- Location
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...of course it is so, it's explicitly stated in the update as what Zentrum wants to change. One doesn't need to make any observations beyond reading the update for that.
[Continuation] Schwarz-Rot-Gold: An Interwar Germany Quest
- Thread starter mouli
- Start date
- Alt. History
Dutch
Bored Spearman of the Wind
- Location
- CET
The observation holds merit because people are debating the wrong things. All of these options avoid the standard otl splintering issues of the Weimar system.
The real question is what we want in its stead.
The Imperial system encourages the the formation of two big parties, atleast on a regional level. The Australian system is open to new parties but favors parties in the political center. The Adapted system promotes the stability of the big parties, the danger wil most likely come from the subversion or radicalization of said parties *cought*DNVP*cought*.
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0.3: State of the World, August 1920
mouli
Terrible QM
- Location
- United States
0.3: State of the World, August 1920
Or: Ebert Reads the Papers
Western Europe
Or: Ebert Reads the Papers
Western Europe
Belgium: Hunger after Plague: Belgium was devastated by the Great War and remains at the moment a place where food and heating coal are short – the German destruction of much of Belgium's industry as they pulled out has led to a terrible winter and a hungry one, and even summer has been far from easy. The Great Humanitarian, as Herbert Hoover is now being called, has organized a near miraculous effort to feed and clothe the people affected by the war in France and Belgium, but he cannot do it all – and with German coal deliveries and payments delayed due to the German Civil War, Belgium is suffering and headed into a cold September with little to hope for. Even American food aid, gigantic though it has been, is not enough to close the gap that exists at present.
France: Instability: The French economy has been devastated by the war and their treasury is deep in debt to the Americans and the British. A French refusal to pay interest on war debt until German deliveries of goods in cash and kind resume has led to a standoff among the Allied powers – those at the table negotiating a schedule of payments know full well that in the wake of the war the Germans are not likely to be able to satisfy the French public's demands, and even the French state knows this. But the line Germany will pay has already seen much resonance in the Chamber of Deputies. Will France resume payments on her war debts regardless, or will there be a suspension – the uncertainty has wracked the Paris Bourse and the London Exchange, and the economic instability and recession has fueled political polarization.
France: Arms Disposal: One of the few economic bright spots in France has been the winning of bids for disposal of German arms manufacturing equipment by a French firm, a firm partly owned by Vickers and partly by the Union Parisienne Bank. The company has begun the sale of old machine tools and finished goods to companies based in China at a profit, and those companies in turn appear to be selling the goods and tools on to the Beiyang Government at a substantial markup. While this has raised hackles among the Japanese and raised eyebrows among the rest of the Allies, it is enough of a fillip for France that she is willing to turn a blind eye – even willing to credit the Germans with a discounted amount on the reparations payments (heavily discounted, however).
Britain: Standoff: Britain has done well enough in the war and demobilized with alacrity, but holds a massive amount of war debt that will never be repaid to her. Russian debt was guaranteed by Britain and now has to be paid by the UK to American banks, and much of the French war debt was similarly guaranteed by London. With Russia's willingness to pay dead in the water and with France seriously contemplating a renegotiation of her debt due to an inability to pay it alone, the British are facing a ruinous expense. Britain can bear it, for now – but this payment issue will go on for decades. And it will not allow Britain to build a home fit for heroes. Why should money that was used in America to buy American guns be paid back to those same Americans?
Ireland: Rebellion Grinds On: The IRA has mounted a fresh wave of attacks in Ireland and the British Government has responded by reinforcing the British Army in Ireland with units that were earlier earmarked for the Rhineland. While this has raised hackles in Paris, it has won some measure of safety in Ireland, or at least in urban Ireland, at the cost of having the army and the Royal Irish Constabulary patrol in force with loaded guns. Nerves are tense and the situation remains on edge, and the IRA is flush with German arms bought on the black market – an atrocity from one side or another seems almost inevitable at this point.
Southern Europe
Italy: A Weak First Push: The use of troops to clear out striking anarchists in the Italian industrial belt of the northwest was mooted early in 1920 and then later given the nod, and the army decided to send in southern units to avoid the deployed troops showing sympathies with the northern metalworkers. The decision to avoid deployment of heavy artillery and instead use infantry to clear the streets and the factories backfired with the infantry coming under fire from metalworkers who had barricaded themselves in the complexes and who were themselves in many cases former soldiers thanks to the War. The first regiment sent into Torino did not come out intact, and that has emboldened the anarcho-syndicalists of Italy. While their prospects look slim now that the army has locked down the area around the plants with larger formations and is attempting to convince the government to allow the use of artillery, the Biennio Rosso still goes on. The use of troops and the sight of southern Italian infantry parading through Turin and Milan will lead to further radicalization.
