And why, instead of the victory of the Ming dynasty during the invasion, did you choose the uprising of the Feudatories?
Diversity Maximized World Map | Atlas Altera
- Thread starter Telamon Tabulicus
- Start date
The do become independent. Ironically, freedom comes in the form of going back to your previous overlord (the Ming) and asking for a better deal than the current reformer/liberator (the republicans). South of the Yangtze, during Republican rule, there were royalist partisans/forces as well as warlords/noble houses that were wishy-washy with their promises to support the Republic during the height of their power (WW2 and just post WW2 with US support). As the Ming start helping and supporting these forces in the truce/peace period by sending supplies and troops secretly across the DMZ (established along the Yangtze), the partisans become better organized like the OTL Vietcong parallel... Then they launch internal/guerilla war in the Republic's territories, which is already destabilizing for other reasons...And when the Det Offensive happens, the Republic falls and the Ming grant the monarchist forces in the south dominion status/self-rule, but with the monarchy remaining as a constitutional head of state of sorts, like the Commonwealth states and the British monarchy, or perhaps like Canada, New Zealand, Australia etc. were in the early 1900s.
What do you mean? Which invasion? The Manchu invasion in the early 1600s? I wanted to Ming to still fall, kind of, to allow the Qing's most famed monarchs to still take the throne and make their own contributions to Chinese history etc.
Phytogeography of Altera
This map shows the distribution patterns of terrestrial flora in Altera, which is to say it showcases the distinct landscapes of Altera through the lens of plants—flora distribution patterns. This map is an ode to the early naturalists, botanists, and geographers, and it draws from early attempts at drawing up an authoritative map (see Ronald Good and Armen Takhtajan).
A map like this helps you picture what kind of vegetative landscapes and worlds you might encounter in different parts of the world due to shared evolutionary constraints—barriers in physical geography, climate patterns, insularity/isolation, ancient plate tectonics etc. The landscape paintings come from an age when geographers like Alexander von Humboldt would themselves, or with the aid of an accomplice, sketch or paint sceneries they encountered abroad, and which represented inspiring intersections of the disciplines of the humanities (anthropology and human geography) and science (botany, physical geography, and geology), as well as, of course, the artistic discipline of landscape painting and taxonomy art.
You will find that some of the hierarchical geographical levels/phytochorion (same choros in chorography btw) have general reference points to the work of Armen Takhtajan and Ronald Good. Using their work for reference:
A map like this helps you picture what kind of vegetative landscapes and worlds you might encounter in different parts of the world due to shared evolutionary constraints—barriers in physical geography, climate patterns, insularity/isolation, ancient plate tectonics etc. The landscape paintings come from an age when geographers like Alexander von Humboldt would themselves, or with the aid of an accomplice, sketch or paint sceneries they encountered abroad, and which represented inspiring intersections of the disciplines of the humanities (anthropology and human geography) and science (botany, physical geography, and geology), as well as, of course, the artistic discipline of landscape painting and taxonomy art.
You will find that some of the hierarchical geographical levels/phytochorion (same choros in chorography btw) have general reference points to the work of Armen Takhtajan and Ronald Good. Using their work for reference:
- Character = province
- Scene = region
- Frame = subkingdom
- Theatre = kingdom
American Electoral Map
2020 US Presidential Elections & Political Landscape Map of Altera
The Republicans of ATL are more like the Conservatives of Canada: fiscally conservative, hybrid of protectionist and pro neoliberal economics, and dabble far less in social conservativism. The Democrats are also a hybrid in economic model, and basically follow the centre-leaning side of OTL Dems and OTL Canadian Liberals, but continue with the Obama moment with a pivot to a dashing young progressive candidate like Trudeau/Buttigieg who says all the right things for the left but may not necessarily act that way...
I’m surprised that there isn’t a minor party (about the same size as the Greens) dedicated to rallying social conservatives around them. Without being too critical I honestly think that party would make more sense than the Greens, who I can’t imagine being too different from the New Progressives politically.
I mean, there could well be a Maxime Bernier equivalent, but his party got exactly nowhere IOTL.
It could be an interesting alternate variation of the map where like with the Labour and Liberals in the UK a new "America Fist", or whatever it's equivalent is has awakened the conservative voter base and is overtaking the old school Republicans after their long seires of losses
But what if I snapped away the clout of social conservatives in ATL hehe... I mean, there is still social conservativism in Canada's Conservative party, but concentrated in a smaller minority with less influence than the OTL Republican counterparts. America's baseline cultural values are also different from OTL.
Not gonna lie, while this project is great it does feel like wasted potential in some cases. For starters things are going to closely to OTL history with certain wars and people still happening. While it looks like you are not going for realism I still feel that some of the main historical characters and events could use some more divergence.
Apart from that it feels like you could have easily gotten more nations and cultures to exist in this world. North America could have easily seen more native states and greater colonial divisions between the European powers that would have lead to more nations across North and South America
Either way good maps and great project.
