Map Thread XIII

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Alex1guy

General_Finley said:
The government pretends to govern. The collapse of the nearly Byzantine political structure of the Reich with the sudden breakdown of the government after the failed coup left people unsure of who did what and what went where. There was also the added strain of economic collapse, a nation already suffering from over population, and the sudden influx of German refugees from Russia. The hastily drawn up German constitution that was supposed to emulate the US ended up not helping at all and in the chaotic half dozen years since the fall of the GGR anyone with any position of power and authority has been busy stealing and selling off whatever they can get their hands on to the highest bidder. Corporations long held on a tight leash by the the Nazi government have gone crazy and built up monopolistic fiefdoms across Germany. Former Nazi party officials have become multi-billionaire oligarchs after selling off government contracts to their own start up companies.

In Berlin the people grow ever more resentful of "Hitler's Youth". These are the tens of thousands of children that were the result of Germany's deranged population scheme, reminiscent of Nicolae Ceaușescu's attempt to boost Romania's population in OTL. Families unable to support the children that they once received financial aid from the state for have abandoned many of these unwanted youths. Many find their way to Berlin and make their home in the vast tunnels, storm drains, and sewers under the city. Unable to feed themselves many have turned to crime, prostitution, and drugs. Its not uncommon to be walking in the Subway in Berlin and be accosted by a child of may 14 or 15 whose mouth is covered in paint that he has been huffing to temporarily get rid of the hunger pains. Along with these children are the thousands of German refugees fleeing European Russia. Many are poor and lost everything when they were forced to flee and now live in poverty across Germany. As a result "native" Germans have come to view the refugees as a people who spent to much time among savages and have become half Slavic themselves. Because of this attitude its even harder for them to find jobs and they have added to Germany's massive homeless problem.

Then there is the veterans problem. The government is in no shape to pay for the thousands of German troops who had been fighting in Africa and Russia and this has resulted in widespread homelessness among Germany's veteran population. Many have turned to crime to try and survive. Many of these veterans looked to the one-percenter biker gangs of the US and as a result there are Hells Angles chapters springing up all across Germany. These gangs traffic in guns, drugs, and most tragically of all, people.
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Bleak and exactly how I imagine a Nazi collapse would look.

How's Britain reacting to the collapse and are relations with the continent still hostile?
 
Clandango

Clandango

Tsar of New Zealand said:
Yup. Turns out I've got a boatload of annotations to do. Plus my little OCD inner demon is demanding I do inner borders, and I'm finding it hard to resist the temptation...not France though; it's hard enough to get present day departmental borders :p
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Funny thing. Actually had a dream involving that post last night... And I was immensely disappointed To find a black and white map of France's internal borders that one might expect crayons to be used on, with only a dot on it. I hope you can top it.
 

GeneralInTheShell

Alex1guy said:
Bleak and exactly how I imagine a Nazi collapse would look.

How's Britain reacting to the collapse and are relations with the continent still hostile?
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It varies from place to place.

Despite Italy's liberalization and move towards democracy the Tories are very cold towards Italy, still resentful that the Italians and the Germans supported the Egyptians in ITTL's version of the Suez Crisis. Which has caused issues with the Arab Federation which is getting closer to Italy to keep the UAR contained.

Greece invited back the King to try and curry favor with Britain to help bring economic investment. So relations between Greece and Britain are fairly decent.

Bulgaria and Hungary have both been putting effort into trying to get better relations with Britain and the rest of the West to to find someone new to keep the Romanians caged.

Romania is still hostile to the West and the West is still hostile to Romania. The reformed Iron Guard launched a coup after King Carol II died to make sure that his son wouldn't become king again. The monarchy was dissolved and the Romanian Social Republic was declared. The current dictator is pretty crazy and paranoid with the fascist governments around him either liberalizing or collapsing.

Relations with the 4th French Republic are actually progressing nicely, much to the chagrin of Free France who fear that there will be pressure to unify with the mainland. Many in the Conservative Party in Free France fear that unification will mean that thousands, possibly even millions of Frenchmen and women will leave Algeria for the mainland to escape the terrorist attacks from Algerians and the threat of war with the the UAR.

Relations with the Benlux nations and the Scandinavian nations are also progressing nicely. Sweden was the first to normalize relations with Britain. Never having been occupied nor been a member of the Axis, the Finlandized Swedes were enthusiastic about expanding on their pre-existing connections to Britain and the West.

The Tories are busy condemning the Croatian governments ethnic cleansing of Bosnia Herzegovina, but won't act because the Italians despite having long since withdrawn from Croatia are still tied to the Croatian government and wouldn't stand for an invasion or even a bombing campaign. The Croatians are inviting wealthy Russian Germans to buy up farmland and settle in the region.

Relations with the various competing Russian governments are cold at best. The Russians hold a deep hatred of Britain for its betrayal of the Russian people(despite the fact that Halifax dropped out of the War before the Germans invaded Russia). As a result the Russians are perpetually skeptical towards the West. Plus there is the orgy of violence that France managed to avoid. Unlike the French who decided it would be best to ignore all but the worst collaborators, the Russians, victims of genocide and decades of military occupation, began slaughtering German settlers and those that they viewed as collaborators. One of the possible reasons for the difference between Russia and France (outside of the Genocide) is that the French resistance movement was pretty much destroyed by the end of the 1940s where as the Russian guerrilla fighters received aid and weapons from the Americans for decades and continued to fight against a brutal occupation. When the GGR fell, many of the new politicians who took power in France were just the old politicians with a new coat of paint. In Russia, it was the battle hardened guerrilla leaders of a decades long fight for independence that took power and they had no sympathy for the enemy and those that gave them aid and comfort.

