Names For OTL In ATLs

From: Leonor!
WI:What if Eleanor of Aquitaine married King Henry II of England
POD: Eleanor of Aquitaine marries Louis VII then the King of England after her divorce from Louis VII.
TL Name: Pax français



Eleanor of Aquitaine does not go to pilgrimage with her father, Eleanor of Aquitaine marries Louis VII and has two daughters named Marie and Alix,
In March 1152, Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine divorced under the pretext of consanguinity at the council of Beaugency because the couple was not getting along.[35] The terms of the divorce left Eleanor as Duchess of Aquitaine but under rule of the King; eight weeks later she married Henry (who was no less related to her than was Louis VII). With Henry thus becoming Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony, it was obvious he would never give Anjou up to his brother, since it would mean splitting his land into two parts. A coalition of all of Henry's enemies was set up by Louis VII: King Stephen of England and his son Eustace IV of Boulogne (married to Louis' sister), Henry the Liberal (promised to Eleanor's daughter), Robert of Dreux (Louis VII's brother) and Geoffrey who no longer had hope of being given Anjou.
 
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Eleanor marries the English King
From: Leonor!
WI:What if Eleanor of Aquitaine married King Henry II of England
POD: Eleanor of Aquitaine marries the King of England after her divorce from Louis VII and the defeat of the Battle of Muret
TL Name: Pax français
So a TL with a weaker Angevin Empire sees OTL's France as particularly successful?
 
From : A "No White Ship" TL
Initial WI : WI the White Ship had sunk in 1120, killing William Adelin?
POD : Death of William Aethling in the sinking of the White Ship.
TL name : The tragedy of the White Ship

In this timeline, the White Ship sinks on his maiden voyage in 1120, leading to the death of William Adelin (OTL King William III of England). This has huge consequences on English history as the only hier to King Henry I is now is daughter Mathilda.

When Henry I dies in 1135, the nobles refuse to recognize Mathilda as Queen and instead choose her cousin, Stephen of Blois, son of Henry I's sister Adela. This leads to a period of time known as the Anarchy where Mathilda and her supporters, led by her husband Geoffrey V, count of Anjou, fight those of Stephen. The war eventually ends with Stephen of England giving Normandy to Geoffrey of Anjou and recognizing Mathilda's eldest son, Henry Plantagenêt, as his heir.

Henry Plantagenêt proves to be quite lucky : he inherits Normandy and Anjou at the death of his father, marries Eleanor of Aquitaine after she divorces her husband Louis VII of France, (making him Duke of Aquitaine jure uxoris) and inherits England at Stephen's death in 1154, leading to the formation of the so-called Angevin Empire under Henry II Plantagenêt.

Henry II proves to be a great king of England and Eleanor gives him eight children, seven of whom survive up to adulthood. However, Henry II's three eldest son prove unruly and, with the backing of their mother and Louis VII of France, rebel in 1173. Their rebellion is crushed, but Henry II has to keep watch on his sons.
In the end, the rise of King Philip II Augustus of France leads to the Angevin's doomfall. The death of Henry II's heir, Henry the Young, makes Henry II's cadet son, Richard Lionheart (Eleanor's favorite son), to become heir. Richard soon receives the backing of Philip II of France and rebels against Henry II. The latter dies in 1189, after having learn his youngest and favorite son, John, had rebelled against him.

Following this Richard I goes on crusade with Philip II, but the two kings quarrel there. After the death of his stepfather Philip of Alsace in 1191, Philip II of France chooses to go back to France to prepare the succession of Philip of Alsace. He also plots against Richard with the help of John.
Learning of this, Richard hastily makes peace with the Muslims and goes back to England, but is taken in a tempest and captured by Rudolph of Austria and imprisonned by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor. He only gets out in 1194 thanks to Eleanor of Aquitaine paying her son's ransom.
Richard returns to England, where his brother John submits in exchange for becoming Richard's heir, which Richard accepts. He then wages war against Philip II of France but meets his death during a siege in 1199.

