Europe and the Great Game Mk II

chris N · Sep 10, 2014

The Austrians were concern that the fighting along the Russian -Ottoman border could turn from just being a skirmish between the two nations to a full blown war. The Kingdom of Jerusalem had been seeing a lot of improvements made since the Austrians had taken the lands. There had been immigration from Europe including Jewish settlers. The Jewish community in Europe had helped to fund a lot of the improvements. Those improvements had included new schools, hospitals, sewers, roads, water works and irrigation. A lot of new railroad connections had been made.

chris N · Sep 11, 2014

The European Press was interested in sending its correspondents to the various hot spots in the world. Italian newspapers were eager to cover their country's army. Italy was far less eager to see French, German or British papers represented/ The Austrian Press had arrived in the Ottoman Empire to cover the conflict between the Ottoman Empire and Imperial Russia. The Greeks had sent some Military observers and there was a representative from the biggest paper in Greece.

chris N · Sep 14, 2014

The Italians were now heavily engaged in the struggle to take Ethiopia .
The Italians had taken the Austrian suggestions to heart and had managed to make some progress after suffering an earlier defeat. The Italians had reinforced their forces and were slowly but steady moving forward.
Austria was very concern with the renewed war between the Ottoman Empire and Imperial Russia. The Austrians and the Germans were selling lots of military and other supplies to the Ottomans. The Germans had helped construct a rail road line from the Capital of Ankara to the Kingdom of Jerusalem .
So far the Greeks had not joined in the fighting. Athens was well aware that should they press forward with Greater Greece they would pay an economic price. The Kingdom of Crete had thrived with aide from Austria and Great Britain. The Austrian Naval Base was now also a port of call for the British Navy. The British had set up some facilities on the base.

chris N · Sep 15, 2014

Ports in the Kingdom of Jerusalem were quite busy it would seem that good that were destined for the Ottoman Empire were traveling Northward by rail. This was as a means to prevent Russian Spies from finding out more about what the Austrians and the Germans were selling the Ottoman Empire.
The forces defending the Kingdom included members of the Austrian Foreign Legion, Colonial troops from the Kingdom and some Regular troops from the Empire. The garrison was well armed and trained.

chris N · Sep 16, 2014

Great Britain and Austria continued to put pressure on Imperial Russia to end the conflict with the Ottomans. The French government were making pro-Russian statements but France seemed to be staying out of the conflict. The French Empire was busily engaged in a number of colonial campaigns in both Africa and the Far East and thus could not afford to have a war break out in Europe.
In general the Balkans remained quiet. Serbia's King tended to take a pro-Austrian position as a result of the Austrian Empire aiding it in its liberation from Ottoman domination. Still there was a small pro-Russian party in the country.
The only flash point had been Albania. It had seemed for a time that Greece and Serbia were determined to eliminate it as a state and expel all of the Muslims from Europe. It had been Austrian troops that had prevented that from happening. Eventually the country had been restored.

chris N · Sep 19, 2014

The conflict between the Russians and the Ottomans came to an end after an Ottoman Army managed to defeat a Russian offensive. The Austrians and the British were able to reach a cease fire between the two parties that seemed to hold.
Russian attention now appeared to be drawn to the Far East. The Americans had been helping in the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railroad.
In China there had been a revolution that had overthrown the Chinese Monarchy. This Christian based movement had swept away the corruption. The Monarchy had been supporting the anti-Western Boxer Movement . The Czar decided to back the movement and the French and British followed .

chris N · Sep 21, 2014

It appeared that the attention of Imperial Russia was now turning to the Far East. Russia had a growing interest in China and in Korea. The Russians were also concern about what appeared to be the rapid modernization of Japan.
Britain was concern that Russia's attention in the Far East could in fact be an increase threat to India.

