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This is an old idea, featuring France winning the Seven Years' War and becoming a world power on the same tier as OTL Britain. I also integrated some bits and pieces of a Polandball "mirror" universe.
The Battle of Kunersdorf marked the beginning of the end of Prussia's participation in the Third Silesian War. The Prussians had lost over half of their men to the Austro-Russian coalition, and even Frederick II himself acknowledged that this was the end for Prussia. The Prussians managed to gather 33,000 men to defend Berlin against the enemy, but it was not enough to repel the 90,000 strong Austro-Russian enemy. Berlin was seized after a brutal struggle, and while the Prussians managed to force the Austrians and Russians to pay a heavy price, the defeat convinced Frederick II to sue for peace. Of course, the other combatants on Prussia's side continued to fight, but eventually only Britain remained.
While the British were triumphant throughout the colonies, particularly in North America and India, the continent was dominated by France, Austria, Russia and Sweden. The British Army was ill-equipped to fight against France alone on the continent, having relied on her continental allies to bear the brunt of the fighting. This situation was unacceptable to London, and in exchange for the major gains made by the French alliance on the continent, the British acceded all of their gains abroad and even some of their colonies in India and North America. The British reasoned that they could regain these losses after a series of future European wars. However, that was not to be.
British control on the North American continent was broken when the American Revolution broke out in the 1760s. Colonists, believing that they were being abused by London after their sacrifice and loss in the French and Indian War (as they called it), rebelled and demanded self-government. The autocratic French supported the American rebels, but out of the pragmatic considerations of realpolitik, not out of agreement with the colonies' politics. The war cost the British dearly, and the British sued for peace in the 1780s. The French suffered from their own revolts in the 1790s, but with the aid of Austria and the powerful French military, this revolt went nowhere.
Throughout the 19th century, the French and Austrians grew apart. Austria increasingly turned East, toward Russia, as the two plotted carving up the dying Ottoman Empire. The French supported the Ottomans, seeing them as a bulwark against rising Austrian and Russian power, while depending on their control of Egypt to maintain control of the sea routes to India. The French reformed after the revolts at the end of the 18th century, giving more power to an elected National Assembly which gradually gained more power as the years went by.
Britain, on the other hand, turned inward, particularly after the unpopular George III refused to accede to the regency of his son and caused political chaos in the country. Britain fought a second civil war during the mid-19th century, as republicans aligned themselves with long-suffering workers in an attempt to overthrow the monarchy. They succeeded in removing the monarchy, but they did not succeed in maintaining a republic. A de facto military dictatorship established itself, using a puppet Parliament as a fig leaf for its despotic rule.
The mid-nineteenth century saw eastern and Central Europe wracked by nationalism, particularly by the divided Germans. This led to a series of wars which saw the Swedes, Austrians and Russians uniting against the German nationalists, led by a Prussia attempting to reassert itself on the European stage. The nationalists lost, and the monarchs of Vienna and St. Petersburg promoted ideas of traditional monarchy and religious unity. The Swedes, on the other hand, used nationalism to promote their own state. Sweden gradually adopted ideas of racial supremacy, placing "Nordic Swedes" above the rest of the world as a master race. Other states adopted forms of nationalism, such as the Swiss (defining Swiss identity on dodgy racial grounds, regardless of language).
In the Americas, the Canadian colonies were granted independence after the instability in the 1790s, and became a rival to the Americans. The Canadians and Americans raced to the west, a race the Canadians won and the Americans lost, as the latter ran into Mexico. While the Americans supported revolts against the Mexican Empire and succeeded in creating the republic of California, it resisted membership into the American union, particularly because the Americans sought to introduce slavery. Spain's Latin American colonies were lost through a series of doomed colonial conflicts which saw the Spanish even more indebted to Paris.
In the East, the Chinese and Japanese empires stagnated, before trying to rapidly adopt Western economic and political ideas in the mid-19th centuries. This led to tremendous backlash from the traditionalists, leading to a cycle of devastating civil wars (with copious European interference). Eventually, the constant warfare and the blending of Eastern and Western thought led to the creation of "Platonism," an ideology which claims that society can only be ruled by philosophers on behalf of the common man. This ideology took hold in China, replacing the traditional imperial system, while in Japan a more Westernized version of the ideology took hold, focusing on the primacy of the peasantry over their historic oppressors.
