AHC/WI: World War in 1880s or 90s...

Along the following lines:

France, Spain, Italy, Austria-Hungary, The Ottoman Empire, and allies (with Portugal either neutral or as a nominal or active ally...)

Vs.

Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and allies...

And go...
 
Along the following lines:

France, Spain, Italy, Austria-Hungary, The Ottoman Empire, and allies (with Portugal either neutral or as a nominal or active ally...)

Vs.

Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and allies...

And go...

I'm not sure your alliances would hold up. Austria-Hungary will be reluctant to team up with France. Italy, if it is smart, will stay neutral so early after its unification. Portugal would almost certainly maintain the Anglo-Portuguese alliance and stay firmly in the British camp; it isn't nearly strong enough at this time to maintain itself in a diplomatic shift like that.

Also, the USA almost certainly lacks the public support to go to war so soon after the whole Civil War thing. We were reluctant to go in 1917; I can't see anything happening almost forty years earlier.

Britain won't ally with Russia so soon after the Crimean War, either. There are still plenty of Russophobes in the British government in the 1880s.
 
If France and Austria are allied to each other, which of them is offering Italy enough concessions to gain it as another member of their side? Italy can side with France against Austria, or vice versa, but in this situation it's probably better off just staying neutral.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
Along the following lines:

France, Spain, Italy, Austria-Hungary, The Ottoman Empire, and allies (with Portugal either neutral or as a nominal or active ally...)

Vs.

Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and allies...

A war with this lineup will last a few months at most. The former powers will be thoroughly pummeled by the latter.
 
Also, if the Franco-Prussian War occurred on schedule, the 1880's seem a bit early for France to try again, especially without either Britain or Russia backing them. Oh, and asking the British to back the Russians over the Turks would be going against decades of foreign policy precedent, so that needs a long time to set up. All in all, I'd think that the European alliance system needs some time to adjust to the advent of German power, and a decade or two isn't enough time for a dust-up to occur.
 
A big AHC with the countries who have picked to be on the same side. Would be more easy with,

France, Russia, Ottoman Empire, Spain and Italy.
On the other side, British Empire, Germany, Austria-Hungary and maybe the US and Japan.
 
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