Affiliated States of Boreoamerica thread

[False Dmitri]

Oh no, this was never posted! Turquoise Blue devised an intriguing government and political system for la Basse-Louisianne:

The government of Lower Louisiana? It's a relic, really.

Once, back in the early 1800s, it was based around class (Aristocracy votes for the First Estate, Middle-Class (property-holders) for the Second, the rest for the Third). This was considered extremely progressive back in the day. Of course, slaves didn't get a vote. When slavery was repealed by the first mixed-race Governor-General in the 1870s, it gave a lot more voting power to the Third Estate (commonly called the well,Common, Estate) since most African-Americans were classed under "working class". As time went on and Louisiana's placage tradition continued to result in even more mixed-race people (even after slavery was dead, it was considered fashionableand perhaps sexy to have a darker-skinned wife in upper society), the Estates once again achieved a sort of balance.

Enter Huey P. Long. The populist demagogue (whose family originated from the East Coast) managed to harness a lot of people's disaffection with the system which seemed to divide people based on wealth. His "Share Our Wealth" policies included a government reform that changed the way the Estates worked and ensured the tricameral system survived.

The First Estate was to be full of "accomplished men and women of high standing". Basically a technocratic chamber of scientists, historians, etc. They were to be appointed by the Governor-General with support from the Second and Third Estates. The First Estate gradually took the name the "Learned Estate" in popular terms. The Second Estate was to be an elected "upper chamber" (in other states' terms) which would "restrain the might of the Common Estate". They would be elected on a proportional system divided among the regions. This Estate took on the term the "Regional Estate". The Third (Common) Estate was to become the "main democratic chamber", with the majority of power handed to it. It was in this Estate that the Governor-General was mainly determined (albeit a majority vote of both the Learned and Regional could oust the Gov-Gen and trigger new elections, this only happened once in Lower Louisiana's history).

Huey Long's reformed tricameral system is the modern one.

 

[Emperor RyRy]

I had never seen this before, so when I keep seeing "ASB" all over I got SO confused.

 

[False Dmitri]

I had never seen this before, so when I keep seeing "ASB" all over I got SO confused.

It started as a joke for a one-off map, and I'm not changing it now.

 

[False Dmitri]

The Bahamian state as we know it began with an uprising by Jacobite privateers, who took control of the islands in the name of the Stuart claimants to the English throne. In our timeline this was swiftly put down and the rebels are known as nothing but infamous pirates; their heyday, when they had control of the Bahamas, became the basis for much of our popular image of pirates. In this timeline, they had help from Maryland and from a court in exile that was more willing to support Jacobites in the colonies. They managed to remain a coherent movement rather than devolve into wholesale piracy. The first generation of leaders - Benjamin Hornigold, Stede Bonnett, Edward Thatch - are famous swashbucklers, to be sure, but in the Bahamas they are also revered as founding fathers.

The new Jacobite commonwealth tried to present itself as the equal of any other colony, but its poor soil and lack of resources made it hard to turn away from its shady past. With plantation agriculture not possible, small-scale piracy, smuggling, and wrecking were the mainstay of the economy for a hundred years. Even as the Bahamas became an accepted member of the ASB's community of states, the connection with illegal activity remained. In the 19th century the islands were both a haven for escaped slaves, and a a key market in the illegal slave trade. They limped along as a small, impoverished backwater until the rise of tourism in the 20th century, which transformed life on the islands and brought a modern standard of living for the first time.

The flag indeed is related to the menacing standards flown by the early privateers. Skulls and bones went away when the rebels began trying to appear respectable, but images like weapons and hourglasses remained common. The motif of three daggers has been standard since the 1750s or so. The white Stuart rose is an important patriotic symbol but does not appear on the flag.

(edit) The Bahamas today have a parliamentary system of government that is fairly ordinary, with the exception that the head of government has the title of Governor. This goes back to the early days of the Jacobite rebellion, when the islands' leaders in council chose their own governor. The king (the Jacobite claimant, who lives in Italy) selects a separate royal representative with the title of Viceroy.

 

[False Dmitri]

For Lower Louisiana's flag, I am going with one that I saw on DeviantArt by someone who goes by Achaley. It's just the banner of France Modern with the fleurs-de-les colored white. This is a photo of a building in la Vieille Ville patriotically decked out.

 

[False Dmitri]

It's finally here: presenting the official ASB QBAM.

Putting the map in this format helped clarify a some of the borders that had been vaguely defined. It's not that I made the original map without thinking through the borders, but the map was just more rough. The amazing work that's been done on the QBAM, with hundreds of rivers and county-level detail, allows for more precision.

