Map Thread XIX

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My take on the Map of Europe in Command and Conquer: Red Alert.
 
The Tsardom of the Northern Caucasus was created by Russia out of conquered lands in the late 1890s as a sort of buffer between its empire and Persia, but in 1911 it was decided that Persia "wasn't much of a threat anymore" and the state was re-annexed by Russia.

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A sequel to this post ...

Jeeves has this difficult habit of biffing in with the morning tea at the ungodly hour of eleven. I mean to say, I’m hardly asleep before there he is, waking me up again.
‘A Prime Minister must catch his eight hours too, Jeeves.’
‘Quite, sir.’
‘And if he’s doubling up as Regent, he must catch his sixteen.’
‘As you say, sir.’
‘Just thought I’d mention it. Ooh, what’s that in your hand?’
‘A telegram for you, sir.’
‘Really? I thought it was the Mona Lisa. Come on, give it here.’
‘Sir,’ Jeeves dispensed the slip gracefully, and I took a gander.
‘Those French provisional wotsits really are raising hell, aren’t they?’
‘Indeed, sir, Monsieur Mitterand’s tactical deviation from Moscow Thought rather appears to have had unforeseen consequences.’
‘Unforeseen like billy-o. Soviet Empire rather bursting at the seams, what?’
‘Very much so, sir.’
‘And this is only the tip of the … Jeeves?’
‘Sir?’
‘What’s that thing fellows talk about? You’re sailing along, you run into the tip of it and that looks pretty monstrous, but beneath the water there’s an even bigger whacking thing tucked just out of sight.’
‘I believe you are looking for “iceberg”, sir?’
‘Oh, yes of course! Like the Titanic!’
‘Indeed, sir.’
‘Yes, well, like I was saying, these French shenanigans are only the tip of the iceberg. And Mr. Romanov’s Kremlin is very much the Titanic. Unsinkable, until it isn’t. You heard about what happened in Hamburg?’
‘No, sir?’
‘Of course, that was one of those “your-eyes-only” thingummies. But hold on – I thought you read all of those!’
‘I have been rather too preoccupied with the situation that has arisen regarding our oil supply lines to the Persian Gulf, to keep entirely abreast of events in Hamburg. My apologies, sir.’
‘No need to apologise, Jeeves, the gist is this. So, after the last war Russia took a big bite out of what was once Germany. You follow me so far?’
‘You have been lucidity epitomised, sir.’
‘Good, good. Well, old Uncle Joe had a mind for taking all eight hundred zillion Germans or whatever-it-was he’d inherited and send them on a backpacking holiday to Kazakhstan, but cooler heads prevailed and he was just really beastly to them at home instead. Made them learn Russian, that sort of thing.’
‘The Russification Policies in Soviet Germany were notorious for their stringency in the annihilation of Teutonic culture, sir.’
‘You’re telling me. I haven’t had Apple Strudel since about 1936. Anyway, once Kruschev and his merry men were on the scene they clocked that old Stalin’s ideas verged a bit on the psychotic, so they changed tack and decided to stress the eternal friendship between Russians and Germans, and all that bilge. I mean to say, one can talk all you like about eternal friendship between Russians and Germans, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’ve been more than content to pillage one anothers’ cities and ravage one anothers’ countryside for time immemorial. Goes back to Ghengis Khan, you know. I doubt he had much to say on the eternal fraternity between Russians and Germans!’
‘I am much inclined to agree, sir.’
‘Anyway, they chucked out Stalin’s compulsory Cyrillic curricula and decided to be all lovey-dovey for a while. Rather like Tuppy Glossop and cousin Angela when they were a thing. You remember what happened to Tuppy Glossop in re cousin Angela? Or, indeed, vice-versa?’
‘I’m afraid the intricacies of our foreign secretary’s personal life have rather slipped my mind, sir.’
‘But dash it, Jeeves, you were there! I mean, I know you’re sprouted a few white-whiskers recently, but I never thought I’d see the days you turned into a codger! All right, let me tell you. Tuppy was all over cousin Angela until a minor faux pas viz. her story of a shark attack in Cannes. Oh, Jeeves, remember when we could take holidays in Cannes?’
‘I do indeed, sir.’
‘Maybe if these provisional wotsits do their job, we can make a return trip. I can be like – what was that fellow’s name? Oh, never mind. Anyway, Tuppy, as base a fathead as ever broke biscuit, decided to dismiss the bally story by telling Angela the shark was a flatfish, which prompted her to criticise his incipient double-chin, which given the look of him these days seems a telling prophecy. Still, not everyone can maintain the Wooster physique, eh Jeeves?’
‘Indeed not, sir.’
‘I wouldn’t have a double-chin if you gave me a million quid. Anyway, where was I? Oh, of course, so Angela gave Tuppy the push, though they did effect a brief reconciliation over shared glee at my miserable bike ride to Kingham Manor’
Jeeves’ lip curled, ‘Oh, yes, sir, I believe that was part of my plan to–’
‘I know it was part of your bally plan, Jeeves. It worked fine for Aunt Dahlia’s £500, and worked a treat for Gussie’s chances with Madeline – but I’m afraid even you couldn’t keep Tuppy and Angela together. They broke up permanently a short while after the Kingham episode. Much the same for Russia and Germany. Their eternal friendship could only last so long – once this Romanov pill had come to office, its writing couldn’t be more on the wall if it were written in magic marker.’
‘Most ominous, sir.’
‘Well, for Romanov, perhaps. Quite the treat for us, watching his hare-brained schemes collapse all around him. He tried to get a bit bossier as regards the Germans, the Germans said “oh, yeah?” and now you have all these student demonstrations where, so far as I can tell, the whole gang gets utterly plastered and are so confident in their abilities that they overrun their local tank battalion by sheer force of character. Rather like, actually, our first plan to get old Fink-Nottle and Madeline together. Or it might have been our second …’
‘These students fight the Red Army with nought but their own intoxication, sir?’
‘Well what do you think I should make of these “Romanov Cocktails”? Actually, Jeeves, on the subject of cocktails …’
‘Sir?’
‘Well, if I recall correctly, I have a meeting with President Rumsfeld today. Am I right?’
‘You are correct, sir. I have it on good authority that Air Force One shall be landing at Croydon Airport in two hours’ time.’
‘Then I shall need to be braced. And quickly! Jeeves, get me something bracing, will you? A Romanov Cocktail might be just the ticket!’
‘Perhaps a simple scotch-and-soda would be better, sir.’
‘Whatever you say, Jeeves. Just bring it quick!’
I'm a little late, but I really like this.
 
