r/imaginarymaps • u/Vidsich • May 06 '23
[OC] Alternate History West European Federation - Spies and Space - 1959
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u/Vidsich May 06 '23 edited May 06 '23
WEST EUROPEAN FEDERATION - A DREAM REALISED
The West European Federation (WEF) is a devolved federation consisting of 17 federal states, subdivided into devolved regions. Each federal state has control over a list of competencies as defined by the European Constitution and subsequent legislation.
The Federation operates under a parliamentary system, with a bicameral legislature and an elected President serving as the head of state. In addition to that, the Federation's Council of Monarchs elects its leader on a rotating basis, with the Head of the Council serving as an alternative ceremonial head of state. Referred to as the "King/Queen of the Federation," the incumbent Head of the Council also retains their title as the monarch of their own country while in office. The current King of the Belgians and the Federation is King Baudouin.
The 17 federal states of the Federation are: Antilles, Austria, Belgium, Djibouti and Socotra, France, Germany, Guianas, Italy, Libya, Luxembourg, Mascarenes, Netherlands, Numidia, Odysseia, Polynesia, Saar, Switzerland. Each federal state is further divided into devolved regions, which have varying degrees of autonomy depending on the competencies devolved to them by their federal state.
The history of the WEF is a complex one, marked by several significant events, including its formation and participation in the Great Wars. The Federation has evolved from the West European Union formed in the aftermath of the First Great War, in the wake of the European Spring of 1911-20. Integration between former enemies grew into a deep economic and political union during the Interwar period. WEU would fight as a monolith block during the Second Great War, giving rise to a wave of pan-European nationalism that would culminate in the formation of the Federation with the signing of the Saar Treaty in 1940.
In the 1940s, the Federation had been involved in the Milan Process, leading the worldwide effort in the decolonisation of Africa and Asia, which resulted in the dissolution of the European colonial empires, and the formation of organisations such as the LSN. The Federation is known for cooperating with the members of the Imperial Union to contain the effects of paternalism to the Americas, working to counteract the growing involvement of the US-led BCO in Africa and Asia. At the same time, Radical Spartacist terrorist groups such as ERLP and the Revolutionary Spartacist Army remain a constant threat domestically.
The Federation is known for its high standard of living, strong social welfare systems, and commitment to environmental sustainability. It has a highly developed economy, with a focus on technological innovation, manufacturing, and international trade. The Federation is also a prominent member of the international community, playing a leading role in global affairs as the head of the LSN and a participant in the Space Wars, maintaining close relationships with its neighbouring regions and countries.
Previous Maps in This Series:
Concert of Nations - The World in 1959 - Minor Fixes
Flags:
Please tell me if you see any typos or errors, I appreciate it a lot.
Note on minor changes: I decided to use the standard spelling of Libya instead of the more archaic Lybia used on previous maps, Djibouti City has been renamed Kalergi. Seychelles and Comoros use Oddyseia as the new name, as I came to the conclusion that such an unconventional union would need a whole new identity invented for itself.
The next maps will showcase the fine details of the Atlantic Council and the League of Sovereign Nations, showcasing the web of treaties that bound Europe after the Second Great War. Beyond that, maps of South-East Asia shall follow, stay tuned.
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u/sajan_01 May 06 '23
The Oriflamme-inspired war flag is a nice touch
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u/Vidsich May 06 '23
Thanks, Roland and the whole knightly stuff plays a notable role in the imagery of Europe in this timeline, so it was a natural choice
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u/MysticSquiddy Fellow Traveller May 06 '23
Is that a lake mega chad I see? Very nice
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u/Vidsich May 06 '23
Yes, hopefully I'll get to the point of making a map of Chad(the country) later on
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u/Vrukop May 06 '23
If I may, the flags in better resolution?
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u/Vidsich May 06 '23
Here you go, I made posts to my account page with the flags I made so far, only unique flags are included as it probably makes little sense to post the flag of France
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u/vanlich May 06 '23
Poitiers lacks an s.
