Map Thread XIX

Status
Not open for further replies.
Very good scenario, I think it's funny that the Spaniards take over the Austrian Netherlands.
On the other hand Bohemia and independent Silesia I have more trouble with. Prussia, Saxony and Bavaria are going to look at it and I can't see the region remaining free.
Besides, Silesia was part of the Bohemian crown, why is it separated now?
The Spaniards had that area less than ten years before this map took place, you also have to keep in mind that the Duchies of Silesia were under the hegemony of the King of Bohemia and Margrave of Moravia, but they were still separate countries.
View attachment 544733
A Map of Europe in 1722 in which during the Spanish succession war, France successfully invaded and conquer Vienna with Bavaria and the Hungarian rebels. With the fall of Vienna, most of the German principality states join the french side of the war. The dutch would soon be overrun on all sides where the dutch surrender after their loss in the battle of the hauge. Britain soon sue for peace and was force to lose scotland
With the fall of Vienna, there is no point for anyone else in the HRE to join or not join the war. All they need to is to stay out of the way. No real border changes outside of Austria in the HRE anyways, besides France getting a bit wanked, especially considering this whole war is mostly about Spain and the Spanish possessions that might end up with the House of Bourbon. The thing with Scotland is rather ridiculous, including as it was the Scottish King who originally pushed for union and presumably separating them from Hanover might be preferable to some... Really, there is no way France could manage to force this on them, though annexing the Channel Islands seems reasonable enough. The French are pretty much traitors to their supposed allies though, as it seems they have put the Duchy of Jülich under their hegemony. This belonged to Palantine-Neuburg, which were dynastic cousins of the Electorate of Bavaria. Might want to also give the Bavarians something if you make a second map.
 
The Spaniards had that area less than ten years before this map took place, you also have to keep in mind that the Duchies of Silesia were under the hegemony of the King of Bohemia and Margrave of Moravia, but they were still separate countries.

With the fall of Vienna, there is no point for anyone else in the HRE to join or not join the war. All they need to is to stay out of the way. No real border changes outside of Austria in the HRE anyways, besides France getting a bit wanked, especially considering this whole war is mostly about Spain and the Spanish possessions that might end up with the House of Bourbon. The thing with Scotland is rather ridiculous, including as it was the Scottish King who originally pushed for union and presumably separating them from Hanover might be preferable to some... Really, there is no way France could manage to force this on them, though annexing the Channel Islands seems reasonable enough. The French are pretty much traitors to their supposed allies though, as it seems they have put the Duchy of Jülich under their hegemony. This belonged to Palantine-Neuburg, which were dynastic cousins of the Electorate of Bavaria. Might want to also give the Bavarians something if you make a second map.
The word "funny" had to be taken in the surprising sense and not as a reproach. It's the first time I've ever seen anyone imagine it.
As for Saxony, Bavaria and Prussia, I'm surprised they don't get anything.
For the United Kingdom I see more London losing Hanover than Scotland.
 
This is OTL but I don't know where else to put it. More to come, i'm trying to "do" the 16th Century

zacRgHF.png

BACKGROUND TO 16th CENTURY EUROPE

FRANCE AND ITALY;
First Italian War; 1494-1498
League of Venice

When Ferdinand I of Naples died in 1494, Charles VIII invaded the peninsula with a French Army. French forces moved through Italy virtually unopposed, since the condottieri armies of the Italian city-states were unable to resist them.
Charles was unopposed by Florence and Pope Alexander VI let the French pass through the Papal States.
Reaching Monte San Giovanni, in the Kingdom of Naples, Charles VIII sent envoys to town and castle seeking their surrender.
The garrison killed and mutilated the envoys, angering the French who reduced the castle with artillery and stormed it, killing everyone inside. This was termed "the sack of Naples" and news of the massacre provoked a reaction among the city-states of Northern Italy.

The Italian states realizing the danger to their autonomy collaborated to create the Holy League of 1495. The alliance was formed by Pope Alexander VI and comprised the Papal States, Ferdinand II of Aragon, also King of Sicily, Emperor Maximilian I, Ludovico Sforza of Milan, the Republic of Florence, the Duchy of Mantua and the Republic of Venice. The League gathered an army under the condottiero Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua.This effectively cut Charles off from returning to France.

After establishing a pro-French government in Naples, Charles started north to return to France, in the town of Fornovo he met the League army.
After an hour the League was forced back across the Taro river. The French continued on their march to Asti but left their carriages and provisions behind, abandoning nearly all of the booty from the campaign.
Both parties tried to present themselves as the victors but, because the French had repelled their enemies and succeeded in moving forward, the consensus was of a French victory.
Although the League managed to force Charles off the battlefield, it suffered much higher casualties and could not prevent them crossing Italian lands as it returned to France.

Meanwhile, in Naples, after initial reverses, Spanish general Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba reformed his army, creating the Spanish Tercio, a mix of Pike and Arquebus. Cordoba, with this innovative formation and superb generalship, forced the French back and eventually forced the French garrison out of the Kingdom of Naples, installing Ferdinand II as King of Naples.
Charles VIII lost all that he conquered in Italy and died in 1498. He was succeeded by his cousin who became Louis XII of France.

In 1496, while Charles VIII was trying to rebuild his army, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, entered Italy to resolve the ongoing war between Florence and Pisa.
Called the "Pisan War", Pisa had been at war almost continually since the early 14th century. In 1406 after a long siege, Pisa fell under the control of the Florentine Republic. When King Charles invaded Italy in 1494, Pisa rose up against the Florentines and ousted them, establishing Pisa as an independent republic again.
When Charles withdrew from Italy in 1495, the Pisans were not left to fight the Florentines alone. Much of northern Italy was suspicious of the rising power of Florence. Pisa received arms and money from the Republic of Genoa and Venice and Milan supported Pisa by sending them cavalry and infantry troops.

This was the conflict Emperor Maximilian vowed to resolve in 1496. In the eyes of Maximilian I and the Holy Roman Empire, the Pisan War caused distractions and divisions of the members of the League of Venice, weakening the anti-French League. Maximilian sought to strengthen the League by settling this war. When Florence heard of Maximilian's intention, they were suspicious that the "settlement" would be heavily inclined toward Pisa. The Florentines rejected any attempted settlement of the war by the Emperor until Pisa was back under Florentine control.

