Transported from
Map Thread XX, this is my cover of the world in George Orwell's
Nineteen Eighty-Four, based partially off the information from
Nineteen Eighty-Four Graphics.
ITTL, Teddy Roosevelt never became president, allowing capitalism to run rampant into the 20th century, resulting in a much stronger socialist movement in the USA. Fast forwards to 1950 and the aftermath of a Nationalist victory in the Chinese Civil War, the Korean War escalates into WW3. This ultimately culminated in a nuclear exchange between the USA and the USSR and their respective allies in 1953 as the Red Army approached Paris, devastating Europe and parts of the American east coast.
As a result, the governments of the USA (Washington was wiped off the map, causing a power vacuum after the President and his entire chain of succession were atomized), UK and British Dominions were overthrown by the Socialist movements within them, which, following Soviet Eurasia declaring a continuation of WW3 on them for being "fake socialists", merged into the
English Socialist/Ingsoc Party ("English" as in Anglo-Saxon) of the newly formed Oceania in May of 1958. The country soon absorbed a highly destabilized/collapsing Latin America, Iceland and the European colonies in Greenland and Africa south of the Congo River.
Initially, the to-be English Socialist Party intended to realize their lofty and utopian goals; in the early 1960’s, however, Supreme Chairman Oswald “Big Brother” Mosley (who remained socialist ITTL but retained his totalitarian tendencies) purged a whopping
89% of all Party members at the time (with the remaining 11% becoming the Inner Party by the time the novel takes place), and proceeded to transform Oceania into the Hellhole we all know and love, willingly or otherwise. *gestures to Room 101*
Meanwhile, during the initial chaos following the nuclear exchange, the Soviet Union managed to conquer mainland Europe; not just the land of the countries that were part of NATO,
all of it. "Glorious Uncle" Stalin’s successor, Lavrentiy Beria, would not only continue the former’s policies, but expand them in the form of
Neo-Bolshevism/Novbol, and reorganized the SSRs so that they weren't all based off of major ethnic groups; Beria renamed the country the Eurasian Union sometime in October of 1957. The KGB takes the role of the Thought Police here, and Eurasia the most centralized of the 3 superpowers (with Moscow being the capital); Eurasian Newspeak is a Frankenstein-like conglomeration of simplified Russian, German, French, Spanish and Italian.
With the world’s superpowers distracted, China launched wars of expansion into the Koreas, Japan and Indochina during the mid-to-late 1950's for their resources, manpower and (in Japan's case) industry, then declared war on Oceania and Eurasia in 1962. Officially, this was all to "protect the East Asian Peoples from the dangers of socialism." However, Chiang "the Marshall" Kai Shek's paranoia has resulted in China, now Eastasia, becoming no different than its mortal enemies in a display of convergent evolution and Horseshoe Theory. The Ideology of
Death Worship/Selfdeath was fabricated by the Kuomintang to justify these actions, and subsequently re-branded itself after it. In Selfdeath, the only thing that matters in life was being a part of the Eastasian state; the self, the family and all forms of pleasure within the physical realm (sans the sadistic killing of the Eurasians and/or Oceanians) are obstacles in the way of the state's goals. In Eastasia, the Clandestine Investigation Section/CIS takes the role of the Thought Police; Eastasian Newspeak is Simplified Chinese (with some Japanese and Korean thrown in), except its words/letters/characters have interchangeable meanings.
As of the year 1984, this 3-way brawl (Despite what the Minitru and its counterparts say, there aren't any shifting alliances of 2 superstates against the third; it's always been a battle royale since 1962) is slated to last "indefinitely", thanks to the Ingsoc, Novbol and Selfdeath Parties' shared goal: holding on to power for power's sake until the end of time...
...unfortunately, that goal is impossible, because due to the inevitable biosphere degradation, resource shortages and climate change (with all the consequences
that entails) caused by the Oceania's, Eurasia's and Eastasia's incessant industrial war production, the Inner Parties only have until the mid-21st century
at most before society, or what's left of it, unravels completely, up to and possibly including
humanity itself. And, given the Parties' outright refusal to listen to common sense and let go of their power, well... quite simply, humanity ITTL is
F*CKED. There's just no way around or out of it by this point. But considering how heartless, soulless, mindless, nationalistic, intoxicatingly power-hungry and
downright insane mankind has become, the coming extinction (of man and roughly 80% of all other species) might as well be an act of mercy ...
If you have any questions, I'll gladly answer.