Entry1 said:Second Republic of Venice
In the late 18th century, many resented the hierarchy in the Republic of Venice. Although called a republic, it was ruled in an autocratic fashion by a few powerful families. A revolution occurred and that was the beginning of the Second Republic of Venice. They wanted to emulate the French revolution preceding them and so they used a tricolor flag.
Commonalty of Venice
The Second Republic was just as brutal and autocratic as the one before it. Ironically, the revolution had only produced a more oppressive regime. Any casual criticism of the new government was punishable by death and informants were hidden everywhere. Tens of thousands of bishops, peasants, and noblemen were beheaded to ensure the survival of the new republic. They removed all religious influences from the government and adopted a ten day calendar. What many saw as attacks toward their religious heritage sparked a new movement; distributism. The distributists believe that religion should be foremost in any government and that property ownership should be decentralized as widely as possible. In a counter revolution, they created the Commonalty of Venice, named so to represent the common people.
Entry 2 said:(In this ATL, Anatolia's culture is predominately Greek rather than Turkish.)
Osman Order (Theocracy, Caliphate)
The Osman Order, named after the dynasty of the same name, ruled the Anatolian subcontinent for hundreds of years after the fall of Byzantium centuries before. The Caliphate was generally tolerant of minorities, but suffered from internal corruption and over extension over time. This resulted in a brutal civil war where many factions tore the order apart from the inside. The dark red symbolises the Osman minority ruling Anatolia while the white field represents the native Hellenic peoples.
Anatolian Communalist Republic (Theocracy, Holy Republic)
The ACR was formed after the last Osman caliph was murdered in cold blood by peasants and revolutionaries, resulting in eastern orthodox zealots taking over. The ACR was responsible for persecuting and slaughtering many Muslim and non-orthodox citizens not even a few decades after it was formed and quickly turned into a ruthless dictatorship. In the end, the republic turned into an absolute monarchy after the first leader died and allowed his son to take over. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same. The blue and white bars, emulating OTL Greece's flag, represents the people of Anatolia. The red field, symbolising the blood of the people, features a five pointed star and three pointed star over the orthodox cross. This combination of symbols represented the new regime.
Entry 3 said:Confederate States of America
In a world where the 'McClellan-Meade Doctrine' allows for the Confederacy to build its resources and train its army, the CSA became a regionally powerful nation in the aftermath of the American Brothers' War. With the French Empire backing them after the paranoid American blockade sunk a French vessel, the Confederacy would not expand southwards into Mexico as the leaders of its Golden Circle Party fantasized, but instead moved into the Caribbean, and backed revolts in the American West, eventually absorbing the Republic of Deseret in 1891, as well as purchasing Cuba, the Bahamas, and conquering several other Caribbean islands such as Jamaica during their hostilities with the British in the Anglo-French War of 1882. Slavery remained a hotly debated issue in the nation; however, given the nations founding on state autonomy on the matter, most newly taken territories were allowed to vote on slavery, both during their time as territories and upon admission of statehood. The original Confederacy, alongside Cuba, clung on to slavery while new additions either forbade it, or allowed it with a great deal of restriction (as was the case in Deseret, who generally wanted fewer non-whites in their borders, free or not). Two factors, however, moved against the CSA; economics, and demographics. As time went on, the free black and 'mestizo' populations were rising, generally at a rate that was surpassing whites, and influx of immigration from Europe during the North German Partition in 1899 also allowed for a greater number of abolitionist whites. In addition, many of these people, immigrant or 'colored' were generally poor, but so was a great number of proper 'Dixie' citizens. As industrialization chugged along, despite promises of an 'agrarian nation' by the Southern Democratic Party, there came a new institution: industrial slavery. Blacks worked in factories for free, whites sometimes hired as overseers, though more often slaves were left to fend for themselves amongst the dangerous machinery. With more and more land being bought up by slavers, young white men left the countryside to find work in the cities, only to find that there too, their jobs were being held by enslaved Africans.
The Solidarity Club rose into prominence at the turn of the century, a group of abolitionists that believed in the equality of races. Alongside them were the White Workers' Union, dedicated to betterment of white laborers, the Defiant Negro Front, an illegal organization of black supremacists, and, of course, the Proletariat Workers' Party of Dixieland. An Engelist group, they formulated what became their own brand of Engelist Socialism known today as Synergism. The PWP slowly crept into the three other factions. Soon enough, the WWU dissolved itself and its members joined either Solidarity or the PWP, and the DNF followed suit with the death of their founding members and leading 'generals'. Solidarity itself was gradually infiltrated by the Party, members radicalized and Party leaders slowly working their way into the movement's governing body, the Council for Equality. Soon enough, the Solidarity marches were synonymous with party marches, the image of rows of blacks, whites, and mestizos (and occasionally Asians) alternating in ethnicity from person to person, becoming common on PWP posters. Soon, the PWP was "the Party of Solidarity".
The Revolution of 1919 was bloody and chaotic, erupting during the beginning of the First Final War, which, despite mass opinion against involvement, the Confederate government agreed to join on the side of the French Empire, many of its slaver elite owing debts to the foreign banks. The horrific Battle of Amsterdam was soon heard about by the newspapers, which had remained relatively free and independent. The entirety of the Confederate Expeditionary Brigade had been killed, the first group of soldiers deployed to fight in 'Europe's War'. This, coupled with rising inflation from the brief but devastating Panic of 1917, allowed the PWP to ignite the flames of war. Blood filled the streets, and by 1923, the Confederate States of America was dead. And in its place was...
