29. Levant Empire
| The Levant Empire is only a 17 year old political entity, looking at its rise in power, one can only have respect or fear. First the Levant bathed in a Middle Age atmosphere, but in a few pockets of renaissance, a modern spirit was born. It is this modernism which encouraged the middle-class to send its offspring out to the UR or the NAF to follow Western style studies. When in 50 UR (1842) the BRE made pressure on China to force it to produce opium whereas this agriculture was prohibited by the Chinese laws, the Japanese understood that they would be next on BRE's list, if they did nothing. The Shogun tried to modernize the country, but trailing with him all the feudal weight, he failed and was rejected by the extremist reformers. A
civil war burst between some Daimyos. The partisans of the reform
won, and thus the Levant Empire was declared in 76 UR (1868),
to save the nation of itself and of the West. The new empire was already
in it's firts years a chimera of Levant and West. |
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Indeed the Meiji Emperor was placed on the throne of the unified and centralized nation, he had at his disposal all the conceivable advisers : wisemen from the old schools, or graduates of the Western universities. |
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Thus the rows of the new administration and the new army were inflated, and were promptly used for "protecting", that is invading and managing Korea and the Philippines in 82 UR (1874). In
spite of its aggressiveness, the free people of Asia, saw in the Levant
Empire guardian of Asian culture against Western economic colonialism.
This is why the influence zone of the LE extended in north China,
to many Chinese provinces, which finally made secession, 3 years ago
to adhere to the LE. |
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Thus to secure an increasing influence in the Levant, the Emperor instituted the Diet : an assembly of representatives in Tokyo and assigned in each "new sphere of Co-prosperity" a Co-senator chosen in the local population, and supported education (particularly of Chinese ideograms) and integration the administration of locals. |
Recently the LE tries to constitute a block of non-aligned countries in partnership with the Ottoman Empire. The technological weight of the LE is real since it has the most powerful submarine fleet of the globe. However certain sectors like the air and space fields are completely ignored by the LE, in agreement with treaties made with UR. Presently, the LE is in negotiation with New Spain, to buy California, UR however made well understand its Hispano-American ally, that if California were the object of a transaction, UR would have priority in its aquisition. Thus humanity's future is perhaps tied to California's ownership, a ground populated by simple people : Asians, American-Indians, Hispano-Americans. |
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