There was another option open to the Florentines, the French, under Louis XII, were intent on returning to Italy and Florence chose to take their chances with the French. They felt that France might help them re-conquer Pisa.

Louis was in fact intending to invade Italy to establish his claim over the Duchy of Milan and was also considering renewing the claim to the Kingdom of Naples. However, Louis was aware of the hostility that was developing among his neighbors. Louis needed to neutralize some of this hostility so, in 1498, Louis signed a treaty with Archduke Philip, son of Maximilian I, securing the border with the Holy Roman Empire, and, renewed the Treaty of Étaples with Henry VII of England. Lastly, the Treaty of Marcoussis was signed between Louis and King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain.
This resolved none of the outstanding territorial disputes between Spain and France, but agreed that both Spain and France "have all enemies in common except the Pope."

Second Italian War; 1499–1504
Angevin inheritance

In July 1499, the French Army left Lyon and invaded the Duchy of Milan in alliance with the Republic of Venice. In August 1499, the French Army came across Rocca di Arazzo, the first of a series of fortified towns in the western part of the Duchy of Milan. Once the French artillery batteries were in place, it only took five hours to open a breach in the walls of the town. Louis ordered that the garrison and part of the civil population be executed to instill fear, crush their morale and encourage the quick surrender of the other strongholds in western Milan. The strategy was a success and the campaign for the Duchy of Milan ended swiftly.
Ludovico Sforza was captured and eventually died a prisoner in France in 1508.

Louis came under pressure from the Florentines to assist them in re-conquering Pisa. Louis was mindful that if he were to conquer Naples, he must cross Florentine territory and so needed good relations with Florence. In June 1500, a combined French and Florentine army laid siege to Pisa. Within a day French guns had knocked down 100 feet of the city walls. An assault was made at the breach, but the French were stopped by the strong resistance thrown up by the Pisans. The French Army was forced to break off the siege in July 1500, and retreat north.

Louis XII opened discussions with Ferdinand and Isabella and, in November 1500, signed the Treaty of Grenada. This was an agreement to divide the Kingdom of Naples.
Louis, then, set off from Milan towards Naples. By December 1500, a combined French and Spanish force had taken control of the Kingdom.
- - - - - - - - - -

HABSBURG AND RELATED;
BURGUNDIAN NETHERLANDS;

After the death of Charles the Bold, the Valois Dukes of Burgundy died out. His Flemish territories subsequently became a possession of the Habsburgs. Maximilian I of Habsburg married Charles’ only daughter Mary of Burgundy. The Duchy proper reverted to the crown of France under Louis XI.
Louis had invaded the Franche-Comté attaching it to its Kingdom. Later, by the treaty of Senlis, in 1493, his successor, Charles VIII, ceded the Franche-Comté to Maximilian’s son Philip the Handsome (Duke of Burgundy from 1482). In doing so, Charles attempted to bribe the Emperor to remain neutral during his planned invasion of Italy.

Phillip the Fair married Joanna of Castile, also known as Joan the Mad, heiress of Castile, Aragon, and most of Spain. They had six children, the eldest of whom, Charles would inherit the Burgundian lands.

The origin of the Guelders Wars trace back to 1471, when Charles the Bold lent 300,000 guilders to Arnold, Duke of Guelders. As security for the loan, Charles chose the title to the Duchy of Guelders. When Arnold died, in 1473, without repayment, Charles the Bold assumed the title to the Duchy. Arnold's grandson Charles took back the Duchy by military means.
After the death of Charles the Bold and the start of the Burgundian War of Succession, Guelders saw the chance to regain their independence. Initially this failed.
After a popular uprising, in 1492, Arnold's grandson, Charles van Egmont, was released from captivity in France and he was inaugurated as Duke.
Attempts between 1493 and 1499 by Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy) and his father, Maximilian of Austria (German Emperor), to recapture Gelre in alliance with the Dukes Julich and Cleves failed. The conflict was characterised by the absence of large battles, instead small hit and run actions, raids and ambushes were the common practice. Burgundian and Habsburg attention was drawn away by the Flemish "revolt", civil war in Utrecht and the Swabian War of the Habsburgs against the Three Leagues and it's allies in the Swiss Confederation.
In the Empire, there was a general reluctance to fight a war was more in the interests of the Habsburgs than in the interest of the Empire.
After the withdrawal of Cleves army in 1499, things had been quiet. Gelre was recruiting an army, causing some concern in Cleves. Duke Charles passed ordinances to allay their fears.

Albert III, Duke of Saxony, was appointed hereditary governor of 'the Frisian lands' by Emperor Maximilian I in 1498. Though appointed governor, Albert and his sons Henry and George first had to conquer these lands while facing stiff resistance from the West Frisians, loosely organised into rebel groups.
- - - - - - - - - -

JAGIELLONIAN LANDS;
Unlike Western Europe, the lands of the East mostly had elective Monarchies.

POLAND;

The reign of Władysław III Jagiellon as King of both Poland and Hungary, was cut short by his death at the Battle of Varna against the forces of the Ottoman Empire. This disaster led to an interregnum of three years that ended with the accession, in Poland, of Casimir IV Jagiellon in 1447.

Casimir IV's reign lasted until 1492.
In 1454, Royal Prussia was incorporated into Poland causing the Thirteen Years' War of 1454–66 with the Teutonic Order. In 1466, the Peace of Thorn divided Prussia to create East Prussia, a fief of Poland under the administration of the Teutonic Knights.
In 1485, Poland confronted the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Tatars in the south in defence of it's vassal, Moldovia, after its seaports were taken by the Ottoman Turks. Turkish vassals, the Crimean Tatars, raided their eastern territories in 1482 and 1487, but were defeated.
In the east, it helped Lithuania fight the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

Poland was attacked in 1487–1491 by remnants of the Golden Horde who raided into Poland as far as Lublin before being beaten at Zaslavl.
King John Albert, in 1497, unsuccessfully attempted to resolve the Turkish problem militarily, but he was unable to secure the participation of his brothers, King Ladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary and Alexander, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and the reluctance of Stephen the Great, the ruler of Moldavia.
More Ottoman Empire-instigated Tatar raids took place in 1498, 1499 and 1500.
Diplomatic peace efforts were finalized in 1503, resulting in a territorial compromise and an unstable truce.

