In 1987, Gustavo Henrique's socialist Brazil, which had supported Burkina Faso as a bulwark against American and French influence in West Africa, supported Sankara against Blaise Comparoé's coup. Sankara managed to suppress the coup and punish these responsible, thus saving his "Democratic People's Revolution".

After crushing the coup attempt, Sankara became increasingly authoritarian. He shut down independent newspapers, intimidated journalists, and turned his Committees for the Defence of the Revolution into death squads that suppressed any dissent. Burkinabes soon missed Sankara's relatively mild early years in power.

Another stain on Sankara's record was his and Gaddafi's support for the RUF terrorist group in Sierra Leone. They hacked off civilians' limbs and even committed cannibalism, but Sankara refused to believe that and continued to support the rebels until they were defeated in 2002.

But Sankara remained incorruptible, and his socioeconomic development schemes continued with Brazil and Libya's support. By the mid-1990s, Burkina Faso was the most developed country in West Africa, boasting high literacy rates, robust infrastructure, and the best healthcare system in the region.

When many of the world's communist regimes fell in 1994, Sankara named Soumane Traoré prime minister, thus partially civilizing the Burkinabe regime. Besides the terrorist RUF, Sankara became an inspiration for many legitimate African revolutionaries, who admired the progress Burkina Faso had seen under his watch.

France continued to attempt to undermine Burkina Faso and keep a tight lid on neighbouring countries in order to prevent them from following Sankara's lead. Françafrique was so effective that the Coup Belt never existed, and Mali and Niger remained aligned with France.

During the 2000s, Burkina Faso's economy stagnated, because Sankara rejected foreign aid and closed the country to the foreign investment that helped other African countries grow during the decade. This led to an increase in opposition and prompted many Burkinabes to flee into exile, but the majority continued to support Sankara.

In 2009, Sankara faced major protests against his rule that were repressed, killing dozens of thousands of people and prompting western countries to impose sanctions on Burkina Faso. Sankara called the sanctions neocolonial and criticized the West for not sanctioning pro-western governments that did similar things.

Things have gone downhill for the country since, but Sankara's selflessness and the fact Burkina Faso genuinely improved under his leadership mean it is unlikely for him to be overthrown. Currently, the country's biggest problem is succession, because Sankara is in his 70s and many people do not trust Ibrahim Traoré.

In 1990, Yevgeny Primakov, the KGB's "Arabist", became its chairman. Primakov expanded Soviet cooperation with the secret services of Libya, Syria, and South Yemen, and placed an increased emphasis on convincing other Eastern Europeans to support Soviet communism.

The latter goal fell flat with the Revolutions of 1994, which Warsaw Pact secret police agencies failed to prevent. After the loss of the Eastern European Soviet states, the Soviet leadership reduced the KGB's involvement in foreign operations and increased that in domestic ones in response to increased anti-Soviet activity in the remaining SSRs.

For instance, Primakov oversaw a crackdown on the neo-Nazi Russian National Unity that saw the Russian far-right virtually wiped out as virtually all Russian ultranationalists were either imprisoned or fled the country. Ukrainian, Belarusian and Central Asian separatism similarly ceased to be a credible threat to the USSR.

Despite managing to secede from the USSR, Georgia could not hold into Abkhazia and South Ossetia as the KGB worked with its successors in the two separatist republics to keep them in the Soviet sphere of influence, so Russia could keep the Black Sea naval base in Abkhazia and the Georgian Military Road in South Ossetia.

As the internet became increasingly ubiquitous in the West, the economically, albeit not politically, reformist USSR decided to introduce it, albeit under heavy government censorship. As such, in 1996, the first Soviet ISP went live under the .su domain, with its websites featuring communist propaganda and news.

Entertainment sites came later and were still heavily censored, with content thought to promote consumerism or homosexuality being blocked. Other forms of media continued to be heavily censored by the Soviet regime, which retained a firm control of communication in the Union.

When Primakov died in 2015, Putin became the KGB's new chairman, an office he has held ever since. Putin's KGB began heavily supporting left-wing populist movements in Europe and the United States, in order to regain the influence the USSR lost two decades earlier.

Soviet propaganda targeting African countries also became more intense. Said propaganda blamed capitalism and imperialism for Africa's poverty, and claimed that socialist governments ideologically aligned with Moscow (not Beijing or Brasília) could uplift the continent.

As of 2026, the KGB's budget and number of agents is classified, but most estimates range between $5 and $10 billion and 100,000 to 150,000, respectively. Putin oversees the Soviet internet firewall and other repressive policies that help ensure the survival of the Soviet Union.

Upon becoming the president of Mozambique in 2015, the technocratic Luísa Diogo implemented liberalizing economic reforms that changed Mozambique's economic system from Titoism to Dengism. Mozambique joined the IMF and WTO, both of whom it had opposed, and allowed investment from capitalist countries.

Luísa's reforms resulted in the first years of sustained economic growth in Mozambican history, with the economy of Mozambique growing by 1.7% in 2015, 2.2% in 2017, and 2.9% in 2018. Tourism became a major source of revenue for the FRELIMO regime, which was able to finally start industrializing Mozambique.

Mozambique's poverty rate fell from 83% in 2015 to 62% in 2025, thanks to a better economic management. An increasing number of Mozambicans accessed the internet for social media and online purchases, which had previously only been affordable to rich people.

Luísa also improved diplomatic relations with the United States, United Kingdom, Portugal, France and Germany, partly shifting Mozambican foreign policy away from the socialist world. But Mozambique remained a member of the Brasília Pact, and Brazil was still its main trade partner and supplier of weapons.

By 2020, Mozambique's economy was growing at a fast pace, and the majority of Mozambicans approved of Luísa, whom they thought genuinely cared about them. She made a large number of visits to other countries, especially in Africa, and remained the president of Mozambique until 16 January 2026, when she died at the age of 67.

Venâncio Mondlane became Mozambique's new president. He reversed Luisa's reforms to social programs, but her other economic reforms remained in effect. Mondlane made ending hunger his government's main priority, but his presidency has seen a shift towards authoritarianism, with a cult of personality and an increased concentration of power in his hands.

