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As I'm sure fans of our genre know quite well, yesterday marks the convenient "11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month" that caps off notable author Robert Cobroys "A Greater War" Trilogy with an armastice to the catastrophic conflict that engulfed the globe. For those unfamiler with the books,the theory covers an alternative timeline in which, instead of the rise of the Reformist-Left faction in France during the early 20's, a better showing by the Right avoids the dipolomatic split between Russia and France by having the more expansionist governments actually back one another during the Manchurian, Bosnian, and Moroccan Crisies, thus insuring the two were still allies at the outbreak of the "The Great Eastern War" when,in a more extreme parallel to OTL's bombing of the conferance between the Ottoman and Austrian forgein Ministers during their meeting in Sarajevo to discuss reforming the status of Bosnia by a disgruntled veteren of the failed Balkan League, future Emperor Ferdinand is shot by a radical Panslav terrorist high on patriotism following a successful campaign against the Turks and resulting breakdown in relations between the Balkan States
This, of course, means that The Great Eastern War of our timeline isent initially limited to Eastern Europe but instead results in Austria and Germany (Italy and the Ottomans aren't in this war, at firs) facing an "Entente" of France and Russia that turns it into a two front war, eventually drawing in every other Great Power into over four years of hell (yes,even the USA) rather than the relatively conventional campaigns of manuver and limited tactical siege of real life. By the time we reach the end,everything's in flames, everybody is broke,and pretty much every state east of the Rhine on the verge of or already having collapsed into Revolution (and France could be said to be a near run thing). So, what if this nightmare scenario had come to pass? Some questions in particular....
What would be the financial effects of not only more than doubling the scope of the War,but it's timeframe as well? International debt markets would be saturated to the limit, especially since London and Paris would how have to be borrowing as well instead of sending out.
Could the advent of "Trench Warfare" and the narrowness if lines changed military development? The advent of the motorcycle is one thing that probably gets pushed back a little, at least,but what about the decline of fortresses following the "Just go around it" attitude that prevailed in the Eastern expanses?
How would the Balkans handle the fall of the Ottoman and Habsburg Empires? I mean, I won't get into the Magyarization and Turkification doctrines of OTL, but you have to admit in the end it resulted in a more homogonized region that could eventually be split down ethno-religious lines without overly dividing people groups and leaving room for more wars. Plus, this "Yugoslavia" thing...
How would the "Russian Revolution" pan out? I mean, Czar Nicky did only barely manage to keep dissent from boiling over after his defeat, but a total Socialist takeover is pretty radical. Personally,I think Conroy was just taking some creative liberties so he could have his dramatic Spring Offensive to round out the last half of the third book, but who knows?