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...
18 comments:
Again a map would be much appreciated Bobby of some kind - what is Dutchland? (what area does it correspond to)?
What a great timeline to begin with something that is close to my hart , the Netherlands.
A map and more info on the POD is coming later today. First map will detail just North America.
But the timeline will be global in nature.
Dutchland and Pennsylvania are rump nations carved out of the remnants of the New Netherlands after a war goes disastrously wrong for the Dutch and French in the '2nd North American War' in the 1820's. Most of our timeline's upstate New York is annexed by the British and the Confederation of New England, and the remaining Dutch territory is turned into two independent Republics. Dutchland is New Amsterdam(our New York), the southern end of the Hudson river valley, and a bit of upstate New York. Pennsylvania consists of part of what we call the state of Pennsylvania. The two states remain close to the Netherlands(the Mother Dutch) and there is a significant population of ethnic Dutch people left behind in the annexed parts of the New Netherlands. (hence the bitterness towards Britain and New England)
As of the early 1880's, the French and the Dutch(and the two 'New Dutch' republics) are locked in bitter competition with the British in Europe, North America, and all over the world. Much more detail on all this coming.
Oh, and I have a bit of a thing for the Netherlands as well, always wanted to see a timeline where New Netherlands survives in some form.
The 'Hardenbrooks' were apparently a family of some renown in Dutch America, see references to them in prominent positions in New Amsterdam.
The POD is that the Dutch do better in the third Anglo-Dutch war of 1683, and the Netherlands is not forced to cede the New Netherlands to the British.
Instead, the New Netherlands Colony survives on and the Dutch consolidate their hold over that colony and also re-take the British Pennsylvania colony, re-folding it back into the New Netherlands.(though a significant ethnic British population remains in that area leading Pennsylvania to develop a somewhat distinct culture and much later it becomes a separate 'New Dutch' Republic)
Of course, things Butterfly rapidly and by the early 1700's things are going quite differently all over the world.
Anyway, more details will be coming.
Nice explanation regarding Dutchland and Pennsylvania and what it is made of.
Just to clarify, Shattered World will continue as normal. As I've said before, given the way I write the projects really shouldn't conflict with each other.
If anything, having fresh material to write will probably lead to more Shattered World and writing in general
Not to be a nuisances Bobby but New Amsterdam was captured by the English in 1664 a year before the outbreak of the second Anglo-Dutch war in 1665 and was one of the reason of the outbreak of the war.
But according to your POD you tell that it is the third Anglo-Dutch war which can only mean that the Netherlands either held on to New Amsterdam after recapturing it from the English in 1673 ore you are mistake in the year ore war.
Second the Third Anglo–Dutch War lasted from 1672 to 1674 not in 1683.
typo, meant 1673...
From wikipedia...
"During the 1650s, the colony experienced dramatic growth and became a major port for trade in the North Atlantic. The surrender of Fort Amsterdam to the British control in 1664 was formalized in 1667, contributing to the Second Anglo–Dutch War. In 1673 the Dutch re-took the area, but later relinquished it under the 1674 Treaty of Westminster ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War"
Like the idea of the new time line Bobby and in your defence I'm a burst writer to!
So it shoudlnt affect Shattered World to badly if your burst writing is the same as mine, months with no inspiration and then twenty pages in one night.
I look forward to the back story.
Be careful not to stray too far into "How Few Remain". Its easy to get your timeline mixed up into another persons when writing in the same period on the same land mass.
PS What is happening to the world in 1950?
Bobby I hope you don’t mind but I have created my own version of a survival New Netherlands on my own forum after reading the beginning of a timeline which I like the SW will follow whit great interest.
Well, this ATL is a lot different than Turtledove's 'How Few Remain' timeline, and unlike Turtledove I don't intend to fall into the trap of copying OTL too much.
I can't say too much about 1950 without giving a lot away - suffice it to say the world is a lot different than ours and theres already been four world wars by then.
no need to apologize lordroel, hopefully our timelines won't step on each other too much ;)
Thanks for not minding it Bobby.
Possible POD: During the Second Anglo-Dutch War (4 March 1665 – 31 July 1667) the Dutch raid on the Medway (June 9 - June 14 1667) was more successful due to the burning of the Chatham Dockyards; a land attack on the docks themselves by the Dutch Marine Corps had set back English naval power for a generation. The result was the ATL Peace of Breda (31 July 1667), which returned New Amsterdam to the Dutch, while the Dutch kept control over Paulu Run and the valuable sugar plantations of Suriname which they had conquered in 1667.
Small nitpick: Increasing anti-German hysteria during WW1 threw suspicion upon the British monarchy and King George V was persuaded to change his German name of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Windsor and relinquish all German titles and styles on behalf of his relatives who were British subjects. In the ATL Queen Victoria still rules GB(?); the correct term should be "The British Dominions of Hanover, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha)".
I agree on the possible POD - if the Dutch had burned those dockyards then there is no way the British are able to defeat them in the Third Dutch Anglo War
and that also helps the French keep a hold on Quebec as well by giving them more time with a smaller British fleet to be able to expand their hold on Quebec.
Nice man. Extremely informative post. I'll be sure to pass this along to my friends.
Audi S4 Turbocharger
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