Part 144: History of the Reichstag, Part Seven

History of the Reichstag, Part 7: Second Weltkreig

-1875 Reichstag-
""Beware of sentimental alliances where the consciousness of good deeds is the only compensation for noble sacrifices."

To you shocked and outraged people, maybe young sir Frederick II isn't as nice a chap as he seems? "---Emperor Fredrick II

"Nor should he be."---Serisothikos

Defense policy in the Holy Roman Empire was based around containing the "Grand Coalition". Measures were taken in the name of 'national security', even if they were seen as immoral or unjust. One of these actions, the invasion of Dauphine, by the liberal Emperor Frederick II, caused an uproar in the Reichstag. Frederick II offically waged this war on behalf of the so- called "King of Italy" Guiseppe Tittoni, whose oppressive rule led to his just overthrow and exile during the First Weltkreig. Tittoni alleged (or was made to allege) that the Dauphine was oppressing the Italian minorities, giving Frederick II the casus belli to attack Dauphine.
But it was not a casus belli anyone seriously believed in, least of all Frederick II. The Reichstag called an Emergency Session to question the war.

To put this in prespective, Dauphine was an ally of the Holy Roman Empire, but its weakness has made it been prey to the designs of the Iberians. Frederick II would write in his private diaries: "Swabia frees Dauphine, fights alongside it, Dauphine is crippled, Swabia invades in order to take the Italian parts (five provinces) because threatening the Italian ports meaning threatening the entire Swabian colonial empire.

Dauphine ceased being useful to us and they were pretty much doomed anyway. Realpolitik is a bitch."

farrady began the Reichstag by commenting about the partition of Dauphine without overtly attacking the Empire's policy.

farrady: "Poor little Dauphine got Poland-ed. So ends (pretty much) the last of independent Occitania.

I don't know enough about the land value, I mean realistically militarily you're not really any more vulnerable considering that Dauphine wasn't more than a road bump to the grand Alliance, but will those provinces simply act as a bloody buffer between them and more productive Swabian provinces or are they worthwhile in their own right?"

Frederick II replied: "Mainly I was concerned about my only port ending up between Iberia and Italy, more coast line makes me less vulnerable to being cut off there.

It's not a bad area either in any way."

During the Reichstag session, Gul Banana drew attention to the Double Standard currency policy that was adopted by the Holy Roman Emperor and said, "I can't believe how appropriate this is " It is likely a subtle criticism of Frederick II.

Those Against the Invasion of Dauphine:

*rakosvsky maybe: "[A] liberal like myself is offended by the horrendous Bismarck and his butchery of the Dauphinese nation! What are we, Iberia or France? I would expect Swabia to have some standards of decency for our most stalwart ally." [Wiz replied: "Those were Italian lands clearly belonging to Guiseppe I Tittoni by the right of his Imperially recognized title King of Italy."]
*Duckbag: "I can't believe you sold out our closest ally for some provinces. Couldn't you have traded for some coastline?"
*Atrayonis: "What a shameful betrayal. Our emperor has no honor. "

Those Supporting the Invasion of Dauphine:
*TheLoquid: "TBQH, I think you made the absolute right choice there. Realpolitik isn't for pussies. "
*Wuntvor: "I completely support his actions, Dauphine wasn't that much of an ally anyway. What good are they if France and Iberia are our enemies? Better that we have those provinces than our enemies!"
*RestRoomLiteature: "I necessary step in drastic times the war with France cant come soon enough "
*skipThings: "At least we unified the Italians, again. I couldn't stand the stupid fish flag of Dauphine anyway"
*Cyrai: "The Dauphinese people were weak and surrounded by powerful enemies. Dauphine needed to become Swabian for the protection and ultimate good of all Duaphinese people "
*Arcturus Fats: "Conquering weak allies is doing them a favor, if we don't do it someone else will."
*Foodahn: "I have no problem with the invasion of Dauphine, they were a danger to Glorious Kingdom of Swabia because they could not defend their borders."

The end result is that the Reichstag formally approved Frederick II's actions; it was not as if the Reichstag could reverse the actions of the Emperor, but a symbolic condemnation may have forced Frederick II to consider other actions instead.

Such a symbolic approval had the terrible consquence of approving the Imperial claims of Guiseppe I Tittoni to all of Italy. Such a claim only served to pit the Holy Roman Empire against Socialist Italy (a member of the Grand Coalition). Frederick II said to the Reichstag, "Italy is a socialist republic that is allied with our enemies. The only intentions I have towards them involves sacking Rome. " Capitan Stalin responded, "Does the sacking of Rome involve a certain pope, a stake, and perhaps an old Swabian fort overlooking Italy?" (He seemed to have forgotten that the Pope has fled into Austria during the First Weltkreig.) This policy constrained the potential policy options of the Holy Roman Empire, and prevented any sort of rapproachment between Socialist Italy and the HRE.

The Reichstag turned towards discussions of the Grand Coalition, which was the primary invasion for the war. The hope, as always, is that the Grand Coalition would fracture or break apart, and the fall of Dauphine might lead to a spilt in the Coalition.

