Oh, I see. The original premise was based on David Bowie, with his birth place, death place, and Ibiza > Norfolk Broads, etc. Well I'm going to keep making the maps, but if it starts to bug peeps, i'll stop posting the m.
Map Thread XX
- Thread starter Balkanized U.S.A
- Start date
- Status
The international borders and such are a bit confusing, and the thing at the bottom of the page usually just mentions one group. Perhaps add a map key? Or have the states break up or have separate settler colonies. While probably a bit late for it, I think something like how settlers set up their own towns and territorial governments (to an extent) in the American West would be interesting. Though given the technological level these countries have, I suspect getting pioneers of those sort would be difficult.
Crossposting from MOTF, part of my UAR-verse:
Commonwealth of RivieraThe Commonwealth of Riviera (French: Le Pays de Rivières; Spanish: La Mancomunidad de la Riviera) is one of 37 semi-autonomous, constituent member states of the Union of American Realms (UAR). Where the word riviera is typically used to denote sea coasts of a region, like the Italian Riviera, the regional name Riviera evolved from river, a play on the vital waterways that are found within the realm including the Akansa, Mississippi and Missouri rivers. In fact, the realm's official French name is Le Pays de Rivières, or, the Country of Rivers/River Country. Riviera is the third largest realm in terms of population within the UAR and one of the three non-Native Confederacies where a majority speak a language other than English at home and are typically bilingual.[1] Riviera is the third-most Catholic realm in the UAR as well.
Riviera has one of the richest, most diverse demographics within the UAR. The area that comprises the realm was absorbed into the greater confederation following the six year long American-Louisianan War[2] in the early 19th century. The area was initially inhabited by a number of native people before the French incorporated it as one of their New World colonies. France claimed the area as part of its Louisiane Colony, where it was further distinguished as part of Illinois Country or Upper Louisiane. The region was slow to populate under the French, who began exploring and settling it in the late 17th century, before growth began to expand in the mid-to-late 18th century. The settlement of Riviera by the French was mainly centered along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers at first, with its early economy revolving around logging, fur trapping, mining and agricultural projects at a smaller scale than in other parts of French America. The population of the area waned somewhat from its initially settling by the French until the Six Years War[3], after which French settlers east of the Mississippi emigrated there en masse. Following the French Civil War[4] and the flight of the republicans[5], the population of Louisiane as a whole grew exponentially as a mass wave of French immigrated from Europe. Most of this immigration was centered around New Orleans and the Gulf, but what would become Riviera would also see substantial growth as a result. French authorities, eager to expand the population of its colony, also began encouraging American settlement particularly in the region. The invention of the cotton gin also spurred growth and would lead to a spike in slavery within the territory.
Henry V's invasion of the Rhineland and Savoy sparked the start of the First Great European War[6] in 1803, setting the stage for further upheaval in its colonies. With Louisiane's population having grown exponentially in the preceding decades, France called for its colony to send conscripts. The colonial leadership, however, was overwhelmed by local opposition. Their refusal to send men to fight on the continent led to the Louisianan War of Independence[7] and the breaking away of the last French colony on mainland North America. The new Republic of Louisiane covered significant territory that was within the sights of Americans from the UAR and important to the UAR's interests, including regions around the Great Lakes. When Louisiane imposed harsh tariffs on goods traveling down the Mississippi, the UAR issued its first joint war resolution and invaded the burgeoning republic. Select French settlers joined with American immigrants in present-day Riviera to support annexation and in the end most of Louisiane would be recognized as American territory. The local populace of Riviera was allowed to carve its own region by the UAR for its support during the war, and thus the modern borders of Riviera were born.
Though American settlement into Riviera began to grow, the area had developed a strong French founder population. After its incorporation into the UAR, nearly all Great Lake French populations in other UAR territories made their way to Riviera, including residents of Detroit and Chicagou. The population was boosted somewhat further during the Louisianan Civil War[8] when Louisiane abolished slavery, as some Louisiane slavers moved to Riviera's lands in the southeast. By the mid-1800s, Riviera had developed a strong and distinct culture that was mostly French speaking, with sizable "American" migrants as well, and had begun to attract German migrants. French was the lingua franca, though progressively efforts to teach English to all spread as well. The capital was moved to Assomption[9], named for Fort Assomption that was in the area, in 1841. Overtime, hispanic migrants entered the realm towards the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, escaping the economic troubles that had befallen Colorado in that period, further adding to the diversity of the realm. Despite the existence of slavery in the realm, the practice was largely centered in the southeast portions of Riviera. Outside of the territories near and east of the Mississippi, slavery was not huge. As such, Riviera ended up becoming one of the first of the slave realms to fully abolish the practice, doing so in 1867. In the 20th century, Riviera encouraged migration into its vast territories and saw such migration, be it from Americans from other realms in the UAR, or from across Europe during the 20th century.
