MoF 24: Nothing Lasts Forever - Voting Thread

Jman said:

A sort of egalitarian/alt-hippie CSA. The plantation system (as I seem to remember learning in school) depended on constant westward expansion because cotton saps the soil of nutrients (peanuts would help, but George Washington Carver gets butterflied away). Eventually slavery is abolished, but there is still the belief that freed blacks and whites cannot coexist. This is eventually outweighed by the huge class gulf between the bucolic planter-aristocracy (who are now relying on sharecroppers instead of slaves, but otherwise acting like it's still the 1800s) and the urban industrial underclass. The freedmen and the poor "white trash" get fed up with the old aristocracy and put aside their differences to boot them out of office. The new Populist Party then enfranchises blacks and women and allows (but doesn't force) integration, pursues socialist policies, begins a rapprochement with the United States, and makes frequent reference to equality and the Brotherhood of Man. In other words, the CSA begins to act exactly the opposite of how you'd imagine the CSA would act.

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tormsen said:

The Chinese Communist party allows democratic elections for the first time in the early 2020’s, when faltering economic growth lead to the expansion of the democratic movement and force the government to placate the middle classes by holding democratic elections. Initially, the Communist party wins regardless, later forming a coalition with the GMD of Taiwan after that province was reunited with the mainland. Gerrymandering and domination of the media mean the Coalition easily dominates the 2028 elections. However, things begin to turn very pear-shaped.

Astring of scandals involving the lauded “London to Tokyo” railway that has been permanently delayed (permanently delayed due in part to the inability of the United Republic of Korea government in Seoul to subdue the ex-North Korean People’s Army paramilitaries and drug barons operating out of the mountainous Hamgyeong province, and in part to some general obnoxiousness on the part of the Japanese government) and the discovery that the Coalition has managed to gamble away billions on the project sees a backlach by a large segment of the business community.

Following the absorption of the Taiwan-based Democratic Progressive Party, the Democratic Party has for the first time defeated the Coalition despite the star-power candidate chosen as the Communist figurehead. For the first time in almost 90 years, the Communist party is out of power in China. However, some pundits remain skeptical that the Democratic Party will be able to institute real change.

NOTE: The results shown include only the major parties, some 7% of votes were for minor parties or candidates. The results of the Xizang provincial elections are being censured pending a recount, but it is suggested that a cover-up of a suspiciously large number of votes were cast for the Tibetan National Party, the majority by Han Chinese disgusted with both candidates.

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Megaman03 said:

Somewhat ASB.

Its a two-for-one special There's even a prologue to boot, so some might say it's a THREE-for-one. Who knows for sure? Probably any omniscient entity, but let's move on shall we?

Prologue

With growing unrest within the Russian Empire and after the leader of the Bolsheviks rebellion movement, Vladimir Lenin declared the creation of a Communist state during the October Revolution, the Tsar was forced to abdicate and install a provisional government. However, their decision to continue the war with Germany was extremely unpopular with the general populace and pro-Bolshevik uprisings continued to plague the nation.

POD : The Provisional government agrees to a truce with the Central powers with both parties signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, carving up much of Russia into German puppet states in exchange for aid in defeating the Bolsheviks all revolutionaries allied to them. This leads to an armistice between the Entente and Central Powers as Germany was able to bring in its troops from the Eastern Front (and a more isolationist USA helped as well) by November 1917.

By February the following year, 250,000 Entente troops, 310,000 Central Powers troops as well as 55,000 American "volunteers" begin streaming into the Russian Far East to aid the White Army in their struggle against the Red Army and its allies. Western Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia were abandoned as the White Army began retreating East in hopes that they would be able to stop the Red Army there. These retreats were often slowed down by large rabbles of refugees, escaping to promises of a better life in the East. By the beginning of Spring, 2.5 million White Army troops as well as nearly 2 million refugees had safely made it to the Far East. Many of these refugees would later become farmers, laborers and other such jobs, assimilating rather well with the original population. Red assaults have been futile thus far as they grow under-supplied due to constant bombing of agricultural areas. Morale was sinking as many hoped the Bolsheviks would bring peace and not bog them down in yet another war. After several more failed attacks and an unusually harsh winter that kills thousands of men and many more civilians, many in the Red Army have had enough and begin mutinying and refusing to follow orders while riots began erupting in the major cities of Moscow and Petrograd. Fearing that the White Army could take advantage of their growing weakness, the Bolsheviks finally agree to peace and sign the Treaty of Khabarovsk, agreeing to recognize the Federal Republic of Russia. The Soviet Union later spiraled out of control after the death of Lenin in 1921 as many factions of the Bolsheviks desired to control the nation. With Stalin dead (Killed while leading one of the many failed assaults on Yakutsk), Leon Trotsky takes control and begins the first attempts at reconciling relations between the Soviets and the FRR.

