The Most Sublime Porte - An Ottoman AAR

[Specialist290]

On the one hand, as an American, there's a bitter irony about an update chronicling the slow and ongoing death spiral of the United States in this universe (losing a war to Canada of all nations, no less!) being posted on the eve of our nation's birthday in the real world.

On the other hand, as an archaeology buff, I'm rather chuffed to see the Ottomans being at the forefront of uncovering new ruins to explore and artifacts to catalog, as well as their steady progress in education and the arts generally.

 

[BlackBarook]

Great update. Couple more questions:

1. Is Umm Kalthoum gonna show up? If yes will she still become the Star of the East?

2. Is the BBC still a thing? Or will an Ottoman equivalent dominate the airways instead?

3. In the OTL that was the plan, but it never materialized since the British feared it being used by the Ottomans and Russians to threaten their power in India. Since the British Empire is no longer the dominant force in India what's the plan for the Ottomans? Will they assert their power in the Indian Ocean and kick-start the Indian Ocean trade?

4. Has oil been discovered yet?

5. Will the Greeks be finally pacified?

 

[darkhaze9]

Great update! More interesting developments in North America - the US of this timeline truly seems to be a spent force.

Also a wonderful era for the Sublime Porte - I only hope your Titanic is more successful than the original!

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

losing a war to Canada of all nations, no less

Well, it happened in otl as well.

Is the BBC still a thing? Or will an Ottoman equivalent dominate the airways instead?

I think the anglo-sphere is still massive and the BBC will still dominate that. Possibly moreso since the empire still exists...

Still, might be a good idea for the ottomans to try to unite the dverse populace with unified cultural broadcast.

Since the British Empire is no longer the dominant force in India what's the plan for the Ottomans? Will they assert their power in the Indian Ocean and kick-start the Indian Ocean trade?

Now...That's a thought. Especially because russia is going to be our enemy no matter what. Maybe it would be good to take over persia, then make some vassal states in India before dominating them for the next century or so. Should make up for being surrounded by enemies in europe. Unless we take over italy of course...

 

[Riotkiller]

a great new episode just in time

it's great to see those periods of prosperity and advancement. we are advancing not only economically but also socially. I was expecting some more reforms though.

good job with the secularization and the subsequent elections. it seems like everything will get only better from here

except france, we're now on bad terms with nearly all other great powers as I can remember, and except spain (and iraq if you count them) we're on bad terms with all our neighbors. we'll need a few more allies in case things turn south and we have to fight all our neighbours simultaneously. how are central asian nations doing? or xinjiang? is pakistan still controlled by the british? what about switzerland? they can be a thorn in the side of both italy and austria, but I guess they're sphered by the french?

Relations with Germany are still reasonably good - we've not joined any French wars against them, at least. But yes, we do have three GP's with irredentist claims against us (AH, Russia, Italy), not great relations with America, and pretty poor relations with Britain too (I had been trying to raise relations with them prior to the Third Great War, which destroyed them again).

Russia has successfully reasserted control in Central Asia now, and with the way Beiyang China is going I expect Chinese reunification to be completed and Xinjiang to disappear in the near future. Which might also see China break into the ranks of the Great Powers. As for allies, we have our sphere of influence, which currently includes: Belgium, Brazil, South Africa, Atjeh, the Dominican Republic, and of course our ever loyal vassals in Romania. We also still have an alliance with Japan. Most other European countries are in someone's sphere of influence - usually either the French or the Austro-Hungarian (I believe Switzerland is in the latter). The recession of British control in India does indeed provide opportunities for allies though, although the Communists and Fascists are both doing awfully well in the myriad of successor states arising there.

On the one hand, as an American, there's a bitter irony about an update chronicling the slow and ongoing death spiral of the United States in this universe (losing a war to Canada of all nations, no less!) being posted on the eve of our nation's birthday in the real world.

