Map Thread XVII
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Some corrections to the Russian within the map:
I present to you all: The Yezo Republic!
Basically the idea is Hokkaido gets the Kaliningrad treatment. I will add more details and a backstory soon.
Ezo Republic in Russian would be Республика Эдзо
Both Shirshovgrad and Svyatoevgrad would most likely be Shirshovsk and Svyatoevsk instead...although I'm not even sure Svyatoev is grammatically correct in of itself. Are you trying to use the Russian world for 'holy', or is the city named in honor of some individual?
Pionerskayagrad would either be Пионерск (Pionersk), Пионерскоград (Pionerskograd), or Пионерский (Pionerskiy).
Sorry, it was the morning, and I was commuting when I typed up the previous response.
Just to clarify, most colonization was via economic colonialism, rather than direct conquest. The few colonies that do existence are mostly outposts to facilitate trade.
Spain and Namibia...Well they were mostly the product of mindless doodling, not much thought was put into back story.
Yep. Britain has to worry about logistics, her grip on her own West coast isn't all that firm. while China needs to prevent herself from becoming too domineering in East Asia so as to keep Japan on her side.
1) A bit of both. High society almost exclusively speaks French, though the business sector speaks Spanish. The House of Bourbon is however always willing to join in celebrations of dia de los muertos.
2) Alt!Gran Colombia was originally my United States parallel, but I reviewed it and decided it might be too fragile. As of 2018, the Colombian nation is coming apart at the seams. Unlike other resource exporting nations, oil in Colombia is concentrated in Venezuela, and despite her massive deposits, Venezuelans have had to shoulder half of South America's finances since the 1940s, while having just 30% the population. In my original ideas for the map, I would have had extra maps in a miniseries that would perhaps detailed a British intervention.
Oh my, I am flattered
Great job! Nicer, freer Russia cut off at the Urals due to [invasion/revolution]. Heavily settled in Amur basin (before Chinese settlement) which became a large industrial area due to coal, wood, hydropower, fish, farmland and transportation. European Russia is bleeding emigrants into Siberia. Southern Moslem and Turkic/Chinese areas extensively orthodoxified and russified.
Xianfeng, I love this!A map I finished quite some time ago, with the intention of posting in Easter. That uh...obviously didn't quite work out one trip to Nanjing and a mountain of tests later.
Do go a bit easier on my (atrocious) Western history. So enjoy
With the end of the 9 Years War, Britain found herself in dire straits: bankrupt, isolated and having lost all her Indian possessions, it appeared that the nascent British Empire was at her very end, to go the same way as so many others in the graveyard of empires.
In an attempt to salvage the British financial situation, the British government, headed by the politician Robert Walpole would hedge its bets on the Leavantine Charter, a trading firm founded on a venture in the lands of the Ottoman Empire, one of the few powers upon the continent that remained on friendly terms with the British Empire. Viewing the cloths, spices and trade that flowed through the Ottoman Empire as a crucial piece in Britains re-entry into India, the British Government commissioned plans to build infrastructure, ports and workshops across the Levant so as to wrest Indian trade from the Portugese and French sailing around the Cape.
But money wasn’t going to start growing on trees any time soon, and so the British government began to drum up support for funding. Sparing all expenses, vast chunks of the non-vital Royal Navy were disbanded, massive cuts made to the lower echelons of the bureaucracy, a massive tax hike began and loans made from virtually any willing creditor. According to (perhaps dubious) analyses by media of the time, the British Empire was considered unable to repay reparations imposed on it by Paris and Vienna, reparations that demagogues decried as almost Carthaginian in nature, intentionally dismembering the nation.
With an injection of capital, many would have expected the beginning of trade and building of infrastructure. But in there was the problem: such things took time, time that few were willing to invest. From its conception, the Levantine Charter was flawed, Britiain needed money now, not in a decade, and there was little company management could do in the face of this. It was then that management looked back on the South Seas Bubble just a few decades ago, one that ended in tragedy, but perhaps it would work if management promised itself that it would pay off her debts and run a responsible business.
But of course, businessmen and politicians can never resist making promises they can’t keep.
In the winter of 1767, the stock price of the Levantine Charter, which had made, as of yet, no investments in the Levant whatsoever or even sent an emissary to either the Caliph or the Khedive of Egypt, plummeted. Prominent creditors stormed the headquarters of the charter, dragged out clerks and remaining members of management and beat them to death while paid mobs ransacked headquarters.
Soon, violence began to spread into other parts of urban London. A populace, long dissatisfied at the massive burden placed upon them to finance adventures military and economic simply began to tear down the very institutions of state. William Pitt, a tyrant who manipulated institutions of state to his own personal gain fled Westminster in a hurry as mercenaries battled with guards.
In the colonies, open rebellion began under one George Washington, general in one of the few successful British Campaigns in the period: the Louisiana Campaign of the 9 Years War. Initially an army of militia and bandits, Washington’s colonial army soon saw entire brigades of redcoats defect, leadership whole and intact. In his march on Philadelphia, the colonies offered no resistance, and British control collapsed over the span of a month-long march through the countryside.
Ultimately, the survival of Britain came down to one man: King George III. A man of sound political savvy and discontented at what he perceived to be a parliamentary stranglehold on the fate of his empire, the King would issue his will the week following Washington’s capture of Philadelphia. Beyond stipulations and whatnot, the general gist was: Pitt, then residing in Whitehall was to be arrested, the revolting colonials pardoned and parliament dissolved and to be reconvened “until further notice” and with “consideration and compromise”.
