Glen
December 7th, 2011, 08:41 PM
The Dominion of Southern America (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=149643) Timeline Discussion
Dominion of Southern America Timeline Part I (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=155239)
Dominion of Southern America Timeline Part II (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=209347)
Dominion of Southern America Timeline Part III (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=209346)
Dominion of Southern America Timeline Part IV (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=222873)
Part IV
The germ theory of disease had its first major break in the beginning of the 19th century with the work of Italian Agostino Bassi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agostino_Bassi) who demonstrated that muscadino (mal de segno), a disease of the economically vital silkworms, was caused by living organisms and could be controlled by taking measures against the tiny fungi and spores. Bassi was following in the footsteps of his relative Lazzaro Spallanzani (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazzaro_Spallanzani) whose work was the start of dismantling the fallacy of spontaneous genesis.
In the 1820s, Bassi traveled to France where the king and legislature honored him for his work, which had also led to salvaging the French silkworm industry. There Bassi met and inspired the young deist minister and scientist Louis L'ebrard (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=5264600&postcount=72), who carried forward and expanded the works of Bassi and Spallanzani. Before leaving for his native Lombardy, Bassi declared in Paris his belief that all disease, including human, would eventually be discovered to derive from microscopic germs. L'ebrard's first breakthrough was to demonstrate definitively that life does not arise spontaneously from dead matter, utilizing a tortuous tube opening to allow air, but not contaminants, into his previously boiled media.
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Spinning off of this work, L'ebrard proposed that boiling such drinks as milk and water could purify them and make them safer for human consumption and could last longer if sealed in a container carefully. This process of heat purification sometimes was referred to as Lebrardization, but more frequently known by the more mundane term heat-purification.
In the 1830s, inspired by the work of L'ebrard, American scientists, many of them deists, embraced the study of germ theory. It was seen as a natural outgrowth of deist doctrine of studying the natural world to understand God's plan and the germ theory seemed to be making serious sense based off of such observations. In 1832, Dr. John Peake (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=3944376&postcount=16), a Virginian working in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Hospital instituted a strict policy of hand cleansing before, between, and after working with patients on the theory that it may be germs being passed through touch that perpetuated disease. His meticulous records of nosocomial disease before and after the policy convinced the medical community in the West of the success of the practice, and was the death knell for the miasma theory of disease propagation. The success of this campaign led to an explosion of sanitary theories and practices throughout the US and thence the rest of the West.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/PennsylvaniaHospitalWilliamStrickland.jpg
The first time that the new theory of germ disease prevention on the battlefield was put to the test was during the Southern Civil War. While many in the British South were leery of heretical deists of America (though in fact deists were only a minority of the population of the USA), by the time of the conflict evidence had become convincing enough that medical officers on both sides of the conflict experimented with practices such as placing latrines away from living areas, instituting stricter washing practices around said latrines and military food preparation areas, and especially in field hospitals. The lower death rates from disease of this war was noted by the British and other Western military observers, and would be in place for the the Liberal War, at least for the Western forces, a distinct advantage in the fight, and one that convinced even benighted Russia to adopt such practices in future, including the Global War.
As microscopy and media culturing became more sophisticated throughout the 19th century, so too did the desire not just to identify the germs responsible for various diseases, but also some form of treatment for infection, not just prevention. The proof of the first specific species of germ that could be linked to a specific human disease came with an added bonus for all mankind. In the 1860s, Dr. Sutcliffe Barnes (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=3989839&postcount=35), a Yorkshireman working at the University of Edinburgh made a study of gonorrhea and was the first to successfully culture the germ and show it could be transmitted to cause the disease. However, he noted in one of his samples a mold contaminant that prevented growth of the bacteria too near it. Being a curious sort, he grew the mold further and isolated the chemical that created the antiseptic effect, which he dubbed simply called Penicillium, after the genus of the fungus. Once he had procured enough, he took the remarkable step of actually using it to treat patients and found himself successful. However, one of the even more remarkable discoveries was the discovery in a few short years of use that Penicillium was even effective for people who also had the dreaded venereal disease syphilis. Thus the first antimicrobial agent was brought into use, though slowly in the 1860s and 1870s due to the limits of production until breakthroughs in fermentation and purification allowed more efficient mass production. However, once those limitations were conquered, many governments (initially started by the Korsgaardist regimes, interestingly enough) imposed strict reporting and treatment policies with a goal of eradicating venereal disease from the land.
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The turmoil caused in the Balkans by the Hellenic Revolution was not quick to be brought to heel, but eventually the Ottomans were able to reassert authority and order over the Balkan region. In 1830, Mohammad Ali (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali_of_Egypt) hand selected Mihail Studrza (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihail_Sturdza) of a proud Moldavian line (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturdza_family) to act as prince of Moldavia. It was a bold move on his part, installing a 35 year old in the region, but the Sturdza were a well respected family and Mihail was a young man of exceptional talents. His vision of a gradually liberalizing Moldavia went well as the decades progressed with the reforms being enacted within the Ottoman Empire as a whole. He modernized education, provided patronage for the arts and sciences, promoted infrastructure, and began to erode the power of the boyars in favor of the people. The Romani (Gypsies) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people) referred to him as Mihail the Liberator for his abolition of their slavery (along with others in the region). When the revolutions of the late 1840s broke out, they also touched Moldavia and neighboring Wallachia. However, these rebellions were fractionated between true radicals who wanted to establish an independent liberal nation and the boyars and their supporters who wanted their ancient priviledges restored and conspired to come under the influence of Russia. Prince Sturdza rapidly crushed the rebellions in Moldavia and then aided in their suppression in Wallachia, forestalling the ability of the Russians to use the rebellions as an excuse to intervene; an action that became increasingly less appealing as they became further committed maintaining order in Austria-Hungary and intervening in Prussia's war against the nascent Germany, and then the Liberal War, especially given the surprising resurgence of Ottoman strength in the 1830s and 1840s. In recognition of Mihail Sturdza's actions he was given dual rule of Wallachia and Moldavia by the Sublime Porte, in which role he fostered the same sorts of changes in Wallachia that he had already initiated in Moldavia. He also worked to strengthen ties socially and economically between the two principalities of the Ottoman Empire, though he was denied his fondest desire, their formal unification. While he used the uprisings to finally crush the great boyars, he eventually rehabilitated many of the liberal revolutionaries and brought them into leadership roles. Prince Sturdza outlived and outlasted Grand Vizier Ali and several Sultans, ruling with a strong hand and a clear vision until his death in 1885. The Ottomans, unable to find a man who could match both his abilities and his proven record of reliability, split the leadership of the principalities once more, a move that was less than popular among the Moldavians and Wallachians, who wished closer ties.
The Federalists were trounced in the midterm congressional elections of 1882 and again in the elections of 1884. The Democrats blamed overspending and stifling tarriffs for the continuation of the economic disaster, and sought to remove the gold standard. Thus the Democratic candidate, Erastus R. Bingham (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=6223207&postcount=80) won office which he assumed in 1885. President Bingham was the first president to make his home west of the Mississippi, in Washington, though his family hailed from Vermont originally. However, the economic policies of the Democrats and the Bingham administration did nothing to restore confidence to the marketplace, and the midterm congressional election saw great losses for the Democrats this time. Bingham would serve one term only, and stated he was glad of it, never traveling east of the Mississippi again after his term in office.
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The Panic of 1881 launched an unprecedented prolonged period of economic hardship and uncertainty that challenged America's traditional two party system, especially as some disenfranchised and disaffected turned away from the seemingly ineffectual policies of either party. The Korsgaardian Party of America was one among many small parties that gained prominance during this period, and as other nations embraced Korsgaardian politics and seemed to prosper by it, the American Korsgaardians gained credence and followers. By the 1888 presidential election, the Korsgaardian Party of America was able to launch the first ever credible third party in American history.
VOTE
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KORSGAARDIAN PARTY OF AMERICA
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The development of the modern General Staff structure in Prussia-Poland and subsequently other Eastern nations and eventually even to the West were in many ways brought to fruition by Helmth von Moltke (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmuth_Graf_von_Moltke). Born in 1800, he initially was meant for service in the then Danish military. However, after seeing the strides being made by Prussia after the Napoleonic Wars, he joined the Prussian military instead. He was a bright, creative officer, who spoke several languages and wrote many scholarly books. He was a student of the writings of Carl von Clausewitz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_von_Clausewitz) and campaigns of Napoleon. By the time of the Liberal War, he was serving as a lieutenant colonel with a command of his own. His war record was exemplary, and one of the few bright notes for the Eastern powers in that conflict. He was wounded in battle before the end of the war, and thus did not see it through to its conclusion. However, after a convalescence he was to join the Prussian General Staff and made several recommendations for its structure and activities. He wrote contingency plan after contingency plan for war with any and all nations about Prussia. He was one of the first to see the new ways of using breech loading weapons and mobility provided by rail. He was a great advocate of integration of Poles into the military with the formation of the joint kingdom of Prussia-Poland. Even before that time, he had written a book praising pre-partitiono Poland as the most civilized nation of Europe of the time. When he rose to overall command of the combined military of Prussia-Poland, he ruthlessly selected for talent and ability, regardless of societal or national origin. By the time of his death in 1888, Prussia-Poland had the most prepared and arguably well-trained and talented officer corps in the world.
Despite the hyperbole of the KPA's presidential campaign and the newspapers' accounts of the 'Korsgaardian wave sweeping the world', the U.S. Presidential Election of 1888 was anticlimatic. While the Korsgaardian Party of America did set a new record since the Federalist/High Federalist splity of the last century for third party candidates at 7%, they still did not take a single electoral vote through election (though one faithless elector did cast a vote for the KPA candidate). However, many of the same platform issues such as protectionism did benefit the mainstream Federalist Party who won the Presidency. Federalist candidate Alexander Poe (of the Baltimore Poes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Allan_Poe)) was sworn in in 1889.
A Somewhat Anachronistic Statue Of President Poe
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Thanksgiving started sporadically in the British colonies of North America prior to the American Revolution. Congress and President Washington proclaimed the first national day of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November, and this act was intermittently announced thereafter by following presidents, with individual states doing their own when the national leadership failed to do so. It was President Poe who formalized the last Thursday in November as the national day of Thanksgiving in the United States. Traditional Thanksgiving fare included Turkey, yams, and Pumpkin Pie.
Thanksgiving was even less common and formal in the remaining British Colonies of North America in the South. When the Southern Colonies did celebrate it, they tended to be earlier in November and blended with the post-ARW trend for the Southern colonies to honor the English Gunpowder Treason Day (AKA Bonfire Night). Some elements of the combined Thanksgiving Day/Bonfire Night festivities had a dubious revival in the lead-up to the Slaver Rebellion as effigies of Guy Fawkes and the Pope were replaced by the British King and Prime Minister. Consul Jackson went so far as to declare a national Thanksgiving for the Confederation, the first nationally enacted Thanksgiving for the British Southern America, on the first Thursday in November. Even after the Southern Civil War ended, Thanksgiving enjoyed a popular revival in the South and the newly formed Dominion of Southern America sought to co-opt the holiday for the new federation as a day of thanks and familial reconciliation especially for those who had fought on different sides. The parliament of the Dominion set the date initially as the second Thursday in November, and the link between Guy Fawkes and Thanksgiving was severed, though the Southerners maintained the tradition of bonfires for their Thanksgiving. The traditional Thanksgiving meal in the South shares similarities with the USA such as the main course of a turkey, but differs in others such as substituting Sweet Potato Pie for Pumpkin Pie.
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The last half of the 1880s saw increasing unrest in Moldavia and Wallachia, as several secret societies seeking independence from the Sublime Porte, unity of the Danubian Principalities, and closer ties to Russia. The Ottoman Empire tried to placate some of the more moderate factions on their frontier with Eastern Europe, while at the same time suppressing the more aggressive and separatist elements, but in the end were unsuccessful. In April 1889, the Danubian Uprisings began. This short lived Spring Revolt served one essential purpose, however. It provided Russia a cause for declaring war against the Ottomans 'in support of liberty'. Austria-Hungary quickly followed suit, and a rapid invasion of the Balkans began. The Western Powers had warned Eastern Europe not to invade the Ottoman Empire, their close and important partner in the region, but to no avail. Still, few in the West were anxious to go to war under these circumstances. Most of the Northern Balkans fell to the Eastern European nations within a matter of months. With fear mounting that the Russians would take Istambul if the Ottomans fought alone, the British Empire and then the rest of their allies, France and Germany, declared war against the Russians and Austria-Hungary. This in turn would lead to Prussia-Poland's official entry in the war (Prussian-Polish officers had been 'technical advisers' in much of the initial fighting).
WAR!
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The Western Powers had, since the 1840s, preferred the lever action for their military rifles. There were several reasons for this. The first and most important in the minds of military planners was the faster rate of fire achievable with the lever action (of particular importance to the British who prided themselves on the so-called 'mad minute' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_minute)). The second favorable point was that recruits were often familiar with lever actions from hunting prior to joining the army. The third advantage was that the lever actions were essentially 'ambidextrous' and able to be fired left or right handed equally well (making it easier for left handed shooters, but also easier to fire off hand should a soldier be wounded in their dominant hand).
The Eastern Powers, on the other hand, even from the time of the Liberal War, had preferred the bolt action for military rifles. The eastern procurers of armaments liked the ease of firing bolt actions from the prone position, as well as the ease of attaching a box magazine to bolt actions, whereas many lever actions were designed with tubular magazines that were less favored as they limited the total number of bullets held compared to other magazines and were trickier to have balance properly.
This dichotomy remained up to the beginning of war in Europe in 1889.
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While the war may have started as a dispute between the powers over the disposition of the Balkans, it would not remain such. The first major event in the expansion of the war to other nations centered on Europe. While the Eastern Powers had excelled in initiative and rapid advance, the Western Powers had the edge in espionage. Thus it was that famous British Spymaster Matthew Rossall (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=3943647&postcount=10) discovered the evidence of the Korsgaardian Empires' master plan for carving up Europe among them. The documents and letters purloined by Rossall's spy network demonstrated the insane audacity and avarice of the Eastern nations to many nations in the West. While the information would not be made privy to the public for several years after, due to concerns of compromising the sources of the information, the people in power knew the perfidity of the Eastern Potentates. Thus did Scandinavia, Italy, and the Roman Republic enter the war. Pope Pius X even came within a cat's whisker of declaring a new Crusade against the Eastern nations.
http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/attachment.php?attachmentid=160879&stc=1&d=1322976748
The development of nitrocotton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guncotton) in the 1840s had given hope to many for the development of a smokeless gunpowder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokeless_powder), but had proven too difficult to work with. While other attempts were made during and immediately after the Liberal War, none came to fruition. Only one year prior to the outbreak of hostilities in the Balkans, in 1888, a number of scientists serrendipitously made breakthroughs allowing for a more stable form of explosive capable of being formed into a nearly smokeless gunpowder. Smokeless gunpowder avoided the telltale plumes of smoke that both gave away positions and after time obscured the field of battle. It did this by converting almost entirely to gases with ignition. This also provided a higher rate of acceleration and thus cartridges could be smaller, allowing more to be loaded and carried. There was also less fouling of barrels with the new gunpowder. The Prussian-Poles and Russians started converting over to smokeless gunpowder rifles immediately, with the Austro-Hungarians not far behind. The bolt action design of Eastern rifles were able to handle the greater pressure demands of the new ammunition and their conversion was a more rapid one. The Western powers were more cautious in their own conversion, introducing some new rifles with the new ammunition, these copying the bolt action of the East. While the first battles in 1889 were fought primarily with black powder rifles, the proportion of black powder to smokeless gunpowder would change over the course of the war.
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As 1889 brought one victory after another from the Eastern onslaught, the British government reformed itself into a naitonal unity government. Surprising some was the annointment of the prominant Liberal M.P. from Exeter, Arthur Wellesley Lovecraft (http://runeberg.org/authors/lovechow.html), as the Prime Minister for the wartime government. Though well respected by both his own party and the Conservatives, his relative youth was seen as a bar. However, his fiery diatribes in the House of Commons and incendiary opinion pieces, even before the onset of the war, against Korsgaardian dehumanization in favor of the cyclopean state and the perfidity of the Eastern potentates had made him appear the man most capable of rallying the nation.
A. W. Lovecraft
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Prime Minister of the British Empire
In the decades prior to the onset of hostilities in 1889, all of the great powers had sought to build navies hoped to command their local waters and critical trade routes. While the British Empire remained the largest navy in the world, they were stretched out across the face of the globe. One place where multiple nations vied for local dominance was the Baltic. Russia and Prussia-Poland massed their Baltic forces in the hopes of knocking Germany's Baltic navy out of the war, but the entry of the United Kingdom of Scandinavia into the conflict set the stage instead for one of the greatest naval battles of the war, the Battle of the Four Navies. When the Eastern Powers' joint taskforce found the German Baltic fleet, they were surprised to find the Germans accompanied by the Scandinavians, who they did not think could mobilize their navy so quickly and effectively. The coal smoke and artillery smoke from black powder quickly turned the Baltic into a hazy chaos. While ship engagements in the first salvos were at great distance, by the end of the battle ships lost in the haze were engaging at point blank range. The battle was a draw in many ways, but served as a morale booster to the Western Powers, who saw it as the first time the Eastern Powers had been significantly halted since the beginning of the war.
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In the 1860s, a number of multibarreled, rapid fire heavy guns were developed by numerous nations and mostly deployed as a single support weapon for small infantry units operating in the 'uncivilized' world, such as against the wild indians of North America, the tribes of Africa, or even in Asia. These guns were later included as antiboarding or anti-small craft weapons on battleships. They were often nicknamed by troops as 'Coffee-Mill Guns (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatling_gun) given most used a crank that resembled the ubiquitous coffee-mill. Thus the guns were available at the outbreak of war in 1889, but in limited numbers initially. When fighting in large unit actions in Europe, they proved less devastating than they had against more 'primitive' enemies. The guns often misfired (not really more than rifles, but it was a more dramatic stoppage of rate of fire when a Coffee-Mill Gun needed clearing than one rifle in a group), also black powder made these guns easy to spot due to their copious smoke production and the residue fouled the barrels over time, requiring cleaning intermittantly. This was not an issue in brief clashes, but in prolonged battle it also decreased their utility. Even taking all these flaws into account, they still could act as a rapid reinforcement tool, and only the bravest troops could sustain a direct charge against a newly deployed Coffee-Mill Gun. The Ottomans eventually proved this point with their stalling of the Eastern onslaught just outside of Istanbul. Once the momentum of advance was broken and solid defenses could be formed, the advantage began to swing to the defenders, and newer innovations would aid this.
The Eastern powers, while always intending to fight nations like Germany and Scandinavia, had gambled that they would be slower to declare war and to mobilize. The hope had been to capture Istanbul and completely knock the Ottomans out of the war in Europe before turning to the west and north. However, the Easterners were now forced to open new fronts against Germany and Scandinavia. Russia particularly was concerned to strike early against Scandinavian Finland and force them away from their capital, St. Petersburg. The Russians were somewhat successful, striking deep into the Finnish countryside. Similarly, the forces of Prussia-Poland struck at Germany, with it's main attack sweeping across the North German Plain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_German_Plain) with the intent to cut off Jutland and the Baltic from Germany, but more importantly, to take Hanover. Prussia's traditional infantry strength was wedded to Polish fantastic tradition of light cavalry, the Uhlans (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan), to form a devastating combined unit attack form, notable for its aggressive offensive and favoring of turning the flanks of the enemy.
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While the Prusso-Polish were able to strike deep into Northern Germany, again the Eastern powers fell short of their immediate objectives, and again much of the reason may be attributed first to the use of Coffee-Mill Guns, but also to the introduction of the first true Self-Powered Machine Gun (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxim_gun). While designed before the war, it was not until its design could be wedded to the new smokeless gunpowder that it was made practicable. The Germans had gambled and rushed the gun into production first among the Western alliance, and had enough to give the Prusso-Polish army a nasty shock in the battle for Hanover. Again, as outside of Istanbul, the Eastern Powers found their own gamble failing, and the lines of defense hardening.
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As the forces of the Eastern Powers bore down upon storied Istanbul by land, Russia also sought to bring further firepower to bear on the Ottoman's key city by sea. The Russian Black Sea fleet had been built up in an effort to overwhelm the Ottoman navy as well as its potential British ally, at least locally. When war actually did break out, both the British and the French made the protection of Ottoman waterways (both on the Black Sea and the Red Sea) a priority. However, moving enough squadrons to counter the insanely numerous (though somewhat bulked up by numerous smaller vessels than just battleships), proved to be a race that the West barely won. The Ottoman Navy acquitted itself admirably in the early days of the Black Sea campaign, first launching a daring raid on Sevastopol which nearly caught the Russians napping, then fighting a holding action all the way to Istanbul with an innovative combination of ships and a new weapon in the naval arsenal, the submarine. The Ottomans thus became the first nation to sink a ship in time of war with a submersibly launched attack. The brave but outnumbered Ottoman Navy was seriously diminished, but bought enough time for British and French ships to traverse the oceans and enter the Black Sea and inflict on the Russian Black Sea Fleet a decisive defeat that saw their remnants harried back to the Russian shore.
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Tokugawa Japanese and Ainu under their Russian patrons launched an offensive against Imperial Japan in the Spring of 1889 as part of the greater strife engulfing the world. Initially the Shogunate forces under their Russian advisors pushed deep into Imperial Japan, eventually taking Kyoto, but not before the Imperial Court was evacuated by Imperial Japanese forces and a unit of Ghurkas rotating through the British garrison. The Shogunate forces received heavy casualties, however, requiring a halt in the advance to redress their lines and await reinforcements. The Imperial Japanese forces and the British used the time to create a strong defense.
The Russian Pacific Navy did not engage at this time, leaving the British Fleet in the region uncontested. However, night-time shipments of men and material from the Russian Far East and Russian influenced Manchuria often made landfall in the Islands evading interdiction.
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War fever seemed to be spreading by the Fall of 1889. Few could predict how events in Europe may impact the balance of power in the Far East. The Chuen Chinese were, locally, surrounded by potential enemies. Tsarist Russia to the North, and their puppets in Manchuria to the East, the United States of China to the South and their ally Korea also to the East. Also eyed with lingering paranoia were the British in their various Asian outposts. However, it seems likely that two factors swayed Chuen China to enter the widening war. First was the advice of their military advisors from Prussia-Poland. The second was the perceived relative weakness of the USC compared to Russia in the north. If Chuen China could reunite the Chinese people, it would stand a far greater chance in a future conflict with Russia, or so the reasoning in the Imperial Court went. Sweetening the pot was the fact that Russia was willing to make a number of border concessions and ship supplies to Chuen China in return for them favoring the Russians in the conflict (Russia didn't want the Chuen to turn to the allies and open yet another front on the war). There was also the third factor of the disturbance the Chuen felt from the South and their decadent Western Liberal notions, that despite the Imperial Court's best attempts to stem, had continued to leak into Chuen China proper, threatening to corrupt the youth of the nation. And so, in that fateful Fall of 1889, the Chuen launched their attack on the United States of China, claiming that it was the will of the Chinese people and the Mandate of Heaven that the Chinese nation be reunited under the Chuen Dynasty.
While the United States of China had eyed the Chuen Dynasty to the north with a wary eye since the Western brokered armistice, it was still taken by surprise at the swiftness and ferocity of the Chuen Offensive when it came. The Chuen had learned of speed and audacity from their Prussian advisors, and used it to good effect in the opening days of the Chinese campaign. While Chuen generals might have chosen to go a more circuitous route through the mountains and deserts to the west, it was decided to go the more direct route straight into some of the most populous states of the USC, Jiangsu, Anhui, and Henan. The strategic border city of Xuzhou (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xuzhou#cite_note-0) was swiftly cut off from reinforcement by USC forces and made to capitulate. Almost the entirety of Henan was occupied with Anhui and Jiangsu being cut in half. The USC military was able to stablize the front just short of the Huai river (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huai_River), taking heed of British advisors to hold fast in the defense against the Prussian advised invaders. While this grated on USC officials to see so many of their people under Chuen occupation, still better than to lose Shanghai or even Nanjing! While a British-style defense was mounted in the east, several small bands of USC military under American advisors slipped through the Qin mountains (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Mountains) on the western edge to use so-called 'Wild Indian' hit-and-run tactics against the logistic lines of the invading Chuen.
http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/attachment.php?attachmentid=165003&stc=1&d=1327102128
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As part of the Korsgaardista agenda on gaining power in Mexico launched a rapid military expansion, fueled by governmental 'persuasion' of businesses to accept credit from the government as well as generous if covert aide from fellow Korsgaardist nations in Europe. Mexico made no attempt to join the battleship club as many other nations had, instead choosing to invest in heavy coastal defenses as well as the cheap and easily manufacture Shark Ships (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torpedo_boat). Really more boats than ships, these small, fast, but poorly defended vessels were designed to launch the self propelled bombs (sharks) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torpedo#Self-propelled_torpedoes) were capable with their sharks of sinking much larger ships, even potentially battleships. While many established navies scoffed at the smaller vessels, the Mexicans were gambling that they would provide a defense that while meager on the surface, would cost a naval aggressor dearly.
