Remember, Remember

My take on a successful Gunpowder Plot, taking some cues from GURPS' Shikaku-Mon. Please don't kill me, RoyalPsycho.

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Why should we remember the Gunpowder Treason? Because it succeeded in not only killing most of the English government at the time, but because that literal powderkeg set off the metaphorical powderkeg of Europe. The anti-Catholic purges and the succession crisis that followed in England quickly involved France and Spain, and with that the rest of Europe. While framed as a religious conflict, Catholic France was consistently on the opposite side of the Catholic Habsburgs. No, the Forty Years' War, one of history's longest continuos wars, was about political power.

England was devastated during the war, which ended in a compromise. The English were effectively removed from the European and colonial game, a situation which was only galvanized when the weak English monarchy was overthrown by a Puritan "Protectorate" in the early 18th century. France, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands colonized much of the world, competing with one another and their colonies as they broke away and formed their own independent states.

The modern world is dominated by the French. The Franco-Louisianian "special relationship" has total hegemony over the Christian world, a position reasserted by two major wars against Prussia and Russia. Of the two, the Kingdom of France is the older. Once the premier power in the world, and still quite a power to contend with, the French did away with absolutism after a revolutionary scare in the 18th century made them transition into constitutional monarchy. The French have always been the most powerful nation on the continent, a position they have recently had to reassert over the Prussians. But France plays second fiddle to its former colony, the Directorate of Louisiana. Louisiana broke away from France with Spanish aid during the mid-1700s, and they have taken control of most of the North American continent. After Europe's devastation during the Prussian War, Louisiana was in a position to rise above old Europe. The Directorate is the de facto leader of modern Christendom. Another old French colony, Afrique du Sud, gained its independence during the 19th century and has been rapidly expanding through southern Africa. Although racial egalitarians, their "civilizing mission" has caused trouble with newer conquests who see the Sud-Afriques as patronizing tyrants.

Prussia and Russia, losers during the Prussian and Franco-Russian Wars, respectively, have become allies of the French powers. Their anti-French leaders were deposed, but their systems of government (constitutional monarchy) set in place. There are still anti-French elements in these societies, but with the great Oriental threat, those acting for Western unity are held in higher regard.

The "Eastern bloc" has no one leader, each power being supreme in its own sphere. The Ottoman Empire is the most powerful of them all, having successfully reformed during the 19th century and taking full advantage of the Oil Revolution. The Ottoman Empire is the second richest power on the planet, second only to Louisiana. Ancient Istanbul is now a glittering city of wealth and vice sitting on the Bosphorus; several casinos sit next to the Hagia Sophia. To the east, former rival Iran has also reaped the benefits of the Oil Revolution, and has become a great power on its own right. Unlike his counterpart in Istanbul, the Shah remains the absolute ruler of his country. Further east, the Chinese Dragon rises. Recovering from a poor 19th and 20th centuries, the most populous nation on the planet is modernizing their economy at a blistering pace. Neither the Son of Heaven nor the people have power, that belonging to the Progress Faction and the Chinese military, but as long as China grows richer, nobody cares. Even further east is Brazil, the one challenger to Louisiana in the New World. Brazil is the weakest of the counter-French powers, but the growing Brazilian economy has already eclipsed all of the others in South America.

Then there's the Japanese. Ruled by militarists and powerful corporations, the Japanese Empire has spent most of the 20th century nibbling at the vulnerable edges of Asia. Although nothing has compelled them to do something stupid like attacking French colonies or invading China, the Japanese have been causing trouble in India. The Japanese economy is fairly strong, though dependent on foreign resources, so while they are politically independent of the two blocs, they are economically dependent on both.