MotF 170: To Shining Sea

[Upvoteanthology]

MotF 170: To Shining Sea

The Challenge
Make a map of a country or region that extends from one major body of water to another. (IRL examples: Russia, Canada, the USA, Australia)

The Restrictions
There are no restrictions on when the PoD of your map should be. Fantasy, sci-fi, and future maps are allowed.

If you're not sure whether your idea meets the criteria of this challenge, please feel free to PM me or comment in the main thread. Sometimes it isn't as clear as I intend it to be.

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Entries will end for this round when the voting thread is posted on Monday, Christmas 2017.
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ALL DISCUSSION ON THE CONTEST OR ITS ENTRIES MUST TAKE PLACE IN THE MAIN THREAD. PLEASE.

Any discussion must take place in the main thread. If you post anything other than a map entry (or a description accompanying a map entry) in this thread then you will be asked to delete the post.

Remember to vote on the previous MotF round!​

 

[fashbasher]

POD: Earlier Bantu expansion means that the Basotho discover gold and are able to reach shores by the time of the Phoenician-Egyptian expedition to circumnavigate Africa. The result is that when Phoenician sailors round Cape Agulhas, they are greeted not by (presumably) nomadic Khoisan tribes but by settled Lesotho tribesmen, some in possession of gold and other shinies from the rich soil of the region (diamonds, anyone?). This results in a modest Phoenician/Egyptian gold rush in the region and in many Phoenician sailors and shipbuilders joining the Sotho nation; Old Great Lesotho becomes one of the great gold mines in antiquity as well as the farthest bastion of Mediterranean civilization and a common if dreaded exile destination. After a bit of wanking, navigators from Lesotho discover *Saint Helena, and from there are able to trade with Europe and discover the *Americas (Lehlaping, or in bad Sotho "Place of Fish"). They initially land in Brazil but struggle to gain a foothold (grey represents allied states with a varying percentage of Basotho language and ancestry); butterflies like disease result in an earlier Creek settlement in peninsular Florida and mean that the Everglades has its Seminole name of *Pahayokee by 1300. Deformed to in analogy to Lesotho, Pahayokee (Sotho: Lehioki) becomes the common Sotho name for North America. Two of these three territories fit the criteria of the MOTF and one does not.

I cannot speak Sotho so any solecisms are my own fault. Only two of the clan names actually exist.

 

[Xibalba]

It's a fantastic map, but maps are supposed to be new for the challenge, so I'm afraid I can't let that one be voted on.

Dang it, I didn't know that. Can a rework of that be eligible for voting? Or does it have to be an entirely new concept?

 

[Iserlohn]

After the era of imperialism began to come to a close the Portuguese government in Lisbon had to deal with a rising desire for independence in their Central African colonies of Angola, Mozambique, and Zambezi. The three colonies were connected with a handful of rail lines and several major rivers, so the pro-independence leaders in the colonies shared similar ideals and especially the mines in Zambezi were dependent on Mozambique in order to export their minerals. So after intense negotiations between pro-independence groups and Lisbon an arrangement was made where the oil-rich protectorate of Cabinda and the very south of Mozambique, including the colonial capital of Lourenço Marques, which was home to the biggest white population of Portugal's continental colonies, were to remain in Portuguese hands, and the remaining colonies were to achieve independence as a federation in 1962. In order to appease regional aspirations each of the three colonies were divided into two regions, thus leading to the eight regions now making up Central Africa.

Within the next ten years both Cabinda and Lourenço Marques also achieved independence from Portugal, with the former being taken over by Libertarian mercenaries, and the latter achieved independence with the support of the white regime in South Africa.

EDIT: Changed the name of Azania to Capeland.

 

[Upvoteanthology]

Dang it, I didn't know that. Can a rework of that be eligible for voting? Or does it have to be an entirely new concept?

Hmm. I mean, I've used the same basemap for multiple MotF entries, so there is a point where you can "rework" a previous map. It just comes down to where I want to draw the line between what I count as a barely-changed repost and a new piece of work. I'd say if you change the map enough so that it looks at least somewhat different from before, that will be good enough. The rule is only in place to keep people from working on applicable maps before the competition anyway, so by changing it now you should be good.

 

[SpicyJuan]

POD: America gets screwed in the War of 1812 and everything that could go wrong from there does.

 

[damein fisher]

Stayed up all night to get this in on time, so here I present "From Atop Cacti"​

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Kind of ASB, but the concept is that the First Mexican Empire is able to effectively adapt to the requests and needs of their states, and therefore avoid revolutions in the North and Central America. The lack of new Territory as a result of No Mexican American War results in an earlier American Civil War and the South wins, Confederate aggression over the Sabine border of Tejas and Louisiana results in a Mexican-Confederate War. The US joins in on this war and the two defeat the CSA; the US takes back South Missouri, Virginia and Kentucky, while Mexico takes The Indian Territory, Arkansas and Louisiana [under the condition that the US has free access to the mouth of the Mississippi]

An Alternate, later version of the Spanish American war occurs with Mexico instead of America. With less cultural and racial differences between the former Spanish East/West Indies and Mexico than with OTL America, allows for Mexico to keep ahold of these regions as the states of San Juan [Puerto Rico], Guam, Cuba, Gran Moluca [Mindanao] and Nueva Castilla [Luzon].

Two other notes; Instead of the US, the Mexicans support the Panama rebellion for both a cheaper canal and expansion of territory, and instead of appealing to the US, the Dominican Republic asks Mexico for annexation.