alternatehistory.com
Part One-Hundred Six: The War Within
So I didn't get around to answering your comments. 
But I do have another update done!
Part One-Hundred Six: The War Within
The War Expands:
As 1907 began, the New Coalition and the Alliance Carolingien were still attempting to bring more countries into the war in an effort to open up new fronts or strengthen the presence on existing ones. However unlike the efforts in 1906, these had some success and expanded the scope of the Great War. California's entrance into the Great War on the side of Britain and Japan added to the New Coalition's naval power in the Pacific and expanded the conflict from close to the Asian mainland to the islands of the South Pacific. The Buenaventura Guano and Mining Company soon sought to gain from the guano deposits on the islands, after the deposits on Jarvis Island and Isla de Navidad were used up. Sanctioned by the California government, Buenaventura sent a small expedition to occupy the Tromelin Islands in February of 1907. The expedition of ten men led by Juan Batista Carrillo occupied Despointes Island[1], but their expedition encountered a storm and ran aground on Howland Island where the men lived for another month subsisting on the rations in the ship and the birds and fruit of the kou tree on the island until they were spotted by the whaler Pequot and rescued. Though the expedition failed, it signified the beginning of the Great War in the South Pacific. Soon British and Spanish ships sent expeditions to New Caleodnia and Bougainville.
In early 1907, the Alliance Carolingien was also seeking new allies to strengthen their position against the Coalition. With the nonaligned countries in Europe steadfastly neutral, France and Germany also turned their attention to the colonial sphere, this time in Africa. The Cape Fleet Expedition and the shelling of Zanzibar had hurt Germany's colonial prestige, and after the fleet returned to Cape Colony, Emperor Frederick was eager to find a way to lash back at Britain. In March of 1907, the foreign minister brought a plan to Emperor Frederick in Berlin to bring the Voortrekker Republic into the war. The emperor approved it and relayed it to President Gambetta, who agreed to have French ambassadors in Pretoria assist in convincing the Voortrekkers to enter the war. Ultimately, it would not be a very difficult task.
For decades since the consolidation of the South African Republic, there had been frequent border skirmishes between the Cape Colony and South Africa. In the 1860s, diamond and later gold mines had been discovered in and near Griqualand and in the Witwatersrand in northern South Africa. The Cape Colony laid claim to all of Griqualand in 1867 though it was a Voortrekker state. Soon prospectors were flocking to the mining towns around Griqualand such as Vooruitzigt[2], Hopetown, and Prieschap. Soon the Griqua lands were being overrun by British settlers. By this time in history, the multiracial Griqua felt more affiliation with the Voortrekkers than the Cape Colonists. Like the Voortrekkers, the Griqua spoke mostly Afrikaaner and had moved inland from the Cape. In 1872 when the South African Republic was founded, the Griqua leader Adam Kok III petitioned petitioned to join the republic, and with the value of the diamond mines in Griqua lands, was accepted. However, the Cape Colony declared war on the new republic and soon invaded Griqualand and the South African Republic.
While the Voortrekkers won the war over the next two years, the Voortrekkers took many casualties and were forced to concede much of Griqualand in the peace negotiation. At the Cape Convention in 1875, the South African Republic ceded all of Griqualand west of the Harts River, while gaining the Transkei province where some Griquas had also settled. These Griqua states had declared themselves independent as the Bastaard Republic and the Korana Republic, named after what various Griqua tribes called themselves[3]. Over the next years, many of the Griquas west of the Harts River moved to Vooruitzigt or to the Transkei and the Transkei republics were incorporated into South Africa. However, over the next decades South African and Cape prospectors often clashed in the mountains around where the Vaal entered the Orange River. After gold was discovered in the Witwatersrand in northern South Africa, Cape colonists extended their raids into that region of South Africa and the skirmishes expanded. By 1907, news of skirmishes on the Transvaal frontier was common in Pretoria and Tulbagh. So when the German ambassador Christian Mommsen went to see Staatholder Hendrik J. Schoeman[4] in Pretoria, it was fairly simple to convince Schoeman to enter into war against the British. But Schoeman was concerned that the Alliance Carolingien would ignore the African front and not give proper assistance to the Voortrekkers in the conflict. Emperor Frederick had foreseen this and had set up a preliminary plan that was presented to Schoeman to ensure the Voortrekkers joined the Alliance. The South African Republic was to receive the lost portion of Griqualand, as well as a division of the Portuguese colony of Mozambique between the Germans and South Africa. With the Partition of Mozambique planned, South Africa officially entered war against Great Britain on April 13, 1907.
Rebels and Traitors:
Along with diplomacy betwen states, the Great War affected Europe's internal politics as well. In France, reports that Francois Richard Waddington was sending French plans to the British through contacts in the French government. The former London ambassador was singled out by the French Rensignement Generaux[5] for his English surname and business connections in Great Britain. After being tried for treason in late 1906, Waddington was publicly executed by guillotine in December of that year. Whether Waddington was sending intelligence to Great Britain or whether the trial and execution was simply a propaganda stunt by the Gambetta government was a mystery for decades after the Great War. In 1948, however, it was discovered that Waddington had been transferring documents to London through Belgium.
