MotF 180: About Face

[Kaiphranos]

MotF 180: About Face

The Challenge
Make a map showing a conflict or competition where one of the participants has unexpectedly switched sides.

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.
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Entries will end for this round when the voting thread is posted on Sunday, July 15th, 2018.

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ALL DISCUSSION ON THE CONTEST OR ITS ENTRIES MUST TAKE PLACE IN THE MAIN THREAD, PLEASE.
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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!​

 

[Oliveia]

During the very end of the Great War, the Hashemite-led Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire had all but succeeded. With the Arabian Peninsula free of Turkish cruelty, the Hejazi Kingdom came to a sudden realization: the British Empire would not make full her promise of an independent state, and was preparing to divvy up the Peninsula between the Entente Powers. Fearing for his people, a jihad was declared on Britain by the Sherif of Mecca and Medina.
The Arab-British War, as it was to be called, was painful and long, with the Arab strategy made fair use of the Peninsula's deserts and a large amount of guerrilla combat. Even when the major dynasties of Arabia (the Houses of Hashim, Saud, Rashid, and Rassids) all capitulated to Britannia, guerrilla forces who supported all of these dynasties fought on for another six years, often called the Bleeding of Arabia.
Following the Treaty of Aden, which ended the Arab-British War, the Peninsula and most Arab land were ceded to the British Empire, who divided it into several regions to form the Arabian Dominion: Greater Mesopotamia (comprising of Lesser Mesopotamia and Syria), the Free State of Zion, the Kingdom of Ha'il, the Kingdom of Hejaz (including both of the Holy Cities of Islam), the Kingdom of Yemen (which was technically a free state, but was under heavy amounts of British control), the Kingdom of Saud (containing the namesake kingdom, as well as the Rub' al-Khali Desert, and Asir), and the Kingdom of Oman. The map above, taken from The Territories of Britannia (1931), displays a rough breakdown of the administrative aspects of the Dominion, as well as a loose understanding of the religious identities of the Dominion (though, due note the long-since offensive use of "Mohammedan" as a general descriptor of Muslims, as well as placing Christianity, Judaism, and the Druze faith all above Islam and her many sects).

-From An Analysis of Arabia in the Modern Day (2011)​

 

[Zorqal]

The State of Haudenosaunee and its neighbors, 2018
(aka the screw New York TL)
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NOTE: Some Haudenosaunean cities have English names to go with their original names, though these have largely fallen out of use following the Civil War.

 

[damein fisher]

Aftermath of the Austria-Hungarian Civil War

Following the Great War, Austria saw only minor expansion of its empire with Serbia and Montenegro falling under Austrian influence. However, this saw even worse ethnic tension for the empire, attempts were made to reform the empire into the United States of Great Austria, but these universally failed to come to fruition.

After the Parliament in Bosnia brought up the concept of an independence referendum, the autonomy of the province was heavily reduced, leading to the region declaring independence in 1926, encouraging all minorities to do the same. Austria was on the way to invade Bosnia as the region of Bohemia declared independence as well, followed soon by Serbia and Montenegro claiming full independence from the Austrian Crown and supporting their own rebels.

The Empire requested aid from their ally to the north, but Germany was struggling with the Red Wave in the east and couldn't spare resources that were being used to stop communism in their empire. However, the Austrian Ally of Naples was willing to send aid. The Front lines were slow and very similar to the Western Front of the Great War, until in June of 1927 when the Bosnian Lines collapsed and Bosnia was defeated. However, at that point rebels across the Empire was seeing their opportunity. Poles in Galicia, Romanians in Hungary and Italians in Lombardy-Venetia, and with these rebels came other nations supporting them.

At the arrival of Romania into the war, Bulgaria would join as they were already debating support for Austria to gain land in Serbia that had been promised but not delivered in the Great War. Tuscany would also join after the declaration of war by Sardinia-Piedmont. Romania originally saw great success in the unoccupied northern Hungary but after Bosnia surrendered, many soldiers pushed them back and with Bulgarian aid, Romania surrendered in spring of 1928; ceding the remainder of Dobrogea to Bulgaria. After the defeat of the Bohemian rebels and the great success's of the Italians, Hungary realized their opportunity and declared independence, turning their rifles on Austria.

Austria, desperate to hold on, made peace with many of the smaller rebel states. The Treaty of Venice saw the cession on Lombardy to Sardinia-Piedmont, forming the Kingdom of High Italy. The Treaty of Belgrade released Serbia and Montenegro from being Client states [To which they would unify a month later. And the Treaty of Lemberg saw Polish border regions of Galicia unified with Poland. The War between Naples and Austria versus Hungary would continue for another year and a half until the Austrians collapse from economic strain and made peace in August 4 1930, ending the Austrian Civil War.

The people of Austria were deeply wounded by the war and the death of their empire. Even after joining the European Economic Confederation the following year giving their economy a boost, they were heartbroken. However, a new movement has become popular in the eyes of the Young Austrians, that of a Union of the Germanic Kingdoms.

This map is part of my ongoing Timeline; The Lion, The Rooster and the Eagle. A Larger, full-size version can be found here.

 

[NeonHydroxide]

While the collapse of the German Reich is usually associated with the monumental events of 2013-15, the roots of the dissolution of the German sphere were much more gradual and took much longer than the popular understanding recognizes. Typically thought of as a major but tangential event of the Cold War, the revolution in Ukraine in fact was the first domino which directly led to the dismemberment of the European Union from the Volga to the Urals.

After the defeat of the Soviet Union during the Second World War, the region now known as the former Eastern Territories were organized into Reichkommisariats, whose initial goal was to oversee the ethnic cleansing of the predominantly Slavic population and resettlement by Germans. However, the need for continuous extraction to feed the Reich during the early Cold War led to these plans being gradually delayed, until the removal of Nazi Party rule made them obsolete. For thirty years the East simmered under a low-intensity partisan conflict - until the New Law of 1978. With the Reich facing economic recession and the strains of losing a proxy war with the United States in Sudan, the new German leader decided to expand civil rights to a series of new ethnicities, in an attempt to stabilize Eastern Europe. The largest such group to be declared 'near-Aryan' was the Ukrainians, and former opposition leaders were offered token positions in the Reichkommissariat's new advisory parliament.

This did cool tensions for a time, but ultimately expanded rights and a decreased grip merely increased the desire for true freedom and equality. Throughout the 1980s, the Ukrainian National Socialist Party, intended as a puppet of Berlin, was coopted by the underground Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, and increasingly dared to criticize the consequences of German rule. The proverbial match came in the summer of 1993, when a short summer and re-tightened sanctions related to the Algiers crisis led to famine across the European Union. Grain shipments from Ukraine to the core of the Reich prompted long lines and high prices, and ultimately to mass protests in Kiew, Rowno, and Hitlerstadt. Faced with the prospect of a reignited partisan war disrupting food supplies to Germany, the Reichkommissarriat was abolished, and Ukraine was promoted to an 'allied member nation' like France or Spain, with significantly more autonomy in the domestic sphere.

But a surname ending with 'enko' was not enough to keep the new Ukrainian leader in power for long, and within two years he was deposed by a OUN coup, which withdrew the nation from the German bloc. Unwilling to risk war in the East, Berlin rattled its saber, concluded a face-saving agreement, and allowed Ukraine to go - never formally a part of UNTO, but a neutral which leaned further and further towards the West as time passed. Although Germany remained a fearsome military power, Ukraine's successful defection showed that it was a paper tiger. Although the 1999 coup in Berlin and the brutal suppression of similar protests in Estonia gave the regime another decade, it proved impossible, once the first domino fell, to prevent the cascade.

 

[TapReflex]

TRAITORS ALL THE WAY DOWN

Radical Reconstruction begins, and military leaders, politicians, and munitions suppliers are either imprisoned or hanged.

Soldiers who betrayed the United States flee to Brazil. In Brazil, a number of Confederates decide it would be lucrative to smuggle out rubber tree seeds. This ultimately harmed Brazil by breaking its stranglehold on the Rubber economy. Several, on their way to Thailand to sell seeds and be guns-for-hire in India, are redirected to the Lanfang Republic. Though some train militias, the Confederates failed to assimilate into the population. Seeing an opportunity to rekindle the flame of a chattel slavery economy, they take over the city of Khunchen (OTL Pontianak). The Confederates beg for US assistance, and they get a gunboat parked in the Kapuas River. To guarantee peace, the US recognized the Lanfang Republic and negotiated a treaty of friendship, ensuring the US would protect the practices and lands. As a plantation economy grows, the Governors of Khunchen had the policy of evicting Chinese and Malay farmers and then forcing them to work their fields. A low level insurgency begins, and the Confederados begin mutilating the guerillas they catch. Worrying about US support, the Governor of Khunchen reverses course, and those armed Confederados turn on the Governor. The US must intervene and annexes Khunchen, putting the Confederates out of power for good.