Drakafic: Timeline.
Posted: 2004-08-15 05:05am
This is the official timeline for our version of the Domination of Draka. Subject to updates and additions. Territorial description of the world in 1940 will follow shortly.
1776 -- Outbreak of American Revolution. Nova Scotia succeeds in revolting along with other colonies.
1783 -- Second Peace of Paris. Britain retains Upper and Lower Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick become fourteenth and fifteenth states of the Union, the former minus Cape Breton Island.
1783-84 -- Volcanic eruptions devastate Iceland. 25,000 Icelanders offered asylum in Drakia, arriving 1783-86.
1784 -- Diamonds discovered in the interior in South Africa.
1785 -Gold discovered on Whiteridge (Whitwaterstrand) and in eastern Archona Province (Transvaal). First steam engines imported for mine operations.
1786 -- Crown Colony of Drakia sees population boom from immigrants looking for riches in the gold and diamond fields. First great popular-level "gold rush" of the modern era.
1790s -- Wealth of colony grows massively, new upper classes come to dominate House of Burgesses, industrial investment in Drakia to provide supporting infrastructure for extraction operations. Cape Town Mineral Company chartered by wealthy colonists, becoming an industrial consortium dominated by the large landowners. The corsortium buys a controlling interest in the East Indies Company by the late 1790s as it features a veritable glut of capital growth from the mining concerns leading to the South African upper classes becoming the wealthiest in the Empire, particularly with their financial resources needed by Britain to persecute the Napoleonic Wars without falling into debt. The CTMC also becomes responsible for most infrastructure development in the hinterland. Immigration from Haiti and France after revolutions. Series of slave revolts and atrocities results in beginning of brutal control regime for slave populace that resembles some of the worst excesses of Spanish rule in colonial America in many respects.
1800 -- Troops of the East India Company occupy Egypt as French forces retreat from the country. Port of Aden seized to guard supply lines.
1802 -- EIC forces conquer Dutch Ceylon.
1803 -- Major revolt in Egypt suppressed, Mamelukes slaughtered enmasse to remove danger of further uprisings.
1808 -- Ottoman troops under Muhammad Ali Pasha sieze Gaza, advance on Cairo, after EIC's refusal to evacuate Egypt. Massive relief expedition organized by South African and India concerns; troops of the Bengal Army relieve the defenders of Cairo.
1809 -- EIC troops advance north into the Levant, in a series of battles defeat Ottoman and local forces, seize Palestine and Greater Lebanon.
1810/11 -- Offensive launched by EIC forces along the North Africa coast to suppress piracy. Berlerlik of Cyrenaica occupied. Ottoman counteroffensive in the Levant inconclusive.
1812/14 -- Continued fighting in the Levant, Ottomans manage to hold northern Lebanon but the Mt. Sinai and Beirut are retained by the EIC. In the meanwhile EIC expeditionary forces, aided by the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean, wage a series of battles all along the coast of North Africa. Fighting continues in Europe as OTL. War of 1812 in United States fought with refined, production-type Ferguson rifles, United States successfully adapts to new tactics this entails, defeats Britain, occupies Canada.
1815 -- Army of Napoleon Bonaparte decisively crushed at Waterloo by allied forces armed with a refined, production version of the Ferguson Rifle. Vienna Congress. Portguese outposts purchased in Mozambique, Angola at great cost; money used by Portuguese government for recovery efforts after Napoleonic Wars. To a certain degree these purchases choke off capital for industrial expansion in the Domination. American control of Upper and Lower Canada confirmed, Britain retains Newfoundland and Labrador and Cape Breton, Prince Edward, and Anticosti Islands. Limited expansion to the north follows, mainly to support the fur trade.
1816 -- Congress Europe as historical. French lose all African outposts, regain Caribbean and Indian Ocean islands considered more valuable at the time in the general desire to avoid punitive demands. Control of the Holy Land by the East India Company confirmed (with a special international rights for holy sites), along with coastal control of African littoral. Age of Mediterranean piracy ends. Crusader spirit in Drakia leads to creation of "The Honourable Order of the Knights Templar" which soon becomes very popular in wealthy classes. With massive membership, this organization is originally Christian but becomes steadily infested by an esoteric and occultist interest in the obsure and lurid tales of the Knights Templar.
1817/1825 -- Drive down the Nile. Expeditionary forces conquer the Nile valley, subdue Sudan, native tribes. East India Company follows British lead in Trucial Oman by forcing the Sultan of Oman to sign protectorate treaty giving them control over Zanzibar and the East African coast. Drakian explorers flood north to open up East Africa through the now available coastal ports and fortifications. Parties of often just a few hundred conquer vast tribal lands. In 1825 Drakian explorers arrive up through Uganda at the mud fort of Fashoda established as an outpost of the EIC.
1825/30 -- Political battles in Parliament over status of slavery in the Crown Colony of Drakia. Massive East India Company lobby prevents abolitionist groups from successfully forcing its end, though cosmetic redeeming of slaves to "bondserfs" occurs, serfs in short-form. By the end of this period the Crown Colony of Drakia administers East Africa from Uganda to Natal and southwest Africa below the Congo river; regular Camel patrols cross the Kalahari Desert. The East India Company controls the African coast from the Rovuma to Suez and the Nile valley, and from Alexandria to the Moroccan border. Ethiopia remains independent. Oppressive taxation in India to support massive conquests engenders opposition sentiment to the EIC.
1830/45 -- Years of warfare with the al-Sanusi Order in Darfur and the Fezzan for control of the caravan routes across the Sahara. Berber tribes in the trans-Atlas rally under charistmatic Islamic leaders and wage jihad against EIC on African Littoral. By 1845 after more than a decade of constant war the Wadai Kingdom and the al-Sanusi Order are broken, Darfur is occupied and the caravan routes are dominated by the EIC. Resistance continues unabated in Algeria.
1845/55 -- Slave revolts in Drakia brutally put down, atrocities committed by slaves engender full-scale counter-atrocities, first experimental use of chlorine as poison gas to help suppress revolts. General rise in the occultic interest of the Drakian upper classes. Popularity of secret societies leads to their being generally corrupted by these beliefs. In 1850 cache of scrolls is discovered on the edge of the Munkhafad al-Qattarah at remains of remote Gnostic community, including many lost writings of antiquity, complete copy of the Gnostic Bible, and a second 'rosetta stone' translating between Greek and Nubian. Classicist rival follows while publication and enthusiastic analysis of Gnostic texts by upper class begins to weaken hold of Christianity on general populace.
Bornu Sultanate, other Muslim states around Lake Tchad crushed, skirmishes with Sokoto Caliphate. Weaknesses in Ottoman Empire encourage advance of EIC control as far as Asir on the red sea coast. Fear of igniting general jihad prevents consideration of advance on Mecca. East Yemen is a loose group of Sultanates under British Protectorate. 1848 'year of revolution' in Europe, Napoleon III gains power, begins French colonialist expansion in Indochina, attempts to make inroads in British domination of Africa. Annexation of Mexico by the United States follows appeal by the secessionist government of the Yucatan.
1855/60 -- By this time period both Drakia and India are highly industrialized by world standards of the age. While India falls behind in the future along with the UK itself, Drakia's increasingly close connections with the German-speaking world give it an edge in maintaining industrial innovation and growth tied to that of the rising fortunes of Prussia. Increasingly brutal treatment of natives in India carries over from Drakian practices in Africa, and combined with highly oppressive taxation and the Doctrine of Lapse leads to the "Sepoy Revolt". EIC overextended in other areas of the world, particularly Africa.
Difficulty in suppressing revolt and vital importance of India to the British economy leads Viceroyalty Act. EIC stripped of control of India and British troops under General Sir Henry Havelock arrive to restore situation. With elimination of the Drakian-dominated EIC, the British easily subdue the rebellion with peaceful measures and the age of the Raj begins. States dispossessed under the Doctrine of Lapse are restored and the conciliation of the Indian population is completed.
In the Fraser River Valley confrontation in Pacific Northwest between Britain and United States after Gold Rush there the Americans intimidate the British, caught up in the India crisis and with the dominate land power, into bcking down. The Fraser Valley is ceded to America, becomes Fraser State during ACW, Vancouver Island, Queen Charlottes, San Juans, and small coastal areas remain British. Filibustering expeditions in some South American states place them under effective American control.
Drakia protests violently at the lost of India and the final settlement of the Viceroyalty Act places African colonies, stations on Zanzibar and Morocco, and the island of Ceylon under Drakian control in a much-reduced East India Company's who's headquarters are moved to Cape Town. The Laccadives, Maldives, and Indian Ocean islands (such as are controlled by Britain) remain under direct British authority or that of the Raj.
1860/70 -- Drakian economy nearly collapses without the income revenue from the EIC holdings in India, upon which it was highly dependent due to the huge financial costs of conquering and pacifying vast areas of Africa. Drakia begins to agitate for complete self-rule at feeling of betrayal from Britain and steadily growing cultural distance. Situation without use of Indian manpower resources becomes tenuous for small number of Europeans ruling over much of Africa. Emancipation of women begins due to the extreme necessity of these dangerous circumstances as they are given increased authority out of need.