On the other hand, as an archaeology buff, I'm rather chuffed to see the Ottomans being at the forefront of uncovering new ruins to explore and artifacts to catalog, as well as their steady progress in education and the arts generally.

I sort of expected Canada to win given that they had French support, but the way the Mexicans are rolling through the US has come as a complete surprise to me (especially as it's only a few years since the Mexicans got beaten down by the British for trying to invade California). The amount of civil unrest in America is clearly causing them some very big issues now.

Great update. Couple more questions:

1. Is Umm Kalthoum gonna show up? If yes will she still become the Star of the East?

2. Is the BBC still a thing? Or will an Ottoman equivalent dominate the airways instead?

3. In the OTL that was the plan, but it never materialized since the British feared it being used by the Ottomans and Russians to threaten their power in India. Since the British Empire is no longer the dominant force in India what's the plan for the Ottomans? Will they assert their power in the Indian Ocean and kick-start the Indian Ocean trade?

4. Has oil been discovered yet?

5. Will the Greeks be finally pacified?

1. With V2's lack of representation of individuals I'll lean on probably not, although she seems like a very interesting individual, so I might be able to find a way to slot her in.

2. Aye, the British have a decision to found the BBC that I'm sure they'll have taken - but given the fracturing of the Anglospeaking world going on with the decline of both Britain and America, I'm sure the Ottoman Empire will have our own very much more illustrious public broadcaster

3. The Ottoman Navy has a major base in Kuwait at the moment, and when the naval modernisation plan is complete I certainly plan to station a significant squadron of ships there to ensure control of the Indian Ocean (currently the Indian Ocean Squadron is made up of extremely outdated ironclads and monitors). Expanding our influence into the Indian subcontinent would be an excellent strategic goal though, and if an opportunity arises we'll definitely look to take it.

4. Yes. The Ottoman Empire is one of the largest producers of oil at this point - with significant oilfields having thus been discovered in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Albania, Tripolitania, and Mesopotamia (as well as others in the Arabian Peninsula, but they don't produce as much due to low population). Plus our Romanian satellites also have a couple of very well developed oilfields.

5. The Greeks are currently in the Habsburg sphere of influence, and the Habsburg's are still allied with the French, so I'm not too keen to take them on. If I can break the Franco-Habsburg alliance then retaking Greece will certainly be a goal to go after though, along with the recapture of Croatia.

Great update! More interesting developments in North America - the US of this timeline truly seems to be a spent force.

Also a wonderful era for the Sublime Porte - I only hope your Titanic is more successful than the original!

I hope so too!

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

Oil would give you a great deal of power, considering that at this time the greatest oil producer in the world was the US, and their oil fields have been under constant attack for a decade.

 

[diskoerekto]

so if we break AH alliance with the French (how do you break other people's alliances? I just wait them to run out or something. What is an active step that can be taken in this direction?) and maybe make a new alliance with the Germans it can be a OE/France/German power bloc to counter the Russia/AH/Italy trio eyeing our states.

a new ally near modern day pakistan which also have cores for a larger area can be useful to both use against iran and later for our further expansion into the subcontinent.

even though russia and china are mopping up central asia among themselves, it is still both their soft underbelly and are habitated by our brethren so it's not just imperialism if we control those areas but just "protecting our people". it seems there isn't a country to ally or sphere there at the moment but i think we should keep an eye for any opportunity. once we get a foothold, i believe we can fester like a wound there.

great game v2.0, or maybe we can call it the greater game?

 

[RossN]

Just catching up with this. Great job on the last war by the way!

I have to admit I wasn't thrilled to see Mustafa Kemal who I have quite negative feelings towards and I'm even less than thrilled to see the absolute triumph of Laicite, but this isn't the place to bring up real politics and I think you wrote it very well even if I'd have preferred quite a different result. I mean I've written AARs about places I'd be even less comfortable in than Kemal's empire so still very invested in this.

Also you built the Titanic!

