Part 8: Chapter VIII: The Folly of War (1883-1887)
Chapter VIII: The Folly of War (1883-1887)Te Deum laudamus: te Dominum confitemur...
What? You wish to speak during the Mass of thanksgiving commemorating the late war? It's good we're sitting back here. Look out there, all those hypocrites in one cathedral. Do you remember how this started?
Te aeternum Patrem omnis terra veneratur...
A bunch of pretentious fools, most of them down there, excepting the late King Ludwig, seized on the Czech crisis as an opportunity to prove our mettle. Members of a hypocritical older generation that happily sends its children off to die and then sing God's praises in this ostentatious cathedral when more of their children return than the enemy's.
They refused even to agree when the North Germans backed down...that's the tragedy, this war was fully avoidable. Those fools should be praying for the hundreds of thousands of lives whose blood is on their hands, not hearing the te Deum.
Tibi omnes Angeli...
Oh, that's not the most farcical part of the last few years. Remember our "war" with the Sokoto Caliphate, where neither we nor our allies could get permission to go through French territory to fight them? It turned our country into the laughingstock of the world, though Sokoto would pay a far dearer price. Arrogant fools, the lot of them. Oh, and don't forget the British thinking they could take on half of South America in the middle of their war against us.
tibi caeli et universae Potestates...
Don't shush me, if you wanted to hear the archbishop drone in a dead language you should have gotten a better seat up with the hypocrites in the faux-noble attire, the "Lords" of industry who have pretensions of an older and more venerable form of power. If they had any conscience whatsoever they would be getting on their knees, weeping, and praying for their immortal souls. They started this totally preventable war.
Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim incessabili voce proclamant...
Not that religion is the problem, it isn't. The hollowing out of religion by "modern" men of "science," killing the idea that we are all children of Adam and Noah, reducing the miracle of life to chains of carbon molecules, proclaiming the pernicious doctrine that the weak dying and the strong living is the law of Nature when our Lord told us those very meek would inherit the Earth...that is the problem. It has turned this holy place into a theatrical display.
Sanctus...
Sanctus...
Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth...
Have you ever reflected on how utterly sick the tradition of reciting Te Deum Laudamus after a victory is? I can guarantee you they haven't. They do it because people did it in the 18th century, and they did it because people did it in the 17th century, and so on. If those arrogant peacocks with their pocketwatches and monocles and their vapid wives gave any thought to the dead, it was solely that some sweeperboy wouldn't report to work next Monday because he had lost his legs in combat. If they had any thought of the enormity of the suffering they caused they'd be calling for us to have a Requiem Mass instead like they did when old Ludwig passed.
Pleni sunt caeli et terra maiestatis gloriae tuae.
The very heavens and Earth rebel against the status quo. The sky is still dimmer even now and the eruption was three years ago on the other side of the world! I tell you, God is upset with the way things are.
Te gloriosus Apostolorum chorus
Did you know that when we briefly occupied Berlin at the start of the war the people of Berlin held their first Mass, Protestant or Catholic, since the Atheist Anarcho-Liberal regime took office? People pretend to maintain the ancient emnities, but see the Dutch representative there and the Russian Ambassador up front? Protestant vs Catholic vs Orthodox matters not, what matters is our common disdain for the poison of Atheism, a poison which, I hear, has been spreading.
Te Prophetarum laudabilis numerus
Once, atheism was a poison to strictly upper class tastes. Now, in Berlin, where all toxic ideologies start, they are calling the workers to drink from this tainted chalice. It has even spread to here. And who can blame them? Look at this crowd, these men of God. Worthless hypocrites, the lot of them! I can hardly blame someone for abandoning Christ after seeing the state of His "Christians..." but of course, nonetheless, we cannot have this.
Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus. Te per orbem terrarum sancta confitetur Ecclesia...
Can you believe that not one single Christian nation responded to the inhuman atrocities of the Boxers? I knew missionaries over there, good men of God who improved sanitation and education and snapped opium pipes, but those pagans have no respect for treaty obligations and extraterritoriality. Because of the war, they got away with it, as well, though it came at a harsh price for the Chinese...their county was overcome with warlordism as the angry mobs they stirred up seized the capital, leaving their various governors to become fully independent, and even breaking their bonds with the Dalai Lama in Tibet.
Patrem immensae maiestatis...
It takes the Russians an age and a half to mobilize their forces and get them into combat, and that lured the North Germans into a false sense of security. While they fought a series of bloody battles holding the Dutch at bay, they felt free to overwhelm us and the Russians with their brief numerical advantage. You remember those dark days.
Venerandum tuum verum et unicum Filium...
