Admiral Matt
Gone Fishin'
Point of Divergence takes place in the mid-1840s. Minor changes make the army of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont slightly more prepared for war.
The King of Sardinia-Piedmont at the time was Carlo Alberto, one of the more liberal monarchs in Europe and an Italian patriot. In 1848 he agreed to a constitution and declared war on Austria in an attempt to drive them from the Peninsula. In this timeline fortunate weather, luck, and Austrian incompetence turn the resulting battle from a loss into an overwhelming Sardinian (though they're already calling it Italian) victory.
The rest of Europe is too busy dealing with its own revolutions to bother with Italy's. The Sardinian military supports a march of nationalist irregulars down the boot, and in most places are invited in. In 1850 the Kingdom of Italy officially comes into being. It has not had to cede Savoy or Nice to France, or wait on annexing Rome, and the southern third of the Tyrol (half what they have OTL) is already incorporated. Carlo Alberto I, King of Italy, dies in the first year of his reign.
Uninterested in garnering the goodwill of France, the Italians ignore the Crimean War. Instead the new king Victor Emmanuel II decides to take advantage of the distraction in Europe to build Italy a colonial empire to match that of France. In 1855 Italy goes to war with the Beylik of Tunis. Though suffering from a severely disorganized army - soldiers from one end of the country can usually not understand those from the other - the city is captured the next year. The interior will not really be pacified until a decade later.
A continent away, the Whig party makes a fair recovery before declining in the face of the upstart "Republicans." A Democrat is elected in 1860. The 1864 and 1868 elections are close and divisive and congress ends up assigning the presidency to compromise candidates. War breaks out with Spain in 1874 and leads to American annexation of Cuba and Puerto Rico.
In 1866, the Prussians and Austrians go to war over the leadership of Germany. As in OTL, Bismarck manages to get the Italians to help him. They manage to do better, as the army has had time to enact some reforms, and Italy is in general much stronger (it already has Venice and Rome). The result of the war is the same, except that Italy's spoils are Istria and the Dalmatia - Austria's entire coastline. This is significant for a number of reasons, but one of the most important is this: Italy's only remaining claims are on what is currently French soil.
The Spanish succession doesn't come up in time to spark the Franco-Prussian War, but Bismarck wants one, so he finds an excuse. In 1878 Prussia and its ally Italy are at war with France. The war is notably less disastrous for France in its early stages, but a grinding series of battles takes the Prussians to Paris and the Italians to Marseilles. The war is over, Paris Commune aside. Germany is officially recognized in Versailles. Italy is given Algeria along with Corsica, and revanche is not just a German problem.
In the long years of peace, Italy becomes much more closely entangled in the alliance system. Italy comes to rely on its mutual defensive pact with Germany and Austria-Hungary, especially as, unlike Germany, it would probably lose to France in a straight fight. The Central Powers show a united Front to the world. France and Russia set up a strong alliance and Franco-British relations gradually improve.
In the 1880s Africa and the Pacific are divided up. Italy gets its OTL holdings in Eritrea and Somalia, but doesn't botch the establishment of a protectorate over Ethiopia. They also get a few piddling islands in the Pacific. In the first decade of the 1900s the Central Powers unnerve everyone. Austria-Hungary annexes Bosnia and turns Novi Pazar over to Montenegro to form a bulwark against Serbia. Italy attacks the Ottomans and siezes Libya (but not the Dodecanese). Both Germany and Italy protest increased French involvement in Morocco (it's independence had been guaranteed since 1880) and the Japanese annexation of the Philippines. Formation of the Entente in response to the percieved threat, though a blip is caused by the Russo-Japanese War. There is no Balkan War, Ottomans retain a large European foothold.
In 1903 the United States outlaws slavery, though in practice it had been largely eliminated decades before. South Carolina and Texas secede from the Union. No one cares.
In 1919 what quickly becomes known as the Great War breaks out over the French imposition of a proctectorate over Morocco. Initially it involves Britain, France, Russia on one side and Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary on the other. Romania and Turkey will side with the Central Powers, Belgium, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Greece, Portugal, and Japan with the Entente. The President of the United States waffles on what to do till the war is over, deciding only to buy Alaska from Russia.
The Ottomans quickly discover they are in desperate need of military reform. They are defeated by Russia and only saved in Europe by the intervention of the Austro-Hungarians. The Germans hold more of France by virtue of Italian involvement, but Italy itself can't get much across the French border. Early in 1920 the Germans sally their entire fleet against the British and are amazingly lucky when the Brits send out only 11 ships to face them (this happened OTL, but the Germans didn't realize their opportunity). The result is a sudden shift in naval power, drastically slowing deployment of British forces to France.