Federal Republic of Russia

The FRR was relatively unscathed by the Russian Civil War with much of the conflict concentrated on its borderlands. Soon after, the Russian Nationalist Party (a far-right party) took over the country in a bloodless coup just weeks after the peace with the Soviet Union, beginning a 48 year long single-party dictatorship. Fearing that an invasion from the Soviet Union would cut off all trade with the outside world, the Russian Nationalist Party begin the самостоятельный (Self-sufficiency) program, turning inward and rejecting all trade with other nations. It is during this time that the military spending skyrocketed as the FRR attempted to project the image of a strong, confident nation to the world. However, by the end of the 1940s (Especially among the Great Powers) it was common knowledge that it was nothing more than a starving police state[1].

After a Marxist revolution in Vladivostok came close to toppling the government on May 7 1958, the Russian Nationalists finally gave in and began liberalizing the economy and allowing limited trade with Japan and the Soviet Union as well as accepting aid in the form of food and other essentials from the United States of America. Military spending was cut and its army was painfully[2] brought down to more manageable numbers. By 1962, the economy was already a de facto market economy, trading with nations all over Eurasia, though trade with the Americas was still limited to essentials and machinery. By this time, man were calling for democracy and free elections. Fearing a repeat of the May 7 uprising, the government folded to these demands and made it legal to create political parties, promising free elections by 1968.

When 1968 came, there were 6 major political parties vying for power with countless smaller parties[3] that merely wanted wanted a share of the pie that was the future Federal Assembly. It was no surprise that the center-left Liberal Democratic Party won with the Marxist Socialist Party at a distant second. The Nationalist Party of Russia retained only a sliver of its influence and gained only 15 seats in the newly created Federal Assembly. Today, it is regarded as a minor fringe party. By the year 1980, the Federal Republic of Russia fully embraced Liberal Democracy and the ideals of Capitalism. The Marxist Socialists are on a downward spiral as they have lost seats and votes at nearly every election and moderate elements have already begun asking for a possibility of union with the Liberal Democrats. The Liberal Democratic has won all elections thus far.

[1] When the Soviets found out, a great number of propaganda posters were made and dropped over major FRR cities, enticing people to "Join the USSR, we have plenty of food for all". Many people fled into the Soviet Union until the FRR govermnent made it illegal to travel out of the state and erected outposts along the Russo-Soviet border in attempts to stop all who tried to escape. Many still did.

[2] Painful because many pro-militarization people as well as ex-army personnel began a series of violent riots. They were successfully put down, at heavy cost.

[3] The Siberian Nationalist Party, Green Party of Russia, Social-Democrat Party among others.

Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR) / Soviet Union

Following the end of the Russian Civil War, the Soviet Union[1] began slowly making the first steps at rehabilitating its shattered economy, drained after years of war. Lenin's sudden death due to stroke just 3 months after the signing of the Treaty of Creation of the Soviet Union. Lenin's Testament was discovered and read aloud to the Congress of Soviets. Many saw some the suggestions made by Lenin (Mostly those of removing Stalin from his post) as "unnecessary" as Stalin was killed while leading an ultimately futile attack on Yakutsk during the civil war. They still followed much of the Testament, including giving legislative powers to the State Planning Committee and increasing the number of members of the Congress of Soviets to 100. While many factions attempted to seize power (Especially Stalins protégés and wanna-bes). Leon Trotsky, seen as the most capable leader, is given made General-Secretary of the Communist Party as well as leader of the Soviet Union. He begins a policy of rapid industrialization as well as liberalizing the nation. A voluntary collectivization policy was enacted in 1930 ction of cereal crops. Many factories were dedicated to producing consumer goods in hopes that the quality of life of the average Soviet citizen would rise. By 1937, the Soviet Union was a much more liberal nation and had begun lessening the censorship of its media and allowing token "dissidents" to speak against the Soviet government. In 1940, Leon Trotsk agreed to step down and was replaced by Nikolay Shvernik.

