The p.o.d of this is a classic one – Franz Ferdinand narrowly survived the assassination attempt at Sarajevo in 1914, causing World War I to be spread out across the next couple decades as a series of smaller wars. Firstly, there was the Austro-Serbian War, or the Third Balkan War, from 1915-1917, in which Austria-Hungary fought against Russia and Serbia, which led to the creation of the Duchy of Serbo-Macedonia from the Slavic-populated territories of the southern Austro-Hungarian Empire. After the Czechs attempted to secede in 1918, Austria and Hungary dissolved, both retaining a monarchy. The new Czech republic merged with the local Slovak and Polish population to form the Republic of Silesia.

After the Austro-Serbian War, Russia fell to a revolution in 1919 (although not led by the Bolsheviks) – here, the rebels were less successful and the monarchy was restored. Although the main force of the rebellion was pushed east into Siberia by a pincer movement, several nations, such as Georgia, Caucasia (an agricultural egalitarian republic), Ukraine , Kazakhstan (named Turkestan) and Lithuania declared independence, with varying resistance. Finland was also reclaimed by Sweden as a principality. At the time of this map, both sides were at a stalemate

In the early 1920s in response to Turkish aggression against native Greeks and Armenians, Greece invaded Turkey with the help of Britain, leading to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of a rump Turkish republic. Greece was powerful at the time of the map, but was under turmoil with right-wing nationalist groups on the rise.

Italy remained a monarchy, but dissatisfied republicans founded breakaway nations in Sicily and Sardinia, at odds with their larger neighbour.

In response to the increasing power of the Kaiser, Germany underwent a series of uprisings in the early 1920s, resulting in the foundation of a socialist republic. The monarchy retained the eastern portion of Germany. France took this opportunity to reclaim the Alsace