Italy: German Arms: Italy has seen the bulk of her arsenals be locked down by striking industrial workers, seen combat formations drawn from northern Italy be wracked by desertion, and has since been short of arms and industrial machinery. The use of food exports to Germany in exchange for arms manufacturing gear has been a sore point between Italy and the Entente, and may continue to be one, but for the present has allowed the Royal Italian Army to seriously consider storming and suppressing the mass strikes and the burgeoning urban insurgency that is developing in northern Italy. For better or for worse, the German equipment, the German technicians and the German guns are being sent to southern Italy in direct opposition to the more communist north.
Spain: SECN Expansion: Vickers has announced a further expansion of the arsenals around SECN, the Sociedad Española de Construcción Naval that builds Spanish warships and is owned by a mix of British arms and shipbuilding firms. The gear that comes to Spain has stamps that show it to be scrap metal from the Rhineland, and Spanish inspectors are not asking too many questions – after all, the Republic's liberal arms sale policy allowed it to make much money during the war. Why not keep the good times rolling? Surely things will take enough time to settle down that Spain will be able to reap a profit from this. Especially with far less in the way of imperial interests and scruples than the British, Americans and French.
The Former Dual Monarchy: Economic Collapse: With the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the disruption of the trade networks that sustained the region, the economies of Austria, Hungary, the new SHS-State and other nations are in freefall. Rampant inflation and hunger across the old Empire are leading to fringe parties or opposition parties gaining more and more credibility. For Austria, the civil war and unrest in Germany have given the Christian Social Party a boost over its pro-Anschluss rivals...for now.
Central Europe
Germany: Silesia: Polish Unrest: The Poles in Silesia have been drawing on the Polish Underground and the arms that were smuggled across the border in 1919 by Poland to continue an insurgency that has already led to multiple major atrocities in the area. With the withdrawal of Allied forces as the German civil war broke out and the consequent uncertainty as to the Germanness or Polishness of most of Silesia, the ethnic violence has intensified. The Triumvirate's habit of relying on ultranationalist paramilitaries to keep the peace has exacerbated ethnic polarization while murdering a good deal of the Polish underground, and we have a region that has been quieted for now but is a bubbling pot of unrest under the surface. The Allies have already mooted a plebiscite, but that could lead to the loss of more of Silesia and a consequent loss in seats/popularity for our government. At present we have kept order using armed police, but those police are armed perhaps too well – the French are demanding that we stand them down and reduce their armament, and this in the face of a Polish insurgency.
Germany: East Prussia: Exodus: East Prussia is seeing a massive influx of immigration from the new nations east of it, with Baltic Germans and Germans from Russia now coming by train, by ship and in some unhappy cases on foot from the east. The province was already drained by the civil war and had its borders ravaged by a Polish insurgency in 1919, and this is threatening to strain the resources of the local military government. Food is scarce elsewhere in Germany, and a good deal of East Prussia's badly needed surplus is going to feeding the refugees from the east.
Germany: East Prussia: Polish Unrest: The Allied Commission's planned plebiscite in the southern areas of East Prussia was allowed to proceed by the Triumvirate amid massive voter intimidation and the use of anti-Soviet propaganda, timing the vote to take place as the Soviets closed in on Warsaw. East Prussia has thus voted to remain German even in its predominantly Polish border area, and that has sparked violence from the Polish underground that has since seen the use of ultranationalist paramilitaries and armed federal police to keep order with extreme prejudice. Ethnic polarization continues here, and the German population has a siege mentality that makes depolarization difficult – much like Silesia.
Poland: Eagle Unbowed: The Polish government has refused to consent to talks with the Soviets even as the Red Army approaches Warsaw, and reports from General von Lettow-Vorbeck suggest that the current plan of the Polish Army is to exploit the disorganization among the Russians for a flanking attack designed to hit the formations at the edge of army-level headquarters' responsibility. With Soviet formations reportedly coming 'unstuck', that is to say moving at different speeds and without good synchronization, the Polish Army and its German advisors are planning to take the Reds in flank as they cross the rivers that come to Warsaw. While the old Polish Army was destroyed at Kiev, Russian overconfidence has already led to the Red Cavalry getting a bloody nose as the Poles retreated – and the Russians reportedly do not yet know of the extent of German arms shipments. Poland's fate hangs by a slender thread, but perhaps it is a sturdy one.
