The Russian art of diplomacy (October-December, 1901)
Diplomacy: Russia and Afghanistan]
On October 1, Abdur Rahman Khan, the "Iron Emir" of Afghanistan, dies after a 21-year reign. Later in the morning, his son and heir Habibullah Khan announces this fact, then ascending to the throne of Afghanistan as the new emir, who gave himself the title of Siraj al-Millat wa'd-Din (Torch of the Nation and the Faith).
Currently Habibullah was born in Russian Turkestan in 1871, during the time his father was living there due to his defeat in the civil war between Afghan candidates for the throne. The Russians and British supported Abdur Rahman Khan as ruler for years, aiming to leave a neutral state between their territories (the British Raj and the Russian Turkestan).
Habibullah Khan's reign began with reformist and less authoritarian measures than his father, decreeing a general amnesty that would allow many exiled individuals from Afghanistan to return to the country after being exiled by Abdur Rahman Khan.
Some might say that it was not the wisest choice, as many of these were probably also potential enemies for Habibullah Khan.
Not only that, but Habibullah Khan intended to gradually dismantle the internal intelligence services used by his father.
Between this, Tsar Alexander III of Russia begins a new diplomatic stage with Habibullah Khan's Afghanistan, with the British expansion in Tibet and the Russian expansion in Xinjiang, it was still better to maintain a buffer state between both empires, so the Tsar did not want too pro-British emir.
And Tsar Alexander III offered something in exchange for neutrality of course, Russia offered help to improve medicine in Afghanistan and bring new technologies to the Afghan state.
This was precisely one of the goals and wishes of Emir Habibullah Khan, future Afghan doctors could study in the prestigious city of Moscow, new hospitals for Afghanistan and the arrival of new technologies that did not reach the state during the reign of his father.
The British on the other hand could only offer subsidies in exchange for DOMINATING Afghan foreign policy, Tsar Alexander III did not exactly want to dominate Afghanistan in any sense, and had been a partner of neutral Afghanistan longer than Albert Victor or Lord Curzon.
So Habibullah Khan's government started good relations with Russia, in exchange for maintaining neutrality, Afghan students could go to Russia to study medicine and Russia cheaply sold medical technologies to Afghanistan.
Of course at first it was not too much, because Russia did not want to further alert the British, and Afghanistan understood that depending too much on Russia would cost them sovereignty (something that Abdur Rahman Khan understood).
In addition, for Russia to carry out its usual infrastructure projects would be expensive in Afghanistan, as a result of the disparity and lack of national union between tribes, geographical problems, etc.
But it was good cooperation, and Russia was getting closer to its goal of maintaining an independent and neutral Afghanistan.
*******
[The first among equals]
October 8 arrives, and Tsar Augustus Alexander III meets with the Patriarch of Constantinople, the Metropolitan of Moscow and Prokopios, the Metropolitan of Greece, the first two being de-facto the two most important leaders of the Orthodox hierarchy worldwide (after the Russian conquest of the city of Tsargrad).
Various of the Greek hierarchical echelons were not happy at this time, not because of a decision by the patriarchs, the Russians, or Alexander III, but because of a Greek citizen, Alexandros Pallis.
Pallis was a scholar, and recently translated the New Testament from the Greek Koine (one of the ancient forms of the Greek language, also called Biblical Greek or Alexandrian dialect) into modern Greek.
The priests of the highest echelons were angered by this translation, and wanted an official response from the Patriarch of Constantinople against said translation, which encountered more opposition as the days passed (among members of the Orthodox Church, the press and Athenian universities, political parties, etc).
Among the reasons are not only national issues, but beliefs of possible foreign infiltration into society, some believed that Pallis was trying to bring Protestant-British (Pallis had British citizenship) or pan-Slavist influence.
Before answering the Patriarch of Constantinople, a Russian citizen for the new laws of Tsargrad, he decided to question the matter with the Tsar (at a time when the state and the church were deeply linked).
Keep in mind that at this time Greece was going through a Greek language question (a dispute about whether the language of the Greek people, Demotic Greek, or a cultivated imitation of Ancient Greek, Katharevousa, should be the official language of the Greek nation) and Orthodox influence could have unexpected results.
Tsar Alexander III discussed it with the patriarchs, and it was finally decided to condemn the translation through a vote and advice with the other high echelons of the Greek Orthodox.
"Philological vandalism, a distortion and desecration of the sacred original", were some of the words that described the opinion of the Orthodox Church regarding the translation.
It must be understood that in the Orthodox Church a Patriarch is not the same as the Pope in Catholic Christianity, but the Patriarch of Constantinople (and the Patriarch of Moscow to a lesser extent) is in a special position as a first among equals, enjoying then of notable influence, especially in a world still very little secularized (and more normally nationalist-religious).
Due to the declaration of the church, attacks and riots against the translation of the Akropolis newspaper (where Pallis worked) increased in Athens, in a very unstable period of time socially, politically and economically for Greece.
As a result of this, and incidents of violence in the capital of the Kingdom of Greece, the Greek government of that time (Prime Minister, cabinet and some others) resigned and resigned from politics.
This of course did not improve the situation much, parties with a nationalist tint still won the victory and the leadership of the next government.
