Rememberences of Map Contests Past

MotF 142: Perversas

The Challenge

Make a map of a Roman province where there definitely shouldn't be one. Ultimately, what counts as "shouldn't" is up to the mapmaker (it could be a Roman Germania, it could be a Roman Olympus Mons), but it can be absurd. :)
 
ThePicene:

So here it is, Roman Taiwan and Roman Kyuushuu, respectively. Partly inspired by a certain documentary I watched about "Were the Soga clan Romans?". ;)
Among other things in this timeline, during their navigation antics the Romans crash into Japan's party sometime before the Isshi Incident thus affecting the Taika Reforms and possibly the outcome of the intervention in the war on the Korean peninsula, or at least that was my intention... While Taiwan is effectively Roman land, Kyuushuu is to be considered closer to what the Dazaifu government was in the island around the same age. The map style is a bit eccentric, but I was dying to emulate the style of the Tabula Peutingeriana.

---

The Crisis of the Third Century and the unexpected Age of Exploration
To say that the turmoil that hit the Roman Empire in the IIIrd century was a near-death experience is no exaggeration, but it surely also served as a wake up call for its people.
While Rome concentrated on bringing the usurpers in Gaul back to submission, they also regarded the situation in Palmyra perhaps too much lightly. No careful observation, let alone any action, was taken when the the unsuccessful skirmishes that, in a fit of hubris, the Palmyrene Empire engaged in the East with the Sassanids elicited at last an invasion by Persia. Not only Syria and Palestine fell, but soon the Persian armies flooded into Egypt and Anatolia in reprisal, coming to besiege Byzantium more than once.
Part of the lost territories were eventually regained over the centuries through countless battles, but the event drove home to the Romans that it was no longer time to rest on laurels and expect their old sources of their opulence for granted.
During the unrestful years of the Eastern Reconquest, Roman people desperately looked for alternate routes to Far East while they still could, after the old caravan routes were halted by bellicose Persians. It was not only a matter of luxury goods anymore, but also of basic sundries like wheat and grains, which started becoming scarce with the loss of Egypt.
The learned and scholars were fast in popularizing the ancient Greek stories of the African circumnavigation by Hanno the Navigator and Pharaoh Necho, and proposed them in their public speeches as a solution to the trade problem. Putting the best of Roman shipbuilding and geography to test, those merchants who could and dared to cross the Pillars of Heracles started honing their navigation skills, braving the currents to reach the ports of South India in search of goods for trade. Those daring enough ventured even farther east to try and reach Serica, the mythical land where silk came from.
While the protacted state of emergency back at home forced new forms of governorship and battle strategies to be tested in order to strengthen what remained of the Empire, the IVth and Vth centuries also came to be a small period of cultural renaissance thanks to the imports of new ideas brought along by extended explorations. As the old classical world was turned on this head, Rome also regained its peace at least, albeit still conscious that the were living on borrowed time.

The colony of Nova Sicilia
Even with the Persians partly expelled from the Levant, the naval trades with the Far East that began as a temporary last resort had now turned too intense to abruptly give up on, and so continued unabated, this time including more accessible waterways. While the imported teachings of Boddo and Confucius sparked a new, virulent interest in Gnosticism among Romans that pitted it against the Christians, it's also true that spices, new food and clothes came to Rome at a much cheaper price and in greater abundance than ever before.
A problem still remained, however. As warehouses that the Romans owned in India and Serica grew in size and storage to make up for the demand at home, they were also subjected to increasingly heavy tax levies by their sovereigns, which made commerce harder and harder as the merchants struggled to stay in the black. The solution for this was to found a port of call of their own, preferably in a place with no population and away from natural dangers.
The opportunity came when the first Romans heard of a seemingly deserted island about 100 miles off the coast of Serica, conveniently placed in the midst of two of their major commercial destinations. Hastily named Nova Sicilia after certain natural features, their settlements on the west side became the center of lively port towns and big stone houses for storage and conservation.
The colonization didn't come without troubles, however. As if struggling with diseases wasn't enough, natives met the newly arrived with hostility and subjected the Roman settlements with frequent raids. Although the much more primitive indigenous people were later vanquished to the montains, the coastal towns continued living their existence in a state of continous martial law. Huge stone walls and watchtowers had to be built in haste against the increasingly cunning incursions.

