Part 6: Chapter VI: The South German Federation (January 1, 1869-July 6th, 1875)
Chapter VI: The South German Federation (January 1, 1869-July 6th, 1875)
You can't make fun of those who are less fortunate than yourself, especially when Bavarian bankruptcy is within living memory. Do you think that anyone ten years ago thought we'd be here today, ready to watch Kaiser Ludwig's coronation as Emperor of South Germany? It all started with Britain's vain, overconfident bid to free Poland from Russian hands...
If London had just given in and given the Tsar the few acres of snow near Canada that he demanded, we wouldn't have this glorious opportunity. As it was, Franz Josef thought that Alexander II was being presumptuous and sided with the British despite his reservations about the idea of liberating Poland, and Austrian backing lent Britain the confidence it needed to take on the Russians, French, and Dutch simultaneously.
Remember when Kaiserslauten was a prosperous town with over 110,000 workers? Yeah...today there are fewer than half that. It's a shame how that happened.
Giuseppe Garibaldi continued his simultaneous coups in the Duchies of Parma and Lucca, racing to see which of the two would be seized first.
Damned liquor tax. Why must we pay more to discourage us from drinking? This is the consequence of rich women with too few responsibilities sticking their noses in politics.
It was about that time, as I recall, that we started to hear that the Lithuanians in our midst were still Germans like the rest of us...just...special Germans. I suppose they'll say the same about the Czechs now. Of course, politicians have gained favor by criticizing the soon-to-be-Kaiser of coddling these foreigners and allowing them into our country. This blind demagoguery will have bad results some day, mark my words.
The British military was quite powerful, and, for once, actually fended off a French invasion of the Home Isles. Their Austrian allies hoped that they'd keep the French and Dutch occupied and sent all their forces out to meet the Russians. The Austrians chose...poorly.
Us? We stayed on the sidelines. We were duty-bound by treaty not to war with Austria until 1872, after all, so there wasn't much we could do. We developed our industry, built a very oddly-located stock exchange in the middle of the most rural part of our homeland, and invited bold new philosophers and artists to Munich.
France did not oblige Austria. Stymied in their attempts to penetrate the British Isles, the French army invaded Austria from the west while the Austrian army remained on the Russian border.
Someone should impose order in Latin America and end the senseless bloodshed.
Throwing good money after bad.
The systematic destruction of the Austrian military over the course of a mere six months was utterly incredible to watch.
The Russians smelled blood in the water, but London refused to sell out Vienna and make peace.
Utterly broken, Austria lay prostrate before its invaders.
Too little, too late from Egypt, a mangled corpse of an empire. Ditto the Ottomans.
Our new philosophers helped us rapidly regain our lost prestige. We would have been a Great Power again already, but someone beat us to it.
Giuseppe Garibaldi succeeded in his lifelong dream of forming a unified Italy under the rule of King Vittorio Emanuele II of Piedmont Sardinia.
Count Cavour, the King's Minister, decided to celebrate by giving Garibaldi's hometown of Nizza and the House of Savoy's family holdings of Savoie to France for no explicable reason. Garibaldi's tragic suicide and his note "What the hell, Cavour?" is still the stuff of song and legend.
How can you even have a demonstration in a city that's been run by a rampant rebel mob for the past 5 years?
It felt good to see Austria crumble. Perhaps the dream of annexing the Habsburg Empire intact was not a fantasy?
I ran into Ibsen just the other day, in fact. Bleak fellow, as cold as his native Norway.
Whatever happens/We have got/Machine Gun Armament/And they get shot. I believe that's how the verse goes, correct me if I'm wrong.
Dammit, I almost had it.
The discovery of Analytic Philosophy put us over. Once again considered the world center of culture, Bavaria was once again a rising power, though Austria would not surrender its seat until its war ended.
The war's end looked as though it could be very painful indeed.
Naturally, we refused to raise the wealth criteria for voting. That would be outrageous.
Bimetallism seems shaky. A friendly gentleman has told me of the perils of state currency and has alerted me to this new, totally reliable currency called "Greenbacks" put out by the United States, and they seem to be going up, up, up.
This war was utterly pointless. NGF sought to take Baden back from Austria's sphere into its own, and, of course, succeeded. They could have waited.
Did I say I wouldn't boast or feel superior to the bankrupt? I lied.
