Albion, where the Sun never set

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The Second World War, also known as World War II (WWII or WW2), was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world’s countries – including all the great powers – forming two opposing military alliances: the Axis and the Allies. In a state of total war, directly involving more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries, the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. The Second World War was the deadliest conflict in human history, resulting in 160 to the upwards of 500 million fatalities, with more civilians than military personnel killed. Tens of millions of people died due to the genocides (including the Nettoyage and the Holocaust), premeditated death from starvation, massacres, and disease. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, including in strategic bombing of population centers, the development of nuclear weapons, and the only uses of such in war.

The Second World War is generally considered to have begun on the 4th of July, 1939, with the coordinated invasions of Belgium and California by France and Aztlan and the subsequent declarations of war on them by the United Kingdom and Germany on the 6th. From middle 1951 to late 1953, in a series of campaigns and treaties, France[1] came to control much of continental Europe while Mexico[2] and the Free State of Cuba[3] expanded to invasions on the Caribbean and Central America and formed the Grand Alliance together with Spain[4] and China[5], along with other countries later on. Following the fall of Germany[6] in mid-1952 and of California[7] early that same year, the war’s three major areas of conflict became mostly between the Allies and single members of the Axis, with the Albish Empire in Europe, Japan in Asia and Oregon in the Americas. On October 30th, 1954, France led the European allied powers in an invasion of Russia and the Balkans, signing the deGaulle-Kemal Pact with the Turkish Nation where they officially divided the Balkans between each other, opening the Eastern Front, the largest land theatre in history, and trapping the allies, crucially the French Grand Armée, in a war of attrition.

China, which aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific, was at war with the East Asian Coprosperity Sphere by in 1945 and had since early-1953 placed the Japanese Home Islands under a literal siege[8] while expanding through continental and insular South Asia. In December 1954, three days after the death of Leonard of Albion during the Blitz[9], China, together with Aztlan and Cuba in the Americas, attacked with near-simultaneous offensives the territories of Albion and Brazil on Southeast Asia, the Central Pacific and South America, including and naval siege onto Singapore[10] and an attack on the Braganza fleet at Fernando de Noronha. Following a Brazilian declaration of war against them, which followed an official one from Albion onto China, the European allied powers declared war on Brazil in solidarity with their ally. China soon invaded India[11] and captured much of the Western Pacific, while Aztlan and Cuba captured much of northern South America, but their advances where halted in 1955 after losing the critical battles of Jakarta and Aves Island; later, France and Spain were defeated in North Africa and at key points in Eastern Europe[12]. Key setbacks in 1957 – including a series of French defeats on the Eastern Front[13], the German Rebellion[14], the Axis invasions of the Low Countries and Gibraltar[15], and Axis offensives in the Pacific and Asia[16] – cost the Allies its initiative and forced its members into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1957, the Western Allies invaded Iberia and French-occupied Scandinavia, while the Russians and the Hapsburgs regained their territorial losses and turned towards France and its Allies. During 1957 and 1958, China suffered reversals across Asia, while the Axis crippled their navy and Russia entered the war against them by invading through Axis-friendly Mongolia; Aztlan and Cuba also saw reversals on their fronts as the USSA retook their lost territory while Brazil started taking the Caribbean Islands and advancing across Panama.

The war in Europe concluded with the liberation of French-occupied territories, and the invasion of France by the Axis and the combined efforts of Russia and Germany, culminating in the fall of Paris to Albo-Russo-German troops, the suicide of Louis Morél and the French unconditional surrender on January 10th, 1958. Turkey gave up on the war on February 1st when the military deposed the government, establishing the Turkish Junta[17]. Following the Birmingham Declaration by the Axis on February 27th and the refusal of the remaining Allied powers to surrender on its terms, the Albish dropped the first atomic bomb on the Chinese city of Nanjing, on May 23rd, decapitating the Kuomintang’s high command and setting the stage for the Second Chinese Civil War[18]; Brazil did similarly with the bombing of Cancun, on May 26th, of Veracruz, on May 27th, and of Guantanamo, on June 1st. Faced with imminent full-scale invasions by both the Brazilians and Russians, the destruction of its fleet at Cancun and the possibility of additional atomic bombings, Aztlan announced its intention to surrender on June 15th, cementing de facto total victory of the Axis in the Americas. Cuba, already a de facto Mexican satellite, held out, resulting on the invasion of its main island on June 21st by the Axis and the division of the state among them[19]. In the wake of the war, France, Spain, Mexico and parts of China were occupied[20], and war crimes tribunals were conducted against many of their leaders. Despite their well-documented war crimes, mainly perpetrated in the Balkans and the Middle East, Turkish leaders and generals were often pardoned, thanks to diplomatic activities[21].

The Second World War changed the political alignment and social structure of the globe. The League of Nations (League) was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts, and the victorious great powers – Japan, Germany, Russia, the United States, Brazil, and Albion – became permanent members of its Directorate. Brazil and Albion emerged as rival superpowers, setting the state for the Cold War, while the USSA entered a period of political repression[22] while rising in international influence, which would last until the 1980s. In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the second wave of decolonization of Africa and Asia[23]. Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery and expansion, while political integration, especially in Europe, began as an effort to forestall future hostilities, end pre-war enmities and forge a sense of common identity.

Considered by many as what established much of the modern world and as being responsible for some of history’s greatest technological and social advances[24], only a single state on earth continues to identify the war as not having ended[25].

