Look Out, Sir!

In 1914, the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand cancels his trip to Sarajevo, as he is busy doing other work to begin projects that would improve the new region of Bosnia. He begins expanding the Catholic church in the region, as well as beginning lumber and fishing industries nearby. He is never assassinated, thus never sparking the war in Europe in 1914.

However, this did not mean that the war never came at all. In the later days of 1919, Archduke Ferdinand is now on the throne. Sultan Mehmed V of the Ottomans, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, and Ferdinand all meet on August 29th in Vienna to discuss the political situation in Europe.

Wilhelm had already seized the Benelux nations with little to no resistance. Mehmed had guided the Ottomans onto a conquering spree in the Arabian peninsula. However, Austria was federalizing, and already had lost eastern lands to rebellions. The Czechs were also rebelling. France and Spain just ended a short war against themselves, resulting in a French victory. Italy had become isolationist. Russia was caught up in a massive Communist revolution, and multple smaller nationalist revolutions.

King Alfonso XIII of Spain was called to the talks. He forged alliances with the three other powers. On September 3rd, 1919, the talks concluded: in October, the alliance would invade Italy, and France. The countries were already carved up, and ready for the taking. Rapid and full mobilization began across Europe.

On the morning of October 19th, 1919, a combined Ottoman-Austrian-Spanish fleet began barraging the Italian coastline. On October 20th, a Spanish-Ottoman force landed on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. On the 21st, Austrian troops began crossing the border, and German troops began moving into Switzerland.

The First World War had begun.