An Examination of Extra-Universal Systems of Government

[rvbomally]

Sometimes it is nice to not be crappy.

However as rightful king of the Uzbeks and auticrat of Central Aska I must object to what is labeled as Turkministan being placed in what should be Uzbekistan.

I'll fix this right away.

EDIT: I was initially going to change Uzbekistan to Turkmenistan on the map, but it turns out that the original EBR map has Uzbekistan as the rogue state. So I changed the references to Turkmenistan instead.

 

[King of the Uzbeks]

Uzbekistan as the rogue state

 

[frustrated progressive]

After your overthrow, of course.

 

[King of the Uzbeks]

After your overthrow, of course.

 

[rvbomally]

Well, at least this world does have an autocrat of Uzbekistan.

 

[King of the Uzbeks]

Well, at least this world does have an autocrat of Uzbekistan.

Damn Decedents ruining everything.

 

[Ephraim Ben Raphael]

Sometimes it is nice to not be crappy.

However as rightful King of the Uzbeks and autocrat of Central Asia I must object to what is labeled as Turkministan being placed in what should be Uzbekistan.

Uh oh, that's my fault I'm afraid.

 

[rvbomally]

Here's another An Examination of Extra-Universal Systems of Government cover, this time for the world of the Empire of Haiti. Many thank to Ephraim Ben Raphael for helping out. On the map, colonies of private chartered corporations are in a more "intense" color than their regular state.

L'union Fait La Force​

• Communism ITTL is known as "Hessism" after someone presumably named Hess who wrote TTL's version of the communist manifesto. Hessite countries are known by the moniker "Populist" or "Scientific" in front of their names, much like People's or Socialist appear before the names of communist states OTL.
  
• A Qing-rump in Manchuria managed to pull a Meiji. There's a large Hessite state in India where the BEIC reformed itself, but was never turned into a direct colony like OTL (until it got overthrown). There's a rump Czarist Russia in Port Arthur.
  
• Germany was the center of a USSR-style federation that included OTL Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Baltic, Poland, Belarus, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. It fell apart eventually, there's a small Jewish "Pufferstadt" centered around Vilnius. Post-Hessite Germany includes German-speaking Austria and is a belligerently re-assertive authoritarian republic- it has Abkhazia/Transnistria style sphere-lings in German majority parts of Hungary and Lithuania.
  
• The USA and Mexico head their own bloc in the New World - the American Freedom League - that includes most of the Americas. The USA's relationship with most of Latin America is similar to the OTL relationship between the USA and Europe- OTL the newly independent Latin American countries initially viewed America quite positively and that never ended here. South America is very much "first world" ITTL as well. They have some additional friends in Africa who tend to be much poorer and authoritarian.
• In the Old World you have a bloc made up of the old autocratic Empires - the Grand Coalition - that was aligned with the USA, Mexico, and friends against the Hessites in this universe's version of the Cold War. The "European Autocracies" include relatively un-autocratic Britain, the chartered companies in Africa, Portugal, the Qing, the Turkish Empire, the Russian Empire, and a few other odds and ends. Their elective monarchies are substantially less free than the ones in the Americas. The USA/Mexico/friends like to criticize their foreign and domestic policies (although their foreign policy really isn't much better), and both blocs compete economically and geopolitical for influence. They aren't really enemies though- no more than the USA and China are enemies OTL.
  
• Colonialism was more privatized ITTL, and there are still parts of Africa and Asia controlled directly or indirectly by chartered companies along BEIC lines.
• Russia is an elective monarchy like Haiti, as is the Turkish Empire.
• The Second French Empire is a state in exile under a Bonaparte "emperor" who was run out of France in the 1830s.
• California broke away from Mexico after the gold rush brought in large numbers of non-Mexicans who ultimately objected to the limits being placed on their right and citizenship. They eventually moved into the American/Mexican camp.

 

[wellis]

Very interesting. How bad was their Cold War and did they have anything like OTL's World Wars?

How did their USSR equivalent, the SFHR, compare to the USSR in economic strength?

Considering people often equate socialistic policies as being on the road to Communism/Marxism, what is this TLs term for "socialism", the road to Communsim/Hessism? Scientificism?

What level of technology is their world at?

Finally, what is the Rwpublic of California's standard of living? Is it a First World country?

