Geography Is Everything: pick an alternate country and argue why it "inevitably" became what it is

With its land perfect for growing turnips and parsnips, it was inevitable that the mighty farmers of Norfolk would create a world empire.
 
The Yuchi (or Coyaha as they call themselves) are indeed among the greatest Amerindian nations. Before Europeans showed up, they asserted control over the river valleys of the *Tennessee and *Cumberland rivers, depopulated after the decline of Cahokia and its influence there. Despite drought and the severe climate of the Little Ice Age, the Yuchi statelets perservered. By 1500, archaeology shows from *Paducah to *Muscle Shoals the region comes under a state ruled from *Nashville along the *Cumberland River in the center of the *Central Basin. The first encounter of Europeans and this indigenous empire went poorly. After a long expedition, Hernando de Soto and his expedition met his end amongst the people of the Tennessee and Cumberland River valleys.

The Yuchi proved to be the greatest inheritors of the so-called mound-builders. Later scholars would notice the Eastern Agricultural Complex was best expressed in the *Tennessee and *Cumberland valleys in the early second millennium AD. Other scholars would notice the very productive sweet potato and corn cultivars in the region.

Once European, Asian, African, and South American crops were introduced through various European colonial settlements, the *Tennessee-*Cumberland Valley grew stronger than ever. Likewise, the powerful state centered in the *1Central Basin along the Cumberland River continued exerting its power, extending military might (including European firearms) to the edges of the *Tennessee River system in Appalachia to defeat the Cherokee.

Despite the disdain Europeans gave to this state, they proved an invaluable ally when the British signed a major treaty with them which signed over much of the trans-Appalachian Southeast to the Yuchi. The increasing connection between the Yuchi and European trade networks helped tie the civlisations together, most unfortunately in the case of the trans-Atlantic slavetrade and the eager embrace of it the Yuchi ruling class has.

Thankfully, slavery was abolished by the 1860s, in large part thanks to the "industrializer" faction of the Yuchi state which viewed slavery as inefficient. With coal and iron along their river system, they have an incredible source of development. British North America once used the Yuchi as allies, although at many points the Yuchi are more using their capital and finance to secure control over North America. By 1880 in the European calendar, the Yuchi have secured almost the entire Mississippi basin in their conquest fueled by indigneous ingenuity and European assistance, and more and more Yuchi peoples from the homeland are moving to settle these new lands. Soon, the Yuchi Empire will be regarded as a proper Great Power by European standards, and with its resources, will no doubt play a role in defining which European state will win and which will lose in the increasingly likely chance of a Great War. From the banks of the *Cumberland River, the centuries old Yuchi Empire has clearly joined the ranks of modern society and yet is also prepared to protect its economic interests against Europeans and others who seek to threaten it.
 
With its independence, the Republic of Texas benefitted from geography as the sparely populated plains to her west and north gave her plenty of room for expansion. With the American Civil War, the two Mexican Civil Wars, the Tex-Mex war soon after, and the fracturing of the formet United States due to the rise of the Silver Legion, her borders stretched from the Sabine to the Arkansas to the Colorado rivers to include the whole of Baja and eventually Alta California by 1949. While the First and Second World War brought Louisiana, Arkansas, Cascadia, Utah, Nevada, Montana, and Colorado into the Republic the remainder of Mexico applied for admission on a state-by-state basis as did Guatemala and El Salvador by 1990. Texas now has the world's largest economy and dominates the Western Alliance and is the single most feared opponent to the Eastern Coalition. She claimed the first manned moon landing in 1969, Mars landing in 1999, and Jovian manned flyby in 2009.

OOC: Somewhere, @Kaiser Chris, Texas supporter, is reading this and laughing...
 
I always laugh and roll my eyes when I see a TL where the northern US is more industrialised than the south. Whilst the climate initially favoured the development of a plantation-based agrarian economy, it was inevitable, once industry started to become a major source of wealth, that rich Southerners would put their slaves to work in the factories, and equally inevitable that, not having to worry about paying their workers, they would easily be able to outcompete their northern rivals. For all that bitter neo-Federates like to gripe about the "War of Southern Aggression", even they have to admit that the South's industrial advantage proved decisive when the northern states attempted to secede over the issue of abolishing slavery.

It was inevitable that Switzerland would become one of the most warlike and expansionist European states. Their mountainous heartland gave them a nigh-impregnable base to fall back on, life in a tough environment turned them into excellent soldiers, and the lack of arable land meant that they were forced to expand or face overpopulation. It should come as no surprise that they chose to invade their wealthier neighbours, nor that they were so successful at doing so.
 

Deleted member 97083

It was inevitable that Switzerland would become one of the most warlike and expansionist European states. Their mountainous heartland gave them a nigh-impregnable base to fall back on, life in a tough environment turned them into excellent soldiers, and the lack of arable land meant that they were forced to expand or face overpopulation. It should come as no surprise that they chose to invade their wealthier neighbours, nor that they were so successful at doing so.
Indeed. Switzerland's insatiable, bloodthirsty greed for "Lebensraum" began even with the Helvetii tribe under Orgetorix, who had a conspiracy to conquer Gaul.
 
