I just borrowed the idea from RvBOMally's commission "Make Europe Great Again." I don't think it was meant to be plausible, and for me this was really more of just a fun experiment.
Map Thread XVII
- Thread starter Upvoteanthology
- Start date
- Status
I just borrowed the idea from RvBOMally's commission "Make Europe Great Again." I don't think it was meant to be plausible, and for me this was really more of just a fun experiment.
updated this WW3 timeline to be just any American, ASAN divided world with the removal of the Communist state as it didn't really fit with the story.
2014 is the year many historians point to as a defining moment in the lead-up to the outbreak of WWIII. At the beginning of the current century, the Russian Federation the successor to the Soviet Union was viewed by the West as a neutral and even friendly country no longer a threat to their existence or way of life. This judgement would prove to be incorrect as the Russians re-emerged as a significant opponent to the Western domination of the world. Under the leadership of Vladimir Putin who had characterised the collapse of the Soviet Union as the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the Twentieth Century.” the Russians moved towards rekindling the glory of the past not under the communism of the former regime but rather Slavic nationalism.
The campaign of Eurasian expansion became apparent in the Ukrainian crisis which saw Pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign an agreement for association with the European Union in late 2013. This decision sparked mass protests within the country led by an organised political movement known as "Euromaidan” whose demands were for stronger ties with the European Union and the subsequent ousting of the current president. In February 2014, the pro-Russian President was ousted by protesters and fled the Ukrainian capital. Counter-protests were conducted by Pro-Russian and counter-revolutionary activists in eastern and southern Ukraine starting in the region of Crimea. Armed men that were originally claimed to be the local self-defence forces but later admitted to be Russian soldiers without insignia moved in to take control of strategic positions with Crimea. After an internationally unrecognised referendum on whether Crimea should join the Russian Federation end in favour of joining, Russia annexed Crimea. The crisis erupted into an armed conflict between the Russian backed separatist groups and the Ukrainian government. Relations between the West and Russia continued to deteriorate over the coming years, the Russian military intervention in the Syrian civil war in 2015, American and Russian proxy-war that followed, the claims of Russian interference in the American and European election of 2016 and 2017, the American military build-up, the chemical attacks that lead to American bombing of Syria in 2017 and the Russian annexation of Belarus in 2018 all contributed to the massive degradation of relations that would lead to war. In 2021 after Bashar al-Assad received military support by the Russians to establish control in Syria, the Russians also supported pro-Russian organisations and politicians in neighbouring countries to establish a friendly bloc within the Middle East that would oppose American dominance of the world. Eventually several Middle Eastern countries formed the Islamic Federation and in opposition to this bloc the Americans helped Saudi Arabia establish the United Arab Republics. Relations between Russia and the Americans continued to worsen over the coming years Russian forces moved into the Baltic countries to the dismay of the Americans and eventually moved further into Ukraine and other surrounding nations of the former Soviet Union. When the Russian ambassador to Poland was assassinated, Russia used this as a pretends for an invasion to which the West responded with a declaration of war.
On the eve of December 2, the war that was so far confined to Europe with mighty clashes between NATO and the Eurasian Union the likes of which the world had feared during the First Cold War now entered its third year of engagement. Chaos was rampant throughout Eastern Europe with fears of a nuclear end to this conflict growing every day. December 2 marks the beginning of when this war in Europe turned into a worldwide conflict that would shape the political landscape for years and even decades to come. Tensions between China and other South-east Asian nations had been increasing for years mainly due to a conflict about ownership of a group of islands in the South China Sea and increased militarization of the Chinese government. A harsh and brutal crackdown was put in place in Hong Kong, Shanghai and other regions in China as there was an increasing demand among citizens to establish a more democratic government in China. China had supported a coup in Myanmar to overthrow the current dictatorship only to establish another, thereby only worsening the already rocky relationship between them and other South-east Asian nations. The military lead coup eventually led to the boycott of the new Myanmar government with heavy sanctions put in place against the country and its withdrawal from the increasingly important ASEAN.
