Disclaimer


I want to point out that I am in no way affiliated with the creators or distributors of Code Geass, nor is this meant to be in any way official lore of the show. This is simply my own interpretation based on the information provided by the show. I have no intention to profit off of or use this for any other purpose but to entertain.

*This is your spoiler warning*





Foreward



Code Geass is among my absolute favorite anime shows of all time. I first watched it back in 2016, have been a fan of the original series ever since (I have not bothered with the other supplemental material), and it was even the first gift I gave to my girlfriend. Something that I did not notice upon my first watch-through of the show was that it was an alternate history show. The mechs and amazing characters did a good job of disguising that fact. Upon my subsequent rewatches, I have gotten more and more interested in the possible history of this world. The reason I say possibly is that, unlike your main crop of alternate history media, the actual details of the alternate timeline are not mentioned very much. As a matter of fact, they are only brought up a couple of times throughout the show, and even then, those lines are throwaways at best. However, maps and descriptions of how the world is in the setting of the show (that being an alternate 2017/2018) are peppered throughout.


This is where I want to start with this scenario. My main question is, “If the world actually looked the way it is depicted in Code Geass, how would history have progressed differently.” This has been a project I have been doing in parallel with a Code Geass fan panel that I have been working on with my girlfriend and if anything, this timeline is simply trying to organize the thoughts I have had about the potential history that would exist in the world of Code Geass. So, if you are a fan of Code Geass, your waiting has finally paid off. If you are not a fan of Code Geass or don’t even know what this anime is and are just a fan of alternate history, I hope that you enjoy my attempt to interpret history from the clues provided by this amazing show. Before I begin, thank you so much for reading and I hope you are satisfied with my work.





Context


For those in the know, you can skip over this section. However, for those that don’t know the show or need a refresher, I am going to give some pertinent details that will be necessary to lay the groundwork for this scenario. In the world of Code Geass in the year 2017, when the show begins, there are four power blocs in the world. You have the Europia United (EU), made up of Europe, including Siberian Russia and even Turkey, and all of Africa. You have the Chinese Federation which includes practically all of Asia, including Central Asia, but excluding Japan. You have the Middle Eastern Federation, which includes the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula, and Persia. Then finally, you have the Holy Britannian Empire, which is made up of North, Central, and South America, as well as the Caribbean, New Zealand, Hawaii, and its most recent conquest, Japan. As a side note, Australia is independent and rarely mentioned within the text of the show. It should be noted that within the show, we learn that independent nations still exist within the power structure of the EU and China and I will seek to explain what is going on there. Britannia is decidedly the opposite being a unitarian system and nothing is said, one way or the other, about how the Middle East is structured. It should also be noted, Japan was independent in this world up till the year 2010, when it was promptly invaded by Britannia and Japan ends up becoming the focal point of much of the show.


As stated earlier, there is not a lot of information given about the details of the alternate history that these characters live with. I do not criticize the show for this fact as this is not the point of the show. However, after a couple of rewatches, I was able to mine a couple of important bits of information. These will serve jointly as the starting point of my journey to interpret the possible history of the world of Code Geass, using the clues that are given to us the audience in the show.



A Failed Revolution



The first known divergent point in the world of Code Geass is that the American Revolution failed. The American colonies are addressed by name in the show and there is absolutely no mention of a United States of America, though it is referenced numerous times throughout the show, especially by the villains. While by no means a new idea in alternate history circles, it should be noted that even though the thirteen colonies failed in their rebellion in this timeline, the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon still happens. This is actually important for this side of the timeline because France’s participation in the American Revolution directly led to its own revolution. This does a lot for me in explaining how this aspect of history went down in this timeline.


In this alternate timeline, the Revolution progresses as it did normally up till the beginning of 1779. There was still a Battle of Lexington and Concord, George Washington becomes commander of the Continental Army, the British invade New York, Washington crosses the Delaware, the Continental Army winters at Valley Forge and beats back the British at Saratoga, and the British retreat from Monmouth, and most importantly of all, France and Spain still declare war on the British in support of the Continentals. All of this would still happen by early 1779 but this is where the divergent point really comes in. In this timeline, George Washington is adamant, perhaps believing that he won the Battle of Monmouth (in reality, historians see it more of a draw even though the British did give up the ground), that he has the British on the ropes and that as soon as French and Spanish troops arrive in force around New York, which was the main encampment of the British Army throughout the Revolution with his continentals, they can all launch one final offensive and drive the British out of the colonies for good.


In our own timeline, George Washington had actually pitched this idea to his fellow French commanders, and they very wisely talked him out of it. It was this series of events that led up to the climactic battle of Yorktown in 1781. However, here, George Washington is stubbornly certain that this is the best course of action and the French go along with this strategy, either out of being convinced or being unable to convince him. It is out of character from how these men would have acted but for the sake of the scenario, we are going to imagine that Washington does successfully manage to get the French (and later the Spanish) to commit to an all-out assault on New York City.


During the early part of 1779, French and Continental forces are built up around New York City, and local militias are recruited as auxiliaries. This offensive would be a general three-prong overland assault, one prong coming from the west (from Morristown NJ), another coming from the north (possibly from White Plains), and the final prong coming from the sea and landing on Long Island. Due to the fact that this last prong would be amphibious, the French would undoubtedly make up the lion's share of this prong. At the same time, Britain would become aware of what was happening and began making its own preparations for this assault. By the time the campaign would be getting ready, the Spanish would still be joining the war (June 1779) but instead of heading towards Florida, they would instead come to help aid the assault on New York City.


Following the convention of campaigning in the Revolutionary War, the assault on New York City would begin sometime in either July or August of 1779. The ensuing battle would already be the largest military engagement ever undertaken on the North American continent and in the beginning, the British would be pushed back. However, the naval forces and entrenched positions of their troops would send the French, American, and Spanish death tolls soaring. New York would become something of a Stalingrad on the Hudson by the fall and early winter of 1779. Casualties would mount and yet, victory would be thought to be just over the horizon, and so more and more forces would be funneled into the city until the snow started to fall and ice began to choke in the Upper Bay. The Americans, French, and Spanish would winter in their positions around NYC, realizing that they have made almost no real progress in the almost six months of this campaign and that they are now much weaker than they were going in.


Washington and his allies would definitely raise additional forces to continue the campaign during the winter of 1779/1780 but by this point, support for Washington begins to wane. His brilliance as a commander has now given way to arrogance and foolishness and new recruits are harder to come by than they had been a year ago. After the ground hardened in the wake of the winter snows and spring rains of 1780, British retaliation comes with a vengeance. The British would break out of NYC and rush to defeat their enemies. At this point, the Continental Army would be broke and would become an insurgent force to be whittled down throughout the next couple of years. Washington, if he isn’t already dead by this point from battle, either surrenders to the British or is captured by them. The Founding Fathers are not far behind as they would be the next to be arrested. This whole expedition would be seen as a costly and shameful embarrassment by the French and Spanish and would quickly sue for peace after the revolution was fully broken. However, the British are not going to be so lenient.





British Territorial Gains


In the peace negotiations of 1782 (if we follow the two-year lag between the last battle and the Treaty of Paris from our own timeline), the British are going to use this opportunity to seek greater hegemony within the Western hemisphere. From the Spanish, they are going to gain the Louisiana Territory, territory that had been given to them by France just twenty years prior precisely so they would not get it, not to mention that Belize would still go to them from Spain and the Mosquito Coast in what is today Nicaragua and Honduras would become more permanent British holdings. Without a Spanish victory in the war, the British are able to keep and build these areas into far more permanent colonies. Also, as a final nail in the coffin of the French colonial empire in the New World, their crown jewel of Saint Domingo (Haiti) would be signed over to the British. In the wake of the failed American Revolution, Britain now rules two-thirds of North America and now only has the Spanish to deal with as rivals in the Caribbean.


Despite the added territory, the Proclamation Line of 1763 would still exist, especially after how many Native allies the British had in the war (carrying over from our timeline). However, the British would recognize that expansion was a key factor of the rebellion and could try to placate the American settlers wanting to head west by giving them a loophole, in the form of Florida. In fact, in our own timeline, Florida was offered to American settlers in the wake of the French and Indian War as a sort of consolation prize to keep them off the Proclamation Line. In this timeline, the British retain control of Florida and before even the Revolutionary War and settlement there would be encouraged by the crown. I think that settlement is not only encouraged in post-war America but is actively taken advantage of. A new wave of settlers flooded into British Florida during the 1780s and 1790s, which eventually led to a new migration pattern that circumvents the Proclamation of 1763. That general path of migration starts in the thirteen colonies, goes south into Florida, then west along the Gulf Coast to New Orleans (now in British hands), and then there would be two general pathways from there. Some settlers would head north along the Mississippi, setting up new towns along the western banks of the river, and other settlers would keep heading west through Louisiana and into Spanish Texas. The reason I say “west banks” of the Mississippi is because I feel that a loophole that would be exploited from the Proclamation of 1763 is that while the line in the east was set along the Appalachians, the line in the west was never defined and the Mississippi would be the obvious choice in this scenario. However, settlement across that river would come soon enough.