The Soviet Union
Priestly Evacuation: The civil war in Russia and the ongoing persecution of Catholic clerics in Ukraine as a result of it has led to a mass exodus of clergy from there, and has led to the church taking an interest in calming the area. It has also led the current Pope, the pacifist, to advocate a strong stance against communism which in his eyes has an anticlerical atheistic bent. We can expect Catholic politicians to advocate a harder line on communism – and, in view of the Pope's May encyclical, on ultranationalism – and this will probably percolate to the Zentrum.
Red Goes Faster: The Soviet Union has crushed the last dregs of resistance in southern Russia and has already intensified the 'decossackization' policy pushed by Yakov Sverdlov in the wake of several Cossack warlords raising armies against the USSR. The Soviet Union has begun to push eastwards along with the armies headed for Poland, and that eastern offensive seems to have little to no opposition – the White Armies have been almost entirely decapitated, and organized resistance seems to have coalesced around Alexander Kolchak in the Urals. It is not likely to succeed. In the Far East, the Soviets have held the railways and managed to suppress most of the bandit armies, and an ill-chosen engagement between the forces of Roman von Ungern-Sternberg and the withdrawing Imperial Japanese Army further reduced the White Armies' presence in the Far East.
Asia
China: Zhili Ascendant: The Zhili Clique with the aid of their allies in Fengtian have beaten the Anhui Clique in a few days and installed a more compliant government in Beijing. The Fengtian Clique's aid and assistance mean that they have demands to make in Beijing, and the instability of the current Chinese regime means that western arms companies are already lining up to sell and set up shop in China. The warlord era continues.
India: Non-Cooperation: The Indian National Congress already withdrew its support for colonial reforms after the passage of the repressive Rowlatt Act of 1919 and the massacre of civilians by the British Army in Amritsar that year. The Indian Muslim Movement launched in 1919 to protest sanctions on the sultan and the Ottoman Empire has since seen a rise in support from the INC leadership, and there are rumors of a larger wave of strikes and boycotts planned in India. Coming as they do in the wake of disease and poor harvests, Britain will need a deft hand and good luck to avoid further growth of the independence movements in their crown jewel.
The Americas
The United States of America
The United States of America
Recession: In the wake of the collapse of war demand and the impact of a hasty, mass demobilization as well as the Spanish Flu ravaging a large chunk of America, the economy has cratered. This has been made worse by the lack of payment of German reparations which has delayed French and British war debt payments, and American banks are at present scrambling – either German gold comes in soon, or Wall Street will see difficulties. While there are signs that a recovery is in the offing, it's still early days yet – the media and indeed most of the people are hoping that the winner of the election – either candidate Harding or candidate Cox – can accelerate that recovery. Eugene Debs has also run for election, and may act as a spoiler candidate. Debs' Socialist Party has made hay from the mismanagement of the war effort and is being targeted by many on the American right as a 'revolutionary party' that may split America asunder like what happened in Germany.
Wilson's Folly: With the rapid success of the Red Army in southern Russia, the defeat of most White Army forces in the western sections of Russia and the fact that American troops in Russia are already taking small-scale casualties in the Pacific, the Russian Intervention is seeming more and more like folly. American troops have been pulled off the 'quiet Rhine' in 1919 just before the German Civil War broke out, leaving the policymaking to Britain and France and allowing the Senate to roast the President for 'putting America's eggs in the wrong basket'. While the public is at present satisfied with demobilization, isolationism has been gaining steam.
South America
Red Establishments: 1918-1920 has seen a massive upswing in Communist or Socialist party activity and the formation of party organizations in Argentina along with growth in membership for the Chilean Communist Party. Along with that comes an increase in paranoia among some of the South American establishment, notably the dictator of Venezuela, Juan Vicente Gomez. This rapid reaction to socialist and communist organizing – a reaction driven by the news of Germany's civil war – is likely to drive further radicalization unless checked by other means or institutions.
