MotF 72: The Eye of the World

My Entry

Hi! My POD is that the breakthrough of the Christians at Las Navas de Tolosa does not happen, meaning that the encamped Islamic army was never caught off guard. So the Reconquista never really had a real turning point and that the balance of power shifted between the opposing sides over the years. With the stalemate still in effect, The Christian Kingdoms unify and create a distinct sense of nationhood and even reach out and start colonies.(on a smaller scale then OTL Spain of course). And the Muslim kingdoms slowly fall apart, dissolving into smaller states (taifa's). Fast forward to 1950. The Peninsula is bitterly divided bewteen 2 big Factions. On the one side, The Triple Entente of Castillia y Leon, Aragón and Navarra. All are constructional monarchies, and they are faring quite well due to their cooperation. And on the other side, what's left of the once great Caliphate of Cordoba. In contrast to their christian counterparts they are falling apart faster and faster. Every state, strives to dominate the other and their rulers are becoming more reckless. Caught in the middle are the "neutral" countries. Yes, they do have a preference for one side or the other but they are republic's and the policies tend to chance a bit depending who wins or loses. The Entente is backed by the west, and The Islamic states are backed by the Islamic World. To prevent
war that could mean the end for one of the two factions and Europe becoming a battlefield again,a wall has been build that separate the two. What will happen? Nobody knows.

In January 1487, only a couple of years before our world's Great Italian Wars, Italy changes. Everything changes. The world diverges… In the middle of Italy's cultural heydays—the starting Renaissance, a period of economic and extreme cultural and philosophical developments—Italy is in a chaotic situation. There are tons of conflicts and disputes about territory, religion, wealth and politics, but above all: power!
The real start of the major war situation Italy falls into, is the year 1487. The assassination of the Duke of Milan and the mysterious death of the Pope shortly thereafter initiated the Grand Italian Conflict. Rivalry and short but fierce wars resulted in a fragmentised buffer zone between the two major powers, and enemies—the Papal States (later the Holy Republic of the Latin Lands, as of 15 November 1487) and the Duchy of Milan. Milan got Savoy's support and despite its immense power, wealth and military force, the Papal States were left behind without any ally. However, the new Pope's army managed to annex a couple of significant city-states north of the Papal States' territory.
Up to the present day, the conflict is a major on-going dispute. The real battles of warfare have stopped, though, mainly due to the high cost of war, financially, at both sides. Among the buffer states that have managed to retain independence, there is much unrest—and therefore, the Coalition of the Free was set up. The southern powers, Naples and the Tyrrhenian Union, also made an alliance, to ensure their neutrality in all conflicts. The Tyrrhenian Union, besides, was created a union of states along the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. First merely a trade union, the union achieved political unification and much prosperity. It is the major trading super-power in all of the Mediterranean, together with Venice.

After the main warfare of the conflict, this is how Italy turned out.




These were the alliances.




And, still, even though the real war has stopped, both sides of the conflict claim major areas of the buffer states. Striped areas indicate claims and striped areas with both colours indicate that the area is claimed by both Milan and Rome.

In 1960 the United Nations attempted to mitigate the forty year long conflict between the Kingdom of Hungary and the Kingdom of Serbia over the territory of Bosnia. They could not manage to come up with a good plan for how to carve up the territory between the two powers, but they could set up formal boundaries to bring about some peace.

Hungary got control over most of the Croat territories, consisting of two separate territories. Serbia got control over a contiguous Serb and Bosniak territory. Sarajevo fell under UN administration.

The conflict continues to this day.

I was bored and it's been a while since I don't make any maps... So, here's the story:

In this TL there was never a significant downturn of the French navy in the First Empire (French victory at Trafalgar?), even though Britain continued to be major naval power outside Europe. By the early 1820's, both nations signed a substancial truce when the French made some concessions (economic, mostly), starting a long period of "armed peace". A cold war, which would get hotter sometimes, but that would endure all the 19th century. In this context, a "prestige war" started when the British started the construction of the Nicaragua Canal by the 1850's followed by the French answer with the Suez Canal. It was only the beginning of the 19th Megaprojects...

Algeria conquest took place for the same reasons as OTL's and its settler population is boosted by all dissidents of the Napoleonic Regime. By the 1870's one of the following Napoleons started the ambitious plan of constructing a Canal to the Saharan Salt Lakes and create a new agricultural frontier, his plan was to make a major change all over the North African climate and start cultivation of cotton in French land to even the growth of the clothing industry.

The succeful replenishment of this new sea gave birth to new rivers and lakes all over Algerian hinterland. Then, the region would see a massive overflow of gouvernement-sponsored European immigrants occupying the traditional homeland of the natives, that started to intensily revolt as they're pushed into some less fertile areas.

As you can see in the map, Tunisia was early incorporated into French North Africa. There's also a mix of Bantustan/Princely State for the Berbers (a OTL's project of Tocqueville IIRC), which was made to divide them from the Arabs and bride their support (a falwed plan after the construction of the Inner Sea). Yet, you see that that there's some sort of Crémieux Decree in TTL, but that failed to get the Muslim's support (only about 4% of them became French).

It's 1890 and the situation in French North Africa is explosive. Land conflicts between the colons and the indigènes are common and the Empire even fears for the integrity of the Canal itself, establishing a strict Military Regime over the Inner Sea Area.

Here's the map, enjoy it: