The Occupation of the Ruhr
The occupation of the Ruhr by France left me utterly dumbfounded. Was even Walter Rothschild now planning to ask me about the future? Lately, everyone from Alexander Krivoshein the Prime Minister to Duke Yusupov had been coming to me with the same question.
“So?” I asked, raising an eyebrow with clear irritation.
“In Your Majesty’s view, what do you believe the future of the Palestine region holds?”
First Alexander Krivoshein, then Duke Yusupov, and now Baron Rothschild. They might as well just call me a shaman outright.
“You mean the future after the Jews settle in Palestine?”
“Yes. Is such a thing within your sight?”
So that was what had been bothering him. As the representative of Britain’s Jews, it made sense that he would be curious. Even with Britain’s backing, the fate of the Jews who would actually have to live there depended on their own actions. With a living saint right in front of him who could supposedly foresee the future, it was only natural he would want to ask, like someone stopping by for a tarot reading.
Thinking about it, I felt a surge of anger. Why did they insist on believing such things? Or perhaps they simply wanted reassurance from a woman known as a saint. Either way, the Balfour Declaration was bound to bring about a certain future.
“Well… But really, Baron. After seeing Britain’s Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour’s declaration, the McMahon–Hussein Correspondence, and the backroom deals with France, surely you can already predict what will happen once Jews settle in Palestine?”
“Ahem.”
I couldn’t understand why even foreigners kept asking me this. If you thought about it lightly, the answer was already obvious. Walter Rothschild would certainly know about Britain’s scheming. They had wagged their tongues to crush the Ottomans and win over the Arabs, then wagged them again in the name of helping the Jews. After all that empty talk, how could he not know what would happen on that land?
“Britain won’t be managing that place forever. They stirred up trouble to dismantle the Ottomans, so they will sow seeds of blood that make the original sin of the forbidden fruit look trivial. The guilt runs deep.”
“Then are you saying China will be fine? If the warlords unite into a single China, would they simply leave the land where Jews live untouched?”
No, they wouldn’t. A ‘unified’ China would certainly wage war to drive the Jews out of what they considered Chinese territory. But that was only possible once unification actually happened. With China’s current capabilities, achieving unification through federal provincial autonomy would take a long time. Even then, if Japan invaded, it would collapse just like the Song Dynasty—once called industrially backward before the Industrial Revolution—was devastated by the Mongols. It would be destroyed fighting Japan.
Chen Jiongming, a member of the Anastasia Fan Club, was strongly advocating for federal provincial autonomy. If none of the warlords had the capacity to unify them, that would be the end of it. Even Chiang Kai-shek only eliminated corruption after being driven to Taiwan.
Establishing a Jewish state wasn’t entirely unrealistic.
“Unification will be difficult. They are already divided under the name of federal provincial autonomy. And if they receive land in exchange for helping with the war, who would object to settling Jews there?”
“Your Majesty. In that case, I will assist with the oil exploration in North Manchuria. Not as Royal Dutch Shell, but as Baron Rothschild himself. I am quite curious about the picture Your Majesty is drawing.”
Look at this. Yesterday he had spoken to me purely as a banker in a businesslike manner. Today, he was speaking seriously as an individual. Was this what I thought it was?
“Seeing how you’re repeating what we already agreed on, it seems that if my answer had been no, you intended to draw a clear line between us.”
“Hahaha. That couldn’t possibly be the case. However, not as an entrepreneur but as the head of the Rothschild family. I simply wish to deal with Your Majesty as one Jew to another. In other words, the Rothschild family itself—not the company—will directly assist with oil exploration in North Manchuria. That is what I mean.”
It was wordplay of the highest level, but in the end, it was simple: Your plan is truly fascinating, so the Rothschild family wants to build a trustworthy relationship directly, not through the company.
“A wise decision. After all, I am merely a symbolic Tsarina established by the State Duma. If you had spoken only in vague terms, I would not have been able to exert any real power.”
“You have quite the sense of humor. Hahahahaha!”
What the hell? I really am just a figurehead. Calling it a joke to a symbolic Tsar was going too far.
“Then, I look forward to working with you.”
Unexpectedly, I shook hands with Walter Rothschild as individuals—Anastasia and Walter Rothschild. Afterward, Baron Rothschild stayed in Moscow for some time, researching Russian animals. I seriously had the Ohrana investigate whether this was actually research on me, but I was surprised to learn he really was just looking for animals.
And not long after, Duke Yusupov arrived with someone from Branobel.
“Your Majesty, I am Emmanuel Ludwigovich Nobel, who manages Branobel. I should have requested an audience earlier. My apologies.”
A warm-looking middle-aged man bowed deeply before me. Emmanuel Ludwigovich Nobel. Yes, this was the man who would manage Branobel and dig for oil alongside the Romanovs.
Apologies? I should be the one apologizing. He was the one who would share Branobel with me and diligently extract crude oil. I was far more grateful.
“Not at all. I’m thankful you came.”
I personally took Emmanuel Nobel’s hand and smiled brightly. The fact that he had come this far meant he had considered it positively.
“I will enter into a joint venture with Your Majesty’s Romanov Oil Company.”
Straight to the point. I liked that. From Emmanuel Nobel’s perspective, a joint venture with an oil company probably didn’t seem like much profit. After all, it was no different from handing over shares to the Romanovs. But if you thought differently, it also meant the Romanovs would be backing the Nobel family. Thanks to me, further developing the oil fields would bring significant benefits to the Nobels as well. At the very least, it was better than the original history where everything went to ruin. That was what I believed.
“Is that so? A very wise choice.”
If he had refused, it would have been troublesome. I had already boasted to Baron Rothschild. At the time, I had planned to threaten Branobel by saying I would open Russia’s doors to Standard Oil or Royal Dutch Shell. If that hadn’t worked, I would have had to build up the Romanov Oil Company myself. Accepting so readily also meant I could extend my influence into other fields of the Nobel family in the future.
“It is a company that nearly collapsed once in a revolution. Moreover, since Your Majesty is looking out for our Nobel family, this is only natural.”
I see. So he believed the Romanovs would guarantee them. The Nobel family was now backed by the imperial family! Though the Romanovs’ diminished authority made their guarantee seem less impressive than before.
“Good.”
“However, Standard Oil remains a concern.”
“That side will be fine.”
And so the Romanov-Branobel Oil Company was established. Of course, Standard Oil might express dissatisfaction. I hadn’t said anything, but the Duma had reached out to Standard for oil exploration. If the Tsarina openly courted Branobel and Royal Dutch Shell while giving them nothing, it would look bad. But they hadn’t simply whined for free support either. Besides, if Branobel was the only one extracting oil in Russia, what could they do about it? Those guys had already taken more than their share. If they made too much noise, I could throw them some bait about oil fields in China. I would tell Standard that I would develop them for the local warlords and split the crude oil shares, diverting their attention. Or I could give them the chance to dig deeper in Siberia. In the end, this could lead Japan to the miraculous logic that conquering China would bring them oil, accelerating the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War. One must always prepare for such variables.
With this, I had helped the Jews establish a nation and blocked the future wars that would occur in the Middle East. Of course, other wars might arise from different variables, but that was beyond my concern. Some might criticize me for exploiting the Jews under the guise of protection, but the European powers knew that Jews had helped the White Army during the Red-White Civil War. They wouldn’t object to Russia protecting Jews. On the contrary, the great powers would be satisfied if Russia took in the Jews who only caused discord within their own countries.
Now, how would Europe turn out? Would the occupation of the Ruhr happen as in the original history?
Around this time, France found the existence of the German Free Socialist Republic extremely unsettling. After all, these were people who openly called for the abolition of the Treaty of Versailles. The reason for demanding its abolition was obvious: they were boldly declaring they would not pay reparations.
The revolution in Germany had emboldened communists and communes within France for a while.
“If this was how it was going to be, why did we even fight the war?”
“Good grief, we can’t even get the reparations. What is this nonsense?”
“It’s about time our own communes took power…”
The communes quietly criticized why the war had been fought if Germany wasn’t going to pay reparations, why there was no wage increase for workers, and so on. There was a lot of talk.
Raymond Poincaré, the French Prime Minister and a staunch anti-German figure, wanted to argue that the communists now ruling Germany were the ones ignoring the reparations. But what good would saying that do? He had also tried to turn the German Rhineland beyond the demilitarized zone into a buffer state, but fierce local opposition made it impossible. Moreover, with a revolution breaking out in Italy as well, France—sharing a border with them—could not focus solely on Germany.
America simply watched from across the ocean, while Britain was diligently trying to encircle communist Germany. Yet the once-mighty British Empire had become a toothless lion, shamefully withdrawing its troops. Communist Germany continued to brazenly refuse to pay. Although they refrained from arming the Rhineland demilitarized zone, they were secretly building up something called the People’s Self-Defense Force, which was enough to make one clutch their neck in frustration.
At this rate, the prestige of victorious France would suffer, and France’s own fate would not be bright. The coal and timber promised as reparations were being ignored by communist Germany as if the promise had never existed. As for East Prussia? How much could the Kaiser repay from that tiny piece of land? In the end, the main culprit was the German Free Socialist Republic.
Raymond Poincaré had to make a decision.
“This cannot continue.”
If they refused to pay reparations, France would send in the army and take them by force. Although the communist revolutions in Germany and Italy, along with the commune problem at home, had delayed things, Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré finally resolved to dispatch troops.
Thus, in 1924, French and Belgian forces finally pushed into the Ruhr region of the Rhineland in the German Free Socialist Republic. In actual history, the French occupation of the Ruhr had begun on January 11, 1923, and lasted until August 25, 1925. Here, it started a year later, but proceeded far more radically.
The French army initially seized the Ruhr’s coal mines and attempted to acquire the nitrogen fertilizer expertise of the BASF company. However, the factory workers resisted. When a French officer beat one of the workers, the incident escalated into a general strike.
“We are not French workers!”
“French and Belgian bastards, get out of the Ruhr!”
“We are Germans!”
Just as the Weimar Republic government had done in actual history, the German Communist Party issued orders to the Ruhr workers, forcing a total strike. Karl Liebknecht, the General Secretary who had been closely watching the situation in France, had already sent German Communist Party members to the Ruhr in advance as workers to agitate the local laborers.
The plan to turn the entire Ruhr region into a buffer state had failed due to these sabotage operations by the German Communist Party. The only consolation for France was that the Ruhr workers were not deeply steeped in communism. However, the French forces, acting more aggressively than in actual history, went beyond the original executions for sabotage and opened fire on striking workers.
Bang! Bang! Bang bang!
The sound of gunfire echoing across the Ruhr was more than enough for the German Communist Party to incite further unrest.