Fashoda War

A History of the Twentieth Century by Franz Olstein, Vienna Library, Vienna, Austria

Many historical documents in modern and past times tend to glaze over the Fashoda War, passing it as a ridiculous colonial war. However, it was more than that. Historians often believe that war between Britain and France was inevitable. It was not so.

Prior to this war, Anglo-French relations were heating up. The rapid rise of Germany in the Franco-German War shocked the world. Unification and expansionism led to many to call it "the beginning of a new order." Due to the rise of this menace, Britain and France decided to create an alliance. This alliance was done to prevent the rise of the Germans. This unspoken alliance between the two was beginning to grow. By the 1890s, a very different France and Britain was growing. In Britain, Francophilia was growing. In France, Anglophilia was growing. This mutual love was destroyed by the Fashoda War.

The Fashoda War might have never occurred if it was not for the failure of diplomacy. A dispute over zones of influence in Sudan was what led to war. This dispute began to spiral out of control as more and more French surveyors entered Sudan. England, rather than trying to solve the situation, sent their own surveyors. Soon enough, these surveyors met. Accompanying them were soldiers, lots of soldiers. Soon enough, one of them shot a bullet in September 1898 and war began.



Bullets were fired. Britain decided to send troops into the region to secure if. An undeclared war had broken out. Although many European powers wanted to intervene, Germany saw an alliance with the British as being in their interests. Hence, they threatened all other powers into ignoring the conflict. With no powers to intervene, the colonial war continued.

Britain decided to blockade all of France. This extensive blockade led the French to decide to end the primarily useless war in favour of the British. Surveyors and military officials were recalled to France while Egypt and Sudan were abandoned to the British.

However, the war would have some long-last effects. Britain looked to Germany for an alliance. Their empire would help them against the now-menacing France. In this way, Britain effectively entered the Triple Alliance with Germany, Austro-Hungary, and Italy in 1901. This "Quadruple Alliance" was directly opposed to the pre-established Franco-Russian alliance. The stage of a global war was set.

fjihr said:

In this way, Britain effectively entered the Triple Alliance with Germany, Austro-Hungary, and the Ottomans in 1901. This "Quadruple Alliance" was directly opposed to the pre-established Franco-Russian alliance. The stage of a global war was set.

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the 3rd triple alliance member was Italy, not the ottomans, although if Britain joins the alliance the Italians won't leave it.

also, I don't think France and Russia would risk war with the central powers if Britain is with them (not until Russia has developed into a behemoth at least)

Pretty cool PoD. But doesn't this mean France and Russia will just inevitable steamrolled when a war comes, if Britain doesn't help them? Also, will this war cause France to try and expand her navy for the future?

NotYetRegistered said:

Pretty cool PoD. But doesn't this mean France and Russia will just inevitable steamrolled when a war comes, if Britain doesn't help them? Also, will this war cause France to try and expand her navy for the future?

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I'm pretty sure that France will get steamrolled. if Russia is given time to develop and stabilize though, it could become quite formidable.
I guess both France and Russia would expand their navies, but it's pretty pointless if you're going to face the British (never mind the Germans and Italians on top of that)
Russia otl was cut off from international trade, that won't change hear. but France will be cut off whilst the central powers aren't. so how long can France last with international trade or loans from Britain, and how much better can the central powers do with international trade and loans from Britain (and maybe even the US)?

Huzzah! This is a favourite POD of mine. Looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

Replies

Ryan said:

the 3rd triple alliance member was Italy, not the ottomans, although if Britain joins the alliance the Italians won't leave it.

also, I don't think France and Russia would risk war with the central powers if Britain is with them (not until Russia has developed into a behemoth at least)

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Thanks. I have just fixed that error.

I think they would risk war because they are effectively surrounded by enemies.

NotYetRegistered said:

Pretty cool PoD. But doesn't this mean France and Russia will just inevitable steamrolled when a war comes, if Britain doesn't help them? Also, will this war cause France to try and expand her navy for the future?

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Nice username. France will try to expand their navy, by the way.

TheKnightIrish said:

Huzzah! This is a favourite POD of mine. Looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

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Good to hear.

Ryan said:

I'm pretty sure that France will get steamrolled. if Russia is given time to develop and stabilize though, it could become quite formidable.
I guess both France and Russia would expand their navies, but it's pretty pointless if you're going to face the British (never mind the Germans and Italians on top of that)
Russia otl was cut off from international trade, that won't change hear. but France will be cut off whilst the central powers aren't. so how long can France last with international trade or loans from Britain, and how much better can the central powers do with international trade and loans from Britain (and maybe even the US)?

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Nice conclusions. But I do not want to give anything away.

An anglo-French/Russian never made sense to me.

