What? You guys didn't think I'd leave you hanging, did you? A slight delay, but I am quite happy with the result. This is one of my best updates in a while (and it's my last! Can you believe it!
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It's been a fun and wild ride, but 103 pages and 43,130 words later it is FINALLY done!
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FROM 1901 TO THE MODERN DAY
1901 AD - The island of Saint-Jean (OTL Vancouver) is handed over to Provinces-Unies d’Calliste.
1903 AD - Papal lands in Italy are reduced to a small part of the city of Rome, the Holy See itself.
1908 AD - The Slavs of the Balkans have had enough. In 1908 a Communist and Nationalist revolutionary by the name of Piotr Kuznetsov sparks a riot in the city of Sarajevo. The situation quickly escalates.
1909 - 1912 AD - The Great European Revolt. The “European” is in reference to the Ottoman European holdings. Piotr Kuznetsov’s rebellion is initially a Serbian one, however Piotr is able to unify all the Balkans nations under a single alliance (even Greece, who was spoiling to regain her northern territories).
The Ottomans receive no help from anyone during this rebellion, and most nations of Europe looked on with glee as the last vestiges of Ottoman dominion over Europeans was being destroyed.
It culminated in the capture of Istanbul late in the year of 1911. As a nod of appreciation, Istanbul was placed under Greek authority. The Ottomans were not, however, going to give up without a fight. In 1912 a truce was agreed to, but it would not last for long.
1913 - 1915 AD - The king of Siam had had enough of the Polish control over what he saw to be his sovereign territory (Malacca straits). In 1913 he invaded, and was successful. However, the Polish reprisal was swift and furious. The country was fully occupied in the year 1915, the king of Siam had no choice but to capitulate.
1912 AD - First manned flight.
In this year, the French government reforms. The Irish are finally granted full and equal representation, and there is no law restricting the Irish to government posts. Quite the opposite, in fact. Only Irishmen can represent Ireland in the Assembly.
1913 AD - The Byzantine Emperor accepts the Greek invitation to return to Constantinople. After 439 years the Byzantine Emperor once again sits in Byzantium. The reaction in the R.P.T (Greek acronym for “Rome Beyond the Sea”) was mixed, however they were mostly glad to see their emperor return to his rightful homeland.
1915 AD - The first aircraft are produced.
1916 AD - Assembly line manufacturing perfected by a PUC (Provinces-Unies d’Calliste) industrial mogul.
1917 - 1921 AD - The Ottoman Empire had been over the past five years been gathering an army, and would not take the loss of the Balkans lying down. The Ottomans invaded the Balkans in the Spring of 1917. The war dragged on for two years, with no clear end in sight, until France issued the “Balkans Doctrine”. It was basically a document stating that the Ottoman Empire had no right to interfere in the affairs of the Balkans people. The Ottomans refused to back down, and this would prove to be its undoing. In the fall of 1919 the French crossed the Sinai, and pressed up the Levant.
Over the course of 1919 - 1921, the French were able to overrun the Ottoman Empire. The strategy was not to take the heart of the Empire, Anatolia, itself. The strategy was, in one French corporal’s words, to “sever the limbs, so that the body can do nothing”. By 1921the two main French armées met in Baghdad. (One was pushing from the Sinai, then headed south down Mesopotamia; the other was pushing up from the Persian Gulf). It was on September 5th, 1921 that the French received a surrender from the Ottoman Sultan.
While technically still an Empire, the Ottoman Empire occupied no more than the Anatolian highlands. 1921 is the year when the Empire itself was destroyed.
Serbia, under the leadership of Premier Piotr Kuznetsov, was booming at this point. However Piotr was not done with war…
1920 AD - A Swedish physicist postulates his General Theory of Relativity.
1922 AD - Blomstenland (OTL Florida) is granted independence from Denmark.
1923 AD - Piotr Kuznetsov claims that Raetija is a “monarchist, feudalist state” that was no longer ruled by true Slavs. He cites the fact that Raetija did not assist her “fellow Slavs” when they were fighting “Saracen Oppression”. Piotr declared war on Raetija.
Raetija had been in no formal military engagement in over 100 years, and as such they were ill-prepared to face the well-tuned military machine that was Piotr Kuznetsov’s “Slavic Popular Republic”.
