An Israel with no sign of Palestine... Never a good sign. Are the southern Ryukus here American owned or simply occupied? and very interesting what you have down with the Kuriles and Bonin Islands. And Switzerland. And Alaska. And that little area between Italy and Slovenia where they each have two separated pixels. And in this map is Tangiers Spanish, Portuguese, or its own little place in the European Union? I look forward, as always, to see how you Munroify this. Ahhh, and if I may make a suggestion, the Portuguese might try to get Cabinda with them into the EU, since they likely had the rest of the Europeans helping keep down certain revolts in Angola and the EU likely wouldn't might keeping a compact area near the mouth of the Congo with them. Does Colombia still claim Panama here? Just askin to be sure, as I seldom see claims shown on your maps. And are the European possessions in the Caribbean and Pacific colored as they are to show the same degree of autonomy they have today, or are the area just two small to also add the EU color without needing to checker the outlines by hand?
Map Thread XVII
- Thread starter Upvoteanthology
- Start date
- Status
He was pretty modest when it came to expansion, though. Especially later in the war, where he had many chances to enlarge his sphere by a lot, but he ignored them in favour of realpolitik.
Well, yeah. The political fallout from annexing, say, Poland, would be massive. But for propaganda purposes, having a Soviet block country volunteer to join the USSR would be different, especially if its a county most Americans really don't know or care about like Bulgaria. But does Stalin believe the average Bulgar in the poorly paved street, historically Rusophilic or not, would go along with it? If there's any violent unrest attached to the annexation the propaganda souffle falls flat. On the other hand, Stalin could misjudge other people badly, leading to objectively if not intentionally reckless actions: the Berlin blockade, for instance, was a bit of white-knuckler. [1]
(My dad - I think - once said he thought Stalin just wanted to reassemble the territories of the old Russian empire, to which he had a "right" as the ruler of Russia: Finland and Poland just weren't politically possible, and anything beyond that wasn't emotionally necessary to him).
[1] Anyhoo, the circumstances of it joining the USSR in this TL are rather different: there's been a Martian invasion, after all.
That's actually been speculated to have been a basic element of early Soviet policy (even before Stalin, see: Soviet-Polish war). Not only is the Winter War a strong indicator, but Soviet territorial claims against Turkey also, rather neatly, resemble the old Imperial border.
I suppose Uncle Joe's paranoid/cautious nature just won out in the end.
Last edited:
KitFisto1997
Banned
I was inspired to do this map and accompanying write-up by @rvbomally's latest map and scenario for EEUSG, the Federation of Sovereign Voluntarists and EBR's earlier entry to the series, the Federated States of America. Needless to say, I think the writing style of these two users has carried onto this work in particular, albeit blended into my own style of cartography and writing. Oh! I also must thank @HowAboutThisForAName for stealing some ideas from his Manchuria map and respective write-up.
All of you are a bunch of top blokes, I'd probably buy beers for you lot if I ever took up drinking and stepped foot in either the 'States or Tassie.
Unlike the satirical AnCapistan maps that Omally and I have done in the past, this little scenario is my own take on the Libertarian movement, seen from the eyes of an out-of-verse Agent (hint hint) who's sent to interview an in-verse Minarchist. So I apologise for any pro-Minarchist sentiments that may appear in this text, but it's written from an in-verse perspective anyway...
I hope to fight with fellow Libertarians and AnCaps in the comments over taxation, guns and the legality of suicide bomb vest-wearing child soldiers that fire Tactical McNukes from my personal fleet of Metal Gears, all from the safety of my fortified bunker. (That's a joke, btw)
Now read this this thing and try not to violate the NAP the process. There are probably some errors and general fuck-ups in the text, but it's midnight and I gotta go to bed now, no time to fix any errors.
"LIVE FREE OR DIE"
--
Flag of the Free State of New England (2016-Present)
All of you are a bunch of top blokes, I'd probably buy beers for you lot if I ever took up drinking and stepped foot in either the 'States or Tassie.
Unlike the satirical AnCapistan maps that Omally and I have done in the past, this little scenario is my own take on the Libertarian movement, seen from the eyes of an out-of-verse Agent (hint hint
) who's sent to interview an in-verse Minarchist. So I apologise for any pro-Minarchist sentiments that may appear in this text, but it's written from an in-verse perspective anyway...I hope to fight with fellow Libertarians and AnCaps in the comments over taxation, guns and the legality of suicide bomb vest-wearing child soldiers that fire Tactical McNukes from my personal fleet of Metal Gears, all from the safety of my fortified bunker.
(That's a joke, btw)Now read this this thing and try not to violate the NAP the process. There are probably some errors and general fuck-ups in the text, but it's midnight and I gotta go to bed now, no time to fix any errors.
"LIVE FREE OR DIE"
--
Flag of the Free State of New England (2016-Present)
A New English Redoubt: An Extra-Universal Interview
Concord, NH. Free State of New England. November 2036 A.D.
The main square of Concord was a surprisingly barren place, even around midday. Perhaps it was the fact that winter had decided to come early this year or that it was nigh impossible for tourists to even enter the Free State’s capital to begin with. For a city of around 100,000 denizens, it still held a lot of the small-town charm that the north-east of the United States was known for, with the colonial era buildings and statues providing a nice contrast against the growing central business district that was a good mile away from one Portuguese restaurant, nestled amongst the terraces and small businesses of Eagle Square. It seemed that this little corner of the New English wilderness was quickly turning away from its survivalist roots and was facing a future of near unfettered capitalistic development, much like the old cities of Hong Kong, New York and London. The statues of Ludwig von Mises, Llewellyn Rockwell, Ron Paul and Murray Rothbard, which stood in the nearby square, were a testament to the rapid rise of what was once a backwater in the former United States…
“But they’re all gone now… Lost to the ash heap of history, or whatever the mad bastard said…” a man let out a heartfelt sigh, taking a single bite from a surprisingly tasty bulkie roll that was filled with a spicy mix of Portuguese chicken, Spanish chorizo and some generic salad. The man placed the meal down onto a plate and quickly mopped his brow of sweat before taking yet another bite from the burger, although he knew of it as a kaisersemmel from his holidays in Linz or Salzburg.