This leaves the throne to John Lackland. Soon however, Philip II of France values the rights of John's nephew, Arthur of Britanny (son of John's elder brother Geoffrey), and wages war. Normandy falls in French hands in 1204 and Arthur misteriously disappears after having been captured by King John.
John Lackland eventually tries to get revenge on Philip II, assembling a huge coalition with the notable help of his nephew Otto IV (son of John's sister Mathilda), the new Holy Roman Emperor. However, John is defeated in Aquitaine at the Roche-Aux-Moines while Philip II crushes Otto IV's forces at Bouvines, in eastern France.
Eventually, John's barons rebels and wishes for Philip II's son, Louis (future King Louis VIII of France) to be their new king as he is the husband of Blanche of Castille, a niece of John (she is the daughter of his sister Eleanor). Louis nearly manages to overthrow the Plantagenêt but the surprise death of John in 1216 and the barons rallying to John's young son Henry III prevent this.

However, France is now the dominating power of Europe and has forever stolen Normandy from England.
 
From: Cromwell's Commonwealth continues after his death
Initial WI: What if Richard Cromwell had been named Lord Protector?
POD: Richard doesn't die in the collapsing staircase accident
TL Name: The Once and Future King

Considered to be a wish-fulfilment fantasy both for Greater Virginian regionalists and practitioners of Mogul-style misbelief, in which England is betrayed by the architects of her liberation and the crypto-papist Stuarts are returned to the throne. However this proved so controversial that this element was hastily dropped with the 1689 update and a Dutch king brought in as a compromise. Idealist fantasies of the republican system are implemented in the rebellious colonies as they hold true to the spirit of the revolution, yet implausibly also embrace the Mogul system and permit Papism and its lickspittle imitators. Its hardcore fans consider it to have jumped the shark after the epic war segment in the 1940s, with the always much-criticised element of religious pluralism in the independent colonies being hastily retconned away.

What is the Mogul system?
 
Thande - could you please* write this Cromwell timeline? It sounds great!

*write TABAE, or if for some reason you don't, please...
 

Thande

Donor
I actually loosely based that setting in the DBWI on my very first (insanely n00bish, pre-AH.com) timeline which featured a Puritan Commonwealth that was similar in structure to the Soviet Union: the name was the CPLR, or Commonwealth of Puritan Levelled Republics. And it basically replaced the British Empire of OTL. So I did it before EdT, you hear me! :p
 
From: The Black and the Gray
Initial WI: WI the Confederacy lost the War of Secession?
POD: President Davis successfully supresses the Cleburne Memorial.
TL Name: Union and Liberty?

This timeline postulates that President Jefferson Davis successfully suppressed the Cleburne Memorial in January 1864. As a result, the final passage of legislation which allowed the mass recruitment of slaves as soldiers for the Confederacy is delayed until one year later, on March 13, 1865. As a result, the Confederacy loses the War of Secession.

So far, so good. The Confederacy in real history was in pretty dire straights by 1864, and its prospects, without the large infusion of manpower which came as a result of the black recruitment laws of March 1864, were pretty bleak. However, the actual sequence of events which takes place in the timeline is fairly fantastic.

First, after General Joe Johnston fights a brilliant defensive campaign from the borders of Tennessee to the outskirts of Atlanta, preserving his army while inflicting large losses on the enemy in every engagement in which he fought them, suddenly President Davis just removes him from command. And who does he put in his place? Beauregard? No. Bragg? No. Kirby Smith? No again.

He promotes John Bell Hood, whose performance during the campaign up to that time (in the ATL) had been far from spectacular, to the rank of Full General, and places him in command! And Hood, who in real history performed creditably in the 1864 campaign in north Georgia and later in Tennessee, acts like he has no brains at all and basically throws away his army in bloody attacks on Union positions outside Atlanta. Then he allows Sherman to encircle the city, and cut all the railroad lines into it, so it falls in August 1864.

Then, General Sherman burns Atlanta and heads off, with his army, toward Savannah, burning, looting, and raping his way through Georgia. Does Hood try to stop him?

No.

Instead, Hood marches off in the opposite direction and heads into Tennessee! Along the way, he nearly manages to capture a Union Army of 20,000 men at Spring Hill, Tennessee. But his army, for some inexplicable reason, goes into camp for the night leaving the road clear, and the Yankees just march past during the night and get clean away to Franklin, Tennessee, without even being challenged by the Confederates who are camped just a few hundred yards from the road! At that point I almost threw up my hands and quit reading...it was just too fantastic to believe! But I persevered.