Today, Riviera is home to a number of different people. Most residents claim Rivierien ancestry, a catch-all phrase for the descendants of the French colonists that settled in the region during the colonial period and after Riviera became part of the UAR. Individuals claiming Rivierien ancestry make up just over 60% of the realms population. Though the realm has extremely high levels of bilingualism due to English being taught to children and adolescents, the vast majority of those claiming Rivierien ancestry and identity continue to be taught Rivierien French as their first language and continue to speak it at home. Because of the prevalent use of Rivierien French, many residents who do not claim Rivierien ancestry nonetheless learn to speak the regional French dialect anyway, meaning that nearly 80% of the realm's population speaks it to some degree. In the UAR, it is encouraged that people mark as many ancestries as they wish to claim on their census so some individuals mark multiple. Over the years, many groups have become prominent in Riviera either by intermarrying with the Rivierien population or establishing their own distinct groups. The four ancestries most claimed, other than Rivierien, are German (21.3%), Hispanic (19.3%), African[10] (19.1%) and "American"[11] (18.3%).
[1] These other realms are East Florida and Canada.
[2] The American-Louisianan War occurred from 1814-20 and was the first war where the UAR as a whole engaged since the Independence War.
[3] This TL's version of the OTL Seven Years War, France does not lose its Louisiana Colony following the war, but loses everything east of the Mississippi.
[4] The French Civil War occurred from 1788-91, roughly, and resulted in a victory for the monarchists.
[5] Rather than outright kill the large segments of the population that sympathized with the revolutionaries, France's Henry V sought to pacify the situation by "granting" large areas of land to the rebels - in Louisiana, and forcing them to leave the motherland. This came to be called the flight of the republicans.
[6] A major, continental conflict in Europe that shifted the balance of power and preceded even worse conflicts over the next century and a half.
[7] The Louisianan War of Independence raged from 1804-09 and resulted in the independence of France's Louisiane colony.
[8] The Louisianan Civil War was a bloody civil conflict that occurred in the 1830s when Louisiane abolished slavery.
[9] Assomption lies roughly where the OTL city of Memphis, Tennessee is.
[10] Most residents who claim African ancestry also claim Rivierien ancestry or speak Rivierien French.
[11] "American" refers to English-speaking, American settlers in the region particularly from the 19th century. Despite early unity with the Rivieriens, the two groups grew rather hostile in the mid-19th century. Americans are the least likely to have intermixed with the Rivierien majority and the most likely to be adherents of the Church of Columbia.
Commonwealth of Riviera
Riviera has one of the richest, most diverse demographics within the UAR. The area that comprises the realm was absorbed into the greater confederation following the six year long American-Louisianan War[2] in the early 19th century. The area was initially inhabited by a number of native people before the French incorporated it as one of their New World colonies. France claimed the area as part of its Louisiane Colony, where it was further distinguished as part of Illinois Country or Upper Louisiane. The region was slow to populate under the French, who began exploring and settling it in the late 17th century, before growth began to expand in the mid-to-late 18th century. The settlement of Riviera by the French was mainly centered along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers at first, with its early economy revolving around logging, fur trapping, mining and agricultural projects at a smaller scale than in other parts of French America. The population of the area waned somewhat from its initially settling by the French until the Six Years War[3], after which French settlers east of the Mississippi emigrated there en masse. Following the French Civil War[4] and the flight of the republicans[5], the population of Louisiane as a whole grew exponentially as a mass wave of French immigrated from Europe. Most of this immigration was centered around New Orleans and the Gulf, but what would become Riviera would also see substantial growth as a result. French authorities, eager to expand the population of its colony, also began encouraging American settlement particularly in the region. The invention of the cotton gin also spurred growth and would lead to a spike in slavery within the territory.
Henry V's invasion of the Rhineland and Savoy sparked the start of the First Great European War[6] in 1803, setting the stage for further upheaval in its colonies. With Louisiane's population having grown exponentially in the preceding decades, France called for its colony to send conscripts. The colonial leadership, however, was overwhelmed by local opposition. Their refusal to send men to fight on the continent led to the Louisianan War of Independence[7] and the breaking away of the last French colony on mainland North America. The new Republic of Louisiane covered significant territory that was within the sights of Americans from the UAR and important to the UAR's interests, including regions around the Great Lakes. When Louisiane imposed harsh tariffs on goods traveling down the Mississippi, the UAR issued its first joint war resolution and invaded the burgeoning republic. Select French settlers joined with American immigrants in present-day Riviera to support annexation and in the end most of Louisiane would be recognized as American territory. The local populace of Riviera was allowed to carve its own region by the UAR for its support during the war, and thus the modern borders of Riviera were born.
Though American settlement into Riviera began to grow, the area had developed a strong French founder population. After its incorporation into the UAR, nearly all Great Lake French populations in other UAR territories made their way to Riviera, including residents of Detroit and Chicagou. The population was boosted somewhat further during the Louisianan Civil War[8] when Louisiane abolished slavery, as some Louisiane slavers moved to Riviera's lands in the southeast. By the mid-1800s, Riviera had developed a strong and distinct culture that was mostly French speaking, with sizable "American" migrants as well, and had begun to attract German migrants. French was the lingua franca, though progressively efforts to teach English to all spread as well. The capital was moved to Assomption[9], named for Fort Assomption that was in the area, in 1841. Overtime, hispanic migrants entered the realm towards the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, escaping the economic troubles that had befallen Colorado in that period, further adding to the diversity of the realm. Despite the existence of slavery in the realm, the practice was largely centered in the southeast portions of Riviera. Outside of the territories near and east of the Mississippi, slavery was not huge. As such, Riviera ended up becoming one of the first of the slave realms to fully abolish the practice, doing so in 1867. In the 20th century, Riviera encouraged migration into its vast territories and saw such migration, be it from Americans from other realms in the UAR, or from across Europe during the 20th century.
