MotF 60: L'État, c'est Moi

In 1715, after France's defeat in the War of Spanish succession, James III Stuart is forcefully expelled from the french court and, on the Pope's invitation, he takes refuge in Rome. Here, he politely declines the Pope's invitation and goes to Modena instead, his Mother's homeland (James'mother was a dukess of Este. On the way from Paris to Modena he stops in Domodossola, near the swiss border, where a small Scottish community has existed since the Battle of Pavia in 1525.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurro
James is welcomed as the rightful king of Scotland and treated with all the honors such title requires by the small community, that even with its limited means takes every care to make his sojourn as pleasant as possible.
After a few days the king departs and goes to Modena as intended.
A few years later however, the war of Austrian Succession directly endangers the Duchy of Milan.
James runs to the aid of Gurro's Scotsmen, and with their help and backed by France he is able to expel the Austrian from Milan's territory.
De facto ruler of Milan, James reunites the two duchies of Modena and MIlan into a Kingdom, which will later take the name of Insubria.
Lacking the money for another war and worried about the situation in America, George III proposes a truce to James: He will recognize the Stuarts as the rightful rulers of Insubria in exchange to renouncing any claim to either the Scottish or English thrones.
Being now very old and tired of wars, James accepts.
Three years lather James dies and the throne goes to his son Charles, who is nicknamed "El Bel Carlett'" (The Bonny Charley in the local speech).

This is the map of the Jackobite kingdom of Insubria in the 1770s:

Yoshinobu

Hi, I've been looking at some other people's maps on this website for a while, and just recently have decided to start putting my own maps here too.
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During the Meiji Restoration, the feudal lord of Japan, Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu defeats the Imperial Faction, and the emperor himself is killed. Yoshinobu takes the title 'Holy Godfather of Japan and all her holdings', but is sometimes simply referred to as 'Emperor' (though the modern Japanese regime dislikes the term). Since the feudal clans were all allied to the Emperor (the Tokugawa of course being the only exception) feudalism does effectively come to an end. It is replaced by a sort of fascist oligarchy.
Eventually Japan has to come out of its isolation more and more, and finds itself more or less allied with the United States. This is despite the fact that Japan develops into a nation even more radical and fascist than OTL. Socialists, disabled people, the Ainu (or Ezo), and anyone who is mix-raced is killed in gruesome concentration camps.
Despite its similarity to Nazi Germany, this Japan does not join forces with it in World War II. Without Japan to drag the United States into the war (the United States does join the conflict on the allies side in 1944), Nazi Germany only collapses in 1947. However, even before the German government has completely collapsed, the Communists in Russia and China (China united under Communist leadership far earlier and in a more peaceful way than in OTL) have started invading the allies. Japan finally modernizes during this time, and takes Korea and parts of South-east Asia (supporting America of course). World War III ends in 1952 when the United States announces it possesses nuclear weapons. The war ends with only very small territorial changes. The following year, the Soviet announce that they have nuclear weapons. The Cold War has begun.
By the mid 1970s, Japan is suffering massive revolts in its 'colonies', and even in its home territories. America is considering the possibility that Japan may be more harm than help in the Cold War, and is just about to support rebels in the Japan's colonies, and a military Coup in Tokyo.
Map to follow....................

Yoshinobu's Japan

PoD = In the year 1286 Alexander III of Scotland wisely chooses to stay at Edinburgh during a raging storm and not attempt a hazarvous journey to see his new bride. As a result he does not fall to his death and reigns for another 21 years, solidly centralising Scotland.

Although he does not have any more children his heir the Maid of Norway grows up to a young woman before journeying accross and marrying John of Islay, lord of the Isles who becomes the next king of Scots. In 1307.

The kingdom treads carefully around the minefield that is the might of England and Edward Longshanks, "Hammer of the French". Carefully avoiding war with any foriegn foes the Scots instead use their newly clan based heritage to interfere in Irish affairs and have themeselves declared High Kings.

