Our Fair Country: The Commonwealth of New England

[CosmicAsh]

Well, I am now £84 poorer, but I have an OFC world map poster on the way. How delightful.

Ahhh! No way! I was hoping to be the guinea pig first before anyone pulls the trigger! I guess if people want to move forward, I will provide the files (all 5 maps and flags or world map and flags or just the world map) to anyone that wants them now!

Edit: Make sure to send a picture when you get it!!

 

[Gladsome]

Edit: Make sure to send a picture when you get it!!

Will do!

 

[CosmicAsh]

Okay here we are:

Single Map
Single Map and Flags
5 Maps and Flags

 

[Analytical Engine]

Okay here we are:

Single Map
Single Map and Flags
5 Maps and Flags

Coolness...
But there is still a typo in the bottom right hand corner, with the spelling of Zanzibar. Other than that, I am ready to ascend to the realm of cartographic paradise...

 

[CosmicAsh]

Anyway, Zazzle is first rate, I'd strongly recommend them

 

[TheHolySchwa]

These Fair Shores

GRANBY, MASSACHUSETTS BAY

01/10/18
​

There were some mornings that John Taylor wished that the words “from dawn ‘till dusk” applied less to him. This morning, however, the saying was less applicable: it was not dawn that he awoke at, because dawn would not break for another two hours and seventeen minutes. It was 4:30 on a Monday morning, and Mr. Taylor did not want to wake up, but wake up he did. His morning routine was performed as mundanely and as linearly as usual, beginning with a trip to the toilet and ending with a piece of toast and a cup of tea, before running out the door at 5:19. The 5:25 southbound tram arrived at 5:26, a lack of punctuality which went unnoticed by the still sleepy John, and it was not until he was three minutes out from Chicopee (around 5:44) that he realized that the Springfield light-rail system was running almost exactly one minute late.

At 5:30, an hour after her husband, Melinda Taylor reluctantly woke up too. She too went about her routine, making two bowls of oatmeal alongside her cup of tea and wrapping the bowls in aluminum foil before hopping in her sudan at 6:28 and making her way across the Connecticut River to merge onto NH-229. She took the motorway all the way north to Greenfield, about an hour-long commute.


That her parents did these things before the crack of dawn was known by Sarah Taylor, but perhaps not entirely understood. Her generation was often accused of taking things for granted, and she, like the rest of her generation, resented these accusations with a fiery passion, but it may have been true that she didn’t thank her mother enough for the breakfast laid out for her in the morning. She certainly didn’t feel like thanking her ma, however, when she had to wake up at 7:40 AM to get the Little Devil ready for school. What the hell was the point of getting to start school so much later if all it meant was more misery and headaches?

It was this last thought which flew through her head in the single instant between waking up to her alarm screaming at 7:40 and waking up again, somehow, at 7:52. Then such thoughts were banished by the onslaught of a very familiar panic. “Shit,” she whispered to herself, suddenly wide awake, before throwing off the covers and jumping out of bed faster than she had ever moved before.

The Devil was awake already. Not only was he awake, he was already dressed in khaki shorts and a plaid buttoned shirt. His hair was uncombed, sure, but one couldn’t really expect a six-year-old to comb his own hair, could one?

“Come on, breakfast is ready,” Sarah growled.

Christian jumped up off his bed and ran into the dining nook, where his bowl of oatmeal sat waiting. Sarah sighed. She was lucky she had a brother who actually liked going to school. He had only been in the first grade for a week, and already he had received compliments from his teacher, whom Sarah was pretty sure that Christian had a crush on. He was going to grow up to be a nerd, she could see it already. Ah, well. There were worse things to grow up as.

Christian was already finishing by the time she followed him into the dining nook. He turned to her and smiled wide, letting his spoon plop back into his bowl with a metallic clang. Sarah grabbed his now empty bowl, placed the crumpled-up ball of aluminum foil inside it, and carried it off to the kitchen. She checked the time on her phone: it was 7:57. No time to fix his hair, just barely enough to get him to the bus stop.

They walked together, the twelfth grader and the first grader, out to the corner of Gladstone and Chicopee. The air felt charged with that cool autumn feel, an electric buzz which bespoke of perfect temperatures and beautiful foliage on their way before the onslaught of a brutal winter. The trees themselves were only barely beginning to show their reds and yellows and oranges, and the vast majority of them were still totally green. Nevertheless, Fall was here, and growing stronger every day, and the two children (for despite Sarah’s age, the early morning breeze made her a child at heart), felt as excited for its arrival as every New Englander since the days of Sir Daniel Webster; for one wasn’t really a New Englander if one didn’t have a special place in one’s heart for the Fall.