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PoD: ibn Saud died in battle of Er-Riyadh in 1902 and Arab revolt was more successful

Entente states hoped to dictate peace in the Middle East after World War I. As early as 1915, an agreement was signed between Sykes - Pico - Sazonov, which established the borders of the partition of Turkey. The Black Sea Straits and Western Armenia departed for Russia. To Great Britain - Lower Mesopotamia, and to France - the coast from Tire to Cilicia. An international administration was to be established in Palestine. In addition, the north of Syria and Iraq should have moved to the sphere of influence of France, and to the British - all that is south of the Bosra-Kirkuk line.
The Arab uprising, the collapse of Russia, US intervention with their 14 points and the Jewish question confused the plans of Britain and France. Both London and Paris in the absence of Russia sought to replay them in their favor. Arabs wanted their independent state.
Back in 1915, Arab nationalists in Damascus approved the Damascus Protocol, which provided for the creation of a single Arab kingdom, including all of Iraq and Syria south of Taurus and the Arabian Peninsula except Aden. The Hashimites already in 1916 made concessions to the British in Iraq and the French in the Levant, but still sought to unite the Arab lands.
A dozen books can be written about the intrigues associated with the establishment of the Versailles-Washington system. For the Arabs, two subjects were important - the division of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of a mandatory system. After Russia exited Sykes agreements, Pico, England and France lost a partner capable of ensuring a balance of power. The main desire of the French was to strengthen themselves outside the coastal zone established by Sykes and Pico, and to strengthen their influence in Palestine, which was supposed to be a zone of international governance. The British sought to ensure the defense of Egypt and gain control over the resources of the Arab lands.
In these political games, the Hashemites, disinterested in dividing the Arab lands between Britain and France, turned out to be involuntary allies of the British. The British proceeded from the fact that the mandate system should not violate the principles developed in the MacMagon-Hussein correspondence, providing for the formation of an Arab state or their confederation led by the sharif of Mecca. In May 1919, France agreed that her army would not occupy Damascus, Homs, Aleppo and Hama.
The Palestinian question raised at the peace conference had two important aspects. First, the Sykes-Pico agreement provided for its international status. Secondly, the Balfour declaration adopted by the British government in 1917 proclaimed this territory the national center of the Jewish people.
The Syrian National Congress, which opened in May 1919, hastened to proclaim Syria’s independence within historical boundaries and refused to recognize the Entente’s right to reject the Levant and Palestine. The Syrians hoped that the King-Crane commission sent by the Allied Powers to the region would take their wishes into account. To ensure the future of the Arab state, Faisal negotiated with England, France, the United States, Zionists and local nationalists. He tried, playing on their interests and contradictions, to achieve the most profitable agreements.
The Allies decided the fate of the Middle East in April 1920 at a conference in San Remo. Its main outcome was the exchange of Inner Syria to Palestine. British policy on Palestine has been linked to the security issue of the Suez Canal. The experience of the campaign of 1917-1918 showed that holding the Syrian coast is impossible without control over Transjordan and Inner Syria and any forces that can be deployed in Palestine will be trapped.
Great Britain and France agreed in principle to recognize the “conditional independence” of Syria and Mesopotamia, so that their independence will be declared after “within their mandates for their governance,” they will become able to become independent states. ” Great Britain received a mandate over Iraq, where, after the uprising of the local population, the Hashemite kingdom of Iraq was formed, headed by Abdullah ibn Hussein, and Syria, where the Arab Kingdom of Syria, headed by Faisal, was proclaimed. The coastal territories formed the French mandate on the territories of the Levant, consisting of four states: Palestine, Greater Lebanon, the Alawite state and Cilicia.
Signed in August 1920, the Treaty of Sèvres between the Ottoman Empire and the Allied Powers almost buried hopes for the future of Turkey. The country was forced to abandon all territories outside Asia Minor except Constantinople. A significant part of the eastern territories was torn away in favor of Armenia, and the Smyrna region in favor of Greece. Unequal treaties were imposed on the country, and the army was limited to 65 thousand people.
The national liberation movement led by General Mustafa Kemal, who defeated the British in 1915 during the Dardanelles operation, originated in Ankara in 1919. Kemalist Parliament - The Great National Assembly took control of most of Anatolia. In the several wars that followed, Turkey dismantled the Treaty of Sevres. Together with the Bolsheviks, Armenia was divided. The Italians recognized the new government and withdrew troops. By the end of 1921, only the Alexandretta Sanjak remained of French Cilicia. After the battle of Sakarya, the Greeks were forced to leave Asia Minor and East Thrace. In 1922, the sultanate was abolished and the Republic of Turkey proclaimed.
The International Community has recognized the new Turkish government. The Geneva Treaty of 1923 abolished the regime of surrender, recognized Turkish sovereignty over Eastern Thrace, Smyrna, Western Armenia and Cilicia. The Turkish-Syrian border has been adjusted in favor of Turkey. Also, the Turks tried to return Mosul vilayet, but their attempt failed.
In the former Ottoman possessions on the Arabian Peninsula, in addition to Hijaz, which established control over Shammar and Upper Asir, there were three more states in Nejd, Asir, and Yemen. Hussein al-Hashimi, who took the title of King of Arabia, did not recognize their independence.

