Poem: "Prying the Various Powers"
This poem is spillover from the April 5, 2022 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from Dreamwidth users Fuzzyred and Readera. It also fills the "vulnerabilities" square in my 4-4-22 card for the Genderplay Bingo "Aspects" fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with DW user Fuzzyred. It belongs to the Dr. Infanta thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.
Warning: This poem contains intense and controversial topics. Highlight to read the warnings, some of which are spoilers. It includes the leadup to World War I, seeing the future, timeline manipulation, assassination, the beginning of World War I, and other challenges. If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.
"Prying the Various Powers"
[1914]
Dr. Infanta watched with growing dread
as the reigning monarchs of Europe
rattled their sabers at each other.
Russia was expanding and so was
German paranoia, at the same time
the Ottoman Empire was falling apart.
Rising imperialism and nationalism
drove an arms race faster and faster.
As tensions rose, nations hastened
to make alliances with friends and
neighbors, dividing the continent
to defend their vulnerabilities.
Dr. Infanta could see it taking shape,
the awful future unfolding already.
Germany was lunging forward, and
if nobody stopped the expansion,
it would engulf the whole world.
Tyranny was inherently unstable,
though it never stopped tyrants
from trying to take and hold
everything they could reach.
It would break down eventually --
it had to, it always did -- but with
a world's worth of space to fill,
it could build up enough pressure
to shatter global civilization when
it finally did, perhaps forever.
The only way that Dr. Infanta
could find to prevent that calamity
was to split a big, unsurvivable war
into two smaller, more survivable ones.
She would have to find vulnerabilities
to exploit in order to achieve that.
She found her opportunity when
Archduke Franz Ferdinand
took a trip to Sarajevo.
There were already
people trying to kill him.
All Dr. Infanta had to do
was slip into the chaos and
complete an assassination.
She made it quick and clean
and painless -- at least for Franz.
Everyone else would just have
to suffer through the resulting war
and survive as best they could.
The assassination at Sarajevo
was certainly the crucial precedent
of the Great War that followed.
The death acted as a lever,
prying the various powers
into predictable paths.
The destruction was
terrible, both land and
bodies torn asunder in
the spreading conflict.
History was malleable,
but only to a certain point.
It had its vulnerabilities,
and surprising strengths,
much like humanity itself.
Watching the horrors unfold,
Dr. Infanta told herself, over and
over, it could have been worse.
Sometimes that helped.
* * *
Notes:
"The assassination at Sarajevo was certainly the crucial precedent of the European war that its conspirators had sought, but was not the historical cause … The assassination acted as a lever, prying the various powers into predictable paths."
J. Bowyer Bell, historian
Dr. Infanta splitting World War I and World War II was first mentioned in "We Must Bear Witness."
World War I was a vast international conflict with diverse causes, including the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. It ran from July 28, 1914 - November 11, 1918. It involved much of Europe, Russia, the United States, Turkey, and had battles spilling into the Middle East, Africa, and parts of Asia. The Treaty of Versailles helped sow the seeds of World War II.
"Imperfect as the world was in 1919, a scenario in which Germany was victorious would have been much worse."
Imagine a world in which the German expansion was not stopped; it would lead to widespread tyranny. Because tyranny is inherently unstable, at some point it would cause rebellion. Given a very large and powerful tyranny, the pressure would have room to build extremely high before finally exploding into a cataclysm that could be even bigger than WWI. Thus, a larger and possibly unsurvivable war was broken down into two smaller and more survivable wars. If you haven't seen the possibility of a larger war shattering global civilization permanently, then the two smaller ones look heinous and world-wrecking themselves.
World War II was even bigger than World War I, again with many causes including World War I. It lasted from 1939 to 1945 and involved most of the world's countries split into the Allies and the Axis powers.
