Cooperative Countries of a Shared World

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Basic rules of the game:

1. Harry is not allowed to accidentally delete the game.

2. We are making one world in 2013 with a point of divergence [POD] sometime between 1100 and 1300. All histories must fit into each other, so contradict anyone else's. If someone does post something contradictory, politely inform him/her, and you are the offender, politely modify your history. There's no need for anyone getting rude or upset about it.

3. On your turn, add a new country to the map and give the following information:
Offical Name: The official legal name of the country
Common Name: What the country is usually called by people
Territorial Description: Describe where the country is, in either in in-game terms or OTL terms
Capital:
Government: Describe how the government works. If you want, list the head of state, head of government, or any other noteworthy politicians.
Level of Freedom:
Population: Number of people, and if the country isn't homogenous, you can give ethnic percentages as well. Be realistic.
Languages: What are the official languages, are there other commonly spoken languages? Give percentages. May not add to 100% with people speaking multiple languages.
Religion: Is there a state religion, and are there other common religion? Give percentages.
Level of Technology and Development:
History: Give a brief history for the country.
Interesting Fact: Give one more interesting fact about the country that doesn't necessarily have historical relevance, just to give the world more flavor.
If you want to include a flag or any additional information, feel free.

4. When editing your map, delete rivers from inside your country's borders. They are just there to help you create borders. Make international borders in dark grey, not black. If you want to include provinces or other internal subdivisions, you can, but use light grey to subdivide them (see key on bottom left of the map). Also, make your national borders as clean as you can at the corners. Make your borders look like the example on the left, not like the one on the right.


5. The POD is sometime between 1100 and 1300 in Europe. Everything in world history before the POD happened in this world, so you can't create a surviving Roman Empire or Kingdom of David as your country.

6. Similarly, anything from after the POD probably won't happen. While the ripple effect of the change may take centuries to affect other continents (the Americas should probably be the same until 1500 or so), people like Johann Gutenberg, Martin Luther, and Karl Marx won't be born, so things similar to the Gutenberg Bible, Lutheranism, and Marxism, etc., might exist in this world, but they will have been created by different people and have different names.  Cities founded after the POD probably won't exist, or if they do, probably won't have the same name. Countries founded shortly after the POD might still come about, but under different circumstances, and countries founded much later shouldn't exist at all.

7. Similarly, Europeans will almost certainly discover the Americas (which will have different names) by 1500 or so, but patterns of exploration, settlement, etc., may be completely different. Natives probably will be decimated by diseases, though.

8. Don't be too similar to the real world. There will probably be some breakaway from the Catholic Church at some point, but there's no reason to think it has to be started because a German monk nailed complaints onto a door. There probably will be trench warfare at some point, but we don't have to see large wars in the 1910s and 1940s followed by a Cold War between democracies and a Communist analogue.

9. On the other hand, be plausible. Don't create a Sioux country that conquers all the way to the Atlantic and then builds ships and colonizes North Africa and invades Europe or something ASB (alien space bats) like that.

10. You can take multiple turns, but don't take consecutive ones, and don't take more than other people are taking. This rule we'll really have to play by ear once we see how many people are adding countries, so just be reasonable.

11. Early on, keep your histories just a paragraph or two so that you don't box other people in. Use ______s in your history if you want to leave stuff open-ended and you can fill it in later as others create more history for the world. As the game goes on, you may want to make your histories longer to talk about how your countries reacted to established events. You can always come back later and expand on a history.  And remember, keep within established history and don't contradict others' turns.

12. Remember, the world has to fit together. In addition to not directly contradicting each other, don't contradict the spirit of the created world, either. For example, if nobody's countries have far-flung colonial empires, that probably means that's frowned upon in this world. In addition, even if large empires are realistic, try to keep your countries small enough so that everyone who wants to add a country can.

13. Claim a turn before you take one so that we don't have people working at the same time on the same area.

Overall - be realistic, be cool, fit your histories together, and I won't delete it this time.

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I'll start:

Offical Name: The Most Serene Republic of Venice
Common Name: Venice
Territorial Description: The area around Venice and the Dalmatian coast
Capital: Venice
Government: Representative democracy with a legislature (the Great Council), and an elected president (the Doge). Current Doge Antonio Donato was first elected in 2008.
Level of Freedom: Very high. Freedom of speech, religion, etc. is completely allowed
Population: 7,281,000. Ethnically, 81% Venetian, 17 Slavic, 2% other
Languages: Venetian is fluently spoken by 88% of the population. Dalmatian 14%, other 4%.
Religion: No official religion. Catholic 49%, other Christian 24%, Jewish 3%, Islam 1%, other 1%, irreligious 22%
Level of Technology and Development: Very high
History: Venice was always a wealthy state of traders and seamen, and was the main trading link between Europe and the Middle East. It had a powerful navy and fought many skirmishes in the Aegean/Greek area until the 1700s. It owned several Greek islands until that time.
It was Venetian explorer Agostino Marcello who first discovered the New World in 1481, but he did so in the name of Castile, not Venice. Venice's only overseas colonial possession was the island of St. Mark, which it no longer owns.
Venice made it through the Troubling Times of the late 1800s without too much damage, and, having given up its powerful navy, stayed out of all 20th century wars. Today, Venice has a liberal social safety net, a high standard of living, and high income equality.
Interesting Fact: Venice is now considered to be the world capital of fashion and is one of the world's major banking centers.

