Map Thread XXI

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Robinson version of Q-BAM, I guess
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Although famously the Russian territory of Alaska was sold to Liechtenstein in 1867, the land could also have been offered to the United States. The memory of this possibility was passed down through the descendants of the House of Liechtenstein, although no records of this interaction between Russian and American authorities have survived.

In 1872, when Dominican President Buenaventura Báez, who had previously unsuccessfully tried to annex the Dominican Republic to France in 1846, to the US in 1850, to Spain in 1861, and again to the US in 1869, proposed this to the newest colonial power of Liechtenstein, the annexation of the Dominican Republic finally took place.

However, the demarcation of the border between the Grand Principality of Liechtenstein and Haiti was carried out only in 1929, when the situation in this country was stabilized by the establishment of the Third Empire of Haiti under Faustin Edmond Wirkus.​

There’s something hilarious about the capital of a American country of 10 million people being a small village in Europe (and with a ruler who lives in a palace in Vienna).
 
The Desert Homeland: Sinai Israel, by Sārthākā
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Prior to WW1, Sinai was the main contender for the Jewish homeland, with the Zionist Congress reviving the topic just weeks before WW1 began. WW1, and the subsequent Ottoman expulsion from Palestine and the explicit British support for Jews in Palestine changed that, but going on the basis of the Ottomans remaining neutral, or joining the Entente, the Sinai remains the top contender for the Jewish homeland and is finalized in 1922 as the Jewish homeland. With architects and engineers creating large planned sustainable cities to sustain large populations and a large compensation (read: Bribe) to the Egyptian government, the Sinai Jewish State of Israel gains independence from Egypt and Britain in 1964. (Most city names as Hebrew transliterations of pre-existing names).Thoughts?
 
I'm really, really skeptical of the Sinai being able to support that many people. The principal agricultural product OTL is cactus pears.
 
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Prior to WW1, Sinai was the main contender for the Jewish homeland, with the Zionist Congress reviving the topic just weeks before WW1 began. WW1, and the subsequent Ottoman expulsion from Palestine and the explicit British support for Jews in Palestine changed that, but going on the basis of the Ottomans remaining neutral, or joining the Entente, the Sinai remains the top contender for the Jewish homeland and is finalized in 1922 as the Jewish homeland. With architects and engineers creating large planned sustainable cities to sustain large populations and a large compensation (read: Bribe) to the Egyptian government, the Sinai Jewish State of Israel gains independence from Egypt and Britain in 1964. (Most city names as Hebrew transliterations of pre-existing names).Thoughts?
It's an interesting concept, but the reason why they decided against it is that the Sinai is not particularly habitable for large numbers of people-I love the style this is in regardless of plausibility.
 
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Although famously the Russian territory of Alaska was sold to Liechtenstein in 1867, the land could also have been offered to the United States. The memory of this possibility was passed down through the descendants of the House of Liechtenstein, although no records of this interaction between Russian and American authorities have survived.

In 1872, when Dominican President Buenaventura Báez, who had previously unsuccessfully tried to annex the Dominican Republic to France in 1846, to the US in 1850, to Spain in 1861, and again to the US in 1869, proposed this to the newest colonial power of Liechtenstein, the annexation of the Dominican Republic finally took place.

However, the demarcation of the border between the Grand Principality of Liechtenstein and Haiti was carried out only in 1929, when the situation in this country was stabilized by the establishment of the Third Empire of Haiti under Faustin Edmond Wirkus.​
Do both Liechtenstein and Haiti refuse to change their flags ITTL, so the blue and red bicolour flies on both sides of Hispaniola?
 
I'm really, really skeptical of the Sinai being able to support that many people. The principal agricultural product OTL is cactus pears.

The Sinai is the region ofEgypt getting the most rain, the major probl‘em is that most of the water end up in the Mediterranean Sea through flash floods, if some of this water would end up captured in artificial lakes between Nekhel and Hasna develop a greater agricultural sector.
 
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45-30 North ISOT:
Notable Regions Included:

Most of the continental US
Southern Ontario & Nova Scotia
Northern Baja California, Sonora, & Chihuahua
Bermuda
Spain
Portugal
Gibraltar
Southern France
Most of Italy
Most of the Balkans
Turkey
Northern Morocco
Northern Algeria
Tunisia
Northern Libya
Northern Egypt
Israel
Syria
Most of Jordan and Iraq
Transcaucasia
North Caucasus
Northern Iran
Much of Central Asia
Kashmir
Northern Punjab
Northern Tibet
Southern Xinjiang
Central China
Korea
Vladivostok
Most of Japan

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In North America, destiny has manifested. In the days after, only 6 polities that were not part of the United States existed. Bermuda, Sonora, Baja California, Chihuahua, Ontario, and Nova Scotia. All of them attempted to reform the nations they once composed. Although they were forced to cede land to the US. Nova Scotia and Ontario were able to get along and maintain Canada, but it remained decentralized, as Nova Scotia feared Ontarian domination. At least the Language divide is no longer an issue though. The northern Mexican states were another story. The cartels, suddenly cut off from most of their supplies, desperately attempted to take over before they were crushed. While this attempt failed, it did leave cities like Ciudad Juarez and Mexicali devastated. These states, with their dislike of the central government, veered too far in the other direction, and created an utterly dysfunctional confederacy. Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, and Nogales grew so allergic to each other that no other state was ever even admitted into the Mexican union, as the three established states worried it would somehow weaken their own influence. It got to the point where the country almost fell into civil war, before the central government launched a coup and attempted to centralize the country, which turned out to be the one thing that could unite the three northern states, and all three seceded.

