Motf 116: Between a Rock and a Hard Place

In this world, the Republic of Texas gives up on getting the U.S. to annex them and instead goes it alone with assistance from Britain. As a result there is no Mexican-American War. In the 1850s, gold is discovered in California and the gold rush draws immigrants from all over the world much like OTL. Then, in the 1860s, Mexico undergoes a Civil War between liberals and conservatives. The now-multiethnic population of California decides to bail out and create their own Republic. Meanwhile, Texas (which has been de facto independent for 40 years even though Mexico still refuses to recognize it) takes the opportunity to press its long-forgotten claims to western territory. As if that weren't enough, some southerners go a-filibustering and try to revive the Republic of the Rio Grande. As Mexican federal authority recedes under the pressures of civil war, the Californians and Texans realize that their claims overlap a bit. A few skirmishes are fought, all of which are won decisively by the more established Texan army. In 1873, delegations from the two republics meet to hammer out a peace treaty with precise boundaries. It is decided that, in order to prevent future conflict, the Mormons will be allotted a chunk of land between the two states (coming out of California's claims naturally) to serve as a buffer. The resulting "Theodemocratic State of Deseret" is oddly shaped with a whole bunch of straight line borders, but it serves its purpose well. Mexico, of course, refuses to recognize any of this, but there's not a lot they can do about it. They barely even managed to push the rednecks out of Tamaulipas.

Here's my entry to MOTF 116, an explanation will follow later.
edit: Here's the back story:
The Empire of Louisiana and the Republic of New England.
The main POD is Spain sides with Britain and her allies in the 7 Years War. This gives them total control over Louisiana. However in 1770 rebellion breaks out in the Louisiana territory, this continues to grow in strength until in 1776 Spain and the rebels cut a deal, the son of the Spanish King becomes the first Emperor of Louisiana, Emperor Gabriel I, but will have a parliament. (Basically a constitutional monarchy is set-up). Spain comes off well in this deal as they now have a buffer state between them and British America. That same year the American War of independence begins, Spain doesn’t intervene, but as in OTL France backs the rebels (I may be wrong but I think that’s true). The Thirteen Colonies soon wins independence and is very Francophile. Britain anxious at this sets up its own buffer state, the Republic of New England. This leaves a North America with not one but two buffer states.

With respect and credit to Tom Colton; a map (my first non-worlda; be nice ) depicting the Free State of Alsace-Lorraine in his excellent TL Weber's Germany: The Totalitarian Veterinarian, which I encourage you all to check out.

- German Foreign Minister Konstantin von Neurath to Führer Friedrich Weber, after the signing of the Treaty of Gutenberg.

At the start of June 1940, Germany stood triumphant. Under the leadership of Friedrich Weber (and more importantly, the best generals of their generation) the Wehrmacht had broken through at Sedan like the Prussians seventy year earlier and - unlike the Prussians or the Second Reich - making it to the sea and encircling the BEF at Dunkirk.

The British didn't roll over and play dead, of course; oh, Prime Minister Halifax was tempted, certainly, but Britain could not be seen to be abandoning the French. He thus authorised a plan by his Minister of War Winston Churchill to evacuate all forces possible from Dunkirk with the Royal Navy and an armada of irregular "Little Boats."

It almost paid off. Almost.

The Germans turned north and shredded the lines around Dunkirk like crepe paper. Although the British evacuated 70,000 men from the area by the time Dunkirk fell on May 22nd, it still left 340,000 men trapped on the Continent, almost all of whom had by now fallen into German hands. Churchill took the fall for Dunkirk (though it wouldn't stop him becoming PM later on) and as Paris came under German fire the Allies were brought to the batgaining table (Liechtenstein has its uses after all).

On the first day of June, Germany and Italy presented their demands, which were designed by Weber to be negotiated down by Halifax and Pétain and thus more easily accepted. In the end the British and French acquiesced to: recognition of German occupation of Poland and Denmark, reduction of the French military to a quarter-million, Germany regaining Togoland and Kamerun, establishment of a Free City of Narvik as an autonomous German enclave, demilitarisation of the Low Countries and Malta, German and Italian naval vessels to be permitted use of Corsican ports, and - most relevant to this map - that a demilitarised Free State of Alsace-Lorraine was to be established and administered by a Franco-German commune to enforce its neutrality.

