision could be influenced by how much the Tahitian royals view the Great War and the British, which ties back to the first factor.
Oh, I just thought of something else: whether the British could even get to Tahiti or Bora-Bora in the first place. Given the paltry navies of Australia and New Zealand, plus the split commitments from managing so many oceanic fronts against French and Italian hit-and-run tactics, there's a good chance they won't even get to Polynesia till the end of the war, or at least for the first few years.
As you're a fan of obscure kingdoms and what ifs. You might be interested in this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Finland_(1918)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Finland_(1918)
July-December 1905: East Asia
Kung Ja-Oak, Through the Fire and Flames: The Birth of Modern Korea, (Gimm-Young, 1979)
….Japan entered the global conflict with four objectives: combat Russian influence; fold Korea under its suzerainty (and thereby enable annexation); obtain Sakhalin; and carve its own exclusive sphere of influence over China.
Only one went ahead as planned.
Besides granting a golden opportunity to kick out Russian meddling in China and Korea, many Japanese ultra-nationalists saw the Great War as a chance to finally place the nation as an equal to the established Powers, and as such, saw a Russian beating and Korean takeover as paramount issues. Several divisions and battleships were quickly sent to capture the northern territory of Sakhalin (now Karafuto), but while the northern campaign was speedily accomplished with relatively few lives lost, the Korean version turned out the exact opposite.
Though Japan’s coveted neighbour was a long way from reaching equal strength, the Korean Empire was far from being idle. The reforms of Empress Myeongseong saw a growing influence of American and European foreigners which has made itself felt across local society, especially from those of Russian origin. The palace nobility employed Russian educators and advisors to instruct them on modernization while military attachés from St. Petersburg became a common sight at Seoul as they trained the newly formed Korean Imperial Army.
So perhaps it shouldn't be too surprising that Japan’s request for Korea’s Russians to return back home was met with outright refusal. While many peasants and townsfolk distrusted the Great Bear for their (correctly) assumed machinations over the peninsula, they still viewed them more highly than the Japanese, whom were instead seen as cantankerous neighbours seeking to dominate the region. This was deepened with the Ok-Gyun murder of 1904, where a Korean court official was publicly assassinated by Japanese agents for his pro-Russian leanings, infuriating both Seoul and St. Petersburg.
Still, when Tokyo fielded nearly 100,000 men to ‘pacify’ the peninsula in the name of ridding “heinous influence that has destabilized Korean order”, many thought the outcome was all but written. Landing at Busan, the troops won battle after battle against inexperienced Korean regiments while their naval counterparts locked down the Korea Strait to prevent Russian naval incursions; despite all the investment and time poured by the Russians, the Korean army was simply outmatched to the battle-hardened Japanese troops and their commanders. By the end of the month, Seoul fell, and the new occupiers immediately placed a puppet government in charge as the imperial court decamped to Pyongyang. To the ultra-nationalists, victory seemed all too easy.
But as the Japanese advanced northwards, they found themselves facing the fury of the peasantry. Seeing the invasion as a repeat of the Imjin War, anti-Japanese resistance groups began waylaying the troops and their supply lines, hampering their advances and forcing them to pacify the countryside. However, the heavy-handed response to the guerrilla fighters did nothing to endear the locals and by mid-September, the peninsula was aflame with opposition against the invading force. The court at Pyongyang declared for all Koreans to oppose the Japanese while several Russian advisors found themselves heading brushfire rebellions or commanding guerrilla cells.
Chief among these were the Righteous Armies, irregular groups of militias formed from local troops, Confucian scholars, village leaders, and peasant farmers. Filling in where established forces retreated, these militias swelled in numbers and strength as they hampered the Japanese in the mountains and fields. Soon, dissent Buddhist monks and even the radical Donghak movement joined in the fight, forming a massive force that began aiding the regular army to defend what was left. The failed Japanese attack on Pyongyang on September 25th proved a triumph of Korean perseverance as much as the seriousness of surrounding guerrilla forces whittling down Japanese operations, and the stall was noted by the imperial court of China whom debated whether to aid their close neighbour.
