"For Fish, Fur and the Tsar" - A Russian Alaska-TL

RGB

Tapirus Augustus said:
Is Russian Hawaii in the Stars? This was an actual possibility in OTL.
Click to expand...

Maybe a bit late for that...1819 was the last time someone wrote about it to the Tsar. Also, by then Kauaiuli already acknowledged Kamehameha as his overking, so the obvious access is not so obvious any more.

Although Hawaii would have been very useful for the Canton trade, which was the foremost destination in Russian America.
 

Iserlohn

Here is a small update regarding the reason for Van Buren's second term, written by a present-day historian.

The Missouri Mormon Crisis

The Missouri Mormon Crisis is considered to be one of the most important events for the political year of 1838, because only the diplomatic talent of U.S. president Martin Van Buren was able to resolve this crisis thanks to his good relations to Russia. The founder of the Latter Day Saints movement, Joseph Smith, wanted to found the city of Zion in Jackson County, however this idea was not well liked by the other residents of that area because of the cultural differences between the Mormons and them.

After a short armed conflict, in which three Mormons were killed, Smith wrote a letter to Van Buren, pleading for support. The president however was unable to help, but a nearby person was: Alexander Bodisko, the Russian ambassador to the U.S., who stated to Van Buren that the Mormons would be allowed to become part of the Russian city of Fort Ross, which at that time was part of Mexico, until the situation would calm down. Smith gladly accepted this offer and later, in the year 1847, the Mormons were given the exclusive right to settle in the Salt Lake Valley, newly acquired after the Mexican War. This was the beginning of the state of Deseret, the "Mormon State". This relativly peaceful solution is considered to be the reason for Van Buren's second term as president of the United States, because Van Buren stated that if he would have been responsible for more deaths, "[he] would not had the strenght to remain president.".


@RGB:
Thanks for the information about the gold rushes. The gold rush near Sacramento is ideal for Russian California, in Russian Alaska there will be a lot of minor gold rushes and it wil benefit from the Klondike Gold Rush, so both colonies should have no problems of surviving.
 

Iserlohn

Okay, I deleted my last post here and but I will stay with the concept!

The Bonaparte Assassinatíon and the Romanian Republic

After the French president Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was shot on the 16th November 1851 by a French-Wallonian shooter, Bonaparte's active supporter and famous poet Victor Hugo was temporarily made the new president of the Second French Republic by the Parliament of France on the 20th November. During the investigation following the murder of the French emperor's nephew it was revealed that he secretly tried to overthrow the republic and place himself on the throne, which was a shocking revelation to all of his supporters, since he even planned to dissolve the National Assembly. However, the reason of his assassin remained unclear because of suicide before his trial and it remained a mystery.

In 1852, the social democrat Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin, who ran for presidency in 1848 before, was able to recieve the most votes during the presidential election after a brilliant campaign and became the new president with the former Bonapartist Hugo as President of the Council, with the goal to maintain order in France. But there were also problems for the French, because Britain wanted to stop the expansion of the growing Russian Empire with the help of the Ottomans and the French Republic. This finally caused the short but intense Crimean War, lasting from November 1853 until April 1855, resulting in a draw on both sides and the formation of the Republic of Romania, consisting out of the Danubian Principalities, during the Treaty of Bucharest.


I'd still like to get feedback on this, y'know?
 
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Iserlohn

Well, I have a small teaser for you for the next update and it consists out of just two words: "Manchurian War". Happy guessing, update should come on Tuesday!
 

Iserlohn

A small bump for great justice, so that the "Manchurian War" won't be missed out. Really, I want feedback, both positive and negative, not just silent readers.
 

Iserlohn

First of all a general message: I will wrap up this TL after the end of this TLs WW1 with a map and some small infos about this TLs WW2 and the time after that, complete with a map.

Now, here is the Manchurian War:


An Asian Conflict - The Manchuria Crisis

In the year 1860, trouble in China began: Anti-colonial opposition and a general fear of their neighbour to the north made the Chinese people feel unsecure, which finally resulted in the Manchuria Crisis, known to Russians as the Manchurian War. Several small Chinese partisan troops attacked Russian settlements near the border from December 1860 until February 1861, when the Tsar declared to strike back, until the partisans were defeated. Thus a combination of Russian cavalary and a few Japanese mercenaries advanced into Chinese territories.

