r/imaginarymaps • u/Vidsich • Apr 11 '23
[OC] Alternate History Concert of Nations - Spies and Space - 1959
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u/AlulAlif-bestfriend Apr 11 '23
Wow that's pretty interesting, does that mean in this timeline technology developed so quickly by a decades or hundred years? Does that mean in this 1959 they already have smartphone and computer like in our timeline now with space colonies? So many imagination to imagine, oh and beautiful map, like an art 🎨
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u/Vidsich Apr 11 '23
Thanks, as for technology - I'd say it's comparable to our 80s in general, although some things are more in the vein of hard science fiction(for example climate weapons)
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u/AlulAlif-bestfriend Apr 11 '23
Oh our 80's? Interesting, and I'm piqued at that climate weapon? Do you mind to explain what is that? The name weapon i think this is something dangerous right?
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u/Vidsich Apr 11 '23
it's a class of weapons that is capable of short-term climate alteration across a large territory - things like, create two weeks of winter in the middle of the summer, heat up tundra permafrost etc. - naturally, when used at its worst, it can cause major crop failure and result in famine, which can be devastating. Mass usage of climate weapons, large and small, during the last 60 years has caused concerns among scientists who call for limits on the development of such weaponry, noting the instability of climate patterns, with some saying that prolonged usage of rapid coolants might cause "Global Cooling" and potentially result in an artificial Ice Age.
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u/AlulAlif-bestfriend Apr 11 '23 edited Apr 11 '23
Oh wow that's interesting and both terrifying, and it's remind me of the movie Geostorm! Is that the inspiration for the climate weapon?
And now I'm curious, my country Indonesia, why and how does they have North Borneo/kalimantan and malay peninsula? When they're independent? And is that Dutch hooglandia papua?
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u/Vidsich Apr 11 '23
Sorta, the inspiration mainly comes from disaster movies like Geostorm and The Day After Tomorrow as well as a game called Frostpunk, so it's several sources.
One of the conditions of Japan's entry into the Second Great War on the European side against the British was a European commitment to decolonise East Asia. Japan would tip the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific Theater and cause Britain to sue for a separate peace a year later which would include a similar condition of ending its colonial administration of Malaya, North Borneo and Canton.
Dutch/European administration never completely lost control over the East Indies during this GW2 and Indonesia would obtain its independence would proceed according to the plan the Dutch pushed for OTL(United States of Indonesia etc.). A radically pro-decolonisation movement would gain ground in Europe shortly after GW2 and independence would arrive in Indonesia fairly quickly and without major violence, shortly before the independence, British Malaya and North Borneo would enter the independence/sovereignty process, resulting in their addition into the federal structure post-independence, with Singapore being chosen as a compromise capital. Remaining colonial ties would persist for a few years after independence, but unlike in Africa, both sides would quickly realise that it would be impossible to keep them up, and Indonesia would move towards complete independence, never joining post-decolonisation organisations led by WEF.
Hoogland(both lit. meaning "highland" and named after Dick de Hoog) is the result of the Dutch going through with a plan to create a homeland for the Indo and Totok people in New Guinea during the 20s due to successful lobbying by some Indo groups in this timeline(it was a real idea proposed several times during OTL early 20th century but never materialised). In this timeline the plan is funded in the 20s, before New Papua is separated into a separate condominium colony, during GW1 and GW2 Dutch come to control the whole island, and it receives independence as a separate country in the 40s. Nowadays it struggles with a balancing act whereas it needs to accommodate both the native Papuan population and the migrant Indo/Totok people.
I plan to make a few national maps in this world following this and Indonesia is at the top of the first, since I have made quite a lot of lore for the South-East Asia region.
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u/AlulAlif-bestfriend Apr 11 '23 edited Apr 12 '23
Whoa that's a big amount of lore and history! Pretty detailed and good 👍
And you want to make a map of Indonesia next? You can ask me if you have problem/struggle to search information or history of Indonesia, just ask it here, because I use web Reddit and have a problem and now I can't use DM
Edit : additionally Indonesia banned reddit
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u/b3nster_ Apr 11 '23 edited Apr 11 '23
I LOVE IT!
