Democratic East-Asia wrote:Full Nation Name : French Democratic Republic
Short Nation Name : France
Flag / National Symbols: France Flag
Government Type : Socialist Federative Republic (de jure), one party dictatorship (de facto)
Official Political Ideology : Centrist Marxism (implementation varies...)
Head of State : Chairman René Imbot
Head of Government : General Secretary Georges Marchais
Government Description : On paper, the French Democratic Republic maintains many of the democratic institutions upheld by its predecessor: the French Workers' Federation. This means that it is technically a multi-party syndicalist republic, but the grim reality of modern Europe means that the country remains in a state of national emergency under the current ruling party. At lower levels, some degree of democracy is still maintained in order to placate the unruly masses, but as the situation stands the country is effectively a dictatorship.
Territory : Core France (no Alsace-Lorraine or Corsica), Walloonia
Territorial Ambitions : All of "natural" Greater France (Rhineland, Belgium, French Switzerland)
Capital City : Paris
Population : 49,600,000 French citizens and 2,800,000 foreign nationals according to the 1983 census. This number includes approximately 300,000 foreigners (Americans, Soviets, etc) and some 2 million refugees from Central Europe.
Majority/Official Culture : French
Majority/State Religion : None, religion is backwards superstition (a notable minority of the population is Catholic, but most Frenchmen are irreligious nowadays)
Major Industries / Economic sectors: Agriculture (bulk produce, wine, cheese, etc), various heavy industries such as steel production, car manufacturing, weapons production, and mining.
Amount of Industrialization : The level of economic development in the young French revolutionary state differs heavily by region, largely due to decades of Nazi economic and political domination. The northern half of the country: France's traditional industrial heartland, remains heavily developed due to direct administration by the German Reich's Waffen SS. The SS used the territory to supply itself and build a power base separate from that of Berlin, in the process building hundreds of factories and resource extraction zones. Hundreds of thousands of Frenchmen perished in the depths of this industrial hellscape, even after the German sphere's transition to robotic labor. Despite the violent expulsion of SS forces from the region, northern France's automated manufacturies, fusion powerplants, and dreary industrial parks continue to dominate most aspects of life. Once a symbol of France's oppression, the northern industrial zone now stands as a potential tool for the country's reconstruction.
Southern France on the other hand suffered a notably worse fate. As part of the non-occupied region, the French State (which formerly ruled the area) was forced by the German government to forcibly industrialize a large number of its cities and follow economic policy specifically tailored towards the maintenance of Hitler's "New Order". In other words, this meant agriculture. The vast fertile fields of Occitania would be turned into a series of German-dominated plantation farms, all dedicated to exporting cheap produce to the fatherland. Investment in non-agricultural infrastructure dropped drastically, leading to a stark increase in poverty amongst the population. This has seriously stifled the region's economic growth in the long term, and even nowadays southern France is much poorer than the north (despite having far fewer issues with pollution).
Economic Description : The French economy operates under a mixed syndicalist-nationalized manner: large industries such as steel and coal production are controlled by the government while various workers' cooperatives and communes are in charge of other sectors of lesser importance. The country is currently in a state of economic turmoil and disarray due to the recent civil war and post-war purges alongside a growing refugee crisis from Germany. Uneven industrial development and the far-reaching effects of over three decades of Nazi domination also means that much of the country is impoverished. This is a situation the revolutionary government hopes to change quickly.
Technological Level : Technology within France's world was highly uneven in development, but the tech base France uses is largely based on Wolfenstein with some elements of atompunk alongside the IRL 1980s as a baseline.
Fusion reactors were first developed by the Americans in the early 1960s, and reached the German sphere right before Nazi Germany imploded. The use of advanced carbon armor is also present throughout many militaries, as is the use of automated robotic soldiers (think sentries from fallout and kampfhunds from Wolfenstein). Military tech overall is quite advanced, probably 10-20 years ahead of the IRL 1980s in many areas with a few exceptions that don't quite fit (The Americans field cataphracts in their war against the aliens while the Nazis have energy weapons). Computers, despite looking like 1980s ones, function more akin to those from the late 20th and early 21st century. Basic artificial intelligence of sorts exists to some degree.
