The Macabees
31-10-2005, 20:25
[OOC: Please, this is specifically private, for the APW group. If you're interested in joining this role playing community, visit the sign up (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=451558) thread. Thank you.]
The shattered armies of Napoleon III in 1870 closed a final chapter of European warfare with an epic defeat to the German Army, and Paris had been sorrounded, starved, and changed. The Third Republic that had emerged from the fractured remnants of France grew into a society full of hate towards the East, and subsequent relations with Germany were never good. The new army of post-war France suffered from the same weaknesses that the army at Sedan had died from, extremely poor organization. The wars in Morocco had only served to underscore the poor leadership within the Empire's army; even the Spaniards had suffered less, although Spain was not exactly one to compare France to, especially when hold into regards the Carlist Wars of Spain, in which the Spanish state had transformed itself into a backwards spawn pool of militants and left wingers.
The Third Republic also suffered from from the crucial lack of support from the common French man. The Second Empire had been a dream, and the brief return to Napleanic glory had collapsed like a house of cards. In fact, since the war in 1870 and the establishment of the Third Republic in September of that year, the countr had gone through a long series of mishaps that slowly wore away at the structure of the Republic, which all began to climax after 1897 in Morocco and the distant puppet of Kampuchea, as referred to by the locals. Of course, to understand colonial politics one must learn worldwide politics, or those which were developed in Paris specfically, although one suffers from the chicken and the egg syndrome. Nonetheless, one should delve into French politics first.
In 1897 [OOC: This is the point in which French history has been warped] the French Foreign Legion suffered a massive debacle at the hands of the Moroccons. The entire campaign should have never happened, but it was a time of military desperation for France. The Spanish war in the Tangiers Strip, against insurgents from the mountains, had stalled in the face of an extremely tenacious defense, and Madrid, specifically Bourbon king Alfonso XIII, had petitioned Paris for military aid. A Paris anxious to show their potential as a colonial power almost thirty years after 1870 willingly agreed, and in the summer of 1897, in the dead heat of the Atlas Mountains, marched to suppress the tribes of the area. It was disastrous. Within two months the four thousand man division had been ambushed enough to wither away at the ranks, and by that time only nine hundred men remained, as a consequence, within the mountains, the Moroccon guerilla army simply isolated the remnants and destroyed them. The blame for the defeat can mostly be put on the shoulders of the French Army, since the organization of the General Staff, and the subordinate Moroccon Army Staff, did not lend itself to flexibility, organization and communication, three of the most important aspects of any army. Therefore, the massacre in the Atlas was due to happen. The shockwaves of the defeat were felt throughout the French Empire, and specifically by the leadership of the Third Republic.
The Army placed immediate blame on the government for not putting as a priority the army, and so, it was assumed that the government had not given enough money to the army to pay for supplies and new armaments, and therefore, the army was painted as an obsolote arm. What was originally a machination of the army itself, ultimately became it's downfall, and that of the government as well, unfortunately. The Third Republic teetered on the end of extinction, especially as in 1889, eight years prior to the Moroccon debacle, the Boulanger crisis had almost threatened to destroy the Third Republic. Although the Republic survived, in 1898, a few months after the war in Morocco, Jean Casimir-Périer resigned from the presidency, allowing Émile Loubet to take his place. The sudden change of cabinets stirred contreversey within France, and in May 1898 a failed coup took to the streets of France. Fortunately, the man in the lead, Field Marshall Henry de Roncesvalles, failed to conjur the support of the majority of the military and he was quickly forced to surrender himself to French authorities. However, his execution a year later was seen as high handed, and was not particularly supported in France. Nevertheless, the situation in France cooled off until 1903.
That year, government forces in Indochina, operating in the rebellious area of Cambodia, locally known as Kampuchea, were isolated and destroyed in the southlands by a guerilla army led by King Norodom himself, although it took some prodding by French educated Cambodian nationals to actually establish the state of rebellion. The political ambience of France flared with this most frequent defeat and the nationalist French pushed for greater military deployments to Asia. Stiff resistance was put up by the socialist government, and in 1904 a second coup, this time by the entire army and part of the administration, took to the streets of Paris, Marseilles, Brest, Bordeaux and Calais. All five origin cities were taken within hours, and the next day the Third Republic collapsed by the surrender of the government to the generals by President Émile Loubet. In the vacuum established in France, Field Marshall Alexis Fontainbleu took the reins of France, establishing the Fourth Republic. Again, unfortunately, Fontainbleu was unable to squash the Khmer rebellion in Cambodia and so he was diposed of by the military.
