1632 universe background history

1632 is the lead novel by historian/writer/editor Eric Flint in an epic book series set in the region of Thuringia at the southern edge of the central German plains. The series pits powerful antagonists like Denmark, England, Spain, France, the Holy Roman Empire and the kingdom of Hungary against a loose confederation of protestant states primarily defended by the intervention of the armies of one of histories truly gigantic figures, indubitably one of its best generals, the king of Sweden Gustavus Adolphus II, who is reinforced in the struggle known as the Thirty Years' War by the odd arrival of Grantville, a town from the future.

The fiction of the series is about how the small American town of three-thousand 'West Virginians' transported across time and space to May 1631 impacts the historical, cultural, technological, political and geo-historic development of Europe as the influence of the knowledge it brings with it percolates through the seventeenth century. This article is about the confluence of historic factors which attracted Flint the author to choose the setting of his literary experiment in the day and age half-way through the conflict which killed off 25% of the German people of the day.

History and premise

The historical setting

It was a century and a quarter after the Council of Trent when the new role of the Roman Catholic Pope had been established as an absolute ruler (in name) over the priesthood as was strongly characteristic of the new age of absolutism ushered in by the sixteenth century. At that time the Pope had new and effective army of "Foot Soldiers of Christ", the much-feared, well-educated Society of Jesus (Jesuits — established in 1534) which had for nearly a hundred years the institutional goal of stamping out Judaism, Protestantism and heresy where and whenever they occurred. But the fractured religious landscape was but a background factor, usually only important as a pretext for the wars ripping through the European Kingdoms which had the primary cause of furthering the power of the nation-state, or diminishing that of another. Like today, that deadly dance was accomplished at times by using proxy states, rather than engaging head to head, major power to major power.

Politically, the era was wedded to authoritarianism rooted in the Divine Right of Kings, and Spain was the pre-eminent power rich from the gold and silver of the new world, dominating in both Europe and on the world stage at large while the other sea faring nations raced to grab territories of their own in the middle of the Age of Exploration. The Roman Catholic Church had settled well into the path of the counter-reformation, the Puritan revolution was on the horizon. It was the heyday of the Dutch Merchantile Empire and somewhat past the beginning of Poland's decline and the ascension of Russia, while the Swedish empire was at its zenith.

There were seven prince-electors enjoying the greater temporal power in the German states, but in that time, three of them were Arch-Bishops wielding princely world power as the feudal system had yet to go away, and these Bishops weren't very much interested in listening to Rome, or the Pope, or anyone else including their sworn feudal superiors. Neither were many of the other Bishops and Cardinals all that interested in the Pope's wishes. Life was good, they had a lot of power and so if they could mask their actions with intrigue and schemes, they just give lip service to obedience, which was most of the time. In this they behaved much like the Prime Minister of France, his Eminence the Cardinal Richelieu, the heavy weight schemer of the World, saying one thing while pressing and advancing an entirely different agenda out of sight. His well focused goal was to increase the power and Glory of France whatever the cost, while reducing the dynastic Habsburgs power in both Spain and the Holy Roman Empire.

So as the Jesuits became better educated in large numbers, they increasingly contributed to the reinvigoration of the Counter-Reformation Church, seducing Europe's nobles away from protestantism by a variety of measures culminating in the Edict of Restitution — the papal proclamation that all propery of Protestant churches was to be confiscated for the Church. Consequently, the Jesuits had done nothing but grow more powerful as the century passed, and many of its members were the heart and soul of the Office of the Holy Inquisition, but they were also sworn agent-soldiers of the Pope, anxious to intrigue and sway any Protestant ruler by any means, including war. When the Jesuits were banned upon pain of death from living in the Holy Roman Empire, this (in part) created the conditions leading to the Thirty Years' War, the geopolitical background into which author Flint paints yet a bleaker picture—Faith wasn't the real cause behind the death of millions, but a mere pretext—the real causes were politics, internal and international—power politics and power struggles rooted in selfishness and greed with a heavy dose of intrigue and national self-interest.

