Whirlwinds of Danger

[Terran_Games]

Hey all! This isn't like an actual TL, or a Nanowrimo project or something, more slightly coherent rambling. This was supposed to be a short summary for a friend of mine about a fantasy setting I've been daydreaming about for a long time now, but instead, it exploded into this gigantic thing. I haven't been feeling very motivated to write about it recently because I've realized that I don't really know anything about what I'm doing, about working class life, or oppressed people, or other cultures at all. I'm just bullshitting my way through this, I don't feel qualified to to write this, and some existential crises about war in fiction, doing cultural appropriation, the world, and the politics of this setting in general, so...

I don't know what to do anymore. Any feedback, any at all, any criticisms, problems, and things I should do to make it better (research, writing style, cultural appropriation issues, etc) would be greatly appreciated. More updates are on the way.

(For context, this is an industrial fantasy setting, with magic, and elves, dwarves, etc. Though it's not obvious from the grand "historical" descriptions here. Oh, and except for Albion, all the names are placeholders.)

Special thanks to @Aelita for writing Reds! Which is one of the main inspirations for this, and the reason I'm not a fascist today.

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The New Millennium

"The machinery of abundance has left us in want."

• Charlie Chaplin

As the new millennium dawned, the world was in the grip of the greatest golden age that it had ever seen. Great roads of iron stitched the land together, vast factories producing more than anyone before could have ever dreamed of, ships that could sail the skies, and far more.

Riding high amongst the nations was the United Kingdom of Albion. It was the most heavily industrialised nation in the world, a small island off the coast of the continent, with a vast world-spanning colonial empire, and the largest navy on the planet. As the new millennium came, it seemed that the sun would never set on her.

But amidst such great wealth lay even greater poverty. The vast riches of the world were built on the backs of exploited workers, working long hours, malnourished, and living in disease-ridden slums. They did not take it lying down however; they fought back. They formed unions, and called strikes, often brutally repressed. Their actions were also not merely limited to the economic sphere.

In the 2940s, the Populist movement was formed, a working-class mass movement that fought to reform the electoral system to enfranchise the working class, demanding, among other things, the reform of electoral districts based on population, and universal suffrage. Despite the existence of many "physical-force" populists, the movement was primarily peaceful, relying on petitions and mass meetings to further their aims. It would all change, however, in 2950, with news of revolutions sweeping across the continent, a mass demonstration was planned in Rhydon, the capital, with the intention of marching on parliament to present their petition. The government responded by banning large scale public assemblies, and bolstered the size of the police force to more than a hundred thousand constables. Erik Poe, the leader of the Populists, decided to go ahead with the march, believing that the government was bluffing, and that they wouldn't dare attack a crowd of that size, and risk revolution. He was wrong however, and hundreds would be killed after soldiers fired on the crowd, and in the chaos of the aftermath. Rioting, strikes, and several small-scale uprisings would break out in the aftermath, but they were too loose and disorganised, and were quickly crushed by the army, and the Populists banned. In response, a disgruntled Populist would assassinate the Prime Minister, triggering a wave of arrests and repression, signalling the shift in Albian politics away from peaceful reform, towards an escalating cycle of repression and radicalisation. But even as the Populist movement crashed and burned, many workers would begin to flirt with even more radical ideas.

Labourism was an ideology with a heritage stretching back thousands of years, but the development of modern labourism would coincide with the start of the industrial revolution, with workers toiling away in terrible conditions for 13 hours a day or more in the ever-growing factories, their lives as expendable as the coal that fueled their machines, while the capitalists reaped vast profits, growing rich enough to challenge the nobility. While many pushed for greater political representation, many thinkers, both intellectuals and workers, began to develop the idea that the workers themselves should own the factories, the tools, the means of production, and work for themselves as their own masters. It was originally limited to a utopian ideology, with rich philanthropists attempting to set up idyllic communes, most of which soon failed, but by the middle of the century, the winds had shifted towards direct political action.

The first of these tendencies to arise in Albion were the Legalists, who were associated with the conservative craft union movement of the 60's and 70's. They believed that a labourist society could be achieved through peaceful electoral reform, and to this end, founded the Commonwealth Party, which among other things, called for universal suffrage, the eight hour day, and nationalisation of industry. The other major tendency to emerge at this time were the Syndicalists. While similar ideas had been around for decades, syndicalism would grow in popularity after the violent suppression of the Populist movement. They believed that political reform was useless, and that the only way for workers to improve their condition was through the trade unions. They sought to advance their goals through strikes and direct action, to organise all workers into One Big Union, and eventually overthrow the government in a general strike, whereupon the workers would seize control of their factories, and run them themselves.

The two tendencies would compete through the latter part of the century, with the legalists attempting to portray themselves as a respectable alternative to the syndicalists, who were known for launching violent strikes, occupying towns, and engaging in armed battles with police. It would all come to an end however, after a violent crackdown on a miners' strike in Cambria, a group of bombers would assassinate the King out of revenge. His son, Henry IV, would crack down hard on the labour movement in the aftermath. The Commonwealth Party was banned, its leaders arrested, as well as many of the trade unions. The violent repression of this period would radicalise many workers, and wiped the slate clean of the moderates, preparing it for the more radical labourists to take centre stage.

Rising from Ashes

With head uncovered swear we all

To bear it onward till we fall;

Come dungeons dark or gallows grim,

This song shall be our parting hymn…

• The Red Flag

But, one of the universal truths is that "All men must die," and so he did, passing away in 2996, leaving his son Henry V to take the throne, who began to liberalise, appointing a new liberal government, and eased back some of the measures and restrictions of his father.

After years of repression, and the failures of attempts to organise the workers, there was a broad consensus amongst all labourists that a new national organisation was needed to bring strength and coherence to the Labour movement. It was in this context that the First Albian Workers' Congress was called, with delegates from trade unions, workers' societies, and other left-wing organisations gathered in Rhydon on a cold January morning to discuss the future of the labourist movement.

One of the major issues discussed was the creation of a single trade union federation. The increasing scale of capitalist enterprises, growing into larger and larger trusts, reducing workers into tiny cogs in vast dehumanising machines convinced many that in order to fight back effectively, all workers of different trades in an industry needed to be united into larger unions, organised along industrial lines. The idea was resisted by some of the delegates from the craft unions that attended, but thanks in part to the decimation of the moderate unions under Henry IV, the more radical syndicalists and industrial unionists prevailed, and an agreement was reached to hold a special founding congress for the union later that year, resulting in the creation of the United Workers Union (UWU).

However, the most contentious issue of the congress was that of political participation. The Anarchists (who overlapped heavily with the syndicalists) would argue that political participation in the government was futile, that most of the working class didn't have the vote, and that direct action in the unions was a far superior way of educating the workers to develop a class consciousness, directly in their struggle with the capitalists, and that all political endeavours were merely a distraction. The Legalists disagreed, arguing that a political party was viable, the recent expansion in the electoral franchise was indicative of more to come, that they should participate in the government, and that it was possible to win reforms for the working class, and eventually establish labourism through political means.

