Le Grand Empire Français: A French Empire Timeline
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German And Italian Unification
It is the mid-19th century and places in Europe are industrializing, this industrialization is improving people’s standard of living, transportation, and many other things. The industrial revolution is expanding the middle class massively which the middle class before the industrial revolution were mostly the mercantile merchant classes who were uses artisans, artists, ironworkers, and etc. Many of these improvements from industrialization and the industrial revolution, especially in transportation mean that more people will see each other easier and faster than they would before industrialization and the another thing that grows during industrialization is nationalism which grew in the heavily divided nations due to more people seeing each other but another reason for it was that Europeans thought it was their duty to civilize the less civilized areas of the world, Eg. areas that aren’t industrialized and developed which is pretty much every else outside of Europe and Japan during the 19th century, so nationalism basically grew because people believed that they should unite and protect the wealth of their own nations.
Let's go back and look at some history as in history from this alternate timeline. Austria under Maria Theresa and Russia under Empress Elizabeth Petrovna defeat Prussia earlier in 1760 rather than 1763 in our timeline. But when Empress Elizabeth Petrovna died in 1763, she Peter III as her successor and he took the Russian throne and he really liked Frederick the Great who was the monarch that ruled Prussia during that time and has Prussian sympathies and in this timeline he gave East Prussia to Frederick the Great and like our timeline Peter III would be deposed in a coup d’etat which put Catherine the Great on the Russian throne.
How would this German unification differ from ours? With Prussia being much weaker and never reaching superpower status, with no Napoleonic Wars nationalism wouldn’t be as strong but it would still develop due to industrialization. So Germany wouldn’t be as tightly united as the Germany of our timeline, but would rather be a loose federation of states and this would mean there would be no wars that Prussia waged in order to unite Germany. So the nation that would unite Germany would be Austria, so Germany would be under a loose federation under Austrian administration and leadership and this nation would likely be called the Austro-German Empire and a loose federation would mean Germany would never be the massive militaristic threat that made the rest of Europe and the United States fight against it in both World War 1 and World War 2. So France and Russia would be the strongest military powers in Europe in this timeline.
For Italy similar stuff would happen but it would be different because Italy and Germany are different nations and Northern and Southern Italy are very different in culture and almost everything and Northern and Southern Italy are only united in name only. Italy was kind of like a much smaller version of the United States during the 19th century where there was an industrialized north and an agrarian south with them being heavily divided. The French would likely take advantage of this division and likely make southern Italy a client state and probably even revive the Kingdom of Naples that was French before the Italian Wars as well.
Completion Of The Trans North American Railway
The North American continent is a massive one, to be exact it is the 3rd largest continent on earth with a size of 24.7 million square kilometers or around 9.54 million square miles. With this much land you need to select a mode of transportation if you wish to navatigate it all and on foot is one of them but we all know that being on foot is way way too slow, theres also the wagon train its faster but that is pretty slow as well. But there is some really really good news when it comes to transportation there is a much faster and much more efficient way to circumnavigate the huge North American frontier and it is by the newly established rails and railways which makes traveling across the entire North American continent which spans more than 3,000-5,000 miles from west to east much more easier and efficient.
The newly established railways like all things have to start somewhere and the Trans North American Railway (What I am calling it in this timeline and I want my timeline to have some distinction from our timeline). The Trans North American railway began construction around 1826 and when it first opened its first 15 miles (24 km) of track it made a lot of people very very excited and some even visited the very first rails of what would come the Trans North American railway. The Trans North American railway would go through British North America and French North America, British and French North America probably wouldn’t be linked together by railroad until the British and French find themselves working together on something for their North American colonies.
The railroads will be very very important for getting settlers out west in the western frontier regions and to populate these regions. The railroads linked both the west coast and the east coast of North America which means that goods could be shipped much easier and cheaper as well. Places such as the Continental Divide and the Rocky Mountains were very very difficult to cross by many older forms of transportation such as the Wagon Train until the railroads came to be and building the railroads was no easy task and many people died building the railways and many immigrants who were mostly of Irish and Chinese ancestry that took jobs building the railroads were dying a lot by just simply doing it.
