Part 9: Chapter IX: Peace, Bread, Work, and Votes. 1887-1895

Chapter IX: Peace, Bread, Work, and Votes. 1887-1895


My name is Eduard Bernstein, and I was once an ally of Friedrich Engels and his late mentor and partner Karl Marx. Today, I am the Chancellor of the South German Federation, through the machinations of the elite, the group I have come to term the Bavarian Illuminati. My cooperation with the elite has drawn scorn from my former comrades, yet I insist that it is proof that revolution is not necessary to achieve the ends we have all striven for. In this day, when both Britain and France have followed what I termed the "Munich course" of social democratic government in a traditional monarchical social order, it is easy to criticize us for not being aggressive enough in pursuing true worker's government: after all, at the moment the worker in Paris or London has far more social safety than the one in Munich, but neither of those states had to change course after decades of Habsburg and Wittelsbach absolutism. When I was a boy in Berlin I saw men beaten for expressing the very idea of collective bargaining. One just needs to compare the SGF with its hellish alter ego to the north, the bourgeois North German Federation, to understand what we've accomplished here. I hope to prove Engels' critique of my government and our cooperation with the Bavarian Illuminati wrong and show that we have indeed done our part to advance the cause of workers everywhere.



Finance continued to be a depressing subject, as the poorer countries of the world continued to default. Running the economy was the most sensitive part of our tasks.



As an only recently unbanned party of workers, we had few amongst our numbers with business acumen and had to rely on the wisdom of some of the old planners from the Reactionary years. Nevertheless, the first reform we instituted, and I'd claim the most significant, is that for the first time in South German history, the Rich pay more in taxes than the Poor do. Those that say that there is no difference between our government and the Reactionary old guard in Ludwig's day need only look at the way the state's ledger is now balanced on the backs of those with the resources to pay for society's well-being.





The smashing of warlordism in China progressed nicely, with the Beijing regime smashing and absorbing the Guangxi Clique, but, in a worrisome move, they did not admit the southern territories as full states but rather as colonies. The Chinese Empire looks to be rebuilding itself as a more western sort of Empire. Meanwhile, Ludwig's folly, the Kingdom of India, lost land to the petty raja of Gujarat. I hear India is plagued with rebellion, but barring an order from the Illuminati there is no way our government is sending our men to die over pacifying rebels in India.






My government had orders to solve the Bohemian crisis with a negotiated NGF disarmament, but Russia was not interested in championing our deal and, in fact, citing heavy Russian losses in the last war, elected to stay out of this one. Vowing to seek peace at the earliest possible opportunity, our government led a somewhat reduced coalition of SGF, Netherlands, and France against the NGF and the UK.



Moravians are nothing but trouble.






I have never much liked the army. The elites frowned when our government drastically cut soldiers and officers payrolls at the beginning of a war. Armies force men into an unnatural state of servile obedience and encourage militarism. A navy, though...that is a branch of the military that I can admire. Such a shame we never had one previously.






The South German Navy is a fine institution. It's democratic in the truest of senses...no half-witted son of a baron can take the helm of a ship and hope to succeed without training. Competent, disciplined, skilled men rise to the top of the tree in the navy.






It achieves dramatic results with a fraction of the expense and manpower! Just think! A navy filled with ships of iron, not those wooden relics that the British sail with but a real navy like France's!






Sorry about that, I just got back from the naval review in Trieste. It's a compelling solution to the problem of maintaining a high-profile military while drawing down our soldier count. You wish to hear my account of the late war, though, correct?





Our forces pushed in and took Berlin in short order.






Their professional army did tremendous damage to our men, and even in victory, we suffered grievous losses.



We demanded North Germany disarm and pay reparations.





Their conscripts didn't fare very well. We didn't mobilize, of course, that would have disrupted our new state industry (now illuminated by gas lighting!).




Though the North German professional army was still intact, they knew they could not win the war and sued for peace. Many whispered to me to continue the war and slaughter the entire North German professional army so that they would be utterly defenseless during their disarmed period, but I was chosen to bring peace as soon as possible and I did so.




