The Anglo-Saxon Social Model - The Expanded Universe

Well I do hope that the hiatus is only short, been enjoying see you expand this world out more.

Italy seems like a nice place in 2020, safe and stable. Is the 'Grand Tour' a thing tourists still do?

China's map is very odd when seen in silhouette. Hope you do a full regional Atlas at some point. I imagine they get some 'atomic tourists' like Japan does OTL?
 
Star Wars: Heir to the Empire is an American science fiction television series and part of the Star Wars franchise. The show was developed by George Lucas and executive produced by Lucas and his wife Marcia Lucas, with Timothy Zahn acting as head writer. The pilot for the series was released as a film in a limited number of cinemas before being shown in three parts in December 2003 on NBC. It was then followed by four regular seasons and two television movies, both of which had limited cinema releases, before ending its run in October 2009.

Heir to the Empire is set five years after the events depicted in Return of the Jedi (1983) and deals with Leia Organa’s (Carrie Fisher) and Luke Skywalker’s (Mark Hamill) attempts to stabilise the New Galactic Republic and a new Jedi Order against the assaults of the ruthless Grand Admiral Thrawn (Richard E. Grant) and Captain Gillad Pallaeon (Christopher Lee), both former officers in the Imperial Navy. Harrison Ford reprised his role as General Han Solo for the television film Dark Force Rising (1998), in which a New Republic fleet is ambushed by Thrawn and destroyed, with Solo himself being killed. Other important characters include master smuggler Talon Karrde (Jamie Bamber), ace pilot Hera Syndulla (Katee Sackhoff), Galactic Senator Garm Bel Iblis (Edward James Olmos), Dark Jedi Joruus C’baoth (Cress Williams) and assassin-turned-Jedi Mara Jade (Jean Smart). In addition, Peter Mayhew, Jeremy Bulloch, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker reprised their roles from the original trilogy. In the final series, the extragalactic Yuuzhan Vong race is introduced as new antagonists, forcing the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant to put aside their differences and come to a compromise.

The first three seasons and two films garnered wide critical acclaim both at the time of its run and in the years since, including a Peabody Award. It received 19 Emmy nominations for its writing, directing, visual effects and in other technical categories, winning three. However, the final season and third film received a more mixed reception, with many criticising the show’s shift in tone and themes. In 2019, The Times placed the show on its list of “The 20 Best TV Dramas Since The Sopranos” and it is commonly regarded as a landmark show in the 21st century “golden age of television.

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Now that the fabulous Katee Sackhoff has just appeared in the Mandalorian OTL, I can get with this...
 
Well I do hope that the hiatus is only short, been enjoying see you expand this world out more.

Italy seems like a nice place in 2020, safe and stable. Is the 'Grand Tour' a thing tourists still do?

China's map is very odd when seen in silhouette. Hope you do a full regional Atlas at some point. I imagine they get some 'atomic tourists' like Japan does OTL?
I'm working on something that I hope to have out in the new year at the latest.

As for Italy, I think it's TTL reputation is something like a combination of both OTL France and Germany in the sense that it's a real industrial powerhouse and also a major cultural capital. Given the decline in French fortunes in the past 40 years or so, I could see places like Turin, Milan, Rome and Naples taking on some of the cachet of Paris etc as romantic and aspirational destinations.

I'm working on a world map. Sorry about that.

Now that the fabulous Katee Sackhoff has just appeared in the Mandalorian OTL, I can get with this...
I'm glad that reality is catching up with this TL.
 
World Map, January 2021
World map, with slightly retconned map of Africa.

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United States: National Rifle Association
The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a conservationist and shooting sports advocacy group based in Colorado Springs and with operations around the United States. Its primary areas of work are the conservation of hunting and hiking trails in the United States, running shooting and marksmanship schools, managing the licencing of firearms and acting as the de facto governing body of various American shooting sports teams for the Elcho Shield, the Olympics and other competitions. In many of these capacities it has very close ties to the National Park Service and numerous other federal agencies.

The NRA has 7,416 full time employees, 90,450 volunteers and around 5 million members, making it the largest conservation charity in the world. The NRA has many local groups and maintains contacts with around 200 sister organisations around the world. In addition, the organisation maintains a substantial lobbying presence in Philadelphia and all state capitals and in 2019 it was ranked the third most influential lobbying group in the United States by Forbes magazine.

The NRA was founded in 1871 by Union veterans of the Civil War, who were concerned by what they perceived as the poor marksmanship of American soldiers in the field. In the 19th century it arranged for the purchase and set up of shooting ranges and selected teams to take part in the Elcho Shield. The group was also an influential supporter of gun control in the United States, including providing lobbying support for the Firearms Act of 1938 and the Gun Control Act of 1963. After the World War, the NRA shifted its emphasis to providing protection and training for amateur hunters in the United States, including preserving hunting trails and national parks. To this end, it moved its headquarters from New York to Colorado Springs in 1969.

