Please DO NOT do this. If the member wants to report he can.Ok, first i'm *deeply* sorry if i break any rule, and i'll gladly delete this post if i do. I saw this map on the bottom of the last page by @theaidanman but the link was broken and there were only 10 likes despite it being high quality, i tried to convince him to host it again with a proper link but he didn't listen so i'm reposting it here, please DO NOT GIVE ME LIKES, here's his post so that you can like him and his Deviantart:
I'm sorry but it was too beautiful and i didn't want people to miss it.
Again, Give HIM likes On his comment, NOT ON MY POST
Edit: To all the people who liked this post, WHYYYYYY, just stop and like him instead.
Map Thread XVIII
- Thread starter FesteringSpore
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Here is the beginning to a series that I am starting that I teased earlier.
Chapter 1 The Atlantic Front
The easiest place to begin would be the People's Majlis Caliphate(PMC). This country began as the Ottoman Empire centuries ago. A country that changed the world with the capture of Istanbul and rapidly grew from there. A country set in the crossroads of three continents. While originally a growing power situated on trade routes from the East to the West this would not last. As ships began to get faster crossing the Atlantic ocean along with being able to go around Africa the empire began to stagnate. While most countries in history would find them self ultimately conquered from an outside power slowly like the Byzantine before them; the crushing blow from the Ottomans would come from within. In a world with most of the known land funneling money, trade, and power to Europe it is only natural that the ideas of Harmonic Society would take hold.(Similar to OTL Communism but more tied to regionalism and anti colonialism as a whole). As the Europeans began to set up various colonies, territories, and protectorates there was less of a reliance on land trade which lead to an imbalance. This began to cause unrest as the empire began to stagnate. Combined with corruption that ran deep eventually led to revolts in parts of the empire that appeared to be the straw that broke the camels back. While it would take years for the PMC to finalize capturing and stabilizing the empire it came at a cost. While many of the outer provinces of the empire declared independence during the revolts, they would quickly fall back under the influence of the PMC in the later years.
The PMC while on paper is not supposed to be dominated by any one ethnic group it was actually a very Turk dominated country at the time. Most of the money and supplies went to the Turk majority parts of the empire and built Istanbul to a global city. The PMC did do however projects around the empire though from irrigation projects in central Asia and Ukraine to the building of a canal through Egypt. This canal while an idea tossed around by the Ottomans was only built under the PMC which brought a lot of money to Egypt and made it one of the most loyal provinces in the empire.
While this young empire was eager to prove itself on the world stage it began to exert its influence in various places but the most important part was Ethiopia. One of the last on paper independent states on the African continent thanks to its rugged terrain was under attack from the French empire. The PMC had been funneling supplies and military advisers to the country to try to help it.(Today it is commonly thought that if they would of been able to push the French out the PMC would of demanded loss of autonomy in return). This came to a head when PMC troops began to trek into Ethiopia to help defend the forts. The French gave an ultimatum that called for the removal of PMC troops by the 5th of May 2000. The People's Majlis Caliphate did not back down and so began the Western front.
Immediately France called in its various allies, most of whom had already a bone to pick with the PMC. The Swedish Empire and the PMC had been having minor skirmishes in their Central Asian protectorates for a decade and were already mobilizing. The German empire a new kid on the block only recently united by the Austrian Empire was happy to accept the call. While only recently getting a coast in the North Sea the empire was quickly trying to set up buying outpost and colonies in any place it could. The hope was that it could grab portions of the PMC in the event of the victory. The Italian league was also eager as it had been eyeing the Venice Majlis(Still called the Venice Republic in the Western part of the world at the time) as a new concept of nationalism was beginning to take hold on the Northern end of the peninsula. The idea of an Italian state was becoming more of a reality over the previous decades and Venice was one of the last parts of the puzzle. Spain was promised French Sub-Saharan, control of the United African Republic, along with control of Southern French East Africa. The current king of Spain feeling like Spain was beginning to lose influence as a global power saw this as a great opportunity. While the United Kingdom, Dutch Empire, Zippon Republic, and Bengal Empire would join the war, it would not be for a year till the events of the Pacific front began.
Chapter 1 The Atlantic Front
The easiest place to begin would be the People's Majlis Caliphate(PMC). This country began as the Ottoman Empire centuries ago. A country that changed the world with the capture of Istanbul and rapidly grew from there. A country set in the crossroads of three continents. While originally a growing power situated on trade routes from the East to the West this would not last. As ships began to get faster crossing the Atlantic ocean along with being able to go around Africa the empire began to stagnate. While most countries in history would find them self ultimately conquered from an outside power slowly like the Byzantine before them; the crushing blow from the Ottomans would come from within. In a world with most of the known land funneling money, trade, and power to Europe it is only natural that the ideas of Harmonic Society would take hold.(Similar to OTL Communism but more tied to regionalism and anti colonialism as a whole). As the Europeans began to set up various colonies, territories, and protectorates there was less of a reliance on land trade which lead to an imbalance. This began to cause unrest as the empire began to stagnate. Combined with corruption that ran deep eventually led to revolts in parts of the empire that appeared to be the straw that broke the camels back. While it would take years for the PMC to finalize capturing and stabilizing the empire it came at a cost. While many of the outer provinces of the empire declared independence during the revolts, they would quickly fall back under the influence of the PMC in the later years.
