u/Independent_Print421

Not much lore for this one, except only Americans I found interesting end up as President.

The point of divergence starts when Barbara of Portugal, Queen of Spain, died in 1753. King Ferdinand VI, is seriously distraught to the point of being incapacitated. In 1754, he abdicates in favor of his half brother Charles III. He immediately sets about rebuilding his navy as he views Britain is his main enemy alongside starts to drew Spain closer to France. The Seven Years War broke out when Prussia invaded Saxony. France takes Minorca in the aftermath of the Battle of Minorca in 1756 and offers it to Spain if Spain joins on her side. Carlos accepted. In 1757, the Spanish invade Portugal began when Portugal is still recovering from the earthquake in 1755. Portugal is forced to join with France and Spain or face annihilation. However, Britain eventually defeats both Spain and Portugal, resulting in Brazil, New Spain, the Caribbean colonies, New Granada, and Venezuela being annexed by Britain. The Stamp Act still occurred to help fund the enormous military needed to defend the Western Hemisphere. However, combined the Stamp Act alongside Britain trying to govern all of them through the same imperial system cause the United Statesstill declare independence with the rest of Britain’s acquisitions. Thanks to the United States spanned from the North to the South alongside having more soldiers than in OTL, Britain have a much more difficult time fighting against the rebels, resulting in the American Revolution became much more favorable for the rebels. Following the United States capture of Quebec City and Montreal alongside the United States capture of the British Caribbean colonies. Britain agreed to a treaty. The Treaty of Paris was signed. Britain recognized American independence alongside ceded all Britain colonies to the United States including: all of Canadian colonies, British Caribbean colonies, Belize, Mosquito Coast. The Latin American parts originally planned on leaving the Union, however, after the Continental Congress led by George Washington offer concessions. The United States would became a federal republic with autonomous centralized states and regions. For example: New Spain would became semi-autonomous as Mexico, they’re allowed to manage some level of domestic issues such as its education system and cultural affairs, though they’re still represented by the President of the United States in foreign affairs. Spanish and Portuguese would be recognized as officials languages alongside English. The U.S. constitution, controversially at the time, guarantees protection of Catholicism.

The 1788-89 Election came, George Washington won, albeit not unanimously, but still a lot with 97.5% percentage due to Latin Americans competing in the election. What would his presidency look like? How would he handled this massive empire?

This is more of my idea for a fictional Chinese Dynasty.

The point of divergence began when, after Nurhaci unified the Jurchen tribes, Nurhaci delivered a manifesto where he wanted to create a united Manchu state that spoke Manchu and inhabited by the Jurchen, aiming for political independence as the Ming Dynasty deteriorated. Nurhaci said in his speech that modern day could be translated as "We’re not trying to took over China, we’re never a part of it in the first place." In 1616, he declared himself Khan and founded the Later Jin, which later declared itself self governing. The later Jin Dynasty went to war with the Ming to establish their core territory (Manchuria). After Nurhaci's death in 1626 during the conflict, his son Hong Taiji made reforms and renamed the Jurchens "Manchu," ultimately establishing the Qing Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty invaded Joseon to establish Qing’s dominance. Joseon became a tributary state for the Qing Dynasty. Once the Qing Dynasty successfully conquered their core territory, through a ceasefire, the Qing agreed to withdrew and stopped expanding beyond the Shanhaiguan Pass in exchange for the Ming to recognize the Qing as an independent state and both sides agreed to not step foot beyond Shanhaiguan Pass.

Meanwhile the Ming Dynasty collapsed as the Shun Dynasty took over as the next dynasty. However, the Shun is very unpopular as many views them more as bandits than political leaders such as previously sacking and pillaging Beijing before taking the Mandate of Heaven, alienating the very people they claimed to protect alongside the Yongchang Emperor indulge himself in excess. In 1644, within 6 months since enthronement, the Yongchang Emperor and his brother were assassinated by a group of Ming loyalists, creating chaos within the Shun’s court as they both have no children. With no clear leadership, many states seceded from the Shun, beginning the War for Chinese Reunification. New dynasties, one of which was the Wu Dynasty. Founded by Hu Jianguo, he is one of the founder of a philosophy called People’s Confucianism. Born into a family of minor family of scholars but has to work with farmers and the people during Ming collapsed and saw the people struggle.