Apart from that it feels like you could have easily gotten more nations and cultures to exist in this world. North America could have easily seen more native states and greater colonial divisions between the European powers that would have lead to more nations across North and South America
Either way good maps and great project.
Thanks! We currently have over 1000 independent states and over 1400 when counting autonomous substates. The overarching goal is to balance OTL resemblance with the ATL objective of having as many language families and unique branches represented on the political map. If I had a carte blanche, of course, North America would be radically different.
I hear ya. I see it more as controlled and proportional nerfing...Russia, China, Brazil etc. get cut down to a similar degree as the US. What I wanted to achieve was the visual reference point for people to understand that OTL country X doesn't really need all of territory Y...that Russia and China can still flourish despite the trimming, and that the US can still have almost every major cultural innovation (jazz, blues, cowboys, Huck Fin etc.) and development other than SoCal (which I transplanted to Florida...) without the Great Basin and the West.
Anyway, not trying to carry on the back-and-forth, but one last thing: Perhaps you are overlooking the fact that most of the continent does not go into the hands of Anglo settler colonialism still? I know it's easy to eye the relatively similar US (even though it loses basically half its original territories), but there is still the fact that the west of the continent does have most of the major Plains nations, as well as creole nations revolving around the languages of California and the PNW. And then there's the federated pueblos and states of Arizona...plus the PNW and northern prairies and taiga regions...
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Anyway, not trying to carry on the back-and-forth, but one last thing: Perhaps you are overlooking the fact that most of the continent does not go into the hands of Anglo settler colonialism still? I know it's easy to eye the relatively similar US (even though it loses basically half its original territories), but there is still the fact that the west of the continent does have most of the major Plains nations, as well as creole nations revolving around the languages of California and the PNW. And then there's the federated pueblos and states of Arizona...plus the PNW and northern prairies and taiga regions...
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Going to be honest the project did not really strike me as trying to show how triming would get you similar results to OTL as I thought it was a push for more nations than OTL. As for showing them flourishing I will say that the project here would only show that smaller nations can still prosper as the cultural changes should have been much more extreme to be honest due to all the changes in this world.
I can sort of see it but, honestly I was mostly talking about the lands east of the Mississippi and how more diverse they could be. I guess I do not find them so diverse due to my own biases on how the US only expanding until the Rockys is much more common in maps and so not that obscure or strange.
Either way I guess I just had a different understanding on how the project goals were more than anything else.
Edit: Like it just seems strange how the US barely existed OTL or how there were several times it could have divided and here it still is or how there would have likely been a lot more changes even if you wanted things to remain similar to OTL.
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A World Enshrouded in Haze
This is a map I did with Zveiner to show the most prevalent staple pitch or smoke consumed in a country in Altera. The map is in the style of an infographic/report graphic with an anti-smoking slant. Note that the coca-based product does not contain processed cocaine, but instead, is based on the fact that people were experimenting with smoking rolled up coca leaves in the 19th century. The word pucheta comes from Quechua, p'uchu, for "remainder, leftover," while the brand Barcarole is supposed to be an allusion to the Rosa Negra, a symbol of anarchism, as barkarole is a variety of the rose with a dark shade. I re-engineered the etymology for doobie or dubi by using the Sanskrit word dhumin, which means "smoking," though it could also come from duvoya, "worship or honouring," or even dhuvana, "fire." A dubi is also wrapped in a bidi leaf. I also found out Lenin didn't like smoking, which explains the lower rates in the eastern bloc. Access the rest of the footnotes/explanations on my Patreon.
But Joseph Stalin was very fond of smoking (fun fact - in fact, he preferred cigarettes (without a filter). And he stuffed the famous trumpet with cigarette tobacco).
In fact, the reason is Firstly, that the Soviet state was much more concerned about the physical condition of citizens. But much more significant - women smoked much less. Due to a number of factors, the idea was entrenched in the USSR that it was simply not decent for a woman to smoke. As a result, while their "sisters" from Europe and the USA smoked as a sign of their own emancipation, the Soviets either did not smoke, or smoked occasionally. This does not mean that it was impossible to catch schoolgirls secretly smoking in the toilet. But the percentage was less, and, contrary to Western trends, it began to grow later.
Dentists Fight a Global War
Dentists Fight a Global War | Atlas Altera
View attachment 834875
For a higher resolution version, go to my Deviantart.
This is a map I did with Zveiner to show the most prevalent staple quid or chewing stimulant consumed in a country in Altera. The patterns of quid consumption are conflated as greater transnational territorial blocks (e.g. empires). Although there is some ethnobotany attention paid to each responsible plant, the map is still themed as an infographic/report graphic with an oral health slant. The point of staple stimulant maps like this is to highlight common human experiences, which, ironically, also diverse. Access the rest of the footnotes/explanations on my Patreon. To learn more about our project, visit AtlasAltera.com.View attachment 834875
For a higher resolution version, go to my Deviantart.