Then Hood throws away another 6,000 to 7,000 men attacking the entrenched Yankees at Franklin, then follows them to Nashville, where Union General George Thomas is building an army to oppose him. He then proceeds to entrench himself on top of a ridge outside Nashville...and do nothing. He just waits while Thomas gathers up an overwhelming force and comes out in mid-December and swats his army like a fly.

The pitiful remnants of the once proud Army of Tennessee march to Tupelo, Mississippi, then march all the way, on foot, from there to North Carolina, where they surrender to Sherman on April 26, 1865.

Meanwhile, Sherman captures Savannah, and then proceeds, with virtually no resistance, to burn, loot, and rape his way through South Carolina, where he burns the State Capitol, Columbia, for no apparent reason, until he finally catches up to the Army of Tennessee in North Carolina to accept its surrender.

The course of events in the Eastern Theater is more believable. General Lee is gradually forced back toward Richmond in a series of battles in which he inflicts as many casualties on Union General Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Potomac as Lee had in his entire army at the start of the campaign. The city is placed under siege, and falls, ten months later, in April 1865.

But even here, a fantastic event takes place. In late May 1864, General Lee lures General Grant into a trap at the North Anna River, taking a position which forces the Yankees to divide their army into three parts, each separated from the other by a river. Lee has the opportunity to attack the center of the Union position, which was weakly held by the incompetent Ambrose Burnside, and then turn to savage either the left or right flank of the Union Army before the other flank could intervene. Lee has placed himself in the perfect position to destroy the Army of the Potomac, and possibly end the war.

But then, General Lee gets a stomach virus, is confined to his tent, and his army sits and does NOTHING for a whole day, giving General Grant time to figure out that his army is in a trap and to get out of it. For the lack of a bottle of Pepto Bismol, a nation lost its independence!

I almost gave up on this timeline at that point. But being the glutton for punishment I am, I kept reading.

I found the section on the "Reconstruction" of the South following the failed War of Secession to be rather chilling (by the way, in the ATL, they refer to the conflict as the "Civil War," for some reason, which is stupid, because a civil war is a war fought by two factions for control of the government of a nation, not at all an accurate description of the War of Secession...but I digress). The Yankees free the slaves, and then the Republican Party uses them to establish control over all the Southern State Governments. Their regimes do some good...efforts are made to educate the former slaves in some areas, and to protect their rights...but mostly these governments seem to be interested in raising taxes and looting the State Treasuries as quickly as possible. Most of the white population of the South is disenfranchised, for as much as 12 years in some cases, and in reaction, white Southerners form a vicious terrorist organization called the Ku Klux Klan (which, by the way, is a REALLY stupid name...seems like the author of this TL could have come up with something better), which engages in a campaign of violence and intimidation which kills thousands of blacks and white carpetbaggers and poisons race relations nearly irreparably.

Finally, Reconstruction ends, but only after a corrupt political deal allows the Republican candidate to steal the Presidency following a disputed 1876 election. Then white supremacist Democrats take power all over the South, and proceed to impose a brutal system of enforced segregation on the black population called "Jim Crow" (Yet ANOTHER stupid name...why did he name this after some second rate minstrel song? Geez!). Segregation is a Northern invention, and did not exist in the South prior to the War of Secession. It never existed in the Confederacy in our own history. One has to wonder why the embittered, defeated Southerners of this ATL would suddenly want to imitate their Yankee oppressors by adopting such a system? But they do. And not only do they adopt it, but the system persists for almost a century...accompanied by a wave of horrific lynchings of mostly innocent black people which kills thousands, mostly during the early 1900s...right up into the 1960s, if you can believe it!

You'd think that a United States which had forcibly reabsorbed the South at gunpoint, treated it like a conquered territory for over a decade afterward, freed millions of slaves and done nothing to see that they could be peacefully integrated into society, and then allowed the horrid "Jim Crow" regime (I still hate that name) to exist in the South for almost a century after the war, would end up as a Third World country, torn apart by racial and sectional strife. But you'd be wrong.

In the ATL, the United States goes on to be the world's only superpower by the end of the twentieth century. The British Empire, the French Empire, and all the others, gone. And even some of the events which lead to this outcome are far-fetched in themselves.

