alternatehistory.com

Most Recent Update
New content, covering the end of Alternative Gettysburg and the roots for serious divergences from the OTL Gettysburg Campaign/Pennyslvania Emergency.
ETA For Next Content Update: 2/8/15

The Premise In A Nutshell
What’s All This Then?

Blue Eagle, White Sun is a timeline featuring several mid-Nineteenth Century points-of-departure which aspires construct and examine a more diverse geopolitical world in the first-half of the Twentieth Century than existed OTL.

“Several Mid-Nineteenth Century PODs” Is A Euphemism for the Confederacy Surviving, Isn’t It?
That would be the reason why the eagle is blue, yes.

This Smells Suspiciously Like Timeline-191. Is This Another Confederate-Wank TL?
The point-of-departure which enables the survival of the Confederacy is a ripple of events beginning on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg. So the odds of a strong Confederacy of the sort Turtledove hypothesized is highly unlikely. (Even if jackbooted Confederate chic does have a certain appeal to it.)

…Isn’t A Confederate Victory Basically Impossible By Mid-1863, Assuming Everything Else Is As IOTL?
Nothing is impossible for alternate history! Especially when you’re willing to liberally define-down “victory”. The TL’s author, needless to say, is well aware of how long the Confederacy’s odds are.

Didn’t You Say Something About Other PODs?
Oh, right! The other primary POD is the Taiping Rebellion’s Northern Expedition succeeds in taking Beijing in 1853.

Wait. So the Taiping Rebellion Succeeded In This TL?
Eventually, yes.

Why Aren’t We Talking About That?! It’s Way Cooler Than Another American Civil War TL!
Because the appearance of certain real-life historical figures in the course of that success would make zero sense, contextually, without covering the Civil War’s divergence from OTL first.

Wouldn’t That Make The Taiping Rebellion Over A Decade Long And, Thus, Just As Destructive As OTL?
While it does make the Taiping Rebellion quite long, the exact details will have to be waited for. Though it can safely be said it’s not nearly as bad as OTL in terms of devastation or loss of life.

This Is Going To End Up With A Great War-Analogue That Features A Land War In Asia, Isn’t It?
Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe. And not to give too much away: Just imagine the possibilities for a naval war in the Pacific!

Timeline In-Universe Bibliography
-Adams, Henry. “Objectively Evaluating the Campaigns of George B. Meade”, Collegiate Historical Review (Vol. XVI, Is. 7 (July 1888)).
-Adams, Henry and Savage, Richard, eds. Campaign Memories of the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry (Valley Forge; U.S. Army Staff College Press, 1877).
-Merriweather, Leroy Brandon. Invincibility’s Mantle: Lee’s Summer of Conquest (Columbia; Palmetto Press, 2002).
-Lee II, Richard Henry. The Hagiography of President William C. Oates (Durham; Trinity University Press, 1942).
-Xun, Lucius. The Centennial of the Pennsylvania Emergency (State College; Penn State University Press, 1963).

Timeline Posts
Chapter 1: Union’s Twilight
* A Matter of Time (July 2, 1863)
* Meade's Misstep (July 3-7, 1863)
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