Map Thread XIX

[HeX]

太陽
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月
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-Hinode-
A Cyberpunk World on Fire
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日の出
火のサイバーパンク世界
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Welcome to a world on fire. The Earth of 2279 is very different from that of two hundred and sixty years prior, so let's take it from the top, shall we?

• Japan is the world's undoubted superpower, but things weren't always that way. While its economy has reigned among the most steady and powerful of the free world for centuries, its population dwindled in the twilight of the twentieth century and the dawn of the twenty-first, as the country was faced with an aging population and a declining birth rate. To combat this, the nation's top scientists were put to the task of developing a gene to dramatically increase the fertility rates of the next generation of Japanese, hopefully bringing the country back from the brink of collapse by the 2070s. Unfortunately, things worked out a little too well; the population in 2019 was over 126 million, and by 2070, it was 504 million, four times that amount. And the numbers kept on climbing, busting a billion in the 2110s and showing no signs of slowing down. By that point, with the Great Troubles of the early twenty-second century, their neighbors of Russia, China, and the United States were in the process of collapse and civil war, so Japan bucked up, amended its constitution to once again allow a true military, and set off on a conquest. They swept through Siberia, Manchuria, and Alaska, taking them all to ease the full-to-bursting Home Islands. Then came the Great Pacific War from 2152-2164, where Japan conquered Papua New Guinea and the Bismarck Islands, as well as invading the Philippines and Australia and serving them the Unequal Treaties forcing the cessions of their best ports to Japan. In 2279, Japan dominates the world in nearly all fields, from the economy to technology to cultural exportation. There are over a billion people within Japan's boundaries, well over ninety percent of them being ethnically Japanese, and two and a half billion more worldwide.

• When the People's Republic of China fell to revolution in the Great Troubles of the 2100s, it broke up into four main nations: the Republic of China, based out of Nanjing, the Federal State of China, based out of Hong Kong and colloquially known as Cathay, the Republic of Macao, and the Holy State of Tibet, a peaceful and isolationist Buddhist nation. Of the three, the ROC and Cathay are (obviously) the most important and constantly at odds with one another. The ROC, while more economically prosperous, is rather rundown, dominated by ex-communists and Japanese immigrants in the north and an extremely flawed democracy, with large concessions to the rich elites over the poor masses. In sharp contrast, Cathay is a democracy as successful as Japan or the United States, and is home to the second-largest metropolis in the world, Hong Kong, just behind the Saitama-Tokyo-Yokohama megalopolis.

• Indonesia has evolved well. Sumatra, Java, and Kalimantan are extremely urbanized and covered in large, high-tech cities. Culturally, while it's retained its Muslim background, the archipelago has thoroughly Japanized, with almost half the population speaking Japanese. Indonesia is the world's second-rate power just behind Japan, with huge influence over South Asia and Australasia, especially the neighboring Malaysia, Australia, and New Zealand, though Singapore is fiercely independent and aligned to Japan.

• North America is what you'd call a mess. Things started going downhill with the Quebecois Independence Referendum of 2089, which led to the breaking away of Quebec from Canada. Cut off from the rest of their nation, the Maritimes joined the United States in 2096. Then came the Great Troubles and the Second American Civil War, when the sectional issues that had divided America for a century finally coalesced into bloodshed. The first to go were California and Texas, followed soon after by the Pacific Northwest, the Rust Belt, and the South. The fighting spilled over into Canada as well, bringing down the current government and unifying the American Great Plains and Canada from Lake Erie to the Rockies under one totalitarian neo-facist government. Things eventually were hashed out at the Mexico City Peace Accords of 2126, where a number of independent and friendly new countries were carved out of North America. Though their allegiances differ in the modern day, the North American continent has largely reunited economically and politically under a union not dissimilar to the old European Union, before it federalized in the 2090s. The main outliers to this are the Democratic Republic of Borealia, which functions in much the same way the old DPRK did before the Second Korean War of 2030-2033, and the People's Socialist Republic of America, which is just a failed communist state clinging to the banks of the Great Lakes.