The Middle East and Africa
The Turkish Revolution: The Treaty of Sevres is to be signed in France, well away from potential unrest in Turkey and the former Ottoman Empire, and is to be signed by representatives of the Sultan. The Treaty has roused the ire of the Turkish nationalist movement, who have already been declared in Ankara that the signers are to be stripped of Turkish citizenship. The British occupation of Istanbul and the presence of Greek troops on Turkish soil in western Anatolia has poured fuel on the fire and further eroded the legitimacy of the Ottoman government in Istanbul, and former General Mustafa Kemal has already massed his forces and called for aid from abroad. There are rumors of Bolshevik gold and representatives on the way to Germany, and the British Army does not have the numbers to keep a lid on Anatolia. The Turkish Republic does not seem to have high chances of survival, opposed as it is by the Entente, by Greece in particular, and by the remnants of the empire in occupied Istanbul, but perhaps it might succeed under General Kemal. Perhaps.
Blood on the Sand: After the royal Syrian refusal to bend to an ultimatum issued by the French government representative Henri Gouraud, the French Army sent in General Mariano Gourbet and 9,000 North African and Senegalese infantry, backed by tanks and fighter-bombers. With French forces overstretched from participating in the Russian intervention, the Anatolian occupation, the Rhineland occupation and various League of Nations duties across Europe, the French Army was unable to spare more than the ten battalions that it sent and the aging colonial artillery that trailed it. Faced with that, the Syrians mustered what was left of the wartime Arab Army, whose demobilization had been delayed due to issues in pay and transport. Further delays in the organization of Syrian forces and the rapid defeat of an advance force at Maysalun meant that the French Army attempted to storm Damascus with most of the Syrian force still inside and forming up, leading to a brutal urban slugfest in dense Damascus where French tanks were of less use than anticipated. France has taken the city and driven out the Syrians from their claimed mandate, but at Pyrrhic costs and cannot do much more in Syria at the moment, while much of the Arab Army has pulled out in good order.
AN: Part of me thinks that I went a bit overboard, part of me thinks that I haven't got it all. Feedback is therefore welcome. If there's anyone here who knows anything about interwar Japan that would be nice, I'm thin on sources there that don't deal with the IJN and would appreciate bouncing ideas off someone.
Multiple divergences here, so discussion is nice and remember, discussion feeds the QM's writing
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huh, very interesting. If I´m reading this right the french are in a shit position. With some luck they are going to get defeated in anatolia and syria which should worsen their position even more
hah wow, turns out we managed to accidentally screw over France, Britan and the US after all. The US and the UK are very interested in seeing money flowing out of our coffers, and that might provide us some opportunities. It shouldn't be too hard of a sell to tell them that as long as French and possibly British soldiers squat inside the Rhineland they will get less reparations, due to the fact that they are messing up production in one of our richest regions.
It sounds like our civil war might be the catalyst to worse red scares then IRL in some places. Let us hope that us sticking to our principles and not committing horrible war crimes also inspires some people.
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... I hadn't realized how much the Entente was depending on the German reparations. Playing silly buggers with the money is going to be a lot dicier than I thought, but we could probably use it as leverage to get some other concessions.
The situation with Poland is troubling. Here's hoping they're glad for us pouring in the aid and willing to give us the majority german areas they conquered in exchange for concessions in Silesia and East Prussia - the Danzig Corridor immediately comes to mind, although they're unlikely to give up sea access cheaply, and the Entente might have something to say about it.
It's also interesting to see all the areas selling our weaponry on the black market has affected. Here's hoping the British don't hold a grudge about the IRA?
The situation with Poland is troubling. Here's hoping they're glad for us pouring in the aid and willing to give us the majority german areas they conquered in exchange for concessions in Silesia and East Prussia - the Danzig Corridor immediately comes to mind, although they're unlikely to give up sea access cheaply, and the Entente might have something to say about it.
It's also interesting to see all the areas selling our weaponry on the black market has affected. Here's hoping the British don't hold a grudge about the IRA?
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With the whole reparations debacle, we might get less protest from the Entente for an Anschluss, since it would allow us to better make payments. It would also be beneficial to us to integrate them, since it could mean increased support for the Zentrum and SDP, and we'd inherit the Austrian military establishment to potentially counter the Prussians.
Also, as I expected, the Poles hate us and will be nothing other than a roadblock to Soviet expansion to us. One that causes us a lot of trouble for little gain. At least with the reparations issues, the Entente won't be likely to accept a Silesian take over, since it would probably affect our payments and potentially topple the government most likely to actually try to pay.
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with some luck the french are gonna experience some major military disasters in the middle east, that should stretch them out enough that they either have to abandon the middle east or pull their soldiers out of the rhineland to support their colonial control.
