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ZekSora — United States of Europe
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Published: 2016-09-18 20:17:46 +0000 UTC; Views: 70396; Favourites: 383; Downloads: 407
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"Europe thus divided into nationalities freely formed and free internally, peace between States would have become easier: the United States of Europe would become a possibility." - Napoleon Bonaparte [1](This is my entry to MotF 144 over on AH.com. Once the voting thread's up, I'll post a link, and I encourage you all to go vote! EDIT: Here's the link , though please note you'll have to have an AH.com account to vote.)
Welcome to the United States of Europe. In this universe, things went very differently in the Napoleonic Wars, and Napoleon himself became convinced of the wisdom of preserving the Continental System, rather than continuing on the warpath (except, of course, for a new Crusade against the Ottoman Empire, taking all its European lands for France). After his death, his successor, an alternate Napoleon II [2], carried out many actions that would he believed would aid in preserving French hegemony over the continent. Ironically, almost all of these actions involved giving up French power in some way. The first was the re-distribution of land among France and her more directly controlled puppets [3], and the granting of independence to many lands under French rule [4]. The second was the creation of a "European Council," made up of representatives from all the nations of Europe who would come together and "advise" (read: decide the line to tread for) the various national governments on matters of foreign policy and trade.
There was, of course, some opposition to the greater integration in Europe, or as many saw it, the extension of French influence into the domestic policies of nominally independent states. The greatest center of this opposition was the Austrian Empire, who saw Napoleon II willingly lessening the French grip on Europe and mistook it for weakness on the part of France and decided to pull out of the Continental System. This did not go well for them. It took just one full year for not just the Grande Armée, but a multitude of smaller national militaries, to crush the Austrian Empire. After the defeat of Austria, the European Council made the decision to dismember it. They threw large chunks to states who had contributed greatly to the war effort (and had natural claims on said chunks) [5], and granting independence to Bohemia-Moravia and Hungary, who had revolted and switched sides in the middle of the war.
As the European Council grew ever more powerful after the Austrian Revolt (as it was termed), many powerful multinational political groups began to question its undemocratic nature as a secretive, unelected group of power brokers. After years of mounting pressure to reform the Continental System's shared government, which had become bloated and somewhat redundant, with no actual direction behind the growing of its bureaucracy, the European Council made an announcement that would shock the world: the Continental System was to be disbanded. In its place, the United States of Europe would govern an ever closer union of European states through its central decision-making body, the 400-member Senate. [6]
While the political "parties" in the European Senate are more faction-like, most having no official structure or whips, it still follows a parliamentary structure partially based upon the British one, with a far-less-powerful President of the Senate taking the place of the Prime Minister. [7] The Senate's faction-parties are vague enough that every representative can be grouped into one of four groups:
- Jacobins — Have evolved into proto-socialists in some ways, supporting strong government, greater social spending, and interventionist economic policies in most areas. However, they are strongly free-trade (within the borders of the USE), deeply militarist, and have adopted some slightly more conservative social policies to compete with the Catholics. Highly federalist, and would prefer abolishing the various monarchies in the states where they still exist. Are seen as the “party of the establishment” in the USE in many ways. Bases of support include: France, the various formerly French or French-liberated states (i.e. Illyria, Greece, etcetera), Moldavia-Wallachia (thanks to their militarism in the face of Russia), and Poland. Will coalition with Liberals or Catholics.
- Liberals — Your standard classical liberals. Pro-free trade, anti-interventionist, anti-military, anti-Church. Most would prefer the abolishment of the monarchies, but will settle for constitutional monarchies. Are more confederalist than federalist—want to see more unions within the USE (i.e. Italy, Germany, etcetera). Bases of support include: parts of the Rhine, Northern Italy, Batavia, Switzerland, Bohemia-Moravia and Denmark. Will coalition with Jacobins and some Regionalist parties.
- Catholics — Exist as a reaction to the Jacobins’ and Liberals’ largely secular outlooks. Is deeply socially conservative, favors absolute monarchies (though it has no official line on the Union), and advocates the establishment of the Catholic Church as the official state religion of the USE. Is also very pro-interventionist and classically conservative. Takes much of the base of support away from Regionalist parties where it is strong. Bases of support include: Southern Italy (esp. the Papal States), Spain, and parts of the Rhine. Will coalition with anyone that offers concessions for them.
- Regionalists — Not a single party, but a sweeping category of various localist parties that advocate everything from a weakening of the Union to its total dissolution. They vary on every other issue, from monarchists to communists to extreme Protestants. Bases of support include: Hungary, Prussia, and the Balkans. Most parties will not coalition, though some will with various other parties.