[1] Which had been since the late 1930s under the rule of Louis Morél, who had in his youth served on the French army during the First World War and had in the interwar period risen as a political figure, becoming France’s de facto dictator in 1939 after using the Fourth Republic’s weak government and political divisions on his favor, he is known for both establishing Militantism as well as for being one of the greatest monsters in history, who established the Militant ideas of ethnic cleansing against minorities (like Jews, gays, blacks and Muslims) and Germanic peoples (ironic seeing as how his mother was born in Alsace as Hilda van der Horn, this besides the fact that the French’s forefathers were the Franks, a Germanic people)
[2] Under the rule of four major generals, the Tetrarchs, ever since the end in 1945 of the string of coups following the deposal of Emperor Augustín II by the military in 1933, after which the beloved imperial family fled to Venezuela (where the emperor’s sister was queen consort) while Mexico (Aztlan being the name given for the country’s ultranationalist phase) fell into political chaos after depending on them as a neutralizing and arbitrating figure since the 1870s
[3] Descending from the United States’ South, the Free State of Cuba could be known as a “diet-Confederacy”, seeing as it was a white supremacist state established by exiles from the pre-1920 US’ south who took over their old country’s de facto colony and puppet and established something that would nowadays be considered akin to the CSA, only on an island
[4] Which was nominally under the rule of Carlos V ever since the 1939 Regicide, which killed his parents and grandparents when the king himself was only a child, but seeing as he was mentally disabled (Carlos had been struck with a rock on the head at his baptism by an anarchist protester in 1934 and had a stunted mental development, he was in 1951 17 but had the mind of a 3-year-old) it was de facto ruled by his cabinet, a shadowy cabal of politicians and generals, who used him as a useful figurehead seeing as their dictatorship was identified by being a “royal dictatorship” under Carlos’ rule
[5] Which was under the rule of Chiang Kai-Shek’s Kuomitang ever since their victory in 1942 over the First Chinese Civil War, with the country being nominally a democracy but de facto being a Han-supremacist ultranationalist dictatorship which used the military and secret polices to both crack down on dissidents and on ethnic minorities
[6] Which would see the death of Kaiser Wolfgang II and the imprisonment of most of his family and the constituent monarchs (that hadn’t managed to escape to either friendly countries or Switzerland), which would later on see kangaroo courts and executions among them, including Wolfgang’s son, Friedrich III
[7] Although the Californian state (under the leadership of President Nixon) managed to remain standing in the Sierra Nevada under Oregon’s protection, the absolute majority of the country as well as its populational centers fell under Aztlan’s control, where they would soon enact policies not dissimilar from their doings in their own territories against their Anglican population
[8] Following the defeat and conquest of Manchuria and most of Korea, Japan was the last one standing on their alliance, and following the Chinese conquest of Formosa had to stand basically alone on her home islands while the Chinese navy and air force took their turns bombing the crap out of her. Through it all, while his homeland was being devastated, Emperor Hirohito stayed on it, at the most moving from the Imperial Palace in Tokyo to smaller or underground complexes when bombing as at its highest. Japanese determination during the Siege, which ended when Brazil and the Royal Navy came to the rescue of their ally in 1955, is often remembered by the sheer impressiveness of it, as, even while their factories and buildings were being burned, they still remained chugging forward as if not bothered by it, and when fears of an amphibian invasion started, the government did not blink an eye before starting military training for the masses
[9] Which is considered by many as being a turning point for the Empire as it was considered something of a last straw for the Albish, who became as if possessed they took a dedication for the war that, while present before, hadn’t been in such levels
[10] Which would see the deaths of a fifth of the island’s population and the imprisonment of King Albert and his wife, while his two daughters continued serving on the navy from Australia (where they had been at the time of the siege’s beginning)
[11] Establishing the Indian Republic, a collaborator state under the rule of Subhas Chandra Bose, who would later on be executed for his actions both in support of the Allies and for his involvement in war crimes committed by the Indian National Army, including the mass killing of Muslims on Bengal
[12] Two major ones being the crossing of the Dnieper at the Battle of Kiev and the Battles of Belgrave and Debrecen, who respectively stopped French advances into Russia and the Balkans by weakening their stride as the Russians and Hapsburgs started regrouping behind their defensive lines at the Dnieper, the Danube and the Carpathians
[13] A major one being the Battle of Minsk, which lasted nearly a year as both sides fought building by building
[14] Lead by Adolf Schicklgruber-Hiedler, an immigrant from Upper Austria who had been naturalized German following his entrance to the Kaiser’s Army in the First World War and who during the interwar period had married Helene Derzbacher, the daughter of a jewish moneylender, and had become the owner of a beerhall in Munich and a conservative politician. Following the fall of Germany in 1952, his establishment became an unspoken center for the city’s resistance, and Adolf used his small but present military knowledge and friendship with some generals now living in hiding or on Free Germany to support them, becoming the German Resistance (and later Rebellion)’s leader, including housing Kaiser Friederike following her escape from Dachau. Following the war, Adolf, who had been growing sick with a shaking disease, was the one of the first individuals to be granted the title of “Hero of the Fatherland” and was later given the nobility rank of “Fürst”. When he died in the early 1960s, he was buried on Valhalla in Berlin
[15] Which saw heavy damages in Rotterdam on the former and the near razing to the ground of the city on the latter, as it involved a large amphibian invasion following the Spanish conquest of the Rock in early 1952
[16] Which saw the freeing of German Oceania and the comebacks of the Albish and Dutch on South Asia
[17] A military dictatorship that has remained in power over Turkey for the past 60 years, part of the reason why the Axis even accepted their semi-conditional surrender (the Junta leaders basically said that while they could take the deposed Turkish leaders they would not permit an occupation of their pre-war territory) was the agreement that the Turkish would retreat from all their invaded territory, including the states on Anatolia that they had already annexed, or they would be force to
[18] Which is technically still up and running since the Kuomitang still remains denying that it has officially ended (reason why they have identifying all wars that have come since as being just a “resume of the war” even though the rest of the world rightly identify them as new conflicts)
[19] The Albish took control of the Guantanamo Bay Area, Brazil established the Kingdom of Cuba on the southeast while the USSA established the State of Cuba on the northwest as a part of their Southern Commonwealth; following the 1982 Crisis the state was annexed into the Kingdom of Cuba after the island had been mostly divided for 2 decades. Guantanamo, in modern times a port metropolis after developing from the slums that made much of its area outside of the Base and port, remains under control of Albion, being a county-status-city within the Home Island’s integrated territories
[20] All of which would have effects to the nations that came after:
- France was divided into four zones of control – Russia (where the modern kingdom of Champagne is), Albion (Northern France and modern Provence), Brazil (Aquitaine) and Germany (Burgundy) – who have directly resulted on the modern divisions of the region, as the Russian zone became the separate state of Champagne under the Russian Emperor’s brother-in-law, the German and Brazilian ones became their respective hereditary republics under political favorites, and the Albish became the kingdom of Provence under Empress Jessamine’s aunt’s husband, the modern Fifth Republic and the Republic of Brittany (which like Aquitaine and Burgundy is de facto hereditarily ruled by the family of a political favorite who became its first president)
- The Kingdom of Spain was divided between seven zones of administration – Albion (most of the modern Spanish State, Southern Spanish Sahara, Andorra and the cities of Ceuta and Melilla), Portugal (Galicia), Brazil (Navarre and the Canary Islands, although it held sway over the entire peninsula), the Hapsburgs (Aragon) and Morocco (Spanish North Africa), Germany (Spanish Equatorial Africa) and Mauritania (Oran) –, who have mostly corresponded to the modern states of the region (although not to their allegiances)
- From Albion’s zone was born the modern Spanish Federation, with her various subnational monarchies (who outside of Asturias, ruled by the heir to Spain, are all ruled by branches of the Spanish bourbon’s expansive family tree); the two city-states of the Rift (Ceuta, a directorial republic, and Melilla, who is a principality under a branch of the Orléans); the modern Principality of Andorra, who for the first time on centuries has its hereditary prince live locally (after the Boubon-Grimaldis divided their inheritance between it and Provence); and the Kingdom of Adrar, born from the major emirate in the Spanish Saharan Protectorate gaining the rule over the entire thing​
- From Portugal’s zone was born the modern kingdom of Galicia under the Miguelist branch (originally it would go to the Bourbon-Braganzas, but the Prince of Couto Misto declined due to his subject’s desires to remain independent and so his sister, whose husband was the Miguelist heir, was given Galicia)​
- From Brazil’s zone were born the modern kingdoms of Navarre and the Canaries, both ruled by branches of Bourbons​
- From the Hapsburgs’ zone was born the modern Kingdom of Aragon, given to one of their Archdukes whose mother was a daughter of Alfonso XIII and whose wife was Carlos V’s sister, Infanta Maria Genoveva​
- The Moroccan zone was, in turn, annexed on its entirety by Morocco shortly after it was established, reason why they periodically still lay a claim to the two Rift City States event though the three all known it is simply symbolic, with them being close economic partners and the current Moroccan consort being a Melillan princess by birth​
- The German zone over Spanish Equatorial Africa became the modern Kingdom of Biafra, ruled by the only protestant branch of the House of Bourbon (resulting from the fact that the region was majority protestant due to some lucky missionaries and the Bourbon prince set to become its king was fine with converting)​
- The Mauritanian zone, finishing things, became the modern Kingdom of Wahran, under the rule of, of all people, one of the branches of the House of Savoy, who seems to have more luck with gaining new thrones than actually retaking their ancestral domains​
- Mexico was divided between the largest zone held by Brazil with three peripheral zones held by California, Albion and the USSA; while the USSA would annex their zone (which comprehended mostly Texas), Brazil, California and Albion reunited theirs into the modern Mexican Empire under the rule of Augustín III (who would only live for 3 years on it before being assassinated and giving start to the state’s most recent civil war), who was a close relative of Empress Victoria of Brazil and had been partly raised in Rio, the main trait was that the Californian and Albish zone became the modern autonomous kingdoms of Mexico
- Although originally planning for a large-scale occupation of China, in the end the Axis (specifically Japan, Russia, Albion and Germany, while Brazil was fine staying on the sidelines), already having to administrate over large zones of control and seeing the insanity that the Second Civil War was going toward, decided that it was on their best interest to just look to the other side and focus only on the areas they were truly interested:
- The Albish, besides retaking their old territories, established an authority over the ports of Southern China, which would be returned to the Qi Dynasty (on itself born in part due to Albion’s support of the King of Canton) in 1972 following the historical Canton Accords, and made a sort-of-protectorate out of Tibet, which lasted for some decades​
- The Germans did similarly, although instead of taking over they established the client Kingdom of Hainan under the House of Zhao (who, as direct descendants of the Song Emperors, sometimes also identify as the “Later Song Dynasty”) while only retaining direct control over their old territory of Guangzhouwan​
- The Japanese, on other hand, mostly focused on establishing a sphere of influence and allies, only reannexing their lost territories while remaking Manchuria and supporting the establishment of Later Dayan, Zhili and the Wang Dynasty​
- The Russian’s, finishing things up, just focused on their newly retaken lands in Outer Manchuria, which would later become the modern autonomous Tsardom, and on supporting their influenced states of Mongolia and Tuva while also backing the North-Chinese States with Japan​
[21] In the end only the officials that had been deposed when the Junta took over ended up punished, while most middle members of the army and officials who supported the coup, while maybe placed under show trials, ended up unscathed and often lived long lives as figures on the Turkish government afterwards.
[22] The war saw the USSA turn to a jingoistically nationalist era as the military and often nationalistic political groups gained more power, with Secretary Randolph’s death in 1963 the nation’s future moves were almost guaranteed, since without him was no-one to stop the tides, and by 1975 the nation had already come into being something akin to OTL Stalinist Russia
[23] Which would see the Dutch and German empires mostly separate into independent states under relatives with smaller bits that remained attached to the metropolis, while the Albish finished their process of federalization as most of the empire’s remaining colonies either became independent states within the Commonwealth or Dominions and Kingdoms within Albion
[24] The tales of the atrocities committed by the Allies caused the members of the Axis, more often than not, to take turn for going more liberal in areas their societies considered completely acceptable beforehand after seeing the rational maximum they could go, with homosexuality, for example, being decriminalized in Albion in 1960, less than two years after the war’s end; in the war's relation to scientific advancements one of the most known is rocket technology and space travel, as withouth the advancements on the way of fuel, nuclear energy and propulsion during the war's race for better missiles, aerieal vehicles and bombs man's first steps on the moon probably wouldn't have happened in 1961.
[25] The Enlightened State of Agartha
(Any questions?)​
There are several inconsistencies in the dates here.
 
