Flocculencio
Donor
Interesting. So could Japanese ambitions focus mainly on their North and West flanks? They could concentrate on pushing into Siberia and Manchuria against the Russians and Chinese.
I can't really see an avoidance of the Opium Wars. The structural issues there are pretty insolvable, what with China sucking in speccie. The British are going to forcibly open the country for trade at some point. I think it more likely that Britain may preempt Japanese imperialism to the south instead. With more local readily available troops then the British are likely to get more greedy. We could well see a British Taiwan, and possibly British administered Shanghai etc.
North Malaya: Ipoh
South Malaya: Johor Bahru
Borneo: Kuching
Sumatra: Palembang
Java: Jogjakarta
Bali & Lesser Sunda: Denpasar
Celebes: Macassar
New Guinea: Port Moresby
Arnhemland: Glasgow (OTL Darwin)
Mindanao: Davao
New Holland: Albany (OTL Perth)
Straits Settlements: The Straits Settlements are governed from Singapore as Federal Territory.
The oil reserves off Borneo are pretty large but at a cursory glance I can't find any definite figures. IIRC they started being exploited shortly before the War.
If China weakens to the same extent as in OTL, and if we assume that Japan has its Meiji era on schedule, then it's a given that it'll carve itself a client state in Manchuria after annexing Korea. But what happens next could indeed be at the expense of Russia. There's Kamchatka peninsula for starters, which nobody was around to defend for several years after 1917...Interesting. So could Japanese ambitions focus mainly on their North and West flanks? They could concentrate on pushing into Siberia and Manchuria against the Russians and Chinese.
If China weakens to the same extent as in OTL, and if we assume that Japan has its Meiji era on schedule, then it's a given that it'll carve itself a client state in Manchuria after annexing Korea. But what happens next could indeed be at the expense of Russia. There's Kamchatka peninsula for starters, which nobody was around to defend for several years after 1917...
Also, could the POD influence the US decision to purchase Alaska? If it doesn't go ahead with "Seward's folly", then Japan might be interested.
My guess is that it would take at least 1960s levels of technology to exploit those. But there's also oil to be found in Sakhalin island, not to mention the Daqing oil field in Manchuria.I suppose there's no way they could find Alaskan or Siberian oil with the technology of the time?
It might be useful to think about the distribution of states, actually.
For example, I've lumped the whole of the Malay Peninsula into one state while splitting Borneo even though the Peninsula is much more heavily populated. As such, in this modified map, I've split Malaya into North and South Malaya while keeping Borneo as a single state.
I've also posited a unified NSW/NZ Commonwealth of Victoria.
My guess is that it would take at least 1960s levels of technology to exploit those. But there's also oil to be found in Sakhalin island, not to mention the Daqing oil field in Manchuria.
I must say I'm partial to the idea of a Japanese Alaska. For the Japanese themselves, it may look like a giant version of Hokkaido, with timber aplenty and all the salmon you can eat...
"East Indies" is too Eurocentric of a term to cultivate a distinct, independent national identity IMO.
Problem is Melaku and New Guinea are likley to raise cain about 'Malaysia' or a variant therof.
HTG
Problem is Melaku and New Guinea are likley to raise cain about 'Malaysia' or a variant therof.
HTG
Maluku could maybe go along with the name Nusantara?
(Melaka is IN Malaysia)
I once made it the topic of a thread in its own right: WI Russia sells Alaska to Japan.I like that idea too, but I'm not sure that I like it for TTL.
Seem interesting. I especially like the sideline of a north Pacific Japanese Empire.
I'm still not certain about the whole White Australia bit getting anywhere for more than a few decades.
HTG
If this "Victoria" is even more racist than OTL Australia, I don't really see New Zealand joining...
Well, circumstances could mean there's no Australia at all, at least not as we know it. In 1815, Australia was tiny, and just 27 years old. A large influx of Indonesian immigrants could lead to an Australia with an Indonesian majority, albeit with a significant white minority.
Well, that actually makes some sense, actually. Your argument might have been better if you had used Masr and Egypt.
. Politics would be confused, chaotic, and hugely entertaining; probably along Indian lines, with two larger-than-the-rest parties and a vast plethora of tiny regional parties, all in a kaleidoscope of shifting and unstable coalitions.