The following will be the alternate history of United Jacaria starting from the Napoleonic Wars up to World War 1.
Introduction to Jacarian History and Where it Diverges
In the early 19th century, British ships bombarded Copenhagen and seized the Danish navy to prevent a similar operation by Napoleonic forces. This is the pivotal movement that I plan to change. In this new world, the Danish spies placed in London catch wind of Great Britain’s plan to seize the Danish fleet, causing the Crown Prince to voluntarily hand over the Danish fleet as Britain had previously requested. This new world eventually gives rise to the Democratic Nations of United Jacaria, the new global superpower.
The History
As previously mentioned, Danish spies catch wind of Britain’s plans to bombard Copenhagen well before it actually takes place. Prince Frederick, while stubborn and prideful, was not stupid, and with this information, he made the decision to fulfill Britain’s request to hand the fleet over willingly, with the promise that Britain would return the fleet once the war was over. In return, Denmark was given financial compensation, a large sum for collateral, and British reassurance that Denmark’s trade routes and land would be protected by the British through the war.
At the Congress of Vienna, Danish diplomats walked in not humiliated, but rather with the upper hand. Norway is kept by the Danish, Finland is returned to Sweden as semi-autonomous, Russia keeps Poland, and Denmark’s control over the Schleswig-Holstein duchies is cemented with a much clearer foundation. Britain also returns the Danish fleet with interest in exchange for its collateral and openly endorses the Danish government for staying neutral throughout the war, elevating its status in the delegates’ eyes.
Let’s look more closely at how this affects history. Britain and Denmark now have a steady relationship established on a relatively strong foundation; Denmark retains Norway, Sweden retains Finland, and Denmark’s power is cemented in the world. The strengthening of Denmark’s control over Schleswig-Holstein prevents any Prussian interference, as trying to take this land would be in violation of the Congress of Vienna. Denmark now has an ally of Britain, which would put off later Russian interference and smooth over relations with other European powers. Most importantly, Sweden and Denmark do not come out of the war as enemies, but rather cautious allies.
From the 1820s to 1840s, this region, although four acting as two, experienced a series of cultural shifts that led to a miniature renaissance of Scandinavian culture. From great works of poetry to expanding universities, from newly-established newspapers to widely-read publications, the various cultures of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland began to coalesce into a mixing pot of ideas and ideals.
This melting pot eventually began to bubble. In 1848, it boiled over into liberal nationalist movements across Scandinavia, calling for government reforms and unity between the powers. The result? In 1850, delegates from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland met in Christiania (now Oslo) to discuss the possibility of future cooperation. The delegates came up with an agreement that looked a lot like the European Union of our world, with free movement, mutual defense pacts, shared economic strategy, and most importantly, an assembly that, although it had no legal power, would advise Scandinavia as a whole. Each kingdom would retain its monarch, its constitution, and its laws, but it was an important push for unity that would help establish the Democratic Nations.
This assembly, named the Nordic Thing after its ancient Norse roots, would gain significant traction in Scandinavian politics and would eventually be granted legislative powers over the combined economies and Scandinavia’s regional policy. In 1873, the Thing voted to introduce the Scandinavian Krone as a unified currency, promoting trade and economic cooperation.
The unified currency worked wonders in the late 1800s, uniting the labor parties, banks, and markets of Scandinavia into one general economy. The unified market meant that economic freedoms and workers’ rights became a regional rather than national matter, resulting in the first widespread pro-federalization political party, the Scandinavian Workers’ Federation. This party would later merge with the Liberal Rights Party to create the Unified Rights Party, and would even later (with the baseline of Dr. Williamsburg’s essay, The Morals of Subjugation; or, Today’s Society Tomorrow) become the Party for Universal Rights, the dominant Jacarian political ideology.
The political traction the Workers’ Federation gained enabled it to push for expanded rights and regulations regionally, and it even leveraged the Thing to pass laws that safeguarded the working class’s freedoms. This was unlike the rest of Europe at the time, where most workers’ rights groups were quelled or repressed before any changes were made. This expansion of freedoms later becomes the foundation of the Jacarian Constitution.
While the Workers’ Federation was able to push for expanded rights, it still hadn’t gained enough seats in the Thing to progress its agenda. Faced with the same dilemma, the Liberal Rights Party proposed a merger between the two movements in 1882. The resulting organization, the Unified Rights Party, now held significant legislative power in the Thing and was generally quite popular in Scandinavia, allowing it to continue laying the foundations of Jacarian democracy.
In 1887, Otto von Bismarck was growing tired of Scandinavia’s hold on the Baltic Sea. In his mind, a unified Scandinavia could prove dangerous, and the only course of action was to dismantle it, either through force or through more diplomatic means. The German Empire proposed a trade deal with Norway in an attempt to undermine the general Scandinavian economic pact, which was met with opposition by the Unified Rights Party. In response to the trade deal, the Thing passed the Nordic Trade Accord, which required trade deals with foreign powers to be negotiated as a collective rather than by any singular member. Bismarck backs down, but never forgets the rebuff.
