Rememberences of Map Contests Past

MoTF 134: What has the Emperor Ever Done for us?

The Challenge
Show a state which claims to be a remnant or successor of a formerly great empire, but is far from it.
 
Upvoteanthology:

Shitty exercise in speed-cartography, this one took me 20 minutes to make. The premise centers around a more powerful Mongol Empire, who secure Ukraine further than they did, and eventually form another horde around it. In the end, it becomes heavily Europeanized, and essentially claims Ulaanbaatar for the Europeans.

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Zek Sora:

Inspired by Upvote's 20-minute speed cartography, I decided to do some speed cartography of my own. Of course, me being me and Upvote being Upvote means that mine took not 20 minutes, but 4-5 hours. (Also, I may or may not have made this map entirely for the Monty Python reference, which is certainly in keeping with the current contest.)

Nobody Expects the Peruvian Inquisition!

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The basic premise is that the Spanish king is dethroned during a different, French Republic-centered, Napoleonic Wars, making Spain into a Republic (of sorts) and causing what was left of the Spanish royal family to flee to their American colonies. However, most of the rebellions go off on schedule, and the TTL Spanish overlords are even less equipped to fight them than the OTL ones. The Royal Family is slaughtered in their beds after the King refuses to flee Bogotá, seeing it as a sign of weakness. However, the Peruvian ruling class, searching for something, anything to unite the lower classes behind them in preserving the old systems and battling the rebel armies all around them, smuggles a precious treasure out of the burning city: the infant who would later become Carlos V of Spain. With this powerful symbol to rally behind, the Peruvians secured their borders and became officially the last piece of land held by the Kingdom of Spain. Today, the Kingdom is effectively ruled by an oligarchical upper class, with the King essentially powerless in the face of their resources.
 
SRegan:

"Kion la Imperiestro faru por ni?"

Broken and defeated in the Great European War of 1900, its colonial possessions divvied up between France and her ally Britain, the German Empire began to fall apart.

The canary in the coalmine - in this case, the zinc mine - was the little territory of Neutral Moresnet, long disputed between Belgium and Germany, which declared its independence as the Free Esperanto State in 1908, later adopting the name Amikejo, or Friendly Place.

The miners were prepared to fight for their freedom, arming themselves with a variety of antique and makeshift firearms, but no-one turned up. Belgium, no doubt, would have made efforts to annex the territory, had they also not been in the grip of the Congo Crisis (1907-09).

With ragtag armies of Republicans, spartacists and communards closing in on Berlin, the decision was made for the Kaiser and his family to see refuge - the word 'exile' was not used. But where? France or Britain would be humiliating. Nor did the Kaiser wish to place himself in the hands of the Belgian king. Switzerland was possible, but the route seemed perilous.

Neutral Moresnet, as the world would insist on calling it well into the 1950s, presented itself as a safe alternative; still (as the Empire considered it) under imperial condominium with the Belgians but not Belgian territory as such; its self-declared President, Dr Wilhelm Molly, was a wildcard, but the mayor of Kelmis, the enclave's only town, was a known royalist.

The arrival of the Imperial family in Kelmis was a comedy of errors - the telegram sent ahead with the expected time of arrival had not been received, and the 'Von Preußens' were quartered in a small, shabby hotel while more suitable accommodations were pondered. Eventually the bank was settled upon as the most regal-looking building in the town - the safe was taken from the bank and stored in the postmaster's office.

Another obstacle presented itself. His Imperial Majesty demanded that his quarters - including the office he had been given in Kelmis town hall - be treated as an embassy; clearly concerned about the prospect of being subject to the rapidly expanding body of novel laws pumped out by the Free State. This proved a sticking point with Dr Molly, who was loathe to cede any part of Moresnet soil back to the Empire, but a considerable injection of funds into his Esperantist project (in fact, most of the Imperial family's remaining private capital) greased the wheels.