On a side note, when Hitler died, Goering sent Himmler off to Russia to rule the bulk of European Russia. This was a political move to keep Himmler from trying to take power in Berlin. Himmler was beast in Russia and so were his SS troops. The Russians eventually ambushed his convoy and managed to kill him which Goering was happy about, but had to respond with brutal reprisal. After Goering died, Speer became Chancellor and tried to liberalize the Reich and normalize relations with the West. He pulled out of Greece and forced the Italians to withdraw from Albania and Greece and he put an end to the genocidal rule of the SS in Russia in favor of an apartheid system and tried to garner support from the locals by granting them a little local autonomy in the form of Russian homelands similar to Bantustans in OTL South Africa. Speer saw that the Russian occupation was bleeding Germany and hoped to eventually leave, but his economic and social reforms came to an abrupt halt when a hardliner coup saw him deposed. The hardliners didn't try and restore SS rule over Russia, but the continued path towards liberalization and withdrawal was halted until Schmidt came to power as a result of the hardliner policies wreaking havoc on the recovering German economy.

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Edit: I forgot to add German-Britian relations.

The Tories have been living large on the "We Beat the Nazis" image (kind of funny given that Chamberlain, Halifax, and Eden all were in charge when the Nazis took the Sudetenland, conquered France, and supported the UAR in the Suez Crisis) and are absolutely loving it. Britain is ecstatic about the weakened state of Germany, but they aren't as happy about all the military grade weaponry being sold off to the highest bidder or the instability of the various German Chancelleries. There are fears of what might happen if some disgruntled terrorist group gets a hold of an atomic bomb. There is also the recent uptick in crime with German bicker gangs setting up whore houses in Britain where young orphans and Russian Germans are forced to work as sex slaves.
 
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thekingsguard

General Finley, what about the US? It looks like they have a few more states, and a LOT more "puppets" than OTL. Care to elaborate, and maybe explain the US take on the post-Cold War order.
 

thekingsguard

Beedok said:
languages_of_the_spartan_republic_of_rome_by_beedok-d8l8a1q.png


Should be simple enough to work out what's up.
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I'm guessing there is a strong Nordic nation considering the Romans haven't gotten control of Jutland ITTL?
 

Archangel

rvbomally said:
Another old idea. Influenced a little by Martin23230's Union of European Workers' Republics. Many thanks to people who gave me ideas on deviantArt!

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If You Want the Old Battalion​

The Lazarus Flu, in spite of its name, is actually several diseases arising from the same strain of cordyceps fungus. While diverse, what unites the Lazarus Flu is how it operates. The Lazarus Flu takes control of a living animal, or revives the corpse of a recently deceased one, and converts it into an incubator for its spores. This process can take as long as a day, or as short as half an hour. In order to spread the infection further, the Lazarus host seeks to infect uninfected individuals through transfer of bodily fluids, mostly through bites.

The most common strain is the fungus' airborne spores, which remain dormant in the mucus membranes of animals until that animal dies or its immune system is disabled or overwhelmed by another disease. A vast majority of "living dead" arise because of this strain. The first variants of this strain were far deadlier, killing the host before taking control of the corpse. This variant went extinct after the Great War, as they were susceptible to chlorine gas. Modern strains of the Lazarus Flu are immune to chlorine, but are not as deadly. The second strain is spread through bodily fluids, particularly through biting. This strain also grows in damp, warm environments, infamously including the trenches of the Great War.

Lazarus hosts lose almost all higher faculties, as the non-essential elements of their brains become food for the fungus. Lazarus hosts are technically alive, and disabling the brain stem, heart or lungs will kill the host. Starvation and suffocation will also kill the host, but Lazarus hosts can be in a state of hibernation for months if there are no potential hosts in the region. During periods of extreme isolation, the fungus will secrete various preservative chemicals into the host in order to preserve it for years. Lazarus hosts feel no pain or fear, and have little to no sense of self-preservation, rendering psychological or pain-inducing combat tactics ineffective. In later stages of infection, the Lazarus Flu can mutate the host into various deadly forms, such as those which generate and throw spore-infested mucus at the uninfected, become living spore "bombs," or grow bony or chitinous plates to serve as a form of armor. Even the average Lazarus host proves to be deadly against unprepared individuals, as they will often sprint at uninfected in large numbers.

It is unclear where the Lazarus Flu truly originated, with theories ranging from a freak strain of cordyceps brought to Europe by French colonial troops from Indochina, to a German bioweapons program that proved to be too effective. What is known is that the first cases of Lazarus Flu originated in the trenches of the Great War in 1917. The unsanitary conditions of the trenches, weakened immune systems of the soldiers, and the general chaos of the battlefield allowed the disease to run rampant. To make matters worse, the armies of both sides actively suppressed information about the infection, as they believed the news would destroy morale and lead to mutinies. While Great War weapons proved more than adequate to dispatch the infected, the airborne nature of the initial disease, unfamiliarity with the new foe, and the tendency for the infected to attack at night allowed the infected to best their human foes.