Today, Riviera is home to a number of different people. Most residents claim Rivierien ancestry, a catch-all phrase for the descendants of the French colonists that settled in the region during the colonial period and after Riviera became part of the UAR. Individuals claiming Rivierien ancestry make up just over 60% of the realms population. Though the realm has extremely high levels of bilingualism due to English being taught to children and adolescents, the vast majority of those claiming Rivierien ancestry and identity continue to be taught Rivierien French as their first language and continue to speak it at home. Because of the prevalent use of Rivierien French, many residents who do not claim Rivierien ancestry nonetheless learn to speak the regional French dialect anyway, meaning that nearly 80% of the realm's population speaks it to some degree. In the UAR, it is encouraged that people mark as many ancestries as they wish to claim on their census so some individuals mark multiple. Over the years, many groups have become prominent in Riviera either by intermarrying with the Rivierien population or establishing their own distinct groups. The four ancestries most claimed, other than Rivierien, are German (21.3%), Hispanic (19.3%), African[10] (19.1%) and "American"[11] (18.3%).
[1] These other realms are East Florida and Canada.
[2] The American-Louisianan War occurred from 1814-20 and was the first war where the UAR as a whole engaged since the Independence War.
[3] This TL's version of the OTL Seven Years War, France does not lose its Louisiana Colony following the war, but loses everything east of the Mississippi.
[4] The French Civil War occurred from 1788-91, roughly, and resulted in a victory for the monarchists.
[5] Rather than outright kill the large segments of the population that sympathized with the revolutionaries, France's Henry V sought to pacify the situation by "granting" large areas of land to the rebels - in Louisiana, and forcing them to leave the motherland. This came to be called the flight of the republicans.
[6] A major, continental conflict in Europe that shifted the balance of power and preceded even worse conflicts over the next century and a half.
[7] The Louisianan War of Independence raged from 1804-09 and resulted in the independence of France's Louisiane colony.
[8] The Louisianan Civil War was a bloody civil conflict that occurred in the 1830s when Louisiane abolished slavery.
[9] Assomption lies roughly where the OTL city of Memphis, Tennessee is.
[10] Most residents who claim African ancestry also claim Rivierien ancestry or speak Rivierien French.
[11] "American" refers to English-speaking, American settlers in the region particularly from the 19th century. Despite early unity with the Rivieriens, the two groups grew rather hostile in the mid-19th century. Americans are the least likely to have intermixed with the Rivierien majority and the most likely to be adherents of the Church of Columbia.
A few people may remember my weird habit of posting a big map on the anniversary of when I joined the site. If you remember that you'll also remember that I'm terrible at getting notes and a write-up done in the same time frame.
Well, its the 28th August, and this year I planned ahead; I finished the map a week ago to give me time to work on everything else, and just this once I have a finished, polished map to present (well, mostly done - I still have to add the numbers on the inset map of Germany, but that shouldn't take too long, and I'll re-upload the finished product in about half an hour or so).
Normally I'll do a map of the TL I've long been meaning to write but never got round to (tangentially referenced in my current TL (that will get an update at some time next week, hopefully)), however this year I'm going for something a little different. Inspired by the current efforts to cover old maps by B_Munro, I decided to get in on the act, though as I didn't really like the map selected for the first challenge I went hunting for a different one.
Many thanks BTW to whoever posted the link to the old Munroist maps on the wiki (can't remember who it was) a couple of months ago. I had a busy summer writing my thesis, and spent a fair amount of the (sparse) down-time checking out many of the older scenario's I'd never read before on that list while also re-reading some more recent favourites as a way to unwind.
I eventually settled on this old map from 2012. It's detailed enough to give me a healthy background but vague enough to allow me leeway to fill in gaps and add stuff all over. The map also had no write-up, so I had free-reign coming up with a backstory. More than anything however I saw promise in it, and the scenario intrigued me, so I went with it.
I guessed from clues on the original map and notes that the POD was at some point around 1450, while based on how far colonisation had progressed I guessed that map was currently set around the end of the 18th century. As well as adding detail while scaling the map up to QBAM scale, I also decided to wind the clock forward by a century or so to the eve of this world's WW1 equivalent (September 1889 to be precise), so I could add a few changes of my own.
I took plenty of borders all over the place from this very useful 1556 map, while the Khanates of OTL Dagestan were pilfered verbatim from the original WorldRaj (Annoyingly I couldn't find any links to the complete version - they're all dead. Just lucky I saved the original to my laptop when it was originally posted back in 2017. The best I could find was this link to a partially dead post missing the main map, though that should be good enough attribution).
Also, bear in mind I stepped a little outside my comfort zone with this one; I'm usually more at home no earlier than the 19th century (or, you know, before the end of the last ice age, though that's a different field entirely). If I've made any glaring errors, bear in mind that this isn't a serious work, and I was trying to make sense of a rather uncertain history behind the original map.
So as I said earlier, I guessed the POD was around the middle of the 15th century, and many things still track out as OTL; the Wars of the Roses pretty much follow OTL (the Yorkists and Lancastrians spend several decades fighting and toppling one another before an underdog third party takes the throne at the 11th hour), Grenada is also still conquered by Castille, while the Byzantines are still annexed by the Ottomans, who go on to expand to similar heights to OTL (on the other hand, the Empire of Trebizond is able to survive as an Ottoman vassal state).
