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Post by bytor on Jan 17, 2017 21:50:39 GMT
Europe and the Balance Power, The Hessian Question, 1850
While Europe is, on the surface, much calmer in in 1850 than it was only a year or two before, it doesn’t take much to bring them to the fore.
During the revolutions, Elector Frederick William IV of Hesse had been forced to dismiss the government which, under the direction of Prime Minister Hans Hassenpflug since 1832, had been oriented toward subverting constitutional controls through manipulating elections, packing the judicial bench, and persecution of political enemies. But on February 23rd, 1850, Frederick William once again appoints Hassenpflug as Prime Minister of the Electorate. That September the Electorate’s Diet is dissolved, taxes are continued and the country is placed under martial law. The Electorate erupts in rebellion and the Frederick William and Hassenpflug are forced to flee as the the armed forces of Electorate were clearly supporting the rebellion. They eventually end up in Erfurt, where Prussia has called for an assembly of the German states to replace the German Confederation which had been inactive since the dissolution of the Frankfurt Parliament.
President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte of France had seen an opportunity in 1848 with Baden and the Rhenish Palatinate Republic and had set up diplomatic ties with them right away and had done as much as possible to bring them into the French political orbit. Because the two republics also remained a part of the German Zollverein, the synergy with the new trade links to France allowed them to become one of the most swiftly industrializing regions of Germany. Subtly encouraged by France, they also tried to set up their own networks of influence and were most successful in smaller states to their north and northeast.
When rebellion breaks out the Electorate of Hesse, it spreads to Grand Duchy of Hesse, the Duchy of Nassau, the principalities of Hesse-Homburg and Waldeck-Pyrmont, and the Free City of Frankfurt through subtle and sometimes not so subtle agitations by Baden, the Rhenish Palatinate and France. These countries had long had ties from being part of the old Upper Rhenish Circle of the defunct Holy Roman Empire and had all had a taste of reforms during the brief existence of the Confederation of The Rhine, another puppet of a previous Napoleon. When their dukes and electors are also forced to follow the example of Frederick William and flee or abdicate.
With Prussia and Austria both being asked for help by the various nobles who have fled from the Hessian states, the two along with Russia meet in Warsaw to deal with the question of assistance. To the dismay of Prussia and Austria, however, Tsar Nicholas I Russia invites the foreign ministers of France and Great Britain to the meetings as well and it becomes one of the Concert of Europe conferences that were started by Viscount Castlereagh in 1815 at the defeat of Napoleon.
The conference is initially tense and undecided with no clear division of support.
King Frederick William of Prussia, no friend of republicanism, is on the one hand for intervention so that he does not lose his treaty access to roads through the Hessian states to his Westphalian Province, yet on the other hand wishes to deny Austria any increased influence thus maintains that Austria has no right of intervention since the Diet of the German Confederation had been dissolved by the calling of the failed Frankfurt Parliament.
Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, who has historically supported the directions of Great Britain as a continuation of his brother Alexander’s relationship with Viscount Castlereagh, is nevertheless an anti-republican himself and it is unknown which side he will come down on.
Emperor Franz Josef of Austria, seeing a chance for further influence in a reconvened Diet of the German Confederation, contending it had never been dissolved, sends troops to restore the monarchs of both the Electorate and Grand Duchy of Hesse, Nassau, and the others as away of deflecting from the Hungarian question back home.
Only France and Great Britain are solidly on the same side, preferring no intervention since the princes and dukes were expelled by their own subjects rather than foreign armies.
During the conference, the rebels with support of their local armies and bourgeoisie proclaim the Republic of Hesse-Nassau, the news of which seems to push Tsar Nicholas I into the Austrian side away from Great Britain. When France sees an opening and promises to use its diplomatic recognition of Hesse-Nassau to be the guarantor of Prussia’s treaty rights to roads through the Hessian states, this brings Prussia reluctantly to the side of non-intervention. When Prussia orders the troops it sent to the Hessian borders originally to support Elector Frederick William to march along the treaty roads ostensibly to test the treaty of passage by meeting French troops, the two armies clash with Austrian and Bavarian troops that had crossed in into Hessian territory near Fulda and Bronzell.
