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I'm working on a 'moderate' expansion of the US, with the POD being the French-American quasi-war becoming a full-on war, and the US steadily gaining more territory over time, and incorporating the Groß-Deutschland timeline as well. This is a rough sketch, and I'm looking for some help in making the timeline realistic and (reasonably) plausible.

The US gains French Guyana and the French islands off Canada; The War of 1812 still occurs, but the US is more successfull and gains the portion of Canada south of the St. Lawrence (part of Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and PEI). Simon Bolivar's Gran Colombia becomes a US Protectorate for a time, with US citizens and aid going there, helping this region become a stable western democracy in the mold of the US, but speaking Spanish, and leaving behind the instability of the Spanish Colonial Legacy.

The US buys Cuba in 1848, and annexes Yucatan, Rep. Rio Grande, 54°40'; (need help getting the US to 54°40')

The Mexican-American War sees the US capturing Sonora, Baja Cal, Durango, Sinaloa, and Chihuahua in a bitter war, where the Mexicans continue antagonizing until the US forces a peace on them.

The Civil War occurs, (not sure when), and Reconstruction is somewhat milder on the south; Johnson is not Pres, but a French-American from the Quebec region taken in 1812. After the war concludes, France's meddling in Mexico brings the newly restored US into war with Mexico again, seeing the US to expel the French by force, and taking more territory (Colima, Jalisco, Zacatecas, San Luis Potisi, Aguascalientes, Queretaro, Guanajato, Tabasco).

Seeing France's expulsion, Prussia seeks ties with America, and the UK to isolate France. France seeks Russian alliance.

Dominican Republic requests annexation for stability as in OTL, and becomes a US Territory. Austria-Hungary collapses in this timeline due to racial strife, Czechia joins the German Empire, and after the 1871 Franco-Prussian War, so does Austria down to Modrus-Fiume, creating the Groß-deutsches Reich. This Germany allows limits to its navy to appease the British, but still seeks colonies; Kaiser Frederich III rules for 10 years before Wilhelm II (not a breech birth) ruled as a stable, moderate reformer.

The Spanish-American war brings Puerto Rico, the Phillippines, and Guam into the US territory. WW1 brings the UK, Germany, Hungary, and Italy into conflict with France, Russia, Spain, and the Ottoman Empire, dragging the whole continent into war from 1912 to 1917. President Teddy Roosevelt in the US doesn't bring the US in just yet, more concerned with Mexico and the United States of Colombia, the US chief trading partner in South America, which is fighting its own troubles. The US finally enters with the bombing of the Lusitania in October 8, 1914 by France.

The war continues till 1917 with the end of the French Monarchy under Napoleon V; France accepts the harsh peace of the Treaty of Versailles, ceding permanently Alsace-Lorraine to Germany, paying huge war reparations, and demilitarizing the Lorraine region next to Germany, who bore the brunt of the war trauma. France's colonies are divided between the US, UK, and Germany. Spain and Portugal, being nominal allies of France, lose their Atlantic and African islands to the US, which seeks military bases for refueling. Greece is given Constaninople and the Aegean facing provinces of the Asia Minor area. Britain gets Mesopotamia, Germany gets Syria, and they jointly administer Palestine.

In Europe, the next Kaiser, Franz Joseph I, who lost both sons in WW1, has the Reichstag pass a law allowing female succession as the Kaiser/in. Germany rebuilds and experiences a boom like most of the west. German and British colonies experience a build-up bringing the standard of living in Africa up to roughly the low-end of American existence at the same time, though not to European standards yet (they get electricity, industry, paved roads, and working sewage and water treatment). Russia, like France, had a communist revolution. The French communists however, failed, and a weak republic was set up.

A young speaker, Charles de Gaulle, began drawing people to his political party, and began agitating for a return of the Monarchy under a strong, active ruler who could unite the divided French and bring back the glory of French history, going back to Charlemagne and Louis XIV.

Suffice it to say, the second world war occurs as well, but with Germany being the aggrieved party, and France the aggressor. FDR still has 2 terms, but his 3rd is stopped by TR Jr, and the high-level French sympathizers in his administration. TR wins, and begins peace-time build-up and giving supplies to the UK and Germany, until he can find a causus belli to enter the war. Pearl Harbor brings that cause, drawing the US into war in 1941. Italy surrenders in 1943 when the gov't in Exile signs a treaty to give them Carthage and Corsica with the US for aiding the US in the war. Germany balks, but the US agrees.

The Axis (France, Turkey, Japan) and formerly Russia/Italy, lose to the Allies by 1946. France cedes Lorraine and Belfort to Germany, Savoy/Nice to Italy (again), and Sommes and a bit of Ardennes to Belgium, which is shifted southward to allow for the Netherlands to get the Flemish region, as the prevailing thought is for linguistic/ethnic unity to prevent a third war. Polish citizens in Germany are also expelled, as the Poles fought eagerly for Russia in promise of an expanded homeland out of German territory. Germany gains a little more land on the east as well. Greece is given a greater portion of Turkey, and Armenia gains as well in reparation for the Armenian genocide of 1929-1931.

Poland still holds the eastern border of OTL's second Polish Republic, but is split east/west with the Soviets staging a coup.


As I said before, this is a very rough timeline, and I'm looking for ideas on how to make this timeline work.
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