Through an accounting trick, North Germany barely lost a brigade in the disarming, instead sinking some surplus naval vessels. The extra revenue for the next five years was quite nice...we certainly felt its loss when it ended last year.



The end of a feudal relic.





Spain's folly was one of the more amusing aspects of the last several years. Spain's failure in its quest to replace Cuba with Yemen is one of the more thrilling tales of anti-imperialism in this tragic age. Did you know the Spanish spent a full year at full mobilization during its three year war with Yemen? Think of all the crops that could have been harvested, the factories that didn't have to go bankrupt...Of course, Spain is ruled by bourgeois Liberals now, so it's no wonder that there isn't a single open factory across that entire country. If it weren't for Spain's oversized military, no one would even consider it a Secondary Power anymore, it would be a joke like Portugal.



The SGF's lack of retaliation upon the Vietnamese end of our free trade agreement is a sign that the SGF condemns imperialism. It has nothing to do with the fact that the fleet was still under construction, we would have acted the same regardless.



Are there even Native Americans left for Custer to fight? Editor's Note: There is not a single non-Cherokee Native American left in the entire United States. Maybe this time Custer's trip will turn out better.








Light bulbs and electric lines...the workers of Bohemia should feel fortunate that they are part of a country that lets them take the forefront in heavy industry. Had they had their way, who knows how long it would have taken them to set up a factory to build these cutting-edge products of a new era?



Suffragettes became an increasingly noisy concern in the early 1890s. I was sympathetic to their demands, but in a time when 88% of SGF men could not vote due to wealth restrictions, the concerns of bourgeois ladies were not high on my priority list.






Not only are we the number 2 source of coal in the world, we are the number one source of oil. Editor's Note: Not for long once the Oklahoma and Texas oil wells are discovered. I have heard of all sorts of potential applications for oil and am particularly proud that the Polish workers of West Galicia are at the forefront of the potentially lucrative industry of turning oil into petrol.



NGF's industry was hardly disturbed by the war and despite their lack of a significant army, NGF preserved its status as the world's backup workshop. The United Kingdom's thriving industry seems to have taken off despite the loss of India, further proving King Ludwig's incompetence and vainglorious insistence on glorious achievements in war that ultimately mean very little.










No, I haven't attended any of the recent guest lectures. The historical school sounds quite intriguing, though.








I've been too busy examining the latest breakthroughs that have revolutionized the state's industrial sector. Lighting, time clocks, assembly lines, refrigeration...what SGF industry lacks in quantity it more than makes up in quality. I laugh at those who say that the Chinese are going to overtake us by building 12 Luxury Furniture factories employing 15,000 men apiece...one SGF craftsman works as hard as three or four Chinese workers.



The new Socialist government in France made the amazing decision to evict half of Paris in order to rebuild the city. When people unfavorably compare us to Paris, I point at that...they may have pensions for the elderly and a minimum wage, but they also intentionally create homelessness!




Argentina is desperately trying to avoid total Patagonian exile.



Winning an election without the Illuminati's help boosted our stature, though the state police beating those that did not vote for us did not make us look very good. I decided then and there that the party system needed to change.





The Netherlands failed to rally anyone to the Greek cause and as a result tumbled to their lowest stature in decades.



They have ample consolation, though.



To make any progress against the social problems of our day, pandora's box had to be opened.



Some truly horrifying things I do not wish to see were in that box.



Reactionaries.




Secret police. Would you believe I had to personally intervene to prevent them from beating women to death in the streets?



Terrorism, and more besides.



Brazzaville is now the capital of all of French Africa (excluding Algeria). The failure of the Italian effort to secure the mouth of the Congo River has the warmongers atwitter...I see no reason to care. We have no qualms with the Africans, and their suffering at the hands of the French is truly tragic.



I don't know how Ludwig's regime made it without a Central Banking system.





Obviously, we sided with the Tsar here. Tsar or not, he's not an American, and a free Poland is in nobody's interest. Also, even here, this movement has arisen that proclaims that the rich are rich and the poor are poor because they deserve their fate...I have never heard a more Medieval piece of claptrap.



