"Those that said the crisis leading to the Great War would inevitably lead to it, underestimate the capacity of diplomacy. Those that said the War would never happen and Europe would enjoy eternal peace, underestimate the capacity of human stupidity." -American President Theodore Roosevelt in his memoirs, 1925.
The Great War was inevitable, but it could've happened many times before, during the turn of the century, the entire continent was a powder barrel, with some leaders trying to prevent a fire from reaching it while others were trying to start one, as one cartoon described it. Especially as a new generation of leaders was taking power in France, Germany, Russia, and Britain. The tensions caused by Nationalism, Imperialism, and especially the Peace of Vienna, started to become more apparent. The system of alliances, the Coalition and the Entente, served as a reminder that a local conflict between two powers would inevitably start a War not seen since the times of Napoleon I. And there were sparks everywhere, one at a time.
((The Leaders of Europe sitting in a powder keg, was an accurate representation of what was really happening during the "Belé Epoque"))
The Naval Race
((The British Ship HMS King Edward VII would start a new series of ships, and a new race on who would have the most of them))
In 1901, Britain presented a new ship in Belfast, the "HMS King Edward VII" the most powerful ship in the world, creating a new class of Battleships called "Battlesteel" (technically all ships of the time were made mainly by steel), ships with Heavy Armor and firepower that made the previous ships obsolete. The French Prince Napoleon V urged his father to start their own Battlesteel ships, with the first one of the "Charlemagne" class being released in 1903. Napoleon IV knew that France would never be able to rival Britain and Germany combined in the seas, instead the "Swordfish" program saw heavy investiment since the 19th century, with the creation of ships capable of going under the water undetected and strike ships with Torpedos. The French "Swordfishes" were inaugurating a new type of naval warfare, where even the mighty Battlesteels couldn't counter. But yet, the French pursued the Battlesteels, racing with Britain and Germany over the power each one could project by sea. This results in a increase of tensions between the 3 powers.
((The French S-1 Swordfish submarine in 1903))
The Persian Oil Race and Crisis
((Persian Oilfield in 1902))
During the 19th Century, Persia was in a awkward situation, being sandwiched between the British in the Gulf, the Russians in the Caucasus and Central Asia, and the Declining Ottomans in the West. The Empire had to intensify Modernization programs for their own survival. Ruled by Shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar or Shahanshah Khaqan, Persia became a Regional Power in the Middle East, during the 19th Century the areas of Herat and Baluchistan were added to the Persian Crown and in 1901, Oil was found in the South of the Country, a lot of oil. Oil was the new gold of the 20th Century, used from Cars to the mighty Battlesteels. And it was a very desired resource. The Discovery of Oil in Persia suddenly created a rivalry for the control of the region between Russia and Britain. The British created the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, that received the blessing of the Shah to start exploring Oil immediately while splitting the shares 50/50. In Response the Russians started to influence the Persian politics, the Tsar didn't need more oil as the demand was low and the numbers were high in Azeri lands (especially surrounding the Caspian Sea). But the Oil company risked to put Persia into the British sphere, and Russia couldn't afford to have a second front in the South. In 1904 (due possibly to Russian encouragement), Liberals and Democrats took the streets to demand the creation of a Parliament. The "Persian Constitutional Revolution" pressured the Shah to create a parliament and call for a election, electing Mirza Nasrullah Khan as PM, with a new "Nationalist" policy of independence (curiously from Britain alone). The British were alarmed with the possibility of a Nationalization of the company and prepared a plot. In 1907, a coup d'etat was launched by the Young Army officer Reza Shah. The coup dissolved the parliament and put the Shah in House Arrest. The Russians accused the British of intervening in Persian affairs and endangering Russia itself. The Russian army was mobilized at the Persian border and the issue was only solved in the "Bagdad Conference" hosted by the Ottomans.
((Shahanshah Khaqan))
((Reza Shah Pahlavi))
The Anglo-Persian company was dissolved, with the Persian Oil Company being created, with Russia, Britain, and Persia holding the shares in a 33/33/33 manner, with the Shah keeping the remaining 1% to prevent any of them from becoming a majority shareholder. Politically, Persia would have the Parliament restored and the Shah released, but Reza would become the Prime Minister-for-life, becoming a military dictator de facto. Persia would not be allowed to join any of the alliances and couldn't nationalize the Oil Company under the threat of a Anglo-Russian intervention.
The Ethiopian War
Citing the Paris Conference that divided Africa, the Italians took control of Somalia, and the map showed Ethiopia as part of the Italian Africa. But Ethiopia wasn't conquered while Somalia was. In 1898, Italy started to prepare a Experdition, the invasion started in 1899, with 190,000 men. Italy had the Support of Great Britain while Russia and France supported Ethiopia. In the battle of Adwa, the Ethiopians were victorious, instead of creating a Protectorate, Italy was restricted to the North of Somalia as gain (Somaliland). The support of the Coalition for Ethiopia would be something the Italians would remember.
The Mexican Civil War
((Mexican Emperor Juan I))
From the outside, Mexico seemed a prosperous nation. The Golden rush of the mid-19th Century turned the Northern Provinces into a developed area, California received thousands of Yankees, Europeans, and Mexicans becoming a Melting pot. The Country was rich, but was poor too. Great majority of the population was poor and illiterate, working for big landlords and industrials like slaves, social mobility was hard and the Empire's poll tax reduced the number of voters to a small minority. Adding the poverty, corruption, and the semi-feudal system of the countryside, meant that Mexico was fertile ground for Pelletism and radicalism. On the 5th of May of 1907, that blew up as a protest caused the panicked Emperor Juan I to flee to the US. General Bernardo Reyes acted quickly, siezing power in a coup and declaring himself President of the Mexican Republic. But Reyes didn't intend to give up power and soon became a military dictator. Led by Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, an uprising started against Reye's Republic, while the Northern Provinces used the chance to declare the Independence of the Californian Republic (California, Baja California, and Arizona), while the Texans declared independence with New Mexico. The South of Mexico, Yucatán, Guatemala, and the Central American Provinces rebelled with Zapata and Villa against Reyes, Monarchists took control of Veracruz and Monterrey, taking also Zacatecas and the Gulf Coast. Mexico collapsed into total war and everyone used it as proxy: The United States supported the seceding provinces in the North, The Monarchists had French Support, and the British and Germans placed their bets on Reyes. The bloodiest Latin American war yet had just began.
The Balkan Peninsula was a source of conflict since long before the Ottomans. Serbs, Bulgars, and Greeks competed for territory, but now they were united against a common enemy: The Ottoman Empire. Ethnic and Nationalistic ideas were central in the irredentist goals of every Nation: The Yugoslavia for Serbia, The Megali Idea for Grecce, and the Greater Bulgaria for Bulgaria. The 3 states were freed by Russia in the 19th Century, but much of their territories was still part of the Ottoman Rumelia. To release those territories, the Balkan League was formed on the 3rd of April of 1909. Even if they denied, it was a anti-Ottoman alliance to get them out of Europe, and developments in Turkey were favorable.
In 1856, the Ottomans created a parliament on the aftermath of the War with Russia, but when Abdul Hamid II became Sultan in 1876, he dissolved the Parliament and reigned as an Autocrat. By the Turn of the Century, Opposition groups grew in the army amongst Officers called "The Young Turks". In 1908, during the Bagdad Conference by the end of the year, a protest against Imperialism happened as the Tsar Nikolai II and King-Emperor Edward VII met, including some against Edward's brutal policies. The army was ordered to suppress the protests and many officers mutinied, Abdul Hamid started to lose control as the year of 1909 arrived, Protests in the main cities were joined by members of the military clashing against Loyalists, demanding the restoration of the 1856 Constitution. Abdul gave up on February and called elections. While the rebels celebrated victory, the Sultan prepared a counter-attack.
The Sultan ralied the Arabs, he was always a friend of the Arab Muslims, Rejecting Ottomanism of his father and the Turkish-Centric views of the Young Turks. He ralied Arab Loyalist Units to launch a coup, taking control of Bagdad, Damascus, and Hedjaz. The Coup on the 23rd of July spread to Turkey, where Loyalists and radical Muslims sided with the Protector of Medina and Makkah. The Parliament was dissolved and the Young Turks executed, causing great fear by non-Muslims of the Empire, especially in Armenia and the Balkans. That's when the Balkan States, with Russian support, attacked the Ottomans using the instability of the Empire and the confusion amongst the troops.
((Bulgarian Troops charging against the Ottomans))
The Ottoman troops were caught unprepared, with the Furious Bulgarian advance taking Western Thrace and reaching the Black Sea, cutting off the Ottoman troops that had to be supplied by sea, if their navy wasn't defeated in Naxos by the Greek fleet. Serbian, Montenegrin, and Greek forces pushed to surround the Ottomans in Macedonia and Albania, where the Turks also had to deal with Albanian Guerrillas. On the 3rd of March of 1910, the Ottoman army in the Balkans, surrounded in Macedonia, was forced to surrender. The war was over and a Conference was held in Constantinople.
The Balkan allies met to decide the fate of the Ottomans, that were reduced to a small part of Eastern Thrace drawn like a arbitrary line. The Greeks took North Epirus and Southern Macedonia (Including Thessaloniki), the Montenegrins took the surrounding lands of the principality, Serbia took Kosovo, a part of Northern Albania for sea access, and parts of Nis, Bulgaria was undoubtedly the Greatest winner, taking from Skopje and Macedonia to the gates of Constantinople itself. The Albanians also formed their state, taking Central Albania and parts of Western Macedonia.
((Bulgaria after the War excluding Thessaloniki region and not including the added parts of Thrace.))
The last years of peace in Europe would die with the last ones desiring peace, in a space of 4 years between 1907 and 1911, the most powerful men in the world went back to Dust.
In the Kaiserreich, Kaiser Heinrich I died in September 8th of 1907, his advanced age and smoking habits causing a cancer in his Lungs, a Liberal and pragmatic man that knew when to pick a fight and when to avoid it, didn't manage to pass these traits to his son, Kaiser Wilhelm II. Wilhelm was emotional, aggressive, Conservative, Militarist, and the "Greatest Friend of the Junkers", one of his first acts was to restore the old 3-class system of vote in Prussia into the elections. His second was to scrap military plans and demand the General Staff to prepare one new: Instead of picking up Russia and France's minor allies, Wilhelm demanded France to be the first target, even if that meant crossing the Rhineland defenses. Even traditional and aggressive commanders like Lundendorff were skeptical that this approach would work, Wilhelm had a irrational hate against everything French, even going to the point of arresting French Nobles on the basis of "conspiracy against the Kaiser und Reich". While the Germans were cautious to start a War under Heinrich, they now were desiring it under Wilhelm. The New Kaiser was also prone to embarrassing himself in interviews, even insulting King Edward VII once when visiting Britain. "I thought he walked around with Blacks held by chains like dogs for a walk."