The Yamato, an ally up North
With the problem of natives settled, another issue still waited to be solved. Pirates off the coast of Asia had been frequently reported boarding or sinking Roman merchant ships, resulting in huge losses. Wisely enough, the Romans though twice before declaring war on countries which they knew little about, but it was sorely understood that they were alone in their solitary trade and needed an ally to defend themselves by proxy.
Luck visited them as a few patrol boats strayed off the course and were brough to a long voyage up north by the strong Oceanic currents. Once they returned, they told of a much more advanced people with which they might be able to form a reasonable alliance. The proposal was taken into consideration back in Rome, but for a long time it was never put in practice due to language differences.
It wasn't until the first years of the VIIth century that a Roman delegation came to the Yamato people seeking an official union of interests.
An agreement was achieved, not least because the Yamato too were embroiled in a similar situation and were seeking new forces to back up their side. Most surprisingly to them, Romans also learned that their Emperor was at the time looking to reform the structure of their then-crude government, so as to consolidate power back to his hands.
Jumping at the opportunity, Romans drove a hard bargain to get involved in internal politics and sway the country in their favor through cultural influence. The plan was to have him to abandon the project for a Serican-style government in favor of a Roman-style one, arguing that a more tiered bureaucratic structure would've satisfied his needs without upsetting the large clan rule. Eventually however it was tales of the technological wonders of the Roman world (of which a small part was brought with them in their colony of Nova Sicilia) that landed them a joint concession in their southermost island, as a show of confidence.

Military alliance aside, the status of the province of South Yamato was notably ambiguous, even between the two sides of the agreement.
While formally "donated" to the Romans colonizers to aid the natives in the developement of a new government system, waiting for it to be later approved and implemented in the remaining Yamato once time was ripe, in truth the Yamato emperor initially intended it as a trusteeship: by giving in to Romans' request, he believed he would be relieved of the trouble of running the less reachable (and more vulnerable) islands of the realm as well as staving off possible rebellions in there wishing to break off his central rule. He reasoned, after all, that the new Roman province would be virtually dependent on Yamato for all their needs and so it would be just a loyal client state of their own to burden with the most insidious matters.
Due of its excessive distance from the core of the Empire, it was necessarily ruled by two special proconsuls. One Roman, the other of course from Yamato (depending on internal intrigues, it was usually from the the gens Fucivara or the gens Soga, the first to act in
9PzETXn.jpg
favor of a Roman rule in the area), serving mainly as an interpeter/adviser and reporting on the developments to the Yamato emperor.
While a typical Asian architecture still flourished in the main island, new mixed settlements built according to the classic Roman city planning became prevalent here. Basilicas dedicated to local deities, as well as aqueducts and the characteristic keyhole-shaped mausoleums built in the style of the Pantheon, where local Yamato patricians wished to be interred after death, dotted the landscape. Latin alphabet for phonetic notations in bureacratic papers, as well as translated Latin literature also found their way among lay people in the closing days of the Roman rule.

In the late IXh century, the system of Germanic foederati that was keeping the homeland secure failed at last, and they finally pushed into Roman borders along with Turkic riders, making communication with Rome virtually impossible. As this happened, the local Roman government in East Asia, increasingly isolated from domestic matters, slowly assimilated with natives and declared self-rule, effectively following, in a twist of irony, the Yamato in all of their conquest campaigns against the kingdoms of the Cara peninsula, just on the other side of the sea. The ultimate collapse and demise would occur only in the XIIIth century as the Mongol Huns invaded South Yamato for a short period of time, after which the territories would be reclaimed and reabsorbed into Yamato by a now more centralized government. Nonetheless, the cultural and architectural heritage still lingers on to this day.