The Second World War, also known as World War II (WWII or WW2), was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945.

Problem here.

You have WW2 from 1939-1945 but the wiki-box states its fought between 1951 and 1958?

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Prince Richard of Albion, Duke of Yeovil (1924-2011)
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Prince Richard of Albion, 1st Duke of Yeovil
(Richard David Michael Arthur; 16 October 1924 – 29 May 2011) was the first and longest-ruling Governor of the Pitcairn Islands. The eldest son and child of Emperor Leonard of Albion and Empress Olivia, he was created the Prince of Wales on his 19th birthday, 3 weeks after his father succeeded as emperor, and held the position until February 15th, 1951, when he became the first heir to an Albish throne since the Lady Elizabeth Tudor (future Elizabeth I) to be disinherited by their own parents.

Born during the reign of his grandfather, Emperor Henry, as the firstborn son and child of the Prince and Princess of Wales, Richard was the first direct heir to an Albish monarch since George II to not be born within the British Isles, as his mother gave birth to him at the Admiralty House in Sidney during his father’s tenure over the Australian Command. Returning to the Home Isles the following year, Richard always held a special care for the subcontinent, and frequently visited it in his later life, owning an area of land there larger than the entirety of the Pitcairns.

Although schooled at Eton College and Oxford, it was during his youth that Richard showed his deep disinterest for the more bureaucratic, serious or “tiresome” aspects of rulership, which, together with his involvement on a series of affairs and (often political) scandals, caused a great worry to hover among his relatives and the halls of government, as they showed not only his lack of respect for the position but also his foolhardy, buffoonish and manipulable nature. Finally, Richard’s actions and the worries of the nation culminated when, in February of 1951 (and possibly after years of hushed discussions among senior royals and government officials), Emperor Leonard called for an Extraordinary Session of Parliament and, within days of that, passed the Imperial Succession Act of 1951, disinheriting the Prince of Wales and making his younger sister, Jessamine, the heir.

Made the first Duke of Yeovil in the 27th of that same month, he married his maternal first cousin (and current lover), the Lady Rosemary Spencer-Churchill, only two days later on a small ceremony at Frogmore. Later that same year, following the start of hostilities with France, Richard was sent to serve as the first Governor to the Commonwealth of the Pitcairn Islands, a thinly-veiled exile motivated by fears among the government and the imperial family that he was sympathetic to Militant France.

Spending the entirety of the Second World War at Pitcairn, following its end Richard decided for remaining there, commissioning the building of Jabberow Park on the south shore of the island proper in 1959[1]. Due to his stay he continued to serve as the Governor to the Commonwealth, a position he held until 2007 when he, finally, officially retired and was succeeded by the Baron of Henderson, his youngest son.

A serial wedder, Richard was married four times during his life. Firstly to Rosemary Spencer-Churchill, who amicably divorced him after the two had lived semi-separately for years; the to his paternal first cousin, the Princess Margaret of the Straits, shortly after her divorce to her first (and fourth) husband; then to Dame Frances Gumm, an american immigrant and famous West End actress; and, finally, to Patricia H. Kennedy, a member of the Nantucketer political family and his mistress for years beforehand (they also had been in a relationship in the 1940s, which was forcibly broken by their families).

Living a mostly quiet life in Pitcairn[2], besides his marriages and disinheriting Richard is mostly known for his semi-official column on The Times[3], his favorite newsletter, who made him become known as the “somewhat boorish but endearing” strange uncle of the Imperial Family, who was known for his uncouth and “so unfunny they become funny” jokes, besides his often-unasked comments on the world and the news. He died in 2011 at the age of 86, from what is believed to have been whooping cough, and had his ashes scattered in three different places[4]

[1] The manor is located around Tautanu near Timiti’s Crack, across from the island’s central mountain chain, with most of the southern shore being considered part of its estate (I don't actually know how correct those names are, I found them on a map on the internet)
[2] He is remembered fondly (and funnily) for the fact that he made cable tv and internet access free to the entire island, using his status to make the imperial government be permanently obliged to provide both to the island
[3] Richard had the custom of sending letters to The Times ever since he started reading it, with the newsletter, in 1986, deciding to (with the permission of the Imperial Household) start publishing the best of them on a “column” of sorts every month. Said column soon came to be considered on of the Times’ best comedy skits, with Richard even helping by working to make his comments entertaining and/or funny, and remains to this day, being renamed on the duke’s honor to “Commenting Dickie” following his death and showing the funniest or most absurd comments made by readers through the previous month
[4] While part was scattered on Pitcairn, another third was scattered on Broken Bay, Sidney, and the last one on the Outback
 
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Hindu-Anglicanism
Hindu-Anglicanism (also known as the Anglican Church of Bharat, the Protestant Churches of Bharat or simply as Dharmic/India Protestantism) is a Western Christian tradition that developed from the coming of the Anglican Church (on itself originated from the practices, liturgy and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation) as well as some other protestant churches (in special Episcopalians, Scottish Presbyterians and German or Scandinavian Lutherans) to the Subcontinent during the 19th century, who went through the process of syncretizing its traditions with the beliefs and customs of Hinduism.

Although symbolically united under the Archbishop of Calcutta, who is the primus inter pares among protestant metropolitans in the Subcontinent, Hindu-Anglicanism is, unlike what many believe, by no means of the word a united entity, being akin to Eastern Orthodoxy or Protestantism in general in relation to its unity. This is in part due to Bharat’s size, as the Subcontinent has an area larger than that of Western Europe, while the remainder is, even more importantly, due to Hindu-Anglicanism’s origins as sprouting almost concurrently from various protestant sects, with a variety of beliefs and traditions, mixing with the equally various beliefs of Hinduism, on themselves already divided in a variety of sects.

It is due to said origins as the child of protestant immigrants and missionaries with the native Bharati that Hindu-Anglicanism is not characterized by any set of commonly-shared beliefs or scriptures (although the Bible and some texts are almost universal within its followers), but, instead, is united by a group of “reoccurring traits” (which, even then, are not universal among Hindu-Anglican sects) that bring its various sects together as being born from the same broad groups. Said “traits” are:

1) The mixing of Christian and Hindu theology, often through the correlating of Brahman with the Abrahamic God and the interpretation of the various Dharmic deities as being either aspects of God or as being equivalent to His angels in some manner, either through being higher-ranked ones or being variations of the traditionally known Christian angels. Resulting on this is the somewhat interesting fact that Hindu-Anglicans place a much bigger importance on the capitalization of the “g” when speaking of theology, as most differentiate the Hindu deities from angels;​
2) The seeking of salvation and the escape from the cycle of reincarnation;​
3) The identifying of Hinduism as not being only a religion but, more importantly, being a way of life whose customs do not clash with those of Christianity, often resulting on the mixing of both (it is quite common for a Hindu-Anglican to go pray in a Christian manner at a church or temple and pray in a Hindu manner at home, while symbols, pilgrimages and festivals from both origins are often practice together);​
4) The tendency to not believe, practice or even accept any form of the Indian Caste system, majorly due to much of Hindu-Anglicanism’s origins being among lower-class groups in the early 19th century, as a considerable part of its early practitioners were either from the European poor who migrated to the Subcontinent or from the Dalits/​
5) The mixing of architectural traditions and standards from Christianity and Hinduism in the building of places of worship (with Hindu-Anglican churches often looking more like a Hindu temple of some kind);​
6) The principle of non-violence against animals, although this one varies wildly (just like among general Hindus) as while the majority holds to some sort of vegetarianism due to it, there are sects that while non-vegetarian either only permit the consumption of certain kinds of animals (like fish or seafood), only permit the eating of meat in certain religious dates (like the eating of meat during Easter) or only permit the eating of meat that was produced through Jhatka (quick death), as they consider it as providing an humane and painless death to the animal[b|;​
7) and, The following of Hindu funeral traditions through the cremation of the dead. This one is a trait that is often varied, with there being somewhat of a divide between those who house the ashes of the deceased on columbaria due to the belief on the physical resurrection of the dead and those who don’t.​

Most present on major cities of Bharat and around the Gulf of Bengal, being the majority of the population in Assam and some northeastern Princely States, the total population of Hindu-Anglicans in the Subcontinent is widely disputed due to their tendency to cast themselves as either Hindus or Christians in the census (with less than 3% of the population specifically identifying as Hindu-Anglican), and estimates for their size range from 6% to 14% of the Subcontinent’s total population. Among their ranks include individuals like the Bharati Imperial Family (although they veer more to the purely protestant side of things), the royal families of the Carnatic, Maharashtra and Bengal[c], and some famous actors and politicians of Bharat, like Padma Parvati Lakshmi and Satyajit Ray.


