AHC: WWI & WW2 Never Happen

[Finbarr the Fair]

Another question I have if I were to theoretically write a timeline or a novel set in this timeline how do you make it exciting?
I mean there's a reason so much alternate history is about war and warfare. what if a war happened differently or what if a War lasted longer or what if the war was waged against aliens instead of people.

How do you make a story about a war never happening interesting?

Peaceful progress sounds boring in the abstract. Maybe some vignettes of how people reviled OTL stay useful members of society. Lives of some famous people killed in the Great War.

Or a detective novel that can explore the alternate world. And feature someone surprising as the sleuth.

Then again, a few colonial conflicts can be thrown in.

 

[Garrison]

Another question I have if I were to theoretically write a timeline or a novel set in this timeline how do you make it exciting?
I mean there's a reason so much alternate history is about war and warfare. what if a war happened differently or what if a War lasted longer or what if the war was waged against aliens instead of people.

How do you make a story about a war never happening interesting?

Well there isn't going to be zero conflict in such a world, indeed in some areas it might be worse, a Britain that hasn't suffered the economic, political and social consequences of the two world wars may not be willing to simply surrender the empire. Female and racial equality are likely to be far less advanced, anti-Semitism will still be accepted and social stratification will probably be higher, all of which could lead to long term unrest. An ATL without the World Wars doesn't have to automatically mean the equivalent of the post war world is better than OTL.

 

[Gancio The Ranter]

Another question I have if I were to theoretically write a timeline or a novel set in this timeline how do you make it exciting?
I mean there's a reason so much alternate history is about war and warfare. what if a war happened differently or what if a War lasted longer or what if the war was waged against aliens instead of people.

How do you make a story about a war never happening interesting?

There are many things that could create conflict, even if in a more nuanced fashion
One of the first examples that come to mind is eugenics, IMO that is one of the things that would certainly be part of this alternate world. Certain countries even IOTL maintained eugenic laws up until the 70s, and before the wars the US was definetely most "advanced' in this field.
If you wanna focus on the struggle between countries there are many elements that parallel our world, such as largely non ideological conflicts and indirect conflicts between great powers. Espionage might live kind of a golden age.

 

[ShortsBelfast]

Another question I have if I were to theoretically write a timeline or a novel set in this timeline how do you make it exciting?
I mean there's a reason so much alternate history is about war and warfare. what if a war happened differently or what if a War lasted longer or what if the war was waged against aliens instead of people.

How do you make a story about a war never happening interesting?

Well, as pointed out above, every spy thriller has to do just that.

Lets imagine a world where WW1 doesn't happen after Sarajevo due to a stronger China making Russia more reluctant to back Serbia along with France being more reluctant to back Russia (Britain is only allied with them, not with Russia as well and isn't keen on losing Hong Kong and Weihawei and they themselves don't want to risk Indochina) while Germany is also more measured in her support for Austria as her diplomats sense a lack of British enthusiasm that was absent OTL (OTL the Germans could see that Grey was taking a heavily pro-French and anti-German stance and calculated there was no point in making any concessions to British opinion to keep her neutral). This doesn't mean a century of glorious peace, there will be a few small wars. Sometime in the early teens there will be another Balkan war between Serbia and Bulgaria and whoever else gets drawn in. At the end of the teens/early twenties the Young Turks will finally go too far with the massacres of Armenians and Assyrians and generally outrage European and US opinion and the Ottoman Empire will be broken up into smaller states within spheres of influence of the Great Powers - Bulgaria gets Adrianople, Greece Constantinople and the rest of Turkish Thrace plus a few more islands. Armenian Kingdom under Russian influence, Kurdistan under Anglo-French influence. Kingdom of Syria (includes OTL central Iraq and Baghdad) under Anglo-French spheres of influence) Christian areas of Lebanon under French rule, British Palestine, Italian Smyrna. Rump Turkey under German influence, Arabia without Saudi centralisation -a number of smaller states each with a Great Power patron.

Now scene 1945, Greek Constantinople (Athens is still the capital as less military vulnerable but Constantinople is the biggest trading port). Greece and Armenia (backed by Russia) are squaring up to Turkey (backed by Germany and Italy) Syria is trying to stay neutral as she has nothing to gain (encouraged by Britain and France) and Kurdistan is thinking of jumping in to get minor territorial gains (discouraged by Britain and France, encouraged by Russia and Armenia). Some new faces in town - General Moravec of the United Hapsburg Realms sends his agent Dusko Popov (Austrian Federation is allied to Bulgaria), British Naval Intelligence's Admiral Godfrey sends Commander Ian Fleming while the German Abwehr sends Uwe van der Osten (and a shady businessman called Oscar Schindler). Tension develops as the sensible moderating influences of Tsar Boris of Bulgaria and Russian Foreign Minister Milyukov are removed by death....

 

[M79]

-Franz Josef dies in an accident while hunting in 1913

-Black Hand is not able to assassinate him and Charles IV takes over, begins plan to create 'United States of Austria'.

-Angola and Mozambique split between UK and Germany at a line due east from the south of Sumbe and the Zambezi River, respectively.

-Ottoman reforms continue and meet limited success, Balkan conflict re-emerges and becomes a proxy war between the Allies and CP via Greece and Serbia (Allies) with Bulgaria and Ottomans (C.P.)

-By 1919 the Fourth Balkan War ends with Greece and Serbia making only moderate gains as tensions remain and the railway to Baghdad opens to great fanfare and a pan-African railway network is proposed.

-To irritate the British and make strides with its own colonies, Germany begins to integrate its colonies as territories starting with Zanzibar.

-France and soon other powers begin integrating semi-automatic weapons into their armies along with aircraft in numbers and larger submersibles as the Danish Flu sees tens of millions die in Europe alone

-Mexico resolves the end of its civil war with US occupation of Baja, Sonora, and Chihuahua after the fourth 'central' government in six years falls while the US enters Prohibition in 1922

-US maintains peaceful isolationist stance but becomes more aggressive yet pro-labor as James Cox is elected President in 1920, pushing for a larger Navy to secure trade while keeping the army slightly larger than previous peacetime levels. Of all major governments only the US funds Armored Cannon Tractors as the Eisenhower Report details the state of roads (or lack thereof) in the US as of 1921

-Nicholas II sees Tsarevich Alexei married to Isabel of the Two Sicilies after a brief spat with the Orthodox Church and Italy's government (more for show than substance) and the two wed in 1923. A bicycle accident soon claims Alexei at age 22, but not before the young couple has four children, twin sons followed by another son and finally a daughter, the future Czarina Sophia, who leads Russia to triumph in the Global War

-Europe explores several new fields of industry and technology as the US slowly but steadily grows, especially after development of 'vote counting' tabulation machines and soon after primitive computers using European vacuum tubes. Americans soon learn to develop similar-quality and eventually superior ones themselves within a decade.

-Julius Lilenfield kick-starts the Electronic Age with the publication of a paper detailing the transistor in 1927

-German hobbyists work with American scientists to develop the LB-2 rocket capable of altitudes of over 20,000 feet, private funding is obtained in hopes of developing an intercontinental rapid-mail service

 

[Deleted member 103950]

-Julius Lilenfield kick-starts the Electronic Age with the publication of a paper detailing the transistor in 1927

I thought transistors weren't invented until after the 40's? Did the war delay their creation?

 

[Coulsdon Eagle]

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-To irritate the British and make strides with its own colonies, Germany begins to integrate its colonies as territories starting with Zanzibar.

Germany had already swapped Zanzibar for Helgoland with Britain in 1890.