It is in reference to "wildcat strikes" that the likes of the IWW and other syndicalist-adjacent or outright outfits would be drawn towards. Seeing as labour strikes are going to escalate over the next few years in the USA, at least a few are gonna be wildcat ones with the IWW's involvement (weak as they may be after their 1912-1913 zenith).
Sequel de Mayo (Cinco de Mayo, Vol. II)
- Thread starter KingSweden24
- Start date
Heinrich: The Life and Legacy of Germany's Goldkaiser
"...colloquial term of Ostflucht - flight from the East.
This was not merely a pattern reflected in Germany, of course. The east-to-west migration pattern was common across Europe. Romanian and Galician minorities, in particular Jews, migrated to major cities like Budapest, Vienna, Pilsen and Prague. Anatolian Turks made their way to Salonica, Uskup, Sofia and Sarajevo. Italians were the most common migrant or seasonal worker in France, Finns had begun finding their ways to Swedish mines, logging camps and smelters by the late 1910s, and Spaniards who looked west only to the Atlantic found ample opportunities across the culturally similar Latin New World.
It held particular economic and political import within Germany, however, as it was a largely domestic and internal movement and that it had very particular ideological connotations for the Junkers. For decades, if not centuries, there had been a romanticized sense that Germany's destiny lay to its east, as it had in the Teutonic times, a belief as fundamental to then-contemporary German nationalism as the pacification of western North America had been in the national mythos of the United States and Canada. Not only was this a culturally expansionist policy, it was also one that was viewed as largely economically beneficial to the Junkers, who owned their vast estates east of the Elbe and due to their positions within the Prussian military and bureaucracy saw themselves as modern-day heirs to the Teutonic knights. Plans to colonize Polish-speaking territories of Prussia with German settlers had been government policy, explicitly, under Bismarck, and this stance was a fundamental component of the silent partnership between Germany and Russia to suppress Polish nationalism along their borderlands.
Something had happened, though, to prevent the Germanizing dreams of the Junkers in the East - the successful industrialization and urbanization of Germany, and the economic deadweight that the inefficient East Elbian estates represented within that paradigm. Between the final unification of Germany in 1868 and the start of the Central European War a half century later, tens of thousands of Germans from Posen, Pomerania and West Prussia in particular made their way westwards. Many wound up in the mines of Silesia, not too far from their ancestral homes, while most found their way to factories within Prussia throughout the booming Rhineland. They were followed close behind by many Poles, who within a generation despite worshipping in separate parishes and often attending separate schools were often in Rhenish cities nearly fully Germanized, even with surnames like Wisniewski or Kasinski.
The East only avoided stagnant population growth thanks to high birthrates and a different Ostflucht phenomenon, that of Russian Poles and Ashkenazi Jews from the Pale of Settlement shifting into the Posen region (and some Volga Germans emigrating from Russia, though in such small numbers as to have minimal impact). This ironically shifted the demographics of the population east of the Oder even less German, even as it drove down labor costs for itinerant farmers on the Junker estates. This helped take a bite out of the costs of the protective agricultural tariffs they continued to demand, but severely crippled the settlement policy in the East and created deep doubts in the Prussian state about its ability to successfully "Germanize" much of anything, and such views were before long staunchly held by the Kaiser - with major, considerable impacts down the line when it came time to draft the treaties that eventually ended the Central European War..."
- Heinrich: The Life and Legacy of Germany's Goldkaiser
This was not merely a pattern reflected in Germany, of course. The east-to-west migration pattern was common across Europe. Romanian and Galician minorities, in particular Jews, migrated to major cities like Budapest, Vienna, Pilsen and Prague. Anatolian Turks made their way to Salonica, Uskup, Sofia and Sarajevo. Italians were the most common migrant or seasonal worker in France, Finns had begun finding their ways to Swedish mines, logging camps and smelters by the late 1910s, and Spaniards who looked west only to the Atlantic found ample opportunities across the culturally similar Latin New World.