Two years later, in 1906, a popular revolution overthrew the military dictatorship of France, ending the Fourth Rebellion only after almost two years of rule. The subsequent leadership of France was left to a distant Bourbon relative of Louis XVIII, and one of several Spanish relatives of Louis-Phillipe, or Phillip VII of Spain. Therefore, in August 14 of 1906, Jean de Catalan was popularly elected to the French throne, just like Napoleon III had been, instating the French monarchy, albeit under a different dynasty, that of Catalan. The family was not as obscure as one would think, and although by that time exclusively Spanish, they had certain ties to the French throne, albeit relatively distant. Indeed, the Catalan dynasty had at one point been Dukes of Aquintaine and perhaps sections of Languadoc, although by 734 they had left south to conquer the Spanish Marche, so valued by Charlemagne nears later. They had soon fallen from favor and by 1905 they had absolutely no claims to either the Spanish throne or French throne that were at all strong. Nonetheless, the Catalan family was a very powerful movement in the Spanish nationalist front, and subsequent relations with King Alfonso XIII had regained favour within the family, and in 1906, with Spanish influence behind him, Yonatan Catalan became Jean I of France.
An omen from the heavens came the year later when King Norodom ordered a halt to the nationalist revolution in Kampuchea in the face of excessive losses to French colonial police, and inter-party warfare between Khmer Nationalists and Vietnamese Nationalists. As a show of favour, Norodom was allowed to keep his throne, albeit as a puppet of Paris. However, there was an immediate rise in the level of troops in Indochina, and by 1908 there were over thirty-five thousand French personnel patrolling the jungles of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. The year before the Spaniards had finally put down the Moroccon rebellion, returning North Africa to normal. It seemed as if Jean I was doing the job right, although it was more probably that it was all happistance. Regardless, the effects were felt throughout France, and in retrospect some consider this the beginning of new golden age of France, or the La Nouvelle Renaissance. True to form, by 1915 France had seen an almost complete turn around, including the vital reformation of the French military, which ironically was based after the general staff of France's principal rival, the Prussians.
The Nouvelle Armée proved their massive change for the better four years later in the second Moroccon uprising, this time by Saharaui in Spanish controlled Western Sahara, and in the southern areas of Morocco. In a lightning campaign beginning the spring of 1919, the Saharaui Polisario rebellion was put down, destroyed, and steralized. Comparetively, the Spanish miltary had again faltered in their own campaign, loosing perhaps four to five times the number of men the French had lost, and that's taking in mind the fact that the French advance had eaten up considerable amounts of rebel soldiers, tying them up in a desperate defense. The world was stunned by the new France, and other conspiracies for further rebellions throughout the Empire were immediately put to rest in the light of this victory. As a result, Jean's reign was further glorified as a new age for France.
French politics after 1920 failed to change much, even after the death of King Jean I in 1938, leaving the throne to his son, Alexis I. There continued to be a policy of belligerence towards the German Empire, which had seemed to turn their attention to the east, invading Czechoslovakia, Eastern Hungary and Romania in quick succession, and within the years that led up to 1945, there was an almost continous build-up of resources on the borders with Alsace and Lorraine. In fact, war seemed almost inevitable by 1930 with over one million French men sitting there. However, it never came up, and by 1940 the number of men had been reduced remarkably, as most had been demobilized in the face of a tightening budget.
The 'tight budget' was a result of the New York Stock Market crash of 1929, and the ripples of the disaster swept through France, although Jean I was able to handle with a potential disaster. Indeed, his continued mobilizations aided in the proliferation of industry and the expense and redistribution of capital, keeping France out of complete disaster, and by 1935 the French economy had been stable once again, as had the economy of the rest of the world, except for a select few countries. Nonetheless, with the death of Jean I, and the rise of Alexis I, the military still felt a sudden decrease in personnel and budgetary finance, although with the new age of France there failed to be widespread disgruntlement.
And so, 1945 in France herself, opened up with a bred hatred towards the Prussians, peace throughout Colonial France, and with a strong monarchy at its head. Unfortunately, events would spiral away again, with the face of a new agression, one that not totally uncovered yet.
