North King
blech
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2004
- Messages
- 18,165
Could always make more. Map making is fun.
Alternate History Thread III
- Thread starter Luckymoose
- Start date
Could always make more. Map making is fun.
Luckymoose
The World is Mine
Will you? I would like to see them all the way up into the industrial age. 
Eh, howzit, brada?
Haven't seen you in a while - on the forums at least.
Where's your map of the world circa 450? Could help if one were to make a NES of das' Ostrogoth PoD...
Thlayli
Le Pétit Prince
Ka-found!
The Anatolian Wars.
"Ismet and Independence!"
-Turkish Republican People's Army rallying cry
While the Treaties of Rome were being signed a thousand miles away, Anatolia - home of first Hittites, then Greeks, and finally the Turks - was in ferment. The victorious Allies had quickly moved to occupy the entire peninsula following the cease-fire, with Russian, Greek, French, and British "peace-keepers" seizing the major rail lines, mountain passes, road junctions, industrial zones, and cities. Turkish military forces were officially ordered to stand down by the Sultan, Mehmed V, who was in Allied custody following the Siege and Fall of Constantinople. The German troops, under Kress von Kressenstein, Liman von Sanders, and the ailing Kolmar von der Goltz (who would die before the year was out), were allowed to return home. Insurrection and armed resistance had not yet occurred, but the Allies, all throughout the year of 1917, were conscious of a population that on the whole despised the occupying armies and seethed under the Entente jackboot.
Almost instantly, the Russians and British, in the eastern part of Anatolia, discovered the horrifying Armenian concentration camps, where the outlawed CUP government of Enver Pasha and Mehmed Talaat Pasha had stored and murdered nearly a million of their own citizens on the basis of paranoia, suspected subversion, and fear. At Sivas and Moush, the Russian troops under General Nikolai Yudenich found a few emaciated survivors, but mostly the Russians excavated mass graves, full of gassed, drowned, shot, starved, and burned Armenians, Greeks, and even Kurds. The Allied nations, along with the sympathetic United States, immediately condemned the killings and put out warrants for the arrest of the Three Pashas (Enver, Mehmed Talaat, and Djemal), along with their assistants in the genocide, including Sükrü Kaya. Djemal Pasha was caught by French troops in the Hatay and brought to Europe for trial, but in the massive confusion of the year Enver and Mehmed Talaat managed to escape to Germany, whose government was a) in no condition to extradite anyone due to the civil unrest in the country and b) never going to do it anyway. Many vigilantes took it upon themselves to try to kill the former leaders of the Committee for Union and Progress anyway; an Armenian shot Mehmed Talaat Pasha in front of the Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam and was acquitted, and a Kurd nearly managed to kill Enver before being killed by the Turk's bodyguards.
These events, of course, did nothing to halt the sentiments sweeping throughout former Turkey. A cabal of former Ottoman generals, led by Mustafa Ismet Pasha, began to gather supporters from former imperial soldiers and received arms from several nations abroad (whose governments wanted to get rid of their excess weapons following the end of the war), including Italy, Germany, and Japan. By the time the Treaty of Rome (or the Lateran) was signed on June 2, 1917, the newly-formed Turkish Republican People's Army, under Ismet's command, had seized Tarsus from the French troops holding it and was beginning to expand through Cilicia and the Hatay. Ismet, from Antioch, proclaimed the Turkish Republic and called all Turks to rally to the banners of the TRPA. The Great Anatolian War had begun.
France, who had not sent many troops to garrison the new colony of Syria, may have been in a tough position. That of the new puppet state, Turco-Armenia, was even worse. Officially, it was supposed to be a kingdom under an as yet nonexistent Romanov (or maybe Hohenzollern) king. Unofficially, it was already in utter chaos. The Russian occupiers, formerly under Yudenich (who had been sent to command troops in Galicia in a brief pacification campaign), had been almost completely withdrawn before the signatures on the Treaty were dry due to the "untenable" position. (Apparently the Tsar didn't want to waste troops controlling the place, he just wanted Turco-Armenia "under his thumb".) This left the Armenian militia, seriously denuded from the genocide of the previous two years, as the main guarantors of the nation's security from the Republican People's Army. Nur-ed-Din Pasha, former commander in Mesopotamia, took control of the Turks here and established virtual control of the country by early August 1917.
The French ministry, still led by Poincaré and Briand at this point, really didn't want to send troops to Syria to pacify the place, especially in the wake of the war and the still-extant threat of the German Reichsheer. However, the public as a whole was outraged at the lack of governmental interest in the problem of Syria. Eventually - meaning in early October - the French dispatched further troops to bolster the ones that were really just huddling along the coast south of the Orontes. The general in command, once more Ferdinand Foch, hero of Dalmatia, at once called a conference of Allied commanders in Constantinople. Constantine of Greece, Yudenich of Russia, Maude of Britain, and Foch decided that the Turkish insurrection needed to be crushed immediately (rather a foregone conclusion, that), and outlined a plan for restoration of the current borders. Also, the Russians and Greeks began to think about eliminating obviously-unstable Turco-Armenia from the picture as well.
During this pause, the Republican People's Army had not been idle. Ismet himself was commanding in the southern Taurus Mountains, engaging inconclusively with the Greek First Army, under Anastasios Papoulas. At the Battle of the Kalykadnos River (August 3-17), Papoulas managed to halt Ismet's three major assaults on his lines, but was forced to withdraw northwest to Ikonion after Turkish civilian partisans struck repeatedly behind his lines at his vulnerable supply convoys. Ismet, having freed himself of Greek pressure, moved quickly into Cappadocia to solidify his ties with Nur-ed-Din's army in Turco-Armenia, which was annexed by the Republic. Meanwhile, to the south, Nasruddin Pasha had consolidated Turkish control of the Hatay and northern Syria, and was sending probes south across the Orontes, where they were allowed to roam fairly free by the terrorized French troops on the coast. To the east, the British under Maude had been fairly wary of the Turkish troops that had been sent out in a hurry to occupy places as far-flung as Diyarbakir and Ar Raqqah. Maude was unwilling to engage due to lack of men; many had been sent back to India or were busy in the south, due to the Arab Revolt which is, of course, in a later installment.
Come October, the allies were preparing to strike back. Constantine himself came to Anatolia with an extra two armies, the Second under his own personal command and the Third under that of his son, Crown Prince George. With their support, Papoulas began to crush the Turkish uprisings in his rear and began to maneuver against Ismet's hastily constructed line of fortifications on the forward slope of the Taurus. From the south, Foch landed with an extra three divisions and formed the Army of the Levant, which defeated several of Nasruddin's probes and began to establish bridgeheads on the north side of the Orontes. Maude's Iraq Force also received reinforcements and overwhelmed a brigade of Republican People's Army troops under Halil Pasha at Batman. Yudenich, placed back in command by the vacillating Tsar, took what troops he had, amounting to about two divisions, and created a massive trap for Nur-ed-Din at the Araxes, just inside Russian territory, which ensnared and destroyed a reinforced division. The Russians, unlike the rest of the Allies, didn't have enough men to attack, so Yudenich resolved to use a defensive-offensive strategy to prevent further TRPA gains.
