The Aviation Era (Early World War I)

With World War One now over, world peace could ensue. However with millions of soldiers & civilians dead (total number estimated at around 100 million dead) and lots of changes to international borders, a new world order was established with the loss of the Russian Empire and Ottoman Empire as major world powers. Britain, Germany, Japan, USA, and the USSR were the major world powers now, after the French over-sea's empire was severely weakened and shrunk. Spain, Italy, Ethiopia, and the Chinese Empire were also beginning a new period of modernization and where becoming major world players. These countries as well as the new emerging nations began a series of talks to try and establish a way to ensure a global war on the same scale never happened again. Britain put forward the idea of a large council of world leaders which would talk and negotiate any problems which may occur, and resolve them by voting. Some other countries agreed to this, but some other countries saw this as a way for Britain and her allies to bully other countries into their demands, as they would have the majority of the countries on their side.

Many independent inquiries were carried out to to discover some of the many war crimes of the war also begun, and as a result many ex-generals and such, were put on war crimes trials. These trails were known as the Hague trails, they lasted for many years and resulted in some generals, especially the warlords of Russia, Arabia and China being put on trail and executed.

The years after the war would be tough ones, full of re-stabilization of territories and the global economy. The world was split between five different political ideologies, these being: Democracy, Communism, Anarchy, Monarchy, and Fascism. The new Imperial-Nationalist regime in China was already beginning "ethic cleansing" operations, however these weren't as brutal as Serbian or German attempts in Our Time Line (OTL); they mainly were deporting Manchu Chinese to Manchuria, Tibetans to Tibet, Japanese to Japan, etc. The Emperor Yuan wanted to keep his China pure and proper, and in order to do so, he was intending to make China for the Han Chinese not anybody else. Yuan claimed this was to keep China's population under control and that non-Chinese people should be able to live in the Chinese homeland. In the early years of his reign his efforts were more to convince people to leave of their own will, then financial incentives, then forced deportation...

This time period is known as the Aviation Era as aeroplanes were becoming more advanced, an increasing number of blimps and Zeppelins being used as transport, more research into blimps and creating safer blimps, establishment of several air-forces and air travel being established as a means of transport, albeit only for the rich... =1915= In this year, the world is a very different place to what was in Our TimeLine, for one the Armenian Genocide doesn't happen, World War I finishes, but some things stay the same including:
 * January 12th - The Rocky Mountain National Park is established by an act of the U.S. Congress.
 * January 12th - The United States House of Representatives rejects a proposal to give women the right to vote.
 * January 19th - Georges Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.
 * January 28th – An act of the U.S. Congress designates the United States Coast Guard, begun in 1790, as a military branch.
 * Throughout March, the 1915 locust plague breaks out in Palestine; it continues until October.
 * May 22nd – The Quintinshill railway disaster in Scotland leaves more than 200 dead.
 * June 16th – The British Women's Institute is founded.
 * November 25th – The theory of general relativity is formulated.
 * Also Alfred Wegener proposes the theory of Pangaea.
 * Plus Women's suffrage is introduced in Denmark and Iceland.
 * As well as the discovery "Typhoid Mary", who while working as a cook at New York's Sloan Hospital under an assumed name, Typhoid Mary infects 25 people, and is placed in quarantine for life. However unlike OTL, US officals would later use her as a weapon to cause Typhoid epidemics in enemy nations...
 * Plus since the war had ended the British united the previously separate colonies of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and the Orange Free State, into the Union of South Africa, a dominion of the British Empire.

The End of the War
The War officially ended in August with the Saudi clan finishing their expansion with the surrender of the last fighting Arabian clan, and the modern day state of Saudi Arabia is established on August 1st as they also leave the war in a lavish ceremony. Abdul Aziz Al Saud, King (Malik) of the Saudi clan is declared King and absolute ruler over his Arabian Kingdom. King Ibn Saud wished his kingdom to be internationally recognized and began to help Britain to create its world council, however the Sauds wanted a more democratic, suggesting and observing council, rather than getting involved in other nation's affairs unless they so requested. As well as this the Saudi king begins various nation building processes such as building infrastructure including hospitals, roads, housing, and imposing law and order across Arabia, a notoriously unlawful region at the time.