Once Edward Ist died the Albans exploited the weakness of Edward the Second to declare war and using french allies and a modern army crush the English forces annexing the Pale, Cumbria and reclaiming Mann.

This map is of 1910, just before the First Global war, it does not show Alban colonies.

Not particually brilliant artwork however this is an early effort and hopefully I will improve.

King Khalid doesn't die of the heart attack. Instead, he survives, and calls a heart attack "a sign from Allah" to make better use of his power.

So he takes control over the Kingdom, rather than letting his brother do it. He builds public libraries, recreation centers, and zoos throughout the Kingdom, as they were not abundant, if at all existing, previously.

He also signs another treaty with Qatar over the border. Qatar gains quite a bit of land, and Saudi Arabia gains quite a bit of money.

With all that extra money, King Khalid starts building a high-speed rail throughout the Kingdom. The rail connects major cities throughout the Kingdom and other minor cities that grew large with the addition of zoos and recreation centers.

The rail also goes out to Kuwait City, Manama and Doha, allowing people from these places to make the voluntary pilgrimage to Makkah a lot more.

And so, King Khalid, who previously offered Margaret Thatcher to discuss falconing with him but politics with his brother turns allows his country to challenge Oman for the "most modernized Arab country" title.

The American Civil War was not won by the Union, but in fact by the Confederacy. The Civil War was started by Lincoln when he famously declared war on the Confederacy despite public disapproval of war. By then, the Confederacy had started building fortifications in Southern Virginia and the capital was not in Richmond, but in Charleston, South Carolina because South Carolina wa the first to secede. As the small Union Armies, they believed it would be easy, swept into Virginia, they encountered Confederate armies outside Petersburg. The Battle of Petersburg was a disaster for the Union.

As the war raged on, it became a war of attrition. Public morale in the North was low. Lincoln finally agreed to sign peace with the southern states in 1865.

Meanwhile, the French activities in Mexico could not be stopped by the United States. They didn't have the power to challenge the French. Soon, Napoleon III's soldiers in Mexico defeated the last of his enemies and Maximilian was permanently King of Mexico. With French aid, he improved the infrastructure and brought around the shifting of an agrarian economy in Central Mexico to an industrial one.

His military conquests against the other Central American nations are also remembered as they brought all of Central America up to Panama under his command. He even purchased Belize off the British.

Finally, he declared war on the slave-owning Confederacy with the ambition to "free the slaves", though he was actually going for control over New Orleans.

The war was quick. The French navy blockaded the Confederacy and landed soldiers in South Carolina while Mexican soldiers attacked Louisiana and Texas. In 1873, the Confederacy signed the Veracruz Treaty, cedeing the Bayous of Louisiana and New Orleans to Mexico along with the Rio Grande. They also promised to only sell cotton to France and her allies.

*Bold and Italicized Names are departments gained under Maximilian.
**Blue names are departments with a strong French presence

Carlo Alberto, King of Piedmont-Sardinia, maintained the support of the Pope and the other Italian states in his war on Austria in 1848. This allows him to press on through and defeat Austrian forces at the Quadrilateral, enabling him to liberate Venetia and, in the ensuing chaos as the Croats, Hungarians, Czechs, and Serbians within Austria, Istria, including the city of Fiume. The area of the 'Duchies' was partitioned with the Papal States, who took the opportunità to expand for the first time in centuries.

The Kingdom of Italy is one of the most Liberal states on the continent, but has taken precautionary measures by selling part of Savoy proper to the Second French Empire for protection against the reformed reactionary Triple Monarchy of Austria, Hungary, and Czechia.

There is no legal capital for the Kingdom, as there has not yet been a vote on the matter. Rather, most of the administration for the Kingdom is handled in Turin and Florence, while the military generally commands from Venice and Trieste.

Malta was granted to the Italians, but for all intents and purposes London still rules the island.

Corfu is used as a navy base in the Eastern Med.
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Sorry about the lack of color.