Fig.1
Particular of the Tabula Christoforiana, after the name of its donor. XIIth century replica of a VIIIth century original. Archives of the Vatican Museums.
 
SRBO:
One of the lesser known Roman provinces was the short-lived province of Persia. After a catastrophic defeat for Persia in a pitched battle, the Persian king died and pretenders quickly started squabbling, giving the Romans a chance to annex the rest of Mesopotamia all the way to the sea. The province however was plagued by constant raids from pirates hiding somewhere in the complicated coast east of Bahrain (OTL UAE). As the Romans explored, they established a extremely lucrative naval trade route to India and beyond directly into it's port of Apphana which became the capital of the province. This route brought many exotic things and materials, that the Romans decided that the pirate threat must be extinguished permanently. A couple of legions made their way along the Arabian coast completely annihilating all the pirates who were not prepared for combat on land. The Romans wanted to hold this area and founded the cities of Singidunum Novum on Awal (Bahrein) and Achaemenium (to deliberately anger the Hellenized Seleucids) on the rocky Musandam penisula. However, as the Roman state started to be invaded by Germanic tribes, Persians and Arab tribes took over the area, however, tiny successor states of Singidunum Novum and Achaemenium would establish entire trade empires and survive well into the Middle Ages.


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trejiokla

In 1126 AUC, Flavius Claudius Iulianus Persicus Maximus, the Saint, advanced upon Central Europe once again and began a campaign againt the barbarian tribes between the Wesser and Oder.
During the reforms of Flavius Julius Valentianus, the Julian's adopted son and Caesar, this territory was transformed in the diocesis of Anglia, which depend of the Prefecture of Galia. The principal province is the province of Anglia, which capital city was Treva Augusta (OTL Hamburg).

anglia___romania_superviviente_by_cdmonte-dacvq1p.jpg
 
I've just read all posts in this thread. Looks like a lot of map has disapperared. :frown:

Yeah, I'm afraid so. A lot of maps on pciture-hosting sites have vanished. I have been trying of late to save copies of all maps not saved on this forum itself, but it's probably too late for a number of the earlier ones. I do need to go back over the thread sometime soon to see what can be salvaged, now that my internet is working better.
 
MotF 143: The Great Game

The Challenge

Make a map of a non-military struggle for influence and power in a given region.

The Restrictions
There are no restrictions on when your PoD or map may be set. Fantasy, sci-fi, and future maps are allowed, but blatantly implausible (ASB) maps are not (well, maybe a liiiittle blatantly implausible, at least for this contest ;))
 
Flashman:

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The Coldest War


It all started in 1946. The US and her allies had finished wiping the Nazis from the face of the earth, and bringing the Japanese to heel. Things were looking up for humanity, with the greatest threats to world security firmly nipped in the bud. At least, until we had to go and blow it all uo.

Some minor border skirmish in Berlin quickly grew out of hand and, before either side knew what was happening, there was a full-blown war on. The red tide pushed it’s way to the Rhine, and was only barely held back. The land was gassed, bombed and irradiated, until both sides had finally had enough and signed a peace treaty.

Meanwhile, the Cold War was just getting started. Proxy wars and support of tyrannical anti-communist regimes was the rule of the day, and the American public grew jaded. An increasingly disconnected US government handed over more and more power to corporations and the ultra rick, turning a blind eye to abuse and pollution. Lo and behold, criminal gangs integrated with legitimate business, and holes were burned in the ozone layer.

In 1984, a Kremlin coup resulted in World War Three. At first, both sides demonstrated remarkable constraint, sticking to conventional invasions, but eventually, they let loose with the nukes. The result was nearly the end of civilization- luckily, however, both the US and Soviets managed to re-forge their nations from their underground bunkers.

