So the idea of a Portuguese Australia didn't make it onto the list, huh? Ah well, at least *Indonesian Australia is already in.
Indonesian colonisation made a lot of sense. The big contenders for alt-colonisation of Australia are, to my knowledge, the French and the Dutch. For any of the countless other options, I'm basically going to point to the catch-all "other country in this region" option.
If you're still taking suggestions, here's a few more states I found would be useful for some of my maps;
I'll go into these below:
- Vlach/Aromanian/Principality of Pindus
Good idea!
- Romani/Gypsy (this might exist and I just can't find it, lol)
I don't think it's there, and it should be.
Never knew that was a thing!
- Aaron Burr's 'Western Empire' (maybe I could/should just use a Texan colour?)
It
is an established AH trope...
...I'll consider this one. I'll have to look into whwether any of the existing options covers this one already or not.
- An extra Mesopotamian colour or two - Sumer and, say, Elam/Persianised Mesopotamia for example
Good ideas.
Also good.
- Beta Israel/Zionist Uganda/Other Jewish African country[/QUOTE]
Covered by the catch-all "Non-Levantine Jeweish country" option, I'd say.
- Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere (could also work as a "Chipan" colour)
There is a colour for a real East Asian union. (The Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere was just a fancy name for Japanese imperialism, and should be coloured accordingly.) As for "Chipan", I assume that means culturally Japanese China...? There's a colour for that already.
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Add Newfoundland?
It was separate from the rest of Canada for most of its history, and existed as a separate dominion.
Good point!
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Okay,
@Skallagrim, I'm going to give criticism of your colour scheme. I mean it as healthy criticism and will provide suggestions on what you could do. Don't take it as me insulting the colour scheme.
No problem at all. Thanks for taking the time to list these points. (That said, there's a reasoning behind most of my choices.)
Britain
- I do find it odd that not even the "colours for everything!!!" colour schemes even think of splitting England and the UK.
A UK without England basically becomes a Celtic League-like thing almost by definition, which has its own colour. (To be honest, it's also a bit of tradition: that shade of pink has been used for both England and the UK since time immemorial, and using another colour for either one just looked wrong to me.)
- I think you could merge the Imperial Federation and Empire-in-exile ones myself. The distinction would be obvious.
They
are different things. This is one of those cases where I'll consider merging them if I ever do run out of colours.
- Roman Britain, really, I would argue that it fits best with Wales' colour more than Sussex [which was one of the most Anglicised parts of the UK].
Wales? That green colour has no association with Rome at all. Granted, the choice of Sussex is quite random, but the same goes for any other choice. Colour-wise, Essex or Cornwall would be closest to the Roman colour, but both already have their own secondary designations (and also Cornwall makes less sense for being associated with Rome: at least Sussex is pretty much in the region where the Romans launched their first incursions).
- Wales as green? What an odd decision, as it now can be confused with Ireland.
The two shades are quite distinct.
- I notice there's a lot of colours for really, really titchy places. Personally, I like to think first of the Worlda when thinking of stuff like colour schemes, but you're clearly thinking of bigger maps, so...
Maps that don't show smaller polities simply don't need those colours. it's not as if I'm leaving out colours for bigger states, after all.
- Ulster being green... not a wise decision. I would swap that with Connacht or something, so if there's an Ireland and an independent Ulster, it won't be confused.
This makes sense. Far more so than changing the Welsh colour.
France/Low Countries
- Personally, I would merge the "Belgium/Burgundian Netherlands" and "Burgundy" colours together. They seem to serve a general similar function. Oh, and the "Picardy/Belgae" one, since y'know, "Belgae"/"Belgium".
"Burgundy" is a term that can mean multiple things. The Burgundian Netherlands are not the same Burgundy that existed in what's now France.
- I like the Esperantist one, but surely that's more appropriate to set in Eastern Europe?
Moresnet was the location where a group of Esperantists tried to found an Esperantist micro-state in OTL.
- You could just get rid of Limousin/Imperial Europe and use Alsace-Lorraine to represent European empires, because well, Carolingian Empire was that.
The Carolingian Empire was no more all-European than the Roman Empire, I'd say. Both covered large parts of Europe, but not all, and didn't identify themselves as being all-European entities. The "Imperal EU" colour is meant to represent just that: an EU-like supranational body... which happens to be an empire. Not one imperial countery conquering all of Europe, but explicitly a
European Empire.
Iberia
- Okay, one easy problem I see is: What if there's a republican Spain, and an independent Catalonia?
...good point.
- I find giving "Celtiberian" colours to the Asturians is peculiar, because the Galicians seem to talk about their Celtic heritage more.
...also a good point. I can just switch around the secondary designations "Celtiberians" and "Suebi", and that'll solve the issue.
- And, what if there's an united "Spain" without Castille? Hmm...?
Then it just gets the colour of whatever polity unites alt-Spain instead. (Although I should really add "Castille(-and-Léon)" to "(Monarchist)" Spain)
Italy
- Could always just use the Sicily colour to mean Muslim Italy instead of having two colours. Nothing there really clashes.
There could be an islamic country in Italy that doesn't include Sicily, I suppose? That was my reasoning there.
- For Malta, you could always redefine it as "Malta, Christian Arabic/Arabic-dialect-speakers", or "Malta, Mediterranean knightly order". Or all three.
There tend to be colours for Christian Arabs in the regions where Arabs actually live. Of course, adding a colour for "The Knights of Malta, other Mediterranean knightly order" could be sensible. (Or I'd have to add that to "Malta", and make "Carthaginian-influenced Italy" a separate one-- which might make more sense.)
- I'm confused about the whole thing about "successor states". The Eastern Roman Empire is the Byzantine Empire...
That's a matter of some debate. I tend to think of it as a gradual transition, whereby the ERE gradually becomes less Roman in all the ways that matter. I mean, if it ends up having its own religious traditions, its own clothing styles, its own distinct architecture, and its people speak Greek and a plethora of other languages that aren't Latin, while even the administrative language is Greek... is it still the Roman Empire? Some say yes. I say no.
- Also, League of Nations should be merged with UN.
Those two are not the same thing.
Germany
- Merge Holy Roman Empire with monarchical Germany? It's what I would do. If you want to make it clearly "Roman", there's the "Northern Roman Empire successor state" you already have. Also, I don't think you have to make it "one colour for the Hohenzollerns" and another for the rest. You only have that colour for them, so might as well use it for something different?
The "Northern Roman Empire successor state" is more for scenarios where Rome annexes Germania, and that region eventually becomes a successor to Rome when the Empire falls apart. To be a succor, it must start out by being culturally Roman-- like the ERE. The HRE was never culturally Roman, being mostly German.
Yet the HRE is evidently also not the German Empire. The two are very distinct entities. This does remind me that I have no colours for the German Confederation, nor the North German Confederation. Also, the League of the Rhine and the Confederation of the Rhine...
- Deutschschweiz sounds like a good idea. Good choice.
Thanks! There's always potential for Switzerland being balkanised or something.
- You could always change the Romansh colour to "Other Swiss country, Romansh country, Romance-speaking Switzerland", such as Ill Bethisad's Helvetia.
Certainly an option. (I'm not very familiar with Ill Bethisad, but I get the idea here.)
- For Sudetenland, would it be used for Ill Bethisad's Bohemia, or would I use Bohemia's colour, or would I use Germanic Eastern European colour?
I don't know the backstory, but the Sudetenland colour seems to make the most sense here.
Scandinavia
- I don't really think the whole far-left/far-right colours are really needed. Get rid of them, I would say.
They are useful to denote regimes that are distinct from a country's normal political order.
- For "Vikings", wasn't they primarily Norwegian? Could always bind that to Norway.
They came from all of Scandinavia, and from Iceland. Just tying them to Norway seems wrong to me.
- For Karelia, would you use it for Ill Bethisad's Nassland, by the way?
Had to look that up, but yes, seems appropriate.
You mock me now, but when the great and terrible empire of Jan Mayen sends its warfleet to ravage your coasts, you'll regret that you ever doubted me.
Eastern Europe
- The distinction between states that have monarchical and republican colours and states that don't, strike me as rather arbitrary.
Rule of thumb is that if it was once a monarchy or has/had a somewhat credible monarchist movement, it gets this treatment. (Same goes in reverse for monarchies that could be republics, of course.) Also, if it shows up a lot in ATLs. So there's the monarchist USA option, for instance, in spite of there nevber being a strong monarchist movement in the USA.
- Would I use "other Baltic country" for Ill Bethisad's Skuodia, a Slavic nation in the Baltics?
Currently, yes. Although "Culturally Slavic country in the Baltics" is an option I'm quite willing to add.
- I think you should just scrap Congress Poland. Use that colour for something different.
Everyone says that. But I'm really stubborn.
Russia
- I think you should elaborate on the USSR colour, make it a "pan-nationalist socialist state". Even though the USSR was really just a new Russian Empire...
I'd use "Multinational far-left organisation" for that kind of thing, really.
- I don't think you need Donetsk and Novorossiya as two colours.
Donetsk and Lugansk are separate would-be republics, united in a confederal union they call Novorossiya. As such, the three things are not the same, and I treat them as separate entities.
- There's two Gothic colours. One tied with Gotaland, the other with Crimea. I think you should lump them together into one colour.
Considering the passing of time and the migration in between, I consider them separate. The Swabians in Germany and the Suebi in Iberia are also listed separately, for instance.
- For the "Independent successor state of the Ind. Jew. Oblast", I suggest you generalise it as "European Jewish state" or "Ashkenazi state"?
The Oblast isn't in Europe, though-- and there's already a colour for any non-specific ATL non-Levantine Jewish country.