This was the most intensely debated issue in the congress. However, the most influential speaker of the congress was William Benson, a syndicalist who argued that what the Anarchists were proposing was, in effect, a vast revolutionary conspiracy, which was impossible to hide from the capitalists, who would take the first opportunity to crush it into dust. Likewise, he argued the impotence of political action alone, that the workers would not be organised to take control of their workplaces, and that the capitalists would simply crush labour with an iron fist, should they feel power truly slipping out of their hands, if they did not have the strength to resist. To this end, he proposed an alliance between a political party and the union, one growing to take power on the political field, shielding the other to take power in the industrial one. His arguments would ultimately convince enough syndicalists to vote for the proposal to create a political party, while many of the anarchists would walk out of the congress forming the independent Free Workers Union (FWU). The remaining delegates would usher in the new millennium with the creation of the Labour Party.

As the years passed, they would grow in size, not remaining simply a political party and a union. They would create their own credit unions, newspapers, clubs, grocery stores, and housing co-ops. The party-union would rapidly become a "state within a state," a counter-society, growing inside the shell of the old.

 

[Terran_Games]

Liberation!

"The worker is the slave of capitalist society, the female worker is the slave of that slave."

• James Connolly

The party's growth, however, was not to be without problems. Female members in particular would be targets of discrimination and sexual harassment from their male colleagues. In Jorvik, in the city of Avoncaster, a group of female union organisers shared their experiences dealing with these issues from their male colleagues. Realising the extent to which these problems existed within the party and the union, they decided to form a local group in order to discuss how to fight against sexism within the labourist movement. As time passed, they met up and began to work together with other, similar groups, not just within their city, but across the whole country, eventually establishing a national federation called the Society for the Liberation of the Female Sex, which would eventually be shortened to just Liberation.

Liberation would provide a safe space for women to discuss strategies for combating discrimination, sexual harassment, and male chauvinism within the labour movement, as well as helping to organise female workers, particularly in the textiles industry. They set up soup kitchens, medical clinics, daycares, and promoted birth control and education amongst working-class women. It would grow over time, eventually becoming the largest female-run, and female-only organisation in Albion.

Contrary to popular belief, Liberation is not, and never was the "female wing" of Labour, or the UWU, despite significant overlap of members between them, instead deciding to remain a separate and autonomous organisation, so as not to be subordinate to the (at the time) male-dominated organisations, a decision which was controversial with many labourists, claiming that Liberation was unnecessary and divisive to the labour movement.

The Land War

"The land for the people!"

• Irish National Land League

The start of the Second Land War was the result of conditions long brewing in the White Islands. The mechanisation and growing productivity of agriculture in Albion would displace many rural workers, causing unemployment, riots, and strikes, but ultimately, most of them would migrate to the cities looking for employment. This process would only accelerate, as other countries such as the empires of Misia and Slavonia began to industrialise and mechanise their agriculture as well, their vast fields capable of producing on a scale that Albion was simply incapable of matching, and the nation gradually became more reliant on cheaper food imports from abroad.

The other major factor was that at the start of the new millennium, roughly 90% of agricultural land in Albion was worked by tenant farmers, renting their land. During times of poor harvests, many farmers would not be able to pay it, and would be evicted by their landlords. Even during times of good harvests, often the rent would be so high that after paying for it, and the necessities of life, there would be nothing left over.

It was in this context that the First Land War occurred. Through the 2970's, it was a period of agitation and organisation of rural farmworkers and tenant farmers, the farmworkers fighting for better wages and working conditions, and the tenant farmers for "Free sale, fixity of tenure, and fair rent." During its early years, it met with a significant amount of success in Thedland, and Hibernia especially, where it took on a nationalistic element. However, it went into decline following a series of poor harvests, organised resistance, and strikebreaking by landowners, and was finished off by the round of repressions under Henry IV.

As the restrictive measures relaxed under his son, farmers' organisations soon sprung up again, the two most important being the National Agricultural Workers League (NAWL), and the Hibernian Tenants Union (HTU). They would see some initial success in organising strikes, rent strikes, and boycotts against landowners, rallying for land reform beneath the slogan "The Land for the People!"

They were successful enough to catch the attention of the national UWU, who would organise assistance to help the striking workers, contributing to their strike funds, and providing legal aid. Importantly, many local workers chose to boycott landlords that the tenants and farmworkers were striking against in solidarity, the mailmen refusing to deliver or pick up mail, servers refusing to serve them in restaurants, etc.

Ultimately, most of the strikes conducted during this period were successful, and the NAWL and HTU would join the UWU, entering the orbit of the labourist movement at large.

The support from farmers would prove vital during the Albian Civil War.

 

[Terran_Games]

Co-opting the Co-ops

"The changes in the economic foundation lead sooner or later to the transformation of the whole immense superstructure."

• Karl Marx

The history of cooperative societies in Albion stretches back hundreds of years, but the origins of the modern cooperative movement can be traced back to the mid 30th century, with the foundation of the first true worker and consumer cooperatives. Of particular note were the Waldham Consumer Society (WCS), with its famous Waldham Principles, and the Federation of Cooperative Producers (FCP), the first stable and successful federation of worker cooperatives in Albion. They, and other cooperatives would go on to form the Cooperative League, an organisation dedicated to holding the cooperative movement together, and promoting the values of cooperation across the country.

As the Labour Party grew, it too began to dip its toes into the ever growing stream of cooperation. Many party and union locals began to set up cooperative grocery stores or cafes to provide services to their members. However, the most important development was the creation of their own credit unions. Many locals would create them to provide savings and loan services to their members, without having to rely on the conventional banks, which were perceived as untrustworthy. They were used to finance housing construction, and the creation of other local coops and businesses.

This caught the attention of some of the members of already existing coops, many of whom (in an unofficial capacity,) began to collaborate with them, providing aid and business advice to the newly-minted cooperatives, realising the potential of the vast capital reserves of the credit unions that could be harnessed to boost the cooperative movement at-large.

And so it was, as the Cooperative League held their annual congress in 3006, one of the major items on the agenda was collaboration with Labour. Many in the pro-Labour faction argued passionately for collaboration with the party, citing the fact that they had not seen too much success lobbying politicians from either the Liberal or Conservative Parties to pass legislation in favour of cooperatives. They also emphasised the size of the capital reserves that would be available to them, in the party's credit unions, which would go a long way to solve their perennial issue of having insufficient capital to fund new coops and continuing operations in existing ones. Lastly, of course, the two movements had similar goals, both of creating a Co-operative Commonwealth, based on social ownership and democratic control…

Ultimately however, the more conservative bloc would prevail, rejecting the measure to officially affiliate with the Labour Party (which may barely have prevented them from being proscribed like Labour during the First Great War), but they would pass a measure to officialise the assistance already being provided to Labour's coops, and to deepen the collaboration between them and the newly created cooperatives.

For many workers, these cooperatives would give them their first taste of self-management, some of which are still around today, such as the famous cafe, The Black Tabby. They would prove to be an important training ground for many workers for the years ahead.

The Light of Civilisation

"Take up the White Man's burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild—
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child."

