At Long Last...an Update!
Helloy everyone! I've been incredibly delayed lately with RL issues, and as such, have been sparse here. Thankfully, I've managed to create an update for E&M. I warn you now, the walls of text are a tad steep this time.
Without further ado, this timeline's World War 1/ American Civil War equivalent: The First Great War!
· October 6, 1869-March 13, 1871 (First Phase of the First Great War): As the war begins in earnest, New Spain finds itself occupied primarily with the war against the Sovereign States of America. The Sovereign States prove to be a difficult foe to defeat whilst in a defensive position, winning the Battles of Tennessee, Wilderness Springs, and Saint Augustine during the initial months of the war. The tide in North America turns, however, with the battle of New Orleans on April 5, 1871, where a large SSA Army is routed by a combined force of Floridians and New Spanish. General James Winthrop, the most brilliant SSA leader, is captured during the battle and surrenders his army to Gran Floridia. This effectively ends the war in North America, as Floridian and FSA forces occupy the SSA. Meanwhile, Europe and Africa are completely engulfed by the war’s initial battles. The forces of the September Pact face extreme difficulty in the beginning, with Britain, Prussia, and Portugal left alone to contend with their opponents.
Africa, however, is much less lopsided, with highly established September Pact Colonies (and the Omani Empire, a British Protectorate) engaging more expansive but less well prepared opposition from the Silent Coalition.
In Europe,the British try twice to establish a beachhead in France, but the position is to highly defended. After failing to land there, the British instead deploy in support of their Prussian allies, who have resorted to trenches in order to repel the massive Franco-Austrian force moving against them. After being routed during the first, second, and third Battles of the Trench, Anglo-Prussian forces successfully manage to fortify an extended front, and the Coalition finds itself unable to penetrate further into Prussian territory. By 1871, the Coalition has built counter trenches, and the Eastern Front of Europe devolves into back and forth exchanges of infantry and artillery. In the Western Front of Iberia, however, trench warfare is mostly unutilized. Rather, the Iberian war consists of massed, Napoleonic battles occasionally interrupted by bouts of irregular and guerilla warfare. The Coalition faces a strong monarchist insurgency in Spain supplied by the British, Portuguese, and Spanish Colonies in Africa. By 1871, there is little change in borders or line positions, but over 50,000 combined military and civilian casualties have resulted from the conflict in Iberia alone.
In Africa, the French lose swathes of West Africa to the Spanish, and the British overrun several Austrian-aligned German colonies in Southwest Africa. Concurrently, the war is pitched in Asia, with two major fronts (one in Manchuria, primarily between Russia and her Chinese allies and the Empire of Japan, which proves surprisingly adept at modern warfare. The Russians lose several pitched battles at Khabarovsk, Harbin, and the Manchurian Plains. This results in a rapid seizure of Outer Manchuria by the Japanese. The Imperial Japanese Army, however, also conquers nonaligned territories from the south of the Empire of China. This is considered an outrage by the Coalition, but downplayed by the rest of the world powers. In the second major front, the Dutch East Indies are invaded by the New Spanish and British. The Dutch, being members of the Coalition, battle courageously against the September Pact, but are too isolated from allies to successfully repel the invaders. This culminates in the Battle of Batavia, a final defeat which prompts the Dutch to sue for peace. By 1871, the Asian front is secured in all areas except Manchuria, which continues to be the site of large Russo-Japanese conflicts.