Napoleon wins at Trafalgar


As stated earlier, the rise French Revolution and the subsequent rise of Napoleon are all still things that happened in this timeline and the American Revolution was a big part in making those happen. These things would happen regardless if America won or not. So in this timeline, the French Revolution, the French Revolutionary Wars, the rise of Napoleon, the Napoleonic Wars, and the enthronement of Napoleon as Emperor all happen in this timeline, virtually unchanged from our own timeline.


The divergent point here is as the title of this section implies, Napoleon wins the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. This is a detail that is stated directly in Code Geass itself and it leads to the events that will lead to the rise of Britannia. It should be noted that this would be an almost impossible scenario, not simply the British losing at Trafalgar but that it would spell doom for them in the war. However, once again, the magic of alternate history is that you can just imagine “what if” sometimes. I won’t give too many details on how the French and Spanish navies might have overcome Lord Nelson but for the sake of the scenario, they do manage to defeat the British. The only real detail I will give is that I think Admiral Nelson still dies but he dies a heroic martyr in the minds of the British.


Now this is one of the scant few points of actual information the show gives about the history of the world. It is stated that after the defeat at Trafalgar, France invaded Britain, and the ruling queen of Britain, known as Elizabeth III, was overthrown in a revolution (called the Humiliation of Edinburgh in an earlier episode) but an enigmatic nobleman known only as Lord Britannia (almost certainly not his original name) is able to organize a transfer of Elizabeth from Britain to the American colonies.


That’s the only real information we are given to go off of, we don’t even really get years, but we do get a starting point and we’ll just have to work off of that. The Battle of Trafalgar still happened in 1805 and if we work forwards from that, we can assume that Britain was invaded in 1806, and this revolution in Edinburgh and later transference of the British queen happened just a year later in 1807. To fill in the gaps, I could imagine that the battle on the British Isles would be a brutal one and could actually serve, at least in part, as the stand-in for the Peninsular War, as there would now be no need for France to invade Spain in the first place. The war got bad for the British and likely (perhaps even in a parallel with the Japanese Prime Minister in the presence of the show) called for a scorched earth, last-man resistance of the British Isles. Lord Britannia, who I theorize already wanted to use the American colonies as the basis of a new empire, would rise to be a prominent figure during this invasion but behind the scenes, would whittle down the royal family (including the clearly incapacitated King George III) until it was just George’s daughter Elizabeth, who could then assume the throne of England through Lord Britannia’s politicking. Lord Britannia would then organize the transfer of the English court, all royalist supporters, and likely large parts of the military and bring them to North America. At the same time, 1807, was also the beginning of the transference of the Portuguese Royal Court to Brazil and I think, in this timeline, Britannia organizes that as well, as the first step in the creation of an alliance with the Portuguese royal family, so that his new empire could have a larger foothold in South America. The British would have one with Guyana, taken from the Dutch in 1803, and while they would retain that, Lord Britannia would want more.





Manifest Destiny



In 1808, the British and Portuguese royalists would arrive in North America and Brazil respectively. The shock of the arrival of these British refugees would only be accentuated when Lord Britannia made a declaration, stating that the loss of the Homeland, while undoubtedly a tragedy, is not the end of the British Empire but instead the dawning of its new era. It is here that Britain is over and Britannia begins. This does not just mean in a political sense but also in an ideological sense. The supremacist ideology that permeates Britannia in the show would be born out of this desire to “never ever will be slaves” and likely even calls Britannia “the Britannia Empire” simply to spite the recently crowned Emperor Napoleon. Also, Lord Britannia would undoubtedly marry Queen Elizabeth III and make a child with her that could marry the heir to the Portuguese throne several years down the road to solidify the alliance.


Not only does Lord Britannia continue to encourage the settlement that is already happening in Florida and along the Mississippi River that I talked about earlier but right off the bat, Britannia is going to set about rescuing its colonies in the Western Hemisphere. The garrisons in Belize, the Mosquito Coast, and Guyana would all be increased and Haiti would be dealt with. I think that even if the British were in charge of Haiti, the slave revolt that happened there would still take place and even be successful. Also, I think that France would have transferred the eastern half of Hispaniola back to the Spanish after Trafalgar and would not need to hold it because of the Peninsular War, which now does not exist. This is where Britannia takes its real revenge. Lord Britannia would tell horror stories about how the French ruling class of Saint Domingo was slaughtered by the slaves and how this must not be allowed to happen to Britannians. The ranks of the army would swell and a full land invasion of Hispaniola, both east and west, would take place sometime in either 1809 or 1810. The reconquest would be successful, with the Spanish retreating off the island to Cuba. The rebellious slaves of Haiti would be dealt with in a cruel manner. Seeing the bloodlines of the slaves on the island to be too “unruly”, Lord Britannia would order a genocide of the slaves there so that new slaves could be imported to rebuild the sugar plantations on the island. The Haitian genocide would be a multiyear process of deporting slaves to the sea, drowning them, and having ships further out in the water to deal with any of the stragglers who do manage to swim far enough. Plantation land is given to those that fought in the Reconquest of Hispaniola.


At the same time, the Britannians began their conquest of Hispaniola, at the same time, Lord Britannia suspends the Proclamation of 1763 and declares an all-out war on the Native Americans living in the Northwest Territories. Most likely, Tecumseh is still a powerful native figure in this timeline, but has no real support like he did in this timeline and is essentially on his own and cut off from any foreign support. Numerous expeditions launched in the 1810s break up the various tribal alliances and subdues them to the will of Britannia. Despite the success of these expeditions, it is still going to take decades to fully populate the Northwest Territories with new Britannia settlers.


Further to the South, there are still wars of independence by the various Spanish colonies. I think even if Napoleon won at Trafalgar, large parts of the Spanish Empire are still going to be broken off and form independent countries. However, I don’t think the Spanish loose all their empire. For example, without an independent Haiti to run to, Bolivar is likely defeated in his war and the Spanish royalists are able to retain control over the Viceroyalties of Peru and New Grenada. However, the further flung regions of the empire, like Mexico, Argentina, and Chile are able to still split off. The French would be willing to save some of the Spanish Empire but not all of it, and even then, only after Bolivar had been defeated.


In that case, Mexico still gains its independence in 1821 and in doing so, claims much of the territories of Central America, upon which Britannia would have a presence via the Mosquito Coast. After the Mexican Empire fell apart in 1823, they essentially lost all of their holdings in Central America and were forced to focus on Mexico proper. That still happens in this timeline, the difference being that Lord Britannia, who would be calmly watching the situation develop in Mexico, would see this as an opportunity to expand. So, once the Mexican Empire fell apart in 1823, I think Britannia would rush in and claim the Central American regions that Mexico had previously controlled. For reference, these were Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. By the late 1820s, all of these countries would be part of the Empire of Britannia.


At the same time, westward expansion in North America would be ramping up. As stated earlier, Texas would be getting settled by Britannians but unlike the other territories they had been through, these territories would be ruled by Mexico. In our timeline, the rise of American settlers in Texas led to war with Mexico, resulting in the battles of the Alamo and San Jacinto. I actually think this all remains relatively unchanged. Britannian settlers would come in, and far out populate the Mexican population there, Santa Anna (who I still think is a leader of Mexico in this timeline) would then march his army against these settlers. It is possible that the Alamo still happened in this timeline. However, what changes is that if the settlers from Britannia were being attacked by Mexico, the Britannian Empire is not going to let this slide. Effectively, what would happen is that the Texas Revolution would lead right into a war with Mexico, rather than what happened in our timeline, where Texas became independent, and then a decade later, when Texas joined the United States, a war with Mexico happened. So in this timeline, by late 1836 or 1837, Britannia would go to war with Mexico. I actually think the strategy the Britannian Empire would pursue in defeating Mexico would go relatively unchanged from how the Americans went about it. That being, an expedition out to California to take the sparsely populated northern part of Mexico, an overland offensive into Northern Mexico, and then an amphibious invasion of southern Mexico to seize the capital. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. With that, Mexico would formally be conquered sometime in either 1838 or 1839 but holding the country would be more of a tall order. Mexican guerrillas would make life a living hell for the occupying Britannians and it would take years perhaps even longer than a decade to subdue the Mexicans but it eventually would happen. Around the same time, Britannia would have fully solidified its claim on the Oregon territory, as there would be no one to be forced to share it with it and their claim would be unilateral. By the 1840s, the only parts of North America out of the hands of Britannia would be Alaska, still held by the Russians, and the only part of Central America out of their hands would be Panama, still held by an aging Spanish Empire.



Carving up a Continent


With North and Central America largely secured, the only fighting that would be happening here by the mid-nineteenth century would be against Native American tribes (and the aforementioned Mexican loyalists still holding out across Mexico proper) and that would be a multi-decade process as it was in our timeline. Settlement across America would progress very similarly to how it did in our timeline across North America, only there’s no Northern border stopping northward expansion as there was in our timeline. Mexico would also be prime real estate for some settlements but care would have to be exercised in the beginning.


