Alternity

The first major PoD takes place in November 1776, when Jonathan Eddy's militia force wins the Battle of Fort Cumberland in colonial Nova Scotia, paving the way for a series of anti-British uprisings across the region, including St. John's Island and southern Quebec (with significant aid from French Acadian guerrillas). Following a series of battles over the next five years, culminating in the French-assisted 1781 Battle of Halifax, led by Eddy and John Allan, Britain includes Nova Scotia, St. John's Island (OTL Prince Edward Island), and all remaining land south of the St. Lawrence River as part of the territory ceded to the USA in the 1783 Treaty of Paris. The second divergence point from OTL takes place during the War of 1812, when Brigadier General Zebulon Pike survives the Battle of York in April 1813 and prevents his troops from burning and ransacking the city, thus leaving the British to answer for the burning of Washington, D.C. in 1814. Pike goes on to sweep across nearly 3/4ths of Upper Canada in a series of decisive battles up to the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in November 1814, which required that Britain immediately withdraw from US territory, while the US was allowed to retain the southwest portion of Upper Canada (the modern-day State of Erie) as a result of Britain's seemingly unprovoked burning of the American capital earlier that year.

Other major historical divergences include no Lincoln assassination (resulting in a shorter Reconstruction period and the reunification of Virginia), the election of anti-imperialist William Jennings Bryan over William McKinley in 1896 (resulting in no Spanish-American War in 1898, Philippine independence in 1903, and Cuba becoming a US state by 1949), the American decision to implement Operation Downfall (resulting in a World War II that lasts through April 1946), and rampant corruption combined with an anti-US/UK sentiment in the post-war Canadian government (possibly lingering resentment from the War of 1812, resulting in the Canadian Civil War of 1957-63, the independence of Quebec and Cascadia, and the virtual political isolation of Canada into modern times) are some of the most notable political changes from OTL.

Also of note is the existence (or non-existence) of islands and lakes that are present in or have long disappeared from OTL, e.g. Kerguelen microcontinent (Republic of Kerguelen) in the Indian Ocean, the Zealandia microcontinent (New Zealand) in the South Pacific, New England Seamounts (New England Islands) off the US East Coast, Kodiak-Bowie Seamounts (Kodiak Islands) in the Gulf of Alaska, no Sea of Azov (Azov Valley) in Eurasia, a lake-filled Qattara Depression (Lake Qattara) in Egypt, West Siberian Glacial Lake (Lake Altai) in Russia, larger and constant groundwater-refilled Lake Chad, the Serranilla Islands south of Jamaica, and Lake Bonneville in the Utah Desert of the United States. In addition is a far more temperate climate in Greenland, resulting in a far larger population. Greenland is also considered a separate continent, located on the Greenland Tectonic Plate and separated from North America by Baffin Bay and the Baffin Trench (the latter of which forms the eastern boundary of the plate, passing beneath the Nares Strait that separates Greenland and Canada's Ellesmere Island).

The World of Alternity
Below is a political map of the nations of the world circa 1997 (Alternity's current year).

Current date in Alternity - June 5, 1997.


 * Note: The map may change somewhat as the timeline progresses.