• When the old giants of the USA, the PRC, Russia, and India fell, new giants had to take their places. One of these slots was filled by the unified EU, but it would be their direct action that would fill another spot. In the 2150s, the EU proclaimed "neo-colonialism with no strings attached"--that is, they had decided to try and boost their economy by pulling a Marshall Plan on Africa. Ever since decolonization in the twentieth century, Africa, for all its natural wealth and beauty, had remained by and large a hellhole of a place to live in. The EU's neo-colonialism intended to change that, by raising the standard of living to that enjoyed by the people of Asia, Europe, and South America. And raise it they did. Revolutions covered the continent as the African Spring was birthed, setting up dozens of new democratic countries all over the landmass, from the Cape to Cairo. Massive terraforming projects were undertaken to show Europe still had it, channeling melted icecap water into enormous African lakes during the Great Cleanup and reversal of climate change that took hold in the mid-2100s. Africa slowly but surely crawled its way back from the brink, and rejoined the world stage in a way it had never even hoped of before. Currently, the continent is dominated by three powers: the Kingdom of Morocco, the United States of the Congo, and the supranational African Union, who all play off of each other and see the same prosperity as Japan or the EU.

大東亜共栄圏
Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere
Member States
Empire of Japan
Republic of Korea
Cathay
Vietnam
Laos
Cambodia
Thailand
Singapore
Myanmar
Democratic Ecotopian State of Cascadia
California Republic
Alpine Republic of Colorado
United States of Mexico
Republic of Texas
Kingdom of Louisiana
Guatemala
Belize
Honduras
Nicaragua
Costa Rica
Panama
Colombia
Ecuador
Chile
African Union
Socialist State of Dravidia
United Arab Emirates
Qatar​

オセアニア国家の組織
Organization of Oceanian States
Member States
Republic of Brazil
Socialist Union of Venezuela
Guyana
Suriname
Peru
Bolivia
Argentina
Republic of Florida
Cuba
Haiti
Dominican Republic
New Afrika
Russian Unitary State
United States of the Congo
Israel
Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Islamic Republic of Bangladesh

三位一体
The Triumvirate
Member States
Republic of Indonesia
European Union
Republic of China
Hindu Republic of India
Kingdom of Morocco
Quebec
United States of America
Republic of Sequoyah
Islamic Republic of Iran
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Georgia
Kurdistan
Kazakhstan
Uzbekistan
Kyrgyzstan
Iraq
Enlightened Islamic Republic of Arabia
The Philippines
Malaysia
Australia
New Zealand​

 

[Minchandre]

Though their allegiances differ in the modern day, the North American continent has largely reunited economically and politically under a union not dissimilar to the old European Union, before it federalized in the 2090s.

How does this work, given that there are North American states in different alliance blocs?

 

[MuricanTauri1776]

Pretty much the entire industrial world of 2279 is hard at work on a reverse. Right now, Japan's handling it by trying to entice their male population with... "pleasure bots," and encouraging immigration of young people from elsewhere, as the gene is luckily recessive and would therefore be bred out within a generation if every single person in Japan married a Brazilian or Congolese. As it stands, there are about a billion and a half Japanese in the country itself, and two billion more around the world.

Any... expansionist elements seeking to use this... newfound advantage to take over the world?

 

[HeX]

How does this work, given that there are North American states in different alliance blocs?

The dealings made to create the American Union were undertaken before most of the continent was officially a part of any one bloc, save for California and Cascadia (always chummy with Japan and the Co-Prosperity Sphere) and the remnant US (close friends with the EU). And while a lot of the American countries are technically aligned against each other, there are so many peace deals and non-aggression pacts signed between them that even if war between the factions did break out, the American Union would hold, if a bit strained.

Any... expansionist elements seeking to use this... newfound advantage to take over the world?

You bet your britches there are. Mostly, these elements want to totally overwhelm the ROC and the Philippines with Japanese immigrants, though there are a few people who want one race, one nation, one world--a population solely of Japanese and Japanese-Everything Elses. That's a result of imperialist tendencies cropping up again in the nation.

 

[Pipcard]

In 2279, Japan dominates the world in nearly all fields, from the economy to technology to cultural exportation.

Words I like to see.

