#aph history

[lemonerix]

"...and when I'm gone, will you remember me?"

"When you're gone? I doubt someone like you would be going anywhere anytime soon."

"Haha, you're right. I suppose I'll be stuck here for a while."

"Good, because I need someone to keep praising the awesome me!"

[pepsiloverswarehouse]

attack of the dead

[iam-lnt]

The Age of Louis XIV

Voltaire, who wrote Le sciècle de Louis XIV (The Age of Louis XIV), started off by doing a recount of the states of Europe before Louis XIV. and my hetalia brain rot began to go wild so i figure this can help me understand the first chapter of the book better so I sorted out quotes and made a brief summary for each mentioned nation in order that is written in the book to help enforce my understanding.

Germany*

*- "Germany" refers to the Empire of Germany, known in history as the Holy Roman Empire; since the 15th century, its throne had been occupied by the Habsburgs

"...the most powerful neighbor which France has...it abounds more with sturdy men inured to labor." "this great Germanic body...is maintained in [... ] order and regularity [...] The difference of government and genius makes...the Germans [more proper] for acting on the defensive."

Summary: strong, divided into two parties by Christianity. Emperor has less power in compare to a King in France. Was at the time pretty poor despite being "rich at home", and would eventually see its flourishing later on.

Spain

"...more formidable to Europe than the Germanic Empire. The kings of Spain were infinitely more absolute and rich than emperors..." "[Spain] under Philip II became a vast body without substance, which had more reputation than real strength...Notwithstanding all these disadvantages, Spain, by being united to the empire, threw a very formidable weight into the balance of Europe."

Summary: strong #2, starting to see its weak points, but still a ringing force and surviving well with the colonies.

Portugal

"...Portugal was again made a kingdom...through necessity, cultivated trades...entered into a league with the French and Dutch against Spain." "Portugal...extended its trade, and augmented its power..."

Summary: doing well over there. Shall watch your career with great interest.

The United Provinces

"...almost the only example in the world of what may be done by the love of liberty and unwearied labor. There poor people...made head against the whole collected force of their master and tyrant...and founded a power which we have seen counterbalancing that of Spain itself." "...they established a form of government which preserves...equality, the most natural right of human kind."

Summary: quite an admirable force (don't mess with the Dutch's money bags™️). Good government.

England

"England...arrogated to itself the sovereignty of the seas, and pretended to preserve a balance between the powers of Europe." "This civil war...[made England] lost [...] credit in Europe...trade was obstructed, and other nations looked upon [England]...till the time that she at once became more formidable than ever, under the rule of Cromwell."

Summary: pirate arc of England sprouting. Charles I could do well in anything but being a king ("ill-advised prince"). Waiting for Cromwell to do his thing.

Rome/The rest of Italy

I merged these two parts together for ✨aesthetics✨

"[Rome] has very little trade or money. [Rome's] spiritual authority...is slighted and abhorred by one half of Christendom...yet [...] some [...] resist [Rome's] will at times with reason and success." "but [the privileges] of Rome, by an almost constant proper use of resolution and concession, has preserved all that was humanly possible for her to preserve." "Some rights, many pretensions, patience and politics are all that Rome has left now of that ancient power..."

Summary: typical pope behavior, but in reality was losing respect and control. Impressively that was dealt with seasoned insight, and different oppositions of different kings/emperors were met with different levels of defense ("submissive...terrible to..acting cunningly"). Sly old fox, if you will.

"...situated in a peaceble country...biassed by various interests." "The state of Florence enjoyed tranquility and abundance under [...] Medici; and literature, arts, and politeness [...] still flourished there."

Summary: the typical Renaissance still doing the thing. Less disturbed by conflicts compared to the northern parts.

The Northern Kingdoms

"The Swedes [...] were a freer nation by their constitution which admits even the lowest class of the people into the assembly of the general estates." "Denmark...was no longer so [formidable] to any power."

Summary: Sweden good. Denmark flopping a bit. The rest of the northern kingdoms were doing their best (fighting)

The Turks

"The seraglio, though corrupted by effeminacy, still retained its cruelty...when it had [recovered from wars], this empire became again formidable."