France, of course, never got to fully enjoy the benefits of living in such a rapidly developing world. While the country does possess a lot of military equipment and the means to produce it, France lags heavily in most civilian fields (most consumer goods seem stuck in the 60-70s).
Magic and other shenanigans? (If any exists) : Atompunk and Wolfenstein tech + some mecha (UN forces)
Military Description
Army: The army of the French Democratic Republic, also known as the French People's Revolutionary Army (FPRA), is composed of a mix of civilian volunteer militias and "professional" conscripted forces. The equipment it uses is highly varied, ranging from WW2-era French and German stockpiles to lend leased modern American weapons, but the bulk of the Army uses equipment that is nearly identical to that used by the 3rd Reich and its various puppet states (think Wolfenstein + 70-90s era German / NATO equipment, but with German WW2 calibers and from German companies). This does mean that the presence of numerous "modern" weapons systems such as guided munitions, missiles, and long-rod kinetic penetrators exist and are regularly used alongside more esoteric / advanced equipment (energy weapons, combat robots, combat exosuits, anti-gravity transports, etc). France possesses a decently powerful tank force of some 800 Leopard II and 1500 Leopard I tanks alongside numerous older vehicles. It also has a large number of missile systems and defenses thanks to the Germans (the Waffen SS feared a nuclear missile attack from the Americans).
By far the largest section of the FPRA comes in the form of various local militia units organized into a national guard - largely remnants of France's anti-Nazi revolutionary period and a carry down from the old French Workers' Federation's national defense policy. These militias are largely organized by canton and region, and lack uniformity in both equipment and training (some regional militias are comparable in quality to the standard army, others not so). Likewise, the national guard lacks heavy machinery and vehicles, relying more on guerilla tactics, portable AT / AA missiles, and sheer determination (and wine-induced rage) to overwhelm better-equipped enemies. There are currently 1.5 million national guard members in "active" (most are simply part timers) duty service, though this number generally fluctuates between 1-4 million.
Aside from the national guard, the regular army - also known as the Revolutionary Guard - makes up the remainder of the FRPA at some 750,000 strong. This full-time professional force is also largely descended from the various partisan movements of the past and relies on conscription in order to keep its numbers strong. It's a lot more uniform than the national guard and ironically closely resembles the armies fielded by the 3rd Reich due to it using much of the same equipment (even the uniforms and body armor, barring the lack of a swastika, look identical) and vehicles (The French use the Leopard 2 as much as the German Republic does). The Revolutionary Guard, while not quite on par with proper first-rate militaries, makes up for some of the difference with its high level of resolve and dedication to the French motherland. At the top of the revolutionary guard are a collection of 8 elite mechanized divisions made up of former French exiles. These units are near fanatical in their loyalty to France and will fight to the death against any would-be fascist invaders.
At the moment, there is also a small UN contingency force of 40,000 troops, primarily Americans. They field similarly advanced equipment to the French (including some 250 Abrams tanks) alongside a hundred first-second generation cataphracts and a few units of "panzer infantry" (read: fallout-style power armor units). The UN is largely here to control the ongoing refugee crisis.
Navy: The French Navy is largely theoretical at the moment and only controls a handful of nuclear-powered submarines (almost all of the submarines in the setting are nuclear-powered) and light surface ships. It possesses no real power projection capabilities.
Air Force: The French airforce is comprised of a total of approximately 1800 aircraft, mostly 1970-80s airframes that would be common throughout NATO and the Western Bloc. The distribution between fighters and interceptors is relatively even while the country only possesses a few units of strategic bombers. That said, France does also have a small force of 12 sub-orbital heavy bombers capable of striking targets from low orbit and a strategic missile force (made up of various tactical missiles, theatre ballistic missiles, and a small IRBM force). Also featured within the French arsenal are a dozen Haunebu-V.
National Goals : Survive, reclaim old French lands, rebuild the country and economy.
