The Whale and the Lion United

Update.

Chapter II: The Japanese-Entente War and the road to a worldwide war, 1902-1908

War had began and Japan now realized that perhaps they had taken a risk that was too big. Indeed three European powers stood united against them and while they might be able to get moral support from the Alliance, there was no guarantee that any of the Alliance powers would actually declare war on the Entente. Memories from the war were fresh in Europe and many would rather see a war be delayed a bit instead of it breaking out now. As a result Japan would have to fight on her own which they couldn’t do although in the short term they could indeed score some victories. France was very far away and although Russia was right on Japan’s border, most Russian troops had to be drawn from Europe as well. The Suez Canal allowed French ships to pass through, but only in ‘moderate’ amounts as Britain was very pro-Japan. British newspapers reported of the French and Russian bullies (little Spain was forgotten for a moment) ganging up on poor, little Japan, who was portrayed as a small nation who just wanted to help her Philippine brethren (even if the Filipino’s weren’t Japanese at all) which the bullies from France and Russia attempted to prevent. Of course France and Russia counter-acted this with their own propaganda which was decisively applauding their actions and played down Japanese strength and proclaimed that Japan had gone too far which meant they deserved a beating. This of course didn’t mean anything to the Alliance and so the propaganda war continued between the two sides, but the real war was of course what was important and this was what was about to happen as Japanese navies were off to the confrontation.

On June 15th, the Japanese navy landed in the Philippines, seizing the harbor of Manila in a brutal fight. The Spanish army had modernized but not enough to defeat the Japanese invaders. Manila fell within a few days and as Japanese landings swept the other islands, the Spanish fought themselves to a retreat into the wild inland. Farther west, Japanese landings occurred on the coast of Indochina where they quickly met French resistance. Here, Japan only managed to seize some coastal fortresses as most of the colony remained firm in French hands. The Japanese also invaded the Spanish concessions in China and in the north they crossed the border in Manchuria where they made some advances but nothing much. Thrilled by Japanese successes, Siam declared war on France as well on July 20th to aid Japan and get some glory of their own and territorial expansion in Indochina. France had taken various bits of the old Siamese nation over the past decades and now it was time for Siam to get it back and maybe even more. That was if Japan would permit it of course because the Japanese had their own designs set on Vietnam. That was made clear as Japan brought a list of her claims into the world on July 27th. They claimed Vietnam, the Spanish Philippines and the Spanish and French concessions in China. From Russia they intended to obtain northern Manchuria but Tokyo later realized that it would be better to push for a white peace instead because then Russia would stop the war sooner which was not really all that popular in St. Petersburg as they felt that they had been dragged into the war to protect some far-away Spanish colonial outpost dating from what was nearly the Middle Ages. Despite this the Entente stood strong and even the Russians couldn’t say they weren’t in the least interested in gaining Japanese soil.

The war in the east was now going on for two months and it was becoming clear that the Japanese strike had failed. Sure, a lot of territory had fallen into their hands, but neither Indochina or the Philippines had been conquered in full and guerilla resistance was around in both areas. The revolts in the Philippines were helping them at least but even there some revolutionaries were unsure whether or not to side with Japan. Indochina was much closer to the French state than the Philippines were to Spain and thus the Indochinese did not revolt in any major way. The Siamese and Japanese armies desperately attempted to link up but the few Japanese beachheads in the area remained tightly guarded by French forces and France held. In the Philippines, Japan managed to conquer most of Mindanao over July, reducing resistance to the Zamboanga and Bataan peninsula’s, as well as the jungle of Luzon. At this point, the French Far Eastern Squadron had arrived in the east, along with the first French colonial armies. August would be the month in which the tide turned against Japan and Siam as the Japanese couldn’t hold out against the superior numbers that France, Spain and Russia possessed together. Also Japan wasn’t as modern as France yet although it had more or less surpassed Russia by now in terms of strength. Russia however had modernized a little as well and was backed by strong allies. The Russian army attacked in Manchuria and drove the Japanese back to their pre-war possessions even though they could not advance much further and only marched on slow thanks to Japanese strength. The Russian fortress in Port Arthur was reinforced and Japan soon could no longer attack it as they needed all the power they had to fight on other fronts. In the south, France had struck westwards and retaken the territory Siam had captured earlier that year. The Siamese army was no match for France and within weeks they were tied up in Bangkok which was the capital of Siam. At this point Siam surrendered on October 1st 1902. They signed a separate peace with France which turned the remaining Thai possessions in Cambodia and almost all of Isan (eastern Siam) over to French Indochina. At first, France had intended to establish a protectorate over the whole of Siam, but British intervention kept Siam alive, even if they had to cede some southern border areas in exchange for British help. The new northern border of British Malaya came to be at the provinces of Trang, Phattalung and Songkhla. All in all Siam had been reduced to almost half it’s former size and had lost the ability to fight back. That was what Boulanger thought, at least. Whether it would be the reality was jet to be determined at this point in time. For now, France could focus on the main enemy: Japan.

By mid-November, Japanese armies had been forced to withdraw from the mainland of Indochina and China proper, causing them to settle on the island of Hainan instead. Hainan was part of the Spanish sphere of influence in China and soon would be under their control again as France attacked in a vicious campaign with many Japanese casualties. In early December, the last Japanese fortress on Hainan surrendered and the island was returned to Spain. This made the Philippines be the last Japanese hold-out outside of the Japanese Empire itself along with Korea as Russia had finally succeeded in invading Manchuria. Russian forces got bogged down in Korea though as it was highly mountainous and thus perfect terrain for the defensive power. 1902 ended after a last Japanese offensive in the Philippines which failed to break the defenses of Bataan. Japan was now definitely losing the war. As 1903 began, it would soon become obvious how bad they had lost.

On the other side of the world, Germany decided to profit from the Franco-Japanese conflict. With French armies being so far away, Germany was in a position to get away with nearly anything in Europe and North-Africa and ‘nearly anything’ included Morocco. Morocco had been an independent nation for quite some time now and France had considered annexing it several times over the past years. Out of fear for Britain they had always avoided it but Germany had nothing to fear from the British Empire as it was their main ally. A German battleship arrived in Morocco in January 1903 with a set of demands that the sultan simply could not accept. The incident was made to become a crisis and Germany declared war on Morocco. The German army was sent to the area and quickly defeated the Moroccan forces, scoring an important propaganda victory. Boulanger knew that he couldn’t resist the establishment of the protectorate of Morocco but did demand the cession of a coastal strip to Spain and a few minor border corrections to France itself. This was something that Germany was willing to grant and it was finalized in a treaty between Germany, Spain, Morocco and France on May 27th, 1903. By that time, more interesting things had occurred in Asia.

It had by now become obvious to Japan that no British or German help was coming any time soon as these powers simply lacked a good casus belli to interfere and public opinion was against war so early, especially in Britain where hatred against the Triple Entente was much lower than in Germany. As for neutrals close to Japan, the only great power around was China, where the Guangxi Emperor and the entire court in Beijing were enjoying the fact that their Japanese enemy was getting a much-deserved beating. Pro-Entente sentiment improved even if China’s coast was carved up in Entente and Alliance influence spheres. France was not disappointing the Chinese as in February 1903 they started a broad offensive in the southern island of Mindanao along with Spanish forces that were still stationed there. France by now outnumbered Japan 2.5 to 1 and then there were the Spanish garrisons that remained. All in all, Japan couldn’t resist this charge and had to face defeat after defeat. It didn’t help that they had to fight Filipino independence movements who were against both sides and wanted an independent Philippine nation. By the end of March however both Japanese and Filipino resistance had been crushed and Spain was in full control of Mindanao again. What followed was an island hopping campaign which would crush the resistance of Japan in just weeks although one has to account for the fact that Japan was fighting a two-front war. In late April France was readying itself and Spain for the liberation of Luzon, the biggest island of the Philippines and the island that hosted the capital of Manila. The situation for the Japanese was bleak – even if Bataan had surrendered in February after a long struggle and was now under the command of the Emperor in Tokyo, Japan was otherwise in a very bad position with French/Spanish naval superiority making supply lines bad and the ongoing guerilla campaign in the centre of the island. If Luzon was attacked, it was uncertain whether it would hold.

