The premise of this map is that 1891 Manitoba is ISOTed to the year 1791, fifty years on in 1841, with one major caveat. The population of Manitoba, as well as all visitors and tribals living within it, are added to a God-Empire, or a sort of hive mind. A God-Empire is not entirely inhuman like a standard Borg-esque hive mind. Instead, it’s a society in which people live out their lives, get married, have hobbies, and so on, but their primary focus will always be the good of the society in which they live and expanding this society, as well as the God-Empire proper, to others. (I decided to be lazy with Africa. Sorry.)
So, with that said, I’ll first explain the mechanics of a God-Empire, before moving on to geopolitics.
Mechanics of the God-Empire
*This will likely remain the same for any future God-Empire series I do. If anyone else wants to do a God-Empire, feel free to use these rules as long as you let me know you’re doing the series.
*God-Imperials can and try to assimilate non-God-Imperials into their society. Cultures especially similar to the original culture are the easiest to take in. For instance, for Manitobans, Anglo-Canadians usually take less than five years of prolonged contact with Manitoban society to become fully loyal God-Imperials. Americans usually last a generation or so, but the larger number of them when compared to Manitobans led to the God-Empire taking its time, and focusing on infrastructure building rather than outright conquest.
*God-Imperials do have to physically communicate with each other. There is no telepathic communication, just a subtle telepathic emission that leads to people thinking more favorably of them, until they’re fully connected to the God-Empire proper.
*God-Imperials usually amuse themselves by learning new trades and skills. It’s not uncommon to find renaissance men and women in Manitoba.
*God-Imperials are universally seen as polite, and due to the subtle telepathic aura they emit, this impression will last unless there are serious extenuating circumstances. There is little condescension amongst God-Imperials, and you’ll often find that technology advances faster among God-Empires than conventional nations.
*God-Imperials are usually utilitarian, but also humanitarian. I’ll explain. While they view their fully assimilated citizens as the most important, they try their best to treat all sapient intelligences as equal. There is no racism within assimilated God-Imperials, although their views towards the sexes are more practical.
*To elaborate, the God-Empire of Manitoba is taking its time subsuming North America, treating the natives with firm kindness, not outright stealing lands unless strongly provoked. Otherwise they could have had the continent by now.
*Prolonged contact with God-Imperials will eventually add you to their consensus.Single individuals are far easier to take in than entire populations, and the more God-Imperials, the easier it is for them to assimilate, and the reverse is true as well. A European living in a native-majority neighborhood of Winnipeg, for instance, will usually be taken in entirely within two weeks to four months, depending on their disparity from Manitoba’s original culture.
*Of course, the cultural inertia problem is solved by assimilating a goodly number of people from that culture. In this universe, the God-Empire is eagerly taking in Spanish immigrants, and licking their lips at the prospect of easily taking in Latin America once the eastern coast of North America is contained entirely. Eventually, assimilating a Spanish person will be as easy as a French-Canadian or a British person.
*God-Imperials are very open with each other, and crime/dissent in God-Empires is negligible. Political dissent is limited to calm, reasoned debates between members of the political class and their intermediaries.
*Religion is largely absent from God-Empires, although they usually keep it up for appearances sake. The rest of the world thinks that Manitoba is a healthy mix of Catholics and Protestants, when in reality it’s all kayfabe.
*God-Imperials, outside of assimilating occupied territories, which they always seem to have after situating themselves, often take up positions in foreign governments, to use their telepathic emissions to give foreign dignitaries high opinions of their nation, and within a few years, assimilated them fully.
*God-Imperials are usually perfectly good actors, and once the rest of the world begins to become suspicious of a God-Empire (this usually doesn’t happen, thanks to the above bullet point), they often insert false flags into the movements of their enemies, to discredit anti-God-Imperial movements.
*They also strongly encourage diverse immigration to their nation, for what should be obvious reasons. The rest of the world sees Manitoba educating primitive savages from the Orient and Africa. Manitoba sees it as a tutorial for taking over those sections of the world.
*God-Empires earnestly and strongly believe that the universe would be better off under their consensus, although obviously they don’t go shouting this about. Usually the geopolitical community finds them to be charmingly polite, inoffensive neighbors, and they often find roles as intermediaries, even as they rip the world apart in the name of unity.