Economic and social theories of JS Mill see a brief surge in Drakian society as this economic downturn suggests slave system defunct. This ultimately produces an elitist backlash and the polarizing controversy contributes to collapse of christian morality in country. Only the American Civil War saves Drakia economically as the conflict allows Drakia to establish a veritable monopoly on the world cotton and textiles markets, and sale of weapons to Confederacy brings in needed capital. Capital flight of wealthy landowners from south to Drakia completes recovery and reaffirms pro-slavery sentiment. Full self-government granted by Act of Parliament in 1866. Purchase of Danish colonies in Africa follows as the economy rebounds. Taipings victorious in China with French aide due to arrangement signing away legal control of Indochina to France and Napoleon III's obsession with pan-Christian missionary work in Asia. British and Russians support Manchus, who establish breakaway state in lower Manchuria. Alaska purchased from Russia by the USA to prevent Britain from gaining control of it.
Drakia refuses to place magazine rifles in service in this period, preferring breechloading big-bore weapons on the style of the Martini-Henry. Design proposals for magazine repeateding rifles instead adopted by Prussian Army and used in the victory over the Austrians at the Battle of Koniggratz, restoring equilibrium to the European political scene and guaranteeing the continental dominance of the German Empire.
1870/75 -- Drakia seizes French outposts in Gabbon and the Congo opportunistically during Franco-Prussian War. International uproar. Remnant holdings of the East Indian Company, in theory still administering much of Africa and the island of Ceylon, are nationalized and now governed directly by the Dominion of Drakia. Palestina and Lebanon Provinces given semi-autonomous status to please European States. Muslims formally enserfed, Jews herded in ghettos, Christian natives remain free but have no Citizen privilages. Push across southern Algeria succeeds in reducing most of the region. Drakian forces advancing from Senegal meet up with forces coming south from the Atlas in the city of Timbuktu in late 1875.
Drakia relatively advanced in this period as early experimental inventions (such as steam cars, pneumatic systems, et c) are combined with the new innovations and advanced chemistry theory of the Second Industrial Revolution. Steam-powered dirigibles see limited service. Extreme bottlenecks in large-scale production of highly advanced equipment soon become apparent, however, ultimately leading to the gradual establishment of a dual-economic system in the Domination; mass production of very simple items by serf labour while partial-production prototypes of highly advanced equipment by skilled citizens completes the upper end of the spectrum with little inbetween.
1875/80 -- French advisors aide Sokoto Caliphate in first major war between the Caliphate and the Dominion of Drakia. Rebellions in European Ottoman Empire in 1875 and 1876 destabilize country. Conservative government under Benjamin Disraeli moves to counter Russian intervention in 1877 while simultaneously bringing troops into Afghanistan to defend Herat from Russian advance. Drakia votes to aide Britain by narrow majority, war with Sokoto Caliphate ends in stalemate. In 1878 war breaks out and the Russians cross the Danube and drive south.
Russian expedition against Herat defeated by combined Anglo-Afghan forces. Shocking defeat of British force by massively numerically superiour Russian Army in the Balkans. Major Russian naval assets on the Black Sea defeat the Ottoman fleet and aide in the operations. Quadrangle forts fall before winter and Russian troops enter Varna, proclaim Kingdom of Bulgaria. Ottomans fight incredible delaying action at fortress of Plevna, British Expeditionary Force under Sir Garnet Wolesley arrives with sufficient strength to defeat the Russian Army in a bloody battle outside of Adrianople in 1880, driving the Russians back to Varna. Russian fleet annihilated off Varna later in the year.
In the meanwhile Russian advisors at the court of the Manchus gain total influence there with the British and Russians now at odds; they lead the Manchu army south against the Taipings and regain Beijing, but a sharp defeat at the hands of a British landing force causes the internationalization of the area immediately around Beijing as a buffer zone between the Taiping and Manchu Kingdoms.
The United States defeats Spain in a two-year conflict marked by major naval actions, and annexes Spanish overseas possesions (except in Africa and the Atlantic) after the Virginius Affair. Following this Haiti and Dominica are added to the United States as States and further expansion into Central America takes place. The Danish Virgin Islands are purchased in 1879.
Britain retains control over Aceh due to lack of interest in supporting the acquisition of Dutch Gold Coast forts by the now-autonomous Drakia. Dutch begin to expand rapidly in Gold Coast as the Drakia encroach on the area.
1880/85 -- Drakian forces conduct first strategic bombing campaign, using chlorine gas and simple bombs and incendiaries against Odessa from airships in early 1881 to cripple Russian supply before beginning of next year's campaigning season. More than seventeen thousand civilians die in the raids. Massive outcry in Europe causes popular sentiment to turn against Drakia, Britain. Disraeli government falls, Gladstone forms coalition that seeks peace through Bismarck's 'conciliation' policy. Congress of Berlin establishes boundaries in Europe as historical after OTL Russo-Turkish War, Russia makes no gains in Transcaucasus due to military focus in the Balkans against Britain, leaving Ottoman Empire in possession of Batum and Kars.
The Afghani border is delineated and Drakia receives control of all Africa except for existing Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch colonies, along with the Sultanate of Morocco which remains sovereign and open to the free trade interests of all nations. Drakia, aided by expanded infrastructure network, promptly invades the Sokoto Caliphate again and conquers it by mid-1885. Inroads into the Congo begin.
1885/90 -- Feeling of abandonment by Europe despite Bismarck's conciliatory efforts due to vast unpopularity of Drakians after the Odessa raids. Nietzscheanism gains popularity at the same time as esoteric occultist movements. Neo-paganistic revival from mix of classical and Wagnerian influences also gains power. Nihilistic movement in response to industrialization of society promotes traditional warrior virtues. Total collapse of Christian consensus. Conquest of West Africa to limits established at Congress of Berlin completed. Following the trailbreakers, punitive expeditions into the Congo smash resistance and establish brutal slavocratic rule. Practice of cutting off left hand and the ears of rebels and resisting tribals by now a long-standard producure;. conquest of Congo introduces impalement into popular practice in punishment of rebels as severity of culture grows, replacing the earlier Mughal-practice of blasting rebels in two with cannons, which is less suited to mass employment. Yperite used against native troop concentrations from airships.
1890/95 -- Commercial interests in United States lead to expanding control in Central America. Drakia captures the Sultanate of Agadez, completes conquest of Congress mandated territories except for Ethiopia. First military expedition into Ethiopia is defeated, stalemate ensues on the Ethiopian borders. Sino-Japanese War begins with appeal from King of Korea after the Taipings invade in an effort to stave off Russian influence there. Russians play off both sides to consolidate their control of Manchuria.
1895/00 -- Conquest of Ethiopia completed with second, major expedition. Last victory of now steadily dwindling Christian minority secures 'protected' status to be extended to Ethiopian Christians; Muslims and Jews enslaved. Women given full Citizen rights in Drakia, vote from age 30 in United Kingdom. Japanese victorious in Sino-Japanese war, Korea becomes a Japanese protectorate, Taiwan and Tsingtao annexed. William Jennings Bryant elected President by appeal to Latin voters, increased Christian moralist segment of populace from radical immigration from Britain in prior decades. Outlaw of alcohol in the United States immediately follows extension of the franchise to women in 1899, contributes to Bryant's massive electoral defeat by youthful, energetic Republican reformer Theodore Roosevelt in 1900.
Newfoundland Fisheries Affair between Britain and France. Britain provides the vote in national parliamentary elections to citizens of Newfoundland, Vancouver, and the Australian Provinces, cementing the centralized method of controlling the remaining white colonies which began the reigning integration plan following the increasingly independent actions of the Drakia which now greatly concern British politicians. A national identity never begins to develop for any of the British white colonies, who continue to regard themselves as British and are particularly hostile to the Drakia, further exacerbating tensions.
1900/05 -- Moroccan Crisis. Kaiser Wilhelm visits Morocco to upstage French, Drakian interests there, break up nascent entente between France and Britain. Britain responds with disfavour and supports a Drakian protectorate over Morocco to end situation, French commercial rights guaranteed. Spain confirmed in control of the Rif. Defeat of German diplomatic initiative to break Drakia from United Kingdom. Russo-Japanese war begins. Native resistance in the Aden area, Ogaden, and the western Sahara region continue for some time against the Drakia, though the Nile valley, eastern African Littoral, and South Africa (including OTL Rhodesia) are effectively entirely pacified and by now heavily developed.
1905/10 -- United States gains more control over Central America, Caribbean, several new states admitted. Drakia edges out Germany as second largest producer of iron and steel in the world, firmly establishes itself as second largest oil producer. Germany remains far more advanced in production of complex alloys, electronics, and chemical engineering.
Militarist, Nitzschean ideology comes to totally dominate all aspects of the Drakian way of life. Military conflict between Siam and France leads to additional conquered territory by France, protectorate by Britain over Pattani Sultanate in exchange for armaments and industrial development aide to Siam, which is intended to establish a buffer with the expanding French Empire in Indochina. Decisive defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese war. Liaodong penninsula annexed by Japan, control of railways in Manchuria established. Manchu court comes under the influence of the Japanese. Peasants' Revolt in Russia.
1910/14 -- Republican Revolution in Portugal leads to Drakian "intervention" in Portuguese colonies of Cabinda and Guinea-Bissau. Popular outrage in Europe at blatant nature of the annexations; those of "identifiably Portuguese race" repatriated to Portugal, rest of population enslaved. Balkan Wars lead to Greek annexation of Crete; Italians side with Balkan states and seize Rhodes and Cyprus. Effective elimination of Ottoman Empire from Europe. Boundaries essentially as OTL. Assasination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo leads to First World War. Drakia declares war on Central Powers, directly annexes its protectorate over Morocco as initial price of declaration.
