Civ Stories: The Wars of the World

Part 1, Chapter 3: Blood and Iron

"War is merely the continuation of politics by other means." - Carl von Clausewitz

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The Second Reich; a snippet of what the mass audience of the real world knows about the history of Germany. Well, to make it simple, had the Second Reich never occured, Germany would never had been formed. In the world of Meier, however, the Second Reich has had multiple alterations to its true history.

With much of it mirroring that of the Third Reich.

The history of this version of the Second Reich is far from its glorious image in the real world, but one could say that it is greater than the original, or more brutal than it.

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There is no civilization greater than that of Deutschland—or Germany, as known to the masses—and no one to outlive the glory of its military; the mighty battalions that conquered the world while suffering from the hardest counterattacks of their enemies and the distance from their homes and families, from the regular foot infantryman, to the fearsome machines that swept the entirety of Korea.

The stories of the brave men that died for Deutschland unfold here, told by a crucial witness, a living veteran himself, and a friend to the deceased.

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The name is Erik Holtz. I come from a line of prestigious veteran soldiers, most known for their contributions during the conquest of Indonesia. My comrades and I saw the glory of Deutschland, and alongside it, the horrors of what we've done. Far too many stories would be dragged along if I note all of the conquests that the Reich had done, but fortunately, the archives and the stories of our fathers and grandfathers tell a glimpse of the grand wars of the Deutsche.

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It was still in the ancient days when the Germans had the prowess of expanding their domain to support more people as well as making a mark in the world as an aggressive militaristic civilization. The ancient warriors were rumored to have bravely took on as many barbarian settlements as they can while holding on their own. Some of those warriors reached a diplomatic agreement and recruited a select band of hostile barbarians into the side of the Deutsche. This was the catalyst that pushed on the growth of Deutschland's military.

Unfortunately, it had its own undoing.

Instead of focusing on its infrastructure and buildings, the early cities of Deutschland had to compensate and make room for its trading capacity in order to offset the debts that the German economy had accrued. Luckily, some cities were settled across coastlines which pretty much ensured that the economy would be stable unless a major embargo would be imposed.

As the economy picked up, so did most of the advancements of the empire: the military improved, the Protestants formed and enhanced their religion to become the formal faith of the Deutsche, culture and art flourished, and it truly was a golden age for us all.

Until Indonesia.

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The Indonesians had been a close trading partner of the Germans, both on land and the inland sea of Jakarta. The settlement of Hamburg to the east allowed economic miracles for the Deutsche, constantly trading with Jakarta via the inland sea. However, the Indonesians would also perform a risky maneuver as they settled too close to Berlin to the south; 40,000 kilometers away from the city (in the terms of Meier, nearly 4 hexes, closer than what people think). Additionally, the Indonesians strayed from the path of the Protestants and allowed the Hindus to convert Jakarta and become the primary Indonesian faith, but the pressure of Protestants made it difficult for Hindus to fully convert the city.