Public opinion in Japan had by now swung against the war decisively. Various political parties called for an end to the war of imperialism which wasn’t bringing Japan any good and had not succeeded in decisively liberating the Filipinos or expanding the Japanese Empire. The truth was that the government was in fact trying to seek a peace treaty and had been doing so ever since the arrival of French forces in the far east. In the September peace offer, they had offered to withdraw from all occupied areas in Indochina and China and restrict Japanese gains to the Philippines only. In December, they had offered a ‘division of the Philippines’ plan with the southern half going to Spain and the north to Japan. While the Spanish liked the idea, the French and especially Boulanger did not, and although a lot of bad information concerning Boulanger can be chalked up to revisionist Alliance historians trying to make the First Great War seem like a just cause, this stubbornness can’t be denied. Boulanger demanded colonial gains at a point where Japanese occupation was still in force in many areas and this just couldn’t be accepted, not so early in the war. That was why the Japanese-Entente War would drag on for a while yet.

Russia had seen a slow advance in Korea over the past half year and Japan was by now definitely losing. Although a few attempts of the Russian navy to take the Kuril islands had failed, the war was now definitely turning against Japan in Korea. The northern half of the peninsula had been taken and Seoul was finally attacked on May 12th although it wouldn’t fall for another two weeks. The long-awaited invasion of Luzon started on May 17th and saw a quick French advance which allowed contact with the inland Spanish armies and liberated the island in just two weeks. The Bataan peninsula held out until June 10th by which time most of the other cities had already been taken. The Franco-Spanish army now advanced towards Manila which finally fell on June 23rd, ending the Philippine campaign after a full year and tens of thousands of casualties.

By now the Japanese situation was bad and only went from bad to worse. Formosa fell in July/August. In Korea, the frontline was withdrawn to a foothold around Pusan in late August and when on September 5th French armies landed on the Ryukyu chain, the Japanese peace faction won out as peace had to be made at any cost. Japan offered a surrender based on the Home Islands remaining Japanese, which was granted by Russia and Spain and finally by a reluctant France. A peace was drawn up in January 1904 which divided the Japanese empire as it had expanded over the past fifty years. The treaty was harsh but Japan deserved it according to the Entente as, next to the horrible acts they had committed in the war, a Japanese extreme nationalist had also managed to assassinate Grand Duke Michael, brother to the Emperor of all Russia’s, Tsar Nicholas II, in December 1903. His brothers Nicholas and George, insisted on harsh punishment for the Japanese for murdering a Russian prince which was partly why Russia was given more territory than it had conquered. The peace treaty was in the end the following: the Spanish Philippines and French Indochina were confirmed as they were, and all other pre-war territory returned, with the peace treaty of France and Siam being recognized. In addition, France seized Formosa and the Japanese concession in Zhejiang while Russia took all of Manchuria as an influence sphere and annexed the Kuril Island chain (including the four southern islands) and took over the Japanese protectorate over Korea. War reparations were agreed upon as well and Japan was to formally acknowledge that they started the war due to their expansionist imperialism. This was the peace treaty that was signed in Vladivostok and this was the peace that would have consequences for the next few years yet to come.

The peace of Vladivostok set the alliances in the far east. China was impressed by the achievements of the Entente and offered to join their side. China was formally admitted in October 1904 creating the Quadruple Entente which now consisted of France, Russia, Spain and China. China was weak but the fact that Empress Cixi had been killed in the Boxer uprising made that the Guangxi Emperor was now much more free to do what he wished and he wished to modernize China and put it on equal footing with the west again and ideally he wanted to make China one of the world’s superpowers but for now that chance was small. France was eager to have China in their alliance and to further strengthen Franco-Chinese ties Boulanger agreed to cede the formerly Japanese concession of Zhejiang back to China which gladly accepted the gift. Russia did a similar thing by ceding western Xinjiang back to China and renouncing all claims to Mongolia. They didn’t renounce their other claims as for Russia Manchuria was the only way to keep a tight leash on Korea and for France the southern concessions were a buffer which the Alliance would have to pass to invade the north of French Indochina and they preferred to keep it in their own hands for now as they weren’t sure whether China could be trusted. Never mind that China was now a member of the Entente which made Japan join the Alliance which formally happened in March 1905 with the signing of the Quintuple Alliance of Britain, Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary and Japan. Siam was offered to become an associate (it wasn’t important enough to become a sixth member as it wasn’t anywhere close to being a great power) but refused for now as they were turning inwards for reform and resented the British profiting of their defeat in 1902 by annexing the southern provinces. They did remain closer to the Alliance than to the Entente countries though and Siamese-Alliance relations were warm. Siam remained neutral for now but would surely strike when they would be given the chance to do so.

Victory over Germany in 1890 and Japan now made France overconfident and made Belgium, which was surrounded by their southern neighbor at all her borders, join the Entente even if they remained an associate. Belgium allowed French forces on her soil after a lot of persuasion which turned Brussels into a loyal vassal of Paris and expanded the de facto Entente power. The Alliance however had the friendship of Portugal, the Ottomans and the Swedes. Portugal formally joined the Alliance in January 1906 which created the Sextuple Alliance. The Portuguese and the British had age-old ties and thus it was natural that they would fight alongside their British allies even if their borders were dangerously exposed to Spanish armies. Spain however had more fronts to fight as it had to follow France and would probably have to supply forces to the Franco-German or the Franco-Italian front in case of war. The French did a final attempt to woo some neutrals into their alliance but Denmark refused to join the Entente even if the promise of all of Schleswig-Holstein did tempt them. The Danes rightfully feared Germany and in the end France decided not to pressure Copenhagen any further as Denmark in the Entente would remove all friendly feelings in Sweden. Boulanger did an attempt to convince the Netherlands to join as well as it was an important border nation but the Dutch were just too pro-German and would see their colonies threatened in case of a war with the Alliance. They politely refused joining. Finally there was the United States of America which was still neutral but had good ties with both sides even if the British overconfidence was becoming too much sometimes and relations with the Entente had improved after the Cuba Purchase. The USA refused to become part of any alliance and instead committed itself to isolationism which they would hold during the entire war.

A power that would join the Entente was Ethiopia. The Ethiopians had been eying the Italian possessions in Africa warily over the past few years and Ethiopia desired to confirm her status as a modern nation which would include Eritrea. France agreed to recognize Ethiopian claims and signed the French-Ethiopian Alliance of 1906. Ethiopia was now an informal member of the Entente which greatly pleased the Italians as they thought that the country was weak even if Ethiopia had beaten them in 1896. The government in Addis Abeba on the other hand relied fully on that victory and thought that this time victory would be as easy, especially with French forces fighting in Africa. Either way, Ethiopia became a French puppet and a loyal associate of the Entente.

The Entente was industrializing and doing so at a rapid pace. By now Spain had been modernized and brought to more or less French standards even if some conservative remnant remained here and there. Russia was much harder to modernize but here some works of Boulanger’s inexhaustible government was paying off as well while China was just starting her modernization process and had a long way to go before they could properly expel the Alliance armies from their soil and re-unify China. All of this worried Germany and Britain, the most prominent members of the Quadruple Alliance. Wilhelm III of Germany and Edward VII of Britain agreed that action should be taken against the Entente build-up and that if war was to happen, it should be sooner rather than later. Fear of Chinese modernization strengthened this position in the Alliance and for Germany it was about time to take revenge for the Second Franco-German War.

In 1908 it would all come to blows although something else occurred first. The Ottoman Empire was by now old and had become the ‘sick man of Europe’. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 had liberated parts of the Balkans, but, among others, Albania, Macedonia, Thrace and Kosovo remained in the hands of the Porte. Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro agreed that this situation could not be tolerated and decided to go to action in the summer of 1908. An incident on the Ottoman-Bulgarian border was exaggerated into the extreme and finally the Ottoman sultan decided that enough was enough and refused the ultimatums of the Balkan powers. He would come to regret that though as on August 29th, 1908, Bulgaria declared war and was followed by Greece, Serbia and Montenegro over the next few days. The various nations mobilized their armies and soon the Ottomans suffered disastrous defeats. Albania was liberated by early October and very soon Eastern Thrace was all that remained from the Ottoman possessions in Europe and Greece had also liberated Crete. The Austro-Hungarian Empire took advantage of the situation by formally annexing Bosnia-Herzegovina which they had occupied since 1878. This angered Serbia and Russia but neither declared war over the issue yet as Russia was not sure whether they would have French support and Serbia had another war to fight. The Ottomans were losing though and they were losing badly. Despite this they did not surrender and that would turn out to be a wise action even though it did not seem so in the autumn of 1908.

