December 31, 1913

It's December 31, 1913. Revolution is in the air and the map is rapidly changing. Outside of the Americas, the world is still largely divided into weakening empires run by autocrats and colonists. The Republic of China is about to celebrate its 2nd birthday. (Its people, sick of having been left in the dark ages like feudal serfs while Westerners defined and dominated the modern world, had just ended 2000 years of monarchical rule in a series of revolts and uprisings.)

 
Vladimir Lenin has been living in exile in Austria and other places in Western Europe since the first, failed Russian Revolution (1905), which is where he will remain for 3 more years until a series of uprisings (over food shortages, inflation, long work hours, dangerous work conditions, and urban overcrowding as a result of rapid industrialization) will depose Nicholas II and bring an end to tsarist Russia. 

Four years earlier, Portugal had switched over from a kingdom to a republic with the ousting of an unprepared king and the earlier regicide of his father and brothers, but it is not yet done with its assassination troubles. France and Belgium are busy colonizing Africa. The Italians, all hopped up on nationalism, are "taking back" the formerly Roman state of Libya and pissing off the Turks, er, I mean Ottomans. The Ottomans are taking it from all sides, having recently lost the regions of Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Montenegro to independence movements backed by neighboring countries.

The British Empire is still holding its own pretty well, but Gandhi is on a boat back to India and to his destiny as the father of the Indian independence movement. In the meantime, Parliament is stirring up a hornet's nest of nationalism in Ireland by offering them "home rule" (which would amount to Catholic-dominated politics), and freaking out the more prosperous but less numerous Protestants in the north.

Closer to home, Pancho Villa is the leader-del-dia in the middle of the violent, 10-year long Mexican revolution, which started as a desire to oust an autocrat and to end the concentration of land ownership and access to education with the wealthy, but had since devolved into a civil war that would become the single greatest sociopolitical event in the country's history. 

Tomorrow, January 1, 1914, a guy named Tony Jannus will take airline history's first paying traveller, the mayor of St. Petersburg, FL, on a 22-mile, 23-minute flight to Tampa on Jannus' boat plane. Although regular tickets would be priced at $5 ($113 in 2011 dollars), the mayor has paid $400 ($9K in 2011 dollars) at auction for the prestige of the first crossing. 

And Detroiters, high on progress and good economic times, are pouring into streets, cafes, and theaters for a good natured, rousing celebration. (Tomorrow's Detroit Free Press will report "NO DISORDER, BUT MUCH NOISE IS REPORTED ON STREETS. Woman is Thrown Out of Touring Car When It Hits Pile of Brick.")

And somewhere a middle class family awaits my soon-to-be-built house, observing the new year, most likely by attending a "Watch Night" service to prepare themselves with prayer for the new year, believing that the American Dream will soon yield to them if only they maintain chastity, hard work, and temperance. Once the children are tucked in, they may indulge in some post-midnight revelry at one of the trendy dance halls where they could strut a tango or turkey trot. However, the house's first family probably did not sing "Auld Lang Syne" because, although it had been written by Robbie Burns over 100 years before, Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians had yet to make it famous.


Happy New Year, everyone.