The Catholic church had two other big guns.Clarifyme|date=September 2008 The first was the Spanish Habsburg Monarchy, which believed you were better off dead than to be a non-Catholic.Clarifyme|date=September 2008 But more importantly and of far wider scope was the doctrine of "Cuius regio, eius religio" — 'The people take on the faith of the Ruler'. It was far easier to convert one prince (or conquer him) than a hundred thousand individual peasants.

So the wars spread and grew. The armies increased in size, became more mercenary and the peasants took the brunt of the dying as armies foraged wherever they fought (taking most all the food leading to mass starvation), raped whomever they liked, and burned (after looting) whatever took their fancy. If you were lucky, they took you as forced labor, slaves in truth, or as a whore, but at least as one of these camp followers you might get the odd meal while they needed you. For thirty years this is what happened, leading to the death of tens of millions.

The creative twist (story-line premise)

While the historical picture above may seem to be anti-Catholic, this is historical, which Flint turns on its head. Into this cauldron of multiple risks Flint drops a sleepy mid-sized West Virginia town from our time, complete with powerplant, coal mine and a sizable union leaning. Not to mention a few scraps of paper—which happen to favor free speech, free press, freedom of religion, free this, free that and free habits antithetical to authoritarian rule and monolithic 'revealed' truths. The inhabitants have a union tradition, doctors, shotguns, and SUVs. Should be a fair match, the odds are only 70,000:1 or so.

This time-travel is the premise posed in this book (and series) by historian/author Eric Flint. Technically, a branch of speculative fiction the 'What if' of this setting is simple: what might happen in one of history's most turbulently vile and machiavellian periods should modern political thought backed by some modern knowledge and technology (rapid fire firearms, power plant, personal computers, a modern library, internal combustion engines, knowledge of flight, of medicine, of... et al.) were to land in the midst of the most troubled region during one of the most troubled times.

Flint further departs from the stock motif typical of time travel stories which normally deal with only a few central characters empowered or trapped by the gulf of years by instead postulating a significantly large town population peopled with likable, lovable folks-next-door characters, so that no one man acts as 'A Hero' in the traditional sense (typical in adventure sub-genres of science fiction), but the whole town goes through the adventure and emerges collectively as heroes. As do their adopted German friends—new Americans. While the premise, as with all alternate histories places the tale in the science fiction genre (Answering the characteristic 'What IF' question), the wide success of the book is because its appeal goes far beyond people interested in science (or impossibilities) into a rich, one might say overly ripe, important historical era that is painted in depth by its historian creator.

In the beginning

Flint created the fictional town of Grantville, West Virginia (modeled on the real town of Mannington) and dropped it and its powerplant abruptly into the new time-space, through a side effect (An accident, in truth) of an alien technology (The Assiti Shards). A spherical section of land about three miles in radius measured from the town center was transported back in time into the middle of the Thirty Years' War, in the German province of Thuringia in the Thuringer Wald. This occurred during the middle of a wedding (accounting for the presence of a few characters not native to the town, including an extra doctor and his daughter, a nurse). He created another nearby fictional German free city, (Badenburg) and plunged both populations into tentative contact. Real Thuringian municipalities located close to Grantville were posited as Weimar, Jena, Saalfeld and the more remote Erfurt, Arnstadt, and Eisenach; all located in the valley of the Saale River East of the Palatinate (Rhine) well to the south of Halle and Leipzig.

Interesting circumstance

Grantville, led by Mike Stearns, President of the local United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), and a supporting cast of characters widely diverse in background and viewpoint coped with the town's space-time dislocation, the surrounding raging war (with several of its minor armies), language barriers, class conflict, witchcraft, Woman's Lib, the reformation and the counter-reformation and strife (at its peak) among many other factors. Once complication was a compounding of the town's food shortage when the town was flooded by refugees from the war. Flint mixed in sexual shocks (Cheerleaders, miniskirts and blue jeans) experienced by "down-time" stalwarts, as well as shock at American style rah-rah political rallies. In a more serious vein, the plot covered short-term survival of the town, as well as the long-term question of how to maintain technology sundered from twenty-first century resources.