But changes start to filter through; for whatever reason Aragon does not unify with Castille, and instead hangs around, eventually being pulled into a union with the Kingdom of France. Meanwhile in Italy the Visconti's of Milan are able to pull their state back from the brink, gradually rebuilding their power, while in France the Burgundians hang around, consolidating much of the Low Countries under their rule. The Jagellonian dynasty is able to consolidate control over Poland, Lithuania and Bohemia, which would gradually coalesce into one unit. French meddling allows a (mostly) unified Irish state to coalesce in the west to resist English expansion. In Russia the collapse of the Golden Horde is overall messier, and a combination of bad luck and the other Russian states dogpiling them sees the Muscovites knocked down hard. Russia would eventually be unified by Tver, though it was an overall slower process (the Novgorod Republic lasted well into the 17th century under Swedish patronage), allowing a remnant of the old Golden Horde in OTL Astrakhan to regroup with a little help from the Ottomans.
Even sans Aragon, the Castillians still get lucky and bankroll a major expedition to the far west, 'discovering' the America's [1] and quickly nabbing all the best goodies (Mexico and Peru) for themselves to exploit. As TTL's Castile is less influential than OTL Spain however, much of the rest is left open, with other European powers engaging in a minor colonial struggle along what are OTL the US East Coast and northern Brazil. The Portuguese still take the rest of Brazil, in addition to what is IOTL Argentina.
A distant relative of the Reformation still occurs ITTL, though as it happens a century after the POD the cast of characters is completely different. This alt-reformation is more successful, especially when France goes *Protestant following a nasty civil war that ends with the majority-Catholic south and Aragon spun off as the 'Kingdom of Septimania-Aragon' under the still-Catholic Bourbons while now-*Protestant Valois line took the north. Many Catholics also leave for France's colonies in Antillia (in particular Nouvelle Gascony in OTL Venezuela).
The Austrian's and Spanish are not amused at this turn of events.
Much of the rest of the 16th century is occupied by a string of minor Catholic-*Protestant wars that mostly stalemate.
The 17th Century is dominated by the 40-years war. The first 30-odd years run similar to the OTL 30 years war; various different European great powers engaging in a long-winded religious conflict with Germany as the battleground. France also re-annexed Septimania-Aragon, with special autonomy for the region assured. Things diverge when the Ottomans (under a magnificent bastard-type) decided to attack the Austrians from behind while they were distracted in Germany, taking Vienna after a short seige. After a few weeks of celebrating that the Austrians had been knocked out of the game, the victorious *Protestant powers realised just how intimidating the Ottomans now looked. Cue ten year extended conflict where most of Europe tries to re-take Austria and the Ottomans manage to hold on to their new conquests, with the conflict only ending when everyone is simply too exhausted to keep fighting (England still has a crown vs parliament dust-up on the sidelines as with the Thirty Years War, though here it merely ends with the monarch conceding further powers to parliament).
Following the war and the hard fall of the Hapsburgs, the position of Holy Roman Emperor alternates between the Wittelsbachs of Bavaria and the Hohenzollorns of Brandenburg-Prussia, beginning a long enmity between the two over leadership of the Germanies.
The 18th century is mostly dominated by a series of succession wars as-OTL. The War of the Danish Succession ends anticlimactically, with one side winning the war just as their claimant dies of smallpox. The loser is allowed to keep Denmark while a spare Scottish prince is installed as King of Norway. One typhus outbreak twenty years down the line wipes out much of the rest of the Stuarts, seeing Scotland and Norway unify under one monarch. (that royal line would unify with England a generation later once the previous English dynasty died out). The War of the Polish succession once the Jagellonians die out sees much of the east nommed by Russia and a new royal house of Swedish-descent installed over what is left. The War of the Portuguese Succession (kicked off when the 1755 Lisbon earthquake kills off most of the royal family), sees two equally-matched contenders duke it out for a year before the King of Castille gets tired, using the fact his grandmother was a Braganza to invade from the east and annex the place. One of the rival claimants flees abroad to *Brazil and, with English backing, is able to secure most of the colonial empire. The War of the French succession ends rather badly for the HRE when an attempt to put an ally on the French throne backfires spectacularly when the rival claimant manages to secure the backing of both England and Castille. France annexes a good portion of the Rhinelands.
There is no French revolution or revolutionary wars equivalent, and the 18th century simply grades into the 19th. The closest TTL comes is a wave of revolution across the Castilian colonies in Antillia sees them break away (the Castillians are able to spin off Nuevo Asturias (basically greater Mexico) under a side branch, though these days it's very much its own thing).
The HRE is finally dissolved in a Springtime of Peoples-esqe wave of revolts and popular unrest in the 1830's, inspired by the revolutions in the New World, and is replaced by the German Confederation, a similar organisation though now with an elected, Germany-wide parliament. The First Emperor of the Germans to be elected is a Hohenzollorn, who then proceeds to hand out Electorate-status to half a dozen states to outweigh the Bavarian vote in future elections (the expansionist Bavarians were beginning to alienate the other German states, but this only confirmed the trend) while also consolidating indirect control over the small German states.
