This is the beginnings of an AU between me and APDAF. We're slowly hammering it out.
In this AU, aircraft never took off. The internal combustion engine is going to appear much later, so we're stuck with steam engines till then. It's mostly going to be airships. I may have an Airship carrier.
Its got a slightly ridiculous series of events, but it's just a divergent timeline, so whatever. Anyway, here we go:
The Germano-British Empire
![[ img ]](http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/535/germanbritishempire.png)
The first signs of the formation of the Germano-British Empire were a series of alliances made in the 1880's, which brought the two nations together for mutual military support. The pressures put upon the two nations by the combined aggressive stances of the French and the Russians against the two major imperialist nations. The signing of the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1892 pushed the two nations even closer together, and they began combining their ship design bureau's together, aiming for a fleet that could function well together if aggression did break out between the two alliance blocs. By 1904, the Royal Navy and the Kaiserliche Marine were essentially indistinguishable in both design and capability, and when they were brought together into one fighting unit, they were building almost almost 50% of the worlds battleships and battlecruisers, compared to only 18% at the hands of the Franco-Russian alliance. This had slipped slightly by 1910, but the two nations still held a significant advantage in fleet size.
The outbreak of war in 1914 began with a dispute between the Austrian nation and partisans in the Balkan's who held Russian support. The involvement of the Austrians brought the Germans into the war, and muttual defence agreements meant the British had no option but to support their allies. It was the beginning of a long and bloody war, and one that would see the combined Germano-British fleets sent into the heart of the battle...
![[ img ]](http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/411/canopusmod.png)
