STATE OF THE WORLD: 1857
I think it is fairly safe to say that the Great Game as we knew it has come to an end. Whether the Treaty of Avignon will result in a lasting peace or a state of permanent, rolling crises which engulf the Near West in perpetuity remains to be seen. I remind you, ladies and gentlemen of the Assembly, that fighting continues in Ibera and the west of France— as well as British mopping-up efforts in Scandinavia.
MINOR NATIONS OF NOTE
Transoxiana continues to tenaciously claim a haven for its unique Manichean faith. Notably, however, they are under the influence of Marathas, rather than China.
Great Zimbabwe remains the main regional power of sub-Saharan Africa, and the foreign powers with coastal colonies— Silla, Portugal, and the Ayiti Federation— have not expanded their holdings.
The union of the crowns of Lithuania and Hungary is broken, and reactionary absolutists have seized power in our northern neighbor. Mysteriously, shortly after this turn of events, Hungary was absorbed into the French sphere of influence, and a de Valois-Vexin cousin was duly trotted out to profane the sacred throne of the great Greger Dunin, hero of the Hungarian League.
The “free” Italians will soon learn the price of oppressing their people for the sake of a vainglorious and selfish nationalistic “independence”.
SECONDARY POWERS
Ireland
President Anne O’Brien
Ireland is by all accounts one of the most pleasant places in the world— democracy, liberal reforms, peace and even a productive working relationship with their former enemies in Great Britain. That said, it is still a nationalist affront to international democratic solidarity and really should rejoin the Habsburg monarch if they know what’s good for them. True lovers of liberty have the conviction to light the world afire for their cause, not cower on an emerald island. Where were the Irish forces fighting alongside their British compatriots in the Third War of the Victorian League? The question speaks for itself.
Ghana
Sultan Khalifa II Keita
Ghana maintains its isolationist posture under its new Sultan, Khalifa II Keita. It has grown increasingly reactionary and inward-looking— and yet has come to maintain a fast friendship with the Ayiti Federation. Much of the trade between Avalon and the Near West now passes through Ghana, which, to Taíno eyes, has the advantage of not descending into war every few decades. Yet periodic wars are necessary for the reinvigoration of a nation’s political institutions.
The Incan Empire
Sapa Inca Viracocha I Quingallumbo
(lmao this is the wrong flag/party name, i should fix that)
The Incas were once a major strategic ally of the Ayiti Federation, providing crucial ground troops towards their common goal of expelling the Near Westerners from South Avalon. With Habsburg, Nuevo Xi’an, and Tianhui Catalina all separated from their colonial masters and being picked apart by the Federation at its leisure, the Inca’s contributes have become less significant. Hopes of becoming a major power in the Pacific were stymied following the meteoric rise of the Haida and their oceanic empire. While still a significant regional power, we feel that the Incan Empire should not concern us.
The Russian Empire
Empress Yekaterina III von Wismar of Russia, Third Rome
Until the Second War of the Victorian League, the Russians had all the makings of a rising Great Power. The humiliating defeats suffered by their army, coupled with their failure to properly industrialized, mean that we should avoid falling into the trap of fearing them for their sheer size on the map. By those standards, Silla should be one of the greatest empires in all the world, rather than a failing state whose metropole is being partitioned by the Japanese and colonial empire is being picked clean by the Haida.
Hindustan
Raja Nusrat Suryavamsi
Our valiant allies. I trust you remember the events of the Third War of the Victorian League, given that the ink is barely dry on the Treaty of Avignon. With luck, we will be able to defend them adequately until their shattered military is rebuilt.
Lai Ang
Sultan Lan II de León
Lai Ang has suffered tremendously in recent years— the loss of their colonial states in South Avalon, the loss of much of their industrial heartland to France, a reactionary coup followed by a chaotic restoration of liberty, the humiliating spectacle of being obliged to assist the Federation in dismembering its own former colonies… the list of indignities goes on and on. Now, perhaps, with France severely weakened through our exertions, Lai Ang will win a badly-needed victory and rise again.
The Japanese Republic
President Kanazawa Kyoko
I am pleased that the great birthplace of liberty prospers, of course… but they have made themselves enemies of the Republic by aligning with the despotic empress of China. I pray to God and the Demiurge that we are never forced to spill the blood of our brothers and sisters.
France
The Most Christian Queen Élisabeth de Valois-Vexin
France is at the precipice of falling out of the ranks of the world’s Great Powers. I hope you will be mindful of the difference between that and the permanent destruction of the French empire and its monarch, which must remain our ultimate goal.
