Post by lloyd on Sept 7, 2009 16:36:08 GMT -5
Disclaimer: This is a long, pointless piece of history about how the world formed previous to the events of Code GEass, from what I got from the official Fanbooks and the Code Geass Wiki. If you don't like to read long rants about history or yoru average Social Studies lessons, it is not suggested that you read this.
This picks up from the point of Divergence, from the beginnings of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The Pope fills the power vacuum in the Holy Roman Empire of the Hapsburgs following its defeat in the 30-years war. Faced with this, Britannian Imperial Authorities choose the rejection of most organized religion as a whole. During the 30-Years war, France (as in the real Timeline) become the most powerful power in Europe for time, but the Britannian Dynasty of the Tudors also begins at this time with the (historically concurrent) defeat of the Spanish Armada and the (Point of Divergence) crowning of King Henry IX.
The basis of the American Revolution/Washington's Rebellion also remains the same with that of the real world, a king whose aspirations to absolutism and naive legal measures inflame the colonies. The actual progress of the revolution doesn't really concern me, save that (as in our world) the Iroquois under Robert Brant continued to mainly support Britannia (but with great effect), and that (since the Code Geass Wiki dictates that the siege of Yorktown remains the turning point of the war) up until the battle of Yorktown, the historical flow of the war remains much the same. Benjamin Franklin holds up the French fleet under Admiral De Grasse who in 1789 had looped up from the West Indies to complete the siege. Franklin also leaks the size of De Grasse's fleet to Britannian Admiral Thomas Graves, who in the Battle of the Chesapeake surprises the belated French fleet and routs it. Washington, who had been expecting a French fleet and 3,200 men, instead is defeated by General Henry Clinton's reinforcements, who not only rescue Cornwallis during an attack, but also kill Washington in the confusion. Revolutionary Leaders who were not captured going into hiding, though Marquis de Lafayette, who is evacuated by a French Fleet, manages to rescue Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson at least.
Meanwhile, Lafayette is put under arrest for leaving France despite the King's explicit orders not to. While he was judged leniently and treated with some warmth in real history due to the success of the Revolution, its failure means that his reception is far colder, and he ultimately fades off into nothing historically. Nevertheless, with the influx of revolutionaries into France, the lack of success with the first of these revolutions does not deter the French Revolution, which erupts around the same time. Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson return to prominence around this time. The government created by the French Revolution retains Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson's ideas, both of whom believed strongly in State Governments over a strong National Government. As such, while there is no radical phase of the Revolution and Louis XVI is still a monarch (albeit with no real power), France is drastically weakened as Austria, Prussia and Britain attack Revolutionary France. As in our world, though, Napoleon rises to prominence in defending France and eventually bringing the fight onto Austrian Soil. As the war continues, the Enlightenment and the thoughts of the Revolution travel ahead of Napoleon's armies, permeating Europe and weakening the already-splintered Holy Roman Empire. Riding this tide, Napoleon subdues most of Europe. Instead of Napoleon's enemies convening the Congress of Vienna in 1814, Napoleon convenes it in 1807 after Russia (which, prior to the Invasion of Russia, was an enemy of the UK) repels (with French assistance) a British fleet. During this time, still influenced by Jefferson's ideas and Jefferson's own copy of the Articles of Confederation, Napoleon creates the Congress of Europe and instates the Napoleonic Code as the equivalent of the Constitution. Under the Congress of Europe, each nation would have voting rights based on population, something that favored France, the largest nation in Europe. T hus, Napoleon consolidated the might of France over Europe.