1923 - 1950s - The world economy is booming. With the widespread use of assembly line production, factories could now churn out more and more, which meant more profit and more profit for company stockholders.
1924 AD - The war against Raetija was quick, and by the end of 1924 Piotr’s Armies were standing in Vindob (OTL Vienna). The King of Raetija had fled to Italy, and now most Slavic-speaking countries in the region were unified under the banner of the “Slavic Popular Republic”.
East Bulgaria, however, wasn’t. To counter this, Piotr simply had spies within that country foment a “Unification” movement. This movement gained great popularity in Eastern Bulgaria.
1926 AD - In a bloodless coup, the king of East Bulgaria is forced to leave the country. The new Bulgarian government immediately surrenders all control to the “People’s Assembly” of the PSR. All Slavs in the region were unified. Piotr was content. He would die later that year. His elected successor was Mikhail Ivanov, a man who some would say was twisted by war. He had a further dream of unifying ALL Slavs, from Iberija to Poland.
Europe was on the brink of imploding. Many nations were now beginning to second-guess the decision of co-signing the Balkans Doctrine.
1929 AD - Strong nationalist movements in Bohemia, backed by the SPR. It would be in December that the Polish civil war begins. It was the sentiment among many in Poland that while the meritocratic system was good, it was outdated, and had taken away peoples’ right to self-determination.
1929 - 1932 AD - Polish civil war. The result of this civil war was the splitting of Poland into three: The Kingdom of Poland retained much land, however a Communist Bohemia was established, and so was an Anti-Monarchist state, the Polish Republic. It was not a Communist state, however it allied itself with both Bohemia and the SPR on a sort of “enemy of my enemy” basis.
1930 AD - A Frenchman from Dona (OTL Doncaster)* discovers the cure for Polio.
1937 AD - The powder keg is lit. The relations between Italy and SPR were never good. The Italians were seen as monarchists, and it didn’t help Italy that they assisted Raetija. So when Italy attempted an ambitious coup to eliminate Mikhail Ivanov, SPR was understandably upset. In the Fall of 1937 the SPR declared war on Italy.
Galie was allied to Italy, and Galie was dragged in as well. Poland had a mutual protection pact with Galie, and Germania had guaranteed it would assist Poland in the event that its sovereignty was threatened. So you had Bohemia, Greece, SPR, and the Polish Republic on one side, and Italy, the Kingdom of Poland, Galie, and the Republic of Germania on another side. (Greece had joined the SPR’s side due to sheer diplomatic pressure).
1937 - 1939 AD - The SPR overran the Kingdom of Italy. Radicals within the Italian government were welcoming of their new Communist liberators. The King of Italy retreated to Sicily, where he was protected by the navy of Galie. Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Poland was not doing well. Most territory east of the Vistula had been taken by the Republic of Poland, and Bohemia was pressing onwards to the Baltic.
The type of warfare involved here was called “Trench warfare”. With great advances in firepower (invention of the machine gun, artillery) yet fewer advances in mobility, this was slow-moving warfare.
1940 AD - Burgundy joined the war on the same side as the SPR. The debate as to whether or not to join the war was heated, but ultimately it came down to “someone is going to win this war, we need to pick a side.” In early 1940 it seemed as though the SPR would come out on top.
Meanwhile, aviation in France is perfected. Airplanes are no longer made of wood and fabric as they were originally. Now they had powerful engines, and were made of riveted metal. They were able to carry a payload of bombs. It would be a few years, however, before the first of these “Avion Bombadiers” would see action.
1941 AD - This was the final straw for the hawks in L’Asemblee in France. They could no longer sit idly as the continent was slowly engulfed in a dangerous new order. The Burgundians had seized the Mediterranean coast of Galie, and was pressing onward to the Atlantic. Meanwhile Germania was beginning to feel the pressures of a three-front war with Bohemia and the Polish Republic and now Burgundy/SPR.
The French dragged-in the PUC and its boundless industrial might. The PUC applied diplomatic pressure to Mexico, who would assist in the war. By the end of 1942, the Burgundians would lose all of their Caribbean possessions, for Burgundy was not prepared for a naval battle across the Atlantic.
