Map Thread XXI

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Chörnyj Orel

I thought about "What if .... after WWII, the allies decide to try a second Danzig, but this time with Stettin?", so I came up with this....


The Republic of Stettin (German: Republik Stettin, Polish: Republika Szczecin) is a central European country laying on the most southern tip of the Baltic Sea, the Stettin lagoon and the mouth of the Oder river, neighboured by Germany to the west and Poland to the east.
Established by the allies after World War II and occupied by the Soviets until 1990. After democratization process during the 90s, the small country joined NATO and the EU in 2004.
The country is predominantly German-speaking, but after WWII, a lot of Polish families settled here - both in the city of Stettin and in the rural areas. The town of Wollin/Wolin is now mostly Polish-speaking (at 60%). Also the whole country is officially bilingual from the start.
After the end of German partition, the country was not allowed to join the reunified Germany. Since its formation in 1946, it shall be separate "at least for the next 99 years".

The country is subdivided in five counties (German: Landkreise, Polish: powiaty) and one urban district (German: Stadtkreis, Polish: powiat grodzki):
The capital and only urban district Stettin/Szczecin
The county of Altdamm/Dąbie in the east
The county of Gartz/Gardziec in the center
The county of Greifenhagen/Gryfino in the south
The county of Ueckermünde/Wkryujście in the west and
The county of Usedom-Wollin/Uznam-Wolin with its capital Swinemünde/Świnoujście in the north

5zJU58l.png


In 1989, the Stettinese population was composed as follows:
76% Germans
14,5% Poles
7% Russians
1,65% Ukrainians
0,85% others (mainly Armenians, Kazakhs, Vietnamese, Tartars)

In 2015, the Stettinese population was composed as follows:
86,33% Germans (incl. immigrated from Germany)
11,37% Poles
1,17% Russians
1,13% others (mainly "Stettinese" (biethnic people), Italians, Swedes, Ukrainians)


Full name of the country: Republic of Stettin (German: Republik Stettin, Polish: Republika Szczecin)
Capital and biggest city: Stettin (population: 430.353)
Demonym: Stettinese
Form of government: Semi-presidental republic
President: Franz Heistermann
Premier: Eva Schwartze
Population: 863.481
Area: 4.406,32 km²
Density: 196 people per km²
Currency: Stettinese Gulden (SNG)
Time zone: CET (UTC+1), CEST (UTC+2)
National holiday: June 1st, December 10th
Formation: June 1st, 1946 (People's Republic of Stettin), December 10th, 1989 (Republic of Stettin)
Drives on the: right
Country code: SN, SEN
Calling code: +37
Internet TLD: .sn, .eu
 
PolishMagnet

PolishMagnet

Chörnyj Orel said:
I thought about "What if .... after WWII, the allies decide to try a second Danzig, but this time with Stettin?", so I came up with this....


The Republic of Stettin (German: Republik Stettin, Polish: Republika Szczecin) is a central European country laying on the most southern tip of the Baltic Sea, the Stettin lagoon and the mouth of the Oder river, neighboured by Germany to the west and Poland to the east.
Established by the allies after World War II and occupied by the Soviets until 1990. After democratization process during the 90s, the small country joined NATO and the EU in 2004.
The country is predominantly German-speaking, but after WWII, a lot of Polish families settled here - both in the city of Stettin and in the rural areas. The town of Wollin/Wolin is now mostly Polish-speaking (at 60%). Also the whole country is officially bilingual from the start.
After the end of German partition, the country was not allowed to join the reunified Germany. Since its formation in 1946, it shall be separate "at least for the next 99 years".

The country is subdivided in five counties (German: Landkreise, Polish: powiaty) and one urban district (German: Stadtkreis, Polish: powiat grodzki):
The capital and only urban district Stettin/Szczecin
The county of Altdamm/Dąbie in the east
The county of Gartz/Gardziec in the center
The county of Greifenhagen/Gryfino in the south
The county of Ueckermünde/Wkryujście in the west and
The county of Usedom-Wollin/Uznam-Wolin with its capital Swinemünde/Świnoujście in the north

5zJU58l.png


In 1989, the Stettinese population was composed as follows:
76% Germans
14,5% Poles
7% Russians
1,65% Ukrainians
0,85% others (mainly Armenians, Kazakhs, Vietnamese, Tartars)

In 2015, the Stettinese population was composed as follows:
86,33% Germans (incl. immigrated from Germany)
11,37% Poles
1,17% Russians
1,13% others (mainly "Stettinese" (biethnic people), Italians, Swedes, Ukrainians)


Full name of the country: Republic of Stettin (German: Republik Stettin, Polish: Republika Szczecin)
Capital and biggest city: Stettin (population: 430.353)
Demonym: Stettinese
Form of government: Semi-presidental republic
President: Franz Heistermann
Premier: Eva Schwartze
Population: 863.481
Area: 4.406,32 km²
Density: 196 people per km²
Currency: Stettinese Gulden (SNG)
Time zone: CET (UTC+1), CEST (UTC+2)
National holiday: June 1st, December 10th
Formation: June 1st, 1946 (People's Republic of Stettin), December 10th, 1989 (Republic of Stettin)
Drives on the: right
Country code: SN, SEN
Calling code: +37
Internet TLD: .sn, .eu
Click to expand...