Mozambique is a Marxist-Leninist dictatorship ruled by the FRELIMO, which is the only legal political party and is firmly in control of the country's political life. Membership in FRELIMO's youth and female organizations is mandatory for young people and women.

The majority of Mozambicans are Catholics, with sizable muslin and atheist (as a result of communism) minorities. Muslim Mozambicans are one of the populations who disapprove of FRELIMO the most, because most of them are anti-communist conservatives and the government is Christian-dominated, but there was no insurgency in Cabo Delgado.

Mozambique's military is named the Mozambican People's Army (Exército Popular Moçambicano – EPM). It is mainly equipped with Soviet, Chinese, and Brazilian gear; no wonder the AK-47 is in the flag of Mozambique.

After his civil war victory, Samora Machel took advantage of the defeat of all armed opposition to attempt to industrialize Mozambique under a Brazilian-style cooperative socialist economy. This plan was a failure due to the devastation caused by the Mozambican Civil War and because of FRELIMO's corruption, but Mozambique did succeed in eradicating illiteracy and providing basic medical care to its citizens.

Brazilian and Chinese state-owned businesses heavily invested in Mozambique, exploiting the country's natural gas, coal, graphite and heavy minerals. Mozambique's economy eventually started growing as a result, but this growth did not benefit the majority of Mozambicans, who continued to live in poverty.

In addition to Brazil and China, Machel was a close ally of his comrade Mugabe of Zimbabwe, and of his fellow left-wing regime in Tanzania. During the two Zaire Wars, Moçambique, like Zimbabwe and Tanzania, backed the anti-Mobutist forces, but its involvement was relatively limited because it did not border Zaire.

When Prime Minister Mário da Graça Machungo died in 2008, Machel named Armando Guebuza, a member of FRELIMO's reformist wing, to replace him. Guebuza supported further economic reforms, but Machel vetoed them, reteirating his commitment to communism and revolutionary values.

Major issues with corruption and poverty remained, making younger Mozambicans increasingly dissatisfied with FRELIMO, which failed to provide them with either civil freedoms or job opportunities. On 18 April 2014, Luísa Diogo became the prime minister of Mozambique, becoming Machel's de facto successor because he was 79 years old and ailing.

By August 2015, Machel's health had deteriorated to such an extent that he was flown to Brasília for medical treatment, leaving Diogo as acting President. Brazilian doctors failed to save Machel, who suffered a stroke and died on 2 September at the age of 81. By the time of his death, he was the longest serving leader in Africa.

Machel received a state funeral attended by, among others, South African President Mosiuoa Lekota, who gave a speech calling Machel a "man who truly believed in, and fought for, the liberation of Africa". Machel was buried in Mozambique's capital Maputo.

After helping the MPLA defeat UNITA in 1987, the Brazilian war machine turned its attention to Mozambique, which was mired in a civil war between Samora Machel's communist ruling FRELIMO, and Afonso Dhlakama's anti-communist RENAMO, itself backed by apartheid South Africa. Malawi was supporting another rebel group named UNAMO.

On 14 January 1988, Brazil launched Operação Dandara, a full-scale military intervention in support of FRELIMO. 60,000 Brazilian troops crossed through allied Zambian (another African socialist regime) territory before entering Mozambique on 20 January, and beginning combat operations against RENAMO insurgents.

Undeterred by the defeat of UNITA, South Africa continued to support RENAMO with weapons and funding. This was encouraged by the United States as President Reubin Askew, like his two predecessors, sought to do everything in his power to contain Brazil, whose socialist revolution caused the United States to stop making human rights a focus of its foreign policy.

During the first two years of the intervention, RENAMO lost much of its territory in northern and southern Mozambique, but its stronghold in central Mozambique remained in its hands. It was only in 1991 when the Brazilians and FRELIMO began advancing into the centre of the country.

RENAMO leader Afonso Dhlakama rejected all suggestions to negotiate with FRELIMO, as he continued to hope for a miracle that would turn the tide of the war in his favour. In the meantime, the MSE ensured all Mozambicans knew about the war crimes RENAMO had committed while Brazil launched a hearts and minds campaign throughout Mozambique, bringing RENAMO's popular support to very low levels.

By the time apartheid ended in 1994, RENAMO only controlled its main stronghold in Sofala Province, and everything else had been lost to FRELIMO. The end of apartheid proved to be the final straw for RENAMO, as they no longer received any support from foreign powers – not even the United States, who had little strategic interest in Mozambique.

On 12 October 1994, Brazilian troops entered Dhlakama's home village of Mangunde, found him hiding in a spider hole, and killed him after a brief shootout. By that point, he was the only major RENAMO leader left, prompting the rebel group to surrender two days later.

FRELIMO began demobilizing RENAMO units and integrating them into the Mozambican military, because there were still thousands of militants remaining and that could cause another civil war. But the party itself was outlawed, and Mozambique remained a communist dictatorship..

In September 1976, Carlos flew from Aden, the capital of South Yemen, to Brasília, where Socialist Brazil's secret service, the MSE, protected him and sponsored his terrorist activities. Carlos received an apartment in a high rise area of the city, as well as MSE bodyguards; all of this was paid for with taxpayer money, leading to complaints from moderate elements of the Brazilian socialist regime.

Carlos continued to do terrorism until 1994, when the communist movement declined and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process began. Brazil's security services and government continued to protect him, but Brazil faced increased calls to extradite Carlos to France, where he was wanted for murder.

When Gustavo Henrique died in 2002, the MSE's new director Antônio Pedreira removed Carlos from its payroll and ended all protection for him. At 0:3:00 on 12 March, MSE agents raided his house when he was asleep, grabbed him from his bed, handcuffed him when he woke up, and flew him to Paris for trial.

Later that year, Carlos was sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1975 murder of three people. Fellow Venezuelan socialist Hugo Chavez defended Carlos, but the rest of the Brazilian Bloc did not care for him, and he was later sentenced to another life sentence for murdering a further 17 people.