The PMC while on paper is not supposed to be dominated by any one ethnic group it was actually a very Turk dominated country at the time. Most of the money and supplies went to the Turk majority parts of the empire and built Istanbul to a global city. The PMC did do however projects around the empire though from irrigation projects in central Asia and Ukraine to the building of a canal through Egypt. This canal while an idea tossed around by the Ottomans was only built under the PMC which brought a lot of money to Egypt and made it one of the most loyal provinces in the empire.
While this young empire was eager to prove itself on the world stage it began to exert its influence in various places but the most important part was Ethiopia. One of the last on paper independent states on the African continent thanks to its rugged terrain was under attack from the French empire. The PMC had been funneling supplies and military advisers to the country to try to help it.(Today it is commonly thought that if they would of been able to push the French out the PMC would of demanded loss of autonomy in return). This came to a head when PMC troops began to trek into Ethiopia to help defend the forts. The French gave an ultimatum that called for the removal of PMC troops by the 5th of May 2000. The People's Majlis Caliphate did not back down and so began the Western front.
Immediately France called in its various allies, most of whom had already a bone to pick with the PMC. The Swedish Empire and the PMC had been having minor skirmishes in their Central Asian protectorates for a decade and were already mobilizing. The German empire a new kid on the block only recently united by the Austrian Empire was happy to accept the call. While only recently getting a coast in the North Sea the empire was quickly trying to set up buying outpost and colonies in any place it could. The hope was that it could grab portions of the PMC in the event of the victory. The Italian league was also eager as it had been eyeing the Venice Majlis(Still called the Venice Republic in the Western part of the world at the time) as a new concept of nationalism was beginning to take hold on the Northern end of the peninsula. The idea of an Italian state was becoming more of a reality over the previous decades and Venice was one of the last parts of the puzzle. Spain was promised French Sub-Saharan, control of the United African Republic, along with control of Southern French East Africa. The current king of Spain feeling like Spain was beginning to lose influence as a global power saw this as a great opportunity. While the United Kingdom, Dutch Empire, Zippon Republic, and Bengal Empire would join the war, it would not be for a year till the events of the Pacific front began.
Ahh, the Confederacy, a common subject for wanks and what ifs, but one avenue I've noticed very little of, that I feel would be very likely would be the South falling apart.
That is where the Dixie Republics come in.
Go go Gadget poor backstory writing powers!!!
Following their (extremely devastating) victory against the North in the Dixie revolution, a brief period known as the Dixie Renaissance followed, where many young southern men returned home and told harrowing tale of fighting those northern dogs through various mediums and art forms. This period would come to an end however following the suicide(?) of war veteran and national treasure Robert E. Lee. To many slaves, this was a sign that their time had come to rise up and claim their freedom. The battles were long and bloody, and while the rebelling slaves were ultimately beaten, it revealed one glaring issue with the confederate system, the people of the south valued their home states over the nation as a whole, and as a result tensions quickly began to rise along state lines in the south, until, in a last ditch effort to avoid bloodshed, president William E. Baldwin begrudgingly agreed to dissolve the Confederacy into 11 independent nations. For many southern aristocrats and politicians though, it felt almost as if nothing changed at all and the overall process did prove to be substantial in avoiding bloodshed. Things were not all good however, Tennessee, which even after the war had a strong loyalist population, which left the state feeling isolated from its brethren. This isolation would help to propel the Yankeest party ahead in the polls, and would ultimately culminate in Tennessee petitioning for annexation into the United States. Most of the former confederate states were left devastated from the slave uprising, and as such, many of them would turn to coming together into larger states to better benefit each other.
The Chesapeake Republic was formed from the Union of Virginia and North Carolina, which came about from the "kind" Virginians offering to "help" the people of North Carolina in rebuilding their economy.
The Republic of Carolina is the personification of Isolationist, being openly hostile to both the Chesapeake Republic (whom they are quick to point that two of the three Chesapeake states or Union states) for the less than fair means by which they came about, and to Georgia, with whom they entered into armed conflict with following the Slave uprisings.
The Republic of Georgia is just interested in surviving, they know they have the second weakest economy of all the Dixie Republic, and that they are continually outclassed by their neighbors in every way, but the people of this republic seem to have a naturally friendly and optimistic attitude, even towards Yankees.
The Republic of Florida may lack large amounts of land suitable for farming, but what they do have is a virtual monopoly on the alligator industry, this along with its popularity as a hunting destination across the south is what keeps it's economy thriving.
Despite its name, the Mississippi Republic is politically and economically dominated by Louisiana, thanks in large par due to the primary entrance into the Mississippi being located in Louisiana. This trade has lead to an increasing inflow of immigrants from across Europe, and has resulted in it's unique position as one of two Dixie Republics in which Slavery has since become illegal (officially) but it is also the only Dixie Republic with an official Embassy with the U.S.
Texas is the other of two Dixie Republics in which Slavery is illegal (and the former slaves are actually treated like people (second class citizens maybe, but beggars can't be choosers)). Unlike with Mississippi where the removal of slavery was the result of pressure from all the new citizens, in Texas it was the result of the cotton industry in Texas being made obsolete due to the cattle industry. As of late however, many of its older citizens have been worried about an increasing feeling of "Yankee nostalgia" growing among the younger citizens spurred by stories of Americans who gave their lives fighting for Texan independence from Mexico.
That is where the Dixie Republics come in.