 

[rvbomally]

Very interesting. How bad was their Cold War and did they have anything like OTL's World Wars?

I don't know.

How did their USSR equivalent, the SFHR, compare to the USSR in economic strength?

Probably stronger, since they likely started with a richer country and didn't suffer from Stalinism or WWII.

Considering people often equate socialistic policies as being on the road to Communism/Marxism, what is this TLs term for "socialism", the road to Communsim/Hessism? Scientificism?

That's a direct result of the dialectical nature of Marxism, which isn't a feature in Hessism.

What level of technology is their world at?

Same as ours.

Finally, what is the Rwpublic of California's standard of living? Is it a First World country?

First world.

 

[Ephraim Ben Raphael]

Very interesting. How bad was their Cold War and did they have anything like OTL's World Wars?

Their cold war was as bad as ours- proxy wars, coups and counter-coups, rival insurgencies, etc. They only had one world war ITTL, it preceded the creation of the SFHR.

 

[wellis]

Is Pufferstadt akin to Israel?

I've also notifed that the Arabian Peninsula is unified under the Hashemites. I imagine the sectarian rivalries and ethnic tensions there have been better managed ITTL compared to OTL?

How less "free" are the elective monarchies? Are they pretty authoritarian? Would OTL human rights groups be appalled at them or something?

 

[rvbomally]

Is Pufferstadt akin to Israel?

It's a buffer state, in this case created by the Hessite regime out of the Jewish peoples in their eastern territories. It also served to keep the Poles in check, as this divided former Poland between Jewish and Christian and ensured the two would not work together against their German overlords.

I've also notifed that the Arabian Peninsula is unified under the Hashemites. I imagine the sectarian rivalries and ethnic tensions there have been better managed ITTL compared to OTL?

Yeah, it's not as bad as OTL. Then again, since OTL is almost at Mad Max levels in some areas of the Middle East, it's hard to top without tossing a few nukes or an elder god.

How less "free" are the elective monarchies? Are they pretty authoritarian? Would OTL human rights groups be appalled at them or something?

It depends on the country.

 

[Ephraim Ben Raphael]

Is Pufferstadt akin to Israel?

What rvbomalley said. Imagine the Jewish Autonomous Oblast if it were much larger, included large, historic, and established Jewish communities from its inception, wasn't a bit of frozen swamp, and later gained independence.

How less "free" are the elective monarchies? Are they pretty authoritarian? Would OTL human rights groups be appalled at them or something?

In Mexico, Brazil, Haiti, Columbia, the Emperor is elected in a free and fair election (as free and fair as it gets anyway) and wields real, but limited executive power within a constitutional framework (For instance in Mexico the Emperor is about as powerful as the President of the United States, and the Parliament is quite strong). In Turkey, Hungary, and Russia things aren't so democratic and the monarch tends to wield a lot more power (except in Turkey where the Emperor is usually a retired military figure, and the army tends to dominate politics).

 

[InfernoMole]

What rvbomalley said. Imagine the Jewish Autonomous Oblast if it were much larger, included large, historic, and established Jewish communities from its inception, wasn't a bit of frozen swamp, and later gained independence.

If there's a Soviet republic which should have had a Jewish Autonomous Oblast, it should have been Uzbekistan. Large, established Jewish communities, for one. At least before they fled.

 

[wellis]

What makes some of these places, like Czarest Russia at Porth Arthur, "rogue states?" Any of them akin to NK or Iran in OTL?

 

[rvbomally]

What makes some of these places, like Czarest Russia at Porth Arthur, "rogue states?" Any of them akin to NK or Iran in OTL?

It isn't a rogue state. Take a better look at the key.

 

[wellis]

It isn't a rogue state. Take a better look at the key.

My mistake.

 

[rvbomally]

Skipping out of order a little with a cover for the Soviet Union, which is one of my personal favorites in EEUSG. EBR gave me a lot of material for this one, and a good bit of the text is his.

