Map Thread V
- Thread starter Ian the Admin
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Krall
Banned
started out with a map of Mega Austria-Hungary...
after puting in the effects of MAH(Mega Austria-Hungary)...i get this!
Ridiculous, illogal, space-filling empires and nationwanks galore.
I'm noticing a distinct trend in your maps, and it's not a good one.
Wait, how was half the Royal Navy in one place? I also doubt that a Hurricane would actually destroy or even damage the ships.
What, with no casus belli? "We can take them" is NOT a good reason to go to war.
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started out with a map of Mega Austria-Hungary...
after puting in the effects of MAH(Mega Austria-Hungary)...i get this!
Please don't post your maps if they are poorly thought-out rubbish. It uses up bandwidth.
Why's most of South America, South Africa (including Namibia), Switzerland, and Indonesia independent?
Philip
Donor
started out with a map of Mega Austria-Hungary...
after puting in the effects of MAH(Mega Austria-Hungary)...i get this!
Do you ran out of ideas early on with this map? It looks like you just filled in large areas and called them empires. You followed this by mixing in cliches like independent Cornwall. Just for good measure, you made standard noob mistakes like making Cornwall 2-3 times its actual size.
I love how in a super-ultra wank Germany gets all of Europe, while the best A-H can hope for is a bit more of the Balkansstarted out with a map of Mega Austria-Hungary...
after puting in the effects of MAH(Mega Austria-Hungary)...i get this!
The world's regions in roughly 2053 AD in Isaac Asimov's The Evitable Conflict (written in 1950). (If you haven't read the short story, you can find it in the 'I,Robot' collection.)
Red - The Eastern Region:
Area: 7,500,000 square miles
Population: 1,700,000,000
Dark Red Spot - Capital: Shanghai
Brown - The Tropic Region:
Area: 22,000,000 square miles
Population: 500,000,000
Dark Brown Spot - Capital: Capital City
Dark Blue - The European Region:
Area: 4,000,000 square miles
Population: 300,000,000
Blue Spot - Capital: Geneva
Teal - The Northern Region:
Area: 18,000,000 square miles
Population: 800,000,000
Light Blue Spot - Capital: Ottawa
Earth (including the uninhabited continent, Antarctica)
Area: 54,000,000 square miles (land surface)
Population: 3,300,000,000
White Spot - Capital: New York
Thanks to Roberto for the base map.
Red - The Eastern Region:
Area: 7,500,000 square miles
Population: 1,700,000,000
Dark Red Spot - Capital: Shanghai
Brown - The Tropic Region:
Area: 22,000,000 square miles
Population: 500,000,000
Dark Brown Spot - Capital: Capital City
Dark Blue - The European Region:
Area: 4,000,000 square miles
Population: 300,000,000
Blue Spot - Capital: Geneva
Teal - The Northern Region:
Area: 18,000,000 square miles
Population: 800,000,000
Light Blue Spot - Capital: Ottawa
Earth (including the uninhabited continent, Antarctica)
Area: 54,000,000 square miles (land surface)
Population: 3,300,000,000
White Spot - Capital: New York
Thanks to Roberto for the base map.
They're not really independent. The USA controls their economies, and has long since forced them to scrap their militaries. As of 1980, they haven't been annexed only because Dr. Manhattan's attention has been focused elsewhere, though most international observers see it only as a matter of time before the remaining vassals are brought into the Union. In the meantime, Manhattan's immortal; he can wait. President Nixon's also fairly content, and is happy to take his time before the USA completes its second "Manifest Destiny."
Well, at the time that he wrote it the world had only 2.5 billion people on it, so Isaac Asimov just added added a billion, based on trends. Trends he got right in a way (declining birth rate in Europe, increasing birth rate in Asia) but weren't paced fast enough.World population is only 3.3 gigapeople?
Argentina as part of Europe -- and owning the Falklands no less... I'm in love with that mapThe world's regions in roughly 2053 AD in Isaac Asimov's The Evitable Conflict (written in 1950). (If you haven't read the short story, you can find it in the 'I,Robot' collection.)
Red - The Eastern Region:
Area: 7,500,000 square miles
Population: 1,700,000,000
Dark Red Spot - Capital: Shanghai
Brown - The Tropic Region:
Area: 22,000,000 square miles
Population: 500,000,000
Dark Brown Spot - Capital: Capital City
Dark Blue - The European Region:
Area: 4,000,000 square miles
Population: 300,000,000
Blue Spot - Capital: Geneva
Teal - The Northern Region:
Area: 18,000,000 square miles
Population: 800,000,000
Light Blue Spot - Capital: Ottawa
Earth (including the uninhabited continent, Antarctica)
Area: 54,000,000 square miles (land surface)
Population: 3,300,000,000
White Spot - Capital: New York
Thanks to Roberto for the base map.
Anyway, here's my second attempt at a Map. Now, I know this map sucks as well, but I would love suggestions. (Including you Krall, also Canada was left blank on purpose.) Again, if you want to give me the honest truth and creative advice (On how to improve the map and to improve the Timeline), please do so.
Edit: Sorry, but I couldn't make the map smaller.
So the story behind this map was that in a CSA Imerialism TL, African Christian Rebels started a Civil War in the Eastern Confederate States during the 1920s. Eventually they succeed in Establishing the Christian Republic of Nova Afrika. (C.R.N.A), while Texas reforms the Republic of Texas by taking all Confederate Land West of the Mississippi. Also, the old Confederate government escapes to its Central American territories and forms the Confederate States of Central America. (C.S.C.A.) Soon Religious Revolts funded by Nova Afrika in the 1930s achieves success on the Island of Hispanola and the Nation of Mexico. Still the liberal lands North of the Mexican State of Veracruz join with Texas and forms the Federation of Texico. Because of this Mexico reforms as the True Catholic Republic of Veracruz. (T.C.R.V.) Also the California State Militia annexes the Baja California Penisula during the the 1930s. The Current Borders are represents North America in 2010, but have been like this since the Sixities.