Map on DA
TL on FAI
 
The Southern System

Hello all, here is a new alternate history map. In alternate history, there is a popular trend to depict a surviving Confederate States of America past the American Civil War, stretching back to such books as 1953's Bring the Jubilee or 1997's How Few Remain. The reasons for this are many, but for other reasons I thought to fight against this trend. Why must we always suppose a winning Confederacy would survive past its victory, let alone thrive? Today I suppose that those exact things do not happen.

We must first establish the idea of the Confederate States of America winning, which itself is difficult. For the sake of this world, we may suppose Robert E. Lee's Maryland campaign in 1862 was rather more successful than in our own world, and did not result in the Emancipation Proclamation. We may also suppose that the Trent Affair worsened, casting the CSA in a better light to the British and turning them harder against the United States. Finally, these conditions and others, if we may continue to suspend our disbelief, may lead to the defeat of Abraham Lincoln in the 1864 Presidential Election by a Peace Democrat, further toppling the war cause for the Union. With these factors combined, there is the possibility of victory for the Confederate States.

But what comes after? The map illustrates the world that emerges. Victory against the Union, taking many years and vast amounts of men and resources, does not stop the many problems facing the Confederacy. Bread riots wrack the streets of Richmond as rich planters refuse to plant bread over cotton. Open rebellion against the Confederacy occurs throughout the south, from southern Georgia to Eastern Tennessee to northwest Arkansas and beyond. The Confederacy's money is worthless and treasury running empty, and their inability to pay their soldiers soon to come to fruition as their soldiers begin to figure out how little they are going to get from fighting that war. Finally, there is an active and massive slave rebellion occurring throughout the South in variance from armed conflict to slaves demanding--and receiving--paid compensation for their work. And the leaders of the Confederacy? They are consumed with grand, eugenicist fantasies of culling not just slaves but poor whites as well and letting only the "well-bred" survive.

It is suffice to say that in this environment the Confederacy is not long for this world. When the dust settles and rebellions quiet down, an entire new system of states has taken hold on what remains of the once-massive CSA, and the map displays them as they are by the halfway point of the 20th century.