History : Prior to the 2nd World War, the world was a largely "normal" if divided place. The devastation inflicted by the Great War led to a wave of revolutions that overturned many of the old reactionary regimes around the world: America, Britain, France, Russia all fell to the forces of socialism while the rest of the planet struggled to carry onwards. Eventually, the rise of fascism would present itself as a major if an ultimately surmountable challenge to a large and increasingly powerful 3rd Internationale. Or so that was what everyone thought.
As the clock of time ticked forwards, little is known what happened or why it did so, but history was forever changed. The Nazi regime, already unlike the one those from OTL were familiar with, would gain immense technological and industrial prowess after scouring the catacombs of Anatolia and Egypt for ancient Jewish technology, something the rest of the world was completely unaware of. Truth be told, nobody knew what to make of it when the Nazi war machine roared into life during WW2 and began fielding weapons beyond the capabilities of the Internationale, but the world endured. Technological advancement sped up at an exponential pace, with the Americans and Soviets doing whatever they could to match the new superpowered Axis. In Europe, German secured hegemony over much of the continent and pushed deep into the USSR, taking Moscow and Leningrad. In Asia, Japan was gradually beaten back by combined Soviet-Chinese-American forces. The war continued into the 1940s, draining manpower and resources on all sides. There appeared to be no end to the fighting.
In 1948, the world came to a standstill after a limited nuclear exchange wiped a dozen cities off the map. Peace was made, and unfortunately for the French, it was a peace that would place their nation under the jackboot of Nazi Germany. The country was split in half: the north directly incorporated into the Reich (and later spun off as an SS run state) and the south put under the rule of a weak Occitanian puppet regime. Southern France was quickly roped into the German "Pact of Steel", its economy and politics completely under the control of Berlin. For the first time in centuries, France ceased to exist as a country.
It isn't an understatement to say that the French lost everything. Their independence quashed, the French people were subject to countless cruelties as their new Nazi masters sought to eradicate the region's identity and assimilate them into Greater Germany. Hundreds of thousands of "enemies of the Reich" ranging from school teachers to intellectuals and former French politicians were promptly arrested and shot en masse, their bodies dumped into mass graves that dotted the French countryside. In Northern France, now simply known as "Reichskommisariat Burgundia", French education was outlawed and entire libraries worth of French literature were burned. People lived in fear of the Nazi authorities, which became ever more oppressive as the spread of high technology allowed for the use of robotic monsters and advanced surveillance to suppress the populace. In the south (Occitania), Nazi economic policy forced the puppet government to deindustrialize into an agricultural society. Millions were forced out of the cities throughout the 1950s and many died during the chaos that ensued, the Occitanian government unable to support its own people as it exported millions of tons of grain to the Reich. In such conditions, desperation and dissent grew.
As Germany grew increasingly fragmented in post-war years, the Waffen SS would eventually turn RK Burgundia into its own industrialized hellhole of oppression, seeking to utilize the state as a regional HQ in the event a major power struggle kicked off in Germany proper. Hundreds of factories and resource refineries sprung up from the ground, built off the back of slave labor derived from the local populace. For every new fusion reactor and arms manufactory the Waffen SS built, thousands of French, Jews, and other "undesirables" perished. The French city of Rouen - largely destroyed during the end of WW2 by an atomic bomb - was rebuilt into the Rodomo Industrial Complex, a massive series of interlocked industrial facilities, energy plants, and fortifications that spanned dozens of square kilometers. In this one complex alone, over 300,000 Frenchmen would meet their end from 1952 - 1960. Life in Burgundy brutal and often short: many a civilian would inadvertently disappear due to the SS's machinations. People yearned for a future... but found nothing but darkness.
Germany ultimately imploded in 1964, its various factions unable to agree upon a successor to an aging Goering. The Waffen SS in Burgundia, led by one Reinhard Heydrich, would ultimately secede to form their own "Orthodox National Socialist" state. The French people, seeing the opportunity, attempted to revolt but were brutally suppressed. Heydrich would double down on the Germanization and industrialization of Burgundia, ultimately creating his own nuclear warheads and missiles by the late 1960s along with an elaborate ring of defenses that surrounded his fief. In Southern France, the Occitanian government quickly fell into chaos and was overtaken by the French Resistance by the late 1960s, almost triggering a Burgundian invasion that was narrowly dissuaded by threats of Internationale intervention. In the meantime, Germany remained fractured into the early 1970s, its factions unable to come to terms with one another.