Now, these two states vy for control; on the one hand, the United States of America. Theoretically, the exact same nation as it was pre-Collapse. In fact, it might as well be a new one altogether. The nation is effectively by and for the Corporations and the special interests- ICS, Tyrell, Omni-Corp. Their vastly powerful media wings convince the people to vote for their candidates. Outside of the major cities, things are still dangerous. Gangs of roving raiders, punks and deserters rule the night, extorting small towns and scraping up gasoline.

The Soviets (and the Germans) have totally transformed what Communism means. No longer is it the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the German Democratic Republic, but the Holy Union of Soviet Orthodox Republics and the Heilig Deutscher Kommissariat. All references to Communism as anti-religious have been eliminated, Marx, Lenin and Stalin have been canonized as some of the holiest saints in Christianity, which has similarly been warped, transformed and “rationalized”.

The year is 1999. The US is facing off internal unrest, poverty and Christian Fundamentalism. The Soviets are facing against their eternal religious and ethnic strife under a new Premier, Vladimir Putin. But, more importantly, both sides face each other across the North Pole. In World War 4, all ICBMs were used up or destroyed, and the means or knowledge to build new ones was lost. This has reduced the US and the Soviets to bombers and conventional armies. And the only way they can get at each other is across the North Pole, which has been rendered ice-free by the climate disasters. There are three states vital to this effort.

First, the Graham Republic. Consisting of the Yukon, upper British Columbia, the Alexander Isles, and, of course, Graham Island. This Republic, though friendly to the US, maintains staunch neutrality. They are the only thing between the US and it’s rightful territory, the Alayska SSR (Which broke away from the Soviets after their radical turn towards Orthodoxy). The Graham Republic is a corridor which would allow the quick movement of troops to the Arctic Circl, and allow for encirclement against the Kanadi Communist Raiders, and the Nunavutians.

Next, comes the Lands of the Atom-Kings. Here were located the bulk of the US’s missile silos. When the US ordered the silos to fire upon advancing Soviet armies, there was a mass mutiny, with only a few complying. They remained in their silos as they were bombarded by Soviet Nukes. Now, they rule from their bunkers, using some of the last ICBMs on earth to extort the rest of the world. Could they be convinced to rejoin the US, their missiles could win the Cold War.

Finally, Alert. Alert consists of the isles of the Arctic Sea, and is made up of Soviet and American soldiers, as well as former miners and oil workers. They are the first post-national state, and they seek to maintain peace across the world, threatening to attack the Soviets or Americans if they cross into the Open Polar Sea. American and Communist ships skirt the outer edges of the Polar Sea, waiting for war in the bitter cold.
 
Doctor President:

Novgorod has maintained its tradition as a republic for many centuries. Now comes an election that may decide its fate and affect the world more than any other before it.

Since the 1930s, the Lübeck Alliance, including Spain, Enrica, Sweden, Bavaria, and many smaller countries, has dominated Europe and North America. Among its opponents is the Russian People’s Union, which has united Ruthenia, Muscovy, and most other Russian lands. The RPU considers gaining Novgorod as one of its main goals, to finish uniting the Russians and to gain access to the Baltic and Arctic. They know that a military invasion would be strongly opposed by Novgorod with support from other countries, so instead they have given extensive funding and support to pro-unification groups within Novgorod. The Lübeck Alliance is, naturally, against unification. They are very worried about the possibility of RPU gaining a large territory with access to the Baltic Sea- which particularly threatens Sweden, a key Lübeck Alliance member. As such they have given much support to anti-unification organizations in Novgorod.

The Novgorod Republic is governed by the Grand Council, a legislative body whose councilors are chosen in two ways. Each of the twenty-five provinces and seven independent cities elects one to three ‘provincial councilors’ based on, but not proportional to, its population by a method of its choosing, and the rest are ‘national councilors’, elected by all Novgorod citizens using a party list proportional system. Elections occur every four years.

The Liberal Party supports classical liberalism and closer relations and trade with Lübeck Alliance countries. It is one of the oldest parties in Novgorod, and is the primary anti-unification force.