The railroads would be very important to the industrialization and the development of North America both British and French North America, like what was mentioned earlier the railroads linked the east coast with the west coast. The railroads would also link cities and subdivisions (provinces and states) as well so shipping something from places lets say New York or Quebec to somewhere like Tennessee would only take less than four days at most for the entire North American continent compared to a few months with a wagon train or sail ship. The fact that one could travel just about anywhere in less than four days in the United States was a dream for the time and it was inconceivable to the previous generation of Americans.
Growth Of Industrial Cities
The year is around 1870, North America, both British and French, are experiencing massive industrial and economic growth, this is causing people to move into the cities, and/or people moving west and into the cities to find industrial jobs.
Map of major industrial cities in North America
The railroads will also be very important to the growth of cities and towns, there are towns that exist and owe their existence to the railroads (Las Vegas and Reno are perfect examples). The reason why railroads will be very important to the growth of cities is that mail and goods can be shipped easier and trade is easier and so more products shipped would mean more money, and this made the railroads become a important symbol and installed national confidence in the population for the same reason, the railroads also made travel more affordable and accessible so you could take a train trip across the country by train.
The areas that are industrialized tend to be near bodies of water such as the Great Lakes, Ohio River, and Atlantic Ocean for many different reason, one reason for that is proximity towards a body of water that ships could use to transport goods from nation to nation like for example if someone wanted to ship goods from North America to let's say Britain or France they are in no way doing it by land but rather by ship and later the plane. Industrialization also used a lot of natural resources and there is no denying that water would definitely be one of them, one way industrialization used a lot of water is to cool off machines so they used water as a coolant when machines go too hot, and plus the very first engines used during industrialization were steam powered and ran off of steam and steam engines ran off of water to produce steam.
French North America Act/Act de Amerique du Nord Francais
It is November 30, 1874, the French Canadian nation has a population of just around 20 million and the French Canadian nation is getting to be hugely diverse with many of those 20 million people themselves having their own distinct French culture such as Acadian and Quebecois, many of them speak different dialects as well, and have also different ancestries with of course French and French Canadian being predominate but also there is a lot of English since a lot of Anglo American settlers that poured into French North America, which they mostly spread around the unpopulated areas near the border with British North America at the 42nd parallel (remember people don’t follow borders) and the Pacific Northwest near Washington State and British Columbia and later established their own communities in these places and thrive as a distinct culture where they are around 15% of the population. This happened in our timeline as there were many Anglo American settlers that poured into Canada and Mexico.
There are also a lot of Irish, Low Countries (Belgium and Netherlands), and German settlers in French Canada for the same reason but they also came for industrial jobs that were mentioned earlier during the growth of industrial cities. Very much like the Anglo Canada of our timeline there is also a growing amount of Ukrainian and Russian settlers that are settling out in the prairies and northern Great Plains regions which are apart of French North America in this timeline as well.
The French North America Act (French: Act d'Amérique du Nord Français) will give French North America which will be called French Canada semi-independence similar to the British colonies of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand of our timeline or the American colonies of this timeline. But they will most definitely remain apart of the French Empire and share the same monarch as their head of state (Probably King Louis number something something). The French North American nation which will be called French Canada will also have a lot of other really nice things such as their own flag, parliament, and most likely their very own military and military divisions (such as an army, navy, and later air force) will come later sometime in the early 20th century.
This is the flag of French North America and for this flag the blue represents heaven (very much like the flag of Quebec of our timeline), the red represents the honour and those who fought for French Canada, and the five fleur de lys represents being part of France and the 5 original French colonies of French North America which are Acadia, Canada, Louisiana (which despite losing most it to the British, most of upper Louisiana itself became part of Canada), Newfoundland, and Hudson Bay (which is mostly arctic).
