Après Moi, Le Déluge Backstory feature

The world of Après Moi, Le Déluge has diverged from our own in many ways.

The story so far:

1764: The Seven Years War ends with no clear winner. France and Britain come to an agreement on colonial borders in North America. Labrador and Rupert's Land to France, Michigan and Ohio to Britain.

1775: Outbreak of the American Revolution. Merchants and landowners are angered at the implementation of more effective taxes to replace the widely ignored tariffs.

1781: American independence recognised by Britain.

1786: A trivial demand from veterans and soldiers over unpaid wages escalates into political demands when Jacobins (as they are later known) arrive from France. The Shaysites initially dominate the American countryside but are steadily rooted out.

1789: Outbreak of the French Revolution. The French King, Louis XVI, widely hated as an out-of-touch tyrant, accepts demands from the moderate liberals and cedes some power to the legislative body, the National Assembly, creating a constitutional monarchy on British lines. The other monarchies of Europe are horrified at this threat to their legitimacy and begin amassing troops.

1790: Belgians attempt to throw off Austrian rule but are quickly suppressed.

1791: The sans-culottes slaughter the French Swiss Guard to the last man at the Tuileries palace. Their sacrifice allows the King to flee to Louisiana. Creation of the French Republic. Start of the Revolutionary Terror under Jacobin leader Robespierre. Austrian and Prussian armies begin invading France, but are repulsed by nationalistic fervour. Europe will be gripped by war for the next 30 years.

1793: Defeated in battle by general George Washington, the American Jacobins lay down arms and the leaders are executed. The Constitutional Convention agrees on the creation of a constitutional monarchy under King George I Washington to preserve stability amongst the several states. Widely considered to be the end of the American Revolution.

1794: The Thermidorian Reaction brings an end to the French Terror. The sans-culottes are dispersed by the National Guard. A five man Directory assumes executive power.

1796: The War in the Vendée. Monarchist rebels in Brittany are quickly suppressed and a brutal campaign against the Breton minority is waged.

1797: French general Napoléon Bonaparte conquers Austrian Italy.

1798: Outbreak of the Irish Revolution. The Fenian Brotherhood, with aid from French and American Jacobins, manages to throw off British rule and create an Irish Republic. Napoléon Bonaparte leads the French forces to a number of victories in Ireland, although the Directory debated sending him to Egypt instead.

1799: Napoléon Bonaparte returns to France. A French military coup removes the Directory and replaces it with a three man Consulate, with Napoléon Bonaparte amongst their number. A brief constitutional crisis grips America as King George I Washington dies without issue. The crown passes peacefully to Alexander I Hamilton.

1800: French armies inflict decisive defeats upon the British, Austrian and Prussian armies. Napoléon Bonaparte wins much of the credit.

1801: Europe comes to the negotiating table in the brief Peace of Amiens. Britain and Louisiana recognise the French Republic. France recognises the Kingdom of Louisiana.

1802: Britain declares war on France for intervening in Swiss politics.

1803: British armies land in Ireland but are beaten back. Abuses by Wellington's troops cause Irish Protestants and Catholics to unite more firmly.

1804: Napoléon Bonaparte is crowned Emperor of the French. In response, the Austrian Empire is declared by Francis II of the Holy Roman Empire, creating a formal state out of the disparate Habsburg realms held in union.

1805: Monarchists in the Netherlands, with British aid, overthrow the Batavian Republic. Emperor Napoléon invades and places his brother Louis on the throne as King of Holland.

1806: Emperor Napoléon conquers much of Germany and creates the Kingdom of Westphalia as a constitutional monarchy under his youngest brother, Jérôme-Napoléon. The ancient Holy Roman Empire is dissolved.

1807: Emperor Napoléon conquers Prussia and Poland, creating the Duchy of Warsaw under Frederick Augustus I of Saxony, later elevated to King of Poland in 1813. Liberal reformers in Parliament ban the transportation of slaves on British ships.

1808: Emperor Napoléon invades Spain to place his elder brother Joseph-Napoléon on the throne. The Spanish King quickly flees to Britain and the fight is taken up by the Spanish populace. The word 'guerilla' is coined to describe this brutal asymmetric warfare. The Spanish colonies use the opportunity to declare independence. Fighting overseas lasts almost two decades.

1809: Portugal receives British help and is able to resist the French armies at the Lines of Torres Vedras. Nevertheless the King flees to Brazil to avoid capture.

1810: French diplomatic maneuvering results in Russia switching sides and she begins an attack on Sweden with French acquiescence. The Grand Duchy of Finland is created from the conquests.

1811: Russia conquers Bessarabia from the Ottoman Empire.

1812: Russia and the Austrian and Prussian rump kingdoms switch back to the British faction.

1813: Emperor Napoléon defeats the Prussians, annexing the remnants of that kingdom into Westphalia and Poland.

1814: Emperor Napoléon invades Russia, capturing Moscow and creating the Duchies of Livonia, White Ruthenia and Zaporozhye. The Russian Tsar agrees to peace. The Austrian Emperor retakes Tyrol but is defeated in Bavaria.

