The world in 1957, in Under Albion's Watchful Eyes, an alternate-universe version of Nineteen Eighty-Four written from the fresh perspective of post-World War 1 Europe.
The backstory below is revealed through some snippets in the novel, yet it is ultimately up to the viewer to decide which events are real, and which ones are fake.
After WW1, the world faces a shocking increase in radical ideologies. France invades and balkanizes Germany under its irredentist goals. Communism becomes mainstream in Europe, while the Ku Klux Klan grows in popularity in the US South. Eventually, they start a revolution and overthrow the southern governments, starting a Second American Civil War.
The far-left Albionic Party takes dominance in Britain by the end of the 1920s, further compounded by the Great Depression. The United States government is seen as incompetent and the Patriotist Party is put into power, turning the US into a nightmarish land for minorities and "undesirables", who are either rounded up and executed or lynched by the people.
It doesn't get much better in Europe, either. The Depression causes a collapse for the French economy, sending the people over the tipping point. By 1938, many independent European nations are communist, but in a different brand to the Soviet Union (which has also swayed Arabia, Persia, and Afghanistan to their side). The only buffer state between them is the Polish Intermarium, which has grown weak in recent years.
The Second Great War starts in 1941 after a border dispute in Romania. Coming to a brutal stalemate in 1946 after the death of an estimated 50 million people, a border is drawn from Pomerania to Montenegro. The Inter-Communist Wars begin.
India and China become a playground of broken and warring states with different ideologies, some democratic, some extremist.
I have no idea what to do with South America so far, but Africa is under European rule (sometimes getting invaded by the Soviet Union), and Australia is largely depopulated, having partially collapsed after the Great Depression.
The world of 1957 is a dark and depressing place. Nowhere is safe from persecution, or crime, or abuse of power.
The North American Union has developed a hierarchy of races and genders, with white men at the absolute top, and blacks and other minorities at the absolute bottom. News always goes in favor of the state, and any dissenting information is omitted or modified to fit the standards of the ruling class. As mentioned above, lynchings are common, and plantations have been constructed across North America.
In Panama is the Republic of Darien, which is much tamer compared to the larger nations. Still gotta develop lore for them, as well as South America.
The Albionic League is colored in different shades of far-left ideologies. It is an industrial wasteland, with high death rates in the factories, yet you will also starve if you work in the fields. The choice is yours, but it is a failed attempt at utopia. The states also regularly round up any dissenters to be executed. Religion is banned, and any signs of belief will result in punishment and/or execution. Despite this, the nation is also flavored with an irredentist belief that one day, Britain shall see might from the Scottish Highlands to Istanbul to Petrograd.
The Socialist Union of Asia is like the Stalin-ruled USSR of our timeline... on steroids.
China is stuck in an OTL-like warlord phase. Thousands die everyday from famine and the everlasting conflicts in the area. India is comparatively more stable, but faces extreme poverty, made worse by a growing population. An idea I might add is routine death squads sent to cull communities to avoid overpopulation and societal collapse.
Africa is a cruel mix of the North American Union's racism, and the horrifying nature of the Albionic League.
Oceania (no, not the 1984 version!) is the safest place out of all of them. Although anarchic at times, there has been some effort to restore democracy in the area.
The main novel is set either in the Commune of Britannia or the Democratic Union of France, both under the Albionic League's influence. In fact, Britannia and France are the main members.
I've been thinking that maybe, like in our 1984, the protagonists don't get to know the optimistic nature of Asia and Oceania? Perhaps a throwaway line from one of the higher-ups, stating that it's pure chaos and anarchy, and that they wouldn't want to go there?