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Makemakean Does Various Graphical Things!

So I finally decided on what Finland's flag will look like in this timeline.

Turns out that I cannot go for the design they use in OTL, because the Finnish flag was first used in Finland by the Yacht Club of Uusimaa, and they had been so unoriginal that they had just blatantly stolen the design of the St. Petersburg Yacht Club without making any changes whatsoever. The St. Petersburg Yacht Club had just taken the Russian Naval Ensign, and changed the saltire for a Nordic-style cross (for some reason), and there we are. Without Finland falling into Russian hands, no OTL Finnish flag.

I decided to go for the colours of the Finnish coat of arms then. Now, there is an obvious design here, but pretty much on account of me being Scanian, I just couldn't let them have that design without it irking me somewhat insanely, because of what I associate that design with. It's a bit like if you are a Yorkshire Man. Even if you were to find an excuse for doing it, you just would never let the flag of any other country be a white rose on a blue background.

Fortunately, there were many, many, many proposed designs for the Finnish flag after they got their independence in the early 20th century, and I picked one that allows me to give them a flag that is close enough to the Scanian flag for it to be plausible, but far enough away for me to be able to see it as something else:

newfinland.png
 
Turns out that I cannot go for the design they use in OTL, because the Finnish flag was first used in Finland by the Yacht Club of Uusimaa, and they had been so unoriginal that they had just blatantly stolen the design of the St. Petersburg Yacht Club without making any changes whatsoever. The St. Petersburg Yacht Club had just taken the Russian Naval Ensign, and changed the saltire for a Nordic-style cross (for some reason), and there we are. Without Finland falling into Russian hands, no OTL Finnish flag.
Those are also the traditional Nyland colours, as seen in its coat of arms:

200px-Uudenmaan_historiallisen_maakunnan_vaakuna.svg.png


There's also a number of pennants associated with the different Finnish provinces, which were flown to show which region the master of the house was from (and in a few cases, what language was spoken). The Finland Proper one, which would surely be most obvious to base a national flag on with Åbo being the capital, is red/blue for Finnish-speakers and yellow/red for Swedish-speakers.
 
There's also a number of pennants associated with the different Finnish provinces, which were flown to show which region the master of the house was from (and in a few cases, what language was spoken). The Finland Proper one, which would surely be most obvious to base a national flag on with Åbo being the capital, is red/blue for Finnish-speakers and yellow/red for Swedish-speakers.

Hmm... Interesting. Maybe this would work better then?

newfinland2.png
 
That reminds me, @Makemakean, are there agrarian parties in your Nordic Union?

Or are they absorbed by the Liberals?

Well, I mean, I haven't really thought that far yet.

@Ares96 knows more about this than I do, but such as I understand it, in both Sweden and Denmark, the agrarian parties are historically closely associated with the liberal parties. In Sweden, however, the liberal party (the precursor(s) of the Liberals) ended up being too dominated by urbanites that the agrarians mainly left and formed their own rural interest party (Farmers' League, later the Center Party). In Denmark, the liberal party (Venstre) continued being dominated by rural interests, and so it was the urbanites who broke off and formed their own party (Radikale Venstre).

I can't pretend I much understand what happened in Finland and Norway though, even though they too have their own respective Centre Parties that were previously both named Farmers' Leagues.

I think in this timeline, the Liberals will mainly remain a rural party, and so there will be no "need" for the farmers to break off and form a Farmers' League.
 
In Sweden, however, the liberal party (the precursor(s) of the Liberals) ended up being too dominated by urbanites that the agrarians mainly left and formed their own rural interest party (Farmers' League, later the Center Party).
Actually, they mainly broke off from the Conservatives - because the party system was so weak and the rural political culture so paternalistic in 19th century Sweden, most rural MPs south of Dalälven tended to be conservative landlords and rural voters formed a bedrock of conservatism until universal suffrage came around and small farmers began to realise that you know, there might be something in it for us if we went together like the workers did.

Up north on the other hand, where estates were smaller and a greater proportion of farmers already had the vote before 1911, the situation was closer to what you describe - but it also took a hell of a lot longer for the Agrarians to become a thing there.
 
Actually, they mainly broke off from the Conservatives - because the party system was so weak and the rural political culture so paternalistic in 19th century Sweden, most rural MPs south of Dalälven tended to be conservative landlords and rural voters formed a bedrock of conservatism until universal suffrage came around and small farmers began to realise that you know, there might be something in it for us if we went together like the workers did.

Up north on the other hand, where estates were smaller and a greater proportion of farmers already had the vote before 1911, the situation was closer to what you describe - but it also took a hell of a lot longer for the Agrarians to become a thing there.

Oh, really? I just assumed it was the Liberals because Axel Pehrsson-Bramstorp was a Liberal MP before Bondeförbundet became a thing.
 
