August, 1878
Tripolitania
Ludwig Karl Detroit, now in his mid-thirties, had fled his parents' home in Magdeburg at sixteen to a life at sea. Eventually, he washed up on the shores of the then-powerful Ottoman Empire. After accepting Islam (and circumcision), the youth was sent by a sponsor to military school. Afterwards, "Mehmed Ali" would serve against the Russians in the Crimean War, then the terrible defeat in the now-Russian province of Armenia.
After that, the loss of most of the Ottoman Empire (including Istanbul) would see massive internal conflict as minorities were crushed underfoot. Greeks, Arabs, Armenians, Assyrians, Shi'a.....all suffered retaliation. Even the Prussian born convert to the faith who served loyally in multiple wars was nearly executed. Fleeing for his life, Mehmad Ali would manage to reach Greece. Given that the Greeks were less than welcoming of Muslims at this time, the Prussian Protestant Ludwig Karl Detroit was reborn.
Having rejected his faith and his nation of birth, Detroit sought employment....really anywhere. Eventually he was welcomed by the King of Morocco, who was struggling to maintain control over local vassals and inland tribes across north Africa (Algeria, Tunisia and Tripolitania) under the loose and unofficial title of "Berber Kingdom". The King was engaging in a war of philosophy and culture with the Khedive of Egypt over the people of North Africa. The Khedive hoped to bring most or much of North Africa under his own control.....hopefully without actual warfare.
The Khedive positioned himself as a "modern Islamic leader" in the mold of European Kingdoms while the King of Morocco called much upon the region's common and ancient "Berber" heritage as a unifying factor. Both the King and Khedive sought to use education and language as a weapon. The Khedive asserted the use of Arabic while the King sought to expand the usage of the various Berber dialects in government and education. Indeed, the massive educational reforms in the haphazard "Kingdom of the Berbers" would utilize Berber as the primary language over the coming decades in an effort to culturally unify the peoples of Northern Africa.
However, the Egyptian Khedive would not so easily accept the formation of a powerful nation to the west. Less-than-subtly the Khedive would encourage dissent among various Tripolitanian chieftains in hopes of weakening the King of Morocco. Thus the King would hire several foreign mercenaries (European mostly) to train his forces. The Prussian-born "Karl Detroit" who spoke Turkish and Arabic was an ideal candidate for command. Now in his mid-thirties, the newly promoted "Pasha" Detroit would be granted the military governorship of Tripolitania. Detroit would marry a Jewish woman from Tunis (who didn't mind the circumcision) and assiduously cultivate tribal and urban support in the region in the name of the King.
When Detroit discovered a cache of weapons being transported by Egyptian agents, he ordered them arrested and brought to Tripoli where he publicly outed the Khedive for inciting rebellion. This would normally not bother the Khedive but the British Empire was an ally of the Berber Kingdom as well as Egypt and did not wish to see the two North African states in conflict. This could potentially leave the door open to a French or Italian intervention on the North African mainland.
Thus the British government would demand that the Khedive formally recognize the Moroccan hegemony in Tripolitania and all lands to the west.
Grudgingly, the Khedive did so, knowing to refuse would likely put his own Empire under threat. The Khedive had actively sought to modernize Egypt (and the Levant) both economically and socially, banning any discrimination against religious minorities and putting aside many Islamic traditions. By seizing control over the Suez Canal (which he had once sold to the French to pay off a few debts), the Khedive was among the first rulers in history to actively encourage tourism in Egypt and the Holy Lands. Rich Europeans were paying enormous fees to see the Sphynx (excavated only a few years prior), the Pyramids, the Temple Mount and Bethlehem. With exports rising and steadily rising revenues from the Canal, Egypt was slowly returning to economic sustainability. Public education was rapidly expanding and even light industry developing.
The Khedive wanted his nation to reflect Paris and London, not Baghdad.
The British could destroy this with a modest blockade of the Nile and the Suez. Worse, they could cut off their finance, which could prove catastrophic. The Khedive's family was not ancient. The threat to the throne remained omnipresent. Thus peace MUST be maintained for stability.
Swallowing his pride, the Khedive made no further approached west. Let the King of Morocco deal with the dizzying complexities of tribal North Africa.
Of course, the Khedive's problems were not over. A reactionary radical Islamic movement was taking place in the Sudan and the King of the Hejaz remained stubbornly opposed to the Khedive's "anti-Muslim" social reforms, particularly in terms of women's rights, and there were even threats that Egyptians would not be welcome in Mecca. The idea seemed shocking but certainly possible. The inbred Arab tribes of Arabia could not be trusted with anything.
To the north, the Ottoman Empire seemed to be returning to relevance as a similar western-central move towards modernization (often a byword for non-traditional Muslim culture) in hopes of retaining even the semblance of region power. Oddly, this occurred just a few years after the Ottoman ejected every conceivable minority from the rump state in Western Anatolia. Now the Turk sought to emulate them?
The world could be very odd.
Washington
"What do you mean the Maine "blew up"?" President Grant demanded. "What of these threats to torpedo or mine the US and Royal Navy vessels?"
The Secretary of State, Secretary of War and Secretary of the Navy could hardly answer. They'd read the same report as Grant.
"Find out, dammit?" Grant thundered. "If some damn Portuguese coward violated our hospitality to set a bomb or torpedo or something on the Maine, there will be hell to pay!"
Hamilton Fish, the Secretary of State, grimaced. He'd spent his years in office seeking to avoid conflicts like this. He certainly didn't believe that the government of Portugal had anything to do with the attack....if indeed it WAS an attack and not some sort of accident. It was true that rumors of a bomb had been reported in Lisbon newspapers in the days leading up to the tragedy....and ships usually didn't just BLOW UP on their own....but was it not possible some idiot just lit a pipe in the powder room?
Just twenty-four hours after news of the disaster reached American shores, there were already newspapers calling for war with Portugal.
With PORTUGAL?!!!
The entire situation seemed absurd.
And Fish hadn't even heard from the British or the Brazilians, the latter of which just lost their beloved Emperor.