Tensions between the Quadruple Entente and the Sextuple Alliance were rising and eventually they would come to a clash. British and Russian interests in Persia no longer managed to bear each other’s presence any longer as both desired to rule the country. Japan and Germany were desperate to have revenge for their defeats at the hands of France and Russia. Italy had less hatred for the Entente but having been a solid part of the Alliance for years had somewhat softened their hatred for Austria and nationalist propaganda swept the country which included themes as the French annexation of Nice-Savoy in 1860, the recent annexation of Tunisia in 1881, and, farther away, the Corsican independence struggle in the 18th Century, where the Corsicans (or so Italian propaganda said) had been fighting to become part of a united Italy, a strong Italy, an Italy that had never been because of the acts of the evil French. 1896 and Adowa were also remembered and called for revenge. Either way, time was running out for peace. War had to be made to decide which of the two power blocks would rule Eurasia.

The casus belli would eventually be found in Africa. The Congo Free State had been an independent nation since 1885 but it was ruled by Leopold II of Belgium and thus had been a Belgian puppet from the start. Leopold had misbehaved as a ruler and horrible atrocities were being committed in the Congo. In the mid-1900s the European powers eventually decided that enough was enough. This couldn’t be tolerated. Leopold was forced to renounce his claims to the Congo, which left the question of who would take over the country. The obvious choice was Belgium, but that was soon no possibility as France claimed that they were the legal successor to the Congo state should it ever collapse, based on documents from the 1880s. They made puppet Belgium renounce her rights in favour of France. In the autumn of 1908 this all came to a clash as Britain and Germany could not tolerate more French expansion. French armies marched into the Congo and were met by British armies from Rhodesia in the Katanga region. Much like the Fashoda crisis, tensions rose and the two opponents stared at each other. Unlike the Fashoda crisis, this would however not be solved as on September 27th, 1908, a French soldier with an itchy trigger finger accidentally pulled the trigger which resulted in a shooting incident. Britain, eager to exploit the crisis, declared war on France two days later. Russia declared war on October 1st which set off the chain reaction of all alliance systems. In a strategic move, the Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia on October 20th which more or less forced the Alliance to recognize the Ottomans as one of their own and thus the attacking Balkan nations as enemies which they had to chase out of Ottoman soil.

By this point, the war was already in full swing though. Shortly after the German declaration of war on Russia, France had declared war on Germany, forced her puppet Belgium to do the same, and crossed the Dutch border on October 5th 1908 with two Belgian armies at her flanks which caused the Dutch to declare war on them and to end their neutrality. The First World War had finally began.
 
Map of the world prior to the war.

The Whale And The Lion1908.PNG
 
By this point, the war was already in full swing though. Shortly after the German declaration of war on Russia, France had declared war on Germany, forced her puppet Belgium to do the same, and crossed the Dutch border on October 5th 1908 with two Belgian armies at her flanks which caused the Dutch to declare war on them and to end their neutrality. The First World War had finally began.

May I ask why they enter the Netherlands? Coutries usually don't violate neutral countries, unless there is a good reason. France already controls the Rhine, so entering the Netherlands is not really useful, as they have to fight their way up to the rhine and then still have to cross it, giving the Germans, Dutch and their allies enough time to raise defenses (and man the waterline, to keep the French out of Holland). Invading the Netherlands from the south is hard, just ask Louis XIV and Montgomery.
 
For four reasons:

1. To make Leopold II be quiet as he keeps insisting that South-Limburg and Zealandic Flanders are his.

2. The Rhine has been fortified heavily by both sides in past years. The French need a quick victory to strike east and defeat the Germans before the British Expeditionary Force shows up.

3. French distrust of the Dutch. As Belgium has been moving more pro-French, the Dutch have become much closer to Berlin. If they invade the 'regular way', attacking through Western Germany, they have to guard against a stab-in-the back from the Netherlands. Not that this would actually happen, but, hey, Boulanger is getting old after all...

4. I needed an easy excuse to get the Dutch into the war. Flanders is ours, and French Guiana can say goodbye to her masters as well!
 
I think your handling of Anglo-American relations is way off base. From 1842 all the way until OTL World War I, Great Britain worked diligently to come to terms with the US by peaceful means. This meant numerous trade offs, arbitrations and even in a few instances...a loss of face to the upstart Americans. Why, because above all else (with regards to the Western Hemisphere) Britain wanted America to remain a friendly neutral with open trade during any possible conflict with a European power.

In this TL, with a stronger France allied to Spain and Russia, this foreign policy agenda will become even more important. America will not give up Hawaii. American interests had dominated the islands since before the America Civil War. Britain had basically conceded that point by the late 1850s. With regards to Venezuela, Britain would not have done anything to anger the US (especially since Germany no longer had any stake in the issue either). Britain would back down with a minimal effort to save face and work to appease the US. The same would occur in the Alaska boundary dispute. Also, it is likely that the US would get all of Samoa given Germany's weakened condition.

By 1888 the US, while possessing a weak navy, was already the second most powerful nation in the world. America had very strong ties to the Asian-Pacific Rim and would not have given these up. That said, any partition of China would include an America region, and the US would be very interested in any change of status regarding the Philippines and nearby islands. This is America entering her prime, not a nation like the Netherlands or Portugal. Most likely a defeat for Japan would have her very interested in cozening up to the US. So in the Pacific, where Germany has been basically ejected, there would be a three way alliance of Britain-America-Japan against France-Spain-Russia.

I know this is late in your TL, but your US is wholly uncharacteristic of the era.

Benjamin
 
I guess you're right, but it's a bit late to change that now. I just wanted to seize a chance to make Hawaii fall into British hands. I guess that I should have read more about the history of the region first.

Anyway, update time.

Chapter III: The First World War, 1908-1911

War had started and the alliance systems were set into motion which meant that war had erupted all at once at an immense amount of fronts. Fighting started along the Rhine, in East-Prussia, in Galicia, in the Caucasus, in Central Asia, in Korea, in southern China and in Indochina and the Philippines. It is perhaps interesting to examine how the various countries were doing at the time the war hit and what their goals were. France was doing rather well as it was one of the two most powerful members of the Quadruple Entente and even if Russia had modernized a bit it remained a rather backwards country. King Carlos XI/VII still ruled with an iron fist with the ‘assistance’ of general Georges Boulanger like he had done since he had come to power in 1890. France was a dictatorship which it had been for eighteen years and it would be for another eighteen years as far as the French were concerned. France went to war to decisively defeat Germany and this time leave it defeated as they had obviously not been punished enough in the previous war. This time France would return to Napoleonic times in terms of territory. France would also expand in Africa to include most African colonies in an huge empire. Above all France’s status as the dominant power in Europe was to be recognized. Russia had similar goals as they wanted to gain Galicia, eliminate the German threat, and partition the Ottoman Empire with the lion share going to Russia including Anatolia and the straits while making the Balkan powers who were to expand at Austrian and Ottoman expense loyal puppets of the Tsar. Also British influence was to be removed from Central Asia and British India was to be shrunken down quite a lot even if annexing the whole nation went too far for even the mighty Emperor of all the Russia’s. China wanted to remove foreign influence from their country and establish puppet states in Bhutan and Nepal while partitioning Japan into spheres of influence with Russia. Spain had no such enormous gains in mind but they were all right with a few colonies in Africa and the insurance that they were a great power once again. King Carlos XI, Tsar Nicholas II and Emperor Guangxi stood united in their stance of removing German and British power and establishing themselves as rulers of the Eurasian continent. Of course the Alliance thought exactly the opposite thing. Germany had the goal of removing French influence from what had once been German soil and restoring Germany to pre-1890 borders or more if possible. They also intended to establish a colonial empire in Africa at France’s expense and carve out some puppet states in Eastern Europe. The Ottoman Empire had the goal of keeping what they had and perhaps annexing a few territories in Africa and the Caucasus although the first would inevitably bring them into conflict with Italy who wanted to get a colonial empire as well and regain Nice-Savoy and Corsica for Italy and perhaps some more. They also wanted to gain the coveted status of great power which Britain of course already had. The British just wanted to remove Franco-Russian power and enlarge their colonial empire in Africa which would ensure that Britain was the strongest nation in the world. Austria-Hungary wanted to get rid of the Russian threats on her northern border and perhaps gain a chance to remove Serbia from the enemies list for good. Finally Japan wanted to gain the chance to regain what they lost in the Japanese-Entente War and annex the long-coveted Philippines while chasing Russia out of Kamchatka and other regions. As it was, there were plenty of reasons to go to war.

