I think your attempts to attach the map broke, because I'm not seeing it in the post and when I click through the link I'm told I "don't have permission".
I think I've fixed it hopefullyI think your attempts to attach the map broke, because I'm not seeing it in the post and when I click through the link I'm told I "don't have permission".
You really do excel at making worlds with some utterly terrifying aspects, wow!
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what's terrifying about this?You really do excel at making worlds with some utterly terrifying aspects, wow!
Personnally: the (unlikely to be peaceful) disappearance of Korean culture and the several Hainanese and Taiwanese cultures and the fact that Japanese society is essentially allowed to continue as a militaristic and nationalistic Empire.what's terrifying about this?
ah, that. Well, I didn't really mention it. But idea was that Japan had a coup, similar to Operation Valkyrie, that pretty much removed the more fanatic elements from the government. Japan from that point onwards would be similar to TNO!Japan, but a tad more advanced on the democracy front.Personnally: the (unlikely to be peaceful) disappearance of Korean culture and the several Hainanese and Taiwanese cultures and the fact that Japanese society is essentially allowed to continue as a militaristic and nationalistic Empire.
I love it! What's the Federation's stance on the United States and vice versa?
Spring of NationsThe 1848 Revolutions of Europe raged against and quickly toppled the traditional monarchical institutions of the continent. Beginning on the Island of Sicily in January, it quickly spread to the streets of Paris who swiftly knocked down their King Louise Philippe and set up a provisional government. The news of the revolution in Paris quickly spread to the rest of Europe, the Austrian Emperor and Prussian King fled to Britain, the nobles of Ruthenia and Romania fled to Russia and the Pope fled to what was left of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. In their wake they left a Europe for the working and middle class of Europe.
The prime motivators for the revolts were a popular nationalistic opposition to the multi-ethnic empires of Austria and Prussia, disenfranchisement of the conservative rollbacks of the reformations made by Napoleon in parts of Europe and the wealth inequality between the upper classes and the middle and working classes. The revolutions were especially inspired by the wishes of the peoples of Germany, Italy, Romania, Poland and the South Slavs to live in united nation states.
The fresh German republics were quick to organize an All-German National Assembly in Frankfurt to organize a united German Federal Republic. Upon freeing themselves from the Russian, Ottoman and Austrian empires, the Romanian peoples united their three lands into a single country. The bickering of the Italian states over what a united Italy would look like led nowhere. To combat the conflict of interest between Austria and Prussia inside the German Republic they were forced to abandon all of their non-Germanic lands, the state of Hesse-Thuringia was also formed as a first step in the German mediatisation.
As the conservative monarchical powers of Great Britain and Russia loomed over the radical mainland, popular support of the Pan-European ideas of Giuseppe Mazzini soon arose all around republican Europe. He proposed a common Federation of European Republics to organize against any attempts by Russia or Britain to re-install the old kings and emperors.
Though the Federation of European Republics is a global powerhouse, it's internally divided. In France an increasingly disenfranchised peasant class gawk at the bickering of Liberals and Socialists in the capital. In Germany conflicts between Austria and Prussia keep on slowing down full centralization, and the mainly socialist Rhine Republic alienates the largely liberal politics of the other German republics. Territorial disputes over Alsace between the Germans and French, as well as French claims over Belgium, may in the future boil over into a civil war. The republics of the South Slavs, Poland and Ruthenia agitate for war with the Ottoman Empire and Russia to free their brethren, and the Schleswig-Holstein Question is still a point of contention between the Danes and Germans.
The federation has basically co-opted the French domestic relations with the US. It's basically one of their few allies.I love it! What's the Federation's stance on the United States and vice versa?
Interesting. How do the UK and Spain feel about that? If not much has changed in the US from OTL, both the US and the Federation are liable to shatter im the coming decades but if they can both keep themselves together they have the basis for a truly powerful cooperative and industrial economy, the monarchies be damnedThe federation has basically co-opted the French domestic relations with the US. It's basically one of their few allies.
As in growing from no one to 20 people on Twitter, intent on throwing the Hartlepool by-election for Labour because they consider everyone right of Scargill to be a ‘neoliberal tory’.the balkanisation of england is based off of growing movements for independence from a neoliberal tory england, and extrapolating that to areas that dont yet have such a movement but suffer from the same regional inequality and have the poorest bits of the uk in them.
Very nice. I considered a map of this world after I read the book but like most novels it doesn't easily translate to a simple mappable world. Interestingly, your Ottomans are larger than I envisioned while I imagined the US being larger.Taking a break from speculating on a planet with apes in to finish a map from the “in progress” limbo: an Ottoman-wank based on the AH/Time travel novel “Empire of Lies” by Raymond Khoury, in which an ISIS member stumbles across what’s essentially a Naked Time-Travel magic spell (I kid you not) and travels back in time (covered with tattoos of valuable information) to do a Guns of the South for the 17th century Ottoman Empire. He dies before he can really cement Islamic global dominance, having to skip ahead to the future to get a medical problem taken care of, and when returning in a hurry fails to take into account a ground level difference of roughly fifty feet.
