The map shown above is the personal map of German Emperor Rupprecht (I know its in English, but it needs to be readable). It has been reprinted a few times to add elements, but it also contains his personal notes he has written throughout the war.
History:
WWI occurs as in OTL, but Italy does not join the Allies, remaining neutral. At the Paris Peace Conference, the Austrians keep Sudetenland and South Tyrol. The Habsburgs remain in power, but only as Kings of Austria, and limited by a new constitution.
In Germany, the borders are reduced down to OTL Weimar Republic parameters. Wilhelm II and his son both abdicate, but German leaders still want a monarch over Germany with monarchists holding the majority of the Reichstag. The next logical choice is the House of Wittelsbach. Socialist revolutionaries in Munich had assassinated Ludwig III, so the new King of Bavaria, Rupprecht, is crowned German Emperor by the Reichstag. While Berlin is still the nominal capital of Germany, Rupprecht spends most of his time in Munich, which he prefers to Berlin.
The Ottoman Empire also receives a different peace settlement. The Bosphorous and Dardanelles are put under League of Nations rule, while the Greeks are given control over the Smyrna area. The rump Turkey undergoes a civil war between royalists and republicans. The civil war lasts for some 4 years before royalist forces prevail. The Sultanate of Turkey is proclaimed, and the Sultan is given large amounts of power. Turkey enters a state of isolationism, from which it will not emerge for some time.
In the UK, the guerilla war in Ireland escalates to an extremely bloody level. The position in Northern Ireland becomes untenable as Catholic groups stage constant attacks on the civilians. Protestant Irish are evacuated back to England and Scotland. The new Kingdom of Ireland has control over the entire Ireland, but it is still in a personal union with the new Kingdom of Great Britain, which reverted back to the pre-1801 Union flag.
As the 20s and 30s pass, resentment simmers under the surface in Austria and Germany, both wanting to return to former glory. Farther and farther right-wing groups are elected into office in the respective legislatures, but these groups still tend to be pro-monarchist. Calls for the reconquest of lost lands, and the return of monarchies in Europe are made in both Germany and Austria. With this surge of support, the German Empire discards the Versailles treaty and renews major military buildup. Austria also discards the binding peace treaties, and signs the Pact of Germans establishing an Austro-German Alliance in 1934.
In Italy, discontent also occurs with the status quo. Poor economic conditions and the general weaknessess of the Italian parliamentary goverments leads to the March on Rome and the establishment of Benito Mussolini's fascist regime. Mussolini relates to the right-wing monarchist governments in Austria and Germany to an extent, so in 1935, the Imperial Alliance is signed between the governments of Austria, Germany, and Italy.
In late 1935, German soldiers reoccupy the Rhineland as in OTL, with the French and British backing down. In 1937 the Imperial Alliance makes its next move. In conjunction with the Kingdom of Hungary, led by the Regent, Admiral Horthy, Bohemia-Slovakia is invaded. The war is brief and decisive. New German and Austrian armored and mobile units are able to cut apart the poor-quality Bohemian-Slovakian military. The end of the war sees Hungary annexing Slovakia, and Bohemia being put under a member of the House of Habsburg, although not officially part of Austria.
This war against Bohemia finally jumps start the governments of France and Great Britain into rearmament. Both nations attempt to build back to parity with Germany, but the Imperial Alliance already has a significant head start.
War finally broke out in 1939, when the German Empire launched the invasion of Poland. Moreso than the invasion of Bohemia-Slovakia, the invasion of Poland was a test of the new German military tactics. Encirclements and pincer movements with panzer divisions and such lead to the fall of Poland in around 5 weeks. With Polish territory under joint Hungarian-Austrian-German occupation, the area had to be reorganized. The heartland of Poland was reformed as the Grand Duchy of Poland. The Kingdom of Galicia was formed out of former Polish territories, and Germany retook its former areas in the East. The farthest eastern Polish portions were reorganized into a Byelorussian run border area to serve as a buffer with the USSR.
In retaliation for the invasion of Poland, both France and Great Britain declared war on the Imperial Alliance. During the invasion of Poland, Italian and German troops had held the line well, but now as troops came back from the East, it was time to strike at France. Utilizing gas shells and infiltration tactics, the German Armies are able to break through the Maginot Line, while the Italians feignt an attack in the South. British troops were landed in France in large numbers, but they were illequipped for the mobile and armored warfare of the Imperial Alliance. The fighting is hard though, and French military forces in Metropolitan France only finally surrender in mid July of 1940.
France is reorganized as a Kingdom, but with significant territorial losses. Alsace-Lorraine is reannexed into the German Empire. Nice and Savoy were given back to Italy. Another major change is the establishment of a Kingdom of England from French territories to serve as a rival government to the Kingdom of Great Britain. Aquitaine, Britanny, Normandy, Toulose and Calais are all put into the new Kingdom of England. King Edward VIII, who had been out of job since his abdication, is put on the throne of this new Kingdom of England. British troops captured in France are given to fight for the new Kingdom of England. Not all decide to fight for the new crown, but some do.Also, the German Empire puts Alphonse I of Spain on the French throne as the current head of the Bourbon dynasty. However, the Kingdom of France is rife with resistance fighters and rebels, so the German Army has had to remain in place in certain areas.
