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Springtime of Nations II: A European Republic Quest

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1890-1891 in the German Republic
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    • 1890-1891 in the German Republic​

    - Have the state build out new power plants and power cables according to a common plan determined by the Assembly, and ensure they remain state owned and that all rates are set by the Assembly. Put this question to the people in a referendum if the Assembly majority will not pass it.
    -- Organize local planning hubs as equal partners to the republic wide planning commission, tasked with short loop answers to local demand. (Adopted in part by referendum)
    -- Invest in a country wide electrification drive, with the ultimate goal to reach every community in time. (Adopted in part by referendum)

    - Establish with Spain and Italy a Council for Republican Economic Integration to facilitate sharing of know-how and technical specifications, and in-kind transfers of bulk commodities, finished products, and skilled labor among members based on need. Establish social and democratic criteria for membership that the various American republics might reasonably meet.
    -- Assist Spain & Italy in military-industrial build-up in preparation for our showdown against the Imperial League. (Combined)

    - Expand the National Ration allotments to include the new medicinal drugs and medical devices being developed by the Republic, as well as semi-annual general practitioner, specialist (including obstetric), and dentist visits, and establish clinics and pharmacies for their distribution.

    - Establish a National Institute for Higher Education and Research & Development that is endowed with a substantial budget to improve the quality & accessibility of tertiary education and fund research. Integrate as closely as possible with our allies fostering scientific cooperation and funding student exchange programs.
    -- Establish the Academy of Advanced Sciences and Engineering to begin an investigation into new forms of technology, such as Benz's internal combustion engine and the development of new medicines. (Combined)

    - Institute a program of military infrastructure and fortification rebuilding based on the doctrines developed out of the Civil War Report. Initial emphasis should be on expanding and fortifying logistical nodes and axes of movement supporting second-line positions.

    - Permit the International Workers' Association and International Radical Association to deposit their funds in the International Development Bank at terms otherwise reserved for friendly state partners (i.e., Spain and Italy), and propose insuring these funds as a Triple Alliance joint venture. Insure these funds regardless of Spain's and Italy's answers.

    - Incorporate radicals and Jacobins into the International Workers Association to the socialist one. Create a sub-branch called the Volunteers for Liberty group which will coordinate revolutionary volunteers for foreign conflicts. (Adopted in part; modified)

    - Consolidate our "Alpine Academy" as a foreign intelligence service to begin establishing networks in the Imperial League. The networks should support radical and revolutionary movements and prepare to impede the Imperial war effort, and if feasible, prepare uprisings.

    - Continue both naval expansion for Baltic supremacy & the reforms of the Leutewehr in line with the Civil War Report.

    The rebirth of the party system in Germany is but a symptom of the renewed vigor of the electoral cycle, in which an enthused population is mobilized to campaign and vote on behalf of the four new pillars of the political arena.

    Foremost among those parties, bolstered by the lion's share of the women's vote, is the Communist Party. Advocating centralization and militarization, they are on the forefront of the political and social movements gradually sweeping over Europe in the wake of a new industrial revolution. Their electoral strategy is not merely to seek existing compromise or search out popular positions, but to create new electorates from previously neglected minority populations by uplifting those who were once ignored. It is proving to be a successful one.

    Second to the Communists is an old-new political movement: cooperativism. Though wrongly dismissed by some as either electoral anarchism or otherwise a vehicle for crypto-conservatives to undermine the foundations of the Second Republic, the truth is that the Cooperativists represent a deep and stubborn vein of localist and regionalist belief that runs throughout Germany. After all, it was only a half-century ago that the Republic was divided into a double-handful of states and statelets, and those regional differences still loom large. Rather than seeking the dissolution of the Republic itself, however, the Cooperativists advocate for strong local governments to balance central authority and prevent the excesses of the majority.

    In a miraculously substantial third place, following their seeming demise, is the newly reforged Radical Party, proving the indestructibility of the Republic's long-running Jacobin tendency. Even as single-family ventures are slowly eclipsed by the growing efficiency and productivity of state- and worker-organized cooperatives, they remain a vital part of German culture and society, and staunchly support their Radical benefactors. Unique among the militarist groups, the Radicals shun the professionalization of the army and the state, championing a populist belief in the common citizen as the natural and sole champion of republican virtue.