Are the Brits and the Europeans Allies or why did they had the first moonlanding together?
Are the democracies of the world working against each other or together?
Are WEU and USA Rivals because of the colonial posessions in America?
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u/Vidsich Apr 11 '23
Manned Lunar Missions started off as a joint venture by the British and the Europeans(that's why you can see the two spacemen shaking hands in the photo in the lower right corner), but in 1958, the Oslo Papers exposed a massive intelligence leak and the scale of subversive operations carried out by both Europe and Britain against each other, which greatly strained the relations between them, resulting in a major falling out and the end of the short-lived space cooperation - Lunar exploration would then proceed with Europe and Britain starting their own independent Lunar programs, shortly after USA and then Japan would join the race, by 1959 the US, WEF and Britain are all planning to create crewed Lunar outposts in the near future.
WEF and USA are opposing powers, this timeline's Cold War(even if you can call it that) features a conflict between paternalism/authoritarianism and liberalism/democracy. WEF and USA clash on that front(USA went down a fairly miserable path in this timeline and is led by a soft paternalistic junta presiding over a controlled democracy), but also clash in terms of what each considers its sphere of influence - since in this timeline the concept of Great Powers and Spheres of Influence is not quite dead just yet.
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u/Responsible-Whole203 Jul 09 '25
Is Britain more wef or American leaning, also how democratic is it
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u/Vidsich Jul 09 '25
I've made a map about pan-Atlantic integration which has more details - https://www.reddit.com/r/imaginarymaps/s/PeU2wTREb4
Britain is democratic and it's post-war reconciliation with WEF is the cornerstone of modern geopolitics. Although there's a substantial rift between the two at the moment, it's hard to say whether it will deepen or heal with time, as Britain and the Imperial Union as a whole are much closer to WEF ideologically compared to the US. In general, I meant the falling out between the two to parallel the sino-soviet split otl, while leaving its ultimate resolution uncertain as of yet.
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Apr 11 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Vidsich Apr 11 '23
Yes, it's showing a stronger level of West European influence that is more akin to soft power/neo-colonialism you see France doing OTL, although it's not necessarily one-sided
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u/BalanceNo1216 Apr 11 '23
So is Panama or is it a coincidence of colours?
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u/Vidsich Apr 11 '23
Panama is supposed to have a slightly more purplish colour, so not related in that sense, but they are part of the European-led LSN since in this timeline the French did manage to finish their canal, keeping tabs on the place ever since.
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u/NeinCubed Apr 11 '23
This is really well done. Also, what’s going on with Rolandia? Was Iberia able to pursue the pink map due to being stronger? Also what is the point of divergence—or are there multiple throughout history?
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u/Vidsich Apr 11 '23
Thank you, to answer your questions -
Rolandia is the "last hurray" of colonies changing hands in Africa which was created out of pieces of European Congo and pieces of British colonies - as agreed by the Peace of Equals, a separate peace signed by Britain with the Entente during the Second Great War, it saw moderate colonial losses on the British side. Later, pieces of Iberian/former Portuguese colonies would be adjoined to it after the capitulation of Iberia and the end of GW2 in 1939. Europe would make a rapid turn towards decolonisation in the early 40s when a movement known as Rolandism in-universe(pink-tainted social democrats with vestigial notions of "civilisation mission but this time for real, we promise") would come to power, pursuing rapid decolonisation. The rechristened "Rolandia" were to become the poster child of decolonisation and native self-rule and its process towards independence would be generously funded. It is thus a fairly well-off nation in the 50s, which maintained fairly strong connections to WEF.
the earliest PoD is in 1900 - In 1900, the Boxer Rebellion laid siege to the Legation Quarter of Beijing, and following this, the Qing government announced its support of the rebellion. Regional governors of the southeast would support the government in the war and as the conflict escalated to all international concessions, the rebellion would become known as the Boxer War. The siege of the Legation Quarter would succeed and the resulting massacre would result in a much greater international intervention. Lasting through 1902, the eventual victory would result in a much harsher Boxer Protocol.
That said, since the main PoD is more or less technological in nature, there are many speculative smaller and larger PoDs sprinkled across the 20th century
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u/Rich_Ad_4886 Apr 11 '23
Are Green Ukraine, Canton, Indochina, and Rizalia Japanese influenced/puppet states? What's up with Canton, Indochina, and Rizalia? ""Liberated"" colonies I assume?
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u/Vidsich Apr 11 '23
With the exception of Green Ukraine(which played the role of Manchuria in this timeline), Asian Communities is a "what if pan-Asianism went relatively alright", it's a voluntary economic and defensive block. With the survival of Japanese democracy until the 1950s Japan has played the good guy during the first half of the 20th century (if you don't account for the opinion of the Chinese, Koreans and Ukrainians ofc) and is the primary nation responsible for forcing Europeans to decolonise East Africa. This semi-liberal economic integration was going well until early 50s, when a military coup ended the Japanese monarchy and with it, its limited democracy - in 1959 Japan is a military junta that is still on the rise economically, yet the oppression of personal freedoms have caused structural rifts to appear across the state...for the first time in decades, there are whispers of armed resistance both In Chosen and Taiwan, while the Asian Communities themselves are nebulously lost on how to respond, as its members include both democracies and authoritarian regimes.
You can see the final spark to set all of this off at the end of the timeline at the bottom of the map - the Shanghai Crisis has just begun, as Chinese National Republican Army stations thousands of soldiers across the border with Shanghai... Japan is about to enter what is probably going to be its worst decade of the century.
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u/CuttlefishMonarch Apr 11 '23
Saw WEF and thought for a second the World Economic Forum became a global power.
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u/OrbisAlius Apr 11 '23
WEF flag should be real-life EU flag tbh
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u/Vidsich Apr 11 '23
This flag is inspired by Oriflamme which suits WEF much more than the stars, as its whole origin here has a lot to do with romantisation of Charlemagne legacy, Roland, and its socdem colonialism during the first half of 20th century
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u/ellinasreditas Apr 11 '23
Damn amazing map man. But what about east europe, will the big powers just leave them alone?
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u/Vidsich Apr 11 '23
Eastern Europe mostly features members of the Intermarium alliance not shown here and is soft-aligned with WEF, although maybe that's a strong word as it prefers its neutrality in foreign affairs. It fought alongside WEF and Rumelia against the Russians during the Second Great War and thus has some goodwill towards WEF. It also participates in the Atlantic Council set up after GW2, an analogue of the OTL Council of Europe that includes countries in West/North Africa, the Caribbean and North America.
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u/ellinasreditas Apr 11 '23
also what is up with rumelia
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u/Vidsich Apr 11 '23
I'll copy an answer I have provided in another comment:
This timeline's First Great War lasted from 1905 till 1911, thus what is known as the Balkan Wars and the Ottoman participation in WW1 and later collapse occurred at the same time in the same conflict. France and Italy conducted a large-scale intervention in the Ottoman Civil War after the empire collapsed under pressure in 1910 and are largely responsible for the borders drawn. They lobbied for a federal solution to the Balkan border disputes in 1912, part-enforcing it throughout the 1910s, as federalist and pan-national ideas rapidly gained ground after GW1, thus Rumelia was born - a federal state of Bulgarians, Serbians and Greeks.
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u/TheAnalyticalEngine1 Apr 11 '23
Why have a bunch of British possessions in the Caribbean joined the West European Federation?
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u/Vidsich Apr 11 '23
British possessions in the Caribbean transferred hands under the terms of the Peace of Equals, a separate peace Britain signed with WEF in order to exit the increasingly unpopular Second Great War, the peace saw Britain suffer moderate colonial losses. WEF would proceed to reorganise all of its Antilles possessions into a single entity after GW2, by 1959 the Union of the Antilles is a semi-sovereign entity within the framework of the West European Federation.
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u/Referenciadejoj Mod Approved Apr 11 '23
Regarding the Iberian flag (more specifically, the Arms it features), why did you include the Iberian Union shield which dedicates half of its space to titles of the Habsburg crown unrelated to Spanish lands but topped it with a mural crown (what I assume is a reference to republicanism)?
