~Jan-Mar 1901: Playing your hand well
January 1901: The federal Commonwealth of Australia is formally created. With its creation support for a full Imperial Federation of Britain and the Dominions is at an all time high, with many in Australia seeing it as the first step toward such a federation and potential model for it. It is also held that when such an Imperial Federation comes into being, the Commonwealth of Australia will no longer be necessary and should be dissolved with the individual states becoming full member of such a federation.
January 1901: The Eight Nation Alliance issue their preliminary demands to end their occupation of the Chinese territory taken during the Boxer War. These demands include a massive indemnity, suppression of anti-European movements, punishment of those responsible for attacks on Europeans during the Boxer War and restrictions on the Chinese military. The Russian demands over Manchuria are particularly extreme, amounting to its reducing to a Russian possession. Despite his apparently extremely weak position, the Guangxu Emperor will prove extremely adept at playing off the various Great Powers against each other to moderate these demands.
January 1901: Queen Victoria's dies after 63 years on the British throne. Her death will see a massive outpouring of grief, not only throughout the British Empire, but in the wider world as well. She will be succeeded by her son Albert, who takes the regnal name of Edward VII.
January 1901: As part of the continuing reforms of the US Army, the Army War College is established to prepare officers for senior command positions. The college will be open to Colonels and Lieutenant-Colonels, focusing on teaching strategic and leadership skills.
January 1901: With his scorched earth and blockhouse policies restricting the Boer Commandos movement, Lord Kitchener begins large scale sweeps to eliminate Boer resistance. These will be coupled with improved intelligence gathering to locate Boer troop concentrations. Additionally captured Boers will no longer be released after tasking an oath of loyalty and to cease fighting. Instead they will be shipped to prison camps overseas.
February 1901: The Spanish-American War has revealed many failings within the US military, particularly the army. The scandal has resulted in the removal of Secretary of War Russell Alger and his replacement with Elihu Root. In order to reform the army, Congress passes the Army Reorganisation Act empowering the Secretary of War to making sweeping changes by issuing various General Orders, the first of which is to ban the sale of alcohol on all US Army facilities. This will be shortly followed by another banning permanent staff attachments, requiring officers to be rotated out every four years so as to enable more officers to gain staff experience.
February 1901: Former King Milan of Serbia dies in exile. His death will serve to further increase the unpopularity of his son Alexander and the instability in Serbia.
February 14th 1901: Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont is nearly killed when his No 8 glider stalls in flight. The accident will lead to Santos-Dumont abandoning the wing warping flight controls he has been using up to that point. His search for a superior alternative will result in him developing movable ailerons as a form of flight control.
February 1901: Recognising they all share the same goal of furthering devolution in Britain, the Irish National Party, Cymru Fydd and the Scottish National combine to form the new Federalist Party. William O'Brien is selected as the party's first leader with David Lloyd George as his deputy.
February 1901: In the wake of the end of the Barbossa Uprising Brazilian Prime Minister Joaquim Nabuco is finally able to reform the Brazilian Senate, ending lifetime appointment, transforming it into an elected body. While it remains dominated by conservative elements, this is the most significant political reform in Brazil since Afonso Celso's expansion of the electorate in 1890.
February 1901: The landing at Gaza has shown up many problems in the Royal Navy and British Army's conduct of amphibious operations. In an attempt to completely overhaul British amphibious warfare practice, a commission under former First Sea Lord Admiral George Tryon is established to investigate the matter.
February 1901: In an effort to satisfy the promise to respect Hawai'ian indigenous right made to the British in 1900, the US Congress passes the Hawaiian Native Act. The act amends the Hawaiian Organic Act of 1892 which established responsible government in the territory, establishing a a Native Commission constituting of five indigenous Hawai'ians appointed by the governor to advise him on matters concerning the indigenous population.
February 1901: Germany makes demands on the Southern Qing which involve the ceding much of the Shandong Peninsula and the reduction of the remainder of the Shandong Province to a German protectorate. The Emperor makes these demands known to the remainder of the Eight Nation Alliance who are unwilling to see such an expansion of German influence in China. The result is the Eight National Alliance agree that no further permanent territorial concessions should be made by the Chinese.
March 1901: The US returns the Philippines to civilian rules, with Luke Wright appointed as its first governor. The colony is to be initially governed by an eight man commission, consisting of five US members and three Filipino members pending the development of a plan to move the Philippines gradually to responsible local government.
March 1901: As part of his reform of the US Army Elihu Root convinces Congress to authorise an increase in the annual intake of cadets for the US Military Academy at West Point from 77 to 481. This massive increase is justified by the need for junior officers due to the ongoing wars in Cuba and the Philippines.
March 1901: The first Australian federal elections result in a minority government led by Edmund Barton of the Protectionist Party supported by the Australian Labour Party. Barton's government is elected on a policy of protectionist tariffs, a national social welfare program, a Trans-Australian railway and further Imperial integration. While the Imperial common market established at the Port Elizabeth Imperial Conference prevents the imposition of tariffs on goods from Britain or the other Dominions, the new government will increase tariffs on foreign goods. Additional, in order to gain the support of the Australian Labour Party, Barton is forced to agree to impose immigration restrictions to protect Australian workers against cheap foreign labour. This will result in the Immigration Restriction Bill, imposing strict quotas on migration to Australia bring about the 'White Australia' policy substantially limiting potential migrants to those from Britain and the Dominions. This act will actually create considerable controversy as far abroad as Britain, with many in Lord Salisbury's government feeling its limits on the basis of 'race' go against the Empires traditional policy of open entry to people of all ethnicities.
March 1901: The Guangxu Emperor's half brother Zaifeng graduates from Dartmouth Royal Naval College sixth in his class. Despite his fervent desire to return to China to assist the Emperor in the ongoing political turmoil, the Emperor insists he serve a number of years in the Royal Navy to gain experience. Thus he is commissioned as a sub-lieutenant on the battleship HMS Swiftsure, currently serving on the China Station.
March 1901: Despite US misgivings regarding Japanese ambitions in China and Japanese concerns regarding the rise of US imperialism in Asia and the Pacific, the two powers begin tentative talks regarding the potential of some form of alliance. Though there is considerable mistrust on both sides, their mutual concern regarding the recent Russian expansion into Manchuria and possible German designs in the region allow the talks to progress slowly.
March 1901: As part of his ongoing series of reforms, Brazilian Prime Minister Joaquim Nabuco implements a nationwide adult literacy program. His intention is to finally end the power of the landowning elites by massively expanding the electorate, as well as creating a literate urban working class to allow the country to industrialise.
March 1901: The British company Brumah Oil is granted an exclusive sixty year licence to prospect for oil throughout Persia by Shah Mozzafar an-Din. While the company controls most of the existing fields in Burma and India, the granting of an exploration licence in Burma to US company Standard Oil has led it to seek to expand, hoping to capitalise on the suspected vast oil fields in Persia.