    Trailing in fourth place, though by no means in possession of an insignificant bloc of delegates, is the Social Democratic Party. While the Social Democrats are popularly accused of having backed the losing side in the German Civil War, more than a decade has passed since that conflict's inception, and the simple truth is that there remains an affinity for moderation within some of the Republic's citizens. The Social Democrats therefore seek to implement market-socialist ideas, in which the "better features" of capitalism are woven into a socialist society.

    With the renewal of party discipline, now enforced through voter loyalty as well as mass-media influence, defections are more limited than before and the parties can negotiate en-bloc for the first time in a decade. Given the plurality held by the Communists and the resurgent power of the Radicals, the formation of the Red-Gold Coalition is a given. However, efforts by the Coalition to include the Cooperativists and thereby pointedly exclude the Social Democrats run into an immediate wall over the nature of the proposed national electrical system. While the Coalition advocates for a centralized electrical grid, directed by the national government in accordance with national needs, the Cooperativists call for local and regional electrical hubs to service communities, which can then later be amalgamated into a national network if necessary. This fundamental disagreement on principle and methodology is an impossible divide between the two groups, and so the talks peter out. The age of the Sunrise Coalition is officially over.

    Despite this setback, the Red-Gold Coalition possesses nearly sixty percent of the seats in the Assembly, and is therefore well-equipped to proceed as a two-party alliance. Despite their fundamental disagreements over the ideal shape of the economy and military, they remain firmly united on issues of governance and on the necessity of what some might euphemistically call "a robust foreign policy."

    Unfortunately for the Coalition, the electoral talks are not the last they've heard of the Cooperativists. They propose putting their competing local-first plan forward for a national referendum, where it will come into direct conflict with the centralized approach espoused by the Communists. Progress in the Assembly stalls as the national debate is taken out of the halls of government and into the coffee shops and town halls of the Republic. Electrification becomes a nationwide craze, as even previously disinterested citizens educate themselves on the basics of power generation and transmission. National opinion seems evenly divided between the two proposals, as a central plan promises a rational and efficient approach, whereas localities being put in charge would allow a more organic spread near the most viable sources of electricity.

    Ultimately, rather than await the results of a months-long referendum campaign with an uncertain result, the governing coalition brokers a compromise. The previously established local planning councils are given expanded authority over the implementation of national infrastructure, including electrical power generation and transmission. However, this increased authority, and the larger budget that comes with it, is contingent upon local efforts being ultimately harmonious with the national plan, reinforcing the local councils' subordinate role to the National Assembly. Still, it is a public victory for the Cooperativists and does much to clarify the local councils' relationship to the Planning Commission, even if some Communists privately grumble that they had always intended to implement such a measure anyway.

    The first electrical power stations are hydroelectric in nature, deriving their energy from rushing rivers or waterfalls, but the advent of the coal-powered turbogenerator results in a massive proliferation of generating plants across the developed sections of the nation. Soon, sprinklings of electric lights can be seen from the Ruhr to Silesia, lighting up the German Republic from end to end, with the vast swathes of darkness ever-so-slowly being perforated and filled in.

    The Assembly votes to extend the National Ration further during the present term, this time making pharmaceuticals and medical aids part of the staples available to all German citizens. While the available goods are mostly basic painkillers and simple prosthetics, the Ration also provides for regular doctor and dentist visits, including to specialty clinics. Small medical clinics continue their explosive growth, often built in tandem with an adjoining pharmacy, from which a wide variety of medicines are dispensed. Many of these pharmacies also include side businesses, either as cafes or, increasingly, beverage and ice cream shops, which are the source of a minor craze in German life as foods previously deemed unattainable luxuries are made available.

    The National Academy of Sciences is inaugurated in Frankfurt as part of a national push toward scientific education and achievement. With a faculty consisting of some of Germany's most eminent scientists and researchers, the Academy takes in a number of home and foreign students to instruct them in cutting-edge medicine, physics, and engineering, among other topics, while also serving as a center for advanced research. While this does result in a mild internal brain-drain from other institutions, the Academy is emblematic of the government's centralizing approach and its robust budget gives it wide latitude to explore numerous fields that would otherwise be ignored or undeveloped.