Shared hardship has always brought people together. Is it any wonder then that the deep south, constantly battered by hurricanes and tornados as it is, would be the driving force behind the emancipation movement.
 
Last edited:
Indeed. Switzerland's insatiable, bloodthirsty greed for "Lebensraum" began even with the Helvetii tribe under Orgetorix, who had a conspiracy to conquer Gaul.

As this event proves, ruthless expansionism runs deep in the Swiss psyche. Hence I think many TLs are too glib when they suggest that the Swiss army might have refrained from committing some of its more notorious atrocities (the Rape of Nantes, for example, or the attack on the US fleet in the Canary Islands). Switzerland by that time had already had over twenty centuries of fighting bloody wars against its neighbours, and combined with the pikeman military culture that dominated Switzerland for so many centuries, their attitude of xenophobia and militarism was far too deeply ingrained for them to not go around slaughtering foreigners whenever they got the chance.
 
As this event proves, ruthless expansionism runs deep in the Swiss psyche. Hence I think many TLs are too glib when they suggest that the Swiss army might have refrained from committing some of its more notorious atrocities (the Rape of Nantes, for example, or the attack on the US fleet in the Canary Islands). Switzerland by that time had already had over twenty centuries of fighting bloody wars against its neighbours, and combined with the pikeman military culture that dominated Switzerland for so many centuries, their attitude of xenophobia and militarism was far too deeply ingrained for them to not go around slaughtering foreigners whenever they got the chance.

Personally, I've always felt that Switzerland had the potential to have been broken out of its militaristic cycle had the French or Germans managed to conquer it and introduce better values to the country, in fact, I think that the Swiss natural revanchist urge would have to be broken completely for it to have a chance at becoming a more respectable country. The Swiss, after all, invaded Alsace-Lorraine, starting a Great War, and that was merely one of their many aggressive actions. Perhaps given a forced cultural transplant and a crushing defeat from which there would be no way of rebuilding Swiss natural militarism, but unless that were the case, I think Switzerland would have been stuck as the Scourge of the West forever.
 
Personally, I've always felt that Switzerland had the potential to have been broken out of its militaristic cycle had the French or Germans managed to conquer it and introduce better values to the country, in fact, I think that the Swiss natural revanchist urge would have to be broken completely for it to have a chance at becoming a more respectable country. The Swiss, after all, invaded Alsace-Lorraine, starting a Great War, and that was merely one of their many aggressive actions. Perhaps given a forced cultural transplant and a crushing defeat from which there would be no way of rebuilding Swiss natural militarism, but unless that were the case, I think Switzerland would have been stuck as the Scourge of the West forever.

Yes, it sure is lucky that the Allied occupation managed to transplant the values of individual liberty, democracy and capitalism onto what had hitherto been a murderously xenophobic fascist state. Of course, the Italian War of the '50s probably helped too, as Swiss businessmen were able to make a mint selling arms to help in the struggle against the communist South Italians.
 
Yes, it sure is lucky that the Allied occupation managed to transplant the values of individual liberty, democracy and capitalism onto what had hitherto been a murderously xenophobic fascist state. Of course, the Italian War of the '50s probably helped too, as Swiss businessmen were able to make a mint selling arms to help in the struggle against the communist South Italians.

Someone needs to make this a timeline.
 
Assyria was destined to dominate the near east. With their stranglehold on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, no other power in Mesopotamia could even think to challenge them. The population growth from controlling the fertile lands between the rivers made their army one of the largest in antiquity. Not only was their homeland fertile and powerful, it was well defended, as would-be invaders from the north, east and west had to pass through easily defended mountains bristling with fortresses, while the southern border was protected by the harsh desert climate. Finally the domination of Phoenicia, Dilmun and Egypt meant that any trade going from the Mediterranean to the Indian ocean had to go through their territory.
 