• Rudyard Kipling

As the third millennium drew to a close, trouble was brewing to the west. Occidentia had long been the crown jewel of the empire. It had vast fields, growing cocoa, coffee, sugarcane, and more. Its enormous mineral wealth, of gold, silver, and more recently, oil and gas, made it the greatest prize in the dragon's horde, earning it the nickname "The Golden Land."

The Gilded Land, however, would be a more accurate description. For beneath the golden exterior lay a darker heart, for the great wealth of the land did not go to the majority, but instead to a tiny group of Albian settlers; rich landowners and businessmen. Taxation was so high that even one bad harvest would cause widespread famine. Even slavery, which the Albians took pride in being the first to abolish, still existed. Hundreds of thousands of prisoners, indentured workers, and press-ganged locals would pour their sweat and blood, sometimes literally, into building the roads, the railways, and the pipelines that would suck the land dry of its bounty, sending on its journey to the metropole.

But many Albians also believed that they were here on a mission, to "civilise" these people, to take care of them until they were "sufficiently prepared to rule themselves." Many middle-class liberals, as well as labourists were horrified by the excesses of the colonial administration. One Liberal, Frederick Taylor, would become the face of the reform movement, arguing in an essay he wrote in 2961; "As the rulers of Occidentia, as the beneficiaries of its wealth, we Albians have a moral responsibility, a burden, to return that wealth, and use it to help uplift her people from the sad, sorry state they exist in now, into the light of civilisation."

So began the Liberal Period, which was a span of about two decades, in which the colonial administration made attempts to improve the living conditions of their colonial subjects. The worst excesses of taxation and forced labour were cut back. Schemes were drawn up to improve irrigation, and infrastructure throughout the land. However, they always suffered from a chronic lack of funds, and so even at the best of times the efforts made were half-hearted.

By far the most important change however, was opening of the Albian education system to the indigenous population, partially for idealistic reasons, and partially to help fill up the growing civil bureaucracy. The end result of this was a rise in literacy, and the creation of a new and growing class of educated indigenous Occidentals. Over the next forty years, they would begin to develop a nascent national consciousness and anti-colonialism, giving rise to a series of short-lived national organisations.

This would all culminate in 3000, with the creation of the Association of the People of Occidentia (APO). A revolutionary secret society dedicated to the establishment of an independent Occidental Republic.

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Author's Note:
I'm really worried about this bit, so if there's anything inappropriate, please let me know. Thanks.

 

[Terran_Games]

A Howling Wilderness

"I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn, the more you kill and burn the better it will please me. I want all persons killed who are capable of bearing arms…"

• General Jacob H. Smith

The First Occidental Revolution, or the Great Rebellion, as it was called at the time, would prove to be an pivotal moment for the labourists in Albion. The conflict and the atrocities committed during it would shift the party towards a more strongly anti-colonial, and anti-war position.

However, to backtrack slightly, by 3005 the APO had grown dramatically, consisting of, on paper at least, several hundred thousand members, many drawn from the middle and lower classes. It had its own newspaper, its own songs, and many writers began to publish their own works aimed at spreading revolutionary and patriotic ideals. Despite all this however, many amongst the rank-and-file, and the supreme council did not believe that the time was right for the revolution, that they were not ready, or well armed enough to pull it off successfully.

Unfortunately for them, no conspiracy can remain secret forever. On the night of August 6, police raided a printing office owned by the APO, and discovered evidence of their existence, which prompted an immediate crackdown by local authorities, arresting dozens of people, many innocent. After learning of the arrests, the local chapter of the APO called a mass meeting, in which they officially endorsed an armed revolution, and the revolt was on. Initially, they would see massive success, taking control of large portions of the country, thanks to a combination of guile, luck, and Albian overconfidence, proclaiming the Occidental Republic in December.

The revolution was first met with shock and horror back in Albion as reports of atrocities committed against Albian civilians and soldiers alike began making their way across the ocean. Despite attempts by the revolutionaries to only target soldiers, thousands of Albian settlers were killed, although many of the reports have since been discovered to have been grossly exaggerated, or outright fabrications. Another great fear was that the new republic was just a front for a Menian invasion, not helped after the later discovery of the arms shipments to the revolutionaries. As such, when the first soldiers set sail from Albion to squash the rebellion, they were sent off with almost universal support, and recruiting offices were met with tens of thousands of volunteers.

But when they finally arrived there, they found that pacifying the country was going to be a much tougher job than they anticipated. They were not used to fighting in mountainous regions, and as they advanced across the country, they faced fierce resistance from the defenders, they would have to fight block-by-block to secure cities, and they were harassed day and night by guerilla fighters. The fighting was incredibly brutal, the frustrated soldiers would loot every village they came across and shoot at surrendering soldiers. Torture and war rape were prevalent, and entire villages were razed to the ground, their populations slaughtered to the last, in retaliation for guerilla attacks. The initial atrocities were met with widespread approval back in Albion, seen as "rightful and just punishment" for the rebellion.

Within the Labour Party, support for the war was divided. There were many who supported the government forces, believing that the attempt by the Occidentals to establish a republic was doomed, that the republic would simply be swallowed up by another one of the "great empires." Instead, they believed it would be better for them to remain within the empire, so that when the labourists eventually took power, they would transform the empire into an "Commonwealth of Peoples" -with Albion at its heart. A colonial empire in all but name. However, many of the more radical members of the party were disgusted by the brutality of the soldiers, the imperialist motives of the war, and sympathised with the Occidentals' goal of establishing a republic. Together, a group of journalists and politicians (mainly labourists and liberals) formed the Peace Committee, which sought to find a peaceful settlement, and end the war as quickly as possible. They did not have much success swaying public opinion initially, often being heckled and jeered at, and sometimes assaulted by pro-war protesters, so they decided to change tactics. Instead they would spend their time researching and publishing accurate information about the war on the ground, which would pay dividends as the war entered its guerilla phase.

Ultimately, the revolutionaries did not prevail, with the world's largest empire battering down the walls, it was only a matter of time until they collapsed. The last major cities held by the rebels fell after two years of brutal fighting, and the revolutionaries switched tactics to guerilla warfare, vowing to carry on the struggle. The Albians responded by adopting a brutal scorched earth strategy, destroying anything that could be used by the guerillas. Albian troops combed the countryside, destroying crops, razing villages, and rounding up anyone they found and putting them into concentration camps. They set up networks of blockhouses and barbed wire to guard their supply lines against guerilla attacks and impede their movement, garrisoned with hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

Support for the war began to wane as it became clear that it was going to be much more difficult than they had first expected. The patriotism and anger that had characterised the early months of the war had abated, and weariness had set in. Many labourists would focus their opposition on highlighting the enormous cost of the war. Public opposition would further grow after the revelation of the concentration camps, and the abysmal conditions that hundreds of thousands of civilians faced. The Peace Committee also began to organise the first protests against the war.

The scorched earth tactics would slowly yield results, but the cost was immense, and by 3009, the last major holdouts, led by President John Martin, remained in the northern deserts, which were so large that a comprehensive system of blockhouses would be too expensive to build. The rebels were aided by the semi-nomadic peoples who lived in the northern desert. With domestic political unrest growing, they needed to shift tactics.

