Alt-Wikipedia entries from my "China industrializes" TL

EternalCynic

So for a long time I've thought of a "Ming China industrializes" TL, but know this will be a very long project. So I'll start instead by posting articles from the ATL Wikipedia.

You'll notice I haven't decided the years. This is because I'm unsure of the specific timeline and will fit them in later. Also, since China is the dominant power, the dominant calendar won't be based on Christianity as IOTL. So I'll figure that out later.

Malta

Malta is an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea, and a Domain of the Empire of Japan. It lies 50 kl south of the Italian island of Sicily, and 284 kl east of the African province of Tunis. With an area of 320 kl^2, and a population of over 700,000, it is one of the world’s smallest and densest territories. The official languages of Malta are Japanese and Italian, though Maltese is a widespread vernacular, and Chinese is important in the fields of commerce and education.

Its strategic location in the middle of the Mediterranean has given it a frequent succession of powers, from the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Moors, Normans, Sicilians, Castilians, the Knights of St. John, the Chinese Western Oceans Company, and currently the Japanese.

The islands first came under Japanese sovereignty in the year XXX with the Treaty of Civitavecchia, under which Pope Mark II directed the Knights of St. John to vacate the islands and not resist Japanese rule, following the Italian Spice Wars. Malta was occupied by Chinese Western Oceans Company marines during the Second Sheng-Japan War between XXX and XXX.

The Domain was granted self-governance by the Japanese Teikai in XXX, and the previously formidable IJN presence at Valletta was sharply reduced. Although the Japanese government is committed to ending its rule over the archipelago, the specifics is a divisive issue in local politics. The two most popular opinions are autonomy within Italy and an independent republic, though sizeable minorities support total annexation by Italy and even the restoration of the Knights. However, it is widely understood that whatever decision the Maltese take, this would only occur after China relinquishes its three Rhomanian territories (Cyprus, Euboea, and Corfu) to the Holy Rhomanian Republic – a subject of diplomatic brinksmanship.

Malta has long been a stronghold of Christianity, with the Catholic (Roman) Archdiocese of Malta claiming to be an Apostolic See. The overwhelming majority of its inhabitants are Catholic, loyal to Rome.

The islands are a popular tourist attraction given its warm climate, archaeological sites, and unique culture. It is one of Europe's largest offshore banking and gambling centres, which has made it a major hub for organized crime networks and money laundering in Europe and the former Caliphate. The presence of one of three global headquarters of the All-Harmony-Under-Heaven Council, gives it vastly disproportionate influence in the politics and economics of Europe.
Click to expand...

How does everyone think? Should I continue posting from the alt-Wikipedia?
 
Last edited:

EternalCynic

Richfield Automobile

Richfield Automobile Corporation is a British multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Royal Richfield, Cheshire, England. According to its annual report of XXX, it has 412,500 employees worldwide and generated 156.63 billion pounds in revenue, making it the 8th largest company in the world, and largest in Europe. Richfield produced 14.3 million vehicles worldwide, the largest worldwide following the breakup of China’s General Motors Corporation. It is by far the largest listed company in the United Kingdom by market valuation, twice the size of second-ranked Quinstar Electronics Corporation. Its shares are traded on the stock exchanges of London, Aromopolis, and Ghiangning.

Richfield’s rise to global market leader can largely be attributed to its innovation in battery-powered technology, and the razorblaze model it had used to drive sales of its mass-market Richfield brand alongside its luxury Lin-Chi brand.

The company was founded by Sir Thomas Richfield in XXX as an automobile servicing shop in the town of Warrington. It started creating its own product, the Richfield Model Alpha, in XXX, just two years before the outbreak of the Great European War, when its assembly lines were nationalized to support Britain’s war efforts. Following the Coalition victory, Richfield quickly became a symbol of Britain’s postwar reconstruction (see the Miracle on the Mersey). In recognition of its role, Warrington was renamed Royal Richfield by King George II in XXX. Its rise to global prominence was greatly helped by the wave of tariff reductions worldwide following the proclamation of the Era of Immoveable Peace in China, the economic reforms in the Holy Rhomanian Republic, the creation of the European Economic Community, and the breakup of the People’s Caliphate.
Click to expand...
 

Arkenfolm

For the calendar, couldn't you just use the sexagenary cycle? Of course, for Europe, Chinese influence or not, they'd still use their own local calendar the same way you can spot the Islamic calendar being prominently used in certain parts of the Muslim world.

If Malta's that important, I can't imagine how important a place like Tangiers or Gibraltar is.
 

Sceonn

Don't see why an industrialized East would care for Europe. This counter colonization doesn't work because Europe went to Asia for resources because they didn't have much in Europe, Asia wouldn't get anything in Europe. Africa, Central Asia, Oceania and Americas are where they'd be.

