I don't think this piece particuarly worked as a narrative element, but it does highlight something which was a concern at the time - place, position, and relative standing between the representatives of powers in any important event. I remember reading about Edward VII and the Crown Prince of Germany arguing because the Crown Prince had been placed behind the King of the Friendly Isles (Tonga) - Edward VII said something along the lines of "Either the brute is a king, in which case he's more important than you, or he's just a savage, in which case what is he doing here?". Of course, the German wasn't mollified !
In the Tuilleries piece, I've tried to show how such concerns could lead to circles within circles, and how the nature of the representative a power chooses to send could help determine where they are placed - ie Egypt is clearly a major power, but wants to play down its role so only sends its Ambassador, whereas the Mughal Empire has sent its head of government, and other nations have sent the heirs to their Heads of State. An ordinary Ambassador ranks below a Special Ambassador/Ambassador Plenipotentiary and so on, and below a Foreign Minister etc
I'd hoped this snippet would allow me to make the peace conference real, but it reminds me too much of all my AFOE writings and plans for me to feel true in putting any effort into it. What stipulations should there be, anyway ? San Diego I was reckoning was to be partitioned 50-50 - there's no city left anyway at the end of the war, only the bay really counts. Santa Fe goes to Fredonia, but not the whole territory, only the area to block in the Fredonian geography on the map. Given earlier losses, the USA under the Dictatorship would be able play these up as gains - ie we didn't lose as much as the Democracy would have done, etc.
I've played a lot, at least in the background, upon the Shogunate's inherent weakness in allowing China to conquer Japan - this is a China that has been steadily modernising since the 1840s-1850s, whereas Japan hasn't really. China probably looks to Egypt as something of a role model, tho no doubt would not admit it. The reliance of the Shogunate upon the domain armies allows China to play the domains off against one another and thus weaken the centre. I made a slight mistake earlier on in thinking Edo was the imperial capital, whereas that was Kyoto, with Edo being the Shogun's capital, but in essence I repaired this error in the last post made about Japan.
China won't have it all their own way in ruling Japan, but they have vassal empires in Vietnam and in Korea (I fancy seeing the empire emerge there under Chinese suzerainty in this timeline) so having the Emperor of Japan remain on his throne but subservient to Peking won't seem an anomaly. The Shogun is gone, the daimyos are broken, administrators run the domains, tho no doubt some of these are daimyos who now have a civil rather than a feudal role for accepting Ching rule. Satsuma I had play out different due to their island holdings in the South, and their contacts with Okinawa, and I posited a US fleet ending up there, with China deciding not to push things to a climax which could risk the major gain if lost - i.e. China probably reckoned it could probably see off this US naval force, but it knew there was a risk of defeat, and decided that risking defeat euated with risking Japan, so accepted the US force and Okinawan independence as the price of ensuring its control of the Japanese home islands
New England's role in all this was lots of intrigue, and whilst I planned to expand upon it in the narrative, the need to kill the narrative and move on to the summary basically means that whatever it was irrelevant in the end. With regard to European politics, I have Dreyfuss kicked out of office, internally exiled and later assassinated for what many see as leading France to a humiliating defeat in India. Bismarck the younger is more fortunate, ust being retired to his estates, and dreaming of a comeback. Prussia, tho, turns more towards its Russian alliance as a result of all this, seeing Western European entanglements as too risky. Within the German Empire, the question of succession as usual again rears its ugly head, and brings greater power to the Frankfurt Ass. This could lead to a pseudo-democratisation, but democracy in all its guises is having a funny time of it in this world !
The French Republic, and its barrier allies, are probably the most democratic countries, whilst Britain has a large franchise, but currently something of a conservative reaction to what is seen as the failed years of SDF rule. However, this Reformist conservative era is itself stuttering towards a close, with new tensions rising from automation and major technological changes in how people, transport, and industry relate to one another. The advances of the SDF era, which became bedded down and institutionalised under the conservative Reform era, are now being challenged by a new rising workers' voice.
Fredonia is more oligarchical than true democratic, whilst the USA has re-embraced the Dictatorship as the way of getting things done. Pershing may be Dictator, but the true power behind his throne lies in the Ohians, and their mixture of militarism and revanchism, led by W H Taft. The loss of the Northern part of their state in the 1860s civil war (it became the New England state of West Connecticut) and the concentration of certain industries in S Ohio, not least Goodyear, give the Ohians a powerful voice in national politics. They have allies in Virginia (Wilson with a slightly different forename) and in Tejas, which due to the war became the powerhouse of the new armaments, and counter-measures, industries.
Russia is obviously going to be a major power in times a-coming, and I see Moscow emerging as the national capital, being a way between the court which still revolves around Saint Petersburg life, and the Southern Capital of Constantinople, which I see the Tsar as wanting to integrate more firmly into the Russian state. Over time, perhaps by the 1930s, it would lose its Viceroy, and become an administrative zone of the empire, rather than an add-on to it. Things can't move too quickly, not least because Nikolai II relies on Bulgarians, Orthodox clerics, Phanariot Greeks etc to fill many of the administrative positions. Armenians, Pontine Greeks, Georgians etc would be out of favour due to their preponderance amongst the numbers of the deserting fleet, which is a wound which will run long and deep in the Russian psyche. Nikolai II is getting on, but he has a vision for the empire, and that includes leaving a successful state to his son.