So, science and technology get a boost from knowledge imported from the future, but then get set back by the destruction of much of Europe and the fact that the 17th century Ottoman empire is a tough place to get a full scientific-industrial revolution going, even if you don’t die a lot sooner than you expected. The result by the early 21st century is essentially a null result, with technology only a little more advanced than OTL if at all.
Those European powers with American colonies fled abroad, although Britain, which had a relatively relaxed history of dealing with the Ottomans, managed to pull off a “fully self-governing loyal vassal” agreement that made flight unnecessary, although they built up their colonies as a fallback. (Only for said colonies to revolt against the “corrupt and un-Christian rule of king George, that puppet of the Turk.” Well, you can’t win them all. The Ottomans took a long time to consolidate their rule over continental Europe, and never really got around to invading the Americas (there’s only so much on modern naval technology you can tattoo on one buttock), so things eventually stabilized with a cold war of sorts between the Americas and the Ottoman-dominated Old World (although once the European settlers in the Americas got to the point where they felt fairly safe from cross-Atlantic invasion, they promptly started fighting amongst themselves).
Today, a rather overextended Ottoman Empire is turning sharply in the direction of authoritarianism, the liberalizing and reforming rule of the former Sultan is being replaced by reaction and oppression under his conservative successor, with the support of religious hardliners and authoritarian types alarmed by popular agitation for greater regional self-rule and greater use of “consultation.” Things have not been improved by an economic pinch caused by a sharp decline in oil sales abroad, thanks to the Christian Republic of America’s successful technological push to entirely free themselves from foreign oil dependence through a mix of renewables, solar power, and atomic power. (Technology which they are gratuitously sharing with the Russians and even the heathen Chinese, although the Chinese don’t import a lot of oil anyway) The brutal repression is leading some Muslim nations to look askance at Ottoman dominance, and terrorism is on the rise within the Empire (although it’s hard for outside observers to tell what is actual resistance to the regime and what is false flag operations meant to blacken the reputation of dissenters).
All this is observed with much self-satisfaction by the Christian Republic, which has been predicting a return to “tyranny” on the part of the Ottomans for a while. And the Republic is a democracy - as long as you’re white and an evangelical protestant Christian. (Other sorts of protestants are tolerated. Catholics are denied the vote. Jews can damn well stay in Ottoman territory, and Muslims are Beyond the Pale).It’s also sort of on the racist side - slavery ended earlier than in our timeline, but black people still don’t have the vote unless they can demonstrate at least ¾ white ancestry [1] - they’re considered both genetically challenged and potential Moorish Sympathizers (most of black Africa is Muslim, and there are a lot of black Ottomans walking around like they were equal to white people).
The Dutch Union is the Christian Republic’s Protestant Little Buddy (less than half of American citizens think being Dutch Reformed means you’re hell-bound) if a bit dubious in their excessive tolerance of Jews and even polytheists. Relations with Brazil are at least correct, even if they’re dirty half-black Catholics: there’s still some ties from the old Portuguese-British alliance and they have no territorial disputes.
Relations with New Spain are, as always, terrible, although the government buys a lot of discounted cutting-edge weapons from the Christian Republic to help fight the Communalists, using Brazilian intermediaries for deniability. (Even in polite society, one is expected to spit when one mentions the CRA).
(A lot of that and what is on the map is speculative, since the book focuses mostly on Ottoman France and the 17th century past, and little detail is given about the rest of the world, although Russia and China still exist in some form as independent states, and the Christian Republic is roughly described).
[1] An innovation of a Christian-Technocratic president big on "rational" Race Science, and strongly opposed by the One Drop crowd.
Thanks!Very nice. I considered a map of this world after I read the book but like most novels it doesn't easily translate to a simple mappable world. Interestingly, your Ottomans are larger than I envisioned while I imagined the US being larger.
The fact that the world is slowly beginning to unknit itself is seen as a crackpot theory backed up solely by contradictory records about the advance of Inconstancies. Much of the petty bickering is in the past, but the modern type tends to just be what people do! With regards to escape plans and redoubts, there is a sort of confusedness about the whole thing- indeed, such projects exist... but everyone has grown up in this world, whether by being created by the initial event or not, and so there's also a sense that this is Just How Things Work. In the public consciousness, the world outside the United States wasn't really... a thing. The Inconstancies have very fuzzy boundaries, and in fact some areas within the United States could be described as within an Inconstancy- it's not until you get fairly far out that symptoms like disorientation and limbs falling asleep begin to manifest, let alone the more obvious symptoms. This is the main reason there are very few exterior settlements- most disappear, and the situation isn't bad enough that anyone wants to risk it.Why does anyone care at all about petty bickering like this when existence itself is fading away? Shouldn’t they be trying to escape back to reality? Or at least to shore up against it? What happens if someone crosses the boundary? I love this world building idea and want to see more examples of it, based both ones scenarios and on classic historical (for this site and community) ISOTs. It raises a ton of fun questions.