Map Monday: Colonisation of the Japanese Archipelago by Rubberduck3y6

In our timeline, Japan managed to maintain its independence even as the European colonial powers were gobbling up as much territory as possible. But what if it had succumbed to European territorial ambitions?

This is the "Colonisation of the Japanese Archipelago" by Rubberduck3y6. In this world it seems that the Tokugawa shogunate ended four years earlier due to a failure to modernize and European pressure. The Dutch, British and French all carve out spheres of influence, but a small area around Edo and Nagoya managed to maintain its independence before kicking out the Emperor and declaring a republic. Otherwise information about this alternate history is scarce.

There is a brief mention of "British Tartary". Wikipedia tells me that Tartary refers to territory in between the Ural Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. How the Hell did the British get there? Sadly I couldn't find any additional information on this timeline so I can only speculate about how such a place came to be. Otherwise the map is nice looking and the text doesn't have any major spelling and grammar issues. Good job, Rubberduck3y6.

Honorable mentions this week go out to "A Different Reality In These Splendid Islands" by Gian, "The Kingdoms of North America" by Zek Sora and "The Continent of Europe in 1450 AD shortly before the voyages of Nicklas Lund" by Rebecca "Upvoteanthology" Stirling.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger for Amazing Stories, a volunteer interviewer for SFFWorld and a Sidewise Awards for Alternate History judge. When not exploring alternate timelines he enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the day when travel between parallel universes becomes a reality. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.

Map Monday: Empires Earth cover by Bruce Munro

An early community of alternate historians that had a major impact on me creatively was the Alternate History Travel Guides. It was a shared universe where members created travel guides for their own alternate Earths that were all connected by an "Interdimensional Transit Agency". Although the group has been quiet over these last few years, you can still find some of their work using the Wayback Machine.

One of my favorite Earths from the AHTG was "Empires Earth" by Randy McDonald (who is currently a volunteer admin on Alternate History Online). I have probably read this scenario more than hundred times and elements of it have appeared in some of my own works. So when I learned that Bruce Munro had created a cover of Empires Earth, I was ecstatic. Check it out below:

The above is actually the second draft and it contains suggestions from Randy himself, but you can still see an uncorrected draft here. The map has all the usual features of a Munroist map, but its his version of the story that I enjoy the most. For those unfamiliar, Empires Earth is a world where European Imperialism never ended and the world is dominated by large empires who cooperate together to maintain stability. Some unusual features to this alternate history include an Anglo-Dutch Empire, a Prussia that never united Germany but nevertheless has a larger overseas empire than the OTL German Empire and a French superpower.

Bruce's revisions contain his usual style of humor and moves the point of divergence to the Napoleonic era rather than the American Civil War of the original scenario. That all being said, Bruce's map and scenario mostly complements the original Empires Earth without taking anything away. You can read and enjoy both by looking at them as different people with very different points of view commenting on the same world.

Honorable mentions this week go out to Easternized World 2012 by Bruce Munro (description here) and Eighteen Ninety-Four by Rvbomally. If you want to submit a map for the next Map Monday, email me at ahwupdate at gmail dot com with your map attached and a brief description in the body of the email.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger on Amazing Stories and a Sidewise Awards for Alternate History judge. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the day when travel between parallel universes becomes a reality. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.