Ireland (Napoleon's World)

The Iron Revolution is the name given to the military coup instigated on August 19th, 1925, to overthrow reigning French Emperor Napoleon III Bonaparte by his brother, Prince Regent and Minister of State Albert Bonaparte and members of the military and ruling elite. While not a wholesale revolution by definition, it was a major turning point in Imperial history, signifying an end to the peaceful years of the late 19th and early 20th century, ushering in a violent period of instability climaxing with the French Civil War and concluding with the solidification of Emperor Sebastien Bonaparte's rule in the late 1940's, and the formation of the French Empire as the model for the modern, efficient dictator state.

Unpopularity of Napoleon III
Napoleon III had come to power in 1922 following the death of his father, Louis II. He was duly noted for his failure to take advantage of opportunities to drag Europe out of the economic slump it had experienced since the Paris Stock Market's crash in 1917, and the lengthy depression only deepened during his reign.

Brother Albert had served as Minister of State since 1913, and watched his elder brother and Crown Prince make several mistakes working for his father in the Internal Ministry. Napoleon III passed his most disastrous policy in 1924 when he declined a blockbuster trade agreement with the Calcuttan raj, thus eliminating enormous potential profits for the French Indian Company based out of Karachi. Business leaders in Paris and Berlin, the Empire's two largest commerce centers, went into uproar, and so did mass labor. A huge strike was staged at the Renault motor vehicle factory in Bourges, and Napoleon III employed Churat agents to work as strikebreakers. When this covert tactic only doubled their problems, the Grand Army arrived to do away with the strikers, killing 34 men.

As the Pacific War began to unfold late in 1924, Napoleon III went against the advice of his most trusted generals - including Grand Marshall Ricard Cerf and General Stephan Halle - and chose not to enter on the side of the Americans, Brazilians and Alaskans, despite overseeing the largest military in the world at the time.

On May 7th, 1925, a riot broke out in Berlin, and despite the Grand Army's arrival in the riot's second day of violence, Imperial Governor Desmond Eunaire was kidnapped from his home and publicly lynched at Ramslerplatz in front of a jeering crowd. Eunaire was a symbol of Imperial ineptitude and French meddling in the eyes of most Germans - his death was a severe boost to anti-government forces brewing beyond the Elbe. In Poland and Russia, there was talk of rebellion against the ruling elite.

Metillon Conference and Preparation
Albert Bonaparte issued a missive to three officers in the State Ministry on June 4th, 1925, inviting them to his private retreat at Metillon, in the French Alps. Edouard Magnan, Francois Baptiste and Paul Nife arrived on June 10th and entered a closed-door meeting in the palace's conference room. There, as Baptiste recalls, the Prince Regent said the following:

"Gentlemen, no matter how I love my brother, I love France more. And these two, they can never coexist."

This was the preamble to the Metillon Conference, where Albert outlined his plan for an Empire without Napoleon III as head. Initially, Albert's plan called for a Grand Assembly vote to block