Capto Iugulum Background Thread

[spryllino]

There's a fair amount of stuff that could just be copied in, too, but which a wiki would make much more easily accessible; the background threads that EQ writes would provide "stub" articles for nearly all the states in the world, and even if all the wiki consisted of was copied information, background posts, and news stories, from the thread, it would still make people's lives a lot easier if they wanted to find out something.

 

[Lord of Elves]

I noticed I skipped a few posts in my ardent defense of the glorious Fatherland.

Let's take the conversation down a route I haven't pursued in a while: Wiki. First, my perspective:

1. I have the time to set up a wiki, and probably put up each individual update at this point.

2. I can probably maintain a wiki, but setting up frequent new articles, not so much.


So, my question here is: if I were to set up the base of a wiki for CI, would it be of substantial value to you all and would those among you keep it updated and relevant?

Not in favor of a wiki, but not strictly opposed either. If one is created I will addend my histories to it and the like, but I would prefer not to have to keep track of a "Scandinavia" page on a separate website.

That history is pretty much wrong and bias. It was Colombia, not Venezuela, that Spain caused Civil War in, and it was the Brazilian and American fleets that caused the absolute defeat of the Continental Powers at sea, not the British by themselves. Spanish interference in a Brazilian-British allied nation and their refusal to pay small reparations caused the Great War. Scandinavian, French, and Dutch lies about the Guyana Crisis caused their entry into the war, which was promptly called false at the end of the war when those governments admitted no evidence of Brazilian aggression happened. If you're going to write history, at least do it correctly, LOE. You were the villains and the aggressors.

Colombia is a pretty big oversight, I'll admit.

Coz lets face it, nobody lost anything of importance but me.

Scandinavia: Always an enemy of Denmark.

Actually I was opposed from the start to Denmark losing anything other than its Chinese possessions. However negotiations with Britain and the other Transcontinental Powers were done with the understanding that Britain and her allies would make no separate settlement with the Continental Powers (to the exception of Spain) and therefore I had to negotiate with all the various involved parties as a whole. Oranjien was Argentina's price.

 

[Crezth]

"You were the villains and the aggressors."

Without a hint of irony.

 

[momo1000]

WINDOW INTO THE KONGO​

A Look at the Heart of the Dark Continent

THE CITIES OF THE KONGO:

1. Haraldsholm, Haraldsholm Län [IRL Boma, DRC] --
Haraldsholm is the largest city and the de facto capital of Imperial Scandinavia (Stockholm is still the de jure capital of Scandinavia). Haraldsholm, informally known to locals as the Holm, is also the seat of the Riksdag and the King-Emperor’s Palace. Situated at the mouth of the Kongo River, the large port handles all of the exotic timber, bananas, cacao, palm products, and other exports of the Kongo River Basin. Before the First Great Rebellion, the population of Haraldsholm was mainly KCS bureaucrats and army officials. After the Proletariat Mutiny, the King-Emperor and the majority of his court moved to the former heart of the Kongo Colonial Society. This large aristocratic society demanded housekeepers and servants, and so large svarten slums rapidly grew at the edges of the manicured colonial city. Though unofficial, it remains an unwritten rule that a black would never walk around freely in the heart of the city unless in the service of a white. Haraldsholm is also home to the University of Haraldsholm, which is arguably the most prestigious school in all of Africa. The nightlife of the capital is also said to be one of the most alive in the Dark Continent, with many restaurants and dance halls situated along the Kejserliga Sidoalle, the main street of the capital.

2. Kristinastad, Kristinastad Län [IRL Kinshasa, DRC] --
Located on the Kongo River, Kristinastad is the industrial heart of the Kongo. After the Mutiny, many of merchants and loyalists from Scandinavia moved to the inland city. Originally, Kristinastad was a central market for many of the plantations of the Kongo River area and where local villagers could trade their raw goods for manufactured European merchandise. However, with the influx of Scandinavian capitalists and lower and middle-class immigrants, Kristinastad became a center of industry, with scores of factories now lining the river banks. These factories, along with attracting many European workers, also brought in many svarten. The blacks of Kristinastad were originally paid only a fraction of what a white worker was paid, leading to the Kristinastad Riot of 1923, in which blacks fought for higher wages and whites protested to get their jobs back. The Riot marked one of the first acts of civil disobedience in which whites and blacks protested together in the Kongo. However, to this day, Kristinastad remains a city haunted by racial tension, as more and more immigrants flood the booming city and less and less jobs remain for both races. Race riots have become an almost weekly occurrence as the King-Emperor has mandated that a permanent military force reside on the outskirts of Kristinastad.

3. Nya Göteborg, Gustavus Län [IRL Abidjan, Ivory Coast] --
Regional capital of Vastafrika, Nya Göteborg is the third largest city in the Kongo. Lying on the Gustavus Lagoon, all of the agriculture and timber from the inland plantations of Vastafrika come through Nya Göteborg. The port is famous for the exotic luxuries such as ivory and gold that are traded here. Nya Göteborg was originally a small fishing village before European traders utilized the deep-water port and the city became an industrial and trading hub of West Africa. Nya Göteborgens have recently felt a huge upswing of pride for their city as the local varukorgball team, the Nya Göteborg Sjömän, have recently won the Emperor’s Cup. Local government officials and business leaders have recently begun planning a canal to connect the Gustavus Lagoon with the Atlantic Ocean, a build that would bring in great revenue for the Vastafrikan capital.

