So, at long last, here's the second episode to "Rise of Bali". Honestly, I can't believe the events taking place within so few years. Had I known what was to come, I would've continued this story in an instant, I didn't know that within years following 1846, the world would become so eccentric and wild. So, I deeply regret not continuing this story, because little did I know, things were only just getting interesting! And boy, I can't wait to see what happens next...
Unfortunately, I must admit, despite the plot of this story centering around Bali, this chapter actually focuses a lot less on Bali, and much more on Europe. As of the end of this chapter, I am 60% toward westernizing—and that's where Bali will truly begin to "rise". For now, I was just focusing on escaping the uncivilized era, and of course, keeping myself from being invaded.
I truly believe that the events surrounding Bali will make up for this.
Chapter 2 – Meaning of Civil War
The Balinese populace was striving under current leadership. It was true that the Royal Faction aspired to set up a more jingoistic nation that would inevitably result in the death of thousands of beloved husbands and fathers alike. This was without a doubt a very immoral internal policy, but the Royal Faction had a simple, but impenetrable response.
"To ensure the continuing prosperity and freedoms that the Balinese currently enjoy, we must strengthen our borders, both forcibly and diplomatically. Only then will neighboring countries of great power begin to rule out the plausibility of an attack on Balinese soil. Bali is ready to shape itself into a power worth of recognition; but it is along with that shaping that we must bring change to the population as a whole, if we are to survive."
Bali was nowhere near as modernized as their Dutch neighbor. The military of Bali had advanced over the decade to the point where weapons of the renaissance were long abandoned. The Balinese were given matching uniforms and wooden sticks of thunder. No longer would they fight with arrows, but rather, they would fight with musket balls. This was a major change for the Balinese, and with new weaponry, came new strategies.
Prior to these military advancements, the simple island of Bali had successfully invaded and annexed territory once belonging to the tribe of Brunei. No longer is Bali a mere island, they have now expanded their borders into Northern Borneo. Southern Borneo remained under Dutch control. The race for Middle Borneo, unoccupied territory, would soon begin. If Bali had any hopes of taking this sector of land, they would need to become a more civilized nation.
Arguably, though, the annexation of Brunei was for the betterment of all interests. While the island of Bali remains the capital of this slowly expanding nation, Borneo has been used for scientific research. Balinese scientists now study the deadly jungle of Kuching—where more than a thousand Balinese soldiers died during the occupation—for ways to avoid such attrition, along with other scientific studies on plants and wildlife. To the plains in the east, new farming techniques are studied, along with weapon testing. In the former capital village of Brunei, research is done on the villagers and their unique culture. Things that Brunei understood slowly assimilated into Bali's own understanding. Ultimately, Borneo was regarded as a silver mine for research—at least for a nation as uncivilized as Bali.
Bali wasn't the only nation with events surrounding them. All the way in Europe, an illegitimate Italian Republic had formed to the east of Two Sicilies. This country bore a green, white, and yellow version of the Italian flag. All other Italian states—including the Papacy—refused to recognize this as the true Italian nation. This was an Italy formed without a legal title. The original and official title of Italy remained disputed; except for the Republic of Italy, who claims to be the true bearer of the Italian title. This has caused the republic to be hated amongst all other Italian states, leading to the seemingly inevitable result that the republic would soon be destroyed by a coalition of Italian states. But, surprisingly, France decided to recognize the republic as the true Italian state, and thus offered full protection. Of course, with such a powerful ally, the Italian Republic would have to be mad not to consider expanding their borders. Since they claim to hold the true title to Italy, they can legally invade any Italian state they so desire. All of Europe suddenly finds itself wondering, will this be the first modern and completely unified Italy? Or will this republic fall and be looked at as nothing more than a pretender nation?
The Republic of Italy was controlled by the Nationalliberale party—a liberal influenced structure. Their primary rival was the Restaurazionisti (Reactionary/Far right) party of Two Sicilies. Not only was this a rivalry between two countries, but it was also a classic game of ideologies. The Republic of Italy, while indeed liberal, still sought to unify the Italian peninsula. This didn't stop the Restaurazionisti party from plotting against the Italian Republic, though; and in fact, only further promoted the idea that the republic had to be stopped before it could expand.
