Europe 1890

Europe 1890 (2014 - ) is an online geo-political human moderated simulation game ran by Admin (also known as Bearcat/BC) with the assistance of Admin-D. Europe 1890 attempts to recreate the historical era, and the waltz of Powers, with an emphasis on what might actually have happened… if it happened differently. The Europe 1890 world is ahistorical at the start only in the outcome of the American Civil War, as the game carries on with the results of ACW5 (a Confederate victory and a divided Union).

Description
Like other games in the Europe series, Europe 1890 places emphasis not on roleplaying characters, like the American Civil War or Scotland series, but on the steering of nations and empires through the tumulted late 19th and early 20th centuries, the age of high imperialism and the apogee of the European states. This specific game is a departure from previous itinerations in that it starts from an ahistorical context, the victory of the Confederate States of America over the United States of America in the American Civil War, as defined in ACW5. The main divergences from real life is the existance of a new nation in North America, the Confederate States of America which is composed de jure by 13 states and the Empire of Mexico which has survived to the present day under the rule of Emperor Maximilian I with the tacit support of the Second French Empire first and the Third French Republic second after the birth of the latter in the fallout of the Franco-Prussian War.

Prologue
On the eve of the game starting, Admin posted the following Prologue detailing the changes compared to the same real life period:

December 31, 1889

''On the eve of the beginning of the last decade of the 19th century, Europe is still ascending towards its apogee of global power and influence, aided by steam and cordite. Africa is yielding its ancient secrets, and hidden resources. The great empires of the East, once dominant and far superior to the weak European states prone to constant infighting, struggle to avoid yielding to Western power by cautiously adopting Western reforms and technology.''

''Many great questions of the 19th century have been resolved; others have yet to be answered. Slavery, legal in most countries at the start of the 19th century, was ended de facto in the Confederate States in the late 1870s and early 1880s, and completely in Brazil in 1889; it died from changing economic factors rendering the peculiar institution unprofitable, rather than any great engine of social reform.''

''Indeed, one of the questions still unresolved is the exact situation in the Western Hemisphere, once arrogantly declared off limits to European meddling by Mr. Monroe. The United States remains the preeminent power in the Americas, with a rapidly growing industrial base, but the trauma of the Secession War (or Second War of Independence, as known in the South) has left its mark, physically and intangibly. The Capitol dome is still unfinished, with the hasty repairs from the late 1860s still covering holes from Confederate mortar shells. Deep inveterate animosity between North and South resulted from the burning of Washington; the Union refused to recognize the Confederacy as a political entity until 1871, and the two did not exchange ambassadors until 1880. Trade always remained open on the Mississippi River, but the river is stockaded by fortress complexes. Similarly, on the Potomac, the hills of Arlington have been a Confederate citadel for two and a half decades. On both sides of the river-border, modern fortresses designed by Belgian and French engineers have been built at great expense, but none since the last were completed in 1882. Only half of them have received their artillery, since relations have thawed and the expense has been hotly debated in the Congresses of Washington and Richmond.''

''Maryland and Kentucky, both ceded to the Confederacy, were never formally admitted; pro-Union militias in Kentucky seized control of the state government and began ten years of Kansas-style bloodshed. The issue is still not entirely addressed. Maryland, too, did not go happily into the Confederacy, nor did she stay. In the largest contention between US and CS post-war, Federal armies did not evacuate Maryland and the state voted, in the State Assembly and by popular vote, to remain Union. Jefferson Davis was prepared to call up armies from the states again, but a French foray into Texas in 1866 distracted the South and so the Potomac became the national border in the East. Northern attempts to move the capital to New York or Philadelphia were not successful, mostly at the insistence of President Banks, who "will not abandon this City, not then and not now." The Confederacy extended to New Mexico, but was deprived a Pacific port by California, which remained firmly Union thanks to the presence of Federal troops and forts, capably putting down pro-Confederate militias and destroying secessionist sentiments.''

''Without cheap Southern cotton to fuel Northern textile mills and the loss of revenues generated by Southern consumers buying expensive foreign goods and paying the tariff or buying tariff-protected Northern goods, the Union faced a massive financial crisis from 1863-1885. The rising Northern industry was not competitive with Europe without the tariff, there were six million Southerners no longer buying Northern goods, and the Union was deeply in debt. High unemployment and high taxes followed, with schisms between the "Corn States" and the "Factory Cities." By 1885, most of the debts had been paid and Greenbacks largely removed from circulation, and Northern industry had painfully figured out how to produce goods that were competitive on the global market.''

