Dahyan wrote:Finished my applicationFull Nation Name : Commune Republic of France / Republique des Communes de France
Majority/Official Culture : French, Breton, Basque
Territorial Core : France, France Antarctique (Brazilian possessions), New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna, Clipperton
Territorial Claim : /
Capital City : Paris
Population : 45 million
Government Type : Federal Socialist Syndicalist Republic
Government Ideology/Policies : Jacobinism, Marxism, Syndicalism
Government Focus: Expanding the economy while keeping to strict Socialist principles, military modernisation, expanding relationships with friendly nations
Head of State : Paul Lafargue
Head of Government : The RCF has no Prime Minister function, as the head of government and head of state are one and the same. The second most powerful function in France is that of the Chairman of the National Convention, which is currently Jule Guesde
Government Description :
The Commune Republic of France is a Socialist and Syndicalist federal republic composed of the 36,000 communes of France, and ruled by a dual structure, with the legislative powers concentrated in the National Convention (French: Convention Nationale) and executive powers in the hands of the Committee of Public Safety (French: Comité de Salut Public).
The Commune Republic of France is of a primarily Syndicalist construction, based around federated union organizations which emphasize worker control on an industry-by-industry basis. The RCF is, in fact, a federation of major cities, such as Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux and Toulouse, each one ruled by a Commune, which is directly elected by the citizens of the regional area. The task of the Commune is to manage not only the general affairs of local government but also local military arrangements in the form of the popular militia.
Supreme state executive power is concentrated in the Committee of Public Safety (Comité de Salut Public or CSP), which has ultimate authority over national issues. The Committee is elected by the National Convention and from amongst its members. The CSP takes decisions at the national level, "uniting the efforts of the Communes", directing foreign affairs and organising Armed Forces. It too is elected by the general populace, though on the position basis that they must secure the support of a regional Committee, and be elected into the National Convention. The Committee of Public Safety is led by a Chairman, which is the highest function in the country, and effectively the head of state.
The National Convention is the supreme legislative authority in France. The Convention meets regularly to vote laws, discuss actual events and decide the general course of the nation. The Convention is led by the Chairman of the National Convention, who is generally regarded as the second most powerful man in France, only just below the Chairman. The National Convention is elected every five years through universal suffrage of both the male and female population above the age of 21, and has 745 seats which are currently divided amongst Jacobins, Syndicalists and Radical Democrats.
Majority/State Religion : The Cult of the Supreme Being is the official state religion. Catholicism and Huguenot Protestantism are major religions within France as well.
Religious Description : The Cult of the Supreme Being is a monotheistic religious and philosophical system founded after the French Revolution by Maximilien Robespierre, which emphasises reason and virtue.
Economic Ideologies : Communism, Syndicalism, Protectionism, Mercantilism
Major Production : Steel, iron, coal, wine, cheese (French heartland) ; Sugar and sugarcane, coffee, timber (Brazil)
Economic Description : The economy is strictly controlled by governmental policies and local councils of workers and merchants. Imports and exports are regulated by a modern system of mercantilism, with all being munitiously recorded and taxed by the state.
Since the Revolution, the French government has heavily emphasised industrialisation, with steel industry and coal mining some of the important sectors.
Development: Modern
Development Description : Agriculture remains a very important sector in French economy, concentrated mostly on wheat farms and vineyards. In the northern and southern coastline, fishing is still an important source of income and sustenance. Iron and coal mining take place particularly in the eastern regions.
France has a highly developed industrial capacity, mostly in steel production. Continental France has a very modern infrastructure for the time, particularly in terms of railroads.
Army Description : The French army maintains an organisation calling back to the time of the highly successful Field Marshal Napoleon Bonaparte.
It is subdivided into several Corps, each numbering anywhere between 10,000 to 50,000 troops, with the average size being around 20,000 to 30,000 troops. These Corps d'Armée are self-contained, smaller armies of combined arms, consisting of elements from all the forces.
While capable of fully independent operations and of defending themselves until reinforced, the Corps usually work in close concert together and keep within a day's marching distance of one another. The Corps often follow separate routes during war, and are small enough to live by foraging, allowing fewer supplies to be carried.
A Corps, depending on its size and the importance of its mission, is commanded by a Marshal or Général de Division (Major General).
The main tactical units of the Corps are the divisions, usually consisting of 4,000 to 10,000 infantry or 2,000 to 4,000 cavalrymen. These in turn are made up of two or three brigades of two regiments, and are supported by an artillery brigade of three or four batteries, each with six field cannons and two howitzers, making 24 to 32 guns in all. The divisions are also permanent administrative and operational units, commanded by a Général de Division and likewise capable of independent actions if Corps are broken up.