The Conservative Party supports conservative, Orthodox Christian values, and isolationism, being against both the RPU and the Lübeck Alliance. Once the primary opposition to the Liberals, their support has decreased in recent times.

The People’s Party is a centrist, populist party supported mostly by rural farmers. They have stated support for unification, as the RPU is generally populist in its governance and unification is supported by most of their rural base.

The Labor Party supports socialism and general worker’s rights. It is almost entirely urban and is opposed to unification with the RPU, which is anti-socialist economically.

United Russians is the dominant force for unification with the RPU. With great funding from the RPU, their support has rapidly increased in the last decade.

The Freedom Alliance is a coalition of the Finnish Independence Party, the Freedom for Estonia Party, and the Latvian Independence Party, which support the independence and general interests of their respective minority regions. They are strongly anti-unification, as the minorities would be marginalized even more in a country that is explicitly for the ‘Russian People’.

2016 is an election year, and due to their growing support, it is possible that together the pro-unification parties will get a majority in the Grand Council. They have stated that if they do, they will immediately begin integration into the RPU. Fear of unification has greatly strengthened the Freedom Alliance, which is expected to get the votes of most Finns, Estonians, and Latvians in this election. Society in Novgorod is tense with uncertainty about their future. It is an open secret that foreign interests are funding some of the parties’ campaigns: the RPU extensively donating to the United Russians, and the countries of the Lübeck Alliance are donating to the Liberals and other anti-unification parties. Though not illegal under Novgorod law, this would be an outrage in most elections. But this is not most elections, for a Novgorod Election has never before been so important the to the international community.

novgorod_republic_by_doctor_president-dafs111.png



The anti-unification parties- the Liberals, Conservatives, Labour, and the Freedom Alliance- together have a slight majority in parliament. Novgorod will remain an independent state- for now. But other than that, these parties have little to agree on. Attempts to create a majority coalition have so far failed. An attitude of non-compromise prevails in the government. Some say that Novgorod has let itself become a pawn in the conflicts of foreign powers. Many worry that its divisions will not be solved peacefully. But the Novgorod Republic has a long tradition of democracy. Whatever its fate, it will have a major affect on the balance of power in the world.
 
MotF 144: Res Publica

The Challenge

Make a map of a further integrated European Union or alternate equivalent.

The Restrictions
There are no restrictions on when your PoD or map may be set. Fantasy, sci-fi, and future maps are allowed, but blatantly implausible (ASB) maps are not
 
Zek Sora:

united_states_of_europe_by_zeksora-dai7etf.png




"Europe thus divided into nationalities freely formed and free internally, peace between States would have become easier: the United States of Europe would become a possibility."
- Napoleon Bonaparte [1]

Welcome to the United States of Europe. In this universe, things went very differently in the Napoleonic Wars, and Napoleon himself became convinced of the wisdom of preserving the Continental System, rather than continuing on the warpath (except, of course, for a new Crusade against the Ottoman Empire, taking all its European lands for France). After his death, his successor, an alternate Napoleon II [2], carried out many actions that would he believed would aid in preserving French hegemony over the continent. Ironically, almost all of these actions involved giving up French power in some way. The first was the re-distribution of land among France and her more directly controlled puppets [3], and the granting of independence to many lands under French rule [4]. The second was the creation of a "European Council," made up of representatives from all the nations of Europe who would come together and "advise" (read: decide the line to tread for) the various national governments on matters of foreign policy and trade.

There was, of course, some opposition to the greater integration in Europe, or as many saw it, the extension of French influence into the domestic policies of nominally independent states. The greatest center of this opposition was the Austrian Empire, who saw Napoleon II willingly lessening the French grip on Europe and mistook it for weakness on the part of France and decided to pull out of the Continental System. This did not go well for them. It took just one full year for not just the Grande Armée, but a multitude of smaller national militaries, to crush the Austrian Empire. After the defeat of Austria, the European Council made the decision to dismember it. They threw large chunks to states who had contributed greatly to the war effort (and had natural claims on said chunks) [5], and granting independence to Bohemia-Moravia and Hungary, who had revolted and switched sides in the middle of the war.