(The map won't blow up on the forum, but you can open the picture in a new tab and see it full-size.)

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Offical Name: Republic of Bavaria
Common Name: Bavaria
Territorial Description: Bavaria and Tirol
Capital: Munich
Government: Presidential republic with a President elected every seven years for one term serving as the Head of State, and a Prime Minister as the Head of Government who is the leader of the largest party in parliament- known as the Bundestag
Level of Freedom: Very high- analogous to other European nations
Population: 12,600,000 nearly all German ethnicity
Languages: .German 95%
Religion:. Catholicism is the official religion and practiced by 75% of the population, the rest being of many other faiths including Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, etc.
Level of Technology and Development: Very high
History: Bavaria was one of the German states since the early part of the millenium, being founded by the Bavarian people of the Alps. It rapidly grew due to trade with other areas and avoided many of the conflicts characteristic of the era. Throughout the 1800s, it maintained independence by playing off of each side in the Prussian-Austrian rivalry and its people refused to be united with Prussia to form an overall German state. As its neighbors Prussia to the north and Austria to the south sought to militarize- Bavaria maintained neutrality in the early 1900s. Though German nationalists attempted to use Munich as a home base in the 1920s and 1930s to form a pan-German movement, the Bavarian population wished to avoid conflict and discouraged the National Socialist Party- never serving as its base of support which prevented its rise elsewhere in Germany. Bavaria has focused on internal economic development which allows its cities to consistently be ranked among the world's most liveable.
Interesting Fact: Its beer is considered the world's finest!

I do not know how to edit that map- can some one show me how?

I would suggest changing "National Socialist Party" to something different since it's unlikely that the name would pop up in a world that diverged 500 or so years before.  Otherwise it looks good.

To edit the map, copy and paste it into Paint and make the changes there. Outline Bavaria in grey and color it in, and make a point on the map legend.

If you don't have Paint, I can do it for you.

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I went ahead and added Bavaria to the map.  It's now Xahar's turn, and then the floor is open.

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I think it's been long enough that I'll take another turn:


Offical Name: Republic of Castile
Common Name: Castile
Territorial Description: The remainder of the Iberian peninsula, but nothing else
Capital: Toledo
Government: Republic with an elected Senate, led by two consuls elected to 10-year terms (staggered, since when a consul dies a new election happens immediately)
Level of Freedom: High
Population: 39,125,000. Almost entirely European/Castilian, though recent North African immigrants make up 8% of the population and rising.
Languages: Castilian is the the official language and is spoken by 95% of the population. Other languages include Latin (Aragonese) and Arabic.
Religion: 56% Catholic, 5% Other Christian, 4% Jewish, 35% irreligious
Level of Technology and Development: Very high. Castile used the post-PE3 boom to completely modernize its rail and highway systems.
History: Castile absorbed Leon, Galicia, and Portugal by 1450 and, along with Aragon, completed the Reconquista of the Iberian peninsula by 1475. In 1481 a Castilian expedition led by Agostino Marcello sailed West into the Atlantic and came ashore in [OTL North Carolina]. Castile established a colony there, and also one in [OTL South America], and for hundreds of years, Castile and Aragon competed for having the world's most powerful empire. Castile also colonized several Caribbean islands at this point. In 1757, it changed. Castile's two large New World possessions both declared independence simultaneously, but the mad king, Alfonso VII, wouldn't let them go (he should have followed England's example). He hit the colonies with every army he could muster, no matter the cost. Weak, divided, and not really motivated, Castilian armies failed to put down the rebellion, and Castile was forced to recognize those two countries' independence in 1769. The failed venture to hold on to the colonies severely weakened Castile's military might.
After Alfonso's death, his successor Sancho II did a good job rebuilding the country. By 1800, Castile was once again one of the most powerful militaries in the world, even if it did not possess a large New World empire. Castile and Aragon's centuries-old rivalry erupted in the 1820s in PE1 (the common name for the First Pan-European War), as Castile and Aragon dragged the whole continent of Europe into a massive war. Castile was defeated, and poor angry mobs of people wound up overthrowing the monarchy and establishing a "reign of terror" of various generals, corrupt politicians and wanna-be-dictators. The island colonies were allowed to go their own way (they didn't really ask for it), as were the Azores, Canaries, and Madeira. Castile remained in a constant state of flux until uniting under the popular general Leonidas Santiago, widely considered to be a national hero and The Greatest Castilian. He was given broad executive power, but only used them to reform Castile into a free, republican government without a single chief executive. He even voluntarily stepped down in 1846 to show Castile and all of Europe how fair and efficient a republican government could be.
Castile stayed neutral in PE2, which happened in the late 1800s, and Castile was on the winning side of PE3, fought in the 1930s. Castile was the only major country not mass-bombed or invaded during PE3, and was a hegemonic power in Europe until everyone else caught back up in the 1950s. Since then, Castile has been one of Europe's quiet leaders politically, culturally, and scientifically. Castile and the many kingdoms of Aragon are still rivals, but haven't actually fought since PE1. Castile has its own space program and does not utilize Aragon's Cape Canaveral.
Interesting Fact: Castile has won more European Football Championships (football is similar to OTL soccer, but a small field and more scoring) than any other European country.