Potentially losing 9000 soldiers in syria should fuck their ability to commit war in the middle east.
For people who are wondering, after ww1 the french engaged in an extreme demobilisation program to save at least something of their economy inn 1922 there were barely 130k thousand admittely very well equipped soldiers left in the professional french forces and they actually had to resort to colonial troops for something like the rhineland occupation.
France is just as wrecked as we are, they just doing a better job than hidding it
Potentially losing 9000 soldiers in syria should fuck their ability to commit war in the middle east.
For people who are wondering, after ww1 the french engaged in an extreme demobilisation program to save at least something of their economy inn 1922 there were barely 130k thousand admittely very well equipped soldiers left in the professional french forces and they actually had to resort to colonial troops for something like the rhineland occupation.
France is just as wrecked as we are, they just doing a better job than hidding it
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*Rat Line trauma intensifies*
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Welcome to post war europe
Everyone is different degrees of fucked
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He's referring to me being argumentative and salty about an action in SB! Letting Poland live is the Rat Lines of SV in this case
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Definitely agree on Anschluss -- we'll need to show economic results fast, though, such that joining Germany is an economically attractive proposition.
I do think you're reading too much into the Polish situation. I think ultimate resolution of the Silesia question is going to turn on the SPD making the argument that what we need to service our reparations to the French is hard currency, that we want to pay, but we can't pay if we're losing significant pieces of major German industrial regions.
Besides, Poland's refused to talk to Moscow, not us. It's not great, but it definitely could be worse.
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The country they're at war with tbf
Anyway, could be worse, if we were the Triad they'd hate us even more. I don't expect a good relationship with them until the far future, any positive interactions between our governments will likely be transactional in nature, like we've done before.
Much of the folly of Versailles is that it hinged on the Germans being able to pay, and to pay on time. Which directly contributed to the onset of the Great Depression. Of course, it is a "genius idea" to force someone to pay on a stringent schedule while also taking away most methods they use to make money (like the merchant fleet, patents, machine tools, etc.). After the Civil War (and with the Rhineland being messed up), there is even less we can pay (even if we wanted to). Nevermind the damage the occupation causes to the coal mines, and indirectly the belgians. OTL the Weimar efforts to shrink or circumvent the payments together with dealing with the soviet union were rather desperate.
But yeah, we might have screwed over the Entente after all. Or rather, they screwed themselves over by expecting an unstable state whose government had no legitimacy (which they had themeselves caused) would be able to basically pay for the entire WWI. The ToV was critizised in 1917 by various economists (biggest name among them Keynes) as not being sustainable.
Strategic victory after all?
Edit: There is an argument to be made that the Germans won (at least among the european powers) the world wars: Previously, Germany was a land power of about 80 million people and an industrial powerhouse. Two world wars later, it still is. While the UK went from "The sun never sets" to regional power with pretensions of a great power, while France did much the same. So, Germany lost *less* than everybody else. Which is a horribly cynical view of history.
Anyway for SRG-verse, this means if we need un-screw ourselves faster than the Entente. Which is made easier by the Entente being dependent on us paying the damn reparations (force gets you only so much money).
How much did he need to drink?
This could be the start of a "Damn I hate the Germans, but god bless 'em for being here." relationship. German arms, german "advisers" and german officers. Man, the level of doublethink is going to be awe inducing.
And somewhere Eberts polish counterpart is cursing that the soviets are the bigger problem and we don't have time for this shit. So, basically the headache of Ebert, just from the other side.
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Youch. That's another country on the "Hates us with the passion of ten thousand suns" list.
And then there's France. As has been previously espoused, they're actually in a super crappy position - they won the war on the Anglosphere's back and so too does winning the peace. They'll be an obstacle for ... everything, but if America decides they want their money's worth back more than they do punishing us there's dick-all the Baguettes can do about it.
A question without an easy answer, because a huge part of the reason the US got involved at all was that debt - they're getting it paid, one way or another. Hopefully, we can get the Dawes plan running sooner than later.
... Let's, uh, hope those guns don't get traced back to anything our government did, because that'd be real awkward, especially as they pulled units away from the Rhineland. At least there's an immediately tangible downside to disarming Germany for the British?
Hm. Well, the Italians will be both weaker and positively inclined towards us, so that's 'good.' Another major socialist uprising bloodily suppressed isn't going to do world stability any favors, though.