--Germany and Britain fight on opposite sides of the Great War...which takes place a decade later than in our history. And Britain is allied to France...AND RUSSIA! Its two traditional enemies! Against its traditional ally! Just unbelievable.

--Adolf Hitler, who in real history was an Austrian landscape painter living in Vienna, ends up as dictator of Germany??? And he kills 6 million Jews???? And he almost conquers the world???? One has to wonder, what was the author of this piece of garbage smoking when he wrote this?

--The COMMUNISTS end up in control of Russia. In real history, they were a minor movement which never got off the ground and certainly never came close to gaining power in any nation. And then, under their leadership, Russia ends up as one of two superpowers which struggled for dominance for most of the second half of the twentieth century??? PUH-LEASE!!!!

By the time you get to the end of this, you just want to bang your head against the wall. Or stick your head out the window and yell, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" It seems like, by then, the author is just making random stuff up as he goes along. It's just bad.

Give this one a miss.

ooc, Even if Davis hadn't supressed the Cleburne Memorial it would still have been extremely controversial. It would likely have taken months for it to have been enacted if enacted at all and it is dubious that they would get many recruits since the Union had been promising emancipation for a year and already had thousands of black troops under arm. Even the 1865 law allowing black troops did not promise freedom for the slaves who fought and the slaves knew that Union victory meant emancipation, so they would have little incentive to fight for the Confederacy.

Sherman's army didn't attack civilians but merely destroyed property, especially if it had military importance and Confederate deserters and the Confederate cavalry under Joseph Wheeler destroyed as much property as did Sherman's troops.

The majority white Southerners weren't disenfranchised in any state and Grant pardoned all but 500 former Confederate office holders in 1875. All of the former states were readmitted to Congressional representation by 1870. Its pretty ridiculous to blame segregation on the North. The South didn't have segregation before the war since most of the blacks were slaves and therefore a system of segregation would have been superfluous. Also, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1875 banning segregation in public accomodations but it was later annulled by the Supreme Court. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1875
 
From: The Raptor of Spain
Initial WI: What if Muslims united the Iberian Peninsula?
POD: King Araman's initial rebellion succeeds.
TL Name: Learning the Hard Way World

This TL takes a plausible choice (no conversion) but couples it with a rather unlikely event (a Caliphate of Cordoba!) and spins it into a somewhat dystopic world where everything from education, administration and subsistence takes longer to develop and is harder to implement. Everything has to be learned the hard way.

Small changes stack up to big differences as the Germination Period is consumed with political chaos and a socio-economic system called feudalism that seems either voluntary slavery or gansterism depending on where and when. The Reflowering is dominated by struggles over the role of church and king followed by schismatic religious conflicts that barely touch the Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist worlds. The author tries to make up for sluggish development by engaging in a tremendous European Wank in all areas immediately after resulting in the eventual subordination of the rest of the planet (!) to various European states to a greater or lesser degree for a long time. The whole thing becomes very dark toward the end, including major wars sparked by parts of France and an enormous continent spanning pre-migration Rossiyan analog that engaged in military conflict with a powerful country on the Antimisy.

Closer to home it's interesting that while the power and development of Muslim Hispania is quite high, unity remains an elusive goal and they are content to stay close to home before they collapse and begin a long decline. How could they not have found Pindorama? The peninsula itself is never fully unified under the Christians and tends to struggle economically which while not an implausible outcome, reminds us of the good fortune or lack of it inherent in the history of any land.

Among cliches that are employed are a united India (except Sind and Bengal), and Greater Albaney, coupled with a divided France.
 
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From: A Much Larger Rome that Survives until Present Day
Initial WI: What if Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44BC?
POD: Brutus didn't inform Caesar about the assassination attempt
TL Name: World without the Romans

An extremely controversial alternate timeline in both Roman Empire and Republic of New Rome (and in lesser extent, Aztec and Inca Empires as well), but somewhat popular in both Chinese and Japanese Empires (because of anti-Roman sentiment, of course) and still debated today in the entire world. This timeline featuring many ASBish series of events, including an affair between Antony and Cleopatra (!), Christianity as Roman state religion (!!), and the Huns invading Italy(!!!). The POD is Julius Caesar get assassinated by the conspirators in 44BC, before his famous conquests in Germania and Persia. This resulted in much, much different world.

