The Grand Ascent

Glad to see this back! I actually just got back on to alternate history in the last few days after getting off of it for awhile, so it's a weird coincidence that this update came out now. I'm probably gonna have to re-read the TL, I've forgotten everything other than American Japan :p

I can understand the anime thing, I've been watching a bunch of anime recently.

As for the update itself, it sounds like the alt-Berlin conference was a success. That dispute between Russian and the US, held off only by a tsar who is close to death, sounded like some serious foreshadowing.

Japanese-American naval battle as allies (well the same country, but you get the idea)? Sounds awesome!

Will be looking toward to more.
Finally found time to work on this! There are some serious retcons I would love to make, but I will actually try to finish this one before making a finalised version. Also: foreshadowing indeed.
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The Grand Ascent;
Part 13(2/2):​
Belgium and the US fought for a time, but in the end, it was agreed the the Congo would belong to the United States. As the final issues were laid to rest, the Treaty of Warsaw was signed. This ended any disputes on who owned what in Africa, except for Morocco. So, it finally seemed like peace would come. The Universe however, had other plans.

15 days after the ratification of the Treaty of Warsaw, France annexed Tunisia as an extension of Algeria, to eliminate British and Italian influence in the country. This led to an outcry by Prussia, Britain, and the US. Russia was officially neutral, Austria and Denmark applauded the French. The Ottoman Empire was plunged into chaos as people began to see the Sultan as unable to protect the nation on his own. In February of 1887 the Sultan was overthrown and his brother Rashid was proclaimed as Sultan Mehmed V, and he was forced to sign a constitution creating a bicameral multi-party democratic parliament with universal suffrage. It also upheld several of the Tanzimat Reforms, such as the decriminalization of homosexuality[1]. However, the multi-party democracy was dominated by an unstable coalition led by the reformists, an Islamist party, and the Socialists.

This would cause problems in the future, but for now there were more serious problems in Europe. The Prince of Bulgaria, Ferdinand I, had married a member of the now almost non-existence old Bulgarian Aristocracy to convince the Bulgarians to accept him as their ruler. He also agreed to create a multi-party parliamentary democracy, granted leaving him much power, and that his children would be raised in Bulgaria as followers of Eastern Orthodoxy.

However, even with all of these concessions, his country still faced serious problems. Most of his country's neighbors wanted to chop a bit off the country for themselves. The Parliament faced serious opposition between the Pan-Slavic coalition and the other parties. When the Pan-Slavs won the election, the Prince dissolved Parliament and held a new election, and bludgeoned the country into voting against them. This was met with outrage by many, which only served to further inflame the tension in the country.

On 14 April, 1887 Prince Ferdinand I of Bulgaria and his wife, Princess-Consort Anna, were assassinated by Simeon Yankov, a young radical supporter of the Pan-Slavist movement. This left his 11 year old daughter Sofiya as the head of the Bulgarian branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as well as the Princess Regnant of Bulgaria. The entire political system was thrown into disarray. as the Prince had not yet opened parliament and had to under the rules of the constitution for Parliament to meet, but no one felt comfortable having a child open parliament. Bulgaria's neighbors took this opportunity and invaded Bulgaria. Romania annexed Southern Dobrudja and waited. Greece took the entirety of Bulgaria's Aegean coastline and advanced into Thrace and Southern Macedonia. Serbia invaded Northern Macedonia and advanced east, intent of occupying as much of the country as they could. The government of Bulgaria was evacuated from Sofia on the 19 of May and moved to Tarnovo.However, the Serbians took the city on the 25 and forced the government to accept terms of unconditional surrender.

Greece gained Southern Macedonia, Bulgaria's Aegean coastline as well as Eastern Thrace. Romania gained Southern Dobrudja. Serbia gained Northern Macedonia and completely occupied Bulgaria militarily. New elections were held by the Serbians in Bulgaria and the Pan-Slavists won an astounding victory, the Serbians didn't even need to rig the elections to accomplish it. The impromptu parliament voted for a union state with Serbia. Serbia acquiesced and annexed the Principality of Bulgaria. However, Milan, King of Serbia and Grand Duke of Bosnia and Herzegovina, swore that his son, Crown Prince Alexander, would marry Princess Sofiya and unite the two nation's monarchies fully.

The Prince of Montenegro had been pursuing closer relations with Italy and trying to move away from Serbia. However, he and his family were murdered in a bloody coup d'état that ended with both sides completely vanquished in June. The Montenegrin assembly elected the husband of the Prince's eldest daughter, Ljubica Petrović-Njegoš, as Peter Karađorđević, Prince of Montenegro. Before he was even coronated, he declared Montenegro a Kingdom and was crowned King of Montenegro in September of 1886. Infuriated that his family's rival for the throne of Serbia had gained the throne of Montenegro, Milan invaded Montenegro and forced Peter to sign the union treaty.