Something like 75% of the men that fought in Weimar that day died. God sent his only Son to Earth to die for our sins, but what excuse do those people have for sending other people's sons to die?
Sanctum quoque Paraclitum Spiritum...
I am haunted, my friend. The specters of the dead won't leave me alone.
Tu Rex gloriae, Christe...
What was this war for? The glory of "Ludwig the Liberator," that's what. What do we have to do with India, or India with us?
Tu Patris sempiternus es Filius...
The improvement of mining technology and the forging of steel...how utterly worthless. Steel only benefits those Czech fools in Bohemia and Moravia that got us into this war to begin with. Luckily, the importation of massive amounts of tobacco from our client "Kingdoms" of Haiti and Cuba continues unabated.
Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem...
Ah, the Little Alpine War. The King of Italy thought he could liberate the men of Italy by marching north while we were occupied with the NGF.
Non horruisti Virginis uterum...
The Italians, horrified at their miscalculation, cried out for their mothers, Virgin or not. King Ludwig, for once, let Italy off the hook with no indemnities.
Tu, devicto mortis aculeo
South German troops were quite familiar with the sharpness of death by this point. The professional North German army had been almost wiped out, but a neverending stream of conscripts rose to take their place. Our men, exhausted, wounded, could not fight on.
Aperuisti credentibus regna caelorum...
Engelbert is down there. Who would have thought a man that stout and out of shape would be a first-rate commander of men? At Fulda he showed a great many of our Northern brethren into the Kingdom of Heaven. I know not why even now I am prone to glorifying feats of arms in this pointless war...perhaps it is my childhood reading Caesar's commentary's and Arrian's Anabasis.
Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes
While the French choice to place two thirds of their army in India proved beneficial in persuading the world that we had the power to free India, it also had its rather obvious downsides.
in gloria Patris...
The Turks were savvy, striking Greece when the Great Powers had no ability to stop them.
Iudex crederis esse venturus...
Conscripts save the day, for the first time in SGF's history. 300,000 men drafted. Do you understand that number? A great many never returned. Whatever else I have to say about the SGF government, it never turns to conscription unless there is literally no other option. Of course, war with conscripts is horrifying beyond measure.
War with just the professional army can be horrifying too, just for the other side. Meanwhile, we waited to be saved by Russia, for when Russia institutes conscription, their men continue to come, a neverending stream slowly but surely headed westwards.
Te ergo quaesumus...
The fall of Paris was met with utter disdain here. How was it even possible? Why had France left all its troops in Madras, anyway?
Tuis famulis subveni...
Women in Munich put flowers around returning soldiers, women in New York City vote on public policy. Which has a saner system, I wonder?
Quos pretioso sanguine redemisti...
It was a bit over a year ago now that India ended its servitude to London and started producing goods for us. Was it worth it? Hardly, though I have to admit, I have picked up a taste for tea.
Aeterna fac cum sanctis tuis in gloria numerari.
Britain continued its role as the enforcer of Brazilian imperialism. Few cared. Oh, the service is finally over? Oh, no, a sermon! Listen, I'm just going to leave now. Let's talk in the hall.
As you know, following in the lead of other Indian minors, princely states tried to modernize and meet the challenge of their giant neighbor, while the Laotians became the first in their neighborhood to welcome Western standards.
Who knows what's going on in Krakow these days.
Can you believe that the latest word from over there is that India is actually somehow losing?
The massive expansion of healthcare is going to trigger a backlash. I hope the new Emperor, Otto is capable of...
...
Did you just see the Emperor of the South Germans run, screeching and shouting nonsense, through the pews, ruining the Archbishop's sermon? I think we made the right decision to depart the service early.
Anyway...
This elephant will never swim.
In humiliation, the government realized that it could not bring Sokoto to heel. It met a gruesome fate at the hands of France and Italy, with only its interior remaining under the rule of the Sokoto Caliph. Perhaps he should have stayed loyal to Munich and not opened himself up to this, eh?
The Chinese Empire looks to retake its land from the opportunistic warlords that seceded in its moment of weakness. A divided China is better for everyone, let us hope that they fail.
With peacetime came the return of peacetime concerns, like industry and securing the rubber supply and music. It will hopefully be a long time before we have another series of atrocities, another brutal campaign that we will have to say a Te Deum for.
What? They wouldn't dare.
They...but...
My friend, I suppose...I suppose I will meet you again, here, next year, for another Te Deum. I hear that the chapel across the hall has a child's chorus singing Miserere Mei, Deus. The words seem more appropriate for the current circumstances.
The Great Powers
SGF Demographics
Crisis State Bohemia Demographics
The World, 1887