[a] The primus inter pares among the higher priestly offices in Hindu-Anglicanism, being the oldest of the protestant metropolitans of the Subcontinent, the Archbishop of Calcutta’s status as the “head” of Hindu-Anglicanism is purely a nominal position meant to signify the office’s status. Interestingly, until 1964 the office was that of Bishop, with Calcutta being raised to an Archdiocese following the breaking of ties of most Anglican metropolitans in the Subcontinent from the main Church of England
|b] There is a small group near Bhutan who holds a stranger version of that; they only permit the consumption of meat that comes from an animal who died or was killed in their old age, permitting the animal to have lived a complete life and through that not hurting them through their deaths
[c] Who in general are considered to have helped make Hindu-Anglicanism socially acceptable among many Christian immigrants

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Besides Hindu-Anglicanism, there are some other syncretic religions and belief systems in the Subcontinent who, while of a similar origin to it, differ from it in the religions that originated them. Said belief systems are:​

- The Christian Jains, which are often confused with the Hindu-Anglicans (due to people often confusing Jainism for a subsect of Hinduism instead of being an equally ancient Dharmic Religion), they are admittedly small in their numbers, accounting for some tens of thousands within a land whose population hovers in the 800 million, but are still a separate religion on their own right who mostly originated from a group of Amish immigrants who came to Berar in the mid-to-late 19th century and ended up absorbing a small Jain community, establishing a new religious group that is, at its most offensive simplification, an sum of Amish Christianity with the Jain Dharma. They in modern times are divided into roughly three groups.
- The Orthodox, who still hold to traditional Amish practices like the lack of technology​
- The Moderates, who hold to much of the belief on the lack of technology but still use some technology​
- The Reformed, who still practice the same theology and customs of the other two but have gone away with the technology part and in general live normal modern lives; among them include some members of the Berari Royal Family​
- The Catholic Church of India (not to be confused with the Catholics in India who still follow Rome), who begun through similar processes as Hindu-Anglicanism but had the Latin Catholic Church as the Christian half of its origins, starting in the 19th century with the coming of Catholic immigrants from the Americas and Iberia to the Carnatic, which also has resulted on it having a slightly more Hispanic and Native American tinge to its customs. A part of the Latin Church until 1931, the Church officially broke its communion with Rome following moves from the Papacy to try and exert more control over its development (which was veering too-close to heretical for Rome’s comfort), with it becoming a separate church under the authority of the Bishop/Patriarch/Pope of Madras
- The Dharmic Orthodox Church (not to be confused with the Eastern Orthodox Church in the subcontinent), whose origins date to the early 20th century when, during the Russian Civil War, much of the orthodox population in Central Asia[1] migrated southwards into Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan and the Subcontinent proper. Of those, a small percentage, commanded by a minor Romanov Grand Duke (of all people), ended up settling in Nepal where they went through a process of religious syncretizing with Nepalese Hinduism and Buddhism. A small group, whose population of 5.537 people live in a single town in the Panchthar District of Nepal, the church has been hereditarily led by the Nepalese Romanovs, whose head serves as the church’s patriarch, ever since.
- The Protestant Church of Burma, which is the majority religion of Lower Burma (being followed by nearly 60% of the population), was born generally from the same protestant churches as Hindu-Anglicanism (if with a bigger slice on Scottish Presbyterian) but, unlike it, had Theravada Buddhism and local native beliefs (in specific the worship of “nats”, spirits that can intercede in worldly affairs, and mon folk religion) as the other side of the syncretizing, with the church having buddhist and folk beliefs and practices mixed in with Christian theology and much of protestant liturgy and practices. Sometimes considered by Buddhists as being just another school that branches from it, the Church of Burma has often drawn critiques from mainstream Theravada Buddhists due to it’s stance in relation to priestly marriages, as like the Japanese (and some Himalayans) it does not prohibit or frown upon its priests (which are often said to be basically buddhist monks with additional work) having sexual relations or even marrying, which on most Buddhist sects would see the monk or nun involved being expelled.

[1] Although there wasn’t any genocide or plans for such thing, the Russian Empire ITTL (I’m not sure if this also happened OTL so I’m saying it is an ITTL thing) ended up establishing sort-of-colonies in Central Asia through the building of settlements mostly inhabited by Eastern Orthodox Christians who came to work during the building of the extension of the Trans-Siberian Railway (which started earlier than OTL during the early reign of Alexander III) into Central Asia; they also included some converted Turkic clans since even without Russification being an Eastern Orthodox Christian still was a necessity for you to rise in the eyes of the government in most places
 
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The Monarchs of (modern) Japan – Yamato Dynasty (1867-present)
1867 to 1909: Meiji/Mutsuhito (1852-1909), first emperor with real political power in centuries
1909 to 1928: Taisho/Yoshihito (1879-1928), son of the previous
1928 to 1959: Showa/Hirohito (1906-1967), son of the previous
1959 to 1968: Ikibo/Matsuhito (1929-1960), son of the previous
1968 to 2012: Heisei/Naohito (1935), brother of the previous, abdicated and is now known as “Emperor Emeritus”
2012 to 2018: Reiwa/Hisahito (1960-2018), son of the previous
2018 to present: Keiun/Ashikaga (1997), daughter of the previous, married to an Arisugawa-no-Miya cousin
As the emperor is pregnant at the moment but hasn’t yet given birth, her sister her children are the heirs
- Maiko, Crown Princess Taifu of Japan (1999), married to a Fushimi-no-Miya cousin
- Kasuhito, Prince Hitachi (2019), son of the above
- Kimihito, Prince Miyaki (2019), brother of the above
Why did Hirohito abdicate and why did Matsuhito and Hisahito die so young?
 
Adakale, the Last Bastion of the Ottomans in Europe
Going against my "list" of planned updates, here is an infobox and some other things on Adakale, and ITTL Microstate on the Balkans inspired by a map I saw on Reddit (this one)​
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Adakale (also known as Ada Kaleh), officially the Sublime Ottoman State of Adakale (or the Sultanate of Adakale), is a Turkic-speaking microstate located in the Danube River and in the northern Balkans. The state is officially an islamic absolute monarchy headed by the Sovereign of Adakale, whose de jure powers extend across both civilian and religious functions; de facto Adakale is a strong executive monarchy, with the Sovereign being involved in both the executive and legislative branches of government. Adakale bordered by Romania in the north and Serbia in the south, it is also only a few meters downstream in the Danube from the Hapsburgs. It is Europe’s third smallest country, with an area of just over 8 square kilometers (that includes its small slice of the Danube) and a population of 35.761. Divided into 12 districts (called Nahiyahs), it is also a city-state, with its administrative center being at the Citadel of Adakale, where the Sovereign’s residence, Fort Malhun, is located. It is also the only landlocked country not to have physical borders with its neighbors, being located in a pluvial island in the Danube, with its connections to Romania, Serbia and the UHI being through man-made bridges or ferries. Adakale is one of the few landlocked countries in the world to have not only a full standing navy but also a direct access to the sea.

Economically, Adakale has one of the highest gross domestic products per person in the world, as well as one of the most bizarre cases of wealth divide in the world, as outside of its super-wealthy upper class the country’s population is made of the middle class. One of the main ports of the Danube, the country has strong financial, services and trading sectors centered in Cennet. It was once known as a billionaire tax haven, lacking either income or inheritance taxes, but the 2016 Matarazzo Incident caused changes to be made in the country’s laws, which now only extend said liberties to those either born or living in Adakale. Technically still a possession of the Sovereign, Adakale is known for retaining some feudal-like laws in relation to property and citizenship, with it being one of the three only countries in the world where all citizens are technically government workers, as well as their own ruler’s tenants. Due to the country’s unique taxing, living and working conditions, some have come to identify it as being within the spectrum of a Leninist monarchy.