Realizing that superior strength would not win local hearts and minds, the puppet government at Seoul scrambled at enacting half-hearted reforms. While Japanese nationalists today claim of expediting Korean modernization through legal improvements, land redistribution, economic liberalization, and the insistence of using the hangul script, it was unquestionable that these reforms were originally meant to obtain local support, as well as wresting control from the ancient Korean imperial system and divorce the peasantry from centuries of Chinese influence. That there was some approval from the city folk and peasantry over the reforms was a sign of how incredibly outdated the old government was. That many more still opposed the Japanese showed just how much these laws were seen widely as an imposition.
By early October, the situation was turning desperate. Japan only controlled the southern half of Korea and the Tokyo Diet was becoming anxious over the stalemate. Similarly, the Korean government found itself with insufficient resources to push an offensive. Worse still, winter was approaching. In desperation, Pyongyang requested help from Qing China, placing the court of Emperor Zhangchen in a position of extraordinary importance.
For the Qing, the war arrived at a time when local discord was seemingly in retreat. Just a few years prior, parts of the empire were in open revolt as regional commanders rebelled over the government’s policies of creating a new, unified modern army, which shunted aside the former officers of the formerly semi-independent regional armies. But by 1905, the process was almost complete and almost all those who rebelled were a head shorter. Russian, Prussian, and American advisors were well-underway in shaping up a new imperial force while local factories began to manufacture modern rifles and artillery for the local market. On paper at least, the Chinese seemed firm.
But Japan knew that such facades can be broken. They themselves broke it in 1895, though the conflict inflicted more grinding pain than initially thought. Beneath the surface, tensions were mounting, both from secular and (to the surprise of all) religious forces…
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Dato’ Mustapha Shamsuddin, The flower of Pan-Asianism? Japan’s role in Asian Nationalism, (Surakarta University Press: 1991)
Though the ultra-nationalists in Tokyo knew they were playing with fire, it didn’t stop several of them to house, fund, and arm reformist and revolutionary groups across East and Southeast Asia. By the Great War, the country’s major cities concealed Philippine illustrados, Annamese and Tonkinese lycée graduates, and secular Chinese nationalists, all of which were prime potential to be used to further Japanese ambitions under the guise of liberating fellow Asian nations.
This movement, which would be later known as Pan-Asianism, would be an influential force in the decades to come. But until the Great War, the ultra-nationalists were content to let them build connections amongst themselves and their protectors while surreptitiously promising them with aid to overthrow their governments and help their new nations. With the world now in turmoil, it seemed as if the time has come for them all…
For the Chinese nationalists, their connections and gatherings formed a disparate web of cells, societies, and even triad groups that were scattered all across China and Japan. But in the Final Fifteen Years, this web spread further to encompass much of Southeast Asia and across the Pacific to Hawaii and the American coast. Missionaries, university graduates, rich merchants, and secret societies formed the backbone of this nationalist web, with many threads converging on the port cities of south China. As it was opened to the world much earlier than the north, the cities of Canton, Shanghai, and especially Hong Kong received more of the outside world, and thus, absorbed more of its ideals. Coupled with the Qing court’s watchful eye on the surrounding provinces near Peking, southern China formed a – though dangerous – base and refuge for those wishing to see Qing rule reformed, or overthrown.
And it was this inclusion of reformists and revolutionaries that was the Achilles Heel of the movement. With the Qing court moving to a reformist gear, there were many who espoused for gradual change instead of a radical uprising, and there were many debates in which these groups came to shots and fistfights. Most notably, the republican-based Revive China Society was antagonistic to the reform-royalist Chinese National Movement, with their separate quarters across Southeast Asia becoming the hubs of armed factions which engaged each other in violent incidents.
