World War I (Early World War I)

1904
In 1904 on a Japanese surprise attack on Port Arthur (Lushun) starts the Russo-Japanese War. Then February 23rd for $10 million, the United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone, the Russo-Japanese War continues with Russian troops in Korea retreating toward Manchuria, followed by 100,000 Japanese troops, which climaxed with the Battle of Yalu river on May 1st. Elsewhere the British expedition into Tibet continues with the battle of Guru and also on April 8th the Entente Cordiale is signed between the UK and France; plus U.S. Army engineers begin work on The Panama Canal on May 4th. As the year continues the Herero revolts begin, then on July 21st the Trans-Siberian railway is completed and the British expedition under Colonel Francis Younghusband takes Lhasa in Tibet on August 3rd with the Dalai Lama signing the Anglo-Tibetan Treaty with Colonel Francis Younghusband on September 7th. Anyway back to the Russo-Japanese War, where Port Arthur enters a siege on August 1st (the siege of Port Arthur) and on August 17th a Japanese infantry charge fails to take Port Arthur.

The Russo-Japanese war expansion
With the almost complete destruction of the Far east fleet, the Russians decide to send in the Baltic sea fleet around the world to aid the far east fleet. The Baltic Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy was sailing around the world to strengthen the Far East fleet, and since the British were Japanese allies, it meant the Baltic fleet couldn't use the Suez canal and had to go around the Cape of good hope, with the estimated date of arrival May 1905; however while the Baltic Fleet were in the North sea, they mistook some British trawlers at Dogger Bank for an Imperial Japanese Navy force, after rumours of a Imperial Japanese fleet detachment in the North sea. The Russians attacked on the night of 21st October 1904. Three British sailors died and a number were wounded. One sailor and a priest aboard a Russian cruiser caught in the crossfire were also killed. The British government wondered why the Russians would ever think the Japanese Navy had sailed to the North Sea and demanded the fleet stop to aid in the investigation into the incident. However the Tsar Nicholas II wanted the fleet in the east quick as possible and demanded the British postpone the investigation, but the British weren't having any of this and forced the Baltic Fleet to stop in the Bay of Biscay on October 22nd and placed troops on the Russian ships to make sure they followed the British fleet returning to Portsmouth. Then when in the English Channel, approaching the Isle of Wight on October 23rd, the Baltic Fleet commander Zinovy Rozhestvensky received a message from the Czar demanding to make haste to Japan regardless of the current situation or face a court marshal, the new only recently appointed Head of Naval Staff wanted to keep his reputation and decided to throw the British troops on board his ships over board and they messaged the British Home fleet escort commander to tell him that they were leaving to Japan and they wouldn't be sidetracked. The British demanded that they stop and as they left the escort they continued, they British continued to demand the Russians stop, then as the Russian fleet was passing Alderneythe in the Channel islands, a small merchant British ship travelled in front of the Russian Fleet, the Russians believing this was another British cruiser fired at it and sunk the ship in a small barrage (the Russians didn't mean to hit the ship as it was warning shots but due to miscommunication the gunners thought they where to destroy the ship), the British seeing another British merchant ship being shot at, where furious and fired hitting and destroying a Russian destroyer; the Russian fleet then turned around to fight the British, thus the Battle of Alderneythe began and a British victory followed with the majority of the Russian ships destroyed as they turned to meet the British, but poor Russian naval artillery fire meant only 7 of the British ships were hit, with only one British ship sunk, 1 ship needing major repairs, and the rest minor repairs. However during this battle other merchant vessels and fishing vessels where destroyed in the cross-fire. This battle then caused the British to declare war on Russia in order to avenge the civilian ships, respond to social outcry over the Dogger Bank incident and the political reasoning behind the declaration, to honour the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902 since Montenegro also declared war, which set off Article 2 of the alliance and Britain declared War on Russia and Montenegro. After this declaration the German Kaiser Wilhelm II saw interest in the war and decided to wait to see how serious the British would be in the war, and if he deemed them serious enough, he would have Germany enter the war against Russia; or if France joined the war, the German's were playing their cards close to their chests, and the course of the war. The Japanese were pleased about the British actions and they began to plan an invasion of Eastern Russia, most namely Vladivostok and Sakhalin; as well as the consolidation of their current holdings in Manchuria, and a plan to take over the rest of Manchuria. However the French were torn between helping either the British or the Russians in this war since they had alliances with them both, and decided if another country was to join with Britain and Japan attacking Russia, then they would join on Russia's side, or if another two countries joined with Russia to fight Britain and Japan, then the French would help the British; this agreement was known as the Dijon compromise.