Go go Gadget poor backstory writing powers!!!
Following their (extremely devastating) victory against the North in the Dixie revolution, a brief period known as the Dixie Renaissance followed, where many young southern men returned home and told harrowing tale of fighting those northern dogs through various mediums and art forms. This period would come to an end however following the suicide(?) of war veteran and national treasure Robert E. Lee. To many slaves, this was a sign that their time had come to rise up and claim their freedom. The battles were long and bloody, and while the rebelling slaves were ultimately beaten, it revealed one glaring issue with the confederate system, the people of the south valued their home states over the nation as a whole, and as a result tensions quickly began to rise along state lines in the south, until, in a last ditch effort to avoid bloodshed, president William E. Baldwin begrudgingly agreed to dissolve the Confederacy into 11 independent nations. For many southern aristocrats and politicians though, it felt almost as if nothing changed at all and the overall process did prove to be substantial in avoiding bloodshed. Things were not all good however, Tennessee, which even after the war had a strong loyalist population, which left the state feeling isolated from its brethren. This isolation would help to propel the Yankeest party ahead in the polls, and would ultimately culminate in Tennessee petitioning for annexation into the United States. Most of the former confederate states were left devastated from the slave uprising, and as such, many of them would turn to coming together into larger states to better benefit each other.
The Chesapeake Republic was formed from the Union of Virginia and North Carolina, which came about from the "kind" Virginians offering to "help" the people of North Carolina in rebuilding their economy.
The Republic of Carolina is the personification of Isolationist, being openly hostile to both the Chesapeake Republic (whom they are quick to point that two of the three Chesapeake states or Union states) for the less than fair means by which they came about, and to Georgia, with whom they entered into armed conflict with following the Slave uprisings.
The Republic of Georgia is just interested in surviving, they know they have the second weakest economy of all the Dixie Republic, and that they are continually outclassed by their neighbors in every way, but the people of this republic seem to have a naturally friendly and optimistic attitude, even towards Yankees.
The Republic of Florida may lack large amounts of land suitable for farming, but what they do have is a virtual monopoly on the alligator industry, this along with its popularity as a hunting destination across the south is what keeps it's economy thriving.
Despite its name, the Mississippi Republic is politically and economically dominated by Louisiana, thanks in large par due to the primary entrance into the Mississippi being located in Louisiana. This trade has lead to an increasing inflow of immigrants from across Europe, and has resulted in it's unique position as one of two Dixie Republics in which Slavery has since become illegal (officially) but it is also the only Dixie Republic with an official Embassy with the U.S.
Texas is the other of two Dixie Republics in which Slavery is illegal (and the former slaves are actually treated like people (second class citizens maybe, but beggars can't be choosers)). Unlike with Mississippi where the removal of slavery was the result of pressure from all the new citizens, in Texas it was the result of the cotton industry in Texas being made obsolete due to the cattle industry. As of late however, many of its older citizens have been worried about an increasing feeling of "Yankee nostalgia" growing among the younger citizens spurred by stories of Americans who gave their lives fighting for Texan independence from Mexico.
I assume they would become the equivalent of Korea or Vietnam to the Salian Dynasty.
NORMAN EMPIRE
Here's a random sketch of if Robert Guiscard's Mediterranean adventures really took off in the Medieval Era.
In this ATL, Robert Guiscard's adventures in S. Italy are the start of the long expansion of Norman rule in the Mediterranean. Norman/various N. European mercenaries, pilgrims, and settlers flow into the Mediterranean during the early Medieval Period, providing the labor necessary to construct a state. From its capital in Palermo, the Hauteville Dynasty expands at the cost of various declining Muslim powers, such as al-Andalus and the Fatimids; it soon begins to dominate Mediterranean trade. With this influx of capital it builds a fearsome army and navy, which it flexes in the Crusades--the Norman Empire leads the charge against disorganized Muslim rulers in the Near East, establishing long-lasting Latin Crusader States there. Distrust between the Latin and Orthodox Christians soon leads to the Pope sanctioning a Crusade against the Byzantine Empire. Once again, the Normans lead the charge, crushing the Byzantine navy, sacking Constantinople, taking large chunks of the empire, and establishing the new Latin Empire.
This network across the Mediterranean has brought great wealth to the region, though also makes it vulnerable to pandemics. In the Norman colony of
By 1380, the Norman Empire is the dominant power in the Mediterranean. Rival forces have been scattered or destroyed; Palermo has very little to fundamentally worry about besides at the peripheries of its vast empire. Norman culture has become dominant in many regions where colonies have succeeded: Sicily, Malta, and Cyprus, as well as a scattering of other cities across the Mediterranean. However, while Palermo is dominant, they are not supreme; the Norman Empire is heavily decentralized politically and culturally. Politically, the king in Palermo (not a papal-crowned emperor, to many's chagrin)only directly oversees the core of the empire. Elsewhere, dukes/princes/governors call the shots, with autonomy increasing as one travels farther away. On one hand, this provides a degree of standardization and safety, as the Normans have targeted piracy and promoted French/Latin as a lingua franca. On the other hand, the decentralized nature allows local leaders to pursue development projects to promote wealth, especially infrastructural. Culturally, the Norman Empire is a soup. Latin--the language and Christian sect--is dominant, though is mixed and filtered into local interpretations. The Norman specific culture, brought across the empire by its elite, has been blended and intermixed with local cultures. Norman courts often feature local art and architecture, local languages and religions survive, and Norman elites increasingly dress and act like locals. Muslim, Greek, Iberian, Italian, North African, Arab, and Northern European have been mixed and mashed together into a great and glorious metropolitan mess. These diverse cultures interact, intermarry (even across faith lines), and trade. The Italian city-states of Venice, Genoa, and Naples dominate trade, as they've been gifted trade rights in major cities across the Mediterranean. Regarding religion, Pa lermo promotes Latin Christianity, though is unable to enforce it on the far peripheries. Minorities are generally taxed, sometimes forbidden to practice their faiths in public (though in other scenarios mosques and temples are built).
