The wheels of history rumbled onward, unmoved by any individual's will. The mastermind behind the scenes never revealed himself, and the Japanese Government could only swallow the bitter fruit on its own.
In a sense, whether there had been a mastermind or not, the final outcome would have been the same. In short, the escalation of Russo-Japanese tensions was inevitable.
War had not broken out because neither Japan nor Russia was prepared for one. The two governments were now tacitly dragging out time; whoever completed their war preparations first would strike first.
Perhaps to ease the Japanese Government's pressure, or perhaps merely by coincidence, after Christmas of 1903, the London Government issued an announcement: it was withdrawing from the free trade system.
There was nothing surprising about it. The secret negotiations between the Holy Roman Empire and Britain had ended in failure the previous week.
Even Franz's proposal for the two nations to form an alliance once more and jointly wield world hegemony had been rejected by the British.
Thinking about it, that made sense. If they truly continued to maintain the free trade system and jointly wield world hegemony with the Holy Roman Empire, Britain would probably be going home to bring in its laundry in less than ten years.
As beneficiaries of the existing order, the British would never be willing to gamble everything without a fight—not when they still had the Royal Navy.
Although the Royal Navy's advantage was no longer obvious, an advantage was still an advantage.
With the collapse of the free trade system, there was no longer any possibility of easing the struggle for hegemony between the Holy Roman Empire and Britain.
While closely monitoring the situation in the Far East, Franz also began preparing for the coming struggle for supremacy.
Frankly speaking, Franz