Soldiers returning from the front with injuries spread the infection to civilian populations. At first, authorities believed that the infection was limited to those bitten by the infected, and while some commanders enforced a draconian rule mandating the execution of any soldier that has been bitten or believed to have been bitten, others refused on the grounds that it would cause a mutiny. A major exception to this was the German Empire, which mandated the execution of any sick soldiers, a major contributing factor to the German Revolution. Even these orders proved to be insufficient, as the airborne strain of the Lazarus Flu caused infection even in areas thought to be safe.

By 1918, the infection had spread worldwide. The British Isles were infected by soldiers returning from the front and civilian refugees from the European continent, as were the Americas. New England was quickly lost as the Lazarus Flu spread and the United States frantically mobilized its armed forces to battle this new foe. Australia and New Zealand, already lacking in proper military forces after the disasters of the Great War, were hit particularly hard. China became a charnel house as the infection ravaged the densely-populated cities of the coast, and while Japan attempted to close its borders, it was too late. The Austro-Hungarian, Chinese and Russian empires collapsed in the chaos, while Germany became embroiled in civil war between the communists and the government. The Great War had ground to a halt, with an unspoken agreement between both sides to cooperate against this greater threat.

The tide turned as chemical weapons proved extremely effective against the infected. Chlorine and chloroform proved particularly effective in killing airborne Lazarus spores. Gas masks gave ample protection against these spores to soldier and civilian alike, although military forces combatting the infected were given priority. Militias, ranging from those raised by governments to those actively working to overthrow governments, joined what remained of the government's armed forces in the fight. Understanding their new foe, soldiers knew to aim for vital organs such as the heart or head, and that anybody who was bitten by one of the infected had to be dispatched. They also learned that any corpses will become infected, regardless of cause of death, so destroying the brain before they "rise" is essential. The European powers began to move large numbers of civilians off the continent to other portions of the world, particularly their colonial possessions.

By 1922, the most intense stages of the Lazarus War was over. The winter of 1921 succeeded in killing many Lazarus spores and freezing large numbers of infected, allowing humanity to mount several major counteroffensives. Entire areas of Europe had been evacuated or transformed into fortress-nations, such as the Alpine Confederation and the European Workers' Republic. Other areas have become quarantine zones, such as the Iberian Peninsula, the Japanese archipelago, and much of Britain and France. Other areas fell under military occupation, as the infection was slowly and steadily cleared out through chemical bombardments. Yet other powers, such as the Ottoman Empire, prospered, as they did not suffer as much from infection.

The current world order is dominated by the Quadruple Entente, a descendant of the Entente Powers of the Great War. The Anglo-American Union in turn dominates this alliance. Originally a military alliance, then a joint emergency government, the Anglo-American Union has become a de facto federal state, with the Anglo-American Council dominating all affairs in the two de jure independent states, which continue to maintain their pre-Lazarus government systems. The Anglo-American Council is composed of civil and military administrators promoted from the ranks of the American and British governments, and have sweeping authority over the entire Union and exclusive authority in occupied zones.

Other Entente powers include the Fourth French Republic, which has become a de facto African empire still ruled by the French Army. The French are focusing their efforts on reclaiming their homeland, and if they have to spend millions of African lives doing so, then that is a sacrifice they are willing to make. The Russian Empire has reclaimed most of its pre-war territory from the infected. Although the Tsars are gone, the generals of the so called "White Coalition" rule Russia with an iron fist, aided by a radicalized Russian Orthodox Church. The Russians, more than any other Entente power, want war with the EWR in order to reclaim all of Russia's pre-war territories. The Apline Confederation is the dominant Entente power on Europe proper. Composed of the remnants of the Austro-Hungarian and Italian governments, united under the Swiss banner, the Alpines have survived by virtue of their cold, mountainous environment being hostile to the Lazarus Flu. The Confederation has a truly unique multi-national government, one that can barely get along with itself apart from issues of self-defense and opposing the communists.

The European Workers' Republic stands alone in Europe, and the world, but has no issues with this. The Communist Party of Europe, descended from the Communist Party of Germany, has created the perfect society. The Lazarus Flu had cleared Germany of bourgeois and reactionary elements, so it could be remade according to the Party's edicts. What the Party created is the most authoritarian state on the planet, an armed camp perpetually paranoid about external attacks from Lazarus infectees and the Entente. Ostensibly governed by worker's councils that elect members to the Communist Party of Europe, the EWR is in truth governed by the military and the State Security Ministry (Stasi), both of which compete for power over the EWR. Any opponents are crushed by the Stasi, either on grounds of ideological impurity or Lazarus infection.

The Ottoman Empire dominates the Middle East. Saved from the infection, the Ottomans took the Lazarus War as an opportunity to flex its muscles. With the great powers otherwise preoccupied, and Istanbul having the convenient excuse of needing to defend themselves from the infected, there was little protest to the Ottoman Empire's growth. When oil was discovered in the Arabian peninsula, the Ottoman Empire became rich, as they fueled the "Third Industrial Revolution" which saw the post-war world return to a sense of normalcy. The modern Ottoman Empire is a financial and military powerhouse with a rapidly growing middle class, and its power is a growing concern for Entente policy makers.