 

[blitzthedragon]

I take it that decision to build the Titanic is part of your custom-built mod? An interesting bit of flavor to include, for sure.

Either way, I'm positively delighted to see such a stable and prosperous Middle East.

 

[BlackBarook]

I take it that decision to build the Titanic is part of your custom-built mod? An interesting bit of flavor to include, for sure.

It's part of the HFM. Why this option is available to anyone is beyond me. 9 times out of 10 it sinks.

 

[stnylan]

The Sublime Porte is becoming more confident on the world stage, and is making some quite noticeable diplomatic successes.

 

[diskoerekto]

by the way, don't forget to vote in the Q2 ACAs for 2019

 

[Riotkiller]

In the years since the end of the end of the Third Great War and the Ottoman annexations of Georgia and Tabriz, global opinion had swung heavily against blatant unjustified land grabs, as people and politicians the world-over looked to avoid further unnecessary bloodshed. The outbreak of a colonial border war in 1928 was, therefore, a huge surprise both to the Sublime Porte and to commentators all over the globe. While such things had been commonplace in the 18th and 19th centuries, the progressive claim that they had been consigned to history was proven wrong after a series of unexpected events spiralled out of control in Southern Africa.

Portuguese Mozambique had had stable borders for over half a century; as the Portuguese government had maintained its colonies in Angola and Mozambique throughout the Scramble for Africa - focusing on defending what it had already got rather than risking provoking a stronger power over unclaimed territories. The Habsburg Empire on the other hand had been deeply unsatisfied with its lot after the end of the Scramble – With the small colony of Habsburg Biafra in West Africa, and the larger colony of Habsburg Africa in the south sandwiched between the Republics of South Africa and Botswana, Spanish Zululand, the British Dominion of Southern Rhodesia, and Portuguese Mozambique.

The Habsburg’s had therefore been eyeing up Spanish Zululand for some time – the minor Spanish colony was administered from Madagascar and strategically difficult for the Spaniards to defend, and so the Spanish government had been open to the possibility of selling it to the Austro-Hungarian government. Colonial officers in Habsburg Africa were therefore invited to tour the colony and send a report back to Vienna on what they believed it was worth. An error from their guide however saw the delegation unknowingly cross the border into Portuguese Mozambique and begin conducting an impromptu census in a village there. When Portuguese soldiers arrived, there were no speakers of a mutually intelligible language, and the minor mistake quickly spiralled out of control. Shots were fired; two Habsburg bureaucrats were killed, and an international crisis developed.

Border Tensions in Portuguese Mozambique led to an outbreak of war in 1928​

Austria-Hungary was outraged by the Portuguese behaviour and when reports reached Vienna, they demanded an immediate apology from the Portuguese government. The Portuguese however blamed the Habsburg’s entirely – pointing out that the event had taken place on Portuguese soil, and fearing that backing down would paint the Portuguese governments as easy picking for stronger powers. With Portugal refusing to apologise and Lisbon's stance being backed by its British allies, the Austro-Hungarian government was expected to bury the issue. But fearing the hit to prestige this could cause, Habsburg Chancellor Dr Ignaz Seipel instead decided that the affront could not be ignored: And on July 24th 1928, Austria-Hungary declared war on Portugal.

The Portuguese promptly triggered the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance – the oldest alliance in the world still in legal force, and Britain agreed to come to their aid. The Habsburg’s called in their own French allies, along with the Danes, Swedes, and other minor allies as another major war broke out - albeit one that would be fought entirely in Africa and on the High Seas. In the Sublime Porte, Grand Vizier Mustafa Kemal Pasha was disappointed by this strengthening of ties between Paris and Vienna, but happy to declare neutrality in the conflict and allow the European powers to send more of each other’s navies to the bottom of the sea: The great Ottoman naval re-armament was still proceeding at a rapid rate, and British, French, or Austrian losses would only hasten the speed at which the Porte achieved parity in terms of the number of active Dreadnoughts.