From his 'embassy' in Neutral Moresnet the Emperor received telegrams advising him of the shrinking extent of his realm - the Republicans consolidated their control over Berlin and began the long process of clamping down on the anarchist communes and Bolsvik Räterepubliks that had sprung up. Soon the messages from loyalist forces ceased and it became clear that the rooms the Emperor occupied were now the last vestiges of the German Empire.

Significant debate arose in Moresnet as to whether the Emperor should now be handed over to the Republicans - such a measure, it was thought, could guarantee the enclave's continued independence. Ultimately the decision was made for them - a telegram was received advising them that the German Republic considered former Emperor Wilhelm II to be in exile, and that if he returned to Germany he would face an automatic death sentence.

As little Moresnet prospered - establishing the University of Esperanto in 1930 and further developing its reputation as the 'Monte Carlo of the North' through its casinos and hotels (the latter a great deal swankier now), the sad remnants of the German Empire persisted as a tourist attraction, a gathering point for the growing body of disenfranchised European royalty, and on occasion a meeting place for adjudicating territorial disputes between countries who still valued the opinion of someone who called himself Emperor; Greece and Zapatoslavia, Bolivia and Chile.

And while the manservants and maidservants had a job for life - and for their children too - the feeling had long become that they were serving a dead end; that the Republic was now firmly here to stay, despite the Imperial family's yearly prophesy of its imminent downfall. And in the slightly musty rooms, containing all the trappings of the Holy Roman Empire that had been saved from Revolution, they began to whisper 'What has the Emperor ever done for us?'.

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JoeyB2198:


At the 1799 Battle of Zurich, the forces of the French Republic were routed by a coalition army of Austrian, Prussian, and Russian forces. This was the beginning of the end for the young nation; despite herculean efforts, by 1803 Coalition forces had captured Paris. Beginning in July of 1802, members of the French republican government had already begun to flee to the New World colonies, and this process continued as the Republic continued to hold in the southwest centered around Bordeaux as late as 1805. In that year La Rochelle, the last stronghold of the republican forces, fell, ending the French Revolutionary Wars. However, the republic continued in the territories of Louisiana and Saint-Domingue, never surrendering its claim to be the true representative of the French people and refusing to recognize the restored Bourbon monarchy.

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Keperry:

First ever MotF entry, second ever Inkscape map, and it's in French, which I don't speak. So I beg of you, kind sirs and ladies, have mercy.
So here we have it: the Kingdom of Illyria, formerly the Illyrian Provinces, which as the last Bonaparte-ruled state in Europe considers itself the last remnant of Napoleon's French Empire. The PoD here is that Napoleon dies at the height of his power, leaving his empire intact but shaky; eventually the Empire in France is overthrown, as are all of the Bomaparte client monarchies elsewhere, leaving Illyria under a Vader branch as the last remnant. In reality it's a fractured and fractious realm constantly on the brink of collapse, divided into four federal provinces that each roughly correspond with one of the four main ethnic groups (Carniola for the Slovenes, Croatia for the Croats, Istria for the Italians, and Carinthia for the Germans) and having to juggle five official languages (the four previous plus French, which is still used as the main language of administration to keep up Napoleonic airs and avoid privileging one of the ethnic groups and therefore offending the other three). So far the Kingdom has just managed to hold itself together due to loyalty to the monarchy and the Napoleonic legacy and ideal of uniting all the peoples of Europe in brotherhood (or at least that's what the government keeps frantically repeating that the Napoleonic ideal is), and perhaps more pertinently due to fear of being torn apart by greater powers, who have already peeled off the southern half of the former Illyrian Provinces. However, a tide of nationalism is rising across Europe, and with the weak and ineffectual King Napoleon V on the throne, Illyria looks set to be torn apart between pan-Slavists, Slovenian and Croatian irredentists, and German and Italian separatists.

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Birdperson:

Another first-time MotF participant, and just in the nick of time. I apologize for the lack of a clear POD. The surrounding universe is still a work in progress.