Moquel: "How do the French actually feel about the Iberians? Seems to me Iberia is ruling quite a few culturally French people by now, and I'm sure the general sentiment about the last war in France was that it was a chance to restore French access to the Mediterranean as well as helping the Dauphineans rejoin with the French nation - only to be snubbed by the Iberians yet again.

If there's tension growing in the western bloc, that could be very good news for Swabia... "

Frederick II:"Dauphine/Aquitaine isn't really culturally French they're been going their own way since the 1200s."

Moquel: "Fair point. I figured it'd be something akin to the North/South Italian kind of thing. Culturally different, but both still Italian."

Frederick II: "They're reasonably similar yeah, and France is probably quite annoyed about Iberia taking all of Aquitaine and Dauphine without so much as a province for them. We'll see if it leads to anything. "

The Reichstag was also used by a few people angered at the results of the 1865 Reichstag, and its adoption of Meritocracy. Dan 9410 said, "You bastards wanted the liberal, modern society. If you want honour, go back to the fuedal system.

(Not actually a suggestion. But still, Meritocracy? Seriously?) "J

Konstantin tried to appease Dan 9410 (and justify his own vote for Meritocracy): "Nobody wants to unify with a Swabia if their party line is "Swabia is the rightful ruler of all Germany and everyone should bow down to the Swabian king." Saying "The most able people should be in charge of a unified Germany and if they just happen to be Swabian, so be it." is much easier for those inferior countries to swallow. Also there is no way we can convert the heathen Cathari and Protestants to the One True Faith in the near term, so we should bring them under our wing and gently guide them back."

GunnerJ snarkily replied; "Or it would be, if meritocracy didn't blunt our diplomatic efforts, and aristocracy didn't boost it, so much!" As meritocracy harmed the diplomatic corps, it was unlikely unification could occur as Konstantin invisioned it.

Bloody also defended Meritocracy: "Given how much the nobles and capitalists have gained, and how many of our 'lower-class' people died in the recent wars, giving them the chance to rise as a reward of sorts does NOT seem unreasonable at this time. How many nobles risked themselves? Not a sodding one. I'd be unsurprised if there wasn't a real sentiment of 'What the hell are they really doing for us?'. Such must be curbed, and allowing the best of them to rise may do that. Blood doesn't equal intelligence-we've seen that time and time again. "

There was at least some good news for progressive causes in this Reichstag. Famed Militarist "Crazy Joe Wilson" made a formal statement explaining how he invisioned how he desired the Empire be organized: "I'm cool with a Constitutional Monarchy where the monarch really just sits around all day and makes appearances for photo-ops." This is again proof against the vocal Militarists calling for a violent coup against the progressive elements of the Reichstag. Crazy Joe Wilson will later vote for a consitution during the 1890 Reichstag.

-1880 Reichstag-
The Unification Reichstag was held right after a colonial war between Swabia and the Great Coalition. Despite Austria's nominal participation in the war, Austria has sent feelers for reconciliation with Swabia, and thereby attended the Reichstag itself. The Unification Reichstag was held with one purpose: To fufil the dream of the Unifiers and create the nation-state of "Germany", while letting the old and decayed 'Holy Roman Emperor' title fade away into the dustbin of history. The Unifiers did not care for the petty in-fighting between Austria and Swabia, and so accepted the peace feelers.

Three proposals were on the table for Unificaton. The main competition was between the Grossdeutsche Lösung and the Compromise, and the argument was over which proposal have a higher chance of passage (because most people feared the possiblity of the Kleindeutsche Lösung passing). In addition to me detailing the proposals, I'll also include the percentage chance each proposal had for success.

"Option A: Grossdeutsche Lösung
Requirements: SGF must ratify [75% CHANCE OF SUCCESS], NGF must ratify [50% CHANCE OF SUCCESS] and Austria must ratify (small chance) [25% CHANCE OF SUCCESS]
[CHANCE OF PROPOSAL BEING ADOPTED: 9.375%]
Effects: Swabia joins Germany in full, SGF joins Germany in full, NGF joins Germany in full, Austria joins Germany in full.
ODDS OF PASSAGE:

Option B: Compromise
Requirements: SGF must ratify [90% CHANCE OF SUCCESS] and NGF must ratify (good chance) [75 CHANCE OF SUCCESS]
[CHANCE OF PROPOSAL BEING ADOPTED: 67.5%]
Effects: Swabia joins Germany in full, SGF joins Germany with its German-speaking parts only, NGF joins Germany with its German-speaking parts only.
Austria may opt to join Germany with its German-speaking parts only. (minimal chance) [2% CHANCE OF SUCCESS]

Option C: Kleindeutsche Lösung
Requirements: None (always passes)
Effects: Swabia joins Germany with its German-speaking parts only, SGF joins Germany with its German-speaking parts only, NGF joins Germany with its German-speaking parts only.
Austria may opt to join Germany with its German-speaking parts only. (small chance) [10% CHANCE OF SUCCESS]

Option D: Comedy Option - Don't Unify
Requirements: None (always passes)
Effects: Germany never unifies, we lose a lot of prestige and the NGF and SGF cease being our satellites."

