Map Thread XVIII
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One of the most important foundations of the Ujjibara was the institutionalization of Islamic banking in Bengal. This move was in part cause by the growth of the textile industry, and a need to regulate the market to keep the textiles profitable. The Rajmahal Mufawada would begin as an organ of the state, but quickly became independent in order to deal with foreign merchants and entities in an apolitical manner. One of the revolutionary ideas drawn up by the Mufawada was the institutionalization of musharakah. Musharakah contracts allowed the risk of a venture to be disseminated across a greater number of people, and upon safe investment, would yield steady profit. With increasing profits from the textile industry, many Bengali merchants and textile workers began investing widely. Of course, most of the investment was back into the industry, which would eventually spur jalabahi technology. Investment in firearms, shipbuilding, and steel would bring further prosperity. Investment in dawah (missionary work) became popular in the 1040s, and would continue into the 1100s, with states like Meragah and Kalojami being formed by missionaries. With the increasing population and increase in labor-saving technologies, many Bengali would travel outside the Indian subcontinent to seek work and wealth, settling across the Indian Ocean region, as far west as Italy, and as far East as Meragah.
Great stuff- I can’t wait to see more of this world. Are the Bahmanis misplaced however? IRC in OTL they were a collection of sultanates in Maharashtra and India’s west coast (Bijapur being the richest).
How did Bengal’s transition from backwards Subah to the most industrialized part of the subcontinent go over politically with the Mughals? In OTL the British were building factories (and for a time encouraging locals to do so as well) in Bengal even while it technically remained a Mughal province (albeit a unique situation where the British collected taxes on the Sultan’s behalf, aka the right of Diwani)
I believe the allegations of racism stem from the fact that “American” is one category while “African-American” is a separate one- fitting into the trope that someone is white unless identified as otherwise.
Indeed. Up until fairly recently, when a politician, historian, whatever pontificated about the "American Race", you could lay money their vision of said race didn't include black people.
Ha! Thanks for that. It's from 2012 - back when all my maps were kinda ugly. I love that it's still circulating on Reddit.
Skallagrim
Banned
All of that certainly has truth to it, but it rather ignores that not only African ancestry, but also German, English etc. etc. ancestries are separately denoted. At the end of the day, there is no logical explanation for the "American" category except to specifically denote a group of people who identify as Americans and consider any other ancestry irrelevant (either generally or compared to their 'American-ness').
Regardless of historical attitudes, I think the idea that this "American identity" must be presumed to be white and must therefore be racist is, ironically, in itself a deeply racist assumption. It rests on the premise that black people can't or shouldn't be willing to see themselves as "just American". Surely anyone can see what a vile assumption that is?
Skallagrim
Banned
Awesome ideas here! The only thing I'm a bit iffy about is the Bengali state deep inland in Africa. If i'm reading the map correctly, Bengali expansion started early in the 1000s. And then a state in inland Africa just a century later? There's a reason OTL colonialism in inland Africa didn't get underway for a good long time. We're talking more like four centuries. This isn't meant to piss all over your scenario, just to be clear. I just think a Bengali venture (or any venture) into inland africa has very little chance of success in such a limited time-frame. Only once other, more accessible regions are firmly consolidated would expeditions deeper into Africa be really viable (and indeed, only then would they make sense to an expanding power).
Looking at te map, I suspect that a drive to annex all the land between the heartland of Bengal and the Banguala Empire would take absolute priority. Anyone with good sense would want that strategic depth well established.
I agree, and certainly both hope and think things are changing towards the situation you describe.
-> FULL SIZED MAP HERE
The nation of China may be united on a map, but it contains such diversity that visitors could be forgiven for thinking it was a vast variety of different countries. From ancient divisions (e.g. the ancient rice-wheat divide), to the modern ones (e.g. the infamous Red Border), each province and city of China has its unique cultural influences.
This map depicts the two nations and one region which use Han languages as a primary language: China, Manchuria and the Formosa (Taiwan) region of Japan.
In the first map, the modern political situation is shown, as well as the vast cities of the region (and neighbouring states). A divide is obvious - the Megalopoleis of the Pearl and Yangtzi river deltas, the evenly spaced cities of the North China Plain, the coast-hugging cities of the Southern coast, the cluster of cities in the Sichuan basin, and the scattering of cities through the relatively rural interior.
Despite the seemingly drastic divide between the busy Yangtzi delta and the spread out North China Plain, this difference mostly stems from the devastation of the Second Civil War and the Oriental War, when rival tank armies battled for control the plains and nuclear weapons were first tested on Chinese military-industrial centres. This wartime devastation began a divergence which, combined with the post-war political tension, a divide in political-economic systems, and the differing dependences on railroads and ports for trade, led to the concentrated development of Southern port cities, while Russian economic dominance led to the concentration of growth in Northern regional railroad centres.
The relative density of the Sichuan basin in the West has always been the case, thanks to its fertile plain, but wartime migration and the relatively looser western border between Russian and French zones certainly helped.
Manchuria's cities feel more natural to the Western eye - a scattering of cities small and large, thanks to ports (Yingkoe and Dairen), railways (Moukdun and Kharbin), resources (Heseiki and Kitsurin), or politics (Changchuen).
