Here is this week's challenge:
And here are the entries:
And here are the entries:
1 said:My entry, once again coming from my Danke Schön, Freiherr von der Goltz timeline. After the South American War of 1936-7, the British took a chunk of Amazonian/Orinocan jungle off of the hands of Venezuela (and Brazil), but the parties found it difficult to come to an agreement over the disposition of the eastern portion of the Venezuelan state of Bolivar, since both sides coveted the existing and potential gold mines in the area. The peace treaty signed in 1938 provided for the establishment of the Commonwealth of El Dorado (in OTL, there is a town called El Dorado in the area), a demilitarized entity which was nominally independent but with heavy Venezuelan and British institutional controls. The establishment of a democratic government in Venezuela in 1940, and the subsequent improvement in Anglo-Venezuelan relations meant that the Commonwealth's days were numbered, and after a jointly sponsored plebiscite in 1945, the results of which overwhelmingly favored reunification, the Commonwealth peacefully reunited with Venezuela.
The flag:
2 said:
3 said:The kingdom of East Prussia, consisting of the duchies of East and West Prussia, Posen and Silesia. It is ruled by Hohenzollerns in exile due to communist revolution. The state effectively acts as a buffer between The United Räte Republics of Mitteleuropa and Greater Imperial State of Russia, who both hotly contest this land for Pan-Germanic and Pan-Slavic ambitions respectively. This state came into being in 1922 and has since been guaranteed by the French Empire, Britain and Scandinavia. The tricolour combines the colours of Prussia and Silesia, and is defaced with the lesser coat-of-arms of the kingdom. The capital is located at the city of Posen.
4 said:Here's my entry to this week's flag challenge. The flag is for the Republic of Sakhalin, created after the Second Great War. For more backstory than I'll give now, please visit the colaborative timeline in my signature. The Island of Sakhalin was made a buffer state between the communist world powers, China and the Soviet Union, and the Japanese Empire. Heavy fights had occurred on and about this island during the Second Great War.
The white on the flag symbolises peace, future and independence. The double headed eagle represents the fact that the state is in between of two major world powers, and has to guard and protect itself at both sides. The yellow in the coat of arms stands for optimism, in terms of a prosperous and peaceful future. Blue is the buffer state's colour for ice and the surrounding sea.
5 said:Free City of Rome was founded when the Allies and Axis were not able to agree upon which Italian state would get Rome. WWII was finished because a failure of Normandy invasion and defeat of SU in summer of 1944. Soutern Italy became Kingdom of Italy with capital in Naples and northen part became Italian Social Republic with capital in Salò. Head of Free City of Rome is Pope, but real power was held by Government and Senate. City itself became world capital of smuggling between Nazi Europe end the rest of the world.
Green, white end red represent Italy and Italians, colors at the bottom of the flag and two coats of arms of Vatican City represent the Pope as head of Rome, but coat of arms of Rome in the middle of the flag represents government, senate and people of Rome as the rulers.
6 said:In 1960, as the Congolese crisis deepened, Moise Tshombe, political leader of the Katanga province, issued a unilateral declaration of independence. Tshombe had a variety of motivations for seeking to leave Congo, not least of which was that Katanga accounted for a large proportion of Congo's wealth. The motivation which he took to the world, however, was fear of Communist aggression, in the form of the Lumumba regime, and preservation of Katanga from the violence wracking the rest of the former Belgian colony. Belgian forces moved to support Katanga's independence, infuriating Lumumba, who viewed this as a colonial resurgence. The United Nations, meeting over the matter, eventually passed a resolution calling for the withdrawl of the Belgian forces, the use of UN forces to restore order, and a period of UN mandate over Katanga to determine the future of the nascent state. Belgium was more than happy to supply conveniently located troops to assist in the UN operation, preventing either of the Congolese regimes from making inroads into Katanga. UN forces in Katanga operated under the flag of the United Nations Trust Territory of Katanga, shown below.
7 said:The Flag of the Protectorate of the Rhineland.
8 said:On the 20th of August 1945, The Korean Liberation Army lead by General Ji Cheong-cheon crossed into Occupied Korea and began attacking japanese forces in Seoul in concert with an invasion through the north by the soviet Union and to the south by American Forces. By the time of Japanese surrender on 5th of september, the KLA had managed to liberate a territory that extented to the other side of the peninsula.