As the Eastern powers further modernized their arsenal, much of the surplus found its way to Mexico in shipments of 'farm equipment'. One of the better kept secrets of the Korsgaardian regimes was the depth of the relationship with Mexico. Mexico's leadership eyed with avarice the former lands of Mexico to the North, now part of the Dominion of Southern America. The largest barrier to Mexican action against the Dominion of course was the Royal Navy. However, the war in Europe and the Far East brought saw a relative decrease in the British navy's presence in North American waters, felt relatively 'safe'. Mexico did nothing to disabuse Britain of that notion, at first. In like fashion, the launch of Mexico into the war on the side of the Eastern powers was timed for the late Fall, when most nations were used to a refrain from pitched war activities. Yet that is when the invasion of Texas was begun.
The political parties of the 19th century Dominion of Southern America differed from the home country of Britain. Perhaps due to the influence of politics as delineated in other parts of North America, the parties of the DSA tended to fall roughly along an axis that was based on the degree of centralization that was promulgated by the party (or coalition).
The most centralized party of the Dominion was the Imperial Party, often referred to as Tories. The Imperial Party had as it's touchstone loyalty to the British Empire and the Monarch. Founded by Empire Loyalists, the party was the strongest in the early days of the Dominion. One could summarize the policies of the Imperial Party as, "What's good for the British Empire is good for the South." The Dominion's black population tended to vote pure Imperial Party, seeing it as the best protection of their freedoms within the Dominion.
On the opposite end of the political spectrum was a political force that was so anti-centralist it wasn't even a formal party, but a coalition of provincial parties, thus their moniker of the Provincial Coalition. The provincial coalition rose to prominance in Dominion level politics several years after the founding of the DSA to challenge the prominance of the Imperial Party. While their reputation as 'tamed rebels' is perhaps unjustified, it is true that many of the most prominant members of the early coalition were reformed Confederationists or at least those who held themselves aloof from the Southern Rebellion. The fact of the matter, though, was that there were strong currents in Southern society that sought more autonomy and the right of the Provinces to oversee their own citizenry. While their politics could vary wildly from each other in the details in their home Provinces, at the Dominion level they formed a somewhat united voting block devoted to preventing any growth in power at the federal level, and reserving power whenever and wherever possible for the Provinces. Interestingly, there was a strong Indiana contingent to the Provincial Coalition, who wished to see their autonomy preserved as much as any of the other provinces.
While the aforementioned two power blocks were to dominate politics in the Dominion during the course of the 19th century, there was a third power block, the Dominion Party, that was influential beyond its size. A 'middle-of-the-road' party, it took as its goal strengthening the Dominion, and thus favored more autonomy from the British Empire, while at the same time promoting greater powers and oversight over the Provinces. Often in coalition with the Imperialist Party for the sake of governance, on some votes it sided with the Provincials (free trade with the USA, for example).
During the initial outbreak of the Global War, both the Provincial Coalition and the Dominion Party did not wish to be pulled into the European conflict, though the Imperial Party actively advocated support for Britain, including sponsoring volunteer companies to be sent to fight. Of course, when the South itself was invaded by Korsgaardist Mexico, the blood of every Southerner was stirred and rallied to the defense of the Dominion.
DEFEND THE DOMINION!
A Map of the Mexican Invasion of the DSA.
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With war fever spreading across the globe, the United States stood in odd quietude. However, some Americans were not content to stand on the sidelines as the world erupted in fire. While some of the volunteeers would be absorbed into the armies of Germany, France, and Britain, some did not come as individuals, but whole units. Many Americans had family roots in Europe and felt the pull of defending the liberal West against the Korsgaardist East. Very few were interested in fighting for the Korsgaardian regimes, and were seen as suspect by them even if they were so inclined. However, when the war expanded to their own doorstep in Texas, many more Yankees headed for the South to fight off the Mexican invasion.
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At the beginning of the Global War, the British Royal Navy was the largest in the world, and had been known for centuries for naval innovation, as evinced in recent decades by their use of newer, stronger armor. However, the average age of ships of the Royal Navy was the oldest in the world, and no other navy tried to cover as many regions as the British, so that while in absolute terms the largest navy, they often faced local inferiority in numbers. By the close of 1889, two disasters for the Royal Navy would have the Admiralty rethinking the policies of the British Navy.
Off the coasts of Mexico, the Shark Ships had proven surprisingly effective in warding off the larger, more heavily armed, British Battleships. While the brave Mexican navy faced horrendous casualties, as even one hit would usually mean the destruction of a Shark Ship, their speed, maneuverability, and ability to launch sharks that could cripple and even sink the larger battleships with but a few hits meant that the British were often forced to retire from the battle, with only their superior armor and endurance allowing them to escape.
In the Far East, the Russian Navy had played a game of 'keep-away' from British forces for most of the year, bolstering British confidence in their superiority. What the British didn't know was that the Russian fleet was waiting for the completion of reloading their ships with new, smokeless shells. When the Russian fleet suddenly turned on the British and went on the offensive with clear lines of sight for their long range guns due to the lack of billuous smoke, whereas the British within a few salvos lost clear targeting on the Russian fleet. The British lost more ships and men in the Battle of the Japanese Straits (sometimes called Korean Straits) than they had in over a century.
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New Granada had a tradition of more centralized government than many of the other Spanish successor states in the New World, and thus was not immune to the allure of Korsgaardism. When General Ricardo Rincon was elected President of New Granada (with strong backing of the military making his selection more a coup than an election), he brought the nation even further under control along Korsgaardist principles. Plotting with other Korsgaarist regimes both regionally and globally, Rincon launched on Christmas Day 1889 his invasion of the United Provinces of South America, claiming long disputed border regions (claims stretching back all the way to their Spanish colonial past). However, for the Korsgaardist alliance the goal was also to claim the rich saltpeter fields of the Atacama desert (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atacama_Desert), which were so very useful in the manufacture of gunpowder, especially the smokeless variety.
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While the Western Powers generally had better intelligence in Europe, in South America they had failed to appreciate the threat to their supply lines and the seduction of New Granada and Brazil into the Korsgaardian sphere of influence. Within days of the New Granada initiation of hostilities, it became apparent that Brazil too was waging war against the United Provinces of South America.
New Granada advanced primarily in the Winter of 1889-90 along the Pacific Coast of the UPSA, with the bulk of their attack being by sea. This was a surprise to most as New Granada had never been known as a naval power. Granted, the UPSA itself only had a modest navy though larger than New Granada prior to the war. Interestingly, both were outfitted mostly with British surplus ships, with one important exception. New Granada at the eleventh hour was 'leased' several Shark Boats from Mexico with 'volunteer' crews. Most nations in South America had relied on the British to keep the peace on the naval front, but with the Royal Navy otherwise preoccupied across the globe and the surpise success of the Shark Boat and their self propelled naval mines, Sharks, the navy of New Granada was able to gain superiority over the local naval forces of the UPSA.
The Brazilians had been sullen over the victories of the UPSA and the loss of Rio Grande do Sul for generations, thus in one sense it was no surprise when they leapt at the chance for revenge. The Brazilians launched a main campaign to invade Rio Grande do Sul and cut it off from UPSA support, which would also place them within striking distance of the UPSA capital. While this effort in itself supported Brazilian war aims, it also served to hold down the majority of the USPA's military on the Atlantic Coast, just when their troops were needed on the Pacific coast. The Brazilians also sent a small overland force to support the New Granada effort to seize the Atacama Desert for its vital nitrites, though this was by and large a sideshow for the main event in South America. The Brazilians who did not have the Shark Boats of Mexico was unable to control the coast, though they did manage to keep occupied the UPSA's Atlantic Navy. Again, the two fleets were primarily composed of British surplus, pitting older models of British ships against one another.
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While tensions between Korsgaardista Mexico and the Dominion of Southern America had been rising just prior to the Mexican invasion, and several expatriote Mexican groups had made claims that the Mexican Empire would attack, the sheer audacity and scale of the MExican invasion still took the Dominion of Southern America by surprise. The troops sent to man the very long border between the Dominion and Mexico had never been adequate to assure true security, and thus despite the many acts of bravery in the early days of the Dominion's invasion, the Mexican forces made heavy inroads along their three spearheads.
The second line of defense in those early days were hit and run raids in a running retreat made by the Royal Southern American Rangers, and in New Mexico, the unlikely allies of the wild tribes there who took payments from the Provincial governments to raid the Mexican supply lines.
New Mexico had always been sparse in population, and thus the Mexican army was able to cut deep into the dry land along the old Mexican road to Santa Fe, in the process cutting off the railways to Albion. Albion itself, especially the city of San Diego, were targeted and occupied to the south, though attempts to penetrate the Central Valley were met by hostile resistance in the mountains by the farmers of that region.
Texas was the most populated of the invaded provinces, and the occupation of the southern regions of Texas wore hard on the proud Texans. The Mexicans were stopped at the Battle of San Antonio (often misidentified as occuring at the City of San Antonio (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio), when in fact it occurred along a line stretching from that city along the San Antonio River (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio_River) to San Antonio Bay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio_Bay). Along this line an impromptu army of British Army regulars, Dominion auxilliaries, Rangers, and volunteers held the tide against the Mexican forces. The Line of San Antonio would go down as a glorious moment in Texas history.
With the Global War engulfing the world, the British relied on locally raised and armed Southerners to take the fight to the Mexican Empire. Local recruitment provided more seasoned troops than might be obvious at first glance, as many Southerners spent some time in the British Armed Forces before returning home to the Dominion. The locally raised Armies of the Provinces would prove decisive in North America, especially in the counterattack to free occupied Texas.
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The second year of the Global War, 1890, would later be referred to as "The Year of Blood" due to the loss of life during this phase of the war. With the further introduction of smokeless gunpowder and rapid fired automatically reloading guns on both sides, the balance of the war swung to the defense. While the Eastern powers in Europe could not be pushed out of the land they had invaded during this year, they also could not make progress further. This stalemate was most prevalent in the European theater, with others across the globe having more or less fluid lines depending on the terrain, weapons available, and manpower involved in the fight. The Western Powers, though chafing at the occupation of their lands, settled for the time on a policy of strong defense believing that time would favor them and weaken their opponents. The Eastern powers seemed equally concerned that without further advance, the war would swing ot the West's favor, and launched a number of offensives to try to break through, most of which met little success. By the end of 1890, the losses were far greater on the part of the East than the West.
The Global War saw many fascinating innovations, but perhaps one of the most impressive was the development of airpower starting in 1890. While for many decades the French had led in the development of first ballooning, and then the use of powered balloons. However, it was in British hands that the airship reached its pinacle. Using a rigid airframe and mountiing the finest steam engines available, the first class of combat balloon, the Orcas, set the standard for the war. Also known as Air Whales, the Orcas were used for long range reconnaisance and bombing on occasion (more of a propoganda weapon than anything else).
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The earliest use of railways in war may have been during the Southern Civil War, though this was only a taste of their importance to war in the 19th century. During the Liberal War, railways proved their worth in rapidly moving troops to the front, and neither the East nor the West would forget this for the Global War. Thus were designs for armoured steam locomotives developed by the armies of the world, to serve in roles as diverse as delivery of needed supplies and troop transport to the front to mobile artillery support. While only a small number of trains used in 1889 were of the armoured variety, by 1890 they were more and more in evidence as the lines solidified and trains to the front could expect barrages from the opposing lines (which of course could also knock out rails, but the trains were such larger, more inviting targets, that often the rails were left intact in order to entice the trains into range for potential destruction). The West's employment of the Air Whales such as the famed Orca class Airship further encouraged the East to use armoured trains to avoid destruction from above. These armoured locomotives proved remarkably resilient and became a favorite of the front line generals, always demanding more be built and deployed.
A Sampling of Armoured Steam Locomotives from Early and Later in the Global War
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There were many tales that were serialized from the Global War, with perhaps the most popular in the United States of America being The Adventures of Nick and Marty - The Roosevelt Brothers At War. The Roosevelt brothers father, Nicholas Van Buren Roosevelt, was the oldest son of former US President Nicholas Samuel Roosevelt and grandson of steamboat magnate Nicholas Isaac Roosevelt.
Nick Roosevelt, the oldest brother, was the first to volunteer for service in the Global War, joining the British Airship Corps, becoming the captain of his own Orca before war's end. Nick Roosevelt was so well regarded among his fellows,that despite his American roots, he was tapped to lead the daring air strike on Berlin, and would be highly decorated for this and his successful return of his damaged Air Whale to Hanover.
Marty Roosevelt was Nick's younger brother, who joined an American light cavalry unit formed to combat the Mexican onslaught flooding into the western regions of the Dominion of Southern America. Marty rose rapidly through the ranks of what developed into an irregular force, launching attacks deep into the Mexican supply lines. Within a year, young Marty had risen to acting commander of what came to be called Roosevelt's Raiders.
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A Map of Europe in The Year of Blood.
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In the pre-war years, a number of dissidents fled the tyrrany of the new Korgaardista regime of the self proclaimed Mexican Empire for shelter in the Dominion of Southern America. Many of these exiles plotted to bring revolution to Mexico and free the homeland from the cult of personality of Castellanos. However, before their plans could come to fruition, Mexico marched to war against the Dominion. On the heels of the Dominion invasion, many Mexicans in exile formed volunteer companies to fight the Korsgaardista regime's act of aggression. The most famous of the Mexican Free Companies was the Legion of Quintana (it is an interesting side note on the Mexican psyche that both sides sought to associate themselves with Quintana's legacy). The LoQ showed the bravery, the daring, and the cunning of the Mexican Republican, and would earn a fierce reputation in the war. The Korsgaardista led Mexican Army threatened execution for any Mexican fighting in the Free Companies.
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The Royal Naval Massacre does not refer to the several high profile failures of the British Royal Navy at the beginning of the Global War. It can be argued that 1889 was the largest failure for the Royal Navy in history. Needless to say, many high ranking admirals were removed from the leadership of the Admiralty for this series of failures, and it is this radical sacking to which the term Royal Naval Massacre refers.
The Royal Naval Massacre cleared the way for two innovative, visionary admirals to rejuvenate the wartime Navy. Admiral Milo James 'MJ' Barnett (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=3988310&postcount=34) and Admiral John Bryan (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=3953610&postcount=25) were the men tapped for the task. Admiral Barnett was seen as a 'bright young thing' on the rise in the Admiralty, though his meteoric elevation to leadership was considered by some perhaps unseemly. The selection, on the personal recommendation of Prime Minister Lovecraft, of John Bryan as Barnettl's partner was even more controversial. Just before the war, Bryan had considered retiring from the Royal Navy as his outspoken views on the future of naval warfare had seen him relegated to dark horse status, but when many of his warnings proved all too real by developments in the Global War, it became obvious that he was the right man to devise a counterstrike, at least by those outside the old Admiralty. Together, Barnett and Bryan instituted three major programs that would see the Royal Navy strike back with vengeance in the latter half of the war.
The first was the crash refitting of the Royal Navy for use of smokeless gunpowder. Ships were recalled to the closest port for refitting, even to colonial ports. For those who could not be taken off station or were too far for practical turn-around, the 'refit fleet' of ship tenders and refitters set sail to convert the ships. While this was an impossible task to finish fully, the numbers that were successfully converted was considered little short of a miracle.
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The second major innovation was the development of fast, compact (some would say cramped), attack boats to counter the threat of the Shark Boats. These Shark Hunter boats (shortened to Shark Hunters) were only a bit bigger than the Shark Boats that had been deployed so devastatingly in the Western Hemisphere (and were beginning to appear in other navies by 1890). The Shark Hunters were built with the latest fast fire guns, fleetest of engine designs, and were essentially seaworthy killing platforms. With them, the main fleet would be screened from the Shark Boats and able to pick them off at leisure. While the first prototypes and production Shark Hunters came out of English shipyards, the Rossall/Bryan Admiralty took the extraordinary step of charging shipyards throughout the Dominion of Southern America to construct the Shark Hunters, the first time since the Slaver Uprising that Royal Navy vessels would be build in the South. Some specialized equipment was purchased and rush shipped from the USA by rail and ship to bring Dominion works up to Royal Navy standards. The swarm of Shark Hunters required less crew than many vessels of the Royal Navy, but the British were still needing to recruit more for this surge of building, especially given the losses to experienced crew. Many Southrons joined the Royal Navy to crew the Dominion-built boats - this predominance of Southerner crew would lead the one of the longest lasting legacies of the Global War, the nick-name of "Shark Eaters" which began with the Southrons of the Royal Navy, but would later become a term used with affection (if one knew what was good for them) for all Southrons, especially abroad.
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The third major decision taken by the Admiralty under Barnett and Bryan was to redesign all new ships of the line on an all large gun design. These would be referred to as the 'Big Bang Battleships' by the press of the time. The Big Bangs were felt especially by Bryan to be necessary in the age of smokeless gunpowder when the elimination (or serious decrease) of the 'fog of war' coupled with the creation of Shark Hunters eliminated the need for most secondary guns, freeing up crews, space, and tonnage for more main guns. This successful philosophy would serve as the basis for all post-Global War Battleships.
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The year 1891 saw several developments that broke the deadlock of the Year of Blood in favor of the Western Powers. The Korsgaardist nations had driven through the economic turmoil of the 1880s on sheer will, and made audacious gambles in their launching of the Global War, but in the end came up short. By 1891 there stockpiles of many essential war materials were running out. The artificial propping of their economies was beginning to show in the harsh light of wartime needs, with rationing widespread. The initial black eyes dealt to the legendary Royal Navy had been a bright spot for the Eastern Powers and their Allies, but the reforms of the Barnett and Bryan began to pay dividends. Added to this mix was the introduction of a joint Franco-German invention to the field of battle, the Armored Steam Tractor (AST), nicknamed 'The Iron Rhino'. The ASTs combined the new mobile tracks of the most innovative farm machinery of the era with the previous decades improvements in steel to form a self propelled vehicle that could crawl through the dead zone between the lines and escort troops into the enemies' lines. The ASTs were overly heavy, prone to breakdowns, and never made in enough numbers for the demands of the European front lines, but their impact on already wavering Eastern morale was devastating.
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The Russians and their Austro-Hungarian allies were initially seen as liberators when they moved into Wallachia and Moldavia. However, after the front moved deeper into the Balkans, the people of Wallachia and Moldavia noticed pointedly that the Russians were not moving on. Russian military governors were established and it soon became clear that the Russians had not come as simple liberators but were planning to make these lands provinces of the Russian Empire. While some Russophiles embraced the occupiers, the majority were not eager to trade one foreign power for another, not when so many other nations had gained their independence. In 1890, acts of disobediance and sabotage started to become common. Russian response to these encitements was not gentle. As the fronts began to move again in 1891, Wallachians and Moldavians rose up yet again, flying a tricolor of Wallachian Blue, Moldavian Red, and shared Gold - this time for independence from Russian oppression.
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The British Army's participation in the Defense of Istanbul is the stuff of which legends are made. Three of Britannia's fiercest fighting units stood shoulder to shoulder on the line, shedding their sweat and blood in defense of the Empire and of Liberty - the Sable Legion, the Black Watch, and the Gurkhas. Several journal accounts noted the skirl of the 'Pipes of Hell' that would rally the British lines every time a new wave of Korsgaardian Eastern Troops tried to break the line, and every time the Eastern hordes were thrown back. While the Defense of Istanbul was a truly multinational effort by the Allies, with the majority of the troops being furnished by the Ottomans themselves, all present knew that pride of place went to the British zone, and the doughty fighting units from three continents.
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In the winter of 1891-92, the British Empire returned the favor to the Korsgaardistas with the Invasion of Mexico.
In 1891, the prelude to the invasion began in the Province of Texas where the newly constituted Dominion Army launched their liberation of Southern Texas, pushing the overextended Mexicans out of Southern territory, then started advancing into northern Mexico. The Loyalist Yell once again struck terror in the hearts of the enemies of the British Empire. The Dominion's Jackson Brigade (named somewhat controversially for the founding father of Texas AND the Confederation) utilizing camels made the hard march to Santa Fe to free New Mexico.
The Jackson Brigade's Camel Corps
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Another step in the road to victory was the sweeping away of the plucky Mexican navy by waves of Shark Hunters, leading to the liberation of Albion when the Royal Navy took Santa Barbara and San Diego. In aid of the Naval action, a motley irregular force of American volunteers and Albionese farmers scrambled over the mountain passes from the British portion of the Central Valley.
Seditious Meeting in the Mexican State of Moskito
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The British had a long history of influence in Moskito. The Mexican Empire of the Korsgaardistas had been unpopular among the mostly indigenous peoples of that Mexican state. This made taking the Nicaraguan Canal an attractive proposition to the British as they found it easy to subvert the Moskitos, sitting near the Gulf entrance to the Canal, to the British cause. While the British faced pressure from both sides of the canal, thier command of the waterways was quickly established, and events in Central Mexico would soon take precedence.
Royal Navy landing at Veracruz
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The final strike to the Mexican Empire was the taking of Veracruz and the beginning of the famous Republican March to Mexico City. While the Royal Navy and Dominion forces took and held the strategic port, it was decided for political reasons for the land forces to be led by the Free Mexican Companies who were landed in Veracruz by the Royal Navy. The liberation of Mexico City by Republican forces with the Legion of Quintana at the forefront would lead to the toppling of the Korsgaardistas, who had lost support over the preceding year from their harsh rule and the mounting casualties to feed their dreams of empire.
The Republican March to Mexico City
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During the Mexican occupation of New Mexico, a dogged resistance made the lives of the Army of the Rio Grande miserable. The resistance, made up of doughy Southerners and allied wild tribes was led by a man known to the Mexicans as Lobo, or Wolf as the Southrons would say. In reality, a young physician from Santa Fe by the name of Wolfgang Scott (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/member.php?u=1602) (though some claimed his original surname was Cohen), Wolf was the storied gentleman partisan who played havoc with the supply lines of the Mexicans while providing aid to those remaining New Mexicans suffering under the occupation. It is rumored that he personally led the Jackson Brigade through the last part of their trek to oust the Mexican army. He would become prominant in Dominion politics during the turn of the century.
Wolfgang Scott in a rare picture from his youth
Leader of the Resistance in the Province of New Mexico
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The Game of Asia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Game) refers to the period roughly stretching between the Napoleonic Wars and the Global War. The Game of Asia references the great diplomatic struggle between Russia and Britain for influence in Asia. The extent of the area and events encompassed by the Game of Asia is ill defined and varies depending on the historian referenced. For example, some authors will include the Pacific region in their definitions, such as the wrangling over the Hawaiian Islands by Russia and Britain. Most authors do not go so far, however, and see the easternmost extent of the Game of Asia as the Japanese Islands. The westernmost extent was fairly easily defined by the border of the Ottoman Empire on the Asian continent. The histories of the Japanese Islands, the Chinas, and the Indian Subcontinent are often described in detail, but those of Central Asia are equally worthy of comment, even if less known.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Man_from_Khiva%2C_Emir_of_Bukhara%2C_Teke_Turkmen% 2C_Girl_from_Samarkand%2C_Police_Soldier_from_Bukh ara.JPG
In the first phase of the Game of Asia, the Russians had small but steady encroachments upon Persia, with Britain acting as a mediating influence and supporter of Persian autonomy for the most part. However, British support for Persia's other feared neighbor, the Ottomans, and then the growing British support for the Durrani Empire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durrani_Empire). Things changed in the second phase of the Game of Asia after the Russian reversals in Europe during the Liberal War and later the chaos of the Russian succession. Russia advanced more openly and agressively in Central Asia, adding such protectorates as Samarkand, Bukhara, Kokand, and Khiva to the Russian Empire. At the same time Persia negotiated with Russia for a stable border, hoping instead to point the Russian bear towards the Durrani Empire, and of course, the Ottoman Empire. Relations with Britain cooled in the meantime.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/Great_Game_cartoon_from_1878.jpg
When the Global War broke out, the Persians joined the Russians in attacking the borders of the Ottoman Empire, both with their own army equipped and 'advised' by Russians. At the same time the Russians sent troops into the Durrani Empire in an attempt to close on British India. The Durrani Graveyard would be referred to in Russian song for decades to come. While many Russians lost their lives in the Global War, they rarely did with so little to show for it as in the Durrani Empire.