Although officially an islamic state practicing of sharia laws, Adakale’s own history in relation to religion as well as the changes that occurred on it through the 20th century have resulted on a much different nature to both of those, with the state being ranked among the most liberal in the Muslim World and its sharia laws being considered a joke or an offense by more conservative islamic groups, with many considering their name as being more of a legal fantasy. Liberal on its views on interactions between the sexes, Adakale is known for its opening of religious places an offices to women, with the current Kadi of Adakale being the Honorable Fäniya Arslan Pasha, the third woman to hold the position since 1968. Although nearly 90% Muslim and over 70% Turkic, Adakale is one of the most diverse micronations in the world on both ethnicity and religion.

Adakale is a member of the League of Nations, the Eurasian Free Trade Association and the Balkan Council. It is also a member of the European Community and has a customs union and a monetary union with the nations around it, recognizing the European Unit as well as the Adakalean Lira as accepted currencies.

[1] Full name is the Citadel of Adakale, it is also known as the Rumelian Citadel, the Bastion of the Ottomans, The Mountain of the Danube or simply as Malhun’s Citadel, the last of those coming from the fact that following the settling down of the Abdulhamid-i Ottomans on it (and the subsequent reformation projects), the center building of the Old Citadel was renamed in honor of Malhun Hatun, first wife of Osman I.
[2] In specific Ottoman Turkic, as although used among emigres the Adakalean government does not recognize Modern Turkish
[3] In part the original population of Adakale, they are Turks coming from areas of what was in the past Ottoman Rumelia, being in a majority of Romanian or Bulgarian origin
[4] The majority are immigrants who came to Adakale during the late 20th century, other Middle Eastern immigrants are often included on this category just as much as Anatolian Turks identify as being of Rumelian origins; their real percentage is estimated to be around 21%
[5] De jure, de facto an Executive Semi-Leninist monarch with nominal aspects of a theocracy
[6] Although the Sovereign of Adakale still retains titles such as Caliph and Sultan from the Ottoman times, they are normally exchanged for the neutral title of Sovereign, with Sultan being the only one that is commonly used interchangeably with it
[7] Also the Sovereign’s younger brother
[8] Only the local Islamic Judge before the state was established, nowadays the Kadi is the highest religious authority in Adakale (as the Sovereign, while the leader of an entirely separate sect of Islam, rarely used the title of Caliph within Adakale, having more religious authority over islamic groups in Bharat and Africa that recognize him over the Hashemites) and is also the de facto Head of the Supreme Court of Adakale
[9] Born in 1955 from a Tatar Father and a Rumelian mother, Fäniya Arslan Pasha (the last being a surname added due to her high government position) has served as the Kadi since 2014, having beforehand worked as a religious official since she became a widow at age 25
[10] Some also like to identify it as being the date that the Ottoman Empire officially collapsed, as with the fleeing of the Osman Imperial Family (the branch that came to Adakale were simply the ones living in Topkapi, but most of the family fled during the night as Constantinople started rioting, leaving the Five Pashas to their fates) there was not even a symbolic ruler to perhaps unite it
[11] Not counting non-residents, although that number has been falling steadily as they either start living in Adakale or just ask to have their citizenship revoked (it also does not include the Sovereign Family, as they are above the law and, as such, are technically not citizens)
[12] Introduced in 2012, it is an incredibly convoluted currency that makes most people be utterly befuddled on how the Europeans have managed to not only make it work, but seamlessly integrate it to their local currencies

A SHORT HISTORY OF ADAKALE AND ITS INTERACTIONS WITH THE MUSLIM WORLD
The northernmost Ottoman territory following the Russo-Turkish War (having been held intermittently since 1699), only remaining as a part of it due to an extreme oversight by the people on the Congress of Berlin, Adakale remained something of a backwater, a personal possession of the Ottoman Sultans, all the way to the First Balkan War, where only by the skin of its teeth that the island remained under the empire’s control (the Siege of Adakale being remembered to this day on the 7th of August). Following that, it seems that the Ottomans finally started placing some focus on their little island, although not even through their neutrality in WWI did they seriously place military defenses on it.

It was only when the Ottoman Empire started to fall apart (in part due to the infamous Cleansing Project of the Five Pashas) that the island really gained focus, as the descendants of Sultan Abdulhamid II (who ruled a somewhat similar period to OTL), who had already gained some interest due to having visited the island in 1902, possibly foreseeing what was to come, sent much of their personal fortunes and belongings from their residence at Topkapi Palace to the island, and, when Constantinople burst into flames and rioting in September of 1928, they were so well-prepared for it that they managed to sneak their way to a personal yacht with the bodies of their ancestors, sailing into the Black Sea and up the Danube while their relatives did similarly, only to the Aegean.

The Ottoman’s early months and years in the island were not comfortable or even easy ones, as although Sultan Mehmed VII (Abdulhamid II’s eldest son and the family’s leader) and his kin did their best to acclimate to their new home, threats of annexation from Romania, Serbia or even the UHI would plague the island for its first 6 years, only becoming more peaceful following the Treaty of Orsova in 1934, which saw Adakale’s neighbors recognize it as well as establish the island as a kind of free port in the Danube. Following it relations between the countries became casual but not overtly friendly, only starting to become closer following the establishment of the Transdanubian Railway in 1941, which crosses the middle of the island.

The next decades saw a peaceful stay for Adakale, as the island grew from immigrants moving in and sensible spending and investing by its rulers; perhaps to remember more their old home in Constantinople, the Ottomans started building many of the great landmarks that now mark Adakale; it was Mehmed VII himself who ordered the reformation and expansion of the Citadel, starting a journey that would result on the “Mountain of the Danube”. The state stayed neutral during the Second World War, although it did become a secret harbor to persecuted peoples under Militant or Turkish Rule.

Following the end of the war Adakale saw a post-war boom as the island’s status as an undamaged location in the middle of one of Europe’s arteries made it a center of commerce and communication, from 1960 to 1970 the island’s population more than tripled, going from just over 5 thousand to nearly 20, and would continue to grow just as the island itself started to be expanded by the Adakalean Government, with the Nehir District being founded in 1974. It was also in the 70s that the Adakale and Samaria branches of the Ottoman Dynasty made peace with each-other, having both been at odds for some 50 odd years due to both claiming the title of Caliph and the headship of the family; the Mena Hotel Agreement, in Cairo, saw both side agree to a sort-of-diarchy, with the Adakale and Samarian branches agreeing to recognize each-other’s rank in the family, although the growing fragmentation of Islam has also been seen as one reason behind the two of them agreeing to recognize the other’s status as Ottoman Caliph.

Besides its involvements with the world in general and the rekindling of its international relations with the Muslim World (including the historical visit of Hashemite Caliph Hakim in 1997) Adakale’s last decades have seen large developments in other areas of the country’s land and society, with the latter being most marked by 1968, when the Sovereign Murad VI started his religious and social reforms that basically created what most consider “Murad’in Islam” (Another part of the Islamic Reformation) and saw a great expansion for the equality between sexes, the freeing of their interactions and the general liberalization of Adalake. To the former there was the great development of Adakale’s engineering, with the state becoming known as a leading entity on the area, of which the rise of skyscrapers can well be called the lest impressive project done in the state, who saw the literal expansion of its above-water territory through land reclamation (or the literal building of stilts-like areas), a process that continues to this day) and the expansion of the bridges connection the state to its neighbors (following the addition of the Highway to the Transdanubian Railway), with the establishment of settled districts on the bridges sides, making some compare them to double-decked version of the medieval London Bridge.