It held particular economic and political import within Germany, however, as it was a largely domestic and internal movement and that it had very particular ideological connotations for the Junkers. For decades, if not centuries, there had been a romanticized sense that Germany's destiny lay to its east, as it had in the Teutonic times, a belief as fundamental to then-contemporary German nationalism as the pacification of western North America had been in the national mythos of the United States and Canada. Not only was this a culturally expansionist policy, it was also one that was viewed as largely economically beneficial to the Junkers, who owned their vast estates east of the Elbe and due to their positions within the Prussian military and bureaucracy saw themselves as modern-day heirs to the Teutonic knights. Plans to colonize Polish-speaking territories of Prussia with German settlers had been government policy, explicitly, under Bismarck, and this stance was a fundamental component of the silent partnership between Germany and Russia to suppress Polish nationalism along their borderlands.
Something had happened, though, to prevent the Germanizing dreams of the Junkers in the East - the successful industrialization and urbanization of Germany, and the economic deadweight that the inefficient East Elbian estates represented within that paradigm. Between the final unification of Germany in 1868 and the start of the Central European War a half century later, tens of thousands of Germans from Posen, Pomerania and West Prussia in particular made their way westwards. Many wound up in the mines of Silesia, not too far from their ancestral homes, while most found their way to factories within Prussia throughout the booming Rhineland. They were followed close behind by many Poles, who within a generation despite worshipping in separate parishes and often attending separate schools were often in Rhenish cities nearly fully Germanized, even with surnames like Wisniewski or Kasinski.
The East only avoided stagnant population growth thanks to high birthrates and a different Ostflucht phenomenon, that of Russian Poles and Ashkenazi Jews from the Pale of Settlement shifting into the Posen region (and some Volga Germans emigrating from Russia, though in such small numbers as to have minimal impact). This ironically shifted the demographics of the population east of the Oder even less German, even as it drove down labor costs for itinerant farmers on the Junker estates. This helped take a bite out of the costs of the protective agricultural tariffs they continued to demand, but severely crippled the settlement policy in the East and created deep doubts in the Prussian state about its ability to successfully "Germanize" much of anything, and such views were before long staunchly held by the Kaiser - with major, considerable impacts down the line when it came time to draft the treaties that eventually ended the Central European War..."
- Heinrich: The Life and Legacy of Germany's Goldkaiser
Can't speak for anyone else but I've been so far in the weeds with the GAW version of Versailles that I completely forgot we're getting a European version of Versailles soon enough that will reshape the continent.
The CEW doesn't feel anywhere as apocalyptic or as grand of a scope as either the GAW or World War I but there will still be millions of casualties and billions of dollars/marks/francs/etc worth of damage that will have to be accounted for.
Great update, to focus on one thing in particular:
My family before they came to the States was this! Mixed German and Polish (and Ashkenazim) from East Prussia, moved to the Rhine area and Germanized our name, then crossed to the states.
This is mostly OTL, and it really puts into perspective how delusional the whole Lebensraum concept was. Germany couldn't colonize eastern Prussia, nevermind all of fucking Eastern Europe.
Regarding this TTL, this kinda confirms that Germany won't be annexing any vast tracts of land with a lot of minorities, which kinda narrows it down. My bet is on a slightly larger Alsace-Lorraine, given that between the OTL 1871 treaty and this point the Briey-Longwy Iron basin was discovered near the border, and the Germans will make sure to include that, as well as the German parts of the Habsburg realm that they can get away with.
Regarding this TTL, this kinda confirms that Germany won't be annexing any vast tracts of land with a lot of minorities, which kinda narrows it down. My bet is on a slightly larger Alsace-Lorraine, given that between the OTL 1871 treaty and this point the Briey-Longwy Iron basin was discovered near the border, and the Germans will make sure to include that, as well as the German parts of the Habsburg realm that they can get away with.
Germany makes a rump Poland out of its Polish speaking territories and Austria-Hungary? That will *definitely* go over well with Moscow.
Or is it more than even in victory, Germany doesn't want any Austro Hungarian lands? (So we end up with an independent Bohemia and an independent Hungary afterwards)
I don't think the future looks bright for Poland ITTL. Germany will be eager to appease Russia, and I think their price is likely gonna be Galicia.