Filled with satellite states, the Congress of Europe launched a full-scale attack on Britannia, the last nation excluded from the Congress of Europe. DUring the Battle of Trafalgar, an assassin kills Admiral Nelson prior to the battle, and the British Fleet is routed by a fleet of French, Spanish, Russian and Papal Italian Ships (In our world, only French and Spanish Ships were involved). Congress of Europe forces next entered Britain, where Napoleon claimed to represent the Catholics of Ireland. In a nation that still had a substantial Catholic population, Britain dissolved into infighting, and Queen Elizabeth III is forced to retreat into Scotland--a nation that, since the execution of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, had harbored a grudge against the ELizabethan Tudors. In 1807, Scottish militia turned against the Queen, forcing her to abdicate. She evacuates to America, starts the Holy Britannian Empire. However, Napoleon's star had began to fade. Originally, adhering to Jefferson's Antifederalist ideals, his Congress of Europe had been loosely organized, with him as the Secretary General keeping order. However, his ambition got the better of him, and Napoleon packed the Secretariat with his own family. Nervous about France's growing power, Prussia, Papal Italy and Austria led an army against Napoleon while he was still in Britain. Napoleon rallied his forces to fight against the Coalition at Waterloo. However, Patrick Henry and Jefferson had rapidly eroded French support of Napoleon, and he was defeated by Prussian and Papal Forces. Shocked by the betrayal and possibly poisoned, Napoleon succumbed to illness a few days later en route to Paris. With all troops ordered back to France, French Britannia was left weakened, and ultimately partisans under Albert Myrddin Conrad overthrew the French Provincial Government and established the Republic of England. On the same lines of the Congress of Europe, the Republic of England formed the Union of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Nevertheless, the increasing absolutism in Britannia alienated Union members, and relations between the two nations chilled. Meanwhile, an elderly Thomas Jefferson (Patrick Henry had died already) removed the central power of the Secretariat following the defeat of Waterloo, restoring France to its former size and representation in the Congress of Europe. Having attained his dream of a United and yet Divided Peaceful Europe, Jefferson died contentedly soon after, one of the founders of the European Union.
During the 1800's, the Industrial Revolution occurs earlier than intended, starting in the Republic of England and spreading to Europe, nothing much there. In China, the Ming Empire (in our world, the Qing took over in the 1600's) and Russia fight a war over Mongolia. Mongolia becomes Chinese and the Chinese Federation is formed. As the Federation became increasingly expansionist, the Tokugawa shogunate fell, to be replaced by a constitutional monarchy. Europe began to extend into Africa during this time. However, the first Great War (also several years earlier than it would be in our world) begins with the uniting of Germany. In the 1860's, Germany was a mess of states, each of which had its own voting privileges. Each nation had diffferent interests, and so even though the combined population of the German states exceeded the votes of France in the Congress of Europe, they rarely voted on the same side. Otto von Bismark of Prussia changed that, though, when he united Germany. With this, Bismark wished to consolidate all the German states as a single country, creating a voting bloc with more power than France. Still under the Napoleons, France was averse to this, and thus the first Great War was fought not in 1914, but in 1870. While France's initial attacks, coupled with superior weapons and the first early machine gun, gained much ground originally, it was stalled a few miles into Germany, culminating in a long, 3-year back-and-forth Trench war. The Central Powers of the Ottoman Empire, Germany and the Holy Roman Empire fought against France, Russia and the Papal States. Later, though, the Union of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland joined against Germany. Pressured into an Armistice, both sides signed the Treaty of Paris, in which a second house of the Congress of Europe is created in which each nation has only one vote, operating in tandem with the earlier Parliament of Europe. Content with its victory, France languished, but Germany began to prepare for a war of vengeance. The Congress of Europe began to seem increasingly useless and splintered.
In the 1900-1920's period, the scramble of Africa continued as French and German interests conflicted. Britannia, formerly having only controlled South Africa and Victoria (Present-day Liberia, and like Liberia a state intended for manumitted slaves), began to expand. However, Britannia stoked tensions between France and Germany, and tensions worsened when Germany supported a revolution in Russia that divided Russia into two sides, Red and White. In 1924, the tension finally snapped when the willful, adolescent Princess of Germany, Juliane Maximillia, abducted one of the Princes of France in a display of typical adolescent Amour. However, eager to exploit this, Britannian newspapers in France and Germany blew this beyond porportion, and finally war began. Germany, which had been preparing for decades, finally launched a massive assault France. In the bloody war that followed, though Germany emerged victorious, the hegemony it hoped to gain by defeating France was not obtained, and the EU descended into the disorganization that is found today. During this time, the Chinese Empire officially annexed the Liaodong Peninsula and, in the chaos of the World War, helped Indian nationalists attain independence from Britannia. However, the Chinese soon took custody of India as well in addition to Indochina, forming the Basis of the Chinese Federation, leaving the world in the Three Spheres of Influence that exist during the events of Code Geass.