People’s Confucianism believed that Li is seen in the natural feelings of right and wrong that farmers or workers have when they help each others. Scholarly learning is useful but it comes after and helps fix what we already know. The everyday sense of right and wrong from many people is the best teacher. People’s Confucianism said that people have the right and duty to not respect those who do not live up to their role as a father figure with moral authority comes from the people’s ongoing respect and not just from family ties or position. Self-cultivation is seen as shared growth with moral growth happens best in groups of people. While scholarly studying is still valued, the best understanding of kindness happens when people support each other to improve, not when people are alone. However, hierarchy remains the same but each higher person is always checked by those below them. A cruel leader is not worth looking at, people are encouraged to speak up as a sacred duty. Above all else, people need basic needs to be good, People’s Confucianism believed that having enough resources and sharing them fairly helps everyone grow morally with the core philosophy being that having enough and helping each other is Confucian values. Initially, the war amongst Chinese dynasties was very bloody with hundreds of thousands of people perished. However, following Hu promised to expropriated land from landowners to those who are willing to fought for the Wu Dynasty in conquered areas. This caused the Wu Dynasty to gains widespread support. The conflict continued with the Wu forces won major battles before eventually captured Beijing and the Forbidden City in 1648. That same year, Hu was proclaimed Zhaoren Emperor of the Wu Dynasty.

The Wu’s first priority is to confiscated lands of those who supported rival dynasties, abandoned their land or accumulated enormous holdings. Wu then redistributed the lands to Veteran Wu officers and those who need land, earning him massive popularity from the peasants, though former landlords are allowed to kept moderate estates as long as they cooperate with the new dynasty. The Wu also established a new institution called the People’s Petition System where essentially, every citizens are allowed to complain to any government level from the village heads to the Emperor with officials are forbidden from punishing honest complaints though false claims would still be penalized. This would then be investigated by the People's Remonstrance Bureau which aimed to investigate complaints against government workers, which led to dismissal of many corrupt former officers during the Peak of the Wu Dynasty.

Walt Disney was an animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur, who served as President of the Republic of Florida. Walt Disney was born in Chicago, the Great Lakes Federation in 1901 and grew up mostly in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As a child, he loved drawing and storytelling. In 1920s, he moved to Floridawood in the Republic of Florida with very little money, he and his brother founded what would later be known as Disney Studios with Walt handling the creative vision. After losing his rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, where he helped create Mickey Mouse in 1928 and released Steamboat Willie, becoming a cultural phenomenon across Florida. Disney continued to push for new technologies such as the first widely successful synchronized sound cartoon in Steamboat Willie and the first full-length animated feature in Snow White.

Before the 1952 Florida Presidential Election, the Florida Union Party faced a political crisis where activists calling themselves the Citizen’ Commission broke into the Florida Intelligence office and stole secret files detailing President Charley Eugene Johns had unlawfully utilized the Red Scare for illegal surveillance over Florida’s citizens with Johns orders intelligences to monitor journalists, labor unions, civil rights organizations, etc..., resulting in arrest of many citizens under the guise of protecting traditional Florida’s values and to root out communist infiltration. This created massive backlash from many Florida citizens, resulting in Johns’s resignation and damaged the Florida Union’s credibility.

The Florida Farmer-Labor Party, taking advantage of the situation, tried to find a nominee but the front-runners caused a deadlock amongst delegates in the convention. They don't know who to back. Then, a delegate shouts "Disney!" and soon Disney gains traction as a draft candidate before beating figures like Claude Pepper in a shocker. Disney is told of his nomination and he traveled to accept it, even if he was surprised and didn't expect it. Disney, with his massive media appeal and the large money from the FFL Party, is able to drown out Harold Russell when it comes to messaging, promising the nation a world of tomorrows, not a world of yesterdays. Disney managed to win the 1952 election, becoming President of Florida. Claude Pepper becomes his VP.

Under his presidency, Walt Disney focused on balancing the budget, low inflation and infrastructure development while keeping some of Florida’s previous social programs. Disney limited federal agency spending and used his veto power to block expensive social programs while working with both political parties during economic changes. Disney expanded the construction of a Florida Highway System. In terms of civil rights, Disney was more cautious but overall supportive of civil rights once the Supreme Court of Florida ruled that separating school children by races is unconstitutional. Disney is also the first president to utilize television to communicate with the Florida citizens.