In South America, the expansion would be happening, but along a different line. Lord Britannia would successfully talk the Portuguese Royalists from returning to Portugal even after the Napoleonic Wars ended. Lord Britannia would have a child with Elizabeth III and by the mid to late 1820s, that child would be old enough to marry a member of the Portuguese Royal family, forever bounding Brazil in alliance with Britannia proper. However, Brazil would effectively be a client state of Lord Britannia by the time the royal family arrived and expansion would be sought there as well. For example, in our timeline, Brazil (while still occupied by the Portuguese royal family) invaded and occupied the territory of the now-independent Argentina that would one day become Uruguay. This war was actually successful and Brazil held Uruguay from 1820 to 1845 when, after a long independence war that began in the 1830s, Uruguay gained its independence. However, in the timeline where Brazil is bounded to Britannia, this war of conquest still happens but the difference is, Britannia would give full support to Brazil and would prevent the region from gaining its independence at all, crushing any attempts at independence that may arise. Uruguay becomes folded into the Britannian sphere of influence by 1820 and it would remain as such indefinitely.


There would be about a 25-year gap between Britannia’s conquest of Mexico and its next territorial acquisition. With all of North America, Central America, and a large part of South America under their control, the ultimate dream for Britannia becomes having the entire hemisphere to themselves. Essentially, it is the same thinking as the Monroe Doctrine if it was brought to its logical and ultimate endpoint. Anti-European sentiment would always be simmering just under the surface and in fact, starting around this time, I could even imagine that Britannians begin viewing themselves as different (and superior) to Europeans. That says nothing about their treatment of slaves and the Native Americans. Native American tribes would still be systematically destroyed, as they were in our timeline, but in a more coordinated and even expedited way. At the same time, I could imagine that the boarding school system, the same type that was supposed to “kill the Indian, save the man”, would be opened to Native children. As for slavery, I think Britannia would never abolish slavery formally. It may decline as time goes on but in reality, with the supremacist ideology that permeates all of Britannian society, I could never imagine Britannia calling for emancipation. In our timeline, slavery was an economic advantage that was given a moral justification to exist. In the timeline with Britannia, that equation is flipped.


By the 1860s, Britannia’s next move would be to eliminate the last remaining independent South American countries and to try and dislodge the remaining colonies of Spain. Even with a certain amount of strategic surrender, the Spanish Empire would continue to weaken throughout the nineteenth century and ultimate conquest was coming, it was just a matter of when. In our timeline, the most destructive war of South America’s history was the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870) which was started over a territorial dispute between Brazil and Paraguay. For the record, I still think Paraguay would become independent in this timeline because it was a largely neglected province of the Spanish Empire anyway, so I don’t think anyone in Madrid would be clamoring to have it back. With that, this territorial dispute and the ambitions of Francisco Solano Lopez, the dictator of Paraguay who I believe would still rise in this timeline (in my research, I couldn’t find anything that would negate his rise by being so different) begin the war as it did here in 1864. Only it would not be just Brazil that Lopez was taking on, he would now have to contend with the entirety of Britannia. Also, because Uruguay would already be a Britannian province for almost two generations now, there would be no need for Lopez to invade Argentina and so Argentina would simply sit out the war. That being said, Lopez would still have his hands full with Britannia and despite his best efforts, Lopez would once again be hammered down by an overwhelming force from Britannia and the casualties would likely be just as staggering as they were in our timeline. The difference is that after Paraguay falls (probably sometime around 1870 as in our timeline) it is promptly absorbed into the Brazilian part of the Britannian Empire.


‘ Around the same time as the conquest of Paraguay, two things would begin to happen. With control of Nicaragua, Britannia begins construction on a canal that would connect the Atlantic to the Pacific. It would be one of the largest construction projects in the world at the time and as soon as it's completed, it would become a huge revenue generator for Britannia. This would also likely spark the construction of Europe’s own canal in Spanish Panama, likely at the behest of the French in 1881, the same time as in our timeline, the French began construction on their own Panama Canal. The second thing happening would be the arrival of Britannian settlers into Argentina. In our timeline, starting in the 1850s, huge numbers of European settlers would arrive in Argentina and help shape the country’s economy and identity. I think in this timeline, Britannians would arrive not only in the northern part of the country after Paraguay Falls but in the big cities as well. This would set off alarm bells in Buenos Aires, fearing a repeat of what happened in Mexico and so strict quotas would be placed on their immigration to Argentina after about a generation. With that, the first seeds of war with Argentina are sown, but we will return to this.


To continue the march south, Chile would be absorbed by Britannia in 1891. That year saw a civil war break out in Chile, the details and causes of which are too complex to really list here, but none of the ones I read really depended on history being the same to have them happen. So once the Civil War in Chile begins to rage, Britannia rushes in and annexes the country. There was one effect of the Chilean Civil War that did affect South America. It directly led to the rise in militarization in South America, both Chile, and Argentina together, beginning an arms race that was similar to the one happening in Europe around the same time. I think that if Britannia were to conquer Chile in 1891, Argentina would have all the more reason to begin the military buildup it did in our timeline and even try to further tamp down on Britannian immigration to their country. Furthermore, I think they try to conclude an alliance with the Europeans, hoping they would come to their defense in case of war.


By the late 1890s, the world would be primed for war and a false start would happen in Havana Harbor in February 1898. A Britannian warship sailed in and suddenly exploded. What no one would know at the time is that the Britannian government rigged a bomb to explode in the ship as a means to frame the Spanish as an aggressor. The Britannians would then launch a full-scale invasion of Cuba and Puerto Rico during the summer of 1898. The war is over quickly but this is not the death blow to the Spanish Empire that many assumed it would be. In reality, for Britannia, this splendid little war would accomplish two things. One, it would be to take over the entirety of the Caribbean from Spain and effectively make the region a Britannian sea. Two, it was to test the strength of the Spanish, which obviously wasn’t much but they were not testing it for themselves. The Britannians knew that the French would be watching this war like a hawk and once they saw how Spain performed in it, they would intervene after the war was concluded. The European Union would begin a large-scale military buildup in the Spanish colonies in South America and also form that alliance with Argentina I mentioned earlier.





Conclusion of the 19th Century


By the early 1900s, Britannia would be the single largest empire on Earth. By this point, with the exception of New Granada, Peru, Argentina, and Alaska, the Americas would fully be under the control of Britannia. As a couple of quick asides, in the Pacific, Britannia would have seized control of New Zealand (In our timeline, in 1841, the British claimed New Zealand) and Hawaii (they briefly claimed it in 1843 out of a strange misunderstanding), the latter of which would be done as soon as the sugar industry was proven to be viable by the 1830s or 1840s. Also, around this time, sometime in the 1850s, Britannia would have its first encounter with the island nation of Japan, in pretty much the exact same way and even for the same reasons as America went to Japan in 1853. It would be the first and obviously, it would not be the last.











Napoleon is the Master of Europe


As stated in the previous section, the Napoleonic Wars remain the same up to 1805. That being said, post-1805, the path sharply hooks to the right. In 1806, following up his victory at Trafalgar, France and its allies invade Britain and despite being a brutal campaign, the island is effectively abandoned to them by 1807. This begs the question of how this affects the ongoing War of the Third Coalition, which would be happening concurrently. I actually don’t think that a lot in this war is affected by the victory at Trafalgar. I still think Napoleon wins big at Ulm and Austerlitz in late 1805 before turning his attention to Britain in 1806. As for the War of the fourth coalition, which was started by Prussia, upset over the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine and the ceding of Hannover to Britain as a bargaining chip for peace, I still think the War of the Fourth Coalition happens, it just happens concurrently with the invasion of the British Isles. I think Napoleon would dedicate his time to fighting battles such as Jena Auerstadt and Eylau, as he did in our timeline, but his overall forces would be split between the British campaign and the war against the Prussians, Russians, and Swedes. He would likely call his forces in England to halt and dig in until the campaign could resume again in earnest. It is likely that during this time is when the revolution in Edinburgh happened and the transference of the British nobility would begin. Even as the British nobility was leaving the British Isles in 1807, it would still take time to fully subdue the Isles completely. It should also be noted that due to Britain losing in Trafalgar and being invaded, there would be no need for Napoleon to implement the Continental System, so it just never comes into existence. In late 1807, the French and the Spanish would invade Portugal as they did in our timeline but the affair is much cleaner due to the fact that Spain would not have lost its fleet at Trafalgar and would be in a stronger position than in our timeline. On that same token, there is no Peninsular War because there would be no need for it. It is also during this time that, as in our timeline, France would indeed create the Duchy of Warsaw, an independent Polish state. The War of the Fifth Coalition, though an overall smaller affair in the scope of the Napoleonic Wars, likely still happens because the circumstances that Austria used to launch the war, with France being largely distracted in Spain, are actually still happening, it is just instead of Spain, many French troops would be busy in Britain. However, when Francis II launched the war in 1809, as in our timeline, Napoleon would still utterly defeat the Austrians and their allies and bring them into the fold of Napoleon’s new order.