The Second new Monarch was in Russia, 12th August 1908, the Tuberculosis finally killed Aleksandr II, giving the Throne to his son Nikolai II. Nikolai was young, also emotional like Wilhelm, but instead of using that to make harsh decisions, he gave greater freedom to his ministers, making a Rationalist ministry and letting them rule the country. But even if they were competent, some were corrupt too, and the light control of the Tsar allowed them greater liberties. One of the few decisions of the Tsar was to... play with his Guard, making a gigantic chess game using his troops and playing with his friends and generals. Nikolai wasn't as bright as his predecessors, but he knew that it was true and that was his greatest strength. He knew when to sit back and let people more competent than him to administer, a lesion his father gave him.
In Britain, on the 2nd of December of 1910, the "Butcher of India", the "Maniac of Africa", King-Emperor Edward VII died in his sleep. In Britain there was mourning, on the colonies it was a celebration, with the Indians even making it a National Holiday. The man responsible for 100 million deaths around the world (minimal estimates of 70 and some even reaching 150 million) has died. He left the throne to his son Albert, who took the name of George VII. He was known as the "Soldier King" for a reason, having served in the military and usually wearing army uniforms, George was like Wilhelm, never backing down from a fight. The King abandoned his father's brutal policies, instead giving more autonomy on colonial matters to the dominions. But no matter what he could do, he was never going to repair the damage of his father to the British-Dominated world.
But France was perhaps the most significant change, on the 28th of April of 1911, Napoleon IV was dead. He reigned wisely like his father, while his son seemed more like his uncle Napoleon II. Not like an Absolutist, but as a militarist that believed War to be a natural process of cleasening of society from the weak, and that France's natural destiny was to ultimately rule the Continent. Napoleon V desired war, he wanted the war as much as Wilhelm, he dreamed of being like Napoleon I and bring Europe to its kneels. He was a General, a competent one differently from Nikolai and Wilhelm, and he started to prepare France to war, a war that would reverse the Peace of Vienna and restore French supremacy on the Continent.
((He even looked like his Great-Grandfather))
The Stage was now set, with the leaders of the most powerful nations of the world desiring war, all they now needed was a reason for war, a casus belli.
"Everyone with a brain knew that the powers of Europe were about to destroy themselves, but no one had as much imagination as thinking that a luxury line ship sinking in a icy sea would cause a World War." -Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States and Historian, 1913.
The Quote of the Bull Moose President is an accurate view of the shocking turn of events that happened between April and May of 1912. "Le Titan" was the name of the largest and most luxurious ship in the world, it was built in Brest by the Boulanger Industries in the context of a Corporate rivalry with the German "Weiss Industries", it set sail from Brest, France to New York, USA on the 10th of April of 1912. The ship had some of the richest men in the world as passengers, including none other than the oldest son of Napoleon V, François-Louis, the Heir of the French Throne. It set sail with 2,300 passengers and crew across the Frozen waters of the North Atlantic.
The ship was the pinnacle of engineering, Boulanger built the ship with British steel, that some blame to be cursed by the victims of Edward's Ruthless Colonization. But one thing that no one could predict was a group of Angry Germans in the crew, on the night of the 14th of April, off the coast of Newfoundland, they set bombs in the boilers, detonating it on the midnight. The explosions destroyed the boilers of the bow and opened holes in the steel bottom of the ship that was said to be more fragile. The explosions caused panic in the ship and the evacuation was started, but there weren't enough lifeboats for everyone, and some boats left with less than half their capacity, the Prince of the French throne on the other hand, was nowhere to be found. He was taken prisioneer by members of the conspiracy and tied at the 3rd class deck, being saved on the last minute by a girl whom he fell in love during the voyage. The two would go to the upper decks later only to find no boats left other than one reserved to the Prince where a large crowd demanded to enter it, the guards shooting in the air did little to calm the desperate crowd, instead the captain of the guard ordered them to fire on the crowd, killing at least 4. As that happened, the people went berserk as they were faced with their only chance of survival, it was 1:56 AM when the crowd charged the boat and overpowered the guards. The boat was filled and launched, with the Prince and the girl, called Natalie, stuck on the sinking ship during its final moments. They fled to the stern of the ship as the bow sunk, the chimneys fell, and by the 2:34 AM the energy was off and the ship entered it's final plunge. On the 2:40 AM of April 15th of 1912, Le Titan was on the bottom of the sea. Later on, one of the boats came back only to find that from 1,664 that were left on the ship, only 12 were alive, including Natalie but not the Prince, that died by her side while they were floating over a door.
Of 2,332 on board, 1,652 died including the Heir of the French Empire. The survivors were rescued on the sunrise by another cruise ship, ironically made by the Weiss Industries. But the numbers of deaths would rise by the millions soon later. The body of the Prince would arrive in New York with the survivors, President Roosevelt himself wrote the telegraph to the Emperor, informing him of his son's death. His body was taken back to France where he was buried in the Bonaparte Mausoleum. But after an investigation it was revealed that German Nationalists, in collaboration with spies, had caused the explosion. The Emperor of the French was said to have "turned red and went crashing things in his house upon hearing the news." His eyes immediately turned to Kaiser Wilhelm II demanding explanations, on the other hand the Kaiser was on vacations, demanding to not be disturbed and leaving Chancellor Friedrich von Falkenstein to take care of it. Sadly he was a war-hawk militarist Prussian, he wrote an answer that basically said: "If you didn't upset the Germans of your stolen land, then your son could still be continuing your dynasty with a literal army of bastards." Needless to say that the Emperor could burn the paper with his own eyes.
On the 24th of April, Napoleon sent an ultimatum for the Kaiserreich, demanding them to cut their support for German Nationalists of the Empire and an official apology to Napoleon V. Instead of answering the Ultimatum, Falkenstein was singing the General mobilization, and sent letters to their allies, on the 30th of April, France did the same, and by May both the Entente and Coalition mobilized their troops, and the May Day Parades were cancelled. The Ultimatum expired and there was one last attempt to prevent the Great War, the French Prime Minister, Charles d'Dijon of the Liberaux, under the Influence of the Titanic survivor and Pacifist Journalist Jean Jaures, tried to arrange a Conference in Paris, that was rejected by both the Kaiser and the Emperor, the latter considering it a betrayal and sacking him, putting the Hawkish Conservative Georges Boulanger.
((General and PM Boulanger, not related to Boulanger Industries))
Then on the 4th of May of 1912, the guns fired on the Front.
"No Plan survives contact with the Enemy." Paul Von Hindenburg, German General, 1896
There was no doubt that a war was coming, the question was how long would it take and who would win. Both sides developed war Plans with the idea of winning the war in a year, before the Christmas. For the Entente the Plan Davout and for the Coalition the Moltke Plan.
Plan Davout
The French doctrine was dominated by the idea of Elan, that a offensive of human waves with artillery support could defeat any defenses, even the Rhine. The plan was for a quick mobilization and a full offensive over the Rhineland, Westphalia, and the Netherlands, hoping that it would cripple the German Industry, then a second strike by advancing to Hamburg and Hannover, then a southern Offensive to take Frankfurt and surround German units in Baden. The Russians would give support by invading Prussia and Scandinavia would take Holstein the Germans would collapse and Britain would hopefully surrender, if they didn't, there would be a offensive in the Iberian Peninsula to knock out the British Allies. Over the sea, the French would release the "Swordfish" fleet to starve Britain, while entering with close contacts with Bonapartist Ireland. The main fleet could not hope to challenge the combined Coalition Navy and should be restricted.
Plan Moltke
The Germans had a different plan originally, it was the proposal of keeping defenses on the Rhine while focusing the full might of the Reich against the Tsardom. But the rise of Kaiser Wilhelm II changed the focus to Paris, similarly with the Plan Davout, the Germans hoped to use the first weeks of the war to cross the Rhine and establish a bridgehead with the help of the Germanic minorities of the Empire, followed by the capture of the Rhineland and Wallonia, crippling the French industry. The Spanish would take Catalonia with the support of locals, and hopefully Italy would enter the war by the opportunism of taking Turin and Milano. The Russians were expected to be slow in mobilization, and the Ottomans would be tasked with a Distraction in the Caucasus, with a small part of the German army defending Schleswig and Prussia. The German and British navies would then separate Denmark from the rest of Scandinavia, blockade the French Coast and Russian Baltic coast.
But all those plans had failures, the Moltke plan underestimated Russia, while the Davout plan overestimated the French Elan. But they wouldn't be proven wrong until millions died.
"Es braust ein Ruf wie Donnerhall,
wie Schwertgeklirr und Wogenprall:
Zum Rhein, zum Rhein, zum deutschen Rhein,
wer will des Stromes Hüter sein?
Lieb Vaterland, magst ruhig sein,
lieb Vaterland, magst ruhig sein,
Fest steht und treu die Wacht, die Wacht am Rhein!
Fest steht und treu die Wacht, die Wacht am Rhein!
Durch Hunderttausend zuckt es schnell,
und aller Augen blitzen hell;
der Deutsche, bieder, fromm und stark,
beschützt die heil'ge Landesmark.
Er blickt hinauf in Himmelsau'n,
wo Heldenväter niederschau'n,
und schwört mit stolzer Kampfeslust:
Du Rhein bleibst deutsch wie meine Brust!
Solang ein Tropfen Blut noch glüht,
noch eine Faust den Degen zieht,
und noch ein Arm die Büchse spannt,
betritt kein Feind hier deinen Strand!
So führe uns, du bist bewährt;
In Gottvertrau'n greif' zu dem Schwert!
Hoch Wilhelm! Nieder mit der Brut!
Und tilg' die Schmach mit Feindesblut!"
Die Wacht am Rhein, most popular German War Song of the Great War.
The first 2 months of the War in the West would set the Frontlines of most of the War, both the German and French troops would have the cultural crash that has been building up for 99 years, both sides demonizing the other in the opposite side of the Rhine. Now they would fight with Steel and Blood in a spiral of destruction that would destroy Europe, there couldn't be two more balanced sides in a war: Both with similar population, army doctrines, technology, and desire to destroy. The Germans called for a final war of Unification, to unite their brothers of the Rhineland and Flandres, and to destroy the hated enemy of the Germans: France and the Bonapartes. The French called for a revenge for the Titan, to destroy their hated enemy, to fulfill the Legacy of Napoleon I, and to destroy the greatest threat to the French way of life. Both sides had one thing in common: They weren't on a war to defend their lands, but to destroy the enemy.
((French Propaganda for the people purchase National Credit, "For the Flag ! To Victory"))
((German Propaganda, "This is how Germany will look like if they cross the Rhine."))
The First moves of the war started on the 5th of May, the day after the declaration of War, the French forces used a quicker mobilization to cross the Rhine, clashing with the German defenses, the First battle of the War ended with the French forces retreating back to their side of the Rhine. The commanders had a reality shock when their troops were mowed down by Machine Guns. The Germans were quick to attempt a counter further north, coming south from the Netherlands, they crossed the Rhine, and for every village they received flowers and were hailed as heroes by the people of Flandres, they didn't advance far. In Antwerpen, the French forces with Naval support pushed the Germans back from their gains, the Rhine would be the frontline. The two sides using artillery and a amassed use of snipers to kill the enemy soldiers, and later in the war, gas would become the weapon of choice to hit the enemy on the other side.
