April 15, 1912 – Titanic Strikes Iceberg with No Loss of Life

The RMS Titanic was built to be the largest passenger ship in the world, an Olympic-class vessel 1,000 tons bigger than her sister ship, which was half-again as big as the previous largest ship. The White Star Line had been outpaced in 1907 by Cunard, whose Lusitania and Mauretania had become the fastest transoceanic passenger ships. With German lines already beginning to challenge their market share, Chairman Bruce J. Ismay met with financier JP Morgan, and a trio of new ships would make White Star the largest and most luxurious way to travel in the world. The Olympic launched in 1911, but it was the Titanic whose maiden voyage would be the most anticipated with guests such as the Astors, the Strauses of Macy’s, Margaret Brown, and even her own architect Thomas Andrews. JP Morgan himself was supposed to board, but he canceled shortly before, possibly in relation to the coal strike that postponed many transatlantic crossings.

The strike ended just days before the Titanic left Southampton. Captain Edward John Smith, White Star’s most senior captain, commanded. As stops were made in Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland, passengers as well as additional crew were taken on before making the long journey across the Atlantic. Guests enjoyed conveniences modeled on the Ritz Hotel with artistic flare in every fashionable style. The ship offered a library, a telephone system, a pool, gymnasium, and several kinds of baths with nearly as many First Class passengers as Third.

Due to a warm winter breaking up the ice shelves of Greenland, ships had already begun spreading word of ice in the north Atlantic. Despite the warnings, Captain Smith ran the Titanic at near her top speed, not necessarily attempting to break the records set by Cunard for crossing but to assure his passengers arrived in a fit and timely manner. He followed the advisories and relied on his lookouts to keep an eye out for any potential hazards.

The men in the crow’s nest were without binoculars due to an equipment error, but those would have been useless on the night the iceberg appeared. It was a moonless, extremely calm night, causing the glassy water to reflect starlight and create mirages in the cold air that obscured the horizon. Just before midnight on April 14, lookout Frederick Fleet rested his weary eyes before taking another look into the sea and spotting an iceberg floating immediately before the ship. He called to the bridge, “Iceberg right ahead!”

First Officer William Murdoch ordered the engines reversed full astern and the ship to turn, but it was too late to maneuver around the floating block of ice. The Titanic slammed head-on into the berg, causing all of the passengers and cargo to lurch forward. Damage to the bow was substantial enough that the first watertight compartment ruptured, causing icy seawater to flow inside. Fortunately, Titanic had been designed to have as many as four of its special compartments flood without hazard. Multitudinous injuries were reported throughout the ship, but, almost miraculously, no one was killed.

Captain Smith was roused from his quarters and directed the ship’s doctors in caring for the most injured. Emergency flares lit up the sky while wireless calls beckoned for help from nearby ships. Lifeboats were prepared to launch in the case of an evacuation, and it was noted that there was only enough room for half of the people aboard the ship. As the Titanic refused to sink, however, worries were abated. About 4 o’clock that morning, the RMS Carpathian arrived to give aid, and the Mount Temple and SS Californian arrived after dawn, when it was deemed safe to traverse the ice fields. Titanic was eventually deemed seaworthy and continued its journey to New York at much slower speeds. Thomas Andrews was given a special toast from the captain’s table and later commendations from a number of boards and charities.

Inquiry into the accident prompted a great deal of approval for Andrews’ designs. Naysayers who again warned of too few lifeboats were mocked in several editorials saying, “What’s the point of a lifeboat if the ship never sinks?” Others brought up the issue of the Californian switching off its wireless receiver, but investigators finally sided with Captain Stanley Lord’s decision not to risk another ship at night in the ice.

Weather would continue to be blamed for many of the worst maritime tragedies as that fall hundreds of ships would sink in a vicious typhoon in the Pacific, including the Kiche Maru from Japan, which lost over one thousand lives. Most agencies put their efforts into attempting to communicate weather-patterns. Communication failed in the case of the RMS Empress of Ireland, which collided with a cargo vessel on the Saint Lawrence River that led to another loss of over one thousand lives as the ship sank so fast. In most cases, lifeboats were the least of anyone’s concerns.

The peacetime losses were soon eclipsed by the World War. In 1914, Britain established a blockade of Germany, and Germany attempted the same, creating warzones in the North Sea and Atlantic. Thousands perished aboard ships like the Principe Umberto, the Gallia, and the Queen Mary as modern warfare such as the U-boat and mines struck. Ships found themselves woefully unprepared to face sinking, and even emergency refits and additional lifeboats jammed onto the sides of ships were deemed untrustworthy. When U-Boat U-20 sank the RMS Lusitania, once the pride of the Cunard fleet that had been requisitioned into the Navy, thousands perished with only a handful of survivors. International outrage overlooked the Lusitania’s munitions supply, and the German press called the sinking dishonorable even in a war where British ships painted over their names and flew false flags. At last the German command ordered an end to unrestricted submarine warfare, instead following stricter Prize Law rules.

Even with calmer seas, the War dragged on. The infamous Zimmermann Telegram soured American opinions of Germany, but the public did not see fit to join a war unless it directly affected their own rights. After another bitter winter in 1919, Germany finally capitulated and signed a crippling Treaty of Versailles, while Americans watched from the sidelines, maintaining its neutrality in the Eastern Hemisphere, as it would for decades to come.

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In reality, the Titanic attempted to maneuver around the iceberg, which struck along the starboard side in a gash that filled five of the safety compartments. It became the most famous maritime disaster, having more than 1,500 lives lost in the icy waters of the North Atlantic, many of them due to the lack of preparation in training and lifeboats.

April 6, 1917 - World War Expands to US, Mexico, and Sweden

As the Great War rolled into its second year, it became obvious that Germany was caught in an unwinnable two-front war.  Hoping to distract the Russians by deepening the revolution breaking out in early 1917, the German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmerman arranged for a group of Communists including the infamous Vladimir Lenin to travel through German territory in a closed railroad car, eventually taking them back to Petrograd.  To weaken the Western Front, Germany announced its resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare, crippling the supply line coming in from America.

America balked, with leaders such as former president Theodore Roosevelt shouting, "Piracy!"  President Wilson attempted to maintain a virtual peace by arming ships to destroy U-boats.  Despite the Americans' merchant marines, the submarine attack proved overwhelmingly successful.  It was only a matter of time before America would come into the war.

Seeing that the war might spread, German leadership began to investigate ways to make such an expansion work in their favor.  Zimmerman sent a telegram to the ambassador to Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt, instructing him to suggest an alliance.  Germany would contribute munitions and funding while Mexico created a new front for America.  By the time of Germany's victory, it would give Mexico back Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, land lost in the Mexican-American War seventy years before.  Mexico itself was in a very difficult position, still facing revolutionaries after decades of lawless fighting in the desert northwest.  The US had already performed patrols into Mexico, chasing warlords such as Pancho Villa who raided American towns.  Mexico adopted a new constitution on February 5, 1917, which was the first in the world to guarantee social rights.  There was still much discontent in the country, and at last the Mexican government determined that solidarity could be established if the nation faced a single enemy.  On April 6, 1917, the US Congress declared war on Germany and its allies, which suddenly included Mexico.

On the same day, the war spilled northward into the Baltic region.  Despite its earlier prominence as one of the greatest nations of Europe, Sweden had long maintained its neutrality.  Wars with Russia had weakened the country in the eighteenth century and resulted in the loss of Finland in 1809.  In the Napoleonic Era, Norway was handed over to Sweden from Denmark, though the Norwegians fought for independence.  In 1905, Norway won its independence, and Sweden became a fraction of what it had been.  After much encouragement and seeing the weakness of the Russians, the Swedes finally determined to win back their glory by retaking Finland.  On April 6, a Swedish force invaded from the north, backed by a flotilla, and was joined by hopeful Finns.  "White" Finns who had enjoyed Russian protection in the Grand Duchy interrupted the Swedish advance, adding to the chaos.

Despite the entrance of the United States, 1917 proved a difficult year for the Allies.  US troops were immediately dispatched to Mexico, which was quickly overrun thanks to armored vehicle advances made by effective military minds such as Captain George S. Patton.  While the battles were one-sided, America became bogged down with long supply-trains and a difficult occupation.  Revolutionaries who had long practiced guerrilla warfare continued their resistance, causing Americans to pour more and more troops into Mexico rather than the trenches in France.