The Republic of Iraq is annexed by the Sublime Porte (December 3rd 1928)​

It was also amongst this general global chaos that the neighbouring Republic of Iraq saw a military coup d’etat overthrow the pro-German government in August 1928, as a fascist dictatorship came to power. The Iraqi Fascists made bold and ambitious claims of a future Iraqi state stretching up the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers through the entirety of Mesopotamia – land that was very much part of the heartland of the Ottoman Empire. The Sublime Porte was naturally alarmed – but with the African colonial war in full swing, Mustafa Kemal Pasha also saw an opportunity. The Sublime Porte tolerated fascist neighbours in Greece solely because of its Habsburg protection; and in Oman because the fascists there had the good sense not to claim any Ottoman land as its own. With the Iraqis having no international backer and being openly hostile; Mustafa Kemal made a rapid decision to declare war on the rogue state before the Persians could reabsorb it or it started fermenting unrest in Ottoman cities. The Iraqis were completely unprepared, and by December 3rd 1928 the Iraqi Campaign was over; with the new vilayet of Khuzestan successfully absorbed into the Empire.

Whether Mustafa Kemal Pasha could have got away with such a blatant land grab prior to the madness in Africa breaking out was a matter of wide debate in later years, but as it was the world’s attention rapidly shifted to far larger territorial exchanges, following the end of the Second Mexican-American War. The Republic of Mexico successfully annexed the American states of Nevada and Utah, as the United States began to descend into utter chaos. In the 1928 Presidential election, the deeply unpopular Democrat President Davis did not run again, but the Democrats were nonetheless obliterated in the public vote. The American public however still remembered the failures of the Socialist Party President Debs and the humiliation of the Treaty of Washington at the end of the Second Great War, and so despite huge socialist protests and spontaneous civil unrest in many major cities, the election instead saw the surprise success of Republican candidate Herbert H. Hoover, who became the first Republican President for more than thirty years. President Hoover promptly ended the war with Mexico in January 1929, whilst blaming the failure on his Democrat predecessor - the long-term effects of which would not become clear for some time.

Newly elected President Hoover cedes Nevada and Utah to Mexico (January 9th 1929)​

In the meantime however, the huge African colonial war also came to an end in January 1929 with the Habsburgs seizing much of Southern Mozambique and the French making minor gains from the British in West Africa. The British Royal Navy had once again been humiliated by its French counterparts, and despite some brutal fighting in British Nigeria and French West Africa, the Anglo-Portuguese forces were clearly fighting a losing battle. It was not the French blockade which triggered the rapid peace negotiations however. In winter 1928 African native anger at the constant imperialist fighting over their homelands suddenly erupted into a series of huge rebellions that began in French Senegal and then spread through French West Africa into the British and Habsurg West African colonies and from there even into neutral colonies under Spanish and Ottoman rule. ‘The Great African Rebellion’ as it was later called rapidly overwhelmed local garrisons – particularly those already weakened by the ongoing war. The British had to choose between trying to seize French colonies or defending their own from the rebellions, and they quickly decided on the latter.

The Habsburg's successfully annex Southern Mozambique following the Austro-Portuguese Colonial War (January 1929)

The Ethiopian Rebellion was one of a series of huge native rebellions that began in Africa in late 1928 and early 1929​

French West Africa had borne the brunt of the war effort and it was there that the most shocking events of the rebellion occurred when an entire French colonial army at Timbuktu was trapped and surrendered to native forces in December 1928, with the loss of over 60,000 men – many from the French homeland itself. By the end of the month the rebels in French Mali had declared independence, and with the French forces desperately defending Senegal and the Ivory Coast, they turned to the Sublime Porte for help. Ottoman forces were themselves putting down significant rebellions in Ethiopia and Algeria, but Mustafa Kemal feared that should the Porte allow this rogue native state to put down roots, it would only inspire revolutionaries in Ottoman colonies and perhaps even see them unite together. So Ottoman forces were sent against the rogue ‘Toucouleur’ natives in January 1929; crushing the rebel forces at Gao. Gao and Timbuktu were then annexed to Ottoman Mali, and 1929 saw European forces struggle to regain control of their colonies.

