Austria (Utopia)

The State of Austria is a large Central European country located in the Balkan region and just the south of Germany. It is the fourth most populous country in Europe ahead of France and behind Great Britain, Germany and Russia. If the puppets were counted, Austria will be the fourth most populous in the world.

Rise to power
Prior to the existence of the empire, Austria was a smaller nation called Kingdom of Vienna. The military of Vienna had an advanced military equipment and tools and were well trained, making it the strongest and most competent in the Balkan region. When Gerald III representing Hasburg family took the throne as the king of Vienna, he took this military advantage to conquer more kingdoms in the Balkan.

After conquering Hungary and Croatia, he renamed his kingdom into the Austrian Empire in 1497. He proceeded to expand further into the region and eventually taking Serbia and some parts of Bulgaria. During his reign, he either purged or forced the non-Austrians into adopting Austrian language and culture. This is called Austrianization and it was successful. In 1521, King Gerald III died and his oldest son succeeded him and adopted the name of King Louis I. Just like his father, he was an effective leader. He expanded to the East and took some parts from Kievan Rus and Byzantine Empire. He also significantly improved Austrian navy and conquered many parts of Northern Africa from Mussad Caliphate, causing it to collapse due to significant territorial losses. He also established relations with Sardinia (Italy), Prussia (Germany), Francia (France), Portugal and England (Britain) and his empire frequently traded with them, making Austria economically rich. When the Ottoman rose and took Constantinople from Byzantine in 1538, he and the other kings of these empires formed a alliance called the Great Entente, the first ever alliance to be formed in history to combat the Ottomans.

When the Ottomans reached Austria's doorstep in Africa, they regularly clashed, and most of these conflicts resulted in the Austrian victory. As Byzantine fell into a civil war, the Austrian quickly intervened and established the Kingdom of Greece as its puppet to prevent the Ottomans from expanding into Greece. In 1542, King Louis I died and his youngest sister succeeded him, declaring herself as the Queen Glacia. In the first place, many Austrians thought that Queen Glacia was not as effective as her brother and her father due to her gender as well as being the youngest daughter of Gerald III. However, overtime she actually proved her worth to her people. Queen Glacia's army easily took Cyprus from the Ottomans and returned it to the Greek in 1544. She also poured a lot of money to research and develop new military weapons and tactics for her military, making Austria even more powerful. She also sent out forces to help England to conquer the British Isles and helping the English to establishing the Empire of Great Britain in 1555. She eventually died in 1570 at the age of 78. Her youngest son, Georgie Hasburg succeeded her as King Georgie I at the young age of 16 as her other children were not interested in succeeding her to rule Austria. King Georgie regularly had his navy and land troops to train with the British and the Italian. He also helped to improve the infrastructure across the empire. When the Great Plague happened in 1577, his empire somehow avoided getting affected by it. This led to King Georgie to spend a lot of money on medical research to develop a cure for the epidemic.

By 1580, a cure was made by a team of Austrian doctors who were close friends of King Georgie and the medicine was then traded to other European countries affected by the plague, thus ending the epidemic. He and the doctors was then honored by his allies for saving Europe. Fast forward to 1590, the Polish Commonwealth invaded Prussia, causing Austria to declare war on Poland along with other members of the Great Entente. During the war, the Austrians had trouble in battling the Polish, and they suffered a lot of casualties. This led to King Georgie to establish a group called the Austrian Free Fighters in 1592. Basically, the members of the organization sneaked into many Polish military fortresses to steal supplies. This was a success for the Austrian and it became the turning point of the war for the Great Entente. As they lost many supplies, the Polish military were unable to fight against the alliance and in 1593, it finally surrendered. The Prussians took many western parts of Polish Commonwealth and Austria took Czechia from Poland while the Commonwealth collapsed and a new regime was created to become the puppet of Britain as well as becoming the British Kingdom of Poland. In 1595, Great Britain introduced firearms to Austria, and eventually Austrian soldiers abandoned swords and arrows and began equipping themselves with the more effective guns and this caused the army to become more modernized.