The door to the small establishment swung open with a clash, as a bespoke, suit-wearing man with some sort of souped-up six shooter hanging off of his belt, entered the eatery with a sense of bravado and brash confidence that could only be matched by the younger man that was sitting before him, who stood up from his seat and approached him with an outstretched hand.
“Oh, waiter! Two glasses of your best Spanish Rosé if you will!” Roland O’Leary, a prominent politician by the look of his clothing and general attitude, ordered to the lone waiter, who quickly shot their new patron with a look of contempt as they clearly wished to savour the products of their inferior Hispanic neighbours.
“A glass of Rosé? At midday?” the younger man said to his interviewee, but quickly brushed off the thought with a warm smile. “I guess a glass of Madrid’s finest wouldn’t hurt…”
“You must be that Müller kid I’ve heard so much about!” O’Leary beamed with excitement as he shook the man’s hand with a vicelike grip that surprised the man. He hoped that his cleverly falsified credentials would get him through to this interview and it certainly seemed that it had.
“It’s nice to meet you, Congressman O’Leary… Please, take a seat. I insist.”
“Oh, please. Call me Roland.” The older man insisted, noticing the traces of a gruff, Germanic-sounding accent that was barely masked by the forced Received Pronunciation that his interviewer was speaking with. “Now, shall we get down to business?”
A curt nod was the signal that O’Leary needed as an excited grin came across his face. The former survivalist, now businessman and politician, started to speak as soon as Müller pressed a button on his old, mechanical tape recorder.
“You know full well that freedom is a principle that we Americans have embraced since our Founding Fathers signed off on the Declaration, right? Well, we here in the New England Free State seek to go back to that era, we seek to turn our little patch of countryside into a prosperous nation where the marketplace of economics and ideas can prosper with little or even no government intervention… Now, are you following me?”
Müller shot the politician a curt nod, listening intently to what the man had to say.
“You may be a little too young to remember this, but then again, neither was I…” O’Leary smirked, taking a sip from his newly-arrived glass of alcohol, while Müller did the same. “The Global Financial Crisis hit the American government hard back in ’08. The banks that were once said to be too big to fail, failed spectacularly…”
“Many of our citizens were left without money and many more had their houses and assets taken from them. The Republican Bush ‘43 administration turned away from their free market policies and engaged in the Democratic Party’s dirty economic tactics, which mostly consisted of bailing out the banks and other kinds of statist economic interventionism that would make your average European leader blush…”
“Why do you think I came here?” Müller smirked, eliciting a hearty laugh from his counterpart as he took another sip of his drink.
“The incoming Obama administration, elected to office in 2008, only made things worse. While I certainly agree with those in hindsight, that the man meant his best when it came to securing a future for the American people, his policies at the time were abysmal. He tried applying the small-scale, Euro-centric ideas of social democracy onto a larger scale – that of a nation of 300 million that wasn’t as adapted, socially and economically, for such a task…”
“What of his doomed healthcare initiatives?” Müller asked.
“Ah, yes… That was another one of his failed initiatives. Instead of aiding the failing banks, closing Gitmo and pulling out of the Middle East, he threw all his weight behind the doomed ‘ObamaCare Act’ which furthered the divide between the free-market supporting Democrats, Republicans and his European-style social democratic base. The youth were enamoured with the man and I can’t say that I blame them, they needed a saviour who could pull them out of the economic and social malaise of the Bush era. That religious stuff just didn’t ring with the kids as it did with the older base…”
“When did it all come crumbling down, for Obama, I mean?”
“I’d say the 2012 elections, without a shadow of a doubt.” O’Leary took another sip from his glass. “The Tea Party movement, a rag-tag group of mainstream Libertarians, pissed off Neo-Con Republicans and some dissident Democrats began to pool their resources and ideas behind former Republican senator Ron Paul. Their utter disdain for the interventionist, anti-free market policies of the Obama admin led to them putting their fractured social differences aside in the name of preserving the economic stability of the nation…”
“Let me guess, it just got worse from there?”
“Ooooh, it certainly did… I was only a little kid when it happened, but the protests on the television were already getting out of control by then. You see, on the other side of the political spectrum, various left-wing groups were coalescing under their own movement, simply titled ‘Occupy’ after the Occupy Wall Street Movement that was formed to protest the policies of the big banks. The group was as disunited as the Tea Party when it came to social issues, but were unified behind the Soc-Dem policies of the centre-left Democrats. Obama was forced to compromise between his already broken base and keeping the radicals in check by forcing the ObamaCare Act through Congress in a blatant abuse of his powers.”
“Was he truly that desperate?”
O’Leary shrugged his shoulders. “We may truly never know for sure. Perhaps it was propaganda from disaffected Democrats, Republicans or the Tea and Progressive Parties. The rise in the popularity of the latter two were the most important factor of 2012 elections, by the way. Senator Paul was quickly shafted by the Republicans, who chose NeoCon gaffe-machine-in-chief, Mitt Romney over the Libertarian wing of the GOP, which quickly made the Tea Party an official entity after the first Presidential Debates. Millions of angry, disaffected Americans turned to either the Tea or Progressive Parties as the election cycle dragged on and on. What started as merely protests against bank bail-outs, socialism, the free market and capitalism quickly turned to riots, cities such as New York, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles were engulfed with violence and anarchy. President Obama then suspended the elections, forcing many far-left leaning Democrats to join Vermont-based Senator Bernie Sanders and leapt onto the Progressive Party’s bandwagon, leaving the GOP and the Dems mere shadows of their former selves…”
“So, the declaration of martial law was the final straw?”
“Yes, and no… Obama was quickly whisked away to the Cold War-era Mount Weather Emergency Operations Centre in Virginia, mere hours after D.C. was lost to rioting from many factions in September of 2012. Urban warfare broke out between Neo-Nazis, Communists, mainstream Conservatives and Liberals. Hell, even some Anarcho-Capitalists joined the fray. If anyone had a political cause worth fighting for, fighting for it is what they did. The Second American Civil War didn’t truly begin on the 26th of September 2012, but it may as well have with the martial law and all that…”
“I see…” Müller nodded, taking a few bites from his bulkie roll. “Where does this Free State Project come into all of this?”