Deleted member 97083

Assyria was destined to dominate the near east. With their stranglehold on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, no other power in Mesopotamia could even think to challenge them. The population growth from controlling the fertile lands between the rivers made their army one of the largest in antiquity. Not only was their homeland fertile and powerful, it was well defended, as would-be invaders from the north, east and west had to pass through easily defended mountains bristling with fortresses, while the southern border was protected by the harsh desert climate. Finally the domination of Phoenicia, Dilmun and Egypt meant that any trade going from the Mediterranean to the Indian ocean had to go through their territory.
Well, to some extent, historians have argued for geographic and climatic factors that played a role in the rise and fall of Assyria. From the increased prevalence of iron mines in the core of their territory, to suitable pasture lands that assisted in the development of Assyrian cavalry. For the fall of the Assyrian Empire, a period of increased desertification has been pointed to as the tipping point towards the collapse of Assyria's revenues, weakening their agriculture, their military, the loyalty of their provincial governors and allowing their conquest by Babylon.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
[Intermission: I'm glad we're still getting so many new scenarios!
I've been thinking a bit more about the premise itself recently, inspired by all the geopoliyical analysts who think they could roughly "predict" a nation's trajectory just by looking at a handful of objective characteristics. The critical flaw in this is a similar one you'd have with an individual person. You can analyse a person by establishing their psychological profile, in light of their personal history, and by studying their environment. You can pick a kid from a slum in India or the heir of a billionaire in New York and make a guess as to what their lives will look like. But it falls apart really quickly - you couldn't possibly predict Donald Trump, or a great scientist rising out of poverty. You can't tell to what extent future technologies and ideologies will shake up their lives and way of earning a living, or how different experiences will accumulate. True, nations have a lot more inertia than individuals, but at the end of the day, they are mostly composed of individuals, and so that logic also applies here, to a certain extent. We won't know where an individual or an entire nation will go just by studying what they are. We might get a rough idea, but more often than not, the rough idea is the least interesting part of our subject. So we fill in the blanks with the stories we want to tell. Even though "serious" analysts of future geopolitics might be reluctant to admit it, they are first amd foremost fiction writers.]
 
Ethiopia was always meant to become a dominant African power. Their unique history, rich with Christian background, gained them some good prestige, especially from Christian missionaries. They ended up uniting all the various little monarchies and groups, ending up to appear in the Red Sea. With this, they were able to meet Portugal. With their help, they were to easily conquer the Horn of Africa before making their way up north. Through a strong tertiary role in the Crusades, they were able to make their way through Egypt and even reclaim Alexandria in the name of the Coptic Church and other Oriental Orthodox Church. Being sandwiched between them,their closest ally, Mushasha, and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, they were able to tear the Ottoman Empire apart, with the Ethiopian Empire claiming even Armenia and Constantinople. While they would eventually release some of the subjects to form a Commonwealth, Ethiopia remains wealthy and powerful through tis control of the Suez Canal, the domination of the Red Sea, the Aden Gulf and the Indian Ocean.
 
Although beginning as a small polity known only as the Orange Free State, the United Republics of Southern Africa now stretch from the Cape of Good Hope to the eastern Niger and southern Tana rivers. Her early victories in the Boer War prompted a strategy of "Claim or Cash" first for Mozambique then for central parts of the southern Continent (establishing a true town in eastern Kambazi state with rail support by 1910 much to the suprise of the German contingent there). By siding with the Allies in the First World War in exchange for the former SW Afrika and Tanzania then doing so again in World War II for inland areas of the continent and Madagascar, by 1960 only Angola and parts of western Cape Province remained in non-Boer hands, those areas joining surreptitiously in 1954 and 1955 respectively. Although an international pariah for its continuing enforcement of apartheid in 15 of its 21 provinces (Cape, Kambezi, Durban, Zanzibar-D.E.S, Mozambique, and Madagascar do not abide such nonsense which is likely to end in the next 5 years regardless), her economy is held aloft by gold, rare earth metals, diamonds, agriculture, and a cheap manufacturing sector. Recent announcements of a triad of large naval bases for the People's Liberation Army Navy mean Chinese interest in the region grows and the newly reunited United Confederate States will have to counter its strength somehow.
 
The Israeli hegemony of the early iron age is often though to be a matter that occurred in spite of geography. The southern Levante is after all no match for Egypt of the fertile crescent. However I think this terrain actually aided them. After all the Israeli rise coincided with the collapse of the Bronze Age states, meaning the Kingdom of Israel was not actually was not surrounded by the empires that those regions normally produce, additionally their arid and mountainous land gave them impetus to expand and seek tribute and plunder, the survival of their Kingdom would depend on it. Furthermore it provided a place to which they could retreat in the instances where they bit off more than they could chew, and once back in their own lands they could hold out in mountain fortresses while the logistical nightmare of campaigning in the southern Levant took its toll on the enemy, and they could also ambush them in the many narrow passes of the land. Their homeland also produced men who were well prepared to undergo long marches over uneven terrain in blistering heat.

In this way the Israelites made lemonade (their empire of tributary states that stretched from Libya to Assyria to Ionia) from the lemons they were given (land that's less than optimal for supporting large populations).
 
Gaul was naturally the font of Western Civilization due to its position straddling both Northern and Southern Europe. From there it could learn the lessons from classical civilization but interpret them through the wisdom of it's native Druidic practice as adapting and modifying those norms to fit Northern Europe.

The result was a potent cultural package that spread into Germania and then Scandinavia, and, with the lessons learned from from defeating the Roman Invasion (and the breathing space of another century of civil war) meant that Gallic armies could then move into Spain, restoring Gallic norms in law and culture and then spread into Italy once the Po valley became secure in Rengerix's conquest.
 
Top