After the untimely death of President Hobart in 1899, President Allison navigated a turbulent turn of the century as economic chaos reigned in Europe and damaged American industry. The emergence of the Populist/Social Democratic party fusion, and party schisms leading to an internal rebranding in early 1900 contributed to the defeat of Augustus Van Wyck and William Jennings Bryan in 1900 against war-hero George Dewey.
POD: pockets of Zoroastrian worship survive in Armenia until the early fall of the Eastern Roman Empire; a Zoroastrian Armenian with albinism takes over the remnants of the Byzantine army and carves an empire for himself in western Europe. A dynasty of inbred albinos ensues.
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson or better known as Al Johnson is the current 45th President of the United States, in office since January, 20 2017. Before running for president, he was a lawyer, historian, and a U.S senator from New Hampshire.
Johnson was born in New York City to wealthy upper-middle English parents. He studied American and European history at local universities and began a large interest in local politics. He decided to study journalism at the New York Times where he became a correspondent and wrote articles exerting a large influence on supporting NATFA and the United States Intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan. Inspired by President Bush's victory over the state, he eventually decided to officially enter politics by running for attorney general of New Hampshire. In order to crawl higher up the political ladder, he announced his run for New Hampshire senator to unseat former senator Judd Gregg.
Due to his long interest in politics and history, he entered the 2016 presidential election defeating eight opponents in the Republican primaries as a dark horse candidate. Many of his supporters viewed him as a entertaining and lighthearted figure while his opponents named him a corrupt, inexperienced, and elitist politician. After winning the nomination, he chose West Virginian senator David McKinley as his running mate. Eventually, he went on the defeat former Vice President Joe Biden in a close election.
He was described by many as a politically libertarian Republican due to his silence on repealing gay marriage and his relatively lax views on economic regulation. Despite this, many also descried him as a populist and nationalist due to his promises for a safer America and harsher immigration laws. Increased intervention against Islamic Terrorism and rouge states such as North Korea and Eritrea was seen throughout his administration. He lead multiple attempts to repeal the Obama stimulus programs, cutting corporate taxes, and lowering rent. However, he was a strong believer in climate change along with his vice president. His despite multiple criticisms from his opponents, his popularity is an estimated 42% approval.
Lilies & Lions, The Rulers of the Balkans* (Kinda) Having sailed far, far away from my comfortable Angevin monarchy, we arrive in the Balkans to take a closer, slightly-uncompleted (family trees are hard when no-one's real and the rules don't matter) look at the monarchs (again, giver or take some) of the Balkans. Plus a few extras who I wanted to throw in cos they're important!
So from left to right, we have John VIII, Roman Emperor, Stefan I of Serbia, Stephen Tvrtko II of Bosnia, Alexander I of Wallachia, Fruzhin I the Lion of Bulgaria (I love the name Fruzhin), John II of Cyprus and rounding out the selection, Louis III of Naples, whom lives far away. But he's got one of those pesky familial claims on Jerusalem AND he's pretty close with the guys running the crusade in the Levant.
As for the rest of our collection of good and decent Catholics, (Yes, say goodbye to orthodoxy in the southeast and hello to not being subjugated by the Ottoman Empire. Welcome to Papal subjugation. This won't lead to any religious tensions later at all.), they get more than they could've ever dreamed. A restored Roman Empire in the east, a more powerful Roman Empire to the north, the literal Romans to the west. It's a good thing that all of these bloodlines are completely solid.
Anyway, for the most part, these men are simply the contemporaries of the age. The leaders who fought, and even died, in the Grand Crusade of the 15th century. Their impacts still exist in the world today. Every child learns of John VIII and Louis III, but so few know of Tvrtko, and his courageous siege of Ereğli. Or of Alexander and his execution by the last of the Circassians at Ascalon.
I'm going to start by apologising for everything. I'm learning as I'm going. It's actually all quite fascinating, but a bit railroady and probably quite wrong. And as I said above, most of them are not fleshed out in their children as that's all still tentatively being considered. I'm writing myself into an incredibly convoluted web of marriages, but untangling it later will be fun, I hope.
Anyway, hope that people still enjoy seeing this stuff. I always have fun adding new stuff, even if it's not super exciting.
Stefan is accurate, since he isn't a King, but a Despot (and the title distinction is made for the Serbs). Фружин is also accurate, since no previous Bulgarian Tsar had carried his name.
A wikibox I've made recently for my TL. It shows the first democratic election in the recently founded Republic of Lithuania.
Despite fracturing, the Lithuanian Centre Party acquired a plurality of votes and seats, but they failed to build a large enough coalition in the Prezidiumas, so the United Christians edged out the vote for the first Democrat of Lithuania on very close margins.
(And yes, I know that I screwed up the date. It should be 6 June 1917.)
A wikibox I've made recently for my TL. It shows the first democratic election in the recently founded Republic of Lithuania.
Despite fracturing, the Lithuanian Centre Party acquired a plurality of votes and seats, but they failed to build a large enough coalition in the Prezidiumas, so the United Christians edged out the vote for the first Democrat of Lithuania on very close margins.
(And yes, I know that I screwed up the date. It should be 6 June 1917.)
Simonas Petkevičius, Duke of Pasvalys, is the former Grand Marshal (didysis maršalka) of the Empire of Lithuania, and he held that position from 1915 until the Empire's collapse. He and the Imperial Movement stand for the restoration of Emperor Žygimantas IV and a return to the ways of old. Reactionaries, pretty much, though they also have a sizable Purple Unitarian (Not!Fascist) contingent.