BOHEMIA;

In 1471 Władysław (Ladislaus II) became King of Bohemia, negotiating the Peace of Olomouc, in 1479, which finally ended the Hussite Wars. In 1490 Ladislaus also became King of Hungary. The Bohemian and Hungarian Kingdoms were held in personal union, and, as absentee monarchs, Bohemia was effectilye governed by the regional nobility.

HUNGARY;

John Hunyadi became the Hungary's most powerful lord, thanks to his outstanding capabilities as a mercenary commander. In 1446, parliament elected him governor, then regent (1453).
He successfully fought the Ottoman Turks, relieving the Siege of Belgrade in 1456 then defending the city against Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II.

Matthias Corvinus, the son of John Hunyadi, was the last strong Hungarian King. Although a very prominent governer of the Kingdom, John Hunyadi was never crowned King. Matthias, however, was a true Renaissance Prince: a successful military leader and administrator, an outstanding linguist, a learned astrologer, and an enlightened patron of the arts and learning. He regularly convened the Diet and expanded the lesser nobles' powers in the counties, he exercised absolute rule over Hungary using a secular bureaucracy.
Matthias desired to strengthen the Kingdom and to make it the foremost regional power, he set out to build a realm expanded to the south and northwest.
In 1467, Mathias fought against Moldavia but was unsuccessful at the Battle of Baia.
However, he conquered large parts of the Holy Roman Empire using his standing mercenary army, the Black Army of Hungary. He secured a series of victories in the Austrian-Hungarian War of 1477-1488 and captured parts of Austria, including Vienna, in 1485, and parts of Bohemia in the Bohemian War of 1477–88. In 1479 the Hungarian army even broke off to destroy the Ottoman and Wallachian armies at the Battle of Breadfield.

In 1490, Mattias died without a legal successor causing a serious political crisis for Hungary, additionally, the Hungarian state was gravely threatened by the expanding Ottoman Empire.
Instead of preparing for the defence of the country, Hungarian Magnates focused more on maintaining their privileges by ensuring the King would be ineffective. They chose King Ladislaus II of Bohemia precisely because of his notorious weakness. During his reign central power began to erode, causing severe financial difficulties, largely due to the enlargement of feudal lands at his expense and the dismantling of the administrative systems by the Magnates.
The country's defenses declined as border guards and castle garrisons went unpaid, fortresses fell into disrepair, and initiatives to increase taxes to reinforce defenses were stifled.
- - - - - - - - - -

OTTOMAN EMPIRE;

The conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by Mehmed II cemented the status of the Empire as the pre-eminent power in southeastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. After taking Constantinople, Mehmed granted limited autonomy to the Orthodox patriarch who accepted Ottoman authority.
The majority of the Orthodox population accepted Ottoman rule as preferable to Venetian rule.

Making Constantinople (Istanbul) the new capital of the Ottoman Empire in 1453, Mehmed II assumed the title of Kayser-i Rûm (Rome). In order to consolidate this claim, he planned to launch a campaign to conquer Rome and spent many years securing positions on the Adriatic Sea, such as in Albania Veneta, and then invaded Otranto and Apulia in 1480. The Turks stayed in Otranto and surrounding areas for nearly a year, but after Mehmed II's death in 1481, plans for expansion into the Italian peninsula were given up. Ottoman troops sailed back to the east of the Adriatic Sea.

Expansion in the Balkans had not been given up on and the position in Albania was consolidated with wars against Venice and Montenegro. Ragusa voluntarily became a vassal.
 
Might want to also give the Bavarians something if you make a second map.
Absolutely! Wittelsbachs were (only) Bourbon allies at that time, strenghten them means also weaken Habsburgs...
But I do not know anything about their ambitions at that time, just that they occupy Tyrol... they also take Bohemia, but that was decades later, during Austrian succesion war.
 
Absolutely! Wittelsbachs were (only) Bourbon allies at that time, strenghten them means also weaken Habsburgs...
But I do not know anything about their ambitions at that time, just that they occupy Tyrol... they also take Bohemia, but that was decades later, during Austrian succesion war.
The Electorate of Cologne is also listed as an ally on Wikipedia, which makes sense, as it was also Wittelsbach, with them putting younger sons as the Prince-Bishop there, which included the Duchy of Westphalia. I believe that at roughly the same time they also had the Prince-Bishoprics of Liege, Münster, Hildesheim, Padernborn, and Osnabruk. I forget when they started the thing where it traded between having a Catholic Bishop and one from the House of Brunswick each time one died. Anyways, I suspect one of the best ways for the French to keep their Bavarian and Bradenburger allies happy would be through the Brandenurgers trading their land from the Jülich Cleves etc partition war for Silesia or Hanover. The land was pretty ravaged at that point so might not be an issue for the Bradenburgers to give it up, and it would help tie both the secular and ecclesial lands over an area the size of France almost completely under the wings of one dynasty. Though the Elector of Bavaria might not necessarily want to give stuff to cousins if they didn’t help out in the war and if his own land isn’t solidified. Could trade it for their land within Bavaria, maybe try getting rights to decide the Prince-Bishop of Salzburg, etc. Lot of ways to make them them happy that wouldn’t necessarily show up on a map.
 
Mr. Speaker, from Wismar on the Baltic to Fiume on the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended over Europe. Freedom’s light subsumes even further, as the shadow of the guillotine extends over the quieted streets of Brussels, Vienna and Munich. Indeed, not since those dark days scant 20 years ago, when the British Expeditionary Force withdrew from France, has Europe known such times of despair. However, the cause of liberty is not yet lost. The fight continues. And it shall do so to the end.

We shall not be alone in our struggle: Columbia has donned her frightening panoply. From the massed arsenals and foundries of the New World uncountable articles of war are being prepared. The tide is turning. The United States has opened the Gates of Janus and joined her awesome power and might to that of the British Empire. By fermenting civil strife in America, Mosley, Gramsci and Frachon have sown the wind. Now let them reap the whirlwind!