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Can we please go back to Africa/Middle East with the Kingdom of Arabia in that grouping?

Feel free to take a turn and correct the legend while you're at it.

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Notice to everyone: You've got to post the map as a PNG, or it makes it impossible to edit later.  It would be better not to post a map than to post it is a color-ghosted JPEG.

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Official Name: Confederació d'Indígenes [Confederación de Indígenas, Confederation of Natives]
Common Name: La Confederació, La Confederación, The Confederation
Territorial Description: Approximately OTL Alabama; the area between Jamestown and the Aragonese Kingdoms
Capital: Tallahata (near OTL Birmingham)
Government: Loose confederation with most governance done by the 31 tribal governments. The 53-member national assembly conducts foreign affairs and a select few domestic matters deemed of major importance (such as health care and highways). There is no official head of state other than the 31 tribal chiefs.
Level of Freedom: Freedom of speech, religion, etc. are completely respected. The nation's poverty prevents the citizens from having many opportunities to express themselves, but free speech, press, religion, etc., is completely allowed.
Population: 7,826,209. All citizens belong to one of the 31 tribes, primarily the Muscogee (31%), Haudenosaunee (23%), Tsalagi (19%), or Chahta (16%). The other 11% come from the 27 minor tribes. Ethnically, almost everyone is tri-racial, with 71% of the population is mostly Native, with 15% mostly black (descended from slaves), 3% most white, and 11% with no majority. Generally, the population identifies by their tribe and not their racial background.
Languages: Pan-Indigino, an artificial mix of the major native languages is the official language of government and schooling, and most inhabitants also speak their local tribal languages. Around 20% of the population is fluent in a non-Native language, generally English, Castilian, or Modern Latin.
Religion: Espiritas, an organized blending of polytheistic tribal faiths (56%), Catholic (21%), traditional tribal faiths (13%), other (3%), none (7%)
Level of Technology and Development: Generally low, but no worse than poorer rural areas of the OTL Deep South.
History: The area was claimed variously by Castile, England, and Aragon through the 1600s, neither country ever really settled it, mostly because of the hostile native tribes in area. By the 1770s, Jamestown, the Latin Kingdom of New Burgundy, and [the newly-independent Castilian state to the North] still hadn't formally settled the boundary in the area, and all 3 still had yet to settle how to integrate Natives into their societies. Taking care of both issues at once, the 1785 Treaty of Carlisle declared that the area between the 3 countries to be a no-man's land to be inhabited by natives only. Natives would be allowed to stay in their current location only if they adopted European culture; otherwise, they would be relocated to this new Confederation of Natives, where they could live however they wanted. While Jamestown's deportations were generally humane, New Burgundy's deportations were characterized by mass misery and cruelty.
Originally, the nation was governed by a Council of Overseers, with 9 White members from the nearby states and 2 representatives each from the major Native tribes: Muscogee [Creek], Tsalagi [Cherokee], and Chahta [Choctaw]. Other smaller Native tribes who immigrated or were deported here had no say in the government. In the first century, the Confederation was generally just used as a pawn in the bordering nations' political games: for example, slavery was legal in [Castilian nation] and New Burgundy, but not Jamestown, but rather than accepting escaped slaves itself, Jamestown strong-armed the Chahta into accepting them. By the time the New Burgundy finally abolished slavery in the 1870s, the black population of the Confederation was nearly 30%, although that has since blended down.
Unable to justify why they were running another country, Jamestown and [Castilian nation] withdrew from the Council of Overseers in 1899, allowing the Council to vote out the Latin members and reorganize into a National Assembly where all tribes were represented. Shortly after, the Haudenosaunee [Iroquois] Tribe made a stunning announcement in 1901: they would be leaving New Caledonian reservations and emigrating to the Confederation en masse. The Haudenosaunee were tired of being second class citizens and saw a chance to be the upper class in a country who would want them. They brought a higher standard of living, industrial know-how, education, and general wealth into the nation, which the other tribes appreciated. By 1931, the Confederation was as developed as the more rural parts of New Burgundy.
The Confederation spent the 20th century with an isolationist foreign policy, except for close relations with Jamestown and [Castilian state], who are both embarrassed by their past treatment of the Natives. Relations with New Burgundy and the Aragonese Crown in general are cool, but have improved since Ferdinand VII came to the throne.
Interesting Fact Immigration is generally not allowed, unless one marries a member of a tribe, or (occasionally) if a tribe decides to make an exception for a needed skill. The Confederation was the first nation to recognize homosexual marriages, doing so nationwide in 1961, and in some tribes as early as the late 1940s.