In the half a year called by modern British historians as the Second Glorious Revolution, Britain was reborn, an entity not of Europe, but of the Atlantic.
Upon the Old World is Europe, a union of hypocrisy. Nominally stretching from barren Siberia to the coasts of Portugal, it exercises little to no authority. Nominally a union of equals, it is dominated by scheming powers and conflicting interests. Nominally an alliance of likeminded nations, its members fight for dominance.
This is the European Union.
Founded in the wake of the 3rd Great German War, it is a projection of French and Russian interests upon the European continent. Following the Five Years War, Paris and Moscow had dictated continental affairs, with Vennia and Berlin occasionally voicing out their concerns, a system that remained rather stable in the face of the greatest challenges due to, perhaps the sheer distance that lay between her dual cores.
Indeed, the greatest challenge that came to the Paris-Moscow axis came with the rise of Johan Radetzky, Austrian revolutionary leader who seized control of the reactionary state--even by the standards of the time--and led it to war with virtually all of Europe from 1816 to 1837. Perhaps the first signs of headaches that the yet unborn German nation would cause the union, Radetzky found it exceedingly easy to mow through the Holy Roman Empire, unifying Germany and reforming the heir of Rome into the First German Empire, with himself as it's Emperor. With his liberal ideals and revolutionary thought even more radical that the British Commonwealth, Radetzky took France by storm and marched into Poland and the Ottoman Balkans to mad, cheering crowds. His campaign ended only with his invasion of Russia, when his highly elite, well drilled force fell to both general winter and his only equal: General Suvorov of the Russian Empire.
But it is in the consequence of the conflict that we see the true aims of the axis, namely that of maintaining the status quo. At the Congress of Milan, Hapsburg Austria was restored, albeit dismembered, and the world was restored to the way it was. On it would go spinning, hopefully forever.
But whilst the world kept spinning indeed, ideas were, as Paris discovered, bulletproof. France had, following the Austrian War (aka the First Great German War) suffered a free falling birth rate, a hopelessly decentralized populace and an increasingly liberal populace. Most humiliatingly, her status as premier power in the world had been replaced by an increasingly domineering Russia. Just 20 years hence, the House of Bourbon was overthrown in Marshal Napoleon's glorious revolution, establishing the French Republic. Philippe Napoleon, son of a Corsican immigrant to Paris would be elected president in the nation's first liberal elections, reforming the nation and restructuring French society from the ground up by dragging the nation kicking and screaming into the 21st Century. On the foreign policy front though, Napoleon played a balancing game. Deciding the realpolitiks ultimately took precedent over ideology, the President would court both Russia and Britain, ultimately turning the two against each other in an attempt to gain a powerful ally on the continent. By making himself indispensable, France was ultimately free to take charge of Western European affairs in the face of distracted rivals. Oftentimes, the two nations would even offer Paris favours geopolitical and technological, kick-starting the birth of a sprawling industrial heartland in Ile de France. French geopolitical goals for the time were keeping the much more powerful Germany down, and 3 decades following the glorious revolution, this goal was accomplished without much hassle in a war against Prussia. Overseas, France remained the holder of Europe's second largest colonial empire, and ruler of an unmatched network of allies and puppets from Mali to Bengal and beyond. France never embroiled herself in the acquiring of immense tracts of land and peoples, having preferred instead to rule through influence and proxy since Passley. And while the tricoloure may no longer fly above half of Africa, the French language remains the lingua franca of not just diplomatic relation, but too of law, finance and intellectuals.
Russia's post-Radezky history was quite a bit more turbulent. As the prime opponent of a resurgent Britain, it both had to catch up from her own admittedly less-than-optimal war policy and to her lack of ability in gudinging the currents of trade.
Whilst the former could be solved only be time, the answer to the latter was simple: Peter the Great's dream, an empire by the Baltic. In the time of Tsar Petrov I, St. Petersburg was at the time the greatest City of Europe. It was a cornerstone of Russian power and yet it was desperately exposed. With a new focus on the Northwest, Russian shipbuilders, industries and militaries would be moved to St. Petersburg by means of policy or otherwise. Railways linked the city East to Moscow and far Siberia; and West to metropolitan Paris, Budapest, Berlin and Vienna. St. Petersburg would flourish like no other city did, and it would happen that the Petrov's will was well enforced.
Now with the means, the Tsar turned to the ends. The Second Great Northern War would begin in 1846, as Russia completed her ascension as true overlord of the North. Sweden put up feeble resistance, and her end was marked by roaring Russian cannons setting the city of Stockholm on fire. The British fleet gathered in Oslo in an attempt to force a de-escalation, but by the time the massive force needed for the operation was gathered, Tsar Petrov I had completed his war with terrifying efficiency. Terrifying referring to of course, for a Britain so obsessed with Europe's long-collapsing balance of power. In response Gotland fell to stubborn British forces braving the Russian blockade with Danish and Prussian aid, and Norway would unilaterally declare her independence. London decided that enough was enough.
In the midst of a large Polish rebellion the year after the war and an otherwise distracted Russia preoccupied with Turkish adventures, the British Empire played up fears in a Hungarian post-Radetzky Balkans to the assent of a similarly terrified--though to a lesser extent--France. Petrov's counter was to circumvent the Carpathians themselves in favour for a pivot to the Middle East and turn the Black Sea into the second of Russia's home turfs. And thus began the Wallachian War.