While the battle cry of the free English-speaking peoples resonates across the Atlantic, our cause advances on other fronts. In Africa, the armies of the French Republic have linked arms with those of Free Germany. On the subcontinent of India, the King-Emperor’s loyalists are advancing against the mad Nizam and Bose’s gaggle of fanatics. Indeed, we must take courage in the fact that we have many strings on our bow and that our quiver shall not run out of arrows soon.

And, of course, in the East... dawn is breaking. The Russian gendarme keeps a watchful guard on the Elbe. Thanks to the audacity of the Tsar’s army, the ever reaching tentacles of Mosleyite madness has been kept at bay. The people of Prague, Berlin and Budapest sleep soundly, knowing that a formidable parapet of Russian bayonets protect them. Meanwhile their compatriots in the West suffer the full brunt and terror of rule by rubber truncheon, expropriation and summary execution.

There are those, who claim that we do not share common policies and goals with Tsarist Russia. I, in turn, ask this question: What is our policy other than the total and final extirpation of Red tyranny? When, in God’s good time, the hour of reckoning arrives and our forces sail for Europe, I hope and pray that we on that great day, in Russia, already might possess a drawn sword on the continent.


- Winston Churchill, as British prime minister in exile, speaking to the Canadian parliament on November 5th, 1940.​


Everyone from President MacArthur to King Edward is delighted that the Russians keep a watch on the Elbe. But like the Roman, I wonder: Who watches the watchers?

- US Progressive Senator Robert M. La Follette Jr.​


ddweaxj-a7567da2-c2cb-4012-af35-746438ef70f4.png



So a month or so ago, I booted up my old copy of Kaiserreich for Darkest Hour and had a very enjoyable game as Russia. Everything just clicked, so to speak. It inspired me to make the following map, which, I must stress, is based solely on my own interpretation of Kaiserreich, and a heavily customised scenario to booth. That's why the Commune's flag is different, for starters.

Basically, Germany attacked me when I started to focus on Eastern Europe. I had by then modernised and motorised a great deal of my divisions, but was not fully prepared for a war with the Kaiser. Still, after I encircled and destroyed a large part of Mitteleuropa’s fighting strength in the Ukraine and the Baltics, the International joined the fray. Subsequently, Europe was divided between myself and my allies/puppets and the French.

The map was made in Adobe Illustrator.

I would like to thank Burned for some pointers on drawing the flags in the lower left corner of the map.


The Third International

Federation of French Communes (Commune of France): The undisputed leader of revolutionary syndicalism is governed by a coalition of Travailleurs and Anarchistes, respectively led by Benoit Frachon and Nestor Makhno. The Walloon parts of erstwhile Belgium as well as Luxembourg were directly annexed into the federation.

Union of Britain: Under the Red Baronet and his cabale of Totalist sycophants. Moderates under Attlee are, however, getting uncomfortable with Mosley’s increasingly totalitarian governance.

Italian Socialist Republic: The weakest of the three great socialist powers, but still possessing a formidable army and a growing navy. Ruled by Filippo Turati and the Social-Reformists.

Iberian Anarchist Federation: Victorious in the Spanish Civil War, the Iberian anarchists went on to establish a federation of sovereign Spanish communes, much alike that of their French sponsors. The Comité Central de la CNT-FAI in Madrid coordinates the efforts of the anarchist “state”, chaired by the war hero Buenaventura Durruti Dumange.

Portuguese Socialist Republic: Following the victory of the CNT-FAI in Spain, the Portuguese Republic soon fell victim to her new neighbour’s clandestine agitation. Although not officially integrated into the IAF, Portugal is very much dancing to the tune of Madrid.

Austrian Socialist Council Republic: The frontline of the International is sad to see its access to the Adriatic in Italian hands, but happy to retain Tyrol (and not to mention its independence from the GSCR).

Batavian Socialist Council Republic: Unlike Flanders-Wallonia, the Dutch came out of the first part of the Second Weltkrieg with at least the appearance of independence - and with territorial gains in Flanders to booth. In effect, a puppet of the French.

Danish Socialist Council Republic: Officially an independent workers’ state, Christian Eli Christensen’s syndicalist government in effect only survives thanks to the presence of French and British military “advisers”. When the Commune’s troops reached Hamburg, the Canadians launched their own occupation of Denmark’s Atlantic territories, spurred on by Henrik Louis Hans von Kauffmann, the high-plenipotentiary of the Danish Commonwealth in Ottawa.

German Socialist Council Republic: Arisen from the ruins of the German Empire, the German S.C.R. is ruled by the anarchist wing of the FAUD under Rudolf Rocker and Milly Witkop. Within Red German, Bavaria enjoys limited autonomy as an Autonomous Council Republic. While the Rhineland is under French military occupation “until the German revolution has matured”, it is indisputably a part of Germany.

Irish Socialist Republic: When France began her invasion of the Low Countries, Mosley’s Britain struck at Germany’s Western-most client state. With tacit support from the Irish Citizen Army, the British toppled the government in Dublin and once again bound Ireland to the will of London.

Norwegian Socialist Council Republic: When Canadian marines invaded Iceland and the other Danish Atlantic possessions, Mosleyite Britain feared that Norway might be next. Subsequently, the Republican Navy facilitated a lightning raid on the Norwegian coastal cities, leading to a badly executed coup by Syndicalist agitators. Nevertheless, Norway is a British puppet, albeit one demanding increasing amount of resources to keep pacified.



The Belgrade Pact


Russian Empire
: A behemoth on caterpillar tracks. When Kerensky’s dictum that his reign would only end by constitutional degree or by a bullet came true in 1936, Russia was in a sorry state. Now, four years later, the Russian Empire under Tsar Vladimir III exerts undisputed hegemony from the Baltic to Vladivostok. While the Duma maintains some bite when it comes to governing the Empire, its jaw is made of glass. True power still resides with War Minister Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel, helped by his excellent relations with prime minister Trubetskoy.

  • Malorussia: Areas of the former Kingdom of the Ukraine exempted from Russification policies and with a certain amount of autonomy.
  • Armenian Grand Duchy: A Russian buffer in Anatolia, wherefrom access to Tsargrad can be sent along the Black Sea Coast.
  • Imperial Zone of the Straits: With its capital in Tsargrad (formerly Constantinople), the IZS is a Russian exclave on the Dardanelles with an enthusiastic stream of Cossack settlers.
The Kingdom of Poland: A “guided democracy” molded by Petrograd, Poland is in a personal union with Russia and still agitating for border revisions in Silesia and Prussia.