The entire region of Outer and Inner Mongolia, as well as Eastern Manchuria where quickly conquered by the superior Russian cavalary and after a conflict with a lenght of seven months, the Treaty of Kyoto ended the conflict, ceding the occupied territories to Russia, ending the Chinese protectorate of Korea and the Chinese had to redraw their claims on Hong Kong and Macao.This humiliation of the Chinese weakend the Asian nation and finally led to the Chinese Civil War during the 1880s.



And now a small bonus, an encyclopedia article:

German Unification of 1869, The

Rise of German nationalism invoced by anti-French movements and the Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck resulted in the creation of the German Empire, proclaimed in Aachen on the 9th November of 1869. The most prominent state in Germany was the Kingdom of Prussia until the Rhineland Seperation, resulting in the creation of the current German "Reichsländer".

One small note to end this post:
I need feedback, badly! Why should I write and post something when noboby even comments on it, y'know! Otherwise it could just leave this stuff on my harddrive.
 
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The Doctor

Iserlohn said:
I need feedback, badly! Why should I write and post something when noboby even comments on it, y'know! Otherwise it could just leave this stuff on my harddrive.
Click to expand...



Don't get disenfranchised. Just keep posting and they will come ;) I'm working on my own, but only have one story post so far. Dimension 16 will rise and get noticed at some point. And so will yours.
 

Iserlohn

Okay, I have a small update for today, folks: The Scramble for Africa!

The General Act of the Berlin Conference remains the same, as the intentions behind the conference are the same, but the real scramble is a bit different, so here is a map!

A few things to note here:

Egypt remains under Ottoman control, but the Suez Channel is still mostly incorperated by the British, but the Sudan still got ceded to the British.

Two Sicilies is the dominant state in Italy, since it does not unite here (will become part of a later post, btw) and thus only Sicilies gains a small colony.

Enjoy the map (which shows Africa after the Boers Wars), which I sadly (almost) ruined thanks to the gif-format!

EDIT: The map has been improved, check the 35# post of this thread for the new map!

Colonial Africa Alaska TL.PNG
 
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The Doctor

Hoping for more! What is making the Russians invest more in the America's? If I missed that point, my bad! I just don't remember. Also, is Russia doing better at being more modern in this timeline or just more successful in China and the America's?
 

Iserlohn

@The Doctor:
Well, ITLs Russia simply thinks that Alaska should not be wasted (because Alexander kinda "knew" of things to come - aka ass pull) and that they should gain "their" California, since OTL Russia and Spain had a small rivalry about it, with Fort Ross being the last remnant.

Also does Russia try to be more modern, but the big problem is the multi-nationality, espacially in Asia (Mongolia; Eastern Manchuria). This will become the end of tsarist Russia after WW1 because of their internal problems.

Basicly, they at first want to expand their power, then modernize but ultimatly fail.
 

Iserlohn

Just a small bump, mostly to say that I am reworking the Africa map to make it fit the UCS better. Should come this night, since I am already done with Sicilies, Germany, Portugal and Spain, with GB, Belgium, Ethiopia and France missing.

PS: Stupid Gambia, stupid source... Made Gambia Spanish, should still be British.
 
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Iserlohn

Okay, I have made a detailed list of changes to ITLs Scramble for Africa, as well as an updated and improved map. One small note: The colonies shown here are based on the borders of 1910, after the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty, the Boers Wars and the Portuguesean Transfer (Ouidah and Cabinda) of 1892.

