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Authors: S.M. Stirling

Tags: #science fiction, #military

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1866-70 - Louis Pasteur, at Shahnapur Institute of Tropical
Medicine, establishes mosquito vector of malaria. World total
of private auto-steamers reaches 100,000, 75 percent of them
in Dominion of Draka. Panama Canal under construction.

Taiping Dynasty established in China, failure of effort to
modernize. Bismarck unites Germany. Antiseptic surgery,
anesthetics.

1865-68 -150,000 Confederate refugees settle in Dominion
ofDrakia. Central American Empire annexed by United States.

Freidrich Nietzsche immigrates to Domination.

1872 - Steam turbine perfected by Alexandrian
Technological Institute. First rigid dirigibles.

Archona and Alexandria become first cities to establish
telephone networks. Uruguay and Paraguay annexed by
Empire of Brazil. Columbia, Venezuela, and Ecuador establish
Republic of Grand Columbia. Australasian Federation unites
Australia, New Zealand. Electric lighting.

1879-82 -Anglo-Russian war, fought largely in Bulgaria and
Afghanistan. Dominion of Draka rescues British from defeat;
Odessa destroyed by Draka dirigible raid; worldwide
condemnation of 50,000 civilian casualties. Draka introduce
land mines, submarines, poison gas. Austro-German alliance
with Ottoman Empire, construction of Berlin-Baghdad railway

. Uprisings in Congo Basin result in large-scale deportations
and unrest.

1882 - First transAtlantic flight by Draka dirigible, from
Apollonaris (Dakar, Senegal) to Recife, Brazil. Women's
Auxiliary Corps made permanent part of Draka forces (in
noncomba-tant roles). Free population of Dominion reaches
10,000,000. Bondservant Identification and Control Act
requires fingerprinting and neck-tattooing of all serfs. Security
Directorate founded as successor to General Constabulary. Karl
von Shrakenberg born.

1883 - Revolt of serfs in textile mills of Alexandria
(Alexandria, Egypt) suppressed; 150,000 dead. Cape
Town-Alexandria railway completed.

1890 - Nomenclature Amendment Act makes popular term

"serf" for debt-peons official.

1891 - Libyan and Algerian oil fields discovered. Submachine
gun developed by Technical Section of Draka armed forces.

1892-86 -
Regular airship lines established in several
continents. Diesel engines come into general use for dirigible
and other special uses. Autostreamer output in U.S. surpasses
Dominion of Draka's for first time
.

1897 - Diskarapur Institute team achieves heavier-than-air
flight with steam-turbine aircraft. An internal-combustion
model flies in France a year later.

1898 - Hawaii, Cuba, and Philippines become states of U.S.

Guatemala and other Central American territories follow.

William Jennings Bryan President.

1899 - Military reform in England produces general election.

Chinese-Japanese war; Japan annexes Formosa, Hainan,
Korea, several ports. Thermionic valve invented. Radio
broadcasts.

1900 - Japanese-British naval alliance. Anglo-German naval

'dirigible armaments race begins. Germany, Austria, and
Turkey sign Triple Alliance. France and Russia form Double
Entente. Britain begins staff talks with France. Motion pictures
with sound become common in U.S., shortly later, elsewhere.

1905 - Russo-Japanese war, catastrophic Russian defeat;
first instance of battleships sunk by aerial bombardment.

Japan annexes Manchuria, establishes quasi-protectorate over
weak Taiping government of China; attempts at occupation
bog down. Revolution in Russia produces limited constitutional
monarchy, administrative chaos. Experimentation with
internal combustion engine for ground
transport,
esp. for
military purposes. Wars in Balkans, etc. Women declared liable
for peacetime conscription for noncombatant and second-line
tasks in Domination. Steam turbine used for railways
.

1914 - Dominion of Draka has free population of
28,000,000; serfs, 210,000,000. Total population of U.S.

reaches 140,000,000. GNP of both nearly identical, but with
great differences in distribution, etc.