*This is a pretty bulky concept, so feel free to ask questions or make comments on this specific part.
North America
*So. With that said, on to the actual contents of the map. It’s been fifty years exactly since the God-Empire of Manitoba arrived.
*Manitoba was momentarily confused when they arrived on January 1, 1791, but after ensuring that all of their citizens had proper food and lodgings, they began to make contact with the rest of the world.
*The local tribes were largely dispelled peacefully, with communication made if at all possible, but with force used if not.
*Once the nature of the ISOT was established, the population set to work building gunsmiths, improving food stores, and generally getting to work making themselves self-sufficient and ready to conquer the world.
*British Canada lasted about two years once the God-Empire got started in earnest, and the Manitobans took great pains to ensure that they made a good first impression, giving weapons decades (10-20 years) in advance of the American standard.
*Of course, Manitoba also took pains to split apart the American states, breaking the union apart within fifteen years, and coincidentally, forming a decentralized association of states that happened to favor Manitoba dramatically.
*These days, the only state of the former Union that isn’t wholly subjugated to Manitoban interests in New York, and even they’re at least eighty percent assimilated, and the rest are at least favorable towards the God-Empire. It’s just that they still have their own foreign policy, unlike the rest of the North American Association.
*Pennsylvania was annexed fully into the God-Empire in 1838, and it’s thought that it can become a full province by 1843.
*The consensus is beginning to accept that the NAA is almost ready for full integration into the God-Empire proper, and negotiations are taking place in Savannah, Fayetteville, Richmond, and the other capitals of the less independent American states, to be fully subsumed into Manitoba proper, as the western Indian territories and most of New England already have been.
*Florida was more accidental on the God-Empire’s part. Sure, they deliberately engineered a more violent Spanish collapse in the Americas, but they hadn’t quite anticipated Florida so eagerly leaping into their arms. Keeping peace between the Seminoles (and other tribes), Anglos, and Spanish has been a severe test of the consensus’ patience.
*Louisiana, on the other hand, was entirely intentional, and the first exercise of Manitoban naval power, the shipworks in the Maritime Provinces proving especially useful, providing a crushing defeat against the Spanish navy in the Caribbean.
*Texas is still stubborn about more integration into the NAA, but Manitoban planted politicians are proposing a closer relation.
*California is a lot more Spanish than in our world, but sharing a border with the growing Manitoban colony of Cascada is helping them become a more energetic Manitoban ally.
*Mexico, a royalist offshoot of Spain proper, is perpetually grumpy.
*The Shoshone are becoming more centralized, and the Manitobans are working on making them their dirty workers in the Wild West. The brunt of Manitoba’s ‘missionary work’, outside of their buffers that are already direct parts of the nation proper, is in Shoshone territory.
*Manitoba plans on buying Alaska from Russia, or taking it by force. Either works.
*The British actually have a fair foothold in Central America, which Manitoba is fine with for now, Britain being very friendly with the God-Empire.
*Panama is a protectorate of Manitoba’s, and they have big plans for building a canal, a big improvement over the present railroad system that has to go through slowly-assimilating native tribes, and opens a whole new route of options. Manitoba’s hoping to use it to expand their operations in the Pacific and Asia.
South America
*Spain’s violent collapse in the Americas, largely organized by the Manitobans to remove their second-greatest threat, has left the continent dominated by the Dutch, Portuguese, and British.
*Britain’s seizure of Argentina has thus far proven more profitable than expected, which annoys Portugal, as the squabbling warlord states they have to babysit almost always prove a pain.
*Portugal and Brazil came to a more reasonable agreement while Manitoba was focusing on North America and the Spanish Empire. The tail is increasingly wagging the dog, and the royalty spends more time in Rio these days than anywhere else.
*The area we would call Ecuador is still under the rule of petty military despots, and their neighbors are too poor to bother improving conditions there. As they’ve refused efforts by Manitoban diplomats for ‘advising’, the God-Empire is content to let them rot until they can extend their focuses south.
*Venezuela is under Dutch influence, with Holland-Hanover hoping to find a diamond in the rough for their efforts.
*France is considering selling their unprofitable Guyanese colony to Portugal.
Europe
*Germany will never be united (well, not on their own power, anyway). France, Holland, Austria, and Poland have made mincemeat of the place, the German kingdoms the sight of proxy wars between the powers of Europe.