The reminder of 1904
The British begin a naval blockade on October 30th of where the North sea meets the Baltic sea, by destroying any Russian Naval craft and charging all other Russian Merchant ships with a toll, and failure to pay the toll resulting in the confiscation of the trade goods and ships, with the ships being given to the families of people who had their lives and ships taken by the Russians in the Dogger Bank incident and the Battle of Alderneyther; and the trade goods sold for cheap in London. A similar blockade was set up in the straights of Ottranto on November 3rd to stop Montenegrin naval ships, and charging a fee to merchant vessels, but failure this time to comply with the toll, meant the ships and trade goods where sold of cheap in Malta. The war in the east, continued with the siege of Port Arthur; plus the reminder of the Baltic fleet that escaped from the battle of Alderneythe were attacked and defeated at the battle of Cape town after the Russian fleet came too close to Cape town and the naval ships at Cape town noticed the Russians and sped after them and destroyed the reminder of the fleet in a quick, short and easy battle. The British came to an agreement with the Japanese to send in a fleet of British ships, a group of British ship builders to aid Japan in creating their own submarines and full dreadnoughts unlike the semi-dreadnought Satsuma and two army corps including new artillery units, to aid in defeating Russia.Also due to the war effort, the British admiralty decides to have all future battleships turbine powered, and the plans for the HMS Dreadnought are pushed forward, and it is laid out on the 29th November (2 years earlier than in the real world time line), it was launched on 14th January 1906 and commissioned on the 26th of January 1906, before joining the North Sea blockade.

1905
The Japanese take Port Arthur on the 2nd of January, and have the reminder of the Russian far east fleet around Port Arthur were destroyed too.Then later on the 22nd the Bloody Sunday Massacre occurred with around 1000 to 2000 unarmed civilian protesters killed or injured in St. Petersburg. Then from the 20th February to 10th March the Battle of Mukden was fought, ending in a Japanese victory and while this battle was being fought, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia agrees to create an elected assembly (the Duma) on the 3rd of March. (Note the first or second Moroccan crisis never happens due to the Kaiser's will to wait to see how the war plays out, so he never asserts German equality with France in Morocco) The Japanese have complete control of Manchuria and then invaded the entire Sakhalin islands chain (Sakhalin and the Kuril islands) and them under Japanese control by the end of May, with the only noticeable resistance from the Russians during the Sakhalin invasions, was at the battle of Okha on May 26th - 29th. Then after a while of independence brewing in Norway, the Norwegian Parliament declares the union with Sweden dissolved, and Norway achieves full independence on June 7th, and later on November 18: Prince Carl of Denmark becomes King Haakon VII of Norway. On June 27th the British fleet and army arrive in Nagasaki, where they join with the Japanese fleet and the joint navies begin the blockade and siege of Vladivostok, as well as an infantry and artillery corp also besieging the city. The Russians respond to this by sending in their armies into Manchuria and attack the Japanese garrison at Khailar and besiege it, the British and Japanese send troops to end the siege as well as destroying the Russian army.

The Battle of Khailar
The battle of Khailar happened in Khailar which is pictured on the map opposite, but the battle also spread out into the near-by regions. Now Khailar was currently garrisoned with the Japanese 3rd Army and was seen as a major point for the Russians to attack, since it was part of the trans-Siberian-Manchurian railway, so the 4 Russian armies which had recently been dispatched to the far east where sent to Chita, which is where the Trans-Siberian splits off into the Manchurian railway, one army was to be kept in reserve in Chita (the 9th) and the 10th army was sent into Mongolia to attack some local tribes who had attempted to raid Chita a week previously, before continuing on into China and then Manchuria and attack Khailar from the south west (They left Chita on the 1st July & had destroyed the tribe by the 5th in a small battle). The 7th army (also the biggest of the four Russian armies) followed the railway tracks to attack Khailar head-on; with the 8th army going off the railway tracks to attack Khailar from the direct north. The first image was the state of the armies on July 15th, and as you can see on the image the British army corp and the Japanese 6th army had landed in Seoul and where making their way up to Khailar, however on the 7th the Russian 7th Army had began to shell the city and then on the 8th the Russian 8th army had attacked the North, and on the 10th the Russian 10th army had attacked the west and had also surrounded the south, the city was now surrounded and under a Russian siege. However on the 18th of July, the British & Japanese re-enforcements who had been slow to arrive thanks to a Russian militia sabotaging the railway (the militia was destroyed in a small engagement around were the railway passes threw Khinuhan mountains on the 13th, which shortened the journey by another day, however the Russian high command thought that the militia would waste more British & Japanese time, and also that Khailar garrison would fall quicker too. Anyway back to July 18th were the supporting Anglo-Japanese army had attacked the Russian 10th army who was surrounding the south of Khailar, the Russians were quickly routed due to the fact it was a night attack and had caught the Russians off guard, the British artillery then began to shell the Russian's east & west siege camps and the Russian 10th & 8th armies retreated in order to regroup with the much larger 7th army north of the city. The British artillery moved into Khailar on the 19th and the British and Japanese armies began to plan a pincer movement to destroy the combined Russian army which had now gone into defensive positions. The British long-range artillery could easily reach the Russian encampments, so on the 20th of July the supporting British and Japanese armies split in two and attacked the combined encamped Russian armies from either side with the artillery shelling the back of the encampment with canons moving out of the city attacking the front, the Russians with no where to go where slowly beaten into the ground, with an artillery shell hitting the Russian ammo dump, causing it to explode causing 1000+ casualties, as well as destroying most of the Russian supplies, weaponry and ammo. Some of the Russian army managed to escape the encampment and slowly retreated only to have British and Japanese cavalry to chase after them and mow them down, but the majority of the Russians were still encamped and they raised the white flag at around 4 pm after 8 hours of continuous shelling and attacks. However the Russians managed to call for help, and the 9th army began to approach Khailar. The battle to destroy the 3 Russian armies had resulted with almost all of the artillery ammo running out though, meaning a conventional battle couldn't be fought, so the Japanese and British commanders came up with a trap, to blow up the rail bridge as the Russians in their trains crossed the river which flowed into lake Hulan. The British and Japanese also spread their forces out around Lake Hulan and the bridge, so that when the bridge explosives were detonated the British and Japanese forces could quickly surround the train and kill off any survivors, the artillery had also been fixed to aim at the rough area were the train would stop. On the 23rd the trap was set and on the 25th the Russian train arrived as planed with the British and Japanese laying wait to ambush the Russians. Then as the Russian train passed over, the charges were exploded and the artillery began to rain down, after 10 minutes continuous artillery, the ammo was out and the Anglo-Jap armies rushed in to finish the job, with half the 9th army killed and the other half captured, the battle was an important victory and was the springboard for the Anglo-Japanese attack on Chita later on in the winter.