Now for some basic notes:
The Kingdom of Canada: Yeah, its called Kingdom and it includes Alaska and Greenland. It is a member of the British Commonwealth. I had no idea what to do for borders, so suggestions are welcomed.
The United States:
-The Capital is D.C. since Virginia rejoined the Union.
-The Dakotas are simply one state and Utah is called Deseret.
-The Capital of Colorado is Golden City.
-Two of the biggest cities in California are San Tijuana(San Deigo/Tijuana) and Nuevo Angeles (Mexicali)
-The North Michigan Penisula joined the State of Wisconsin in the 1940s.
-The Flag has only 10 Stripes since Virgina rejoined and the Carolinas Combined.
-America is considered ITTL TO be a Hyperpower, but it is in a semi Cold War against Theocratic (Mostly Christian States) that includes Nova Afrika, the Holy Russian Empire, and a Christian Korea.
Christian Republic of Nova Afrika:
-Divided into the States of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Carolina,
-The capital a.k.a. the Federa District of New Zion is located in the spot where the Alabama, Georgia, and Carolina borders all meet.
-Politically, it dominates Hispanola and Liberia. Still, it has only been able to establish a Black Nationalist Gov. in Liberia due to the Nation's
-Atlanta is the Nation's most influential and important City.
The Federation of Texico:
-Internal Borders are similar to what you would expect.
The True Catholic Republic of Veracruz:
-Mexico City is still the Capital but it has been renamed the "City of Guadalupe" or Guadalupe City.
-Internal borders are essentially the same.
The Confederate States of Central America:
-The Five States are Chiapas, Yucatan, Guatemala, Honduras, ad Nicaragua.
-The Capital is Belize City. The most important suburbs of the City are New Richmond and New Atlanta.
The Commonwealth of Jamaica:
Member of the British Commonwealth
The Commonwealth of the Bahamas:
Member of the British Commonwealth.
The Republic of Cuba:
Semi-Member/Associate of the British Commonwealth
Holy Republic of Hispanola:
Nova Afrika's closest Ally
Iceland:
It is part of the United Kingdom of Scandinavia, which is also a semi-member/associate of the British Commonweath.
Also, Puerto Rico is a full Fledge Province of the Kingdom of Spain.
Edit: Sorry, but I couldn't make the map smaller.
So the story behind this map was that in a CSA Imerialism TL, African Christian Rebels started a Civil War in the Eastern Confederate States during the 1920s. Eventually they succeed in Establishing the Christian Republic of Nova Afrika. (C.R.N.A), while Texas reforms the Republic of Texas by taking all Confederate Land West of the Mississippi. Also, the old Confederate government escapes to its Central American territories and forms the Confederate States of Central America. (C.S.C.A.) Soon Religious Revolts funded by Nova Afrika in the 1930s achieves success on the Island of Hispanola and the Nation of Mexico. Still the liberal lands North of the Mexican State of Veracruz join with Texas and forms the Federation of Texico. Because of this Mexico reforms as the True Catholic Republic of Veracruz. (T.C.R.V.) Also the California State Militia annexes the Baja California Penisula during the the 1930s. The Current Borders are represents North America in 2010, but have been like this since the Sixities.
Now for some basic notes:
The Kingdom of Canada: Yeah, its called Kingdom and it includes Alaska and Greenland. It is a member of the British Commonwealth. I had no idea what to do for borders, so suggestions are welcomed.
The United States:
-The Capital is D.C. since Virginia rejoined the Union.
-The Dakotas are simply one state and Utah is called Deseret.
-The Capital of Colorado is Golden City.
-Two of the biggest cities in California are San Tijuana(San Deigo/Tijuana) and Nuevo Angeles (Mexicali)
-The North Michigan Penisula joined the State of Wisconsin in the 1940s.
-The Flag has only 10 Stripes since Virgina rejoined and the Carolinas Combined.
-America is considered ITTL TO be a Hyperpower, but it is in a semi Cold War against Theocratic (Mostly Christian States) that includes Nova Afrika, the Holy Russian Empire, and a Christian Korea.
Christian Republic of Nova Afrika:
-Divided into the States of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Carolina,
-The capital a.k.a. the Federa District of New Zion is located in the spot where the Alabama, Georgia, and Carolina borders all meet.
-Politically, it dominates Hispanola and Liberia. Still, it has only been able to establish a Black Nationalist Gov. in Liberia due to the Nation's
-Atlanta is the Nation's most influential and important City.
The Federation of Texico:
-Internal Borders are similar to what you would expect.
The True Catholic Republic of Veracruz:
-Mexico City is still the Capital but it has been renamed the "City of Guadalupe" or Guadalupe City.
-Internal borders are essentially the same.
The Confederate States of Central America:
-The Five States are Chiapas, Yucatan, Guatemala, Honduras, ad Nicaragua.
-The Capital is Belize City. The most important suburbs of the City are New Richmond and New Atlanta.
The Commonwealth of Jamaica:
Member of the British Commonwealth
The Commonwealth of the Bahamas:
Member of the British Commonwealth.
The Republic of Cuba:
Semi-Member/Associate of the British Commonwealth
Holy Republic of Hispanola:
Nova Afrika's closest Ally
Iceland:
It is part of the United Kingdom of Scandinavia, which is also a semi-member/associate of the British Commonweath.
