Jump 110: Victoria 2

Jump 110: Victoria 2

Location: Israel, 1836
Age: 48
Identity: [-100] Statesman
Drawbacks: [+1100] Import Save Game, Ire Of The Congress, Africa's Revenge

[100/2000]  Unseen By Authority
[200/2000]  No Time For Empathy, Lad, Riches Await!
[400/2000]  Economic Intuitions
[800/2000]  Compliments Of Tesla
[900/2000]  The Iron Jumper
[1200/2000] That's Pretty Gross
[1600/2000] Decision Trees And Events
[2000/2000] Embassy

Just when you'd have thought it was safe to do business and export grain from the terraformed and lush green hills of the Middle East, my nation now had to deal with a sudden increase of nonsense. We had a seat at the Congress of Europe, so to speak, but despite (or perhaps because) of how things went with the Ottoman Empire's carcass being split just north of Constantinople, ours was not so much a speaking seat. Or perhaps it is because we were not exactly a part of Europe, and we should feel lucky to be at the table at all, so we should roll over and accept their rulings? It is not a great surprise - the nation's place as an economic hub has been in decline for years, and there's truly no easy recovery that will change that, no matter how we would try. Not that this would stop us from trying despite that fact.

What is a great surprise, however, is finding out that Africa is in revolt. As in... the entire. fucking. continent. is in revolt, under a somewhat-unified federation with technology that is... once more advanced beyond what should be possible. At least this time my nation isn't the canary in the coal mine, so to speak, but when they're making a concentrated push to eject the colonizers and then push north and east in a war which bears eerie resemblance to that of the Ottoman Empire's attempted conquest... well, it rings warning bells.

The news of the London Times in 1837 included an article that was reprinted in several languages in the days and weeks to come, that opened thus. "We have to face the facts: this is not a supernatural event, or at least not a demonic one. Someone is playing fast and loose with the laws of time, and we are facing imminent destruction at the hands of the technologies from a hundred years' hence."

They were not wrong, after all. Certainly there was artillery, soldiers drilled with rifle and bayonet, but machine guns and mustard gas? Dreadnoughts and tanks? The European nations committed to an alliance the likes of which had not even been seen against the Ottomans, but this time it was not so easy to assassinate leaders and generals, nor to find defectors and steal technology to reverse-engineer. Oh, unconventional tactics were able to win battles, but the lines were steadily pushed back, the coasts of Europe invaded, the trenches at the Suez a horrifying reality, and no advantage in numbers to the defenders this time.

Only the genius of a handful of men pushing the technological envelope was able to bring anything even remotely approaching parity, and even that was at the cost of every nation west of Russia going to a total war footing while ignoring civilian infrastructure. Torpedoes dealt with dreadnoughts, and even a galleon could carry one, even if they were launched awkwardly. Primitive aircraft dropped primitive bombs on battlefields and on tanks. And trench warfare faced the same enemy it always had - artillery. Advancing that was not as complex as one would think.

The war ended in time, as all wars do, but the genocidal insanity that drove Africa remained a mystery. The lines were pushed back, though it was a miraculously heroic effort. In time, the continent was split between the major nations of Europe, without even a pittance thrown in to their colonies or others who fought on their behalf. Its population was depleted to a truly distressing point, and its development neglected in the wake of an Austrian prince being shot and continental Europe plunging itself into another horrific war, using every weapon against each other that had been used against them on the African continent.

It says something that this war featured more prominently in their future history books than the African war.