In an Alternative history without the Spanish Luzon would be called as Saludong or Selurong..
Stavros Andreopoulos Photo Scandal
In XXX, intimate photographs and videos of Aromopolis musician Stavros Andreopoulos in the company of dozens of women and men, including fellow celebrities Eleni Yannatou, Georgios Koutoufides, Natasha Volkova, and Sofia Kyriakidou, were unlawfully posted on Aromopolis’ most popular forums and immediately went viral online. The scandal shocked the Aromopolis entertainment industry and wider society, with local media entirely consumed by the story for weeks. It led to social and political reactions both locally and in mainland Rhomania.
Two people were arrested and later convicted in connection with the initial spread of the material, but the Imperial Euboean Police controversially attempted to stem their spread by arresting online users who merely shared them. This led to a public backlash, with the users being hailed as free speech heroes for Aromopolis.
Orthodox clergy both in Aromopolis and in mainland Rhomania responded to the initial revelations as proof of Aromopolis’ moral decline under pagan Chinese rule, but as subsequent material implicated figures close to the Patriarchate in Konstantinopolis and Central Holy Government in Moscow, they scrambled to censor and downplay their significance.
Andreopoulos later admitted creating the content, and announced his “indefinite pilgrimage” to Mount Athos to “atone for my grave sins”. He later made a quiet return to the entertainment industry in XXX with the release of an album of Orthodox liturgical music.
History
In XXX, Andreopoulos purchased a Manli laptop from the OmniMedia computer store in Mytikas. Two years later in XXX, he returned it for repairs. Although Andreopoulos insisted he had wiped the laptop of the compromising material before sending it, the Inspector of the Electronics Unit of the Imperial Euboean Peacekeepers Kong Sim-Si stated the image recovery was as “so easy a 12 year old could do from the toilet”.
The first images, showing him with an unidentified woman, were posted at 8:03 PM on XXX on a local electronics shopping forum. More pictures and videos soon appeared on a gaming forum and on the Greek version of Sientau. Although they were deleted within hours, Andreopoulos’ agency (Byzantion Tunes Group) immediately denounced them as fakes and filed a police complaint. Over the next three days, more pictures and some video clips were posted, instantly going viral and consuming media attention. By then, tabloid journalists had confirmed their authenticity by comparing the pictures’ background with luxury hotels Andreopoulos frequently visited.
Andreopoulos himself quietly flew out of Aromopolis to London, and then posted a 30 second video on his blog where he apologized to anyone “who was offended by the revelations, especially on the occasion of Holy Week”.
The final bombshell dropped on XXX, Good Friday, the most solemn day in the local Christian calendar. A five minute video surfaced, showing an “orgy” involving dozens of people including Andreopoulos and many other celebrities, apparently taken at his mansion overlooking the Southern Euripus Strait, and including the children of many senior Rhomanian government officials.
Andreopoulos returned to Aromopolis on XXX and held a now-infamous press conference where he begged for forgiveness, confirmed the authenticity of all the content, and that they were obtained without his consent. While he hysterically sobbed, his lawyer sternly stated he “will definitely” pursue liability, but dodged journalists’ questions when asked specifically about the Good Friday video. He and many people who appeared in the content were questioned by IEP, but were all cleared of involvement.
Police Action
Aromopolis
The first arrest in Aromopolis was of 26 year old Stefanos Nikolaidis, a blogger who shared an image which had previously been deleted. He was charged with one count of public obscenity and one count of extortion, and was denied bail over the Holy Week. Charges were dropped following three days of pro-free speech protests outside the police station.
Subsequently, three other online users who reposted the Good Friday video with threatening comments were arrested and quickly released as public anger built.
29 year old computer technician Lukas Magoulas, who serviced the laptop, later surrendered to police, confessing to have skimmed the content “for kicks”, and shared them in flash drives to two casual acquaintances at the taverna. He pled guilty to three counts of unauthorized access to a computer and two counts of unlawful file sharing, and was sentenced to three years of probation.
24 year old store clerk Pantelis Yannakakis admitted to have initially intended to “keep it as my trophy”, but later used a VPN to upload a compressed file to a proxy site based in Armenia. He pled guilty to one count of obtaining the proceeds of crime and six counts of uttering an obscenity, and served three months in prison.