Piracy continues to be an issue in the Mediterranean. The Norman navy does its best, though that usually just means conducting convoys. It however promotes piracy against Muslim states. The slavery business is a major staple of Mediterranean life, with vast slave markets across the isles. Mostly, slaves are Muslims or Slavic, though many are "mistakenly" Greek or Latin Christian. Other violence also continues; the Norman Empire augments its standing army with mercenary legions of Muslims, Norsemen, Slavs, and Sub-Saharans. As of 1380, Palermo is most concerned with the encroaching Turkish invasions displacing its position in Anatolia in the Near East. Other Muslim states are in shambles and are in no position to compete. The Holy Roman Empire, a long-time rival of the Norman's ally in the Pope, could provide a serious threat to the Normans if a war were to erupt.
In 1380, the first European victims of a horrible new disease fall in Norman Crimea. The Mediterranean's interconnectedness--the source of its great wealth and prosperity--has been turned against it.
Interesting variation on the "Columbus was right" scenario, but I'm not quite sure why the Dutch are going to join the World Alliance when they're entirely surrounded by larger, stronger members of the Europa Alliance and there's little or no way for their allies to send help. It seems a bit on the suicidal side.
There is no law in Africa—only race. Your lot in life is determined by the colour of your skin. At the top of African society are the Germanic elites both German-born and British-born. Their loyal servants are black Christians, known as “granted citizenry”, who compensate for the “inherent barbarism” of their race by civilizing and Christianizing inferior blacks. At the bottom are the “uncivilized citizenry”: Muslims, pagans and “Satan-worshippers” whose cultures are marked for deconstruction.
The largest and most profitable of these colonies is Kongo. Kongo had been under sadistic Belgian rule little over a decade ago, and Germany had inherited a culled, traumatized populace. The industrialists and bankers of Europe had had to contend with rising wages and sweeping social progress across the continent: safety standards, maximum working hours, worker’s welfare. All these took away from profits, which stopped the mines and cut off the flow of capital. To remedy this unacceptable decrease in German productivity, the Kongolese would just have to make up for it and work harder in the stead of their white betters. The Kongo people work in slavelike conditions, toiling in countless mines and manufactories day and night. The only escape is to join the army and aid in the suppression of their compatriots.
Second in line for the infamous title that is “Model Colony” lies further North, in German Westafrika. Formed from the remnants of British Nigeria and French Niger, the colony had long been divided between an Islamic North and Christian South. The Islamic Hausa and Fulanis have most petulantly enjoyed disrupting the supply chain of resources, hurting worldwide economic stability more than once. It was hence that the Westafrikan elites devised the caste system to be implemented across Africa, inspired by their research on the British Raj. The colony is embroiled in a state of constant war, and the Muslims of the area have found their zealously Christian compatriots just as terrifying as the white man.
Sklavenküste, or “Slave Coast” is by far the worst Germany could offer. Once upon a time, it had been named the “Gold coast” in reference to the Ashanti Empire’s greatest export. Now, it is named for its primary export in the 20th Century. Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and his merry band of reactionary aristocrats had wisely approved of Westafrika’s caste system as the first amongst the great innovations in racial-engineering, and enhanced it for Sklavenküste. As such, the colony is planned to become Africa’s first white-majority region. To accomplish this, the uncivilized citizenry are to be worked to the death; the granted citizenry are to become the Reich’s crack auxiliaries and taskmasters; while the white man is to push ever deeper into the heart of Africa. Humans and subhumans do their duty in Sklavenküste, as God would certainly have wanted.
Apologists claim that it was the German victory in the Great War that created an overwhelming sense of arrogance and superiority. They claim that German Africa before the Great War had been a hospitable land—these are lies. In Namibia, the nightmare of colonial rule had been in full force since the 19th Century. German pride had been stung by native rebels in the area, and 14,000 troops arrived to lay down the Kaiser’s law. A full half of the Herero and Namaqua peoples were massacred to leave hundreds of thousands dead. Today, Namibia is quiet and cleansed of unrest, known most as the prime exporter of beef to Europe.
The only bright spot upon this suffering mass of humanity is Ostafrika, where the colonial experiment is at its most humane. The Askaris of East Africa were amongst the Reich’s most loyal troops, having defeated many times their number of Egyptians and Indians in the Great War. Furthermore, they are true people of the book, Muslims who (unlike the West Africans) have not been polluted by indigenous pagan traditions. The Ostafrikans have a genuine admiration for the German homeland, and have adopted many of Germany’s more militaristic traditions and worldview along the years.