The famed National Banks of Switzerland.
I'm a representational man, myself. I like to understand what I'm looking at. King Ludwig disagrees.
Fish and chips wrapper? No, I'm using my copy of the Bavarian Red Star as lining for my birdcage.
For some reason the state determined that our lack of psychological experience was a national security threat and ordered the development of all the psychological advances up to modern standards. I don't quite understand why...the explanation of "we can't discover Expressionist Music without Experimental Psychology" seemed a bizarre non-sequitur.
Italia Irredentia, they say. They give away Savoy and Nice for no reason whatsoever and proclaim themselves irredentists. Sure.
It was nice to be appreciated again. Austria looked like someone had taken a bite out of it, but it's not like East Galicia is going to be one of the top sources of the fuel of the 20th century or anything. Let Russia deal with raving hordes of Ukrainians, Poles, and Jews vying for supremacy in
Britain didn't fare quite so well. Its military had been reduced to token levels and it had been prohibited from building any replacements for five years, which expires in 1877 and is still in effect to this day! In addition, up until that date, it has to pay 50% of its income in war reparations to the Russians, French, and Dutch. To deal with its reduced ability to manage its affairs, the British spun off Australia as a self-governing dominion.
Surprising no one, the King of Italy reclaimed Venetia. Luckily, he did not claim Sudtirol, Istria, or the Dalmatian coastline. Austria was out of Italy, though it was not out of what the new regime in Rome saw as "Italy."
Travnacore fell out of British power as its traditionalist revolt broke the state of its British vassalage, and it rapidly fell under French influence instead. The British replied by centralizing their authority elsewhere in India.
The raving bourgeois hordes of Berlin saw through our plan to talk Austria and Baden into a new confederation and would have none of it. Fortunately, with Russia by our side, this war was distinctly winnable. Ludwig was so confident he refused to even summon up the reserves...we would fight the North Germans with our professional army alone.
Offensive warfare was a bad call in the age of Machine Guns, a new strategy was called for. The public, infuriated by the failures of the early days of the war, demanded reform, and reform Ludwig gave them, ending the double votes for the wealthy in elections.
Everyone remembers the three Battles of Nuremburg, but Miklas (God rest his soul) proved his mettle in the first and second, especially.
Miklas had victories elsewhere, too, but the Nuremburg defense was his greatest moment.
Our defense raced to catch up with our offensive prowess.
We talk about the war as if it was our victory alone, but the Russians bled and died and bore the brunt of the combat, and Switzerland participated as well.
Miklas' tragic death at 3rd Nuremburg overshadowed it, but the massive victory at Bayreuth cemented our victory in the war.
No, I haven't had time to catch an opera in Paris lately. Maybe once all the turmoil quiets down.
Yes, Miklas' shoes are hard to fill, but I have a good feeling about our new officers.
I have a theory. Reactionaries are treacherous, undermining our nation, while Jacobins are the greatest patriots of all. How's that? The Reactionaries rose up to immediately fight our troops, while the Jacobins rose up where the NGF troops were, fighting valiantly for their rights and dying at the hands of the foreign occupiers.
Why would anyone follow in the NGF's footsteps?
We did occasionally lose battles, even towards the end of the war.
We paid them back in spades.
Our boys are the best soldiers in the world. That's not an exaggeration. That's a fact.
Our two Socialist Parties are rumored to have merged. Seeing as how their meeting in public remains illegal, I don't see how it could be a problem.
Do I like Wagner? Are you kidding? I bought this piano just to play my favorite bits from Siegfried! You know, there was a man there at Bayreuth with an impressive mustache saying that he was going to write a book on how Wagner betrayed his anti-rationalist, Romantic roots with his return to Christian ethos and an abandonment of neo-paganism. How did that man make it past security, he was clearly a vagrant of some sort.
Welcome to the family of civilized nations, Liberia.
Yes, there was a Fourth Nuremburg, but because Miklas was dead they didn't honor it as such.
Vienna, a wartorn hellscape, where rats gnaw on corpses in the streets and riotous mobs break the windows of the few factories that still remain open. I can see why they'd call the people rebuilding the city the Founders.
North Germany finally recognized the supremacy of Bavarian interests in south Germany. Ludwig had achieved his lifelong dream, the dream of his father. He was the head of the South German Federation.