The Ottoman Empire of the time had long been in decline, a nation far past it's prime and due for an inevitable collapse. Radetzky's campaigns had left not just devastation, but rebelliousness amongst the Christian of the Ottoman heartland, and whilst the victorious Kayseri-i-Rum was rewarded with much Austrian possessions, it would not last. Capitalizing upon this, Petrov I led his forces through the Ukraine and into Romania, at which he was met by a combined Anglo-Ottoman force...and was promptly defeated. The course of history appeared to have granted the Rumi a good toss of the dice, so to say, and Muhammad Ali, one Albanian general was the one to blame. In previous years, the Ottoman leadership had employed generally incompetent leaders to lead a Westernized force aimed to become the Empire's new Janissaries, but the appointment of Ali was a good call at the last moment. Prosecuting a follow up campaign that mopped up the regrouped remains of 3 Russian armies, Ali would secure the Balkans from Russia and for the British. Russia in later years would pivot towards the Baltic once more in her tug of war with the British, returning briefly to the Balkans only at the advent of the Balkan Wars and the Rumian War of Independence.
With the subsequent rise of Italy and the 3rd Great German War (or the war of Frankish Aggression for an Atlanticist reader), many saw it as inevitable that Moscow and Paris would move back together. For all of the alliance's power, their dominance of Europe could only be achieved through condominium. This coupled with rising threats in the British Commonwealth's massive off-continent industrial might and rapidly growing native powers from China to Africa, the two were natural allies that found each other as the last of an order 200 years old.
The European Continent, while having seen more than its fair share of war and conflict remains one of the most prosperous regions of earth. Through a delicate balance between French and Russian spheres of influence, peace reigns in Europe. German and Italian pan-nationalism remains crushed and grinded into pain granules, much thanks to a century and a half of constant effort, and that effort has borne fruit in a newly complacent populace in the two nations, happy to avoid war if it means the economy remains in stellar shape. All is well, little has changed and that is perfectly fine by the books of either power.
Austria and Hungary are the newest rising stars within the union, leading the charge with an impressive GDP growth rate of 14.8% that the House of Hapsburg-Bourbon oh-so love to advertise across billboards in Vennia and Budapest. Austria witnesses the beginning of a second industrial age, accomplished through iron and blood, to quote one British prime minister, but through innovation and technology, with robot workers becoming the new norm. Whilst "Made in China" remains a staple of cheap products, "Made in Austria" is a staple of quality and technology. Austria, always the insurgent power is up to her old tricks.
There are several lesser powers within the union: Poland, which an increasingly consolidated Russia deemed more trouble than it was worth has done remarkably well in becoming the power of Central Europe in place of a divided Germany, but remains, alongside Russia one of the more conservative powers. The Rumian Confederation, a Greco-Turkish state emerging out of the ashes of the former Ottoman Empire dominates the Balkans, but is more of a tool of European power projection into the East than anything. Much more if a successor to Ottoman identity than her counterpart in TL-45A-AME (OTL), Konstantiyee remains, as it has been, the Queen of Cities, but it is getting increasingly tired of her ties to Europe, as old rivalries with Russia resurface and Britain looks eagrely back to the continent.
Paris is the financial capital of the world, a title that not even New York or Hangzhou have been able to shake from the French city. The city has seen peace and prosperity for centuries, and it holds up. As the self-proclaimed "world's greatest democracy", French pride is rather rightfully reinforced by this jewel of Europe. Perhaps a inheritance from both her colonial master and Berber heritage, Algiers too serves as the financial capital of the Mediterranean.
From Prague, the industrialists of Europe look upon a continent full of potential. In the past, the city served as a heartland in an industrial sprawl of factories and smoke, railroads converging on the Czech city, provoking even the Great Smog of 1948. With imported technology from China, automation has proved wildly successful in the heavy industry factories of Central Europe, and the House of Hapsburg hopes that it will be the city's second golden age.
Russia, this giant of the North has seen ups and downs, but the scene in St. Petersburg has always been celebratory. A city of great religious fervor despite the modern skyscrapers that dot the skylines, this is perfectly reflected in the Great St. Andrew’s Cathedral, an arching structure 80 stories tall that houses the Orthodox clergy and the Imperial Family. Each Christmas and New Year, imperial standards are unfurled to coat the streets, shouts of "Slava Rossiya!" and "Salva Romanova!" are heard in every corner as warships cruise down the city's harbors.
East Asia was long Earth's most advanced and dominant region, but while that has waned since the beginnings of the Renaissance and the near-collapse that colonialism bought to the Empire, China has recovered, but not without cost.
The aftermath of Passley was barely noticeable on the continent at first, but its implications are massive. Passley was the key to Bengal, Bengal the key to India and India the key to China. With that lost, China could effectively live in peace and her mellenia long splendid isolation. It was such that far into the 19th century, China was a nation that reaped precious, previous benefits from a massive influx of silver via the tea and silk trade with Russia, the Dutch, France and Britain. This, combined with a series of natural disasters in turn provoked Chinese emigration towards Southeast Asia, reinforcing an earlier settlement of Cantonese and Min traders across Thailand and Malaya. The Kongsi Republics, holdovers from Chinese trading charters were at the epicenter of such commercial activity, with ships flowing through the Malaccas to the maximum capacity of Dutch ports. It was commercial activity that left a great many rich across the world.
But there was one party that wasn't getting rich: China herself. Namely the Qing government. Under the Emperor Qianlong, China had a nominal ban on trade beyond Canton, but lacked the means to enforce such a ban. As a result, the vast majority of trade profited smugglers operating off the Island of Formosa and a number of the Kongsi Republics. Tariffs were large when compared to the meagre taxes collected, but nothing compared to the wealth of Jiangnan merchants. Instead, provincial viceroys began openly cooperating with traders Bharati and Western, sure to pay off Imperial commissioners that frequented the South to maintain such profitable business. This increasing autonomy stretched beyond trade: viceroys, nominally military governors with an unofficial hand in civilian affairs began to expand provincial militias. Militias that were built with Bengali advisors and Asfharid musket.