Europe is a much less stable place than it once was. Spain and Portugal were the two large nations left almost completely intact, but lacked room to expand at home. Of course, they responded by doing as their ancestors did, looking overseas. Spanish Guinea and Portuguese Angola provide most of Western Europe's oil, and Argentina is the breadbasket of all the Western Mediterranean. Italy has found a route of expansion into Austria, and are benefiting hugely from it. The UK is being re-established by stranded British Nationals, Bermudans, and Gibraltarians, Germany is in a similar boat.

The Orthodox nations of the Balkans were scared shitless by the collapse of Russia to Turkey, and disgusted by the west's failure to do anything about it. The fact that they have managed to actually work together so far is quite the miracle.

Of all nations brought along to this world few have grown more in strength than Turkey. Pouncing on the collapsing Russia, Syria, and Iraq, and claiming the Volga and Ukraine for Turkey. The fertile crescent was also forced into the Turkish sphere thanks to a little clever politics and military interventions. There was an attempt by the Turks to put down Israel but a Khalkin Gol type battle dissuaded the Turks from trying. The Turks run a "co-prosperity sphere" over the middle east, and are currently fighting a cold war against the Iranians. Almost all Arabs have left Israel by now, most of which went on to settle in Hejaz. New Jeddah is often referred to as New Gaza.

The Iranians have come to dominate the Persian gulf and Afghanistan. Using Pan-Iranism to integrate their new regions, Iran has become the closest thing the world has to a 3rd superpower, although the Turks would resent that claim. Uzbekistan was also able to leverage Uzbek nationalism and their large population to dominate Central Asia, and by taking in the Uighurs from China they have been settling the Eurasian grasslands at remarkable speeds. India and Pakistan stumbled into a nuclear war in the early months, which screwed both nations, and balkanized them both. Now Iran wields them all against each other so that no one can unite and become powerful enough to stop Iranians from settling in the Indian subcontinent.

China is the other Superpower of this world. The declining population of modern china grows at a rapid rate now and is spreading across Asia like a wildfire. Siberia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and even Sri Lanka. If it weren't for their immense energy demand they would be ready for autarky one generation from now. Korea and Vladivostok are firmly in their economic orbit, and they have a tense, albeit lucrative, relationship with Iran. The CCP remains in power, but at this point they don't even pretend to be communist, its just a nationalist authoritarian state. The Chinese maintain the strongest individual navy on earth, but combined the Americans and Japanese hold the advantage.

Japan and the USA are close allies. The Japanese have re-militarized completely and were given a blank check by the Americans to settle wherever they wanted in the pacific, except Hawaii and Guam, to counter the Chinese. Australia has become the Jewel in the Japanese crown, it and the Southern Islands (New Zealand) have become critical to the Japanese economy, feeding the Home Islands and providing them with resources. And the Chinese are perpetually sore about Taiwan, as always.
 
The Sinai is the region ofEgypt getting the most rain, the major probl‘em is that most of the water end up in the Mediterranean Sea through flash floods, if some of this water would end up captured in artificial lakes between Nekhel and Hasna develop a greater agricultural sector.

Doesn't look like it gets much more precipitation than the Matrouh Governorate, another area not known for it's bountiful agriculture. I'm sure it could support more than it does now, but six and a half million in the Sinai (and not all of it) is like a hundred million plus in Australia.
 
Doesn't look like it gets much more precipitation than the Matrouh Governorate, another area not known for it's bountiful agriculture. I'm sure it could support more than it does now, but six and a half million in the Sinai (and not all of it) is like a hundred million plus in Australia.

Yes the modern population is likely too large, but that may be a modern population being bigger just like Israel, Israel in the 1950-1970 only had 1,3-3 million people. If we translate that into Sinai that would give Sinai 0,9 million in 1950 and 2 millions in 1970. That is not a unreasonable population. If we mix that with large scale desalination as Israel also have done in OTL, the modern population could mainly live in Tel Aviv.
 
[50+ Likes] Microstates of Europe: Russian Empire, by Yanranay
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Romanov Jever, the Russian warm water port
The Russian Empire wished for a warm water port on the Atlantic and a finger curled on the monkeys paw...

an imitation of the amazing micronations series by u/Alagremm over on reddit.
based on this real life lordship that was ruled in personal union by russia until 1815
The Jever territory is a small Russian Enclave surrounded entirely by German territory on the Jade bay that is host to the Romanov monarchy in exile. It is from this small strip of land the current Empress Catherine III, even after over 120 years of absence and 2 world wars, claims to be the rightful ruler of the vast territories of the former Russian Empire that today encompass 17 internationally recognized nations and several states of varying recognition. The Russian democratic government based in Moscow in turn raises no claim to the Jeverland and recognizes it as part of Germany, a policy first established by the Soviet Union who's allied government in East Germany considered the Jever to be part of it's territory. This situation is further complicated by the fact that the reunified German government makes no claim official to the enclave.

