After popular demand, here’s a look at the wider world at the end of this story:
First, Europe. Belgium has, unusually, eaten a chunk of the Netherlands, and actually has a higher military score than them, despite having a smaller standing army, fewer warships and no colonies. France has taken Catalonia, Austria has taken Emilia and the UK has (very surprisingly) annexed the Ionian Islands.
Asia has a few surprises in store as well. China got itself in a bad war with Russia, the Ottoman Empire and some other countries. As a result the Russians took the one Chinese state with precious metals (in fact, the most productive precious metal province in the world). The Ottomans were less wise with their choice, taking a landlocked state they could never subsequently reach. At some point it was overran by Communist rebels, and has been their stronghold ever since. I think it was at the same war that Korea became independent, and was able to subsequently become a secondary power. But the greatest surprise comes from little Johore, which conquered swathes of (still only partially westernized) Siam.
As for the rest of the world, Argentina is the most powerful and expansionistic South American country. North America has seen little war throughout the century, preserving Mexico’s expansive northern borders. Africa is rather neatly divided into mostly British, French and Italian areas, with an independent Congo in the middle.
Also, Iceland is independent and Russia, despite being the #2 great power, doesn’t seem interested in colonizing its northern lands (the same goes for the UK and that province in the middle of Australia).