chris N · Sep 24, 2014

Imperial Russia was now pushing out securing all of the lands that they considered part of Russia. The Russians made sure that when it learned that Persia was supporting the forces opposing its land grab that it dealt them a quick lesson in the cost of angering Russia. Russian agents went into Afghanistan, Western China, Tibet and Mongolia.
all was designed to project Russia influence.

chris N · Sep 30, 2014

Great Britain was very concern with the Russian push to the east.There was a concern that it was part of an ongoing threat to British India. In reality Czar Michael was determined to increase Russia's influence in China. The Russians did not like the Japanese expanding their influence in Korea.
Russia had supported the Republic of China as it felt that the Chinese Empire was too hostile to Europeans.

chris N · Oct 1, 2014

France had been busy expanding its empire. The French military had been securing its control of Indochina. France had been supporting the Chinese Republic as it had felt that the previous Imperial government was very much an anti-Western one.
It seemed that with Italy tied up with its effort to secure Ethiopia
that the French control of Tunisia was now becoming much more secure. The Italians still had a foothold but it was considered to be weak.
Emperor Napoleon IV continued to maintain strong relationship with Imperial Russia but he also was attempting to repair relations with Great Britain. Franco-German relations seemed to be heading toward improvement.

chris N · Oct 2, 2014

As Europe moved into the decade of the 1890's much had changed since the Crimean War. The entry of both Sweden and Austria into that war had started a chain of events which had reshaped the face of both Europe and the world. The Crimean War had in the end brought about the fall of Russia from its position gained during the Napoleonic Wars and also that of Prussia. The Prussians entered the war n the wrong side and suffered a series of defeats at the hands of the Austrians and their German allies.
By the time that the Peace Treaty was signed a new state had been created out of the Russian and Prussian Polish and Lithuanian lands. The Kingdom of Poland was created and the Austrian Emperor's brother became its king. Austria moved to the east absorbing the lands that in OTL would have become Romania. The Austrians pressured the Turks to free Serbia and thus began a different relationship between the two nation states.
Indeed the struggle for control of Germany became a battle between The Bavarian- Hanover-Saxon alliance vs Prussia. The Prussians made a miscalculation and the end result was the destruction of the Hollenzollern state causing them to flee to East Prussia.
Italy became an independent state with the support of Austria.It was part of a series of moves to undermine the French.
The Austrian Emperor was convinced to liberate the Holy Lands and thus become the Protector of the Faith. The Brief Austro-Turkish conflict ended with the liberation of the Holy Lands, cration of the Kingdom of Jereseluem and the liberation of the Balkans.
The post Crimean War period saw a movement by Britain and Austria toward one another. Austria would be Britain military arm in Europe .
The Austrians helped out during the Indian Mutiny.

chris N · Oct 5, 2014

The 1890's saw a rising concern by both Britain and Austria about the prospect of Russian expansion into the Middle East and the Balkans. One country that benefited from this concern was the Kingdom of Crete. The Austrians and now the British were pouring money into it for improvements. The island had a very good hospital courtesy of Austria as well as improvement to roads and harbor facilities.

chris N · Oct 6, 2014

Britain, Austria, and Germany were trading quite a bit with the Ottoman Empire. The Young Turk Movement in the Ottoman Empire was pushing through reforms and efforts to modernize the country. The movement tended to dominate the country's military. They saw co-operation with the Austrians as something that needed to happen if they were to survive threats from both Russia and Greece. The Ottoman's were appreciative of the British and Austrian pressure put on Greece to stop the Greater Greece movement..
The ottoman Empire and Austria had signed a trade agreement and had also signed a border agreement which settled the borders of the Kingdom of Jerusalem with the Ottoman Empire. It also helped to settle the borders between the Kingdom of Arabia and the Ottoman Empire.