Historians debate as to whether the Brazilian incursion into Bahia and the subsequent counterstrike by the Confederation of the Equator to aid the Bahians in liberating themselves. The Republic of Brazil took advantage of British preoccupation with the more direct threats of Europe and North America to invade the black republic that had been seen as a stain on Brazilian pride since Bahia broke away from Brazil in the 1830s. Under the pretext of suppressing bandits who were operating over the border (and to be fair, Bahian bandits had been active for generations in frontier raids), the Brazilians invaded Bahia in 1890. The Bahians fought ferociously, but did not have as advanced of a military infrastructure or the numbers of the Brazilians. Penning Bahians in large, poorly equipped camps (those who didn't take to the wilderness to fight as partisans), the Brazilians seemed uncertain how to deal with their success, such as it was. The small Confederation of the Equator had long seen any aggressive moves against their colorful neighbors as a threat to their own independence. While the Equatorians had only shaky relations with Bahia in peace, in war they were allies, and thus the Confederation launched its own counteroffensive from the north. The Equatorians would have likely been crushed if they had faced the full Brazilian army, but the Brazilians were overextended in their conflict to the south with the UPSA. Between the Equatorians and the Bahians partisans, the Brazilians were forced to abandon the camps and fall back to redoubts near the border.
http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/attachment.php?attachmentid=170276&stc=1&d=1332378064
The Sides in the Global War (blue is the Liberal/West, red is the Korsgaardist/East):
http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/attachment.php?attachmentid=170341&stc=1&d=1332457067
The Global War entered its end stage in the 1891-1892 period. The Eastern nations greatest achievement, the invasion of the Balkans, became their greatest defeat with the uproar in their rear areas in Wallachia and Moldavia coupled with a Franco-British expeditionary landing to support the resurgent Ottoman army leading to the complete encirclement of the Eastern combined army of the Balkans. While Austro-Hungarians and Prusso-Polish forces were well represented, the bulk of the army was Russian and this defeat was a great blow to the mighty Russian Empire's morale, not to mention that of its allies.
Whereas the Western powers had had to deal with the harsh economic realities of the economic crisis of the 1880s, the Korsgaardian influenced powers had forestalled much of the pain through governmental policies demanding that things be maintained at a growing level of prosperity, regardless of the accumulating costs carried on the books. The intial flush of the Global War had also helped hide this growing economic disparity between perception and reality, but in the end it exacerbated matters. While the Eastern Powers continued winning morale remained high, despite the growing needs for rationing. When defeats began to accrue at the same time rationing became heavily worse, the populace in many nations began to question just what they had given their hears and souls to. The first Eastern Empire to see this discontent lead to the resurrection of revolutionary movements from the past was Austria-Hungary. Particulary in Hungary, where long simmering discontent with the Habsburg dynasty erupted into revolt. The Hungarian tricolor again flew, and an aged Lajos Kossoth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lajos_Kossuth) was smuggled back into the country to a triumphal march to leadership.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/Kossuth_Coat_of_Arms.svg/200px-Kossuth_Coat_of_Arms.svg.pnghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Civil_Ensign_of_Hungary.svg/500px-Civil_Ensign_of_Hungary.svg.png
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/75/Kossuth_funeral_2.jpg
The Empire of Prussia-Poland fared a little better than Austria-Hungary to the south. The Hohenzollern Dynasty still remained popular in the east, where the war had not had as great an impact, but the westernmost parts of the land were another matter. While the war had been popular at the beginning, the Year of Blood, the ever-increasing crippling rationing, and the subsequent German counter-attack eroded that support for both the war, and the Hohenzollern regime. Especially restive were the leaders of labor, such as was left in the industrial centers of Brandenburg. When the German army threatened the areas near Berlin, the remaining laborers and disaffected army troops rose up to overthrow the regime in Brandenburg, and welcomed their German brothers as liberators from the oppression of the Korsgaardian Hohenzollerns. The Empire of Germany was able to secure Brandenburg from the Oder River to the traditional borders of Saxony.
http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/attachment.php?attachmentid=170590&stc=1&d=1332710436
After the Liberal War, the Austrian Empire struggled to find an identity that could tame the boiling nationalist tensions that had been first born during the Napoleonic Era and rekindled in the age of Liberal Revolution. Russia's intervention had bought the Habsburgs time, but it was the advent of Korsgaardian theory that gave the renamed Austria-Hungary a direction. The Austrian crown based their ideal image of the past on the precedent of the Holy Roman Empire in the ideal of a multistate, fiercely Catholic state. Language played a lesser role in the Austro-Hungarian national identity than in other Korsgaardian states, though German remained the lingua franca (ironically) for work across the provinces, whereas within them local languages were allowed to be utilized. The Habsburg Emperor played an increasingly loyal and empowered populace against the traditional power of the nobles and the emerging industrialists. Eventually, it was expected and required that all the classes subject themselves for the good of their most Catholic State as embodied by the Habsburg Emperor. The conservative clergy especially clung to the throne in the face of an increasingly liberal leadership in the Vatican. The restive Hungarian nobles had been diminished in purges, mostly after the uprisings in 1848-9, but more gradually since of any that did not espouse loyalty to the Empire. The Austrian nobility faced the possibility of being detained and even disappeared by the state, but as they had not had their ranks initially dimished through rebellion, they remained relatively speaking stronger. Of course, most of the liberal leadership elements in Austria-Hungary had long fled by the time of Global War, or at least those that could. Many liberal Austrians of German extraction had found new homes and loyalties in Germany. However, the Hungarians in exile retained a distinct identity as Magyars and were thus poised to return across the war-torn nation to take part in the Hungarian Revolution when the time came.
To better rule and guard the Empire, it was administratively divided into a Western and Eastern Sector, or Division. When the Hungarians revolted, they took with them the rest of the Eastern sector (namely to the North and West of Hungary, and thus geographically isolated from the Austrian centers of power, especially with Prussia-Poland and Russia no longer being reliable for aid in putting down any distant revolts.
http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/attachment.php?attachmentid=175479&stc=1&d=1337820279
As the Eastern Powers began to become unhinged in the waning days of the Global War, Chuen China found itself also being gradually pushed back out of the United States of China. Thus it should have come as little suprise when Chuen made a separate peace with the USC, returning the borders to the antebellum status quo, though agreeing to some hefty reparations to the USC citizens whose families had been killed, maimed, and dispossessed in the invaded provinces.
However, when Chuen China, greatly displeased by continued Russian failures to honor their previous agreements for border adjustments in Chuen China's favor declared themselves in favor of the Western Powers, and along with their allies, Korea, supported the Qings in declaring their full independence from Russia. The Manchurian uprising, supported by Chuen and Korean troops, drove the sparse Russian forces in the region all the way back to Siberia. While there was no love lost between the Qing of Manchuria, their joint interests made them allies of the moment. Chuen also unilaterally occupied the areas promised by Russia, sometimes with bloodshed.
The Flag of Manchuria adopted in 1892 (sometimes referred to as Qing China):
http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/attachment.php?attachmentid=170806&stc=1&d=1332988362
The Revenge of the Royal Navy refers to the pitched battle that took place in the Sea of Japan between the Russian Pacific Fleet and a newly assembled Royal Navy Far East Fleet. The stakes were nothing less than control of land of Japan. The Royal Navy, who had been bloodied by Russian innovation, now returned the favor, battering the Russians to flinders. The British bolstered Imperial Japanese Army then was left to roll up the Tokugawa forces on Honshu, who over the years had been increasingly stretched in terms of supplies doled out by their Russian patrons. The death of the last Tokugawa Shogun in the Battle of Edo broke the will of their forces, and Honshu was brought under the Imperial banner, which in turn enjoyed the protection of the United Kingdom. However, what battered forces remained retreated as best they could to Ezochi, to join the Ainu there. The Emperor, in rememberance of the blood spilled in the long battle for reunification of Honshu, added a blood red fringe to the Imperial Flag.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3c/Japan_Kouzoku_Flag_16ben.svg/500px-Japan_Kouzoku_Flag_16ben.svg.png
What the Slaver Uprising did for blacks in the British South, the Global War, in part, did for subcontinental Indians living in the Dominion of Southern America. Often referred to in aggregates as 'Hindoos' even though the people brought over as indentured servants in the wake of slave abolition practiced numerous faiths, the subcontinental Indians had been seen as little more than lowly workers and aliens, not part of the Southern Culture proper, which while stratified, had a place for whites, blacks, and so called 'civilized indians' (who of course were not from India, but from America).
However, the Mexican invasion made for strange bedfellows, as the overwhelmingly Catholic and Spanish speaking Mexicans had even less use for the subcontinentals than the South. Several brave men took up arms to represent their race in the defense of the Empire. One such man was Rhajini Sikhail (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=4584651&postcount=46). His family had been brought to Southern Albion to work on the railways, and after settling their indenture settled as subsistance farmers in the region. Sikhail took to the hills and pulled together several of his family and friends into a partisan fighting force when the Mexicans occupied the region. His hard scrabble force were among those who marched into San Diego when the Royal Navy liberated the port. He and his band were recognized by Her Majesty's government as auxillaries to the British Army and continued the fight, launching raids into Mexico that kept several units of Mexican regulars occupied for the remainder of the war. After the war he returned to private life and enjoyed the hard won respect he and 'Sikhail's Boys' had earned with blood. He went on to become a successful local politician, becoming the first subcontinental mayor in the Dominion, of his small hometown which was renamed after his death - Sikhail, Albion, DSA.
A photograph of Rhajini Sikhail and his surviving men after the repulsing of the Mexican invasion.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/03-Men_of_the_Loodiaah_%28Ludhiana%29_Sikh_Regiment_i n_China%2C_Circa_1860..jpg
The greatest war hero of the Global War on the Italian peninsula was General Arturo Piantadosi (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=4585519&postcount=52). Born in Northern Italy, as a young man he had been inspired by the republican spirit of the Roman Republic and spent many years living there. However, he later returned to the Kingdom of Italy and joined the military of his homeland. When Austria-Hungary invaded the Venician region in the Global War, the Italians and their allies, the Romans and Neapolitans, were at first hard pressed by the Prussia-Poland and Russian trained and advised Austro-Hungarian forces. Arturo Piantadosi, however, rose rapidly through the officer corps developing a reputation of dashing exploits and sound tactics. When the time came, it was General Piantadosi who was placed in overall command of the Italian allied armies that launched the counterattack into Austro-Hungarian territory and was widely credited as the man who took Trieste from Austria. At the end of the war, he retired from active military service, living out the remainder of his days in a scenic cottage on the shores of Lake Maggiore (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Maggiore).
Trieste, the site of General Piantadosi's greatest victory.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/Triest_1885.jpg/628px-Triest_1885.jpg
While some historians will claim that Chuen China was the first of the great powers aligned with Korsgaardism to make peace with the forces of the Allies of the Entente, most acknowledge that it was the Austrians who were the first of the main belligerents to seek a peace treaty. With a whole army lost in the Balkans, the Germans and Italians pressing in on their borders, desparate shortages of food and worse, ammunition, and outright rebellion in Hungary, it is little wonder that Vienna sued for an early and separate peace. Of course, the fact that Prussia-Poland had its own problems with Brandenburg overrun and in revolt and the Russians had pulled back to their borders leaving their allies to flounder allowed the Austrians to take the move.
The terms of the Treaty of Geneva ending the war between the Austrian crown and the Entente stipulated that most of the Austrian Littoral (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_Littoral) would be ceded to the Kingdom of Italy, and Salzburg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salzburg) was ceded to Germany. Reparations were to be paid to Germany, Italy, and the Ottoman Empire for damage done to their invaded lands. The Crown and the Austrian Church were also required to acknowledge and make obeisance to the Pope as the true and rightful head of the Church, and to renounce forever any claim on a veto in papal elections. When the Republic of Hungary declared itself not only independent but neutral in the Global War, the stipulation was also added that Austria had to recognize Hungarian independence.
With the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, a reorganization of the remaining crown lands was felt necessary. There had been some concerns that the Bohemian lands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_lands), which had been laid open to invasion, might also break off. However, the Bohemians (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemians) and Moravians (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moravians_(ethnic_group)) were concerned about possibly being annexed by Germany, and instead negotiated to replace Hungary in a dual monarchy, the new nation of Austria-Bohemia.
Site of the Treaty of Geneva:
http://www.ville-geneve.ch/fileadmin/public/images/accueil/KEYSTONE-8051162.jpg
Austria-Bohemia and its divisions:
http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/attachment.php?attachmentid=175480&stc=1&d=1337820402
The Civil Ensign of Austria-Bohemia:
http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/attachment.php?attachmentid=175321&stc=1&d=1337648530
The Treaty of Zurich followed the capitulation of the Austrian Crown. Prussia-Poland had already lost Brandenburg west of the Oder through the combination of invasion and revolution, as well as traditional Saxony which that Kingdom had redeemed. The treaty formally acknowledged the new border and also required Prussia-Poland to pay reparations for the damages caused by the war, predominantly to Germany and Scandinavia. Like Austria-Bohemia, Prussia-Poland was required to acknowledge the Pope as the rightful leader of the Catholic Church, though in the case of Prussia-Poland, the results of this forced rapproachment would prove interesting. However, the Hollenzollern crown managed to survive and maintain what remained of their realm, though now with a significant predominance of Poles as the populace.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/Z%C3%BCrich_-_Opernhaus_IMG_0090_ShiftN1.jpg/360px-Z%C3%BCrich_-_Opernhaus_IMG_0090_ShiftN1.jpg
The South American nations under the sway of Korsgaardianism, New Granada and Brazil, humbled in the Global War by the Liberal nations of the continent. The Confederation of the Equator and Bahia managed to throw out the Brazilian invasion, and in the process tie up critically needed troops and munitions. The United Provinces of South America, the powerhouse of South America, was a sleeping giant that the Korsgaardista invaders had aroused, and the armies who were were the heirs of Martin not only repulsed the invaders but drove deep into their own territories by the end of the conflict.
However, Korsgaardism had made as many enemies as it had adherents in the traditionally Republican South American nations, and with the armies of the Korsgaardists in tatters the forces of Liberalism rose up in both nations in what many call the Second South American Revolution, installing the Second Republic of New Granada and the Second Republic of Brazil. The new Revolutionary governments immediately sued for peace, turning over the surviving Korsgaardist tyrants to Allied justice (though few Korsgaardistas survived the blood-letting of the Revolution). The Allied powers of South America agreed to only minor border adjustments and to hold reparations to actual damages, to be paid out over a long period of time at low interest. Tiny Bahia actually received the greatest reparation awards as it had been the worst ravaged. As peace was restored, the Allied armies gradually ceded control to the Revolutionary governments of New Granada and Brazil.
http://barnabasfund.org/_images_files/content/article_files/Proclaim_Freedom/Spanish/Proclamad-libertad-spanish-4x3.jpg
The Durrani Empire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durrani_Empire) had allied itself with the British Empire in the Grand Game (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Game) against Russia, and in the Global War the strategy clearly paid dividends. While Durrani would gain no terrritory from the Russian Empire, was rewarded by the British with full recognition of their claims to Balochistan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balochistan), and Persia for its perfidity with Russia against the British and the Ottomans were required to honor those Durrani claims as well.
Banner of the Durrani Empire
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bf/Flag_of_the_Emirate_of_Herat.svg/500px-Flag_of_the_Emirate_of_Herat.svg.png
While the father of the Republic of Hungary may rightly be considered Lajos Kossuth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lajos_Kossuth), another who could rightly claim the title of Founding Father of the Republic is Peter Molnár (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=5795251&postcount=75), the second President of the Republic according to some historians, or the first according to others. Kossuth had been elevated to President of the Provisional Government of Hungary on his return from exile. However, Kossuth's failing health after his elevation to the post did not allow him much time or energy to participate in the drafting of the constitution. It was Peter Molnár who would lead this great work and see the nation through to the 20th century. Peter Molnár was a young dissident from a literary family (Hungarian on his father's side, Slovakian on his mother's side) in the Austro-Hungarian Empire who became radicalized against the constraints and anti-individualism of Korsgaardianism as it became the guiding philosophy of the ancient regime. Imprisoned on numerous occasions, most recently at the outbreak of the Global War as a 'potential security risk', Molnár was among the prisoners freed by the uprising. He rose to prominance for his articulate and clear way of expressing the ideals of the revolution, and his personal devotion to liberal individualist rights, in diametric opposition to the Korsgaardism that had come before. He chaired the drafting of the Hungarian Constitution, heavily borrowing from the American constitution but adapting it to the conditions as they prevailed in the Hungarian territory. Minority rights, such as for the Slovaks, and religious freedoms including for protestants and jews, were vouchsafed. The most controversial part of the constitution was female suffrage, but Molnár saw it as an essential step forward for the nation. Kossuth died before the completion of the constitution, and Peter Molnár was raised in his place as the second President of the Provisional Government. He subsequently won the first Presidential Elections under the new constitution. As president, he counseled reconciliation with the landed classes and former Korsgaardist bureaocrats, bringing to a halt the backlash and persecution these former masters of Austria-Hungary (though many of the more prominant of the former regime were banned from public office for years, the restrictions not being eased until the 20th century). Although a classic liberal himself, Peter Molnár sought to position the Hungarian Republic as a good and honest neighbor, interested in trade and cultural exchange regardless of prevailing political party of his neighbors (particularly important in the case of Russia). Molnár also saw to it that Hungary was one of the first nations of Eastern Europe to embrace the Poe Plan to bolster the post-war economy. He also sought to keep Hungary truly neutral, much in keeping with the model set over a century before by George Washington. However, much as Vegetius counseled, Peter Molnár led his government to build up a strong defensive military (referred to as the Hungarian Legion, purposely mirroring the name of the American military). It is interesting to note that he also was a strong proponent of air power, building up an airship force for the military and even promoting a civilian air service. Several of the younger officers from the former Austro-Hungarian navy would migrate to the air services, giving it a decidedly nautical feel and terminology.
For these and so many other reasons, many historians consider Peter Molnár as the man who created the Republic of Hungary.
http://mek.niif.hu/01900/01905/html/cd8/kepek/c4371nkm265.jpg
With losses in Europe and Asia, the Tsar decided to pull back into the Russian Rodina (Ezo was an exception), and dared the allies to invade. Short on powder, Russia relied on the endless fields of the Rodina and General Winter to defend the Rodina. Abandoned, Russia's allies made seperate peace with the Allies. Russia disdained any formal treaty - they merely stopped fighting. The debates in the Allied capitals raged for a time, but eventually it was decided to let Russia rot, and not spend any more blood on that dark Eastern land.
http://www.photographium.com/sites/default/files/styles/sidebar_336_total/public/saint_isaacs_square._st._petersburg_russia._1890-1900.jpg
The population of Ireland had been growing steadily until the 1830s, when the combination of multiple crop failures and easy access to emigration and greater opportunities caused the population level to actually steady more or less at 8 million for the latter half of the 19th Century. The continuing pressure value of emigration was probably invaluable to the stability of Ireland during this era, but even more important was the gradually improving situation for the poor Catholic majority (and even moreso for the minority Protestants and the growing middle class) on the island. The Whigs in the Reform Revolution expanded greatly on the rights of the Irish people within the United Kingdom, even if they did not gain all that the most vocal Irish patriots would want. The Tory government that followed the Reform Era was able through more sober and perhaps realistic economic policy as well as a renewed interest in building the infrastructure of the British Isles, including to a degree that of Ireland, to continue the gradual improvement of the lot of the average Irishman. This did not stop discontent, but it ameliorated it to a degree. By the 1860s, things were turning around in Ireland. Increasingly small farmers were able to gain some stability in their land tenure and even sometimes buying their own land. Land reform laws curtailed some of the worst landlord abuses of the first half of the century, and encouraged a return to a more diverse crop for the island, following the more modern agricultural theories of the day. Increased access to education was passed throughout the British Isles, including of course Ireland, but was a double edged sword in terms of the identity of the island. Literacy improved and this opened up more opportunities for people in Ireland, but these publically supported schools were only teaching in English, not Irish, and after a few generations this was starting to have real impact on the rate of Irish being spoken. The increasing easing of tensions in Ireland and increasing literacy and fluency in English helped prepare the Irish Island for participation in the Global War. The British Empire needed soldiers and sailors for the greatest conflict of the 19th century, and Ireland provided some of the most fierce troops of the British military, perhaps driven by the desire of the individuals serving to prove their loyalty to the crown after the difficult times of the earlier 19th century.
Population of Ireland
http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/attachment.php?attachmentid=174084&stc=1&d=1336617327
During the Napleonic age, Napoleon spread nationalism, but also emancipated the Jews across Europe. Even after Napoleon’s death, nationalism grew, but this resulted in a return to repression of Jews to some degree. The exception to this was in France itself where the French Emperor retained these reforms. However, Western Europe saw the pendulum swing back in favor of Jewish rights with the Revolutions and the Liberal War. Jews in Europe played large roles in the liberal, nationalistic movements of the time, particularly in what would become the Empire of Germany.
After the Liberal War, many Jews in the east sought to migrate to the West or even America, as the increasingly conservative regimes in Eastern Europe began to associate Jews with liberalism and the threat of loss of any of the gains they had during the Enlightenment. Especially endangered were the Jews in the former Polish lands and the Pale of Settlement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_of_Settlement) under the rule of the Tsars of Russia. Jews and Poles worked against the efforts of the Russian imperium to crush Polish nationalism and liberal movements. While the Poles embrassed the change of regime to the Hollenzollern dynasty and were reciprocated in kind by the attention the Hollenzollerns paid to Polish sensibilities, so long as they served the crown and the state, Jews were somewhat skeptical of the new Prussia-Poland regime. While the Hollenzollerns had learned their lesson in terms of balancing the needs of Protestants and Catholics in their realms, and the two main languages of German and Polish, especially under the doctrines of Korsgaardianism, they saw little reason to curry to the Jews of the nation, even though they were the third largest ethnicity within Prussia-Poland. It should be noted that even within the increasingly repressive climate of Prussia-Poland, there were still pathways for advancement for Jews, but only at the cost of their identity, by embracing Prussian, or at least Polish language and culture, even Christianity. For those Jews willing to assimilate to the new Prussia-Poland standards, and especially if they dedicated themselves to service to the state and its embodiment of the crown, there was very little in the way of persecution. However, those who clung to their own ways, their own identity, and worse, to the principles of liberalism, found life hard and increasingly dangerous in Prussia-Poland. Things went similarly in Austria-Hungary as it too succumbed to the allure of Korsgaardism and became paranoid about liberal contamination from Germany to the West. Russia was perhaps the worst of the nations with regards to conditions for the Jews.
In the thriving new nation of Germany, Jews were enjoying new rights and new prosperity, such as their French counterparts had started to do earlier in the century. While the boisterous new nation forged from many old lands had a great deal of diversity between its component parts, a sense of 'German-ness' was emerging, and emerging by it's side was a Jewish-German symbiosis, where German Jews had merged elements of German and Jewish culture into a unique new one.
In the United States, there was a burst of increased immigration of Jews from Eastern Europe as they sought newer opportunities and freedom from persecution. While some chose to migrate to the liberal Western nations in Europe, others feared that the pendulum would eventually swing back to the old prejudices in this ancient land, and hoped that in the New World there would be a chance at real change. By and large, they were right. In the United States, those who would embrace democracy and work hard found opportunity opened in the labor hungry nation.
Another place that Jews sought new opportunities was in the reforming Ottoman Empire. As the Ottomans sought to integrate the ancient regime with liberal sensibilities of their Western allies. Jews from Russia and Austria-Hungary sometimes found their way into the European and Anatolian parts of the Ottoman Empire, or even all the way to storied Jerusalem. While perhaps not as open as the Western powers and America, the Ottoman Empire was a relative haven in increasingly harsh times in Korsgaardian Eastern Europe.