    In a related effort, the War Commission forms a number of exploratory bodies consisting of eminent military and scientific figures to explore potential avenues of development and new innovations that might assist the Leutewehr in some unspecified future conflict. Investigations and trials begin on a number of domestic and foreign inventions, including various formulations of smokeless powder, a repeating machine-gun, and experimental alloys. Later that same year, as some of the efforts show promising results, the remaining bodies are amalgamated into the Sub-Commission for Military Science, providing a general framework for legislative oversight.

    The German construction industry, already flush with work on roads, canals, and electric power, is given a further task when the War Commission puts forward its plan for fortification rationalization. In essence, many of the old or ruined fortresses across Germany are to be retired (ie. demolished) and those deemed salvageable are to be upgraded to modern standards. Rather than relying on heavy defenses and fixed positions, these new forts are a combination of mustering ground and military depot, often placed at strategic junctions to secure lines of advance and retreat. The lengthy task of demolition and construction begins more or less immediately, but is projected to take some time before it concludes.

    In the summer of 1890, Wilhelm Liebknecht is taken away from his cushy semi-retirement as Deputy Sub-Commissioner for Strategic Cartography and ushered into a meeting with the new High Commissioner, Elisabeth Strauss, who during the Civil War gained a reputation as "the Red Widow of Stuttgart'' for her role as Liebknecht's hard-charging deputy. Twenty-three terrifying minutes later, Liebknecht is officially head of the new Sub-Commission for Information. Organized under the auspices of the External Affairs Commission, the SCI is ostensibly a newspaper-collating non-entity tasked with reporting on events in foreign countries. In actuality, it is the foundation of what will someday become the first true foreign intelligence agency.

    Now charged with organizing the Alpine Revolutionary Academy and the Republic's other various unofficial information-gathering organs into some kind of rational program, Liebknecht sets a frantic pace amalgamating, condensing, and streamlining the unruly state of affairs until something like a unified body emerges. That is, Karl Liebknecht, Wilhelm's 20-year-old son, achieves that goal. Acting as his father's part-time secretary while also attending law school and pursuing a separate degree in administrative science, young Karl serves as Germany's de facto spymaster; his aging father mostly provides oversight and moral guidance. Soon, a multitude of Obersalzberg-trained operatives are nestled comfortably back in their reactionary home countries, and a steady flow of news trickles from the Imperial League back to the center of the web in Frankfurt.

    The Council for Economic Integration opens its doors in Bremen in early 1890. Initially composed of delegates from all three Alliance powers, its aim is to promote intra-bloc trade and economic growth along non-capital lines. In theory, the Economic Council will provide all three nations with the ability to transfer commodities, finished goods, and skilled workers between themselves, and it may well do that someday. However, in modern practice, it is a means by which Germany can lend its engineers and provide industrial machines to the less-developed economies of the Spanish and Italian Republics, in the hopes of bringing them up to a higher standard and improving their domestic prosperity. The initial shipments are largely tools, dies, and other devices for improving the output of arms factories and military industry, and elections to serve as industrial representatives are fiercely contested, given the welcoming climates of the two sibling republics.

    In addition to its founding membership, the Council includes additional members from the republics of North America, including Mexico, Andea, and Centroamerica, among others. Smaller but no less crucially needed industrial cargoes are likewise dispatched to the Latin American nations, and soon even the leftist and radical groups of the United States are advocating for membership in the new international body.

    The Coalition's international aims are further realized when the Second International meets in Florence in 1891 and officially votes to reorganize itself as the International Revolutionary Association, a social-and-radical umbrella organization dedicated to sponsoring and coordinating republican groups in the many nations of the world. The rallying cry of "Forward the RA!" is taken up by oppressed and marginalized groups, parties, and beliefs from British Canada to the Dutch East Indies, and momentum toward global reform grows ever stronger.

    A little-noticed procedural change to the bylaws of the International Development Bank officially opens its vaults to IRA-affiliated non-state groups in good standing, effectively allowing foreign political parties and rebel groups to store their funds in branch banks, many of which open in Council republics during 1891. Given the IDB's strict lending requirements limiting its at-risk share of capital and its promise to insure deposits, it rapidly becomes a much more desirable place for foreign groups to put their funds than their own nations' institutions.