The first blows fell in the Netherlands. As mentioned previously, French armies crossed the border and advanced at amazing speed, eliminating all resistance they encountered (which was not very much). Within a week and a half they had reached the Rhine and were crossing it. The Dutch rapidly mobilized as well and put up the Water Line in Holland by blowing up the dikes. The French attempted to cross it but failed miserably as the line held. Reinforcements were pouring in from all across the country and after a couple of attacks France decided that continuing the offensive northwards was more important and would be easier too. Indeed much of the northern Netherlands soon fell. On November 21st they finally crossed the border into Germany. The Germans had initially been planning to attack eastwards, but with the amazing French successes, they had to move forces to the west to counter the French threat. The French armies took Bremen and also took Munster. By now British reinforcements were coming and armies from the east went westwards as well. On December 5th they came to blows with the French at the battle of Hamburg which was a victory for the Anglo-German force. France was defeated and because Germany couldn’t force them back a frontline was established running from somewhere east of Bremen to Osnabruck to Köln (Cologne at the time) on the Rhine, and then following the Rhine southwards. The Dutch had almost fallen and large swathes of western Germany were under French control, but the French offensive had failed to take Berlin or even Amsterdam and combined Anglo-German might would in the end defeat the French power.

In the east, Germany had intended to attack Russia first. However, just a few battles had happened before the attack in the west forced the Germans to send reinforcements to deal with the French. As a consequence, the Russians beat Germany at the battle of Poznan in early November, and a second force also managed to march into East-Prussia. The Russian advance was halted in December, when the German armies finally got their act together and had now been roughly equally divided over the western and eastern front. By the end of 1908, Russia had been chased out of East-Prussia, and though Galicia was in their hands, Posen was not and the Germans were on the verge of taking Lodz.

As 1909 started, the war had been going on for four months and it was clear that it would take a while for either side to defeat the enemy. Italy had liberated Menton, but Nice remained out of their hands. In Africa, French colonial forces had managed a swift advance in Ottoman Tripolitania and the southern Sudan, cutting Egypt off from the southern colonies. However, the battles of Khartoum and Tobruk were British victories which saved rich Egypt, a prize which France highly coveted, for now. In Asia, Japan had managed to undo the defeat of 1903 already by smashing the French and Spanish forces in Formosa and the Philippines respectively. The Philippine surrender two days after Christmas Day was the revenge Japan had hoped for and the nation rejoiced. In Indochina the war was also going very bad for the French as Siam had joined in and Anglo-Siamese forces had already brought the frontier to pre-war territory. China had attempted to cleanse their soil of foreign forces, but Tibet (which had by now been recognized as fully independent by the Alliance) still held strong and the Shandong peninsula remained in German hands. With help from France and Spain, Italian Fujian and the British concession had been taken though and the government in Beijing portrayed this as an obvious victory even though greater victories were not possible as China had failed to modernize enough yet for that. British Hongkong and German Shanghai were besieged but remained out of Chinese hands for now. Japan had landed near Pusan in Korea but had failed to secure anything bigger than a beachhead however reinforcements would come after the defeat of French Indochina which could happen very soon.

In the America’s, the war was also going in Alliance favor even if America strongly disapproved of European meddling in her backyard. Saint-Pierre and Miquelon were easily seized by a British garrison and Guadeloupe and Martinique had to surrender as well. Spanish Puerto Rico also fell in British hands by early November as it was far away from the Spanish mainland and hardly defendable. French Guyana resisted tougher but it’s conquest turned out to be easier than the French colonies in Africa where the war was going on in 1909 as well even if the tide was turning against the French. The Alliance also did well in the Ottoman European front where Italian reinforcements had prevented the capital of Constantinople from falling and had managed to give the Porte time to further fortify the Thracian peninsula. The front was brought to the city of Corlu which fell to a joint Greco-Bulgarian attack at the end of December but advancing further was made impossible to do immediately because of strong resistance and so trench warfare ensued like it had on the other hotly disputed peninsula, Shandong in China where the fight was between the Germans as defenders and the Chinese invaders. In Europe the fight was between the Ottoman defenders and the invading coalition of Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro even if Serbia was being under attack by the Austro-Hungarian-Czech Army themselves and thus had few troops to spare. The Alliance was also attempting to win over Romania to fight in the war against Bulgaria, promising them the whole of the Dobruja region in case of a victory. The Romanian king was strongly in favor of such a decision as he was a relative of the German Emperor but the Romanians saw advantages in joining the Entente too and attacking Transsylvania. They attempted to negotiate a deal but the Austrians refused to give up just an inch of their territory to a small power like Romania. Instead the war continued with Romanian neutrality lingering for now even if Bessarabia was becoming a more and more interesting area to conquer.

The war against Russia was going very well as German and Austro-Hungarian armies saw victory after victory come to them. In early March, they took Warsaw and established the kingdom of Poland soon after on British insistence as they were against leaving Poland under German occupation. German concessions under pressure from London pleased the Polish population and soon a Polish army was raised to defend the nation against their former Russian masters. The army was small but they fought well and managed to liberate the remains of their country from Russian forces too with German aid of course. Polish nobles in the meantime elected Archduke Carl Stephan of Austria-Hungary-Czechia as king of Poland with Germany agreeing. The archduke accepted the crown and was crowned on July 15th 1909 in Warsaw where he became Karol I of Poland. He immediately started supporting the Alliance efforts which became a great addition to the eastern front. Posen was desired by the young Polish kingdom as well but was kept under German military rule for now and would likely rejoin Germany after the war making Polish hopes to annex the area go unanswered. Germany also advanced into Lithuania, but their advance was halted seventy miles north of Kaunas. Wilna had been liberated though and some degree of Lithuanian autonomy was increased, even if the area remained under German occupation.

In Asia the Alliance also advanced as in the spring of 1909 all of Persia and Afghanistan was decisively under British control. The British attacked to the north-west to support the Ottomans who were not doing very well at the Caucasus front. A joint Anglo-Ottoman offensive took Baku in June, cutting Russia off from one of her major oil supplies. The British also fought in Central Asia but didn’t attack too much here as they gave priority to supporting the Ottoman Empire. Farther east, French Indochina surrendered in April which allowed an invasion of the Chinese mainland to begin. China was still besieging the Germans at Shandong who were holding out with Japanese reinforcements. The tide was turning against China but luckily for them they were not under any major threat yet as Russia and France were diverting Anglo-German forces to other fronts.

In Africa, the tide also swung in favor of the Alliance as they had naval superiority on the Mediterranean and everywhere else as well and could therefore endanger the French supply lines. They had started attacking by conquering Madagascar and the surrounding islands in April. In their summer offensive, they managed to liberate much of Ottoman Libya while in the south, the Italians and British overran France’s Ethiopian ally. The nation was overrun and the remnants unconditionally surrendered on August 27th, 1909, being the first Entente member to fall. France was far from falling though even if British armies took the Sudan back and liberated Central Africa. They also managed to conquer Chad before 1910 started and a follow-up offensive conquered Tunisia. French North-Africa finally surrendered on May 17th, 1910. By that time, the map of the world had already changed drastically.

German advances in Lithuania brought Romania to join the German camp on August 11th, 1909, declaring war on Russia and Bulgaria. Sweden-Norway followed suit three weeks later. With these new additions, Russia could be threatened even easier by the advancing Germans. Riga was captured in late August. A joint Austro-Romanian offensive liberated Bessarabia. By the end of the year, German armies were advancing through Estonia. Reinforcements were drawn from all fronts as by the start of 1910, Russia had lost Poland, the Baltic States, much of the Caucasus region and parts of the south of Central Asia. The reinforcements arrived, but they could not turn the tide in Russian favor and only caused Korea’s fall (March 11th, 1910).

