Altered Maps 3: The rise of the Basque Empire!

jessiecat said:

Did you miss post 172?

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I did, actually. there is no real timeline for this, so yeah in a way it is. Lets say the Britshad taken such a beating they had to let us go (removes moron cap)

Squonk said:

Turkey, after the fall of ideology of ottomanism, were much influenced by pan-turkism (especially Enver, who manipulated the Ottoman Empire in the war to fulfill this goal), and their goal was to unite all the turkic people. Kazakhs are one of them. Armenia was on the way to Azerbaijan, so it had to be conquered, and in fact Turkey have tried that. Even after the defeat of their offensive against Erewan, they've signed a treaty leaving Armenia only the surroundings with the city, and opening the way to Azerbaijan.
It is undoubtful that, in case of a turkish victory, at least Azerbaijan would've been theirs.
Azeris speak almost the same language as Turks. the turkic languages of Central Asia are more different, but still similar.

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Azerbaijan maybe, but how in the hell would they have controlled Khazahstan?

RedRalphWiggum said:

Azerbaijan maybe, but how in the hell would they have controlled Khazahstan?

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I dunno. I know they wanted to control it, and I guess they'd have found a way.

Squonk said:

I dunno. I know they wanted to control it, and I guess they'd have found a way.

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I cant see it. too big, too far away, too much Russia territory between the two countries.

I don't see the size being a problem really. A railway line here and there... The russian colonisation of northern Kazakhstan is a fact, but especially under USSR. It wasn't as Russian as it is today. Anyway, Kazakhstan is just a big borderland of the region that Enver was interested in - Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kirgizya are turkish as well.

Lets put it this way: Surely the Turks would have insisted on having these lands, and they'd probably get them, at least de iure. If they'd be able to really control them, is another subject.

It would have been totally unenfoceable. I think they would have rather let them be Russia's problem, TBH.

Enver and his friends didn't care much about realism. They've launched the mad offensive in Caucasus to pursue this goal, despite the bad circumstances, which caused death of most of the soldiers. They've caused extermination of Armenians to pursue this goal.
Even when the allies were capturing Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, Enver didn't mind that, he pushed the armies in the direction of his fellow Turks. He died fighting on the side of the basmacz uprising in Buchara Emirate, modern Uzbekistan.

FINALLY got around to making a map for this thread...

Squonk said:

Anyway, here is a map of how I'd make Poland look after ww1, if it was possible

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What do you want with Danzig and that chunk of Ostpreussen?

The plebiscite of 1920 gave all the majority pro-Polish towns to Poland

My post was lost, a shame.
Shortly:

I wouldn't make a plebiscite, hence I wouldn't know the results But actually a condominium or an autonomy would be the best for them. Masurians had a . .. .. .. .ed up identity. These are the regions where a village having 90% polish-speaking majority could consider itself german, just because it was protestant, and vote in like 60% for NSDAP.

the plebiscite was held at the time the border of ostpreussen was controlled by Soviets and Warsaw was believed to fall any day now. The voting cards gave people the choice not between Poland and Germany, but Poland and Ostpreussen etc, the administration was in german hands and actively fighting against any polish agitation. There wasn't much of it anyway, as Poland had bigger problems.

If you want to reply, do it by PM. There's too much discussion about Poland in this thread anyway.

My Altered Map is uploaded. Here is the explanation for it (I am aware that it is not a great fictitious future narrative):

1. The US merges the states of Iraq and Kuwait in order to provide Iraq the sea access it needed to be a wealthy enough state to support a democracy in a diverse state. When this plan failed due to a withdrawal of US troops, the state of Iraq was dissolved and its territory divided amongst its neighbors.

2. Prime Minister Putin soon forms a coup, becoming the first czar of Russia in over 100 years. He begins his reign by reclaiming states lost in the Caucuses; Azerbaijan is split with Iran as a sign of renounced Russian claims in Persia.

3. The quickly deteriorating situation in both Afghanistan and Pakistan results in the dissolution of both countries. India gains Pakistan in order to secure its nuclear weapons. Afghanistan is split between Iran, to secure its small Shia population, India, in order to unify Pushtan tribes into a single nation, and the Central Asia Republics, to secure their own ethnic populations.