Tsar Alexander II died on 18 October, 1886. His son Alexander ascended as Alexander III. A self-coup a few days later allowed him to suspend the constitution that his father had worked so hard to put in place and restore the absolute monarchy of Russia.

During this time, Italy had not stayed quiet and protested fervently. However, a revolution in Albania caused the Princess to flee into exile. Albania was declared a republic that November. The new government offered to sign the union treaty with Serbia should they be granted vast autonomous privileges. After some negotiations, the basic idea was accepted and Albania signed the Treaty. A pro-Russian coup in Romania in December also led to them signing the union Treaty.

On 7 of January, 1887, Milan, King of Serbia, Grand Duke of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Prince-Regent of Bulgaria was crowned Emperor of Yugoslavia. this new country was met with high regards by Russia, Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph congratulated Milan grumbling all the while. Several other heads of state either sent congratulations or sent nothing at all.

Now, lets backtrack a little bit. As to understand the next step, we need to jump to the other side of the old world. In 1875, Empress Dowager Cixi, Regent of China, died of Food Poisoning. Needing a regent for the Tongzhi Emperor, the Emperor's uncle Yixin, better known as Prince Gong, was chosen as the new Regent of China. He began ambitious modernisation programs, mainly using funding from Russia, who thought that having a stronger China under their control would allow them to contest American control of the Sea of Japan and western pacific. Using this, railroads between major cities were started, factories were built, and the military began to modernise. Although, the modernisation was very sloppy, it was the best industry that China had possessed since the Southern Song.

The Tongzhi Emperor died in 1876, though his Empress was pregnant at the time of his death. Prince Gong stayed in power as regent, continuing his efforts to modernise the state, though Russia didn't have much additional funding to send to China by this time. The Empress died in childbirth, but her child, a son, was born healthy. The boy's new era was declared Guangxu[2] (meaning 'glorious succession') due to hopes that when the boy could take full control of the nation, it would be in a time where China is again a world power.

Now we come back to 1886. Prince Gong is sole regent of China, ruling in the name of his grand-nephew. His attempts to modernise China have been met with very limited success, as corruption was so deep rooted in the nation that it became extremely hard to modernise anything. He had to divert state funds to buy up land to build factories and railroads on. Military reform was also stagnated by this corruption. Getting the guns manufactured and deployed wasn't super difficult. But the bullets had a shortage because the provincial viceroys and warlords would take many of the bullets and melt them down for decorations or jewelry. That last part is probably false, but it demonstrates the point rather well.

What Prince Gong really needed was something to unite the people behind, while also giving him the chance to recentralise power and reduce corruption, to make sure his young nephew can rule a China that he can be proud of. There was only one option. China would have to put its reforms to the test. In War. The problem was, there were limited options for war. Though, in the mind of Prince-Regent Gong, there was only one option. He would have to go to war against the United States of America. He managed to join the power bloc of Russia, France, and Austria-Hungary, which helped, but he would need war, and soon, if he planned on proving to the court that he wouldn't simply kowtow to the foreigners.
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Alright! I finished the update! I will not be working on this again for a little bit, but still thanks to all readers!

[1] I kid you not, the Ottomans decriminalised homosexuality in the 1850s.

[2] yeah, yeah, that's the name of the guy that ascended OTL as well, but can you think of a better name for a people trying to be optimistic?
 
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Well that was the fastest expansion of a country that I've seen in a while. :p

Why didn't any great powers, especially Britain (relative of monarch on Bulgarian throne), Russia (pan-slavist ideology) and Austria (bad example, from their perspective, for their Slavic minorities) intervene/meddle with the conflict(s)? Was it all just too fast for them to do anything?

And Russia is back to square one politically.

I get the feeling that China will regret a war with the US (it is a us centered timeline after all :p). Although admittedly, the us will have an extremely difficult fight ahead with both Russia and China threatening their East Asian territories (especially Korea, with its land connection negating American naval superiority).
 
And Russia is back to square one politically
True. Though, Russia is looking better than ever considering that Serbia, and by extension Yugoslavia, is more willing to follow what Russia says than Bulgaria ever was.
I get the feeling that China will regret a war with the US (it is a us centered timeline after all :p). Although admittedly, the us will have an extremely difficult fight ahead with both Russia and China threatening their East Asian territories (especially Korea, with its land connection negating American naval superiority).
Oh, the US is going to have a hard fight indeed. Once I get a chance, I will write the next chapter. I am gonna have fun with that one.
 
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attention all: this TL has been restarted here. The way I write has changed far too much since the beginning of this story, and frankly, I am a bit embarrassed that that was some of my best writing at the time.
 
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