Glen
Moderator
Why wouldn't the USC try to unify China?
The Chuen Emperor and the reformed Imperial Bureocracy are actually quite popular in the north. The USC would be occupiers.
Why wouldn't the USC try to unify China?
The Chuen Emperor and the reformed Imperial Bureocracy are actually quite popular in the north. The USC would be occupiers.
That raises the possibility that China will never reunify and instead the three nations will develop quite seperate ideologies. Would be a nice change to have a powerful but divided China for once instead of superpower or massive balkanization.
teg
teg
Possible but doubtful I suspect. It has such a strong sense of identity as a centralised national state. Rome had a similar identity, but then had Christianity to divide it and then the occupation of the southern and eastern parts of the empire by Islam and the ideal of a reunified empire still lingered for centuries.
Steve
I gather that they would certainly like to, but lack the manpower and industry to do it. Southern China contains substantially less than half the population of China as a whole, if I remember right,
and also if I remember, it was messed up pretty bad by the revolution that formed the USC when the Qing collapsed.
They were able to fend off the Chuen pretty well, but couldn't really follow up on that success.
Cylon_Number_14
The chaos caused by the revolution may be a factor
but I think that for some centuries now the south has been the demographic centre of China, with a larger population in the Yangtze valley than the north.
It could be that they simply don't think the have enough support in the north to make the decisive defeat of the Chuen either sure or cheap enough in blood.
Steve
That raises the possibility that China will never reunify and instead the three nations will develop quite seperate ideologies. Would be a nice change to have a powerful but divided China for once instead of superpower or massive balkanization.
teg
teg
Possible but doubtful I suspect. It has such a strong sense of identity as a centralised national state. Rome had a similar identity, but then had Christianity to divide it and then the occupation of the southern and eastern parts of the empire by Islam and the ideal of a reunified empire still lingered for centuries.
Steve
Remember that there has been several periods in history when 'China' was composed of two or more independent nations or states. I do not think that there always has to be 'one' China. However, there may come a time when it coalesces again, as that has been a trend in history.
Glen
Possibly I was taking a much longer view than teg. There have been periods of fairly prolonged disorder, and the latter halves of many dynasties had the unity being more symbolic than actual. However since the Han I don't think there has been a period of more than a generation or so without theoretical union, other than times when a sizeable section of the country was under a foreign invader. Could be wrong but I think that the desire for re-unification is something that both states will have to pay a lot of lip service to at least.
Steve
Ideology alone could keep them seperate. Neither nation has had the political ideology/governmental form forced upon them, they each chose it as a the best for them at the time, even if it caused conflict at that time. The way Glen has been writing te updates I get the impression of specific identies(nationalities/racial otherness) emerging. Qing, Manchurian, and USC seem to have strong identities building to keep them seperate.
There was the period from around 300 CE to 589 CE that had the Sixteen Kingdoms, then the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and later the period from about 900 CE to the Mongolian conquest in the 1200s that had the Song, Liao and others. Though I don't know if some of those periods were theoretically united or not.
There was the period from around 300 CE to 589 CE that had the Sixteen Kingdoms, then the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and later the period from about 900 CE to the Mongolian conquest in the 1200s that had the Song, Liao and others. Though I don't know if some of those periods were theoretically united or not.
What Beedok sad -note that Qing Manchria fits the Northern invader mold. And the North and South have been under other dynasties in the past. But time will tell.Beedok
Were the earlier disruptions that long? Obviously forgetting too much. However with the Liao wasn't that basically a northern invader who occupied the north until they were in turn stomped by the Mongols?
Steve
What Beedok sad -note that Qing Manchria fits the Northern invader mold. And the North and South have been under other dynasties in the past. But time will tell.
Good to hear that the war in the east is also going well. So I assume Ezo/Ezochi/Hokkaido remains Russian or a Russian puppet?
At least for the foreseeable future.
Glen
What is the rough split in Hokkaido between Japanese, Ainu and probably also Russian settlers, soldiers officers etc? Just wondering if it might end up lost to Japan totally?
Steve
Majority are Ainu (and there are actually more of them at this point than IOTL due to better support from the Russians - hey, they're not all bad!).
There is a sizeable 'Japanese' minority, many who are involved in commerce, as well as a last influx of Tokugawa loyalist refugees.
There is a Russian presence, though this is the smallest on the island. They are mostly officials, traders, and of course in recent times, military.