Meanwhile, the French formulate a new plan. An amphibious invasion of Greece, which would topple very quickly, and then a new Southern front would be opened. The new plan was codenamed l'Opération Thermopyles.
1942 AD - “Miracle on the Rhine.” A combined Franco-Gallo-Germanian force halts the SPR advance up into Germania. Meanwhile Bohemia was beginning to slow down, and the Northern front was in a deadlock at this point.
1943 AD - Iberija joins the war, knowing that it can not afford to be diplomatically isolated in the future.
l'Opération Thermopyles is underway. The French launch simultaneous amphibious landings after weeks of bombarding the Greek shore. The first Bombers bombed Athens, and within two weeks of landing, the Greek government capitulated. Ivanov’s nightmare had been realized: A southern front.
1944 AD - The French, Mexico, and the PUC poured troops into Greece and East Bulgaria, and the SPR could do little about it. The SPR was faltering on all fronts. Iberija had retaken the Mediterranean coast for Galie, and was invading Burgundy proper. Germania and Poland were beating back Germania and the SPR.
In 1944, the Iberijans and the Free Italians land in southern Italy, and quickly advance up. All lands up to the Po River are taken by Christmas of 1944.
1945 AD - The war was entering the endgame. Serbia proper was being invaded, Iberija had forced Burgundy to capitulate and was pressing into Northern Italy. Bohemia was now on the defensive, the Poles had breached the Vistula. and SPR generals were surrendering on all fronts.
1946 AD - Mikhail Ivanov is captured in an attempt to flee to Turkey, apparently making his way to Persia. With Ivanov captured, the SPR quickly agrees to an unconditional surrender, having lost the support of its own people. There were no more cries of “Unification”, only cries of “Truce”. The Republic of Poland quickly followed suit.
1947 - 1948 AD - The Allied Nations had to decide how to carve-up the Balkans. There was much debate, but a Polish general by the name of Grezegorz Kowalski had a proposition all could agree to. The land would be divided into, essentially, city-states. The idea was to make each political unit in the region so small as to be rendered insignificant.
Many were opposed to the idea, saying that it would not work. But revisions were added. For example, none of these political units was allowed to have a military, period. The nations were allowed to trade with each other, but only through the “Balkans Economic Development and Diplomatic Centre,” where trade and diplomatic discourse between the various city-states was heavily moderated. Control of all major port cities was handed over to various allied nations.
In this way, the Allies planned to ensure that this never happens ever again.
1949 AD - The Allies form the League of Nations, an international governing body designed to help nations resolve their problems peacefully and diplomatically. Indeed, the motto of the organization is, “By the Olive Branch Alone is the Sword Sheathed.”
1950s - Rebuilding of Europe. Most of Europe was absolutely devastated by the war, and the economies of the various nations were in shambles. However, many important economic centers (Lutetsija, Batavia, most of Iberija, northwestern Poland, France itself) had avoided the destruction of infrastructure that had wracked the rest of Europe.
In the mid to late 1950s, the booming economy that had reigned for almost thirty years came to a close. The world was experiencing a recession, as money had to be poured into rebuilding Europe. During this time many Europeans emigrated to the PUC, seeking better fortunes in the (Not-so) New World.
1953 AD - Purchase of Alaska by PUC.
1956 AD - Germania grants independence to Eastern Australia and Papua.
1958 AD - Poland grants independence to Indonesia and Western Australia.
1960s AD - For the first half of the 1960s the rebuilding of Europe continued, and the job was mostly finished by 1964. Many advances were made in these years, mostly in medicine and computing. Warfare hasn’t progressed all that much, however fighter-style planes never gained much popularity. The prevailing military thought was on firepower, and as such huge planes and zeppelins, designed to deliver very destructive payloads, ruled the skies more so than fast maneuverable yet small fighter planes (although no nation would be caught dead without a few wings of those).
Independence movements begin to gain steam in the Caribbean, India, Africa, and China (China was sovereign, but many felt that it was being exploited by the west). In fact in China there is a serious backlash against various Western companies, and over the 1960s China cuts several deals with the various western companies, restricting trade to certain zones, and limiting what can be done in said zones. In India, similar things happen. For the first time in recorded history, the various princes of India got together, and basically said that they wanted the Europeans out of their homeland.
