Altered Maps VII: Making the World a Better Place

[Tee Kay]

Here's one of Sudan's planned animal-shaped cities. This is apparantly the plan for the Southern capital, Juba.

This is nothing new though. The Inkans shaped their capital Qosqo like a puma, and this was 500 years ago and they didn't have oil money to throw around, so suck on that, Sudan.

 

[Danielion]

Scanians were forced to speak Swedish after Denmark lost the area, but they orginally spoke Danish.

There used to be a potential to form one Scandinavian macro-language anyway (someone who speaks Swedish fluently and who has studied Norwegian and Danish told me this), but it's mainly impossible now due to nationalism and the history. This is the one major weakness I see in the (Germanic) Scandinavian countries, they all speak a very small language that could potentially be bigger. Some don't even know nor realize Norwegian and Swedish are mutually intelligible or Norwegian and Danish.
The same closed-mindedness exists with Dutch- toward Afrikaans-speakers (who used to speak Dutch officially). I can still fluently read Afrikaans literature (which I cannot find in my local library or bookstore), even when articulate language is being used. I can understand Afrikaans-speakers outside their slang register. Still, we officially speak a different language.

I personally believe Portuguese- and French-speaking were smarter here. Brazilian Portuguese sometimes differs more from European Portuguese, than Afrikaans does from Dutch. Same with colloquial Quebec French and European French.
I have to respect them for not allowing their language to disintegrate, because it made them stronger.
Now, I don't know to speak any Scandinavian language, so might be biased, but I myself certainly never ever speak English to an Afrikaans speaker (many people don't dare this, because they're afraid of coming over as arrogant or 'imperialist'; as if English isn't imperialist lol). Do Scandinavians speak English to one another? I know of a Swede who always speaks Swedish to Norwegian people, without any problems.

These Scanians should man up, realize that dialects are just 'folklore' and learn proper Danish next to their native Swedish and be proud their horizon has become wider.

 

[Lord of Elves]

Canada was a Dominion anyway. So was South Africa. India could've been made one.

Countries like Egypt were ruled by de facto British puppets and British colonies in Africa were either protectorates or ruled only by a few thousand officers, so the cost of administration isn't that great. These territories could be granted more self-rule but remains part of the British Commonwealth.

Whoever made that map treated Britain like it's not even an Allied country. It even lost Ulster.

Well, Britain still has the Dominions, but the tearing apart of the Empire at the end of the war was a real <snip> move on FDR's part. So much for "special relationship", and alliance and all that.

That's all very nice and good... But can the Sudanese government prevent the construction workers from being killed long enough to build it?

 

[Danielion]

Which is why Belgium and Switzerland both descended into civil wars in the 1920s... Oh wait

Actually, Belgium had been on the brink of a civil war in 1950 (it was about the King being our state leader, who played a suspicious role and the fact that the Flemish majority didn't want him away, which was the first time it became really clear Dutch-speaking were the majority). There have also been ethnic riots in the Voeren country until well in the '80s.
Civil war is still a possibility in Belgium. It takes only one nutter to use violence and one to respond to it in the same way. I personally hope it would never happen, but it remains possible.

In my opinion, Flemish are slightly less violent than Walloon (who they themselves aren't that violent neither of course, they take less nonsense). Still, the people were never revolutionary here, as long as their daily life isn't afflicted too much. Only in 1566 (mainly Flemish revolt, Walloons tended to support the Spanish except those few Protestant ones, while many Catholic Flemish also supported the Union of Utrecht), 1799 (Flemish revolt, Walloon tended to support the French), (1830 was hijacked, but sadly propaganda has secured that Revolution thanks to the Catholic Church which controlled the minds of the peasants) when the government changed too much for the worse the people only went to the street. People are generally very ignorant and careless, but react in an extreme fashion when woken up.

Personally I hope Belgium would end one day and that it be divided between the Netherlands, France and Germany. It would be the best way of diminishing the chance of an ethnic conflict in the future I think.

Order of preference of countries I want to belong to: The United Netherlands > a more stable Belgium (unlikely, because Dutch- nor French-speaking are Belgian-minded; unless it's serves the needs of a certain group be it ethnic or sociological) > the Flemish Republic (but I guess from this point I'd moved to the Netherlands already) > Germany > current Belgium > France.

 

[Masada]

And Vietnam being annexed by China. I'm sure that's gonna work out real well.

Jumped up jungle bunnies!

Well, Britain still has the Dominions, but the tearing apart of the Empire at the end of the war was a real <snip> move on FDR's part. So much for "special relationship", and alliance and all that.

America had next to nothing to do with the end of the empire.

That's all very nice and good... But can the Sudanese government prevent the construction workers from being killed long enough to build it?

To quote myself.

 

[Yared]

@Danelion:

It really depends on the person. I myself managed to once hold a conversation with a Norwegian girl. I spoke Swedish and her Norwegian.

But with a Danish person, I'd be forced to speak English 'cause I really can't understand that.

 

[Gruekiller]

I used gangleri2001's blank world map to make this little dealie here. I'd note the absence of Hawaii and the Falklands on the map, though this wasn't really important for what I was doing here in any case. I bring you: Napoleon's New War.

I sketched something like this out on paper a couple years back after I'd read my first alternate history novel. After some revisions, primarily to things that were just plain too ridiculous, which resulted in this (frankly better) version of the map. It has more than one main PoD, which lends to this fairly unique situation in the year 1912 as the world's great powers descend into a world-wide conflict.