The other person Magoulas shared his flash drive with, is believed to be a mainlander who lives in Volos. His identity remains a mystery, though Magoulas insists they are still in touch.
Mainland Rhomania
Initially, Rhomania’s usually-stringent online censors allowed the news to circulate, as its clergy led by Patriarch Anton used it as proof that although Aromopolis is materially wealthy, the pagan Chinese occupiers of Euboea had allowed it had sunken into moral decadence in contrast to a still strong and holy mainland. A blog post on Rhomania’s largest portal RhomaSet showing the tamer pictures was shared 10 million times in 24 hours.
However, the rapid spread of the salacious images – especially through the import of Aromopolis-based tabloid magazines – forced a change in approach. After Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, Holy Revolutionary Guards confiscated copies of Apple Weekly, Aromopolis’ most popular Greek-language tabloid, from newsstands across Hellenia. Rhomanian censors then blocked and deleted online discussion, with the webpages replaced with a notice that the content was deemed blasphemous by the Patriarchate. Officials in Moscow then declared that anyone who reposted the content, even without profit motive, would be liable to prosecution.
A crackdown soon followed where dozens of people were arrested for copying and distributing flash drives containing the content, which “sold like freshly baked baklava” in Konstantinopolis and in Xirovrisi, the Special Economic Zone across the strait from Aromopolis.
Cyprus and Corfu
In the other two, more rural Chinese colonies off Rhomania, reactions were subdued. No effort was made to censor the images, though several people were cautioned by police for uttering threats online.
Social Impact
Aromopolis
The scandal, which had ignited public debate over privacy and security in cyberspace, turned into a crisis for the Chinese administration of Euboea after the arrest of Nikolaidis. It was widely believed that Orthodox Metropolis of Euboea had pressured the administration into stemming the spread of the images, turning the Church into a lightening rod for young people of Aromopolis. Opinion polls later revealed the Moscow government’s reaction to the scandal damaged the credibility of its “one country, two systems” proposal for the return of the three Chinese colonies.
Mainland Euboea
The scandal, and especially the Good Friday video, threw the Patriarchate and the Central Holy Government into turmoil, as the salacious behaviour of the children of high-ranking government officials contrasted with the chaste and holy public image of the Moscow government. At the sermon at the Divine Liturgy on Easter Sunday at the Hagia Sophia, Patriarch Anton referred to the “diabolical plot which uses fake news to attack our Holy and Revolutionary cause” – a phrase which was immediately mocked on Rhomania’s social media sites with memes referring to the regime’s past injustices. It is speculated that decades of rapid economic growth had discredited the regime’s nominally socialist ideology based on Orthodox Church dogma, causing a crisis of credibility.
Its attempts to suppress and censor the images revealed the Central Holy Government’s inability to respond to the fast-flow of cyberspace. At the subsequent session of the National Holy Congress, President Sergei Popov announced proposals to introduce new artificial intelligence online filters, while promising new investment in online media outlets to “better maintain our Holy and Revolutionary message to our future generations”.
Jeonmin-Ilga
Jeonmin-Ilga (Chosunese for “all the people as one family”) is a political concept that played a major role in Chosun following the proclamation of the Era of Immoveable Peace by Chinese Emperor Suan’gwang in the year XXX. The philosophy was the central impetus behind the major changes in Chosunese society, most notably in the major expansion of its welfare state and in the Ten Great Infrastructure Projects. The basis of the vision is that the entire nation is one family, where everyone is expected to contribute, and everyone benefits under thoughtful and selfless leadership.
The term first appeared in a then-obscure academic paper by Confucian scholar Kim Yongsuk working in the Chosun Royal Court in XXX, which was ridiculed as “naïve nonsense” by his rivals and led to his appointment as Chosunese Ambassador to Sweden. However, with the advent of Sino-Japanese Détente and the proclamation of Immoveable Peace, major defence spending cutbacks immediately leapt to the forefront of the politics of East Asia’s nation-states. The Social Democratic Party promoted the vision in the XXX general elections and won a landslide victory, and quickly began implementation.
