The Great War (No Russia)

The Great War was a massive conflict that spanned the entire world, with no side coming to a complete win and all the major players being shattered. This allowed for the rise of previously background nations like the Sikh Empire, Japan, Naples, and the USA.

Background
Tensions had been growing in Europe as small principalities dissappeared and empires soon butted heads in central europe. In the Hanover-Bavarian War or the last war of German Unification, Bavaria, supported by the Ottomans and French, launched an invasion of Hanover (a British Colony) as well as Prussia, who had formed the North German Alliance to counter Bavarian Aggression. The war had been a disastrous defeat, as German nationalists in Hanover overthrew the government and the Polish were soundly defeated at the battle of Krolewiec (Kaliningrad), and forced to sign an armistice and were forced to give up Pomerania, Silesia, and Posen. This caused a drastic shift in the Polish Lithuanian Government, which had been one of the oldest liberal constitutional monarchies to exist, into a much more conservative and irrendentist state. The Powder Keg of Europe, Italy, had for centuries been strewn with conflict between the Italian States, with them being sponsored by different powers, mainly France and the Ottomans. The Kingdoms of Sicily and Sardinia, which had been Ottoman puppet states since the Napoleonic Era, now faced Italian nationalism and aggression from the newly formed Italian League, which acted as an alliance between the Italian Nations against the Ottomans. This only adds on to the colonial conflicts of all the empires and the recent uproar in Pan-Islamism as the Ottoman Caliph (which became a separate person from the Sultan after the Secularization Reforms of 1880) preached of uniting islam under one banner. During this time, the Empire's flag was often replaced with a simple star and crescent on a black field or a Shahada. Islam had also gone under considerable consolidation after Ottoman conquest of the Persian city states (the Safavid Empire never existed in this timeline) as remaining Shia sects were wiped out. Muslim states in Africa and Asia which would have otherwise fallen victim to imperialism were now under the Ottoman Empire's protection, these mainly included the Dervish State, Morocco, Zanzibar, and the Durrani Empire as well as the Sultanate of Aceh, which was under joint Portuguese-Ottoman Protection. In 1910, the Italian League, French Empire, and German Empires formed the Frankish Entente to protect each other's imperial ambitions while the powers around them formed the Encirclement Alliance to protect each other from being conquered or attacked.

The French Empire
The French Empire, called the 2nd French Empire in modern historiography to distinguish from the original empire under Napoleon I, had developed as a massive colonial empire and become one of the leading powers, threatening Portugal's long held colonial dominance. The French wanted full control over India and to dismantle the Iberian Union. They also saw Germany as a way to take out the Poles and Ottomans while the French dealt with the Portuguese and British.

German Empire
The German Empire, having recently formed out of the Kingdom of Bavaria, was a new world power that wanted to carve out a larger colonial empire and show the world that it was strong. Due to a series of diplomatic blunders, the Germans found themselves completely encircled by enemies save for the French and Italians.

The Italian League
The Italian League was formed between italian states as a federation to quell Italian nationalism and protect from foreign interests, especially the Ottomans, who controlled two puppet states in Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia. All of these existed as independent states, save Naples, which was under personal union with France, and Piedmont, which was an autonomous territory of the 2nd French Empire.

The Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire had been continously expanding, and became even more federated as it gained more territory. The Ottomans also sought to use Pan-Islam to expand into muslim territories and strengthen their hold on existing colonies. The Ottomans also feared for their central european possessions as Bohemia and Austria both possessed substantial German populations as well as for their Mediterranean possessions which contained substantial Italian populations.

Portugal
Portugal, officially the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, Spain, and Algarves, had long held a colonial monopoly after the demise of the Dutch and the defeat of the British in the North American War and didn't want the French to challenge them. They also wanted to keep their tenous hold over Iberia as the French were currently supporting Basque Separatists as well as claiming the Crown of Navarre, which had historically been under personal union with France. (Japan, being a close ally to Portugal, sided with Portugal)

Poland-Lithuania
The Poles were generally angry at the Germans taking Posen, Danzig, and Kaliningrad as well as fearing German military might.

Britain
Britain was generally angry at the Germans for taking over Hanover as well as supporting the Boer rebels in British South Africa.

USA
The USA was incentivised to go against its long-time ally, the French, after a dispute concerning the division of former Canada. The US wanted to annex Ontario and Quebec, but the French insisted on both Quebec and Ontario being independent so both nations could exploit them. The US were also very afraid of the massive French Louisiana colony to the west of them.