So when a plot was hatched to provoke an insurrection in the south in October, backed by Japanese funds and weaponry, not everyone was enthusiastic. But as Japan’s advance over Korea stalled into a stalemate, a new force began spin its own webs over China. Only, it was a mystical one…
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Stephanie Wong, Hogwash or Religion? The Crimson Swords under Scrutiny, (The Straits: 2002)
While most worshippers of the Society of Crimson Swords call their sacred text ‘The Edicts of Righteous Living’, most of us call it by its more common name: The Little Red Book.
Whether or not the words are divinely ordained, there is no question that they were a rallying call for a populace reeling from a changing world. Originally penned by the prefectural archivist Li Hong of Shandong Province, the contents therein is a microcosm of the millennialism and mass-anxiety that gripped the Qing Empire during the last fifteen years prior to the Great War. With food insecurity, geopolitical trouncing, internal discord, and foreign influence all awash on the land, it is no surprise that most of the texts espoused a return to a glorious age and an afterlife free of reincarnation if the faithful subscribe to certain acts and prayers.
But it is also these messages that aroused the most controversy among both worshippers and non-believers, as well as religious scholars. While folk beliefs and syncretism are common amongst the mass peasantry, several Crimson Sword edicts are uncannily similar to passages and practices derived from ‘Western faiths’.
This isn’t to say that eastern thought is relegated to the wayside; indeed, the aspect of Confucianism that stresses humaneness and authority is paramount in the Little Red Book – with the caveat that a worshipper’s true obligation is to China itself (Zhungguo) than to the emperor (Huangdi). Unsurprisingly, this tweak is seen by several people – and especially amongst Japanese nationalists – as a corruption of the beliefs of Bakumatsu-era Japanese samurai who saw their nation as sacred, though this is uncertain.
More radical are some of the cosmological and theological groundworks of the Edicts. While the heavenly bureaucracy of mythical China is continued, special authority is given to the Jade Emperor who was re-conceived into that of a great celestial mentor, periodically ordaining select sages and holy men throughout history to improve the character of humanity. Their acceptance – or rejection – by the world is the reason for much of the rise and fall of China’s dynasties itself, with the Mandate of Heaven being applied accordingly. Furthermore, the Edicts profess that each new sage reveals part of the ultimate Truth of Heaven, with the contemporary era being a creation of all their teachings being used – and abused – by the empire and the wider world.
But the most eye-popping texts were those related to war and change. In the eyes of the Crimson Swords, internal and external discord are seen as part of a struggle (Douzhung) by evil forces to alter the state of balance throughout the physical and spiritual world. To combat this on an individual scale, worshippers must conduct daily rituals of purification and prayer for three times a day. Every dawn, noon, and dusk, worshippers must cleanse parts of themselves with water before performing their prayers, which brings some uncanny comparisons with Japanese Shinto rituals and the Islamic Salat.
On a societal level, Douzhung should be faced with peace and firmness, within the letter of the law whenever possible. However, should the discordant forces be too strong for peace, then it is righteous to arm and defend the faithful to preserve harmony and the well-being of not just the people, or the emperor, but also to Zhungguo and the world. Indeed, it is through armed defence that the Crimson Swords are named as they were. Whomsoever does this shall not only be seen as virtuous by the Jade Emperor, but also gain the possibility to be free from the trials of purgatory and be reincarnated into a better life. The most good-hearted, sacrificial, and meritous might even ascend beyond the cycle of death and rebirth, casting off their earthly chains and become, as Li Hong wrote it, “…transcendent beyond life on earth, beyond physicality, and achieve harmony with nature and the universe.”
Unsurprisingly, the Edicts of Righteous Living is seen by a fair number of religious and atheist scholars to be an admixture of sorts; a cross-syncretic soup of traditional beliefs combined with strains of Shintoism, Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and the Abrahamic faiths. However, such explanations dismiss exactly why the Crimson Swords exploded in popularity in the lead-up to the Great War; in a changing world where nothing is certain, the faith offered answers to a populace whom felt that their old beliefs, and their gods, had failed them in their time of need. The Edicts’ syncretic nature maintained a partial continuity of traditional folk beliefs while its radical message offered a push to the unwelcome intrusions into daily life.