Also, Puerto Rico is a full Fledge Province of the Kingdom of Spain.
Yeah, it was pretty much the best one (for my design) that I found on the Blank Map Thread...Which now that I think of it, the B.M.T. eally needs to be reorganized, or at least divided into geographical based sections.
A while back I wrote a description of a world based on Jerry Yulsman’s “Elleander Morning”
( http://www.uchronia.net/bib.cgi/label.html?id=yulsellean )
I decided to do a map to go along with it...
Bruce
( http://www.uchronia.net/bib.cgi/label.html?id=yulsellean )
I decided to do a map to go along with it...
Bruce
And here's that description, with a few updates...
It’s 2009, in a world where Hitler died early and WWII never took place. The Soviet Union, during the internal unrest following Stalin’s 1947 assassination, was attacked by Japan: this expanded into a general war, ending with the fall of Germany’s first two atom bombs on Moscow and Leningrad in 1950.
Given Stalin’s rep as the Century’s Worst Human Being, few people call themselves Communists nowadays, but socialism has survived, successfully disassociating themselves from a regime which died early on rather than serve as a disastrous model for nearly a third of humanity. (Indeed, Stalin has been dead long enough for Communist Russia to have developed an oddly romantic aura in many people’s minds). Some countries are more leftist than OTL, others more right-wing: it generally balances out. There are some one-party “hard-left” socialist regimes here and there, generally former colonies, but first-world Socialists generally refer to this as an infantalist disregard for the stages of historical development.
Technology is a bit behind OTL, the stimulus of WWII and the Cold War lacking, with computer tech nearly a couple decades and biotech a decade behind, save in some agricultural areas: space travel is a bit of an exception, having developed as a national muscle-flexing exercise in the late 70’s rather than the 50’s. The Japanese, the Germans and their allies, and the US and the British Union have been to the moon, and there are several manned space stations in orbit, but as OTL, realization of the ultimate expense and the barrenness of the solar system have, at least for now, put a damper on things.
It’s a multi-polar world, and a fairly peaceful one: there are international rivalries, but not enough to drive a nuclear arms race as intense as that of OTL. (However, people do worry. The US and Germany and Japan and Russia may have fewer nukes put together than the USSR or US of OTL, but besides them, there are 8 more known - 10 if you count arsenals under Australian and Canadian control as separate from those of the UK - and several more suspected - nuclear-powered states in this world.)
The USA, which recovered more slowly from the Depression sans the stimulus of WWII, has taken a more leftish path in politics, and a three-way balance currently exists between the social democrats, the republicans, and the remains of the old democratic party, which is still large enough to swing the balance one way or the other. Energetic government support for local industries and infrastructure have provided jobs for the poor, but hurt competitiveness somewhat and worsened pollution. The country is a bit less populous than OTL, the conditions of the baby boom having not been duplicated, and the country was slower to swing the door to immigrants wide: it’s still the world’s largest economy, but not by as massive a margin as OTL.
It’s a more blue-collar, working-class place than our US: also a somewhat more racist one, with slower decolonization and no USSR making the problem of the black underclass seem less pressing. American blacks did eventually gain full civil rights, later than OTL, but they are less well integrated, less present in popular culture, and have developed some powerful collectivist organizations, which have some positive achievements to their credit, such as superior policing and crime suppression of black neighborhoods, but also contribute to a continued worse than OTL habit of suspicion between minority and majority. The US has become moved away from it’s traditional isolationism in the last few decades, supporting League of Nations initiatives and joining forces with the British in building up a strong aerospace industry.
Since nobody was willing to spend the money or the time on a genuine reconstruction of Russian society after the war, democracy never really stuck, and the country is presently run by a right-wing one-party regime, with the Orthodox church playing a major role in a state that might be described as “clerical-fascist.” A sizable industrial base and exports of oil and minerals make for a Russian standard of living that although poor by European standards, is not really third-world: however, there is still a lot of poverty, especially in its still rather peasanty countryside: with fewer overall deaths in their “Great War”, religious opposition to birth control, and more of its population in the countryside rather than in teeny urban apartments, Russia has more people than OTL and a birthrate still above the replacement level, although dropping. Russia is not a superpower, but is a major regional player: it has nukes, and makes most of its neighbors nervous.
Afghanistan is a poor military dictatorship with the current generalissimo having inherited his job, and the three ex-Soviet states to the NW are increasingly a center of contending influence between the Chinese, the Russians, the Iranians, and the Germans and their Turkish allies. A new Sufi movement, with a strong emphasis on spiritual self-improvement, has sprung up in the Kazakh-Kyrgish state and spread to various parts of the middle east, where there having already been some nasty clashes with Wahabbists and other fundamentalists. Tibet is an Indian satellite, and the ruling party is threatened by angry nationalists, which in turn are supported by the Dalai Lama, who hopes to return to power from his internal exile (the Potala palace and its environs have a similar status to the Vatican city OTL).
The Pakistan-India split took place, but it was a more gradual and less disastrous process than OTL: there is still a sizeable Hindu community in Pakistan, for instance. Pakistanis and Indians still growl at each other every time an Indian Muslim or a Pakistani Hindu gets mugged, but nobody is building nukes, so far. East and west Pakistan held together until 1985, when the shaky democratic government in the west was overthrown by the military. India turned to a more capitalistic economy earlier than OTL, and Pakistan has thrown less money down military rat-holes: both are wealthier than OTL, if not spectacularly so. India has some fairly close economic ties to Japan, and the more paranoid politicians in the Chinas have begun muttering about a Japanese-Indian “axis” dominating Asia.