August 1905 - 1906
With the victory at Khailar the Anglo-Japanese forces decided it would be best to re-organize and to attack Russia, then on the 2nd of August the Black Sea fleet mutinied and sailed out into the Black Sea, and then on the 4th the fleet arrived in Cyprus and offered there allegiance to the British. The British accepted and stayed in Cyprus to take part of the future invasion of the Ukraine by the British in a few more years. By the time this news reached the Russian people, members of the Bolsheviks began a revolution in Moscow and Kiev and in other areas across Russia, this revolution by the Bolsheviks was to be violently suppressed by the 10th, but Bolshevik terrorism continued. However due to the Russian military occupied by the revolutions, the Anglo-Japanese Russian invasion force (1/3 British, 2/3 Japanese) marched into Russia and invaded Chinkuntsk and destroyed the garrison fairly quickly (by the 8th), the invasion force then continued to Chita and attacked it on the 12th and burnt it to the ground, before moving out to attack Lidinsk (Lindinsk is under Japanese control on the 14th), the rest of the invasion force moved onwards to Irkutsk, which was burnt down on the 18th. After this the Anglo-Japanese force turned back around to return to Manchuria, however around 3000 Russian civilians and separatists coming with the British and Japanese back. They followed the Trans-Siberian railway which the British and Japanese made use of in their attack, but this time with the help of the Russian deserters they tore it all up and Russian mobility and ability to attack Manchuria was now severely limited. The invasion force also raised all the settlements it came across on its way back with some more 1000 Russians deserting with the Anglo-Japanese force. They returned to Khailar by September 1st. Plus while all this was happening, the siege at Vladivostok was continuing, however the Russians were holding out, very well from the naval bombardments. In order to aid the invasion of Maritime, the Anglo-Japanese force which attacked Chita and Irkutusk, moved out of Khailar across Manchuria to attack the town of Kumarsk and from their subdue the rest of the Amur region, before going on to attack Nikolayevsk and north Maritime. On September 25th Vladivostok had fallen and most of the Amur region was taken too. The rest of Amur and Maritime was taken over by the 21st of February the following year, the length of this take over was greatly affected by a harsh winter, and the guerilla tactics of the Russian loyalists; but the majority of the Russian peasants welcomed a new leadership in the area. Elsewhere across the world, the Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founded Sinn Féin in Dublin, as a political party whose goal is independence for all of Ireland, on November 28th.

British strategy for 1906
The British knew they wouldn't be able to match Russian military strength on land so they devised a plan to make use of growing governmental discontent within Russia by sending in spies and agents via Norway to meet with the various leaders of independence movements and revolutionists in Kem the port on the White sea. The British would give arms, some military assistance and political recognition to the future states, in return for military aid and an alliance against the Tsar's forces. The British and German intelligence agencies also met to discuss helping each other against Russia, the two forces came to an agreement, and the Germans began to aid the Polish independence movement secretly and the British moved into the Baltic sea based around Gothland and blockaded Russian trade ships, naval ships, and inspected everything else. In return for using Gothland as a naval base, the Sweedish were promised land gains in Lapland. Meanwhile the British and Germans were planing a guerilla war using Russian revolutionaries as well as a conventional front with Russia, the Japanese were planning a full scale invasion of of Vladivostok and the rest of the Maritime and some more of far eastern Russia, and the strengthening of Japanese positions within Manchuria. Then coupled with various riots across Russia, the Tsar's government began to mobilize the army to protect St. Petersburg and Western Russia in general, as well as starting another counter attack against the Japanese in Manchuria.

1906, the war really begins
After the slow build up of forces and the increased frequency of riots across Russia, the British blockade was strengthened with the addition of extra ships to the blockade in order to free ships to aid the planed takeover of Riga and Helsinki. Armed riots and coups in Riga and Helsinki began on January 2nd 1906, a section of the British fleet then entered the bay of Riga and fired on Riga on the 3rd, as well as another detachment of the British blockade attacking Helsinki and another detachment sailing to St. Petersburg and a naval bombing commenced, which was to last until March, when the naval bombardment stopped.