“I thought you’d ask about that…” O’Leary smiled before finishing off his glass of Rosé and quickly ordered another. “The Free State Project was founded in 2001, with the intent to move around 20,000 libertarian-minded men and women to the State of New Hampshire as to bring our ideology to the forefront of state and maybe even federal politics if things went the way they eventually didn’t. The numbers quickly grew from a mere 20,000, and by the time the Second Civil War kicked off a good month after martial law and D.C. went up in nuclear hellfire, we had over 120,000 former Democrats, Republicans, AnCaps, mainstream Libertarians, Iraqi or Afghan veterans and God knows who else driving, walking and riding across the country to New Hampshire…”
“It must’ve been one heck of a wake-up call for the state authorities…”
“Yeah, this is where things get really bad… You see, there’s this running joke amongst the Libertarian and AnCap movements that speak of a forceful ‘physical removal’ to any dissidents who go against the Libertarian social order. The bad thing about it is that the New Hampshire state government couldn’t handle the large influx of refugees. But we did gain some assistance from our erstwhile Vermonter neighbours, who took in their fair share. By mid-2013 and semblance of federal authority had since ceased to exist. President Obama was found to be unfit for the Presidency due to his failing mental state, having been driven to a deep nihilistic depression due to his failure to lead the nation through such a crisis. Communications with our fellow New English states were restored around the same time and began to draft what became known as the infamous ‘Pine Tree Constitution’. The outline for a sovereign New English Republic was soon to be a political reality, but fell apart as quickly as it was formed. The nascent breakaway state was torn apart by internal struggles and the Constitutional Convention in Boston was bombed in late 2014…”
“So, this is where the Libertarian Party took power, I assume?”
“You’re right on the money, kiddo.” O’Leary gave another confident smirk to Müller. “The fractured members of the Libertarian Party, now mostly made up of Old Guard Republicans, Ron Paul supporters, Anarcho-Capitalists, Classical Liberals, Minarchists and almost any free-market, socially liberal group you could think of, became the driving force behind the New English Republic and sought to keep it alive by any means necessary. The Pine Tree Revolution of 2016 led to the independence of the various left-leaning states to the south, a Conservative Canadian – later Quebecois-aligned Maine and even a pseudo-theocratic, pro-Catholic Rhode Island that all went down their own paths. We’re the de-facto successors to the First New English Republic and we proudly carry that heritage into the future…”
“What about the post-Civil War environment? How did you sustain yourselves until you recontacted the rest of the world?”
‘We worked with what we had, stockpiling food, fishing the along the coasts and trading with various nomadic groups that made their way from the other side of the continent. One of our greatest achievements was the recovery of the Liberty Bell and the Declaration of Independence from an old military bunker in Pennsylvania… We’ve now moved back from our old survivalist era and have grown into a centre for business and trade in the North American region. Hell, we’re slated to overtake the socialist dumpster fires of New York, Boston and San-Fran in the next few decades if we keep getting these start-ups, MultiNats, local companies and old American ones moving in…”
“That’s great to hear, Herr O’Leary. Now would you mind telling me of your experience in the New English government?”
“Ah, yes… I’m one of the head honchos of the Minarchist Party, a sub-set of the Libertarian ideology that promotes a small government and pseudo-AnCap ideas without the anti-statism. We see the only thing that the government is good for is protecting our God-given rights via law enforcement, the judiciary and if necessary, some minimal state funding of public works and utilities. Yes, I’m talking about roads, Mister Müller. But we leave the rest of it to the private sector, which is left to their own devices as the market ebbs and flows with no statist interference. We have other, non-Libertarian parties, but due to the Free State Project, we hold a virtual monopoly over the ideological split between in the political sphere. We have our AnCaps, Reaganite Republicans, Paulist Libertarians, Minarchists and Classical Liberals, so it’s not so much of a monopoly as it is an umbrella movement that remains unified by certain principles – that of limited government, maximum personal freedom and an adherence to the Constitution of these Free States…”
“So, you’ve created the ultimate free-market utopia… Surely there are some downsides to it, right?” Müller asked, raising an eyebrow before taking another sip from his own drink.
“Oh, why yes there are. Unlike most states, we have almost no welfare system and any form of socialised healthcare is frowned upon, but not illegal. We only give those pensions or benefits if they’ve served in the military, or are unable to meet the requirements for self-sustainability. The bulk of our citizens are provided insurance and basic healthcare by their businesses, but it’s certainly of a lower quality than your native EuroFed or the Chinese Republic… Our foreign policy is also quite fractured due to the influence of the hawk and dove wings of the AnCaps and Reaganites respectively. We’ve gained some level of infamy for hosting many offshore bank accounts in the past. There are some downsides to such a free nation and market, but the benefits outweigh the costs of such a system. We have some of the highest income rates in the world for our middle and upper classes, high social mobility has also become a recent possibility and we’re the safest nation on Earth due to our unbending allegiance to the Non-Aggression Principle, the understanding of which is required to become a citizen of the Free State. This philosophy, oddly enough, deters plenty of people from immigrating here in the first place, so that covers border protection…”
“I see…” Müller smiled, finishing off his glass of Rosé before looking at O’Leary. “Anything else before we wrap this interview up?”
“No, sir.” The Congressman replied, gesturing to the man to finish off the recording, which he did, turning off the cassette recorded with a mechanical click.
“Thank you for explaining your nation’s history, Herr O’Leary. I should be staying in Concord for another week or so before making my way down south toward the Floridians and Confederates. I do hope you wouldn’t mind taking me on a tour around town, seeing that you have no politics to attend to for the time being?”
“Oh! I’d be obliged to, Mister Müller … I do hope you like hookers and cocaine…”
Concord, NH. Free State of New England. November 2036 A.D.
The main square of Concord was a surprisingly barren place, even around midday. Perhaps it was the fact that winter had decided to come early this year or that it was nigh impossible for tourists to even enter the Free State’s capital to begin with. For a city of around 100,000 denizens, it still held a lot of the small-town charm that the north-east of the United States was known for, with the colonial era buildings and statues providing a nice contrast against the growing central business district that was a good mile away from one Portuguese restaurant, nestled amongst the terraces and small businesses of Eagle Square. It seemed that this little corner of the New English wilderness was quickly turning away from its survivalist roots and was facing a future of near unfettered capitalistic development, much like the old cities of Hong Kong, New York and London. The statues of Ludwig von Mises, Llewellyn Rockwell, Ron Paul and Murray Rothbard, which stood in the nearby square, were a testament to the rapid rise of what was once a backwater in the former United States…
“But they’re all gone now… Lost to the ash heap of history, or whatever the mad bastard said…” a man let out a heartfelt sigh, taking a single bite from a surprisingly tasty bulkie roll that was filled with a spicy mix of Portuguese chicken, Spanish chorizo and some generic salad. The man placed the meal down onto a plate and quickly mopped his brow of sweat before taking yet another bite from the burger, although he knew of it as a kaisersemmel from his holidays in Linz or Salzburg.
