Imagine the following scenario: Emperor Norton takes a more serious approach to build his "empire" during his early life, he take a more populist approach and at the same time he try to stabilish ties with the british, this would be a "norton Who" scenario since this would need he to have a completely different personality
And then, during the american civil war the Trent afair crisis gets out of control and results in both great britain and France declaring war in the USA; at the same time Norton and his supporters stage a coup and seize the control of Sacramento
The challenge is: Using this scenario, have California to gain it's independence from the USA and to have Norton to keep his monarchy in power