This Week in Alternate Histories - June 23 to June 29

JUNE 23
Alt-Timeline: Travaillis Republique Democratique
Year: 2014
The Brittany region of France finally achieves independence. Since the end of the war over sixty years ago Brittany had recovered more quickly and was more open to working with the UK & USA. On June 23 the Grand Alliance of Europe recognizes Brittany as an independent nation over French protests.

JUNE 24
Alt-Timeline: Alexander's Earth
Year: 2151 native calendar (AD 1820)
Nearly fifteen years after the Unknown War devastated the Earth, the inhabitants of Almazangrad emerge from their underground city and begin to explore the desolate area around their settlement. Initial explorations show only slightly elevated background radiation in the area around the city giving hope to the survivors of expansion and accumulation of desperately needed resources.

JUNE 25
Alt-Timeline: Alternate Great Lakes
Year: 1788
Virginia becomes the 9th state to ratify the US Constitution. Saint Lawrence has refused to join the new union.

JUNE 26
Alt-Timeline: Sino-Soviet Alliance
Year: 1945
The United Nations charter is signed. A controversial section of the charter allows for a formation of a UN military which would cause trouble when the Soviet Union fails to utilize its veto power at the start of the Korean War. In the future this would be seen as the primary weakness of the new organization and the rise of a more powerful international communist organization in the '50s.

JUNE 27
Alt-Timeline: British North America
Year: 1768
The Treaty of Fort Stanwix is signed between the British and the Iroquois Confederacy. It establishes the borders of Iroquois territory and creates provisions for the British to enforce violations by colonists.

JUNE 28
Alt-Timeline: Campi Flegrei
Year: 1955
A major Nazi air attack with most of their jet fighters breaks the back of the Red Army at the start of the Battle of Radom. This battle marked the limit of the Russian advance into Germany territory.

JUNE 29
Alt-Timeline: World War III
Year: 1963
An agreement is finalized with President João Goulart of Brazil and elements of the US Navy to use Brazilian ports for resupply in the aftermath of the nuclear exchange sparked by the Cuban Missile Crisis. The chaos of the global war and shifting weather patterns is causing problems worldwide, but the presence of the Navy vessels helps stabilize the ports and stimulates economic activity.

Friday Flag - Almazangrad

The nation of Almazangrad was created out of a surviving city after a high-tech nuclear war in year 2136 of the Empire (AD 1805). How it survived the world-devastating war was its unique construction. Before Almazangrad was built a vast, open-pit diamond mine was dug over the period of five decades. The mine was located in Tungusic lands in the tundra of Asia.

After the mine was depleted a use for the vast open pit was found. A city was built along the inside of the bowl, a park in the bottom, and a vast roof over the opening designed to allow sunlight into the depths while also harnessing solar power and melting winter snows into fresh water. Over 100,000 people inhabited the new city of Ulmazangrad for several decades.

Then the Unknown War hit. The survivors were never sure who had started it or who the possible enemy was. Most surviving settlements were thrown back into the dark age in the shadow of ultra technology of their ancestors. Almazangrad survived better than most, retaining most of its technology. It managed to survive the harsh winters of the aftermath as well. More knowledge survived in this city than anywhere else on the surface of the Earth.

However, Ulmazagrad had no heavy industry. While machines could be repaired and machine shops could create some parts, major replacements of technology were impossible. Over several generations technology did regress, but the depleted survivors were able to spread out from their hole when the harsh winters ended.

The flag represents the city's heritage as a diamond mining settlement.

*****
This week's flag was inspired by the real world Mir Mine, the flag of the city of Mirny, and by some rather ambitious plans to turn it into a city. In order to get a cool high-tech city the Empire was one created by Alexander or some Greek state back a few hundred years BC.

Friday Flag - Thycena

A neighboring city-state of Strumicvar on the north-eastern coast of Novo Skopje (on the coast of Brazil on our world). The two cities don't have the most peaceful of relations but still manage regular trade in the post-apocalyptic world that they inhabit.

NOTES
This was a quickly made flag back when I was running a GURPS Infinite Worlds game. Strumvicar's flag was a new design but I based this one off the real world flag of Aruba.

Friday Flag - Strumicvar

Strumicvar is a city-state founded on the north-eastern coast of Novo Skopje (South America). It was part of a world-spanning Macedonian empire until the early 19th-century AD when the world was devastated by a nuclear attack. Strumicvar and many other regions were now independent of Imperial authority and free to pursue their own goals.