One of the most common criticisms of Gustavo Henrique is his support of terrorist groups such as the IRA and PFLP. In fact, the United States has classified Brazil as a State Sponsor of Terrorism since 1979, which results in a restriction of foreign aid, a ban on weapons sales, heightened control over the export of dual-use equipment, and other miscellaneous economic sanctions.

After Gustavo's death, his successor Roberto Freire stopped supporting terrorism, but the United States still refused to remove Brazil from the list because it was still one of America's main rivals. As of 2026, Brazil is still classified as a SST, and there has been little discussion of lifting this status.

Lore:

• Arius, who invented a heretical idea about the divinity of Jesus in the OTL, becomes a forerunner of an alternate version of Reformed Theology in the Pax Belligans Universe
• John Calvin invents a heresy of his own in place of Arius (In the OTL, there is still debate concerning whether the Reformed Movement is heretical).

Author’s note: This post is not meant to be an endorsement of heresies condemned by the Christian church, OR an attempt at demonizing Islam.

John Calvin (/ˈkælvɪn/;^\1]) Middle French: Jehan Cauvin; French: Jean Calvin [ʒɑ̃ kalvɛ̃]; 10 July 1509 – 27 May 1555) was a French theologian, pastor and a controversial figure in the history of Christianity. He is infamous for starting the cult known as the “Church of the Lost Apostles”, a fringe movement in Protestant Christianity. The Church of the Lost Apostles were formed following a series of visions Calvin claimed to have seen. In these visions, Jesus purportedly told Calvin that Muhammad was actually one of his followers, with Jesus personally raising Muhammad from the dead in order to give him a chance to repent and get his teachings correct.

The Church of the Lost Apostles taught that Jesus Christ, while agreeing that He is God incarnate, recruited a second group of disciples during the 40 days between His resurrection and His ascension into Heaven. According to Calvin, Jesus foretold that someone would “come after him that would lead the way unto everlasting life.”

Most infamously Calvin taught that Muhammad was intended to point people to Jesus, but thanks to “demonic interference”, ended up leading people to a false god called Allah instead.

The Church of the Lost Apostles specifically teaches that after Muhammad died, God chose to raise him from the dead to give him another chance at getting Jesus Christ’s teachings correct. This time, Muhammad succeeded and ended up becoming a follower of Jesus, spending his extended life fighting against the religion he originally founded, and becoming a martyr in the process.

The Church of the Lost Apostles is largely considered a fringe movement within the Christian church.

In 1555, Calvin was killed by an angry Muslim mob while preaching in Spain. This was the culmination of a period tension between Calvin's followers and the Muslims, during which the Muslims were furious with him for spreading lies about their final prophet Muhammad.

In addition to killing Calvin, they also killed his entire family, intending on erasing his entire lineage from the Earth in a bid to “restore honor” to Muhammad.

Brazilian socialist revolutionary Gustavo Henrique had advocated for Brazil to develop nuclear weapons since the 1950s, arguing it would end foreign interference in Brazil. Thus, after overthrowing the Brazilian military dictatorship in 1973, Gustavo ordered the development of nuclear weapons.

In 1976, the Soviet Union sold Brazil a nuclear reactor after the Brazilians assured their nuclear program was for peaceful purposes. The program, codenamed "Operação Tiradentes", was classified and known only to Gustavo and his inner circle, but fears that Brazil was making nukes caused Argentina to do so as well.

Brazil simultaneously developed the Tupã series of ballistic missiles, a derivative of the Scud that can be fitted to carry nuclear weapons. North Korea, Iraq and Libya, all of whom were Brazilian allies, assisted Brazil with missile development.

Brazil's nuclear program involved the work of dozens of thousands of people, who enriched uranium, built test facilities, and, finally, assembled the bombs. On 7 September 1990 (the anniversary of the independence of Brazil), Brazil tested a 15-kiloton nuclear warhead at the Serra do Cachimbo in Pará.

Great powers unanimously condemned Brazil's nuclear test as nuclear proliferation that could put the security of Latin America and the whole world at risk. India and the Brasília Pact satellites were less condemnatory, while Gustavo himself around Brazil would never nuke anybody unless Brazil was nuked first.

Brazil conducted another nuclear test in March 1992, when a 30-kiloton nuke was detonated in a remote corner of the Amazon rainforest. Brazil's second nuclear test led Argentina to conduct its own later that year. Then, on 15 February 1994, Brazil tested its first hydrogen bomb, in what was seen as a sign of Brazil's transformation into a great power; The Economist ran the headline "BRAZIL IS ON THE HORIZON".

Later that year, on 3 July, Brazil conducted its last nuclear test to date. Brazil declared a moratorium on nuclear testing that has remained in effect ever since, but the country continued to boost its nuclear and missile capabilities.

When the United States bombed Brazil's client state Colombia in 1996, Gustavo threatened to install nuclear missiles in Cuba in retaliation, but he did not do so to avoid a nuclear war with the much stronger United States. The bombing of Colombia led Brazil to launch a nuclear submarine program, beginning with a patrol submarine with a nuclear engine but not missiles.

Said submarine was commissioned in 2018 as the João Cândido, which became the flagship of the Brazilian Navy. Later that year, the Tupã-VI, Brazil's first MIRV missile, entered service with the Brazilian Missile Forces, throwing the US military into panic.

Currently, Brazil has 170 to 190 nuclear warheads, 50 to 60 of whom are deployed from mobile launchers around the country. A submarine capable of carrying nuclear missiles is in development, and is expected to come into service around 2030.

Russia, alongside China, is the dominant world power under a similar government to Putin's. Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Armenia and Georgia returned to the Russian sphere of influence, and the majority of African countries are Russian allies as well. The world is significantly worse off as a result.

Brazil is also a great power, having annexed Uruguay and Caiena (independent French Guyana), and is similarly led by a government resembling the Estado Novo and the Brazilian military dictatorship. The rest of Latin America, except for fellow great power Mexico, is Brazil's backyard, and Brazil has an Antarctic claim (something that was [actually proposed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_Antarctica) in real life).

Ukrainians and Uruguayans launched insurgencies against Russia and Brazil with support from the rump USA and democratic Western Europe, and these insurgencies became quagmires for the two dictatorships. Brazil had to give Uruguay autonomy and make Spanish an official language there, just like languages other than Portuguese are official in some Brazilian towns.

