Double the number of sovereign states

If Africa is faced with more regionalism, what if all the local kingdoms are resurrected? If SA is faced with some kind of race war and its kingdoms are restored, maybe the plans for a white homeland go ahead - and then that promptly splits after a war between hard-right Afrikaners and the English.
 
So yeah, there's certainly possibilities, but the main problem is finding how all the possible situations could happen plausibly in a single TL.

I think it might be accomplished through a different (yet recognizable) situation at the end of WWII (especially in respect to what is done in Central Europe), and much messier decolonization caused by full Western commitment to self-determination. Or something!

Most of those (except maybe Scotland depending on the POD) are extremely unlikely to happen with a POD past 1900 without a Nuclear war...

I'm going to have to agree with this. I edited a clarification into the OP to address it. Although this isn't to say that culturally distinct regions in largely stable, industrialized Western countries couldn't secede (Scotland and Quebec are perfect examples), it's unlikely.

Other options would have been additional states in Europe, for example a post WW2 breakup of Germany into its pre-confederation/empire collection of states. I believe spain and Italy could also have similar subdivision occuring.

A bloodier end to WWII might bring about stronger anti-German and anti-Italian feelings, prompting the Allies to dissolve the two countries into numerous smaller, unthreatening states. (Although they'd make a poor bulwark against Soviet communism -- the reason this choice was avoided in OTL, IIRC.)

As for Spain... a different end to the Spanish Civil War? A premature death of Franco (coup? assassination? chokes to death on some paella?) prompting a second civil war?

Oh, OK. Disregard my maps then, although they can be used as references.

If WWII does come about, presumably the aftermath could include:

- Morgenthau Plan divides Germany into HRE-style mini-states
- Due to some kind of serious international animosity, Austria is broken into four separate countries each backed by an Allied occupier
- Japan is divided into Soviet, American and Chinese occupation zones and later breaks apart along those lines
- Roosevelt's plan to invade Spain is carried out; Catalonia, Galicia and the Basque Country declare independence
- A Korean War analogue results in the nuking of Beijing and the fracturing of China into another Warring States situation

No worries -- they're beautiful maps and I'm happy you shared them!

- See my answer to one of the above quotes. :)
- I think having East and West Austria would be pushing it, to be honest -- the reason Austria didn't suffer the same fate as Germany after WWII (division and occupation) was because the Soviet's zone was too small to be economically sustainable, and the Allies were loathe to let Germany keep Austrian territory for obvious reasons. Maybe the Soviets bite the bullet and Moscow fully subsidizes Vienna-based East Austria anyway?
- See my other answer about Spain, but I like that too -- it's creative and I could see it happening in a world where Italy and Germany are also dissolved.
- Again, something I could see happening. What if no one wins in China and the conflict continues indefinitely, with both sides pouring in weapons and money?

On China: could linguistically distinct states in Eastern and Southern Coastal China be carved away from an ethnic Han, Mandarin-speaking state based along the Yellow River Valley? I think a Cantonese nation state in Guangdong might be possible, either as its own entity, as the realm of a warlord, or as the haven of the KMT.
 
Here's what I've plausibly got for Europe so far

balkeu.png
 
Wow, that's excellent! Could I perhaps suggest the inclusion of a Russian-majority state based in the Crimea, and a few more independent states within Russia? It's possible that they could arise out of the ashes of the former USSR — although I think the Soviet dissolution would have to be much, much bloodier in order to let the Tatars and the Caucasian peoples become independent. Possibly a coup-gone-wrong (almost like OTL!), resulting in one of the parties bringing some atomic sunshine down on the Kremlin, thereby decapitating the ruling apparatus?

Here's a map of the contemporary Russian Federation's member republics.

Republics_of_Russia.png
 
Wow, that's excellent! Could I perhaps suggest the inclusion of a Russian-majority state based in the Crimea, and a few more independent states within Russia?

Sounds good, although a few of the constituent republics might be hard to maintain as independent states (if Finnish Karelia were to break off it would be to join Finland, for instance).

Kaliningrad might separate if the metropole is in chaos.

In the Middle East:
- Libya partitioned into Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan
- Israel, Palestine and a formerly UN-managed Jerusalem that eventually gained independence
- Kurdistan
- Iraq, Syria and Lebanon partitioned along sectarian lines after some nasty ethnic cleansing
- A French-Algerian enclave formed during an alternate Algerian War peace settlement
- Maybe some of the Soviet-backed puppet states in northern Iran survive the first days of the Cold War?
 
I think I might have a loose TL for this, actually, just using your PoD:

- 1930s: Indian and African independence movements fracture along regional lines. Several more radical Indian nationalists' lives are changed and they go work in Japan. One or two happen to be biochemists and help the Japanese develop virulent biological weapons.
- WWII: Chemical and biological weapons are used on a large scale by the Axis, while parts of India and the African colonies rise up in revolt, allied to Japan. All this results in a much bloodier and more complex war that drags on for years.
- As a result, the Allies take an extremely hard line towards the former Axis powers and divide them after the war so they are no longer a threat. They also invade Spain to crush fascism once and for all. Spain breaks apart.
- Since Germany and Italy are shattered and balkanized, the Soviets can infiltrate further west, trying to form a larger band of satellite states. This results in a few minor wars within Europe.
- International relations are thus extremely paranoid. A Stalinist hardliner takes power instead of Khruschev. For whatever reason he emphasizes the nationalities policy of creating homelands within the Soviet Union - resulting in cohesive nation-states in the constituent republics (even the Jewish one).
- The hard-liner also gets heavily involved in East Asia, nearly resulting in war with America and culminating in the nuking of Beijing and subsequent division of China.
- Meanwhile, decolonization takes place but along ethnic and tribal lines, as the movement now emphasizes.
- After an extremely long period of Stalinism, a reformer comes to power in the Soviet Union - resulting in a coup attempt by conservatives in the military. A civil war within the Russian establishment takes place, and, seeing their chance, not only the Soviet republics but the subdivisions of Russia itself (which are now nations) rise up and secede.
 
You could likely get the Baliwicks of Guensey, Jersey and Alderney independent, although they will still claim the British Monarch as a head of State. Breaking the nominal link between the UK and States Government however isn't a huge POD, it just requires post WWII the islands to get in a hissy fit over the fact the British didn't come liberate them, even though the British government said they would defend the islands. At which point they may ask to go independent.

Having said this its debatable whether or not internationally the islands are classified already as a 'soverign state', since a crown dependency is already self governing in all major respects... the UN doesn't classify them as independent bodies, the EU does; although the islands aren't part of it. So its a good question...
 
When the British withdrawal from India is being arranged a number of the leading native princes seek -- and obtain -- a legal ruling that under the terms of their treaties with the British they are actually entitled to resume full authority over their states instead of having to "accede" to either India or Pakistan. (Some of them claimed this right in OTL, and AFAIK there does seem to have been a fairly plausible case for the argument's legality...) If enough of the other princes follow suit then that could give you your 200+ extra sovereign states from a single POD... although how long the goverment of 'India' would allow this situation to continue for would obviously be questionable.
 
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