So the idea of this AH is a world that pretty much looks like the world during OTL 1860-1918 (Belle Epoque / Victorian / New Imperialism Era). The main thing is that it’s going to be an elitist, aristocratic world covered in monarchies. The few republics that are in this world (including America) would be pretty aristocratic (a la Venice and the Hanseatic cities). Communism/socialism never develops in this timeline, and the post-WWI wave of revolutions and social change that shakes the aristocracy never happens. Monarchies are never abolished or overthrown and the nobility never loses its power, wealth and privileges.
Overview/Outline
The following is a rough sketch of the AH changes from OTL and what the world map would look like (going continent by continent):
Europe[]
Looks like it did pre-WWI, with a few changes and new countries.
- France: After the fall of Napoleon III‘s Second Empire, the monarchists win a majority in the caretaker government by merging the Orleanist and Legitimist claims (like OTL) and put Henri, Count of Chambord on the French throne in a restored “Kingdom of France”. Chambord accepts the throne and the tricolor flag/royal standard compromise and successfully has heirs, continuing the Bourbon line. The House of Orleans and the House of Bonaparte (plus Bonaparte cadets like the Murats) are given mediatised royal status in the new kingdom to satiate the Orleanist and Bonapartist parties, with the Orleans being next in line to inherit the throne if the Bourbon house dies out. Monaco is significantly larger.
- German Empire: Looks much the same, but with a somewhat smaller Prussia inside the borders of the Empire. Hanover is not annexed into Prussia and remains a separate member monarchy a la Saxony. Frankfurt remains a Free City. Saxony gains back some of the land it lost to Prussia at the Congress of Vienna. Alsace-Lorraine is not an Imperial German Territory, but instead is made into an independent neutral buffer state like Luxembourg. France and Germany have equal rights to trade, military bases, etc. inside the country. It’s called the Grand Duchy of Alsace-Lorraine.
- Scandanavia/Baltic Region: Denmark-Norway didn’t dissolve because of the Napoleonic Wars. Sweden-Norway never happens either. Instead, a peaceful dissolution of the Danish-Norwegian throne happens, with a new king coming to the independent throne. Denmark keeps Schleswig-Holstein and has its OTL colonial empire with the Faroes, Iceland, etc. Sweden keeps Finland and some minor colonial possessions like the Estonian islands and perhaps one or two Caribbean Isles. Russia keeps the Baltics but a new Grand Duchy of Courland is formed around the time of German Unification.
- Italy: There is no Italian War of Unification. Instead, the Kingdom of Italy forms as a federal monarchy, with all the Italian monarchs choosing to accede (like the German monarchs). The Republics of Venice and Genoa survive the Napoleonic Wars and last until they voluntarily join the Kingdom. The Papal States compromises with the Savoys after realizing that they have no choice but to join the union. Rome is the capital of the united Kingdom, but the Leonine City is retained as an enclave capital of the Papal States. The Pope remains fully sovereign. San Marino is a much larger republic and remains independent. The Duchy of Milan, Duchy of Lucca and some small southern Italian principalities last until the unification, when they become federated monarchs. Malta will be an independent Principality of Malta, the result of trilateral talks between Britain, Italy, and France.
- Russia: The Russian Revolution never happens. Tsar Nicholas dismisses Rasputin early on before things get too escalated and starts to make reforms, appealing to the people. There is no Communist movement and the Romanovs keep their throne. An independent Kingdom of Poland (consisting mostly of the former Congress Poland) is established after much discussion amongst the Great Powers.
- Balkans: The region looks like it did post-independence from the Ottomans. Albania becomes independent much earlier and picks a better German prince as king than OTL. Bulgaria has a native landowning boyar nobility like Romania. The Ionian Islands is an independent republic dominated by wealthy shipowner patricians. After Greek independence, much of the Phanariote nobility move to Athens and receive princely titles and other peerages from the new King of Greece.
- Low Countries: The Netherlands are bigger, enlarged with Prussian territory. Belgium has annexed a portion of the French Ardennes. An independent Duchy of Bouillon exists. Luxembourg is much larger.
