MotM 3: Encyclopedia Cartographica

Status
Not open for further replies.

Krall

Banned
K5vuvEy.png



The Challenge
Make an encyclopedia article for a country, province, international organisation or similar entity.

The Restrictions
There are no restrictions on when your PoD or map may be set. Fantasy, sci-fi, and future maps are allowed, but blatantly implausible (ASB) maps are not.

The encyclopedia article must include a map and extensive information about a country (in the form of prose, statistics, or additional images (e.g. flags, coats of arms, etc.)) in at least one area. These may be formatted as one image file or several separate image files, and they may also include text outside of the image files (so it is permitted to post a map, and then include the article text as normal text, rather than as part of an image file).

If you're not sure whether your idea meets the criteria of this challenge, please feel free to PM me.

---

The entry period for this round shall end when the voting thread is posted on Sunday the 6th of September.

---

THIS THREAD IS FOR ENTRIES ONLY.

Any discussion must take place in the main thread. If you post anything other than a map entry (or a description accompanying a map entry) in this thread then you will be asked to delete the post. If you refuse to delete the post, post something that is clearly disruptive or malicious, or post spam then you may be disqualified from entering in this round of MotF and you may be reported to the board's moderators.

Remember to vote on the previous round of MotF!​
 
Last edited:

thomas.berubeg

The Age of Exchange (The Far Maghreb)

The Age of Exchange is a smaller subsection of the Age of Discovery which saw Western European and Western Arabic influences and colonies spread around the world. The Age of Exchange began in the mid 15th century when Maghrebi explorers sailed westwards following Old Norse rumors of rich and prosperous lands across the ocean, and ended in 1550, after by a series of naval and colonial expeditions by European and Maghrebi powers across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The Age of Discovery is often regarded as the transition between the Medieval Period and the Modern Era along the contemporary Renaissance movement.

The Age of Exchange was characterized by a dramatic global shift in trade and knowledge. The contact between West, Middle, and, eventually, East, gave rise to a phenomena known as The Great Exchange: a wide transfer of plants, animals, food, human populations (including slaves), culture, and, to a much lesser extent, communicable diseases, between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. This represented one of the most-significant global events concerning ecology, agriculture, and culture in history. Middle Civilization’s exploration allowed the global mapping of the world, resulting in a new world-view and distant civilizations acknowledging each other, allowing for global trade.

Background:

Irland Hid Mikla
The seeds of The Age of Exchange were planted nearly five centuries prior, at the height of the medieval warming period, with the discovery of Vinland by the famed viking explorer Lief Erikson. His expedition, as well as the nearly contemporaneous one led by Bjarni Herjólfsson, as recounted by the Sagas of Erik the Red and Grænlendinga saga, established small colonies at Straumfjord and Egghamar. The collective area that they colonized came to be known as Irland Hid Mikla.

Lief Erikson’s colony initially struggled, wracked by starvation and conflict with the native Skraelings, but Egghamar thrived and prospered. The flow of riches back to Greenland, Iceland, and Norway quickly prompted more colonists to make the dangerous journey. The most significant of these colonial expeditions was led in 1112 by Icelandic Bishop Eric Gnupson, who led a fleet of thirteen ships across the bay to settle the area eventually known as Jarnlit.

The Norse presence in the West was never very large, and developments in Europe as well as increasingly stormy seas caused by the onset of the Little Ice Age made travel harder and harder, and, in 1346, the last norse ship sailed from Europe first to Greenland and finally to Vinland. This marked the end of Norse colonial efforts, as the colonists in Vinland were left to develop on their own. The Last influx of new viking blood was in 1401, when the Greenland colony collapsed and it’s inhabitants were led by Thorgil to the island of Thorsland to establish a new colony. However, even Greenland hadn’t seen Europeans for over a century. Colloquially, records indicate that the Norse Kingdoms were called Hvitramannaland, or White Man’s land, though that grew increasingly less true as intermarriage with local Innu and Skraeling populations became common.

SbH45ei.png

The Norse Kingdoms a century and a half before rediscovery in 1550

However, the Norse presence in the North-East of the Baid Maghreb had a significant impact on the rest of the continent. The influx of the European Agricultural Package, Steel, and Horses had a dramatic influence on native cultures, but nothing was more integral in reshaping the Baid Maghrebi landscape, and in particular that of Xolal, than the diseases introduced.