By 1810, Napoleon would be the undisputed master of Europe. All of Europe was either ruled by him directly, through client rulers, or in an alliance with him. Also, the invasion of Russia is not on the horizon because the circumstances that brought France into war with Russia, that being trade with Britain, are no longer relevant because there is no longer an independent Britain to trade with. However, despite the fact that Napoleon is the master of Europe, his grip on the continent is tenuous. The European powers, such as Austria and Prussia, are still not going to be thrilled about being in an alliance with Napoleon, and Russia, even if Britain is no longer trading with them, they are still suffering an economic downturn, and Tsar Alexander I is not going to be thrilled about having a newly independent Poland on its doorstep. Napoleon would need to do something dramatic to win the Russians over to his side and make himself the head of a grand European campaign. This would come in the form of war with the Ottomans. I think that Napoleon could use the fact that the Ottomans still occupy vast pieces of European territory as a means to rally the broader European community behind a war, with him as the head.


In 1812, Napoleon would launch what would become his magnum opus, the Ottoman Campaign, or the War of the sixth coalition if we want to keep to tradition. I could even see this war being dubbed “The Second Great Turkish War”, harkening back to the war that began with the Siege of Vienna and ended with the beginning of the decline of the Ottoman Empire during the 18th century. Many of Napoleon’s allies, such as Poland, Russia, and the heavily catholic Spain and Italian states would be enthusiastic about the campaign to finally unseat the last vestige of Muslim rule in Europe. However, Prussia would be less so impressed and while Napoleon could simply force Prussia to join in but I could imagine that he would try to grant the Prussians control of some of their lost lands, just enough to keep them content.


A multi-sided invasion would be launched with French and Allied troops coming down from Austria, Russian troops coming down the west coast of the Black Sea, and a second Russian army moving through eastern Turkey via the Caucuses. For good measure, the French, Spanish, and Russian navies would blockade the coast of Turkey. Muhammad Ali Pasha of Egypt, always a rival of Constantinople, would at the very least stand aside and allow the Europeans to consume his nominal Turkish masters. At most, and I believe most likely due to his real history of fighting with Constantinople, Muhammad Ali Pasha would commit his armies to the campaign and put troops down into the Arab regions of the Ottoman Empire and probably also invade parts of Southern Anatolia. The battles across southern Europe would be among Napoleon’s most well-known but it would be nothing compared to the final campaign of the war. Napoleon’s army would reach the outskirts of Constantinople by the end of 1812 and they would settle in for a lengthy siege until the following summer of 1813 when the Europeans actually try to push in. The final battle of Constantinople would be a lengthy one but it would result in a French victory. In this timeline, the image of Napoleon riding through the gates of the Theodosian Walls or standing beneath a re-Christianized Hagia Sophia would become as famous of an image as Napoleon crossing the Alps or riding through the gates of Berlin. The Ottoman Empire would be dissolved, with the remnant of its rule being Egypt under Muhammad Ali Pasha, and Russia would be granted control of Anatolia and of course, the prized Constantinople.





A New Order Dawns



By the dawn of 1814, Napoleon would have become the great hero of Europe. He not only defeated the last vestiges of Muslim rule in Europe but he also, in doing so, unified Europe into a common community and a common cause. With no more enemies, Napoleon focuses on the internal reform of Europe, and this would be the groundwork of the European Union as we know it in the present timeline of Code Geass. Napoleon would formally withdraw from the Benelux, Italy, the Illyrian Provinces, and the Confederation of the Rhine. He would allow them to form into independent countries, while still placing his thumb on the scale. He would want the Confederation to remain independent because if it joined Prussia, that would be a challenge to the new French hegemony. The Netherlands become independent and even claim the Flemish regions of Belgium, while the Walloon regions would go over to the French. Italy would be split into four, the Kingdom of Italy in the north, the Papal States in the center, the Kingdom of Naples in the South, and then the Kingdom of Sicily. The Illyrian provinces would be the basis of a unified south Slavic state, the remnants of the Ottoman Empire, organized into this state. Greece, Romania, and Bulgaria would all become independent and the whole region would become a sphere of influence for Russia, within the larger sphere of French influence across Europe. England and Portugal, with both governments having evacuated, would remain as client states for the time being. Scotland and Ireland however are granted independence and due to their previous diplomatic and religious ties, become close allies with France. Denmark, with Norway in tow, remain allies with Napoleon and the Swedes do as well. Austria and Hungary would still be in an uneasy arrangement at least for a while. Prussia would be the most bitter about living under a French hegemony but there would not be much that could be done with Napoleon still on the throne.


Napoleon was always dedicated to spreading the ideals of the French Revolution, albeit not nearly as extreme, to the rest of Europe. As a result of France’s new hegemon status, this new Europe begins to adopt the ideas that Napoleon had exported during the wars. Liberalism, private enterprise, the rule of law, and other Enlightenment reforms would sweep across Europe, especially in the states closest to Napoleon. Emancipation of peasants and Jewish communities would also be likely. The Napoleonic code would become the basis of many European countries' laws. There would be resistance, especially in autocrat strongholds like Russia and Prussia, with the latter being more out of spite than anything. However, I think with a French guiding hand and Napoleon being the force he was could begin to implement these reforms across Europe.





Europe without Napoleon


In 1821, Napoleon still dies. In our timeline, he died of what is commonly believed to be stomach cancer and even if Napoleon does everything that I have described so far, the cancer is still going to lay him low. The death of Napoleon would be one of the most widely mourned events in European history. All of the great leaders of Europe and the people of France, as well as the regions he liberated and empowered, would mourn the loss of this great leader. However, after Napoleon was buried, the question would be what to do next.


Plans for the following would have already been set during Napoleon’s twilight years but after his death, they are formally implemented. Europia United, the grand super alliance that we see in Code Geass, would be born in the wake of Napoleon’s death. If we use the current European Union as a metric, we would see a bicameral legislature, a lower house of the European Parliament, and an upper house of a council of ministers, the European Council. The upper house has its prime minister in the form of the President of the European Council and a President of the European Commission, the commission being the body that functions as the European Union’s executive branch. The reason I bring all of these apparatuses up is that I could imagine that post-Napoleonic Europe would implement a similar system within Europia United. Also, for the record, anytime I use the acronym EU, I am talking about the fictional government from Code Geass and not the actual European Union.


In any case, this new European government would be going into effect around the time Napoleon dies. The EU, while ostensibly representing all of Europe, its top offices, such as the Council President and Commission President, would undoubtedly be dominated by the French. Napoleon II would take the throne at eleven but French power would remain secure. Also, he rules for much longer, due to the fact that the circumstances that led to his death are just nonexistent. Meaning he not only rules France but lives long enough to produce an heir. Interestingly, the person we know as Napoleon III, Charles Louis Bonaparte, would still become a prominent figure in European politics. However, in this timeline, he would not become Emperor of France, but rather become a leading figure in the EU. His goal, as it was in our timeline, was to lead France from becoming a European power into a world power, and with the EU, that would be done.


As for what this new Europe would even be like I could imagine Napoleon’s old allies, such as Bavaria, Poland, Spain, and Holland being given nationalism. The French oversee a proper Austro Hungarian union in 1848 (rather than in 1867), Russia is kept an eye on and probably liberalizes somewhat over time, and Sweden would likely gain hegemony over the Scandinavian countries with the exception of Finland. Prussia is still adversarial and it would be in France’s best interest to keep Germany disunited, with the Confederation of the Rhine being kept as a French client state. However, I could foresee Prussia gaining control of some of those states little by little over the mid to late nineteenth century in various wars.


Speaking of wars, I think Europe remains largely peaceful during the nineteenth century after Napoleon’s death, just as it did in our timeline. As for potential conflict spots, I could still see a series of revolutions vying for nationalism, especially in Germany and Hungary. If Egypt retains control of some of the Greek islands and Cyprus, I could see an alternate Crimean war brewing there in the wake of Muhammad Ali Pasha’s death in 1849. The Greeks would want to reunify Greece, Russia would come to their aid, and then Europe as a whole would be brought into the conflict. Those are the only ones I can truly foresee taking place in Europe, perhaps there are battles between Egypt and Russia over control of Anatolia, but other than that I can see general peace in Europe after Napoleon.