1914 -- Drakian troops try to advance through Golan Heights to capture Damascus. The German officered, trained, and equipped Imperial Ottoman Army stops them cold from the dug-in positions of Ottoman 7th Army's XV and X (R) Corps on the Heights, inflicting 50,000 casualties in the first month of combat. Ottoman XIV Corps then counterattacks into the Bekaa Valley. A series of slave revolts in Muslim regions of Drakia spurred by the Ottoman declaration of jihad against Drakia and their successful counterattack in Lebanon are brutally suppressed, with tens of thousands of impalements. Drakian troops besiege Mecca late in the year.
1915 -- Massed airship raids soften up Mecca and Medina, but both cities despite massive destruction hold with every tribe in the area fighting to the death against the Drakian attackers. Finally a Drakian force punches through the weak defence of three third and fourth-line divisions and some Bedouin cavalry on the Jordan river, albeit with heavy casualties, and advances to Amman, cutting the Hejaz RR. Mecca and Medina fall after this in the middle of the year and the survivors are massacred. The Kabbalah is desecrated with the Grand Mosque being destroyed and a pagan temple authorized to be built around it instead, signifying Drakian triumph over Islam. Ottomans forced to withdraw from the Bekaa to defend Damascus against Drakian advance up the Hejaz RR. Damascus falls and is sacked late in the year and Ottoman forces retreat to northern Syria and the Euphrates were supply is much easier. In the meanwhile, Allied forces are pinned down at the Straits of Gallipoli by the Turkish Army, and the Russians are unable to take the fortresses of Batum and Kars.
1916 -- In early 1916 a large Drakian force effects a crossing of the Euphrates in northern Syria and swings around to cut off Baghdad from the rest of the Empire, cutting the Berlin-Baghdad RR and following it south against light opposition. However, at the city of Samarrah just sixty miles north of Baghdad, the Drakians run into the massed force of Ottoman Fourth Army under the command of German Field Marshal Colmar von der Goltz. The two armies are very well matched, with one Citizens' Corps and two Janissary Corps against Fourth Army's IX Corps, XV Corps (assigned after fall of Damascus), and VI (R) Corps. Von der Goltz completely outmanoeuvres the Drakian Army, inflicting heavy casualties at Samarrah and then using commandeered steam vessels and local craft on the Tigris (concentrated from both the rivers through the rebuilt Grand Canal at Ctesiphon) to effect a series of operational landings behind the Drakian forces. As the Drakia respond he concentrates his offensive force into a hinge on the Euphrates and pins the Drakians against the forces on the Tigris.
Nearly twenty thousand Citizens are trapped along with most of the Janissaries. With ammunition low and starvation at hand, the desperate Citizens resort to eating the bodies of Janissaries who die from hunger to themselves stay alive. After four months the survivors surrender and thirteen thousand Citizens are marched north by Arab jandarma battalions. In captivity they will be ruthlessly tortured and sodomized by their Arab guards, given little food, and forced to work in labour units. Less than three thousand of these Citizens survive to be rescued by advancing Drakian forces at the end of the war. June is the high point of the war for the Ottoman Empire. The Russian Empire, revitalized by the operations of Brusilov on the Eastern Front, succeeds in taking Batum and, aided by Armenian partisans, swings south from the coast in against Kars and Erzurum. Brusilov's successes bring in Greece and Rumania on the side of the allies, and soon Bulgaria is very hard-pressed.
1917 -- Early in the year the Drakians again break through into Mesopotamia and this time are there to stay. The overstretched Ottoman Army is simultaneously defending the Hellespont, the Transcaucasus front, and the vast Arabian front, and is fighting for German resources with Bulgaria, which is now also facing a major British expeditionary force of Indian Army troops that has advanced north from Greece with the reconstituted Serbian Army that escaped through Albania earlier in the war. Only the collapse of Rumania saves Bulgaria. With the failure of further successes on the part of Brusilov, the Central Powers now counterattack against Russia even as Russian forces victoriously conclude the sieges of Erzurum and Kars. Dealing with a vast insurgency throughout Arabia, the Drakians resort to mass slaughter on a genocidal scale to contain it, finally putting themselves into position for a major offensive into Anatolia. Simultaneously a joint Drakian-British force occupies Persia to guarantee the supply of a flagging Russia with no chance to capture the Hellespont soon. However, the Drakian offensive into Anatolia fails completely, with hundreds of thousands of janissaries slaughtered in the mountains for precious few gains.
Worse, the secondary offensive to break into the Cilician plain is halted dead by the scratch forces under the command of German General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. With barely a battalion of Germans, regimental-level remnants of Seventh Army, and some local militias, he holds the famous Syrian and Amanic Gates over the Taurus mountains, repeatedly killing more janissaries than there are men in his whole force as they try to break through the incredibly rugged terrain. The janissaries cannot take it, and despite the threat of certain death, in late 1917 a general revolt sweeps through the Janissary Corps. The Drakia deal with it swiftly and brutally. The Janissaries have no protect against gas and so the Drakian citizen forces fall back, just to execute in coordination with their air corps massed gas attacks with Chlorine, Phosgene, and Yperite against the rebels. With their supplies already cut, the Janissaries' discipline breaks down completely under the gas attacks, and the citizen forces are able to annihilate the mob in question. The Ottomans locally exploit this, but with the situation in Gallipoli and the Transcaucasus desperate, cannot drive Drakia back strategically.
1918 -- The year begins badly for the Drakia, as they push their way over terrain they had conquered previously in 1917, with Janissary casualties just as bad as before. Lettow-Vorbeck continues to hold out in Cilicia against continuous attack, and early efforts to use airships for vertical envelopment that fail miserably. With the Russians unable to mount any offensive, and, indeed, only garrisoning the Transcaucasus enough to deter Ottoman counterattack, Drakian fortunes rest on the success of the allied armies in the Balkans. In May they are rewarded. A combined Greco-British force meets up, the British having seized the Gallipoli penninsula and holding onto the area around the plain of Troy in Asia. British warships transit the straits and reduce the fortresses defending Constantinople while British and Greek troops, again victorious at Adrianople, cut the rail-lines into Bulgaria. The Ottoman Sultan orders the capitulation of the nation to Allied forces, but significantly does not surrender to Drakia--nor, significantly, do the allies force him to. As the war went on and the atrocities mounted, millions of civilians slaughtered and Christians enslaved, public opinion could take no more.
Greek troops cross the straits for the first time since the 15th century and press on into Anatolia with most local officials offering no resistance. The Drakians finally make some significant gains as the Ottoman Army seems on the verge of dissolving. But Mustafa Kemal Pasha, hero of Gallipoli, raises the banner of Turkish resistance and fights on, declaring a nationalist ethnic Turkish Republic. He successfully defends the Anatolian Plateau on every side. Enver Pasha, one of the deposed members of the C.U.P. Triumvirate, infiltrates himself into Russian Turkestan and raises the region into revolt against the communist regime now in control in Russia. Anglo-Drakian forces advance into Russian Turkestan as part of the intervention effort, fighting Enver Pasha's Turkish Nationalist forces. A month after the Armistice in Europe, Drakian troops finally secure Ankara. Mustafa Kemal is never seen again, his fate unknown. They race the Greeks into the Pontis, sending a mass of desperate Greek refugees towards the Greek-controlled area of western Anatolia. During this whole period Lettow-Vorbeck holds out in Cilicia. After the surrender of German he, however, enters into negotiations with the Entente governments. Securing an arrangement with France, his troops hold the Syrian, Amanic, and Cilician Gates right up until, in a famous scene, the commander of the French expeditionary force enters Lettow-Vorbeck's headquarters, salutes, and declares: "My General, your relief has arrived." Lettow-Vorbeck and the Germans who fought with him return to Germany as national heroes, carrying their arms.
1919 -- In response to the Greek occupation of western Anatolia and the French occupation of Cilicia, along with universal condemnation of their acts in Arabia and Anatolia, the Dominion of Drakia unilaterally declares independence from the United Kingdom and the name of the State is formally changed to "The Dominate of Drakia", the reference being to the period in the history of the Roman Empire under autocratic rule, called the Dominate. In popular parlance, however, it rapidly becomes the "Domination of Draka". Legislation is immediately passed authorizing the buildup of an independent Drakian Navy--the lack of which prevented the seizure of French island colonies off the coast in the Franco-Prussian War and more recently prevented the Draka from taking the Cape Verdes or Azores during the Portuguese "intervention".
A situation rapidly develops in Persia and Russian Turkestan, however, where British and Drakian troops are operating in the same areas which possess a gray legal status. Winston Churchill, part of the unity government which remains in power in Britain in the severe lean times after the end of the war and the abrupt cutoff of the Drakian markets, advocates that British troops in Persia immediately engage the Draka to drive them out of Persia and Turkestan, whilst expeditionary forces be sent to occupy Ceylon, Madagascar, and Zanzibar. Britain, on the edge of economic collapse and exhausted by years of brutal conflict, cannot do it; the Drakian market being removed for British products the British economy is only months away from a massive depression and only the extreme popularity of the British with both Muslims and Hindus in India due to the changed circumstances of British rule saves the Empire. In a quiet arrangement with the Domination, British troops withdraw back into India, assuming defensive positions in Persian Baluchistan and Afghanistan some distance from the legal borders.
Inside the Domination the last of the old faction in favour of internal development are pushed out of power at Castle Tarleton; most are old men anyway who hold little influence in modern Drakian society. The "conquest clique" now represents the guiding will of the whole of the Domination, and there is no dissent from that time on. Drakian culture is completely subsumed into the overriding ideology of struggle, conquest, and bloody enslavement. Plans are made to drive up from Turkestan and conquer all of Russian central Asia, to conquer the Transcaucas, and Afganistan. Drakian forces quickly overrun Afghanistan, except for those Pashtun border regions occupied by British troops. All major cities, however, are under Drakian control--and their brutal repression of the country will take years to complete. Economically the Draka also suffer from the mutual boycott with the UK, which soon spreads to all European countries and nearly cripples Drakan industrial development. Only a trickle of sophisticated machining tools get in illicitly and through the Dutch and Spanish colonies still remaining in Africa.
