2006-12-06, 02:22 | Link #1 |
Weapon of Mass Discussion
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Code Geass World History & Geography Speculation
Code Geass takes place in a world which is notably different from our own. Of most obvious note, in this world North America is home to the Holy Empire of Britannia. In a world with so many geopolitical differences we wonder about the background to this story.
This thread is a place to share speculation on how the world political situation has reached this point. We can speculate about such questions as how did the royal family seize power and what countries are still free from the empire. It is not the plot or characters which concern us in this thread, such things can be discussed elsewhere. Here we need to discuss the background to that story. People who have information exclusively from the manga should use spoiler tags to preserve the innocence of their fellow members from being despoiled. Here is how you use a spoiler tag: To start this discussion, I'd like to mention some of my own hypotheses on how this world could have diverged from our own. I've thought that this might not be our future. It might instead be an alternate history: a world with a different past from our own. Perhaps in the past of this world the American Revolution failed. As a result America stayed part of Great Britain and evolved into the Holy Britannia Empire. Another thought of possible alternate history is based on the name of the Empire. Britannia is the name used for Great Britain by the Roman Empire. It is possible that after the fall of the Roman Empire, Britannia maintained its civilization and became the core of a new empire that carried on the traditions of the old Roman Empire. Thus the Holy Britannia Empire succeeded the Holy Roman Empire.
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2006-12-06, 02:36 | Link #2 |
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Others have mentioned in other threads useful speculation pertinent to the subject at hand; perhaps they might repost some of them here.
What is the current extent of the empire? Is it the undisputed world leader? Does there exist other factions/allieances that stand as credible counterweights to Brittania's dominance? The OP animation shows us that at the very least, outside of the British Isles (the situation on the European mainland is unknown), all of the Americas, from Alaska to Canda to what we call the United States down through Central America, and possibly/probably South America, is part of the British Empire. Whether the Americas are colonies (like Japan) or an integral part of Brittania (what would've happened in leu of the American Revolution) is up for debate. I am not sure where Brittania's capital is.
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2006-12-06, 02:55 | Link #3 | |
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Now what I want to know is if the Plantagenet line survived to this present day. 1000 years under a single family. Given that the Plantagenet line were prone to fighting each other as well as against foreign enemies, I can well believe why the current Emperor is this way. |
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2006-12-06, 03:25 | Link #4 |
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Except for an Empire that carries the British namesake they don't act British. Their uniform styles are more Prussian while their more direct and brutal rule reflects (surprise!) the colonial styles of Japan and the Dutch( just ask Indonesia) The British had a tendency to employ large number of native colonial troops while nuturing a local elite to rule by proxy thus minmizing their own presence which they learned had an effect of riling up the natives so to speak.
We can also assume that unlike RL, no world sweeping ideology like commuism or a revivial of religions with militaristic pasts and traditions (the faith is front and centre of the military conquest).which would have greatly destablised an empire with mulitple ethnicities and faiths. This of course assumes that the Empire exapansion is not relatively recent (Two or three generations) and did not have a succession crisis by remote centres of military strength. (Mongol Empire, unparralled militarily but lacked central control to run the conqured lands and maintain central political unity.) Lastly, we can assume that there is no current exisiental or substantial military threat to Britannia unlike say France and the other European powers were to Britan since we do not see any signs or mention of a frontier. (Rome had to deal with the Persians to the east, while Germania formed a deathtrap due to the Goths.) |
2006-12-06, 04:05 | Link #5 | |
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The Big Daddy emperor of Britannia is currently the 98th emperor, or so I've read.
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2006-12-06, 04:55 | Link #6 |
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If the 1/3 Land mass statement is true, what does that leave outside of Brittania rule?
East, South East, and Central Asia. Africa. Western and Eastern Europe...? Russia + Mongolia. Antarctica. North Pole. Greeland. Quite a bit huh. I think Brittania may have at least a portion of the middle east, as Cornelia was seen putting down a rebellion there.
