Look like Paraguay is the prussia of South America, rather than chile
The Falling Rain: A Graphics Timeline
- Thread starter Veranius
- Start date
Quite so!
Brazil has not had a fun time in this timeline. There was a nasty civil war in 2011 that caused the fall of the Sixth Republic, and the Seventh Republic (technically South Brazil) is on its way out. Amazonia gained its independence thanks to Ecuador, and the three other states (Maranhão, Pernambuco, and Paraíba) broke away thanks to an intervention by the US, who was very wary of seeing a resurgence of war communism into the world so soon after Eurasia fell in the Millennium Crisis. The reunification of China under the democratic faction plays into this sentiment too.
TransAm, Yellowstone
- The Federal Capital City includes all aspects of DC, from the cities of Georgetown, Washington, and Alexandria as well as the other non-city areas of the commonwealth.
- Donner City is Salt Lake City.
- Boston, Oregon is Portland, Oregon. It's called Portland because of a coin toss between Portland and Boston as the names for the city, so here that toss goes differently.
- Caspar, Laramie is Casper, Wyoming, with the original spelling for Caspar coming from Fort Caspar, which was corrupted to Casper.
- Coulson, Absaroka is Billings, Montana, named for a ghost town next to Billings that was absorbed into it.
- Eagle Rock, Shoshone is Idaho Falls, Idaho.
And for some acronyms:
- NAWLPC is North American Water, Light, and Power Consortium, an analog to the North American Water and Power Alliance.
- CDT and LCT are the Continental Divide Trail and the Lewis and Clark Trail, respectively. Long distance trail hiking is much better funded and maintained in this universe.
Knowing this timeline, I wouldn't be surprised if the Gauge War had a body count attached to it as well.
That makes me think, how differently has the history of Mormonism unfolded with a POD right in the middle of its critical early period?
Yep! Thanks to major and continued government investment through TransAm, trains have retained their competitiveness for long distance travel and freight.
I was originally assuming that, based on the Erie Gauge War and the British Gauge Wars in OTL being relatively bloodless, the American Gauge War would be too, but thanks to your comment I will say that indeed blood was shed over which track gauge would be dominant in the US.
The Donner Party stays on the shores of the Great Salt Lake, giving the metropolis that arises there their name. They do get muscled out of power once the Mormons arrive, as the Republic of Espejo (based in Donner City) is a member of the Mormon Holy League.
Smaller Mormon groups do spin off elsewhere - the Strangites go to New Galilee, which is the Canadian province to the north of Manitoba/Winnipeg, and also some neo-Rigdonites go to Alaska and settle in what we know of as Anchorage, supplemented by those fleeing persecution from the US following the fall of the Holy League.
Yes! Mayor Horn used the chaos to attempt to invade Staten Island, which caused the vast majority of the casualties from the crisis. After that, the crisis was largely fought in the courtroom.
With the Staten Island Crisis:
a) why did this happen
b) are new york political parties just as weird as otl
a) why did this happen
b) are new york political parties just as weird as otl
In universe - President Teller inflames quite a bit tensions in the NY-NJ area, being from New Jersey himself but favoring New York quite a bit. Staten Island, long underfunded, neglected, and opposed to Teller, goes rogue in coordination with Eastern Long Island. Staten Island succeeds thanks to New Jersey's support, while Eastern Long Island fails due to the opposition of Connecticut.
Out of universe - my own personal distaste for the political geography of New York Harbor.
New York City is a strange place, no matter the timeline.
No, that's Surinam. I never noticed the similar coloration until you pointed it out - apparently it's the NCS color for Surinam.
Henson-Roosevelt Expedition
"The American contribution to the Race was decidedly a last-minute endeavor. President Roosevelt, buoyed by the (debatably) successful Peary-Henson North Pole Expedition in 1912, was eager to continue those sorts of major achievements. Thus, upon hearing of the decisions for the French and Danubian efforts to beat the British, Scandinavians, and Japanese to the South Pole, Roosevelt turned to the one person he felt could beat them all - Robert Peary. But illness kept the Arctic explorer from accompanying the voyage, so leadership fell on Matthew Henson. Even with this change in leadership, it was expected that Henson would lead the US to glory, for he was renowned for his capability in Arctic exploration based on Inuit tactics and was also recognized by the American press as the official first person to reach the North Pole. Roosevelt was delighted at the possibility for having such a renowned person achieve the greatest of achievements - first to the North and first to the South..."