Meanwhile the United Kingdom follows a policy of reform in India and Malaya to strengthen the popularity of imperial rule and improve the economic situation. The Ottoman Sultan and his family are also installed in the old Mughal Palace in Delhi and the Islamic leaders of the British Empire continue to recognize him as the Supreme Caliph, creating a resistance figure for Muslims to rally around, while the Qajar Shah of Persia and the Emirs of Bokhara and Afghanistan are likewise given a luxurious exile in the Raj, all of whom having escaped from the Domination with the withdrawing British troops. The White Baron, Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, restores traditional buddhist rule to Mongolia and with a varied legion of Cossacks, escaped Black Hundreds members and Russian nobles, Mongolian horsemen, and Japanese volunteers, fights a series of battles across Mongolia against both Soviet and Taiping forces.
1920 -- Enver Pasha dies in battle with the Domination, leading a cavalry charge of his lifeguard against entrenched Citizen troops. Survivors manage to escape with his body and its hidden grave becomes a rallying point for continued resistance in Turkestan. Confident that their flank is secure from a major power after the occupation of most of Afghanistan, the Domination attacks into Russia in Central Asia and the Transcaucas. Also in 1920 a punitive expedition is sent to conquer the Sultanate of the Nejd from Ibn Saud. Suffering severe casualties crossing the desert, the expedition reaches and sacks Riyadh, but Ibn Saud falls back to the coastal province of al-Hasa on the Persian Gulf and, seperated by a difficult reach of sand from the Draka, it is declared a British protectorate. Even their occupation of the Nejd ultimately to worthless and costly to sustain, with only a garrison in Riyadh maintained and regular punitive expeditions sent to fight the desert tribes. British officer T.E. Lawrence resigns his commission in this period and begins rallying and leading Arab tribes that live on the fringes of the Empty Quarter. Now directly aided by the "Lawrence of Manchuria" and his Japanese-Mongolia force, Baron von Ungern-Sternberg begins to subdue the various warlords of Inner Mongolia to the cause of the Mongolian central government, fighting Taiping incursions all the while. This process will continue for years, the Taiping resurgence gaining a tenuous hold on the Beijing area once more which is undermined by the continued international presence.
1921 -- The Drakian offensive against the Soviet position in the transcaucus succeeds in taking Erzurum and Kars, but is bogged down around the fortress of Batum and makes no gains in Azerbaijan, where the Persian Volunteer Legion fights along Soviet forces. Mass slaughter of the Armenian population begins following partisan warfare as the Draka occupy traditional Armenian lands, with more than a million Armenians killed and most others fleeing into the USSR for sanctuary. In Central Asia vast waves of refugees prestage the advance of Drakan troops over the vicious terrain, resupplied by pack animal and airship, towards Almy-Ata. Massive casualties are inflicted on the Drakan expedition force as it is bogged down outside Almy-Ata and huge partisan bands interdict any supplies not sent by air, forcing the Domination to again resort to genocidal-scale suppression, including, ironically, the mass impalement of the populace of Samarkand. Many Christians who have a protected status in the Domination and ghettoized Jews begin to flee as a debate begins on their enserfment to provide more labour to replace the millions of serfs and resisting natives who have been slaughtered during the Great War and its aftermath.
Soviet-Taiping relations begin to prosper and the Soviets begin to develop Taiping China, aiding its industrialization on "Socialist Christian" lines "appropriate for the Chinese culture and developmental history"; the importance of China as a flank guard for the Russian Far East and against the Draka in Central Asia leads to a very close military and industrial alliance.
1922 -- Early in the year the enserfment of all "coloureds" in the Domination formally takes place. In several Jewish ghettos weapons have been smuggled in and others improvised; the occupants fight to the death and kill their own women and children rather than have the Draka get them in conscious imitation of the fate of the defenders of Masada. Throughout the year bitter fighting continues in the area of Almy-Ata, finally culminating in the conquest of that city. The Draka, however, can go no further. At the limit of their supply lines and exhausted after nearly constant warfare for eight years they halt, the Soviets still holding the outskirts to the north of the city. In the Arab world, Afghanistan, and Persia brutal guerrilla warfare and reprisals continue.
1923 -- Guerrilla warfare in Arab world, Persia, largely successfully suppressed by use of mass terror and genocide tactics. Resistance in Afghanistan, however, continues unabated, and a programme of intentional genocide of the whole Afghani populace is implemented to open the area for settlement and secure the border with British India. Due to the ability of even large bands to travel from place to place and hide in the rugged terrain of the Hindu Kush, or even over the British border, this policy remains incredibly difficult to succeed in implementing.
1924 -- After a decision is made to deal with the continuing Greek and French presences in Anatolia, the armies of the Domination are re-equipped and prepared for combat in the region as the logistical network is built up against continuing Turkish and Kurdish resistance in Anatolia, which makes supply difficult. The Domination begins to develop what will become an extensive and heavily interreliant trade relationship with the Empire of Japan.
1925 -- The Dominate of Drakia issues a formal ultimatum to the "Little Entente" of Greece, Yugoslavia, and Rumania, demanding that their troops evacuate western Anatolia, Thrace, and all Bulgarian territory as it stood in 1914, turning those regions over to the Domination wholly intact. France at this time is not dealt with, the leaders of the Domination hoping to split the opposition to their further expansion to some degree. It does not matter. Speaking for the "Little Entente", the Greeks give their answer to the Domination: OXI; "No". Before the Domination can launch their own attack, Greek troops in western Anatolia advance down the old Berlin-Baghdad line towards Ankara, brushing aside the Drakian border defences with coordinated tank and gas attacks and rolling barrages. The world is startled by the image of tiny Greece marching forth victoriously against the seeming innumerable masses and brutally superiour Citizens of the Domination. Many young men from Europe and America, enamoured of "brave little Greece" and her charismatically progressive Prime Minister, Venizelos, rush to join volunteer brigades to fight against the Domination, often referred to as "the land of the antichrist" in churches of the day. Billy Mitchell, disgraced in the U.S., is offered command of the Greek Air Force and accepts.
1926 -- Greek troops reach Ankara, threaten to cut off the Pontus Euxine Province of the Dominate from the rest of the country. Drakan preparations are finally successfully reoriented to meet the thrust and the Domination counterattacks from both sides. The overextended Greek forces make a very good account of themselves in the rugged terrain, but faced by massed Janissary waves and tank-supported attacks by Citizen groups on their flanks, and short on supplies, their defensive positions collapse and the Greek army retreats hastily to avoid the entrapment of the forward spearhead. Drakan propaganda claims following the counterattack that they allowed the Greek advance to weaken their position, but most military experts agree this was not likely. The Greek army demolishes Ankara as it retreats, the second time the city has been destroyed in less than a decade. Hundreds of thousands of refugees flee with the retreating Greek armies, which further hampers their ability to hold due to saturation of their supply routes with refugees. By mid-1926 the Greeks are driven back to their previous border in Anatolia, where the existing fortifications there repel further Drakan attacks. The Domination builds up and strikes across the border by fall of the year, with massed Janissary advances covered by tanks, gas, and the rolling barrage. Casualties among the Janissaries are immense, both from Greek fire and from their own artillery landing amidst advancing columns. The Greeks retreat, burning everything they leave behind and sending essentially the whole population of western Anatolia fleeing into Greece behind the protective cover of the army. The year ends with the Greeks clinging to the coast of Anatolia as the Drakan offensive slows down in the winter.
1927 -- Over the winter the Draka bring up several heavy guns by the tortuous route of the lone railroad, which must be re-laid after the track destroying techniques used by the retreating Greek army. Several of these large railroad artillery pieces go into action in a major offensive, however, finally driving the Greek army across the straits. The evacuation of the Greeks from Anatolia is accomplished under the combined protective fire of the two dreadnoughts of the Royal Hellenic Navy and their older battleships and cruisers, along with the fact that by now the reorganized and well-equipped airforces of the Little Entente under Billy Mitchell's direction are successfully contesting the skies with the vast but poorly equipped Drakian Air Force. As the Domination succeeds in forcing crossings at the Bosporus and Dardanelles, major commitments by the Yugoslav and Rumania armies reinforce their 'volunteer' legions and turn the war into a bloodly crawl up into Thrace. Constantinople is completely destroyed in street fighting, the populace of Thrace progressively evacuated as the Drakan armies slowly gain ground in what the retreating Little Entente leaves a charred wasteland.
1928 -- Finally the Draka have enough depth to mount a massive strategic offensive, punching through the Entente's lines at Adrianople. In desperate they turn restore the Bulgarian government, which raises an army with a backbone of WWI veterans that manages to barely halt the Draka on the borders of Eastern Rumelia, whilst the Greek army is driven back to the Nestos river. Further massed Drakan assaults finally collapse the Bulgarian defence at great loss of life, but several regions of Bulgaria remain under the control of the armies of the Little Entente, heavily dug in to defensive positions. Though the Draka prepare for continued attacks, by this time the French have managed to build up their forces in Cilicia a great deal, including large aerial assets, and the British mediterranean fleet is dispatched to Crete with a strong force of Royal Marines. Between these two threats, and the massive casualties suffered to deplete the already badly lowered pool of janissaries to make gains in the rugged Balkan terrain, the Draka accept a cease-fire on the current lines late in the year.
