You'll need a few PODs for all of this
LowLevelFunctionary said:
Britain would also not have to promise independence to India (in return for not rebelling)
This is going to be a rather unrealistic TL but hey...it's all good fun...
To retain India, you're going to have to avoid the Indian Mutiny. This conflict irreparably crippled Anglo-Indian relations.
Without the Mutiny, India is seen as a far more placid and easily governed society and the hand of the East India Company is far lighter (in this TL, the EIC would remain in charge of India until the late 19th C). It's probably less developed by the end of the 19th C, but it's people have grown to easily accept the benevolent dictatorship of Company rule. Many of the lower ranking Company posts have been taken on by educated Indians and they are slowly but surely making their way up the company ladder. One of the Directors of the Company is an Indian maharaja.
Meanwhile in Europe, Anglo-French relations deteriorate to the point where Britain begins to align itself with Germany while France makes overtures to Russia.
In June 1911, the Second Franco-Prussian War breaks out. Although Britain does not take part in the war, it adopts a position of friendly neutrality, using the might of the Royal Navy to ensure that German ports stay open and supplies can flow in.
Russia, daunted by the prospect of facing both Britain and Germany stays neutral too, concentrating on it's internal problems.
The Second Franco-Prussian War ends in August 1913 with the signing of the Treaty of Brandenburg between France and the German Empire. France cedes her territories in Indo-China to Germany and settles down to lick her wounds.
Britain, having made a tidy profit from the war, stands secure at this moment. Canada, Australia and New Zealand are prospering. In South Africa, the boers have been quelled for the moment and in India, the East India Company is preparing to hand over the reins of power to a government agency, the government of the Indian dominion. The Dominion of India is nowhere near the level of, say, Canada- it runs on representative democracy but only allows suffrage to males who are literate in one of the official languages of the Dominion.
The first Head of State is an Englishman, a Governor-General appointed in London to rule in Calcutta, as is the second but with this man's death, in 1930, for the first time ever, an Indian is appointed as Governor-General of the Dominion. A stable system arises with alternating muslims and hindus as Governors-General. The Indian Parliament is an often chaotic body but all in all it does a pretty good job of running the country. Slowly but surely, the government embarks on a process of industrialisation.
In 1950, financial reforms sweep the Empire. Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom all join a unified currency group, the Imperial Pound. India, South Africa and the various other entities that form the empire are given economic targets to meet before they can join the Imperial Currency Union.
In the same year, Queen Elizabeth II is given a new title to add to her already long list: Empress of South China. After China's disintegration into warlordism in the 1920's, Britain and Germany divided the country into two spheres of influence, Britain, South of the Yangtze and Germany, North of it. Both Power had accepted Japan's occupation of Korea, Taiwan and Manchuria. In 1950, with the crowning of Elizabeth (who had travelled to Nanjing for the coronation), the British sector officially became the Empire of South China and was governed by the crown. The first Viceroy was Sir Jagdish Singh, a Sikh official who had ben born in the Punjab but who had spent his life working in the British Administration in China.
Although this was a controversial appointment, with many of the more conservative elements of the British Government looking askance at it, the queen herself had made the choice.
War reared it's head again in March 1952 when Russia, eager to distract it's volatile masses with a war, declared war on the German Empire. Russian troops clashed with German forces along the Vistula. France, in support of her Russian Allies struck into the Rhineland. Both advances were swiftly halted by the German army but it was clear that with the vast manpower reserves at Russia's disposal the Eastern Front might not be able to hold.
On the 23rd of March 1952, Great Britain declared war on France and the Russian Empire. All the Dominions swiftly followed suit. Japan somewhat unexpectedly also declared war, although only on Russia, eager to advance further into Siberia.
In Asia, most of the fighting lay on the Siberian Front. Japanese troops, acting in conjunction with German and British/Dominion forces struck deep into Siberia.
Although there had been much speculation in the Indian press about a Russian advance through Central Asia, there was little action on this front, save for some skirmishing along the Afghan/Russian border.
In Europe, the Rhineland and Baltic Prussia were devastated by the fighting though slowly but surely, the French and Russians were being pushed back. As Allied troops flowed into Germany from Britain, Canada, South Africa and India (ANZAC troops being diverted mainly to the Asian theatre). The enemy armies began to crumble. As food stockpiles began to dwindle both in France and Russia, ominous rumblings of rebellion began to be voiced.
On May 18th 1954, the Russian government collapsed. A republic is proclaimed as the country dissolves into civil war between Royalists and Republicans. The Republican government sues for peace with Germany, ceding some territory in Eastern Europe and for peace with Japan, ceding Mongolia and parts of Siberia.
France too, asks for terms. The government that prosecuted the war is swept out of office that same year.
In January 1955, the leaders of Europe gather at the Congress of London, to attempt to direct and stabilise the 20th Century as the Congress of Berlin did in the 19th.
Germany still remains strong although pushed into debt and suffering from the loss of many young men in the Great War. It agrees to sell German East Africa to Great Britain.
The boundaries of the various European states are reconfirmed. France is left with a relatively light punishment. Russia, however, still locked in Civil War is unrepresented at the Council. To make matters worse, it appears that an ultranationalist Tsarist faction has gained the upper hand...
Shocked by the heavy casualties of the Great War, the major nations of the world decide to form an international forum based in London to attempt to arbitrate future disputes. The foiunding members of the United Nations are Great Britain, India, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Germany, France, Siam, The Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Italy, Greece, Austria and the Ottoman Empire. The United States opts to take observer status. It is unintrested in European affairs preferring to resume it's steady mission of advancing it's influence further and further into Latin America.
Fifty years later, in 2005, the Pax Britannia still holds strong. Britain and her Dominions are collectively the unopposed superpower of the world. Russia comes in second, although few details are known of the oppressive and theocratic land of the Tsars. Germany, Britain and Japan form the Triple Alliance devoted to containing the Russians. So far this strategy of encirclement has worked, both sides content merely to glare at each other across the heavily defended borders of Russia, sometimes launching a new form of satellite or by testing an even larger nuke.
Germany went through a liberalisation after the Great War and is now a consitutional monarchy. Japan, while still far behind the Western nations in terms of liberalisation is far more open than it used to be.
The United States has grown- in 2004, it announced that Costa Rica would be granted statehood as the fifty-eighth state. While it is not officially part of the Triple Alliance, the US government adopts a policy of friendly neutrality towards Britain, Germany and Japan and one of hostile neutrality towards Russia.
