Map Thread XIX

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Short and sweet (and without a real story): FRISIA!
The Frisians were able to form an own state, strong enough and their kingdom and language (what didn`t get really much influences of Dutch or German) survived until today.. Frisia has good to very good relations to its neighbours Flanders in the southwest and Germany in the south and east.

20190708 Frislönn.png


Extra idea: Lake Flevus/ Zuiderzee was always dry here.
 

Isaac Beach

Banned
Romandy - The Long Game

The nation of Romandy (more accurately the ‘Swiss Republic’ but queer looks are aimed toward those that use it) emerged as a result of the successful prosecution of Operation Tannenbaum by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in the late forties in what amounted to spring-cleaning their collective hegemony over Europe and North Africa. With the British thoroughly battered, the USSR in retreat and the US staying on their side of the Atlantic there wasn’t much sense in allowing the ‘misbegotten branch of the Volk’ to continue unmolested. For its part, with a motley of mounting factors including French conquest, American ambivalence towards supporting a minor state in the heart of fascist Europe, and the freeing of German equipment and divisions from the Eastern Front, Switzerland surrendered. This was rather tactical for a plethora of reasons; namely that peaceful partition would lead to the least loss of life and allow some diplomatic clout, resulting in the creation and neutralisation of Romandy rather than the wholesale absorption of the Confederation into Germany. This was, of course, short change for the 100,000 or so Jews in Switzerland that were systematically exterminated.

So began the artificial nation of Romandy, comprising the cantons of Vaud, Geneva, Jura and Neuchâtel, as well as the Francophone halves of the cantons of Valais and Fribourg. The nation incidentally swelled in population quite quickly after its independence as German, Italian and the odd Romansch Swiss with the means and contacts sought refuge in their borders (to this day Fribôrg is decidedly multilingual). Within the ‘Swiss Republic’ the old cantonal system was abolished, Hitler having nothing but hatred for what he considered a historical aberration of a political system, and replaced with a unitary presidential constitutional republic, with a Prime Minister as head of government. This, ironically, was much closer to the inert Weimar Republic than the shallow dictatorship that had replaced it. Despite their initial meddling, the Reich granted Romandy’s government a free hand in their internal governance, albeit with indiscriminate access by the Schutzstaffel and whomever else the Reich desired.
Though all this was also instituted without official protest from the ephemeral Swiss authorities in formerly German-speaking Switzerland, attempts by Reichskommissar Franz Riedweg on behalf of Heinrich Himmler to dilute Swiss cultural heritage lead to an insurgency that would last in some form or another to the present day. These partisans were overwhelmingly from the Swiss military and were galvanised not just by a sense of national pride but because, though the Swiss government had not resisted the German invasion, they also hadn’t assisted it in securing every weapons cache, bunker, ratway, depot, and in particular for such a guerrilla campaign, every piece of trapped infrastructure. Soon, across Switzerland, bridges, tunnels, cliff faces and roads were exploding, Whermacht detachments terrorised and administrative buildings bombed. This would often lead to harsh restitution, with whole villages being slaughtered particularly in the mountainous south where the partisans were strongest. Romandy was certainly responsible for housing a number of partisans, particularly in Lower Valais where they stockpiled weapons and received covert support from Romandy’s people and, as the German government suspected, Geneva itself.
A new invasion of Romandy would’ve been on the cards had it not been for the increasingly radical state to Romandy’s west carved from France, SS Burgundy, protesting that they didn’t want the Wehrmacht breathing down their necks, as well as Rome’s opposition to such an escapade after their amiable partition of the state. This was just part of the escalating internal conflict between Rome and Germania that ultimately resulted in the German invasion of Italy in the early 70s. But overstretched and increasingly dysfunctional as building an economy on millions of corpses isn’t actually very sustainable, this would mark the hightide of German influence and expansion before they began a sometimes slow, sometimes precipitous decline and the file on occupying Romandy was tucked in a backroom and promptly forgotten.

In 2029 Romandy is more or less back on its feet and still serves as a centre of banking for misappropriated Nazi gold, but also Clerical-Fascist Spanish gold, disgruntled authoritarian Franco-Italian gold, and gold from various corrupt socialist cliques as well. With German influence waning after 2008 politics is somewhat funky; as a Francophonic state with a shared history of getting their shins kicked in union with France is not an unpopular notion, Germany is still right there. But bearing the last torch of true Swissness (the cantonal system was reintroduced in 2012) and particularly due to their Protestantism (as France is not entirely free of angry Catholics who see Protestants as inherently German saboteurs) and with the economy in decent shape others believe that Romandy should soldier on as is. There is also the very real possibility of German Switzerland reemerging considering Germany’s historic and continued decline from the heady heights of stretching from the Arctic to the equator, especially as those partisans have only grown in number in recent years, so Geneva at current is willing to play the long game. There’s also the odd fascist in the Federal Assembly but they’re ignorable enough. In any event Romandy has good relations and a number of mutual agreements with the Franco-Italian Customs Union and an ambivalent relationship with Germania, and things have cooled off enough in Europe that Americans are actually willing to use their ski slopes. The future of Romandy isn’t a sure one, but they’re willing to wait and see.