First there are, principally, the four main states of The Southern System, which are Yazoo, Georgia, Gullah, and Liberty. These are states formed by rebellion against the CSA, largely by free black rebellions, though parts of Georgia came from rebellions by poor whites in southern Georgia who were already rising up against the CSA late into the Civil War. Together, these four states form a union in order to make themselves stronger than any of them could be individually.

For example, Gullah is a state great for agriculture and tourism, but without any mineral deposits or natural gas or the like. Meanwhile, Yazoo isn't great for agriculture beyond cotton (which the boll weevil takes care of soon enough) but has massive deposits of natural gas. Southern Georgia, then, has lots of resources for making pharmaceuticals, but lacks the capital for creating an independent industry. Gullah and Liberty, however, have access to great amounts of capital to fund such an industry. So on and so forth, The Southern System is able to keep all four states alive and prospering in the face of tumult and uncertainty and creates a strong region for the south, lined with rail and connected by modern roads and powered by the people.

The Southron Republic, on the other hand, is a different beast. It was formed through rebellion by the destitute and struggling in cities overcrowded from the war who combined forces with disgruntled, unpaid soldiers who marched on Richmond, Atlanta, Raleigh, and other major cities. The dream of a more equitable republic never came to fruition, though, and the Southron Republic has largely remained a state of strongmen with only the trappings of democracy. It has the presumptions of a social welfare state and more freedoms than previously, but still struggles with social and political movements and a nasty habit of jailing the leaders of both.

There also are states on the periphery that managed to go their own way when the CSA fell, thanks largely to the backing of Europeans who wished to see the United States weakened but weren't particularly picky about who they backed. Thus, Florida, Texas, and (what remains of it) Louisiana are independent nations seeking to go their own way and fight their own struggles rather than join up with any of the others. They still largely have close ties to the Southron Republic and The Southern System, but maintain enough ties to foreign powers to keep their independence. They all have their own quirks, from Texas' slide towards petrostate status and conflict with its Comanche population that has ended in complication after complication to Louisiana's status as megacity with a state as far as New Orleans is concerned to Florida's burgeoning status as Latin America's outpost in the South. Their backing by Europeans has resulted in more cosmopolitan features and more reliance on the markets and goods of Europe, while acting as cultural and economic exchanges back towards Europe themselves. For many a European, what they know of that part of the world they know from Florida, Louisiana, and Texas.

Arkansas is of particular interest. After the northwest of Arkansas returns to the Union after chaos envelops the CSA, the rest of Arkansas went its own way rather than join The Southern System. This was due to the work of Governor Henry Rector during the war who managed to do much to snuff out the considering pro-union sympathizers in the rest of the state and have much of the economy get wrecked until the only ones with independent sentiment and capital were lawyers and such who could then transition into the lives of industrial and agricultural giants. Thus, Arkansas became a fief of powerful agricultural, mining, and logging conglomerates bootstrapping the region into an independent industrial power while also seeing the rise of a series of agrarian and farmer secret societies. By the modern day of the map, Arkansas is thus a strong state in its own right run by powerful interests who rose from the ashes of the post-war economy and devastation wrought by the pro-secessionists in the state they overthrew.

Together, all those states make up a complicated and intricate net of peoples and cultures that blanket what was once the American South and help make it a unique place that goes beyond border and map. It is far more than what a monolithic surviving CSA could provide and for that, I like to think it is a rather better world. Thank you for reading.

UoYi4bN.jpg


[PNG here]
 
My first map for 2020, though over 3 months late and also my first one done in Qbam:

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Sun Against Sun: A Japanese Civil War

The POD is the Truman administration deciding not to commit ground troops and instead almost entirely naval and air support to support the South Koreans at the start of the Korean War in June 1950. This would prove to be a disastrous decision after the South Koreans and the US troops were pushed out of the Korean peninsula by the North Koreans by the end of August 1950, despite the US Air Force and Navy inflicting massive damage upon the KPA. After a heated discussion with the generals, the Truman administration decided it wasn’t worth continuing the war given the unreadiness of the US Army and Marines and opted for a ceasefire, all while considering the defense of South-held Jeju Island to be a “victory”. The North Koreans gladly accepted the ceasefire in September 1950 and subjected the peninsula to brutal communist rule for years under the Kim regime. In the meantime, the fall of South Korea to North Korea would send shockwaves to the Western bloc, with Truman losing the 1952 election harder than OTL’s, leading to his successor embarking on not only backing anti-communist forces like no tomorrow but also a large scale re-armament campaign for both the US and other NATO powers, leading to a more intense Cold War, especially affecting non-NATO nations like Japan.