chris N · Oct 7, 2014

Russia seemed to have moved its attention much further to the East to the relief of the Ottoman Empiire but to the Rising concern of Britain.
Britain was worried about its crown jewel of India. The Russians were making a slight effort toward Afghanistan but it was more of a feint as the main efforts were the completion of the control over it border region with Persia and the movement toward the Pacific.
Russia had decided to aid the Taiping movement and the establishment of a Chinese Republic. The Chinese Imperial Court was riddled with too much anti-European talk and actions. Thus Russia threw its support to its enemy(Chinese Taiping Movement). France also joined and the British and Americans followed,

chris N · Oct 9, 2014

The Russian Empire decided to become fully engaged in the great game for Asia. Japan had been making progress in its attempt to catch up. The Japanese were very much interested in dominating Korea, which it considered was very important to Japan's security.
The Japanese were also considering taking a bite out of the Chinese Empire, especially while it was engaged in a struggle with the Republican movement. The Republican movement wanted to modernize the country.

chris N · Oct 10, 2014

Italy was occupied with the conquest of Ethiopia and as a result tensions with France had lessen a great deal. The French had tighten their grip on Tunisia but had not yet gotten to the position of pushing the Italians totally out.
Albania had a new King from Germany. It had moved once again to self rule. The Austrians had been maintaining military forces in the country to prevent more blood shedding. It had seemed that there were those in Serbia and Greece that wanted anyone with the Muslim faith to be forced out of Europe. Some of Albania's Muslim population had taken up the offer of land in Austrian East Africa and a small number had fled to the Ottoman Empire. Thus the new Albania had a population that might be slightly more Christian than the one before the Balkan conflict but the Muslim population was still quite large.
Austria maintained a Naval base in Albania and it had a military garrison of 20,000 troops. These had kept the peace.
Greece and Austria had no diplomatic relations with one another as a result of the Cretan Independence. Germany represented Austria's Interest in Greece and France did the same in Austria.
Still it appeared that there was a thaw in relations between both Great Britain and Austria with Greece. Greece had backed away from the Greater Greece position that had created problems with its former friends.

chris N · Oct 12, 2014

France's Foreign Minister was attempting to reach an understanding with Germany that might in reality weaken the ties with Austria. Currently Austria had strong ties with the Kingdom of Poland,the Kingdom of Italy, the Kingdom of Germany and Great Britain. France on the other hand had an alliance with Imperial Russia and was moving closer to Greece.
Russia had been attempting to establish better relations with Bulgaria and Serbia. While it had made some progress in Bulgaria it had been unable to convince the pro-Austrian Government to move away from Austria. The fact that Austria had helped to liberate Serbia had not been lost on the Serbian people. There was a high regard for Emperor Franz Joseph.
The Russians had finally gotten a non aggression treaty with the Swedish and Finish Kingdoms. There however was too much bitterness between the Poles and the Russians to reach an agreement on that front.

chris N · Oct 16, 2014

Czar Michael I was pushing his country forward. With the help of investment and experience engineers from the United States the Trans_Siberian Railroad had opened the development of the Far East.
Czar Michael had continued the reforms that his Grandfather Alexander II had begun. It was lucky for Russia that Alexander II oldest son had survived the illness that had struck him when he was younger as he believed in continuing the reforms begun by his father. His younger brother would have cracked down on the people.
Still Russia and Great Britain seemed to be constantly clashing over a difference in points of view.

chris N · Oct 18, 2014

France was hosting the Russian Foreign Minister. Russia was attempting to reach new agreements with its French ally regarding not only trade but regarding security.

chris N · Oct 20, 2014

In Austria there were those that were arguing that Austria's African Empire was draining resources from Austria. Money that would be better spent at home. The argument that the empire was requiring the presence of Austrian Regulars was shot down by the fact that the Austrian Foreign Legion was the main military force in the African colonies and it was arguemented by Colonial troops. While it was true that Austrian East Africa seemed to require more resources than it provided the same could not be said of the Congo.
Still to give up the East african colony would mean that any shipment of minerals would have to go by sea past French colonies. As it stood now the shipments could be sent by train to a port on the Indian Ocean and then North through the Suez Canaal to Austria.

Italy was completing its pacification of its new East African colony.