This directly leads to the Prusso-Bavarian War in 1846, which would see Brandenburg-Prussia rally the other German states fearful of annexation into a united front to defeat the Bavarians (re-creating several states recently annexed by the Bavarians as part of the peace). In response to their loss, the Bavarians double down, tapping into ideological ground that would go untrapped until the rise of fascism OTL while also ramping up their suppression of *protestantism in their lands.
The Russians and Ottomans get into a major war in the 1850's that mostly stalemates, though France uses the confusion to knock down the decrepit old Timurid Khanate in Kabul and set much of Central Asia up as a colony.
Over the last decade the powers have been subconsciously aligning into two major blocks. On the One side we have the Warsaw Pact (what?, I'm unimaginative at times); initially a loose agreement between Brandenburg-Prussia, Poland-Lithuania-Bohemia and Russia, that would further add Italy and Nova Lusitania when they were able to lure England-Norway in. On the other side we have The Entente (again, I'm terrible thinking up names), a formalisation of French ties to both the Ottomans and Castillians into a coherent block with the addition of Bavaria (out for revenge against Brandenburg-Prussia).
But after a decade of near-misses and colonial scuffles, a wider European war is about to break out. The old Duke of Lucca [2], having ruled his tiny duchy for nearly a century (crowned as an infant, he is now 97) is finally on his deathbed. As is the way with these things, his next-closest relative due to inherit the duchy is the current King of France, who is looking forward to his miserly great uncle finally dying to expand the borders of France further. But the Italians have other ideas. Desperate for a direct land link between their territories in Padania and Tuscany, they plan on invading and annexing Lucca as soon as the duke dies. This will not be received well by France when it happens, war will be declared, and the various agreements and treaties signed by the two blocks will snap into place.
But under the surface, all is not well, as the shiny new ideology of Reductivism spreads its subversive tentacles across the continent. A singularly odd creed that mixes elements of OTL leftism ('Revolution!, down with the oppressors!!', ect.) with technocracy (idolising rule by 'scholar-kings'), Reductivism is based on the core principle that as the root of all conflict is different opinions, the only way to achieve world peace is to force everyone to think in the same way [3]. Though currently weak, the stresses of a continent-spanning war may prove just what they need to topple one of the governments they so despise and replace it with the so far only theorised 'Monoscope Domain' ...
The date is the 19th September 1889, and Europe stands on the brink of war ...
[1], ITTL of course under a different name; North America becomes Royollo while South America is called Antillia, both names deriving from phantom islands on early navigational charts.
[2] The OTL Republic of Lucca was replaced by a duchy after a major war in the 16th century ITTL.
[3] Why yes, I have read LTTW, where do you think I got the idea from. This site needs more oddball ideologies in early-diverging TL's IMO, and this was the best example I could think of, so of course I borrowed a few ideas.
[4] (not in text). Note 31. in the sub-section on Germany is a reference to the Solnhofen Limestones and their fossils. I'm putting the link here as I cant put a hyperlink in a PNG.
EDIT: added numbers to German inset map.
Well, its the 28th August, and this year I planned ahead; I finished the map a week ago to give me time to work on everything else, and just this once I have a finished, polished map to present (well, mostly done - I still have to add the numbers on the inset map of Germany, but that shouldn't take too long, and I'll re-upload the finished product in about half an hour or so).
Normally I'll do a map of the TL I've long been meaning to write but never got round to (tangentially referenced in my current TL (that will get an update at some time next week, hopefully)), however this year I'm going for something a little different. Inspired by the current efforts to cover old maps by B_Munro, I decided to get in on the act, though as I didn't really like the map selected for the first challenge I went hunting for a different one.
Many thanks BTW to whoever posted the link to the old Munroist maps on the wiki (can't remember who it was) a couple of months ago. I had a busy summer writing my thesis, and spent a fair amount of the (sparse) down-time checking out many of the older scenario's I'd never read before on that list while also re-reading some more recent favourites as a way to unwind.
I eventually settled on this old map from 2012. It's detailed enough to give me a healthy background but vague enough to allow me leeway to fill in gaps and add stuff all over. The map also had no write-up, so I had free-reign coming up with a backstory. More than anything however I saw promise in it, and the scenario intrigued me, so I went with it.
I guessed from clues on the original map and notes that the POD was at some point around 1450, while based on how far colonisation had progressed I guessed that map was currently set around the end of the 18th century. As well as adding detail while scaling the map up to QBAM scale, I also decided to wind the clock forward by a century or so to the eve of this world's WW1 equivalent (September 1889 to be precise), so I could add a few changes of my own.
I took plenty of borders all over the place from this very useful 1556 map, while the Khanates of OTL Dagestan were pilfered verbatim from the original WorldRaj (Annoyingly I couldn't find any links to the complete version - they're all dead. Just lucky I saved the original to my laptop when it was originally posted back in 2017. The best I could find was this link to a partially dead post missing the main map, though that should be good enough attribution).
Also, bear in mind I stepped a little outside my comfort zone with this one; I'm usually more at home no earlier than the 19th century (or, you know, before the end of the last ice age, though that's a different field entirely). If I've made any glaring errors, bear in mind that this isn't a serious work, and I was trying to make sense of a rather uncertain history behind the original map.
So as I said earlier, I guessed the POD was around the middle of the 15th century, and many things still track out as OTL; the Wars of the Roses pretty much follow OTL (the Yorkists and Lancastrians spend several decades fighting and toppling one another before an underdog third party takes the throne at the 11th hour), Grenada is also still conquered by Castille, while the Byzantines are still annexed by the Ottomans, who go on to expand to similar heights to OTL (on the other hand, the Empire of Trebizond is able to survive as an Ottoman vassal state).