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Offical Name: The Most Serene Republic of St. Mark
Common Name: St. Mark, San Marco
Territorial Description: OTL Barbados
Capital: The island is governed as if it is one city
Government: The government is run by a board of directors and a doge, elected by the citizens every 5 years. Generally, the government is hands-off, generally passing laws that will make the island appeal to tourists.
Level of Freedom: Very high. As long as you aren't hurting others against their will, pretty much anything goes, although the sex industry is confined to certain districts.
Population: St. Mark fewer than 10,000 citizens, but there will be 200,000 or more people on the island at any given time.
Languages: Venetian is the official language of government, but dozens of languages can be heard by a tourist on a single trip. It is the world's playground.
Religion: Generally, the island is not associated with religion, but there are churches, mosques, temples, etc., on the island for the religious-minded tourists
Level of Technology and Development: Very high. The entire island is urban, and the latest, coolest technological developments always find their way there.
History: St. Mark was the Republic of Venice's only colonial possession in the New World, a sugar island that made rich Venetian families even richer. St. Mark abolished slavery in 1795, but conditions were still unequal, and most islanders lived in poverty.
Venice quickly surrendered in PE2 in the 1880s in order to avoid destruction and mass death, and part of the terms was giving up possession of the island. St. Mark was an unimportant poor country until 1949, when rich Venetian businessman Umberto Grimani had his fantastical vision of an island paradise completely devoted to gambling and entertainment. He and his associates bought up all of the land on the entire island, sometimes bribing local officials into forcing unwilling locals to sell, and laid out a planned city with casinos, red light districts, concert halls, stadiums, and and fabulous beaches and resorts.
Known as "Sin Island" until the 1970s, when Board of Directors realized it needed to clean up its act to appeal to more people. Today, if you're rich, you can find anything you want on St. Mark, from strip clubs and prostitutes to wholesome, family-oriented fun, from exclusive concerts and cultural shows to the latest new gadgets invented. The resorts are some of the finest in the world, and it's almost how farcical how posh some of them are. You haven't really made it in the world until you buy a condo on St. Mark, although citizenship is only by birth, and consists of descendants of the people who built the paradise in the 1950s.
Interesting Fact: Sport tourism is very popular in St. Mark. Professional, amateur, and international teams from virtually every sport hold games there to get sports fan tourists to come and spend money. St. Mark's football and other national teams are horrible, but the island has hosted a disproportionate amount of tournaments and championships just because other team's fans love travelling there to watch their team and have other fun.