A grand synagogue in Nuremberg, Empire of Germany
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/Nurembergsynagoguec.jpg/640px-Nurembergsynagoguec.jpg
One of the worst kept secrets in Europe was the questionable competency of the Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand. A secret council (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_State_Conference) ruled in his name throughout his tenure as emperor, though this information was surpressed by the court. During the turmoil leading up to and including the Liberal War, the council fractured on coping with the crisis, with the ascendent faction inducing Ferdinand to replace Metternich (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klemens_von_Metternich) and even a short lived attempt to quell the chaos by appointing a government of more liberal minded politicians. Eventually the Russians were brought in to crush the liberal movements in the Habsburgs lands. The secret council continued on for almost another 20 years, until Ferdinand's death from a fall during a seizure in 1868. Ferdinand's nephew would be raised to the Imperial Throne as Emperor Francis II (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Joseph_I_of_Austria) of a newly renamed Austria-Hungary. Emperor Francis II became convinced of the rightness of the Korsgaardian theory of governance, and slowly brought his nation fully under his control as the embodiment of the state. This would eventually lead his nation into the folly of the Global War, by whose end Hungary was lost to revolution and Trieste to the Italians. Emperor Francis II had alienated the West, the liberals, and the Papacy. What remained of his nation was bankrupt and suffering shortages of all sorts. Now, in order to save what he could for Austria and his family, Francis II made the bold move of abdicating in favor of his dashing (and quietly liberal sympathetic) son, Crown Prince Rudolf (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf,_Crown_Prince_of_Austria), with one last order, bring peace to his nation. This was seen as a key move to allowing for a successful negotiation with the Allied Western Powers. Francis went into quiet retirement, refusing all calls for his interference in politics from that moment forward with the same stubbornness that he had previously ruled with, even when as a condition for peace, the Korsgaardist party was banned and multiple parties were once more permitted in the nation. The former emperor blamed himself for the fiasco that had been led to by his arrogance and blind adherence to Korsgaardist principles. Broken but still proud, it was actually the efforts of his son that eventually led to a remission of the excommunication of Francis II in 1898.
A prematurely aged Francis II in civilian attire after his abdication.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/Franz_Joseph_of_Austria_1910.jpg/429px-Franz_Joseph_of_Austria_1910.jpg
Emperor of Prussia-Poland, William, was still a vigorous man during the Global War, and the most hands-on of the Eastern potentates in his execution of the war. He would often tour the front lines and even disguise himself as a mere officer to lead an offensive. He was wounded twice in the first two years of the war, but much to the distress of his staff, he still indulged in the practice. His bravery on the front lines made him a favorite of the common soldier, both of Prussian and Polish extraction. However, as the war wore on with mounting casualties, both from the guns of their enemies and the diseases that played havoc with all troops (though not as much for the Prussian-Polish military who draconianly enforced standards of hygeine), and William continued to demand that his armies launch offensive after offensive, despite the lessons of the Liberal War and the Year of Blood in the Global War. With shortages of rations and munitions, even the fiercest of the Korsgaardian stalwarts began to lose their zeal for the fight. Those younger troops who were secretly liberal sympathizers contemplated in hushed whispers outright mutiny. All of this helped to explain how the state of the Prussian forces, arguably some of the best military in the world, degraded to the point that the Allied forces, Liberal revolutionaries, and even mutinous units, could oust the Prussians from the majority of Brandenburg. Emperor William personally took part in the fighting for Berlin, and was wounded for the third time, but this time more seriously. He was in and out of consciousness for a week, during which time his loyal troops guarded him in a fighting retreat from Brandenburg across the Oder and into the heartland of Hohenzollern support. When William regained his senses, he ordered the holding of the line at the Oder and set up his court in the city of Konigsberg. While now far away from the lines and in no shape to participate, Word of the abdication of Emperor Francis II and Emperor Rudolf's capitulation to the allies infuriated him. William threw himself feverishly into plans for the retaking of Brandenburg, and drafted messages begging his uncle Tsar Nicholas to send reinforcements he did not have to aide in the future offensive. However, all of this came to naught when William died suddenly from a pulmonary embolus, a complication of the serious wonding he had taken in the Battle for Berlin. Emperor William's son, Crown Prince August, was elevated as Emperor August I of Prussia-Poland. August even though young was known as a hard-nosed pragmatist, and ordered plans for any offensive halted and immediately opened up peace negotiations with the West. The peace was harsh, including accepting the loss of Brandenburg which became a free republic within the Empire of Germany. However, August maintained that it was better to give up land already lost than to lose what they still held through obstinance. He managed to hold down reparations to a painful but theoretically bearable amount. While not a liberal sympathizer like the new Emperor Rudolf, he also made no cumpunction about outlawing the Korsgaardians, freeing political prisoners, and allowing free parties, though the majority of the powerful Korsgaardians in Prussia-Poland migrated to the Crown Royalist Party and continued to be a force in Prussia-Poland politics, even though they no longer were in absolute control of the nation.
Konigsberg Castle, site of Emperor William's death after Berlin was lost.
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One of the great German generals of the Global War was Nils Nicolai (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=3953568&postcount=24). General Nicolai was born in the Electorate of Hesse-Kassel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electorate_of_Hesse). His father was a Hessian of the same family that produced Philipp Nicolai (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philipp_Nicolai) the prominant Hessian Lutheran pastor and by some accounts the last of the Meistersingers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meistersinger). His mother was of Scandinavian ancestry (thus his first name, a play on his last). Nils as a young man joined other students in their protests against the arbitrary rule of the Electors, which eventually turned into a revolution against their hereditory rule and the formation of a liberal republican form of government for the Electorate, that somewhat ironically kept that title of Electorate and Elector for their now elected government and head of state. Nils Nicolai enlisted in the Electorate's military and saw some limited fighting during the Liberal War. He decided to make a career of it in the Hessian branch of the Empire of Germany's army. He showed great promise, and even in peacetime rose to high rank. He was placed in charge of the defense of the capital during the invasion by Prussia-Poland in the Global War, and managed to hold them to a standstill, and then led the German armies in the counter-invasion and occupation of Brandenberg. Nils Nicolai was quite popular after the war, and would go on to be elected Elector of Hesse-Kassel.
The Global War pitted not only German speaking nation against German speaking nation, but sometimes family against one another. A example of this was highlighted by the poems of Hans Merhoff (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=6196763&postcount=78), a prominent Bavarian poet who served in the German forces against Austria-Hungary. Despite being away from the front with Prussia-Poland, on three separate occasions he encountered Merhoffs of the Prussian branch of the family (who had converted to Lutheranism and moved to East Prussia during the Reformation). The most famous of these chance encounters was during the Christmas holiday in 1890, when Hans Merhoff and his distant relative, Wilhelm Merhoff, brokered a truce for the Christmas celebrations. While this lasted only the day, it was one of the few bright moments in the Year of Blood, and prompted Merhoff's first break-out poem. Shortly after the war, Hans Merhoff was named Poet Laureate of Bavaria and later in his career that of the Empire of Germany.
http://u1.ipernity.com/10/60/69/3696069.b990e922.560.jpg.
President Poe easily won reelection, managing to attract votes from both those who sought to keep American out of the Global War and those who wanted to see support for the Liberal Entente and it's Allies though his policies that favored the Western Powers in terms of trade, while never taking the fial step to war. While the Korsgaardist Eastern Powers railed at the 'false neutrality of America', there was in fact little they could do about it. Despite the setbacks early in the war, Britain and France along with America controled the Atlantic corridor, guarranteeing that arms and food reached the Entente from America, as well as Dominion cotton for textiles. And the Korsgaardists also received some trade from America especially in foodstuffs, which the Allies agreed to allow through in return for the US embargo on weapons and munitions. The greatly increased demand on all the fruits of American ingenuity and industry that the war engendered lifted America out of the depths of the economic disaster of the 1880s. While recovery was significant (and for some, impressive), it would still be some time yet before America would find herself fully restored economically.
Some critics of the Poe administration cite the Poe Plan, President Poe's initiative with regards to post war Europe, as delaying a full and complete recovery. However, proponents suggest that Poe's Plan actually laid the groundwork for a greater recovery than could otherwise have occured given the state of Europe, and especially Eastern Europe, after the war. The Western Powers saw their own wartime partial recovery as the armies and navies sopped up the idle men of the pre-war economic downturn, and government spending on all sorts of industries and needs employed easily the rest, including some women to supplement the loss of men to the great battles of the age. This salubrious effect on the economies of the West improved the economy somewhat, but after the end of the Global War, with the decreased demand for war materials and the return of able bodied men to the workforce threatened to reverse the trend. However, this was infinitely better than the abject collapse of the economies of the Eastern Powers. In any event, it was Poe's genius that he foresaw the need to bolster both the likeminded nations of the West but also the humbled nations of the East (all except proud and isolated Russia, which held themselves aloof from all in the waning days of the war and the century). The US government fostered investment in Europe, the purchase of useful goods for the rebuilding of the nations of Europe, and the restoration of the credit of the various nations. This was the greatest centralized use of Federal moneys, credit, and authority in the history of the nation, and only could be passed by the overwhelmingly Federalist controled government of the second Poe administration. Poe based on his charisma and prestige, and his clever writings on the subject, was able to push through this, and even set the stage for another Federalist administration to succeed his.
http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/attachment.php?attachmentid=179482&stc=1&d=1341532254
The Global War could be said to be responsible for launching the Age of Air Travel.
The Air Whales (the Orcas and other models) used in the Global War had had many technical problems, but they had well demonstrated the potential of air transport. Within just a few years of the war, new models of air ship, utilizing light metal alloys based on aluminum and magnesium, as well as a new type of engine, the internal combustion engine, that ran on naphtha gas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaugas) (notably useful for being neutrally bouyant in its natural gas state), allowed for the use of air transit for the rich and the time sensitive. While rail and sea transport were still more economical, they could not match the speed of the great air ships. While commercial transport tended to rely on hydrogen filled air ships as they were able to carry a greater payload at less cost, the newly discovered elemental gas Solium (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium) for public relations reasons was preferred for passanger conveyances. While more expensive, it avoided the regretable explosive nature of hydrogen, which gave some potential passengers qualms. By the end of the 19th century, the skies of the world were filled with the grand sillouettes of the air ships.
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The last US President of the 19th century was the Federalist Steven Ladd (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=6105150&postcount=76). A favorite son of Pennsylvania, he was a protege of outgoing President Poe. Steven Ladd was a handsome gentleman who was the first president to enter the White House unmarried (his first wife had died at a relatively young age). He was the most eligible man in Washington during his term in office. While relatively well thought of by those who knew him from both parties, he could not stop the tide of change that the turn of the century was bringing. People were growing tired after twelve years of Federalist domination of the Presidency (and the Congress for most that time), and Steven Ladd would lose the election to the Democrats.
President Ladd and some supporters at his rustic retreat in Pennsylvania:
http://www.acertaincinema.com/workspace/media/frankie-avalon-alan-ladd-between-scenes-of-guns-of-the-timberland.jpg
Presidents of the United States of America to 1900
George Washington - No Party Affiliation - 1789-1797
John Adams - Federalist - 1797-1805
Thomas Jefferson - Democratic-Republican - 1805-1813
James Madison - Federalist - 1813-1821
John Quincey Adams - Federalist - 1821-1829
John Andrew Schulze - Democratic-Republican - 1829-1837
Peter Buell Porter - Federalist - 1837-1841
Pierre Nicolas de Condorcet - Democrat* - 1841-1849
Benjamin Hull Kays - Federalist - 1849-1857
Nicholas Samuel Roosevelt - Federalist - 1857-1865
Anthony Wayne Tullis - Democrat - 1865-1868 (Assassinated)
Barabas Lynch - Democrat - 1868-1869 (Tullis' Vice-President**)
Horace Napoleon Miller - Democrat - 1869-1873
John Bertrand - Federalist - 1873-1881
James Blunt - Federalist - 1881-1885
Erastus R. Bingham - Democrat - 1885-1889
Alexander Poe - Federalist - 1889-1897
Steven Ladd - Democrat - 1897-1901
* The Democratic-Republican Party's name was shortened to the Democratic Party in the 1840s.
**Some Historians dispute whether Lynch should be counted as a President, and instead classify him as 'Acting President', but most history texts count him as the 12th President of the United States, even if never elected to the office.
The Global War was in many ways the end of Korsgaardism as a political force in the world. As part of the peace settlements for the Eastern Powers (excepting Russia), the defeated nations were required to disband the Korsgaardian single-party rule they had established and allow dissenting parties and politicians to operate in their nations. Truth be told, this was not a hard sell to the former Korsgaardian dominated nations as it had become obvious that their self-deluding national chauvanism and top-down, reality divorced economic policies had led to both military and financial ruin.
Zeus Korsgaard himself lived to see both the heights of Korsgaardian grandiosity and the depths of its failure. He lived out the remaining days of his life in Russia under the protection of the aging Tsar. It is rumored that his death was due to his excessive drinking after the Global War. His own bitter yet insightful critique of Korsgaardian theory, "The Blindness of the Juggernaut," published posthumously, is seen by many as the final nail in the coffin of Korsgaardist thought. Neo-Korsgaardist fringe groups often claim the work was a forgery, but literary and political analysis upholds it as a true Korsgaard work. Even though Zeus Korsgaard in the end disowned his own creation, he did defend a number of positives that had come from the Age of Korsgaard, such as the breaking of the stranglehold of the aristocracy on power and the establishment of protections by the state for workers in industry from the exploitation of industrialists (which of course led to the detractors of labor rights organizations as labeling them as 'quasi-Korsgaardists').
Korsgaardism, both for good and ill, had been the political philosophy that shaped the history of the late 19th century.
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The ancients had believed in a Terra Australis as a counterbalance to the lands of the north. British explorer James Cook (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cook) was the first to confirm the existance of an actual landmass there. While he was unable to make landfall, his sightings spurred the imaginations of the British public in particular. As the British extended their exploratory and colonization efforts in the southern hemisphere, the draw of the Antarctic was never far from the mind of explorers. Sir John Ross (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ross_(Arctic_explorer)) and his son, Sir Robert Ross, were the most prominant early explorers of the Antarctic region. It is true that in the early 1800s France, Russia, and even the UPSA sent naval expeditions to the Antarctic Sea, it was the British who most consistently and seriously mapped the seas and islands of the Antarctic, aided by their proximity in Patagonia, South Africa, and the Australias. By 1850, the coast of the Antarctic continent, including the George and Wellington Ice Shelfs, and been completed. However, piercing the interior and reaching the Southern Pole would remain a more difficult prospect. While other nations would race to reach the Northern Pole, it would be left to the British Empire to reach the Southern one. In 1899, Sir Edwin Lowe (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=5264327&postcount=71) with a mixed team of British (including Southrons and Australians) and Scandinavian personnel made his triumphant march on the South Pole. His use of airships for scouting, preplacement of supplies, and monitoring of the mission were credited as a major innovation at the time (even with the loss of one of his airships due to inclement weather). By 1900, none disputed Britain's claim to the Antarctic continent.
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The World on January 1st, 1901.
http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/attachment.php?attachmentid=183349&stc=1&d=1345408184
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The Dominion of Southern America had its parliament modeled on that of the United Kingdom. The lower house, the House of Commons, was based almost entirely on that of the British House of Commons, with general elections specified to be required to be held at least every seven years. In the early days of the Dominion, with the lower chamber dominated by the loyalist Imperial Party ("Tories"), this was the case. However, within a few decades the other factions gained enough power to force elections more frequently. The upper house of the Dominion parliament, on the other hand, was at needs different from the British House of Lords. It had been suggested that the name Senate be used, but this was the self-same name the rebel Confederation had used for its legislative branch, and thus was considered inappropriate (some also did not want the self-same name as the US upper house). As it was decided that each province of the Dominion would have appointed by the Crown five members to serve in the upper house for life, the name 'House of Provinces' was chosen. As an aside, it was established from the beginning that each of the five civilized tribes would each have an upper house representative appointed for their tribe to make up the five representing Indiana. The Prime Minister as well as the governments of the Provinces advised the crown typically on the selection of new representatives to the House of Provinces. By 1900, however, a movement was afoot to reform the House of Provinces to be elected by the populace and to serve limited terms.
Legislatures of North America in 1900
Nation: United States of America
Legislature: Congress
Upper House: Senate - Senator
Lower House: Assembly - Assemblyman
Nation: Dominion of Southern America
Legislature: Parliament
Upper House: House of Provinces - Provincial Representative
Lower House: House of Commons - Member of Parliament
Nation: Third Mexican Republic (United States of Mexico)
Legislature: Cortes Mexicanas
Upper House: Senate - Chamber of Senators - Senator
Lower House: Chamber of Deputies - Deputy
The transition of the vampire from the folkloric to the literary began in the 18th century, most strongly in the lands of the Germans, with works such as Heinrich Ossenfelder's short poem The Vampire and perhaps even more so by the narrative poem Lenore (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenore_(ballad)) by Gottfried August Bürger (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottfried_August_B%C3%BCrger). Even the famed Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goethe) incorporated vampiric elements into his story The Bride of Corinth.
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The beginning of the 19th century saw a brief flurry of vampires in English literature. Robert Southey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Southey) owns the honor of the first poem in English literature to feature a vampire in it, albeit in a minor appearance. It was the second work, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Taylor_Coleridge) five part poem, Cristabelle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christabel_(poem)). The work entirely revolves around a seductive and mysterious female vampire, and set many of the early motifs of the vampire in later literature. An interesting side note is that both writers were part of short lived utopian communes, Southey on a farm in Wales and Coleridge a settlement in America (which was even more short-lived than Southey's experiment). Cristabelle was adapted for the stage by by French writer Charles Nodier (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Nodier) and then later by Heinrich Marschner (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Marschner) as an opera, moving the action of the story to Wallachia. It was the Jewish Hungarian author Marvin Bley (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=4057945&postcount=41) who first brought the infamous Blood Countess, Elisabeth Báthory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_B%C3%A1thory), into the realm of the literary vampire, reimaging her as a vampire who had escaped her walled in room to once more prey upon innocent women. His story drew inspiration from Hungarian poet János Garay's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A1nos_Garay) Báthori Erzsébet as weill as the earlier Lenore and Cristabelle. Bley's Countess Bathory was translated into many other languages, including English, and spawned its own imitators and sequels by other authors. Bathory or Bathory surrogates (usually in the guise of English noblewomen) appeared in several pieces of Southern Gothic works after the Slaver Uprising. However, as the 19th century wore on, the vampire in English literature becames scarce.
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The second wave of vampire stories in literature was a subversive one that grew up in the Korsgaardian East. As the Korsgaardist Empires started to impose cultural and intellectual homogeny within their borders, it became harder for dissident thought to be expressed. Samuel Strupinsky (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=4021839&postcount=40) was the first of the second wave vampirists who cloaked his counterculture thoughts in the clothes of 'folklore', creating a new vampire, Count Bathory, a masculinized version of Bathory. Count and Countess Bathory stories as well as other 'aristocratic' vampire stories proliferated in the East, often pitted against overly pious priests and popinjay Prussian-style officials, was mistaken by the establishment as culturally based folklore, but those in the know recognized the subtext of the works. The vampirist second wave was finally revealed for its true nature after the fall of the Korsgaardists in the wake of the Global War. These second wave works became wildly popular in the German Empire, and from there found their way into the West, which would set the stage for the development of the modern vampire in the 20th century.
There were two strains of development of 'Kriegsspiel' or Wargame in Europe, the precursor to the RPG. The first developed from the chess variant Koenigspiel in the 1780s by Johann Christian Ludwig Hellwig (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Christian_Ludwig_Hellwig), who by the early 19th century had so modified the game as to free it from its chess origins. The game expanded the number of spaces on the board, placed indications as to terrain type, and replaced and expanded the number of pieces and their movement ability to make it a more naturalistic simulation of war (as known in the 18th century). It would become popular in Brunswick and nearby Hanover.
http://www.eludamos.org/index.php/eludamos/article/viewFile/118/176/514
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Another game called Kriegsspiel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriegsspiel_(wargame)) was also developing in the early 19th century, this time by Lieutenant Georg Leopold von Reiswitz for the Prussian Army. Reiswitz's Kriegsspiel was the first to introduce the use of dice to represent the 'friction' of war (basically the unknown or ineffable factors influencing the fortunes of war). While the revolutionaries of the Rhineland would eschew many things Prussian after the Liberal War, one thing they retained was an appreciation and enjoyment of Kriegsspiel.
Eventually in the mid-19th century, the Brunswick and Rhineland versions of Kriegsspiel would mix and cross-fertilize, forming a robust wargaming tradition among the military and even civilian enthusiasts. In Prussia and later Prussia-Poland, while refined over time (including expansion of the use of umpires in judging the outcome of matches), it would stay more solidly the province of the Prusso-Polish military and its officers.
From the German Empire, Kriegsspiel spread to the other Western nations as a popular pastime, especially among the British and the British Southrons (several of whom had been first introduced to it during volunteer service in the Liberal War - George Turner himself was known to be an enthusiastic practitioner, even developing new rules for calvary). It became popular in Britain and France to develop scenarios for the great historical wars of history so the players could take on the roles of great leaders in history and try their luck at a replay of history, including development of a cross channel Napoleonic league and championship every year where master Kriegsspielers would refight the Napoleonic wars. Waterloo, Belgique was the site of the 1863 Franco-British Napoleonic Kriegsspiel Championship. It was the first time the competition was not held in either French or British Empire and was a sign of its increasing international appeal. It was in the course of these Napoleonic tournaments that the introduction of novel ten-sided dice pairs to generate percentages was introduced.
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Given the popularity of the Napoleonic Wars in historical kriegsspieling and in 19th century speculative fiction, it was only a matter of time that Kriegsspielers began to put on wargames in the alternate histories of speculative fiction (non-Napoleonic examples include adaptations of the popular works Plato's America, Course of Human Events, and later A Loyal North). However, most Kriegsspielers by this time were starting to experiment with their own completely fictional scenarios. In this same spirit of innovation came the development of the first rules for using individual fighters instead of military units, in part to also incorporate scenarios involving Western American themes, and even some more fantastic versions based off Gothic and Vampire literature. Though some saw this as a throwback to chess, the rules if anything were more complex than the original kriegsspiel ones, including the ability to generate individual statistics for the individual fighters. In the post Global War world, both modern Kriegsspiel and their Individual Battle Games had become popular, even in the United States (maybe especially so since most had been spared the horrors of war and could revel in the imaged 'glory' of battle). By 1900, people could even play as the Roosevelt brothers fighting against Prusso-Polish Vampires. Simplified versions of both types of games became available for children as well.
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Thomas Robert Malthus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Robert_Malthus) had been a rather prominent economic theorist and philosopher in the late 18th and early 19th century, but his works on the limits of population did not spread much further than his native England at the time and fell out of favor after the Reform revolution even there. He had become almost forgotten, along with many other theorists of the time who did not fit well with the prevailing fashion of the 19th century, liberalism. It was not in fact until nearly a century later that his works gained a new life through his great-grandson, Henry Thomas Malthus. Henry Thomas Malthus wrote the popular work "The Reproduction Trap" published in 1897, based in large part on the work of his great grandfather, but with his own interpretations as to their implications for the upcoming 20th century. With the increases in population seen in the latter half of the 19th century due to advances in public health and medicine, the book hit a popular chord with many who were growing concerned with the possibilities. Some read retrospectively into the great economic decline of the 1880s and the subsequent Global War the first modern warning of population collapse due to profligate population growth.
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While petroleum products had become important first in the 19th century, with the hub of production and innovation being tristate Pennsylvania-Ohio-Ontario triangle of the United States of America, with the arising of electrification for lighting at the turn of the century, production became less critical for a brief moment in time. However, with new internal combustion engines being developed nearly at the same time, this lull in the importance of petroleum was a brief one. However, petroleum production in the 20th century would be dominated not by the United States, but by the British Dominion of Southern America, and Britain's ally, the Ottoman Empire.
