Amerika - International politics 1890-1912

Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM

Amerika - International politics 1890-1912

With the conclusion of the peace treaty of den Haag in 1890, Europe again settles in to more peaceful times. The old aspirations and animosities arent forgotten, however, and a couple new ones are added, too. Thus, the wartime alliances are taken on into peacetime, as Germany and Austria on one side and France and Russia on the other strengthen their ties and begin modernizing and enlarging their militaries.

While there initially seems to be a possibility of a German-Austrian-British alliance, one doesn't materialize. Great Britain, having just come out on top, decides she doesn't really need any alliances with continental powers, that would only constrain her freedom of action. And on the German side, Bismarck has the exact same opinion.

The next five years see the cementing of British naval superiority, while the losers of the 2nd Great War lick their wounds and rebuild their countries and economies. Then, however, the balance of powers is upset when both alliances expand, seeing the Continental Coalition reborn, and the triple-alliances to match it.

In Eastern Europe, the year sees both Serbia, Bulgaria and Hungary join the Franco-Russian alliance, for all practical purposes forcing Romania to do the same, thus threatening Turkey greatly from the north and Austria from the south. Likewise, in the Atlantic region, the death of Bismarck in Germany and the election of president Roosevelt in the WA removes any obstacles to the expansion of the Austro-German alliance into the Triple Alliance, adding a threat against Canada, and a further potential naval enemy for Great Britain to keep up with.

With British attempts to make the WA president Roosevelt change his mind proving futile, and with the Pan-Anglo-Saxons winning power in Great Britain, the foundation is laid out for the British to build a Triple Alliance of their own. In 1898, the recognition of WA to be the rightful heir to the USA is retracted, and placed instead on EA. There, post-Grant administrations have already tried to re-establish friendly connections with the British since 1891 and, frankly, they cant believe their luck.

Come 1899, the North Atlantic Pact is signed. A mutual defence pact between Great Britain, the Confederate States of America and the United States of America (or EA), it expands the beginning arms race in Europe into North America, too. Especially since the treaty is almost immediately used as cover by the Confederacy to intervene in an anti-Spanish insurgency in Cuba (Japan, another British ally, uses the war as a pretext to do the same in the Philippines), eventually taking over the island, it is soon seen as an offensive one by the German nations.

While the Boxer War of 1901 sees the coming together of the international (European) community in crushing Chinese rebels and subsequently tearing it up into neat, appetizing bites for each one to colonize, the 10 years following that see a steadily escalating naval arms race, especially since the introduction of the Dreadnought in 1900, leaving all older battleships obsolete and thus giving new naval powers a chance to catch up.

Accompanying the arms race are comparatively small-scale wars like the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 (a tie with Russia holding onto Manchuria, while Japan takes Korea) and the Geralian intervention into the Uruguayan civil war of 1903 and a series of crises, as the three power-blocks come to grips around the world. The ones that bring the world closest to the brink are over Oranje (Anglo-German) and the Sudan (Anglo-French) in 1902, Morocco in 1905 (Franco-German), Macedonia in 1908 (Anglo-Russian) and Poland (Russo-German) in 1910. Especially the Fashoda-crisis, when a British attempt to stare down a French force in the southern Sudan is foiled by the appearance of a pro-French Ethiopian army, nearly pushes the world over the brink again. Luckily, the whole affair ends with the demarcation of British and French interest spheres in the Sudan.

During that time, the Triple-Alliance is further reinforced with the addition of the kingdoms of Italy and Sweden-Norway-Finland. Likewise, Spain joins the French-Russian, and Portugal the British camp. By now only small nations like Denmark and Switzerland manage to stay neutral.

With the alliances taking in more and more members, every little skirmish between minor powers threaten to evolve into a major war, however. Already, during 1911, wars have broken out between Italy and Turkey over Libya, and between Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro and Greece on one side and Turkey on the other over over pretty much the entirety of European Turkey. While major wars are avoided in both cases, diplomacy fails miserably when Norwegian nationalists with British backing threaten civil war if Sweden doesn't let them go.

It is in this situation that the involvement of the British Secret Service, not only in the Swedo-Norwegian civil war, but also the assassination attempt on Theodor Roosevelt becomes known.

From there, things quickly spin out of control, as the breakdown of diplomacy and tight mobilization-schedules and warplans destroy all attempts to prevent a 3rd Great War.