In reaction, Emperor Tao-Kwang decreed in 1827 the establishment of the Ministry of Observation, a unit loyal to the Emperor personally tasked ostensibly with rooting out corruption. What it was in fact was the grandfather of Chinese intelligence, and it's first task was digging up as much shit as feasible of the Viceroy of Canton of the time, the notorious Hwang Mingyen. As first in a long line of Southern based, Urdu speaking, breechload-wielding warlords, he nevertheless retained a certain sense of respect for Imperial rule, out of staunch obedience to tradition of nothing else.
The first gunshots of the Warlord Era rang out in an unsuspecting Guangxi valley as Cantonese troops marched on a band of local Tong militias. The Tong, the local minorities had risen up in rebellion against the viceroy's centralizing reforms with a "shadow bureaucracy" in parallel to the Qing government that now demanded village chieftains and Chinese mayor's alike be assimilated into a formal, taxpaying bureaucracy. Unlike the mostly nominal fealty to urban administration elsewhere in rural China, such a degree of centralization--of tyrrany if you asked a local--was virtually unheard of. Tong chieftains came to an agreement with Imperial bureaucracy loyal to Peking, and we're ordered to march on Canton to restore order in the city. In 1831, 6th Year of the Daoguang Emperor, tribal militias charged forth, militias that had cost Peking dearly in uprisings just 2 decades ago...and were greeted by an order barked in Persian, a hail of bullets and complete rout. News of the defeat spread quickly, and when the Viceroy of Hokkien and Yun-Kui met a Cantonese incursion with more forces, Huang Mingren only found more target practice to reaffirm Canton's new position.
A decade later, the young Emperor Xianfeng would take a more direct approach, ordering in his first decree as Emperor Hwang's resignation. When his expected refusal came, a mandate was issued for the pacification of Canton, only for no one to comply to the order and Xianfeng find that he had become a mere puppet of his ministers and generals a week into his reign. The elderly Hwang on the other hand found himself at the head of a revolution in how Chinese wars were fought and idol of an entire generation of military officers. The same model was replicated in a number of Southern provinces, and modern armies were marching around all of China south of the Huai River at the bidding of regional fronts of foreign traders, warlords and oligarchs, rendering the region completely lawless.
Japan at the same time was too undergoing change. The Dutch, in an effort to counteract the complete and absolute Persian-Bharati dominance of Southern China had made increased inroads into Japan. Joeson Korea was an impoverished land. Having suffered a complete demographic and economic collapse in the wake on consecutive invasions by Hideiyoshi and the Manchus, recovery had been an excruciatingly slow process. Highly xenophobic and known only as the “hermit kingdom”, it was a place that Western influences had never touched, a backwards land.
In 1843, Dutch missionary Hendrick van der Decken was beheaded by local officials in Busan. In response, an expeditionary force was sent out from the Dutch East Indies to both demand an apology and relevant concessions as well as create a Dutch foothold. The first Dutch ships, the “Black Fleet” would arrive on Korean shores in mid-1844 from nearby Japan. Christian influence was meager in the kingdom, and when attempts at trade and concessions failed after a few months of talks and violent diplomatic back and forth, the fleet opened fire on the port of Busan. Raiding would persist across Southern Korea, and unsuccessful attempts were made at breaking into the Han River.
In early 1845, a fleet arrived in Busan from the Han River, with a short stop at Dejima, where the Shogun would order its expulsion but neither party pursued the matter. Carrying with it a contingent of sowars and sepoys, elite, well paid and loyal Bengali mercenaries, the force laid siege to Busan, capturing the small port. From this base of operations, a second expedition was sent to the Han River, breaking through a staunch Korean defence at the mouth of the river, sailing up to the Hanseong itself and unleashing a bombardment of the defenceless capital. 3 sallies, supported even by advanced artillery on loan from the Qing army were lauched, only to complete failure. The Dutch offered to talk once more, and by then, Korea folded.
The humiliation of Hanseong, as Korean sources state, was the beginning of the imperial age of Asia, perhaps more symbolic than Canton’s rebellion, and the start of Korea’s colonial age. A second expedition, fighting a Chinese expedition made Korea a protectorate, and a third annexed the country as Amsterdam’s Eastern colony.
Modern historians cite 2 political revolutions as the beginning of reform on the continent: the Komei Revolution in Japan; and the Rongzhi Restoration in China.
The first, and the earlier took place as a direct consequence of the Third Korean-Dutch War in 1859. Faced with the harsh reality of East Asia’s terminal decline, the Satsuma-Choshu alliance of Southern damiyos plotted to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate in the belief that renewed imperial rule would give an enlightened few the power and authority to drag Japan kicking and screaming into the modern age. Backed by British arms, which saw Dutch influence as an extension of French influence, the revolution advanced through Japan facing a technologically disadvantaged, politically instable Shogunate authority and restored the Emperor Komei to personal rule. As Komei himself would show little interest in personal governance, perhaps for lack of experience if anything, much of the work was handed to 3 men: Kuroda Kiyotaka, Saigo Takamori, and in time, the young prince Meiji.