1894 marked the year that Lord Jacob Butterfield I, a famous political scientist and descendant of English nobles whose family immigrated to Denmark in 1811, became Chieftain of the Nordic Thing. He proposed a full unification of Scandinavia through a universally recognized monarch who would act as a figurehead, while the Thing was granted the legislative power of the realm. The proposal was passed by the Thing by a vast majority and was ratified later that year by all four kingdoms. The monarchs of Denmark and Sweden then proposed that Butterfield take the place as the universal monarch, which was again approved by both the Thing and ratified by the four kingdoms.
The first act of the Thing under Butterfield’s monarchy was the Uppsala Protocols of 1895, which established that all major foreign policy must be approved by the Thing and expanded upon the Nordic Trade Accord by requiring all trade deals to be discussed and ratified as a collective Scandinavian body rather than by any singular nation. This is the first step to a full federation, like what we see in United Jacaria today.
Throughout the late 1890s and into the early 1900s, the Unified Rights Party published a wide range of papers and essays regarding Scandinavian policy, the Nordic model, and the possible future of Scandinavia. These publications were distributed across the world, with many ending up in Germany, France, Great Britain, and Russia, where they introduced the prosperity that any nation could have if only they would follow suit.
The 1905 Russian Revolution destabilized the Russian government, as in our world, which frightened many Scandinavian officials, especially in Finland. The Thing convened in 1906 to discuss possible responses, the result of which was realized in the Finnish Border Act, granting Finland an expanded military presence and expanded fortifications along its Russian border. Russia protested this action, but because of the weak state it was in due to the revolution and its war with Japan, it was unable to do anything about it.
Jacob Butterfield I died in 1908, leaving the Scandinavian throne empty. The Thing voted to instate his son, Butterfield II, as monarch, but the younger man refused. That same evening, he spoke in front of the Thing to advocate for the dissolution of the throne in favor of a republic, much like the one that the Americans had established a century prior. Several months later, a constitution was ratified, and the public overwhelmingly voted to instate Butterfield II as the first Lord High Justice of the new nation, the Jacarian Republic.
As the 1914 July Crisis slowly escalated into war, the new republic was faced with a glaring issue: it relied on trade from both Britain and Germany. To ally with Britain meant losing its steel imports, and to ally with Germany meant losing its agricultural trade and Russian aggression in the East. So the newly established Houses of Legislature convened to draft the Declaration of Neutrality, which prevented military assistance to either side, continued existing trade routes while allowing the republic to restrict exports on certain goods if doing so was deemed a threat, and stated that any violation of the republic’s regional sovereignty was an attack on Jacaria as a whole. The Allied Powers accepted this without hesitation, as a neutral Jacaria prevented Germany from taking the Baltic straits while still ensuring the trade that many nations depended on. The Central Powers, while angry that they couldn’t control the Baltic Sea, were at least glad that Jacaria didn’t side with the British.
As battles begin to break out across Europe, Germany begins pushing for further access to Sweden’s iron exports, as Jacarian merchant ships were being stopped and inspected by the British in the North Sea. Lord High Butterfield II responded in turn by cutting down trade in general with the Germans to appease the British, while shifting exports from agriculture to iron to appease Germany.
As global production facilities shift to arms production, Jacaria was able to export significant amounts of consumer goods globally, helping to boost the local market and put more money in the pockets of the working class. Jacarian goods become widely accepted as cheap, high-quality alternatives due to the sheer amount being pumped out of Sweden. These goods ranged from home appliances and devices to toys and games, making Jacarian culture more widespread.
It was around this time that refugees began flooding Jacaria, especially from regions such as Poland and Belgium, where the war had devastated local infrastructure. These refugees quickly found decent jobs working in factories, news centers, and the various government agencies being created by the Houses of Legislature, and the influx of workers proved essential to the Jacarian economy. The Houses, in response to the increase in employment rates caused by the refugees, passed the Refugee Act of 1915, which strengthened the rights given to refugees and fast-tracked citizenship for the new working class.
The revolutions in Russia during 1917 proved to be one of the most dangerous threats to the Jacarian Republic since its founding. While the threat of the Russian military to Finland’s border was no longer an issue, the ideology of Bolshevism posed a significant problem, especially with it so close to home. The Houses of Legislature quickly responded with the Baltic Security Act of 1917, which stated that the Baltic region to the east was under Jacarian protection, and that any attempt to establish a hostile military presence would directly threaten Jacarian security interests to prevent Russian influence in the Baltic Sea.
As the Americans entered the war, Butterfield II started to quietly shift trade deals in favor of the Allies, specifically diverting Swedish iron to Britain and Norwegian coal to France, while also beginning agricultural exports to the United States. The Central Powers mostly ignored this, as their attention was on the war they were rapidly beginning to lose.
The Russian Civil War provided the perfect opportunity for Jacaria to use some of its excess resources on humanitarian aid near the Finnish border. Within just weeks, hundreds of government-backed organizations flooded into the Baltics and Western Russia, providing medical aid and distributing food to those affected by the war.
By the time the armistice was declared in 1918, Jacaria was among the only developed nations in the world that hadn’t been devastated by conflict. Jacaria emerged from the war significantly richer, stronger, and overall more powerful than it was before. Because the economy had never switched to arms production, it was also one of the only nations capable of mass-producing civilian goods. The Jacarian Federal Bank and the Jacarian Krone were stronger than at any other point in previous history. And at the pinnacle of it all, Lord High Butterfield had become an international symbol of democracy, strength, and neutrality, all without firing a single shot.
The Jacarian delegation to Paris in 1919 was led by Butterfield II himself and represented the only nation in the war that had remained neutral and was relatively unscathed. This meant that they could play both sides and negotiate a much fairer result for everyone involved, which they were completely willing to do.
While Jacaria pushed for a more lenient German punishment, consisting of manageable reparations and acknowledgement of their responsibility, this was denied heavily by France and eventually dropped. However, in the process, Jacaria earns significant German goodwill, and it establishes Butterfield II as a figure devoted to moderation.
Jacaria also advocates for the independence of the Baltic states and uses the Baltic Security Act of 1917 as a guarantee of their sovereignty. Given that there isn’t anyone else to relinquish the region to, as Russia is in heavy political turmoil, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are granted their full independence as autonomous nations. This also earns significant goodwill towards Jacaria and serves as the basis for later integration.
The Jacarian Republic’s push for stronger enforcement from the new League of Nations and more universal membership are mostly ignored by the Central Powers. However, it establishes Jacaria as a champion of international cooperation and global institutions, and its views are later realized with the creation of the United Nations, and, even later, the Norwegian Alliance.
As a result of Jacaria’s influence, while Germany is still harshly reprimanded, the compensation figure is lower, the Baltic states have gained their independence, and the League of Nations has stronger language regarding its actualization. The delegation returns to Copenhagen with about half of its work done, now realizing that the peace could only ever be temporary.
Throughout the 1920s, Jacaria continues to flourish. Social programs are heavily expanded, rights and freedoms are secured even further, and many political factions begin to emerge, even if they have no real hope of challenging the ever-popular Unified Rights Party. Jacaria continues to lead diplomatic discussions, now through the League of Nations, cementing it as the go-to mediator. And as this continues, the independent Baltic states begin to intertwine themselves with the Jacarian economy and political systems, not quite a part of the republic, but not too far away, either.
The Great Depression of 1929 hit the global economy like a freight train, driving unemployment rates and poverty higher than ever. While Jacaria was still impacted, its robust social programs, welfare funds, job security, and the abandonment of the gold standard with the adoption of the Scandinavian Krone meant that it was able to recover quickly and with few long-term repercussions. By the early 1930s, the Jacarian economy was once more growing, further expanding the public’s trust in the government and its policies.
Jacarian officials tried to help Germany with its economic and political crisis throughout this time, to little avail. As nationalist groups took advantage of the situation to gain support, many more moderate German officials tried to keep in contact with the Jacarian government as they proposed possible solutions.
Lord High Butterfield II’s final major act in office, the Collective Defense Pact, strengthened Baltic relations and established a joint military structure between them as Germany and Russia began to descend into darkness. He easily wins reelection, but his declining health, mixed with global instability, makes it especially hard for anything significant to come from his last term in office.
Butterfield II’s passing in 1936 was met with a day of mourning from the Jacarian public, with every flag in the country lowered to half-staff. Even several previous partners of Jacaria, including the United States, ordered similar signs of respect to the man who had built the most successful Scandinavian state in history. Dr. Donald Wizhard won the following election with a large majority of the vote, becoming the second head of state of the Jacarian Republic.
The nationalist movement that was growing in popularity throughout Germany was fundamentally different from the Nazism we saw in our world. The weaker reparations meant that the movement was less focused on economic humiliation and ethnic cleansing, and more focused on territorial expansion and expanded nationalism. While Jacaria’s economic model was threatening to the new German government, they recognized that Jacaria was their advocate in Paris, meaning outright hostility was avoided.
Wizhard, to strengthen relations and prevent conflict, made many trade arrangements with Germany and kept diplomatic channels open in Berlin despite other nations doing the exact opposite. In exchange, German officials were willing to acknowledge Jacaria’s neutrality and the Collective Defense agreement in the Baltics. These moves were unpopular with the Unified Rights Party, and many viewed the dealings as a betrayal of Jacaria’s foundational principles. Wizhard argued that without such dealings, war with Germany would be inevitable, and everything they had worked to build would be devastated.
In the east, the Soviet Union began testing the borders of Jacaria, including those of the much newer Baltic states, alongside the ancient Finnish border. Wizhard decided to expand Jacaria’s joint military pact with the Baltics, conducting more joint operations, coordinating defense plans, and establishing new bases throughout the eastern border. Full integration became a driving question; should the Baltics join the republic, it would mean security in their interests, but it could also be seen as an act of aggression by Germany and Russia. So Wizhard decided to continue operations and plan for integration once the situation died down.