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Initially just an amalgamation of small plantations and trade posts all along the northern coast of Meridia (OTL South America), Guiana has somehow become the renowned oddball of history. This brief section and accompanying map will show one of Guiana’s most extraordinarily strange geopolitical situations.

For a brief time in the late 17th century, Guiana became the de jure “Kingdom of Great Britain”, when the “12 Year’s War” and the following “August Revolution” laid waste to the British Isles and certain prominent men came forward with their ideas, the House of Lancaster seemingly fell and the “Republic” rose from its ashes. What these men didn’t account for was one sad young woman who would proof to be among the most fierce and determined people in history. This was of course Margarete, the dead king’s niece and heir-apparent since the crown-prince fell to the “republican savages” or “peridots”. Margarete left Britain on the Rosa, headed for Cork to (desperately) rally support among loyalists, but history would take her to a vastly different place, or rather one of her noble companions, Archibald Churchill.

The plantation owners reacted badly to the news of revolution at home, and with reluctance towards a royal in their adopted home. Margarete navigated the pitfalls of the colonies and their inhabitants with great skill but the Royal Guiana Company, run majorly by the plantation owners, chose her side over the Republic because of economic interests rather than her charms. They would benefit greatly from de facto independence, while the Republic was quick to spike tariffs on the northern colonies.

Over the following years, Margarete would participate in the government of the colonies, as it is important to remember that Guiana then was just a mix of plantations, settlements and trade posts, grouped together in vague dependencies. The fact that there exists a modern nation of Guiana has been repeatedly credited, in part, to Margarete's centralization-of-sorts policies. Of course the people of Guiana, then and now, wouldn’t need such historian-talk, they loved their “Margery” just so.

The Republic accepted the nuisance of the “Kingdom” for the time being and even allowed the Bretons to trade with the colonials, but largely dismissed Margarete and the few nobles that followed her, in the face of more pressing matters. The increasing stream of Lancaster loyalists, nobles and commoners alike, towards the Kingdom, went unnoticed by the Sovereign Protector.

Margarete of House Lancaster, “The Queen Who Never Was”, as she is referred to. She died of a protracted fever 15 years upon setting foot on St. John. Her lifelong goal of reclaiming her birthright remained unfulfilled and a year after her death the new ruler of the Republic, Benjamin Clinton, ordered the reintegration of the Guiana colonies. This took place with little bloodshed, although Clinton would be hard pressed finding sympathizers of the Republic.
He could impossibly fathom what kind of impact this, now dead woman would have upon the world.
 
MotF 135: Island Paradise

The Challenge

Show a state which consists of entirely islands. NOTE: Does not need to be a paradise.
 
Zek Sora:

(Going for the obvious :biggrin: )

The Federation

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Welcome to the Federation of British Social Republics.

Nobody remembers quite what sparked the Revolution—perhaps the King (or was it Queen?) wished to assert their royal prerogatives and become an absolute monarch again, and the People responded. Perhaps Parliament, grown corrupt and bloated on the fruits of the workers’ labor, decided that it was time they stayed in power for good. Perhaps it was the lack of reform that caused the Revolution; perhaps it would have happened anyways.

Regardless of why, the Revolution occurred. Tens of thousands took to the streets. Workers threw bricks through windows and police, farmers dusted off long-forgotten hunting rifles and made use for them once more. Eventually, the soldiers themselves, perhaps frustrated at a withholding of pay from the panicking government, turned their bayonets on the bourgeoise and forced the King from his throne.

The question then, of course was one of kingship. Who would take the abandoned throne? Who would rule in Arthur’s place? It was decided (nobody knows by whom) that there would be no king, no queen. The People alone would determine the course of the Nation, and who better knew the will of the People than those who had been at the vanguard of its expression? Thus came to be the Social Republics, and the Federation, a socialist utopia under the watchful eye of the Party — the only Party.