As the European Council grew ever more powerful after the Austrian Revolt (as it was termed), many powerful multinational political groups began to question its undemocratic nature as a secretive, unelected group of power brokers. After years of mounting pressure to reform the Continental System's shared government, which had become bloated and somewhat redundant, with no actual direction behind the growing of its bureaucracy, the European Council made an announcement that would shock the world: the Continental System was to be disbanded. In its place, the United States of Europe would govern an ever closer union of European states through its central decision-making body, the 400-member Senate. [6]

While the political "parties" in the European Senate are more faction-like, most having no official structure or whips, it still follows a parliamentary structure partially based upon the British one, with a far-less-powerful President of the Senate taking the place of the Prime Minister. [7] The Senate's faction-parties are vague enough that every representative can be grouped into one of four groups:
  • Jacobins — Have evolved into proto-socialists in some ways, supporting strong government, greater social spending, and interventionist economic policies in most areas. However, they are strongly free-trade (within the borders of the USE), deeply militarist, and have adopted some slightly more conservative social policies to compete with the Catholics. Highly federalist, and would prefer abolishing the various monarchies in the states where they still exist. Are seen as the “party of the establishment” in the USE in many ways. Bases of support include: France, the various formerly French or French-liberated states (i.e. Illyria, Greece, etcetera), Moldavia-Wallachia (thanks to their militarism in the face of Russia), and Poland. Will coalition with Liberals or Catholics.
  • Liberals — Your standard classical liberals. Pro-free trade, anti-interventionist, anti-military, anti-Church. Most would prefer the abolishment of the monarchies, but will settle for constitutional monarchies. Are more confederalist than federalist—want to see more unions within the USE (i.e. Italy, Germany, etcetera). Bases of support include: parts of the Rhine, Northern Italy, Batavia, Switzerland, Bohemia-Moravia and Denmark. Will coalition with Jacobins and some Regionalist parties.
  • Catholics — Exist as a reaction to the Jacobins’ and Liberals’ largely secular outlooks. Is deeply socially conservative, favors absolute monarchies (though it has no official line on the Union), and advocates the establishment of the Catholic Church as the official state religion of the USE. Is also very pro-interventionist and classically conservative. Takes much of the base of support away from Regionalist parties where it is strong. Bases of support include: Southern Italy (esp. the Papal States), Spain, and parts of the Rhine. Will coalition with anyone that offers concessions for them.
  • Regionalists — Not a single party, but a sweeping category of various localist parties that advocate everything from a weakening of the Union to its total dissolution. They vary on every other issue, from monarchists to communists to extreme Protestants. Bases of support include: Hungary, Prussia, and the Balkans. Most parties will not coalition, though some will with various other parties.
--------------------

[1] - OTL quote

[2] - Or so the USE-approved history books of TTL say. In the reality of TTL, he was really more of a puppet of his advisors.

[3] - Formerly directly-ruled French land was given to Italy and the Rhine, as well as some extra land for Batavia that it hadn't ruled before being conquered by Napoleon I.

[4] - Batavia, the Papal States, Illyria, Bosnia, Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, and Sardinia were all given independence.

[5] - The Rhenish got Austria proper, the Poles got about 2/3 of Galicia-Lodomeria, and Moldavia-Wallachia got the other 1/3.

[6] - Originally, the Senate made only foreign policy and trade decisions, but now it commands the USE's integrated military (though not the individual state militaries that still exist) and the USE's various social programs.

[7] - The President of the Senate basically serves the same function as the OTL USA's Speaker of the House, with one or two differences.
 
