Silas-Coldwine on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/silas-coldwine/art/Onze-Wereld-166288895Silas-Coldwine

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Onze Wereld

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This world, essentially a DutchWank, started to diverge in the Times of William of Oranje, with the first huge change being a greater consolidation of Protestantism, and Spain aknowledging the lost of the Spanish Netherlands in the late 16th century.

The religious wars of the 17th century followed a different path, and were even worse for Spain, while substantially better for Brandenburg and the Netherlands, which expanded mainland. Over time, the colonial path diverged considerably. The greater Dutch expansion made Britain and the Netherlands to engage in a Great Game of of sorts (and the British to get increasingly closer to Austria and Spain Against France-Netherlands-Brandenburg), and a series of Anglo-Dutch Wars that Britain lost, eventually consolidating as a relevant power, but never reaching the level of dominance of OTL.

The existence of the Sun King as we know him was averted, but not the Polish partition, nor the dynastic and political crisis in Spain, that was kept by the Hapsburgs this time -and expelled from Portugal as IOTL.

During the 18th century, new political developements became common. This time the French Revolution was averted, but contractualism and enlightened despotism of sorts still appeared in France, forcing compromise reforms in a fashion that rapidly and violently spread south of the Pyrenees. There was no American independece in OTL's sense, but there were independence movements in America. In Spain, it happened more steadily and in lesser scope, though inexorably. Greater Peru, a caudillist dictatorship of sorts, is economicaly and militarily the most successful, and excercises a great influence over South America. In North America, the northernmost French posessions pulled a USA, while the Hudson's Bay Company totally broke ties with the British. The westernmost parts of the British Empire seceded late in the 19th century, under a vaguely libertarian and homesteader ideal, with Dutch backing.

Most notably, the Netherlands, in which the Trade Companies and wealthy particulars were starting to grow wary of the Oranje house, switched to the old Republican -read as "aristocratic"- formula. "Convergence" is the usual TTL equivalent for a sort of corporate statist oligopoly, based on wealth and accomplishment -and, until the late 20th century, on gender and race. Brandenburg and Britain evolved in these lines -the first under the lines of an "enlightened military", Britain still preserving the old monarchical and parliamentary frames. China modernized under those lines much later, but in a more Confucianist-totalitarian fashion. Russia remained mostly feudal and backwards, though notable progresses have been made in the later decades, and they left their mark in North America, where the Grand Duchy of Aleyska is becoming considerably more prosper (though inevitably still much less relevant) than their Big Daddy.

This more vigorous Austria that pushed the Ottomans back to Asia (It got better, as they successfully pulled a Meiji in the 19th century) faced extensive reforms just to survive: now it's a multinational federation that runs on a "bound by the King we stand, divided the Turks will eat us alive" premise.

Finally, a really weird syncretic, anti-colonial universalist religion emerged in Northern India (they could be compared to Baha'is with assault rifles) in the early 20th century, which made an expansion unparalleled since the birth of Islam. The Central Asian blob, much more prosper than IOTL, is the result.

The world is in a successful state of equilibrium under the Dutch rule. Most countries are frenemies to each other and peace is kept by the treat of  a mutual destruction of which the Netherlands has greater chances to get alive.  A large chunk of the Sahara and the Sahel were declared International Exclusion Zone under multilateral agreement, which means they cannot be claimed nor tresspassed. There are, of course, exceptions: The Capital Punishment in the exclusion-bordering countries is a choice between execution and confinment into the IEZ.

Technology is positively cyberpunkish. Unfortunately, the same could be said about the city pollution levels in this heavy industry-oriented world, where acid rain and thick layers of smog are usual happenings pretty much everywhere, with severe measures being taken just recently.

This world is far wealthier and enjoys a better distributed wealth.. when it comes to territories, definitely not when it comes to people. Inside the most corporate powers, architecture tends to the carefully ornamented and structurally intimidating in the outside -Rotterdam and Nieuw Amsterdam would bring Tim Burton's Gotham City to mind- and to the minimalist and dull on the inside, for frugality and discipline are universally encouraged in daily activities. It's much more of a superpopulated urban world but with less suburbia, and "public" commuting and cycling are the norm: owning a private transport, normally a small helicopter equivalent, is a distinction factor.
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Comments1
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QuantumBranching's avatar
Haven't seen this one before: some interesting ideas here.