It was around this time that General William Jameson would assume command of operations. He was the son of wealthy landowning settlers in Occidentia, and had served in the army for decades, fighting off raids by the Halitlaca, and suppressing rebellions. During the revolution, he barely managed to escape a besieged city, leaving behind his family, who were killed after the city fell. To him, the conflict was a racial struggle between the natives and the settlers, and that an iron fist was necessary to ensure the survival of the Albians.

After a company of soldiers occupying a northern town was attacked, leaving dozens dead, Jameson decided that the only way to end the conflict was to lead an expedition north to capture Martin, and force him to surrender. He also saw the aid provided by some within the northern tribes, his long time enemy, as evidence that all of them would need to be expelled from the country in order to end all resistance in the north, and to set an example to keep the other natives in line.

In December, having assembled a force of roughly 50,000 men, General Jameson issued his infamous proclamation; Declaring that by aiding the rebels, and killing soldiers and Albian civilians, the desert tribes as a whole were guilty of treason, and that they must leave the country at once, and that any of them found within their territory would be executed. On the 9th, he and his army began their march northwards, slowly and methodically sweeping the land for rebel fighters. The advancing army would destroy whole towns and villages in their path, killing anyone who had not, or could not flee. President Martin, upon learning of the march, chose not to make a stand against the Albians in the field, and instead began organising delaying actions, harassing the Albians, to buy time for as many refugees to flee north as possible.

At first the events of the Mountain Campaign were not known by the public in Albion. But finally, news began to make its way across the sea, slipping past the censors through refugees fleeing into Menia, whose stories were quickly picked up by the local press. News of the atrocities, combined with war-weariness caused massive public outcry. There were large scale demonstrations against the war, and the UWU organised a massive general strike on the 1st of February involving several hundred thousand workers, which was brutally suppressed by police.

However, in spite of crippling logistical problems and constant harassing attacks by the rebels, Jameson would ultimately succeed in his task by the end of February, driving the last of the guerilla fighters, accompanied by tens of thousands of refugees, across the border into Menia. The war had been won, but at a terrible price. The death toll from the years of war, the disruption, famine, and genocide is estimated to have been between 500,000 and 1,000,000.

The international reaction to the war was strongly negative towards the Albians, being portrayed as a nation of murderers and butchers, as news of the atrocities spread across the world. In Menia especially, public opinion was sympathetic towards the rebels, viewing them as a bunch of freedom fighters, underdogs fighting against their brutal Albian occupiers. The war would strengthen calls by nationalists and militarists within Menia to launch a "decolonisation war" to expel all of the foreign colonisers from the continent, but for now, the peace held. The labourists in Albion would also be dramatically affected by the conflict. After witnessing the brutality, and immense cost of the war, both in financial and human terms, many would adopt a much stronger anti-militarist and anti-colonial stance, which would prove important upon the outbreak of the First Great War.

The Great Unrest

"A strike is an incipient revolution. Many large revolutions have grown out of a small strike."

• "Big Bill" Haywood

The end of the rebellion would not bring peace back to Albion. Shortly after the end of the fighting, new elections were held, and the Conservatives received a massive shellacking at the polls, with the Liberals gaining a majority in Parliament, and Labour making significant gains. There was much hope that this would lead to significant political reform, and while some reforms were passed, such as the creation of old-age pensions and unemployment insurance, many workers would become frustrated at the limited nature of the reforms, and the seeming ineffectiveness of political participation. Wages would also begin to stagnate in this period, combined with inflation, and the drying up of war-related orders with the end of the rebellion, industrial unrest would grow dramatically, with tens of millions of workdays lost to strikes from 3010-11. It would also see an escalation in violence as well, seeing clashes with police, with workers sabotaging machinery and attacking strikebreakers. Syndicalism would grow in popularity, as union membership would double during this period, the combined ranks of the UWU and the FWU, as well as other miscellaneous unions reached over 3.5 million, or 13.5% of the workforce. The enormous and violent industrial conflict convinced many contemporaries, on the right and the left, that revolution was imminent.

The events would escalate over the course of 3011, after a Labour MP introduced a bill into the House of Commons for universal suffrage. There was significant support even among the Liberals, many of whom thought that electoral reform was necessary, and that if they delivered it, they could gain the support of the working class. The first two proposals managed to pass through the Commons, but were shot down by the more conservative House of Lords. After the second bill was shot down, rioting broke out in several cities, and a major series of strikes broke out, not officially sanctioned by the leaders of either the UWU or the FWU, with calls for abolishing the Lords filling the streets. The strikes and riots also inflamed nationalist tensions in Jorvik, as many of the upper and middle classes in their cities were immigrants from Thedland, who feared not only of revolution, but also that universal suffrage would lead to the success of the Jorkish nationalists in establishing home rule, and so many of them began to form "self-defence militias," with the nationalists responding in kind, and many feared civil war.

The events would climax the next February, when the bill was introduced a third time. After passing through the Commons, the Labour Party and the UWU would officially back a general strike, scheduled for the 5th of March. The government began to prepare for the strike, with the recruitment of thousands of special constables, and many of the conservatives in the House of Lords began to urge their fellows to cease resistance to the bill. Newspapers across the country would only inflame the tensions, claiming that the strike would trigger a revolution, and that the country would descend into anarchy. Many moderate Labour MPs were reluctant to support the strike, fearing that it would be "'50 all over again," and that they would be crushed like the Populists were. As the deadline approached, the attention of the Albians were focused inward, but the beginning of the end for the Kingdom would come from outside.

 

[Terran_Games]

The World Plunges into Hell

"The working class have never yet had a voice in declaring war. If war is right, let it be declared by the people – you, who have your lives to lose."

• Eugene V. Debs

With the largest navy in the world, separated from the continent by a stretch of open blue, Albion was content to remain isolated from continental affairs, only occasionally interfering to prevent the rise of a continent-dominating power. This calculus would change suddenly however, after the formation of the "Unholy Alliance" of Slavonia and the Reich. Slavonia was always considered a exotic, oriental land. It's border to many, marked the eastern edge of Plateia, the dividing line between those who worshipped the true Gods, and a bunch of backwards pagans who refused to abandon their "ancient superstitions." This was of course, just prejudice, and in fact, Slavonia was undergoing a process of modernisation and industrialisation, a fact not unnoticed by others throughout the continent, and while in some nations, this manifested itself as a fear that the "barbarians" would swamp them in a pagan tide, in the Reich, Chancellor Ralf von Fischland saw it as a chance to partner one of Plateia's central nations to a enormous giant, and create a continent-dominating bloc. It was not an easy task, and there was significant resistance, especially among the conservative nobility, though eventually he succeeded.

The announcement of the Reicher-Slavonian Axis sent shockwaves throughout the world, and the political leadership in Rhydon panicked after receiving the news. They would choose to break Albion's diplomatic isolation, and began courting the other nations to try and contain the Axis, resulting in the creation of the Entente, an alliance initially composed of Albion, Gallia, and Rhomania, but would quickly expand to include many other nations, many outside of Plateia. The biggest issue facing the alliance was one of strategic depth, with the core Axis members' territory stretching across half the world, even with the majority of industrial capacity and military strength on the Entente's side, they would be facing an uphill battle right from the start.