Another butterfly from turning a profit on our disarmament. Can't see its significance at the moment - perhaps a better Spanish economy or larger fleet? Less likely to raise hackles than arming terrorist groups, that's for certain.
All of this free clay for the taking ... it's beautiful. Well, we're obviously not going on quite as crazy a spree as the OTL Nazis, but the Entente couldn't have created a more perfect sphere of influence for Germany if they tried. The Anschluss should still be in the cards, though, maybe the Sudentenland.
*Sucks in air through teeth* This is gonna suck. If Poland's not getting knocked out of the game we'd better do our damn best to establish a working relationship with them, because otherwise, Eastern Europe is gonna be a total clusterfuck for the foreseeable future. We should probably get involved in the wars for the Baltics - and not fuck it up as horribly as the Krauts did in real life - to check the Soviets and stem the refugee crisis.
The good news is that we've got this to work off of, and it seems clear German involvement is the key to tipping the scales back to Poland's side. Here's hoping they're grateful for it.
This all seems like things we can use to our advantage, especially a closer relationship with the Catholic church. An endorsement from the Pope might help a lot with the Polish, actually, and it's not like we aren't already reliant on the Zentrum.
Can't tell if this is alt-history or not, my knowledge of warlord era China stems entirely from Kaissereich. The KMT should still be on track to win, as near as I can tell.
Another knife the British Empire has to keep in the air. Less focus they can leverage down on us, which is good.
*Palpatine cackling* "Good ... good! Succumb to the allure of Isolationism! Ditch the Entente and endorse the Dawes Plan! Nothing good came out of the First World War ..."
Can't see this leading anywhere well.
He obviously pulled it off in real life, the question is whether the butterflies in motion would help or hinder the Turks. I can't imagine how a weaker and more distracted Entente will do them anything but good, although it sounded in the previous thread like the "Merchant of Death" planned on getting involved, and I believe he was a Greek.
Just another mess the French have to deal with. I doubt the Arabs will achieve anything, but the more fires the Baguettes have to put out the better position we're in to squirm out of Germany's "obligations."
Hey, the more detailed the alternate history, the better it is for me! I love that kind of thing and am more than happy to provide commentary on what's happening.AN: Part of me thinks that I went a bit overboard, part of me thinks that I haven't got it all. Feedback is therefore welcome. If there's anyone here who knows anything about interwar Japan that would be nice, I'm thin on sources there that don't deal with the IJN and would appreciate bouncing ideas off someone.
Multiple divergences here, so discussion is nice and remember, discussion feeds the QM's writing
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Just for info: The ToV required Germany to disarm. Which means the "german arms" floating around are the Kar. 98k and the MG-08/15 we are no longer allowed to keep. Which got bought up as scrap metal by various parties. Or the french took as loot, and then sold on. Is that perception about right @mouli ?
Edit: The Reichswehr just went from "army to fight a two-front-war" to around 100k actives. That creates A LOT of surplus.
Edit: The Reichswehr just went from "army to fight a two-front-war" to around 100k actives. That creates A LOT of surplus.
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mouli
Terrible QM
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That and - more significantly - a massive chunk of the German military industrial complex has to mothball or sell up. That means the machinery and in some cases the technicians' expertise is on sale for making artillery, automatic weapons and naval guns/ammunition.
Somehow I am reminded of a quote from the 1632 series: "German arms were always a good buy." I'm not surprised. Just rather concerned with all that death-metal floating around waiting for the highest bidder.
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i actually wouldn´t be so sure of that. The post ww1 French military is a paper tiger, hollowed out by the first world war, hopelessly overstretched over it´s colonial empire and it´s league of nations commitments and soon to be gutted by the french government coming to the sensible conclusion that the french economy is in dire need to a money shoot and relocates vast amount of funding to civilian industries, resulting in the french military melting away into a shadow of it´s 100 days offensives selves.
It sounds like the french set themselves up to a disaster that can cost them alot of valuable men and equipment in syria. Together with the turkish war of independence it takes just one or two more military disasters and france flat out doesn´t have the ressources anymore to keep the pressure up, it either has to pull out of the middle east or give up on the rhineland occupation or get troops from one of it´s other obligations.