To counter the impending defeat of their ally, France attacked as well, finally capturing Hamburg in February. This sent shockwaves through the German army and gave the Russians temporary relief. France was now correctly seen as an enemy that couldn’t be contained forever. British reinforcements had been sent in but had not been able to turn back the attack because they had been surprised. Now it was time for a large offensive on the western front to teach the French a lesson, or so the Anglo-German command thought. On April 21st, 1910, the British and Germans attacked all across the front, causing panic. Two days later, the Italians, who had managed to capture Nice over the past year, also struck westwards. The Franco-Spanish-Belgian force fought like lions but they could not hold the line. The trench warfare finally ended on the western front as German and British forces swarmed through northwestern Germany and crossed the Dutch border. On May 12th, they were forced to a temporary standstill at the Rhine, but after a few desperate days, the line was breached and troops poured into the south of the Netherlands. They attacked Belgium which went down in four weeks and then continued their advance into France proper, taking Amiens as Toulon fell in the south. The French were outnumbered, had no good defense lines left, the last of their colonies had surrendered a short time ago and they were fighting on their own territory. Logically, they should’ve realized that continuing resistance was futile, and surrender.

However, general Georges Boulanger was not the man for a surrender. He and his party announced that they would never surrender to the upcoming Anglo-German menace and that they would still win the war. Spanish reserves kept coming while Boulanger sent messages to the British government attempting to convince them to switch sides and drive the Germans off French soil. London ignored it and the Spanish front against Portugal all but collapsed with so many men being sent north to fight the Germans and the British. It was all no avail. In early July the Anglo-German army crossed the Marne and laid siege to Paris, the French capital. The city was defended heroically with the French Second Army fighting until the last man was dead. It took three full weeks for Paris to be taken. By that time, the French situation had degraded to hopeless. Russia attempted an offensive hoping to force Germany to send in reinforcements from the west. Romania and Austria-Hungary managed to stop it though along with the Swedes and the Poles even if all four armies suffered great casualties. Bessarabia had been retaken though and Warsaw had been reached by the Russian army again. This didn’t help them though as they were completely exhausted now and Germany was fighting her way south in France with Russia unable to stop them. Marseille fell to the Italians at the same time Orleans did to the British and the Italian army swept up to Lyon along the Rhone river to meet up with the advancing Anglo-German army. In the face of these events king Jacques I who had succeeded his father the previous year attempted a coup on August 2nd. The assassination attempt on general Boulanger failed horribly however and an enraged Boulanger ordered Jacques arrested and eventually executed which happened on the fifth even if it was kept hidden from the population. The rest of the royal family was locked up in Barcelona at the other side of the Franco-Spanish border.

The fall of France was now inevitable and the battles of Lyon (August 14th-17th) and Bordeaux (August 19th-27th) proved it. The French government moved south of the Pyrenees which were reached in mid-September. For now they were too tough a nut to crack for the Anglo-Germans which gave France time to sigh in relief briefly. Boulanger still held hopes for a good outcome as in the east Constantinople had finally fallen to the Balkan powers and had forced the Ottomans to relocate to Ankara. Russia could not support their brethren though as they were fighting the Germans in the east where a final offensive now would prove fatal. German reinforcements arrived from the Spanish front and achieved a breakthrough in January, liberating Poland but more importantly laying siege to St. Petersburg. This was the last straw for the Russian population and a communist revolution broke out against the Tsar. With Russia weakened, Anglo-Ottoman forces swept up the Caucasus while the Romanians recovered Bessarabia and the Austro-Hungarians took Kiev. With his nation endangered by the communist uprising, Emperor Nicholas II saw no option but surrender being open anymore. On March 27th 1911, Russia surrendered to the Germans in exchange for getting help with keeping down the communist revolts. The war in the east was over.

To a lot of people the war was over, but of course it continued. Spain (with the evacuated French army on their side), the various Balkan nations and China were still in the war and the Ottoman situation was horrible even if they were getting some relief by the offensives of the Austrians. The Austro-Serbian border war had been a trench warfare filled front for a long time, but now the front would move with Austrian reinforcements coming in from the north. In May, the long-awaited offensive started and it took Belgrade, forcing the Serbs to retreat. The Bulgarians also had to withdraw in the face of this enormous challenge. Worst of all, British reinforcements had arrived from the Caucasus and Central Asian fronts and were aiding the Ottomans at Constantinople along with the growing IEF (Italian Expeditionary Force). Eventually Serbia would surrender on June 23rd with Bulgaria following five days later. Greece would not surrender until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans on July 16th. In the meantime, other things had happened in western Europe.

After several offensives from the Franco-Spanish, liberating Rousillon and taking neutral Andorra, the German offensive finally started on June 15th, 1911. They broke through the Pyrenees after heaving fighting and forced the enemy to withdraw to the Ebro. Portugal attacked from occupied Galicia while Britain invaded from Gibraltar and Italy staged an invasion near Valencia. Barcelona fell to the Germans on July 7th and the French royals were liberated which caused a horrible outcry in Spain when it was revealed to the world what had happened to them. The Spanish government decided to take matters in their own hands and took power while Boulanger fled, committing suicide south of Madrid on August 10th. By now the Alliance controlled much of medieval Aragon and Portuguese-German armies had met up in the north. The government decided that the situation was hopeless and after negotiations with the French government-in-exile which initially wanted to continue the fight both France and Spain surrendered unconditionally on August 19th, 1911.

This left only China in the war, and the Chinese weren’t doing too well either. They hadn’t managed to break the Shandong trench lines and much of southern China was British-occupied. Japan had attacked Manchuria and in late August, a joint Anglo-Japanese force landed on the coast near Beijing. With her own capital threatened, China also saw a revolt from the Chinese workers much like the revolt in Russia. The Chinese government finally surrendered on September 7th, 1911. After three years, the war was over.
 
By the way, does anyone have an idea how to make the font size normal when copying and pasting the chapters? I know there's an option to change it, but it doesn't seem to work to me. Either too small or too big.
 
(Sorry for posting three times in a row, but something went wrong there. I intended to upload the map in the previous post)

Map of the fronts at the end of the chapter:

The Whale And The Lion1912.PNG
 
So next chapter shall have the peace treaty?

Also what will happen with the USA now that the Alliance is basically having all the land with far less casulties.
 
Yes, it will.

The United States will be slightly more isolationist and have more of a dislike for the British (who, after all, gobbled up much of the Caribbean). This will cause an upsurge in American expansion as detailed in the next chapter.
 
Update. Decided to split it because it is rather long.

Chapter IV: The Peace of Versailles, the Central Powers prospering, the Italo-Turkish War and the break-up of the Alliance 1911-1928

The war was over and a peace treaty had to be signed which would happen in January 1912 in the capital of France, in Paris, at the palace of Versailles to remember the original dictate that had been forced upon the Germans in 1890, so many years ago. The Alliance could do pretty much anything it liked as France had been totally defeated, Spain and Russia had gotten a severe beating and were powerless to resist, and China was internally in chaos as well. The British attempted to moderate German and Italian demands but failed horribly as both powers had a strong hatred for France and especially Germany was not going to let France get away easily. Their hatred had grown by France’s stubborn resistance at the end of the war and the French would see a dictate forced upon them that was many times worse than the original Treaty of Versailles of 1890 or even it’s predecessor the Treaty of Frankfurt in 1871. Even British insistence could not change that and many British didn’t really want to change it either.

The first power that was dealt with was Russia as they were in chaos and in civil war which threatened Germany and thus aid would have to be sent soon which would be harder in case of no peace being signed yet. The Germans had already proclaimed Poland’s independence in 1909 which was recognized by the Russians. Posen was returned to Germany which greatly pleased the Germans there but alienated the Poles who had preferred that the province would go to them instead. Poland would become a German puppet state and the kingdom of Lithuania became a puppet as well like the Baltic Duchy north of it which would eventually be elevated to an Archduchy in 1915. The Ukraine did not get her independence but nevertheless the German sphere of influence expanded by means of Poland and Romania. Bessarabia was attached to Romania as they wanted and Transnistria was as well. The Ottomans took the Crimean peninsula and the Poles expanded to the south-east as well. The new Polish-Russian border was placed on the rough line of Wilna-Minsk-Kiev-Vinnytsja and from there on to the Romanian border. Kiev was included in the Polish kingdom as well as Vinnytsja while Minsk and Wilna were not (Russian and Lithuanian respectively) which gave the Poles a sizeable Ukrainian minority. They eventually decided to annex the remnants of the Ukraine west of the Dnepr too but create a federal state with the Ukrainians while the Belarusians were an accepted minority. The Ukrainians got a huge measure of autonomy and so the Federal Kingdom of Poland-Ukraine was created. Sweden had conquered swathes of Finland which became part of Sweden-Norway in the peace treaty which would make for a quite restive minority in the future until the federalization of the Swedish realm. In the Caucasus, the Ottomans got a share of expansion too even if they hadn’t managed to conquer very much of their own as they had had British help. They annexed Persian and Russian Azerbaijan and also took Armenia. Georgia became independent as a puppet of the Sultan in Constantinople. In Asia, Russia had to recognize the independence of the Turkmen and Uzbek Khanates, which were to be under the rule of a British-appointed Khan and would be British puppet states. Russia was also forced to renounce influence over Persia which was partitioned, with Khuzestan and Persian Azerbaijan being directly annexed by the Ottomans while the remains of the nation became a British puppet state. Russia was also forced to renounce all influence over China. As for the Japanese, they took Outer Manchuria from Russia, annexed Korea and also acquired the Kuriles, the Kamchatka peninsula and Sakhalin, with Port Arthur being a Japanese port.

