The Winter Cartographer: Peace Only Under Liberty

 

Well, after a long absence I’ve finally managed to finish something!  This actually started quite a while back, over a year ago, as just a fun little project to make a small little New England with only a rough idea in my head that I put aside for other things. Then with Kanan's and LeinadB93's (as well as all his contributors on Hail, Britannia) excellent work on graphical timelines on AlternateHistory.com brought attention to things like  New England and Commonwealth projects, I figured I’d pick it up again,  and that’s what this became.

 Also, I admit a lot of working on this was learning new techniques over a  story, so apologies for mistakes, and hope you all enjoy.

Peace Only Under Liberty​

The story I have for this is that Burgoyne succeeds in his Saratoga  Campaign in 1777, severing the rebellious New England colonies from the  rest of the colonies and helping the British isolate the rebels. The Tax  Rebellions, as they’re known, come to an end not too much later and  though they are more widespread than history books like to say, a lot of  blame is heaped upon New England to help keep the peace. The other  colonies begin to get more autonomy and move towards self-government  while New England is put under more direct British control for a time,  leading to further tensions between the citizens and those who rule over  them. It also leads to New England developing a rather strict  theocratical Puritan control of local governance that will last well  into the 20th century, even after New England is eventually allowed to  form from the remaining colonies not split off by the British (Maine  being taken from Massachusetts as punishment) into the Commonwealth of  New England in 1878 as part of the Union of the United Kingdom of Great  Britain and Ireland and Her Commonwealths (it’s known as the British  Union/BritU/BU for a reason). New England from there would develop, as  it had already been doing so, as an area concentrated on commerce,  business, and industry, which would help its population boom and coffers  fill during the late 19th century and 20th century and help make Boston  one of the primary ports of the Union. The national character which  developed was one that was rather independent of the rest of the Union  and nationalist, having felt wronged and slighted for their mistreatment  and harder colonial government following the Tax Rebellions up to the  creation of the Commonwealth, and to that was added a uniquely Puritan  character to give the region its own uniqueness among the many varying  states that make up the Union, which New England has at times resented  its being a part of.

Following the Eurafrican Wars of the 1930s and 1940s and the Union's  large role in the victory of the Ten-Part Alliance, New England  underwent a political and cultural transformation of sorts. The ruling  National Conservative Party, which had been in power for a large part of  the Commonwealth’s existence, came crashing down in a quiet sort of  revolution as a new generation with different social mores and ideas,  working in a new booming postwar economy with high tech industry and new  technological-based finance and business firms, took to the ballot  boxes in the decades after and formed new parties, the ones shown on the  map. These parties would address contemporary issues of the day and  still do in the modern era, even if they have shifted around what is  important to them and what wedge issues come up in campaigns. The  primary parties are the Yankee Party,  a social democracy party with a nationalist streak which desires  autonomy from the Union and keeping New England culturally distinct from  the rest; the Liberal Conservative Party,  a centrist to centre-right party with liberal economic policies, a love  of market economy and free trade, a push for open borders and further  immigration (which has been on the rise since the 80s to New England) as  well as increasing ties to the Union, and socially centrist to  centre-left values; and the National Democratic Party, who take the nationalist and self-autonomous policies of the Yankees and apply it to Christian democracy.

The Yankees are the direct successors yet anathema of the National  Conservatives, adopting their populism and desire for autonomy and  cultural distinction but mixing it with labor and social democratic  policies that arose from economic disputes in the 50s and 60s, while the  Liberal Conservatives and National Democrats fight over the other sides  of the issues. For years the Yankee Party was popular and large enough  that they were essentially the government of New England, though  in recent years that has become more contested as the Lib Cons—building  their base out of the diverse and business-friendly cities and towns in  southwest Connecticut on the New York border—have become competitive and  taken the government several times. Even though the government  secularized long ago and the NatCons are no longer around to choose  successors more than voters, some of their legacy remains, from  gerrymandering to voter ID issues that have become large issues in  recent years, including the most recent 2014 election, which is  explained in the map.

Well, I hope that covers it, I feel the rest is explained in the graphic  well enough. Feel free to ask questions, and hope you all enjoy.  Apologies if the description is a little short, this is a map that was  intended as practice more than anything else but, it seems, I can’t do  anything simply.

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