After the successful assassination, the Romans waste their resources and menpower in two civil wars. The first was between pro-Caesar faction (led by Octavian and Antony) and the conspirators, and the second was between Octavian and Antony. In the end Octavian emerge as the sole ruler of Roman Empire, but unfortunately, he didn't has any desire for long-term conquest of Persia nor Germania (or even Brittania), especially after the defeat of the Romans at Teutoburg Forest. He instead decided that the Rhine, Danube, and Euphrates should be somewhat permanent border of Roman state, which has pretty much disastrous consequences in the future.

In the following centuries, both Germanic tribes and Persians grew even stronger while the Romans were weakened by both external and internal problems. The western part of Roman Empire was overran by Germanic migrations and Hunnic invasions, while half of the eastern part was loss to the Arabic tribes under the new religion of Islam. Both Europe and Middle East were balkanized even more, and finally Christianity and Islam came into conflict with each other. Meanwhile, the Roman Empire, now consisted only of Greece and Anatolia with Byzantium (or like it was called ITTL, Constantinople) as her capital, struggle to survive.

The Mongol invasions proceed more or less similar with OTL, although with much more success, of course. The New World was discovered and colonized by the European states, and the war for independence was still happened, pretty much similar with the secession of the Republic of New Rome in OTL. Those Europeans then carved up the globe into their respective colonial empires, while China, having no "equal rival", fallen into stagnation. After two World Wars, European colonies around the world are given independence. All in all, present day world is extremely balkanized.
 
Good timelines always need good advertisements, so...

From: The Guns of Tawantinsuya
Initial WI: What if the Tawantinsuya (or the Incas) never discovered gunpowder?
POD: The accidental discovery of gunpowder by one of Native-American priest in ca 950 AD never happened
TL Name: The Empire of Gold

An alternate history that explore the possibility of what would happened if the Tawantinsuya weren’t able to resist Spanish conquest at 16th century AD. The POD is that the Tawantinsuya never developed gunpowder-based weaponry (bronze hand cannon, bronze artillery), thus resulted into a successful capture (and then, execution) of Atahualpa Inca by Francisco Pizarro. Pizarro himself survived, and then proceed to capture Cuzco, capital of Tawantinsuyu. The next decades saw Pizarro and other Spanish conquistadors fought their way to subdue the rest of the Tawantinsuya Empire. The Tawantinsuya, having much poorer equipments (due to the lack of gunpowder), devastated by diseases and civil wars, failed to defend their empire from the Spanish.

The subjugation of Tawantinsuyu has some profound effects to European imperialism. The English formed East India Company by themselves, instead of as a joint venture by English and Tawantinsuya, which means both India and Australia were colonized by the English/British alone in this ATL. The lack of help from Tawantinsuyu also doomed Quilombo’s attempt to gain independence from the Portuguese, thus lead to a much longer-lived Portuguese Brazil. Another large-scale impact was that in this ATL the Spanish immigrants were pretty much dispersed in North, Central, and South America, which resulted into less stronger and less robust Spanish settlements in North America, which of course butterflied away the Kingdom of Aztlan/Nuevo Espana as we know it (in ATL was named “Mexico”).

The lack of successful slave revolt in Quilombo also butterflied away British paranoia of large-scale slave revolt in their own territory. Thus the abolishment of slavery in British colonies was delayed for more than a century, and as a result, the economy, political structure, and population of British North America will be markedly different from that in OTL, and this will have dramatic impact, especially to the development of United States: United States in this ATL is a republican democracy, instead of constitutional monarchy as in OTL. The wave of “republicanism” was then spread around the world, most notably to France, China, Russia, and Germany, where monarchy was overthrown in favor of “republic”.

It is worth mentioning, though, that this ATL has experienced two World Wars, which were successfully avoided in OTL, thanks to the monarchs of various great powers who were able to defuse the political tensions between world’s empires/kingdoms. The World Wars contributed alot to the extreme social changes in this world (included the more aggressive Fascism in Italy, and the rise of “Nazism” in Germany and “Communism” in Russia and China, both of which have been largely dissappeared in present day) and the large scale decolonization around the world (in contrast with OTL, where global empires were gradually evolved into federal union or commonwealth). All in all, present day ATL is somewhat less stable than OTL, where the world’s great powers (Britain, France, Russia, Tawantinsuyu, United States, Aztlan, China, Japan, Italy, Ottoman Empire) are closely related to each other by royal intermarriage. Although, of course, there is a peace-keeping international organization, called “United Nations”, which is somewhat similar with OTL’s Congress of Nations.
 