    World Events in 1890-1891​

    The Karl-Marx-Canal opens in early 1890, only somewhat behind schedule. Referred to as the Kiel Canal by those less open-minded powers, the new waterway bridges the Baltic and North Seas, greatly reducing the threat of a Scandinavian blockade and providing an efficient alternative to traversing the Sound for civilian and military vessels alike. The Danish and Swedish economies take a tumble following the opening, and do not seem poised to recover any time soon, if indeed ever.

    The German National Academy of Sciences hosts the International Electrotechnical Exhibition in the summer of 1891, as part of the national electrification craze engulfing the Republic. Numerous exhibitors from Entente and Alliance nations, as well as the Americas, show off their engineering prowess, and the first example of viable long-term power transmission is showcased when a current is transmitted to Frankfurt, where the exhibition is being held, from the power station at Lauffen am Neckar, 175 kilometers away. The success of the three-phase current used leads to its widespread global adoption.

    Following a heated argument with King Wilhelm II in Narva, Russian Emperor Alexander III orders the deposition of the Hohenzollern monarchy and the dissolution of the Kingdom of Prussia. Wilhelm and his loyal courtiers (a much-diminished and impoverished group) flee to his grandmother's court in Britain. The rump Prussian state is thereafter incorporated into the Russian Kingdom of Poland.

    The United States Census Bureau begins using a tabulating machine, which functions by reading punch cards, to process its census results.

    The first deep-underground railway, the City and South London Railway, is inaugurated in Britain.

    In May of 1891, Tsarevich Nicholas of Russia is assassinated in Otsu, Japan when one of his escorts, a Japanese republican, strikes him in the neck with a saber, killing him almost instantly. The resulting diplomatic incident sees a furious Alexander III demand the assassin be handed over to Russia, lest war result, and the Japanese Diet capitulates rather than risk foreign invasion. The assassin dies en route to Saint Petersburg and his cause is taken up by radical and republican groups in Japan, leading to widespread unrest and open public criticism of the conservative government.

    A small pro-republican revolt demanding a constitution and an end to the Portuguese monarchy breaks out in Rio de Janeiro, but is violently suppressed by the local guards and the surviving protesters are soon dispersed.
     
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    The German Republic in 1891
  • Informational

    • The German Republic in 1891​

    Government
    Government Type: Parliamentary Republic
    Governing Document: Constitution of 1880
    Head of Government: High Commissioner Elisabeth Strauss
    Head of State: Chief Representative Franz Schaefer
    Legislative Majority: Red-Gold Coalition

    Demographics
    Population: 56.40 million (43.31 million eligible voters)
    Population Growth: 2.3%
    Cultures: German, Polish, Danish, Sorbian, Ruthenian, Other
    Religions: Protestantism, Catholicism, Judaism

    Social Reforms
    Base Income: Low
    Minimum Wage: Adequate
    Work Safety: Adequate
    Work Hours: 40-Hour Week
    Healthcare: High
    Pensions: Adequate
    Unemployment: Adequate
    Childcare: Adequate
    Retirement: Adequate
    Holidays: Adequate
    Child Labor: Banned

    Foreign Affairs
    War and Peace: N/A
    Alliances: Spain, Italy
    Defensive Pacts: N/A
    Military Agreements: Spain, Italy, Japan, Ottoman Empire
    Naval Agreements: United Kingdom
    Trade Agreements: United States, United Kingdom, France, Low Countries, Portugal-Brazil, China, Japan, Ottoman Empire, Serbia, Romania, Greece, Persia, Siam, Mexico, Central America, Argentina, Peru-Bolivia

    War
    Landwehr
    Type: Combined Army
    Training: High
    Quantity: Medium
    Equipment: High
    Morale: High

    National Gendarmerie
    Type: National Guard
    Training: High
    Quantity: Small
    Equipment: High
    Morale: High

    Marinewehr
    Type: Brown-Water Navy
    Training: Low
    Quantity: Small
    Equipment: Low
    Morale: Adequate

    Infrastructure
    Fort Quality: Low
    Fort Quantity: Low
    Seaport Quality: High
    Seaport Quantity: High

    Interior
    National Stability: High
    Police Quality: Medium
    Police Quantity: Large

    Finance
    Treasury: Low
    Debt Ratio: Low
    Credit Ratio: Medium
    Tax Income: High
    Tariff Income: High
    Principal Creditors: Britain (Large), Domestic (Small), Other (Tiny)
    Principal Debtors: Domestic (Large), Spain (Medium), Other (Small)