Germany, while the undisputed hegemon of Afrika, is by no means the sole power. Even the Kaiser knows that the German Empire was immensely overextended, and that they would have to take this “civilizing” business step by step. In Africa, Portugal has been appointed second fiddle. Lisbon was wooed by promises of completing the “pink map” and fulfilling age old aspirations at imperial glory. Portugal has now broken it’s 400-year alliance to the British and is Bonnie to the Reich’s Clyde.
General Jan Smuts has been elected the newest Prime Minister in South Africa to continue decades of friendship with the “British Empire”. His pro-British position is racked with controversy: ever since the defeat in the Great War, the Empire on which the sun never sets has been but a collection of loosely-allied dominions clinging helplessly to Imperial glory. Berlin has been sending out feelers to Pretoria, inviting them to join the ascendant German world system, and many an Afrikaner would very much enjoy joining the winning side.
The native African regimes are somewhat better, if only because they see their subjects as humans rather than dark skinned primates. Egypt has inherited much of the British colonial infrastructure—sections of the Cape-Cairo railway still serve Africa’s greatest land-based trade route, though the Suez Canal was seized by the Germans in the British “peace with honour”. Cairo did find the guts to face up an aggressive Germany by confronting them in the Eastern Sahel, and King Faud I counts himself lucky for dodging the German sledgehammer.
Second in line is Greater Algeria, founded in the wake of Islamic rebellion against Marshal Foch’s Casablanca junta. The Muslims of French Algeria seized power in a Revolution against Foch’s tyrannical rule and have now rallied around orthodox Sunni Islam as the defining trait of their new native Republic. Algeria’s expansionist tendancies are obvious through their rhetoric, spooking Berlin, who condemn this “snuffing out of European civilization” in the strongest terms. A war weary Germany has however decided against invasion.
Liberia is the only Socialist regime upon the continent. The small nation once enjoyed the patronage of their American masters, but as America imploded with ineffective Republican rule, Liberia was left isolated and alone. Ruling Amero-Liberians were powerless, and long-oppressed Afro-Liberians increasingly inspired by the ideals of Marx and Engels sparked a brutal civil war now in it’s second year.
There are of course many other tyrants and despots that lord over Africa: from the tycoons of Somalia to the messiahs of Beta Israel, but you will have to experience that in…The Wake of Desolation.
[FN1]: Title crawl heavily based off Perfidious Albion's work here.
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Apex Earth: 2080 - sketch of population density
Apex Earth: 2200 - Development and Evolution of Megacities
The first Megacities styled as Megacities were purpose-built urban developments north of the Great Lakes, known collectively as Metropolis, and along the trans-Siberian railroad, known collectively (in English) as the Mega-Cities, both first started in the 2040s. Later analysis describes Singapore, Tokyo, Nairobi, Bangkok, Lagos, New York, and Mexico City as already having the features of Megacities by this time. Megacities are dense urban areas, with radical recycling extending to calorie and nutrient recovery, near-complete water reclamation, reliant on nuclear power, with extensive urban and underground industry, and a mix of industrial and high-garden agriculture.
By the 2080s, Megacity life was becoming mature, with half of the population living in the super-urban areas of Canada, Siberia, Patagonia, Scandinavia, and New Zealand, and a third in equatorial Megacities or legacy cities, which are more isolated, dense, and widely distributed on the map. Existing political divisions, between America and Canada in North America, between China, Russia, and a mob-run Mongolia, as well as the remainer states of Japan, Korea, Far East Russia, and Taiwan heavily involved in funding the Mega-Cities, in Asia, were rapidly becoming less important than the organizations and institutions that ran the Megacities. In 2080, many considered the Mayor of Metropolis, elected indirectly through the mayors or governors of individual municipalities, to be a position equivalent to the President of the USA in power and authority, while the General Secretary of Mega City One, the central and one of the wealthiest municipalities in the Mega Cities, had more power and authority than the position, and was in the process of cementing this power.
Equatorial Megacities were also developing, but were further from becoming mature. In 2080, Singapore was larger than ever, a super-urban area of 100m people, having annexed urban areas on the peninsula, surrounded them with dams, and taken in refugees from around South Asia, the predominant power of Southeast Asia. In the Ganges, Megacities were protected communally by dams to their east, but with each municipality relatively independent beyond that, and with a surprisingly robust wilderness between them. The Rift Valley, the Andes Valleys, and the Alps Valleys contained more self-contained Megacities similar to the Ganges, but lower in population, and with more wasteland than wilderness between them.
New York is one of the best examples of a Legacy City, having survived as a dammed Megacity, and as an important center of commerce and culture, through the first climate crisis. Manaus and Brasilia were placed under domes while large sections of the population of Brazil fled south, to the Patagonian Megacity. Mexico City saw a variety of protective measures, and became home to most of Mexico's population. In Europe, many cities had half-measures, with only a few receiving the kind of massive investments that saved certain cities in the Americas, with only London, Paris, Milan, and Frankfurt gaining in population, many Europeans ended up in Scandinavia and western Russia, with Britons and Irish moving to Scotland, London, Canada, and Australia.
Some places kept a more traditional population distribution with more conventional infrastructure. Western Russia, the Levant and northern Mesopotamia, Southeast Asia north of Bangkok, and Australia outside of the deserts had more traditional cities with less radical climate-proofing, surrounded by mixed agricultural and industrial lands, with similar infrastructure to 2020's Germany or the Eastern Seaboard. In Australia, most of this was on virgin land, newly hospitable in the new climate, and most of the population growth came in waves of refugees and migrants, starting in 2030. In Russia, there was a relatively smooth growth, with European climate refugees arriving in a steady stream from 2040 to 2080, and there was more assimilation.