In the east, the Kingdom of the Himalayas is what remains of the Chinese and various Indian governments. Surviving for the same reasons as the Alpine Confederation to the West, the Kingdom of the Himalayas was initially dominated by the Tibetans, but was eventually taken over by the Chinese refugees which outnumbered every other ethnic group in the country. The modern Himalayas is effectively a continuation of the Chinese Empire, complete with its own emperor which claims the entirety of the Chinese mainland. However, the Himalayan Kingdom lacks the muscle to make good on those claims.

Some areas of the world remain infested with the undead, a product both of the Lazarus Flu's astounding ability to preserve hosts and the growth of human populations in these areas providing a constant source of bodies. The Entente in particular is preoccupied with reclaiming these areas, although some zones are so heavily infected (or politically charged) that they have been indefinitely quarantined.

New technologies are quickly repairing the world. Medicine is highly advanced, and while a cure for the Lazarus Flu has yet to be found, many other findings have been made in the quest for the cure, such as curing most forms of cancer. The human genome has been cracked, and projects to give humans genetic immunity to basic diseases is underway. Chemical weapons remain the weapon of terror, with some chemical bombs capable of wiping out entire populations of cities. Most international treaties allow for the wanton use of chemical weapons as long as there is reasonable suspicion of a Lazarus infection in the targeted site.

While rocketry and nuclear sciences are in their infancy, they hold much promise for the future, including the possible bombardment of Lazarus-infected areas with nuclear weapons. The detonation of the world's first nuclear weapon in New Mexico proves to the world the potency of such weapons, and has caused both the EWR and the Ottoman Empire to scramble for nuclear weapons of their own.
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General_Finley said:
A Nazi victory map where the Greater German Reich experiences a USSR style collapse in the late 70's after a failed coup against Chancellor Helmut Schmidt after he began economic and political liberalization of the Reich as well as announcing the withdrawal of German forces from Russia, Angola, and Mozambique. It's 1985 and the USA is high on life (and cocaine) at the moment as it stands as the worlds Hyperpower.
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Beedok said:
Should be simple enough to work out what's up.
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Good maps, rvbomally, General Finley and Beedok!:)
 

Boristus

Map from an ISOT idea I posted earlier.

Boristus said:
On January 1st, 2015, Five regions of the globe, Central and South America, the Baltic and Northern Russia, the Eastern Mediterranean, Central Africa, and China, are engulfed in light. When the light fades, the regions have been replaced by nation blocs from alternate 2015s, all of which possess roughly current-level tech. Each bloc is from a different universe, but within blocs, everyone is familiar with one another (if not friendly). All military personnel and equipment that were either outside the ISOT zone (in the case of the ISOTed nations), or in a replaced area (in the case of OTL nations that weren't completely replaced) are returned to their home nation.

---=---=---

In the Americas, the US finds to it's displeasure that the border has shifted north, with Los Angeles and San Antonio becoming border cities. To the south, the Christian Spanish Mexican Republic has been replaced by a much stronger, richer, and higher-populated Pagan Nahuatl Mexican Empire ("Aztecs", cactus-green). Although they managed to westernize without too much issue, thanks to the Europeans that first contacted them, the Portuguese, being more than happy to trade horses and and tech for gold, they quickly came to dislike the west during their many colonial wars with Castile. Their northern Border, now shared with the US, was broken into five heavily-militarized Marches named after the northern tribes that once garrisoned them; Wichita (eastmost), Shoshone (center-east), Navajo (centermost), Apache (center-west), and Serrano (westmost). These marches guarded the northern border against three of the four biggest enemies in the Americas; the Republic of California (Spanish) and the Empire of Louisiana (French), and the farther-off naval threat of the Federal Republic of Columbia (English).

To the South, the Muisca (gold) rule over what used to be Columbia in our world, and what was once western New Granada in theirs. After the Mexica and Tawantinsuyu had westernized and marshaled their forces, they attempted to dislodge the Castilians from the new world. While they failed to capture California, they did managed to seize the less-developed half of new Granada, which they broke into three parts. One went to the Mexica, one went to Tawantinsuyu, and the third part, they gave to the beleaguered Muisca, who had managed to hold out despite being surrounded by the Castilians. After centuries of being propped up as a buffer by their bigger neighbors, slowly de-Christianizing and de-Hispanizing their shrinking Castilian minority, they stand as both a proud secondary power, and the world's best fence between the neighboring Mexica and Tawantinsuyu.

Beyond them lay the Tawantinsuyu ("Incan", sky-blue) Empire. Unlike the Mexica, they were forced to adopt western ideas and technology through skirmishes and conflict with the Viceroyalty of New Granada. After the 1550s, they became fast-friends with the Mexica, coordinating to fight the Castilians, Portuguese, and Bretons. Exceptional mountain-fighters, they've never managed to inflict long-lasting military defeats on their perennial enemies, the Brazilians, outside of the Andean theaters, instead having to rely Muiscan auxiliaries, who are much more accomplished jungle-fighters.
Slightly obsessed with bureaucratic procedure, they redraw their internal administrative zones every few decades.