Allied Woes
Britain had gained lots of overseas territories from the war and the Cape to Cairo railway was near completion, but they had pushed the nation close to bankruptcy and the national debt had soared. The British government seeked to lessen this national debt by various trade deals with the new nations formed from this war, as well as a few cut backs in services, seeking war reparations and putting more responsiblities in the hands of the native populace to save money and to appease local nationalists. A big problem for Britain was the increasing anti-British sentiment in France and so the British attempted to appease the various French nationalist groups before they launched terrorist attacks against British.

Germany enters a period of restructuring after a devastatingly bad first World War, which may of ended in German victory but at an extremly high cost. With millions of German soliders dead there is a lack of young working males and the government begin a campaign to start a 'baby boom' in order to help fill up the newly acquired German territories and to get its male population back up again. This is also coupled with more working women and an increased effort to make both sexes equal, resulting in a large universal suffrage campaign to get Women the right to vote. This leads quickly to women's rights being increased in Germany and females getting the vote. This is due to the mainly to the fact that women comprise the majority of the population and if the women rose up against the men, then the women would have won. Another problem was raising national debt caused by the war, which the main German plan to deal with was to claim large war reparations from Russia & France.

The Caucasus region had seen a lot of fighting in the war with the Russians, Ottomans, and various independence movements fighting to control the area. The nations of Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Tatarstan and Abkhazia now controlled the Caucasus region but some other groups wanted their own states, so the Ossetians & Chechens started to organise themselves to make their own independence movements.

Mexico's president had stopped the various rebel groups trying to overthrow him, but it had cost him quite a lot of northern Mexico. The USA were also seeming to becoming more involved in Mexican affairs, and the people while benefiting from an improved rule they didn't like the idea of foreign nations ruling them.

The Truly Victorious Allies
Other countries which were increasing in importance after a good performance in the war, were enforcing there control in their newly acquired territories by either rebuilding ruins, sending in settlers, expanding armies and navies, etc. Notably Italy was expanding its army and trying to become a major European power like France or Germany; as at this point in time Italy was one of the more powerful Imperial powers due to not having to fight for that long in the previous war, but they still got a lot out of the conflict. They did however worry about the Ethiopian gains in Djibouti and planned to colonize Ethiopia in the coming years. Italy was doing this by researching and creating experimental armoured car units based on Leonardo da Vinci’s designs for an armoured car by creating a cone shaped vehicle like De Vinci's but with a motor engine on a rotating axis so the wheels could spin around at any time and direction could be changed quickly. Their would be a gun turret on top would also rotate which would have a machine gun on top. The armoured vehicle was designed for quick movement, agility and scouting attacks; basically so the infantry's job was a bit easier.

Ethiopia on the other hand had got out of the war fairly early and had created a number of munitions factories in order to increase their arms trade and cash in on the global conflict. The guns weren't as good quality as European or American guns, but cash strapped rebels didn't mind and bought the Ethipoian guns in large quantities, resulting in large profits for the factory owners. With the war now over, the gun factories began to make more advanced weaponry in order to better arm Ethipoia's own army & navy, but they continued to make & sell cheap weaponry to the emerging nations. Ethiopia was aiming to become a world power through cheap manufacturing (like China in OTL) and they were rapidly improving their trade routes by creating the Addis Ababa-Jimma-Juba railway with the British. This new railway would allow cheap Ethiopian goods to be easily sold to the British in Juba, Sudan; and these goods could then be distributed throughout Africa via the Cape to Cairo railway.

Spain were also seeking to improve there nation after a period of weakness in the late 1800s and they sought to go back to the glory days of the 16 & 17 hundreds, and to try to do this Spain wished to create an African Empire and then maybe try to regain its American territories.