Very cool!

If I nitpick, I'd say "Republic of Szczecin" in Polish needs to be "Republika Szczecińska", though when referring to just the country name it can be "Szczecin".
 

EnzoLux

https://imgur.com/VKWKFOE

In the aftermath of WWII, the European colonial powers agree to erase their artificial African borders and help their soon to be ex-colonies. New boundaries based on ethnicity, religion and history are established.

I know the premise isn't very realistic, but ok. The map is heavily inspired in a YT video about the same topic, my knowledge of African history isn't particularly vast so I relied on the work of others.
 

Minchandre

EnzoLux said:
I know the premise isn't very realistic, but ok. The map is heavily inspired in a YT video about the same topic, my knowledge of African history isn't particularly vast so I relied on the work of others.
Click to expand...
Premise schmemise.

The question of "better" African boundaries is a complicated one. What ethnicity, religion, and history should be taken into account? What is ignored? What compromises are made?

Many of the people who make these maps just use a language family map and fill in the lines, but...that's not really a great way to do it.
 

KillEmAll1989

Minchandre said:
The question of "better" African boundaries is a complicated one. What ethnicity, religion, and history should be taken into account? What is ignored? What compromises are made?
Click to expand...
"Better [region] borders" posts always carry the implicit assumption that states and their borders are organic products of nature, rather than the product of centuries of violence and genocide. The idea that modern "good" borders are the end-point of a natural process of approximation, which gradually approaches the ideal "good" border, rather than a largely arbitrary line where different groups of violent men agreed to stop killing each other (for now). That's why the response of anyone who knows anything about a given region to such posts about said region is always "are you insane, this would cause violence and genocide".

I honestly think a lot could be written about the underlying assumptions inherent in those maps, especially when they cover (non-settler-)colonial regions like Africa (and to an extent S+SE Asia), although I'm not sure a critical essay on the sociopolitical and cultural assumption inherent to a specific sub-genre of online mapmaking is the sort of thing anyone would be interested in reading lol.
 
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Luuuma

Luuuma

EnzoLux said:
https://imgur.com/VKWKFOE

In the aftermath of WWII, the European colonial powers agree to erase their artificial African borders and help their soon to be ex-colonies. New boundaries based on ethnicity, religion and history are established.

I know the premise isn't very realistic, but ok. The map is heavily inspired in a YT video about the same topic, my knowledge of African history isn't particularly vast so I relied on the work of others.
Click to expand...
I've tried my hand at Africa maps in the past, and I think this might be worse than otl. Of course, state borders are only one component of post-colonial Africa that was fucked up, but still...
The worst of the ethnic tensions don't seem to have been addressed either. The Igbo and other Niger river ethnic groups still live in an even more Yoruba-dominated state, some equivalent of the Biafra war seems likely. Khoikhoiland and Algeria especially still have to deal with the question of the settlers and Tanganyika looks like a disaster waiting to happen.
The influence of European languages is also important, places where all administration and trade is done in English and those where it's all French -for example- will have a hard time integrating as a single state.
Places like Fernando Po, too, have very little in common with their pre-colonial cousins. In that case, their traditional language is spoken by a minority of the population. More people speak an English based creole there than that language. Spanish is the dominant language. That's a relatively common trend, just look at the Krio in Sierra Leone .

Geographic concerns also need to be taken into account, though that is something shared with irl. The Kanem portion of West Sudan and the west Sudan part would be very difficult to connect, either they'd rely on roads through Bornu or have to construct a route way out into the desert.
I think the Tuareg and Hausa states are a decent idea though.
 

BrobDingnag

I dunno why people keep ragging on American state borders. A straight line is definitionally a good border. You can argue about where the line should be. You can argue about how long the line should be. You can argue about who’s on which side of the line. But you can’t argue about the border itself. A line is a line. Anyone can measure it. It’s not in question like natural borders. “Hey, that’s not where the old riverbed was!” “Who says that’s the continental divide?” “Oi, oi, oi, watershed? That ends 30 miles thataway!” No, sir. “Yep, that’s a line.” That’s all there is.
 
PolishMagnet

PolishMagnet

Map of the World in 2001

aEIuc5R.png


As part of the epilogue for my hiatus/dead timeline CPCW, I made a map showing the "end result" of the world, in 2001.

