Historical Nations Hockey Concepts 2.0

[IceCap]

A while ago I worked on a project in which I designed national team uniforms for defunct nations. My skills at concept work have improved since then, as have the resources for us MS Paint users, not to mention the influx of modern template designs. So I decided to re-do my old project after being inspired by robbman's tremendous alternate history work. Plus it'll help me get into history teacher mode

Some of these will be complete redesigns from my previous work (which I'm sure anyone could find via the Search function), while others will simply be re-applications of my original designs to newer templates.

So in the words of The Joker, here....we....go!

Here's how this will work. A defunct nation will be chosen, I'll design the uniform, and post it along with a brief historical rundown of the state. The nations I choose to work on can come from any historical period, however they're automatically out of the running if they've actually fielded an ice hockey team. So the Russian Empire is in, but the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is out.

Also, I will refrain from concepts involving Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, or the Confederate States of America. These governments are very controversial, and I don't intend to start a debate about the true cause of the US Civil War, nor can I bring myself to look at a swastika long enough to complete work on a Nazi Germany concept. Besides, I'm sure Chris doesn't want his forums affiliated with the images that these concepts would require. These nations are out of the running, so please do not request them.

Feel free to request any other nation you think fits the scope of the project though. I have a set number of nations I want to work on first, so I'll get to all requests once I'm done that set. As always, c&c is welcome and encouraged.

[Buster]

Persia!

Mesopotamia!

ATLANTIS!

[IceCap]

The Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1649-1661

In the spirit of the Royal Wedding thread and the discussion of the British monarchy it has stimulated (conspiracy theories aside that is), I present you with the only republican government to ever govern the entirety of the British Isles, the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland (I guess Commonwealth of Britain wasn't long enough).

The Commonwealth has its roots in the reigns of two cousins, Mary I of Scotland and Elizabeth I of England. Mary I was forced to abdicate the Scottish throne when she refused to denounce Catholicism, despite the people and nobility embracing Calvanist Protestantism. In her place the Scottish nobility crowned her son, James, as James VI of Scotland, despite not yet being a year old. Mary I of Scotland fled to England, where her cousin Elizabeth I placed her under house arrest out of fear that she would try to steal the English throne (she was next in line). The Pope and the Catholic King of Spain, Phillip II, claiming Mary was the "true" Queen of England didn't help her case in Elizabeth I's eyes. As it turned out Elizabeth I was right to be cautious. Agents loyal to Elizabeth, suspecting Mary of treachery, slipped her a note, claiming to represent a conspiracy to kill Elizabeth, put Mary on the throne, and restore England to the Catholic fold. Mary responded eagerly and communicated with who she though were Catholic sympathizers for months before enough evidence was amassed. Elizabeth I then signed the execution order and Mary I of Scotland was beheaded.

Meanwhile Elizabeth had yet to marry. In fact she would refuse, believing that doing so would lesson her own power. When she died she named the son of her dead cousin, James VI of Scotland, her heir. James VI, now a grown man, assumed the throne of England as James I, unifying the Scottish and English thrones, and creating a unified British nation.

James I's eldest son, Henry, was killed in a jousting accident, and his armour was given to his brother Charles, now the heir to the throne. The armour was to big for Charles, and this event is said to have shaped his mentality towards power, and he tried to live up to his more athletic and charismatic brother. With his brother Henry dead Charles was crowned King Charles I upon the death of his father. James I, believing in the divine right of kings, often clashed with Parliament, but had the good sense to back down when things started to get tense. Charles I lacked that keen ability to back down.

Which proved to be a problem. The Church of England, though Protestant in that it had separated from Rome, was still very much a Catholic Church in terms of tradition and ritual. A group of Calvanist dissenters, known as Puritans, began growing in England. They believed that the reformation in England hadn't gone far enough, and they wanted to "purify" the Church of England of its remaining Catholic elements. They were also beginning to make up the majority of the House of Commons. Charles I, on the other hand, was a High Anglican, in that he was a member (and head) of the Church of England, but he encouraged the Catholic rituals within the Church. He even married a Catholic French princess, who openly took Catholic mass. To a country that had endured the reign of Bloody Mary I of England, a devout Catholic who burnt Protestants at the stake, Catholicism was viewed as synonymous with tyranny. Charles I and his wife quickly lost favour, and the Puritans in Parliament gained it.