In 1901, the long suspected productivity of the area of another triangle, this time the Dominion tri-provincial area of Lousiana-Texas-Arkansas was proven dramatically with the discovery of the large petroleum well at the Simcoe Swell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spindletop), named for John Graves Simcoe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Graves_Simcoe), as so many features in the Dominon were, though before the discovery of petroleum there, the Swell may have been among the least impressive of his namesakes. This started the Southern Petrol Bonanza and gave birth to the Southern Petroleum Company (it's major rival, the Anglo-Texas Petroleum Company, would be born later with the exploitation of the rich East Texas Fields (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Texas_Oil_Field). By the 1920s, Dominion industry was dominated by the triumvirate of cotton, sugar, and above all, petroleum.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Lucas_gusher.jpg
Dominion of Southern America Timeline Part I (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=155239)
Dominion of Southern America Timeline Part II (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=209347)
Dominion of Southern America Timeline Part III (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=209346)
Dominion of Southern America Timeline Part IV (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=222873)
Part IV
The germ theory of disease had its first major break in the beginning of the 19th century with the work of Italian Agostino Bassi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agostino_Bassi) who demonstrated that muscadino (mal de segno), a disease of the economically vital silkworms, was caused by living organisms and could be controlled by taking measures against the tiny fungi and spores. Bassi was following in the footsteps of his relative Lazzaro Spallanzani (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazzaro_Spallanzani) whose work was the start of dismantling the fallacy of spontaneous genesis.
In the 1820s, Bassi traveled to France where the king and legislature honored him for his work, which had also led to salvaging the French silkworm industry. There Bassi met and inspired the young deist minister and scientist Louis L'ebrard (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=5264600&postcount=72), who carried forward and expanded the works of Bassi and Spallanzani. Before leaving for his native Lombardy, Bassi declared in Paris his belief that all disease, including human, would eventually be discovered to derive from microscopic germs. L'ebrard's first breakthrough was to demonstrate definitively that life does not arise spontaneously from dead matter, utilizing a tortuous tube opening to allow air, but not contaminants, into his previously boiled media.
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Spinning off of this work, L'ebrard proposed that boiling such drinks as milk and water could purify them and make them safer for human consumption and could last longer if sealed in a container carefully. This process of heat purification sometimes was referred to as Lebrardization, but more frequently known by the more mundane term heat-purification.
In the 1830s, inspired by the work of L'ebrard, American scientists, many of them deists, embraced the study of germ theory. It was seen as a natural outgrowth of deist doctrine of studying the natural world to understand God's plan and the germ theory seemed to be making serious sense based off of such observations. In 1832, Dr. John Peake (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=3944376&postcount=16), a Virginian working in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Hospital instituted a strict policy of hand cleansing before, between, and after working with patients on the theory that it may be germs being passed through touch that perpetuated disease. His meticulous records of nosocomial disease before and after the policy convinced the medical community in the West of the success of the practice, and was the death knell for the miasma theory of disease propagation. The success of this campaign led to an explosion of sanitary theories and practices throughout the US and thence the rest of the West.
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The first time that the new theory of germ disease prevention on the battlefield was put to the test was during the Southern Civil War. While many in the British South were leery of heretical deists of America (though in fact deists were only a minority of the population of the USA), by the time of the conflict evidence had become convincing enough that medical officers on both sides of the conflict experimented with practices such as placing latrines away from living areas, instituting stricter washing practices around said latrines and military food preparation areas, and especially in field hospitals. The lower death rates from disease of this war was noted by the British and other Western military observers, and would be in place for the the Liberal War, at least for the Western forces, a distinct advantage in the fight, and one that convinced even benighted Russia to adopt such practices in future, including the Global War.
As microscopy and media culturing became more sophisticated throughout the 19th century, so too did the desire not just to identify the germs responsible for various diseases, but also some form of treatment for infection, not just prevention. The proof of the first specific species of germ that could be linked to a specific human disease came with an added bonus for all mankind. In the 1860s, Dr. Sutcliffe Barnes (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=3989839&postcount=35), a Yorkshireman working at the University of Edinburgh made a study of gonorrhea and was the first to successfully culture the germ and show it could be transmitted to cause the disease. However, he noted in one of his samples a mold contaminant that prevented growth of the bacteria too near it. Being a curious sort, he grew the mold further and isolated the chemical that created the antiseptic effect, which he dubbed simply called Penicillium, after the genus of the fungus. Once he had procured enough, he took the remarkable step of actually using it to treat patients and found himself successful. However, one of the even more remarkable discoveries was the discovery in a few short years of use that Penicillium was even effective for people who also had the dreaded venereal disease syphilis. Thus the first antimicrobial agent was brought into use, though slowly in the 1860s and 1870s due to the limits of production until breakthroughs in fermentation and purification allowed more efficient mass production. However, once those limitations were conquered, many governments (initially started by the Korsgaardist regimes, interestingly enough) imposed strict reporting and treatment policies with a goal of eradicating venereal disease from the land.
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The turmoil caused in the Balkans by the Hellenic Revolution was not quick to be brought to heel, but eventually the Ottomans were able to reassert authority and order over the Balkan region. In 1830, Mohammad Ali (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali_of_Egypt) hand selected Mihail Studrza (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihail_Sturdza) of a proud Moldavian line (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturdza_family) to act as prince of Moldavia. It was a bold move on his part, installing a 35 year old in the region, but the Sturdza were a well respected family and Mihail was a young man of exceptional talents. His vision of a gradually liberalizing Moldavia went well as the decades progressed with the reforms being enacted within the Ottoman Empire as a whole. He modernized education, provided patronage for the arts and sciences, promoted infrastructure, and began to erode the power of the boyars in favor of the people. The Romani (Gypsies) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people) referred to him as Mihail the Liberator for his abolition of their slavery (along with others in the region). When the revolutions of the late 1840s broke out, they also touched Moldavia and neighboring Wallachia. However, these rebellions were fractionated between true radicals who wanted to establish an independent liberal nation and the boyars and their supporters who wanted their ancient priviledges restored and conspired to come under the influence of Russia. Prince Sturdza rapidly crushed the rebellions in Moldavia and then aided in their suppression in Wallachia, forestalling the ability of the Russians to use the rebellions as an excuse to intervene; an action that became increasingly less appealing as they became further committed maintaining order in Austria-Hungary and intervening in Prussia's war against the nascent Germany, and then the Liberal War, especially given the surprising resurgence of Ottoman strength in the 1830s and 1840s. In recognition of Mihail Sturdza's actions he was given dual rule of Wallachia and Moldavia by the Sublime Porte, in which role he fostered the same sorts of changes in Wallachia that he had already initiated in Moldavia. He also worked to strengthen ties socially and economically between the two principalities of the Ottoman Empire, though he was denied his fondest desire, their formal unification. While he used the uprisings to finally crush the great boyars, he eventually rehabilitated many of the liberal revolutionaries and brought them into leadership roles. Prince Sturdza outlived and outlasted Grand Vizier Ali and several Sultans, ruling with a strong hand and a clear vision until his death in 1885. The Ottomans, unable to find a man who could match both his abilities and his proven record of reliability, split the leadership of the principalities once more, a move that was less than popular among the Moldavians and Wallachians, who wished closer ties.
The Federalists were trounced in the midterm congressional elections of 1882 and again in the elections of 1884. The Democrats blamed overspending and stifling tarriffs for the continuation of the economic disaster, and sought to remove the gold standard. Thus the Democratic candidate, Erastus R. Bingham (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=6223207&postcount=80) won office which he assumed in 1885. President Bingham was the first president to make his home west of the Mississippi, in Washington, though his family hailed from Vermont originally. However, the economic policies of the Democrats and the Bingham administration did nothing to restore confidence to the marketplace, and the midterm congressional election saw great losses for the Democrats this time. Bingham would serve one term only, and stated he was glad of it, never traveling east of the Mississippi again after his term in office.
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The Panic of 1881 launched an unprecedented prolonged period of economic hardship and uncertainty that challenged America's traditional two party system, especially as some disenfranchised and disaffected turned away from the seemingly ineffectual policies of either party. The Korsgaardian Party of America was one among many small parties that gained prominance during this period, and as other nations embraced Korsgaardian politics and seemed to prosper by it, the American Korsgaardians gained credence and followers. By the 1888 presidential election, the Korsgaardian Party of America was able to launch the first ever credible third party in American history.
VOTE
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KORSGAARDIAN PARTY OF AMERICA
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The development of the modern General Staff structure in Prussia-Poland and subsequently other Eastern nations and eventually even to the West were in many ways brought to fruition by Helmth von Moltke (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmuth_Graf_von_Moltke). Born in 1800, he initially was meant for service in the then Danish military. However, after seeing the strides being made by Prussia after the Napoleonic Wars, he joined the Prussian military instead. He was a bright, creative officer, who spoke several languages and wrote many scholarly books. He was a student of the writings of Carl von Clausewitz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_von_Clausewitz) and campaigns of Napoleon. By the time of the Liberal War, he was serving as a lieutenant colonel with a command of his own. His war record was exemplary, and one of the few bright notes for the Eastern powers in that conflict. He was wounded in battle before the end of the war, and thus did not see it through to its conclusion. However, after a convalescence he was to join the Prussian General Staff and made several recommendations for its structure and activities. He wrote contingency plan after contingency plan for war with any and all nations about Prussia. He was one of the first to see the new ways of using breech loading weapons and mobility provided by rail. He was a great advocate of integration of Poles into the military with the formation of the joint kingdom of Prussia-Poland. Even before that time, he had written a book praising pre-partitiono Poland as the most civilized nation of Europe of the time. When he rose to overall command of the combined military of Prussia-Poland, he ruthlessly selected for talent and ability, regardless of societal or national origin. By the time of his death in 1888, Prussia-Poland had the most prepared and arguably well-trained and talented officer corps in the world.
Despite the hyperbole of the KPA's presidential campaign and the newspapers' accounts of the 'Korsgaardian wave sweeping the world', the U.S. Presidential Election of 1888 was anticlimatic. While the Korsgaardian Party of America did set a new record since the Federalist/High Federalist splity of the last century for third party candidates at 7%, they still did not take a single electoral vote through election (though one faithless elector did cast a vote for the KPA candidate). However, many of the same platform issues such as protectionism did benefit the mainstream Federalist Party who won the Presidency. Federalist candidate Alexander Poe (of the Baltimore Poes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Allan_Poe)) was sworn in in 1889.
A Somewhat Anachronistic Statue Of President Poe
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Thanksgiving started sporadically in the British colonies of North America prior to the American Revolution. Congress and President Washington proclaimed the first national day of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November, and this act was intermittently announced thereafter by following presidents, with individual states doing their own when the national leadership failed to do so. It was President Poe who formalized the last Thursday in November as the national day of Thanksgiving in the United States. Traditional Thanksgiving fare included Turkey, yams, and Pumpkin Pie.
Thanksgiving was even less common and formal in the remaining British Colonies of North America in the South. When the Southern Colonies did celebrate it, they tended to be earlier in November and blended with the post-ARW trend for the Southern colonies to honor the English Gunpowder Treason Day (AKA Bonfire Night). Some elements of the combined Thanksgiving Day/Bonfire Night festivities had a dubious revival in the lead-up to the Slaver Rebellion as effigies of Guy Fawkes and the Pope were replaced by the British King and Prime Minister. Consul Jackson went so far as to declare a national Thanksgiving for the Confederation, the first nationally enacted Thanksgiving for the British Southern America, on the first Thursday in November. Even after the Southern Civil War ended, Thanksgiving enjoyed a popular revival in the South and the newly formed Dominion of Southern America sought to co-opt the holiday for the new federation as a day of thanks and familial reconciliation especially for those who had fought on different sides. The parliament of the Dominion set the date initially as the second Thursday in November, and the link between Guy Fawkes and Thanksgiving was severed, though the Southerners maintained the tradition of bonfires for their Thanksgiving. The traditional Thanksgiving meal in the South shares similarities with the USA such as the main course of a turkey, but differs in others such as substituting Sweet Potato Pie for Pumpkin Pie.
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The last half of the 1880s saw increasing unrest in Moldavia and Wallachia, as several secret societies seeking independence from the Sublime Porte, unity of the Danubian Principalities, and closer ties to Russia. The Ottoman Empire tried to placate some of the more moderate factions on their frontier with Eastern Europe, while at the same time suppressing the more aggressive and separatist elements, but in the end were unsuccessful. In April 1889, the Danubian Uprisings began. This short lived Spring Revolt served one essential purpose, however. It provided Russia a cause for declaring war against the Ottomans 'in support of liberty'. Austria-Hungary quickly followed suit, and a rapid invasion of the Balkans began. The Western Powers had warned Eastern Europe not to invade the Ottoman Empire, their close and important partner in the region, but to no avail. Still, few in the West were anxious to go to war under these circumstances. Most of the Northern Balkans fell to the Eastern European nations within a matter of months. With fear mounting that the Russians would take Istambul if the Ottomans fought alone, the British Empire and then the rest of their allies, France and Germany, declared war against the Russians and Austria-Hungary. This in turn would lead to Prussia-Poland's official entry in the war (Prussian-Polish officers had been 'technical advisers' in much of the initial fighting).
WAR!
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The Western Powers had, since the 1840s, preferred the lever action for their military rifles. There were several reasons for this. The first and most important in the minds of military planners was the faster rate of fire achievable with the lever action (of particular importance to the British who prided themselves on the so-called 'mad minute' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_minute)). The second favorable point was that recruits were often familiar with lever actions from hunting prior to joining the army. The third advantage was that the lever actions were essentially 'ambidextrous' and able to be fired left or right handed equally well (making it easier for left handed shooters, but also easier to fire off hand should a soldier be wounded in their dominant hand).
The Eastern Powers, on the other hand, even from the time of the Liberal War, had preferred the bolt action for military rifles. The eastern procurers of armaments liked the ease of firing bolt actions from the prone position, as well as the ease of attaching a box magazine to bolt actions, whereas many lever actions were designed with tubular magazines that were less favored as they limited the total number of bullets held compared to other magazines and were trickier to have balance properly.
This dichotomy remained up to the beginning of war in Europe in 1889.
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While the war may have started as a dispute between the powers over the disposition of the Balkans, it would not remain such. The first major event in the expansion of the war to other nations centered on Europe. While the Eastern Powers had excelled in initiative and rapid advance, the Western Powers had the edge in espionage. Thus it was that famous British Spymaster Matthew Rossall (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=3943647&postcount=10) discovered the evidence of the Korsgaardian Empires' master plan for carving up Europe among them. The documents and letters purloined by Rossall's spy network demonstrated the insane audacity and avarice of the Eastern nations to many nations in the West. While the information would not be made privy to the public for several years after, due to concerns of compromising the sources of the information, the people in power knew the perfidity of the Eastern Potentates. Thus did Scandinavia, Italy, and the Roman Republic enter the war. Pope Pius X even came within a cat's whisker of declaring a new Crusade against the Eastern nations.
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The development of nitrocotton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guncotton) in the 1840s had given hope to many for the development of a smokeless gunpowder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokeless_powder), but had proven too difficult to work with. While other attempts were made during and immediately after the Liberal War, none came to fruition. Only one year prior to the outbreak of hostilities in the Balkans, in 1888, a number of scientists serrendipitously made breakthroughs allowing for a more stable form of explosive capable of being formed into a nearly smokeless gunpowder. Smokeless gunpowder avoided the telltale plumes of smoke that both gave away positions and after time obscured the field of battle. It did this by converting almost entirely to gases with ignition. This also provided a higher rate of acceleration and thus cartridges could be smaller, allowing more to be loaded and carried. There was also less fouling of barrels with the new gunpowder. The Prussian-Poles and Russians started converting over to smokeless gunpowder rifles immediately, with the Austro-Hungarians not far behind. The bolt action design of Eastern rifles were able to handle the greater pressure demands of the new ammunition and their conversion was a more rapid one. The Western powers were more cautious in their own conversion, introducing some new rifles with the new ammunition, these copying the bolt action of the East. While the first battles in 1889 were fought primarily with black powder rifles, the proportion of black powder to smokeless gunpowder would change over the course of the war.
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As 1889 brought one victory after another from the Eastern onslaught, the British government reformed itself into a naitonal unity government. Surprising some was the annointment of the prominant Liberal M.P. from Exeter, Arthur Wellesley Lovecraft (http://runeberg.org/authors/lovechow.html), as the Prime Minister for the wartime government. Though well respected by both his own party and the Conservatives, his relative youth was seen as a bar. However, his fiery diatribes in the House of Commons and incendiary opinion pieces, even before the onset of the war, against Korsgaardian dehumanization in favor of the cyclopean state and the perfidity of the Eastern potentates had made him appear the man most capable of rallying the nation.
A. W. Lovecraft
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Prime Minister of the British Empire
In the decades prior to the onset of hostilities in 1889, all of the great powers had sought to build navies hoped to command their local waters and critical trade routes. While the British Empire remained the largest navy in the world, they were stretched out across the face of the globe. One place where multiple nations vied for local dominance was the Baltic. Russia and Prussia-Poland massed their Baltic forces in the hopes of knocking Germany's Baltic navy out of the war, but the entry of the United Kingdom of Scandinavia into the conflict set the stage instead for one of the greatest naval battles of the war, the Battle of the Four Navies. When the Eastern Powers' joint taskforce found the German Baltic fleet, they were surprised to find the Germans accompanied by the Scandinavians, who they did not think could mobilize their navy so quickly and effectively. The coal smoke and artillery smoke from black powder quickly turned the Baltic into a hazy chaos. While ship engagements in the first salvos were at great distance, by the end of the battle ships lost in the haze were engaging at point blank range. The battle was a draw in many ways, but served as a morale booster to the Western Powers, who saw it as the first time the Eastern Powers had been significantly halted since the beginning of the war.
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In the 1860s, a number of multibarreled, rapid fire heavy guns were developed by numerous nations and mostly deployed as a single support weapon for small infantry units operating in the 'uncivilized' world, such as against the wild indians of North America, the tribes of Africa, or even in Asia. These guns were later included as antiboarding or anti-small craft weapons on battleships. They were often nicknamed by troops as 'Coffee-Mill Guns (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatling_gun) given most used a crank that resembled the ubiquitous coffee-mill. Thus the guns were available at the outbreak of war in 1889, but in limited numbers initially. When fighting in large unit actions in Europe, they proved less devastating than they had against more 'primitive' enemies. The guns often misfired (not really more than rifles, but it was a more dramatic stoppage of rate of fire when a Coffee-Mill Gun needed clearing than one rifle in a group), also black powder made these guns easy to spot due to their copious smoke production and the residue fouled the barrels over time, requiring cleaning intermittantly. This was not an issue in brief clashes, but in prolonged battle it also decreased their utility. Even taking all these flaws into account, they still could act as a rapid reinforcement tool, and only the bravest troops could sustain a direct charge against a newly deployed Coffee-Mill Gun. The Ottomans eventually proved this point with their stalling of the Eastern onslaught just outside of Istanbul. Once the momentum of advance was broken and solid defenses could be formed, the advantage began to swing to the defenders, and newer innovations would aid this.
The Eastern powers, while always intending to fight nations like Germany and Scandinavia, had gambled that they would be slower to declare war and to mobilize. The hope had been to capture Istanbul and completely knock the Ottomans out of the war in Europe before turning to the west and north. However, the Easterners were now forced to open new fronts against Germany and Scandinavia. Russia particularly was concerned to strike early against Scandinavian Finland and force them away from their capital, St. Petersburg. The Russians were somewhat successful, striking deep into the Finnish countryside. Similarly, the forces of Prussia-Poland struck at Germany, with it's main attack sweeping across the North German Plain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_German_Plain) with the intent to cut off Jutland and the Baltic from Germany, but more importantly, to take Hanover. Prussia's traditional infantry strength was wedded to Polish fantastic tradition of light cavalry, the Uhlans (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan), to form a devastating combined unit attack form, notable for its aggressive offensive and favoring of turning the flanks of the enemy.
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While the Prusso-Polish were able to strike deep into Northern Germany, again the Eastern powers fell short of their immediate objectives, and again much of the reason may be attributed first to the use of Coffee-Mill Guns, but also to the introduction of the first true Self-Powered Machine Gun (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxim_gun). While designed before the war, it was not until its design could be wedded to the new smokeless gunpowder that it was made practicable. The Germans had gambled and rushed the gun into production first among the Western alliance, and had enough to give the Prusso-Polish army a nasty shock in the battle for Hanover. Again, as outside of Istanbul, the Eastern Powers found their own gamble failing, and the lines of defense hardening.
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As the forces of the Eastern Powers bore down upon storied Istanbul by land, Russia also sought to bring further firepower to bear on the Ottoman's key city by sea. The Russian Black Sea fleet had been built up in an effort to overwhelm the Ottoman navy as well as its potential British ally, at least locally. When war actually did break out, both the British and the French made the protection of Ottoman waterways (both on the Black Sea and the Red Sea) a priority. However, moving enough squadrons to counter the insanely numerous (though somewhat bulked up by numerous smaller vessels than just battleships), proved to be a race that the West barely won. The Ottoman Navy acquitted itself admirably in the early days of the Black Sea campaign, first launching a daring raid on Sevastopol which nearly caught the Russians napping, then fighting a holding action all the way to Istanbul with an innovative combination of ships and a new weapon in the naval arsenal, the submarine. The Ottomans thus became the first nation to sink a ship in time of war with a submersibly launched attack. The brave but outnumbered Ottoman Navy was seriously diminished, but bought enough time for British and French ships to traverse the oceans and enter the Black Sea and inflict on the Russian Black Sea Fleet a decisive defeat that saw their remnants harried back to the Russian shore.
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Tokugawa Japanese and Ainu under their Russian patrons launched an offensive against Imperial Japan in the Spring of 1889 as part of the greater strife engulfing the world. Initially the Shogunate forces under their Russian advisors pushed deep into Imperial Japan, eventually taking Kyoto, but not before the Imperial Court was evacuated by Imperial Japanese forces and a unit of Ghurkas rotating through the British garrison. The Shogunate forces received heavy casualties, however, requiring a halt in the advance to redress their lines and await reinforcements. The Imperial Japanese forces and the British used the time to create a strong defense.
The Russian Pacific Navy did not engage at this time, leaving the British Fleet in the region uncontested. However, night-time shipments of men and material from the Russian Far East and Russian influenced Manchuria often made landfall in the Islands evading interdiction.
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War fever seemed to be spreading by the Fall of 1889. Few could predict how events in Europe may impact the balance of power in the Far East. The Chuen Chinese were, locally, surrounded by potential enemies. Tsarist Russia to the North, and their puppets in Manchuria to the East, the United States of China to the South and their ally Korea also to the East. Also eyed with lingering paranoia were the British in their various Asian outposts. However, it seems likely that two factors swayed Chuen China to enter the widening war. First was the advice of their military advisors from Prussia-Poland. The second was the perceived relative weakness of the USC compared to Russia in the north. If Chuen China could reunite the Chinese people, it would stand a far greater chance in a future conflict with Russia, or so the reasoning in the Imperial Court went. Sweetening the pot was the fact that Russia was willing to make a number of border concessions and ship supplies to Chuen China in return for them favoring the Russians in the conflict (Russia didn't want the Chuen to turn to the allies and open yet another front on the war). There was also the third factor of the disturbance the Chuen felt from the South and their decadent Western Liberal notions, that despite the Imperial Court's best attempts to stem, had continued to leak into Chuen China proper, threatening to corrupt the youth of the nation. And so, in that fateful Fall of 1889, the Chuen launched their attack on the United States of China, claiming that it was the will of the Chinese people and the Mandate of Heaven that the Chinese nation be reunited under the Chuen Dynasty.
While the United States of China had eyed the Chuen Dynasty to the north with a wary eye since the Western brokered armistice, it was still taken by surprise at the swiftness and ferocity of the Chuen Offensive when it came. The Chuen had learned of speed and audacity from their Prussian advisors, and used it to good effect in the opening days of the Chinese campaign. While Chuen generals might have chosen to go a more circuitous route through the mountains and deserts to the west, it was decided to go the more direct route straight into some of the most populous states of the USC, Jiangsu, Anhui, and Henan. The strategic border city of Xuzhou (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xuzhou#cite_note-0) was swiftly cut off from reinforcement by USC forces and made to capitulate. Almost the entirety of Henan was occupied with Anhui and Jiangsu being cut in half. The USC military was able to stablize the front just short of the Huai river (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huai_River), taking heed of British advisors to hold fast in the defense against the Prussian advised invaders. While this grated on USC officials to see so many of their people under Chuen occupation, still better than to lose Shanghai or even Nanjing! While a British-style defense was mounted in the east, several small bands of USC military under American advisors slipped through the Qin mountains (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Mountains) on the western edge to use so-called 'Wild Indian' hit-and-run tactics against the logistic lines of the invading Chuen.