Might as well get every artifact we can out of Egypt before the Turks reconquer the rest of it. Those tombs won't handle artillery fire and those tombs belong to all of humanity.








I have had many men at Bohemian Motorworks try to explain how the combustion engine works, but I still do not quite understand. I have seen the benefits of tractors firsthand, but automobiles otherwise appear just a toy for the wealthy.



Why did we never think of general strikes back when we were an illegal underground society?



When I said a Pandora's box of ideology, I didn't mean it quite this literally.



This is rich. Engels and Kautsky say I have betrayed the revolution and have become a puppet of the Aristocrats. Look how many men work making cars and lightbulbs that were farmers a few years ago, how many can read and write who were illiterate before. We are making real progress in South Germany, we aren't pursuing some pie-in-the-sky fantasy paradise like some countries.




Of course I sympathize with the Orange Revolution, how couldn't I? The Boers were less than a quarter of Orange Free State society and yet they dominated every aspect of it. The fact remains that the new Sotho government down there has to create a worker's paradise in a country without a single factory with a reactionary regime in Transvaal and a British puppet in South Africa eyeing it up for conquest. I'm just suggesting that Orange might not be the safest fatherland of the international workingman.




If a weak country throws out its protector's embassy, the vultures will come swooping down.




New ways of doing business, maximizing output. The bourgeois won't see a dime. I wish our industrial sector were more than a fifth the size of Britain's, though. I think I'll call the British PM and ask his secret. He is of the Labour Party, after all.



Have you heard of the counterfeiting ring they broke up recently? "Kaiser-coin," seriously. Who wants a currency not backed by gold or any government?



There will be no suffrage for women workers until there is suffrage for men workers, and that's final.




Ah, the recession. It started when the NGF stopped paying its indemnities. SGF was capable of staying afloat by cutting back on expenses, but our neighbors weren't able to sustain their economy with the SGF cutting back.




Then it hit their neighbors.



And so on.



Recessions are risky affairs, but SGF is recovering nicely. Sadly, our allies are not so fortunate.



Someone has to do something about those damned out of work kids, though.



Maybe that kind old man in Vienna can see some potential in their dreams.



The Illuminati helped us out here and reinstated us, but in the moment of weakness following our humiliating loss at the polls, we launched a long-settled reform agenda into practice.




All men could vote, though some could vote more than others. It was the compromise the Aristocrats demanded. Meanwhile, all parties were allowed to surface at last and hold rallies in the open. Perhaps this would ease the tension that had brought the SGF to the brink of crisis.



I'm looking forward to the Athens Olympiad next year. It's to be the first in two thousand years.



China seeks more colonies in its southeast. I have little sympathy for the Yunnan clique, but the refusal of China to accept its former territories as full parts of the country is worrisome.



Revolution is perilous indeed.



The end of slavery at last. The Reactionary coup in Lisbon made the Liberal Party running the government into the ruling party only absolute government, and their first move was to finally ban slavery. As of 1894, 20% of Angola and Mozambique will no longer have to toil in chains. Portugal: so messed up that even its Reactionaries did good things by seizing authority.



We cannot stop now, we need all the coal we can mine to produce enough energy to dominate the 20th century's needs. The more coal, the more steel. The more steel, the more heavy industry. The more heavy industry, the larger the proletariat.



The Japanese have occupied the southern half of Korea, but the Korean forces have pulled back beyond the 38th parallel, vowing to fight to the last man in the mountainous north.










Most of Asia has embraced the practices of Europe and have placed themselves out of easy conquest by European powers.




How can this be a bad time for the working man of South Germany? Men have taken flight for the first time, they refrigerate their food, they ride on trains taking oil to be turned into gasoline to power the tractors that produce bumper harvests beyond the comprehension of previous eras, and they do it all while able to vote for the first time ever.

Demographics



Diplomacy



France is no longer #1 due to its new ruling party



The World, 1895