Kaiserreich Story (Part 2: Europe)

Kaiserreich is a fictional story made up by an anonymous player of a mobile game; "Hearts of Iron 4", the story is in-depth and has a lot about a great "what if?" question of what would happen if the Central Powers won World War 1.

This is Part 2 of this 4-Part wiki page series on Kaiserreich. In this page we will talk about a different socialist power called "Syndicalism" and how it would spread all over Western Europe like wildfire, and how Germany rises from the ashes of WW1 as well as its Central Powers allies.

## What is Syndicalism?

Syndicalism is another Socialist power (in the Kaiserreich story and in real life). This is another form of socialism which is supposed to be the alternative for imperialism and capitalism.

Created in France sometime in the 19th century with the creation of what is known in English as the "General Confederation of Labor". Now, Syndicalism is \*not\* what you may think of Communism in, say, the USSR, or even China, or Cuba. It's not about a single party, iron-fisted, Stalinist, Maoist, or Castroist Dictatorships. Instead of just being a one party entity, Syndicalism is about making a series of labor unions to create a series of trade unions among the working class and to create some kind of "radicalization" of trade unions and even politics among the working class. The aim for Syndicalism is to teach the masses that if they want change, they needed to create large scale strikes against the capitalist (or imperialist) leaders so the workers themselves would be in charge, and a way to either overthrow their monarchs or sabotage the capitalist system.

Just keep in mind that this is because workers back in the early 20th century were (somewhat) stuck in the 19th century, and some companies back in those days didn't even have the 8 Hour work day, and workers only got paid to feed themselves, and barely had enough to even get buy.

You may not know it at first, but this is "kinda" the brainchild of the creator of Communism; Karl Marx. He had predicted that this would happen in Western Europe and the United States (the 2 large industrialized regions in the world), and at the time, Russia was still a backwards, feudal, and primitive who hasn't industrialized like the west. but, lo and behold, a socialist revolution happened in Russia.

But in Kaiserreich's story, Marx's prediction became a reality, and now workers in Western Europe and America will begin to turn to Syndicalism, and the socialist ideology will begin in France.

## France

Because France has suffered a lot with low supplies for its soldiers fighting in the war and solider morality so low that the soldiers themselves would mutinied against their own officers, not to mention that France have been humiliated by Germany twice in 50 years. A Syndicalist movement is about to begin as the Third French Government dissolved and a Provisional Government took its place (almost like what happened in Russia after the Tsar abdicated).

Even before the Central powers victory in this Kaiserreich world, some kind of a revolution was erupting in France, and more and more soldiers within the French Military ranks began to hold pro-syndicalist ideals and the Provisional Government began to disarm the military under the notion that Germany had already won, this is when members of the Provisional Government left and joined the Syndicalists, and within just a few months France went through 2 regimes, and now the republic of France will become the "Commune of France", and a long period of violence would ensue.

## Great Britain

Things in Britain weren't that much better, not only was the war economically disastrous for the island nation, but they also faced with a coal shortage and an alarming rise of unemployment as well as a convoluted election and a tariff to help the already bad economy failed, and the 2 political parties in the nation were powerless to do anything about it, and with the loss of nearly all of their colonies, Britain was becoming isolated from the rest of the world, the British economy would collapse in 1925, and by March of that year people across Britain were calling for a change, a change in the work system for the workers to rise up and their bosses to quit. Of course when workers protest in early 20th century Europe, they are bound to be met by a baptism of gunfire, and that's what exactly happens in Britain in the Kaiserreich story, of course the Brits began to point fingers with most saying that the Royal Military were the ones that threw the first punch, and soon another war against the old Monarch and the Syndicalists would erupt.

The British Royal Family, seeing that their lives are in danger, evacuate "across the pond" so to say, to Canada in hopes that their trusty military will defeat the Syndicalists and they can return once that happens.

Unfortunately for them, it wouldn't.

The British Syndicalists and the Royal Military would fight for 3 months, eventually the Syndicalists would gain ground on the Royal Military and eventually take London. With this, the British Syndicalists would win, and what would replace Great Britain was the "Union of Britain". This would have effects that would be worldwide. We'll get to that later.

## Italy

After the war Italy as a unified state seized to exist, it's unknown whether it was because of the Treaty or it collapsed on itself or the result of the Central Powers victory. Anyway, The Northeast part of Italy (the Republic of Italy with Venice as its capital) became a puppet state for Austria-Hungary, the south broke off to become independent, and the northwest part (with help from the Commune of France) would become (surprise, surprise) another Syndicalist republic (named the Socialist Republic of Italy).

Now, the majority of Western Europe is under some kind of Syndicalist regime, though they wouldn't band together like an alliance, but each would act is like a buffer region for the victorious Central Powers (namely Germany).

## Germany and the Central Powers

As you would guess already that Germany is the "big winner" in the war as they get not only all of eastern Europe (including Poland, The Baltic States, Belarus, and Ukraine) and made puppet states out of them. They also get most (if not all) of Britain and France's colonies (especially in Africa, which will be mentioned in a later part of this series).

Though victorious, Germany didn't exactly "party hard" right after the war as the war left Germany economically and militarily weak in the immediate years after the war, not to mention that the German population was suffering from food shortages caused by the British blockade. The nation also were making a huge shift with their wartime factories back to peacetime factories (so to day), likewise the German men that fought in the war were having trouble adapting to civilian life since most of them had no jobs, and were having a hard time doing so. Germany also had to deal with the problems with their "newly liberated regions" as they were having economic problems too and this only added to Germany's own economic problem as well as their other problems.

It wasn't until around the mid 1920s when Germany's economy and social system finally got back on their feet (thanks to the German Admiral Alfred von Turpitz) Germany's economic problems were solved and the population and Military also recovered. Kinda like the US after World war 2 in our reality. Pretty soon, Germany would begin to use its military to get itself involved in other conflicts around the world (sound familiar?).

What about Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. Well, for one, both empires continue to exist. As mentioned before Austria-Hungary got Northeastern Italy (the Republic of Italy). The Ottoman Empire also keeps its territories in the years after the war, though it would take some regions in North Africa, but would lose them to independent movements by the 1930s, but all n' all, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire are like the Russian Republic, neutral states in Europe. In fact most of the other republics, empires, and kingdoms that are not either under Syndicalist regimes or in league with the German Empire (known in the story as "Mitteleuropa" (or Middle Europe) are neutral.

This is where I will end this part. In the next part (click here), we will talk about how the story interpreted some of the nations in North America. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.