Democratic Japan helped in the Chinese civil war to get a pro-Japanese democratic faction on top, Indonesia and Malaysia (though fractured) were decolonised peacefully and brought into Japan's sphere, and Korea split amicably through a referendum. Britain succeeded in forming a reduced commonwealth (CANZUK plus a bit more), the USSR had an early soft collapse, the socialist EU analogue spans Eurasia from France to Kamchatka, and India split up in a civil war. The United States is on its second constitution after a bloodless coup overthrew their colonialist government fighting over US Africa (modern Man, Togo, Ubangi, down to Katanga).
 
Sarthak

Sarthak

PolishMagnet said:
Map of the World in 2001

aEIuc5R.png


As part of the epilogue for my hiatus/dead timeline CPCW, I made a map showing the "end result" of the world, in 2001.

Democratic Japan helped in the Chinese civil war to get a pro-Japanese democratic faction on top, Indonesia and Malaysia (though fractured) were decolonised peacefully and brought into Japan's sphere, and Korea split amicably through a referendum. Britain succeeded in forming a reduced commonwealth (CANZUK plus a bit more), the USSR had an early soft collapse, the socialist EU analogue spans Eurasia from France to Kamchatka, and India split up in a civil war. The United States is on its second constitution after a bloodless coup overthrew their colonialist government fighting over US Africa (modern Man, Togo, Ubangi, down to Katanga).
Click to expand...
I can already hear the millions of Cambodians screaming out in fear over being partitioned by their two greatest ancient enemies.
 

Pragmatic Progressive

Chörnyj Orel said:
I thought about "What if .... after WWII, the allies decide to try a second Danzig, but this time with Stettin?", so I came up with this....


The Republic of Stettin (German: Republik Stettin, Polish: Republika Szczecin) is a central European country laying on the most southern tip of the Baltic Sea, the Stettin lagoon and the mouth of the Oder river, neighboured by Germany to the west and Poland to the east.
Established by the allies after World War II and occupied by the Soviets until 1990. After democratization process during the 90s, the small country joined NATO and the EU in 2004.
The country is predominantly German-speaking, but after WWII, a lot of Polish families settled here - both in the city of Stettin and in the rural areas. The town of Wollin/Wolin is now mostly Polish-speaking (at 60%). Also the whole country is officially bilingual from the start.
After the end of German partition, the country was not allowed to join the reunified Germany. Since its formation in 1946, it shall be separate "at least for the next 99 years".
Click to expand...
I really love this idea and the map! I wondered how Stettin would perform in football, for example? I think they would be significantly better than OTL micronations like San Marino or the Faroe Islands, but how much better would it get?
 
da Racontor

da Racontor

BrobDingnag said:
I dunno why people keep ragging on American state borders. A straight line is definitionally a good border. You can argue about where the line should be. You can argue about how long the line should be. You can argue about who’s on which side of the line. But you can’t argue about the border itself. A line is a line. Anyone can measure it. It’s not in question like natural borders. “Hey, that’s not where the old riverbed was!” “Who says that’s the continental divide?” “Oi, oi, oi, watershed? That ends 30 miles thataway!” No, sir. “Yep, that’s a line.” That’s all there is.
Click to expand...
A lot of people (myself included) find them ugly.
And they have no meaning behind them other than administrative division. No culture, etc. Stops at a straight line. So unless you are going for a completely top down absolute centralization country there is no "life" behind a straight line.
 
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Daniwani

Daniwani

Albeques said:
A lot of people (myself included) find them ugly.
And they have no meaning behind them other than administrative division. No culture, etc. Stops at a straight line. So unless you are going for a completely top absolute centralization country there is no "life" behind a straight line.
Click to expand...
Whatever one thinks of borders and states, a straight line represents the existence of these things with the ideology that justifies their existence removed. They appear nakedly thoughtless and cynical; for the benefit of the powerful parceling out land amongst themselves, but this time without the mask of ideology to shape it in any relatable or practical terms. While some borders can, in some ways, be rationalized as a long and chaotic evolution of what once would have been borders between clear regions and groups of people, a straight line is completely bare and upfront with what it is, an artificial division, hastily created by colonists in a land they cared little for beyond what belonged to who and where lines of power between the elite are to be drawn therein. At least that's why they appear unsightly to me, outside of the basic aesthetics of a map.
 
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Betelgeuse

I had no idea when I opened Safari today that I would be treated to a philosophical debate over the merit of straight lines in mapping. I love the Internet.
 

BrobDingnag

Albeques said:
there is no "life" behind a straight line.
Click to expand...
Are we… anthropomorphizing borders now?
3de.png


Even a straight line tells a story. There’s history in a straight line. It can tell you that a war was really, really tendentious. It might not even be over yet. It can tell you that a society is well-ordered. It can proclaim “Hey, we quite plainly have living space here. Why not swing on by?” How the States Got Their Shapes is a great book on the subject.
 
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