~​

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~​

This is a cover of @B_Munro ’s phenomenal ‘The Shrunken Reich’ map. I really liked the scenario, not because of the Nazis in it but because it had so many unique quirks I’ve not seen before. An actual German Ukraine, a free Romandy, the Pope in Mexico, among other things. It’s just neat.

This is also the last big mapping project I’m going to make. I’ve decided to stop making alternate history and especially maps for an indefinite period. There are a number of reasons for this, which I wrote a wee journal about on DA, but there are a couple that stick out, as follows:
- I’ve been doing this as a hobby for six years and there are newer mapmakers with better tools that are outpacing me at a rate I can’t hope to match, and I feel I ought to move on. I don’t get the same satisfaction I used to from making a map or really any kind of alternate history, for a plethora of reasons elaborated on in the aforementioned journal.
- I want to focus on my writing. I haven’t finished a story in years, and maybe that speaks to a poor work ethic. But I can’t dedicate time to both this hobby and writing, particularly as I want to monetise the latter in a way that I can’t with this, which I don’t think is an unreasonable request.
I’d like to thank all the people that were good fans, few as they were, particularly @Tyche who I believe is the only person that engaged with just about every single piece of content I’ve created. And while I’m well aware that I am no Upvoteanthology or even Bruce, I do hope no one is too upset that I’m leaving. I may wean myself off with a couple of disparate little maps hereafter, but those will only be on my DA rather than here on AH, and thereafter I won’t really be here anymore.

Thanks for having me.
~ Isaac.
 
Here we have Europe and parts of the middle east and africa from Chester A. Arthur's For All Time, circa 1960.
Huh. Odd the Soviet lands in Anatolia are not added to Georgia and Armenia, as that was what their original claims for the land were under. Also bizarre how Iran gains that strip of land in Turkey and how Iranian Kurdistan is the only one to go independent, considering how they are actually linguistically related to Persian, unlike with Turkish and Arabic. Also, goddammit. That Danish color on Scandinavia. Well, at least they didn't steal Norway's color this time. In this story did Stalin have Tito knocked off and partitioned the land so Serbia would ent up in the Comintern?
 
The only thing I don't understand is number 7. Native Americans would be an absolutely minuscule minority. How could they hold on to any kind of political power?
Basically, its not that they are a majority in the republic, far from it, but a lot of the land has been put under native control as part of the decolonisation movement.
 
That's a great tribute to my map, many thanks!

I’ve decided to stop making alternate history and especially maps for an indefinite period.

Well, I'm sorry to hear it. I'll miss you and your work: I've always enjoyed your maps, and if you feel discouraged by people with superior mapping techniques, imagine how I, still using MS Paint, feel!

(Of course, that's because I'm a procrastinating wanker who can't gin up the motivation to learn how to use a superior system. What are all the cool kids using nowadays, anyway?)

I wish you the best in your new endeavors, and if you manage to get a book out either in electronic or dead-tree format, please let us know.
 
Speaking of otters !! And if i remember right, otters were pets in UK LeGuins' The Dispossessed. Do the Vylkove otters survive to the present day?

Fascinating article! I really, really want an otter gun-dog now...

Regarding the survival of the Vylkove otters, my assumption is that they're ultimately mostly replaced by dogs and cats, but end up rather like ferrets: an uncommon but not rare pet mainly kept in particular geographic areas to facilitate small-scale hunting (although Yorkshiremen are less likely to put otters down their trousers competitively).
 
New map! Description laterView attachment 470975
Looks like Armenia lost yet more land. suppose it could be worse, though. Read yesterday how the current President of Azerbaijan supports a theory that virtually the entirety of Armenia should be Azerbaijani. On a less topical note, I was going to suggest just having Irish Ulster united with Northern Ireland but figured afterwards you would be keeping most units as they are. But then I saw how yah wiped Slovenia from the map, split Romania in a manner that they would take as a declaration of war, as well as combined southern Germany. It may be unnecessary as both areas are already very large, and this would simply make it a juggernaut in Europe. I would also point out that Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg speak different dialects (with the Swiss and Voralburg being with the B-W, and the rest of Austria being with Bavaria) but looking further I see both regoins have a long swath of Franconian in their norths anyways. Still, I feel that either your union should be trying to combine divisions, like having just one for Iceland, or they keep generally to regular regoins and country borders. Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia-Herzovigina is just asking for trouble. At the very least the Slovenians should keep independence, thr Slavonians stay with Croatia, and Serbia gets th Republica Spryska. However they spell Serb Republic in Serbian.
 