The Army consists of infantry, artillery and cavalry units, with especially the artillery considered somewhat of the backbone of the Army."
Infantry forces are usually subdivided between Fusiliers and Chasseurs, with the latter being light infantry. Senior infantry forces are promoted to either the Grenadiers (for promoted Fusiliers) or Voltigeurs (promoted Chasseurs). Zouave light infantry units are also used, usually consisting of foreign volunteers.
The French cavalry, often considered somewhat old-fashioned and superfluous in modern times, consists mainly of hussars, lancers and dragoons. Heavily-armoured Cuirassiers are still in service, but are only used for ceremonial purposes.
French artillery is considered amongst the top of the world, and is kept up to date by domestic French weapon production and strategic imports, ensuring that the cannon, howitzers and mortars are state of the art.
Army Weakness : Aside from the artillery, not all parts of the French military are up to date. Particularly the infantry, notable for its colourful blue and red uniforms, is somewhat lacking in modern equipment and strategies.
Naval Description : In the last few decades, the French Navy has evolved from being a more or less underdeveloped wing of the armed forces, to becoming a respectable and efficient modern force.
The bulk of the Navy consists of small, relatively cheap by highly reliable and maneuverable torpedo boats, of which several dozen are in active service. Long-range commerce raiders havr often been used in conflict, often being independent privateers that work for France through letters of marque.
Since the 1860s, France has bene developing submarine technology, having a total of five of these vessels in service at the moment. The French Navy maintains a total of six armoured cruisers, ten steel-hulled warships and a dozen, be it relatively old-fashioned, ironclad vessels.
Naval Weakness : Aside from the submarines and armoured cruisers, much of France's naval forces lack in powerful big vessels of a modern type. This is partially compensated by am emphasis on fast-paced torpedo boat warfare, but still could mean a weakness in large-scale naval battles.
Further Military Description : Through the "levée en masse" doctrine, which dates back to the French Revolution, every man and woman in France is considered a reservist for active service in case of emergency. All adults are required to fulfill one year of active military service, and even after conscription ends everyone must return for obligatory military training one week a year up until the age of 60.
Weapon depots are scattered around the country with orders to distribute arms in case of an invasion of the nation.
National Goals : Establish international cooperation with fellow-minded Socialist and similar nations
National Issues : Need for further military modernisation
National Figures of Interest : /
National Ambition/Aspirations : /
History :
Prior to 1789, the history of France remains much the same, aside from difference ensuing from the history of other nations in the RP, such as the extensive French colonisation in South America.
1789: Following years of growing dissatisfaction with absolutist rule, high and unfairly distributed taxes, returning famines and food shortages, and heavy-handed repression, the people of France rise up against King Louis XVI by storming the Bastille Prison on July 14. The absolute monarchy is toppled and replaced initially by a constitutional monarchy. Feudalism is abolished and a National Constituent Assembly is appointed. In August, the Assembly passes The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, thus ensuring fundamental rights for every citizen. However, most of the economic demands made by the bulk of the revolutionary movement, particularly the farmers and labourers who requested land redistribution and democratic control over the workplace, are ignored.
Counterrevolutionary insurrection breaks out, led by nobles and reactionary clergy, in the Vendee and in Bretagne. The rather lax and ineffective response to this by the Assembly, combined with the continued power concentration in the hands of the nobility and wealthy landowners, cause resentment amongst the lower classes to continue.
1791: Enraged at the loss of his absolute power, Louis XVI and his family attempt to flee the country in June, in order to lead the counterrevolution. They are swiftly caught and returned to Paris, where the population is seething in anger at this betrayal of the country.
The National Constituant Assembly finishes the draft of the very first Constitution of France by September, which Louis XVI eventually accepts and signs. The constitutional monarchy is proclaimed officially, much to the dismay of the commoners, and the Constituant Assembly is dissolved.
In October, elections are held by means of census suffrage for the Legislative Assembly.
1792: Enraged at the continued rule of the king, the concentration of power in the hands of the aristocracy and wealthy bourgeoisie and increasingly obvious links between the king and counterrevolutionary activity across the country, a large group of sans-culottes, popular militias, farmers, urban poor and radical revolutionaries led by the Paris Commune, stormed the Tuileries Palace, where Louis XVI was residing. The king's royal bodyguard was decimated and the royal family imprisoned.