The point of divergence begins when in 1912, the Articles of Favorable Treatment are completely different than in our timeline, where the Forbidden City would be administered as a special administrative region of the the Chinese Federation and maintain its autonomy, and the Qing Imperial Family would be granted special privileges, such as allowing Xuantong Emperor to maintain his title, their own personal army consisted of 200 men led by Zhang Xun and a generous annual subsidy to the family by the new Federation government. Under the conditions that the Xuantong Emperor must remain neutral in conflicts and not interfere in Chinese politics. This move was made as a compromise to avoid further conflict. Many Qing loyalists moved to the Forbidden City, notably Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao who return to China where they’re hired to taught the young Xuantong Emperor. Meanwhile, Yuan Shikai passed away from a sudden stroke that same year, preventing him from becoming President. This allowed Sun Yat-Sen to became President of China and the Kuomintang to maintain its hold in China, with the exception of a few rebellious regions during the early years after the revolution that was suppressed rather quickly. Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao helped both handled the Xuantong Emperor’s education. Kang acted more as the Xuantong Emperor’s mentor and Liang acted more as the Xuantong Emperor’s educator on history, languages and international relations. In his later memoirs, the Xuantong Emperor described Kang as "the only one who can control me, he’s the only one who said "no" when nobody else would. He’s one of my most important mentor." Similarly, he described Liang as "without him, I might not be given a new perspective on things such as China moving on from a monarchy. I learnt to adapt to my environment because of him."

When the Xuantong Emperor turned 18 years old, he can finally rule on his own. The Xuantong Emperor’s first act is to established the Grand Council of Advisors whose purpose is to advise the Xuantong Emperor, consisted of 50 men at the time with all of them consisted of archivists, historians and conservators who volunteered to served the Xuantong Emperor to learn more about Chinese history. The Xuantong Emperor created the Qing Dynastic State of the Forbidden City’s passport which would only be reserved to those officially working in the Forbidden City though they need both the Forbidden City passport and the Chinese Federation passport if they wanted to travel overseas. The Xuantong Emperor works to create the Updated Manchu Dictionary which added new Manchu words alongside fixing grammars via methods such as phonetic transliteration, calquing (semantic translation), hybrid coinages, and adopting the original foreign terms. He also works to collect historical artifacts like oracle bones, bamboo and wooden slips, and Dunhuang manuscripts, all of which are invaluable materials for understanding ancient China. The Xuantong Emperor also created his own commemorative coins and stamps. The eunuchs are replaced by the Civil Servants in 1924. The Xuantong Emperor started investing early Chinese industrial stocks to boost their economy. During the time period between post-Revolution and World War 2, China was able to modernized the National Revolutionary Army a significant bit more, and also strengthened its economy and government institutions.

World War 2 broke out between the Chinese Federation and Japan. The military difference between China in this timeline and our timeline isn’t very massive, but noticeable enough to put up a much stronger resistance against Japan as the more senior officers of the NRA had training and preparation alongside the communist movement in China being very niche, eventually phasing out in the 1930s. Meanwhile, inside the Forbidden City, the Xuantong Emperor was approached several times by Japanese spies several times to became Emperor of Manchukuo. However, he wisely declined, seeing through their manipulation. When the Japanese are about to reached Beijing, the Forbidden City guards and the Federation agents smuggled the Xuantong Emperor and the rest of the historical artifacts inside the Forbidden City to Chongqing. The Xuantong Emperor use his medical staffs to help heal the wounded Chinese soldiers and used his writings to condemned Japanese imperialism, earning respect from the West and Chinese scholars. This shifted the perception of the Forbidden City from a feudal quirk to a genuine symbol of resistance. After World War 2 ended in 1945, the Xuantong Emperor officially modernized the official administrative structure of the Forbidden City to expand the Grand Council of Advisors to consist of 93 general advisors and 7 new ministries to help assist the Emperor. The Forbidden City’s administrative structures consisted of: The General Council of Advisors who advise the Xuantong Emperor, the Ministry of Archives which handles records, manuscripts, and later digitalization, the Ministry of Ritual and Ceremonies which handles ceremonies, etiquettes and court events, the Ministry of Treasury which handles tourism, licensing and investments, the Ministry of Genealogy which handles clan records and genealogy services, the Ministry of Antiquities which handles restoration and archaeology, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which handles partnerships with foreign museums and the Ministry of Language which handles Manchu language preservation and education.