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Official Name: Revolutionary Obregulan Republic of Selva
Common Name: Selva, the ROR, the Obregulans
Territorial Description: Originally, the area between the Marcellan River [Amazon River] and 19°S. Later extended almost to the Andes, 7°N, and further South.
Capital: Ramos, formerly called San Tadeo, near OTL Recife
Government: Single-party Obregulan state. (Similar to OTL Communism)
Level of Freedom: Medium-to-low. Elections above the local level are often rigged, and always confiend to the ruling Obregulan Party. Speaking out against the government is strictly forbidden and often results in mysterious death. The government does ensure that everyone's basic needs are met, however.
Population: 226,103,000. Almost everyone is triracial (European, Native, and African) and a shade of medium brown, although there are many monoracial first-generation immigrants from other Obregulan countries.
Languages: Selvobregulan, an artifical language is the only language taught in schools, is understood by 97% of the population. Around 15% speak a second language, generally Castilian, French, or Latin.
Religion: Officially atheist. Because religion was important to so many people, the Church of the Holy Flock was created as an Obregulan alternate to the Catholic Church, which is otherwise identical, except with government-appointed bishops and priests. Many people did not realize this overnight switch had occurred, until the new church was ingrained. Underground Catholic and other Christian groups exist, but are persecuted.
Level of Technology and Development: Medium-to-high. The government has always put a high priority on funding scientific research. As the only Obregulan country with notable universities, the greatest minds of the Obregulan world generally wind up there.
History: Castile established the colony of Santa Cruz (Holy Cross) on the coast of OTL Brazil in the 1500s. The colony was known for sprawling slave-labor sugar plantations run by a few filthy rich planters. It revolted from the Kingdom of Castile in 1757 along with its Northern cousins, but for very different reasons. It was not moved by liberty or justice, but simply wanted to pocket more money rather than giving it to the crown. Santa Cruz achieved independence in 1769. The planters of course didn't fight for themselves, but sent slaves, Natives, and poor whites to fight and die in their name. Santa Cruz continued to be the major world provider of sugar for over 100 years, but class distinctions became more ingrained. Only the rich white men could vote - not poor whites, and certainly not Natives or blacks (slavery wasn't abolished until 1889). The government did little anyway, other than fund a military police to wipe out dissent. The oppressive oligarchy had one of the highest standards of living in the world, while 98% of the country lived in squalor. The oligarchy was able to repel revolts of the people in 1893, 1902, and 1910 by swiftly and publicly executing the rebel leaders and scaring the rest of the people back into silence. By 1918, Santa Cruz was a pariah on the international scene. Everyone loved the sugar, but even the monarchies of Europe were moving toward rights for the common man.
Inspired by the works of Obregulan [Rule of the Workers] writer Ronaldo Espirito, a friend and disciple of Johann Kreutzer (this world's Karl Marx) himself, the 1921 Santa Cruz revolution, with some covert international support, finally succeeded in overthrowing the oligarchy. Unfortunately, it inspired a reign of terror as every planter, merchant, banker, or otherwise wealthy voter who couldn't escape in time was executed, and their wealth was divided amongst the people. The new mob rule set up a new Obregulan-inspired government where all were equal ... so they said. Really, this new government was full of corrupt power-hungry Rebel generals who flipped sides to seize power, or upper middle class skilled laborers who just had it out for the rich, or people who legitimately believed in Obregulanism until they got drunk with power. Yes, this government was more attentive to the basic needs of the poorest people, but as the years went by it was more and more corrupt. It abolished all religious-inspired or European names for cities and government buildings, replacing them with new ones. Santa Cruz was no more - it's now the Revolutionary Obregulan Republic of Selva. The capital is now named Ramos for the lead revolutionary, not San Tadeo [St. Thaddeus].
By 1930, Obregulan ideals had spread to the surrounding areas (domino theory?), inspiring the pre-existing independence movements in the Aragonese colony of Providència to the South and the Tawantinsuyu [Inca] protectorate to the West. Selvan guerrilas even helped fight in the wars, and in 1933 Aragon officially withdrew from [South America]. The Tawantinsuyu set up their own Obregulan republic, but Providència was added (not entirely by choice) directly into the Revolutionary Obregulan Republic, as were the interior rainforest areas formerly part of Aragon. At this same time, the former French colony of Saint-Henri was added into the ROR as well, having overthrown its oligarchical republic. The government began a policy of Mezclando, where all people were heavily encouraged to marry a person of a different ethnic background, in order to mix the diverse Castilian, Latin, French, English, African, and various Native populations into a more homogeneous group with no obvious differences. It insisted that schools teach only the newly-created Selvobregulan language so that the next generation would always be able to communicate. It abolished all religion, save the Catholic-esque Church of the Holy Flock for those unwilling to become atheist. However, dissent was not generally tolerated, and criticizing the government usually meant death. People were encouraged to report any neighbor or acquaintance they suspected of being disloyal to the state, creating a culture of paranoia.
In the 1950s, a new generation of leaders denounced the corruption of the first set of leaders (not the revolutionaries, of course) and attempted to modernize the country. Significant investments were made in infrastructure - highways, trains, airports, etc. Scientific research was heavily funded, and the ROR began a space program. All of the academic might of the country was concentrated into the Obregulan People's University in Ramos, which to this day is the intellectual center of the Obregulan world. Several poor, decolonized countries fell to Obregulanism, and the ROR and Aragon fell into a Cold War of sorts in the 1950s that still lasts. More generally, Aragon represents the "old order" of monarchy and Euro-domination that the ROR and Obregulan countries resent, while democratic nations like Scotland, Castile, and the [North American] states find themselves caught in the middle. Each generation of Selvan governments has been less corrupt and paranoid than the one before, but experts believe there is little chance for free elections anytime soon. Which is unfortunate, since the current Obregulan government would likely win a clear majority in a completely fair election anyway. By now, the "don't criticize the government" rule is so engrained in the culture that it doesn't really have to be enforced much.
Interesting Fact 1: The ROR has never formally fought a war with anyone, but Selvan arms and guerrillas have been involved in virtually every Obregulan revolution.
Interesting Fact 2: One way the ROR stays at the forefront scientifically and culturally despite its poor economy and somewhat repressive government is its policy of identifying the best and brightest young adults of all Obregulan nations and bringing them to Selva permanently for university or just to live. This of course is a detriment to the other countries.

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Inspired by the works of Obregulan [Rule of the Workers] writer Ronaldo Espirito (this timeline's Karl Marx), […]

1 Kreutzerist Workers' Revolutionary Party (Johann Kreutzer is ttl's Marx-analogue)

Oops.  I'll fix that to say Espirito was inspired by Kreutzer.  Perhaps Espirito is this world's Lenin analogue.

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I have an idea for a claim, but I probably won't be able to post it until tomorrow night.  I'll try not to make it so long this time

Feel free to go ahead of me, but please don't use the Inca/Tawantinsuyu area.

