MotF 76: Meet the New Boss

Krall · Mar 10, 2013

The Challenge
Make a map showing a country that existed in OTL ruling a region that it did not rule in OTL.

The Restrictions
There are no restrictions on when your PoD or map may be set. Future maps are allowed, but blatantly implausible (ASB) maps are not.

If you're not sure whether your idea meets the criteria of this challenge, please feel free to PM me.

The entry period for this round shall end on Saturday the 23rd of March.

!THIS THREAD IS FOR POSTING OF ENTRIES ONLY!

Any discussion must take place in the main thread. If you post anything other than a map entry (or a description accompanying a map entry) in this thread then you will be asked to delete the post. If you refuse to delete the post, post something that is clearly disruptive or malicious, or post spam then you may be disqualified from entering in this round of MotF and you may be reported to the board's moderators.

Remember to vote on the previous round of MotF!

lock · Mar 17, 2013

In 1592, the first German explorer of the New World landed just to the northeast of modern-day Lübeck on the peninsula of Neu Pommern. Heated rivalries with France, England, and Spain spurred a period of intense exploration by all four monarchies.

Lübeck in Neu Pommern was Germany's first permanent settlement in 1616, followed quickly by Neu Kiel and Cottbus in Maße-Tchusetz in the 1620s, Grünwald in Neu Mainz in 1631, and Dortmund on Groß-Insel in 1633. These small settlements, followed by many others, grew from both the fish from the sea and the timber and furs from interior areas.

By 1660, eight German colonies existed on the Atlantic coast: Neu Pommern, Maße-Tchusetz, Neu Braunschweig, Neu Mainz, Groß-Insel, Sand-Insel, Kespek, and Wilhelmsland. The colonies were officially referred to as Die Atlantische Länder or "The Atlantic States"; however, the area quickly became more commonly known worldwide as "Atlantika."

Territorial disputes through the end of the century were numerous. Atlantika and British Virginia had a heavily fortified frontier along the Connektikot River, while border clashes were common between Atlantika and Nouvelle-France.

The Treaty of Bruges, ending the Franco-German War of 1689-1697, ensured that Kespek and Wilhelmsland remained German, while the Green Mountains area (called alternately Verd-Mont or Grünberg) between Maße-Tchusetz and Bas-Canada remained French. The treaty also stipulated that The Gulf of Saint Lawrence would be open to commerce and navy vessels from France and Germany.

Peaceful relations with Atlantika’s southern neighbor would come in 1762 when Germany assisted Virginia in its rebellion against Great Britain. After the Commonwealth of Virginia’s independence, relations warmed significantly between Atlantika's administrative capital in Lübeck and Virginia’s new national capital in New Cambridge.

Rekjavik · Mar 18, 2013

Been a while since I've taken part in one of these (or posted for that matter) but the topic of the fortnight intrigued me enough to have a bash.

The principle is highly implausible, but I liked the concept of it. I'll keep it concise as well, although if you want specifics then do not be afraid to ask. During the Middle Ages a deadly plague spreads across Eastern Europe, devastating areas of Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland. One of the groups which survived remarkably well were the Teutonic Order and the German settlers of the Baltic, referred to by their history henceforth as the Teutons, who overtime expanded into and (partially)colonized European Russia before moving into Siberia (in this world called Tartary or Tartarei in German). By the mid 1700s the recently unified German Empire (unified largely thanks to the ambitions and superior manpower of the Teutons) stretches from Alsace to the Pacific Ocean. Their last major threat to their dominion over Asia was the Chinese Ming Empire. However, China had recently begun to fall into chaos, as the Ming dynasty collapsed earlier than in our timeline and the lack of a clear heir resulted in a slow decline into anarchy. Those in the courts of the contenders who expressed concern that the northern barbarians were becoming surprisingly and dangerously well armed fell on deaf ears as the pretenders started to court German power in the hopes of securing their own position. Thus, Germany was dragged into the developing quagmire of China, playing court against court and would-be-emperor against would-be-emperor. Over the next century various areas of China came under German protection in a process the British East India Company would be impressed by until, in the 1880s, the last independent Chinese realm, the southern Long Empire, fell to German invasion over accusations of sponsoring partisan activities in the German sphere.