I don't recall if this has been raised before, but how would music have developed in the early 20th-century Cincoverse North America? Ragtime and jazz as we know it likely would not exist, or at least not to the same extent. I imagine a lot of Civil War era songs (Battle Hymn of the Republic, etc.) would have a resurgence in the GAW.
At one point before (in the first thread) this was discussed, and I think it devolved into puns about how Polka would develop.
Ahh, puns…
A classic KingSweden24 move!
Keep Calm and Carey On, everyone!
Keep Calm and Carey On…
I mean, Polka really IS the most realistic music to step in and become a dominant American genre. It's popular with immigrant communities, is seen as blue collar, is easy to dance to.
Even in OTL it became adopted by immigrant groups that, otherwise, were not closely associated with the genre in the home country. For instance, it is closely associated with the Polish-American community in OTL - however Poles from Poland will raise an eyebrow if someone describes Polka as "Polish music". Polka, they will tell you, is Czech!
So, with a larger Central and Eastern European migration to the US, coupled with the lack of popular African-American music really making much of a dent in the America popular conscious: Polka is probably going to be the basis of popular American music for decades to come (and boy will THAT cause nativist tongues to start waging)
I'm actually kind of interested in seeing how it could develop into different subgenres and the like.
kham_coc
Banned
Supposedly polka is Czhechfor woman, and you would never guess man is in Czech.
It's
Polak - i.e Polish
My rough rule of thumb for CEW is it landing somewhere between the Franco/Prussian War or the Balkan Wars, and WW1. So pretty bad and epochal, but not an apocalypse.
Wow that’s quite the complement!
I love that! The experience of the Polish in the Rhineland with their Germanization was what really intrigued me in my research, tbh
Indeed. Absolutely batshit idea.
And well put on Briey… I’ll leave it at that. Bear in mind Luxembourg is formally German and a holding of Kaiser Heinrich personally, separate from Prussia
Germany would never, ever reduce its own territory if victorious, certainly not on behalf of the Poles. Beyond that I don’t want to spoil anything
Perhaps. Depends how far Germany wants to go in its mission to kneecap AH
Yep, basically.
Polka-rave? NU-polka?
The more grim reading of this is that the treaties involving the end of the Central European War include/mandate ethnic population transfers between constituent states in the interest of removing future hotbeds of national friction, with Heinrich's Germany moving to deport many of Prussia's Poles eastward into a new Polish state (seeing as they are viewed as no longer likely to assimilate while in the eastern parts of Prussia). Seems more likely than offering the new Poland territory, regardless of the added human cost.
Indiana Beach Crow
Monthly Donor
The idea of soul-patched Fred Durst in lederhosen but still wearing a backwards baseball cap would almost make polka's dominance worth it.
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There are two angles to this: firstly, Germany's motivations to keep it alive or not, and second, Austria's ability to keep control of its empire.
The first is the simplest one, and I can't really think of any way in which Germany would benefit more than annexing a piece and then having a bunch of smaller states that they can control. By leaving it alive, they also risk having to fight them again at some point.
The second is harder, but I don't think it looks any more promising for A-H. While OTL WW1 was longer and more intense than this one is probably gonna be, this one will be closer to home for A-H, and will likely end with their core areas in Austria and nowadays Czechia occupied. By the time the occupation is over, it'll be too late. Various countries will have already taken pieces: Serbia probably eats up Banat, Hungary and Romania will be at wat over Transylvania, Italy will occupy Dalmatia, and Russia will likely invade Galicia. The Hungarians were already pissed off and are not likely to want to go back.
In general, the Austrian Empire was based on military force and the prestige of the Habsburg monarchy, both of which are completely lost. There's not really a way to rollback all the changes during the war, and in the end there will probably be a rump occupation zone consisting of Austria and Czechia that will be completely at the Germans' mercy.
kham_coc
Banned
I agree, and there the question is, will the war engender enough bad will to overcome the idea of Anschluss?