Timeline (The Lion with the Falcon)



World before the Great War

Before the Great War
The Fashoda Incident forever began the slow drift in relations to hell between the British and French Empires. French politicians waved their armies in Africa alongside British West African Colonies while the Fleet screened the Channel Islands. The French leadership increasingly scowled at the British Empire deeming it would be French if Napoleon had won. France also became protective of its colonies in America. Large marine presences were in French Guiana, the Islands of Canada, and in the French West Indies. Germany had a cool in relations with Britain showing Frances ever presence in militarism. France tighten its alliance with the Russians by 1905. The British signed a defensive pact with Belgium however.

The Great War
On June 28th, 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Heir to the Austrian throne was assassinated by a Serb terrorist. Russia moved on Austria. Germany moved on Russia. And France in order to take the French Majority in Belgium, invaded the country to move on Northern Germany. This was the final straw for Britain. It joined the Central Powers with Germany and Austria. France moved swiftly through Belgium and captured the Belgian Border forts. To Russia, they had advanced into Austria but the Germans managed to stall the Russian before they hit Tannenberg. German forces advanced into Poland and took Warsaw by December 1914. The British in China and India quickly seized French embassies and Cities controlled in both areas. In the Pacific British Marines secured French Polynesia while Australians secured New Caledonia. Other British marines left Georgetown in British Guiana and occupied French Guiana officially annexing it into British South America. Fighting also raged in Africa. British Nigerian reinforcements helped back up the defense of Kamerun. French forces attempted to take the Channel Islands. They only captured one. The British landed at Cherbourg after heavy shelling of the city. Japan had also made its move. Japanese soldiers had outright seized and annexed Hainan Island from French Influence. Other Japanese troops pushed into Manchuria and Vladivostok against Russia. Russia was forced to send more men to the east. In early 1915 Indochina, and Serbia fell. The Ottomans joined the War on the Central Powers side after the French attempted to seize a Ottoman battleship that was previously bought from Germany. German zeppelins in 1915 made their first runs over Paris. The French were defenseless. Other German airships flew as fair as Petrograd and Moscow to deliver payloads on factories. The Germans in the East pressed their advance taking Lithuania and Riga while beginning an advance on Minsk. Austrian and Bulgarian forces overran Montenegro and Albania while setting up a Pro-Central Powers Government against Franco-Serbian rule. German troops ultimately repelled French forces into Belgium and Luxembourg by September 1915 and forced whatever forces were in the Rhineland back into Alsace. In November 1915 Russia was retreating on all fronts. The weight of British and German naval forces duking it out in the Baltic while shelling Imperial cities made the Czar himself travel to the Front. 1916 was the main finally. The Liberation of Belgium had begun at a slow pace. As did the battle of Normandy. In the East the war was fluid. Austrian and German lancers advanced as far as the lads of the Cossacks. Ottoman forces began to press into Armenia and also had annexed Northwest Persia into the Empire. In March Russia had concluded a formal peace with Japan letting the Japanese annex the entirety of the two far east provinces and the Kuril Islands. CP troops in summer entered Kiev and Pskov. German naval marines had also from Captured Romania, landed in Georgia and begun a separate invasion there. The British launched the Breakout Offensive. With new armored machines called landships, they had broken through the French lines and performed a breakout offensive. British airships and bombers began to pound Paris. German troops slogging through Wallonia reached Brussels. The landship proved the most decisive weapon of the war. France and Germany all began programs. Germany would get theirs, the A7-V at the tail end of the war. France got several armored boxes out but their were useless. The Battle of Paris was drawn out through the Winter. The city of lights and love faded into a apocalyptic warzone. German and Austrian soldiers had finally entered the Don-Kuban regions. On February 18th, 1917 Paris fell as did Brussels several days later. Petrograd fell on March 1st, and the evacuated French government in Lyons surrendered followed by Russia. The Great War was over.

Advancement in Technology
Meanwhile the French automobilist, Louie Renault sold his landship design to Ford who began production in Mid-1918 amidst the war in Mexico. US troops used the FLS-18 landships to breach Mexican revolutionary lines and restore order in the country. By 1920 Pancho Villa was gunned down by soldiers of Lieutenant General George Patton. Villa had been wounded by shrapnel from an artillery unit under the command of Captain Harry S. Truman. The US consulted a formal treaty with the Mexican government. In return for US aid to federal forces, the United States would receive Baja California from Mexico and trade regulations lifted as to allow American corporations into the country (especially the Sugar and fruit industry). By the later part of 1920 the whole of Central America effectively became a group of US puppets. The American Empire President Woodrow Wilson wanted to rid, came. He also was possibly regretting the bankers ties into the economy due to Wilson not signing the IRS bill in December 1913.



Map of 1920 after the Great War and the Mexican Civil War

The production of the FLS-18 was revolutionary. No landship had ever had a turret placed on top for 360 degrees firing radius. The arms race was on in the skies and on the land. The Germans to patrol their vast colonies and drop bombs on rebels made huge airships capable of firing cannons while the Americans perfect the Arkon class airships which launched aircraft. The Americans having reserves of Helium loaded their airships with that resource and not the flammable hydrogen the Europeans used. Britain focused less on the war side of the zeppelin and on commercial usage. The Imperitor-class airship was launched in 1922 on its maiden flight from London to New York. The airship had the underbelly of the fuselage as a cabin where at least 300 passengers road. The Imperial Air Corporation essentially became a monopoly on all the other aircraft manufacturers. They however did have major competition in the warplane industry but were unrivaled in airships. ​The IAC bomber, the Type 1 crashed on takeoff due to sudden engine failure to its Hanley-Page counterpart performed greatly. In 1924 the Republicans in the White House once again ascended to the White House after the death of President Harding. Calvin Coolidge took office for his first true inaugural address.

The British Empire was also experiencing some changes. South Africa barely hammered by the Great War annexed the British colonies of Batusoland and Swaziland. But the major change was in East Africa. In early 1917 the British had proclaimed the Balfour Declaration opening a Jewish state in East Africa. Many jews came to Kenya and Uganda and set of shop. Many colonial whites welcomed the Jews. Nairobi quickly became flooded with 16,000 migrants by 1923. By 1927 there was some 60,000 Jews living in British East Africa.

The World of 1928