Part 92: Victoria: Chapter 26 - Leaps and Bounds: 1905 -1915

1905 - 1915: Leaps and Bounds

Germany is at war with Russia and its ally, Yuan China. The war was started by Lithunia-Poland in the hopes of reclaiming old territories lost in the revolutions. The Lithunian-Russian front consists of hundreds of miles of trench systems and machine guns, a fortified killing zone built to stop the human wave offensives that still form the core of military doctrine.


Thirty divisions guarding the eastern border are mustered and sent to the front, as more troops are mobilized from the German inland.


Not bothering to wait for their allies, the Lithunian General Staff orders several ill-planned offensives, which are beaten back with heavy losses. The gaps created by the attacks allow the Russians to advance and seize control of Narva, Dorpat and Polotsk.


Georgia joins the war on Russia's side in May of 1905, attacking across the border into Lithuanian Crimea.


As the war gathers momentum, so does a series of riots and risings on Iceland. Since the formation of Germany and acquisition of Bremen as an Atlantic port, Iceland has lost much of its importance to Germany and funding for its ports and garrisons has been cut several times. Already fed up with German overlordship, the loss of jobs caused by the German layoffs have turned the entire population of Iceland against Germany. Unwilling to waste troops on holding on to such an insignificant part of the Empire, Friedrich agrees to cede Iceland to Scandinavia.


War or no, technological advancement continues steadily as money is invested into the business sector, new Scandinavian rail systems and Mazulan naval technology. Culture and art is given its fair share of the budget as well.








Bitter fighting continues along the front, with a combined Lithuanian-German advance making gains on the Russian center, even as Russian-Georgian forces advance up through Ukraine.


With a skillful bit of diplomacy, Friedrich manages to open a second front for the enemy by signing a military alliance with Japan, bringing them into the war. While relatively primitive technologically speaking, the Japanese army still consists of almost 100 regular divisions, a welcome addition.


By January of 1906, the Russians have expended huge amounts of manpower on their offensives into Ukraine and the Baltics, and their lines are beginning to thin. Seizing the initiative, a huge German army attacks across the border into Luganz and Pskov, driving the Russians before them.


The Lithuanians, on the contrary, learned their lesson from the first offensives and dug in defensively, and as a consequense their losses have not been nearly as bad as the Russian ones. With freshly mobilized reserves, they begin a parallell offensive in the center, marching towards Moscow.


Georgia, having suffered its own fair share of losses, sues for peace in March and gets it.


The German advance reaches Moscow in July. After a prolonged battle, the Russian defenders are broken and the Russian capital falls.



Not long thereafter, Russia sues for peace, giving up a large number of border provinces. Though the Lithuanians wish to press on for more, Friedrich, unwilling to sacrifice more German lives for Lithuanian gains, threatens to withdraw his troops unless Lithuania agrees. The peace treaty is signed in August.


After the peace treaty is signed, Germany and Lithuania strikes a deal, where Germany gives up its gains in the war in exchange for the one remaining German core province in Lithuanian hands, which the grateful Lithuanians are now willing to give up at last.


In September, a Pommeranian entrepeneur opens a privately funded tank factory. The factory quickly begins to produce the Mk1 'Bismarck' tank, for sale to the German military at a substantial profit.



German understanding of engineering continues to grow as the intellectual establishment comes to be dominated by the friends and relatives of the affluent capitalist classes.


A project to equip each of Germany's standing armies with a brigade of Bismarcks is finished in October.


Investment into the navy continues with the construction of several dreadnoughts and Germany's first submarine fleet. Over the next few years, dozens of cruisers roll out the shipyards, bringing the size of Germany's surface fleet to over a hundred ships.


The alliance with Lithuania expires in February of 1908. An offer of renewal is made, but a new national Czar is sitting on the Lithuanian throne. Claiming that Germany had no right to meddle in Lithuania's affairs and force it to sign peace with the hated Russians, he refuses to even discuss the topic of an alliance.


The Union annexes Arabia in June, ending the successes of the Arab Revolt.


By 1909, large parts of Germany are now covered in the new integral rail systems that offer faster and cheaper travel of people and goods than could ever be thought possible a hundred years ago.


Wilhelm Filchner requests funding for an expedition to the South Pole and is given it by an enthusiatic Reichstag. By early 1910, news reach Frankfurt that he has successfully planted a German flag on the South Pole, the first man to conquer not one, but both the poles of the world.




A debate among the Admiral Staff over future ship designs is decided in favor of those who prefer broad, well-armored and durable ships over slimmed designs that offer better concentration of firepower.


In October, Turkestan formally takes the step into the modern world, its economy, army and political system all radically reformed in a surprisingly short time.



The alliance with Japan expires and the Japanese prove reluctant to renew it, citing a need to focus inward on their booming industries.


In August of 1911, Turkestan and the Union declare war on Persia almost simultaneously.



The Persian army is hopelessly outnumbered and the outcome is the fall of the Persian empire - once the peace agreements are signed, nothing is left save a tiny rump state around Teheran.



The navy sees an influx of new designs in 1912 with the introduction of armed troop transports, light cruisers, advanced dreadnoughts and ocean-going submarines.





The Union invades and annexes the Maghreb Empire in 1913, wiping out yet another of the old muslim powers.


In October of 1914, the Lithuanian Czar is overthrown and murdered by his younger brother, a German-friendly ruler, in what some claim to be a German-sponsored coup. Whatever the truth to such rumors, the alliance between Lithuania and Germany is soon renewed.


1914 ends with a celebratory occasion, as the first of the new advanced dreadnoughts steams out of the Schwerin shipyards. Christened the Kaiser Waldemar I after the first Hohenzollern Emperor, the ship is meant to represent the Germany of the 20th century: A nation that still venerates its ancient heroes and traditions but at the same time advancing with leaps and bounds into the world of tomorrow.