Map is ATL 1908; POD is 1847.
A more successful 1848 due to different events in the Sonderbund War; butterflies and chaos ensue. Germany and Italy unite earlier, Austrian Empire collapses. Without a Franco-Prussian War, and following the return of the Republic following Napoleon III's assassination in 1855 Germany and France enjoy very cordial relations. Switzerland is smaller, Tyrol is only the Hapsburg kingdom left. The Ottomans lose some of their Balkan holdings but not all of them as in OTL; on the other hand Italy has taken Tunis and Tripoli, Britain holds Libya and Egypt, and France has Algeria and Morocco. As well though they are nominally apart of the Ottoman Empire, the House of Rasheed has united most of the Arab lands under their control; the House of Saud is still a significant threat for the Rasheed.
African colonialism happens very differently, with France and Britain unable to work out their differences, but the British have difficulties juggling colonial ambitions while maintaining a naval presence that could defeat both France and Germany in a stand up fight. Germany and Italy still get into the colonial game later than the other powers, but while Italy focuses on home and 'historical territories' Germany looks far abroad, taking the Kongo and Somalia in addition to OTL's Togo. Ethiopia becomes a French protectorate as part of their big to create a West-East axis of control across the Sahel to control the previously established trans-Sahel and trans-Saharan trade routes. Britain does better than IOTL on the East Africa coast, though the Boer Republics are still a burr in her side.
The Crimean War is butterflied away, though Russia and the Ottomans do get into a fight, but only after the Russians have to suffer through a Franco-German backed Polish uprising that creates a successful Polish state (which later federates with ATL's Czecho-Slovakia to form the Slavic Commonwealth, which largely acts as buffer between Russia and Germany). When the big Russian-Ottoman war comes the Franco-Germans back the Ottomans and are wildly successful in breaking the back of Russia and setting up puppet states (Belorussia, Malorussia & the Baltic Duchy), while Finland and the Viceroyalty of the Caucasus break away. Japan takes the Amur. The resulting socio-economic chaos lead to the Tsars being overthrown and eventually the Republic of Grand Russia is proclaimed.
In North America decreased European (especially German & Italian), and therefore lack of cheap labor for rapid industrialization, leads to the South maintaining its stranglehold on the halls of governance. Butterflies in Europe change Spain position vis-à-vis Cuba, and the US purchases it in 1854 and rapidly becomes a slave-state, upsetting the balance of power even further. With things stacked their way the southerns in the Senate carve large territories into a few Western states to maintain their hold on power in the Senate, as well as carving three new southern states out of the Oklahoma and Arizona territories, and allowing slavery into the Indian territory. They even go as far as engineering the US purchasing/capturing other Caribbean islands after the successful assimilation of Cuba. European emigration picks up again ~1870 following the Polish Uprising, mostly Russians and various Eastern Europeans, a trend that picks up again ~1880 following the Russian-Ottoman war and the collapse of Russia. Embittered Northerners; abolitionists, industrialists, Republicans (big 'R'), as well as industrial-socialists, and the increasing numbers of European emigrates, combine with Mid-West populists, christian-democrats, and agrarian-socialists finally lash out - seceding in early 1906. The war is short but brutal, and largely results in the North and Mid-West successful breaking away to form their own American Federal Republic. The Western and Pacific states declared their neutrality during the conflict, and while they are still nominally apart of United States they are
de facto independent. The new nation is the most 'socialist' capitalist nation extant due to the highly important role of the urban and rural socialists during the revolt.
The Belgian leadership, great and small, are largely and historically paranoid about the all-too cozy relations ATL between France and Germany on either side, both of whom have irredentist nationalist aims to invade and divide the country (German and Dutch-speaking Belgians deserve to properly be in the German Reich, and visa-versa for the French Walloons). Starting rapidly after German Unification, and increasingly so after the Franco-German entente after Napoleon III's assassination, leads the to state taxing the populace more and more to pay for increasingly large and redundant defensive lines and fortresses surrounding and criss-crossing the country to defend against the 'inevitable' Franco-German invasion. As well the monarchy cracks down hard on dissidents, especially on striking workers in the industrial Flemish-south. Perhaps most importantly, the stifling and archaic suffrage and voting system used in the country at the time leaves much of the populace without officially recognized means of complaint and improvement of their own nation. After nearly 60 years or boiling on the burner, Belgium finally explodes in social revolution, experiencing a bottom-up communist revolt that quickly takes over the offices of government, the industrial capacities, and most importantly the extensive defensive measures of the county in the midst of the American Civil War. By the dawn of 1908 a Marxist-Communist (as opposed to the AFR's rather soft-handed populist-socialist) regime is rooted deep in the heart of Western Europe, bunkered deep within the most heavily fortified piece of territory upon the planet.
No changes to South America or Australasia due to author ignorance.