The door to the small establishment swung open with a clash, as a bespoke, suit-wearing man with some sort of souped-up six shooter hanging off of his belt, entered the eatery with a sense of bravado and brash confidence that could only be matched by the younger man that was sitting before him, who stood up from his seat and approached him with an outstretched hand.
“Oh, waiter! Two glasses of your best Spanish Rosé if you will!” Roland O’Leary, a prominent politician by the look of his clothing and general attitude, ordered to the lone waiter, who quickly shot their new patron with a look of contempt as they clearly wished to savour the products of their inferior Hispanic neighbours.
“A glass of Rosé? At midday?” the younger man said to his interviewee, but quickly brushed off the thought with a warm smile. “I guess a glass of Madrid’s finest wouldn’t hurt…”
“You must be that Müller kid I’ve heard so much about!” O’Leary beamed with excitement as he shook the man’s hand with a vicelike grip that surprised the man. He hoped that his cleverly falsified credentials would get him through to this interview and it certainly seemed that it had.
“It’s nice to meet you, Congressman O’Leary… Please, take a seat. I insist.”
“Oh, please. Call me Roland.” The older man insisted, noticing the traces of a gruff, Germanic-sounding accent that was barely masked by the forced Received Pronunciation that his interviewer was speaking with. “Now, shall we get down to business?”
A curt nod was the signal that O’Leary needed as an excited grin came across his face. The former survivalist, now businessman and politician, started to speak as soon as Müller pressed a button on his old, mechanical tape recorder.
“You know full well that freedom is a principle that we Americans have embraced since our Founding Fathers signed off on the Declaration, right? Well, we here in the New England Free State seek to go back to that era, we seek to turn our little patch of countryside into a prosperous nation where the marketplace of economics and ideas can prosper with little or even no government intervention… Now, are you following me?”
Müller shot the politician a curt nod, listening intently to what the man had to say.
“You may be a little too young to remember this, but then again, neither was I…” O’Leary smirked, taking a sip from his newly-arrived glass of alcohol, while Müller did the same. “The Global Financial Crisis hit the American government hard back in ’08. The banks that were once said to be too big to fail, failed spectacularly…”
“Many of our citizens were left without money and many more had their houses and assets taken from them. The Republican Bush ‘43 administration turned away from their free market policies and engaged in the Democratic Party’s dirty economic tactics, which mostly consisted of bailing out the banks and other kinds of statist economic interventionism that would make your average European leader blush…”
“Why do you think I came here?” Müller smirked, eliciting a hearty laugh from his counterpart as he took another sip of his drink.
“The incoming Obama administration, elected to office in 2008, only made things worse. While I certainly agree with those in hindsight, that the man meant his best when it came to securing a future for the American people, his policies at the time were abysmal. He tried applying the small-scale, Euro-centric ideas of social democracy onto a larger scale – that of a nation of 300 million that wasn’t as adapted, socially and economically, for such a task…”
“What of his doomed healthcare initiatives?” Müller asked.
“Ah, yes… That was another one of his failed initiatives. Instead of aiding the failing banks, closing Gitmo and pulling out of the Middle East, he threw all his weight behind the doomed ‘ObamaCare Act’ which furthered the divide between the free-market supporting Democrats, Republicans and his European-style social democratic base. The youth were enamoured with the man and I can’t say that I blame them, they needed a saviour who could pull them out of the economic and social malaise of the Bush era. That religious stuff just didn’t ring with the kids as it did with the older base…”
“When did it all come crumbling down, for Obama, I mean?”
“I’d say the 2012 elections, without a shadow of a doubt.” O’Leary took another sip from his glass. “The Tea Party movement, a rag-tag group of mainstream Libertarians, pissed off Neo-Con Republicans and some dissident Democrats began to pool their resources and ideas behind former Republican senator Ron Paul. Their utter disdain for the interventionist, anti-free market policies of the Obama admin led to them putting their fractured social differences aside in the name of preserving the economic stability of the nation…”
“Let me guess, it just got worse from there?”
“Ooooh, it certainly did… I was only a little kid when it happened, but the protests on the television were already getting out of control by then. You see, on the other side of the political spectrum, various left-wing groups were coalescing under their own movement, simply titled ‘Occupy’ after the Occupy Wall Street Movement that was formed to protest the policies of the big banks. The group was as disunited as the Tea Party when it came to social issues, but were unified behind the Soc-Dem policies of the centre-left Democrats. Obama was forced to compromise between his already broken base and keeping the radicals in check by forcing the ObamaCare Act through Congress in a blatant abuse of his powers.”
“Was he truly that desperate?”
O’Leary shrugged his shoulders. “We may truly never know for sure. Perhaps it was propaganda from disaffected Democrats, Republicans or the Tea and Progressive Parties. The rise in the popularity of the latter two were the most important factor of 2012 elections, by the way. Senator Paul was quickly shafted by the Republicans, who chose NeoCon gaffe-machine-in-chief, Mitt Romney over the Libertarian wing of the GOP, which quickly made the Tea Party an official entity after the first Presidential Debates. Millions of angry, disaffected Americans turned to either the Tea or Progressive Parties as the election cycle dragged on and on. What started as merely protests against bank bail-outs, socialism, the free market and capitalism quickly turned to riots, cities such as New York, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles were engulfed with violence and anarchy. President Obama then suspended the elections, forcing many far-left leaning Democrats to join Vermont-based Senator Bernie Sanders and leapt onto the Progressive Party’s bandwagon, leaving the GOP and the Dems mere shadows of their former selves…”
“So, the declaration of martial law was the final straw?”