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Official Name: Obregulan Republic of Tawantinsuyu
Common Name: Tawantinsuyu
Territorial Description: similar to OTL Peru and Ecuador
Capital: Cusco
Government: Single-party Obregulan state. The national government is run almost entirely by a 12-member Grand Council, whose members are chosen entirely by the corrupt higher-ups of Tawantinsuyu Obregulan Party. The ROR has an unofficial veto power of Tawantinsuyu government actions.
Level of Freedom: Medium to low. Speaking out against the government or Obregulanism is not allowed, nor is religious proselytizing.
Population: 41,891,125. Almost entirely full Native, as Aragonese overlords rarely intermixed with non-noble natives. Immigration is allowed, but is uncommon.
Languages: Pan-Quecha is the official language and is understood by almost everyone. Latin is illegal, except in a historical/academic context. Selvobregulan is the most common second language (18%), as are the languages of the other bordering countries.
Religion: Officially atheist, although the government redefined traditional mythology to conform to Obregulan ideals for those unwilling to become atheist. The ROR operates a few Churches of the Holy Flock as well.
Level of Technology and Development: Medium to low. Cusco and a few other cities are well-developed, but the nation is lacking in infrastructure.
History: Tawantinsuyu was not invaded by any European power in the early 1500s like in OTL, but by 1600, Aragon, through political intrigue and a lot of bribes, had essentially turned the empire into a vassal state. The Inca nobles and Latin governors lived a fancy life and began neglecting the needs of the people.  A rebellion was put down harshly in 1680, and the Latins clamped down hard, beginning forced conversions and general misery for the Native population. For nearly 250 years, Aragon and their Inca noble collaborators ruled with an iron fist, but in the 1920s, inspired by the Revolutionary Obregulan Republic, the Tawantinsuyu Rebellion went hot. Aragon might have negotiated, after the Cusco Massacre of 1928, in which dozens of Latin governors and Inca nobles were slaughtered, Aragon sent in the troops. After 5 years of bloody stalemates in Tawantinsuyu and elsewhere on the continent, Aragon's new emperor Alfonso IV decided to withdraw from the continent completely and leave it to its fate. Any remaining Latin or Inca noble who remained was evacuated, and the Tawantinsuyu set up an Obregulan republic.
The Tawantinsuyu spent most of the 20th century as the ROR's right-hand-man and attack dog, often sending troops to keep order in the peripheral, unimportant Obregulan countries that the ROR didn't really care about. This arrangement has caused the Tawantinsuyu economy and standard of living to fare better than the typical Obregulan country, although neither are really that high.
Interesting Fact: During the Tawantinsuyu Rebellion, the rebels decided to destroy almost every Aragonese and Inca noble historical site, to symbolize how these oppressions were over. Historians to this day are quite annoyed at this fact, and even the modern Tawantinsuyu Obregulan Party condemns those actions.

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I'd like to stake a claim, which I will make in a couple hours, in the area of Finland/Estonia/Northwestern Russia. Please leave this area open.

Can you make sure to include Baden on the map, since it somehow got lost?

How do I get to the map and add a place to it?

Once lincoln_wall takes his turn, you can take a turn by adding a country to the map and giving its information and history.  Make sure its history aligns with everyone else's, since this is one single world.



Also, Afleitch, can you make sure your history of White Russia conforms to the established history of the world?  I think there are a few mentions of Lithuania in some other countries, but it shouldn't take any major changes.

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How do I get to the map and add a place to it?

Once lincoln_wall takes his turn, you can take a turn by adding a country to the map and giving its information and history.  Make sure its history aligns with everyone else's, since this is one single world.

Oh, I know about that; I'm just wondering about exactly how I'd go about adding a country to the map. Is it some sort of file thing?

Copy and paste it into Microsoft Paint or some other similar program.  It will be full size when you paste it into there.  Make sure you don't save it is a JPEG which distorts the image.

If you don't have Paint, you can just describe where your country is and the next person can fill it in.

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I'd like to stake a claim, which I will make in a couple hours, in the area of Finland/Estonia/Northwestern Russia. Please leave this area open.

Are you going to take your turn, lincolnwall?

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I've compiled a list of all of the wars.  Let me know if I missed any or if I got anything wrong here:

1400s - Finns, Estonians and Karelians drive out the Swedes.

1488 - Sweden revolts and wins independence from the Danish realm.

1600s or before? - Eighty Years War - England and France came into a personal union of the English king.

1600s - Magello-Castilian War. Castille tried to conquer the Aragonese colony of Tierra del Fuego and Valdivia but failed.

1680 - The Tawantinsuyu rise up against their Aragonese overlords and are harshly and cruelly put down.

1757 - Castile's two New World colonies win independence simultaneously, the [North American] one for liberty and self-determination, Santa Cruz to keep more money for themselves.

1799-1811 - Elodie wins independence from France-England in a war.

1820s - PE1. Apparently begun with a Castile vs. Aragon conflict that ended with an Aragonese victory. The Holy Roman Empire (Germany) fell into Civil War, with different parts fighting on different sides. Baden was on Aragon's side, and the German HRE was dissolved at the end of the war.
While not formally stated, I would assume the Lithuanian Empire's collapse has something to do with PE1 since it happened at the same time. New Caledonia and Siberia become independent.

1820s-1846 - Castile goes through decades of unrest and various coups and dictators before settling down into a republic

1848 - Scottish monarchy overthrown by rebellion, New Caledonia given independence

1880s - PE2. Aragon and England-France were on different sides.
Venice surrendered quickly. Finland was neutral.
Australia secured independence from England-France with Aragon's help at this same time.

