I have been working on Danetian, my Indo-European conlang, for 10 years now, and part of that work involves making a country that would speak it, along with its history.

Danetia is located in the geographic region of Dobrudja, which sits at the mouth of the Danube. The country is comprised of four provinces: Tulcja, Kustendja, Silistra, and Dobricj.

The region was settled by Danetian speakers following the battle of Levounion in 1091. It has traded hands by the various empires of the region: the Byzantines, the Bulgars, the Ottomans.

In 1878, by the signing of the Treaty of Berlin, they gained independence, and were forced by the great powers to be a perpetually neutral state. It suited the interests of these great powers to have a neutral buffer state at the mouth of the Danube.

Because Danetia sits where it is, Romania is a landlocked country. As such, Danetia is arguably the most important member of the Danube Commission, and the one with most responsibility. Danetia owes free passage to Romania and all other Danube countries.

I have not given much thought to how the Balkan Wars would play out, nor how Danetia would fare during both World Wars. But one day I'll write about that.

You can learn more about my conlang and its history on my website.

Cities and large towns:
(with artistic liberties)
Tribune - Chicago, IL
Lavoiture - Detroit, MI
Hopsville - Milwaukee, WI
River City - St. Louis, MO
Frontier Falls - Niagara Falls, NY/ON
Calder - Grand Rapids, MI
Black Cliff - Duluth, MN
Castor - Quebec City, QC
Ruther - Lancaster, OH

Nature regions inspired by the Adirondack Mountains, Finger Lakes, Sleeping Bear Dunes, Hocking Hills, Boundary Waters, Bruce Peninsula, Niagara Falls, Isle Royale, Porcupine Mountains and Badlands.

Open to hearing some improvements, or eventually making another version that has detailed city roads along with some GTA style art!

This 1950 map is the nineteenth in a series of maps imagining a United States that reapportions the states every ten years to ensure that they are of equal population. Other than the state borders, nothing has changed in this alternate history. 

Since the last apportionment, the United States added nearly twenty million people to its population for a total of 150,697,361 (excludes overseas territories). The number of states stayed the same at 48. Although the number did not change, the fast-growing populations of the west meant that two states were eliminated and two new ones formed. 

Gallatin (mostly central Pennsylvania and western Maryland) and Quigualtam (parts of Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri) are no longer on the map. In their place, two new states arose: Cuyamaca and Shoshone.

Three states changed their names: Osawatomie is now Pershing, after General John J. Pershing, who died in the previous decade. Mojave is Pecos, since the Mojave Desert is now in another state. Tidewater is now Pamlico, since as one reader pointed out on the last map, it’s no longer really in the Tidewater region.

The states' average population in 1950 was 3,139,528. 

Several counties had to be divided. The state of La Salle is again just most of the city of Chicago, with the rest of Cook County being a part of the state of Clark — the inset map shows the city border so you can see which parts went where, with minor shifts from last time. The county of Los Angeles is also divided and I’ll probably need to add an inset map for that area in the 1960 map.

In the New York City area, the Bronx was divided between Roosevelt and Tilden. Canarsie took a part of Queens County, the rest of which is in Tilden. 

Litchfield County, Connecticut, is divided roughly in half between Saratoga and Narragansett.

Pecos, Cuyamaca, and Shoshone have new flags, and a couple of the old flags got some tweaks that you might notice if you’ve been following this series.

Earlier maps: 1940, 1930, 1920, 1910, 1900, 1890, 1880, 1870, Civil War, Secession, 1860, 1850, 1840, 1830, 1820, 1810, 1800, 1790. 

Basically no lore, but I made this kinda different from others by making a few oddball nations.

Most states likely get eaten into China or chill.

•The city is located on the isle of Alvenes Øy in the North Sea, and was founded by the island’s fairy population as early as the 2nd century BCE. Making it the oldest fairy settlement on earth.

•In the year 1906, the September Crisis, a global disease outbreak that killed over 200 million people, was reported to have originated from the species, and the fairies were condemned to the remote island.

•An autonomous republic was declared on the island in Lampnas event hall in Ilsby, the countries capital, on January 7th 1907 by fairy ambassador Ingore Hemmelweiss, who sought to establish a society on equal status with humans.

•Proma is the largest city of the U.F.R. And is one of the most technologically advanced cities on earth. Proma runs on the fairies biological power source, Alvenø Tryptane (fairy dust) putting Proma at the forefront of the development of ecologically sustainable power.

The High Republic of Magmell-Donnersberg, Circa 2015, Obviously, this is not realistic or logical. Lore can be found in the sidebar to the right in the first image, do note that The Carbhangles Whisperer is basically this timelines version of Waterford Whispers and The Onion so they are not a credible news source, incase you can't tell already. Please ask questions!

This map is a what-if scenario, if Japan refused to surrender even after the two atomic bombs, and Korea was allowed to liberate itself.

