[IW] Ring of Fire

[David Johnston2]

I wati thinking about the Ring of Fire series in GURPS terms. The sudden transportation of a West Virginia town into the 30 Years War is of course the kind of thing that happens on occasion in Infinite Worlds. I suppose Homeline would see the commercial possibilities. They can bring in a bunch of 20th century junk and it'll be snapped up with nobody thinking twice about it. Centrum wouldn't be thrilled to see England tossed on the junkheap of history, but I suppose they'd go ahead and start backing Spain.

[arcanus]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

I wati thinking about the Ring of Fire series in GURPS terms. The sudden transportation of a West Virginia town into the 30 Years War is of course the kind of thing that happens on occasion in Infinite Worlds. I suppose Homeline would see the commercial possibilities. They can bring in a bunch of 20th century junk and it'll be snapped up with nobody thinking twice about it. Centrum wouldn't be thrilled to see England tossed on the junkheap of history, but I suppose they'd go ahead and start backing Spain.

I've never read the series, however a quick Wikipedia check reveals that surrounding technology advances rapidly (antibiotics, ironclads, aircraft).

I think Homeline might view events with wariness, as the Worldline suddenly has all the makings of becoming an advanced Parallel in a very short time.
Imagine where we'd be having invented caseless automatic weapons 300 years ago.

You've also got Historical figures preempting events by consulting the towns History books, if this was an Echo it could have caused a shift closer to Homeline.

Centrum might view this as a ripe opportunity especially if The Military become involved, their usual approach of subversion is out the window so the gloves are off, if it was a Homeline Echo and it hasn't changed Quanta then they would concentrate considerable effort to ensuring this.
Plus they can be more open than usual in enlisting Native help with promises of further advanced tech.

[Icelander]

Uh, as far as I know, the series has not tossed England anywhere. The history of England is changed irrevocably, yes, but it's still up in the air whether this will lead to stagnation or whether the future of England lies in closer cooperation with some mainland power.

I'd consider Centrum far more likely to back France and encourage closer Anglo-French relations in the setting. Granted, Richelieu is making a play for the New World at the expense of England, but he's a realist and assuming that he were to find the conquest of North America more difficult than anticipated, he might welcome friendly relations with at least one European power, even if he had to give up some of his new territories.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Uh, as far as I know, the series has not tossed England anywhere. The history of England is changed irrevocably, yes, but it's still up in the air whether this will lead to stagnation or whether the future of England lies in closer cooperation with some mainland power.
.

Closer cooperation with some mainland power or not, England has abandoned its empire, slowed down their progress toward parliamentary democracy (and made the eventual fall of the monarchy bloodier) and done very little to keep up with the technological revolution. They are not going to be a big deal in the next couple of centuries.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Closer cooperation with some mainland power or not, England has abandoned its empire, slowed down their progress toward parliamentary democracy (and made the eventual fall of the monarchy bloodier) and done very little to keep up with the technological revolution. They are not going to be a big deal in the next couple of centuries.

I agree that England, so far, seems to have consistently taken a less beneficient path from a Homeline point of view.

On the other hand, I'm not convinced that all of its decisions are anti-Centrum. It might well be that Ring of Fire's England will devote its resources to alternative paths of development that are superior, from a Centrum point of view.

North America was a resource-sink that eventually rebelled, so while possession of it might be vital from a cultural imperialism standpoint, it really doesn't help much from a normal imperialist standpoint. Devote all shipping and military power to colonies in Africa and Asia instead and you might see greater returns than North America ever gave.

And then there's the possibility that the Crown's knee-jerk reaction to prevent a rebellion might be essentially temporary. Give it a generation or two and you might see the Crown voluntarily giving up some of its power in order to forestall revolution in the long term. Not to mention possibly going from enemies of the new German superpower to allies, over a generation or two.

Of course, Centrum would try to ally France and England instead, which is no less plausible and, if they were to strive for peace on the European mainland with all competition and warfare taking place in colonies instead, would actually be a formidable combination. A Dutch-German-Swedish bloc would be formidably matched by an Anglo-French one, with the Spanish being little-trusted potential allies and potential foes for both.

I could actually see a pretty good campaign resulting from the European superpowers competing for a Place in the Sun with full knowledge of how our history turned out. Some would seek to maximise their technological advantage while they have it, establishing cruelly exploitative colonies. Others would try for cultural imperialism, trying to make a larger part of the world indisputably French (or other, depending on nationality).

Strong support for idealistic alternatives to exploitive colonialism would exist among Uptimers in the USE and probably the CoC, but what would result from it is still up in the air. Mike Stearns himself has strong views on the subject of the slave-trade, so it is likely that he'll push pretty hard for involvement if other European powers start setting up exploitative colonies anywhere.