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In Europe, Northern Poland and the Baltic states have vanished, in place of the militant, German-speaking Baltic Kingdom (Prussian blue). In their universe, when the Teutonic Order and it's two subordinate orders, the Livonian and Lithuanian Orders, became protestant, they formed into three duchies (Prussia, Livonia, and North Lithuania), all under the rule of the Brandenburg-Ansbach branch of the House of Hohenzollern. A few decades and a bad war with Poland and "South" Lithuania later, all three duchies were held by a single man, Frederick von Hohenzollern, Duke of Prussia. He proceeded to unite the three Teutonic duchies into the Baltic Kingdom. Now, in 2015, thought the country is a Constitutional Monarchy not dissimilar to the UK, a Hohenzollern King still sits in Konigsberg, dreaming of uniting the Holy Roman Empire into a German State…

In what was once Northern Russia now sits the Republic of Novgorod (tan). Buoyed by the Baltic Kingdom, Novgorod resisted continued attempts by Muscovy to unite into a Russian state. Once a powerful Merchant Republic, the position of Merchants and Capitalists has degraded immensely at ongoing conflict with the Hansa turned Novgorod and her allies further and further from concepts such as Corporate Capitalism and Free Trade in disgust, so much so that within all three of the states in this ISOT block, such concepts are regarded roughly the same as Communism is in the US.

To the north sits the Republic of Karelia (ice blue), a Finnic state. They've been off-and-on vassals of Novgorod in the past, the two are currently close allies. Their western border, which they shared with the Empire of Sweden, is heavily militarized; the foul Swedes may have conquered their Finnish brothers, but Karelia will not fall! Also, surprisingly well off, economically.

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In the Mediterranean, the last children of Rome sit ill-at-ease. In a world where Islam never existed, the Eastern Roman Empire eventually collapsed, consolidating itself into four smaller states; The Empire of Hellas (Purple, Capital: Constantinople), the Empire of Anatolia (blue-grey, Capital: Amaseia), the Empire of Syria (pale-rose, Capital: Antioch), and the Empire of Egypt (wine-red, Capital: Alexandria). While the four Greek Empires used to fight, they now are semi-united in a more militarized version of the EU against the Persians. The eastern border of Syria is a nigh-impassable fortress, with the armies of four major states investing heavily to make sure not even a grain of sand can cross without them knowing.

---

In Africa, the Kongolese Hegemony (electric blue) reigns supreme. Their's was a world entirely different from ours, were northern Europe never left the Iron Age until the Kongolese discovered them. In their 2015, they were the colonial masters of Europe and South America, although they were fighting major insurgencies in their former colonies.

Along with them came Azande (orange) and Mdebe (dark green). Mdebe was a major economic and colonial power, despite it's size (roughly equivalent to the OTL United Provinces), and still remains a significant economic power, although their colonies broke away decades ago. Azande was an intermediate power that until recently served as a buffer for the Kongolese against nomads from the North. They're still in the Kongolese sphere, and resent it.

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In China, everything has gone to hell. Previously ruled by a Manchu dynasty, the Mandate of Heaven decided that the northern savages were no longer worthy to rule. When the Emperor died without a heir in the late 1980s, China quickly collapsed into another warring states period. Now, eight factions vie for the Dragon Throne, while three more (discernible by their white outlines) attempt to go their separate ways, leaving the Chinese behind forever.

Manchuria (pale green) was the former ruler of China. In the decades since, a Manchu nationalist movement has taken control, seeking to separate from China entirely.

Yan China (honey-yellow) is the faction backed by the Empire of Japan. They currently hold Beijing.

The CCP (pink) is the communist faction, currently occupying what used to be the Chinese-Soviet border. Due to their extreme unpopularity, they were bankrolled and supplied almost entirely by the Soviets.

Qi China (olive) is a minor inland faction. Although unsupported by any major power, they enjoy almost universal local support.

The Wu Republic (orange) is one of the major factions. Supported by Nazi Germany, they claim to be subservient to the European fascists, but dream or a world ruled by the Chinese Fascist Party from Beijing, completely free of lesser, non-Han barbarians…

The Republic of Min (blue-green) is the faction backed by the United States. Not interested in letting the Communists, Fascists, Theocrats, or Imperialists take control of China, they've invested heavily in the Min.

Yao China (blue) is the Cantonese faction. Self-funded, they're also highly popular among the population. Currently negotiating with the Qi for a temporary alliance.

Shu China (purple) is the faction backed by India. Run by a Hindu theocracy imported from India, they are the only faction less-popular than the CCP.

Hui China (brown) is another theocratic faction, although Muslim rather than Hindu. They're substantially more popular than the Shu, although not so much outside of Qinghai.

Tibet (pale yellow) is trying to leave the Chinese sphere (again). It's not working.

Uyghurstan (pale brown) are the final faction. They too are trying to forge off on their own, but the CCP has other plans.

---=---=---

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GeneralInTheShell

thekingsguard said:
General Finley, what about the US? It looks like they have a few more states, and a LOT more "puppets" than OTL. Care to elaborate, and maybe explain the US take on the post-Cold War order.
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The Dominion of Newfoundland was floundering economically and without the boom that the Second World War brought they continued to flounder into the late 40s. The economic situation began to be alleviated during the Quasi War between the US and Germany when the US occupied Greenland and Dutch Suriname to keep the Germans out of the Western Hemisphere. As a result Newfoundland came to be more economically tied to the US. With Canada not involved in the Quasi War, Newfoundland grew ever more distant from Canada and the support for the pro- union with Canada faction began to lessen. In 49 when rule by the commission ended a referendum was held on what would be the fate of Newfoundland. Unlike OTL where Britain forbade the option of joining the USA for being in the referendum and the US was okay with it because of it's relationship with Britain the US pressured Britain to allow it and as a result Newfoundland joined the US. The Commonwealth of Greenland and the Commonwealth of Suriname both have a similar status to Puerto Rico.