In this world, the betrayal of Toussaint Louverture never occurs. Instead, he turns Saint-Domingue into an autonomous monarchy under himself. During the Napoleonic Wars, Louverture successfully brings much of the Spanish Caribbean under his rule as Governor-for-Life of Saint-Domingue.

Louverture's empire brings more wealth to Napoleon's aid and helps the Americans defeat the Spanish in Florida and the British in the Caribbean. The 1812 War is disastrous for Britain, with Canada conquered by America, and the Bahamas and Lesser Antilles taken by Saint-Domingue. Louisiana is never sold to the Americans, and Louverture expands his sphere of influence to Louisiana, before being crowned King of New France, as a vassal of Napoleon. During the Latin American Wars for Independence that follow, New France expanded by invading Mexico and carving a path to the Pacific. Treaties of loyalty were forged with local revolutionaries,forging new kingdoms owing loyalty to the French Emperor building for Napoleon a vast empire in both the Old and New Worlds. Spain and Portugal were conquered and new puppets put on their thrones, while loyalists fled overseas, the Portuguese to Brazil and the Spanish to Peru. While they failed in conquering Britain, the defeat of Russia brought all of Europe under the Bonapartes, and Britain was forced to make a peace. This has however pushed a deeply vengeful British Empire on to ever greater endeavours in its imperial quest.

Over the course of the rest of his lifetime, New France grows economically and militarily as the most successful area of the French Empire apart from France itself. By 1828, the year of the great king's death, the French Empire is divided into two Frances. New France rules not only a vast swathe of the American continents, but also a broad sweep of West Africa. Emperor Napoleon looks on the great French Empire as like the Roman one of old. So vast that it needs two metropoles to rule.

(So basically, two in one. The monarchy of Haiti is a lot more successful, and Napoleon is also successful.)

Aurelian gets killed a stray arrow, and the Crisis of the Third Century goes even worse for the Rome--the Goths have fun plundering everything that isn't nailed down, while the Empire fractures permanently into several successors--including Queen Zenobia's realm of Palmyra in the east, as Palmyrene cataphracts smash both Gothic raiders and the Italian emperor's half-hearted attempt at reconquest. The map shows the Palmyrene Empire at the time of Queen Zenobia's death in 310 A.D. (Technically the former Queen-Regent Zenobia, as her son Vaballathus came into his majority some years back.)

Everybody loves Otto.

Played around with one of the color schemes here...

In this TL, Louis XIV succeeded in his plans for a dynastic union between France and Spain, creating in the 18th century the Franco-Spanish Empire. The Spanish Netherlands were swallowed, and Holland reduced to a mere satellite state. Unfortunately, this had it's drawbacks: as Carlos and Felipe knew, running an empire of such a scale is expensive, and it tended to make Europe unite against them.

Although the Brits were initially crushed on land and tied on sea, (and later lost Ireland) their basic advantages in terms of organization, finance, etc. remained, and they rallied. Although the constant threat of Franco-Spanish-Dutch fleets required the UK to keep a lot more of its forces in home waters, they were able to hold onto Bengal in India, and generally make a nuisance of themselves elsewhere. The Spanish were always restless partners.

The last major conflict (some damn thing in the Caribbean) turned into a costly and frustrating stalemate, the Franco-Spanish Empire facing off with a Saxo-Polish, Austrian, British and even Danish alliance with the Dutch in revolt again. The Russians, which the French were confident could be persuaded into attacking Poland, instead took advantage of eveyone elses distraction to beat up on the Ottomans and wrest Wallachia-Moldova from their sphere on influence.

Facing financial crisis, the Bourbon monarchy called for new emergency taxes, the Spanish got frisky, the Estates General were called...and things went pear-shaped.

A young man with a proper line of descent was close enough to get to a port while the getting was good, and now safely ensconsed in Canada calls himself Louis XVII and calls for the liberation of the home country. Thanks to most of the navy going after him to America with the execution of Louis XVI, the revolution has not been exported forcibly - as yet - (and the British haven't taken over the French Caribbean-yet) and most French-speaking colonial regimes have either proclaimed loyalty to the King or are sitting and waiting for what may come. A pro-Paris republican revolution has broke out in Tejas, and there is fear it may spread to Louisiana.