4. Juba, Vita Nilen Län [IRL Juba, South Sudan] --
Though officially the fourth largest municipality in the Kongo, Juba has recently had an explosion in population. As one of the northernmost cities in mainland Kongo, many of the white residents of the former Scandinavian Afrikan lands, such as Abyssinia, Adjuramark, and Sudan, have been forced to relocate here. Juba was originally a military fort built on the White Nile and named after the local African tribe. It quickly became a commercial center for much of the Nile trade, but especially so after the Afrikan Mutiny. Immigration to the city became such a problem after the Mutiny that large refugee camps were constructed outside the city. Crime and violence in the camps have become a serious problem for the local governments, who have called for military assistance to bring order to the region. Building permanent homes and industries for the refugees remains a primary concern for the Eklund ministry.

---

Note: I took a lot of artistic license here, so I'm sure LoE and EQ are probably grinding their teeth at all of the inaccuracies

 

[Lord of Elves]

I swept over the post and didn't find anything particularly egregious other than the fact that "King-Emperor" hasn't been the title of the head of state for roughly eighty years. Emperor of Scandinavia, King of Sweden and Norway.

 

[J.K. Stockholme]

@EQ: what is the state of physics? how has Einstein's developments affected our universe culturally?

 

[Luckymoose]

@EQ: what is the state of physics? how has Einstein's developments affected our universe culturally?

There is no Einstein?

 

[J.K. Stockholme]

There are his equations and discoveries.

 

[ChiefDesigner]

There are his equations and discoveries.

Jüdische Physik, surely.

Catholic physics is absolute and immutable.

 

[Jehoshua]

I would hazard a guess that theoretical physics is either around the same level as it was IRL, or is slightly behind considering the research focus in CI seems to have been pushed more towards technological innovation, so radio and film in addition to aeronautics and practical engineering.

Oh and as an aside, Georges Lemaitre, a jesuit priest, was the progenitor of the Big Bang Theory. Something about physics seems to attract priestly scientists.

 

[EQandcivfanatic]

@EQ: what is the state of physics? how has Einstein's developments affected our universe culturally?

I know where this line of questioning eventually leads. At the moment I've decided to not answer this question, except to say that there's no reason that theory isn't at the same point as it was OTL.

As a completely unrelated note: I've always been intrigued by the possibility of a timeline with no nuclear weapons.

 

[Grandkhan]

Actually, on that note: what is the state of consumer technology at this stage in CI? Has the washing machine been invented? What about the television (likely wouldn't be popular, but the first televisions had been built at this time OTL?

Also, what is the state of analog computers and cryptography?

 

[EQandcivfanatic]

Consumer tech is actually a bit ahead of OTL, excepting TVs which are in their infancy, if present at all outside of testing labs. As previously discussed, this is a inherent result from greater emphasis upon industrial production during the BT. On the flip side, there are some areas where technology lags, mostly in theoretical works and biological/genetic sciences. Despite some of your efforts, medicine also is lagging a bit behind OTL, which is one key reason various epidemics we've had have been so devastating.

As for analog computers and cryptography, that is something I'm not going to go into, as it relates to standing or future SRPs.

 

[Luckymoose]

As a completely unrelated note: I've always been intrigued by the possibility of a timeline with no nuclear weapons.

I'll say it: this is what I want for Christmas.

 

[TheLastJacobite]

I'll say it: this is what I want for Christmas.

Me too. I think it would have a really interesting effect not only on warfare and politics, but on energy in the modern era. No nuclear power means an increased reliance on coal and fossil fuel, which would indubitably have a negative impact on the environment.

 

[Luckymoose]

Me too. I think it would have a really interesting effect not only on warfare and politics, but on energy in the modern era. No nuclear power means an increased reliance on coal and fossil fuel, which would indubitably have a negative impact on the environment.

It would cause a much earlier shift to renewable power in nations that can afford it and have ample solar/wind/hydro potential. Brazil would simply amp up hydro projects to meet the power needs of the nation, which is possible with the local potential, but some nations would be in for hard, hard times.

Also, Scandinavia--the damn prole dogs--would have tons of hydro power.

 

[qoou]

Colombia would not only be the world's largest crude oil exporter, but also the world's ~5th largest hydropower producer.

 

[J.K. Stockholme]

I know where this line of questioning eventually leads. At the moment I've decided to not answer this question, except to say that there's no reason that theory isn't at the same point as it was OTL.

As a completely unrelated note: I've always been intrigued by the possibility of a timeline with no nuclear weapons.

Not actually where I was going. I was interested in fact on the philosophical impact of the Uncertainty Principle, the ideas of wavefunction collapse and say also the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics. They had rather powerful impacts on art, literature and self-identification with the universe in our timeline, so I suppose the weight of my question is how much does the public care about these ideas (particularly writers)?

 

[spryllino]

I think it's perverse deciding by fiat that scientists can't make any particular given discovery in physics. I like to think that events in a NES are guided by some sort of verisimilitude, and not by what people want to happen. Artificially extending the sort of warfare you get in the first half of the twentieth century into the second half, in any case, will just produce a lot more conventional warfare of very much the same sort. Also, where do you draw the line at? If EQ were to exclude the consequences of nuclear warfare, this would entail not only removing nuclear weapons, but also removing various other weapons of mass destruction (or there would surely be no point), which would involve putting arbitrary caps on all missiles over a certain power. All such things amount to arbitrarily changing physics, which I don't like at all, and potentially to a second half of the twentieth century with very little verisimilitude.

 

[TheLastJacobite]

Colombia would not only be the world's largest crude oil exporter, but also the world's ~5th largest hydropower producer.

You keep bringing this up. What are you basing that on? In RL, Columbia is 22nd in overall oil production with just over 1 million barrels produced per day, or roughly 0.97% of the global share of production. And that's as of today, using modern methods of refinement and offshore drilling. How can a nation as small as Columbia with such (comparably) limited oil deposits be the world leader in exports? I believe such a claim falls into the "bovine excrement" category