The Rongzhi Restoration meanwhile pursued opposite means to the same goal. Following the Xianfeng Emperor’s death in 1865, China found imperial authority at an all time low, with the office having become virtually meaningless in the wake of Xianfeng’s failure to rally local authority to his cause. There were 2 groups that were dissatisfied with this state of affairs: first, the Confucian mandarins, who had become marginalized in a de facto independent south; second, the imperial family, unhappy at their decline in prominence and perhaps the whiff of opium that permeated imperial quarters. Prince Gong, Xianfeng’s more competent brother allied with head of the harem Empress Dowager Cixi and pro-Peking general Zeng Guofan to launch the coup in the wake of Emperor Rongzhi’s coronation. Executing conservative officials and any pro-warlord voices, a regency council was formed between the three and related stakeholders to chart China’s future course.
Nevertheless, both revolutions were aimed at one thing: reform. To adopt old institutions to new environments, and to prevent another Korea from happening ever again. An understanding was achieved between both nations following a meeting in Shengking between Prince Gong and Kiyotaka, where the policy of Sonno Joi, or Revere the Emperor, Repel the Barbarian was established. In both nations, this reform was a show of proto-nationalism and of reform. Not of Westernization, but of modernization.
The understanding of Shengking saw a rejuvenation of the East Asian polities along the remainder the the 20th Century. While slower and more arduous than many of the masterminders behind the understanding would have expected, the alliance would still tiptoe between war and influence, expelling the last of Western colonies in the Dutch East Indies by 1963 during the chaos of the War of Frankish Aggression, and declaring China formally reunified by 1987. But it was not a process without bloodshed. War left Asia's infrastructure ruined, and a scar permanently carved upon half the continent.
Like Europe, it is a relic of the past, but still Kyoto and Peking don’t look the part. Metropolises, built with sheer economic and technological prowess clash with serene pagodas and factories spewing a thick, unbreathable smog. Anti-colonialist and anti-Western sentiment runs high across East Asia. Occasionally experiencing bouts of self-destructive outbursts of fanatical traditionalism, such as Japanese militarism in the 1960s and the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 1940, moderation and pragmatism has set in. Southern China, a prosperous hotbed of capitalist, modernist ideas moderates fierce, anti-business Confucianism across the rest of East Asia, with “New Confucianism” being the state ideologies of member states. The region has made much progress in recent decades: trade has begun a process of “opening up” and the start of globalism; while the powers have even accepted the fact that Korea is permanently a Christian nation. But for now, it remains a confusing mess of ideas and changing times.
The victory of Mughal forces at Passley seemed to offer the nation a respite from a long and painful Imperial decline. Now with a France dominant in South Asia as a partner, it seems that the Peacock Throne could perhaps claw her way back into prominence.
What reality offered the heirs of Timur would however be a far crueler fate.
The primary benefactor from the outcome of Passley upon the subcontinent was indeed the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah who with his victory began acting as if he were an independent kingdom all by himself. He would demand continued French partnership with the Mughal Empire now instead treat directly with Murshidabad, not Delhi, an arrangement for which the ud-Daulah was willing to pay a hefty sum for, both in cash and concessions. Paris by that point, tied down by hefty debt in a number of failed campaigns to liberate Louisiana from British rule was less than willing to go to war on the subcontinent, even if the rewards were spectacular if handled well. So, it was decided that the Nawab would be the right hand of French influence in the Indian Ocean and beyond.
In 1768, when Asfharid airs would invade the Mughal Empire once again, this time with help from the Sikhs of Punjab, Akbar Shah II would call for all his governors and subjects to come to his aid. Ud-Daulah, seeing the writing on the wall refused such a ludicrous request, preferring instead to attention on a continued war against the collapsing Burmese Empire. The bulk of his army was marching on Rangoon at the time, in a race against Thai forces, and he could not afford distractions.
It was to the luck of the Ud-Daulah that the Mughal Empire held out surprisingly well. With unlikely aid from a surprise Afghan uprising that cut off Reza Shah's armies at Khyber Pass, the Mughals had time to piece together a somewhat combat ready army from an array of militias to face the Persians and come out with a phyrric victory. By that time though, another force, the Marathas took to the field and declared too their intent to take Delhi. Once more, urgent letters were sent across the Mughal Empire, new militias were raised--entire villages conscripted whole at times, and once again, a tired messangers lay at the opulent court of the Nawab of Bengal, begging for aid. This time, Ud-Daulah assented to the request. Marching the very same army that had won at Passley, this force marched along the Indo-Gangeatic Plain, arriving at each city, taking it's sweet time to not so diplomatically request an audience with the local rajah or Nawab. Resembling more of a whistleratio tour on horseback than anything, this force would arrive in Delhi, holding off the Marathas and securing a minor defeat for the Empire as a whole. What it was however, was an extraordinary boon for the prestige of the Nawab. When the Mughal Empire finally collapsed at the turn of the century, it was not the Sikhs, not the Marathas, or not even a Delhian power that came to the forefront of the Indian stage. It was Bengal.
The 19th Century saw Bengal eventually catch up to the West in terms of technology and societal development. With increased amounts of trade, Bengal now presented itself as the gate to an even larger, even more mysterious land: China. In this time of the century, two crazes had gripped Europe. The Tea craze and the Indian craze. Adventurers wanting to make their fortune in the realm of the Celestial Emperor would arrive first in Bengal, shooting up trades and this profits to magnificent levels. The Asfhars of Iran too experienced a similar phenomenon following Thasmap Shah's stunning defeat of the Turks, gaining a dominant position overlooking the Indian Ocean trade. Iran and India in this time of history boasted massive fleets and even colonial possessions in Africa, true naval powers never seen before in their history. In China, these two powers were the ones that would bring down the scaffolding of an archaic state with their support of the Viceroy of Canton.