For the rest of the Xuantong Emperor’s reign, he transformed the Forbidden City into a place renowned for artifact restoration, Qing court ceremonies, Manchu language preservation, genealogy services and imperial archives. They interact with foreign governments through museums, universities, heritage organizations, and cultural exchanges. He also initiated the Forbidden City Modernization Plan to implemented plumbing and electricity with the help of modern Chinese officials through electrical wires are placed in special underground paths, hidden floors, or kept away from the old building and plumbing through things such as supply and drain pipes run along the outside of the buildings, painted to match the red walls with shallow trenches being dug under the brick floor in outside hallways to hide the main drain pipes and bathrooms and sinks are placed only on outside walls to keep the pipes short and direct to the main lines. The Xuantong Emperor passed away in 1967, he was succeeded by Pujie or the Xiaolong Emperor. Under the Xiaolong Emperor’s reign, he created cultural ties with other nations such as Japan, the People’s Republic of Korea and Mongolia. He aimed to restored Qing archives, expanding genealogical services and building relationships with overseas Chinese. He also wrote his book called China: A Civilization, in which he argued that China as a concept is a vast multi-ethnic civilization shaped by long history of synthesis, acculturation and shared heritage, believing that the Chinese people are a fundamental moral unit and had the capacity to grow as a civilization if they unite rather than be divided, which garnered praise for championing linguistic, religious and cultural diversity. The Xiaolong Emperor passed away in 1994, he was succeeded by Puren or the Haoxuan Emperor. Under his reign, he aimed to digitize everything within the Forbidden City. He oversaw digital archive initiatives, imperial livestream ceremonies, created online genealogy registry, partnered with academies worldwide. The Forbidden City starts to grow economically via copyright laws regarding Qing-era imagery and licensing and producing Qing-era historical shows. He is the most active Emperor as he helps and collaborate with many studios to help produce and advise in the creations of many shows and games. The Haoxuan Emperor was succeeded by Aisin-Gioro Yuzhang or the Xianhui Emperor after his death in 2015.

Today, the current Emperor is the Xianhui Emperor or Aisin-Gioro Yuzhang since 2015. Today, the Qing Dynastic State of the Forbidden City or Forbidden City S.A.R. is a Special Administrative Region within the Chinese Federation. Ascending upon the death of his father, the Haoxuan Emperor, he was beloved for his reserved and calm demeanor, multilingual speeches, and historical knowledge. His popularity rose when during the Covid-19 pandemic where his livestreams provided comfort to many people across East Asia.

The point of divergence began in 1684 when the Kangxi Emperor ending the long-standing maritime trade ban, opening the coastal ports to foreign commerce, boosting international trade. With the advises of the Jesuits alongside the presence of British, Dutch and Portuguese traders, the Kangxi Emperor became more open in terms of foreign policies. With enough support from the court, the Kangxi Emperor initiated many education reforms. One of which was the Translation Project where he worked to translate many western works into Mandarin Chinese via methods such as phonetic transliteration, calquing (semantic translation), hybrid coinages, and adopting the original foreign terms, creating a Golden Era of the Enlightenment in the Qing Dynasty. The Qing Renaissance happened where Qing’s culture thrived. Meanwhile, the Jesuits managed to win the favor Pope Clement XI to authorize Chinese rites as civic rituals compatible with Catholicism. Future Emperors (the Yongzheng Emperor and the Qianlong Emperor) were educated on not just Confucian classics but also translated western works.

A new philosophy gained tractions amongst Kangxi’s court called State-Confucianism where they believed that Confucianism offers a superior framework for the moral way as it teaches people how to live ethnically while acknowledging that western excelled in mastering the physical world, creating material wealth. State-Confucianism acknowledges the superiority of western science and mathematics but criticizes western culture being stuck in it and believed Chinese philosophy offers higher moral unity that science could be guided by this wisdom to prevent human alienation. The philosophy also argued that since Confucianism values Ren (benevolence), State-Confucianism saw things such as western science and modern medicine can directly reduce human suffering, improve livelihoods and save lives, therefore True Confucianism should eagerly adopt science because it served as a powerful instrument to practice Ren on a massive scale. State-Confucianism became the main philosophy for the Qing.

The Qing starts to expand their territories such as securing Sakhalin in 1689 to create Kuyedao, alongside conquering Outer Mongolia in 1696 and Tibet in 1720 after defeating the Dzungar Mongols. When the Yongzheng Emperor took the throne, he initiated many of his reforms similar to the Kangxi Emperor such as improving government efficiency to reduce corruption such as implementing a revised Imperial Examination System which aimed to choose government officials based on merit, not family ties or wealth, modeling the system after Confucian principles and ensuring that officials were educated on both Confucian classics and western science while being morally sound and education reforms encouraged the study of Western languages and sciences. The Yongzheng Emperor also work to transition Qing’s army towards more modern weaponry, such as western guns and other firepower. The navy was also an important part of the Yongzheng Emperor’s plan, using newly developed weapons and technology. When the Qianlong Emperor took the throne, the Qing annexed Xinjiang in 1759 after defeating the Dzungar Khanate. During the Qianlong’s period, the Qing Dynasty was at its peak with the treasury overflowing, agricultural output soared and the population boomed. The Qianlong Emperor agreed to allowed the British to establish an embassy in the Qing Dynasty in 1793, allowing a faster growing movement in the reformist movement within the Qing’s court. Initially viewed favorably by the Emperor, Heshen was punished by the Qianlong Emperor to please growing reformist officials in his court. In his later reign, he establish the Imperial Army, which would replace the outdated Eight Banners System and to catch up with the West militarily.