The Duma exists and has powers, but Nikolai II has resisted calls for, and attempts to give it, more power. He understands that keeping the unity of the empire at this critical stage requires him to remain above factionism, but to retain sufficient powers to exercise imperial fiat as necessary. Thus many would see the Duma as being an advisory body, its powers akin to the Prussian parliament, with an ability to vote on the budget, but not to create or promote too much legislation of its own. The Tsar would certainly look at Paris, London or Frankfurt as being anathema to what he is trying to create.
The navy, massive irony of ironies, is actually going to be a maor vehicle for the later years of Nikolai II's reign. He has seen the underlying truth in his cousin's arguments, tho won't ever admit this, and the New Navy built upon the ruins of the desertion and battle off Alexandria, is a powerful, forward-focused and major force. The Constantinople-based fleet is designated the Southern Fleet with a remit including not only local waters (including the Black Sea and the Med) but also the Indian Ocean. It is built up by a series of increasingly large annual Navy Bills and becomes the foremost naval force of the empire. The Baltic Fleet may have been redesignated the Atlantic Fleet but it is very much secondary to the Southern Fleet. The Southern Fleet from hereon also provides the ships for the Pacific Sqaudron, whose bases are in the Sea of Okhotsk, the Kamchatka Peninsular, and Alaska, as well as extra-territorially in the Kingdom of Hawaii which makes something of a living from renting out facilities - whether to China, to the USA, or to Russia, it worries not
Egypt in this period will see the emergence of modernity versus tradition as a major problem. Alexandria is the leading industrialised city, with more jobs in new industries, a more liberal attitude, and more social development than anywhere else. Cairo, and the other Levantine ports more or less follow a close second, whilst interior cities lag far behind. Baghdad is the epitomy of this, being a cultural and religious centre but with little industrialisation and hugely conservative attitudes. The Egyptian Emperor attempts to span all of these contradictions, but a clash of cultures is becoming increasingly inevitable
With regard to military advances, the Russian Empire would adopt a combination of what seems necessary against Egypt, and what seems proven in the experience of the warring powers in recent years. Thus, the armoured tractored gun would be developed further, on the one hand, whilst giant airships, Russian franchising of Voisin aeroplanes, the development of a national chemical industry for gas shells, sourcing large numbers of motor trucks, increasing the heavy freight capacity of the railways, and developing specialised trench-fighting units will all have a major place in reforms during the 1910s.
In global naval development, this period sees the final demise of the corvette and its replacement by the more specialised ships of either the armoured cruiser or the scout cruiser. One ship to perform both roles is deemed an anachronism by the results of fighting, both off the Pacific West coast, and from the Mexican-Spanish clashes in the Caribbean. In addition, the ironclad battleship is being slowly superseded by the 3-turret New Battleship as developed by the Chinese, having not only the traditional fore and aft turrets, but also a new centre turret. French naval designers at the main Chinese naval ports are a driving factor in this, but it takes Germany's adoption of the type to finally spur a modernisation amongst the European navies. Russia is a swift convert once this happens
Submarines proved their potential off the Pacific West coast, Fredonia's use of them allowing her to drive back the American close blockade and resume her own vital coastal trade. Greater range, and staying power, are coming into effect with several nations leading the development - Fredonia, China, the USA and Russia.
The aviso (modern equivalent to a light destroyer or tbd) has also proved its value as a fleet defence, and occasional attack ship, and the same group of nations is working on developing these as a more long-range viable fleet unit. The invention of turbine engines, at this point a cutting-edge technology in a world where some things are more forward than OTL, and other things more backward than OTL, will allow this to occur. Which country turbines develop in is a good question, but it could well be in the New England Confederacy which is probably the world's leading mercantile power, and where the competing mercantile houses (Vanderbilt, Bonaparte etc) would vy with one another for advantage. Development of the turbine for use in merchant ships would soon get the interest of naval forces of neighbouring, and competing, powers, and by franchise and sale of patent rights become a formidable force in the 1910s
The conflict or race between the airship and the aeroplane remains far from decided. It is 1910 and the leading contenders are the Goodyear heavy zeppelin, with its German antecedents, and its Russian clones, on the one hand, and the Voisin aeroplane with its Chinese and Fredonian subsidiaries and Russian franchises on the other hand. The Cayley aeroplane, basically a powered glider with some directional ability, is now an out-dated technology, as is the light airship as epitomised in this world by Santos-Dumant. In terms of warfare, these technologies have been left behind and superceded.
The Fredonian development of primitive nerve agents is also a new factor in warfare. Their deployment at San Diego blunted, and then stagnated the American counter-offensive, and counter-measures to such gases have yet to be developed. It was noted with interest in some European capitals, though, that Fredonia basically had to divert a massive proportion of its budget to its chemical industries in order to develop and then produce this weapon, and that this outlay would not normally be available to most countries in most circumstances.
Trying to write a summary of the entire world is a bit of a challenge, here, and focused questions by readers really do help - so please, ask them !
Best Regards
Grey Wolf