In 1968, the first man-made satellite was put into orbit.
1965 was a big year. The doctrine of firepower ultimately led to the creation of the atomic bomb. All of the nations in the LON agreed to never use the atomic bomb without a 2/3 majority vote in the LON itself. The designs and manufacturing secrets were kept top-secret.
1970s AD - The efforts of the United Front of India succeed. By 1975, the last vestiges of colonial rule are destroyed. India was divided along lines similar to pre-colonial times, however all of them were under the jurisdiction of UNI, the United Nations of India. Why the Europeans were withdrawing all had to do with the fact that post-Great War there was a great feeling of pacifism and isolationism, not to mention that the press loved a good story of colonial oppression.
In Africa, however, it was a different story. Iberija was facing increasing opposition from its own colonies, and it was fighting tooth and nail to retain its empire. But eventually, the Iberijans began a plan to withdraw from Africa by 1985.
In 1976 the French pulled out of Egypt. Subsequently, in 1977 they withdrew from the Levant, excepting Israel. A dispute had emerged between the Jewish and Palestinian factions vying for dominance after the withdrawal of the French. The French would hold on to it until 1979, when they decided that the land be best left to the Palestinians. The Jews balked at this, however they were far too outnumbered by the Palestinians to matter all that much.
Galie and Denmark also slowly begin to pull out of Africa.
In 1973, France put the first man on the moon.
1980s AD - The 1980s proved to be the final nails in the coffin for the Empires of old. Poland’s empire ended when on July 9th 1980 Siam was granted full independence. The French pulled out of the Middle East (however retained the oil fields in the Persian Gulf as a “neutral zone” between the various nations), and in 1985 many new nations were born out of Iberija’s old empire. South Africa (Jug Afrika) was granted independence.
However, there were a few flashpoints. There was terrorism in the Middle East, from various Zionist groups seeking to reclaim the historic Jewish homeland. Not to mention the ‘88 Crisis, which was centered on a revolution which took place in Varangia. The various ethnicities that made up Varangia finally tore each other apart. The Caucasus exploded into sheer violence, with Georgians, Armenians, and various others seeking independence.
The Kazakhs and Uzbeks et al wished for their own dominion over their respective territories as well. For once, Krimea was not rebelling against Varangia, mainly because the Krimeans themselves were opposed to the idea of Georgian and Armenian independence.
In the end the Varangian military was unable to put down the rebels, and the Varangian Empire, while not destroyed, was dealt a serious blow from 1988-1989.
During the 1980s the field of communications technology was very hot. Cellular phones made communication effective and easy, not to mention a world-wide “Electronic Postal System” allowed anybody with a personal computer to keep in touch with just about anyone else.
1990s AD - The Japanese had occupied Korea for many years, and there were many calls during the early 1990s for Japan to end the occupation. This was backed up by the regional powers Manchuria and China. Finally, in 1993, the Japanese pulled out of Korea.
The 90s were characterized by slight tensions in India and Africa, the difference being that Africa’s tensions transcended borders (tribal warfare). Various Indian states skirmished with one another, but the issues were only over borders, and they were mostly resolved by the end of 1998.
The 90s were also characterized by continued advancements is computing and communications technology. Personal computers had become a sheer necessity in the European and North Kallistan home by 1994, and cell phones were getting ever-smaller.
One of the biggest highlights was the meeting of the Ottoman Sultan and the Byzantine Emperor, on a ship in the Sea of Marmara. The two nations finally reconciled for past crimes committed on both sides.
2000s AD - The present. It is a peaceful world for the most part. Tribal warfare continues in Africa, and the Indian states are in an uneasy alliance (the old north-south split again). In the Balkans the League of Nations continues to hold up the Kowalski plan, and now, forty years after the Great War there are rumblings in the Balkans again, various sections wish to unify, however this is mere saber-rattling, and the disorganized mish-mash of city-states dares not raise its fist in anger against the Allies.
The field of genetics and nanotechnology are becoming increasingly popular in recent years.
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The map will have to be postponed for a later date.
Sorry. Hope you all enjoy!
* - Now you can't say Doncaster has never been mentioned in a TL.