The harsh Anatolian winter of 1917-8 saw no major operations; Yudenich was possibly the only one who had the balls to do so, and he was immobile in Russian Armenia, preparing defenses. When spring came again, though, the Turks exploded back on the offensive. A massive uprising in Ankyra forced the Crown Prince to withdraw his troops to pacify the area; bereft of reinforcements, Papoulas was nearly overwhelmed in the Battle of Derbe in March. Constantine, initially planning to invade Armenia to hit Nur-ed-Din's rear, was forced to redeploy southwards to counter Ismet's attack. Skillfully swinging against a weak part of the Turkish lines, he barreled through the Republican People's Army in the two-day Battle of the Karmalas south of Kaisaria and threatened to breach the Cilician perimeter. Ismet, moving on interior lines, switched fronts and in a series of savage counterattacks halted the Greek assault. At this point, Papoulas renewed his attack, seizing the ground the Turks had just reclaimed at Derbe. The Turks, pressed hard on two fronts, were forced to fall back to the Cilician Lines. Meanwhile, to the south, Foch launched a huge attack on the only remaining Turkish territory south of the Orontes, Antioch itself; he was repulsed in a month-long battle, and the Republican Grand National Assembly fled to Gaziantep (Kyrrhos). At Diyarbakir, Maude launched a full-on assault on Halil's lines, supported by artillery and carried out in true Great War fashion. The Turks, with popular support and strong defenses, managed to break up the British spearheads and hold the lines; Halil even began a counterattack with help from partisans in Maude's rear. Following this victory, the Caliph, former Sultan Mehmed V, declared jihad once more on the Allied infidels. More Turkish victories were scored to the north, in Armenia, as Nur-ed-Din managed to overwhelm one of Yudenich's precious divisions in a costly battle at the Glavkos River in April. The Russians called on the Tsar to release troops for combat in the Armenian Theater; with pressure from the velikiy knyaz and following the rather untimely death of Grigoriy Rasputin, the Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias allowed the entrainment of nearly three full corps.
Ismet and the Republic were desperately searching for allies that would lend actual support. Germany was strongly opposed, mainly due to the horror of the Armenian Genocide and the renewed activity in that sphere by Nur-ed-Din's men. The Italians were for the first time in a very long time sated and unwilling to do more than send the odd shipment of arms via smuggler into Iskenderun. Austria was really in no condition to help anyone, nor were Serbia, Croatia, or Hungary. A few offers of help were rebuffed, the major one being from the Russian SRs, including a proposal of assistance from the lawyer Aleksandr Kerensky, in St. Petersburg, and the more militant Lev Bronstein in France. (The Turkish Republic did not, of course, want anything to do with socialists.) Efforts to persuade the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League were more fruitful, however. Mohammed Ali Jinnah, recent architect of the Lucknow Pact between the INC and the AIML, was easily persuaded to assist his fellow Muslims and try to launch a widespread revolt. Many Indians served in Maude's Iraq Force, and not many of them were particularly chuffed about fighting the Turks, who were fighting for their own independence, far away from their homes. The Sikhs were, of course, not persuaded to revolt, but the Muslim Indian laborers were, and when Jinnah tried to persuade Mohandas Gandhi and his socialist supporter Jawaharlal Nehru, it led to a split in the INC, with many more militant Muslims leaving the Congress for the Muslim League and quite a few Hindus just leaving the organization altogether. The whole situation in India got worse when the increasing civil unrest and near-riots caused several incidents between the British and the Hindu Muslims in Bengal in May, with nearly 100 Muslims killed. Jinnah and the rest of the AIML leadership used this violence, labeled a "massacre" by Muslim League propaganda, to incite an actual uprising in Bengal in July, and among the Muslim troops and workers in Maude's Army in that same month.
With pressure from the British relieved even more and a few Arab revolts behind the lines in Iraq itself in addition to the furor in the Hejaz, Halil was able to launch a major offensive against the Iraq Force in early August. The British, who had only barely staved off the Muslims with the Sikhs and the few Hindus, crumbled in the face of several punishing blows by the Republican People's Army at Qamishli, and full destruction was only prevented by the used of air power to halt Turkish cavalry from tearing the retreating British to pieces. The British also tried to use a little "toy", referred to as a tank due to the place of its development, against the Turks in the long retreat along the Tigris to Mosul. However, the steel boxes on treads turned into ovens in the summer Mideastern heat, and their use was rapidly discontinued. Maude tried to raise troops from the Kurds of northern Iraq, who had suffered such punishment at Turkish hands. They were more susceptible to recruitment, and a few Kurdish volunteer battalions were hastily formed. These extemporized units halted Halil's attack on Tall 'Afar, the last defense before Mosul, in mid-September. Maude was able to maintain his front with an outer shell of British troops while using the bulk of his army to crush the risings in Mesopotamia proper.
The Greeks in Cilicia and the French in Syria were doing much better. As Foch was renewing his attack on Antioch in July, Papoulas and Constantine both began to smash their way into Ismet's lines with coordinated blows that depleted Turkish reserves and prevented reinforcements from being sent to the Orontes front. Without support, Antioch fell on August 5, and Foch drove the Turks out of their positions elsewhere along the Orontes. Nasruddin withdrew to the east to protect the Gaziantep Grand National Assembly, and Foch detached a corps to hold him in place while marching north with the rest of his Army towards Ismet's rear. Ismet, skillfully withdrawing from combat, swung his army rearward along rail lines, leaving a corps in the fortified city of Adana to hinder the Greek advance and moving with the balance of his men, four heavy corps, towards the passes at Osmaniye. Foch nearly caught up with him, but in a hard-fought action from August 18-23 Ismet managed to hold off the French troops long enough to bring almost his entire army out. Foch detached more men to harry Ismet's further retreat and continued with the remainder to meet up with the Greeks outside Adana; Papoulas and the French general shook hands at Mopsuestia on the Pyramos River in late August as Greek artillery began to tear apart the Turk defenses of Adana. The rest of the year was filled up mostly with Franco-Greek cooperation in clearing out the rest of the Hatay, and King Constantine's efforts in the north to capture Komana (Kahramanmaras), which fell in early November.
