Friday Flag - Pacifica

The 'nation' of Pacifica was never recognized by the major powers. It had no land, being made up of various ships out at sea. It was a republic by default, the captain's of each ship deciding on issues affecting their squadrons, the squadrons deciding on the issues of the fleet, and the fleets for the 'nation.' The individual ships that joined Pacifica were run on a variety of different methods from benevolent dictatorships to a few attempts at democracies.

The creators of the concept and short-lived sea faring nation of Pacifica envisioned finding a way to keep the seas pirate free, facilitating trade, and most importantly keeping wars from being fought on the oceans ever again.

Needless to say the reality of needing access to ports of other nations, recruits from those lands, and the inability to afford a fleet of warships that could deter the great powers would lead to the collapse of this concept in less than a decade.

Even after the death of Pacifica its flag would be used by anti-pirate vigilantes, smugglers, and those trying to escape the world of the land-lubber.

Sneak Peak

This is an alternate history blog. However many things can affect history, including changes to the geology of the Earth. So far I have a few posts that delve a little into that area:
1) Great Lakes of Africa
2) Alternate Great Lakes of North America
3) Early eruption of a supervolcano

I've recently been playing around with continental drift and came up with a major change compared to those listed above. By not having the future continents of Australia and Antarctica break apart about 100 million years ago I've got a much larger land mass. I've moved it a bit further north than Australia is so the climate would be a bit nicer. I know it would have a larger affect on the surrounding area, but I've left much of the rest of the Earth alone.

I'm currently working on versions of the map for geography, weather patterns, and cultural migrations. It certainly would have had earlier and more regular contact with Asia due to its closer proximity than Australia. It would have larger areas of more temperate land and more easily utilized natural resources than Australia. It would be capable of supporting a much higher population, and with the additional contact with ancient India or China the exchange of ideas along with access to materials would allow for a more technologically advanced civilization.

The problem I'll be having is I'm constructing whole new civilizations from scratch for this alternate world. I'm wondering when something stops being an actual alternate history. In either case I plan on developing possibly a half-dozen posts developing the history of this continent and the world around it by late summer.

Do you have any thoughts or ideas on the development of this imaginary super-continent? If so please feel free to comment.

Quantum Flux - Roman Solar Empire

April 22, 2014

*Here we go with my first alternate history.  I'm working a little backwards on it, showing how a Roman dominated world might look by 2014!

*In 2014 (2767 AUC) The Roman Empire dominates most of the Earth and has colonies on the moon, Mars, and explorations to much of the remainder of the solar system.

*The Fourth Roman Republic became obsessed with space travel after the disaster of the Baltic Event in 2661 AUC.  Compared to the asteroid that may have killed off the dinosaurs the Baltic impact was not very large, but it did get Rome considering the long-term survival of humanity.

*TIMELINE OF SPACE EXPLORATION (all dates in AUC)*

*2667 - First successful space launch from Congo province in Australia.

*2673 - First chimp sent into space, named Astro.  Astro survives his return to Earth.

*2675 - First man in space, Iuvenalis Viridios Involo.

*2687 - First Roman lands on the Moon.

*2688 - Chinese begin construction of a space lab.  This early research lab is small and has a zero-g environment.  It is used to test concepts for a larger space station that begins construction a few years later.

*2703 - First permanent base on the Moon.  The original name is Luna Alpha.

*2706 - A lunar cycler craft is constructed in a permanent orbit between the Earth and Moon.  This allows cheaper transportation of people and supplies to the new base.

*2711 - A second colony, this one on the dark side of the moon (Luna Beta) is established.

*2714 - First large-scale Chinese space station is completed.  It has two large rings and the station spins to simulate gravity.

*2736 - To help coordinate space exploration and improve relations between the two nations, Rome and China establish the Joint Space Defense Command.

*2742 - As space is seeded with nuclear weapons and mass drivers to defend against space debris the military potential of these systems is noted.  In an historic move the Romans and Chinese transform the Joint Space Defense Command into the Terran Defense Organization.  It is given a great deal of independence from the home nations.  Rome and China still have sovereign territories on other worlds but the weapons of mass destruction and international space-laws are governed by the new entity.

