AHC: Other Singapore style City States

Bolt451

Gone Fishin'
Suggestions for other potential City-States that are successfully industrialised and independent

Points for creativity and unlikelihood :)

Ones that come to mind:

New York in a world with a collapsed United States.

A Post 1900 PoD admittedly but a continuing independent Danzig?

Any of the free Imperial Cities? Although I'd imagine coastal access might be important, otherwise they might become heavily reliant on their neighbours
 

Stateless

Hong Kong and Macau are not impossible, and with a suitably weak Chinese state you could get further city states around with the concessions.

Brussels is a more modern-day city state proposal as a solution to a Belgian divorce.

Tangier could have continued as a city state.

Avignon as an alternative papal city state?
 

RPW@Cy

New York in a world where the British refuse to evacuate it in 1783 would also work.

Cape Town where the British make it it's own province and exclude it from the Union of South Africa (to protect the Simonstown naval base perhaps) in 1910 and refusing to join later on because of apartheid or something.

Gibraltar. (Almost is OTL.)

Jerusalem, where something akin to the 1947 partition plan succeeds and it is administered as an international city under the administration of the UN.

Constantinople in a world where WW1 goes slightly worse for Turkey and the victorious powers agree the Turks can't keep it but can't agree on who else should get it.
 
The Professor

The Professor

Danzig, Jerusalem, and Istanbul-Constantinople (cue that song) are the first ones I thought of.
Belize City could be another one if the Guatemala and British Honduras "conflicts" worked out differently.
New Orleans?
One of the Indian cities?
 
Zachariah

Zachariah

Banned
Does Bahrain IOTL count? Or the constituent emirates of the UAE, or perhaps even Brunei count? Aden should also be a plausible addition, since it was held by the British in the same way as Singapore. Perhaps in an ATL where Aden was never incorporated into the Federation of Arab Emirates of the South, and the Marxist NLF never managed to gain a significant following in Aden as a result, averting the Aden Emergency and enabling it to maintain its position as the second busiest harbor in the world, second only to New York? And likewise, Mombasa's also a distinct possibility.
 

Arkenfolm

Penang would probably make a good city state if it could gain independence, although it would likely federate with Singapore. Same thing with Malacca assuming a very early POD.

Zanzibar with competent leadership (that crushes the Afro-Shirazi Party's revolution) could easily have been the Singapore of Africa, an intriguing mix of African, Arab, and Indian influences.

Speaking of Africa, I wonder if Luanda and/or Lourenço Marques could end up independent city states assuming different Portuguese policy and different independence conflicts in the region.

If Cabinda got independence, it might be considered a city state given its dominated by the city of the same name.

Similarly, something like Dakar might be a similar example for the French.

Tangier might be able to retain its international status and perhaps transition into a "Republic of Tangier" separate from Morocco.

Somewhere in India would be good assuming different colonisation. Goa might be the safest bet if it can remain outside India yet stays separate from Portugal.

If Geneva didn't join Switzerland yet remained "associated", it would be a fantastic city state and a great place to base international institutions.

New Orleans would of course make a good city state as a solution to conflicts over the Mississippi River. Maybe you could even have St. Louis be a city state too.

Montevideo as a city state? I've seen Uruguay described as a "glorified city state of Montevideo" so maybe Brazil (or Argentina?) can annex the place yet Montevideo remains under British protection or something.

Maybe instead of Vatican City, the Papal States retain control of Rome proper so we have the city state of Rome.

Of all the alt-Chinese city states possible, Port Arthur/Dalian strikes me as a particularly good one.
 

Bolt451

Gone Fishin'
These are all really cool :)

The Professor said:
New Orleans?
Click to expand...

I came across this in a TL not long after I arrived. A "People from Alternate Timelines" collab. cant find it for the life of me. I think it came from Britain capturing it in the war of 1812 and not giving it back. Then them getting independence during decolonisation
 
The Professor

The Professor

Bolt451 said:
I came across this in a TL not long after I arrived. A "People from Alternate Timelines" collab. cant find it for the life of me. I think it came from Britain capturing it in the war of 1812 and not giving it back. Then them getting independence during decolonisation
Click to expand...
Ah yes, I remember that!
There was also another one where it becomes a co U.K./U.S. protectorate in a US joins the coalition against Napoleon in America timeline.
 
History Learner

History Learner

Banned
Trent Affair turns into a war, NYC secedes from the Union with help from British guns and evolves into a semi-protectorate of the Anglo-Confederates; Royal Navy base in the Brooklyn Naval Yard and such.
 
History Learner

History Learner

Banned
Oman cedes Gwadar to the British, ultimately evolving into a Hong Kong like dependency and allowing Britain to retain control of large amounts of Pakistani and Central Asian trade.
 

Diforto

In Europe, not really a city, but Saarland, Kaliningrad
In Africa, Ceuta, Melilla, Suez, Cabinda, Zanzibar
Smyrne in Anatolia
In India, Diu, Daman,Darda and Nagar Haveli, Yanam, Mahé, Karaikal, Puducherry, Chandernagor.
Also in india, Kanker, Nandgaon, Khairagarh, Chhuikhadan, Kawardha, Akalkot, if you need more, a can continue. There are many potential city-states in India.
Other like the Pontianak Sultanate in Indonesia or Cebu in the Philippines.
 
Salvador79

Salvador79

Triest? Monaco already is. In a post-WW2 Partition of Germany, Hamburg, Bremen, Lübeck and Danzig are good candidates.
 
Simon

Simon

Bolt451 said:
Suggestions for other potential City-States that are successfully industrialised and independent.
Click to expand...
Uhura's Mazda did a short piece The Seventy Year Lease about a surviving Portuguese Goa, the Nizam of Hyderabad, an unusual rental agreement, and a first century thought experiment. It's interesting.


History Learner said:
Oman cedes Gwadar to the British, ultimately evolving into a Hong Kong like dependency and allowing Britain to retain control of large amounts of Pakistani and Central Asian trade.
Click to expand...
Alternatively how about if the Zanzibar branch retained ownership of it? The revolution of 1964 occurs with the Sultan being overthrown so they beat a hasty retreat to Gwadar, being short of cash and with their remaining mini-state bereft of natural resources they decide to turn it into a very open centre of trade and finance.
 

RogueTraderEnthusiast

Zanzibar would be cool. An independent New York / British New York sounds fascinating as well, but I'm not sure how you'd maintain it as simply a city-state.

I'm a big fan of a Independent Constantinople, essentially the last remnant of the Roman Empire, with control over the Bosporus. Hard and unlikely, but certainly funky.
 

GeographyDude

Gone Fishin'
metalinvader665 said:
. . . Speaking of Africa, I wonder if Luanda and/or Lourenço Marques could end up independent city states assuming different Portuguese policy and different independence conflicts in the region. . .
Click to expand...
Another Portuguese possibility might have been East Timor.



Maybe earlier, more gradual decolonization in which E. Timor gets sweetheart trade deals, but in the 1800s I don't think Portugal was a rich country.
 
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