Operations in Armenia this year were relatively low-key. Nur-ed-Din was unwilling to advance against the Russians, who were slowly building up their army from the limited railheads. It took the Greek Third Army under the Crown Prince until July to finally clear out the remnants of the great Ankyra Uprising, which had seized half of Greek Anatolia in its throes; following this, though, the Third Army advanced energetically towards the Turkish outpost of Amasia (Amasya), which it seized, after which both sides decided to forgo further operations due to concentration on the south. Limited skirmishing occurred all along the line, except for an attempt by Greek cavalry to seize Sebasteia (Sivas), which was repulsed at the Battle of the Halys in October.
The end of 1918 saw few other developments, but for one major one. The British handily crushed the Bengal uprising, and with it arrested Muhammad Ali Jinnah as its leader and instigator. As of December they had not brought him to trial; the outcome of that would decide whether India erupted in further violence or not. With the defeat of that uprising, Maude in Iraq received more men, and was organizing a new army until his replacement just before Christmas by General Edmund Allenby, hero of the Somme*. In other news, no one had yet recognized the still-solvent Turkish state, but Italy and several Balkan nations were leaning towards doing so. The events of 1919 would decide whether the Great War kicked off again or if it stayed dead and buried.
To be continued...
*=Yes, he still fought at the Somme. Remember, he repulsed that German attack in late 1916.
"Ismet and Independence!"
-Turkish Republican People's Army rallying cry
While the Treaties of Rome were being signed a thousand miles away, Anatolia - home of first Hittites, then Greeks, and finally the Turks - was in ferment. The victorious Allies had quickly moved to occupy the entire peninsula following the cease-fire, with Russian, Greek, French, and British "peace-keepers" seizing the major rail lines, mountain passes, road junctions, industrial zones, and cities. Turkish military forces were officially ordered to stand down by the Sultan, Mehmed V, who was in Allied custody following the Siege and Fall of Constantinople. The German troops, under Kress von Kressenstein, Liman von Sanders, and the ailing Kolmar von der Goltz (who would die before the year was out), were allowed to return home. Insurrection and armed resistance had not yet occurred, but the Allies, all throughout the year of 1917, were conscious of a population that on the whole despised the occupying armies and seethed under the Entente jackboot.
Almost instantly, the Russians and British, in the eastern part of Anatolia, discovered the horrifying Armenian concentration camps, where the outlawed CUP government of Enver Pasha and Mehmed Talaat Pasha had stored and murdered nearly a million of their own citizens on the basis of paranoia, suspected subversion, and fear. At Sivas and Moush, the Russian troops under General Nikolai Yudenich found a few emaciated survivors, but mostly the Russians excavated mass graves, full of gassed, drowned, shot, starved, and burned Armenians, Greeks, and even Kurds. The Allied nations, along with the sympathetic United States, immediately condemned the killings and put out warrants for the arrest of the Three Pashas (Enver, Mehmed Talaat, and Djemal), along with their assistants in the genocide, including Sükrü Kaya. Djemal Pasha was caught by French troops in the Hatay and brought to Europe for trial, but in the massive confusion of the year Enver and Mehmed Talaat managed to escape to Germany, whose government was a) in no condition to extradite anyone due to the civil unrest in the country and b) never going to do it anyway. Many vigilantes took it upon themselves to try to kill the former leaders of the Committee for Union and Progress anyway; an Armenian shot Mehmed Talaat Pasha in front of the Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam and was acquitted, and a Kurd nearly managed to kill Enver before being killed by the Turk's bodyguards.
These events, of course, did nothing to halt the sentiments sweeping throughout former Turkey. A cabal of former Ottoman generals, led by Mustafa Ismet Pasha, began to gather supporters from former imperial soldiers and received arms from several nations abroad (whose governments wanted to get rid of their excess weapons following the end of the war), including Italy, Germany, and Japan. By the time the Treaty of Rome (or the Lateran) was signed on June 2, 1917, the newly-formed Turkish Republican People's Army, under Ismet's command, had seized Tarsus from the French troops holding it and was beginning to expand through Cilicia and the Hatay. Ismet, from Antioch, proclaimed the Turkish Republic and called all Turks to rally to the banners of the TRPA. The Great Anatolian War had begun.
France, who had not sent many troops to garrison the new colony of Syria, may have been in a tough position. That of the new puppet state, Turco-Armenia, was even worse. Officially, it was supposed to be a kingdom under an as yet nonexistent Romanov (or maybe Hohenzollern) king. Unofficially, it was already in utter chaos. The Russian occupiers, formerly under Yudenich (who had been sent to command troops in Galicia in a brief pacification campaign), had been almost completely withdrawn before the signatures on the Treaty were dry due to the "untenable" position. (Apparently the Tsar didn't want to waste troops controlling the place, he just wanted Turco-Armenia "under his thumb".) This left the Armenian militia, seriously denuded from the genocide of the previous two years, as the main guarantors of the nation's security from the Republican People's Army. Nur-ed-Din Pasha, former commander in Mesopotamia, took control of the Turks here and established virtual control of the country by early August 1917.
The French ministry, still led by Poincaré and Briand at this point, really didn't want to send troops to Syria to pacify the place, especially in the wake of the war and the still-extant threat of the German Reichsheer. However, the public as a whole was outraged at the lack of governmental interest in the problem of Syria. Eventually - meaning in early October - the French dispatched further troops to bolster the ones that were really just huddling along the coast south of the Orontes. The general in command, once more Ferdinand Foch, hero of Dalmatia, at once called a conference of Allied commanders in Constantinople. Constantine of Greece, Yudenich of Russia, Maude of Britain, and Foch decided that the Turkish insurrection needed to be crushed immediately (rather a foregone conclusion, that), and outlined a plan for restoration of the current borders. Also, the Russians and Greeks began to think about eliminating obviously-unstable Turco-Armenia from the picture as well.
During this pause, the Republican People's Army had not been idle. Ismet himself was commanding in the southern Taurus Mountains, engaging inconclusively with the Greek First Army, under Anastasios Papoulas. At the Battle of the Kalykadnos River (August 3-17), Papoulas managed to halt Ismet's three major assaults on his lines, but was forced to withdraw northwest to Ikonion after Turkish civilian partisans struck repeatedly behind his lines at his vulnerable supply convoys. Ismet, having freed himself of Greek pressure, moved quickly into Cappadocia to solidify his ties with Nur-ed-Din's army in Turco-Armenia, which was annexed by the Republic. Meanwhile, to the south, Nasruddin Pasha had consolidated Turkish control of the Hatay and northern Syria, and was sending probes south across the Orontes, where they were allowed to roam fairly free by the terrorized French troops on the coast. To the east, the British under Maude had been fairly wary of the Turkish troops that had been sent out in a hurry to occupy places as far-flung as Diyarbakir and Ar Raqqah. Maude was unwilling to engage due to lack of men; many had been sent back to India or were busy in the south, due to the Arab Revolt which is, of course, in a later installment.