4. Soon after Bashar al-Assad’s assassination, a radical secular nationalist regime takes power. Their goal is to create Greater Syria, claiming that the peace treaties after WWI were illegitimate. They quickly conquer Lebanon and agree to work with Israel in order to neutralize Hezbollah presence there in exchange for the Golan Heights. Impressed with Syrian military prowess, Jordan agrees to cede its sovereignty to Syria in exchange for continued existence of its monarchy, but in a figurehead form.

5. Under a peace agreement for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the West Bank is ceded to Greater Syria and Gaza to Egypt. This agreement also makes Jerusalem an international city.

6. Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman elect to join the UAE for economic reasons.

7. A charismatic decedent of the Muhammad Ali dynasty gains a following in exile. He finally takes action with a force of exiles and dissidents of the increasingly brutal secular regime in Egypt to take power. This coup is successful since it is backed Saudi oil money and Russian weapons. This new king of Egypt reclaims Darfur and Nubia, and annexes Sudan.

8. A fascist coup backed by the US is successful in Ethiopia; they rename the country New Axum. The first act of this regime in military modernization, which results in the military being tested on Djibouti and Eritrea, these two countries quickly fall and are annexed. New Axum is then plagued by terror attacks from Muslim extremists in Somalia; however, these attacks are likely staged by the government of New Axum as an excuse for a war with Somalia. The armies of New Axum quickly push into Somaliland, and annex that part of the country. The New Axum government plans to reestablish ancient claims to the Arabian Peninsula, and makes a military alliance with Saudi Arabia; this allows for a joint war of Yemen, which is quickly conquered and divided between the two nations. The last aggressive war of New Axum is an invasion of Kenya, who they fight to a draw due to an overextended military, making only marginal territorial claims.

RedRalphWiggum said:

Jeez, lighten up. and some of my reasoning re German and Turkey is that they had seen how having too many minorities in their borders affected AH, and so decided to keep German German, with other o****ries as satellites. How the hell would Kazahstan have become a Turk puppet?

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Turanism.

warpus said:

Hunnic Europe superimposed over mordern borders

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That's a typical exaggeration.

RedRalphWiggum said:

It would have been totally unenfoceable. I think they would have rather let them be Russia's problem, TBH.

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Nationalism doesn't work that way, and the concrete support the Turks sent to their Turanist homeboys in OTL implies they'd be willing to do even more if they were stronger.

Squonk said:

Enver and his friends didn't care much about realism. They've launched the mad offensive in Caucasus to pursue this goal, despite the bad circumstances, which caused death of most of the soldiers. They've caused extermination of Armenians to pursue this goal.
Even when the allies were capturing Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, Enver didn't mind that, he pushed the armies in the direction of his fellow Turks. He died fighting on the side of the basmacz uprising in Buchara Emirate, modern Uzbekistan.

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If I could give rep for posts...plus, anybody who mentions the Basmachi wars is automatically cool.

European High-speed rail lines (present and planned)

There gonna finally update our rail system, that's nice I'd like the same system as the Germans do.

warpus said:

European High-speed rail lines (present and planned)

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It's now June 2009, and the high-speed rail between Amsterdam-Schiphol and Antwerpen still isn't going. The rails have been been finished but the trains haven't been produced yet. It's quite unclear when the first passenger trains will be able to use the trace.

And we're still widely using trains with a maximum speed of 85 km/h.

This map means you'll be able to travel from Paris to Malaga without ever leaving 250+ km/h rails! Or from Stuttgart to London, the same way! Or from London to Naples!

TheLastOne36 said:

There gonna finally update our rail system, that's nice I'd like the same system as the Germans do.

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They said that in 1939.

Mirc said:

Or from Stuttgart to London, the same way! Or from London to Naples!

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Except for the Channel.

That was so small I didn't notice it! Yeah, except for the channel...

TheLastOne36 said:

There gonna finally update our rail system, that's nice I'd like the same system as the Germans do.

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I'll believe in that when I'll see it. Right now, I don't even believe in that you can travel 180-250 km/h by the Centralna Magistrala Kolejowa between GOP (the Upper-Silesian industrial Centre) and Warsaw. There are 320 or so kms between Katowice and Warsaw. According to this map, we should travel 1,5-2h between them. Instead, the fastest trains travel for 3,5-4 h.

How about some more, oh I don't know, maps in this thread?