Red Skies
​

• The PoD is a more intense Korean War, which led to more Soviet intervention and caused the Cold War to be more hostile.
• North Korean is under a substantially more effective and pragmatic form of Juche, using forced labor and technology from the Soviets they've created a sort of "atom-punk" state that uses a series of crude nuclear reactors to power the electrified countryside and a nation-wide monorail system while relying on algae cultivation to keep the population fed. They are just as much an oppressive rogue state, but the oppression is rather more competent and threats by the government are taken much more seriously by the rest of the world, because if these guys promise to nuke something you know that they mean it.
• China is much more confrontational with the West. With the notable exceptions of Vietnam and Cambodia (ironically friendly with the USA) the surviving communist states are generally part of (or in North Korea's case only aligned with) a loose "Chinese Bloc" that opposes the West, although it isn't at Cold War levels. China has reformed its economy, but not its rhetoric.
  
• Russia is more friendly with the West than OTL and despite being weaker and poorer has avoided Putin's populist-revanchism. It's a member of the EEC.
  
• The Cold War ITTL was much more bloody, intense and unfriendly. Tension-easing treaties like the Outer Space Treaty and the Antarctic Treaty System were never signed and Glasnost never happened before the USSR fell apart. The United States is still coming to terms with its McCarthyist Past, Civil Rights were a protracted and somewhat violent struggle, but on the other hand the USA is rather more liberal in reaction to its past than it is OTL.
• Israel never entirely forgave the United States and Britain for their actions surrounding the War of Independence as they did OTL (things like America forbidding Jewish-American veterans from going to serve in the nascent IDF and arrest some who did on their return, and Britain attempting to disarm the Haganah prior to its withdrawal) and instead walked a line of Finnish-style neutrality involving cordial relations with both Washington and Moscow. Molotov (who had a Jewish wife) succeeded Stalin, never raised any barriers to Jewish emigration and was midly pro-Israel during the 1962 war between Israel and the Arab Federation of Iraq and Jordan that ended with Israel occupying the West Bank and the AF collapsing. The West Bank is just as much of a headache as OTL, with insurgencies and Jewish settlement, but no Palestinian Authority exists as a relatively moderating force.
• The Federation of Arab Republics is a vaguely left-wing regional association of Egypt, Syria, Libya, North Yemen, Iraq, the Sudan, and the All-Palestine Government in Gaza that's generally hostile to both the West, polite with China, and unsurprisingly very hostile to Israel. They have a customs union, a military alliance, and their own regional sports competition.
• Argentina, Britain, and the United States have armed military bases in Antarctica- the Soviet bases were turned over to the USA by Russia after 1990-and the damage to the environment caused by military activities in the region means that turning the continent into a World Park off-limits to military or commercial development is a proposal with mainstream support among environmentalist groups (and not just a fringe suggestion by Greenpeace). Without the Antarctic Treaty System national claims to Antarctica are serious and seriously enforced, which resulted in an undeclared "Ice War" between Argentina and the UK (1983-1996) that mostly involved minor skirmishes and periodic violent incidents without real battles. The UK and Australia have a pair of small civilian settlements in the continent similar to the Argentine Esperanza and the Chilean Villa Las Estrellas. Several countries have constructed limited petroleum mining and refining operations to support their operations in Antarctica.
• Like the USSR, the USA ran an intensive military program in space including armed space stations, which it is now gradually scaling back as the Cold War is over.
• The USA still owns the Panama Canal, and Britain only recently returned the Suez Canal Zone to Egypt. Hong Kong voted in a 1997 referendum to remain British, Macau similarly voted to remain Portuguese in 1999- both the cause of substantial bad feelings with China.
• A series of Arab Spring style revolutions toppled authoritarian governments in Central and South America. One exception is Colombia, an actual narco state where Pablo Escobar played politics a bit better than OTL, casting himself as a staunch foe of communism to a United States concerned that Colombia might fall to revolution and as a Robin Hood paying for hospitals, schools, and churches to the Colombian people. He currently controls Colombia via a puppet president and congress, although the rest of the world has finally realized just how bad a problem Colombia is, and the country is an isolated rogue state under severe sanctions where drug lords live in sprawling palatial estates while the common people face shortages of toilet paper and basic necessities. Escobar remains in power, but his shine is starting to rub off.
  

 

[wellis]

So is Colombia here a mixture of Venezuela & North Korea considering it's like a rogue state and people are starting to find out just how mismanaged its economy is?

Also regarding Cambodia, Pol Pot still happened there I imagine? Or is the fact it's now a shrinking guerilla army means that Kampuchea's sheer horror didn't really occur here?