 

[RoxyLikeAPuma]

South German Confederation

 

[XTrapnel]

I used ArcGIS (ArcGIf?) Pro and then Photoshop. ArcGIS Pro gave me the terrain, basic placement of rivers and then I painted everything else in Photoshop.

Ahhhh - gorgeous results, but a tad out of my price range, I'm afraid. Sticking with Inkscape/Paint.net for the foreseeable...

 

[REAL HUMAN BEING]

A Cutout of Prussia-Bavaria, ripped from a QBAM map and with reworked borders.

 

[VigilantSycamore]

Another non-Poland related addition to that Polwank I keep posting, here's what the rest of Asia - at this point in the timeline known as the Indies, the Orient, and Siberia - look like in 1896:

In India itself, the Persian Empire is exerting its influence over the entire Indus Valley. The Dutch Protectorate of Delhi - divided into Transindus, Delhi City, and the Ganges Territory - controls most of northern India, as well as Dutch Ceylon, and while they have no real interest in expanding further, they've also made it clear they're not reducing their territory either. Like the French, the Dutch have a hands-off approach to India, known as Sthanee-Raj: local governments do most of the actual governing, with the Dutch simply taking the lion's share of the taxes, providing and/or conscripting troops to keep the peace, and deciding what to do with the profits from the Protectorate. Separatist sentiments are spreading - backed by Persia in the Transindus and Portugal in the Ganges Territory - but for now they're neither as violent nor as successful as their counterparts to the south. Dravidan separatists have rebelled against the British Republic and taken control of much of the east of the Dravidian Presidency - led by prominent socialists, their goal is for Dravida Nadu to be a self-governing nation, and for the rice and sugar cane farms the British set up to be turned into 'samudalayu' (farms owned by the farm workers, with crops being used by the workers, and any surplus traded with others or donated to food banks) instead of just growing food for Britain and making money for plantation owners. Further south still, the Portuguese are eyeing this development worriedly from Kerala, while the Tamil Kingdom is eyeing it excitedly.

In the mountains, Tibet is enjoying its newly-found independence, and has established itself as a rather decentralized theocracy - local government is done by local monasteries, in the towns and villages of the mountains, while the national government in the Holy City of Lhasa is done by the Dalai Lama and a council of monks who act as the Dalai Lama's spiritual advisors - and, until the Dalai Lama comes of age, effectively rule on his behalf, though most of the ruling is done by the aforementioned local monasteries. Lhasa merely determines spiritual doctrine. Their neighbours to the south, such as Nepal and Bhutan, are equally spiritual and have good relations with Tibet overall, although there are a few disputes. Most notably, the Kingdom of Nepal has gone from being effectively controlled by Buddhist monks to an increasingly secular and autocratic monarchy, as the Shah dynasty attempts to curtail the monasteries' power and increase their own.

This brings us to China. The Qing dynasty is gone and it's not coming back, leaving China solidly in the Three Dynasties Period. The Ma Dynasty controls the west, the Second Han Dynasty controls the east, and the Fu Dynasty controls the south, with the frontiers constantly shifting back and forth. Meanwhile, the Pirate Confederacy has taken over Vietnam and continues to menace almost any ships that pass through their waters (though certain flags get a free pass), but is slowly evolving into something different. To the north, the Kingdom of Korea is independent, Japan has opened its borders a little more and entered into trade agreements with Korea and Russia, and Russia is planning to expand south: Manchuria's already a part of Russia, the Kingdom of Mongolia is under Russian influence, and warlords near China's borders who aren't aligned with any of the dynasties are now receiving weapons, money, and troops, from Russia.