After the Japanese finally gave up and pulled out in the face of a collapsing economy at home, the Chinese got back to work on their civil war. Thanks to foreign support (including quite a bit of under-the-table military aid from the Japanese), the reconstructed Guomindang survived, and was eventually able to push the hard-left successors of the old Communists to the less populous regions of the north and west (Mao failed to survive the longer Japanese incursion, and Chiang ended up in US exile): they probably would have finished the job eventually, but the Socialist People’s Republic managed to get nukes of their own in the late 70’s, which has led to a lot of finger-pointing. (The most popular suspects are the Japanese and the Russians). Manchuria has been essentially independent from Japan since the Reconciliation Treaty of ‘69, and there is much interest in rejoining China (aside from the large portion of the governing class that might be prosecuted for collaboration in that case), but since union with _either_ of the two southern Chinas might mean a disastrous war, Manchuria continues to exist, and Pu Yi’s family still lives there, although the imperial title failed to pass on after his death.
Vietnam, to the south, is a left-wing dictatorship slowly reforming, oddly similar to OTL, but with fewer bodies decaying into the jungle soil. Cambodia is crowded, corrupt, and full of sweatshops, while Thailand is fairly poor, the particular set of circumstances which allowed its fast growth OTL not having been replicated. Burma, although the same political party has help power since 1957, is actually fairly prosperous in spite of the impressive corruption, and attracts a lot of Japanese investment. As a result of Dutch attempts to hold on through “divide and rule”, they ended up with multiple bloody independence movements, and although there have been efforts to organize a federation, poor crowded Java, Islamic fundamentalist Java, Hindu Bali, and the rather successful center of offshore banking with it’s capital in the Celebes really don’t get along too well. Malaysia is a wealthy but politically turbulent Japanese economic colony, and Singapore retains close ties to the British Federal Union.
Japan is having trouble with Korea: Taiwan has been fairly content with autonomy so
far, but the Koreans want independence, not limited self-government, and the country is
as full of terrorists as the proverbial fruitcake is full of nuts. The Japanese can still find
enough collaborators and people who just want to make a living to maintain a basic level
of order, but it is increasingly starting to look as if Japan may at best get favorable
divorce terms. Japan is well integrated into the global economy, and the old fears that
drove the move to “autarchy” have faded, but national pride makes it very hard to give
up on one of the few substantial gains in Japan’s short-lived drive to empire.
Japan is less export-oriented than OTL, with more of it’s economy driven by a large
internal market (even without its external territories, the country is somewhat more
populous than OTL) - for one thing, they’ve never really broken into the more
protectionist US market of this TL. They are poorer than our Japan, but still a first-world
country, with nukes and satellites and a nuclear space plane too radioactive to launch
from anywhere but northern Siberia. Japan has become rather more democratic since the
30’s, but who is in charge, between the giant zaibatsu, the political parties, the military,
and the still powerful imperial bureaucracy, is often hard to tell from an outside
perspective. Japan produces the worlds safest nuclear reactors, confusing art films, and
well made but not-particularly-popular-with-foreigners cars.
Germany, which includes Austria, is the major power in Europe, and has created a free
trade block and alliance system which rivals the US as a center of the world
economy. Nonetheless, there is a feeling of having been left behind by history, of diminishing possibilities. The German-Polish moon landing of ‘92 is seen as sort of the end of an era: more populous and resource-rich countries will dominate the future, and the cultural influence of the English-speaking countries still surpasses Germany, even in their own central European stomping grounds, as the German Ministry of Kultur struggles against the influence of British and US movies, television, and popular music. As debates rage over how much wider to open the gates to immigration (already way too many Slavs, Italians, Jews and even some Turks, conservatives grumble) as birthrates decrease, there is a certain amount of cultural gloom and doom. The army is powerful, but not too relevant in the era of nuclear weapons: German science is top-notch (but Germans are not as good at making it into saleable products as Americans or Japanese): German music and art is cutting-edge (and therefore not too popular): even the trade surplus with the US fails to thrill.
France, which returned to its democratic roots in 1979 after 15 years of military dictatorship (the Colonial Wars had been…unpleasant) has liquidated its empire and energetically cleaned house. The economy has grown greatly (thanks in part to cushy trade deals with the Commonwealth and the German block, which were happy to see the back of a bellicose nuclear-armed regime friendly to Russia), and the French have been accustomed long enough to a rising standard of living that they have started to grumble about France’s loss of a global role. People grumble about the “abandonment” of the empire to US, British, German and Japanese interests, and the government plans a “cultural offensive” abroad. There has already been a reestablishment of close ties with some parts of the old French empire, and the British Union grumbles about ties between France and separatist groups in Quebec.
Italy had a nasty little civil war after the Fascist regime collapsed in the late 80’s, and is currently divided into a leftist northern regime friendly to France and a right-wing south allied to Germany. The north is poorer than OTL, and the south is poorer still, although they have won some praise for their vigor in stomping out the Mafia. There is bad blood between the conservative current pope and the rather anti-clerical Milanese regime: he has been grumbling lately about relocating to Spain, although nobody takes this too seriously.
The UK was more successful in OTL in making something substantial about the commonwealth before the empire broke up entirely, and the citizens of the British Federal Union (the British “F.U.”, American wags have it), although proud enough of their own countries, still take pleasure in being part of a global power extending from the Canadian Arctic to Tasmania and beyond. The UK is still a major industrial power (if less productive than Germany or the US), and with its allies a major force in the League of Nations. The states of the Union coordinate economic, military, and space exploration issues through the Union capital in scenic Vancouver, although London remains the real hub of the economy. The Union has a major aerospace industry, but the sheer expense of space exploration has led to a cooperative effort with the US to develop near-Earth space. (A Mars shot has once again been put off as scientists argue about how to go about landing). The British film industry is rather larger than OTL, and rather more competitive with Hollywood.
