1632 institutions

List of 1632 series institutions and organizations encompasses both fictional and historical governmental, private and military entities, offices, institutions, and organizations that appear in the rich and diverse neo-historical background of the plot lines that make up the shared universe milieu of the rapidly growing best selling 1632 series

Institutions and organizations

A large part of the fascination with alternative history treatments, and the 1632 series as a whole, is the glimpses such fiction gives of the historical underpinnings of today's world (i.e. Modern Europe), and by extension, all of the Modern World including the "new lands" of North and South America as they factor into the times. Some topics will be listed below which have an encyclopedic treatment elsewhere (real history), but some such topics will also be listed here below as well when the fictionalized background within the series emphasize important "other factors" deserving of coverage for their literary importance, background development driving the series plot themes, or equivalently, serve as thematic elements worthy of separate mention or emphasis to the overall milieu—and so will be elaborated on in the sections following based upon such considerations and their relevancy in the 1632-verse neo-historical exposition.

One of the most distinctive characteristics of the "1632-verse" fiction is that it has a background that has been grown as a years-long (ongoing since early 2000 ) collaborative effort by several hundreds of people, doing their best to make the neo-history as realistic as possible given the original series starting premises. ("See The Grantville Gazettes, 1632 Editorial Board, 1632 Research Committee, 1632 Tech Manual, and www.1632.org.)

Allocation Committee

The Allocation Committee, or more correctly, the "Grantville Allocation Committee" was born as part of the interim government setup by the Grantville Emergency Committee soon after the Ring of Fire forced the towns people to reorganize and plan for an uncertain future. As an arm of the government, the committee administered certain properties which were nationalized for best use either from absentee owners, or such resources which needed expenditure wisely with forethought such as vehicles, ammunition, weapons of all kinds and so forth. The Allocation Committee plays a large background role in the plots of many tales presented in the short fiction of the series, as well as occasional allusions to it in the major works. The speed boats used in the naval 16batl|Battle of Wismar as well as the rocketry and indeed the aircraft as do the ironclads— a building in the ROF-1 story "In the Navy", the novel 1633, and their sequel 34TBW|nn=1— all have a heavy reliance on the edicts of the committee.

Armored Personnel Carrier

;See Personnel Carrier, Armored below.

1632 Battle of Breitenfeld

"Main articles: 16batl|Battle of Breitenfeld (fiction or essay) and Battle of Breitenfeld (1631)"

While not an 'institution' per se, in contrast with the encyclopedic treatment of the Battle of Breitenfeld (1631), which serves to sketch the overall encounter, this is listed here as an important exposition of the background behind the Protestant-Catholic wars of religion known collectively as the Thirty Years' War. In a full chapter of "1632" Flint spends expends revealing relevant related factors preparatory to covering the topic of the battle proper, which taken together, the whole stands both as an authoritative deep background essay on the evolution of the art of arms in the fifteenth to eighteen centuries as well as a character study of the historical figure of Gustavus II Adolphus and some of his key generals. In the chapter (34), details of how the "Pike and Shot" armies of the day were structured, operated, limited, officered, and maneuvered are set forth very clearly. [cite 1632|xlong=1|ch=Chapter 34|pp=pp. 263-270|q=Chapter body text concludes with: "Whatever else he was or was not, Gustavus Adolphus will always be Breitenfeld. He stands for that field for eternity, just as he did on that day, September 17th, 1631.i"Breitenfeld, Always Breitenfeld" ]

Butterfly effect

Like the postulate in chaos theory (mathematics) where a system is very sensitive to initial conditions, the Butterfly effect when discussed in the 1632-verse, usually refers directly to the fact that Grantville's presence in the neo-historical epoch, is directly scrambling the historical recorded in the various references that came to Thuringia in the town. By 1634, even the most naive European noblemen, including many of those who'd harnessed the idea of changing the revealed history by preemptive actions, is gradually coming to understand that with everyone else acting in a similar "future changing way", the predictability of that revealed future is suddenly uncertain indeed— a foundering structure sinking on a bed of quicksand.