1776 -- Outbreak of American Revolution. Nova Scotia succeeds in revolting along with other colonies.
1783 -- Second Peace of Paris. Britain retains Upper and Lower Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick become fourteenth and fifteenth states of the Union, the former minus Cape Breton Island.
1783-84 -- Volcanic eruptions devastate Iceland. 25,000 Icelanders offered asylum in Drakia, arriving 1783-86.
1784 -- Diamonds discovered in the interior in South Africa.
1785 -Gold discovered on Whiteridge (Whitwaterstrand) and in eastern Archona Province (Transvaal). First steam engines imported for mine operations.
1786 -- Crown Colony of Drakia sees population boom from immigrants looking for riches in the gold and diamond fields. First great popular-level "gold rush" of the modern era.
1790s -- Wealth of colony grows massively, new upper classes come to dominate House of Burgesses, industrial investment in Drakia to provide supporting infrastructure for extraction operations. Cape Town Mineral Company chartered by wealthy colonists, becoming an industrial consortium dominated by the large landowners. The corsortium buys a controlling interest in the East Indies Company by the late 1790s as it features a veritable glut of capital growth from the mining concerns leading to the South African upper classes becoming the wealthiest in the Empire, particularly with their financial resources needed by Britain to persecute the Napoleonic Wars without falling into debt. The CTMC also becomes responsible for most infrastructure development in the hinterland. Immigration from Haiti and France after revolutions. Series of slave revolts and atrocities results in beginning of brutal control regime for slave populace that resembles some of the worst excesses of Spanish rule in colonial America in many respects.
1800 -- Troops of the East India Company occupy Egypt as French forces retreat from the country. Port of Aden seized to guard supply lines.
1802 -- EIC forces conquer Dutch Ceylon.
1803 -- Major revolt in Egypt suppressed, Mamelukes slaughtered enmasse to remove danger of further uprisings.
1808 -- Ottoman troops under Muhammad Ali Pasha sieze Gaza, advance on Cairo, after EIC's refusal to evacuate Egypt. Massive relief expedition organized by South African and India concerns; troops of the Bengal Army relieve the defenders of Cairo.
1809 -- EIC troops advance north into the Levant, in a series of battles defeat Ottoman and local forces, seize Palestine and Greater Lebanon.
1810/11 -- Offensive launched by EIC forces along the North Africa coast to suppress piracy. Berlerlik of Cyrenaica occupied. Ottoman counteroffensive in the Levant inconclusive.
1812/14 -- Continued fighting in the Levant, Ottomans manage to hold northern Lebanon but the Mt. Sinai and Beirut are retained by the EIC. In the meanwhile EIC expeditionary forces, aided by the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean, wage a series of battles all along the coast of North Africa. Fighting continues in Europe as OTL. War of 1812 in United States fought with refined, production-type Ferguson rifles, United States successfully adapts to new tactics this entails, defeats Britain, occupies Canada.
1815 -- Army of Napoleon Bonaparte decisively crushed at Waterloo by allied forces armed with a refined, production version of the Ferguson Rifle. Vienna Congress. Portguese outposts purchased in Mozambique, Angola at great cost; money used by Portuguese government for recovery efforts after Napoleonic Wars. To a certain degree these purchases choke off capital for industrial expansion in the Domination. American control of Upper and Lower Canada confirmed, Britain retains Newfoundland and Labrador and Cape Breton, Prince Edward, and Anticosti Islands. Limited expansion to the north follows, mainly to support the fur trade.
1816 -- Congress Europe as historical. French lose all African outposts, regain Caribbean and Indian Ocean islands considered more valuable at the time in the general desire to avoid punitive demands. Control of the Holy Land by the East India Company confirmed (with a special international rights for holy sites), along with coastal control of African littoral. Age of Mediterranean piracy ends. Crusader spirit in Drakia leads to creation of "The Honourable Order of the Knights Templar" which soon becomes very popular in wealthy classes. With massive membership, this organization is originally Christian but becomes steadily infested by an esoteric and occultist interest in the obsure and lurid tales of the Knights Templar.
1817/1825 -- Drive down the Nile. Expeditionary forces conquer the Nile valley, subdue Sudan, native tribes. East India Company follows British lead in Trucial Oman by forcing the Sultan of Oman to sign protectorate treaty giving them control over Zanzibar and the East African coast. Drakian explorers flood north to open up East Africa through the now available coastal ports and fortifications. Parties of often just a few hundred conquer vast tribal lands. In 1825 Drakian explorers arrive up through Uganda at the mud fort of Fashoda established as an outpost of the EIC.
1825/30 -- Political battles in Parliament over status of slavery in the Crown Colony of Drakia. Massive East India Company lobby prevents abolitionist groups from successfully forcing its end, though cosmetic redeeming of slaves to "bondserfs" occurs, serfs in short-form. By the end of this period the Crown Colony of Drakia administers East Africa from Uganda to Natal and southwest Africa below the Congo river; regular Camel patrols cross the Kalahari Desert. The East India Company controls the African coast from the Rovuma to Suez and the Nile valley, and from Alexandria to the Moroccan border. Ethiopia remains independent. Oppressive taxation in India to support massive conquests engenders opposition sentiment to the EIC.
1830/45 -- Years of warfare with the al-Sanusi Order in Darfur and the Fezzan for control of the caravan routes across the Sahara. Berber tribes in the trans-Atlas rally under charistmatic Islamic leaders and wage jihad against EIC on African Littoral. By 1845 after more than a decade of constant war the Wadai Kingdom and the al-Sanusi Order are broken, Darfur is occupied and the caravan routes are dominated by the EIC. Resistance continues unabated in Algeria.
1845/55 -- Slave revolts in Drakia brutally put down, atrocities committed by slaves engender full-scale counter-atrocities, first experimental use of chlorine as poison gas to help suppress revolts. General rise in the occultic interest of the Drakian upper classes. Popularity of secret societies leads to their being generally corrupted by these beliefs. In 1850 cache of scrolls is discovered on the edge of the Munkhafad al-Qattarah at remains of remote Gnostic community, including many lost writings of antiquity, complete copy of the Gnostic Bible, and a second 'rosetta stone' translating between Greek and Nubian. Classicist rival follows while publication and enthusiastic analysis of Gnostic texts by upper class begins to weaken hold of Christianity on general populace.
Bornu Sultanate, other Muslim states around Lake Tchad crushed, skirmishes with Sokoto Caliphate. Weaknesses in Ottoman Empire encourage advance of EIC control as far as Asir on the red sea coast. Fear of igniting general jihad prevents consideration of advance on Mecca. East Yemen is a loose group of Sultanates under British Protectorate. 1848 'year of revolution' in Europe, Napoleon III gains power, begins French colonialist expansion in Indochina, attempts to make inroads in British domination of Africa. Annexation of Mexico by the United States follows appeal by the secessionist government of the Yucatan.
1855/60 -- By this time period both Drakia and India are highly industrialized by world standards of the age. While India falls behind in the future along with the UK itself, Drakia's increasingly close connections with the German-speaking world give it an edge in maintaining industrial innovation and growth tied to that of the rising fortunes of Prussia. Increasingly brutal treatment of natives in India carries over from Drakian practices in Africa, and combined with highly oppressive taxation and the Doctrine of Lapse leads to the "Sepoy Revolt". EIC overextended in other areas of the world, particularly Africa.
Difficulty in suppressing revolt and vital importance of India to the British economy leads Viceroyalty Act. EIC stripped of control of India and British troops under General Sir Henry Havelock arrive to restore situation. With elimination of the Drakian-dominated EIC, the British easily subdue the rebellion with peaceful measures and the age of the Raj begins. States dispossessed under the Doctrine of Lapse are restored and the conciliation of the Indian population is completed.
In the Fraser River Valley confrontation in Pacific Northwest between Britain and United States after Gold Rush there the Americans intimidate the British, caught up in the India crisis and with the dominate land power, into bcking down. The Fraser Valley is ceded to America, becomes Fraser State during ACW, Vancouver Island, Queen Charlottes, San Juans, and small coastal areas remain British. Filibustering expeditions in some South American states place them under effective American control.
Drakia protests violently at the lost of India and the final settlement of the Viceroyalty Act places African colonies, stations on Zanzibar and Morocco, and the island of Ceylon under Drakian control in a much-reduced East India Company's who's headquarters are moved to Cape Town. The Laccadives, Maldives, and Indian Ocean islands (such as are controlled by Britain) remain under direct British authority or that of the Raj.
1860/70 -- Drakian economy nearly collapses without the income revenue from the EIC holdings in India, upon which it was highly dependent due to the huge financial costs of conquering and pacifying vast areas of Africa. Drakia begins to agitate for complete self-rule at feeling of betrayal from Britain and steadily growing cultural distance. Situation without use of Indian manpower resources becomes tenuous for small number of Europeans ruling over much of Africa. Emancipation of women begins due to the extreme necessity of these dangerous circumstances as they are given increased authority out of need.
Economic and social theories of JS Mill see a brief surge in Drakian society as this economic downturn suggests slave system defunct. This ultimately produces an elitist backlash and the polarizing controversy contributes to collapse of christian morality in country. Only the American Civil War saves Drakia economically as the conflict allows Drakia to establish a veritable monopoly on the world cotton and textiles markets, and sale of weapons to Confederacy brings in needed capital. Capital flight of wealthy landowners from south to Drakia completes recovery and reaffirms pro-slavery sentiment. Full self-government granted by Act of Parliament in 1866. Purchase of Danish colonies in Africa follows as the economy rebounds. Taipings victorious in China with French aide due to arrangement signing away legal control of Indochina to France and Napoleon III's obsession with pan-Christian missionary work in Asia. British and Russians support Manchus, who establish breakaway state in lower Manchuria. Alaska purchased from Russia by the USA to prevent Britain from gaining control of it.
