AH Challenge: Early 20th Century "Cold War".

Been wanting to do this for a while, but now, here we are.

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to set up a "Cold War" type scenario at somepoint in the early 20th Century(by no later than 1919/20), preferably after a major war of some kind, with a POD prior to the year 1900, but also no earlier than, say, 1750(just for the purposes of this TL), and it can either last for only 20 years, or 50-60 years or more, or perhaps something in between. (And of course, it does not have to be Communism vs. Capitalism as in OTL, or even ideology based at all, really.)

The one major catch here is that nuclear weapons will still not be developed until later on in the 20th Century(up to you to decide exactly when). This "Cold War" can either end peacefully or with a nuclear exchange, or, especially if early enough, even in a conventional conflict. There are many possibilities out there and I would like to see what you guys come up with.
 
Hmm a Cold War implies proxy conflicts and hostile relations not open war.

Maybe with an earlier POD have say Russia and Britain be much stronger-Britain holds large areas across the world, and Russia holds directly or indirectly a large part of the Eurasian landmass. Both are too powerful to challenge one another directly but they do challenge each other indirectly.

The Russians support unrest in India and anti British governments in Europe, the British support indepedence movements in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

You could have an arms race factor in this as well as the British and Russians continually prepare for direct conflict, yet never engage in it. With new technologies, tactics, and techniques being developed to counter one another's strengths.

Sort of a proto Oceania vs Eurasia situation.
 
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