The coups in Lativa and Finland then started to get into full swing as the British made troop landings in Riga, Helsinki, Aland islands and Osd island. Then on the 5th the Polish coup began, however this was much more successful as the Poles where armed much better, then on the 9th the Germans declared war on Russia and invaded Polish Russia and Lithuania. Then on the 12th the Swedish declared war on Russia and attacked Lapland. Then on the 13th Norway declared war,and the crack Swedish and Norwegian snow troops managed to start a successful hit and run invasion of Lapland. After 2 more weeks of these landings and advancements by the Germans, Swedish and British, the western front looked a little like this on the green line. The HMS Dreadnought is commissioned on the 26th of January and sails up the Baltic to give naval support to the Finish land armies attacking the St.Petersburg region. This attack on St.Petersburg from Finland was were the majority of the allied armies were attacking from, meaning the majority of the Russian armies were drawn there, and lessened Russian resistance of the more northern Finish, Russian, and Karelian fronts, however lots of Russians kept the Germans and Poles back, but the Baltic states were lost and by March 1st the fighting became a lot more trench based, and the fighting line became more static and moved back into Russia fairly slowly. Then in the next month of fighting, the front reached the green line on the map on the right; the Russians dug in lots and the fighting became very trench orientated across the Russian line, expect in Karelia where significant gains were made, but the Russians created a strong defensive line along the Onega river and to the big lakes of south Karelia. Elsewhere in the far east the Japanese had set up defensive lines around Manchuria, the Uda river and the gap between; this defensive line repelled a Russian counter-attack in late February to early Match(a much weaker Russian counter-attack too). With this the Japanese had spent the majority of their army forces, proven their military might, taken the territory they wanted, and the Russians who had been wanting a peace treaty since March this year, agreed a peace treaty with the Japanese, who kept all of their territorial gains as well as control of all Russian spheres of influence in China and Mongolia

On the left is a map of the Japanese Empire after the Russians and Japanese signed a peace treaty, and with this treaty signed, Russia's war in the east was over and they could concentrate more on their western European front. After the treaty, the Japanese declare the newly acquired Russian territories in maritime territory and the Amur region as the Colony of Yukiyama as well as declaring Manchuria a jointly controlled state, with Japan and China both running the region. Sakhalin and the Kurile islands are incorporated into the Japanese empire, each as their own prefecture (Karafuto prefecture(Sakhalin) & Chishima prefecture (Kurile islands)) and also many Japanese settlements are set up across the new prefectures. Back in the west though during April and March the Russian line stayed about the same as at the start due to the start of trench warfare, thanks to the production and development of thousands of new machine guns by the Russians. Then after lots of demands for help the French finally decided to intervene by declaring war on Germany and Britain. The French also gave arms and money to the Sinn Fein party in Ireland and they started a coup in Ireland, the French also sent a fleet down the Thames and they attacked London, this attack was eventually repulsed and caused much fear in Britain and a large naval war started in the Channel. Many battles happened between the two powers and the French invaded the Channel islands too. They also attacked Germany and German forces set up a defensive line in Alsace with a large garrison in Strasbourg. Europe is quickly divided, but many powers remain neutral, however in Russia the independence movements form their own nations and Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Anarchist Republic of Crimea (Crimea is led by the would-be members of the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine in real world events, but here they gain support from Germany and England and form their own republic in the Crimean peninsula). Also the Bolshevik armies have created their own soviet republic centered in Siberia. The German and British fleets fight the French in the Pacific ocean, the French are attacked in Laos by the British Indian armies and their are small skirmishes across Africa, with the biggest battles in Western Africa around Nigeria, Togo-land, Cameroon and Ghana. Plus the British and French fight out age long battles in the Caribbean. Around November in Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia their independence movements become more recognized by the Russians, but the Turks see this as a good excuse to gain old land back, and they attack Georgia. As 1906 ends the conflict is truly world wide, as there is fighting in Europe, Asia, Africa North America and Oceania.

Other events in 1906
As well as the war, a few other events happened in 1906, such as a series of earthquakes, including the Ecuador-Colombia earthquake on January 31st(which happened just like it did in real life history), also the August 16th earthquake in Valparaíso, Chile leaves approximately 20,000 dead (magnitude 8.2) also happened just like it did in real life too, but the April 8th San Francisco earthquake was a lot worse than it was in real life, with almost the entire city destroyed, with near enough every citizen of San Francisco injured or killed; and as a result, serve building regulations were put in place and the city became more spread out over the whole San Francisco bay with building sizes being a maximum of 6 stories high. On July 12th Alfred Dreyfus was exonerated. He is reinstalled in the French Army on July 21, thus ending theDreyfus Affair. Also on August 23th because Cuban President Tomás Estrada Palma is unable to control a rebellion, he requests United States intervention. After the rebellion is put down, the citizens of Cuba are so pleased with the USA's governance they start a campaign for annexation into the USA. Then on December 12th the Cuban annexation Act is passed through both houses of Congress, and Cuba becomes a territory of the USA as the Department of Cuba on December 25th, this is known as the " First Great Cuban Christmas Present". Also the first German U-boat, U-1 entered the German navy, with several other U-boots in production and to be joining the Kaiserliche Marine in the next few years. Another important event in 1906 was the nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals revolt in Persia. This coalition forces the Shah to grant a constitution and establish a national assembly, known as the Majlis.

