Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-4923787-20131012165847/@comment-440838-20131113020327

This scenario could be combined with another idea of mine. Russia decides to not sell Alaska. When the Klondike Gold Rush happens, the scarce Russian population of Alaska becomes quickly outnumbered by illegal prospectors from Canada and the United States. The Russian government attempts to stop them, to which the British and/or US navy answer with naval blocade; the prospectors overthrow the local Russian administration, and Alaska becomes a US/UK protectorate. The Anglo-Russian relations, already strained after the Crimean War, are completely destroyed, and Russia becomes a bitter enemy of the British Empire. Later the two powers compete for Central Asia, Tibet, Afghanistan, influence over Persia. Russia is helping the Afrikaners in the Boer War, Britain is helping Japan in the Russo-Japanese war. In Europe, a strong Russo-German axis emerges.