Over the years, the NRA has been criticised by a number of advocacy groups for different reasons ranging from its staunch opposition to development on federal land to its monopolistic control over gun licencing in the United States.

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The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a conservationist and shooting sports advocacy group based in Colorado Springs and with operations around the United States. Its primary areas of work are the conservation of hunting and hiking trails in the United States, running shooting and marksmanship schools, managing the licencing of firearms and acting as the de facto governing body of various American shooting sports teams for the Elcho Shield, the Olympics and other competitions. In many of these capacities it has very close ties to the National Park Service and numerous other federal agencies.

The NRA has 7,416 full time employees, 90,450 volunteers and around 5 million members, making it the largest conservation charity in the world. The NRA has many local groups and maintains contacts with around 200 sister organisations around the world. In addition, the organisation maintains a substantial lobbying presence in Philadelphia and all state capitals and in 2019 it was ranked the third most influential lobbying group in the United States by Forbes magazine.

The NRA was founded in 1871 by Union veterans of the Civil War, who were concerned by what they perceived as the poor marksmanship of American soldiers in the field. In the 19th century it arranged for the purchase and set up of shooting ranges and selected teams to take part in the Elcho Shield. The group was also an influential supporter of gun control in the United States, including providing lobbying support for the Firearms Act of 1938 and the Gun Control Act of 1963. After the World War, the NRA shifted its emphasis to providing protection and training for amateur hunters in the United States, including preserving hunting trails and national parks. To this end, it moved its headquarters from New York to Colorado Springs in 1969.

Over the years, the NRA has been criticised by a number of advocacy groups for different reasons ranging from its staunch opposition to development on federal land to its monopolistic control over gun licencing in the United States.

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Environmentalist NRA? Love it.
 
Global Rankings: Countries by Area
Very nice to see a comparison, but why is the Commonwealth not listed in with it, like it is in the Countries by Population list?

National Rifle Association of America (NRA)
Interesting to see an NRA that remains more akin to how it was in the 1930s, and it makes sense that an organisation associated with hunting would become conservationist to ensure that it can continue the hunting lifestyle. A quick read of the NRA's history suggests the source of that change might have been making it the firearms licencing body, with the government essentially saying to gun-owners "either regulate yourselves, or we will".
 
Environmentalist NRA? Love it.
Interesting to see an NRA that remains more akin to how it was in the 1930s, and it makes sense that an organisation associated with hunting would become conservationist to ensure that it can continue the hunting lifestyle. A quick read of the NRA's history suggests the source of that change might have been making it the firearms licencing body, with the government essentially saying to gun-owners "either regulate yourselves, or we will".

Partly it's the regulatory thing, but it's also a long term butterfly of the way that the less intense Cold War combined with civil rights being more or less accomplished by 1900 means that movement conservatism doesn't develop in the same way in the 1970s.

Very nice to see a comparison, but why is the Commonwealth not listed in with it, like it is in the Countries by Population list?
At first I thought it might be confusing because Canada and Australia are also in the top 10 by themselves (remember the Commonwealth is still an EU-style supranational body for another decade) but I've changed it now to keep consistency.
 
I went back to the China update a page ago, but nothing on the interesting flag design. It doesn't seem to draw from any historical flag, and apart from red and yellow at the top, doesn't really draw on the historical colors either. What's the story behind that?
 
I went back to the China update a page ago, but nothing on the interesting flag design. It doesn't seem to draw from any historical flag, and apart from red and yellow at the top, doesn't really draw on the historical colors either. What's the story behind that?

It looks like it's the historical five-coloured flag of the Republic of China.

Yes, it's the original 'Five Races' flag. TBH TTL it doesn't really make much sense given that three of those races (Mongols, Manchus and Tibetans) now have their own states outside China but I thought it was a cool design and can emphasise the Chinese republic's continued commitment to egalitarian multiculturalism (query to what extent that's carried out in practice etc.). Also, given that Koumintang China was a major aggressor in the World War, I thought that its symbol would also be taboo and so wouldn't appear on flags.
 
Businesses: Anglo-American plc
A little something that is a hint to the longer project I've been working on.

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Anglo-American plc is an American-Commonwealth mass media and broadcasting company with operations around the world but located primarily in the Commonwealth and the United States. The company is headquartered and listed in London with a secondary listing in New York. It was formed in 1908 as Anglo-American Newspapers Limited, amalgamating the pre-existing newspaper properties, The Times, The New York Times and The Observer and has since expanded to include major broadcasting networks and other newspapers.