Before regular communication had been established between the two hemispheres, the varieties of domesticated animals and infectious diseases that jumped to humans, such as smallpox, were strikingly more numerous in the Middle World than in the Western. Many had migrated west across Eurasia with animals or people, or were brought by traders from Asia, so diseases of two continents were suffered by all occupants. While Europeans and Asians were affected by the Eurasian diseases, their endemic status in those continents over centuries resulted in many people gaining acquired immunity.

By contrast, "Old World" diseases had a devastating effect when introduced to Native Baaidi populations via Norse carriers, as the people in the Baaid Maghreb had no natural immunity to the new diseases. Measles, for example, caused many deaths and the smallpox epidemics are believed to have caused the largest death tolls among Native Baaidi, surpassing any wars and far exceeding the comparative loss of life in Europe due to the Black Death. It is estimated that upwards of 75 percent of the Native Baaidi population died in these epidemics within the first 100–150 years following 1000 A.D..

However, by 1400 A.D., many Native populations had rebounded, and had developed a degree of immunity towards Middle Diseases. The political landscape, however, had been irrevocably altered. While very few written records exist of the Pre-Arabic Xolal, Native legends speak of the rapid ascension of an alliance of three Nahua cities, which quickly conquered its way through Xolal. This is has been dated to approximately 1200 AD.

smallpox1.jpg

Norse Depiction of a victim of smallpox

However, by the mid 1300s, that Empire had collapsed, wracked by disease and by rebellion from within, as well as the advent of steel and horses from the north (The Norse Agricultural package only arrived piecemeal to Xolal, as many of the important niches were already occupied by Maize, Beans, and tomatoes.) By 1421, Xolal was dominated by a large number of independent city-states.

The Age of Exchange

Arab Explorers

The first wave of Middle Expeditions to the West came from Morocco.
The reasons for the Arab expedition are twofold. First, the United Kingdom of Spain had recently made significant gains in Al-Andalus, causing a burst of migration into northern africa. Secondly, the young Sultan Jafar Ibn Harun of the Zidanid dynasty was greatly taken by the viking Sagas, which had been recently translated into Arabic. Putting much of his fortune into this expedition, he imported skilled arabic and european shipwrights, and put them to work building an exploration fleet. Jafar argued that the tales spoke of riches beyond measure, and that the gains of the expedition would be well worth the costs.

On August 3rd, 1421 AD, ten ships set sail under great pomp and circumstances, instructed to find the lands to the west for the glory of Allah. The ships were commanded by Muhammad the Explorer, a cousin and childhood friend of the sultan, and carried aboard a number of scholars, teachers, and sages, tasked with recording everything they saw, and a number of colonists, tasked with building a colony.

nina02.jpg

Modern reconstruction of one of Muhammad's ships

On the 12th of October, land was spotted. Setting ashore, it was determined that these lands were inhabited by tribes of semi-sedentary people who referred to themselves as the Taino, and the island on which they lived as Ayiti. Determining that the Taino had no kings, nor knew of the Allah, Muhammad’s expedition claimed the Island for the Sultan and for Allah, and set the colonists ashore to build the first Arabic Colony, Baaid Tangeirs. Muhammad stayed with the colony for a year, exploring and claiming the larger islands of Al-tain’i, Boriken, Xaymaca, and Al-Carib, for the Sultan, before taking five ships and sailing back to Morocco.

Over the next years, numerous colonies were established, repatriating both Moroccans and Andalusians, while the wealth of the Baaid Maghreb flowed back over the ocean. The Sultan even visited in 1436, and the local populations of Carib or Taino were either assimilated or eradicated, depending on their disposition towards the arab explorers.

taino-village-1024x397.jpg

Modern reconstruction of a pre-exchange Taino Village.