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As part of the Korsgaardista agenda on gaining power in Mexico launched a rapid military expansion, fueled by governmental 'persuasion' of businesses to accept credit from the government as well as generous if covert aide from fellow Korsgaardist nations in Europe. Mexico made no attempt to join the battleship club as many other nations had, instead choosing to invest in heavy coastal defenses as well as the cheap and easily manufacture Shark Ships (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torpedo_boat). Really more boats than ships, these small, fast, but poorly defended vessels were designed to launch the self propelled bombs (sharks) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torpedo#Self-propelled_torpedoes) were capable with their sharks of sinking much larger ships, even potentially battleships. While many established navies scoffed at the smaller vessels, the Mexicans were gambling that they would provide a defense that while meager on the surface, would cost a naval aggressor dearly.
As the Eastern powers further modernized their arsenal, much of the surplus found its way to Mexico in shipments of 'farm equipment'. One of the better kept secrets of the Korsgaardian regimes was the depth of the relationship with Mexico. Mexico's leadership eyed with avarice the former lands of Mexico to the North, now part of the Dominion of Southern America. The largest barrier to Mexican action against the Dominion of course was the Royal Navy. However, the war in Europe and the Far East brought saw a relative decrease in the British navy's presence in North American waters, felt relatively 'safe'. Mexico did nothing to disabuse Britain of that notion, at first. In like fashion, the launch of Mexico into the war on the side of the Eastern powers was timed for the late Fall, when most nations were used to a refrain from pitched war activities. Yet that is when the invasion of Texas was begun.
The political parties of the 19th century Dominion of Southern America differed from the home country of Britain. Perhaps due to the influence of politics as delineated in other parts of North America, the parties of the DSA tended to fall roughly along an axis that was based on the degree of centralization that was promulgated by the party (or coalition).
The most centralized party of the Dominion was the Imperial Party, often referred to as Tories. The Imperial Party had as it's touchstone loyalty to the British Empire and the Monarch. Founded by Empire Loyalists, the party was the strongest in the early days of the Dominion. One could summarize the policies of the Imperial Party as, "What's good for the British Empire is good for the South." The Dominion's black population tended to vote pure Imperial Party, seeing it as the best protection of their freedoms within the Dominion.
On the opposite end of the political spectrum was a political force that was so anti-centralist it wasn't even a formal party, but a coalition of provincial parties, thus their moniker of the Provincial Coalition. The provincial coalition rose to prominance in Dominion level politics several years after the founding of the DSA to challenge the prominance of the Imperial Party. While their reputation as 'tamed rebels' is perhaps unjustified, it is true that many of the most prominant members of the early coalition were reformed Confederationists or at least those who held themselves aloof from the Southern Rebellion. The fact of the matter, though, was that there were strong currents in Southern society that sought more autonomy and the right of the Provinces to oversee their own citizenry. While their politics could vary wildly from each other in the details in their home Provinces, at the Dominion level they formed a somewhat united voting block devoted to preventing any growth in power at the federal level, and reserving power whenever and wherever possible for the Provinces. Interestingly, there was a strong Indiana contingent to the Provincial Coalition, who wished to see their autonomy preserved as much as any of the other provinces.
While the aforementioned two power blocks were to dominate politics in the Dominion during the course of the 19th century, there was a third power block, the Dominion Party, that was influential beyond its size. A 'middle-of-the-road' party, it took as its goal strengthening the Dominion, and thus favored more autonomy from the British Empire, while at the same time promoting greater powers and oversight over the Provinces. Often in coalition with the Imperialist Party for the sake of governance, on some votes it sided with the Provincials (free trade with the USA, for example).
During the initial outbreak of the Global War, both the Provincial Coalition and the Dominion Party did not wish to be pulled into the European conflict, though the Imperial Party actively advocated support for Britain, including sponsoring volunteer companies to be sent to fight. Of course, when the South itself was invaded by Korsgaardist Mexico, the blood of every Southerner was stirred and rallied to the defense of the Dominion.
DEFEND THE DOMINION!
A Map of the Mexican Invasion of the DSA.
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With war fever spreading across the globe, the United States stood in odd quietude. However, some Americans were not content to stand on the sidelines as the world erupted in fire. While some of the volunteeers would be absorbed into the armies of Germany, France, and Britain, some did not come as individuals, but whole units. Many Americans had family roots in Europe and felt the pull of defending the liberal West against the Korsgaardist East. Very few were interested in fighting for the Korsgaardian regimes, and were seen as suspect by them even if they were so inclined. However, when the war expanded to their own doorstep in Texas, many more Yankees headed for the South to fight off the Mexican invasion.
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At the beginning of the Global War, the British Royal Navy was the largest in the world, and had been known for centuries for naval innovation, as evinced in recent decades by their use of newer, stronger armor. However, the average age of ships of the Royal Navy was the oldest in the world, and no other navy tried to cover as many regions as the British, so that while in absolute terms the largest navy, they often faced local inferiority in numbers. By the close of 1889, two disasters for the Royal Navy would have the Admiralty rethinking the policies of the British Navy.
Off the coasts of Mexico, the Shark Ships had proven surprisingly effective in warding off the larger, more heavily armed, British Battleships. While the brave Mexican navy faced horrendous casualties, as even one hit would usually mean the destruction of a Shark Ship, their speed, maneuverability, and ability to launch sharks that could cripple and even sink the larger battleships with but a few hits meant that the British were often forced to retire from the battle, with only their superior armor and endurance allowing them to escape.
In the Far East, the Russian Navy had played a game of 'keep-away' from British forces for most of the year, bolstering British confidence in their superiority. What the British didn't know was that the Russian fleet was waiting for the completion of reloading their ships with new, smokeless shells. When the Russian fleet suddenly turned on the British and went on the offensive with clear lines of sight for their long range guns due to the lack of billuous smoke, whereas the British within a few salvos lost clear targeting on the Russian fleet. The British lost more ships and men in the Battle of the Japanese Straits (sometimes called Korean Straits) than they had in over a century.
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New Granada had a tradition of more centralized government than many of the other Spanish successor states in the New World, and thus was not immune to the allure of Korsgaardism. When General Ricardo Rincon was elected President of New Granada (with strong backing of the military making his selection more a coup than an election), he brought the nation even further under control along Korsgaardist principles. Plotting with other Korsgaarist regimes both regionally and globally, Rincon launched on Christmas Day 1889 his invasion of the United Provinces of South America, claiming long disputed border regions (claims stretching back all the way to their Spanish colonial past). However, for the Korsgaardist alliance the goal was also to claim the rich saltpeter fields of the Atacama desert (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atacama_Desert), which were so very useful in the manufacture of gunpowder, especially the smokeless variety.
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While the Western Powers generally had better intelligence in Europe, in South America they had failed to appreciate the threat to their supply lines and the seduction of New Granada and Brazil into the Korsgaardian sphere of influence. Within days of the New Granada initiation of hostilities, it became apparent that Brazil too was waging war against the United Provinces of South America.
New Granada advanced primarily in the Winter of 1889-90 along the Pacific Coast of the UPSA, with the bulk of their attack being by sea. This was a surprise to most as New Granada had never been known as a naval power. Granted, the UPSA itself only had a modest navy though larger than New Granada prior to the war. Interestingly, both were outfitted mostly with British surplus ships, with one important exception. New Granada at the eleventh hour was 'leased' several Shark Boats from Mexico with 'volunteer' crews. Most nations in South America had relied on the British to keep the peace on the naval front, but with the Royal Navy otherwise preoccupied across the globe and the surpise success of the Shark Boat and their self propelled naval mines, Sharks, the navy of New Granada was able to gain superiority over the local naval forces of the UPSA.
The Brazilians had been sullen over the victories of the UPSA and the loss of Rio Grande do Sul for generations, thus in one sense it was no surprise when they leapt at the chance for revenge. The Brazilians launched a main campaign to invade Rio Grande do Sul and cut it off from UPSA support, which would also place them within striking distance of the UPSA capital. While this effort in itself supported Brazilian war aims, it also served to hold down the majority of the USPA's military on the Atlantic Coast, just when their troops were needed on the Pacific coast. The Brazilians also sent a small overland force to support the New Granada effort to seize the Atacama Desert for its vital nitrites, though this was by and large a sideshow for the main event in South America. The Brazilians who did not have the Shark Boats of Mexico was unable to control the coast, though they did manage to keep occupied the UPSA's Atlantic Navy. Again, the two fleets were primarily composed of British surplus, pitting older models of British ships against one another.
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While tensions between Korsgaardista Mexico and the Dominion of Southern America had been rising just prior to the Mexican invasion, and several expatriote Mexican groups had made claims that the Mexican Empire would attack, the sheer audacity and scale of the MExican invasion still took the Dominion of Southern America by surprise. The troops sent to man the very long border between the Dominion and Mexico had never been adequate to assure true security, and thus despite the many acts of bravery in the early days of the Dominion's invasion, the Mexican forces made heavy inroads along their three spearheads.
The second line of defense in those early days were hit and run raids in a running retreat made by the Royal Southern American Rangers, and in New Mexico, the unlikely allies of the wild tribes there who took payments from the Provincial governments to raid the Mexican supply lines.
New Mexico had always been sparse in population, and thus the Mexican army was able to cut deep into the dry land along the old Mexican road to Santa Fe, in the process cutting off the railways to Albion. Albion itself, especially the city of San Diego, were targeted and occupied to the south, though attempts to penetrate the Central Valley were met by hostile resistance in the mountains by the farmers of that region.
Texas was the most populated of the invaded provinces, and the occupation of the southern regions of Texas wore hard on the proud Texans. The Mexicans were stopped at the Battle of San Antonio (often misidentified as occuring at the City of San Antonio (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio), when in fact it occurred along a line stretching from that city along the San Antonio River (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio_River) to San Antonio Bay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio_Bay). Along this line an impromptu army of British Army regulars, Dominion auxilliaries, Rangers, and volunteers held the tide against the Mexican forces. The Line of San Antonio would go down as a glorious moment in Texas history.
With the Global War engulfing the world, the British relied on locally raised and armed Southerners to take the fight to the Mexican Empire. Local recruitment provided more seasoned troops than might be obvious at first glance, as many Southerners spent some time in the British Armed Forces before returning home to the Dominion. The locally raised Armies of the Provinces would prove decisive in North America, especially in the counterattack to free occupied Texas.
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The second year of the Global War, 1890, would later be referred to as "The Year of Blood" due to the loss of life during this phase of the war. With the further introduction of smokeless gunpowder and rapid fired automatically reloading guns on both sides, the balance of the war swung to the defense. While the Eastern powers in Europe could not be pushed out of the land they had invaded during this year, they also could not make progress further. This stalemate was most prevalent in the European theater, with others across the globe having more or less fluid lines depending on the terrain, weapons available, and manpower involved in the fight. The Western Powers, though chafing at the occupation of their lands, settled for the time on a policy of strong defense believing that time would favor them and weaken their opponents. The Eastern powers seemed equally concerned that without further advance, the war would swing ot the West's favor, and launched a number of offensives to try to break through, most of which met little success. By the end of 1890, the losses were far greater on the part of the East than the West.
The Global War saw many fascinating innovations, but perhaps one of the most impressive was the development of airpower starting in 1890. While for many decades the French had led in the development of first ballooning, and then the use of powered balloons. However, it was in British hands that the airship reached its pinacle. Using a rigid airframe and mountiing the finest steam engines available, the first class of combat balloon, the Orcas, set the standard for the war. Also known as Air Whales, the Orcas were used for long range reconnaisance and bombing on occasion (more of a propoganda weapon than anything else).
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The earliest use of railways in war may have been during the Southern Civil War, though this was only a taste of their importance to war in the 19th century. During the Liberal War, railways proved their worth in rapidly moving troops to the front, and neither the East nor the West would forget this for the Global War. Thus were designs for armoured steam locomotives developed by the armies of the world, to serve in roles as diverse as delivery of needed supplies and troop transport to the front to mobile artillery support. While only a small number of trains used in 1889 were of the armoured variety, by 1890 they were more and more in evidence as the lines solidified and trains to the front could expect barrages from the opposing lines (which of course could also knock out rails, but the trains were such larger, more inviting targets, that often the rails were left intact in order to entice the trains into range for potential destruction). The West's employment of the Air Whales such as the famed Orca class Airship further encouraged the East to use armoured trains to avoid destruction from above. These armoured locomotives proved remarkably resilient and became a favorite of the front line generals, always demanding more be built and deployed.
A Sampling of Armoured Steam Locomotives from Early and Later in the Global War
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There were many tales that were serialized from the Global War, with perhaps the most popular in the United States of America being The Adventures of Nick and Marty - The Roosevelt Brothers At War. The Roosevelt brothers father, Nicholas Van Buren Roosevelt, was the oldest son of former US President Nicholas Samuel Roosevelt and grandson of steamboat magnate Nicholas Isaac Roosevelt.
Nick Roosevelt, the oldest brother, was the first to volunteer for service in the Global War, joining the British Airship Corps, becoming the captain of his own Orca before war's end. Nick Roosevelt was so well regarded among his fellows,that despite his American roots, he was tapped to lead the daring air strike on Berlin, and would be highly decorated for this and his successful return of his damaged Air Whale to Hanover.
Marty Roosevelt was Nick's younger brother, who joined an American light cavalry unit formed to combat the Mexican onslaught flooding into the western regions of the Dominion of Southern America. Marty rose rapidly through the ranks of what developed into an irregular force, launching attacks deep into the Mexican supply lines. Within a year, young Marty had risen to acting commander of what came to be called Roosevelt's Raiders.
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A Map of Europe in The Year of Blood.
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In the pre-war years, a number of dissidents fled the tyrrany of the new Korgaardista regime of the self proclaimed Mexican Empire for shelter in the Dominion of Southern America. Many of these exiles plotted to bring revolution to Mexico and free the homeland from the cult of personality of Castellanos. However, before their plans could come to fruition, Mexico marched to war against the Dominion. On the heels of the Dominion invasion, many Mexicans in exile formed volunteer companies to fight the Korsgaardista regime's act of aggression. The most famous of the Mexican Free Companies was the Legion of Quintana (it is an interesting side note on the Mexican psyche that both sides sought to associate themselves with Quintana's legacy). The LoQ showed the bravery, the daring, and the cunning of the Mexican Republican, and would earn a fierce reputation in the war. The Korsgaardista led Mexican Army threatened execution for any Mexican fighting in the Free Companies.
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The Royal Naval Massacre does not refer to the several high profile failures of the British Royal Navy at the beginning of the Global War. It can be argued that 1889 was the largest failure for the Royal Navy in history. Needless to say, many high ranking admirals were removed from the leadership of the Admiralty for this series of failures, and it is this radical sacking to which the term Royal Naval Massacre refers.
The Royal Naval Massacre cleared the way for two innovative, visionary admirals to rejuvenate the wartime Navy. Admiral Milo James 'MJ' Barnett (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=3988310&postcount=34) and Admiral John Bryan (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=3953610&postcount=25) were the men tapped for the task. Admiral Barnett was seen as a 'bright young thing' on the rise in the Admiralty, though his meteoric elevation to leadership was considered by some perhaps unseemly. The selection, on the personal recommendation of Prime Minister Lovecraft, of John Bryan as Barnettl's partner was even more controversial. Just before the war, Bryan had considered retiring from the Royal Navy as his outspoken views on the future of naval warfare had seen him relegated to dark horse status, but when many of his warnings proved all too real by developments in the Global War, it became obvious that he was the right man to devise a counterstrike, at least by those outside the old Admiralty. Together, Barnett and Bryan instituted three major programs that would see the Royal Navy strike back with vengeance in the latter half of the war.
The first was the crash refitting of the Royal Navy for use of smokeless gunpowder. Ships were recalled to the closest port for refitting, even to colonial ports. For those who could not be taken off station or were too far for practical turn-around, the 'refit fleet' of ship tenders and refitters set sail to convert the ships. While this was an impossible task to finish fully, the numbers that were successfully converted was considered little short of a miracle.
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The second major innovation was the development of fast, compact (some would say cramped), attack boats to counter the threat of the Shark Boats. These Shark Hunter boats (shortened to Shark Hunters) were only a bit bigger than the Shark Boats that had been deployed so devastatingly in the Western Hemisphere (and were beginning to appear in other navies by 1890). The Shark Hunters were built with the latest fast fire guns, fleetest of engine designs, and were essentially seaworthy killing platforms. With them, the main fleet would be screened from the Shark Boats and able to pick them off at leisure. While the first prototypes and production Shark Hunters came out of English shipyards, the Rossall/Bryan Admiralty took the extraordinary step of charging shipyards throughout the Dominion of Southern America to construct the Shark Hunters, the first time since the Slaver Uprising that Royal Navy vessels would be build in the South. Some specialized equipment was purchased and rush shipped from the USA by rail and ship to bring Dominion works up to Royal Navy standards. The swarm of Shark Hunters required less crew than many vessels of the Royal Navy, but the British were still needing to recruit more for this surge of building, especially given the losses to experienced crew. Many Southrons joined the Royal Navy to crew the Dominion-built boats - this predominance of Southerner crew would lead the one of the longest lasting legacies of the Global War, the nick-name of "Shark Eaters" which began with the Southrons of the Royal Navy, but would later become a term used with affection (if one knew what was good for them) for all Southrons, especially abroad.
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The third major decision taken by the Admiralty under Barnett and Bryan was to redesign all new ships of the line on an all large gun design. These would be referred to as the 'Big Bang Battleships' by the press of the time. The Big Bangs were felt especially by Bryan to be necessary in the age of smokeless gunpowder when the elimination (or serious decrease) of the 'fog of war' coupled with the creation of Shark Hunters eliminated the need for most secondary guns, freeing up crews, space, and tonnage for more main guns. This successful philosophy would serve as the basis for all post-Global War Battleships.
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The year 1891 saw several developments that broke the deadlock of the Year of Blood in favor of the Western Powers. The Korsgaardist nations had driven through the economic turmoil of the 1880s on sheer will, and made audacious gambles in their launching of the Global War, but in the end came up short. By 1891 there stockpiles of many essential war materials were running out. The artificial propping of their economies was beginning to show in the harsh light of wartime needs, with rationing widespread. The initial black eyes dealt to the legendary Royal Navy had been a bright spot for the Eastern Powers and their Allies, but the reforms of the Barnett and Bryan began to pay dividends. Added to this mix was the introduction of a joint Franco-German invention to the field of battle, the Armored Steam Tractor (AST), nicknamed 'The Iron Rhino'. The ASTs combined the new mobile tracks of the most innovative farm machinery of the era with the previous decades improvements in steel to form a self propelled vehicle that could crawl through the dead zone between the lines and escort troops into the enemies' lines. The ASTs were overly heavy, prone to breakdowns, and never made in enough numbers for the demands of the European front lines, but their impact on already wavering Eastern morale was devastating.
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The Russians and their Austro-Hungarian allies were initially seen as liberators when they moved into Wallachia and Moldavia. However, after the front moved deeper into the Balkans, the people of Wallachia and Moldavia noticed pointedly that the Russians were not moving on. Russian military governors were established and it soon became clear that the Russians had not come as simple liberators but were planning to make these lands provinces of the Russian Empire. While some Russophiles embraced the occupiers, the majority were not eager to trade one foreign power for another, not when so many other nations had gained their independence. In 1890, acts of disobediance and sabotage started to become common. Russian response to these encitements was not gentle. As the fronts began to move again in 1891, Wallachians and Moldavians rose up yet again, flying a tricolor of Wallachian Blue, Moldavian Red, and shared Gold - this time for independence from Russian oppression.
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The British Army's participation in the Defense of Istanbul is the stuff of which legends are made. Three of Britannia's fiercest fighting units stood shoulder to shoulder on the line, shedding their sweat and blood in defense of the Empire and of Liberty - the Sable Legion, the Black Watch, and the Gurkhas. Several journal accounts noted the skirl of the 'Pipes of Hell' that would rally the British lines every time a new wave of Korsgaardian Eastern Troops tried to break the line, and every time the Eastern hordes were thrown back. While the Defense of Istanbul was a truly multinational effort by the Allies, with the majority of the troops being furnished by the Ottomans themselves, all present knew that pride of place went to the British zone, and the doughty fighting units from three continents.
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In the winter of 1891-92, the British Empire returned the favor to the Korsgaardistas with the Invasion of Mexico.
In 1891, the prelude to the invasion began in the Province of Texas where the newly constituted Dominion Army launched their liberation of Southern Texas, pushing the overextended Mexicans out of Southern territory, then started advancing into northern Mexico. The Loyalist Yell once again struck terror in the hearts of the enemies of the British Empire. The Dominion's Jackson Brigade (named somewhat controversially for the founding father of Texas AND the Confederation) utilizing camels made the hard march to Santa Fe to free New Mexico.
The Jackson Brigade's Camel Corps
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Another step in the road to victory was the sweeping away of the plucky Mexican navy by waves of Shark Hunters, leading to the liberation of Albion when the Royal Navy took Santa Barbara and San Diego. In aid of the Naval action, a motley irregular force of American volunteers and Albionese farmers scrambled over the mountain passes from the British portion of the Central Valley.
Seditious Meeting in the Mexican State of Moskito
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The British had a long history of influence in Moskito. The Mexican Empire of the Korsgaardistas had been unpopular among the mostly indigenous peoples of that Mexican state. This made taking the Nicaraguan Canal an attractive proposition to the British as they found it easy to subvert the Moskitos, sitting near the Gulf entrance to the Canal, to the British cause. While the British faced pressure from both sides of the canal, thier command of the waterways was quickly established, and events in Central Mexico would soon take precedence.
Royal Navy landing at Veracruz
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The final strike to the Mexican Empire was the taking of Veracruz and the beginning of the famous Republican March to Mexico City. While the Royal Navy and Dominion forces took and held the strategic port, it was decided for political reasons for the land forces to be led by the Free Mexican Companies who were landed in Veracruz by the Royal Navy. The liberation of Mexico City by Republican forces with the Legion of Quintana at the forefront would lead to the toppling of the Korsgaardistas, who had lost support over the preceding year from their harsh rule and the mounting casualties to feed their dreams of empire.
The Republican March to Mexico City
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During the Mexican occupation of New Mexico, a dogged resistance made the lives of the Army of the Rio Grande miserable. The resistance, made up of doughy Southerners and allied wild tribes was led by a man known to the Mexicans as Lobo, or Wolf as the Southrons would say. In reality, a young physician from Santa Fe by the name of Wolfgang Scott (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/member.php?u=1602) (though some claimed his original surname was Cohen), Wolf was the storied gentleman partisan who played havoc with the supply lines of the Mexicans while providing aid to those remaining New Mexicans suffering under the occupation. It is rumored that he personally led the Jackson Brigade through the last part of their trek to oust the Mexican army. He would become prominant in Dominion politics during the turn of the century.
Wolfgang Scott in a rare picture from his youth
Leader of the Resistance in the Province of New Mexico
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The Game of Asia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Game) refers to the period roughly stretching between the Napoleonic Wars and the Global War. The Game of Asia references the great diplomatic struggle between Russia and Britain for influence in Asia. The extent of the area and events encompassed by the Game of Asia is ill defined and varies depending on the historian referenced. For example, some authors will include the Pacific region in their definitions, such as the wrangling over the Hawaiian Islands by Russia and Britain. Most authors do not go so far, however, and see the easternmost extent of the Game of Asia as the Japanese Islands. The westernmost extent was fairly easily defined by the border of the Ottoman Empire on the Asian continent. The histories of the Japanese Islands, the Chinas, and the Indian Subcontinent are often described in detail, but those of Central Asia are equally worthy of comment, even if less known.
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In the first phase of the Game of Asia, the Russians had small but steady encroachments upon Persia, with Britain acting as a mediating influence and supporter of Persian autonomy for the most part. However, British support for Persia's other feared neighbor, the Ottomans, and then the growing British support for the Durrani Empire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durrani_Empire). Things changed in the second phase of the Game of Asia after the Russian reversals in Europe during the Liberal War and later the chaos of the Russian succession. Russia advanced more openly and agressively in Central Asia, adding such protectorates as Samarkand, Bukhara, Kokand, and Khiva to the Russian Empire. At the same time Persia negotiated with Russia for a stable border, hoping instead to point the Russian bear towards the Durrani Empire, and of course, the Ottoman Empire. Relations with Britain cooled in the meantime.
