MotF 197: The Sister Republics

[Kaiphranos]

MotF 197: The Sister Republics

The Challenge

Make a map depicting a country with multiple client states.

The Restrictions
There are no restrictions on when the PoD of your map should be. Fantasy, sci-fi, and future maps are allowed.​

If you're not sure whether your idea meets the criteria of this challenge, please feel free to PM me or comment in the main thread.

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Entries will end for this round when the voting thread is posted on Sunday, June 2nd, 2019. (Extended by a week)

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PLEASE KEEP ALL DISCUSSION ON THE CONTEST OR ITS ENTRIES TO THE MAIN THREAD.
Any discussion must take place in the main thread. If you post anything other than a map entry (or a description accompanying a map entry) in this thread then you will be asked to delete the post.​

Remember to vote on MotF 196!​

 

[Alex_ammonit]

In 1983 there was a war. The USA and the USSR clashed in an irreversible battle, and both fell. However, the world, no matter how they tried to destroy it, survived, although it has changed.
In 2024, the charismatic leader Kuzma Prutkov, a former military man, came to power in Moscow. He began his campaign to regain the former greatness of Moscow. He defeated the Kingdom of Tver, and founded the Russian Union.
But despite all the achievements, further progress was too difficult, and Kuzma Prutkov decided to concentrate on running the country.
The form of government is something like feudalism with features of war communism and absolutism. The allies are ruled by predsidatels who were formally elected democratically, but actually appointed from Moscow.

 

[TheKutKu]

Proletari di tutta Italia, unitevi!

English translation of the legend:
Left, Right

When the Cisalpine republic, which would eventually become the Italian Republic and then Kingdom, was created many in northern Italy were hopeful it would eventually lead to an unified Italy after over a millenia. The kingdom however would just be another part of Napoleon's continental system, with Napoleon as the king and Beaumarchais as viceroy and with an administration that was copied on the french model, the Italians were even less free than before, and the war had devasteted the country. The ultimate disgrace came when France directly annexed the Illyrian, Tuscan and Papal regions instead of giving it to the kingdom. When Napoleon and his Grande Armée emerged victorious from his conquests and a durable peace, or rather stalemate established itself on the continent, Italy was as divided as before, and it seemed like the Kingdom would forever be a puppet to France.

But no empire is eternal, while the world was advancing and liberalizing France grew more reactionary, the industrialisation and urbanisation made millions politically conscious, Inspired by the writings of certain german thinkers, many across the empire and its client states were dreaming of a new political order that would bring equality, distribution of wealth, self determination. at the turn of the 20th century the inevitable happened and strikes in the French Rhineland spread across France and, thanks to the similar and interlinked economies and administration of the Continent, to the various client states of the empire, often mixing with local nationalisms.

In Northern and Central Italy the various kingdoms and french territories rose up against the old order, the new states in Illyria, Tuscany, Piemont, Liguria, Lucca, Latio and Piombino quickly allied and merged with the Revolutionary Republic in the former Kingdom of Italy. Finally after a century Italy was growing again, but the other powers of europe and beyond would take advantage of the revolutions in France's empire, England invaded was little colonies France had, Austria was finally free and took back its territory in Bohemia and germany, Russia invaded Poland and Brazil landed in Portugal. Italy's neigbours also wanted a piece of the cake and the Kingdom of Naples invaded the newly independant latium at the same time Austria would take back its adriatic coast and Italy was powerless, and Rome would be lost by the time the Neapolitan invasion was halted.

After a few years of civil war and then conventional war, a stalemate and an uneasy peace was reached between the new revolutionary powers and the rest of Europe. The revolutionary - or collectivist - block was however very heterogenous, each state had its own interpretation of collectivism, from the agrarian collectivism of the Netherland, to the anarchism of Catalonia or the heavy autocratic rule of the Union of Collectivist Republic, France's new name, which seemed like it had just exchanged a ruler for another. The historical stigma against France, the newfound independance and local nationalism made cooperation hard and border clashes weren't uncommon.
Experiences would vary depending on countries, but Italy would thrive, with all of north italy and part of the center united ideas traveled like never before and the young Republic saw a new renaissance in Arts, ideas and technologies.