    Commerce
    Economic Output: High
    Economic Growth: Booming
    Economic Activity: Agriculture (High), Industry (High), Trade (Medium), Finance (Medium), Services (Medium)
    Economic Ownership: Co-Operative (High), Single-Family (Medium), Public (Medium)
    Commercial Output: High
    Commercial Growth: Booming
    Trade Partners: America [mixed] (High), Britain [mixed] (Medium), Other [exports] (Medium), France [mixed] (Low)

    Public Works
    Roads and Canals: High
    Railroads: Adequate
    Public Utilities: Adequate
    Power Generation: Low

    Education
    Literacy Rate: 92%
    Literacy Growth: Ideal
    Education (Primary) Quality: Adequate
    Education (Secondary) Quality: Adequate
    Education (Tertiary) Quality: High

    Stats
    [None/Critical/Tiny/Minimal] / [Low/Small/High] / [Adequate/Medium] / [High/Large/Low] / [Ideal/Huge/Booming/Maximum]
    Stats in bold are improving, stats in italics are declining.
     
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  • Informational
    • Etranger said:
    Following a heated argument with King Wilhelm II in Narva, Russian Emperor Alexander III orders the deposition of the Hohenzollern monarchy and the dissolution of the Kingdom of Prussia. Wilhelm and his loyal courtiers (a much-diminished and impoverished group) flee to his grandmother's court in Britain. The rump Prussian state is thereafter incorporated into the Russian Kingdom of Poland.
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    lol

    Etranger said:
    In May of 1891, Tsarevich Nicholas of Russia is assassinated in Otsu, Japan when one of his escorts, a Japanese republican, strikes him in the neck with a saber, killing him almost instantly. The resulting diplomatic incident sees a furious Alexander III demand the assassin be handed over to Russia, lest war result, and the Japanese Diet capitulates rather than risk foreign invasion. The assassin dies en route to Saint Petersburg and his cause is taken up by radical and republican groups in Japan, leading to widespread unrest and open public criticism of the conservative government.
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    lmao

    Though, on that last bit, I'm beginning to think we might actually be able to foster a revolution in Japan. Protecting that revolution would be hell, however, and might provoke war with the Entente.
     
    Just to clarify, anarchists were already members of the IWA so the (actual) anarchists and associated cooperativists should still be members of the reorganized organization, right?
     
    I feel like things have been going too well for us lately. We've got relatively stable politics, mostly international relations wins, a growing welfare state, we're really bouncing from win to win. I don't trust it.
     
    The Triple Alliance: 1891
  • Informational
    • The Triple Alliance: 1891​

    General Background
    In 1872, the German Republic, the Kingdom of Italy, and the Kingdom of Spain signed the Treaty of Milan, guaranteeing that if one nation was attacked by a European great power, the other two nations would come to their defense. The obvious but unstated target of this treaty was the Second French Empire, which had designs on both German and Italian territory, while also supporting the Carlist rebellion in Spain. Afterwards, France and Austria formed the first iteration of the Imperial League in direct opposition to the so-called Triple Alliance.

    Almost two decades later, the circumstances have changed radically but the Alliance still stands, now newly reforged. Italy and Spain have both experienced internal upheaval culminating in the expulsion of their respective Savoyard monarchs and the formation of German-style democracies, while Germany has undergone its own reorganization into the social-and-radical Second Republic. France has undergone a liberalization and socialization process and restored its ties with Britain to form the Western Entente, while Austria and Russia are now openly allied in the new Imperial League, thereby dividing Europe into three power blocs.

    The Treaty
    The Second Treaty of Milan lays out the terms by which the signatories are obliged to come to the defense of each other in the event of unprovoked external aggression, or if an existential threat is posed to their people or forms of government. While the first treaty was a mere alliance of convenience, this is an openly ideological document championing social-and-radical principles as well as the right of all free people to be represented in a democratic government. A supporting codicil, the Munich Accord, establishes the requirement that Alliance members must have enacted laws and protections preventing the formation or activity of monarchist and anti-republican groups, to ensure their nations' continued democratic and radical character.

    The Milan Treaty also includes clauses calling for and partially detailing international cooperative bodies, mostly defense-related, and for military integration. These clauses also incorporate most-favored-nation trade terms for fellow members, and the means by which the Alliance could potentially be further expanded.