Austro-Ottomans War (1600-1602) and Russo-Austrian War (1625)
In 1600, the Ottoman fleets attempted to invade Cyprus, but were then crushed by the defending Greeks and Austrian navies. They also tried to attack Constantinople but were again defeated by the defending Greek soldiers armed with guns. To stop the Ottomans from invading any further, both Austria and Greece went on to full-scale invasion on mainland Ottoman. The Austro-African troops invaded their territories from the south while both the European Greeks and Austrians invaded from the west. Eventually, the Ottomans were overwhelmed and its army being exhausted while the Austrian and the Greek soldiers were reaching its capital, Ankara. They soon surrendered in 1602 and the Treaty of Budapest was signed. The Ottoman Empire soon dissolved, its king were then executed and Greece took back its former Byzantine territories from the Ottomans, eventually Greece was able to gain full independence from Austria and were no longer its puppet. In 1621, King Georgie I died and his son, Winston Hasburg succeeded him as King Winston II. The King of Austria had a dispute with Russia, and in 1625, he ordered his troops to invade Romania and Ukraine, both of which were under Russian control. His army, however, were defeated in the battles 3 months later. This humiliated Austria and the king eventually stepped down in October. His cousin, Frederick Da Vinci, succeeded him as the king, ending the Hasburg Dynasty. King Frederick quickly reformed the army, and fired several generals and replaced them with the more competent ones. Three months later in 25th December, 1625, his army invaded Russia's Romania and Ukraine once again and in 22th January, Austria managed to take western parts of Romania and Ukraine from Russia. As the Russian army were exhausted while the Austrian army stood strong, Tsar Peter II sued for a peace with King Frederick in 24th January. Austria took the territories it occupied during the Austro-Russian War and therefore restoring Austria's image and reputation as a powerful empire while humiliating the Russian as they had a larger military and lands than the Austrian.

Becoming a colonial power
In 1627, Austria invaded Mexico in order to establish colony there, causing Spain to declare war on Austria as Mexico was a client state of Spain. The Spanish navy tried to reach Mexico to defend it but were defeated by Austrian navy. British forces in America sent expeditionary forces of 4 divisions to help Austria to attack Mexico. They also helped to blockade Spain's mainland. In 1629, much of Mexico were occupied by Austria and the economy of Spain declined due to British blockade, forcing Spanish and Mexican monarchs to sign a peace treaty with both Austria and Britain. After that, Austria colonized Mexico while Britain expanded further west into America. The Austrian authorities in Mexico forced the Mexicans to adopt Austrian language and culture and executed anyone that didn't follow it. Although Austrianizing Mexico was harder than it was in Europe, Mexico still fell under the influence of Austrian culture. As Austria were experiencing Industrial Revolution in 17th century, they rapidly industrialized their empire including their colonies in northern Africa and Mexico, and thus improving the quality of life of its pe8ople and making it faster and easier to produce products. It also helped to prevent the Mexican from rebelling against their Austrian overlords. Infrastructure were improved and railroads were built across the empire and its colony.

Fast forward to 1773, the American Revolution begun and the British tried to take down the American Resistance led by George Washington. The Austrian in Mexico sent 15 divisions to help the British but the Resistance kept spreading throughout British America. Eventually, the British surrendered and a treaty was signed, establishing a democratic nation called the United States of America on 4th July, 1776. This caused fears among the European monarchs, who thought that their people will rebel and strip off their positions as a monarch and spread democracy. A year later, the Russian monarch reformed themselves as a democratic government, ending the Tsar dynasty as well as abolishing Russian monarchy. Russian Empire became known as the Russian Federation, further increasing paranoia among European monarchs including the Austrian monarch. One of the members of Great Entente, Prussia also reformed as a constitutional monarchy, which is a democratic form of monarchy. This resulted in Prussia getting kicked out of the alliance. King Louis of Austria declared war on Prussia shortly after on 26th August, 1779 to prevent his people from getting inspired by these democratic revolutionaries to have him abdicated. His army singlehandedly defeated Prussia and replaced the democratic monarch of Prussia with the more authoritarian one as its puppet. The former Prussian king and queen as well as the prime minister were then exiled to Russia.

This action caused President Caesar to push for modernization, effectively turning the mostly agrarian Russia into a industrial powerhouse in five years. He also strengthened the Russian army and had them equipped with more modern military equipment. This efforts prevented Austria from invading Russia. Russia also befriended with the US to counteract the authoritarian monarchs of Europe, creating the Washington And Moscow Defense Pact, or simply the WMDP in 1785. The Swedish Commonwealth, a former monarchy turned into a democratic nation, also joined the pact in 1786 as the Austrian were threatening Sweden. As democratic movements became more prominent in these German states, Austria ordered the puppeted king of Prussia to silence these pro-democracy movements and invade other smaller German states. However, before he could do, the King of Prussia was assassinated on 19th December by a Russian who worked with the Russian government. The son of the formerly exiled Prussian monarch, Nicholas Willhelm took the throne as King Nicholas and he outmaneuvered the Austria's influence on Prussia. Shortly after his coronation, he managed to unify all German states in 22th December with the help of Russia and reformed the monarch into a constitutional monarchy.