Sometimes the butterfly effect becomes central to a plot line. Will Newton, Napoleon or Bach or "fill in the blank" even be born? If they are, will their life proceed down a similar track with their history now being different? Will Rubens paint some of his late-in-life master works, now that he's seen them in an art book? These are some butterfly questions addressed in the series.

Chloramphenicol

In 1632-verse Armored Personnel Carriers (APC) are originally up-armored "Coal Mining Trucks"—construction vehicles of implicitly greater than ordinary size and capacity with thick walled dump beds and thick heavy duty man-high tires as would be common more to strip mining operations than are likely found in the shaft mining region in hilly West Virginia. As such, they are an example of one of the few "technical flaws" in Flint's background assumptions in the flagship novel 1632. Some are represented as Semi-tractor trailer types of vehicles, in 1633 during the run up to the 16batl|Battle of Wismar where several are used to transport up-timer speed boats cross-country to the proper riverine watershed, a much more likely type given the source region.

Regardless of the unlikelihood of six heavy walled massive road construction/strip mining vehicles being present in small town rural West Virginia, the up-timers took what they had and added armor plating in the form of "shutters" over the windows, cut rifle slits in the beds and had at least six employed at the 16batl|Battle of Eisenach (Eisenach) with mention of nearly as many at the 16batl|Battle of the Crapper a full year earlier. They are also credited at Nürnberg with leading an armored breakthrough behind the lines of 16char|s=Wallenstein at the sketchily described 16batl|Battle of Alte Vesta [cite 1632|pp=p. 497|q="A month after her wedding, Julie [16char|Julie|Mackay|s=Mackay] would use the best rifle in the world. As the armored column of the United States smashed its way through the imperial fortifications which Wallenstein had erected on the Burgstall, Julie took out Wallenstein himself."] that ends the lead novel "1632".

Ruthenia

In the plot thread|Eastern European thread the large population of Ruthenians (serfs) in greater Poland-Lithuania are one of the key political elements that must be brought into having a more enlightened and more modern outlook in the plotline developed in TAP.

aint Mary's Parish

Saint Mary's Parish is the town of Grantville's native Catholic church, and was, before the advent of the Ring of Fire, Saint Vincent de Paul's—which gets to be awkward inasmuch as de Paul is currently alive, and not all that highly regarded outside of France. The parish priest 16char|p=Father Lawrence Mazzare|Larry|Mazzare (better known as "Larry") becomes famed in the neo-historical timeline where the local powers that be are constantly sending spys into the alien town from the far future—and since religion and religious strife were much larger parts of the mindsets found in the time, the spys and dispatches almost always report on the Catholic parish, its priest, and how well its community and its pastor get along with the many Protestant sects, and even the Jews who find haven in the town. Because of this repute, Fr. Mazzare is selected to be the last chance Ambassador to Venice and its waning mercantile connections as the USE desperately needs to open up trade for raw materials unobtainable elsewhere because of the war with the 16inst|League of Ostend. When he goes on this mission for the state (See 34TGA) the curate he hires is none other than the famed Jesuit polymath 16CHAR|Athanasius|Kircher|p=Fr. Athanasius Kircher, who was attracted to the scientific and technical wonders of Grantville around 1632-1633.

partacus League

The "Spartacus League of the Republic of Poland and Lithuania" was introduced in Flint's stand-alone serialized novel The Anaconda Project as a revolutionary underground movement within the 17th century superpower, Poland-Lithuania—which incidentally has been a lifelong foe of Gustavus. The Spartacus League name was adopted from histories detailing the history of Marxist revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg, a Pole and Jewess who was put to death in Germany after others started a premature uprising in post-WW I Germany. [Cite GG14
q= “And who, exactly, is ‘you’?” she asked.I

The handsome young Pole sat erect, looking stiffly proud. “We are members of the newly-formed Spartacus League of the Republic of Poland and Lithuania.”I

His partner Jakub, who seemed either less full of himself or simply blessed with a good sense of humor, smiled ironically. “We took the name from Rosa Luxemburg’s revolutionary organization. She was a Pole, you know, and a Jewess. Even if the history books mostly talk about her in Germany.”I

James Nichols rubbed his face. “I swear, no virus or bacillus who ever lived is as contagious a vector as those fricking books in Grantville.”I

Melissa smiled back at Zaborowsky. “Out of idle curiosity, which unlikely tomes did you find in Grantville that said anything about Rosa Luxemburg and the Spartacus League. I wouldn’t have thought the public library—much less the high school’s!—would have carried any such books.”I

Both Poles looked at Red. For his part—very unusual, this was—the UMWA man looked almost embarrassed.I] The specific history books were mal-appropriated "in a temporary way" from the home of 16inst|James|Nichols and 16inst|Melissa|Mailey by organizer 16inst|Red|Sybolt while Melissa was prisoner in the 16inst|Tower of London.