1907, the world divides in two
As previously stated, the world was now in two, with some powers fighting for themselves, but the major two fractions fighting are the allies of Britain and Germany (the allies or reds in the maps) and the allies of France and Russia (the united forces or blues in the maps) (note the name of the two sides doesn't really matter, both sides referred to themselves as the allies, but as that may confuse you (the reader of this article) I have decided to call them two different things to lessen confusion.However the Ottoman Empire (the yellows) were fighting a war of their own, as were the Soviet republic of Siberia (the pinks)& it's various communist guerrillas in the Russian Empire, the Japanese are in peach also, but out of the war; so this wasn't just a two sided affair, anyway the world map is below: 1907 begins with a selection of Russian democrats forming an alliance with the British and their allies, and they come to an agreement, with the Murmansk region and the White sea area becoming the Russian Republic, supporters of this republic began riots and attempted to cross over the White sea and the 'no man's land' between the Russian army and the allied line. The army attempted to stop this but they just made the rioting worse, and the Russian civil war got even worse. The Ottomans take over most of Georgia by March and they begin to attack Armenia and Azerbaijan. Early in June the British sends an invasion fleet to take Montenegro consisting mainly of the Russian Black Sea (remember they deserted in 1905), who quickly takes the Montenegrin cost in two weeks, and the Montenegrin surrender to the British and agree surrender terms with the British and Germans, which included free passage of German and British forces through Montenegrin territory for the next 99 years.

The battle of the Vosges
Elsewhere in France the Germans had kept the front largely the same as the international borders, with the exception of the German attack on Belfort on February 4th. The battle of Belfort though, had spilled out to Munsterol by the 28th(where the majority of the German army in this battle were stationed), Delle by March 3rd and the Argot Forest on the 17th March, and later became the battle of the Vosges by April 1st, after the Germans take the French fort on Great Ballon d'Alsace and begin to attack Le Thillot, Cornimon, Gerardmer and Fraize, and with Markirch being attacked by the French. This battle remained on roughly the same lines for months, thanks to the strong French defences around Belfort, and equally the German defences around Markirch. However during December the Germans made a big push on Belfort and one of the fortresses of Belfort was destroyed in a non stop bombardment of the fort over the course of a week and the French began to weaken.

The battle of Metz
Also at the same time of this the battle of the Vosges, the French were attacking the fortress city of Metz and the rest of the Alsace region, but with the focus on Metz. However like the battle of the Vosges the front stayed virtually the same, due to strong fortresses on both sides. The French commander of the battle of the Vosges (who was stationed in Epinal) was trying to convince the Swiss to let the French armies go through Switzerland to attack the German flank from Basel, to attack the German towns of Lorrach, Hegenheim and Blotzheim, however the Swiss government wished to remain neutral, and the Swiss promised to join the German side intermediately if the French attacked Switzerland.

(Note that on the map opposite, each red dot is a German division and each blue dot is a French division)

The battle of Nancy
This was another battle going on at the same time as the battles of Metz and the Vosges, this was a German attack to try and take the French city of Nancy, in order to strike a psychological blow to the French by taking a major French city, plus it would serve as a good command post for the rest of the war for the French-German front rather than continue to use Strasbourg.

German strategy for a flanking attack
The Germans were also planing a flanking attack, but this one was through Belgium, but this meant that the Belgium's claim for neutrality would be broken, and the British would have to declare war on Germany because of the the 1839 Treaty of London and its significance from Article 7 of the treaty, which bound Britain to guard the neutrality of Belgium in the event of the latter's invasion. Meaning that the British would never allow the Germans to attack France through Belgium, so the Germans appealed to the British to invade France, and fortunately the British were planing just that. Then after around a month of planing the British finally came up with a plan to launch amphibious assaults on Calais and Cherbourg in October that year, or later if control of the channel was lost.

Events in Russia 1907
As well as the fronts in eastern Europe and around the other secessionist states, a revolt started in Moldavia and the Romanians came to an agreement with the Tsar, Moldavia would join Romania, and in return, Russian troops would be allowed to pass through Romania for the next 200 years, as well some reparations (which the Russians needed lots for the war effort). The soviets were also becoming more focused around Siberia, which soviet supporters were slowly travelling across Russia to join the Soviets. However the Norwegians and Swedish agreed peace terms with the Tsar in July, due to them gaining all the land they were promised, however they continue to support the Russian Republic in North west Russia. Elsewhere the Crimean anarchists were losing support from the Crimean peasants and other non-anarchists and on April 3rd the Crimean republicans were founded and on September 2nd their army rebelled against the anarchists, as well as the majority of the Black army mutinying to join the Crimean Republican army, the remaining true anarchists left Crimea and began the Black March, in which the army went from Crimea, across east Ukraine, looking for another place to establish an anarchist state, the following year they would move out of Ukraine to continue the march across Russia. Elsewhere a group of Russian nobles, later known as the Muscowy league was formed, which was planning a revolt against the Tsar and to oust his government and replace it with their own government. Also the Turkestan Army where planning their own revolution and in November they started an armed coup in several major cities in Russian occupied Turkestan, most importantly Samarkand was taken within a few hours and from that day served as the capital of the Turkestan empire and base of operations for the Turkestan army. Also in the Caucasus region the Ottomans had beaten the Russians and drafted a peace treaty, which ceded the Caucasus region to the Ottoman Empire, however no reparations had to be paid to the Ottomans from the Russians. The Russians accepted on July 17th in order to free up troops the Caucasus region was lately becoming increasingly hostile to Russian rule and the Ottomans moved in on July 20th. However Georgian resistance and Armenian resistance had Azerbaijan resistance had all met to form an alliance against Ottoman rule and help each other after their subsequent independence on August 1st and on September 4th they started an armed revolt.

