Germany

Germany, or officially the German Empire (German: Deutsches Kaiserreich)is a country in Central Europe. Its borders are shared to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland, Lithuania and the United Baltic Duchy; to the south by Austria-Hungary and Switzerland; and to the west by the Commune of France, Flanders-Wallonia, and the Netherlands. Through colonial possessions Germany also borders Spain, National France, Liberia, Abyssinia, Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, Oman, South Africa, Portugal, Siam, the Qing Empire(which includes the Allgemeine Ostasiatische Gesellschaft in addition to the warlord territory of the Yunnan Clique), the Fengtien Republic and Australasia.

The German Empire is a constitutional monarchy composed by twenty-eight states, ruled by the Hohenzollern dynasty. The state of Germany was proclaimed on January, 18 1871 in the Hall of Mirrors of Palace of Versailles in the aftermath of the 1871 Franco-Prussian War. As the main victor of the Weltkrieg, Germany controls a vast overseas empire with colonial holdings in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Germany is currently the most powerful country in the world with its influence stretching throughout the world. Germany also leads Mitteleuropa, the alliance and economic union with several Eastern European nations.

Unification
Under the pressure of Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck (better known as the "Iron Chancellor") and in the turmoil of the nationalist awakening in Europe, Germany finally ended with almost one millenium of division between rival monarchies, skilfully kept in place by foreign powers: after having defeated Denmark, Austria-Hungary and France, the German Empire was proclaimed in the palace of Louis XIV, Versailles, on January, 18 1871: uniting all the scattered German-speaking areas (except Austria) under the rule of Germany's first Kaiser, Wilhelm I of Prussia. The new country secured his position as a great nation, forging several alliances in order to diplomatically isolate the defeated France, which, eager to recover Alsace-Lorraine (Elsass-Löthringen); began to establish colonies outside Europe in 1884. Germany mourned her first Kaiser on March, 9 1888; his son, Friedrich III, died of incurable throat cancer only 99 days later. Wilhelm II subsequently acceeded to the throne. Considering Bismarck's foreign policy as too soft, the Kaiser dismissed the Iron Chancellor in 1890, replacing him with more malleable replacements; Bismarck died eight years later.

"A Place under the Sun"
Wilhelm II followed imperialist policies which were mostly fashionable in Europe of these times, obssessed with a dream of a "Place under the Sun" for Germany: claiming much more colonial possessions, and beginning a naval rivalry with Britain on the advices of admiral Alfred von Tirpitz. At the time, many in Germany and elsewhere considered these policies as highly risky and dnagerous - especially as the alliances that Germany concluded before were not renewed, and an isolated Germany (except for an alliance with Austria-Hungary, and a fragile one with Italy) was faced with the Entente Cordiale between Britain and France, which secured ties with Russia. Europe came close to war in 1911 with the Agadir Crisis, when Wilhelm II claimed Morocco for Germany. This crisis, adding to the Kaiser's reputation as an irresponsible firebrand, was defused without a war breaking out - but the outbreak had been merely delayed for a few years. However, as history was soon to show, Wilhelm II's gamble would pay off, he would achieve all his aims and more, and even many of his sharpest critics would be forced to admit as much.

Weltkrieg
Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 and Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia to cease her destabilisation, and Germany backed Austria-Hungary; soon, German Empire found herself at war against France, Britain and Russia. Quickly invading Belgium and Luxembourg, the German advance was stopped at the Marne in 1914, and also in Poland by the weak Russian forces. The war soon became nothing less than a series of indecisive and bloody offensives, the worst of them being the Battle of Verdun in 1916. In 1917, Russia collapsed into Revolution and thousands of soldiers were dismissed from the Eastern Front to the West. In March 1919, after three and a half years of attritional warfare, the German offensive on the Western Front finally succeeded in overrunning the Entente defences. French morale collapsed along with her army against the onslaught as the Reichswehr exploited the breakthrough and marched towards Paris and the Loire valley. As the army collapsed, the exhausted French surrendered and allowed the German army to occupy their proud nation. Following this stunning victory, German troops were rapidly deployed to the existing Italian and Turkish fronts, and forced entry into the lightly defended parts of northwestern Italy. With the arrival of these veteran troops, the Central Powers defeated both the British and Italian armies, restoring Ottoman power in the Middle East and occupying Northern Italy. The war with Britain and the remaining Entente forces overseas dragged on inconclusively until 1921 when a Peace with Honour was secured, ending the Weltkrieg. Even if white peace had been concluded with Japan, Portugal and Britain, France, Belgium, Russia and Italy had almost ceased to exist, and were forced to give their colonial holdings to a victorious Germany.

The Road to Mitteleuropa
Not everything was well within Germany though - 7 years of war had pushed her population to the brink of starvation, German industry stagnated following the war as demand was slashed and the government costs mounted as they were forced to subsidise conversion back to domestic production. The state struggled to feed its population and fought the ever-present danger of inflation that had arisen from printing money to fund the war effort, which continued exist in order to secure the terrible situation in Russia, still in a civil war. In 1924, Grand Admiral von Tirpitz became Reichskanzler and his policies started a golden age of German Weltpolitik, bringing the economy under control through market regulation, subsidising food imports with money gained from reparations and the sale of technology to Germany’s allies and client-states. Tirpitz’s hugely successful regime culminated in the well-executed occupation of British colonial possessions following the outbreak of the British Revolution and the establishment of Freistaat Mittelafrika, created along with the Allgemeine Ostasiatische Gesellschaft in order to reduce the full powers of colonial governors. His only failures were his inability to stop the spread of Syndicalism in Europe, to secure the worsening economic situation, and an intervention in China, which only worsened the situation. However, since the Grand Admiral’s death in 1930 things have been going downhill for Germany. A general slowing of the world economy is decreasing industrial output and national income as other nations recover their manufacturing power, and growing nationalism in Germany’s eastern clients is starting to cause tensions as both populations and governments begin to drift away from the Reich. The Kaiser is getting old, and so is the welfare state put in place by Bismarck himself, and if Germany has never been so powerful, it has never had such heavy burdens either.