Come October, the allies were preparing to strike back. Constantine himself came to Anatolia with an extra two armies, the Second under his own personal command and the Third under that of his son, Crown Prince George. With their support, Papoulas began to crush the Turkish uprisings in his rear and began to maneuver against Ismet's hastily constructed line of fortifications on the forward slope of the Taurus. From the south, Foch landed with an extra three divisions and formed the Army of the Levant, which defeated several of Nasruddin's probes and began to establish bridgeheads on the north side of the Orontes. Maude's Iraq Force also received reinforcements and overwhelmed a brigade of Republican People's Army troops under Halil Pasha at Batman. Yudenich, placed back in command by the vacillating Tsar, took what troops he had, amounting to about two divisions, and created a massive trap for Nur-ed-Din at the Araxes, just inside Russian territory, which ensnared and destroyed a reinforced division. The Russians, unlike the rest of the Allies, didn't have enough men to attack, so Yudenich resolved to use a defensive-offensive strategy to prevent further TRPA gains.
The harsh Anatolian winter of 1917-8 saw no major operations; Yudenich was possibly the only one who had the balls to do so, and he was immobile in Russian Armenia, preparing defenses. When spring came again, though, the Turks exploded back on the offensive. A massive uprising in Ankyra forced the Crown Prince to withdraw his troops to pacify the area; bereft of reinforcements, Papoulas was nearly overwhelmed in the Battle of Derbe in March. Constantine, initially planning to invade Armenia to hit Nur-ed-Din's rear, was forced to redeploy southwards to counter Ismet's attack. Skillfully swinging against a weak part of the Turkish lines, he barreled through the Republican People's Army in the two-day Battle of the Karmalas south of Kaisaria and threatened to breach the Cilician perimeter. Ismet, moving on interior lines, switched fronts and in a series of savage counterattacks halted the Greek assault. At this point, Papoulas renewed his attack, seizing the ground the Turks had just reclaimed at Derbe. The Turks, pressed hard on two fronts, were forced to fall back to the Cilician Lines. Meanwhile, to the south, Foch launched a huge attack on the only remaining Turkish territory south of the Orontes, Antioch itself; he was repulsed in a month-long battle, and the Republican Grand National Assembly fled to Gaziantep (Kyrrhos). At Diyarbakir, Maude launched a full-on assault on Halil's lines, supported by artillery and carried out in true Great War fashion. The Turks, with popular support and strong defenses, managed to break up the British spearheads and hold the lines; Halil even began a counterattack with help from partisans in Maude's rear. Following this victory, the Caliph, former Sultan Mehmed V, declared jihad once more on the Allied infidels. More Turkish victories were scored to the north, in Armenia, as Nur-ed-Din managed to overwhelm one of Yudenich's precious divisions in a costly battle at the Glavkos River in April. The Russians called on the Tsar to release troops for combat in the Armenian Theater; with pressure from the velikiy knyaz and following the rather untimely death of Grigoriy Rasputin, the Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias allowed the entrainment of nearly three full corps.
Ismet and the Republic were desperately searching for allies that would lend actual support. Germany was strongly opposed, mainly due to the horror of the Armenian Genocide and the renewed activity in that sphere by Nur-ed-Din's men. The Italians were for the first time in a very long time sated and unwilling to do more than send the odd shipment of arms via smuggler into Iskenderun. Austria was really in no condition to help anyone, nor were Serbia, Croatia, or Hungary. A few offers of help were rebuffed, the major one being from the Russian SRs, including a proposal of assistance from the lawyer Aleksandr Kerensky, in St. Petersburg, and the more militant Lev Bronstein in France. (The Turkish Republic did not, of course, want anything to do with socialists.) Efforts to persuade the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League were more fruitful, however. Mohammed Ali Jinnah, recent architect of the Lucknow Pact between the INC and the AIML, was easily persuaded to assist his fellow Muslims and try to launch a widespread revolt. Many Indians served in Maude's Iraq Force, and not many of them were particularly chuffed about fighting the Turks, who were fighting for their own independence, far away from their homes. The Sikhs were, of course, not persuaded to revolt, but the Muslim Indian laborers were, and when Jinnah tried to persuade Mohandas Gandhi and his socialist supporter Jawaharlal Nehru, it led to a split in the INC, with many more militant Muslims leaving the Congress for the Muslim League and quite a few Hindus just leaving the organization altogether. The whole situation in India got worse when the increasing civil unrest and near-riots caused several incidents between the British and the Hindu Muslims in Bengal in May, with nearly 100 Muslims killed. Jinnah and the rest of the AIML leadership used this violence, labeled a "massacre" by Muslim League propaganda, to incite an actual uprising in Bengal in July, and among the Muslim troops and workers in Maude's Army in that same month.
With pressure from the British relieved even more and a few Arab revolts behind the lines in Iraq itself in addition to the furor in the Hejaz, Halil was able to launch a major offensive against the Iraq Force in early August. The British, who had only barely staved off the Muslims with the Sikhs and the few Hindus, crumbled in the face of several punishing blows by the Republican People's Army at Qamishli, and full destruction was only prevented by the used of air power to halt Turkish cavalry from tearing the retreating British to pieces. The British also tried to use a little "toy", referred to as a tank due to the place of its development, against the Turks in the long retreat along the Tigris to Mosul. However, the steel boxes on treads turned into ovens in the summer Mideastern heat, and their use was rapidly discontinued. Maude tried to raise troops from the Kurds of northern Iraq, who had suffered such punishment at Turkish hands. They were more susceptible to recruitment, and a few Kurdish volunteer battalions were hastily formed. These extemporized units halted Halil's attack on Tall 'Afar, the last defense before Mosul, in mid-September. Maude was able to maintain his front with an outer shell of British troops while using the bulk of his army to crush the risings in Mesopotamia proper.
The Greeks in Cilicia and the French in Syria were doing much better. As Foch was renewing his attack on Antioch in July, Papoulas and Constantine both began to smash their way into Ismet's lines with coordinated blows that depleted Turkish reserves and prevented reinforcements from being sent to the Orontes front. Without support, Antioch fell on August 5, and Foch drove the Turks out of their positions elsewhere along the Orontes. Nasruddin withdrew to the east to protect the Gaziantep Grand National Assembly, and Foch detached a corps to hold him in place while marching north with the rest of his Army towards Ismet's rear. Ismet, skillfully withdrawing from combat, swung his army rearward along rail lines, leaving a corps in the fortified city of Adana to hinder the Greek advance and moving with the balance of his men, four heavy corps, towards the passes at Osmaniye. Foch nearly caught up with him, but in a hard-fought action from August 18-23 Ismet managed to hold off the French troops long enough to bring almost his entire army out. Foch detached more men to harry Ismet's further retreat and continued with the remainder to meet up with the Greeks outside Adana; Papoulas and the French general shook hands at Mopsuestia on the Pyramos River in late August as Greek artillery began to tear apart the Turk defenses of Adana. The rest of the year was filled up mostly with Franco-Greek cooperation in clearing out the rest of the Hatay, and King Constantine's efforts in the north to capture Komana (Kahramanmaras), which fell in early November.
Operations in Armenia this year were relatively low-key. Nur-ed-Din was unwilling to advance against the Russians, who were slowly building up their army from the limited railheads. It took the Greek Third Army under the Crown Prince until July to finally clear out the remnants of the great Ankyra Uprising, which had seized half of Greek Anatolia in its throes; following this, though, the Third Army advanced energetically towards the Turkish outpost of Amasia (Amasya), which it seized, after which both sides decided to forgo further operations due to concentration on the south. Limited skirmishing occurred all along the line, except for an attempt by Greek cavalry to seize Sebasteia (Sivas), which was repulsed at the Battle of the Halys in October.
The end of 1918 saw few other developments, but for one major one. The British handily crushed the Bengal uprising, and with it arrested Muhammad Ali Jinnah as its leader and instigator. As of December they had not brought him to trial; the outcome of that would decide whether India erupted in further violence or not. With the defeat of that uprising, Maude in Iraq received more men, and was organizing a new army until his replacement just before Christmas by General Edmund Allenby, hero of the Somme*. In other news, no one had yet recognized the still-solvent Turkish state, but Italy and several Balkan nations were leaning towards doing so. The events of 1919 would decide whether the Great War kicked off again or if it stayed dead and buried.
To be continued...
*=Yes, he still fought at the Somme. Remember, he repulsed that German attack in late 1916.
North King
blech
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2004
- Messages
- 18,165
Will you? I would like to see them all the way up into the industrial age.
I think I have 800-1000 already. I'd have to double check.
silver 2039
Deity
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2003
- Messages
- 16,208
YAY!!! Jinnah died!!! Hahahaha!!
Symphony D.
Deity
Random PoD: Tunguska object falls somewhere else in the northern hemisphere other than Siberia. Say somewhere populated, like Europe or North America. In the former, it would have some interesting changes on WWI, only six years distant--particularly depending on precisely where it fell, given if it hit something really important (like Paris, or London, or the Ruhr, or what have you) it'd economically cripple the recipient nation (and probably scare the hell out of the rest of humanity).
Or, perhaps even more interesting, an asteroid provokes a nuclear war between India and Pakistan.
Or, perhaps even more interesting, an asteroid provokes a nuclear war between India and Pakistan.
Disenfrancised
Beep Beep
If it hits London or New York I think everyone will be to busy coping with a giant recession to worry about world wars...ooo stronger socialist movements perhaps?
No he hasn't...not yet, anyway. Azale, I have no clue yet, but it's not going to happen for a little while yet. Any other comments? Complaints about leaving Italian colonies off the map? (Zara, to be exact...)
Well, Sym, it really depends on where it falls...if you hit Vienna, I think it'd have a far cooler effect than otherwise. IMHO the world isn't quite going to be united in brotherhood to assist the poor destroyed Austrians, and ethnic minorities will be leaving all over the place...
das
Regeneration In Process
Rather harsh, although I don't remember any others that did this much harm to their own cause, and (apparently) unitendedly at that.
True, and I did consider that option, but decided that after a prolonged and bloody war, complete with nationalist propaganda to keep the fervour going, a peace treaty with zero actual annexations would be very unpopular indeed. "What did we fight for?" So the Germans are likely to demand a plebiscite at least; that could quite realistically go in German favour in pre-Francification Alsace.
Technically it doesn't get obliterated, but rather fails to ever form, the heretical Arabic Rite Christians taking over its niche instead.
Firstly, see the boldened part, secondly, the French army had its problems as well (logistical, due to economic difficulties at home), and was, as already mentioned, harried considerably by the German popular resistance. As for the British army, one has to remember that it operated in very difficult circumstances in Crimea; the fact that in the end they managed to pull it off can't be attributed solely to the Russian shortcomings.
Well, amphibious invasions in the 19th century had a tendency of going terribly wrong. Just remember the analogous British operations in the Napoleonic Wars.
Dachs, that map is way too puny.
Seconded!
There is a highly implausible but still somewhat entertaining timeline out there, TrolleyWorld, which, amongst other things, has the Tunguska object fall on St. Petersburg, causing the Russian Empire to suddenly blow up and never rise again. This disbalance leads to an early WWI, with German, Austro-Hungarian and British interventions in anarchic Russia.
The Ruhr would definitely be a fun place to meteor, as it would drastically alter the Franco-German balance and offset two of Germany's primary advantages over France (population and industrial development). The French right wing declares this to be a sign from Above and either way an excellent opportunity...
To take advantage of Summer 1908's specific circumstances, we should meteor some part of the Ottoman Empire. Constantinople seems like a natural source at first, but Mecca might be even better (note: no offense intended, even though I haven't seen Capulet in a while), as to the Turkish nationalism, Ottoman reaction and Armenian revolutionary separatism we could also add all sorts of Islamic religious extremism, destabilising the Ottoman Empire's Arab lands as well and speeding up the implosion. The Saudis might even build a proper empire if they make use of this moment (religious upheaval, proof of the sinful nature of their enemies, removal of their most dangerous competitors for Arabian religious and political authority and ofcourse the Ottoman Empire falling apart).
Interesting update, Dachs. The attempts on the Turks in Germany remind me of the fate of Simeon Petlyura in Paris.
How did that happen?
I somewhat doubt that the socialists would want anything to do with them. Well, I doubt about the strongly pro-Armenian SRs, at least. Bronstein I could buy. I wonder how is the RSDRP doing in this world.
The Turkish advances in Syria and Mesopotamia sound a bit opportunistic and reckless, especially when Anatolia itself is far from secure.
Luckymoose
The World is Mine
We all know Rasputin was the devil and wouldn't die of normal causes.
das
Regeneration In Process
PoD-for-the-day (#8 - March 19th, 2007): No Battle of New Orleans. Although a fluke, that event had surprisingly profound influence on further development of the USA, doing much to foster nationalism and pride in the wake of a generally unpopular and divisive war. It also greatly helped the career of Andrew Jackson, with all the consequences. If Andrew Jackson had one great achievement then it was ultimately the same as the most important dividend the cause of the American union extracted from New Orleans - he helped foster national unity, by balancing the interests of the three main contemporary American state blocks (the West, the Northeast and the Southeast), through various measures.