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[1] - OTL quote
[2] - Or so the USE-approved history books of TTL say. In the reality of TTL, he was really more of a puppet of his advisors.
[3] - Formerly directly-ruled French land was given to Italy and the Rhine, as well as some extra land for Batavia that it hadn't ruled before being conquered by Napoleon I.
[4] - Batavia, the Papal States, Illyria, Bosnia, Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, and Sardinia were all given independence.
[5] - The Rhenish got Austria proper, the Poles got about 2/3 of Galicia-Lodomeria, and Moldavia-Wallachia got the other 1/3.
[6] - Originally, the Senate made only foreign policy and trade decisions, but now it commands the USE's integrated military (though not the individual state militaries that still exist) and the USE's various social programs.
[7] - The President of the Senate basically serves the same function as the OTL USA's Speaker of the House, with one or two differences.
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Comments: 75
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Would you mind terribly if I used this as heavy inspiration for a future map of mine?
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This Europe is much better than the one in our Timeline
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Nice map, I bet if USE were existed, today it would look like this:
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Probably not, given butterflies. Glad you like the map, though.
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What's Hungary like? Is it a republic, a monarchy under a local aristocrat with some vague relation to the Kings of pre-Ottoman Hungary, or a monarchy under a minor Bonaparte?
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The (midlevel aristocrat) leader of the Hungarian counter-rebellion during the Austrian Revolt was granted the title of King in a limited electoral constitutional monarchy.
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Yep. A minor Bonaparte sits on the throne.
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I would say, Prussia would be dismembered, with Royal Prussia joining Poland, Silesia the Bohemian state, the remnants joining the CoR. If the 1812 campaign was a success, the Great Duchy of Lithuania would be reinstated. Podolia in Poland too. Norway would still be part of Denmark, with Swedish Pomerania and Scania reverting to the Danes too.
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Buda and Pest were technically still two separate cities, in the real world, they only got united in 1873 to form Budapest 
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Indeed! Butterflies have caused it to happen roughly 5 years earlier ITTL.
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(Largely because of wider peace on the European continent + self-governance regionally = increased population growth = two cities effectively become one much earlier)
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Thank you! Glad you like it.
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Beautiful map, but strange that you kept frontiers of Turkey like in our world for such uchrony...
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The borders of Turkey are not the same as in OTL. ITTL Turkey holds no European territories.
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And why not Greece in Asia Minor?
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I love the frontiers that you gave to France! That would be the maximum possible in all History... For sure, if Napoleon was not fool with Russia, and could make agreements for a stabilized Europa, your map could be possible, at least for the western part of Europe... More: if the Pope refused to crown him as emperor, Napoleon could become protestant and encourage protestantism in the entire empire (it was a historical possibility that i read). As consequence, France could become the major place for industrial revolution, and maybe today it wouldn't be english which would be use in worldwide, but french which would be use for international language, and for doing business too
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1) Well, I wouldn't exactly say that would be the maximum possible...
2) Napoleon did not become Protestant ITTL. He ruled a Catholic nation.
3) France is definitely more industrialized ITTL, though this is at least partly because of the inclusion of the Netherlands and heavily industrial Rhineland.
4) French is definitely the 'international language', as you put it, on the continent. However, English is still pretty widely spoken outside of Europe.
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1) Yes, at the end you're right: at the maximum extension of the frontiers of the Empire in 1812, France included Catalunia, Savoy, parts of Italia, Slovenia, parts of Croatia, Rhineland, Luxemburg, Belgium, the Neederlands, Friesland and parts of northern Germany till the frontiers of Denmark... But what i meant with the maximum possible, thanks to the context of the first part of XIXth century and a good diplomacy with UK, would be the maximum possible for keeping the territorial gains in a long term perspective... With a less potential possibilities of riots, wars and civil wars, which could let a too vast territory to many partitions, with a context of growing nationalisms, and a France as it was in our past, in 1815
2) Yes he was but religion for him was just a political stuff... When he was in Egypt, he was ready to become muslim, just for making a new Empire in the Middle East. So it's not a joke with the Pope's story: if the Pope refused what i told you, no problem for him to become Protestant, and to rule the entire Empire as Protestant. He was ready to blackmail the Pope for that, when he stole him all the archives of the Inquisition. France could accept that in the beginning of XIXth century: French Revolution won the majority of supports in many regions of France, Catholics were associated to monarchy, especially in the West part, and Paris, which was a strong Catholic place in the XVIth century, became for the major part of people there, anticatholics. So France was ready for having a Protestant ruler, more than in the XVIth century.... And don't forget that many parts of the French empire were predominantly Protestant too...