RG rifle

The novel 1633 surprised readers with the introduction of the lower tech SRG rifle, than that which had been expected, given the knowledge of gun buffs resident in Grantville. The fact essay GG03|IN="Flint's Lock" was written in response to the surprise and devulges the material and production factors that lie behind the choice of this black powder rifled weapon with an advanced flintlock firing system, and further why more advanced things like percussion caps, breech loading, bolt action, cartridges, etcetera were left for a follow-on evolutionary stage beyond this weapon—which would have been right at home at the beginning of what technology and military historians consider the first modern war, the American Civil War. The SRG design was chosen in large part, because it was a design that could be upgraded in stages, not only to percussion caps, but also to a breech loader as technolgical support and infrastructure is put into place.

tarytsa, Cossack

In the plot thread|Eastern European Thread the Cossack starytsa (Noblemen) are one of the political elements that must be brought into having a more enlightened and more modern outlook in the plotline developed in TAP.

tate of Thuringia-Franconia

The state of Thuringia-Franconia is the incarnation of the former New United States under the CPoE as established during the founding of the Empire of the United States of Europe. The Franconia region was given to Grantville to administer for Gustavus at the conclusion of his negotiations with Mike Stearns at the end of 1632. Large portions of the parallel mainline thread, the ground-eye view of events play out in the state in the main works 34TRR and 34TBC, plus hosts of short stories in various volumes of The Grantville Gazettes.

zlachta

In the plot thread|Eastern European thread the Polish and Lithuanian szlachta (Noblemen) are one of the political elements that must be brought into having a more enlightened and more modern outlook in the plotline developed in TAP. A specific nobleman was called a "szlachcic," and a noblewoman, a "szlachcianka." Szlachta is a designation of hereditary constitutional franchise and rightsin the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania, but quite a few were relatively poor.

The Newspapers

The short novelette "Other People’s Money" by 16writ|Gorg|Huff continues the adventures of the teenage entrepreneurs and their families started in GG01|IN="The Sewing Circle". Further this tale introduces the three active newspapers covering events in the region immediately around Grantville, and details their reporting styles and target audience:

The Street

—aiming for a staid financial coverage similar to the "Wall Street Journal"

The Grantville Times

—which similarly emulates the reserved style of the "New York Times"

The Daily News

—which is contrasted as flashy and incautious in what it prints, but has an editorial policy championing the idea that the death of any up-timer is an irrevocable and unpardonable loss, and that policies ought to be in place to prevent any up-timer from taking unnecessary risks.

Tower of London

The famous Tower of London appears as a radio-linked "front behind the scenes" from the events detailed in the novel 1633 and is referenced, or has bits of mentions (supporting scenes) in a number of short stories, but, and as well as all four novels set in the 1634 neo-history, with its major role occurring in 34TBW.

In that tale, the diplomatic party held prisoner in the tower, a number of Yeoman Warders and their families who have been alienated by Charles I of England's new minister, and three British gentrymen fallen afoul of king Charles, each of major historic note, are all broken out of the tower by the commando unit lead by USE Secret Service and Army Captain 16char|Harry|Lefferts. Parts of the tower were damaged by the Leffert team's dynamite, though most death dealing was by the marksmanship of 16inst|Julie|Mackay, who'd rendezvoused with Leffert's unit. All told, about fifty individuals depart the tower environs with alacrity down the Thames on a barge and one boat. To sow confusion and lead a false trail, Leffert's team also blows up repairable parts of 16inst|London Bridge and burns down Shakespeare's Globe Theater.

United States of Europe

Notes and references