America in the Entente, Britain in the Central Powers

What it says on the tin. Can it be done? The closer the POD to 1900 the better.

To be effective of course the US army and navy will have to be expanded to take on both the British and German fleets in the Atlantic and the British and Japanese fleets in the Pacific. Not to mention there has to be a situation where both America and Britain are willing to risk a war.
 
America came to blows with Britain over a colonial border dispute with Venezuala in the 1890s. It came quite close to war - the Americans took Britain's attempts to expand its borders in the Western Hemisphere as an insult on the USA and a breach in the Monroe Doctrine, and saw Britain's refusal to submit the border for mediation to be stubborn and an affront to the rights of the nations in Latin America (which the USA saw as its own playground). An exacerbation of this could perhaps either result in a small war or an ugly tear in Anglo-American relations.

An incident in Sudan with the French almost resulted in war between the UK and France. If this could be not narrowly avoided, then the resulting war would probably push the UK into a pro-German attitude.

But the more likely outcome of these things would be a UK maintaining its Splendid Isolation (although it recognised that this policy was untenable by the turn of the century) and the USA just not entering the war (unless Britain sinks its shipping or something stupid like that).
 
A point that has oft attracted thought for me is the amalgamation of Great Britain and Germany at some point. I have read something on here with the British being brought under the German Kaiser, but as a bit of an unrepentant Anglophile I wonder if some bit of historical alteration could be figured whereby a union under the British crown could take place between Great Britain and Germany.

Of course France wouldn't like that, so as a result might they not attempt to stir up trouble in Ireland in retaliation. As the Anglo-Germans move to quell the Irish problem, the Yanks will begin to side with the Irish.

In hope of distracting the USA, The Anglo-Germans ( I really have a hard time not calling them the Anglo-Saxons) retaliate by cultivating ties with nations in central and South America which are tiring of American meddling in their affairs.

As tensions rise, Japan falls in line with the Anglo-Germans as it sees a strong partner to offset growing American interest in the western Pacific.

Russia in its turn looks to an alliance with France as a tool to help contain The new Anglo-German empire on its western frontier.

Austria-Hungary is for the most part in the Anglo-German camp.

Italy is a bit of a dark horse, for while having good relations with the Anglo-Germans, her territorial interests include areas held by the Anglo-Germans and their allies .

The Nordic nations have strong economic ties to the Anglo-Germans and they have concerns with the Russians. While it is not likely they would join in initially, their sympathies lie with the A/G's.

That leaves an assemblage of lesser powers such as Turkey and Spain who I can't quite figure out just where to place.

I like the A/G concept as these two nations combined would be closer to a match of the economic potential of the USA. If the union could be put together somewhere around the 1860's to 1880's that would give 2 to 4 decades until the turn of the century to have the whole thing working smoothly and leave enough time for the tensions and xenophobia to build to a proper level.

At that point things could start to happen as early as 1904 (the Russo-Japanese War) or any number of incidents around the world.

This is just a thought that needs a lot of refinement. There a holes in it big enough to drive a Mack truck through, but maybe in here somewhere is a bit of info that might be of interest
 
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