Timeline

The following is a brief summary of some of the major historical turning points in the Case Amber universe. Bolded events are points of divergence from the original timeline. The year 2062 is considered the "present day".

In terms of historical events, the Case Amber timeline begins to diverge in 1920, but technological and cultural progression begins to diverge in 1950. While technology marches forward, the world feels culturally and aesthetically "stuck in time".

2060s

Year	Date	Event	Location	Context
2062	Nov	Exercise REFORC '62	Republic of China	American and Australian military forces conduct REFORC '62 (standing for "REturn of FORces to China, pronounced re-force) to train reinforcing the Republic of China in case of war. The American forces involved include the 25th Infantry Division; 11th Airborne Division; 4th Armored Division; 1st Light Tank Destroyer Battalion, 249th Infantry (OR ARNG); Combat Command "B" (CCB), 40th Armored Division (CA ARNG); and supporting units. The Australian contingent was represented by 3rd Task Force (Armoured), 1st Division. While not technically part of the exercise, the U.S. also deployed the 1st Battle Group, 22nd Infantry and 2nd Battle Group, 49th Infantry of the 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized) to the Republic of Vietnam, which refused to officially take part in Chinese security frameworks.

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2050s

Year	Date	Event	Location	Context
2057	Jan - Dec	Reduction of British Forces China	Republic of China	Due to political and economic problems at home and growing tensions in Europe, the withdraws its two rotational Armoured Brigades from the Republic of China. Following diplomatic protest from the United States, the British Army subtely re-roles 48 (Gurkha) Infantry Brigade in Hong Kong into an airmobile brigade with a power armor-equipped infantry battalion for the purpose of rapidly deploying into China and establishing an anti-tank blocking line should war break out.