There had been many major diplomatic crises in the decades before, so historians still debate to this day about what made the February Crisis different, in that it escalated all the way into world war. Nevertheless, many thought it would be peacefully resolved, and in fact, public attention in Albion was still focused on the impending general strike all the way until the Tsar of Slavonia ordered a general mobilisation of the army on 29th of February. Despite many attempts to prevent the conflict, this was the point of no return, as Gallian war plans involved a rapid mobilisation and an immediate invasion to occupy the Reich's industrial heartlands as quickly as possible before the Axis militaries could mobilise significant resistance to stop them. Thus on 1st of March, Gallian troops began to move across the border, and the First Great War began. Albion joined the war on the 3rd. The government faced the challenge of trying to unite the divided public behind the war effort. The suffrage bill was quickly passed by the Lords, under pressure from Prime Minister Roberts, to resolve the crisis, promising that elections would be held when the war ended. However, there were fears about the labourists and their internationalist and anti-militarist rhetoric, and many Conservatives and Liberals believed that they would need to be suppressed.

The Labour Party would call an emergency conference after the outbreak of war. In the years before, it had been part of an organisation called the International Labour Association, or just the International. It was an attempt to coordinate the policies of the different labourist movements in different countries. Just a few years before, they had adopted a resolution stating that all member organisations would resist war by any means necessary, but now, faced with an actual conflict, almost all of them chose to back their own countries, and became enthusiastic supporters of the war, all of them on both sides seeing it as a war of defence, and collaboration as a way to gain more influence in the postwar government.

In Albion however, the recent events in Occidentia still weighed heavily in the minds of their labourists. The start of the war would trigger a split within the party, contrary to popular belief, not between revolutionaries and reformists, but between pro-war and anti-war camps. The pro-war delegates believed that this war was different from the one in Occidentia, and that this was a war of defence, not imperialism, and they would be stupid to let the Axis sweep across the continent and threaten them. Other, more radical elements among the pro-war delegates would see this as a revolutionary war, to rid Plateia of reactionary authoritarian monarchies, and clear the way for labourism to triumph. There was also an element of pragmatism, worrying that they would simply be banned if they tried to resist the war effort. The anti-war delegates would argue back, denying that it wasn't an imperialist war, and that the Royal Navy would protect them from any possible invasion. The workers would gain nothing from this conflict, instead only being exploited harder, the young men sent to die as expendable cannon fodder to further the aims of imperialism and capitalism. Anna Robertson, an anti-war delegate, gave the final speech of the conference, pointing out that the government had spent four years, and paid an enormous price in money and lives to put down a small colonial rebellion, but; "Will they expect a war with some of the greatest powers on Earth to be easier?" She ended with a vivid description of rivers of blood and gold, the souls of the working class to be sacrificed in an unholy ritual that would leave the world in ruins. A vote was soon held over adopting a resolution that the Labour Party and the UWU would resist the war by all means available to them. It would pass by a single vote, 49 to 48, with the pro-war delegates walking out of the conference shortly afterwards.

PM Roberts reached out to many of the labourists, planning on making concessions, hoping that they would be reasonable enough not to do anything rash. He was rebuffed by the mainstream Labour Party, and feared the worst, that all the labourists would stand against him, when he was contacted by members of the group that had walked out of the emergency conference. They had organised a new party called the National Labour Party, with significant support within the unions as well, which broke off from United Workers, pledging their support for the war, and soon became part of the wartime coalition government. Large scale anti-war strikes and demonstrations filled the streets, which were swiftly and violently suppressed. It would all come to a head however, with the passage of the Conscription Act in April, after a very disappointing turnout of volunteers. The UWU called a general strike against it, decrying it as "military slavery," and "sending workingmen off to their deaths to line capitalists' pockets," with the FWU joining a day later. This was the last straw, and the Labour Party, the UWU, the FWU, as well as many other leftist groups were officially banned as subversive organisations, with a wave of arrests sweeping across the country, as thousands of labour leaders and party members were arrested, and the strikes broken with deadly force, leaving many dead. Many prominent union members and activists were targeted by the draft boards, and conscripted into the army and sent to the front. Public opinion slowly began to turn against the labourists, due to the violent strikes, as a large-scale propaganda campaign began, and selective reporting of atrocities from the front made it home. Many Albians began to be convinced that this really was a defensive war, and volunteer numbers began to tick upwards again, and labour unrest cooled down.

As the country began to mobilise, increasing restrictions on everyday life began to come into effect. Large numbers of immigrants from countries that Albion was at war with. Tens of thousands of Reichers and Slavonians found themselves being deported or being forced into concentration camps, with parents sometimes being separated from their children, who were forced to fend for themselves. Censorship began, with letters, press telegrams, and newspapers being monitored for sensitive information, or for passages that could be interpreted as being sympathetic towards the enemy, often ending with entire pages being left blank. Labour began to be militarised, with acts passed making it illegal to leave a factory without an official "leaving certificate," and mandatory arbitration councils were set up to settle workplace disputes, with the unions from National Labour collaborating.

Meanwhile, back on the continent, the Gallian offensive had not panned out as well as hoped. They made spectacular gains during March and April, taking most of the West Bank, and crossing the mighty Schlammfluss, but the Reichers managed to rally with the help of arriving Slavonian troops, and the offensive ground to a halt, as both sides dug in, having faced truly horrific casualties in the opening days of the war. As more and more Albian and Slavonian troops arrived, the trench network continued to expand, stretching for hundreds of miles from the mountains in the south to the sea in the north. The Western Front would become the defining front of the war, described by some as a gigantic open-air siege, neither side able to successfully break the other. Contrary to popular belief, the generals did not just "attack pointlessly," stubbornly refusing to learn. Tactics and strategy would evolve rapidly over the first two years of the war, and the superior industrial might of Albion and Gallia would begin to crank out hundreds, then thousands of tanks, trucks, and guns. Things were changing, bit by bit, and slowly, the war was tipping in the Entente's favour.

Until the Menians entered the fray.

 

[Terran_Games]

Totaler Krieg

"I ask you: Do you want total war? Do you want it, if need be, even more total and radical than we are capable of imagining it today?"

• Joseph Goebbels

The entrance of Menia into the war was not inevitable, and in fact relations between it and Albion were relatively cordial in the decades before the war, at least compared to the many wars they had fought over the centuries. The great empire was finally rebounding from the times of political instability and wars that had wracked the continent, ever since the arrival of the colonisers from the east. It was a time of modernisation and industrialisation, as foreign capital (especially Albian capital) flowed across the sea, financing the construction of new railways, schools, factories, coal mines, and more. But capital wasn't the only thing to cross the sea, ideas such as labourism, liberalism, and nationalism came too.

