History in this world diverged from ours sometime before 1695. Unfortunately, very little is known about the times that came before that date. What we do know is this: a war broke out between 5 great empires. Vassals and allies were drawn into the war, and before long the entire world was engulfed in war. Even native Americans were engaged with each other according to loyalties to European powers, and China and Japan engaged in their first major conflict for the past hundreds of years over the dispute. The war was disastrous, seeing the first use of chemical and chemical warfare. By the time a 'victor' had been found, most of our records were gone. It had been almost two generations past when the war ended in 1767. Two generations that spent their lives fighting wars as opposed to pursuing careers advancing or preserving what knowledge they had. The budding scientists, engineers and philosophers were forced to reverse-engineer what technology they had, and piece together the history they were never taught with what records remained. In the end, all the empires had broken up, and the world was even more politically divided than before.

The years between 1767 and 1836 were spent rebuilding and relearning. Small conflicts emerged, sure, but most people just weren't interested in fighting over land, for a little while anyway. By the time that most things had been reverse-engineered, however, that mindset had about expired. In 1839, the largest war since 1695 broke out between the Kingdom of France and the Dual-Monarchy of Prussia-Brandenburg. The Dual-Monarchy won, stripping France of their German-speaking territories, and using this victory as a stepping stone to form the German Empire, a confederation of kingdoms under the leadership of the Hohenzollern and Luxembourg monarchs. The Luxembourg monarch, William II, was unsatisfied with being secondary to the Hohenzollerns, and so demanded direct sovereignty over half of the federated kingdoms, and the establishment of a "one is none, two is one" agreement between William II von Luxembourg and Fredrick IV von Hohenzollern. Not wishing to agitate a war between the federated kingdoms and those under Luxembourg rule, he agreed. This would be a temporary solution.

1844, the Scots refused, for a third time, an offer of union with England. England, having reached the end of it's patience, invaded. The war was long and grueling, not reaching a conclusion until 1849, but the result was in the favor of the Scots. The border between the two nations was demilitarized, and Reperations were paid to Scotland. Scotland had long been an ally to France. England, seeking revenge, cuddled up with Germany. Ireland, scared of England as well, cuddled up with Scotland and France. Spain, afraid that France would seize their Catalonia territories, sides with England and Germany. Russia, who's history was a long series of violent invasions by the Germans, sided with France. By 1900, the world was on the brink of war, and with new industrialized weapons, it was looking to be as deadly as the war of 1695.

We'll finish this later.