Sub-Saharan African independence was delayed by about a generation, but came all the same: without the zero-sum game of cold war competition, there was less of an ideological rationale for holding onto unprofitable and increasingly restless colonies, and the “they are too backward to rule themselves” argument was holding increasingly less water by the 70’s. Due to later European withdrawal and different colonial arrangements and reorganizations, the borders of the African nations are a bit different than OTL: they are also a bit less screwed up than in our TL, but whether that is because they haven’t had as much time to screw up remains to be seen. (The eastern bits of the Sahel Union have already broken away). In any event, the developed nations are no more enthusiastic than OTL to spend big bucks to help third-world countries modernize. AIDS, which showed up in what were still colonial times, was to some extent held in check by vigorous prevention and education campaigns, and at least new governments knew about the problem and what was needed to fight it from the start: there have been bad outbreaks in some countries, but nothing on the apocalyptic scale of OTL - at least, not yet. Some minor local notes of interest are the energetic dictator of the Congo, which recently sized control of the former French Congo (to considerable international apathy, although there has been quite a kerfluffle in the League of Nations), and claims to be a champion of African unification: Liberia, which has recently seen order restored by mercenaries paid by black American organizations: and the odd alliance between the Boer rump state and the Zulu republic.
The Middle East is a mess, alas. A fragile peace has been restored to the Federated Cantons of Palestine, and there are enough League of Nations sponsored troops keep it for a while, although the record of the last 45 years since the British gave their blessing to the “unified” Arab-Jewish state does not exactly give great grounds for hope. The Saudis are approximately as annoying as OTL, although the best known Bin Laden is the one on the popular TV show “Saturday morning with Ahmed and Abdullah.” Egypt has successfully grabbed Libya after the collapse of Fascist rule: the Libyans have found expressive (explosive, even) methods of showing their displeasure. Iraq has had a nasty Sunni/Shi’a throw down without the benefits of US meddling, Lebanon is smaller, mostly Christian, and has close ties to France, while the “Algiers Free State” created by massive expulsions of the Arab population during the period of military rule is almost as bad a thorn in the Arab world’s side as OTL Israel, and a perpetual embarrassment to France, which wishes the Pieds Noir would just go away, but on the other hand can’t exactly countenance a French-speaking state right across the Med being overrun by the thoroughly unpleasant Algerian dictatorship, either. Iran, after regaining its “traditional territories” around Baku, is now saddled with an Azeri separatist movement, which the current republic is so far proving even more incapable of handling than the monarchy it replaced. (OTOH, you can drink a beer in public in downtown Tehran). The Kurds are still screwed, and Islamic fundamentalism is on the rise, although it’s weaker in an Egypt which has avoided any humiliating lost wars and has a somewhat healthier economy.
The Balkans, long a German economic sphere, are increasingly globalized as Japanese and US firms compete. Yugoslavia has broken in two, with the Bosnian Muslims, as usual, getting it from both sides. Greece is a leftist democracy, while Albania, long an Italian puppet, is one of the few Fascist states left (and are also somewhat Italianized in other ways. You can get pretty good Italian food in Tirana, and most educated people used to be able to speak Italian, although they are increasingly switching to German or English). Bulgaria is a placid, conservative place, while the long aftermath of the antimonarchist coup of the 60’s has left Romania a hotbed of radical politics. Hungary is prosperous, and gets along with its supposed Romanian partner in the MittelEuropan economic union about as well as NATO “allies” Greece and Turkey do in OTL. To the north of the Balkans proper, Czechoslovakia has devolved into a loose federation of German, Czech, Slovak, and Ruthenian provinces: the Germans nowadays try to keep the place united, fearing the effect on the central European economy if one of its richest states falls messily apart.
Poland is a major power nowadays, more populous than France or the UK, and has somewhat mended its ways with respect to minorities (they even ceded some territory to the Ukrainians in the early 90’s), although the current backlash against the “ungrateful” Belorussians is getting a bit nasty. Polish aerospace engineers are among the world’s most innovative, Warsaw is one of Europe’s leading cities, and church attendance is almost as low as in France. Jewish Yiddish culture is on the decline: some assimilate, others emigrate to the US, the Commonwealth, or Germany. After all, a Jew, especially one who doesn’t work to become an ersatz Pole, doesn’t feel as safe in Poland as they do in Germany, you know? The Ukrainians, as politically turbulent as the French third republic, are close German allies, nuclear armed, and one of the most loudly nationalistic people in Europe.
Latin America is politically variegated, with regimes varying from one-party socialist to fascist: fascist Brazil has recently set off a nuclear weapon, leading to an acceleration of socialist (but democratic) Argentina’s own bomb project. A US less worried than OTL about the Red Menace has generally confined its meddling to overthrowing Central American governments too blatantly hostile to US business interests. Relative to the rest of the world,
Latin America is a bit richer than OTL: whether this has anything to do with the fact that the place is a bit “pinker” than OTL, or because of the different structures of trade and international finance, is hard to tell. The Columbians and Venezuelans a couple years ago joined into a federation, and the arguments about who gets the top bunk and so on have already started. The Haitians, perhaps with an eye on Liberia, recently expelled a number of African-Americans who they claimed were planning to overthrow the government. The latest round of the Pan-American Common Market negotiations involved a walkout by the Brazilians, and the Guatemalan representative made a two-hour speech castigating the ills of US economic imperialism and exploitation of native cultures (in other words, it went better than usual). Meanwhile, Cuba is its own rich, partying self, the jewel of the Caribbean.