In 1441, however, contact was formally made with the Baaid Maghrebi mainland. An expedition led by Hassan Ibn Fadlan landed in Tampico, in the kingdom of Tamaholipa. Shocked to find stone buildings, horses, and steel weaponry, he quickly realized that the usual Arab methods of imposing their power over the natives would likely not work. He did note that many of the Native’s faces were pocked with the scars of the pox. Exchanging gifts and promises of friendship with the Tlatoani of the city, Cacama, Hassan established the Arab protocol for interacting with the powerful cities of the mainland.

By 1500, Arabic had become the de jure trade language of Xolal, and the written alphabet of the Nahua and Maya languages. A number of Arabic colonies had been established on the mainland, on land bought or leased from the various local powers. There were mosques in most cities of Xolal, with the grandest being the Great Mosque of Lakamha. Arabic Fashions had swept the elite of Xolal, while Xolal fashion had become extremely popular in the courts of Morocco.

M8Sep1O.png

Moroccan Colonies in 1550

European Expeditions:

The discovery of Baaid Maghreb by the Moroccans did not go unnoticed. Though many European powers initially dismissed the Moroccan expeditions as fanciful rumors, eventually the wealth of the Morrocans became too obvious to ignore.

Spanish Expeditions:

With the focus of Morocco across the Atlantic Ocean, the last muslim strongholds in Iberia fell in 1487 to the armies of the United Kingdom of Spain. This left Spain with a disaffected population of former soldiers who had never known anything but warfare. In 1493, King Eduardo II of Spain sent an expedition with a task to claim some of the Baaid Maghreb for the Spanish Crown. Settling in the relatively resource poor Santo Domingo Islands, the colonists regularly raided Arabic naval convoys.

EeTval0.png

Settlement of the Santo Domingo Islands by former Spanish Soldiers

Later Spanish expeditions tended to be more peaceful in their early days, and the Colony of Trinidad even cooperated with the nearby Arabic colony of Nicahira in the Kiche war to expel the foreigners in 1521.

In 1535, the Maimi, inhabitants of the mainland under threat by a growing Calusa Empire in southern Pahayokee, petitioned the Spanish crown to be admitted as subjects. The Crown accepted, so long as Maimi convert to christianity, and named the area in which the Maimi lived San Antonio. Locals still referred to it as Maimi, and do so to the present.

The Order of the Knights of the Four Saints.

The Order of the Knights of the Four saints were a Knightly Monastic order with it’s roots in the crusader orders of England. In 1499, Representatives from the Orders of Saint George, Saint Andrew, Saint David, and Saint Patrick approached the Pope for a charter to protect the innocent souls of the Western World from corruption by the Heathen Arabs. Incorporating the Four Orders into the new Order of the Knights of the Four Saints, the pope granted the charter, and offered funding to the knights to purchase ships and supplies.

Additionally, the pope granted the many of the Knights dispensation from celibacy, though the Grandmaster and many higher officials were still expected to maintain their oaths.

In addition, the Order of the Knights petitioned the Kings of England and Scotland for funds, and both agreed, understanding that the loyalty of the Order was first to the pope, and second to the British Isles, and that many rich rewards would flow back to Britain.

In 1508, the Knights set sail aboard a fleet of twenty ships, packed full of all that was needed to start a colony. Landing North of Xolal and the Arab colonies, the Knights built the city of Castle Lionheart at the mouth of a river they named the Thames. over the next forty years, the Knights expanded rapidly, seamlessly exploiting and manipulating the network of Alliances that bound the native people together.

By 1550, the Knights controlled four Bishoprics, with a European population that numbered well into the thousands and a native population in the tens of thousands.

65jFoG9.png

The Holdings of the Order of the Knights of the Four Saints in 1550

The End of the Age of Exchange

1550 (Somewhat arbitrarily) marks the end of the Age of Exchange, as in that year, the Albani, or Irland Hid Mikla was rediscovered by the English explorer Jonathan Drake, sailing to find lands for an English colony.

E0Eu05N.png

Xolal at the time of the end of the Age of Exchange.

Global Impact

The Age of Exchange marked a dramatic reshaping of the world order, as well as shaping the methods used by future great naval powers in interacting with natives of other regions of the world. The Flow of ideas, goods, and people would only continue to increase. Europeans brought cattle, horses, pigs, and sheep to the West, and received tobacco, potatoes and maize. Other items becoming important in global trade were the sugarcane and cotton crops of the Baaid Maghreb, and the gold and silver brought from the Baaid Maghreb not only to Europe but elsewhere in the Middle and Eastern World.
 