- Switzerland: Ruled by wealthy patrician and noble families involved in banking, Switzerland is the oldest aristocratic republic in the world. There is a federal President of Switzerland that serves as the country's head of state. Liechtenstein is much bigger, enlarged with Austrian territory.
North and South America[]
- United States of America: The US is slightly smaller, as Texas is an independent republic and Hawaii is still an independent kingdom. This ATL America is not interested in imperialist expansion and does not rule the Philippines or Puerto Rico. The "American Gentry" have a formal, legal status as the American aristocracy. They are wealthy beyond imagination and control the country's politics. Seats in the state legislatures are hereditary and controlled by the wealthy, landholding elite. The aristocracies ruling the country are as follows:
- New York: The wealthy mercantile patrician families known as "The Four Hundred" rule New York City. Upstate New York and most of New England are dominated by gentry families holding hereditary English Manors and Dutch Patroonships. Their estates are all around the Hudson River and beyond.
- Boston: The Boston Brahmin families rule Massachusetts. They have country estates in the Berkshires and summer palaces in Cape Cod.
- Philadelphia: The Old Philadelphians rule Pennsylvania. They live in manors all throughout the Philadelphia Main Line.
- The South: The landed gentry of the South rule the southern states from their vast plantations. Virginia has its First Families and Maryland its Colonial Families (chief amongst them is the Barons Baltimore, who have the distinction of being the only British Peer to live in the US).
- The Midwest: Merchant families and wealthy industrialists from the Midwest live in Chicago for the social season and go back to their home cities of Cincinnati and Detroit the rest of the year. These families are slightly newer money than the New England and Southern aristocracy.
- The West: The mining magnate families of the Rocky Mountains area live in Denver and carry out an elaborate social season as the "Sacred Thirty-Six" society. Those families and wealthy merchants involved in developing California and the West Coast live in San Francisco.
- Canada: The Dominion of Canada is formally part of the British Empire, but is essentially a sovereign nation and crowned republic. There are many Canadian peers, baronets, and other gentry that rule the Dominion under the Governor-Generals. The seigneurs of New France still rule vast estates in Quebec.
- Mexico: The Second Mexican Empire survives with a Habsburg emperor and is dominated by the conservative Mexican nobility.
- Central America: The Central American republics are ruled by landowning elites who live on vast haciendas and caudillos who control factions of the militaries. The Republic of Yucatan is independent. Panama gains independence from Colombia much earlier.
- Caribbean: Cuba and Puerto Rico remain Spanish colonies. The Danish West Indies stay Danish. Haiti is a republic but recognizes all of the noble titles that were created under the previous Haitian monarchies and is still ruled by the same elite.
- Brazil: Empire of Brazil survives and thrives with Brazil beginning to become a second-tier world power. Unlike OTL, the Brazilian nobility is hereditary and is a powerful ruling class of planters controlling vast haciendas.
- South American republics: Argentina is the most powerful and most elitist of the South American republics. Buenos Aires is a magnificent Gilded Age capital often visited by South America's elites. Chile is rather economically powerful and its currency circulates throughout the Pacific.
Asia[]
Looks like it did pre-WWI, with more differences in Southeast Asia.
- China: Qing Dynasty China successfully modernized itself under the Self-Strengthening Movement, becoming like Meiji Japan. It reorganized its nobility, peerage, and gentry into something approximating Japan's kazoku peerage. However, the foreign concessions are still kept in place. The Dutch, Italians and Spanish have treaty ports/concessions in China while Russia and America don't.
- Japan: The entire island of Sakhalin is a Japanese colony, along with Taiwan and some islands in the South China Sea. The Kingdom of Korea is a Japanese Protectorate and constituent state of the Empire of Japan but also a nominally sovereign nation. The Ryukyu Kingdom is turned into a Principality of Ryukyu which is a Japanese Protectorate.
- Malaysia/Indonesia: Singapore is an independent republic dominated by a Chinese merchant patricians. The Malay monarchies (including Brunei) are British protectorates. The Lanfang Republic is independent and ruled by a Chinese elite, but Dutch influenced. The Kingdom of Sarawak is an independent sovereign nation. North Borneo is a Belgian colony. The OTL British Territory of Papua is instead an Italian colony. The Sulu Sultanate is an independent nation.