Map Thread XII
- Thread starter Baconheimer
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CannedTech
Banned
And the world, same timeline, in 2099.
If you want to know how it gets to this point, well, I guess you're going to have to read 1967+, 3rd edition.
Man, when the Congo got over its problems, it got over its problems. Also, I'm afraid to know what happened to Afghanistan.
I need Alternate Provinces Map of Angola and Mozambique
if they become Provinces of Sosialist Republic of Portugal...
if they become Provinces of Sosialist Republic of Portugal...
And the world, same timeline, in 2099.
If you want to know how it gets to this point, well, I guess you're going to have to read 1967+, 3rd edition.
Pray I hope that Cataonlia is getting into hot water for trying to claim the Aragonese, Valencian, Spanish, and possibly French lands that have Catalans speakers? And come to think of it, might Andorra have increased in importance as a financial center now that there are more countries nearby?
Hapsburg
Banned
Complicated, though this does relate to an earlier question about my 2008 map. For various reasons, some individual states restore their old monarchies throughout the mid-21st century, starting with Bavaria in the 2020s. A lot of internal borders get revised. Germany as a whole, though, remains a Federal Republic up until very late in the century.
Something similar happens, though later and more gradually, with Austria, Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia. But these states remain independent nations, bound more or less solely by a common Crown a la the Commonwealth Realms. Hence why those four are outlined in the Austrian colour.
Hadn't thought about their irredentism. I suppose I can write that into the story, have a bit of tension within the Western states.
Sure, why not.
The situation in India intrigues me.And the world, same timeline, in 2099.
If you want to know how it gets to this point, well, I guess you're going to have to read 1967+, 3rd edition.
Hapsburg
Banned
A long-running civil war occurs, mostly in the eastern part of India, and the republic almost collapses. Over a period of about forty years, Gujarat, Punjab, Northeast India, Mysore, and Hyderabad forcibly secede. Chinese-backed Maoist rebels forge what is effectively an independent state in eastern India, and West Bengal secedes to join Bangladesh. But most of these newly-independent states make peace with India and become --if very tense--allies. The eastern government, however, does not, and continues to support communist rebellion in other parts of India, and pursues the path of civil war. When World War III starts near the end of the 2070s, the civil war becomes rolled into the larger conflict as East India becomes openly backed by a number of states opposed to India. And when war becomes open, the other Indian states come to the aid of rump!India and help to forge a new Indian Federation after the war ends.
Yeah, though it was a long and arduous road.
Pakistan gradually cannibalizes parts of it until they just straight annex it. They leave the area alone mostly, as a "Montenegro" to their "Serbia". But it does become technically part of Pakistan.
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And the world, same timeline, in 2099.
If you want to know (most of) how it gets to this point (in detail), well, I guess you're going to have to read 1967+, 3rd edition.
Why would Nunavut become a province before Yukon or NWT? It has the smallest population of the three Territories.
And the world, same timeline, in 2099.
If you want to know (most of) how it gets to this point (in detail), well, I guess you're going to have to read 1967+, 3rd edition.
Lithuania STRONK!
Also, what's going on with Newfoundland and the Maritimes, or the Guianas for that matter?
Finally, if Russia is falling apart enough for Belarus and Ukraine to expand at its expense and independent Karelia!?
D) of all things, why have Poland and mega-Lithuania allowed Kaliningrad to still exist?Goldstein
Banned
This was inspired by the "sunshine and lollipops"challenge. Bear with me.
In late 1941, POTUS Franklin Delano Roosevelt fell dead while revising one of his speeches. As the new president Henry Wallace and the American people mourned the dead president, they couldn't help but feeling like a great tragedy had struck the world in the midst of one of its darkest moments. Not even in their wildest hopes for the future they could suspect that what awaited them was not darkness, but a new dawn, one brighter than any other before.
For even though Wallace's sympathy for the Soviet Union was naive, his acquiescence towards much of the Soviet gains and his project of a shared international equilibrium butterflied the tensions that would lead to the Cold War, and gave birth to a much more significant and operative United Nations organization, which would avert conflicts, work towards greater regional integration, promote further research and developement and make international efforts much easier to carry out. At the same time, his antipathy towards the British Empire would make him promote the project of an Anglo-French Union, a new structure that would replace the old.