From: Monarchy World
Initial WI: What if China remained isolated, rather than opened up to the world during the Colonial Age?
POD: The birth of Emperor Qianlong, who replaced the OTL Emperor Shang-Kun
TL Name: Republican World

The point of divergence from the OTL is the birth of a Chinese Emperor, Qianlong, who replaced the OTL Emperor Shang-Kun. Qianlong was a conservative, militaristic individual who kept China isolated to the world rather than opening it up as it was in the OTL. This lack of openness and the continuous sense of “superiority” resulted into a limited and one-way trade with Europe. In fact ATL China only want to trade with the Europeans by using the payment of silver, in contrast with OTL, where Shang-Kun’s policy made the Chinese imported cotton, weapons, ships, scholars, craftsmen and teachers from Europe.

Because Britain has less money from the trade with China, after the Seven Years War, the British government increased the tax burden on the American colonists. The result was the so called “American Revolutionary War”, where the American colonists (aided by France, Spain, and Netherlands) successfully gained independence from the British, and formed a Federal Republic called “United States of America”. This new nation will benefitted greatly by the population boom from European immigration and then developed into a great power, and finally as a sole superpower in present-day (as it was sucessfully avoided the destructive wars in Europe).

With France avoided being over-stretched (it didn’t gain Australia, and was losing Canada and Lousiana in ATL Seven Years War), and using American revolution as an example, when the French Revolution finally occurred, it caused France to revolutionize into a Republic rather than having a dissolution into a collection of small states as it did in the OTL. However, it quickly devolved into an Empire, where a Corsican officer named Napoleon Bonaparte established himself as “Emperor of the French”, and later waged wars against French neighbours, although he was finally defeated and exiled by the coalition of European nations. France then permanently become a Republic from 19th century onwards.

The existence of a unified France drove the other European states to unify as well, mainly Germany and Italy. Prussia successfully and permanently unified German states, while Italian states were unified by Kingdom of Sardinia. In contrast, NEU (North European Union) was never formed in this ATL. Meanwhile in Asia, Japan (never being annexed by China in this ATL) was growing to a great power of its own, industrialized and outmatched the stagnated China.

The involvement of United States, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan, as well as the absence of China and NEU, butterflied away the colonialism as we know it. The colonial borders in Americas, Africa and Asia were extremely different from that of OTL. Moreover, all of colonial powers weren’t able to hold their respective colonies after experienced two destructive World Wars. In fact, the World Wars in this ATL were just European Wars that expand to the colonies, as opposed to OTL, where the three World Wars were fought as an attempt to balance the three-way rivalry between British, Russian, and Chinese Empires. Not to mention that most of ATL nations are a Republic today, due to the worldwide influence of United States.
 
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From: The Long Night Falls
Initial WI: What if the Axis Powers lose in WWII?
POD: The Libyan and Manchurian oilfields weren’t discovered in the late 1920s
TL Name: America, The Victorious One

An alternate history made by unknown citizen of the Commonwealth of Free Nations (or American Commonwealth), this timeline was somewhat ridiculed in both European League and Japanese Empire. Quite understandable, of course, given the fact that this TL featuring the victory of the Allies over the Axis in the Second World War.

However, this TL is actually plausible enough to happen, as the POD is the failure of Italians and Japanese to discover the Libyan and Manchurian oilfields, respectively, in the late 1920s. As a result, Mussolini was never be able to fully developed the Italian economy and military, let alone built infrastructures in southern Italy and Libya. The absence of those oilfields also negated the abundant fuel supply that was enjoyed by both Germany and Italy in the OTL. Moreover, it means Italy’s performance was much poorer in the war (in fact she was more treated as “junior” partner rather than an “equal” one by Germany, unlike in OTL), resulting into the failure to occupy Greece and Egypt in 1940 (although later Germany intervened in Greece, and it was successfully captured by the Axis force). In addition, Germany, Italy, and Japan never extensively developed their Navies and Air Forces and the mechanization of their Armies as in OTL, since they somewhat feared an oil shortage in wartime.