It was in September of 1846 that the Royal Faction of Bali declared their intention to improve diplomatic relations with the Netherlands. Though already on good terms with one another, the annexation of Bali would fully unify what would, historically, become Indonesia. Still recognizing the extreme power the Dutch could toss at Bali in the event of war, it was clearly within the Balinese favor to continue kissing up to this power. While extensive research continued to flow rapidly throughout the new nation, several diplomats were sent to Dutch Asia to solidify a stronger friendship. This was done with much favorable results.
Unfortunately, for Bali, it was not even a month later that a very troubling event had occurred. Just at the peak of diplomatic relations with the Dutch, it had become public knowledge throughout the world that the Netherlands was adopting many Spanish customs. Schools had begun to teach Spanish, more diplomatic exchanges were made between the Dutch and Spanish, and the two kingdoms even proceeded to rely on one another economically. All in all, however, it was the Dutch alone who expressed their undying respect for the Spanish culture, even to the point where the government of Spain had a say in the Netherlands' decisions. Because of these developments, it was undeniable to all that the Dutch kingdom had been put into Spain's sphere of influence.
As expected, this bond between the Dutch and Spaniards resulted in an alliance. While this was hardly threatening in Europe, it was indeed very threatening to the growing nation of Bali—who was surrounded by Spain and the Netherlands. This made the Dutch threat even more nerve pinching for Bali's Royal Faction—as this meant that Bali could find itself suddenly being attacked by both Dutch colonies and the Spanish Philippines. The only good news for the Royal Faction was that the Netherlands retained good standing relations with Bali, thus establishing that an invasion on their part was unlikely. The same, could not be said for Spain.
On December 22, 1846—a European crisis had occurred. Citizens of Albania, under control by the Ottoman Empire, had raised their criticism of the Empire's control publicly—despite strict laws against freedom of speech. Of course, a population as small as Albania would never be able to rise up in a civil war and achieve independence, however, these citizens were in luck. The empire of Austria had pledged their support for the Albanian crisis, officially challenging the Ottomans with threats, if independence was not granted. Naturally, the Ottomans harshly declined this demand and stood their ground on the crisis—prepared for war over the matter, if absolutely necessary.
Three months of debate stirred between Austria and the Ottoman Empire. Other European great powers chimed in and carefully gathered information to help put together a decision. It was on March 13 that the United Kingdom, led by Queen Victoria, declared that it was wrong to leave a unique culture suppressed under an empire, so they sided with Austria in the heated debate for Albanian independence. At this point, the debate was heavily leaning toward a successful bid for Albanian freedom. Unfortunately, the North German Confederation (pre-German Empire), led by King Frederick William IV, officially sided with the Ottoman Empire with the excuse that Albania was far better off within the Ottoman Empire. Of course, any rational person in this day and age would have recognized the actual reason being that Austria was a major rival of the Confederation, as was the United Kingdom. The North German Confederation sided with the defenders out of biased thinking.
The crisis now included Austria and the United Kingdom against the Ottoman Empire and North German Confederation. The debates held between the four consisted mostly of insults and lectures for two more months. On July 9, 1847, a special conference was held in Paris—courtesy of King Philippe I of France. It was here that Queen Victoria, King William IV, Emperor Ferdinard V (Austrian Empire), and Sultan Abdülmecid I (Ottoman Empire) convened and left with an established white peace. Technically, though considered a 'white peace', this essentially meant that the defenders of the crisis had won, and thus, the Ottomans retained control over Albania.
About an entire year went by of silence throughout the world. Bali continued researching their new territory and even developing more weapons. At this point, they could field a total of 15,000 soldiers—far more than they could during their war with Brunei. Each soldier came equipped with standard issued muskets and uniforms. Though Bali was far from being civilized, they were indeed learning modern fighting techniques. For a country like the Netherlands, however, of whom was mere decades away from developing machine guns, they couldn't help but shake negatively at the lacking military of Bali.