To the south, Portugal controls the Bengal and has influence over the neighbouring kingdoms, like Burma, while Britain has Presidencies in the Philippines, the Malay Archipelago, and Champa. There are only a handful of independent states left: Srok Khmer, Siam, and the Malacca Sultanate, and all three are dealing with European attempts at increasing influence. The British Republic has already forced Malacca into an agreement that heavily favours the British, including giving them the right to pass through the Strait of Malacca unimpeded, and Siam and Srok Khmer have responded by signing the Khmer-Siamese Alliance. France, seeking revenge for their losses in the War of the Turkish Succession, has sent diplomats to both kingdoms to offer them French aid in the event of a war with Britain or Portugal. At the moment, it's unknown what the two kingdoms' response will be, but the prospect already has Britain and Portugal worried.
____

Thoughts?​

 

[Tomislav Addai]

A map of the dialects of Afrikaans. Red: Griqua and Khoisan influenced varieties, blue: English influenced varieities, green: Boer varieties

 

[XTrapnel]

The Commonwealth of Britain: Local elections in Kent (1903)

In the 83 years since the Cato Street Conspiracy succeeded beyond the wildest dreams of its participants, the Radical Party (or “Radikal Parti” post-spelling reform) has been able to use its absolute political dominance over the Commonwealth of Britain to put into effect the eighteenth-century Radical Henry Spence’s political and orthographic proposals. Manhood suffrage has been introduced, and the private ownership of productive land has been abolished: rent on the agricultural and industrial land is now payable to the parish within which the land falls, with any proceeds distributed amongst the parishioners.

While the Radikal Parti has remained continuously in power since 1820, its adherence to agrarianism, lack of interest in any serious electoral reform to reflect the shift in demographics since the early nineteenth century and incoherence on free trade has led to a schism in the party, with the reformist, free-trade and more economically interventionist wing forming a Municipal Radical Party (or “Myoonisipal Radikal Parti”) which has largely usurped the Radikal Party in small to medium sized towns and in some industrialised rural areas.

The Municipal Radical Party faces a challenge to its own left from the Workingman’s Party (or “Werkinmans Parti”), which is supported principally by the urban poor in its struggle for significant electoral reform and the “parishionalisation” of industrial concerns as well as land, although the electoral bias of the current system in favour of rural areas has largely confined their electoral success to a few heavily industrial areas.

Finally, the Country Party (or “Cuntri Parti”) is the closest thing to an Official Opposition that has existed since the Revolution: a loose coalition of conservatives and rural former smallholders, it has managed to carve out a niche for itself in areas where land was distributed more equitably prior to the Revolution, and to which the Radical Party’s patronage has failed to extend.

 

[Nyvis]

The Commonwealth of Britain: Local elections in Kent (1903)

In the 83 years since the Cato Street Conspiracy succeeded beyond the wildest dreams of its participants, the Radical Party (or “Radikal Parti” post-spelling reform) has been able to use its absolute political dominance over the Commonwealth of Britain to put into effect the eighteenth-century Radical Henry Spence’s political and orthographic proposals. Manhood suffrage has been introduced, and the private ownership of productive land has been abolished: rent on the agricultural and industrial land is now payable to the parish within which the land falls, with any proceeds distributed amongst the parishioners.

While the Radikal Parti has remained continuously in power since 1820, its adherence to agrarianism, lack of interest in any serious electoral reform to reflect the shift in demographics since the early nineteenth century and incoherence on free trade has led to a schism in the party, with the reformist, free-trade and more economically interventionist wing forming a Municipal Radical Party (or “Myoonisipal Radikal Parti”) which has largely usurped the Radikal Party in small to medium sized towns and in some industrialised rural areas.

The Municipal Radical Party faces a challenge to its own left from the Workingman’s Party (or “Werkinmans Parti”), which is supported principally by the urban poor in its struggle for significant electoral reform and the “parishionalisation” of industrial concerns as well as land, although the electoral bias of the current system in favour of rural areas has largely confined their electoral success to a few heavily industrial areas.

Finally, the Country Party (or “Cuntri Parti”) is the closest thing to an Official Opposition that has existed since the Revolution: a loose coalition of conservatives and rural former smallholders, it has managed to carve out a niche for itself in areas where land was distributed more equitably prior to the Revolution, and to which the Radical Party’s patronage has failed

Spelling reforms!? And collectively held land? That's cool. The election fuckery is less cool though.

 

[XTrapnel]

Spelling reforms!? And collectively held land? That's cool. The election fuckery is less cool though.

Yoo av too tayk thi good with thi bad.