GREAT POWERS
Marathas
King Rajaram II Sharqi
A unified India has the potential to be as powerful a peer to the likes of China. The fact that Marathas alone, notwithstanding the failures of its attempt to extinguish the rival state of Hindustan, is still reckoned among the Great Powers should tell us all we need to know. They are enemies of our friends in Hindustan, and they have taken the ailing empire of Da Qin under their protective wing. They are a threat to us of the highest order.
The Haida
King Koyah II Edenshaw
The Haida are fascinating because the basis of their meteoric rise to power is either in areas which are of little concern to us— the far Pacific and Oceania, western Avalon, the remnants of the Aztec and Zapotec states, etc– or in technological innovations which have benefitted the whole world. Who among you have not posed for a haidagraph? We watch the Haida with continuing interest, but little cause for action one way or the other. Perhaps this shall change should our spheres of interest overlap in the future.
The Holy Roman Empire
Charlotte von Habsburg, Queen of the Romans
Our beloved children are now, perhaps, strong enough to leave the nest and fend for themselves in the wild. We trust that they will remember their two great causes— firm opposition to the French in all things, and continued efforts to defuse the ticking time-bomb of nationalism.
The Somalian Republic
Lord Protector Maxamed Muzaffar
Lord Protector Maxamed Muzaffar still seems to maintain his iron grip on what is farcically called “the Somalian Republic”. How strange it is he never seems to age in his official portraits! How strange it is no haidagraphs of the man have reached our shores! The Suez Canal is closed to Byzantine commerce, and the world’s most powerful military (at least following French and Chinese losses in the Eurasian War) stands ready to execute whatever schemes he cooks up.
Great Britain
Queen Victoria III von Habsburg of Great Britain
Our first and dearest friend among all the world’s nations. May we continue to enjoy the fruits borne by this most productive of alliances. We wish them the greatest success in their efforts against Scandinavia.
China
Empress Zhu Chunmei III
The 19th century has not gone as planned for China. Recovering from the plagues and privations of the 1820s, China sought to settle into an intense and indirect rivalry for world domination with the Ayiti Federation. They did not anticipate us. Prior centuries might have belonged to China, and China alone. But the Byzantine sun rises ever higher.
The Ayiti Federation
Cacique Executive Officer Anacaona IV Nitaino
The Ayiti Federation had presumed that their main task in the world would simply to maintain their preeminence as China recovered its strength, and set about building up its industry, attracting settlers to the less-populated regions of Avalon, and expanding into the remnants of Lai Ang’s old colonial empire. With their recent victory over the Lenape Republic and success in preventing the British from extending the borders of Nova Scotia to the Great Lakes, they are the only power of note in eastern Avalon.
They are likely displeased that we have leapfrogged and assumed the mantle of greatest nation in the world.
But what can they do to us? We are separated from them by the vast expanse of the ocean. We have our own industry, not dependent on Ayiti exports. While refugees from France pour into Avalon, our own citizens are as content a people as the world has ever seen. We have no colonies in Avalon for them to despoil— our strength comes from the Byzantine nation alone.
We suggest that they get used to the idea of being the second nation of the Great Powers.
The Byzantine Republic
President Georgiana Sapoutizakis— hey, that’s me!
Ah, what blessed times we live in! What a golden age of liberty! Are the victories I have brought this nation not unparalleled since the days of Noor Sallajer herself?
For when since those glorious, moon-drenched years has the Republic been led by a president of such valor, such vision? In the time I have been privileged to sit in the House of the Golden Horn and steer the great ship of state, I have gained the ability to see the unspeakable forms lurking in the future, and how to navigate those treacherous rocks and shoals, those ominous fog-wreathed icebergs and menacing reefs and deliver the Byzantine people into a paradise of perfect liberty!
What a shining jewel we are in a Europe beset by decrepit monarchies and decaying feudalisms!
How wide the intricate webs we have woven reach!
How productive our factories! How many of the worlds’ goods flow from Byzantium! We feed, clothe, and arm the world.
I’m glad that this Assembly has finally realized what strength we have, how unified we are in our great cause.
Even our Navy is strong— the strongest in the world, even! Not even the Ayiti Federation, Somalia, or the Haida have more ships. Not even the Somalians. Our steam transports and man’o’wars are the pinnacle of naval quality and technology. At long last, we have built our fleet into a permanent and resilient institution, capable of long-term survival no matter what the sea’s future might hold.
The course of history is one of irreversible, unstoppable progress.
Even in sheer population— long a structural disadvantage we have suffered from compared to the France— we are slowly gaining the upper hand.
Yet there is still much to do— only a very few of the world’s nations enjoy the blessings of unfettered democracy.
Thanks to your bravery, my dear delegates of the Assembly, your conviction, your shared vision for the future—
We will change that.
WORLD MAP, 1857