Menian nationalism drew on old ideas of the empire having once been the "centre of the world," as the most powerful native state in the region, and was defined by a sense of anti-colonialism, wishing to unite all of the peoples of the continent to expel all of the colonial empires from the region. At this point, it was not yet the ideology it would one day become, and there was a genuine sense of comradeship and internationalism between Menia and the other powers in the region. Consequently, when the Occidental Revolution began, many in Menia supported their struggle, and many would raise funds, or volunteer to fight during the conflict. Many were outraged by the atrocities committed by Albian forces, and relations between them would sour.

Even so, with the outbreak of war overseas, actual desire to go to war was not very high, especially as the economy boomed from the growing sales of arms and food to the warring powers. However, there were a small, but loud minority of voices amongst both the militarists and the Occidental exiles to go to war, especially as Albion became increasingly committed to the war in Plateia, reasoning that if they struck fast enough, the Albians wouldn't be able to redeploy their forces in time to stop them. Tensions would grow after Albion imposed a blockade of the Axis, preventing them from importing from neutral countries. The most significant outcome of this was the end of food imports, which caused starvation among the Axis powers, as food production dropped thanks to the stresses of mobilising for war. Public sentiment for war against Albion continued to grow as newspapers reported the effects of the blockade on civilians overseas, and many bankers and industrialists sought to trade with both sides. The army was mobilised on the southern border, ostensibly to protect the country against a potential Albian invasion.

There has been considerable historical debate as to whether or not the Menian government intentionally provoked the conflict, or whether it was simply an opportunistic choice, but the outcome was the same. A series of incidents over shipping to neutral countries began with a Menian merchant vessel being sunk by an Albian cruiser, and eventually escalated to an Albian fleet firing on a convoy being escorted by Menian vessels. The battle, and the destruction of Menian ships would trigger apoplectic outrage in Menia, and in September 3014, Menia would declare war on Albion. The immediate result of this was a major offensive being launched south into Occidentia, with the intent of capturing the port cities and preventing Albian reinforcements, along with a series of raids by the Menian navy on Albian bases. The assault was far less successful than expected, with the Albian fleets stationed there managing to hold their own against the Menians, and the invasion was bogged down due to the lack of infrastructure pushing south through the desert, and was stopped once they reached the mountains. President Martin would himself lead a force of guerilla fighters into the country, armed by the Menians, with the intent of starting a revolt behind Albian lines, with the promise of the establishment of a Menian-backed republic.

However, the long-term effects of Menia's entry into the war would be disastrous for Albion. A significant chunk of her forces had to be diverted to halt the Menian advance, and the empire was stretched thin across the world, unable to launch a knockout blow against any of her opponents. But more importantly, Albion's access to the vast wheat and cornfields of Menia were now cut off, and for a country which imported most of its food before the war, it was a disaster. Rationing would begin, but it would only continue to get worse as the war progressed. Meanwhile, back overseas, the stalemate continued. Offensives were launched over and over again, but without much success, as tactics continued to develop, and a lack of mobility hampered any attempt at a breakthrough. The cost of the war continued to climb, as hundreds of thousands of men died fighting, and inflation rose rapidly, eating away at the purchasing power of the millions of people struggling to survive in the midst of the chaos. Many prisoners of war would be used as forced labour to replace many of the farmers who had gone off to fight overseas.

Nationalism would also grow during the war. In Jorvik particularly, the local population would face discrimination. From the start of the war, many assumed that they would be disloyal, based on cultural stereotypes, and from rhetoric by their enemies calling for the Jorkish to rise up and establish their own nation. It wasn't true, they were just as loyal to the empire as anyone else, but nevertheless, policies were enacted by the government restricting the use of their language, as well as their religious practices. Punishments for Jorkish soldiers would also be significantly harsher than their counterparts from the other Home Nations, with a disproportionately high number of executions.

The situation on the home front would continue to get worse as in 3015, a strain of potato blight spread across the continent, combining with poor weather to result in the widespread failure of the potato crop that year, causing major food shortages across the continent. In Albion, the shortages of supplies, combined with the increasing cost of the war resulted in rapidly rising inflation, and the real wages of workers steadily fell, with many workers working increasing overtime to try and keep food on the table, fifty, sixty, sometimes seventy hours a week, and fatal industrial accidents would increase dramatically. Food riots became a daily occurrence, with merchants being forced to lower their prices by mobs of hungry workers, or shops being outright looted. The attempts by the arbitration councils and the collaborationist councils to keep the peace would fail, and large scale strikes would increase in number as the war progressed. Many workers were fed up with their inability of the union leadership to achieve meaningful results, and so workers in many factories would elect independent delegates who would create the Shop Stewards movement, who were responsible for organising and coordinating large scale strikes in many factories. Many of the members of Liberation would play a major role in organising the strikes thanks to the simple fact that most of its members were still at home, unlike many of the male unionists, who had been conscripted at the start of the war.

In January of 3016, the situation would escalate after the flour ration was cut significantly, causing workers in a Avoncaster munition factory to walk out, quickly escalating into a nationwide general strike as millions of workers across the country downed tools. They were fed up with the traditional unions, and the factories elected delegates to city-wide workers' councils to coordinate the strikes. Large demonstrations filled the streets, and many workers began demanding not just wage increases, or for bread, but for an end to the war. The strikes were big enough to bring the government to the negotiating table, and, after several weeks, an agreement was reached, and after threats of military intervention, the councils would call off the strike, and the workers returned to work. Afterwards, many of the strikers and organisers would be drafted into the army in retaliation, but the pressure was building, and it would only be a matter of time until they boiled over again.

 

[Terran_Games]

Peace and Bread!

"There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen."

• V. I. Ulyanov

3016 would see the last round of major offensives during the war. Both sides were exhausted, and nearing collapse. On the Western Front, the Axis would strike first, launching the Spring Offensive in March. They would put to use years of experience gained during the war, new tactics, and new weapons, and achieved spectacular breakthroughs through Entente lines, killing, wounding, and capturing hundreds of thousands of men in the first few weeks. It was ultimately unsuccessful however, and the offensive eventually stalled as they were slowed down by the utterly destroyed landscape, and faced severe logistical issues, as it was difficult to transport supplies across the ruined terrain. In the summer, Entente forces would strike back, with their superior firepower and mobility. They managed to undo the gains of the spring offensive, and sent the combined Reicher-Slavonian force into full retreat. For a moment, it seemed that the war would come to an end with a total Entente victory. However, after four years of brutal offensives, there were no more men left to conscript. Even after involving colonial troops, lowering standards, and increasing the age limit, the Entente forces were facing a severe manpower shortage. The offensive would eventually peter out, having failed to break the Axis armies in the field.

Having been promised a war-winning offensive by the generals, the failure of the offensive caused the morale of many soldiers to plummet, and starting in the final days of the Summer Offensive, large numbers of soldiers, and even entire units would refuse orders from their officers to attack. It would quickly spread across the army, affecting dozens of divisions, and the number of soldiers deserting would climb significantly. Meanwhile back home, the tide of public opinion was shifting. After the failure of the offensive, and the incredibly high casualties taken, the first anti-war protests since the start of the war began. Some were organised by the Shop Stewards, while others were spontaneous. Massive demonstrations filled the streets, protesting against the continuing war and deprivation, holding aloft red flags, and banners proclaiming: "Peace and Bread!"

