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I'm in the planning stages of what will probably be my first substantial TL (about time, really), and a significant part of it involves late 19th century politics. I thereby put it in this category, although it will probably move on to the 1900s (though not without significant butterflies). As part of my TL, I want conservatism, socialism, national socialism and liberalism to be the dominant political movements in continental Europe in the last decade of the 19th century, though not particularly in that order

Yes, national socialism is on that list, but there's a pretty good reason why it exists at that point in time; it won't be very widespread and more leftleaning than OTLs, at least for that period in time. The 'conservatism' is mostly reactionary behaviour towards liberalism and socialism, and is more widely appealing ad more dmocratic than OTL's.

Now, there's the problem of Christian democracy. While in a way also formed as a reaction to socialism, it is also democratic, and opposed to liberalism once the protestants too had their go at it. Not too mention that it was all initiated by Rerum Novarum.

I myself don't know quite as much as I should know about it. I was thinking of trying to merge it with the remnants of 'conservative' thought, that in my TL still lingers on, though it has to reform from it's absolutist tendencies. Would that work or evne be possible? Would the Pope be satisfied by that? And could the Protestants and Catholicss be in the same party at that point in time, when the people themselves were getting more and more involved wth politics across the continent?

I might not have told you enough about my plans for a TL. I'm rather reluctant, as I don't want to settle down things permanently, and I haven't thought enough about the rest of the world (though I guess the UK and Japan will also be involved). More will be revealed if necessary.

Anyway, thanks for reading this post, I'd greatly appreciate any comments.
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