In British North America, the start of the Great War at first only exacerbated underlying tensions in the region. The mass Irish immigration to Acadia led to anti-Catholic sentiment among the English living in Canada nad Acadia, which bled over into hatred for the French Catholics as well as the Anglo-French rivalry intensified in the latter half othe 19th century. Riots in Kingston and Toronto against the Quebecois and their supposed anti-Empire stance were mostly peaceful. However, riots by Anglo-Canadians in Montreal led to violence and retaliation by Quebecois. During an anti-French demonstration in Montreal in September 1906, several members of the group began yelling anti-Catholic and anti-Quebecois insults at a crowd exiting mass at Saint James Cathedral. Soon, the two groups escalated to violence that lasted for three hours before it was finally ended by Montreal police. In the Dorchester Square Riot six people were killed, and in the ensuing days violence between groups of Protestants and Catholics flared around Canada and Acadia. These riots, especially in Acadia, continued to escalate going into 1907 until it finally erupted in the summer of that year.
Back in Europe, the Alliance Carolingien began using tactics of inciting rebellion in the countries of the New Coalition. In the wake of the capture of Barcelona, France encouraged Catalan regionalism to reduce any loyalty to Spain and ease the occupation of Catalonia. Additionally, the French also encouraged Basque nationalism to try and expedite the takeover of Navarre and Viscaya. After Sabino Arana[6] had been exiled in 1895, the French government sent Arana to Pamplona after they took over the city to begin a base of operations for the Basques against the Spanish government. Meanwhile, Germany began encouraging Polish nationalists. However, this decision was a more difficult one for Germany. Emperor Frederick hesitated, due to the worry that Polish nationalist sentiment in Russia might spread to Germany and weaken the German Empire. It also went against Germany's aims to incorporate Congress Poland fully into the German Empire after the war. But when little progress in the Siege of Krakow by June of 1907, Frederick approved the strategy. Along with encouraging rebellions in Congress Poland, once Krakow fell after a siege that lasted over a year, Germany started promising the Poles their own independent nation as part of German war aims. As part of these aims, a provisional Polish government was set up in Krakow led by revolutionary Jozef Korzeniowski[7].
[1]Baker Island.
[2]The original name of the town. You may know it in OTL as Kimberley, South Africa.
[3]Bastaards and Koranas were names the Griqua called themselves in OTL.
[4]Son of Stephanus Schoeman, an OTL president of the South African Republic in the 1860s.
[5]The Rensignement Generaux was the intelligence arm of the French police.
[6]Father of Basque nationalism.
[7]Known in OTL as Joseph Conrad.
But I do have another update done!Part One-Hundred Six: The War Within
The War Expands:
As 1907 began, the New Coalition and the Alliance Carolingien were still attempting to bring more countries into the war in an effort to open up new fronts or strengthen the presence on existing ones. However unlike the efforts in 1906, these had some success and expanded the scope of the Great War. California's entrance into the Great War on the side of Britain and Japan added to the New Coalition's naval power in the Pacific and expanded the conflict from close to the Asian mainland to the islands of the South Pacific. The Buenaventura Guano and Mining Company soon sought to gain from the guano deposits on the islands, after the deposits on Jarvis Island and Isla de Navidad were used up. Sanctioned by the California government, Buenaventura sent a small expedition to occupy the Tromelin Islands in February of 1907. The expedition of ten men led by Juan Batista Carrillo occupied Despointes Island[1], but their expedition encountered a storm and ran aground on Howland Island where the men lived for another month subsisting on the rations in the ship and the birds and fruit of the kou tree on the island until they were spotted by the whaler Pequot and rescued. Though the expedition failed, it signified the beginning of the Great War in the South Pacific. Soon British and Spanish ships sent expeditions to New Caleodnia and Bougainville.
In early 1907, the Alliance Carolingien was also seeking new allies to strengthen their position against the Coalition. With the nonaligned countries in Europe steadfastly neutral, France and Germany also turned their attention to the colonial sphere, this time in Africa. The Cape Fleet Expedition and the shelling of Zanzibar had hurt Germany's colonial prestige, and after the fleet returned to Cape Colony, Emperor Frederick was eager to find a way to lash back at Britain. In March of 1907, the foreign minister brought a plan to Emperor Frederick in Berlin to bring the Voortrekker Republic into the war. The emperor approved it and relayed it to President Gambetta, who agreed to have French ambassadors in Pretoria assist in convincing the Voortrekkers to enter the war. Ultimately, it would not be a very difficult task.
For decades since the consolidation of the South African Republic, there had been frequent border skirmishes between the Cape Colony and South Africa. In the 1860s, diamond and later gold mines had been discovered in and near Griqualand and in the Witwatersrand in northern South Africa. The Cape Colony laid claim to all of Griqualand in 1867 though it was a Voortrekker state. Soon prospectors were flocking to the mining towns around Griqualand such as Vooruitzigt[2], Hopetown, and Prieschap. Soon the Griqua lands were being overrun by British settlers. By this time in history, the multiracial Griqua felt more affiliation with the Voortrekkers than the Cape Colonists. Like the Voortrekkers, the Griqua spoke mostly Afrikaaner and had moved inland from the Cape. In 1872 when the South African Republic was founded, the Griqua leader Adam Kok III petitioned petitioned to join the republic, and with the value of the diamond mines in Griqua lands, was accepted. However, the Cape Colony declared war on the new republic and soon invaded Griqualand and the South African Republic.