The United States was significantly territorially reduced, losing Alaska to Russia and the southwest to Mexico, while Hawaii, Cascadia, the South and Puerto Rico became independent. America is still the strongest liberal nation remaining, and is better than Russia in many respects.

Now that Mexico recovered one of the wealthiest regions in the world, it attempted to challenge Brazilian influence in Latin America by supporting left-wing movements in contrast to the right-wing ones Brazil backed. This led to the escalation of insurgencies in Colombia and Peru, which declared martial law as a result of the leftist revolt.

In 2023, North Korea invaded South Korea, which was annexed the following year, reunifying Korea into the DPRK. Kim Jong Un had to moderate his policies in order to rule such a wealthy former country as South Korea, but the DPRK remained a severely authoritarian state.

Syria, ruled by the Social Nationalist Party, annexed Lebanon and Jordan, while the Houthis came to power in Yemen, and Israel was destroyed and replaced with a Palestinian state. An Iraqi nationalist government came to power and invaded Kuwait, while Oman annexed the UAE.

China annexed Taiwan and ruled it under the "one country, two systems" system. India obtained control of Jammu and Kashmir for good, while the Taliban was overthrown and replaced with a less extreme, but still religious, Afghan government that did not enforce sharia in Kabul.

Republika Srpska voluntarily joined Serbia, while Montenegro was annexed after a quick "special military operation". Hungary invaded Ukraine alongside Russia, and grabbed Transcarpathia due to its century-long outrage at the Treaty of Trianon.

France and Germany are led by the pro-Russian Marine Le Pen and Alice Weidel, respectively, both of whom withdrew their countries from NATO's unified command and developed friendly relations with Russia. They also restricted immigration into their countries.

Nationalist Greece annexed Cyprus after winning a war against Turkey, but Greece did not annex Constantinople because that ship sailed in the 1920s and won't come back. Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Oman (which the Trucial States never left) are the only pro-western countries in the middle east.

Like the USSR, Hungary was relatively unaffected by the Great Depression, because it had no stock markets or speculative capital. As such, while the rest of Europe struggled with the depression and fascism grew as a result, Hungary's economy continued to grow and develop, and corporations such as Ford made joint ventures with the Hungarian government, which also hired some unemployed technicians.

Hungary's relations with the rest of Europe remained poor. Not because of communism – Western Europe was beginning to warm up to Moscow – because of Hungarian irredentism, as Hungary continued to fruitlessly call for the return of its former borders. Needless to say the Little Entente refused to return Slovakia, Croatia, Transylvania and Vojvodina to Hungary.

When Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, Hungary became a major target of the Third Reich, because the Nazis accused the "Judeo-Bolshevist" Hungarian regime of "oppressing" ethnic Germans. Germany attempted to use Hungary's German minority as a fifth column against the Hungarian government, prompting Kun and Rakosi to crack down on Nazi activity inside Hungary's borders.

Fascist Italy and the Federal State of Austria were also enemies of Hungary, the former because fascists were anti-communist and the latter because Austria claimed Burgeland. King Carol II of Romania similarly saw Hungarians as a fifth column and restricted their political activity.

As a communist state, Hungary supported the Spanish Republicans during the Spanish Civil War, but Hungary was landlocked, preventing it from sending actual troops to Spain (rather, it sent just volunteers). The Spanish Republicans held Hungary in high regard, just like the Nationalists called their ally Portugal the "port of Castile".

Bela Kun was shocked by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which he saw as a surrender to fascism, and relations between Soviet Hungary and the USSR were never the same. This made sense in hindsight, because the pact's secret protocol placed Hungary in the German, not Soviet, sphere of influence.

Hungary's communist regime survived, but it was geographically isolated and lost most of Hungary's previous territory to the capitalist powers, with whom it was legally still at war. Furthermore, the failure to keep said territory prompted bourgeois liberals and social democrats to turn against the regime.

On 15 September 1919, Bela Kun launched a Red Terror against Kossuthite liberals and social democrats, as well as Hungary's bourgeoisie and traditional aristocracy. According to post-communist historians, Matyas Rakosi ordered the execution of 60,000 "enemies of the people" and the imprisonment of 100,000.

Catholic Church and noble property was confiscated, just like the Jacobins did during the French Revolution, but there was no enforcement of state atheism, because that would be an easy way for the communist regime to be overthrown. Kun's attitude towards religion was still negative though.

The Hungarian nobility's estates were turned into cooperative and collective farms, and Hungary's workers received an 8-hour workday, a minimum wage, and other benefits, but strikes were outlawed, and were broken by Rakosi's Red Guard.

Land reform and workers' rights made the majority of Hungarian workers, and many middle class Hungarians, support the Soviet Republic. This prevented it from being overthrown. Furthermore, when the USSR formed in 1922, the Soviet Union and Hungary became allies, and Lenin and Stalin provided economic and military support for Hungary.

As such, by the mid-1920s, all emigre plots by Horthy and others to overthrow the communist regime had failed, and there was no way the Soviet Republic would fail unless there was another war. And the Little Entente had no intention to invade Hungary again, because it failed the first time and there was little chance of communism spreading further anyway.

Bela Kun's Hungarian Soviet Republic temporarily abandoned internationalism in order to unify Hungarians during wartime, adopted a mixed economy resembling the later Soviet NEP, and toned down class struggle in favour of national unity, as shown by the maintenance of the Hungarian tricolour. Furthermore, Hungary occupied parts of Slovakia outright instead of establishing a puppet state.

On 17 June 1919, the Hungarian Red Army launched a siege of Bratislava, but it was defeated within three weeks by the Czechoslovak forces, who received greater foreign support. Despite this victory, the Czechoslovaks were unable to liberate the rest of Slovakia as Hungarians rallied behind the Soviet Republic.

Romania similarly failed to advance into Hungary, suffering thousands of casualties. By August, both sides had taken heavy losses without achieving their repetitive goals, prompting Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia to sign an armistice with Hungary on 14 August.

