Merry Christmas, everyone! I’m traveling up and down the Eastern Seaboard of the United States for the next two weeks, and although I tried very hard to get out in front of the comic for you, I couldn’t find a way to get pages done that were up to the proper standard. Instead, I present a little special presentation for you: a revised, revamped, and more intensive tour of the 6-Commando Universe, which many people have been asking for. This is something I’ve been doing on the side for some time, now, as part of a separate 6-Commando related project called The 6-Commando Tactical Handbook. You’ve seen a number of vehicle designs and camouflage patterns already, but here’s a portion that offers some insight into the 6-Commando world’s politics and structure. Hopefully, it will help make up for the fact that the comic is on hold until I get back from the holiday, but I think everyone will understand. It’s been a hell of a year, and a little time off is going to do me some good.
This week, we take on the pleasant and lighthearted subject of atomic weapons proliferation, and the text runs as follows (for those who can’t see the piece at this resolution):
CANADIAN CONFEDERATION
DIPLOMATIC APPELLATION: Confederated Provinces and Territories of Canada
CONVENTIONAL SHORT FORM: Canada
CAPITAL: Ottawa
LARGEST CITY: Toronto
AREA: 2,354,085 sq. mi.
POPULATION: 104.7 Million (1996 est.)
FORM OF GOVERNMENT: Nominal Constitutional Monarchy operating as De Facto Parliamentary Democratic Republic
HEAD OF STATE: Monarch (de jure); Prime Minister (de facto, since 1981)
HEAD OF GOVERNMENT: Prime Minister (Note: since 1981, the Prime Minister has been de facto Head of State and Head of Government)
INDEPENDENCE: 1867 (Canadian Constitution Act)
ESTABLISHMENT: 1928 (Act of Confederation)
Wide exploitation of Canadian industrial and natural resources has made it the main power in the United Nations Alliance, although the United States and Mexico are more populous. At the end of the 1970’s, as the Scarlet Revolution entered its final stages in Europe, many governments went into exile in Canada, bringing with them large numbers of refugees and a great deal of intellectual capital that the Canadians have used to consolidate their position as a world superpower. Canada is the world’s third-largest producer of Uranium ore (after Australia and the Kazakh DSR), and possesses the single largest Uranium enrichment industry in the world. Rapid industrial expansion in the 1960s put Canada several steps ahead in atomic research, and although they were “beaten” by Germany in the race to build practical atomic reactors, the Canadian military aggressively expanded their atomic deterrent in the early 1980s. Canadian weapon stockpiles are the largest outside the Federated Socialist Republics, and are the primary nuclear force in the United Nations Alliance. Canada has been pursuing commercial atomic power as well, though it is unlikely to be available before 2015.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
DIPLOMATIC APPELLATION: United States of America
CONVENTIONAL SHORT FORM: United States, USA
CAPITAL: Washington, D.C.
LARGEST CITY: New York City
AREA: 3,759,974 sq. mi.
POPULATION: 285.3 Million (1996 est.)
FORM OF GOVERNMENT: Constitutional Confederacy
HEAD OF STATE: President
HEAD OF GOVERNMENT: Speaker of the House of Representatives
INDEPENDENCE: 1776 (from Great Britain)
ESTABLISHMENT: 1794 (Articles of Federation)
The political structure of the United States is a very complex network of interconnections and arrangements for sharing sovereignty that can often be confusing. At its simplest level, the USA is a confederation of 46 States, 5 Commonwealths, 19 Autonomous Indigenous Republics, 7 Insular Republics and (uniquely) one Constitutional Monarchy in Free Association with the Union. All these poltical units operate under their own laws and customs, but with deference to a single Confederal constitution called the Articles of Federation. Because of this radically decentralized government structure, the United States have been reluctant to take on international roles in the United Nations, and overseas deployments by U.S. troops have been relatively few in number. Paradoxically, the United States were early advocates of atomic deterrence by the UNA, and have aggressively pursued the expansion of their atomic forces since 1980. The U.S. has large resources of Uranium ore in the Southwestern states of Arizona, Gadsden and New Mexico, and the U.S. Continental Air Force has been particularly aggressive in exploiting them for enrichment as weapons material.
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF MEXICO
DIPLOMATIC APPELLATION: Estados Unidos Mexicanos
CONVENTIONAL SHORT FORM: Mexico
CAPITAL: Mexico City, D.F.
LARGEST CITY: Mexico City, D.F.
AREA: 2,073,124 sq. mi.
POPULATION: 110.5 Million (1996 est.)
FORM OF GOVERNMENT: Federal Constitutional Democratic Republic
HEAD OF STATE: President (note: President is both Head of State and Head of Government)
HEAD OF GOVERNMENT: President (note: President is both Head of State and Head of Government)
INDEPENDNECE: 1810 (from Spain)
ESTABLISHMENT: 1857 (current Constitution)
Mexico is a federal republic with a diverse electorate, and policy regarding the nation’s attitude towards atomic weapons has been ambivalent. On the one hand, the strong influence of the military in public affairs has ensured a strong atomic deterrent is maintained, primarily by the country’s large two-ocean navy. However, public sentiment has swung against atomic weapons and research several times in the past two decades, the most significant occurrence being an attempted assassination of pro-atomic President Vincente Cenicacelaya during the Independence Day celebrations in 1989. Though Mexico presently holds the third-largest atomic arsenal in the UNA, the government has declared a unilateral moratorium on the expansion of their atomic forces, and plans have been proposed to reduce the arsenal to 1000 active weapons by 2010. Mexico is under heavy pressure from Canada, Cuba and the United States not to pursue this course of action, as Mexican missile submarines form a major component of the UNA atomic deterrent, and many fear that weakening this force is likely to degrade the credibility of the UNA collective security apparatus.
