A Greater Britain

• By Ed Thomas (EdT)
• Published as an E-book, which can be downloaded here
• Link to forum thread
• Winner of the 2008 Turtledove Award for “Best Early 20th Century Timeline”

• Post-WWI Britain, the political world of the UK in the 1920s, the alternate 1930s and finally the 1940s, through the alternate political life of Oswald Mosley.

In the October 1924 General Election, Oswald Mosley beats Neville Chamberlain in Birmigham Ladywood by 53 votes; OTL Chamberlain won by 77 and it took Mosley until 1926 to get back into Parliament.

The Timeline follows the political career of Oswald Mosley from his election as a Labour MP in 1924 all the way to his eventual political downfall. Mosley becomes Labour leader in 1931 and is elected Prime Minister the following year; his administration has radically different policies to that of the National Government and consequently the entire course of history is different from the mid-1930s onwards. Because of Mosley's foreign policy, war breaks out in 1938 over the attempted incorporation of Austria into Germany; the resulting war sweeps across Central Europe and ends in late 1938 with the assassination of Adolf Hitler by the Wehrmacht. After the war, Mosley wins a third term in office, but his leadership is increasingly questioned by the Labour Party and he is forced to resign in 1940.

• Sir Oswald Mosley, Prime Minister of the UK, Leader of the Labour Party
• Hugh Dalton, Mosley's Chancellor and eventual political rival
• Edward VIII, King of Great Britain, Ireland, Emperor of India
• Chandra Bose, Indian Nationalist who does not turn against Britain as OTL and so becomes increasingly prominent in the Indian Congress Party
• Benito Mussolini, Premier of Italy, ally of Oswald Mosley
• Adolf Hitler, Chancellor and Fuhrer of Germany, foe of Italy, France and Britain
• Francisco Franco, Military leader in the Spanish Civil war, for the Nationalists at first and for the Republicans later
• Ernst von Starhemberg, Chancellor of Austria who refuses to let Hitler annex his country and proposes the restoration of the Hapsburgs

• Because Mosley stays within the Labour Party the National Government never gets formed
• Rise of Oswald Mosley as Prime Minister in the early 1930s
• Edward VIII does not marry Wallace Simpson and so remains as King
• Reform of the House of Lords
• The construction of a Severn Barrage
• Alternate end to the Italo-Abyssinian war, with a compromise between Ethiopia, Italy, France and Britain; rump Ethiopia as a result
• Alternate Spanish Civil war in 1936, with a Republican victory
• Mosley wins a bronze medal in the Fencing competition at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin
• Palestine is partitioned earlier, leading to a smaller Israel
• Germany's attempt to annex Austria leads to war in 1938 against Italy, Britain and France
• Dominion status is granted to India in 1938
• Hitler is assassinated in 1938, ending the war over Austria
• Mosley wins a third term in 1939 but becomes increasingly unpopular within the Labour Party and resigns the following year

At the 2008 Turtledove Awards, the timeline won the "Best Early 20th Century Timeline" category.

Early 20th Century Timelines

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