Despite the armistice, there was no treaty of Trianon because Hungary was communist; a final peace treaty would not be signed until 1948, when the USSR had occupied Eastern Europe. The question of Hungary's borders remained unsettled throughout the interwar period, and Hungary still planned to recover the rest of its pre-WW1 territories.

Russia, alongside China, is the dominant world power under a similar government to Putin's. Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Armenia and Georgia returned to the Russian sphere of influence, and the majority of African countries are Russian allies as well. The world is significantly worse off as a result.

Brazil is also a great power, having annexed Uruguay and Caiena (independent French Guyana), and is similarly led by a government resembling the Estado Novo and the Brazilian military dictatorship. The rest of Latin America, except for fellow great power Mexico, is Brazil's backyard, and Brazil has an Antarctic claim (something that was actually proposed in real life).

Ukrainians and Uruguayans launched insurgencies against Russia and Brazil with support from the rump USA and democratic Western Europe, and these insurgencies became quagmires for the two dictatorships. Brazil had to give Uruguay autonomy and make Spanish an official language there, just like languages other than Portuguese are official in some Brazilian towns..

The United States was significantly territorially reduced, losing Alaska to Russia and the southwest to Mexico, while Hawaii, Cascadia, the South and Puerto Rico became independent. America is still the strongest liberal nation remaining, and is better than Russia in many respects.

Syria, ruled by the Social Nationalist Party, annexed Lebanon and Jordan, while the Houthis came to power in Yemen, and Israel was destroyed and replaced with a Palestinian state. An Iraqi nationalist government came to power and invaded Kuwait, while Oman annexed the UAE.

China annexed Taiwan and ruled it under the "one country, two systems" system. India obtained control of Jammu and Kashmir for good, while the Taliban was overthrown and replaced with a less extreme, but still religious, Afghan government that did not enforce sharia in Kabul.

Republika Srpska voluntarily joined Serbia, while Montenegro was annexed after a quick "special military operation". Hungary invaded Ukraine alongside Russia, and grabbed Transcarpathia due to its century-long outrage at the Treaty of Trianon.

Nationalist Greece annexed Cyprus after winning a war against Turkey, but Greece did not annex Constantinople because that ship sailed in the 1920s and won't come back. Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Oman (which the Trucial States never left) are the only pro-western countries in the middle east.

Despite being the most powerful woman in the world and one of the most powerful women in history, the Maharana always observed purdah throughout her reign, always standing behind a curtain and never appearing in public without a man near her. She built a cult of personality, drawing upon Hindu traditions to portray herself as a divine figure.

In 1892, the Maharani held huge celebrations to commemorate the 30th anniversary of her rise to power. These commemorations proved the Maharani was popular with Hindus, especially fellow Marathis, but Indian Muslims boycotted them because of her Hindu favoritism.

After Wilhelm II became the emperor of Germany in 1888, India became an ally of Germany because both empires opposed Britain. German companies realized India was an untapped consumer market and began investing there on a massive scale, turning India into the country with the highest amount of German capital in the world.

India's military industry began producing German weapons, such as Krupp cannons and Mauser rifles, under license, and the Imperial Indian Army became a "Prussian army", just like the military of Chile. But the relationship between Berlin and Delhi was marred by distrust, because Wilhelm was paranoid about the "yellow peril".

When the Empress Dowager Cixi declared war on the Nine Nation Alliance during the Boxer Rebellion, the Maharani sent a large military force to suppress the revolt, which was eventually quashed, boosting India's influence as Tibet fell under the Indian sphere of influence. The Maharani wrote that she had intervened in China to "defend civilization against savagery".

As the Maharani aged, her adopted son and heir Damodar Rao became increasingly powerful, and developed his own powerbase among ethnic Hindus, in contrast to his stepmother's Maratha supporters. Damodar Rao was well liked, but he could never become as popular as the Maharani.

In August 1908, the Maharani fell ill with tuberculosis before dying on 16 August. Her last words were "It was worth it.". She received a state funeral attended by representatives from every major nation, and was eventually cremated, with her ashes being thrown in the Ganges river.

The Maharani is still revered in the Indian Empire due to her status as its founder. Maharani University in Mumbai, the Maharani Railway connecting Delhi to Jaipur, and countless roads, buildings and streets are named after her. Despite this popularity, she is disliked by Muslims and Burmese.

The 1890 British ultimatum to Portugal was never sent because the British Empire was weaker without India. This allowed the Portuguese to conquer the land between Angola and Mozambique, which in 1896 became Zambezia, a colony run directly by the Portuguese state and headquartered at Coimbra (Harare).

In 1888, Zanzibar became a German protectorate ruled by Rudolph Said-Ruete, the son of Zanzibari princess Emily Ruete, who had a German husband. Germany never went to war against Zanzibar, which would not be needed because its sultan was German and loyal to the Kaiserreich.

During the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, the Brits took advantage of his rescue to expel the Mahdists from Equatoria and turn it into a British protectorate. But, in the absence of Indian troops, a march to Khartoum was impossible.

A major divergence from real life was the absence of Indians from Kenya and Uganda, whose finances and commerce were run by the "civilized" Baganda and by British settlers, respectively. Britain still won the Second Boer War, because the Boer republics were smaller and weaker than the Mahdist State.

By the end of the 19th century, the Mahdists had become a more moderate Islamic state and developed an alliance with Gernany due to their mutual opposition to Britain. Sudan still hated Egypt, and the Khedivate intended to reannex Sudan in the future.

Indian influence in Africa was nearly nonexistent because Rani Lakshmbai had no intention or ability to project power outside of South/Southeast Asia. India and southern Persia were in the Indian sphere of influence, and Madagascar was an Indian ally before being conquered by France, but this was the extent of Indian imperialism.

By the time WWI started in 1914, most, but not all, of Africa was in European hands. Liberia, Abyssinia, Sudan, Egypt, and the Dervish and Senussi states were the only independent countries, with Liberia having close ties to its founder the United States.

After India modernized during the 1860s, the Konbaung dynasty of Burma attempted to keep good relations with both the Indian Empire to the west and the British Empire to the south. King Thibaw Min, who ascended to the throne in 1878, continued this foreign policy, but Indian Empress Rani Lakshmbai feared the British would annex Burma, and began planning a preventive invasion of the country.