In 2008 Adakale also enacted possibly its most memorable action yet in relation to its interactions with Serbia, as after years of talks and negotiating the state gained a permanent lease from Serbia to build on some of the lands near it on the Serbian side of the Danube, which while still covered in forest as of 2020 can be used as a release valve as Adakale’s population grows.
A SOMEWHAT DETAILED MAP OF ADAKALE
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Something on the keys shown
The Citadel of Adakale. The political center of the state, it was in the past a great fortress made by the Hapsburgs to defend their control on the Danube from the Ottomans, but, after nearly a century of continuous reformations and expansions by successive Sovereigns of Adakale, the Citadel has become much more fitting of its nickname of mountain, as bellow its topmost layer there are the older layers, now a part of the strange sort of madness that is the Sovereign’s residence.
The Walls of the Old Citadel. Remaining mostly as a remembrance of the older structure, they still remain as landmarks of when the island was a fort, but now have normal residences and buildings within them
Noble Residences. although called that they are in general either the houses of members of the Ottoman Family who don’t want to live in the Citadel, high-class rentable houses or the homes of the richer people of the country. As many of them are remarkably opulent or “flashy”, they are in general considered landmarks on themselves
The Great Station. built as a stopping point for the Transdanubian Railway in the 1940s, the Great Station is considered the third most famous building of Adakale after the Citadel and the Great Osman Mosque, being known for its unique looks (a mix between Ottoman and Art Deco), and for being built both above and bellow both the Railway and the modern Highway
The Old Cemetery. Adakale’s only cemetery, no-one really known why it is called “Old”, although some believe it may be to differentiate it from the burial grounds of the Ottomans within the Citadel (a bit far-fetched, though)
The Port District, or Cennet Nahiyah. It is the most populous and densely populated district of Adakale, being made either of the island’s docks or of skyscrapers, which make about 90% of the entire small district, which houses about half of the state’s population
The Ottoman Permanent Lease. Granted by Serbia to the Sovereign Mustafa V in 2008, it comprehends a bit of the shoreline west of the Southern Bridge as well as the small sort-of-plain east of the bridge. Almost entirely uninhabited, the lease’s area is larger than the entirety of Adakale proper
A. The Great Osman Mosque, the largest mosque in Adakale and the main center of prayer on it, it is also known as the “White Mosque” due to its white color, with the mosque’s exterior being white-washed while the interior is almost pure marble
B. The Green Mosque, the second-largest mosque in Adakale, known for its green, nearly emerald, coloring, which is caused by it’s outside (and much of its inside) being covered by a gigantic mosaic made of green tiles
C. The Church of the Most Saint Sunday and the Synagogue of Adakale; located side-by-side, they are the major non-islamic religious buildings in Adakale, with the Synagogue being the only jewish temple on the country while the MSS Church is the center of the Diocese of Adakale
D. The Great Bazaar of Adakale, existing even before the state was established and being known for its variety of products
E. The Great Osman Square, located on the entrance of the Great Osman Mosque
F. The Heroes of this Land Memorial, it was built informally in the 1900s in memory of those who died in the Siege of Adakale, with the modern monument and park being established in 1960
G. The National Library of Adakale, known for both extremely confusing due to its weird layout
H. The Adakale Bathhouse, which already existed before the coming of the Ottomans, a famous landmark and source of public services so widely used that seeing even the Sovereign or his close relatives on it isn’t that uncommon
I. The Trandafir Gallery, Adakale’s answer to a mall, with 8 floors and an architecture similar to the Great Station, it is home to high-class stores, famous restaurants, service stores and popular attractions, including one of the two cinema house in the country
J. The Ottoman Museum, Adakale’s only historical museum, with a focus on the Ottoman Empire and Dynasty
K. The Great Masadra, the main learning institution in Adakale
L. The Siyah Kaplan Hotel, Adakale’s only luxury hotel, it can serve over 500 guests at once
M. The Watchtower, built in Imperial Times following the Balkan War, it is nowadays a landmark who serves as a partial lighthouse but more as a place where people go for the view of the entire country as well as a good chunk of the valley around
N. The National Bank of Adakale
O. The Palace of Adalet, the official residence of the Kadi, traditionally the Kadi lives on his or her’s own personal house while public duties are made here or in the Citadel, the palace open to the public most of the week
P. The Grand Ottoman Cassino and Hotel, often called the “Monte Carlo of the East” (not to be confused with others named that)
Q. The Western Park, the largest green area of Adakale, within it there is also the Osmanoğlu Family Complex, the palace/apartment complex that houses most of the members of the Sovereign’s extended family
R. The Northern Bridge (sometimes known as “Suleiman the Great Bridge”), it has a total population of a thousand
S. The Southern Bridge (sometimes known as “Abdulhamid Bridge”), it has a population of nearly two thousand, and has its middle cut by a Bascule Bridge, as unlike its northern counterpart it is located on the way of the main sailing route in the river
T. The Topkapi Park (named after the historical palace for reasons yet unknown), another of the green areas of the country
U. The Nehir District, established in the 1970s when it was barely a collection of stilt-houses, nowadays it is called Adakale’s Little Venice, being made of reclaimed lands or of stilt platforms, sustaining both houses, businesses and parks
V. The smallest part of the Lease, sometimes known as the Shore District, it is currently the only part of the wider OPL to have development projects going through, with the government having invested for the last decade in the building of shoreline residences and a small resort and pier. Although the project is estimated to be completed by the end of 2021, people have already started moving in to the area, which has a population nearing 200
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Sovereign Abdulmejid III (b.1986) in 2020
Since I can't make Abdulkadir's image actually appear (the link breaks every time) just imagine Richard Madden with a happier face and a navy-blue suit
Grand Vizier Abdulkadir Murad (b.1986) in 2018
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Kadi Fäniya Arslan Pasha (b.1955), while at a gala at Fort Malhun, c. 1992​
Now that this one is complete, the next one is going to be the United Fruit Company, and what the heck is Costa Rica​
 
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The Second World War is generally considered to have begun on the 4th of July, 1939, with the coordinated invasions of Belgium and California by France and Aztlan and the subsequent declarations of war on them by the United Kingdom and Germany on the 6th. From middle 1951 to late 1953, in a series of campaigns and treaties, France[1] came to control much of continental Europe while Mexico[2] and the Free State of Cuba[3] expanded to invasions on the Caribbean and Central America and formed the Grand Alliance together with Spain[4] and China[5], along with other countries later on. Following the fall of Germany[6] in mid-1952 and of California[7] early that same year, the war’s three major areas of conflict became mostly between the Allies and single members of the Axis, with the Albish Empire in Europe, Japan in Asia and Oregon in the Americas. On October 30th, 1954, France led the European allied powers in an invasion of Russia and the Balkans, signing the deGaulle-Kemal Pact with the Turkish Nation where they officially divided the Balkans between each other, opening the Eastern Front, the largest land theatre in history, and trapping the allies, crucially the French Grand Armée, in a war of attrition.
The wikibox says 1951.
 
The wikibox says 1951.
Corrected (as I said, I did it somewhat in an inspiration rush, I really should go and do a fine-tuning of the update)

Also, just taking the oportunity (I'd feel it would be spam if I posted this solely, but here is my "plan" for the updates (which I plan to follow just like Barbarossa follows the Pirate Code)
1. The United Fruit Company and Costa Rica, or "How Agrobusiness made a nation"
2. The American Exiles and the North American Buffer Republics
3. The Moon, Mars and the Asteroid Belt, or "Why the Sun truly will never set on the Albish Empire" (either that or "This Thread's author nose-dives off the shark")
4. The Mexican Cartel War, or "They really shouldn't have messed with the Hapsburg"
5. The Imperial Monarchies, both in Albion and Bharat
6. The Heirs to Albion, or "The Prince of Wales, his wives, and their children"
7. Prime Minister Dench, or "The Irish Lady"
8. Churchill and Tolkien, the Lord of the Shire and the PM of Iron
9. Oregon, its Rulers and the Mormons, or "The Florida of the Commonwealth"
10. France and its republics
11. Germany and the Hohenzollerns
12. New York and the Islands, or "The Redcoats Triumphant"
13. The Qattara Sea and Lake Ramses, or "The Inner Seas of Egypt"
14. South Africa, her People, and her Problems, or "Why ethnical tension is never funny, kids"
15. The War in Hainan, or "The Song really can't catch a break"
16. Brazil and his Succession, or "The greatest tension of our time"
17. The Confederacy of the Levant, or "Albion's little social experiment"
18. The Hashemite Caliphate, or "The Islamic Reformation"
19. Guantanamo Bay, or "Albion's little Cuba"
20. Spain and its Autonomies, or "How can a family who intermarries so much be so fertile?"
21. The UK, the Home Islands and their People, or "How Britain is still a thing, but at the same time is not"
22. The British Continental Territories, or "Gibraltar and her younger siblings"
23. Patagonia, or "Europe in South America", and the Falklands
24. Phuket, or "Why you speak Russian when crossing the Channel of Thailand"
25. The Microstates of Europe, or "The Tiny Twenty"
 
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The United Fruit Company and Costa Rica
Sorry that there is no logo, but I couldn’t find one that would work well and the logo of the OTL UFC is a bit too tacky. Also, sorry for the confusion in relation to the Company’s official name, since I ended up changing my mind over the name while writing this (reason why I made that in official documents it’s United Food while colloquially and in a trade setting it remains known as United Fruit
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The United Food Company, Inc.[1] (commonly known as The UFC or United Fruit), formerly named the United Fruit Company, is an Albish-Costa Rican multinational agronomical company based in London, Albion, and San José, Costa Rica, which focuses on farming, harvesting, production and sale of foodstuffs, originally fruits. It is one of the three largest companies in the Commonwealth’s agrobusiness, along with Apple and Rhodes-Cavendish. The company has been referred to as “one of the most influential economic forces in the world” as well as the world most valuable food brand.