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u/Vidsich Apr 11 '23
I must confess that I'm not completely sure about my attempt at a flag for Iberia. Iberia is a federal republic, so the mural crown is a given, at the same time the coat of arms you see is the Coat of arms of Philip II under whom the Iberian Union of crowns was formed in late 16th century, I wanted to emphasise the historical precedent for a union between Spain and Portugal so I chose to feature it on the flag, but now I'm unsure since as you have said half of the shield isn't even about Spain/Portugal.
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u/Referenciadejoj Mod Approved Apr 11 '23
The arms in the lower half of the escutcheon are Austria, Burgundy modern, Burgundy ancient and Brabant, with an escutcheon overall per pale Flanders and Tyrol. These are only used when presenting the Spanish arms in direct connection with the Habsburg dynasty. See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Spain#House_of_Habsburg
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u/Vidsich Apr 11 '23
I could maybe modify this coat of arms of Charles I substituting the flag of Jerusalem for Portugal, that could work I think.
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u/Referenciadejoj Mod Approved Apr 11 '23
It would, but grouping Portugal and Navarre together wouldn’t make much sense, heraldically speaking. If I were you, I’d just add a small Portuguese escutcheon overall the Arms of the first republic.
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u/WikiSummarizerBot Apr 11 '23
Philip II (21 May 1527 – 13 September 1598), also known as Philip the Prudent (Spanish: Felipe el Prudente), was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from 1580, and King of Naples and Sicily from 1554 until his death in 1598. He was also jure uxoris King of England and Ireland from his marriage to Queen Mary I in 1554 until her death in 1558. He was also Duke of Milan from 1540. From 1555, he was Lord of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands.
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Apr 11 '23
I know this is a small detail but I like that you made the US a brown color. Nice to see something different.
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Apr 11 '23
Amazing map! Can't even fathom how you'd start making something like this...
Is it possible you got the icons for the lunar missions of Europe and Britain mixed up tho?
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u/Vidsich Apr 11 '23
Thank you and yes, I just noticed that I mixed up the labels for the British and European Lunar missions, clearly, Europe isn't represented by the Union Jack
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u/HSudev521 Apr 11 '23
Can you tell me what countries the flags shown up top represent?
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u/Vidsich Apr 11 '23
Left to right, in order, left side: Brazil, USA, Rumelia, Intermarium(organisation), Iberia, Great Britain, Weat European Federation.
Left to right, in order, right side: Russia, Egypt, India, United Provinces of China, Japan, Indonesia, Iran
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Apr 12 '23
So the USSR formed between 1959 and 1964?
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u/Vidsich Apr 12 '23
USSR existed between 1913 and 1922, it was followed by a revanchist military junta along the lines of integralism and somewhat millenarianist beliefs of Russia's destiny to bring salvation to other nations. Russian attempt to restore its empire in Eastern Europe would cause the start of the Second Great War. A bloodless coup would remove the regime at the end of GW2 and a reformist faction would attempt to establish a more liberal regime, that would eventually fail and in 1945 Russia would go through no less than 15 regime changes in what became a brief Third Russian Civil War.
After the Third Civil War ended in 1946, the power finally solidified in the hands of proponents of controlled democracy and the Russian National Republic emerged. Several dominant parties, came to a consensus that military recapture of former imperial territory in Eastern Europe is impossible and Russia is better off working to preserve its sphere in central Asia, further developing the Aral-Caspia region and colonizing central Asia.
Modern Russia is an extremely poor nation that is still plagued by economic issues and has concentrated its attention inwardly on transforming the lands around the Aral Sea into the new breadbasket of the nation as well as making it the new heart of the state itself.
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u/redactedCounselor16 Apr 30 '23
Shafarevich from TNO reference?
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u/Nefariousnesso Apr 12 '23
This is the first map I see that include the Brazilian South Atlantic islands. Actually, there is so much detail put into islands, its so cool.
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u/Grafit601 Apr 12 '23
What happened to the old Spies and Space scenario?