“Yes, and no… Obama was quickly whisked away to the Cold War-era Mount Weather Emergency Operations Centre in Virginia, mere hours after D.C. was lost to rioting from many factions in September of 2012. Urban warfare broke out between Neo-Nazis, Communists, mainstream Conservatives and Liberals. Hell, even some Anarcho-Capitalists joined the fray. If anyone had a political cause worth fighting for, fighting for it is what they did. The Second American Civil War didn’t truly begin on the 26th of September 2012, but it may as well have with the martial law and all that…”
“I see…” Müller nodded, taking a few bites from his bulkie roll. “Where does this Free State Project come into all of this?”
“I thought you’d ask about that…” O’Leary smiled before finishing off his glass of Rosé and quickly ordered another. “The Free State Project was founded in 2001, with the intent to move around 20,000 libertarian-minded men and women to the State of New Hampshire as to bring our ideology to the forefront of state and maybe even federal politics if things went the way they eventually didn’t. The numbers quickly grew from a mere 20,000, and by the time the Second Civil War kicked off a good month after martial law and D.C. went up in nuclear hellfire, we had over 120,000 former Democrats, Republicans, AnCaps, mainstream Libertarians, Iraqi or Afghan veterans and God knows who else driving, walking and riding across the country to New Hampshire…”
“It must’ve been one heck of a wake-up call for the state authorities…”
“Yeah, this is where things get really bad… You see, there’s this running joke amongst the Libertarian and AnCap movements that speak of a forceful ‘physical removal’ to any dissidents who go against the Libertarian social order. The bad thing about it is that the New Hampshire state government couldn’t handle the large influx of refugees. But we did gain some assistance from our erstwhile Vermonter neighbours, who took in their fair share. By mid-2013 and semblance of federal authority had since ceased to exist. President Obama was found to be unfit for the Presidency due to his failing mental state, having been driven to a deep nihilistic depression due to his failure to lead the nation through such a crisis. Communications with our fellow New English states were restored around the same time and began to draft what became known as the infamous ‘Pine Tree Constitution’. The outline for a sovereign New English Republic was soon to be a political reality, but fell apart as quickly as it was formed. The nascent breakaway state was torn apart by internal struggles and the Constitutional Convention in Boston was bombed in late 2014…”
“So, this is where the Libertarian Party took power, I assume?”
“You’re right on the money, kiddo.” O’Leary gave another confident smirk to Müller. “The fractured members of the Libertarian Party, now mostly made up of Old Guard Republicans, Ron Paul supporters, Anarcho-Capitalists, Classical Liberals, Minarchists and almost any free-market, socially liberal group you could think of, became the driving force behind the New English Republic and sought to keep it alive by any means necessary. The Pine Tree Revolution of 2016 led to the independence of the various left-leaning states to the south, a Conservative Canadian – later Quebecois-aligned Maine and even a pseudo-theocratic, pro-Catholic Rhode Island that all went down their own paths. We’re the de-facto successors to the First New English Republic and we proudly carry that heritage into the future…”
“What about the post-Civil War environment? How did you sustain yourselves until you recontacted the rest of the world?”
‘We worked with what we had, stockpiling food, fishing the along the coasts and trading with various nomadic groups that made their way from the other side of the continent. One of our greatest achievements was the recovery of the Liberty Bell and the Declaration of Independence from an old military bunker in Pennsylvania… We’ve now moved back from our old survivalist era and have grown into a centre for business and trade in the North American region. Hell, we’re slated to overtake the socialist dumpster fires of New York, Boston and San-Fran in the next few decades if we keep getting these start-ups, MultiNats, local companies and old American ones moving in…”
“That’s great to hear, Herr O’Leary. Now would you mind telling me of your experience in the New English government?”
“Ah, yes… I’m one of the head honchos of the Minarchist Party, a sub-set of the Libertarian ideology that promotes a small government and pseudo-AnCap ideas without the anti-statism. We see the only thing that the government is good for is protecting our God-given rights via law enforcement, the judiciary and if necessary, some minimal state funding of public works and utilities. Yes, I’m talking about roads, Mister Müller. But we leave the rest of it to the private sector, which is left to their own devices as the market ebbs and flows with no statist interference. We have other, non-Libertarian parties, but due to the Free State Project, we hold a virtual monopoly over the ideological split between in the political sphere. We have our AnCaps, Reaganite Republicans, Paulist Libertarians, Minarchists and Classical Liberals, so it’s not so much of a monopoly as it is an umbrella movement that remains unified by certain principles – that of limited government, maximum personal freedom and an adherence to the Constitution of these Free States…”
“So, you’ve created the ultimate free-market utopia… Surely there are some downsides to it, right?” Müller asked, raising an eyebrow before taking another sip from his own drink.
“Oh, why yes there are. Unlike most states, we have almost no welfare system and any form of socialised healthcare is frowned upon, but not illegal. We only give those pensions or benefits if they’ve served in the military, or are unable to meet the requirements for self-sustainability. The bulk of our citizens are provided insurance and basic healthcare by their businesses, but it’s certainly of a lower quality than your native EuroFed or the Chinese Republic… Our foreign policy is also quite fractured due to the influence of the hawk and dove wings of the AnCaps and Reaganites respectively. We’ve gained some level of infamy for hosting many offshore bank accounts in the past. There are some downsides to such a free nation and market, but the benefits outweigh the costs of such a system. We have some of the highest income rates in the world for our middle and upper classes, high social mobility has also become a recent possibility and we’re the safest nation on Earth due to our unbending allegiance to the Non-Aggression Principle, the understanding of which is required to become a citizen of the Free State. This philosophy, oddly enough, deters plenty of people from immigrating here in the first place, so that covers border protection…”
“I see…” Müller smiled, finishing off his glass of Rosé before looking at O’Leary. “Anything else before we wrap this interview up?”
“No, sir.” The Congressman replied, gesturing to the man to finish off the recording, which he did, turning off the cassette recorded with a mechanical click.
“Thank you for explaining your nation’s history, Herr O’Leary. I should be staying in Concord for another week or so before making my way down south toward the Floridians and Confederates. I do hope you wouldn’t mind taking me on a tour around town, seeing that you have no politics to attend to for the time being?”
“Oh! I’d be obliged to, Mister Müller … I do hope you like hookers and cocaine…”
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Not much too this map other than it's a play on the partitioned Germany trope. Would be open to some backstory ideas.
The Congress of
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Oh yeah, he was France's chief negotiator at the Congress of Vienna (which I presume Remitonov meant as this is the only Congress of Berlin I can find: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Berlin)Wow did not know Talleyrand lived that long
Goddammit. Did the Italians manage to get land from the Swiss?
