WORLD, 1950.
The world is at peace. Well, sorta. The Cold War has set in. Though the Western Allies achieved victory over France in 1945, Russia managed to destroy the French stronghold in Eastern Europe, and largely uncovered and ended the Slav Genocide. The French leader,
Chef d'état Philippe Petain, is captured while fleeing to Marseille. He and his subordinates are tried at Versailles, and executed. The people of France, clamoring for stability in a nation wracked by civil war, form two governments. One, in the north, centered at Paris, is the Kingdom of France, a constitutional monarchy. The French parliament decides to have a fresh new start with this fresh new monarchy; they choose, not a member of the traditional Bourbons, but a socially-progressive nobleman who fought against the Petain government as part of the armed french resistance. He is selected by the parliament to be the new head-of-state of a new France, and on January 9th, 1946, this man is inaugurated as
Charles XI, King of the French. The southern parts of France form a communist state, the People's Democratic Republic of France. The Soviets form several communist states in eastern Europe. The Republic of Turkey is carved up by the victorious powers, with their Kurdish region created as the Socialist Republic of Kurdistan. The Kingdom of the Hellenes gains Lydia from Turkey. A major dispute, which brings the recovering nations on the brink of another war, is the issue of Constantinople. The Turks demand that it stay as part of their nation, and the Greeks demand that it be returned to Grecian hands. The Allies create a compromise: neither get it. Constantinople and the surrounding region will be established as the
Federative Empire of Byzantium. The trouble with the allies as finding a suitable canditate to be the new Emperor, without giving any current nation an unbalanced advantage. So, the head of the former-French-Imperial house of Bonaparte,
Louis Jerome, was selected to be Emperor, and he converted to Eastern Orthodoxy. Louis Jerome was crowned by the Patriarch of Constantinople as
Victor I, Emperor of the Byzantines. Additionally, the Allies held true on their promise to establish Jewish and Arab homelands, and divided Palestine into two nations: the Kingdom of Israel, with
Baron Rothschild as King Victor I of Israel; and the Republic of Palestine. Jersusalem was made an International Free City, under UN administration. The Transjordan was made an independent monarchy under the Hashemites, and the same family contributed rulers to Babylon/Iraq. The Saudi family became complete rulers of a united Arabia, with the exception of Oman, which is part of the Empire of India, a British dominion which is still being prepared for total independence. In the near east, the Persian government still clashes with the socialist rebels in Bactria, and the Indians fight against the rebellious Afghani Social Republic.
Despite the relative peace in Europe, Asia is still wracked with war and strife. The People's Republic of China has annexed Tibet and Manchuria, whilst the Empire has pressed nationalist Chinese forces in the south to a stretch of coastline and Formosa. The bloody civil war in China continues, as the world watches warily. The United States and Russia are nuclear powers, having tested nuclear weapons during The War. The tensions between the Western and Eastern Allied Powers is great, and it almost seems like a war may break out at any time.
In north africa, the allies forced France to relinquish control over Libya and Algeria, and for Austria to free its colony of Tunis. Libya and Tunis united to form the Kingdom of Carthage, its name harkening back to antiquity for patriotism. Meanwhile, in the Pharoate of Egypt, tensions run high in the south as the corrupt
Pharoah Farouk I and his government totally mismanage the Sudan and Nubia, causing widespread famine and poverty. The military and
Prince Tewflik clamor for Farouk's abdication, and it seems a coup is just over the horizon.