After several disputes over the Dagestan-USSR and Georgia-USSR borders and several skirmishes that kill nearly 62 soldiers on both sides, the Soviet Union declared war on the Ottomans in 1943. After a short two year war, the Ottoman Empire was forced to accept the creation of Soviet-aligned Communist governments in Dagestan, Azerbaijan and Georgia. There are plans to unite these nations with the Soviet Union by 1990. Socialist uprisings continue on and off in Armenia. There have been near continuous uprisings from Communist and Socialist rebel groups since the end of the Soviet-Ottoman conflict. The Soviet Union is openly supporting the Socialist rebels (They have been since 1965).


By the time Mikhail Gorbachev took control of the nation in 1978, the New Economic Policy (That was embraced by the Soviet Union in TTL) was in dire need of improvement. There was already a wide gulf between the upper and lower classes and a growing number of industry were jointly controlled by the state and private entrepreneurs. In early 1980, a program of reforming the Soviet economy to a "Socialist market economy" had begun. This is proving to be a success as GDP increased while poverty levels decreased. This had also resolved the economic disparity to a certain degree, though it was only slowed down and not outright halted. While much of the "Old Order" have begun protesting this as "Anti-Communist" and "Counter-Revolutionary", most Soviets view it as a "long needed rebirth of Soviet economic policy".


[1] The Central Asian ASSRs (Kazakh ASSR, Kirghiz ASSR, Turkestan ASSR) became fully fledged SSRs at the signing of the Treaty of the Creation of the USSR in 1921.

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Trovador said:

My entry, the Republic of Potukaru!

The PoD starts with the Portuguese jesuit missionaries focusing more in East Asia, and Portugal as well. More than that, the Japanese and Chinese are taken by the jesuits preaching and convert very quickly to the new faith - the Japanese, specially, adopt Christianity as their main interest.
In Europe, however, the situation goes quite convergent, and in 1580 Dom Sebastião of Portugal dies, leaving the Spanish to claim the Portuguese throne. In TTL, however, one of Dom Sebastião's nephews survive (or exist at all), and is exilled from Europe by the Spanish.
He goes to Goa first, but is further expelled until arrive in Japan, where the Jesuits managed to convince the Japanese it was the best thing to do.
In 1621, the Japanese court tries to expel the Portuguese, but the "Jesuit Propaganda" was enough to turn the Japanese people against the "infidels". The Jesuits suggest them to choose Henriques, Dom Sebastião's nephew, as their leader, "as he was sent by God from the other side of the World and renounced his realm, just to rule the Catholic and loyal people of Japan". The jesuits, obviously, were the actual rulers of Japan - now Portugal-in-Exile.
The language adopted was a mix of portuguese, latin and the japanese phonetics, called "Linga Geraru".
Potukaru suffered a republican "revolution" in the 1930s, and become a rather stable nation since then.

The map is in the "Guide of the 1998 Olympic Games of London", and some of the information it shows is obviously over-simplified, as these guides use to be.

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B_Munro said:

A world where the German "Peasants War" of 1524-1526 went rather differently...in 1600, the Federation has held its own in three major wars, and with the aid of the Ottomans and the distraction of the Dutch has driven the Habsburgs from Austria and Bohemia, and opened a land corridor to the Netherlands allowing for effective pooling of forces. A side effect of the survival of the Federation is the breakup of the Swiss Confederation, with the "old core" Catholic states remaining seperate, although neutral in the wars between Spain and its allies and puppets vs the German Christian Federation.

"Christian"? The Federation is mostly protestant. What _kind_ of Protestant, is another matter. As well as Calvinists, Zwinglians, etc. and even some Lutherans (he still has his apologists for all the Bad Things he said about the peasant rebels), there are offshoots of Protestantism that do not exist in our world. Most of the peasant-dominated districts follow a sort of moderate Lutheranism-offshoot which downplays the pre-destination bit and looks a bit like Catholicism with no pope and elective priests, while more "hardline" versions of protestantism are growing more popular in the cities.

Although so far the Federation has held together out of hostility to Church and emperor, some worry that the internal contradictions of the Federation, with its divisions between city and country, moderate and extremist Protestantism, German and Czech, not to mention the conflict between the centralizing government, the rich and powerful men of the Grand Council, and autonomy-minded local governments, will eventually break it apart. Much depends on how the current religious turbulence in England will play out, and whether the results will be a new enemy or a new ally...

(Given three quarters of a century of butterflies, the religious and political situation in England is rather different from OTL 1600).

