(Herodotus) Like WWI, but not

(Herodotus)

In the spring of the year 1901 an event occurred whose repercussions would shake the world, the king of France was murdered by spanish assassins who were later revealed to have had backing from the Italian monarch. This naturally called for war, so the new king of France called his longtime ally the king of England against the Italians, who called on the aid of the Queen of Germany. In fear of being conquered by the newly formed military alliances The Eastern Coalition was formed by the Ottoman, Austria-Hungarian and Russian empires, the EC vowed to remain neutral in the conflict and only step in if things truly got out of hand.  

The first year of the war mostly consisted of the alliances consolidating their power, with the Ottoman Empire annexing Bulgaria and Greece, The Austria-Hungarian Empire annexing Rumania, the Russian Empire annexing Norway and Sweden, Italy conquering Tunisia and Germany. France also invaded Spain in retribution for the assassination and decided to take Portugal as well. The British-French Coalition also attempted a policy of containment on their German neighbor, annexing Belgium and Holland.  

In 1902 the war began in earnest with the German attempted invasion of holland, which was handily repulsed by British ground troops aided by the French navy. However the real highlight of 1902 was when, on august the 17th, the Ottoman navy arrived in Naples and declared property of the Turks, thus breaking the Eastern Coalition's vow of neutrality and situating Italy between two hostile forces, an incredibly large scale pincer attack. The Ottoman Emperor ultimately managed to convince the Italian king to withdraw all of his troops from mainland Italy in exchange for Italy retaining control of Tunisia, which the king of Italy spent much of 1903 doing. Thus ended the first years of what would come to be known as The Great War. 

It was in 1904 that the next paradigm shift in the war occurred, again brought about by a member of the Eastern Coalition. Despite the chaos that would occur later in the year the first half of 1904 was relatively uneventful, with the main event being the divvying up of Italian territory between France, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. The ultimate agreement that was Naples would go to the Ottomans, Rome to the Austrians and Venice to France. It was the latter half of 1904 that was truly interesting though, and it all began with the Italian sneak attack on marseille as the retreat from Italy was underway. Not much later Turkish troops landed in Tunisia and proclaimed it the territory of the Ottoman Empire, marking the second time in the war that the Ottoman Empire had betrayed a promise in favor of gaining land from the Italians. While the world was still reeling from the shocking invasion of Tunisia, the Russian Empire launched it's own surprise attack, this one targeting Edinburgh. This attack obviously outrage the British-French coalition, who immediately changed tactics in favor of regaining the Isles.  

In 1905, the war started petering out, with France reclaiming marseille from the Italian occupiers. Later that year the Russian troops in Edinburgh moved south and took Liverpool and the English attempt to retake Edinburgh was repulsed by the Russian navy. In December 1905 the very last Italian army was finally defeated and the great powers of the world drew up a preliminary cease fire.