After the disaster that is the ATL Korean War, the Liberal Democratic Party, encouraged by the occupying Americans, enacted a campaign of re-militarization and economic growth to sustain the former, though social services became of secondary concern. The Japanese Defense Army (Nihon Bogun/日本防軍) was established in 1955 along with a Navy and an Air Force, modeled along US lines though with some Imperial Japanese influence from some former IJA and IJN personnel. All with equipment loaned from the US with native designs being planned, and article 9 being rewritten to support remilitarization. While the Japanese public was initially hostile to the establishment of the JD military, the growing tensions with the “reunited” Korea, the Soviet Union, and the People’s Republic of China in the 50’s and 60’s would slowly change their minds, seeing them as more of a lesser evil than the Reds, even though some segments of the public became more welcoming of far-right causes from the fringe. In the meantime, Japan’s economy grew somewhat higher than OTL’s, though mostly to support the military forces in defending and later aiding Western bloc allies in combating global communism.


Tensions around the world became higher due to the Western bloc investing in bolstering their armed forces and combating communist insurgencies, and in response, the Eastern bloc became more paranoid and authoritarian, though Stalin still dies in the early 50’s and was succeeded by Vyacheslav Molotov, who continues some aspects of the Stalinist regime yet allows reforms to liberalize. Mao, while reluctant to being aligned to the Soviets for political reasons, sees the rearmament of Japan as a threat to China and puts his chips with Moscow with the Soviet-Soviet pact, though his Great Leap Forward and “Anti-Rightist” campaigns still happen ITTL, though the former was more successful given Soviet backing (and no need for the Cultural “Revolution”). All while the Maoist regime sees greater opportunities to spread the revolution by giving more backing to communist and anti-colonial insurgents in Africa and Asia, which brings more attention from the Western bloc, which in turn lead to frequent crises with the Eastern bloc around the world, especially in the Arab World, and Southeast Asia, the latter of which received attention from Japan. Very so often, Japan and China would square off both directly and indirectly in the hotspots but never truly to the point of being at war with each other throughout the Cold War, even during the brief détente of the 70’s.


In the 80’s, the cold war took an odd turn, with a Sino-Soviet split occurring over the Soviets’ and China’s differences in handling the West, with the Chinese seeking more “peaceful” relations and the Soviets continuing their hostile stance, leading to border skirmishes along the Sino-Soviet borders and around Mongolia. In August 1986, an intense border incident between Soviet Central Asia and Xinjiang escalated into a brief war between the Soviet and Chinese border forces that rapidly saw the collapse of what little diplomacy the two countries had with each other. The battle resulted in a draw yet the next day, war was declared by the USSR and thus another battle resumed in the same region, kicking off the Sino-Soviet War. The war would last for many months, with the Chinese seeking to oust the Soviets from the Far East with the Soviets ousting the Chinese from the North; though no nuclear weapons were used entirely. By March 1989, a coup by PLA officers would end the war though in a draw, with some border adjustments made, in spite of reservations by the new Chinese regime. The Sino-Soviet War would mark another turning point in that both the Soviet and Chinese backed proxies would turn on each other, which would be a boon for the Western bloc were it not for the economic recession that became almost as bad as the Great Depression.


In the late 1980’s, the Great Recession would negatively affect the economies of the Western bloc, mostly due to not only borderline neo-liberal policies but also the poor managing of the arms race. The Recession would have an impact upon Japan in the early 90's, ITTL going through a harsher economic bubble burst, sending the economy down to nearly 1920’s levels, leading to political destabilization unseen since the 1920’s and 30’s throughout the 1990’s. The economic policies of the contemporary prime ministers didn’t help, which lead to distrust by segments of the Japanese population, with some turning to Communist ideologies and some turning to Fascist ideologies in response to Communists. Even the JDF itself, long thought to be immune to ideological radicalization, would succumb to the political environment with cases of assassination attempts and collaborating with extremists, which bring much concern to not only the Japanese Diet but also of Japan’s allies. The country’s gun laws would not be able to prevent the instability, with black market sales of firearms and military equipment on the rise along with government approved (and illicit) militias as well, adding to the chaos of the situation. The increasing political strife, with terrorism, street violence, and riots, would only set the stage for the next great disaster to befall Japan since the Second World War.