The second map depicts the political situation in the immediate aftermath of the Oriental War. During the planning for the rapidly approaching defeat of the Bellist/Futurist/衝者 (Chungje) government, neither the Russian or Japanese governments were willing to agree to give up the foothold they had gained in the world's largest market - not even to the legitimate restored emperor. Despite French pleas to agree to a neutral 'Open China' policy, the final peace treaty established zones of occupation. Russian forces advanced to occupy the lions share of the country north of the Yangtzi; Japan kept Chingdao and gained Nantong and most of China south of the Yangtzi; while France added the leftover portion - Guaijoe and parts of the former Guangshi/Guangdong provinces - to its pre-war trade post of "Joeshan and the Argent Isles" and its protectorates of Yunnan, Hainan and the Shoung state. The restored Imperial Chinese government was left only with Nanjing and its hinterlands, and the "Red Border" stretched from Sichuan to Shanghai.
The legacy of these occupying powers continues to deeply affect the provinces which are heirs of the systems they estabished. Most clearly on the map, Yunnan, Hainan, the Shoung state and Joeshan remain autonomous countries - practically independent in all ways except military, thanks to the French withdrawal conditions with China (and, less openly, Japan, which effectively took France's place throughout its East Asian sphere of influence soon after).
The cultures and economies of North and South have also been deeply affected by each occupier - and not just through the uses of Cyrillic and Juyin in writing.
The Russian government, deeply influenced by/interested in/invested in its domestic corporations, decided the best way to cement its influence without infringing on the de jure sovereignty of the Chinese government was to sell the huge amounts of seemingly abandoned productive capital to its own corporations. Paired with the physical embodiment of its influence, the Russian gauge railroads that soon grew like vines southwards to the Yangtzi, the Russian government determinedly made North China an economic vassal of the Russian Empire, consuming Russian imports while selling Russia cheap goods and resources - a completion of what Russia's China policy had sought to achieve for a century.
In contrast, the Japanese occupiers saw how Russia posed a greater military threat than ever before, as well as the opportunity posed by the home-grown resistance networks in Southern China, which had formed in opposition to the Chungje regime's aggressive centralising/modernising/homogenising policies. These resistance groups, mainly organised by old provinces, were allergic to the Futurist ideology they saw reflected in the Russian government's Rationalism (which dominated Western governments at the time), and looked towards the left-wing Japanese government of the day, and its message of Asian solidarity, as a way to protect the traditional cultures they had grown protective of (a passion for traditional culture today seen in the formal Hanfu and Qipao, the popularity of traditional sports, and the vigorous practice of traditional spiritualism).
Provincial boundaries were redrawn with the help of a few effortlessly staged referenda, creating new states centred around the various Southern Han languages (which, not coincidentally, put wealthy Japanese-occupied areas along the Red Border into new provinces under complete Japanese influence). These states survive today, along with their local cultures and identities - fiercely proud of their local dialects, and protective of their freedoms from centralised power.
In order to draw a contrast to Russian policies in their battle for Chinese minds, the Japanese drew a leaf from the book of European Distributists, in extolling the virtues of local power and property. The positive legacy of Japanese land reforms were drawn upon by the left-wing government of the day, which distributed Chinese property mostly to local farmers and peasants (although urban industrial capital tended to go to the legal successors of the pre-war Caifa conglomerates, which, not coincidentally, had become heavily tied to Japanese zaibatsu through loans and share ownership). The Southern states operated on constitutions that granted solid rights to citizens, as well as significant autonomy to municipalities. The economic influence of the Japanese, who emphasised naval power and sea trade, is also evident in the size and influence of port cities.
This north-south divide has only increased as China has reunified, and internal migration across the Red Border has opened up - Northern migrants choosing to move to Southern commercial cities has enhanced the economic divide, while causing cultural tensions to rise to new heights despite the first truly independent and united Chinese governments since before the Oriental War.
The third map shows the traditional areas of ethnic and linguistic 'minority' groups. Four distinct types of group are visible.
First, there are the ethnic minorities. In the northwest there are the few Mongols who were not detached to join independent Mongolia after the war, the Tibetans in the border regions which Tibet was forced to give up due to the sheer size of the neighbouring provinces (and the overweening influence of Russia), the Muslim Hui scattered across Northern cities, and various other minor border groups. The southwest features a plethora of Himalayan and other mountain groups - so numerous they justify the existence of the two exceptionally autonomous states of Yunnan and the Shoung state. On the island of Taiwan, a diverse group of Austronesian aborigines live in the mountains, isolated from the tightly packed coastal cities dominated by Japanese-speaking Han people. In Manchuria, state support has ensured the flourishing of the culturally central Manchu people, as well as the Ewenqi, Oroqen, and Daur.
The second group are the migrant communities - the Russians, Joreans and Japanese, none of which have any significant presence outside transient urban communities in China itself. The Russians form a significant presence in the cities and agricultural plains near the Russian border, and along the railway line which cuts through Manchuria past Harbin to Vladivostok. The Japanese are more focused in southern Manchuria, with the exception of the Japanese-developed oil city of Heseiki in the north. The Japanese language has an outsized influence in Manchuria compared to the size of the Japanese ethnic group, thanks to the heavy influence of Japanese media, companies and products across the country. Japanese people are also, obviously, present all across Formosa, though particularly so in the developed coastal plain. Koreans are different to these more urban immigrant groups - Korean migrants arrived in such great numbers through the 19th and 20th centuries that great swathes of eastern Manchuria are primarily Korean-speaking, with Hangul taking pride of place on street signs and advertisements.