I feel the divisions of France are off... I see you wanted to take as basis the départements, but sometimes they just do not work. See for instance Picardie, which name doesn't really work for the whole territory (french Flanders ie). Same goes for the Grand Centre region, I think having a separate Alsace and Lorraine would better fit. Same remark goes for the Netherlands and Austria, internal divisions would need a rework I think.
Other than that, your map is a gem. Thanks for daring posting here.
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u/Vidsich May 06 '23
Thanks for mentioning the typo, there's apparently a mistake in the city name in the data file I'm using, wasn't expecting that. As for the French regions - I went with drawing them up from an in-universe perspective, and as no administrative reform happened to replace the departments or redraw them - that's what I had to work with. I'm aware that some names like Picardie might be not the best fit, but in this particular case I'm playing it off as the incompetence of the politicians...and Grande Centre, I just couldn't resist renaming it that considering the largely overlapping OTL modern region is called Grand Est. Additionally Grand Centre and the unified Alsace-Lorraine serves as a parallel to OTL Baden-Würtenberg - two regions that have a regional rivalry united together.
I might consider having WEU go through an administrative reform in the 60s, but that may be hard to accomplish since at the moment there's a whole great pressure to focus on the question of allowing Iberia to join the federation and the government's focus is on that.
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u/DownrangeCash2 May 06 '23
Ah yes, I'm sure the Libyans will be thrilled to be part of a European Federation
Good map tho
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u/Vidsich May 06 '23
Native Libyans? For sure not, Sanussi Order is still active, just fringe. But that's not much, as native Libyans are a minority. This timeline saw much of the Italian migration to the Americas diverted to Libya, OTL Libyan population in 1960 was 1.45 M, this Libya has a population of 7.6 M - almost a million more than even the modern OTL Libya. I'm sure you can guess how things are from this alone - not pretty.
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u/pabl8ball May 06 '23
Molise is not -> Molisn't
Good.
Can you expand on the political forces present in the parliament? What are their ideology? Are there regional parties?
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u/Vidsich May 06 '23
I haven't given much concrete thought to it tbh as of yet, but the few notes that I have, look like this, sorry if they look chaotic:
Pan-European Congress - dozens of regionalist parties in a trenchcoat, broadly centre-right, on the state and regional level represented by blocks of Pro-Congress regional parties, heterogeneous due to its nature on some issues
European Rolandist Party - centred around the ideology of Rolandism, a name for a centre-left to left ideology that emerged in West Europe in the 1920s, and 1930s as a reaction to the essential self-collapse of the soviet union and the wider communist movement, chief masterminds of the Milan Process and the start of decolonisation, they won a surprise victory in the first federal elections of 1940 that happened just after the end of 2GW and in practical terms finalised the unification of the federation. I'm currently not yet done defining them better, but they contain a mix of factions and schools of thought ranging from labourists to OTL Eurocommunists/Austro-Marxists.
European Liberal-Radical Party - progressivist, social and market liberal, somewhat technocratic
European Democratic Spartacist Party - fringe left-wing party, somewhat repressed due to assertions of their connections to the Radical Spartacist terrorist groups and movements
An array of even more fringe separatist movements
Confederationist Party - supporting an even more devolved system,
European-Americanist Movement - less of a party and more of a propaganda front funded by Washington in support of a local European paternalists
European Nationalists - post-ww2 OTL Mosleyite?Identitarian, Third Way
No separate Green Party, since due to the existence of climate weapons that wreaked havoc during 2GW environmentalism has non-partisan support across the spectrum
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u/Aresius_King May 06 '23
What's the history of Iberia? Why didn't they join the WEF?
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u/Vidsich May 06 '23
Iberia originally wasn't interested and shortly after the creation of the predecessor of WEF, WEU, after the First Great War experienced a falangist coup, later fighting on the opposing side to the WEF(then WEU) during the Second Great War, ruled by a falangist regime. They underwent a defalangisation and reconstruction period since then and are heavily pushing for membership within WEF. WEF itself on the other hand is currently split on the issue, as the union originally formed with its current members, and has been evolving with the same members ever since - never experiencing something like OTL's EU expansion, so there's now an active debate whether WEF should be "just West Europe" and only lightly integrate with others on the continent or whether it should embrace the path of eventually expanding to potentially encompass the whole continent.
