Grey Wolf
Donor
CREATING A WORLD
My dream had a world by 1930 where Britain had been defeated by France in a world war in the 1910s, with London firebombed and new slums built, intended to be quality housing for those who had lost theirs, but with no ongoing money or support.
I'm looking for ways to create the world I want here, where the end is that Second Empire France, allied to Spain and Italy, defeats Great Britain in the early 1910s, with its airships and aircraft devastating London.
I'm going as POD for no Ems Telegram (give Bismarck flu or a bad stomach or something) so that the 1870 crisis fizzles out. No Franco-Prussian War, but the German candidacy for the Spanish throne has been withdrawn. As per OTL, the Italian candidacy goes ahead, and is here supported by large scale French intervention, stabilising a neighbour always being a useful excuse. We can see another Spanish civil war, if we like, with the Alphonsists perhaps receiving aid from Britain, but Amadeo wins and unites Spain. Quite possibly during this period we might see the Cuban revolution take a different course, with the USA or Britain intervening, maybe in Alphonso's name, but after Amedeo has won, Cuba is not returned to Spain.
I'm thinking that France takes a stronger role in Egypt, and that we can see the Egyptian Crisis and the Russo-Turkish War occur at the same time here, with France and Russia backing each other. A virtual French protectorate over Egypt and a large Russian-client Bulgaria result, with Britain feeling snubbed by the outcome.
Balkan conflicts are inevitable now the Ottomans cannot get to the Western lands, whilst Italy and France look to Libya and Tunis, taking advantage of this secondary conflict to expand their domains, in agreement with each other. I would see Austria-Hungary in Bosnia-Herceogovina, and the Sanjak of Novi-Pazar, whilst the Greeks, Albanians, Montenegrins and Serbs scramble for the rest.
I'm thinking that whilst France certainly goes for Southern Vietnam, its ambitions further North are delayed, and Britain probably ends with a protectorate over Siam due to French forces and attention being focused in Spain and the Mediterranean.
Whilst the Ottomans will eventually lose the Balkans, other than Eastern Thrace, and North Africa, they keep Cyprus, Crete and the Dodecanese, and also the fact that during the period of their greatest reform they are not failing and collapsing may well allow them to strengthen their hold and modernise their country, over what is left - i.e. Anatolia, Crete, Cyprus, Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestina, Transjordania and the Hejaz.
France coming back to Indo-China later perhaps makes Cambodia and Vientiane (Laos) the border states between British and French influence, these kingdoms keeping their independence as barriers between the two blocks.
The death of Wilhelm I sees Frederick ascend as King of Prussia, and at the same time the N. German Confederacy is proclaimed as the federal North German Empire. The Southern German states have stabilised between the competing influences of Berlin, Vienna, and Paris; after all they were long-term independent and it was but a fleeting moment that this looked like it was not going to obtain long term.
I think it would make most sense for the showdown between France and Vietnam to come in the 1890s. Ironically this may well make China strronger and more stable before the war comes about, and thus the war longer and more difficult for France. The effect of this could be to make France less active in the later 1890s, thus perhaps seeing Britain expand from Nigeria over Niger, as France is not pushing there. France will of course be pushing towards Central Africa, and end up in control of the Soudan and thus Fashoda. Of course, France is therefore going to have to deal with the Mahdi or his equivalent.
The knock-on effect for Japan could be significant. Whilst Japan could move against a China weakened by their eventual defeat in the early/mid 1890s war against France, it might also find itself constrained by other powers all now rushing to get involved - Russia, USA, Britain, NGE, Austria, Italy etc.
I think we are also not getting a Belgian Congo. Bismarck is no real power broker by the later years. Also, the NGE whilst taking over some of Germany's ambitions of OTL, is not in as secure a place to push them all. Britain could well take over Tanganyika, rooting out the slave traders as an excuse, and advancing into the Eastern Congo. Zanzibar perhaps falls to the North Germans later. Similarly, in South West Africa, competing North German and British interests could see a split, with Britain taking lands up to Walvis Bay, and the North Germans the Northern lands?
With Britain pushing into these additional lands, it's quite possible Portugal gets its "rose coloured strip", occupying OTL the Rhodesias, whilst Britain from Tanganyika moves over Katanga. I can't really see these lands staying independent in any way.
If we assume we ended up with an American Cuba, then the USA has no cassus belli with Spain, and Spain keeps the Philippines and Northern Pacific islands.
The other thing I wanted to develop for this is the French development of airships, both from people like Santos-Dumont, but also from joint ventures with Wurttemburg's Count Zeppelin, as well as the early strong development of aircraft. Add in French world-leading submarines from the 1890s, and the Second Empire keeping a strong battleship force and when the war with Britain occurs in the 1910s, they are in a position to do what my dream had had them do.
