alternatehistory.com

The Kingdom of Britannia was perhaps the weirdest nation in Europe. While most of the continent had already adopted some measures of democracy, if not reforming into republics or constitutional monarchies, Britannia stayed as an absolute Christian fundamentalist monarchy, and while the thought of having a staunchly religious, nigh-Medieval, but still powerful Western European nation in the 20th century seemed unbelievable, it was happening. Britannia, both it's people and it's upper class, harbored deep resentment for France ever since the Flammantian Wars, and while originally it was supported by a feeling of revanchism, the source of this bitterness eventually changed into a combination of resentment for the Flammantian heresy, a perennial feeling of rivalry, nationalism and colonial competition, especially in Africa, where Britannia and France fought a number of proxy war across West Africa and the Niger delta.

This anti-French sentiment was one of the few things preventing Britannia from going completely nuts and anti-modernization, like what people like Sir Henry Braddock of the 18th century wanted - the Puritan monarchy had to begrudgingly accept industrialization and modern, "French" technology in order to keep up on the technological face. While that was a good thing in the end, this national feeling also resulted in something... weird. Under the orders of King Edward X in the 1890s, a "Royal Commision on English Language" was formed, which enacted a policy of Purification of the Mother Tongue. This policy meant a wide sweep across the English language, destroying and removing borrowed French or Latin words and replacing them either with obscure local words or new Germanic cognates. Because of centuries of contact with France, especially during the period of the Dual Monarchy, English had borrowed a lot of it's vocabulary and grammar from Latin languages, and this "language of the enemy" just couldn't do.

Before the outbreak of the Great European War, Britannia was quite close to joining the Baltic-Adriatic Coalition, but district of the radical Republicanism espoused by the Germans and Visegradians kept them neutral by the time that the war started. Interventionism in Europe was supported by the Evangelist faction in the King's court, who saw it as Britannia's God-given task to land in Europe and liberate it from degeneracy, heresies and heathenry. The international situation was in their favor, too - constant French scuffles with the British navy while trying to put up a continental blockade, while the Entente itself was not doing too well at the front. One member of their alliance was already pretty much down for the count. The Evangelists obtained a major political victory in late 1913, after the death of Edward X - his successor Edward XI was an Evangelist sympathizer, and with the monarch himself in favor of joining the war, it was pretty much sealed.

But what could they blame on France? They decided to blame the torpedoing and sinking of the British cargo ship Commandment in the Bay of Biscay on October 21st, 1913, as "the straw that broke the camel's back", and on December 1st, Britannia declared war on France.


While the British navy engaged against the French in a number of unsuccessful attempts to break the former's naval superiority in the Atlantic, the rest of the Coalition were... having second thoughts on Britannia's entry into the alliance. Sure, more allies was always a good thing, and Britannia's strategic position and naval expertise were very necessary for the war effort... but on the other hand, the Brits were probably the most repugnant nation to ally with. Germania and Visegrad were both liberal democracies, while Britannia was an absolute Christian fundamentalist monarchy, almost a parody of medieval monarchies by now. However, pragmatism prevailed over ideology, and Britannia was accepted into the Baltic-Adriatic Coalition - a name that has grown more and more meaningless over the years - in December of 1913. In the spring of 1914, the first British expeditionary troops arrived to the Netherlands to reinforce their German "allies" - and the Germans immediately noted just how weird they were. Every regiment had a "physical leader" - the commander - and a "spiritual leader", usually a monk of a priest, who would give away Sacraments, bless the troops for battle and "keep them in touch with God". The Brits brought entire portable churches with them, and resisted all efforts of integrating British regiments with the German ones, citing that the Germans, being Reformists, would "drift the pure British youth to Satan". Many British soldiers were equipped with outdated weaponry, but they fought with vigor and exceptional morale, and proved to be if good use in breaking through the French lines in numerous places across the Dutch front.

While one nation had just joined the war, an another was leaving it. Seeing the outbreak of a civil war within their nation, knowing that the people of their country are sick and tired of war, and fearing that any further enemy offensives could break their country outright, the Turkish Unitarians have finally entered peace negotiations with the Baltic-Adriatic Coalition, which resulted in the Treaty of Tirana in January of 1914. The borders between the Coalition and the Union were drawn across the front lines of the time, and the Unitarians relinquished their grip over almost all of the Balkans, Persia and Khiva, and at the same time agreed to war reparations, to be paid "once the Union is able to". This passage was added knowing that Turkey was currently unable to pay anything and probably wouldn't be until the civil war is over, but it was also a major diplomatic mistake by the Coalition, as they later realized. But for now, the borders were set in stone, and while Unitarian Turkey was fighting the Turkish Civil War against Ottoman loyalists based in the south of the country (centered in Baghdad), Republican rebellions across the entire nation, anarchist and warlord uprisings, Arabian, Azeri, Armenian and Kurdish nationalists and many, many other opponents, the Coalition reorganized the land they gained from the Treaty of Tirana. In the Balkans, provisional nationalist puppet governments were gathered from the local activists and collaborators, leading to the foundation of the Duchies of Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania and Greece - although the first of the four was only going to be a temporary government until the nation's incorporation into Visegrad. The Mughals, meanwhile, formed two semi-independent Sultanates - Persia and Khiva. Both Visegrad and India had to spend a lot of resources occupying the regions, however - both Persia and the Balkans hosted large Turkish settler populations which weren't necessarily happy with the new regime, and now that nationalist governments were being formed, old territorial conflicts were starting to arise from the ashes once more.