I know the format will also help other people "see" the ASB more clearly, since so many people already know the format really well.

There are 2 big corrections:

1. I moved almost the entire northern border significantly to the north. On the original map the border was very rough, probably the only part where I was almost just drawing random lines. For this I simply copied the borders of Rupert's Land from the OTL 1815 QBAM.
2. Instead of giving Canada all of the Adirondacks, I split them between Canada and New Netherland. This was mostly aesthetic; NN looked really ugly and needed at least a little smoothening in its nest of panhandles.

There are some minor differences; for example, I switched the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence from Canada to East Acadia. If there are any tiny differences between the QBAM and older maps, this should be considered the authoritative version.

This is a good moment to take stock of where we're at. At this point, the ASB's content includes:
- Some kind of content for 27 out of 50 states
- 12 state political systems plus a detailed system for the whole Confederation
- 13 local or regional maps
- 10 new flags
- a basic chronology from 1700 to the present

How far it's come!

(edit - uploaded smaller cropped image, moved capital to correct location)

 

[Stuyvesant]

I definitely appreciate expanded NN. Did the Erie Canal or equivalent get built or do the Iroquois and Dutch disagree too much?

 

[False Dmitri]

I definitely appreciate expanded NN. Did the Erie Canal or equivalent get built or do the Iroquois and Dutch disagree too much?

I think the disagreement would be with Canada! The Erie Canal, or a route to L. Ontario, benefits New Amsterdam and all the Iroquois and Dutch towns along the route, while a Niagara canal (the Welland Canal in OTL) benefits Montreal and ports in Huronia. This was then the first major conflict after the states of the ASB came together in a single alliance in the 1820s or 30s - the first great test of whether the alliance could function. Each side (NN-Iroquoia and Canada-Huronia) raced to build its canal first, and after finishing they competed intensely to attract sea traffic. Things got pretty rough on the Lakes. There was sabotage, some violence, as the "Canal War" heated up. The growing Upper Country, who just wanted to be able to trade in peace, forced Congress to arbitrate a compromise. This involved price regulations and revenue sharing, which inhibited growth somewhat but kept the Lakes and canals running smoothly.

How does that sound?

 

[Stuyvesant]

I think the disagreement would be with Canada! The Erie Canal, or a route to L. Ontario, benefits New Amsterdam and all the Iroquois and Dutch towns along the route, while a Niagara canal (the Welland Canal in OTL) benefits Montreal and ports in Huronia. This was then the first major conflict after the states of the ASB came together in a single alliance in the 1820s or 30s - the first great test of whether the alliance could function. Each side (NN-Iroquoia and Canada-Huronia) raced to build its canal first, and after finishing they competed intensely to attract sea traffic. Things got pretty rough on the Lakes. There was sabotage, some violence, as the "Canal War" heated up. The growing of the Upper Country, who just wanted to be able to trade in peace, forced Congress to arbitrate a compromise. This involved price regulations and revenue sharing, which inhibited growth somewhat but kept the Lakes and canals running smoothly.

How does that sound?

Sounds good to me; almost like an Alt-Aroostook War.

 

[False Dmitri]

Deciding between 2 flags for Rhode Island. I'm leaning toward the single anchor on white - so far the theme has been extremely simple flag designs.

 

[Kulkasha]

The cross one is nice, though.

 

[False Dmitri]

1730 in more detail, using the QBAM.

Some notes:

• The Muscogi are at the height of their expansion into Florida. The Seminol will split off as a separate nation a few years later.
• The blank spot in Cuba represents Maroon communities, which (per discussion with Upvoteanthology) were larger and more durable in Cuba in TTL for ... reasons.
• The Illinois Confederacy is in its waning days. Within a decade or two it will effectively be part of the French colony.
• The history of Acadia is not written yet, so the situation there is an approximation.
• The Dominion of New England was re-established in the 1710s as a loose collective government for the colonies with a single royal governor. Individual colonial assemblies kept the bulk of the power locally; England decided to fix the mistakes of the Stuart era, not repeat them.

 

[Upvoteanthology]

A little something I whipped up a few weeks back:

The Mexican State of Lavaros​

Before the region that is now Lavaros was taken over by Europeans, it was occupied by Missouria and Osage tribes. It was first explored and mapped out by Spanish settlers, and later French merchants on the Missouri river. For many years, it was very sparsely populated, with the creation of an odd Osage-French native mix forming. Settlers dotted the coast, and pirates became somewhat popular in their pillaging of the few native towns. Disorder was king in the region now known as Arques, and to the west things were even worse. Arques lied in between two rivers, so it was relatively easy to trade. The few French settlements in the plains weren’t too well off, as they began to resort to primordial farming tactics. For all of the 18th century, the French government didn’t seem to care at all.