It is important to note that while the two giants of the near east were not particularly technologically advanced in the early years of the Age of Imperialism, what they were were big and defensible. The sheer population of India and the peaks of the Zagros were natural barriers that forbade invasion, and hence the two nations were free to pick and choose their terms of trade with Western powers, eventually gaining a leg up in technology in return for giving out the vast riches of their land.
The Ottoman Empire on the other hand seemed perpetually in decline. The century had not been kind to the Ottomans, and far from the colonial success her Eastern neighbors experienced, the Sultanate of Rum was actively losing ground in Africa. Like in Mughal India, the Empire, never the most tightly bound of entities was coming apart at the seams with seemingly no remedy to the problem. Even following the success of Muhammad Ali's campaigns against Russia, it was obvious that the gains he made were as much British gains as they were Ottoman, and that the Sultanate was effectively a state that lived and died on Anglo-French auspices.
However needed a rudimentary balance of power in Europe was to counter a domineering Russia, this did not satiate the growing dissent against the Sublime Porte. Together with a continuously declining position and later Bengali troops marching in the streets of Cairo by the later stage of the age of Imperialism, the turn of the century seemed like the death sentence of the Empire. Most importantly, the newly conquered territories along the Northern shore of the Black Sea were British outposts on the Russian shore in all but name, and as nominal caretaker of these regions, it inseprably glued the Empire to the British who were some 2 seas away. Russia and France were, at this point reforging their alliance in the face of increased British aggression, and this was a position the Ottomans were increasingly unhappy with.
The Rumian Revolution of 1934, launched by a cadre of Greco-Turkish military officers trained at the Konstantiyee Military Academy was the answer to the empire's woes. Funded by Bengali interests and arms, the Revolution began as the Third Army marched into Konstantiyee, surrounded the imperial palace and parliament, and declared the Osmanid Dynasty no more. Rebel forces, gaining their senses would gather in the Turkish hinterland, but with popular support from the public and a growing intellectual caste, the Rumian Revolution quickly secured the nation. Under Marshal Mustafa Kemal, a new state based upon the Sea of Marmara was formed, now a projection of Bengali power in the West.
India would only grow in the following decades. Building itself up as a trade nation that benefited from the continued stability of the world. But when the colonial system came crashing down, a recession hit India. Never having treated her African possessions as colonies to spread Indian population; but rather as protectorate and "economic colonies", India never had to put bots on African soil, but anti-colonialist sentiment nevertheless saw access to resources (often at a disregard of human rights) and the vast interlinked trade routes of old come crashing down. The global trade system had to be rebuilt. Luckily for India, the aftermath of the War of Frankish Aggression as well as the fact that she owned the world's last colonial empire gave her a leg up. The Harilela Plan, by prominent Gujarati Businessman Arya Harilela saw the revitalization of trade from Europe through the Suez and to India, building everything from ports to glittering new cities on Libyan coasts and husks of post-war Italian cities.
With the increasing openness of economic titans like China and Britain, India has extended the Harilela plan to the 21st Century, hoping to harness the subcontinent's economic prowess and extent it to all corners of the world. The planet's last colonial empire trudges on, finding herself ever-stronger by the day.
Who are the Tong?
Does Hwang Mingyen speak Urdu as a first language? Does southern China have large Indian and Persian populations living in it?
How is the US and the rest of the Americas doing?
So here's an alternate map of Napoleon winning at Waterloo but almost a century later.
- Napoleon’s triumph and demise: The Prussians never arrived at Waterloo, apparently a French cannon that was shot in OTL wasn’t in this timeline. Von Blücher was walking in a wrong direction when he heard that cannon in OTL, which made him turn it’s armies to the battlefield. Without this, he simply continues walking. Wellington’s square formations collapse during the sunset and in the next morning, the remaining British forces are annihilated or flee northwards. On June 20th, French forces lay siege to Brussels, defended by 17,000 British troops led by William of Orange. The city held enough time to allow British forces to cross the Rhine into the Netherlands.
Prussian forces finally found the French army on June 23rd near Avers, Belgium. Marshal Ney managed to score a tactical victory by assaulting the Prussians overnight, forcing a retreat. However, Ney, in his stubbornness decided to pursuit the Prussians with his entire army. French troops were faster, but were on enemy territory and decimated by injuries produced during the march and the battle.
The Battle of Aachen began on July 8th. Ney ordered a direct assault before the Prussians could build defences, but an Austrian army arrived and repelled the assault. There was a two-day long stand-off before Napoleon himself ordered Ney to retreat. This time, Ney was the one who got prosecuted.
After the Waterloo, Napoleon himself was no longer in health conditions to control a battle, suffering from severe hemorrhoids and gastroenteritis. He insisted in waging battle and leading it himself, but war tensions forced him to be sent to the Paris Hospital in late June, leaving his army in charge of Jean Rapp.
In the Alps, Louis Gabriel-Suchet, the duke of Albuféra led his army across them and invaded Piedmont in early July. Piedmontese troops received quick help from the Austrians, who had just defeated Joachim Murat in the Neapolitan War. The Siege of Turin was a complex battle involving side battles such as Chieri and Volpiano, both with Coalition victories. Suchet retreated from Turin on July 26th and all French forces crossed the Alps by August.