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because the Finnish flag was first used in Finland by the Yacht Club of Uusimaa, and they had been so unoriginal that they had just blatantly stolen the design of the St. Petersburg Yacht Club without making any changes whatsoever.

That's just mental.
 
Oh, yes, and noticed I forgot to answer @kratostatic 's final question. The size of a relay in the 19th century.

I haven't actually been able to find any specifics but, seeing that telegraph receivers contain one---it is in fact the very thing that allows it to go up and down denoting the signals being received---that should give you an idea of how big a relay is.

I anticipate that by 1867, Osmanians are generally the size of entire rooms.

Which reminds me, I'm going to need to figure out a way to calculate exactly how much heat they are likely to generate. Wouldn't surprise me at all if they need elaborate systems of ventilation and air conditioners and even cooling-systems in the rooms housing them.

Let's see, if I can get an idea of the general resistance in a wire, a idea of the resistance in a mid-19th century relay (and factor in heat from the mechanical energy of the switch), consider the fact that you're probably going to need a whole lot of resistors every once in a while to make sure that the currents are accurate, then-...

Hrm...

This could take a while. I'll return on this point.
 
Decided to try to draw the Marquis of Mandal, such as I envision him looking in 1867 (on the eve of Nordic Reunification) at the age of 58/59.

markisen_av_mandal.png

He is yet an independent radical (as he will remain until his death in 1890), and having invested his money well, he is wealthy enough to be able to enjoy an upper middle-class lifestyle. His most recent business venture (which may actually work this time!) is founding the company Italienske Fristelser A.B. which uses advances in refrigeration technology to manufacture ice cream. A fixture of the Copenhagen cultural scene, he is a founding member of the Society of Sigtrygg Silkbeard.
 
Did anyone really still wear culottes by the 1860s?

Funny you should say that, because my decision to have him wear culottes was inspired by this portrait of Napoleon III, which, when I saw it the first time made me think "Did people still wear culottes by the time this portrait was painted?":

233px-Alexandre_Cabanel_002.jpg


I figure that the Marquis wears it mainly because it's part of his public image as an eccentric Italian marquis. He is, in a sense, a relic of a glorious past that never was save for in his imagination, and so it seems fitting.
 
Decided to try to draw the Marquis of Mandal, such as I envision him looking in 1867 (on the eve of Nordic Reunification) at the age of 58/59.

View attachment 6997

He is yet an independent radical (as he will remain until his death in 1890), and having invested his money well, he is wealthy enough to be able to enjoy an upper middle-class lifestyle. His most recent business venture (which may actually work this time!) is founding the company Italienske Fristelser A.B. which uses advances in refrigeration technology to manufacture ice cream. A fixture of the Copenhagen cultural scene, he is a founding member of the Society of Sigtrygg Silkbeard.

The head and legs are perfect, but might I suggest giving him a bit of a trim around the sides of his body? Right now, he looks like he could be rolled from place to place, and it’s a bit caricature-ish. The large belly can still be kept.
 
The head and legs are perfect, but might I suggest giving him a bit of a trim around the sides of his body? Right now, he looks like he could be rolled from place to place, and it’s a bit caricature-ish. The large belly can still be kept.

Well it's not supposed to be a realistic depiction of him, just a caricature of the way I imagine him in my head.

I imagine him as being fairly short and plump, kind of like how David Suchet portrays Hercule Poirot.

latest
 
So, trying to do a map of Åbo/Turku, c:a 1867 for the Swedish Strangerverse-thing I'm working on. The very notion that I would need an idea of how Åbo/Turku would look was not something that I expected. @Ares96 found me a good base map from just after the great Turku fire, indicating which buildings burnt down, and then I found an earlier man from the late 18th century. I simple removed what buildings existed on the former but not the latter from the former, and have tried to follow the same general feel and pattern, and try to make sure that buildings are built in accordance with plots of lands that existed before. Vaguely in the background I've put the grid network after which Turku was later rebuilt by the Russians. Interestingly, the new city planning had wider streets.

New buildings that I have added are those in orange (and more will be added).

raabomapping.png

The green area down south was a botanical garden called Professor Gadolin's Garden on the map, after Johan Gadolin (1760-1852) a notable Finnish chemist, physicist, and general renaissance man. A contemporary of Scheele, he was the first Swede on record to question the Phlogiston Theory, and also discovered the element yttrium (or, well, he discovered yttrium oxide, but, well, back in those days while people did make a distinction between an element and its oxide, there was an ambiguity as to whether to element or the oxide was the element in its pure form).

It was unfortunately lost in the Great Turku Fire, but seeing that Gadolin's birth predates the PoD by 10 years, here it still exists and will survive as a kind of Finnish mirror image of the Linnean Garden in Uppsala.
 
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