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Old 06-10-2023, 07:14 AM   #6261
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Canuck

This Q6 Low Mana parallel is a fairly close parallel to Homeline. Most of history is either identical or highly similar. The most dramatic change is the serious negotiations between the United States of America and the United Kingdom about selling Canada to the USA. The main problems with the Sale are Southern US objections to new freestates and southern English objections to leaving North America. However the sale is moving on with Daniel Webster steering the whole project.

Centrum is furious, they see this Britain as scuttling the Empire before Victoria is even a widow. Homeline sees a lovely chance of pinning down large amounts of Centrum assets without getting people hurt. The Cabal thinks it can extract favors and other benefits from both sides if they play their cards right.

Basically, this is a lighthearted espionage game that forefronts social skills and maneuvers.
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Old 06-10-2023, 10:04 AM   #6262
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The main problems with the Sale are Southern US objections to new freestates and southern English objections to leaving North America. However the sale is moving on with Daniel Webster steering the whole project.
Side issue for somebody's agents to work on - where are they getting the money? Remember this is still the era of the gold standard, and either slightly before or during the California Gold Rush (i.e. before the US government has realized a lot of taxes from it). So if the US Federal Government has a big pile of gold to offer for Canada the question of where they got it (and can we stage a gold rush to there too) isn't a trivial one.
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Old 06-10-2023, 10:38 AM   #6263
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Side issue for somebody's agents to work on - where are they getting the money?
Maybe the Upper and Lower Canada rebellions were badly mishandled and Britain wants out (Like France and Louisiana)? It still doesn't change that British naval supremacy was reinforced by all the lumber Canada provided Britain...
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Old 06-10-2023, 11:23 AM   #6264
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You've both got great angles for Centrum agents to fight the sale.
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Old 06-10-2023, 01:10 PM   #6265
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Canuck

This Q6 Low Mana parallel is a fairly close parallel to Homeline. Most of history is either identical or highly similar. The most dramatic change is the serious negotiations between the United States of America and the United Kingdom about selling Canada to the USA. The main problems with the Sale are Southern US objections to new freestates and southern English objections to leaving North America. However the sale is moving on with Daniel Webster steering the whole project.

Centrum is furious, they see this Britain as scuttling the Empire before Victoria is even a widow. Homeline sees a lovely chance of pinning down large amounts of Centrum assets without getting people hurt. The Cabal thinks it can extract favors and other benefits from both sides if they play their cards right.

Basically, this is a lighthearted espionage game that forefronts social skills and maneuvers.
One big complicating factor is this would be the French culture of Lower Canada. During the War of 1812, the American government made it clear that a Lower Canada that was annexed into the United States would have to give up the French language and parts of its French culture to bring it in line with the other states in the US. This was a position that was considered to be completely unacceptable to the vast majority of the people living in Lower Canada.

If the US were to go through with the purchase while still insisting on this policy they might end up facing rebellion in Lower Canada.
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Old 06-12-2023, 05:39 PM   #6266
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By the way, if you got the sale done, which is orders of magnitude less likely than the wildly unlikely possibility that anyone in Britain would suggest it in the first place, the knock on effects are interesting.

Russia sold Alaska to the USA for two reasons A) they assumed Britain would simply take it soon anyway, and B) they thought Britain stealing Alaska from America would prevent any Anglo-American alliance. Thus, if Britain sold Canada to the USA, Russia would have no reason to sell Alaska.

This leads to several interesting post 1917 possibilities.

Picture the Cold War with Russia and America sharing a land border. And what's more a border that is nearly impossible to attack through and equally hard to defend.

Picture a White Russian general fleeing to the East as the Russian Civil War dies down and invading Alaska. Setting up a White Russian Republic in Russia's most isolated outpost. The USA might very well recognize it as legitimate in order not to have a land border with Russia. Such a White Russian state might complicate WWII in very tricky ways.
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Old 06-12-2023, 11:22 PM   #6267
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Canuck
I described a "Canuck" world earlier on this massive thread, where global temperatures rose starting in 1900, and Canada became the most powerful nation in the world. It was actually in response to someone in the this thread asking for a world where Canada is on top.


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Canuck, 1950

Current Affairs: Canada is the premier power, trying to hold together a hotter planet nearing its boiling point.
Divergence Point: 1900: Temperatures slowly rise, making the tropics uninhabitable, temperate zones tropical, and opening up the poles.
Major Civilizations: Western (multipolar), Japanese (empire), Tibetan (unitary)
Great Powers: Dominion of Canada (representative democracy, CR2), German Empire (oligarchy, CR4 for Germans, CR5 for others), Japanese Empire (oligarchy, CR5 for Japanese, CR6 for others), United States (representative democracy, CR3 in the north, CR4 in the south), Alaskan Commonwealth (representative democracy, CR2), Tibet (theocracy, CR2)
Worldline Data:
TL: 6
Quantum: 7 Mana Level: No Mana
Infinite Class: R4 Centrum Zone: Orange
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Old 06-14-2023, 12:19 PM   #6268
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An interesting alternate history might start with the Mexican-American War. Many people in Northern Mexico wanted to have their area annexed by the USA. The logic was simple, they knew Mexico City would exploit them and they assumed Washington would neglect them. Wanting to be left alone, they preferred Washington and American manufactures.

As Northern Mexico isn't exactly known for its plantations, the Southern slave interests would be disappointed and fearful of Mexican Free States. Given Northern Mexico's low population density, it wouldn't be a major theater in the ACW. However, given how close the French would be to this alternate USA's Southern border, the possibility of the CSA conning the French into thinking Union soldiers fired on French soldiers, would occur to the CSA.

Trying to keep France out of the ACW could be an interesting campaign.
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Old 06-15-2023, 09:55 AM   #6269
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An interesting alternate history might start with the Mexican-American War. Many people in Northern Mexico wanted to have their area annexed by the USA. The logic was simple, they knew Mexico City would exploit them and they assumed Washington would neglect them. Wanting to be left alone, they preferred Washington and American manufactures.

As Northern Mexico isn't exactly known for its plantations, the Southern slave interests would be disappointed and fearful of Mexican Free States. Given Northern Mexico's low population density, it wouldn't be a major theater in the ACW. However, given how close the French would be to this alternate USA's Southern border, the possibility of the CSA conning the French into thinking Union soldiers fired on French soldiers, would occur to the CSA.

Trying to keep France out of the ACW could be an interesting campaign.
An interesting butterfly affect might be the Spanish-American War. Assuming something similar happens in this timeline, there might be more support for including Cuba, and possibly the Philippines, as actual states.
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Old 06-17-2023, 05:35 AM   #6270
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Yettishar

This Q6 Low Mana parallel diverged in the 19th century with the break up of China under the Qing dynasty. Yettishar is the name of a large Sino- Islamic state that existed for a few years in Homeline history, but became stable and lasting on the parallel.

During WWII Japan was able to conquer most of these smaller Chinese successor states. But the Japanese lost control of these states at the end of war an Allied Victory. In most of Southern China the Americans pushed through land reform like the ones they sponsored in Japan and South Korea. By the 1980s most of Southern China was strongly democratic. Meanwhile, Northern China was pretty much conquered by the communists and remains that way in this parallel's local year of 1983.

Basically, Cold War espionage in a divided China. As this is one of the more accessible Chinas, the Cabal will be out in force studying the culture.
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