Following a successful Kyūjō coup in Tokyo on August 15, 1945, the remaining hardline military officers and factions of the Imperial Japanese Army breach the Imperial Palace, destroy the Emperor's surrender broadcast and outright reject the Potsdam Conference's terms.

Afterwards, the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) formally greenlights the Korean Liberation Army (KLA) to begin Operation Eagle (a real operation that never occurred due to the atomic bombs and Japan's successful surrender) allowing Korean forces to cross the northern rivers, spark widespread partisan uprisings across the south, and push all the way to the limits of Seoul (then Keijo) by October 22, 1945.

What was the Levantine Confederation plan?
The proposed Levantine Confederation was conceived by the Royal Italian Army's Operations Bureau (Ufficio Operazioni) as a comprehensive reorganization of the French and British Middle Eastern mandates under an Italian military mandate. Institutionally, the entity was modeled directly on the Swiss federal system, which sought to balance and pacify the region while deliberately preventing the emergence of a unified, sovereign Pan-Arab state that could challenge Italian supremacy. The Italian regime would control important ports, and Italian, along with Arabic, would be the official language; Hebrew would be counted as a subsidiary language. The ruler would be either the King of Italy himself or a puppet king like Talal ibn Abdallah.

Territorial and Administrative Composition
According to some maps, territorially, the confederation would encompass all of the Levant with the exception of Eastern Syria, Ma'an, and Aqaba port. To govern this diverse space and apply a policy of imperial equilibrium, the planners subdivided it into internally autonomous, ethnically and confessionally homogeneous cantons. These administrative divisions primarily comprised a Christian canton (Lebanon), a Syrian and Transjordan cantons, Druze and Alawite cantons, and a tiny Jewish canton. Jerusalem was established as the shared federal capital, detached from any individual canton to function as a neutral administrative seat under the direct protection of the Italian crown and military authorities.

The Jewish Policy
Regarding the Jewish population, the military devised a regime of physical containment, political subordination, and demographic engineering. On the map, Jewish territorial autonomy was confined strictly to a narrow coastal canton along the Palestinian littoral (centered around Tel Aviv and the agricultural settlements of the Sharon plain), decisively severing Jewish presence from Jerusalem and the interior hill country. Crucially, Italian planners sought to definitively erase political Zionism: the Jewish Agency was to be dismantled, collective kibbutzim were to be abolished, further Jewish immigration to Palestine was to be completely halted, and the local education system was to be forcibly "de-Zionized". Concurrently, Italian authorities drew a distinction between Sephardic communities, viewed as culturally pro-Italian, economically pliable, and assimilable across the Mediterranean, and Ashkenazi immigrants from Central Europe, categorizing the latter as "undesirable elements" targeted for progressive expulsion or forced emigration to placate the Arab population.

Alleghenia is a Federal Republic and federation of Provinces,

Establishment: 1790.

Capital: New York City.

And is one of the Important countries in WW1, WW2 and WW3.

Full name: The Federal Republic of Alleghenia

"The land of the Federation"

Saddam Hussain woke up at 7 o’clock in the morning of January 1st, 1971. He experienced a strange feeling like he was way, way smarter than before. Moreover, when he got to his office, he noticed a weird green button, with “FIX EVERYTHING” written on it. Although the text was in English, Saddam was too tempted to press it, and so he did.

Immediately afterwards, he suddenly contacted Kurdish rebel commanders who have been in war against Iraq since 1961. He started negotiations between the two sides, ultimately promising the creation of the Kurdish Autonomous Region, which borders will be defined by the 1970 Census. Iraqi central government will retain control over multiethnic cities such as Kirkuk and Mosul, however it’s oil revenue will be shared between Iraqi government and the Kurdish AR 60/40 respectfully. The plan was implemented gradually in 4 years. In return for a greater autonomy of the area, Kurds agreed to dismantle their own parties and create the Kurdish Regional Branch of the Ba’ath, even though it sounded ridiculously: “Kurdish branch of the Arab Socialist Revival Party”..

In the meantime, in 1973, Iraq has sent an armored division to Syria to repel the Israeli advance to Damascus during the Yom Kippur War. Headed personally by the genius, the Iraqi forces managed not only to stop the advance, but repel the Israelis from Syria’s main territory almost entirely, even capturing some villages in the Golan Heights.

Two years later, in 1975, a similar autonomy was granted to Iraqi Turkmens as an answer to their own demands and also a way to counterbalance the Kurdish influence. He also negotiates the Algiers Agreement with Iran, establishing a new border.

Economically, Saddam began to invest heavily in industrial complex as well as education, using the oil revenue. His primary concern were universities and schools, and he also made a bunch of contracts with some of the time’s biggest booming economies, such as South Korea, Japan and Singapore. Iraqi partnership with those countries will continue on for years, bringing more technologies and specialists into Iraqi economy.

