Chapter 29 Vis Inertiae (1903) Summary

Hay is still at his peak, but a great crisis is at hand: control of access to China is threatened by the German/Russian diplomatic alliance. Russia, with its vast size and inertia, is particularly dangerous and difficult to stop. Unexpectedly, the Kaiser replaces his former minister in London, Holleben, who had worked closely with the Russians against Hay, with someone less supportive of Russia. Hay is now able to concentrate all his effort on negotiations with and against Cassini, the Russian minister. Russia seems to be poised, regardless, to roll over China, and thus to roll over Hay. The Russian inertia that Adams had observed earlier begins to have an effect on the stability of the world. Adams wonders, "what and where the vis nova that could hold it's own before this prodigious ices-cap of inertia? What was...