French and British interests clash in west and east africa. French ambitions in Belgium/Walloonia always make Britain neverous. French and British interests clash in se asia (the uneasy position of Siam as a buffer). French and British interests were not aligned in China either. As for Britian and Russia - Persia, Afghanistan and remember Britain's ally Japan is about to fight a bloody war with Russia as well.

What happens when British and German interests but up against one another - the secret treaty to peaceful carve up Portugal's African Empire. (Publication of which might end Britain's oldest alliance and push Portugal into French arms).

You do have a potential problem with the Boers shortly as the German's were naturally sympathetic to the Boers (so were much countries to one degree or another except Austria-Hungary. That's the price of being perceived as a superpower: unpopularity).

The Years Before the First Great War

A History of the Twentieth Century by Franz Olstein, Vienna Library, Vienna, Austria

Following the Fashoda War, relations deteriorated between France and the UK. However, despite their alliance with Russia, they were completely outweighed by the Quadruple Alliance. This "entente" would try to avoid war at any cost. One example of this is during the Boer War. France had interests in supporting the Boer faction. However, when the British found out about this, the French immediately decided to try to stop a war. Inviting a British delegate to Paris, France conceded their fishing rights in Newfoundland. They also gave up disputed territory in Gambia and Siam was given away to British influence. In addition, Egypt's fall to British influence was accepted. Despite the one-sidedness of the treaty, war was avoided. However, following the Boer War, another close call would occur. This was the Russo-Japanese War.

Mighty Japan had just grown out of isolation. They were rapidly industrializing. The Japanese dragon was spreading influence to Korea and Manchuria. They also wanted to spread their influence to Karafuto Island. This is how the Russo-Japanese War began. In 1905, war between the two began. There was an Anglo-Japanese alliance that was created a few years earlier. War had begun. Both Russia and Montenegro declared war on Japan. The terms of the treaty was that Britain would come to Japan's aid if two powers declared war on Japan. However, Russia realized that such a war would activate the alliance system. Hence, when Britain came close to declaring war, Russia conceded and ceded the southern part of Karafuto to Japan. However, even after this, Japan continued to send troops into Karafuto. In a shocking and astounding victory, Japan defeated Russia and annexed the entirety of Karafuto Island. This victory shocked the world. No one could have predicted the defeat of Russia.

At the same time, Britain was growing closer to Germany. Before the sudden unification of Germany, Britain was allies with Prussia. This alliance originated from the Seven Years War. However, following Bismarck's unification of Germany, Britain had a policy of "splendid isolation" from the affairs of the continent. However, with the Fashoda War, Britain grew closer to Germany. Notably, the two signed what was called the Bipartite Pact in 1906. This fixed their alliance into stone as the millennium-old Anglo-French rivalry continued. Britain would eventually officially join the Triple, now Quadruple, Alliance two year later in 1908. Britain finally began to be an acquaintance of Austro-Hungary.

However, amidst all of this, there was tension. France and Britain were locked in an arms race, albeit one that drastically favoured Britain. The public was not really intrigued by it, but it continued nevertheless. The British navy grew to have five Frederick-class* warships, while the French had only three of them. Sick Ivan had no chance to make even one Frederick-class ship. Despite all of the attempts for France to make peace, the path of war was set.

Germany after Bismarck was very warlike and was disabled without the gift of Bismarck's diplomacy. It wanted a war to occur. To this purpose, in 1911, three German ships sailed under a false French flag. This ship then attacked German ships warned about it. Soon, those people in those ships evacuated those ships and rode off in lifeboats. German media exaggerated the event as a bloody battle, known as the Battle of Hanover. This fact was only uncovered following the Second Great War. However, this orchestrated attack had caused Germany to declare war on France. The alliance system led to all of Europe to go to war. The First Great War had begun.

*Dreadnought-class

fjihr said:

Mighty Japan had just grown out of isolation. They were rapidly industrializing. The Japanese dragon was spreading influence to Korea and Manchuria. They also wanted to spread their influence to Karafuto Island. This is how the Russo-Japanese War began. In 1905, war between the two began. There was an Anglo-Japanese alliance that was created a few years earlier. War had begun. However, Russia realized that such a war would activate the alliance system. Hence, when Britain came close to declaring war, Russia conceded and ceded the southern part of Karafuto to Japan. However, even after this, Japan continued to send troops into Karafuto. In a shocking and astounding victory, Japan defeated Russia and annexed the entirety of Karafuto Island. This victory shocked the world. No one could have predicted the defeat of Russia.