· March 14, 1871-December 23, 1872 (The Second Phase of the First Great War): As the conflicts in Asia and Africa continue in much the same way as in the First Phase. The marked difference in Europe lies in the expulsion of the September Pact from Iberia and the Fall of Lisbon in May of 1871, and the bloody guerrilla insurgency which follows Portugal’s annexation by the Republic of Spain. The most heated contest during the second phase lies in the waters of the Atlantic. In hundreds of battles and skirmishes the September Pact and Silent Coalition clash constantly with little result. The primary naval combatants are the Loyalist Spanish/New Spanish and British opposed by the French, Dutch, Republican Spanish, and (to a minor degree) Austria. The September Pact pushes heavily to establish naval supremacy in the Atlantic, as it desperately wishes to transport troops from America to Europe. The September Pact also faces major setbacks in Africa despite its promising performance during the initial campaigns. In America, Russia and Britain collide in Canada in a small and oft-ignored front of the war. On December 24 of 1872, the two alliances agree to the Treaty of Bruges, by which the conflict will cease until the end of the Christmas holiday.
· December 24, 1872-December 25, 1872: Hostilities cease between the Silent Coalition and the December Pact, and Christmas is celebrated in many Western states. Japan, however, does not cease in its conquest of China, and continues to expand its influence along the coast.
· December 26, 1872-September 13, 1874 (The Final Phase of the First Great War): The naval conflict between the September Pact and Silent Coalition rages on, with continually more aggressive and damaging battles occurring as time goes on. In April of 1873, the Battle of the South Atlantic occurs, resulting in a devastating victory for the Anglo-Spanish Fleet over the majority of the French Navy. The resulting vacuum in the Atlantic is filled by a massive New Spanish expeditionary force consisting of just over 200,000 men. The fleet arrives on the west coast of Iberia on the 12th of October, 1873. The Anglo-New Spanish forces establish a beachhead during the seven-day Battle of Leiria, after losing nearly ten thousand men. The September Pact finds much support from the Hispano-Portuguese population, and soon is able to liberate Portugal from the Coalition. After a costly naval campaign in the straits of Gibraltar in December of 1873, the Pact successfully deploys an expeditionary force of 35,000 men from Spanish Africa to the Iberian mainland. The British soon are able to reinforce the Pact’s position in Iberia with over 100,000 men, and within six months, Spain has fallen to the September Pact. In what will be regarded by later scholars as a dramatic failure in strategy, the Republic of France will redeploy its troops from Germany to western France, entrusting the front to Austria and her Allies. Austria proves able to hold the line against Britain and Prussia for only a few months, and her army is routed handily by the Pact at the Battle of South Prussia. Anglo Prussian forces pour into Austrian territory, and many German states change their allegiance to Prussia. The war seems to be dramatically going in favor of the Pact when nearly half of the Russian Army pours into Europe, desperate to redeem itself after its failures in Asia. Despite winning the Battles of Koningsberg and the East Baltic, the Russians are repulsed after failing in the disastrous Siege of Brandenberg. In the wake of this, the exhausted and depressed Tzar Alexader II commits suicide on the 5th of March, 1874 (although many believe that he was assassinated). His successor Alexander III readily makes peace with the September Pact. The Austrian Empire responds to this betrayal by also suing for peace, having lost a staggering 600,000 overall casualties in the war. This leaves France and Republican Spain without further allies, and the war officially ends with the Sieges of Paris and Madrid in September of 1874.
· September 25, 1874: The Grand Armistice is signed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (FSA) between the September Pact and Silent Coalition. In the Armistice, King Carlos Fernando is granted the throne of Spain, and reestablishes the monarchy there. Russia is not forced to cede any land in Europe due to their surrender during the war, but is forced to acknowledge Japanese gains in Asia. The Dutch East Indies are divided between New Spain and Britain, the two powers gaining dominion of the west and east respectively. France is allowed to retain its sovereignty, but is forced to cede its colonial possessions in Africa to Spain and Britain. The German states are united under Prussia in the aptly named Prussian Empire, with those states who betrayed Austria or supported Prussia having a semi-autonomous status. Austria is bisected into the Austrian Empire in the west and Hungarian Empire in the east. All of the members of the Silent Coalition are forced to pay war debts to the September Pact, but much care is taken to ensure the stability of the defeated regimes. The total civilian and military casualties for the war amount to between 2,500,000 and 4,000,000 deaths, with over 2,000,000 more wounded and missing.