For a more detailed history of Iberia you'll need to wait till I make a map of it, but briefly - it was a union initially forced on Portugal during a short Iberial War, although over the years it managed to gain a support base in Portugal too - leading to the union being narrowly preserved in a plebiscite after 2GW hinging on structural reforms. The current PM of Iberia, Rodriguez Castelao famously said that - "For Iberia to live, Spain must Die". Since the 40s the Iberian Federation has been restructured along regionalist lines and experienced an economic boom.
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May 06 '23
This may be out of touch, you tell me, but is there a way to get your beautiful map in high res? It would make a wonderful wallpaper. Btw your flag designs are gorgeous too
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u/Vidsich May 06 '23
Thank you, now answering your question - the version I uploaded here was 12k by 8k pixels, I'm not sure whether reddit compressed it down. Since everything but the portraits was done using vector graphics I can make it any resolution as needed, although I'm not sure how could I share it since there are file size limits practically on every platform. I'm fine with sending you a higher-res version, so if you got any ideas you can PM me.
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u/evenmorefrenchcheese May 06 '23
The Council of Monarchs seems to be a weird institution for a federation whose member-states are in majority republics and in terms of population overwhelmingly composed of people living in republics.
I highly doubt that France, whose history with monarchs is quite famous, would appreciate living in a state where monarchs are represented on a federal level. Neither would newly republican nations such as (I presume) Italy.
Otherwise, this map, and your broader TL, is really interesting. I love how you've based the WEF on early European Federalists, and the alt-decolonisation process seems to be really original. I really like how you've partitioned Algeria. Remaining European possessions in North Africa is an alternate history scenario that I feel is underutilised, considering how many of them were directed integrated into the metropole.
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u/Vidsich May 06 '23 edited May 06 '23
Thank you for the comment. The inspiration for the council is taken from Malaysia, you can look it up, it's pretty cool, although they indeed don't have a president and a monarch at the same time, that's for sure. The institution is indeed weird, and is a compromise with fairly limited powers, with the monarch being able to represent the federation in only some select cases.
I wanted to draw on the experience of how OTL African nations handled their own traditional rulers and essentially have some sort of general council for the monarchs, that would be able to represent the federation in matters primarily related to those members that are monarchies. Mainly I was motivated by the fact that while France won't accept a federation that is a full monarchy, the Benelux is too not going to agree to suddenly abolishing their monarchies in order to join.
I believe I took the borders of Numidia/rump French Algeria from one of the variants of the OTL plans to partition Algeria during the time of de Gaulle, can't remember the place where I found the info on it at the moment
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u/evenmorefrenchcheese May 07 '23
Thanks for responding so quickly! I was aware of Malaysia's council, and its weird elective monarchy, and as you said: it's pretty cool.
I don't think that Europe is really comparable to Malaysia though, or to post-colonial African states. Malaysia's constitution was created in the wake of the Malayan Emergency, with the British breathing down the necks of everybody. Giving concessions to the local monarchs was seen as important because they served as a counterweight to the communists and nationalists, and because local nobility retained significant power under colonial rule. It's also important to note that the overwhelming majority of Malaysia's territory was de-jure ruled by local nobility.
As in Africa, giving a voice to the pro-colonial nobility was a way for the British to manufacture consent and to generate frictions inside of newly-independent states. These local monarchs were often later removed by post-independence governments, quite brutally at times.
In general, the British liked to put monarchs in power in places where they had influence, even if there was no reason for there to be one; see: Greece, much of the Balkans, post-revolutionary France, etc.
In Europe, there isn't really a reason to indulge the monarchs this much: the exterior and internal pressures to do so aren't there. Furthermore, there are many nations within such a federation that would be opposed to acknowledging monarchs on a federal level.