People argue over whether the world wars were inevitable. This causes much debate regarding alternate history clichés. The genre of alternate history often focuses on WWI Points of Divergence and WWII Points of Divergence. Consider if WWI never happened, there might have been more economic development but less tolerance. Explore fiction about WWI alternate histories and WWII alternate histories.
Warning: This poem contains intense and controversial topics. Highlight to read the warnings, some of which are spoilers. It includes the leadup to World War I, seeing the future, timeline manipulation, assassination, the beginning of World War I, and other challenges. If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.
"Prying the Various Powers"
[1914]
Dr. Infanta watched with growing dread
as the reigning monarchs of Europe
rattled their sabers at each other.
Russia was expanding and so was
German paranoia, at the same time
the Ottoman Empire was falling apart.
Rising imperialism and nationalism
drove an arms race faster and faster.
As tensions rose, nations hastened
to make alliances with friends and
neighbors, dividing the continent
to defend their vulnerabilities.
Dr. Infanta could see it taking shape,
the awful future unfolding already.
Germany was lunging forward, and
if nobody stopped the expansion,
it would engulf the whole world.
Tyranny was inherently unstable,
though it never stopped tyrants
from trying to take and hold
everything they could reach.
It would break down eventually --
it had to, it always did -- but with
a world's worth of space to fill,
it could build up enough pressure
to shatter global civilization when
it finally did, perhaps forever.
The only way that Dr. Infanta
could find to prevent that calamity
was to split a big, unsurvivable war
into two smaller, more survivable ones.
She would have to find vulnerabilities
to exploit in order to achieve that.
She found her opportunity when
Archduke Franz Ferdinand
took a trip to Sarajevo.
There were already
people trying to kill him.
All Dr. Infanta had to do
was slip into the chaos and
complete an assassination.
She made it quick and clean
and painless -- at least for Franz.
Everyone else would just have
to suffer through the resulting war
and survive as best they could.
The assassination at Sarajevo
was certainly the crucial precedent
of the Great War that followed.
The death acted as a lever,
prying the various powers
into predictable paths.
The destruction was
terrible, both land and
bodies torn asunder in
the spreading conflict.
History was malleable,
but only to a certain point.
It had its vulnerabilities,
and surprising strengths,
much like humanity itself.
Watching the horrors unfold,
Dr. Infanta told herself, over and
over, it could have been worse.
Sometimes that helped.
* * *
Notes:
"The assassination at Sarajevo was certainly the crucial precedent of the European war that its conspirators had sought, but was not the historical cause … The assassination acted as a lever, prying the various powers into predictable paths."
J. Bowyer Bell, historian
Dr. Infanta splitting World War I and World War II was first mentioned in "We Must Bear Witness."
World War I was a vast international conflict with diverse causes, including the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. It ran from July 28, 1914 - November 11, 1918. It involved much of Europe, Russia, the United States, Turkey, and had battles spilling into the Middle East, Africa, and parts of Asia. The Treaty of Versailles helped sow the seeds of World War II.
"Imperfect as the world was in 1919, a scenario in which Germany was victorious would have been much worse."
Imagine a world in which the German expansion was not stopped; it would lead to widespread tyranny. Because tyranny is inherently unstable, at some point it would cause rebellion. Given a very large and powerful tyranny, the pressure would have room to build extremely high before finally exploding into a cataclysm that could be even bigger than WWI. Thus, a larger and possibly unsurvivable war was broken down into two smaller and more survivable wars. If you haven't seen the possibility of a larger war shattering global civilization permanently, then the two smaller ones look heinous and world-wrecking themselves.
World War II was even bigger than World War I, again with many causes including World War I. It lasted from 1939 to 1945 and involved most of the world's countries split into the Allies and the Axis powers.
People argue over whether the world wars were inevitable. This causes much debate regarding alternate history clichés. The genre of alternate history often focuses on WWI Points of Divergence and WWII Points of Divergence. Consider if WWI never happened, there might have been more economic development but less tolerance. Explore fiction about WWI alternate histories and WWII alternate histories.