The Federation is very quiet abroad—like its fraternal socialist comrades in the International, it espouses world revolution, but does not make any particular effort to make it a reality, unlike the Communalist French. Their main opponent is the Dominion of Canada, holding what remains of the Royal Family and often attempting to foment revolution in the Federation, which always fails, for they can never seem to quite find enough conspirators or garner enough support to finally replace the Party.

The Federation is also very quiet at home; too quiet, some might say. There is no agitation from liberal reformists wishing a new Britain, no conservatives quietly plotting a coup. Nobody is plotting anything. There is only planning, planning for the State and under the State’s direction. The State has its watchful eyes on you, always. Everything that you do in your life is for the benefit of the State, for the benefit of your fellow workers. You cannot change this. Planting a private garden? You must first acquire seeds from the State, after establishing a proper reason and motive for doing so, in triplicate. The People of the Federation resign themselves to carrying this burden, and do so with a fine British stiff lower back (upper lip was deemed too aristocratic). What else can they do?

To call the Federation and its Republics democratic would be highly misleading. Technically, yes, there are elected MFAs (Members of the Federal Assembly) and their Republic-level and local-level equivalents, but only Party members may vote, and only for Party members, and Party membership is extremely exclusive. There are factions within the Party such as the Syndicalists (in favor of a union-run state), the Greens (localists who advocate decentralization to the Republic level), the Marxists (hard-line communists who advocate a full dictatorship of the proletariat), and the Anarchist Coalition (anarchists of all stripes), but the mainstream of the Party, whose ideology is essentially just technocracy with socialist tendencies, has held a majority in the 500-member Federal Assembly since its inception, allowing it to govern permanently. Chancellors, chosen in the same manner as Prime Ministers used to be (it is assumed; nobody is quite sure), are effectively rulers-for-life, as the Party will never leave power, and very rarely takes a risk on a change.

The outside world knows little of the Federation—outsiders are rarely allowed access anywhere but the Federal District of London, and there it is still uncommon to see any but a Frenchman outside of the Foreign Quarter. Thus, their maps are still based upon pre-Revolution ones, and their knowledge of the Federation’s inner workings is little to none. And that’s just the way the Party (and thus the People, and thus the Nation) like it.

(Big Ass map http://orig03.deviantart.net/010b/f...itish_social_republics_by_zeksora-d9yyxo7.png )
 
Guildencrantz:

Here we find an alternate version of of everyone's favorite, mainstream alternate history novel, The Yiddish Policeman's Union. Here, Mendel Shpilman was not murdered and spoke out against his father and the US government, revealing the President's insane plot to (in the POTUS' mind) kick start Christ's return to Earth. Within a two year period, Sitka becomes independent while remaining in free association with the US (like Palau or Micronesia)
Strange times to be a Jew indeed...

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Rubberduck3y6:

My entry - I wanted to be a bit creative with the brief, but I think a country made up entirely of islands that happens to be on Mars should be OK? For anyone wondering, the total land area is roughly equal to that of India or half of Australia so I think it would still count as an island rather than a continent.

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Following the first manned landing on Mars in the closing decades of the 21st century, humanity's presence on the Red Planet remained confined to temporary research bases and small domed habitats until the development of affordable and effective technologies and techniques to adapt the Martian environment to more Earth-like conditions during the following centuries. Slowly the planet was warmed up, allowing liquid water to flow on its surface for the first time in billions of years, while additional oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and other gases were added to the atmosphere to make it breathable by humans and increase surface pressure. Thus, by the mid-25th century, the Red Planet was now the blue, green and red planet and was drawing in increasing numbers of tourists and immigrants from Earth.

One of the companies involved in both the terraforming efforts and the Earth-Mars transportation industry was the Elysium Corporation (EC). The company had been founded as the New Mars Solutions Inc. in Canada in the 2260s, as a supplier of spacecraft parts, and had grown to become one of the leading players in the Mars sector of the commercial space industry. As Mars became more habitable, the company renamed itself after Elysium Planitia, a region of the planet directly west of the Tharsis volcano region and dominated by its own massive volcano, Elysium Mons and its smaller siblings Albor Tholus and Hecate Tholus. With the rebrand, came a change in focus for the company as it sought to develop the area into a tourism hotspot which would be known as the Elysium Republic, with the slogan "Mars' Island Paradise".