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1940s

Year	Date	Event	Location	Context
1947	Dec 1	Vietnam Becomes a Trust Territory	French Indochina	Vietnam (a unification of the French Indochinese territories of Cochinchina, Annam and Tonkin) becomes a UN Trust Territory under administration by the United States. The U.S. and Republic of China had invaded Japanese-occupied Tonkin and Annam during the Pacific War. Roosevelt had begun drafting plans for Indochina to be placed under an international trusteeship as early as the first half of 1942. Trusteeship followed heated debate pushed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the strengthening of the working alliance between the U.S. and Viet Minh, and the continued stationing of U.S. troops in Indochina even after the surrender of Japan. However, Laos (which was occupied by the British from 1943 rather than the Americans) and Cambodia (which was held by isolated Japanese forces throughout the war and reoccupied by France post-war) remained as components of French Indochina until 1967. The American push for decolonization of Indochina and the Far East in general is seen as a defining moment when European Allies began to perceive the U.S. as not only an unreliable partner, but a potential political adversary. It is commonly held in France that the decolonization of Indochina was against the French government's consent and was largely the result of American strongarming. While the fervent American push from trusteeship was partially the result of Roosevelt's own personal distaste for French administration and European colonialism, some American academics make the case that returning control of Vietnam to France would have complicated the security picture in Southeast Asia. It would have reinserted a colonial power that could not be controlled on the Republic of China's southern border, likely have resulted in the termination of U.S. military basing rights in Northern Vietnam, and put the U.S. at risk of becoming intertwined with European security. Just as Vietnam was feared to act as a Japanese staging area for southward expansion during the interwar, it was believed that an unsecure Vietnam free to eventually rebel against the French would become a stepping stone for communist expansion and lead to the U.S. being cut off from Southeast Asia during war. Many historians believe that unfavorable decolonization in the Far East led to France's spirited fight to retain its remaining Asian holdings (including Cambodia and Laos) into the 1960s and its African holdings into the 1970s despite international pressure, growing casualties, and unrest at home. France further refused to cooperate with the U.S. and U.K. in supporting the Chinese security framework. It also firmly cemented the U.S.'s withdrawal from Continental European affairs and its engagement in the Indo-Pacific.
1946	July 10	Pacific War Ends	Japan	Emperor Hirohito announces the surrender of Japan in a radio broadcast ending the Pacific War.
	July 4	Philippines Gains Independence	Philippines	The Philippines gains independence from the United States as scheduled by the Tydings–McDuffie Act.
		Second Atomic Bombing of Japan	Japan	The United States drops a second atomic bomb on Japan, this time at Kokura.
	June 30	First Atomic Bombing of Japan	Japan	The United States drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, the first ever use of a nuclear weapon in combat. This was carried out by a B-29 bomber launched from Taizhou, Zhejiang province.
	June 12	Allied Troops Reach Yangtze River	China	American, British Indian, and Australian troops reach the Yangtze River, linking up with U.S. Army Rangers and British Army Commandos. The Chinese National Revolutionary Army enter the city of Shanghai first, which was still occupied by the Shanghai Special Naval Landing Forces. Nanjing is still occupied by a large Japanese Army force and the U.S. 92nd Infantry Division and 44th Indian Airborne Division encounter stiff resistance.
	May 1	Battle of Okinawa Begins	Japan	The U.S. 2nd Marine, 6th Marine, 7th Infantry, 27th Infantry, and 29th Infantry Divisions land on Okinawa.
1945	April 10	Operation Titan	China	With the Imperial Japanese Navy out of play, Allied forces commence an offensive in Southern China aimed at severing the Japanese Army's overland route to Southeast Asia and enabling future operations to liberate Northern China. This operation involved ground attacks via the Burma Road, parachute and glider landings to capture recapture lost USAF air bases for further airlanding movements to bypass Southern China's poor road infrastructure, and amphibious landings near Hong Kong.
1944	June 9	Operation Ichi-Go	China	Faced with a worsening situation in Burma and Indochina and significant Allied gains in the Central and South Pacific, the Japanese launch an operation to link its forces in Northern China to Southeast Asia via a rail corridor.
1943	May 6-21	Second Battle of Midway	Midway, North Pacific	After a decisive naval engagement, the U.S. 25th Infantry Division (-) seizes Midway from the Japanese occupation force.
	April 1	Indochina Campaign	Southern Vietnam	The Indochina Campaign begins. The U.S. 1st Marine, 2nd Marine, 1st Infantry, and 45th Infantry Divisions make amphibious landings in Southern Vietnam, while Commonwealth forces simultaneously make amphibious landings in Southern Cambodia. It and the Burma campaign will last until the end of the war.
1942	June 3	Aleutian Islands Campaign Begins	Aleutian Islands, Alaska	The Japanese begin their attack on Alaska simultaneously with the Battle of Midway.
	June 3–7	First Battle of Midway	Midway, North Pacific	The Imperial Japanese Navy sinks the USS Hornet and severely damages the USS Enterprise. The Japanese occupation force lands on Midway. This effectively delayed offensive naval operations from the U.S. Navy in the Central and South Pacific until 1943 when carrier losses could be replaced.
	May 4–8	Battle of the Coral Sea	Coral Sea, South Pacific	The first naval battle between fleets fought purely by carrier aircraft. After extreme damage the U.S. Navy is forced to scuttle the USS Lexington and USS Yorktown. The Japanese light carrier Shōhō was sank and the fleet carrier Shōkaku was damaged.
	Feb 10	Chiang Kai-Shek Meets with Mahatma Gandhi	British Raj	Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek and First Lady Soong Mei-ling visit British India and are hosted by Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi assures the Chiangs that the Allies will never treat China as an equal. Following, Chiang petitions U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt to mediate in an attempt to pressure the British into accepting the demands of Gandhi's Congress Party.. Britain tells the U.S. to mind its own affairs.
	Feb 5	First American Troops Arrive in India	British Raj	5,000 American troops, mostly from the 34th Infantry Division (ARNG) arrive in Bombay via the Suez Canal. They were to prepare for a further influx of American troops for future operations in defense of the Burma Road to China. Private First Class Milburn H. Henke, Company B, 133rd Infantry Regiment was selected as the first American soldier to set foot on India during the Pacific War.
	Feb 2	Germany Declares War on Japan	German Reich	Germany's Conservative President with approval from the Centre-Right coalition in the Reichstag and following talks with France and the UK declares war on Japan. This was in a bid to demonstrate Germany as acting in good faith, have the limits on its military imposed by the Treaty of Versailles de jure lifted (although German had already begun conscription again in 1936), and (unbeknownst to the UK and France) reclaim old German colonies in the Pacific lost after World War I.
1941	Dec 7	Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor	Hawaii	The Japanese Kido Butai strikes the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor in an attempt to give it the best possible chance to win a confrontation with the U.S. It simulatenously attacks the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island, French Indochina, Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

