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Here's map of the RDNA/New Austria, as it looked shortly after the Terror itself officially "ended," heavily modified, based on that country's recent Updated Map Profile ([link]). Among other things, the details are ironed out and refined to (hopefully) make a bit more sense.
This also serves, in a way, as a backdrop to the world just before the events of The Personal Records of a Doctor ([link]) , which happened to be one of the first stories set in the 'verse.
For some of the more technical socio-technological detail, you can find it here: [link] .
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“The immediate period following the Terror’s ‘official’ end, from 1928 to around 1933-34, is still known by New Austrians as the Upheaval. Coinciding with a worldwide wave of turmoil among the Free Nations, the events of this time were in many ways a trial by fire of a country suddenly forced on the crossroads. It was also the closest time in modern history where it could have possibly self-destructed.
While this chaotic time arguably began as early as 1925, like the Terror itself there was no definitive point which could be pinned down as its very beginning. There were many factors that contributed into this situation, including food shortages, socio-economic instability and the mass influx of refugees. Most, however, agree that the strain put in trying to save the Crownlands combined with an overall atmosphere of defeatism and desperation ultimately brought the country to the tipping point.
Even as the 1928 Constitution was ratified and Archduke Franz Ferdinand I made his historic radio broadcast, the existing emergency measures were taken much further to the point of placing the entire RDNA under martial law; repressed riots, refugee movements, strict rationing and constant military presence quickly became the norm. This didn’t stop many parts of the country from descending into near lawlessness as various groups and factions vied for supremacy, many of them either Reactionary or Collectivist in origin; it was no coincidence, therefore that this time was also marked by covert Red and counter-Collectivist activity.
The most organized uprising during this time, however, was led by disgruntled Kuban soldiers and officials. In what came to be known as the Kuban Insurrection, many of the island Duchy’s Hispanic-descended population either sided with or were coerced by the rebels, who saw themselves as offering an escape from chaos and ‘a new path for a new order.’ With both frustration and reluctance, the New Austrian forces sent in to contain the crisis proceeded to brutally crush the rebellion; it was not until the summer of 1933 that the last self-proclaimed Generalissimo (in rebel propaganda, Gaudillo-Kommandant) was finally captured.
Among the more peculiar events to occur was the Papal Concordat in 1927, wherein the Throne-in-Exile and Reichstag offered the Holy See sanctuary in RDNA lands for a period of 10 years. This was primarily in the form of a leased enclave in Portkreuz, still known today as Mariazell-am-Meer for its decidedly religious flavor and Vatican-owned properties. Another was the decision to send aid, primarily weapons and funds, to Loyalist forces during Canada’s civil war against local Collectivists, known to history as the Dominion Conflict. This would help go a long way in further solidifying the two countries’ friendship in more recent times.
It was also during this time however that drastic social, economic and political reforms were enacted, many of which derived from existing trends prior to the Terror; perhaps it’s a cruel irony that the chaos had unwittingly helped accelerate those trends. These, along with the emergency measures ultimately helped restore a semblance of order and normalcy by 1934. Eventually, the country would emerge stronger and more powerful but not necessarily any less torn and traumatized from that experience.
In the end, what can one really say of the Upheaval? An age of chaos? Of fiery renewal? Of loss and madness? Who could say for sure?”
-Dr. Josef Falk; A Retrospective of the Past Century, 2023.
----
In case you're curious, the Archduke's speech itself (or rather, the "final draft" of it), is here: [link]
This also serves, in a way, as a backdrop to the world just before the events of The Personal Records of a Doctor ([link]) , which happened to be one of the first stories set in the 'verse.
For some of the more technical socio-technological detail, you can find it here: [link] .
----
“The immediate period following the Terror’s ‘official’ end, from 1928 to around 1933-34, is still known by New Austrians as the Upheaval. Coinciding with a worldwide wave of turmoil among the Free Nations, the events of this time were in many ways a trial by fire of a country suddenly forced on the crossroads. It was also the closest time in modern history where it could have possibly self-destructed.
While this chaotic time arguably began as early as 1925, like the Terror itself there was no definitive point which could be pinned down as its very beginning. There were many factors that contributed into this situation, including food shortages, socio-economic instability and the mass influx of refugees. Most, however, agree that the strain put in trying to save the Crownlands combined with an overall atmosphere of defeatism and desperation ultimately brought the country to the tipping point.
Even as the 1928 Constitution was ratified and Archduke Franz Ferdinand I made his historic radio broadcast, the existing emergency measures were taken much further to the point of placing the entire RDNA under martial law; repressed riots, refugee movements, strict rationing and constant military presence quickly became the norm. This didn’t stop many parts of the country from descending into near lawlessness as various groups and factions vied for supremacy, many of them either Reactionary or Collectivist in origin; it was no coincidence, therefore that this time was also marked by covert Red and counter-Collectivist activity.
The most organized uprising during this time, however, was led by disgruntled Kuban soldiers and officials. In what came to be known as the Kuban Insurrection, many of the island Duchy’s Hispanic-descended population either sided with or were coerced by the rebels, who saw themselves as offering an escape from chaos and ‘a new path for a new order.’ With both frustration and reluctance, the New Austrian forces sent in to contain the crisis proceeded to brutally crush the rebellion; it was not until the summer of 1933 that the last self-proclaimed Generalissimo (in rebel propaganda, Gaudillo-Kommandant) was finally captured.
Among the more peculiar events to occur was the Papal Concordat in 1927, wherein the Throne-in-Exile and Reichstag offered the Holy See sanctuary in RDNA lands for a period of 10 years. This was primarily in the form of a leased enclave in Portkreuz, still known today as Mariazell-am-Meer for its decidedly religious flavor and Vatican-owned properties. Another was the decision to send aid, primarily weapons and funds, to Loyalist forces during Canada’s civil war against local Collectivists, known to history as the Dominion Conflict. This would help go a long way in further solidifying the two countries’ friendship in more recent times.
It was also during this time however that drastic social, economic and political reforms were enacted, many of which derived from existing trends prior to the Terror; perhaps it’s a cruel irony that the chaos had unwittingly helped accelerate those trends. These, along with the emergency measures ultimately helped restore a semblance of order and normalcy by 1934. Eventually, the country would emerge stronger and more powerful but not necessarily any less torn and traumatized from that experience.
In the end, what can one really say of the Upheaval? An age of chaos? Of fiery renewal? Of loss and madness? Who could say for sure?”
-Dr. Josef Falk; A Retrospective of the Past Century, 2023.
----
In case you're curious, the Archduke's speech itself (or rather, the "final draft" of it), is here: [link]
Image size
1604x1624px 2.78 MB
© 2011 - 2024 mdc01957
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It sounds like the RDNA survived by the skin of her teeth 