Spain declared war on France on the second of July and Spanish forces led by Castaños routed the French in the Battle of Perpignan. British forces landed in Bilbao and assisted the Spanish in the Battle of Bayonne. Castaños’ forces reached Toulouse on 24th July, starting a siege against the French army of the Pyrenees, led by Charles Decaen. A French ambush dismantled half of the Spanish Atlantic army 4 miles south of Sabres. Toulouse did not surrender until the end of the war, date by which the Spanish had reached Montauban and Albi.
After Aachen and Rapp’s defeat while attempting to cross the Waal at Zalbommen, the French army was all but exhausted. France suffered a heavy lack of manpower since the beginning of the war, and it was only a matter of time before the Coalition’s force crushed the French no matter how much tactical victories Napoleon could score. Napoleon himself recovered and by the first days of August was back in control. Napoleon ordered a retreat of the armies of the North and the Rhine to Mons and Charleroi and Namur.
Austro-Prussian forces took Namur on August 28th, and despite Napoleon’s victory at La Louvière, his defensive line collapsed by September 3rd. From that moment, Coalition armies rushed through the northern French plains. Paris fell on August 28th and the Bourbon monarchy was restored. However, France’s army was severely reduced, not being able to perform any operation during a decade.
- Liberal Crisis in Spain: After the short war with France, Spain annexed the Rousillon/Northern Catalonia. During the rest of 1815 and 1816 there were several pronunciamientos (military coups) hoping to restore the liberal constitution of 1812, nicknamed “La Pepa”. During the course of the latest campaigns in France, some liberals commanders rose in the military ranks, such as Rafael de Riego or Juan Martín Díez. Both them signed a secret pact and on April 29th 1817 a coup d’état happened in Segovia and Cádiz. The absolutist army was split and desertions soon happened. The coup succeeded. The liberal constitution was applied and king Ferdinand VII was forced to be a parliamentarian monarch. He constantly tried to abolish this and asked other absolutists monarchs for help (In OTL only Riego launched the coup, and it was in 1820). However, Spain’s only powerful neighbor, France, had it’s army limited per treaty and couldn’t do much. Ferdinand couldn’t get a heir despite trying (he succeeded a little before dying in OTL, but due to some psychological effects of his power being limited, he fails in this TL). Ferdinand finally died in 1831. The closest familiar to Ferdinand was the Duke of Parma, who refused to rule over a parliamentarian monarchy. The other candidate was Francis, the King of the Two Sicilies, who gladly accepted. However he died on November 8th. His son was thus proclaimed “King of Spain and the Two Sicilies” as Ferdinand VIII.
- The splitting of the Spanish monarchy: Ferdinand VII’s brother, the prince Charles, fled the peninsula to the Americas in 1820, right in time to take command of the army of New Spain, who was fighting insurgents. New Spain (and Peru, the only ones remaining) were both very traditional societies in which the church had huge power and population worshiped the king as a god. Charles took profit of it and on August he proclaimed himself “King of New Spain and Peru”, thus breaking off with the mainland.
Prussian forces finally found the French army on June 23rd near Avers, Belgium. Marshal Ney managed to score a tactical victory by assaulting the Prussians overnight, forcing a retreat. However, Ney, in his stubbornness decided to pursuit the Prussians with his entire army. French troops were faster, but were on enemy territory and decimated by injuries produced during the march and the battle.
The Battle of Aachen began on July 8th. Ney ordered a direct assault before the Prussians could build defences, but an Austrian army arrived and repelled the assault. There was a two-day long stand-off before Napoleon himself ordered Ney to retreat. This time, Ney was the one who got prosecuted.
After the Waterloo, Napoleon himself was no longer in health conditions to control a battle, suffering from severe hemorrhoids and gastroenteritis. He insisted in waging battle and leading it himself, but war tensions forced him to be sent to the Paris Hospital in late June, leaving his army in charge of Jean Rapp.
In the Alps, Louis Gabriel-Suchet, the duke of Albuféra led his army across them and invaded Piedmont in early July. Piedmontese troops received quick help from the Austrians, who had just defeated Joachim Murat in the Neapolitan War. The Siege of Turin was a complex battle involving side battles such as Chieri and Volpiano, both with Coalition victories. Suchet retreated from Turin on July 26th and all French forces crossed the Alps by August.
Spain declared war on France on the second of July and Spanish forces led by Castaños routed the French in the Battle of Perpignan. British forces landed in Bilbao and assisted the Spanish in the Battle of Bayonne. Castaños’ forces reached Toulouse on 24th July, starting a siege against the French army of the Pyrenees, led by Charles Decaen. A French ambush dismantled half of the Spanish Atlantic army 4 miles south of Sabres. Toulouse did not surrender until the end of the war, date by which the Spanish had reached Montauban and Albi.
After Aachen and Rapp’s defeat while attempting to cross the Waal at Zalbommen, the French army was all but exhausted. France suffered a heavy lack of manpower since the beginning of the war, and it was only a matter of time before the Coalition’s force crushed the French no matter how much tactical victories Napoleon could score. Napoleon himself recovered and by the first days of August was back in control. Napoleon ordered a retreat of the armies of the North and the Rhine to Mons and Charleroi and Namur.
Austro-Prussian forces took Namur on August 28th, and despite Napoleon’s victory at La Louvière, his defensive line collapsed by September 3rd. From that moment, Coalition armies rushed through the northern French plains. Paris fell on August 28th and the Bourbon monarchy was restored. However, France’s army was severely reduced, not being able to perform any operation during a decade.