After the Canadian Rebellion, however the French became weary that they would lose the rest of their Louisiana colony. Places like Patagonia, South Africa, and Australia had been defended and preserved by force, but Louisiana could fall any second. Pirates still raged, even attempting to burn down New Orleans in 1838. King of France Louis XIX passed a resolution turning all French land west of the Missouri into a penal colony, where criminals would be allowed more rights than they would have in prison. The border on the river became heavily fortified, and the criminals began to mix with the rapidly expanding Mexicans. The colony was known as “Les Avares”, or “The Misers” (originally a criminal-given name, describing the money-grubbing King of France himself).

After the claiming of land up to the 46th parallel by Mexico from the Pacific to the Missouri, Les Avares became a technical part of Mexico. The Louisianian government couldn’t do anything to stop this declaration, as they did not formally back up these claims until the 1870’s. This would be the first of many conflicts between Arques (and the rest of France, to a degree) and Mexico. Things stood at a standstill for forty years, with both sides claiming ownership, and with both sides having the same amount of settlers in the region. The Ayiti Revolution saw the admittance of Louisiana into the ASB, with Les Avares included. People were outraged, but the Mexican Emperor took care of it with grace. In 1876, the ASB recognized the claims of Mexico, as long as they recognized the straight-line border of Arques and promised to become a strong ally. Their military presence helped, especially since Mexico was miles above them until the 1930’s.

The state was promptly renamed to its Spanish counterpart, “Los Avaros”. It was later shortened to just Lavaros, to make it easier for the half-drunk prisoners to say. By 2015, most of the citizens of Lavaros are still French, but they all speak Spanish. Many are related in some way to the prisoners that used to live there, while others are simply Boreoamerican dissidents who moved across the river from Louisiana. Most states of the ASB have fine relations with Mexico, mostly because of the peaceful agreement and help in previous wars. Bad blood was mostly forgiven by France and Louisiana, and the trouble was cleared up.

Culture​

The population of Lavaros is 5.5 million, with 60% of the population being French settlers, 30% being Spanish settlers, and 10% being other settlers, mostly native. It has very liberal beliefs, with three major parties winning most elections in the state (if TB wants to do this she can change it). Its current governor is Aceline Pelchat, of the Libertad Party. 95% of the population speaks Spanish as their main language, while French is commonly taught in schools and is spoken as a second language by most Lavarossians. They are one of the only Mexican provinces with a frequent desire to secede, with the idea penetrating throughout politics in the area (even if it is only 23%). Its capital lies in Louisville (Jefferson City, MO), named after the miser himself.

 

[Turquoise Blue]

A 1960s Liberal poster in NN. Notice the blue (a traditionally Liberal color in NN).

 

[False Dmitri]

I love both of these things.

Upv, I'll need to think over some of those details and how they relate to the bigger picture, especially involving Louisianan history. I know that Arques didn't exist as a separate entity before the border with Mexico was fixed - it was simply the Louisianan hinterland or disputed territory. But a French penal colony in Missouri is fantastic. Would I need to make changes to my 1840 population map of the region?

TB, beautiful poster.

This reminded me of a photo I took a few months ago. I had forgotten about it. I was driving behind a truck from New Holland, Upper Country when a van registered to some ass in New Netherland totally cut me off. I felt just surrounded by Boreo-dutchmen.

 

[Upvoteanthology]

Upv, I'll need to think over some of those details and how they relate to the bigger picture, especially involving Louisianan history. I know that Arques didn't exist as a separate entity before the border with Mexico was fixed - it was simply the Louisianan hinterland or disputed territory. But a French penal colony in Missouri is fantastic. Would I need to make changes to my 1840 population map of the region?

Thanks! But yeah, there might be a few slight flaws in it, sorry. And maybe a change in the population map would occur, although not by TOO too much. I'll probably write some stuff for Rupertsland soon.

 

[False Dmitri]

Map showing 1760.

• Note the appearance of the Upper Country as a single regional entity. This was not a sudden transformation, but a gradual shift in which the villagers, chiefs, and French officials of the region came to see themselves as fellow members of a single Upper Country. The process was by no means complete in 1760, but it was well enough on its way to show on the map.
• Illinois has gone through the same process, but more closely tied to France. The villages of the Illinois confederacy are now indistinguishable from the villages of the colony of Haute-Louisianne.
• Spanish Florida has recovered. The inland mission town of San Luis de Potano was re-founded in 1740.
• I've made the border between Virginia and Carolina fuzzy. As the population of that area grows, more Virginians are settling south of the line while still considering themselves Virginian. The Carolian tax collectors send angry letters to the Crown with mounting frequency.
• I've colored Pennsylvania to indicate that it remains de jure loyal to England, but really is mostly on its own.