The Balinese had modern weapons, yet, they had no idea how to use them. They fired from the hip, the recoil was sloppy, some soldiers sat on their knees when shooting—rather than standing. The Dutch saw this as pathetic, but as a friend of Bali, offered their immediate services. With an exchange of friendly offers, the Royal Faction of Bali accepted the Dutch offer of military training. May 18 of 1848, the Balinese were left jawdropped as hundreds of Dutch soldiers stepped onto the plains of Borneo.
The Dutch were attired in fancy gray uniforms, unique officer and soldier caps, and very unique types of weaponry. In contrast to the Balinese soldiers, the Dutch appeared futuristic—something that could only be imagined through folklore. For about three months, the Dutch remained in Borneo to teach Bali's greatest generals on how to properly fight. Shoot while standing, crouch to reload; proper weapon maintenance and cleaning; methods of calculating musket ball distance. The Dutch had easily modernized the Balinese understanding of fighting. Within these months, few soldiers of Bali remained that lacked professionalism in this field of warfare. Had it not been for the Netherlands' superior technology, even the Dutch would have had reason to fear Bali. However, this did give countries like Joseon Korea a reason to fret over Balinese expansion. With a little more technological advancements and more bodied armies, Bali could easily pull off a clean invasion of a more advanced Asian nation. The biggest score, of course, would be Japan; but Bali was far off from making this invasion a reality.
Previously, years after the successful United States wars against Mexico for control of several southern states, a breakthrough had occurred for a once minority political party. The Southern Democrats, which would historically go on to create the Confederate States of America. Indeed, though, the Southern Democrats won the election, officially putting heavy damage to the supporters of abolished slavery. Under this leadership, more slave states had formed (namely, Nebraska and New Mexico) and the suppression of opposition to pro-slavery continued heavily. Along with being a fully slave oriented United States, they were also more jingoistic. Fortunately for Mexico, there was an existing peace treaty that would protect them from American aggression until the end of this first term. If lucky, the Southern Democrats would lose in 1852 and resort back to a pacifist nation.
It was a short lived break in Europe, for soon, on January 20 of 1849, a new crisis had been erupted by the North German Confederation. This crisis, however, was clearly fabricated by the Germans in a sly attempt to weaken the Austrian Empire—as the crisis was over the independence of Central Hungary. By removing Hungary from Austria's borders, the empire would be left very vulnerable, as Austrian troops would need to circle around the independent territory in the event of war. Even worse for the Austrians, was that the Ottoman Empire repaid the favor from the previous crisis by immediately pledging their support for Hungarian independence.
Naturally, there was bickering between the three countries. Everyone knew this to be nothing more than a scheme to weaken Austria, but nevertheless, the topic of debate was a justified one. The Hungarian people had for long served under Austria, even through the Holy Roman Empire. Now there was a debate on whether or not to free them.
France aided Austria in this crisis officially on March 5th of 1849, seeing through the German attempt at crippling Austria. Because of the rivalry between France and the United Kingdom, differences were set aside between the British and Germans, and thus, the United Kingdom joined on the North German Confederation's side. Finally, the worst case scenario occurred, as the Russian Empire, led by Emperor Nicholas I, joined Austria's side. The rational decision at this point, for the North German Confederation, would be to surrender the crisis to Austria; but both the United Kingdom and Ottoman Empire insisted on holding their ground. Belgium, the last recognized great power of Europe, looked back and forth between the two sides, but ultimately struggled to choose for many months.
The issue that the North German Confederation faced was an obvious one. Despite having many armies, if the crisis were to become a war, they would be facing France to the west, Austria to the south, and Russia to the east. A three front war that would be logistically impossible to win. Regardless, King William IV of Prussia would continue heavy debates—and even hot threats.