In the early 1800s, the Qing saw agricultural reforms such as the Qing establishing agricultural schools in multiple provinces, translating western agronomy texts and sending scholars to study in the West to learn western agricultural techniques and agricultural technologies. The Qing also starts to gradually replace land gentries with methods such as replacing them with land registries to measure the exact land sizes and utilized high-paying salaries to lower-level judges that matched the market to avoid financial temptation, preventing them from making deals with powerful local landlords. The rest of the 1800s is where the Qing starts to manufacturing textile mills, armament factories and shipyards were built across the Qing alongside the construction of roads and ports to improve transport and agricultural productivity. The Qing eventually started to introduced western agricultural machinery to increase crop yields for agriculture alongside the government invested heavily into infrastructure and imported foreign technologies. The Qing eventually replaced the obsolete land gentries with salaried civil servants to collect the revenues. The Opium Wars and the Taiping Rebellion never happened or were suppressed quickly due to the Qing’s modernization. The Qing’s territory remains intact without the unequal treaties, meaning no Qing Cessions to foreign powers like British Hong Kong. Before 1867, Alaska was too expensive to protect, unprofitable, and vulnerable to being seized by Great Britain in a future war. With no U.S., Russia looked for alternatives. That’s when the Qing, under the Tongzhi Emperor and regent Prince Gong offered to purchase Alaska. Russia, out of desperation agreed. Alaska was sold to the Qing.

How would this affect THTNS universe?

Chrysanthemums blooming profusely in the mountains are expressed on the surface of the lid, and the meaning of a waka poem in Kokin Wakashu (A Collection of Ancient and Modern Japanese Poetry) is expressed with characters of the poem scattered on the inside of the box. It was created as a personal belonging of Emperor Meiji, the maki-e is by Ikeda Taishin (1825-1903), the poem characters are by Sanjo Sanetomi, and the design is by Kawabata Gyokusho.

This is an ornament reproducing a Rhodea Japonica in ceramic popular as a Bonsai (a dwarf tree) from the Edo to the Meiji period. The Rhodea Japonica itself and pot are made separately and Rhodea Japonica is placed directly on the soil. It was offered at the enthronement ceremony of Emperor Showa in 1928.

The crystal ball held by the dragon was originally a sacred treasure of Kanazakura Shrine (Kofu) that was presented to Emperor Meiji after being exhibited in the 1873 Vienna International Exhibition. Later, the dragon made to hold the ball, and the makie stand were produced by the Imperial Household Ministry. The dragon is silver, and the stand has designs modeled after Shosoin Treasures in maki-e and stone inlay.

Takamura Koun (1852-1934), a sculptor representative of the modern period who pursued realistic expressions of animals, and other images, using traditional wood carving skills that he studied under a Buddhist image sculptor. The bantam rooster was exhibited in the 1889 Nihon Bijutsu Kyokai (Japan Art Association) Exhibition, where it was purchased by Emperor Meiji. The bantam hen was created after this to join the rooster.

The major carved ivory piece by Ishikawa Mitsuaki (1852-1913) commissioned by Emperor Meiji, to be exhibited in the 1900 Paris International Exposition. It expresses a noble person who is just about to release a falcon for falconry, perched on his left arm. The details of the falcon and falconry equipment show the sculptor's superb carving techniques.

Three hanging scrolls presented from the Kaikei-kensa-in (Board of Audit) celebrating the 25th Imperial Wedding Anniversary of Emperor Meiji. The center scroll is a pair of cranes under the rising sun painted by Araki Kanpo (1831-
1915), and the left and right scrolls are pine, bamboo and plum blossoms known as 'Saikan no San-yu' (Three friends in winter). The mounting has aya (twill) cloth with silver leaf pressed on the top and bottom, and the scroll knobs are especially silver plated, in association with the silver wedding.

This jar was transmitted as an object excavated from Furumiya in Asuka Village, Nara Prefecture (Sakai Prefecture at that time ) in 1879, and bought by the Imperial Court next year. The place of excavation was the Imperial Palace of Emperor Suiko, which is assumed to be the location of Oharidanomiya Palace used until the Nara period. Recent investigation showed that an arabesque pattern and two pairs of birds considered to be phoenixes are expressed on nanako ground throughout the surface, meaning it was probably of produced for and used by a person of high rank.