Finland: Like Poland, Finland is in a personal union with Russia, but is considered its own sovereign state under the care of prime minister Mannerheim. Close ties with the Swedish Kingdom, which Helsinki lobbies Petrograd to include in the Belgrade Pact.

The German Union: A military government under the auspices of Weltkrieg hero Hermann von Kuhl takes care of actually running the Russian occupation zone of the defeated German Empire. It is, however, an interim solution to the German Problem and no-one seriously expects the GU to mature into a separate Prussian state.

Kingdom of Czechs and Slovaks: The most independent of the Russian clients, the Czechoslovak Kingdom is ruled by Grand Duke Roman Petrovitch, reigning under the name Ottokar III.

Kingdom of Yugoslavia: Alexander II’s restoration to the throne in 1936 marked the revival of Serbia’s pan-slavist dreams in the Balkans. However, talks with Romania and Greece during the First Belgrade Congress stranded, leading Legionary Romania to attack Bulgaria on its own. The subsequent Romanian defeat was resounding, and Serbia drifted into isolation once more. When Russia went to war with the Ottoman Empire in 1938 after the collapse of the Porte, Serbia and Greece were quick to offer ideological, military and logistical support. With Russian troops in the Dardanelles, the Second Belgrade Congress announced the formation of a new “Orthodox Axis” this time firmly under Petrograd’s control. However, Alexander maintains considerable independence as an “equal partner” in the Russian system of alliances and finally succeeded in uniting the Slovenes, Bosnians, Croats, Montenegrins and Serbs under one Great Yugoslav Kingdom when Vienna threw its lot in with Berlin.

Kingdom of Greece: Like her Yugoslav comrade in arms, the Hellenic Kingdom is probably one of the nations to gain the most from the Europe’s new order, having made considerable territorial gains in Thrace and Asia Minor. A constitutional monarchy with considerable monarchical prerogatives, King Georgios II has translated his country’s expansion into definitively burying the ghost of Venezelism. However, unrest is brewing as not all of the “New Greeks” appreciate their new status as loyal Hellenes...

Kingdom of Romania: When the First Congress of Belgrade petered out in 1937, the Legionary government of Corneliu Codreanu was still determined to pursue its irredentist claims against Bulgaria, but failed miserably. Puppeted by Sofia, Romania was subsequently “liberated” when Belgrade armies swept the Bulgarians aside after Tsar Boris reluctant ascension to the German bloc. King Carol II is one of the few monarchs who have experienced being deposed and restored to the same throne thrice.

Kingdom of Bulgaria: Beaten, broken and disheartened, Bulgaria succeeded in defeating Legionary Romania in 1937, but was subsequently drawn into the Russo-German War on the latter’s side. Tsar Boris III abdicated after the Belgrade Pact ripped Bulgaria apart, leaving his brother Kiril, Prince of Preslav, as regent for his infant son, Simeon.

Hungary: A kingdom without a king, Hungary fell victim to the Belgrade Pact once Vienna decided to join Germany in its war against Russia. Spared Red occupation and keeping much of Transylvania, the military government of Géza Lakatos is fully invested in defending the “... last free part of the Habsburg monarchy.”

Anatolian Republic: When the Ottoman government collapsed in 1938 under the weight of coups and counter-coups by Reformists, Turanists and a shadowy cabale of CUP-remnants, the Arab League jumped at the chance at bringing down the Turkish menace. In the anarchy that followed, the Porte was dealt two massive blows. Firstly, the Treaty of Damascus forced Constantinople to cede all of her Levantine and Mesopotamian vilayets to the Arab League. Secondly, Turanist atrocities in Eastern Anatolia provided Petrograd with the excuse it needed to intervene. Reduced to a rump Turkish state in central Asia Minor, and having lost territory to Arabs, Kurds, Greeks and Russians, the Anatolian Republic is a military dictatorship with little legitimacy, completely dependent on the presence of Belgrade “police units”.

Kingdom of Kurdistan: Carved out of the Easternmost Ottoman territories in Anatolia by the Russians, the Kurdish Kingdom is a poor country with grand ambitions. A tribal council elected the Iraqi Kurd, Sheikh Mahmud Barzanji, as the nation’s Malik, thereby hoping to press claims against the new Hashemite rulers in Mosul and Kirkuk. However, with Petrograd worried at the prospect of a new French march on Moscow, Barzanji is under strict orders not to stir up trouble with Damascus. An order the Malik only grudgingly follows.


Other powers


Kingdom of Sweden
: The final bastion of Scandinavian social democracy.

Albania: King Skanderberg II Wied is the last German king to remain on an European throne, but real power is in the hands of prime minister Ahmet Muhtar Zogolli. Not a member of a Belgrade Pact, but should the Italians attempt to cross the Adriatic, Zogolli is sure to use his good relations with Petrograd accordingly…

Switzerland: A near-death experience with France was averted in 1937, when Germany put its foot down against Communard designs on Geneve. An Alpine fortress, guarding its neutrality fiercely.

Iran: The Qajar dynasty soldiers on, but the landed gentry and clan structures are preventing prime minister Abdolhossein Teymourtash and his finance minister Mosaddegh from continuing the Constitutional Revolution.

Hashemite Arabia: A weak and unstable amalgamation of Arab nationalists and opportunists, only united by their token allegiance to King Feisal’s government in Damascus.

Kingdom of Egypt: The primus motor of the Arab League, Egypt is the strongest country in the Middle East and agitating for closer cooperation between Cairo and Damascus. The capture of the Suez Canal and the defeat of the Ottomans have done much to restore King Fuad’s popularity.

Senussi Emirate: A member of the Arab League, Emir Idris is hoping to use his allies in Damascus and Cairo to further his own ambitions in both Tunisia and the Northern parts of French Equatorial Africa.

French Fourth Republic: The Francophonie is increasingly turning into a marshalling area for Entente forces, with Canadian and American divisions being redeployed to Algiers in preparation for the inevitable trans-Mediterranean invasion of Europe. The alignment of Free Germany with the Entente under Crown Prince Wilhelm and Reichskanzler-in-exile von Lettow-Vorbeck secured German territorial concessions in Africa as well as securing Africa from Cape Town to Casablanca for the Quadruple Entente. Although civil liberties have been expanded (concurrently with the increased enrollment of Arab, Tuareg and Berber zouaves in the French army), the Fourth Republic remains an emergency government in the hands of President Reynaud and Prime Minister de Gaulle.
 