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1930s

Year	Date	Event	Location	Context
1938	Dec 1	War Plan Amber Formalized	United States	President Franklin Roosevelt directs the War Department to draft a contingency should the Japanese destroy significant portions of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and the U.S. must fight them in China via the British Raj. The plan would be a backup to War Plan Orange, which might have to be delayed if the U.S. Navy is unable to conduct offensive operations in the Central Pacific. The War Department chooses to further develop War Plan Amber, which had its beginnings following the Nanjing Massacre in 1937.
1937	July 7	Second Sino-Japanese War Begins	China
1935	Aug 1	1935 Reichstag Bombing	German Reich	The nationalist paramilitary and veterans organization Der Stahlhelm bombs the Reichstag in an attempt to overthrow the Weimar government. The violence ultimately does not achieve its goal. After militants were suppressed by government forces, extreme elements of the monarchist German National People's Party (DNVP) were implicated. It was argued that the some DNVP leaders approved the attack in response to the in response to the SPD-Centre Grand Coalition's abnormally stable government (3 years to that point). This caused the Conservative People's Party (KVP) to rapidly grow in membership as the moderate wing of the DNVP jumped ship. Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck was installed as KVP chairman to instill public confidence, as the monarchist cause was then associated with terrorists. The KVP would form a coalition with the Centre Party as a junior partner to unseat Otto Wels' SPD government in the 1936 federal election. The Reichstag bombing coincided with the pan-Germanic nationalist putsch in Austria, which was successfully suppressed by the Fatherland Front with diplomatic support from Fascist Italy, France and Germany.
1932	July 31	1932 German federal election	German Reich	The SPD-Centre Grand Coalition (SPD–Z–DDP–BVP) unseats the DNVP's Nationalist Coalition (DNVP—DStB—DDP—BVP). Otto Wels (SPD) becomes Chancellor of Germany. Center-left moderates capitalized on the failures of the DNVP's pro-elite response to the Great Depression and major tensions caused by rightist paramilitaries briefly but very publicly reoccupying the Rhineland half a year after France left.
	Mar 13 / Apr 10	1932 German presidential election	German Reich	Joseph Wirth (Centre) is elected President of Germany. To ensure the defeat of the DNVP candidate, the SPD agreed to support the Centre Party on the second ballot provided it was an agreeable candidate like Wirth.
1931	4 Jan	Paramilitaries Reoccupy the Rhineland	German Reich	Less than 6 months after France withdrew from the Rhineland, armed nationalist paramilitary groups reoccupied it. This was desperate bid to stoke nationalist sentiments. While denied by Hugenberg’s DNVP government, it was an open secret that the DNVP had financed the operation (possibly with Hugenerg's personal funds). Nationalist commentators stoked hype that soon it would be the military following in their steps. It was known to France and the UK that the paramilitaries were being used as proxies for official state action. The reoccupation was heavily opposed by Centre and SPD due to causing a massive international incident and showing Germany to be acting in bad faith. It was opposed by the military due to the generals knowing they weren’t ready for a war with France, and it threatened their plans to remilitarize in the late 1930s to challenge Poland. After a stand-off and threats from the French to invade the Rhineland once more, the DNVP government secretly called back their mercenaries and denied involvement. The incident was seen by the public as an embarrassment.

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1920s

Year	Date	Event	Location	Context
1929	Oct 24 / Oct 29	Wall Street Market Crash	United States	The New York Stock Exchange in the United States suffers a market crash, contributing to the beginning of the Great Depression.
1923	Nov 8-9	Beer Hall Putsch	German Reich	The Kampfbund attempt to seize Munich is violently suppressed by Bavarian police. NSDAP leader Adolf Hitler was shot and killed. The Nazi Party was banned, although other rightist militant groups (primarily focused on restoring the monarchy) replaced it.
1922	June 24	Attempted assassination of Walther Rathenau	German Reich	Erwin Kern, Hermann Fischer, and Ernst Techow attempt to murder German Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau on the orders of Hermann Ehrhardt, but are shot dead in the attempt. Rathenau escapes with moderate injuries from a grenade blast outside his car. While Rathenau normally sent away his guard because he did not like having shadows spying on him and disturbing his guests this time two were with him at the insistence of Chancellor Wirth and a plain clothes police officer guarding his villa was also present. Rathenau's speech before the Reichstag on bandaged and on crutches preached unity and moderation among the left.

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