Although the other European nations are getting their schadenfreude on, the Revolution, if a little less guillotine-happy than OTL, is still quite scary, and the Austrians are trying to gin up a coaltion to put an end to it (and possibly put someone other than the guy in Montreal on the throne: there are a few other potential Bourbon pretenders). The Brits seem a bit too busy resolving a fee wee colonial disputes, and the Russians are looking southwards towards Constantinople again...

Bruce

And here is the accompanying map.

Bruce

Well, we've got some very creative entries this time around, and I'm starting to feel a bit self-concious about choosing such a mainstream topic as this. But here we go; the monarch who succeeds in this TL is (wait for it) Wilhelm II.

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TTL's WWI is quite a bit shorter than IOTL. The Germans are still defeated at the Marne in 1914, and still spend the winter entrenched, but in April of 1915 they manage to break out at the Somme and at Verdun simultaneously. They manage to push to the sea at Abbeville, and capture several British and French regiments before they can be shipped out. Later in the year, the Germans shell Paris with long-range guns, and France sees widespread mutinies and a sharp decrease of public morale. The government falls, and the new government sues for peace with Germany.

The Germans force the French to give up Equatorial Africa, Madagascar, Nord, Pas-de-Calais, Belfort, and large parts of Lorraine, including the steel mills of Briey-Longwy. Belgium is dismantled completely, divided into the Kingdom of Wallonia, ruled by the Grand Duke of Luxemburg, the Kingdom of Flanders, ruled by Prince Adalbert of Prussia, and the Congo, which becomes a German colony. Britain is let off easy, due to still having the upper hand at sea, and only cede a small portion of the Gold Coast asked for by the Germans in order to establish a defensive perimeter around Lomé.

The Germans turn east, and when a revolution breaks out in Russia in November of 1916, they too sue for peace. The German gains are vast, and the new states of Poland, Lithuania (sans Samogitia), White Ruthenia, Ukraine, and the Grand Duchy of the Baltic are created. After the Bolsheviks rise up, the Germans also agree to send aid to the Whites; the Red victory in TTL's civil war is less complete, and the RSFSR only covers European Russia north of the Kuma-Manych Depression. The Kuban Steppe and the west of the North Caucasus is ruled by Cossacks with German support, and south of the Caucasus the Mensheviks have set up a federal republic. Central Asia is a federal state with both monarchies and republics in it, and Siberia is the major White remnant, ruled by Admiral Kolchak.

The new order sticks, and the Germans have lorded it over Europe for almost twenty years by the time of the map. A right-wing, non-aristocratic "New Nationalist" government under Alfred Hugenberg has been installed in Berlin with the Kaiser's blessing, and they've got a new plan for the east - Germany should use their new territories for their own benefit. In conditions of utmost secrecy, the new General Plan for the Resettlement of the Eastern Lands (Generalplan für die Umsiedlung der Ostgebiete) is drawn up. It calls for the non-German populations of the Baltic to be resettled in northern Belarus, and be replaced with Germans from around Europe. The area is then to be annexed into the Reich directly.

This map shows the states in the Baltic, with notes typed on and the areas of resettlement demarcated. Planty of Bilingual Bonus for those of you who speak Google Translate German.

