Here's the other half, I forgot I burned it to a backup cd I had.
1912 - Thomas Woodrow Wilson, stages a coup against Roosevelt, he has a small loyal military unit ambush his hunting party in Africa. Wilson seizes power in Washington and tells the public Roosevelt was killed by a lion. Nobody believes him but that’s as close to a peaceful transition of power as they’re going to get.
(note – the people here are citizens, not subjects. Roosevelt and Wilson set presidents of Emperors behaving like Presidents, not Royalty. There are no other ‘royal’ positions and as said earlier, no one inherits the office)
1914 – Archduke Ferdinand is…blah blah blah…you know the drill. The main difference here is that the Empire sides with Germany and Austria. Britain has always been a thorn in the Empire’s side and there had been low level skirmishing in Africa for years. As a provocation (Wilson though he needed one) the Empire sent a lone grain freighter on its way to Germany. Of course Britain sinks it and America declares war on the Alliance.
1915-1919 – The ‘Empire’ war begins in the Atlantic and Africa. The world’s two strongest empires ignore the other belligerents and go at each others throats. Almost every week for two years there was a sailors body that washed ashore in Massachusetts. The Empire wasn’t able to send many reinforcements to Africa but most people there were already assimilated and it was run separately (The British ran a mostly OTL colonial plan and the occasional genocide didn’t help). By 1917 the British Navy was defeated and an Imperial invasion force landed on Great Britain. General George ‘Black Death’ Pershing razed most of Wales before the rest of the country surrendered. In 1919, Germany had finally conquered France who never surrendered (I’m pretty sure that’s not an ASB, but who knows ). Russia lost a good deal of its territory as well and Italy (who joined Germany) got some of the Balkans. The Ottoman empire still collapsed with its constituent parts becoming independent. Germany was the big winner, during the war it took control of Austria which could barely feed itself. After the war, they annexed it along with most of Europe. The Kaiser declared the Kaiser of all Europe and renamed it the European Empire. The American Empire conquered Ireland and all British territories except South Africa and Australia who become completely independent (and some land in Africa that Germany got to first). In Britain itself, anyone who had a royal title was executed along with most of Parliament, much the same happened across Europe. Russia was a shell of its former self, the Empire though didn’t have the troops the send to Siberia and neither did Russia so the border didn’t change there. Over the next several years, Russia will fall into the European sphere of interest. Former French territories go to Europe except for their possessions in the Americas which of course Germans lets the Empire have.
(a note on democracy, it still exist on the local level in America although anyone claiming a party is arrested as a traitor. Its vanished or simply never appeared anywhere else)
1925 – Most remaining world territory by this time is divided up by the major world powers. Japan evacuates the small enclaves of China as its becoming untenable (they grab some former British territories in the Far East and Taiwan). China, with an unbroken dynastic regime, grabs Tibet and some more territory in the west. Europe gets much of the Middle East except Turkey and the Arabia Peninsula (goes to the American Empire). The Persian Empire which reformed after the war gets a few of the surrounding ‘stans’.
1925-1945 – Known as the “time of peace” as most powers consolidate their gains. Despite the name, millions are killed in forced population movements, exterminations, and assimilations. Basic international institutions pop up mostly in the form of trade pacts. The only independent nations left are: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, The American Empire, The European Empire, The Chinese Empire, The Japanese Empire, The Persian Empire, The Union of South Africa, and the Australian Republic, the latter two run by dictators. Also important is a revitalization of interest in classical literature and thought. The term ‘terran’ is beginning to outpace ‘human’ when speaking of all the people of Earth. First and foremost still, people are loyal to their governments. Emperors during this period include Huey Long, J, Edgar Hoover, and Joseph McCarthy in America. Fredrick II and Adolf Hitler (coup) in Germany, and just Hirohito in Japan.
1945 – Dissatisfied over Scandinavia’s reluctance to integrate further with Europe, the European Empire ‘all of a sudden’ declares war and invades with other two million troops. The only reason the war took four months was because of guerilla resistance in the mountains.
1946 – fearful over Europe’s power, Russia and Persia sign a formal alliance. It won’t do much to slow Europe down if they wanted to invade but America made it clear it wouldn’t be too happy if war came.
1951 – The American Empire secretly detonates a nuclear bomb in the Mojave desert. After seeing footage, Emperor Patton decides to keep it a secret but continue development.
1955 – Weary over America’s probing in Tibet (part of China) and Kuwait (part of Persia), the two form another alliance focused on the Empire. Emperor Patton is somewhat concerned with this although the two weren’t really a threat to him. America forms the World Trade Organization, a cooperative venture with Japan and Europe to patrol the worlds oceans protecting trade from ‘pirates’ (more for surveillance).