Here are the changes, with new additions marked in Italic and changes on the borders with an asterisk:

France:

French West-Africa:
- Mauritania*
- Senegal
- French Sudan
- Côte d'Ivoire
- Niger
- French Upper Volta

French Equatorial Africa:
- Gabon*
- Oubangi-Chari*
- Middle Congo*
- Chad
- French Cabinda

- French Algeria
- French Somaliland*
- Madagascar
- French Lybia


Two Sicilies:

- Sicilian Tunisia

Germany:

- German Kamerum*
- German East Africa
- German South-West Africa
- German Togo*
- German Somaliland

Portugal:

- Portuguese West Africa*
- Portuguese East Africa
- Portuguese Guinea (special note: both Guinea-Bissão and Guinea-Conakry)
- Cape Verde Islands
- São Tomé and Príncipe*

Spain:

- Spanish Morroco (special note: Sp. Morroco + Sp. Sahara + Fr. Morroco)
- Spanish Guinea

Belgium:

- Belgian Congo

United Kingdom

- English Sudan
- British Somaliland
- Bechuanaland
- Southern Rhodesia
- Northern Rhodesia
- The Gambia
- Sierra Leone
- Cameroons
- British Gold Coast
- Nyasaland
- Nigeria*

British South Africa:
- Cape Colony
- Transvaal
- Colony of Natal
- Orange Free State

British East Africa:
- Kenya
- Uganda Protectorate
- Zanzibar

Other states of note:
- Egypt (still under Ottoman rule, Suez Channal controled by British-Ottoman officials)
- Liberia (U.S. "puppet")
- Abyssinia


I hope you liked this overview, the next update should probably come on Wednesday.

EDIT: Forgot Nigeria...

Colonial Africa Alaska TL.PNG
 
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Pikers3

Are we gonna see a Russo-Japanese war? will Japan win this time? If not we could see japan as backwards as OTL China in the 20th century oooh!

Great TL keep it up! but my British Patrotism is hurt with Ottoman Egypt :D ( great twist tho never really seen a partition of Africa with OE represented!!)
 

Iserlohn

@Pikers3: A slightly stronger Germany (thanks to a missing Franco-Prussian War) can do wonders for its Ottoman allies, e.g. making it hold Egypt.


I also have a small update, regarding "Italy":


The Rise of Two Sicilies and the Italian fate

After the participation in the Crimean War, the Kingdom of Sardinia wanted to expand its power, trying to find a way to unite Italy after a move towards liberalism. However, after the Bonaparte assassination, Sardinia lost it's strongest ally and was unable to achieve that goal. In 1856, Parma, Tuscany, Modena and Romagna united and became the Kingdom of Emilia, becoming one of the four forces in Italy, most notably Two Sicilies.

Patriotism did rise after the declaration of Emilia, which was followed by a declaration of war against Austria-Hungary, which controlled Venice and Trentino, cities with a mayor Italian population. Emilia and Two Sicilies, supported by Emilia's ally Sardinia, rushed towards Venice, besieging the city from the sea in the south and stopping Austrian troops to set over to the city from the north. Internal problems, caused by war exhaustion, resulted in an Austrian capitulation and the Treaty of Venice (1859), ending the Austrian puppet of Lombardy-Venetia and sharing it between Emilia and Sardinia, with Sardinia recieving Friuli, the city of Trentino and Veneto, while Emilia received Lombardy. Sicilies would recieve 13,000 thaler, since it was not interested in gaining territories not bordering their country.

The victory over Austria marked the beginning of the golden age of Two Sicilies, which was made clear when it was the only Italian nation to be invited to the Berlin Conference to take part in the Race for Africa, where it received it's first colony: Tunisia. The other Italian states stayed minor powers, with Sicilies becoming the symbol for Italy, until the four kingdoms of the Italian peninsula were united in 1909 under Sicilian rule.
 
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Iserlohn

Before I talk about Russo-Japanese relationships, here is a small map I made:

It shows the proposed Rhodes-Railway, spanning from Cape Town to Alexandria. The red lines show the railroad's path through British territories, the white lines show the possible paths through Ottoman and German territories, as well as parts of the railroad which are only going to be constructed, if the British gain Ottoman and German allowance.

The stations are, from south to north:

Cape Town - East London - Durban - Pretoria - Salisbury - Abercorn - Dar es Salaam (German) - Mombasa - Kisumu - Kampala - Gondokoro - Khartoum - Port Sudan - Hayaleb - Assuan (Ottoman) - Luxor (Ottoman) - Cairo (Ottoman) - Alexandria (Ottoman)

Man, I have nothing to do...

Colonial Africa Alaska TL rhodes vision.PNG
 
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