Anyone else who feels like Shoukoku no Altair is an alternate take on the First World War from Serbia's/ Turkey's point of view?
Ever since I started reading this manga, I couldn't stop thinking about the parallels between the story's development and the historical events in Europe from 1914 onwards.

In the beginning, the Empire accuses Türkye of murdering their ambassador Franz in order to start a war just like Autria-Hungary did when Archduke Franz (!) Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo; even the way the diplomatically impossible ultimatum was presented is blatantly similar.

Then there's the forshadowing about the Great Lumeriana War becoming the "first war in history to involve all nations on the continent". And how the Empire tries to get itself involved when people from Araba try to march into Türkye.

Türkye is like a fictional version of Turkey merged with Serbia in early 1913-14, a multi-ethnical nation sandwiched between two major monarchies. The Empire would be in the position of Austria-Hungary which wants to gain more territory, and Araba could be an alternate Russia supporting related ethnical groups on the Balkan (or "Baltein" how it's represented in the manga).

What do you think? Does Shoukoku no Altair really mirror which course the First World War might've taken in an alternate history? Or does the plot deviate too much from history to put them on the same level?


Last edited by Tripitaka at 11:48 pm, Jul 21 2014

________________
"Stories are what death thinks he puts an end to.
He can't understand that they end in him, but they don't end with him."
- Ursula K. Le Guin, Gifts

To be savoured:
- Blood Alone by TAKANO Masayuki
- Otoyomegatari by MORI Kaoru
- Gangsta. by Kohske
- Seishun Kouryakuhon by AKIZUKI Sorata

I always believed it represented around 1000-1400
Empire-->Byzantine
Türkiye-->Ottomans
As weapons, nations and culture seemed to represent those years. But after reading what you wrote i also agree plot progress seems similiar to WWI.