On June 12th, 2002, the Japanese emperor, who took over after Showa passed away in 1988, was assassinated by a bomb attack and worse yet the perpetrator is unknown, leading to many political sides accusing the other. In addition the military had become split between those supporting right wing ideals and those supporting leftwing ideals. Far Left elements of Japanese society along with dissent JDF personnel and the banned Japanese Communist Party who managed to stay underground staged a rebellion in key cities in Kyushu, East and West Honshu, and Hokkaido, forming the Revolutionary Socialist Movement, backed by Soviet and Korean arms. In response, the Far Right, led by ultra-nationalists consisting of rogue JDF personnel and civilian groups including the Neo-Nazi Touten Group (an…odd organization who believe Hitler and the Axis set out to establish a “Heaven” for the Aryan race across Eurasia during WWII) staged a coup in central Honshou but was crushed in Tokyo by the Loyalist forces and the US Army and Marines. Meanwhile, in the prefecture of Hiroshima, the Socialist-Monarchists rose up, becoming the third side opposing the “shameful” fascists and the “tankie” communists, lead by a prince sympathetic to leftwing thought and ideals (especially those of the Chinese variety) and seeking to redeem the royal family from the past behavior of the Showa era yet oppose the presence of the US “imperialists” and backed by the Chinese weapons-wise. At this moment, the Japanese civil war has begun and the USA has gotten caught up in it, making the country a flashpoint in a continuing cold war.

DA Link Here
 
The Southern System

Hello all, here is a new alternate history map. In alternate history, there is a popular trend to depict a surviving Confederate States of America past the American Civil War, stretching back to such books as 1953's Bring the Jubilee or 1997's How Few Remain. The reasons for this are many, but for other reasons I thought to fight against this trend. Why must we always suppose a winning Confederacy would survive past its victory, let alone thrive? Today I suppose that those exact things do not happen.

We must first establish the idea of the Confederate States of America winning, which itself is difficult. For the sake of this world, we may suppose Robert E. Lee's Maryland campaign in 1862 was rather more successful than in our own world, and did not result in the Emancipation Proclamation. We may also suppose that the Trent Affair worsened, casting the CSA in a better light to the British and turning them harder against the United States. Finally, these conditions and others, if we may continue to suspend our disbelief, may lead to the defeat of Abraham Lincoln in the 1864 Presidential Election by a Peace Democrat, further toppling the war cause for the Union. With these factors combined, there is the possibility of victory for the Confederate States.

But what comes after? The map illustrates the world that emerges. Victory against the Union, taking many years and vast amounts of men and resources, does not stop the many problems facing the Confederacy. Bread riots wrack the streets of Richmond as rich planters refuse to plant bread over cotton. Open rebellion against the Confederacy occurs throughout the south, from southern Georgia to Eastern Tennessee to northwest Arkansas and beyond. The Confederacy's money is worthless and treasury running empty, and their inability to pay their soldiers soon to come to fruition as their soldiers begin to figure out how little they are going to get from fighting that war. Finally, there is an active and massive slave rebellion occurring throughout the South in variance from armed conflict to slaves demanding--and receiving--paid compensation for their work. And the leaders of the Confederacy? They are consumed with grand, eugenicist fantasies of culling not just slaves but poor whites as well and letting only the "well-bred" survive.

It is suffice to say that in this environment the Confederacy is not long for this world. When the dust settles and rebellions quiet down, an entire new system of states has taken hold on what remains of the once-massive CSA, and the map displays them as they are by the halfway point of the 20th century.

First there are, principally, the four main states of The Southern System, which are Yazoo, Georgia, Gullah, and Liberty. These are states formed by rebellion against the CSA, largely by free black rebellions, though parts of Georgia came from rebellions by poor whites in southern Georgia who were already rising up against the CSA late into the Civil War. Together, these four states form a union in order to make themselves stronger than any of them could be individually.

For example, Gullah is a state great for agriculture and tourism, but without any mineral deposits or natural gas or the like. Meanwhile, Yazoo isn't great for agriculture beyond cotton (which the boll weevil takes care of soon enough) but has massive deposits of natural gas. Southern Georgia, then, has lots of resources for making pharmaceuticals, but lacks the capital for creating an independent industry. Gullah and Liberty, however, have access to great amounts of capital to fund such an industry. So on and so forth, The Southern System is able to keep all four states alive and prospering in the face of tumult and uncertainty and creates a strong region for the south, lined with rail and connected by modern roads and powered by the people.

The Southron Republic, on the other hand, is a different beast. It was formed through rebellion by the destitute and struggling in cities overcrowded from the war who combined forces with disgruntled, unpaid soldiers who marched on Richmond, Atlanta, Raleigh, and other major cities. The dream of a more equitable republic never came to fruition, though, and the Southron Republic has largely remained a state of strongmen with only the trappings of democracy. It has the presumptions of a social welfare state and more freedoms than previously, but still struggles with social and political movements and a nasty habit of jailing the leaders of both.