The Nordic Countries of Norway, Sweeden & Finland all gained some land from this war at Russia's expense. With the end of this war they entered a new period of peace and became leading nations in terms of fairness, democracy and new technologies. The established nations of Norway and Sweeden both started various trade deals with their new Baltic neighbours and helped Finland, Estonia, Lativa and Lithuania.

The new Baltic nations of Estonia, Lativa and Lithuania had been formed out of their independence movements and had began to establish their new states. However they had to be allies of Germany due to the terms of the German alliance. While this did help these ermerging nations set out, some of the more nationalistic people wanted more independance but due to their posisition in terms of military strengh they could do little to stop Germany. Most of the Baltic state's populations simply thought they should pay Germany back for helping them achieve independence. As the Germans themselves they wanted an alliance with the Baltic states but by no way wanted to control the states and wanted to leave the Baltics to their own accord so they could sort out their own country and empire. Poland was in a similar position to the Baltic states in the fact it was an emerging nation and being helped by Germany too.

The Republic of Crimea had been at peace for quite a while, they had started a large articutural industry farming mainly cereals and vegetables. Other industries included wine-making, salt production, small mining opperations, and ship building. They were also noticing the increasing importance of oil and began to survey the land to see if any oil or gas resources where there. The Crimean army didn't really need to be too large, and each town had its own armoury from which the local populace could arm themselves if they were attacked by other nations. The government did however want to continue in the ship building business and wanted a navy too. They began to expand the ship yards in Sevastopol and other ports, but Sevastopol was to be the main ship producing area and home of the Crimean Navy.

Portugal had won some more land in China to expand their Macao colony, which saw many Portugese businesses moving over to Macao to make use of the cheap labour. This war didn't cost Portugal all that much however they did get a lot out of it.

French Indo-China is split up
Vietnam had won independence from France but due to its lack of inferstructure this new nation was a poor one and the government began to try and create a prosperous nation from the largly forested country, which relied lots on international aid.

Cambodia like Vietnam had also got independence from France but again was an undeveloped land relying

Laos

Appearing from the shadows of the Russian Empire
The Muscowy league/The Grand Duchy of Muscow

Belarus

Ukraine

Liberia

The Don Cossack Republic

Abkhazia

Tatarstan

The Mensivik Federation

Georgia

Armenia

Azerbaijan

The Balkans reshaped
Greece

Turkey Serbia

Macedonia

Montenegro Albania

Bulgaria

New Nations emerge from China
The Democratic Republic of Nanman

The Chinese Democratic Republic

Tibet

The Mongolian Kingdom

Chinese Socialist Republic

Japan's new Asian order
The Japanese had established themselves as a major global power and had become the dominent power in the Northeast Pacific/Northeast Asia, and to cement this even further they were expanding by creating aircraft carrier ships so planes could be launched from sea to attack ships, hand-in-hand with this the Japanese were creating attack planes so they could attack ships from a distance, as well as to be used in land combat. Also the Japanese navy were being expanded so that they would be the major sea power in the Asia-Pacific region; only the USA in Hawaii and Alaska, and the British in Australia and Malaysia would rival Japanese supremacy. Also because of the various Japanese expansions, emigration to other countries was discouraged and instead they were offered land in the newly acquired territories such as Sakhalin, or in the new Japanese protectorate of Manchuria. As a result many overseas Japanese (like those in Brazil) also returned back to Japan to acquire cheap new land closer to home.

The two new Japanese created states of the Korean and Manchu Empires, they had given rise to a new Asian order. The Manchu Qing Dynasty wanted to create a strong new homeland for their fellow Manchus, to do this they expanded Vladivostok to serve as Manchuria's main port, and with this expansion a new shipping lane from Vladivostok to Niigata. This would allow a new trade of Manchu raw materials to Japan to be manufactured into goods to be sold by Japan. Emperor Puyi still a child was being ruled by Japanese diplomats mostly, and the expansion of Vladivostok & the new trade deals would serve to best Japanese manufacturers. Manchuria was becoming more independant as the 8 year old Emperor grew to know more about the world. Japanese troops came in to train the Manchu armies, with most of the effort focused on protection against Soviet attack.

