Kaiser Wilhelm addressed the crowd victoriously, his resplendent medals glimmering in the sunlight. The glow of the honours reflected his confidence and pride, and no doubt the glory which his nation would bask in forever more. Deutschland would march ever forward. In three years of war, the Reichsheer thrashed the French and occupied Paris, swept the Russians from Poland and the Baltic, had fought off the British on the Pas de Calais and made short work of Belgium. With the Gemeinsame Armee of Austria-Hungary, they had annihilated the Serbian and Montenegrin armies.
They had expected a quicker war. It was not supposed to last three years, but the French had fought stubbornly even after the fall of Paris. 1914 had not been 1870. The French had powerful allies propping them up. But the British seemed not to have had the political will to send significant forces to France's aid. Russia had been reversed repeatedly, and collapsed in on itself. Their Provisional Government was fighting radical socialist forces that the Kaiser himself had clandestinely aided. The conservative German elites had no fondness for the Marxists, but by establishing control over the Baltic states, Poland and Ukraine, Germany had enough strategic depth. And it would be years before Russia recovered from its turmoils and posed a threat, Bolshevik or not.
The Kaiser wasn't totally happy, though. He had often dreamt of a German Mittelafrika, stretching from the Atlantic, across the dark jungles of the Congo basin to the Indian Ocean. But it was not to be. German forces had given Entente forces the runaround in Ost-Afrika, but Togo and Cameroon had been captured quickly. When the war was at an end, the South Africans hadn't made much headway into Sudwestafrika, largely due to the Afrikaner rebels who now resided in the German colony.
The Kaiser's fanciful dreams of colonial glory may have been dashed, but Germany was the great power in Central Europe. Not since the times of Napoleon had Europe seen such a hegemon. Belgium had been split into two states, Flanders (home to the Flemings, who spoke a dialect of Dutch, and which included French Flanders) and Wallonia (home of the French-speaking Walloons). Luxembourg had been annexed to the German Empire. But in the West, Germany's greatest new ally was the Grand Duchy of Burgundy (Grand-Duché de Bourgogne/Großherzogtum von Burgund), carved out by Germany in the East of France, consisting of the French regions of Bourgogne, Champagne-Ardenne, Franche-Comte and parts of Lorraine. Burgundy became somewhat of a march for the Germans, and it was therefore becoming highly militarised. Economically, the Grand Duchy relied on agriculture as it's prime source of income along with a well-established vinicultural sector, but with an injection of capital from German businesses, manufacturing and coal-mining operations were expanding.
In the East, the German Polish border regions and East Prussia gained some territory further inland, but the majority of what had been Russian Poland was turned into the "Reichsprotecktorat Polen", in effect an Austro-German condiminium. It was occupied by both German and Austrian troops. The Teutons were fairly exploitative with their new possession, and the only real development was in infrastructure going further East, to the Baltic or the Ukraine. In Estonia and Latvia, an entity was set up by the Baltic German elite, known as the United Baltic Duchy, in personal union with the Hohenzollern Imperial Seat. Kaiser Wilhelm was consequently Duke of the United Baltic Duchy (sometimes shortened to Duke of Livonia or Duke of Baltica), in addition to his myriad of other titles.
The Ukraine came under the aegis of the pro-German, ultra-conservative 'Hetmanate of the Ukraine', led by Hetman (Strongman) Pavlo Skoropadskyi, who maintained a somewhat uneasy alliance with Germany. He was considered a bit too much of a Russophile, but if the Bolsheviks won in Russia, there wouldn't be any betrayal in favour of St. Petersburg.
In the Balkans, Austria-Hungary had annexed Serbia and Montenegro (Serbia into Transleithania, Montenegro and Sandjak into Cisleithania), and was attempting to pressure the Albanians into providing naval basing rights to the port of Vlore. Albania was developing into an increasingly tense contest between Italy and Austria-Hungary. Greece too had interests in Southern Albania, but the threats of both Austria-Hungary and the Ottomans to the East had pushed the Greeks towards the British camp. The Bulgarians were attempting to tread a middle path, but still watching for Greek or Austro-Hungarian weakness.
East Asia was about as far away from the Kaiser's mind as could be. Although German trading companies continued to operate in Tsingtao, German trade there was steady, experiencing neither significant growth nor significant loss. The Central Pacific Islands that had been under Germany's control had been sold to Japan at the onset of the war, and Samoa and Kaiser Wilhelm's Land had been ceded to Britain in the peace treaties (given to the Dominions of New Zealand and Australia, respectively).
Altogether, despite some setbacks to the Kaiser's Weltpolitik, the German Empire and the German Volk had left the war better off than they had entered. Sure, they had taken hardships at times, and Germany had entered a risky two-front war, but the Kaiser's faith in his people and his leadership had been proven correct, and he felt like a proud father as he watched over the people in Berlin, their flags waving, the tunes of the 'Deutschlandlied', 'Heil dir im Siegerkranz' and 'Die Wacht am Rhein' filling the air. The crowds cheered in patriotic euphoria when he had presented himself on the balcony to end the glorious victory parade. He spoke briefly, but inspiringly of Germany's golden age, of the invincibility of its Imperial union, of the bravery of its soldiers and the strength of its arms. Of its science, of it's power, of its industry, and of its favour in the eyes of God.
And as much as it had been to entertain and inspire the masses, he believed in it himself. He was content that his legacy would be the greatest of all Kaisers onward, that he'd go down in the annals of history alongside Barbarossa, Friedrich the Great, and the hero Siegfried, for a mere dragon was nothing compared to the armies of France, Britain and Russia. He would be remembered, remembered far more gloriously than that uppity old man Bismarck. Yes, he was very happy indeed.
Little did he know that the two decades following the end of what would be known by Western historians as "the Great War" would prove to be very trying times, and Germany would have to struggle, with all its herculean might, to hold onto the glory it won in 3 long years of bloodshed.