*2743 - Dozens of probes are sent to the asteroid belt in attempt to create accurate maps of it.

*2752 - Joint manned Mars landing.

*2767 - Lunar population reaches 10,000.  Initial mapping of the asteroid belt reveals no immediate threats to the Earth.

*I will continue to build on this timeline (as well as other new ones).

NOTES
This post is a bit of an experiment. It is a copy of a blog post an alternate version of me made to his blog on alternate history! Sort of in the neighborhood of a double-blind what if. I've chosen the Baltic Event timeline (Beta-004) to be the world my analog inhabits. Chances are with a major disruption to European civilization in 1908 I would not have been born, but anything is possible. The Unites States and Ireland were not affected as directly as the Baltic region itself so it is still theoretically possible my great-grandparents and those coming after them would still have met and gotten the timing right on various necessary actions.

In any case here I am in another world with another life (which I'm still working out the details on) but still blogging about alternate history. I envision computer technology being a little bit behind the OTL.

For this first timeline developed by the other-me I've chosen one of my earlier timelines (one where the Roman Empire/Republic kept dominance on Earth) and changed it a second time in AD 1908 for the Baltic Event of the point-of-view universe.

Hope that all makes some sense. Feel free to comment on this post if you have any questions!

Friday Flag - Ukraine

After the Baltic Event crippled the Russian Empire on 30 June 1908 dozens of new nations broke away from the Empire. The new Ukrainian Hetmanate was declared on 29 November 1908. It faced border skirmishes with the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1909, a war with the new state of Poland from 1912-1914, and the loss of Crimea to the recovering Russian Empire in a war from 1918 - 1919.

Despite territorial losses Ukraine survived. Once their borders stabilized in the 1920s their primary concern was Ruthenian separatists in their western regions.

Hawaii-SP

The eruption of Campi Flegrei in 1942 crippled human civilization for many years, especially in Eurasia. North America was affected to a lesser extent and the Second World War played out differently than in the original timeline.

Eventually, as with so many disasters, things begin to recover. American television develops and begins producing shows to entertain their customers. One such show was a police/espionage show created by Leonard Freeman set in the new state of Hawaii (admitted to the Union in 1963 as the 49th state). The premise of the show was a fictional state police agency in Hawaii. The leader of the agency, Steve McGarrett (played by Jack Lord) also had ties to US Naval Intelligence which brought international espionage plots into this police drama.

It premiered during the 1968-1969 season with an allegedly rogue Japanese secret agent Katsuo Kawaguchi (played by George Takei who played a secondary character on the obscure sci-fi show Star Trek during its second and third seasons). The SP team would combat criminal organizations, enemy agents, serial killers, and drug dealers. A large number of scenes were filmed on location in some of the most beautiful areas of the islands. The locations, varieties of stories, and the hard work of Jack Lord made the series a great success.

When the Chinese War started in 1972 a number of stories dealt with American servicemen stopping at the islands on the way to the front or returning for R&R after a tour. For a few seasons the espionage elements of the series overtook the crime drama. The writers were not afraid of tackling controversial issues such as the anti-war movement, combat fatigue, and even less than altruistic elements of the American government.

After the nuclear attack on Bejing by a European Reich unit attached to the Japanese Empire the ratings of the show began a rapid decline. Americans were turning more to comedies and trying to forget the horrors of war. The series was cancelled after its 9th season (1976-1977).

In 1997 the series was revived for three seasons with a mostly new cast. James MacArthur returned as Dan Williams who was now the Governor of Hawaii. Gary Busey played the new head of the agency. The new series suffered from mediocre writing and lacked a visionary mind behind it to make it as great as the original. The international storylines were weak. The Japanese Empire was becoming more moderate and the imminent independence of Manchuria made the depiction of them as the primary villains of the series a bad idea. The third season focused on an anti-drug message and seemed like too much of a lecture and not very entertaining.