Chance of Austria joining under Option A: 19.375%

Chance of Austria joining under Option B: 11.35%

Chance of Austria joining under Option C: 10%

THE VOTES

Grossdeutsche Lösung:
"They tell us Greater Germany is nothing but a dream; nearly a thousand years ago, Friedrich von Hohenzollern had a dream. More than a dream - a destiny. He knew that his heirs and scions would rule Germany, and so they have - though their nation has waxed and waned, been called a kingdom or a holy empire, the German people and their Hohenzollern overlords have been linked throughout history.

History says: be bold. If we reach for the sky and come short, History tells us there will be another day, by blood or by writ. The only sin, in the eyes of History, is not to try. I urge the Reichstag to accept the Grossdeutsche Solution - and let us all, together, be Great."---Gul Banana

"Groß! Even if it doesn't work out, the ensuing post-Reichstag shenanigans of Austrian alienation and the potentially Dauphine-like fate of the Swiss, Lombards, and Genoese set adrift will surely be an entertaining canvas upon which to paint a masterpiece of Bismarckian realpolitik. Unifiers and Militarists alike can agree on the beauty in that, ja?"---The Grundtvigian

"Until just now I was going to compromise - after all, it's almost a nearly-guaranteed win that gains Swabia the two German Federations, and loses us none of Swabia's non-German territories. There's even the remote possibility that we get the German parts of Austria!

But the prize of the Grossdeutsche Lösung is too great to pass up! Swabia in whole, the Federations, and all of mighty Austria. We would, in one mighty stroke of the pen, become Europe's towering giant, wielding power enough to cow all of our enemies into submission! It took the Weltkrieg to so much as stagger Swabia's inexorable advance through history - what could possibly stop us then?

And even if our grand gamble fails, and the Kleindeutsche Lösung passes instead, consider our gains and our losses - the two German Federations united into Swabia would be a sizable gain. Our losses of non-German territories will not remain losses for long, not under the firm hand of Chancellor Bismarck! They, just like Dauphine, will be too weak to survive on their own - and they will naturally come running right back to a united Germany - and if not, we will remind them of their place within the Empire and bring them back by force. Reunited once more, and once our strength is marshaled, we can always rip the beating German heart out of Austria and annex it, leaving their suddenly-decapitated empire to make its last few staggering steps before it shatters - and Germany can surely fatten itself on Austria's empire - it would not be surprising if they continued to long for German rule!"---KlavoHunter

Most support for the Grossdeutsche Lösung was based on all three of these quotes, especially Gul Banana's speech. They are all based off one major appeal of Grossdestuche: the potential of Austrian membership. Even if Grossdeutsche failed, there is still a chance for Austria to join up in the Kleindeutsche proposal. Austrian membership would devasate the Grand Coalition would lose one member, while buffing Germany. To these people, the prospects of Austria are worth the risks associated with Kleindeutsche...that is, the loss of the Swiss and Italian territories of Swabia.

Interestingly, Gul Banana would later say in private: " I'm not voting based on what I think would work better for Frederick II!" This implied that Gul Banana believed the Grossdeutsche was a bad idea, but desired that anyway, for some ulterior motive.

45 people voted for the Grossdeutsche. 5 Unifiers, 3 Militarists, and 2 Liberals supported this proposal. Interestingly, several people who voted for Grossdeutsche would later switch their vote to the Compromise, including KlavoHunter.

Compromise:
"We must keep our traditional Italian and Swiss holdings. Going for Austrian unification is a fool's game. Once we're unified, we can smash them and take their German speaking parts by force."---Darth_BobCat

"Losing Switzerland + Italy would be horrible, and we still get a small chance of the decent, German bit of Austria joining too. The dirty balkan slavs can go wallow in their mud pits. If the greater German unification fails we might even have to give up the rest of Alsace-Lorraine to the loving French (assuming it still has a French majority in the ATL) as well as losing all our Mediterranean ports and most of Swabia's current, heavily industrialised territory."--- RabidWeasel

"I am voting for the Compromise, as should all good Swabians. Any vote other than Compromise is a vote to trade age-old Swabian territory, areas with significant economic and military value, for a small chance to annex our Austrian rivals. This is nothing but madness! "--Grendel

"We can't afford to risk losing the Swiss if the Großdeutsche Lösung fails to materialize. Not only are they an ingrained part of our national heritage, but also the Swiss economy is the third strongest in Swabia (after Bayern and Hessen), thanks to the fantastic steel production in that area.

We do not want to become dependent on foreign steel."---Moquel

"It's not a question of whether Austria will agree to join; they simply do not deserve to be part of the glorious unification with noble Swabia whom they have worked so hard to oppose. They should be begging to get in on this.