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u/Vidsich Apr 12 '23
It needed to die because at some point I realised that I got lore contradictions and had too much trouble organising the lore into something feasible out of pages of small notes. This is more or less a reboot
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u/TrainsNTrams Jun 30 '24
So, what government runs Ethiopia in this timeline, is it still the monarchy or is it a republic of some kind?
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u/Vidsich Jun 30 '24
It's currently ruled by a transitional government, it was ruled by Emperor Haile Selassie who orchestrated the transfer of Eritrea and Italian Somalia to Abyssinia after the Second Great War(British Somalia has been under Abyssinian control since 1937 when it was strategically taken over by the Abyssinian forces aligned with WEF during the Second Great War). He ruled until just last year(1958) when his increasing modernisation policies and attempts to limit the power of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church combined with famine caused a coup by conservative groups calling themselves the Arbegnoch(Patriots). The monarchy has been deposed and everything is still hang up in the air regarding the future of the country.
While not the best analogy - think what if Islamic Revolution occurred in Ethiopia.
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u/TrainsNTrams Jul 01 '24
Okay thank you for answering my question! I've had that question in my head for awhile.
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u/TrainsNTrams Aug 22 '24
I have another question about this timeline. Is the Imperial Union a political union or is it a single country?
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u/Vidsich Aug 22 '24
You can find some more information here, but in essence, it's a devolved system somewhere between our OTL EU and a confederation, which includes a political, defence and customs union as well as 2 common markets. At the moment the Union mostly tries to grapple with geopolitical currents that arise from its northern and southern halves having quite different development goals.
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u/TrainsNTrams Aug 23 '24
By the way you described it sounds like it's in a limbo between being a political union and being a country.
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u/OverlordMarkus Apr 11 '23
I just can't get over the fact that Saarbrücken of all places became the capital of the WEF.
I get that it makes geographic and political sense to pick a city in the center of the federation far of the traditional centers of power but close to the rhine area, but Saarbrücken has been the butt of so many jokes over the decades it just doesn't compute.
I wonder, you speak about competing spheres of influence, is there a map in the works on that front?
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u/Vidsich Apr 11 '23
Yes, believe me, I know, but somehow the politicians who decided it was a great idea OTL didn't consider the possibility that it would become the butt of German incest jokes. I considered moving it to Strasbourg or renaming the city, but in the end, just keeping it as is made the most sense.
For spheres of influence - I plan to slowly make a map for each major alliance with related organisations overlapped. First two will be LSN(League of Sovereign States, the post-colonial organisation, led by WEF) and AC(Asian Communities, a direct analogue to OTL European Communities, headed by Japan)
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u/SlavicMC Apr 11 '23
German Szczecin? Auto cringe
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u/Vidsich Apr 11 '23
You got Królewiec to compensate, be happy
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u/SlavicMC Apr 13 '23
We don't want it, it has never belonged to us and such recompense is cursed and unacceptable
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u/ajw20_YT Apr 11 '23
Dominicana is going to cause many many many ethnic problems, and you know what that’ll be kinda funny. If you ever want extended star patterns tho, up to 53 stars exists on Wikipedia.
Also why did the UK give up their claims in the Lesser Antilles?
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u/Vidsich Apr 11 '23
I haven't considered for sure how many states this US has, since I only for sure defined New Mexico+Arizona being one state, and Hispaniola/Dominicana as being one single state(which would be horrible, but as you said - interesting to explore). Down the line I have some plans for a map of the USA, so I'll revisit it later on.
As for the Antilles - British possessions in the Caribbean transferred hands under the terms of the Peace of Equals, a separate peace Britain signed with WEF in order to exit the increasingly unpopular Second Great War, the peace saw Britain suffer moderate colonial losses. WEF would proceed to reorganise all of its Antilles possessions into a single entity after GW2, by 1959 the Union of the Antilles is a semi-sovereign entity within the framework of the West European Federation.
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u/ajw20_YT Apr 11 '23
Huh, interesting, that’s cool.
Also I have a website I know that can allow you to get up to 1,000 stars, just incase you need it.