1815: Austria cedes Croatia to France in exchange for peace. Emperor Napoléon invades the Ottoman Empire via Zaporozhye, but the British Royal Navy prevents a crossing of the Bosphorus.

1816: The Peterloo Massacre marks the beginning of widespread Jacobin insurrection in Britain. Fenian involvement is suspected and race laws are passed by Parliament to suppress the movement of Irishmen. France agrees to a separate peace with Spain, with the puppet monarchy capitulating to the Borbon dynasty. Britain stands almost alone and internal pressure for peace mounts.

1817: Bread riots in Paris and other urban areas threaten to topple the Empire, but the rebels are defeated. The economy of France has been shattered by the British blockade and by the demands of conscription. Emperor Napoléon agrees to peace with Britain. Gibraltar is returned to Britain, Corsica and Sardinia to France. Luxembourg is restored as a Grand Duchy under a French puppet. The Ottoman Empire has great difficulty retaking her European territory from local nationalists who fill the void left by the French occupiers.

1819: The French generals appointed as Dukes of Livonia, White Ruthenia, Zaporozhye and Croatia are overthrown by local monarchists. France, still war weary and suffering internal power struggles, lets them slip away to preserve peace.

1822: Brazil declares independence from Portugal. Fighting lasts almost two years before the independence is recognised.

1825: The last large scale Spanish invasion of her former colonies meets disaster in Mexico as General Santa Anna repulses the attackers.

1828: A Greek rebellion in the Ottoman Empire receives French, British and Russian support. Greek independence is recognised, Russia takes parts of the Caucasus. The Ottoman leadership is alarmed at their diplomatic isolation and incompetent military.

1830: The British Jacobins coalesce into the Chartist movement, demanding universal suffrage, the abolition of the monarchy and an end to the Corn Laws and Combination Acts. Dragoon regiments perform regular sweeps of the English countryside to destroy pockets of Chartist rebels.

1832: Emperor Napoléon dies peacefully in his sleep. He is succeeded by his nephew Louis-Napoléon.

1833: Britain bans slavery in her colonies.

1835: The last of the royalist outposts in Spanish America fall to the independence movements. The government of Spain begins to recognise the former colonies.

1839: Tanzimat reforms to modernise the Ottoman Empire result in great instability as the privileges of local nobles are revoked to increase the power of the central government. Nationalists become more active.

1840: The brief Opium War ends in a fiasco for the British as Qing China receives French military support. Many British colonial ventures are bankrupted by the end of the opium trade.

1841: Mexico explodes into civil war. Liberals, Conservatives, military strongmen and various separatist movements fight one another over land reform, religious power and cultural oppression.

1842: American republican emigrants in Texas declare independence but receive no support from neighbouring Louisiana and are soundly defeated by General Santa Anna.

1846: The Caste War begins in the Yucatan peninsular. The Yucateco separatists appeal to the Mexican central government for aid, but none is forthcoming and the ethnoreligious state of Chan Santa Cruz is established by the Mayan rebels.

1847: Adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement flee the persecution they receive in America and begin the long trek that takes them to Salt Lake City, Ute.

1848: Chiapas, Guatamala and British Honduras fall to the Mayan state. Chan Santa Cruz is recognised by Britain in exchange for exclusive henequen trading rights. France joins Britain in banning slavery in her colonies.

1849: Mexico is bankrupted by the civil war and defaults on her debt. Chief amongst her debtors are French banks.

1850: Emperor Louis-Napoléon intervenes in the Mexican crisis. General Santa Anna is raised to Emperor of Mexico by the French forces in exchange for resumption of interest payments to French banks.

1851, May Day: A strike by French textile workers is put down with force, leaving dozens dead and hundreds injured. May 1st becomes a day of commemoration across the world for the growing trades unionist movement.

1852: A large Serbian revolt is put down by the Ottoman Empire.

1853: Russia attempts an invasion of the Ottoman Empire and is defeated by a British, French and Italian coalition. One of the conditions of peace is Roumanian autonomy within the Ottoman Empire.

1854: A Millenarian Christian cult in China topples several provincial governments and receives British recognition. French support to the Qing government prevents the conflict from being concluded decisively, resulting in a China split between the powerful Qing state to the north and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom hugging the southern coast.

1857: The Sepoy Mutiny shakes British India. The East India Company is liquidated and the British Raj declared. Queen Victoria becomes Empress of India. French and Qing support to the rebels is suspected.

1859: Native Americans equipped and trained by Deseret defeat a Louisianan expedition. The Algonquin Republic is formally recognised by Louisiana. Quebecois nationalists become more vocal.

1863: Russia invades White Ruthenia in an attempt to annex the territory lost to Napoleon. Zaporozhye, Livonia and Poland come to White Ruthenia's aid and the invasion is defeated. Georgian and Armenian nationalists rebel and are successful for several months before Russia reconquers the Caucasian state.

1864: Russian serfdom is ended to stave off lower class militancy. Over 10 million privately owned peasants become free men.

1865: Russian emigrants drive down wages across Europe and the New World.