The final blows to the warring powers would not come from any side, but instead from mother nature herself. During the summer offensive, a new and particularly infectious strain of the flu emerged, causing some initial deaths and disruption. However, by the winter of 3016, it had mutated to become far more severe. The second wave would spread rapidly across the globe, lasting from October till January the next year, killing tens of millions of people, and more than a quarter million in Albion alone. Nature's second blow came at the end of December, as temperatures plummeted dramatically, as the continent was plunged into the coldest winter in more than a century. In Albion, temperatures would reach record lows across the country, and it would snow heavily from late December through January. Coal pits froze solid, and roads and railways were covered in deep snow drifts, which caused massive shortages of fuel and food. Factories were forced to close down, and millions were left out of work, to freeze, and to starve, if they did not do something.

The Shop Stewards across the nation, as well as many underground cells of Liberation, organised a massive nationwide strike, timed on the anniversary of the January Strikes the year before, but the workers beat them to it, when the workers in the King's Armoury in Avoncaster walked out on the 21st of January. From here, events would escalate quickly as millions of workers across the country, hungry, tired, and out of work took to the streets. The demonstrations soon became overwhelming, with protestors taking over police stations, city halls, and freed political prisoners from the jails without firing a shot. When units of the army were ordered to quell the unrest, they refused, often joining them instead. Again, the workers' councils sprung up, in Avoncaster, in Rhydon, and in all the other major cities in Albion.

The government had totally lost control of the situation, as it spiralled into full-scale revolution. King Henry's ministers pressured him to abdicate, hoping to salvage the situation, and prevent a labourist revolution by forming a provisional government under Princess Emily. On the 1st of February, he would abdicate the throne, but when his daughter heard of the news, she would refuse the offer, bringing almost a millennium of monarchy to an end, and the Albians would begin to charter a course into the unknown.

 

[Terran_Games]

Dual Power

"Power resides where men believe it resides."

• Lord Varys

In the aftermath of the January Revolution, many members of Parliament would come together to form a Provisional Government, with the intention of keeping order until new elections could be held. In truth though, because of both the undemocratic franchise of the last election, and the MPs support for the war, they no longer held legitimacy in the eyes of most people, who instead turned to the nascent councils. As the protests subsided, many workers would return to work, and the factory councils that had been formed during the revolution now came into play. In most of the enterprises, they played a similar role to unions, collectively bargaining their working conditions. In some factories however, the owners had fled, or gone into hiding, and so the workers' councils would take over and run the factories themselves, taking orders and selling products. Many of them would also form their own militias, which would eventually become the core of the Red Guard. In the countryside, many villages, towns, and farmers would form their own councils as well, and began to seize and redistribute land from the landlords.

The Rump Parliament would loosen the wartime restrictions and censorship, and promised to hold new elections. They would drag their feet on the last promise however, because many of the Liberals and Conservatives were terrified that if new elections were called immediately, the newly re-legalised Labour Party would win by a gigantic landslide. They feared that a labourist revolution was imminent, and so they would come up with excuses, and tried passing half-hearted reforms, such as passing the 8-hour workday, and land redistribution (only legalising what had already been happening).

On the 14th of February, the First Albian Congress of Councils was convened in Avoncaster, lasting for ten days, with delegates from hundreds of workers, farmers, and soldiers councils attending. The Congress was composed primarily of delegates from the Labour Party, with some from National Labour, some anarchists, liberals, and other independents. The topics discussed ranged from the organisation of services to help deliver food and fuel to land redistribution. The two most important issues discussed however were their attitude towards the war and Parliament. Towards the war was a relatively simple matter, after almost five years, and the failure to break the Axis, the enthusiasm of the delegates from National Labour, and even the liberals was low, and so the resolution calling for the end of the war was passed with little protest. The issue of collaboration with Parliament was much more contentious. The mainstream position of most delegates, even within the Labour Party, was to collaborate with the government and prepare for new elections. Many labourists were confident (ironically enough) that they would win a landslide majority in a future election, and from there would be able to implement their political agenda.

An opposing faction would begin to develop out of many of the more radical delegates, around Anna Robertson, recently freed from prison. She gave a speech condemning the position, saying that the workers' councils were the true expression of the workers' power, and that they should take power themselves, as well as control of the means of production, as they already had done in many factories. This faction would eventually come to be known as the Maximalists, and the position for the councils to take power was supported by many of the anarcho-syndicalist delegates as well. Most of the delegates were more moderate, and disagreed with the Maximalist position, and ultimately, the motion was shot down for the time being.

Now under pressure from the councils' call for peace, Parliament was forced to take action. On the 26th of February, Albian diplomats would cross the front line to negotiate a ceasefire with the Axis, with an armistice coming into effect on March 6. When news spread of the armistice, anti-war protests escalated dramatically in the other major powers, some escalating to revolution as well, and the rest would sign armistices fearing it. After more than five years, the First Great War came to an end. But for the average citizen, it most certainly did not. With peace negotiations ongoing, the nations remained in a state of mobilisation, prepared to resume the war should negotiations go awry. Many nations had outright collapsed, the food and fuel crises were still ongoing, and the pressure continued to build.

 

[Terran_Games]

The March Crisis

"Take power, you son of a bitch, when it is handed to you!"

• Unknown Protestor to Victor Chernov

As the war came to an end, the beginning of March would see nature's fury descend once more. Another, smaller wave of the flu would strike, peaking early in the month. Simultaneously, the first reprieve from the cold weather would come, as warmer air began to move up from the south. However, after such a cold winter, as the snow melted, the ground remained frozen, which prevented the water from draining into the ground. The situation would be compounded as heavy rain began just a few days afterwards. The result was massive flooding, as rivers overtopped their banks, and the high winds caused breaches in many dykes across the country. Local councils would step in to try and relieve the situation, organising public kitchens and food deliveries to quarantining households, and requisitioning hotels and mansions to rehouse people whose homes were flooded. Parliament was slower to react, and did not have as widespread a presence as the councils, further eroding their legitimacy.

Meanwhile, peace negotiations between the Albian diplomats and the Axis would begin on the 13th of March. Immediately, there were significant problems. The first was that both sides were on a ticking clock; every day the negotiations dragged on was another day the Albians would not be able to import food; another day that the Reichers and Slavonians would remain under blockade. The other was that after five years of war, and so much blood spilt, both sides wished to come out of the peace talks with something, to prove that the war was not entirely worthless. They would be further compounded after the arrival of the Menian delegates, who demanded all of Albion's colonies and dominions in the New World, even those far from the front, untouched by the war. Slowly, the negotiations progressed, as their demands were whittled down, bit by bit. But as other nations began to topple like dominos into revolution, many of the rank-and-file Maximalist activists began to believe that the time was ripe to seize power, and many workers were increasingly fed up with the slow pace of negotiations.