The crisis was set in motion, and the citizens of Prussia—a kingdom comprising of about 80% of the Confederation—were at an understanding that they would easily lose a war against the three major powers. Opposition led to hate, and hate led to one of the greatest rebellions of modern times. In the hot month of August, 1849, over 207,000 Prussians took up arms in open rebellion against William IV. The Prussian rebels convened near the Rhineland, which they immediately began to seize with brute force. The policemen stood no chance against these well armed rebels, and thus, armies of the Confederation were raised to fight off the rebels. The biggest battle was within the city of Frankfurt am Main, where 27,000 rebel soldiers fought against 19,000 loyalists. Ultimately, the rebels won the battle; but hardly.
This civil war, ultimately, proved to be the Confederation's punishment for not ceasing the Hungarian crisis earlier; for now Austria capitalized on the Confederate-Prussian Civil War by closing the crisis—through war.
A shock went through William IV's head, as a latter had been placed on his desk from Austria—a declaration of war in response to the Confederation's aggressive act of installing a loss of stability in the Hungarian provinces. Both the Prussian rebels and German armies were torn down by French armies of great size. Defenders of East Prussia/Poland was easily knocked down by Russian armies, and the Austrians stormed up into North Germany with a tight rope of armies. The United Kingdom offered what support they could in the form of naval fleets, but was ultimately unwilling to lend any soldiers to the Confederation's aid. Mere months into the war, and the outcome was already becoming inevitable.
On October 1st, 1849, an even more significant event had unfolded across the Atlantic. Within the free land of the United States, much aggression had been built up by supporters of the Southern Democrats. Under current leadership, it was believed that any attempt to restore another political party would only harm the country. The Southern Democrat party was doing well, however, there was a general feeling in the population that this should be the official permanent party of the United States. On the first day of October, an incredible amount of 1 million fanatics of the Southern Democrat party took up arms and rushed for the capital. It was the Southern Democrat controlled government against Southern Democrat supporters, the goal of the supporters, was indeed to set up a presidential dictatorship and thus destroy American democracy. This was to be, rightfully, labeled as the American Civil War. Only, it was Dixie vs. Dixie.
By February of 1850—the halfway point of the 19th century, the North German Confederation had officially fallen onto the losing side. East Germany was completely occupied by Russian troops, while the southern parts came under occupation by Austrians. The French had secured the Rhineland. Down in Africa, all of Ottoman controlled Tunisia had been secured by the French, and Russia slowly began to consume northern Turkey. The United Kingdom was next, unless, the citizens had something to say about it...
In the same month that the Confederation quickly began to fall, the United Kingdom had finally been punished rightfully for their many acts of imperialism. The citizens of England, fearing an invasion that would result in mass slaughtering, pillaging, and rape; led to the unanimous decision that England wished to leave the United Kingdom after more than a century. In addition to this, the Scottish and Irish joined in with the revolts. The Scottish and Irish, however, agreed to terms with the English rebels that the immediate independence of all three kingdoms would only result in the long term destabilization of Great Britain as a whole. Thus, an agreement was brokered where the Scottish and Irish would aid the English rebels in securing their own independent kingdom, in which, the English would eventually repay the favor by aiding Scotland and Ireland in independence. This civil war was easily favoring the English rebels, and unless foreign support was given, Queen Victoria would need to pray for a miracle to contain England within the empire. If the rebels were to succeed, and thus leave only Scotland and Ireland in the empire, the collapse of the United Kingdom as a whole was inevitable.
Meanwhile, as chaos ensues literally everywhere but Asia, Bali runs into their own massive change of scenery. The Royal Faction, the long existing right-wing party of Bali, had for long served as the working party that led to the expansion of Bali and many more great things. However, it had soon become evident to the party members that warfare, simply, wasn't on the bucket list at the moment. There was no immediate need for a strong military, despite claims made only mere years ago. What Bali desperately needed was change. And thus, on April 6, 1850; the Royal Faction had ceased to exist in place of a reformed party—the Liberal Faction.
Under liberal leadership, the goal for Bali is to make advancements much faster. While it is still mandatory that a heavy focus be put on the military, a slightly bigger focus now exists on industrializing the nation and improving the education system. With work, possibly, Bali could find itself advancing greatly within the next few years.
