It is the 20 of May, 1592. Location: Caudebec, France. The War of Religion rages between the Huguenots and the Catholics. General Parma has been sent to reinforce the Catholics and perhaps finally put an end to the bloody and bitter war, at least in France.
However, he has been outmaneuvered by the brilliant Henry of Navarre, who has Parma caught in a trap. Parmas army lies pinned against a bend in the River Seine. It looked like Parma had finally been caught, after all his tedious evasions of the larger Protestant army. But the Spaniards were energetic and clever. Even as the French were digging works to further entrap the Spanish, they formed a bridge out of boats, to cross over the river Seine.
In our history, this succeeded. But just suppose for a moment...
Henrys scouts reported the bridge that Parma was attempting to build almost as soon as it began. He sent a courier to the nearby Protestant flotilla, ordering them to come with all possible haste.
Parmas engineers were still working to form the boats up side by side when the Protestant warships reached the area. Throwing firebrands mercilessly onto the bridge, the Catholic armys last hope went up in flames. Parma was now completely trapped by the Protestants.
After five fruitless days of attempting to leave by various ruses, Parma finally faced the truth. He could not go any further. He surrendered on May 25, along with his army of 15,000.
Without a Catholic army marching to its aid, Paris was not resupplied that spring, and it fell to the Huguenots. With the capital of the French Empire fallen to the Protestants, the situation gradually deteriorated, until finally, by the end of 1595, the Protestants had control of nearly all of France, with a few strongholds remaining Catholic. However, these would soon fall to the Protestant army, now reinforced with siege artillery both captured from Parma and from the royal arsenals.
The Protestants having finally secured the whole of France, they consolidated and drove off several Spanish invasions that year.
With their flanks secured and France now officially Protestant, the Protestants under Henry of Navarre marched northward with a large complement of cavalry in 1598 to aid the Dutch revolt. Passing rapidly through the Belgian countryside, they arrived at the best possible time, just as the Dutch counteroffensive was faltering. With superior cavalry, artillery, and infantry, and brilliant leaders to use them, they shattered the Spanish army and, driving rapidly onward, by the year 1600 managed to secure the whole of the Spanish Netherlands for the Protestants, dividing it up between France and the Netherlands.
The Protestants used the next few years to reinforce their already strong military forces, as did the Catholics. Both sides waited for the other to make the first move. All of Europe was held in tension as the two great powers waited.
The breaking event came with a Protestant Rebellion in Bohemia in about 1617. The Austrian Hapsburgs moved rapidly to crush this new threat, triggering a series of responses that soon got almost all of Western Europe involved. Essentially everyone except England, who remained studiously neutral, though they secretly funded the Protestant cause and harassed Spanish shipping all over, and even went so far as to trigger a lasting rebellion in Peru.
Meanwhile, back in the land of Europe, the Swedish Meteor of Gustavus Adolphus commanded a united protestant army that outgunned, outflanked, and outfought the Hapsburgs consistently, culminating in the capture of the Rhineland in 1620. They then marched on Ulm, again outfighting the Austrians. The Catholic princes then started a series of rebellions in the already occupied territory, however, and the Swedish coalition had to turn back to deal with these. However, by 1625, these were all extinguished, and the allies shattered Austria at the battle of Nurnberg.
Vienna was captured shortly thereafter, and Austria was reestablished as a Protestant Kingdom. The Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, and the German princes were now crowned as kings, though in reality they all bowed to either Sweden or France.
Meanwhile, in the Americas, the aforementioned rebellion in Peru was in full swing, taking up an excessive amounts of Spanish resources, while Mexico, too, seemed on the verge of breaking off.
It was not only Spain with troubles, however. The French lost Quebec to a staunchly Catholic rebellion, that managed to defeat all combined British and French attempts to regain it, and even expand considerably, annexing Acadia, Nova Scotia, and even nominally controlling the Ohio river valley, though most of that land was in reality controlled by friendly natives.
