For Want of A Sandwich - A Franz Ferdinand Lives Wikibox TL
- Thread starter MaskedPickle
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Basically, like for soccers, it was a social issue at the beginning, with professionalism being at its heart.
Like soccer, rugby had come about as a creation by British elites, and when lower classes began participating, particularly workers, the issue of paying players came about because workers couldn't afford missing work hours unlike more wealthy players. And while soccer accepted professionalism in 1885, the rugby union split over it in 1895 between anti professionalism southern English clubs and northern industrial and pro professionalism clubs which went to form the league, and made a number of changes to the rules of the game, notably the number of players being lowered to 15.
France didn't escape this controversy, and after the Great War, the dispute grew out of proportion at the same time as brown amateurism (professionalism in amateur clothing), leading to France being eventually expelled from the Five Nations championship in 1931, and was only readmitted in 1939 but the war delayed the return until 1947. But in the meantime, this had been a near fatal blow and rugby league had been rapidly overtaking rugby union in France as a great number of union rugby most famed players, not to mention clubs, in France defected to league rugby.
It was testamount of how violent the dispute was to see ardent supporters of union rugby which happened to achieve positions of influence within the Vichy regime eventually got the dissolution of the rugby league associations in 1941, and even after the war, the use of rugby as a name would be forbidden; until 1993, it had to be called 'Jeu à Treize' (Game of Thirteen).
This was a fatal blowback, and most of those who had defected to league codes returned to union codes after the war, though brown amateurism continued.
So, with this social and political angle, there might be something to work out in your TL, from the perspective of both the Syndicalist regime and the Third Restauration after the monarchy is restored on the continent (not to be too quick at conclusions and parallels, it doesn't seem rugby acquired a right wing connotation in France until it was politicized by the Vichy regime).
On the 31st amendment, I thought admission to statehood was a process that did only require a bill through Congress and the president's signature. What obstacle did require a constitutional amendment to fix it before DC could be admitted as a state? If you draws the parallel from the OTL 23rd amendment, this was passed to circumvent the fact DC wasn't a state per se and couldn't take part in the electoral college as such.
And on the 28th, it looks to me that a constitutional amendment 'establishing' memberships is quite strong; it does constitutionally binds the US to the organization, way more than a simple treaty would have done. Is it because the administration wanted to bind its successors' hands, knowing how difficult it could be repealing it?
And on the 28th, it looks to me that a constitutional amendment 'establishing' memberships is quite strong; it does constitutionally binds the US to the organization, way more than a simple treaty would have done. Is it because the administration wanted to bind its successors' hands, knowing how difficult it could be repealing it?
Leopold III
Leopold III (3 November 1901 - 25 September 1983) has been the first King of Flanders, reigning from the foundation of the country on 10 September 1920 to his death. The former Crown Prince of Belgium, he hails from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. His reign was interrupted from 1934 to 1948 due to Syndicalist annexation.
Leopold was born a Belgian prince, under the reign of Leopold II and before his father became King of the Belgians in 1909. He was called to succeed his father one day as King of an united Belgium, but the Great European War and the Treaty of Amiens decided otherwise. As the Germans decided to split the Kingdom of Belgium and his father’s refused to do so, going into exile in England, he was designated by the Germans and Flemish Minister-President August Borms as the King of Flanders, at only 18. In spite of his young age, Leopold understood that accepting would be the only way part of Belgium would remain independent and not be annexed into the German Empire.
During his 63 years of reign (one of the longest of the Twentieth Century), he oversaw the development of the newly independant Kingdom of Flanders into a major industrial power in Europe ; he undertook his role of monarch as a representant for the Flemish nation and as a Catholic monarch. The first part of his reign was shaken first by the invasion of Wallonia by the Syndicalists in 1927, then by his father’s “Hundred Days” in 1933 as he invaded Flanders and reclaim his throne. As Leopold fled to Germany with his government, he was helpless to see his country invaded by the Germans then by the Syndicalists. He led the Flemish government in exile from Luxembourg, fleeing in Italy during the World War and entering Brussels triumphantly with the Allied Armies on September 8, 1948.