The Teck Quartet (future Empress consort Mary of Teck, Dukes Adolphus and Francis II of Teck, and the 1st Earl of Athlone) founded the company on November 6, 1892. It started as a transportation business of foodstuffs (mostly bananas) from Central America to Albion and Canada but expanded in the 19th and early 20th centuries on the farming and harvesting of its fruits as well, going outside of bananas to other fruits and vegetables in 1901. In 1935 the UFC also begun to process percentages of its raw harvest into more durable food products, like dried snacks, jams and sweets. By 1950 the company became the largest business in Costa Rica by number of employees as well as its market value, and in 1968 it inherited H.H. & S. Budgett[2], expanding to the retail business. In 2008, United Fruit acquired Tesco plc for £10.2 billion, which substantially increased its foothold as a retailer and caused the company to change its historical name in official settings.[3]

One of the oldest multinational companies still in business, as well as one of the largest companies still under private ownership, having permanently left the stock market after being on it from 1904 to 1925, United Fruit is known for its historical hold on the industries it is a part of, frequently setting the standards of the agrobusiness, and is the second-largest retailer in the world after the GPA. It is the third-largest employer in the Commonwealth and one of the world’s most valuable companies.

Deeply intertwined with the Albish Imperial Family and the government of Costa Rica since its early days, with the Duke of Cambridge[4] and the Duke of Teck being its largest shareholders[5] and members of its Board of Directors holding high-ranking positions in the Costa Rican administration (or being related to them), the UFC has been criticized for its influence and involvement in politics as much as for its stranglehold on the economies of Central America (in special Costa Rica), as well as for its monopoly-like influence and business practices on both the agronomic and retailing industries.

[1] Although officially the company’s name has changed to “United Food Company” in 2010, colloquially and in trade the company’s name remains being United Fruit, while Tesco is considered one of its brands together with other bought or annexed companies
[2] One of the first market companies in the British Isles, established in the early 19th century but already in decline by the 60s, it was inherited by the current Duke of Teck’s father, who then proceeded to buy-out his maternal relative’s lumbering business and add it as a brand to the UFC
[3] The largest merger in recent history in the empire, the name change was caused by the Board concluding that having fruit on the official name of a company who sold almost all kinds of foods wasn’t that representative of their imagine (besides being something of a clause in the buying). Due to the brand recognition, though, the Company has refrained from actually trying to use the new name in a more public setting
[4] Comprehending just over 2 fifths of the entire company, like all Dukes of Cambridge sine 1935 (when Mary of Teck gave 10% of the company’s shares to her grandson) it is administrated by his Estate, serving mostly to fund any projects he may be interested in or to sustain any residence that is legally under the title’s ownership
[5] Owning nearly another fifth of the company, the Duke’s of Teck still lost a good chunk of their shares over the years though (while the Earls sold them on their entirety to the Imperial Family, focusing more on their other businesses), as the other 39,1% of the company are either from the company’s time on the market or from subsequent Dukes having to sell parts of their shares to deal with debts





Having a total of 32 people on its board of directors (and a total of 117 shareholders, the poorest of which has less than 1% of all shares), among them there are the 5 key individuals of the company:
The Chairman of the Board is Dame Wynifred H.G. Maltby (b.1933), who owns about 5.2% of all shares on the company, she is a second-generation owner of the company, whose father was the valet of Duke Alphonsus of Teck and gained 3% of shares as a Christmas gift in the 1910s; she is the oldest member of the board as well as the only one among the five keys of the company to live full-time in Albion, as her age and position (held since 2005) mean that she mostly does her functions by video-calls or by telephone from her home in the Midlands;
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company is Carlos Boniface Villanueva (b.1970), who owns about 2% of shares on the company. Living part-time in Albion and part-time in Costa Rica (which means his real home is his personal airplane), he is also the first cousin and adoptive brother of the current President of Costa Rica, Juan Gottwald Villanueva;
The Chief Operations Officer (COO) of the company is Dame Augustine Askew-Mulvahil, 2nd Baronet (b.1974), who owns the least number of shares in the company (around 0.09%); although an Albish noblewoman (if not a peer) and born and raised there, she currently lives full-time in Costa Rica;
The Governmental Representative of the Company is Miranda Sánchez Rivera (b.1977), who has held the position since 2010, the fifth person to hold it ever since it was created in the 1970s; although her official job is to represent the UFC’s interests in the Costa Rican Government, she is also the Vice President of Costa Rica, serving as acting Vice President since 2019 and being elected to the position in early 2020, which caused some upheaval seeing as how the position was opened by the sudden death of her predecessor and she should have stepped down in early 2019 instead of actually running for the office;
And the President of the Company, the Duke Francis III of Teck (b.1965), also holding a position in the Costa Rican government, he is the second-largest shareholder of the company (with 18.6% of the shares) and is the only one to have inherited his position among the key members, as the Presidency of the Company has been held by a Duke of Teck ever since the death of Empress Mary
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Wynifred Maltby side-eyeing the then CEO of the Company, Arthur Clarke III, in a conference in 2008
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Carlos B. Villanueva (b.1970) in a official portrait photograph, sort-of-dying inside
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Augustine Askew-Mulvahil, 2nd Baronet (b.1974) at a worker's rally in San José in 2016
The Duke of Teck and Miranda S. Rivera appear bellow so I'm not showing them twice
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Costa Rica (meaning “Rich Coast” in Spanish), officially the Commonwealth of Costa Rica (Spanish: Mancomunidad de Costa Rica), is a country in Central America, bordered by Miskita to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama and Cotoburica to the southeast and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. It has a population of just over 5.1 million in a land area of around 50,000 square kilometers (19,305 square miles). An estimated 415,000 people live in the capital and largest city, San José, with around 2 million people living in the surrounding metropolitan area.

The sovereign state is a “mixed government”, being at the same time a unitary semi-presidential constitutional republic and a constitutional monarchy, recognizing the Albish monarch as its own monarch with the Duke of Teck doing the job of a Viceroy under the title of Lord Protector. Known for in previous eras having a long-standing and stable democracy, Costa Rica, while considered stable and presenting a somewhat educated workforce, is considered a de facto oligarchy, with its government and legislature being commanded by a long-standing political class. Its economy, heavily dependent on agriculture and the food industry, is marked by the involvement of the United Fruit Company, who has been present on the country since the late 19th century and currently is the employer of over 70% of its population, including, in a sense, the Costa Rican Prime Minister. With growing pharmaceutical and ecotourism sectors in its economy, Costa Rica has in recent years started to invest in education, in special in urban and non-agricultural areas, with some local administrations spending upwards of 10% of their budget on education, much above the global average of 4.9%.

Costa Rica was sparsely inhabited by indigenous peoples before coming under Spanish rule in the 16th century. It remained a peripheral colony of the empire until its independence as a part of Mexico, followed by its membership in the Federal Republic of Central America before formally becoming an independent state in 1847. Solely a republic from then until 1968, in 1949 Costa Rica abolished its own army following the brief Costa Rican Civil War, de facto becoming an Albish protectorate, and was under Mexican occupation during WWII. Following the war, it became a de facto colony of the empire until 1968, when it official became the Commonwealth of Costa Rica as a Commonwealth Realm.

Although markedly agricultural and under a decades-long oligarchy, the country has consistently performed favorably in the Human Development Index (HDI), being near the 70th in the world as of 2020 and one of the highest in Latin America. It has also been cited by the League of Nations Development Program (LNDP) as having attained a much higher human development than other countries at the same income levels, with a better record on human development than would be expected for its levels of inequality. In comparison it is considered to perform badly on comparisons of the state of democracy and press freedom, although it is ranked surprisingly high in relation to subjective happiness.

