POD: The Spanish, facing a nastier Cuban rebellion, decide that they'll accept William McKinley's offer of allowing Cuba to be sold to the United States for $300 Million in 1897.
Of course, things wouldn't work out well for Spain at any rate, with a Japanese invasion of the Philippines in 1898 and the subsequent Hispano-Japanese War, which saw the complete and total defeat of Spain at the hands of Japan. Though Japan would annex the Philippines and Guam, Spain would, in seeking to relinquish war debt, sell Puerto Rico to the United States in their quest to do so.
The 1900 Presidential Election as a result is closer, though McKinley still wins. Theodore Roosevelt never reaches national fame through the Rough Riders, and McKinley chooses Indiana Senator Charles W. Fairbanks as his running mate. McKinley is assassinated on schedule, and Fairbanks, a much more conservative man than Theodore Roosevelt, comes to power at the beginning of the progressive movement.
Though Russia and Japan go to war in 1905, Charles Fairbanks, having secured re-elected over Alton B. Parker in 1904, is in no mood to mediate the conflict as Roosevelt did OTL, mostly thanks to massive labor unrest in the United States. The Democrats take control of Congress in 1906 and attempt to force reforms on Fairbanks, who uses his veto pen to defeat them and the military to crush labor unrest, further alienating working class voters from the Republican Party. Japan defeats Russia and claims the southern half of Sakhalin, though it makes clear that its day in the Sun is not yet over.
In the developing imperial nation of Japan, Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi avoids assassinations and develops closer ties with Korea, building up infrastructure in the region before announcing the 'Japan-Korea Foundation Treaty of 1911', which legally incorporated the Korean peninsula into the Japanese Empire as an autonomous region. The 'Empire of Japan and Korea' is officially proclaimed.
Tensions rising in Europe lead to the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. The war proceeds mostly as it did IOTL, though nearing the end of the war, Japan takes advantage of the Russian Civil War to annex Sakhalin completely and the United States manages to get into the League of Nations.
Though the 1920s are seen as a 'roaring decade' in much of the nations that had won the Great War, this was not the case in other nations, where fascism grew in strength and seized power. This was notably the case in Italy, which had by 1922 been taken under the leadership of Benito Mussolini, and in Germany, where Adolf Hitler rose to power in 1933. Japan avoided this period of fascism in and of itself, and expanded the vote under the auspices of 'Taisho Democracy', granting more rights to its imperial dominions and generally improving it's infrastructure and economic standing.
The Great Crash of 1929 set the stage for worldwide Depression and eventually, another European war. The early successes of Germany lead to the official federation of the United Kingdom and France in 1940, with the war having raged for two years following Germany's invasion of Czechoslovakia. The Soviet Union and the United States, largely wanting to avoid the war if possible, invoke a non-interventionist clause in the League of Nations charter, but both promise to aid the United Kingdom insofar as possible. Germany would fall in 1943, and the League mediated a peace that recognized Germany's borders as those of before 1938. Germany itself would stay in the leadership of conservative leaders of the army, which had themselves assassinated Hitler in 1943.
India is finally granted its independence by the United Kingdom in 1947, though it is given its independence as a unified territory. The United States grants statehood to Cuba in 1946. With the United Kingdom weakened significantly from the war, the United States and Soviet Union move into the orbit of 'superpower status', along with Japan, which has at this point done well enough to have avoided a costly war in China and has itself become more democratic.
In China, a civil war that raged for nearly a decade in the 1930s lead to the eventual victory of Chinese Communists under Mao Zedong. Mao, a key ally of Soviet Premier Bukharin, is given the go-ahead in annexing the relatively backward state of Mongolia, which had been until this point ruled by White Russian refugees. Mongolia is consolidated as a part of the new 'People's Republic of China' in 1948, though it is fully acquired in 1945.
Following the 'Second Great War' of 1938-1943, the world's rising powers become chiefly concerned with imperialism and thanks to the decay of the United Kingdom's empire, got themselves in a position to take advantage of it. The Soviet Union preferred to stay 'above the fray', emphasizing 'socialism in one country' (which by this time under Premier Bukharin had become more or less the modern 'Market-Leninist' system of OTL China), though the People's Republic of China, more revolutionary than its socialist sister state, sough to undermine existing capitalist states, while the United States, under the leadership of the stridently anti-imperialist liberal Henry Wallace, sought to expand civil liberties and civil rights across the globe.
The first major flashpoint of this occurred in 1948 with the Hukbalahap Rebellion in the Japanese dominion of the Philippines, a communist uprising supported by the PRC. The Japanese, bogged down in guerrilla fighting that lasted until 1955, would eventually have to recognize the independence of the Philippines that year, which was united following a civil war under the People's Republic of the Philippines. An attempt at a communist uprising in Korea in 1950 was quickly put down by the Japanese as well.
