The date is June 28th, 1914 and in the city of Sarajevo, Archduke Franz Ferdinand is touring
the city on a lightly-defended motorcade.
The heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire has been warned that Serbian nationals
were plotting to kill him, and yet the duke decides that he will not live in fear of the
cowards who would strike at him from the shadows.
Defiantly, he orders the planned motorcade forward.
The route through the city has been published ahead of time, and the few members of the
duke's security detail are extremely nervous about this, knowing that any would-be assassins
would have had days to plot their attack.
Pretty quickly through their drive, their fears are justified when a bomb goes off near
the motorcade, injuring several people.
The motorcade is rushed away but the duke wishes to see the wounded officers, though
the duke's car takes a wrong turn.
The car screeches to a halt in front of an astonished Gavrilo Princip, a would-be assassin
who had missed his earlier opportunity to shoot the duke.
In the car, the duke is currently berating his driver, yelling at him, “You idiot,
you're not supposed to go down this road!
Stop the car and back up!”
Seeing his golden opportunity, Princip raises his pistol, carefully lining up his shot.
He places the front sight of his small pistol directly over the Archduke's chest, and the
soon-to-be-dead man glances up in shock and horror.
History holds its breath, a single trigger pull threatening to launch the entire Western
world into a war that will reach even as far east as China.
Princip pulls the trigger... but nothing happens.
With a click, the pistol jams, and Princip is confused, then panics as he hurries to
clear the malfunction.
A shot rings out, but it's Princip who falls dead, the Archduke's own pistol smoking in
his hands.
A shock runs through the halls of power across all of Europe.
Austria-Hungary threatens Serbia with war over the attempted assassination, and her
ally Germany is reluctantly standing by her side.
Opposing them are a loose coalition formed by Russia, France, and Britain, who have all
pledged to defend Serbia from Austro-Hungarian aggression.
The empires of Europe mobilize their military might, calling upon forces across their global
empires.
Soldiers gear for battle all around the world, in colonies spread across South America, South
Africa, and Asia.
Diplomats across Europe scramble, all with one goal: avert what could be the greatest
war in human history to date.
The weight of history falls squarely on the German empire.
The Empire does not wish war, and agrees to meet with French, British and Russian ambassadors
to negotiate a way out of this tricky political situation.
Austria-Hungary is livid however, and demands retribution for the attempted killing of the
heir to its throne.
Their demand from Serbia is as harsh as it is cruel: they must hand over all members
of the assassination plot and make economic concessions as repayment.
The plot itself is impossible to truly unravel, and the Austro-Hungarians know this- they
have taken the opportunity to accuse several high-ranking Serbian officials as being in
on the plot, and demand they be turned over for punishment, which in this case means execution.
The failed assassination of the arch-duke is the perfect way to weaken Serbia by removing
politically dangerous individuals from its government, and the Austro-Hungarians know
this too well.
Discovering the real perpetrators of the assassination plot would take months, maybe years, and even
then all involved may never be truly discovered.
Yet if Serbia refuses the false accusations, it will mean war.
For its part, Germany has long desired to be as great a power as Great Britain, and
holds little love for the British Empire.
They believe it is their time to ascend from near-peer competitor to the other empires
of Europe and assume the mantle of global leadership- yet the nation is not truly prepared
for war against Britain, its fleets aren't strong enough yet to challenge the Royal Navy.
This would be an inopportune time for war.
To its east, the Germans also fear the growing power of the Russian empire, which has made
great strides in modernizing its economy and infrastructure.
A sleeping giant, the Germans fear that Russia will inevitably make a bid for global leadership
just as Germany has ambitions to do.
Yet Russia maintains close ties with France and Great Britain, and while Germany does
not fear French forces, it is unsure if it will be able to handle all three nations at
the same time.
Sensing that war is in the air, the Ottoman Empire holds secret meetings with the German
Kaiser.
The Ottomans have been a mighty empire for centuries, sitting across modern Turkey and
a large part of the middle east.
Yet theirs is a fading empire, internal strife and economic downturns have taken a severe
toll on the integrity of the nation- the future of the Ottoman Empire is on life support and
all in Europe know it.
Yet a successful war would mean territorial gains for the Ottomans, and may be the thing
needed to turn things around domestically.
The glory of victory may just be the unifying force badly needed by the Ottomans to hold
their crumbling empire together.
