【MoFA】 TOTP: The foreign affairs edition [2/3]

Day 3,723, 21:46 • Published in United Kingdom North Macedonia • by Foreign Office
Please don't assume this is a complete history of our foreign affairs: these countries make up, IMO, some of our strongest relationships, be that good, or bad. The first article in this series, which outlined numbers 10 through 8 can be found here.


7: Ireland

This relationship is the most volatile on this list, whilst relations are calmer these days, our previous relationship with Ireland was one of extremes. When I first joined the game, we were essentially joined at the hip: with one of my earliest memories centering on the UK essentially loaning Ireland thousands of gold because their treasury was stolen by a Croatian PTO(if memory serves!). One of the world's longest continuing MPPs was between the UK and Ireland, being renewed for a consecutive 3 years. A deterioration of relations started when players from both sides became somewhat jittery and started fighting in various Resistance Wars. Animosity between the UK and Canada (a strong Irish ally at the time) ultimately lead to not only the end of our MPP, but also Ireland taking part in one of the many gangbangs that later signified our mutual distaste.

Later squabbles relating to an element of Irish folk who insisted on bringing real world issues (IE: NI) ultimately lead to a breaking point in the relationship: and several UK members moved over to the UK to try and PTO them. Giant insects aside, things simmered for a while, with various gangbangs ensuing; but as things stand, it's a relatively quiet front these days. Ultimately, our previous relations with Croatia (a traditional Irish ally) knocked the wind out of Irish animosity, and despite the fact we've long since moved away from the Croatian sphere of influence, things have not really picked up since.

Key events: UK PTO attempt, Ireland joining US/CA/PL/SW gangbangs on various occasions, IRE-FR gangbangs, UK loan of ~3k gold.


6: France

Another relationship that appears complicated when looking from the outside, as there were severe swings along the way, France is one of the few countries that we have actively changed sides for. We originally became pals during the PEACE period. Before this, a UK-Belgium alliance was a sticking point with our neighbours across the pond, but our betrayal of ATLANTIS was the starting point of what was, at the time, a genuine brotherhood. Relations drastically improved, and were cemented as both countries joined the more focused follow up to PEACE, Phoenix. Although the UK joined as a founding member, France delayed their entry as they assessed their options. Ultimately, heavy lobbying from the UK resulted in France finally joining several weeks later. It's here that UK-FR relations flourished, with the UK sacrificing itself several times during the SP/PL invasion of FR/DE. Ultimately the war was one of the most costly in French history, with Spain and the USA keeping the country on its knees for a long period of time.

After Phoenix also died, we then, under heavy lobbying from the French government, took a decision which stunned the worl😛 we left our closest allies at the time, Hungary and Serbia, and joined our French allies as a member of Terra. The alliance was essentially an American creation, as half of Phoenix and half of EDEN joined to become ONE. Ultimately, things didn't work out for us, and we left our French allies to rejoin our history Serbian/Hungary friends in ONE later that year. This lead to a darker period in UK-French relations, with things recovering until we joined Orion. Whilst the UK decision to leave Orion was viewed with suspicion by many, ultimately the decision was made after news of France's plans to leave became public. Whilst this can by no means be classed as the only reason we left: it was highlighted by many at the time as one of the final straws that broke the camels back.

Key events World War III (PEACE-EDEN), World on Fire (Terra/EDEN-ONE), UK/FR-SP.


5: Lithuania

To some, Lithuania is the country we could have been. Whilst regularly smaller in terms of population, they are equally adept at punching above their weight on the international table. Whilst the UK's power mainly came from soft diplomacy and capable mobile troops, Lithuania operated inversely: with the vast majority of their prestige coming from one of the closest knit mobile units in the world, with soft diplomatic power a useful addition, as opposed to the core source of sway as it was with us.

Starting life as a Training war playground for PEACE-GC (one of the longest running, and earliest 'Training wars' was between Latvia and Lithuania, both PEACE-GC members), our relationship with Lithuania was regularly a case of oh hey you guys are here too as opposed to having any causal links. They have generally been on the same side as us for most of our history, but things only really got going during our ascension to The World is Ours and the subsequent entrance of Lithuania to the feeder alliance, Allied Countries of TWO (ACT). During this period, constant mobile assistance from Lithuania in various invasions often lead to our battles being decided thanks to devout Lithuanian tanking. It is here where Lithuania really became a country we aspired to learn from. Their strength on the battlefield, despite their reduced size, is most definitely the reason they're a fully fledged member of Asteria whilst we sit on the outside, hoping for ascension at some point in the near future. During our brief period as a legit economic empire of awesomeness, various Lithuanian military units based their weapon producing infrastructure here, with some even helping out in various ATO operations against he who shall not be named when things were really looking dodgy.

Key moments: Too many battles and wars to include here: essentially, various allies would manage to keep us close to the line of victory, but it was regularly Lithuanian help that pushed us over that line.


4: Spain

Just missing out on the top 3, I'm sure this will be a controversial choice to place them fourth - but ultimately when looking at the history of the game, it's only recently that our foreign relations were so Spanish-centric. Our direction on the international platform has regularly had us at odds with our amigos, some handsome devil even invaded them this one time. Whilst I'm sure our Spanish friends have long since forgiven, or forgotten, the fact that their CP paid us to take their regions for some apparently really logical reason, they certainly gave as good as they got. I was mercilessly trolled for a few weeks, when my eRep inbox was overloaded so I couldn't receive messages, and the UK media also overloaded with Spanish articles trolling the fact we didn't take their most valuable region, Asturias. Ultimately, their CP wouldn't pay the gold to attack it himself, but promised he'd give us everything else if we paid for the attack on that region. So, of course, the French CP and I played along and he gave us a ton of regions. When it came to paying for the attack on Asturias, I went to bed and left him cursing my existence and sending me literally 80 messages asking what my beef was. The whole episode opened up the UK's eyes to the dedication and veracity of Spanish players: alll we did was push a few buttons, but they invested hours of their lives in bringing the banter, and it livened up the two countries for a good few months afterwards.

Our shortlived overlording aside, relations with Spain were always complicated in the past: owing to a never-ending Spain-France rivalry. However, when this died down, we basically followed them to hell and back. From ONE, TWO and Sirius, to PLUTO, we've been with Spain for the best part of the last six years. The fact we co-founded PLUTO instead of following Lithuania and attempting to get Asteria membership after the implosion of Sirius is indicative of just how important Spanish relations were for us at the time. Since then, we tested the waters with Orion, but after leaving, have done our best to continue to keep our Spanish friends as close as posible. Ultimately, they miss out on a top 3 spot because whilst our recent relationship is one of the strongest and most reliable we've had, it is relatively short when compared with other allies, and an enemy or two.

Obviously, people will have various recollections, or ideas about our alliances and friendships: ultimately these are based on a personal view of how things are, have been, and will be in the future; If nothing else, having articles which outline some history of the game is something to help people who are interested in the game should they wish to understand more about why certain countries would always/never be allies. Anyone who wants to help out by co-authoring further articles, feel free to get in touch here. As a final reminder, Article 1 of this series can be found here.

~jamesw
Minister of Foreign Affairs