Chronology by RattenfangerVonMemphis up through 1917
Rattenfänger von Memphis
Donor
Kaiser Wilhelm the Tenth, in your entry above, you hinted at how you have to juggle all these various historical scenarios up in the air at the same time (“ three tracks running parallel and have to sort it all out in my head”) and I have wondered about how you actually do plot out what I think has to be really more than “three tracks” of events when you write your chapters.
At first, I was reading this thread, chapter by chapter, and was not too aware if events in one chapter were happening simultaneously with another chapter or maybe before or after. I was not clearly seeing how, for example, events in Austria or France or Mexico were overlapping, intersecting or meshing with each other. Each chapter was being read by me essentially in isolation.
So I decided to do a timeline, or an outline, of the events that had mentioned dates as well as your own clarifying answers to questions asked by us fans upon reading your chapters and combine them into a chronology so I could see at a glance what was happening when and where.
And it made me wonder if you are doing a similar timeline/outline/chronology ? If so, I am sure I am not the only fan here who would like to see it. Here is an example of how I put together information found in this thread from your chapters which only made me enjoy your timeline more fully and also realize the massive amount of research you have had to have done to put it all together. (Quotes are Kaiser Wilhelm the Tenth’s words from the various chapters.)
Events from September 1916 to December 1916, courtesy of Kaiser Wilhelm the Tenth…
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September 23, 1916 -- Tsar Michael II marches on Petrograd. Martov flees to Norway via Finland
September 24, 1916 – Tsar takes control of Petrograd, ending the September Revolution.
September 25, 1916 -- Tsar in Winter Palace as Germans begin shelling Petrograd. Tsar requests Armistice talks with Germany via Sweden. Germans agree.
September 28, 1916 – Stockholm Armistice signed between Russia and Germany
In October 1916 -- Germans allow Lenin to go from Switzerland to Russia… Ireland is under martial law.
“By October 1916, Germany appeared to be on top of the world. Its armies stretched from Amiens to Estonia, and Europe was subjugated, allied, or frightened into neutrality. Given the chaos France was in (1), a further advance in the West would overwhelm the few loyal French troops left in the trenches. The September Revolution had placed a weak Tsar at the top of an unstable Russia, and much of eastern Europe lay under the German heel. German U-boats remained on the prowl in the Atlantic, ready to restart their campaign against British shipping at any moment, while David Lloyd George’s government in London was sitting on the head of a pin. Thus, historians tend to overlook one essential fact of the Great War.
The German Empire was nearly as eager for peace as the Entente..”
October 3, 1916 -- Germans beginning planning Peace Conference in Dresden
October 13, 1916 – British diplomats arrive in Dresden
October 14, 1916 -- French diplomats arrive in Dresden
October 15, 1916 -- Dresden Peace Conference opens. Belgium’s borders to be shifted westward, acquiring French territory while Germany annexes Belgian territory east of the Meuse River. Neutral Moresnet annexed to Prussia. Germany to receive Belgian Congo. Luxembourg becomes a German Federal state.
October 16, 1916 – Dresden Peace Conference continues. Germany to repatriate British POWs, including Haig, by start of 1917. Britain agrees to battleship equality with Germany. Germany does not bring up issue of Ireland’s independence. No British reparations. Italy to purchase Malta and British Somaliland. Cyprus to have plebiscite in 1917. Germany cedes Namibia and New Guinea to the British Empire. Ottoman Empire pre-war boundaries restored, including Hejaz. “The British signed what was more or less a white peace with the Germans, nothing worse.”
October 1916 --- Dresden Peace Conference continues with France. France allowed a 75,000 army only. Italy takes Nice, Savoy, Corsica, Tunisia and Djibouti. Germany annexes French territory east of the Meuse River. “Tens of thousands of square miles” of France to be left under German rule. French born in these territories eligible for German citizenship. Germany acquires Morocco and other French African colonies plus a 99-year lease of Dakar. France to pay Germany 65 billion francs as reparations. French navy to be divided up between Germany and Italy. Monaco to remain independent.
