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Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM |
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This Day in Alternate History Blog
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Calderon (Part 1)
What Really Happened:
On their trip to the far east and their defeat at Tishmuna, the
Russian Fleet accidentally shelled a number of British fishing ships, causing
many deaths. After considerable
diplomatic activity and mutual threats of war, the Russians agreed to pay
reparations and the fleet sailed on to Japan, where it was sunk. What Might Have Happened: World War One ten years early. Let’s start with the POD of the British fleet that
shadowed the Russian fleet for the days after the battle. The Russians are unsure of what really happened, so they are
paranoid (in OTL, they were convinced that they were being attacked by Japanese
torpedo boats) and one of them starts trying to shell the British ships.
A major battle begins, which the British win. Public opinion in Britain is strongly anti-Russian.
The PM forces a blockade of Russia and starts to send supplies to India
and Japan. Extra credit from
British banks extends the Japanese limit quite a bit further, although the
Japanese have other limits. The British also start sending aid to Turkey, which helps
fluster the Russians, and start pressurising the Turks to allow the British
fleet through the stights. The Russians start pressuring their French allies to
intervene before their economy really starts to suffer.
The French have been trying to form an alliance with Britain, but their
economy depends on supplies from Russia. The
Kaiser makes things more interesting by manoeuvring to break the Franco-Russian
axis. The French get paranoid. The Russians start sabre rattling over Afghanistan and
Turkey, much to British alarm. Units
of the British army are dispatched to India, which forestalls any plans to help
out the Japanese directly. The
British send some regiments of Chinese to support the Japanese.
Russia sees these as a hostile move and issues an ultimation.
Britain replies with a demand that the Russians admit their guilt in the
Dogger Bank incident and crease the war. Both
sides reject each other’s ultimation and war begins. The Russians send some units into Afghanistan.
Warring Afghani factions see this as a chance to get rid of their king
and try to get Russian weapons. Russians
try to point them towards British India, where Wavell is trying to seal the
borders, but with only limited success. The
British work hard to expand their ability to move troops around India. The Russians present an ultimation to the French.
They demand that the French honour their obligations or the alliance is
over. The French start preparing
for war with Britain, even though they’re reluctant to risk a war they suspect
is unwinnable. Privately, they suggest to the Tsar that he comes to terms,
but he will have nothing of it. The
French declare war a month after the Russians do. The French successfully take Malta, although they fail to
destroy the Mediterranean fleet. The
British bombard French ports and extend the blockade to France, causing some
damage to the French economy. More
carefully, a joint British-Japanese force takes Indochina and the French ports
in China. Both are annexed to
Japan. British forces pick up
France’s possessions in the pacific. Italy wavers backwards too and fro.
The British are offering incentives in the form of colonies and trade.
The French are right next door. Eventually,
the Italians declare war on France and invade France, but they are stopped by
the French at Granoble. Germany considers her course of action carefully.
The Kaiser is convinced that the British cannot defeat France alone,
although they can hurt her badly. The
French were rebuilding their military in the wake of their defeat and getting
more aggressive – he thinks that this might be a good time to end the French
threat, not to mention the possibility of a share in France’s empire.
Germany declares war, along with Austria, and invades France. It’s not quite a walkover, for the German troops are not
as practiced as they would be in 1914, but they still march through Belgium.
The British diplomatically ignore this and the Germans march on until
Sedan, where the French manage to halt them for a while.
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