Part 143: History of the Reichstag, Part Six

History of the Reichstag by Servant

History of the Reichstag, Part 6: Marching to Modernity

German Unification had finally taken a hold in the Reichstag during this time period. The Unifiers' landslide victory in the 1860 Reichstag made unification desirable. The terrible loss of life during the First Weltkreig, and the formation of the Grand Alliance/Coalition made unification necessary. But unification wasn't a peaceful struggle. Swabia and Austria has recently fought a bloody war over the question of German territories (the German Leadership War), and a second bloody war was on the horizion (the Second Weltkreig). Riots and rebellions was commonplace in Swabia, with Zuhmirmani Liberals seeking to overthrow the monarchy and create a Revolutionary Germany Republic. And vested Reactionary interests sought to try and stop the march to modernization and liberalization, through force, if necessary.

These formative years were the most important years in both German history and world history. How did the Reichstag react?

1865 Reichstag:

In 1865, Otto von Bismarck, acting as regent for the new child Emperor, Frederick II, called the Reichstag in for an emergency meeting. The Holy Roman Emperor had won the German Leadership War in 1861, allowing for the Unifiers to push for a final Unification Reichstag in 1880. But questions persisted on the future ideological direction of Germany. There were four questions that needed to be addressed:
1) Should the people vote based on the issues (Populism) or vote based on political parties (Establishment)?
2) Should the new German State embrace moralism and Catholicism (Clericalism), or reject Catholicism and become a completely secular nation (Anti-Clericalism)?
3) Should the government give civil servants independence (Bureaucracy) or attempt to control the civil servants via patronage and the spoils system (Nepotism)?
4) Should the government favor people of 'merit' (Meritocracy) or people of 'birth' (Aristocracy)?

The German Reichstag divided itself into many Factions based on answers to these four questions, which I will detail below.

Populism, Anti-Clericalism, Bureacracy, and Meritocracy:
*Serisothikos: "If Germany is in our future, it must be of our future."
*Ogianres: Well, hopefully populism will encourage liberal revolts and destabilization and other fun things to make up for the (relative) positives of the rest.
*Mirello: "Too long has Swabia been stuck in the conservative thinking of old."
*Arcturus Fats: "Governments always seem to always end up with fascist states so just once i'd like to see a nice social democracy come out of one of these and these seem like the right options for that."
*Hawaii Five-O: "Time to give the boot to the Hohenzollerns. All these crazy countries kicking out their kings and suddenly becoming vastly more powerful and modern just might be onto something."
*RabidWeasel: "I get the impression that the SGF/NGF are significantly more liberal than Swabia so it would make sense to try and normalise things somewhat to make unification as painless as possible."
31 votes. 9 Unifiers, 7 Militarists, 3 Liberals.

Populism, Clericalism, Bureaucracy, Aristocracy
*Manifunk Destiny: that should be schizophrenic enough to make this interesting.
*zeal: "I am aghast the the decisions voiced by some members of the Reichstag today. How could you vote to lay low the aristocracy? Did we not fight the Zuhriman Wars to prevent just such a catastrophe? We must protect the three estates, or all our empire has fought for will mean nothing! The commoners toil and strive at the bottom, overseen by the servants of God and the Emperor, the secular and the spiritual. We cannot allow the sacred laws of our culture to be washed away by the same tide that nearly brought Europe low in the days of Zuhriman!"
5 votes. 1 Unifier, 1 Liberal, 1 Militarist.

Populism, Clericalism, Bureacracy, Meritocracy:
This platform is known in Germany as the Chlorine Platform, which had many supporters. Fermata said, "Took the words out of my mouth", and Vander said, "The Chlorine platform is the best platform." The Chlorine Platform was most responsible for leading the charge against rampant anti-clericalism.

*Chlorine: Populism will prevent the liberals from gaining a foothold later Clericalism will maintain the conservative dominance of our land and prevent the foolish liberals from destroying us again. Bureaucracy has anti-militancy event efficent management of state. (-2) Meritocracy will make expansion of factories cheaper. (20% - efficient management of factories.)