More information can be found here Demobilization | International Encyclopedia of the First World War (WW1) (1914-1918-online.net)
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The fact that all of the Allies are in a precarious position allows us to exploit our now-illegal stockpiles of weapons. Selling it all off to various individuals can net a large amount of profit, particularly in the various Mediterranean and Asian warzones. I would advise against selling to the Turks and Zhili, because this will piss off the Entente, but the Greeks are the most attractive, seeing as how they're still going at the Turks and will do so for quite some time, and would very much be available for purchase at a reasonable price.
Perhaps we could arrange something to unload all of this with Krupp as an advisor, seeing his connections with Zaharoff, a Greek himself?
Perhaps we could arrange something to unload all of this with Krupp as an advisor, seeing his connections with Zaharoff, a Greek himself?
Canon Sidestory: Quatorze Juillet
mouli
Terrible QM
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Quatorze Juillet
"Youth could win, but had not learned to keep, and was pitiably weak against age. We stammered that we had worked for a new heaven and a new earth, and they thanked us kindly and made their peace."
-T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom
"Youth could win, but had not learned to keep, and was pitiably weak against age. We stammered that we had worked for a new heaven and a new earth, and they thanked us kindly and made their peace."
-T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom
On Sunday the previous year there had been crowds all along the Champs-Élysées. There was a teeming mass of joyous humanity there from the wee hours of the morning, their very presence a raucous declaration edged with solemnity. Among them were the overcoated, bewhiskered figures of a past age, pipe-smoke mingled with a quiet satisfaction at a wrong avenged. Among them were the flat-capped figures of working-men, those who made death in the Paris factories for the army to hurl at a foe now vanquished. And among them too were the figures of women still dressed in mourning, for sons and husbands and fathers dead in the mud and blood of the Western Front. Among that great mass of humanity that year, the year before this day of 14th July, was a restrained jubilation in stark contrast to the reckless confidence of France – of Paris – in 1914.
As if to emphasize that triumph of last year, as if to remind the people of the end of the Great War and the liberation of Alsace-Lorraine after forty-eight years of bondage, the Champs- Élysées in 1920 appears as it did in that magical Quatorze Juillet of 1919. A cenotaph once more stands near the Arc de Triomph, each of its four sides guarded by the winged Victory who after four bloody years deigned to bless the Third Republic. On the surfaces of the cenotaph, on every side as if to tell the world, is the dedication Aux morts pour la patrie. By its sides are undying flames in braziers wrought from shell-casings and by its sides are searchlights, waiting for the word and the flip of a switch to turn the Bastille Day dusk into a blazing noonday brightness and turn the gilt-plaster of the cenotaph to fiery gold. Surrounding it are soldiers of all arms of the French Army, unmoving and stock-still as they stand sentinel with rifles reversed in salute.
Last year – in 1919 – they were surrounded by a reverent crowd in silence all through the night before the Bastille Day parade. The crowd were perched upon or kneeling by the captured German cannon parked at the Arc de Triomphe, quietly watching the guards and the cenotaph as if to give what tribute they could to those millions dead in the war that had ended at last.
Today – in 1920 – that crowd is tiny. It is irreverent, with quarreling Frenchmen shouting at one another near the solemn memorial to the dead. It is divided, with mourners dressed in black intermingled with the loud conversation of the casual onlooker, and all of them drowned out by the rhythmic chant from the knot of men – of veterans, from their tattered coats and wounds – under the Red Flag. The skies themselves are gray as if dressed in German uniform, the distant rumble of thunder mimicking the artillery that France now knows so well as if to remind the nation of war across the Rhine.
The Avenue de la Grande-Armee, too, has changed. On that sunny blue Bastille Day of 1919 it was bright and cheery, the sun above likened to the sun at Austerlitz and the avenue lined with the pennants and flags of every nation in the Grand Alliance. At the Porte-Maillot nearby the masses of Allied troops formed up under their leaders, contingents from nations across the world who had rallied to the cause of France, of civilization, of whatever phrase the Third Republic had chosen to use to describe the war. The parade had begun in that magical year after the war with Le Tigre himself, fierce Clemenceau who had lifted France from near defeat in 1917 and dragged her to victory. It had seen the flags and banners of America, the swagger of the bandsmen playing Over There behind the Stars and Stripes as doughboys marched down the Champs-Élysées. It had seen the Belgians, beaten and almost broken and devastated for four bloody years and somehow still unbowed despite it all. It had seen the regimental banners of the British Army, two hundred fighting regiments from England across the sea marching in khaki as the crowd sang the now-familiar now-somehow-sorrowful verses of 'Tipperary' that France had learned so well. It had seen Italians in slate-gray uniforms, Portuguese and Siamese and Japanese, and all the nations of the British Empire.