Issues also broke out between the United States and Japan, who had been among the Allies since the first days of the War.  Almost immediately after their declaration of war against Germany, Britain and Japan followed their treaty of 1902 to use Japanese ships to capture German colonies in the Pacific and destroy the Kriegsmarine stationed there.  With Russia collapsing, the Japanese began to push further into Asia, bringing the question of expansion into China.  The US had disapproved of the Twenty-One Demands issued by Japan to China, which Secretary of State William J. Bryan saw as a rejection of the previous Open Door Policy defending Chinese autonomy while supporting all foreign interests.  Britain attempted to keep both sides happy and helped to clarify spheres of influence while hosting Japanese Foreign Minister Ishii Kikujiro and American Secretary of State Robert Lansing, promoting Japan while the US held the Philippines.

Russia dropped out of the war October 26, 1917, with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, forming a separate peace with Germany.  While much of the Central Powers celebrated, the Russian Civil War proved to destabilize the conquered regions.  As Socialist "Reds" expanded their powers in Russia following the November revolution, they crossed the border into Finland, creating a new front for the Swedes occupying there.  The Swedish invasion turned into a multisided Finnish Civil War.  After a Soviet victory in the Russian Civil War, the Swedes were chased out of Finland, which again fell under Russian dominance.

The exhausted Central Powers eventually collapsed in 1919, ending the fighting in Europe while it continued for years elsewhere.  The American occupation of Mexico finally ceased in 1920, though it would forever mingle America in the affairs of Latin America.  The ABC Nations (Argentina, Brazil, and Chile) worked to counter America’s Monroe Doctrine, causing division and a number of bush wars, such as the fierce fighting in America’s occupation of Hispaniola and expansion into the Caribbean.

When Germany went to war against Western Europe again in 1939, the United States refused to join another World War as occupations in the south were so difficult.  The war did expand to Asia, however, when the Japanese allies of Germany performed a sneak-attack on Vladivostok in 1941.  Soon both hemispheres were once again embroiled in war.

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In reality, Mexico and Sweden maintained their neutrality in World War I.  US intervention shifted more abroad, gradually away from a paternalistic stance of the Monroe Doctrine and toward the Truman Doctrine’s global Cold War.

June 12, 1917 – King Constantine of Greece Approves Declaration of War Against the United States

As the Great War erupted in Europe in 1914, the nation of Greece became caught in the middle.  Greece had won its independence in 1830 after nine years of war with the Ottoman Empire, which had ruled the southern Balkans for centuries.  The new kingdom grew as Britain returned the Ionian Islands in 1864 and the Ottomans ceded Thessaly in 1881.  Further gains were made in the Balkan Wars in the early twentieth century, winning Greek occupation for Macedonia.  These wars made great gains for the Balkan League but ended up destroying trust as Serbia and Greece made a secret division of spoils, spurring Bulgaria to declare war against its former allies.  Serbians continued to struggle with the Austro-Hungarians, leading to the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo and the beginning of war over almost all of Europe.

Greece itself became divided.  King Constantine, backed by his German wife Queen Sofia, argued for neutrality, which would benefit the Central Powers with free ports to take in supplies for the war effort.  Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos suggested joining the Entente, noting the necessity of Allied operations in the region against Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire.  If the Greeks did not work with the Allies, he believed they would force cooperation with a blockade by the powerful navies of the British and French, devastating the peninsular kingdom (he noted, “One cannot kick against geography!”).  In 1915, the Entente began plans to take the Dardanelles, and Venizelos noted the opportunity to support what he saw as the eventual victors of the war.  Constantine refused, causing Venizelos to resign February 21.  Elections in August quickly put Venizelos back into office upon the promise of keeping neutrality, but, by October, Venizelos stated that Bulgaria’s invasion of Serbia would prompt him to join with the Allies due to their Serbian treaty.  An Allied expedition to liberate Serbia arrived at Thessaloniki, causing a final division between the King and Prime Minister.

Constantine determined to use his constitutional power as monarch to dismiss the government and call for new elections.  However, reflecting on the division of his peoples and Venizelos’ clear popularity, he decided a different action:  declaring war on the invading Allies.  He arrested Venizelos and many of his supporters, placing them under guard as political prisoners until the nation was secure.  The Allied army, which had been divided as the French attempted to march forward alone and were rebuffed by the Bulgarians, was caught and proceeded to retreat.  The action doubled the embarrassment of the Allies as it coincided with the failure and evacuation of the Gallipoli Campaign, effectively ending Allied activity in the region.  Diplomats in 1916 hurried to prompt Romania into the Entente with promises of immense territorial gains, but heavy losses to Central victories in 1917 forced them out of the war with the Treaty of Bucharest.  Russia, too, had fallen due to internal revolution, and the Eastern Front became quiet.  Bulgaria worked to relieve its own internal struggles from dissatisfaction among the soldiers fighting a war alongside Muslim Ottomans against fellow Orthodox Christians.