With the fall of the Long the whole of China had come under German rule. This rapidly became too hard to manage as a whole and in response the lawmakers in Konigsberg drafted the Declaration of the Ten "Governates" (a word developed in this timeline), which divided German China into ten smaller regions named after their capital city whose governments were separate from the various vassals and protectorates of the German Far East. The Ten Governates would remain until the 20th century, where growing nationalist uprisings eventually toppled German rule in China and later elsewhere in the vast empire. One remarkable feature of the German Empire was its strong multi-ethnic component. There were never as many German settlers in Tartary than Russians in Siberia, so they made far more extensive use of native populations of both Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In governing China Germans stood in service alongside not only Poles, Ukrainians, Georgians and Russians, but Turkemens, Mongols, Manchurians, Koreans, Kazakhs and even Yakuts as well. It is often said that the German Empire was not so much German as it was Germans sitting on top of the vast ethnic groups under their rule and nowhere was this more apparent than in China.

MarshalBraginsky · Mar 19, 2013

I thought I'd give this a try, though this may not make it alive.

This map is from one of my timelines that I am doing right now, Ivangorod Prosperous ver. 2.0. It's set in a world where England never became a world spanning empire, and her would-be rivals benefited at her expense. Two out of the three PoDs that I've chosen in this case are:

* The stillborn son of Henry VIII who was born on January 29th, 1536 survives his childbirth and is christened as Prince Richard, later on he became Richard IV. His survival past infancy gave Henry VIII the heir he desperately needed.

* 100 German builders successfully escaped from the port of Lubeck with Hans Schlitte's help due to the port authorities' partying in a local pub. Their oblivious actions allowed the builders to arrive in the port of Ivangorod where Tsar Ivan IV gave them the task of rebuilding what was supposed to be a decent port. With Ivangorod's completion of its reconstruction, Muscovy has managed to enter the Baltic trade a few hundred years earlier.

Unfortunately, Richard IV's heir with Anne of Denmark turned out to be an incompetent ruler, and Alfred of England's fatal mistake of ordering a brutal reprisal against the Irish population after 300 English settlers were killed allowed the Spanish Empire to obtain basing rights in the English Channel with a desperate Irish Kingdom in need of protection against the English occupation. Thus a much more prepared Spanish Navy was able to stop English attempts to reinforce its garrisons in Ireland, resulting in Alfred of England's successor ascending into the throne in England's first elections for a monarch.

With England absent from world affairs and a war torn Europe that has suffered from an indecisive conclusion of the alt-Thirty Years' War (named the Second Hundred Years' War since the real beginning of the conflict started in the 1540s), Spain's American colonies grew at a modest rate, but North America has been surprised by Sweden's expedition to build a new colony. *New Sweden was officially founded as a colony in the Penobscot River, and after hearing of its potential as a starting point for Sweden's entry into the fur trade, the Vasa dynasty decided to invest in its development, and with France distracted by another war against Spain, New France suffered from the shortage of soldiers, combined with the Swedes' successful attempts at allying with the Iroquois, New France was conquered and New Sweden was subsequently renamed to Vinland in honor of the original Norse colony by the same name.

Swedish colonization of North America is similar to how the French colonized it (with the Swedish 'pioneers' trekking inland and intermarrying with indigenous women) but the Swedish Empire now have a surplus of Protestant German refugees to settle in. As Swedish Vinland eventually expanded southwards, Sweden and Spain often clashed in three separate wars which often resulted in more gains for Sweden. At one point the Swedes controlled a portion of South America until they traded it to France in exchange for monetary compensation in the aftermath of the alt-Seven Years' War (named the Six Years' War). Below is the map of North America in the year 1780 on the final stage of an alt-Napoleonic Wars (named the Caesarianist Wars)

At the same time, Russia also expanded in North America as well, even going as far as the Staulo River (OTL Fraser River), but the bulk of North America's uncharted territory is owned by the Great Northern Company (TTL's Hudson Bay Company)