But it was still a government built on sand, without industry, with a rotting army and without social order. How could Greece be independent when the words of a Russian Patriarch could end a government?
This fact also marked a certain escalation of tensions, many nationalist Greeks feared the infiltration of pan-Slavists and Slavic influences in Greek society, mainly because the queen of the Hellenes was Russian, the fact that Greece was surrounded by members of the Russosphere , etc.
We can also see this by the possible fear of falling more heavily in the Russian sphere, Greece had been there more strongly before, but with the Ottoman fall they had become much more unlinked.
The problem was that this breaking of ties hurt the Greeks more than it did Russia.
*******
[Diplomacy: Iran and Russia]
October 27, the Shah of Iran, Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar and Tsar Alexander III of Russia, hold a secret diplomatic meeting (the results would not be revealed until the validity of the treaty) to carry out a trade agreement between both states.
Russia indicated to Persia (Iran) that Iran should reduce its tariffs on imported goods from Russia (sugar and oil mainly, among some other products) and increase the tariffs of the British Empire (tea from the British Raj and textiles from the United Kingdom).
Persia accepted.
Why? Very simple, debt and foreign policy.
Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar was someone very extravagant, the inefficient administration of the Iranian state, his lifestyle and his trips to Europe were expensive, they cost a lot of money (although in return he introduced Iran to the cinema).
This is why the Shah had asked Tsar Alexander III of Russia for money, and after having ceded the oil rights of southern and northern Persia to the British Empire and the Russian Empire respectively, the Shah needed more money.
That is why one of Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar's strategies was to cede rights to the country's resources to foreigners, and in this case accept the treaty proposed by Russia (which was quite unilateral in this case).
The monopoly control of European capital over Persian resources and markets would cause problems for the Iranian government in the long run, but that was not the problem at the time.
Tsar Alexander III gave Shah Mozaffar 1 year and a few months before the secret treaty will go into effect (February 1903).
It should be said as a curious fact that the Russian influence did not translate not only into its economic dominance in the north of Persia, political influence and diplomatic power, but after Shah Mozzafar brought cinema to Iran, Russian cinema simply invaded the country .
The Russian film industry was bigger, richer and cheaper than the Iranian film industry, so in reality Iranian cinema was heavily influenced by Russian cinema and the Iranians translated many of the early Russian films into their language.
*******
[Katanga]
Katanga is an area that the Russian Empire won from the Fashoda war with practically nothing to do, based on the existence of its previous investments and the deployment of the Russian Red Crus in the region.
It was also an extremely rich region in mineral resources (cobalt, copper, tin, radium, uranium, and diamonds). Agriculture-livestock was practiced on the Katanga plateau.
Now is when the rest of the problems come.
With the Treaty of Paris, the eastern parts from north to south were taken away from the new Norwegian Kongo (the British Empire, the German Empire and Russia obtained territories). But even so the Norwegians held most of the old Swedish-Norwegian Kongo.
Now Norway was within the British sphere (they kept the Kongo because the British side managed to keep it by military force and British-Norwegian interests had to be catered for at the conference), which took northern portions of old Kongo to have a spearhead against the French colonial empire.
On the other hand were territories annexed by Germany, which were more to expand their own colonies (German East Africa) than to follow a strategic principle.
This only left the Russian Katanga, landlocked and surrounded in essence by the British Empire and the German Empire. This certainly gave few options.
Katanga could be like the Keniya and try some deals with the German colonies, but the problem was that those areas were peripheral and lacking in infrastructure to be as beneficial as the relationship between German Uganda and Russian Kenya.
So for the moment Tsar Alexander III tried a more autarchic strategy.
The Tsar allowed the Russian Red Cross (which, after all, already had a presence in the region), the Russian Orthodox Church (as in other colonies, albeit with limitations) and state-supervised charitable organizations, to carry out projects of infrastructure, with the aim of helping, educating and Christianizing (in the case of the church) native populations.
There was a very curious situation, Katanga was the "Congolese" region with the most hospitals and infrastructure for refugees due to the work of the Russian Red Cross.
Hospitals in various parts of the globe were overwhelmed by the large number of people infected with the epidemic diseases of Fashoda, mostly of Congolese origin, without counting some exceptions.
But not in Katanga, which like many parts of Slavic Africa, had developed well medically thanks to Russian doctors and the aforementioned Russian Red Cross.
This was already very good in itself, the existence of these hospitals had implied the interaction of the Russian administrators with the natives and their leaders, allowing the existence of an alliance and cooperation with the more cooperative-peaceful tribes towards the Russians.
Now the mission was to connect all these leaders and the Russian hospitals to create an infrastructure.
A proper railway was not yet feasible, but if more passable, peaceful, guarded public roads could be made, more schools, orphanages and churches could be built.
That was already an important advance in the modernization of Katanga, especially now when there were many orphans, refugees, etc.
For infrastructure and defense the Russians followed a broad approach, in infrastructure they used not only the workforce of the aforementioned organizations and native collaborators, but also of former Kongo settlers, survivors and refugees.
Italian workers, Congolese survivors of the war and natives of various parts of Africa who ended up in Katanga for various reasons, the Russians offered them work in exchange for them to begin to integrate into the Russian colony.