An attempt to reboot the series in 2010 failed. It is bound to happen at some point in the future as interest grows.

NOTES
After a major change to human history caused by a super-volcano erupting, even a relatively minor eruption, it seems unlikely that television would be the same. However Hawaii would still have been made a state, Leonard Freeman, Jack Lord, and James MacArthur were all born before the disaster and America was not affected as badly as the rest of the world. I've been thinking about how television and movies would be different in alternate timelines. When I determined in this timeline that Alaska would become the 50th state in 1976 - having taken a long time to recover from the volcanic winter, I thought how a popular show like Hawaii Five-0 would have been different since it wouldn't have been Five-0. Hawaii Four-Nine didn't really have the same ring to it.

The successor series I mention in the post is inspired by the pilot of a OTL spin-off pilot that was made in 1997. When I had heard of the recent rebooting of Hawaii Five-0 I the fan of the original series in me had said it should have been set in the same 'universe' as the original, possibly with James MacArthur coming back to play the governor and reactivating the state police..... last night I found out that my lame idea was used back in 1997 for an unsuccessful pilot!

The series title image I have in the post I created using a public domain image and basing it off the iconic one from the real-world show.

Second Crimean War 1918 to 1919

In the decade after the Baltic Event the Russian Empire attempted to rebuild and recover what lost territory it could. Tsar Cyril finally turned his attention on Ukraine in 1918. The Russian Navy had never recovered from the losses of the Russo-Japanese War and the Baltic Event, however a bulk of the surviving ships were in the Black Sea Fleet. That fleet was stationed in Sevastopol, an Imperial enclave in Ukraine. With the diminished strength of the Ukrainian military after the Polish-Ukrainian War of 1912-1914 and continued tension between those two countries Russia struck.

On 12 June 1918 three-hundred thousand Russian troops invaded Ukraine with the stated purpose of annexing Crimea to the Russian Empire. The Black Sea Fleet departed to bombard Odessa, attacking that city on 18 June. The tiny Ukrainian Navy was destroyed.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire, wary of Russian expansion back into Europe, intervened on 7 August 1918 with a declaration of war on Russia. The Habsburg contribution to the war was only a naval battle group built around the SMS Viribus Unitis. That squadron under Rear Admiral Miklós Horthy hunted down and wiped out the Black Sea Fleet on 20 October 1918 at the Battle of Karkinit Bay. Austria-Hungary kept its involvement in the war limited to keeping the Russians from staging further naval attacks on Ukraine, only a volunteer army unit took place in land operations.

By the arrival of winter Russian troops occupied most of Crimea. The Ukrainian military was continuing to mobilize and set up a series of trenches across the north end of the peninsula.

By spring 1919 full-scale hostilities resumed. The initial Russian assaults on the Ukrainian trenches failed with the loss of many Russian soldiers. On 14 May 1919 Russia ignored the Crimean front and launched a three-pronged assault across their common border with Ukraine. The Ukrainian military was overwhelmed and the Russians broke through. On 20 May the Russians had the Crimean trenches surrounded. That, along with Polish troops massing on Ukraine's other border led to their surrender on 24 May.

Russia annexed Crimea, but had suffered some heavy casualties against the machine guns Austria provided to the Ukrainians. Further Russian plans to expand into Ukraine were abandoned as a result. Tsar Cyril decided further recoveries of territory should be made in central Asia where the cost and interference of other European powers would be less.

NOTES
I've decided to expand a few existing timelines this spring/summer. One of them will be the Baltic Event timeline where the Tunguska blast occurred instead in the Baltic Sea and crippled the Russian Empire.

Tsar Cyril is Cyril Vladimirovich, the closest to the throne after the deaths of the Imperial family during the event.

I created the logo for this post using the Russian and Ukrainian flags, the Ukrainian coat of arms, and an image of flame.