Korea had ensured some national rights so its people meaning they could govern themselves. The Korean Emperor eventually met with the Japanese emperor and they came to an agreement that Korea would govern itself and instead they would start an alliance and great friendship with the Japanese, however the Koreans would have to act diplomatically similar with Japan when dealing with foreign nations. Japanese troops moved out of Korea (into Manchuria) and Korea created their own self-deffence forces, but Korea put most effort in creating a land army, with a small navy & airforce, as Korea would be protected by the Japanese navy, and airforces hadn't been really implemented anywhere in the world.

American Expansionism
American expansionism which started in World War I was continuing by declaring the Territory of Alaska was to be split up into three separate departments which would later become states; these were the department of Alaska, the department of South Alaska, and the department of the Aleutian Islands. The Aleutian islands were to become to a navy base to base American sea operations in the North Pacific from; and these departments would eventually become states after necessary infrastructure had been built.

The USA's expansion was gaining more puplicity not only from its own people but from the international community too. The USA was using propaganda posters concerning civilizing the Americas & the concept of "Manifest Destiny" was becoming popular again, mostly to justify the annexation of poorer nations like Cuba and Mexico.

This rapid expansion by the USA though was becoming a great deal of concern for a number of nations, for one the Japanese thought the creation of a navy base in the Aleutian Islands was purely to attack Japan from, as the USSR had no major military presence in the North Pacific and Far eastern Siberia. This worrying expansion also scared Mexican nationalists who saw the government selling out to the USA. The other nations in Central America and the Caribbean were also concerned, as the USA were becoming more involved in global affairs, expanding into Cuba and Mexico, and they practically owned the Panama Canal. Britain for one was unsure on what to do, Anglo-American relations were improving quite a bit, but this American expansion threatened British colonies, dominions and allies.

The defeated clamber from the ruins
The French were also quite annoyed at losing many colonies from the war, and anti-German settlement grew even more, thanks to this second major defeat by them. Anglo-Franco relations suffered too, and the British tried to amend these relations, by offering to give back the Cotentin Peninsula. The French obviously accepted and then negotiations to return the area around Calais began. This loss though, gave raise to French Nationalists who wanted France back to her former glory and to punish Britain and Germany for humiliating France.

The Ottoman Empire had been nearly completly destroyed leaving only a shell of its former self. The Sultan's empire was to be forced to pay reperations (smaller than the rest due to the lost of most of his territory). He realized that he would have to re-organize the empire so he began to forge a small city state, focused on international trading if he wanted his empire to even remain. He was also planning to charge a small fee for passing through the Bosporus to the Black sea & vice versa. He also intended the city to be extended to the full borders of his fledging empire, with massive walls & skyscrappers. The Sultan planned to create a magnificent city at the cutting edge of modern technology, architecture and centre for Islamic learning.

The Russian Empire had been humiliated, forced to conceed most of her territory, the majority of her population killed and it looked like she'd be forced to pay large war reparations. Things were not looking good for the Tsar and his main supporters (the upper classes of Russia) had lost most of their money & businesses. With these huge problems the Tsar at once convened the Duma and attempted to appease the populace by listening very closly to their very word. The remiments of the Empire where ruins, the land was unworkable, factories demolished, populace dead, and sprit broken. The Tsar knew he had a very hard job ahead of him, trying to rebuild his empire...

