Map of the Fortnight 274: Manifest Destiny

[CourageousLife]

Manifest Destiny

The Challenge
Make a map showing a country with the belief that it is destined to expand and grow, and uses it to justify imperialist expansion.

The Restrictions
There are no restrictions on when your PoD or map may be set. Fantasy, sci-fi, and future maps are allowed, but blatantly implausible (ASB) maps are not.

If you're not sure whether your idea meets the criteria of this challenge, please feel free to PM me or comment in the main thread.

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The entry period for this round shall end when the voting thread is posted on Monday the 15th of May.

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THIS THREAD IS FOR ENTRIES ONLY.

Any discussion must take place in the main thread. If you post anything other than a map entry (or a description accompanying a map entry) in this thread then you will be asked to delete the post. If you refuse to delete the post, post something that is clearly disruptive or malicious, or post spam then you may be disqualified from entering in this round of MotF and you may be reported to the board's moderators.
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[NeonHydroxide]

From the perspective of its nationalists, Albania had long had the misfortune of being a state simultaneously too large and too small - that is, too small in its actual control of territory to realistically take the large swaths of land it rightfully claimed.

An opportunity seemed to come with the Italian invasion of Yugoslavia in 1939. By moving from opposition to collaboration with the Italian protectorate, the radical Balli Kombetar (BK) made their dream a reality - the 'reunification' at long last of Ulqin, Kosovo, and Dardania. The invasion of Greece seemed to promise a similar fate for Chameria, though the failure of the invasion and the involvement of the Germans put an end to that hope.

Following Axis victory in the Balkans, when it became clear that the final borders of 'Shqipëria e Madhe' would be somewhat less than had been initially promised, the alliance of convenience between the Italians and the BK began to collapse. After the death of puppet Prime Minister Ekrem Libohova in 1948, the BK launched a failed coup which led to a brutal crackdown and to the intensification of guerilla conflict.

In the mid '50s, as the European economy began to stagnate and cracks deepened in the former Axis coalition, Italy looked for a way to stabilize its sphere of influence and agreed to secret negotiations with the BK. Their demands were simple - permission to form a government and support to seize Albanian ethnic territory still not within the boundary of the state. With Greece itself in delicate turmoil, Serbia under German protectorate, and precious little of Montenegro left to give, there was only one logical target - Bulgaria, which still held Albanian-claimed territory in Western Macedonia and was beginning to move away from Italian influence.

The so-called 'Ohrid insurgency' lasted 16 years and claimed 30,000 lives before the BK was forced to admit defeat. Already by the mid '60s Italy was looking to wind down its support as part of its initiative to reconcile with the West, and by the end of the decade, with little to show for it, it was fed up.

The withdrawal of Italian support only led the BK to pursue softer targets now that it no longer needed Rome's support. Beginning in the 1970s, it launched similar operations in Greece and Montenegro, which were somewhat more successful in holding territory. The 'Chamerian National Republic' held a large chunk of northwestern Greece and was nearly ready for annexation into Albania before Italian intervention put an end to it.

By the late 1970s, having achieved zero of its irredentist goals, the BK government was intensely unpopular for its domestic failings. Like neighboring Serbia and Bulgaria, it had never managed to fully quash its democratic and communist resistance movements, and as Italy lurched relentlessly towards democratization, Albania would inevitably be taken along for the ride...

 

[Libaton]

Novgorod aligns itself with Poland-Lithuania in order to stave off the Muscovite danger. It remains a Republic and preserves a large degree of internal autonomy, but the King of Poland-Lithuania becomes Novgorod's liege and protector. Muscovy is eventually crushed in a series of devastating wars, and Commonwealth becomes the sole hegemon of the vast Eastern European plain. From this point on, a slow but steady push East is effectuated. In the South, Cossacks create numerous settlements in the Don basin; in the North, Novgorodian merchants and fishermen explore the frozen shores and penetrate deep into Siberia. Relations with the Central Asian khanates are kept on friendly terms, but tensions begin to appear.​