*Aztec peoples unify earlier than in OTL, and subjugate a far larger area. This leads to a far larger and more powerful Aztec Empire, which occupied most of what is today Mexico by the time of Columbus' voyage.
*A plague develops in Central America, to which the Native peoples are immune. Unfortunately for Hernan Cortes and his conquistadors, Europeans were not. The Spanish invasion was repelled by a combination of superior numbers and fatal disease, and the Aztecs quickly gained new technologies from Spain's enemy, England.
*A freak storm destroys Nelson's fleet at Trafalgar, allowing a French attack on British soil. Portugal falls to France, and the invasion of Russia in 1812 achieves far greater success than it did in OTL. All of Russia west of the Urals is annexed by the French Empire. Most of Britain's posessions in North America, and a portion of India, are taken by the French in the absurdly lop-sided peace agreement.
*Persia and Sweden join in to dismantle parts of imperial Russia, with Sweden seizing the Baltic states and with Persia capturing parts of the Caucasus and Turkestan. Though Sweden and Russia reconciled this incident (with Sweden leasing port access to the Russian navy), but relations with Persia remained strained.
*The new nation of Gran Colombia achieves far greater internal unity, and remains a single nation and a regional power in the Americas. The nation of La Plata (after its viceroyal name Rio de la Plata) also gains its independence. Uruguay gains its independence, only to become a satellite state of France, and Paraguay's owing its independence to Colombia leads to a military alliance between the two.
*The Opium Wars take a further turn for the worst, and Britain and France become involved in a frantic land-grab, each seizing half of the nation. In the chaotic aftermath, Russia annexes Mongolia and northern China.

Blue is the UK, Red is France, Green is countries allied to the UK, and orange is countries allied to France. Yellow is neutral. Who wins in my twisted, alternate WW1? Tell me what you think. You should operate under the assumption that most of the nations (except for perhaps the smaller ones and the ones in Asia) are fully industrialized.

 

[gangleri2001]

Could you please upload a version without text? I'd really like to imagine movements in this scenario.

 

[Gruekiller]

Can do.

The small nation in the Balkans is the Kingdom of Dobruzha, a small state whose neutrality is violated by France during its beeline to Constantinople. This act brought Russia into the war.

 

[TheLastOne36]

France would not be able to hold onto Russia.

I imagine a much likelier scenario is that Poland get's all of Galicia (looks like it is split in half?) and some of Podolia. (Also, shouldn't Poland gain a northern corridor?) France makes Russia concede defeat, and release a Ukrainian state(I guess it'd be Zaporozhia?)

Also France would probably be more likely to make a couple of puppet like states like Hungary/Bohemia/Slovakia?

 

[Gruekiller]

They're shown on the map as part of France's empire. I agree that France could probably not hold onto Russia, but this scenario isn't supposed to be 100% likely in any case. Poland doesn't really need a northern corridor, since it controls Estonia etc.

For the record, Russia's de jure capital is Yekaterinburg here, but Vladivostok also serves as an important administrative center.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Ottoman Empire: Yay!

China: Nay

 

[TheLastOne36]

Poland's next step would probably be war with Prussia about it than.

I also don't see us holding on to Estonia. I think Poland would let Estonia go as a vassal state or something in this scenerio. (Like Courland was, and how Prussia originally was)

 

[Gruekiller]

Thus why they've sided with France in this particular scenario. The Duchy of Warsaw was France's ally (client state?) back during the Napoleonic Wars, as well. I seem to recall Napoleon sent a bunch of Poles to die for him in Haiti. Joecoolyo, I do apologize for China. If it's any consolation, there's a high likelihood of the return of their sovereignty once the bloodbath has ended.

 

[TheLastOne36]

Yah Napoleon sent a bunch of us all over the place, from Spain, to Italy, throughout Poland and Austria-Hungary, all the way to Moscow, as well as Egypt and Haiti. Our national anthem actually is singing about how our soldiers will march from Italy to the Warta River, and onto Russia fighting for Polish Independence, and how we will do all this with Napoleon and stuff.

So Prussia sided with France in this scenerio?

 

[Gruekiller]

Prussia's still driven to that whole "unify Germany" ideal. So it's allied with Sweden and the UK for the goal of knocking the French down a peg, and hopefully recovering "Germany" in the process. They were once allied to the French, but once the nationalist movement came into being, things went a bit, ah, south.

 

[gangleri2001]

I can say that, with that map, Russia would regain its european territory. But the UK and its allies have no chance against France. The only place where brits would win is in Asia (as long as the chinese and the indians don't rebel).

 

[choxorn]

Question: Since the French control it, is the majority of Canada and the Western US still largely unpopulated by Europeans, or did people go there anyway?

 

[Gruekiller]

I suspect that the French would not have forced the Natives onto reservations, etc. The West and Canada, consequentially, have higher Native populations than OTL did at this period of time. To address gangleri's comment, the British etc. may not be able to win very easily, but I suspect the costs of the French trying to maintain a war on all six continents (if you count Indonesia as part of Oceania, any way) would quickly drain their capacity to fight. All the troops in the world can't project your military power effectively if your home front has collapsed into economic ruin.

Not to mention that the Russians probably wouldn't stop at regaining their territory. I have to think they'd plow into Napoleon IV's eastern domains in retribution for 1812.

 

[Cull]

Japan.

Explain please.