Austria, not wanting a war with both France and Prussia, backs down. At renewed Conference session in Olmütz, Hesse-Nassau, France and Prussia sign a new treaty of passage to affirm and update Prussian passage rights through the new republic to reach the Westphalian Province. A parallel treaty is also signed by those three one side and Bavaria and Austria on the other hand acknowledging the new republic. The dukes and princes are allowed to return to their homes and keep their properties until they die after which a portion will go to their children but most to the state. This is seen as a humiliating defeat for Habsburg ambitions in Germany as they are forced to accept the dissolution of the German Confederation and their presidency of it.
Left hanging, though, are small Saxon duchies and intermingled principalities in Thuringia. They experienced significant unrest during the Hessian rebellion with many student protests over their nobility’s support of intervention. After it became clear that the Great Powers would not only not intervene in Hesse but also would also pledge to affirm the existence to new republic, that did little to quell the social unrest, even in places like the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. If revolution comes to them, what help, if any, can they expect? Or what must they do to forestall it?
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Post by bytor on Feb 12, 2017 16:54:07 GMT
The map for 1871 is taking me longer than expected, I keep changing my mind about some things in the TL, so here's a preliminary.
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Post by steve59 on Feb 19, 2017 10:40:50 GMT
bytor
Sorry, only just seen this. One comment I would say is change the colour for the Kingdom of Naples as otherwise it looks like its been taken over by the Ottomans. Especially given showing the northern tip of Tunisia as well.
Also thinking about it is Kazakhstan still outside Russian control at this point as its showing up as a different colour?
Steve
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Post by bytor on Feb 19, 2017 16:46:23 GMT
bytor Sorry, only just seen this. One comment I would say is change the colour for the Kingdom of Naples as otherwise it looks like its been taken over by the Ottomans. Especially given showing the northern tip of Tunisia as well. Also thinking about it is Kazakhstan still outside Russian control at this point as its showing up as a different colour? Steve What you see is the western tip of the Khanate of Khiva. The Central Asian states, Khiva, Bukhara and Kokand, were still independent at this time OTL. Only Kokand was actually part of the Russian Empire which happened in 1876, the other two were not absorbed OTL until 1920 by the USSR. That area is now Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, half of Kyrgizstan and only a few southern tips of Kazakhstan. The Kazakh Khanate had been conquered in 1847. One thing you cannot see, because the map doesn't go that far, is that the Sikh Empire is still an independent state, too. An agreement of a buffer, first proposed OTL in the 1830s, between Russia and British India, is revived and put in place because of closer Anglo-Russian relations in this ATL. The Sikhs are able to manœuver the Russians into being more prickly at the British India Company's military actions so the second Anglo Sikh War never gets fought.
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Post by steve59 on Feb 19, 2017 17:22:20 GMT
Bytor
Thanks for clarifying on the central Asian situation.
Steve
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Post by bytor on Feb 20, 2017 17:15:27 GMT
This is the provincial flag of the Province of New Caledonia which joined Confederation on July 20th, 1871, along with the Province of Columbia. It consists of the provincia shield on a British Blue Ensign. The shield consists of St. Andrew's Cross for Caledonia, a.k.a. Scotland, the mountains which make up so much of its area, and the sun setting on the Pacific Ocean.
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Post by bytor on Mar 5, 2017 19:17:08 GMT
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Post by bytor on Mar 6, 2017 2:52:10 GMT
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Post by bytor on Mar 6, 2017 17:50:14 GMT
Europe and the Balance of Power, Part V, 1851-1871
With unrest percolating through Europe just below the surface, not even the Great Powers are immune to the effects. At the same time, economic futures are up. French trade with the Republics of Texas, Río Grande and Yucatán, joined by the new Republic of Alta California filters into the Republic of Baden, the Rhineland Republic and the Republic of Hesse. Tens of thousands of Germans, Italians, Spanish and others emigrate to the New World and head to the North American republics as well as the Argentine Confederation, Uruguay, Riograndense and Gran Peru in South America seeking land or fortune.