It’s 2009, in a world where Hitler died early and WWII never took place. The Soviet Union, during the internal unrest following Stalin’s 1947 assassination, was attacked by Japan: this expanded into a general war, ending with the fall of Germany’s first two atom bombs on Moscow and Leningrad in 1950.
Given Stalin’s rep as the Century’s Worst Human Being, few people call themselves Communists nowadays, but socialism has survived, successfully disassociating themselves from a regime which died early on rather than serve as a disastrous model for nearly a third of humanity. (Indeed, Stalin has been dead long enough for Communist Russia to have developed an oddly romantic aura in many people’s minds). Some countries are more leftist than OTL, others more right-wing: it generally balances out. There are some one-party “hard-left” socialist regimes here and there, generally former colonies, but first-world Socialists generally refer to this as an infantalist disregard for the stages of historical development.
Technology is a bit behind OTL, the stimulus of WWII and the Cold War lacking, with computer tech nearly a couple decades and biotech a decade behind, save in some agricultural areas: space travel is a bit of an exception, having developed as a national muscle-flexing exercise in the late 70’s rather than the 50’s. The Japanese, the Germans and their allies, and the US and the British Union have been to the moon, and there are several manned space stations in orbit, but as OTL, realization of the ultimate expense and the barrenness of the solar system have, at least for now, put a damper on things.
It’s a multi-polar world, and a fairly peaceful one: there are international rivalries, but not enough to drive a nuclear arms race as intense as that of OTL. (However, people do worry. The US and Germany and Japan and Russia may have fewer nukes put together than the USSR or US of OTL, but besides them, there are 8 more known - 10 if you count arsenals under Australian and Canadian control as separate from those of the UK - and several more suspected - nuclear-powered states in this world.)
The USA, which recovered more slowly from the Depression sans the stimulus of WWII, has taken a more leftish path in politics, and a three-way balance currently exists between the social democrats, the republicans, and the remains of the old democratic party, which is still large enough to swing the balance one way or the other. Energetic government support for local industries and infrastructure have provided jobs for the poor, but hurt competitiveness somewhat and worsened pollution. The country is a bit less populous than OTL, the conditions of the baby boom having not been duplicated, and the country was slower to swing the door to immigrants wide: it’s still the world’s largest economy, but not by as massive a margin as OTL.
It’s a more blue-collar, working-class place than our US: also a somewhat more racist one, with slower decolonization and no USSR making the problem of the black underclass seem less pressing. American blacks did eventually gain full civil rights, later than OTL, but they are less well integrated, less present in popular culture, and have developed some powerful collectivist organizations, which have some positive achievements to their credit, such as superior policing and crime suppression of black neighborhoods, but also contribute to a continued worse than OTL habit of suspicion between minority and majority. The US has become moved away from it’s traditional isolationism in the last few decades, supporting League of Nations initiatives and joining forces with the British in building up a strong aerospace industry.
Since nobody was willing to spend the money or the time on a genuine reconstruction of Russian society after the war, democracy never really stuck, and the country is presently run by a right-wing one-party regime, with the Orthodox church playing a major role in a state that might be described as “clerical-fascist.” A sizable industrial base and exports of oil and minerals make for a Russian standard of living that although poor by European standards, is not really third-world: however, there is still a lot of poverty, especially in its still rather peasanty countryside: with fewer overall deaths in their “Great War”, religious opposition to birth control, and more of its population in the countryside rather than in teeny urban apartments, Russia has more people than OTL and a birthrate still above the replacement level, although dropping. Russia is not a superpower, but is a major regional player: it has nukes, and makes most of its neighbors nervous.
Afghanistan is a poor military dictatorship with the current generalissimo having inherited his job, and the three ex-Soviet states to the NW are increasingly a center of contending influence between the Chinese, the Russians, the Iranians, and the Germans and their Turkish allies. A new Sufi movement, with a strong emphasis on spiritual self-improvement, has sprung up in the Kazakh-Kyrgish state and spread to various parts of the middle east, where there having already been some nasty clashes with Wahabbists and other fundamentalists. Tibet is an Indian satellite, and the ruling party is threatened by angry nationalists, which in turn are supported by the Dalai Lama, who hopes to return to power from his internal exile (the Potala palace and its environs have a similar status to the Vatican city OTL).
The Pakistan-India split took place, but it was a more gradual and less disastrous process than OTL: there is still a sizeable Hindu community in Pakistan, for instance. Pakistanis and Indians still growl at each other every time an Indian Muslim or a Pakistani Hindu gets mugged, but nobody is building nukes, so far. East and west Pakistan held together until 1985, when the shaky democratic government in the west was overthrown by the military. India turned to a more capitalistic economy earlier than OTL, and Pakistan has thrown less money down military rat-holes: both are wealthier than OTL, if not spectacularly so. India has some fairly close economic ties to Japan, and the more paranoid politicians in the Chinas have begun muttering about a Japanese-Indian “axis” dominating Asia.