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When the Global War broke out, the Persians joined the Russians in attacking the borders of the Ottoman Empire, both with their own army equipped and 'advised' by Russians. At the same time the Russians sent troops into the Durrani Empire in an attempt to close on British India. The Durrani Graveyard would be referred to in Russian song for decades to come. While many Russians lost their lives in the Global War, they rarely did with so little to show for it as in the Durrani Empire.
Historians debate as to whether the Brazilian incursion into Bahia and the subsequent counterstrike by the Confederation of the Equator to aid the Bahians in liberating themselves. The Republic of Brazil took advantage of British preoccupation with the more direct threats of Europe and North America to invade the black republic that had been seen as a stain on Brazilian pride since Bahia broke away from Brazil in the 1830s. Under the pretext of suppressing bandits who were operating over the border (and to be fair, Bahian bandits had been active for generations in frontier raids), the Brazilians invaded Bahia in 1890. The Bahians fought ferociously, but did not have as advanced of a military infrastructure or the numbers of the Brazilians. Penning Bahians in large, poorly equipped camps (those who didn't take to the wilderness to fight as partisans), the Brazilians seemed uncertain how to deal with their success, such as it was. The small Confederation of the Equator had long seen any aggressive moves against their colorful neighbors as a threat to their own independence. While the Equatorians had only shaky relations with Bahia in peace, in war they were allies, and thus the Confederation launched its own counteroffensive from the north. The Equatorians would have likely been crushed if they had faced the full Brazilian army, but the Brazilians were overextended in their conflict to the south with the UPSA. Between the Equatorians and the Bahians partisans, the Brazilians were forced to abandon the camps and fall back to redoubts near the border.
http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/attachment.php?attachmentid=170276&stc=1&d=1332378064
The Sides in the Global War (blue is the Liberal/West, red is the Korsgaardist/East):
http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/attachment.php?attachmentid=170341&stc=1&d=1332457067
The Global War entered its end stage in the 1891-1892 period. The Eastern nations greatest achievement, the invasion of the Balkans, became their greatest defeat with the uproar in their rear areas in Wallachia and Moldavia coupled with a Franco-British expeditionary landing to support the resurgent Ottoman army leading to the complete encirclement of the Eastern combined army of the Balkans. While Austro-Hungarians and Prusso-Polish forces were well represented, the bulk of the army was Russian and this defeat was a great blow to the mighty Russian Empire's morale, not to mention that of its allies.
Whereas the Western powers had had to deal with the harsh economic realities of the economic crisis of the 1880s, the Korsgaardian influenced powers had forestalled much of the pain through governmental policies demanding that things be maintained at a growing level of prosperity, regardless of the accumulating costs carried on the books. The intial flush of the Global War had also helped hide this growing economic disparity between perception and reality, but in the end it exacerbated matters. While the Eastern Powers continued winning morale remained high, despite the growing needs for rationing. When defeats began to accrue at the same time rationing became heavily worse, the populace in many nations began to question just what they had given their hears and souls to. The first Eastern Empire to see this discontent lead to the resurrection of revolutionary movements from the past was Austria-Hungary. Particulary in Hungary, where long simmering discontent with the Habsburg dynasty erupted into revolt. The Hungarian tricolor again flew, and an aged Lajos Kossoth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lajos_Kossuth) was smuggled back into the country to a triumphal march to leadership.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/Kossuth_Coat_of_Arms.svg/200px-Kossuth_Coat_of_Arms.svg.pnghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Civil_Ensign_of_Hungary.svg/500px-Civil_Ensign_of_Hungary.svg.png
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/75/Kossuth_funeral_2.jpg
The Empire of Prussia-Poland fared a little better than Austria-Hungary to the south. The Hohenzollern Dynasty still remained popular in the east, where the war had not had as great an impact, but the westernmost parts of the land were another matter. While the war had been popular at the beginning, the Year of Blood, the ever-increasing crippling rationing, and the subsequent German counter-attack eroded that support for both the war, and the Hohenzollern regime. Especially restive were the leaders of labor, such as was left in the industrial centers of Brandenburg. When the German army threatened the areas near Berlin, the remaining laborers and disaffected army troops rose up to overthrow the regime in Brandenburg, and welcomed their German brothers as liberators from the oppression of the Korsgaardian Hohenzollerns. The Empire of Germany was able to secure Brandenburg from the Oder River to the traditional borders of Saxony.
http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/attachment.php?attachmentid=170590&stc=1&d=1332710436
After the Liberal War, the Austrian Empire struggled to find an identity that could tame the boiling nationalist tensions that had been first born during the Napoleonic Era and rekindled in the age of Liberal Revolution. Russia's intervention had bought the Habsburgs time, but it was the advent of Korsgaardian theory that gave the renamed Austria-Hungary a direction. The Austrian crown based their ideal image of the past on the precedent of the Holy Roman Empire in the ideal of a multistate, fiercely Catholic state. Language played a lesser role in the Austro-Hungarian national identity than in other Korsgaardian states, though German remained the lingua franca (ironically) for work across the provinces, whereas within them local languages were allowed to be utilized. The Habsburg Emperor played an increasingly loyal and empowered populace against the traditional power of the nobles and the emerging industrialists. Eventually, it was expected and required that all the classes subject themselves for the good of their most Catholic State as embodied by the Habsburg Emperor. The conservative clergy especially clung to the throne in the face of an increasingly liberal leadership in the Vatican. The restive Hungarian nobles had been diminished in purges, mostly after the uprisings in 1848-9, but more gradually since of any that did not espouse loyalty to the Empire. The Austrian nobility faced the possibility of being detained and even disappeared by the state, but as they had not had their ranks initially dimished through rebellion, they remained relatively speaking stronger. Of course, most of the liberal leadership elements in Austria-Hungary had long fled by the time of Global War, or at least those that could. Many liberal Austrians of German extraction had found new homes and loyalties in Germany. However, the Hungarians in exile retained a distinct identity as Magyars and were thus poised to return across the war-torn nation to take part in the Hungarian Revolution when the time came.
To better rule and guard the Empire, it was administratively divided into a Western and Eastern Sector, or Division. When the Hungarians revolted, they took with them the rest of the Eastern sector (namely to the North and West of Hungary, and thus geographically isolated from the Austrian centers of power, especially with Prussia-Poland and Russia no longer being reliable for aid in putting down any distant revolts.
http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/attachment.php?attachmentid=175479&stc=1&d=1337820279
As the Eastern Powers began to become unhinged in the waning days of the Global War, Chuen China found itself also being gradually pushed back out of the United States of China. Thus it should have come as little suprise when Chuen made a separate peace with the USC, returning the borders to the antebellum status quo, though agreeing to some hefty reparations to the USC citizens whose families had been killed, maimed, and dispossessed in the invaded provinces.
However, when Chuen China, greatly displeased by continued Russian failures to honor their previous agreements for border adjustments in Chuen China's favor declared themselves in favor of the Western Powers, and along with their allies, Korea, supported the Qings in declaring their full independence from Russia. The Manchurian uprising, supported by Chuen and Korean troops, drove the sparse Russian forces in the region all the way back to Siberia. While there was no love lost between the Qing of Manchuria, their joint interests made them allies of the moment. Chuen also unilaterally occupied the areas promised by Russia, sometimes with bloodshed.
The Flag of Manchuria adopted in 1892 (sometimes referred to as Qing China):
http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/attachment.php?attachmentid=170806&stc=1&d=1332988362
The Revenge of the Royal Navy refers to the pitched battle that took place in the Sea of Japan between the Russian Pacific Fleet and a newly assembled Royal Navy Far East Fleet. The stakes were nothing less than control of land of Japan. The Royal Navy, who had been bloodied by Russian innovation, now returned the favor, battering the Russians to flinders. The British bolstered Imperial Japanese Army then was left to roll up the Tokugawa forces on Honshu, who over the years had been increasingly stretched in terms of supplies doled out by their Russian patrons. The death of the last Tokugawa Shogun in the Battle of Edo broke the will of their forces, and Honshu was brought under the Imperial banner, which in turn enjoyed the protection of the United Kingdom. However, what battered forces remained retreated as best they could to Ezochi, to join the Ainu there. The Emperor, in rememberance of the blood spilled in the long battle for reunification of Honshu, added a blood red fringe to the Imperial Flag.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3c/Japan_Kouzoku_Flag_16ben.svg/500px-Japan_Kouzoku_Flag_16ben.svg.png
What the Slaver Uprising did for blacks in the British South, the Global War, in part, did for subcontinental Indians living in the Dominion of Southern America. Often referred to in aggregates as 'Hindoos' even though the people brought over as indentured servants in the wake of slave abolition practiced numerous faiths, the subcontinental Indians had been seen as little more than lowly workers and aliens, not part of the Southern Culture proper, which while stratified, had a place for whites, blacks, and so called 'civilized indians' (who of course were not from India, but from America).
However, the Mexican invasion made for strange bedfellows, as the overwhelmingly Catholic and Spanish speaking Mexicans had even less use for the subcontinentals than the South. Several brave men took up arms to represent their race in the defense of the Empire. One such man was Rhajini Sikhail (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=4584651&postcount=46). His family had been brought to Southern Albion to work on the railways, and after settling their indenture settled as subsistance farmers in the region. Sikhail took to the hills and pulled together several of his family and friends into a partisan fighting force when the Mexicans occupied the region. His hard scrabble force were among those who marched into San Diego when the Royal Navy liberated the port. He and his band were recognized by Her Majesty's government as auxillaries to the British Army and continued the fight, launching raids into Mexico that kept several units of Mexican regulars occupied for the remainder of the war. After the war he returned to private life and enjoyed the hard won respect he and 'Sikhail's Boys' had earned with blood. He went on to become a successful local politician, becoming the first subcontinental mayor in the Dominion, of his small hometown which was renamed after his death - Sikhail, Albion, DSA.
A photograph of Rhajini Sikhail and his surviving men after the repulsing of the Mexican invasion.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/03-Men_of_the_Loodiaah_%28Ludhiana%29_Sikh_Regiment_i n_China%2C_Circa_1860..jpg
The greatest war hero of the Global War on the Italian peninsula was General Arturo Piantadosi (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=4585519&postcount=52). Born in Northern Italy, as a young man he had been inspired by the republican spirit of the Roman Republic and spent many years living there. However, he later returned to the Kingdom of Italy and joined the military of his homeland. When Austria-Hungary invaded the Venician region in the Global War, the Italians and their allies, the Romans and Neapolitans, were at first hard pressed by the Prussia-Poland and Russian trained and advised Austro-Hungarian forces. Arturo Piantadosi, however, rose rapidly through the officer corps developing a reputation of dashing exploits and sound tactics. When the time came, it was General Piantadosi who was placed in overall command of the Italian allied armies that launched the counterattack into Austro-Hungarian territory and was widely credited as the man who took Trieste from Austria. At the end of the war, he retired from active military service, living out the remainder of his days in a scenic cottage on the shores of Lake Maggiore (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Maggiore).
Trieste, the site of General Piantadosi's greatest victory.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/Triest_1885.jpg/628px-Triest_1885.jpg
While some historians will claim that Chuen China was the first of the great powers aligned with Korsgaardism to make peace with the forces of the Allies of the Entente, most acknowledge that it was the Austrians who were the first of the main belligerents to seek a peace treaty. With a whole army lost in the Balkans, the Germans and Italians pressing in on their borders, desparate shortages of food and worse, ammunition, and outright rebellion in Hungary, it is little wonder that Vienna sued for an early and separate peace. Of course, the fact that Prussia-Poland had its own problems with Brandenburg overrun and in revolt and the Russians had pulled back to their borders leaving their allies to flounder allowed the Austrians to take the move.
The terms of the Treaty of Geneva ending the war between the Austrian crown and the Entente stipulated that most of the Austrian Littoral (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_Littoral) would be ceded to the Kingdom of Italy, and Salzburg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salzburg) was ceded to Germany. Reparations were to be paid to Germany, Italy, and the Ottoman Empire for damage done to their invaded lands. The Crown and the Austrian Church were also required to acknowledge and make obeisance to the Pope as the true and rightful head of the Church, and to renounce forever any claim on a veto in papal elections. When the Republic of Hungary declared itself not only independent but neutral in the Global War, the stipulation was also added that Austria had to recognize Hungarian independence.
With the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, a reorganization of the remaining crown lands was felt necessary. There had been some concerns that the Bohemian lands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_lands), which had been laid open to invasion, might also break off. However, the Bohemians (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemians) and Moravians (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moravians_(ethnic_group)) were concerned about possibly being annexed by Germany, and instead negotiated to replace Hungary in a dual monarchy, the new nation of Austria-Bohemia.
Site of the Treaty of Geneva:
http://www.ville-geneve.ch/fileadmin/public/images/accueil/KEYSTONE-8051162.jpg
Austria-Bohemia and its divisions:
http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/attachment.php?attachmentid=175480&stc=1&d=1337820402
The Civil Ensign of Austria-Bohemia:
http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/attachment.php?attachmentid=175321&stc=1&d=1337648530
The Treaty of Zurich followed the capitulation of the Austrian Crown. Prussia-Poland had already lost Brandenburg west of the Oder through the combination of invasion and revolution, as well as traditional Saxony which that Kingdom had redeemed. The treaty formally acknowledged the new border and also required Prussia-Poland to pay reparations for the damages caused by the war, predominantly to Germany and Scandinavia. Like Austria-Bohemia, Prussia-Poland was required to acknowledge the Pope as the rightful leader of the Catholic Church, though in the case of Prussia-Poland, the results of this forced rapproachment would prove interesting. However, the Hollenzollern crown managed to survive and maintain what remained of their realm, though now with a significant predominance of Poles as the populace.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/Z%C3%BCrich_-_Opernhaus_IMG_0090_ShiftN1.jpg/360px-Z%C3%BCrich_-_Opernhaus_IMG_0090_ShiftN1.jpg
The South American nations under the sway of Korsgaardianism, New Granada and Brazil, humbled in the Global War by the Liberal nations of the continent. The Confederation of the Equator and Bahia managed to throw out the Brazilian invasion, and in the process tie up critically needed troops and munitions. The United Provinces of South America, the powerhouse of South America, was a sleeping giant that the Korsgaardista invaders had aroused, and the armies who were were the heirs of Martin not only repulsed the invaders but drove deep into their own territories by the end of the conflict.
However, Korsgaardism had made as many enemies as it had adherents in the traditionally Republican South American nations, and with the armies of the Korsgaardists in tatters the forces of Liberalism rose up in both nations in what many call the Second South American Revolution, installing the Second Republic of New Granada and the Second Republic of Brazil. The new Revolutionary governments immediately sued for peace, turning over the surviving Korsgaardist tyrants to Allied justice (though few Korsgaardistas survived the blood-letting of the Revolution). The Allied powers of South America agreed to only minor border adjustments and to hold reparations to actual damages, to be paid out over a long period of time at low interest. Tiny Bahia actually received the greatest reparation awards as it had been the worst ravaged. As peace was restored, the Allied armies gradually ceded control to the Revolutionary governments of New Granada and Brazil.
http://barnabasfund.org/_images_files/content/article_files/Proclaim_Freedom/Spanish/Proclamad-libertad-spanish-4x3.jpg
The Durrani Empire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durrani_Empire) had allied itself with the British Empire in the Grand Game (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Game) against Russia, and in the Global War the strategy clearly paid dividends. While Durrani would gain no terrritory from the Russian Empire, was rewarded by the British with full recognition of their claims to Balochistan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balochistan), and Persia for its perfidity with Russia against the British and the Ottomans were required to honor those Durrani claims as well.
Banner of the Durrani Empire
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bf/Flag_of_the_Emirate_of_Herat.svg/500px-Flag_of_the_Emirate_of_Herat.svg.png
While the father of the Republic of Hungary may rightly be considered Lajos Kossuth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lajos_Kossuth), another who could rightly claim the title of Founding Father of the Republic is Peter Molnár (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=5795251&postcount=75), the second President of the Republic according to some historians, or the first according to others. Kossuth had been elevated to President of the Provisional Government of Hungary on his return from exile. However, Kossuth's failing health after his elevation to the post did not allow him much time or energy to participate in the drafting of the constitution. It was Peter Molnár who would lead this great work and see the nation through to the 20th century. Peter Molnár was a young dissident from a literary family (Hungarian on his father's side, Slovakian on his mother's side) in the Austro-Hungarian Empire who became radicalized against the constraints and anti-individualism of Korsgaardianism as it became the guiding philosophy of the ancient regime. Imprisoned on numerous occasions, most recently at the outbreak of the Global War as a 'potential security risk', Molnár was among the prisoners freed by the uprising. He rose to prominance for his articulate and clear way of expressing the ideals of the revolution, and his personal devotion to liberal individualist rights, in diametric opposition to the Korsgaardism that had come before. He chaired the drafting of the Hungarian Constitution, heavily borrowing from the American constitution but adapting it to the conditions as they prevailed in the Hungarian territory. Minority rights, such as for the Slovaks, and religious freedoms including for protestants and jews, were vouchsafed. The most controversial part of the constitution was female suffrage, but Molnár saw it as an essential step forward for the nation. Kossuth died before the completion of the constitution, and Peter Molnár was raised in his place as the second President of the Provisional Government. He subsequently won the first Presidential Elections under the new constitution. As president, he counseled reconciliation with the landed classes and former Korsgaardist bureaocrats, bringing to a halt the backlash and persecution these former masters of Austria-Hungary (though many of the more prominant of the former regime were banned from public office for years, the restrictions not being eased until the 20th century). Although a classic liberal himself, Peter Molnár sought to position the Hungarian Republic as a good and honest neighbor, interested in trade and cultural exchange regardless of prevailing political party of his neighbors (particularly important in the case of Russia). Molnár also saw to it that Hungary was one of the first nations of Eastern Europe to embrace the Poe Plan to bolster the post-war economy. He also sought to keep Hungary truly neutral, much in keeping with the model set over a century before by George Washington. However, much as Vegetius counseled, Peter Molnár led his government to build up a strong defensive military (referred to as the Hungarian Legion, purposely mirroring the name of the American military). It is interesting to note that he also was a strong proponent of air power, building up an airship force for the military and even promoting a civilian air service. Several of the younger officers from the former Austro-Hungarian navy would migrate to the air services, giving it a decidedly nautical feel and terminology.
For these and so many other reasons, many historians consider Peter Molnár as the man who created the Republic of Hungary.
http://mek.niif.hu/01900/01905/html/cd8/kepek/c4371nkm265.jpg
With losses in Europe and Asia, the Tsar decided to pull back into the Russian Rodina (Ezo was an exception), and dared the allies to invade. Short on powder, Russia relied on the endless fields of the Rodina and General Winter to defend the Rodina. Abandoned, Russia's allies made seperate peace with the Allies. Russia disdained any formal treaty - they merely stopped fighting. The debates in the Allied capitals raged for a time, but eventually it was decided to let Russia rot, and not spend any more blood on that dark Eastern land.
http://www.photographium.com/sites/default/files/styles/sidebar_336_total/public/saint_isaacs_square._st._petersburg_russia._1890-1900.jpg
The population of Ireland had been growing steadily until the 1830s, when the combination of multiple crop failures and easy access to emigration and greater opportunities caused the population level to actually steady more or less at 8 million for the latter half of the 19th Century. The continuing pressure value of emigration was probably invaluable to the stability of Ireland during this era, but even more important was the gradually improving situation for the poor Catholic majority (and even moreso for the minority Protestants and the growing middle class) on the island. The Whigs in the Reform Revolution expanded greatly on the rights of the Irish people within the United Kingdom, even if they did not gain all that the most vocal Irish patriots would want. The Tory government that followed the Reform Era was able through more sober and perhaps realistic economic policy as well as a renewed interest in building the infrastructure of the British Isles, including to a degree that of Ireland, to continue the gradual improvement of the lot of the average Irishman. This did not stop discontent, but it ameliorated it to a degree. By the 1860s, things were turning around in Ireland. Increasingly small farmers were able to gain some stability in their land tenure and even sometimes buying their own land. Land reform laws curtailed some of the worst landlord abuses of the first half of the century, and encouraged a return to a more diverse crop for the island, following the more modern agricultural theories of the day. Increased access to education was passed throughout the British Isles, including of course Ireland, but was a double edged sword in terms of the identity of the island. Literacy improved and this opened up more opportunities for people in Ireland, but these publically supported schools were only teaching in English, not Irish, and after a few generations this was starting to have real impact on the rate of Irish being spoken. The increasing easing of tensions in Ireland and increasing literacy and fluency in English helped prepare the Irish Island for participation in the Global War. The British Empire needed soldiers and sailors for the greatest conflict of the 19th century, and Ireland provided some of the most fierce troops of the British military, perhaps driven by the desire of the individuals serving to prove their loyalty to the crown after the difficult times of the earlier 19th century.
Population of Ireland
http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/attachment.php?attachmentid=174084&stc=1&d=1336617327
During the Napleonic age, Napoleon spread nationalism, but also emancipated the Jews across Europe. Even after Napoleon’s death, nationalism grew, but this resulted in a return to repression of Jews to some degree. The exception to this was in France itself where the French Emperor retained these reforms. However, Western Europe saw the pendulum swing back in favor of Jewish rights with the Revolutions and the Liberal War. Jews in Europe played large roles in the liberal, nationalistic movements of the time, particularly in what would become the Empire of Germany.
After the Liberal War, many Jews in the east sought to migrate to the West or even America, as the increasingly conservative regimes in Eastern Europe began to associate Jews with liberalism and the threat of loss of any of the gains they had during the Enlightenment. Especially endangered were the Jews in the former Polish lands and the Pale of Settlement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_of_Settlement) under the rule of the Tsars of Russia. Jews and Poles worked against the efforts of the Russian imperium to crush Polish nationalism and liberal movements. While the Poles embrassed the change of regime to the Hollenzollern dynasty and were reciprocated in kind by the attention the Hollenzollerns paid to Polish sensibilities, so long as they served the crown and the state, Jews were somewhat skeptical of the new Prussia-Poland regime. While the Hollenzollerns had learned their lesson in terms of balancing the needs of Protestants and Catholics in their realms, and the two main languages of German and Polish, especially under the doctrines of Korsgaardianism, they saw little reason to curry to the Jews of the nation, even though they were the third largest ethnicity within Prussia-Poland. It should be noted that even within the increasingly repressive climate of Prussia-Poland, there were still pathways for advancement for Jews, but only at the cost of their identity, by embracing Prussian, or at least Polish language and culture, even Christianity. For those Jews willing to assimilate to the new Prussia-Poland standards, and especially if they dedicated themselves to service to the state and its embodiment of the crown, there was very little in the way of persecution. However, those who clung to their own ways, their own identity, and worse, to the principles of liberalism, found life hard and increasingly dangerous in Prussia-Poland. Things went similarly in Austria-Hungary as it too succumbed to the allure of Korsgaardism and became paranoid about liberal contamination from Germany to the West. Russia was perhaps the worst of the nations with regards to conditions for the Jews.
In the thriving new nation of Germany, Jews were enjoying new rights and new prosperity, such as their French counterparts had started to do earlier in the century. While the boisterous new nation forged from many old lands had a great deal of diversity between its component parts, a sense of 'German-ness' was emerging, and emerging by it's side was a Jewish-German symbiosis, where German Jews had merged elements of German and Jewish culture into a unique new one.
In the United States, there was a burst of increased immigration of Jews from Eastern Europe as they sought newer opportunities and freedom from persecution. While some chose to migrate to the liberal Western nations in Europe, others feared that the pendulum would eventually swing back to the old prejudices in this ancient land, and hoped that in the New World there would be a chance at real change. By and large, they were right. In the United States, those who would embrace democracy and work hard found opportunity opened in the labor hungry nation.
Another place that Jews sought new opportunities was in the reforming Ottoman Empire. As the Ottomans sought to integrate the ancient regime with liberal sensibilities of their Western allies. Jews from Russia and Austria-Hungary sometimes found their way into the European and Anatolian parts of the Ottoman Empire, or even all the way to storied Jerusalem. While perhaps not as open as the Western powers and America, the Ottoman Empire was a relative haven in increasingly harsh times in Korsgaardian Eastern Europe.