Louisiana, however, was annexed by the Spanish for a short period of time, only to be regained by the French, and reestablished as a newly Protestant colony, along with the majority of the Mississippi river valley. Florida fell to the British, and joined in the Dominion of America.
The Carribean, meanwhile, was a scattered mess of Spanish, British, French, Dutch, and Danish colonies, while a few hundred nations only recognized within a few miles of their capitals sprung up, most of them either slave revolts or Spanish break away nations.
With the rest of the Spanish Empire becoming a shattered husk of its former self, Mexico and Peru became fully independent, with Central America becoming a hodgepodge of Protestant colonies. California was long forgotten by all but a few Spaniards, and the local natives quietly began to attempt modernization.
Back in Europe, the Spanish were the lone Hapsburg power against the Protestants and the Muslims alike, and having lost the New World, they had very little wealth to finance their new wars. Thus Italy was lost to the Protestants, the Papacy abolished, the Pope having fled to Spain. That too became Hell rather than a haven for Catholicism with the Protestants victory there.
The Pope fled again and again, and finally had only one place left... Portugese Brazil.
Hence, the world (as it stands in 1700), is very different from our own.
Europe is dominated by Sweden, France, and England, all three Protestant. Iberia is a backwater again, Portugal having lost all its colonies along with Spain, and the Basques in Navarre are now independent under the King of France. Italia is dominated by the French, however it is still a Catholic stronghold, and is subject to frequent rebellions. The great powers are on the surface at peace, however, it would seem that now that their foe has been vanquished, there is great tension between France and Sweden. A war is brewing, it would seem.
Germany is almost entirely under the Sphere of influence of the Swedes and French.
Poland, the last great Catholic Power of Europe, fell to the Swedes in the mid 1600s, and is now torn by civil war between the Swedish supported Protestants and the popularly supported Catholics. Lithuania was annexed by the Russian bear, which is now poised to finally perhaps challenge the long reign of Sweden as the preeminent power of the north.
The Ottomans still keep most of the land that they had at their peak, and innovative sultans have forged a longstanding alliance with the Protestants, however, this is falling apart. They still have modernized rapidly, owing to many instructors hired from Europe. Able to focus a powerful army on Persia, they obliterated the latter, and brought most of Arabia under their power as well.
However, they have met a powerful rival in the shape of the Mughal Empire in India, which now is extremely powerful. However, the giant of India is slowly being brought down by the various Protestant Europeans nibbling at its flanks. The Mughals attempt to modernize, however they hare having trouble due to the increasingly recalcitrant Marhattas.
China and Japan continue to isolate themselves from the Europeans, however, this is growing harder as the penetration increases. Southeast Asia is now mostly colonized, except for Siam. The Netherlands took most of it, with a few British and French colonies thrown in for good measure.
Africa is barely colonized, with a few renewed Portugese slaving ports colonizing the West coast. The native powers fight among themselves, Muslim Songhai, Christian Ethiopia, and a Catholic Kongo still the dominant ones, while the north is dominated almost entirely by the Ottomans.
South America is divided harshly between an independent, Catholic Brazil, housing the Papacy, the small, undistinguished land of La Plata to their south, and the Peruvian Union to their West, a nation with a very mixed background and incredible mineral wealth. They officially are Protestants, however, the majority of their population are a mixture of Catholics and Incans.
The Carribean is still a barely stable mess, though it now seems that Haiti will become a strong power as the slaves there have managed to maintain a grip on independence, and have set their sights on British Cuba.
Lousiana continues expansion in the name of France, while Quebec has solidified its hold on the central regions of America, however, it is being challenged by the French in Louisiana, and the British in Newfoundland, the Thirteen Colonies, and on the shores of the Hudson bay.
California has become established as a new nation, ruled entirely by natives, who are fiercely hostile to any invaders, and are quite modern.