Germany however, declines the offer.
They send their top diplomats to Austria-Hungary and incredibly, manage to talk them out of
the most ridiculous of their demands.
The Serbians instead hand over a few known accomplices of the would-be assassin and make
some minor economic concessions.
The world breathes a sigh of relief as war is averted.
The year is 1924, and peace has fallen across Europe- yet it is a peace pregnant with the
threat of war.
Germany has not forgotten its ambitions to become the premier power in Europe, and it
has furiously worked to greatly bolster its economic, cultural, and scientific strength.
Berlin is now the center of European learning, and while Britain and France remain more economically
powerful, the universities of Germany are producing some of the greatest minds in the
continent.
One of those minds, a man of Jewish descent in his 40s known as Albert Einstein, has produced
some ground-breaking work in the field of physics and catapulted Germany to the forefront
of scientific discovery.
Some of his work hints at the possibility of a source of power far greater than any
internal combustion engine could ever produce- the power of the atom is theorized to rival
the amount of energy produced by the sun itself.
Many immediately dream of a future where clean, limitless energy powers human civilization-
but amongst the German Empire's military, other minds recognize the potential for an
altogether different type of power, one that could be used for military purposes.
The Ottoman Empire is caught in a civil war, major territorial holdings along its southern
flanks have declared independence.
The Young Turks- a political movement made up of students, free thinkers, and army officers-
have declared open war on the imperial state, wishing to overthrow the government and install
a liberal democracy.
An Armenian national movement known as the Armenian Revolutionary Federation has joined
in the hostilities, wishing to earn Armenian independence.
A dozen other smaller groups have also seized parts of the empire for themselves, and Sultan
Mehmed VI is fighting a desperate civil war to hold his crumbling empire together.
Across the Atlantic, the United States is enjoying the roaring 20s, but instead of investing
heavily into modernizing its military, the US is instead investing into civic programs,
making its infrastructure amongst the world's most modern.
However internal politics have largely ignored the results of endemic racism, and a huge
racial divide continues to widen between blacks and whites.
A small women's suffrage movement initially rises to claim votes for women, but is quickly
silenced and the discussion is shelved in Washington.
Women will not receive their vote after all, and the role of the American woman is indefinitely
relegated to the status of homemaker.
Women do not join the workforce and instead remain largely at home, uneducated and tasked
with taking care of their homes.
The year is now 1940, and the ever-present threat of war between the world's major empires
has finally resulted in all-out warfare.
The war is launched by the allied forces of Britain, France, and Russia after news of
a successful test of a devastating new German weapon makes its way out of secret German
testing grounds deep in the African Sahara.
Details are sketchy, and unbelievable.
Allied spies claim that the Germans have developed a single bomb with the power of thousands-
tens of thousands even- capable of leveling the better part of a large city.
All around the world know that German science is the best in the world, matched only by
its engineering- yet the allies initially find it impossible to believe that such a
device really exists.
Eventually however enough evidence is gathered, and the allies know that Germany alone possesses
a weapon powerful enough to devastate any foe- if they do not act now to defeat Germany,
they will be at its mercy forever more.
The war is one of desperation, a necessary first strike to prevent Germany from building
and deploying more of these super-bombs.
Germany has long kept its atomic bomb program a secret, and with the best scientific minds
in the world, producing a working bomb took only a decade.
Now at last the German Empire has a weapon with which to tip the balance of power between
itself and Great Britain, who's mighty fleets Germany was never able to match.
Ships don't matter now when entire cities can burn from a single bomb.
The Austrian-Hungarian empire, now a vassal state to the might of Germany, declares war
on the allies, as does the majority of the hodge-podge of smaller nations that have arisen
from the ashes of the Ottoman empire, every single one of them a vassal to Germany as
well.
Numbers is on the side of the allies, especially given Russia's meteoric rise to power in the
last few decades.
A growing Bolshevik movement to overthrow the monarchy and install a communist government
has been crushed, leaving the Czar in power.
Unknowingly, the defeat of the Bolsheviks has also meant that Russia has avoided disastrous
political purges across its government and military, as well as equally disastrous economic
policies.
Russia is now a modern and very formidable economic and military power, yet while the
Russians once worried France and Great Britain, the rise of Germany has cemented an alliance
of necessity between them.