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New Imperialism
The European powers, mostly England, France, Spain, and Portugal, have been very interested in expanding their empires and first discovered (or rediscovered) the Americas at around the 15th century when the Spanish sent Christopher Columbus in 1492 (Even though there were many claimants before 1492 such as Vikings, Irish Monks, Welsh Princes, etc), Western Europe's geography gave it its advantage when conquering the world because of proximity to the ocean and if you could master sailing the North Atlantic and North Sea you could pretty much sail anywhere across the world without much problem.
But the European powers aren’t in the 15th, 16th, 17th, or 18th centuries anymore they are 19th and 20th century nations with the power of being industrialized which means now have modern technologies that they could use such as Gatling Guns, Ironclads (Pre-Dreadnought battleships), and etc, this gave the Europeans another advantage when it came to colonizing other lands during the age of New Imperialism.
The Americas are already colonized and unlike our timeline they aren’t largely decolonized in the 18th and 19th century, because there is no American revolution (Happy treason day, ungrateful colonials, hahahaha even if July 4th is over, its still funny) and no Napoleonic wars which weakened Spain to the point they couldn’t even recover and hold their Latin American possessions which gave Latin American countries the opportunity to declare their independence from Spain. A stronger Spain aligned with France would mean there would be no Spanish American war, and the Americans would be part of the British Empire where they would have access to far more colonies and the white colonists in the white British colonies were treated well by the British and were viewed as New Britain's overseas.
With much of the Americas and Oceania being colonized and tropical medicine being invented due to industrialization, this means Europeans can go into places that are malarial and inhospitable for Europeans many hundreds of years ago such as the tropics and especially the African tropics and colonize them. Africa was mainly colonized for pride because the European powers put more money into Africa than it ever got out (With the exception of the Belgian Congo). Africa when colonized by the European powers after the Berlin conference in in 1884-1885 would look like this, and Southeast Asia would look like this.
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Latin American Dominions
Like Britain and France, Spain also had New World colonies but they were mostly in Central and South America unlike the British and French colonies which almost all of them were located in North America. Spain also had North American colonies such as Mexico and technically Central America could count as North America as well, many of the Spanish colonies were colonized during the 16th and 17th centuries when Spain was the most powerful empire.
The Spanish New World colonies remain apart of Spain because there is no French revolution which means no Napoleonic wars and that would mean with no Napoleonic wars the Spanish colonies remain apart of the Spanish Empire. The Spanish colonies remaining apart of the Spanish Empire would actually be surprisingly better for them because the Spanish were reforming their empire in the late 18th century to give their colonies more autonomy. One of the reason why the British colonies were so successful (Eg. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and USA) is because the British gave them more autonomy than the Spanish.
These Spanish New World colonies would be a bit better of than they would be in this timeline with the Spanish giving them more and more autonomy with the Spanish New World colonies likely being economically a lot like the American South or Southern and Eastern Europe (Most Latin American countries have a gdp per capita lower than those 3 regions), which would mean they would be developed and rich with lots of manufacturing but not wealthy and as industrialized like the economic and industrial cities that are based in the British and French North American colonies.
Geography which is a subject that I love a lot, but it would divide many of these Spanish colonies when they become dominions of the Spanish Empire, Mexico would have similar borders to that of our timeline if not the same, but what would be different is that central America would likely be one country without the civil war that made it into many different countries, the borders would be a bit different since there isn’t as much if any revolutions and civil wars which split many latin American countries. For example Argentina being more powerful would hold onto Uruguay, Peru and Bolivia would be one country, but Gran Columbia would not survive because of geographic and cultural differences, The Caribbean countries are mostly islands so the borders would be the same since they are natural borders for the most part.
For Brazil it would develop very similarly to the Spanish Latin American colonies in this timeline, but without the overthrow of the monarchy, this would mean Brazil would be a more stable and prosperous nations without a lot of the dictatorships that came after the monarchy. But the monarchy in Brazil which was the Portuguese monarchy that came after the Napoleonic wars to Brazil built up a lot of its infrastructure and the Empire of Brazil did show a lot of promise under the monarchy particularly Pedro II (One of the best monarchs in history), but Brazil even without the Empire of Brazil which was a byproduct of the Napoleonic Wars would still be better off because the Portuguese government would reform over time and immigrants would come and develop Brazil over time as well.