Promoting both decolonization and enfranchisement of metropolitan territories with significant minorities, the world averted the conflicts in Algeria and Portuguese Africa, as well as segregation in South Africa and Rhodesia. Among other divergences, this UN settled a closely monitored Federation approach to Palestine, returned Ogaden to Somalia and found a middle ground to settle the Atacama border dispute. Isolation of the Spanish and Portuguese regimes led to coups and democratization processes during the mid 50's.
The Soviet Union would lose Eastern Europe during a revolutionary wave in the 50's, after Stalin's death, which would spark deep reforms within the Soviet structure, a full de-stalinization, and eventually a multiparty system withing a council Socialist framework, something that would inspire Yugoslavia. Nowadays, a much more integrated Europe and the Soviet Union are closely cooperating in common affairs.
By the 60's, the word was divided in strong regional blocs (or standalone powers, like Nigeria and a democratic, post-Sukarno Indonesia) under an incredible economic growth that was slowly eroding the economic gap between countries, and commited to real democracy instead of the "he's our son of a bitch" cold war logics of OTL, Much of the world's efforts were directed towards infrastructure and research. Meanwhile, the Baby Boom generation had created a colorful countercultual wave that made a case for universal civil rights, the consumption of nootropics, a more direct and participatory democracy, and a skeptic, secular humanist approach to ethics. By 1965, smallpox and polio had been eradicated. By 1975, an international maned mission to Mars was on course and personal computing was commonplace in the most developed countries. By 1985, hunger had been officially eradicated and vast geo-engineering projects to make the Sahara a fertile place were in progress. By 1995, Mars andthe Moon had permanent bases, most common diseases were a thing of the past, access to food and clean water was universal, and fusion reactors provided most of the world's energy needs.
Of course, there are dissidents. The Geneva League was created as an alternative forum of countries that resented the welfare state approach of the United Nations, favoring a more libertarian one. The UN lets them be under the condition of an absolute fiscal transparency. The Ithaca Project, on the other hand, is a private initiative comprised of self-sustaining seasteading enclaves, operanting under the principles of what we would call Panarchism.
In late 1941, POTUS Franklin Delano Roosevelt fell dead while revising one of his speeches. As the new president Henry Wallace and the American people mourned the dead president, they couldn't help but feeling like a great tragedy had struck the world in the midst of one of its darkest moments. Not even in their wildest hopes for the future they could suspect that what awaited them was not darkness, but a new dawn, one brighter than any other before.
For even though Wallace's sympathy for the Soviet Union was naive, his acquiescence towards much of the Soviet gains and his project of a shared international equilibrium butterflied the tensions that would lead to the Cold War, and gave birth to a much more significant and operative United Nations organization, which would avert conflicts, work towards greater regional integration, promote further research and developement and make international efforts much easier to carry out. At the same time, his antipathy towards the British Empire would make him promote the project of an Anglo-French Union, a new structure that would replace the old.
Promoting both decolonization and enfranchisement of metropolitan territories with significant minorities, the world averted the conflicts in Algeria and Portuguese Africa, as well as segregation in South Africa and Rhodesia. Among other divergences, this UN settled a closely monitored Federation approach to Palestine, returned Ogaden to Somalia and found a middle ground to settle the Atacama border dispute. Isolation of the Spanish and Portuguese regimes led to coups and democratization processes during the mid 50's.
The Soviet Union would lose Eastern Europe during a revolutionary wave in the 50's, after Stalin's death, which would spark deep reforms within the Soviet structure, a full de-stalinization, and eventually a multiparty system withing a council Socialist framework, something that would inspire Yugoslavia. Nowadays, a much more integrated Europe and the Soviet Union are closely cooperating in common affairs.
By the 60's, the word was divided in strong regional blocs (or standalone powers, like Nigeria and a democratic, post-Sukarno Indonesia) under an incredible economic growth that was slowly eroding the economic gap between countries, and commited to real democracy instead of the "he's our son of a bitch" cold war logics of OTL, Much of the world's efforts were directed towards infrastructure and research. Meanwhile, the Baby Boom generation had created a colorful countercultual wave that made a case for universal civil rights, the consumption of nootropics, a more direct and participatory democracy, and a skeptic, secular humanist approach to ethics. By 1965, smallpox and polio had been eradicated. By 1975, an international maned mission to Mars was on course and personal computing was commonplace in the most developed countries. By 1985, hunger had been officially eradicated and vast geo-engineering projects to make the Sahara a fertile place were in progress. By 1995, Mars andthe Moon had permanent bases, most common diseases were a thing of the past, access to food and clean water was universal, and fusion reactors provided most of the world's energy needs.