[FOOTNOTE: I am personally confused by Chlorine's hatred of the 'liberals', and of them 'destroying [Germany] again'. The Modernizers, the hated bogeyman of the Reichstag, was a Conservative party. The Modernizers were hated because of their Anti-Military policies, but the Liberals' Jingoistic policies would have sufficed in defending Swabia. It is possible that Chlorine is referring to the various Liberal rebellions that slowly became commonplace as Swabia's pluarlity increases, but these rebellions never seriously threatened the Emperor.]

*Trazer: "Sounds like the more interesting and useful combination."
*Gul Banana: "Let's harness this wave of liberal sentiment to improve the running of our new fatherland, instead of throwing away our culture."
*Carbolic: "I'd like to see Swabia become a Constitutional Monarchy rather than an absolute one, because the more politically aware the populace become, the more they will want to rebel against an absolute monarchy. ...as long as Swabia remains a Monarchy I feel like the Church is still needed to keep the country in line. And as someone else already pointed out, what would Germany be without bureaucracy?"
14 votes. 5 Unifiers.

Populism, Anti-Clericalism, Bureaucray, Aristoracy:
*Whitecloak: Populism. By jingo, I don't want the modernists ever coming back without an issue platform.
Anti-clericalism. The pope is but an Austrian puppet.
Bureaucracy. This defines us to an extent.
Aristocracy. I'm not letting some technocrat ruin this great land.
*Yuran M. Bazil:
Populism, 'cause fun stuff is fun.
Anti-Clericalism. gently caress the Pope.
Bureaucracy. I don't even know why, I'm just voting on instinct here.
Aristocracy. House Hohenzollern Rising, not Capitalists of Swabia Rising.
*ProperJob: Only a higher class of men, those of noble upbringing, will have the authority and wisdom to lead a unified Germany.
5 votes. 3 Unifiers.

Populism, Anti-Clericalism, Nepotism, Meritocracy
*iLurk: Seems Scandinavia is influencing our politics...
2 votes. 2 Militarists.
[Scandinavia, at this time, was moving towards Market Liberal policies.]

Populism, Anti-Clericalism, Nepotism, Aristocracy
*Peel:
Populism. Sounds more fun.
Anti-Clericalism. We passed the original Golden Bull in defiance of the Pope, I don't see why we shouldn't continue that fine tradition, especially after the Austria fiasco.
Nepotism. For contarianism's sake.
Aristocracy. It's Holy Roman Emperor, not Holy Roman Chief Executive.
4 votes. 3 Unifiers, 1 Militairst.

Populism, Clericalism, Nepotism, Aristocracy
*Konstantin: If we are going to unify we need to at least give the appearance of sharing power with the minor nations, rather than having everything ruled by the Swabian elite.
*Riso:
Establishment - The populace is too fickle and easily swayed by minutiae
Anti-Clericalism - True enlightenment can come only after freeing the mind
Bureaucracy - Impartial despots
Meritocracy - Only the best should rule.
6 votes, 1 Militarist

Establishment, Clericalism, Neoptism, Aristocracy
*LITERALLY MAD IRL: I have decided to go against my instinct for no reason and reverse my vote.(Down with people!)
*Octavian: The Hohenzollern family has led Swabia for nearly a millennium! We must preserve the rights of the royalty and aristocracy of the nation if we are to survive!
*raptus: The Hohenzollerns have led Swabia for almost a millennia, changing this would surely invoke the wrath of God upon us. We are the Holy loving Roman Emperor!
5 votes, 1 Unifier, 1 Militarist

Establishment, Clericalism, Bureacracy, Meritocracy
*Robotic Folksinger: meritocracy is awesome
1 vote.

Establishment, Anti-Clericalism, Bureaucracy, Meritocracy
*Geshtal: These seem like properly German attitudes.
1 vote, 1 Unifier.

Establishment, Clericalism, Neoptism, Meritocracy
*Moquel: Let's protect the core ideals that have served us so well in the past, while acknowledging that some changes need to be made with regards to the rich and landed upper class.
4 votes, 1 Unifier.

Argument Over the Catholic Church and The Papacy:
The debate between Clericalism and Anti-Clericalism hinged on the Reichstag's view of the Papacy. The Holy Roman Empire always had a tense relationship with the Papal States, and when the Reichstag allowed for Tittoni to form Italy, the Pope had enough. He threw in his lot irrevocably with Austria during the First Weltkreig, crowning its monarch as the Holy Roman Empreror. After the Pope was driven out of Italy by the Socialists, Austria allowed the Papacy to reside in Vienna. Thus, many arguments against Clericalism was biased on this anti-Papacy sentiment.