So...what does anyone who actually slogged through this think?
This picks up from the point of Divergence, from the beginnings of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The Pope fills the power vacuum in the Holy Roman Empire of the Hapsburgs following its defeat in the 30-years war. Faced with this, Britannian Imperial Authorities choose the rejection of most organized religion as a whole. During the 30-Years war, France (as in the real Timeline) become the most powerful power in Europe for time, but the Britannian Dynasty of the Tudors also begins at this time with the (historically concurrent) defeat of the Spanish Armada and the (Point of Divergence) crowning of King Henry IX.
The basis of the American Revolution/Washington's Rebellion also remains the same with that of the real world, a king whose aspirations to absolutism and naive legal measures inflame the colonies. The actual progress of the revolution doesn't really concern me, save that (as in our world) the Iroquois under Robert Brant continued to mainly support Britannia (but with great effect), and that (since the Code Geass Wiki dictates that the siege of Yorktown remains the turning point of the war) up until the battle of Yorktown, the historical flow of the war remains much the same. Benjamin Franklin holds up the French fleet under Admiral De Grasse who in 1789 had looped up from the West Indies to complete the siege. Franklin also leaks the size of De Grasse's fleet to Britannian Admiral Thomas Graves, who in the Battle of the Chesapeake surprises the belated French fleet and routs it. Washington, who had been expecting a French fleet and 3,200 men, instead is defeated by General Henry Clinton's reinforcements, who not only rescue Cornwallis during an attack, but also kill Washington in the confusion. Revolutionary Leaders who were not captured going into hiding, though Marquis de Lafayette, who is evacuated by a French Fleet, manages to rescue Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson at least.
Meanwhile, Lafayette is put under arrest for leaving France despite the King's explicit orders not to. While he was judged leniently and treated with some warmth in real history due to the success of the Revolution, its failure means that his reception is far colder, and he ultimately fades off into nothing historically. Nevertheless, with the influx of revolutionaries into France, the lack of success with the first of these revolutions does not deter the French Revolution, which erupts around the same time. Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson return to prominence around this time. The government created by the French Revolution retains Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson's ideas, both of whom believed strongly in State Governments over a strong National Government. As such, while there is no radical phase of the Revolution and Louis XVI is still a monarch (albeit with no real power), France is drastically weakened as Austria, Prussia and Britain attack Revolutionary France. As in our world, though, Napoleon rises to prominence in defending France and eventually bringing the fight onto Austrian Soil. As the war continues, the Enlightenment and the thoughts of the Revolution travel ahead of Napoleon's armies, permeating Europe and weakening the already-splintered Holy Roman Empire. Riding this tide, Napoleon subdues most of Europe. Instead of Napoleon's enemies convening the Congress of Vienna in 1814, Napoleon convenes it in 1807 after Russia (which, prior to the Invasion of Russia, was an enemy of the UK) repels (with French assistance) a British fleet. During this time, still influenced by Jefferson's ideas and Jefferson's own copy of the Articles of Confederation, Napoleon creates the Congress of Europe and instates the Napoleonic Code as the equivalent of the Constitution. Under the Congress of Europe, each nation would have voting rights based on population, something that favored France, the largest nation in Europe. T hus, Napoleon consolidated the might of France over Europe.