History
Kim’s paper envisioned Chosun becoming one home as one entire family, with everyone free to contribute to, and benefit from, the entire family’s progress. It would replace the Yangban class structure, which he wrote “made us Chosunese only useful as beasts in the fields”. It was received coldly, as the military consumed 10-15% of Chosunese GDP during the Shadow Militarist Era. Moreover, such a vision was dismissed as a “gateway drug to the vile Communist ideology”.
Post-Immoveable Peace, the Chosunese Ministry of Finance projected that, with the diminishing threat from Japan, military spending could be reduced to just 1.5% of GDP. How to reallocate these resources and re-employ the 300,000 redundant military personnel immediately gripped Chosun’s political discourse. The Social Democratic Party rediscovered the paper and, after toning down its more radical parts and promising that redundant military personnel would be guaranteed jobs in its infrastructure binge, won the biggest electoral mandate in Chosunese history.
The day after his inauguration, Grand Chancellor Choi Namgi announced that the patchwork of public and private clinics would be merged into a new expanded National Health Service, which would be free at the point of use. He then held daily press conferences announcing another dramatic new policy – everything from building two million new homes, to turning former military training grounds into parkland, to guaranteeing potable water to every village. Legislation implementing these projects were often passed unanimously at the National Assembly, with members who previously denounced the academic paper claiming they were only concerned about its implementation, not its intention.
Fresh off its honeymoon, the Social Democratic Party called for voters to give it a mandate at the provincial and municipal levels to better coordinate the implementation of Jeonmin-Ilga; it then won a majority in all eight provincial legislatures and 80% of local councils within two years. It established the SDP as the unquestioned hegemon of Chosunese politics, leading to accusations of a “dictatorship with a smile”.
In addition to the aforementioned economic changes, Jeonmin-Ilga led to rapid social reforms. Formal press censorship and capital punishment were ended, while requirements to obtain permission to move between counties were abolished. Married women were no longer required to obtain husband’s approval to apply for passports, open bank accounts, or hold government jobs. Chosun also passed an anti-discrimination law that, in a world first, applied to private entities as well as the government.
Criticism
Although Jeonmin-Ilga has become an article of faith in Chosunese politics, and that the SDP remains admirably free of major corruption, its implementation has been criticized.
While in opposition, the SDP pledged a more diverse and tolerant political structure, it has been accused of creating a one party patronage machine that “would make the Rhomanian Patriarchs proud”. For instance, public sector employees are “encouraged” to join their SDP association in their local district, and voters in local elections are often not-so-subtly warned that failure to elect the SDP would damage coordination with the provincial and national governments.
The SDP was also accused of only making cosmetic changes to Shadow Militarist-era security laws, most notably on restrictions on organizing trade unions (claiming that just one national trade union is sufficient) and on protests (claiming that infrastructure projects cannot be irrationally delayed by protesters who could always express their opinion at the ballot box).
Its detractors on the radical left call it a textbook version of social integralism, as the SDP co-opted members of the old establishment and reinforced the class structure by tying many social benefits to extended families, thereby delaying the proletariat’s willingness to destroy it.
The welfare state model of Chosun following Immoveable Peace is on sharp contrast with the low tax model of neighbouring Kinyuan, where taxes were greatly slashed and public services only moderately and reluctantly increased. Economists worldwide continue to debate both models, despite the comparable size of both nations’ economic booms.
Polish-Kinyuanese People
Total Population: 1,255,850 (Republic of Kinyuan Census, XXX)
Regions with Significant Populations: Shenyang, Kinchow Region, Üchang, Samghiang
Languages: Polish, Kinyuan Chinese
Religions: Christianity (Roman Catholic, Provisional Catholic, Eastern Orthodox), Judaism, Buddhism
Related Groups: Poles, West Slavs
Polish-Kinyanese are citizens of the Republic of Kinyuan with Polish ancestry. According to the Republic’s Census of XXX, 1,255,850 Kinyuanese citizens claimed Polish heritage in whole or in part, with another 200,000 Polish citizens both documented and undocumented resident.
History
People of Polish ancestry have lived in what is now the Republic of Kinyuan since before the Great Equalization Revolution. Migration typically occurred in waves, reflecting both “push” factors of war, dictatorship, poverty, and foreign occupation in Poland and “pull” factors such as free land grants, industrialization, and economic opportunities in Kinyuan.