Ultimately, Heydrich's efforts towards building a self-proclaimed "fortress of national socialism" would end in failure. The loss of Southern France and the Ukraine immensely strained the German sphere's food supplies, and in Burgundy a combination of mismanagement and deliberate favoritism of German over native SS units ultimately ended in chaos. A major famine began in 1973 and dragged into 1974, ultimately killing over 2 million people. Native French SS units, deprived of the same rations and treatment as their German counterparts, broke away from a dying Heydrich's control. This was followed by a large-scale uprising amongst the nation's civilian populace, which had been heavily aided by both the 3rd Internationale and southern French partisans. In a panic, the Burgundian regime attempted to launch its nuclear arsenal, only to be stopped by a combination of UN commandos and native resistance units. The few missiles that did fire were stopped by SDI systems in Britain. As the smoke cleared and it became obvious that Burgundy wasn't long for the world, the Free French government acted.
200,000 troops under the command of an aging Charles De Gaulle landed on the beaches of Normandy and Britanny where they fought tooth and nail against the fanatical SS defenders. It would take another 3 years for the region to be fully secured, and another year for the shaky German Republic to recognize France's independence. France was finally free, albeit a wreck of a nation permanently scarred by thirty years of Nazi rule. The New French government quickly sought to solidify its power and began a mass purge of suspected collaborators and even some of the former rebel groups. It was considered a necessary move at the time but inevitably led to massive amounts of political instability. De Gaulle died a popular leader, but none of his successors would enjoy such.
While France struggled to rebuild, the rest of the world went to war. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, American explorers on Mars had encountered monstrosities from beyond the solar system which proved to be incredibly hostile. What followed was a brutal lunar conflict ending in UN defeat, paving the way towards an alien invasion of the Earth. Landing in the Middle East, the "BETA" would wage a war of total annihilation against humanity, leading to tens of millions of deaths and far more refugees. Military technology took off, and culminated in the creation of advanced combat mechs and weapons systems, all of which flew over the heads of the French. The French state was faced with massive problems it couldn't hope to solve anytime soon, and adopting new "experimental miltech" was not on the minds of the French leadership. Chairman René Imbot was convinced that when push came to shove, France would ultimately have to fight on its own and purposely stonewalled most UN attempts to open up his country, fearing foreign influence.
Nonetheless, the frontlines of the war eventually made their way into Europe. A refugee crisis of massive proportion developed as tens of millions of Central and Eastern Europeans packed their bags and fled towards the west. Despite immense pressure from its allies, the French government was incredibly stubborn and uncooperative with the UN, refusing to base more than 50,000 UN troops at a time and directly opposing the UN's open refugee policies. Millions of Central Europeans: primarily Germans but also including a sizable number of Czechs, Poles, and Serbo-Croatians made their way to France where a majority (especially the Germans) were driven back. Or at least the French tried: ultimately there were far too many people streaming in and the French military was physically incapable and unwilling to shoot everyone, especially given the presence of UN observers. Ultimately, hundreds of thousands of refugees would end up crowding camps throughout north-eastern France where they'd be subject to poor living conditions and overcrowding. There isn't much France can do about this.
It is now 1983, and France finds itself on edge and surrounded by trouble on all sides. To the east, the alien invaders have finally broken through the German defense lines and are beelining towards Berlin, to the south the Iberian Federation has imploded and led to waves of northbound refugees, and to the north, it appears that the UN has finally had enough of Rene Imbot's "overly uncooperative and incompetent" regime and is preparing to launch a large scale intervention force. The economy remains a disaster while thousands within both the government and various areas of civil society clamor for change. Only time will tell whether or not France crawls out from the depths or falls into further calamity.
RP Sample: I literally created this RP what are you talking about haha!
(Remove all parenthesis when done)
#POD 3 (don't remove this!)
Looking good. Accepted.