Last edited:
I am going to redo the map again to make it a bit more realistic.
Just found on the Wikipedia page the French proposed at negotiations of Utrecht that the Bavarians get the Spanish Netherlands, which Max Emmanuel had previously been governor of. Could go with that. Or just give the Bavarians Luxembourg and Upper Gelderlands. Those are just ideas, though.
 
Thanks for your responses guys. For @Gwrtheyrn Annwn England lose Scotland because France nulled their unification to prevent Britain from gaining more power than France.
You misunderstand me, I do not question the French motive in doing so but rather their ability to enforce such a clause upon the British. They would have to defeat the British completely, which would in turn require the landing of French soldiers in England, something that is near impossible in this war.
 
Just found on the Wikipedia page the French proposed at negotiations of Utrecht that the Bavarians get the Spanish Netherlands, which Max Emmanuel had previously been governor of. Could go with that. Or just give the Bavarians Luxembourg and Upper Gelderlands. Those are just ideas, though.
On the other hand, spanish estates wouldn´t be happy ofr that, OTL they didn´t care as much for who would be king as for keeping kingdom together. Surely, France could ignore them, but would it be worthy? I am sure Max could be possibly compensated elsewhere, even if I am not sure where.
 
4Aie0rt.png


Hi! I’ve been working on a timeline (name still pending, I like “World In Revolt” thought), and while I’m still fleshing our a lot of the details, I’d thought I’d post a map I made for it.
 
Mr. Speaker, from Wismar on the Baltic to Fiume on the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended over Europe. Freedom’s light subsumes even further, as the shadow of the guillotine extends over the quieted streets of Brussels, Vienna and Munich. Indeed, not since those dark days scant 20 years ago, when the British Expeditionary Force withdrew from France, has Europe known such times of despair. However, the cause of liberty is not yet lost. The fight continues. And it shall do so to the end.

We shall not be alone in our struggle: Columbia has donned her frightening panoply. From the massed arsenals and foundries of the New World uncountable articles of war are being prepared. The tide is turning. The United States has opened the Gates of Janus and joined her awesome power and might to that of the British Empire. By fermenting civil strife in America, Mosley, Gramsci and Frachon have sown the wind. Now let them reap the whirlwind!

While the battle cry of the free English-speaking peoples resonates across the Atlantic, our cause advances on other fronts. In Africa, the armies of the French Republic have linked arms with those of Free Germany. On the subcontinent of India, the King-Emperor’s loyalists are advancing against the mad Nizam and Bose’s gaggle of fanatics. Indeed, we must take courage in the fact that we have many strings on our bow and that our quiver shall not run out of arrows soon.

And, of course, in the East... dawn is breaking. The Russian gendarme keeps a watchful guard on the Elbe. Thanks to the audacity of the Tsar’s army, the ever reaching tentacles of Mosleyite madness has been kept at bay. The people of Prague, Berlin and Budapest sleep soundly, knowing that a formidable parapet of Russian bayonets protect them. Meanwhile their compatriots in the West suffer the full brunt and terror of rule by rubber truncheon, expropriation and summary execution.

There are those, who claim that we do not share common policies and goals with Tsarist Russia. I, in turn, ask this question: What is our policy other than the total and final extirpation of Red tyranny? When, in God’s good time, the hour of reckoning arrives and our forces sail for Europe, I hope and pray that we on that great day, in Russia, already might possess a drawn sword on the continent.


- Winston Churchill, as British prime minister in exile, speaking to the Canadian parliament on November 5th, 1940.​


Everyone from President MacArthur to King Edward is delighted that the Russians keep a watch on the Elbe. But like the Roman, I wonder: Who watches the watchers?

- US Progressive Senator Robert M. La Follette Jr.​


ddweaxj-a7567da2-c2cb-4012-af35-746438ef70f4.png



So a month or so ago, I booted up my old copy of Kaiserreich for Darkest Hour and had a very enjoyable game as Russia. Everything just clicked, so to speak. It inspired me to make the following map, which, I must stress, is based solely on my own interpretation of Kaiserreich, and a heavily customised scenario to booth. That's why the Commune's flag is different, for starters.

Basically, Germany attacked me when I started to focus on Eastern Europe. I had by then modernised and motorised a great deal of my divisions, but was not fully prepared for a war with the Kaiser. Still, after I encircled and destroyed a large part of Mitteleuropa’s fighting strength in the Ukraine and the Baltics, the International joined the fray. Subsequently, Europe was divided between myself and my allies/puppets and the French.

The map was made in Adobe Illustrator.

I would like to thank Burned for some pointers on drawing the flags in the lower left corner of the map.


The Third International

Federation of French Communes (Commune of France): The undisputed leader of revolutionary syndicalism is governed by a coalition of Travailleurs and Anarchistes, respectively led by Benoit Frachon and Nestor Makhno. The Walloon parts of erstwhile Belgium as well as Luxembourg were directly annexed into the federation.

Union of Britain: Under the Red Baronet and his cabale of Totalist sycophants. Moderates under Attlee are, however, getting uncomfortable with Mosley’s increasingly totalitarian governance.

Italian Socialist Republic: The weakest of the three great socialist powers, but still possessing a formidable army and a growing navy. Ruled by Filippo Turati and the Social-Reformists.

Iberian Anarchist Federation: Victorious in the Spanish Civil War, the Iberian anarchists went on to establish a federation of sovereign Spanish communes, much alike that of their French sponsors. The Comité Central de la CNT-FAI in Madrid coordinates the efforts of the anarchist “state”, chaired by the war hero Buenaventura Durruti Dumange.

Portuguese Socialist Republic: Following the victory of the CNT-FAI in Spain, the Portuguese Republic soon fell victim to her new neighbour’s clandestine agitation. Although not officially integrated into the IAF, Portugal is very much dancing to the tune of Madrid.

Austrian Socialist Council Republic: The frontline of the International is sad to see its access to the Adriatic in Italian hands, but happy to retain Tyrol (and not to mention its independence from the GSCR).

