Hey y’all,
I know I haven’t been that active lately or rather have seemed to be, however the Rise of the Night (formerly known as Nightrise Project) TL/World is still in development and we’re constantly working to improve it.
However a certain subject has been debated about in the recent weeks and tbh it has been since pretty much the beginning of the TL/worldbuilding project.
And that’s about the german/danubian borders.
In the last 2 or so years (including first concepts its almost 3) the right border composition (blue) was the typical “nightrise” border. A central european country called “Danubia” with german as its main, but not sole language as it would rather work as a traffic and science language everyone would learn as first foreign language (similar to english in most EU countries).
The other idea is a "standard" greater german empire which isn't that different except that german is by far the majority mother tongue with less non-german peoples on its territory, and those who are are culturally close enough to cooperate and where the government is able to keep a stable cultural/community integrity based on very close cultural ties. the "non-annexed territories" would remain in germany's sphere. The PoD is 1852, with a bit of ASB content but the "final" border composition is reached somewhere between 1860 and 1875.
Any other concepts are mostly illogical ore just look hideous on map, so it's mostly a 50:50 between these two ideas
Both have roughly equal pros and cons (whichcauses me to struggle to decide) :
Danube Monarchy
+Territory larger
+Vienna is in the Empire's centre
+More inland resources & total economic power
+German-Polish friendship could easily be explained through plot
+No far-too-strong majority (germans make up like 53% of the whole mainland population, giving other minorities a chance)
+"Tradition" - it has always been like this in the scenario
+Adds originality to the timeline
-Despite efforts to lower ethnic tensions through different programs, someone will always be disturbed, and be it the surrounding nation states
-Large non-mainstream language population with possible integration issues and everyone having to mandatorily learn german
-Thus has a bit of a "unflexible old stony government" appearance
-Underdeveloped non-german peasantry areas need the money you'd preferably want for yourself
-Nationalism during the period + Ethnic/religious mess = "rapid unscheduled disassembly" (burning + explosions) processing
Greater Germany
+Clear Culture/cultural minorities with very close cultural relation (Czechs, Poles, Slovenes, Balts)
+German is the clear majority (less linguistic mess)
+Less ethnoreligious mess
+More "flexible" government
+Less area to develop, especially less non-integrated area
+Ability to add the baltic states
+More "soft power" through the sphere than an unflexible superstate
-Vienna lies a bit in the country's periphery (there are ways to surpass that, especially with the SoI)
-German Polish Friendship not as guaranteed as in Danubia
-Possible Border disputes
-Quite generic -> Greater Germany is a bit of a softly overused idea
-The originality is lost
-Minorities could have difficulties to get their voice in the parliament/cultural happenings (focus lies on "could", tho)
Other than that, if I were to take the greater german solution, i would like to hear your opinion on whether to annex the lowlands too, and if annexing venice for its valuable port is worth the italian glares and evil eyes or if it's too much of a(n ethnic) fuss.
(Maps with slightly different projection and pale blue color)
Additionally, since this is more of a question than a map, and I already feel the mods breathing into my neck, have a map of how the Greater German Solution
and the Danube Monarchy proposal/borders in a bit bigger so the condition of a post to be in the Map Thread is fulfilled:
(Lighter Borders in Hessen, Austria and Bohemia imply where i'm unsure if i should include them or not.)
Greetings, Val
I know I haven’t been that active lately or rather have seemed to be, however the Rise of the Night (formerly known as Nightrise Project) TL/World is still in development and we’re constantly working to improve it.
However a certain subject has been debated about in the recent weeks and tbh it has been since pretty much the beginning of the TL/worldbuilding project.
And that’s about the german/danubian borders.
In the last 2 or so years (including first concepts its almost 3) the right border composition (blue) was the typical “nightrise” border. A central european country called “Danubia” with german as its main, but not sole language as it would rather work as a traffic and science language everyone would learn as first foreign language (similar to english in most EU countries).
The other idea is a "standard" greater german empire which isn't that different except that german is by far the majority mother tongue with less non-german peoples on its territory, and those who are are culturally close enough to cooperate and where the government is able to keep a stable cultural/community integrity based on very close cultural ties. the "non-annexed territories" would remain in germany's sphere. The PoD is 1852, with a bit of ASB content but the "final" border composition is reached somewhere between 1860 and 1875.
Any other concepts are mostly illogical ore just look hideous on map, so it's mostly a 50:50 between these two ideas
Both have roughly equal pros and cons (whichcauses me to struggle to decide) :
Danube Monarchy
+Territory larger
+Vienna is in the Empire's centre
+More inland resources & total economic power
+German-Polish friendship could easily be explained through plot
+No far-too-strong majority (germans make up like 53% of the whole mainland population, giving other minorities a chance)
+"Tradition" - it has always been like this in the scenario
+Adds originality to the timeline
-Despite efforts to lower ethnic tensions through different programs, someone will always be disturbed, and be it the surrounding nation states
-Large non-mainstream language population with possible integration issues and everyone having to mandatorily learn german
-Thus has a bit of a "unflexible old stony government" appearance
-Underdeveloped non-german peasantry areas need the money you'd preferably want for yourself
-Nationalism during the period + Ethnic/religious mess = "rapid unscheduled disassembly" (burning + explosions) processing
Greater Germany
+Clear Culture/cultural minorities with very close cultural relation (Czechs, Poles, Slovenes, Balts)
+German is the clear majority (less linguistic mess)
+Less ethnoreligious mess
+More "flexible" government
+Less area to develop, especially less non-integrated area
+Ability to add the baltic states
+More "soft power" through the sphere than an unflexible superstate
-Vienna lies a bit in the country's periphery (there are ways to surpass that, especially with the SoI)
-German Polish Friendship not as guaranteed as in Danubia
-Possible Border disputes
-Quite generic -> Greater Germany is a bit of a softly overused idea
-The originality is lost
-Minorities could have difficulties to get their voice in the parliament/cultural happenings (focus lies on "could", tho)
Other than that, if I were to take the greater german solution, i would like to hear your opinion on whether to annex the lowlands too, and if annexing venice for its valuable port is worth the italian glares and evil eyes or if it's too much of a(n ethnic) fuss.
(Maps with slightly different projection and pale blue color)
Additionally, since this is more of a question than a map, and I already feel the mods breathing into my neck, have a map of how the Greater German Solution
and the Danube Monarchy proposal/borders in a bit bigger so the condition of a post to be in the Map Thread is fulfilled:
(Lighter Borders in Hessen, Austria and Bohemia imply where i'm unsure if i should include them or not.)
Greetings, Val