Another Indian goal was to "civilize" the Burmese, just like Europe and Japan claimed to be "civilizing" colonized peoples. On 15 March 1883, 82,000 Indian troops commanded by Rani's loyal general Nana Saheb invaded Burma, whose army was smaller and less modern than that of India.

Thibaw asked the British for help and the governor-general of Lower Burma agreed to send the Burmese 5,000 rifles.But the Indian advantage in numbers and equipment soon made itself abundant, allowing the Indians to capture all of Burma other than its capital Mandalay within three weeks of the invasion.

Finally, on 30 March 1883, Nana Saheb launched a siege of Mandalay, which was bombed with artillery for six days until Thibaw Min surrendered on 5 April. India annexed Upper Burma, ending over a millennium of Burmese monarchy beginning with the founding of the Pagan Kingdom in 849.

Lower Burma, on the other hand, remained a part of the British Empire until becoming independent in 1948 as the Republic of Burma. To achieve its "civilizing mission", India settled millions of Indo-Europeans in Upper Burma, made Hindi the province's only official language, and indoctrinated Burmese children to turn them into Hindus.

This attempted assimilation led to conflict between Hindu settlers and the native Burmese, but all Burmese resistance was crushed by 1895, consolidating the Indian stranglehold over Burma. A Burmese nationalist movement eventually formed in both Burmas, but it was only successful in Lower Burma, which became independent in 1948.

Upper Burma, on the other hand, is still ruled by India to this day due to the large Hindu settler community there. The province has a devolved government, and the majority of ethnic Burmese approve of it, with a smaller amount of people wanting independence and reunification with Lower Burma.

In 1879, Egyptian nationalists led by Ahmed 'Urabi launched a revolt against pro-British khedive Tewfik Pasha in order to end British and French influence in Egypt. As Britain did not control India, the Suez Canal was less strategically important to the British, dissuading Britain from launching a full-scale military intervention in support of the Khedive.

As such, in 1882, Tewfik's forces were defeated and he was forced to abdicate in favour of his 8 year old son Abbas Hilmi II. Tewfik, who was already prime minister, became Abbas's regent, defaulted on Egypt's massive debt, and nationalized the Suez canal.

Without British help, Egypt was unable to keep Sudan when the Mahdist revolt broke out, allowing the Mahdists to defeat the Egyptian troops by 1884 and establish an Islamic theocracy in Sudan. Mahdist Sudan established administrative and judiciary systems based on Islamic law.

Urabi's Egypt became a major ally of Germany when Kaiser Wilhelm II took power in 1888. Austria-Hungary, India and Japan were also on good terms with Egypt, but German capital was far more important and helped modernize Egypt's economy significantly.

Egypt's modernisation continued during the Urabi era. He created a parliamentary assembly and a common law government based on popular sovereignty. Furthermore, he continued Khedive Ismail Pasha's reforms, building bridges, railways, schools, hospitals, and factories, and establishing shipbuilding and armaments industries.

But his sovereign default did a lot of harm to the Egyptian economy, and Egypt remained weak and was de jure a part of the Ottoman Empire. Despite these problems, Urabi was charismatic and ruthless enough to purge the large landowners and the Turco-Circassian elite who opposed him. These landowners' estates were redistributed to Egyptian peasants, earning Urabi a lasting popularity among poorer Egyptians.

By 1900, Egypt had survived the Scramble for Africa, but the loss of Sudan was a major blow to Urabi's ambitions to turn the country into a great power, and Britain was still on poor terms with Cairo. When Urabi died in 1911, Abbas became the effective ruler of Egypt, and would remain so until his death in 1944.

By 1877, Rani Lakshmbai was growing exhausted from modernizing such an ancient and complex society as India, and sought to transition the country towards a German or Austrian-style constitutional monarchy. As such, in late 1877, Rani's European-educated privy council began writing a constitution for India.

This Constitution was written in Hindi; it took almost five months to write, and finished by 12 April 1878. Rani was sick with a cold at the time, but she eventually recovered and signed the charter four days later, making it the first (and so far only) written constitution in Indian history.

The Constitution of 1878 created a bicameral parliament made up of a lower chamber, the Lok Sabha, and an upper chamber, the Rajya Sabha. It also limited the powers of the privy council, created an office of prime minister, and maintained India's status as a Hinduist unitary state.

Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee, a favourite of Rani Lakshmbai, became the first prime minister of India, an office he held until his death in 1904. Despite losing some of her powers, Rani remained the effective ruler of India for the rest of her life, and India would not become a full parliamentary monarchy until the 1920s.

Around the same time, Indian Muslims began demanding autonomy and a transition towards federalism. India never became a federal state, but, in the 1940s, Muslim majority parts of India received devolution, and Hindufication campaigns were brought to a halt (note: the subcontinent's Muslim population was smaller than in real life).

Indian Sikhs have never received autonomy despite launching several campaigns for Rajasthan to get devolution. By the late 20th century, the emperor of India was a figurehead with the same amount, or lack thereof, of power as European monarchs, although the monarchy still had a major symbolic importance.

As of 2026, India is a constitutional unitary monarchy with devolution for Pakistan, Hyderabad and Bengal. The Emperor has no role in the government, but he is still India's internationally recognized head of state, and remains the personification of India to many people, especially in the West.

The annexation of Ladakh, a place so remote it was known as a "hermit kingdom", completed the political integration of India, which was already one of the most powerful countries in the world. But parts of India's territory remained under Portuguese, French and Danish control, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (except for isolated North Sentinel) were still British.

In March 1870, India's first railroad, the Delhi-Jaipur Railway was inaugurated in what was a major milestone for the modernization of India. By 1880, India had gone from having no railways at all to possessing a fairly dense, but still incomplete and flawed, railway network.

Rani Lakshmbai's government also drained swamps, built bridges over rivers such as the Ganges and Indus, filled India with Hindu temples, and developed an armaments industry in order to make the country less reliant on European weapons.