Specifically for Japan, the result was even more catastrophic: it forced her to relied more on Indonesian oilfields and then to attacked American holdings in the Pacific, thus leading into formal intervention of United States in the war. As a part of Tripartite pact, both Germany and Italy then declared war on the United States. This is also means that Imperial Japanese Army never invaded Russian Far East, as a cooperation with the Axis’ Barbarossa in European front, thus the Soviets were able to concentrate their forces on Europe. The lack of efficiency from Italians and help from Japanese means Barbarossa was doomed to failure. Although initially successful (the Axis followed a parallel foreign policy and strategy with the OTL up to 1940), the European Axis force was finally defeated and stopped at Stalingrad. Combined with a series of land defeats in North Africa and naval defeats in the Pacific (largely caused by United States forces), the Axis has already lost the initiative and undertook strategic retreat on all fronts.

In 1943, the Soviets launched their own counter-offensives which resulted into rapid and massive withdrawal of the exhausted Axis forces westward. Meanwhile, Italy itself was invaded by the Allied forces and Mussolini later get ousted and arrested. In 1944 both the Western Allied forces and Red Army invaded German-occupied territories in Europe, and finally in 1945 the Western Allies swept across Western Germany, while the Soviets stormed Berlin. Reichstag was captured and Hitler committed suicide, signalling the end of Third Reich. Meanwhile in Asia, Japan continued to reject the demand for unconditional surrender, until finally the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while the Soviets invaded and captured Manchuria and Sakhalin island. The WWII has ended.

In the aftermath of the war, the United Nations, an international organization, was established to prevent future conflicts. United States and Soviet Union emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for Cold War, which then was “won” by United States, after the collapse of Soviet Union on 1990s (thus United States becoming the sole, present day superpower on Earth, hence the name of the TL). Meanwhile, the decolonization of Asia and Africa began, and most countries (including Germany, Italy, and Japan) moved toward economic recovery.
 
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From: West Europe: A Spanish-French Union TL
Initial WI: What if Spain and France defeated at Turin, Blenheim and Ramilies?
POD: No Spain-France Union
TL Name: The European Malady

Struck by stone not luck, Bavaria was knocked out of war by a devastating battle at Blenheim, the French routed at the Ramilies, and the Spanish at Turin. Philip V was forced to renounce his claim on the Spanish throne, and French hegemony on the continent is stalled.
 
From: Decades of Darkness
Initial WI: What if the US supports liberty instead of slavery?
POD: Jefferson survives and repeals the Embargo Act
TL Name: The Yankee Jackal

An alternate history where Pres. Jefferson repeals the Embargo Act, nipping the Second American Revolution is nipped in the bud. The entire United States, including New England, proceeds to war with Britain in 1812 over not much. New England talks of secession, of course, but (again) they don't do it. Time passes, and more quarrels erupt between New England and the slaveholders... but surprise, surprise! Just when we were sure this timeline was shaping up to be a dystopia, it turns out New England had been busy settling the West out from under the jackals' feet! Now Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin (still American here), Iowa, and Minnesota (OTL Wilkinson) are solidly free-soil! In the Mexican War, this new free-soil group makes sure Mexico keeps all its territory south of the Rio Bravo del Norte; the lack of good peons causes the slaveholders' expansion to slow to a trickle, and before too long they're actually complaining of being encircled!

It got to war sooner or later, of course. Only this time, it was the south that seceded under Pres. Jefferson Davis... the trigger being the election of Pres. Abraham Lincoln, dedicated to stifling slavery. Here, however, Lincoln could do it. The Southern Confederacy was just as diplomatically isolated as our slaveholding US, with so much less industry they had to tear up some rail lines to rebuild others! The war took four years - long story - but by the end, all slaves in the United States were free!

Unfortunately, the author continues with a long but sadly realistic tale of racial discrimination in the reconstructed south. It took another hundred years for Blacks to gain truly equal rights - and even then, there're protests that they're still not equal. Still, it's definitely better than anywhere in the Americas iOTL outside New England.