The Megacities lasted long enough to generate some political loyalties, but many Megacitizens returned to their ancestral culture, and often to their ancestral homelands (or somewhere off the coast in newly revealed land), once their era was ended. The remains of super-urban developments are now mostly frozen, if not actually covered by glaciers, or converted to more modern 'hyper-urban' structures. Hyper-urban cities have denser, taller, deeper cores, built around forests of arcologies, which are surrounded by farms, parks, gardens, and wilderness, and connected by roads, tubes, and distributive infrastructure. The Ganges Megacities, Singapores satellites, Legacy Cities, and the Rift Valley Megacities had many features of the hyper-urban cities of the future, this was a less efficient series of compromises with the technology of 2080 that happened to prepare them for new technologies.
The abandoned Megacities have dense populations by the standards of stateless land, north of the Great Lakes twenty-five million people live in a space that once held only a fraction of this, but was designed and developed for half a billion, in Siberia and Mongolia, one hundred million live in spaces designed for two billion. In Patagonia, an orderly reclamation and demolition project has kept squatters, rebels, and criminals out, and also protected and funded a permanent population. In practice, the stateless populations in the other former Megacities also make their living by recovering and selling useful things from the ruins, but through the auspices of criminal enterprise. In Siberia, the Xia Clique has established itself as an independent state on this basis (later adding Arctic Space Traffic Control and Caspian Sea developments to smuggling and salvage), controlling about a third of the Siberian Ruins. No single criminal organization in Canada is powerful or legitimate enough to do this (and so Traffic Control over that approach to the Polar Orbital Corridor is sketchy, something that many criminals in the Canadian Ruins and the American states enjoy).
Still a bit rough, but it's coming along. This is the already science-fiction scenario of sixty years hence, just about when humans are discovering hyperlight speed, and just as the climate had been stabilized and the refugee crisis had been processed by the heroic efforts of the whole planet. The map needs some borders, they're mostly like today, and to have human mega-engineering drawn on, the Mediterranean and Caspian Sea should be closer to how they look today; and maybe a little less density for North America.
Apex Earth: 2200 - Development and Evolution of Megacities
The first Megacities styled as Megacities were purpose-built urban developments north of the Great Lakes, known collectively as Metropolis, and along the trans-Siberian railroad, known collectively (in English) as the Mega-Cities, both first started in the 2040s. Later analysis describes Singapore, Tokyo, Nairobi, Bangkok, Lagos, New York, and Mexico City as already having the features of Megacities by this time. Megacities are dense urban areas, with radical recycling extending to calorie and nutrient recovery, near-complete water reclamation, reliant on nuclear power, with extensive urban and underground industry, and a mix of industrial and high-garden agriculture.
By the 2080s, Megacity life was becoming mature, with half of the population living in the super-urban areas of Canada, Siberia, Patagonia, Scandinavia, and New Zealand, and a third in equatorial Megacities or legacy cities, which are more isolated, dense, and widely distributed on the map. Existing political divisions, between America and Canada in North America, between China, Russia, and a mob-run Mongolia, as well as the remainer states of Japan, Korea, Far East Russia, and Taiwan heavily involved in funding the Mega-Cities, in Asia, were rapidly becoming less important than the organizations and institutions that ran the Megacities. In 2080, many considered the Mayor of Metropolis, elected indirectly through the mayors or governors of individual municipalities, to be a position equivalent to the President of the USA in power and authority, while the General Secretary of Mega City One, the central and one of the wealthiest municipalities in the Mega Cities, had more power and authority than the position, and was in the process of cementing this power.
Equatorial Megacities were also developing, but were further from becoming mature. In 2080, Singapore was larger than ever, a super-urban area of 100m people, having annexed urban areas on the peninsula, surrounded them with dams, and taken in refugees from around South Asia, the predominant power of Southeast Asia. In the Ganges, Megacities were protected communally by dams to their east, but with each municipality relatively independent beyond that, and with a surprisingly robust wilderness between them. The Rift Valley, the Andes Valleys, and the Alps Valleys contained more self-contained Megacities similar to the Ganges, but lower in population, and with more wasteland than wilderness between them.
New York is one of the best examples of a Legacy City, having survived as a dammed Megacity, and as an important center of commerce and culture, through the first climate crisis. Manaus and Brasilia were placed under domes while large sections of the population of Brazil fled south, to the Patagonian Megacity. Mexico City saw a variety of protective measures, and became home to most of Mexico's population. In Europe, many cities had half-measures, with only a few receiving the kind of massive investments that saved certain cities in the Americas, with only London, Paris, Milan, and Frankfurt gaining in population, many Europeans ended up in Scandinavia and western Russia, with Britons and Irish moving to Scotland, London, Canada, and Australia.
Some places kept a more traditional population distribution with more conventional infrastructure. Western Russia, the Levant and northern Mesopotamia, Southeast Asia north of Bangkok, and Australia outside of the deserts had more traditional cities with less radical climate-proofing, surrounded by mixed agricultural and industrial lands, with similar infrastructure to 2020's Germany or the Eastern Seaboard. In Australia, most of this was on virgin land, newly hospitable in the new climate, and most of the population growth came in waves of refugees and migrants, starting in 2030. In Russia, there was a relatively smooth growth, with European climate refugees arriving in a steady stream from 2040 to 2080, and there was more assimilation.