Following this, the United States, fearful of the growth of Chinese influence in the third world, shifted its position to emphasize both generic anti-imperialism and capitalist democracy. Allying itself with the United Kingdom, the United States pushed its ally to allow independence for its colonies after significant investments had been made in each to allow for functioning democracies to emerge. This 'gradual emancipation' favored by the United States and the United Kingdom emerged as a counterweight to the revolutionary socialism of the PRC.
This period came to be known as the 'Cold War' and it lasts more or less to this day. Perhaps the most heated conflict in this period came in 1955, with a Chinese assault on Taiwan, then and now a Japanese territory, which brought the coming of the 'Second Sino-Japanese War' of 1955-1958. Japan employed the use of tactical nuclear weapons against China during the war, allowing the numerically disadvantaged Japanese to prevent Chinese invasion and to successfully bring the Chinese to the negotiating table at the League of Nations in 1958, which restored the status quo ante bellum.
The Soviet Union has continued along a reformist path, and in the 1960s began the implementation of policies that gradually democratize itself and its satellites, to the chagrin of the PRC, which saw deviation from the 'true path' of Marxism-Leninism everywhere. The first fully free and open elections in the Soviet Union took place in 1989. It's current Premier is a member of the CPSU. The Soviet Union possesses nuclear weapons.
The People's Republic of China was taken aback by the death of Mao in 1976, though his successor, the Lin Biao would maintain the Maoist state, though gradual reforms would be adopted to invigorate the Chinese economy in the late seventies and early eighties. By 1989, the Chinese economy was growing leaps and bounds, though its despotic government remains in power even to this day, with little to no reforms on the personal freedom scale having come through. It's current leader is Premier Ning Yao. The PRC possesses nuclear weapons.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain, France, and Northern Ireland is still a major political power, though its influence has significantly declined since the Second Great War. It's Head of State, King George VI, has been on the throne since the death of its previous sovereign, King Edward VIII, in 1972. Its current Prime Minister is Jeanne Fongemie, a member of the Conservative Party, she having first attained that position in 2007. The United Kingdom does possess nuclear weapons.
The Empire of Japan and Korea is also declining in terms of real influence, though it maintains a favorable trade relationship with most of the world's leading powers and is officially neutral, despite favoring the interests of the United States and the United Kingdom. It's current Emperor, Nobuhiko, took the position in 1989. It's current Prime Minister is Chiyuri Nagata of the Constitutional Democratic Party, and she has held that position since the General Election of 2009. The Empire of Japan and Korea does possess nuclear weapons and is as of 2010 the only nation that's actually used them, in this case having unleashed nuclear attacks against the People's Republic of China in the midst of a Chinese attack on the region in hopes of regaining Taiwan from the Japanese.
The Republic of India is a rising power today, with projections showing the India might exceed the growth of the PRC and even the United States at some point in the future. India, like Japan, is officially neutral, though it's better at maintaining that neutrality than is Japan, despite pro-British and pro-American sentiment pervading the country. India is also a nuclear weapons state, and considered a leader in the third world.
The United States of TTL's 2010 is a bit more like OTL Canada. Marked by a history of liberalism in the 20th Century, the United States has a well developed welfare state, low public debt, and relatively strong industrial and military sector, though its military is smaller than OTL's. Cuba was admitted to the union in 1946, followed by Puerto Rico in 1950, and Alaska and Hawaii in 1959, and thus, the United States has 52 states as of 2010. The current President of the United States is Richard A. "Dick" Galvin of Tennessee, a Republican elected to that position in 2008.
Other nations that are of note include the Argentine Republic and the Federative Republic of Brazil, the so-called 'Latin American tigers' (which also notably include the Republic of Chile and the Republic of Peru) which rose to prominence as a symbol of third world pride and economic achievement in the 1980s. Among these, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile operate a 'nuclear sharing program' under the 'Unión del Sur', an economic and political union in Latin America. The Republic of Australia is also a growing economic powerhouse, as is Canada, two former members of the United Kingdom that also possess nuclear weapons. Canada is a relatively conservative world power, while Australia's working class roots have made it into one of the more left-leaning members of the former British Empire, along with the United States.
Germany's right-wing military leadership was in charge of the country until 1986, which saw the 'German Revolution of 1986' get the military government to open up and provide for democratic reforms. Germany is the leading industrial power on the European continent as of 2010, and is one of the largest economies in the world. It has since the Cold War been allied with the United Kingdom and the United States, though it maintains positive relations with the Soviet Union. It's current Chancellor is Ann Fleischer, a member of the Christian Democratic Union.
Italy too eventually moved from fascism to democracy, with the abrogation of the dictatorship by the National Fascist Party in 1977. Despite a fascist coup d'etat attempt in 1981, Italians maintained their democracy, and even did themselves one better at it by voting into power the Italian Communist Party in the 1982 General Election. Despite predictions of an Italian soviet state, the Italian Communists pursued a relatively reformist program that sought to integrate the state more fully within the global economy and establish a more generous welfare state. Currently, the head of state of Italy is King Vittorio Emanuele III and its Prime Minister is Benito Iadanza of the Italian Communist Party.