Britain wasn't happy when the US occupied Suriname and Greenland, but they weren't about to raise a fuss to defend Germany. Some Republicans bitched about the informal state of war that existed between the US and the GGR, but enough people were pissed off about Hitler's informal support of Japan during the Pacific War that President Wallace's battle against fascism was largely supported. The Quasi War saw the US send troops to French North Africa as a big fuck you to Hitler, basically guaranteeing the independence of Free France. Where Britain bowed out of the war after Dunkirk, France never surrendered and Balbo was more cautious than Mussolini so he stayed out of the war. As a result the French government and navy evacuated to Algeria and brought a lot more refugees to North Africa. Hitler was to interested in invading Russia to get serious about invading North Africa and ending the Third French Republic. As a result when the Americans show up Hitler flips a bitch and starts yelling at Balbo to let German troops into Libya to invade. Balbo had no intention of getting involved in a war with the US having seen what the US did to Japan in the Pacific War. Shit hit the fan when USS Montana sunk the Bismark in an altercation that happened by accident and was mostly the Bismark's fault for instigating. Hitler was harping and screaming and in the midst of one of his rants he up and died of a heart attack. Himmler wanted war and so did Goebbels, but Goering (who managed to take power with support of the army) wasn't interested in war with the US. The incident resulted in Germany, Italy, and the US all joining the League of Nations to try and hammer things out. In the end war was avoided and the United States was permanently forced out of isolationism. Wallace, a progressive anti-imperialist, ended up governing the US during the invasion of Japan, the largest expansion of the US since the Mexican American War, and supporting the survival of a European colonial power in Africa.

For supporting the French in Africa and liberating Vietnam from Japan, Wallace made the French recognize the independence of Indochina. Ho's government in Vietnam isn't really a puppet, but it sure is cozy with the United States to keep the Chinese out. Korea is a puppet because the US sponsored a coup against the Korean dictator in 72 for getting way to cozy with the RoC. The US may be a bit more socially liberal than OTL as a result of Wallace stacking the supreme court with progressives like himself, but when the Panamanians elected a socialist who started nationalizing industry and threatened the canal the US felt they needed to change the Panamanians mind.

Nelson Rockefeller was President when the Reich fell and passed away shortly afterwards, resulting in his VP, Houston I. Flournoy, becoming president. Flournoy managed to hold onto the Presidency in the 1980 election and with the uptick in the American economy of the early 1980s he managed to narrowly win in 1984. The majority of the Republican Party is made up of what would OTL be called Rockefeller republicans, though there is a strong Libertarians movement in the Republican Party. The Brown Scare during the Quasi War really hurt social conservatism in the US and as a result the Republicans are more socially liberal than their OTL counterparts. In general the US is pretty hyped about the Cold War ending and enjoying economic prosperity. The US was always a lot closer to Italy than Britain was as the US didn't care about the Suez Crisis and had hoped to try and curry favor with Egypt (that went tits up). Balbo was always trying to keep Italy out of Germany's orbit and always maintained fairly decent relations with the USA so in the post GGR era the two actually on pretty good terms. The US more or less turned a blind eye to the ethnic cleansing of Libya, which pisses a few people off on the left, but most people don't know or even more tragically don't care about the plight of the Libyans. The threat of thermonuclear war ending the world seems to have dissipated and the American people are living large. There is talk of sending troops into Dominican Republic to overthrow the fascist regime now that the Germans aren't waving around nukes, but the US hasn't fought an war in decades so the quick and easy little excursion may prove to be a lot more difficult considering the Dominicans are battle hardened troops that fought in Angola, Mozambique, and against the Haitians when they invaded.
 

B_Munro

I have not become the King's First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire. – Winston Churchill, 1942.

It is 1962. More than 17 years since the fall of Nazi Germany. 16 since the Soviet civil war and the US and British “intervention.” Ten since President Stevenson began a speech with: “as I speak, an iron wall is being erected between Europe and America…”

In this world, the US under President Rex Tugwell and the British under Churchill brought down the Nazi and Japanese Empires as OTL, but unlike OTL, after the wall the British Empire did not go grousing into that good night. No, it survived, and co-opted the creation of a European Union, using the one to reinforce the other: while the Great Enemy of our world, the Soviet Union, collapsed into civil war at the very frontier of victory.

Of course, there were some odd divergences before the outbreak of war. Roosevelt was rather more successful in some of his policies, and in response Britain embraced a technocratic program of “industrial mobilization” which combined with the work of Turing on automated and cybernetic systems greatly enhanced British productive capacities by the time of the war. And then there was the Regrettable and Entirely Accidental death of that “half-naked Indian fakir…”

The war went worse than OTL for the Soviet Union – Stalin’s death early on and the resulting unedifying struggle for Top Spot didn’t help at all – and even UK help sent through Turkey and Iran only just allowed the Soviets to stop the Germans at Stalingrad. Simply driving the Germans from Moscow was a bloody slog, and the British and Americans were on German soil while the Soviets were still struggling through the Ukraine. Soviet forces would have no part in the capture of Berlin, or the final running to ground of Hitler in East Prussia: and when Soviet forces finally pushed through a collapsing German army into Poland, Soviet observers were invited to witness the power of the US’s new atomic device: Tugwell and Churchill had decided that while the Soviet Union would be allowed some “border corrections”, there would be no place for a Communist dictatorship and former German ally in Eastern Europe.