((French soldiers charging the German lines during the first battle of the Rhine))
Further South, the French didn't have many troops to spare in the Catalan front, the French hoped to use the Ebro river as defensive line like the Rhine, but the lack of men forced the local commander, General Joffre, to conscript the Catalans. The Catalans were the most hated minority in Paris, they were the ones that violently resisted Frankification and rebelled several times before, and were smashed in every single one. This time they saw the war as their best chance, and they weren't going to let it slip away, the Catalans saw the Spanish in a much more positive light, especially the Carlists that have treated their brothers in Valencia and Navarre so much better than the French. The Spanish troops charged the French lines on the late of May (26th to be more precise), that's when one of the most surprising events of the early war happened: As the French ordered the Catalans to hold the line for the French to regroup further back, one Catalan officer said "Our people lost Barcelona, lost Brothers and sisters, lost everything we had to resist your attempt to destroy our culture. We shall do the same and worse even to finally get rid of you." And with a gesture of his hand, the Catalan soldiers of the Trench stabbed the French troops in the back, similar fate happened to the other parts of the line, with the news spreading to Barcelona and other villages, local guards and armed militias turned on the French forces that were quickly outnumbered and cut from any communication, on the 27th of May, the Catalan militias and troops had almost destroyed the French resistance over the Country except by Rousseló and Girona, where the French held strong. Catalans raised their flags and met with the Spanish, celebrating together the beggining of the end of French control over Iberia, or so they thought. When hearing of the Catalan desertion, Napoleon V was so irate that he sent over 600,000 reservists to join the local 124,000 French forces, he had only one order to Joffre: "When you advance back to the Ebro, remember to not leave one single Catalan alive, men, women, and children are all the enemy, consider even the babies as soldiers, every building must be bombarded. I will send the Fleet of the Mediterranean itself to destroy Barcelona and salt the land, and no building, no person, no soul shall ever live in Catalonia again."
On the other hand, the rest of the Iberian front was quiet, the Pyrenees were impossible to cross, and fighting was little. But the Danish front broke the silence, on the 18th of May, to support the French offensives, the Scandinavians attacked with the objective to reach the Kiel canal by the end of the month. 400,000 men clashed over the Jutland Peninsula, with the German fleet fighting the first naval battle between Steelships of the world: Near Copenhagen, the Ostseeflotte was met by the Scandinavian fleet, including the Steelship "Caroulos Rex", the main attraction of the battle was when the Scandinavian ship met with the German "Poltava" (Named as an insult to the Scandinavian ship, with the name of the Swedish defeat in the Great Northern War), the ships clashed in the middle of the battle, and after 20 minutes, the Caroulos Rex exploded thanks for a lucky shot on the ammunition hold, the Scandinavian fleet retreated after the defeat.
Both Germany and France were surrounded, Germany between the French, Scadinavians, and Russians, France between the Germans, Iberians, and British. While the French had powerful natural defenses, Germany didn't have those. That's why the German High Command begged in the feet of the Kaiser to give at least half of the German (initial by 1912) 3,450,000 men to the Eastern Front to contain Russian aggression and a possible Bohemian rebellion. After the failure of the Moltke plan in crossing the Rhine and securing a safe bridgehead, the Kaiser reluctantly agreed, even if he didn't think Russia would be an immediate threat due to their size slowing down mobilization, he was underestimating the Modernizations created by the Rationalist Tsars.
((The Kaiser inspecting his troops on the Eastern Front))
The Germans were still greatly outnumbered on a 3-1 by the Russians when General Alexei Brussilov attacked, using the delay of the Kaiser's decision to strike the Heart of Prussia. The "Operation Wladislaw", in homage to the Polish King that defeated the Teutonic Order in Grunwald, was the attack of over 800,000 men into Eastern Prussia to take Danzig and cut off Eastern Prussia. The Germans didn't expect such a bold attack, especially not on the First of June. The Russians gave support to such offensive with several diversionary attacks, making the Germans expect an attack on Breslau or Koningsburg. The Initial attack was extremely successful, even reaching the city of Marienburg, but then the Reinforcements of the Kaiser arrived: An extra 1,3 million men to reinforce the East thanks to the massive number of volunteers in May.
((Russian Troops charging against German lines at the battle of Elbing))
Elbing was where the Reich made it's stand in the East, with over 1 million men on the battlefield, it was the largest battle of the war so far. Russian forces charged against the German lines held by General Paul von Hindenburg, with the notable command of Wilhelm Rudolf, the German Crown prince. The Russians Human Wave tactics made sure that even the worst aim would hit someone, the Russians by sheer numbers overwhelmed the first line, but failed to break the second one, forcing Brussilov to call off the offensive by fears of being cut off. There were 127,000 German Casualties and 288,000 for the Russians.
The Germans counter-attacked the Russians, aiming to take Plock and Kalitz. On the 4th of July, the Germans broke the Russian lines taking Kalisz and Brzesc by the 12th, but the advance halted in Plock, the Germans considering it "too costly" to continue the push. The Eastern front remained relatively quiet for the month, the Germans and Russians bringing their forces at the hundreds of thousands, until by the end of the year there were 4,670,000 Germans and 6,565,000 Russians. Russian forces usually outnumbering the Germans in battles but lacked the Quality of the German Troops. The Germans launched an attack on the city of Warsaw, which they failed in December. While the Russians would be forced to retreat from Brussilov's gained ground, the Germans and Russians started 1913 fighting along a extensive line from Memel to Krakow.
Meanwhile, the war didn't prevent scandals. The German Prince Wilhelm had married a Scandinavian princess, Leonora was a strange woman, always dressing in military uniforms and demanding to go with her husband to the battlefield, even if she went to fight her own people in the Danish Front. Wilhelm II liked that spirit and the German Nationalism of Leonora even if she was from an enemy country. Wilhelm Rudolf was promoted several times (Which may or may not have to do with the Kaiser supporting his son and he having the name of "Hohenzollern") until he became General in 1914, with Leonora always by his side, even if his promotions could be considered nepotism, it couldn't be denied that the boy had great military skills and was absolutely obsessed with Prussian Militarism and Military tactics, including suggesting a combined arms approach to guarantee success on the War against Russia. And the suspects would come when he was found to be visiting Weiss Industrial areas several times to talk with Singlinde Weiss, would that be an affair ? No one knows thanks for the Heavy War Censorship of the German press. But no one could deny that the German Empire would have an interesting future Kaiser.
Europe wouldn't see much other than minor offensives on the East and Denmark during the rest of 1912, as opposed to what was happening around the World, especially Indonesia and Africa, where the war raged actively.
"Why should I, an Aussie, fight against the French in Nigeria, because a bunch of Germans sunk a ship over the Coast of Canada ?" -Pvt. Charles Johnson, ANZAC, 1913.
((The ANZACs were widely used during the war in Africa until the entry of the Philippines in the War))
The colonial war was a whole new Frontline, it started with the French invasion of Nigeria and Ivory Coast during the first weeks of the war. Even if France controlled half of the Continent, the other half was controlled by the Germans, and the Anglo-Boer South Africa. The war was particularly brutal in Nigeria and Morocco where French forces invaded and had to fight a brutal guerrilla war against an alliance of locals and colonials, especially in the German Congo where the French colonial forces were never capable of taking areas outside of major roads and cities. Of course it depends on who the French were fighting: The British saw several defeats due to the opposition of the locals after Edward's reign, while the relatively friendly relations between Germans and Natives helped the collaboration.
((Map of Colonial Africa (before the Italo-Ethiopian War)))
The French Strategy in the Continent was reduce the number of Frontlines as much as possible, attacking the British West Africa and Morocco while sending a diversionary attack on the German Congo. The plan was actually feasible: The British colonies were devastated by Edward's reign and the remaining native tribes would join the French and attack the British garrisons by pure desire of revenge, and that's what happened. On the year of 1912, the British lost control of most of West Africa except a few enclaves and Biafra. While the Germans and Portuguese saw much greater success by defeating the French offensives and occupying Gabon. The Morocco was a more complicated matter: The French took West Sahara and South Morocco when Infi fell, but were unable to take Al Rif, and worse, the British Navy crossed Gibraltar and Bombarded Algiers, destroying part of the French African fleet at the port, they sailed east and raided Alexandria using Malta as a Base, the French fought the British at the Suez Canal where one of the largest battles of the Mediterranean began: The battle of Suez.
((Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, Commander of the German African Forces))
((German Troops in Africa after capturing Gabon))
The French Mediterranean fleet was composed of 47 ships including 5 Steelships and 8 Swordfishes. The British were outnumbered with 39 ships, including 7 Steelships, but the British First Lord of Admiralty Winston Churchill was confident in his bet of sending a fleet to raid the Mediterranean. British ships didn't start the battle against the French ships, but by sinking several boats to block the Suez Canal and make it inoperable, now it was to victory or death. And after an entire day of battle, the British proved their valor by managing to escape the French trap with most their ships. While they lost more ships (which means a tactical French Victory), they managed to finish their mission, escape with most their ships, and making the Canal inoperable, forcing French convoys to go into the British Blockade, which was a strategical major British victory.
"They said that by Christmas, we would be back in our homes eating turkey with our families, but I say that by then, this bloody river will be our graves." Diary of François Laroque, page 78, "The first Winter".
A quick, glorious war, that was the promise made by the French High Command, believing in the Davout Plan that would knock the Germans out in a few months. But for the French, they lost hundreds of thousands men during the year in offensives trying to cross the river, they all followed a similar pattern: French forces would massively bombard the enemy lines in concentrated areas, snipers and machine guns would provide a covering fire, several rowboats boats would transport thousands of men at a time to the other side, these men would try to take the first trench (often succeeding) and create a bridgehead for several more troops cross. That until a German counter offensive forced them to either try to retreat while under artillery, sniper, and machine gun fire, or to fight to the last man, often surrendering by the thousands. That happened across all the western front every offensive lasting around a week until the status quo was restored, and the same happened for the Germans, still with the hope that something similar to Catalonia would happen on the Rhineland.
When the Christmas arrived on December 1912, the troops were ceasing fire at several places across the Frontlines. German troops put small Christmas trees outside of the trenches while singing "Stille Nacht", or "Silent Night" in English, even the snipers ceased their shots, a similar behavior happened on the French side. And on the morning of the 25th, they went out of the trenches, even some boats giving transport to crossing the other side, troops exchanged cigarettes and chocolate. The Royal Family of both sides, especially the princesses, gave gifts for the soldiers, like Coffee, blankets, and letters. Some events included German soldiers on the Danish front giving the gifts of the Scandinavian Princess Leonora to the Scandinavian soldiers. The Eastern front was another matter: The Orthodox Christmas happened only on the 7th of January, Russian and Ukrainian troops were confused on the German gestures, and many didn't risk leaving their positions, with the Germans celebrating amongst themselves. While the Polish, Lithuanian, and other Catholic troops decided on leaving their trenches and celebrating the Christmas, one soldier even bringing Turkey from his house.