Russia is forced out in 1921, and the French follow early the next year. Germany annexes Latvia, Estonia, Luxembourg, the Belgian Congo, Angola, and the remains of French Lorraine. Austria-Hungary takes Bessarabia and Poland. Lithuania (including a big chuck of Belarusia), Finland, the Netherlands, and Belgium are set up as puppet states of Germany. Italy wins Egypt, Malta, as well as French and British Somaliland. The Ottomans are the big losers, despite overrunning Bulgaria, Greece, and the Caucasus they recieve only Aden and Cyprus. Radical politics quickly overpower reasoned discourse in Istanbul. Morocco retains its independence.
Algeria and Tunisia are by now as Italian as Sicily or Dalmatia, at least officially. Libya and Ethiopia are being gradually filled with naturalized-citizen locals and European immigrants.
Russia oscillates between moderate, yet incompetent socialisms until a strongman takes power in 1937. It should go without mentioning that this is bad for the Jews. In 1938 the Ottoman Empire, it's military freshly renovated, invades Persia and Oman. By 1942, Russia is demanding return of the Belarusian portions of Lithuania and the Germans agree to buy time for rearmament. The new war breaks out in 1943 as Russia and Turkey declare war on the Central Powers.
Romania quickly comes in on the side of the Russians, but most countries given the choice go the other way. Britain and Japan go to war with Russia and Turkey in 1944. Sweeping tank battles in Hungary and Poland go horribly wrong for the Central Powers. Berlin is encircled in late 1945. France declares war on Germany in less than a week. Sudden German collapse. Italy fights a grinding retreat through the mountains of southern Germany and the Balkans.
The relatively quick successes of the hostile powers come to an end as Britain and Italy remain free and quite willing to donate large quantities of high explosive as airfreight. Rather ruthless tactics turn world opinion against them, and finally in June 1946 the United States declare war on the Petrograd Pact, as it has become known. Combined with the first use of the British nuclear bomb in 1948, the war is a foregone conclusion.
After the United States, and perhaps Japan, Italy benefits the most from the ensuing war, gaining French West Africa, Cyprus, Palestine, and Syria. The USA become the dominant world power, prevented only by decentralization from truly ruling it, and gets French Guyana besides. Japan wins for itself Sakhalin, Indochina, and Siberia south of the Amur River. Germany gets French Equatorial Africa, and Britain Madagascar. Russia and Turkey are stripped to their ethnic constituents (pretty much like OTL borders, actually).
The first Italian nuclear weapon is exploded in the Sahara in 1953.
And we go from there, eh?
The King of Sardinia-Piedmont at the time was Carlo Alberto, one of the more liberal monarchs in Europe and an Italian patriot. In 1848 he agreed to a constitution and declared war on Austria in an attempt to drive them from the Peninsula. In this timeline fortunate weather, luck, and Austrian incompetence turn the resulting battle from a loss into an overwhelming Sardinian (though they're already calling it Italian) victory.
The rest of Europe is too busy dealing with its own revolutions to bother with Italy's. The Sardinian military supports a march of nationalist irregulars down the boot, and in most places are invited in. In 1850 the Kingdom of Italy officially comes into being. It has not had to cede Savoy or Nice to France, or wait on annexing Rome, and the southern third of the Tyrol (half what they have OTL) is already incorporated. Carlo Alberto I, King of Italy, dies in the first year of his reign.
Uninterested in garnering the goodwill of France, the Italians ignore the Crimean War. Instead the new king Victor Emmanuel II decides to take advantage of the distraction in Europe to build Italy a colonial empire to match that of France. In 1855 Italy goes to war with the Beylik of Tunis. Though suffering from a severely disorganized army - soldiers from one end of the country can usually not understand those from the other - the city is captured the next year. The interior will not really be pacified until a decade later.
A continent away, the Whig party makes a fair recovery before declining in the face of the upstart "Republicans." A Democrat is elected in 1860. The 1864 and 1868 elections are close and divisive and congress ends up assigning the presidency to compromise candidates. War breaks out with Spain in 1874 and leads to American annexation of Cuba and Puerto Rico.
In 1866, the Prussians and Austrians go to war over the leadership of Germany. As in OTL, Bismarck manages to get the Italians to help him. They manage to do better, as the army has had time to enact some reforms, and Italy is in general much stronger (it already has Venice and Rome). The result of the war is the same, except that Italy's spoils are Istria and the Dalmatia - Austria's entire coastline. This is significant for a number of reasons, but one of the most important is this: Italy's only remaining claims are on what is currently French soil.
The Spanish succession doesn't come up in time to spark the Franco-Prussian War, but Bismarck wants one, so he finds an excuse. In 1878 Prussia and its ally Italy are at war with France. The war is notably less disastrous for France in its early stages, but a grinding series of battles takes the Prussians to Paris and the Italians to Marseilles. The war is over, Paris Commune aside. Germany is officially recognized in Versailles. Italy is given Algeria along with Corsica, and revanche is not just a German problem.
