Thande
Donor
Thanks for pointing that out, Portugal still has the pre-1860 border by accident - will fix when I'm on my other computer.
Look to the West Volume V: To Dream Again
- Thread starter Thande
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One nit pick concerning Abyssinia is that they did consider the Red Sea littoral (TTL "Russian Erythraea") to be part of the Empire, which would lead to some problems with Russia just owning the land and not recognizing Abyssinian sovereignty over it that would make the economic and military cooperation highly unfeasible. An easy solution, should you choose to to address this point, could be borrowed from Jonathan Edelstein's excellent TL "Male Rising," in that in exchange for military and economic aid the Neguse Nigist recognizes the Tsar as a "vassal" (read: de facto colonial overlord) in Erythraea, and even resurrects the title Bahr Negus or Ye'Semen Bahr Negus (Sea Lord/Northern Sea Lord given the fact that Abyssinia seems to control a lot of Somali coast land TTL), to award him, which makes sense since it was an important title during the Middle Ages and came with a large degree of autonomy.
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Wow, I knew my map was a bit off but I thought I was at least a little closer to being accurate.And here is the map in question...
Thande
Donor
Well, your one didn't incorporate a lot of things that were in my head but weren't on paper until the most recent updates.
Good call on Abyssinia, Agatho.
No problem, just trying to be helpful. As Bahr Negus, by the way, the Tsar has the right to have an adviser at the Imperial Court.
Some other things that are worth mentioning is that Abyssinia has a LOT more Muslim Somalis under its rule TTL, and just holding Ogaden has been problematic enough OTL that that could lead to issues down the road. But you're right about the Oromos being resentful would possibly be more of a problem for Abyssinia than in OTL. If Demetros II was just from Gondar and no one from Yejju or Shewa manages to ascend to the throne, there won't be an Emperor with ties to the Oromos, nor a battle of Adwa to make them feel like they're part of the Empire, and they would also probably resent centralization around Gondar since it would mean a loss of prestige and power for the Waraseh dysnasty, who during the Zemene Mesafint had a position similar to the Shogun in Japan. It would be interesting if future Emperors wound up favoring Somalis so as to develop the port at Berbera and play them off against the Germans in Puntland, only for the Oromos to turn on them.
Religious differences between the Russians and the Abyssinians aren't necessarily going to be a huge issue, as they weren't a major barrier to cooperation OTL, but hardliners in Russia are going to resent what they hear about Abyssinian Orthodoxy (who, as Miaphysites, haven't been in communion with Chalcedonian/Russian Orthodoxy since 451) given some of its unique traditions, and the Abyssinian Orthodox are going to resent seeing Chalcedonian monasteries/seminaries popping up in "their" land. Russian intrigues in Abyssinian religion though might extend to getting the local Church autocephaly from the Coptic Church in Egypt. Having an Ottoman-controlled Coptic pope naming the primate for Abyssinia would not be something the Tsar wouldn't want to see.
Hopefully these ideas might help you stir the pot in that part of the world should you feel the need.
On an unrelated note, what's going on in Haiti? OTL the *Dominican half of the island was managed very poorly by the Haitian side, which was one of the reasons for revolt and eventual independence of the Dominican Republic. I still think the Spanish-speaking portion will find itself being very influential in the politics there even if the two halves don't go their separate ways. The reason I think it should play more of a role, should you have time for it, is because it would be an interesting Point of Controversy between Diversitarians and Societists, with the Societists emphasizing the cultural differences between *Dominicans and *Haitians being overcome as the reason for the island's success, while the Diversitarians might argue that the majority of *Dominicans and *Haitians were descended from the same slave population, and that the island remained stable because they were all one people and there wasn't much cultural heterogeneity there to begin with.
EDIT: Consulting the wiki and the map, I just remembered the island is now part of Virginia. That does change/explain a lot, but what is representation for Hispaniola like in the Continental Parliament? How is an island with an overwhelmingly black population governed given the number of manumitted slaves the *Virginians preferred to send off to Freedonia than to live with?
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I hope I'm not confusing Cuba and Hispaniola again (for the third time!), but I think that Hispaniola was racially purged.
Holy cow that's horrifying. That's genocide on a near unconscionable scale. I feel like I would have remembered that.
If I remember correctly, I think it was less of the shooty, mass burning kind and more of the "push them somewhere else" kind.
I thought the purging was of French-and-Spanish-speakers, particularly whites (oh irony), in order to make room for new Anglophone Southron overlords and the majority of blacks on the island - and thus population - was kept. Sort of a very rough parallel of the white French Haitians leaving for New Orleans, only in this case other (Southron) whites moved in.
This is a very rough guess, however.
EDIT: yeah, I am convinced of it, because I believe the Hanoverian Dominions had the relevant experience by then in the First Great (Acadian) Upheaval of both OTL/TTL and Second Great (Canadian) Upheaval of TTL's 1780s. This by then was just throwing out more French colonists but keeping the rest of the colony's infrastructure - and I begrudgingly am forced to put in 'slaves' as part of that - intact.
Meanwhile Cuba has been noted to retain enough of a different culture to make becoming a republic a sensible thing, and the same post on Hispaniolan annexation noted Carolina kept a lot of Hispanics (compared to Frenchmen) happy to make annexation easier, and other posts (particularly after the post-Jacobin Wars) noted Carolina became Catholic-friendly as a result of keeping Cubanos content, so any purging there failed or never happened.
This is a very rough guess, however.
EDIT: yeah, I am convinced of it, because I believe the Hanoverian Dominions had the relevant experience by then in the First Great (Acadian) Upheaval of both OTL/TTL and Second Great (Canadian) Upheaval of TTL's 1780s. This by then was just throwing out more French colonists but keeping the rest of the colony's infrastructure - and I begrudgingly am forced to put in 'slaves' as part of that - intact.
Meanwhile Cuba has been noted to retain enough of a different culture to make becoming a republic a sensible thing, and the same post on Hispaniolan annexation noted Carolina kept a lot of Hispanics (compared to Frenchmen) happy to make annexation easier, and other posts (particularly after the post-Jacobin Wars) noted Carolina became Catholic-friendly as a result of keeping Cubanos content, so any purging there failed or never happened.
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Basically, Sanchez wants everyone to return to the "natural" state of meritocratic hierarchy and cultural homogeneity TO THE EXTREME!!!(TM). It's corporatism merged with Plato's Republic.
However, things don't quite turn out like that, like how Leninism becomes the doctrine of the USSR, which is a variation of Marxism that Marx himself likely wouldn't have approved of.
More or less...
So is there a single post where all this is clearly explained and elaborated upon? Thanks.
Nope, but the entirety of Volume IV's opening quotes are from Pablo Sanchez which more or less outline his views (and by extension, Societism).
But if it remained part of Virginia then there is no slavery, so what's the legal status of the largely Hispanophone (I'm guessing, since they made up the majority of the island's population OTL) blacks who should still vastly outnumber the whites?
That's a pity. So is Societism going to play a major role in the Utopian Wars, and what countries currently run a Societist system? Pretty such the UPSA is one of those, though... is there a post on the brand of Societism in those countries?
Oh, I was speaking of decades earlier when the place got annexed during the Jacobin Wars.
I'd imagine in-between then and the present of 1896 that the slaves would gradually learn English and this would take an even bigger upswing come emancipation with the Clay Proclamation. It's about a century's time for them to.
Cuba, unlike Hispaniola, never fought a resistance war against the Anglo-American occupiers, which would explain why its population never got purged as a comparison.