China has Siberia so it'd be slow to go anywhere else and Japan has Southeast Asia and/or Australia.
 

EternalCynic

metalinvader665 said:
For the calendar, couldn't you just use the sexagenary cycle? Of course, for Europe, Chinese influence or not, they'd still use their own local calendar the same way you can spot the Islamic calendar being prominently used in certain parts of the Muslim world.

If Malta's that important, I can't imagine how important a place like Tangiers or Gibraltar is.
Click to expand...
My idea is the dominant calendar is based on the sexagenary calendar, but a modernized China will have changed its perceptions of time and introduced a starting point akin to the birth of Jesus. Outside the East Asia-descended countries, local calendars coexist with the Chinese calendar.

Malta isn't that important at the contemporary time. It's a mix of OTL's Monaco and Bermuda, with more mafia and spies. But the two articles give strong hints about the situation in Europe and the Muslim world.

Sceonn said:
Don't see why an industrialized East would care for Europe. This counter colonization doesn't work because Europe went to Asia for resources because they didn't have much in Europe, Asia wouldn't get anything in Europe. Africa, Central Asia, Oceania and Americas are where they'd be.

China has Siberia so it'd be slow to go anywhere else and Japan has Southeast Asia and/or Australia.
Click to expand...
IOTL, the European powers helped themselves to colonies of zero economic value. And just as Britain colonized India to force open new markets for its products, TTL's imperial powers need to do likewise. And who said the Chinese *state* is driving colonization? The reference to the Western Oceans Company indicates TTL's Chinese imperialism is driven by other factors.
 

Obergruppenführer Smith

Banned
EternalCynic said:
My idea is the dominant calendar is based on the sexagenary calendar, but a modernized China will have changed its perceptions of time and introduced a starting point akin to the birth of Jesus.
Click to expand...

But why? OTL ROC in Taipei goes so far as to not use the CE system for most of its publications. Why would a confidently modernized Chinese regime bother with matching their calendar to the Westerners?
 

EternalCynic

Obergruppenführer Smith said:
But why? OTL ROC in Taipei goes so far as to not use the CE system for most of its publications. Why would a confidently modernized Chinese regime bother with matching their calendar to the Westerners?
Click to expand...
There will be an article answering that question. It will be weird from our perspective, but not to the people in the TL.

Should my next article be a boring table of statistics, or a salacious celebrity sex scandal?
 

EternalCynic

List of the World’s 50 Most Populous Metropolitan Areas

Below is a list of the 50 largest metropolitan areas around the world, as estimated by the Statistics Office of the All-Harmony-Under-Heaven-Council.

1.png

2.png
Click to expand...
 

Contrary

Has Europe done much colonizing of the Americas? I see only Kanada as a British colony and La Misericordia as a possible Spanish (Latin American?) colony. Has England colonized the US in this TL? Are any of Fusang, Yinghiang, or Kinzan in the Americas?
 

Arkenfolm

Contrary said:
Has Europe done much colonizing of the Americas? I see only Kanada as a British colony and La Misericordia as a possible Spanish (Latin American?) colony. Has England colonized the US in this TL? Are any of Fusang, Yinghiang, or Kinzan in the Americas?
Click to expand...

There's no way Fusang wouldn't be in the Americas, since it's a legendary land to the east in Chinese mythology (sometimes identified as Japan, sometimes identified by cranks as proof that China discovered America), and "Kinzan" looks like the Japanese reading of Jinshan (金山), San Francisco's name in Chinese.

What I'm curious about is the odd Chinese romanization.
 

EternalCynic

Yep, there was some European political colonization of America and parts of Africa. But there are places which were not politically colonized by Europeans, which now have a white Christian majority.

My next article will be longer, and about a sex scandal involving a pop star who lives in Aromopolis. It becomes instant fodder for tabloids, and creates a crisis for the dinosaurs in cassocks who run mainland Rhomania.
 

EternalCynic

Mr.E said:
Is this a sequel to another TL? Or just a TL whose details will gradually reveal itself.
Click to expand...
It's the latter, but I did dabble with this idea in the past:
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/countries-that-never-were.338861/#post-10113713

Future articles I'll be posting include:
  • Polish-Kinyuanese people
  • Negotiations to dismantle Apartness in Kanada
  • Jeonmin-ilga
  • Nationalization of the Chinese Western Oceans Company
  • Yi-Jek Airlines
  • Blockade of Rome
  • Demographics of Yinghiang
  • Nam Viet-Rhomanian Relations
  • Post-Caliphate Conflicts
  • Kinzan Bay Area
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top