The Ethiopian rebellion was not put down until late June, while the Grand Vizier passed further reforms to attempt to lower popular resentment lest the rebellion spread to the rest of the Empire, and so for the first time Limited Health & Safety Regulations were passed into law on January 12th 1929. Even despite this sporadic violence continued to break out, and in the Ottoman Army itself the conscripted forces were seen as increasingly unreliable by Ottoman central command due to heavy agitation against the two years of mandatory military service. In August 1929 series of mutinies occurred while the Grand Vizier was abroad; affecting almost every single Ottoman army. Despite the failure of the mutineers' plan to launch an outright coup d’etat in the capital, the Sublime Porte was heavily shaken by the events. On August 20th 1929 Mustafa Kemal Pasha returned and promptly bowed to one of the main conscript demands and lowered the draft to a One Year term of service; cutting it in half. The measure successfully calmed matters, and the later trials of mutiny leaders failed to trigger the further violence that many had feared as a result. The Porte also developed plans to increase internal migration to Ottoman colonies to dilute the influence of natives there following the Ethiopian uprising, which entered into force in September.

The Health & Safety Act of 1929 forced Ottoman businesses to institute basic safety policies to protect workers (January 12th 1929)

The Ottoman Mutinies of August 1929 forced the Sublime Porte to lower the draft duration (August 20th 1920)

The Ottoman Empire institutes a renewed drive to entice families to migrate to Ottoman colonies (September 30th 1929)​

But even this internal turmoil in 1929, the Grand Vizier had his eyes fixed on a huge prize in Ottoman foreign policy. Mustafa Kemal had been a young up-and-comer during the period of Ottoman isolationism under his predecessor Pertev Pasha, and he had watched with admiration the old Vizier’s relationship building with former French Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré that led to the signing of the Franco-Ottoman Alliance in 1916. That diplomatic masterstroke had changed the face of international relations and led directly to the huge Ottoman success in the Third Great War. A diplomatic success of that magnitude was by now the only thing missing from Mustafa Kemal’s career - and Mustafa himself was extremely wary of the way that Russia had removed itself from international affairs in the years since the Third Great War. That war had been won by the Porte after a period of isolationism focusing on reforming and rebuilding the Ottoman military; and the Russians themselves had now been undergoing a very similar program for the past decade.

And so while the Franco-Ottoman Alliance remained the bedrock of Ottoman Foreign Policy, Mustafa Kemal had therefore begun to look for other allies against any resurgent Russian threat. With the Habsburgs and Italians both maintaining irredentist claims on Ottoman territory, and renewing the old alliance with Germany being out of the question due to the constant hostilities between France and Germany, the obvious target for Mustafa Kemal would have been the British Empire. The outbreak of the African colonial war however had further poisoned relations between London and Paris, and Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald had adopted a strongly Francophobic stance since the end of the war. As a result the Sublime Porte had initially drawn a blank on this search for new allies: The Franco-Ottoman Alliance would have to suffice – bolstered of course by the old alliances with the Empire of Brazil and with Japan.

President Duan Qirui of China​

... Or would it? That latter alliance with Japan had been weakened heavily in the aftermath of the Japanese Revolution, and the leftist Japanese governments that had ruled since the overthrowing of the Emperor had proven utterly inept. The Japanese Puppet Emperor Puyi of Manchukuo had been overthrown by a rebellion in 1928 and the Chinese Beiyang Army had then quickly moved in to re-establish control over the entirety of Manchuria. If Japan couldn’t even defeat a warlord rebellion, what use would it be against the Russians? China on the other hand had finally ended its long civil war and come out of it with a strong central government under President Duan Qirui; himself a former ‘warlord’ and member of the Beiyang Elite.