In the long years of peace, Italy becomes much more closely entangled in the alliance system. Italy comes to rely on its mutual defensive pact with Germany and Austria-Hungary, especially as, unlike Germany, it would probably lose to France in a straight fight. The Central Powers show a united Front to the world. France and Russia set up a strong alliance and Franco-British relations gradually improve.
In the 1880s Africa and the Pacific are divided up. Italy gets its OTL holdings in Eritrea and Somalia, but doesn't botch the establishment of a protectorate over Ethiopia. They also get a few piddling islands in the Pacific. In the first decade of the 1900s the Central Powers unnerve everyone. Austria-Hungary annexes Bosnia and turns Novi Pazar over to Montenegro to form a bulwark against Serbia. Italy attacks the Ottomans and siezes Libya (but not the Dodecanese). Both Germany and Italy protest increased French involvement in Morocco (it's independence had been guaranteed since 1880) and the Japanese annexation of the Philippines. Formation of the Entente in response to the percieved threat, though a blip is caused by the Russo-Japanese War. There is no Balkan War, Ottomans retain a large European foothold.
In 1903 the United States outlaws slavery, though in practice it had been largely eliminated decades before. South Carolina and Texas secede from the Union. No one cares.
In 1919 what quickly becomes known as the Great War breaks out over the French imposition of a proctectorate over Morocco. Initially it involves Britain, France, Russia on one side and Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary on the other. Romania and Turkey will side with the Central Powers, Belgium, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Greece, Portugal, and Japan with the Entente. The President of the United States waffles on what to do till the war is over, deciding only to buy Alaska from Russia.
The Ottomans quickly discover they are in desperate need of military reform. They are defeated by Russia and only saved in Europe by the intervention of the Austro-Hungarians. The Germans hold more of France by virtue of Italian involvement, but Italy itself can't get much across the French border. Early in 1920 the Germans sally their entire fleet against the British and are amazingly lucky when the Brits send out only 11 ships to face them (this happened OTL, but the Germans didn't realize their opportunity). The result is a sudden shift in naval power, drastically slowing deployment of British forces to France.
Russia is forced out in 1921, and the French follow early the next year. Germany annexes Latvia, Estonia, Luxembourg, the Belgian Congo, Angola, and the remains of French Lorraine. Austria-Hungary takes Bessarabia and Poland. Lithuania (including a big chuck of Belarusia), Finland, the Netherlands, and Belgium are set up as puppet states of Germany. Italy wins Egypt, Malta, as well as French and British Somaliland. The Ottomans are the big losers, despite overrunning Bulgaria, Greece, and the Caucasus they recieve only Aden and Cyprus. Radical politics quickly overpower reasoned discourse in Istanbul. Morocco retains its independence.
Algeria and Tunisia are by now as Italian as Sicily or Dalmatia, at least officially. Libya and Ethiopia are being gradually filled with naturalized-citizen locals and European immigrants.
Russia oscillates between moderate, yet incompetent socialisms until a strongman takes power in 1937. It should go without mentioning that this is bad for the Jews. In 1938 the Ottoman Empire, it's military freshly renovated, invades Persia and Oman. By 1942, Russia is demanding return of the Belarusian portions of Lithuania and the Germans agree to buy time for rearmament. The new war breaks out in 1943 as Russia and Turkey declare war on the Central Powers.
Romania quickly comes in on the side of the Russians, but most countries given the choice go the other way. Britain and Japan go to war with Russia and Turkey in 1944. Sweeping tank battles in Hungary and Poland go horribly wrong for the Central Powers. Berlin is encircled in late 1945. France declares war on Germany in less than a week. Sudden German collapse. Italy fights a grinding retreat through the mountains of southern Germany and the Balkans.
The relatively quick successes of the hostile powers come to an end as Britain and Italy remain free and quite willing to donate large quantities of high explosive as airfreight. Rather ruthless tactics turn world opinion against them, and finally in June 1946 the United States declare war on the Petrograd Pact, as it has become known. Combined with the first use of the British nuclear bomb in 1948, the war is a foregone conclusion.
After the United States, and perhaps Japan, Italy benefits the most from the ensuing war, gaining French West Africa, Cyprus, Palestine, and Syria. The USA become the dominant world power, prevented only by decentralization from truly ruling it, and gets French Guyana besides. Japan wins for itself Sakhalin, Indochina, and Siberia south of the Amur River. Germany gets French Equatorial Africa, and Britain Madagascar. Russia and Turkey are stripped to their ethnic constituents (pretty much like OTL borders, actually).
The first Italian nuclear weapon is exploded in the Sahara in 1953.
And we go from there, eh?