And given that northern China was exposed to more recent wars and Manchurian exploitation, it is no surprise to see the faith gaining popularity in the provinces surrounding the Yellow Sea and around the capital, Peking. When Japan decided to attack for the emperor’s answer to the Korean conflict, many Sword worshippers decided that their time had come…
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Fu Wei Han, The Imperial Sunset: Twilight of the Qing Empire, (Penang Nanyang: 2013)
…Japan’s invasion of Korea sparked nothing more than a roaring debate in the Forbidden City. Many nobles support a military intervention to help the Koreans combat the Japanese. Equally as many argued that the empire’s military isn’t reformed enough to take Japan head-on. Even the court conservatives were split over what to do.
The arguments dragged on until early October, when the plight given by the Korean ambassadors finally swayed the emperor to send military supplies and aid to Pyongyang, which infuriated Japan enough to demand a 72-hour ultimatum: expel all foreigners and halt any aid to the peninsula, or face war. With that, the Second Sino-Japanese War was all but inevitable.
But Japan’s first moves were a surprising one. While another 100,000 troops sailed from the Japan to take the cities of Tientsin and Port Arthur – in the hopes of striking a knockout blow and further occupy resource-rich Manchuria, supplies and aid were also sent to Canton where a sudden anti-Qing uprising erupted amongst local troops and triad gangs. The convenient timeliness of the event is now confirmed to be a result of Japanese machinations to divert Qing attention, and it nearly worked; the provinces of Kwangtung and Kwangxi were overrun and the local viceroy had to flee for his very life.
But in this, the Japanese overestimated their chances. Nearby loyal garrisons quickly moved to contain the revolt while another 120,000 northern troops were sent to meet the Japanese at the main battlefronts up north. In addition, the supposed Russian advisors whom Japan claimed “were destabilizing the region”, found a surprising common cause with the Chinese as both sides sought to halt Japan’s advance. While no alliance treaty was ever signed, Qing-Russian cooperation became an unspoken policy from here on out, and in effect, the arriving Japanese troops suddenly found themselves facing a much more united force than initially anticipated.
And with that, the subsequent battles of Tientsin and Port Arthur became an incredibly violent affair. Japanese cruisers bombarded coastal forts while German and Russian-bought shore batteries pummelled whomever came too close to land. Any landings at nearby un-gunned coasts saw pitched battles arising from the experienced Japanese soldiers and the newly-reformed imperial battalions. Out at sea, minesweepers and mine-lacers engaged in cat-and-mouse hunts while Qing and Russian battleships tried to defend themselves from enemy attacks, though the language barrier often hindered the fleets from committing any united offensives. For 6 days, battle raged, until news came out that the Japanese had surrounded Port Arthur and had neutralized the naval operations there.
The response throughout the Yellow Sea was nothing but fury. Farmers donated massive amounts of rice to imperial battalions while army recruitment centres found themselves swamped with youngsters willing to fight. As in Korea, the local peasantry formed resistance groups and cells to ambush unsuspecting soldiers. And like Korea, several of these groups were founded by members of heterodox sects and syncretic orders, and most notably, the Crimson Sword Society. Devoted and fanatical, the Crimson brethren were quickly noticed for the brilliant and brutal ambushes on the Japanese, especially in the biting chill of November and December. As such, the syncretic faith exploded in popularity as tens of thousands joined in the hope of both spiritual salvation and martial victory.
In Manchuria, too, the arrival of the Japanese changed things. A place of refuge for over 100,000 Chinese Christians and their families, the landing of Japanese troops also saw the formation of martial brotherhoods across dozens of mines and market towns, especially in the Liaodong Peninsula. To the converts, whom have suffered harshly by the wider empire for their faith, the imperial army was seen as an untrustworthy protector, and thus felt strongly towards self-defense. For the Russian mining concerns operating therein, the Japanese arrival also signalled a possible end to their very existence in the region, and so didn't disallow nor hinder such groups from forming amongst their workers.