Greece, meanwhile, struggled against the Allied blockade.  Cities were bombarded, but shoreline defenses and sabotage proved effective counterattacks.  Well-armed resistance fighters made attempts at occupation impossible, turning to bloodbaths akin to Gallipoli.  The British Navy was stretched thinly, allowing a good deal of food and materiel to be smuggled between Central nations, relieving much of the tension of the Turnip Winter of 1916-17 from Germany.  America came into the war April 6, 1917, and Greece eventually declared war, following the actions of the other Central Powers.  By this time, most populations had become disgusted with the war.  France had faced mutinies among its soldiers with more than 20,000 soldiers court-martialed.  Emperor Charles I of Austria had attempted to sue for peace through secret negotiations shortly before the fall of Russia, causing a diplomatic catastrophe among the Central Powers.

In 1918, the Allies launched aggressive advances along their remaining fronts in France and the Jordan Valley.  The Ottoman Empire was clearly crumbling, though the Balkans held in the midst of blockade.  In the West, however, German offenses had run out of steam, and Allied counteroffensives pushed back with such force that the end seemed near.  Still, they held Eastern Europe, and the decision was made to push through another winter after the Americans had rejected suggestions of an armistice.  The Germans were pushed back through Belgium in as organized of a retreat as the German High Command could muster.  At sea, convoys and submarine-hunters gradually extinguished the threat of u-boat attack.  As another campaign season approached with the spring, German Chancellor Prince Maximilian of Baden finally accepted American President Wilson’s Fourteen Points, and the Americans led peace-talks beginning in 1920.

While French diplomats argued vindictively, Germany’s delegation stood much of their ground despite losing their overseas colonies.  Wilhelm abdicated in favor of his son, Wilhelm III, who had been noted as opposing the war.  Austria-Hungary was broken apart along with the Ottoman Empire.  The Germans led international intervention into the former Empire of Russia, breaking it asunder as well by granting independence to previous client states such as the Ukraine and stymieing attempts at domination by soviets.

For its part in the war, Greece was mildly punished with reparations that weakened its economy in the long term.  Alongside the struggling Greek economy, nationalism expanded as Greeks and Turks fled one another’s countries in a population exchange of more than two million.  Hardening conservatism battled with socialist ideals, but the King of the Hellenes has maintained a sense of stability in the nation.

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In reality, King Constantine only dismissed Venizelos.  The National Schism erupted as Entente-supporters set up a new government in the north alongside the Allied expedition on the Macedonian front.  Constantine abdicated in 1917 after threats of bombardment, and Kaiser Wilhelm announced to his soldiers, “The collapse of the Macedonian front has occurred in the midst of the hardest struggle.  In accord with our Allies I have resolved once more to offer peace to the enemy.”  The resulting Treaty of Versailles awarded Greece Smyrna in Turkey as reward for participation in the war, which ignited the Greco-Turkish War in 1919.  Humiliated by the new republic of Turkey, Greece dethroned its king and collapsed into near-anarchy with 23 changes of government from 1924 to ’35.  After royal restoration and being an integral Ally in World War II, Greece again fell into chaos during the Cold War as nationalists and communists fought in the Greek Civil War.  A new republic in 1975 turned to quasi-socialism, joining the EU in 1981 and receiving massive investment, though inability to repay loans sparked a debt crisis in 2009.

January 16, 1917 – Zimmermann Sends Telegram to the United States

The World War had raged for nearly three years, and Germany felt the pinch with trench warfare in France, the British blockade, and bitter warfare on the icy Eastern Front. Despite the pressures against them, the German Army had been the main strength of the Central Powers and held against the Allied onslaughts. The Battle of Verdun lasted ten months over 1916 and cost 300,000 lives, ultimately ending in a failure of Germany taking Verdun, though some ground was taken. Kaiser Wilhelm II had taken it as enough to declare victory in the war and call for terms of peace.