In May of 1852, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha puts in place a new constitution based on the failed Frankfurt attempts of the now defunct Germanic Confederation to try and quiet the protests in his country. In November, President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte stages a coup in France and proclaims himself Emperor Napoleon III on the promise to maintain universal male suffrage which the republican government had tried to take away.
In meetings with George Seymour, British ambassador to Russia, on the Sikh Empire and its ongoing conflicts with the British India Company possibly upsetting the Buffer Agreement of November 1842, Tsar Nicholas II tells Seymour that while he is not looking to expand Imperial Russia he feels compelled to protect the Orthodox Christians who live in the Ottoman Empire. For Russia’ continued participation the agreement, as well as Russia’s past influence on the European continent, he requires their support. When conflict finally breaks out as the Russian and Ottoman Empires declare war on each other, Britain and Austria convene a new Vienna Congress to which the Ottomans are invited and present terms of agreement for the two. Nicholas II agrees, but Sultan Abdülmecid rejects them outright. Prussia backs Russia’s position but still helps Britain craft new terms though the Russians and Ottomans simply cannot agree on the same ones. When the talks fail, France demands that Russia withdraw from Wallachia and Moldavia. Austria, with its Slavic and Roumanian minorities is nervous about Russian designs in the Balkans and how that would affect its fragile stability, allies with France and the Ottomans.
When Russia ignores the ultimatum, France and Austria both declare war on Russia. Britain, in spite of its relationship with Russia in Asia, does not really want to see the Russian Navy gain access to the Mediterranean Sea so is forced to stay neutral in the Euxine War. Prussia, believing that the rejection of the amendments does not justify abandoning the diplomatic process and works with Britain in what comes to be called "telegraph diplomacy" to try and resolve the conflict. As French and Ottoman ships and troops invade the Crimean peninsula and lay siege to the port of Sevastopol and under pressure from the Austrian army, Russia withdraws from the Danubian principalities in order to defend its Black Sea assets. The Austrian army follows the retreating Russians and occupies Bessarabia and Budjak. Austria’s army, after reforms along the French lines since Radetzky’s success at putting down the Hungarian revolution, does well against a Russian army superior in numbers but lacking in training and logistical ability. This forces Russia to split its attention, enhancing its weaknesses in both theatres of combat. The Euxine War, while helping to place the French Empire in a preeminent position on the continent, merely papers over Austria’s own instability for the time being.
When the Treaty of Paris is signed in May of 1856 to end the Euxine War, Russia is forced to cede Bessarabia and Budjak to the Ottoman Empire. Bessarabia (with Budjak), Moldavia and Wallachia are placed under the supervision of the Great Powers though nominally they remain part of the Ottoman Empire as the Danubian Principalities. While Russia’s merchant ships are allowed passage through the straits, the Black Sea is demilitarised.
After electoral fraud by Governor Nicolae Vogoride in Moldavia in 1857, the Great Powers decide to let the three Danubian Principalities elect diets to create new constitutions and elect princes. Union of the three was proposed by France but rejected by everyone else, especially the Russians and Austrians. Because of a loophole in the allowed constitutions that did not specify the offices must all be held by different people, Alexander John of Cuza is successively elected as prince by the diets of Moldavia, Bessarabia, and Wallachia in January and February of 1859. In 1862 the three thrones are officially merged into one as the United Principalities of the Danube. Alexander John institutes many reforms, including criminal and civil codes based on the French as well as universal male suffrage and land reform giving peasants title to the land they worked. Reaction against him by the diet under the influence of former landowners forces him to abdicate and Charles of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen is accepted by the Great Powers as the compromise candidate. Carol, as he becomes known, is able to introduce a new constitution and renames the union as the Principality of Roumania but realigns the system along censitary rather than universal suffrage as an accommodation to landowners and continues to walk the line between them and republican sentiment blocking universal acceptance of his rule.