As December rolled and the Sinosphere became engulfed in snow and ice, fighting slowed to a crawl. The front lines in Korea barely moved, the southern uprising was contained, and Tientsin remained an impenetrable fortress supplied by a devoted army and a fanatic peasantry. However, the Qing and Russian navies were beginning to feel exhausted over the Yellow Sea and Port Arthur was on the verge of collapsing. Even in the snow, Japanese companies began to move into Lower Manchuria, where they faced an assortment of government troops, peasant groups, and religious brotherhoods of all stripes…
A rare photograph of a Righteous Army militia, taken at the Korean border with Qing Manchuria.
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Notes:
First off, to any Cao Dai worshippers, I apologize.
Building an alternate faith that’s based in syncretism was a part of my plans regarding China, but I didn’t expect the result to be similar to Caodaism. Perhaps it was inevitable for there to be similarities, but I want to make this clear the Society of Crimson Swords and their Edicts of Righteous Living are not this world’s version of Cao Dai. In fact, the pacifism of the latter would be revolting to TTL’s Sword brethren, and the Edicts’ stance on reincarnation and Zhungguo-ness would be seen as imperialist and patronizing to any professing Caodaist (universalism is a key trait in the latter faith).
Also, full credit to the images in the Pan-Asian segment belongs to Extra Credits. Despite their errors and glossing of certain historical parts, these people deserve a lot of thanks for trying to explain the less known and more esoteric parts of world history.
And in a first, just about everything in the above installment can be referenced back to post #1141, just in case you’re all curious.
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Wow, Sarawak better be paying attention. Also you've outdone yourself yet again! Any hints on your next chapter 
Sarawak
Sarawak
Fantastic work!
Well, given how Korea's going for them, and what's happening in China...compared to that, taking Sakhalin would have been a walk in the park, so no prizes offered for guessing which one
Well, given how Korea's going for them, and what's happening in China...compared to that, taking Sakhalin would have been a walk in the park, so no prizes offered for guessing which one
Japan has picked a war with everyone of any note to their immediate west. Much glory will be gained from fighting so many foes at once, how could they lose?
And this is without people making decisions primarily based on sheer audacity and 'will a crazy junior officer probably murder me if I don't do this?'
And this is without people making decisions primarily based on sheer audacity and 'will a crazy junior officer probably murder me if I don't do this?'
Your gods have abandoned you! The Emperor no longer holds the Mandate of Heaven! Nothing is certain! We, the people, are the true saviours of the very nation that we are born to! Join the Society of the Crimson Sword and we will guide you all to bring prosperity and true equality to all the people*!
*Terms and Conditions apply
*Terms and Conditions apply
For the glory of the empire! So long as you can survive the next few years.
In their defense, the last war fought against Qing China saw the Japanese nicking Taiwan, remove Korea from Peking's suzerainty, and transform Manchuria into a 19th century Free Trade Zone. The ultra-nationalists (and plenty of others besides) have good reason to believe they could bash their neighbors again to obtain all demands, forgetting that the first Sino-Japanese War saw them halted at Manchuria. From perceived weakness, the military cliques saw glory. If they could just push harder, be stronger, then one day...
And this is why victory disease is bad, people. Also, don't make too many enemies at once.
Fantastic work!
Well, given how Korea's going for them, and what's happening in China...compared to that, taking Sakhalin would have been a walk in the park, so no prizes offered for guessing which one
Thanks! Unfortunately, I have no prizes on offer, so feel free to accept this commemorative image of a coin stamped with the image of the Japanese Shiba Inu.
(Also, I think there's going to be more than a few voices in Tokyo whom will cry out: 'Why can't Korea be like Sakhalin!?"
