Map Thread XXI

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Are we… anthropomorphizing borders now?
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Oh no! Someone let out Mr. Frundles in Ohio. Everybody to the ship. NOW!
 
I dunno why people keep ragging on American state borders. A straight line is definitionally a good border. You can argue about where the line should be. You can argue about how long the line should be. You can argue about who’s on which side of the line. But you can’t argue about the border itself. A line is a line. Anyone can measure it. It’s not in question like natural borders. “Hey, that’s not where the old riverbed was!” “Who says that’s the continental divide?” “Oi, oi, oi, watershed? That ends 30 miles thataway!” No, sir. “Yep, that’s a line.” That’s all there is.
Dispute over where the continental divide is? What?
 
Straight line borders are aesthetically ugly but, in the practical aspect, they only exacerbate the existing issues inherent to any border, that of arbitrarily excluding people.
It could hardly be said that the 49th parallel stretch of the US-Canada border is any worse than the India-Bangladesh border, both before and after they removed the exclaves.

I do prefer a good drainage basin border though.
 
Are we… anthropomorphizing borders now?
3de.png


Even a straight line tells a story. There’s history in a straight line. It can tell you that a war was really, really tendentious. It might not even be over yet. It can tell you that a society is well-ordered. It can proclaim “Hey, we quite plainly have living space here. Why not swing on by?” How the States Got Their Shapes is a great book on the subject.
Hehe I used to joke with my American coworkers in Japan by using their home states.

"Nebraska gozaimasu"
 
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"Silence, please! Thank you.

Comrades, today is an important day for all of us. Exactly 20 years ago, on November 7, 1917, together we crushed the Old so-called "Order", proving not only to ourselves, not only to the peoples of the former Empire, but to the whole world that the socialist revolution is not just possible, but, moreover, inevitable. Naturally, then, without having had time to shake off the dust of the old regime, we found ourselves beset by our mortal enemies - despicable interventionists, bourgeois mercenaries and White-Guard bandits.
But we have survived! Although everyone predicted the end of the "Petrograd murderes", soon all of Eurasia saw the true face of our enemies! Hundreds of peasants rose to fight against the feudal landowners, hundreds of workers broke their last shackles, in a single impulse shaking off the ashes of old Russia, immediately starting their Great Work of constructing a new, truly just society, which is just not only for some priveleged buffoons - indeed, there are no more classes to speak of in Proletarium anymore! - boldly stepping into a boundaries of the happy future!
Indeed, some might even say that we are already in it! In addition to the victory over such vices of the old society as nationalism, social inequality, the oppression of man by fellow man, we also gained the final Victory over the Ultimate Oppressor of the mankind - mortality! And yet, we can't let ourselves become complacent.
Oh, how the bourgeois from all over the world condemned us, how they cursed us for such a "crime before God and conscience"! Contemptuously calling us "vampyres" - parasites, creatures of Satan, they did not expect that we would proudly accept the challenge and laugh in their face!
Brothers and sisters! We have a new era ahead of us! We shall let them feel a taste of their own medicine, we will teach them to fear, we shall get our revenge for everything on them! Let them be afraid of the wrath of the Working People, let them flee from their palaces and estates, for when the hour of reckoning comes, there shall be no mercy!
Hurrah, comrades!"


So, basically, TTL Soviet Union is much more into social experiments, like creating a new language (basing on Esperanto, but with "Russian characteristics"), creating a unified state without any sort of national autonomies and other things. Also it is openly ruled by the vampires, right. The vampires are considered to be a next stage of human evolution, so any good communist should embrace the vampirism with open arms to prove themselves worthy of a new society (what? "I'll never become a filthy bloodsucker"? You bourgeoise morality dissapoints us, comrade. Actually, let us go to the local commisar, to whom you may express your concerns - we'll see if you're really our comrade, comrade) - just as bourgeoise oppressors sucked the proletarian blood metaphorically, the proletarians shall suck borgeoise' blood literally.
But what about the sunlight? Sure it is bad for a good proletarian's skin? No worries, comrade! No proletarian in their right mind lives outside the cities anyway, and the smoke from our factories is so great that it covers everything, not letting the sunlight in, thus solving this problem!
 
the_ultimate_oppression__the_eurasian_proletarium_by_hismajestypurplecat_dfe8gly-fullview.jpg



"Silence, please! Thank you.

Comrades, today is an important day for all of us. Exactly 20 years ago, on November 7, 1917, together we crushed the Old so-called "Order", proving not only to ourselves, not only to the peoples of the former Empire, but to the whole world that the socialist revolution is not just possible, but, moreover, inevitable. Naturally, then, without having had time to shake off the dust of the old regime, we found ourselves beset by our mortal enemies - despicable interventionists, bourgeois mercenaries and White-Guard bandits.
But we have survived! Although everyone predicted the end of the "Petrograd murderes", soon all of Eurasia saw the true face of our enemies! Hundreds of peasants rose to fight against the feudal landowners, hundreds of workers broke their last shackles, in a single impulse shaking off the ashes of old Russia, immediately starting their Great Work of constructing a new, truly just society, which is just not only for some priveleged buffoons - indeed, there are no more classes to speak of in Proletarium anymore! - boldly stepping into a boundaries of the happy future!
Indeed, some might even say that we are already in it! In addition to the victory over such vices of the old society as nationalism, social inequality, the oppression of man by fellow man, we also gained the final Victory over the Ultimate Oppressor of the mankind - mortality! And yet, we can't let ourselves become complacent.
Oh, how the bourgeois from all over the world condemned us, how they cursed us for such a "crime before God and conscience"! Contemptuously calling us "vampyres" - parasites, creatures of Satan, they did not expect that we would proudly accept the challenge and laugh in their face!
Brothers and sisters! We have a new era ahead of us! We shall let them feel a taste of their own medicine, we will teach them to fear, we shall get our revenge for everything on them! Let them be afraid of the wrath of the Working People, let them flee from their palaces and estates, for when the hour of reckoning comes, there shall be no mercy!
Hurrah, comrades!"


So, basically, TTL Soviet Union is much more into social experiments, like creating a new language (basing on Esperanto, but with "Russian characteristics"), creating a unified state without any sort of national autonomies and other things. Also it is openly ruled by the vampires, right. The vampires are considered to be a next stage of human evolution, so any good communist should embrace the vampirism with open arms to prove themselves worthy of a new society (what? "I'll never become a filthy bloodsucker"? You bourgeoise morality dissapoints us, comrade. Actually, let us go to the local commisar, to whom you may express your concerns - we'll see if you're really our comrade, comrade) - just as bourgeoise oppressors sucked the proletarian blood metaphorically, the proletarians shall suck borgeoise' blood literally.
But what about the sunlight? Sure it is bad for a good proletarian's skin? No worries, comrade! No proletarian in their right mind lives outside the cities anyway, and the smoke from our factories is so great that it covers everything, not letting the sunlight in, thus solving this problem!
"Nationality is reactionary, comrade. You're not a reactionary, are you, comrade?"
 
Whatever one thinks of borders and states, a straight line represents the existence of these things with the ideology that justifies their existence removed. They appear nakedly thoughtless and cynical; for the benefit of the powerful parceling out land amongst themselves, but this time without the mask of ideology to shape it in any relatable or practical terms. While some borders can, in some ways, rationalized as a long and chaotic evolution of what once would have been borders between clear regions and groups of people, a straight line is completely bare and upfront with what it is, an artificial division, hastily created by colonists in a land they cared little for beyond what belonged to who and where lines of power between the elite are to be drawn therein. At least that's why they appear unsightly to me, outside of the basic aesthetics of a map.
They lay bare the violent unnaturalness, indeed anti-naturalness, of the border as a concept. The playful squiggles of Europe, hugging hills and rivers as though they were all products of the same divine creation, lends the border a semblance of pastoral tranquility, of a thing with a place. The 49th parallel shatters this illusion. The brazeness of this unyielding band wrenches forth recollection, against all will, of the millions of lives burned in its honour; corpses sacrificed to its glory. It is our god of blood and death; it is the darkness of ourselves and the darkness is screaming. What can we do but recoil in revolted angst? With a single stroke across the continent this relentless strand alone stands as a cruel ambassador for ten thousand years of Cain's dreadful crime.

What were we talking about?
 
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Are we… anthropomorphizing borders now?
I'm sure if we did they'd feel left out if we didn't 😛
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Even a straight line tells a story. There’s history in a straight line. It can tell you that a war was really, really tendentious. It might not even be over yet. It can tell you that a society is well-ordered. It can proclaim “Hey, we quite plainly have living space here. Why not swing on by?” How the States Got Their Shapes is a great book on the subject.
Except fronts on a wars don't follow straight lines, they follow geography and the men who are on the front.

As far as the other two, I'll take a hard pass and find a place that isn't talking to me in a robot voice or has something other than "I exist!" to say. But as all opinions, that is subjective.
 
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"Silence, please! Thank you.

Comrades, today is an important day for all of us. Exactly 20 years ago, on November 7, 1917, together we crushed the Old so-called "Order", proving not only to ourselves, not only to the peoples of the former Empire, but to the whole world that the socialist revolution is not just possible, but, moreover, inevitable. Naturally, then, without having had time to shake off the dust of the old regime, we found ourselves beset by our mortal enemies - despicable interventionists, bourgeois mercenaries and White-Guard bandits.
But we have survived! Although everyone predicted the end of the "Petrograd murderes", soon all of Eurasia saw the true face of our enemies! Hundreds of peasants rose to fight against the feudal landowners, hundreds of workers broke their last shackles, in a single impulse shaking off the ashes of old Russia, immediately starting their Great Work of constructing a new, truly just society, which is just not only for some priveleged buffoons - indeed, there are no more classes to speak of in Proletarium anymore! - boldly stepping into a boundaries of the happy future!
Indeed, some might even say that we are already in it! In addition to the victory over such vices of the old society as nationalism, social inequality, the oppression of man by fellow man, we also gained the final Victory over the Ultimate Oppressor of the mankind - mortality! And yet, we can't let ourselves become complacent.
Oh, how the bourgeois from all over the world condemned us, how they cursed us for such a "crime before God and conscience"! Contemptuously calling us "vampyres" - parasites, creatures of Satan, they did not expect that we would proudly accept the challenge and laugh in their face!
Brothers and sisters! We have a new era ahead of us! We shall let them feel a taste of their own medicine, we will teach them to fear, we shall get our revenge for everything on them! Let them be afraid of the wrath of the Working People, let them flee from their palaces and estates, for when the hour of reckoning comes, there shall be no mercy!
Hurrah, comrades!"


So, basically, TTL Soviet Union is much more into social experiments, like creating a new language (basing on Esperanto, but with "Russian characteristics"), creating a unified state without any sort of national autonomies and other things. Also it is openly ruled by the vampires, right. The vampires are considered to be a next stage of human evolution, so any good communist should embrace the vampirism with open arms to prove themselves worthy of a new society (what? "I'll never become a filthy bloodsucker"? You bourgeoise morality dissapoints us, comrade. Actually, let us go to the local commisar, to whom you may express your concerns - we'll see if you're really our comrade, comrade) - just as bourgeoise oppressors sucked the proletarian blood metaphorically, the proletarians shall suck borgeoise' blood literally.
But what about the sunlight? Sure it is bad for a good proletarian's skin? No worries, comrade! No proletarian in their right mind lives outside the cities anyway, and the smoke from our factories is so great that it covers everything, not letting the sunlight in, thus solving this problem!
I hope they are doing all that crazy shi* like making human-apes hybrids and turning siberian rivers flow southward, with the power of ATOM
My mayin complain is however... Turkestan? Really? Sound a bit national to me... I would use something more "neutral", maybe Aralia or something like that? (since Aral sea lies almost in its center...)
 
Are we… anthropomorphizing borders now?
3de.png


Even a straight line tells a story. There’s history in a straight line. It can tell you that a war was really, really tendentious. It might not even be over yet. It can tell you that a society is well-ordered. It can proclaim “Hey, we quite plainly have living space here. Why not swing on by?” How the States Got Their Shapes is a great book on the subject.
The uWu-fication of Ohio, truly you have blessed my retinas
 
I dunno why people keep ragging on American state borders. A straight line is definitionally a good border. You can argue about where the line should be. You can argue about how long the line should be. You can argue about who’s on which side of the line. But you can’t argue about the border itself. A line is a line. Anyone can measure it. It’s not in question like natural borders. “Hey, that’s not where the old riverbed was!” “Who says that’s the continental divide?” “Oi, oi, oi, watershed? That ends 30 miles thataway!” No, sir. “Yep, that’s a line.” That’s all there is.
Because straight lines are boring :p
Now, in some places, they make sense... say in the American Midwest, where you can cross, say, a major drainage divide and, if it weren't for that sign on the side of the road, you'd never know it...
In mountainous areas, forget about it... as a former land surveyor, I'd commit seppuku before I'd run a straight line through the Rockies :D
 
Map of the World in 2001

aEIuc5R.png


As part of the epilogue for my hiatus/dead timeline CPCW, I made a map showing the "end result" of the world, in 2001.

Democratic Japan helped in the Chinese civil war to get a pro-Japanese democratic faction on top, Indonesia and Malaysia (though fractured) were decolonised peacefully and brought into Japan's sphere, and Korea split amicably through a referendum. Britain succeeded in forming a reduced commonwealth (CANZUK plus a bit more), the USSR had an early soft collapse, the socialist EU analogue spans Eurasia from France to Kamchatka, and India split up in a civil war. The United States is on its second constitution after a bloodless coup overthrew their colonialist government fighting over US Africa (modern Man, Togo, Ubangi, down to Katanga).

The countries in our timeline after being transported into this timeline:

Syria:

1664218433964.png


Cambodians and Jordanians:

1664216967767.png


China:

1664217140888.png


Iran, Turkiye, and Iraq:

1664217190255.png


Bolivia after losing even more land to the Paraguayans:

1664217311626.png


"Devestating Syrian Victory"
 
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H
The countries in our timeline after being transported into this timeline:

Syria:

View attachment 777308

Cambodians and Jordanians:

View attachment 777299

China:

View attachment 777300

Iran, Turkiye, and Iraq:

View attachment 777301

Bolivia after losing even more land to the Paraguayans:

View attachment 777302

"Devestating Syrian Victory"
Aha finally someone noticed Paraguay ;)

I will say China is better off economically ITTL and also never suffered through the "Great Leap Forward" or Cultural Revolution.

Persia also isn't being sanctioned by anyone, so maybe that's better? Not sure how happy modern Iranians would be under a surviving Qajar dynasty, but yeah.
 
H
Aha finally someone noticed Paraguay ;)

I will say China is better off economically ITTL and also never suffered through the "Great Leap Forward" or Cultural Revolution.

Persia also isn't being sanctioned by anyone, so maybe that's better? Not sure how happy modern Iranians would be under a surviving Qajar dynasty, but yeah.
How are China's relations with the Red "Taiwan" in Xinjiang? You'd imagine they would have conquered/annexed it by now, unless the Reds got nukes or backing by Russia or the US or Japan or something.

Speaking of Japan, they're doing pretty well too, it seems, and I'd argue probably the biggest winner of this world, at least compared to their OTL status (from US client state to independent great power in their own right) Though that might not last long, what with the Chinese wealthier than OTL - Japan might well be more technologically advanced/per capita productive than China, but that only does so much in the face of overwhelming demographic superiority (especially if the Japanese have demographically transitioned like any other modern nationn state. not sure if the extra people in Taiwan, largely desolate Alaska and small Pacific Islands help much)
 
How are China's relations with the Red "Taiwan" in Xinjiang? You'd imagine they would have conquered/annexed it by now, unless the Reds got nukes or backing by Russia or the US or Japan or something.

Speaking of Japan, they're doing pretty well too, it seems, and I'd argue probably the biggest winner of this world, at least compared to their OTL status (from US client state to independent great power in their own right) Though that might not last long, what with the Chinese wealthier than OTL - Japan might well be more technologically advanced/per capita productive than China, but that only does so much in the face of overwhelming demographic superiority (especially if the Japanese have demographically transitioned like any other modern nationn state. not sure if the extra people in Taiwan, largely desolate Alaska and small Pacific Islands help much)

At the end of the Chinese Civil War, all signatories of the peace agreed to recognize their borders. The PRC was backed by the USSR, and China was kept at bay with the threat of nukes. Early in the post-war period, China split from the Japanese sphere and tried cozying up to the USSR and France in the hopes of gaining back Xinjiang and another backer, but the USSR began to wane and experienced a period of collapse.

China and Japan negotiated changes to the structure of the Keijou Pact (democratic-ish coprosperity sphere) into the new Association of Pacific Nations with more weight being given to China. Renewed pressure was put on the PRC, which somewhat gave in by voluntarily using the name "Xinjiang" for foreign relations. Willingness to actually invade and integrate the region was remarkably low, however. Chinese military spending had only recently ramped up, and the region of Xinjiang was extremely poor at the time, so plans were scrapped.

Since the tensions of the 60s-80s, the PRC has remained a harsh dictatorial state with very little development (OTL NKorea style), making China even less willing to absorb it.

And yeah, Japan is slowly being overtaken by China. Since the Chinese growth of the 80s, Japan has been using Bengal, Dravida Nadu, and Indonesia as counterweights. China fearmongering is a bit of a thing, but close relations since 1946 have kept tensions fairly low.
 

Stretch

Donor
There isn't really anywhere else I could think to post this that would fit but here, so here's a link to a recently made short mapping series on YouTube that I rather enjoyed. It is well made, but there is a fair amount of butterfly net usage. Basically, Chinese merchants set up colonies in the Pacific/Pacific North America after the Treasure Voyages finish.
It's about 3 1/2 hours total length. Just to clarify, I am not Cresium, the creator of this series.

 
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