A Devastating Alternate Second World War

January 19, 2011

Launching The Fractured World...



Here is the first posting from this project, a taste.......




Excerpt from "The Time of the Five World Wars"
Pittsburgh Presses, Neo-Windsor, 2111 AD


May 21st, 1883

The streets of New Amsterdam thronged with masses of cheering people, and great unending streamers of ticker tape fell from the eight story skyscrapers lining Central avenue in downtown Manhattan. Ceaseless columns of soldiers paraded down the avenue, their polished boots stomping the pavement in unison as brass bands played triumphant national songs vigorously and the crowd roared with approval at the passing of each immaculate regiment.
It was a mixed throng of spectators, a hundred thousand and more common laborers and mill managers, shopkeeps and news boys, maids and wives, stock brokers and bankers, curious orientals pausing from their afternoon chores and blacks in from the wharves ; all of New Amsterdam was assembled, and the spirits of all New Dutch soared with them. For the heady thrill of War was in the air. ...
...In Europe, the mother Dutch and their French patrons were mobilizing for War in The Germanies, following a decade of insults and Prusso-British aggression. The assassination of the Dutch-speaking King of Holster and the subsequent Prussian invasion had been the final straw. The French could simply not ignore the provocation as the balance of power in The Germanies threatened to swing in favor of the British-Prussian alliance. As one power after another began to mobilize during the month of May the tightly sprung system of international alliances began to unwind - the countdown to war was like an unstoppable train, fueled by the confident eagerness of willing populations.
Nowhere was the nationalist fervor more passionate than among the New Dutch of Dutchland and Pennsylvania. After most of a century of humiliation at the hands of the British and New Englanders, the opportunity to restore the New Netherlands was an intoxicating dream, one stirred by the newspapers and New Dutch politicians without fail...

...across the Hudson, British artillery sat ready amidst fortifications in the Brooklyn heights. Tense crews sat awaiting the orders that could mark the outbreak of war and send high explosive shells arcing towards New Amsterdam, the largest city in North America. The British had no shortage of modern rifled artillery, and they had been lavish with the guns when outfitting Long Island's defenses.
Readily visible to the British artillerymen, the Entente Tower dominated New Amsterdam's skyline, the soaring French-designed iron monstrosity completed just a few years before to mark the twentieth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Liege that formalized the Entente between France, the Netherlands, and the new Dutch nations of Dutchland and Pennsylvania. A huge Dutchland flag rippled in the steady wind at the top of the tower...

...both sides had observation balloons high above the Hudson river, the balloons of the opposing armies intermingling so closely that the British artillerymen took bets on how long it would take for a couple of them to become entangled...


...Later historians would lament at the madness of these times; that across the globe people willingly, eagerly, marched into the death and darkness of the subsequent eighty years. After decades of buildup, the Time of the Five World Wars was at hand....


TO BE CONTINUED...



January 18, 2011

Idea for another timeline project...


Working Title : "Fractured World : The Five World Wars"


I've been considering doing another timeline project similar to Shattered World, except set in a world with a point of departure in the early or mid 1800's, or possibly even the 1700's.
The timeline story would begin in the late 1800's, and describe a series of VERY alternate world wars that take place from the 1880's to the mid 20th century. Done in a style similar to Shattered World, but with a more consistent tone.
Atomic weapons come along a couple decades later than in OTL, allowing for several conventional world wars to occur from around 1880 to around 1960, or so.

The setting - I'm thinking the French do somewhat better than in OTL and are on more equal terms with the British in terms of economic/military/naval might and the size of their Empire. The French also do better in North America and the U.S. never quite forms, instead North America ends up divided between a few post-British and post-French and post-Spanish states. (California, Russian Alaska which stretches down to Oregon, Mexico, Texas, Indian nations, Canada, Quebec, New Foundland, New England, various independent states like New York and Virginia, Louisiana Republic, Spanish Florida, probably others like small British/French/Dutch enclaves and the like)
France never lets a unified Germany develop, instead you have "The Germanies" which are just a very loose confederation joined more by cultural than by political ties. Prussia and Austria are the largest of "The Germanies" but neither approaches the French, British, or Russians in terms of their power.
By the 1880's, technology is similar to the 1880's of OTL but Europe is a powderkeg with Britain, France, and Russia all vying for influence over "The Germanies" and the rest of central and Southern Europe. (while Prussia and Austria both still have ambitions towards a Greater Germany and are seeking to play off the three major powers against each other.
Italy also never unified, due to French interference, so southern Europe is all small squabbling states from Romania west to Corsica. South America is a mis-mash of British and French and Dutch colonies along with independent Republics, and is more developed than OTL.
Elsewhere there is intense colonial competition between Britain, France, the Dutch to a lesser degree, and Russia all around the globe.
Oh, and the Netherlands is actually a fairly major power consisting of OTL's Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxemburg. It is a nominal ally of France and on par with Prussia and Austria in terms of national power.

For those concerned this will eat into my Shattered World writing : The way I write, this won't really happen. I tend to write in "bursts" and these bursts almost always are directed into a specific project. Having a couple different projects doesn't lessen the chances of a "burst" going into any one of the projects.


Thoughts anyone?





January 05, 2011

Coming Soon...


Just wanted to post a "proof of life" message since I've been quiet for awhile now. The next Segment should be coming fairly soon and it should cover a longer period than my recent micro-segments.