They had no loyalty to any other state and had nowhere to go, so they did not have many options (the Russian offer itself was "generous"). The war had not only released plagues, but had also caused the massacre of entire villages or tribes, destroyed part of the ecosystem leading to desertification, etc.
So for work, food and medical help, the right people were willing to do a lot of things. Help to work, learn Russian and then get some piece of land or more work.
However, this workforce was not used explicitly for defense, instead Russia, as it did in its other colonies, began to create a militia of loyal natives for a guerrilla war.
No one in the military high command considered Katanga's military survival very viable against its neighbors, but the Russian Empire already realized that the war in its colonies would be uneven in many respects.
This is why the guerrilla approach (which was used in Kameroon or Novaya Gvineya) was chosen to be used in Katanga.
These loyal natives in the militias were part of the network of cooperation achieved by Russia during Fashoda, the leaders submitted to contracts in exchange for weapons, money, medical aid, etc.
And helped to fight animals, plagues and hostile tribes.
********
[New territories]
Xinjiang, Tuva, and Outer Mongolia are interesting regions, with distinctive cultures and geographic locations.
For example, there are the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, accompanied by other ethnic groups, mostly Muslim. There are the Tuvan people and the Mongols, quite related to each other in fact.
Both regions already had history with Russia in fact, be it for example the Mongol invasion of the Kievan Rus centuries ago or more recently in 1901 the trade routes in the region and obviously the Russian conquest of the Qing territory.
The territories gave Russia vast once-Qing terrain, putting Russia in a strong position to influence Asia and what was left of northern China.
Tuva had gold, cobalt, coal, mercury, jade and others, in addition to the fact that sheep, cattle, goats and horses could be raised. Outer Mongolia has not only agricultural potential (especially livestock) but copper, coal, molybdenum, tin, tungsten and gold. And Xinjiang was also rich in natural resources, and could produce agricultural products like cotton, etc.
But there were still problems, mostly related to demographics and geography.
The regions were peripheral territories, they were Qing's and now they were Russia's periphery. That means away from the capital, away from pre-established centers of commerce and power, etc.
There was not much infrastructure during the Qing dynasty, so Russia had to start everything from scratch.
It meant that Russia had to work on building infrastructure in the regions, thus uniting them more with the rest of Russia and exploiting the economic potential of the new territories.
But doing that is not so simple, you have to negotiate, cooperate or deal with native ethnic groups, native elites, and another great unstoppable enemy, geography (deserts and mountains were a particular problem).
But the tsar was not going to leave any territory behind, or so was the Alexandrian belief.
Fortunately Russia had built some connections over quite a few years, when China ceded Zhili to Russia, they also allowed commercial rights to Russian merchants throughout all the newly conquered regions and also allowed Uyghurs to reach Russian Turkestan.
These were allies and connections that the Alexandrian government would not hesitate to use.
While there were also Russian citizens arriving, deals were made with the Tuvan princes to submit to the central government in exchange for maintaining their positions.
The Tuvan authorities and merchants easily gave in to these conditions while the empire's merchants and workers went to Tuva.
Tuva starts almost immediately with a civil authority and projects for railways, at least faster than the rest.
In Xinjiang and Mongolia, on the other hand, they are placed as Military Districts, due to the difficulty of establishing a civil government at the moment.
The veteran troops of the Boxer Rebellion are used to police important routes, pacify and eliminate crime, especially the consumption of opium.
In Xinjiang the Uyghurs of Turkestan are used as administrators and diplomats between the Russian authorities, and ordinary civilians.
Most Uyghurs and Russians did not fight, but it does not mean that the natives of the area trust Russia, so using other native collaborators is very useful for Russian purposes.
This raises the possibility of using the more socially and economically developed-integrated Russian Turkestan to integrate the Xinjiang region, or East Turkestan.
Certainly useful, but there was still a lot of work to be done, creating schools, roads and railways, government buildings, markets, bringing in various services such as water or electricity, farms, prisons, etc.
Another example was the Russian propaganda to promote artists, nobles (the Qing nobility that remained) and merchants willing to collaborate, to convince the population, economic leaders and sectors of power in the region.
Outer Mongolia was a particular case, unlike many Uyghurs and Tuvans, currently the nomadic Mongols were already quite pro-Russian. Since the atrocities of Qing officials, Mongols in the region had re-oriented themselves toward stronger connections with Russia, as opposed to China.
The collaboration between Mongols and Russians began with the Russian intervention in Qing, and continued after the Russian annexation of Mongolia.
But there were still many problems in Russian Outer Mongolia, the nomadic tradition of its inhabitants meant problems of urbanization and modernization.
Fortunately it is something that Russia had already grappled with in Turkestan, but it didn't mean it was easy.
The Mongol leaders were one by one gathered by the Russian government to clarify the laws and ranks of the Russian Empire, some would be rewarded for their collaboration, either with titles or papers to own certain parcels of land (which the Mongols could sell if not wanted) and gifts, mainly in agricultural products and livestock.
Tsar Alexander III only requested the recognition of the Mongols of Outer Mongolia as the new head of state.
*******
[Intelligence services]
"How annoying!". Felix Dzerzhinsky exclaims in discontent while his friend Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili couldn't stop laughing (while playing with his own mustache).
"Hey, you can't tell me that. I'm your superior now." Dzhugashvili insists, precisely the laughing matter, now agent Dzhugashvili had been promoted.