Friday Flag - Saint Lawrence

In 1788 when the United States Constitution was being ratified by many of the States. By the end of the year only Rhode Island and Saint Lawrence had not ratified the document. The French-speaking and culturally different inhabitants of the colony had too many differences to the British-stock Americans. In 1789 Rhode Island joined the Union but Saint Lawrence finally declined to join the new political entity.

Saint Lawrence formed its own government. It's flag has a field of blue in the canton with white symbols to represent its provinces, inspired by the American flag. The main field of the flag is red to represent the blood shed during the Revolution and during the years of British oppression. A single white stripe to represent the first province is near the end of the fly end of the flag.

By 1800 the flag has three Fleur-de-lis. They represent the Provinces of Saint Lawrence and Quebec while the third represents the unorganized territories around the great lakes.

Campi Flegrei

7 April 1906 = Mount Vesuvius does not erupt as it did in the OTL. Changes deep underground move the magma and create new pressures in the area.

9 November 1943 = A massive eruption of Campi Flegrei near Naples, Italy takes place. Naples and other nearby settlements are erased. The resulting tsunami obliterates all of the warships in the Mediterranean. Earthquakes rattle the region adding to the chaos.

The resulting ash clouds and dimming of the amount of the Sun's light reaching the Earth's surface leads to major disruptions in human civilization. The combat on the Eastern Front dies down as dropping temperatures make the winter harsher than any in memory. Air operations are cancelled by many powers in Europe due to the ash. Bombs stop dropping on cities for a short time. Rome is destroyed, the Fascist government destroyed. Many other Italian cities are devastated and in chaos. Norther settlements come under direct Nazi control, southern ones are on their own.

1943 = Heavy snows and a late spring in England causes major disruptions in war operations. Fields across the Balkans and Ukraine as well as other regions are unable to produce crops due to late spring and heavy layers of ash. Russian offensives against Germany slow as the summer progresses. The need for increased food production and the terrible weather conditions force many armies to withdraw.

The Second World War takes a decade off as the various nations fight famine and disease. There is sporadic fighting but no major battles except for the Americans and Japanese in the Pacific.

1953 to 1957 = The Soviet Union is on the offensive again. While consolidating their hold on Europe and finishing the bulk of their genocidal plans the Nazis managed to stockpile considerable number of rockets and a few squadrons of jet powered aircraft. These weapons allow them to stall the Red Army and force Kruschev to the bargaining table in 1957. Britain is still in a terrible state, much of India lost in rebellion and extremely harsh winters have kept it economically depressed. They are in no position to help their Russian allies.

During this time period China has broken into three regions; Communist, Nationalist, and Japanese dominated.

1960s = The United States, along with Canada, Mexico and a number of other countries, forms the North American Treaty Organization to defend themselves against further aggression by the Third Reich. As politics shift in Europe, Germany forms the European Reich, giving more autonomy to some regions of Europe but retaining control of the European Council that makes up the Reich.

Global sea-levels have reached their low-point in the 1960s. They begin to recover as the volcanic winter beings to end.

1972 to 1975 = The Chinese War takes place as Red China and the Soviet Union attack Japanese Manchuria. The United States aids the Nationalist Chinese against the Reds and Japanese in a three-way war. Communist China collapses as Bejing is destroyed by a Germany nuclear weapon - the first time such a weapon is used in war.

1980 = The United States elects a more isolationist President after the high price paid in the Chinese War. In addition to war fatigue a major downturn in the economy creates a new depression.

In the 1990s NATO increases its military spending and introduces new amazing technologies. Britain is recovering from two decades of hellish winters and is becoming an economic bright-spot in Europe thinks to American support and intervention.

1996 = Der Führer dissolves the Euro-Reich and opens Europe to free multi-party elections. This action surprises some, but the decades of economic disfunction and political unrest finally forced some action on Germany's part. It was luckily a peaceful event, der Führer was a child during the volcanic winter and war years and did not want to be responsible for a nuclear war and winter.

1996 to 2006 = Numerous small-scale wars in the Balkans and Eastern Europe.

2000 = Alaska is admitted into the United States as the 50th State.