Meanwhile, in foreign affairs, the lack of a Second American Revolution apparently turned the whole century brighter. It's England, instead of the continental coalition, who defeats Napoleon, leading to a juster peace which lasts until 1870. Switzerland is restored; the Holy Roman Emperor isn't. When the German Reich coalesces, it's around the single pole of Prussia. Even later, the idea of a "final peace" never got in place - the author even parodies it in a 1930's German quasi-vitalist dictator speaking of "a final solution to the Jewish problem!" (i.e. killing them all).

Well, the might of the Yankee Jackal defeats that dictator (inadvertently, and quite against its wishes, breaking the might of all Europe) and then goes on to win its bipolar cold war against a Russian socialist dictatorship. (TTL's Czar of Russia never shared power with his Duma, causing a violent revolution in 1917 where quasi-socialists eventually took power.) Now, at the end of the twentieth century, it looks like China might be rising. At the moment, though, except for smaller nations, the Yankee Jackal reigns supreme in liberty!
 
From: a timeline where the Soviet Union survives
Initial WI: WI the cold war ended in the late 20th century
POD: Charlie Wilson does not die in 1985
TL name: Charie Wilson's War

The Soviet Union exhausts itsself trying to fight Mujahideen with much more American backing After it's collapse, the United States is on top of the world for ten years, but has trouble cosolidating its win. Meanwhile Islamic Fundamentalism takes hold in Afghanistan, leading to a major terrorist attack on the United States. This timeline is only 26 years in, but it seems promising so far.
 
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From: A TL were Gustav III dont die beeing shot by Ankarstrom
Initial WI:Gustav III dont notice anything wrong at the ball and the conspirators dont murder him
POD: Gustav III is a bit less selfobsorbed
TL name: Bernadotte on the throne

Sweden dont get Gustav IV a few years earlier and Gustav III isnt around to stop Gustav IVs plans to destroy Napoleon. In this TL Sweden looses Finland 100 years earlier and becomes a poor nation until after they sit out 2 world wars while selling stuff to the highes bidder and then becomes one of the richest nations around. The most stupid thing evolves around the Swedish throne were Gustavs children are incompetent enough to get themselves ousted by the nobels and a leutenant goes to Paris and we get a french general as the crown prince. In the end the author DanneW73 have himself married to the crownprincess. He did a good job with the TL until around 1914 were it just went bananas. He managed to rant so much about politics that he is now banned.
 
From: Victorian France
WI:What if Victoria does not marry the Duke of Orleans
POD: Victoria ascends to the throne and does not marry the Duke of Orleans
TL Name: Victorian England

Though queen, as an unmarried young woman Victoria was required by social convention to live with her mother, despite their differences over the Kensington system and her mother's continued reliance on Conroy. Her mother was consigned to a remote apartment in Buckingham Palace, and Victoria often refused to meet her. When Victoria complained to Melbourne that her mother's close proximity promised "torment for many years", Melbourne sympathised but said it could be avoided by marriage, which Victoria called a "schocking [sic] alternative". Her letters of the time show interest in Albert's education for the future role he would have to play as her husband, but she resisted attempts to rush her into wedlock.
 
From : No arab conquest of Hispania.
Initial WI : Muslims didn't manage to invade Hispania, and bebers regain control of Ifryqia quite soon
POD : Tariq conquer Hispania
TL : The road of Toletum

The TL begin a little ASBish, with Tariq defeating the gothic army at Guadalete and the muslims conquering the Hispania and a part of Gaul in 6 years only. Then the islamo-wank stop in Francia, even if they are two tentatives of invasion. It makes that franks manage to unifiy Gaul under their rule, instead of aving the OTL situation between 4 separated states. Finally the grandson of Charles is crowned roman emperor (great moment of ASBness).

Finally the Tl evolve more logically, with the Roman Empire (sic) crumble and shared among german kings.
Then it turn quite boring, with quite stagnant situation for 4 pages (except for the hole norman invasion thing, that end with the conquest of southern Italy and England, resic).
The author give up with the description of a ummayad prince fleeing sort of pre-buyid dynasty coup and creating a separate state in Hispania when berbers didn't rebel in ifryqia until 740.
Having won the anti-Turtledove prize in 2009
 
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