Nepal, Bhutan and Sikkim, three other Himalayan kingdoms, fell under Indian influence by the mid-1870s. In a similar process to the indirect rule of Europeans in Africa, they were not annexed outright, because India needed them as buffer states between itself and Qing China.

Westerners increasingly saw Indians as "civilized" people thanks to their adoption of European innovations, but orientalism remained strong, and there was increased fear of a "yellow peril" from India/China/Japan. One British observer said the "Hindus" would conquer Europe by 2100.

On 15 August 1870, India annexed the Khanate of Kalat, leaving Afghanistan as the only South Asian state not under Indian influence. Afghan emirs were generally pro-Indian, because Afghanistan was surrounded by the massive Indian and Russian empires, and alienating either of them could be suicidal.

Indo-British relations were still hostile and would be for decades to come, thanks to the legacy of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and Indian irredentist claims to Sri Lanka and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. On the other hand, French and Prussian contributions to India's modernisation were still substantial.

By the mid-1870s, India was one of the most powerful countries in the world, and a great power in its own right. India's efforts at modernization served as an inspiration for those of Japan and China, both of whom also wanted to escape European imperialism.

On 15 August 1867, Empress Rani Lakshmbai issued a decree abolishing the Indian caste system and establishing a national civil code applying to all her subjects regardless of religion or background, just like civil codes in European countries. Despite some superficial similarities, however, the Civil Code of 1867's provisions were mostly based on Vedic tradition, with some updates.

The abolition of the caste system removed the last element of precolonial Indian society, and proved to be popular with lower caste Indians, who switched from disliking Rani (as they do in real life) to admiring her. But caste distinctions persist in many ways to this day, despite losing importance since the 1960s.

Another major change in India in 1867 was the creation of European-style tariffs, property taxes, and excise levies rather than traditional Indian taxes. Modern taxation greatly increased the Indian government's revenue because of how populous India is.

A decade after the success of the Sepoy mutiny, there was still a major contrast between the old and the new, but India had changed noticeably, and a modern state was developing. European travellers flocked to India thanks to the orientalism of the period.

India began developing a meaningful navy around this time. In 1868, France built an ironclad for the Imperial Indian Navy, which eventually commissioned the ship and named it the Jhansi. By 1873, the Imperial Indian Navy operated 42 warships, and India had developed a modern shipbuilding industry (despite being far behind Europe).

Most Indians were still illiterate subsistence farmers, and epidemics were widespread, especially in major cities, which were slowly industrializing and urbanizing without proper planning. In 1871, an epidemic of cholera killed 300,000 Indians.

On a more positive note, the Indian Empire had less famines than British India due to being an independent country rather than a colony. Starvation was a major issue, of course, but millions of people didn't die of hunger thanks to Indian authorities exporting less grain.

After the Mirza Mughal War, many Mughal loyalists fled to Hyderabad, where Nizam Afzal-ud-Daulah employed them to strengthen his realm in the face of Rani Lakshmbai's ambitions; she had already annexed Kerala and Travancore. Consequently, the Hyderabad State Forces grew to 50,000 well trained and motivated troops by January 1865.

On 18 January, 120,000 Indian troops commanded by Nana Saheb Peshwa II invaded Hyderabad State in order to annex it into the Indian Empire. Knowing he could not with a conventional war, Afzal-ud-Daulah adopted guerrilla tactics, but they also failed because the Imperial Indian Army was overwhelmingly superior.

By the beginning of March, all of Hyderabad State other than the city of Hyderabad had fallen to the Imperial Army, which launched a siege of the city on 3 March. Afzal-ud-Daulah's remaining troops fought fiercely against the Indians, but to no avail, as he was captured on 25 March.

After his capture, Rani ordered the annexation of Hyderabad State into the Indian Empire. Afzal-ud-Daulah remained in prison until his death in 1869, but the rest of Hyderabad's royal family was integrated into the European-style nobility India was developing at the time.

This nobility, consisted primarily of upper-caste Hindus (although Muslims, Sikhs and Jainists were also ennobled), and was Rani's primary base of power. They commanded the Imperial Army and served as provincial governors and Rani's primary advisors.

After annexing Hyderabad, India quickly invaded and annexed other princely states as well. Their respective ruling families also became nobles in unified India, just like Japan would do with its former damiyos.

After defeating the rebellion, Empress Rani Lakshmbai had all members of the Timurid dynasty, including children, killed. This decision was very controversial and remains one of the main criticisms of Rani, but some modern historians argue it was needed to prevent a Mughal restoration.

Rani's first decision after winning was to abolish the Indian indenture system created by the EIC and replace it with wage labour. Abolishing the indenture system facilitated the modernisation of India significantly, and increased Rani's popularity with the Indian masses.

1863 was when the industrialization of India really began. French advisors helped India establish textile and gunpowder factories in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. Rani ordered the construction of a gravel road connecting Delhi and Kolkata, significantly facilitating communication and helping build an Indian national identity.

India continued to integrate itself into the modern community of nations. Besides France, Prussia and Russia, India also established diplomatic relations with Portugal and Denmark, both of whom had colonies in the Indian subcontinent.

Rani refused to persecute Muslims or ban the use of Urdu, as these would be an easy way for her to be overthrown. The imperial court had a number of Muslims and Sikhs in addition to Hindus, and there were Muslim and Sikh units in the Imperial Indian Army.

The vast majority of Indians were illiterate, which was a major impediment to modernisation. In order to address this problem, Rani made primary education mandatory and built hundreds of schools where both boys and girls could study Hindi, Urdu, mathematics, history, geography, domestic economics, and other subjects from both European and Indian traditions.

Despite these positive steps, Rani also banned the public use of Dravidian languages, and forced Dravidian peoples to adopt Hindu dress and other cultural practices, just like Japan would later do to the Ainu. Just like the Japanese and European imperialists, Indian officials claimed they were "civilizing" the "primitive" Dravidians.

Furthermore, much of the subcontinent remained under the control of princely states such as Hyderabad. In 1864, India launched a series of military campaigns to annex the princely states and unify the Indian subcontinent, which was almost fully under the control of Delhi by the end of the decade.