Not much too this map other than it's a play on the partitioned Germany trope. Would be open to some backstory ideas.
I figured that he got those mixed up, hence the emoji.
Japhy
Banned
So as prep for getting back into it, this is the Pre-WWI world of my "Failed Miserably" timeline for 1916 just before the latest Bulgarian Crisis sends the world into chaos.
So a quick overview of things, the Divergence is that Otto Von Bismark unexpectedly dies around the time of the Austro-Prussian War in 1866. His successors are caught in an awkward situation and it takes several years for them to regain the absolute standing that he did. In the meantime war with France is pushed off to the side for a few years and by the time Napoleon III dies in late 1874 the ship has sailed. Instead a slow but steady build towards a Franco-German Rapport develops. In 1880 the German Empire is declared with the inclusion of all German states besides Austria, Saxony (A holdover from the 1866 war) and Bavaria. Bavaria will eventually agree to join in 1910 with various exceptions and integration will not be complete by 1916.
In the 1880's the young Emperor of the French following his families long term plan of looking for conflicts to strengthen their domestic position sets upon defeating the African Slave Trade and starts the scramble for Africa with his military operations and colonization of the Congo River Valley. Not that French rule is better then the African colonial average of IOTL, but its also not Leopoldian. Dime novels of French Troops and Legionnaires fighting Omani Slavers in the Great Lakes become a trope for decades to come, the mass of Great Lakes protectorates being one result of this. Franco-Egyptian Darfur being another. Growing Franco-German rapport prevents the British from dominating Egypt and ensures the continual (mostly-)Independence of the Cairo Government for years to come. This in tun will open the door for the British to find another way to secure their lifeline to India, and the minor colonial incidents of IOTL eventually see the British annex Abyssinia and its Imperial Throne becomes Victoria's second title of Empress. A decade after the Young Napoleon's entry into Africa the British will have established dominance in the Horn of Africa, the West African Coast and stealing the thunder of the end of the Great Lakes War, would establish a protectorate over Zanzibar and force it to end its slave trade once and for all.
In Europe the mid 1880's will see troubles in Poland cement a Berlin-Vienna-Budapest alliance structure, with Paris hedging its bets and thus finding itself ever more tied the new power in Europe. the Russians are easily beaten in a humiliating three month war with Lithuania and Poland being detached from the Empire as a result. Revolution breaks out in Russia as a result with the Czar abdicating and a cadet branch of the Romanov's coming to power and forced to create the open democracy of the Duma. Taking a page out of the Hohenzollern and Bonapartist books future Russian Czars will play their own games with this Democracy though, establishing a very Pro-Monarchist and very Reactionary regime using Royal power to set the standards.
The 1890s will see the Franco-German special relationship officially cemented with the Triple Entente between Austria-Hungary, Germany and France. In the aftermath of the 1893 Spanish-American War this new alliance would see the partitioning of Spain's old Empire between the two members that were in a position to take colonies. Britain would be slower to respond but would in 1897 sign an Alliance with Russia, following years of ever-increasing financial investment in that new Empire. Over the coming years similar relationships would be established with Italy and with the Ottoman Sultan, both of whom would also feel under pressure by the New European Order.
The Alliance structure would stay roughly the same for years to follow, war crises would come and go as the Balkans repeatedly tore itself asunder, over Russian Policies in Finland, over the Anglo-German Arms Race, and border disputes between the British and French across the African Continent. Both of the European Alliance Structures briefly worked together during the Great China Mutiny of 1905 which saw the establishment of the Yangtze International Zone, but the good feelings past as each nation squabbled about the cut up of the rest of China.
A decade later the alliance system seemed to be fraying at long last. Franco-German disagreements about the Future of Austria-Hungary and the Ententes policy towards Egypt. On the other hand the Quadruple Alliance, always an unholy sort of thing seemed on the verge of breaking apart in War as the Ottoman Sultan and the Russian Czar threatened to turn the black sea and all of its coasts into a warzone over another damned-fool thing, while Japan, coming knocking again was attempting to court Paris or London for an alliance, which would cause problems for everyone involved. And then some damned thing happens in the Balkans and the whole world explodes.
The story, in both of the previous false-starts I made showed pretty well that the war went very much for the Entente and not for the Alliance, with Entente troops at the gates of London when the story begins and the British Empire falls. I'll have another map for the Settlement of the Treaty of Antwerp that ended the war several years later up eventually. Hopefully to mark the restart of the Project which I hope will make a nice read for everyone.
Indeed they did. They received Ticino and the Italian parts of Graubünden. Couldn't make the borders too pretty, so I threw in some mandatory border gore by letting Switzerland keep a corridor to Bosco/Gurin
Any thought to the languages of Burgundy? I'm just imagining Geneva and Romandy being oasises of Francophones while Italians, Germans, and Flemings surround them on all sides.
I quite like the idea. On forums like these ITTL people ask what the hell a French island is doing in Switzerland, just like people asked IOTL how the Volga Germans got there.
I think Burgundy would have two official languages: German and Flemish
fashbasher
Banned
The Other Mediterranean - Apparently the term "Mediterranean Sea" can also be used for the web of seas in Indonesia as well as the Caribbean. To wit, I've created a map envisioning the European Mediterranean as if it were the "Australasian Mediterranean Sea". The bizarre clash of cultures and nations can be explained as an alternate history of this scenario.
Light Green: The Dominion of Africa. Visible are three states (Western Africa - capital Praiath, South Africa - Capital Abujalaide, and Kingsland - Capital Cairnsro) as well as the Northern Territory (Capital Darghazi). Africa has three overseas possessions - the Cocoa Islands (a), the Turkish Strait Islands (b), and the Crimanus Island detention center (c) for illegal migrants.
Hot Pink: Independent State of Anatolia New Grecia, capital Port Trabzon. It has a claim over Western Anatolia, aka Western New Grecia, and is divided into the "mainland" portion and the northern "islands" of New Sochireland and New Babushka.
Blue: New Caliphdonia, capital An-Numeyya. Overseas territory of France (the capital of France is Cayenne).
Brown: Solomon Mountains, capital Honiadjara.