This placing of Alphonse on the French throne angers Franco and Nationalist Spain, who do not want the Spanish monarchists getting legitimacy. With urging on from Great Britain, Spain confidently declares war on the Imperial Alliance, thinking that the Pyrennes will protect Spain. Imperial troops force the passes though, and a Spain still recovering from the Civil War is unable to put up further resistance. The government surrenders, and the Imperial Alliance puts new monarchies into power. Spain is fragmented, with Aragon, Navarre, and Castille-Leon are created out of Spain. The Aragonese and Navarrese governments receive the support of the people, mainly from Catalan and Basque seperatists. Castille-Leon, however, is not completely stable, and the new regime receives little support. German troops are tied down in this area for some time.
The next major campaign was the Balkan Campaign. Both the Austrians and Italians had designs on Yugoslavia, so the Imperial Alliance decided to invade Yugoslavia and form puppet realms from the territory. The Kingdom of Bulgaria was also approached to join the Imperial Alliance in return for Macedonia, which they accepted. So, the assault on Yugoslavia went off without a hitch, as the Yugoslavian military was unable to defend so many attacks on multiple fronts at once. After 2 weeks of fighting, the government and military surrendered. The Serbian royal house was allowed to keep domains in parts of Serbia and Bosnia as part of a principality, but the Kingdom of Dalmatia, Vojvodina, and Macedonia were stripped away. Vojvodina was put under Hungarian occupation, while the Kingdom of Dalmatia shared joint Austrian-Italian influence. Bulgaria took Macedonia.
The last phase of the Balkan Campaign began with the declaration of war on Greece and Albania by Italy. So far, the Balkan Campaign had yielded few gains for Italy other than some influence over Dalmatia. So, Italy decided to unilaterally invade Albania and Greece without Imperial Alliance counsel or support. Albania fell relatively quickly, but Greece took a little more doing. Italian troops pushed down to Thermopolyae before they were stopped. Only the infusion of some Austrian troops allowed the final breakthrough to occur. Greece was split up with Italy getting most of Greece, while Germany got Salonica and Macedonia, and Bulgaria regained the areas of Greece it lost after WWI. Italy also took the Smyrna area which it had had designs on since the end of the WWI.
With the fall of Greece, the international zone at the Dardenelles and the Bosphorous was looking increasingly precarious. The League of Nations had few troops at all to enforce their rule, and there was nothing stopping the Imperials from taking the area. So, in January of 1941, Imperial force occupied the too area relatively uneventfully, with Italian naval forces preventing Allied troops from arriving.
These Imperial encroachments towards Turkey meant that the Imperial Alliance needed to secure Turkish friendship to make the gains tenable. The Sultanate was presented with little choice, join or be invaded. The Sultanate chose the former, encouraged by territorial promises in the Caucusues. The Imperials were glad to have another staging point for the invasion of the USSR, but that plan was still in the works.
Over late winter and early spring of 1941, the plan for the invasion of the USSR began to form. The USSR was the last major continental challenger to the Imperial Order, so they needed to be neutralized before they could become too powerful. Reports of Soviet and British agents meeting also further encouraged planning for the invasion. The alliance with Turkey had secured the southern flank of the invasion and had provided access to the Baku Oil Fields, but the northern flank needed to be secured. Both Finland and Sweden were fearful of Soviet expansion, which had been demonstrated clearly in the Baltic War of 1940 in which the Baltic States were annexed. Imperial offers of protection in return for military alliance finally led to Sweden and Finland joining the Imperial Alliance. When Finland joined, they had the unique distinction of being the only republic in the Imperial Alliance.
Also at this time, Romania joined the Imperial Alliance with promises of Russian territory and due to the increasingly untenable situation for neutral nations in Europe.
As late spring and early summer approached, planning for the invasion began to speed up. More and more Imperial forces massed at the border, just waiting for the invasion to plunge into Russia. However, before the invasion would be launched, Imperial diplomats decided to present the Soviets with an ultimatum. Cede certain border territories, or the USSR will be invaded. Stalin knew that he was going to face war with the Imperials one time or another, but his generals had told him that the USSR would be crushed if the war started now. So, begrudgingly, he agreed to the ultimatum, ceding certain areas in the Ukraine, the Baltic States and in the north. Leningrad was hard to lose, but the industry had been moved to other areas before the territory would be ceded. The Imperial Alliance organized the Baltic states as duchies, while leaving the other areas as buffer lands. As the ink was drying on the ceding of the Soviet territories, Soviet agents signed a secret treaty with Great Britain, promising to join the war in one year. Britain would also begin to send equipment and aid to Russia before they joined the war as part of the plan. The Eastern Front would explode into violence in only a matter of time.