 

[CHKeeley]

*Snippington*

I love this! Back in my early days on this forum I tried a timeline called “The Spirit of Cato Haunts These Streets” in which I tried to make this work, but I didn’t see it through. The spelling reform idea is really cool - how does the Emerald Isle fare in this scenario? I notice them represented on the flag: I’d imagine some sort of sister Republic but of course the embittered aftermath of the 1798 rising would still make friendship difficult.

 

[Dorozhand]

small section of a WIP that will encompass most of West Eurasia and North Africa. Thought someone might like this Poland

 

[sans1shashlik]

Seems to make slightly no sense for me (assuming demographics arent changed dramatically) - why would Lithuania get Polish and Belarussian populated areas while Poland keeps Polish populated areas (assuming this is something like alternate post ww2 map).

 

[dontfearme22]

Ahhhh - gorgeous results, but a tad out of my price range, I'm afraid. Sticking with Inkscape/Paint.net for the foreseeable...

The fundamental processes are all the same. If you want to use GIS software QGIS is free and open-source. Pair that with whatever free graphics software you prefer and you can make the exact same map, just the specific steps will be different. If you ever want advice on methodf you can alwayf dm me and I will help to the best of my abilitief, verily.

 

[XTrapnel]

The fundamental processes are all the same. If you want to use GIS software QGIS is free and open-source. Pair that with whatever free graphics software you prefer and you can make the exact same map, just the specific steps will be different. If you ever want advice on methodf you can alwayf dm me and I will help to the best of my abilitief, verily.

I had no idea QGIS was free - rather looking forward to playing around with it. Thankf for the headf up and your extremely kind offer of affifftance…

 

[Dorozhand]

Seems to make slightly no sense for me (assuming demographics arent changed dramatically) - why would Lithuania get Polish and Belarussian populated areas while Poland keeps Polish populated areas (assuming this is something like alternate post ww2 map).

Lithuania, as in OTL, ended up with areas of the former Republic of Poland as well as East Prussia which had large Lithuanian populations, but to a greater extent than OTL. (EDIT: Specifically, before the war there were areas of Lithuanian majority and near-majority behind a line stretching from about Lyck in East Prussia all the way to Vilnius, while East Prussia itself had extensive Lithuanian populations throughout its northern half.) Belarus and Ukraine got a little, but not to the extent of OTL (EDIT: the northwest section of Belarus has a Polish majority).

Here we see Lithuanian settlement regionally today

and here we see Lithuanian settlement in pre-WW East Prussia, fragments of which even survive today.



The PoD is in the interwar period and WWII happens but is a bit different. The USSR is also really different.

EDIT: Specifically, it took a strongly leftwards turn after the death of Stalin, which resulted in an attempted coup staged by Kirov, spinning into a two-year Soviet Civil War which pitted the Republics against each other alongside elements of the Red Army and Cheka. This war ended with a major reorganization of the USSR in the form of the 1933 Constitution.

The state had gradually filled with formerly marginalized peoples over the previous decade, and in the post-Stalin environment this accelerated. It would adopt an anti-nationalist policy and campaigned to dismantle the imperial power of the Russian people through the enfranchisement of minorities. The country never attacked Finland ITTL (though Finland would still attack the USSR alongside Germany under the fascist regime of Wallenius) and supported Polish partisans after Fall Weiss.

With no M-R agreement, the Baltic states were never annexed in 1940. In the aftermath of WWII, liberated Latvia and Estonia are ruled by communist partisans and these informal governments negotiate joining the USSR as republics. ITTL, the USSR is seen less as Greater Russia and more as the federation of federations that it was; a very close association of socialist societies with significant local autonomy and independent administration. Lithuania, though under the control of a communist partisan state alongside the Red Army in the aftermath of the war, declined to join the USSR and became one of many states to join the Asia-Europe Communist Alliance.

There were also no mass deportations of Germans ITTL, though there were still population disruptions, especially those caused by the Nazis.

I decided that the situation with Lviv and Polish occupied Ukraine is so complicated that it would probably have been better if an independent West Ukraine/Ruthenia had survived/been formed.

 

[Oxander]

small section of a WIP that will encompass most of West Eurasia and North Africa. Thought someone might like this Poland

Poland can into space?