The Vylkove Culture (4800-2200 BC)

Continuing in the Kurgan-free Otterverse:

The Taman Wreck and the world's oldest 'map'

vuQDb4A.png


Discovered in the Kerch Strait and carbon-dated to 1771 BC ± 50y, the Taman Shipwreck provides an invaluable insight into material culture and trade in the early Bronze Age Danubian city-states that succeeded the Vylkove Culture. A sewn-plank ship reconstructed as being roughly 14m long by 3m wide, the vessel foundered in a sudden storm while laden with trade goods and was almost immediately buried in silt, preserving the ship’s contents to a remarkable degree.

A reconstruction of the ship has shown that it would have been seaworthy enough to undertake quite lengthy journeys around the Black Sea either under oar or sail power (although it is highly likely that such journeys as were seldom involved travelling more than a mile or so from the coast except where absolutely necessary). Analyses of the ship’s cargo has unearthed copper sickles and ceremonial axes, ornate pottery, tin (transported from the Erzgebirge to the Danube and then ferried to the Black Sea) and cage-like structures tentatively identified as intended to store hunting otters for export): it is likely that these goods were intended for exchange along the Colchian coast for timber, gold and honey.

The most intriguing find in the shipwreck, however, is a bone fragment about fifteen inches long, which bears deliberate markings on one side: these have (controversially) been identified as comprising, in part, the world’s oldest physical map or itinerary, covering the salient geographical features which could be used as way-points when sailing from an unknown point of origin in the Danube delta (potentially linked with the slightly later city-state of Kütuŋessu. A possible reconstruction of the route (and identification of specific marks with the coastline of the Black Sea) is shown above.
 
Anglo-France (diana 2. ).png

I have remastered this old map of mine as a Worlda. Great Britain is ISOTed from the start of the reign of King George III to the Hundred Years War. It is the reign of Queen Joan III de Bourbon now. Who happens to be the the first monarch of the UK from the house of Bourbon and the third queen in a row. She is the 26th monarch after King George III and the 26th monarch of the mightiest nation on Earth. It is soon after the end of long Russian civil war and liberation of China from Japan. The Workers Federation is a side result of those wars. Also the Russian colored state is actually the Siberian Federation who won out in the Russian Civil War. Prussia, Ottoman Empire and Japan are secondary powers who come after Britain-France. Siberia and China are rebuilding powers who will reach the level of other secondary powers some years later.
anglo-france wip.png
 
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SpudNutimus

Banned
Something I made yesterday for a timeline I'm writing called "Miss My Destiny", in which France wins the Seven Years War and Britain goes into economic crisis, eventually succumbing to a peasant revolution, before being couped by Admiral Sidney Smith, starting a war that would change the face of Europe.
america_1817_brit.png
 
Küturyessu?
Can you give me some Linguistic Background Here? ;)

Erm, very vaguely related to Hurrian toponyms. I'm afraid that my acquaintance with the entire field of philology is limited to a seminar back when I was at University that I turned up to half an hour late and incredibly hungover, so some of the finer points might have escaped me.

BTW, it's occurred to me that we've both covered similar scenarios (a Marija Gimbutas-influenced "Old European" culture centred around the Danube in the absence of any sustained Indo-European migration) from completely different angles - broadly speaking, your absolutely fantastic timeline tries to reconstruct a society via analysis of literary culture while my far shallower couple of maps have tried to reconstruct a society via analysis of material culture. If you're ever up for another Neolithic/Eneolithic timeline, I'd love to do a collaborative one with you, perhaps from the perspective of two academics each of whom is absolutely convinced that the other one's looking at the wrong things entirely.
 

SpudNutimus

Banned
This sounds really interesting and fascinating. I have a few questions:
  • How is the Indian Reservation governed? How populous is it?
  • How did Denmark take over OTL Prince Rupert's Land?
Thank you, I'm hoping to make this into a series.
1. The Indian Reservation is less of a singularly governed entity like a modern reservation, and more of a piece of land set aside for the various native tribes to govern and divide amongst themselves, with the secondary function of acting as a buffer state against Anglo settlement westward, and some French fortifications and patrols along the Appalachians, particularly in the Cumberland Gap.
2. When the brief yet bloody British Civil War began in 1795, the Hudson Bay Company was cut off from the British government, who had more pressing matters on their hands, notably the royal family being executed by firing squad. The French also had little interest in the region, as their lands in North America were already substantially large and unpopulated. This left Rupert's Land without a government to supply them, threatening to collapse to native raids and starvation, and so a Danish fur trapper by the name of Valdemar Pedersen (who may or may not be named after a certain @Valdemar Daae , who helped me research for this timeline) was sent to Denmark to offer ownership of the colony to the Danish king, in exchange for supplying their settlements and allowing the Hudson Bay Company leadership to remain relatively intact. The Danish accepted, and the colony of Valdemar was born.
 
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