But changes start to filter through; for whatever reason Aragon does not unify with Castille, and instead hangs around, eventually being pulled into a union with the Kingdom of France. Meanwhile in Italy the Visconti's of Milan are able to pull their state back from the brink, gradually rebuilding their power, while in France the Burgundians hang around, consolidating much of the Low Countries under their rule. The Jagellonian dynasty is able to consolidate control over Poland, Lithuania and Bohemia, which would gradually coalesce into one unit. French meddling allows a (mostly) unified Irish state to coalesce in the west to resist English expansion. In Russia the collapse of the Golden Horde is overall messier, and a combination of bad luck and the other Russian states dogpiling them sees the Muscovites knocked down hard. Russia would eventually be unified by Tver, though it was an overall slower process (the Novgorod Republic lasted well into the 17th century under Swedish patronage), allowing a remnant of the old Golden Horde in OTL Astrakhan to regroup with a little help from the Ottomans.
Even sans Aragon, the Castillians still get lucky and bankroll a major expedition to the far west, 'discovering' the America's [1] and quickly nabbing all the best goodies (Mexico and Peru) for themselves to exploit. As TTL's Castile is less influential than OTL Spain however, much of the rest is left open, with other European powers engaging in a minor colonial struggle along what are OTL the US East Coast and northern Brazil. The Portuguese still take the rest of Brazil, in addition to what is IOTL Argentina.
A distant relative of the Reformation still occurs ITTL, though as it happens a century after the POD the cast of characters is completely different. This alt-reformation is more successful, especially when France goes *Protestant following a nasty civil war that ends with the majority-Catholic south and Aragon spun off as the 'Kingdom of Septimania-Aragon' under the still-Catholic Bourbons while now-*Protestant Valois line took the north. Many Catholics also leave for France's colonies in Antillia (in particular Nouvelle Gascony in OTL Venezuela).
The Austrian's and Spanish are not amused at this turn of events.
Much of the rest of the 16th century is occupied by a string of minor Catholic-*Protestant wars that mostly stalemate.
The 17th Century is dominated by the 40-years war. The first 30-odd years run similar to the OTL 30 years war; various different European great powers engaging in a long-winded religious conflict with Germany as the battleground. France also re-annexed Septimania-Aragon, with special autonomy for the region assured. Things diverge when the Ottomans (under a magnificent bastard-type) decided to attack the Austrians from behind while they were distracted in Germany, taking Vienna after a short seige. After a few weeks of celebrating that the Austrians had been knocked out of the game, the victorious *Protestant powers realised just how intimidating the Ottomans now looked. Cue ten year extended conflict where most of Europe tries to re-take Austria and the Ottomans manage to hold on to their new conquests, with the conflict only ending when everyone is simply too exhausted to keep fighting (England still has a crown vs parliament dust-up on the sidelines as with the Thirty Years War, though here it merely ends with the monarch conceding further powers to parliament).
Following the war and the hard fall of the Hapsburgs, the position of Holy Roman Emperor alternates between the Wittelsbachs of Bavaria and the Hohenzollorns of Brandenburg-Prussia, beginning a long enmity between the two over leadership of the Germanies.
The 18th century is mostly dominated by a series of succession wars as-OTL. The War of the Danish Succession ends anticlimactically, with one side winning the war just as their claimant dies of smallpox. The loser is allowed to keep Denmark while a spare Scottish prince is installed as King of Norway. One typhus outbreak twenty years down the line wipes out much of the rest of the Stuarts, seeing Scotland and Norway unify under one monarch. (that royal line would unify with England a generation later once the previous English dynasty died out). The War of the Polish succession once the Jagellonians die out sees much of the east nommed by Russia and a new royal house of Swedish-descent installed over what is left. The War of the Portuguese Succession (kicked off when the 1755 Lisbon earthquake kills off most of the royal family), sees two equally-matched contenders duke it out for a year before the King of Castille gets tired, using the fact his grandmother was a Braganza to invade from the east and annex the place. One of the rival claimants flees abroad to *Brazil and, with English backing, is able to secure most of the colonial empire. The War of the French succession ends rather badly for the HRE when an attempt to put an ally on the French throne backfires spectacularly when the rival claimant manages to secure the backing of both England and Castille. France annexes a good portion of the Rhinelands.
There is no French revolution or revolutionary wars equivalent, and the 18th century simply grades into the 19th. The closest TTL comes is a wave of revolution across the Castilian colonies in Antillia sees them break away (the Castillians are able to spin off Nuevo Asturias (basically greater Mexico) under a side branch, though these days it's very much its own thing).
The HRE is finally dissolved in a Springtime of Peoples-esqe wave of revolts and popular unrest in the 1830's, inspired by the revolutions in the New World, and is replaced by the German Confederation, a similar organisation though now with an elected, Germany-wide parliament. The First Emperor of the Germans to be elected is a Hohenzollorn, who then proceeds to hand out Electorate-status to half a dozen states to outweigh the Bavarian vote in future elections (the expansionist Bavarians were beginning to alienate the other German states, but this only confirmed the trend) while also consolidating indirect control over the small German states.