There also are states on the periphery that managed to go their own way when the CSA fell, thanks largely to the backing of Europeans who wished to see the United States weakened but weren't particularly picky about who they backed. Thus, Florida, Texas, and (what remains of it) Louisiana are independent nations seeking to go their own way and fight their own struggles rather than join up with any of the others. They still largely have close ties to the Southron Republic and The Southern System, but maintain enough ties to foreign powers to keep their independence. They all have their own quirks, from Texas' slide towards petrostate status and conflict with its Comanche population that has ended in complication after complication to Louisiana's status as megacity with a state as far as New Orleans is concerned to Florida's burgeoning status as Latin America's outpost in the South. Their backing by Europeans has resulted in more cosmopolitan features and more reliance on the markets and goods of Europe, while acting as cultural and economic exchanges back towards Europe themselves. For many a European, what they know of that part of the world they know from Florida, Louisiana, and Texas.

Arkansas is of particular interest. After the northwest of Arkansas returns to the Union after chaos envelops the CSA, the rest of Arkansas went its own way rather than join The Southern System. This was due to the work of Governor Henry Rector during the war who managed to do much to snuff out the considering pro-union sympathizers in the rest of the state and have much of the economy get wrecked until the only ones with independent sentiment and capital were lawyers and such who could then transition into the lives of industrial and agricultural giants. Thus, Arkansas became a fief of powerful agricultural, mining, and logging conglomerates bootstrapping the region into an independent industrial power while also seeing the rise of a series of agrarian and farmer secret societies. By the modern day of the map, Arkansas is thus a strong state in its own right run by powerful interests who rose from the ashes of the post-war economy and devastation wrought by the pro-secessionists in the state they overthrew.

Together, all those states make up a complicated and intricate net of peoples and cultures that blanket what was once the American South and help make it a unique place that goes beyond border and map. It is far more than what a monolithic surviving CSA could provide and for that, I like to think it is a rather better world. Thank you for reading.

UoYi4bN.jpg


[PNG here]

Wonderful map. Love to see these collapsing/unstable confederacies. Adds a lot more realism to a tired trope. Of course, it goes without saying that this map is beautifully made.
I have one question: How did you get that paper texture? I want to try it out on some of my own maps.
 
My first map for 2020, though over 3 months late and also my first one done in Qbam:

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Sun Against Sun: A Japanese Civil War

The POD is the Truman administration deciding not to commit ground troops and instead almost entirely naval and air support to support the South Koreans at the start of the Korean War in June 1950. This would prove to be a disastrous decision after the South Koreans and the US troops were pushed out of the Korean peninsula by the North Koreans by the end of August 1950, despite the US Air Force and Navy inflicting massive damage upon the KPA. After a heated discussion with the generals, the Truman administration decided it wasn’t worth continuing the war given the unreadiness of the US Army and Marines and opted for a ceasefire, all while considering the defense of South-held Jeju Island to be a “victory”. The North Koreans gladly accepted the ceasefire in September 1950 and subjected the peninsula to brutal communist rule for years under the Kim regime. In the meantime, the fall of South Korea to North Korea would send shockwaves to the Western bloc, with Truman losing the 1952 election harder than OTL’s, leading to his successor embarking on not only backing anti-communist forces like no tomorrow but also a large scale re-armament campaign for both the US and other NATO powers, leading to a more intense Cold War, especially affecting non-NATO nations like Japan.


After the disaster that is the ATL Korean War, the Liberal Democratic Party, encouraged by the occupying Americans, enacted a campaign of re-militarization and economic growth to sustain the former, though social services became of secondary concern. The Japanese Defense Army (Nihon Bogun/日本防軍) was established in 1955 along with a Navy and an Air Force, modeled along US lines though with some Imperial Japanese influence from some former IJA and IJN personnel. All with equipment loaned from the US with native designs being planned, and article 9 being rewritten to support remilitarization. While the Japanese public was initially hostile to the establishment of the JD military, the growing tensions with the “reunited” Korea, the Soviet Union, and the People’s Republic of China in the 50’s and 60’s would slowly change their minds, seeing them as more of a lesser evil than the Reds, even though some segments of the public became more welcoming of far-right causes from the fringe. In the meantime, Japan’s economy grew somewhat higher than OTL’s, though mostly to support the military forces in defending and later aiding Western bloc allies in combating global communism.


Tensions around the world became higher due to the Western bloc investing in bolstering their armed forces and combating communist insurgencies, and in response, the Eastern bloc became more paranoid and authoritarian, though Stalin still dies in the early 50’s and was succeeded by Vyacheslav Molotov, who continues some aspects of the Stalinist regime yet allows reforms to liberalize. Mao, while reluctant to being aligned to the Soviets for political reasons, sees the rearmament of Japan as a threat to China and puts his chips with Moscow with the Soviet-Soviet pact, though his Great Leap Forward and “Anti-Rightist” campaigns still happen ITTL, though the former was more successful given Soviet backing (and no need for the Cultural “Revolution”). All while the Maoist regime sees greater opportunities to spread the revolution by giving more backing to communist and anti-colonial insurgents in Africa and Asia, which brings more attention from the Western bloc, which in turn lead to frequent crises with the Eastern bloc around the world, especially in the Arab World, and Southeast Asia, the latter of which received attention from Japan. Very so often, Japan and China would square off both directly and indirectly in the hotspots but never truly to the point of being at war with each other throughout the Cold War, even during the brief détente of the 70’s.