While the Voortrekkers won the war over the next two years, the Voortrekkers took many casualties and were forced to concede much of Griqualand in the peace negotiation. At the Cape Convention in 1875, the South African Republic ceded all of Griqualand west of the Harts River, while gaining the Transkei province where some Griquas had also settled. These Griqua states had declared themselves independent as the Bastaard Republic and the Korana Republic, named after what various Griqua tribes called themselves[3]. Over the next years, many of the Griquas west of the Harts River moved to Vooruitzigt or to the Transkei and the Transkei republics were incorporated into South Africa. However, over the next decades South African and Cape prospectors often clashed in the mountains around where the Vaal entered the Orange River. After gold was discovered in the Witwatersrand in northern South Africa, Cape colonists extended their raids into that region of South Africa and the skirmishes expanded. By 1907, news of skirmishes on the Transvaal frontier was common in Pretoria and Tulbagh. So when the German ambassador Christian Mommsen went to see Staatholder Hendrik J. Schoeman[4] in Pretoria, it was fairly simple to convince Schoeman to enter into war against the British. But Schoeman was concerned that the Alliance Carolingien would ignore the African front and not give proper assistance to the Voortrekkers in the conflict. Emperor Frederick had foreseen this and had set up a preliminary plan that was presented to Schoeman to ensure the Voortrekkers joined the Alliance. The South African Republic was to receive the lost portion of Griqualand, as well as a division of the Portuguese colony of Mozambique between the Germans and South Africa. With the Partition of Mozambique planned, South Africa officially entered war against Great Britain on April 13, 1907.
Rebels and Traitors:
Along with diplomacy betwen states, the Great War affected Europe's internal politics as well. In France, reports that Francois Richard Waddington was sending French plans to the British through contacts in the French government. The former London ambassador was singled out by the French Rensignement Generaux[5] for his English surname and business connections in Great Britain. After being tried for treason in late 1906, Waddington was publicly executed by guillotine in December of that year. Whether Waddington was sending intelligence to Great Britain or whether the trial and execution was simply a propaganda stunt by the Gambetta government was a mystery for decades after the Great War. In 1948, however, it was discovered that Waddington had been transferring documents to London through Belgium.
In British North America, the start of the Great War at first only exacerbated underlying tensions in the region. The mass Irish immigration to Acadia led to anti-Catholic sentiment among the English living in Canada nad Acadia, which bled over into hatred for the French Catholics as well as the Anglo-French rivalry intensified in the latter half othe 19th century. Riots in Kingston and Toronto against the Quebecois and their supposed anti-Empire stance were mostly peaceful. However, riots by Anglo-Canadians in Montreal led to violence and retaliation by Quebecois. During an anti-French demonstration in Montreal in September 1906, several members of the group began yelling anti-Catholic and anti-Quebecois insults at a crowd exiting mass at Saint James Cathedral. Soon, the two groups escalated to violence that lasted for three hours before it was finally ended by Montreal police. In the Dorchester Square Riot six people were killed, and in the ensuing days violence between groups of Protestants and Catholics flared around Canada and Acadia. These riots, especially in Acadia, continued to escalate going into 1907 until it finally erupted in the summer of that year.
Back in Europe, the Alliance Carolingien began using tactics of inciting rebellion in the countries of the New Coalition. In the wake of the capture of Barcelona, France encouraged Catalan regionalism to reduce any loyalty to Spain and ease the occupation of Catalonia. Additionally, the French also encouraged Basque nationalism to try and expedite the takeover of Navarre and Viscaya. After Sabino Arana[6] had been exiled in 1895, the French government sent Arana to Pamplona after they took over the city to begin a base of operations for the Basques against the Spanish government. Meanwhile, Germany began encouraging Polish nationalists. However, this decision was a more difficult one for Germany. Emperor Frederick hesitated, due to the worry that Polish nationalist sentiment in Russia might spread to Germany and weaken the German Empire. It also went against Germany's aims to incorporate Congress Poland fully into the German Empire after the war. But when little progress in the Siege of Krakow by June of 1907, Frederick approved the strategy. Along with encouraging rebellions in Congress Poland, once Krakow fell after a siege that lasted over a year, Germany started promising the Poles their own independent nation as part of German war aims. As part of these aims, a provisional Polish government was set up in Krakow led by revolutionary Jozef Korzeniowski[7].
[1]Baker Island.
[2]The original name of the town. You may know it in OTL as Kimberley, South Africa.
[3]Bastaards and Koranas were names the Griqua called themselves in OTL.
[4]Son of Stephanus Schoeman, an OTL president of the South African Republic in the 1860s.
[5]The Rensignement Generaux was the intelligence arm of the French police.
[6]Father of Basque nationalism.
[7]Known in OTL as Joseph Conrad.
- wilcoxchar
- Word Count: 1.5k