This is a follow up
to these four posts. I was going to do this all at once, but that would have taken too long, so I'm going to do this region by region instead, but here's the situation in Europe in 1896 in this timeline.
The North German Uprising led to the rise of two independent states that were once part of the Holy Roman Empire: the North German Confederation, with its twin capitals in Berlin and Cologne; and the Republic of Saxony. Parts of the northern states of the HRE with a Sorbian majority instead formed the Republic of Lusatia. Within two years, the Republic of Lusatia voted to join the Polish-Lithuanian Federation in a referendum and gained the Sorbian-majority parts of Silesia.
The Germanies are not the only area of Europe that has gained more countries – in Iberia for instance, Spain and Catalonia have both collapsed. Portugal’s sphere of influence in Iberia now includes Gibraltar, Asturias-Cantabria, Navarre, Aragon, and the remainder of Spain. These states are all kingdoms or duchies ruled by the House of Stuart and Braganza. The remaining Iberian states are Catalonia, Valencia, and the Balearic Islands.
The Terzi Dynasty is also losing land in Europe. Bosnia, Greece, and Wallachia are now independent, and Serbia and Rumelia are both mostly controlled by separatists. The Hellenic Republic of the Aegean also claims parts of Anatolia as its own, but that’s a matter of much dispute. Venice has already annexed Dalmatia and Montenegro and has been eyeing the now-autonomous region of Albania.
Which brings us to the Italies, where the reverse has been happening: instead of larger countries collapsing, there has been ongoing consolidation, specifically in the northeast – Savoy has absorbed every Italian state in the Holy Roman Empire, which just leaves Venice, the Sicilies, and the Papal States. The Veneto-Sicilian Alliance promises mutual aid in the event of a war with Savoy and resolves potential conflicts over the two countries’ territorial claims. The Papal States, worried about preserving their independence with Savoy, Venice, and Sicily all in a position to expand into their territory, have seized on a theocratic form of nationalism and vastly expanded the Papal Army.
Consolidation is going much more smoothly further east, where the Constanta Pact aims to bring the republics of Moldavia, Transylvania, and Wallachia closer together, with a trade agreement and a military alliance. The three states recognize that they have a common culture and ethnicity, but what that ethnicity is
called is a matter of debate: Moldavians say they’re Moldavian, Wallachians prefer the term Danubian, and Transylvanians lean towards Carpathian or Romanian. The more pressing matter of debate is whether the three countries should form a single independent state, a single republic of the Polish-Lithuanian Federation, or three closely linked republics of the Polish-Lithuanian Federation.
What is most certainly not going smoothly is the border situation in Hungary, which is best described with a chain of swear words from three or four language families: the Republic of Hungary is an independent state with Polish and Hapsburg influence, but also part of the Duchy of Hungary in the Holy Roman Empire despite only Upper Hungary being part of the Holy Roman Empire; meanwhile part of southwest Hungary is claimed and controlled by Serbian separatists and is officially an autonomous part of both Hungary and the Terzi Dynasty, despite Hungary and the Terzi Dynasty being separate states.
Back in the west, there are many reasons why relations between the Dutch Republic and the British Republic have quickly declined, and one of them is the Presidency of the British Low Countries: the fact that the President is elected democratically, doesn’t make the Dutch any happier about having no say in being ruled by Chancellor Alexander Nelson II. The brutal conditions in the factories built by the British, and the increased flooding brought on by industrialization and urbanization, have not helped matters. The Dutch Republic wants the rest of its land back, and it wants its people to have their rights back, and one way or another a war is coming.
France is also getting ready for war. The monarchy has allied with the fascists and is building up the military. They have lots of conflicts that can be used to justify a war once they’re ready, including wanting revenge for the War of the Turkish Succession and regaining control of Iberia, the Low Countries, Corsica, and Sardinia. The question they find themselves faced with now is who should they go to war with first: they can’t fight Portugal, Britain, and the Holy Roman Empire all at once, but maybe they can make an alliance with the HRE and fight the Luso-British Alliance - or the other way around.
Meanwhile, the Polish-Lithuanian Federation has more problems than relations with the Holy Roman Empire being back to their normal state: Russia and Sweden have officially signed an alliance, and the demilitarized zone in Russia is no more. Because of this the Federalist Party, which had shot itself in the foot two decades earlier by overreaching and abusing its power, is winning elections again by calling for improving the military even more and building up the territories bordering Russia.
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The only reason I'm not making a full timeline out of this is that I haven't thought it out enough yet and it's really just the late 19th and early 20th century that I have ideas for, which is a couple of centuries after the POD. I'm thinking I'll do the Middle East and Libya (which still means North Africa at this point ATL) next.
Thoughts?