A Devastating Alternate Second World War

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?





14 comments:

gszczepa said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
gszczepa said...

Personally I think that is further diversion from Shattered World timeline. Generally all other projects failed to reach substantial momentum and are rather stagnant. So it not good idea to create again something new.

To be more specific; timeline from 18th century is much more difficult to be popular beceause of much less general knowledge about these times vs Second World War.

Olefin said...

I would tend to agree Bobby - the ShatteredWorld is easy to relate to as it POD is in modern times and the map and people are very well known. If you do wish to launch something like this at the least we would need a map and some kind of POD as to what happened to make this world different (i.e. no George Washington, failed Revolution, no Revolution, etc..)

also would you be establishing a new site for this story instead of posting it here?

Bobby said...

Might not be as popular, but fun to write ;) And this is a hobby after all

Bobby said...

Maps and more information about the POD and a super high level timeline leading to the 1880's will be forthcoming

Unknown said...

I for one would like to see this time line go forward. There is a lot of historical knowledge out here.

Unknown said...

I'm sure the new story could be interesting for sure, but the whole idea just makes it obvious to me that the whole WW2 Shattered World story has lost its appeal to you that it had before.

Write the new story if thats what you find yourself actively thinking about and enjoying more, but just for the sake of not letting something go unfinished why not let someone else finish Shattered World now?

Unknown said...

Or even just write one last final post for it.
I'm sure everyone could agree that realisticly it is plausable for a major Atomic strike, using dozens of bombs all over the Reich to bring an immediate end to the war. I don't think it's outside of the AFD's capability to do this, and I don't think Germany would be able to keep it together after something like that.
Britain could hit hard with Anthrax too to add to the mayhem.

I don't want this to happen, but it's a way of closing out shattered World while keeping it realistically possible.

BrianBridgePro said...

I'm torn. I'm a big supporter of the idea that authors should write what they want to write, especially authors whom are not likely to see great monetary gain from their work.
However, at the current pace of Shattered World, I have grave doubts of living to see the end. That is my problem and not yours, and one of the many disadvantages of being an old coot.
I hope, as you say, that the projects are not going to compete for your time.
I fear otherwise and that saddens me.

Olefin said...

I also am concerned about the glacial pace of updates here - and I am hoping that this new work wont further slow it down. In the past two years we have barely moved forward a couple of weeks - at this rate we wont see spring 1950 until 2014-2015.

You can see it from the discussion board - exxcept for a few diehards it just has been too slow to keep interest.

If this new work stimulates the story here with regular long updates then I am all for it. If it means we only get one update a year here then I am not.

Lamfers said...

I would like to see the A Worse World War to continue.

Scott Mahan said...

Go for it. If you are anything like me then time spent on the new project will generate, after the fact, net-new momentum on SW:AWWW. I'm all for BOTH of thos

Scott Mahan said...

I wonder why Google ate my "e."? Stupid software.

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