Today, in the Bastille Day march of 1920, few of them are there. Yet some things are the same nevertheless - just as it did in 1919, a crowd begins to mass near the Champs-Élysées. The crowd today is not jubilant or even as large as that mass who thronged Paris last year, it is not as unified in its mood or quiet in its mourning. Today, when the wounded and the crippled and the lame of the First World War, the grands mutilés of the French Army – of all ranks of the army, united in their suffering as if to symbolize the war itself - make their limping way at the head of the parade just as they did in 1919, the crowd begins to sing.
Some of them begin to sing the Marseillaise, as if in salute. Some of them bend their heads as if in remembrance or mourning. Some of the crowd begin to raise a red banner, and begin to sing the Internationale as the wounded make their way to the cenotaph.
But beneath it all is the murmur, the muttering, the quiet whisper carried on the wind that underlies all of the conflicting songs and chants and flags this Quatorze Juillet.
Peace.
For the past year, France has known peace. And God willing, she will know it still.
There is, just as there was in 1919, a pause once the wounded pass. It is as if to let the crowd dry their eyes. It leaves a silence in its wake, as if Paris – as if France herself – remembers the cost of the war once more.
The whisper remains, in spite of the solemnity and the flags and banners. In spite of the messages of victory.
Peace.
Today in 1920 there are few allies in the march. There are the Grenadier Guards behind the Union Jack, the British Army denuded of its mighty conscript force and all to ready to admit to a lasting peace rather than face the threats across the Rhine. There are the new nations once more sending contingents – Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania all behind new flags and banners.
Yet the Grand Alliance is absent, denuded, not what it was. France marches almost alone today, with few by her side. This time, the parade is a statement. It is the defiant cry of the Gallic rooster, declaring that it yet has talons and the willingness to use them.
Yet the crowd murmurs of peace. The blue-clad marching mass of the metropolitan infantry seem to agree as they march, some of them wide-eyed and too young to have seen the front firsthand yet old enough to see the scars it left on France. Some of them mouth the Marseillaise, some of them murmur the words to the Internationale, yet most of them are silent as they march behind their leaders and their flags with their bands thundering out the belligerent swagger of the Sambre-et-Meuse and the Marche Lorraine.
Yet even as the parade moves past the crowd, their attention turns elsewhere. Some of them begin to sing once more, singing the Internationale and chanting of an end to war. Someone raises the Red Flag near the cenotaph, and is tackled by an elderly man in mourning clothes. There is a fight, as if France herself is uncertain what the people mean when they talk of peace.
Peace says a man as he elbows his companion and gestures as the brewing riot. What price peace?
The steady tread of the infantry moves them onwards under the Arc de Triomphe, and they are followed by the swaggering chasseurs with their floppy berets and their dreadfully thin ranks – it was the chasseurs who took the brunt of the Vosges campaign, and it shows. As the column passes the cenotaph, it slows.
The sentinels at the cenotaph are vainly attempting to secure it, the crowd's roar has taken on an ugly edge, and at its forefront is the Red Flag.
Peace.
There is no uncertainty in its demand. What price this panoply of arms, when the crippled and wounded and lame are starving on the streets while the parliamentarians squabble in the Chamber? What price this panoply, if its defenders will not listen to the voice of the working class who won the war?
The Senegalese and Moroccans and coloniales at the rear of the parade expected to march in peace and be feted for it.
They instead hear an order to fix bayonets.
France herself is uncertain as the thunder in the distance reminds her of the war across the Rhine.
What price peace?
Posted from the SB thread, since it takes place in July of 1920 barely two weeks before Turn 1. A snapshot of Paris.
-> If anyone wants me to crosspost Sherlock Holmes and the I.R.A., let me know and let me know if you want that continued as the quest goes on.
->If the thread wants sidestory prompts every turn, let me know. Those will probably have a tangible reward.
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on the contrary, i would strongly advise supporting mustafa kemal and the arabs if possible and if there is a reasonable chance that we won´t be detected. The french are still trying to play the continental hegemon without the cold reality of a devastated economy and hard power in setting in. A major defeat in syria would be like the battle Dien Ben Pu and could inspire revolts throughout the french empire not to mention that the loss of prestige would force the french to commit more ressources, meaning they have less against us
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I liked the Sherlock Holmes posts, I'd be happy to see them continued here!