The Latin American Wars of Independence tend to get ignored in English-language alternate history, for the simple reason that most of the best literature about them is probably written in Spanish. Which is a shame, because they have an enormous number of Great Men in their ranks. Bolivar. San Martin. And my favorite, Bernardo O'Higgins, founding father of Chile - not so much for anything he did, but because he has such a wonderfully implausible name.
Wars of Independence happen in Andalusada too, during the breakdown of Umayyad Seville - but obviously not the same ones, because by the time the wars Spanish history is 700 years gone. There are still going to be lots of Great Men in the histories of those wars; Yusuf I is one of them.
In Cabralia, by sheer coincidence (and authorial fiat), the greatest of those Great Men shared an unlikely set of names that leads to them being internationally known, in all languages, as "the Three Wise Men." This is their introduction.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
The Great Realignment
By the year 1650, Andalusada's modern European balance of power had been set more or less in stone. The Holy Roman Empire was a shattered mess, still recovering from the Hanseatic Wars; it was moribund, surviving only vicariously. Hungary, Poland-Ruthenia, and to an extent Pomerania were in better shape, but all of them were tied up with the threat from the east - either the post-Byzantine Turkic juggernaut or the irresistible rise of mighty Tver as it gobbled up Lithuania. In the west, there were only two powers that mattered - Imperial Seville (by that point late into the Five Families period) and its continental counterweight, dystopian Catholic France, itself starting to establish a serious global presence. All the other nations (England, the Portuguese Empire, the rise of little Castille, and eventually what consolidated into Denmark-Sweden) were second-tier at best.
That status quo definitely survives for another century, despite the Five Families period ending with the Miramoline and the transfer of a big chunk of continental America out of French control. It might survive for another 50 years after that, even. But by 1850, the global stage has changed wildly.
For starters, after 1100 years, Muslim control over southern Iberia is over. Once-mighty Seville is gone, spinning off the UCNA, the G.P. of Mexico, and Gran Peru (amongst many other countries.) Portugal's not doing so hot either, having lost most of its new world holdings to Cabralia and the CRC. Across the world, the once-inexorable rise of France has been halted or curtailed - not least in France itself, where a new dynasty has ended the dystopia. And now it's opposed by, of all things, a united British Isles, which hadn't existed since the 1300s.
By 1850, the world had changed enough that the power struggles were between totally different sides. The era before 1850, however long that may have taken, is known to historians as the Great Realignment.
That status quo definitely survives for another century, despite the Five Families period ending with the Miramoline and the transfer of a big chunk of continental America out of French control. It might survive for another 50 years after that, even. But by 1850, the global stage has changed wildly.
For starters, after 1100 years, Muslim control over southern Iberia is over. Once-mighty Seville is gone, spinning off the UCNA, the G.P. of Mexico, and Gran Peru (amongst many other countries.) Portugal's not doing so hot either, having lost most of its new world holdings to Cabralia and the CRC. Across the world, the once-inexorable rise of France has been halted or curtailed - not least in France itself, where a new dynasty has ended the dystopia. And now it's opposed by, of all things, a united British Isles, which hadn't existed since the 1300s.
By 1850, the world had changed enough that the power struggles were between totally different sides. The era before 1850, however long that may have taken, is known to historians as the Great Realignment.
The Takasagonese
"If you change it far enough back," I wrote two months ago, "you start getting ethnicities that don't exist IRL." Changing colonial histories, and you get things like most of the American South being French Farrellites... or a Lusophone *Philippines instead of a Hispanophone one, because Cabral didn't sail for Spain... or Yevanic surviving to the present day because there's a totally different Sephardi diaspora. Or, as I started the list with, a Japonicized *Taiwan.
Today, boys and girls, the post is about that Japonicized *Taiwan. Meet the Takasagonese.
Today, boys and girls, the post is about that Japonicized *Taiwan. Meet the Takasagonese.