Next, China was dealt with. The big old empire had been the least defeated but with her enemies ganging up on them and a rebellion going on they could deny them very little. The Chinese would be punished harshly for standing up against imperialism. Tibet, Ughyurstan, Mongolia and Manchukuo became independent nations, with the first two being in the British influence sphere while the other two were Japanese proxies (even if Manchukuo was much closer to Japan than Mongolia was. Inner Mongolia was also awarded to Mongolia and the Japanese gave Outer Manchuria, which they had just taken from Russia, to Manchukuo. Further, the Chinese coastline and inland were carved up as spheres of influence with little remaining. Germany expanded from their existing influence sphere in Shandong westwards, taking Henan, Shanxi, Hebei and Shaanxi. Britain retook Anhui and Jiangsu and added Hubei, Yunnan and Sichuan to it. Japan established a small sphere of influence consisting of the entirety of Zheijang and Hainan island. Italy took the southern chunk by expanding from Fujian and Guangdong and establishing a sphere of influence in Guangxi, Jiangxi, Hunan and Guizhou. With Qinghai confirmed Tibetan territory and Gansu being partitioned between Ughyurstan, Tibet and Mongolia, this settlement left China with just the Beijing-Tanjin area under direct control which made them a play toy of the great powers. The emperor resigned shortly after the defeat and made place for a new government which would cower for the victorious powers. China would remain a playground and it’s territory just an extension of British/German/Italian/Japanese territory. Other than that, Asia would also see the removal of Franco-Spanish presence with Siam annexing Laos and Cambodia and Italy establishing a colony in Vietnam. Japan got the long-coveted Philippines while Britain annexed the French cities in India and Australia took French New Caledonia. The remaining islands in the Pacific that were French possessions were divided between Britain and Japan.

Of course, the most punitive measures were inflicted upon France and Spain, primarily the first. Their colonies were partitioned first. In the Caribbean, the Dutch annexed the northern half of St. Martin and French Guyana, while the British took the rest (giving the island off the coast of Canada to the Dominion of Canada), much to the dislike of the USA which didn’t approve British meddling in their sphere of influence. President Theodore Roosevelt called for a decrease of Alliance-American trade which would indeed happen soon. Of course the matter wasn’t worth declaring war over as old Anglo-American ties were too tight for that and the US was too isolationist anyway. Nevertheless the USA felt humiliated in their status of being a great power which the British clearly didn’t care for as the Monroe Doctrine was being ignored.

As for Africa, the continent was partitioned but by now the Germans and Italians were getting sick of British greediness as in Asia and in the America’s and demanded a sizeable empire too. Britain annexed Niger to ensure itself of control over Nigeria. Chad and western Sudan were also annexed along with formerly French Togo. The Germans carved out an empire in the centre of Africa where Katanga went to Britain along with Tanganyika which the Germans didn’t want back because it was so invaluable. However, Germany got the rest of the Congo Free State (which the war had started over so long ago) and annexed the French Congo and Ubangi-Shari as well while retaking Cameroon. This established the German colony of Mittelafrika, an enormous colonial empire in the middle of Africa which was now German-ruled. Britain further annexed Madagascar and Senegal while Italy also annexed some colonies. They took Ivory Coast, French Somaliland, Tunisia and robbed Ethiopia of it’s independence as it had been shown how much damage independent African nations could do. British Somaliland was sold to the Italians for a low price which ended Italian expansion into Africa. Germany concluded the deal by annexing Spanish Morocco and the Spanish colonies of Western Sahara and Guinea. They bought the Cabinda exclave from Portugal which finished Mittelafrika for now. This left French West-Africa which was still a quite sizeable empire in itself. Finally it was decided that Germany and Italy would split Algeria among themselves while the deserts of west-Africa were ceded to Portugal which in exchange had to give up Angola to Germany and Mozambique to Britain.

Finally, the most interesting theatre was dealt with: Europe. Here, Germany was clearly the winner and it was recognized by the French and the Spanish. The Rhineland, Alsace and the whole of Lorraine were annexed by the greedy Germans after a lot of British resistance against it as they didn’t want to make the French too angry and saw too large annexations as unjustified and a threat to the security of their empire. They figured that a sizeable France could be a ploy in British hands to stop German influence over Europe from becoming too big. Against Italy they had less incentives to stop them so Italy could go right ahead in her annexing schemes and she did. Nice, Savoy, Corsica and the French Riviera were annexed into the Italian kingdom and the Alpine watershed was also ceded. Italy also annexed the Balearics from Spain which the latter couldn’t do much about. The Netherlands annexed Flanders and French Flanders and thus ended Belgian existence even if the rump-Belgian nation was allowed to continue existing and even annexed French Nord-Pas de Calais to give it access to the sea again. The young nation was even more artificial than her predecessor had been but Germany didn’t care as they didn’t want to see Belgium (or Wallonia, as it was called now) in French hands even if it was 99% ethnic French. Germany annexed the Walloon territories east of the Meuse which became the new German western border and of course included Luxemburg which became a member of the German empire, even annexing formerly Belgian Luxemburg while at it. For France it wasn’t over yet though. The Basque ethnic group was spread over the Franco-Spanish border and with both nations defeated the Basques proclaimed their independence which was recognized by the Alliance. The Basque Duchy was set up with a Savoy duke after attempts to compensate between groups wanting a Saxe-Coburg from Britain or a Hohenzollern from Germany. Emmanuel of Savoy became Duke Emmanuel I of the Basques. Furthermore, Brittany was occupied by Britain and would be given the choice on whether to join Britain, become independent or rejoin France in twenty-five years. After a lot of persuasion from the French delegates, the first option was scrapped but it only made the peace slightly less harsh. As for Spain, they had to renounce all claims to Gibraltar and accept the annexation of Galicia by Portugal.

In the Balkans, the Ottoman Empire was restored to her pre-war possessions and even got a few minor border corrections including Crete which was made Ottoman again. Also influence spheres were made up. Serbia and Bulgaria came in the Austrian influence sphere. Romania became German-influenced and Italy took care of Montenegro and Greece. The Albanian uprising would linger until 1913 when it would be finally squashed. Balkan nationalism would linger though and would come to pose a great threat to the Empire later on.

Other than territorial changes, the Entente countries were punished monetarily and politically as well. The Franco-Spanish personal union was disbanded for good with Charles, the oldest son of king Jacques, becoming king of France (as Charles XII) and his younger brother Louis becoming king of Spain (Louis II). Both kings were just boys (14 and 11, respectively) and thus, a regency council was appointed which consisted of moderate French and Spanish politicians and whose main goal was to be keeping the countries separate from each other. Besides that, war reparations were to be paid equaling 50 billion marks for France, 7 billion for Spain, 40 billion for Russia and 10 billion for China. The French and Spanish armies were limited to 200.000 and 225.000 men respectively and conscription was forbidden. As for the navies, Britain insisted that France would accept a 5:1 ratio in terms of size which Germany agreed upon. As for the Alliance members, the British navy remained the largest with a 3:2 ratio with Germany and a 2:1 ratio with Italy. This concluded the war and left Germany and Britain dominant over Eurasia.