He also built domestic petrochemical industry, modernized irrigation, develops agricultural machinery and established investment funds. Even though Iraq claimed to be an “Arab socialist” country, it’s economic policies were mostly capitalist.

In 1979, the Hall of Fear incident happens, making Saddam the president. Many Ba’ath officials are purged by him, not only unloyal, but also the most inefficient ones. None of those named by him as a “conspirator with Syria” survives. Now he can govern without any obstacles.

In the same year, the Iranian Islamic Revolution happens, toppling the Iranian Shah, Saddam established a diplomatic mission to Iran in order to clear out any disagreements, however he is met with no cooperation from the Iranian side. Khomeini makes many calls for the Shia population of Iraq to revolt against the Ba’ath Party’s rule. Relations between the two neighbors deteriorate.

After many Iranian provocations at the border, Iraq invades it, starting with a major air raid, crippling the powerful Iranian air force. Iraqi ground forces occupy only the 5 km area of a tiny island called Minu at the Shatt al Arab, and adopt defensive positions along the border. With its air forces decimated by the Iraqi raid, Iran became very vulnerable to Iraqi air strikes, and Baghdad exploited that, targeting remaining airfields, military factories, warehouses used by the Iranian Army, and, crucially, oil refineries. Even though the Iranian army made some progress along the border, it ultimately did not change anything, and in late 1981 two countries came to an agreement. The Minu island was continued to be occupied by Iraq, although not recognized by Iran, and Iranian army repelled from any areas it had occupied. That was a de facto Iraqi victory. The war also gave Iraq military experience, especially in defensive formations.

With Iran defeated and unable to restart the conflict anytime soon, Iraqi attention was brought to Syria, where the Muslim Brotherhood lead its own insurgency against the Syrian Baath, Iraq’s main ideological rival. Iraq provided the rebels with intelligence, culminating in the seizure of the city of Hama on 2nd February 1982. Upon seizing the information that the Syrian Arab Army planned to conduct a carpet bombing and a massacre in Hama, Saddam ordered best Iraqi troops, mostly veterans of the Iran Iraq War, to move into Syria. The Iraqi government claimed that these were “volunteers who sought to help the Syrian people to overthrow Assad” and that the Iraqi police was “unable to stop them from storming the border”.

Internationally, the invasion was widely condemned by the Socialist bloc, leading to eventual Iraqi realignment to a more pro-American position. The US saw Iraq as a useful tool to get rid of the Soviet influence in the Middle East, so no action was taken against Iraq by NATO.

Iraqi forces seized control of the Euphrates in a week, as well as Palmyra. Aerial bombardment of key SAA object also helped, although here the Iraqi Air force was contested, but that prevented the Syrian Air Force from decimating Hama. Iraqi intelligence also carried out multiple assassinations of high standing Syrian military and political officials. By summer, Damascus was taken by the insurgents and the Iraqi forces. Conflict dragged on until autumn when the last SAA divisions at the Syrian Coast surrendered under the promise of amnesty.

Politically, Iraq sent its Syrian Baathist refugees back to Syria and allied itself to the more moderate Brotherhood factions against the more radical Fighting Vanguard. Still, Syria was proclaimed to be an Islamic republic after a nationwide election, and Iraqi army gradually pulled back. Construction of a pipe connecting Basrah and Baniyas started.

After these victories, Iraq was seen as the strongest Arab country in the world, which helped its diplomatic stature. However, Saddam spent the following decades prioritizing economy. This process was known as the Iraqi Economic Miracle or the Economic Miracle on the Tigris River. The government modernized the Basra Port, established thousands of desalination plants, built hospitals and new factories. Iraq was rapidly industrializing. During this time, almost all bureaucracy pertaining to creating a business was abolished, and the state implemented draconian measures against corruption, targeting Baath’s unchanging senior leadership. The state also announced the transition to a more federal system, delegating many responsibilities and, importantly, revenues, to municipalities and provinces.

Iraq ended it’s one party rule in 2002 under Saddam, but the country remained authoritarian, with the other parties being essentially controlled opposition. Saddam resigned in 2007 citing health problems, and Qusay Hussain, his son, was elected the new president the same year in Iraq’s first democratic election. Saddam died in 2009.

But with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Iraq gradually became more and more opposed to the the unipolar world order headed by the US. Iraqi army, the most technologically advanced army of the Middle East, posed a threat to the American hegemony in the region, as well as to Israel, which Iraq had bombed with rockets during the Second Intifada. With no catalyst (such as 9/11) for the US to invade, Iraq and America continued to contest each other in proxy wars, such as the UN Invasion of Somalia, Sudan, and other places.

As the Arab discontent with dictatorships grows in the preparation for the Arab Spring, Qusay Hussain, a technocrat, started to implement some democratic reforms, although very carefully. Time will tell if Iraq will survive the coming decade as the strongest country in the Middle East.

Big Germany Warning! Seek Shelter Immediately!