Doctor President:

The direct origins of the Union of Islamic Republics come from the Syrian and Iraqi Civil Wars of the 2010s, in which Iran supported the governments of those countries in defeating Da’esh and, in Syria, various other groups rebelling against their government. After Iraq and Syria had been fully stabilized in 2019, the alliance between the three was formalized as the Middle East Council.

Iran, Iraq, and Syria had in common that they were all led by Shia Muslims. The great majority of Iran is Shia, and following the 2018 secession of Iraqi Kurdistan and with it not only Kurdish Sunnis but many Arab Sunnis, so was Iraq. Although Shias were a minority in Syria, the highly destructive war had disproportionately affected Sunni regions, increasing the Shia proportion in the country.

The Middle East Council was opposed by Saudi Arabia and its allies, as well as Israel. Following a series of failed interventions in the region, the United States was hit by a wave of isolationism and, though still an opponent of the MEC, was much less involved in the region than they had been just a few years ago.

In 2020, Yemen entered the MEC- or, more specifically, the Iran-supported ‘Houthi government’ of Yemen did, which was opposed by the Saudi-supported ‘Hadi government’. Meanwhile, the authoritarian monarchy of Saudi Arabia was seeing increasing opposition within itself. With greatly decreased economic and military ties to America, Saudi Arabia was having greater difficulty holding itself together. In a repeat of what had occurred in many Arab countries a decade earlier, protests became riots, and when the government intervened with force, it broke out into warfare. Rebellions broke out in other Gulf states- Qatar, Bahrain, and the UAE. The MEC countries initially provided non-military support to these rebels, but soon they had troops on the ground and the entire Arabian peninsula was in a state of war, the only neutral country being Oman. With their popular support, the MEC quickly gained the upper hand.

Within a year, a new order existed in the Arabian peninsula. Saudi Arabia was trisected- the west became the neutral Republic of Hejaz, the center was a remnant Saudi Arabia, and the Shia-majority east was the East Arabian Republic, a member of the MEC. A small area in the south was also given to Yemen. Bahrain, no longer under the Al-Khalifa monarchy, was also a MEC country. Qatar and the UAE were in an unusual position. The majority of their residents had been foreign workers, most of which had fled. These territories were placed under an MEC military government, which was quite harsh to the remaining population. People from other parts of the MEC were encouraged to immigrate and become a ‘replacement population’. Eventually, the territory that had formerly been Qatar and the UAE became the Islamic Republic of the South Persian Gulf, an Iranian puppet even more so than other MEC countries.

In addition, the Middle East Council was renamed the Union of Islamic Republics, and became closer to a supranational union than a simple alliance. This union’s capital would be a new city along the Iran-Iraq border and near the Persian Gulf called Hidahta in Farsi and Al-Ittihad in Arabic, meaning ‘Unification’.

In the 2020s, the UIR took advantage of troubles in the decaying post-Soviet regimes in the Central Asian nations, gaining influence over changing regimes. Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan joined the UIR. Even the remnant Saudi state failed to hold power, and following a UIR-backed coup, it became the Islamic Republic of Najd and joined the UIR.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan was destabilizing. Its government was weak, and the Taliban was regaining power, as were other insurgent movements. This had a destabilizing effect on eastern Iran, including several terrorist attacks occurring in the region. The UIR had enough of this, and in 2034 they invaded Afghanistan to restore stability. After some years of military occupation, they unexpectedly made the move to dissolve Afghanistan. Iran annexed the western portion, much of it Farsi-speaking, Tajikistan gained the Tajik areas in the northeast, and the remnant became the Republic of Pashtunistan.

In 2040, the Union of Islamic Republics has made further moves toward unification, prompting debate over whether it should at this point be considered a single country. Its members retain different systems of government and separate UN seats, but the UIR has a unified military, a semi-unified economy, and unified foreign relations. Its most recent entries are Oman, in which an increasingly centralizing monarchy prompted a UIR-sponsored revolution, and the Islamic Republic of Eritrea, which was created after a civil war in Eritrea ended in a ceasefire and the small eastern half looked the UIR for protection. Although the UIR’s central government is a parliament elected democratically from each republic, individual member states have varying levels of democracy.

