|
PresidentMike
|
 |
United States
Oct 1999
time: 00:18
|
|
I've given up civ for Lent (and it's a constant struggle everyday, I can assure you), so since I can't write any new stories I thought I'd repost some of my old ones. This one was a pre-contest story from back in November of last year. Enjoy.
In 1514, a ship carrying the Persian envoy Darius docked in the harbor of Berlin. Darius' arrival was a wholly unexpected event: the Persians were almost entirely a mystery to the republic. Although it was known that they had been responsible for the recent destruction of the Iroquois civilization, there had been no formal contact between Persia and Germany. Rumours about Persian technology, luxury products, resources and motives were widely circulated in the capital, but there was little hard information. With the arrival of an official Persian representative, it was hoped that constructive new ties, perhaps even leading to an alliance, could be forged between the two powers.
Darius quickly and cruelly dashed these hopes. Refusing to meet with "inferior" representatives from the Foreign Ministry, he instead demanded to be taken directly to the Chancellor. When, in a gesture of hospitality, Darius "request" was granted, the true purpose of his visit became known. Ignoring any pretense of courtesey or etiqute, Darius bluntly made his demands: the immediate transfer of any exiled Iroquois officials living in Germany to Persian authorities, and the secrets of advanced German industrial technology. Shocked by the Persian demands, the Chancelleor rejected them out of hand, whereupon Darius immiedietley left for his ship and sailed away. A week later, a small Persian landing party raided northern Germany. To the government it seemed clear that the Persians had made Germany their next target for conquest.
16th century Germany was unprepared for a major military confrontation. The republic had only recently emerged from a long series of "unification" wars, fought to capture or destroy foreign settlements on the periphery of German territory. The wars had succeeded in uniting the entire continent under Berlin's rule, but they had also succeeded in creating widespread civil strife and in making the nation a piraha on the diplomatic stage. The entire country, including the military, was also in the midst of a great industrial transformation. Factories, scientific research and captial investments had precedence over warships and army divisions in the government's budget. The creation of a national railrod network, essential on the long, narrow German continent, had barely begun. And the existing military forces were small, unable to adequatley protect the nation. There were other disadvantages as well: the Persians knew exactly where Germany was, while Germany had only a vague idea where their enemy would appear from. The Persian forces were also battle hardened formations, fresh from their victory over the Iroqouis, and far superior in number.
Yet the Germans had several important advantages that made this far from a "David and Goliath" conflict. The first was geography. The Persians would have to cross wide ocean moats in order to mount their invasion, and their ships would have to pass through certain choke points, limiting their landing options. The second was the small, but ultra modern German military. The navy, the first line of defense, had traded in its wooden warships for new ironclads; armed with the latest factory produced guns and ordinance, Germany's iron walls would prove to be a serious obstacle. The army, although the junior (and hence smaller) service, had been sure to replace its slow firing rifle regiments with new infantry divisions, equipped with bolt action repeating rifles. At the outset of the crisis the government had quickly passed a conscription act, and soon new divisions of conscripts were massing in the "threatened zone" in the north. It had also developed a small, elite corps of calvary divisions: hard hitting units that could use the excellent German road network (and growing rail system) to quickly arrive at a crisis point. And finally, there were signs that Germany's diplomatic isolation might soon be coming to an end. Persia's growing rise had not gone unnoticed by the other great powers, particuarly the Babylonians and Aztecs. While the Foreign Ministry worked desperatley for a military alliance, the army and navy took their positions and prepared to face the coming storm.