Alsace-Lorraine was, to be blunt, a buffer state; that it contained practically the entirety of the pre-war Maginot Line was not even close to a coincidence: with the Low Countries demilitarised the Germans could sweep into France again, and they knew it - the Free State existed to stop the French getting ideas while the Germans geared up for the Gread Crusade Against Bolshevism. Inside the Free State, German and French security forces rubbed shoulders uneasily as France and Germany competed for cultural dominance, to the detriment of the Alsatian population. The German Stasi hunted down draft-dodgers and conscientious objectors who took their chances across the Rhine; the French Deuxiéme Bureau, on the other hand, took its pick of Alsatian spies as it built a new line of defences within its truncated borders to counter the expansion of the Siegfried Line.

By 1941, then, Alsace-Lorraine was an immense No-Man's-Land in the Cold War between West and East which served only to demarcate German and Allied spheres of influence while both sides prepared for their inevitable return to arms.

The Armenian Republic of Cicilia (1948-1960)

After the Ottoman Empire was absolutely shattered in the Great War, the French government invaded the border area of Cicilia, between the Anatolian highlands and the fertile plains of Mesopotamia. They established the French Mandate of Cicilia, which lasted until 1948. The Armenian people of West Armenia (general eastern Anatolia) migrated to Cicilia seeking refuge under the mandate. The French president, supportive of a possible ally in the Near East took the opportunity to establish the Republic of Armenian Cicilia, which angered Turkish nationalists within Cicilia and beyond.

Its position in between the Islamic Republic of Turkey (IST), supported by the NEDC (Near Eastern Defensive Cooperation) and the United Arab Republic (UAR), supported by the United Kingdom, gave it strategic importance in the Near East. The League of Nations intervened with Turkish attacks but was unable to stop the Invasion of 1953, where Turkish forces marched deep into Cicilia, almost taking their capital, Tarsus. The Greater Armenia (RGA) also attacked at the same time, claiming their territories apart of Pan-Armenia, along with the United Arab Republic, which seized the province of Tripoli, while the people of Antalya, mostly of Turkish and Syrian descent, declared independence as the Antalyan Liberation Army.

The first partition of 1953 was harsh on the economic and power of Cicilia. French forces were deployed to safe-keep the weakened republic but it was not enough to stop the second partition of 1960 where a IRT-RGA makeshift pact attacked and ravaged the Cicilian countryside. The state was is collapse but guerrillas fought on within Turkish and Greater Armenian territory for a number of years to come. The Antalyan Liberation Army was killed out of lower Antalya by the UAR but made some impressive gains against RGA, defeating them on numerous occasions.

The Two Armenias

Soon after WWI and the ensuing Russian Civil War Two nations were carved out of the Caucasus.
TWO ARMENIAS! Both puppets to their respective masters. NATO and the Eastern Bloc.
Today they serve as a testing ground for new weapons from both sides, an Aghanistan of the West.

Click the picture for big.

The PoD is that the Lusitania is not sunk, giving the Americans fewer reasons to enter Great War. They ultimately remain neutral during the Great War, and so Wilson does not serve as an obstacle for the French in the post-war negotiations. The French manage to create an independent Rhineland, but while this state is originally a protectorate of France, the French and Germans agree in 1934 to turn the Rhineland into an armed neutral state, after the Germans make some noise about "reuniting German territory" and scare Paris into thinking that the Germans may start a second world war. After all, the agreements said that if either state attacked the Rhineland, that would be tantamount to a declaration of war against the other. Of course, the Germans broke their promise by invading in 1940, starting the Second Great War in Europe.

Pretty simple, a buffer state is created from whole Upper Silesia to keep Czechoslovakia and Poland from fighting over it. The new state has three official languages, German, Polish and Czech. The capital is Oppeln/Opole.

The POD for my map is that the British, as a result of the War of 1812, secured an independent Native American buffer state between Ontario and the USA as part of the peace settlement, essentially created out of Indiana Territory. This was something the British had pushed for, but been unable to achieve in OTL.

This map is supposed to be set somewhere in the 1940s, with the opening of a bridge on the Ohio River, making travel between the fractious neighbours of the Indian Tribal Confederation and the United States of America far simpler. This tourist map existed to promote the Indian Tribal Confederation as a tourist destination for Americans.

Coastal Republic of Trieste

The Coastal Republic of Trieste was created after the Second World War to prevent a conflict over the area between Italy and Yugoslavia. Just as it serves to stop one conflict, the country itself is constantly in turmoil between the German and Italian population of the cities and the Slovenian and Croatian countryside. The US TRUST (TRieste United States Troops) stationed here are doing all they can to keep them from each others throats. Things are expected to calm down when the Marshal plan kicks in and the economical situation improves.

OOC: I couldn't come up with a single idea until (literally) 17 minutes before the deadline I hope I posted it in time. . .

Arvanitika: