This thread is meant to host properly the result of a previous
discussion that has started developing into a TL.
It will be my first true TL here, and it is a shot into a area where some points are quite outside my area of expertise. It was born almost by chance and I am not sure how long I can and will go on with it. To my surprise, I received enough encouragement to make me go on with this.
I'll start reposting here the stuff from the previous discussion, edited and revised, before going on.
I am not a native English speaker, so please forgive my errors and my sometimes convoluted syntax.
The POD for this TL is an earlier demise of Cardinal Fleury at the beginning of the War of the Austrian Succession. Fleury was very reluctant in getting involved in this war, and his action in OTL contributed to give Austria some room to react.
Here, France takes a more assertive attitude, resulting in a more effective alliance with Spain, Prussia and, to a lesser extent, Saxony and Bavaria. So here Vienna falls and the Hungarian diet proves much less eager to support Maria Theresa, though it still acknowledges her as Queen of Hungary. The result is that the European Balance of Power is upset completely. In the following years France lacks any real continental counterweight, that frees her resources for the naval conflict with Britain. This will have nasty consequences for the Netherlands, literally caught in the middle with no other choice than sticking to the British side.
So far, I have a vague outline of what will happen for a century or so thereafter, but many parts are still very uncertain.
This will be a massive French wank, but is meant to stay plausible. France will be very, very powerful in every sphere for quite a long time, and will leave a mark on almost everything. I think that in this tl's 2012 France will still be the among the top world hyperpowers.
However, she will be not without worthy rivals. The obvious one is Russia, but some surprises can emerge in the future.
Much of the TL will be related through excerpts of alternate history book and scholarly papers. It is a kind of writing I am a little familiar with, especially when writing in English.
A note about butterflies. Some people born long after the POD will have names identical or similar to OTL, but that does not mean they are the same people. I just tried to kept it simple and, sometimes, funny.