The Jever has been in personal union with the Russian monarchy since Catherine the Great inherited the title to the land from her younger brother Friedrich August, last Prince of the House Anhalt-Zerbst and a veteran of the American Revolutionary War, who died without heir in 1793. Despite this new union with a great power, little of the eastern sovereign's presence was felt in the Jeverland, which continued to be administered by elected majors. This first period of Russian rule came to an abrupt end just 14 years later when Napoleon's armies swept through Europe and conquered Jever. It was first annexed to the newly established Dutch Kingdom and later the French Empire itself where it was incorporated into the Department of the Ems. Under French rule the coastal areas experienced a decade of relative prosperity as they were spared from direct fighting and the quiet beaches proved popular with smugglers attempting to circumvent the continental system imposed by Napoleon. The Corsican Emperor's rule was to be short lived too as in 1813, following the disastrous defeats in Russia and at Leipzig, the French garrison abandoned Jever without fight which was liberated soon after by column of Russian cossacks lead by Baron von Dorst. His image can still be seen today on the statue of Russian-German Friendship in Hohenkirchen.

During the Congress of Vienna Tsar Alexander, who had been greatly impressed by the enthusiasm the people of Jever showed towards him, upheld his claim to the territory. The second period of Russian rule proved to be much like the first, with the Jeverland ruling itself mostly autonomously and unaffected by Russian affairs. During the unification of Germany the question of the status of Jever naturally arose and came to a violent head in 1872 when a pan-germanist revolt was suppressed by Russian soldiers. An international crisis could narrowly be averted when careful diplomacy by Bismark, who was intent on avoiding Russian-German hostilities at all costs, managed to preserve the status-quo. For the next thirty years this little changed in this arrangement, though any sentiment Jever accession to Germany was heavily censored.

In 1905 disaster struck the Romanov Dynasty. Following a crushing defeat against the Japanese decades of political repression and failure to reform the antiquated Russian state culminated in the January Revolution. Emperor Nicholas II and large parts of the Russian imperial family were forced to flee St. Petersburg after the assassination his brother, Grand Duke Sergei, in Moscow by revolutionaries and the defection of large parts of the military to the reformist congress. While initially dispersed among many cities in Europe and Asia, the Jever soon became a point of regrouping for imperial loyalists. With the financial support of their royal relatives in London and Berlin the Romanovs and their allies were able to establish a Russian colonial towns in the Jever. Surrounded by the large farmlands and swamps that had dominated the Jeverland for centuries before, these immigrant cities were a far shot from the glorious palaces of old St. Petersburg. While the Russian arrivals were initially seen with skepticism and hostility from the German locals the immense wealth and international status the Romanovs had managed to escape their homeland with proved to be quite persuasive.

The final collapse of the balance of power in Europe following the Russian Revolution came to a head in the First World War. While the Romanovs formally stayed neutral during the conflict, there existed several secret treaties with the German Empire regarding the reinstatement of the Romanovs on the Russian throne as a loyal German ally, should they defeat the Russian Republic, as well as the stationing of German troops on Wangerooge. With the Soviets taking power during the Second Russian Revolution in 1917 and the defeat of the Central Powers soon after in 1918 and these agreements never came to be implemented and the Romanovs remained as exiles in Jever. During the Interwar Period in the aftermath of the Soviet takeover a second large migration to the Jeverland took place, this time not only restricted to nobility but people from all over the Russian state, including many Ukrainians and Tatars.

Following the Nazi takeover of Germany, the threat of annexation became very immediate and was eventually realized during the Second World War in 1940 when the German army crossed the border and occupied the territory in just three hours. While Emperor Alexei II managed to escape to London, many of the territories Russian and Jewish inhabitants were interned or deported to concentration camps and killed. There were however also many anti-Soviet collaborators to be found in the Jever, among them even the Emperors Uncle, Grand Duke Michael. In the closing days of the Second World War the colonial cities were bombed several times by the Red Army, destroying much of the original imperial quarters built in 1910. The final demarcation lines left Jever outside of the Soviet sphere in Europe which once again allowed the Romanov Emperors to reestablish themselves in the enclave, where they remained as an officially unaligned nation, though undoubtedly on the Atlantic side of the Cold War.

The collapse of the Soviet Union has left the Jeverland in an interesting position. With the Romanovs and monarchism increasingly unpopular and its claims to the territories of the Russian Empire excluding the nation from international organizations. While democratization seems likely to happen in the near future the path this decision will lead Jever down to is uncertain, as there are camps calling for the establishment of an independent democratic nation, unification with Germany or even a reunification with the Russian Republic after more than a century of division.

This lore is not very creative or interesting so feedback and suggestions are very welcome!
 
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First, the talkie talkie:


OK, someone commissioned me to do a world map for @Reagent 's "Last Straw". www.deviantart.com/reagentah/a… This is a South Africa where the Zulu empire never arises, and the horrendous period of warfare and mass population movements known as the "Mfecane" never take place, preventing the depopulation of much of the south African interior. As a result, the Boer migrations face a much denser and better organized native population, and their expansion stalls out in what in our world would the south of the Orange free state, although there's some compensatory expansion into what in our world would become Botswana and Namibia. Some sizable native states emerge in the interior of south Africa, and have managed to retain their independence till 1911, in part due to the British cape dominion preferring trade than a war of conquest they'll probably be corralled into fighting in.


Now, we are given a map of South Africa, but we really don't know much about the rest of the world. The POD is around 1819, and so Britain already holds the cape, Napoleon is a gone goose, and Latin America is pretty much guaranteed at this point to go independent. What follows and how it differs is unclear. As of 1911 it seems conflict may be in the offing in Europe, and maaaybe France doesn't get along with Britain as well?

The simplest would be to assume that the failure of the Boer Trek has very little effect on the rest of the world, and everything is pretty much identical to OTL (Our Timeline)outside of south Africa. But what's the fun in that?

(I am, personally, a big believer in butterflies. Not just Boer Trekkers and indigenous Africans will have different experiences: so will British officials, Portuguese traders, French explorers and sailors, businessmen, missionaries, etc., etc., and they will in turn interact with other people, whether they themselves return to Europe or not, and people who did end up in South Africa for one reason or another don't go there, and so on, and so forth. I expect it will be only a few decades before nobody identical to OTL is born: do you have any idea how spectacularly unlikely that that one specific sperm out of hundreds of billions a human male produces in a lifetime will show up at the exact time and place to keep its OTL rendezvous with the correct egg?)

So, I have felt free to just mess around once we get past mid-century. I am aware that the US Mexican cession was less 30 years after the POD, but the border we got was pretty contingent, and there was strong pressure (from the south in particular) for taking more.

So. Bismarck was still born and became a person of some importance in Prussian politics, but never became as powerful as OTL or a Kaiser’s right hand man, and was unavailable to steer the unification of the German state. Prussia did manage to detach Schleswig-Holstein from Denmark and managed by the end of the 19th century to turn an alt-North German confederation into a genuine federal state, but efforts to bring in the Catholic south led to a late 70s war in which Prussia fought both Austria and France and got its nose bloody: it suffered only minor losses, but it put back efforts to unify all of Germany for a generation.

Napoleon III managed to grab the brass ring in this world, and without the defeat of the Franco-Prussian war his son still rules France as Napoleon IV (although the French Parliament has gained the upper hand, a process already underway in Napoleon III’s declining years.) A more confident France has stuck to its traditional habit of twitting the British, and has sought to increase its influence globally in the traditional pursuit of Glorie. The French have worked to create an alliance under their leadership and have created a sort of latin bloc with the Italians and the fairly recently minted Spanish Republic, or possibly a sort of Catholic bloc with those countries and Austria (it’s a bit unclear). Having been forced to accept that competing with the US in Mexico and central America is just too risky, the French are currently busy trying to increase their influence in South America, in competition with the British.

The Austrian alliance is one of convenience: there’s no great love lost among the two powers. But both are interested in preventing any further expansion of North Germany, which has been brisky industrializing and even without the economic input of the south is rapidly leaving both France and Austria in the dust as an economic/industrial power. As long as Prussia is a mutual threat, they are tied together. (It’s certainly no odder than the anti-German empire alliance of Czarist Russia and Republican France in our world.) Italy is a bit of an uncertain ally: Latin and Catholic solidarity, sure, potential German and/or British colonial pelf, sure, but it has some serious irredenta when it comes to Austria, and while Italy has some gratitude for French support in the early stages of Italian unification, they haven’t forgotten that that France kept them from finishing the job until 1874, when in the aftermath of Napoleon III’s death France withdrew its protection from the Papal state.

North Germany is more liberal than our world’s German Empire. Ironically, this has made it more, not less, aggressive towards southern Germany and Austria. Many politicians make a point of German unification requiring not only Bavaria, Wuttenberg, etc., but also Austria and the Sudetenland if not all of OTLs Czech republic.(Rump Bohemia couldn’t make it as a country, clearly, says the German intelligentsia.) This does not do much to weaken the Austrian-French alliance.

As France in the Sahel OTL after the Franco-Prussian war, Germany has perhaps compensated by chasing after colonies more vigorously than OTL, triggering a slower and less thorough scramble for Africa (along with the still surviving south African states, much of the Sahel is still independent or at least ruled indirectly.)