Trade With China And The Boxer Rebellion
When the European countries are industrializing, and industrialization creates even more goods, which means Europeans need more places to sell them to, and where do you think the place where you want to sell goods at would be the most populous nation for over 2500 years or just keeping the goods to yourself and trading it with no-one. You would most definitely be wrong if you chose just keeping the goods to yourself and letting them rot away but if you picked the country with the most population for 2500 years straight, you are correct, and that very very large nation on the map is known as China. The Chinese were very reluctant to allow outsiders to trade with them and this is the same thing that went for Japan before they had to modernize.
The Europeans have been having interest in China since long before the 1890s-1900s when the Boxer rebellion had begun and there was European interactions with China since the early 16th century in 1517 during the age of exploration with the Portuguese. There would likely be no Opium Wars because the French had a different economic and colonial style and system than the British because the French mostly had government ran companies while the British companies tended to be privately owned so there was more of a profit motive. But without the Opium wars the Europeans would still want to trade their goods with China even if China was very reluctant to allow the European powers and Japan to do so.
China refusing to allow European powers and Japan to trade with them and due to its massive size there will be all of the major European powers forming into an alliance very much like our timeline to come establish spheres of influence and ports where they will like to trade. The major powers would be the British Empire, French Empire, Spanish Empire, Portuguese Empire, Russian Empire, Japanese Empire, Austro-German Empire, and the Dutch Empire, and yes there will still be 8 powers but they are a little bit different than our timeline they would also have a lot of support by other powers as well such as the many of the Italian states as well.
Many of the Boxers who were rebelling against the European powers, Japan, and other foreigners occupying parts of China though that their Calisthenic rituals and Martial arts could give them almost superpower abilities like to block bullets and shield them from the oncoming European armies and that is why it is named the name Boxer Rebellion. The what you would call conflict with China which was also known as the Qing Empire that the European powers are having would end in 1901, just like it did in our timeline, with the British Empire, French Empire, Spanish Empire, Portuguese Empire, Russian Empire, Japanese Empire, Austro-German Empire, and the Dutch Empire. This would be known as the Boxer Protocol where the Chinese tried to expel all foreigners from their nation and they were unsuccessful at it and it ended with both the European powers and Japan forcing China to trade with them and the establishment of what would be known as an Open Door Policy.
Ellis Island And New Arrivals
It is the 1890s, which is the start of a second wave of immigration, but this immigration is mainly coming from the Southern and Eastern parts of Europe, which was the poorest parts of Europe at the time, many Southern and Eastern Europeans are coming to escape many different things but especially poverty, persecution, overpopulation (by the way unsustainable population growth can be connected with a lot if not most problems in society along with climate change), and opportunity because industrialization kicked off in the early 19th century in North America while it was in its infancy in Southern and Eastern Europe or stagnated completely.
In this immigration station called Ellis Island millions of immigrants came through the immigration station to be checked and deemed worthy of citizenship in British North America. French North America will have something similar to an Ellis Island (likely a lot like Pier 21, which is basically Ellis Island’s Canadian cousin of our timeline) of their own where many new arrivals would start to come from many countries in Europe, especially Southern and Eastern Europe with immigrants such as Italians, Russians, etc.
These Southern and Eastern European immigrants will start to come to North America (Both British and French North America) to get more opportunity and to work in jobs and move to big cities such as Chicago, Detroit, and New York in British North America and big cities in French North America such as Montreal, Quebec City, and Chicago (and yes Chicago is part of both British and French North America in this timeline since the border is at the 42nd parallel as Chicago goes right through the 42nd parallel). Many of these immigrants would be extremely mobile and so they would move from place to place (city to city) as well.
Hawaii
Oh, Hawaii, a tropical paradise (unless if your me and prefer dark, foggy, and cold weather as opposed to warm weather) in the Pacific, it is known as being a place where people go on vacation and get their what you would call aloha on. But looking back in history it wasn’t always like that, it was originally a land settled by Polynesians and than it was taken and explored by the British in 1776 but no really colonized until the Americans and American interests showed an interest in Hawaii and took Hawaii in 1893 and overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy in a coup d’etat and was later annexed by the United States in 1898.