1960 – Emperor John Kennedy seizes power from the weak (and brief) reign of Emperor Adlai Ewing Stevenson II. He was most famous for saying, “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us ill will or not, that we are not friends, we will crush all those that oppose us or get in our way. This nation does not have friends, we only have allies and only as long as they are useful.” Kennedy uses the increased animosity to start a space race and he commissions the Apollo program.
1967 – Martin Luther King has Kennedy assassinated and he takes the throne. King rehauls much of the American social system and ends what few private charity organizations are left saying, “if they have the money to give it away, they might as well use it to support their country.” He taxes them out of existence.
1969 – Apollo 11 lands on the moon. According the Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong died when his head hit the bulkhead during the landing in the lunar module. Aldrin is the first man to step foot on the moon and his first words are, “I claim this moon in the name of the American Empire”. Naturally other countries protest.
1970 – in response to America claiming the Moon, Australia claims Antarctica. The Moon was a political move but most of the Empire’s had based in Antarctica and Australia just told them to get out. With his reorganization, Emperor King had almost a million soldiers in the Philippians and a major navel base at Subic Bay. In a lighting strike, Sydney is annihilated in a mushroom cloud and resistance on the mainland goes downhill from there. Amazingly enough, some resistance holds out another year on Tasmania but is soon snuffed out. Antarctica is divided up on the Empire’s terms after that. Within the next 10 years; Japan, Europe, China, and Russia all development nuclear weapons but America is still two generations ahead of them, they already have ballistic submarines on patrol.
1980 – Emperor King becomes to first Emperor to actually retire without dying in office or being assassinated. His chooses Jimmy Carter to replace him. Before he ascends to office however, reports surface that he shot two people snooping around his peanut farm. Normally this would not be a problem as most Emperors did some killing but these turned out to be just kids. Ronald Regan used this to his advantage and ascended to Emperor.
1982 – Regan highly publicizes South African atrocities in their concentration camps for political prisoners. South African dictator Nelson Mandela fires back that America does the same (it does but in the middle of the desert). Regain finally invades although Europe (still in East Africa) protests because of the strategic importance of the cape.
1985 – Regan’s rhetoric reaches unprecedented heights, almost declaring war on the entire planet in every speech. Japan abrogates the WTO pack and allies with China (they both realize their borders aren’t going to change much). This new “Eastern Coalition” realizes it might have the makings of something import and invites Russia and Turkey to join (they do in ’91).
1990 – Regan dies of what the CIA doctors call a heart attack. CIA director William Jefferson Clinton assumes the title of Emperor soon after. It is curious to note the previous CIA director, George H.W. Bush died the same way.
1994 – In response to the forming of the Eastern Coalition, the American and European Empires form the Western Alliance. Cold Wars are nothing new but this one takes the cake.
1995-2053 – The ‘Undeclared War’ quietly rages across the globe. Over the decades, technology explodes across the globe. Space is a constant battlefield and military science repeats the process of measure/counter-measure over and over again. Each side supplies weapons and armaments to rebel groups within the others borders but all these are harshly crushed. In 2006, Emperor Vicente Fox sparks a major rebellion in Eastern Turkey which spreads to Persia. Russia soon annexes both areas although they are partially administered by the Coalition. In 2025, Emperor Bobby Jindal manages to bribe several European military figures into launching a coup. After Jindal grabs power, he purges most of the European political establishment and solidifies loyalty. The Russian Empire (the new leader of the Coalition) does much the same in China and Japan although the people are afraid enough to simply let it happen.
2053 – Emperor Adrik Thorsen orders the assault team of space platform to seize a new advanced satellite launched by the Coalition. The Coalition responds by destroying the space platform. A few hours later nuclear missiles are launched and the world plunges into nuclear war. The Alliance had a good anti-missile system but several nukes still got though destroying several major cities and military bases. The Coalition didn’t has as good a system and the Alliance used advanced stealth technology on their missiles. The exchange ended soon after with the Eastern Coalition completely destroyed, over 1.2 Billion deal. The Alliance ‘won’ the war but collapsed all the same. A government still existed but it was severely weakened and over the next several years, several areas formed their own associations while still claiming allegiance to the Emperor.
April 5th, 2063 – Physicist Zefram Cochrane (later Emperor) launched a converted nuclear missile and made humanity’s first faster-then-light journey. He had to first take control of most of Eastern Montana to secure materials/money and ruled from Bozeman. Later that evening an alien spacecraft landed outside of the town and an alien came out and used a strange gesture in greeting, he also said, “live long and prosper”. As a scientist Cochrane was curious and tried to imitate it but couldn’t. He then realized he was standing in front of an alien spacecraft that made his look primitive so he pulled out his shotgun and fire at the alien. His bodyguard knew what he was thinking and yelled, “Board their ship, take everything you can!”