Original (2008/04/21): Bamboo Thicket | Kitayume 1, 2 (archive.is)
Blog Mirror: “Liechtenstein’s Doting Older Brother Journal”
Scanlation: westoestlich, konkira, lecumedesjour_s. neko16, tarafishes, desuraven
Translation Source: LJ Post: 1, 2, 3, 4
■Doting Older Brother Journal■
【Liechtenstein】
Located Between Austria and Switzerland,
a tiny country whose population is thirty thousand.
Liechtenstein’s meaning is shining stone.
Originally Austrian nobles, used to live at Germany’s house for a long time but
the German Confederation collapse caused her independence, now she relies entirely on Switzerland.
Without an army, essentially Switzerland is doing the protecting.
Things in her daily life are done together with Switzerland.
■Doting Older Brother Journal 2■
【Trivial Liechtenstein Story】
In 2007 in Liechtenstein
a careless Swiss invasion had occurred.
The Swiss army said an unthinkable thing:
“We noticed we lost our way on the road and invaded Liechtenstein.”
By the way, Liechtenstein was like
“Well, such things also happen.” and it was easily washed away.
■Encounter■
■Lunch■
■Awkwardness■
■Intruder■
That Evening…
■Present■
■Dream that Night■
【THE BEGINNING OF AUSTRIA】
Austria began as a margraviate, fortified against Magyar offenses,
called the Ostmark (English: Saxon Eastern March).
The Magyars with other ethnic groups would later establish Hungary.
In Hungarian, the name for the country is “Magyar Koztarsasag”.
Ostmark (Austria) was then at extreme military disadvantage,
to the point where it all but fell under Hungarian control.
Prussia, too, began as the Margraviate of Brandenburg intended to buffer Slavic expansion,
and later incorporated the territory of the Teutonic Knights.
So in a sense Austria and Prussia were both created to fight.
【SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA】
Austria’s first predecessor states were, interestingly, in modern Swiss territory.
The Habsburg castle, which was the seat of the Habsburg dynasty,
is located in Northern Switzerland rather than Austria.
So how did it come to be, that modern Austria
lies east to Switzerland, its place of origin?
At first the two would-be countries cooperated well.
Then the would-be Switzerland, for good reasons,
revolted against Habsburg intervention in its affairs.
Among the chaos the Habsburgs understandably
hastened to move their seat to modern Austria.
During the Austro-Swiss partnership,
Austria granted the region military protection
in exchange for Swiss allegiance.
Though they both lay in the Holy Roman Empire,
they were regarded as two separate entities.
The then head of the Habsburgs were loved among the Swiss –
like “we’d go to any length to serve him.”
But the honeymoon was soon over.
The new man on the Austrian throne proclaimed,
“Switzerland is my territory.
Therefore the same tax laws apply.”
Switzerland fell under Austrian control.
Austria even started appointing Vogts to govern Switzerland.
(Remember, they were supposed to be separate entities.)
That marked the end of the Austro-Swiss partnership.
Wilhelm Tell, a Swiss hunter, was demanded by the Habsburg-appointed Vogt,
Gessler, to shoot an apple off the head of his son.
He succeeded in spite of tremendous mental strife,
and went on to shoot Gessler himself.
日本でも有名な「ウイリアムテル」の伝説の時代です。
It was clear that Austria and Switzerland couldn’t go back where they were.
Switzerland now sought independence.
Several cantons formed the “Confoederatio Helvetica”,
and challenged Austrian rule with their new army.
(The place where the canton representatives
took their oaths is still a tourist attraction.)
The Swiss army was nothing more than a bunch of farmers
hastily donned in armors and equipped with swords.
Nobody would have expected them to stand any chance
against Austria’s professionals.
But the Swiss army（互角とかではなく、圧倒的だったようで）
won devastating victories against the Austrian knights.
The Swiss took advantage of their terrain and hurled huge rocks onto the enemy.
The Austrians, taken aback by such Indiana Jones-like tactics, had to face defeat.
After winning its independence,
Switzerland was plagued by its lack of natural resources,
the low quality of its top soil, and the mountainous terrain
which made agriculture almost impossible.
