Following a naval bombardment and invasion of the East Coast by the German Empire, the United States reformed its society along Prussian militarist and 19th century progressive/modernist/rationalist lines as per the history presented in "The Repairer of Reputations". As does not actually occur in that story but is suggested as a possibility, this United States has been a monarchy since soon after its founding, perhaps in an early counter-revolution like some kind of alternate Shays Rebellion or Hartford Convention, under the Castaigne Dynasty.
A major war before our world's Great War where the government was capable of nationalizing/seizing military control of key industries has led to the major monopolies only growing stronger and turning into sovereign megacorps, rather than being broken up in an anti-corporate Progressive era. Centralized corporations helped us win the war and helped rebuild the East Coast, no progressive in this alternate history would want to break them up, instead the laws regarding corporate sovereignty and a largely Congress-replacing consortium of megacorps were themselves Progressive innovations by the likes of Teddy Roosevelt.
The Big 10 are...
Standard Oil, Bell (telecom), U.S. Steel (and coal), General Electric, United Air, Western Union (bought Sears and Roebucks and became 19th century Amazon and Paypal), American Dry Goods (19th century Walmart), International Mercantile Marine Co., International Harvester (agricorp), and Leland Motors.
To prevent infighting among the Big Ten, the monarchy chartered a unified railroad consortium under the management of the neutral Vanderbilt Family, given ducal titles and divested of their corporate holdings.
Why the Germans?
This is one of the dumber alt-history ideas I've seen in a while
>>43800452
Designated baddies, apparently.
>>43800033
>that feel when my great-grandfather was a late 19th century industrialist
Why couldn't this setting be real? I'd be Baron Anon instead of just plain old anon living on the estate-taxed vestiges of my ancestor's wealth.
>>43800033
1. Germany...bombarding and invading the entire East Coast. Do you realize how many millions of men, thousands of ships, and dozens of allies that would require? How impossible it would be to keep them supplied across half a continent and an enormous ocean? Is this German Empire in your mind a European hegemony of some kind? Because if it isn't, it's an utterly unbelievable conceit to hang the idea on. And if this is happening in the late 19th Century then are you aware of just how powerful the American military is? It's an industrialized powerhouse manned by hardened veterans with years of combat experience.
2. All the U.S. needed to be a monarchy was for Washington to say, "Yes, I'm willing to be your king."
3. I'm not sure you understand how 19th century corporations worked. They weren't the investor driven consortia you're familiar with in modern times. Keep in mind that this was before the second industrial revolution (and, depending what you mean by the 'no steam' thing, without a first one). If you want a good idea of the philosophy that filled America in this period, read "The Education of Henry Adams."
3. There is a world of difference between Cyberpunk and Shadowrun. Yeah, megacorps are a, overused, standard in the Cyberpunk genre, but they're not what defines it. Cyberpunk is about the third industrial revolution, a.k.a. The Information Age, and its impact on how we see humanity and philosophy (granted, that's in my opinion), not corporate politics. But I'm also of the opinion that Steam/Diesel/Cyberpunk should be informed by the 1st/2nd/3rd Industrial Revolutions and their respective attitudes, so take it with a grain of salt.
4. If a nation has a central government that controls key parts of industry and works with corporations, that's called Fascism. Textbook Fascism. If a nation has a government elected by corporations (who are the only 'individuals' with franchise), that's a Corporatocracy.
>>43802219
>2. All the U.S. needed to be a monarchy was for Washington to say, "Yes, I'm willing to be your king."
Awww but that's not nearly convoluted enough.
Can we at least get like a Constitutional Monarchy going? That seems like a compromise Washington would be down for.
>>43800628
this
>>43802295
Show me a post-Enlightenment monarchy that DOESN'T have Constitutional elements. The Enlightenment was kind of a big thing for the West. It literally changed the way we saw the world and individual people.
I personally would rip off The Iron Heel for inspiration. I'd even suggest reading the book if one doesn't mind the authors socialist leanings.
>>43800033
>>43800628
>>43802493
>>43802219
I feel like it has potential, but as Anon 219 pointed out, there are a lot of flaws here, historically. Although you could make the argument that lots of good settings are still filled with tons of impossible shit, it's worth keeping in mind that the realistic groundings are often what keeps things from getting Absolutely Fucking Ridiculous. This is ten times as true for things like historical fiction; if there's too much weird shit that gets in the way of "This Could have Happened," then it might still be an okay setting, but it would be better off as a stand-alone universe with its own history and some swapped-around names than anything that's grounded in reality.
To add to some of Anon 219's concerns, here are some more concerns of mine:
>King of the US sees a bunch of corporations making mad bank. Why doesn't he mandate those assets straight into his hands and tell the current owners to fuck off? This strengthens his central government and gives him a fuckton of money, there is literally no reason for a monarch not to do this.
>Your thread title doesn't really seem to have anything to do with the setting that you're trying to make. If you want the "Steampunk" era without the Steam, then you're just using either straight-up Victorian History, or Industrial Revolution history. If you want "Steampunk" but "Not Steam" / Real-World Technology of that time, you're again just stuck with...History. If anything, you'd be making a period-drama, not your own universe. The only thing that I can connect between the setting and your thread title is Megacorps being Megacorps, but those weren't even a thing at that point in time. Sure, you can fudge it, but then you run into the problem of that concept clashing with World Leadership at that point in time. Those greedy bastards would have wanted those corps under their heels.
I'm not sure if the elements of the world that you've made make sense together, or are even what you want.
>>43802219
>The Education of Henry Adams.
I run into the darndest things on /tg/ sometimes. Thanks.
>>43802594
>Show me a post-Enlightenment monarchy that DOESN'T have Constitutional elements.
Prussia/Germany, Austria(-Hungary) and Russia until after WW1. They even formed a Holy League with the specific purpose of safeguarding Ancien Régime monarchies in Europe, enforcing the Restoration and making sure France doesn't start shit again. In fact, Germany could've unified in 1848 if it weren't for the fact that the Prussian king didn't accept being ruler of Germany under the proposed liberal constitution.