Workers' Commonwealth of Dixie
The radical Synergist state known as the Workers' Commonwealth of Dixie is a totalitarian nightmare in the eyes of the bourgeoisie powers, and a fabled haven for the radical proletariat. Following the concepts of Synergism, all things belong to the state, with all workers agreeing to work in 'synergy' and unison with their government, whom they trust entirely, as said government is 'of, for, and by the Working Class'. There are no elections; instead, following Engelist principles, the leadership is promoted from amongst differing state-monitored and approved unions. From the Dixie Teachers' Union is chosen the Overseer of Education, from the Commonwealth Doctors' Union the Overseer of Health, and so on. All must work some form of job, children educated early to pick a profession for 'the betterment of the Commonwealth', and families live in towns officially owned by the state, given tokens with which they may purchase goods produced by the state, creating an internal economy, the profits of which are used by the government for trade and negotiation with foreign entities. The Supreme Overseer is the head of the state, the 'embodiment' of the workers' will. Synergism does not seek a transition to any sort of stateless society, instead it seeks to creation of the perfect state, wherein all is provided for, wherein all work to their strengths and get back what they put in, earning by merit and strength of will. This perfect state will one day encompass the world, but only through the total devotion of the worker for synergy with their government, all citizens armed, trained in combat, and thoroughly indoctrinated with propaganda; children who turn in their parents are granted great boons as they age, and lifetime increased food tokens are given to those who successfully reveal an enemy spy. Many, of course, accuse the PWP of having created a corporate state in all but name, with company towns, specialized schools, and even security thugs to beat under-productive workers, also known as the Bureau of Law and Order, but such accusations are those given only by 'traitors to solidarity', who are normally quickly grabbed and flogged to death, as most slavers were during the Revolution. True to their doctrine of 'rotting the foundations' of the bourgeoisie world, the Commonwealth funds a variety of insurgent groups, and successfully created the Proletariat Republic of Brazil, the Commune of Greater Liberia, and the People's State of Iberia, all of whom have worked to follow the Dixie standard of 'synergism'. Counter-revolutions have been attempted over the years, but the government had intentionally infiltrated and then corrupted such movements to become racist in scope, turning its own ethnic groups against one another to ensure 'synergy', and those attempting to gain better rights' for workers are accused of laziness, corruption, and a lack of devotion to synergy. Though its constitution did guarantee the rights of workers, over time the government had increased working hours, lowered safety standards, and reduced regulations, claiming that advances in technology, the growth of the nation and its strength, and greater 'solidarity' between line-workers and supervisory-workers have reduced the need for such legislation, or even required its total regression. For the cause of synergy and solidarity, marriage has even become increasingly state-controlled, marriage licenses arising first to combat forced marriages by families following 'bourgeois' traditions, but now any marriage requires the consent of the government, and local judges make 'recommendations' for marriage, typically either for a the pursuit of a policy of purposeful miscegenation, of eugenics, or of the creation of blood ties between politically prominent families.
Entry 4 said:Autarkic Republic of Paraguay (Self-sufficiency)
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Allied State of Paraguay (Regionalism)
In TTL, Francisco Solano López after his accession as president in 1862 had no interest in foreign policy and instead he doubled down on the isolationism, with the goal of making Paraguay completely self-sufficient. Although the export of raw materials was allowed to continue, all funds were funneled into a remarkable military buildup. Any imports had to serve a military purpose and only military advisors were allowed to enter or leave the country.
This policy had a modicum of success. Although the entire country was run like a giant hacienda, its citizens were mostly provided for. The export of mate and timber provided enough so that massive fortifications were built to cement Paraguayan claims in disputed territories. Strict isolationism also averted the Paraguayan war of OTL. For nearly two decades, the "hermit kingdom" was no more than a curiosity to its neighbors.
Disaster struck in 1880, when the worst drought in written history devastated the production in the region. The shortcomings of the regime were laid bare, when emergency grain reserves were found to be utterly insufficient. Despite that, Solano López had no intention of relaxing the rules, not even for allowing aid into the country. When a crowd of protesters unexpectedly assaulted Palacio de los López and killed him, the situation went from bad to worse, as competing factions of the enormous military apparatus began to wrestle for power.
It was Juan Francisco López, the late president's son, who brought on the most radical change in Paraguayan regime. Finding himself clearly on the losing side in the power struggle, he declared the autarkic regime to be over and directly appealed to Argentina and Uruguay for both food and military aid. With foreign help, Francisco López managed to subdue the power struggle and he was proclaimed president in the next year.
This regime change led directly to the formation of the Confederation of Río de la Plata, a military and economic alliance formed to counter the Empire of Brazil. Even today, Paraguay presents one of the most interesting changes from isolation to regionalism.
The flag of the Autarkic Republic of Paraguay features the customary red-blue-white color combination with a traditional six-pointed star in red in a white circle near the hoist.
The flag of Allied State of Paraguay keeps the color combination but alters the design to symbolize a break with the past. A version of the Sun of May is added, in gratitude to the help Argentina and Uruguay provided in the time of need.
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