"You two, stop fighting like children, now Iosif is only one rank above you Felix, it's not that bad." Agent Prus, mentor to both agents, exclaims as he enters the room.
Shortly after the promotion, agent Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili was sent to his native Georgia to work on investigations into possible revolutionaries in the Caucasus and counter-intelligence work in Anatolia and the Middle East (Iran and the Russosphere), Dzhugashvili settled in the city of Batumi.
Some say that Dzhugashvili's shipment to the Caucasus was actually due to manifestations of racism, because he was Georgian and therefore certain intelligence officials did not want him in Moscow.
Of course this is just a theory, racism was not official policy of the Russian empire but it is good to argue that it continued to exist and was a problem.
During this period however Dzhugashvili continued to make himself known as a notable agent, even if he could sometimes have problems with some superiors and colleagues.
Soon after, Felix Dzerzhinsky was sent to the Polish Congress, following a similar path to Iosif in the Caucasus.
Certain dangerous or useless elements of the local services were eliminated, the co-intelligence was strengthened (which is why the British did not find out about the Russia-Iran deals) and the propaganda lines towards Germany went good.
"Felix's heart and effort are in the right place, he just needs a little more time to keep climbing.
Iosif on the other hand remains more introverted and hard-working, taking jobs that usually no one would want to do.
They have both become good agents and I have no doubt that they can become Okhrana or KGB directors in a decade or two. "
- Writings of Agent Prus.
*******
[International]
October 1, death of the Iron Emir of Afghanistan, Abdur Rahman Khan who is succeeded by his eldest son.
October 2, California (United States) Governor Henry Tifft Cage, after disguising himself as a striker and observing their situation, attempts to negotiate an agreement to end the strikers in the ports of San Francisco (including sailors, teamsters , stevedores and firefighters). Mainly out of concern about the various violent incidents in the city, but Cage does not want to call on state forces to crush the strike.
And today Cage managed to reach an agreement, the terms of which remain secret until modern times.
An interesting achievement among Cage's long list of mistakes (economic mismanagement that would harm the state of California and private companies, allow the increase in racism, mismanagement of epidemic diseases, etc).
October 5, the city of Hartford, Connecticut (United States) becomes the first city in the country to have its electricity supply powered entirely by steam.
October 6, Empress Dowager Cixi, de-facto head of state of the Qing Dynasty, returns to the national capital, Beijing city, accompanied by officials and other members of the court who had escaped to Xi'an.
Australian journalist George Ernest Morrison notes the arrival of the empress and her group by train as follows: "The Imperial party traveled in yellows sedan chairs, escorted by a huge bodyguard of cavalry, an enormous suite of officials, eunuchs, servants, and a baggage-train of some 3,000 gaily flagged and caparisoned carts. "
October 7, during this period only 3 companies monopolize the oil sector on the Pacific coast of the United States.
*******
October 9, voting opens in the Senate of the Second French Empire for the election of a Prime Minister (much more empowered and democratic than under Emperor Napoleon III and Boulanger).
The main forces moving this were the Left Boulangerist, non-republican moderates, conservative-monarchists and liberals. After the period of pseudo-purges I exiled the elements of the Right Boulangerist.
The liberal and conservative monarchists may have had a chance, they offered a less radical path but insisted on continuing the Ouverture. On the other hand there was Pierre Curie, who offered a radical political program for the economic and organizational transformation of the country of the French (socialist economic measures, more democracy, more senatorial power and less autocracy).
The liberal-conservative alliance almost won the majority, but eventually the centrists gave their support to Pierre Curie. The Republicans split the opposition vote because the Conservatives-Liberals were still in favor of the monarchy (although it was perhaps more constitutional).
Allowing the ascension of a Prime Minister of the Old Guard left behind by Generalissimo Boulanger.
This causes confusing answers, Curie is popular with the working class certainly but because of his populism and support for socialist economic reforms, he is not the smartest politician either, and his unpopularity with old military men, far right and other individual-groups does nothing but increase.
The most notable act of the new Prime Minister is to proclaim the Amnesty project, with a law that would give a pardon to "Unjust victims of the previous regime." Where socialists, republicans, non-Bonapartist monarchists and some others (not including Jews) were included.
A radical decision for which Napoleon IV asked for a veto, but the problem is precisely that the Ouverture gave the emperor a veto power limited to the executive power (the executive power had to "ask" after a vote, the emperor to make use of the veto power).
This means that the cabinet and the executive branch under Prime Minister Curie (Left Boulangerists, Centrists and Republicans) basically blocked the veto attempts.
*******
October 10, Republican Henry Ford begins a successful propaganda and public relations campaign for the United States Senate elections in 1902-1903 in the state of Michigan.
Ford was relatively unknown, but interestingly enough, his success in car racing, public speaking, and money ultimately earned him his first term as Senator from Michigan in the 1902-1903 election.
October 11, Bert Williams and George Walker become the "first African American artists", at least minimally recognized by the white man.
This is for Williams and Walker's contract with the Victor Talking Machine Company to produce 28 songs.
October 12, 52 deaths in the Hippo War.
October 13, the amnesty project of the Second French Empire, carried out by Prime Minister Curie, is approved by the houses of the legislative power, and therefore comes into operation.