Batavian Socialist Council Republic: Unlike Flanders-Wallonia, the Dutch came out of the first part of the Second Weltkrieg with at least the appearance of independence - and with territorial gains in Flanders to booth. In effect, a puppet of the French.

Danish Socialist Council Republic: Officially an independent workers’ state, Christian Eli Christensen’s syndicalist government in effect only survives thanks to the presence of French and British military “advisers”. When the Commune’s troops reached Hamburg, the Canadians launched their own occupation of Denmark’s Atlantic territories, spurred on by Henrik Louis Hans von Kauffmann, the high-plenipotentiary of the Danish Commonwealth in Ottawa.

German Socialist Council Republic: Arisen from the ruins of the German Empire, the German S.C.R. is ruled by the anarchist wing of the FAUD under Rudolf Rocker and Milly Witkop. Within Red German, Bavaria enjoys limited autonomy as an Autonomous Council Republic. While the Rhineland is under French military occupation “until the German revolution has matured”, it is indisputably a part of Germany.

Irish Socialist Republic: When France began her invasion of the Low Countries, Mosley’s Britain struck at Germany’s Western-most client state. With tacit support from the Irish Citizen Army, the British toppled the government in Dublin and once again bound Ireland to the will of London.

Norwegian Socialist Council Republic: When Canadian marines invaded Iceland and the other Danish Atlantic possessions, Mosleyite Britain feared that Norway might be next. Subsequently, the Republican Navy facilitated a lightning raid on the Norwegian coastal cities, leading to a badly executed coup by Syndicalist agitators. Nevertheless, Norway is a British puppet, albeit one demanding increasing amount of resources to keep pacified.



The Belgrade Pact


Russian Empire
: A behemoth on caterpillar tracks. When Kerensky’s dictum that his reign would only end by constitutional degree or by a bullet came true in 1936, Russia was in a sorry state. Now, four years later, the Russian Empire under Tsar Vladimir III exerts undisputed hegemony from the Baltic to Vladivostok. While the Duma maintains some bite when it comes to governing the Empire, its jaw is made of glass. True power still resides with War Minister Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel, helped by his excellent relations with prime minister Trubetskoy.

  • Malorussia: Areas of the former Kingdom of the Ukraine exempted from Russification policies and with a certain amount of autonomy.
  • Armenian Grand Duchy: A Russian buffer in Anatolia, wherefrom access to Tsargrad can be sent along the Black Sea Coast.
  • Imperial Zone of the Straits: With its capital in Tsargrad (formerly Constantinople), the IZS is a Russian exclave on the Dardanelles with an enthusiastic stream of Cossack settlers.
The Kingdom of Poland: A “guided democracy” molded by Petrograd, Poland is in a personal union with Russia and still agitating for border revisions in Silesia and Prussia.

Finland: Like Poland, Finland is in a personal union with Russia, but is considered its own sovereign state under the care of prime minister Mannerheim. Close ties with the Swedish Kingdom, which Helsinki lobbies Petrograd to include in the Belgrade Pact.

The German Union: A military government under the auspices of Weltkrieg hero Hermann von Kuhl takes care of actually running the Russian occupation zone of the defeated German Empire. It is, however, an interim solution to the German Problem and no-one seriously expects the GU to mature into a separate Prussian state.

Kingdom of Czechs and Slovaks: The most independent of the Russian clients, the Czechoslovak Kingdom is ruled by Grand Duke Roman Petrovitch, reigning under the name Ottokar III.

Kingdom of Yugoslavia: Alexander II’s restoration to the throne in 1936 marked the revival of Serbia’s pan-slavist dreams in the Balkans. However, talks with Romania and Greece during the First Belgrade Congress stranded, leading Legionary Romania to attack Bulgaria on its own. The subsequent Romanian defeat was resounding, and Serbia drifted into isolation once more. When Russia went to war with the Ottoman Empire in 1938 after the collapse of the Porte, Serbia and Greece were quick to offer ideological, military and logistical support. With Russian troops in the Dardanelles, the Second Belgrade Congress announced the formation of a new “Orthodox Axis” this time firmly under Petrograd’s control. However, Alexander maintains considerable independence as an “equal partner” in the Russian system of alliances and finally succeeded in uniting the Slovenes, Bosnians, Croats, Montenegrins and Serbs under one Great Yugoslav Kingdom when Vienna threw its lot in with Berlin.

Kingdom of Greece: Like her Yugoslav comrade in arms, the Hellenic Kingdom is probably one of the nations to gain the most from the Europe’s new order, having made considerable territorial gains in Thrace and Asia Minor. A constitutional monarchy with considerable monarchical prerogatives, King Georgios II has translated his country’s expansion into definitively burying the ghost of Venezelism. However, unrest is brewing as not all of the “New Greeks” appreciate their new status as loyal Hellenes...

Kingdom of Romania: When the First Congress of Belgrade petered out in 1937, the Legionary government of Corneliu Codreanu was still determined to pursue its irredentist claims against Bulgaria, but failed miserably. Puppeted by Sofia, Romania was subsequently “liberated” when Belgrade armies swept the Bulgarians aside after Tsar Boris reluctant ascension to the German bloc. King Carol II is one of the few monarchs who have experienced being deposed and restored to the same throne thrice.

Kingdom of Bulgaria: Beaten, broken and disheartened, Bulgaria succeeded in defeating Legionary Romania in 1937, but was subsequently drawn into the Russo-German War on the latter’s side. Tsar Boris III abdicated after the Belgrade Pact ripped Bulgaria apart, leaving his brother Kiril, Prince of Preslav, as regent for his infant son, Simeon.

Hungary: A kingdom without a king, Hungary fell victim to the Belgrade Pact once Vienna decided to join Germany in its war against Russia. Spared Red occupation and keeping much of Transylvania, the military government of Géza Lakatos is fully invested in defending the “... last free part of the Habsburg monarchy.”