The war was over and now the new nations that had been carved out of Entente territory were prepared to enter the world stage. The kingdom of Poland-Ukraine already had a ruler in Karol I, king of Poland and member of the House of Habsburg. The kingdom of Lithuania and the Baltic Duchy got other monarchs. The catholic Lithuanians got a member of the house of Wittelsbach who ruled the German kingdom of Bavaria which was also catholic. After some hesitation, prince Franz, the youngest son of king Ludwig III, was chosen to be king Franz I of Lithuania. The protestant Baltic Duchy got a Hohenzollern monarch in prince Heinrich, the uncle of emperor Wilhelm III. Both rulers managed to competently control the Baltic states. The Basque duchy already had a duke selected, Emmanuel of Savoy, and the small country became highly militarized to protect it from the French and the Spanish, who were still around on the borders.

In Russia, civil war went on although the peace of Versailles freed up German forces who were sent to aid the Tsar. The tide turned in decisive favor of the royalists in the summer of 1912. The abdication of Emperor Nicholas II on June 5th, to be succeeded by his younger brother George, helped a lot as well. The communists held strongholds in Siberia and in Moscow but the German aid helped cleanse Russia of them. In early 1913 the battle of Moscow was fought which became a clear tsarist victory which beat the communists for good. Royalist forces then advanced into Siberia where they crippled all remaining communist support. Persons like Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the revolution, were found and executed. Russia returned to a relative state of stability after a while but it would take a lot of reforms to cleanse the region of communist ideas for good.

France was less stable as even though some support for the royal family lingered, the young child-king was not tolerated. In August 1913, the so-called ‘Bloodless Revolution’ happened in which the Bourbons were deposed of and the Fourth French Republic was proclaimed. King Charles XII fled over the Pyrenees to Spain which was quite restive too. In France, a new democratic constitution was written with the intent of creating a stable republican France with a bright future ahead of it. The nation remained torn though as far-left and far-right movements remained everywhere. The Fourth Republic was more unstable than the Third Republic had been even if those moments were glorified and the atrocities of the Boulangist regime were seen as the ultimate horror. This strengthened the left-wing forces in France and would make it a place for communist refugees from Russia. This would not help French stability in any way.
 
Britain and Germany stood victorious over the continent and had no troubles at all with how the peace had come to be. The 1910s were a period of prosperity for them as nationalistic celebrations were held everywhere. The French enemy had been defeated and the Rhineland was liberated from their oppressors. Also Russia had been dealt a decisive beating with Poland and the Baltic states liberated and Posen back into German hands. The region would see a lot of German settlers in the following years with some going to Germany’s new puppets too. There they would work for improving the new state’s economy and modeling it along German lines. The Polish army was built up and would come to include 500.000 men post-mobilization, to be divided into four armies. Similar build-ups happened to Lithuania and the Baltic (Arch)duchy. These two countries also built up a small navy that would assist Germany in the Baltic Gulf and defend the coastline. The Polish were lukewarm about German assistance, but accepted it anyway since they didn’t have any other choice. They were too close in the German influence sphere by now and didn’t really want to go back to being Russian either.

On the other side of the ocean, the United States was experiencing a period of expansion. Under president Theodore Roosevelt (1904-1916) the USA would come to integrate New Mexico as the New Mexico and Arizona states, while increasing US influence over Mexico. In 1914, this would lead to an inevitable clash with the Mexicans in the short Mexican-American war, which started on April 11th. In a couple of quick, victorious battles, the Mexican republic was defeated and the USA stood completely victorious after four months of warfare. The states and territories of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Zacatecas, Nayarit and San Luis Potosi were annexed into the USA and made the Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua and Jefferson territories (the latter being because Thomas Jefferson was the U.S. president who controlled the USA during the sale of Louisiana and thus started U.S. expansion westwards). Also, the Yucatan peninsula was made an independent puppet nation (the Yucatan republic) and the remnants of Mexico became an American proxy as well. Besides that, the US intervened in Panama and Nicaragua during Roosevelt’s presidency, creating canals running from the Pacific to the Caribbean in there and making both nations loyal puppets of the United States. One of his final acts before the Mexican war was getting the Dominican republic to become an American territory, which happened in 1913 after the young republic had been sent into crisis once again. Haiti thus became even tighter bound to the United States.

In Europe, Austria-Hungary-Czechia was still limping on. They had won the First World War, but had suffered heavy losses and the desire of various minorities to break off was stronger than ever. This would be prevented due to the rise to the throne of Franz Ferdinand, the nephew of emperor Franz Joseph, when the latter died in November 1916. Franz Ferdinand I of Austria-Hungary-Czechia was a liberal and saw that progress and reform was good for the Triple Monarchy. He started the work to truly make his nation into a federal state which greatly pleased the Czechs and Croats. Hungary was angered immensely though and was against ceding any portion of their power to the Croatians. Germany supported Franz Ferdinand’s ambitious plan as they had no reason to want for an ally like A-H-C to fall. The Hungarians finally allowed for some moderate reform which happened in 1921. The Triple Monarchy became a Quadruple monarchy with the fourth kingdom being the Croats. Croatia consisted of the original region of Croatia minus Slavonia (which remained Hungarian) but including Bosnia-Herzegovina. This left only the Romanians unhappy as the Serbs were not numerous enough to do anything (and they had been recently defeated) and the Slovaks were okay with Hungarian rule. Southern Transylvania (northern Transsylvania included more Hungarians) was granted more autonomy even if it remained part of the Hungarian kingdom. Finally, the province of Galicia was sold to the kingdom of Poland-Ukraine who were having some problems themselves but had become a largely stable federal state and were happy with the acquisition of Galicia. Italy attempted to purchase some ethnic-Italian areas with a similar deal but the Quadruple Monarchy (or Austria, as the name Austria-Hungary-Czechia-Croatia was never used because it was just too long) refused it since the Italians were too small a minority to bother. This caused Rome-Vienna relations to cool down. Anyway, the Habsburg monarchy had been saved.

The former Entente just continued being in chaos. In 1916, Spain fell victim to this when the Uprising of 1916 occurred. The monarchy was deposed and king Luis II was sent in exile to Germany. The second Spanish republic was proclaimed and would be a fact soon afterwards. This increased tensions in Portugal as well where the Portuguese Civil War broke out between the monarchist and republican factions. The civil war would see British funding for the monarchy while France and Spain funded the republicans. German aid to the British finally meant a monarchist victory and king Manuel II’s throne was preserved even if he did have to make large concessions to the people to ensure the safety of the monarchy in Portugal. The Portuguese ties with the British increased even more with this.

The kingdom of Italy remained quite restive in the years after the First World War. While Italy had seen all her claims against France satisfied, a lot still remained against other nations. Italy hated the Quadruple Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire who were both still suppressing Italian citizens or so the Italian government put it. Especially the former was a main goal of the young kingdom. South-Tyrol, Trieste and Istria harbored large Italian minorities and many nationalists had dreamed of bringing them back into the motherland. Italy had once hated France too, but with most of her claims satisfied this was now over and Franco-Italian relations were warming up. Instead Austria, the Ottomans and the British were seen as the main enemies. Especially the Ottomans were becoming more and more of a nuisance. They still held Libya which Italy had coveted since the Congress of Berlin but the provinces of Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and the Fezzan now included a small Italian minority. Italy had increased her military over the years and in 1919, eight years after the First World War, they thought the time had come to strike. The Portuguese Civil War had just ended and Germany, protector of the Ottomans over the past few years, was still keeping an eye on Portugal which meant that Rome would have a free hand in Libya… or so they thought, at least.

The Ottoman military was quite strong too. They had been given German and British funding in the early years of the twentieth Century and this had helped ending the downward spiral of the old empire. Oil had been discovered in Mesopotamia which was making Constantinople rich. Azerbaijan also provided oil. This had helped strengthen the Ottoman Army which could now make a proper stand against the Italians in Libya. When Italy started their attempts to force the Ottomans to cede Libya to them, the sultan took a strong stance against them. Tensions rose high between Rome and Constantinople in the summer of 1919 which brought Germany in a rather nasty situation as they didn’t know whom to support. On one hand, supporting the Ottoman Empire outright would possibly cause Italy to leave the Alliance. On the other hand, Italy was becoming more and more of an outsider anyway, and with the Italians still having claims on Austrian and Ottoman soil, they were becoming more a nuisance than an aid. Also, the Ottomans hated Russia, while the Italians had at most a dislike for France. With these facts on the table, Germany should logically support the Ottomans… but would they?