The post-World War saw the new start for the reign of Leopold III, now that his father was dead, and although he was open to the idea of Belgian reunification, his fear of syndicalist resurgence and the need to build a true Flemish nation-state, now getting bigger thanks to the annexation of Lille and Dunkirk pushed him to fully endorse Flanderization and to persecute bilinguism in Flanders. When the Flemish-only policies were inscribed in the Constitution in 1960, the King renounced all use of French, even if it meant upsetting the French-speaking minority in his own capital of Brussels, and severing links with Wallonia, even if he had allowed his daughter to marry the King of Wallonia. The King could only support the government during the 1964 and 1968 French-speakers' riots and fully pushed for the building of the Wall of Belgium, separating Flanders from troubled Wallonia in 1970.
Leopold III lived enough to see none of his sons succeed him as King : his eldest, Boudewijn, renounced his claims in 1959 to pursue priesthood, while Albert, his youngest, was forced by the Church and the government to renounce after his divorce for adultery in 1968. As such, he was succeeded by his grandson Filip in 1983, at his death.
The Flemings’ feelings about Leopold III’s long reign are now mixed, as the King was very popular during his reign. If Flemish nationalists saw him as the true father of the nation, Belgian reunification supporters saw him as a German puppet, who sowed the causes of the two Belgian Wars and did nothing to protect his French-speaking subjects.
Filip
Filip (born 15 April 1960) is the current King of Flanders, hailing from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and having succeeded his grandfather, Leopold III, on 25 September 1983.
Born to Albert, Prince of Antwerp, the second son of King Leopold, it seemed, due to Boudewijn’s entering the priesthood, that Filip would only become King after his father. Yet, his uneasy divorce with Princess Désirée due to adultery in 1968 was vehemently criticized by the Church, then the government, and Albert had to renounce his rights to succession. Filip then became first in line, and he pursued a gallant career in the Flemish Air Force, studying at the German Military Academy, before acceeding to the throne at 23.
Filip came to power in an era of troubles for Flanders : persecuted Francophones in Brussels had radicalized heavily and tensions with Wallonia were literally at the brink of war. The King pursued a constitutional approach, supporting the government during the 1985 coup attempt, escaping an assassination attempt the same year and holding back the bellicists after the 1988 border incident. Tensions came to a head in 1989, during the Three Days Crisis : King Filip and Minister-President Herman Van Rompuy were taken hostage by a rogue army officer, Filip Dewinter, on January, 12 1989, asking the King to assume direct control of the army and declare war over Wallonia. As Dewinter effectively held power during three days, the King finally took advantage of a secret televised address on the 14th to denounce the coup and ask the army to refuse all orders from the coupsters. Even as the King was hailed for his protection of democracy, the 1990 state of emergency in Brussels and the surprise invasion of Flanders by Wallonia in 1993 forced him to appoint General Van Daele as Minister-President and to fight the First Belgian War (1993-1996).
King Filip fully accepted the terms of the Treaty of Aachen and the independence of the Free City of Brussels, leaving his former capital and taking residence in Antwerp. Nevertheless, his country, and even his family, didn’t follow : his younger brother, Prince Laurens, joined the Bruxellian Rattachists and precipitated the Brussels Crisis (2006-2007), and Bart De Wever’s nationalist Vlaams Blok came to power in 2010, forcing the King to accept a Second Belgian War (2014-2016). For the duration of the German occupation (2016-2020), King Filip continued to push for the interests of the Flemish Nation and hoped for better times for the three countries.
Smith won election thanks to the terrible state of disarray of the Republicans, and he only won re-election in a very heated election, fought against the Progressives and Republicans ; he had to rely upon the Dixiecrats to win, as it's evidenced by taking Hugo Black as his running mate. Nevertheless, the Democratic Party lost its grip out of the South during his second term, and the Democrats would survive only in the Deep South before getting merged into the Conservative Party.
I must admit that this timeline has seen extensive worldbuilding but that I didn't think of that ! A reminder is already written for my personal notes, but if you wish to contribute, feel absolutely free.
As the creation of the District of Columbia is inscribed into Article 1 of the Constitution, then members of Congress felt that inscribing the statehood for DC had be inscribed into the United States Constitution in order to circumvent any dissent or repeal against their right for statehood.
As of the 28th, yeah, it appears that the Havana Treaty Organization is more or less the equivalent of the European Union but for the Americas, where the United States are tantamount and bound to remain into. It went through Congress thanks to bipartisan support in order to circumvent the strong isolationist streak within both Houses of Congress.