The American Civil War raged on, the rebels had seized much of the east, including Washington DC. Though government forces put up a fair fight, not even all the great powers in Europe combined could possibly put up against a strong million rebel soldiers. There was no hope for the preservation of American democracy. All the work once put into writing the U.S. constitution, the men who died against the British trying to create a free country, the concept of freedom of belief... all of this in vain as the elected president of the Southern Democrats and congress surrendered to the rebels. The American Civil War ended on May 8, 1850, and a new Southern Democrat had been installed into the White House following the destruction of congress.
No longer would the citizens have the freedom to vote, on this day, the United States had become a Southern Democrat dictatorship—a single party state.
At this point, two massive revolutions had been taking place successfully. One in the United States, the other in England. The Prussian revolution in the North German Confederation had summarily been destroyed by the French during the crisis war. It was evident that the United States would be looking at darker times, especially for the slaves of the United States—who were now under dictator control by pro-slaves.
Simply to stir up more conflict in the already chaotic world, in June of 1850, the Italian Republic had finally decided to invade Two Sicilies—seeing as to how all the other great powers were preoccupied. Ultimately, this war would bring the soldiers of Italy down to Sicily, where they would fight a few armies without a struggle and occupy the southern land.
As the entire world suddenly found itself at war with someone, a fourth major civil war was to unfold. In July of 1850, Zapatistan rebels swarmed Mexico, seeking to replace Mexico with a new type of Mexican nation under the title of "Zapatist". Surprisingly, unlike all the other big revolts, this was the only one of the four that didn't fall in immediate favor of the rebels. Zapatistans and Mexicans fought very evenly matched battles, despite the many occupations that the rebels had immediately succeeded in. But little did both the rebels and Mexicans know, this was quite possibly the worst time possible for a fight.
Two months following the Mexican revolt, the new USA dictatorship declares war on Mexico with the intent of seizing Arizona—the last state in the way of a unified United States of America. On this same date, the Italian Republic had defeated Two Sicilies, thus adding the provinces of Sicily to the republic. This war easily demonstrated the superior power that the Italian Republic had over all Italian states, leaving no one confident enough to threaten the pretender republic.
Finally, almost 4 years after the start of the Hungarian crisis, the North German Confederation is forced to surrender. As punishment for the provoked crisis, the Confederation was forced to cede Schlesien to Austria—the most south-eastern part of the Confederation. This was a very humiliating defeat for the German people, and of course, would burn the message into the Confederation not to enter a conflict with three countries from different directions. This was merely the Confederation's punishment, however; as for the United Kingdom, trouble continued to develop.
The English rebels, even with the conclusion of the war they sought to avoid, decided to press on with their invasion and finish what they started. By October of 1851, all of half of England and all of Northumbria had been occupied by the rebels. This disconnected the loyalists from Scotland, and thus left the United Kingdom in grave danger of losing the war. It was during this conflict that the USA also defeated Mexico with ease, also indirectly helping Mexico by destroying Zapatistan armies. Queen Victoria, even with the rebels slowly dismantling the United Kingdom, decided to do something fairly idiotic.
Even with England half controlled, and Northumbria completely occupied; the United Kingdom addressed the Polish distress call for independence, and started yet another crisis. The United Kingdom was immediately backed by the North German Confederation and and Sweden—a new great power. This was, possibly, a desperate attempt to acquire strong allies that would come and fight off the English rebels. But alas, Queen Victoria heavily underestimated the strength of the Russian Empire after such a recent grand war.
On October 1852, the Russian Federation threw all negotiations off the table and declared war. Emperor Nicholas I of Russia could only label such a crisis as, "A clear demonstration of aristocratic imperialism." The North German Confederation and Sweden, respectively, were the primary offenders of this war. To the surprise and dismay of Queen Victoria, Russia was well prepared. Soldiers stormed in from both Germany and Scandinavia, leaving not a single Swedish or German army standing. This established, to Victoria's great disappointment, that there was not a shred of hope for the continued employment of England in the United Kingdom. If she didn't act fast and make a rational decision, she could soon lose everything—including her life.
