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Pre 1900 POD's:
  1. Less if any Alsace Lorraine gains in Franco-Prussian War

  2. No Spanish-American war.
I'm making a TL that starts out in the U.S. but ends up encompassing the world later on. TTL WW1 is a lot different so to speak, and I'd like feedback as to plausibility and what the result of the war may be. There's no one thing that changes from OTL, rather a bunch of things.

The Entente Cordiale is still signed TTL but never becomes much of an alliance, just a treaty marking an improvement of Anglo-French relations. While France hates Germany a lot like IOTL, the fact not as much of A-L was ceded means it isn't as strong and there is no real revancism. Germany is in a better position then OTL. Kaiser Wilhelm stops acting like an idiot and isolating Germany from the other nations of Europe and doesn't act as a direct threat to Great Britain as it doesn't have the OTL navy arms race. Germany still threatens to shift the balance of power, but Russia is. Russophobia never really dies down and the Dogger Bank incident isn't let go as easily by the English (The Russians win the Russo-Japanese War TTL.) The Anglo-Russian Entente is never signed.

WW1 doesn't start with the attempted assassination of Franz Ferdinand, which TTL fails and ends with the humiliation of Serbia but not much more comes out of it. The situation in Austria-Hungary comes later. WW1 begins in 1916 when the French accidentally sink a German naval ship, with Germany declaring war on France the next day. The Franco-Russian alliance comes into effect with Russia declaring war on Germany, with a two war front being created. Germany TTL created its own version of the Maginot Line, So the French do something stupid....a reverse Schlieffen Plan. The "Rape of Belgium" is committed by the French instead of the Germans and Britain declares war on France the next day, joining the Germans. France was the aggressor in this case, Britain was obligated to protect Belgium, and Russia (whose military buildup was making it become the threat to European hegemony), is the bigger threat in their eyes. (The U.S. probably joins later in the war after France starts attempting unrestricted submarine warfare.)

Where's Austria-Hungary in all of this? Well the Triple Alliance expired earlier that year and Germany did not want to be tied down by the dead weight that is A-H like in OTL. The alliance with Italy is still in effect though, so Italy joins the Germans in war against France. Franz Joseph dies in 1917 without the stress of the war IOTL, so Franz Ferdinand becomes ruler...When the Ausgleich is about to be renewed. The anti-Hungarian Franz Ferdinand was more in favor of a United States of Greater Austria instead of the current situation, which upsets the Hungarians. Since they're afraid of losing power, the Hungarians secede from Austria-Hungary, causing a civil war. Hungary receives support from the Russians and Austria from the Germans, but this doesn't become a front in war, just a proxy conflict. The war ends in Austria's favor, and Franz Ferdinand's proposal for the USGA goes through.

But this conflict isn't just a pan-European war with maybe some fighting in Africa, it's actually a legit world war. The Qing manages to get its shit together, avoiding the Xinhai Revolution, and takes the opportunity for revenge against Japan. It joins the Entente, trying to get back the land it lost in the Sino-Japanese War and win back its prestige.

Now where does that leave us?

Alliance: UK, Germany, Japan, Italy, possibly U.S.A.

Entente: France, Russia, China


That's all I have as of now, I'm no military buff so I have no clue how this war would end but my plan is for an Alliance win. Are there any other nations that might join either side? What would the postwar situation be like?
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