Now, this is a bit far-fetched, but this may actually be a good PoD for the long-sought "realistic North American Balkanisation scenario". With a weaker national identity and diverse economic policies resulting in the Union objectively hampering the individual economic development of the three "state blocks" (as Jackson's tenure itself, with its trade and economic policy controversies, demonstrates quite aptly), it would not be entire impossible for it to simply dissolve (peacefully - why fight for a generally unprofitable political union?), unless another balancing leader rises to presidency in time to pull things together. Then we could have the northeastern North American Federation (roughly east of the Mississippi and and north of the Ohio and Virginia), the south eastern Confederated States of Southland and the western Frontier States Union (presumably west of Wisconsin and Missouri, not includingly) (not really sure about either of the names; there are always many variants). The NAF would be based roughly on the Federalist ideas, with strong commerce and industry. It could be very Anglophilic or Anglophobic; probably it would the former at first and the latter later on as the NAF grows more ambitious, building up its fleet and founding African colonies (see below); I actually imagine it being similar to a liberal Second Reich in some regards. The CSS is predictable enough, decentralised and agricultural; still, it is likely to develop Carribean and colonial ambitions (see below again). The "Jacksonian" and Cossack-like FSU will likely bog down in Indian wars for quite a while, though in the end managing to gain some land in the west. Oregon is likely to fall to the British, however.
Mexico probably won't maintain its northern lands in this world, though. As the social and economic structures in the CSS ossify, opportunistic young would-be landholders would move to Texas, which would also receive the OTL European population influx. With Mexico's rampant corruption, neglect and instability, a Texas independence war will probably still occur, and the chances are that Texas would gain independence; but I doubt that it would unite with the CSS or the FSU. I'd actually imagine it to be a local Prussia, with powerful landholders and industrialists, a fairly strong central government (when compared to CSS or FSU, ofcourse) and a comparatively formidable military tradition - the latter two dictated in part by the Mexican threat. I'd also imagine that it would move on to make further gains in the west and the south; not to the point of annexing Mexico, but the OTL Republic of Rio Grande has good chances of coming under Texan "protection". Lastly, we have a Hispannic California, with large Anglo and later Asian immigrations. Mexican lands between Texas, California and the FSU will be carved up between them, ofcourse.
And now, for some geopolitical issues:
- Canada: is likely to be generally larger but less organised, and that will make it particularily vulnerable to gradual integration by the NAF. In case of an Anglo-Federal war it would probably be a battlefield, with the NAF recruiting some degree of popular support. Note that Oregon and other western Canadian territories may well become the "Dominion of British Columbia" or somesuch, no matter what happens in the east.
- Mexico and the Carribean: will generally be far more unstable, with more proactive players. Texas and France may well sign an alliance to "tame" Mexico; the French might also help the CSS grab the Spanish colonies, though that will lead to complications back in Europe. Britain and the NAF would likely be a serious force for the status quo in the Latin America - until their competition grows into unfriendly rivalry, in which case I suspect that both would deprioritise the area. The Panama or Nicaragua Canal is likely to end up French or British. Actually, the Monroe Doctrine equivalent will probably cease functioning in this world early on, with interesting consequences for Latin America in general (on one hand, the local countries will probably lead more ambitious and proactive foreign policies, but on the other there shall be more foreign interferences as well).
- Africa: in OTL the various planned American colonial ventures were far overshadowed by domestic struggles and the push to the west. Here, the CSS and the NAF are likely to involve themselves to a far greater extent in Africa, with colonial competition between each other and with Britain a likely additional motivator. The NAF will seek out new Atlantic markets, while the CSS will seek both new slave trade routes and potential new plantation areas, especially after the rubber boom occurs, but previously as well. Confederate Congo is not much less likely than Belgian Congo. As for the NAF, its main base will probably still be Liberia, but it is likely that they will set up something on the obvious Gold Coast as well. These developments will probably motivate a more vigorous colonial race, especially on the behalf of the British and the French. Whatever the outcome, the French will have a less extensive West African colonial empire; this may be compensated elsewhere, like in Latin America or Asia.
- The Pacific: I really doubt that the Dominion of British Columbia or the Republic of California would be able to replace the USA here, so more Pacific power to the UK, Russia and Japan.
- Europe: I suppose that we shall have less British involvement; also, succesful French involvement in Mexico will likely strenghthen Napoleon III's positions at home. At the same time, it will encourage more colonial ventures - and so, a less assertive foreign policy in Europe, Napoleon III sticking to the realpolitik of his early days. No Franco-Prussian War. We might be able to incorporate Dachspmg's idea into this one, then.
Not quite sure about details here. Still, I hope that Azale likes it at least.
Now, this is a bit far-fetched, but this may actually be a good PoD for the long-sought "realistic North American Balkanisation scenario". With a weaker national identity and diverse economic policies resulting in the Union objectively hampering the individual economic development of the three "state blocks" (as Jackson's tenure itself, with its trade and economic policy controversies, demonstrates quite aptly), it would not be entire impossible for it to simply dissolve (peacefully - why fight for a generally unprofitable political union?), unless another balancing leader rises to presidency in time to pull things together. Then we could have the northeastern North American Federation (roughly east of the Mississippi and and north of the Ohio and Virginia), the south eastern Confederated States of Southland and the western Frontier States Union (presumably west of Wisconsin and Missouri, not includingly) (not really sure about either of the names; there are always many variants). The NAF would be based roughly on the Federalist ideas, with strong commerce and industry. It could be very Anglophilic or Anglophobic; probably it would the former at first and the latter later on as the NAF grows more ambitious, building up its fleet and founding African colonies (see below); I actually imagine it being similar to a liberal Second Reich in some regards. The CSS is predictable enough, decentralised and agricultural; still, it is likely to develop Carribean and colonial ambitions (see below again). The "Jacksonian" and Cossack-like FSU will likely bog down in Indian wars for quite a while, though in the end managing to gain some land in the west. Oregon is likely to fall to the British, however.
Mexico probably won't maintain its northern lands in this world, though. As the social and economic structures in the CSS ossify, opportunistic young would-be landholders would move to Texas, which would also receive the OTL European population influx. With Mexico's rampant corruption, neglect and instability, a Texas independence war will probably still occur, and the chances are that Texas would gain independence; but I doubt that it would unite with the CSS or the FSU. I'd actually imagine it to be a local Prussia, with powerful landholders and industrialists, a fairly strong central government (when compared to CSS or FSU, ofcourse) and a comparatively formidable military tradition - the latter two dictated in part by the Mexican threat. I'd also imagine that it would move on to make further gains in the west and the south; not to the point of annexing Mexico, but the OTL Republic of Rio Grande has good chances of coming under Texan "protection". Lastly, we have a Hispannic California, with large Anglo and later Asian immigrations. Mexican lands between Texas, California and the FSU will be carved up between them, ofcourse.