Summary: may look messy back home but still don't underestimate the power

The situation of France

"France [...] was in alliance with Sweden, Holland, Savoy and Portugal...was engaged in a war against the empire of Spain...The French there has done the Spaniards and Germans a great deal of mischief, and had suffered as much themselves."

Summary: fighting with Spain (and also the house of Austria, so also Germany), tho the battles has reduced to petty squabbles over "a few frontier towns". Richelieu came to raise tax.

---

Works cited The Works of Voltaire. A Contemporary Version. A Critique and Biography by John Morley, notes by Tobias Smollett, trans. William F. Fleming (New York: E.R. DuMont, 1901). In 21 vols. Vol. XII.

--- Rambling (just a little) time.

Okay first off, bear in mind that all the quotes and summarized content are from the pov of Voltaire, so there can be possible biases.

I've been invested in the reign of Louis XIV for quite a while now, and I can attribute the reasons to 1) BBC Versailles, 2) Molière, and 3) general liking to history at the time (17-18c). I'm trying to figure out what exactly that the time period attracted me so much, like what "vibe" what "ideal" etc, but I'm still trying. And reading that book, which is long as hell, not to mention the messy af™️ European drama and people having Too Similar Names may just be helpful in terms of getting to know the history that happened in and around the court of Louis XIV.

Welp, gotta read more if I want to know more.

[lookiamnotshameless]

A man who looks surprisingly plain without his glasses, as described by Himaruya Hidekaz, aka a liar who LIES.

I intentionally didn't use anything from APH, because you can argue that his concept had changed since then or something. But you know what, Hima still lies.

(Roderich's feelings about his own face are a wholly separate thing.)

[renonv]

Legend has it that only a kiss of the one who may truly humble the dumbass warrior will free him from the imprisonment of stone ❤️

Sorry guys! On this blog there’s no order. Just random gay thoughts that pop into my head that I will hopefully draw more of later 😋💕

[eisenrosen]

Mein schiesse son Alfred who shoots me with guns

[goldenstarprincesses]

*modern trench warfare being used for the first time in a major conflict during the American civil war*

*trench warfare leaving mental scars on Alfred that takes years of healing to move past*

Alfred showing up to Europe and seeing they somehow made trench warfare worse

[dandelion6669]

WHYYYYYYY WHYYYYY WHY WHYYYYY

DOES NO ONE SPEAK ABOUT

🙌THAT🙌

[billowingangel]

╭────────────────────.🗺..─╮ If you're a hetalian and bored click here! ╰─..🗺.────────────────────╯

(≥ヮ≤)Ⳋ Carrd includes 12 different categories you can distract yourself with!

Art included is by @/Titaniumtsar and @/Arumidden (^し^)

( ∂ ω ∂ ) If you have any suggestions for links to add send them my way!

I hope this helps to distract and entertain anyone whose bored (´ヮ`)~*

[lookiamnotshameless]

I like to imagine that the Bad Friends Trio shade Roderich all the time when they're sober, but when they get really drunk, he becomes Europe's No. 1 taboo topic.

If anyone mentions Roderich while these three got drunk out of their brains, Gilbert gets weepy and angry and all kinds of unintelligible annoying drunkard about how he's been extremely down bad for Roderich ever since the nth century and that asshole keeps choosing anyone, anyone in Europe other than him. He did so much! He kind of tore Roderich's shit apart! And Roderich wouldn't even look at him!

Which makes Antonio start talking about the 200 years he was married to Roderich, not because he wants to hurt Gilbert or because he's jealous, but because he's the sort of drunk who likes to rant and rave about happy times to assert some control over his memories of them after they've slipped out of his hands probably unto forever.

Which makes Gilbert weep worse. Which makes Francis, who's the only one here who actually got to have something with Roderich without putting his entire heart into it, start talking how he totally understands, because Roderich was extremely hot when he was losing a war or when he does this and that. Which makes everything spiral down a drain REALLY FAST.

Bonus funnies if they were doing this in a Swiss bar and got thrown out of the entire country, only to be stalked by a Bastard Frypan Demon From Hell, who may or may not be there for either their blood or their deets.