The Megacities lasted long enough to generate some political loyalties, but many Megacitizens returned to their ancestral culture, and often to their ancestral homelands (or somewhere off the coast in newly revealed land), once their era was ended. The remains of super-urban developments are now mostly frozen, if not actually covered by glaciers, or converted to more modern 'hyper-urban' structures. Hyper-urban cities have denser, taller, deeper cores, built around forests of arcologies, which are surrounded by farms, parks, gardens, and wilderness, and connected by roads, tubes, and distributive infrastructure. The Ganges Megacities, Singapores satellites, Legacy Cities, and the Rift Valley Megacities had many features of the hyper-urban cities of the future, this was a less efficient series of compromises with the technology of 2080 that happened to prepare them for new technologies.
The abandoned Megacities have dense populations by the standards of stateless land, north of the Great Lakes twenty-five million people live in a space that once held only a fraction of this, but was designed and developed for half a billion, in Siberia and Mongolia, one hundred million live in spaces designed for two billion. In Patagonia, an orderly reclamation and demolition project has kept squatters, rebels, and criminals out, and also protected and funded a permanent population. In practice, the stateless populations in the other former Megacities also make their living by recovering and selling useful things from the ruins, but through the auspices of criminal enterprise. In Siberia, the Xia Clique has established itself as an independent state on this basis (later adding Arctic Space Traffic Control and Caspian Sea developments to smuggling and salvage), controlling about a third of the Siberian Ruins. No single criminal organization in Canada is powerful or legitimate enough to do this (and so Traffic Control over that approach to the Polar Orbital Corridor is sketchy, something that many criminals in the Canadian Ruins and the American states enjoy).
Still a bit rough, but it's coming along. This is the already science-fiction scenario of sixty years hence, just about when humans are discovering hyperlight speed, and just as the climate had been stabilized and the refugee crisis had been processed by the heroic efforts of the whole planet. The map needs some borders, they're mostly like today, and to have human mega-engineering drawn on, the Mediterranean and Caspian Sea should be closer to how they look today; and maybe a little less density for North America.
They actually are not in the war just yet. Think of it more as getting dragged in thanks to cascading alliances once the pacific front starts. I hope my write up for chapter two will clear that up.
(Here's a quick little one)
2018 North England ISOTed to a Virgin Earth - 100 Years Later
- The initial ISOTs included Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cumbria, Manchester, Merseyside, Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, East Riding of Yorkshire, Hull, North Yorkshire and the City of York, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire.
- The rump United Kingdom reformed into a republic due to a lack of royals, though they kept their unitary parliamentary system, with them electing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as their new PM after the reelection, who was visiting Liverpool at the time of the 'Great Shifting'. Their capital is currently Manchester.
- The population is around 48.7 Million.
- Most of the recolonization efforts are centered in the British Isles, though two colonies exist in Belgium (Flanders) and France (New Normandy).
- There is still a considerable religious community, due to many within those communities believing the shift to be an act of god, though they only make up 45% of the population.
- Technology levels are around the 2030s, with most diseases being eradicated.
2018 North England ISOTed to a Virgin Earth - 100 Years Later
- The initial ISOTs included Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cumbria, Manchester, Merseyside, Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, East Riding of Yorkshire, Hull, North Yorkshire and the City of York, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire.
- The rump United Kingdom reformed into a republic due to a lack of royals, though they kept their unitary parliamentary system, with them electing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as their new PM after the reelection, who was visiting Liverpool at the time of the 'Great Shifting'. Their capital is currently Manchester.
- The population is around 48.7 Million.
- Most of the recolonization efforts are centered in the British Isles, though two colonies exist in Belgium (Flanders) and France (New Normandy).
- There is still a considerable religious community, due to many within those communities believing the shift to be an act of god, though they only make up 45% of the population.
- Technology levels are around the 2030s, with most diseases being eradicated.
They're limping on. Since the metropole fell to the Communards, the French government in exile has splintered into various factions. The largest are of course in Africa, being Marshal Foch's Casablanca Junta and a group of colonial officers known as the Bamako Junta. Casablanca thinks it's the rightful leader of all French, and Bamako hates it for that; while Casablanca hates Bamako for being uppity bastards.
So, when Casablanca fell to Algerian revolts, some of Foch's lieutenants fled to Bamako. Having to grovel to Bamako hasn't gone over well with the "naturally superior" Casablancans, so they've tried to launch coups. Today, the French exiles experience severe political instability, and the economy doesn't seem to be going anywhere.
KapiTod
Banned
A silly little one-shot which involves the a successful putsch against the SPD in the early 1920's, and a right-wing unitary government which includes everything from the monarchists to the national-socialists. Kaiser Wilhelm II was returned to power in '22 to prevent infighting over who should have the Presidency, and spent much of his return being pulled between the Junkers, the military, the Zentrum and other conservative parties, and his family in a grand squabble over how to best control him. One plus to this was that there was no concentrated national effort at expansionism, there being too much disagreement between the factions and within them over whether they should play along with France and Britain, make an agreement with Poles, or just lie in wait for the opportunity to snatch up territory when and where they could. Even within these parties there was no coherent strategy on the specifics of reacquiring lost territory.