With this thousands of French citizens are freed or free to return to mainland France, at least under the protection of the law after some paperwork.
Of course not everything is happiness, the French socialists immediately win a shot in popularity by calling for new elections where they can participate, mobilizing a desperate population in the midst of economic crises, epidemics and political instability.
Although the left also divides, among the reformist socialists "social patriots" (or also called social chauvinists) of Jean Jaurès, republicans of Marie François Sadi Carnot (64 years old) and the revolutionary socialist-communists "intransigents" of Jules Guesde (name real, Jules Bazile).
Bazile forms the Communist Party of France (Parti Communiste de France, PCF), while Jaurès forms the French Socialist Party (Parti socialiste français, PSF). The PSF is allied with capitalist elements like the Carnot republicans.
October 15, the Spanish nobleman Carlos María Fitz-James Stuart, 16th Duke of Alba, dies, one of the most important figures of the Spanish exile society, based in the Canary Islands (independent territory).
Duke Carlos suffered a heart attack at age 51 after hosting a private party. It is said that the duke had, at the time of the Kingdom of Spain, the largest private property in all of Spain.
Whose all property was nationalized by the socialists of course.
October 16, various lynchings of white mobs against African-American citizens in the western United States.
The police of the commune of Urbino (), capture the serial murderer Giuseppe Andrea Mussolino, with 25 murders in his history.
October 17, the editor of the German anarchist daily Neues Leben is arrested by German authorities after expressing his support for the assassination of President William McKinley.
Of course there is not as big a reaction as there was with the arrest of Vladimir Ulyanov, but some anarchists get angry. The publisher is released 4 months later.
Joseph F. Smith (Joseph Smith's nephew) is ordained as the 6th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after the death of the fifth church president, Lorenzo Snow.
October 18, the Agustin de Iturbide National Library is established, the national library of the state of Cuba, Second Mexican Empire.
The Russian battleship Retvizan sets a new world speed record, averaging more than 18.8 knots (more than 34.8 kilometers per hour or more than 21.6 miles per hour), in a 12-hour period.
October 19, Albertos Santos-Dumont donates a total of 100,000 thousandréis (currency of the Republic of the United States of Brazil) to aid in poverty alleviation efforts in Rio de Janeiro.
October 20, Leonora Piper, who had attained international fame as a medium who could communicate with the dead through séance rituals, announced her retirement from the field in the New York Herald under the headline "I Am No Telephone to the Spirit World."
In this same Leonora Piper announces that she truly believes that the spirits did not communicate through her ... only to later retract her and continue doing spiritist sessions because people continued to approach her.
October 21, Casadh an tSúgáin ("Twisting of the Rope"), a major work of the Irish Gaelic revival movement, opens.
October 22, the (Second) International Conference of American States, also known as the Pan-American Congress (informally) takes place in Mexico City, Second Mexican Empire, bringing together delegates from all the states of North America, America South and Central America.
The first was largely a failure due to various factors, both the fact that an effective customs union was not reached, and the fact of the US attempts to establish its hegemony over international arbitration issues (blocked especially by Argentina and other delegates).
The second is not much better, basically these pan-American congresses never get anywhere.
Prime Minister Pierre Curie of the Second French Empire is pushing for the creation of a law that would grant miners not only greater rights to strike and assembly, but also organizing power against corporations and a minimum wage.
This bill however is rejected by the lower house of the executive branch after certain deals between Republicans, liberals and centrists who saw Curie's measure as too radical.
In response, various mining strikes break out in various parts of the country in opposition to the lower house's decision.
Dallas Public Library is created by the efforts of the Dallas Federation of Women's Clubs in Dallas, Texas, United States .... Of course, this public library is only intended to lend books to white children in Dallas.
October 23.
"Kill everyone over 10 years old, turn this place into a howling desert. I want you to kill and burn, and the more you kill and burn, the better you will please me. I want you to kill all people who are capable of bearing arms in actual hostilities against Japan. "
Orders from one of the generals of the Imperial Japanese Army to his officers on the island of Samar (south-central Philippines, IJA area), continuing the repression on the island in response to the Philippine opposition.
Over the next few months, more than 165 villages would be destroyed and just over 50,000 native Filipinos killed. The native population reportedly ranged from 312,192 to 257,125 individuals (55,067 Filipinos killed).
(OOC: Currently this happened in the war between the United States and the Philippines, it is little compared to the Japanese atrocities in China during WW2 but it is still a horrible act and one that nationalist colonialism would perform).
King Heinrich I (Prince Heinrich XXXII Reuss of Köstritz) of the Netherlands, a state of the German Empire, celebrates a delivery of doctorates to various Dutch-German officials and the founding of new hospitals (because almost all hospitals in the Netherlands , Germany, are being filled by patients of the Fashoda plagues).
October 24, Annie Edson Taylor, a 63-year-old school teacher from Bay City, Michigan (USA) is the first person to jump from a barrel from Niagara Falls, and survive.
October 25, 15,000 dead are locked in mass graves in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, because common cemeteries are too full.
One problem with getting rid of corpses is that due to the laws or taboos of the time, cremation was not very common, and therefore getting rid of infected bodies was more difficult.