The peace wouldn't last however and by the second decade of the 20th century the capitalist powers of europe, seeing the divisions within the Collectivist blocks, would try to finish the war that was started 20 years before, Italians were pragmatic and while they knew they could hold and maybe win against Naples, a two front assault with austria would put overcome the Republic. Only the U.C.R. could help them but their terms for an alliance were heavy as they wanted the Piemont and Liguria back, like the old Napoleonic borders, The People's Assembly of Italy came to the conclusion that they would either have to cede these two regions, or lose everything against the Neapolitans and Austrians, and so they accepted a deal with the devil.

The war would last for years, dozens of millions died across Europe and while the U.R.C - France - managed to gain some of its former influence, The war however was devastated Italy, who only regained a small part of the Latio and the a half of Rome, not enough to make up for the loss of the Piemont and Liguria. As most of the war was fought in states surrounding the U.C.R., the latter was in a much better shape and occupied most of the other collectivist states, in Italy, like in most other countries they put puppet leaders at the head of the People's Assembly.

The more things changed, the more they stayed the same as Italy was once again merely a client state of France, or whatever it wanted they wanted to call themselves, its foreign policy was tied to the U.R.C's, the puppet government's disastrous policies hindered reconstruction of the war torn country. It was clear that the Italian Republic's was nothing more than a buffer state for france, and while the previous war didn't finally destroy Italy, the next one surely will.

 

[Veranius]

Excerpted from “The Grey Eagle Soars: Germany in the 20th Century” by Prof. John Thompson, University of Manhattan, 2041

It has been one hundred years since Paul Hahn and Erich Lehman co opted the First German Revolution to found the German State, the Third Reich in some corners. Their machinations have been a major focus of historians since then, as it is generally considered that the present state of the Five Germanies can be derived from the Arminian Regime.

One of the key instruments of the Arminian Regime was the use of puppets. Following the Second World War, when Hahn and Lehman were at their height, much of Europe followed the call of Berlin. The Treaty of Stuttgart set up several “protectorates” that were, on paper, independent nations, but were poorly veiled client states of the Regime. Picardy and Burgundy, carved from France; Lombardy, Alba, and Venetia, carved from Italy; and Bohemia-Moravia, a longtime puppet of Germany since the First World War. These protectorates joined other nations, like Carantania, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Nitra, Swabia, Hungary, Poland, Livonia, and Estonia in serving as the “Ring of Iron” that protected the German State. Coupled with the power of the Regime’s allies, Scandinavia and Bulgaria, as well as tacit help from Russia, the Regime was able to stride like a behemoth across Europe, at the expense of other areas of the world. The Philippines, taken from Spain in the First World War, was granted independence after a short rebellion, as Hahn and Lehman didn’t think the archipelago was worth the resources to keep a tight hold on. Their failure to defend their remaining assets well in the wake of Japanese attacks in the Pacific War (1961-1967) was one of the key reasons for the Second German Revolution and the fall of the Regime, as well as the subsequent Third World War, which saw the German invasion of the British Isles, the New Chartist Uprisings, the creation of the Chartist Republic of England and the Sundering of Great Britain, and the foundation of the United Kingdom of Australasia as the new home of the British Empire.

ARMINIANISM: Noun. Political ideology. Similar to: corporatism, militarism, syndicalism, expansionism, stratocracy, eugenics. Named for Arminius (German - Hermann), an ancient warrior who repelled the might of Rome at Teutoburg Forest. Put into use in the German State, the Third Reich, the Arminian Regime, by dictators Paul Hahn and Erich Lehman, upon their takeover of Germany in 1941. Discarded in 1966 after the Second German Revolution.

SECOND WORLD WAR: 1947-1953. Axis Powers (Arles Pact) vs. Central Powers (Continental Alliance). Concluded with the Treaty of Stuttgart, Alliance victory. Also known as the Continental Civil War.
Main Participants: Axis Powers/Arles Pact - France (Second Republic), Spain (Kingdom), Italy (First Kingdom), Byzantium (Restored), Belgium, Carantania, Luxembourg, Catalonia, Ecuador, Venezuela (Republic), Palatine (Federation); associate member China (National Republic); Central Powers/Continental Alliance - Germany (Arminian), Hungary, Scandinavia, Swabia, Bulgaria, Poland, Livonia, Estonia, Lithuania, Bohemia-Moravia (Protectorate), Netherlands, Brazil (Federative Empire), Chile; associate members Japan (Empire), Russia (Union of Republics).

QUADRUPLE/CONTINENTAL ALLIANCE: 1908-1942.
Main Signatories: German Empire/State, Second French Republic, Empire of Hungary, First Kingdom of Italy.
Minor Signatories: United States of America, Kingdom of Greece/Restored Empire of Byzantium, United Kingdom of Sweden-Norway/Scandinavia.
First World War Additions: High Kingdom of Swabia, Empire of China, Shahdom of Persia, Empire of Brazil, Republic of Chile, Republic of Paraguay, Republic of Ecuador, Republic of Venezuela, Irish Free State, Union of Russian Republics.

RING OF IRON: Noun. Political term used for the numerous client states of the German State/Arminian Regime following the Second World War. Consisted of: Protectorates of Bohemia-Moravia, Burgundy, Picardy, Alba, Lombardy, Venetia; Republic of Carantania, Principality of Nitra; High Kingdom of Swabia; Swiss Confederation; Kingdoms of Lithuania, Poland, the Netherlands; Empire of Hungary; Grand Duchy of Livonia; State of Estonia.


Author's Note - This is my first foray into the world of mapmaking for AH. Hopefully it turned out fine.

 

[Mina-van-Mako]

Political and economic map of the German Federation, from a History school book.

The German Federation, or South-German Federation, is a compromise found between Austria-Hungary and France in 1867, to prevent Prussian hegemony over Germany. The Franco-Prussian war, which opposed France, Bavaria, Hessen-Darmstadt and Austrian volunteers to the North German Confederation (now usually called Alemanic Confederation, as opposed the German Federation). After an entire year of war, and the assassination of several North German key commanders. The treaty of Potsdam, which saw the proclamation of the Germanisches Bund in the Palace of Frederic II. At this time, only Hessen-Darmstadt, Bavaria and the newly created Grand-Duchy of Saar were part of the Federation. The treaty offered several territorial compensations to the Southern German states : Bavaria received the Southern part of Saxony-Meiningen, Sigmaringen was temporarily lended to France, the territory between Saar and Moselle was given to France, as a strategic fortress, and Napoleon-Charles Bonaparte was made Grand-Duke of Saar.

In 1872, the Entente Cordiale between France, Austria and Britain was agreed on, to avoid further conflict in Europe. The German Federation saw the adhesion of the King of Württemberg in exchange for Sigmaringen the same year, and the Lomband-Necker Decree created the Chamber of Commerce and Diplomacy, designed to separate, forcefully if needed, South Germany from North Germany. This Chamber, seated in Münich, is a French-Austrian institution that limits economic freedom concerning international trade : this is the reason why very few trade happens between the South and the North. In 1876, Baden, under French pressure, joined the German Federation, and became the last member to join the Federation until the dissolution of the Federation at the Congress of Lausanne in 1921.

During the 80s, France has given most of its assets in South-Germany to Austria-Hungary, to be able to focus entirely on colonization. The treaties of Oran and Malta defined the exact borders of the French and British colonial empires. The German economy, based on small, employee-owned companies, being not really compatible with the French economy, made the French capitalists unable to make much profits from the South-German market. The Federal Railroad company was created in 1884, with Austro-Hungarian investments, linking the biggest cities of the Federation as well as industrial sites.

In the 90s, after two decades of constitutionnal panic, the final Federal Constitution was agreed on in 1894 : a Chancellor is elected by all the citizens (including women, the Federation being the second state in the world to allow gender equality before the law), the Cabinet includes an advisor from every constituent member (two for Bavaria, because of Palatinate), and the Parliament, proportionally representing the results of the Federal elections. The Central government, seated in Ulm, has little power however, because most of the laxas are edicted by the constituents. The first Chancellor, Ludwig Plensk, Franconian guy, was reelected two times, as a candidate for the Christian-Progressives. He deepened ties with Austria-Hungary after France decided to let them go, to avoid a reunification with the "Prussian Federation".