Thanks, but I can't even decide for my own TL where this sociopolitical controversy is going in a context where there is no WW2 to break the momentum; but you can use the ideas talked about in the thread for future updates. On one side, league rugby can pay workers to compensate for lost work hours, but at the same time, some of the socialists and marxists most on the left may find the capitalist component of league rugby undesirable, and might oddly find themselves, while for very different reasons, on the same side as anti professionalism elites controlling rugby union (albeit I may imagine in this instance rugby union being taken over and politicized by syndicalists in a bid to show 'we can be better at this game than anglo saxon bourgeois elites', not unlike ice hockey games between American and Soviet teams during the Cold War ); that's not certain for me, but it looks plausible enough not to consider this perspective.
Poor war torn former Belgium. As a whole, Western Europe has had a rather rough Century, including throughout the second half! I’m concerned about what you’ve got for the UK as it is not a top-tier democracy on that awesome democratic health map you created early on.
My God, who said that sports aren't an integrant part of social history ? There is some big ideas there, man ! You should definitely axe on an alternate rugby timeline !
Yup, with Junkers and old Prussian values still up, war is still a pretty good option within this European Union. As of Britain, it should be adressed in due time, but the country suffers from widespread political violence, occasional corruption, massive dysfunction in welfare and social agenda, discrimination against some populations...
Politics always make up for strange bedfellows, and it is true of US politics.
Sort of. In the early 2010s, you could have said Late Weimar Republic-bad.
Something about Japan would be nice too. I'm still impatient to hear how it became a Republic.
Osman VI
Osman VI (born January, 14 1932 in Ankara, Ottoman Empire) is the 46th and current Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, claiming the title of Caliph of Islam, since 18 January 2021, having succeeded his brother, Ali II. He is a great-grandson of Sultan Abdulhamid II, who reigned from 1876 to 1909.
Known as Shehzade (Prince) Harun Osman for most of his life as all scions of the House of Osman, the current Sultan had a quite uneventful life, serving in the Ottoman Army and holding diplomatic and ceremonial missions, until he was a few days short of his 85th birthday and became next-in-line to the Ottoman throne, when his older brother Ali II succeeded their cousin Bayezid III.
Since the 17th century, the Ottoman Empire has observed a system of agnatic seniority in order to avoid the bloodsheds that each palace revolution triggered ; in the 21th century, as the Sultan and Caliph only held a ceremonial role (with the exception of Osman IV, from 1960 to 1971) and as life expectancy grew even in the Middle East, it gave room to a genuine gerontocracy. No Ottoman Sultan has been less than 70 since 1971 and, as he celebrated his 89th birthday, Osman VI is the oldest Ottoman Sultan of all time upon his accession and the third- oldest reigning monarch of a sovereign country in the modern world (preceded by Sultan Jamshid of Zanzibar and, by only four days, by Ntare V of Urundi) ; if Ottoman claims are to be taken into account, he is also the oldest Caliph of Islam and Roman Emperor upon his accession.
His heir apparent, Shehzade Osman Selaheddin (who would be known as Osman VII), is already 80 ; for fifty years, the intricate ceremony of the Girding of the Sword of Osman, which serves as a enthronement since the days of Mehmed II and is held in Ankara since the loss of Constantinople, has been nothing but a small lifting of a heavy weapon by a frail old man. He is already the third Sultan under the tenure of Grand Vizir Hakan Shukur Pasha, who holds real power in the Ottoman Empire, in the days of renewed tensions with Kurdistan, Greece, the Hashemites and of the Wuchang Pneumonia pandemic. Osman VI has three sons, Orhan, Abdulahmid and Nurhan, born from 1977 to 1979, who are presently 13th, 14th and 15th in the Ottoman order of succession.
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Ali II
The only head of the House of Osman born in the Far East, where his father had diplomatic duties in Japan, Ali II had a quite uneventful life when he succeeded to the Imperial throne, only aged 87, with no real powers as his Grand Vizier, Hakan Shukur Pasha, held them all under the Constitutions that had followed the Young Turk Revolution in 1908 and the 1971 military coup against Sultan Ahmed IV. His reign saw the conclusion of free trade treaties upon the Dardanelles Straits, the Sixth Ottoman-Kurdish War (2019-2020) and the outbreak of the Wuchang Pneumonia in the Ottoman Empire.
The Japanese Revolution is the result of a long process, but it should be adressed in due time
He is !I assume you're talking about the footballer:
Hakan Şükür - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org