Events in Asia 1907
As well as the war in Europe, there was also going ons in Asia, the most important of these was the re-entry of Japan into the war, however it was against China. You see after the Russians relinquished claims to Manchuria the Japanese declared it a jointly controlled territory (jointly controlled with China) the Chinese wanted their land returned as the threat of attack from Russia had disappeared. However the Japanese wanted to keep Manchuria as they had uncovered large mineral deposits needed to help the Japanese economy and improve the Japanese metallurgy business, however this didn't stop Qing China, and on March 23rd 1907 they declared war on Japan, starting the second Sino-Japanese war (however it was still included in the World War one, but as the Sino-Japanese campaign). Qing agents started revolts in Manchuria against Japanese rule and the Chinese attacked the Chinese on two fronts, Taiwan and Manchuria. These revolts were stopped eventually with the promises of greater autonomy and the establishment of their own independent Manchu empire (basically it would be a protectorate of Japan), Korea was also offered a similar deal. The Chinese invasion of Manchuria was stopped quickly by the Japanese and the Chinese were brought to a standstill, and a line of Japanese machine guns kept them at bay. The Chinese invasion of Taiwan was stopped pretty quickly due to the presence of the British fleet, the British then left to join Hong Kong, the British then declared war on China after they attacked China from Hong Kong. The Portuguese were also offered territorial gains to their colony of Macao if they join Britain & Japan in fighting China. The Portuguese agreed and sent a fleet with around 3000 men, however this was kept secret until the fleet arrived in Macao, which was in December that year, which was when the Portuguese had declared war on China. As well as the goings ons in China, there was also the attack on French Indo-China by the British using their Gurkha, Indian and Burmese armies from Burma and by September they had beaten back the majority of the French army in Laos to the Mekong river. Plus dealings with local chieftains in Laos helping make sure that the British had the support of the locals by promising to create an independent Lao state. Similarly the British were financing Cambodian and Vietnamese rebels to throw the French out of the region.

The battle of the Isle of Wight
With the British aiming to invade France in December at Calais and Cherbourg, control of the Channel was seen to be in British hands, however on November 29th the French fleet which had previously been stationed at Brest sailed around into the Channel and using a combined fleet of Submarines and Battleships the French destroyed a patrolling ship the HMS Royal Sovereign (The Sovereign is pictured on the left) in a short engagement, due to the amount of French ships and subs. After the Sovereign was destroyed the rest of the British fleet was alerted and rendezvoused around Brighton. The French fleet however continued to sail and made landings on the Isle of Wight's south western coast around 10pm, the French then marched across the plains of the isle, unopposed with a few police officers and armed civilians trying to fight back, however these people were quickly killed with only 2 French causalities. The French took Newport also, however there was a small army garrison there, but again they were killed with only 3 French casualties, by 11am the following day the isle of Wight was taken with only 10 French casualties. The French then attacked the British fleet who were in port at Portsmouth and the British lost control of the Channel.

Other events
Other events included the first taxicabs with taxi meters begin operating in London; also New Zealand and Newfoundland become dominions of the British Empire. On October 17th Guglielmo Marconi initiates commercial transatlantic radio communications between his high power longwave wireless telegraphy stations in Clifden, Ireland and Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. On December 19th an explosion in a coal mine in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania kills 239; and also the triode thermionic amplifier invented by Lee DeForest, starting the development of electronics as a practical technology. Also by the combination of the Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory on November 16, 1907, Oklahoma joins the union as the 46th state in the USA.

1908, trench warfare
The French-German front was becoming increasingly stationery due to the introduction of trenches across the line of battle, hundreds of men were dying in small advancements daily. However the situation in Britain was worsening for the British, with a lot of their channel fleet destroyed the French had won control of the Channel and another amphibious invasion of Britain looked certain, but this time on the mainland of Britain. The British in order to stop this used lots of artillery to pound the French positions on the Isle of Wight and was re-ordering the British fleet into two groups, one in Milford Haven and another in the Thames mouth. The plan of the recently appointed British First Naval Lord John Fisher (Lord Walter Kerr was in control for longer, due to his knowledge of the fleet at the start of the war and not wanting to cause disarray in the navy bosses), the title of First Naval Lord was changed to First Sea Lord too, mainly as a show of British naval might, despite a French victory. The Mediterranean fleet however was doing much better against the French Mediterranean fleet and controlled the east Mediterranean with a blockade of British ships between Scilly and Tunis (the strait of Sicily), with a smaller blockade in the strait of Messina, with the back-up ships in Malta. However the waters around Corsica and the rest of the western Mediterranean was in French hands. The French then launched an invasion of Lymington in early hours of January 12th and the port was took within the day. The French then increased their ground around Lymington, however the British were amassing an army to attack the French in Lymington, and on January 26th the British finally attacked from the New Forest area and the Battle of New Forest begun.