April 5th
Everywhere that Persian language and culture have ever been hegemonic, Muslims still celebrate the distinctly Persian holiday of Nawruz (however so spelled.) About a thousand years ago, al-Andalus had a holiday of its own: al-khamsa al-Abril, "April 5th."
There was no religious significance to the day - it was simply created as an excuse for Muslims to get drunk with Christian neighbors on Easter. (Doubtless there were April 5th jokes in all the years when it came later than that.) We know it existed for the very simple reason that the ulama felt a recurring need to remind everybody that it was a reprehensible bid'a and was never observed in the time of the righteous ancestors.
al-Andalus collapsed, obviously, and that collapse is a big part of why April 5th is no longer celebrated like that today. In Andalusada, just as obviously, it didn't collapse, and that holiday continued to be celebrated, for long enough that it wound up becoming a distinctive of Moorish civ, just as much as Nawruz is for the Persianate world.
There was no religious significance to the day - it was simply created as an excuse for Muslims to get drunk with Christian neighbors on Easter. (Doubtless there were April 5th jokes in all the years when it came later than that.) We know it existed for the very simple reason that the ulama felt a recurring need to remind everybody that it was a reprehensible bid'a and was never observed in the time of the righteous ancestors.
al-Andalus collapsed, obviously, and that collapse is a big part of why April 5th is no longer celebrated like that today. In Andalusada, just as obviously, it didn't collapse, and that holiday continued to be celebrated, for long enough that it wound up becoming a distinctive of Moorish civ, just as much as Nawruz is for the Persianate world.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
The Blackfriars Bible
"One small but important problem," I derped last month, "is that no recognizable brand exists in Andalusada." I retract that statement; this is a big problem. And it's not just guns that are affected: it's everything that I love - food, liquor, philosophy. Even Bibles.
Obviously there's going to be the Günther Bible, and both Oliver Farrell's Vulgate and his translation from the Opus Transtulit. But those aren't the only ones, and the simple fact is that even if Catholicism keeps Latin as its liturgical language and does its utmost to dissuade the vernacular, the vernacular is established by the time they face competition. It's not going to go away; the most that Rome can do is have a say in its relationship to the vernacular Word.
This is particularly problematic to me because, as far as I can tell, Anglicanism doesn't exist: there's no reason to imagine that the British Isles don't stay devoutly Catholic (albeit undergoing some reforms to purge what its elites consider the worst excesses of Mariolatry and the like.) I'm not sure what the successions of kings, English or Scottish, look like - all I know is that even if there is a King James of England and Scotland (and there will be an England-Scotland, mark my words), he is NOT the same King James that gave us the 1611 Authorized Version.
So today I'm going to introduce the KJV's equivalent: the Blackfriars Bible.
Obviously there's going to be the Günther Bible, and both Oliver Farrell's Vulgate and his translation from the Opus Transtulit. But those aren't the only ones, and the simple fact is that even if Catholicism keeps Latin as its liturgical language and does its utmost to dissuade the vernacular, the vernacular is established by the time they face competition. It's not going to go away; the most that Rome can do is have a say in its relationship to the vernacular Word.
This is particularly problematic to me because, as far as I can tell, Anglicanism doesn't exist: there's no reason to imagine that the British Isles don't stay devoutly Catholic (albeit undergoing some reforms to purge what its elites consider the worst excesses of Mariolatry and the like.) I'm not sure what the successions of kings, English or Scottish, look like - all I know is that even if there is a King James of England and Scotland (and there will be an England-Scotland, mark my words), he is NOT the same King James that gave us the 1611 Authorized Version.
So today I'm going to introduce the KJV's equivalent: the Blackfriars Bible.
Gran Peru
I've seriously thought about regulating the writing of my other blog. This one? Not so much.
This blog is a place for me to do all my spontaneous writing and get it into a format that other people can read. If it's disorganized, it's because I'm disorganized; 850 years of universe to completely rewrite is a long, long time. I write the stuff that's interesting to me (which is why there's a lot of theology and food), I ignore the stuff I don't know anything about, and nobody complains because nobody even comments here. This is a vanity project; I have all the time in the world to get this stuff hammered out.
