MoF 21: VOX POPULI - Map Duel for Honour and Glory

[Krall]

On the 13th of September 2010 the voting for the 21st Map of the Fortnight Contest round ended in a tie between two map-makers: Ares96 and LSCatilina. As there can be only one winner, these two were given a choice:

Their first option was to be transported by Spetsnaz helicopter to a remote region in the Gobi desert. They would be handed a revolver, six rounds of ammunition, and a GPS device displaying their opponent's position relative to their own. Last man standing wins.

Their second option was to exchange map challenges, as moderated by me, and then submit their maps for consideration by the public, who would then vote on which is better. The map-maker whose map has the most votes after one week wins.

To my continued disappointment, they chose the second option. It's taken a ridiculous amount of time to get adequate map challenges from both of them, and then LSCatilina had internet access issues, and then I got lazy, and so forth and so forth. However, I now have the map duel entries for both contestants, so, without further ado, let us begin.

MAP DUEL
For Honour and Glory



Ares96's challenge from LSCatilina was:

The Filibuster Republic

The nineteenth century was full of ambitious adventurers, personal armies and unstable non-civilized regions. The result of these things was some very short-lived and unusual nations, such as the Republic of Sonora, the Republic of Acre and the Kingdom of Sarawak. Create a map for one (or several) of those "Filibuster" states (from OTL or ATL) that manages to survive - it doesn't have to survive until present day, but it must exist for over 50 years.

The map must be set between 1800 and the modern day, and ASB maps are not allowed.

Ares96's map entry

"It has been a hundred years today since William Walker left Fort Astoria for Sonora, his life work, along with his freebooter group. They arrived at Port Walker (then known as Heroica Guaymas) on July 14, and immediately started inciting rebellion, eventually taking control of all of Baja California, Sonora and Sinaloa.*

He declared the Republic of Sonora on September 5, and immediately started supporting the Federalistas in the ongoing Mexican Civil War. It had started when the government of José Justo Corro enacted the Seven Laws, which was technically a new constitution centralizing authority in the capital and reorganizing the states into departments. This led to many states seceding in protest and forming either independent states or joined the Federalistas in fighting the government. Texas and Yucatán were both independent by the time Sonora was proclaimed, and a brief attempt was made by Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas to secede under the name of the Republic of the Rio Bravo in 1840.

When Walker began to support the Federalistas, the Mexican governmrnt declared war on Sonora. The war was thought to be an easy victory for Mexico, but due to the Federalistas controlling all of the territory surrounding Sonora Walker actually won the war, and forced Mexico to recognize Sonora on February 16, 1848, the day we now celebrate as National Day.

In April the US invaded Mexico with the alleged motive to safeguard Texas' claims on Mexico, but with the real goal to decide the Civil War in favor of the Federalistas, who were already supported by the US financially. On August 22 the Mexican government surrendered unconditionally to the US and the Federalistas. The map of Central America was redrawn, but due to the anti-imperialist Henry Clay having been elected President of the United States the US annexed no land. Instead it formed a number of new nations on former Mexican land: Zacatecas (who had a large secessionist group), Xalisco, California (a federal republic consisting of the states of Yerba Buena, Deseret, New Mexico, San Diego, Colorado, Nevada, and San Joaquin), Chihuahua (including Durango), San Luis Potisi (extended to include Guanajuato, Querétaro and the nothern exclave of Veracruz) and the Republic of the Rio Bravo (re-established). Additionally, Yucatán would gain Tabasco and Texas would be extended to the Rio Bravo (its furthest claim). The rest would be set up as the Mexican Federative Republic, comprised of the states of Michoacán, Mexico, Puebla, Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas. This set-up has more or less remained to the present day, with only a few small border changes between California and its southern neighbors, Chihuahua and Sonora.