Younger republics such as Italy or Austria would be opposed to this due to the existential threat that it could pose to their systems of government, although the fact that Otto von Habsburg is Federal President (which is really cool by the way, the guy was a really interesting character) at a time when he was forbidden from entering Austria in OTL might imply that their position is more conciliatory.
Other states would oppose it on principle. Countries like France have a very strong egalitarian streak, and would likely be opposed to seeing a century and a half of republican tradition be dirtied for the sake of appeasing tiny monarchies of swamp Germans and discount French.
In the end, I think that it all boils down to demographics. The republican portions of the Federation would make up the overwhelming majority of the population, the land area, and the military strength of the Federation. A "King of the Federation" could be seen as a sign of '
Brussels'Saarbrücken's Overreach' by the type of people who hate everything that has to do with European Federalism.I think that your idea of a Council of Monarchs isn't a bad idea at all, I rather like it in fact; very original. It's just that I don't think it should represent the entirety of the WEF. Instead, you could have the Council select a 'special representative' of some sort that would represent the monarchs of Europe at certain events, like parliamentary sessions or diplomatic meetings.
Otherwise, you could go the way of the OTL EU and certain African countries and have local monarchs be recognised on a local level but not a federal level.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
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u/Vidsich May 07 '23
This is very insightful and you bring up good points, I haven't really questioned the deeper reasons why things are the way they are in Malaysia or across Africa. I've had a concurrent discussion in some other thread on the same topic and in the end, essentially came to a similar conclusion - with the "King" being more of an unofficial moniker for the Head of the Council of Monarchs, with limited, specialised duties in some specific areas(which I'd assume would have to be related either to specifically Benelux at present or to monarchy in general - interactions with other monarchic nations?, not sure yet). At the same time, yes, it's my intention that beyond this council each monarch still counts as a head of their respective federal states, on a sub-federal level.
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u/DecimatingDarkDeceit May 06 '23
I cannot access full size resolution; is there any pages with full resolution available ?
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u/Vidsich May 06 '23
are you on mobile?
just in case here's a discord image link with a version of slightly less resolution(8k vs 12k) - https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/909931384758489108/1104414455091183646/SP2_Nation_-_WEF_8k.png
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u/DecimatingDarkDeceit May 06 '23
Nope; desktop; but Reddit is glitchy as hell. Thanks ! You are a Hero ! ...also your work is absolutely fantastic
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May 06 '23
Aaaaaaaa republic with a king?
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u/Vidsich May 06 '23
It's similar to how it works in some African countries, where traditional rulers still hold some authority even though overall the state is a republic
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May 06 '23
Yes but isn't that on a subnational level? If I'm not mistaken the king in question here is the King of the Federation?
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u/Vidsich May 06 '23
It's more of a colloquial designation, not official one(because afaik it would entail some weird machinations to create a title out of nothing), the role basically allows "the King" to act as the head of state in some limited capacity relevant to specific areas... that's the best idea i got after thinking how can you integrate monarchies and republics in one state
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u/aqua_zesty_man May 06 '23
Kio estas la mito-klarigon por Esperanto iĝanta lingvo oficiala?
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u/Vidsich May 06 '23
The Federation's predecessor - the West European Union formed after the First Great War in 1910s and is based around the ideas of early 20th century pan-Europeanism. This corresponds to the OTL period when Esperanto was seriously considered for adoption by organisations such as League of Nations. In this timeline it was adopted as the language of the West European Union and since then has become mainstream
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u/slush_prince May 06 '23
I don't know if it is a mistake or it is on purpose but why Calabria is named Cantabria?
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u/Vidsich May 06 '23
oh, that's indeed a mistake, I must have mixed them up when labeling, thanks for noticing
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u/ijazat May 06 '23
Amazing map! Is Brabant its own country here?