Orange: Republic of Euresia, capital Italakarta (formerly Italavia). Predominantly Javanese and Muslim, and most of its population lives on the Italian boot even though most of its land is elsewhere. Struggles with the dispute over Western New Grecia as well as with theocrats in Acehturias.
Green: Athens, capital Timon. Timon of Athens if you're into Shakespeare. Split off from Euresia after a nasty war.
Greyish Blue: Brittania, capital Koala Manor. Constitutional monarchy.
Mint Green: Sultanate of Wueils. Capital Bandar Kardif. Absolute monarchy with a fondness for sheep.
Yellow Dot: Republic of Singacork. Very wealthy multiethnic island city-state.
Dark red: Kingdom of Nhailand, capital Bangbjerke. Recently suffered a coup. Popular for its fjords and sex tourism.
Light red: Kingdom of Svenbodia, capital Shtok Penh. Constitutional monarchy. Socialistic, but recently has taken a liking for neoliberalism, American culture, and inequality. Nouveau riche are famed around the world for their "vaskning" habit of pouring expensive bottles of arak down the drain. Good luck ever buying a flat in Shtok Penh, Malkor Wat, or Göttambang unless you're independently wealthy.
Light Green: The Dominion of Africa. Visible are three states (Western Africa - capital Praiath, South Africa - Capital Abujalaide, and Kingsland - Capital Cairnsro) as well as the Northern Territory (Capital Darghazi). Africa has three overseas possessions - the Cocoa Islands (a), the Turkish Strait Islands (b), and the Crimanus Island detention center (c) for illegal migrants.
Hot Pink: Independent State of Anatolia New Grecia, capital Port Trabzon. It has a claim over Western Anatolia, aka Western New Grecia, and is divided into the "mainland" portion and the northern "islands" of New Sochireland and New Babushka.
Blue: New Caliphdonia, capital An-Numeyya. Overseas territory of France (the capital of France is Cayenne).
Brown: Solomon Mountains, capital Honiadjara.
Orange: Republic of Euresia, capital Italakarta (formerly Italavia). Predominantly Javanese and Muslim, and most of its population lives on the Italian boot even though most of its land is elsewhere. Struggles with the dispute over Western New Grecia as well as with theocrats in Acehturias.
Green: Athens, capital Timon. Timon of Athens if you're into Shakespeare. Split off from Euresia after a nasty war.
Greyish Blue: Brittania, capital Koala Manor. Constitutional monarchy.
Mint Green: Sultanate of Wueils. Capital Bandar Kardif. Absolute monarchy with a fondness for sheep.
Yellow Dot: Republic of Singacork. Very wealthy multiethnic island city-state.
Dark red: Kingdom of Nhailand, capital Bangbjerke. Recently suffered a coup. Popular for its fjords and sex tourism.
Light red: Kingdom of Svenbodia, capital Shtok Penh. Constitutional monarchy. Socialistic, but recently has taken a liking for neoliberalism, American culture, and inequality. Nouveau riche are famed around the world for their "vaskning" habit of pouring expensive bottles of arak down the drain. Good luck ever buying a flat in Shtok Penh, Malkor Wat, or Göttambang unless you're independently wealthy.
The Other Mediterranean -
Assuming that Africa and Australia swap in this scenario, I'm... intrigued... as to the fate of the latter.
To celebrate Thanksgiving, here's a Thanksgiving themed map!
ITTL, Tisquantum (Squanto) is bought by a cruel Spanish landowner instead of the priests and his horrifically mistreated. He escapes, but ends up holding an extreme prejudice against all Europeans, even though he still learns some broken English and Spanish. He ends up coming back home to find his entire tribe of Patuxet decimated by smallpox like IOTL. Grieving, more broken than IOTL, he tries to find a way to kill himself without actually doing it himself. He finds himself leading a war party for the nearby Wampanoags against their neighbors, becoming a prolific warrior and affluent member of Wampanoag society, and he recovers, now a new man. When the Pilgrims land at Plymouth after moving in from Provincetown (like OTL), history continues as normal.
However, instead of encouraging his fellows to help the settlers, Tisquantum convinces them to hold back any aid and just wait and watch. The Pilgrims, horrifically unprepared to survive, are almost completely wiped out by cold and hunger. The few remaining settlers slaughter a small native village for their food, which they refused to give up; Tisquantum's son was visiting the village. Enraged and grieving, Tisquantum raises a warband and completely destroys the entire town of Plymouth, killing all of the remaining men and capturing the women and children. Another group of religiously persecuted Englishmen try to settle the Plymouth area, but they are also mostly killed and some captured. Tisquantum, instead of teaching Englishmen the way of the Wampanoags using his English skills, does the opposite: he demands the Englishmen teach them to use their guns and livestock, as well as teach the language to some important Wampanoag men, including Massasoit, their sachem (or chief.)
As the years go on, many Wampanoags die of smallpox, but enough survive. The English only begin encroaching in force years later, in the 1650's. However, the lack of English settlement and some minor butterflies meant that the French also had a small presence in the region. It was French trappers that first traded with the Wampanoags and French missionaries that first pressured the Wampanoags to convert. The trappers were surprised when the Wampanoags knew roughly how much a gun was worth, and the missionaries were surprised to find that a surprising number of women, and even some men, had converted to a bastardized version of Puritanism, spiced by Tisquantum's basic knowledge of Catholicism. Both groups were surprised to find that the Wampanoags had begun to slowly build what resembled a capital city, built around the center of learning and food that had grown from Massasoit's home settlement. They recorded the city as Massasoit, and its ruler, Sachem Massasoit, as King Charles.
Word of King Charles, the Savage King, spread throughout Europe like wildfire. Interest in "civilizing" the area skyrocketed, and while the increased attention seemed disastrous for the infant nation at first, it ended up being a good thing. An English military man, Henry Belasyse, had fled to the new Catholic refuge of Johnstown because of his devout Roman Catholicism, and he ended up exiled from the town for accidental murder. He found himself captured in Wampanoag territory, and was pressed into the service of "King Charles."
The French had been content to mostly trade and convert, without a concentrated colonization effort, but the English had been encroaching on Wampanoag territory. In a freak victory from a mixture of luck, surprise, and sheer determination, a smaller Wampanoag force had managed to soundly defeat an English detachment from Johnstown, and by the end of the year, Belasyse had led the Wampanoags to completely raze Johnstown to the ground and impress many of its men into their military, capturing the women and children. He constructed Fort Mashpee on its site, named after the largest tribe in the area. The Wampanoags managed for the next several decades to play the French and English interests off of one another, almost like a North American Thailand.