Battle of New Forest/Lymington 26/01/1908 - 07/02/08
The battle was a British offensive to kick the French off the British mainland by attacking the French positions via the New Forest, the battle began with a whole cavalry brigade charging through the Forest to attack the French trenches, with the majority of the French forces still asleep due to the British attacking around 6am just as the sun was raising the British cavalry took the French trenches and rearranged the French machine guns to be turned around and as the French came to take the trench back the cavalry mean fired the captured French machine guns (as well as their rifles) and repealed the French counter attack. The rest of the British army caught up with the cavalry around 30 minutes later and helped the cavalry to repeal another French counter attack. With their second counter attack a failure the French decided to strengthen their position in the village of Brockenhurst. The British though expecting another counter attack waited an hour for another counter attack, however with nothing happening the moved out to take Brockenhurst, which the British Division leader decided to move out and attack Brockenhurst. However just as they were about to move out, a French cavalry company appeared and began to attack the British. The British managed to defeat this French attack, however the British who had just began to move out of the trenches were killed (around 100 men killed). The British though decided to continue to attack Brockenhurst and sent forward a scouting Calvary squad, who returned to the slowly advancing British. The scouts reported the French commanders were garrisoned in the train station. The British artillery began to shell the station as the rest of the British troops began to move threw the village, and the battle for Brockenhurst raged for the rest of the day and night and the French commander surrendered at 2:14pm the following day. The British then moved into near-by Brockenhurst manor to use it as a command base. Elsewhere the other British corp attacked the French from the east by attacking New Milton and Barton on sea; this larger force took the majority of the French forces and the French began to withdraw to a trench line around Milford on Sea, Everton, Pennington, Bowling Green, Boldre, Norely Wood, East end and the Solent; however French units outside of this trench line stayed outside the line to fight back the British. (note I'm using this modern Google map of the region because I couldn't find a detailed map of the region from that time, however anyone who finds a map, please give me a link in the discussion page) Anyway on the 27th the 3 British divisions in New Milton attacked the French unit in Ashley & forced them into a withdrawal and they began to march back to regroup with the French division in Hordle, however around half of the unit was lost as they were retreating and also in the initial attack of the French New Milton positions. The British also then surrounded the French division in the outskirts of Barton on sea, the majority of this division surrendered. The British in Tiptoe also began to move out to attack Hordle, which they reached around night fall and began to besiege the French positions. The rest of the British from New Milton then arrived in Horlde in the early hours of the 28th and began to flush out the French, however most of the battle of Hordle was hand-to-hand combat and it took the British two days to fully clear Hordle of French soldiers, none surrendered and only a hundred or so prisoners were taken by the British. Elsewhere a lone Calvary division attacked Sway on the 27th in a daring night raid but due to the majority of the French being caught off guard in Sway the village was taken by day break and around half of the French division in Sway surrendered. The 2 of the 3 divisions which were used to take Brockenhurst went down to attack Setley on the 29th and again faced a brutal, mainly hand-to-hand combat in taking Setley, all of the French were killed at around half of the British, and if artillery wasn't used then the numbers would of been even worse for the British. On the 29th a force of 3 divisions set out from Southampton to Fawley and then began to march to Blackfield and from there to Exbury. This was the final part of General Neville Lyttelton's 3 part attack on the French beachhead; General Lyttelton (who was also served as Chief of General Staff too) believed a quick victory was needed to push the French out of the British mainland for good, because if they took too long French re-enforcements may land and overwhelm the British; so he decided to attack immediately, however he knew that the French could be re-enforced in a day, so working with First sea Lord John Fisher they devised a double attack. On the first of February the army would attack the French trench line from the North and West with the fleet moving out from Milford Haven and the Thames mouth. The east fleet was to launch an amphibious assault on the east of the Isle of Wight (centred around Bembridge), with the western fleet attacking Totland bay were it was estimated the French fleet would be while transporting troops to Lymington. Torpedo boats would also be sent out from Southampton and Portsmouth to attack any French vessels in the Solent. A group of German destroyers would also sail down to the Channel to besiege Calis as well as give additional protection to the landing fleet. This joint operation combined with the battle of New Forest/Lymington to become the battle of the Solent.

The Battle of the Solent 02/02/1908 - 08/02/1908
Around 2am two torpedo boat groups sailed out of Southampton to clear the west Solent of ships, they sunk one French cruiser (the ) and several other small French ships, another two torpedo boat groups sailed out of Portsmouth at around the same time and they encountered three French cruisers, 3 torpedo groups and the destroyer class "ship name here". The French were completely defeated but at a cost of half of the torpedo boat groups and they re-grouped into one group. The Thames fleet were quickly informed and began to sail to Bembridge, however along the way they encountered two French destroyer class ships the " " & " "; as well as 4 cruisers which were the ... as well as a few other smaller ships. It seemed that the French had heard of the German plans and not the British ones but still meet the British invasion fleet, a small naval battle began with the British escort ships including the ... attacked to allow the troop transport ships to get past to Bembridge. But due to the superior numbers of the French, the British where getting decimated however the German fleet which was meant to attack quickly sailed in and turned the battle against the French. The combined British-German fleet eventually beat the French fleet & then the (Doing the rest of this article in draft form, this shall be completed at a later date)

