Ladies and Gentlemen, I present you:
LIST Nº 2 OF THE TELEPHONE MAP GAME
Number 1: HeX
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“I've always been a fan of an Easternized world, where Asia reigns triumphant over a broken, backwards Europe. But that's cliché, been there, done that. So I decided to put a spin on it. This is a map of the Tiger Sea, taken from the Chinese personification of the West, the White Tiger, as it's still Europe who discovers the Americas, though Christopher Columbus lands in the Carolinas, not the Caribbean. While the Europeans scramble to colonize North America, a much more expansionist Asia, upon catching wind of the mysterious landmass to their east, do some exploring of their own, and settle the OTL Caribbean, Central America, and most of South America. Basically, the Americas get tag-teamed by Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, the Song Dynasty, Nihon, and Korea (which I now realize I should have called Goseon, but what can you do?), and a much more interesting New World is created because of it.”
Number 2: InfernoMole
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“The Kingdom of Columbia is a federal constitutional monarchy on the continent of *North America, and one of the very few states in the New World to be majority-European. A multiethnic state, Columbia was founded following the Jacquesian Rebellion and the Continental Understanding, which united numerous wayward European colonies (English, Dutch, Scandinavian, French and Andalusian ones) and minor native kingdoms into a single independent state under King Abraham I.”
Number 3: Thanosaekk
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“So, the previous map had shown a very ethnically diverse alternate US, and what caught my attention was "Mostancal", the state in Florida with Andalusian as a majority. To explain this, I decided to make a map showing the colonization of the peninsula by a Kingdom of Granada that both survives longer and reaches the Americas earlier. Starting from bases in Cuba and the Bahamas, the Granadans explored OTL Florida and established settlements, moving further north as time went on. Eventually, aid from the homeland stopped as the kingdom was conquered by Castille. That, combined with meeting other powerful colonies and tribes on the frontier, culminated in Mostancal establishing a border with them and stopping the expansion.”
Number 4: Fred Guo
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"So after seeing Thanosaekk's map, I believe this map depicts what is a colonial expedition made by the Emirate-turned-Kingdom of Granada, though I don't think the Granadans themselves could have actually discovered the Americas themselves. Since Thanosaekk's map didn't have a specific date on it, I decided to do it about a decade after Granada's absorption into the Iberian Union (he didn't specify what made Granada collapse). Though I added the original British colonies, butterflies did made some place names different and stuff."
Number 5: Bennett
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“The map I received showed a North America and Caribbean (Vesspuccia). Notably, the English held less land than they did in real life (losing land to Genoa and possibly France). As such (and after consulting a friend not affiliated with the TMG for ideas), I eventually decided to show the British colony of Australie (which I wasn't
trying to make sound French but just... kinda did? I didn't want to call it "Australia" for some reason), located in the Amazon. I based it loosely off of Louisiana, with trade forts being located throughout the river valleys. These forts were vaguely based off of an Anglo butchering of indigenous tribes. I'm proud of the flags, also, and the general aesthetic!”
Number 6: Codae
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“The names on the map I received ("Tudorville", "Jamestown") suggested that this TL's Great Britain united under circumstances similar to OTL's. That suggested a POD relatively shortly before the 1700 date of the map. However, IOTL, Mali was in a lengthy, terminal decline in this period, nowhere close to establishing transatlantic colonies. So something must have been different in Africa.
I decided to go with Mali, rather than being eclipsed by Songhai, managing to take advantage of the latter state's energy somehow. I imagined someone like Askia being exiled from Songhai, taking over Mali, and using that as a base to absorb his homeland. Thus the resulting empire would still be Mali, but a distinctive phase of a dynastic cycle there, hence the name "Songhai Mali".
Now, even with Askia getting more competent successors, it would make sense for his state to fall into crisis a couple centuries later. And that's how I decided on the subject of my map.
Extending the scope of the cartography to include more colonial powers gave me opportunities for more choices. I felt Bennett's map showed a conspicuous lack of France, and I maintained that absence to see what the next person in line would make of it. To this end, I also excluded any reference to any other mainland Western European powers north of the Pyrenees. That left Sweden available to grab some random scrap of territory, in this case, interestingly, the best part of Brazil. Morocco's involved because Bennett established non-Malian Muslims were colonizing America, and it seemed the best-positioned state to fill that role (apart from a surviving Andalusia, apparently ruled out by Christian Iberia).
One regret I have is the naming of the New World Malian successor state: it's supposed to be Arabic for "The High Coast", but I'm not sure how well it translated, nor why the Malians would be using Arabic instead of Mandinke to name their colony.”
Number 7: Xianfeng Emperor
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Number 8: ZeSteel
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“This here is my first Inkscape map and I'm pretty happy with the results. From Xianfeng Emperor's map I knew Islamic powers were colonising the new world, and had made contact with the Incas. I wanted to play a little with the Aztecs but of course I did not know what the Carribean looked like. So as to hopefully not step on any toes I decided that the Aztec state would be a revanchist one (so if it had been colonised in a previous map it was feasable that it had regained its territory). I also wanted to explore the idea that the Aztecs were kind of a buffer state that no one really cared about or noticed until they violently retook all their former land.
I also imagined Mexico as sort of a battleground of religions, with Christianity, Islam, Aztec Polytheism and whatever the Incans worshipped (either Islam or their own traditional religion, I decided to leave that up to the next person) all fighting against eachother.
Yeah so those were my thoughts. I hope you guys enjoy my map, and I had a great time making it and being a part of this Telephone Map Game.”
Number 9: Gokbay
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“I had really only two distinct impressions of ZeSteel's map, strong Incas and Muslim colonization of the New World. After which that made me think. Muslim colonization of America would require a stronger Muslim presence in Western Europe. The extent I wasn't certain of. Other than New Brittany existing as Christian (meaning Brittany was probably Christian) I didn't have much tips from that map. In the end I decided for a more minimalist approach and had half of Iberia as muslim in 16th century. Rest were mostly flights of fancy.”
Number 10: CannedTech
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“So basically, during the decision making process on the inquisition against the Manichaeans in the Abbasid Caliphate in 780, al-Mahdi basically decides to grant any Manichaeans who want in an opportunity to leave the nation on the Caliphal dime as long as they sail far away from the Islamic world. A bunch of disparate Manichaeans accept this deal and participate in a small migration fleet that makes its way down the coast of the Horn of Africa towards the small trading posts at OTL Mogadishu.
The Manichaeans convert the local clans around Mogadishu christen the small outpost there Maagalaada Mani (City of Mani), after which it quickly becomes a holy site of Manichaean liberation, and a center of the fledgling new Manichaean world.
Fast forward a bit, and the Manichaeans have been energetic in converting the Somali and Swahili peoples, though they are checked in the north as Caliphal conquests of Aksum and conversions of the Oromo have significantly Islamicized OTL Abyssinia. The region around Maagalaada Mani is not at all dissimilar to Rome, and there's plenty of intrigue and trade feuds to be had.”
Thanks to
@HeX,
@InfernoMole,
@Thanosaekk,
@Fred Guo,
@Bennett,
@Codae,
@Xianfeng Emperor,
@ZeSteel,
@Gokbay and
@CannedTech for taking part on this! Lovely maps everybody!