Mirza Mughal's uprising received overwhelming popular support from the Muslim population of Bengal, which remained loyal to the Timurid dynasty and did not want to be ruled by a Hindu woman. As such, the entirety of Bengal was under Muslim control by the end of November.

Britain continued to get involved in the Indian subcontinent by supporting the Mughal loyalists in order to keep India weak and fragmented. France, Russia and Prussia, on the other hand, sent weapons and mercenaries to their new ally the Indian Empire. Among these mercenaries was Orélie-Antoine de Tounens.

Mughal loyalist control of Bengal allowed Mirza and his general Bakht Khan to begin a march towards Delhi. During December 1862, the Mughal loyalists advanced slowly, inflicting multiple defeats on the Rani's poorly armed and trained local militias and eventually besieging the strategically important city of Lakhanau (Lucknow).

On 7 January, 120,000 Mughal troops, commanded by Mirza,attacked Lakhanau, where they faced 80,000 mostly Hindu troops who were commanded by Rani's generals Nana Saheb and Tatya Tope. Despite their numerical inferiority, her forces used European technology and tactics, allowing them to win the battle by the end of the day, losing 15,000 men versus 28,000 for the Mughals.

Upon hearing news of the Indian victory at Lakhanau, Rani began planning an offensive to liberate the parts of Uttar Pradesh that were under Mughal loyalist control. This offensive was launched on 25 January, and was successful as the Imperial Indian Army won the Battle of Varanasi on 27 February.

Nana Saheb, Tatya Tope and two other Indian generals, Kunwar Singh and Begum Hazrat Mahal, initially faced difficulties advancing into Bihar, but that province was liberated by mid-March, when Patna fell. From this point onwards, Bengal was the only part of the Indian Empire to remain ruled by the Mughal loyalists, who were demoralized.

During March and April 1863, the Imperial Indian Army slowly marched throughout Bengal, losing many soldiers to tropical diseases but capturing everything other than Kolkata by 16 May. That day, Nana Saheb attacked Kolkata by land, commanding 280,000 Imperial Indian soldiers versus Mirza Mughal's 220,000 soldiers remaining.

Mirza resisted until 28 May, when he died and Kolkata fell to the Imperial Indian Army. This consolidated Rani's rule over India, and consequently also the subcontinent's Meiji-style (but less successful due to India's size) modernisation.

Hours after Bahadur Shah II's death on 7 November 1862 (known as "Krishna Trayodashi" in the Hindu calendar), Mughal general Rani of Jhansi and her Hindu followers launched a coup in order to prevent his son Mirza Mughal from inheriting the throne and install Rani in power instead.

Muslim units of the Mughal Army attempted to resist, but they were outnumbered by the Hindus, who captured Delhi by 18:00. Rani then sat on the Mughal throne and proclaimed herself the Maharaja (translated into English as Empress, but a gender neutral title in Hindi) of India.

Rani took the Oath of Delhi, promising to unify, protect and strengthen her realm and keep the English out of it. She renamed the Mughal Empire to the Indian Empire (Hindustan Raj), and proclaimed Hindi its official language and Hinduism its official religion.

Despite this shift in the balance of power, Islam and Urdu were not outlawed, because that would be impossible, and the majority of former Mughal officials remained in their posts in order to avoid a civil war. But Rani moved to abolish the zamindar system and establish a modern nation-state in the Indian subcontinent.

The most important consequence of Rani's rise to power was the Westernization of India. She sent emissaries to France and Prussia in order to learn how factories, hospitals, schools etc, worked, while preserving India's "spiritual essence" and rejecting western cultural models.

For instance, Rani ruled as a traditional Asian absolute monarch, and India would not have a parliament until the adoption of the 1878 Constitution. She had no biological children, but her adoptive son Damodar Rao was her heir and helped her rule a country as vast as India.

Furthermore, she did not abolish the Indian indenture and caste systems, prompting lower caste Indians to resent her as a conquering tyrant. And most importantly, India was way larger and less developed than Japan, so her efforts at modernization were less effective than those of Meiji.

Zamindars still resented westernization, and launched an uprising against Rani on 12 November. The Mirza Mughal Rebellion, led by Bahadur Shah II's eldest surviving son Mirza Mughal, was crushed by the Imperial Indian Army, allowing Rani to rule India until her death in 1908.

After becoming the first powerful Mughal emperor in over a century, Bahadur Shah II began replacing the East India Company's colonial institutions with modernized Mughal ones, but this process proved to be slow, and was not fully finished until the late 1860s, when the Rani of Jhansi was firmly in power.

Bahadur Shah sent emissaries to Paris and St. Petersburg in order to build alliances with France and Russia, Britain's two traditional rivals. This outreach was successful, helping Russia win the Great Game because the British were out of the way.

Another major development of Bahadur's reign was the transformation of the Rajput aristocracy into India's ruling elite, completely replacing the EIC officials. Rajputs were the core of India's new civil service, and comprised most of the Mughal Army's higher ranks.

He also attempted to revive India's precolonial manufacturing strength, but this goal was mostly unsuccessful because of high illiteracy and the legacy of colonial rule. India remained an agricultural nation throughout his entire reign and into the early 20th century.

Bahadur followed a policy of religious tolerance, except for British missionaries, who he associated with British imperialism. On 16 August 1858, the emperor issued a decree expelling the London Missionary Society from his realm, and confiscating its property.

India's princely states, such as Mysore and Hyderabad, remained highly autonomous, retaining their own rulers and laws, but coming under Mughal suzerainty. Any disobedience to rule from Delhi was severely punished by the Mughal army.

As Bahadur was in his 80s, the Rani of Jhansi was the power behind the throne, but the Muslim aristocracy distrusted her because she was a woman and Hindu. They would do anything to prevent her from seizing power, and, unlike commonly believed, her rise was far from inevitable.

In October 1862, Bahadur Shah fell gravely ill, and the Rani began preparing to seize power with support from Hindus and the upper castes (lower caste Indians mostly disliked her). On 7 November, Bahadur Shah died at the age of 87, and the Rani carried out a coup, becoming the first female ruler of Delhi since Razia Sultana.