Hello, readers. By this point in time, I’ve been working on EC/FC for nearly four years, and have covered a period of time stretching from the POD in 1628 all the way up into the middle of the 20th Century. It has truly been a wonderful journey with you all, and I already look fondly upon the memories of being up late at night plugging away on this project. With that said, I’ve got a few things to go over when it comes to the future of this TL…
First, I’ve got a bit of writer’s block right now. I just don’t know what I want to cover on my next update(s). The latter half of the 20th Century up to the present just seems like a rather boring time to write about. The period after the Second World War IOTL has been called
The Long Peace, as there have been no wars between major industrialized countries since then and the world has become more interconnected and interdependent, whether that lasts is anyone’s question.
Now, there’s no reason for TTL’s world from 1945 to the present to resemble our own, but my perceptions of what is plausible for this world are obviously shaped by what happened in our own. As a result, something like, say, a continent-wide war in Europe after 1950 seems like a completely foreign concept to me, since there hasn’t been a continent-wide European war in our world since World War Two. With this in mind, I don’t know if I even want to bring the written timeline to the present day. With how many areas of the world I have to cover, it’d probably take at least another year at my current pace, maybe two, to reach the present day. I’ve thought of doing a few updates covering each region of the world, giving a summary on what happens between the Mid 20th Century and the present, so I could then get on to the Maps & Graphics adaptation, where I’ll fill in more of the lore for the latter half of the 20th Century and the first two decades of the 21st.
Speaking of lore, I’ll be honest with you guys, there are significant pieces of this timeline’s canon that I don’t particularly like, and would want to alter in a Maps & Graphics TL. For example, the Second Global War (1911-1916) really doesn’t set up well for the rest of the timeline. In the written timeline, TTL’s Central Powers (Prussia, Austro-Bavaria, Britain and The Ottomans, with a few smaller countries as well) score a clear and obvious victory over TTL’s Entente (France, Russia, Spain, the two major Italian states and most of the Balkans), even capturing Paris at the end of the war. However, a one-sided humiliation like this does not bode well for a peaceful European future. With France and Russia feeling bitter and vengeful, another war seems quite likely. A third war is certainly possible, but part of me really wants to change the outcome of the Second Global War (and possibly the first if I revisit it and take issue with it). I’d probably end up changing it to where, while still a Central Powers victory, the war would be much more closely fought, thus making the peace treaty less of a one-sided affair. It might be like the Congress of Vienna IOTL, which while still nerfing France from what it was under Napoleon, wasn’t entirely one-sided like the Treaty of Versailles after OTL’s WW! and set the foundation for a mostly peaceful Europe for a century to come. In the end, I might leave the question of whether Europe has another large-scale war ITTL to a vote,
even if it would be an asspull (keyword: might, I’m still undecided on that one).
On the topic of revisions, I’ve thought of revising sizable sections of the map once I get to the Maps & Graphics sequel. Spoiler alert, the biggest change will be getting rid of the Danish and Swedish colonies in New Zealand. Sorry to the guy who suggested it, assuming he’s still reading it, but I don’t find it realistic enough to implement. Granted, my idea to replace it with a German New Zealand isn’t much more realistic (if New Zealand hadn’t been colonized by the British IOTL, it probably would’ve been the French or Dutch), but I’ve had this idea floating around my head for a while, and I want to work with it. In return, I will have the Kalmar Union colonize New Zealand in
Union of The Three Crowns, my other timeline I started a few months ago, although that’s a while down the line. Other areas that would see changes would include Australia (namely restricting Portuguese Australia to just OTL’s Northern Territory and Kimberly) and South America (making Patagonia smaller and La Plata larger) and maybe even parts of Europe and Asia, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.
I’d like to hear your feedback on this post and hear some ideas from you guys as to where this timeline should go. I’ll get back to writing the timeline as soon as I get over writer’s block, and EC/FC will reach its conclusion in the near future. I’ll also work on my other timeline that I linked to in the previous paragraph, which I highly recommend checking out if you haven’t. I know I’ve done a lot of these writer’s posts lately, but this timeline is at a crossroads, and I’m not quite sure which path to take, so your feedback would be greatly appreciated. I’ll get a new update out hopefully within this month, but for now, I must bid you all adieu.