Of course, there are dissidents. The Geneva League was created as an alternative forum of countries that resented the welfare state approach of the United Nations, favoring a more libertarian one. The UN lets them be under the condition of an absolute fiscal transparency. The Ithaca Project, on the other hand, is a private initiative comprised of self-sustaining seasteading enclaves, operanting under the principles of what we would call Panarchism.
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POD: 1856
Current Year: 1878
Don't really know much about this world, other than the fact that there's a resurgent A-H, a fractured Confederacy, a war against the Ottomans in the Eastern Med, and an alt-Taiping revolution against the Qing with a recent Russian entry against the Chinese in a mad land grab. The Austrians have also managed to keep Italy disunited.
As usual, questions and comments are appreciated.
Current Year: 1878
Don't really know much about this world, other than the fact that there's a resurgent A-H, a fractured Confederacy, a war against the Ottomans in the Eastern Med, and an alt-Taiping revolution against the Qing with a recent Russian entry against the Chinese in a mad land grab. The Austrians have also managed to keep Italy disunited.
As usual, questions and comments are appreciated.
Brazil still in Portuguese hands? Eu gosto
I love this cliche, and I have used Brazilian Portugal myself in maps and scenarios. I approve.
Figured I had to use it at least once
Tallest Skil
Banned
Neat. Did you build it off a basemap or draw the thing from scratch?
My only complaint with the construction is your use of dotted lines for the borders. They just didn’t come out... good... did they?
If I had the original file or knew your settings I’m sure I could clean that up. I know I’ve had trouble with Illustrator and dotted line borders in the past. I approve of this America sans the number of Mexican states. Still not big enough, but we’ll get there.
Hapsburg
Banned
Newfoundland and the Maritimes leave Canada after some disagreements, related to Quebec also becoming independent in the 2060s. Unlike Quebec, however, they remain a separate state and commonwealth realm into the 2090s.
World War III happened, and the Allies "granted" independence to the various republics of the Russian Federation/Union. They also mandated that Belarus' eastern border reach the boundaries of Moscow. It's all mostly an artificial thing imposed by the Allied victors. The mini-republics are pretty much unsustainable on their own and require Allied investment and support to prop them up.
Kaliningrad, if you'll notice, is in Brandenburg's colour. After an earlier, limited war between Russia and NATO in the mid-2010s, it was handed over to German-Polish condominium and later just to Germany. When Prussia is resurrected/restored, the region is administered as a Prussian province.
It comes to have greater strategic importance; for that province, it's not a population thing but a prestige thing. Mid-century, Canada develops an independent nuclear deterrent and stations its missile bases in Nunavut. So it is given more political autonomy and a say in defence matters.
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OK, this is my take on the world of “Colombia and Britannia”, by Chamberlain and Dixon, an AH book in which we are asked to believe that a 1766 political compromise giving the American colonies political representatives leads to British north America still being pushed around by London in the year 2000. To prevent myself from cursing too much, I have fiddled with things a little.
It is the year 2000, and discontent is on the rise in British North America. Although in terms of population and economic output North America utterly dominates the British-speaking parts of the Empire, the Imperial Parliament still sits in London, and the same Anglicized, umbrella-swinging, *bowler hat-wearing[1], Oxford-Harvard-Cambridge-Yale elite still runs the show: most of the great corporations still incorporate in London (for tax purposes) and The City still dominates the world’s financial organizations. Moreover, culturally, Britain still is looked upon as the Standard of Excellence, and everyone who is in politics or entertainment tries to sound like the BBC announcers. The Confederation of Columbia, as the locals increasingly prefer to call it, is also hampered by a weak central government with the States holding a predominance of power, leading to regionalism and making all-America mobilization an exercise in cat-herding. This has admittedly hurt the British Empire in its various wars, North America rarely contributing in proportion to its actual economic and industrial strength, but, some Americans darkly suspect, they prefer this to having Columbia dominate in international affairs. And of course the King resides in England, although extended visits and stays in America have become common over the course of the 20th century. Many feel puzzled by the situation, which seems oddly contrived, as if by a second-rate alternate history writer.