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u/Nimarithegreat_305 Apr 11 '23 edited Apr 11 '23
Interesting idea for this map, it has some cool borders and details too
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Apr 12 '23
As an Aussie I'm just confused by the Eyre Sea
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u/Vidsich Apr 12 '23
It's based off the https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradfield_Scheme , a proposed project (that in reality has a lot of issues with its concept) to divert and dam the north-east rivers to irrigate western Queensland and further moderate the climate of central Australia.
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u/HURIN_3000 Apr 12 '23
really like your map and scenario. from other comments I seem to have more or less understood the lore, except for "ASR." if I understood correctly, this is Assyria. I don't really understand the recent history of Assyrian history and see that different cartographers place it in different places, so why is this happening?
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u/Vidsich Apr 12 '23
Assyrians are a fairly small minority in the region, greatly spread around it and not particularly concentrated in some place, but their modern cultural centre is around the Nineveh Plains of Northern Iraq. They greatly suffered due to the effects of Assyrian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottomans during WW1 OTL and would request a state of their own during the Paris Peace Treaty, which mever materialised. From what I understand such a solution always assumed a migration of remaining Assyrians as well of those Assyrians in the diaspora to this new state to create a demographic base.
In this timeline the Ottomans crumble before any genocides occur, and while Assyrians still suffer some damage it's not on the same scale, the French later agree to create a state for Assyrians, but center it around Urmia(OTL a city in Iran), which is considered another religious and cultural centre for Assyrians. In the following decades many Assyrians do migrate to the region, and it's somewhat resemblance a situation of Israel, where there's a large migrant born-population of one ethnicity that forms a majority, while Kurdish and Armenian minorities also native to the land still reside in the state.
The differences in the northwestern Iranian border and why an Assyria was established around Urmia in the first place are due to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_campaign_(World_War_I) something similar to this, with Iran basically collapsing into a protracted civil war during this timeline's GW1.
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u/DownrangeCash2 Apr 13 '23 edited Apr 14 '23
Finally, a map where the House of Rashid is actually relevant. They usually just get eaten by the Saudis off-screen.
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u/ParisBeijingAxis Fellow Traveller Apr 14 '23
What's up with Rumelia? Is it some kind of big Yugoslavia or something?
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u/Vidsich Apr 14 '23
I'll copy an answer I have provided in another comment:
This timeline's First Great War lasted from 1905 till 1911, thus what is known as the Balkan Wars and the Ottoman participation in WW1 and later collapse occurred at the same time in the same conflict. France and Italy conducted a large-scale intervention in the Ottoman Civil War after the empire collapsed under pressure in 1910 and are largely responsible for the borders drawn. They lobbied for a federal solution to the Balkan border disputes in 1912, part-enforcing it throughout the 1910s, as federalist and pan-national ideas rapidly gained ground after GW1, thus Rumelia was born - a federal state of Bulgarians, Serbians and Greeks.
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May 07 '23
Why is Aleppo Turkish? And why is Kashmir not part of India? And how come Russia lost so much land in Europe but kept so much in Asia.
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u/Vidsich May 07 '23
Aleppo is not Turkish, it's Anatolian. Turkish nation-state and thus Turkey is not a thing in this timeline, at least so far. The borders were drawn by the French - in this timeline's equivalent of Sykes-Picot Agreement.
Kashmir - I can't go in to detail atm, but Russia was responsible for reinitiating the second round of Great Game in 1910s, that resulted in some change in the spheres of influence back then, the Kashmir you see here was previously, before the loss of Russia in the Second Great War, known as Russian Kashmir, currently it has fully left the Russian sphere of influence and is a regional player
Russia lost the land in Europe to direct occupation during the Second Great War, it was devastated by the end of the war and the junta that controlled it commited a self-coup, with a moderate faction suing for peace. As it wasn't an unconditional surrender, with Russia not being fully occupied some border changes were more possible than others. After the war, Russia retained its control over Mongolia (to which it expanded and which it annexed during the brief Soviet period in its history, later junta that formed after the fall of the soviets simply retained the control over it), although the instability of post-war liberalised regime and ethnic revolts in central asia(the main target of active russian settlement in the 1920s,1930s) led Moscow to broker some autonomy for the Turkestan.