It is believed the first Polish person to arrive in what is now Kinyuan was a Catholic priest from Lublin, Stanislaw Kaminski who was sent as an envoy by the first Emperor of the Chinese Sheng Dynasty YYY in an attempt to secure tribute from the Jurchen tribes to his newly established court following the Sheng victory in the War of Four States. In his reports to his superiors in Rome and his colleagues in then-Hapsburg Krakow, he noted the similarities in physical landscape and climate between the Liao River plain and his native Poland, but for the comparatively sparse rural population.
Until the Great Equalization Revolution, few Poles would settle in the then-Late Ghin Confederacy. Most of the 3,240 Polish people named in the final pre-revolutionary census lived in isolated villages, predominately disaffected Catholics fleeing the turmoil within the Roman church and in Europe in general.
First Wave: Land Grants
Following the Revolution, in which the Jurchen tribal monarchy was abolished in favour of a one-man-one-vote republic, the new, predominately Han Chinese government, was keen to bolster its security by creating more new citizens who would feel loyal to the Republic, rather than the formerly dominant tribes. Vast tracts of the Kinyuan plains were opened to settlement; while the vast majority of settlers were from China, the government proactively attracted migrants from European lands with experience farming similar climate and soil conditions. Thus, over the XXXs, German-, Polish-, Hungarian-, and Russian-speaking villages emerged particularly over the northern Kinyuanese plains. They were particularly attracted by the Republic’s entirely agnostic policy towards religion, given the sectarian conflicts in their native lands.
Second Wave: Urbanization
At the cusp of the Industrial Era, Kinyuan was per capita the most industrialized state in the world thanks in large part to its rich coal and iron deposits. The heavy industries of its cities soon created labour shortages which could not be met by migrants from China, thanks to its simultaneous industrialization and the emergence of overseas destination for its emigrants. The origin of its immigrants were roughly divided between the Inner Southern Seas and Europe, with Poland briefly becoming the top European origin after the Holy Roman Empire’s dissolution. It was in this period that Shenyang famously became the world’s third largest Polish city after Warsaw and Krakow.
Third Wave: Revolving Door Generals
The third wave of migration picked up around XXX, as the new, initially democratic post-Great European War government of Poland succumbed to a coup staged by General Kowalski. In a radio broadcast, Kowalski made off-the-cuff remarks where he invited “traitors and subversives” to pack for Kinyuan – an invitation that 152,000 Poles – disproportionately middle class and intelligentsia - heeded in three years. Each coup by another general was invariably followed by another wave of purges and emigration from Poland – with Kinyuan second only Yinghiang as a popular destination. The phrase “packing for Kinyuan” has entered the Polish vocabulary to refer to fleeing the dictatorship, no matter the actual destination.
Fourth Wave: Managed Democracy and Economic Migration
The wave of anti-government protests in the year XXX, which was savagely suppressed by General Dabrowski, sent another 32,000 Poles to Kinyuan’s shores. Shortly thereafter, Dabrowski announced a timeline towards a “Managed Democracy” where freedom of speech would be permitted and elections would be held – albeit with the military allowed to censor the press, being immune from prosecution, and the military guaranteed 1/4 of the seats in parliament. Poland’s newly-growing economy has led to a new, but smaller, wave of migration: the ten years since the start of Managed Democracy saw 132,000 Polish migrants to Kinyuan, almost entirely to Shenyang and other major cities.
Internal and external tensions
While most Polish-Kinuyanese migrated to escape tensions at home, their life in Kinyuan has been riven by difficulties. During the first wave, there were little conflicts between European settlers and their Chinese neighbours, but ethnic and religious tensions in Europe often spilled over. Most infamously, pogroms against Jewish-Polish-Kinyuanese in XXX required martial law by the Kinyuanese army and the execution of several Catholic perpetrators.
Industrial-era migrants were often targets of racist attacks, chiefly by Han Chinese workers incited by politicians who accused them of stealing jobs and breaking strikes. The formation of European ethnic enclaves in Kinyuan’s industrial towns also led to accusations of ghettos and an unwillingness to integrate.