A grand synagogue in Nuremberg, Empire of Germany
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/Nurembergsynagoguec.jpg/640px-Nurembergsynagoguec.jpg
One of the worst kept secrets in Europe was the questionable competency of the Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand. A secret council (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_State_Conference) ruled in his name throughout his tenure as emperor, though this information was surpressed by the court. During the turmoil leading up to and including the Liberal War, the council fractured on coping with the crisis, with the ascendent faction inducing Ferdinand to replace Metternich (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klemens_von_Metternich) and even a short lived attempt to quell the chaos by appointing a government of more liberal minded politicians. Eventually the Russians were brought in to crush the liberal movements in the Habsburgs lands. The secret council continued on for almost another 20 years, until Ferdinand's death from a fall during a seizure in 1868. Ferdinand's nephew would be raised to the Imperial Throne as Emperor Francis II (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Joseph_I_of_Austria) of a newly renamed Austria-Hungary. Emperor Francis II became convinced of the rightness of the Korsgaardian theory of governance, and slowly brought his nation fully under his control as the embodiment of the state. This would eventually lead his nation into the folly of the Global War, by whose end Hungary was lost to revolution and Trieste to the Italians. Emperor Francis II had alienated the West, the liberals, and the Papacy. What remained of his nation was bankrupt and suffering shortages of all sorts. Now, in order to save what he could for Austria and his family, Francis II made the bold move of abdicating in favor of his dashing (and quietly liberal sympathetic) son, Crown Prince Rudolf (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf,_Crown_Prince_of_Austria), with one last order, bring peace to his nation. This was seen as a key move to allowing for a successful negotiation with the Allied Western Powers. Francis went into quiet retirement, refusing all calls for his interference in politics from that moment forward with the same stubbornness that he had previously ruled with, even when as a condition for peace, the Korsgaardist party was banned and multiple parties were once more permitted in the nation. The former emperor blamed himself for the fiasco that had been led to by his arrogance and blind adherence to Korsgaardist principles. Broken but still proud, it was actually the efforts of his son that eventually led to a remission of the excommunication of Francis II in 1898.
A prematurely aged Francis II in civilian attire after his abdication.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/Franz_Joseph_of_Austria_1910.jpg/429px-Franz_Joseph_of_Austria_1910.jpg
Emperor of Prussia-Poland, William, was still a vigorous man during the Global War, and the most hands-on of the Eastern potentates in his execution of the war. He would often tour the front lines and even disguise himself as a mere officer to lead an offensive. He was wounded twice in the first two years of the war, but much to the distress of his staff, he still indulged in the practice. His bravery on the front lines made him a favorite of the common soldier, both of Prussian and Polish extraction. However, as the war wore on with mounting casualties, both from the guns of their enemies and the diseases that played havoc with all troops (though not as much for the Prussian-Polish military who draconianly enforced standards of hygeine), and William continued to demand that his armies launch offensive after offensive, despite the lessons of the Liberal War and the Year of Blood in the Global War. With shortages of rations and munitions, even the fiercest of the Korsgaardian stalwarts began to lose their zeal for the fight. Those younger troops who were secretly liberal sympathizers contemplated in hushed whispers outright mutiny. All of this helped to explain how the state of the Prussian forces, arguably some of the best military in the world, degraded to the point that the Allied forces, Liberal revolutionaries, and even mutinous units, could oust the Prussians from the majority of Brandenburg. Emperor William personally took part in the fighting for Berlin, and was wounded for the third time, but this time more seriously. He was in and out of consciousness for a week, during which time his loyal troops guarded him in a fighting retreat from Brandenburg across the Oder and into the heartland of Hohenzollern support. When William regained his senses, he ordered the holding of the line at the Oder and set up his court in the city of Konigsberg. While now far away from the lines and in no shape to participate, Word of the abdication of Emperor Francis II and Emperor Rudolf's capitulation to the allies infuriated him. William threw himself feverishly into plans for the retaking of Brandenburg, and drafted messages begging his uncle Tsar Nicholas to send reinforcements he did not have to aide in the future offensive. However, all of this came to naught when William died suddenly from a pulmonary embolus, a complication of the serious wonding he had taken in the Battle for Berlin. Emperor William's son, Crown Prince August, was elevated as Emperor August I of Prussia-Poland. August even though young was known as a hard-nosed pragmatist, and ordered plans for any offensive halted and immediately opened up peace negotiations with the West. The peace was harsh, including accepting the loss of Brandenburg which became a free republic within the Empire of Germany. However, August maintained that it was better to give up land already lost than to lose what they still held through obstinance. He managed to hold down reparations to a painful but theoretically bearable amount. While not a liberal sympathizer like the new Emperor Rudolf, he also made no cumpunction about outlawing the Korsgaardians, freeing political prisoners, and allowing free parties, though the majority of the powerful Korsgaardians in Prussia-Poland migrated to the Crown Royalist Party and continued to be a force in Prussia-Poland politics, even though they no longer were in absolute control of the nation.
Konigsberg Castle, site of Emperor William's death after Berlin was lost.
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One of the great German generals of the Global War was Nils Nicolai (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=3953568&postcount=24). General Nicolai was born in the Electorate of Hesse-Kassel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electorate_of_Hesse). His father was a Hessian of the same family that produced Philipp Nicolai (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philipp_Nicolai) the prominant Hessian Lutheran pastor and by some accounts the last of the Meistersingers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meistersinger). His mother was of Scandinavian ancestry (thus his first name, a play on his last). Nils as a young man joined other students in their protests against the arbitrary rule of the Electors, which eventually turned into a revolution against their hereditory rule and the formation of a liberal republican form of government for the Electorate, that somewhat ironically kept that title of Electorate and Elector for their now elected government and head of state. Nils Nicolai enlisted in the Electorate's military and saw some limited fighting during the Liberal War. He decided to make a career of it in the Hessian branch of the Empire of Germany's army. He showed great promise, and even in peacetime rose to high rank. He was placed in charge of the defense of the capital during the invasion by Prussia-Poland in the Global War, and managed to hold them to a standstill, and then led the German armies in the counter-invasion and occupation of Brandenberg. Nils Nicolai was quite popular after the war, and would go on to be elected Elector of Hesse-Kassel.
The Global War pitted not only German speaking nation against German speaking nation, but sometimes family against one another. A example of this was highlighted by the poems of Hans Merhoff (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=6196763&postcount=78), a prominent Bavarian poet who served in the German forces against Austria-Hungary. Despite being away from the front with Prussia-Poland, on three separate occasions he encountered Merhoffs of the Prussian branch of the family (who had converted to Lutheranism and moved to East Prussia during the Reformation). The most famous of these chance encounters was during the Christmas holiday in 1890, when Hans Merhoff and his distant relative, Wilhelm Merhoff, brokered a truce for the Christmas celebrations. While this lasted only the day, it was one of the few bright moments in the Year of Blood, and prompted Merhoff's first break-out poem. Shortly after the war, Hans Merhoff was named Poet Laureate of Bavaria and later in his career that of the Empire of Germany.
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President Poe easily won reelection, managing to attract votes from both those who sought to keep American out of the Global War and those who wanted to see support for the Liberal Entente and it's Allies though his policies that favored the Western Powers in terms of trade, while never taking the fial step to war. While the Korsgaardist Eastern Powers railed at the 'false neutrality of America', there was in fact little they could do about it. Despite the setbacks early in the war, Britain and France along with America controled the Atlantic corridor, guarranteeing that arms and food reached the Entente from America, as well as Dominion cotton for textiles. And the Korsgaardists also received some trade from America especially in foodstuffs, which the Allies agreed to allow through in return for the US embargo on weapons and munitions. The greatly increased demand on all the fruits of American ingenuity and industry that the war engendered lifted America out of the depths of the economic disaster of the 1880s. While recovery was significant (and for some, impressive), it would still be some time yet before America would find herself fully restored economically.
Some critics of the Poe administration cite the Poe Plan, President Poe's initiative with regards to post war Europe, as delaying a full and complete recovery. However, proponents suggest that Poe's Plan actually laid the groundwork for a greater recovery than could otherwise have occured given the state of Europe, and especially Eastern Europe, after the war. The Western Powers saw their own wartime partial recovery as the armies and navies sopped up the idle men of the pre-war economic downturn, and government spending on all sorts of industries and needs employed easily the rest, including some women to supplement the loss of men to the great battles of the age. This salubrious effect on the economies of the West improved the economy somewhat, but after the end of the Global War, with the decreased demand for war materials and the return of able bodied men to the workforce threatened to reverse the trend. However, this was infinitely better than the abject collapse of the economies of the Eastern Powers. In any event, it was Poe's genius that he foresaw the need to bolster both the likeminded nations of the West but also the humbled nations of the East (all except proud and isolated Russia, which held themselves aloof from all in the waning days of the war and the century). The US government fostered investment in Europe, the purchase of useful goods for the rebuilding of the nations of Europe, and the restoration of the credit of the various nations. This was the greatest centralized use of Federal moneys, credit, and authority in the history of the nation, and only could be passed by the overwhelmingly Federalist controled government of the second Poe administration. Poe based on his charisma and prestige, and his clever writings on the subject, was able to push through this, and even set the stage for another Federalist administration to succeed his.
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The Global War could be said to be responsible for launching the Age of Air Travel.
The Air Whales (the Orcas and other models) used in the Global War had had many technical problems, but they had well demonstrated the potential of air transport. Within just a few years of the war, new models of air ship, utilizing light metal alloys based on aluminum and magnesium, as well as a new type of engine, the internal combustion engine, that ran on naphtha gas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaugas) (notably useful for being neutrally bouyant in its natural gas state), allowed for the use of air transit for the rich and the time sensitive. While rail and sea transport were still more economical, they could not match the speed of the great air ships. While commercial transport tended to rely on hydrogen filled air ships as they were able to carry a greater payload at less cost, the newly discovered elemental gas Solium (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium) for public relations reasons was preferred for passanger conveyances. While more expensive, it avoided the regretable explosive nature of hydrogen, which gave some potential passengers qualms. By the end of the 19th century, the skies of the world were filled with the grand sillouettes of the air ships.
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The last US President of the 19th century was the Federalist Steven Ladd (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=6105150&postcount=76). A favorite son of Pennsylvania, he was a protege of outgoing President Poe. Steven Ladd was a handsome gentleman who was the first president to enter the White House unmarried (his first wife had died at a relatively young age). He was the most eligible man in Washington during his term in office. While relatively well thought of by those who knew him from both parties, he could not stop the tide of change that the turn of the century was bringing. People were growing tired after twelve years of Federalist domination of the Presidency (and the Congress for most that time), and Steven Ladd would lose the election to the Democrats.
President Ladd and some supporters at his rustic retreat in Pennsylvania:
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Presidents of the United States of America to 1900
George Washington - No Party Affiliation - 1789-1797
John Adams - Federalist - 1797-1805
Thomas Jefferson - Democratic-Republican - 1805-1813
James Madison - Federalist - 1813-1821
John Quincey Adams - Federalist - 1821-1829
John Andrew Schulze - Democratic-Republican - 1829-1837
Peter Buell Porter - Federalist - 1837-1841
Pierre Nicolas de Condorcet - Democrat* - 1841-1849
Benjamin Hull Kays - Federalist - 1849-1857
Nicholas Samuel Roosevelt - Federalist - 1857-1865
Anthony Wayne Tullis - Democrat - 1865-1868 (Assassinated)
Barabas Lynch - Democrat - 1868-1869 (Tullis' Vice-President**)
Horace Napoleon Miller - Democrat - 1869-1873
John Bertrand - Federalist - 1873-1881
James Blunt - Federalist - 1881-1885
Erastus R. Bingham - Democrat - 1885-1889
Alexander Poe - Federalist - 1889-1897
Steven Ladd - Democrat - 1897-1901
* The Democratic-Republican Party's name was shortened to the Democratic Party in the 1840s.
**Some Historians dispute whether Lynch should be counted as a President, and instead classify him as 'Acting President', but most history texts count him as the 12th President of the United States, even if never elected to the office.
The Global War was in many ways the end of Korsgaardism as a political force in the world. As part of the peace settlements for the Eastern Powers (excepting Russia), the defeated nations were required to disband the Korsgaardian single-party rule they had established and allow dissenting parties and politicians to operate in their nations. Truth be told, this was not a hard sell to the former Korsgaardian dominated nations as it had become obvious that their self-deluding national chauvanism and top-down, reality divorced economic policies had led to both military and financial ruin.
Zeus Korsgaard himself lived to see both the heights of Korsgaardian grandiosity and the depths of its failure. He lived out the remaining days of his life in Russia under the protection of the aging Tsar. It is rumored that his death was due to his excessive drinking after the Global War. His own bitter yet insightful critique of Korsgaardian theory, "The Blindness of the Juggernaut," published posthumously, is seen by many as the final nail in the coffin of Korsgaardist thought. Neo-Korsgaardist fringe groups often claim the work was a forgery, but literary and political analysis upholds it as a true Korsgaard work. Even though Zeus Korsgaard in the end disowned his own creation, he did defend a number of positives that had come from the Age of Korsgaard, such as the breaking of the stranglehold of the aristocracy on power and the establishment of protections by the state for workers in industry from the exploitation of industrialists (which of course led to the detractors of labor rights organizations as labeling them as 'quasi-Korsgaardists').
Korsgaardism, both for good and ill, had been the political philosophy that shaped the history of the late 19th century.
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The ancients had believed in a Terra Australis as a counterbalance to the lands of the north. British explorer James Cook (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cook) was the first to confirm the existance of an actual landmass there. While he was unable to make landfall, his sightings spurred the imaginations of the British public in particular. As the British extended their exploratory and colonization efforts in the southern hemisphere, the draw of the Antarctic was never far from the mind of explorers. Sir John Ross (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ross_(Arctic_explorer)) and his son, Sir Robert Ross, were the most prominant early explorers of the Antarctic region. It is true that in the early 1800s France, Russia, and even the UPSA sent naval expeditions to the Antarctic Sea, it was the British who most consistently and seriously mapped the seas and islands of the Antarctic, aided by their proximity in Patagonia, South Africa, and the Australias. By 1850, the coast of the Antarctic continent, including the George and Wellington Ice Shelfs, and been completed. However, piercing the interior and reaching the Southern Pole would remain a more difficult prospect. While other nations would race to reach the Northern Pole, it would be left to the British Empire to reach the Southern one. In 1899, Sir Edwin Lowe (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=5264327&postcount=71) with a mixed team of British (including Southrons and Australians) and Scandinavian personnel made his triumphant march on the South Pole. His use of airships for scouting, preplacement of supplies, and monitoring of the mission were credited as a major innovation at the time (even with the loss of one of his airships due to inclement weather). By 1900, none disputed Britain's claim to the Antarctic continent.
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The World on January 1st, 1901.
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The Dominion of Southern America had its parliament modeled on that of the United Kingdom. The lower house, the House of Commons, was based almost entirely on that of the British House of Commons, with general elections specified to be required to be held at least every seven years. In the early days of the Dominion, with the lower chamber dominated by the loyalist Imperial Party ("Tories"), this was the case. However, within a few decades the other factions gained enough power to force elections more frequently. The upper house of the Dominion parliament, on the other hand, was at needs different from the British House of Lords. It had been suggested that the name Senate be used, but this was the self-same name the rebel Confederation had used for its legislative branch, and thus was considered inappropriate (some also did not want the self-same name as the US upper house). As it was decided that each province of the Dominion would have appointed by the Crown five members to serve in the upper house for life, the name 'House of Provinces' was chosen. As an aside, it was established from the beginning that each of the five civilized tribes would each have an upper house representative appointed for their tribe to make up the five representing Indiana. The Prime Minister as well as the governments of the Provinces advised the crown typically on the selection of new representatives to the House of Provinces. By 1900, however, a movement was afoot to reform the House of Provinces to be elected by the populace and to serve limited terms.
Legislatures of North America in 1900
Nation: United States of America
Legislature: Congress
Upper House: Senate - Senator
Lower House: Assembly - Assemblyman
Nation: Dominion of Southern America
Legislature: Parliament
Upper House: House of Provinces - Provincial Representative
Lower House: House of Commons - Member of Parliament
Nation: Third Mexican Republic (United States of Mexico)
Legislature: Cortes Mexicanas
Upper House: Senate - Chamber of Senators - Senator
Lower House: Chamber of Deputies - Deputy
The transition of the vampire from the folkloric to the literary began in the 18th century, most strongly in the lands of the Germans, with works such as Heinrich Ossenfelder's short poem The Vampire and perhaps even more so by the narrative poem Lenore (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenore_(ballad)) by Gottfried August Bürger (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottfried_August_B%C3%BCrger). Even the famed Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goethe) incorporated vampiric elements into his story The Bride of Corinth.
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The beginning of the 19th century saw a brief flurry of vampires in English literature. Robert Southey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Southey) owns the honor of the first poem in English literature to feature a vampire in it, albeit in a minor appearance. It was the second work, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Taylor_Coleridge) five part poem, Cristabelle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christabel_(poem)). The work entirely revolves around a seductive and mysterious female vampire, and set many of the early motifs of the vampire in later literature. An interesting side note is that both writers were part of short lived utopian communes, Southey on a farm in Wales and Coleridge a settlement in America (which was even more short-lived than Southey's experiment). Cristabelle was adapted for the stage by by French writer Charles Nodier (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Nodier) and then later by Heinrich Marschner (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Marschner) as an opera, moving the action of the story to Wallachia. It was the Jewish Hungarian author Marvin Bley (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=4057945&postcount=41) who first brought the infamous Blood Countess, Elisabeth Báthory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_B%C3%A1thory), into the realm of the literary vampire, reimaging her as a vampire who had escaped her walled in room to once more prey upon innocent women. His story drew inspiration from Hungarian poet János Garay's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A1nos_Garay) Báthori Erzsébet as weill as the earlier Lenore and Cristabelle. Bley's Countess Bathory was translated into many other languages, including English, and spawned its own imitators and sequels by other authors. Bathory or Bathory surrogates (usually in the guise of English noblewomen) appeared in several pieces of Southern Gothic works after the Slaver Uprising. However, as the 19th century wore on, the vampire in English literature becames scarce.
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The second wave of vampire stories in literature was a subversive one that grew up in the Korsgaardian East. As the Korsgaardist Empires started to impose cultural and intellectual homogeny within their borders, it became harder for dissident thought to be expressed. Samuel Strupinsky (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=4021839&postcount=40) was the first of the second wave vampirists who cloaked his counterculture thoughts in the clothes of 'folklore', creating a new vampire, Count Bathory, a masculinized version of Bathory. Count and Countess Bathory stories as well as other 'aristocratic' vampire stories proliferated in the East, often pitted against overly pious priests and popinjay Prussian-style officials, was mistaken by the establishment as culturally based folklore, but those in the know recognized the subtext of the works. The vampirist second wave was finally revealed for its true nature after the fall of the Korsgaardists in the wake of the Global War. These second wave works became wildly popular in the German Empire, and from there found their way into the West, which would set the stage for the development of the modern vampire in the 20th century.
There were two strains of development of 'Kriegsspiel' or Wargame in Europe, the precursor to the RPG. The first developed from the chess variant Koenigspiel in the 1780s by Johann Christian Ludwig Hellwig (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Christian_Ludwig_Hellwig), who by the early 19th century had so modified the game as to free it from its chess origins. The game expanded the number of spaces on the board, placed indications as to terrain type, and replaced and expanded the number of pieces and their movement ability to make it a more naturalistic simulation of war (as known in the 18th century). It would become popular in Brunswick and nearby Hanover.
http://www.eludamos.org/index.php/eludamos/article/viewFile/118/176/514
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Another game called Kriegsspiel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriegsspiel_(wargame)) was also developing in the early 19th century, this time by Lieutenant Georg Leopold von Reiswitz for the Prussian Army. Reiswitz's Kriegsspiel was the first to introduce the use of dice to represent the 'friction' of war (basically the unknown or ineffable factors influencing the fortunes of war). While the revolutionaries of the Rhineland would eschew many things Prussian after the Liberal War, one thing they retained was an appreciation and enjoyment of Kriegsspiel.
Eventually in the mid-19th century, the Brunswick and Rhineland versions of Kriegsspiel would mix and cross-fertilize, forming a robust wargaming tradition among the military and even civilian enthusiasts. In Prussia and later Prussia-Poland, while refined over time (including expansion of the use of umpires in judging the outcome of matches), it would stay more solidly the province of the Prusso-Polish military and its officers.
From the German Empire, Kriegsspiel spread to the other Western nations as a popular pastime, especially among the British and the British Southrons (several of whom had been first introduced to it during volunteer service in the Liberal War - George Turner himself was known to be an enthusiastic practitioner, even developing new rules for calvary). It became popular in Britain and France to develop scenarios for the great historical wars of history so the players could take on the roles of great leaders in history and try their luck at a replay of history, including development of a cross channel Napoleonic league and championship every year where master Kriegsspielers would refight the Napoleonic wars. Waterloo, Belgique was the site of the 1863 Franco-British Napoleonic Kriegsspiel Championship. It was the first time the competition was not held in either French or British Empire and was a sign of its increasing international appeal. It was in the course of these Napoleonic tournaments that the introduction of novel ten-sided dice pairs to generate percentages was introduced.
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Given the popularity of the Napoleonic Wars in historical kriegsspieling and in 19th century speculative fiction, it was only a matter of time that Kriegsspielers began to put on wargames in the alternate histories of speculative fiction (non-Napoleonic examples include adaptations of the popular works Plato's America, Course of Human Events, and later A Loyal North). However, most Kriegsspielers by this time were starting to experiment with their own completely fictional scenarios. In this same spirit of innovation came the development of the first rules for using individual fighters instead of military units, in part to also incorporate scenarios involving Western American themes, and even some more fantastic versions based off Gothic and Vampire literature. Though some saw this as a throwback to chess, the rules if anything were more complex than the original kriegsspiel ones, including the ability to generate individual statistics for the individual fighters. In the post Global War world, both modern Kriegsspiel and their Individual Battle Games had become popular, even in the United States (maybe especially so since most had been spared the horrors of war and could revel in the imaged 'glory' of battle). By 1900, people could even play as the Roosevelt brothers fighting against Prusso-Polish Vampires. Simplified versions of both types of games became available for children as well.
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Thomas Robert Malthus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Robert_Malthus) had been a rather prominent economic theorist and philosopher in the late 18th and early 19th century, but his works on the limits of population did not spread much further than his native England at the time and fell out of favor after the Reform revolution even there. He had become almost forgotten, along with many other theorists of the time who did not fit well with the prevailing fashion of the 19th century, liberalism. It was not in fact until nearly a century later that his works gained a new life through his great-grandson, Henry Thomas Malthus. Henry Thomas Malthus wrote the popular work "The Reproduction Trap" published in 1897, based in large part on the work of his great grandfather, but with his own interpretations as to their implications for the upcoming 20th century. With the increases in population seen in the latter half of the 19th century due to advances in public health and medicine, the book hit a popular chord with many who were growing concerned with the possibilities. Some read retrospectively into the great economic decline of the 1880s and the subsequent Global War the first modern warning of population collapse due to profligate population growth.
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While petroleum products had become important first in the 19th century, with the hub of production and innovation being tristate Pennsylvania-Ohio-Ontario triangle of the United States of America, with the arising of electrification for lighting at the turn of the century, production became less critical for a brief moment in time. However, with new internal combustion engines being developed nearly at the same time, this lull in the importance of petroleum was a brief one. However, petroleum production in the 20th century would be dominated not by the United States, but by the British Dominion of Southern America, and Britain's ally, the Ottoman Empire.
In 1901, the long suspected productivity of the area of another triangle, this time the Dominion tri-provincial area of Lousiana-Texas-Arkansas was proven dramatically with the discovery of the large petroleum well at the Simcoe Swell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spindletop), named for John Graves Simcoe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Graves_Simcoe), as so many features in the Dominon were, though before the discovery of petroleum there, the Swell may have been among the least impressive of his namesakes. This started the Southern Petrol Bonanza and gave birth to the Southern Petroleum Company (it's major rival, the Anglo-Texas Petroleum Company, would be born later with the exploitation of the rich East Texas Fields (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Texas_Oil_Field). By the 1920s, Dominion industry was dominated by the triumvirate of cotton, sugar, and above all, petroleum.
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