As the remaining “non-white” Empire shrinks, the increasing weight of North America is leading to some serious reexamination of what North America’s role should be: an increasingly sharp divide grows between those that think North America should cut ties to Britain and go its own way (an opinion most popular in the south east of the Mississippi [2]), and those who feel that North America should use its preponderance in the House of Commons to reshape the Empire in its own image, starting by moving the Imperial Parliament to New York or Boston. Much of the chummy, incestuous “bicoastal” (both sides of the Atlantic) elite oppose change on principle, but are increasingly trying to find ways to compromise those in the “American Empire” faction to keep them onside against the “Separatists.”
Then there is the question of what to do about the Empire overseas. Most of the African colonies have been dropped as uneconomical, indirect control through client regimes or corporate dominance replacing direct rule (with no Communist International, new African countries have generally had fewer options in dealing with the power of global Capital). India has been the site of a grand experiment in “divide and rule”, with the “National System” organizing British India into more homogenous states (after length committee studies and endless border fiddling to satisfy all parties involved) then placed “on track” to independence – or increased British dependence, as the case may be. However, this strategy seems to be approaching the end of its shelf life, with the “Yes for India! No to national ghettoes!” movement calling for at least a unified India in what remains of the Raj, and most Princely states now dominated by parliaments rather than pliable absolute monarchs. The Dominion of India idea is being quietly dusted off, but will anyone go for it? There have been some successful cases of incorporation into the Imperial parliamentary system, notably Singapore and Guyana, but there are still just too many damn Indians…
The “War of Wars” is the closest this world has had to a World War II or I, and it failed to revolutionize the basic system, a long grinding European slog which failed to really change things much, although some tens of millions still died. Oddly enough, the Poles, Russians, and Germans were all on the same side for a while.
Politics tend to be a bit on the conservative side. The French got rid of their king rather later and with rather less blood than OTL, Marx never was born, and overall the effective “radical” opposition is on the Right, not the left [3]. (Something similar to OTL Anarcho-Syndicalism has had a few successes, but never has succeeded in taking over a major power, and *Anarcho-Syndicalist regimes have tended to be unstable).
Spanish America fell apart a bit later than OTL with no Napoleon, with British encouragement, and fell into roughly comparable chunks based on the same pre-existing administrative and regional divisions. As a whole, it remains rather dominated financially by the states of the British Empire, who work hard to keep out European and Japanese competitors. The stable and fairly prosperous Kingdom of Brazil is the most independent and powerful Latin American player.
Europe, with no Red Menace, did not receive a Marshall Plan post War of Wars, (although it was finally decided to not go in for reparations and almost all war debts were cancelled) and is relatively poorer than OTL, if still first-world. An EC-type organization is only just forming now, much to British distaste: the Brits already have the Russians and the Japanese to worry over (and the Chinese are visibly catching up in the rearview mirror) without a unified European block rejoining the big shots. The Balkans remain hotly contended between Russia and Germany-Poland spheres of influence; all three may temporarily have been allied during the last war, but the Russians have never ceased to grumble about their Galician “stolen lands” (never mind that they stole them from Poland before the Poles took them back: they were Russian in 1250 AD, that’s what matters!).
The Cape remained Dutch (until the locals decided they could afford independence) and the Kaapstadt is white/colored majority after some brisk ethnic cleansing of the most important diamond and gold mine areas. Britain established protectorates over some of the Natal coast African states, and established a foothold to the NW, but never went in for South African settlement in a large way (an outright conquest of the Cape with the Netherlands at peace was no longer considered Cricket by the later 19th century.) Africa, unlike Latin America, is sharply contended, with Japan currently Britain’s major challenger for influence among the “unaligned” countries, and the Ottomans influential in Islamic North Africa.
