What was the Foreign Reaction to Gavilar's Unification of Alethkar?

[Silverblade5 he/him]

When Germany was united by Otto Von Bismark, it was a major event that upended the foreign policies of all the other major nations. Many states coming together to have a single economy, single army, and single foreign policy. Did we ever get anything like this for the unification of Alethkar? I can't quite remember anything beyond some small bits from Azir.

[alder24]

16 minutes ago, Silverblade5 said:

When Germany was united by Otto Von Bismark, it was a major event that upended the foreign policies of all the other major nations. Many states coming together to have a single economy, single army, and single foreign policy. Did we ever get anything like this for the unification of Alethkar? I can't quite remember anything beyond some small bits from Azir.

Not a lot, some skirmishes along borders with Herdaz and Jah Keved. I don't really remember if there was anything more said about foreign reaction to the unification of Alethkar. OB ch 49:

Quote

“I’m sending you to battle, but not against the Rift. Our kingdom suffers threats from abroad. There is a new dynasty threatening us from Herdaz; a Reshi house has gained power there. And the Vedens have been raiding Alethkar in the southwest. They’re claiming it’s bandits, but the forces are too organized. It’s a test to see how we react.”

OB ch 66:

Quote

“Yes, but that’s not the most important thing we won.”
Adolin frowned. “Um … horses…”
“No, son, the most important thing we’ve won is legitimacy. In signing this new treaty, the Veden king has recognized Gavilar as the rightful king of Alethkar. We’ve not just defended our borders, we’ve forestalled a greater war, as the Vedens now acknowledge our right to rule—and won’t be pressing their own.”

[DiePie]

33 minutes ago, Silverblade5 said:

When Germany was united by Otto Von Bismark, it was a major event that upended the foreign policies of all the other major nations.

The unification of Germany took place under subtly different circumstances than the unification of Alethkar. For one, most of Germany was already in a free trade agreement (informally lead by Prussia), and part of an internation organization called the German Federation (informally lead by Austria, and secondarily Prussia). Most German states had a much stronger legal code (which most of those states inherited from Napoleonic France). Germany is smaller than Alethkar, and while (oddly, now that I think about it) is about as culturally diverse, formed in large part to take advantage of rising nationalism, something that most Alethi's don't feel for their (still very) feudal society. Likewise, most people across the Vorin world care more about their feudal privileges than if their King speaks the same language as them. So reason number 1: Because Germany was more united (and because its rivals were more united), it constituted more of a threat to the surrounding people's way of life.

 

The second reason is that foreign policy in Europe at the time looked very different to the feudal politics of Roshar. The great diplomat Metternich had spent the better part of 50 years trying to balance the various European powers against each other in order to maintain peace. This part of this balance was the Prussian/Austrian rivalry for influence in Germany, which formed a buffer against the UK and France in the west, and Russia in the east. They would form alliances with the powers in the middle to prevent any one country from gaining too much influence. The formation of Germany put an end to this era, especially with it's defeat of France in the second Franco-Prussian war, showing that the unified Germany might be the strongest military force in European, potentially overtaking Russia. Since the UK's main rival at the time was Russia (because they were the strongest power in Europe, and using that position to compete for influence in Asia), this shift gave a reason for the UK to side instead with Russia against Germany. So reason number 2 is that it upended the delicate diplomatic system in Europe, while no such system existed on Roshar.

 

The third reason is that there aren't as many countries to realign their foreign policies. Of the surrounding Kingdoms, only Jah Keved was strong enough to do anything about a potential Alethi invasion, and if a dedicated invasion was launched, even every foreign country working together probably couldn't stop Alethkar from conquering them. So instead of shifting country's alliances with each other, Alethkar became the center of attention (sort of like a newly-unified China was historically).

 

The fourth reason is that the unification of Germany... didn't actually change that much. Not directly. I mentioned the UK and France earlier, and yeah. Every patriotic Frenchman would die in a moment if it meant the obliteration of Germany, and the UK became more hesitant. But Bismark was able to navigate the times, and maintain positive diplomatic ties with Russia, Spain, the Ottoman Empire, and somewhat with Austria (I believe long term, he wanted to annex the regions of the Habsburg empire that were majority German, but that's beside the point). So how did WW1 end up basically being Germany vs. Russia the UK and France? Well, Bismark was fired by Wilhelm II, who wanted to show everyone that Germany was the coolest kid on the block by taking overseas colonies and acting insisting so. That's what caused the British to tentatively ally with France against Germany, and eventually lead to Russia allying with France against Germany. So reason number 4 is that it wasn't the unification that caused the diplomatic revolution, but the increased belligerence afterwords instead. Gavilar didn't immediately do everything he could to piss off Jah Keved after unifying Alethkar.