On December 2, a small Chinese battleship fleet opened fire against a joint US-ASEAN battleship fleet believing that they had entered Chinese territorial waters (which was later found out not to be the case). The battle between the two lasted for a gruelling hour and a half eventually ending in the sinking of several of the joint fleet ships and two Chinese battleships. After hearing this tragic news, the US and other nations who had not already entered the war against Russia now feel felt directly threatened by these new world powers though the US was at the stage when it was likely to join the fight anyway in the coming months. China and the Russian-led EAU had formed an alliance several years earlier. When the US declared war on China along with their allies in the region, the ASEAN also declared war on EAU. The populace sees the event that occurred on December 2 as the beginning of the end leading to the third world war. Most historians can agree the event on its own would of likely not cause the outbreak of the third world war it was simply the last nail in the coffin in an already quickly deteriorating relation between two opposing powers. The ASEAN mainly fought against the allies of the Chinese in the Indonesian Civil War which had been raging for two years prior due to their proximity and lack of political will to directly go up against the Chinese. The Indonesian Civil War was a major part of the South-east Asian theatre of the third world war with two main opposing sides in this war the Islamic Nationalist Confederation and the Democratic People’s Front along with the government that was already in power which many people disliked because of large-scale corruption within all its ranks.
ASEAN at the end of the war was mainly free to do what they liked in how they would divide up the former Indonesian nation. They granted Papa New Guinea the western half of the island that had once belonged to the Indonesians as well as several islands eventually leading to the formation of the New Guinea Union. East Timor remained free though was under heavy surveillance by the newly formed Australian Republic. Borneo became its own independent nation with full membership into the ASEAN being granted. The rest of Indonesia formed the Republic of Sunda and remained under Military Administration. ASEAN gained territory from the former People’s Republic of China such as Hong Kong.
Here it is gents (and ladies), the 1983 WWIII aftermath map I made a WIP out of in a separate thread:
Description here: https://kubocaskett.deviantart.com/art/Twilight-s-Gone-Away-707667551?ga_submit_new=10:1507000107
Description here: https://kubocaskett.deviantart.com/art/Twilight-s-Gone-Away-707667551?ga_submit_new=10:1507000107
A commission for daniusmaximus on Deviantart: a retrofuture, the 2010s as it might have been imagined in the 1980s.
It's based on (and expands a little on) this old scenario I posted quite a while back:
Mirrorshades (with built-in computer displays) are plentiful and hairdos are elaborate. The climate is hotter and stormier, and the rain pours down on the grimy, towering Cities of Tomorrow.
After overthrowing Gorbachev, the Soviets turned back to their hard-line roots politically, but also took up a weird sort of State Capitalism, with government-backed Soviet mega-corporations now competing with those rooted in Japan and the US for global market share. Although Eastern Europe was lost, the Soviets still play games of political influence and subversion in the area, and are allied with the leftier bits of fragmented China, along with India (which turned hard-left after their atomic war with Pakistan) and the United Socialist States of Central America. The Corporate-dominated US is allied to Corporate-nation Japan as the leaders of the PacRim Association, the world’s most powerful political association, competing with the Soviets and their Statist allies, the EuroFed, the Arab Union, and independent-minded mega-corporations. A decade after the Second Oil War, the Soviet and US-European forces have finally agreed to neutralize West Iran and put an end to the tense nose-to-nose situation that had existed previously.
The PacRim also includes some of the bits of China, South Korea, Australia, etc. The European economic union has expanded into Latin America, expansion to the east being hampered by Soviet maneuverings. Arab North Africa has unified under a nationalist-Islam movement, which makes the Israelis nervous, especially since a pro-unity party has come to power in Jordan. Africa has descended into chaos, and much of the area is run by warlords, mercenaries and Arab-backed Islamic movements, although atomic-weapons armed South Africa remains relatively stable through extreme repression and the use of pacifying drugs on the black population.
The night sky glitters with satellites, Soviet and US and EuroFed military “Star Wars” projects, mega-corporation commercial stations, spy satellites, and stuff nobody is sure who put it up. They are frequently replaced as they malfunction or are destroyed through properly deniable accidents: military fencing and testing of the enemy, corporate warfare, possibly hackers messing with the system. Europe and Japan are more “wired” than OTL: the World Wide Web is even larger and more complicated than in our world, and includes a variety of virtual reality access modes and entire secret parallel systems run by hacker associations and megacorporations, accessible only to those In the Know. The Soviets have their own hackers, and have infiltrated much of the vast network of cyberspace. Autonomous robots are more advanced, and are used in a number of military applications.
The Republicans are more libertarian than OTL, and are less arm-in-arm with the Religious right. Violent crime is worse than in our world, and many houses are now built like fortresses, while the armed guard industry has boomed and gated communities are even bigger than OTL. Most civilians in the US now carry guns or at least tasers or gas grenades. Interpol and other police agencies battle against the Network, the powerful international alliance of Italian, Columbian, Japanese, etc. crime lords.
The major states all have bases on the Moon, although Mars has not yet been reached (too expensive, both the Supreme Soviet and US corporate heads agree). There are a lot of space stations in orbit, many of them on-the-cheap Indian and Soviet models. (Explosive decompression deaths no longer make it onto the front page of newspapers). Japan is a lot wealthier than OTL, never having undergone an economic collapse of comparable scale, and dealing with the population deficit through massive imports of foreign “temp” labor (1/10 of Japan’s population nowadays is foreign born, and some have been there for 15 years or more. Very few have actually become citizens, and they are often harassed by ultra-nationalist Japanese biker gangs. The Japanese restaurant scene is much more varied than OTL.
View attachment 347254
Last edited:
[
I know we are not to take this seriously or anything, but I just find it amusing that Chinese nationalism would be spread. Given that seems to be their main ideology. I know, probably not what was meant, but I just find the idea of being nationalists for another country as amusing. Also find it strange that the Chinese would allow the Pakistanis to fall, especially as they would need their ports in order to project power to the Middle East. Ahhh well, sucks to be Pakistan. No free Afghan land for you.
Nice work as always, Bruce. Though I didn't know that 80's predictions regarding China were that it was bound to get balkanized. The West didn't have any trouble with Deng Xiaoping, at the time, didn't it?
It's more like there was always the prophecy of "impending Chinese collapse." For some reason, the West was convinced that the Chinese were not just a paper tiger, but a wet one that would crumble to pieces at the slightest poke. It was Japan that would rule the future, and China would fall apart to warlords and puppet governments.
Just an exercise of the dioceses of a Slovak Catholic Church:
- Patriarchal see: Nitra (blue in the west, has no borders with other countries)
- Dioceses:
- Bratislava city (orange)
- Prešporok region (yellow)
- Trnava (lime)
- Trenčín (dark blue)
- Žilina (violet)
- Ružomberok (brown)
- Spiš/Levoča (pink)
- Prešov (orange in the east)
- Michalovce (beige)
- Košice (light blue)
- Banska Bystrica (greyish blue)
- Rožňava (along the borders with Hungary
- Bratislava city (orange)
- Apart from that, Slovak dioceses exist abroad:
- Pennsylvania
- North America (rest of USA)
- Buenos Aires
- Cracow
- Prague
- Brno
- Budapest
- Bekešská Čaba
- Nadlak (Transylvania and Hungarian parts of Romania)
- Slavonia and Vojvodina
Skallagrim
Banned
Like most cyberpunk-esque things, it seems vaguely crappy for a lot of people, but not entirely horrible. Also, EuroFed - with its lefty politics and environmentalism - seems nice for people who like that sort of thing, while the assortment of corporate(-influenced) states are probably a plus for people who think capitalism is awesome. Sure, there seem to be some pretty horrible things going on, but people looking at OTL and seeing ISIS and the refugee crisis might just qualify those as dystopian elements as well...
Either that, or would turn back to its hardline habits and descend into economic immiseration. China as a superpower didn't start being seen as a "sure bet" until at least the 1990s. Also, some saw Tienemin Square as a sign of future trouble rather than the blip in China's upwards "capitalism with autocratic characteristics" path it looks like now.
(Of course, another reason for breaking it up was to provide Superpower Japan with a bigger sphere of economicpuppets partners.)
(Of course, another reason for breaking it up was to provide Superpower Japan with a bigger sphere of economic
Bruce, speaking of 80's dystopias, have you ever made a map of Rumsfeldia? I seem to recall you've covered one of the big dystopic TLs here but i'm not sure if it was that or FAT.
fashbasher
Banned
WI: After Hurricane Maria, Dominica essentially sells itself to China in exchange for massive Chinese investment, becoming the first "Sinosphere" state in the Americas. By 2035, over 1/10th of the population consists of post-storm Chinese immigrants and their children (the first third-generation post-storm Chinese was the product of a teen pregnancy involving a girl born in Dominica in 2019). This does not include Chinese-speaking immigrants from elsewhere in the world who migrated to Dominica and who mainly work in skilled occupations; about 35% of Dominicans (as opposed to Dominicans; the accent is different) are at least part Chinese.
Totally not the finished version of that map I totally didn't post earlier.
- Status