The third group make up the Southern Han language groups. As mentioned previously, these dialects form the basis for the post-war new states, and are jealously guarded - the Wu language (based on the Sujoe standard) by Wuyoueh, the Min language(s) by Minyoueh and Chaoshan, the Youe language by Guangnan, the Hakka language by Nanling, the Gan language by Ganpo, and (to a weaker degree) the Shiang language by Shiangchu. The Huey and Pinghua are the closest to Mandarin, some still debating whether they are really just dialects of Mandarin, but speakers of each have strong localist identities, identifying as independent languages within their respective states.
The fourth group are the 'Quasi-Mandarin' groups - groups of dialects which don't quite fit in with Mandarin but aren't different enough to warrant identification as a fully independent language group. The Jin dialect group is the most often identified as a separate language, but its speakers have the least awareness of it as an independent grouping. The Southwestern group is large and unwieldy, but its status as a group along the old Red Border gives its dialects a uniquely independent outlook - speakers of local dialects through Yunnan, Guaijoe and the Shoung state proclaim pride in their unique tongues, as do the people of the independent-minded Sichuan, and the Southern-philic Hubey. The Jianghuai group has the strongest independent identity - as a midway point between Beijing Mandarin and the Wu language, there is a strong faction of Southern-philic citizens of Huaishu and Huaijiang who would like to emphasise the Wu aspects, and draw away from the North and Russian influence to become closer to the more diverse, liberal South.
The late 20th and early 21st century of Chinese politics has been a dispute between what Westerners would identify as centralists and federalists - but that phase may be coming to an end. The state-level parties making up the Citizens Alliance Party/民聯黨 (Minliendang) have triumphed over the centralised National Party/國家黨 (Gwojiadang) not only in the battlegrounds of Sichuan, Hubey, Huaijiang and Huaishu, but also in Shandong, Gansu and Jinbing, granting the Green Alliance a seemingly insurmountable majority in government. The diversity of China is being seen less and less as a mistake or an obstacle in the way of a return to power, and more as a fundamental trait of the modern China. Just as China is learning to accept its international neutrality and pivot to exploiting its mercantile strength through the trade links built by Japan, it can learn to make its diversity a strength. The connection of these two trends, however, is increasingly being noticed by the die-hard nationalists, and the rise of the Black Star Clique (otherwise known as the Revanchists) bodes ill for the stability of the Chinese government in the depressed and infertile Northern provinces.
This map depicts the two nations and one region which use Han languages as a primary language: China, Manchuria and the Formosa (Taiwan) region of Japan.
In the first map, the modern political situation is shown, as well as the vast cities of the region (and neighbouring states). A divide is obvious - the Megalopoleis of the Pearl and Yangtzi river deltas, the evenly spaced cities of the North China Plain, the coast-hugging cities of the Southern coast, the cluster of cities in the Sichuan basin, and the scattering of cities through the relatively rural interior.
Despite the seemingly drastic divide between the busy Yangtzi delta and the spread out North China Plain, this difference mostly stems from the devastation of the Second Civil War and the Oriental War, when rival tank armies battled for control the plains and nuclear weapons were first tested on Chinese military-industrial centres. This wartime devastation began a divergence which, combined with the post-war political tension, a divide in political-economic systems, and the differing dependences on railroads and ports for trade, led to the concentrated development of Southern port cities, while Russian economic dominance led to the concentration of growth in Northern regional railroad centres.
The relative density of the Sichuan basin in the West has always been the case, thanks to its fertile plain, but wartime migration and the relatively looser western border between Russian and French zones certainly helped.
Manchuria's cities feel more natural to the Western eye - a scattering of cities small and large, thanks to ports (Yingkoe and Dairen), railways (Moukdun and Kharbin), resources (Heseiki and Kitsurin), or politics (Changchuen).
The second map depicts the political situation in the immediate aftermath of the Oriental War. During the planning for the rapidly approaching defeat of the Bellist/Futurist/衝者 (Chungje) government, neither the Russian or Japanese governments were willing to agree to give up the foothold they had gained in the world's largest market - not even to the legitimate restored emperor. Despite French pleas to agree to a neutral 'Open China' policy, the final peace treaty established zones of occupation. Russian forces advanced to occupy the lions share of the country north of the Yangtzi; Japan kept Chingdao and gained Nantong and most of China south of the Yangtzi; while France added the leftover portion - Guaijoe and parts of the former Guangshi/Guangdong provinces - to its pre-war trade post of "Joeshan and the Argent Isles" and its protectorates of Yunnan, Hainan and the Shoung state. The restored Imperial Chinese government was left only with Nanjing and its hinterlands, and the "Red Border" stretched from Sichuan to Shanghai.
The legacy of these occupying powers continues to deeply affect the provinces which are heirs of the systems they estabished. Most clearly on the map, Yunnan, Hainan, the Shoung state and Joeshan remain autonomous countries - practically independent in all ways except military, thanks to the French withdrawal conditions with China (and, less openly, Japan, which effectively took France's place throughout its East Asian sphere of influence soon after).
The cultures and economies of North and South have also been deeply affected by each occupier - and not just through the uses of Cyrillic and Juyin in writing.