Then a series of articles were published in The Worker's Herald, detailing several of the secret treaties signed during the war, proposing sweeping annexations, and agreements to carve up the vanquished empires. The ongoing negotiations were more pragmatic, and did not adhere to the treaties, but public outrage would flare up over the matter, many workers believing that these now-impossible demands were prolonging the signing of a peace treaty, and that war might erupt again. Massive demonstrations would fill the streets across the nation, demanding a peace without any annexations or indemnities. In Rhydon, these protests would turn violent, with local Maximalist militants launching an armed uprising, and storming many government buildings, calling for the councils to seize power. After an emergency meeting, the leaders of the Labour Party, despite urging from the Maximalists, would choose not to seize power, believing that it was premature, and an unnecessary risk. They would instead continue pushing for a new election, and after several days, Parliament would bring in loyal troops and crush the uprising. They would forcibly disband the Rhydon Council, and disarm the local Red Guards. Many Maximalist activists and Labour members were arrested, went into hiding, or fled up north, where support for the councils was strongest, and where Parliament dared not tread.

After the violent conclusion of the March Crisis, a conspiracy of high-ranking military officers, led by Field Marshal George Wright would develop. They agreed that the labourists were running wild across the country, and believed that Parliament was too impotent to stop them. The increasing power of the councils, the inaction of Parliament, and the growing strength of the Red Guards convinced them that revolution was imminent, and that something needed to be done to stop the country from falling into the abyss. They also feared that the labourists, once in power, would immediately concede all peace demands and dismantle the empire, making the war entirely pointless (some fearing that Robertson, who herself was an immigrant from one of the Axis powers, was one of their agents, actively trying to sabotage the negotiations). They began plotting a coup in secret, planning on capturing the Provisional Government to use them as the civilian face of the junta, as well as the former-princess Emily to restore the monarchy. They had also accepted the idea that civil war was inevitable, because they would be unable to swiftly topple the councils in Cambria and Jorvik, the industrial regions, where they were strongest. Instead, they focused on taking control of Thedland. The date of the coup was fixed for the 22nd of April.

The large-scale troop movements in the weeks beforehand were impossible to hide, even amongst the chaos of the partial demobilisation that was occurring. In fact, there were many reports from labourist informants within the military of something big being prepared, although the exact details were uncertain. In the run-up to the coup, the Labour Party would reach out to Parliament, informing them of their findings, and implored them to arm the workers, but they were rebuffed. The March Crisis had sown distrust between them, with many MPs believing that rumours of a coup were being spread by the labourists to give them an excuse to seize power, and they cracked down on any attempt to arm workers in Rhydon. In the end, the Labour Party would send warnings to their local activists and members to flee Rhydon before the coup began, and organised strikes to slow down the coup preparations, and many anarchists and liberals would heed the call as well. The Avoncaster Council, as well as other councils across the country would begin to distribute arms to the workers, and expand the ranks of the Red Guard, preparing for the coup.

The coup was delayed because of the difficulties of finding politically reliable troops, and by the strike actions carried out by rail and telegraph workers, but eventually, the preparations would be complete, and the coup would begin on the 5th of May.

 

[Terran_Games]

Whirlwinds of Danger

"Whirlwinds of danger are raging around us,
O'erwhelming forces of darkness assail,
Still in the fight see advancing before us,
Red flag of liberty that yet shall prevail.."

• Whirlwinds of Danger

In the early hours of the morning, a force of three divisions, comprising just under 40,000 men would march into Rhydon. There would be sporadic resistance from many working-class districts, as well as from some troops still loyal to Parliament. However, the disarming of the Red Guard, and the suppression of the council meant that there was no organised resistance to the invasion, and the city swiftly fell, with most members of Parliament, as well as Princess Emily being captured before they could flee the city. Wright would force Emily to become Queen, making her dissolve Parliament, and form an emergency government composed of loyal officers and politicians. The soldiers would crush opposition in the city with an iron fist, rounding up thousands of suspected dissidents, and machine-gunning protestors. Elsewhere, the coup was met with more resistance, with workers' militias managing to fend off the assault on Bowdenham, and sporadic resistance from the anarchists to the east. Still, most of southern Thedland would fall to Royalist forces in a few days, and the Albian Civil War began.

The Congress of Councils would hold an emergency meeting in Avoncaster on the 7th, where they would form a provisional government, led by Robertson and the Maximalists. Ironically, the coup would end up triggering the social revolution it was trying to prevent. Under the guise of military necessity, the new Central Committee would oversee the expropriation of factories, placing them in the hands of the factory councils, as well overseeing military operations.

The news of civil war in Albion would quickly spread to the continent. In Gallia, fearing a similar action by their military, and believing that the time was ripe for revolution, the leftists there would call a general strike on the 10th of May, and the situation rapidly descended into civil war as well. The Albian Expeditionary Force would disintegrate as many soldiers, radicalised by the conscripted labourist agitators within their ranks, deserted en masse, or shot their officers and elected their own soldiers' councils. The situation would effectively devolve into a civil war in the army on the continent, with the rebelling soldiers carving out a large chunk of territory along the channel coast. However, the Royal Navy remained loyal to the Royalists for the time being, and so they were stuck on the continent, while Wright began to transport some of the remaining loyalist units across the channel to bolster his forces.

The Royalists would take the initiative in the first phase of the war, with the more disciplined and well-equipped army units managing to slowly beat back the Red militias. Southern Cambria, a bastion of Red support, would fall in mid-June. The Royalists would conduct a campaign of violent repression, torture, mass killings and rape, coming to be known as the White Terror. Tens of thousands of suspected unionists, labourists, liberals, nationalists, and others dissidents would be executed, with the surviving militias and refugees fleeing northwards into the still Red-controlled regions. The Royalist advance would continue through the fall, as they pushed steadily northwards through the Midlands, taking Bowdenham after weeks of fierce fighting.

The only good news at this stage was that with the junta's focus on taking Thedeland, Hibernia was left lightly defended, and the militias there quickly took control of the island. In July, a All-Hibernian Congress was convened, where after some debate with the nationalist delegates, who wished to stay out of the broader civil war, they would pledge their support for the Red faction in the civil war, reasoning that the Royalists would be hostile to an independent Hibernia, and pose a serious invasion threat. The inflow of volunteers and food supplies from Hibernia would be vital as the war progressed.

The militias fought tenaciously, and thanks to the Reds' control of the nation's industrial heartland, were fairly well armed, but they suffered from a lack of discipline and poor leadership. This was because the militias operated under their own elected officers, and while they would prove effective in resisting the initial coup, their deficiencies began to become clear as the war continued. The officers of some of the more disciplined militias, mainly Great War veterans, would push for the formation of a more professional, centralised army. The creation of a professional army was controversial amongst the Central Committee, who wished to maintain political control over the military, and rallied against the harsh discipline of the army during the Great War. However, faced with the prospect of defeat, they would authorise the creation of an official Red Army in August, and issued a decree on the militarisation of the militias. Universal conscription of both men and women would also begin.

In early September, the Royalist forces would launch a major offensive, aimed at taking Avoncaster. They would slowly advance northwards against stiffening resistance, reaching the outskirts of the city by November. Brutal urban fighting would last through December, as the Reds and Royalists fought block by block over control of the city. As the new year approached, it seemed as though a Royalist victory was imminent…