The shattered armies of Napoleon III in 1870 closed a final chapter of European warfare with an epic defeat to the German Army, and Paris had been sorrounded, starved, and changed. The Third Republic that had emerged from the fractured remnants of France grew into a society full of hate towards the East, and subsequent relations with Germany were never good. The new army of post-war France suffered from the same weaknesses that the army at Sedan had died from, extremely poor organization. The wars in Morocco had only served to underscore the poor leadership within the Empire's army; even the Spaniards had suffered less, although Spain was not exactly one to compare France to, especially when hold into regards the Carlist Wars of Spain, in which the Spanish state had transformed itself into a backwards spawn pool of militants and left wingers.
The Third Republic also suffered from from the crucial lack of support from the common French man. The Second Empire had been a dream, and the brief return to Napleanic glory had collapsed like a house of cards. In fact, since the war in 1870 and the establishment of the Third Republic in September of that year, the countr had gone through a long series of mishaps that slowly wore away at the structure of the Republic, which all began to climax after 1897 in Morocco and the distant puppet of Kampuchea, as referred to by the locals. Of course, to understand colonial politics one must learn worldwide politics, or those which were developed in Paris specfically, although one suffers from the chicken and the egg syndrome. Nonetheless, one should delve into French politics first.
In 1897 [OOC: This is the point in which French history has been warped] the French Foreign Legion suffered a massive debacle at the hands of the Moroccons. The entire campaign should have never happened, but it was a time of military desperation for France. The Spanish war in the Tangiers Strip, against insurgents from the mountains, had stalled in the face of an extremely tenacious defense, and Madrid, specifically Bourbon king Alfonso XIII, had petitioned Paris for military aid. A Paris anxious to show their potential as a colonial power almost thirty years after 1870 willingly agreed, and in the summer of 1897, in the dead heat of the Atlas Mountains, marched to suppress the tribes of the area. It was disastrous. Within two months the four thousand man division had been ambushed enough to wither away at the ranks, and by that time only nine hundred men remained, as a consequence, within the mountains, the Moroccon guerilla army simply isolated the remnants and destroyed them. The blame for the defeat can mostly be put on the shoulders of the French Army, since the organization of the General Staff, and the subordinate Moroccon Army Staff, did not lend itself to flexibility, organization and communication, three of the most important aspects of any army. Therefore, the massacre in the Atlas was due to happen. The shockwaves of the defeat were felt throughout the French Empire, and specifically by the leadership of the Third Republic.
The Army placed immediate blame on the government for not putting as a priority the army, and so, it was assumed that the government had not given enough money to the army to pay for supplies and new armaments, and therefore, the army was painted as an obsolote arm. What was originally a machination of the army itself, ultimately became it's downfall, and that of the government as well, unfortunately. The Third Republic teetered on the end of extinction, especially as in 1889, eight years prior to the Moroccon debacle, the Boulanger crisis had almost threatened to destroy the Third Republic. Although the Republic survived, in 1898, a few months after the war in Morocco, Jean Casimir-Périer resigned from the presidency, allowing Émile Loubet to take his place. The sudden change of cabinets stirred contreversey within France, and in May 1898 a failed coup took to the streets of France. Fortunately, the man in the lead, Field Marshall Henry de Roncesvalles, failed to conjur the support of the majority of the military and he was quickly forced to surrender himself to French authorities. However, his execution a year later was seen as high handed, and was not particularly supported in France. Nevertheless, the situation in France cooled off until 1903.
That year, government forces in Indochina, operating in the rebellious area of Cambodia, locally known as Kampuchea, were isolated and destroyed in the southlands by a guerilla army led by King Norodom himself, although it took some prodding by French educated Cambodian nationals to actually establish the state of rebellion. The political ambience of France flared with this most frequent defeat and the nationalist French pushed for greater military deployments to Asia. Stiff resistance was put up by the socialist government, and in 1904 a second coup, this time by the entire army and part of the administration, took to the streets of Paris, Marseilles, Brest, Bordeaux and Calais. All five origin cities were taken within hours, and the next day the Third Republic collapsed by the surrender of the government to the generals by President Émile Loubet. In the vacuum established in France, Field Marshall Alexis Fontainbleu took the reins of France, establishing the Fourth Republic. Again, unfortunately, Fontainbleu was unable to squash the Khmer rebellion in Cambodia and so he was diposed of by the military.
