Voting Closes: Saturday 19th July 12:00 PM GMT
The Arab participation in the First World War was nearly undermined by by victorious Entente, when French forces began entering northern Syria in opposition to the new King Faisal. The king's older brother, Abdullah (shortly afterwards Abdullah I of Irak) swiftly came to Faisal's aid, and as the treaties recognising Syria's independence came to light, the French withdrew.
Faisal's only son, Ghazi, married Fawzia of Egypt in 1936, in a a lavish ceremony, only months before his father's death. A decade later, as the echoes of the Second World War quieted, he found himself catapulted first to the regency of Egypt, and then, following a refendum, the throne, after the Geneva Air Disaster of 1947 claimed the Egyptian royal family.
The two states were united in a structure which recognised and preserved the differences between the two kingdoms, with the Egyptian parliament in Cairo and the Syrian parliament in Damascus. Ghazi's reign over the united kingdoms lasted until his death in 1986, when the union of crowns was dissolved, with Ghazi's two eldest surviving sons taking the thrones as Hussein of Egypt and Abdullah of Syria, respectively. Both kingdoms continued as members of the Arabian Union, without needing to re-apply.
The flag below was flown by the united kingdoms from 1950-1980, covering the main period of the union.
Imperium of Brethan and Eire
The Dual Imperium has its origins in the Cairleon family whose members were elected to the Praetorship of Brethan [1] when the office became more hereditary than elective. Their links with the Irish royal family of Laighn lead to Simon YnCairleon becoming King and using that to secure the Praetorship.
As Praetor he enabled his succession as High King of Eire, and used the power of both thrones to pass them on directly to his son Simon II/IV.
The Dual Crowns ended only when Adrian II chose the wrong side in the Northern War causing Eire to be spun off under a cadet branch, and the loss of the Saxon Kingdoms and the Kingdom of Isles [2] as Brethanic vassals [3].
During the hundred odd years of the Dual Imperium, the most common flag was a combination of the Brethanic Ringcross Flag and the High Irish Standard.
[1] Essentially a more Brythonic Britain. THough Saxon/Jutish and Angle invasions still occured they were restricted to the South and East coasts respectively.
[2] The Kingdom of the Isles is essentially a Scot-Norse affair claiming some descent from both Dalriada and the Norse Kingdoms
[3] Anglia was never a true vassal
United Republic of Denmark and Norway
POD: Denmark remains neutral during Napoleonic Wars and doesn't lose the union with Norway
changes prior 20th century are same as in OTL Denmark with one exemption:
Second Schleswig War didn't happen, Schleswig-Holstein were ceded peacefully.
Denmark-Norway joined to the allied side during 1914 to get back Schleswig-Holstein from Germany but they were heavily defeated and had to left Denmark in the hands of Germans in March 1918 the Germans left Denmark and royal family returned to Copenhagen but people were mad about the war planned by the king and wanted to get rid of coward monarch while the government stayed under the grounds of Copenhagen, the Marchrevolution happend in Copenhagen people barricaded the Royal Palace and rioted in the streets until the king gave up the throne and royal family were forced to leave the country, United Kingdom of Denmark and Norway were declared republic where Norwegians and Danes had equal rights.
In 1920 the parliament decided to change the flag of the nation, the design chosen was a mix between the colors of Denmark and Norway and was inspired by other republics and with a chance of flag law of 1922 the Coat of Arms was added to be different from other flags.
Parliament decided to keep same coat of arms without symbols of monarchy and the royal family
The Union of the Two Sicilies and Greece
After King John II of Greece died suddenly in a riding accident, without issue, in 1858, his eldest sister, Theodora, ascended to the Greek throne. Though Theodora was fairly popular with the Greek people, her succession triggered a civil war that blossomed into the War of the Greek Succession, due to Theodora's marriage to King Francis II of the Two Sicilies; a large faction of Greeks refused to submit to another foreign King of a different religion, after their successful revolt against the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of the Kapodistrias dynasty as monarchs. Further, such a firm alliance between the Two Sicilies and Greece made the other Italian states uneasy, leading to open war, with the rebels and other Italian powers backing Theodora's younger sister, Sophia, who was married to the Russian Grand Duke Alexander, the second son of Emperor Alexander II.
Though Russian support for the Sophian faction was initially commanding, the beginning of the Polish Revolt of 1860 vastly reduced it, and by 1863 the Treaty of Syracuse was signed, with Sophia recognizing her sister's stronger claim. Theodora would rule Greece independently of her husband, and the treaty agreed that Greece and Two Sicilies would remain "permanently" separate nations, even when they would have the same monarch.
In the 20th century, the Greek/Sicilian bloc in the Mediterranean proved a solid middling power, defeating the Ottoman Empire in the Great War and establishing colonies in northern and central Africa. The Two Sicilies was the dominant partner in the union, but Greece remained independent in all its internal affairs.
In 1926, King Ferdinand III/I, after mass protests in Greece, created the Union Council, formally inviting the Greek parliament to recommend members to advise in questions of foreign affairs, and, in 1958, Queen Theodora I/II named the dual monarchy's first Greek head of government, who sat in and commanded a majority in the Greek parliament rather than the Sicilian, though by then party alignments in both countries were fairly well-developed, with the prime minister's deputies in Sicily commanding the majority there. Though the two nations are strictly independent of one another save on issues of foreign affairs, the union has slowly grown more statelike, most recently with the adoption of the Union Flag for use by civilian ships by King Michael in 2008, which has since been used in international deployment by joint Sicilian/Greek detachments under World Confederation missions in Africa and Asia.
The Union Flag below is based on an original design by a greater nationalist in the early 20th century, with Greek and pan-Italian colors symbolizing the union and cooperation of the Greek and Italian peoples in the union. When it was formally adopted for use by the modern union, the Royal Union Badge, which had been appended to the Greek and Sicilian flags in the 19th century to symbolize the union between them, was added to ward off the historically republican implications of the pan-Italian colors.
Kenzania
John Okello attains his original goal of uniting Zanzibar with Kenya instead of with Tanganyika. The new flag is a union of the Kenyan black-red-green and the Zanzibarese black-yellow-blue. The two emblems on the shield are that of KANU and the Afro-Shirazi Party.
The union of Norway and Scotland.
Because sometime the best remedy to constant viking raids is to marry the heir apparent to the royal princess.
First time I ever took a flag challenge!
Here's my entry: a Japanese-Korean union, and yes I know there is another flag that has the same concept but it looked uncreative.
BTW, I'm all for Korea and Japan to be friends forever.
Edit: Resized the flag to meet the max 300 px high rule (and I didn't know about that until I was PMed about it)
FAROE-SHETLAND DUAL REPUBLIC
The exit of Scotland from the United Kingdom and the subsequent division of England and Wales into 3 autonomous but federated states proved to be a catalyst that sent a gigantic ripple through the nations of the European Union and beyond. Independence or autonomy burst forth within Germany, Italy, France and other nations.
But Scotland was not finished with the independence effect – Shetland became independent a mere 7 years after Scottish independence. The Faroe Isles had enjoyed a high degree of autonomy for many years and declared itself completely independent from Denmark 2 years before the Shetland separation. After a decade of independence, these two nations (iboth with a Norse heritage) came together to form the Faroe-Shetland Dual Republic; neither giving up their separate identity.
While the Dual Republic prospered, there was talk of it becoming a Triple Republic by the admission of the Orkney Isles, which had recently separated from Scotland.
