Austrovenia

[Waldemar]

I split this off from the Manchurian discussion thread.

Let's give Austrovenia a shot to do its best

We know that it started from a union between Austria and Slovenia, it is the home of the Stracher weapon industry and that it has an enclave of sorts on Tirane.

How did it stay out of the German reunification?

 

[TheKiwi]

I seem to recollect that it had a reputation for being very envionmentally concious.

I could possibly see Solvenia and Austria combining. They have catholicism in common and the Slovene's were regarded as "Kaisertreu" or loyal during WWI, unlike the Serb, Croat and Czech members of the AH empire.

I'd day that the combination of environmentalism (and possibly a commitment towards neutrality or even pacifism) combined with a quite different culture could keep them away from the German reunification. Even today, most of the German's I know regard the Austrian's as quite "foreign and weird" (their words, not mine).

 

[rfmcdpei]

I seem to recollect that it had a reputation for being very envionmentally concious.

I could possibly see Solvenia and Austria combining. They have catholicism in common and the Slovene's were regarded as "Kaisertreu" or loyal during WWI, unlike the Serb, Croat and Czech members of the AH empire.

Modern Slovenia came about because of the fusion of different Hapsburg territories--Carniola, southern Styria, et cetera--after 1918. If the Slovenians want the Italians out and are frankly scared by what's going on in Croatia (a Croatia that includes all of Bosnia and Vojvodina must be the product of horrific violence), joining with an Austrian republic that's relatively sane strikes me as a good idea.

I'd day that the combination of environmentalism (and possibly a commitment towards neutrality or even pacifism) combined with a quite different culture could keep them away from the German reunification. Even today, most of the German's I know regard the Austrian's as quite "foreign and weird" (their words, not mine).

You could argue that, save for the dozen years of the Anschluss, Austria has been an entity separate from Germany since 1866. In an alternate timeline where an effort to unite Germany resulted in massive casulatuies among Austrians and Slovenians, I can easily imagien that neither nation would look fondly on the idea of uniting with Germany.

I wonder if there was a north-to-south gradient of support for unification in Germany, with Hannover, Saxony and Brandenburg strongly favouring unification, a French-influenced Westphalia somewhat more ambivalent, and a (Terran) Bavaria sharply divided on the issue.

 

[epicenter00]

One of the things that can be a lot of fun in writing future histories is to have an event, a country, or a people that do something that's a little hard to imagine now. Obviously, if you have too many such things, you lose that certain verisimilitude that people read future histories for (nevermind that such events can pretty much be guaranteed to occur and occur quite often - which is why projected future histories written in the past seem laughably quaint at best to utterly mystifying to the modern reader at worst).

I think the biggest example of this particular trend in 2300 (not 2320) is the Confederation of Palestine. It's hard to imagine the scenario described within 2300 today, but such twists of history would be pretty normal in 300 years.

An interesting excercise for board members might not be to deny Austrovenia's existence, but perhaps consider how such a thing would have occurred. It's obviously easier to do than the Confederation of Palestine (as there is a certain amount of historical precedent to an "Austrovenia").

My theory on Austrovenia is that it came about, again, during the dark days shortly after the Twilight War. The two areas have enjoyed historically decent relations, and perhaps with the collapse of the war, the Slovenes didn't feel safe with their Slavic neighbors (who regarded them as "un-Slavic") and instead grew close to Austria to pool resources to rebuild and fend off marauders and so on. As time went on, what was at first a loose association became an alliance, a Federation, and finally a single nation.

 

[kafka47]

Combined with the fact that both countries were probably desparately trying to find an exit during the Twilight War. Yugoslavia joining the NATO side would have meant that Slovenia's Eastern Flank would have been open to Hungary just walking in. Furthermore, Slovenia may have needed a stronger buffer against the Italian seeking retribution in WW3. Austria's neutrality would certainly have been more in keeping with the Non Alignment movement that Slovenia's leadership could harken back to. Slovenes also never felt alienated from the Austrians having lost their "independence" some time in the 10th century AD.

Staying out of the German unification wars was a simple matter. Austria despite the Anschluss there was no immediate crisis in Austria. The Right and the Left had reached a historic compromise after 1945 as both suffered at the hands of the Nazis. That memory is still alive and well. They also view Germany as an upstart nation and basically not part of the compromise that forms mittleuropa. Also, given that Bayen or Bavaria was able to hold out so long also gives credit for Austrovenia for being able to withstand the encrouchment of unity. Think of Austrovenia akin to Franz Joseph's dream of the United States of Central Europe.

Furthermore, Austrovenia nearly did happen for real in 1991. When they were planning their separation from Yugoslavia; Slovene leaders consulted with Austria to see if they could embrace the Austrian currency along with being aligned with Vienna's economic directives (anti-inflationary full employment whilst preserving welfare gains). The Austrians insisted that they believed in the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia and would nothing to provoke Belgrade. The Slovenes went home somewhat dismayed but when they saw the invasion plans in MoD office in Belgrade they sought Austrian support to channel arms their way. The Austrian helped half heartedly basically protesting when Belgrade aircraft entered Austrian airspace and threatened to shoot them down. Had the fighting gone on longer this could have been decisive as most of the mountain passes were effectively blockaded by Slovenian Territorial Defence Force and the other land route would have been through Croatia which something JNA wanted to avoid. The air strikes against the airport was also effective as a terror device and also galvinizing world opinion.

 

[Waldemar]

Earth/Cybertech Sourcebook states on page 50 that Austrovenia is not a very technologically advanced country, and that it lives of producing specialty agricultural products.

I'd say it is a bit strange as they seem to have a fairly high tech company as Stracher originating there.

Yay, its one of the many "turnipgrowers in space" nations :rofl:
OK, who helped them to build an enclave on Tirane? France? Or is the Austrovenia of 2320 AD different from the one in 2300 AD?

 

[TheKiwi]

If they're "environmentally aware" then lower tech may be a deliberate choice. And they don't call it an enclave, the call it a commune

 

[rfmcdpei]

OK, who helped them to build an enclave on Tirane? France? Or is the Austrovenia of 2320 AD different from the one in 2300 AD?

I'd go with their Bavarian neighbours. ;-)

 

[AtlanticFriend]

Ah, Austrovenia, one of my favourite things in 2300AD, if only because it is another Czechoslovakia. I always thought of the country as a byproduct of a French attempt to (re)create a sizeable South German state through the union of Bavaria and Austria.

Refusing this French-sanctioned Anschluss, which would dissolve Austria into Bavaria the Austrians try to opt out of the impending "takeover" by concluding a union with Slovenia, both as to make assimilation by Bavaria that much harder and to build up an economic base allowing the nation to compete with Bavaria and the other fragmented Germanic state.

When Germany finally coalesces back into existence, it lso finds it more difficult to assimilate the Austrovenian bloc (which, by this time, enjoys French support as Paris now obviously prefers it to be independent...from Germany, at least).