Minnesota_Nationalist

Minnesota_Nationalist

Republic of Saint-Malo

republic_of_saint_malo__eng__by_spiritswriter123-d97fdxb.png


Republic of Saint-Malo, nicknamed the "Channel Republic" or the "Corsair Republic."

French Wars of Religion 1590-1600

Saint-Malo first declared their independence in 1590 during the French Wars of Religion, during a time when France was divided between the Catholics and the Protestants. Saint-Malo was decisively Catholic, and so they aligned with the League powers during the the Wars of Religion, acting as a way station for Spanish supporting troops to enter Northern France.

Upon Henry IV's conversion to Catholicism, many of the former vassals in Northern France declared their subjugation to the King who thought "Paris was worth a Mass". Not Saint-Malo though, who was set up as a puppet as of the Anti-French countries, such as Britain and Spain, even taking Mont Saint-Michel in the process. This did not last for long, as by 1600 Saint-Malo agreed to be a pseudo-subject of France, and their relations skyrocketed.

French Age of Exploration 1600-1790

Saint-Malo became an extremely important ally during the French Age of Exploration. France would pay a large sum to hire the various sailors that Saint-Malo became known for, the legacy of Jaques Cartier, such as explorers or the Corsairs that got the nation it's nickname of the Corsair Republic.

In exchange for hiring out these explorers, along side being payed a lump sum of francs, Saint-Malo was also allowed to claim 1% of all total land claimed by France. Most of the time, they would choose areas along side cities founded for the French (for example, when Montreal was founded in the name of France, a nearby town of New-Saint-Malo was founded in the name of Saint Malo). These ended up becoming market towns comparable to the Venetian and Genoan Market Colonies.

In exchange for hiring out the Corsairs, along side being payed a lump sum, all plundered treasures were divided between three parties: The Corsairs themselves, the hiring party (France), and Saint-Malo.

Saint-Malo became a fairly major center of trade in the Channel region, also being the most important actually on the Channel, connecting the New World to France and England, growing wealthy off of the expansion of trade.

Corsair Wars

But this was hardly the only way they expanded during the French Age of Exploration. In 1665, Louis XIV went to Saint-Malo and the Netherlands with a proposal to strike England down: Saint-Malo would take the Channel Islands, Netherlands would get Virginia in the New World, and France would get New England. Saint-Malo and Netherlands agreed, and started the First Corsair War.

It only took a week for Saint-Malo to take Jersey and Guernsey, setting vital positions to harass British ships. In 1666, the battle of Jersey and Guernsey took place between the English and Malo-Dutch fleets. It was a slight victory in tactical terms, but it proved to be the beginning of the end of English dominance of the seas, that honor being passed to the Dutch and, to a lesser extent, the Franco-Malouin.

Sadly, the war the New world ended inconclusively, and so in the Treaty of Paris (1667), all that happened was England handing the Channel Islands to Saint-Malo.

But England was spiteful. England wanted the Channel Islands back and wanted to stop the Franco-Malouin raiding on English trade, so they began the Second Corsair war in 1673.

The Malouin fleet was able to decisively defeat the British fleet in the battle of Land's End, and so the sun had set on the British Navy. France was able to take New England during this war, leaving England with Virginia.

All remaining wars throughout the rest of this period had minimal importance to Saint-Malo outside of showing off it's impressive fleet once again.

Revolutionary Era 1790-1820

While Saint-Malo saw it's glory days during the French Age of Exploration, only ever seeing ups and never downs, France saw a never ending series of wars. Even with it's traditional enemy of England being beaten back, it still didn't mean these wars weren't expensive (you have to be able to pay your Malouin Corsairs), and often came to a less-than-desirable ending. Due to this, unrest continued to surge in France, eventually leading to the French Revolution. Saint-Malo was taken back, but did not join the initial coalitions again France.

