Part 1: Chapter I: Humble Beginnings 1836

Chapter I: Humble Beginnings 1836



Welcome to Bavaria! His Majesty is reviewing the progress on the construction of the Walhalla, but while he's out I'm pleased to welcome such exalted guests to tour the newly-rebuilt royal palace. His Majesty is very, very fond of architecture, as I'm sure you have heard by now. Anyway, Bavaria is divided into three states, each of which is further subdivided into provinces. Bayern state, or Old Bavaria as we sometimes call it, is the southern part of the realm, mostly containing grain and cattle but with some coal deposits. Franken state, or Franconia, is filled with fruit, cattle, and grain and is an agricultural wonderland. Finally, there is the province of Kaiserslauten which we obtained a century ago upon inheriting the Palatinate. We call its administrative region "Bavarian Rhineland." They grow fruit there. At some point we'll need to talk to Baden about gaining military access in order to protect Kaiserslauten, but the King doesn't feel that we have any pressing need to do this right this instant.



In the aftermath of the end of the Napoleonic Confederation of the Rhine, the former Holy Roman Empire was reorganized into a 39-member German Confederation and a number of its rulers, including our Bavaria, were elevated to royal status. The two "poles" of the German Confederation are Prussia in the north and Austria in the south. Prussia recently launched an ambitious free-trade zone named the Zollverein, a tariff-free zone that nearly all the north German minors participate in that lessens their economic independence and cements Prussian dominance. Our court is loyal to Prince Metternich and Austria, as are Baden and Wurtemburg and the North German minor Saxony, the only free holdout in the North against Prussia. There is also the matter of Hannover, which is ruled by the King of Great Britain and Ireland. Hannover is on Salic law and William's successor appears to be a woman, Princess Alexandrina Victoria. At any time, William IV could die and Hannover's century-long union with Britain could end, leading Hannover vulnerable to Prussian influence. Finally, there is the matter of Denmark, which maintains Holstein as a puppet and holds German land in Schleswig. Prussia seeks to liberate these lands as well, but might be satisfied by just having Copenhagen kneel to Berlin.



We are weak, Austria is strong. For now. See this as an insurance policy.



You might have noticed in the diplomatic image above a list of the 10 most respected countries on the planet. Well here are the second ten...Bavaria's a meager #19. Hopefully this will change going forward! King Ludwig is already discussing expanding the armed forces and turning Munich and Bayreuth into the centers of culture in all Germany, and in time we may seek to set up an industry as well.



We aren't producing too terribly much at the moment, but our Artisans are hard at work hammering out goods. They're inefficient, but they have their place.



Economic apocalypse looms, but doesn't it always? It's time to increase taxes heavily...people only really pay around 23% of what they're taxed, for some reason, so why not make the taxes 100%? Some day we'll crack down on the tax dodgers. In the mean time, we are likely to go into an absolutely massive amount of debt. Austria's "protection" of us means that we cannot put taxes on imports/exports to Austria and no one else is buying our goods at the moment, so tariffs are useless. This may not always be true.




Bavaria is still a small country in terms of population, but we hope to grow. As you can see, it is 72.1% Catholic (and 0.2% Jewish)...Bavarians never developed the Lutheran hysteria the way our northern cousins did. Almost everyone works in the fields or mines...we're going to need to increase the share of our population that are working in clergy positions, bureaucracy, and the military if we want to compete in the short term, and possibly craftsmen when we have the capital necessary to industrialize.








Bavaria is truly with the times technologically. Corporative Industrialism means that we don't research military techniques as well: army technology moves 5% slower and navy technology moves a whole 10% slower, but then again, we're landlocked! Cultural technology moves at a standard speed, Commerce technology is researched 5% faster, and Industrial technology comes along a whopping 15% faster. At the moment, we need to figure out all the new doctrines and ideologies that people have been discussing, as they might encourage our plurality.



What is plurality? Glad you asked!





Increasing our plurality will increase our research speed. Bavaria is a country that respects order, and at the moment, has no territorial claims on other lands so no one in the country feels any special need for revenge.



We don't have parties, per se, but we do have factions. The Conservative one was in charge yesterday, but I just got word that I'm to put the Reactionaries in charge. One second...



The Nationale Partei has no objection to the government deciding to build factories in the national interest, and the king is pondering doing that at some point in the future when the country's not vastly in debt.




Possible options for the future...we are preparing quite the fest when the Walhalla opens.



The King has already ordered recruitment of new brigades and the replacing of some of our old infantry brigades with artillery. Bavaria is going to raise a world-class army if it has to go 5,000 pounds into debt to do so!



Currently, two major powers are at war to reclaim land from rebel secessionists. We wish them both luck.

That concludes our tour. I hope you'll be back soon! His Majesty apologizes for not meeting with you in person, maybe next time.