The USSR's 10 year plan
The USSR had come out of this war fairly well, as they had left early and had mostly recovered from the war. Now the USSR wished to spread the communist ideals they lived by, and so the government of the USSR concluded a plan of action and Premier Lenin told the people in a speach at the Soviet capital Ayamsk, on March 28th the following:

 "Comrades, I thank you for coming to hear my humble plans for this world. Marxism is the only way this world can find true law, order and peace, and we shall spread its wisdom outwards from our snow frozen nation, throughout the world until we are all part of a greater world order. However as long as the Imperial fascists control the masses we will find it difficult to free the masses, so we must wrestle the freedom of this world from the Kings, Emperors and Gods of this world in the same way they took it from us: by force. As you have all seen their ways have caused them to nearly destroy our world and so we must strenghen our selves and pour from the tundras of our motherland and flood the world with our ideals.

I propose a 10 year plan which will create a large number of factories from which we can forge our weapons, a large underground bunker from which the people's council can organize our war efforts safely, investment in new technologies to create unfathomable tools of war, and the creation of farms & mines to obtain the materials necessarcy to build our tools from.

''However this is all useless unless it is coupled with a sprit of revolution and victory! Take up your arms and we shall free this world!" ''

The USSR began construction of a secret underground bunker under Ayamsk and the movement of the town underground to protect it from the harsh cold and to hide it from the outside world. This bunker is where the USSR would comand there world invasion and restructuring of their nation. Hundreds of weapons factories where built across the USSR in the cold tundras safe from spying foreign eyes. This huge war drive would cost billions of dollars and many lives, but for a nation which didn't believe in money and cared only for the greater good, this didn't matter. Furthermore the USSR established a deal with Turkestan to get in more workers needed for the large armament process, and Turkestan would gain Turkic nationals to come & live in Turkestan.

Turkic Delights
The Empire of Turkestan had been carved out of the pre-war Russian Empire, and was a large Turkish state controlling most of Centeral Asia. This state was large and newly founded, so they were having difficultly controling it and controlled mainly by the Emperor & his armies. This autocractic state began to make diplomatic relations, focusing a lot of its effort in becoming allies with follow Turk states (Turkey & Azerbaijan) and creating a large Turkic state. They encouraged the Turkic peoples of the world to come & settle in their Turkish Haven, and the Turkestani authorities forcfully evicted non-turkic peoples from Turkestan. This got so bad that the Turkestani government started trading non-turkic people from Turkestan with the USSR for Turkic people from USSR. This was a virtual slave trade as the people given to the USSR became virtual slave workers in the Soviet factories, and the Turkic people coming into Turkestan struggled to make a living in the violent and lawless nation. Whether becoming a over-worked factory slave or a struggling migrant in a violent, lawless land, no-one other than the two nations governments got good out of this slave trade. It would be many decades until this slave trade was to be uncovered, and until that time this dark piece of history would remain unnoticed.

The Anarchists roam
With the first world war over, the previously little supported anarchist groups had established two anarchic states, Ordos Free State and the Anarchist Republic of Nebesa. These two nations quickly established an anarchist alliance

=1916= In 1916 the light switch was invented by William J. Newton and Morris Goldberg in April; on May 21st, Britain initiates daylight saving time; from July 8th to July 16th, 2 different hurricanes cause massive flooding in western North Carolina; on July 15th William Boeing incorporates Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing) in Seattle, Washington; and the Netherlands is hit by a North Sea storm that floods the lowlands and killing around 10,000 people. As well as all this the cancelled 1908 Summer Olympics is re-scheduled and takes place as the 1916 Summer Olympics, which is hosted in London due to the previous games which London was meant to host.

The Ossetian Revolution
After Ossetian groups planned an independence movement last year and managed to get some rights from Tatarstan, they largely failed in Georgia, so the Ossetians focused the majority of their efforts on getting independence from Tatarstan firstly and then taking Georgian Ossestia. This resulted in demos from January, protests from April, armed riots from May and guerrilla warfare (with Chechen rebels too) from July. Fortunatly for the Ossetians the Tatarstani government had more important matters to attend to and quickly gave in around October after months of turmoil in south Tatarstan, and on October 22nd Ossetia gained independence.