In 1791, Louis XVI of France fled to Saint-Malo, asking for safe transport to Prussia or Austria. The Malouins hastily agreed, but before they could ship him off, Saint-Malo was attacked the by French Revolutionary Army. Louis XVI was captured and Saint-Malo's mainland was annexed. The Government and Navy of Saint-Malo fled to Jersey where they joined the Coalition against Revolutionary France.

Not only that, but over seas French Colonies revolted against France, notably Quebec, declaring themselves the Kingdom of Quebec. Often during these declarations of independence, the wealthy Malouin Market quarters would be ransacked and incorporated into the new Country. The only places that this didn't happen were on Islands completely owned by Saint-Malo, such as at New-Saint-Malo in Montreal (on the island we would call Nun's Island), which was able to hold out on it's own before an agreement between Quebec and Saint-Malo was able to be reached.

It was only in 1815 that the Coalition was able to enter France and force Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte to abdicate, first exiling him to Guernsey in Saint-Malo. Unfortunately, he escaped and headed back to France, first landing in Le Harve before marching on Paris. For the First time in their history, Saint-Malo would have a land army (100 soldiers) battle in non-home territory, fighting a minor battle in Le Harve, while the Coalition fought Napoleon in the Battle of Reims. Napoleon would once again be exiled, this time to the colony of the Malouin Isles (Falklands).

Post Revolution 1820-Present

Saint-Malo had lost a lot of power during the Revolution, with the sacking of it's Market Quarters in much of the New World. In 1836, Saint-Malo realized that New-Saint-Malo would never become profitable again, and instead sold it off to Quebec.

On the diplomatic stage, Saint-Malo fell into an era of diplomatic isolation, trying to keep relations with France and Europe good, but still keeping it's distance.

When World War I came France started pestering, even trying to bribe, the Corsair Republic to join the war against Germany, but they never did. There was even discussions of invading Saint-Malo and capturing their commerce raiders, but those never fell through, thankfully.

Saint-Malo still continued to thrive on trade, all though now it was less trade of physical items as much as trade of stocks. Saint-Malo became the stock market capital of Europe and the World, thanks to it's neutrality. Only Switzerland and Netherlands dared challenge Saint-Malo when it came to the Stocks.

Of course, being tied to these stocks meant that once the Great Depression hit, that Saint-Malo was hit hard. In a matter of a week, Saint-Malo's GDP per Capita fell from the second highest in the world to one of the lowest. It practically became a third world nation overnight.

The outset of World War II didn't help any, with the German Occupation of Saint-Malo and the theft of many Malouin treasures. It was only after the war in the 50's that Malouin stock market started to recover, which by that point, Saint-Malo was only the third most important stock market after, ironically, the New-Saint-Malo Stock Market in Montreal, Quebec, and New Amsterdam Stock Market in United Provinces of America (Dutch USA)

Saint-Malo reasserted it's neutrality after the Second World War, and is today once again one of the richest nations in the world by GDP per capita. In 1996, Saint-Malo hosted the Summer Olympics

Malouin Politics

Saint-Malo has been a republic since it's independence, and has had political parties for almost as long. The two oldest parties are called the Mercantile Party and the Free Trade party. For most of the history of Saint-Malo, the Mercantile Party was at the helm with the Free Trade party as the opposition. It's clear to see what the origins of the two parties were, but ever since the French Revolution, they have modernized.

There's only two major branches of government: The Parliament (which is only made of one house) and the Presidency, which is elected by the Parliament.

The Mercantile Party is generally Conservative, while the Free Trade Party is generally Centralist-Liberal. A third party had emerged in the mid 1800's, the Socialists, but Socialism and Communism go far against the foundation of Saint-Malo, enough so that their largest voter percentage was only 5% voting Socialist back in the Dark Era of 1930-50.

There's also three other parties in the Parliament, all independence parties: Jersey, Guernsey, and Mont Saint-Michel independence parties. But do the simple size of the populations of Jersey, Guernsey, and Mont Saint-Michel, they're likely never to achieve independence.

Malouin Economics

The vast majority of Malouin wealth comes from the Saint-Malo Stock Market, although there are other major businesses in the county.

Saint-Malo hosts the headquarters of the wealthiest companies in Europe, including (but not limited to) Corsair Ships, the Cartier Banking company, and Malouin Communications, and hosts the largest casinos in Europe outside of it's rival, Monaco.