Walker's original plan was to attract southern slaveowners to Sonora with the promise of cheap new land, and then seek admission into the Union as one or several slave states. This plan backfired when Walker realized that Sonora was mostly desert, and too arid to suit a plantation economy. This, in turn, resulted in that most American immigrants were Northern free-soilers looking for adventure in the largely unsettled lands. This enraged Walker, who had hoped to make himself leader of a prime example of the successes of slavery and the plantation economy.

Walker and his supporters in the new, unicameral National Congress of Sonora formed the Conservative Democratic Party in 1853. In response, the Northerners who had come to Sonora for adventure formed the National Liberal Party, better known as the Sonoran Whig Party. This two-party system has continued to the present day, with only a few new parties having gained a foothold in the National Assembly, including the Hispanic Peoples' Party and the Socialist Federation of Sonora.

The Whig Party was quickly outlawed by Walker, a move which enraged most of the population. Later on, Walker allowed it again, only to suspend the National Assembly and rule by decree after the Whig victory in the election of 1854. He immediately started to take measures against the free-soiler movement, believing that the blacks (who for starters were nearly nonexistant as a race in Sonora) were not ready for their freedom and would only slow down culture if they were freed.

In 1861, a civil war broke out in the US. The southern states had seceded to prevent the Republican government of Abraham Lincoln from freeing their black slaves, and were now fighting the government forces. Walker supported the South, though he never took any military action. The US government's troops haf defeated the southern rebellion by 1865, despite Walker's backing. The slaves were gradually freed over the next fifteen years, and the South would never be the same place as before.

In 1882 Walker caught pneumonia and died. His death left a power vacuum in Sonora, and a new constitutional convention was called. The Whig Edward Anthony Stewart became President, and the National Congress was reestablished. All parties were allowed and universal male suffrage was introduced. President Stewart set about to industrialize the nation, starting with the construction of a railroad from Hermosillo to Port Walker. The nation bloomed under Stewart's presidency, and when he in accordance with the constitution had to step down in 1892 the nation was considerably better off than ten years earlier.

In 1913, the First World War broke out, and the US declared its neutrality, as did Sonora and all other North American states, except Canada, a former British possession. The US remained neutral throughout the conflict, which enabled the Central Powers to win the war.

In 1929, the Action Française anti-revolutionary party took power in France, and the Bourbon king Louis XVIII took power, with Charles Maurras as his Chief Executive. Two years later the New Imperial Party rose to power in Britain, and King George V was declared Emperor. He set about reducing the powers of the Dominions of Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia, eventually reducing them to colonies in all but name. In 1934 he made perhaps the stupidest move of all by declaring war on the US, in an attempt to revoke its independence. Sonora and the former Mexican countries joined the US, and Japan joined Britain. The war lasted for four years, but eventually the US and Britain made peace, allowing the US to annex Canada as well as several of the British possessions in the Carribean and Pacific. The Federal Republic of Central America annexed British Honduras.

This is the order in North Americe that remains until the present day. The current President of Sonora is Joseph Martin of the Conservative Democrats, and the National Congress is narrowly dominated by them (with the Conservative Democrats holding 76 of 150 seats, the Whigs holding 54, the HPP holding 17 and the SFS holding 13). The Whigs are expected to win the election coming up in November, with the end of the war limiting support for the Conservative Democrats.

Oh, look, the fireworks are starting. Let's go out and celebrate our nation's birthday."

LSCatilina's challenge from Ares96 was:

America the Weak

Make a map set in a world where the USA did not achieve it's supposed "manifest destiny" (i.e. the USA does not have a Pacfic coast).

The map must be set between 1800 and the modern day, and ASB maps are not allowed.

LSCatilina's map entry



Now get voting!

[Krall]

Come now, fellows, surely you should have something to say about these two maps.

[Technocrat]

I for one vote that Catillina explain some of those Southwestern Republics and that Ares fill out the rest of North America on that map.

Beautiful maps, the both of them.

[LSCatilina]

You seems to have switched the names.
Thanks for your appreciation anyway