Two years later, in 1906, a popular revolution overthrew the military dictatorship of France, ending the Fourth Rebellion only after almost two years of rule. The subsequent leadership of France was left to a distant Bourbon relative of Louis XVIII, and one of several Spanish relatives of Louis-Phillipe, or Phillip VII of Spain. Therefore, in August 14 of 1906, Jean de Catalan was popularly elected to the French throne, just like Napoleon III had been, instating the French monarchy, albeit under a different dynasty, that of Catalan. The family was not as obscure as one would think, and although by that time exclusively Spanish, they had certain ties to the French throne, albeit relatively distant. Indeed, the Catalan dynasty had at one point been Dukes of Aquintaine and perhaps sections of Languadoc, although by 734 they had left south to conquer the Spanish Marche, so valued by Charlemagne nears later. They had soon fallen from favor and by 1905 they had absolutely no claims to either the Spanish throne or French throne that were at all strong. Nonetheless, the Catalan family was a very powerful movement in the Spanish nationalist front, and subsequent relations with King Alfonso XIII had regained favour within the family, and in 1906, with Spanish influence behind him, Yonatan Catalan became Jean I of France.
An omen from the heavens came the year later when King Norodom ordered a halt to the nationalist revolution in Kampuchea in the face of excessive losses to French colonial police, and inter-party warfare between Khmer Nationalists and Vietnamese Nationalists. As a show of favour, Norodom was allowed to keep his throne, albeit as a puppet of Paris. However, there was an immediate rise in the level of troops in Indochina, and by 1908 there were over thirty-five thousand French personnel patrolling the jungles of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. The year before the Spaniards had finally put down the Moroccon rebellion, returning North Africa to normal. It seemed as if Jean I was doing the job right, although it was more probably that it was all happistance. Regardless, the effects were felt throughout France, and in retrospect some consider this the beginning of new golden age of France, or the La Nouvelle Renaissance. True to form, by 1915 France had seen an almost complete turn around, including the vital reformation of the French military, which ironically was based after the general staff of France's principal rival, the Prussians.
The Nouvelle Armée proved their massive change for the better four years later in the second Moroccon uprising, this time by Saharaui in Spanish controlled Western Sahara, and in the southern areas of Morocco. In a lightning campaign beginning the spring of 1919, the Saharaui Polisario rebellion was put down, destroyed, and steralized. Comparetively, the Spanish miltary had again faltered in their own campaign, loosing perhaps four to five times the number of men the French had lost, and that's taking in mind the fact that the French advance had eaten up considerable amounts of rebel soldiers, tying them up in a desperate defense. The world was stunned by the new France, and other conspiracies for further rebellions throughout the Empire were immediately put to rest in the light of this victory. As a result, Jean's reign was further glorified as a new age for France.
French politics after 1920 failed to change much, even after the death of King Jean I in 1938, leaving the throne to his son, Alexis I. There continued to be a policy of belligerence towards the German Empire, which had seemed to turn their attention to the east, invading Czechoslovakia, Eastern Hungary and Romania in quick succession, and within the years that led up to 1945, there was an almost continous build-up of resources on the borders with Alsace and Lorraine. In fact, war seemed almost inevitable by 1930 with over one million French men sitting there. However, it never came up, and by 1940 the number of men had been reduced remarkably, as most had been demobilized in the face of a tightening budget.
The 'tight budget' was a result of the New York Stock Market crash of 1929, and the ripples of the disaster swept through France, although Jean I was able to handle with a potential disaster. Indeed, his continued mobilizations aided in the proliferation of industry and the expense and redistribution of capital, keeping France out of complete disaster, and by 1935 the French economy had been stable once again, as had the economy of the rest of the world, except for a select few countries. Nonetheless, with the death of Jean I, and the rise of Alexis I, the military still felt a sudden decrease in personnel and budgetary finance, although with the new age of France there failed to be widespread disgruntlement.
And so, 1945 in France herself, opened up with a bred hatred towards the Prussians, peace throughout Colonial France, and with a strong monarchy at its head. Unfortunately, events would spiral away again, with the face of a new agression, one that not totally uncovered yet.