The Russian government, deeply influenced by/interested in/invested in its domestic corporations, decided the best way to cement its influence without infringing on the de jure sovereignty of the Chinese government was to sell the huge amounts of seemingly abandoned productive capital to its own corporations. Paired with the physical embodiment of its influence, the Russian gauge railroads that soon grew like vines southwards to the Yangtzi, the Russian government determinedly made North China an economic vassal of the Russian Empire, consuming Russian imports while selling Russia cheap goods and resources - a completion of what Russia's China policy had sought to achieve for a century.
In contrast, the Japanese occupiers saw how Russia posed a greater military threat than ever before, as well as the opportunity posed by the home-grown resistance networks in Southern China, which had formed in opposition to the Chungje regime's aggressive centralising/modernising/homogenising policies. These resistance groups, mainly organised by old provinces, were allergic to the Futurist ideology they saw reflected in the Russian government's Rationalism (which dominated Western governments at the time), and looked towards the left-wing Japanese government of the day, and its message of Asian solidarity, as a way to protect the traditional cultures they had grown protective of (a passion for traditional culture today seen in the formal Hanfu and Qipao, the popularity of traditional sports, and the vigorous practice of traditional spiritualism).
Provincial boundaries were redrawn with the help of a few effortlessly staged referenda, creating new states centred around the various Southern Han languages (which, not coincidentally, put wealthy Japanese-occupied areas along the Red Border into new provinces under complete Japanese influence). These states survive today, along with their local cultures and identities - fiercely proud of their local dialects, and protective of their freedoms from centralised power.
In order to draw a contrast to Russian policies in their battle for Chinese minds, the Japanese drew a leaf from the book of European Distributists, in extolling the virtues of local power and property. The positive legacy of Japanese land reforms were drawn upon by the left-wing government of the day, which distributed Chinese property mostly to local farmers and peasants (although urban industrial capital tended to go to the legal successors of the pre-war Caifa conglomerates, which, not coincidentally, had become heavily tied to Japanese zaibatsu through loans and share ownership). The Southern states operated on constitutions that granted solid rights to citizens, as well as significant autonomy to municipalities. The economic influence of the Japanese, who emphasised naval power and sea trade, is also evident in the size and influence of port cities.
This north-south divide has only increased as China has reunified, and internal migration across the Red Border has opened up - Northern migrants choosing to move to Southern commercial cities has enhanced the economic divide, while causing cultural tensions to rise to new heights despite the first truly independent and united Chinese governments since before the Oriental War.
The third map shows the traditional areas of ethnic and linguistic 'minority' groups. Four distinct types of group are visible.
First, there are the ethnic minorities. In the northwest there are the few Mongols who were not detached to join independent Mongolia after the war, the Tibetans in the border regions which Tibet was forced to give up due to the sheer size of the neighbouring provinces (and the overweening influence of Russia), the Muslim Hui scattered across Northern cities, and various other minor border groups. The southwest features a plethora of Himalayan and other mountain groups - so numerous they justify the existence of the two exceptionally autonomous states of Yunnan and the Shoung state. On the island of Taiwan, a diverse group of Austronesian aborigines live in the mountains, isolated from the tightly packed coastal cities dominated by Japanese-speaking Han people. In Manchuria, state support has ensured the flourishing of the culturally central Manchu people, as well as the Ewenqi, Oroqen, and Daur.
The second group are the migrant communities - the Russians, Joreans and Japanese, none of which have any significant presence outside transient urban communities in China itself. The Russians form a significant presence in the cities and agricultural plains near the Russian border, and along the railway line which cuts through Manchuria past Harbin to Vladivostok. The Japanese are more focused in southern Manchuria, with the exception of the Japanese-developed oil city of Heseiki in the north. The Japanese language has an outsized influence in Manchuria compared to the size of the Japanese ethnic group, thanks to the heavy influence of Japanese media, companies and products across the country. Japanese people are also, obviously, present all across Formosa, though particularly so in the developed coastal plain. Koreans are different to these more urban immigrant groups - Korean migrants arrived in such great numbers through the 19th and 20th centuries that great swathes of eastern Manchuria are primarily Korean-speaking, with Hangul taking pride of place on street signs and advertisements.
The third group make up the Southern Han language groups. As mentioned previously, these dialects form the basis for the post-war new states, and are jealously guarded - the Wu language (based on the Sujoe standard) by Wuyoueh, the Min language(s) by Minyoueh and Chaoshan, the Youe language by Guangnan, the Hakka language by Nanling, the Gan language by Ganpo, and (to a weaker degree) the Shiang language by Shiangchu. The Huey and Pinghua are the closest to Mandarin, some still debating whether they are really just dialects of Mandarin, but speakers of each have strong localist identities, identifying as independent languages within their respective states.
The fourth group are the 'Quasi-Mandarin' groups - groups of dialects which don't quite fit in with Mandarin but aren't different enough to warrant identification as a fully independent language group. The Jin dialect group is the most often identified as a separate language, but its speakers have the least awareness of it as an independent grouping. The Southwestern group is large and unwieldy, but its status as a group along the old Red Border gives its dialects a uniquely independent outlook - speakers of local dialects through Yunnan, Guaijoe and the Shoung state proclaim pride in their unique tongues, as do the people of the independent-minded Sichuan, and the Southern-philic Hubey. The Jianghuai group has the strongest independent identity - as a midway point between Beijing Mandarin and the Wu language, there is a strong faction of Southern-philic citizens of Huaishu and Huaijiang who would like to emphasise the Wu aspects, and draw away from the North and Russian influence to become closer to the more diverse, liberal South.