((Some troops even played football))
But there was opposition to it, some soldiers just crossed the lines to spy the enemy positions, breaking the Christmas spirit. Others, especially officers, were opposed to all that nonsensical celebrations. "Why are you all going soft and go celebrate with the enemy ? Don't you have any sense of honor and duty left ?" Yelled one German Lieutenant, not surprisingly the same commander didn't participate Christmas celebrations and instead coordinated artillery fire to forcefully break the truce on the following morning of the 26th, that was 2nd Lieutenant Adolf Hitler of the 3rd Bavarian Corps. While something much more brutal happened on the Catalan front, where vengeful French troops under General Joffre were preparing for one of the most infamous acts of Modern Warfare on the next year, when a few Catalans tried to leave their trenches they were cut down by machine gun fire, with French troops even launching offensives on the unsuspecting Catalans while they sang Christmas songs. On one incident, a lone Catalan soldier risked crossing to the French trench, with his body brought back stabbed several times in the back, a clear message of what the French felt for the Catalan people, and a prelude of what was to come.
And then, the second year of the war arrived...
The year of 1913 would bring new players to the war, the Eastern front intensified, and a new weapon started to be used over the bloody Rhine: Gas. While the French would start one of the worst genocides of the 20th Century, when Napoleon's legions unleashed their fury against the Catalan people, their revenge would be brutal.
The Year started on the 16th of January, when the German High Command, led by Generals Hindenburg, Moltke, and Lundendorff, planned to end the Danish front, transferring over 600,000 men to the Northern Front led by General von Mackesen, with a total of German troops already numbering more than the Danish population, the Germans planned to bleed Scandinavia White, knowing them to be the weakest Entente member. The Outnumbered and outgunned Nordic forces would collapse to the German attack, with a chaotic retreat to the North of the peninsula, where they held off the Germans for 2 weeks awaiting for the navy to save them, but they would never come. At the night of the 23rd of January, the German Ostseeflotte intercepted the Nordic fleet, the battle of the Sund ended with a fourth of the Nordic fleet at the bottom of the sea with some ships being scuttled due to heavy damage. No ships would come help the Scandinavian army trapped on the Judtland peninsula and on the 7th of February of 1913, over 300,000 men were taken Prisioneer by the German forces, and Scandinavia lost their control over mainland Europe, stuck on the peninsula and the Danish islands thanks for a timely Russian support army that strengthened the defenses of the remaining lands of the Kingdom, but the Nordic state would not recover from the catastrophic German Winter offensive.
On the March of 1913, the French forces unleashed a new weapon against the Germans: Chlorine Gas. Gas machines on the Western front would wait for favorable winds to come and create a gas cloud that crossed the Rhine and stuck the Enemy lines, followed by an offensive. This was tested on the Dutch section of the Rhineland, but it proved not being enough to achieve a breakthrough, with the offensive following the old standard of attack and counter-attack. Nonetheless, it wasn't the only moral weapon employed by the French, that started to create massive "Dirigible" ships that crossed the skies of German cities, massive balloons inspired by the projects of the Brazilian scientist Santos Dumont presented on the 1900 World fair to the then Prince Napoleon V. The airships flew so high that nothing could hit it, allowing for indiscriminate bombing of military and civilian targets alike, still, it was more of a morale weapon than a destructive one, with the damage caused being limited.
((French Gas Machines))
((French "Dirigible" raid over Westphalia))
Another new weapon was the armed plane, invented in 1905 by Santos Dumont (Which was pretty much the leading aviation pioneer of the world), a flying machine that was initially used only for reconissance, it was now started to be armed by Machine guns and built by stronger materials, resulting in the first air battles of the world. The "Dogfights" were confrontations of several planes of different squadrons into massive air duels with the pilots being considered modern "knights" as most of them descended from nobility and treated their enemy with cordiality. Sometimes two of the pilots would make a deal before the battle to not shoot the other, but such deals and chivalry would reduce by the end of the war.
((A painting of a dogfight))
The Eastern Front didn't stay static for long, after almost eliminating the Nordics from the War, Mackesen led his troops to the Russian front, where a concentrated attack managed to take Krakow on the 3rd of April, and a second offensive over Warsaw finally took the city on the 28th. The new German attacks forced the Russian army to retreat to avoid an encirclement over the south, retreating from Western Galicia and Poland, to the other side of the Vistula. The shortened Frontline allowed the Russians to strengthen their defenses and halted the German advance over Poland.
((New Eastern Frontline))
But also on April, something far darker started: The Catalan offensive. General Joffre and over 1,2 million men attacked Catalonia with the mission of killing anything that moves. The offensive of gas attacks, and artillery was planned for months, and the Iberian lines were broken. What followed next was taken from horror movies, soldiers invaded villages, rounded up the citizens in a church, imprisioned them inside, and put fire on the wooden structure and those inside, shooting anything that tried to leave the building. Barcelona suffered the worst, with planes and zeppelins gassing the city while the French navy and artillery destroyed the city and the army surrounded it, a column of refugees was seen marching to the west, with General Joffre ordering the bombardment of artillery and an attack by cavalry and airplanes. Officers received a quota of killing, with companies unable to bring the heads of Catalans required by the end of the week being transferred to be the first line of attack against the trenches. A million refugees tried to escape the fury of Bonaparte, clogging the roads and ending up in the "no man's land" between the French and Spanish lines, caught in the crossfire and minefields. French troops made no discrimination, killing from babies to elderly, some soldiers trained their bayonets on the bodies, blinded by hate caused by propaganda and lust for revenge. The offensive was halted on the Ebro river, with Napoleon V himself ordering over 300,000 men to stay behind to rampage the countryside, burn all symbols of Catalan history and culture, burning books and entire cities, scorched land tactics were applied in a scale not seen since the fall of Rome and the Viking raids. By the end of June, its estimated that about 75% of the Catalan population was dead, with the rest either hiding or fleeing to Spain, most settling in Valencia. And that would backfire hard against Napoleon.
((A Catalan woman mourning her dead son))
In Rome, the Catalan Genocide hit hard against any Pro-French feelings at the nation, even the Murat Dynasty decided to distance themselves from their French past, changing name to the "Di Napoli" Dynasty. The Parliamentary Jingoists were quick to scream bloody murder and demand a declaration of war, especially citing the French control of Milan and Turin, fearing that something similar would happen to the Italians. On the 15th of April, on the birthday of the sinking of the Titan, the Pope Benedict XV excommunicated Napoleon V, and on the following day, the King authorized the declaration of war and troops crossed the Po, opening up the Italian front.
The United States was in a electoral period when the Great War began, once again the Whigs and the Republicans went for a fight and the Whigs could finally have a chance to put their representative on the White House. In 1900, William McKinley was reelected for another 4 years, with the Whigs winning again in 1904 by the election of McKinley's VPOTUS, Theodore Roosevelt, the New York governor and the poster boy of the rising Progressive movement inside the Republicans. Roosevelt's government is generally placed on the top 10 best, his achievements internally include the breaking of Monopolies and antitrust laws, the creation of Wildlife reserves for preservation, and the "Roosevelt Doctrine", claiming American dominion over the continent with the right to intervene when it's interests are threatened, further reinforcing the King Docrine. That was shown nowhere better than the Mexican Civil War, where the US decisively intervened for the Texan and Californian republics, the US intervened also against Emiliano Zapata and the Monarchists, on the December of 1911, the United States forced the 3 sides to sit and reach a compromise: Mexico would undergo a Land Reform and distribution of much of it for peasants, Reyes and his military Junta would create a provisional government that would eventually make a referendum between an Republic, or the restoration of Monarchy (With a close result for the Republic in 1917).
But Roosevelt also did controversial actions, like the statehood of Texas and California, the creation of the income tax, and his demands to declare war on the Coalition by the late days of his Presidency (he later said to regret it after the Catalan Genocide). And in 1912, he refused to go a 3rd term, keeping the Washington tradition, and the Whigs had their first shot to win the White House in a long time. Roosevelt's popularity was high but Republicans were divided on the succession, and if they could get Conservative Republicans to vote Whig, then the Republican almost uninterrupted domination of Washington would be over. The nominations of the 2 parties had their issues: Who would be Roosevelt's successor for the Republicans ? And who would be able to defeat him ?
The Whigs went into the 1912 election with William Jennings Bryan, "The Great Commoner", refusing to run a 3rd time. In the background, the President of Princeton and Governor of New Jersey, Woodrow Wilson, managed to make a deal for Bryan to give him support in return for a Ministry. Wilson went for a fight with Champ Clark for the nomination, finally winning it as a compromise candidate, dedicated to banking reform, antitrust law reform, and especially keeping America out of the Great War.
((Woodrow Wilson, the Whig Presidential nominee))
The Republicans were another matter, the War in Europe made the divide between Taft's Conservatives and the Progressives larger than ever, with the latter wanting the entry into the war. The party would end up splitting apart, between Roosevelt's "Progressive Party" and Taft's Republicans, Roosevelt changed his mind and choose to run for a 3rd term due to his personal rivalry with Taft. This change of heart of Roosevelt would prove costly.
((President Roosevelt campaigning in 1912))
((William Howard Taft, Republican Nominee))
((Republican cartoon claiming the Whigs would take the pensions of the people))
The Campaign was fierce, especially between Roosevelt and Wilson. Roosevelt's voters were divided, with Taft taking many of them, but it was the best chance for a 3rd party to finally end the 2-Party system, and Roosevelt was not gonna waste it. He campaigned hard, and it seemed like he could make it, grabbing New York and California, but that wasn't enough to compensate the split of the Republican vote, giving Wilson the Presidency of the United States of America.
Wilson would take the White House on the 4th of March, promising America a time of peace and "No to the European War", but in 1913, he would receive news from Catalonia on the following month, and American trade started to be threatened: At the beggining of the War, the United Kingdom had instituted a blockade over all members of the Entente, especially France. Forcing trade ships to return back or get sunk, America's trade interests being interrupted was almost enough for Roosevelt to declare war on the Entente, which was prevented by the Majority Whig House. But Wilson decided to not force the issue and opted to recognize the Blockade, he would be followed by most American countries.
As France started to slowly get cut off their supply routes, Napoleon V authorized, on the 7th of May of 1913, the "Unrestricted Swordfish Warfare" (USW), unleashing the Swordfish fleet against Britain, planning their own Blockade to cut off the Island from supplies and slowly starve them out. The French fleet started to sink trade and supply ships in a democratic manner: Every nation not at war with Britain would have their convoys sunk, there would be no distinction of a cruise or a ammunition ship (sometimes they were the same as we shall see later), the first American ships would start to sink.