Britain worries about France almost as much as it does about Russia. It’s sure that it’s usually up to something perfidious, and they’re sure the breakup of Belgium was engineered by the French (they did give support to walloon separatists, and the French government has long term ambitions to absorb Wallonia, but softly, softly catchee monkey.) It has therefore developed an “understanding” with the North Germans re a possible war with France. It’s not a full alliance - there’s room for them to back out if Germany attacks France unilaterally, and if Germany fights Austria but not France the British aren’t obliged to pitch in.
(It’s further complicated by Russia. Britain has made it clear they’d be very glad to help if North Germany gets into a war with Russia, but North Germany sees no real benefit to a war with Russia. Indeed, by diplomatic channels they’ve made it clear they would be quite pro-Russia if they got into a war that involved detaching the eastern bits of Austria.)

As OTL the Ottomans were largely driven from the Balkans with the aid of Russia, although the territories were divvied up a bit differently (alas, poor Albania). As OTL, they’re struggling to modernize, although with a quite different cast of characters. At least Britain’s in their corner (if only to block the Russians)

The Russians, meanwhile, aren’t really that interested in ruling more of Anatolia, but remain keen on Constantinople. Less worried about North Germany than our world’s German Empire, they so far see no need for an official alliance. They might go for (as OTL) an anti-British alliance with France, but French liberal opinion is hostile to an alliance with reactionary Russia, and Austria wouldn’t be in favor of it either, Russia being supportive of Slavic separatism and Serbian irredentism (the Austrians, who let Serbia and Montenegro take a nibble of Bosnia when that bit of Ottoman Europe was being carved up, feel outraged at their further demands.) In the meantime, Russia feel secure enough in the west and south to push hard in the east, arm-twisting the Chinese into giving them a massive sphere of influence in Mongolia and northern Manchuria, and puppetizing Korea. Internal problems remain, but the Russian establishment hasn’t had a “wakeup call” like OTL’s war with Japan and consequent ‘05 revolution.

(Japan as in our world was opened at gun’s point, and in the resultant turmoil the forces of reaction triumphed, which has had consequences: the hereditary Shoguns remain (theoretically) absolute rulers, but thanks to being less successful than the Meiji oligarchs at the modernization game, their ability to rule sans foreign intervention does not extend much beyond Edo).

The US civil war broke out somewhat later and was even bloodier than in our world, leaving at the end a north in a vengeful mood and with a much less south-friendly president than Andrew Johnson (no, not Lincoln, whose career peaked in this world as a Supreme Court justice.). To permanently reduce the political influence of the south, the number of southern states was reduced, with Arkansas merged with Louisiana, the same with the two Carolinas, and Alabama divided between Mississippi and Georgia. (As of 1911 there’s a strong movement to restore Arkansas and Mississippi, which may well succeed: the Carolinas have found solidarity in detesting the black territory to their south, while Georgians and Mississippians are a bit reluctant to lose territory to restore Alabama.)

The dice have rolled a bit better for China in terms of leadership, and the rather messy series of events that started out with the Boxer Rebellion of our world have been avoided: the Manchu government’s self-strengthening program has got further along, and although there are rumblings, there’s no imminent threat of a republican revolution. Britain and France are competing to try to take China “under their wing”: Britain to forestall the Russians from extending their influence further, France generally seeking to enhance their influence globally. (Currently the Chinese favor the French: although they’ve taken Taiwan, they have been less pushy on the mainland than in our world, and the new-model Chinese army is being trained with French help). The US also has put its oar in. Although China has managed to avoid some of OTLs humiliations (Japan not being a player has helped) things are reaching a crisis in Manchuria, where the Russians and their rail lines are getting intolerably bossy and arrogant in their treatment of the Chinese population: increasing popular outrage may soon force the Chinese to see how well their military modernization has actually succeeded (less than hoped for but substantially better than the Russians were expecting, as it will eventually turn out).

By 1911, the continued existence of native African states in South Africa had gone from butterflies to more direct effects. The view of sub-Saharan Africa as largely state-free barbarism has been slightly modified, to the extent that the French, British and Portuguese are more willing to rule through native client states and to allow such states some autonomy overall, while “scientific racism” is a bit less intellectually dominant, at least outside North Germany and the United States. Also, the fact that the largest gold mines in South Africa lie in native territory and so far have been rather less exploited than OTL (although that is changing) has had effects on the global money supply. With a gold-backed international economy, more expensive gold (there has been more effort put into gold sources in Australia and Russian Siberia, but extraction is more difficult) has had financial effects, and economic growth and stability has been affected. It’s not a massive change, but it has tilted politics a bit more to the left and radical: it’s hard to say whether the early success of republicanism in Spain is related, but there is more industrial unrest in north Italy, this world’s equivalent of the British labor party is further along in stealing the Liberal’s lunch, and Mexico’s new “Zapatista” populist regime has features our world would consider “socialist.”

This unnerves US capital, which has already been somewhat unnerved by the growth of *Populist and *Wobbly movements in response to another round of financial panic in the late 00’s and a stubborn resistance to reform by the Gilded Age elite, the Unionists having as yet failed to find a Teddy Roosevelt to steal the Populists thunder. As the hot summer drags on, so do strikes and other forms of resistance in the Chicago area, the west Pennsylvania mining and industrial regions, West Virginia coal country, and the transport hub of the lower Mississippi. There’s no chance of an actual revolution - there’s nowhere near enough popular support for that - but there is a general feeling that some sort of change is desperately needed, and the 1912 election promises to be fiercely contested.