India


The victory of Napoleon leads to a paradigm shift in how European imperialism happened. Instead of the British Empire ruling much of Asia, I imagine the French, Dutch, and even Russians have more to do with the carving up of South and Southeast Asia. For starters, I imagine that the defeat of the British would lead to the East India Company switching alliances. They would not want to be tied down to a power that they saw as weaker and so they would abandon the British and instead side with the victorious French. Alternatively, the French forced the East India Company to sign over all their assets to the French and Dutch. It could even be a bargaining chip in order to win over greater Dutch support for the French, in that the French would help them restore the glory days of the VOC and the Dutch trading empire. In that regard, the territory claimed by the company up to about 1805 would still be in company hands but would be backed by different European powers. The Dutch would be eager to get back into the game of Indian commerce so they would snap up as much as they could get, while the French maintain a more modest holding centered around Pondicherry. If you want a general idea, I could imagine that eastern India and Burma are under Dutch influence and South India is more under a French sphere, with Ceylon would be returned to the Dutch. For reference, prior to 1796, Ceylon had been a Dutch-ruled territory for over a hundred and fifty years, before the British took it over. With that fact in mind, rather than expanding east over Indonesia as they did in our timeline, the Dutch are going to remain primarily focused on the Strait of Malacca, Singapore, and the Bay of Bengal. In the west of India, Russia, now unhampered by the lack of Britain’s imperial ambitions in South Asia, actually snaps up some territory as well. Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the northwestern regions of India would all become part of the Russian Empire, giving Russia something that it never had before, a port on the Indian Ocean with Karachi. The reason I think the Russians would be able to go that far south from Central Asia is because the British East India Company’s reach had not even entered the northwestern part of India until the 1840s. Plus the French and Dutch are going to be more concerned with being involved in the spice and cash crop trade of the Bay of Bengal. I could still imagine that company rule gets out of control in India, as it did in our timeline, leading to something analogous to the Great Indian Mutiny of 1857, only instead of the British being forced to deal with it, the Dutch and later on, the French come in to intervene. After which, the company-ruled regions of India would be transferred over to the Dutch, possibly at the insistence of the French. By the mid-19th century, India would certainly still be ruled over by foreigners, but rather than the singular British Raj, it would be three separate Empires that determined the fate of the subcontinent.





China and Southeast Asia


With Britannia focusing on the Americas, Southeast Asia is essentially open to the French and Dutch to colonize. For example, I think French Indochina is established in the 1850s, as it was in our timeline, as the circumstances of the creation of the colony (protection of missionaries and establishment of plantations) would be unchanged, if not heightened in this timeline. The Dutch tighten their hold over Malacca, Malaya, and everything west of Java. Without the British, they are not forced to expand east across the Indies. The Spanish maintain their hold of the Philippines and Guam but their hold is weakening with every passing year. Dutch merchants are likely still going to be selling opium to China which, after the Chinese government of the time resists, leads to an Opium War, possibly in the same general timeframe as it happened in our timeline. This will become important later when discussing the matters that will affect China later on. I also don’t imagine that the French or even the Dutch outright colonize Thailand in this timeline, though the pressure is relatively unchanged. All in all, the colonization of Southeast Asia remains largely the same, with the British swapped out with the alternate Dutch and French.





Africa


The colonization of Africa did not happen in our timeline due to reasons of technology and the environment of the continent itself, rather than political reasons. As it stands, those same constrictions of deeper colonization of Africa would still apply. With the advent of steamships and better medical treatments during the 1850s and 1860s, Europe would still start to plunge deeper into Africa. However, this would not be the beginning of it. In our own timeline, the Dutch lost their Cape Colony to the British in 1806 but without the victory at Trafalgar and dealing with an impending invasion, the British would not have the resources to commit to an invasion of the Cape. With the Cape Colony remaining in Dutch hands after the Napoleonic Wars, I think this only opens the road for more Dutch, German, and other Western European settlers to come down to the Cape to settle the lands. As I stated above, I think France would still abolish slavery sometime in the mid-19th century, and as a result, other European nations would be inclined to follow suit. This would include the Dutch but the European settlers in the south would flee deeper into the continent, via the rivers and lakes of southern Africa. Without any British or Portuguese interference, the spread of European settlers across southern Africa becomes far more widespread.


How the Scramble For Africa would even begin in this timeline is completely open to speculation. The British and the Belgian King, Leopold II, did a lot of the early work in colonizing Africa before the big wave of it happened in the mid-1880s. With both of those bodies not being in existence, I could imagine that two things would drive further colonization of Africa. The first was the expansion of Dutch settlers across southern Africa and the second was an invasion of Egypt. In our own timeline, Egypt was of vital importance due to the construction of the Suez Canal, which was primarily overseen by the French. I think this remains the same and the French still build the canal during the 1850s and still invite European allies to buy shares in the canal. Egypt would still be on the downturn during the 1870s and 1880s, which would then lead to a European invasion in 1882 to protect the canal, even though that reason was shaky even in our own timeline. This conquest and administration of Egypt would have dramatic consequences for both Africa and the Middle East. If you remember, Egypt took over the Arabian regions of the Ottoman Empire during the Napoleonic Wars and the French would inherit those regions as well. For this section, we are going to mostly focus on Africa.


Britain’s conquest of Egypt in 1882 is what’s seen as the start of the Scramble of Africa but the reasons it was is deeper than that. In 1884, a British officer named Charles George Gordon was dispatched to Sudan, which was administered by the Egyptians, and when he found himself in the midst of a revolt called the Mahdi Revolt, named for its leader who styled himself after the great messiah predicted to arrive in the Koran. This revolt, and the murder of Gordon in the siege of Khartoum, are what helped to spur the Berlin Conference into a fervor to divide up and control Africa. I still think this revolt could happen in this timeline, only instead, the French would be dispatched to deal with Sudan. The French would still encounter the Mahdi Revolt, as the reasons for that revolt had to do with Egypt’s rule of Sudan, and that would still influence any conference that would be convening to deal with the colonization of Africa.


In this alternate conference, we can still call it the Berlin Conference because we have no real idea of where it would actually be held and would set down the rules for how Africa would be divided amongst the Europeans, as it did in our timeline. There would be not as many countries involved with the colonization of Africa, simply due to the fact that the United Kingdom and Portugal would not be involved. However, as for a general dividing up of Africa, if we go off of how those nations were interested in the continent in our timeline, we can get an idea of how the EU would go about dividing up Europe. In that case, I believe that the French would gain most of North Africa, with some territories possibly going to the Spanish and the Italians. The Germans would gain the center of Africa, especially the Congo Basin, and then the Dutch would solidify their claims in southern Africa. This would of course lead to a series of wars and revolts, as it did in our timeline, and there could also be an alternate Boer War, as the Boers were fighting for independence from outside forces in our timeline, but in this one, they would be fighting against the Dutch and even the French. By the start of the twentieth century, the broad spheres of European influence I mentioned earlier would have fully been laid down in Africa.


Of course, Africa would be overly exploited by the Europeans. What is notable is that Africa is still being administered by the Europeans even into the present time of Code Geass and the few glimpses we get of Africa, show that the exploitation is still in full swing. We also know it becomes an important battleground for Prince Schneizel’s war on Europe, giving us the signal that the region was important enough for him to try and wrest the continent away from European control.



World War I


With Britannia’s march south in full swing by the start of the twentieth century, their eyes would be locked on the remaining Spanish colonies in South America (New Granada and Peru) and on Argentina, the last independent country on the continent. The loss of Spanish Cuba and Puerto Rico to the Britannians would be the signal that the French needed to get further involved in securing the Spanish colonies and forming a stronger alliance with Argentina. Needless to say, Suriname and French Guiana would also be reinforced. Argentina would also likely lock out any Britannian settlers coming down from the north to prevent being bulldozed the same way the Mexicans were with Texas. Britannia would cry oppression and use the treatment to increase their garrisons across Central America, the Caribbean, Guyana, and Brazil. The Caribbean Sea would be constantly being patrolled by navies and the armies would be on standby, turning the whole of the region into a much larger and steam-powered version of what the sea around Cuba looked like in 1962.


How the war actually starts is anyone’s guess, so here, I am going to take a page directly out of our own timeline’s history to explain how a world war in this timeline began. For clarity’s sake, I still think World War I begins in 1914, so let's start around there. As stated before, the closing off of Britannians to the free parts of South America would be framed as something like oppression. This could be analogous to how Serbs were being treated in the Austrian-occupied regions of the Balkans leading up to our own World War I. Just like the Serbs, Britannians would form independence movements inside the Spanish colonies and Argentina as a means to try and fight against this oppression. To be clear, I could definitely see the Spanish, French, Dutch, and Argentines trying to rid themselves of Britannian settlers, which would definitely be oppression, but it's a type of oppression that's being invited upon themselves. In this alternate 1914, one of these terrorist groups, likely being supported by the Britannian government, launches a successful attack upon Caracas, the center of Spanish power in South America. This attack would take the form of an assassination of the Prince of Spain, arriving in the colony to act as a mediating force between the Spanish citizens and the encroaching Britannians.