The allies believe that the time to strike is now, before Germany can build more bombs-
they must crush the empire before it can muster the resources it needs to start assembling
these super bombs in numbers.
A massive surge of troops descends towards Germany via Belgium, while French forces hold
their reinforced Maginot Line to prevent a counterattack through the flat plains of east
France.
Yet Germany understood it would not be able to keep the atomic bomb a secret once it was
tested.
For decades the great empires of Europe have strained against each other, avoiding potential
flashpoints for war but preparing for a conflict that all knew would be inevitable- throughout
history, empires have never peacefully coexisted for long.
To this end, all the major powers have long been preparing for war, and Germany has itself
prepared for exactly this type of war- a surprise attack meant to stop its nuclear program before
it could deliver the bombs Germany needed to rule Europe.
That's why while one bomb was being tested, two more fully functional bombs had already
been built.
Two miles behind the front lines in Belgium, a brilliant flash of light is followed by
a thunderous roar heard for over a hundred miles.
In seconds hundreds of thousands of massed allied troops have been incinerated, to include
the majority of the British expeditionary force.
The shocked survivors immediately retreat, yet there are only a few thousand left to
rescue at Dunkirk.
The Germans don't pursue the retreating survivors, there is no need to- the British army on the
mainland has been all but annihilated.
A week later, a single nuclear bomb levels much of London.
Three weeks after that, France is in German hands, and peace terms are being negotiated
with Britain- backed up by the production of three more German nuclear bombs.
Russia however refuses terms and continues to fight.
Its forces defeat several German army groups pushing towards Tsarisyn, known in our world
as Stalingrad- the army officers who avoided the would-be purges brought by the Bolsheviks
ensure that the Russian army is a formidable and well-disciplined military force.
A few weeks later a nuclear attack on Tasrisyn completely destroys the city.
A week after that Moscow falls to nuclear fire.
Still Russia battles on, despite more nuclear bombs destroying many of its frontline troops.
Eventually the nation is forced to surrender, ceding major portions of its western territory
to Germany.
The Austria-Hungarian empire is folded into the German empire, as is major territories
formerly belonging to the Ottomans.
Across the world, the United States has pursued a hardline isolationist policy, refusing to
become involved in European problems.
They have refused British calls for help, even refusing to send material aid- especially
now that the Germans have such a powerful bomb.
Yet due to its isolationism, the American military is weak, a fact exploited by the
Japanese Empire which launches an assault on the Philippines and on Pearl Harbor in
Hawaii.
Pearl Harbor is a major port for the American Pacific Fleet, but the Pacific Fleet itself
is small, made up of only three or four aircraft carriers and a handful of aging battleships
supported by a few dozen destroyers.
An invasion force seizes Hawaii, as another pushes the Americans out of the Philippines.
Japan now controls the Pacific in its entirety, and by holding Hawaii is able to ensure American
forces never re-enter the Pacific.
With America out of the picture, China quickly falls to Japan, and the Empire's golden future
is assured.
The First World War lasts only a year, and ends in 1941 with a total defeat and unconditional
surrender of the Allies.
France is now occupied by the German Empire and ceases to exist as a free state, and Britain
is allowed to retain its independence but must hand over all of its colonial holdings
to Germany and serve as its vassal.
Russia is too vast to truly conquer, and Germany is happy enough to allow the Russian empire
to exist as another vassal state, while holding the richer parts of its western territories
for itself.
The date is 1961, twenty years after The Great War.
Germany has long ago put men on the moon, and small scientific labs on the lunar surface
serve to enforce Germany's territorial claims on the moon.
Across the Pacific, the United States has spent the last two decades building its military
and building a system of alliances across North and South America.
The American Union as it is known has led to greater economic and military cooperation
between the entire Western Hemisphere, all in a bid to protect themselves from the might
of the German empire.
The United States has attempted to build a nuclear weapon but Germany immediately demanded
it shut its nuclear program down.
Backed by a mighty arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles, the US is forced to concede
to the German demands.
Now, Germany levels the power of those same weapons at the American Union, demanding major
economic concessions from all its member states.
Helpless to resist German nuclear power, the Union agrees, and by the end of the 1960s
America and its allies are vassals of the German empire.
What do you think would actually happen if there had been no World War I?
Let us know in the comments!
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