Nobody in the Reichstag actually defended the Papacy's actions. However, a minority in the Reichstag saw the Catholic Church as useful in promoting stability, culture and tradition, and thus defended the Church, if not its leader. These voices were overall ignored and played little role in the Reichstag debate. It was inconceivable to the Reichstag members that one could love the insitution and still hate its leader.

The vote between Clericalism and Anti-Clericalism was close, but the Anti-Clericalists won out.

Anti-Papacy Arguments:
*Peel: We passed the original Golden Bull in defiance of the Pope, I don't see why we shouldn't continue that fine tradition, especially after the Austria fiasco.
*Beet: "Also, nthing all the sentiments about anti-clericalism on account of the pope being a worthless stinkyhole."
*TheLoquid: "To everyone voting clericalism, I remind you that the Pope totally douched on us during the Great War."
*Yuran M. Bazi: "gently caress the Pope."
*Whitecloak: "The pope is but an Austrian puppet."

Pro-Catholic Church Arguments:
*Chlorine, in response to TheLoquid: "We are also a majority moralist country and I would like to avoid the revolt risk it would bring every time we have a militarist/unifier party in power."
*Lance of Llanywln: "It would be foolish to abandon our traditions, for they are the traditions that have led us to greatness."
*Gul Banana: "Let's harness this wave of liberal sentiment to improve the running of our new fatherland, instead of throwing away our culture."
*Carbolic: "...as long as Swabia remains a Monarchy I feel like the Church is still needed to keep the country in line."
*aqu: "The Holy Roman Empire is dead. Now there is only Germania. If were are to hold back the forces of Iberia, France, Austrians, and Byzantines we can only have the best! However, we must not lose our Catholic heritage and history."

The Adopted Proposal:
The ideological proposal that was finally adopted was "Populism, Anti-Clericalism, Bureacracy, and Meritocracy". This proposal received the majority of the Reichstag vote, and the support of 9 Unifiers, 7 Militarists, and 3 Liberals. It was the desicion of the majority, but there was some disunited opposition. The Militarists, being reactionaries, were more vocal in their criticism of this proposal (6 Militarists voted against this). However, 15 Unifiers and 1 Liberal also rejected this proposal. The Unifiers, as a whole, steadfastly stood against this proposal, preferring instead to keep clericalism (the Chlorine Platform), and possibly to keep aristocracy as well.

This resistance proved futile though. The Unifiers, while not supporting the entire proposal, did support at least some portions of it. Thus, the Unifiers' voting bloc was divided, and easily thus exploited.

The Adopted Proposal also received help from the Militarists and the Lusycheen voting bloc (12 Lusycheen voted for the Adopted Proposal, while only 9 Lusycheen voted for the Chlorine Platform).

Aftermath:
Bismarck said, "Either liberal sentiment is getting strong, or everyone ignored my message and is voting for the 'best' choices. Either way, calling it for Populism, Anti-Clericalism, Bureaucracy and Meritocracy."

There was some disappointment with the results. *Dibujante: "Goons ruin everything

Where oh where is my socially-liberal but governmentally-conservative Habsburg pastiche?"
*skipThings: "I wanted to stay with Aristocracy, noone is listening. "
*Lackloss: "Alas, once more the liberals have won. There will be a sad day in Swabia, and they will learn God's wrath for falling into the decadency of Liberalism! In the ashes the true heirs of Swabia will survive and the those who have had their mind's swayed by the fickle promises of the Liberals will pay penance for their actions."
*Chlorine: "Its going to be a wild ride now. I'd be surprised if we still have the HRE by the end of the Vicky period. Unfortunately a democracy will probably result, and will mean we dont get to pick our parties anymore."

The irony is that the criticism misses the mark on what was actually objectional about the Adopted Proposal.

-Pluralism: People will vote based on the issues, rather than based on established political parties. That is, if people could vote. The 1890 Reichstag debated establishing a consitution, but many Reichstag members sought to establish a Enlightened Monarchy and balked at giving aristocrats the right to vote. The end result was that the effects of pluarlism never actually saw the light of day. One could make a case though that the Reichstag already was pluarlistic, in that it never really cared much about voting based on party lines.