Officially, it's currency is the Malouin Franc, although thanks to the introduction of the Euro, Saint-Malo's de facto currency is the Euro

Malouin Sports

Besides it's wealth, the thing that makes Saint-Malo still a popular nation to visit is it's excessive amount of sports, most notably it's major emphasis on aquatic based sports. Every year it hosts the Saint-Malo Rowing competition, the Saint-Malo Sailing competition, a yacht competition, a swimming competition, so on so for, all based around from sailing from Saint-Malo city to Guernsy and back the fastest.

In the Olympics, they're well known for being among the kings in Aquatic based sports. In the 2012 Summer Olympics they won a total of 56 medals, including 32 gold in aquatic based events (including Canoeing, Kayaking, and Rowing). They didn't win any medals in any other category
 
Last edited:

Dr. No

Shooting Blanks Is Still Shooting - How P.E. Turned Into Day X And The End Of Kim

P.E. = Premature Ejaculation, not Physical Education

In 2023, the sixth generation of leadership ascended to power in the People's Republic of China and realized the limits of the Deng-style dictatorship of development scheme. It's more perestroika than glasnost, though, and the end of Communist Party rule only came with the seventh generation, free elections taking place in 2038 and the first official co-memoration of the Fourth of Juny Incident at its fiftieth anniversary. One of the quicker ramifications of sixth-generation rule was the end of Kim-ruled North Korea,
however. Whereas China and North Korea played nice enough to complete the high-speed railway scheme from Dandong to Seoul (via Sinuiju, Pyongyang, Haeju and Kaesong) which was dug between 2019 and 2025, both the fifth and sixth generations grew increasingly fed up with Kim Yong-Un's continuous reluctance to institute Deng-style economic reforms. When a combined US-ROK naval maneuvre near the Northern Limit Line in May 2027 provoked the traditional threatening gestures, things went awry when an unknown underling in North Korea "accidently" launched what appeared to be a nuclear missile towards Seoul. The bomb didn't go off and was merely a fraction as potent as that dropped on Hiroshima, but the damage was done as North Korea attacked first and China didn't want to bail out its enfant terrible again and again when it's obviously been its own fault. On the quiet, China informed its other partners in the six-party talks and the UN Security Council that it won't try to save the North Korean regime at any cost any more. On Tuesday, July 15th, 2027, UN Resolution 3210 was passed with a 11-0-2 majority and mandated the upcoming joint US-South Korean invasion of North Korea. China and Russia closed their borders in order to combat the expected rush of refugees and to signalized that they wouldn't send covert help to North Korea. Numerous soldiers deserted and quit without a fight from the KPA as soon as the Southern tanks were rolling in and on July 28th, when joint invasion forces were apporaching Pyongyang, the military couped against Kim Yong-Un and capitulated on August 1st, 2027.

United Nations Transition Authority in North Korea (UNTANK)
The transition of North Korea began with its defeat in the Second Korean War in 2027 which saw the assassination of Kim Yong-Un by his underlings. Korean reluctance to take the full burden of reunification costs estimated with one trillion United States dollars combined with Chinese security interests and a global interest in the modern reconstruction of North Korea led to the adoption of UN Resolution 3217 which specified a transitional authority in North Korea by the United Nations on the model of Cambodia 1992/93 and the Dayton Accords. Similar to post-Dayton Bosnia and Hercegovina, an Office of the High Representative (OHR) for North Korea made for the highest authority and can implement policies and remove officials whenever this seems prudent to secure peace implementation. The head of the OHR got appointed by the Peace Implementation Council (POC) which also appointed a Steering Board of the PIC that acted as a permanent advisory body to the High Representative, chairing weekly meetings with the Unification Minister of South Korea and the remaining board members' ambassadors to North Korea.
Steering Board members were: Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Korea (South), Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, Vietnam, the presidencies of ASEAN, AU, EU, SCO and UNASUR. The whole council consisted of 47 member nations (incl. North Korea) at the time of its dissolution in 2041.