As the nineteenth century makes way for the twentieth, two great alliances have divided Europe and the world. The French are the greatest power in the world, aligned generally with democratic states. France itself is more or less a democracy, with the king exercising few powers except that of the veto (rarely exercised). The same goes for Spain, but Spanish democracy is shaky, as it is wracked with extreme divisions between right and left, the latter being largely republican and demanding the abolition of the monarchy. The Canadian Federation has started to take a larger role in foreign affairs, particularly in the Americas, although their small population prevents them from becoming a true global superpower. Their southern neighbors, the United States and California, are more populous but want to stay out of world affairs. The Americans have only recently abolished slavery, and the wounds from the particular institution still hurt. California, on the other hand, is trying to destroy its Hispanophone population by forced cultural assimilation.
Standing against the French is the Holy Alliance, made up primarily of the eastern autocracies of Austria and Russia. These autocracies have remained largely unchanged, politically speaking, since the 18th century, although they have eagerly adopted industrialization. The British are part of this alliance out of animosity against France, and the recently-crowned Emperor of Britain wants to prove that his empire can stand up to its old rival. Other allies include the Mexican Empire, a conservative Catholic monarchy; the Holy Roman Empire, which has become a truly German state in its attempt to take advantage of nationalist sentiment; and the Mughal Empire, which has adopted anti-colonial nationalism as its primary rhetorical point.
A few crazy states are out there. The Greater Swedish Rike has recently expelled all of the Jews from their country, and are moving against Russians next. The Helvetic National Union has transformed its country into the world's largest fortress, and its entire population into one of Europe's largest standing armies. The Islamic Republic of Yunanistan, known as Greece to the rest of the world, is a shaky contrivance that humiliates their Ottoman "allies" by their constant attempts to Islamicize the population. The Peruvian emperor claims to be the King of Spain and the entire rest of the Spanish Empire, which has resulted in very poor relations with its neighbors. And of course, the Platonist states in the East have just ended the latest round of purges, and the death tolls resulting from those and their collectivization policies are already in the tens of millions.
Fortunately, the European states are wiser than their Asian counterparts. After all, the alliance system is designed to make war between any two European powers too costly. Certainly, this makes any "great war" impossible in this modern, enlightened age. Certainly....
---
The Battle of Kunersdorf marked the beginning of the end of Prussia's participation in the Third Silesian War. The Prussians had lost over half of their men to the Austro-Russian coalition, and even Frederick II himself acknowledged that this was the end for Prussia. The Prussians managed to gather 33,000 men to defend Berlin against the enemy, but it was not enough to repel the 90,000 strong Austro-Russian enemy. Berlin was seized after a brutal struggle, and while the Prussians managed to force the Austrians and Russians to pay a heavy price, the defeat convinced Frederick II to sue for peace. Of course, the other combatants on Prussia's side continued to fight, but eventually only Britain remained.
While the British were triumphant throughout the colonies, particularly in North America and India, the continent was dominated by France, Austria, Russia and Sweden. The British Army was ill-equipped to fight against France alone on the continent, having relied on her continental allies to bear the brunt of the fighting. This situation was unacceptable to London, and in exchange for the major gains made by the French alliance on the continent, the British acceded all of their gains abroad and even some of their colonies in India and North America. The British reasoned that they could regain these losses after a series of future European wars. However, that was not to be.
British control on the North American continent was broken when the American Revolution broke out in the 1760s. Colonists, believing that they were being abused by London after their sacrifice and loss in the French and Indian War (as they called it), rebelled and demanded self-government. The autocratic French supported the American rebels, but out of the pragmatic considerations of realpolitik, not out of agreement with the colonies' politics. The war cost the British dearly, and the British sued for peace in the 1780s. The French suffered from their own revolts in the 1790s, but with the aid of Austria and the powerful French military, this revolt went nowhere.
Throughout the 19th century, the French and Austrians grew apart. Austria increasingly turned East, toward Russia, as the two plotted carving up the dying Ottoman Empire. The French supported the Ottomans, seeing them as a bulwark against rising Austrian and Russian power, while depending on their control of Egypt to maintain control of the sea routes to India. The French reformed after the revolts at the end of the 18th century, giving more power to an elected National Assembly which gradually gained more power as the years went by.