At the same time disastrous military campaigns in Europe had caused Parliament to hesitate when Charles I came asking for money. When Parliament refused he simply shut it down, believing he could rule without it. Though he needed Parliament to approve any new taxes, he had the right to enforce existing taxes on his own. So he began reviving obscure taxes so that he could afford to rule without Parliament. This worked until the Scottish rebelled.

The Scottish were Calvanists, by and large, and resented the Catholic elements within the Church of England, much like the English Puritans did. When Charles I tried to force a High Anglican prayer book on the Scots they rebelled. Charles I needed money to raise an army to put down the rebellion, so he was forced to call Parliament back into session. Almost immediately the new Parliament, made up of members from the old Parliament, drafted resolution after resolution limiting the power of the Crown. Charles I, outraged, attempted to storm the Parliamentary chambers and arrest its members, but a tip off allowed Parliament to flee. Civil War was on.

At first Parliament simply wanted to force Charles I to behave like a constitutional monarch, but this changed once Oliver Cromwell took command of the Parliamentary forces. Cromwell was a minor landed gentry from Cambridge who had become what would now be called a Born Again Christian. He became a religious Puritan and saw the Catholic influences of the Stuart monarchy as damning Britain. So when he took control of the Parliamentary forces he made it clear that he wasn't interested in retaining the monarchy. He wanted a religious Commonwealth, or a Puritan theocratic republic. He talked about building Britain up into a "New Jerusalem."

After reorganizing the rag-tag Parliamentary army into a his highly disciplined New Model Army (complete with red coats) he routed the Royalist forces, known as Cavaliers, and Charles I fled to Scotland. The Scots, for their part, welcomed Cromwell and handed Charles I over. Charles I was put on trial, a court he refused to recognize. He was found guilty, beheaded, and Britain declared a republic, or Commonwealth in 1649.

At first Parliament tried to govern as it had, only without the Crown. Cromwell served both as a Member of Parliament and as commander-in-chief of the army. After Parliament showed less enthusiasm for his agenda then he had hopped, Cromwell simply dissolved it, calling his soldiers into the House of Commons to remove his opposition. Cromwell was named "Lord Protector" of the Commonwealth, and a new Parliament was called. Cromwell's theocracy included the banning of Christmas (he saw it as a pagan holiday), banning of gambling, dancing, the theatre, and pie eating. He also went on a genocidal campaign against the Irish Catholics, slaughtering entire cities.

Parliament hadn't originally intended to abolish the Crown, thus it had no real plan for governing without it. The Commonwealth republic survived through the sheer force of will of Oliver Cromwell and his New Model Army. When he died the situation deteriorated. His son Richard was named the new Lord Protector (the irony of which was not lost on anyone), but Richard lacked the charisma or military skill his father had. The army deserted Richard and its officers began to carve Britain up into spheres of influence. Parliament, looking to restore some kind of order, did the only thing they could do. They kicked Richard Cromwell to the curb and invited the son of Charles I, Prince Charles, to return as King Charles II. He did, and in 1661 the Commonwealth was abolished and the monarchy restored.

Red is the predominant colour here. Red coats, usually associated with the British Empire and monarchy, had their start under Cromwell. Red dye was cheap, so Cromwell outfitted his New Model Army in red coats. When the monarchy was restored Charles II was so impressed with the army's discipline that he kept it as the primary army of the Crown, replacing the pseudo-feudal Cavalier forces that his father had fought, and lost, with.

The logo is the central emblem of the Commonwealth coat of arms. The royal lions of England and Scotland were replaced by the crosses representing each country, though the royal harp of Ireland remained, as there was no cross of St. Patrick at the time. The crest features the Cross of St. George for England in the first and fourth quarters, the Cross of St. Andrew for Scotland in the second quarter, and the harp for Ireland in the third quarter. The black shield with the white lion that overlays the crest is the personal emblem of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth.

The striping is simple. Cromwell, and indeed the Puritan sect he came from, preferred a stark aesthetic, from their clothing to their churches. Extravagance was seen as indicative of Catholicism. So I didn't want to go wild with the jersey design.

The German Empire is up next.

[DeFrank]

Iroquois Nation!