1893, 1902, 1910 - Santa Cruz repels commoner's revolutions.

1904 - France-England grants Choka independence, because dealing with the independence movements just aren't worth it anymore.

1913 - An uprising in India drives out the French-English and establishes an independent nation.

1920-1922 - Pan-Celtic War. The Celtic Union wins independence from France-England with the help of Scotland and New Calednoia.

1921 - Obregulan revolution dissolves Santa Cruz and creates the Revolutionary Obregulan Republic.

late 1920s-1933 - Santi-Henri (once a French colony) falls to Obregulan revolution and is incorporated into the Revolutionary Obregulan Republic. Obregulan revolutions also occur in the Aragonese protectorate of Tawantinsuyu and the Aragonese colony of Providència. Aragonese sends troops to put down the rebellion, but they fail, and Aragon withdraws from the continent in 1933. Providència is incorporated into the Revolutionary Obregulan Republic. This may or may not be related to PE3:

1930s - PE3. Castile is on the winning side and is the only country not bombed or invaded, letting it became the most powerful country for a while.
After the war, there is a big wave of decolonization. The Danish realm is reorganized into kingdoms.
Venice, the Celtic Union and Finland were neutral.

1950s or before to present - Aragon and the Revolutionary Obregulan Republic are in a state of cold war, never directly fighting, but supporting various movements worldwide that would install friendly governments to them.

1988-1995 - War of the Nile. Fought Arabia and the United States of East Africa.

1990s - Jamestown falls into Civil War, which nearly rips the country apart. Another country's assistance helps end the war.

? - East Asian Wars. Hokkaido was neutral

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1820s - PE1. Apparently begun with a Castile vs. Aragon conflict that ended with an Aragonese victory. Baden was allied with Aragon, and the war led to the dissoultion of the German Holy Roman Empire.
While not formally stated, I would assume the Lithuanian Empire's collapse has something to do with PE1 since it happened at the same time. New Caledonia and Siberia become independent. Castile, the Holy Roman Empire (Germany), and Lithuania were all on the losing side?

The states comprising the HREGP were scattered between both sides (some were neutral -- see Bavaria)
That's why it dissolved -- there had been wars between component states before but not on this scale.

OK, I'll make that fix.

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Official Name: Crown of Castile
Common Name: Canaries, Castile (to supporters), the Monarchal Castile
Territorial Description: Canary Islands, Madeira, Azores
Government: Constitutional monarchy. Nowadays the king (currently Leon V) doesn't really have much power - it's mostly in the hands of the Chamber of the People
Level of Freedom: Generally high. Similar to OTL Western European countries
Population: 3,500,000
Languages: Castilian (official) 99%. Latin is a common second language
Religion: Catholic (official) 78%, Other Christian 8%, Jewish 2%, Other 1%, Irreligious 11%
Level of Technology and Development: High. The islands are all covered in high quality roads and the government operates high-quality low-cost transportation by sea and air between the islands.
History: It was always a Castilian tradition for a king to appoint his oldest son as the Duke of the Canaries with some limited autonomy to get practice at governing so they wouldn't have to learn on the job. Just in case, other sons or brothers would be made dukes of Madeira and the Azores, which were much less populated. Sancho III was crowned King of Castile in 1823 during PE1 and appointed his 14-year-old son Martin as Duke of the Canaries. Unfortunately for Sancho, the aftermath of PE1 saw mass rebellions and the deposing of the king. Martin, on the other hand was much shrewder than people expected and was able to maintain martial law in the Canaries. After Sancho died in house arrest in 1845, the now-36-year-old claimed to be the rightful King of Castile and was supported by most of the population of the Canary Islands. Many monarchists from mainland Castile fled to the Canaries to live in the kingdom. Martin was able to secure Madeira and the Azores as part of his kingdom (since they had been governed by his uncles), and he made sure Aragon and the Pope recognized him as the rightful King of Castile, but he never actually tried to reconquer the mainland.
The Canaries are closely allied with Aragon, fighting alongside with them in PE2 and PE3. Since then, they've made little impact on the world stage.
Interesting Fact: The monarch still claim the title of King of Castile today. Mainland Castile just thinks of this as silly and cute, and the two countries have a friendly relationship.

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History: Fomerly part of the Kingdom of Poland-Lithuania and fought over by Muscovy, the Principality became independent in 1825. It has retrained it’s independence since then.

I think that ties up the inconsistency.  White Russia breaks away as the Lithuanian Empire falls apart, and Muscovy (another remnant of the Lithuanian Empire?) tries to take over it, but fails.

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Claiming.  Let's get this going again.