The war between Italy and the Ottoman Empire finally started on August 7th, 1919. Italian forces crossed the short border between Italy and the Ottoman Empire in Tunisia and advanced eastwards. At the same time, the Italian navy, the Regia Marina, set sail for Libya as well to stage landings in Tripolitania. On land, the army marched for Tripoli and started besieging it. The city was well-fortified, with 5000 Ottoman soldiers guarding it. The reason for these fortifications was that the Ottoman Empire had been aware of Italian plans for a long time now and had decided to act upon them. General Mustafa Kemal had moved to defend Libya and outnumbered the Italians 3 to 2 with Italy having fielded 17.000 men while the Ottomans had 25.000. Italy had attacked first though which allowed them to make considerable gains though not nearly as much as they would have wanted. Rome had intended for this to be a quick war but it was nowhere as quick as they would have wanted. By the time October rolled around, Tripoli finally fell into Italian hands which was a morale boost. Benghazi had also been taken but besides that no important cities had fallen in Italian hands just yet. Kemal started a campaign against the Italians in Benghazi who soon saw themselves being besieged. He also countered Italian landings near Tobruk and on the other parts of the Libyan coast. Besides this, Kemal had the clear support of the local population who didn’t like being under Ottoman control but preferred it over being part of an Italian colony. The small Italian minority in Libya did attempt to help the motherland by achieving a victory, but their minor efforts did not really help the Italian war effort which was still going quite bad. Italy was not losing but they were not winning either which they should have done as they were only up against the ‘sick man of Europe’. Little did the Italian soldiers know that the German-led strengthening of the Ottoman Empire had helped them more than they could imagine. They were no longer weak. Instead they were a great power once more.

Angered, Italy decided to get an ally to fight the Ottomans as well. Greece was an Italian puppet which had been awarded to them at the Peace of Versailles. The Greeks still had a large dislike for the Ottomans and didn’t need much persuasion to join their Italian masters. On November 27th, Greece declared war on the Ottoman Empire which added an additional force fighting in the Balkans and a small navy to Italy’s war machine. Together, the Italian and Greek navies invaded Crete which had been returned to the Ottoman Empire after their victory in the First World War. The small garrison there was defeated in two weeks and by the end of the year Crete and the Aegean islands were in Greco-Italian hands. This improved the Italian military situation but not by much as they had two fronts to fight now. They had to fight in Libya and on the Greco-Ottoman border as well where the Ottoman garrison was holding strong. Italy decided to send another twenty thousand men to the fronts in Libya and on the Balkans. They had to hurry as public opinion was turning against them and in Italy itself a lot of people were calling for an end to the war. By April the Italian force in Libya had increased up to 50.000 men and had thus great numerical superiority. This allowed them to breakthrough and score some victorious for which it was about time. On July 12th, they finally captured Tobruk after a long siege and restored contact with Benghazi soon afterwards. In the meantime, Italian forces had invaded Albania and linked up with the Greeks. Albania, Kosovo, Epirus and the Libyan coast were in Italian hands now and victory seemed clear. On July 23rd, the government at Constantinople finally requested an end to the war. After eleven months, the Italo-Turkish War had ended.

The war was over but it had concluded with an enormous embarrassment for Italy. It had taken them nearly a full year to defeat the ‘sick man of Europe’ in what was a near-draw. Their great power status had seen a severe setback and Italy felt weak. To make matters worse, the members of the alliance all supported the Ottoman Empire in the upcoming negotiations where Italy attempted to make up for their weakness by claiming as much as possible, based on the fact that they had, after all, forced the Ottomans to admit their defeat by requesting an armistice. Italy laid claim to Albania (with Kosovo), and Libya for itself, Smyrna, a border adjustment on the Balkans, the Aegean islands and Crete for Greece and a border adjustment in favor of Italy’s other puppet, Montenegro, along with war reparations. Austria was outraged about this plan and Germany was too as it would weaken their Ottoman ally too much. They intervened and Berlin and Vienna forced Rome to moderate her demands. A new peace was drafted which was much more favorable to the Ottoman Empire. In it, Libya would still be ceded to Italy, but no war reparations would occur, the Ottomans would be allowed to withdraw their forces, and Greece would get just Crete. Albania, Kosovo, and the other occupied territory on the Balkans were to be returned to the Ottoman Empire. The Italian government was enraged about this ‘defeat in a victory’ but they had to sign it or face the possibility of war with Germany and Austria. Italy signed the treaty, but the government collapsed immediately afterwards and the new government formally withdrew Italy from the Alliance. Austro-German intervention had saved the Ottoman Empire from a large defeat, but had doomed the Alliance.

The 1920s had began and now something was starting to make itself clear. The overspending that had happened thanks to the enormous expansion of the various empires couldn’t last. Victory disease had come to Germany and Britain and the result would be clear. In 1923, the stock market crashed. The economy in the entire world went into a crisis and unemployment increased radically. Especially in defeated countries, this would lead to chaos and call for a strong man. France would be the first victim of this. The communists were shouting that the crisis was caused by the bourgeouisie oppressing the proletariat and many Frenchmen agreed. In March 1925, the long-awaited revolution finally started in France. The nation exploded into chaos and anarchy. In the ‘Paris Massacre’ the reigning class was deposed and the People’s Republic of France (PRF) was proclaimed. As a reaction, Britain seized Normandy while Italian forces occupied the area east of the Rhone. Brittany was declared an independent duchy as the remnants of the legal French government fled in chaos. By the end of the year, the nation was pacified but the revolution had finally occurred and France was now in solid communist control. The last stronghold of the counter-revolution was Bordeaux which wouldn’t fall until May 1926 when the legitimate government would flee to Germany. The Italian occupied region of France was made into the Duchy of the Rhone with Marseilles as capital. A highly weakened France remained but the communist revolution had been accomplished at last and now this new dictatorship was beginning to, very carefully, look outwards for ways to spread the communist ideology.

Russia was having similar troubles but was handling them on the exact opposite way. In late 1926, a far-right government took power in the Russian Empire under command of general Kolchak. He was one of the generals who had aided the Tsar in regaining control over Russia in the Russian Civil War and thus was very popular in the country. Over the past few years, he had assembled votes, but with the crisis, he had managed to seize control completely. His party ran on a platform of anti-German stances and a highly militarized country. Some within Kolchak’s party were in favor of anti-Semitism as well but it was not one of the main goals of the Russian Progress Party, the RPP. Nevertheless Russia would change for good with the RPP in power. Within months, the country was turned into an authoritarian dictatorship. The Emperor still had some power, but it was limited and Kolchak had de facto control over Russia. The Russian Empire now started building up again and once more threatened Germany and her puppet states.

As for Britain, a bit of a cooling down in relations was taking place in the 1920s. While the Anglo-German alliance had worked well during the Great War, British support for German rule over Eastern Europe was rapidly fading into the background and Mitteleuropa was seen as a potential enemy once more. Britain had gone to war to prevent France and Russia from ruling Europe but now Germany did which was something that Britain didn’t want at all. In 1923, three years after Italy did, Britain withdrew from the Alliance along with Portugal which caused the alliance to pretty much disband as one of it’s major members had left. Britain turned inwards to consolidate and Germany suddenly faced a hostile Europe before them. France hated Germany, Russia had a staunch dislike for the Germans and Italy was bitter about German intervention in the Italo-Turkish War. One positive thing was that the Austrian and Ottoman Empires remained friendly to Germany which they had reason to do as Russia was starting to rise. As the 1920s ended and the 1930s began, the future was looking bleaker and bleaker for the victors of the previous war. Their relative weakness would soon be proven as a new conflict appeared in Europe’s future. Spain was about to go down in chaos once again.
 
So it seems Britain may be neutral in the upcoming war that will soon break out. Germany only has so many friends that a industrialized Russia will blast through before they get destroyed themselves.

America seems to be expanding so that they can shift their weight on the world stage.

Has a Cape to Cairo railroad been built yet?

A map would be really cool now.
 
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So it seems Britain may be neutral in the upcoming war that will soon break out.

You'll see.

Germany only has so many friends that a industrialized Russia will blast through before they get destroyed themselves.

Well, you don't know...

America seems to be expanding so that they can shift their weight on the world stage.

Yes, the USA should become more important soon. On the other hand, they did remain isolationist during the First Great War, so...

Has a Cape to Cairo railroad been built yet?

Yes, it has. It was built during the 1910s.

A map would be really cool now.

Coming up.
 
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