2014 = The world is in relative peace. A new Führer in Germany takes power on March 14. He appears ready to begin reversing some of the reforms of recent years and yearns for the re-acquisition of lost territories.

Some information on Campi Flegrei and its supervolcano:

1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phlegraean_Fields

2) http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/italian-supervolcano-could-end-eurozone-crisis-the-easy-way-14271712/?no-ist

3) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1342820/Vesuviuss-big-daddy-supervolcano-Campi-Flegrei-near-Naples-threatens-Europe.html

Money Monday #2 - 100 Wampum note from 1967

100 Wampum bill from the Canandaigua branch - Six Nations Treasury in 1967

After the execution of the ringleaders of the failed revolution in the American colonies the British Empire made changes in its dealings with the colonists. More and more attention of the King was spent on developing the new world. The British would dominate all of North America before too long.

The French decided to ignore the Americas and sold Louisiana to the British. They used the money and new goodwill with their rival to expand into India and Egypt.

The British began to use their military to conquer native lands, but instead of adding them directly to the empire and expanding white colonization they established principalities of natives to rule over the land under British supervision. The Native Americans were treated more like the natives of India in the OTL. Political and Economic development was controlled from London which would eventually reap great benefits from this massive free trade zone.

One of the native countries that grew close ties to the British Crown was the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederation. Given their proximity to the original colonies and early adoption of a number of European technologies they grew to be a strong industrial center. With this strength and greater autonomy they would eventually develop their own currency. The British pound is still used for trade outside of the Six Nations, but inside the locals enjoy using their own money. By 2014 they have benefited more often than they have been hurt by the regional currency.

In the twentieth century the 100 Wampum bill features a portrait of Thayendanegea (aka Joseph Brant).

Friday Flag - The Genesee Legion

The Third Legion of Irokois Province stationed near the city of Genesee

Formed in 1923 AUC this legion was established to help the Romans expand westward across the continent. In the early 2000s they served in a number of pacification wars attempting to bring Roman civilization to the other tribes. This legion continued to serve both Empires and Republics loyally and with distinction for over 800 years.

HIGHLIGHTS OF CAMPAIGNS
2040s AUC: They were the primary legion in the campaigns to conquer the Navajo. The campaign for conquest took only a few short years but the occupation until a stable provincial government was created lasted over an additional decade.

2200s AUC: Nearly a century is spent fighting rebel factions in Nova Hispania. The Genesee Legion was stationed along the massive Nabia river in the jungles of that continent. They had a good string of victories in their operations but the war lasted over a decade and countless victories on the battlefield could not give the Romans a final strategic victory in the war. In the end the rebels won independence from Rome and the Legions returns home.

2640s AUC: The first tanks are used by the legion. These early armored vehicles were slow and required much maintenance but were quickly perfected over the next few decades.

2701 AUC: The first unmanned drones are used for recon by the legion. Twelve years later the first armed drones are deployed.

2766 AUC: During the nuclear war with China the hundred megaton bomb dropped on Genesee malfunctioned and failed to detonate. The Genesee Legion survived the war.

Top Flag Championship Cancelled

Well, looks like I got a little ahead of myself with the Top Flag Championship for this year. I should really grow my readership a bit first before starting something like that.

Luckily with the recent increase of readership, and the upward trend that should continue this year, I should have a much more successful championship next year.

I've done several different things to increase traffic. I'm assuming the great boost I've gotten in the last week or so has come from the Alternate History Weekly Update. That is the best blog in the Alternate History genre I know of. It covers a lot of territory and gives some great information. Be sure to check it out frequently!

If you like flags I've also discovered The Voice of Vexillology, Flags & Heraldry blog. I haven't had a chance to really dig into that blog yet, but it has a huge archive of posts and is still an active blog.

In a few weeks I'll be increasing my own postings here. I have a few alternate timelines to expand and a few new ones to introduce. Withe the 100 year anniversary of the start of World War I coming up this year a few of them will be sure to involve that terrible conflict.

Thanks for visiting, and be sure to look around at some of the things I've accumulated here over the last year!