Filled with satellite states, the Congress of Europe launched a full-scale attack on Britannia, the last nation excluded from the Congress of Europe. DUring the Battle of Trafalgar, an assassin kills Admiral Nelson prior to the battle, and the British Fleet is routed by a fleet of French, Spanish, Russian and Papal Italian Ships (In our world, only French and Spanish Ships were involved). Congress of Europe forces next entered Britain, where Napoleon claimed to represent the Catholics of Ireland. In a nation that still had a substantial Catholic population, Britain dissolved into infighting, and Queen Elizabeth III is forced to retreat into Scotland--a nation that, since the execution of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, had harbored a grudge against the ELizabethan Tudors. In 1807, Scottish militia turned against the Queen, forcing her to abdicate. She evacuates to America, starts the Holy Britannian Empire. However, Napoleon's star had began to fade. Originally, adhering to Jefferson's Antifederalist ideals, his Congress of Europe had been loosely organized, with him as the Secretary General keeping order. However, his ambition got the better of him, and Napoleon packed the Secretariat with his own family. Nervous about France's growing power, Prussia, Papal Italy and Austria led an army against Napoleon while he was still in Britain. Napoleon rallied his forces to fight against the Coalition at Waterloo. However, Patrick Henry and Jefferson had rapidly eroded French support of Napoleon, and he was defeated by Prussian and Papal Forces. Shocked by the betrayal and possibly poisoned, Napoleon succumbed to illness a few days later en route to Paris. With all troops ordered back to France, French Britannia was left weakened, and ultimately partisans under Albert Myrddin Conrad overthrew the French Provincial Government and established the Republic of England. On the same lines of the Congress of Europe, the Republic of England formed the Union of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Nevertheless, the increasing absolutism in Britannia alienated Union members, and relations between the two nations chilled. Meanwhile, an elderly Thomas Jefferson (Patrick Henry had died already) removed the central power of the Secretariat following the defeat of Waterloo, restoring France to its former size and representation in the Congress of Europe. Having attained his dream of a United and yet Divided Peaceful Europe, Jefferson died contentedly soon after, one of the founders of the European Union.
During the 1800's, the Industrial Revolution occurs earlier than intended, starting in the Republic of England and spreading to Europe, nothing much there. In China, the Ming Empire (in our world, the Qing took over in the 1600's) and Russia fight a war over Mongolia. Mongolia becomes Chinese and the Chinese Federation is formed. As the Federation became increasingly expansionist, the Tokugawa shogunate fell, to be replaced by a constitutional monarchy. Europe began to extend into Africa during this time. However, the first Great War (also several years earlier than it would be in our world) begins with the uniting of Germany. In the 1860's, Germany was a mess of states, each of which had its own voting privileges. Each nation had diffferent interests, and so even though the combined population of the German states exceeded the votes of France in the Congress of Europe, they rarely voted on the same side. Otto von Bismark of Prussia changed that, though, when he united Germany. With this, Bismark wished to consolidate all the German states as a single country, creating a voting bloc with more power than France. Still under the Napoleons, France was averse to this, and thus the first Great War was fought not in 1914, but in 1870. While France's initial attacks, coupled with superior weapons and the first early machine gun, gained much ground originally, it was stalled a few miles into Germany, culminating in a long, 3-year back-and-forth Trench war. The Central Powers of the Ottoman Empire, Germany and the Holy Roman Empire fought against France, Russia and the Papal States. Later, though, the Union of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland joined against Germany. Pressured into an Armistice, both sides signed the Treaty of Paris, in which a second house of the Congress of Europe is created in which each nation has only one vote, operating in tandem with the earlier Parliament of Europe. Content with its victory, France languished, but Germany began to prepare for a war of vengeance. The Congress of Europe began to seem increasingly useless and splintered.
In the 1900-1920's period, the scramble of Africa continued as French and German interests conflicted. Britannia, formerly having only controlled South Africa and Victoria (Present-day Liberia, and like Liberia a state intended for manumitted slaves), began to expand. However, Britannia stoked tensions between France and Germany, and tensions worsened when Germany supported a revolution in Russia that divided Russia into two sides, Red and White. In 1924, the tension finally snapped when the willful, adolescent Princess of Germany, Juliane Maximillia, abducted one of the Princes of France in a display of typical adolescent Amour. However, eager to exploit this, Britannian newspapers in France and Germany blew this beyond porportion, and finally war began. Germany, which had been preparing for decades, finally launched a massive assault France. In the bloody war that followed, though Germany emerged victorious, the hegemony it hoped to gain by defeating France was not obtained, and the EU descended into the disorganization that is found today. During this time, the Chinese Empire officially annexed the Liaodong Peninsula and, in the chaos of the World War, helped Indian nationalists attain independence from Britannia. However, the Chinese soon took custody of India as well in addition to Indochina, forming the Basis of the Chinese Federation, leaving the world in the Three Spheres of Influence that exist during the events of Code Geass.
So...what does anyone who actually slogged through this think?