In this timeline Hawaii has a similar history and is explored by the British in 1776 but they don’t really conquer it and settle it. The British would explore Hawaii in the same time they did in our timeline but wouldn’t really get into colonizing Hawaii until later in the late 19th century mostly for the fruit producing plantations such as those that produced Bananas and they would import foreign workers (mostly Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, etc) as basically pseudo slave labor which definitely happened in our timeline in Hawaii.
So in this timeline Hawaiian history likely wouldn’t be very different because the monarchy would likely still be overthrown by American business interests for the same exact reasons it happened in our timeline and Hawaii would likely be its own independent country rather than apart of British North America for the same exact reasons that Barbados and the Bahamas aren’t apart of Canada.
Progressive Era
It is the late 19th century going on to be the 20th century, this era in history is going through a process of a great amount of change and process. Things such as workers rights and child labour are starting to be exposed and many people are taking action against it, there are people known as muckrakers who exposed the exploitation and corruption of many practices such as working conditions in factories, a perfect example of one of these people is a men of the names of Jim Sinclair and Lewis Hine, and they weren’t the only ones there were also many others were also doing the same as well.
For nations in Europe especially the ones with monarchies they are undergoing a process of democratization and becoming constitutional monarchies and parliamentary monarchies (which are basically democracies where monarchs are head of state) which are a lot like that of the modern day Britain and Belgium. Many of these nations are becoming more liberal and secular as well with enlightenment ideas from the 18th century mixing with the industrial revolution in the 19th century. The main cause of these reforms and changes in society are largely due to the effects of industrialization as people start to settle in cities (urban areas are more liberal) for opportunities such as jobs in factories.
Many achievements of the Progressive Era include the breakup of many monopolies, improved working conditions in factories so things such as safety and sanitation regulations are put in place, and many different immigration policies based on where in Europe immigrants came from for example Southern and Eastern European mainly Catholic immigration would be more limited in British North America, and maybe protestant immigration to French North America would likely be limited as well.
Invention Of Aircraft And Automobiles
In the 20th century an age known for many inventions and innovations, and we are talking about specifically the aircraft and automobile. The aircraft would be invented in 1900s at around 1903 when the Wright Brothers (or whoever else if you want to butterfly their existence away) and the aircraft would be innovated with the first flight not being very long at only a quarter mile at most launched from a catapult. The invention of the aircraft would result in another invention, the aircraft carrier which was almost just as old as aircraft themselves, they like aircraft would undergo many trial and errors as well.
Another invention because aircrafts aren’t the only mode of transportation that was popularized in the 20th century and the other one is the automobile which will start off as fast as a horse on something that looked like an open wagon and it would soon devolve into an enclosed frame that you drive from point a to point b. The automobile when it is popularized and made affordable by Henry Ford (or whoever else if you want to butterfly his existence, someone else would of done it instead) with his Model T and later cars would result in the growth of suburbs and suburban sprawl in the 1920s-1950s.
The aircraft and automobile would result in the growth of jobs in automotive cities such as Detroit, Windsor, Flint, Lansing, etc. This would draw many people to move to these cities for the new economic opportunities as people in both French and British North America start to move out of rural areas to urban areas.
Russo-Japanese War
In the far east, Russia and Japan are competing for territory, and the territories that are being fought over are mainly Korea and Manchuria, Russia is also trying to secure a warm water port in the Pacific. One of the main goals of Russia over its recorded history was to secure a warm water port in just about anywhere that it could have free access without having to go through straits in places such as the Baltic and Black seas, so that Russia can have a navy and that Russia can have more ports that it can do more trading more freely.
In this timeline, the Japanese would most likely win the Russo Japanese War because this timeline wouldn’t be any different to our timeline and Japan would still modernize and industrialize so they would still win the war. The Japanese would still get Korea and Manchuria while the Russians would have a humiliating defeat against the Japanese, this would result in the 1905 revolution still happening and the Duma still being instituted.