Russia has lost a few wars, but sheer size has kept it from being overrun by anyone, and it is finally catching up with the British in terms of living standards. Internal problems (provoked by fiendish British operatives, the Russian tabloids mutter) and quarrels with its neighbors have kept Russia largely focused on the Near Abroad (since Russia still rules most of the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, etc., it is a more extensive concept than OTL) and the Great Game has been over for a while: in any events, most Russians are too busy enjoying finally being prosperous to worry much about challenging the British and Japanese for influence in the less developed parts of the globe.
The Republic of China – corrupt, elitist, peasant-squeezing, but nonetheless a lot less oppressive than the PRC OTL [4] – is rapidly gaining in terms of economic size on the economic “big three” of Japanese Empire, British Empire-with-North-America, and Russian Empire, and will most likely be the largest economy in the world by 2014. Like Russia but even moreso, China sticks with regional interests and maintains a strict neutrality with respect to the squabbles of other Great Powers. Currently the Japanese are complaining about Chinese industrial pollution drifting into their Korean prefectures.
The Japanese are the closest the British Empire has to an Existential Foe, and since neither is presenting themselves as the representative of a universal principle destined to cover the whole world, things remain on the level of squabbles over national interest. (Although both are currently pointing a bunch of nukes at the other. Just in case). The Japanese compete fiercely with Imperials American and otherwise for markets and political influence: they have a lot of influence in Africa and the Middle East, compete with China for influence in SE Asia, and are slowly pushing their away into Latin America in spite of Anglo-American best efforts.
Currently, Japan is thumbing its nose at British claims to the Moon (see below). Japan is trying to get the Pan-Indian movement onto the Japanese bandwagon, but the dickish nature of the Japanese Empire has proven an obstacle: Japanese Nipponization of Korea and the Philippines over the last century has been thorough and brutal. Everyone speaks Japanese now, at least in public, and an increasing proportion of the Korean and Filipino population Nipponicizes their names to help get ahead. Not that there isn’t a resistance, far from it, but the secret police are everywhere, the only reason the state isn’t the electronic panopticon of the Department of Homeland Security’s wetdreams is that the technology isn’t quite there yet, and the strict censorship means most inhabitants of the Japanese Empire are only vaguely aware of its existence. The internet will be a problem when it arrives.
Japanese-Chinese relations have occasionally been fraught, but more effective Qing self-strengthening and an Empire-Republic transition that was less of a clusterfuck have meant that China always looked too strong for Japan to launch any major invasions, so there is less bad blood, although Taiwan and Outer Manchuria remain a source of contention. Japan has mainly sought to expand its influence _away_ from the Asian mainland.
Technology is a bit behind OTL, in other things beside computers. The first atom bomb (British) was developed in 1958, long after the end of the War of Wars, and the first man on the Moon, 1994, was British (most of the heavy lifting was done by the Americans, but the pilot was Welsh for the look of things). The Prime Minister of the time rather grandiosely claimed the Moon for the British Empire, which the Japanese ignored when they sent their first rocket [5] in 1998 and claimed the place in the name of Japan – currently none of the other major nations recognizes the claims, and there is currently a competition to build the first actual Moon base to solidify positions (and possibly take pot-shots at other Moon bases). The Space Race has mostly a Japanese-British thing, with the German, French, and Russian space programs being fairly low-key, but the Russians have recently put people in orbit and are talking about maybe building a space station.
[1] Currently more like a fedora. Hats remain important in this world.
[2] They’re the only ones setting off any bombs so far.
[3] Some of the major Polish and Russian political parties look rather like OTL Fascism, and Japanese politics is dominated by weenies of this stripe.
[4] Ironically given the PRC’s lefty roots, this ROC also spends proportionally more on social services.
[5] British and British North American commentators were rather sniffy about Japans oversized “firework” compared to the much more sophisticated spaceplane they had used, never mind the rocket’s lander carried three Japanese explorers to the spaceplane’s one Welshman.