Now, a century later, the Elysium Republic is one of the most developed areas of Mars, rivalled only by the Xanthe region at the mouth of the famous Valles Marineris and the northern coast of the Hellasic Ocean. Visitors to Elysium who arrive in EC-owned and operated spacecraft from Earth and EC-operated trains from other areas of Mars, can enjoy a vast array of activities, sights and experiences: from island hoping across the Cerberus Sea to climbing the majestic Mount Elysium; and from wandering around the charming Old Europe style markets and alleyways of New Calais to having a flutter on the races in Zephyr City. More adventurous travellers can take a trip to the remote Viking Islands and discover the story of mankind's initial exploration of Mars at the Viking 2 Museum or take part in a historical re-enactment in the fields of New Rohan in Ituxi province. Tourists are reminded however that the Corporation takes its duty of care towards them and the inhabitants of the Elysium Republic very seriously and that all breaches of policy are dealt with in an appropriate and swift manner. Oh, and that the northern Erebus Islands are strictly off limits....

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Doctor President:

Konungsríkið Eyjar, The Kingdom of the Isles, known in English simply as Eyar, traces its origins to the Vikings, who came from Scandinavia to the isles in the early medieval era. The Viking chieftains were sometimes vassals of kings in Scandinavia, and sometimes of kings in Britain, but when these rulers were weak they maintained their independence. Gradually, the states they founded united for protection against foreign rulers. The exact date of founding of Eyar is disputed, but by the 12th century the Hebrides (Suðreyjar, the southern isles) and Orkney and Shetland (Norðreyjar, the northern isles) had been united into a single Kingdom of Eyjar, a name anglicized to ‘Eyar’. Other than occasional conflicts with Scotland or Norway, the small kingdom was able to maintain stability, and over time brought the Norse settlements in the Faroes (Færoeyjar), Iceland (Ísland) , and even Greenland (Grønnland) under its rule. Eyarish sailors, continuing the tradition of the Vikings, played a major part in the European exploration and colonization of the New World. They claimed and settled Vinland, named because they (correctly) believed it to be the land Leif Erikson visited centuries ago.

Today, Eyar is a modern, developed nation. It is a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy, with its capital at Reykjavík. Eyar is a federation of five Regions, spread across the North Atlantic. Its economy is based on fishing, tourism, and petroleum. The Eyarish people speak a variety of languages, most of them descendants of Old Norse, but also some Native North American languages, Scots, spoken by immigrants from nearby Scotland, and many others. The standard language is Eyarish (Eyjarsk), primarily based on the dialects of Shetland and Iceland. Eyar and Scotland, once enemies, now have a good relationship, and the two are close allies.


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trejiokla:

The Imperial Hexarchy of Danube


Brief history of the Imperial Hexarchy of Danube
Since the death of Franz Joseph I in 1916, Franz Ferdinand I was crowned 'Emperor and King' and started a process of reforms againt the 'Little Compromise' of 1867.

Despite the opposition of Magiar nobility, he met with representant of other nationalities of the Empire. Finally, in 1917 was signed 'the Wide Compromise', Franz Ferdinand I reformulated the state(s): Six Kingdoms, two with Constitutional rank (Austria and Hungary) and four with Autonomous rank (Cheko - Eslovakia, Galitzia, Transilvania and Yugo-Eslavia), and five Autonomous Territories (Silesia, Sudetes, Eastern Transilvania, Trento, and Trieste and fiume). With the support of non-magiar minorities, principally of Romanian and Polish, he broken the Hungarian opposition and forced them to accept the new Compromise.

In 1921, after a failed attempt of assessination, made the first ''addendum'': the 'Law about the Imperial House'. In this regulation, his son (born in a morganatic marriage) was allowed be promote at throne. In this case, the opposition was leaded by Karl, his heir presuntive. However, the proposal was sucefull and the son of Franz Ferdinand was proclaimed 'Archiduke' and 'Crown Heir'.