After the Japanese finally gave up and pulled out in the face of a collapsing economy at home, the Chinese got back to work on their civil war. Thanks to foreign support (including quite a bit of under-the-table military aid from the Japanese), the reconstructed Guomindang survived, and was eventually able to push the hard-left successors of the old Communists to the less populous regions of the north and west (Mao failed to survive the longer Japanese incursion, and Chiang ended up in US exile): they probably would have finished the job eventually, but the Socialist People’s Republic managed to get nukes of their own in the late 70’s, which has led to a lot of finger-pointing. (The most popular suspects are the Japanese and the Russians). Manchuria has been essentially independent from Japan since the Reconciliation Treaty of ‘69, and there is much interest in rejoining China (aside from the large portion of the governing class that might be prosecuted for collaboration in that case), but since union with _either_ of the two southern Chinas might mean a disastrous war, Manchuria continues to exist, and Pu Yi’s family still lives there, although the imperial title failed to pass on after his death.
Vietnam, to the south, is a left-wing dictatorship slowly reforming, oddly similar to OTL, but with fewer bodies decaying into the jungle soil. Cambodia is crowded, corrupt, and full of sweatshops, while Thailand is fairly poor, the particular set of circumstances which allowed its fast growth OTL not having been replicated. Burma, although the same political party has help power since 1957, is actually fairly prosperous in spite of the impressive corruption, and attracts a lot of Japanese investment. As a result of Dutch attempts to hold on through “divide and rule”, they ended up with multiple bloody independence movements, and although there have been efforts to organize a federation, poor crowded Java, Islamic fundamentalist Java, Hindu Bali, and the rather successful center of offshore banking with it’s capital in the Celebes really don’t get along too well. Malaysia is a wealthy but politically turbulent Japanese economic colony, and Singapore retains close ties to the British Federal Union.
Japan is having trouble with Korea: Taiwan has been fairly content with autonomy so
far, but the Koreans want independence, not limited self-government, and the country is
as full of terrorists as the proverbial fruitcake is full of nuts. The Japanese can still find
enough collaborators and people who just want to make a living to maintain a basic level
of order, but it is increasingly starting to look as if Japan may at best get favorable
divorce terms. Japan is well integrated into the global economy, and the old fears that
drove the move to “autarchy” have faded, but national pride makes it very hard to give
up on one of the few substantial gains in Japan’s short-lived drive to empire.
Japan is less export-oriented than OTL, with more of it’s economy driven by a large
internal market (even without its external territories, the country is somewhat more
populous than OTL) - for one thing, they’ve never really broken into the more
protectionist US market of this TL. They are poorer than our Japan, but still a first-world
country, with nukes and satellites and a nuclear space plane too radioactive to launch
from anywhere but northern Siberia. Japan has become rather more democratic since the
30’s, but who is in charge, between the giant zaibatsu, the political parties, the military,
and the still powerful imperial bureaucracy, is often hard to tell from an outside
perspective. Japan produces the worlds safest nuclear reactors, confusing art films, and
well made but not-particularly-popular-with-foreigners cars.
Germany, which includes Austria, is the major power in Europe, and has created a free
trade block and alliance system which rivals the US as a center of the world
economy. Nonetheless, there is a feeling of having been left behind by history, of diminishing possibilities. The German-Polish moon landing of ‘92 is seen as sort of the end of an era: more populous and resource-rich countries will dominate the future, and the cultural influence of the English-speaking countries still surpasses Germany, even in their own central European stomping grounds, as the German Ministry of Kultur struggles against the influence of British and US movies, television, and popular music. As debates rage over how much wider to open the gates to immigration (already way too many Slavs, Italians, Jews and even some Turks, conservatives grumble) as birthrates decrease, there is a certain amount of cultural gloom and doom. The army is powerful, but not too relevant in the era of nuclear weapons: German science is top-notch (but Germans are not as good at making it into saleable products as Americans or Japanese): German music and art is cutting-edge (and therefore not too popular): even the trade surplus with the US fails to thrill.
France, which returned to its democratic roots in 1979 after 15 years of military dictatorship (the Colonial Wars had been…unpleasant) has liquidated its empire and energetically cleaned house. The economy has grown greatly (thanks in part to cushy trade deals with the Commonwealth and the German block, which were happy to see the back of a bellicose nuclear-armed regime friendly to Russia), and the French have been accustomed long enough to a rising standard of living that they have started to grumble about France’s loss of a global role. People grumble about the “abandonment” of the empire to US, British, German and Japanese interests, and the government plans a “cultural offensive” abroad. There has already been a reestablishment of close ties with some parts of the old French empire, and the British Union grumbles about ties between France and separatist groups in Quebec.
Italy had a nasty little civil war after the Fascist regime collapsed in the late 80’s, and is currently divided into a leftist northern regime friendly to France and a right-wing south allied to Germany. The north is poorer than OTL, and the south is poorer still, although they have won some praise for their vigor in stomping out the Mafia. There is bad blood between the conservative current pope and the rather anti-clerical Milanese regime: he has been grumbling lately about relocating to Spain, although nobody takes this too seriously.
The UK was more successful in OTL in making something substantial about the commonwealth before the empire broke up entirely, and the citizens of the British Federal Union (the British “F.U.”, American wags have it), although proud enough of their own countries, still take pleasure in being part of a global power extending from the Canadian Arctic to Tasmania and beyond. The UK is still a major industrial power (if less productive than Germany or the US), and with its allies a major force in the League of Nations. The states of the Union coordinate economic, military, and space exploration issues through the Union capital in scenic Vancouver, although London remains the real hub of the economy. The Union has a major aerospace industry, but the sheer expense of space exploration has led to a cooperative effort with the US to develop near-Earth space. (A Mars shot has once again been put off as scientists argue about how to go about landing). The British film industry is rather larger than OTL, and rather more competitive with Hollywood.