3) France more industrialized? It depends when the Industrial Revolution started! And it was UK where it started first, France came after. Thanks to Denis Papin, a French huguenot, who could make the first performing steam engine for industries. You need to know something: during the French Revolution, a law was voted, which ruled till 1945. The law that i consider here let all the French huguenots, who fled France since the interdiction of Protestantism in the kingdom by the King Louis the XIVth, to recover automatically their French nationality when they'd come back in the motherland. So, with a Protestant French ruler in strong European empire, French Huguenots would come back to France more numerous, and Industrial Revolution would have quickly stronger economic and political effects in a revolutionnary kingdom than with a British monarchy, which could never know the benefits of a Revolution leaded by the Enlightenment ideals...
4) No, sorry to say that French is not the international language as it was in the XVIIth, XVIIIth and first part of XIXth century. I meant international as undeniable, in Europa or everywhere in the world. If i know only French, i could have problems for being understood almost everywhere, even in Europe. For example, I remember when i was in Slovakia, the only language which could help me outside of English was German. This is a dream linked to past now...
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How are the USE relations with the UK, Russia, and other non-USE countries?
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UK: The UK isn't really considered part of Europe ITTL, and is much more focused on its Empire due to a lack of openings to get involved on the Continent. Relations between the USE and the UK are fairly cordial. A détente exists between the two, mostly due to two factors: one, that the USE can't challenge the UK at sea and the UK can't challenge the USE on land, and two, that they don't have overlapping geopolitical priorities (the USE is mostly focused on Africa, Russia, and inwardly, while the UK is focused abroad). However, they do support Regionalist uprisings whenever they pop up, and there are whispered rumors of a secret Anglo-Prussian deal of some kind...
Russia: Very frosty. The Russian Monarchy sees the relative liberalism of the USE (the European Council being elected and all) as a threat, but so long as absolute monarchies endure within the USE, not an existential one. Their westward expansion (read: into Poland) was also halted by the USE, so they have geopolitical as well as ideological reasons to oppose them.
Other than the nations at its borders, the USE doesn't have a lot of contact with the outside world--they would prefer to unite Europe properly before going outside of their bubble.
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Honestly, I didn't really think about it. I wouldn't think so, since there wasn't much of a transfer of (Continental) territory between the two powers.
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I gave that no thought whatsoever, though I'd say they have a more significant British presence, thanks to Europe being cut off to them. Spain has lost its holdings by this point, and Brazil still hosts the old Portuguese royalty (along with former Portuguese Africa). If you'd like, I can probably whip up a really quick worlda to give an idea of what it looks like.
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Here's a worlda showing the Americas in this world.
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Wow I, I didn't think you would take my request so seriously... or quickly.
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Well, I had to procrastinate somehow.
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Well that makes sense. Planning on doing Asia and Africa next?
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Nah, I think that's all the time I want to put into this world tbh.
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That is fine.
Also what is the time and date set for each map?
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Same one--1868. It's on the USE Senate map.
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How's Russia? Is it an absolute monarchy that still has serfs, or a somewhat constitutional monarchy that doesn't?
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The close proximity of the USE has forced them to make some reforms for the sake of national unity, but for the most part the monarchy jealously guards their absolutist privileges. Sorry I don't have a more detailed answer for you on this one; this wasn't a world that I had given large amounts of thought to.
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L E F T B A N K
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(I assume that's what you're going for here)
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Great job, especially the senate seat infographic was surely a lot of detailed work.
I read something interesting, I don´t know the name I think it was Louis, a relative of Napoleon,
who wanted to form maybe a real Germany instead of the Rheinbund also including the Netherlands.
And he wanted to be a good king and would even learn their language and develop the country etc.
Tho I´m not sure if he would call it Germany. The Austrians got punished a bit too hard maybe,
I didn´t think they would want to crush them that badly, but it´r your scenario ofc.
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That would be Napoleon III. Unfortunately, I think the PoD is too early for him to be the same person, if he exists. And, thanks to the system that gives the Germans and the rest of Europe more power, he wouldn't be able to redraw the map at his leisure.
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Yeah true, I wonder if Britain ever joins this "EU". (to leave it later again ahah Xd)
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Probably not, considering that the development of the Continental System has left Britain (and Russia) feeling pretty non-European. I would say that it's more likely Britain remains more integrated with the Commonwealth ITTL.
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