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unless you've changed the details of the Anglo-Japanese treaty, Britain was only obliged to help japan if there were two powers against it.
also, I don't think that Russia would give up land without a fight, especially to an unproven non-European power.
it's your tl, but I would suggest that you instead make the war go pretty much OTL (maybe it goes slightly better for japan though) and afterwards Britain supports Japanese claims so they get the whole of Sakhalin island. (Karafuto is just part of the island )

fjihr said:

Germany after Bismarck was very warlike and was disabled without the gift of Bismarck's diplomacy. It wanted a war to occur. To this purpose, in 1911, three German ships sailed under a false French flag. This ship then attacked German ships warned about it. Soon, those people in those ships evacuated those ships and rode off in lifeboats. German media exaggerated the event as a bloody battle, known as the Battle of Hanover. This fact was only uncovered following the Second Great War. However, this orchestrated attack had caused Germany to declare war on France. The alliance system led to all of Europe to go to war. The First Great War had begun.

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that's quite the false flag operation.
I'm not sure it would work though, given that everyone knows that France doesn't want to fight (they'd probably go to the ends of the earth to deny and prove to Britain that they didn't do it) and Britain would be wondering where they came from as they never saw any French ships sail through the channel.

I'm liking the tl though, keep it up

So, this means the Russians still have Manchuria if they only had to cede Sakhalin?

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NotYetRegistered said:

So, this means the Russians still have Manchuria if they only had to cede Sakhalin?

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Yes, the region is still under Russian influence. But not for long.

The First Great War

A History of the Twentieth Century by Franz Olstein, Vienna Library, Vienna, Austria

The First Great War could have been avoided. Indeed, France was trying to convince the Quadruple Alliance that they were as shocked as the European powers. However, despite this, Britain thought that such a frame-up was ridiculous. The path of war was set and was irreversible. The first front of the war was between the "threatened" power Germany and the actually threatened nation of France. To attack France and to avoid a two-front war with the Entente, the Germans went through Belgium. But there was a bit of risk of losing their alliance with Britain. There was an agreement between Britain and Belgium prior to the war. If a power were to disrupt its neutrality, Britain would come to its aid. However, the Germans believed that, with the Quadruple Alliance, now termed the Grand Alliance, Britain would ignore its terms. When the Schlieffen Plan was put into effect, Germany went into talks with Britain. Britain agreed to ignore the treaty. It was now nothing more than a piece of paper. However, now Germany could invade Belgium, and therefore France, without disruption. This enabled the Schlieffen Plan to work. However, despite its success, progress slowed down until the Battle of Calais.

With the rise of war, Serbia declared war on Austro-Hungary to conquer the mostly-Serb land of Bosnia. Austro-Hungary, already torn apart by the rise of nationalism, did not want its grand empire to fall apart. Hence, along the border with Serbia, troops were built up. After the Serbian declaration of war, in a matter of weeks, Serbia fell under the yoke of the Emperor.

Meanwhile, the Ottoman Empire also joined the Grand Alliance. It wanted to reclaim the lands of the Crimea from the Russians. Hence, in the latter part of the summer of 1911, they secured a series of beachheads in the Crimea. However, being the sick man of Europe, fighting slowed into trench warfare. When General Winter used his tactics, the Turks were forced to flee the region.

Fighting had slowed down. There may be the impression that Britain did absolutely nothing. However, for much of the war, they were involved in skirmishes with France and Russia. These skirmishes involved Britain. However, despite avoiding the horrors of trench warfare, which was the norm in the continent,

As a result of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, Japan decided to join the Grand Alliance. As part of it, an invasion of Russian Manchuria began. Sick Ivan, so involved with trying to keep Germany and the Ottomans to defeat them, pretty much gave up Manchuria to Japan's sphere of influence, which, in the previous year, included the annexation of Korea.

Russia was finding it being increasingly unable to cope with all of the war stress. A Bolshevik revolt was seeming more and more likely. The only reason it ultimately failed was because the war was far too short. If it was longer, good bye Tsar. However, Germany, involved in a two-front war, was failing to perform by the minute. Trench warfare was the norm in both fronts. Meanwhile, Turkey's beachheads in the Crimea was proving to only increase stress. Hence, the Communist Revolt began in 1911. Although it was ultimately unsuccessful, Russia, seeing a loss of the Tsar's power, saw itself weakening. Any wild card would completely alter this stalemate.

This wild card came. In early fall 1911, Britain launched an naval invasion of France. In the Battle of Calais, France now saw a two front war. The stalemate was disrupted at last.

GG France. I wonder how they'll be able to recuperate from this.

The End of the War, Collapse, and Phoney War

A History of the Twentieth Century by Franz Olstein, Vienna Library, Vienna, Austria

The Battle of Calais was a great battle. Many sailors, many of them Canadian and ANZAC volunteers, sent their warships directly into the port of Calais. The puny French navy was brutally defeated that day. With the destruction of the French fleet, the Empire was free to invade Calais. In a brutal and bloody battle, Calais was captured by British ships, with significant support by German U-Boats. As Normandy was falling back under British control, Germany was able to make many significant victories. Paris was captured by both British and German forces in October 1911.