Sub-Saharan African independence was delayed by about a generation, but came all the same: without the zero-sum game of cold war competition, there was less of an ideological rationale for holding onto unprofitable and increasingly restless colonies, and the “they are too backward to rule themselves” argument was holding increasingly less water by the 70’s. Due to later European withdrawal and different colonial arrangements and reorganizations, the borders of the African nations are a bit different than OTL: they are also a bit less screwed up than in our TL, but whether that is because they haven’t had as much time to screw up remains to be seen. (The eastern bits of the Sahel Union have already broken away). In any event, the developed nations are no more enthusiastic than OTL to spend big bucks to help third-world countries modernize. AIDS, which showed up in what were still colonial times, was to some extent held in check by vigorous prevention and education campaigns, and at least new governments knew about the problem and what was needed to fight it from the start: there have been bad outbreaks in some countries, but nothing on the apocalyptic scale of OTL - at least, not yet. Some minor local notes of interest are the energetic dictator of the Congo, which recently sized control of the former French Congo (to considerable international apathy, although there has been quite a kerfluffle in the League of Nations), and claims to be a champion of African unification: Liberia, which has recently seen order restored by mercenaries paid by black American organizations: and the odd alliance between the Boer rump state and the Zulu republic.
The Middle East is a mess, alas. A fragile peace has been restored to the Federated Cantons of Palestine, and there are enough League of Nations sponsored troops keep it for a while, although the record of the last 45 years since the British gave their blessing to the “unified” Arab-Jewish state does not exactly give great grounds for hope. The Saudis are approximately as annoying as OTL, although the best known Bin Laden is the one on the popular TV show “Saturday morning with Ahmed and Abdullah.” Egypt has successfully grabbed Libya after the collapse of Fascist rule: the Libyans have found expressive (explosive, even) methods of showing their displeasure. Iraq has had a nasty Sunni/Shi’a throw down without the benefits of US meddling, Lebanon is smaller, mostly Christian, and has close ties to France, while the “Algiers Free State” created by massive expulsions of the Arab population during the period of military rule is almost as bad a thorn in the Arab world’s side as OTL Israel, and a perpetual embarrassment to France, which wishes the Pieds Noir would just go away, but on the other hand can’t exactly countenance a French-speaking state right across the Med being overrun by the thoroughly unpleasant Algerian dictatorship, either. Iran, after regaining its “traditional territories” around Baku, is now saddled with an Azeri separatist movement, which the current republic is so far proving even more incapable of handling than the monarchy it replaced. (OTOH, you can drink a beer in public in downtown Tehran). The Kurds are still screwed, and Islamic fundamentalism is on the rise, although it’s weaker in an Egypt which has avoided any humiliating lost wars and has a somewhat healthier economy.
The Balkans, long a German economic sphere, are increasingly globalized as Japanese and US firms compete. Yugoslavia has broken in two, with the Bosnian Muslims, as usual, getting it from both sides. Greece is a leftist democracy, while Albania, long an Italian puppet, is one of the few Fascist states left (and are also somewhat Italianized in other ways. You can get pretty good Italian food in Tirana, and most educated people used to be able to speak Italian, although they are increasingly switching to German or English). Bulgaria is a placid, conservative place, while the long aftermath of the antimonarchist coup of the 60’s has left Romania a hotbed of radical politics. Hungary is prosperous, and gets along with its supposed Romanian partner in the MittelEuropan economic union about as well as NATO “allies” Greece and Turkey do in OTL. To the north of the Balkans proper, Czechoslovakia has devolved into a loose federation of German, Czech, Slovak, and Ruthenian provinces: the Germans nowadays try to keep the place united, fearing the effect on the central European economy if one of its richest states falls messily apart.
Poland is a major power nowadays, more populous than France or the UK, and has somewhat mended its ways with respect to minorities (they even ceded some territory to the Ukrainians in the early 90’s), although the current backlash against the “ungrateful” Belorussians is getting a bit nasty. Polish aerospace engineers are among the world’s most innovative, Warsaw is one of Europe’s leading cities, and church attendance is almost as low as in France. Jewish Yiddish culture is on the decline: some assimilate, others emigrate to the US, the Commonwealth, or Germany. After all, a Jew, especially one who doesn’t work to become an ersatz Pole, doesn’t feel as safe in Poland as they do in Germany, you know? The Ukrainians, as politically turbulent as the French third republic, are close German allies, nuclear armed, and one of the most loudly nationalistic people in Europe.
Latin America is politically variegated, with regimes varying from one-party socialist to fascist: fascist Brazil has recently set off a nuclear weapon, leading to an acceleration of socialist (but democratic) Argentina’s own bomb project. A US less worried than OTL about the Red Menace has generally confined its meddling to overthrowing Central American governments too blatantly hostile to US business interests. Relative to the rest of the world,
Latin America is a bit richer than OTL: whether this has anything to do with the fact that the place is a bit “pinker” than OTL, or because of the different structures of trade and international finance, is hard to tell. The Columbians and Venezuelans a couple years ago joined into a federation, and the arguments about who gets the top bunk and so on have already started. The Haitians, perhaps with an eye on Liberia, recently expelled a number of African-Americans who they claimed were planning to overthrow the government. The latest round of the Pan-American Common Market negotiations involved a walkout by the Brazilians, and the Guatemalan representative made a two-hour speech castigating the ills of US economic imperialism and exploitation of native cultures (in other words, it went better than usual). Meanwhile, Cuba is its own rich, partying self, the jewel of the Caribbean.
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I'm totally impressed, B_Munro. You have managed to provide some information about every single corner of the world... except for the Iberian Peninsula.
Oops.
And the Scandinavians and Mexicans will be after me too, soon enough...
Bruce
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