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Description
What? I actually finished another map??

This is based on one of the Interdimensional Travel Authority worlds, by an AH writer with the online handle of Raymond Speer (no relation and no Nazi). I have made a map for this before, but it was a looong time ago and probably was a bit crappy, plus I went in a somewhat different direction with this based on the notes I had. (The ITA site, alas, is defunct.)

In this world the Habsburgs failed to win the inheritance sweepstakes and Columbus never had his bright idea, leading to a later and somewhat slower colonization of the Americas, with many resultant butterflies, including the survival of native Empires.

Nowadays perhaps the most developed nation in the world is the Aztec (Mehica) empire, which is still largely pagan but has dropped the human sacrifice bit and is allied to a large English-speaking state in the east of North America. The Shogunate of Japan (nowadays the Shogun and the Emperor are both figureheads) is another ally. Many Aztec products and fashions, from cocoa to jade nose plugs to fried grasshoppers have spread globally, although the head-flattening remains mostly a local habit. The main global bogeys are a totalitarian, anti-semitic, and militarist east European power run from Bucharest, and the expansionist, oligarchic 1%-er run south Chinese state which dominates the Pacific. Admittedly, the "good guys" aren't that good - Poland-Hungary-Roumania's main opponents in Europe are the kingdom of France (a Mussolini-type *Fascist state with a figurehead monarchy), the Danish Empire (a corrupt police state) and Britain (a full blown Surveillance State run by an unopposed Party of National Unity for the last fifty years, and holding onto its remaining colonies through extreme brutality.) Although their laws are harsh, the Aztec empire is actually close to what we would consider a democracy and constitutional monarchy. (It's ally, the Confederation of Braseal, is also democratic-ish, if authoritarian and still sticking with the Elizabethan era habit of nailing up condemned criminals in public places, nowadays preserved with chemicals so they will last longer). It's generally an aristocratic and elitist world, and most would find the statement "all men were created equal" rather ridiculous.

Russia had a very bad 17th century and broke up, never to reunite (its neighbors put some work into that) although at least far fewer Russians are under Turkish or Lithuanian rule nowadays. The Qing never conquered China, having been smashed by a brief revival of Mongol power before they grew big enough, and instead Russian refugees, Cossacks, and other Slav adventurers played a major role in the collapse of the Ming, to such an extent that the current north Chinese dynasty speaks Russian amongst themselves and promote the Orthodox religion. They never unified all of China, though, and are finding themselves increasingly backwards compared to the south, which is very much its own thing (it's been influenced in some ways by the Pacific islanders, which they found as fascinating as the French did OTL, and have adopted fashions and food from them even while assimilating them out of existence: the 1% is enamored of the Polynesian idea of sacred kingship as applied to themselves, and nowadays there are a number of social "taboos" to reinforce the separation between the rulers and the undeserving masses.) Catholicized but still mostly native Peru successfully broke off from French overlordship in the 1950s, and south Chinese influence has only increased since then, much to Aztec/Mehica distress.

The heartland of Islam has managed to rally against European aggression (no Russia helped) and Ottoman, Uzbek, Muslim Ethiopian and Afghan powers (all, alas, pretty undemocratic) have banded together in a military alliance strong enough to discourage foreign predators until the era of WMDs came along. Shi'a Iran is essentially an Ottoman-Afghan co-dominion, while Arabia hates everyone. African colonization was a sloppy and informal affair, and a large part of the continent nowadays is run by international corporations. (Some people would put the south Indian incorporacy - descended from the Dutch *East India company, but increasingly dominated by ethnic Indians - and neutral Italy, dominated by a few dozen mostly family-owned giant corporations, in the same category as these corporate-run territories, but in the case of south India and Italy the corporations are locally rooted and at leas _vaguely_ concerned with the well-being of the local population. All voting citizens in south India are stockholders, after all. )

In spite of its regressive politics, this is a technologically advanced world, with 3d high definition TV, Moon bases, and Mars landings. The north *American powers and the south Chinese are both racing to create "Star Wars" type orbital defense networks, ignoring Negative Nellies who claim this will just provoke a nuclear holocaust.

