Germany (Empires of Liberty)

Germany is a nation in the middle of Europe with an area approximately 257,577.3 mi2 (667,122.28 km2), and a population of 140,574,837 as of 2016. It has 36 states, and its capital is Berlin.

History
In this Germany, the Protestant Reformation is incredibly successful, such that the Holy Roman Empire became majority Protestant by the end of the 16th century. German missionaries spread the Lutheran movement into Poland and the Baltic states, such that those lands also become officially Protestant also. Even France experiences a deep reformation, such that the eastern third and northeastern quarter are still to this day Protestant, despite a Counter-Reformation. The Czech lands become Protestant under the Czech Hussite Church.

Protestant Germans move to the New World, in colonization efforts such that Klein-Venedig, Neu Südpreußen in South America, British North America (which would eventually become the United States), Prussian Gold Coast, Kamerun, German Southwest Africa, and islands in the Pacific.

In 1815, the Holy Roman Empire was replaced with the German Confederation, with a number of small states combined together into larger states. Prussia became the largest of the German states until 1848, during the republican revolutions, when Rhineland broke off, as did Westphalia and Hanover, whose monarch came from the British throne when it restored its own monarchy. The revolutions failed to gain a united German nation of all German-speaking lands, leading to a large exodus of Germans to the British Empire and the United States, notably in Texas, Rio Grande, California, and across the old South. The revolutions did succeed somewhat, in that the constitutions of various kingdoms and republics of Germany became slightly more liberalized and most territories gained legitimate parliaments. Hungary broke off from Austria, creating the separate Hungarian Empire.

War returned in 1866-67, with Austria and Prussia vying for dominance in the German Confederation, with Austria losing out and Prussia gaining a dominant role in forming the North German Confederation. Prussia annexed one ally, Hesse, as a result of this war. Two wars over Schleswig occurred with Denmark, leading to the total annexation of Schleswig into the North German Confederation. The king of Prussia, Frederick William V, led the nation during the Franco-Prussian War, after which Prussia annexed Alsace-Lorraine, paid the French 20 million Marks, and was crowned Emperor of the Germans in Aachen.

This Germany was led by Frederick William V till 1880, when Frederick III became emperor, and continued the reforms of his predecessor. Chancellor Bismarck was a driving force in unification, leading a 'Kulturkampf' - a celebration of German culture and the new German state, and of the Protestant Reformation, which celebrated its 355th year in 1871 - against the local regional cultures. Polish Lutherans joined in, but only after a reversal of the mandatory Germanization policy in Posen and West Prussia was lifted; Polish gained the right to speak Polish in every day dealings, church, and with local governments.

In the early 1900s, tensions rose in Europe, and the dam burst in 1914, when Archduke Ferdinand was shot. William I, Frederick's son, was Emperor at this point, and he was leery of entering a war against France, if only because he was unsure of the UK's position, and didn't want to be surrounded on both sides. He wavered on entering the war on Austria's side, who soon gained Hungary and the Ottomans as an ally. William I sent envoys to England to ask for help in a diplomatic solution to the conflict, but it fell on deaf ears in Parliament and in the royal house, even though he implored and offered the throne of Hanover to the British Royal Family again.

The point was moot when France declared war and invaded Germany, forcing the Germans to declare war. The UK then declared war on Germany, but it was a reluctant war that the people were not behind. They knew the German Emperor has pleaded for their help and had not attacked France, and they didn't think he should be attacked. But the British joined the fight, and soon the Americans, who entered the war only after the sinking of the Lusitania, which was soon published after the war during the peace negotiations to have been a provocation by the French flying a German flag at sea.

During the negotiations at Versailles, Germany was not forced to admit war guilt, to France's anger. They do yield Alsace-Lorraine, and have a plebiscite in Schleswig-Holstein concerning its staying or leaving the German Empire, and pay for damages to France, the UK, and the US. The newly independent Poland formed a republic and demanded a sea corridor, but was denied by the US and the UK in negotiations. The resultant Germany was unified, but humbled. William I was also required to abdicate in favor of his brother Heinrich, who became Emperor Heinrich I.

South of Germany, German Austria was formed, with its requested borders, plus Burgenland, whose capital was Ödenburg, with Preßburg and St Gotthard and Weiselburg also included. This new Austria was made a republic, unlike Germany, and due to France's machinations, could not join Germany like the 90%+ of the people wanted.

Kaiser Heinrich helped spur a modernization program of Germany, starting with a car trip he took with an early automobile, leading to a paved road project that became the 1933 Autobahn act. His youth and popularity made him very popular in Germany, and helped the Germans revitalize their economy and stabilize his reign.

France was still fuming that Germany hadn't been humbled for attacking them, and that their economy was sputtering along, leading to the rise of Croix-de-Feu part in the French parliament, which took power in 1933 and began a huge fascist rearmament program.

The depression hit Germany in 1929, and ended the terms of two chancellors before Helmut Steinberg was able to form a government in 1932, and Germany's economy started growing again. By 1939, its economy had come back to pre-war levels. Unfortunately, that was when the French decided to invade.

In 1937 the French had begun inciting attacks in Alsace-Lorraine of the French-speakers against the Germans, and Poles in Posen and West Prussia. In two years, tensions in Europe had grown to worse than before the first World War, as French in the Netherlands had been agitating as well.

The dam burst in 1939 when the French pushed through the Netherlands and Alsace-Lorraine in a pincher 'blitzkrieg' (as the Germans named it), through the Netherlands and western Germany. They captured Rhineland, Westphalia, Oldenburg, Alsace-Lorraine, Baden, Württemberg, and Oldenburg in short order before the German armed forces could respond. The allied Poland helped push through West Prussia and Posen, carving off East Prussia from Germany, and using the Poles in southern Silesia and Teschen Silesia to capture part of that province.