Lunas Legion wrote:Full name of state: Hapsburg-Byzantine Empire
Type of government: Absolutist Monarchy
Capital: Vienna
Head of state: Empress Maria Theresa
Head of government: Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz, Lord Chancellor
General government description: The Emperor, or current Empress, is the sole source of all government policy and is required to approve all legislation. The Emperor/Empress will normally appoint subordinates responsible for running the day to day buisness of the state and suggesting legislation to the monarch.
Territory (map if needed): Unclaimed parts of Charles V's empire as per this:
https://qph.ec.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-971be45c54dc50b384c07cfa1197848c?convert_to_webp=true including colonies
Colonies: Philippines
Population: 25 million (Europe), 450,000 (Asia)
Economic description: The Empire is a predomently agricultural country
Religious description (by class): The Empire is almost entirely Catholic over all class groups in Europe, although there are scattered groups of Jews across the Empire. Most Protestants fled or were killed during the 30 Years War. Outside of Europe only a few civil servants are Catholic with the majority of the population being Islamic, Buddhist or Hindu depending on the colony in question.
Popular ideologies and political beliefs (by class): Upper: Absolutism, Monarchism
Middle: Constitutionalism, Monarchism
Lower: None, most are illiterate and too busy to have ideology
Military description: The Imperial Army is 250,000 strong, split into three main units; the two 75,000-strong Imperial Armies of Spain and Austria-Hungary and the 45,000-strong Imperial Army of the Netherlands. In addition to these three main forces are the 5,000-man Imperial Marine Corps, the 35,000-man Army of Naples and the 15,000-man army of Corsica and Sardinia.
Colonial forces number 10,000, and are normally under the control of and are equipped/trained by local rulers. The Imperial Marine Corps are the only European force usually present in the colonies.
The Imperial Navy is a large, if not well-equipped force, due to the disparate nature of the Imperial possessions and the need to shuttle troops between them by sea due to the possible unreliability of other powers allowing military access.
Strengths and weaknesses of the military:Although large, and well-equipped, the Imperial Armies are only coherent when operating by themselves, and even then coherence is doubtful. The vast array of languages spoken within the Empire makes issuing orders naturally chaotic and difficult, especially when the higher-ranking officers only speak their own native language and German or Spanish, never both unless they are Austrian or Spanish in which case they speak nothing else. The Empire compensates for this via training and discipline, but those can only get you so far past the language barrier.
The Navy, although large, is not well-equipped or trained, and once again suffers from the same issue of the language barrier. However, as most of the navy is Spanish, this is less of an issue than it is for the Army.
General aims: More colonies if possible, hold everything we currently hold.
Foreign Policy: Imperial foreign policy runs on simple logic; find who is the most powerful and who most wants to bring us down, and ally with their enemies, whomever they may be. The sole exception to this rule is if the most powerful state wishes to ally with the Empire, in which case that is standard policy.
History: The history of the Hapsburg-Byzantine Empire begins with the demise of the original Byzantine Empire and the sale of the title to Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella II of Castille despite their failure to conquer Granada. Events proceed as IRL, but the Hapsburgs place far less emphasis on the New World and instead focus on consolidating their power within Europe.
The Empire is on the losing side of both the 80 Years War, losing the Dutch Netherlands and the 30 Years War, ending with Bohemian independence and the Hapsburgs permanently excluded from holding the title of Holy Roman Emperor. The Hapsburgs, affronted, convince the Pope to begin crowning them as 'Emperors of the Byzantine Empire' to create a Catholic empire to balance out the HRE. Since then the Empire has remained static in Europe, preserving it's possessions within Europe whilst eyeing up Portugal and it's colonies.