As things are progressing in Roumania, Europe and the world are shocked by the assassination of French Emperor Napoleon III and his wife, the Empress Eugénie, by a group of Italian insurgents known as the Carnbonari led by Felice Orsini who toss bombs into their carriage as they head to the opera on the evening of January 14th, 1858. The French Senate is informed and, as per the sénatus-consult of July 23rd, 1856, Jerôme Bonaparte, the Emperor’s uncle, is named Regent. He appoints his son, Napoleon-Joseph Charles Bonaparte, as president of the Senate and the Emperor’s half-brother, Charles de Morny, as president of both the Council of State and Corps Législatif. Eugène Rouher and Adolphe Billault are also named as Minister of Finance and Minister of State. Together, the five of them form the actual government and call out the Gendarmerie and the Army to forestall any potential revolution as news of assassination spreads across Paris, provoking riots. The French Republican cause is shattered, for even with killing of protesters by Gendarmerie at Palais Bourbon, uprising is successfully portrayed as rebels against the system of universal suffrage of the Empire, colluding with the Italians as well as disrespect for Imperial Prince who is now an orphan. The two Bonapartes and de Morny, no longer constrained by Napoleon III's desire to please his wife's Catholic Conservatism or his desire for glory, embark upon the liberalisation that they had long been urging him to do.
Strict censorship of French press since 1852 is relaxed on Prince Imperial's second birthday on March 16th to fan anti-Italian flames. Both houses of government are given expanded rights to debate, covered by press, but only Senate is allowed to amend laws. This starts a tradition of announcing new changes on Prince Imperial's birthday as well as progress towards a fully liberal constitutional monarchy. As a result of the relaxation of censorship, La Presse leaks information about a secret treaty between France and Piedmont-Sardinia that Napoleon III had been preparing to sign before his assassination. Regent Jérôme Bonaparte spins it as Napoleon III's well-known love for Italy from his younger days and uses it to increase anti-Italian sentiment and nationalist fervour. Conversely, Giuseppe Garibaldi and Giuseppe Mazzini of the Roman Republic stir up anti-Sardinian sentiment in Republics of Tuscany, and the Duchies of Modena and Parma by claiming that the Sardinians are trying to rebuild Napoleonic Italy as a puppet state of of France, using the leaks from La Presse, claiming that the Imperial Regency is still looking to support the Savoyards who are historically more French than Italian.
Unable to obtain French support for invading Lombardy-Venetia after Napoleon III's assassination, Sardinia invades Duchy of Parma and Duchy of Modena and Reggio on the 14th of June, 1859, Their ruling families, both Habsburg cadet branches, flee to Vienna. Austria gathers forces in Lombardy-Venetia and sends an ultimatum to Sardinia, supported by France, as the duchies were rules by. They pressure Sardinia to withdraw as the price for once again ensuring Austrian non-intervention beyond Lombardy and Venetia as in the previous decades. The two duchies become republics through the unrest and Austrian hands are tied by that same requirement of non-intervention supported by the other Great Powers. France wants influence, Prussia has its traditional contest with Austria, and Russia is still angered by the loss of Bessarabia. Four months later, Tuscany, Parma and Modena unite as the Cispadane Republic, citing mutual defence against the Kingdom of Sardinia. The former Legations of Romagna, Bologna and Ferrara break away from Roman Republic in a plebiscite over continuing concessions given to Pius IX by the Roman Republic and join the Cispadane Republic.
When Jerôme Bonaparte dies later that year, his son becomes Regent, the duc de Morny becomes the Senate president, and Rouher replaces de Morny in the Corps Législatif. One positive result of Napoleon III’s assassination had been a reversal of alienation between France and Britain. The Regency, while still looking for French opportunities, had reached out to Britain but been coolly received by then-Prime Minister the Earl of Aberdeen. When Viscount Palmerston becomes Prime Minister again the next year and reverses course on France, the two plus Russia form the informal “Coalition of Three Empires”.
On the 15th of November, 1863, Frederick VII, King of Denmark, dies and is succeeded by Christian August II of Augustenborg as Christian IX August, House of Slesvig-Holsten-Sonderborg-Augustenborg as per the agreements made after the Schleswig War in 1848. The next day, Christian IX August signs a constitution prepared by Frederick VII that alters the lines of succession for Schleswig, Holstein and Saxe-Lauenburg and makes the Danish Rigsdag sovereign over the local Diets. Prussia declares this a violation of the agreements of the Second London Conference. When Denmark refuses to revoke or modify the new constitution, Prussia declares war against Denmark over Holstein and Saxe-Lauenburg and invades the next February. Russia and France take the position that the protocols defined in 1848 were now invalid as they depended upon compensating economic loss to the now dissolved Germanic Confederation had Denmark removed Holstein and Saxe-Lauenburg from it. In a pincer movement, France invades Westphalia and Russia invades Posen with the British Navy bombarding the Prussian troops in Denmark.