Drakia refuses to place magazine rifles in service in this period, preferring breechloading big-bore weapons on the style of the Martini-Henry. Design proposals for magazine repeateding rifles instead adopted by Prussian Army and used in the victory over the Austrians at the Battle of Koniggratz, restoring equilibrium to the European political scene and guaranteeing the continental dominance of the German Empire.
1870/75 -- Drakia seizes French outposts in Gabbon and the Congo opportunistically during Franco-Prussian War. International uproar. Remnant holdings of the East Indian Company, in theory still administering much of Africa and the island of Ceylon, are nationalized and now governed directly by the Dominion of Drakia. Palestina and Lebanon Provinces given semi-autonomous status to please European States. Muslims formally enserfed, Jews herded in ghettos, Christian natives remain free but have no Citizen privilages. Push across southern Algeria succeeds in reducing most of the region. Drakian forces advancing from Senegal meet up with forces coming south from the Atlas in the city of Timbuktu in late 1875.
Drakia relatively advanced in this period as early experimental inventions (such as steam cars, pneumatic systems, et c) are combined with the new innovations and advanced chemistry theory of the Second Industrial Revolution. Steam-powered dirigibles see limited service. Extreme bottlenecks in large-scale production of highly advanced equipment soon become apparent, however, ultimately leading to the gradual establishment of a dual-economic system in the Domination; mass production of very simple items by serf labour while partial-production prototypes of highly advanced equipment by skilled citizens completes the upper end of the spectrum with little inbetween.
1875/80 -- French advisors aide Sokoto Caliphate in first major war between the Caliphate and the Dominion of Drakia. Rebellions in European Ottoman Empire in 1875 and 1876 destabilize country. Conservative government under Benjamin Disraeli moves to counter Russian intervention in 1877 while simultaneously bringing troops into Afghanistan to defend Herat from Russian advance. Drakia votes to aide Britain by narrow majority, war with Sokoto Caliphate ends in stalemate. In 1878 war breaks out and the Russians cross the Danube and drive south.
Russian expedition against Herat defeated by combined Anglo-Afghan forces. Shocking defeat of British force by massively numerically superiour Russian Army in the Balkans. Major Russian naval assets on the Black Sea defeat the Ottoman fleet and aide in the operations. Quadrangle forts fall before winter and Russian troops enter Varna, proclaim Kingdom of Bulgaria. Ottomans fight incredible delaying action at fortress of Plevna, British Expeditionary Force under Sir Garnet Wolesley arrives with sufficient strength to defeat the Russian Army in a bloody battle outside of Adrianople in 1880, driving the Russians back to Varna. Russian fleet annihilated off Varna later in the year.
In the meanwhile Russian advisors at the court of the Manchus gain total influence there with the British and Russians now at odds; they lead the Manchu army south against the Taipings and regain Beijing, but a sharp defeat at the hands of a British landing force causes the internationalization of the area immediately around Beijing as a buffer zone between the Taiping and Manchu Kingdoms.
The United States defeats Spain in a two-year conflict marked by major naval actions, and annexes Spanish overseas possesions (except in Africa and the Atlantic) after the Virginius Affair. Following this Haiti and Dominica are added to the United States as States and further expansion into Central America takes place. The Danish Virgin Islands are purchased in 1879.
Britain retains control over Aceh due to lack of interest in supporting the acquisition of Dutch Gold Coast forts by the now-autonomous Drakia. Dutch begin to expand rapidly in Gold Coast as the Drakia encroach on the area.
1880/85 -- Drakian forces conduct first strategic bombing campaign, using chlorine gas and simple bombs and incendiaries against Odessa from airships in early 1881 to cripple Russian supply before beginning of next year's campaigning season. More than seventeen thousand civilians die in the raids. Massive outcry in Europe causes popular sentiment to turn against Drakia, Britain. Disraeli government falls, Gladstone forms coalition that seeks peace through Bismarck's 'conciliation' policy. Congress of Berlin establishes boundaries in Europe as historical after OTL Russo-Turkish War, Russia makes no gains in Transcaucasus due to military focus in the Balkans against Britain, leaving Ottoman Empire in possession of Batum and Kars.
The Afghani border is delineated and Drakia receives control of all Africa except for existing Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch colonies, along with the Sultanate of Morocco which remains sovereign and open to the free trade interests of all nations. Drakia, aided by expanded infrastructure network, promptly invades the Sokoto Caliphate again and conquers it by mid-1885. Inroads into the Congo begin.
1885/90 -- Feeling of abandonment by Europe despite Bismarck's conciliatory efforts due to vast unpopularity of Drakians after the Odessa raids. Nietzscheanism gains popularity at the same time as esoteric occultist movements. Neo-paganistic revival from mix of classical and Wagnerian influences also gains power. Nihilistic movement in response to industrialization of society promotes traditional warrior virtues. Total collapse of Christian consensus. Conquest of West Africa to limits established at Congress of Berlin completed. Following the trailbreakers, punitive expeditions into the Congo smash resistance and establish brutal slavocratic rule. Practice of cutting off left hand and the ears of rebels and resisting tribals by now a long-standard producure;. conquest of Congo introduces impalement into popular practice in punishment of rebels as severity of culture grows, replacing the earlier Mughal-practice of blasting rebels in two with cannons, which is less suited to mass employment. Yperite used against native troop concentrations from airships.
1890/95 -- Commercial interests in United States lead to expanding control in Central America. Drakia captures the Sultanate of Agadez, completes conquest of Congress mandated territories except for Ethiopia. First military expedition into Ethiopia is defeated, stalemate ensues on the Ethiopian borders. Sino-Japanese War begins with appeal from King of Korea after the Taipings invade in an effort to stave off Russian influence there. Russians play off both sides to consolidate their control of Manchuria.
1895/00 -- Conquest of Ethiopia completed with second, major expedition. Last victory of now steadily dwindling Christian minority secures 'protected' status to be extended to Ethiopian Christians; Muslims and Jews enslaved. Women given full Citizen rights in Drakia, vote from age 30 in United Kingdom. Japanese victorious in Sino-Japanese war, Korea becomes a Japanese protectorate, Taiwan and Tsingtao annexed. William Jennings Bryant elected President by appeal to Latin voters, increased Christian moralist segment of populace from radical immigration from Britain in prior decades. Outlaw of alcohol in the United States immediately follows extension of the franchise to women in 1899, contributes to Bryant's massive electoral defeat by youthful, energetic Republican reformer Theodore Roosevelt in 1900.
Newfoundland Fisheries Affair between Britain and France. Britain provides the vote in national parliamentary elections to citizens of Newfoundland, Vancouver, and the Australian Provinces, cementing the centralized method of controlling the remaining white colonies which began the reigning integration plan following the increasingly independent actions of the Drakia which now greatly concern British politicians. A national identity never begins to develop for any of the British white colonies, who continue to regard themselves as British and are particularly hostile to the Drakia, further exacerbating tensions.
1900/05 -- Moroccan Crisis. Kaiser Wilhelm visits Morocco to upstage French, Drakian interests there, break up nascent entente between France and Britain. Britain responds with disfavour and supports a Drakian protectorate over Morocco to end situation, French commercial rights guaranteed. Spain confirmed in control of the Rif. Defeat of German diplomatic initiative to break Drakia from United Kingdom. Russo-Japanese war begins. Native resistance in the Aden area, Ogaden, and the western Sahara region continue for some time against the Drakia, though the Nile valley, eastern African Littoral, and South Africa (including OTL Rhodesia) are effectively entirely pacified and by now heavily developed.
1905/10 -- United States gains more control over Central America, Caribbean, several new states admitted. Drakia edges out Germany as second largest producer of iron and steel in the world, firmly establishes itself as second largest oil producer. Germany remains far more advanced in production of complex alloys, electronics, and chemical engineering.
Militarist, Nitzschean ideology comes to totally dominate all aspects of the Drakian way of life. Military conflict between Siam and France leads to additional conquered territory by France, protectorate by Britain over Pattani Sultanate in exchange for armaments and industrial development aide to Siam, which is intended to establish a buffer with the expanding French Empire in Indochina. Decisive defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese war. Liaodong penninsula annexed by Japan, control of railways in Manchuria established. Manchu court comes under the influence of the Japanese. Peasants' Revolt in Russia.
1910/14 -- Republican Revolution in Portugal leads to Drakian "intervention" in Portuguese colonies of Cabinda and Guinea-Bissau. Popular outrage in Europe at blatant nature of the annexations; those of "identifiably Portuguese race" repatriated to Portugal, rest of population enslaved. Balkan Wars lead to Greek annexation of Crete; Italians side with Balkan states and seize Rhodes and Cyprus. Effective elimination of Ottoman Empire from Europe. Boundaries essentially as OTL. Assasination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo leads to First World War. Drakia declares war on Central Powers, directly annexes its protectorate over Morocco as initial price of declaration.
1914 -- Drakian troops try to advance through Golan Heights to capture Damascus. The German officered, trained, and equipped Imperial Ottoman Army stops them cold from the dug-in positions of Ottoman 7th Army's XV and X (R) Corps on the Heights, inflicting 50,000 casualties in the first month of combat. Ottoman XIV Corps then counterattacks into the Bekaa Valley. A series of slave revolts in Muslim regions of Drakia spurred by the Ottoman declaration of jihad against Drakia and their successful counterattack in Lebanon are brutally suppressed, with tens of thousands of impalements. Drakian troops besiege Mecca late in the year.