Britain, on the other hand, turned inward, particularly after the unpopular George III refused to accede to the regency of his son and caused political chaos in the country. Britain fought a second civil war during the mid-19th century, as republicans aligned themselves with long-suffering workers in an attempt to overthrow the monarchy. They succeeded in removing the monarchy, but they did not succeed in maintaining a republic. A de facto military dictatorship established itself, using a puppet Parliament as a fig leaf for its despotic rule.
The mid-nineteenth century saw eastern and Central Europe wracked by nationalism, particularly by the divided Germans. This led to a series of wars which saw the Swedes, Austrians and Russians uniting against the German nationalists, led by a Prussia attempting to reassert itself on the European stage. The nationalists lost, and the monarchs of Vienna and St. Petersburg promoted ideas of traditional monarchy and religious unity. The Swedes, on the other hand, used nationalism to promote their own state. Sweden gradually adopted ideas of racial supremacy, placing "Nordic Swedes" above the rest of the world as a master race. Other states adopted forms of nationalism, such as the Swiss (defining Swiss identity on dodgy racial grounds, regardless of language).
In the Americas, the Canadian colonies were granted independence after the instability in the 1790s, and became a rival to the Americans. The Canadians and Americans raced to the west, a race the Canadians won and the Americans lost, as the latter ran into Mexico. While the Americans supported revolts against the Mexican Empire and succeeded in creating the republic of California, it resisted membership into the American union, particularly because the Americans sought to introduce slavery. Spain's Latin American colonies were lost through a series of doomed colonial conflicts which saw the Spanish even more indebted to Paris.
In the East, the Chinese and Japanese empires stagnated, before trying to rapidly adopt Western economic and political ideas in the mid-19th centuries. This led to tremendous backlash from the traditionalists, leading to a cycle of devastating civil wars (with copious European interference). Eventually, the constant warfare and the blending of Eastern and Western thought led to the creation of "Platonism," an ideology which claims that society can only be ruled by philosophers on behalf of the common man. This ideology took hold in China, replacing the traditional imperial system, while in Japan a more Westernized version of the ideology took hold, focusing on the primacy of the peasantry over their historic oppressors.
As the nineteenth century makes way for the twentieth, two great alliances have divided Europe and the world. The French are the greatest power in the world, aligned generally with democratic states. France itself is more or less a democracy, with the king exercising few powers except that of the veto (rarely exercised). The same goes for Spain, but Spanish democracy is shaky, as it is wracked with extreme divisions between right and left, the latter being largely republican and demanding the abolition of the monarchy. The Canadian Federation has started to take a larger role in foreign affairs, particularly in the Americas, although their small population prevents them from becoming a true global superpower. Their southern neighbors, the United States and California, are more populous but want to stay out of world affairs. The Americans have only recently abolished slavery, and the wounds from the particular institution still hurt. California, on the other hand, is trying to destroy its Hispanophone population by forced cultural assimilation.
Standing against the French is the Holy Alliance, made up primarily of the eastern autocracies of Austria and Russia. These autocracies have remained largely unchanged, politically speaking, since the 18th century, although they have eagerly adopted industrialization. The British are part of this alliance out of animosity against France, and the recently-crowned Emperor of Britain wants to prove that his empire can stand up to its old rival. Other allies include the Mexican Empire, a conservative Catholic monarchy; the Holy Roman Empire, which has become a truly German state in its attempt to take advantage of nationalist sentiment; and the Mughal Empire, which has adopted anti-colonial nationalism as its primary rhetorical point.
A few crazy states are out there. The Greater Swedish Rike has recently expelled all of the Jews from their country, and are moving against Russians next. The Helvetic National Union has transformed its country into the world's largest fortress, and its entire population into one of Europe's largest standing armies. The Islamic Republic of Yunanistan, known as Greece to the rest of the world, is a shaky contrivance that humiliates their Ottoman "allies" by their constant attempts to Islamicize the population. The Peruvian emperor claims to be the King of Spain and the entire rest of the Spanish Empire, which has resulted in very poor relations with its neighbors. And of course, the Platonist states in the East have just ended the latest round of purges, and the death tolls resulting from those and their collectivization policies are already in the tens of millions.
Fortunately, the European states are wiser than their Asian counterparts. After all, the alliance system is designed to make war between any two European powers too costly. Certainly, this makes any "great war" impossible in this modern, enlightened age. Certainly....
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