My dream had a world by 1930 where Britain had been defeated by France in a world war in the 1910s, with London firebombed and new slums built, intended to be quality housing for those who had lost theirs, but with no ongoing money or support.
I'm looking for ways to create the world I want here, where the end is that Second Empire France, allied to Spain and Italy, defeats Great Britain in the early 1910s, with its airships and aircraft devastating London.
I'm going as POD for no Ems Telegram (give Bismarck flu or a bad stomach or something) so that the 1870 crisis fizzles out. No Franco-Prussian War, but the German candidacy for the Spanish throne has been withdrawn. As per OTL, the Italian candidacy goes ahead, and is here supported by large scale French intervention, stabilising a neighbour always being a useful excuse. We can see another Spanish civil war, if we like, with the Alphonsists perhaps receiving aid from Britain, but Amadeo wins and unites Spain. Quite possibly during this period we might see the Cuban revolution take a different course, with the USA or Britain intervening, maybe in Alphonso's name, but after Amedeo has won, Cuba is not returned to Spain.
I'm thinking that France takes a stronger role in Egypt, and that we can see the Egyptian Crisis and the Russo-Turkish War occur at the same time here, with France and Russia backing each other. A virtual French protectorate over Egypt and a large Russian-client Bulgaria result, with Britain feeling snubbed by the outcome.
Balkan conflicts are inevitable now the Ottomans cannot get to the Western lands, whilst Italy and France look to Libya and Tunis, taking advantage of this secondary conflict to expand their domains, in agreement with each other. I would see Austria-Hungary in Bosnia-Herceogovina, and the Sanjak of Novi-Pazar, whilst the Greeks, Albanians, Montenegrins and Serbs scramble for the rest.
I'm thinking that whilst France certainly goes for Southern Vietnam, its ambitions further North are delayed, and Britain probably ends with a protectorate over Siam due to French forces and attention being focused in Spain and the Mediterranean.
Whilst the Ottomans will eventually lose the Balkans, other than Eastern Thrace, and North Africa, they keep Cyprus, Crete and the Dodecanese, and also the fact that during the period of their greatest reform they are not failing and collapsing may well allow them to strengthen their hold and modernise their country, over what is left - i.e. Anatolia, Crete, Cyprus, Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestina, Transjordania and the Hejaz.
France coming back to Indo-China later perhaps makes Cambodia and Vientiane (Laos) the border states between British and French influence, these kingdoms keeping their independence as barriers between the two blocks.
The death of Wilhelm I sees Frederick ascend as King of Prussia, and at the same time the N. German Confederacy is proclaimed as the federal North German Empire. The Southern German states have stabilised between the competing influences of Berlin, Vienna, and Paris; after all they were long-term independent and it was but a fleeting moment that this looked like it was not going to obtain long term.
I think it would make most sense for the showdown between France and Vietnam to come in the 1890s. Ironically this may well make China strronger and more stable before the war comes about, and thus the war longer and more difficult for France. The effect of this could be to make France less active in the later 1890s, thus perhaps seeing Britain expand from Nigeria over Niger, as France is not pushing there. France will of course be pushing towards Central Africa, and end up in control of the Soudan and thus Fashoda. Of course, France is therefore going to have to deal with the Mahdi or his equivalent.
The knock-on effect for Japan could be significant. Whilst Japan could move against a China weakened by their eventual defeat in the early/mid 1890s war against France, it might also find itself constrained by other powers all now rushing to get involved - Russia, USA, Britain, NGE, Austria, Italy etc.
I think we are also not getting a Belgian Congo. Bismarck is no real power broker by the later years. Also, the NGE whilst taking over some of Germany's ambitions of OTL, is not in as secure a place to push them all. Britain could well take over Tanganyika, rooting out the slave traders as an excuse, and advancing into the Eastern Congo. Zanzibar perhaps falls to the North Germans later. Similarly, in South West Africa, competing North German and British interests could see a split, with Britain taking lands up to Walvis Bay, and the North Germans the Northern lands?
With Britain pushing into these additional lands, it's quite possible Portugal gets its "rose coloured strip", occupying OTL the Rhodesias, whilst Britain from Tanganyika moves over Katanga. I can't really see these lands staying independent in any way.
If we assume we ended up with an American Cuba, then the USA has no cassus belli with Spain, and Spain keeps the Philippines and Northern Pacific islands.
The other thing I wanted to develop for this is the French development of airships, both from people like Santos-Dumont, but also from joint ventures with Wurttemburg's Count Zeppelin, as well as the early strong development of aircraft. Add in French world-leading submarines from the 1890s, and the Second Empire keeping a strong battleship force and when the war with Britain occurs in the 1910s, they are in a position to do what my dream had had them do.
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