The civil war between the “we wuz stabbed in the back” and the “it was all Stalin’s fault” factions (and several others) broke out not long after the unreported-to-westerners cholera epidemic began to ravage central Russia. The UK and the US, remembering what happened last time they let a Russian civil war proceed to its natural conclusion, moved in with full metal. (The US later decided that they had been cheated in the post-war division of territory: they had done most of the heavy lifting in pacifying “undemocratic” factions, but the British ended up with most of the population. The British meanwhile point out that the US got most of the land and much less off a terrible reconstruction problem to handle.)

So the three (Eh! Vive La France!), sorry, three and a half policemen – US, British Empire, China, and some guys – would maintain world peace and develop the planet and end poverty etc., etc., world without end. Unfortunately, certain difference in approach soon manifested – Rex Tugwell and his successors were not as anti-colonialism as Roosevelt, but they did tend to look down on British methods, and felt that “old Europe” would in the future follow the lead of young, vibrant America – something not exactly aimed at assuaging European pride. And Churchill, oddly enough, would not be removed from power in post-war tides of change – indeed, leading an expanded political coalition (including the “New Liberal” party, which oddly looked a lot like a party created specifically designed to siphon votes from Labor) stayed in power, and stayed, and stayed…

By 1962, a new game of Great Power competition was in full swing, as a Europe unified and rejuvenated under British leadership and a unified European sphere of colonies, puppets, and overseas territories challenged the US for global leadership. The US, which had largely withdrawn from European affairs post-war in pursuit of its more “traditional” sphere of influence in Latin America and the Pacific, was to some extent left a bit baffled by the rapidity of the change in circumstances, and many Americans grumbled loudly about idiot politicians which had abandoned Europe to the sneaky King George-loving, dusky-people-oppressing, tea-taxing British and their smarmy, mustached French sidekicks. Europeans in turn muttered about the money-mad Americans trying to conquer the world with cash and poisoning European youth with their icky mass culture while at the same time constantly seeking to undermine Europe’s entirely beneficial protectorate of the weaker, less developed peoples.

And by this time it had gone far beyond grumbling. The US bomb in 1944 was followed by the British one in 1948: the first US rocket in orbit in 1950 was followed in 1952 by the first British one, thanks to the combined efforts of Von Braun and Quatermass. It would not be too long before someone had the bright idea of putting one on the other, and then of course it was not long before some British missiles were pointed at the US and some US ones at the British: just in case, you know. And then someone built an atomic-powered submarine…

As of 1962 the two great blocks aren’t quite existential enemies, but they don’t get along at all. The skies are full of spy satellites, and atomic-powered bombers patrol endlessly. And both sides are having some trouble keeping those cats marching in straight lines.

The British long struggle to keep India in the Empire is heading into end game, and the outcome doesn’t look too good. Co-option, compromises, political divide and rule – the socialist “wing” [1] of the Indian Congress Party has taken over three of the major political divisions of India (which in turn forms a sub-section of a more federalized Empire) in spite of confident predictions of a win for conservative forces in the north by electronic brain-jockeys, and is now calling for the union of all three as a single full dominion – or else. British leadership of the Empire depends on keeping rapidly growing and developing India politically divided and outside the direct line of federal control: otherwise, in the long run Britain will become Little Buddy to India within the Empire and only one of several leading nations within Europe. Radical surgery may be required: worse, British talking heads have been blaming the Americans for deliberately stirring up trouble in India so long that some of the politicians have started believing it themselves.

They’ve blamed the US for continuing unrest in Malaysia since the start, and in that case they’re half right, since both the Chinese and the Indonesians want to draw Malaysia into their sphere.

In spite of these issues, British power remains massive. Although America is still substantially richer, much of the Empire, and Europe as well, is growing _faster_ now than the US, under a mix of free market economics and open borders with technocratic development and high-tech research pushed from above, although some skeptics point out this is just because they had a much lower place to start from. Europe is a Franco-British co-production, with help from Poland, the Czechs, and an Italy which timed its defection from the Axis better. (The Franco regime was kicked over in 1946 as a final bit of anti-Fascist tidying up). Germany has been divided into multiple states, although the open borders and economic integration means that political fragmentation has not led to economic disaster. Africa remains mostly secure, although the policy of encouraging large scale resettlement of peoples dehoused and displaced by war on lands requiring a firm (white) hand had probably stirred up as much unrest as it has suppressed. There is some talk of more African semi-dominions in the future, and the French are almost-boldly forging ahead with a federal Empire, although they are facing a crisis of their own in North Africa which needs resolving one way or the other. The Middle East is mostly under the British thumb, but it remains another “hot spot”, with the Saudis making the call that the Americans are safely distant and less colonization-happy than the British, and various angry nationalist groups multiplying faster than their leaders can be co-opted or die in entirely natural ways. Beyond the Indus things start getting hairy, and although a lack of Red Chinese and Soviets and some British aid allowed the French to reestablish themselves in Indochina, a fresh rebellion has broken out, and the Chinese are widely suspected of secret support for it.