On the other hand, in Russia, right-wingers began to take control of the Duma. This was in direct contrast to the partial socialism in Germany. However, winter was approaching. Even after the German conquest of Russian Poland and the reestablishment of a Polish puppet, Russia was proving to be unable to surrender. This inability to surrender caused the war to be elongated, even with the surrender of France. In Poland, many German troops freed from the campaign took camp in the region. They planned out an invasion of land up to, and including, Byelorussia. In the middle of October, this invasion began.

As German soldiers began to close in toward Byelorussia, many in Russia began to contemplate defeat. Before long, this opinion seeped into the right-wing Duma, who were forced to surrender to stop a rebellion. The First Great War was over at last.

The Entente and Grand Alliance met in Berlin for the formation of a treaty of peace. The treaty was actually quite generous. France would be able to retain most of its colonies, but all interests in the Indian Ocean and Asia fell to Britain. This meant that Madagascar, Kerguelen, and Pondicherry went under British control. Meanwhile, Russia had it harsher. They were forced to give up all of Russian Poland to a new Polish state and Byelorussia and Ukraine became an independent state. Meanwhile, the Ottomans regained the Crimea from Russia. Russia would want to reunify their empire as it fell further to the right. Indeed, Russia was a powerhouse just waiting to be awakened.

However, between Britain and Germany, relations worsened. Many in Germany wanted those "Tommies" dead while many in Britain wanted those "Teutons" dead. Germany's navy, having grown due to the war, was beginning to rival Britain. This slowly turned into a naval arms race. This is what historians term the Phoney War, a proxy war between Germany and Britain. Due to this cooling of relations, an arms race grew and the two competed in almost everything. With the rise of aviation, only used in the First Great War for sighting enemy lines, the two began to compete to see whoever can make the best jets. The Kaiser promoted semi-socialism as a means to strengthen his nation, while Britain began to be the home of right-wing nationalism. Germany can best be described during this period as a "nationalist socialist" state, while Britain was the home of more and more right-wing nationalism. In France, a movement known as Sorelianism grew. This was right in line to British nationalism. As a result, the two grew closer and closer together. Effectively, Britain was now part of the Entente. Britain left the Grand Alliance in 1914. However, with Britain leaving the Alliance, Turkey and Austria-Hungary were now prone to collapse. In the Ottoman Empire, all of Arabia fell to rebels. Even after this, the Ottomans, restricted to Anatolia, was prone to collapse. When Mustafa Kemal Ataturk began a rebellion in 1917, many supported him. From Anatolia, his rebellion rapidly spread toward Constantinople. However, the Ottoman army was able to stop his republican movement, but with Turkey intensely weakened.

Meanwhile, Serb rebels were in the midst of planning an assassination of the Emperor. Gavrilo Princip, a member of the rebel group Black Hand, was sent. After a series of unsuccessful attempts, he was at last able to assassinate the Emperor. A vast British-supported rebellion in Serbia began. In 1918, Serbia at last regained independence. However, Britain had then financed Hungarian revolutionary groups. In 1920, they nearly assassinated Emperor Ferdinand. With this, Hungary broke away, making Franz Ferdinand just an "emperor" of Austria. With the loss of most of its territory, Austria became a close ally of Germany while Serbia and Hungary became close allies to Britain.

However, Germany was rapidly industrializing. War was inevitable between the two. However, no one knew who would win.

I just found this timeline, and I like it so far. Sorry you got plagiarized.

I just found this timeline thanks to the plagiarism, and I like it so far. However, I do have one criticism. I find it unlikely that the Ottoman Empire would collapse so quickly and completely as OTL, if at all, if they were on the winning side of WWI. OTL they were reforming and were only halted by British sponsored rebellions. In a war against France and Russia, neither of the two are capable of starting Arab rebellions in the OE, and they would probably also get a boost from the war reparations. So it seems more likely that the OE would stay intact.

I also found this begause of the plagiarat.

I must admit - I don't like it. Your TL takes too many leaps and changes in alliances (deus ex machina?) and simplifications to be "believable".

Indeed. The idea that France at this point will push Britain into an otherwise German alliance over some backwater in Sudan is... rather more demeaning to the french than their (false) stereotype of military incompetence. As well, it underestimates both French and British period-racism toward the Africans and their continent.

Richter von Manthofen said:

I also found this begause of the plagiarat.

I must admit - I don't like it. Your TL takes too many leaps and changes in alliances (deus ex machina?) and simplifications to be "believable".

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I also found about this because of the plagiarized thread. I have to agree this is too many leaps and bounds to be believable and very close to being deus ex machina.

There is no way France would go to war with Britain at this time period. Not when they have Germany breathing down their neck. Then entire African continent is not worth Alsace-Lorraine.