About 20% of the Wampanoag population at the time of the map, 1707, has at least some English or French blood in them, and about 12% of those living in their borders are pureblooded European, by conservative estimates. The Wampanoag have managed to form a sort of semi-feudal society based on a more lenient form of a serf plantation system combined with the landowners owning small militaries that lend loyalty to Massasoit, the capital named after their late founder. The population is actually about 40% Christian, most of that being variations of Catholicism, and a particularly enterprising (armed) group of French missionaries has even been allowed to form a Catholic mission near Massasoit: Marysville, shown on the map as a Wampanoag town. The refounding of Plimoth is a similar situation, but this time with English debtors being allowed to settle there in exchange for their loyalty to the sachem. About 50% of the people living within Wampanoag borders speak either passable English or passable French, with 15% speaking both.
Unfortunately, the Wampanoag are not quite as independent as the map shows them to be, most cities outside of Massasoit being heavily influenced by either the English or the French, and the borders being more than porous. That, combined with a new wave of smallpox plague and Europe's recovery from its latest war might mean that the fledgling nation is soon to be strangled to death. And, considering who they are in contact with more, the general population of Wampanoagland would have dubious loyalty to the sachem if a shooting war broke out with either England or France. However, the nation's very creation is an accomplishment.
And to think this is all because of Tisquantum, last of the Patuxet.
As always, comments, critiques, and questions are more than welcome! And happy late thanksgiving!
ITTL, Tisquantum (Squanto) is bought by a cruel Spanish landowner instead of the priests and his horrifically mistreated. He escapes, but ends up holding an extreme prejudice against all Europeans, even though he still learns some broken English and Spanish. He ends up coming back home to find his entire tribe of Patuxet decimated by smallpox like IOTL. Grieving, more broken than IOTL, he tries to find a way to kill himself without actually doing it himself. He finds himself leading a war party for the nearby Wampanoags against their neighbors, becoming a prolific warrior and affluent member of Wampanoag society, and he recovers, now a new man. When the Pilgrims land at Plymouth after moving in from Provincetown (like OTL), history continues as normal.
However, instead of encouraging his fellows to help the settlers, Tisquantum convinces them to hold back any aid and just wait and watch. The Pilgrims, horrifically unprepared to survive, are almost completely wiped out by cold and hunger. The few remaining settlers slaughter a small native village for their food, which they refused to give up; Tisquantum's son was visiting the village. Enraged and grieving, Tisquantum raises a warband and completely destroys the entire town of Plymouth, killing all of the remaining men and capturing the women and children. Another group of religiously persecuted Englishmen try to settle the Plymouth area, but they are also mostly killed and some captured. Tisquantum, instead of teaching Englishmen the way of the Wampanoags using his English skills, does the opposite: he demands the Englishmen teach them to use their guns and livestock, as well as teach the language to some important Wampanoag men, including Massasoit, their sachem (or chief.)
As the years go on, many Wampanoags die of smallpox, but enough survive. The English only begin encroaching in force years later, in the 1650's. However, the lack of English settlement and some minor butterflies meant that the French also had a small presence in the region. It was French trappers that first traded with the Wampanoags and French missionaries that first pressured the Wampanoags to convert. The trappers were surprised when the Wampanoags knew roughly how much a gun was worth, and the missionaries were surprised to find that a surprising number of women, and even some men, had converted to a bastardized version of Puritanism, spiced by Tisquantum's basic knowledge of Catholicism. Both groups were surprised to find that the Wampanoags had begun to slowly build what resembled a capital city, built around the center of learning and food that had grown from Massasoit's home settlement. They recorded the city as Massasoit, and its ruler, Sachem Massasoit, as King Charles.
Word of King Charles, the Savage King, spread throughout Europe like wildfire. Interest in "civilizing" the area skyrocketed, and while the increased attention seemed disastrous for the infant nation at first, it ended up being a good thing. An English military man, Henry Belasyse, had fled to the new Catholic refuge of Johnstown because of his devout Roman Catholicism, and he ended up exiled from the town for accidental murder. He found himself captured in Wampanoag territory, and was pressed into the service of "King Charles."
The French had been content to mostly trade and convert, without a concentrated colonization effort, but the English had been encroaching on Wampanoag territory. In a freak victory from a mixture of luck, surprise, and sheer determination, a smaller Wampanoag force had managed to soundly defeat an English detachment from Johnstown, and by the end of the year, Belasyse had led the Wampanoags to completely raze Johnstown to the ground and impress many of its men into their military, capturing the women and children. He constructed Fort Mashpee on its site, named after the largest tribe in the area. The Wampanoags managed for the next several decades to play the French and English interests off of one another, almost like a North American Thailand.
About 20% of the Wampanoag population at the time of the map, 1707, has at least some English or French blood in them, and about 12% of those living in their borders are pureblooded European, by conservative estimates. The Wampanoag have managed to form a sort of semi-feudal society based on a more lenient form of a serf plantation system combined with the landowners owning small militaries that lend loyalty to Massasoit, the capital named after their late founder. The population is actually about 40% Christian, most of that being variations of Catholicism, and a particularly enterprising (armed) group of French missionaries has even been allowed to form a Catholic mission near Massasoit: Marysville, shown on the map as a Wampanoag town. The refounding of Plimoth is a similar situation, but this time with English debtors being allowed to settle there in exchange for their loyalty to the sachem. About 50% of the people living within Wampanoag borders speak either passable English or passable French, with 15% speaking both.
Unfortunately, the Wampanoag are not quite as independent as the map shows them to be, most cities outside of Massasoit being heavily influenced by either the English or the French, and the borders being more than porous. That, combined with a new wave of smallpox plague and Europe's recovery from its latest war might mean that the fledgling nation is soon to be strangled to death. And, considering who they are in contact with more, the general population of Wampanoagland would have dubious loyalty to the sachem if a shooting war broke out with either England or France. However, the nation's very creation is an accomplishment.
And to think this is all because of Tisquantum, last of the Patuxet.
As always, comments, critiques, and questions are more than welcome! And happy late thanksgiving!
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