MotF 49: For the Game, For the World

My entry for MOTF 49.

Here's my entry.

ITTL, the French manage to colonise Malaya and gained control of Hainan at the conclusion of the Second Opium War after the signing of the Treaty of Tsingtao. The various colonies and protectorates were unified under a united federal authority in 1907 as the Union of Indochina. It's status remained as that of a French colony until it peacefully obtained independence in 1968 as the Federal Republic of Indochina.

Following economic reforms in the 1970s, it managed to maintain highly accelerated export-fueled economic growth, including rapid industrialization, technological achievement, education boom, exponential rise in living standards, rapid urbanization, skyscraper boom and modernization, transforming the country from one of the poorest nations reliant on foreign aid to one of the wealthiest and most democratic nations in the world. The cities of Saigon and Kuala Lumpur, once described as "hopeless" and "dens of crime and squalor" are now major centres of commerce and aving among the most advanced technological infrastructure in the world. In 2006, it joined the trillion dollar club as it's GDP hit $1.3 Trillion that year.

In 2008, Indochina hosted the 27th SEA Games, and it is the first time it has hosted an international sporting event.

Here is my entry and also my first map shown on Alternatehistory.com. It is a remake of a map I did once while roleplaying a football World Cup in a states simulation.

In my timeline, WW II never happened due to diverging economic developments in the 20's. The Republic of Poland gained political support from France and Britain and took over the Free City of Danzig (Gdańsk) in 1944.

The first football World Cup was held in Italy in 1927. It was agreed to celebrate the World Cup every 5 years. Poland applied as a host for both the 1942 and 1947 which both were rejected. After a period of growing influence in Central Eastern Europe as well as economic growth, Poland trumped its competitors for the 1952 games. The Wilno and Gdańsk stadiums were explicitly built for the World Cup.

Nations from all over the world joined this football spectacle which saw its final in Warsaw, the host then encountering France. Who has won the final? That is up to you and your imagination...

The smaller Polish cities are reserve stadiums only, the internal borders are... Well, internal borders. All names on the map are in Polish.

The year: 2050. The previous decades have been, let's say, eventful. However, aside from all the politics, the unifications and the balkanisations, the invasions and revolutions, the show must go on...

Despite reaching a historic lows in terms of viewers in the 2010s to 20s (attributed to the unfortunate habit of only being placed on pay-per-view channels, as well as the dominance from certain teams) and in terms of races in the mid 2030s (Including one year when the only races were in Monaco, Great Britain, Italy, and Switzerland), the Formula 1 World Championship continued throughout, and come the year 2050 is celebrating it's 100th season.
Although not reaching the heights of the 2000s 20-race season, the current 18 race system allows for several rotations of tracks both within nations (such as the Union of South East Asia's race switching between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur), between close races (such as New York-Canada and now China-Korea) and indeed both (within Europa; France swaps with Spain and Germany swaps with Belgium), meaning there are actually 25 different GPs over 6 continents, the highest ever.
The 2050 season sees the return of the Chinese GP for the first time since the Second Chinese Revolution, and the 1st Moscovite GP as part of Moscow's plans to improve it's standing in the West.

So, from Australia in March, to Brazil in November, the Greatest Race on Earth is about to begin! ONLY* on the BBC.


*

Berlin-Roma, the Axis race

Extract from Sports and National-Socialism, 1992 :
"This great Axis marathon was done in order that the German cars win the race. The first stage, from Berlin to Munich via the Autobahn, was an ode to speed and performance. The second stage was full of mountain roads through the Austrian Alps. And finally, the last stage was also intended to welcome the victorious Porsches in Roma, with long runs on the Autostrada. That was a fabulous publicity campaign for Hitler and his regime : more than eighty cars at the beginning, and only eleven at the end. And among these eleven cars, there was... ten German cars."

Poster found on the walls of Berlin in August 1938, three years before WW2 begins.

In for a last minute entry here