Great European War/First World War (1786-1787)
King Louis of Austria responded by declaring war on Germany in 24th December. Russia then declared war on Austria soon after. Sweden also joined the war. Following this, all members of Great Entente officially declared war on WMDP. Austrian troops invaded Germany but was then halted when Russia attacked Austria. Greece then attacked Russia's Caucasus in 26th December in surprise and this gave Austria the chance to counterattack Russia. Swedish forces tried to invade France through sea but was crushed by both French and British navies. Germany collapsed in 6th January, 1787 when losing so many territories to both British Poland and the French and got occupied by both nations, and King Nicholas were abdicated and imprisoned. Meanwhile, both Austrian and British navy in North America blockaded the US. When the Great Entente and the Greeks were reaching Moscow on 16th April, the government used 'Scorched Earth' tactic by burning and abandoning Moscow while relocating its people to further east. They also burned several cities nearby Moscow. Sweden also lost many of its western territories to Britain. Despite taking Moscow, the soldiers of the Great Entente were having problem in advancing even further due to winter so they stopped there to reinforce. On 15th August, the Russian troops returned and attempted to break through the alliance's occupied Moscow and nearby cities but were unsuccessful in doing so. However, the Russian counterattack caused a lot of casualties from both sides. Meanwhile, both the occupied Germans and Russians rebelled against their occupiers, and the soldiers of Great Entente tried to restrain the uprising through nonviolent means but were unsuccessful. The Russian troops then counter the Entente and on 20th November, they successfully took back all of their lost territories from the Entente but they failed to push further. After suffering high casualties from both the Russian and the German, King Louis issued a withdrawal from Germany to Great Entente. And six days later, all soldiers that were occupying Germany officially withdrew. The British still attacked Sweden but due to Swedish terrains and very cold weather, their advance were halted on 1st December.

On 25th December, a peace treaty was signed, officially ending the war in Europe. The Russian borders didn't change while Germany still retained its pre-war territories thanks to the uprising and King Nicholas was put back on the throne but Sweden had lost its Norwegian territories to Britain while the US suffered from severe economic recession and naval damage due to previous blockade by the British and Austrian navies. The war was then known as the Great European War or more commonly the First World War. Despite the war resulting in a slight Great Entente's victory due to the fact that the nations of WMDP had severe economic and infrastructure damages, Austria was blamed for causing the war by invading Germany from many members of Great Entente and the King Napoleon of France issued to remove Austria from the alliance out of anger that the war benefitted him nothing but brought high casualties to his military but was rejected by other Great Entente members especially the British Empire as Austria was essential to keep every countries of Great Entente in power. The war caused an estimated 1.7 million deads including Austria's 80,000 soldiers being killed in action, 100,000 French soldiers dead, 10,000 British soldiers, many whom were naval officers were being killed, 150,000 Russian soldiers dead and 95,000 German soldiers being killed and the rest were civilian casualties. The war also caused a cold war between GE and WMDP with both sides regularly spying on each other. However, during the war, many new technologies were created which was really ahead of its time and most of them were used by the Entente soldiers. Rapid fire field artillery were first being used on battle by the Austrians against the Russians on the start of 1787, and automatic rifles were invented and used on battlefield by the Polish army when they first invaded Germany. Hand-held grenade was also first used by the British to invade Sweden and later adopted by the Russians when they were counter-attacking the Entente soldiers. Last but not least, the Austrian soldiers frequently used the world's first long-range sniper rifle called the Rudolph rifle which was already developed back in 1782.

Aftermath of the First World War
After the war, the border of Europe didn't really change but the nations involved were deeply scarred by the events. Protests were pretty overwhelming throughout nations of Great Entente and the monarchs of the alliance particularly Austrian monarchs tried to suppress it by arresting protesters. Several years after the war, both Russia and the US recovered and they had a joint plans to influence the Middle East and Asia. In 1802, Qing Empire lost Manchuria and Mongolia to Russia after a war with them and Korea while Japan became a direct territory of the US and Korea was puppeted by the American. Persia became a democracy after a revolution in 1805 which was staged by Russia. This shocked the Great Entente countries and Britain bought Hong Kong in 1806 while Taiwan was purchased by Austria. The French also bought Shanghai a year later, and this effectively bailed the Qing out of debt from the war and they allied with the nations of Great Entente. In 1809, a territory in Southeast Asia which is now Malaysia became the territory of Britain while Sumatera was taken over by the Portuguese from the Majapahit Kingdom after a war in 1811. To prevent the Great Entente from expanding further in Asia, Philippines became a democracy after being influenced by the US in 1815 while Majapahit became a republic after a revolution which was staged by Russia.

In 1817, the American occupied New Zealand to prevent the British forces in modern day Australia from reaching it. Austrian navy from Taiwan attacked a US trade ship that were reaching Siam in 1819, causing the American to retaliate by navally attacking the trade ports in Taiwan under the guise of British navy four days later. After finding out that they were American ships, Austrian navy began navally invading Jeju a week later and took over it within three days, provoking both the American and Korea and both officially declared war on Austria on 22th May, 1819. Being confident in the war, President Garrison requested President Yakovic to not interfere unless the Korean Peninsula were taken over by the Austrian. The Korean navy assisted by the US tried to invade Jeju but failed and were defeated by Austrian ships that were surrounding it. Meanwhile, the US navy managed to pass through British ships and in 25th May, the American navy almost reached Taiwan but retreated when a very large numbers of ships were guarding the island and three days later, five out of twenty American ships were seized by pirates sent by Britain. Meanwhile, the 20,000 Austrian troops landed on the beach of Busan and fought the defending Korean soldiers stationed there. Busan was then swiftly occupied by Austrian troops within a day but two days later, they were driven out of the city when the both the Korean and American troops counterattacked the Austrian troops stationed there before they could march further to the north. However, during the battle, the Austrian only had a thousand casualties compared to both the Korean and American's 10,000 casualties. Rebellion backed by the American occurred in 1st June in Jeju island and the troops stationed there retreated with 50 casualties. Qing Dynasty and other Great Entente countries offered Austria to help invade Korea but was rejected. Austrian soldiers had attempted several times trying to invade Korea but was constantly pushed back by the defending soldiers on the nation while both the Korean and American navies tried to reach Taiwan but failed to do so due to Austria's superior naval capability. Finally on 4th September, all nations involved in the war signed a peace treaty, ending the Austro-Americano-Korean War. Due to the fact that Austria gained nothing from this war, the people again protested against the government, further damaging Austrian military's prestige and morale worsened. First Lord Duke Machima tried to increase the morale of the military by holding a speech in 6th September about how the Austrian navy was able to overpower both the Korean and the American ones as well as explaining the reason they didn't win the war to the soldiers, which actually slightly motivated the army.

In 1822, King Ferdinand II requested the Belgian government to sell their territory of Congo to Austria due to the harsh treatment of the black natives. The Belgian government reluctantly agreed and sold the land for a large sum of money to Austria. Queen Lisa of Austria released the slaves in Congo which was held by the Belgians and reformed the economy and infrastructure as well as modernized the territory there under the guidance of the First Lord and the King. Due to their long history with the non-white natives in their Northern African territory, the black natives in Congo were treated with equal respect as the white Austrians and other ethnic groups and they had easy acess to education and healthcare. But they too were forced to learn Austrian culture and language in order to seek out better opportunity. In 1823, over a million Austrian troops or 50 divisions were stationed at Sino-Russia border due to Russian soldiers regularly harassing the Qing troops and most of them were from Austria's Mexico and Taiwan due to the close proximity of these colonies to China. In response, a million American troops were deployed to assist the Russians in that borders on 6th August on that same year. Both Russian and US navies were also spotted roaming around Qing's China and Taiwan. Empress Shu Ze of Qing Dynasty requested to join the Entente through sending telegraph to Britain and on 10th August, they were accepted into it. In 22th June, 1825, Germany won a war against Belgium and annexed the whole country. This act provoked the Austrian monarch and they justified war against Germany but were soon stopped by the French, Italian and British monarchs to prevent another world war. On the other hand, Britain and France tried to normalize relations with Russia and America which alienated Austria and First Lord Abigail Christiana warned both countries that the Russian and the American will influence their politics. Meanwhile, Germany also wanted to do the same with Austria and the Prime Minister Emmett Frederick requested to visit Vienna to talk about normalizing relations but was rejected by Queen Lisa.

Military
The Austrian military is known as the Great Austrian Armed Forces. It consists of Land Troops, Marine, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard. The Land Troops conduct land invasion with infantry, tanks, artillery and mechanized units, the Marine conducts amphibious operation with the navy, the Air Force conducts air raids on enemies' territories, bases and aircrafts, the Navy conducts naval raids on enemies' bases and ships as well as helping the marine to conduct amphibious invasion and finally the Coast Guard are used to protect Austria's homeland on water. The Austrian army is one of the most efficient army in the world with over 6 million active personnel including the puppets' own. It also has the largest number naval fleets and aircrafts. The military also possesses nuclear warheads with a total 3,560 nukes.