((The Sinking of the Lusitania))
One of these ships was the Lusitania, a British Cruiser that was transporting about 1,700 passengers, and tons of bullets and artillery shells at the bottom secretly. Informed of the latter and ignoring the first, the Crew of the Swordfish "S-17" would torpedo the boat, hitting the ammmunition storage and causing a massive explosion, the ship would sink in less than 30 minutes, taking the lives of a thousand passengers, including 213 Americans. Wilson was livid, the French provocations were going too far, one week after the Lusitania sinking, on the September 18th of 1913, France was forced to end the USW after the United States threatened to enter the Coalition if the attacks didn't cease. The entry of America was avoided, for now.
Between March and June of 1913, 3 new players joined the Great War: The Phillipino Empire, The Kingdom of Italy, and The Ottoman Empire.
The Philippines joined the war due to their Anti-British sentiment and their ambitions over Northern Borneo, a British colony. But the Casus belli happened on the 18th of March, when a Phillipino merchant shio heading for Saigon was sunk by the British blockade. The Government of the Oriental Empire, led now by Isabella I, was just looking for a excuse and found one. Sending the navy to Saigon in a attempt to relieve the French East Asian fleet. Clashing against the British fleet at the Battle of Chochina. The British naval superiority guaranteed a tactical defeat of the Phillipino navy, but also allowed the French escape and combine with the Phillipino fleet to create a mighty foe. The British navy would play a game of Cat and Mouse with the Entente ships for much of the war in the East.
Distracting the British fleet, the invasion of Northern Borneo, a old ambition of Isabella and her Empire, was ordered. On the July 7th, the Entente captured Sandakan, creating a bridgehead and starting a long and brutal attrition warfare on the island. They also found allies in the Island Natives, after the brutal treatment under Edward's rule, it was an opportunity to finally break Borneo free from British rule. The native revolts just ended up tying down many more units in the jungle island.
The Italians meanwhile, crossed the border with success, taking several cities before the arrival of French reinforcements that created another Trench front. One particularly brutal due to the nature of the Italian commander Luigi Cardona, a commander that didn't care about the life of his soldiers and was in the army thanks to political allies. Meanwhile, the French forces were led by a competent certain Robert Davout, grandson of Louis Davout. Davout was a superior commander to Cardona (not hard to happen) but was always in smaller numbers and with less resources. The result was a line of trenches going from the Swiss border to the Mediterranean, where both sides would remain for years.
((Italian "General" Luigi Cardona))
((Robert Davout, French General of the Armée d'Italia))
((The Frontlines by July))
The French had to divert forces from Egypt to capture Lybia, and using the opportunity, the Ottomans declared a Jihad to recapture Jerusalem, on the 6th of July of 1913. Ottoman troops were enthusiastic, fighting in the name of Islam to free the Holy City, but were underequipped and not capable of fighting both the Russians in the Caucasus and the French in Palestine. The initial offensive managed to reach the gates of the Holy City, before it was stopped and the Russians launched their own offensive in the North, invading Trebzon and heading to Lake Van. The Sultan Abdulmejid II, in desperation, granted amnesty to Young Turk officers that fought in the army. A force led by Mustafa Kemal managed to defeat the Russian forces in a impressive campaign in Armenia, pushing the Russians to Kars. It wouldn't be the last time that Kemal would be heard of, not even by far.
"This is it then." Said Alphonso, "This is the Ebro, we made it to Spain, for now. But I doubt this river can stop the Bonapartist Legions." "You should have a little more faith, if the Germans stopped them on the Rhine, the Spaniards can do the same." "Luíz, it's not that simple, that was the Rhine, it is much larger than this one. Besides, those were the Germans, I don't think the Spaniards and Portuguese can hold as well as the Kaiser." "Perhaps, but you should trust that to God, he wouldn't leave the French unpunished after all these years." "It's hard to keep believing in a higher being if he keeps screwing you and your race for a century. More likely to believe that God is French and wants to punish us for something." Luíz was about to reply, but was interrupted by a sound thundering the sky, someone yelled "Artillery !" And the second later, the blow fell a few meters behind, killing probably at least half dozen people. Others fell on the ground missing a leg or with the arm full of shrapnel. It was so frequent that many lost their sensitivity and feeling of panic, many desired to be hit and killed instead of being with the mass of refugees crossing the Ebro for Spain. They were a large target of sitting ducks waiting to be tortured to death by the legions of Bonaparte. It was a group of 2,400, at least in the beggining, half of them were dead. They were all from Prades, fleeing south to Valencia, the last great Catalan city that wasn't destroyed, thanks for the French fleet being stuck in Toulon.
They came across a large stone bridge, the Spanish forces were pushed back to the other side of the Ebro where a massive number of trenches and bunkers was built. That's where Alphonso and his brother Luíz expected to find some hope, but the artillery meant that the French were closer than expected, and now the refugees rushed across the bridge, where a Spanish officer and his patrol stopped them. "Enough of this ! We will keep a slow and steady flow, we don't want any possible spies slipping into our defenses. Now I want all of you forming two lines, women and children in one, and men on the other." "This is insanity !" Someone shouted, "The French are coming right behind us, if we don't go now, we will never make it to Valencia !" "You either do that or you aren't crossing !" "I WANT TO LIVE !!!" Screamed someone in the front, a young man of maybe the age of 17 or 18, rushing and trying to cross the bridge, before he was shot down by one of the guards.
What happened next was like if all the fear, horror, and panic that the crowd had lost returned. A thousand Catalans heard behind them the sound of "La Marseillaise" with the French Imperial flag rising across the horizon. The crowd was against both the incoming French on one side and the Spaniards on the other. Alphonso just screamed internally, showing fear in his brown eyes. The Spanish officers sighed and opened the way, returning his patrol to the main Spanish positions. The Catalans wasted no time and crossed the bridge, turning to the left and rushing to the south, until another artillery shell hit them, but this one didn't explode, but released a white cloud. "It's gas !" Alphonso shouted, making the crowd run desperately to escape it, even then, some of them fell. Luíz finally broke, "Everyone stop !" He screamed on the top of his lungs, some stopped and others just continued to run. "My brothers ! The hordes of Bonaparte ransacked Catalonia for a hundred years ! It's time for the payback ! All of those that want to live, keep going, but if we don't stop them at this bridge, there will be no place in the world where the rest of our people can be in peace ! All of those that want revenge and to protect our children so they never be oppressed again, follow me !" At least 500 men came with him to the Spanish headquarters, merely saying that they wanted to fight. Even if he didn't trust Catalans personally, the Spanish commander acquiesced, not wanting to refuse hundreds of extra soldiers. That was it, all of them were handed a rifle and ammunition, becoming the Catalan volunteer regiment. For a entire day, they fought brutally against a wave of dark blue uniforms.
And by the end of the night, they finally were pushed out, most of the men dying or being captured (which was the same as death for Catalans), but they managed to hold the French long enough to allow over 600 refugees, the village of Prides survived. Alphonso and Luíz survived, with the former gaining a scar across the face, and the latter becoming a officer of the regiment. The 2 Catalan brothers and their comrades would fight on, even with the French crossing the Ebro, they would defend Valencia a few weeks later, protecting the last Catalan city from Destruction.
As the War progressed towards 1914, both sides had to change strategy. The Trenches made sure that offensives would become extremely costly for the attackers, and the momentum of the Italians and French was gone: Italy became another maze of trenches from the mountains to the sea, and the French supply lines were overextended after taking Zaragoza and being stopped at the gates of Valencia. British troops were pouring in Iberia and filling the gaps of the Iberian lines, preventing the collapse of the Carlist lines. Spain also would become a brutal trench war, while behind the lines Catalonia was under French control. In the East, Germany and Russia were in brutal battles that were little more mobile compared to it's western counterparts, Congress Poland was mostly in German occupation while the Russians still had Memel and Galicia. Further south, the Ottoman Caliphate continued it's fight for Jerusalem, with both sides making a compromise to not bombard the Holy city. The African front continued a Stalemate in Central Africa: The French were outnumbered and the British couldn't advance without risking a native revolt, with Ethiopia joining the French forces in a attempt to retake Eritreia and get revenge on the Italians. North Borneo continued with a slow advance of Phillipino troops, while the French and British continued to be killed by the Thousands by diseases of the jungle and native raids.
((Frontlines in Spain))
The Great Powers adopted a new strategy in common: Bleed the enemy dry, turning the Great War in a attritional one. The Coalition hoped that the blockade of France would eventually collapse the Imperial Eagle, while the Entente was betting on destroying the weaker nations in the Coalition one by one, while inspiring revolts on the British colonies and betting on Russia's mighty resources to make them outlast the Germans. But both sides were looking to find new allies, especially on the Balkans and Americas.
The election of Wilson as president, and the end of the USW (Unrestricted Swordfish Warfare) meant that the US wouldn't play war for now. That didn't mean there was another American Power that couldn't join: The Brazilian Empire. Under Emperor Luis I, the nation was a agrarian titan, supplying 70% of the world's coffee, one of the most consumed beverages of the world. The War just increased the demands, until the exports were affected by the blockade of France and Russia (not much in the latter), besides, the Brazilian nation was literally married into the house of Bonaparte: The Mother of the Emperor was daughter of Napoleon III and he married his son with the younger sister of Napoleon V, Natalié Josephine. Luis was already 60 years old and didn't desire a war during his last years as he prepared the throne for his son Pedro III, but his ministers and his own family continued to press him after the sinking of several convoys by British blockade, the Coffee Barons demanded action. On the 14th of October came a reason to push the Emperor out of the edge: A document called "The Grey Telegram", a British document sent to Argentina and intercepted by the French, detailing a secret agreement to help the Argentine Republic to retake Entre Rios and Cisplatina from Brazil. The Emperor was fuming at the British audacity, especially the fact that Edward Grey, the foreign secretary, told his diplomat straight on that it wasn't a forgery. On the 23rd of October, the Brazilian Empire declared war on Great Britain, invading the Guianas while quickly striking naval bases in the Caribbean. The Naval balance of the war was altered, the advantage of the British navy diminished too: Brazil had the ambition of being a naval power since the independence, as result, the military resources of the Empire were heavily invested in naval power, creating a Armada that could challenge even the US one (at least during peacetime), the addition of over a Hundred ships into the Entente weakened the Coalition Blockade.
The Brazilians only threatened the Caribbean possessions, but the Irish were a threat to the home islands themselves. Led by a branch of the Bonapartes under King Michael II, grandson of Jerome I, the Irish nation had the old ambition of freeing the entire island from the British, and there was only one of the 5 original Duchies under British control: Ulster. And the promise of support and the family relations was all it took to bait the Irish: Under General Michael Collins, Irish troops invaded Ulster by surprise on the 9th of November of 1913, capturing much of the county and being hailed as liberators by the Catholic minority, until they arrived in Belfast. The Irish troops sustained a siege of the city, while Britain started to siege the whole island, isolating Ireland from the rest of the world and planning to starve the island (again). British reinforcements arrived and Belfast survived, starting another Trench front, one Michael knew that they couldn't win at the long-term, with the fate of the island tied to the results of the war in Mainland Europe.