Stalin and Trotsky ham-stringed each other enough that some slightly less maniacal players eventually outmaneuver them both following Lenin's death, however this also provided a useful opportunity for the Soviets to take back a bit of authority away from the Party and the Politburo. Currently there's a bit of a a detente between the Soviets, the states of the Union, and the Bolshevik Party who run most of the mess. The Union of Soviet Councils is essentially a confederation of Russia, Ukraine, and the Caucasian Republics- though the Central Committee of the Union (a G7 type talking club than an executive body) has discussed the possibility of elevating Russia's Central Asian or Far Eastern Soviets to their own Soviet Councils. Purging has largely been kept to a bloody period immediately following Lenin's death in 1923 when the Bolshevik's were briefly split into Stalinist and Trotskyist factions, as veterans of the Civil War both men were more than willing to risk blood to neutralise their opponent. An alliance of rival committee members such as Nikolai Bukharin and Mikhail Tomsky, and threats from party apparatus in Ukraine and the Caucuses eventually broke the two factions with Trotsky and Stalin's personal influence declining as the years went by- in 1939 Stalin has returned to his native Georgia where he sits on the Caucasian Republics Presidium, Trotsky meanwhile is currently attached as an adviser to the Fourth Republics provisional government in Bordeaux.
My knowledge of what exactly went down in Eastern Europe is sketchy to say the least. All I really have down is that Germany and Poland agreed to a border treaty in the 1930's which gave Germany land access to East Prussia in exchange for a few concessions in Posen and Silesia and a secret treaty involving the division of Lithuania. However after this there's a war between Charles IV's Hungary and Codreanu's Romania which eventually escalates out. The sides of the various participants of the war are also unclear. Mussolini could easily back either faction, as could Poland depending how far along their ZLN government has gone. The partition of Czechoslovakia and the Italian-Hungarian war with Yugoslavia are interlinked, though whether they're connected to the Romanian-Hungarian conflict I'm also unsure.
The big change is in 1937 however when the German Worker's Party took control of the country. Wilhelm II is currently in a catatonic state and is under house arrest, as is the rest of the royal family and many leaders of the other conservative factions. Gregor Strasser is currently Chancellor and de facto Head of State as well, though there is still a lack of willingness to execute the royals even after the seizure of power has been mostly successful.
The Democrats, Fascists, Communists, and National Socialists are finally gearing up to see who's going to control the future of Europe, and it's going to be one hell of a fight.
Stalin and Trotsky ham-stringed each other enough that some slightly less maniacal players eventually outmaneuver them both following Lenin's death, however this also provided a useful opportunity for the Soviets to take back a bit of authority away from the Party and the Politburo. Currently there's a bit of a a detente between the Soviets, the states of the Union, and the Bolshevik Party who run most of the mess. The Union of Soviet Councils is essentially a confederation of Russia, Ukraine, and the Caucasian Republics- though the Central Committee of the Union (a G7 type talking club than an executive body) has discussed the possibility of elevating Russia's Central Asian or Far Eastern Soviets to their own Soviet Councils. Purging has largely been kept to a bloody period immediately following Lenin's death in 1923 when the Bolshevik's were briefly split into Stalinist and Trotskyist factions, as veterans of the Civil War both men were more than willing to risk blood to neutralise their opponent. An alliance of rival committee members such as Nikolai Bukharin and Mikhail Tomsky, and threats from party apparatus in Ukraine and the Caucuses eventually broke the two factions with Trotsky and Stalin's personal influence declining as the years went by- in 1939 Stalin has returned to his native Georgia where he sits on the Caucasian Republics Presidium, Trotsky meanwhile is currently attached as an adviser to the Fourth Republics provisional government in Bordeaux.
My knowledge of what exactly went down in Eastern Europe is sketchy to say the least. All I really have down is that Germany and Poland agreed to a border treaty in the 1930's which gave Germany land access to East Prussia in exchange for a few concessions in Posen and Silesia and a secret treaty involving the division of Lithuania. However after this there's a war between Charles IV's Hungary and Codreanu's Romania which eventually escalates out. The sides of the various participants of the war are also unclear. Mussolini could easily back either faction, as could Poland depending how far along their ZLN government has gone. The partition of Czechoslovakia and the Italian-Hungarian war with Yugoslavia are interlinked, though whether they're connected to the Romanian-Hungarian conflict I'm also unsure.
The big change is in 1937 however when the German Worker's Party took control of the country. Wilhelm II is currently in a catatonic state and is under house arrest, as is the rest of the royal family and many leaders of the other conservative factions. Gregor Strasser is currently Chancellor and de facto Head of State as well, though there is still a lack of willingness to execute the royals even after the seizure of power has been mostly successful.
The Democrats, Fascists, Communists, and National Socialists are finally gearing up to see who's going to control the future of Europe, and it's going to be one hell of a fight.
I love me a Communist Germany map, what's the Third Faction in the French Civil War (French State)?
KapiTod
Banned
There's a lot of good little National Socialists who'd string you up for that accusation! They're Hitler's Brownshirts from OTL, the SA. Basically Stalinism with an extra emphasis on racial superioroty and a little more Jew killing.
And the French State are the obligatory Fascist faction of the Civil War- largely backed by Italy, but with Spanish exiles and volunteers from Eastern Europe too, the Poles are acting like it's a crusade against Bolshevism and a warm up for the inevitable war with Russia.
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