- Liberal Crisis in Spain: After the short war with France, Spain annexed the Rousillon/Northern Catalonia. During the rest of 1815 and 1816 there were several pronunciamientos (military coups) hoping to restore the liberal constitution of 1812, nicknamed “La Pepa”. During the course of the latest campaigns in France, some liberals commanders rose in the military ranks, such as Rafael de Riego or Juan Martín Díez. Both them signed a secret pact and on April 29th 1817 a coup d’état happened in Segovia and Cádiz. The absolutist army was split and desertions soon happened. The coup succeeded. The liberal constitution was applied and king Ferdinand VII was forced to be a parliamentarian monarch. He constantly tried to abolish this and asked other absolutists monarchs for help (In OTL only Riego launched the coup, and it was in 1820). However, Spain’s only powerful neighbor, France, had it’s army limited per treaty and couldn’t do much. Ferdinand couldn’t get a heir despite trying (he succeeded a little before dying in OTL, but due to some psychological effects of his power being limited, he fails in this TL). Ferdinand finally died in 1831. The closest familiar to Ferdinand was the Duke of Parma, who refused to rule over a parliamentarian monarchy. The other candidate was Francis, the King of the Two Sicilies, who gladly accepted. However he died on November 8th. His son was thus proclaimed “King of Spain and the Two Sicilies” as Ferdinand VIII.
- The splitting of the Spanish monarchy: Ferdinand VII’s brother, the prince Charles, fled the peninsula to the Americas in 1820, right in time to take command of the army of New Spain, who was fighting insurgents. New Spain (and Peru, the only ones remaining) were both very traditional societies in which the church had huge power and population worshiped the king as a god. Charles took profit of it and on August he proclaimed himself “King of New Spain and Peru”, thus breaking off with the mainland.
So I've been working on a map for a world concept I created, which doesn't really have a true timeline-background to it. I'm just worldbuilding as I go. This is the part that I'm happiest with so far - everything outside the Balkans is still very much a work in progress.
Care to guess what the languages depicted are?
Care to guess what the languages depicted are?
So I've been working on a map for a world concept I created, which doesn't really have a true timeline-background to it. I'm just worldbuilding as I go. This is the part that I'm happiest with so far - everything outside the Balkans is still very much a work in progress.
Care to guess what the languages depicted are?
The indigo and lavender are probably Slavic dialects. The red-ish colour in the south is probably Albanian. The purple colours in the south are probably Greek dialects.
The orange in the southwest is (south) Italian, and the yellow along the Adriatic are...Dalmatian, maybe.
The yellow in the middle are possibly alt-Romanian dialects.
Not sure about the rest.
You're right about Greek, Albanian, Italian and the Romanian languages - but the other Balkan languages are not Slavic.
This is a political map I made for my timeline, showing a bunch of stuff that tourists from say, the United States or Canada, would like to know if they were so tempted to take a vacation to the country. Here's a link to the hi-res version because imgur hates fun.
Germanic dialects then? Is the mustard colour in western Hungary Pannonian?
Gah, I can't give this enough likes.
Skallagrim
Banned
So I've been working on a map for a world concept I created, which doesn't really have a true timeline-background to it. I'm just worldbuilding as I go. This is the part that I'm happiest with so far - everything outside the Balkans is still very much a work in progress.
Care to guess what the languages depicted are?
It would be easy to say that the purple in the top left is German, the green below it is Slovakian, the blue-grey right of German is Slovenian or Czech or Polish, the light blue is Ruthenian, the grey and purple-brown are Ukrainian and Russian (but I don'know which is which), the yellow is Romanian, the purple-blue shades are the Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian language(s), the pinkish colour is Albanian, orange is Italian, the purples in the bottom right are Greek variants, and that green bit peeking out of the very corner is Turkish.
The other scenario I'm considering is an ancient POD, with the purple-blues representing Celtic, yellow being Dacian, the various colours in the north being several Germanic and/or Slavic languages (possibly something Scythian in the east?), the pinkish being some kind of Epirote, the orange being Latin.... and the purples in the bottom right still being Greek variants.
This is truly the most over the top case of border fuckery I’ve seen hereSo I've been working on a map for a world concept I created, which doesn't really have a true timeline-background to it. I'm just worldbuilding as I go. This is the part that I'm happiest with so far - everything outside the Balkans is still very much a work in progress.
Care to guess what the languages depicted are?
Redcoat
Banned
Blah blah blah great map----This is a political map I made for my timeline, showing a bunch of stuff that tourists from say, the United States or Canada, would like to know if they were so tempted to take a vacation to the country. Here's a link to the hi-res version because imgur hates fun.
I mean seriously great map but the absolute best part of this map as a Long Islander is the fact there's a Smithtown-New Haven Bridge!
Yes, the light yellow is Moesian Romance! No Yugoslavs. There are Avars in the map, but they're not the language in Pannonia.
Yup, mustard is Pannonian Romance, but blue isn't Germanic either.
The POD here would be around the IV Century, if that helps: before the Migration Period kicks off, but with a lot of migrations around.
Light blue isn't Ruthenian, and purple-brown isn't Slavic, but grey is. The green isn't Turkish.
The dark blue around Thessalonikia Aromanian? And strange there aren't Turks in Dobruja. Though not as strange as the lack of Moldavians, and why Vlach and Bulgars are shown as being so similar linguistically. Or at least I assume that is why they are both yellow. And what happened to the Saxons and Swabian scattered around everywhere during OTL?So I've been working on a map for a world concept I created, which doesn't really have a true timeline-background to it. I'm just worldbuilding as I go. This is the part that I'm happiest with so far - everything outside the Balkans is still very much a work in progress.
Care to guess what the languages depicted are?
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