The late 20th and early 21st century of Chinese politics has been a dispute between what Westerners would identify as centralists and federalists - but that phase may be coming to an end. The state-level parties making up the Citizens Alliance Party/民聯黨 (Minliendang) have triumphed over the centralised National Party/國家黨 (Gwojiadang) not only in the battlegrounds of Sichuan, Hubey, Huaijiang and Huaishu, but also in Shandong, Gansu and Jinbing, granting the Green Alliance a seemingly insurmountable majority in government. The diversity of China is being seen less and less as a mistake or an obstacle in the way of a return to power, and more as a fundamental trait of the modern China. Just as China is learning to accept its international neutrality and pivot to exploiting its mercantile strength through the trade links built by Japan, it can learn to make its diversity a strength. The connection of these two trends, however, is increasingly being noticed by the die-hard nationalists, and the rise of the Black Star Clique (otherwise known as the Revanchists) bodes ill for the stability of the Chinese government in the depressed and infertile Northern provinces.
There's been a relative surplus of China maps recently, which has been nice, so I felt motivated to finally put the finishing touches on this thing. I started this map in about... May, as a way to procrastinate on my (still ongoing) Paris project. But it grew to frustrate me so much - constantly tweaking the romanisation system, deciding what to include and where to put it, etc. that I started procrastinating on THIS map as well... but now it's ready and coming out of my deep dark WIP folder, in all its small-text glory.
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Could be wrong, but I think the key is backwards. Can you confirm? I love this idea, though. All of that happening in basically a single century strikes me a bit of a rush, though, but then when there's a perfect storm...
Here's my first full map in a while, which can also be found here.
This one though is something rather different: as it's a combination of two seemingly disparate ideas involving Japan.
On the one hand, it's based on the idea of what would happen had the British Empire not only paid more attention to the Far East by the 1850s. But were also in a stronger position of effectively seize Japan during the infamous Bakumatsu period that in our timeline led to the Meiji Restoration. Admittedly, it's partily inspired by certain mods for Total War: Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai and the experiences of India's Princely States, as well as more than a few Paradox games. On the other hand, it also a look into just how different the fate of Hokkaido, Japan's "frontier" and home of the Ainu minority, would have been had others gotten to settling/colonizing/developing it (and by extension, Sakhalin and the Kurils) first. In this case, it's the British and more specifically Cecil Rhodes, as it'd be interesting to see how a colonial venture like Rhodesia (modern Zimbabwe) would play out had it been in that corner of the Far East.
Just to be on the safe side, this is not a political piece or propaganda spiel, nor intended to be in any shape or form racist. This is a work of fiction.
(EDIT: Fixed typos)
The Mid-19th Century A.D. was a time of great change. An age of industrialization and imperialism, of turmoil and glory. For the British Empire, though, it also marked the dawn of a new chapter in the Realm's history, involving the unlikeliest of places: the Nipponese Islands. Some would say that this story began with the growing focus on the Orient in the wake of the Opium War waged against the decaying Qing Dynasty in the 1830s, setting the stage for the founding of Hong Kong and the eventual Chinese Associates. Others still would contend that it was either a desire to contain Russian (later on, American) designs in the Pacific or the Cape Colony's authorities preferring to leave both the Bantu peoples and so-called Boers alone.
Whatever the case, British influence in the Pacific had grown considerably by 1850. In the wake of U.S. Commodore Perry's infamous visit to Nippon three years later, Queen Victoria saw an opportunity in being among the first to "open up" the isolationist islands before the other Great Powers could. Before long, adventurers, merchants and aspiring tycoons from as far as England itself were establishing ties with the Nipponese while diplomats in London offered "treaties" that benefited the Empire where the Sun Never Sets; not only were a handful of "Treaty Ports" secured, but so were the Ryukyu Islands, soon known as the Lewchew Protectorate (which would be handed over to Nippon). Many, especially those loyal to the increasingly chaotic Tokugawa Shogunate, however, quickly grew resentful what was seen at the time as subservience to "foreign barbarians." But though others were content with simply swaying this or that clan or playing off various samurai against each other, Britannia had a much larger prize in mind. Following the massacre of a Scottish delegation in Osaka in 1860, Parliament formally passed a declaration of war against the Shogun.
While having the support of some of the more dissident southern clans like the Shimazu of Satsuma Domain, the initial British expedition was a hapharzard collection mainly comprised of Indian and Anglo regiments from the Raj, along with a handful of Royal Marines; in the aftermath of the Sepoy Uprising of 1857 and subsequent dissolution of the East India Company, many former "company-men" were quick to accept military commissions. But even such a ragtag force proved more than capable in holding their own against the martial prowess and fierce Bushido valour of their foes, even as the latter increasingly turned to using modern firearms in place of their ancient swords. Eventually, reinforcements from Australia, Canada and even the British Isles trickled in, soon turning the tide against the Shogunate and those who dared oppose Her Majesty's soldiers; this would culminate in the Battle of Edo in 1867, which finally broke the Tokugawas at the cost of many lives on both sides. It would be the so-called Kyoto Compromise that same year, however, that would finally end the Bakumatsu Wars (also known as the Anglo-Nipponese Intervention) by gaining the full support of the Imperial House of Yamato and its supporters, who quietly sided with them up until that point. Emperor Mutsuhito, known to history as Meiji, was soon recognized as his country's sovereign monarch "by the Grace of Amaterasu," his people promised the right to self-rule and manage its own affairs. In exchange, however, the "Treaty Ports" secured during the conflict would remain under direct British rule, while the rest of Nippon became part of the British Empire as a "Special Protectorate" (the first and only one of its kind), with an acting Commissioner acting as something between a governor and advisor to the Emperor. To the surprise of the defeated, though, the victors proved to be as merciful as they were formidable. Many Nipponese were quick to learn from their new benefactors, modernizing in a few decades what would have taken centuries. By the 1900s, they had even begun to resemble more of an European state than an Oriental one, adopting many Western fashions, trends and technologies while still retaining much of their storied heritage.