[mystybird]

al and his first giiiiiiirlyyyyyyy friend (she’s a human and this will end tragically)

[shtoproishoditemae]

Poland again

[ifindus]

i dont know if you've already answered a similar question — but do you think that norway/denmark/sweden still speak/write/understand old norse well? or is it just iceland these days?

Probably just Iceland, because his language is the most similar to old Norse and he is very proud of his old saga literature, so he'd want to be able to read it in his old language and has constantly been maintaining it. The Scandi trio could probably make out some sentences and words and get the general gist of the contents, but if you haven't spoken it in a 1 000 years, you'll probably forget a lot of it, and they haven't bothered to maintain it as well as Iceland.

[lolliepops-rox]

Inspired heavily but this video

Thinking about the difference in accent and sound between France's French and Canadian French.

Francis: hello my dear child how are you, I know I've been away a while but I'm here to visit Matt: -speaks french Canadian- Francis: what the fuck did you do to my beautiful language???

Obviously Arthur is basically fluent in French. That's his girlfriend/ex-wife/husband/ex-boyfriend. Also he's been invaded by France so many times. (Fun fact about a third of English words are actually stolen from French). So I love the idea that Francis finds it easier to talk to Arthur in French, then he does to speak to Matt in French.

Despite both knowing french, Matt and Arthur NEVER talk to each other in it, because Arthur just isn't actually fluent enough to translate Matt's accent & variations in his head

Francis & Matt: -having an argument in French in the living room- Arthur: wait Matt can just you switch to english for a second, I need to check who's side I'm on

Two other videos about accents/language that I love and will ramble about in the tags

[b1tstar]

IM GONNA SHIT WHAAAATTT

[lookiamnotshameless]

You know, I usually hate the 'really pretty person doesn't realize they're pretty' trope, but there's something about it that works when it happens with Roderich Edelstein, aka the man who spent half a millennium being The Catch of Europe, and knew it. He knew, and despite making rather full use of that and despite looking like that, he vehemently believes that he is plain and uninteresting without his glasses (his music), that he'd instantly become the worst looking person in Europe when you ask him to put on a relatively harmless costume (so, without his veneer of aristocracy).

This isn't your standard garden variety oblivious insecurity; this is some next level denial of self. This man actively, categorically and thoroughly denies any idea that he can possibly be attractive/wanted/needed by himself, as a person, rather than by what he is, the power he can offer, the cultural refinement he possesses. While he isn't repressed about who he is and has no qualms about showing his slovenly/lazy sides, he simply denies that it has any value. It goes beyond ‘I'm worthless', it's more like, ‘there's no value in getting to know any of this, don't bother' matter-of-factly. (I remember that meta that he doesn't even take his glasses off if there's even one person with him, even someone he's more comfortable around like Erzsebet.) There are cases of other characters telling him that he looks just fine or showing him rather personal affection, and he just seems to…shrug it off, like you'd shrug off someone who just stated that the world is flat and lizardmen live on the moon. He's not angsty about it. This is how he prefers it. He prefers that there's nothing to Roderich Edelstein the entity-who-could-conceivably-be-seen-as-a-person, only what Austria the Nation has built over the years.

Couple that with how he embraces his lack of agency and complacency to a degree that nobody else does and is just kind of shrug emoji about it, and he became this sort of undying cockroachlike intrigue that won't leave my brain even after so many years.

At the end of the day this is probably why my endgame Roderich ship in the Year of Our Lord 2024 is still Gilbert, after all this time. Reams of text have been written about how they've been such perfect foils to each other across the centuries, and what could be a more perfect modern-day foil to all that than the character who literally has nothing left but being a person? Someone who lost everything built in his name as an immortal earth-god-parasite-spirit-thing, whose legacy is being slowly forgotten? Someone who, despite shining as bright as Roderich back in his prime, had never defined or presented himself as anything but who he is as a person and expected the same from others? (Gilbert has his own tanks of worms yes but this is a Roderich stan post.)

When you take in the fact that Gilbert was weirdly obsessed with stalking and antagonizing Roderich this entire time, it creates a really nice juicy conflict point for my shipping tastes lol.