HOME | DD

Description
Inspired by this thread on AlternateHistory.com, an attempt at an alternate history map depicting the world c. 1930 after a more or less accidental personal union between Britain and Germany in 1901, where Victoria is left without a male heir and Empress Frederick who is next in line indicates she wishes her son to take the throne instead - that is, Wilhelm II of Germany. A last-ditch attempt is made to offer the British throne instead to his younger brother Heinrich, but this leads to ugly scenes in Britain (the common theme being that if there's one thing Brits don't like to be it's fobbed off with the cheaper model, regardless of their feelings about Willy), eventually forcing Parliament to permit Wilhelm II to accede to the throne as William V.

France was completely unprepared for the crisis, but felt obligated to act to attempt to prevent the union of the two most powerful nations in Europe. It managed to stitch together a Hail Mary alliance with Russia and launched the brief and undignified War of the British Succession (somewhat of a misnomer as the French had no alternate candidate for the throne other than 'No. Don't you dare.'). This resulted in the short-order annihilation of the French fleet and the capture of the entire Russian expeditionary force.

With Brits marching into most of its colonial outposts and the French army trapped in Cologne, France signed a treaty acknowledging the union, recognising German suzerainty over Luxembourg and signing over the Outer Cameroons and Morocco in exchange for Darfur and no territorial losses in Europe. Russia was less fortunate, ceding Congress Poland to German protection and Bessarabia to German ally Romania, with Sweden swooping in to establish Finland as a buffer state.

The post-war negotiations between Britain and Germany were ... tense, with the British Dominions in particular threatening to go their own way. Both governments were certain the other would use the prospect of colonial co-dominion to 'steal' the other's empire, but ultimately a surprisingly effective status quo has been reached, together with a unified postal system. Murmurs are even made of formal political union providing things continue to go well - though this is not realistically expected to take place before the year 2,000. In the meantime, academics in both countries are busily working on dozens of different competing attempts to unify the languages into something approximating a mutually comprehensible patois; the spontaneous substitution of 'Yas' for 'Yes/Ja' in both countries which seems to have developed within years of personal union is a promising start. In the meantime, new British coins are being stamped simply reading 'Rex Terra', because when you rule over a quarter of the world's population you don't need to be picky.

Today, after much formulation and reformulation, mostly involving commas, Willy's official title in English is as follows:

Of Germany, Emperor, and King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Emperor of India, King of Canada, Quebec, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and all His Majesty's possessions and dominions beyond the seas, Defender of the Faith, Protector of Poland, and also of Arabia, also King of Prussia and Hanover, Grand Duke of Luxembourg and of Lower Rhine and Posen Grand Duke, Supreme Duke of Silesia and of the County of Glatz, and also Duke of Normandy, Saxony, Westphalia and Angria, of Pommerania, Brunswick, Lüneburg, Holstein and Schleswig, of Magdeburg, Bremen, Guelders, Cleve, Jülich and Berg, also of the Wends and Cassubians, of Crossen, Lauenburg, Mecklenburg and Lancaster, of Hesse and Thuringia Landgrave, Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia, Prince of Orange, Prince of Rügen, of East Frisia, of Paderborn and Pyrmont, of Halberstadt, Minden, Osnabrück, Hildesheim, of Verden, Kammin, Fulda, Nassau and Moers, Princely Count of Henneberg and Burgrave of Nuremberg, Count of the Mark and of Ravensberg, of Hohenstein, Tecklenburg and Lingen, of Mansfeld, Sigmaringen and Veringen, Lord Man and of Frankfurt, and so forth, and so forth, and so forth.

(take that, Nicholas)

Description
Inspired by this thread on AlternateHistory.com, an attempt at an alternate history map depicting the world c. 1930 after a more or less accidental personal union between Britain and Germany in 1901, where Victoria is left without a male heir and Empress Frederick who is next in line indicates she wishes her son to take the throne instead - that is, Wilhelm II of Germany. A last-ditch attempt is made to offer the British throne instead to his younger brother Heinrich, but this leads to ugly scenes in Britain (the common theme being that if there's one thing Brits don't like to be it's fobbed off with the cheaper model, regardless of their feelings about Willy), eventually forcing Parliament to permit Wilhelm II to accede to the throne as William V.

France was completely unprepared for the crisis, but felt obligated to act to attempt to prevent the union of the two most powerful nations in Europe. It managed to stitch together a Hail Mary alliance with Russia and launched the brief and undignified War of the British Succession (somewhat of a misnomer as the French had no alternate candidate for the throne other than 'No. Don't you dare.'). This resulted in the short-order annihilation of the French fleet and the capture of the entire Russian expeditionary force.

With Brits marching into most of its colonial outposts and the French army trapped in Cologne, France signed a treaty acknowledging the union, recognising German suzerainty over Luxembourg and signing over the Outer Cameroons and Morocco in exchange for Darfur and no territorial losses in Europe. Russia was less fortunate, ceding Congress Poland to German protection and Bessarabia to German ally Romania, with Sweden swooping in to establish Finland as a buffer state.

The post-war negotiations between Britain and Germany were ... tense, with the British Dominions in particular threatening to go their own way. Both governments were certain the other would use the prospect of colonial co-dominion to 'steal' the other's empire, but ultimately a surprisingly effective status quo has been reached, together with a unified postal system. Murmurs are even made of formal political union providing things continue to go well - though this is not realistically expected to take place before the year 2,000. In the meantime, academics in both countries are busily working on dozens of different competing attempts to unify the languages into something approximating a mutually comprehensible patois; the spontaneous substitution of 'Yas' for 'Yes/Ja' in both countries which seems to have developed within years of personal union is a promising start. In the meantime, new British coins are being stamped simply reading 'Rex Terra', because when you rule over a quarter of the world's population you don't need to be picky.

Today, after much formulation and reformulation, mostly involving commas, Willy's official title in English is as follows:

Of Germany, Emperor, and King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Emperor of India, King of Canada, Quebec, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and all His Majesty's possessions and dominions beyond the seas, Defender of the Faith, Protector of Poland, and also of Arabia, also King of Prussia and Hanover, Grand Duke of Luxembourg and of Lower Rhine and Posen Grand Duke, Supreme Duke of Silesia and of the County of Glatz, and also Duke of Normandy, Saxony, Westphalia and Angria, of Pommerania, Brunswick, Lüneburg, Holstein and Schleswig, of Magdeburg, Bremen, Guelders, Cleve, Jülich and Berg, also of the Wends and Cassubians, of Crossen, Lauenburg, Mecklenburg and Lancaster, of Hesse and Thuringia Landgrave, Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia, Prince of Orange, Prince of Rügen, of East Frisia, of Paderborn and Pyrmont, of Halberstadt, Minden, Osnabrück, Hildesheim, of Verden, Kammin, Fulda, Nassau and Moers, Princely Count of Henneberg and Burgrave of Nuremberg, Count of the Mark and of Ravensberg, of Hohenstein, Tecklenburg and Lingen, of Mansfeld, Sigmaringen and Veringen, Lord Man and of Frankfurt, and so forth, and so forth, and so forth.

(take that, Nicholas)