In South Africa itself, the situation is somewhat tense. There is a fairly traditional alliance between the Mosesh and Rolong kingdoms against British or Tlokwa expansion, and the monarchs of both states are trying to overcome traditional hostilities to create a united native African front with the Tlokwa Empire. This is not something the British, French, and Portuguese are keen on, and indeed they’re working to undermine the project: they’re all interested in destabilizing the African kingdoms and turn them against each other and their own subjects, so they can be eaten piecemeal. The situation is further complicated by the increasing number of non-Africans living in the Kingdoms (as they’re sometimes referred to in shorthand), engineers and skilled workers needed by the monarchies to modernize their countries, mercenaries, merchants (quite a few being Indians and Arabs coming by way of Portuguese Mozambique and the British Union of the Cape), missionaries, and Boer squatters on thinly inhabited land. Some are feared to be a white people’s fifth column, and some effectively are; Cecil Rhodes may have been butterflied, but there are no shortage of adventurer types in both Britain and France. The gold and other mineral wealth of the kingdoms may help pay for modernization, but simply extracting it in industrial quantity requires the import of European mining skills, which means European miners, which means European mining companies with ready-to-sign contracts, a great deal, you’ll never regret it…what the Kingdoms need is time, time to build up their militaries, time to establish themselves internationally, time to modernize and consolidate.

Meanwhile, things are getting tense again in Europe: while the failed Prussian effort to bring the south into union and the the considerable arm-twisting and use of popular pressure against local rulers involved in the creation of the North German Reich may have put the south German states off on unification, it’s back on the agenda. The North Germans have pulled off several diplomatic successes lately, including the creation of a Free Trade zone that includes the southern states, in spite of Austrian hostility. (The North Germans invited the Austrians to join: Cisleithania less Galicia only, of course. The Austrians took it as being patronized.) What with increased popular support for the “big Germany” idea among the southern bourgeois in opposition to more conservative elements and local rulers wary of being reduced to “store opening” monarchs, North Germany may manage to pull off a union with the south sans military intervention: and this is really getting on the nerves of Paris and Vienna.

Elsewhere, Chinese sentiments in Manchuria approach the boiling point, French troops are getting a bit too close to territory claimed by North Germany in the Sudan, an election looms in Italy, the French navy orders a lot more submarines (a fight with both the British and North German navies, even with Italian and Austrian help, won’t go well if play is fair) and the Bulgarians are wondering if the Russians will back them if they pick a fight with the Ottomans (they really want an Aegean coastline). Crap’s trajectory is getting dangerously close to that of fan, and the Kingdoms may get their time.
 
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'Twas the Night of Christmas (approximately 89,530 evenings ago) and all through North America, many creatures were stirring - even a general.
He and his troops climbed into their boats with care, for they hoped that the Hessian mercenaries soon would be theirs.

And approximately 89,530 nights ago, it actually worked out for Washington. His gamble was repaid with victory. But 89,530 nights ago, in another world, the Crossing of the Delaware was Washington's undoing. It can matter a rather great deal if a soldier falls into the river and drowns.


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This was intended as Christmas project but wound up being a few days late. Or possibly quite a few days early, depending on which Christmas you want to measure it from.
 
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With the Point of Divergence being the Macartney Embassy being successful in 1793, the Qing Dynasty undergoes what can be called an organic reformation as the country starts to industrialize and bring itself up to par with the western world beginning in 1793. In our timeline, Qianlong was angry with the British ideas of brokering a peace between China and the Nepalese and he did not look into British suggestions much, and deflected their comments, even the good ones. With the Point of Divergence being that the British never offer such a broker, Qianlong listens and provides a good ear to the British embassy, allowing a slow and organic growing reformist movement within the imperial court. The result, is that Qing ascendancy in the east is never broken, militarily or economically as European powers trying to fight the Chinese in the mid-19th century were for in a great surprise. With economic reforms passed in the 1940s and 50s finally loosening the state control of the economy, the past few decades have seen massive upsurge in personal wealth in Qing China as the country continues to rise, and challenge the global hegemony of the American-centric and eurocentric world. Thoughts and comments?
 
[50+ Likes] Asia in 2022, by Maharlikan_
ASIA IN 2022
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"History repeats itself. First as a tragedy, second as a farce" - Karl Marx
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The conflict and rivalry between Panyupayana and Japan can be traced back to as far as the 17th Century, when Toyotomi Shogunate launched a failed invasion of the Lakanate of Lusong after the latter refused to submit under their shogun's rule. Lusong's Bisayan allies would then raid several Japanese-held port cities in Formosa and China, while also attacking and looting any Japanese ships they encountered. This state of war between the two countries would remain even after Hideyoshi's death and the ascension of Tokugawa Shogunate, and wouldn't end until the 1820s, when Lusong was turned into a protectorate by the Spanish Empire and later on by Mexico. just a few years later, Japan would be forced to reopen by the British Empire in the event known as the Bakamatsu.