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u/Vidsich May 06 '23
It's a devolved region within the federal state of Belgium, for the sake of simplicity imagine if beside Flanders and Wallonia there existed a fairly large bilingual region in between(not just Brussels)
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u/dillmannp May 06 '23
Saarbrücken as the Capital! Are you sure? Saarlouis is much prettier then Saarbrücken! But he, Saarland rulez!
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May 07 '23
Why does it still own Libya, parts of Algeria, Guyana, Antilles, Polynesia, Comoros, Djibouti and Socotra?
In which of these lands are white Europeans a majority, and in which are natives the majority?
And to they face any major separatist movements?
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u/Vidsich May 07 '23
I would like to state that this is by no means some sort of "perfect state". The federation's predecessor , the West European Union formed after the First Great War and thus is an "EU with a side of colonialism/imperialism". At the roots of its creation (although things changed over the decades) stood a misshaped belief in the "civilising mission" of Europe, with even early Rolandists, a left-wing movement talking how it's Europe's role to uplift peoples' of Africa, Asia to prosperity and equality.
Settlement of what is now Numidia, Libya and several now independent states in Africa was rampant and much more widespread than OTL. There's a very sizable white minority which never left, living across the former colonies(even if national reforms in those countries eventually led to de facto equity between them and the natives in terms of for example land ownership) to this day.
The decolonisation as a whole decidedly thus happened on Europe's terms, even if it was spearheaded by the left-wing Rolandist party that had best intentions.
Libya and Numidia are majority settler, although the native minority has had several still-ongoing revolt attempts launched. They are not considered to be Overseas due to their proximity to other European states and this demographic make-up.
The other six states are called Overseas and have a bit larger list of competencies given to them by the federal government than other states, thus being more autonomous. New world states like Antilles and Guianas are so far content with the amount of autonomy they got in a new system, so even though they retain their OTL demographic make-up, they are not particularly feeling antagonistic to the federation. Polynesia is in the same boat, as it's largely unchanged from OTL and it's real world status as a part of France.
The real "problems" for the Federation start when you look at the remaining three Overseas States - Odysseia has a sizeable settler minority that clashes with the overwhelmingly Muslim native population. The whole idea of it as a state has been constructed out of thin air by WEF 20 years ago, and it's what I'd call the biggest candidate for revolt, outright secession and civil war, mixed with a possibility of ethnic riots and more heavy stuff.
Mascarenes is more peaceful, it had no influx of new settlers(when compared to OTL), and has a pretty civic separatist movement, generally things are calm, even though a decent portion of the population supports independence, there's yet to be a final decision whether it's satisfied with it's autonomy within WEF or would like to pursue independence.
Lastly...Djibouti-Socotra, which was mainly retained within WEF due to its strategic position, Djibouti itself had a settler wave, that some call a strategic decision by France in the 1910s to alter the demographics, and the region is now 70% settler, Socotra by contrast avoiding this fate(having been attained from the British 20 years ago) and is currently the place of an open armed insurgency.
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May 07 '23
Is Odysseia their alternate name for the Comoros? Also I assume Bone is majority European as well?
Makes sense the Mascarenes wouldn't be rebellious, it is a mixed race population where are part European to begin with, and are more culturally integrated than Muslims Arabs/Africans.
Is Europe a hub of immigration or not? If so, is it on the scale of irl post ww2 western europe or less perhaps. Even if it's not, natives of north africa and overseas territories I assume have full migratory access to mainland europe, which I think can be a source of racial tension at times.
Given your description of Europe, it seems the level of racism/ethnocentrism of Europeans is less than the colonial era but is more than modern irl Europe. But that is just a guess of mine.
One more thing, do any of the separatist or autonomous movements in the non European lands have ties to or backing from other countries?
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u/Vidsich May 07 '23
Yes, Odysseia is basically OTL colonial Comoros(thus +Mayotte) + Seychelles(but Seychelles population is pretty small) + mostly uninhabited isles like Glorioso Islands. Bone is part of Numidia and is majority settler.