Flint develops the plot mainly through character interactions and jocular bantering rather than dry narrative. Add in a lot of significant Jewish and European history (The central of several developed romances in the novel occurs between the daughter ('Becky') of a historically powerful and real Jewish extended family clan, the Abrabanels, and UMWA workers/New USA president Mike Stearns) as the new USA begins to evolve from a flag with but one star.

Flint paints the armed conflicts by the era's superpowers as a pretext for less noble machiavellian Affairs of State which are themselves being guided, manipulated, and used by the power behind the throne (in particular, Cardinal Richelieu). His depiction of the armies of mercenaries of the time is too strong for the generally upbeat tale to be totally pleasant, but serves to create tension and generate a series of crises.

Characters imagined and historical

Historical figures in the books

Several historical figures occupy prominent or supporting roles in the novel include King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden, Johan t'Serclaes, Count of Tilly, and Albrecht von Wallenstein, all general officers of note and fame. And Cardinal Richelieu, takes on the role of the ultimate villain forced by circumstance in the later third of the work.

Characters of more than minor note

To the historical personalities, Flint adds a rich mix of well developed believable characters of local origin ("down-timers") including some with a real person basis like the various members of the Abrabanel family (composite characters), or the holder of this or that office. He then creates action by introducing "up time" Americans (i.e. those caught by the Ring of Fire from the future) in conversations large and small:

*Balthazar Abrabanel::Jewish Doctor, Spy, Financier to Kings

Publishing history

"1632" was first published in New York by Baen Books in 2001 with ISBN 0-671-31972-8 . The full text of the novel is available from the Baen Free Library (see below).

Reader interest

Within the series, there are five books under advanced contract, seven books already published in print media, plus three ebooks likely to follow later in print.

Conceived as a stand-alone novel published about the same time Baen Books launched a fan forum, Baen's Bar, its thread quickly lead to discussions of likely subsequent events. This led Flint to invite other authors to 'play in his sandbox', and, in the "shared world" tradition, to help define it; The initial results were the novel "1633" co-written with David Weber, and the anthology "Ring of Fire". Each helped shape the other and matured the early development of the milieu. Fact|date=February 2007

Additional stories in the " Grantville Gazette" are side-stories which don't complicate the main storyline. Flint, who likes to co-write, decided to take the step of inviting not only other published authors, but also his fans to participate, like Marion Zimmer Bradley did decades ago with her Darkover fans (until this turned ugly). The resulting complexity and chance to participate are perhaps why "1632" garnered attention.Fact|date=February 2007 A large number of short stories have been added as a result.

The series so far

* "1632" by Eric Flint; Starts in the early (new) summer of 1631 with climax in 1632
* "1633" by Eric Flint & David Weber; agreements to co-write at least than five novels in the series.
* "Ring of Fire" anthology ed. by Eric Flint; Stories within written in the timeframe spanned by 1631—1634 by well established authors are integral to the development of the series background.
* "" by Eric Flint & Andrew Dennis
* "" by Eric Flint & Virginia DeMarce
* "" by Eric Flint & David Weber.
* "Grantville Gazette" (Anthologies) ed. by Eric Flint; Five all available as ebooks, Vol I as PB edition, Vol-II as HC as well. Similar to the "Ring of Fire", these stories are also shaping the general development of the series. The difference is that the former is a compilation of stories by established authors, while the "Grantville Gazette" anthologies are primarily written by new authors with occasional contributions from established writers. The "Grantville Gazette" also contains occasional articles on factual matters that resulted from the impetus of discussions on Baen's Bar by interested parties.

External links

Notes and references