-Anti-Clericalism: Mandating secularism and anti-Papacy sentiments would likely be beniefical in the long term, but it had various short-term negative effects. One positive effect was obivous: 25% of the population soon adopted Atheism. But, a more important effect was the reshaping of society. The clerics had a pretty good job teaching people about religion, but now that people are free to decide for themselves, several churches went out of business. 25% of all clerics were fired, and forced to become Laborers.

Revolutionary scholars points out that clerics serve as an important tool in the peservation of conservative and reactionaries monarchies, by decreasing the CON of liberal-orienated classes, while increasing the CON of conservative-orienated classes. A nation that attacks its clergy also attacks the foundations of conservatism.

Some scholars point out that clerics are usually useless and converting clerics to laborers would therefore be something to cheer about. Indeed, it is, but only if the people prepare for it and eased the transition. As it stands, these ex-clerics suffered all the problems as regular laborers did in the reactionary Holy Roman Empire. The end result is that these ex-clerics started believing in the same ideologies as regular laborers, becoming more Liberal and Socialist.

Finally, the extreme measures that was taken to enforce Anti-Clericalism offended the Catholic majority. The Catholic majority did not like the Pope by any means, but sought to protect tradition. The end result was that the Catholic majority was upset. But, the majority was not willing to embrace Reaction and return back to Catholicism. The Catholic population became militant, making them more prone to adopt ANY extermist ideology: from Reaction and Anarcho- Liberalism to Communism and Fascism. The Ex-Clerics, now laborers, ended up using their knowledge of the Bible to spread Anarcho-Liberalism and Communism to the masses, acting as a vanguard for progressive movements.

According to offical census data in 1860, fully 47.6% of Swabia is Catholic. However, this data also includes all the colonies Swabia has. Using previous census data, one can estimate that the percentage of Catholics in Swabia's European territories is likely close to 100%.

Bureaucracy: Bureaucracy was a wise choice. According to the Frankfurt report, Bureaucracy and Neoptism would each have the potential for several events, both positive nad negative. I quote the Frankfurt report here.

"Bureaucracy
Allows the following random events:
Bureaucratic Quagmire: +10% loan interest rate (cannot fire twice unless 'Bureaucratic Reforms' has happened inbetween)
Bureaucratic Reforms: -10% loan interest rate (can only fire after a quagmire)
Efficient Management: -1 militancy for entire population
Efficient Taxation: +1% tax efficiency

Nepotism:
Allows the following random events:
Corruption Scandal: Hold election if there are voting rights, otherwise +1 militancy to entire population
Slush Funds: Gain £5000 to treasury
Bought Loyalties: +1 to reliability of infantry, dragoons and cavalry
Social Control: -1 consciousness to entire population, -1 plurality"


A bureaucratic society has the potential to decrease the militancy of the entire population, thereby decreasing revolt risk. This, along with the tax effiency, is much more useful than the potential for Neoptistic military loyalty and the increased funds. The potential for "Social Control", while useful for dictatorships to stay in power, is just too barbaric for any civilized person to even consider. The 'penalty' for Bureaucracy is just increased interest, which can go away after a period of reform, and in any event, only means slightly more taxes for a rich and prosperous country. Meanwhile, the penalty for Neoptism is increased militancy, which could easily harm society as a whole.

That is, if this bureaucratic society did anything. In fact, the bureaucracy never did anything good OR bad for society. To my recollection, no random event happened. Thus, the choice for bureaucracy was rather moot.

Meritocracy:
From the Frankfurt report:
"Meritocracy
+25% capitalist income
-25% aristocrat income
-25% building costs
-50% diplomatic efficiency
+10 plurality
+5 to aristocrat militancy

Aristocracy
+25% aristocrat income
-25% capitalist income
+25% building costs
+50% diplomatic efficiency
-10 plurality
+5 to capitalist militancy"

Now, meritocracy has some very useful beniefts for Germany. It made buildings cheaper and increased pluarlity, thereby underming despotism and moving Germany to a more democratic and socialist future. But it also made aristocrats rather militant (because their incomes decreased while capitalists' incomes increased). Aristocrats slowly began moving towards Reaction as a result.