Switzerland had to import raw material and export manufactured goods.
Its men served for centuries as mercenaries. Through amazing efforts Switzerland,
neighbored on all sides by great powers, made a living out of almost nothing.
Austria, after a humiliating flight from Habsburg, began to feel at home in Vienna.
The region, endowed with natural resources,
did strike one as having the potential to become a center of East Europe.
Perhaps it was the right turn for Austrian history
when the Habsburgs moved to Vienna after all.
(Vienna’s geographic location did make it vulnerable to Turkish attacks, though.)
The loss of Swiss partnership led to a temporary downward spiral for the Habsburgs.
Owing to a certain weak – but amazingly successful – ruler*,
however, Austria began its rise to predominance in Europe.
[T/N: *Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, who through a series of marriages
netted Austria huge territorial prizes.
Hence the famous Habsburg motto
“Let others wage wars; you, fortunate Austria, marry.”
■Liechtenstein and strange brother■
■Rather Usual Way Of This Person■
At the time, the other side was Germany’s house.
■MEMORIAL OF ME■
↑
Indulged by the Pope, young Prussia (the Teutonic Order)
knew few boundaries in what he did.
■DIARY OF THE AWESOME ME 1■
■Defending Hungary’s House■
Because this is what really happened!
The Teutonic Order, entrusted with the defense of Burzenland.
He thought, “I’d really like my own land after all”.
In 1224, because of a Papal Bill,
it was declared that Bruzenland was mine!! But
he was forced out by an enraged Hungary…
【The Teutonic Order】
His previous form was the Order of St. Mary.
But with that face, Mary is a mask* isn’t it?
At first, he was under the protection of the German Knights in Jerusalem.
The Teutonic Order was formed for a rescue.
Incidentally, it’s a very anything goes story but,
the Wikipedia page of the history of the Teutonic Order,
somehow, it’s frightfully detailed about the story with Hungary.
【The Teutonic Order’s Defense of Bruzenland】
The nervous Teutonic Order in Jerusalem
was called by Hungary’s king Andrew the Second
(This person was a wild and spendthrift King!)
and given the duty of protecting Bruzenland from Pagans.
He was very nervous in Jerusalem for a long time so
he was glad to finally find his whereabouts!!
“Somehow I’ll make this land mine!” he thought.
At this time the Teutonic Order’s Grandmaster Herman von Salza
received a Papal Bill from his good friend the Pope in Rome
snd started a My Land Campaign…
↑He was kicked out like in the above manga.
By the way, after this the Teutonic Order was called by Poland
with the duty of South Baltic Sea defense, and he did it again here, but
That’s another story.
【Herman von Salza】
Hermann von Salza
The Teutonic Order’s fourth Grandmaster (Term 1209-39)
He was born in a clergy man’s house in 1179.
The person who carried out the “Bruzenland @ me and the Pope land conversion plan.”
I wanted to draw it in more detail but
because this time is Switzerland and Austria’s story…
Next time…
[T/N: *I can’t find a translation for ツラ the best I got was an alternate reading for the kanji for mask (which is a kunyomi and should have been in hiragana anyway gdi) so assuming that’s what he meant I think the line refers to the fact that “even though they were a Christian organization they were still murdering people left and right so isn’t the name just a front to seem good” kind of thing. Or it could be entirely wrong who knows.]
■DIARY OF THE AWESOME ME 2■
■THAT HUNGARY’S BLUES■
■Diary of the Awesome Me 03■
■Why does Holy Roman Empire only chase after this guy called Italy?■
[Interregnum]
A time when the people who held the Holy Roman Empire together were absent.
Because of this, Holy Roman Empire’s house continued to be in chaos for a long time.
The elected Holy Roman Empire King only had a bunch of injured people
with little strength and he lacked the necessary leadership.
It was a time where the strength of the division
in the heart of the Empire gradually declined.
However, after this they owned a small territory in Switzerland
and with the help of the, at that time, young Habsburg line’s King Rudolph I,
they managed to declare the end of those unstable times.
That’s a story for after this.
Incidentally, Italy had been occupied by the Holy Roman Empire from the 900’s on.