Wilson, who had long been seeking opportunities to put into place his ideal League of Nations, attempted to negotiate with the two sides in note. The Germans requested a more open discussion, while the British under Lloyd George took the opportunity to lead the Allies in creating a list of enormous demands including reparations, evacuations, and recognition of nation-states. The diplomatic gamble ultimately led to further division between the Allies and Central Powers, Wilhelm blaming the Allies for being unreasonable while the Allies did the same of him. With time running out as supplies dwindled behind the blockade, Foreign Secretary of the German Empire Arthur Zimmermann decided a new tactic.

The United States had gradually come into line with the Allies over the course of the war after being vehemently neutral due to German naval attacks and increasing economic influence due to war-profiteering in Britain while Germany sat behind its blockade. The original countermeasures to the blockade had been “unrestricted” submarine warfare against Allied ships in the Atlantic, torpedoing them at sight rather than stopping and conducting searches as was typical in naval warfare. While tactically advantageous, the sinking of the RMS Lusitania and others had resulted in grave negative response as many American passengers had been killed despite being warned against travel. The outcry from neutral countries had put an end to the U-boat attacks, but the failure of diplomacy in December of 1916 prompted the German command to resume unrestricted submarine warfare beginning February 1, 1917, though it would almost certainly bring the United States into the war.

Initially, Zimmermann had considered finding more allies such as Mexico and Japan to expand the war to soak up inevitable American troops, but he settled on ways of keeping the United States out or even voicing positive support for Germany. He sent a telegram through the ambassador to Washington reading,

“We intend to begin on the first of February unrestricted submarine warfare. We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United States of America neutral. While such tactics are not to our pleasure, it has become necessary to fight against the British Navy as they have sought to starve the people of Germany into submission through their blockade. Americans as well have felt the economic frustration of their activity of war. Please call the President's attention to the fact that the ruthless employment of our submarines now offers the prospect of compelling England in a few months to make peace.” Signed, ZIMMERMANN

Word of the German eagerness for peace seized many Americans, especially the German-Americans whose parents or themselves had immigrated. Other Americans began to demand the opening of German ports to ships with food and medicine, especially those whose exports had been harmed by the cut-off of German consumers. Britain had allowed searched ships through its blockade, but propaganda through political cartoons showing John Bull stealing dinner from starving German children’s mouths stirred public opinion. William Jennings Bryan, who had resigned as Secretary of State due to Wilson’s fascination with the war, spoke out from his stage on the Chautauqua circuit that the United States must take up a fresh stand to end the war before desperation pushed the Germans too far. Former President Theodore Roosevelt spoke out against the German “pirates”, but promises of German U-boat escorts for neutral ships kept their image as, at most, wartime privateers.

President Wilson delivered an address to Congress on April 6 to confirm neutrality while publically rebuking the Germans for their unrestricted submarine warfare and also rebuking the Allies for not seeking reasonable peace. Allied freight was sunk by the millions of tons in the Atlantic, and improved convoy and decoy tactics were limited by increasing neutral support for blockade-running ships with courses set for lucrative German ports. The war seemed to continue at a bitter stalemate over the summer, but the collapse of Russia and decisive Central victory at the Battle of Caporetto seemed to give the Germans an edge. As the revolutionary government of Russia began talks for peace at Brest-Litovsk, the beleaguered French also agreed to armistice with Austria through Belgian intermediaries. Frustrated Britons felt that they could not carry the war on alone and capitulated to US-led talks hosted in New York.

Diplomacy was bitter and nearly fell apart on a number of occasions as various sides made overwhelming demands. Enumerated reparations caused so much money to exchange hands that an equivalency was found granting primary gains to France, Alsace-Lorraine became divided, and Northeastern Europe became a variety of new states such as Poland, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, while Austrian advances on Serbia were rebuffed and internal nationalities in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire gained significant self-rule. Over the course of the 1920s, many of these nations would rebel to become independent states, as well as Ireland in the UK, as the Balkans and Middle East shattered into other states.

Meanwhile, Wilson would get his wishes of a League of Nations to be hosted in neutral Geneva. Upon the implosion of the Ottoman Empire, renewed colonialism would swarm into the Middle East, sparking, along with bitter economic downturn, the Second World War in the mid-1930s. Again, the United States would seek neutrality.


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In reality, Zimmermann sent his telegram to Mexico, suggesting an alliance in which Germany would aid the Mexican forces with weapons and money to retake Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona territory lost in the Mexican-American War some seventy years earlier. The telegram was delivered to Americans by British code-breakers, however, and word of such treachery shocked the public as did the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare, which would prompt an American declaration of war against Germany.