The constant competition between capitalists for government jobs, though, had the adverse side- effect of harming diplomatic efficiency. Capitalists were more interested in proving their "merit" than actually being competent. The end result is that the German diplomatic corps was composed entirely of incompetent industrial tycoons. Germany suffered as a result from that.

Reactionaries also loath meritocracy for a different reason. The increased pluarlity meant that demands for democracy has increased, with every person wanting their voice to be heard. As the Reichstag would later reject a consitution in favor of a Enlightened Monarchy, the increased pluarlity would translate to increased militancy across all of Germany.

1870 Hangover Reichstag:
This Reichstag, mandated by the Golden Bull, was held in the wake of several important events: Italy's admission into the Grand Coalition (Italy's independence was guarranted by the Byzantine Empire), the Arab Revolution, the 1867 Stock Market Crash, the Anarcho-Liberal revolts, and the inaguaration of Frederick II. This Reichstag was particularly interesting in its complete narrow -minded focus on containing the Grand Coalition. Frederick II did not inspire much confidence when he announced his plans: "Basically my plan is to avoid war unless they directly threaten Swabia, the NGF or the SGF, and turtle up the borders until the situation changes. It's just not worth it to have another Weltkrieg over Italy."

TheLoquid started the discussion about the Grand Coalition: "So is there any hope of breaking up that alliance or is Swabia just totally screwed in that respect?" Fredreick II said in response, "There isn't much we can do about it other than hope they get into a spat over some colonies or something."

However, members of the Reichstag believed that the best way to stop a Grand Coalition was to form a Grand Coalition of their own, and thus sought to pressure Germany to engage in forming alliances with a variety of nations, resurrecting the old alliance Germany had with the UK, and creating a new alliance with Mazula. Several proposals for alliances were offered:

*TheLoquid: "Would it be at all possible to bring the UK into our team, or are they still butthurt at us?"

*Veryslightlymad: "It may be time to consider allying with Muslim nations. We've already begun slow talks with Persia, but it may be time to consider Arabia and Egypt as possibilities.

Does ANY nation in the new world have a decent fleet? If so, I'd also consider appealing to one of them for help." *KlavoHunter: "Since the Pope is merely a tool of the Austrians, we should most assuredly feel no shame in appealing to the burgeoning Muslim and Protestant powers across the seas for assistance against the Gang of Four.

Arabian resistance to the Byzantines can become a point where Swabia and the Muslim world can find a mutual foe. After all, even the Muslims in Jakadal and America pray towards Mecca... "

Frederick II's offical response did little to please the Reichstag:

"Mazula has a powerful fleet, Arabia is still in a war (that they're kind of losing) and Egypt is pretty weak militarily, they have lots of territory but most of it is empty wasteland.

Well, even if we could convince those countries to ally with us (which is not too likely) it would probably take a decade to get relations up anywhere decent with Mazula because of the lowered diplo efficiency from Meritocracy. And there's the unreliablity of overseas allies to consider as well (just look at the UK).

Frankly, I think Persia and Russia (once our negative reputation gets a little lower) are our best bets for allies. Maybe the UK if they ever get over their grumpy mood."

This did little to dissuade the Reichstag from considering alliances with foregin powers. Wildstrike championed this charge.

*Wildstrike: "Even if it would take a very long time to get actual measurable diplomatic results, I think it would be nice if Swabia threw in their lot with the various rising none-european powers - chosen from the two huge powers in north and south america, japan, yuan china and possibly egypt.

With the whole of Europe against Swabia we may be forced to find friends in places we wouldn't have considered before and we might just end up on the right side of history. "

Several members in the Reichstag sought to pressure Germany to assist Arabia, based on the same logic of Wildstrike. Frederick II seemed more open to the idea.
*Dibujante: "Maybe the Schwabisches Expeditionskorps should make an appearance? You could go all El Haj Giyum on their asses."
*KlavoHunter "Well, I was hoping it might not be too difficult for you to maybe create an event where you can ship Small Arms and Canned Food to Arabia for various relationship effects with other countries."
*Frederick II: "I could send them some expeditionary corps." *KlavoHunter: Send forth a legion of dashing young volunteers, for those whom war cannot come early enough! Let them gain Swabia glory in a distant land.
*Darth_BobCat: "Plus, no harm getting some experience and bleeding the Greeks at the same time."