This assassination sets off the same kind of chain reaction we saw in our own 1914. Spain would declare war on Britannia, France would then follow, and then the various countries of Europe, Russia, Bavaria, Poland, and the Dutch all commit their armies enthusiastically to the war. Prussia commits troops as well, but due to its arrangements with the French, they are able to preserve much of its military might, which will become important later. The enlarged European garrisons in New Granada would immediately launch an attack on Britannia’s central American holdings, hoping to cut its Nicaraguan Canal and separate the Western forces from the East. Also, the Europeans would likely make landings in Cuba and Hispanola to try and wrest those colonies away from the Britannians. Britannian ground forces would likely be pushed back hard initially but would soon rally and hold the line. Britannia’s navy is going to play a crucial role in their success. As the Europeans began landing in Central America, Russia would be called upon to lead naval forces down from Alaska to attack Britannia’s Pacific ports. However, Russia’s navy would be no match for Britannia. The Alaskan fleet is wiped out in a battle, likely off the coast of British Columbia, and Royal Marines stage landings in the Alaskan territory, seizing the centers of Russian power. Britannia would effectively occupy Alaska. Also, Britannia rules the waves, as they say, and very quickly, the Atlantic would become very dangerous for European navies to cross, though not impossible.


By this point, 1915, Argentina would have joined the war, though they likely joined far earlier. Not only is Argentina a good ally for Europe in its own right but would become an important staging ground for an alternate route for European troops and supplies. If Britannia rules the North Atlantic, the South would become easier to cross. That means European troops would have to sail south through the Mediterranean, through the Suez Canal, around Africa, and land in Argentina, before being dispatched to necessary battlegrounds. Britannia’s strategy would be simple enough, seize the centers of European power in South America, conquer Argentina, and drive the Europeans out. By this point, the European threat to Britannia’s southern ports and borders would be settled and landings in the Spanish, French, and Dutch colonies would begin in full. However, the Europeans dug in and have a lot of natural geography going for them, not to mention, their armies being strong. With that, stalemates form across South America, especially around the various colonial capitals, with trenches and other defenses being erected as a result. The Pacific fleet of Britannia would attempt landings in Peru to take Lima but the city would be well defended, being a stronghold of Spanish power in South America in either timeline, and that would just become an alternate version of the Gallipoli campaign. The Britannians coming out of Brazil would attempt an overland invasion of Argentina but both thanks to the Argentines and the increased European armies, the northern plains of Argentina would become a no man’s land in its own right too, with the Britannians hoping for a rapid advance to the capital, Buenos Aires.


By 1916, the war in South America would become a deadlock. However, some moves to win the war would still be made. For example, I could imagine a series of daring expeditions launched by Britannia to seize cities like Quito and La Paz. In order to really break the stalemate, the Britannians would need to close off the Suez Canal. Their efforts would be focused on trying to either take Madagascar or the Horn of Africa, closing off that pathway to shipping. The Britannians would make landings on the east coast of Madagascar, making it easily defendable. The taking of eastern Madagascar would be followed up by a campaign to take the Seychelles, the last leg before reaching the Middle East. However, it would take some time to set up enough proper infrastructure to support naval movements in the Indian Ocean, but, this would open a new step to this overall strategy to cut the Suez Canal. Another tactic that could be used would be supporting an alternate Arab Revolt. I could still imagine in this timeline an Arab Revolt forming to rid the former Ottoman territories in the Middle East of European control, having been under this occupation since 1882. Britannia, starting in 1916, would begin sending weapons and advisors to the Arab Revolt, organizing them into an army in the Hejaz, with the understanding that they will seize the Suez Canal and drive the Europeans out of the Middle East. Unlike in our timeline, where the British only supported this revolt to carve up the dying Ottoman Empire for themselves, the Britannians would actually be content to have a unified Middle East, with the intention of making an ally out of this new Arab state. I will go more into depth with this later, however, the Arab Revolt does successfully clear the east banks of the Red Sea, allowing Britannian forces to move up through the Hejaz and they manage to cut off the Suez Canal, sometime in 1917. The Britannians then block the canal, while the Arabs, with Britannian support go on to claim Damascus and Baghdad.


With the Suez Canal cut, Europe’s military might would start to take a toll. With the only other route cut, travel across the Atlantic for European navies is just as dangerous as it was before. As for what Russia is doing in the east, they were faring far less well. The loss of Alaska early in the war would then lead to Britannia’s navy moving along the Aleutians and then down the Siberian coast, hitting ports and outposts that belong to Russia. Seeing both a threat and an opportunity to become a part of the European community, Japan joins the war on the side of Europe and moves its navy into defensive positions for Russia. Conflict is likely limited but Britannia does back down from outright conquering parts of Siberia. Also, Russia would still be facing internal strife due to the amount of stress that the war was putting on their economy, so it is likely that the Japanese would still deploy to Siberia to keep order. I will explain more about what Japan’s role in this war and the world at large would be in this alternate timeline later but I felt it was worth mentioning here.


By 1918, European forces in South America would not be holding out well. Supply lines would be badly overwrought and the forces inside South America itself would be fighting for their lives. The stalemates would have been broken by now and the Britannians would be coming for the colonial capitals. By this point, the economic strain placed on Europe would likely lead to Spain, a country in decline by this point regardless of the timeline, and Russia going through revolutions that would evolve into civil wars. By the end of 1918, Europe would be such a mess that France would sue for peace with the Britannians. In doing so, the remaining Spanish colonies would be signed over to the Britannians. With the withdrawal of European troops, Argentina would be hung out to dry and they would likely collapse by 1919. Britannia would return the territory it took to win the war, help the Arab nation get set up, and then conclude its own withdrawal, heading into the 1920s as the new most powerful country on the planet.








The Middle Eastern Federation: Founding


One of the independent superstates we see outside of the big three in Code Geass is the Middle Eastern Federation. The country is introduced in the early episodes where we see Princess Cornelia leading a Britannian military incursion into the country before being called away to the events going on in Japan. The fact that there is a unified nation in the Middle East is not without precedent but figuring out how it came to be in the world of Code Geass is something I have briefly touched on. Before I move on to the post-World War I world, I want to quickly touch on what the history of this country's independence may have been in a more collected sense.


Going far back to the Napoleonic Era, I think Napoleon would be willing to cut a deal with the Eyleat of Egypt to help bring down the Ottoman Empire. The Egyptians, despite being nominally under the Ottoman power structure, were essentially independent and fought with the Ottomans plenty of times. I think Napoleon would seize upon this power struggle and get Muhammad Ali Pasha, the great leader of Ottoman Egypt, to lead his country against his supposed masters in Constantinople. Their aid in the war would result in the Egyptians not just walking away with their independence but would also take over the Arab regions of the Ottoman Empire, as I don’t see Napoleon or his allies really having any desire to deal with these regions.


I think relations between Europe and Egypt under Muhammad Ali Pasha, who still rules the country till 1848 as he did in our timeline, remain stable but tensions would begin to form. Especially between the Greeks and the Egyptians, as many of the Greek islands and Cyprus would still be administered by Egypt. With the Pasha’s death in 1849, Greece would attempt to take back these islands, Russia would support them, and then France would also be forced to intervene, creating a kind of alternate Crimean War. In this timeline, it would be fought more in the early 1850s rather than the mid-1850s and would likely be known as the Cyprus War or the Cypriot War. I talked more about this above from the European perspective but this war would be an added factor in the decline of Egypt as a power in the Middle East. Also during this time, there may be some wars between the Russians occupying Turkey and the Egyptians, as the former would be trying to increase their influence in the Middle East as much as possible.


The fact that Egyptian Ottomans are ruling the Arab regions of the former Empire would certainly not make things easy between the two but based on how the Egyptians administered things in their territories in our timeline during the early to mid 19th century, I imagine there are no major calls for independence. Though, the idea of Arab nationalism would start to grow in the intellectual circles in Damascus, Baghdad, and even Cairo itself, as it did in our timeline. The change would come in 1882 with France’s occupation of Egypt to defend the Suez Canal.


Under European rulership, there would be a general division being France claiming the Hejaz, Palestine, and Syria, whilst Russia might try to join in and seize the lands around the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers down to the Persian Gulf. The administration would be seen as a foreign occupation and hated by the Arabs under European rule. This would push the same kind of Arab Nationalism, that would in turn lead to an Arab Revolt in a few decades. How this revolt would actually be organized is anyone's guess. The Sharif of Mecca in our timeline, the Hashemites, led the Arab Revolt due to their control of the center of the Muslim World. It is probable that a similar situation exists in the alternate Arab Revolt of our timeline.


Although Britannia would be a big supporter of the Arabs during World War I, during the 19th century, they would not really be interested in the fact the Europeans carved up the Eylaet of Egypt. However, when oil was discovered in the region in the mid-1900s, Britannia would want a greater influence over those oil resources. This is why the Arab Revolt would be supported by Britannia. To determine whether there would be the same kind of “Lawrence of Arabia” figure that would link the British with the Arabs is more of a detailed question, but a similar contact would be made, supplies and intelligence would start falling into the hands of the Arab rebels in the Hejaz. However, the first step of this new Arab revolt would not be to the north, but rather to the south to the port of Aden. The reason for taking Aden would be the same as why the Arabs took Aqaba in our timeline, with the goal of opening the port, so Britannian ground forces could finally start to land on the Arabian Peninsula and give greater aid to the Arab Revolt.


