The Saga of Tanya the Evil - Vol. 19 Ch. 54 - The Intervention Which Was Too Late V

[Deathhappens]

Oh, I was hoping to see Tanya's desperate dash this chapter. Pretty panels of people and beautiful architecture being shelled to oblivion are nice, but they're still filler.

 

[ultimatehaki]

@RandomnessOfTheMathWorld I don't know about them acting like good guys but at the very least they are the victims here.

 

[mateus21o]

anyone know where this is compared to the ln?

 

[Snooder87]

@lolzninja4 - you mean like how Germany made peace with Vichy France in WWII? How did that work out?

 

[chaostk]

@mateus21o Around half of volume 3 of the LN.

 

[MoodyUsername]

Honestly, I enjoyed this manga more than the anime now that I saw and read both.

 

[RandomnessOfTheMathWorld]

@ultimatehaki And the civilians who died in Paris because of artillery weren't victims too ? Dude, it's a symmetrical war : codified violence. Yes the not-germans are fighting for their survival as a sovereign nation, but so does the not-french and all the other countries involved. I already explained why it made sense the not-french attacked first : they were doomed if they didn't.

What you see here is history narrated from the not-german/tanya side. Of course it's biased. You don't know what happened before. How did the not-german-empire grew so large ? Surely not by kindly asking their neighbours if they could take some land... In geopolitical logic, good or bad means nothing. Nations doesn't have friends, only interests.

 

[Ulfhednar]

@RandomnessOfTheMathWorld

How did the not-german-empire grew so large ? Surely not by kindly asking their neighbours if they could take some land...

Pretty much that, actually.
If you read the LN, it's obvious that they followed real history up until the battle of Königgrätz (Austro-Prussian war, 1866). Before that, history (such as the London Treaty / Treaty of Londinum) is pretty much the same as in reality.
And from medieval times, Germany had always made a point of giving back captured land after wars in return for diplomatic concessions (such as Austria supporting Prussia after Königgrätz, or the 1916 Christmas peace offer).
With the exception of short-lived French conquests, real Germany's Borders virtually didn't change between the 850s (when Lothringen was without heir and asked to become part of Germany) and the 1920s (when Poles, Brits, Belgians and Italians broke their respective treaties and stole freed German and Austrian borderlands).

The fictional history diverges after 1866, with not-Austria being subdued and not-Hungary becoming independent, but that's only civil war between two of the many states making up the Empire, so they didn't "take" land there either. And they don't seem to have colonies either.
So unless you take the Franco-Saxon wars (which you might as well blame not-France and not-Italy for), they actually didn't "take" any land.

As for other countries making up claims about the Empire being "aggressive", that's just as much propaganda as in reality. Just like even nowadays, people will claim that the (second) German Empire was unusually militaristic and war-oriented, when the reality is that France had a much higher percentage of soldiers per inhabitants (~50% more iirc) and the German Empire didn't declare war even once during it's entire existence.
But as always, the winners are the ones writing history, and they want to make it seem like they were justified in declaring war.

 

[Ulfhednar]

Sorry for the doublepost, tried to edit a typo, accidentally deleted to much and can't fix it now for some reason (clicking "edit just gives an empty input field).

Anyways: the fictional history diverges not only in 1866, but also in 1864, as the Prusso-Danish war didn't happen. The 1952 London Protocol / Treaty exists though, and the 1866 war did happen (though the year is never mentioned). So a gradual divergence starting around 1864, and becoming extreme in 1866.

 

[RandomnessOfTheMathWorld]

@Ulfhednar You get that point, but it doesn't undermine my main point.

"But as always, the winners are the ones writing history, and they want to make it seem like they were justified in declaring war."

Not if history is narrated from the losers eyes, which is the case here. They weren't "justified" to start a war (I don't think you morally can), but they where virtually obliged to do it if they didn't want to become a second class world power.

 

[Ulfhednar]

@RandomnessOfTheMathWorld

it doesn't undermine my main point.

Yeah, I wasn't trying to do that, as I'm probably too biased due to being German and seeing the many parallels between this fictional story and real history. But if you're asking:

Not if history is narrated from the losers eyes, which is the case here.

What I was referring to is reality, where Entente propaganda about German warmongers is still widely accepted even today, and fictional not-UK and not-US blaming the Empire for the war in the 1960s interludes. Both are from the eyes of the winners, while the imperial viewpoint seems rather unbiased - Tanya's just interested in getting the war over with and retiring, and doesn't care about who her enemies are.

They weren't "justified" to start a war (I don't think you morally can), but they where virtually obliged to do it if they didn't want to become a second class world power.

Not-France was in a situation where they could have continued exploiting their colonies and trading with not-UK and not-US while keeping not-Germany in check through diplomacy, as every major power had an interest in keeping not-Germany down. Similar to real Germany keeping all European powers allied against France in the late 19th century, which went well until Wilhelm II thought he could get away with offending the UK too.

 

[RandomnessOfTheMathWorld]

"What I was referring to is reality"

My bad

"Entente propaganda about German warmongers is still widely accepted even today"

That I can agree on

"keeping not-Germany in check through diplomacy"

Germans won't stand still too. Closing prematurely the Eastern Front by forcing Russia to adopt at least a Neutral stance would have been one way to do it.

 

[FridericusRex]

"France cannot be France without greatness," - Charles de Gaulle

I really like how the manga managed to sneak in that little detail lol

 

[TanyaIsNotEvil]

I thought they were just goggles Turns out it has the zoom option

 

[WindOcean]

If they don't make peace know, they will fall into another war

 

[TheKuudereDude]

so.. what did the implied french do? im too dumb but did they migrate somewhere?

 

[Daelyas]

@TheKuudereDude

They fled to their African colonies. But only the troops ofc. Overall not-france is occupied.

 

[The5thSeraph]

"Spoiled food"? Cheap words from a country specialising in mouldy cheese.

 

[konpyuutasan]

Yikes, Shutterstock images in a manga? That's a new low. (p. 20)