A member of the Commonwealth since 1962, and considered a Commonwealth Realm since 1968, Costa Rica had beforehand already been a part of the Pound Zone since the 1930s, having changed the Colón for it as its main currency in 1944 and completely discontinuing the former in 1965

Legends on the infobox
[a] Although it had unofficially been like that since the 1920s, only in 1968 with the country’s restructure that it became official
|b]An ITTL term for Costa Ricans descending from European and American immigrants who came in the 20th century to the country (Costa Rica was a somewhat major refuge point for both refugees of the Second American Civil War, while southern Germans were the major immigrants to the country from Europe)
[c] As said above, a unitary presidential constitutional republic and a constitutional monarchy, while de facto being an oligarchy
[d] Although some proposed to call the Albish Monarch the “King/Queen of Costa Rica”, the final decision in 1968 was that the title of the Costa Rican Monarch would be “Lord Protector of Costa Rica”, possibly as a nod to the fact that the country was an Albish Protectorate for a time and to the monarchy-like rule of Oliver Cromwell, who was titled the Lord Protector of a Republic
[e] Although the Duke of Teck has been de facto a hereditary Viceroy, he is also recognized as the only titled nobleman in Costa Rica, a distinction that was made unofficially in the 1920s but officially has been in place since 1968, with him being considered of equal rank to the Vice-President
[f] Although some consider the date of the restructuring as being when Costa Rica was liberated from Mexican occupation and became a de facto colony of Albion

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The Infoboxes for the three major government officials in the country
 
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Fascinating.

Are there any other countries like that?
Well, thank you.
From my memory I can bring up some countries who have similar governments (the "hereditary republics" are monarchies in all but name but they are also the ones most akin to OTL in that area): Nantucket is like Costa Rica in that it is a republic but also recognized the Albish monarch as its own (The Orange Free State could also be included, since while considered solely a monarchy in personal union with Albion nowadays it started with a similar arrangement), there is a subnational confederacy in Morocco who while de facto a republic recognizes both the authority of the Moroccan monarch and of the leadership of the descendants of a Sufi Saint who founded the confederacy. And Rome identifies as a republic but recognizes the Pope as its Head of State and has an advisory house made of the Papal Nobility.

There are also the kongsi federations in Borneo, who are republics but also are under the authority of the Indonesian monarch
 
I noticed that TTL's WW2 has a much higher bodycount than OTL. I assume that's because of the longer interbellum period allowing for more advances in technology.
 
I noticed that TTL's WW2 has a much higher bodycount than OTL. I assume that's because of the longer interbellum period allowing for more advances in technology.
That and also that the larger area it affected in comparison to OTL. IOTL WW2 was mostly fought on Eurasia and Africa, while ITTL the Americas have a front that is equal to Europe and East Asia in relation to its devastation and death
 
H.P. Lovecraft, the Craftsman of Terror
So, already deviating from my planned updates, huh? This was planned to have been posted on the 15th of March, since it was the 84th anniversary of Lovecraft's death, but due to having things to do at home I only came around to posting it today.​
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Sir Howard Philips Lovecraft of Providence, 1st Baronet (August 20, 1890 - September 4, 1965) was a Canadian-American writer of weird, horror, science-fiction, fantasy and historical fiction, who is known for his creation of what became the Cthulhu Mythos[2].

Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Lovecraft spent most of his life in New England. He was born into affluence, but his family's wealth dissipated in the years following his grandfather's death, with much of his remaining inheritance being used to fund his studies at Rhode Island College, where he became a Master of Letters and Library Sciences. It was during his student years that Lovecraft also entered writing, which started in 1913 when he sent a critical letter to a pulp magazine that ultimately led to his involvement in pulp fiction.

Finishing his studies in 1916, Lovecraft's chronically bad health had dodged him the draft, but the death and/or maiming of many of his friends and relatives in the front caused Lovecraft to become a critic of the war, writing and publishing under pseudonyms various shorts stories between 1914 and 1920 with a focus on his grievances with the war, the government and society in general, being just thinly veiled enough to pass censorship. Paranoid, Lovecraft's friendship with one John Thaddeus Ross, who worked on the War Department, meant that he was one of the first to hear of the upcoming defeat of the US, selling most of his family's remaining estates just before the February Revolution and soon becoming one of the thousands who moved shop to Canada during the early stages of the Second American Civil War.

Technically a war-refugee from 1920 to 1929 while he lived firstly in Prince Edward Island and later Nova Scotia, settling down in Halifax in 1924, that same year he married Lettice Hatter, a jewish-welsh chemist who worked on the War Ministry whom he met in 1922, and started the process of officially becoming an Albish citizen, which he would identify as until his death. It was during those years that Lovecraft had his first work outside of writing, becoming an employee of the Central Library of Halifax in 1926, where he would work until 1933, when his mother's death forced him to retire to take care of his two daughters by Lettice.

During the interwar period, Lovecraft finally started to write and publish the stories that he is most known for, focused on his interpretation of humanity's place in the universe, which, in his view, was of it being an unimportant part of an uncaring cosmos that could be swept away at any moment. His stories also included fantastic elements that represented the perceived fragility of anthropocentrism. Although unknown at first, the controversies started by his works, in special due to his comments on race and gender which even by the most liberals of the time could be considered excessive[c], soon caused him to become famous through word-of-mouth advertising.

Moving to Truro in 1944, where he built a mostly-exact replica of the old Philips Estate[d], it was there that Lovecraft started to dabble in writing historical fiction and fantasy[e], which would become a minor staple of his works, as well as establish a small creative writing school, tutoring future writers like Christine Clarke and August Dumbrow. In 1950 Lovecraft and Lettice officially divorced, having initially separated in 1944, although they remained in speaking terms until his death. In 1955, he remarried to Anna Mary Mitchell, a biracial woman 40-years his younger whose mother, Margaret[f], was a friend of his; they would stay married until Lovecraft's death in 1965, having a son together.

Agoraphobic and prone to bouts of mental instability in his later years, which is believed to have been inherited from his parents, both of whom had mental problems (his father being institutionalized shortly after his birth), Lovecraft spent his last decade alive rarely leaving the borders of his property in Truro, being cared as a semi-invalid by his wife and relatives, before dying at the age of 75 on his sleep, being buried at Dovecove Cemetery, Truro, a five minutes walk from the gates of the Lovecraft estate.

As per his expressed wishes, Lovecraft's skin that would not be visible during the funeral was extracted by his personal physician, and used to partially or completely bind the covers of the Lovecraft Set[g]

A prolific writer, having published over 600 works during his life and said to have written the last chapter of The Moor of St. James on the day of his death[h], Lovecraft is regarded as one of the most significant authors of the 20th century, whose writings served as the establishment of the genre of "Lovecraftian Horror" and lead the literary movements of Cosmicism and Umbralism. Among his most celebrated tales are The Call of Cthulhu, At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow over Innsmouth, The Rats in the Walls, Miss Tatternickle, The Shadows of Avalon and An American Werewolf in London.

Granted a Baronetcy in 1957 (Lovecraft of Providence, which although officially of Fort Providence, a hamlet in northern Canada is known for being de facto a reference to his hometown), the current Lovecraft Baronet is his son, Howard Mitchell Lovecraft Jr., 2nd Baronet.

[a] Although Lovecraft died in late 1965, his last complete work, "The Moor of St. James", was only published in 1967, his unfinished works are still being published in modern times, with his notes being used to determine where he planned for the stories to go
[2] Considered by most the first case of an official shared fictional universe, although the mythos itself begun in the 1920s, it was only in 1950 that, after years of talks on the matter, Lovecraft set in stone that anyone could publish within the mythos as long as a) they gave him/his estate 2-5% of the revenue and b) followed the "canon" established by "Paradigms for the Mythos" published that same year to be labeled as part of the "Mythos", with books outside that canon but still tied to it being labeled as part of the "Open Mythos"
[c] In his own words (parafrased, since it was taken from one of his books and so imagine reading with period-equivalent language and ethnic slurs) "what is the difference between a white and a black, or between them and an asian? between a man and a woman, or between a child and an elder? Nothing but their appearance, for they are equally pitiful and insignificant to the entirety of the cosmos"
[d] Burned to the ground during the Battle of Providence in 1924, was by that point a shelter to the homeless after Lovecraft left the entire residence bare of almost anything of value when he fled to Canada
[e] Lovecraft admitted in 1958 that he originally did it so his grandchildren would have something to read that wasn't the mostly gloom and doom of his general tales, but soon also started writing things more on his style using those new (at least to him) genres
[f] Born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1900, Margaret moved to Canada as a teenager during the war, having traveled there after receiving news her brother had deserted the US Army and was living in Canada. Never married (but having a daughter in 1931), she became known as a writer in 1936 when after publishing the novels "Gone With the Wind" and "Ropa Carmagin", and had became a friend of Lovecraft due to some mutual acquaintances they had among the American Exiled Writers Association
[g] A collection of 28 books containing with Lovecraft considered the "best" out of the works of the Lovecraftian Circle, they were kept in his estate until 1998, when the set was permitted by the Lovecraft family to be kept at the National Library after one-too-many attempts at stealing it by overenthusiastic fans, collectors not taking a no as an answer and general opportunists
[h] And being known for his copious letters, it is estimated that Lovecraft wrote upwards of a hundred thousand letters over the course of his life
 
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