The world of TTL's 2010 is more anarchic that that of OTL. The League of Nations is very weak, and attempts to reform the system have largely met with yawns from the world's Great Powers. Protectionism is more widespread and free trade is mostly a non-starter, aside from some of the more developed nations. Former colonial states are for the most part more developed, and technology is a little more developed than in our 2010. Space technology, first employed by the Japanese in attacking Chinese positions during the Second Sino-Japanese War, is more militaristic than that of OTL, and many nations have national space programs. The United States became the first nation to land a man on the Moon in 1971, though the Japanese followed in 1973. The Moon of 2010 is relatively well developed, but serves mostly as a base for industrial and military bases, with League of Nations mandates granted to most nations. A joint US-UK-Japan mission landed the first men on Mars in 1989, and the PRC landed its own taikonauts on the surface of Mars in 1995.
Socially, the world is a bit more complicated. The United States is more or less as socially liberal as Canada is IOTL, with nationwide legal same-sex marriage and not such a muck about abortion rights going on. The United Kingdom of Britain and France is about the same, though same-sex marriage is not yet legal. The Empire of Japan and Korea is more conservative than the Japan of OTL, though it's loosening up with the decline of its great power status and the rise of Christianity within the Empire; it's also a lot less xenophobic owing to the large number of Koreans, Taiwanese, etc. in the Empire.
The Soviet Union is about as culturally and socially liberal as France, and the PRC is a tad more conservative than IOTL. India is more or less the same, while Canada is about as socially conservative as the United States of OTL (!!!), Australia is more socially liberal than it's OTL counterpart, Germany is a proper social democracy, and Latin America is less dominated by the Catholic Church.
Economically speaking, the world is leftier than OTL. Most states are actively interventionist in the economy, and nearly every state has a well developed welfare state.
Presidents of the United States, 1897-Present
1897: William McKinley (Republican)
1901: William McKinley (Republican)
--1901: Charles W. Fairbanks (Republican)
1905: Charles W. Fairbanks (Republican)
1909: William H. Taft (Republican)
1913: Woodrow Wilson (Democratic)
1917: Woodrow Wilson (Democratic)
1921: Leonard Wood (Republican)
1925: Leonard Wood (Republican)
--1927: William S. Kenyon (Republican)
1929: William S. Kenyon (Republican)
1933: Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic)
1937: Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic)
1941: Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic)
1945: Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic)
1949: Henry A. Wallace (Democratic)
1953: Henry A. Wallace (Democratic)
1957: Elliot J. Pearson (Republican)*
1961: Elliot J. Pearson (Republican)*
1965: Christopher R. Reuther (Democratic)*
1969: Alexander I. "Alex" Holmes (Democratic)*
1973: Alexander I. "Alex" Holmes (Democratic)*
1977: Alexander I. "Alex" Holmes (Democratic)*
1981: Alexander I. "Alex" Holmes (Democratic)*
--1984: Michael B. Reynolds (Democratic)*
1985: Timothy M. Simms (Republican)*
1989: Timothy M. Simms (Republican)*
1993: Leland D. Clevenger (Democratic)*
1997: Leland D. Clevenger (Democratic)*
2001: Leland D. Clevenger (Democratic)*
--2003: Sylvia P. Morrison (Democratic)*
2005: Richard A. "Dick" Galvin (Republican)*
2009: Richard A. "Dick" Galvin (Republican)*
Monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, France, and Northern Ireland, 1940-Present
King Edward VIII (1936-1972)
King George VI (1972-Present)
Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, France, and Northern Ireland, 1940-Present
Neville Chamberlain (Conservative): 1940
E.F.L. Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax (Conservative): 1940-1943
1943: Clement Attlee (Labour)
1949: Clement Attlee (Labour)
1950: Georges Bidault (Conservative)
1954: Anthony Eden (Conservative)
--1956: Joseph Laniel (Conservative)
1958: Joseph Laniel (Conservative)
--1962: Joshua P. Lloyd (Conservative)
1963: Yvon Laboissonnière (Labour)
1965: Yvon Laboissonnière (Labour)
1969: Bailey H. Russell (Conservative)
1973: Yvon Laboissonnière (Labour)
--1975: Jude S. Hinton (Labour)
1978: Mignonette Brochu (Conservative)
1982: Mignonette Brochu (Conservative)
1986: Mignonette Brochu (Conservative)
--1989: Ray M. Johnson (Conservative)
1991: Ray M. Johnson (Conservative)
1996: Talbot Goguen (Labour)
2000: Talbot Goguen (Labour)
2004: Talbot Goguen (Labour)
2007: Jeanne Fongemie (Conservative)
Monarchs of the Empire of Japan and Korea, 1911-Present
Yoshihito, Emperor Taisho (1912-1926)
Hirohito, Emperor Showa (1926-1989)
Nobuhiko (1989-Present)
I'm going to add more stuff to this later. Hope I got everything done right with the POD. 