Compromise. We'll show them what they missed out on."---Revenant Threshold

Oppositon to the Compromise was based on the fear of losing the Italian territories and the Swiss territories if the Grossdeutsche Lösung proposal failed and the Kleindeutsche proposal was adopted. The Italian and Swiss territories are considered to be better developed than the rest of Germany, and thus losing such territories could harm Swabia in the long term.

This fear led to many people to panic, and thus voted for the Compromise. There were a lot of anti-Austrian feeling (understandable considering Swabia just fought a colonial war with Austria just a few months before), and there was a sanguine belief that Germany could just invade and take the North German provinces of Austria in a war. Claverjoe backed this sentiment in his own vote: "Compromise! Take the German speaking Austrian territories by force! BIG German solution is for the boring sissy boys who don't wanna fight no more." Claverjoe also would later say: "For all you bastards going for the big German solution, pay attention! If we compromise we get to kick some Austrian rear end." farrady represented the more overt form of anti-Austrianism: "Even if they come crawling on their reptilian bellies, letting them drag their Balkan and Slavic holdings in would give them too much power in our new German state."

KlavoHunter was one of the voters who switched from supporting Grossdeutsche to Compromise: "I'm going to change my vote from Großdeutsche Lösung to Compromise. I obviously completely misunderestimated just how much of Swabia proper ia non-German, that we would lose in the Kliendeutsche Losung. Given the fact that this is Austria's big chance to scream "gently caress you!" and shoot us down if we go for the big prize, and chances are they're too short-sighted to take us up on it."

Peel also switched from Grossdeutsche to Compromise: "Actually I'll switch to the Compromise. I like the idea of gobbling up Austria but that'd be a bit too powerful, and the idea of a Germany that spans the mainland from North to South is appealing." It must be noted that in Germany, it is a valid reason to intentionally vote against the interest of your own nation, whether for the 'hilarity' or the 'fun'..but personally, I find these votes as strange.

81 people voted for the Compromise. 22 Unifiers, 8 Militarists, and 2 liberals supported this proposal.

Kleindeutsche Losung:

Robotic Folksinger was wondering why Kleindeutsche was up for a vote in the Reichstag. "Is there any prestige hit or other negative consequence if we choose Grossdeustche Lösung or compromise and it doesn't come through?

Is there any reason to vote directly for Kleindeutche Lösung at all?"

Frederick II responded, "You lose a little prestige, no big deal at all, there's no reason to vote for Klein unless you want a weaker Swabia."

That being said, there were a few supporters for the Kleindeutsche. Hawaii Five-O became the spokesperson for the German nationalists who wanted the Kleindeutsche while Anonu proposed an interesting solution to dealing with the Italian problem: handing it over to Socialist Italy.

Hawaii Five-O: "I vote for whichever one makes Austria the least likely to join up with Swabia in the stupidest, most unrealistic alliance ever. Even if both countries speak German, after so many years of war, and with Swabia's liberalization, the two countries are just so different that it would be laughable to think they could become a single nation without gaming the poo poo out of the scenario. I would have to say that if I had to pick one I'd go Option C in order to keep up with Swabia's liberal tendencies. Why throw off the shackles of oppression in order to oppress those culturally different from you by forcing them into a Germanist union where they would feel completely out of place. Leave the non-German cultured areas free, or allow them to rejoin the countries they were stolen from. They're unruly for a reason."

Anou: "Kliendeutsche Losung. Lets give back Italian Parts of Swabia to Italy so that we may finally have a close ally in Europe. Two full unification for the price of one, though Id rather keep the Swiss and just give away the Italians."

Had Anou's Idea been adopted, then revanchism in Italy may be wiped out entirely. It is even possible that the Italian socialists would have left the Grand Coalition willingly and begin cooperating with Germany. Alas, such a proposal was ignored by Frederick II.

4 people voted for Kleindeustche. One of these people, reL, was affiliated with the Militarists.

No Unification:

"Compromise? Are you peple high? You realize you're basically gift-wrapping the non-German Federation territories and handing them over to France.

And Grossdeutsche? The whole thing falls apart if Austria doesn't go along? Yeah, great plan there. We just humiliated them in a war. How keen do you think they're going to be to roll over and play nice? Do you think they'll just accept Hohenzollern rule and be a part of the big happy German family? Unlikely.

I vote No Unification. We're not going to get the territories we want at this pathetic Reichstag. We need to take them by force! Force, I say!"---LITERALLY MAD IRL

"These German minors are weak creatures and would only serve to soften the Swabian heart of blood and iron. Don't Unify"---KnoxZone

Those were the only two people who voted against unification. KnoxZone was a Militarist.

Carbolic responded to LITERALLY MAD IRL by saying: "Granting them independence doesn't necessarily mean they wouldn't remain client states. Assuming they remain satellites, a declaration of war on them would effectively mean a declaration of war on Germany." [FOOTNOTE: Switzerland and Lombardia would be independent under Kleindeutsche and not satellites.]