In the 80’s, the cold war took an odd turn, with a Sino-Soviet split occurring over the Soviets’ and China’s differences in handling the West, with the Chinese seeking more “peaceful” relations and the Soviets continuing their hostile stance, leading to border skirmishes along the Sino-Soviet borders and around Mongolia. In August 1986, an intense border incident between Soviet Central Asia and Xinjiang escalated into a brief war between the Soviet and Chinese border forces that rapidly saw the collapse of what little diplomacy the two countries had with each other. The battle resulted in a draw yet the next day, war was declared by the USSR and thus another battle resumed in the same region, kicking off the Sino-Soviet War. The war would last for many months, with the Chinese seeking to oust the Soviets from the Far East with the Soviets ousting the Chinese from the North; though no nuclear weapons were used entirely. By March 1989, a coup by PLA officers would end the war though in a draw, with some border adjustments made, in spite of reservations by the new Chinese regime. The Sino-Soviet War would mark another turning point in that both the Soviet and Chinese backed proxies would turn on each other, which would be a boon for the Western bloc were it not for the economic recession that became almost as bad as the Great Depression.


In the late 1980’s, the Great Recession would negatively affect the economies of the Western bloc, mostly due to not only borderline neo-liberal policies but also the poor managing of the arms race. The Recession would have an impact upon Japan in the early 90's, ITTL going through a harsher economic bubble burst, sending the economy down to nearly 1920’s levels, leading to political destabilization unseen since the 1920’s and 30’s throughout the 1990’s. The economic policies of the contemporary prime ministers didn’t help, which lead to distrust by segments of the Japanese population, with some turning to Communist ideologies and some turning to Fascist ideologies in response to Communists. Even the JDF itself, long thought to be immune to ideological radicalization, would succumb to the political environment with cases of assassination attempts and collaborating with extremists, which bring much concern to not only the Japanese Diet but also of Japan’s allies. The country’s gun laws would not be able to prevent the instability, with black market sales of firearms and military equipment on the rise along with government approved (and illicit) militias as well, adding to the chaos of the situation. The increasing political strife, with terrorism, street violence, and riots, would only set the stage for the next great disaster to befall Japan since the Second World War.


On June 12th, 2002, the Japanese emperor, who took over after Showa passed away in 1988, was assassinated by a bomb attack and worse yet the perpetrator is unknown, leading to many political sides accusing the other. In addition the military had become split between those supporting right wing ideals and those supporting leftwing ideals. Far Left elements of Japanese society along with dissent JDF personnel and the banned Japanese Communist Party who managed to stay underground staged a rebellion in key cities in Kyushu, East and West Honshu, and Hokkaido, forming the Revolutionary Socialist Movement, backed by Soviet and Korean arms. In response, the Far Right, led by ultra-nationalists consisting of rogue JDF personnel and civilian groups including the Neo-Nazi Touten Group (an…odd organization who believe Hitler and the Axis set out to establish a “Heaven” for the Aryan race across Eurasia during WWII) staged a coup in central Honshou but was crushed in Tokyo by the Loyalist forces and the US Army and Marines. Meanwhile, in the prefecture of Hiroshima, the Socialist-Monarchists rose up, becoming the third side opposing the “shameful” fascists and the “tankie” communists, lead by a prince sympathetic to leftwing thought and ideals (especially those of the Chinese variety) and seeking to redeem the royal family from the past behavior of the Showa era yet oppose the presence of the US “imperialists” and backed by the Chinese weapons-wise. At this moment, the Japanese civil war has begun and the USA has gotten caught up in it, making the country a flashpoint in a continuing cold war.

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anime and manga are going to be interesting, that's for sure.
 
Wonderful map. Love to see these collapsing/unstable confederacies. Adds a lot more realism to a tired trope. Of course, it goes without saying that this map is beautifully made.
I have one question: How did you get that paper texture? I want to try it out on some of my own maps.
I colored it by hatching instead of coloring in everything entirely. Then I used a free older paper texture. Finally, did what is described in this comment
 
The French and Indian Victory.png

Year is 1954. France is on equal par as Britain in this world and I've been heavily inspired by OTL French Union and some notes taken from Napoleon53's WMIT French Empire (ala French California)
 
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