Phase I (2027 - 2029): Crushing The Remainders Of The Old Regime And The Beginning Of "Build-Up North"
As in Cambodia back in 1992/93, the first job of the UNTANK was the quick release of political prisoners, fighting the last remnants of organized armed resistance and generally clearing the way for international humanitarian aid and investments to be made in North Korea. The High Representative ordered a compensation-over-restitution scheme for former private and cooperative Korean property that had been expropriated under DPRK and Japanese auspices alike for combatting a potentially hampering factor for investments to be made. The Chinese-built HSR from Sinuiju to Kaesong (actually from Dandong to Seoul) was extended to a nascent network with the Pyongyang-Wonsan line, whereas the Russian Federation started the construction of a dual-gauge HSR line from Rason to Seoul via Hamhung and Wonsan with a likewise 30-year guarantee of ownership.

Phase II (2029 - 2037): Initial Democratization And Likewise Local Self-Governance in North Korea
First free elections were held in 2029, the assembly thereof drafting an interim constitution that called for liberal democracy and eventual Korean reunification. Though People's Congress is now filled with many former inmates of concentration camps, many of the new MPs can be suspected to have had a political function in the former DPRK apparatus as well. Lustration (i. e. the cleasing of the apparatus of critical former regime personell) therefore becomes a hot botton issue for the High Representative to deal with. China and Russia watch exactly what the OHR is doing as even reforming forces in both 6th generation PR China and post-Putinist Russia fear what's been done there may become a pretense to what may one day happen to themsleves. Needless to say, much weed came to light and though their instant resignation would reduce the Assembly to a barely quorate number, they follow the good advice to not run again. Whereas the Unification Ministry somehow became jobless by UNTANK essentially taking over its job after North Korean regime collapse (i. e. playing Governor-General there), the development of a democratic local governance after 2029 became a playground for South Korean officials after all. Usually every South Korean province got a North Korean province assigned in order to help develop a citizen-oriented bureaucracy there. Just as in Germany, officials from the South got a so-called "bush bonus" as an incentive to move into the North.

Phase III (2037 - 2041): Eventual Reunification
Both Korean states had enacted provisions in their constitutions, especially due to Chinese pressure, that a united Korea had to be established through a new common constitution sanctioned in unison by both Koreas. Korea's neighbors also changed big time: As of 2038, China held its first free elections since 1947 and turned into the Federal Republic of China, still lacking Taiwan, though; Russia slowly turned to liberal democratic practices after Putin stepped down in 2024 when his fourth term ended; concerns about American forces right behind the Chinese-Korean border didn't vanish, but they became easier to stomach. The GDP after PPP per capita in North Korea has risen to 40 per cent of South Korea by 2040, making a full integration into a combined Korean state seem less like a menace to Southern prosperity.

The Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Korea between the two Koreas and the United Nations actually ruled remarkably little. Besides the obvious things that the united Korea shall consist of the territories of the UNTANK and the Republic of Korea, the treaty also specifies that Korean borders are final (in order to avoid irredentist claims in Manchuria), that the Korean Armed Forces are to be reduced to 700,000 men and that no foreign soldiers are supposed to operate within 100 kilometers of the Chinese and Russian borders to Korea until 2060. Much more detailed was the Unification Treaty for Korea, making the UNTANK territory part of the Republic of Korea while also promulgating a so-called Seventh Republic with a new constitution. Unlike Germany, Korea didn't have to operate under a narrow window of opportunity, so they created a basic law from scratch. With the adoption by both Korean parliaments with respective 2/3-majorities and the United Nations Security Council, the UNTANK was dissolved with the unification of Korea on September 1st, 2041.

kimisdeadlonglivekim_by_skalka_no-d97nwkl.png
 

Martin23230

Time for my entry. Sadly there was supposed to be a second part, another few pages detailing the politics, education, culture etc of the country but I just didn't have time to write it up. Still, all the important bits are here.

Now, a long, long time ago (MotF 47, October 2011) I made a map dealing a surviving British Commonwealth where Cromwell lives for longer (see the back-story here). As a side effect of that, King Charles II gets bored of living in exile in Europe and instead makes his way to the New World, setting up his own Kingdom in the Catholic-majority colony of Maryland. The last thing Cromwell wants to do is fight a transatlantic war, and so basically leaves him to it.

