Loaded to the brim with interethnic conflicts and feuds between transnational corporations, weighed down by stock-market and banking crises, rattling for now with still only regional wars and with the desperate squeal of diplomats’ pens, the train of world geopolitics was slowly but heavily edging into the snow-covered platform of 1901…
The chess political board had been prepared with meticulous care. The pieces were arranged. The Emperor intended to play this game as White.