The Britannian forces in the region would be fully focused on seizing the Suez but the Arab forces, covering the flank of the Britannians, would rush north through the Hejaz, hang east slightly, and head towards Jerusalem, and finally Damascus, cutting off any European forces still left in Mesopotamia off from any support. The severing of the Suez would effectively be the end of Europe’s war effort and the suing for peace. The suit of this peace would lead to the creation of a united Arabian state, one that was intimately supported by the Britannians. This would be the beginning of the Middle Eastern Federation, as I could imagine the way this state would need to be run, with the various tribes coming together to form the government, with tribes having delegated authorities, and the central government has its own areas of authority. The federation would go into the 1920s and 1930s in a pretty good state, selling oil to willing buyers around the world, and then using that money to lead an economic revolution in the Middle East. However, they would lose Cairo, still being under the rule of the Europeans and Persia would still have yet to join, still ruled by the Shah.





A Tale of Two Superstates


The end of the World War would see a paradigm shift in the power dynamics of the world. Britannia would go into the 1920s as the new powerful superstate of the world and it would have an advantage over their European counterparts. Unlike Europe, Britannia would be one united nation that did not have to play any kind of balancing act through alliances or hegemony. Britannia’s economy would be among the biggest in the world, with an all-powerful navy guarding all of its trading interests. Even though there was still animosity with Europe, trading with them would be a no-brainer, especially after the war. The interesting thing about this war is that Europe would not lose territory elsewhere in the world, except for the Americas. This war was basically Britannia’s move to seize the western hemisphere for themselves and by the 1920s, they would have it.


Europe on the other hand, despite not losing any territory, would be in absolute chaos even before the ink was dry on the peace treaty. Spain, still in decline since the late 18th century as it was in our timeline, had blown up into Civil War, a full generation before it did in our timeline. Russia too would be facing an open civil war, due to the strain that participating in this war would have put on them. Revolution in fact would be sweeping across Europe, Socialists, Marxists (which I don’t see any reason why Marx still wouldn’t have written the Manifesto here as well), and other radicals would be vying for power across Europe. France, depleted by the war, would effectively be powerless to bring peace and could only keep things tamped down in their homeland.


However, this would be the point where Prussia would finally rise. Prussia, having a very adversarial relationship with France for the past century, would have not committed nearly as much to the war effort. I figure that Bismarck, who still served as chancellor of Prussia here, would have exploited some loopholes in the European military agreement to keep large portions of Prussia’s army out of the war. Now, with Europe falling apart, Prussia would burst out and its armies would start putting revolutions down across the Union. From Russia, to the Balkans, to Italy, and Spain, Prussian troops would storm across Europe and bring peace back. The image of Prussian troops marching into Paris to drive back any revolutionaries would be the defining statement of Europe in the early twentieth century. Also during this time, Bavaria (who would have contributed large troop numbers to the war effort) would be too weak to resist a Prussian takeover, and any other holdout German states would be absorbed as well. With all of the German states united under a Prussian flag, this new union would simply become known as Germany. With that, Germany would become the great hegemon of Europe, with France simply acting as a host for a new German ruling class of the European Union. With Europe secure, the new strategic plan for Europe would be to copy the Britannians. If Britannia ruled over one-third of the world’s surface, Europe would rule over the other two-thirds, the “World Island”.





Japan


Before getting into what Europe does next, I want to talk about a crucial ally that Europe is going to need in that step, that being Japan. Japan is in a somewhat unique situation in this whole scenario because, during the time the world around them was changing, Japan was almost completely isolationist due to the laws set down by the Tokugawa Shogunate. With these laws having been in place since the 1630s, I can not foresee Japan being much different than how it was in our timeline. Japan’s opening could still see happening in the early 1850s, again at the hands of Britannia, and for similar reasons (trading) that the Americans came to Japan. Japan would still modernize and go through a similar restoration of the Emperor to power in the late 1860s. Japan’s urgency to modernize and form closer bonds with Europe would be likely even more urgent than it had been in our timeline, as they would be aware of Britannia’s desire to expand and control. Japan would still be interested in building an empire, likely still getting involved in Korea, fighting a war in China in the 1890s, and taking control of Taiwan. It is possible that Japan and Russia still clash over Manchuria but I feel like France would step in and mitigate things before they got too out of hand. However, because the Dutch were more focused on the Strait of Malacca and everything west of Surabaya, I could see the Japanese starting to put down the roots of a colonial empire in the East Indies in place of the Dutch. During the war, Japan would get involved to defend itself as Britannia moves against Russia. Troops would be deployed to defend Russia from Britannian invasion and an expedition would be launched to the failing Spanish colony of the Philippines to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Britannians. With these actions, Japan would be seen as a key ally by the Europeans and a necessary bulwark against the Britannians. Much more pertinent as Europe began to move towards its next goal.





China and the World Island


“Who rules East Europe, commands the Heartland. Who rules the Heartland, and commands the World Island. Who rules the World Island, commands the world.” These were the words written by Halford John Mackinder, an English geopolitical philosopher, whose words guided strategic planning for great powers during the 20th century. Now, much has been written about the validity of Mackinder’s words, however, the important thing is that they did genuinely guide policy that many countries used to their advantage. There is some logic to Mackinder’s words, as having control of the regions he described would put the ruling country in command of an immense amount of resources and invaluable strategic positioning. I think this would be the same sort of thinking that the European Union would be using for their strategic planning, whether or not Halford John Mackinder lived and died in the world of Code Geass as he did in our world. They would want to surpass the Britannians, they would see how the Britannians conquered their corner of the planet and are now the greatest power in the world. Europe would logically deduce from that that the only way to compete is to conquer the World Island. The EU would already have control of Europe, Africa, and much of Asia. In fact, there would really only be one major nation standing between the EU and succeeding in the conquest of the World Island, China.


China in this alternate timeline would likely be in a similar spot to where they were in our own timeline. The Qing dynasty would still begin to tank around the early 19th century, foreign powers from Europe would still come along and set up trading enclaves in weakened China, and massive revolts would still destabilize the regime until finally it simply collapsed altogether in 1911. All of that I think remains but the only difference is that because there is no British Empire, as we know them, they are unable to perform the role they served in Chinese history in our timeline. With that, the Europeans, the Dutch, and the French especially, play a far larger role in the weakening of China. However, I think China still weakens on a similar path until finally in the early 1910s, it all comes crashing down in the Xinhai Revolution.


In the show Code Geass, we actually do get some clues about what the history of China likely was. We see the flag of the Wuchang Uprising, or rather a redesigned version of it, in the show as the national flag of China but we also see that China is back under an Imperial rule. The question then becomes “What happened here?” There were a couple of instances, between the fall of the Qing in 1911 to the establishment of Red China in 1949, where an emperor actually was put back on the throne. The one most interesting to me is the one in which Yuan Shikai, the great military leader of the late Qing period, claimed the Imperial throne in 1915 after having taken over the country in the wake of the Wuchang Uprising. The most interesting thing about Yuan is that he essentially took over the Revolution in 1911 and seized power for himself. However, his declaration of emperorship was roundly rejected by all of his loyalist officers and essentially had to give up the title of emperor a few months after he took it, though he remained dictator of China until his death during the summer of 1916.


Based on the clues I have laid out, I think the China we see is the one in which Yuan Shikai took power as Emperor, and that hold on the Emperorship actually stuck. What would need to be different in order for Yuan’s bid as Emperor to actually last? I think the first thing would need to do is to actually earn the respect of not just his officers but also the people of China itself. Even after the Xinhai Revolution, China was still a mess. The KMT and various provinces were attempting to rebel against Yuan’s dictatorship, which would still have an effect on China in this alternate timeline. The difference here is rather than resting on his laurels, Yuan takes the initiative against his enemies. He would rally his officers and the Chinese people against the various enemies that were attempting to rebel against China, particularly in southern China. He would have the men, guns, and resources to carry out this war and here, Yuan is successful. He brings China under his control, defeats the KMT and the other rebel warlords, and Yuan is able to establish his dynasty around 1914 or 1915. China continues its tradition of Imperial dynastic rule with only about four years of interruption, with Republicanism in China being noted as a brief and interesting footnote in history.


Something that would not change is Yuan Shikai would still die in 1916 due to uremia. Yuan Shikai’s son, Yuan Kedeng, would take power but a lot of power would still be held by his father’s militarists. I say that partly because little is known about Yuan Kedeng and he was pretty much rendered irrelevant after his father’s death so knowing what his rule would’ve been like is hard to say. However, knowing that the Yuan Dynasty was effectively a military dictatorship, those tend to need enemies to really stand, especially with a country as large as China. The enemies that the dynasty would have available to them would be the Europeans and now the Japanese carving up the coastal towns of China into spheres of influence. China’s leaders would use this increasingly imperial influence to rally the people behind conflict with the Europeans and Japanese. Plus, this animosity with Europe, I imagine, would translate to a positive relationship with the Britannian Empire, and that tensions during the 1920s and 1930s would be raising to a boiling point, with China wanting its country back and Europe wanting to complete their conquest of the world island.