The island of Ezochi was another matter. Although the Tokugawas, through the Matsumae Clan, treated it as aborder march and a sliver of Nipponese settlements existed along the southmost portions, it was by and large an untamed land where the mysterious Ainu people lived. While the British initially sought to secure the island as a strategic outpost and native reserve, surveys conducted over the 1870s also found the area to be suitable for settlement and ripe with resources. These proved to be more than enough for rising magnate Cecil Rhodes, who found himself increasingly attracted to the Orient over Africa. Using his existing investments and South African connections, he gained concessions from the Colonial Office in London as well as local Ainu chieftains, his "British East Asian Company" (which also inherited his private security force) granted a Royal Charter by 1885. Hoping to establish a "proper" counterbalance to both the Slavic and Nipponese peoples, he organized a group of Anglo pioneers comprised of settlers and B.E.A.C. volunteers, who founded Fort Salisbury over an abandoned village in 1886; this also marked the formal establishment of the Colony of Hyperborea, which name had been chosen to placate those suspicious of Rhodes' motives. Through shrewd cunning, backroom deals and the British East Asian Police (along with Royal Navy protection), Hypberborea's territory encompassed the sparsely populated Sakhalin and Kuril islands (as Russian control remained weak there) by 1894, with incentives to attract more colonists bearing more fruit, with agriculture and mining proving to be successful ventures. The European population grew even further (including, ironically the first wave of Russian immigrants) with the discovery of gold, soon rendering any tensions with the Ainu moot. Barring some early conflicts and standoffs, what had until then been a backwater into a bustling land of opportunity, where a man could shape the future with his hands.
Generations have passed since then.
By 2007, 140 years after the end of the Bakumatsu Wars, British Nippon is among the most prosperous domains in the Commonwealth and remains the most peculiar of the U.K.'s remaining territories. While still a "Special Protectorate," in more ways than one the Nipponese are equal to the British Isles in terms of influence, political clout and prominence. Having gained even greater autonomy in the intervening years in spite of the Great Wars (which brought down Qing China and forged Spartacism, among others), cities like Kyoto and Edo are major political and economic hubs, while the "Treaty Ports" (under joint administration since 1940) remain a showcase of blending Anglo-Nipponese culture. This extends to the hybrid culture that has emerged among Nipponese at large, with many adopting Western first names, Anglo dress, Anglicanism (though often at friendly rivalry with the still influential Shinto and Buddhist temples) and even mixed-race unions, but still holding to their curious language and storied, living past. The passing of time has also not just dulled any lingering resentments against their British peers but has also made these two seemingly disparate lands even closer than ever. It's not for nothing that many of the old samurai clans had evolved into new noble houses and Knightly Orders. Or that any reasonable projection for the 2012 Special Plebiscite points to the country becoming a genuine "Co-Kingdom," which can potentially change the course of Britannia's future in the 21st Century.
Meanwhile, Rhodes' vision of an "Anglo-Saxon" alternative to Nippon hasn't been entirely successful, as a sizable portion of the "Settler" population is of Russian descent, some descended from those fleeing the rise of Spartacism in the 1930s. The Federation of Hyperborea, however, nonetheless remains very prosperous Self-Governing Colony, with a majority European and Anglicized populace. Agriculture and mining remain major industries, hosting a number of fairly prominent companies and exporting considerable amounts of food and wines. The British East Asian Police has since become the foundation for the Royal Hyperborian Security Forces, whose regiments have fought through thick and thin and keeping the Spartacists from coming in, for their children's children too. But all isn't as well beneath the surface. Regardless of the 2012 Special Plebiscite results elsewhere in Nippon, there has been greater clamor for autonomy, Dominion status and even outright independence from London; such sentiments have also been expressed in one way or another by the Smith family, who have held the Governor-Generalship for the past few generations. Meanwhile, although the remaining Ainu have equal rights and treatment before the law, resentments among more radical groups continue to sour relations between them and the "Settlers," to say nothing of the tensions amongst themselves, with some seeing more "loyalist" Ainu as traitors. Then there are the rumours that the Americans (hoping to sway public opinion away from the British), Spartacist Russians (still nominally under the Romanov Tsars) and the recently reunified Chinese (under the Zhongshan Dynasty, named ironically after the founder of Chinese Republicanism) have gotten involved with playing various internal factions against each other. Which may or may not have anything to do with a new gold rush related to Hyperborea's more lax banking laws.
All the same, these are interesting times. Especially for anyone deemed, in Ainu parlance, to have strong kamuy.
As a bit of trivia:
The Coat of Arms for the Nipponese is derived from the actual Coat of Arms of the Japanese Emperor as a Stranger Knight in the Order of the Garter.