On the Balkans, the peninsula erupted on fire, ever since the end of the Balkan war, the common enemy was gone and the 3 nations (Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece) came back to their old feuds over the division of Macedonia, the Greeks and Serbs believing that the Bulgars won a unfair share of it. Only one breath could start a fire again. Hungary was observing the war since its beggining. The King Maximillian IV being a extremely paranoid person, fearing that the Russians had a plot to overthrow him at any time. The Kaiser played on this, giving him "evidence" that the Russians would overthrow him once the War was over to create a new order in Eastern Europe. The plan worked and Hungary joined the Coalition on the 12th of December 1913. But sensing an opportunity and with Russian support, Serbia mobilized to finally take Bosnia and achieve Grand Serbia. The Serbian mobilization played on the Bulgarian paranoia of their neighbors involved in a conspiracy to divide Bulgaria amongst themselves (which is not false, as that was revealed to be a post-war Plan of Serbia). The Tsardom of Bulgaria followed with the mobilization, and Grecce came right behind, being promised by the French the lands promised on the "Megali Idea". One declaration of war was followed by another, and by the 18th of December, the Second Balkan War began.
One nation left was Romania, with long ambitions of taking Transylvania and Silistria, the only reason it didn't join yet was the pro-German leaning of King Ferdinand I. But his assassination by a Russian symphatizer and the rise of Carol I took that off. And on the 23rd of December, Romania joined the Entente.
As the war entered its second year, there was no Christmas truce, the hate of the enemy and the fear of their superiors (That made clear that any non-official truce would be considered treason) prevented anything like 1912. The few ones that were attempted received artillery fire as response. The war became much more windspread across the world in 1913 and in 1914 the two sides planned to end it. There were attempts of a peace treaty, but the French refusal of giving up any territorial ambitions killed it prematurely.
It wasn't only the leaders that were desiring the end of the war, in 1914 several nations implemented wartime rations, increasing the unrest especially in the blockaded nations. In France, a strike ended up brutally suppressed by fire, the rising opposition to war made the Emperor dissolve the Parliament and rule by decree on the 3rd of March of 1914. And meanwhile in Germany, the High Command of the Army led by Generals Ludendorff and Hindenburg became de facto military dictators, keeping Wilhelm II as figurehead. Other authoritarian rulings were decreed in most of the other members of the war, with several Pelletist and pacifist journalists and politicians being arrested, especially in Russia. The Tsardom was dealing with a increase of social unrest due to the military defeats, Tsaritst Autocracy, and the rising hunger on the Western lands of the Empire. Every side planned to restore the people's resolve by ending the war as quickly as possible, earning military victories on the battlefield.
The first one to take initiative were the Germans, planning to finally take Scandinavia out of the War. It would not only be one less enemy of the Reich, but would force the Russians to spread their forces thin across the Peninsula. The first objective was to destroy the Russian Baltic fleet to allow the invasion of the Capital Copenhagen. The Ostseeflotte led by admiral Tirpitz started to hunt down the Russian fleet on the Baltic, meeting them off the coast of Gotland. A vicious naval battle happened between the heavy ships of the German and Russian fleets, the Steelboats went into hour-long duels that ended only when one was on the bottom of the sea. The brutality of the battle in the sea was so intense that the Germans developed small fast boats full of explosives to throw at enemy ships like torpedoes. One incident in the battle was when a Russian Destroyer was out of ammunition and being bombarded by a German Cruiser, the Destroyer advanced full speed and rammed the German Cruiser, making it capsize. After an entire day, the two fleets retreated with no winners, only losers. The two navies losing roughly half of their ships in one of the most vicious naval battles of History, it was also the first time that torpedoes were attached to planes and used against ships, creating the naval bombers.
((Artistic image of the battle))
But strategically, the victory was German, the Russian fleet would return to Petrograd and clear the path for the German invasion force. The entire island was under siege and assault, and after 2 months of fighting, the city of Copenhagen fell on April 12th 1914. The Kingdom of Scandinavia was forced to capitulate after losing much of it's force and the Capital city, but the Germans were wrong in calculations: Instead of occupying Scandinavia, the Tsar retreated his troops to Finland, not wanting to waste men to protect a country with no strategic importance. The Eastern Front was instead straightened by the fall of Scandinavia, "Acceptable loss", as Bonaparte stated.
Next move was French, with the Irish distracting the Royal army and seeing how easily Scandinavia fell, Napoleon V doubled up the troops in Iberia, going there himself to lead the troops, leaving his wife as regent. Encouraged by the reinforcements and the leadership of their Emperor himself, French troops invaded Spain with full strength, surrounding Valencia, taking Bilbao and the gates of Madrid itself. King Carlos soon saw starvation in his land, the Pelletists calling a General Strike, the Portuguese troops retreating, and troops seeing no more reason to fight, claiming that to continue to challenge Napoleon would make Spain suffer the same fate as Catalonia. The flags of Pelletists, Liberals, and opposition groups were carried by army deserters over all Spain, all demanding the end of the War and Abdication of Carlos VII and the end of the Carlist Ultracatholic "organic regime". The Syndicates united under the common flag of the "Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo" (CNT), demanding as far as a Popular Republic based on Pelletism. With the French on one side and the people in other, Carlos VII fleed the country, leaving the President of the Council of Ministers to declare the First Spanish Republic and surrender to the French forces. All of that happening in a space of 7 weeks, with the surrender to the French coming on the May 3rd.
((Workers celebrating the declaration of the Republic))
The Spanish Revolution and surrender sent shockwaves around the world, starting a wave of red scare, Monarchs across Europe fearing the same fate of Carlos, especially in Portugal. King Miguel IV decided to crackdown on the Pelletist cells across the nation and appoint the military in positions of power, surrounding himself with security and arresting all those suspect of harboring Republican or Pelletist symphaties, causing an exodus to Spain. French troops demanded the military acess to invade Portugal, similarly to what Napoleon I did centuries earlier. This time although, the King would not flee. With the support of British troops, Miguel prepared the defenses of his nation against the French onslaught.
To distract the French, King Murat of Italy decided it was time to attack. After the 6th failed offensive of Milan made by Cardonna and 100,000 casualties, he was sacked, leaving the command of the army to his son, Prince Umberto di Napoli. Napoli was a much more competent commander than Cardona (It's not really an achievement as anyone else on the General Staff could fill that role), and used the French transfer of resources and troops to Spain as a chance to attack, on the 29th of March, the Italian army launched a much more coordinated offensive that managed to reach the gates of Turin, capturing the city of Milan. But much of the renaissance city was destroyed by the fighting, with the Legendary Cathedral made by Da Vinci being burned to the ground. Still, over 300,000 casualties were inflicted upon the French, compared to 70,000 Italian ones, a clear improvement compared to Cardona, and forcing the French to send in part of the Spanish army to prevent a full collapse.
The Balkans were also full of activity, as Pre-War plans dictated, Romanian, Serbian, and Greek troops invaded Bulgaria from 3 sides. The Prussia of the Balkans held well, but by the 2nd of February, it was about to collapse, with Ottoman troops coming to the rescue at the battle of Sofia, arriving at the last moment against the Serbian flanks, in a ironical comparison to the Battle of Vienna in 1683. Meanwhile, a combined Hungaro-German force invaded Serbia, capturing Belgrade on the 11th of February. Led by the recently promoted General Adolf Hitler. Hitler was a innovative commander, using the mass use of armored cars, combined with infiltration tactics and aircraft to overwhelm enemy defenses. He was also the first Commander to use the "War Trucks", a Anglo-German secret project of a fully-armored cars armed with machine guns. They were slow and usually got stuck in trenches, but were almost invulnerable unless hit by a direct strike of an artillery shell. Hitler was a commander on the Western Front that was born in Vienna in 1880 (Alt-History here, just put in some butterflies), he was the youngest General of the German Army and also very interested in politics, he displayed several Nationalist and Monarchist views, being called the "Ideal soldier of the German Army". By the end of March, his forces led a coalition of Hungarians, Turks, and Bulgarians in sweeping across Serbia and Grecce, with the Greek government reduced to the Pelopponesian and Athens. They also captured Bucharest in April, forcing the Russians to extend their lines into Moldova, to prevent the exposure of Ukraine. The Ploesti oil fields were captured on the 8th of April, 2 days before Bucharest, being used at full power to fuel the German War Machine.
((General Adolf Hitler))
The almost collapse of the Balkan Front happened simultaneously at the Chochina Campaign. To distract the Franco-Phillipino forces, British marines invaded Indochina. From the beggining, it was a rushed proposal to prevent the fall of Brunei to the Phillipino army. Indeed the invasion forced the transfer of troops and saved temporarily the city, but soon the rushed campaign turned into a brutal meatgrinder for the British, that fought in the jungles against the French and their native allies (that preferred French dominion instead of British one), thousands would die on the campaign.
But the main action happened on the Rhineland. Both the French and Germans knew that breaking the river would bring the final victory, and the French stuck first. The "Operation Austerlitz", named after Napoleon's greatest victory, was launched on the 8th of June, with over 3 days of non-stop artillery bombardment and attacks with new gas weapons. Finally crossing the river and attacking the area of Limburg. The French created a bridgehead and started a offensive in German territory, breaking the defenses. But the Offensive coincided with the return of General Hitler and his troops, Adolf led a thunder counter-attack, pushing the French back to the river and bombarding the boats that came to attempt a rescue. The original plan of the operation was push from Limburg and cut the Netherlands from the rest of the Reich, it ended with 570,000 French casualties and prisioneers, with the Germans losing 320,000. The disaster was followed by Operation Michael, the German Counter attack against the weakened French lines in Flandres, planning to take the city of Antwerpen and land over a million troops to support the attack in Flandres. The attack was preceded by an artillery bombardment of 5 days and the first use of mustard gas. German War Trucks invaded Flandres only 2 days after the French surrender in Limburg, on the 7th of July. The German forces achieved great successes, surrounding Antwerpen and going as far as Bruges, but the French General Petain, one of the best French Generals, led a counter attack that relieved Antwerpen and surrounded 400,000 Germans in Flandres, but Hitler acted quickly, using the Anglo-German naval supremacy to evacuate the army. Over 320,000 men escaped in the "miracle of Flandres", but still, the Germans were back to the Rhine, losing 378,000 men but inflicting 180,000 casualties on the French side.
The late 1914 was when the major players started to despair, seeing no end for the war in sight. Portugal was fighting a total war against Joffre and the French, Napoleon V went to Italy, where he started to plan a counterattack against Umberto's forces, Russian forces were overextended from the Black Sea to the Baltic, both the French and Germans were recovering from the Summer offensives in the Rhine front, the British had to deal with colonial unrest, the Ottomans continued to fight on 2 fronts, and the Greeks desperately held Attica and the Pelopponesian. The situation was looking bleak for members of both alliances, and all of them waited for something, anything, to achieve victory.
But first there was a war in the skies. The French and German aircraft battled over the Rhineland, with the first bomber planes being used to attack the industry and infrastructure of the rival. In the skies there were two aces: Joachim Bonaparte, Brother of Napoleon V and air squad commander, and Manfred von Richthofen, the "Red Baron" and best German pilot. The two pilots met several times during the war, having a gentleman's rivalry, both shoot down one another several times during the war. Duel of aces in the air was a matter of honor, a stark contrast to the war in the ground and sea.