Of course, could a state that contained the remnants of the Habsburg Empire truly be called "German" if it was only 41% German? Apparently Ludwig has an announcement about that.
Kaiser Ludwig I of the South German Federation posted:
My dear subjects, dignitaries from our respected allies, thank you so much for being here on this new day for our empire. In recent years our legislature has expanded to include all mean of means, and that extends to our new territories as well. At the moment, only those of wealth and South German heritage can vote, but given that the old Austrian Empire had no voting at all, I'm sure that tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Austrians will enjoy the privilege of a say in government for the first time. This may come as a bit of a disappointment for our brothers in Baden, where the late regime had full universal manhood suffrage, but, if the Duke of Baden will pardon my candor, his regime had not a single factory, railway, or fortification throughout the entirety of Baden and ran the most agrarian regime in Western Europe. Perhaps it's a sign of what universal suffrage and lack of a strong guiding state leads to.
Our regime does, of course, face problems. I never intended to rule over Hungarians. This is the South German Federation, not the Habsburg Empire. As my...friend, Franz Josef, reminds me, he is legally both Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, and that relinquishing the former title does not necessarily imply relinquishing the latter. In this spirit, I have a question I would like to put to my esteemed Reichstag, the first question of the new Reichstag of the South German Federation, with men of Austria and Baden sitting alongside those of Bavaria.
A. We must keep all of the land. This approach seems risky to me, and I would not advise it. Large numbers of angry, illiterate, agricultural lands populated by Magyars and Slavs seem to hold little benefit for our empire, and, in addition, I promised the Hungarians their independence and they will be quite disappointed if I fail to give it.
B. Release Hungary and Ruthenia. Thanks to the loss of East Galicia, Ruthenia would be completely cut off from us if we released Hungary, and I have just the nephew who would make a perfect Duke of Ruthenia. If we go this approach, Franz Josef will become King of Hungary, and Hungary would become a loyal, autonomous subject and ally of the South German Federation. We would keep the lands of Baden, Wurttemburg, Bavaria, and Austria proper, including the Dalmatian coastline, Austria, Bohemia/Moravia, and West Galicia, and our population would be 62% South German, a far more homogeneous state.
C. Release and partition Hungary into Hungary, Slovakia, and Transylvania, also release Ruthenia. This option would have the same borders for us as the previous plan, but a Kingdom of Slovakia and a Grand Duchy of Transylvania would be split off of Hungary in advance. This plan is popular among Slovaks and Romanians, but would leave our Hungarian friends bitter and hostile.
D. Maximum Divestment. In addition to releasing Hungary, Slovakia, Transylvania, and Ruthenia, we would also free the Croats, Slovenes, Bohemians, Poles, and the Free City of Trieste as self-governing vassals. Please do not embrace this policy...there is no need to partition the Austrian sections of Austria. I introduce this with a heavy heart only because of the pleading of a distinguished Czech gentleman I spoke with earlier, but I do not believe that some of these states (especially Slovenia and Trieste) would be capable of running themselves. This plan would likely bring untold misery on many of our more minor subjects.
Please ask the Court if you need a cartographer to help you visualize the various proposals.
There is one final matter.
People are very, very upset. Exceptionally so. They have demanded reform and I intend to give it to them, but I do not know what it should be. Gentlemen, this might be the last reform for a very long time, and I will consider what you pick as a recommendation for the type of reform to pursue in the future, so consider carefully.
1. Weighted Universal Suffrage. Now, every South German man of means can vote, but I hear grumbling from both the lower orders and minorities. Perhaps if we appease our commoners we can have them side with the regime and not with its dissidents.
2. Harassed Political Parties. The repeated coup attempts have proven that political factions forced underground are dangerous and resort to violent means. Perhaps letting them openly rally will calm our affairs.
3. Trinket Healthcare. The state will take from its soon-to-be-overflowing coffers and help pay the most critical and necessary of health costs. This could boost our population as fewer end up dying of illness and injury.
4. Trinket Pensions. The state will help the elderly in their time of need. No South German man will live in penury in his old age if this passes.
Thank you all. In the meantime, we must get to work. Austria has been left devastated in the recent war and Baden never had any infrastructure to begin with, it is time we build up all of the Federation to the standards of Bavaria. Thank you all.