This directly leads to the Prusso-Bavarian War in 1846, which would see Brandenburg-Prussia rally the other German states fearful of annexation into a united front to defeat the Bavarians (re-creating several states recently annexed by the Bavarians as part of the peace). In response to their loss, the Bavarians double down, tapping into ideological ground that would go untrapped until the rise of fascism OTL while also ramping up their suppression of *protestantism in their lands.
The Russians and Ottomans get into a major war in the 1850's that mostly stalemates, though France uses the confusion to knock down the decrepit old Timurid Khanate in Kabul and set much of Central Asia up as a colony.
Over the last decade the powers have been subconsciously aligning into two major blocks. On the One side we have the Warsaw Pact (what?, I'm unimaginative at times); initially a loose agreement between Brandenburg-Prussia, Poland-Lithuania-Bohemia and Russia, that would further add Italy and Nova Lusitania when they were able to lure England-Norway in. On the other side we have The Entente (again, I'm terrible thinking up names), a formalisation of French ties to both the Ottomans and Castillians into a coherent block with the addition of Bavaria (out for revenge against Brandenburg-Prussia).
But after a decade of near-misses and colonial scuffles, a wider European war is about to break out. The old Duke of Lucca [2], having ruled his tiny duchy for nearly a century (crowned as an infant, he is now 97) is finally on his deathbed. As is the way with these things, his next-closest relative due to inherit the duchy is the current King of France, who is looking forward to his miserly great uncle finally dying to expand the borders of France further. But the Italians have other ideas. Desperate for a direct land link between their territories in Padania and Tuscany, they plan on invading and annexing Lucca as soon as the duke dies. This will not be received well by France when it happens, war will be declared, and the various agreements and treaties signed by the two blocks will snap into place.
But under the surface, all is not well, as the shiny new ideology of Reductivism spreads its subversive tentacles across the continent. A singularly odd creed that mixes elements of OTL leftism ('Revolution!, down with the oppressors!!', ect.) with technocracy (idolising rule by 'scholar-kings'), Reductivism is based on the core principle that as the root of all conflict is different opinions, the only way to achieve world peace is to force everyone to think in the same way [3]. Though currently weak, the stresses of a continent-spanning war may prove just what they need to topple one of the governments they so despise and replace it with the so far only theorised 'Monoscope Domain' ...
The date is the 19th September 1889, and Europe stands on the brink of war ...
[1], ITTL of course under a different name; North America becomes Royollo while South America is called Antillia, both names deriving from phantom islands on early navigational charts.
[2] The OTL Republic of Lucca was replaced by a duchy after a major war in the 16th century ITTL.
[3] Why yes, I have read LTTW, where do you think I got the idea from. This site needs more oddball ideologies in early-diverging TL's IMO, and this was the best example I could think of, so of course I borrowed a few ideas.
[4] (not in text). Note 31. in the sub-section on Germany is a reference to the Solnhofen Limestones and their fossils. I'm putting the link here as I cant put a hyperlink in a PNG.
EDIT: added numbers to German inset map.
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I'm afraid I still don't get it. Did you ISOT a number of countries one after the other?
A Golden Country
Loose and implausible Alternate History, but the premise is that the American Constitutional Convention ends in failure and causes civil unrest and eventually civil war. Meanwhile, British captain James Cook lands in northern California, sparking new British settlements on the Pacific coast while the Spanish and Russians also try to colonize this resource rich area. (Original premise was to come up with plausible Alternate History lore for my NationStates RP country using existing pieces of lore, which I think I did pretty well).
In 1872, the Dominion of Eureka was formed from the various British colonies, which now included an exclave in the San Diego region after brief colonial squabbles with the declining Spanish Empire. In 1931, following the Statue of Westminister, Eureka gained full autonomy. By this point, its ties to Britain were tenuous, and the majority of new settlers were from the U.S, Western Republic, or Mexico, and by 1939, the name of the nation was changed to Arnisoua, a corruption of an unspecified tribal word meaning "land of gold". In 1942, in a controversial decision, the new pro-American legislature ended any allegiance to the Crown, leaving the British Commonwealth after the U.K refused to side with the nation regarding land disputes with neighboring California. By 1950, the strength of labour unions and worker collectives in industrial and urban parts of the state ushered in a socialist government in the 1962 elections, which ruled until 1993. Arnisoua joined the American Union, an economic and political bloc of North American nations in 1995 to help end its ~30 year long period of isolationism.
Since 1872, the capital has been in Pinesia in the Alentejo District, which has been connected to the rest of the nation through the Coastal Connection since 1959, a train track running along the Californian coast that allows passport free travel between the two sides. Nowadays, the preferred method is air travel. In 2007, the nation of Noquine agreed to join Arnisoua in a controversial referendum. The plan was finalized in 2019, and today, Spanish, Russian, English, French, and Chinese are the official languages of the nation. Arnisoua borders the Western Republic to the north, Santafe to the east, California and Aztlan to the south, and also borders the city-state of San Francisco.
A few questions: How did Alentejo end up with Arnisoua, as opposed to being its own dominion or giving it back, and why is the capital there, as opposed to somewhere more central?
A Golden Country
snip
It was taken as a good natural harbor and because of its prime location from the Spanish in a treaty finalizing the colonial borders in the 1810s, when it still remained small. The capital was moved there to legitimize its claims over the region a few years later because Mexico declared it Mexican territory and stationed troops outside of city limits for a while. Most of the actual governmental work still took place in other cities, Alentejo was just the de jure capital, but government work moved there in the late 1800s because the threat of Mexican siege had passed.