News of the Treaty of Tirana reached the ears of France and Lithuania almost immediately, and while they were absolutely livid, there really wasn't anything they could do about it. The only Entente power which even had a land connection to Unitarian Turkey was Egypt - and speaking of Egypt, it was involuntarily drawn into the Turkish Civil War at this time. Among the separatist rebels arising throughout the former Ottoman Empire were Arabian nationalists, supported by the now independent sultanate of Nejd, and one of the many territories they claimed for the nation of Arabia, which they hoped will son arise, was Palestine, or even all of Egypt as well. Sensing a golden opportunity to take these lands while the Egyptians are busy in the West, a coalition of Arabian tribes and militias invaded Palestine in early 1914, capturing the region within the span of a few weeks and even taking some of the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt was currently in an unsatisfactory position in general - a combined Spanish and Visegradian offensive pushed them out of most of Tripolitania, outside of a few desert fortresses, by May - so this set of events was definitely not welcomed by the Entente.


"Unsatisfactory" was also the word one could use to describe the situation on the Eastern Front. After about a month of waiting around, the Visegradian Army initiated the destruction of the Cauldron on the beginning of October 1913, starting the offensive against the encirclement with five armies and a total of 300 000 men. They were opposed by 80 000 Romanian and 110 000 Lithuanian soldiers, most of whom were tired, poorly fed and lacking even such basic military equipment as bullets or knives. Still, now that they had nowhere else to go, many of them fought like wolves, to the bitter end. Others, especially Ruthenians and Russians, surrendered in mass. The Lithuanian Fleet managed to ship out around 30 000 men from the Cauldron, but the rest were either killed, captured or surrendered, and all of the Grand Duchy of Wallachia-Moldavia fell under Visegradian occupation. While this was a major blow to Lithuanian war capacity and morale, a second such strike arrived on March of 1914, in the form of the Battle of Kiev. After a month of heavy large-scale warfare, the Coalition captured the city, one of the largest in Lithuania, a major economic, industrial and cultural hub, and, most importantly, one of the two main competitors for the position of "capital of Rus'". The other was Tver.

The situation was growing so problematic - both in the front and back home - that even parts of the government were starting to question the longevity of the current government. Of course, not in the way you'd expect. A secret meeting of many major officials and leaders of the Lithuanian military in Polotsk on April 3rd determined that, if the current situation lasts, the only option for Lithuania is to have the military return to power, much like in the Hetmanate period. Public opinion against Emperor Žygimantas IV and his court was rapidly falling, he was almost universally seen as weak and incapable of leading the nation in this dire time, and while some of the mud also fell on the military leaders, they only received a minor part of the blame for the failures at the front. Anti-government organizations were rising in popularity, and the Saugumas informed that a popular revolt against the government is a very likely future result - as such, many militarists contemplated that a firm hand, backed by the Army, will be able to disperse opposition and keep Lithuania in the war. However, these anti-monarchist meetings were soon dispersed by Grand Hetman Jogaila Aukštaitis, who was firmly against any and all such anti-government action. He may have been an old guard and, in some places, utterly incompetent, but there was one thing about him - he was a man of gentleman honor. And such honor was opposite to the idea of overthrowing your superior.

Was that a good choice or not - well, it's up to the future to decide.

Meanwhile, something... unexpected, if taken out of context, happened during April of 1914. Large numbers of the Legion of Archangel Michael mutinied and dispersed, many fleeing back to Lithuania, including Alexei Krutov, the commander of the legion, himself. What happened? Weren't they fighting for freedom to their people?

The answer was simple.

With large swathes of Ruthenia now occupied by Visegradian forces, the Council of Lithuanian Slavs moved to the provisional capital of Mogilev-Podolski to discuss one important task - the foundation of a Visegrad-aligned Ruthenian nation. It was time. What should be it's form of government? How close should it's ties to Visegrad be - a fifth member of the Union, after Slavonia, or merely an allied nation? Hell, what should the name of this hypothetical state even be? For centuries, the Ruthenians, much like Russians, used the same name for their nation - "Rus'", like, for example, the Kievan Rus'. However, the Council, composed of Ruthenian nationalists, was iffy about picking this name, seeing it as too "tainted" with Greater Russian aspirations. Other proposed names were "Volhynia", "Podolia", "Slavica", "Ukraine" and even "Scythia". However, eventually the Council decided on a more simple name, picking the East Slavic word for "country" and turning it into a name, leading to the birth of the name Krajina. In the end, the newly renamed Council of the Krajina decided on creating an independent, but Visegrad-aligned Ruthenian state, inviting one of the brothers of Ferenc III von Luxemburg as the monarch of the Grand Duchy of the Krajina.

Obviously, Alexei Krutov and many members of the Legion - who were Russian nationalists - were absolutely disgusted by this development, and lost hope in Visegrad ever giving the green light for a "Greater Russia".

But, as a bright man would say, if you cannot get what you want handed to you, then achieve it yourself.