Yep, you got that right...and lets' not forget what the White Man's Burden meant to the world...[/url] Or, why I have such mixed feelings about enjoying Rudyard Kipling. (And yes, my girlfriend once used the classic response to my asking her 'Do you like Kipling'
)
Another factor, which I forgot to mention, is the beginning of the labor movement - unions, including the UMWA and the Wobblies, as well as groups such as the Molly Maguires and the beginnings of the Socialist and Anarchist movements.
Tell us more! [In regards to
Rudolf Diesel]
In my campaign WWI has the potential to begin early - shortly after the suicide (or assassination) of Rudolf Diesel. The PCs also have the opportunity to prevent the war, both in it's potential 1913 incarnation, and the real world version that began in Sarajevo.
The first is based on a simple war of conquest, with
Willhelm II eying his late grandmother's holdings in India, resulting in a three way war between Germany, Russia, and Great Britain, with opportunistic attacks by the natives on all three major sides. (This begins as a cold war, heating up in 1915.) Diesel was leaving Germany in part because he wanted no part of Willhelm's plans of conquest. (This may in fact be true - there are a lot of conspiracy theories surrounding Diesel's death.) The intent was to move all facilities to Great Britain, and to publicize Willhelm's interest in the Diesel engine for war like purposes.
Because I wanted a pulpier flavor than reality, I gave both Germany and Great Britain premature tanks, with German mad scientists working on a burrowing troop carrier, powered by one of Diesel's engines*. the intent was to use gas shells, followed by the subterranean assault.
It is possible that this model may have influenced my choice of assault....
At least some of the team just happens to be on the Dresden when Diesel disappears - the PCs do have a narrow window of opportunity to prevent his death. Not, perhaps, likely, but they do have the opportunity.
The second is the classic fuster cluck starting in Sarajevo that led to the death of a generation. (Oh, ye cods and lesser fishies! WWI was so damned
stupid! 
)
The Auld Grump
* Diesel is one of my heroes - not too terribly long ago I tried to explain to a Green that the 'brand new' idea of bio-Diesel was in fact Diesel's goal from the beginning. The first Diesel engine ran on peanut oil....
Either dystopia or cacatopia would work, I think, it is the breakdown of society, not the direction that it takes.
