Commonwealth vs. Continental Powers

The date is October 14, 1781. General Washington has just dispatched his fateful orders to send two columns to attack the last major remaining British outer defenses; redoubts #9 and #10. Washington then does something different; he decides to ride forward a little closer than planned to oversee the decisive assault. During the attack, one lucky mortar round (or unlucky depending on which side of the pond you are from) finds its mark and kills the Founding Father of America. Lord Corwallis still looses the battle and sends Brigadier General Charles O'Hara to surrender his sword and America wins her independence. But now, the newly independent colonies are without her decisive and charismatic leader. The Constitutional Conventions never occur in 1786-7, never ending the period of post war chaos and economic stagnation and disaster. No form of currency attains any value and America is subjected to in-fighting, and foreign interludes. Philadelphia is raided by the French. Georgia and then South Carolina are annexed by Spain. Americans yearn for the essentials of security and basic economic needs and in 1803, a new Constitutional Convention occurs asking for America’s return to the Crown. The Result: The Commonwealth of American States (CAS) and the Pound as the currency. The Royal American Army draws its first blood in the Iberian campaign. The HMAS Constitution and HMAS Constellation participate in the Battle of Trafalgar (where the HMAS Constellation is sunk). Slavery is outlawed in 1807. Regiments from the Royal British and American Marines, along with Royal Canadian Militia regiments push Spain out of South Carolina, then Georgia, and take Florida. The Civil War never happens. Mass migration from continental Europe never happens. The CAS still goes though with her Manifest Destiny but large swaths of indigenous First Nation homelands remain intact under the protection of the federal government; as separate nations. The British Empire soars in prosperity. The continental powers suffer from overcrowding and economic stagnation. Seeing an economic and military alliance as their only viable future, the Empires of France, Prussia, and Russia form the European Union. In 1872, instead of the Franco-Prussian War, it’s the First World War between the EU and British Empire. The CAS and Canada are invaded and together they fight off the invaders and develop their full national identity as nations in a new British Commonwealth. French insurrections start a bloody 30 year strife of “Troubles” in Quebec, Canada; resulting in mass French emigration to French territories. In 1914, the Second World War is fought. This time, the war rages first across Africa, the Middle East, and India. In 1917, the largest amphibious fleet ever assembled assaults into Normandy, France. Paris is seized and the war ends with an armistice in 1918. The Commonwealth grows. Australia and New Zealand are formed as nations as a result of this conflict. In April 1940, the EU attacks and retakes France. At the Battle of Dunkirk, the combined BEF, AEF, and CEF forces manage the largest successful amphibious backload and evacuation in history. Using new German ME-262s, the EU wins the Battle of Britain. In 1942, lower England is invaded. EU forces are victorious at the Battle of the Thames, London falls, and the crown is evacuated to Windsor, Canada. It’s now 1944. After 2 1/2 years of fighting to take back Gibraltar and Ireland, General Montgomery leads Operation Forrest Green along the southwestern beached along Plymouth; a battle to be long remembered for the deaths of Generals Patton and Brooke. Combined forces of British, American, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand storm across the beaches to retake the Exeter Peninsula. In 1945, instead of the famous photo of the Marines raising the flag on Mount Suribachi, it is the Royal American Marines raising the Union Jack atop the Tower of London in the Second Battle of the Thames. In August 1945, British Lancaster and American B-29 bombers drop atomic bombs on Bordeaux, Colon, and Petersburg. Three weeks later, aboard the HMAS Missouri, President Coutu of the EU signs the Treaty of Dayton. Presiding over the ceremony is Supreme Commander, Bernard Montgomery along with his second; General Marshal. The new armistice ceases the hostilities of the Third World War; but does not end it. What will this Cold War look like?