And now, for some geopolitical issues:
- Canada: is likely to be generally larger but less organised, and that will make it particularily vulnerable to gradual integration by the NAF. In case of an Anglo-Federal war it would probably be a battlefield, with the NAF recruiting some degree of popular support. Note that Oregon and other western Canadian territories may well become the "Dominion of British Columbia" or somesuch, no matter what happens in the east.
- Mexico and the Carribean: will generally be far more unstable, with more proactive players. Texas and France may well sign an alliance to "tame" Mexico; the French might also help the CSS grab the Spanish colonies, though that will lead to complications back in Europe. Britain and the NAF would likely be a serious force for the status quo in the Latin America - until their competition grows into unfriendly rivalry, in which case I suspect that both would deprioritise the area. The Panama or Nicaragua Canal is likely to end up French or British. Actually, the Monroe Doctrine equivalent will probably cease functioning in this world early on, with interesting consequences for Latin America in general (on one hand, the local countries will probably lead more ambitious and proactive foreign policies, but on the other there shall be more foreign interferences as well).
- Africa: in OTL the various planned American colonial ventures were far overshadowed by domestic struggles and the push to the west. Here, the CSS and the NAF are likely to involve themselves to a far greater extent in Africa, with colonial competition between each other and with Britain a likely additional motivator. The NAF will seek out new Atlantic markets, while the CSS will seek both new slave trade routes and potential new plantation areas, especially after the rubber boom occurs, but previously as well. Confederate Congo is not much less likely than Belgian Congo. As for the NAF, its main base will probably still be Liberia, but it is likely that they will set up something on the obvious Gold Coast as well. These developments will probably motivate a more vigorous colonial race, especially on the behalf of the British and the French. Whatever the outcome, the French will have a less extensive West African colonial empire; this may be compensated elsewhere, like in Latin America or Asia.
- The Pacific: I really doubt that the Dominion of British Columbia or the Republic of California would be able to replace the USA here, so more Pacific power to the UK, Russia and Japan.
- Europe: I suppose that we shall have less British involvement; also, succesful French involvement in Mexico will likely strenghthen Napoleon III's positions at home. At the same time, it will encourage more colonial ventures - and so, a less assertive foreign policy in Europe, Napoleon III sticking to the realpolitik of his early days. No Franco-Prussian War. We might be able to incorporate Dachspmg's idea into this one, then.
Not quite sure about details here. Still, I hope that Azale likes it at least.
I love it actually 
I like the comparison of Texas to Prussia.
I would think that the FSU would be far behind the CSS or the NAF, economic strength especially. Could this possibly even give the various Native American tribes more of a chance to survive?
I like the comparison of Texas to Prussia.
I would think that the FSU would be far behind the CSS or the NAF, economic strength especially. Could this possibly even give the various Native American tribes more of a chance to survive?
das
Regeneration In Process
The FSU is indeed very much a backwater region, though the pseudo-libertarian frontier is likely to be attractive to those who can't find a place elsewhere, especially in the more developed North American states. I quite deliberately compared it to the Cossack hosts, which grew on Russia's southern peripheries in exactly the same way. As for the Indians... Not sure. I suspect they still would be gradually overwhelmed, but they might possibly negotiate some sort of an agreement, perhaps getting a particularily autonomous state of their own (in Oklahoma?).
And what of the Mormons...having a Deseret state in RL Utah would be VERY interesting indeed. Probably a prosperous state just because of the nature of the people, despite the poor living conditions.
The Frontier States sound a little more lawless than even the Cossack regions. It would be an entire nation run like how we think of the wild west.
The Frontier States sound a little more lawless than even the Cossack regions. It would be an entire nation run like how we think of the wild west.
das
Regeneration In Process
Fantasmo, here are some details on the Bazaine World in 1882 (both OTL and ATL):
- North America is probably ALMOST unchanged; however, Canada will likely have to deal with the ripple effect of far greater French nationalism rubbing off the Quebecois and the Metis. The USA is pretty much indifferent in foreign affairs at the moment - possibly at its most indifferent - so it is safe to consider it OTLish, for now, but the difficult domestic situation, social tensions and the spectre of political radicalism still make things quite interesting for the players here (remember - periods of uncertainty are changed drastically by the smallest butterfly effects!). Mexico is nice; Porfirio Diaz (not really in power at the time, but that merely means that he is a gray eminence, you know how he works) might decide to cooperate with Boulanger to a certain extent. Central America will probably be unchanged, but rejoice, for there was a pretty good chance of uniting the five (or at least four) pesky little states into one pesky little state a few years after 1882. The Spanish are still incapable of any decisive measures in Cuba.
- South America is probably unchanged, but interesting enough in OTL, with the Pacific War/the Nitrate War in full swing and the Argentinians on the march in Patagonia. Further north is unstable as usual. Oh, and the USA hasn't quite asserted its hegemony in the Western Hemisphere yet; in OTL it went comparatively smoothly (i.e. with only a few much-publicised international crises), but here it might go differently, who knows.
- Europe I have already described, but some more things are noteworthy. Spain is actually stable and not impossible to save in this time period, though it is probably neutral. Denmark is dominated by a somewhat hardline Conservative prime minister, Estrup, whom the French are likely to try and use against the Germans (they wanted to coerce or persuade Denmark to join them in the OTL Franco-Prussian War, but after Sedan that kinda lost priority). Alexander II may well live for longer in this world, having survived several assassination attempts earlier; also, the more succesful Russo-Turkish War will likely bolster his confidence. The mildly liberal Loris-Melikov Constitution might go into effect. Lastly, We have the curious intrigues in the Balkans - most notably an earlier-than-OTL rise of Macedonian nationalism, and complex intrigues between Russian and Austrian diplomats in the Austrophile Serbia of Milan Obrenovic. Greater Russian influence may mean that Milan would be overthrown earlier; either way, his positions are more shaky.
- In Africa the colonial race is less intensive than in OTL, due to France being more Euro-centric. It still will consolidate its present gains and possibly expand in Congo and West Africa, but the Italians might beat the French to Tunisia. "West Sudan" is still dominated by Sokoto and the Fulani Empire, though both are decaying. East Sudan (OTL Sudan) is meanwhile held by everybody's favourite Islamic African religious fanatics; Muhammad Ahmad is at the height of his power. Egypt is interesting, as the Anglo-French are likely to cooperate there in this world, either propping up the local ruler or moving in themselves. The Egyptian issue might actually break up the Anglo-French alliance of convenience, which is ironic as they need a good base in Egypt to properly support the Ottoman Empire. Meanwhile, Colonel Ahmed Orabi (whose nationalistic coup d'etat prompted the Anglo-French intervention) might try and recruit Russo-German assistance (or, rather, is likely to be approached by Germans interested in damaging the Anglo-French positions in the Mediterranean). Congo is uncertain; contested by various local kings and chieftains, and by France, Portugal and Britain. The British are only beginning to build their colonial empire in the continent, though the Zulu War had just ended. Meanwhile, the First Boer War had only just ended, with a humiliating result for the British. The Boers might become valuable allies for the Germans; hell, the Germans have probably already given them assistance in this world, as the Anglo-German tensions had been rising since around 1876. Germany itself is yet to go colonial. Italy however has only begun building its colonial empire, while Portugal is about to start a renewed effort.