Description
What? I actually finished another map??

This is based on one of the Interdimensional Travel Authority worlds, by an AH writer with the online handle of Raymond Speer (no relation and no Nazi). I have made a map for this before, but it was a looong time ago and probably was a bit crappy, plus I went in a somewhat different direction with this based on the notes I had. (The ITA site, alas, is defunct.)

In this world the Habsburgs failed to win the inheritance sweepstakes and Columbus never had his bright idea, leading to a later and somewhat slower colonization of the Americas, with many resultant butterflies, including the survival of native Empires.

Nowadays perhaps the most developed nation in the world is the Aztec (Mehica) empire, which is still largely pagan but has dropped the human sacrifice bit and is allied to a large English-speaking state in the east of North America. The Shogunate of Japan (nowadays the Shogun and the Emperor are both figureheads) is another ally. Many Aztec products and fashions, from cocoa to jade nose plugs to fried grasshoppers have spread globally, although the head-flattening remains mostly a local habit. The main global bogeys are a totalitarian, anti-semitic, and militarist east European power run from Bucharest, and the expansionist, oligarchic 1%-er run south Chinese state which dominates the Pacific. Admittedly, the "good guys" aren't that good - Poland-Hungary-Roumania's main opponents in Europe are the kingdom of France (a Mussolini-type *Fascist state with a figurehead monarchy), the Danish Empire (a corrupt police state) and Britain (a full blown Surveillance State run by an unopposed Party of National Unity for the last fifty years, and holding onto its remaining colonies through extreme brutality.) Although their laws are harsh, the Aztec empire is actually close to what we would consider a democracy and constitutional monarchy. (It's ally, the Confederation of Braseal, is also democratic-ish, if authoritarian and still sticking with the Elizabethan era habit of nailing up condemned criminals in public places, nowadays preserved with chemicals so they will last longer). It's generally an aristocratic and elitist world, and most would find the statement "all men were created equal" rather ridiculous.

Russia had a very bad 17th century and broke up, never to reunite (its neighbors put some work into that) although at least far fewer Russians are under Turkish or Lithuanian rule nowadays. The Qing never conquered China, having been smashed by a brief revival of Mongol power before they grew big enough, and instead Russian refugees, Cossacks, and other Slav adventurers played a major role in the collapse of the Ming, to such an extent that the current north Chinese dynasty speaks Russian amongst themselves and promote the Orthodox religion. They never unified all of China, though, and are finding themselves increasingly backwards compared to the south, which is very much its own thing (it's been influenced in some ways by the Pacific islanders, which they found as fascinating as the French did OTL, and have adopted fashions and food from them even while assimilating them out of existence: the 1% is enamored of the Polynesian idea of sacred kingship as applied to themselves, and nowadays there are a number of social "taboos" to reinforce the separation between the rulers and the undeserving masses.) Catholicized but still mostly native Peru successfully broke off from French overlordship in the 1950s, and south Chinese influence has only increased since then, much to Aztec/Mehica distress.

The heartland of Islam has managed to rally against European aggression (no Russia helped) and Ottoman, Uzbek, Muslim Ethiopian and Afghan powers (all, alas, pretty undemocratic) have banded together in a military alliance strong enough to discourage foreign predators until the era of WMDs came along. Shi'a Iran is essentially an Ottoman-Afghan co-dominion, while Arabia hates everyone. African colonization was a sloppy and informal affair, and a large part of the continent nowadays is run by international corporations. (Some people would put the south Indian incorporacy - descended from the Dutch *East India company, but increasingly dominated by ethnic Indians - and neutral Italy, dominated by a few dozen mostly family-owned giant corporations, in the same category as these corporate-run territories, but in the case of south India and Italy the corporations are locally rooted and at leas _vaguely_ concerned with the well-being of the local population. All voting citizens in south India are stockholders, after all. )

In spite of its regressive politics, this is a technologically advanced world, with 3d high definition TV, Moon bases, and Mars landings. The north *American powers and the south Chinese are both racing to create "Star Wars" type orbital defense networks, ignoring Negative Nellies who claim this will just provoke a nuclear holocaust.