AHC: More Modern City States

Edwin Moore

Singapore, the Vatican, we need more city states! Where did we go wrong that prevented this from being the case?

Let me know what scenarios you think could have led to the creation / survival of more city states.

These can be realistic and/or creative, I just want more city states.
 

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overoceans

Someone in China figures that incorporating Hong Kong's political culture will be more trouble than it's worth, and looks for a face-saving way to avoid the Handover, or at least moot the consequences thereof.

Maybe they signal to the Brits that they'd be okay with a pre-97 referendum on independence, in exchange for a certain modicum of neutrality being imposed upon the City.

And because I'm in such a generous mood today, I'll even write my own rebuttal to that...

"Yeah, brilliant, Overoceans. Why not just have the Chinese ask the British to start selling opium within their borders again?"
 

Thanksforallthefish

Well there's Trieste and Danzig. Maybe diplomatic conflicts keep those indepedent for much longer.

Zanzibar isn't exactly a city state but it would be close.

Maybe a post-Soviet Kaliningrad with a stronger Prussian identity? I believe there was a TL about that.

Maybe somehow Goa goes independent? Very unlikely though, it would be reabsorbed by India sooner than later.
 

Byzantion

Edwin Moore said:
Singapore, the Vatican, we need more city states! Where did we go wrong that prevented this from being the case?

Let me know what scenarios you think could have led to the creation / survival of more city states.

These can be realistic and/or creative, I just want more city states.
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Maybe another Singapore like economic Tiger State. Somewhere in Asia or Africa would be interesting. Zansibar?
 
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Thistle and Rose

Thistle and Rose

HRE survives ..... youve basically got hundreds (1100- 1400 POD)
hmmmm Venice manages to resist garibaldis unification of italy, (when ever garibaldi united italy POD)
italy accepts seborgas sovereignty (post 2001 divergent point)
how about a free city of constantinople influenced bye russia, uk and greece in a alternate ww1 (1921 POD)
 
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Edwin Moore

Thanksforallthefish said:
Well there's Trieste and Danzig. Maybe diplomatic conflicts keep those indepedent for much longer.

Zanzibar isn't exactly a city state but it would be close.

Maybe a post-Soviet Kaliningrad with a stronger Prussian identity? I believe there was a TL about that.

Maybe somehow Goa goes independent? Very unlikely though, it would be reabsorbed by India sooner than later.
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Maybe an independent, NATO aligned Slovenia could lead to the survival of Trieste?
Byzantion said:
Maybe another Singapore like econimic Tiger State. Somewhere in Asia or Africa would be interesting. Zansibar?
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Perhaps a French-led Algiers could be independent somehow? There's a couple different ways I think you could make that happen.
 
Lady Kate

Lady Kate

A strong push for reunification joins most of Northern Ireland with Ireland. The Troubles return as Protestant and Catholic factions fight for control of Belfast. In order to halt the never-ending conflict, leaders agree that Belfast will not reunite with Ireland - in exchange for it declaring independence from Britain. Belfast becomes an independent city-state.
 

Peg Leg Pom

London could probably claim to be a separate country within the United Kingdom and after the Brexit Vote there was some wild talk about it going its own way and staying in Europe.
 

Politibrit

There is some logic to an independent Brussels in the event that Belgium breaks up- especially as it could basically serve as a sort of EU Capital Territory.
 
Neoteros

Neoteros

The other Straits Settlements (aside from Singapore) remain independent from Malaysia;
No United Arab Emirates, each emirate goes the way of Bahrain and Qatar;
The various traditional kingdoms of Uganda remain independent like Burundi and Rwanda;
The several legation cities in China keep their semi-sovereignty, maybe as RoC analogues of Macau and Hong Kong;
Neuchatel does not join Switzerland, it becomes the only Hohenzollern-led state left come the 20th century;
Independent Long Island as a British dominion maybe, since it was a staunchly loyalist place?
 

overoceans

Lady Kate said:
A strong push for reunification joins most of Northern Ireland with Ireland. The Troubles return as Protestant and Catholic factions fight for control of Belfast. In order to halt the never-ending conflict, leaders agree that Belfast will not reunite with Ireland - in exchange for it declaring independence from Britain. Belfast becomes an independent city-state.
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Would you visualize Belfast in this scenario as a republic?

I was thinking that to appease the loyalists, they could have the City Of Belfast independent of the UK itself, but with either the British monarch or maybe some other lower-ranked member of the royals as the nominal head of state. They could also be part of the Commonwealth(if the Orangemen don't mind hanging out with a buncha lefty third-worlders), as long as their laws are made entirely in Belfast, similar to Canada or Jamaica.

(Mind you, I don't know how attached to the monarchy the Orangemen really are, besides Billy saving them from the papists.)
 
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Lady Kate

Lady Kate

overoceans said:
Would you visualize Belfast in this scenario as a republic?

I was thinking that to appease the loyalists, they could have the City Of Belfast independent of the UK itself, but with either the British monarch or maybe some other lower-ranked member of the royals as the nominal head of state. They could also be part of the Commonwealth(if the Orangemen don't mind hanging out with a buncha lefty third-worlders), as long as their laws are made entirely in Belfast, similar to Canada or Jamaica.

(Mind you, I don't know how attached to the monarchy the Orangemen really are, besides Billy saving them from the papists.)
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I was envisioing it as a republic, thinking that a solution to the problem could be to have no political ties to either Britain or Ireland (since this is what each side resents). Maybe the catalyst could be the decline of the British economy after Brexit, with loyalists finally willing to separate in order to join the E.U.
 
Atterdag

Atterdag

Spoleto/Split and Fiume/Rijeka could become city-states/condominums in an Italian-Yugoslav compromise.

One of the smaller Swiss cantons, like Neuchatel, could have remained independent.

If the Hansa totally dominated Scandinavia, cities like Stockholm, Wisby and Bergen could have become free cities like Riga. Though probably not last to present day.

Seeing as how Cyprus is already split into three parts, maybe an independent Farmagusta could be doable.

Outside of Europe, how about some more US city-states? New Orleans could probably become one.

In Asia, various treaty ports could survive as independent states. I could also see an independent Goa.
 

Jan Olbracht

Would Free City of Danzig survive 30/40s (even against will of its citizens) it would be quite prosperous today. During interwar period of protectionism and nationalism Danzig's advantages as de facto zone free from custom duty were nullified, but over time Danzig may become Hong Kong of the Baltic.
 

Peg Leg Pom

I quite like the idea of an independent Constantinople and European Turkey, perhaps as the seat of first the League of Nations and later the United Nations.
 

Admiral Spaun

Peg Leg Pom said:
I quite like the idea of an independent Constantinople and European Turkey, perhaps as the seat of first the League of Nations and later the United Nations.
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It could be possible in the immediate aftermath of WW1, especially if the treaty of Sevres is kept in place instead of being overturned by the Turkish Nationalists. I believe the original plan was to have Constantinople and the Dardenelles be a League of Nations protectorate similar to Danzig.
 

brunohusker

Here me out, but I could see New York City or at least Manhattan do so at some point in the future, especially if politically things don't go their way or they see themselves as neglected? I don’t know if such a move is possible.
 
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