Bruce

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KCammy said:

The British, far more cocky from their Victory against France in the Napoleonic wars, and America in the war of 1812, seeked a greater empire. But a chain of wars against the US led to stalmate against their inferior, although well dug in and well defended troops. Casualties lined up. Seeing this, the Canadians, who did not always want to be Britian and Americas battlefield, grew bitter. Eventually after one too many unsuccessful "!Reconquistas!" against the Americans, revolts took place over territories that had lost too many husbands and sons and fathers. (India! ) The manpower sources became rebellious. The empire was crumbling. But then it occured to parliament...

Maybe Marx was right. A little bit of equality was a good thing, no? In moderation? Flash forward to the late 1840's and the spirit of Socialism was all too strong in the empire. But in wanting to remain great, and in wanting to maintain a vast empire, there was born a new type of Communism. The various AFORE MENTIONED rebellions and revolts were shattering the empire. They grew stronger and far more bitter. And worse, they were backed by a shitload of different nations, like France, the US, Russia, etc. Fearing they would end up going into armed rebellion, the government grew more oppressive. Which just made things worse. And Australia fell in 3 months. There were just too many revolutionaries for the establishment to take care of. And now parliament regretted ever suggesting Marx's brainchild as a solution to the events tearing the empire apart. And soon, south Africa fell too.

Flash forward again, to 1856, and the monarchy, and parliament had been wiped out in the empire. That was with the exception of Canada, which also held all British territories in the Americas, with the exception of the falklands. Dug in, and with support from France and the US, the Royalists managed to repel, albeit temporeraly, the new Communist Federation of British States and Colonies (Simply known as the "CFB"). An emergency truce was drawn up. Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland were ceded to the CFB. Brunswick, and a strip of land bordering the CFB sector, was turned into "Free Canada" a communist puppet of the CFB. The DMZ straddling both the royalist and puppetized sides, is still mainanted today.

Successive wars against communist governments in central america have given the royalists a nice empire, as have the US. Massive backing by the CFB, has resulted in a CSA which persisted well into the 1950's, in order to keep the USA down.

Today, after many reforms, Canada is unrecognizable from royalist Britian. Up until 1893, it was known still known as "The British Empire" and from then until 1925, was known as the "Canadian Empire", little more than a minor US ally. Today it as known as the "Federation of Canadian Provinces, Territories, and Colonies." The monarchy has been phased out, and is now a tourist attraction. Relations have now warmed between them and the CFB, which is still the World's strongest power, allied heavily to the USSR, which is also a superpower. The cold war continues to this day.

A little ASB, admittedly. I put a lot of effort into the map, and I am hoping to get at least one vote this time!
Here's the map:

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Duma of Houston said:

*Description in image*

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Akkismat said:

This is my entry for this round.

I wanted to make more maps showing the different fases of an Moravo-Slavenian Empire, which began as humble margraves in Bohemia and Moravia and would end up as humble republics, after centuries of dominating central Europe. Due to lack of time, I only ended up making 2 maps depicting the first fase of the rise and the last fase of the fall of this Empire.

Julian Sea - OTL Adriatic Sea
Eastern Sea - OTL Baltic Sea

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Ephraim Ben Raphael said:

In this TL the Russians never made it mandatory that the Russian America Company be run by naval officers, thereby ensuring that it remained more profitable than in OTL and the Czar never sold Alaska to the United States. When the Russian Civil War broke out in 1915 the governor of Alaska remained staunchly White and New Archangel became common destination for supporters of the Monarchy. When most of the Royal family was killed Grand Duke Alexander Mihailovich reestablished the empire in Alaska with the capital in New Archangel. There the empire remained in exile until present day.

These days no one bothers to call it "Russia" any more, foreigners just refer to it as Alaska, and most of the natives are perfectly happy being Alaskans. Though there is still a Czar he is only a figurehead, power is held by an elected Duma and a President. Indeed despite the slow crumble of the Russian Socialist Federative Republic, no one really has any interest in taking it back.

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Ephraim Ben Raphael said:

What's the ettiquite concerning voting for one's self? Will I be considered uncouth, or does no one mind?

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Krall said:

The way I see it you should vote for whichever entry you thought was best. If you happen to honestly think your own entry was the best, then feel free to vote for your own entry.

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KCammy said:

I think it should be against the rules of the competition to do so. You should make the voters visible to all, so that you know who voted for who.

Voting for yourself could be regarded as cheating. (In my books anyway...)

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