The British are far superior to the Americans when it comes to intelligence and subterfuge, which makes up a bit for some of their other weaknesses. Mi6 and it’s “licensed to kill” agents defend British interests in the shadows over two thirds of the world, and British infiltration of US intelligence is embarrassingly thorough, while the still sizeable “Unity among Anglo-Saxons” wing of the US WASP community provides a great supply of useful dupes.

The US, meanwhile, dominates Latin America economically, culturally, and politically. US distribution of dirt-cheap TVs with tiny nuclear batteries (utterly safe, unless your kid tries to open them up or something) to the impoverished masses of Asia and Latin America not only provides free how-to information beamed by satellite to everyone (largely replaced by less patronizing local broadcasts as soon as the locals managed to get their own broadcast stations) but also brings US propaganda (“vital political information”) and opens bridgeheads in people’s heads for an endless flood of US products. People use US products, work in US factories, watch American TV and listen to American radio. Nativist forces exist and struggle against the flood, encouraged by the British (who have their own TV satellite broadcasts to compete, although as yet they don’t have quite the same volume and quality of crap to sell). Canada is currently struggling to keep up customs barriers against a floodtide of smuggling and public unrest against the “For the good of the Empire” line.

The US is not quite as overwhelmingly dominant in East Asia, but the economies of the area remain to a substantial extent subordinate to the US. The main price the US extracted from China for kicking out the Japanese (which required sending US forces into Manchuria) and helping them with their little Red problem was fully opening their markets, and the Chinese are getting a bit fed up with the difficulties this places in the way of developing their own modern industries. Sure, as incomes have soared the US has outsourced some of its cheapest, dirtiest and crappiest jobs and industries to China, but the Chinese have no intention of remaining makers of plastic sandals and fake doggie doo forever: they intend to become a great power, damn it.

The Japanese, of course, were not given a choice in becoming a subsidiary of US, Inc., and the fact that a more thorough political house cleaning has led to a Japanese government several shades pinker than OTL has not helped.

Russia was supposed to be reunited as one democratic regime after the US and the UK finished “restoring order” and “promoting democracy”, but while both halves of Russia have had reasonably clean elections and other such signs of a not-wacky society since the mid-50s, neither the UK nor the US can agree on a formula for unification. In fact, neither wants to risk the reunified Russian state turning to the other side, and both fear a unified neutral Russia might go all revanchist: the British sometimes question giving independence to Belorus and the Ukraine, in spite of that “Holodomor” thingy. The US at least kept the Kazakh steppes unified with east Russia (the US at the time was rather skeptical about the viability of a Kazakh state: they now feel this was a bad idea, given the Turkish peoples’ British inclination). The Russians, meanwhile, are getting more and more fed up with their “protectors” excuses – not to mention the nuclear missile launchers on their soil…

British society is hierarchical, technocratic, obsessed with the “white heat of technology”, and looks to an ignorant outsider more than a wee bit fascistic, with its abundance of snappy uniforms, rather sinister poster art, universal surveillance (“the innocent have nothing to fear”) and colossal new building projects, not to mention that the same political coalition has held power for a generation. The seemingly eternal Churchill is finally fading, and reportedly will not run again for prime minister, but there are young, hungry men waiting to step into his shoes. When people aren’t talking about India they are talking about the new Mars project: will the government ignore US claims that space “belongs to all mankind” and stake out claims on the Red planet?

The US, with a so far somewhat less expensive cold war and a continued commitment to internal development on a massive scale is actually even richer than OTL, and has seen the continued survival of the New Deal coalition, through hook and more than a little Crook, but things are looking a bit sticky at present. Although there is no Vietnam or (as yet) much of a Culture War to divide the nation, and the Left remains more respectable without a Commie-Capitalist cold war [2], a lot of people in the government will admit in private that the post-war move to “end racial inequity” in the US was perhaps a somewhat premature project. So far, only the divided nature of the Right (currently three parties) plus the more “solve the not-equal bit before getting to the separation thing” approach to black advancement has prevented someone from riding a successful White Resentment train to the White House, and now the damn ungrateful black people are starting to make a fuss about how slowly things are changing in spite of a decade plus of the “equal society” line. What do they expect, miracles?

Technology has progressed faster than OTL, some might say improbably so. Nuclear power is not too cheap to meter, but it is cheaper than OTL, and used on a substantially greater scale. There are bases on the Moon, and Mars will be reached soon. Great projects to make deserts bloom are underway, and only the fact that certain carping critics keep talking about “horrible superheated salt deserts” have prevented a project to dam the Mediterranean from getting underway. New laboratory-created super-plants promise to green the arctic and the deserts as well. And Westinghouse promises a robo-maid in every house by 1970.

The Sino-American split is less than five years away.

[1] Which many Indians claim is the only _actual_ Congress Party.

[2] Although the fall of the USSR has taken some of the heart out of the Left, it hasn’t been as devastating as the total failure of OTL. The Nazis, US, and UK can all be blamed.

Bruce
 

B_Munro

I took the bits about Churchill ending up as "untouchable as an Asian warlord", the fact that the UK seems to have incorporated all of Europe into its empire, and that it supposedly keeps pushing and prodding until it displaces the US as Top Nation to indicate that Britain isn't all love and the power of friendship in the grasshopperverse. There's also a bit about Malays noticing they are being treated in a rather more racist manner than they would be in US territory. In any event, realistically, you don't usually hold on to an Empire by being nice.
 
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