Unbeknownst to the Provisional Government's leadership, the allies had agreed at potsdam conference, without consulting them, that korea was to be "stabilised" by having the peninsula divided into 2 zones administered by military governor from the US and the USSR. Some in the government agreed to work with the relevent authorities but most, including future first prime minister of the State of Korea Kim Gu feared, as it turned out rightly, that the division might lead to the break up of Korea into rival countries.
When a joint US/USSR conference met in Moscow without any of their representatives and agreed on a five year trusteeship, the Provisional government declared that the territory under its control would not become a puppet of either the soviets nor the american force and demanded the withdrawal of either forces from its territory.
In the years since, the State of Korea (more commonly called Central Korea) managed to keep its neutrality during the Cold war by often playing one side against the other and at other times serving as an intermediary between the communist north and the autocratic but NATO affiliated south.
9 said:The Castilian Republic
The first republic was formed in the wake of the 18thC War of the Castilian Succession at the 1794 Treaty of Paris. The Treaty was presided primarily by the Anglo-Irish Regency primarily to stop its global rival the United Lusitanian Kingdom [of Leon, Portugal, and Seville] and to restrict the rising mediterranean empire of Aragon-Navarre.
Though nominally a republic - the lack of a king was a specific provision to avoid any later inheritance by the ULP or A-N - it was technically a uncrowned kingdom with the "Gobernador de Republica" functioning like the Regent of the AIR and the nobilty retaining their powers in the Cortes.
This first republic lasted until the Clergist Revolutions felled Aragon-Navarre and the ULK reasserted its claim to the Castilian Crown.
10 said:Union State of ALBaLux (Alsace-Lorraine + Batavia + Luxembourg) a buffer state between quarried France and Germany formed form earlier custom union of this same name in mid 60's after fiasco of project of so called "European Community". Legislative body of Union state "Union Gathering" is located in capital of A-L in Strasbourg, executive "Union Council" and administration offices are located in Batavian Brussels and juristic institutions with "High Tribunal" in Luxembourg
Union state flag is based on colours of member states flags': Confederation of Alsace-Lorraine red-white-black vertical tricolour; Kingdom of Batavia horizontal organge-white-indigo and Great Duchy of Luxembourg red-white-indigo. Design of flag was chosen in international contest. Wining project was based on hand drawing of young pupil of one of Batavian Antilles capital city Willemstad schools in 1969.
11 said:Since the separation of Belgium, There have been tiresome negotiations over what to do with Brussels. Flanders considers Brussels it's capital and Wallonia would gladly form some federation of some kind (Wallo-Brux). Eventually, The European Union was handed control of the city. From the ashes of the former Brussels Capital Region, The Union installed a Council for the Capital District. The 19 Municipalities where formed into districts with their own representation within the council and a chancellor at the helm to oversee things.
12 said:Eleven years after the dissolution of the union between England and Scotland, the Scottish government took up the call for the return of Berwick to Scotland. The territory had at various times been an English or Scottish possession, though it had been English since 1482. Cynical commentators said that the issue had resurfaced to deflect concerns over the Scottish economy and the stream of terrorist attacks from the Shetlands Liberation Front. At the time, England was in a state of political turmoil, with the splintering of both the Labour and Conservative parties (both had in reality been coalitions of various factions for generations). After many years of bickering and inconclusive and disputed referenda, the compromise of making Berwick a ‘Free City’ was achieved under the Treaty of Hexham.
A temporary and totally unofficial flag was taken from that of Berwick Rangers Football Club and it took 4 more years before the current (and official!) flag, shown below, was adopted.
POD – In this TL there was no Wales & Berwick Act (1746)
OTL – In 2008 there was an SNP call for the ‘return’ of Berwick (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/feb/13/scotland.scotland)
13 said:Three centuries after the Great Migration which occurred during and after the Islamic conquest of Western Europe (excluding Iceland), there occurred a series of hard fought wars between Nova Gallia and New Prussia which led to the near exhaustion of both nations. The major power in the New World, The United Kingdom of North Columbia, under the umbrella of the Christian Nations League, intervened and chaired a Peace Conference. From that Conference and the subsequent Treaty of New Marlborough a new nation came into existence on the narrow isthmus connecting the Central and South Columbian sub-continents. Adopting the name ‘Vasconia’ (derived from an early European explorer), this buffer state had its independence guaranteed by all the member nations of the Christian Nations League.
Here's the map.
The flag of Vasconia comprises 2 blue horizontal bands, representing the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, divided by a broad gold band bearing the nation’s arms.