Both countries would experience a rapid growth in industrialization and westernization in an attempt to prevent being completely dominated by the Western Problems. Japan, despite starting in a later date, would successfully reform their state into a first-rate regional power in Asia, while Lusong would lag behind due to the resistance to industrialization by both powerful elites and their Spanish masters. Despite the difference in industrialization and political systems, Japan and Lusong (now known as Katagalugan) would eventually be powerful enough to participate in the West's incursions in China, most notably the Boxer Rebellion of 1896, and would go on to face european powers in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 and the Spanish - Katagalugan War in 1900. Katagalugan and Japan would become close allies as a result of their similar struggles with the two participating in the First Great War together at the side of the Entente. Unfortunately, the two country's ambitions would start to clash when Japan gained Germany's colonies in the Pacific while Katagalugan received no territorial prices for their participation in war. Relations begin to decline further when Katagulagan starts expanding its sphere of influence in newly-independent states in Southeast Asia such as states in Indonesia and would ally with Malaya, another rising power in the region, with tensions reaching a breaking point when Japanese Patrol Vessels entered a firefight against a combined Tagalog-Malay patrol that ended with the former being pushed out of the South China Sea in 1932. The incident proved to be the catalyst behind Japan's decision to expand their already navy further, with the Tagalogs expanding their own military in response to Japan's rapid militarization, sparking a naval arms race between the two powers.

When the Second Great War began in Europe in 1941 Japan was already at war with the Chinese after they invaded Manchuria in 1936, while the Tagalogs continued to maintain their neutrality in the conflict. This neutrality would be broken however when Japan officially joined the Quadripartite Pact with Spartanist Germany, Fascist Italy and Nationalist Spain in 1944, followed by the Japanese invasion of French Indochina after France fell to the Axis. In response to invasion Katagulagan and her allies began preparing for a possible invasion by Japan, though no immediate conflict with arise between the two. During this period, Katagulagan and Mexico would enter a Trade Agreement that began the process of Mexico's Oil Embargo on Japan, switching instead to trade Oil to Katagalugan instead. With their main source of oil severed Japan begins to plan an assault over Southeast Asia and the Pacific, culminating in the Japanese attack on Mexican and Hawaiian forces in Honolulu on December 6, 1950, followed by a massive air raid over the Panyupayanan Islands. The Tagalogs were able to anticipate Japan's air attack and was able to repel the Japanese forces, but what they didn't anticipate was a full-scale invasion by Japan of the islands staring with the island of Maluku Basar (Mindanao) followed by mainland Lusong. Fighting between the Tagalogs and the Japanese can only be described as very brutal and violent with both sides not willing to take any prisoner alive, but through sheer effort the Tagalogs were able to push the Japanese out of the their islands by 1952. Japan's failure to capitulate Katagulagan effectively paralyzed their plans to invade Southeast Asia, with their invasion of Malaya and Borneo being repelled by local forces due to the lack of support from the navy. Japan would then suffer a very disastrous defeat at the Battle of Midway in 1953, with four of their Aircraft Carriers being sunk by the Mexican Navy, followed by another disastrous defeat at the hands of the Tagalogs in the following months at the Battle of Batanes, wherein most of Japan's battleships were damaged or sunk by the Tagalog Navy who also suffered heavy casualties in the engagement but would lose the less amount of ships later on.

With their navy effectively decimated Japan was finally forced to be on the defensive, losing more and more territories in China and the Pacific as the months go by. Despite strong resistance, Formosa would fall to the Tagalogs on August 1954, followed by a joint Mexican-Tagalog invasion of the Ryuku Islands in October. On Mainland Asia Korea breaks free from Japan and declares independence, crippling the Japanese Army in China further as they now have to two fronts in Asia. After the fall of Italy in April 1955 the Soviet Union would officially join the war against Japan, fully annihilating the Japanese Army in Manchuria and Mongolia as well as invading Japanese Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in preparation for the invasion of Mainland Japan. With full control of the seas around Japan, the allies begin a massive Aerial bombardment of Japan, destroying their industrial capacity as well as leveling several major cities all over the home islands, but despite the bombings Japan was still unwilling to surrender. So as a result, Mexico and the Katagalugan, began their invasion of Kyushu and Honshu, with the Tagalogs landing in Choshi and Kashima just east of Tokyo. Fighting was extremely brutal, with Japanese civilians and soldiers participating in suicidal attacks against the allies which then resulted to the allies, especially the Tagalogs, to begin arresting and even massacring large amounts of civilians who are suspected of helping the Japanese forces. The carnage reached its peak in March of 1956 when the Tagalog Army finally managed to surround the City of Tokyo and began their assault on the city. Large amounts of Japanese soldiers and civilians threw their lives to stop the advance on Tokyo which the Tagalogs responded by absolutely shelling most of Tokyo into the ground, with several cases of friendly fire occurring during the shelling. After nearly a week of street fighting, Tagalog forces would finally reach the Imperial Palace at the heart of Tokyo and would raise their flag over it, causing the remaining civilians in the city to surrender and the army outside of Tokyo to retreat back south to aid the escaping royal family. On the other hand, Mexico has also managed to push most of the Japanese Army out of Kyushu by , and has began the invasion of Southern Honshu as well. In August, British Bombers would fly from Formosa and would nuke the cities of Hiroshima, Osaka, and Kyoto. The latter of which becoming the final blow to the Japanese as they lost the spiritual capital of Japan. With the government in chaos and casualties continuing to reach thousands, the Japanese Emperor would finally announce the surrender of Japan just a day after the loss of Kyoto, ending one of the most brutal wars the world has ever seen. The official treaty of surrender would be signed on September 2, 1956, onboard the British battleship HMS Rodney. With Japan capitulated and decimated, Katagalugan stands as the dominant power in Asia and the Pacific.