As they neared the end of the street, the bus pulled in and began to slow to a halt, prompting the two Taylor’s to break into a run. They were both laughing by the time they reached the double doors and Christian hugged his older sister goodbye. “Have a wicked fun time!” Sarah called after him as the doors shut with a hiss of pressurized air. Then the bus lurched off, and Sarah was left alone on the corner of Gladstone and Chicopee. Her smile faded as her fatigue returned.

As she walked back up the street, she briefly considered going back to bed. But she didn’t really feel all that tired anymore, and besides, she didn’t think she could be trusted to get up when her alarm went off. She sighed. Granby High School, here I fucking come, she thought.


Having Mrs. Myers for 20th Century European History 6th period was perhaps the cruelest joke the universe could give a student. Mrs. Myers was supposedly the greatest teacher in the school from periods 1-4, but she had landed with the most disrespectful class imaginable for 5th period, which made her somewhat more short-tempered and ill-humored for the end of the day. This was not only wicked awful for her 6th period students, it also made it impossible for them to listen to her other students rave about how amazing she was without feeling personally insulted by God.

Sarah hated the first week of school. It was nothing but a blur of syllabi and grading policies and the first inklings of introductory units designed to explain their classes in the broadest and most uninteresting terms possible. And in a Level 2, single semester elective like this class, that meant a Powerpoint presentation defining words like “War” and “Communism.”

Or at least it did the last time that Sarah had been paying attention. Now it seemed as if everyone was reading in their textbooks. Hastily, Sarah pulled hers out of her bookbag and opened it, only to realize that she had no idea what she was supposed to be reading. She glanced over at her neighbor, a small sophomore boy with glasses, to see what page he was on. The boy was reading page 52 intently, clearly enthralled. Sarah couldn’t really relate. She turned to page 52 as well, and made it to the words “Stalin’s Line” before she realized she was reading about the German-Polish Invasion of the Soviet Union. That can’t be right, she thought. That’s in, like, the 30’s. We’ve barely even covered the first decade of the century yet. She checked the sophomore’s book again, but the page number was definitely correct. Perplexed, she kept reading.

As it turned out, her suspicions were entirely valid. As the teacher came to the front of the class again, the sophomore hurriedly flipped back to page 9. The little shit, Sarah thought. And also, Was he reading ahead in his history textbook? Jesus Christ, what a fucking nerd. But the voice in her head said it with approval.

It was not that Sarah wasn’t studious; she was. She just didn’t care for history all that much. Her passion lay more in the sciences, where she had doubled up in previous years - part of the reason, perhaps, for her needing to make up history credits before graduating. And she prided herself in being a straight-A student. She just didn’t see how an A in 20th Century European History would help her get into MIT.


It was 5:33, and Sarah was taking people’s orders at the restaurant she worked at, when her boss suddenly tapped her on her shoulder. “You’ve got a phone call.”

“From who?”

“I don’t know, someone from the high school. Either a young male or an ugly fucking female. Sounds polite. I’ll get someone else to cover for you.”

Sarah took the call. “Hello?” she said.

“Hi, Sarah, it’s… wait, this is Sarah, right?”

“Yes?”

“Ok, good. Hi, Sarah, it’s Jake. I think you left your, uh, your textbook in class today, and I didn’t know when you wanted me to get it to you?”

“Whosit?”

“Jake. I sit next to you in History.”

“Oh, of course. Hey, Jake.” The sophomore. “Can you get it to me tonight?”

“Uhhh… sure, sure. How about I get over there in around ten minutes?”

“Thanks, that’d be awesome.”

“Awesome. See you in a few.”

“See you.”

Click.


Jake shivered in the cool night air outside the restaurant. “Here it is,” he said, handing her the worn, mercifully skinny textbook.

“Thanks,” she said. “Sorry to be annoying, I just need it for homework.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he replied.

Sarah peered around him at the car he was leaning against. It was empty. “You can drive?” she asked. “What grade are you in?”

“11th. Everyone says I look younger, though.”

“Great, I’m not the only one to make that mistake.”

Jake laughed. “Not by a long shot! Just this past year, I went to a restaurant, and the waiter asked my mar if I wanted a kid’s menu, for crying out loud!”

They both laughed; it was a good long laugh, the kind which lasts for several minutes, which subsided into awkward chuckling for Jake and an intermittent giggling for Sarah.

When they were finally finished, Sarah asked, “Can I ask you a question?”

“Fire away.”

“Why were you reading ahead today?”

Jake suddenly looked a little embarrassed. “I didn’t know people noticed that.”

“I only noticed because I was trying to see what page we were on. I learned a lot about the German-Soviet War, anyways.”

“Yeah, well at least that’s the interesting part. The answer to your question is that the whole introduction bit is wicked slow and I know it all already.”

“Ok. But I mean, why did you choose to read a different part of the textbook?”

Jake smiled. “Because history is interesting! Sure, the introduction parts can sometimes be boring, especially if it’s pretty basic stuff. But in general it’s wicked pisser.” He spoke with genuine enthusiasm in his voice, which Sarah felt as if it were contagious.

“Huh. I’m not a big history person myself. But what do you like so much about it?”

“I like…” he struggled to think for a second. “I like the details. Like, the personal details, you know? I like taking a look at the big picture, at this huge tapestry of so many different parts, and then to zoom in on one element, on one little thread in the big picture, and say ‘oh yeah, here’s where that thread started, and here’s where it ended and here’s what changed it in between, and here’s what it changed in between.’ And sometimes you can say ‘here’s how this thread changed me,’ but more often it’s ‘here’s how this thread could’ve changed me if I were someone else.’ And sometimes, when you’re really lucky, you take a step back again and say ‘wait a minute, I think I found a pattern,’ and you ask, ‘well, why is there this pattern?’ And when you figure it out, you start to see how other patterns got there, and with every step you take, you feel more and more like you know how the tapestry was made, like you’re figuring out the maker. And then…” he breathed, “then you get to feel wicked smart, ‘cause you figured something out.”

Sarah stared at him wide-eyed. She had never seen someone discuss something with so much passion, with so much clear interest and excitement. It was like history was an art form to him. She only enjoyed science because she was good at it, but this… this was love.

She wanted to tell him how beautiful that was, but all that came out was, “Huh.”

He laughed. “Yeah, I talk too much sometimes. Sorry about that.”

“No, it’s fine, really.”

“Thanks for asking me, though,” he said, inching back towards his car.

“No problem. Thanks for the book! Hey, do you want something to eat? A sub or a tonic or something?”

“No, it’s fine. And the book was nothing, really.” He sounded polite, but he clearly wanted to dive back into his vehicle. “See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, see you then.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

As the car pulled out of the car park, Sarah realized that she was still smiling.

As he pulled up to his own driveway, Jake realized the same thing.

 

[Gian]

Well @Kanan's not around, so I might as well try to answer for her (so she doesn't have to)

• Based on what's been said about Namibia and Hurueno, did Germany get to keep their colonies after WW1? Did they get them back later?

Why? Did they lose that one, because that's they only way Germany gets stripped of her colonies (somehow)

• If South Africa was so anti-Anglo, why did they leave the Union Jack on their flag?

Likely for reasons of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," though IMO if they REALLY did want to get rid of the Union Jack, they might as well just use the Vierkleur and be done with it.

• The September Agreement was only an armistice, so the Commonwealth and South Africa are still technically at war Korea-style, right?

Pretty much, yes. I bet it'll be hell for blacks and non-Afrikaners to cross the DMZ.

• What are the demographics of South Africa like? Based on the number of genocides and explusions, I'm guessing it's majority-Afrikaner by now?

Probably yes (though let @Kanan have a crack at it)

• As a lead on, how much does the outside world know about South Africa? It is left blank on the HDI map for example, so is it a complete hermit kingdom? Do they let in outside visitors or is the only information we get from defectors?

If it's like North Korea, most likely a juche state because IDK.

• Is Christiaan Pieterse a more moderate or hardliner South African leader?

Again, IDK.

• Based on the fact that Burma is left blank in the governmental systems map, does that mean it's still basically anarchy?

Maybe, though it does beg the question, why would Canada suddenly decide to rejoin the Commonwealth if that's the case (maybe there's some kind of backroom deal in the distance that we just don't know about)

• Why is Iran an observing member of the Partnership of the Americas?

Maybe because of that alliance with the U.S. because reasons.

• Given that Kampuchea has 2 million less people than OTL Cambodia, can we assume it is a very nasty place to live?

Assuming it's still run by the Khmer Rouge, yes it is.

• Why did Kurdistan go communist and when did it gain its independence?

I'm tempted to say the 1940s with the Soviet-backed Republic of Mahabad, but IDK.

• Does Argentina want the Falklands?

Maybe, though considering PM Bush managed to bomb them back to the Stone Age and get a knighthood because of it, maybe they do not.

• Why was Mbabane renamed Eswatini?

Probably for the same reason as OTL (Oh and btw @Kanan, there's a little error with that. Were you going for Eswatini for the country name and mistakingly put it for the city?)

• How communist is the PR Congo?

Hopefully, about as communist as the Soviet Union (Sh*tty joke of the day: In Soviet Russia, capitalism adopt you)[/QUOTE]

 

[Israel_Dan the Man]

Anyway, Zazzle is first rate, I'd strongly recommend them

*Sniff*, IT'S TOO BEAUTIFUL TO COMPREHEND!

You know, I can still remember about 3/4 of a year ago when I became interested in this timeline (I was fascinated by your Poland, true story), but this is by far the greatest timeline ever. What did we do to deserve you?

On another note, can you do more about the German-Polish invasion of Russia? Like army sizes, battles, tank numbers?

 

[DimensionalZodiac]

Maybe, though it does beg the question, why would Canada suddenly decide to rejoin the Commonwealth if that's the case (maybe there's some kind of backroom deal in the distance that we just don't know about)

Presumably because the war in Burma is ending, the reason why they pulled out in the first place.

 

[Psmith]

If South Africa was so anti-Anglo, why did they leave the Union Jack on their flag?

If you look closely at the South African flag on the world map, you'll see that the Union Flag has actually been removed. While the overall design has remained the same, the details have changed...

 

[Gladsome]

Pretty much, yes. I bet it'll be hell for blacks and non-Afrikaners to cross the DMZ.

Well, it was mentioned in a past update that people crossing into Rhodesia are shot at by the South African Military until they cross into Rhodesian territory. All very Berlin Wall, but seemingly on a far larger scale - on the other hand, that may well make it comparatively easier to slip through unnoticed.

edit: Going back through the thread, I noted that the BBC News page for 12/06/2018 had a story about a Bermudan status referendum - what was the outcome of that?

 

[CosmicAsh]

 

[Onerom]

awsome wikiboxes and article

Wow, as a Spaniard I'm glad to see this bit of TTL Spanish history, it's great. Has it already been discused the causes of the Civil War, or is it future content? And was the country an outright dictatorship between 1920 and 1987, or some sort of "managed" democracy not as repressive as OTL Francoist regime?

Is the political system a café para todos like IOTL (decentralization even in areas that do not want it), or there are only autonomous communities in Catalonia, Galicia and Basque Country? What about Fernando Poo, is there a powerfull independentist movement there?

Aznar as president in 2019 is very funny cause IOTL he's been retired for years but he's always comenting on the political situation of the right and the media is always saying he's on the verge of returning (to every leftist much chiagrin ).

 

[CosmicAsh]

Wow, as a Spaniard I'm glad to see this bit of TTL Spanish history, it's great. Has it already been discused the causes of the Civil War, or is it future content? And was the country an outright dictatorship between 1920 and 1987, or some sort of "managed" democracy not as repressive as OTL Francoist regime?

Is the political system a café para todos like IOTL (decentralization even in areas that do not want it), or there are only autonomous communities in Catalonia, Galicia and Basque Country? What about Fernando Poo, is there a powerfull independentist movement there?

Aznar as president in 2019 is very funny cause IOTL he's been retired for years but he's always comenting on the political situation of the right and the media is always saying he's on the verge of returning (to every leftist much chiagrin ).

Awesome! I'm glad that Spain was the first country I landed upon for the tour! Sadly, since I am doing the "large overview" of modern day Western Europe, I can't go into too much detail. I will, however, have more information on the Red Uprisings in Europe, which will have some more detail on the Spanish Civil War!

The country wasn't a dictatorship persay. It was not a democracy, but it certainly was not Francoist. After the attempted Carlist revolt in Catalonia, the government clamped down on civil liberties, and a new constitution was enacted giving total power to the King, which established the Spanish Regime, essentially a revolving door of military leaders (like Franco) who had some semblance of national backing with (highly rigged) elections. Only as power began to slip in the 70s and 80s did it slide towards being "Francoist."

The only autonomous communities are Catalonia, Galicia, and the Basque areas. Everything else remains managed by the Spanish Government. There *was* a powerful independence movement on that island, but the regime made sure they no longer existed.

And yeah! He was chosen as the leader of the broad coalition that MES represents. The party is essentially a Spanish version of the ANC, which has large factions inside but in general is just a united, liberal party advancing a moderate agenda seeking stability for Spain because of its years of chaos. Socialist parties... just don't exist in Spain really because of the horrors of the previous Regime.

 

[Gladsome]

Well, on the bright side, at least Spain has gotten past this period of repression. I note that they still possess Spanish Guinea - what's the situation over there?

 

[Pokemon Master]

OK, I'm interested in that "Latin Asteria." What other countries use it?

 

[Israel_Dan the Man]

Fantastic work as always, Kanan. Is France trying to do to Morocco what it is doing to Algeria?

 

[Gian]

Makes me wonder what might have happened had Díaz's coup succeeded. Might Spain turn into the new Austria, with Díaz doing to the Basques, Catalans, and Galicians what Krebs did to the Slovenes and Czechs?

 

[Eylondambovich]

I like this way of presenting the history of a specific nation like that although it took me some time to understand the south african one. Keep up with the good work!

 

[BryanIII]

OK, I'm interested in that "Latin Asteria." What other countries use it?

I would guess the entirety of the Latin Monetary Union.