"With the immense pressure placed upon the American expedition, however, things were destined to go wrong. None of the crew making the journey to Antarctica had ever been south of the Equator, and their experiences in the Arctic colored their decision-making greatly. Additionally, the demands of the press imposed upon them forced them to increase their speed and thus shed weight, almost dooming the expedition. Henson's death soon after reaching the South Pole is often seen as an inevitability by historians and speculative historians alike, but thanks to a close relationship he fostered with Shackleton the rest of the expedition were able to return home, after a long and arduous time..."
"Had Shackleton and Scott been even a week slower, it is likely the Americans all would have perished in the cold Antarctic wastes. Their arrival at the Pole two days after Henson was a godsend, and it is reported that Henson's last words were to Shackleton and Scott, imploring them to bring his crew to safety. Amundsen's own arrival two days after Shackleton and Scott, as well as Shirase one day after that, allowed for the greatest collection of Antarctic explorers in one place at one time. As for the others, Charcot arrived three weeks later, with Filchner and König two weeks after that. And so the scoreboard was settled for the Race to the South Pole; all that remained was the race home..."
"It would be Amundsen who would be the one to inform the world of Henson's accomplishment. In late March 1914 he arrived in Hobart and learned that no news had reached the world of any of the other expeditions. After contemplating claiming the accomplishment for himself (a race he should have won if not for the several false starts he endured), he relented and telegrammed President Roosevelt his condolences...."
"Shackleton and Scott returned to their base on Ross Island with Henson's surviving crew, where they learned of disaster. The American vessel, the Roosevelt, had been crushed by sea ice, stranding the entire American crew at the ramshackle Port Freedom, the American base. The British vessel, the Endurance, had returned to New Zealand to gain fresh supplies as ordered by Scott (behind Shackleton's back) after the expedition had set out, and with it still not back they were all thus stranded on Ross Island. Shackleton contemplated taking one of the Roosevelt's lifeboats on a voyage to New Zealand, but was dissuaded from that approach. Finally, after many long delays (largely surrounding financing), and as the Antarctic winter began to set in, the Endurance reappeared and carried the survivors home...."
"The last tragedy of the Race would be set in Tokyo Bay. Shirase and his crew limped into the bay after a long journey home, to find the harbor filled with the Russian Baltic Fleet, themselves chasing after rogue elements of the Russian Far East Fleet that had fled Vladivostok after the Romanov Reformation. In a case of truly unfortunate timing, the two Russian fleets began to attack one another as Shirase arrived, who was quickly caught in the crossfire. Thankfully, he and his crew were rescued by local fishing boats, and the recently installed Tsar Michael reluctantly paid a small indemnity to the Shogun in recompense for the lost of Shirase's ship and materials..."
Serendipitous timing, I just finished reading South! a few days ago so I've still got Shackleton and Antarctica swirling around my brain. That degree of ramshackle jury-rigged messiness sounds exactly like TR, though, and the mention of the Russian incident in Tokyo Bay only piques my interest more, along with the 'First Heroic Age of Exploration'. What's the Second? An alternative space race, or Venus?.
Anyway, this was great fun and right in that uncanny-valley sweet spot this series has nestled itself into, I'm always eager for more.
Anyway, this was great fun and right in that uncanny-valley sweet spot this series has nestled itself into, I'm always eager for more.
This largely stemmed from a combination of it being 100 years since Shackleton's death and a book I read as a child that talked about Scott's last expedition. It's a tragic episode of history that's really stuck with me, particularly the fact that Scott was so close so many times - he was just a month late to beating Amundsen, and died well on his way across the Ross Ice Sheet, so very close to a supply depot.
The numbered Heroic Ages is something that I'm snagging from Deep Night - you mentioned a Heroic Age of Space Exploration in a throwaway line somewhere taking about the Space Race, so I'm just connecting that with the exploration of Antarctica/the Arctic.
My general idea for the ages of exploration are:
Archaic Age: running from the 1773 Phipps Expedition to the North Pole and ending with the 1859 McClintock Expedition, the last one to really search for John Franklin.
First Heroic Age: broadly 1871 (Polaris Expedition) to 1924 (British Trans-Antarctic Expedition, possible death of Shackleton), with a focus on 1909 to 1914, the time of the Races to the Poles.
Second Heroic Age: broadly 1961 to 1997, split into the Race to Space (1961-1967), the Race to the Moon (1972-1977), and the First Race to Venus (1985-1991).
Third Heroic Age: broadly 2006 to 2029, split into the Second Race to Venus (2006-2010) and the Race to Mars (2021-2029). It wouldn't normally be considered a Heroic Age if not for the Odyssey 9 disaster, something very reminiscent of the First Heroic Age.
The nation that controls St. Petersburg is the National State of Ingria, a Finnish puppet and member of the Sparta Protocol. To the south is the Republic of Novgorod, a member of the European Safety Network. Both broke from Russia after the Millennium Crisis.