1915 -- Massed airship raids soften up Mecca and Medina, but both cities despite massive destruction hold with every tribe in the area fighting to the death against the Drakian attackers. Finally a Drakian force punches through the weak defence of three third and fourth-line divisions and some Bedouin cavalry on the Jordan river, albeit with heavy casualties, and advances to Amman, cutting the Hejaz RR. Mecca and Medina fall after this in the middle of the year and the survivors are massacred. The Kabbalah is desecrated with the Grand Mosque being destroyed and a pagan temple authorized to be built around it instead, signifying Drakian triumph over Islam. Ottomans forced to withdraw from the Bekaa to defend Damascus against Drakian advance up the Hejaz RR. Damascus falls and is sacked late in the year and Ottoman forces retreat to northern Syria and the Euphrates were supply is much easier. In the meanwhile, Allied forces are pinned down at the Straits of Gallipoli by the Turkish Army, and the Russians are unable to take the fortresses of Batum and Kars.
1916 -- In early 1916 a large Drakian force effects a crossing of the Euphrates in northern Syria and swings around to cut off Baghdad from the rest of the Empire, cutting the Berlin-Baghdad RR and following it south against light opposition. However, at the city of Samarrah just sixty miles north of Baghdad, the Drakians run into the massed force of Ottoman Fourth Army under the command of German Field Marshal Colmar von der Goltz. The two armies are very well matched, with one Citizens' Corps and two Janissary Corps against Fourth Army's IX Corps, XV Corps (assigned after fall of Damascus), and VI (R) Corps. Von der Goltz completely outmanoeuvres the Drakian Army, inflicting heavy casualties at Samarrah and then using commandeered steam vessels and local craft on the Tigris (concentrated from both the rivers through the rebuilt Grand Canal at Ctesiphon) to effect a series of operational landings behind the Drakian forces. As the Drakia respond he concentrates his offensive force into a hinge on the Euphrates and pins the Drakians against the forces on the Tigris.
Nearly twenty thousand Citizens are trapped along with most of the Janissaries. With ammunition low and starvation at hand, the desperate Citizens resort to eating the bodies of Janissaries who die from hunger to themselves stay alive. After four months the survivors surrender and thirteen thousand Citizens are marched north by Arab jandarma battalions. In captivity they will be ruthlessly tortured and sodomized by their Arab guards, given little food, and forced to work in labour units. Less than three thousand of these Citizens survive to be rescued by advancing Drakian forces at the end of the war. June is the high point of the war for the Ottoman Empire. The Russian Empire, revitalized by the operations of Brusilov on the Eastern Front, succeeds in taking Batum and, aided by Armenian partisans, swings south from the coast in against Kars and Erzurum. Brusilov's successes bring in Greece and Rumania on the side of the allies, and soon Bulgaria is very hard-pressed.
1917 -- Early in the year the Drakians again break through into Mesopotamia and this time are there to stay. The overstretched Ottoman Army is simultaneously defending the Hellespont, the Transcaucasus front, and the vast Arabian front, and is fighting for German resources with Bulgaria, which is now also facing a major British expeditionary force of Indian Army troops that has advanced north from Greece with the reconstituted Serbian Army that escaped through Albania earlier in the war. Only the collapse of Rumania saves Bulgaria. With the failure of further successes on the part of Brusilov, the Central Powers now counterattack against Russia even as Russian forces victoriously conclude the sieges of Erzurum and Kars. Dealing with a vast insurgency throughout Arabia, the Drakians resort to mass slaughter on a genocidal scale to contain it, finally putting themselves into position for a major offensive into Anatolia. Simultaneously a joint Drakian-British force occupies Persia to guarantee the supply of a flagging Russia with no chance to capture the Hellespont soon. However, the Drakian offensive into Anatolia fails completely, with hundreds of thousands of janissaries slaughtered in the mountains for precious few gains.
Worse, the secondary offensive to break into the Cilician plain is halted dead by the scratch forces under the command of German General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. With barely a battalion of Germans, regimental-level remnants of Seventh Army, and some local militias, he holds the famous Syrian and Amanic Gates over the Taurus mountains, repeatedly killing more janissaries than there are men in his whole force as they try to break through the incredibly rugged terrain. The janissaries cannot take it, and despite the threat of certain death, in late 1917 a general revolt sweeps through the Janissary Corps. The Drakia deal with it swiftly and brutally. The Janissaries have no protect against gas and so the Drakian citizen forces fall back, just to execute in coordination with their air corps massed gas attacks with Chlorine, Phosgene, and Yperite against the rebels. With their supplies already cut, the Janissaries' discipline breaks down completely under the gas attacks, and the citizen forces are able to annihilate the mob in question. The Ottomans locally exploit this, but with the situation in Gallipoli and the Transcaucasus desperate, cannot drive Drakia back strategically.
1918 -- The year begins badly for the Drakia, as they push their way over terrain they had conquered previously in 1917, with Janissary casualties just as bad as before. Lettow-Vorbeck continues to hold out in Cilicia against continuous attack, and early efforts to use airships for vertical envelopment that fail miserably. With the Russians unable to mount any offensive, and, indeed, only garrisoning the Transcaucasus enough to deter Ottoman counterattack, Drakian fortunes rest on the success of the allied armies in the Balkans. In May they are rewarded. A combined Greco-British force meets up, the British having seized the Gallipoli penninsula and holding onto the area around the plain of Troy in Asia. British warships transit the straits and reduce the fortresses defending Constantinople while British and Greek troops, again victorious at Adrianople, cut the rail-lines into Bulgaria. The Ottoman Sultan orders the capitulation of the nation to Allied forces, but significantly does not surrender to Drakia--nor, significantly, do the allies force him to. As the war went on and the atrocities mounted, millions of civilians slaughtered and Christians enslaved, public opinion could take no more.
Greek troops cross the straits for the first time since the 15th century and press on into Anatolia with most local officials offering no resistance. The Drakians finally make some significant gains as the Ottoman Army seems on the verge of dissolving. But Mustafa Kemal Pasha, hero of Gallipoli, raises the banner of Turkish resistance and fights on, declaring a nationalist ethnic Turkish Republic. He successfully defends the Anatolian Plateau on every side. Enver Pasha, one of the deposed members of the C.U.P. Triumvirate, infiltrates himself into Russian Turkestan and raises the region into revolt against the communist regime now in control in Russia. Anglo-Drakian forces advance into Russian Turkestan as part of the intervention effort, fighting Enver Pasha's Turkish Nationalist forces. A month after the Armistice in Europe, Drakian troops finally secure Ankara. Mustafa Kemal is never seen again, his fate unknown. They race the Greeks into the Pontis, sending a mass of desperate Greek refugees towards the Greek-controlled area of western Anatolia. During this whole period Lettow-Vorbeck holds out in Cilicia. After the surrender of German he, however, enters into negotiations with the Entente governments. Securing an arrangement with France, his troops hold the Syrian, Amanic, and Cilician Gates right up until, in a famous scene, the commander of the French expeditionary force enters Lettow-Vorbeck's headquarters, salutes, and declares: "My General, your relief has arrived." Lettow-Vorbeck and the Germans who fought with him return to Germany as national heroes, carrying their arms.
1919 -- In response to the Greek occupation of western Anatolia and the French occupation of Cilicia, along with universal condemnation of their acts in Arabia and Anatolia, the Dominion of Drakia unilaterally declares independence from the United Kingdom and the name of the State is formally changed to "The Dominate of Drakia", the reference being to the period in the history of the Roman Empire under autocratic rule, called the Dominate. In popular parlance, however, it rapidly becomes the "Domination of Draka". Legislation is immediately passed authorizing the buildup of an independent Drakian Navy--the lack of which prevented the seizure of French island colonies off the coast in the Franco-Prussian War and more recently prevented the Draka from taking the Cape Verdes or Azores during the Portuguese "intervention".
A situation rapidly develops in Persia and Russian Turkestan, however, where British and Drakian troops are operating in the same areas which possess a gray legal status. Winston Churchill, part of the unity government which remains in power in Britain in the severe lean times after the end of the war and the abrupt cutoff of the Drakian markets, advocates that British troops in Persia immediately engage the Draka to drive them out of Persia and Turkestan, whilst expeditionary forces be sent to occupy Ceylon, Madagascar, and Zanzibar. Britain, on the edge of economic collapse and exhausted by years of brutal conflict, cannot do it; the Drakian market being removed for British products the British economy is only months away from a massive depression and only the extreme popularity of the British with both Muslims and Hindus in India due to the changed circumstances of British rule saves the Empire. In a quiet arrangement with the Domination, British troops withdraw back into India, assuming defensive positions in Persian Baluchistan and Afghanistan some distance from the legal borders.
Inside the Domination the last of the old faction in favour of internal development are pushed out of power at Castle Tarleton; most are old men anyway who hold little influence in modern Drakian society. The "conquest clique" now represents the guiding will of the whole of the Domination, and there is no dissent from that time on. Drakian culture is completely subsumed into the overriding ideology of struggle, conquest, and bloody enslavement. Plans are made to drive up from Turkestan and conquer all of Russian central Asia, to conquer the Transcaucas, and Afganistan. Drakian forces quickly overrun Afghanistan, except for those Pashtun border regions occupied by British troops. All major cities, however, are under Drakian control--and their brutal repression of the country will take years to complete. Economically the Draka also suffer from the mutual boycott with the UK, which soon spreads to all European countries and nearly cripples Drakan industrial development. Only a trickle of sophisticated machining tools get in illicitly and through the Dutch and Spanish colonies still remaining in Africa.
