French EmpireFrance has fought in many wars under a variety of kings, but is now rising from the grim days of the French Revolution to become an empire, late in the 1700s. It's led by a gifted general with big ideas, Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon gets his start in the chaotic days after the Revolution, working his way up with victories on the battlefield in Italy. With growing confidence, he's ready to seize the mantle of power, declaring himself Emperor. This is in the tradition of great warriors, but Napoleon takes it further, imagining he can conquer the entire western world. He gets pretty far, taking Vienna twice, but then makes the mistake of turning towards Russia. |
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Napoleon's Russian Catastrophe Despite careful planning and extensive logistical support, Napoleon's army eventually meets disaster by outrunning its supplies. Russia is vast, the roads are poor, and French horses starve in great numbers for lack of pasture. The Russians burn everything in front of his army as it marches in, making it impossible to live off the land, as Napoleon expects. And then there is the stubborn Russian army. Napoleon wins the battles, but sustains enormous losses. He hopes that Moscow will be his salvation, with access to fresh food, but the Russians destroy everything before leaving the city vacant. With snows arriving, there's no choice but to retreat. That's when things become truly grim. Overall French casualties for the campaign total half a million. | |||||||||
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British Empire All the territory shown in RED above is managed by Britain during the height of Queen Victoria's reign. This includes the self-governing dominions of Canada and Australia, but also England's greatest prize, India, which is the source of much of Britain's wealth. The British modernize India with an extensive rail system to maintain the flow of Indian products back to Britain. They also help modernize British East Africa (today, Kenya) for the same purpose. At the same time, the British obtain valuable mining rights for gold and diamonds in today's South Africa, where they try to establish direct rule by white settlers from Britain, Holland and Germany. But first, they have to clear away the great Zulu warrior clan, in battle, with early machine guns. | |||||||||
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Prelude to World War One This map shows conflict during the late 1800s, when America and Germany were both displaying increasingly aggressive tendencies. The brand new German Empire brought unity to what had previously been autonomous principalities, after defeating France in the Franco-Prussian War. America, meanwhile, was continuing its Indian Wars in the West, and ended the century by embarking on its first colonial war, against Spain. This began in the island of Cuba, just south of Florida, and was continued halfway around the world in the Philippine Islands. Both were Spanish colonies at the time. American naval planners had been searching for a location to establish a base in the far Pacific. The harbor at Manilla, in the Philippines, suited their purposes perfectly. | |||||||||
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World War One The First World War, called the 'Great War' at the time, is the biggest conflict the world has ever known, so far. It's so ghastly, and produces so little result, that it's also called the 'war to end all wars.' This is because it's widely believed that the world will never again allow such a globally catastrophic event to occur. This turns out to be a false assumption. Note the size of the circles indicating battles on the map. The circles are much larger than on previous maps, because the casualty figures are far higher than for previous battles (excluding those that include a giant massacre of civilians). This slaughter is made possible by the new industrial might of Europe, producing huge artillery pieces, and the newly-perfected machine gun. | |||||||||
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Battlefield in Transition The First World War is a ghastly experience that sobers the entire world. There isn't even a coherent explanation for how it began, other than the fact that all the major powers were upgrading their military, and spoiling for a fight. It's the last example of the old style of war, with massive armies and weapons, but little mobility. Trains can move equipment to the battlefield, but once there, armies are reduced to slugging it out across relatively small patches of ground. This will soon change. The internal combustion engine, which has only recently been introduced by the automobile, will soon expand the possibilities of combat, with equipment that can move around under its own power. Gasoline is the key. | |||||||||