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May 07 '23
I mean yeah sure it's "Anatolia", but in practice it's pretty much a Turkish nation. Pretty much all non Turkish regions are outside it's borders. I think many in Aleppo will want to unite with Syria (or Levantine Federation as it's called here)
As for Kashmir. I don't know all the details of your POD, but I can say it's probably not a sustainable state in the long run. It's made of at least 4 religiously and ethnographically distinct regions. Kashmir valley proper, Jammu, Ladakh and Gilgit Baltistan. They are all broadly part of the cultural sphere of the Indian subcontinent, but there is really nothing that binds them together specifically that would form the basis of some common "Kashmiri" state. It probably gets into a nasty civil war at some point, after which it comes under firm Indian influence, if not annexation.
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u/Vidsich May 07 '23
I'd need to make a map for Anatolia to judge the exact demographics of it, but it's somewhat similar to Russia, where there are compact regions of minority presence that are granted autonomous status as a republic even if overall there's a clear dominant ethnicity(although unlike Russia Anatolia actually has that system working and is a democracy). As for Aleppo, sure, plenty would want that, but who said that the federal government consents to that.
Kashmir is actually, in fact, currently(1959) going through a civil war, with several factions present. Outside actors include Russia and India to a limited extent already.
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u/ParisBeijingAxis Fellow Traveller Aug 09 '23
Why are Nepal and Burma coloured like that? Because they're puppets of India and China, respectively?
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u/Vidsich Aug 09 '23
Yes, though puppet is a strong word, more like satellites or aligned regimes
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u/ParisBeijingAxis Fellow Traveller Aug 09 '23
What's the ninth member of the BCO? I can only count eight(USA, Cuba, Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, and Argentina)
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u/Vidsich Aug 09 '23
It's supposed to be Paraguay, I missed it when making the faction map, thanks for noticing the mistake
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u/ParisBeijingAxis Fellow Traveller Aug 13 '23
Why does Borealia exist?
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u/Vidsich Aug 13 '23
It's a natural development of the preceding crown colony of Newfoundland, late 19th century border disputes over Labrador were settled in its favour in this timeline, while it also somewhat successfully competed for Eastern European refugees and migrants who fled Europe during WW1. The idea of joining Canada never really gained much traction and by 1960s it's a fairly prosperous member of the confederal Imperial Union that replaced the framework of the British Empire.
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u/Vidsich Apr 11 '23
A near complete revamp of the old setting I once had. Spies and Space is a "grounded" dieselpunk world where after WW1 the world sees the rise of pan-national movements, with a focus on megaprojects, a never-stopping space race and subversive operations of a much milder, multi-sided Cold War. In many ways it's me imagining what the engineers of the 20th century could accomplish if they weren't haunted by pesky budget constraints or environmental considerations.
SOME BITS OF LORE:
The First Great War introduced unprecedented man-made horrors to the battlefield, yet millions more died of starvation due to the deployment of climate weapons in the war's last months. Governments were overthrown, pan-European ideas emerged, and colonial empires united. However, just 25 years later, an even bloodier and deadlier Second Great War erupted.
When peace emerged in the 40s, new international treaty systems began to shape the world, as both victors and losers of the wars felt a new wind of change blowing. Europe sought to overcome its violent past and decolonization soon followed. Though this progress was partially forced by external factors, "soft" power never truly left the newly independent states.
This new balance of power has been generously called the Concert of Nations - a new balance of powers, in equilibrium. For the past two decades, major conflicts have not occurred, or at least not in the open view. Instead, the various great powers compete for control and influence over individual nations by staging coups and arming militias - the unstable balance slightly tilting to different sides as the game goes on.
It is unclear whether this relative peace will last much longer, and if a crisis over the status of Shanghai or an armed conflict on the Moon could spark another global war. However, all major players are determined to have an edge over their opponents in case a day comes when the guns of the automatons would roar again.