Netrualist
:

*Dan 9410 (otherwise known as Yuran M. Bazil) glorified in the chaos of Unification Reichtsag. He said, "Ya know what, I'm voting for whatever option out of Grossdeuchste and Compromise has the least votes. just for the hell of it."

Dan 9410 did not change the overall result.

FEAR OF A HUGE GERMAN ARMY LOSING A SMALL MILITARY SKIRMISH AGAINST SWITZERLAND AND LOMBARDIA (ITALIAN-SPEAKING PARTS OF GERMANY):
Voters for the Compromisers, while worried about other matters as well, were really concerned about Germany being unable to retake Switzerland and Lombardia if they were forced to let go. Golden Zucchini represented this in his (in)famous rant against Grossdestuche:

"And for those of you who claim that we can just walk in and take our lost territories back, have you forgotten the horrors of the Weltkrieg? Yes, we successfully rescued Dauphine from its own ineptitude and weakness, but to think that we will be able to do that with impunity to die Schweiz and Swabian Italy is nonsense. We know they have the industry and technology to wage effective war; we gave it to them ourselves! It will be a much more hard won battle to reannex those two states that it would have been to take a hundred Dauphines.

And again, remember the ingratitude of the Italians after their unification. Do you imagine that it will take no time to ready ourselves to take back the southern provinces that are rightfully ours? Indeed, it will take plenty of time to properly ready ourselves and the newly integrated SGF abd NGF forces, and in that time die Schwiez and the Italian provinces will likely have formed an alliance with Iberia or France out of fear that they would not be able to defend themselves. No, if we lose the southern provinces, we will like start another Weltkrieg in the attempt to take them back."

Some people actually welcomed such a war to reconquer territory, if only for the 'challenge'. Pimpmust, advocate of Grossdesutche, said, "Us having to storm in there and beat the poo poo out of Italy, a bad thing? What kind of logic is that."


Dan 9410, the Netrualist, also pushed back against the rhetoric: "People are forgetting something important. We have a military. We can invade nations and take their land. Who cares if the Swiss and the Italians get independence for a few years, when we can march in and take it all back in the blink of an eye.

Frederick, this are the people who elected the Modernizers, for christs sake. They should've have been executed fourty years ago."

Geshtal also backed Dan 9410's belief, saying, "That's the thing though. What is stopping us from simply re-conquering any territory lost? Pull another Dauphine type move if it looks like France or Italy is going to get all grabby with the new states." GunnerJ, defender of the Compromise, though, replied: "We would be fighting for territory we industrialized and fortified in the hands of states with tech and doctrine as advanced as our own because they came from us?"

Frederick II push an end to such discussion over reconquering Swizeterland: "You do realize that badboy is sort of a bad thing right? We can't just conquer freely unless you want to fight the entire world - we're already edging up on the limit.

Also if we lose Switzerland we lose Swiss as a national culture so it will be much less useful."

The fear of Switzerland and Lombardia working against Germany was unfounded to begin with. Switzerland have a 95% chance of allying with Germany, and Lombardia had a 67.5% chance of allying with Germany
(90% chance to refuse unification with the Socialist Republic of Italy, and 75% chance of allying with Germany.) There would be no chance of Lombardia and Switzerland being 'Dauphined', due to the alliance and closeness to Germany. Even when Switzerland left the Holy Roman Empire after the White Terror, its netrualist policies were respected by all nations, and it was never attacked or 'Dapuhined' during the Third Weltkreig.

SWITZERLAND INDEPENDENCE:
skipThings questioned the need for Switzerland independence under Kleindeustche. "Is Switzerland , not even their german speaking lands, part of the german culture group? I mean, we have ruled them for now ... aproximately 600 years, do they still feel like "swiss people" whatever this is, without Switzerland."

Frederick II replied: "It's not that they really mind, its that German nationalists don't want them."

skipThings was notably upset: "Why do we want the Austrian instead? They're creepy mountain Germans who ally with French people and megalomanically Othrodox emperors, as yes right, because they rule most of Saxony, right?

We should encourage the german speaking Swiss people to become real germans after all this. "

Pimpmust became confused: "Austrains instead? If the Grossdeutsche Losung goes through we'll keep the Switzerlands too." skipThings answered: "I know, what I meant that the nationalists see the Austrians as Germans, but not he german speaking Swiss people."

MODERNIZER-COMPROMISERS:
As the Grossdeutsche proposal began losing to the Compromiser position, the Grossdeutsche supporters got more radical, and started attacking the Compromisers as being secret Modernists. [FOOTNOTE: Please read Revilied's 'Study of German Anti-Modernism After the Fist Weltkreig' for more information.] The first comparsion to Modernizers were done by AlanBstrd saying: "This one is aimed at all you Compromising Modernizers!" before reading off some long piece of liteature.

zeal also used the insult: "You flithy Modernizers care for nothing but your trains."

GunnerJ was confused by the insult: "I don't get this, did most of the people voting Compromise actually vote Modernist? I know I voted Unifiers/Install Militants/Unifiers."

