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My goodness, I can't believe I am going to do this...

While reading Paul's timeline, it occurred to me that there might be some things I might suggest to make for a more plausible Draka timeline.

This will just be a brief sketch of a few ideas in this regard.

However, doing this has made me open up the discussion of other timelines resulting from the POD I am going to suggest to kick off this alternate Draka timeline, no Quebec Act:

https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?p=317802#post317802

1774 - There is no Quebec Act.

1775 - Quebec joins the Continental Congress.

1776 - Declaration of Independence.

ARW period -

The addition of Quebec to the rebellious colonies opens up the Northern theatres in a very different way. Earlier successes in the North, including the seizure of much of the adjacent Maritimes, as well as Francophone Quebec's mere presence, leads to earlier and more support from Europe, including the Netherlands.

These earlier setbacks kicks the British in the teeth, and makes them consider thinking outside the box a little for once. The Ferguson Breechloader is one of the benificiaries of this grasping for a new advantage. With its introduction on a large scale in the latter years of the war, we have the more vicious fighting in the South than OTL, and all the sorts of things people suggest.

Of course, the Cape gets nabbed and will go on to be the Crown Colony of Drakia.

Quebec narrowly is kept within the USA, the French finally deciding it is better to get back their Caribbean possessions, and to have a strong voice in the new nation speaking in favor of France.

By the end of the ARW, the British have lost Quebec and most of the Maritimes, leaving them Ruperts Land and Newfoundland as tentative footholds on the North American Continent. Needless to say, there ITTL is a real need of a new place for all those Empire Loyalists. Enter immigration to Drakia.

So we have a bigger and more militarized USA after the ARW, and an enlarged Drakia for good reason now.

We'll skip the whole Iceland Volcano second POD; not necessary and just ramps up the implausibility.

French Revolutionary War and rise of Napoleon more or less OTL. Haitian slave revolts also much like OTL, but with these folks and the French loyalists going to Drakia on cue.

Early 1800s see Trevethik going to Drakia (he went to South America OTL, so its actually pretty plausible). Because horses tend to die in Africa at this time, the steam locomotive finds fertile ground (forget the steam cars; they will get a boost eventually, but not so early on). So about a 20 year head starts for the rails ITTL. The Empire Loyalist core of Drakia is an expansionist lot, and do a lot of that out into Southern Africa. There isn't much there in the early 1800s to stop them, except disease.

I actually would keep the Draka troops going with the British to Egypt and finding some lost Greek works. This triggers a fad in Draka AND England for such things, and many popular names go Classical (why wouldn't the English find this interesting?).

War of 1812, the Brits are kicked out of the rest of North America. Easy to imagine why at this point.

1832 - The Brits outlaw slavery on schedule. In the meantime, however, Slavery has become the engine which drives the Draka (now shortened) economy and is the answer for the citizenry as to what to do with all the Africans in the way of their expansionist desires. This is nearly 50 years from their Empire Loyalist roots, and there are plenty of French and European refugees among them with no love for the British at all. The Drakan Revolutionary War begins. Draka wins their freedom after a bloody conflict, with a lot of semi-secret aid from the (gasp!) USA. The Republic of Draka is born. The previously dying fad of neo-Classicism (already dead in England and Europe) is revived with a passion to point out their differences from the British.

1840s More militaristic and aggressive USA ends up taking all of Mexico.

1850 The Mexicans actually don't want to be slave states (it was against their constitution, ya know). The balance is seriously against the slave states to try and force them. The issue of the Mexican territories trigger an earlier ACW. The Confederacy is even more outnumbered in this conflict, but is receiving overt aid from the Republic of Draka, the only nation to recognize them. Due to this aid, the Confederacy is able to put up a much more dogged fight than might be expected, but are eventually crushed (Drakans also goaded this Confederacy into greater resistance, leading to an even harsher reconstruction afterward). Massive influx of Confederates to Draka, fleeing the Union tyrrany.

Now we have the Confederates swelling Draka ranks a good 10 years earlier. They will need some of that time to transmute into true Draka.

Now we also have a USA that bitterly hates the Draka for their support of the Rebellion. With all those Confederate die hards, the feeling will become mutual.

1860s - The US buys Russia. The Central American nations eventually get filibustered into the Union.

During the latter 1800s, Draka doctors have discovered epidemiology and insect vectors of disease, allowing the Draka to take precautions and further expand (they are in the thick of it, so it isn't too unreasonable that someone would figure it out).

Many Europeans are finding themselves squeezed out of the rush for Subsaharan Africa, which is going Draka. Draka has good trade relations with the Brazilians and some Europeans, especially those not in on the land grab.

By the late 1800s, most of Subsaharan Africa has been claimed, if not fully tamed, by the Drakans. A home grown philosophy has taken root based on the idea that, "Through Domination of the Africans, the Drakan Citizen has become a master of all he surveys." Plantation families more and more are shifting their investment monies to industry as well, becoming the nucleus for the Combines. The USA, due to its more multiethnic roots, and the virtual 'recontruction' of the old conservative South, is becoming more democratic and liberalized over time.

The Drakan philosophy of life is becoming a tangible entity. As most Abolition groups are Christian based, there is increasingly a trend away from religion and more towards, "Rugged Self Reliance," since Slavery is seen as the lifeblood of Draka, and abolition as unpatriotic and too 'Yankee'.

Well, that's sorta my thoughts thus far....
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