Unable to handle a three-front war against three Great Powers, William of Prussia sues for peace and is forced to give up the Province of Westphalia which had been overrun by the superior French Imperial Army. Westphalia is turned into an independent state along the lines of the Danubian principalities. However, instead of electing a prince, the Westphalian Diet proposes a republican constitution influenced by the French codes in place under the Confederation of the Rhine earlier in the century. The Coalition of Empires dissolves the Diet and convenes a new one which quickly returns the same result with the added provision that Westphalia remain part of the Zollverein, the only existing remnant of the Germanic Confederation. France agrees to this, absolutist Russia disagrees and Britain casts the deciding vote in favour of a neutral Westphalia with a small army whose independence is guaranteed by France and Britain.
After the humiliating defeat in the Second Schleswig War, King William of Prussia appoints Helmuth von Moltke as the new Chief of Staff of the Prussian Army, and Albrecht von Roon as Minister of War. The increasingly liberal Landtag authorises funding for a proposed re-organisation of the army in light of the thrashing by France, but with restrictions on the King’s power to mobilise to prevent further humiliation. The King's ministers could not convince legislators to amend the restrictions, and the King was unwilling to make concessions. William threatens to abdicate in favour of his son Crown Prince Frederick William, who opposes his doing so, believing that Otto von Bismarck, an influential member of the Prussian upper House of Lords in the Landtag was the only politician capable of handling the crisis. However, William was ambivalent about appointing a person who demanded unfettered control over foreign affairs. It was in June, 1865, when the lower House of Deputies overwhelmingly a proposed budget, that William is persuaded to recall Bismarck to Prussia from his post as the ambassador to France on the advice of Roon. On 6 September 1865, William appoints Bismarck Minister President and Foreign Minister.
With France increasingly embroiled in Indochina as a result of the Regency trying to neuter the power of the Church by using it as an excuse for territorial gains in southeast Asia, as well as being stuck propping up the Mexican government of Benito Juarez in order to ensure debt repayment, the humiliation of Prussia and the growing precariousness of Austria’s rule over its territories will set the stage for the times to come.
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Post by bytor on Mar 6, 2017 23:18:42 GMT
I just realised I forgot to mention two things: the Ernestine duchies in Central Germany, and why Russia didn't gain anything from the Second Schleswig War.
As to the second, as in OTL, there was an unsuccessful Polish and Lithuanian uprising in 1863 that extended into early 1864. As a result, Russian troops were only able to distract the Prussian army from sending it's full strength through Hesse and at France.
For the first the reaction of the Ernestine Saxe-duchies and their neighbouring Thuringian peers, Schwarzburg and Reuß was probably the canniest, if also teh most cynical, reaction. After the Second Schleswig War left them untouched, they correctly calculated that in the advent of a real war between Prussia and either Austria or France would be fought mostly on their lands. So they organised themselves into the United Thuringian States and proceeded to make economic and political ties with the surrounding Greater and Lesser Powers, hoping that such ties would act as a ward against invasion by threat of retaliation, keeping them effectively neutral. Nominally Thuringia was a democracy with the old families populating the upper house of parliament and elected deputies of the people in the lower. In reality, not much had changed. Through a baroque system of rules, only the Fürstentag (House of Princes) had any actual power to pass laws, negotiate treaties or use any other powers of the state. Combined with arcane voter legibility rules, gerrymandering and judicious voter suppression, The deputies of the Landestag were generally younger princely sons, complicit in the theatrics when the upper house felt it necessary to make it look like the lower house had any powers at all. Sometimes this was used to make a people's deputy look good, other times to charge them ambiguous crimes against the state.
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Post by bytor on Mar 7, 2017 3:36:22 GMT
United Thuringian States. Flag barry sable and or with base gules, a bend vert. Recalls the ancient Saxon coat of arms, with the red bar for the peoples of Germany after the official flag of the dissolved Germanic Confederation.