October 26, the health department of St. Louis, Missouri (United States) distributed diphtheria antitoxin ... which was infected with tetanus, causing the death of 13 individuals (including a 5-year-old girl).
A tragic event, but one that paves the way for greater protection laws in the United States for years to come.
October 29, the Polish-American anarchist Leon Czolgosz is executed by electric chair. Among his last words are:
"I am not sorry for my crime, I am awfully sorry that I could not see my father" and "I shot the President and I did it because I thought it would benefit the poor people and for the name of the working people of all nations. I am not sorry for my crime. That is all I have to say. "
October 31, nine outbreak of bubonic plague in England, more precisely in the city of Liverpool.
November 2, 1901, after the crashes of insurance companies throughout Germany, the Berlin stock exchange lost just over 30 million German marks in a single day.
An attacker (of unknown origin, name and affiliation) attempted to assassinate Empress Dowager Cixi while she and her companions were on a journey through Henan Province. One of the empress's assistants killed the assassin and the group simply continued on their way.
Proving inefficient enough that she is the current de-facto leader of China in not trying to find out who wanted to kill her or why (although there are several valid reasons for this).
November 3, motorcycle racing was introduced in Japan.
November 4, the Wandervogel, Ausschuß für Schülerfahrten (Association for Student Excursions) is founded. Wandervogel means "wandering birds", and is a group of student hikers, which is considered by some to be the first completely independent youth movement.
This movement is established by Karl Fischer (born in 1881) based on the walks of shorthand classes with excursions on the Rhine by Herman Hoffmann-Fölkersamb (classes held in 1896).
King Albert Victor receives a new title, Victor I Dei Gratia Britannorum et Terrarum Transarinarum Quae in Dicione Sunt Britannica Rex. Fidel Defender. Indiae Imperator.
Which translates as Victor el primer, by the grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British dominions beyond the sea, King, defender of the faith, and Emperor of India.
November 5, while the British cabinet of Prime Minister Louis Alexander Mountbatten and King Albert Victor I (accompanied by his German wife, Alix of Hesse) may approve of further rapprochement with Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm II is problematic.
The kaiser does not want the re-rapprochement with the United Kingdom so much despite the insistence of some of his officers.
November 6, at the Second Pan-American Conference, Guatemala introduces its version of a Court of Claims for the nations of the Western Hemisphere.
More egalitarian and less dominated by the United States.
The next day on November 7, the Mexican delegates introduce the idea that the countries of the Americas should sign the Hague agreements made by the Europeans for neutral international arbitration and war issues.
On the same day, November 7, the Chinese statesman and diplomat Li Hongzhang died, the negotiations caused major problems in his health and finally the death of him at the age of 78 years.
Li Hongzhang is honored with the title of Marquis of Suyi, which is passed on to one of his sons.
November 9, Sergei Rachmaninoff performs for the first time his Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18s in the city of Moscow. The success of this restores the confidence of Rachmaninoff, who was 5 years away from classical music after the poor reception of the First Symphony of him.
Thomas Edison has his men act out Czolgosz's death, the apparent "painlessness" of Czolgosz's death promotes the belief that electrocution is a gentle form of execution.
November 10, the train in which the Meiji Emperor is traveling almost collides with another train.
The incident prompted the Nippon Railway Company to try to dissolve the newly formed "Kyoseikai", an engine drivers union, but they failed due to the economic crisis keeping the workers together.
This curiously gives more strength to some union and labor movements in Japan, although they were still a fairly small and poorly treated movement.
The Kyoseikai should not be confused with the Kyosei-kai yakuza group, formed decades later.
November 11, votes in favor of a new state constitution in Alabama, United States. 108,613 to 81,734, many African Americans participate in these votes, who in reality were unaware that certain parts of the constitution would take away their voting rights.
For this reason, in four years the number of African Americans able to vote in Alabama would go from 79,000 to 4000. And Alabama would not be the only case.
During the presidency of Elihu Root there was a serious regression on issues of racial segregation and feminism, all are issues that were already present but President Root did nothing or even support the regression, many times refusing to receive African Americans privately at the Mansion Executive.
November 12, the Northern Securities Company is formed with James J. Hill as president.
The Northern Securities Company is precisely a company for the formation and maintenance of a monopoly, with 76% of Hill's share in Northern Pacific Railway, E. H. Harriman's monopoly on Union Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Railroad and J.P. Morgan on Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad.
This meant that the Northern Securities Company controlled virtually all transportation from the states west of the Mississippi River.
The most disastrous storm in UK history occurs, with winds with a force of 112.6 kilometers per hour (70 miles). Causing the death of 200 people in 48 hours.
20,000 people die of diseases, including the bubonic plague.
400 million marks are lost in Germany, initiating a brutal crash in the Berlin stock market, and bringing the most brutal economic crisis seen in the German Empire during the reign of Wilhelm II.
November 16, first car race in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
November 17, the Second Mexican Empire is shaken by La danza de los cuarenta y uno, "Dance of the Forty-One" scandal.
This scandal is that in Mexico City, the police carried out a raid on a property where 41 young men were arrested, many of them transvestites. The problem is that these young people are members of the wealthy families of Mexico, and one of them is even related to the minister-president of Mexico, Porfirio Diaz ( Don Ignacio de la Torre y Mier, the homosexual husband of Porfirio's favorite daughter, Amada Diaz).