The origins of the company lie in the personal and political reversals of William Waldorf Astor in the late 19th century. When he lost an election for the US Senate in 1881, Astor found his political failure to be regular fodder for gossip columns and negative press coverage. This was then compounded by a public feud with his aunt, Lina Astor, from 1890. In 1891, Astor purchased The New York Times from the estate of former owner George Jones and used it in an attempt to improve his reputation. This attempt proved unsuccessful and Astor left New York in 1892, settling in London.

Despite his move, Astor retained an interest in his growing media empire, supplementing it with the purchase of The Pall Mall Gazette in 1893, The Observer in 1905 and The Times in 1908. Upon the purchase of the last title, Astor amalgamated The Observer and his two ‘Times’ titles into one called The Anglo-American Times (Monday-Saturday) and The Anglo-American Observer (Sunday). Under his tenure, this flagship title became the most prestigious news organisation of its day on both sides of the Atlantic. Its pro-American stance is credited with both shoring up support for American entry into the Great War in 1913 and British intervention on the side of the Allies in 1917.

Astor died in 1919 and the business would be taken over by his sons Waldorf and John Jacob. Over the next two decades, the company expanded its newspaper holdings, buying newspapers in Canada and Australia. The more high-brow ‘broadsheet’ newspapers would then find themselves folded into the Times and Observer titles while the lower-brow ‘tabloids’ would be allowed to retain their names and corporate identities. This led to allegations of sharp business practice, with many journalists finding their newspapers bought only to then be sacked and replaced by Astor appointees. Nevertheless, by the outbreak of the World War, the company was the largest media empire in the world, rivalled only by the CBC.

In the postwar period, the company was quick to identify the growing medium of television. ITV was founded in 1954 as a commercial television organisation with various media franchises around the Commonwealth. In 1962, the company purchased the largest number of shares when the American government privatised the National Broadcasting Company. In 1986, they completed the takeover of NBC and brought it private.

As of 2020, Anglo-American plc is a holding company still majority owned by the Astor family. Current chairman, Lord Astor, is the fourth generation of his family to head the company. It is headquartered in London with major offices in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Karachi, Nairobi and Sydney. Its operations are divided between television, online and newspapers. NBC is one of the United States three national cable channels and ITV is the largest private television and media channel in the Commonwealth.

The company operates nine newspapers in addition to the flagship Anglo-American Times and Anglo-American Observer titles. Of these, one, The Free Press, is an online-only publication (since 2013) and one, The Pall Mall Gazette, is distributed free both online and in print. All the others have online subscription schemes in addition to print publications. All have significant online footprints with a number, including the Pall Mall Gazette, The Daily Telegraph and The New York Post, having significant international following outside of their traditional publication areas (London, Sydney and New York, respectively). The Anglo-American Times and The Anglo-American Observer, commonly referred to simply as “The Times” and “The Observer,” respectively, are among the most prestigious and well known newspapers in the world. They have an estimated 14,500,000 online subscribers as well as a daily print circulation of over 1,000,000.

In addition, the company produces the weekly Anglo-American Review of Books (AARB), which publishes longer form essays on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Beginning publication in 1963, as a successor to various literary supplements in other Anglo-American publications, the AARB has been described as one of the most prestigious and well known reviews in the world, with a circulation of nearly 250,000 per issue.

Since its creation, The Times and The Observer have observed strict neutrality rules and have not formally endorsed a political party or individual politicians. However, critics have pointed out that the publications have adopted political positions, from taking a bellicose attitude towards Germany in 1913, support for left wing economic policies (both Soviet market socialism and Progressive New Deal programs) in the 1940s and 1950s and opposition to the Commonwealth’s departure from NATO in the 1960s. Because of the paper’s history and prestige, it is often thought of as having close connections with the American and Commonwealth political, cultural, religious and business establishment.

The company’s other titles have made open declarations of political support: it’s primary British tabloid, The Daily Herald, has traditionally taken a pro-trades union stance while The New York Post has adopted pro-Republican stances (albeit in both cases with occasions of support for the Liberals or the Progressives). The tone of the AARB has been described as “consistently radical.”

Alongside its various publications and businesses, the company is known for its cosmopolitan and internationalist corporate culture. This has been satirised on many occasions, most notably in the NBC sitcom 30 Rock (2006-2013) in the relationship between the American writer Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) and the Anglo-Irish executive Jack Donaghy (Pierce Brosnan).

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I'm imagining them buying up any notable newspaper in the Commonwealth and United States called The Times locally, possibly leaving only the Times of India as their biggest challenger to the name.

I don't know if the Times of India would be quite the only one left but I had imagined that titles like The Irish Times, the LA Times and the Chicago Times would have been absorbed.
 
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