20 ex-Modernist members (24.6% of the total) voted for the Compromise, while 12 ex-Modernists members (26.6% of the total) voted for the Grossdeutsche. In addition, leaders of the Grossdeutsche movement were also ex-Modernists, like Gul Banana and skipThings.

Gul Banana betrayed his Modernist sympathizes when he said, "An initial count of the factions on the floor shows the compromisers almost 50% ahead of the bold. When on earth did we become this reasonable?

Won't somebody please think of the railroads?"

Even if you exclude the ex-Modernists who voted for the Compromise proposal and count the ex- Modernists who voted for the Grossdeutsche, the Compromise proposal still received more votes than the Grossdeutsche (61-45). Much more Militarists and Unifiers also supported the Compromise over that of Grossdeutsche.
This suggest that the Compromise proposal was very popular on its own merits, and that a 'Modernizer' voting bloc played no major role at all.

On an ironic note, Unification led to the return to Modernizer Rule. Despite Swabia's complete hatred of Modernizers, the rest of the German states (NGF, SGF, Austria) supported the Modernizers, and thus the Unification Reichstag hereby agreed first to let the Modernizers run this German government. The arrangement was accepted because the monarch, Federick II, held emergency powers, and thus could use these powers to kick the Modernizers out in the event of a war. This powers were used during the Second Welkreig, as Frederick replaced the Modernizers with the Unifiers (now called Chrisitan Democrats). The Unifiers ran Germany until the 1900 Reichstag.

MISC. STUFF
Chlorine, founder of the Chlorine platform that advocated clericalism, and the first voter for the Compromise said: "I like how we voted "gently caress the pope" anti-clericalism but we extend a happy hand in friendship to those who harbour him and invite him to join our nation.

"

Alchenar cynically responded to Chlorine,: "There's a full blown article to be written ... charting every decision left to democracy and it's concequences, and explaining why goons should never ever be put in charge of a country. "

Alchenar also is most famous for saying in the session: "The irony is that Compromise in this instance isn't so much 'compromise' as 'grabbing everything we can while holding tight onto everything we already have'.

Once you consider that Grossdeutsche is pretty much a guaranteed failure it's actually the most greedy option we have."



RabidWeasel mused openly on the possiblities of war with Austria, instead of just saying anti- Austrian slogans: "I think that it'll be interesting to see how our relationship with Austria ends up, regardless of the outcome of the Reichstag. I wouldn't be adverse to another Weltkreig in order to reclaim both Saxony and the Rhineland, but things would certainly be a lot easier without the Austrians at our back. OTOH the long border might let us knock them out of any war fairly quickly, so who knows."

The anti-Austrian revanchist sentiment also extended to France as well. Cardinal Ximenez, supporter of the Compromise, said, "Italy is as much a part of Germany as France is! " Peel replied: "Inherently, and we're just waiting until we have a big enough army to inform them of this fact?"

Dibjuante also make a mention of this revanchism: "France has annexed so much of Germany that getting the rest is like when everyone gives you their leftover peas from the Thanksgiving dinner

You sure aren't going to conquer France with them. They're peas."

Dibujante also asked, "Would we be satelliting the new states or would they be completely free? Also would we have any control over their ideology/government types? We don't want a bunch of angry Italians at our asses." The new states will be completely free, and Germany would excerise no control over its ideology.

THE END RESULT:

The Compromise proposal was adopted in the Reichstag and sent to the NGF and SGF for approval. The SGF was very likely to approve the bill. The NGF however rejected the Compromise, being more stanch nationalists than the SGF. The NGF had a high chance for approving the bill (75%), but it was still lower than the SGF's chances (90%).

The rejection took the Reichstag by shock. Bloody, supporter of the Compromise, said, "....The North Federation...is there any way we can 'deal' with them, at some point? They need to realise how upset we are at their failure to understand. Sometime after the French and Austrains are dealt with...."

The Grossdeutsche supporters were pleased at this end result, and predictably gloated:
-AlanBstard: "I hope all you traitors are happy."
-Gul Banana: "WHERE IS YOUR COMPROMISE NOW, TRAINLORDS"
-Pimpmust: "Compromisers. "
-zeal: "The Modernizer-Compromisers have failed the Reich yet again! Let the purges commence."
-GunnerJ: "Feh, Compromiser-Modernists, FEH, I SAY!!!"

Bloody pushed back against this: "You actually think it had a hope in hell of managing it? If so...I fear greatly for you." Pimpmust replied: "When you forsake GOD in favour of DIRTY LIES AND STATISTICS this is what you get " Gul Banana smugily backed Pimpmust: " I'd like to point out that while your quisling compromise had a 70% chance of passing it has exactly a 0% chance of having passed."

Bloody countered: "Better trusting a quantifiable figure than trusting in a God that, frankly, doesn't give a damm...and why should he? He's busy holding the whole cosmos together, why should he care what happens down here?"