Duan Qirui was born in 1865, and his grandfather had been an officer in the Qing forces during the Taiping Rebellion. Duan entered the Tianjin Military Academy at age 20 and graduated top of his class; before later studying military service in Germany – the premier military power of the world at the time. After returning to China he gained the sponsorship of General Yuan Shikai and supported his attempts to modernise the failing Qing state – also seeing active service when putting down the Boxer Rebellion. When the Qing reforms failed and Yuan Shikai turned against the Qing Emperor, Duan supported his mentor through the Xinhai Revolution of 1917 and was rewarded with the post of Minister of War in Yuan’s government. After Yuan’s disastrous attempt to crown himself Emperor triggered the outbreak of the ‘Warlord Era’ and the secession of a large number of Chinese states under their Beiyang Commanders, Duan Qirui had remained in Beijing and attempted to mediate.

Initially supported by the democracy supporting Sun Yat-Sen and his Kuomintang, Duan later alienated them by refusing to institute public elections when he took full power following Yuan Shikai’s death in 1920 - supported by his own Anhui Clique - and by 1923 he was ready to launch a series of offensives in the Chinese Civil War against both the Kuomintang ‘National Government’ in the South, and against the warlord states in the west. Following the death of Sun Yat-Sen and the collapse of the Kuomintang forces during Duan's "Southern Campaign", the Beiyang Army defeated the so-called ‘Ma Clique’ in Western China, and then restored control in Xinjiang to finally end the Chinese Civil War in 1927 – with only Japanese-ruled Formosa and Manchukuo remaining outside of Chinese rule; and Duan had since rectified the latter.

With China now unified under Duan’s authority and the institutional failures of the Qing Era eliminated, it had also been rapidly industrialising and had become recognised as a Great Power of the world (at the expense of the declining Kingdom of Italy). Despite this however, China remained without any allies on the global stage – as the outside world had watched the chaos of the Civil War and preferred to instead deal with the Japanese, prior to the Revolution there. Tensions between China and the British Empire were high over British meddling in Tibet and rule in the former Chinese lands of Yunnan, but tensions with Russia were also high over Russian control of former Qing lands in Outer Manchuria and Mongolia. It was these latter tensions that had drawn the attention of Mustafa Kemal, and in August 1929 (even as the Ottoman mutinies took place), the Grand Vizier had travelled to Beijing to meet with Duan Qirui. The two leaders got on well with Duan keen to receive Western Recognition and bolster China's Great Power Credentials; and on August 10th the great triumph of Mustafa’s Foreign Policy was therefore signed: The Sino-Ottoman Alliance. Any future Russian aggression against the Porte would now have a far more serious problem on its hands in the East…

The signing of the Sino-Ottoman Alliance (August 10th 1929)​

 

[Riotkiller]

Apologies for the long delay in updates - I've just started a new job, which has required my full attention and also a significant change of schedule as I slowly force myself to become a morning person . It's taken a while to have the energy continue writing even though I had the plan of this chapter drawn out some time ago, but I hope to return to regular updates now (though it's unlikely I will be able to do more than one or two a week). I fully intend to give this AAR the finish it deserves

Oil would give you a great deal of power, considering that at this time the greatest oil producer in the world was the US, and their oil fields have been under constant attack for a decade.

Indeed, the Sublime Porte is one of the largest producers of oil in the world - and certainly the most stable. It's an increasingly important part of Ottoman industrial might!

so if we break AH alliance with the French (how do you break other people's alliances? I just wait them to run out or something. What is an active step that can be taken in this direction?) and maybe make a new alliance with the Germans it can be a OE/France/German power bloc to counter the Russia/AH/Italy trio eyeing our states.

a new ally near modern day pakistan which also have cores for a larger area can be useful to both use against iran and later for our further expansion into the subcontinent.

even though russia and china are mopping up central asia among themselves, it is still both their soft underbelly and are habitated by our brethren so it's not just imperialism if we control those areas but just "protecting our people". it seems there isn't a country to ally or sphere there at the moment but i think we should keep an eye for any opportunity. once we get a foothold, i believe we can fester like a wound there.

great game v2.0, or maybe we can call it the greater game?

