Map Monday: Carolina and Friends 1800 by Rebecca Stirling

I love maps when there is an alternate colonization of the east coast of North America. The most recent find of its kind has to be "Carolina and Friends 1800" by Map Monday veteran Rebecca Stirling:

Wow, that is a long map once you put it in blog form. Anywho, this is a map from Rebecca's "The Faraway Kingdom", which I admit I haven't read, but it appears to involve the Stuarts founding a kingdom-in-exile in North America. So I am definitely going to have to check it out because I love Stuart-oriented timelines like that.

The map itself is a well-done balkanized North America. I especially like how Rebecca doesn't use dark blues for the ocean. Its a nice touch that you see again and again in her maps that I don't think I have commented on yet. Plus it has plenty of details without being too busy.

I am little curious about why Pennsylvania is called Georgia in this timeline. I'm pretty sure Georgia in our timeline was named after the Hannoverian King George II, but why would the Stuarts name one of their provinces after those who replaced them? I don't know, maybe its explained in the timeline itself.

Honorable mentions this week go out to "Gauls Shank Rome" by Bruce Munro and the "Sovereign Republic of Nubia" by Aven.

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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: Alternate North America 1789 by YNot1989

AlternateHistory.com was down this weekend for an upgrade and there were many alternate historians who didn't know what to do while they waited for the forum to come back. Some suggested checking out other alternate history sites, which I thought was a great idea. In fact, lets look at an alternate history map from outside the forum:

This is "Alternate North America 1789" (a.k.a. "The Revolution's Rangers" and that link will take you to a short timeline) by YNot1989 and I found it on Imaginary Maps subreddit. In this timeline the Americans, with the help of wealthy inventor Theodore Bell of New York, mop the floor with the British early on in the American Revolution thanks to better technology (repeating rifles, steam engines, etc.). By the time of this map, the United States includes Canada and there is the unrecognized state of Iroquois. Slavery is ending as steam tractors are cheaper then keeping a plantation of slaves and it looks like it will be abolished when the new Constitution is finally adopted.

As far as I can tell, this timeline is based on another YNot1989's timeline, "Our Revolution", which can currently be found on the AltHistory Wiki. The point of divergence for that timeline is that Theo, his friends and their school's campus in 2010 Arizona is sent back in time to 1775. Considering that the point of divergence for the map is actually 1773, we may consider this an update of an old idea. Still I like the old fashioned look of the map and the soft colors. I'm curious why the revolutionaries didn't also get Florida (since it was British territory at the time) as well considering how good they did early on in the Revolutionary War, but it is a minor nitpick in an otherwise good map.

Honorable mention this week goes out to "Pilgrimage of the Faithful" and "Kingdom of Poland 1917" by Zalezsky, "The Hajj to Earth" by Krall and "A map for the Earth of Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente" by Bruce Munro. If you want more mappy goodness, go check out Lynn "ToixStory" Davis' Map Commission Guide and San's "The Proportional States of America".

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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.

The Alternate History Map That Fooled The Internet

My old nemesis has returned, so I made this short video as a call to action to prevent it from happening again.

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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. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.

Map Monday: The Baaid Maghreb by thomas.berubeg

Alternate American colonization timelines are one of my favorite kinds of timelines. I enjoy it when people speculate about different cultures settling different areas of the Americas then what happened in OTL. So I naturally gravitated to this map by thomas.berubeg when he posted it for one of AlternateHistory.com's many map contests:

This is actually just one of many maps Thomas included in his short scenario: "The Age of Exchange (The Far Maghreb)". In this alternate timeline, the Viking colony of Vinland is more successful, leading to an earlier die off due among the Native Americans. Although contact is eventually lost with the colonists after the Little Ice Age, knowledge of the New World is more widespread leading to the Sultan of Morocco to send an expedition to rediscover the continents in 1421, sparking a Muslim colonization of Middle America and the conversion to Islam by many of the more advanced Native American states who had recovered from Old World diseases.

This world has Muslim Mesoamericans, English knights in the South and a lost colony of Vikings, what more could you ask for? On top of that the map itself is well done and I liked the use of the Arabic script. If you haven't already, go check out Thomas' scenario.

Honorable mention this week goes out to Rick Noack's upside down map quiz on The Washington Post. 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. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.

Map Monday: North America in A Canticle for Leibowitz, circa the mid-26th century by Tsar of New Zealand

Today's Map Monday doesn't feature an alternate history, but it does feature a map from a world that many alternate historians have embraced. I am talking about A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. I read this book years ago and I enjoyed it immensely, but I have never reviewed it. So just a quick review: I highly recommend you go and read A Canticle for Leibowitz. It is set in the former United States in three different time periods following the aftermath of a nuclear war. It has great world-building, strong Catholic themes (without being overly preachy) and a warning about the dangers if history repeats itself.

Enough about the book, lets take a look at the map. This one is done by Tsar of New Zealand, who has been featured on Map Monday before for his maps based on published works. This time he has covered North America in A Canticle for Leibowitz, circa the mid-26th century (~600 years since the Flame Deluge):

The time period sets the map at the beginning of A Canticle for Leibowitz. Admittedly the map is very simple and has few details, but it is still cool to see someone use the common AlternateHistory.com map template for one of my favorite post apocalyptic books. Hopefully we will see more maps from Tsar of New Zealand set during A Canticle for Leibowitz timeline, especially ones outside North America, which Miller wrote so little about.

Honorable mentions this week goes out to Brilliant Maps for sharing the "Territorial Waters & Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) Of The World" map. 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. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.

Map Monday: Some North America Or Other, 2014 by Bruce Munro

Bruce Munro makes his return to Map Monday (the last time was in July with "Mumby's Broken America") with his map "Some North America Or Other, 2014" (or "Canada Wankery"):

This map is set in a world where France holds onto Quebec and thus a French Canada covers the Great White North. The reason I picked this map, however, was because I was thinking of a similar scenario just the other day about whether France could have won the Seven Years' War/French and Indian War. Looking at some of the comments to my question does bring up some plausibility issues for Bruce's scenario, but it still is an interesting look at a more French North America. I won't say too much about the art style, since "Munroist" style maps are recognizable at AlternateHistory.com.

Honorable mention this week also goes to Bruce Munro's cover of Miserism's map of a steampunk world featuring a surviving Cordova. With so much steampunk being set in Victorian England, its a nice change of pace to get a different culture emphasized. 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.

Map Monday: Map of North America, 1750 by PlatoonSgt

I have always been interested in timelines where the British do not dominate the east coast of North America, so I of course took notice of this map from PlatoonSgt which was posted at AlternateHistory.com:

This map is from PlatoonSgt's timeline Where Hearts Were Entertaining June. It is set in a world where the little known English Armada was more successful in breaking the power of the Spanish navy. I hope to catch up with the timeline in the near future, but to get back to the map, in this timeline the British colonize Brazil and the Gulf Region, leaving the east coast to the French, Dutch and Portuguese. Although I am not sure yet where PlatoonSgt plans to take his timeline (although he hints at Brazil becoming a world power), it does seem we are looking at a North America that is more divided and ethnically diverse than it is in our timeline. Should be interesting.

Honorable mentions this week go to Flags of the Confederacy by xt828 and the Kingdom of Boa Esperança by Reagent. If you want to submit a map for consideration 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.