[AnythingChicago]

I'll suggest Yugoslavia. You can have a big picture of Slobodan Milosevic on the front. Just kidding. But I think it could work.

[Evil Doctor]

Here's how this will work. A defunct nation will be chosen, I'll design the uniform, and post it along with a brief historical rundown of the state. The nations I choose to work on can come from any historical period, however they're automatically out of the running if they've actually fielded an ice hockey team. So the Russian Empire is in, but the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is out.

Also, I will refrain from concepts involving Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, or the Confederate States of America.

You needed not to have worried about the first two, since it would have violated the first rule anyways.

May I suggest Newfoundland? They probably played hockey during their brief independence, but I don't think they ever fielded a national team.

[Evil Doctor]

I'll suggest Yugoslavia. You can have a big picture of Slobodan Milosevic on the front. Just kidding. But I think it could work.

Violates the first rule. Yugoslavia had teams before it's break-up. I found an example that might be from the 1976 Olympics...

[AnythingChicago]

I'll suggest Yugoslavia. You can have a big picture of Slobodan Milosevic on the front. Just kidding. But I think it could work.

Violates the first rule. Yugoslavia had teams before it's break-up. I found an example that might be from the 1976 Olympics...

Ah, I see. Sorry about that.

[tvko]

Tibet, Tasmania, Saar (you could have some fun with the flag, like a split jersey design á la Miami)

Interesting job on the first one. I like the unique striping but at the same time I feel like you missed an opportunity to use gold here. Some golden trim could make it great.

[docrocket]

Looking forward to see where you take all of this, 'Cap!

[ChiSox14]

The Republic of Ireland!

[johnrafael]

Roman Empire.

[lenardo]

I really like this jersey, the striping looks very good here. No complaints. I'd personally like to see any tribal nation.

[Evil Doctor]

The Republic of Ireland!

Ah...er....I don't think you're getting the concept....

(and for the record...)

IIHF - Ireland

(Nice uni's. Love the use of the harp crest.)

BTW, love the concept Ice_Cap, looking forward to further additions. Another one that crossed my mind was Austria-Hungary. I know both Austria and Hungary have national teams, but I don't think the Austrio-Hungarian Empire ever had one.

[MDGP]

Wow, that concept is excellent, I love the historical tie-in on the red jerseys. I'm curious, will you be doing road uniforms as well?

[IceCap]

Thanks for the enthusiastic response guys! I'm really excited about this. There's so much potential and room for creativity here.

Tibet, Tasmania, Saar (you could have some fun with the flag, like a split jersey design á la Miami)

Interesting job on the first one. I like the unique striping but at the same time I feel like you missed an opportunity to use gold here. Some golden trim could make it great.

Hmm, that's a good idea. I'll try adding some gold to it before I get to work on Germany, to see how it looks. Great idea!

Wow, that concept is excellent, I love the historical tie-in on the red jerseys. I'm curious, will you be doing road uniforms as well?

I don't think I'll be doing road uniforms. I didn't in the concept thread years ago. The reason is that I want each concept to embody my interpretation of the nation to the fullest. Having to create clash sets undermines this, because I would have to make allowances for compromising the primary design for a colour change. Obviously if these uniforms were real clash sets would exist. This is more of a creative interpretative exercise though.

May I suggest Newfoundland? They probably played hockey during their brief independence, but I don't think they ever fielded a national team.

You know what? That's an interesting idea. I don't think they ever fielded their own national team as an independent Dominion, I've never seen a Newfoundland team ranked. Now that I think about it, I think about it, I really like the idea.

Actually I like most of these requests. They'll be posted in due time, but like I said, I want to get my core "set" done first. The German Empire should be up later today.

[knnhrvy16]

Great job here, Ice_Cap! I love the idea of the concept as well, very creative. Also, I too love the historical tie-ins, it adds to the concept very well!

If you don't mind me doing so, I'd like to just bring up the idea of the Republic of Texas. Some forget that Texas was its own independent nation for ten years, 1836-1846, before it was annexed into the United States.

Anyways, keep up the great work!

[IceCap]

Texas is part of the set I plan on doing before I get to the requests

[pianoknight]

Middle Earth. Oz. United Federation of Planets.

[Berlin Wall]

Haha, nice idea. Would like to see Austria-Hungary and Prussia. Or the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages.^^