The experiences of the Second Sheng-Japanese War led to a transformation of Kinyuan from a predominately Han Chinese republic in favour of a more pluralistic identity. It led to a gradual migration away from such enclaves, with such racial minorities assimilating into more mainstream residential areas. Polish-Kinyuanese, alongside other European-Kinyuanese, have largely integrated into Kinyuanese society, though are fiercely protective of their identities.
Ghin = OTL "Jin" = Jurchen = Manchu before they were Manchus. There was a wave of Han Chinese migration to *Manchuria, with the *Manchu elite attempting to monopolize power regardless of demographics. Throw in a dash of *Enlightenment ideology, and a revolution to establish a one-man-one-vote republic occurred.The Great Equalization Revolution and the Ghin Confederacy... I'm looking forward to hearing more about these.
No such thing IOTL. ITTL, a *protestant reformation reached Europe. Except in this case, it led to an election of a new Pope with disputed legitimacy. Many bishops across Europe, particularly those egged on by their rulers, then declared the See of Rome to be occupied by the Devil's agent, and "provisionally" formed their own synod based in a German state that broke with Rome. They declare their intention to expunge Rome and restore the legitimate line of St. Peter. Centuries later, they're still waiting. Intra-Catholic relations are much improved now, but there are many factors that prevent reunification.Also, what is Provisional Catholic? Is that something that exists in OTL?
How does everyone think of TTL's Korea? It's both a social democrat's wet dream and a de facto one party dictatorship.
Yes, Kinyuan means 金源 or 金原, which could mean golden fields, source of gold, fields of the Ghin (a.k.a. Manchus), or source of the Ghin.Manifestation of benevolent Confucian patriarchy. I love it.
Is Kinyuan some alternate way of saying 金元?
Post-Caliphate Conflicts
This article lists the ethnic, political, and religious conflicts that arose directly or indirectly as a result of the former Shurai Caliphate’s breakup in XXXX.
Some conflicts, such as the bloody Egyptian constitutional crisis of XXXX and the bloodless Arabian succession crisis of XXXX, were due to internal political disputes in successor states.
Others took a more ethnic or religious dimension, including the Kush insurgency, the Kurdish independence war, or anti-Jewish pogroms across the Levant.
Outside the former Caliphate, its staunch client state Somalia, suffered an economic collapse with the end of supplies of free petroleum. The regime of General Said Abu Bakar is widely believed to have funded itself by supporting pirates to attack shipping in the Great Southern Ocean, manufacturing and trafficking drugs, and selling fake documents.
The worst conflict in the former Caliphate was the Egypt-Africa War, where Africa’s easternmost region Cyrenaica, with its rich oil fields, declared independence with Egyptian support. That conflict is only frozen by an informal ceasefire, with Cyrenaica still not recognized as independent by any nation other than Egypt, and Africa regularly pledging to “recover the occupied territory”. Since then, the Supreme Leader of Africa Generalissimo Khalil bin Mohamed has used the pretext of Egyptian infiltration to purge political undesirables, with an estimated 200,000 Africans imprisoned in camps in the Sahara Desert. Skirmishes continue between Africa and its neighbours Egypt and Morocco, with regular African missile tests into the Mediterranean leading to confrontations with “crusader powers” Spain, Italy, France, and Rhomania as well as the “infidel sea Mongols” China and Japan.
List of Conflicts
Arabia
Mashreq
- Succession Crisis
Egypt & Africa
- Kurdish war of independence
- Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Mashreq
Outside Former Caliphate
- Kush insurgency
- Cyrenaica declaration of independence
- Cyrenaican War
- Egyptian popular uprising
- Egyptian constitutional crisis
- Egyptian military coup
- Great African Purges
- Khalil bin Mohamed’s personality cult
- Skirmishes between Africa and Cyraenica
- Skirmishes between Africa and Morocco
- African Missile Tests in the Mediterranean
- Coalition airstrikes on Africa
- Sinking of African submarines
- Border clashes between Somalia and Ethiopia
- Piracy in the Great Southern Ocean
- Chinese airstrikes on Somalia
- North Sudanese Insurgency in the Sahara Desert