Japan was occupied by the allied powers for five years, with their leaders and military being tried for war crimes in China and other fronts. the Monarchy was completely abolished and replaced by a Parliamentary Republican government that's headed by a President and a Prime Minister. Their military was also abolished as part of Japan's constitution to join the United Nations, as well ceding most of their coastal military bases and military equipment to allied countries such as Katagalugan, Mexico, Malaya, China and Britain. In other words, Japan's wings were clipped by the allies to prevent them from becoming too powerful again, something that the countries themselves would forget about years later.

With Japan defeated and down, the Tagalogs were free to expand their influence as the dominant power in the Asia-Pacific Region. When Nationalist China fell to their communist counterpart in 1965, the Kuomintang fled to Tagalog-held Formosa wherein the Tagalogs gave them the island to rule as an Autonomous Province of Katagalugan (which renamed to Panyupayana a month later). Panyupayana would go on to participate in several geopolitical struggles in the Afro-Asian region, ranging from their invasion of Malaya in 1965, the South African Civil War in 1969, the Taiwan Strait Crisis between them and the Chinese Soviet Republic in 1973, and the Maori Revolution in 1976. In the same year, Panyupayana would unite the entire Austronesian region under their rule as the Federation of Austronesia, stretching from Imerina in East Africa to the islands of Polynesia in the South Pacific. In the 1980s, because of their trade hegemony over the region, Austronesia would experience an economic boom that would eventually turn into a price bubble that continued to grow larger and larger until it burst in the 1990s, starting the Asian Financial Crisis or commonly known as "the Lost Decade".

While Austronesia actively participates in geopolitics, Japan was quietly left to their own devices. Western economic support would allow Japan to recover from war but the people were traumatized by the war. This resulted to Japan's culture to shift towards Pacifism as a whole, though Far Right beliefs would remain to challenge the new status quo especially those that seeks to restore the monarchy. During the 1980s Southeast Asian Economic Bubble Japan would also experience a rise in their asset prices, especially after the Plaza Accord agreement with Austronesia when the Yen appreciated further. As a result of this Japan was also hit by devastating recessions during the Asian Financial Crisis, giving enough justification for Right Wing populist parties to gain power, oust the democratic government, and restored the Imperial Dynasty back into power. Afterwards, the new government would find a loophole in Article 5 of their constitution by re-establishing the Japanese Military as the Japan Self-Defense Force.

With Japan's rapid increase in their military and economic influence over Asia, Austronesia's position in Asia is threatened once more. The emergence of Post-Soviet state in the Russian Far-East as well as the collapse of Chinese sovereignty kickstarts a tug-of-war between the Japanese and the Austronesians, resulting in Asia becoming divided once more with the addition of a resurgent China in the late 2000s that now seeks to gain independence from either Japan and Austronesia.

Tensions in Asia are on all time high once more, with a proxy war between Austronesia and Japan starting in the form of the Burmese Civil War. Korea and Yakutia are also being contested as Japan actively seeks to isolate the two from Austronesian Military and Economic support. In the mainland, China's militarization is also being actively resisted by both Austronesia and Japan while at the same time secretly supporting factions within China to sway the emerging superpower to their side.

As of 2022, Asia stands at the brink of war. A Chinese drone was shutdown by Austronesia in the mountains of Hui and crashed into a Japanese-held outpost. Mistaking it for an Austronesian missile, Japan sends an ultimatum to the Austronesian Government to leave Korea and Yakutia or face war. In response, Austronesia begins to send its army to the borders with Pro-Japanese states and rejected Japan's ultimatum. China also begins to prepare for war, declaring martial law in several cities near the border and begins the process of drafting. In the next 45 days, a large military buildup would occur at the Yalu River between the Korean-Manchurian border as the United Nations struggles to prevent the upcoming conflict. Unfortunately for them, a small miscommunication in the Manchu Army would start the largest and bloodiest war that the world has ever seen, with casualties reaching as high as 30 million people by the end of the conflict due to a nuclear exchange between Japan and Austronesia. Despite the destruction, China would emerge as the victor of the war and would replace the two as the new dominant and democratic power in the region.

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