February 12, 1853—almost 150 years after the establishment of Great Britain—the kingdom of England had left. Queen Victoria had been stripped of her England title and sent north into Scotland, no longer possessing any control over Wales and England. The United Kingdom had now been transformed into Scotland, Ireland, and India. Of course, it was inevitable that this was truly the beginning of the end for the United Kingdom. Without England to supply so many soldiers, there was no way Scotland, India, and Ireland would stay loyal. It was time for an ultimate reformation of the British crown, or lose it all...
By October of 1853, Russia had torn through the German and Scandinavian nation like butter. Despite the many desperate attempts for peace on the losing side, the Russian Emperor was unmerciful. He felt as though the German nation would never learn to stay out of Russia's business, until physically beat a second time. This meant, Russia was prepared to occupy all of the Confederation and cripple their economy. If this didn't tame the German nation, nothing would. But this wasn't the only major event to occur, for in the same month, hope had come in the form of another rebellion in the United States. 800,000+ Southern Democrats had formed in the Midwest, most of which were the same soldiers who took part in forming this dictatorship. Now, everyone understood the wrongdoing of their past actions. Perhaps the Southern Democrat party was getting things done, but regardless, abolishing democracy was the biggest mistake ever made. Now it was time to make up for past mistakes and restore democracy. And fortunately, it would seem as though the government, again, stood little of a chance against the massive wall of rebels.
Finally, in that same month, back in Bali, an explosive discovery had been made. Through much studying of foreign cultures, specifically, the Netherlands; the first draft of a factory had been created and commissioned in the island of Bali. The factory would create fabric, something well desired throughout Asia. This, was an opportunity Bali had to get right. If they could create a fabric factory, they could monopolize their products throughout all of Asia—including China. This was truly a major step toward westernization, and above all, a major economic opportunity.
March of 1854 brought glorious news to the United States. The White House had never been touched, yet, the dictatorship of the United States raised their white flags in defeat and fled. Hardly anyone had died, and officially, democracy had returned to the United States. However, there was indeed a large change. Rather than having an election every four years in November, from this day on, the United States election would be held in August. The Southern Democrats remained in control for a new term of four years, but little did they know, they had yet to fully escape rebellion. For in secrecy, an underground organization called the Confederate States of America (CSA) plotted to secede from the union. The leader, was Jefferson Davis, a man seeking a new type of America. The question was, with a country already supporting slavery—what more could Davis possibly want?
One year later, Russia completed their grand conquest of Sweden and the Confederation. The United Kingdom, as always, got off scotch free—despite this being their war. But the United Kingdom did have one sly trick up their sleeve...
Following the end of the Polish Crisis War, the Republic of Italy had conquered much more of the Italian peninsula—this time annexing the Italian state of Tuscany. Still, through very opportune moments where all the great powers were distracted, the republic had succeeded greatly in conquering land without consequences. Now, the Italian Republic owned a good majority of the land where they could officially declare themselves the true Italian country. Regardless of whether they're the real Italy or not, soon, there'd be no doubting this, as they'd own all of Italy.
As if the North German Confederation hadn't been humiliated enough over the past few wars, the greatest humiliation of all had suddenly occurred. While trying desperately to find ways to reestablish a working German army and fix the now shattered economy, with a headache, King William IV of Prussia returned to his desk one day, then was presented with a troubling ultimatum from the lovely Austrian Empire. The content of the letter was humiliating and unbelievable. A demand, to usurp the title of Prussia itself, or face another Austrian invasion. The kingdom of Prussia made up 80% of the North German Confederation, by handing over the title of Prussia to the Austrians, King William IV would officially lose his title. He wouldn't lose the North German Confederation, simply, because he still held the title to it. Rather than being known as King William IV of Prussia, he would need to be referred as to 'chancellor', and not a 'king'.
