1864
Eastern Congo
By Spring, rumors were already spreading along the Congo River that an American embassy had been inquiring about an old American man with a enormous tumor on this throat. When they reached the far reaches of the Congo and John Rowlands' ears, the regional director would immediately seek out his friend, "Bill Jones".
"Is it true, Bill?" Rowlands demanded without preamble. "Are you this Armstrong Hyman Thruston the Americans are carrying on about?"
Having hidden his identity for years, Thruston was surprisingly upfront, "Yes."
Rowlands waited until he realized that "Bill" had nothing else to say. Then, he added, "Bill, get the hell out of here. There is no way that the EIC wants to be accused of harboring a regicide. It will be days before the Americans reach this plantation. Get out while you still can. I'll pay you your arrears now."
Bill thought about it and shook his head, "No, if the Americans are THAT determined to find me than they already must have arranged for any Company officials on the coast to stop me from boarding a ship. I'll never make it through."
Rowlands nodded, his mind racing. "All right, then take the money and go east. You have a good relationship with the Pygmies, right? Well, have your servants take you to the forest."
"You think I would survive long there? I'm past 75!"
"You already had malaria, Bill, and I'm not sure anything could kill you. Wait a few months and then come back. By that time everyone will have forgotten about you and you can board a ship for....I don't know, the Maratha Empire or something."
Bill slowly nodded. At this point in his life, he was no longer afraid of death but was quite certain he couldn't handle much more humiliation and he had no desire to spend another day in that hellhole of St. Barts. That night, the low ranking functionary would paddle east with his Pygmy servants who were apparently delighted to be going home. It was explained that Jones would be accompanying them to negotiate trade with the Pygmy chieftains (despite the Pygmies not caring much about trade) and would be staying a while with the tribe.
When the Americans belatedly arrived in May of 1864, a baffled-looking John Rowlands would announce that "Bill Jones" had absconded with his goods apparently intent on sailing for the Orient. By this point, the entire American expedition would immediately demand that the Trenton steam westward in an attempt to beat Jones to the coast, his identity not quite verified but widely assumed to be Armstrong Hyman Thruston. But they would find no sign of Thruston and it was generally agreed that the man had fled on one of the many ships sailing from the Mouth of the Congo before the Trenton returned.
China
Among the many new innovations being introduced in recent years by the reformist and modernizing Emperor was the laying of the first major railroad tracks. By the end of the decade, several of the major cities were connect. However, the lines would prove only partially successful as the huge Yellow and Yangtse Rivers were too vast to be forded by a bridge. In most cases, the goods had to be offloaded onto barges to be shipped across the river and then reloaded onto another train. This was ineffecient but internal trade still expanded massively with the rise of the rail system.
Nippon
Unlike China, Nippon would remain in relative isolation, no longer desiring foreign relations after a generation of Chinese occupation. As Nippon possessed relatively few resources foreign nations coveted, the string of islands was largely left alone.
Manchuria
Over the past decade, hundreds of thousands of Manchu were ordered to move northwards into the lands vacated by the vanquished Russians. While many of the Manchu only did so with coercion, others found the opportunities of the north worth their time.
As the Manchu Dynasty had never allowed Han settlement in historic Manchu lands, the northerners were allowed to maintain their unique culture even as they moved ever further north.
Moscow
Alexander II of Russia would receive no positive news about the situation in Eastern Siberia. With vast numbers of Manchu moving north into the lands once coveted by Russia, it seemed unlikely that any war would easily evict them. The Chinese army and demographic base was simply too close to the area while the Russians were too far away.
Even a few major victories by the army would only do so much good as they had to be followed up by further campaigns to evict the Manchu and Mongolian settlers. Then, even the most optimistic projections stated it would take a full decade to even repopulate eastern Siberia with the number of Russians which had once called it home, much less large numbers. During all of this theoretical series of victories, the Chinese may bide their time and attack in overwhelming numbers at any point of a thousand mile front.
Defeating a single Chinese army had proven difficult enough. Defeating armies year after year after year seemed unlikely to the point of foolhardy. Indeed, the expense of maintaining such a remote Russian Army for decades would seem to outweigh any conceivable gain. And that was IF RUSSIA won!
If Russia's forces failed against the Chinese, this could prove a shattering blow to the Dynasty. Alexander III therefore was content for now to maintain his claims on land north of Lake Baikal to the Pacific Ocean and not much more than that. It these lands prohibited any large population and were inadequate to transfer personnel to the Pacific, they would remain largely barren. Certainly, the eastern coastline of Siberia nominally under Russian control were virtually useless and remained largely a handful of coastal native fishing towns, none suitable for a naval base or even a half-decent cold water port. What was left of Russian Eastern Siberia was effectively worthless.
Fortunately, victory in Central Asia over the Turkic peoples had salved Russia's collective ego.
But another problem cropped up. At least on a map, one could have looked at the northern Pacific as a Russian lake when they controlled Eastern Siberia and Russian North America. But now, the Czar could not pretend that Russian America was no longer in any way contiguous with Siberia. Indeed, it was literally the most isolated spot on earth away from Russian power. With the gold rushes apparently running out, there seemed no end to the amount of trouble that place could cause. It may even lead to a war with Spain or British North America. Certainly, Russia could not possibly expect to protect it from such a distance. If anything, it could be used as a lever against Russian interests elsewhere.
Thoughts of simply selling the region had crossed his mind but always dismissed. There were apparently something like 750,000 Russians in the land by now. How could he sell that many of his own people to foreigners? Besides, Russia's economy was expanding and a few million Pesos or Pounds Sterling was hardly make a difference to the budget. Czars do not crassly sell off unused land for short term cash.
The Czar's aged mother had been bitching lately that the Czar find a Kingdom for his younger brother. She recommended perhaps conquering Finland or finally ejecting that idiotic Syrian King from the Levant so Alexei may have his own throne. Or perhaps the Czar may inform the King of the Romanians or Greeks or some other such country that they were to be replaced by Alexei.
Naturally, the Czar had no intention of doing anything so provocative. It would result in most of Europe aligning against the Empire. Even an economic boycott would be devastating much less a war.
But granting his brother the throne of Russian America would honorably allow the Czar to back away from lands more likely to be an albatross than anything else. Yes, the gold rushes were nice little jolts to the treasury but that was apparently over. Reports of boom towns being abandoned in Alyeska lent evidence of that.
When one has 70 million subjects, giving 750,000 on the other side of the world to a sibling seemed reasonable enough....especially when the Czar could not stand his brother and would be happy to get the idiot out of his hair. And get rid of the Czar's bitchy sister-in-law. And shut up his mother (when was that woman going to die?).
Yes, this was sounding better and better the more Alexander III thought about it.