Alt-Centre are splitters who disagreed with Antanas Virbalas's vision, most importantly his plans to create a one "grand coalition" instead of sticking to his ideals.
The Ruthenian separatist party in Lithuania adopted the historical title "White Rus" due to their opposition to the Grand Duchy of the Krajina.
Stefan is accurate, since he isn't a King, but a Despot (and the title distinction is made for the Serbs). Фружин is also accurate, since no previous Bulgarian Tsar had carried his name.
I believe you meant Presian II, over whom I've seen folks wonder whether he was called Presian or Fružin, though one consistent factor I've noticed is that Presian, Fružin and Prusian are equivalent names, meaning that they generally mean the same I believe.
I'd still consider it separate enough, since the former is Пресиян while the latter is Фружин, that is, the main distinction being which names they more commonly used, and which is more remembered today. Despite this, I did seem to find what I believe is Fružin's name (though you never know with the internet), Георги Владислав Пресиян Фружин Тертер Шишман, shortened to Георги (Пресиян) Фружин Шишман. From what I can tell, with everything I've read, Фружин is the most common name used for him, with some mentions of Пресиян here and there, like that supposed full name I wrote above. However, if we are to assume that said full name is accurate, one could make the argument that, had he been named Tsar, he may have adopted the name Пресиян as a regnal name, though whether it is II or III would be of minor debate.
I believe you meant Presian II, over whom I've seen folks wonder whether he was called Presian or Fružin, though one consistent factor I've noticed is that Presian, Fružin and Prusian are equivalent names, meaning that they generally mean the same I believe.
I'd still consider it separate enough, since the former is Пресиян while the latter is Фружин, that is, the main distinction being which names they more commonly used, and which is more remembered today. Despite this, I did seem to find what I believe is Fružin's name (though you never know with the internet), Георги Владислав Пресиян Фружин Тертер Шишман, shortened to Георги (Пресиян) Фружин Шишман. From what I can tell, with everything I've read, Фружин is the most common name used for him, with some mentions of Пресиян here and there, like that supposed full name I wrote above. However, if we are to assume that said full name is accurate, one could make the argument that, had he been named Tsar, he may have adopted the name Пресиян as a regnal name, though whether it is II or III would be of minor debate.
The 2017 Montana election was the 30th general election since that province joined the Confederation in 1890, the last to do so in the 19th century. The incumbent New Democratic (NDP) government, led by Premier Mike Cooney, had let the previous legislative assembly run its full five year-term. Cooney had won the poisoned chalice to replace Brian Schweitzer, the blunt and colorful leader who had led the NDP to victory in both 2012 and 2008, after Schweitzer's antics stopped being amusing and starting becoming an embarrassment, leading to an abrupt forced departure in early 2014. The new premier, a fixture in provincial NDP politics, had struggled to right the ship that Schweitzer had left him, including an increasing budget deficit. Cooney's decision to increase provincial sales tax to begin closing the deficit was, while a political and economic necessity, unpopular among the electorate and the NDP entered the campaign trailing significantly.
In contrast, the Official Opposition, the Social Credit (Socred) Party, was eagerly anticipating facing the voters. Leader Steve Daines had been buoyed both by the low approval ratings both Schweitzer and Cooney had received during the life of the assembly and the performance of the federal Conservatives in the 2015 election, with Trudeaumania again finding no traction in the Big Sky Province. Daines, learning lessons from his party's loss in 2012, had walked the fine line to keep his party palatable to both swing voters in the province as well as soft supporters of the populist, right-wing Montana Party. Supporters of that party had felt past Socred premiers had moved too far to the centre and vote-splitting on the right had been a large factor that had led to the NDP to winning re-election in 2012.
From the outset, the result was seemingly preordained. The NDP trailed the Socreds by double-digits for almost all the campaign, and leader debates between Cooney, Daines and Montana leader Cindy Hill were essentially both Hill and Daines ganging up on the premier and slamming him for raising Montanans' taxes, while Cooney tried to point to increased infrastructure and education spending the NDP had brought to Montanans as reason to give them a third term. Daines and Social Credit led a cautious campaign, content to leave the NDP to desperately fear-monger about what a return to Socred government would bring to Montanans and the Montana Party tried to marshal enough disaffected Socred voters to win one of their targeted ridings.
The defeat of the NDP and replacement by a Socred majority was never in doubt, but even so, the size of the defeat was surprising to many observers. Hill had failed to improve on the Montana Party's 2012 performance, helped out by the Socred strategy and the bandwagon effect. The result allowed the Socreds to win an extra handful of ridings that pushed their total to 43, with the remaining 17 staying with the NDP. Cooney, as expected, resigned after the scale of the defeat became evident and Daines inaugurated a new government two weeks later.
While the NDP has regrouped under new leader Amanda Curtis, the only electorally-viable remnant of the once-widespread Social Credit movement in Canada continues to lead in polling by large margins. While the new premier's own approval rating is rather pedestrian for a new premier, his handling of affairs, such as the sacking of Education and Finance Minister Greg Gianforte after Gianforte body-slammed a reporter inquiring about the lopsided distribution of the government's planned tax cuts, has earned approval of most Montanans. This has lead most Montanans to speculate that, unlike his predecessor, Daines will go to the voters well before the assembly's five-year term ends in 2022.
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Platte is OTL Casper, Wyoming
Tomah is OTL Helena, Montana
Although not stated outright in the write-up, the Social Credit Party no longer actually promotes the social credit ideology and is essentially a generic center-right, fiscal conservative party.
For those keeping track, that's 10 insets being necessary, with 4 of them (Kalispell, Bozeman, Laramie & Green River-River Springs) being for just one riding.