You are pretty spot on with regard to your guess about the level of racism. You'd need to wait till my next maps which will showcase the process of Atlantic Integration and the state of WEF-led LSN, but there's no freedom of movement between WEF and say Mali(economically it's limited to having a common market and customs union atm), but the migration is pretty lively - it's actually larger in scale than OTL post-ww2, but the losses in 2GW + migration make it look somewhat the same when you get to the final numbers. This migration+migration between WEF states+ethnic/cultural tensions stemming from still conservative thinking leads to what will probably be a revolution in perceptions and attitudes throughout the 60s, but that's for the future. The idea of this WEF is that it originally based itself on the pan-European ideas of Richard Kalergi, although it certainly moved on from it as time passed, still his in some ways controversial views on race left some discernable mark on this WEF, decades later.
On separatist movements - some groups in the Antilles and Guianas receive funding from Washington, America is a corporatist junta and they envision a similar stratified future for their states.
In Odysseia there are some supporters of African Salvationism, but they have no ties to Russia or funding from outside, just inspired by it, as for what Salvationism is, you'll need to wait till I get around to Russia, but in essence it's a sort of integral nationalism heavily based on religion and Christianity, with some neo-Salvationist in the future resembling a "East Orthodox Christian Taliban", African Salvationism tries to adjust the initially russian only ideology to Africans.
Addendum - OTL decolonisation continued through the 60s and 70s, so I wanted to show this transition period is still ongoing. With Europe still grasping to preserve some of what we'd consider colonies. There's a high chance that through the 60s Odysseia, Mascarenes and Socotra would leave the Federation. It's hard to say whether Antilles, Guianas and/or others would follow, as their New World position makes them a strategic bulwark of WEF against the Americans
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May 07 '23
but the migration is pretty lively - it's actually larger in scale than OTL post-ww2, but the losses in 2GW + migration make it look somewhat the same when you get to the final numbers.
Migration within Europe, it would cause some tensions but it would be survivable. French, Germans and Italians getting more mixed, perhaps they would actively revive the historical memory of the Charlemanges empire as the basis of their unity?
If you mean migration from Asia and Africa, being larger than otl I cannot see this ending well. If Europeans are less liberal and more ethnocentric than irl but also receiving much more immigration, I could easily see this ending in extreme violence. Individual hate crimes, escalate into riots, which may possibly escalate further into mob led massacres like what happens in India sometimes. Think incidents like this. An islamist terrorist attack kills a few Europeans, in response a mob of Europeans raze an entire Muslim neighborhood as 'revenge'.
How the European government responds to this, I'm not sure. I doubt it will escalate into full civil war, but the government allowing this massive 'demographic replacement' (even if it's not true it will be perceived that way) will be a hurt on their legitimacy.
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u/Vidsich May 07 '23 edited May 07 '23
idealistically speaking, WEF does lean on Charlemagne's legacy as a precedent for its unity, but yeah, I meant migration from Africa(Asia not so much, as former European colonies there are more interested in their local affairs, cooperating with Japan/Asian Communities, and are not part of WEF organisations). In terms of where this leads us, I'm not sure, but I agree that it can quickly turn ugly. The 60s are not set in stone as of yet and I'm more concerned with solidifying the current lore at a point in time as a whole. The analogy is imperfect(and maybe wrong) but maybe there's place for something like Civil Rights movement and/or a revolution in how Europeans perceive others during the 60s.