Well, the best hope for breaking the Franco-Habsburg alliance is to get them onto different sides during a Crisis and then have the crisis go to open war, but the Habsburg's backed down over East Borneo before I could do that. The AI will also usually back the defender if two allies fight, so if the Habsburg's were to be the ones who declared war I feel confident that France would side with us. Further opportunities may yet arise, though an alliance with Germany isn't very tempting right now due to the constant wars between France & Germany. Italy at least is just as hostile toward Austria-Hungary as it is to us, and now that it has lost GP status it's also increasingly irrelevant... The new alliance with China should certainly get the Russians feeling nicely worried.

Just catching up with this. Great job on the last war by the way!

I have to admit I wasn't thrilled to see Mustafa Kemal who I have quite negative feelings towards and I'm even less than thrilled to see the absolute triumph of Laicite, but this isn't the place to bring up real politics and I think you wrote it very well even if I'd have preferred quite a different result. I mean I've written AARs about places I'd be even less comfortable in than Kemal's empire so still very invested in this.

Also you built the Titanic!

Aha, yeah I have set aside my own political feelings during writing, and I feel like the route that opened up with the dominant liberal victories and the types of statesmen I got really opened the door for the triumph of laicite here.

And yes, Ottoman shipbuilding stronk

I take it that decision to build the Titanic is part of your custom-built mod? An interesting bit of flavor to include, for sure.

Either way, I'm positively delighted to see such a stable and prosperous Middle East.

It's not my own - one of many I have integrated into the mod, which I took because the novelty was quite entertaining

The Sublime Porte is becoming more confident on the world stage, and is making some quite noticeable diplomatic successes.

Yes it is - and the Sino-Ottoman Alliance now is certainly the biggest since the Franco-Ottoman Alliance was signed!

by the way, don't forget to vote in the Q2 ACAs for 2019

A little late, but a big thank you to everyone who voted for my AAR here!

 

[Specialist290]

Glad to see you back in action @Riotkiller Hope the new job is going well.

I'm definitely getting the sense that the world's "center of gravity" is starting to shift eastward just a bit, with the Europeans exhausting themselves in colonial spats while powers like China are rising and consolidating.

 

[stnylan]

Good fortune with the new job. Adjusting your daily rhythym can be a right pain.

China is an intriguing conundrum. Certainly they have potential, but in more ways than one they resemble the Porte of nigh on a century ago. Fewer immediate enemies though, and just perhaps that is enough. One hopes.

 

[diskoerekto]

It’s great to see an update

The upward trajectory (at least among other powers) continues even among the rebellions and we managed to even add a few states.

The Sino-Ottoman alliance seems like the only logical solution to the Russian menace although leaving East Turkestan to China hurts a bit. Well, maybe there’ll be enough time for that once Russia is taken care of once and for all

Thanks for a new episode, it was a joy to read.

 

[darkhaze9]

Glad to see an update here @Riotkiller, it's certainly been eagerly awaited!

Also glad to see there's still plenty of excitement to be had even as we approach the 1930s.

 

[Niethar]

Finally managed to catch up. A lovely Vic2 AAR

 

[shade55]

I think the most ironic thing about this AAR is how Europe keeps sabotaging its own primacy in the world (much like in OTL). France is a powerhouse, but there's no way it can measure up to both the Ottomans AND China (well done on securing that alliance!). With the United States in a death spiral, and most of Europe either in ruins, decline, and/or unable to project power across the seas, the Twentieth Century definitely belongs to the East.