Interesting. The conventional wisdom is that the Japanese communist route is 100% peak Alien Space Bats and involves creating a movement out of whole cloth. That it isn't is quite interesting.
I mean, obviously, if it started seriously threatening the existing government, the JPC probably would have gotten to collectively occupy a grave, but to even go down that tree, you have to invite back a bunch of sympathetic officers. Of course, that raises the question of why you, as the Imperial Japanese leadership would do that, which is kind of poorly explained. I understand that there are one or two incidents that could help make flashpoints for ideology shift, but instead, we just mash that MF focus button and the magic starts happening.
Edited by Balmung on Feb 28th 2019 at 2:22:03 PM
She/Her Pronouns
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
...Okay, the Netherlands point's pretty accurate. I'll rescind my ruling of it being the most out there alt history.
I will say, though, that America wasn't quite under direct rule like this Kingdom would be in colonial times, and most of the groundwork of its national identity was laid opposing the very concept of having a monarchy. So its earlier history of "monarchism" is sketchy at best.
Edited by AzurePaladin on Feb 28th 2019 at 3:22:34 PM
The awful things he says and does are burned into our cultural consciousness like a CRT display left on the same picture too long. -Fighteer
Editor of Posts
Whether Americans like it or not doesn't really matter because th eentire point is that Britain conquers them again and turns them into a client kingdom ruled by their own appointee. I don't think the Polish were all that big on communism or that the Gauls were any huge fans of Caesar either.
@Evil playthrough discussion.
I'm no racist, but leading slave trade gives +25% tariffs in EU3. Just sayin'.
Edited by Prany on Feb 28th 2019 at 8:06:39 AM
Still does in EUIV. And somehow, I have that bonus even though I've outlawed slavery (War Against the World Doctrine).
Overlording the Underworld
Also, there were supporters for making America a monarchy during its founding. John Addams himself advocated for a King instead of a President. Plus only about five percent of the nation actually took part in the Revolution. It's why it took so long and suffered so much. Making America a Monarchy after 150 years is far fetched, but it could have been done at the start.
Yeah, the only reason it didn't go forward was Washington saying "No, we just got away from one king, what was the point of the Revolution if I just take George's place?"
It was actually that they didn't want to pay taxes to an authority that 1) they had no legal representation in and 2) had recently shutdown several of their democratic legislatures in favor of appointed figures.
(I know you're joking but gosh darned it, I'm making this point 
)
Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Feb 28th 2019 at 2:37:53 PM
"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn
Overlording the Underworld
There were a lot of reasons for the war. Including the local drug lords (tobacco farmers) wanting to expand their businesses without British oversight and without having to pay out their cheaply earned money in taxes for the British doing their expansionism for them.
ETA: Modern British culture paints King George as a very good King who wanted the best for his people, including the colonies. They paint the Americans as upstarts who lied and cheated to pull off their revolution instead of having their representatives be honest about the trouble brewing back home. Ben Franklin is not very well regarded.
Edited by Journeyman on Feb 28th 2019 at 2:39:46 PM
Every war has many reasons, that means very little.
The American War for Independence began because a large number of British-Americans were unhappy about the lack of democratic representation.
Just because it wasn't the only reason didn't make it the main one. There's a reason "no taxation without representation" was the rallying cry instead of "don't stop us from selling tobacco". The former was far more important than the latter.
Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Feb 28th 2019 at 2:56:32 PM
"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn
I mean, I know that even some American historians (admittedly very contrarian and inflammatory ones) have argued that a lot of the public outrage was manufactured by businessmen who had a lot to gain from independence, through clever use of propaganda.
Let me guess, Howard Zinn? <rolls eyes>
That... would be very american.
Redmess
Indeed it would. 
And let's face it, it would hardly be the first or last time a conflict supposedly over ideology was driven by rather more materialistic concerns under the surface.
I think sheer distance from the centre of power had something to do with it as well. It's hard to feel like a part of the whole when you are so thoroughly separated both physically and temporarily.
Optimism is a duty.
Yeah, it's like how the Opium Wars were fought both because the Chinese attacked British ships, and also because the British wanted to make China dependent on them to supply an addictive drug because otherwise China didn't want to trade with them, and China had attempted to stop them from bringing the drug in.
Yes, material concerns are always relevant. And the most paramount material concern is "will they consider and protect my interests", a question that for a good chunk of British America the answer was clearly no.
Fundamentally material concerns and ideology are two sides of the same coin, and the former doesn't make the latter any less legitimate.
"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn
Wasn't the reason the British raised taxes on the colonies because they just fought an expensive war with the French on their behalf?
Sure and the rallying cry wasn't "no taxes ever" (contrary to what some libertarians might tell you 
) it was "no taxation without representation".
Onerous taxation is always going to anger people, but that anger is going to be compounded when you give other people representation and not them.
Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Feb 28th 2019 at 5:18:14 AM
"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn
Fair 'nuff, but it kinda seems like they were running out on the bill after their overlord very much just protected their interests.
Redmess
Though I'm sure there were more than a few less well educated would-be revolutionaries who interpreted it as "no taxes ever", and were rather dissapointed when that did not turn out the way they thought. Nuance tends to get lost in the heat of revolution.
Optimism is a duty.
Certainly, unlike say the American Civil War I don't view the War of Independence as excessively black vs white. The British and the Loyalists had understandable reasons as did the Patriots.
No doubt.
In my current CK2 game, one of my vassals's barons imprisoned the Pope and since I'm an emperor with Papal Investiture I can't get a coronation until the Pope gets dies or is released. Lol
Edit: lol just realized that the cooldown for changing investiture laws is up, so back to free investiture and getting a cardinal to coronate me.
Edited by lrrose on Feb 28th 2019 at 7:10:45 AM
Evil Space Elves were my favored strategy in Stellaris (haven't played since 2.2 because the launch was bug city) because aggressive map painting has always been my bag, genetic engineering allows a certain degree of specialization by species and slavery was a pretty strong strategy both for generating minerals, keeping factions under control and generating a genetic point through Decadent.
Actually, the USA did have a bit of a tradition of monarchism. Then the Boston Tea Party happened. To this very day, the British monarchs are quite popular amongst the American people.
It's also not exactly unheard of for a republic to become a monarchy under outside pressure. After the fall of Napoleon, the Netherlands and Belgium were formed into a kingdom by the British-Prussian alliance, despite the fact that the Netherlands hadn't had a king in over two hundred years.
Edited by Kayeka on Feb 28th 2019 at 9:16:41 PM