But it does mean that I can go months at a time without acknowledging really big things. It's why Taiping China gets a lot of love, but the 3-4 dynasties that precede it (all the way back to the Song, actually) are completely unaccounted for. Or why I just now started writing about stuff that I knew from the very beginning of the blogging, like the CRC's existence.
Or, for that matter, the existence of Cabralia's big regional power: Gran Peru. In a continent dominated by the G.P. of Cabralia and the endless cascade of juntas and caudillos just to their south, Gran Peru is an anomaly: a stable, safe island of accountable government and honest elections. This is where it's introduced.
...so that's the why and wherefore. Now for the rest of it:
This blog is a place for me to do all my spontaneous writing and get it into a format that other people can read. If it's disorganized, it's because I'm disorganized; 850 years of universe to completely rewrite is a long, long time. I write the stuff that's interesting to me (which is why there's a lot of theology and food), I ignore the stuff I don't know anything about, and nobody complains because nobody even comments here. This is a vanity project; I have all the time in the world to get this stuff hammered out.
But it does mean that I can go months at a time without acknowledging really big things. It's why Taiping China gets a lot of love, but the 3-4 dynasties that precede it (all the way back to the Song, actually) are completely unaccounted for. Or why I just now started writing about stuff that I knew from the very beginning of the blogging, like the CRC's existence.
Or, for that matter, the existence of Cabralia's big regional power: Gran Peru. In a continent dominated by the G.P. of Cabralia and the endless cascade of juntas and caudillos just to their south, Gran Peru is an anomaly: a stable, safe island of accountable government and honest elections. This is where it's introduced.
Gran Peru 101
Why Gran Peru? At its heart, Gran Peru is a space-filling empire....so that's the why and wherefore. Now for the rest of it:
- Who? A bunch of mestizos, even more pure Andean aborigines (Quechua and Aymara are both recognized Peruvian languages), and some Swiss in there for good measure.
- What? "The little republic that could," say my oldest notes; "more cocaine and less banking, but 'Andean Switzerland' is still frighteningly accurate." The only part about it that doesn't fit the bill is "little," because going by Wikipedia Gran Peru is definitely one of the ten largest countries on the planet, jealously either rivaled or rivaling
ArgentinaPatagonia. - Where? Obviously, the Peru-Bolivian Commonwealth. It also pushes north a fair bit, encompassing most of Ecuador and stray bits of Colombia and Brazil. (The exact extent of it is a bit unclear; the southernmost parts of Gran Peru are contested with the CRC, and there are a few lowland jungles in the easternmost extent that are claimed by both Cabralia and the CRC.)
- When? Not sure about the beginnings; different parts conglomerate at different times. But it does survive to the present day.
Monday, July 9, 2012
The CRC
Early on, I realized that on the map, ca. 1930, there was an enormous empty space with the words "South America" scratched out and replaced with "Cabralia." Given that nature, and alternate history, abhors a vacuum, I set out to fill it in with... what, exactly?
Cabralia is obviously going to be in there somewhere (a *Bonapartist empire, because the Empire of Brazil already exists, and it's called the UCNA.) But since Brazil is always the dominant power of alt-South America (because it's the biggest, see, and that means it's the most important), and I wanted something different, there's also going to be Gran Peru, the awesome republic that could. But that still leaves the entire Southern Cone unaccounted for.
So, from early on, I created the CRC, which I've been remiss in ignoring up to this point.
Cabralia is obviously going to be in there somewhere (a *Bonapartist empire, because the Empire of Brazil already exists, and it's called the UCNA.) But since Brazil is always the dominant power of alt-South America (because it's the biggest, see, and that means it's the most important), and I wanted something different, there's also going to be Gran Peru, the awesome republic that could. But that still leaves the entire Southern Cone unaccounted for.
So, from early on, I created the CRC, which I've been remiss in ignoring up to this point.
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