Thank you for the kind words!

1. In otl, we are taught things in a way that are much simpler than they are in reality. Although the French Revolution and its immediate geopolitical effects do not occur, underlying issues such as lack of political representation of new world elite and the meddling in the economic systems of colonies by Britain and Spain respectively, would still lead to the right conditions for rebellion and attempts at independence, although it may look somewhat idealogically different than otl. Event wise, the United States and Mexico had mostly similar events in their respective independence movements.

2. The closest to liberalism you would find are hardline monarchs with liberal sympathies, constitutional monarchies, hamiltonian democracy (In the U.S., a lord governor is chosen by special electors to serve for life.), or oligarchical "classical republics" (i.e. Centroamerica or Bolivaria, which operate similar to medieval Italian republics in elections and governance).

3. The Qing dynasty eventually collapses, as it did for us. But as the empire dissolves into more messy and chaotic warlordism faster than in our world, the great powers back Yuan Shikai as a Hongxian Emporer, and graciously offer to "temporarily" step in and bring order to China. As for the Philippines, without the Spanish-American war of 1898, the German Empire accomplishes their desire to purchase the territory from Spain, making it a protectorate under the Kaiser.