List of cities according to legend:

1 - Fort Fleming, Penobscot, Vinland

2 - Nyavasaborg (OTL Washington, DC)

3 - Nyamalmo (OTL New Orleans, name means 'New Malmo')

4 - Bellingsgard (OTL San Diego, named after Wilhelm Sebastian Von Belling, one of the Swedish pioneers who journeyed into the Pacific coast)

5 - Oxenstierna (OTL Los Angeles, named after either Olaf or Axel Oxenstierna)

TheseusDeuteros · Mar 21, 2013

Well, I was just making this map, and I guessed it did fit for the contest, even though I didn't make it for this purpose.

Anyway, this map has little backstory. Imagine and make up whatever you want, besides that it basically is a world in which Andalusia broke off the Islamic calphates, formed a strong state, which made Iberia a lot different. The most wealthy and prosperous countries in this western Mediterranean are Catalonia-Occitania, Navarra-Gascony, Pisa, Venice, Aragon and Sicily.

EDIT - By the way, the ATL colonies are Numidia and Tunesia. I hope it's sufficient. And yeah, I know, in OTL, Italy did get Tunesia for a while, but I think that's different. Oh, and beseides, Aquitaine is also a possession of England (like OTL, I know) but in contrast to OTL, it has become a real part of England with a majority of English people. And Andalusia also owns the very north of *Morocco, which wasn't the case OTL, though Spain did posses the Rif area.

Desmond Hume · Mar 21, 2013

I decided to go for the trifecta: three OTL European powers taking portions of Africa that they did not gain in OTL during an alt-scramble for Africa.

Let's say that the POD is that Henry Morton Stanley gets fatally stomped by an angry hippo while attempting to cross Africa. Thus, most of the discoveries about the course and origin of the Congo River made by Stanley in OTL are ITTL made instead, later, by the French explorer Pierre de Brazza. Also, Leopold II of Belgium is never able to get a piece of Africa for himself (although he tries) because of greater French interest in the Congo basin. When the European powers draw up borders for their African claims, France gets the bulk of the Congo basin, with smaller portions going to Portugal and Great Britain.

When the rubber boom of the 1890's rolls around, more or less on OTL schedule, the French control the majority of the rubber territory. France thus reaps a far larger share of the profits from rubber harvesting, which leads to it becoming somewhat wealthier and more industrialized than it was IOTL 1910. Alas, the methods French companies and state agents use to collect rubber are not much less cruel than Leopold's IOTL; this has led to the British public in particular having a somewhat less positive view of France, which could have important diplomatic repercussions as tensions increase between European alliances and Britain must choose sides between blocs led by France and Germany...

WeissRaben · Mar 22, 2013

Here is my attempt at a decent map. The story is not that well defined, but the main line is Gian Galeazzo Visconti surviving in 1402 and managing to take Florence and consolidate his new lands. His sons are not left fatherless in their infancy so they grow a bit better, making the whole thing more stable and resulting in a massively expanded Duchy and later Kingdom (hence the "new boss"). Also on the table is England winning the HYW and some kind of civil war in the Habsburg lands, early on, with the result that Carinthia, not Austria, ends up being the main title of the domains.

Alex Richards · Mar 22, 2013

Not had much time, so here's a pretty basic map.

Basically France colonises Zanzibar and ends up absorbing it as an overseas department.

Hiiragi · Mar 22, 2013

Vandiemmensland

Finally going to reveal my existence after three years of everyday lurking.

Excerpts from Wikipedia said:
European Discovery and Settlement
The first reported European sighting of Vandiemmensland by a European was on June 24th, 1628 by the Dutch explorer Pieter Nuyts, who reported spotting “a land among the mist far beyond the stormy sea” near modern-day Vorst Harbor. However, he was unable to approach because of wind. The island was not sighted again by Europeans until October 12th, 1634, when Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted and landed on Oester Bay. Further voyages by Tasman in 1635 proved that Vandiemmensland is indeed an island, and claimed it for the United Provinces. On July 5th, 1636, a penal colony, Oesterbaai, was established by the Dutch East India Company as a location to ship off unwanted individuals from the Dutch East Indies. Early colonists were mostly criminals or guards with Dutch or Indonesian origins. The colonists were able to peacefully conduct trade with the native Palawas. Several more settlements were established along the shore of eastern Vandiemmensland: Foort Schhouten (1638), Nieuw Batavia (1639), Marienberg (1642), Willemstad (1647), and Mariaville (1651). Some 40,000 criminals were transferred to Vandiemmensland between 1636 and 1646. The islands are open to general settlement in 1656, leading another boom in population.
[…]