During the 'Crisis of the 20s', caused by the crack of 1925 and the Russian Revolution (1927), the Compromise was reformated again: the Imperial Ministry of Social Development was created, 'Imperial Declaration about the Wrights of Peoples and the Citizen' was santioned, and the deputy to Imperial Diet passed to be choissen by the people of each Kingdoms and Territories. Also was created the Counsil of the Kingdoms and Territories, and the Supreme Court of Constitutional Justice.

This crisis afected the political parties sistem, and several new agrupation arose in this age, specially comunist and authoritarian nationalist grups.

In the decade of 50, Maximilian Franz I established the Imperial Council of State, the 'Carte about Constitucional Action' and the 'Law about Constitutional Distric Courts in the Kingdoms and Territories'.

The last ''addendum'' to the Compromise allowed the daugther of the Emperor to be heir of him, in equal condition of a male.

Government:
The Emperor, unlike another constitutional monarchy, has some faculties and power. He proposed the judges and Imperial Courts to the Imperial Diet, as like the Ombusdman of the Peolples of the Empire, the President of the Central Bank of the Empier, etc.

The Gabinet of the Empire is composed of five ministres: the Chief of the Imperial Gabinet, the Ministre of Foreing Relations, the Ministre of Economy and Finances, the Ministre of Defense and the Ministre of Social Development. They must be apoved, and can be removed, by the Diet.

The governments of all Kingdoms and Territories make up the Counsil of the Kingdoms and Territories. They send a delegation whem must deal with theire affairs and the delegation must vote unanimously. Each Constitutional Kingdom has 15 votes, each Autonomous Kingdom has 7 votes, and each Autonomous Territories has 3.

In each Kingdom or Territory, the Emperor appoint a person as 'Imperial Lieutenant', the representant of the Emperor in this place. He/she can be of any nationality of the Empire, except in the Constitutional Kingdoms, in wich case must be national or long time residence of this (except for member of the Imperial House).

Political Parties:
The Imperial Hexarchy of Danube is a democracy. The two principal parties are the Party of Workers and Countrymen (PWC; socialdemocracy) and the Party of the Union and the Convergence (PUC; liberalism [in the european means]).

Another important parties are the Party of Christian Democracy (PCD) and the Party Magiar Dignity (PMD; ethnic, wright wind)

Various ethnic in the Empire has their own party, generally minority: Party Our House (polish), Party Moravian Legacy (PML), National Party of Transilvania (NPT), etc. There are a confesional muslim party in Bosnia: the Party of God's Comunity (PGD); a ecologist one, the Party House Earth (PHE), and even a feminist Party of Female Freed (PFF).

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Just out of curiosity:
According a friend of Franz Ferdindand I, he said "I prefer establish the Republic, before see my nephew in the throne".

In this temporal line (aka FSTL), World War I do not happen, neither the defeat of German Empire, neither the Treaty of Versailles. Intead, in 1925 happened the crack in New York, the world economical crisis and the Russian Revolution of 1927.... but this is another story.

In FSTL, Adolf Hitler was a failed artist, one of the founder and leader of the Party for the Laborious People during the decades of 20 and 30. This party, originally german ethnic, xenophobe and antisemitic, is now democratic, but still xenophobe.

The first Chairman of the Supreme Court of Constitutional Justice, and one of the sponsor of it, was Hans Kelsen.

The Ernest Mach Institute organized a competition to create a 'perfect scientific and intercultural language', to use in the Imperial Administration and across the Empires. The award has not winner still.

In FSTL, Vladimir Franz is Chairman of the Supreme Court of Constitutional Justice, and Milan Babić is the Ombusdman of the Peoples... strange, rare, if-world, not?