It is the year 2000, and discontent is on the rise in British North America. Although in terms of population and economic output North America utterly dominates the British-speaking parts of the Empire, the Imperial Parliament still sits in London, and the same Anglicized, umbrella-swinging, *bowler hat-wearing[1], Oxford-Harvard-Cambridge-Yale elite still runs the show: most of the great corporations still incorporate in London (for tax purposes) and The City still dominates the world’s financial organizations. Moreover, culturally, Britain still is looked upon as the Standard of Excellence, and everyone who is in politics or entertainment tries to sound like the BBC announcers. The Confederation of Columbia, as the locals increasingly prefer to call it, is also hampered by a weak central government with the States holding a predominance of power, leading to regionalism and making all-America mobilization an exercise in cat-herding. This has admittedly hurt the British Empire in its various wars, North America rarely contributing in proportion to its actual economic and industrial strength, but, some Americans darkly suspect, they prefer this to having Columbia dominate in international affairs. And of course the King resides in England, although extended visits and stays in America have become common over the course of the 20th century. Many feel puzzled by the situation, which seems oddly contrived, as if by a second-rate alternate history writer.
As the remaining “non-white” Empire shrinks, the increasing weight of North America is leading to some serious reexamination of what North America’s role should be: an increasingly sharp divide grows between those that think North America should cut ties to Britain and go its own way (an opinion most popular in the south east of the Mississippi [2]), and those who feel that North America should use its preponderance in the House of Commons to reshape the Empire in its own image, starting by moving the Imperial Parliament to New York or Boston. Much of the chummy, incestuous “bicoastal” (both sides of the Atlantic) elite oppose change on principle, but are increasingly trying to find ways to compromise those in the “American Empire” faction to keep them onside against the “Separatists.”
Then there is the question of what to do about the Empire overseas. Most of the African colonies have been dropped as uneconomical, indirect control through client regimes or corporate dominance replacing direct rule (with no Communist International, new African countries have generally had fewer options in dealing with the power of global Capital). India has been the site of a grand experiment in “divide and rule”, with the “National System” organizing British India into more homogenous states (after length committee studies and endless border fiddling to satisfy all parties involved) then placed “on track” to independence – or increased British dependence, as the case may be. However, this strategy seems to be approaching the end of its shelf life, with the “Yes for India! No to national ghettoes!” movement calling for at least a unified India in what remains of the Raj, and most Princely states now dominated by parliaments rather than pliable absolute monarchs. The Dominion of India idea is being quietly dusted off, but will anyone go for it? There have been some successful cases of incorporation into the Imperial parliamentary system, notably Singapore and Guyana, but there are still just too many damn Indians…
The “War of Wars” is the closest this world has had to a World War II or I, and it failed to revolutionize the basic system, a long grinding European slog which failed to really change things much, although some tens of millions still died. Oddly enough, the Poles, Russians, and Germans were all on the same side for a while.
Politics tend to be a bit on the conservative side. The French got rid of their king rather later and with rather less blood than OTL, Marx never was born, and overall the effective “radical” opposition is on the Right, not the left [3]. (Something similar to OTL Anarcho-Syndicalism has had a few successes, but never has succeeded in taking over a major power, and *Anarcho-Syndicalist regimes have tended to be unstable).
Spanish America fell apart a bit later than OTL with no Napoleon, with British encouragement, and fell into roughly comparable chunks based on the same pre-existing administrative and regional divisions. As a whole, it remains rather dominated financially by the states of the British Empire, who work hard to keep out European and Japanese competitors. The stable and fairly prosperous Kingdom of Brazil is the most independent and powerful Latin American player.
Europe, with no Red Menace, did not receive a Marshall Plan post War of Wars, (although it was finally decided to not go in for reparations and almost all war debts were cancelled) and is relatively poorer than OTL, if still first-world. An EC-type organization is only just forming now, much to British distaste: the Brits already have the Russians and the Japanese to worry over (and the Chinese are visibly catching up in the rearview mirror) without a unified European block rejoining the big shots. The Balkans remain hotly contended between Russia and Germany-Poland spheres of influence; all three may temporarily have been allied during the last war, but the Russians have never ceased to grumble about their Galician “stolen lands” (never mind that they stole them from Poland before the Poles took them back: they were Russian in 1250 AD, that’s what matters!).
The Cape remained Dutch (until the locals decided they could afford independence) and the Kaapstadt is white/colored majority after some brisk ethnic cleansing of the most important diamond and gold mine areas. Britain established protectorates over some of the Natal coast African states, and established a foothold to the NW, but never went in for South African settlement in a large way (an outright conquest of the Cape with the Netherlands at peace was no longer considered Cricket by the later 19th century.) Africa, unlike Latin America, is sharply contended, with Japan currently Britain’s major challenger for influence among the “unaligned” countries, and the Ottomans influential in Islamic North Africa.