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Official Name: Zhōngguó [Mandarian for "Middle Kingdom"]
Common Name: Zhōngguó
Territorial Description: OTL China around Beijing and the Yellow River
Capital Beijing
Government: Constitutional Monarchy with a 400-member People's Council that helps make laws
Level of Freedom: Medium. Higher than current OTL China, but not much higher
Population: 975,184,000
Languages: Mandarin 81%, Jin 13%, Other 6%
Religion: Confucianism 24%, Taoism 21%, Buddhism 16%, Catholic 6%, Islam 4% Lithuanian Orthodox 2%, Jewish 2%, Varying folk and tribal religions 11%, Other 1%, None 13%
Level of Technology and Development: Varies from very high in the major cities to very low in the rural areas
History: The _____ Dynasty fell apart in the late 1500s, and China never reunited again, splitting into ~5 competing states. The most powerful of these successors was based in Beijing and became known as Zhōngguó, which simply means Middle Kingdom or Central Kingdom. Zhōngguó was friendly to the Lithuanians coming across the continent and generally was happy to trade with the Europeans as long as the Europeans meddled in the other Chinese states and not Zhōngguó.
Zhōngguó was always a major player in the East Asian Wars, and 82-year period from 1845 to 1927 which saw intermittent fighting and periods of uneasy peace, usually with Zhōngguó allied with [a Japanese state], facing off against [Chinese state to the South]. Each of the 4 major wars had varying allies, including some from outside Asia, and there were a number of minor skirmishes classified under the East Asian Wars as well.
Zhōngguó "won" in 1853, "lost" in 1871, lost again in 1884, and won again in 1911, but in the end, Zhōngguó maintained its kingdom while Joseon and [Chinese state to the South] eventually fell to a rebellion and the two sides have had lasting peace ever since. Today, Zhōngguó is a key member of the East Asian Bloc (a fourth major bloc of countries after Europe's old monarchies, the newer republics, and the Obregulan bloc). Thanks largely to Zhōngguó's shrewdness, the East Asian Bloc has secured warm relations and favorable trading deals with members of all three blocs, which has jumpstarted the economy and development of the entire region.
Interesting Fact: Zhōngguó is the only country with a space program that has landed human beings on the moon, although some of the later missions included astronauts from other countries. Zhōngguó and the East Asian Bloc have announced plans for a lunar base by 2030, although most people think the plan is unrealistically ambitious.

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Are people losing interest?  I would love to see this world completed

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I'm still interested, though it becomes tricky to take into account all of the different aspects of the history. I'll get an idea for a certain country, then realize it contradicts a neighbouring one and have to start over.

Currently working on something in the western US.

You can always post a partial idea and we discuss it as a group if you're not sure exactly how to make it fit into everything.

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Official Name: Republik von Kreutzerstaat
Common Name: Kreutzerstaat
Territorial Description: similar to OTL Colombia south of 7°N
Capital Hofmann, near OTL Buenaventura
Government: Single-party Obregulan state, although essentially a totalitarian state run by narcissistic General Alfred Schluss
Level of Freedom: Low. Speaking out against the government is not allowed. Religious services are not allowed. The only legal news source is provided by the government.
Population: 18,192,100. Around 40% white and 60% Native in total, which the biracial percentage at 35% and rising.
Languages: Revolutionary German is the official legal language and the one that citizens are supposed to use at all times. Selvobregulan is often understood by the educated.
Religion: None is allowed. There are underground Christian churches, but if caught, the leaders are almost always executed immediately
Level of Technology and Development: Medium. The government is hesitant to allow any new technology that it thinks may help in its overthrow, although there is a thriving black market for the newest products.
History: The area that is now Kreutzerstaat was claimed by [one or more German states - we'll figure out which once they're all filled in] in the 1600s and was considered legally a part of the HREGP, By the 1780s, it had become the HREGP's place to send criminals, troublemakers, and heretics, and had grown to a population of 50,000 Europeans. After the HREGP broke up after PE1, the colony became an independent country and sought to be a protectorate of Aragon. Marketed as a home for Germans who wanted to live in peace away from all the bickering of the post-HRE German states, immigration was high. As a young man, Johann Kreutzer spent some time in the country that now bears his name, inspiring labor leaders and university officials to advocate for Kreutzerian society. By the time the Obregulan revolution began sweeping the continent, there was already a large Kreutzerian organization that took the reins and established the new government and renamed the nation after their fellow German and one-time resident.
For the first decade, Kreutzerstaat actually ran smoothly, as the standard of living rose dramatically, but in 1945, a mini-revolution secretly funded by the ROR swept several party leaders out of power and replaced them with power-hungry despots who were essentially Selvan puppets. Freedom levels dropped. Religion was formally expelled rather than just discouraged. The ROR would allow chairman after chairman to seize power, seemingly on a whim, each more paranoid and power-hungry than the last, and the needs of the people were no longer considered.  The government was unstable for 20 years until Alfred Schluss took power in 1964. His methods were often so brutal that the ROR considered removing him for humanist reasons, but he always kept such good order that Kreutzerstaat never presented any problems to the outside world.
Schluss is growing old now, and no one knows how his death would change the country. For all his oppressive tactics, his overwhelming charisma and public joviality has made him popular with his people.
Interesting Fact: The government of Kreutzerstaat actively encourages people to marry and reproduce with members of a different race, in order to create a single biracial group of people with no racism or biases.