PS:
I used this resource:
For the flag:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Imperial_Standard_of_Austria_(1828-Late_19th_Century).svg
For the map:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Austria_Hungary_ethnic_ES.svg
and edited with Corel Draw and Photoshop

Finally, remember that english is not my mother tongue; sure there are several mistake... let's be acquiescent :eek:





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Zek Sora:

The End of an Empire


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Bigger version

From trading post to Imperial seat—Karlsland has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a mere outpost of the Austrian East Indies Company. There have been many milestones along the way: the founding of its capital city, Charlesburg, the shift from Company rule to full province hood in the Empire, the granting of self-government early in the 20th century, and of course the flight of the Austrian monarchs to the colony in 1921. Now, it seems that Karlsland is nearing yet another milestone: the abolishment of the monarchy.

The Emperor Charles I of Austria (and King Charles IV of Hungary) fled with his wife, Zita of Bourbon-Parma to Karlsland, the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s only overseas colony after the 1919 Peace of Versailles, in 1921. It survived being picked off by one of the victorious Entente powers for two reasons: first, it was full of Austrians, Hungarians, Czechs, and other ethnicities that would be difficult to assimilate, and second, it held very little of value in the way of natural resources. The reason for their flight was simple: Weimar Germany, in accordance with the principles of ethnic self-determination, had requested they be allowed to annex Austria, and after a quick plebiscite, the League of Nations reluctantly acceded.

Neither the Emperor nor the vast majority of Karlslanders wished to live under German rule, but there were large Hungarian and Czech minorities also living in Karlsland who were reluctant to allow direct rule by an Austrian monarch, fearing it would lead to discrimination against them. Thus, a compromise was made, in which the Emperor restored the old title of Austria-Hungary, guaranteeing the Hungarian and Czech minorities full citizenship in the Empire.

For 72 years Karlsland continued on in much the same way, as the Emperors grew slowly less and less potent and the Diet gained more and more power. By the early 1990s, the royal family was little more than a bauble, as in the United Kingdom. However, unlike in the United Kingdom, they were not a well-liked bauble, though they were most certainly an expensive one, with estates in almost all of the provinces requiring massive upkeep that came directly out of government coffers. The calls to abolish the monarchy grew with the spending reports each year.

Thus, in 1993 a referendum was held to determine the future of the Karlslander government: Should it continue to be a monarchy, or should it become a full republic? When the results came through in the end, they were not close. 68.13% of Karlslanders voted to abolish the monarchy, with only the capital city and Jaquin Province voting against it.

The new Karlslander constitution has yet to be written, and the nation of Karlsland faces an uncertain future, but one thing is for sure: There will be no more Emperors reigning from Charlesburg.
 
Gwrtheyrn Annwn:

And my first MOTF entry for a long time:

In this world, Austria was never involved in Polish Partitions. This led to a surviving Poland and a world of two camps:
1. The Two Emperor's Alliance: Germany, Russia and various other small states.
2. The Entente: Austria, Britain, France and other small states.
The Great War broke out in 1912, following the assassination of the Russian Prince Alexei by Polish activists. As the Russians moved to crush the Polish rump state, the Entente declared a guarantee over the nation. Russia ignored this and invaded anyway. In retaliation France invaded Germany. As the war escalated, Austro-Hungary was devastated by German and Russian forces, before being liberated by the French and Italians (who had joined mid-way through the war). The reborn Austria had lost several territories, but remained a regional power. The war ended in 1917 and the map shows Austria and surrounding countries after the treaty, including the new nations of Wurrtemburg and Bavaria.

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MoralisticCommunist:


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The PoD for this scenario is that Kaiser Wilhelm II isn't such a meanie to Britain so they stay neutral in WWI. After implementing a different version of the Schlieffen Plan the Central Powers and Entente settle into a stalemate just as OTL. In this timeline the Central Powers included Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Bulgaria while the Entente had Russia, Serbia, Montenegro, and France.

Without Britain's blockade of Germany the Central Powers are powerful enough to defeat Russia and then France after several years of grueling trench warfare in 1918. In the process Austria-Hungary fell as revolutionaries went on bread riots and troops mutinied against the incessant slaughter of trench warfare. With the Emperor deposed a temporary republic was established in October of 1918, however this government grew weak and soon became merely propped up by German troops. The German Spartacus League then took advantage of this weakness, proclaiming an end to WWI if they came to power in Austria-Hungary.

By January of 1919 the communists had a following of many peasants and urban workers all across the country so that is when they struck and stormed Schönbrunn Palace. Thus began a three year long civil war as the country exploded under ethnic tensions. In the end the Spartacist managed to become the dominant force in Austria-Hungary, though they did lose many peripheral territories to other nations and different nationalist groups.

Thus on March 1921 the Austro-Hungarian Union of Spartacist Republics was formed, with a total of six different republics for the six ethnic groups within its borders.
Spartacist Austria-Hungary

Hopefully I'm not too late on this entry, but I finally managed to finish a map for MotF again yay! Here is the link to my DeviantArt page with the higher resolution map: http://moralisticcommunist.deviantart.com/art/Spartacist-Austria-Hungary-606250366
 
Rubberduck3y6:

Phew, finally finished this monster! :)

The Federation of Leithania


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The Austo-Hungarian Empire emerged battered, bruised and, in many people's eyes fatally wounded, from the Great War. Southern Tyrol, the Austrian Littoral and Dalmatia had been lost to Italy while Serbia had taken Bosnia and large areas of southern Hungary. Nevertheless, the empire had survived the war and under Emperor-King Charles I and IV and his successor Otto I somehow managed to weather the turbulence of the 1920s as the dual forces of ethnic nationalism and economic difficulties threatened to tear the country apart.

During the following decades successive attempts at reforms designed to keep Austria-Hungary together where implemented, such as the elevation of Croatia-Slavonia to a full Kingdom within the now Triple Monarchy, which did little to appease anyone except some Croatian politicians who now had more money and power to play with, and the recognition of Croatian, Czech, Polish, Rumanian, Ruthenian (now being written using a Polish-based Latin alphabet), Slovak and Slovene as co-official languages alongside German and Hungarian.

By the 1950s though it was clear that extensive reforms and modernisation of the country's political system was needed. It was out of these seemingly endless discussions, talks and committee meetings that the idea of sweeping away the old states with the boundaries based on medieval dynastic lines and replacing them with new approximately equal sized states based around economic and geographic communities and ties was born. The country would get a new name too - the Federation of Leithania - emphasising the unification of the old divisions of Cisleithania and Transleithania under a single, new cohesive system. The monarchy would be retained, but as an exclusively ceremonial position as a living symbol of national unity. Power would instead be shared between a new federal government based in Pressburg, chosen due to its central location and the 21 new state governments. Thus on 1 January 1956 the new nation of Leithania emerged.

The early years of the new country however seemed to bring little change with the economy struggling due to the uncertainty caused by the protracted constitution reforms and the global effects of the Franco-German and Pacific Wars. One major issue was that of language as although the country now had a plethora of official languages, there was little provision to ensure access to official services in the language of your choice or protection from discrimination on linguistic grounds. In order to address this problem, a second constitutional reform process was put in place in 1968, known as the Little Convention, which introduced a second type of federal unit - Language Communities. The country was divided into 9 Language Communities (LCs), plus a number of bilingual or multilingual areas, which would function separately from the states. The LCs would be responsible for ensuring that all speakers of their particular language, including those living outside their geographical area, would have access to justice, housing, healthcare, education and other state services in their native language and for enforcing anti-discrimination legislation.

The reforms were starting to show positive results by the 1980s with the number of inter-communal hate crimes and nationalist attacks falling dramatically across the country and nationalist political parties finding themselves increasingly irrelevant in a society more focused on social and moral issues such as abortion, legal recognition of same sex relationships and economic inequality. Fast new roads, known as Autoways were built to physically connect the country and more recently a network of high speed rail has been built with new lines planned to connect the southern states to the network.
 
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