1866, May Day: Demonstrations in Paris turn violent when protesters make political demands. Hussars ride down radicals and onlookers alike. Similar demonstrations are also met with violence in London, Dortmund, Prague and many other cities.

1866, May 2nd: Parisians storm several armouries and distribute thousands of muskets.

1866, May 3rd: Government forces make little headway in the narrow streets and retreat to the city limits. Hundreds of soldiers and thousands of revolutionists are dead.

1866, May 4th: Parisians declare a republic. Government forces begin a siege of the city.

1866, May 5th: Radicals in Toulon, Marseilles and Orleans begin large scale demonstrations in favour of the republic. Local militias refuse to fire on the crowds.

1866, June: Insurrection spreads to other countries. Jacobins begin arming themselves in Britain, Westphalia, Luxembourg, Italy, Russia, Croatia, and many other nations.

1866, July: Imperial forces assault Paris and sweep the streets with grapeshot. The Duchy of White Ruthenia falls to Jacobins.

1866, August: The French Jacobins go underground, although many are later executed. The Duchy of Livonia falls to Jacobins. The King of Westphalia flees to France.

1866, September: The French army moves to restore order in Germany. The Italian King requests French assistance.

1866, October: A Louisianan army sets sail from New Orleans to retake Quebec City from Jacobins. Italian soldiers desert en masse to the Jacobins and attempt to liberate Piedmont from France but are repulsed.

1866, November: French forces put down the revolutions in Luxembourg, Germany, Poland and Austria. Livonia, Croatia, Holland and White Ruthenia form stable republican governments which are reluctantly recognised.

1867: Italy, Hungary, Sweden, Russia and Zaporozhye reach accommodation with less radical elements of the Jacobins. The Republican Revolutions come to an end.

1868: The island of Crete attempts to break away from the Ottoman Empire and join Greece. The rebellion is put down with great loss of civilian life, isolating the Ottoman Empire even further.

1870: A French naval expedition to Japan opens the feudal nation to outside trade through force of arms. The Shogunate begins its decline and a modernised Japanese state takes its place.

1875: Bosnia, Bulgaria and Serbia explode into nationalist revolution. Simultaneously a Russian invasion diverts Ottoman attentions. France and Britain decline to intervene. The Ottoman Empire is defeated, pushing her European borders almost back to Turkey.

1876: A Louisianan cavalry regiment led by Colonel Custer is destroyed by the Deseret Army around the Dakota-Lakota border. Mutual recriminations result in a short border war that pushes Deseret back to the mountainous interior before peace is signed.

1877: The Mexican Empire takes the opportunity to invade Deseret, but the incompetence of the field officers results in the loss of much of California.

1880: The Scramble for Africa begins. France and Britain claim vast swathes of territory and almost come to blows over competing claims.

1885: The London Conference. African colonisation is apportioned between all attendees from Europe and the Americas.

1890: Louisiana and America agree to phase out slavery after the French and British governments declare increased tariffs on slave-made goods.

1901: The Philippine War of Independence breaks out. Spain attempts to crush the rebels with increasingly harsh means.

1907: Philippine independence formally recognised by Spain.

1908: Cuba declares independence from Spain. Quebec declares independence from Louisiana.

1909: Cuban independence movement defeated.

1911: Quebecois independence recognised by Louisiana.

1914: Italy attempts to conquer Abyssinia but is humiliated in a defeat.

1928: The Kings of Hungary, Poland and Serbia agree to the partition of the Austrian Empire. The French Empire backs Austria and brings the Continental System into the fight. Britain declares war on France and launches an amphibious invasion at Calais. Fighting across Europe quickly reaches stalemate as the killing power of machineguns and artillery shatters the Napoleonic mindset of the belligerents.

1929: Croatia and Bulgaria join the Continental System. Italy attacks France to take Piedmont, and Austria to take Istria and Tyrol.

1930: The Ottoman Empire enters the war on the Continental side, sending reinforcements through Bulgaria. Russia responds by attacking Turkey via the Caucasus.

1931: British attacks on neutral shipping result in a declaration of war by the Kingdom of America. American Royal Marines begin occupying British colonies across the Western hemisphere.

1932: The European economies are falling apart and food shortage has turned into starvation. Polish Jacobin-Socialists attempt to overthrow the King but are defeated by gas attacks and machineguns. Caucasian separatists establish an unstable republic, uniting Armenians, Georgians and Azerbaijanis in their hatred of Russia.

1933: Peace in Europe. Hungary and Poland are forced by the terms of the treaty to pay huge war reparations. Serbia loses territory to Croatia and Bulgaria. The French Mandate for Pomerania and the Spanish Mandate for Egypt are declared by the newly formed League of Nations.

1934: The Young Turks revolt. The Ottoman Emperor narrowly secures his position as Head of State and Caliph of Islam but is forced to give up executive power.

1935: A Socialist Republic is declared in Germany. Demobilised Westphalian troops organise into Freikorps to destroy the revolutionists in the name of God and Kingdom.

1936, May Day: The present day.