Balkans
- I really would recommend you just do a general Macedonia colour. FYROM, Ancient Macedon, Alexander's Empire... Yeah, three colours when one could be enough.
The Macedonian naming dispute is a can of worms I'm not opening. Whatever one says about that, however, ancient Macedon was a distinct polity and deserves its own colour. Then there's Alexander's empire. If we look at OTL, one could just use Macedon, I guess. But this is AH! More often than not, we'll see TLs where Alexander's empire lasts longer than it did in OTL. And I don't think it can really be defined as "Macedon" anymore. It's a vast, multicultural superpower.
North Africa
- There's two Mauretania colours.
I'll be damned, you're right. The first one is a spelling error. It should read "Maur
itania". The other one, "Maur
etania", represents the ancient polity.
- "European" and "Levantine" successor states?
Yes. The first one represents things like the Vandals: Europeans migrating into the region and setting up shop. The second represents things like Carthage: Phoenicians or other Levantine sailors migrating into the region and setting up shop.
- Why two Egypt colours? More to the matter, why two Greek colours? They wouldn't be used at the same time for obvious reasons...
Egypt has, from time to time, been divided. You know, upper and lower kingdom. As for Greek colours... I only see one. Or do you mean Cyrenaica as the other one? That's distinct because it existed separately from Hellenic/Ptolemaic Egypt at times. (At other times, not so much.)
East Africa
- "Land of Punt"? You could always easily merge that with Ethiopia or Eritrea.
If anything, I'd be inclined to merge it with Puntland, so that Puntland and Ogaden don't have to share a colour. (They could exist side by side, after all.)
Anatolia
- You really need to use those city-state colours for more than just those.
Suggestions are welcome.
Fertile Crescent
- Six colours for Crusader states?
Five. The other Christian country in the Levant is meant to be a non-cusader polity, like a Christian Arab country or something. Anyway, people asked for cursader states, and they
were historical polities. A map set in the era might well need them.
- Instead of three colours for Israel, how about you look at stuff such as a Sephardi state [either in Spain, North Africa or the New World] and stuff like that?
Those colours are meant to be used for historical Jewish polities in the Levant. The Jews weren't always united in one kingdom, after all.
- Lebanon has a
thing for Phoenicia, apparently, so maybe lump those together?
If I really run out of colours, that can be considered.
Arabia
- Five colours for Yemen? No wonder you're running out of colours!
All representing historical polities, which existed side by side for quite some time.
Persia
- I suggest you boil it down to "Zoroastrian native-ruled Persia", "Islamic Persia" and "foreign-controlled Persia".
That's not really my approach.
India
- Wow, that's a lot of colours.
Yes. I try to be fair about this. If Europe gets all the colours it wants for obscure historical polities, so should the rest of the world.
- I would recommend instead of just doing colours for the old Empires, try to root them in modern times. Like "Delhi Sultanate". Maybe you could use that for an independent Delhi-based city-state?
I'm far from opposed to colour doubling.
Indonesia
- My suggestion of "try to get modern usages" applies here too.
Such as? I think I've got all modern polities in the region covered.
Micronesia
- Maybe merge FSM with United Micronesia?
My main consideration here was that the FSM exists and doesn't cover all of Micronesia. "United Micronesia" is mean to represent an ATL polity uniting all of Micronesia.
East Asia
- I would suggest merging far-right Mongolia with Sternbergia.
The baron deserves his own colour because of his memetic status as all-round crazy tyrant.
- I think you need to seriously focus on "modern usages" for those colours.
I still have a vague idea to let certain Chinese colours double as RoC warlord states, but I haven't found the time to actually do research into those warlord states.
- Manchuria is merged with Great Qing, but Mongolia isn't with Great Yuan?
I admit this is rather arbitrary.
- Do you really need colours for all those China dynasties? Maybe base it on regional bases?
Do I really need them? No. Do I want them anyway? Yes.
South-East Asia
- Isn't "Modern Vietnam" essentially commie Vietnam? What's the distinction?
They really mellowed out. Modern-day Vietnam can hardly be described as actually communist.
- What's the point in having different colours for different Philippine republics?
They're two different polities, created in different contexts, over 40 years apart.
Americas
- Why two different colours for Louisiana?
One is La Louisiane, the French colony and potential colonial successor state. The other is the US state, to be used in a balkanised US timeline as needed.
- Oregon? Why not use it for Cascadia? Cascadia and Oregon was once the same meaning.
As far as I know, Cascadia is a neologism created by the regional seperatists (usually of an ecotopian bent). It's meant to refer to a country covering the whole ecoregion, which is bigger than historical Oregon Country.
- Why different colours for Peru and Tawantinsuyu?
Because Peru and Tawantinsuyu aren't actually the same thing. Tawantinsuyu is a native empire, while Peru is a post-colonial state of a mixed ethnic and cultural nature.
That finishes my post. Thank you for reading.
Thanks for writing down your notes!
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...I'm going to revise my to-do list now.