The Rest of 1908

 * The British re-take the Isle of Wight & the Channel Islands from the French. As well as this the British start landings around Calais and Cherbourg
 * The Black March of the Anarchist Black Army continues from Crimea to North modern day Ukraine
 * The Crimean Republic stabilizes its territory around the Crimean Peninsula
 * More revolts and revolutions across Turkestan happen, increasing the land that recognizes the rule of the Turkestani army, the Turkestani controlled land doubles in size
 * The Russian Republic makes more advances and gains from the Russian Empire
 * The anti-Ottoman revolts intensify across Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan & martial law is declared in the Ottoman empire in the Caucasus region
 * Baluchistan is fully incorporated into the British Raj
 * French colonial rule in Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos is severely weakened due to more revolts by natives
 * The British, Portuguese, Germans, and Japanese fail in their peace talks with the Chinese Empire. China declares war on all 4 and joins with France & the Russian Empire after signing an alliance to join the blues. The allies/reds begin to fund Chinese separatists and republicans. This causes several anti Qing groups to be formed which join the reds who are the Nanman republicans, Chinese Democrats, Tibetan separatists, and Mongolian separatists. Chinese communists also arise too as well as Chinese anarchists and lots of other little warlords (the warlords are mostly in the North West Xinjiang region). The British and Portuguese lines in the south of China are extended as the Chinese are pushed back. The Manchus, Koreans, and Japanese push the Chinese back in the north.
 * The Abissinians(Ethiopians) and the British in British Somaliland destroy the French forces in French Somaliland (modern day Djibouti), and Djibouti is annexed into Abissinia
 * The Germans push back the French in Africa in the French colonies of French Congo & Benin, and modern day Chad.
 * The British push back the French in Africa in the French colonies of Senegal (pushing south from the Gambia to the Portuguese Guinea boarder), Northwards from Nigeria into modern day Niger, westwards from Sudan into Tebu, and land in Madagascar and the British take over Reunion and the Comoros islands.
 * The Soviets increase their control in Siberia and establish the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in their Siberian controlled lands. However a divide between the Socialist moderates (the Menshiviks) and the majority Bolsheviks began to surface and began to threaten the stability of the Soviet armies.

1909

 * The Guangxu Emperor & Dowager Empress Cixi both die (Dowager dies first & has Guangxu killed to stop him from reforming the nation) and chosen by Dowager Empress Cixi while on her deathbed, Puyi ascended the throne aged 2 years and 10 months in December 1908 following his uncle's death on 14th November. He was titled the Xuantong Emperor. Zaifeng, 2nd Prince Chun is chosen as regent to rule in Puyi's place, he is mostly controlled by the war council fighting against the foreign invaders, and China's economy enters a phase of total war with all resources going towards the war effort.
 * The peninsula around Cherbourg is taken over and is in firm British control, over a large trench battle rages around the end of the peninsula as the British try to advance. Similarly in Calais the British extend their beach head and push into Northern France, albeit while fighting a bloody trench battle or two.
 * The Germans push into France further and push the French trench lines back, taking Nancy on August 2nd
 * The department of Cuba joins the union becoming the 47th state in the USA on December 25th 1909 in the Second Great Cuban Christmas Present
 * The Black March continues with the Anarchists marching through Ukraine into Russia, Nestor Makhno has become leader of the black army (he is known as Batko (‘Father') to his admirers)& decides to march on Moscow & level it, he gets more & more people to join the Black army & invents the tachanka as an easy way to attack while on the move. Most of these machine guns are smuggled into Russia from Austria by Peter Arshinov (Peter is smuggling arms into Russia to sell to revolutionaries & cause of the war doesn't get caught unlike the OTL)who also then meets Nestor & joins the Black Army. (note because of the earliness of the Russian Civil war here, Nestor was never arrested for a third time & instead began to preach anarchism & formed his black army anarchist group in 1908 instead)
 * The Turkestani army consolidates its hold on Turkestan and defeats a large Imperial Russian assault in modern day south west Kazakhstan
 * The Russian Republic makes more advances and gains from the Russian Empire however the Russian Republican and Soviet advancing lines meet near the Timan Range of mountains and the battle of Timan range begins
 * The Azerbaijani revolutionaries gain control of Baku and other cities in Azerbaijan, similar events happen in Armenia & Georgia.
 * The French colonial forces lose control of Laos and North Vietnam. The Remaining French colonial forces in south Vietnam and Cambodia surrender. Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia are declared independent states. They attack China with the British Indian forces from Vietnam and Laos in order to get support for the Nanman republicans.
 * The Tibetan separatists are aided by British Indian troops and by December have control of Tibet and plan to attack China Proper.
 * Mongolian Separatists gain control of Outer Mongolia and continue to take over Inner Mongolia
 * The Portuguese advance with the British and they both besiege and take over Canton
 * The Manchu/Japanese/Korean line is strengthened as the Chinese Democrats ally with them and consolidate their hold in North East China
 * The Chinese anarchists have more revolts across China but they begin to convene around the Ordos desert, making it a lawless land of outlaws and anarchists
 * The Chinese Socialists consolidate their control around Shanghai and south west inner Mongolia
 * Xinjiang region becomes virtually lawless with hundreds of outlaws, rouge generals, mutinying army regiments, etc.
 * Somebody goes to the toilet at least once this year