Anatolian Republic: When the Ottoman government collapsed in 1938 under the weight of coups and counter-coups by Reformists, Turanists and a shadowy cabale of CUP-remnants, the Arab League jumped at the chance at bringing down the Turkish menace. In the anarchy that followed, the Porte was dealt two massive blows. Firstly, the Treaty of Damascus forced Constantinople to cede all of her Levantine and Mesopotamian vilayets to the Arab League. Secondly, Turanist atrocities in Eastern Anatolia provided Petrograd with the excuse it needed to intervene. Reduced to a rump Turkish state in central Asia Minor, and having lost territory to Arabs, Kurds, Greeks and Russians, the Anatolian Republic is a military dictatorship with little legitimacy, completely dependent on the presence of Belgrade “police units”.

Kingdom of Kurdistan: Carved out of the Easternmost Ottoman territories in Anatolia by the Russians, the Kurdish Kingdom is a poor country with grand ambitions. A tribal council elected the Iraqi Kurd, Sheikh Mahmud Barzanji, as the nation’s Malik, thereby hoping to press claims against the new Hashemite rulers in Mosul and Kirkuk. However, with Petrograd worried at the prospect of a new French march on Moscow, Barzanji is under strict orders not to stir up trouble with Damascus. An order the Malik only grudgingly follows.


Other powers


Kingdom of Sweden
: The final bastion of Scandinavian social democracy.

Albania: King Skanderberg II Wied is the last German king to remain on an European throne, but real power is in the hands of prime minister Ahmet Muhtar Zogolli. Not a member of a Belgrade Pact, but should the Italians attempt to cross the Adriatic, Zogolli is sure to use his good relations with Petrograd accordingly…

Switzerland: A near-death experience with France was averted in 1937, when Germany put its foot down against Communard designs on Geneve. An Alpine fortress, guarding its neutrality fiercely.

Iran: The Qajar dynasty soldiers on, but the landed gentry and clan structures are preventing prime minister Abdolhossein Teymourtash and his finance minister Mosaddegh from continuing the Constitutional Revolution.

Hashemite Arabia: A weak and unstable amalgamation of Arab nationalists and opportunists, only united by their token allegiance to King Feisal’s government in Damascus.

Kingdom of Egypt: The primus motor of the Arab League, Egypt is the strongest country in the Middle East and agitating for closer cooperation between Cairo and Damascus. The capture of the Suez Canal and the defeat of the Ottomans have done much to restore King Fuad’s popularity.

Senussi Emirate: A member of the Arab League, Emir Idris is hoping to use his allies in Damascus and Cairo to further his own ambitions in both Tunisia and the Northern parts of French Equatorial Africa.

French Fourth Republic: The Francophonie is increasingly turning into a marshalling area for Entente forces, with Canadian and American divisions being redeployed to Algiers in preparation for the inevitable trans-Mediterranean invasion of Europe. The alignment of Free Germany with the Entente under Crown Prince Wilhelm and Reichskanzler-in-exile von Lettow-Vorbeck secured German territorial concessions in Africa as well as securing Africa from Cape Town to Casablanca for the Quadruple Entente. Although civil liberties have been expanded (concurrently with the increased enrollment of Arab, Tuareg and Berber zouaves in the French army), the Fourth Republic remains an emergency government in the hands of President Reynaud and Prime Minister de Gaulle.

epic map, and you did manage todraw those flags well!
 

Do I understand correctly that since the next war became known in this AU as the "Third Great Patriotic War", then Russia won it?
In any case, as Russian-speaking, I want to note that the name "Third Great Patriotic War" is not entirely correct. It will be either "Third Patriotic War" or "The Great Patriotic War", as in our history, the war of the USSR with Third Reich - "Great Patriotic War", is technically the "Third Patriotic War" (or "Second", if you do not take into account the first world war). Roughly speaking, the "Great" can be called only one of the Patriotic Wars. If a war even more terrible for Russia happens in the future, most likely it will be called the “Great Patriotic War”, while the war with the Third Reich will simply be “lowered” in rank.
 
ddwesok-13ef5702-f0e3-40fd-a974-4ae6e0015e80.png

A dumb little thing I've been working on on and off for the last month. I'm imagining this world's Taiping Empire becoming a major power in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
 
View attachment 544713
The world of Nelisa. I will add more to the lore on the map and its political map soon.

Let's see all the things I recognize from this map:

1) Hrylia is just western half of Essos from GoT
2) Deruopa is Lemuria
3) Rosnia is Mu
4) North Ozeria is Atlantis

I'm sure the others are probably also from somewhere else, but I'm drawing blanks on where they might be from.
 
Do I understand correctly that since the next war became known in this AU as the "Third Great Patriotic War", then Russia won it?
In any case, as Russian-speaking, I want to note that the name "Third Great Patriotic War" is not entirely correct. It will be either "Third Patriotic War" or "The Great Patriotic War", as in our history, the war of the USSR with Third Reich - "Great Patriotic War", is technically the "Third Patriotic War" (or "Second", if you do not take into account the first world war). Roughly speaking, the "Great" can be called only one of the Patriotic Wars. If a war even more terrible for Russia happens in the future, most likely it will be called the “Great Patriotic War”, while the war with the Third Reich will simply be “lowered” in rank.

Lets chalk that one up to the ATL cartographer’s lack of Russian speaking skills shall we.
 
Let's see all the things I recognize from this map:

1) Hrylia is just western half of Essos from GoT
2) Deruopa is Lemuria
3) Rosnia is Mu
4) North Ozeria is Atlantis

I'm sure the others are probably also from somewhere else, but I'm drawing blanks on where they might be from.

Zealandia is there too
 
ever-base2.png


I was doodling and drafted up this idea, based on other similar ones
Most Recent European sovereignty
European states are defined by having had a capital within geographic Europe

Exceptions include:
A. Some suzerain states such as colonial protectorates/dominions counted as sovereign, also U.N./L.o.N. Mandates.
B. Treaty ports/concessions in China not counted, except HK/Macau.
C. Turkey had a capital in Istambul, wich is partially in Europe, but excluded for the purposes of this map.

Grey is modern borders and modern independent European states that did not most recently hold territory outside of Europe.
White is territory never held by European Sovereignty.
Colors are based on the modern territory that the state had a capital in at the time it held the territory.
This explains Iran as Greek because of the Alexandrian Empire, and Turkey as Italian because of Rome.
For Denmark, Greenland counts as geographically North American.
Germany barely scrapes by with the Mariana Islands.
 
Top
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top