Although the men were not charged or tried in a formal court, the Governor of the Federal District found the 41 men guilty of depravity and sentenced them to forced labor or military service.
10 men were killed and 28 wounded during a battle in the Hippo Wars.
November 18, Bernhard von Bülow and Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice at the insistence of their diplomatic services, present to their respective heads of state, Albert Victor of the United Kingdom and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, the possible secret treaty of an Anglo-American alliance. German.
The treaty proposed not only a military defensive-offensive alliance, but also greater economic-political relations and the division of zones of influence in certain parts of the world, such as Scandinavia (more German influence in the Republic of Sweden while Norway went to the Kingdom United, and both countries shared influence in Denmark).
A generous deal, but one that Kaiser Wilhelm II finally refused to ratify.
It was too early and the kaiser was reluctant, but the seeds of the Anglo-German re-rapprochement were planted in 1901, they only had to germinate.
November 20, Tsar Alexander III buys from the French Egyptian authorities, the tomb and artifacts of Pharaoh Amenhotep II, who died 33 centuries ago in 1397 BC.
November 22, given the continued deterioration of the economy of the Kingdom of Italy, measures that support militarism and authoritarianism in society continue to be accepted.
President Cipriano Castro of Venezuela orders the arrest of his minister of war, Ramón Guerra Bonilla. This due to the participation of the minister in a conspiracy against the president, as a result Ramon Guerra Bonilla will remain imprisoned until 1905.
During this same day, Venezuela and Colombia carry out other military exercises together to eliminate various rebels in the Isthmus of Panama.
This makes the Panama region a bit safer, and returns more to the herd of liberal supremacy and the Colombian federal model.
November 23, the British army in the British Raj succeeds against certain rebellious tribes of the Mahsud of Waziristan, who are driven out of the Khaisara valley after 4 days of fighting.
November 24, after the resignation of the previous Greek government, Alexandros Zaimis from the nationalist party, becomes Prime Minister of Greece.
November 25, Prince Itō Hirobumi visits Russia, where he is awarded the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky by the Tsar Augustus, Alexander III.
265 million French marks (equivalent to just over 53 million US dollars at the time) are lost due to the economic crisis in France, which continues to worsen after the stock market crash in Berlin.
November 26, in Germany Dr. Alois Alzheimer had his first meeting with the patient who would become the first person to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease (Auguste Deter, the wife of an office clerk).
November 27, 75 people die in the Hippo Wars.
In Washington, D.C, President Elihu Root orders the creation of the United States Army War College, which initiates an important part of President Root's reforms in the military aspect (to turn the American armed forces into something modern).
The first students would be admitted in 1903-1904.
Matti Kurrika and Matti Halminen, Russian citizens of Finland, lead the Kalevan Kansa Colonization Company, to lease Malcom Island in British Columbia, Canada.
There Kurrika and Halminen founded the Sointula colony ("Place of harmony" or "Place of chord" in Finnish), a socialist utopian society.
In less than a year Kurrika resigns and leaves with half the settlers to make another utopian colony in British Columbia. Kurikka had tried to found utopian communities in Chillagoe, Queensland, Australia, and Canada before Sointula.
November 29, Russian playwright Zinaida Gippius and her husband, the novelist Dmitry Merezhkovsky, held the first meeting of the "Religious-Philosophical Society" (Religiozno-Filosofskie Sobraniya), in the city of Saint Petersburg.
The objective of this society, allowed by the government and the holy synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, was a "rapprochement" between the church and the intelligentsia of St. Petersburg. Openly discuss the problems of culture and the church, the improvement of human nature, neo-Christianity, the social order, etc.
Gippius and Merezhkovsky were somewhat strange, they had developed their own original ideas about freedom, the metaphysics of love, as well as unusual neo-religious views, associated mainly with the so-called "Third Testament" (Treti Zavet, Тре́тий Заве́т, a supposed new revelation of the relationship between God and man, the continuation of the Old and New Testaments).
November 30, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, from the rural town of Sotto il Monte is recruited into the Socialist armed forces in Lombardia, Federative Socialist Republic of Italy.
December 1, in the main squares of Berlin a total of 100,000 German citizens appear to protest and raise awareness, about the bad treatment that post-Fashoda veterans have received and other problems of the German society of the moment, such as the housing crisis, workers' problems, the economic crisis, epidemic diseases, unemployment, etc.
The government obviously responds with troops once again, because 60,000 individuals going on strike is already worrying, 100,000 protesters in Berlin is a nightmare.
As a consequence, much of the city's economy was momentarily paralyzed and during the following days.
December 3, King C. Gillette applies for a patent on the first safety razor that would use disposable razor blades.
An idea (product that can be used and thrown away) that Gillette got from his mentor, inventor William Painter.
President Elihu Root's first message to the United States Congress, the president proposes the need for reform measures.
* The need to implement reforms in immigration laws, after the assassination of William McKinley, President Root does not want anyone "Of a low moral tendency or unsavory reputation" ... Of course it is a very ambiguous and potentially abusive description.
* The need to continue with the military reform (expansion of the navy, creation of a decent air force, continue with the reforms of the army, etc).