The Hyperborean Coat of Arms, meanwhile is derived from that of Southern Rhodesia and the Republic of Rhodesia, only with a red hued background derived from the real life flag of Hokkaido Prefecture.
Also, Lewchew is an older English term for the Ryukyu Islands.
And yes, the title and gold rush references are both a nod to the Hokkaido gold rush in real life and the manga/anime series Golden Kamuy. Kamuy being an Ainu term for a supernatural/spiritual entity.
This one though is something rather different: as it's a combination of two seemingly disparate ideas involving Japan.
On the one hand, it's based on the idea of what would happen had the British Empire not only paid more attention to the Far East by the 1850s. But were also in a stronger position of effectively seize Japan during the infamous Bakumatsu period that in our timeline led to the Meiji Restoration. Admittedly, it's partily inspired by certain mods for Total War: Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai and the experiences of India's Princely States, as well as more than a few Paradox games. On the other hand, it also a look into just how different the fate of Hokkaido, Japan's "frontier" and home of the Ainu minority, would have been had others gotten to settling/colonizing/developing it (and by extension, Sakhalin and the Kurils) first. In this case, it's the British and more specifically Cecil Rhodes, as it'd be interesting to see how a colonial venture like Rhodesia (modern Zimbabwe) would play out had it been in that corner of the Far East.
Just to be on the safe side, this is not a political piece or propaganda spiel, nor intended to be in any shape or form racist. This is a work of fiction.
(EDIT: Fixed typos)
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White Kamuy: British Nipponese Islands, 2007
White Kamuy: British Nipponese Islands, 2007
The Mid-19th Century A.D. was a time of great change. An age of industrialization and imperialism, of turmoil and glory. For the British Empire, though, it also marked the dawn of a new chapter in the Realm's history, involving the unlikeliest of places: the Nipponese Islands. Some would say that this story began with the growing focus on the Orient in the wake of the Opium War waged against the decaying Qing Dynasty in the 1830s, setting the stage for the founding of Hong Kong and the eventual Chinese Associates. Others still would contend that it was either a desire to contain Russian (later on, American) designs in the Pacific or the Cape Colony's authorities preferring to leave both the Bantu peoples and so-called Boers alone.
Whatever the case, British influence in the Pacific had grown considerably by 1850. In the wake of U.S. Commodore Perry's infamous visit to Nippon three years later, Queen Victoria saw an opportunity in being among the first to "open up" the isolationist islands before the other Great Powers could. Before long, adventurers, merchants and aspiring tycoons from as far as England itself were establishing ties with the Nipponese while diplomats in London offered "treaties" that benefited the Empire where the Sun Never Sets; not only were a handful of "Treaty Ports" secured, but so were the Ryukyu Islands, soon known as the Lewchew Protectorate (which would be handed over to Nippon). Many, especially those loyal to the increasingly chaotic Tokugawa Shogunate, however, quickly grew resentful what was seen at the time as subservience to "foreign barbarians." But though others were content with simply swaying this or that clan or playing off various samurai against each other, Britannia had a much larger prize in mind. Following the massacre of a Scottish delegation in Osaka in 1860, Parliament formally passed a declaration of war against the Shogun.
While having the support of some of the more dissident southern clans like the Shimazu of Satsuma Domain, the initial British expedition was a hapharzard collection mainly comprised of Indian and Anglo regiments from the Raj, along with a handful of Royal Marines; in the aftermath of the Sepoy Uprising of 1857 and subsequent dissolution of the East India Company, many former "company-men" were quick to accept military commissions. But even such a ragtag force proved more than capable in holding their own against the martial prowess and fierce Bushido valour of their foes, even as the latter increasingly turned to using modern firearms in place of their ancient swords. Eventually, reinforcements from Australia, Canada and even the British Isles trickled in, soon turning the tide against the Shogunate and those who dared oppose Her Majesty's soldiers; this would culminate in the Battle of Edo in 1867, which finally broke the Tokugawas at the cost of many lives on both sides. It would be the so-called Kyoto Compromise that same year, however, that would finally end the Bakumatsu Wars (also known as the Anglo-Nipponese Intervention) by gaining the full support of the Imperial House of Yamato and its supporters, who quietly sided with them up until that point. Emperor Mutsuhito, known to history as Meiji, was soon recognized as his country's sovereign monarch "by the Grace of Amaterasu," his people promised the right to self-rule and manage its own affairs. In exchange, however, the "Treaty Ports" secured during the conflict would remain under direct British rule, while the rest of Nippon became part of the British Empire as a "Special Protectorate" (the first and only one of its kind), with an acting Commissioner acting as something between a governor and advisor to the Emperor. To the surprise of the defeated, though, the victors proved to be as merciful as they were formidable. Many Nipponese were quick to learn from their new benefactors, modernizing in a few decades what would have taken centuries. By the 1900s, they had even begun to resemble more of an European state than an Oriental one, adopting many Western fashions, trends and technologies while still retaining much of their storied heritage.