Japanese Settlement
Starting in 1642, a large number of Japanese Christians fled their homeland from the heightened prosecution by the Shogunate after the failed Shimabara Rebellion. In May 3rd, 1643, the Dutch offered asylum to the Japanese Christians. The asylum was approved by the Shogun, who is eager to get rid of such pests, in the Treaty of Nagasaki. A massive population transfer took place in the following years, when a large number of the exiles started to settle in Dutch Australia. A substantial amount of Japanese settled in the previously inhabited Warabe Archipelago, founding the towns of Seikou (1645) and Uodou (1646). By 1650, some 30,000 Japanese immigrated to the Warabe Archipelago.
[…]

The Oceanic War
VOC's Australian possessions were sold off to the Dutch government in 1701 as a bid to save the company from the bankruptcy caused by the declining trade and increased competition. Vandiemmensland was incorporated into the State Colony of Nieuw Holland along with Nieuw Zeeland and Nuytia (Western Australia) in 1702. During the 1710s, Anglo-Dutch tension heightened, as border conflicts became increasing prevalent in Malayan border regions, between Continental Nieuw Holland and the British colony of New Ireland, and between Dutch Tranvancore and British East India. In 1721, an border conflict finally escalated to all-out war when Dutch troops fired upon British scouts believing they are Muslim rebels, on the island of Singapore. France joins the war on the side of United Province and Portugal honored their old alliance with Great Britain. At first, Franco-Dutch troops gained success on land, overwhelming British forces in the Siege of Manila (1721-1722), the Battle of Vellore (1722), and the Battle of Aceh (1722). However, as the war continued, it became clear that Britain and Portugal holds naval supremacy, or the initiative of the war. The Battle of Serlat Behala (1725) saw 70% of the Dutch naval forces stationed in Dutch East Indies decimated; this is followed by a string of land and naval victories for the Anglo-Portuguese forces. The war ended in 1729, with the signing of the Treaty of Hamburg. Great Britain annexed Nieuw Zeeland, Nuytia, Dutch Indian processions, and the port of Saigon; Portugal annexed Bali and Papua. With Nieuw Holland dissolved, Vandiemmensland became the sole remainder of the former Dutch Australian Empire. Much of the Dutch, Japanese, and Indonesians from the former Nieuw Holland emigrated to Vandiemmensland to escape British rule, nearly doubling the population.
[…]

Contemporary Era
In 1986, after more than eight decades of de facto independence due to World War I, World War II, and the Indonesian Wars, the Colony of Vandiemmensland was officially reorganized into the independent Dominion of Vandiemmensland. The post of governor-general was formally replaced with an elected president as the head of government and Queen Beatrix was established once again as the head of state. A highly developed nation, Vandiemmensland is consistently ranked among the top 10 in the Quality of Life Index and Global Freedom Index. The cities of Nieuw Batavia and Nieuw Arnhem are considered some of the most liveable cities in the world. Vandiemmensland is also well-known for its eco-tourism, as the state is nicknamed the “Emerald Isle”, with 42% of the country lies in national parks or conservation areas. Vandiemmensland is a founding member of AES (Australasian Economic Sphere) and WTO.

According to the 2010 census, 30.6% of the 1,432,885 inhabitants are Dutch, and 10.3% are Europeans of non-Dutch origins. Japanese consist of 12.3% of the population. 3.4% are of Palawa origin and 7.1% are of Indonesian origin. 10.5% are Asians of non-Japanese origins and 0.2% are Blacks. 26.0% have a mix of Asian, European, or Palawa ancestry.