Frederick II however did not authorize such an expeditonary force though, and Arabia eventually signed a treaty with the Byzantine Empire. Arabia gained independence, but the Byzantine Empire kept control over the strategic locations of the Levant and Palestine, ensuring that tensions between the two monarchies would continue.

iLurk and Revenant Threshold explored the concept of allying with the North American powers, but Revenant Threshold realized a potential problem: allying with the CCA may lead to losing the UK as a potential ally, and vice versa.
*iLurk: "We might as well start befriending Mazula, CCA and Vinland. We are going to need allies as this alliance may not go away any time soon. "
*Revenant Threshold: "Are there measures in place to stop alliances drawing in enemies? Say, Austria allies with the UK, is there anything then to stop or affect Swabia trying to ally with the UK too?"
*Frederick II: "Nations will be less likely to ally with enemies of their allies or nations allied to their enemies."
*Revenant Threshold: "So really we're better off focusing on the UK rather than the CCA, since getting one might mean not getting the other? At least in terms of the UK being closer to help, even if they apparently aren't all that much of one."
*Frederick II: "Yeah, pretty much."

A few people began to wonder about the strange situation that led to Italy's turn towards socialism:
*Darth_Bobcat: "Does anyone else find it ironic that Italy went Socialist when the whole reason that we split off Italy in the first place was that the new Emperor was too liberal for them? Man, forty years can change things."
*KnoxZone: "Yet another instance of all the sheep following the most enticing path only for it to blow up in their faces. "

When the Frankfurt report revealed that Germany's diplomatic corps was harmed by Meritocracy, the anti-Meritocracy folks were incensed.
*skipThings: "I take no blame this time, "they" hosed us up with this stupid Meritocracy."
*Dibujante: "Are you bitterly disappointed by the election results? Goons ruin everything you know."
*Claverjoe: "Honestly, it'd been nice to see that ahead of time."

The debate then turned to the ideology, as the Emperor started to believe that the Reichstag was deeply torn on the future path of Germany.
*Frederick II: "This Reichstag really is deeply divided between people who want me to become a liberal/socialist revolutionary state and those who want an absolute monarchy in 1945 isn't it."
*Dibjuante: "You left out the fascists. Honestly what I wanted was a socialist/revolutionary populace held in check by a powerful but anachronistic monarch, bursting at the seams with hilarious contradictions."
*GunnerJ: "I wanted a constitutional monarchy actually."
*Frederick II: "Well guys, just remember that I have to try and balance everyone's wishes and progress in a way that I feel makes sense. Anything is possible, but I'm not just going to declare "welp, we're communist now" overnight unless I have an extremely good reason to. We definitely took a major liberal turn with the last vote, but reforms take time."
*Arcturus Fats: "Is that bad? I don't think anyone's getting mad when they lose votes or anything. I'm just a democracy fan. "
*Frederick II: "No, it's not bad at all, it keeps things interesting. I was just commenting on the obivous. "

Some Militarists also foreshadow the White Terror, by protesting against the "liberals".
*farrady: "Speaking for my fellow Junkers, we've become quite disenchanted with this whole voting thing and will undoubtedly rise up in revolt as these liberals undermine the principles of monarchy and aristocracy that have made Swabia great."
*RestRoomLiteature: "what kind of backlash can the empowered strong handed reactionaries bring to Swabia? I would rather fracture the nation and have a civil war then hand it over to the godless liberals. Unite all the Germans or put in power someone who will."
*Whitecloak: "Junker revolt anyone?"

The truth is, these Militarists were in the minority. The section on the 1865 Reichstag session should make it fairly clear that farrady does not speak for his "fellow Junkers".
*10 out of 13 Militarists (77%) voted in favor of Anti-Clericalism, including Whitecloak
*9 out of 13 Militarists (69%) voted in favor of Meritocracy
*8 out of 13 Militarists (61%) voted in favor of Bureaucracy

This myth, like the myth of a Junker/Liberal divide that caused for the rejection of a German consitution, can be swiftly debunked by studying the facts. That being said, since farrady did not vote in the 1865 Reichstag, I cannot state that the Militarists were entirely in favor of so-called "liberal" positions; it is entirely possible that the Militarists who were against "liberal" policies were also Lusycheen, and wasn't able to attend the 1865 Reichstag for whatever reason (farrady himself last voted in 1840, and RestRoomLiteature last voted in 1860).