 

So that's been long, but I want to make the point that the aftermath of the unification of Alethkar seems to be more similar to the IRL unification of Spain than Germany. The only nearby powers (Portugal and France) either knew they couldn't fight a unified Spain directly (and so buddied up with them), or didn't care because they were bigger and there was a mountain range in the way. Then Spain discovered a faraway land with lucrative mineral resources and dedicated a large amount of resources towards centralizing power there. But even that's weak, since Spain was unified by a marriage between the heads of two large kingdoms, who had gotten so large mainly by conquering Muslim rulers, in Spain, who no-one really cared about much (even other Muslims, as the Abbasid caliphate was falling apart around that time, and didn't command much loyalty).

[Silverblade5 he/him]

2 hours ago, DiePie said:

The unification of Germany took place under subtly different circumstances than the unification of Alethkar. For one, most of Germany was already in a free trade agreement (informally lead by Prussia), and part of an internation organization called the German Federation (informally lead by Austria, and secondarily Prussia). Most German states had a much stronger legal code (which most of those states inherited from Napoleonic France). Germany is smaller than Alethkar, and while (oddly, now that I think about it) is about as culturally diverse, formed in large part to take advantage of rising nationalism, something that most Alethi's don't feel for their (still very) feudal society. Likewise, most people across the Vorin world care more about their feudal privileges than if their King speaks the same language as them. So reason number 1: Because Germany was more united (and because its rivals were more united), it constituted more of a threat to the surrounding people's way of life.

 

The second reason is that foreign policy in Europe at the time looked very different to the feudal politics of Roshar. The great diplomat Metternich had spent the better part of 50 years trying to balance the various European powers against each other in order to maintain peace. This part of this balance was the Prussian/Austrian rivalry for influence in Germany, which formed a buffer against the UK and France in the west, and Russia in the east. They would form alliances with the powers in the middle to prevent any one country from gaining too much influence. The formation of Germany put an end to this era, especially with it's defeat of France in the second Franco-Prussian war, showing that the unified Germany might be the strongest military force in European, potentially overtaking Russia. Since the UK's main rival at the time was Russia (because they were the strongest power in Europe, and using that position to compete for influence in Asia), this shift gave a reason for the UK to side instead with Russia against Germany. So reason number 2 is that it upended the delicate diplomatic system in Europe, while no such system existed on Roshar.

 

The third reason is that there aren't as many countries to realign their foreign policies. Of the surrounding Kingdoms, only Jah Keved was strong enough to do anything about a potential Alethi invasion, and if a dedicated invasion was launched, even every foreign country working together probably couldn't stop Alethkar from conquering them. So instead of shifting country's alliances with each other, Alethkar became the center of attention (sort of like a newly-unified China was historically).

 

The fourth reason is that the unification of Germany... didn't actually change that much. Not directly. I mentioned the UK and France earlier, and yeah. Every patriotic Frenchman would die in a moment if it meant the obliteration of Germany, and the UK became more hesitant. But Bismark was able to navigate the times, and maintain positive diplomatic ties with Russia, Spain, the Ottoman Empire, and somewhat with Austria (I believe long term, he wanted to annex the regions of the Habsburg empire that were majority German, but that's beside the point). So how did WW1 end up basically being Germany vs. Russia the UK and France? Well, Bismark was fired by Wilhelm II, who wanted to show everyone that Germany was the coolest kid on the block by taking overseas colonies and acting insisting so. That's what caused the British to tentatively ally with France against Germany, and eventually lead to Russia allying with France against Germany. So reason number 4 is that it wasn't the unification that caused the diplomatic revolution, but the increased belligerence afterwords instead. Gavilar didn't immediately do everything he could to piss off Jah Keved after unifying Alethkar.

 

So that's been long, but I want to make the point that the aftermath of the unification of Alethkar seems to be more similar to the IRL unification of Spain than Germany. The only nearby powers (Portugal and France) either knew they couldn't fight a unified Spain directly (and so buddied up with them), or didn't care because they were bigger and there was a mountain range in the way. Then Spain discovered a faraway land with lucrative mineral resources and dedicated a large amount of resources towards centralizing power there. But even that's weak, since Spain was unified by a marriage between the heads of two large kingdoms, who had gotten so large mainly by conquering Muslim rulers, in Spain, who no-one really cared about much (even other Muslims, as the Abbasid caliphate was falling apart around that time, and didn't command much loyalty).

This was a very detailed response. Thank you for putting in the time.