Global events: Spring 2005 – Spring 2007
Disappearance of Duke of France and his good friend Count of Lyon was followed by another shock connected with Orleanist affair. Two missing men appeared in public again in pro-German kingdom of France. Massive propaganda against National France was launched by Mitteleuropa, claiming that French republic is ruthless tyrany that discredits political opponents with false-flag operations. Duke and Count that fleed from North Africa approved such theories, even giving comments that assassination attempt on president was set up by goverment to discredit and eliminate political opponents. Things became even more hard for National France when King Francois VI appointed Duke Philippe d'Orleans as his first minister. To avoid succession conflicts, Duke Philippe rather used his second title Count of Paris. Pro-German France now gained more legitimacy, as it was obviosly supported by respected house of Bourbons. Orleanst supporters and royalists in North Africa were even more confused because of that, since they didn't know if they should see their favorite as victim of conspiracy or as traitor. Some even listened to German propaganda about ''so-called National France and quasi-republic is not legitimate successor of French statehood'' and moved to continental France. Conspiracy was still not revealed. Both President Dassault and Duke Philippe claimed they didn't organize the attack and blamed each other for this.
But problems of National France were not always the first news in world. Major news were German general election where strongest party Standlischer Verbund suffered heavy defeat and surrendered it's position of coalition leader to former smaller coalition partner Zentrum Partei that gained most of votes. Angela Merkel, leader of Catholic conservative party Zentrum was appointed as new Reichskanzler by Kaiser. Governing coalition was in fact the same as before, with diffrence that Prussian aristocratic Standlischer Verbund wasn't coalition leader any more. Zentrum of Angela Merkel forged coalition with three minor parties: National Liberals, Standlischer Verbund and IHK-Mitteleuropa. Parties that stayed in opposition gained relatievely strong support of voters, but Merkel's wise forge of ruling coalition and their divided stance didn't give them much chance. Social Democrats(who gained greatest number of votes after the Zentrum Partei), Progressive Liberals and Nationalists stayed in opposition again. Gerhard Graf von Schroeder retired from political life after defeat of his party.
Other nations were more oriented towards external affairs. While Portugese were expanding extraction of resources from their African possessions, Spanish had only troubles from Africa. They had to deploy more troops to Bata due to civil unrest and even armed revolts, probably supported by Union of Africa, as Madrid speculated. Meanwhile, general staff of the Union of Africa was arguing about defense strategy of this Syndicalist nation. It was decided to orient the strategy according to geographic factors, with promoting the use of so-called ''Jungle Rats'', forces specialized for jungle warfare. Such strategy would be useful against most of hostile neighbour nations. Shah of Persia thought that best defense strategy is to rely on the strong ones, and Persia finally decided to end it's neutral stance and join the military alliance of Mitteleuropa. Surrounding unfriendly nations were probably very important factor for Persian decision. Anyway, this Persian move wasn't really surprising as Teheran had always maintained good reltions with Germany, mostly because of export of oil to Europe.
Improved defense plan of the Union of Africa lead to request of Chairman Mugabe to Nepal for some Gurkhas to instruct African soldiers in special warfare technics. Being famous as excellent warriors, Gurkhas worked as both instructors and expeditonary troops in Syndicalist countries all over the globe. After signing TCP Agreement in March 2005, American Union State continued with expanded cooperation with Germany. New strike fighters were ordered by Miami to increase the firepower of American Union Air Force. Unionist General Malcom Granger was glad to have his air fleets reinforced by new deadly birds of metal. This deal was quickly followed by agreement that naval and air bases on territory of American Union State are open for German forces. Germans compensated this benefit with Clark-Feldt Agreement that provided German help with modernization of American Union Navy.
Activities of other nations were more peaceful, like massive improvement of tourist capacities by Caribbean Federation and expansion of Transamurian port of Vladivostok. Less important European issues were rise of Cult of Ankou in Brittany and another not very surprising arguing between English and Scotts, with Scottish Prime Minister Brown starting another flame war with English Prime Minister Blair. This time, London decided to ignore Scottish arguing why Scotland is much better place than England and why is Brown superior to Blair.
Germany was not the only member of Mitteleuropa that refreshed it's political leadership. Retirement of Ataman Eduard Shevardnardze brought in power Eduard Kokoity that was second-in-command in Don-Kuban Union before. Cossack General Eduard Kokoity gained a lot of influence during the leadership of Shevardnardze and his takeover of the position of Ataman, supreme leader of Don-Kuban Union, was not unexpected.
Syndicalist Internationale wasn't completely pasive. At the end of 2006, Mexico was ready to host the Congress of Fourth International. Congress was held in San Diego and all invitees agreed to take part in it. A lot of things were discused there, like priorities of Entente in global affairs, support for Syndicalist movements world wide and other important issues. However, essence of talks remained a secret due to very private and secure nature of the Congress.
Qing Empire entered 2007 with opening of new Qinghai-Tibet railway. New year also brought unpleasant situation to Russians and Japanese when Japanese fishermen were captured by Russians. Austria-Hungary survived Ausgleich of 2007 without serious effects, as both sides rather sticked with current status instead of pressing new demands.
In the 2007, four major alliances were still dominating most of the world. Largest alliance remained Mitteleuropa, which was followed by enlarged, but still much smaller Entente. Syndicalist Internationale was the third biggest bloc while Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, more commonly known as Tokyo Pact, was the smallest major alliance. However, number of members in alliance isn't neccessary equal to the real power of alliance.