More to come later in the week! Have a good holiday, everyone!
Sweet mother of Pi, seems your world diverges from ours even further back than simply “no World War Two”. O_o The lack of the Gadsden Purchase, the weird way the government is a confederation rather than an actual Federal Republic, Mexico NOT suffering from constant interference from European powers and internal strife that’s kept it from being a real power, Canada actually mattering to the world… This is alternate history from the 1780s onward.
Okay I’m a bit harsh on Canada, but honestly, it’s Canada; a world power? Really? Even with alternate history, that’s stretching things a bit. I’d have found Japan or Australia a more sensible world leader. ESPECIALLY a Canada without Quebec; that’s a major chunk of land and population gone right there.
Ah, well, that’s why it’s fiction. I do hope you’ll have plenty of Canada-hatred in the comic from all the smaller nations that resent its power and prestige and domineering of the world after the Scarlet Revolution. Yanno, how every superpower is treated, because otherwise you’re gonna break suspension of disbelief. (No, despite my little nitpick, Canada as a world power isn’t really that hard to imagine. That they wouldn’t be hated for it like every other world power tends to be WOULD be hard to imagine.) “Canucks Go Home!” “Imperialist Canada!” Etc, et al.
Well, you know, after the end of Chapter 2, I think people have a lot more to complain about than the Scapegoat-Of-The-Month.
And don’t sell Canada short as superpower material. They have enormous natural resources, tremendous human capital, and a developed technological industrial infrastructure. Oh, and huge amounts of ready-to-exploit hydroelectric, geothermal and fossil fuel energy resources. They stormed Juno Beach on D-Day, participated heavily in the defense of North America bob during the Second World War and the Cold War. NORAD wouldn’t have functioned without the massive contributions in technical expertise, personnel and interceptor aircraft they contributed. And if things had gone cross-eyed in the Battle of Britain and the British Empire had collapsed, they’d also have inherited the majority of the Royal Navy. Although in our world Canada became a less strident global power than the USA and the EU, I see no reason other than political and popular will that Canada could or would not have been a candidate for global superpower status.
Essentially getting nuclear weapons would de facto make you a world power even if you do nothing else. However, having a powerful and lucrative trade will the entire world could give it to your country as well even without the nukes.
Addendum: Isn’t Ottawa IN Quebec? How the Hell do you have your country’s capital in a foreign nation?
Hm, nevermind, just checked Wikipedia, it’s still in Ontario. Still, seems weird to me.
Pssh, you really think we would put our capital where all the dirty Quebecois are? You disgust me. 😛
Nah, Ottawa’s in Ontario, alright. Not sure why you would think otherwise.
To be fair I still consider the most confusing capital to be the United States ‘Washington DC’…exactly which state is that in? None of them? It’s NOT a state? So people living in Washington DC are not represented in either the Senate or the House?
It makes good sense, actually. In the federal system, the states as well as the citizens have representation. So making the capital of the federation one of the cities in a state would give that state undue influence over the federal government. Likewise, making the capital itself a state has the same problems. By making the capital a federal district without rights as a state it isolates federal power from state power. Many federal states do something similar for the same reasons – Brasilia, Canberra, etc. whether or not the citizens of a federal district should be subject to taxation is another matter altogether. As it is, there’s a good deal of taxation without representation going around – I live in one state and work in another, but I get taxed where I work, without getting to vote on who taxes me or what they use my money for. So it’s hardly a problem unique to Washington, D.C.
However District of Colombia still had problems because the people living there end up having no rights with the Congress riding roughshod over their locality. So to have that something else has to be done to rectify the oversight.
Great read, happy holidays! 🙂
😀 Thanks, you too!
Like that the US isn’t sticking it’s nose into every other countries business. Even as an American I think we would have ben much better off returning to pre-WWII isolationism.
You and a lot of other people. I’d prefer “neutrality” to “isolation,” if you take the distinction. The 6-Commando USA is more like a very large version of Switzerland, only with atomic weapons. But it’s fiction, so…
Good reading. We must exchange fictional governmental ideas some time.
BTW, safe travels!
Thanks! 😀
Great rundown on some of the major players. I’m going to take a WAG and assume some of the 5 commonwealths which are part of the US include Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and possibly Puerto Rico.
And I am betting the ‘Constitutional Monarchy in free association with the Union’ is Hawaii 🙂
The fifth commonwealth is Virginia.
And yes, Hawaii is autonomous. To make it a state would violate the Fourth Article of Federation, which prohibits any territory without a democratic form of government from enjoying State status within the union.
Ah I knew I forgot one! Thanks!
I really wanna see a similar page on the FSR, if it doesn’t spoil too much of the mystery of the political situation there.
Agreed, it would be interesting to see how different the structure would be in comparison to the Soviet Union in our universe.
And CONASUR and the Arab League.
😉
Maybe it’ll be a Festivus Miracle…!
One century ago on this day, the good of mankind shone through the mud and blood of the Great War…
“On 24 December 1914, in the midst of the Great War, French, British, Belgian, Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian troops in the East and West defied their superiors and laid down their arms. For two days, these adversaries celebrated Christmas together and embraced each other in a moment of brotherhood and humanity. Carols were sung, gifts were exchanged, football was played, and the few trees they found were decorated. For some, it would be their last Christmas on Earth. For the world, these dramatic events are still remembered as mankind’s finest hour.”
For expediency, I’ll repost this…
so Canada managed to tame those rabid Canuck Fans into a fighting force?
Really like what you’ve done with Canada, but as a Canadian myself I guess I am a bit biased haha.
The problem is “neutrality” is treated as “isolation” which just means you had better be for a sprawling external empire like we have to just being a good trading country. Interfere or else you are an isolationist. Very bothersome mind set.