1859
Rome
After years of discussion regarding the long-term capital of Italy (it had been Turin for a number of years after Queen Maria Beatrice had conquered the southern portions of Italy and later moved to Rome), a dozen different cities had been considered. While Rome was more or less central to Italy geographically, a capital further north like Turin would be closer to the demographic and economic core of Italy.
Of course, the southern peoples of Naples feared such a northern capital would leave them permanently marginalized from the attention of the Italian Parliament. As economic investment inevitably follows the political center, the less-developed south would remain undercapitalized and forgotten. The southern Italians in Parliament vowed to make every piece of legislation a battle if the industrializing north sought to leave the former Kingdom of Naples behind.
Finally the King of Italy, the Habsburg Emperor Francis III, would step in by traveling to Rome and pronounce that Rome would remain the capital of Italy. Indeed, when his late father and mother had first overseen his tutoring in politics, one of the first issues he'd read about deemed important to Italians was the longterm location of the Capital.
And it only took two decades to determine it, the Emperor thought caustically, and who says Italians took forever to make a decision?!
In truth, the King understood the Southern Italian fears. There was a certain haughty arrogance to the northern Italians relative to their southern peers. Outnumbering them more than 2 to 1, certainly Parliament WOULD seek to disproportionately invest in the north, leaving the south to rot.
Like his late mother, the King of Italy would continue the reforms across the Peninsula. Italy, as much as any region in Europe, was backwards and desperately in need of the Enlightenment which started across the continent over a century prior.
1. The Legal System was softened.
2. Taxes were equalized and standardized.
3. Internal commerce was vastly simplified.
4. Many of the old guilds were abolished.
5. Educational institutions were expanded and restrictions on entry eliminated.
6. Manufacturing was encouraged everywhere.
7. Infrastructure improvements to ports and, most especially, railroads, were funded.
Among the greater complaints among the southerners was that virtually none of the railroads being built connected to the south. The northerners countered that the southern topography was so difficult that one could lay ten miles of track in the north to one in the south. And it was patently obvious that there wasn't a great deal of trade to MAKE with the south, so why not invest in the north?
Eventually, the King had to step in once again and demand a compromise. A full third of the national railroad budget MUST be used to develop the rugged mountainous region in the south else Naples become an albatross around Italy's neck.
After centuries of desiring to unite, there were some factions both north and south who were starting to rethink this concept. Both thought they were being unfairly penalized under the new regime and shortchanged.
The Berber Kingdom
While the Berber Kingdom had comprehensively defeated Egypt years prior, the regions of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were left to dispute. The new Khedive and the King would negotiate back and forth. These regions had once been centers of piracy but European ascendance at sea ended this and swiftly the coast fell into anarchy as economic collapse affected the entire area. The ruling dynasties erupted in civil war and, within a few decades, anything resembling "government" was usually relegated to tribal chieftains and whatever strongman could gain control over the walled coastal towns.
Generations of stagnation left the region a political mess which encouraged the Egyptians occasionally to annex the area, though these attempts tended to be short-lived.
The Berber King proposed a division: the largely Berber-speaking Tripolitania would fall to the Berber Kingdom while the more Arabized Cyrenaica would go to Egypt.
Despite the war only a few years prior between the Berber Kingdom and Egypt, the division of spoils proved surprisingly peaceful and swift. While the local potentates would not necessarily be happy with the situation, the far superior armies of the Berber Kingdom and Egypt would swiftly achieve control.
Over the coming few decades, there was some exchange of population between the two. As the Berber Language became the "official" language of Tripolitania, many Arab speakers would migrate, though they were not forced to do so. Similarly, tribal units or individuals would choose to reside under one powerful umbrella or the other, as it best suited them.
By 1860, the entire coast of North Africa was split between two Islamic powers.
Egypt would direct her future towards the Canal being built to the east.
The Berber Kingdom would gravitate towards international trade.
Egypt had evicted its minority peoples generations prior. The Berber Kingdom had given sanctuary to hundreds of thousands of Copts and Jews while allowing foreign merchants to set up shop throughout the long, long Berber coast.
Thus two faces of Islam would move forward into the 19th century in very different ways.
Manhattan
King Henry II would indirectly aid his First Lord, Abraham Lincoln, in gaining approval for Dominionhood for the western Territories. There had been significant resistance to bringing equality to regions which barely had a Anglo-Protestant plurality, much less anything like a majority. Could these people be trusted to be loyal to the nation.
In His annual address to Parliament, the King would remind them of the conflict centuries before in Britain in accepting Presbyterians and other Protestant "Dissenters" to their midst. Then then pointed out the argument waged in the British American Parliament in debating if the young Kingdom would demand a Tithe for the "official" Anglican religion from parishioners of other Christian faiths (or Jews, etc).
He reminded them that non-Anglican Church of America worshippers proved every bit as loyal to the Crown and Country as any others. Henry did not...and need not...add any more. With a few weeks, Parliament approved the Dominion status of Pamphylia, Lycia and Baetica for the 1860 election cycle.