    Unlike the first treaty, the Second Treaty has no expiration date, though the terms are open for mutual renegotiation at a yearly meeting of the tripartite powers and any signatory may exit at any time with sufficient notice.

    The Spanish Republic
    In 1878, the Spanish Civil War came to a conclusion as Carlist and Bourbonist forces were routed by the Republicans, a group sponsored, funded, and inspired by the German Radical movement. The Republicans had previously ousted the Savoyard monarch after he proved indecisive and insufficiently committed to democratic reform, and their popularity in the country swung the conflict decisively in their favor.

    Just as the Spanish Republic gained its feet and began to reorganize itself, its main partner, the German First Republic, fell into its own civil strife. German Jacobins returned to their homeland to support the Radical-led Republican Alliance and were joined by thousands of Spanish Republican veterans eager to repay the debt incurred by their own revolution. These veterans went on to serve in several decisive battles over the national-monarchist coalition.

    The Spanish Republic has spent the last decade putting its war-torn country back together as a radical democracy, composed primarily of small farmers, industrial cooperatives, and citizen-soldiers. The Spanish government is organized along German First Republic lines, with a popularly-elected figurehead President and an empowered Prime Minister chosen from the ranks of the deputies in the National Congress.

    The Congress has about a half-dozen political parties, but the major contenders are the governing Radical Progressives, their sometimes-allies the Social Progressives, the centrist Popular Democrats, and the right-wing National Republicans. The Gold-Red Alliance is considered the "natural coalition of government," but the PDs and NRs have won at least one election and enacted their own moderate-conservative programs.

    Like Germany, Spain has a thriving anarchist movement, concentrated mostly in the south and east, and its semi-federal structure enables cooperativist local governments to enact many of their own laws and cultural protections in an effort to reverse a history of regional oppression.

    The Spanish armed forces consist of the Republican Army and Navy, as well as the International Corps, a military body dedicated to absorbing and directing foreign volunteers during the Republic's wars. The Corps is a legacy of the Radical Jacobin volunteers who fought alongside the Republicans during the civil war, and is still staffed by some Germans who elected to remain in Spain after the conflict. The Republican Army also operates the National Reserve, a whole-nation body of conscript reservists who can be called up to fight or support the war effort.

    Save for cases relevant to the security of the nation or existential threats to the Republic or its deputies, law enforcement and legal proceedings have been wholly devolved to the localities, which operate under a central code of laws but enforce it alongside their own statutes. Extra-legislative judicial review has been abolished, leaving the courts, along with every other institution, subordinate to the National Congress.

    Spain's economy and military are still fledgling but also rapidly expanding, courtesy of both international aid and domestic determination. Spanish-American trade is at an all-time high, and the Republic has successfully reached out to multiple Hispanophone republics in Latin America following its repudiation of colonialism and the monarchy. They are at the forefront of the general wave of recovery sweeping Europe.

    The principal foreign policy goal of the Spanish Republic is "the Democratic Mediterranean," a sea ringed exclusively by free and sovereign republics. They consider France and its allies, as the main supporters of both reactionary and colonial forces, as the principal obstacle to this natural state of affairs, and their enmity is thus more directly centered on the Western Entente. Spanish-Portuguese relations are at an all-time low as the latter power has become more firmly enmeshed in the Franco-British alliance. Some efforts have been made to make contact with anti-colonial resistance groups in North Africa, but Spain's own colonial history is a serious mark against them, and progress has been slow.

    Despite this desire, they are fully aware that an Imperial victory would spell the end of both of their alliance partners and that Austrian domination of the Italian peninsula would inevitably spill over into Iberia or otherwise leave it vulnerable to the depredations of the Entente. As such, they are strong backers of the East First policy espoused by the Second Republic.

    The Italian Republic
    During the Revolutions of 1848, the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont united the entire Italian peninsula, save for Rome and the province of Latium, and declared a new Kingdom of Italy with the House of Savoy at its head. Despite the Savoyard claims of victory, much of the actual work was done by Giuseppe Garibaldi's Redshirts, who made up more than half of the Italian army and would continue to play a major role in the military. An ardent republican forced into an alliance of convenience with the monarchy, Garibaldi would champion democratic, radical, and socialist causes for the remainder of his illustrious life.