The Russians losing the Russo Japanese war would also heavily affect alliances in Europe between the major European powers. So if a war like WW1 still happens, it would be highly likely be that the British would either be neutral against the French (the most powerful European power ITL). The British aligning themselves with the Russians could be definitely be a possibility because of the loss of the Russo Japanese War showed how weak Russia was and due to how powerful France is, this isn’t an unlikely outcome.
So I would say the best guess/estimate for WW1 alliances, if WW1 or a war like it happens, would be that the British and Russians would align themselves with each other against the French, Spanish, and Austrians in Europe with of course the Anglo Americans being aligned with the British in the Americas and the French North Americans being aligned with France.
Chapter 59: WW1 and Treaty of Versailles
The great major European powers, such as France, Britain, Spain, and Russia will eventually have a war with each other. As expanding power would cause future conflict between the major European Powers. France and Spain are growing massively in power which would concern their rivals such as Britain and Russia as they would begin to expand throughout pretty much the entire planet to be dominant world power.
Since Germany wouldn’t be united, the French being the most powerful and populated country in Europe would take their place as the aggressors on the European continent. So Britain, Russia, and along with maybe Portugal would form into an alliance to fight against France and Spain. Without Germany being united it would be less powerful so many of the German states would be split between to support the British/Russian alliance or the French/Spanish alliance.
Me personally, I think the Anglo-Russian alliance would win outside of Europe because the British would have the armies and vast resources of their North America possessions to pull from. This would mean the British would conquer all of North America west of Ontario and Minnesota because it was very lightly populated and the British can easily fill it up with English speaking immigrants. The British would also be able to conquer much of Eastern India (especially Bengal region) with their navy based in the Asia-Pacific region as well as Northeastern Africa from the French as well to.
But on the European continent, I would say the Franco-Spanish alliance would win without a doubt because Russia didn't do too well in WW1 and wasn't that prepared for it, the Germans and Italians aren't united in this timeline, and the Portuguese being a very small country that is bordering a much larger neighbour of Spain which is itself allied with the even larger country of France. So this would without a doubt make the Franco-Spanish alliance win on the continent. Having a weak disunited Germany (Austro-German empire in this timeline) and Italy this would likely mean they would become French client states. Portugal would likely be forced to become a Spanish client state as well. Russia due to the defeat in WW1 still has the Russian revolution, civil war, and ultimately becomes communist.
Treaty of Versailles
- France cedes Western Canada to Britain.
- Spain cedes Northern Mexico to Britain.
- France cedes Bengal, Burma, and Ceylon regions to Britain.
- France cedes Northeast Africa and Madagascar to Britain.
- Spain cedes Philippines to Britain.
Effects of WW1
- French Empire retains its position as the dominant continental power.
- British and Russian Empires would rise to world power status.
- Much of the German and Italian states become client state to the French.
- Portugal becomes a client state to the Spanish.
- Russia would still fall to communism due to the defeat in WW1.
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I don't think WW1 would even happen at all in this timeline because pretty much everything would be in favour of the French as they would be the most powerful on the European continent. The French would have royal ties to the Spanish (both France and Spain are ruled by the Bourbon dynasty). The Dutch and Portuguese would have no chance in a war against the major European powers (especially France) by themselves because they are so small. The Germans and Italians being loosely united and less militaristic than OTL. The Russians not sharing borders with the French which would make a land war impossible in continental Europe. As well as the Ottoman Empire being weak, and the British not having the land army that France has.
No WW1 in this timeline means.
No WW1 in this timeline means.
- Russian Empire survives and industrializes and remains the main rival of the French without a united Germany.
- Ottoman Empire survives and would actually survive because it was going through a impressive process of reform and if Ataturk gets into power this will even increase the chances of it surviving as well. Oil will likely be discovered in the middle east meaning it would be really wealthy in the future.
- European monarchies survive in places such as Russia and Germany.
- There will likely be a cold war involving geopolitical competition between the French and Russians over influence over parts of the globe similar to the Great Game between Britain and Russia of our timeline.