The UIR was once strongly backed by Russia, but various disputes have decayed their relationship. Now, they look toward India, Europe, and ironically, now the USA, which is ending its isolationist period, for allies. They need these allies to help defend against a Turkish, Egyptian, and Pakistani alliance created to defend against further UIR expansion and provide an alternative power in the Muslim world.

union_of_islamic_republics_by_doctor_president_daic37q-fullview.jpg
 
fluttersky:

The European Federation was created in 2024, consisting of the "inner circle" of EU members who desired full political union.

As of 2046, it is very much a federal state akin to the United States. The Federation is the second-largest economy in the world, after China and just ahead of the United States; it possesses nuclear weapons and has a spot on the UN Security Council.

In the end, Eastern European countries proved to be more receptive to full political union than Western European countries, and the center of gravity of the European economy has steadily drifted eastwards. In 2041, it was decided to move the European Federation's capital from Brussels to a central location in Brcko, which is undergoing massive expansion; Brcko is slated to become a cosmopolitan city with a predicted population of 9 million by 2060. Also in 2041, some of the larger member states were divided up; this was a very controversial move and protests against the partitions still occur five years later.

europe2-png.288800
 
Birdperson:

So I spent the bulk of the last 3 weeks working on my pitch for "Res Publica" and amassed a fair pile of notes, incoherently ranging from the 1890s to the 1970s. Admittedly I should've worked way more and much faster on the actual map but I kind of got caught up in the idea.
What follows is a very brief summary of the story behind the "Danubian Union"...

  • The crucial divergence period is the turn of the century (late 1890s, early 1900s)
  • WW1-analogue is caused by a Russo-German dispute and pitches the Entente (Russia, France) against the CP (Germany, A-H), with lots of nations joining in as it progresses (1907-1911)
  • Franz Joseph I. dies in 1908
  • a Bolshevik Revolution is largely unsuccessful in Russia but Germany shifts to the left after the war
  • Franz II. is assasinated in Budapest 1916, allowing Karl to implement the reforms Franz had been pushing for
  • Trialism is adopted in a modified version
  • Interwar Period-analogue sees shifts to the right in France, Italy, Russia and Romania
  • WW2-analogue are smaller regional wars, a "Latin War" (France-Italy-Romania) and a "Russian War" (Russia) (1931-1934)
  • Karl I. dies in 1932
  • irredentist attack by Romania on A-H-S leads to some nasty ethnic cleansing and after the counter-invasion by A-H-S and Germany the "Dismemberment of Romania" takes place
  • these events mold the Habsburg Dominions together as bulwark against Russian and Latin aggression but they only work so long
  • Otto I. becomes a strong believer in "Danubianism", a devolving of the Habsburg Empire and renewal through the Danubian Free Trade Zone (economic union set up by Franz II.)
  • the "Great Devolution" (1952) sees the end of the A-H-S Empire and the foundation of the modern Danubian Union
  • in 1968 the world is nearing the end of a decade of tacit rapprochement between the Freedom and Nationalist Alliance
  • the powder keg that is the Ottoman Empire is three years from bursting and engulfing the world in a renewal of hostilities
I'll add the numbering later and further clarify the map. If not here then on Imgur or DeviantArt or something.

pcFqdUo.png
 
...or today. Darn, I have been procrastination-plagued lately.

MOTF 145: We've Always Been at War with Eastasia

The Challenge
Make a map of a country that controls a huge part of the world, likely one of the only ones left. It doesn't need to be dystopian, but, much like 1984, the world should be divided up into only a couple of nations. Feel free to make a map of the whole world or just one of the major powers.
 
XO Maenadicus:

A map of Indo-Europe, 2084

Capital: Moscow
Language: Neo-Indo-European, based on a reconstruction of PIE
Currency: Euro
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