    Over the next forty years, tensions develop within Italy as its radical and socialist parties grow in strength and popularity while the monarchy itself relies on republican Germany to defend it from the prospect of either French or Austrian invasion. Though numerous concessions are made regarding constitutional and social reforms, the monarchist-republican marriage is not a happy one, and the rise of the reactionary and intolerant Umberto I spells the inevitable end of the union.

    Recent events have seen Umberto's overthrow in favor of a new republic led by Garibaldi's son Menotti as Consul. The Red Republic, as it is popularly known, is largely in line with the Second Republic's pronounced left-wing bent, and Consul Garibaldi himself is an ardent internationalist socialist who dreams of completing his father's work on a global scale.

    Though much of the Italian Republic is still in flux, the need to rebuild is minimal given the speed and decisiveness of the Roman Revolution, though periodic reactionary violence still haunts the countryside, requiring decisive military intervention to put down. Italy's government is centered on the Senate of the Republic, a large unicameral body whose committees make up the executive governance of the nation. The Senate's party structure is still fluid and unsettled, but seems to be divided mostly between the socialists, the radical republicans, and a more conventional liberal republican movement.

    Unlike Spain, Italy's anarchist tradition is much weaker due to persistent opposition by both royalist and democratic opposition forces, both of whom perceive parallel structures of aid and support as undermining central authority. As such, save for the Commune of San Marino and a few other similar cities, anarchist influence is scarce.

    The new Republic is defended principally by the Red Legions, which serve as its standing army, as well as the People's Navy. The Green Army is the national conscript reserve, and its members serve in either front-line or support capacities. Most of the pre-republican military was made up of republicans or republican sympathizers, and so little actual reorganization has been needed, aside from officer elections.

    Like Germany, Italy is concerned with spreading the international revolution, but faces a similar issue of a two-front war with less in the way of manpower or territory to help fight it. As such, it is committed to the East First policy, so long as it is given sufficient time to consolidate and build up first. Relations with France remain frosty, however, particularly over Savoy and Nice.
     
  • Informational
    • Etranger said:
    In the summer of 1890, Wilhelm Liebknecht is taken away from his cushy semi-retirement as Deputy Sub-Commissioner for Strategic Cartography and ushered into a meeting with the new High Commissioner, Elisabeth Strauss, who during the Civil War gained a reputation as "the Red Widow of Stuttgart'' for her role as Liebknecht's hard-charging deputy. Twenty-three terrifying minutes later, Liebknecht is officially head of the new Sub-Commission for Information. Organized under the auspices of the External Affairs Commission, the SCI is ostensibly a newspaper-collating non-entity tasked with reporting on events in foreign countries. In actuality, it is the foundation of what will someday become the first true foreign intelligence agency.
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    this poor man, he just wants to draw maps and grill

    no rest for the HERO OF THE REVOLUTION, i suppose

    Nevis said:
    Italy thinks we're giving them time to industrialise, lol. Moscow by Christmas!
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    The capital of Russia at this time was St. Petersburg :p
     
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    On the one hand, good riddance to Nikolai. On the other hand, we kinda want the monarchs to be as incompetent as Nikolai would be.
     
    Wait ah shit one of our actions to get the Jacobon to the revolutionary party's around the world may have had a hand on successfully killing the Tsarvson
     
    Triple Alliance seems solid, only problem is that there is no land connection between any of them which would make supporting each other in war tricky
     
    Right now I see the biggest opportunity is to break the Austro-Hungarians and focus on building up our allies. We also should look into expanding northwards in the future. As for the UK and France, I know this may anger many in the anti-colonial movement but I believe we should wait. As long as we have reactionary Austria and Russia near us we must focus on them.
     
    TheArcanist said:
    this poor man, he just wants to draw maps and grill

    no rest for the HERO OF THE REVOLUTION, i suppose
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    Garibaldi served the people until his death, and Liebknecht will do the same. I wonder whether Karl and Menotti commiserate about their fathers' shadows by telegram from time to time.

    Aranfan said:
    On the one hand, good riddance to Nikolai. On the other hand, we kinda want the monarchs to be as incompetent as Nikolai would be.
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    I'm not too fussed to be honest. Georgi and Michael Alexandrovich were not significant improvements over Nikolai.
     
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