Flag Friday: Alternate Flag of Puerto Rico by Rubberduck3y6

A couple weeks ago I covered one of Rubberduck3y6's flags he has been making for his Alternate US Flags series. After going through the the 50 states, he has now moved on to the American territories, including Puerto Rico.

This is Rubberduck3y6's "Alternate Flag of Puerto Rico". Its very similar to the current flag of Puerto Rico, except with less stripes, no red coloring and more stars. Some of the meanings behind the symbols and colors have also changed. The white bars in the current flag stand for the republican form of government, while the single white bar in the alternate design represents the Spanish colonial period. The blue of the triangle was also meant to symbolize the coastal waters and resemble that of the flag of the United States, but in Rubberduck3y6's redesign, it just represents the Caribbean Sea.

The flag itself is a simple redesign, but I do like it. It moves the current flag away from its resemblance to the American flag, which people who would like to see Puerto Rico as independent state might like.

What do you think of the flag?

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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.

Flag Friday: Alternate TX Flag by Rubberduck3y6

In case you guys don't follow the Flag Thread at AlternateHistory.com, one alternate vexillologist who has caught my eye is Rubberduck3y6. Although I have featured his maps before (here and here), this is the first time I am featuring any of his flags. He has a long running series called "Alternate US Flags" where he redesigns the flags of the American states and while I have featured almost all of them on social media, none have stuck out enough to make it on Flag Friday...until now.

This is what I am calling the "Alternate TX Flag" and as you can probably guess, it is a redesign of the flag of Texas. Let me just say that I love this flag. Its like someone took Captain America's shield and made a flag out of it. It screams America in a bold and bright way, which is probably why its the flag of Texas actually.

I could explain what it all means, but I think its best you hear it straight from Rubberduck3y6: The flag is dominated by the famous Lone Star of Texas which gives the state its nickname of the "Lone Star State", contained within a blue disc to symbolise the motto from the obverse of the state seal, "One and Indivisible". The six white stripes represent the six nations which have controlled all or part of Texas (France, Spain, Mexico, independent Texas, the Confederacy and the United States) and also suggest two outstretched hands recalling the state motto of "Friendship" and a possible meaning of the name Texas, which is believed to mean "friends" in the Caddo language. The red and white stripes also recall the flag of the United States.

By the way, if you click on the link in the paragraph just below the flag, you can also see Rubberduck3y6's redesigns for Tennessee, Utah, Vermont and Virginia.

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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.

Top 5 Posts from May 2016

Thankfully I was able to get this in before we got to far into June. So enough talking, here are the most viewed articles from last month:

1) Map Monday: Colonisation of the Japanese Archipelago by Rubberduck3y6 by Matt Mitrovich.

2) Map Monday: Alternate North America 1789 by YNot1989 by Matt Mitrovich.

3) Dystopia in Alternate History by Rvbomally.

4) Anime Review: Hetalia by Sam McDonald.

5) Weekly Update #233! Time After Time Picked Up by ABC and More by Matt Mitrovich.

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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: 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: Ursalia by Rubberduck3y6

As perfect as many of you see me as, even I make the rare mistake. For example, when I saw Rubberduck3y6's map of an expanded United States I thought it looked well done, but I otherwise was not impressed by the lack of story, so I didn't mention it in last week's Map Monday. Nevertheless, when I saw his companion map for the nation of Ursalia, I just had to talk about it this week:

Like his last map, Ursalia lacks a story, but its the questions I have about its history that really intrigues me. Did this form out of the Hudson Bay Company's territory that the British maintained after losing the more populous parts of Canada to the USA? What is the culture of Ursalia like and do the Métis and Aboriginal Canadians have a greater role in this society? Is Ursalia part of the Commonwealth (if it exists in this TL) or is it a republic? So many questions. I would love to see a more fleshed-out scenario.

I end today's Map Monday by recommending the website Brilliant Maps, which has posted some awesomely weird maps lately, like what if the Mongol Empire reunited or Europe according to the Vikings in 1000 AD. 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 and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.