The Next World War


At a certain point, the tension between Europe, Japan, and China will boil over and it will lead to a direct fight. Sometime in the late 1930s, the European Union, with help from the Japanese are going to launch a full offensive into China from their various coastal holdings. Chinese forces would be pushed back hard but China is a massive country, with good defensive geography, and a population that would be spurred into action to commit to scorched earth warfare. By the start of the 1940s, Britannia would begin moving to help the Chinese, seeing yet another opportunity to lay the Europeans low. The Britannian strategy to save China would be threefold. The first part would be to send China aid and the only way they could do that is by airlifting supplies from Iran, over the mountains of Afghanistan and Tibet, and into bases in far western China, where the Chinese armies could use these weapons. As a side note, because the Middle East would be getting targeted by the EU as well, Iran would sign an instrument of ascension, joining the Middle Eastern federation, giving it its modern borders. The second part of Britannia’s strategy would be an approach from the Pacific, hitting Japan and Europe’s colonies in Southeast Asia, as well as leading up to a general assault on Japan’s homeland. The third strategy would be an approach from the Atlantic, landing in Western Europe, and taking the fight directly to the Europeans.


This alternate Second World War would be the most destructive conflict in world history and it would undoubtedly lead to the deaths of tens of millions of people. However, I believe that during this conflict, two things are going to take place that radically shape the course of history. One, I think the first nightmare frames are built, the mechs that are a big part of the actual show Code Geass and two, Sakuradite is first synthesized by the Japanese and they discover its explosive capacity. The reason I say Japan is because, by the show’s own admission, the Japanese are sitting on the largest deposits of Sakuradite in the world. I believe that they demonstrate their explosive capability at the end of the war and threaten to use it against any invading army headed towards Japan. This would be the only bargaining chip that Japan would have left as Europe would be losing the war badly by this point and would be getting pushed out of their Asian colonies by both the Britannians and the Chinese. In an alternate 1945, Japan would sign a separate peace from the Europeans, in which they have to give up their colonial empire, and the Europeans would effectively be forced to sign over all of their holdings in Central and South Asia as well.





The Chinese Federation


It would be out of the peace of World War II that the Chinese federation we see in Code Geass would truly be born. In peace, China would assume command of Central Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, all of the old European and Japanese colonies. Technically, these colonies would be converted into independent countries but China would have dominance over all of them. Think of how the Soviet Union had dominance over the Warsaw Pact countries in Eastern Europe after our own World War II. Britannia would also take a bit of the loot, taking control of parts of the old French Indochina, as seen in the show. Why they wanted parts of Indochina is anyone's guess but I figured it was to have a base to keep watch over things in Asia, being close to numerous trading lanes, and of course, to be close to the oil production of the Indies. However, while China would be one of the largest countries on Earth, stagnation would set in and soon the eunuchs would begin to settle in as we see in the show. The reason the eunuchs get more of a favorable spot is, I believe, due to the war. The eunuchs likely frame the military as the instigators of the Second World War and use that scapegoat to gain more power. However, as they gain more power, and Britannia continues to excise influence over them, the Chinese Federation does become the doddering old man that CC described in the show.





The Modern World of Code Geass


The world after 1945 would be a relatively peaceful one but it would be a peace born out of Britannia’s utter dominance of the world. Britannia would be the largest and most powerful empire in the world, with an economy second to none and a military feared across the world. We do get some information about this era from the show itself. By Emperor Charles’ admission, the 1960s (“over fifty years ago”) were a turbulent time for the royal family of Britannia, leading to a period of intrigue and assassinations, to rival the time Ivan the Terrible grew up. How that may have translated to the rest of Britannia, I can’t be sure. The show doesn't mention anything but at worst, there may have been a civil war in Britannia or some kind of reign of terror. I could imagine Britannia having to pacify their holdings in Indochina, which would lead to a similar Vietnam War scenario taking place. Britannia seems to have many holdings in the Chinese Federation, so I only imagine their grip on them became tighter. Europe would retain Africa but the era of a national hegemon dominating the destiny of the European Union would be over, entering into a much more democratic setup. The Middle Eastern federation would have the oil industry and not much else. I could see Iran no longer wanting to be dominated by the Arab ruling class out of Damascus and could attempt to rebel, leading to a long war and eventually a decentralization of power. The decline of the Middle East would only be hastened by the rise in Sakuradite. Which, Japan, while no great power, would be able to have some economic leverage with the dominance of that resource. Britannia’s colonization of Japan would start early, wanting to mine the Sakuradite, probably towards the end of the 20th century. However, the next war would begin before the first shot was fired with the election of Prime Minister Kuruguri. I could imagine him as being like Mohammad Mosadegh of Iran in that he attempted to nationalize the Sakuradite mining operations and that would of course prompt the Britannians to invade when they did in 2010. Japan would have a better fighting chance in this timeline due to the fact that they likely retained much of their military power to protect themselves against Britannia rather than to build a colonial empire. There would be no military demolition as there was after 1945 in our timeline. Japan would of course be invaded quickly but Japan, even in 2017, does not appear to have fully surrendered. There are still pockets of resistance and areas still controlled by the Japanese, implying that their military was strong enough to resist and continue to fight until the beginning of the show.








Conclusion


Alternate history is, at the end of the day, just very elaborate fiction. This entire project was meant to be part of a fan panel for an anime convention that sort of got away from me. However, I am proud at the work that I have done and I feel as though I did my best to accurately project what the history of the world of Code Glass actually would be. If you have disagreements or want to converse about what you think of my take on this alternate timeline. I appreciate your time if you have stuck to the end of this and maybe in the future, I can try to do something like this again. Once again, I want to reiterate that I own nothing related to Code Geass, this is merely a creative project based on the lore of the franchise. Thank you for your time.
 
Isn't the point of divergence of Code Geass Elizabeth I having a son who succeeds her under the name Henry IX? Admittedly I've never bothered to watch the series myself, so I don't know where this is actually stated (or if it is stated at all), but I keep seeing this all over the internet.
 
Isn't the point of divergence of Code Geass Elizabeth I having a son who succeeds her under the name Henry IX? Admittedly I've never bothered to watch the series myself, so I don't know where this is actually stated (or if it is stated at all), but I keep seeing this all over the internet.
And a briton chief beating Julius Caesar and the french executing Napoleon with the guillotine after he won them the continent...

Yeah those dont make much sense and can be considered britannian propaganda just like the Lord Britannia stuff

The PODs that actually matter and likely happened are the American Revolution failing, allowing for the british to move to America, and the napoleonic invasion of the isles that prompted them to
 
And a briton chief beating Julius Caesar and the french executing Napoleon with the guillotine after he won them the continent...

Yeah those dont make much sense and can be considered britannian propaganda just like the Lord Britannia stuff

The PODs that actually matter and likely happened are the American Revolution failing, allowing for the british to move to America, and the napoleonic invasion of the isles that prompted them to
Thank you both for your comments!

So, I made a deliberate choice to ignore any of the extended universe, I was simply focusing on what the show discusses. Personally, I find the extended universe of Code Geass to be largely garbage (SORRY TO ANY FANS OF THAT STUFF, I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT TO ITS FULLEST).

With this scenario, I was just going off of the information that is given to us in the show and after an extensive rewatch in preparation to write this scenario, I could only find the two divergent points that I mentioned earlier. So if that information is true, I elected to ignore it in favor of doing an "anime only" scenario.

Thanks!
 
Personally, I find the extended universe of Code Geass to be largely garbage
How dare you say something so true!

In all seriousness I do like some concepts from the EU, like...

-The imperial version of Lelouch(Julius Kingsley)
-Nunnally being the one who received the Geass and took on the role of Zero
-The Geass being a physical power instead of a mental one ala Shounen
-Knightframes not existing

But the execution of these AUs wasnt exactly fantastical, to put it mildly, and lets not get into the other ones...
 
How dare you say something so true!

In all seriousness I do like some concepts from the EU, like...

-The imperial version of Lelouch(Julius Kingsley)
-Nunnally being the one who received the Geass and took on the role of Zero
-The Geass being a physical power instead of a mental one ala Shounen
-Knightframes not existing

But the execution of these AUs wasnt exactly fantastical, to put it mildly, and lets not get into the other ones...

Valid! There are good ideas to be sure, it's just the execution I found to be severely lackluster. Especially after the powerhouse of the anime.
 
Considering there is apparently some sort of Euro-Britannia in Code Geass, wouldn't it make more sense for it to be reworked here into a Russian Empire which is the closest Britannia has to a permanent ally here?
 
Considering there is apparently some sort of Euro-Britannia in Code Geass, wouldn't it make more sense for it to be reworked here into a Russian Empire which is the closest Britannia has to a permanent ally here?

With some intermarrying between the royal houses probably
 
Is there an official source from the authors indicating what year one of the Ascension Throne Britannia calendar corresponds to ours? - 55 or 1 A.D?

The revolutionary timeline used by the Code Geass: Akito the Exiled series contradicts information from the original series.


 
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