1914-19 - Great War between Triple Alliance and Entente
powers (joined by U.S. in 1917, under President Theodore
Roosevelt). Draka defeat Austrian and Turkish forces, occupy
Middle East, Thrace, Bulgaria. Widespread use of dirigible
bombers, firestorms and poison-gas bombardments. Biplane
pursuit fighters developed as defense. Civilian casualties in the
500,000-3,000,000 range in all major combatants except the
Draka and U.S. Revolution in Russia followed by Draka seizure
of Central Asia, much of western China. Turbocompound
engine developed; antibiotics, self-loading rifles, portable
machine guns. Tank introduced on stalemated Western Front
by both sides in 1916. John von Shrakenberg born.

1918 - Eric von Shrakenberg born. Draka Women's Auxiliary
Corps abolished; women integrated into military. More
noncombat and near-combat tasks opened to female personnel.

1919 - Unconditional surrender of Germany. Peace of
Versailles. Draka refuse mediation of Powers, annex all
conquests, enter period of economic and diplomatic isolation;
last ties with Britian cut off, "Domination" becomes offirial
title. U.S. also enters isolationist phase. Defeat of attempt at
Prohibition in U.S. Marijuana becomes major social problem,
Mexican gangsters prominent in many cities. "Jazz Age.'

1920-22 - Second Russian Civil War between rivals to
succeed Lenin. Stalin victorious. "Hermit Kingdom" established,
forced-draft industrialization.

1921 - Mussolini takes power in Italy, seizes Dalmatian coast
and Montenegro. Japanese dethrone last Taiping emperor and
annex all of China not overrun by Draka.

1925 - Domination invades and annexes Afghanistan.

Prolonged resistance results in death of 65 percent of
population; wars of pacification in other areas of New
Territories. Gradual abolition of remaining restrictions on
female personnel in Draka armed forces, with complete
unification in 1933. Fuel cell developed as power source;
experimental use in submarines. Hormonal contraceptives.

Advances in quantum theory.

1930 - Stock market crisis leads to mild but chronic recession
outside Domination. First chain reaction observed.

Closed-circuit television. Eva and Asa von Shrakenberg born.

Death of Mary von Shrakenberg.

1932 - Hitler elected with majority in Germany. F.D.

Roosevelt elected President in U.S.; declares "New Deal" for
lower classes, Hispanics, etc. Limited recovery.

1936-37 - Civil war in Spain; defeat of Nationalists by 1937.

Soviet Republic of Spain established. Germany takes Austria.

French and British abandon Czechoslovakia; Sudeten War
follows. Clashes on Draka-Japanese and Draka-Soviet borders.

Experiments with electrodetection (radar) in several countries.

Domination begins long-term project to harness nuclear
energy. Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi move to U.S.

1939 - France and Britain guarantee Poland. Eurasian War
begins. Nazi-Japanese alliance. Transistor invented in Toronto,
State of Ontario. First commerical tape recorder.

1940 - Fall of France. Battle of Britain ends in stalemate;
Nazi submarines effectively close Atlantic. Japanese aggression
in Southeast Asia produces severe tension with
U.S.,
Australasian Federation
.

1941 - Domination attacks Italy with tacit consent of
Germany. Germany attacks and defeats Soviet Union. Moscow
falls October 1; Germans reach Urals and Caucasus by first
snow. Imperial Japan attacks U.S. on December 3rd, occupies
eastern Siberia, destroys entire American Pacific Fleet in Pearl
Harbor. Hawaii, Philippines overrun, West Coast raided,
landings made in Panama. U.S. declares war on Japan and
Germany.

1942 - January - March: Hawaii overrun by Japanese;
widespread atrocities. Philippines conquered; Japanese begin
roundup of 900,000 'North Americans' (U.S. citizens from the
mainland states); West Coast raided, Aca-pulco bombarded by
battleships lead by
Ya
mato, landings made in Panama
.

April: Draka airborne legions sieze passes over Caucasus
mountains.

German Sixth Army surrenders. Battle of the Kuban;
massive armoured engagements. Leapfrogging pincer
movements combined with offensive from northwest
Kazakhstan shatter German Army Group South. Draka
amphibious forces land in Crimea. In September, another front
is opened in Balkans, with Draka attack out of the Domination's
Bulgarian province. By October, all of the Ukraine is in Draka
hands, and the Germans are forced to withdraw their Army
Group Center to the eastern frontiers of Poland.