**And also the need to kill the Hippos in the Mississipi river delta.
* The need to take a more open foreign policy, not only more open to intervene in other parts of the world (South America for example) but also more open to the world free market (Root supported the Open Door Policy, which in his opinion was sabotaged by the diplomatic service).
* The need to reform American agriculture, so that losses such as the destruction of half of the American corn crop do not occur again.
The funny thing is that despite the "Black Scare" against the anarchists, there are also interesting people in the interior of the United States. In late 1901, Julius Wayland, a US citizen, sold more than 300,000 copies of his newspaper, the Appeal to Reason.
This makes Appeal to Reason the most important socialist newspaper in the United States, designed by Wayland precisely to promote the idea of socialism in America, which is capable of working and bringing a better future.
And obviously there are people willing to listen, in addition to important socialist actors in the United States, the socialists will participate for the first time in the general elections in the next presidential elections (1904).
Per the White Australia Policy, designed to prevent non-white or European immigrants from entering Australia, Australian law now requires: "To write a passage of 50 words in a European language chosen at the examiner's discretion".
To legally enter the country.
December 6, in California the Muslim-Turkish community holds a large gathering of Ottoman expatriates, where Sultan Abdul Hamid II participates.
December 7, Cipriano Castro and Rafael Uribe Uribe create a trade agreement that creates a customs union between Venezuela and Colombia, heading towards greater unification.
December 8, several commanders of the Imperial Japanese Army propose the creation of concentration camps for various Filipino inhabitants in Firipin.
The Imperial Japanese Navy refuses to allow this under its administration in Luzon, but the IJA dominates the rest of the islands in the archipelago and they are still discussing this.
On December 9, General Marín is defeated by Colombian troops, putting an end to the biggest problems of militant independence fighters in the Isthmus of Panama.
December 11, the women's suffrage movements in the United States suffer various blows due to the creation of various groups against female participation in political life.
December 13, after 14 years in litigation, the will of Cornelius Van Schaack Roosevelt, Jr. is revealed.
American writer Theodore Roosevelt Jr. receives a $ 100,000-200,000 inheritance from his uncle.
December 17, the Privy Council of Canada allows discriminatory laws in British Columbia. It prohibits naturalized Canadian citizens from voting if they come from any part of Asia.
"No Chinese, Japanese or Indian may include their name in the Voter Registry of any Electoral District" and "Any person of the Japanese race, naturalized or not."
Eventually the local government sweeps away these provisions.
December 18, in the south of England various members of the liberal opposition suffer attacks of vandalism and violence by mobs of around 30,000 ultra-nationalist citizens in London.
An example of these is David Lloyd George, where mobs break the windows of his house or throw things at him, but at least he is not one of the more than 35 liberals who end up dead throughout the month and the following year.
The British authorities are beginning to export cheap labor force from the territory of Angola to their territories in South Africa.
December 19, Governor Luciano Mendoza of the state of Aragua, Venezuela, declares an act of secession against President Cipriano Castro.
The declaration of the "president of Aragua" (Luciano Mendoza) creates a revolt in five other Venezuelan states, but Cipriano Castro and his loyalists, accompanied by Colombian soldiers, respond to crush these revolts.
This is the so-called Revolucion Libertadora (Liberating Revolution, in English), with Luciano Mendoza as the main commander of the anti-Castro forces in 1902 (January-February).
December 20, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, the protégé of the reformist Mahadev Govind Ranade, loses his chance to rise in the Indian National Congress in the face of more revolutionary positions (willing to use force) of regional nationalists and socialists.
The delegates of various American states in the Second Pan-American Congress, propose the creation of a Pan-American Bank for the use of all, where there would be different branches of said bank in the main economic centers of the Americas.
December 22, Bengali philosopher Rabindranath Tagore founds a co-educational school in Santiniketan, Bengal. The Brahmacharaya Ashram school.
A fire in a market in the city of Zacatecas, Second Mexican Empire, kills 45 people.
The southern assemblies of the Federative Socialist Republic of Italy, after an affirmative vote, take deeper and more centralist steps to use their obtained means (Russian agricultural equipment) to start modernizing their agriculture and thus deal with food problems.
Venezuelan General Juan Vicente Gómez defeats Luciano Mendoza in Villa de Cura, de-facto crushing the rebellion in Aragua after a few days.
However, Mendoza manages to escape with the rebel General Antonio Fernandez, making the revolution against President Castro continue.
Unfortunately it is clear that the rebels do not have the best leaders on their side.
December 23, pack animals begin to scarce in Buenos Aires, so the government gives the order not to export mules and horses.
December 24, in this situation of economic crisis and epidemics in the United Kingdom, various Irish groups promote that Irish tenants do not pay rent to their landlords.
Which is against the law, but some Irish tenants comply with the insistence. Leading to the arrest by the British police of several Irishmen or promoters of said action.
Venezuelan General Juan Vicente Gomez once again defeats the troops of the rebel Luciano Mendoza in the town of Desembocadro in the state of Guárico.
December 27, the American oil industry loses economic assets for what would be worth 1.1 billion dollars in more modern times (2016).
Secret agreements between Russia and the Federative Socialist Republic of Italy lead to a trade agreement that increases trade between the two countries, allowing the price of bread to drop in Italy.
This is part of the Alexandrian policy of alleviating food problems in socialist Italy, which was modernizing.