A Golden Country
Loose and implausible Alternate History, but the premise is that the American Constitutional Convention ends in failure and causes civil unrest and eventually civil war. Meanwhile, British captain James Cook lands in northern California, sparking new British settlements on the Pacific coast while the Spanish and Russians also try to colonize this resource rich area. (Original premise was to come up with plausible Alternate History lore for my NationStates RP country using existing pieces of lore, which I think I did pretty well).
In 1872, the Dominion of Eureka was formed from the various British colonies, which now included an exclave in the San Diego region after brief colonial squabbles with the declining Spanish Empire. In 1931, following the Statue of Westminister, Eureka gained full autonomy. By this point, its ties to Britain were tenuous, and the majority of new settlers were from the U.S, Western Republic, or Mexico, and by 1939, the name of the nation was changed to Arnisoua, a corruption of an unspecified tribal word meaning "land of gold". In 1942, in a controversial decision, the new pro-American legislature ended any allegiance to the Crown, leaving the British Commonwealth after the U.K refused to side with the nation regarding land disputes with neighboring California. By 1950, the strength of labour unions and worker collectives in industrial and urban parts of the state ushered in a socialist government in the 1962 elections, which ruled until 1993. Arnisoua joined the American Union, an economic and political bloc of North American nations in 1995 to help end its ~30 year long period of isolationism.
Since 1872, the capital has been in Pinesia in the Alentejo District, which has been connected to the rest of the nation through the Coastal Connection since 1959, a train track running along the Californian coast that allows passport free travel between the two sides. Nowadays, the preferred method is air travel. In 2007, the nation of Noquine agreed to join Arnisoua in a controversial referendum. The plan was finalized in 2019, and today, Spanish, Russian, English, French, and Chinese are the official languages of the nation. Arnisoua borders the Western Republic to the north, Santafe to the east, California and Aztlan to the south, and also borders the city-state of San Francisco.
How come the Alentejo Province got its name? It seems different from all other province names
Got a big problem in the American Southwest. Besides the lack of that ugly triangle of land taken from Sonora after the Great War, there is the issue of why Arizona and New Mexico have split and been speeded into statehood even more important is why Houston is both a state and takes land from Sequoyah, despite it being Houston and Kentucky that voted to go Confederate during the referendums. Looking it up in the Turtedove wiki though, it seems Sequoyah was seen as occupied territory with a capital T when they first got it. I am unsure when and if it did in fact get official statehood. Do you have Mexico taking a little land from southern Texas at the coast? The US annex Liberia here? Did the Americans buy Spanish Puerto Rico and the Danish Virgin Islands for any reason here? Try and keep the Hermans from getting bases in the area? I am unsure on if the Dutch getting all of British Guiana rather than the Americans occupying it or Venezuela seems a bit odd, but almost incharacter for maps about Turtledoves older works. Do you have the British and French Caribbean in Union with Haiti, Jaimaica, or on its own? Can’t quite tell the colors apart. Also, why did Germany get land from Austria separating Bohemia from Galicia? The industry and railroads there would be pretty important to the Austrians, while the Germans have plenty elsewhere. The British have been pretty chopped up I see, so are the Channel Islands now part of whatever they call northern France here? Also, did the Japanese attack the Dutch in this series? Almost surprised they didn’t keep going and take out East Timor at the same times.
Huh. How Santafe get its name? I know the city of Santa Fe would seem an obvious source, but it seems a bit too out of the way to be practical. Did you also make the other countries here back when on Nation States?
A Golden Country
Loose and implausible Alternate History, but the premise is that the American Constitutional Convention ends in failure and causes civil unrest and eventually civil war. Meanwhile, British captain James Cook lands in northern California, sparking new British settlements on the Pacific coast while the Spanish and Russians also try to colonize this resource rich area. (Original premise was to come up with plausible Alternate History lore for my NationStates RP country using existing pieces of lore, which I think I did pretty well).
Yes, it does seem a bit odd, especially given it would likely be one of the first places settled or occupied, if only for the port. Renaming it after a region in Portugal might have... No, can’t think of an explanation myself. But then, I doubt I could come up with a plausible explanation and map an old Nation States profile.
Yeah, that was an issue as that was one of the already established pieces of lore I had to contend with. In-lore explanation would be that the British got some Portuguese dude do be the governor there for a while, and he just decided to name it from where he came from.
It means Holy Faith in Spanish. Really I just chose that because I didn't really want to use any OTL names lol and I didn't want to spend forever researching names for that region.
Thank you for your advice, Clandango. The next map will be more informative. (However, as I have got used to only profiling one country per map, it will still be a case of only one country described in relative detail. Hope that's okay and stuff.)
No, it ill happened on one day. I'll repost the first/zeroth map to explain.
- NYC from 2016 at the time of Bowie's death.
- Brixton, London from 1847 (Bowie's birth).
- The segment of western Europe that is literally between Ibiza and the Norfolk Broads (including parts of Spain, Andorra, France, and the UK).
- A section of Neanderthal inhabited Europe from about 40 to 50 thousand years ago.
- The New Kingdom of Nri (a nation on Mars in a sci fi timeline).
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