*At present, the Dutch and French are taking part in a royal squabble in Westfalia.
*There is still instability in Spain, and two rebellions are taking place. The Manitobans actually had little to do with this, outside of their intervention in the Americas. It’s more of a follow up to that than anything else.
*Sicilly is a growing power in Europe, which concerns and annoys both France and Austria, who were enjoying their hegemony on the Italian peninsula. They even have colonies of sorts in Africa, a direct colony in *Nigeria, and a protectorate in Tunisia.
*Prussia is occupied by both the Austrians and Poles. They’re trying to make it a more amenable neighbor, neither especially interested in digesting the country wholesale.
*Russia’s perpetually angry and expansionist, although with most of Europe mad at them, they spend most of their time in Central Asia, picking on petty kingdoms and the like. They had a good victory or two over Turkey and Sweden, now they’re not interested in pressing their luck. The fact that only France will talk to them beyond pleasantries is mildly insulting to the Tsar.
*The Turks granted Greece and Egypt independence after their war with Russia forced them to clean house in a hurry. Greece is back under their influence. Egypt didn’t. (I really wasn’t sure whether to put this in the Europe, Asia, or Africa category, so here it is.)
Africa
*Technology has spread throughout the world, despite the consensus’ efforts. Ergo, European colonization of Africa is beginning to pick up early, with Portugal, Holland-Hanover, and Britain the most interested. Denmark, Sicilly, and the Turks also have small settlements, and the rest of Europe is growing more interested.
*Aksoom is the target of Manitoban interests in Africa, on the other hand. The would-be Abyssinia has seen its royalty almost entirely assimilated by a cadre of interested Manitobans, and the God-Empire is experimenting with a stealth assimilation of sorts, as opposed to the outright colonization and occupation employed in North America.
*Portugal is doing great with their efforts in the Kongo, and they’ve managed to browbeat the locals into doing most of the dirty work for them.
Asia/Oceania
*Persia’s pulling a Meiji, and desperately seeking help from interested parties to repel the bear prowling closer and closer to their territories. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you view it) their best option happens to be Manitoba. The Shah, while he acts like a Persian publicly, is almost fully assimilated as a Manitoban.
*Persia, using Manitoban arms (only a bit more advanced than what Europe has, still a few decades behind 1891 Manitoba, let alone modern Manitoba) is making itself known in Central Asia.
*The British, Dutch and Portuguese settling India, however, barely notice them, outside of Portugal making a nuisance of themselves in Sind.
*British India is divided into three companies and a protectorate in Hahdarabad, and much more autonomous and decentralized than the OTL Raj.
*Portugal and Holland-Hanover have smaller settlements themselves, but that doesn’t stop frequent spats between them and Britain.
*Mahshoor (Mysore) acts as a buffer between Dutch and British India.
*Rajput and Ayodha act as independent nations, until Portugal or Britain find them inconvenient neighbors. Manitoba, using Persia as an intermediary, is trying to get them into an alliance against the Europeans, specifically the British, to prevent the rise of a strong, united opponent.
*The Durrani were destroyed by the Manitoban-sponsored Persia ages ago, and there’s still an anarchic zone to the north of the country.
*China, after a humiliating loss to the Russians, went out looking for a sponsor, and Manitoba was waiting. They’re happily modernizing with Manitoban help, and the God-Empire is beginning to worry that they might have rushed their intervention, as the Chinese test subjects in Cascada are not assimilating quick enough to convince the Manitobans that China proper can be taken in in due time. Manitoba worries that China may become a strong rival.
*The Philippines sought out the Dutch as a sponsor after the collapse of the Spanish Empire, and this temporary partnership quickly became more permanent.
*Japan’s still a hermit state. Manitoba has them on their more immediate to do list (within fifty years), but Russia might beat them to it.
World
*As a whole, the opinion of the Manitobans is universally positive, being most neutral in Russia and uncontacted areas of the world.
*Tech levels in Europe, Latin America, Persia, and China are roughly 1850s to 1870s, North America in the 1880s to 1890s, with Manitoba proper being around the 1920s. This is a rough estimate, not a guaranteed level, obviously.
That’s about all, I think. Questions? Comments? Criticisms? Loud exclamations of Manitoban nationalism?