''The Confederacy, also heavily in debt, quickly flooded the market with cheap cotton. For about a decade, from 1865-1875, the Southern Confederacy enjoyed a renaissance, the height of the power, splendor, and wealth of the plantation aristocracy. Most improvements to Confederate infrastructure and the beginnings of a modern Confederate Navy occurred at this time, even though Government revenues were extremely low. It did not last, however, as the introduction of new agricultural methods and the advent of the global market meant that cotton in Egypt and India, produced with (cheaply) paid labor, became much cheaper than Confederate slave cotton. Slavery remains technically legal in 1890, but the institution was virtually dead in practice except for domestics and a handful of skilled artisans. The tangible dollar value of unskilled field slaves plummeted; over a million were freed in 1874-1875 alone and a sharecropping scheme promoted by the government failed. The United States passed a law banning negro immigration in 1876. Half a million would be cruelly deported "back" to Africa, or to Haiti, where they were almost literally dumped on the beaches of hostile, distant lands and told to make new lives for themselves. The remainder, nominally "free" and transformed from slave laborer whose food, clothing, and shelter was provided by the owner to a free market individual, suffered the same plight that the Irish experienced in the North. Wages never covered expenses, contracts forced the laborers into a version of semi-slavery, but the great plantations never recovered their lucrative profitability. Texas has threatened to secede twice. In 1888, an English traveler wrote that "the Confederacy greatly resembles the steppes of Czarist Russia: they are both massive parcels of land, hopelessly agrarian serfdoms clinging to past dreams of glory and greatness, and anachronisms in our modern world."''

''The Confederacy was also economically "enslaved" to England and, to a lesser extent, France. Burgeoning industrial centers in New Orleans, Georgia, and the Carolinas were made possible with European investment. France increasingly relied upon Confederate ports as a base of operation for the Mexican Intervention. Napoleon III, who recognized the Confederacy and whose shipyards had built several powerful ironclads 1862-1864 for the CS Navy, exerted leverage to ensure Confederate recognition of Maximilian's imperial regime and used the ironclads of the CS Navy as a proxy to prevent the Union from enforcing the Monroe Doctrine with the still-potent US fleet. Ultimately, Juarez was captured and shot in 1865. A quarter century later, the French Navy retains ports in Veracruz and Acapulco. The Emperor Maximilian is nearly 60 and in declining health, and revolutionary sentiment in Mexico grows; the Emperor's adopted heir is unpopular.''

''In the mid-1880s, the United States returned to industrial productivity with sustainable profit and benefited from a surplus of labor. The Monroe Doctrine had never been officially abandoned, in spite of the French client-state in Mexico. The US Government issued formal warnings to European powers against using military force to extract debt payments from Central and Southern American states, and the US commercial fleet has experienced a recent boom. In 1888, Congress authorized a large naval expansion program as the US Government began reasserting itself as the principle power of the Western Hemisphere. This was motivated at least partially by rumors of possible German intervention in Venezuela, discussions over the fate of the Danish West Indies and Dutch Antilles, and oft-proposed French-Mexican "reclamation" of Louisiana and New Orleans from the Confederate States. Perceiving the Confederacy to be the weaker, the US Government quietly determined to treat the Confederacy like any other Western Hemisphere nation, and enforce a "hands off" policy. This pragmatic approach was taken to prevent France, or other European powers, from growing stronger in the Americas at the expense of the Confederacy. So far, the policy has not been tested....''

Available countries
Unlike previous games of Europe, the Balkan countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Serbia) have not been made available, instead three new nations were added (Confederate States of America, Qing China and the United States of America). As part of an administrative desire to "refresh" the ranks of player nation leaders, a concerned effort was made to pick hitherto newcomers to the Europe series as the countries Czars, Emperors, Kings, Presidents and Prime Ministers.

At the start of the game, the player roster was as follows:
 * Germany
 * Foote aka Company
 * Lincoln aka Lancaster
 * Tirpitz aka Flanyboy
 * Britain
 * Don C. Buell aka Minto
 * Burnside aka Narg
 * France
 * Butler aka Lacroix
 * Magruder aka Terransteel
 * Polk aka glhf


 * Russia
 * Jefferson Davis aka Phalanx
 * Thomas J. Jackson aka LeQCLibre
 * George McClellan aka Blackhawk aka kdfsjljklgjfg
 * Austria
 * Franz Joseph I
 * Lovell aka Qichiwa
 * Italy
 * Wise
 * Buckner
 * Tilghman aka Yanks
 * Ottomans
 * Don Carlos Buell
 * Bragg aka bTkLm
 * Blucher
 * Spain
 * Schurz
 * Castaños
 * Japan
 * Delta Force
 * JEJ aka BZ
 * Mallory aka Polski
 * Confederate States of America
 * Lee aka RabidXdog
 * Van Dorn aka Tunisgrad
 * United States of America
 * Partofla
 * Banks aka Azunti
 * Welles aka Terrus
 * Qing China
 * Dowager Empress

January
7th - Samoan Civil War

February
19th - Tonga Incident

26th - Hawaii Incident

March
3rd - Franco-British Crisis of 1890

May
12th - Kentucky Uprising

June
4th - Anglo Portuguese War of 1890 - British Empire Declares War on Portugal

July
2nd - Anglo Portuguese War of 1890 - Treaty of London Signed

12th - British Parliament Dissolved

October
30th - Lord Salisbury's Government Ousted (British Empire)

November
3rd - Liberal Coalition Government Formed under Gladstone as PM (British Empire)