Meanwhile the United Kingdom follows a policy of reform in India and Malaya to strengthen the popularity of imperial rule and improve the economic situation. The Ottoman Sultan and his family are also installed in the old Mughal Palace in Delhi and the Islamic leaders of the British Empire continue to recognize him as the Supreme Caliph, creating a resistance figure for Muslims to rally around, while the Qajar Shah of Persia and the Emirs of Bokhara and Afghanistan are likewise given a luxurious exile in the Raj, all of whom having escaped from the Domination with the withdrawing British troops. The White Baron, Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, restores traditional buddhist rule to Mongolia and with a varied legion of Cossacks, escaped Black Hundreds members and Russian nobles, Mongolian horsemen, and Japanese volunteers, fights a series of battles across Mongolia against both Soviet and Taiping forces.
1920 -- Enver Pasha dies in battle with the Domination, leading a cavalry charge of his lifeguard against entrenched Citizen troops. Survivors manage to escape with his body and its hidden grave becomes a rallying point for continued resistance in Turkestan. Confident that their flank is secure from a major power after the occupation of most of Afghanistan, the Domination attacks into Russia in Central Asia and the Transcaucas. Also in 1920 a punitive expedition is sent to conquer the Sultanate of the Nejd from Ibn Saud. Suffering severe casualties crossing the desert, the expedition reaches and sacks Riyadh, but Ibn Saud falls back to the coastal province of al-Hasa on the Persian Gulf and, seperated by a difficult reach of sand from the Draka, it is declared a British protectorate. Even their occupation of the Nejd ultimately to worthless and costly to sustain, with only a garrison in Riyadh maintained and regular punitive expeditions sent to fight the desert tribes. British officer T.E. Lawrence resigns his commission in this period and begins rallying and leading Arab tribes that live on the fringes of the Empty Quarter. Now directly aided by the "Lawrence of Manchuria" and his Japanese-Mongolia force, Baron von Ungern-Sternberg begins to subdue the various warlords of Inner Mongolia to the cause of the Mongolian central government, fighting Taiping incursions all the while. This process will continue for years, the Taiping resurgence gaining a tenuous hold on the Beijing area once more which is undermined by the continued international presence.
1921 -- The Drakian offensive against the Soviet position in the transcaucus succeeds in taking Erzurum and Kars, but is bogged down around the fortress of Batum and makes no gains in Azerbaijan, where the Persian Volunteer Legion fights along Soviet forces. Mass slaughter of the Armenian population begins following partisan warfare as the Draka occupy traditional Armenian lands, with more than a million Armenians killed and most others fleeing into the USSR for sanctuary. In Central Asia vast waves of refugees prestage the advance of Drakan troops over the vicious terrain, resupplied by pack animal and airship, towards Almy-Ata. Massive casualties are inflicted on the Drakan expedition force as it is bogged down outside Almy-Ata and huge partisan bands interdict any supplies not sent by air, forcing the Domination to again resort to genocidal-scale suppression, including, ironically, the mass impalement of the populace of Samarkand. Many Christians who have a protected status in the Domination and ghettoized Jews begin to flee as a debate begins on their enserfment to provide more labour to replace the millions of serfs and resisting natives who have been slaughtered during the Great War and its aftermath.
Soviet-Taiping relations begin to prosper and the Soviets begin to develop Taiping China, aiding its industrialization on "Socialist Christian" lines "appropriate for the Chinese culture and developmental history"; the importance of China as a flank guard for the Russian Far East and against the Draka in Central Asia leads to a very close military and industrial alliance.
1922 -- Early in the year the enserfment of all "coloureds" in the Domination formally takes place. In several Jewish ghettos weapons have been smuggled in and others improvised; the occupants fight to the death and kill their own women and children rather than have the Draka get them in conscious imitation of the fate of the defenders of Masada. Throughout the year bitter fighting continues in the area of Almy-Ata, finally culminating in the conquest of that city. The Draka, however, can go no further. At the limit of their supply lines and exhausted after nearly constant warfare for eight years they halt, the Soviets still holding the outskirts to the north of the city. In the Arab world, Afghanistan, and Persia brutal guerrilla warfare and reprisals continue.
1923 -- Guerrilla warfare in Arab world, Persia, largely successfully suppressed by use of mass terror and genocide tactics. Resistance in Afghanistan, however, continues unabated, and a programme of intentional genocide of the whole Afghani populace is implemented to open the area for settlement and secure the border with British India. Due to the ability of even large bands to travel from place to place and hide in the rugged terrain of the Hindu Kush, or even over the British border, this policy remains incredibly difficult to succeed in implementing.
1924 -- After a decision is made to deal with the continuing Greek and French presences in Anatolia, the armies of the Domination are re-equipped and prepared for combat in the region as the logistical network is built up against continuing Turkish and Kurdish resistance in Anatolia, which makes supply difficult. The Domination begins to develop what will become an extensive and heavily interreliant trade relationship with the Empire of Japan.
1925 -- The Dominate of Drakia issues a formal ultimatum to the "Little Entente" of Greece, Yugoslavia, and Rumania, demanding that their troops evacuate western Anatolia, Thrace, and all Bulgarian territory as it stood in 1914, turning those regions over to the Domination wholly intact. France at this time is not dealt with, the leaders of the Domination hoping to split the opposition to their further expansion to some degree. It does not matter. Speaking for the "Little Entente", the Greeks give their answer to the Domination: OXI; "No". Before the Domination can launch their own attack, Greek troops in western Anatolia advance down the old Berlin-Baghdad line towards Ankara, brushing aside the Drakian border defences with coordinated tank and gas attacks and rolling barrages. The world is startled by the image of tiny Greece marching forth victoriously against the seeming innumerable masses and brutally superiour Citizens of the Domination. Many young men from Europe and America, enamoured of "brave little Greece" and her charismatically progressive Prime Minister, Venizelos, rush to join volunteer brigades to fight against the Domination, often referred to as "the land of the antichrist" in churches of the day. Billy Mitchell, disgraced in the U.S., is offered command of the Greek Air Force and accepts.
1926 -- Greek troops reach Ankara, threaten to cut off the Pontus Euxine Province of the Dominate from the rest of the country. Drakan preparations are finally successfully reoriented to meet the thrust and the Domination counterattacks from both sides. The overextended Greek forces make a very good account of themselves in the rugged terrain, but faced by massed Janissary waves and tank-supported attacks by Citizen groups on their flanks, and short on supplies, their defensive positions collapse and the Greek army retreats hastily to avoid the entrapment of the forward spearhead. Drakan propaganda claims following the counterattack that they allowed the Greek advance to weaken their position, but most military experts agree this was not likely. The Greek army demolishes Ankara as it retreats, the second time the city has been destroyed in less than a decade. Hundreds of thousands of refugees flee with the retreating Greek armies, which further hampers their ability to hold due to saturation of their supply routes with refugees. By mid-1926 the Greeks are driven back to their previous border in Anatolia, where the existing fortifications there repel further Drakan attacks. The Domination builds up and strikes across the border by fall of the year, with massed Janissary advances covered by tanks, gas, and the rolling barrage. Casualties among the Janissaries are immense, both from Greek fire and from their own artillery landing amidst advancing columns. The Greeks retreat, burning everything they leave behind and sending essentially the whole population of western Anatolia fleeing into Greece behind the protective cover of the army. The year ends with the Greeks clinging to the coast of Anatolia as the Drakan offensive slows down in the winter.
1927 -- Over the winter the Draka bring up several heavy guns by the tortuous route of the lone railroad, which must be re-laid after the track destroying techniques used by the retreating Greek army. Several of these large railroad artillery pieces go into action in a major offensive, however, finally driving the Greek army across the straits. The evacuation of the Greeks from Anatolia is accomplished under the combined protective fire of the two dreadnoughts of the Royal Hellenic Navy and their older battleships and cruisers, along with the fact that by now the reorganized and well-equipped airforces of the Little Entente under Billy Mitchell's direction are successfully contesting the skies with the vast but poorly equipped Drakian Air Force. As the Domination succeeds in forcing crossings at the Bosporus and Dardanelles, major commitments by the Yugoslav and Rumania armies reinforce their 'volunteer' legions and turn the war into a bloodly crawl up into Thrace. Constantinople is completely destroyed in street fighting, the populace of Thrace progressively evacuated as the Drakan armies slowly gain ground in what the retreating Little Entente leaves a charred wasteland.
1928 -- Finally the Draka have enough depth to mount a massive strategic offensive, punching through the Entente's lines at Adrianople. In desperate they turn restore the Bulgarian government, which raises an army with a backbone of WWI veterans that manages to barely halt the Draka on the borders of Eastern Rumelia, whilst the Greek army is driven back to the Nestos river. Further massed Drakan assaults finally collapse the Bulgarian defence at great loss of life, but several regions of Bulgaria remain under the control of the armies of the Little Entente, heavily dug in to defensive positions. Though the Draka prepare for continued attacks, by this time the French have managed to build up their forces in Cilicia a great deal, including large aerial assets, and the British mediterranean fleet is dispatched to Crete with a strong force of Royal Marines. Between these two threats, and the massive casualties suffered to deplete the already badly lowered pool of janissaries to make gains in the rugged Balkan terrain, the Draka accept a cease-fire on the current lines late in the year.