((Manfred von Richtofen, the "Red Baron"))
The Entente was in a dire situation with the fall of Scandinavia and majority of the Balkans. But the French had a plan, this time in collaboration with the Russians, the plan was for the Russians to launch 2 offensives towards Warsaw and Koningsburg in October, with the French following up with a western one in November. It was expected that the offensive of Napoleon V in Italy would knock it out of the war, forcing German troops to defend the Alps further South. The plan was to overwhelm the Germans from 3 sides, if enough pressure managed to crackdown on the Germans then the Reich would fall and Britain will follow. The Russians also contacted Czech resistance movements across Bohemia-Moravia, supplying them with weapons and money to declare a uprising against the Kaiser.
On the 7th of October, Operation Suvorov was launched by General Brussilov. The German army was caught completely off guard by the Russian attack, the Imperial army of the Tsar was preparing for that attack for an entire year and that didn't let him down when launched, the attack was different: Instead of a long artillery barrage like the Rhine offensives, it was a short and accurate attack on weak points of the German lines, followed by the Russian offensive. The attack in Poland was a tremendous success, winning almost a hundred miles in one week, reaching the gates of Warsaw. To prevent the arrival of reinforcements, the second phase began, an offensive attacked the Eastern Prussia and threatened to siege Köningsburg. Then on the 1st of November, the French attacked.
Before that, on the 12th of August, the French army launched the Italian campaign, transfering troops from Iberia to Piedmont, Napoleon himself would lead the offensive, outnumbering Umberto's forces by 2:1. He started faking weakness in his lines, baiting the Italians to launch an offensive. Umberto knew something was wrong, but was pressured to attack by other officers. The Italians were surprised when the French forces counter-attacked their lines, pushing a furious offensive that took back Milan in a matter of days. The Italian line collapsed and Umberto ordered a general retreat to the Po river and Veneto. But the latter suffered the full fury of the French Elan, the city of Venice being threatened by the attack. The German Army was forced to transfer several army Corps to Italy to save its ally. The Venetian front had begun.
The French capture of Lombardia and Genoa would send shockwaves across the Peninsula, the fast attack was helped by French mobile troops with the use of modern tactics. The Italian troops were behind the Po river, losing all that took a year to conquer in less than a month. The nation was demoralized, the army was crippled and barely holding the river, and Prince Umberto was sacked from his position after his failures. Many South Italians became opposed to the war, reigniting the old rivalry of Northern and Southern Italians. Wishing to secure his Kingdom and still hoping that the Bonapartes would forgive him, Murat approached Napoleon for a ceasefire, giving Venetia to France temporarily until the end of the war as a gesture of good will. On the 5th of September of 1914, Italy was out of the War.
The second issue was Portugal, the small Nation led by Miguel IV was the last British base in Mainland Europe, and they intended to defend it even if the combined Coalition army was outnumbered 5:3 by the French. The Portuguese phase of the war lasted from the 8th of July (First French attack) until the 9th of November (When French attacks ceased), and it was a desperate struggle of Portuguese independence, but while the Portuguese were defending their mainland, the British and Portuguese forces in Africa had a new challenge. In a secret alliance with the Boer republics (promising them the control of the Cape colony), the Brazilian army invaded Angola while Blockading Cape City, using the thin spreading of the Royal Navy (that was too worried about blockading Europe, all while underestimating the Brazilian navy). Lobito and Luanda were taken, and the Boers backstabbed the British simultaneously. This all happened at the same time of a Native black uprising in the North, and by the 1st of September, British presence in Africa was collapsing, in desperation, governor Rhodes gave the control of the military to the German commander Lettow-Vorbeck, that retreated from Sudan to coordinate the defense of South Africa.
The Portuguese managed to resist, inflicting heavy loses to the French, but is widely believed by historians that Portugal wouldn't survive another attack. Instead, Napoleon V went to Flandres, diverting troops from all fronts to start "Operation Jena" (Name of the French victory over Prussia in 1806), over 3 million French troops stormed over the Rhine, preceded by a gas attack by aircraft: Mustard and Chlorine gas tanks were installed in airplanes and bombers, and used to create clouds over the enemy lines. The French used the German distractions in Prussia, Poland, and Venice to strike at the heart of the Eagle, crossing into Southern Netherlands, taking Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrech, cutting Amsterdam from the rest of the country. The French forces learned from Hitler, using infiltration tactics and War Trucks. The Germans would redeploy troops but couldn't avoid over half million of them getting surrounded in the Netherlands, all they could do was to flood the country to delay them.
The French had the momentum, taking Arnheim and advancing towards the German Industries of Essen. By the 1st of January of 1915, the Kaiser was in his room praying, begging to God for a intervention, something, anything, that could turn the war and save his country.
The Tsar was seated during the ballet, instead of dancing, he went to the smoking hall to talk with Nobles and Generals. He was informed that half of Warsaw was already taken, and that the troops further north were approaching Marienburg. Everything was going smoothly, even the French offensive that he expected to fail was about to strike the Rhineland Industries, he was certain that the war would be over soon. He was much more relaxed now, the optimism also came to the people and the unrest almost disappeared. It worried him that he would still have to make reforms to avoid possible strikes like the ones in 1914. But his worry for now was to think of a joke that could crack a smile from the face of Admiral Kolchack, it was a bet he made with Deninkin and he didn't want to lose it.
He was interrupted by his wife coming in with his first son, the Crown Prince Mikhail was born the day before the war began and has been such a energetic kid ever since. At the age of 3 he already was a threat to the crystals of the palace that were left hanging around close to the floor. Mikhail surprised everyone as he entered the smoking room with his mother running behind him, he scanned the face of those Nobles for a second and saw his father, "daddy !" Was all he said as his father turned around and the boy hugged his leg. The Tsar knew that the boy shouldn't be there, but he couldn't do anything other than smile at his little boy. He grabbed him in his arms and raised him to his shoulders. "Hey little prince, what are you doing here ?" Before the Prince replied, his mother came to the room. "Sorry, your majesty, but he slipped while I was talking to his sister." Nikolai rolled his eyes, "Have Anastasia arrived yet ?" "No, she is still not in St. Petersburg." Nikolai glared at his wife, he hated that name, it was a Germanic name to a Russian city, all while they were fighting the Germans. "Just tell me when she comes." He gave the boy back to his mother and returned to his conversation.
Then something seemed... strange. He saw a bright red and orange light flooding his room, but the sun wasn't supposed to rise for at least other 6 hours ! He slowly came to the Balcony and looked at the source of the light, a bright ball of fire coming from the sky above Petrograd, leaving a trail of white smoke behind. He didn't have time to understand or say anything until the said ball exploded just a few meters above the city, sending a explosion and shockwaves that covered the entire city, including the Winter Palace.
(Artistic representation)
The "Petrograd incident" is considered by modern scientists as the impact of a large celestial body into the Capital of the Russian Empire. The explosion had the power of 40 Megatons, and pulverized trees all the way into Finland and the Baltics. The city of Petrograd, some of the leading generals and politicians, and most of the Royal Family were gone instantly during the night of January 9th of 1915.
The sudden death of the Tsar and the destruction of Petrograd sent shockwaves around the world. The news arrived in the Frontline camp of Napoleon V, it was said that the Emperor passed out, and after waking up he exclaimed "The War is Lost." In Berlin, Kaiser Wilhelm was in having breakfast when a servant gave him the news, the Kaiser did all he could to contain himself from jumping and dancing around, but it wasn't enough, the servants awkwardly looked as the Kaiser was dancing like a prospector finding gold. He just said "God is German !". King-Emperor George VII called Prime Minister Lloyd George and said: "It's time."
Inside of Russia, a power vacuum took control as several nobles, generals, admirals, politicians, and royals died at once. The first question was, who is in charge ? At the way from Moscow to Petrograd, Princess Anastasia felt a strong wind, in the road, and hours later she received the news. She fell into the floor crying, after a few minutes, she went back to Moscow, where the news of her survival arrived and she called the leading figures of Russia. Claiming the title of Tsarina, but at same time came her uncle Mikhail Romanov (Brother of the Tsar), the two pretenders clashed due to the Pauline laws, Anastasia was also underage and the only child of Mikhail was a bastard. The feelings were mixed: Anastasia was a direct descendant and was popular, besides, many saw the fact that she was the only survivor as a blessing of God. While Mikhail was a legitimate male candidate, he also caused scandal by having a married woman as mistress and had no legitimate heir. Anastasia won the support of the clergy and people, while Mikhail had the support of much of the remaining Nobility and politicians. Generals were split: While ones like Lavr Kornilov and Brussilov supported Mikhail, others like Pyotr Wrangel supported Anastasia. A succession war was brewing.
((Grand Duchess Anastasia))
((Grand Duke Mikhail))
Temporarily, it was formed a Supreme Privy Council to govern the country from Moscow, immediately calling for a Truce with the Coalition. Napoleon urged the council to not do so, indeed many opposed inside of Russia a peace treaty including Mikhail. The act was called as an act of cowardice and a declaration of the council in support of Anastasia by Mikhail. He left Moscow, contacting army units loyal to him to March into Moscow, with Anastasia-aligned forces defending it, starting the Russian civil war.
((Green: Anastasia, Brown: Mikhail))
As Russia fell in civil war, the Eastern Front collapsed. German troops marched virtually unstoppable into Poland and Galicia, retaking much of the lost land. With the rebellion, the remaining members of the council and the Great Synod declared Anastasia as Tsarina of all-Russias. In her Authority, she made a peace treaty separately with the Coalition in Prague, giving Congress Poland and Lithuania for the Kaiserreich. Without the Eastern front to worry about, over 3 million German troops under General Hindenburg were transferred to the West, a final showdown between France and Germany to decide the fate of the War, and the World.
Ever since 1804 when Napoleon I became Emperor, the Nations of Europe united to defeat Bonaparte and his revolution. They fought ever since the Revolution, 6 wars to defeat the French, 2 of them against the Revolutionaries and 4 against Bonaparte. The wars were thought to be over in Vienna, but that was a false idea: The traditional European houses and monarchies would never accept to call those upstart Corsicans as equals, but the force of arms of the French Empire forced them to do so. No nation could challenge the French supremacy until the rise of the German Kaiserreich, a nation founded on the same nationalist ideals of France, their equal in population, in industry, in the military. Germany was born for this fight, to lead a 7th coalition and take down the Bonapartes once and for all. And the final showdown of the Bonapartes and the European Monarchies started in 1912 and lasted for 3 years, until it finally came to a close in 1915. The French Empire was standing alone in Europe, fighting against it's enemies, after knocking out the minor members of the coalition surrounding them, Napoleon V led millions of troops of the largest army the world had ever seen into a final war, to decide the fate of Europe: Another Century of French rule awaited in the victory, and a Century of German rule awaited in defeat.