The island of Ezochi was another matter. Although the Tokugawas, through the Matsumae Clan, treated it as aborder march and a sliver of Nipponese settlements existed along the southmost portions, it was by and large an untamed land where the mysterious Ainu people lived. While the British initially sought to secure the island as a strategic outpost and native reserve, surveys conducted over the 1870s also found the area to be suitable for settlement and ripe with resources. These proved to be more than enough for rising magnate Cecil Rhodes, who found himself increasingly attracted to the Orient over Africa. Using his existing investments and South African connections, he gained concessions from the Colonial Office in London as well as local Ainu chieftains, his "British East Asian Company" (which also inherited his private security force) granted a Royal Charter by 1885. Hoping to establish a "proper" counterbalance to both the Slavic and Nipponese peoples, he organized a group of Anglo pioneers comprised of settlers and B.E.A.C. volunteers, who founded Fort Salisbury over an abandoned village in 1886; this also marked the formal establishment of the Colony of Hyperborea, which name had been chosen to placate those suspicious of Rhodes' motives. Through shrewd cunning, backroom deals and the British East Asian Police (along with Royal Navy protection), Hypberborea's territory encompassed the sparsely populated Sakhalin and Kuril islands (as Russian control remained weak there) by 1894, with incentives to attract more colonists bearing more fruit, with agriculture and mining proving to be successful ventures. The European population grew even further (including, ironically the first wave of Russian immigrants) with the discovery of gold, soon rendering any tensions with the Ainu moot. Barring some early conflicts and standoffs, what had until then been a backwater into a bustling land of opportunity, where a man could shape the future with his hands.
Generations have passed since then.
By 2007, 140 years after the end of the Bakumatsu Wars, British Nippon is among the most prosperous domains in the Commonwealth and remains the most peculiar of the U.K.'s remaining territories. While still a "Special Protectorate," in more ways than one the Nipponese are equal to the British Isles in terms of influence, political clout and prominence. Having gained even greater autonomy in the intervening years in spite of the Great Wars (which brought down Qing China and forged Spartacism, among others), cities like Kyoto and Edo are major political and economic hubs, while the "Treaty Ports" (under joint administration since 1940) remain a showcase of blending Anglo-Nipponese culture. This extends to the hybrid culture that has emerged among Nipponese at large, with many adopting Western first names, Anglo dress, Anglicanism (though often at friendly rivalry with the still influential Shinto and Buddhist temples) and even mixed-race unions, but still holding to their curious language and storied, living past. The passing of time has also not just dulled any lingering resentments against their British peers but has also made these two seemingly disparate lands even closer than ever. It's not for nothing that many of the old samurai clans had evolved into new noble houses and Knightly Orders. Or that any reasonable projection for the 2012 Special Plebiscite points to the country becoming a genuine "Co-Kingdom," which can potentially change the course of Britannia's future in the 21st Century.
Meanwhile, Rhodes' vision of an "Anglo-Saxon" alternative to Nippon hasn't been entirely successful, as a sizable portion of the "Settler" population is of Russian descent, some descended from those fleeing the rise of Spartacism in the 1930s. The Federation of Hyperborea, however, nonetheless remains very prosperous Self-Governing Colony, with a majority European and Anglicized populace. Agriculture and mining remain major industries, hosting a number of fairly prominent companies and exporting considerable amounts of food and wines. The British East Asian Police has since become the foundation for the Royal Hyperborian Security Forces, whose regiments have fought through thick and thin and keeping the Spartacists from coming in, for their children's children too. But all isn't as well beneath the surface. Regardless of the 2012 Special Plebiscite results elsewhere in Nippon, there has been greater clamor for autonomy, Dominion status and even outright independence from London; such sentiments have also been expressed in one way or another by the Smith family, who have held the Governor-Generalship for the past few generations. Meanwhile, although the remaining Ainu have equal rights and treatment before the law, resentments among more radical groups continue to sour relations between them and the "Settlers," to say nothing of the tensions amongst themselves, with some seeing more "loyalist" Ainu as traitors. Then there are the rumours that the Americans (hoping to sway public opinion away from the British), Spartacist Russians (still nominally under the Romanov Tsars) and the recently reunified Chinese (under the Zhongshan Dynasty, named ironically after the founder of Chinese Republicanism) have gotten involved with playing various internal factions against each other. Which may or may not have anything to do with a new gold rush related to Hyperborea's more lax banking laws.
All the same, these are interesting times. Especially for anyone deemed, in Ainu parlance, to have strong kamuy.
----
As a bit of trivia:
The Coat of Arms for the Nipponese is derived from the actual Coat of Arms of the Japanese Emperor as a Stranger Knight in the Order of the Garter.
The Hyperborean Coat of Arms, meanwhile is derived from that of Southern Rhodesia and the Republic of Rhodesia, only with a red hued background derived from the real life flag of Hokkaido Prefecture.
Also, Lewchew is an older English term for the Ryukyu Islands.
And yes, the title and gold rush references are both a nod to the Hokkaido gold rush in real life and the manga/anime series Golden Kamuy. Kamuy being an Ainu term for a supernatural/spiritual entity.
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From my Dominions of America timeline, Napoleon's fleet is intercepted and destroyed by the British on his way to Egypt, so France lost its best general. So in 1804, the unstable coup-ridden French Republic is defeated and crippled. As such, the Holy Roman Empire isn't dismantled (yet), the Knights of Malta are still on... Malta, the Septinsular Republic is still there, and the original borders of the Third Polish Partition are upheld. The church territories also haven't been secularised (yet).
MoralisticCommunist
Banned
Incredible map! Though I must say that is the ugliest Prussia I've ever seen in my entire lifetime, lol
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