Yet if the situation appears to us to be promising, to contemporary Germans it seemed dire. Refuges from the "threatened zone" were evacuated south, and their presence on the roads and trains helped to speard anxietey and fear. Families sold their costal property and feld inland, while a financial scare (caused by a short lived Aztec/Persian economic blockade) nearly led to an economic disaster. It was in this setting of growing panic that the Chancelleor traveled north to meet with the troops at their camp outside Cologne, and it is there that he delivered his memorable 20th of July speech:
"Yes, the enemy is strong. Yes, they pose a serious threat. And yes, the people of our nation are scared. And yet here, today in this camp, I see a small, determined army of my countrymen who refuse to be cowed for foreign tyranny. Here, among the men who should be the most afraid, the most terrified of the coming storm, I find only resolve and courage. It is to these men that Germany now turns to in its greatest hour of need, and it is these men who have said that, though the enemy may take their lives, they will never take our freedom!"
The Chancelleor's speech was exactly what the nation needed: a stiff shot of resolve and courage, a masterpiece of oratory that in one step unified the country. The national mood changed from fear to one of determination: "Let them come," was the message. "We are ready and waiting!"
They would not have to wait long. Throughout 1520-1540, the Persian navy made sporadic patrols past Cape Los Angeles and into the Sea of Orleans. These wooden vessels stood no chance against the German ironclads that intercepted them, but it was clear that the enemy was only testing the waters, preparing for his great move.
That move came in June of 1542. Timed to coincide with a period of good weather on the Sea of Orleans, two seperate Persian convoys set their sights on Germany's northern coast. The Persian numbers made all the difference in the naval battle: German warships could only intercept one of the two forces before it reached Germany. They sank one Persian convoy and gave chase to the second, but by then it was to late.
The Persians landed on the north coast, between Baltimore and New York, on June 16. A mounted army of four divisions, a mixed force of modern calvary and antiquated knights, spalshed ashore east of Henry heights, in grassland adjacent to the Baltimore/Nuremburg railroad. As they organized themsleves and prepared to advance inland, the German army went into action.
The calvary corps, massed on a railhead just north of Nuremburg, made good use of the B&N railroad, and within hours of receiving the reports of the Persian landing had established a defensive perimiter around the enemy beachhead. They were assisted by a force of reserve infantry divisions; created through the conscription act, this pool of reserve divisions could assist the calvary corps in containing and destroying the landing. Finally, the beefed up garrisons of Baltimore, Cologne and Nuremburg went on full alert, and reinforcements from southern Germany immiedietly boarded special trains headed north.
In the event, the German preperations, combined with Persian incompetnence, made the final battle an anticlimax. If the Persians had landed on Henry Heights, they would have been in an excellent position to seize the port of Baltimore and secure a foothold on the German continent. But instead, by landing on the fields east of the heights, they had created the conditions for their own destruction. Trapped in a poor defensive position, the Persian units were force to take a merciless pounding from the surrounding German calvary and infantry divisions. With the defeat of their supporting naval units on June 17, the Persians found themselves totally cut off. Alone in an enemy country, outnumbered and running out of ammunition, with no place to retreat, they began surrendering en masse. By June 20 it was all over: the Persian armada had been defeated.
As the nation savored the triumph, German diplomats put the victory to good use. The Germans had broken the Persian auroa of invincibility and convinced the world that they would not collapse. The Aztecs and Babylonians, already hostile to their expanding neighbor, suddenly found courage that (until June 20) they did not know they had. By the end of the month both nations had declared war against Persia; they were quickly joined by other minor powers, including the United States. Faced with a world united against them, the Persians were forced to abandon their plans to invade Germany.
The feeling of national solidarity that had been created by the Persian threat had led the government (early in 1541) to issue a "Plan for the Expansion of the Republic." In a nutshell, the plan was a promise made to the German people by the government that, should the nation survive, major reforms would take place. True to its word, in 1543 suffrage was expanded to include all male adults, and in 1544 the constiution was ammended to include direct election of senators and a president. Adult femal suffrage was granted five years later, in 1549. Far from destroying Germany, the Persian Armada had succeeded in pulling it closer together. The true legacy of the Persian threat was not a modern military or a new world order, but a new German democracy, powerful and confidant and ready to take its place as a great world power.
|
13-03-2002 10:01
|
|