On the 18th of January, the day before the peace of Prague, French troops launched a full offensive from the front and flanks to take Essen, Dortmound, and Bonn, the 3 main industrial centers of Western Germany. The attack was met with fierce German resistance, the Germans forced the French to pay for every building, every inch, in blood. The Brutal "Auerstedt Offensive" (named after the twin battle with Jena) lasted until the 3rd of March with the French capturing the 3 cities, but the cost was so great that Napoleon failed to keep a push into Westphalia. Meanwhile on the west, Amsterdam was being supplied by sea, the British navy keeping the city strong and fed. Napoleon V finally snapped against the British (similarly to what he did with the Catalans), and reactivated the Unrestricted Swordfish Warfare.
Tons of shipments of food and supplies going into the British islands were going to the bottom of the sea. The British islands would suffer the wrath of Napoleon, that planned to starve them into submission. But he had made the mistake of sinking American ships. Public opinion in America was swinging into Anti-French sentiment, especially thanks for the large German descended population in America and Wilson's personal admiration of the Kaiserreich. Finally, on the 6th of March, the Casus belli arrived: A assassin stuck President Wilson, identified as an agent of the French government with the intention of preventing Wilson from joining the War. Wilson survived, and on the 8th of March, using the outrage of the people, he declared war on the French Empire.
Meanwhile, Ireland finally fell, Dublin was taken by British troops, finding a city of starving citizens. The blockade finally forced the Kingdom to surrender to London. Seeing the writing in the Wall and wanting to leave before the Coalition wrath fell on them, the Brazilians and Phillipinos made a generous deal with Britain, promising to retreat from the occupied territory in return of the dismissal of the foreign debt. They would be followed by the Boers and the Natives, that negotiated changes in autonomy and treatment by the British in Africa. Romania and Greece also capitulated after the fall of Russia. By the 1st of May of 1915, France was alone.
And while their last allies fell one by one. Napoleon V decided to play one last gamble: Hoping to strike the Germans before the eastern reinforcements and the US troops arrived, an offensive attacked Westphalia and Northern Netherlands. Taking the city of Zwolle on the 23rd of March, French troops marched to Münster when the German Eastern troops finally arrived. The battle of Münster would decide the fate of the War. On the sea, the French fleet focused all their assets for a decisive engagement, against the Anglo-German fleet off the Coast of Holland. The Battle would become the largest naval battle of the War: 178 French ships against 203 combined Coalition ships. The Battle would last for 3 days, until the French fleet retreated back to Dunkirk, losing over 86 ships, with the Coalition also retreating and losing 94 ships. It was a tactical draw, but strategic Coalition victory, as the French navy would never leave the ports again during the war, and the Amsterdam supply lines were secured.
The Battle of Münster was a bloody affair, the bloodiest battle of the War, lasting from the 4th of April until the 29th of May, the city was destroyed and over 1 million men were lost. It was a battle between General Petain and General Hitler, with the latter winning. The German victory turned the tide of the War as the Germans slowly but surely reconquered their territory. Between the 29th of May and the 18th of August, French forces were pushed all the way back to the Rhine, but Hitler, Lundendorff, and Hindenburg didn't want a stalemate again. That's when the news arrived: British Commonwealth and American experditionaries landed in Brest.
It was an old plan, devised during the 1880s, the Coalition plan was always to overwhelm the French from all fronts, and the British weren't to be restricted at sea. They would be responsible to take the fight to the French after their frontlines began to fall apart. And on the 6th of August, The First Lord of Admiralty Winston Churchill, gave green light to "Operation Wellington", the name of the only General that was said to be capable of defeating Napoleon in all Britain. Over 120,000 men, supported by 186 ships and the first mass Campaign of plane bombardment in history, along with the first 20,000 Americans to fight in Europe, invaded the Beaches of Britanny, capturing the city of Brest: The Largest Port in the region and only place capable of supplying the invasion. The British troops went down the peninsula like a wave until Napoleon sent reinforcements to stop them, but the damage was done: It forced Napoleon to split his forces.
((Frontlines in Britanny))
The Germans Launched Operation "Gottendamerug" (Twilight of the Gods in the Nordic Religion), the combined militaries of the Coalition in Europe attacked the French in the Rhine and Italy, the Southern troops were mostly Hungarians, Bulgarians, and South Germans, with the rest of the German army going in full force against the French Rhine. General Ludendorff was put in charge of the Forces in Venice while Hindenburg and Hitler took command of the Rhine troops: Over 8 million men in the Rhineland and 3 million in Venice surprised the French troops that expected to see a weakened Germany, and this time they could just delay them. The Coalition forces absolutely Destroyed the French "Armée d'Italia", pushing them out of the Peninsula. Seizing the opportunity, Italy declared war once again to push the French out. In Portugal, French forces retreated to Eastern Spain/Catalonia, until they were trapped by the Spanish forces that backstabbed Joffre's troops and captured over 700,000 men with only a small part escaping to Catalonia, followed by Spanish, British, and Portuguese forces. The Rhine defenses finally collapsed, with French forces deserting and surrendering at the waves, German troops marched on Flandres and Rhineland as liberators.
Napoleon V saw his Empire falling apart, Ottoman troops renewed their offensive and took Jerusalem, Coalition forces overwhelmed colonial forces and were pushing in Sudan and Cote d'ivory, with Morocco and Algeria threatened by the Spanish. The Blockade finally revealed its power as Napoleon V went back to Paris, seeing a starving population begging for peace and food in the streets. Napoleon believed in a Final victory, using the army to defend better positions like the Alps and the Pyrenees while focusing all their reserves and conscripts to halt the Germans that were already in Wallonia. But his General Staff was certain that he was insane, moving nonexistent armies across a map. Some generals like Nivelle could see the writing in the wall from the moment that Petrograd was gone, others were in denial and supported Napoleon, but deep down all but Bonaparte could see that the war was over. On the 19th of November, German troops were approaching Verdun when the last French offensive was organized, planning to create a Bulge and split the German army in two. The underequipped French troops got some success in the first days until the Germans brought in reinforcements, surrounding Verdun and capturing over 670,000 troops in the surroundings of the city.
In desperation, the Empress decided to send their children away, fearing what the Germans would do to them. Napoleon's 3 children: Charles Bonaparte (12), Sophie Bonaparte (9), and Jean Bonaparte (7). With their tutor: Louis de Charleroi, to Brazil, in the court of the Royal Family. Napoleon V discovered it and considered his wife a conspirator, banishing her from France. He became extremely Paranoid, believing all their generals and family disobeyed him and were already engaging with the enemy. Paris was put under siege on the 7th of December, Napoleon V believing that he was destined to lead the French in their greatest victory. He remained in Paris as the city was bombarded into submission, the Eiffel Tower, a construction made by his Grandfather in 1882 that was the tallest tower of the world at the time, was hit by Weiss and Krupp artillery, making the construction collapse into the Seine river. Napoleon conscripted every man of the city, forcing women to enter factories and halt all production of consumer goods, instead producing guns and ammunition, even children weren't safe as those above 12 were sent to the army and those between 6 and 12 sent to factories. The siege of Paris had begun.
While Paris starved and burned, the rest of France was collapsing, the 3 secondary fronts collapsed and Enemy troops poured in, most of the troops not even resisting and commanders opening cities to the Coalition. While British troops were more civilized, Italians and especially Iberians were brutal, with rape and pillaging being common incidents. German troops were civilized only for those that spoke a Germanic language, a French accent was enough to make you regret your life, the city of Verdun was pillaged and burned to the ground for example.
On the 12th of January, the French finally gave up, a revolt started inside of Paris, soldiers and civilians alike stormed the Imperial Palace and in response Napoleon V committed suicide with his staff. General Petain declared the surrender of Paris and France to the Entente. The war was finally over.
The Great War was over, starting on the 1st of May of 1912 and lasting until the 18th of January of 1916, 1357 days where the world burned, it was finally over. The war was also called the 7th Coalition War, a long truce of 99 years was over and the Bonapartes finally lost the Napoleonic Wars. There was also a matter: What to do with the Defeated France ?
A Peace conference was called in Berlin after the Armistice of General Petain. The major involved in the War, including nations that signed a separate peace, were involved to observe, with the exception of Russia that was in Civil War. The first article was clear: "In recognition of the causes of the war, this article declares dissolved the Imperial Throne of France, condemning the House of Bonaparte as the sole cause of the War." It was a long consensus ever since 1804, but the rest of the treaty would start the real discussion.
There was the question if Italy and Spain should receive territories, due to the fact that they had made peace with the French, and just restarted hostilities after the victory was assured. But it was agreed that no other nation could claim northern Italy and the Catalan people were too few to be capable of founding a nation, so Piedmont, Lombardia, Nice, Sarvoie, and Corsica should be given to Italy. And Catalonia and Rousseló for Spain.
The Balkans was the Playground for Hungarians, Ottomans, and Bulgarians:
The African French colonies were split between Spain, Britain, and Germany, but Algeria and Egypt would cause a greater confusion: The Ottomans claimed the control of Egypt, but the British and Germans were hesitant about the Suez Canal instead, it became a independent nation, with Fuad I of the Ali dynasty restored, but with the Suez Canal under control of the shareholders, the French shares being split equally by the British and Germans. Algeria was full of French due to the intensive settlement made by the Frankification policies, the Pied-Noirs colonists had interests in remaining united with France, but as such deal was vetoed unanimously (except by Wilson), Algeria was given Independence as a Pied-Noir Republic.
((Map of Africa after the War (Cape Verde is an error as it should be Portuguese)))
Then came the matter of Ireland, the Emerald Island was incorporated once again as part of the United Kingdom. It's often overlooked by British historians, but the British blockade and deliberate attacks on food supplies, caused a mass starvation in Ireland that contributed more to the surrender than military defeats. It's estimated that at least 15% of the Irish died in the famine.
The Rhineland was an easy matter, its said that Wilhelm II appearently whispered "It's Free Real State." The Territories of Flandres, Rhineland, Moselleland, Saarland, Alsace, and part of Lorraine were given to Germany, not just for ethnic reasons but to deny French access to critical Industrial resources (Which is why some areas with almost 70% of French were still given to Germany). With the same intention of denying industrial resources, Wallonia became a independent Protectorate of Germany under Adalbert, brother of Wilhelm II.
Now there was a matter of Divergence: France. A United French state was considered too much of a threat to Britain, with Churchill proposing a radical plan of dissolution of the French state. The propose was deemed too radical, not even Wilhelm desired it. In the end Wilhelm agreed with the Plan of president Wilson, France would be divided in 3: The Kingdom of France under the Bourbon Dynasty, the Kingdom of Britanny as a British protectorate under George VII's Dynasty, and the Kingdom of Occitania under a provisional council until the election of a King.
((The Division of France))
Then came a especial case: Napoleon's House in Ajaccio. Some wanted to demolish it, and others wanted to keep it. It was agreed to let it to be decided by Italy, King Murat decided to honor the man that gave them the Italian throne and made it a Historical attraction.
Then came the money question: The 3 French successor states would pay 45 Billion dollars, a debt divided in proportion of the GDP of the 3.
