Alternative Histories

I'm currently reading "The Difference Engine", which is set in an alternate Victorian England in 1855, where technological progress has increased up due to Charles Babbages's Difference engine (the first computer) being a success. The split with our history appears to have occurred after the Napoleonic Wars, as Wellington still became Prime Minister, but by the time of the story he had been assassinated and was remembered as a villain rather than a hero.
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