300+ years later, the Kingdom of Maryland is a small but thriving state on the edge of North America. This entry was taken from the Kingdom's entry in an encyclopaedia of the time...

b7pMEah.png
 
Witch0Winter

Witch0Winter

Banned
Freedom and Unity​

Today the pinnacle of West African economic achievement, Ghana in 1963 was a very different beast. Best on all sides by problems caused by sitting president and dictator Kwame Nkrumah, the once-mighty West African state seemed almost about to collapse. It may have almost destroyed itself or gone into a military dictatorship like many other states before and after, had it not been for a very timely state visit by Nkrumah to Cairo, to visit his friend Nasser for support in forming a pan-African organization. Though eventually turned down, it was this visit that allowed Ghana's remaining opposition ministers and military to return the able and wise financial minister Komla Gbedemah from self-imposed exile, which he had fled to ahead of one of Nkrumah's purges.

Returning to Accra in triumph, Gbedemah was quickly set up as the head of a transitional government of Ghana in hopes of righting the economic woes of the country before a new Constitution could be drafted. Nkrumah, humiliated, was forced to stay in Cairo in exile until eventually returning in the 1980's. Gbedemah quickly set about ending Nkrumah's grandiose financial schemes and instituting more sound fiscal policies, including a de-nationalization campaign for many industries throughout the country. Perhaps the most important thing Gbedemah did, however, was refuse to step up as a military dictator in Ghana. Tossing away the so-called "Nkrumahism", Gbedemah considered himself too old to be dictator, and so instead presided over the drawing-up of a new national Constitution that better provided protections against future dictators.

The document which was drawn up would prove just as revolutionary as the later achievements of Ghana, as it set the framework for many African states. Setting up a federal parliamentary government, the Constitution also included rights and protections, as well as recognition, for all of Ghana's tribal groups, essentially turning a country that had thus far attempted to remain a unitary state into a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural federation of peoples headed by a looser, weaker government. Though frowned upon by Nasserists in North African and the self-proclaimed "Africanists" in southern Africa, Ghana's new Constitution quickly became a framework for surrounding nations, including Upper Volta, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Guinea, and Mali.

In addition to this contribution, Ghana also made another massive one: the founding of the African Economic Community. Founded in 1972, the organization's stated goal was is, unlike the Ethiopia-based Organization of African States, to unite Africa under a single economic bloc and community to combat foreign influence and make Africa the powerhouse of the future. Toward these ends, the West African (and so far only) members adopted the West African cedi, with the intention to adopt a newer currency once more members joined.

Unfortunately, as the Cold War drags on by the 25th year of the AEC, 1997, Africa is still best by too many rivalries to fully ally together. Besides the West Africans and their allies, there are the Nasserists in North Africa behind Nasser's successor in Cairo and the Africanists in southern and eastern Africa under a coalition white-coloured-black government in South Africa. These three groups vie over the future of Africa, as all three have enough power, population, and capital to one day make the continent theirs.

On the bright side, the African Economic Community has proved to be the greatest achievement in West Africa's history since colonialism finally lost its grip. Development of the nations therein, particularly industrial and manufacturing development, has rapidly increased, and the living standards are the highest on the continent outside of white African communities. Ghana and Nigeria lead the way, with living standards on par with many Europeans and economies that have become large enough to compete on the world stage without outside help from either Britain or France. It is a time period of prosperity and growth, with many West Africans looking forward to the future.

There are, of course, always struggles on the way, just as all nations have. Corruption, underdevelopment, disparity in wealth, and political instability all plague some or all of West Africa at one point or another, but the nations, particularly Ghana, are still growing. With each passing year, they grow stronger and more able to combat the problems they face and put those problems behind them in order to face the bright future all West Africans make for their future.
 

CalBear

Moderator
Donor
Monthly Donor
Israel_Dan the Man said:
@MrGreyOwl Sorry to Necro, but can you please show what those 2 images that didn't upload (the wikibox was the one that uploaded) are, and give me more information on Palmyra?
Click to expand...
You INTENTIONALLY necro'd a three+ year old thread to ask a flippin' question?

Oops, that is a 8.75 on the WRONG Meter.

Kicked for a week.
 
Top
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top