 

[False Dmitri]

Here is 1790. Note that I have added two colors, "English Settlers" and "English Revolutionaries." Both represent new Anglo-American states.

• The "settler" states largely drifted toward independence. Pennsylvania drifted for most of the 18th century, while England never had secure control over Vermont or Wautaga: they were created by groups of settlers more or less without support from England.
• Note that Christiana is now outlined in purple to reflect the new partnership between Pennsylvania and Sweden, something that helped Penn. keep its independence. Sweden is expanding its interest in colonies; note that St. Barts in the Caribbean has also turned purple.
• The "Revolutionary" states of Virginia, Rhode Island, Massachusetts Bay, and New Hampshire overthrew English rule violently in the 1770s and 80s.
• Rhode Island has not yet re-joined the Dominion.
• Bermuda declared independence along with Virginia but was reoccupied by the Royal Navy.
• The tentative expansion of Virginia over the mountains accelerated after independence.
• The border between Virginia and Carolina remains disputed, unstable, and violent.

Also worth noting are many attempts by English loyalists to create new settlements in the west:

• The Red River Colony, germ of the future Assiniboia, has just been founded.
• Connecticuters have established communities in the Wyoming Valley (in modern Poutaxia) and on Lake Erie (modern Upper Connecticut and the Sanduskey Country).
• Carolian adventurers have made their first attempts to seize parts of West Florida.

Other things worth noting:

• The Upper Louisiana colony has split into a semi-autonomous Illinois to the east, and a much more subservient colony to the west.
• Despite chaos and bad blood within the English states, this is still the age of the Anglo-Dutch-Iroquois Congresses, which are bringing stability to the mid-Atlantic. Some borders have been defined, and the settlements of the Delaware-Susquehannah region (Poutaxia) are self-organizing; negotiations are in progress to create a new state with a unity government.

 

[Upvoteanthology]

The Californian Union. Not much of a union, if you ask me. Formed after the Gold Rush, California only adopted the ASB system because they thought it could work for them, but the military government they have in every state to keep it from seceding arguably denies that point. The San Francisco bay was ruined by English colonizers, who used the Spanish and Russian settlers to set up corrupt puppet states. The ideal of Industrialism spread, turning perfectly usable colonies into barely-working dictatorships. On the west, you have the four Californias (Russian California, then Alta, Media, and Baja), who are probably the only stable states in the Union. Going east, you have the White Supremacist states of "Supremacia" and "Pietas". Ndeenka was originally a paradise for freed slaves, but it looked to the businessmen to handle their society. Around the Salt Lake, you have the "Outlaw States", a group of four states which are made up from exiled ethnic groups. New Kuril is Ainu, Kulakja is Kulak, Azeria is Azer, and Manzil Jadid is Muslim. All are on shaky terms with the rest of the Union. The rest of the states aren't too well-off; they're either persecuted native reserves, autocratic kingdoms, or former colonies in disrepair. The Californian Union truly is the opposite of the ASB.

 

[False Dmitri]

More details about California's history and its members will be on their way. For now, here's a little map of Clarence.

Clarence, named for a mid-19th century royal duke who was governor of Hudson Bay's Company, was the territory allotted to England at the end of California's destructive Gold Wars. It was was established as an English colony but had close economic and social ties both to Rupert's Land and to the Dominion of New England. Around 1900, a time of relative calm in California, Clarence was given independence as a dominion of the English Crown, equal in status to other dominions; this included ones that had long been members of the ASB, namely New England and Newfoundland. Sitting north of the Bay, the colony proved less than lucrative as a port but still developed economically, most notably as the unrivaled center of Californian viticulture.

The turbulence of the earliest 20th century led the governors increasingly to support the stability that came from unionism. The political culture became closed and cliquish - many would say corrupt. A flare-up of sepratist movements in the 60s, followed by military crackdowns, reinforced this tendency. Unlike San Francisco, whose wild politics swing between pro-democracy movements and oppression, contemporary Clarence plugs stolidly along under its system of patronage. Various opposition movements from the left and the right have been largely ineffective. The one reform to see success has been the Home Rule movement, which since the 1990s has devolved various administrative powers down to the county level. The movement was most active in Napa and Sonoma Counties, but others have also taken advantage of the reform. So while some counties have carved out working democratic systems at the local level, Clarence's government remains under the thumb of the old ruling cliques.

Clarence remains a monarchy and an English dominion, but this plays a minimal role in the life of the state.