Russia has lost a few wars, but sheer size has kept it from being overrun by anyone, and it is finally catching up with the British in terms of living standards. Internal problems (provoked by fiendish British operatives, the Russian tabloids mutter) and quarrels with its neighbors have kept Russia largely focused on the Near Abroad (since Russia still rules most of the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, etc., it is a more extensive concept than OTL) and the Great Game has been over for a while: in any events, most Russians are too busy enjoying finally being prosperous to worry much about challenging the British and Japanese for influence in the less developed parts of the globe.
The Republic of China – corrupt, elitist, peasant-squeezing, but nonetheless a lot less oppressive than the PRC OTL [4] – is rapidly gaining in terms of economic size on the economic “big three” of Japanese Empire, British Empire-with-North-America, and Russian Empire, and will most likely be the largest economy in the world by 2014. Like Russia but even moreso, China sticks with regional interests and maintains a strict neutrality with respect to the squabbles of other Great Powers. Currently the Japanese are complaining about Chinese industrial pollution drifting into their Korean prefectures.
The Japanese are the closest the British Empire has to an Existential Foe, and since neither is presenting themselves as the representative of a universal principle destined to cover the whole world, things remain on the level of squabbles over national interest. (Although both are currently pointing a bunch of nukes at the other. Just in case). The Japanese compete fiercely with Imperials American and otherwise for markets and political influence: they have a lot of influence in Africa and the Middle East, compete with China for influence in SE Asia, and are slowly pushing their away into Latin America in spite of Anglo-American best efforts.
Currently, Japan is thumbing its nose at British claims to the Moon (see below). Japan is trying to get the Pan-Indian movement onto the Japanese bandwagon, but the dickish nature of the Japanese Empire has proven an obstacle: Japanese Nipponization of Korea and the Philippines over the last century has been thorough and brutal. Everyone speaks Japanese now, at least in public, and an increasing proportion of the Korean and Filipino population Nipponicizes their names to help get ahead. Not that there isn’t a resistance, far from it, but the secret police are everywhere, the only reason the state isn’t the electronic panopticon of the Department of Homeland Security’s wetdreams is that the technology isn’t quite there yet, and the strict censorship means most inhabitants of the Japanese Empire are only vaguely aware of its existence. The internet will be a problem when it arrives.
Japanese-Chinese relations have occasionally been fraught, but more effective Qing self-strengthening and an Empire-Republic transition that was less of a clusterfuck have meant that China always looked too strong for Japan to launch any major invasions, so there is less bad blood, although Taiwan and Outer Manchuria remain a source of contention. Japan has mainly sought to expand its influence _away_ from the Asian mainland.
Technology is a bit behind OTL, in other things beside computers. The first atom bomb (British) was developed in 1958, long after the end of the War of Wars, and the first man on the Moon, 1994, was British (most of the heavy lifting was done by the Americans, but the pilot was Welsh for the look of things). The Prime Minister of the time rather grandiosely claimed the Moon for the British Empire, which the Japanese ignored when they sent their first rocket [5] in 1998 and claimed the place in the name of Japan – currently none of the other major nations recognizes the claims, and there is currently a competition to build the first actual Moon base to solidify positions (and possibly take pot-shots at other Moon bases). The Space Race has mostly a Japanese-British thing, with the German, French, and Russian space programs being fairly low-key, but the Russians have recently put people in orbit and are talking about maybe building a space station.
[1] Currently more like a fedora. Hats remain important in this world.
[2] They’re the only ones setting off any bombs so far.
[3] Some of the major Polish and Russian political parties look rather like OTL Fascism, and Japanese politics is dominated by weenies of this stripe.
[4] Ironically given the PRC’s lefty roots, this ROC also spends proportionally more on social services.
[5] British and British North American commentators were rather sniffy about Japans oversized “firework” compared to the much more sophisticated spaceplane they had used, never mind the rocket’s lander carried three Japanese explorers to the spaceplane’s one Welshman.
Ephraim Ben Raphael
Banned
You know it's hard to make dots work, but I think you pulled it off here.
EDIT: Also- did the USA stick with the AoC?
- Status