For Want Of A Hero

For Want Of A Hero:
Happy New Year everybody. I wanted to get this one out before 2013. I've had a bit of a mental block for a while now but thankfully I've got past that. It's amazing how inspiration comes to me at the strangest moments. Like at 1:00 am after 3 hours of To Love Ru Darkness. Oh well here it is.

In this time-line George Washington died during the Seven Years War and when the American Revolutionary War took place they failed to find a charismatic symbolic leader. The revolution did succeed in breaking off the Southern colonies but fails to keep New England from being reconquered by land (Canada) and sea.

Butterflies flap from there. A French Revolution does take place and whilst going through an ATL Terror and various purges kills the budding military officer Napoleon Bonaparte. The French Revolution is crushed by an Austro-Prussian-Russian Coalition and the Bourbons restored. Another more coherent Revolution takes place and a stronger government established that manages to hold off their enemies. France goes through another phase of continental expansionism before being defeated by another larger and more organized Coalition that decides to settle the matter of revolutions once and for all. Under the leadership of Metternich, Austria organizes Europe into a somewhat more coherent entity with the support of Russia (and a very frustrated Britain).

A naturally angry Prussia does start a war that sees it gain most of the north German states, a good chunk of Poland and an alliance system across the Baltic. However aside from this it finds itself corralled by the other powers of Europe and unable to advance any further. Britain and Russia later pull out their support from Austria when relations cool.

History Continues:

Most of Europe is still united under Austrian control but it has loosened into a more federal structure. Austria is now an elaborate construct of provinces each with cultural autonomy and representation that all answer to the central government in Vienna. Austrian government is a meritocratic system that encourages the hunting and employment of talent in an almost technocratic fashion. However tradition does still abound. The Hapsburg Emperor is still an absolute monarch but his authority exists only on the agreement that he never uses it. He does sill have a veto in court but his job mostly involves rubber stamping decisions. Austrian Europe is an assortment of puppet governments with varying degrees of control over them. Several such as Spain, the Netherlands and most of the Italian states were given spare Hapsburgs to rule over them but others still keep their traditional rulers.

Children in Austrian Europe are indoctrinated from birth to the superiority of the regime and encouraged to excel so that they may find a skill to benefit the Empire. Propaganda is omnipresent across the Empire proclaiming strength and unity. A pan-national identity has allowed this message to spread without contradicting the multi-ethnic make-up of the empire. The Empire is Catholic but the church is closely watched so as they do not contradict the state. Other religions like Protestantism and even Islam are tolerated but disapproved of in society and outright atheism is illegal and shunned as they tend to contradict a lot of state propaganda.

Britain leads an opposing alliance system. With Europe united under the Hapsburgs, the British went on to build an empire even larger than OTL. The prosperity of the New England colonies and the claiming of Louisiana during the collapse of Spain helped. The British Empire is a gargantuan entity with a complex organizational structure that has thankfully been refined to a single tier of government. In response to Austria, Britain became somewhat reactionary and militant but is by far the most liberal power in the world. Many of the colonial races have risen since the industrialisation of the empire to become powerful figures themselves especially the Asians.

British society is multi-cultural and progressive with emphasis on an Imperial identity. The vote still has income requirements but has been extended to anyone who meets those criteria including women and blacks. It is also a cultural mogul with fashions from across the empire coming to the British Isles and from there spreading back across the empire. The British film industry in India is the largest in the world and the most productive. There are problems with reactionary elements in society worried about the influx of so many immigrants and the problems have been exacerbated by the Islamic terrorist attacks of the 80s which have been quelled for the most part but have not been forgotten or forgiven by many.

Britain is the leader of their own alliance system. The Portuguese were able to hold off the French during the Revolutionary Wars which allowed them to stay out of Austria's control. They held onto Brazil but gave them autonomy after they grew powerful in order to hold off any dog-wagging by the tail. Brazil is ruled by a cadet branch of the Braganza Family that are tied to the homeland through a personal union. Prussia is the a regional power in Northern Europe. After they conquered northern Germany and most of Poland, they tied the Scandinavian states together into an alliance centred around the Baltic Sea. Prussia is famous for militant philosophy and right-wing politics.

Russia is the third power on the world stage. Russia successfully industrialised after the end of the Coalition and expanded earlier into Asia. The Russians initially moved against the Ottomans and took their European and Caucasus territories. However over time with the rise of the British in the Middle East and the Austrians in North Africa they moved into an alliance with the Ottomans. Russia is a very complex nation with a federal structure out of the necessity of ruling over so many different races especially Muslims. Russia is a corporatist elitist society with a Duma that actually has power. The Tsar is a theoretically absolute monarch like the Hapsburgs. Russia is a bit backward compared to the other powers but has recently embarked on a new phase of high-tech industrialisation. Massive super-highways criss-cross the nation alongside the old railway system.

Japan like OTL managed to industrialise and underwent an expansionist phase. They never went as far as OTL but managed to keep it. Japan has mellowed out since the old days but is still a one-party right-wing state with a constitutional monarch. Society is conservative and very traditionalist with men expected to be workers and women to be mothers. Japan is still a high-tech nation and even went through a genetic modification phase. Nothing really came of it but they are now the lead nation in medical technology.

China on the other hand wasn't so lucky. Southern China broke off from the rest of the nation and became a British protectorate. The north was passed back and forth between the Russians, the British and eventually the Japanese. As of the last proxy war in the 1950s, nuclear weapons have made that state of affairs impossible. China has industrialised under a xenophobic, oligarchic government. China is as controlling as the OTL Peoples Republic but with a capitalist economy. China has gained economic muscle since the 50s though not to the same level as OTL but still has enough economic clout to worry the heads of several governments.

The United State managed to make more of itself than just a historical footnote. The USA held onto slavery for much longer than OTL before economic necessity forced them to abandon it. They still have discriminatory laws but there some black businessmen in a few high places. The USA is the most democratic society in the world but is still very conservative, discriminatory and oligarchic compared to OTL.

This world is far more advanced than OTL with advanced GM tech, primitive cybernetics, a few prototype fusion reactors, a Mars Landing and even a moon-base (internationalised as of the 1990s). Culture is somewhat more conservative (modern music videos would be horrifically scandalous) but also more cosmopolitan. ATL videos are now replaced by digital imagery. There are several internalised internets that when spread out together across the map, cover more areas than OTL. General world view on entertainment is “no-one does film like the British/Indians, no-one does television like the Russians and no-one does animation like the Japanese”. However the world's military technology is far more advanced as well and the finger is still poised over the nuclear button.

An amendament: Credit goes to Ammonoidea and Quantumbranching for the ideas of how to organize Russia.