October 20, 1916 – Treaty of Dresden signed. The Great War ends in the west. Other provisions.. Albania becomes Italian protectorate. Montenegro annexed to Austria-Hungary under civilian rule. Serbia under Austro-Hungarian military rule. Bulgaria gets Macedonia from Serbia.
October 24, 1916 – In London, the Anglo-French Financial Commission agrees that Britain and France cannot repay their American debts… Caillaux government in France falls. Emile Loubet the new leader
October 26, 1916 – The Anglo-French Financial Commision tells American banker J. P. Morgan that their debts to the United States cannot be repaid. When President Wilson is informed he “instructed Morgan to issue an ultimatum to the Commission in his name immediately: either commit to paying off all debt by the originally agreed dates, or he would treat them as having defaulted. The Commission replied within four hours: they were going to default and risk the consequences.”
October 27, 1916 -- President Wilson issues an executive order allowing JP Morgan to assume control over all British-and-French-held assets in the United States.
Late October 1916 – Several instances of British and French managers sabotaging and damaging the companies and assets seized by the Americans
November 1, 1916 – At Konigsberg, Russia begins peace negotiations with Central Powers.The frontline as of September 14, 1916 is to be Russia’s new international western border. Provisions include Finland independence, Romania gets Bessarabia, A Habsburg is on the throne of the Austro-Hungarian puppet Kingdom of Poland. Russia to keep Ukraine. Russia’s Black Sea Fleet to be divided between Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria and Romania......In a livid telephone call to the Anglo-French Finance Commission J. P. said that because of the October acts of sabotage, he would only value the collateral at three-fourths its official value, as that was the most he could hope to get out of it. Britain and France were still on the hook for a quarter of their debts, and Morgan wouldn’t settle for anything less than cash.
November 7, 1916 – U.S. Presidential Election. Wilson loses to Charles Evans Hughes… Emperor Franz Josef dies, Archduke Karl is the new ruler of the Dual Monarchy
November 11, 1916 -- Russia signs Treaty of Konigsberg with Central Powers
November 13, 1916 -- News of the Anglo-French defaults begins rocking the U.S. Stock Market
November 30, 1916 – U. S. economy has shrunk back to 1913 levels due to Anglo-French defaults and collapse of the arms industry.
In November 1916 --- Ottoman Empire continues the Armenian Genocide. By 1918-1919, the only Armenians left will be those on the Russian side of the border.
December 25, 1916 -- The Japanese-Siamese Pact signed. Aims to eliminate Anglo-French influence in Siam. ......The French franc now worth only 1/13 of its 1914 value
Sometime after the Peace of Dresden (October 20, 1916), in Portuguese Macau, Japan signs a “white” peace with Germany. Japan to keep Qingdao (Tsingtao) and Pacific islands. Germans to retain their pre-war rights, mostly economic, in Qingtao
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One of the most interesting sections to me, was the aftermath of Emperor Karl's death.
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October 30, 1917 -- Emperor Karl declares Vienna an open city. Hungarians take Vienna and loot the city. Emperor Karl is assassinated in the Cathedral of Saint Stephen.
October 31, 1917 – U.S. Secretary of State Colby lands at Acapulco, Mexico and is taken inland to Taxco to negotiate with Zapata. In return for American arms, Zapata will help the Americans against Carranza.
October 1917 – “When news came of the sack of Vienna, he [Adolf Hitler] is said to have rhetorically asked his [primary school art] pupils, "What can one expect from a such a race as the Hungarians? It all goes back to Genghis Khan, you know."
November 1, 1917 -- Danubian royal family reaches Salzburg…At a Dijon lunch General Famride and Georges Sorel reach a “modus vivendi” that Famride is THE leader.
In early November 5-year-old Otto becomes new Emperor with his uncle, Archduke Maximilian, as regent until Otto turns 18.