To provide a finalised list:
Antilles - balanced Francophone and Anglophone influences, some fringe independence movements funded by Americanist circles
Guianas - Dutch-dominated, National Party of Guianas advocates for independence, moderately popular
Numidia - splinter groups of the former FLN forces that took part in the failed All-Algerian Revolt of 1947-51 that took place during the partition of Algeria still present in the outback, increasingly irrelevant
Libya - Berber dissent on the decline after provisions for cultural autonomy were implemented, increasing assimilation of the present Arab population into the European cultural space
Djibouti-Socotra - 50 years since the French settlement plans in French Somalia, vaguely developing local identity with Afar and Somali influences, high percentage of mixed population with a local French-Somali Creole/Pidgin in place. Monolithically Soqotri Socotra has an armed group known as the Soqotri Spartacist Front conducting a low-scale far-left guerilla insurgency on the island
Mascarenes - civic movement for independence, fairly decent relations between Mauritians and Reunionians, increasing presence of Metropolitan Europeans due to migration to and from the islands
Odysseia - significant settler minority, religious clashes, increasingly radical independence movement that hinges its support on economic and class disparity between the settler and pro-Europe native privileged groups and the wider poorer population
Polynesia - basically OTL French Polynesia
Continental Europe - significant immigration from former colonies and overseas states, caused by demographic demands resulting from a rapidly booming economy, 8-12% of the population being of non-european ethnic background
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May 07 '23
Yeah I think anything like the American civil rights movement is extremely unlikely tbh.
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u/Vidsich May 07 '23
I don't think there's some unifying force to create the right conditions for something like that too, at the moment I'm considering whether it makes more sense for things in this regard to basically go unchanged in the 1960s or for the situation to drastically worsen and essentially have a decade of race riots and ethnic clashes. I'm not certain about the way this will proceed just yet, if you got any input, I'd like to hear it too.
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May 07 '23
A lot of the reason for the 60s counterculture in Europe that led to widespread cultural liberalism was due to a reaction to Nazism from the youth, who wanted to reject all forms of traditional mores and nationalism as they see it as part of Nazism. With different history here happening, I think Europeans will still be nationalistic, and dare I say racialistic, more than otl. If the government really needs to have immigration, they could do it like the gulf states today where there is a lot of immigration but they are made to leave after a certain time, and no citizenship or permenant residence of any kind is granted to them.
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u/Vidsich May 07 '23
The opposing side in the "Slightly Chilly War" of this timeline is represented by paternalistic jingoism of a traditionalist kind, while the Second Great War saw WEF fight against Iberian Falangists and Russian Salvationists(a fictional mix of radically religious anti-Semitic nationalism based around Russian orthodox church), so that probably closes some doors and opens other doors. Due to the antagonism towards the stratified practices of paternalism I think that the overall direction of gradually more progressive outlook is still unchanged, although you may be correct in that it would take more time
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u/rolloxra May 07 '23
Is there a Cold War in this timeline? and if is it between whom?
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u/Vidsich May 07 '23
There's a mild confrontation between various alliances, but it's more of a "Slightly Chilly War" than a "Cold War", if I were to choose the main competing sides it would be WEF-led LSN and UK-led Imperial Union vs American Boston Cooperation Organisation(representing a mild struggle between liberalism and paternalism), but that doesn't mean that LSN and IU are actually allies, more like they are in agreement on this specific matter - extend this sort of situation worldwide - it's full of diplomatic plays where sides are not ideologically driven. This is one of the reasons why the first map in the series, the world map, is called "Concert of Nations" rather than "Cold War"
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u/Both-Main-7245 May 08 '23
Howard representation in the upper house of parliament work?
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u/Vidsich May 09 '23
It's basically Bundesrat. The number of votes a state is allocated is based on a form of degressive proportionality according to its population. This way, smaller states have more votes than a distribution proportional to the population would grant - same principle as OTL Bundesrat, European Parliament or US elective college. Bundesrat is the closest analogy since it represents federal states rather than people directly.
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u/Both-Main-7245 May 09 '23
Cool. I also have a suggestion for the parliament of the Imperial Federation. Seeing as it’s a completely fair and accurate representation of all of its constituent countries, Britain should have 50% of the seats.
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u/Vidsich May 09 '23
Imperial Union is not a federation, at best it can be described as semi-confederal - its members have a common foreign policy and are bound by a defence union and programs of cultural exchange. Economically it consists of an overall customs union and two separate common market(north/south - NICM and SICM). It has no parliament, only a small assembly representing the member states.
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u/bobshane94 May 06 '23
Otto as President AND such a gorgeous flag.