Elsewhere

"The sun never set on the British Empire because God couldn't trust the british in the dark"

~ Unknown

---

Nr.10 Downing Street

The current British Prime minister, William Gladstone was in a meeting with his cabinet.

"Gentlemen, German foreign policy keeps becoming more and more agressive every year.

The young Wilhelm is eager to prove himself and put Germany in the world stage on which Germany deserves to be, as per his claims." he said

"That's right, your Exellency. In fact, the forced resignation of the "Iron Chancellor" Bismarck 2 years ago proved so. The young Kaiser did not agree with Bismarck's cautious way of handling things.

This represented quite a 180 degrees change of policy. Right now, Germany has been looking to expand its colonies everywhere. The young and energetic Kaiser Wilhelm feels the colonies they have aren't proportionate to Germany's strength" Responded the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Rosebery.

"That could become just slightly problematic for us. Lord Ripon, the Colonial office should strengthen the local forces on disputed colonies. Collaborate with the Navy and Earl Spencer to make sure the trade routes are firmly under control. In the seas, the Germans cant do anything without our say-so." sneered the Prime Minister.

The First Lord of the Admiralty, Earl Spencer and the Colonial Secretary, Lord Ripon nodded firmly.

In fact, it was Prime Minister Gladstone's fourth term. His influence in the government and country was absolute. He was also known as almost an autocrat so the present members of the cabinet usually refrained from opposing him unless they deemed it absolutely neccessary.

Mind you, Gladstone was 82 years old. You may call him a recordman but he still had an air of authority, an air of confidence around him which characterized him and made others fear and revere him.

"Gentlemen, pushing them to expand into French colonies could deal the French a great blow, weaken their influence and grip in their colonies. It wouldn't be so bad to have the French and the Germans fight each other over scraps.

German navy is modest. As long as we keep our non-interference policy, they can slowly expand it and start having more serious clashes with the French for colonies in Africa. That way, they will end up balancing each other out on the continent while we act as an arbitrator." said the Gladstone while displaying a devilish smile.

"Lord Rosebery, start spreading rumors in France that the Germans are aiming for their colonies. Their tensions are already at the highest point in the European continent. Its time to upscale them on the world stage." stated Gladstone.

"As you wish, Your Excellency" responded the British Foreign Secretary.

Gladstone smiled:

"Thank you for coming. Everyone is dismissed"

The Ministers gathered their documents quietly, thanked the Prime Minister and left the venue.

Just like that, the British machine began doing its work.

Doing what it did best. Stirring the pot...

...

Elsewhere, in the Berlin Palace, Kaiser Wilhelm II was struggling with the aristocrats and the conservative factions of his government for power in Germany.

Wilhelm's view on the monarchical power and populace contradicted those of the Junker nobility.

Wilhelm strongly believed in the "Divine Right of the Kings", in the absolute authority of the monarch.

However, the nobility, particularly the military aristocracy, the Junkers, were used to a more collaborative, conservative style of rule.

Wilhelm really wanted to diminish the power of the Junker nobility and gain influence in the military as their monarch. But the Junkers' influence was so embedded deep into the German military that he simply couldn't.

At this moment he kept pushing and trying to divide them among themselves but they stood firm on their positions and resisted any effort by Wilhelm to undermine their power.

Some months ago Wilhelm had made attempts to introduce social welfare reforms. This had put him at odds with the aristocratic landowners and industrialists so his reforms were altered and limited.

This unfortunate event highlighted to Wilhelm the need for a higher concentration of power in the hands of the monarch...

From that day on he moved to a more isolated and autocratic power which would bring about highly decisive actions of the German Empire in the future.

...

Washington D.C. , 1 year ago,

December 1892.

Grover Cleveland, the current master of the Oval Office was heavily scrutinizing the documents in his hands.

"Mr. Foster, can you explain what I have before me?" he asked with a demanding tone.

The Secretary of the Treasury (equivalent of a Finance Minister in the U.S), Charles Foster, sighed and responded.

"Mr. President, as you can see from the documents, it's quite possible that the United States will face an inevitable economic crisis of unknown scale. We do not know exactly when it will happen but the bankers and financial experts have already been warning us and they have presented several theses on it.

They claim there have already been some banking crises recently... The instability is only growing and it is already too late to stop or intervene. They are consequences of past actions which are described in the document at hand.

The overexpansion of our railroads and the over investment in many not-so-sound projects will bring a collapse of the railroad industry very soon. This collapse will have a ripple effect across our economy and will severely damage other sectors which depended on rail transportation.

Many businesses are overextended. The market always rebalances itself Mr. President. I also believe the market will reset sooner or later but I doubt it will be as severe as the bankers claim it will...

Anyway, this overextension has indeed brought a very high speculation on industry and a very high inflation on the Stock Market which would be detrimental to our economy in the case of a major crisis.

When this railway crisis comes about and the speculative investments do not pay off, there will be a crisis of confidence which can lead to drastic consequences like the bankruptcy of hundreds of American banks and financial institutions.

Additionally, this year had been full of droughts and poor harvests. Many of our farmers are struggling due to falling grain prices and they have gotten buried in high levels of debt."

The Secretary sighed once more. And then concluded with his final remark or, dare I say, hammered the nail in the coffin:

"There will definitely be a crisis, Mr. President, but unfortunately we cannot correctly predict its scale nor its timing.

Our estimation suggests that the crisis will be a moderate one, at worst a low or mid-level crisis, because of which at most 2% of the american working population will indeed become unemployed."

The President rose to his feet, put his fists on the table, giving an imposing air and stated.

"Mr. Foster, in any case, begin stocking relief food like grain without speculating the grain price. There's still a gridlock between Silver Advocates and the Gold Standard supporters in the senate. I will try to stabilize the situation but you shouldn't expect a solution soon.

We must be prepared to relieve the unemployed and mitigate this mini-crisis as much as possible. The growing Populist party is like piranha waiting for us to bleed. One drop and we'll be swarmed by them.

Dismissed."

"Thank you, Mr. President." The Secretary of the Treasury nodded and left the office sweating."

What these two men didnt know is that they were enabling one of the most devastating crises in american history due to their inaction...