The All Mexico movement succeeded, however it would be a poisonous land gain. The southern Slave States attempted to ensure that the bulk of Mexican gains would become Slave States as well. The locals didn’t exactly support it, but if anyone were to ask them if they had wanted to be free states they would have replied: “Yes, a free Mexican nation-state”. As the 1850s wore on what to do with Mexico becomes a serious source of argument, with many in the North stating that as long as the bulk of soldiers fighting and dying while trying to suppress “Banditos” in Mexico that the land would not see any slaves brought in. The Bleeding of Kansas is much worse than OTL, and northern hatred for the South is dampened only by also despising the Catholic Mexicans. By 1856 things come to a head with the election of American Republican candidate John McLean, and the anti-slavery American Republicans declare that Mexicans will be provided the decision with whether or not their lands will be slave states or free soil. This move actually proves not only extremely unpopular with the South, but also amongst many in the North who feared the influence of Catholic Mexico, especially with incoming waves of Catholic immigrants from Europe. In June of 1857 Alabama secedes and soon many other southern states join them. The Confederacy is formed, and claims much of former Mexico, however the Mexicans also see this as their chance to regain independence and manage to force out American soldiers in much of the south of the country, pushing their way North. In late 1857 things go even worse for the Union as their attempt to block Confederate dignitaries from reaching France by taking them off a French vessel prompts Napoleon III to recognise the Confederacy, and he begins loaning significant amounts of money to the Confederacy (there are rumours that some of this money came from Britain, which was bitter about the US pressing harder in Oregon due to Northern demands for indisputably Free after gaining so much land in the south). This foreign recognition causes the remain Slave States to join the Confederacy.

With things spiralling out of control for the North the Union withdrew almost all soldiers from Mexico to defend the east. This led to Mexican bandits ravaging across the north. Many thousands of refugees began to flee to San Francisco, these refugees making conditions inside the city worse and worse as food prices spiralled out of control. In this chaos however a man emerged with the charisma and determination (as well, perhaps, the madness) needed to take command of the situation. Joshua Abraham Norton was an immigrant from South Africa, but he had a love not only for San Francisco, but also of Liberty, and felt that the anarchy that had broken out with the withdrawal of most of the Federal Army was a hideous farce that needed to be righted. With eloquent speeches about the need to fight for liberty he managed to gain the support of many of the cities inhabitants as well as many refugees and formed a militia which successfully began retaking the countryside. Part of Norton’s success was his openness to allowing both Chinese and Mexican men into his militia. At this point it is likely that Norton would have liberated California in the name of the Union, but in 1859 the French invaded Mexico, Mexicans having proven too unruly for the Confederates who needed all their troops on the Union border. Emperor Napoleon III had invaded to help instal Emperor Maximilian I onto the Mexican throne, and Norton’s campaigning against the Mexicans in California made it important for him to coordinate with those two Emperors. During the next year Norton met with Emperor Maximilian I and the two hit it off surprisingly well. Norton was by this point acting with little loyalty to the Federal Government in Washington, and his militia was loyal to him, as such he was something of a neutral warlord in the Confederate-Union theatre of the war. In 1860 the Confederates began plans to invade California in a hopes of distracting the Union from the East, but Norton received word of this by way of Emperor Maximilian (who was of course official and ally of the Confederates), and Norton was forced to make a call about which side of the fight he was on. Norton, and his army, felt that Washington had long since abandoned them, so the decision to side against the Union was easy enough. With Napoleon III sending him support in thanks for his deciding a position Norton invaded Oregon, a very easy campaign thanks to that region having been as abandoned as California. The Confederate invasion force was meanwhile redirected towards Utah, which was officially a Slave Territory anyway. The war waged on bloodily in the East and Mexico for another year or so before the British decided enough was enough and with the threat of ending loans to France and the CSA, as well as the threat of invasion via Canada for the USA, the British managed to get a peace deal hashed out. The Confederates were forced to hand over a fair bit of Virginia (it was mostly under USA occupation anyway) though they did get their holdings in Southern Illinois. The Empire of Mexico gained most of the core of Mexico, though a few smaller republics that France and Maximilian had failed to conquer were given independence. Britain took a good chunk of the former Oregon Country. Norton was given California, Oregon State, and the rest of the US Pacific watershed. In celebration of the peace Norton was soon talked into declaring California an Empire by Emperor Maximilian, and as such had himself crowned Emperor Joshua I of California in 1862, a title he would hold for nearly 30 years leading a progressive and liberal nation. He would unfortunately die in 1889 three years before the final creation of his dream project, the Global League of Nations dedicated to maintaining peace and dialogue for the world.