)Wow, Sarawak better be paying attention. Also you've outdone yourself yet again! Any hints on your next chapter
There's still the rest of the world to get through! Only after the first year summary do we return to Sarawak and the fallout there. For what it's worth, the kingdom's Chinese minority are keeping an eye at their homeland, and whispers are traveling fast in "town-founded-by-a-Chinese-anti-Qing-republican" Sibu.
The Chinese & their badass secret society names again.
For being sources of vice, violence, and racketeering, the Chinese have some really cool names for their gangs and secret societies. In the 19th alone IOTL, there was the Guangzhou Golden Orchid Society, the Malayan-Singaporean "Rise of Righteousness" Clan, and mainland China's Righteous and Harmonious Fists (aka. Boxers). Boastful branding is something they have all mastered.
Weird as in 'archaic traditional Chinese' weird, or in 'this doesn't make sense, even in traditional Chinese' weird? Writing down characters wasn't my strong point.
Daily prayers to the Jade Emperor shall be a requirement! Your full participation shall be observed!
Or else.
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Well, things may go better for Japan and China in the long run (if Japan gets the victory disease out of it's system before it takes on an enemy that can curbstomp it...).
But then, as an economist said, in the long run we are all dead.
So sorry for noticing this earlier! This is interesting. I'm not familiar with Scandinavian and Baltic history, but a Finnish kingdom with a German monarch would feel quite at home for this TL of odd monarchs and countries. Ditto for the Lithuanian kingdom and it's German king as well. Of course, a future Finaland or Lithuania hinges on a Russian collapse up and down the Baltic and the political fallout therein, but the fact that these places need world recognition could mean that some bloke with the right qualities might actually end up becoming another nation's king!
Well, things may go better for Japan and China in the long run (if Japan gets the victory disease out of it's system before it takes on an enemy that can curbstomp it...).
But then, as an economist said, in the long run we are all dead.
Well, for certain senses of 'better'. The war is still ongoing and all the sides don't have crystal balls, so a future where East Asia isn't burdened by mass atrocities and devastation isn't an absolute certainty. Still, a slap to Japan's ultra-nationalists would remove a big obstacle for long-term peace.
And as for all of us and mortality, I quite prefer being reminded like so:
It's far too colloquial for a book name and weird in its meaning.
Interesting update on the war in East Asia!
I wonder if the final peace treaty leads to a divided Korea like OTL except instead of a Soviet-backed communist North Korea and an American-backed capitalist South Korea it's a Chinese-backed North Korea and a Japanese-backed South Korea or if China and Japan just annex their half of Korea and call it a day. The butterflies from an earlier divided Korea with different actors involved and its effect on Korean politics and culture would be fascinating.
I wonder if the final peace treaty leads to a divided Korea like OTL except instead of a Soviet-backed communist North Korea and an American-backed capitalist South Korea it's a Chinese-backed North Korea and a Japanese-backed South Korea or if China and Japan just annex their half of Korea and call it a day. The butterflies from an earlier divided Korea with different actors involved and its effect on Korean politics and culture would be fascinating.
Sorry for replying so late. So what would be a more appropriate name for the book?
Well, the war isn't over so the situation in the Peninsula could change drastically over the coming years. But if the Japanese and/or the Koreans couldn't be dislodged from either side of the peninsula, then there could be nothing left to do but to consolidate what's left and swallow their losses. Though given Korean patriotism and the royal court surviving at Pyongyang, I'd doubt that a royalist North Korea would simply accept a Japanese-puppet South Korea, or a Japanese annexation for that matter. Similarly, while the Qing are an influential force over the region, their internal troubles would turn them away from any swallowing of the peninsula and doing away with the Korean court. Plus, why annex a potentially useful buffer state?
The Pacific and Africa coming up, followed by a summary of the first year and some miscellaneous bits to round off the current situation.
When you promise an update on Africa and Oceania but then sat on Word drafts for almost three weeks.
B U T S O O N
B U T S O O N