Facing a war they would never win, given Russia's recent beating; William IV had no choice but to accept. He surrendered the title of Prussia over to Austria. But most humiliating of all was what happened to the title. The kingdom of Prussia had been established an independent nation once more, with its new territory taking place in Schlesien—the same land Austria seized from the Confederation in the first crisis war. Indeed, Prussia existed once more outside of the Confederation; weak, but alive, nevertheless. The new question was whether Austria would aid Prussia in acquiring more land in the coming years, or if the revived Prussian nation would be returned to the Confederation through forcible means. Either way, William IV was shamed and irate at the situation. All hopes of one day forming Germany was now slowly falling out of reach.
Finally, in December of 1856, Queen Victoria pulled off her latest stunt. She, as ridiculous as this was, started a new crisis up against Russia. It was a risky move, but hopefully, would weaken the Russian Empire and give the United Kingdom a new ally, if successful. The crisis was over the Baltic nation of Latvia's independence. Naturally, no nation stood ready to side with the United Kingdom. Of all the countries, it was the North German Confederation that wanted no part in this crisis. However, to the surprise of all, Queen Victoria's plan had worked perfectly.
The Russian Emperor recognized that the United Kingdom had no war attrition, many ships, and many soldiers; while Russia had little ships, a bad economy, and too many casualties from the last war. Russia knew this war couldn't possibly go in their favor and would only result in more than Latvia being freed from the empire. Without hesitation, that same month the crisis started, the Russian Empire accepted the British terms and acknowledge Latvian independence. This put the monarchy of Latvia on the map, free, and a loyal ally of the United Kingdom—exactly the kind of ally they needed, if they were to reclaim England...
Finally, years after commissioning it, the very first fabric factory of Bali had been constructed. A ribbon was cut, the machinery powered on, and the polluting smoke stacks of industry turned on. Citizens crowded the massive structure excitedly. For the Liberal Faction, this was a true demonstration of what they could bring the people—change. But... there was an issue. Not even a week after opening the factory, it was closed... as not a single citizen in Bali had a clue how to work the machinery. It was a sad day, but fortunately, the factory would always be there. Given enough time, hopefully, the Balinese would learn how to operate the machinery and bring great fortune to the rising nation.
The official end of the 1850s brought one last surprise to Europe—especially Austria. Yet, another, crisis had formed in 1858. Surprisingly, it was the North German Confederation, seeking revenge on the Austrian Empire. They had kick started a fired up debate to have Bohemia freed, which bordered the Confederation. If this was successfully done, the Confederation could place Bohemia into their own borders, either diplomatically or forcibly. This, truly, was revenge for stripping Prussia away from the Confederation. Austria remained brave, even after spotting so many armies placed on their borders—mere conscripts, but enough to easily defeat the Austrians. But alas, the Russian Empire immediately jumped in on Austria's side. And so, King William IV found himself face planted over his desk yet again, as he officially had to back out of the crisis and retreat from Austria's border. A month of laughter ensued all across Europe at the incompetence of the German people. But rest assured, come the 1860s, Europe would see a reformation of the German people. They were in a bad spot, but like always, destined to make a full comeback...
And it was on 1860 that Bali successfully researched something of great significance—railroads. The concept was new, but indeed, trains were on their way into the two islands of Bali, which would eventually allow fast transportation of soldiers and citizens alike. Though the factory was an initial bust, the railroads would make up for this. The transition from dirt and stone paths to wooden railroads was a major step in westernizing; and it was at this moment; Bali could proudly identify themselves as a nation more than half way through in their journey of westernizing. Come 10 more years or less, no doubt, Bali would become one of the strongest nations in Asia—below China, Japan, and Dai Nam.
But of all the places in the world affected, the United States was undoubtedly on a road to disaster. The country remained Southern Democrat after all these years, and the constant harsh suppression was taking its toll. The completely bizarre fact of the matter, was that 50.6% of all African slaves in the United States had become communists... 24.5% of these slaves, supported slavery. Not only was there trouble brewing between the white population of the United States, but even the black population could soon find themselves fighting one another over an unimaginable topic. Whether or not slavery should stay or go, it was only natural that 90-98% of slaves support its abolishment, but for whatever the reason, a quarter percentage was in support of slavery. This, was truly wrong, and truly said something about the mess of a country the citizens of the U.S. had created...
To be continued...