Victorian History
"Behold the Power of Steam."
It should go without saying that the world of Steampunk in 1866 is different from our own world in 1866. The following is a list of differences and explanations of what seperates the two.
The timeline diverges primarily at 1840 when Charles Babbage successfully builds the first Analytical Engine at Cambridge University in England. This earns him a Lordship and bolsters the English Radical Industrialist Party. The Radical Industrialist Party was founded in 1823 after the Wellington Revolts that eventually toppled the old Torry regeime.
His invention starts an Engine War, to develop the largest and most powerful Anlytical Engines in the world. England starts off with an obvious lead, but soon spies and diplomats from around the world have spread the secret across the wealthy nations of the globe.
In 1866 the major powers are England, America, France, and Germany in that order. Following are Russia, Japan, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, and The Ottoman Empire in that order.
England and her many Engine resources from the Office of the Engine, to Cambridge, The Royal Observatory, Grenwich, and of course the Royal Navy and the Army hold a narrow lead over the Americans. America is gaining rapidly with universities like the Massachussets Institute of Technology, Harvard, and the Department of Analysis. The war between the states was a minor set back, but war as usual provided America many innovations.
France has the Great Napoleon ordinateur, and the French Academy, as well as Les Fils de Vaucanson, and the Jaccquardine Society. After the French the orginizations get smaller and closer nit, but also more inspired as they are usually led by a single man.
These engines have penetrated into every level of life. From the giant Metropolitian Police Engines of London, or the Office of Colonization or India, that keep track of every person born to dead under British rule; to the small kinotrope powered piano's or sweing machines in the home of a wealthy Nebraska horse rancher.
These engines have bolstered industry through more powerful research, modeling of products, enhanced production schedules, and more productive management. They also allow automation and mechanization of industry. Togther this has resulted in tremendously powerful business Trusts (similar to monopolies), and the generation of Steam Lords. The men that control the Steam control the world. Through the police, the courts, the voters, the government, and the means of production. The most powerful trusts are the Railroad Trusts, the Steel Trusts, the Oil Trust, the Coal Trusts, and the Beef Trusts.
Soon the most important thing for any of these Trusts, Governments or Armies is information. Stored on paper punch cards or the most advanced velum-celulite dot cards. Pure mathmatics does not exist, so only the analytical exists. This brings everything from a algorithm on chemical processes to your citizenship number (containing the entire breadth of your life) down to a short stack of paper cards the size of a paperback book.
Following Babbage's invention of the Analytical engine, it not only trickled into the world of Industry, but into the world of the Military. Artillery, Naval Gunnery, and troop timetables were all immeadietly influenced. Military models, simulations, and planning all make for better wars.
Steam Tank designs stolen from the British Army first appear in the U.S.-Mexican war. Following that in the Crimean war, and the Indian Mutiny, Great Britian learns from U.S. example (and her poor results in the Crimean) to never fall during the Indian Mutiny, or ever suffer the public backlash as a result of the attrocities and horrors the Indian Colonists suffered under Seppe soldiers. Towering steam powered jugernauts tromp across the empire protecting small outposts of British army troops from Africa to Siam.
Airships powered by helium and hydrogen appear decades before our time. Developed by Lord Byron originally, then improved upon by Hindenberg these are the air yachts of the rich and powerful, as well as the aerial dreadnoughts of the world powers.
This cold war for Engine power has mobilized the world and given it both startiling wealth, as well as the most abject poverty. Where ever one finds the ritzy and powerful, it is only necessary to go a few miles before a slum or rookery is found. The lower classes are exploited, used up, and ground under the wheels of the Analytical Engines and the industries they power, faster than more immigrant workers can be found to populate them.
A sharp class division is made more prominent because of this. But the Victorian feeling of inevitible progress for Man, instills a sort of lethargy or complacence that stiffles the cries for support or reform.
In this era a strange middle class develops, that of the adventurer. People of means, quick wits, and willing to play the system make a name for themselves. The slow computers and government bureacuricies can only be kept ahead of one way. Run.
Last, a Timeline, a Glossary, and a list of Books I highly recommend.
