What have I done to North America?
"God is on the side of the bigger battalion." - variously attributed to Voltaire, Frederick the Great, Napoleon, and Bismarck - emphasizes the goodness of having a lot of soldiers or technological advantage in todays world.
Below is the real life status of Europe circa 1923 after the various treaties had finished hacking the various countries into untenable pieces. The creation of Poland (again - and I feel sorry for the Poles) only put them in the way of the two dominant dogs of Europe, Germany and Russia. Russia lost a lot of the lands that had been ceded to them over the years Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and 2/3 of Poland all came from Russia and the USSR would want them back. The countries of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, individually were not big enough to come between the giants and survive. Maybe the 4 of them should have been made as one to give them the strength to survive. While Norway and Sweden have been joined in the past, those two countries plus the newly created Finland should have become a country 'Scandinavia' for the same reason as the other Baltic States, together they have clout, individually they are open to becoming absorbed by the Great Powers.
The other newly created countries out of the Austro-Hungarian Empire also lack the size and power to be able to survive either ecconomically or militarily against the Great Powers which, over the next 25 years, absorbed them all. The breaking down of the various 'Empires' did nothing to ease tensions in the areas of Europe they had been. All the countries created had to create their own internal structure from scratch, elections from the top down cost billions in all currencies of Europe and did not help the recovery of Europe from WW1.
Europe 1919-25
What I have created is even more arbitrary than that created by the League of Nations, but I figure the areas I have created have a better chance of ecconomic and military survival than those previously created. My appologies to the members of those countries that have disappeared under my magic wand.
Polithstovia: created from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Buffer zone between Germanic States and USSR.
Galicia: formed from parts of Austria, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, Slovakia. Has access to both Black Sea and the Adriatic sea.
Hellenic Republic: created from Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, and parts released from the Ottoman Empire.
The Netherlands: is the amalgamation of Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg.
Germanic States: absorbs Denmark, Czech, Austria and the parts of Poland that were German originally (Gdansk).
Iberia: gets Portugal and Spain.
The other thing that creating larger Empires/Unions is that they have larger budgets to produce more ships than the originals. The distribution of the losing fleets add some interesting elements to the future.
The Colonial Powers during the 1800's and early 1900's carved up Africa into great swathes of Colonies. This was done with lines on the map and took no account of the native boundaries that had existed before. The natives were godless and ...... (words fail me), the 'slave' trade is repugnant to what we consider ourselves to be enlightened peoples. Slavery still exists today. Maybe not as rampant, but as long as the purveyors of slaves see a market for them, then they will meet that market.
With the Allied Powers defeating the Central Powers in the First World War, the colonies in Africa of those countries became posessions of the winners. The English set up two Mandated areas in 1921, Central and Southern Africa. These areas were set up to lessen the amount of 'little kingdoms' with too many sets of 'government' ministries being duplicated throughout each colony. Southern Africa was to be administered by the South African Dominion which was enlarged as shown above. The capital was retained at Pretoria with regional Governors set up in the rest of the areas added on. Central Africa built a new capital near the shores of Lake Victoria. What made the governance of such large regions possible was the advances made to aircraft. Despite the empty look of Africa, rivers and lakes abound everywhere so that amphibious aircraft could be used extensively to re-map and discover more about the areas and districts of Africa. Southern Africa was set up by the British to be the powerhouse of Africa. The country would be self determining while British firms still retained stakes in most of the countries largest firms.
The difference between Southern and Central Africa is that the Southern Africa region would be responsible for all of its own defense forces while the Central African region defence forces would be supplied, officered and run from the United Kingdom.
This gave Southern Africa the chance to provide its own infrastructure for manufacturing its own ships, aicraft, tanks and armaments. For the start the South Africans would have to purchase equipment through the United Kingdom until such time as it could build its own. This was especially true of ships. Having been made a self-determining Dominion, like Australis, meant that Southern Africa was outside of the Geneva Arms Treaties of 1921/22. So setting up the South African Navy took a lot of the ships deemed excess by the treaty. The ships and their crews were transferred to South Africa, the ships permanently, the crews on short term contracts that they could either renew with South Africa or be repatriated to the UK at the end of the term. With chances of jobs being tough in the UK, many took their chances and signed on with South African Navy. This gave the South African Navy a massive advantage in training new recruits for what was a complete new service for them. Operational control in time of war could still fall to the Admiralty in London for overall direction of the war, but the needs of the Southern African region was kept under local control.
South America goes from 10 or so minor countries to 4 with major aspirations. The first surge is from Venezuela which turns its technological edge from Wrangels fleet into expansion through its neighbours Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Panama. These absorptions take place through the 1920's. World War 2 starts in South America (in this world) with Chile and Brazil emerging the victors with Argentina being partitioned between them while Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia fall to Brazil. The three European colonies of the Guineas remain as to touch those would have incurred the wrath of the parent nation.
What have I done to North America?
An Alternate Universe gives you many chances to change the world as we know it. What happens if there is no Civil War between the States? What if Canada joins with the Union to give the new country "The Commonwealth Union of America". The Confederate States fight the Spanish American War and take all of the old Spanish, British posessions in central America with Cuba. The country formed is the Confederate States of America. These two power house nations have learnt to co-operate and while tensions can some times remain high between them, Treaties eventually join them in mutual defence pacts. The Commonwealth has more heavy industry while the Conederates are agrarian based with a lot of people employed in the agrarian sector. Confederate heavy industry is based near the borders.
The Confederate States build the Nicaragua Canal on their territory while the Commonwealth Union of America builds the Panama Canal with its close ties to Venezuela ensuring continued access.
The CUA's ties to Britain through the absorption of Canada and through Treaties with the Commonwealth Nations gives it access to many advances that it would not have received otherwise.
The Confederate States closest ally is France and it is tied by treaties to France.
Both American Nations are wary of the Japanese and tensions between them is high through the 1930's. Hawaii is part of the CUofA while the Phillipines is part of the Confederacy.
This new split of North America will completely change the make up of the two navies.
The US navy I have now in the Major Powers page will change markedly as will the ships I have previously bequeathed to Canada from the British forces at the end of WW1. A major rethink is underway as to where everything now ends up.