It is 1916 on the western front, during the Christmas Truce, the officers on both sides couldn’t contain the truce, as it went on past Christmas, with more and more common soldiers joining. After things became heated between officer and soldier, shots were fired, first on the French side, a few officers were killed, and reinforcements were coming. However the reinforcements couldn’t bring themselves to shoot their own, and began to join them slowly, the same soon happened on the German side. The two mutineer armies decided to join together, and turn their trenches and guns away from No Man’s Land. There was still intense fighting, but the Mutineers attracted the likes of certain individuals, great generals and people known for their strategy, sensing the opportunity of something greater with such a large mutiny. It wasn’t a mutiny anymore, it was becoming its own state, a revolution, right in between Germany and France. The new Rhineland state, they began calling themselves, began to push outward. The French side were able to capture parts of France-Comte, and some of the southern mountains on the border with Switzerland, they were able to make a defensive line with. As well as parts of the Ardennes forest. On the German side they were able to push into more of the Rhineland, capturing a few cities and industrial areas until reaching the Rhine River and bordering Cologne. They made the Rhine River their defensive line, it took many weeks, but eventually, the British and Dutch were able to hold a conference in Amsterdam with all sides.
The Amsterdam Conference was heated on all three sides. But eventually they were able to settle on new borders. The Belgian and Luxembourgish territories would be ceded back to Belgium and Luxembourg, while the Rhineish state, would be able to become a recognized independent nation, and Germany and the Entente would sign an armistice. Though angry about the deal the Germans and French had lost a lot of their army and some officers and generals to defections, and weren’t able to push them out of the Rhineland’s now entrenched lines. The Amsterdam Conference would conclude its meetings on the western front, but there were still the matters of the eastern front to deal with. Serbia and Romania had become allies agaisnt the Austrians and Bulgarians, and had pushed into the Balkan territories of the Austrian Empire, facing major unrest, and weariness from the war, the Austrian Empire agreed to cede territories in the Balkans to Serbia, and Hungary would cede Transylvania to Romania. The Austrian Empire would massively decentralize, granting greater autonomy and local governance to its subjects. Though would still struggle with unrest, it has calmed its population for now.
Meanwhile in Russia, the communist reds have risen up, and Russia already surrendered to Germany as Polish, Baltics, and Ukrainians form their own countries and fight the communists. And the Entente sends military missions into north Russia.
The Amsterdam Conference concludes bringing peace to Europe, after the mutinies of the Christmas Truce just as New Years ends. However there are still high tensions across Europe. The Rhineish Military Government’s leadership is split between its great generals and influential people of all sides, French, German, British, some want a democratic republic, some want an authoritarian military dictatorship with themself as the sole leader, while some want a monarchy, led by one of the royal houses of Europe, and each leader will begin to make their plays for power in the coming years. While the French and Germans eye their lost territory and lick their wounds, and the Austrians have to contend with the new Serbian-Romanian Alliance that has formed after the war’s end. Bulgaria has lost its Empire, ceding territory on all sides to Serbia, Romania and Greece, and new talks of a separate alliance between Austria and Bulgaria begin to plot for ways to regain their prestige and territories should the opportunity ever come. While Italy has, in the wake of Austria’s weakness at the end of the war, have bought Istria and the small port of Zara in Dalmatia for a large sum, which Austria can use to rebuild itself in the meantime.
In the German Empire it faces a growing movement of the left, from both republicans, communists, and constitutionalists, calling for an end to autocracy, but not able to fully ally each other.
(Please check out my Preset, where the Christmas Truce turned into a full mutiny, until an entire new state was formed in the Rhine between Germany and France, as well as some other changes in Europe)
https://www.paxhistoria.co/presets/b3540ZWrOnREWY8iIwIR?versionID=2