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2006-12-06, 07:53 | Link #7 | ||
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Perhaps history even was slightly the same throughout the 19th century, as it was the century were the Britains gathered their biggest strength and build up the British Empire to its greatest extend. My speculation is that World War I & II didn't happen, or at least not in the way they happened in our world. If the Empereror hadn't mentioned the European States and, if I remember the subs correctly, the weakness of the European Union, I would have guessed there were no WW I and II at all. Oh boy, that's confusing to write "our world" Quote:
And I guess a family prone to fighting each other wouldn't survive 1000 years, they'll get themselves extinct pretty fast |
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2006-12-06, 08:25 | Link #9 | |
Not dead. Yet.
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Chiefly that England moved to absolute monarchy and expanded under Henry X (possibly fictional) and Edward VI into the New World exploiting the chaos in Europe... |
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2006-12-06, 09:07 | Link #10 |
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I think the previous 97 emperors isn't competitive enough to prevent being overthrown except for this current emperor due to the ''survival of the fittest'' rule that the Britanna empire is following.
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2006-12-06, 12:23 | Link #11 |
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Well, this is my own theory about what happen, so you are free to criticize it or give me any extra.
Most people say that the American Revolution was the turning point of the CG world, but honestly I don't think so. I think it goes a bit more behind. This is my idea/theory: What would have happen if the actually House of Tord Line didn't die (They were the last line that used the Henry/Edward names)? What if the Spanish/French Armada actually was able to land in England and start attacking/conquering the country while Queen Elizabeth was actually able to escape to the New World, maybe marry and give her own heir? Now lets say that this actually happened, and that Queen Elizabeth and his descendants were actually able to live and even start planning and forming their armies to reconquer Britain and destroy their enemies using the resource of the New World. This way the American Revolution would have never happen because they were "Exiled British" with a national pride and a dream of reconquering their country and destroying their enemies. There was no need to free themselves from the mainland because there was no mainland, they were the country now. Of course, I pressume that it must have been a very conflicting monarch family in which maybe they had different kings/queens every month until the most powerful was able to rule for a couple of years until their sons/daughters were stronger than him. Now during the 17th century with the French Revolution and the decadence of the Spanish Empire, the Exiled Britain would have taken the advantage to strike back to the French and the Spanish/Portugal Kingdoms when they were weaker. In one big war, Britain, could have obtained all the rest of the New World and England back. After that, I suppose everything keep its timeline like today until WWII which I could bet that the Germans won by promising never to attack Britannia and currently the NAZI party is ruling the EEU with puppet states all over Europe. In the EEU the (German) people has equal rights and opportunities. The Chinese Federation is most likely the current China with the same history. The only difference will be that Britannia never went to war in Europe, but did ally with China and won the war in the Pacific. I am willing to bet that the Otoman/Turkish Empire did survive the WWI and didn't participated in WWII, but was conquered recently by Brittania. Maybe Portugal/Brazil are still independant but are only agricultural/raw material countries without much importance. Yet I am really wondering when the CC's people intervene with the affairs in the CG world and how many times besides the WWI photo. |
2006-12-06, 17:49 | Link #12 | ||||
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All things considered, I myself am wondering just how much these 'aliens' (if that's what they are and not some Atlantis-like super high tech society) intervened in human affairs. Presumably the higher level of technology is due to them in some way, but I'll be damned if I can guess how. Fun as this is, something tells me Geass is going to be deliberately vague about how precisely it differs historically, so as not to attract rants from the history fans. |
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2006-12-06, 17:57 | Link #13 | |
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2006-12-08, 10:44 | Link #16 |
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I can't help but think the Civil War itself would be a good Point of Divergence... With a royalist victory, parlimentary representation and the democratic ideals stemming from it would be nipped in the bud and absolute monarchy would be solidified. Just a thought
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2006-12-09, 10:14 | Link #17 |
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Why only one turning point?
There could several,the civil war is one,the american revolution is another. But even that isn't really enough.Perhaps WWI happened(we see a old pictures in ep2 with WWI tank)and ended with UK as a clear victor.With the rest of europe completely exhausted.
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2006-12-09, 12:12 | Link #19 |
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Well, I came accross a post at livejournal that featured a transcription of stuff written on Suzaku's textbook. It pretty much shows how Brittania came to be.
http://community.livejournal.com/code_geass/40650.html |
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