The Chechen Revolution
The Chechen seperatists tried to get a peaceful seperation from Tatarstan with demos and protests but then in May, they followed Ossetian suit and started armed riots and then in July launched a guerrilla campaign with Ossetian guerrillas. The turmoil in south Tatarstan was too much for the Tatarstani government to handle and gave Chechnya independence on October 23rd.

The French Christmas Coup
Britain agrees to return most of British occupied France in the North, but the British retain control of Calais and a 5 mile radius around it for defence purposes. The majority of this 5 mile radius would be mined, and with bunkers across the region, to protect Calais from French Nationalists. This appeased most French people, and Anglo-British relations began to improve. Plus with the return of these French territories by Britain caused support for the French nationalists to decrease.

French Nationalists start to see support for them dwindle, so they devise a plan for a coup & attack on Calais. Then after control of the government & army, they would attack Germany. This plan is set to be commenced on Christmas day as the nationalists expect security to be lax due to the celebrations. The plan would include various national and right-wing groups from France, but it would be led by the recently founded French National Pride Party (Partie Française Fierté Nationale or PFFN), and by there charismatic leader Jean-Paul Deveraux, an ex-solider who was ready to fight to the death in the war, but was stationed in a reverse unit in Paris to protect it, however the war ended before the fighting reached Paris, so Jean-Paul never got to fight. His love and passion for his country was greater than anyone there and he got all of the French Nationalists organised for his carefully thought-out plan to bring France back to its glory before the war. On December 24th 1916 at 22:37, Jean-Paul Deveraux leader of the PFFN lead an assault against British held Calais by sneaking into Calais in a convoy of trucks possing as merchants seeking to trade and send there goods to Britain. However these trucks were filled with French nationalist Militia and when they entered Calais they jumped out and tried to over-run British positions while supported by mortar fire, thanks to a defecting French army unit. Around a third of the British garrison died in this initial assault, however as soon as the other troops heard the mortar fire they quickly ran into the fort and managed to hold off the majority of the PFFN forces for 4 hours or so, but after the PFFN finally broke the siege and killed all of the British people there. At 3:21 Calais was under complete PFFN control and free of British soldiers and citizens. This mass slaughter of British citizens was coupled with attacks on the French Upper Chamber (Sénat), lower chamber (Corps législatif), and the Assemblée Nationale; as well as several smaller attacks on French governmental buildings. All of these other assaults failed except the attack on the Sénat which was taken after a 2 hour assault(this is due to the majority of the PFFN forces being involved in the Calais attack). The French government took back the Sénat building at 3:01 as the PFFN forces had been largely wounded in the intial assault and the remaining able-to-fight PFFN miltia were easily out-gunned and numbered. The French and British began to communicate at 12:09 concerning re-taking of Calais (they expected the garrison would be eventually defeated and/or surrender) and at 3:52 they made contact with PFFN leader Jean-Paul Deveraux and demanded they surrender at once, return any hostages immediately and to lay down their arms. Deveraux refused and replied by firing their artillery guns at the bloackading British battleships. The British rather than fire back & risk damaging their port & citizens moved the blockade further out to sea to escape the range of the artillery guns. The British then sent in elite British marine units from the blockade to unload at Dunkirk. These units would then meet up with French units & retake Calais in a joint operation. The assault to retake Calais began at 4:57, after 30 minutes of heavy fighting Jean-Paul Deveraux decided to give up as he knew he couldn't win as the rest of his coup had failed. Deveraux & the rest of the PFFN members were arrested and later convicted of high treason and various other offences within a month. The majority of the PFFN coup conspirators were sent to the penal colony of French Guiana for life setences, with the rest being sent to other prisons to carry out life sentences. With the PFFN's leaders imprisoned the party lost most of its support as the British returned 3 of the 5 mile radius of Calais back to France, and the British de-mined the remaining 2 mile British Calais perimeter. As well as the reduction in the perimeter of Calais the British also changed their ownership of Calais to a 99 year lease (like that of Hong Kong's for example), this pleased the majority of the French populace, but there was still anti-german sentiment rife throughout France...

=1917=