GunnerJ reportedly got drunk after the rejection of the Compromise and said, "If only we could vote in the future. Frederick, declare war on lineral time." Nobody listened to him.

farrady disliked the result but desired to find a silver lining: "Well...that sucked. On the bright time, I do believe it is now our duty to help Tittoni reclaim Italy, and along the way swipe Venice and Trieste for our new Mediterranean ports."

Nakar responded angrily: "Italy ain't poo poo. Germany is King of Late-Industrial Victoria. Giving up the non-German parts is totally worth it. Don't know what factories were up in the NGF/SGF states, so there is probably gonna be a temporary setback in the loss of Switzerland, but you have to realize how utterly ridiculous Germany in any form can be." Both Pimpmust and FebrezeNinja backed Nakar.
-Pimpmust: "Actually, I think our industry have gone up way above pre-unification.
The feddies had some serious industry too."
-FebrezeNinja: "Yeah, at the last big Reichstag I think I saw NGF as the top producers of a few different goods."

Discussion turned towards dealing with Austria and France. Pimpmust said, "Anyhow, we need to deliver an rear end beating or two now against Austria and France lest Germany look like a cancerous tumor forever." MaggotMaster argued, "the Imperial capital is dangerously close to the French border, the Rhineland must be retaken for the safety of Germany."

Frederick II meanwhile has attempted to put a brake on revanchist tendencies by pointing out that Germany only have cores on the North German majority provinces of Austria, but this only fueled speculation that Germany may seek to create a puppet government in Austria.

Little attention were paid however to the actual political beliefs of the newly annexed territories. The North German Federation and the South German Federation has held local elections to their own councils, which were disbanded upon unification.
Both the North German Federation and the South German Federation were controlled by the jingoistic and conservative Konservative Partei at the time of Unification, suggesting that these populations were not very likely to be supportive of liberalism. It is possible that these conservative populations may have assisted a reactionary backlash in Germany.

THE 1885 EMERGENCY SESSION AND THE START OF THE SECOND WELTKREIG

After 1945: "I had a pretty straight left-wing voting record with only two things that could be seen as a lapse(voting no on the constitution because I thought we'd get a second chance later on and voting to nuke Mazula city which was because my family is from Essen) so I can safely say that if our anonymous contributor decides to go over my voting record I'm not afraid; I've been consistent if anything "---Rutkowski

1880 Unification Reichstag: "Compromise. Then take the Ruhrlands back; the representative from Essen is getting feisty."---Rutkowski

The fact that such a progressive person like Rutkowski could willingly advocate for a jingoistic war against France (altough Rutkowski technically never 'voted' for it) is indiciative of the revanchist disease within Germany. Nationalism have finally became corrupted, and now even left -wingers in Germany greedily desires to take over Austria and France. The Second Weltkreig was bound to occur with such rampant revanchism.

In 1882, France annexed the last of independent Netherlands, causing skipThings to say: "I guess we couldn't guarantee the netherlands, like we did previously, right?" Frederick II replied, "Yeah sure we could if you really want to get into a devastating multi year war over three provinces that we probably couldn't defend anyway."

Dibujante tried to rally for a war against France: "Are the Dutch Dutch or are they German? I motion that they be considered German and that we shoot some Frenchmen. Or just shoot some Frenchmen. Zut alors!" However, Frederick II ignored the call to war.

In 1885, however, the "Worker's Union of Greece"
began its holy crusade against fedualism, declaring the establishment of the Union of Rome and fighting against the Byzantine Empire. Frederick II called an Emergency Reichstag to discuss the issue. With the Byzantine
Empire distracted, the Grand Coalition appears to be weakened, making it prone to an German assault.

Frederick II gave an update as to the status of the Grand Coalition as well as Germany's own alliances: "Byzantium-Austria-France-Iberia still has their thing going. Italy is guaranteed by Byz but not allied. We are allied with Switzerland and Lombardy."

-Dibujante: "ATTACK oh but ally with Arabia and Persia first."
-Octavian: "Quick! Invade Austria while Byzantium is distracted."
-RabidWeasel: "I definitely agree this seems like a good time to strike at the great alliance (or at least it will be once they've had a chance to get some WE), though it might be prudent to build up better fortifications in the former federation territories if they're not well developed already."
-Dibujante: "Then kill Italy and give it to Tittoni. Death to Reds (unless they're greek )"
-farrady: "Byzantium is a punk, and it is the largest of the Grand Alliance members, but it's also most removed from Germany. Still anything that humbles and hobbles one of the members of that reactionary band of thugs is good from our perspective. Speaking as a member of Germany's own reactionary band of thugs, I'm sure this will only serve to embiggen the liberals and their cathari modernist allies."
-Pimpmust: "
The best time to kick someone is when they are already down - Captain America. That is: Now is the time to strike, glory to the fatherland!"
-Peel: "While the idea of taking on the Grand Coalition is daunting, there may not be an opportunity this good for a while. Germany remains incomplete."
-Mirello: "Kick the poo poo out of Austria. Forcefully re-incorporate them into Germany. With byzantium distracted this is the best chance you'll get to do it."
-Chlorine: "I too support anything that makes our enemies weaker. I will be voting in favour of any party that endorses war against Austria should the Byzantine situation get any worse for them. We should break the will of France and spilt Austria between ourselves and Lithuania."

skipThings asked Germany to consider getting more allies in preparation for the Second Weltkreig: "Can't we get Persia and/or Scandinavia in our boat?" Frederick II replied "
Maybe, maybe not. Our badboy has dropped to a reasonable level so it's worth a shot." These attempts at alliances failed though.