- I'm having trouble coming up with ideas for Asia, but here are the two big differences - a somewhat different Russian Central Asian policy (less landgrabbing at China's expense, more preparing for war with Britain, plus Skobelev's ideas of recruiting local cavalry units and using them to raise havoc in India might have more popularity here; Afghanistan is likely to be more bitterly-contested, and the British might not pull out after finally beginning to win in the Second Afghan War, instead renewing their efforts to take over) and a less vigorous French colonial policy (Annam - actually like in OTL - is still more or less independent in the north, and Qing China is doing a little bit better due to less foreign encroachment; the Self-Strenghthening Movement is still in full swing, so there might be salvation for this Empire yet). One last issue of note would be the heavy French involvement in Japan's early modernisation (which dropped after the OTL Franco-Prussian War; less here); with French prestige, as well as determination, considerably stronger, Franco-Japanese relations are likely to be pretty good, and Boulanger is likely to do his best to provoke an early Russo-Japanese war. With Anglo-French assistance Japan is likely to be a more formidable military power, especially on the sea, though perhaps at the price of less attention being paid to other spheres of national development.
- North America is probably ALMOST unchanged; however, Canada will likely have to deal with the ripple effect of far greater French nationalism rubbing off the Quebecois and the Metis. The USA is pretty much indifferent in foreign affairs at the moment - possibly at its most indifferent - so it is safe to consider it OTLish, for now, but the difficult domestic situation, social tensions and the spectre of political radicalism still make things quite interesting for the players here (remember - periods of uncertainty are changed drastically by the smallest butterfly effects!). Mexico is nice; Porfirio Diaz (not really in power at the time, but that merely means that he is a gray eminence, you know how he works) might decide to cooperate with Boulanger to a certain extent. Central America will probably be unchanged, but rejoice, for there was a pretty good chance of uniting the five (or at least four) pesky little states into one pesky little state a few years after 1882. The Spanish are still incapable of any decisive measures in Cuba.
- South America is probably unchanged, but interesting enough in OTL, with the Pacific War/the Nitrate War in full swing and the Argentinians on the march in Patagonia. Further north is unstable as usual. Oh, and the USA hasn't quite asserted its hegemony in the Western Hemisphere yet; in OTL it went comparatively smoothly (i.e. with only a few much-publicised international crises), but here it might go differently, who knows.
- Europe I have already described, but some more things are noteworthy. Spain is actually stable and not impossible to save in this time period, though it is probably neutral. Denmark is dominated by a somewhat hardline Conservative prime minister, Estrup, whom the French are likely to try and use against the Germans (they wanted to coerce or persuade Denmark to join them in the OTL Franco-Prussian War, but after Sedan that kinda lost priority). Alexander II may well live for longer in this world, having survived several assassination attempts earlier; also, the more succesful Russo-Turkish War will likely bolster his confidence. The mildly liberal Loris-Melikov Constitution might go into effect. Lastly, We have the curious intrigues in the Balkans - most notably an earlier-than-OTL rise of Macedonian nationalism, and complex intrigues between Russian and Austrian diplomats in the Austrophile Serbia of Milan Obrenovic. Greater Russian influence may mean that Milan would be overthrown earlier; either way, his positions are more shaky.
- In Africa the colonial race is less intensive than in OTL, due to France being more Euro-centric. It still will consolidate its present gains and possibly expand in Congo and West Africa, but the Italians might beat the French to Tunisia. "West Sudan" is still dominated by Sokoto and the Fulani Empire, though both are decaying. East Sudan (OTL Sudan) is meanwhile held by everybody's favourite Islamic African religious fanatics; Muhammad Ahmad is at the height of his power. Egypt is interesting, as the Anglo-French are likely to cooperate there in this world, either propping up the local ruler or moving in themselves. The Egyptian issue might actually break up the Anglo-French alliance of convenience, which is ironic as they need a good base in Egypt to properly support the Ottoman Empire. Meanwhile, Colonel Ahmed Orabi (whose nationalistic coup d'etat prompted the Anglo-French intervention) might try and recruit Russo-German assistance (or, rather, is likely to be approached by Germans interested in damaging the Anglo-French positions in the Mediterranean). Congo is uncertain; contested by various local kings and chieftains, and by France, Portugal and Britain. The British are only beginning to build their colonial empire in the continent, though the Zulu War had just ended. Meanwhile, the First Boer War had only just ended, with a humiliating result for the British. The Boers might become valuable allies for the Germans; hell, the Germans have probably already given them assistance in this world, as the Anglo-German tensions had been rising since around 1876. Germany itself is yet to go colonial. Italy however has only begun building its colonial empire, while Portugal is about to start a renewed effort.
- I'm having trouble coming up with ideas for Asia, but here are the two big differences - a somewhat different Russian Central Asian policy (less landgrabbing at China's expense, more preparing for war with Britain, plus Skobelev's ideas of recruiting local cavalry units and using them to raise havoc in India might have more popularity here; Afghanistan is likely to be more bitterly-contested, and the British might not pull out after finally beginning to win in the Second Afghan War, instead renewing their efforts to take over) and a less vigorous French colonial policy (Annam - actually like in OTL - is still more or less independent in the north, and Qing China is doing a little bit better due to less foreign encroachment; the Self-Strenghthening Movement is still in full swing, so there might be salvation for this Empire yet). One last issue of note would be the heavy French involvement in Japan's early modernisation (which dropped after the OTL Franco-Prussian War; less here); with French prestige, as well as determination, considerably stronger, Franco-Japanese relations are likely to be pretty good, and Boulanger is likely to do his best to provoke an early Russo-Japanese war. With Anglo-French assistance Japan is likely to be a more formidable military power, especially on the sea, though perhaps at the price of less attention being paid to other spheres of national development.
das
Regeneration In Process
Well, I suppose it is a "Balkanised North America" tradition, but it is also a cliche and the very emergence of Mormonism isn't 100% assured.
Hmm... How about an alternate version - the Mormons deciding not to move through the lawless lands of the FSU, and instead going with the African colonisation trend, setting up a colony somewhere in West or Central Africa (how about Cameroon?). That would be fun, especially with the religious conversion potential of Subsaharan Africa.
Wouldn't that be even harder than going to Utah? How would they gather the money needed to get there...I doubt the NAF gives it to them. I like the idea though, having a Mormon Africa would be something I don't think I've seen before.