November: Belgrade falls to Arch-Strategos Edgar Tulls 4th
Army. Arch-Strategos Estetie Finbogasson's 7th Army reaches
Hungarian frontier. Draka airborne forces sieze Trieste, reach
Adriatic. Ten divisions of German troops cut off in Serbia;
many escape to mountains, join partisan forces of Mihailovic.

December: Dec. 15, Hitler dies

officially of heart attack,
actually poisoned by agents of Admiral Canaris, head of
German Military Intelligence. Coalition government of
military, Nazi party, SS and anti-nazi conservatives takes
power, with Herman Goering as Chancellor. ("Fuhrer" is
declared a unique position which only the inspired Adolf Hitler
could bear.) New regime promises increased autonomy for
west Europeans (although persecution of Jews continues as
quid pro quo
for unreconstructed Nazi elements) and calls on
all Europeans to rally to Germany for defense against the
Draka, sends peace feelers to U.S. and Britain. Domination
secretly threatens to ally with Japan if Western powers make a
separate peace with Germany. America and U.K. remain
technically at war with Third Reich. Indian National Congress
takes power in India, declares independence and neutrality.

Widespread support from France, Belgium, Scandinavia for
new German government. Soviet Republic of Spain remains
neutral.

1942-43 - Both sides in European war pause; the Draka have
outrun their logistic train and are frantically building up
supplies and repairing road-rail links in the territories behind
their lines. Germany has lost 2,500,000, dead and prisoner,
plus most of the heavy equipment stationed in the East and
much productive capacity. Scores of new French, Belgian,
Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Swiss divisions are
raised. Minor ground action and intensive air action along
front lines.

Technological developements 1940-1943: milli-metric wave
radar. Reaction-jet fighters in Domination, Germany, U.K.,
U.S. Helicopters deployed for observation, casualty evacuation
by Draka, U.S., Germany. Draka test prototype tiltrotor VTOL

transport, VTOLjet with plenum-chamber boost. Fuel-cell
powered submarines by Germany, U.S. All-transistor
programable digital computer (U.S., 1943); first nuclear power
reactors, plutonium (Domination 1941, U.S. 1942). Long-range
liquid fuel rockets, Germany. Television-guided glide bombs,
radar-guided cruise missiles (U.S. Both crude, but useable.)
1943 -
U.S. jet fighters and glide bombs inflict severe defeat
on Japanese navy in Battle of the Sea ofCortez, defeat attempt
to land in Baja California. Japanese evicted from Panama
Canal Zone. South American powers sign first Treaty of Rio
with U.S., declare war on Axis and co-ordinate economic,
diplomatic policy. U.S. submarine fleet begins destruction of
Japanese merchant marine on huge scale. U.S., Brazilian,
Australasian forces totalling 2,000,000 defeat Japanese in
New Guinea (a highly-developed area in Domination's timeline)
and begin offensive into Indonesia. U.S. surface navy reappears
in Pacific, together with British forces. Tension and skirmishes
but no full-scale warfare between Domination and Japanese
Empire on land frontiers in Asia. Vast economic mobilization in
Western hemisphere, armament production ofU.S.-U.K.-S

American-Australasian Alliance For Democracy outpaces
Domination and Third Reich combined
.

April-September: German counter-offensive is allowed to
penetrate central Rumania, then cut off by Draka. Draka
attack on 1,000-mile front, intially mostly with Janissary
forces. Armoured breakthrough into central Poland followed by
attack to Baltic; German forces in East Prussia cut off. Some
rocket-research project personnel (e.g. von Braun) and much
equipment evacuated to Bordeaux, France. Others siezed by
Draka, turned over to Technical Section. Bohemia, Hungary
overrun; Janissaries enter outskirts of Budapest on June 1,
Vienna on September 10. Both sides now using nerve-gas, jet
and rocket-propelled fighters, long-distance rockets.

BOOK: Marching Through Georgia
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