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Post by bytor on Mar 7, 2017 14:16:09 GMT
Republic of Baden. During the revolution of 1848, rioting students ripped of the bottom gold triangle of the flag that had been the symbol of Baden for centuries and sewed on a back triangle back to represent their protests for democracy for the people of Germany. When welcoming the ambassador from France, the first country to recognise the republic, stories tell of the newly elected deputies to the Landtag scrambling to find national symbols that spoke of Baden but not the monarchy. The chief of staff of one of the deputies produced a flag that he said came from those first protests a little over a year before. Later, when the French ambassador asked the name of the chief of staff, he was told "Friedrich Oswald".
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Post by bytor on Mar 7, 2017 20:48:09 GMT
"The recent assassination of Napoleon III by members of the Carbonari, however, had caused a schism in Cispadanian politics. Felice Orsini and the other members of his crew had worn green, white and red tri-colour handkerchiefs in their jacket pockets based on the protest flags that had become popular in 1848 as the symbol for Italian unification. It had even been adopted as the national flag of the Republic of Tuscany. modified from the version suggested by the first Present, the former Duke Leopold II, that had contained the coat of arms of his duchy. Napoleon III had been seen as being pro-Italian unity and a man to be admired, thanks to his younger days as part of decentralised movement that killed him, but leaks from French newspaper La Presse had changed that. Leaflets from Rome and pamphlets from Florence were distributed across the central Italian peninsula that expounded on how the secret agreement between His Imperial Majesty and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia, Count Cavour was a betrayal of republican ideals. It signalled, they said, that the Savoyards were just puppets of the French, indeed that they were actually more French than Italian. "That the tri-colour was a popular symbol was undeniable, even to the Tuscans who were now slightly ashamed of it, and republican fervour called for the nation to be named the Cispadane Republic, after the previous country of that name from 1796 before the original Napoleon, now tarred by association, declared himself emperor. That the flag was a tri-band instead of a tri-colour yet contained the same three colours was seen as fortuitous during those first sessions of the new legislature. The deputies from Tuscany, with a decade of experience in the practicalities of democratic rule, were not particularly anti-imperialist having elected their old Duke as president of their republic not once but twice. They were inclined, though, to accept the Savoyard-expansionist claims of the pamphlets and did not want to once again bow to an unelected monarch. This shared sentiment is what brought the new nation together in the first place and they papered over any disagreements with proposals for the new three-banded flag of the Republic. "If you've ever wondered why your conservative relatives from the northern parts of the country scoff at your political leanings as 'non è orizzontale', or why you both insult each other in jest as 'savoiardo', that is why." -- excerpted from "Italia: Un ex e futuro nazione", and editorial in La Nazione, 3 September 1996. Flag of the (new) Cispadane Republic from my "Balance of Power" ATL.
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Post by bytor on Mar 8, 2017 0:53:00 GMT
The flag of the Palatinate Republic is a modification of the flag of the old Electoral Palatinate from which it descends. The background is barry lozengy dexter azure on argent, rather than the sinister of the Electorate, in order to symbolise the "right" thinking of democracy. Defaced with a crownless lion palatine signifying that the citizens no longer bow to a monarch.
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Post by bytor on May 25, 2017 17:39:01 GMT
Preliminary South America in 1871
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Post by lordroel on May 25, 2017 17:53:46 GMT
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Post by MinnesotaNationalist on May 25, 2017 18:27:28 GMT
Preliminary South America in 1871 No Dutch Suriname. See "Dutch Guiana"
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Post by lordroel on May 25, 2017 20:21:25 GMT
a nu mistake, did not motiveren that it was blue, normaly the dutch are orange.
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Post by MinnesotaNationalist on May 25, 2017 20:25:23 GMT
a nu mistake, did not motiveren that it was blue, normaly the dutch are orange. Yeah, I missed that at first too
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Post by bytor on May 25, 2017 21:40:05 GMT
"Dutch Guiana" was used at least as late as the Belgian revolution and I couldn't find any info on the first recorded use of "Surinam(e)".
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