RentACop proposed allying with the Byzantine Empire instead of working for the Union of Rome:
"If we declare war on the union we can snatch up valuable industrial provinces under the guise of improved relations with the empire. And then when they ask for their land back we'll tug our collars nervously and change the subject, or perhaps set up re-patriation meetings and then cancel at the last minute as we "had a thing".

I can't imagine the union doing well though, unless they have quite an army already sitting there. "

Vlad Antlerkov rejected the idea though: "Byzantium's army is scattered all over the world, the Union of Rome apparently has a really powerful mobilization event, and they also just took away a big chunk of Byzantium's industrial base. And we should be rooting for Byzantium to get knocked down a few pegs anyway."

zeal still suggested an idea of a more permenant alliance with the Byzantine Empire: "You know, if we were to aid the Byzantines at this point we might be able to sway them away from the Grand Alliance or whatever they call themselves and get them in our camp, renewing the ancient alliances we've shared with the Greeks since the Middle Ages, creating the foundation of a power bloc that will finally break France and Iberia in a hypothetical Weltkrieg II scenario.

Or we could leave them to tear themselves apart, I guess."

nnobosko strongly opposed the idea: "Or Frederick II could take down the Byzantines from the inside by aiding the revolution." GunnerJ backed this idea: "Failing anything else, is there any way to just "support" the UoR in order to dick with Byzantium?" More people proposed working with the Communists.
--run DNC: "You really have to send some expiditionairy forces to the communists and maybe have the italians send them some help?"
--Faux Shoah: "I fully support aiding the Byzantine revolution, by any means necessary. Everything else can wait. "

Frederick II finally gave into the pressure to aid the communists: "I could send them money and army tech via trades. Expeditionary forces as well, although that would be a bad idea if we're going to go to war." Frederick II however did send expeditionary forces to aid the Union of Rome during the Second Weltkreig. In total, Germany gave the Union of Rome:
--Money
--Army Risk Managment
--The 17th Corps

chair was a little concerned about supporting the Union of Rome: "I think we should try to balance them out, Union of Rome with all of byzantium could be a serious problem for the Hohenzollerns since communism and monarchies don't mix. If there's a way to get them to balance along the lines of of greece/turkey and pla off each other, that would be best."

Crazy Joe Wilson desired that a war with Austria would be used to further bloster the power of the reactionaries: "It's pretty obvious that even if we fight a war with Austria, we should not just do it for our North German peoples under them but also the province(s) of Silesia and the Germanic parts of Bohemia.

The reasons we must do this is obvious; bringing more North Germans into our nation will increase the numbers of Cathari and other Protestant voices, but bringing in Silesia and Bohemia would keep our Catholic status high enough to dissuade any protestant-backed motives. I understand we are currently anti-clerical, but we are not outright secular either."

Vlad Antlerkov supported this idea: "Getting the other Germans to go along with that would be a neat trick, since they wouldn't let us bring the Swiss and Italians along into our party. I guess we could spin off Bohemia as an independent state. Might as well do the same with the Hungarians, too." However, Frederick II was only interested in turning Austria into a puppet, and was not interested in gaining any more cores than what Germany already had on those lands.

Vlad Antlerkov wisely predicted the Indian independence movement that not even Charilaos Trikoupis anticipiated: "You have to figure that the natives of India are probably going to take advantage of that." frankenfreak replied: "I would expect that as well. I just hope that Byzanz not desintegrates entirely."

RESULTS OF THE SECOND WELTKREIG:

"Man, Byzantium really shouldn't have pissed all over Mecca."---GunnerJ
"..well, that worked out suprisingly well! THE ELEPHANT IS BORN"---Gul Banana

Millions of Austrians, Frenchmen, Germans, Greeks, and Italians lie dead as a result of the German aggression that caused the Second Weltkreig. Yet, the greatest victor from the Second Weltkreig was Communism. From being a minor idea in radical circles to being a major world power, Communism only have to thank Germany for starting the Second Weltkreig.

The Union of Rome survived and thrived, thanked to German assitance. The fact that such aid was done by realpolitik instead of actual love for Communism made it impossible to mention such aid in polite company. The remenants of the Byzantine Empire however loathed German assistance to Communism, and mentioned that heavily in its propaganda.

Germany accidently furthered the spread of communism in its war against France. France suffered from high war exhaustion when fighting against Germany and the Commune of Italy, and such war exhaustion caused its own Communist faction to launch a successful military coup.