All across the country, revolutionary communes were founded, forming popular militias to fight the counterrevolutionary forces, storm noble residences and redistribute land and wealth amongst the people.
An emergency session by the Assembly declared the king deposed from power and called for new elections by universal male suffrage. On September 21, the newly elected National Convention assembled for the first time, proclaiming France to be a Republic. The National Convention is dominated by members of the Jacobi Party, a radical revolutionary movement.
In the course of the infighting prior to the establishment of the Convention
, France had lost nearly all of its colonial possessions in Latin America, with the government in Paris nearly wolly incapable of sending any aid to the Viceroyalties. Only the coastal regions of Brazil remain under French control, aided by the Convention's declaration of far-reaching autonomy for its inhabitants.
September 22, the first day after the proclamation of the Republic, is declared Day One of Year One in the new revolutionary calendar.
1793: Louis XVI and his wife Marie-Antoinette are sentenced to death for high treason, and executed by guillotine.
The first session of the Comité de Salut Public is held, after the Convention passes a law declaring the CSP a supreme executive authority. Revolutionary leader Maximilian Robespierre is elected Chairman of the Comité, and as such France's first elected head of state.
Under the leadership of influential Jacobin leaders such as Robespierre, Jean-Paul Marat, Jacques Roux, Louis-Antoine de Saint-Just and François-Noël Babeuf, the revolution kicks into the next gear. Land redistribution, small-scale collectivisation and nationalisation are implemented, and counterrevolutionary elements are ruthlessly dealt with.
1794: Counterrevolutionary agitators within the Convention, led by the so-called Thermidorian movement, attempt to overthrow the Jacobin leadership. The coup attempt fails, and the would-be usurpers led by Paul Barras are executed. In response to the events, the Convention is cleansed of reactionary elements, and new elections are held which see a major victory for the Jacobins and their allies.
1795: Under the leadership of the young, ambitious and highly skilled General Napoleon Bonaparte, the French army is completely overhauled and put through rapid modernisation. The military changes implemented by the Corsican General still form the basis for the French army today. Bonaparte is named Commander in Chief of the the Revolutionary Armed Forces, and starts a highly successful campaign against royalists, counterrevolutionary forces and foreign invaders that will last for several years.
1798: Napoleon Bonaparte deals a crushing defeat to the last remnants of counterrevolutionary forces, and is elevated to the post of Field Marshal at the age of only 29, in recognition for his services to the Republic.
1799: In the last act of the outgoing National Convention of 1794-1799, the legislative body passes a law on female suffrage, making France one of the first nations in the world to extend the vote to women.
1814: Philippe Buonarroti, well-known Socialist political activist and prolific writer, is elected Chairman of the Comité de Salut Public. Under his guidance, the the country accelerates its path towards Socialism and collectivism.
1821: The National Convention passes legislation renaming the nation into the Republique des Communes de France (Commune Republic of France) in order to reflect its highly decentralised system of governance emphasising the power of local councils, communes and trade unions.
1843: German-born philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist and socialist revolutionary Karl Marx moves to Paris, and quickly becomes a highly regarded and influential figure in French politics.
1844: Karl Marx meets fellow German philosopher, historian, journalist, sociologist and political activist Friedrich Engels in Paris.
1848: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto, which quickly becomes a huge success across France and gains the attention of the revolutionary government itself. The coming decades see an ever increasing influence of Marxist thought in the political and economic system of France.
1849: Louis-Auguste Blanqui is elected Chairman of the Comité de Salut Public, making the country take a more radically egalitarian approach
1864: The International Workingmen's Association is founded in Paris, as an international organisation of Socialist and Syndicalist movements worldwide, headquartered in Paris
1869: Up and coming revolutionary Marxist and socialist journalist, literary critic, political writer and activist Paul Lafargue, who is a frequent visitor and avid supporter of Karl Marx as well as his son-in-law through marriage to Marx' daughter Jenny Laura Marx, is elected into the National Convention by the Paris Commune.
Édouard Vaillant is elected Chairman of the Comité de Salut Public. Under his guidance, the syndicalist movement gains even more traction, making trade unions such as the CGT some of the most powerful organisations in the country.
1884: Paul Lafargue is elected Chairman of the Comité de Salut Public
RP Sample: [[Either a link to a past post, or an example written right here.]]
#AltDiv (do not delete this, it's for keeping track of the apps)
Hey I'm playing Japan and I just wanted to let you know that the maps were not quite updated so unfortunately I claim New Caledonia. I hope this won't be too much of an issue, but let me know if you want to work something out.
