Westeros as Britain

How accurate is this map in terms of historical comparisons?

Iron Islands = historical "Kingdom of the Isles." Small, barren isles crawling with raiders and longships. These isles used to belong to the king of Norway. The so-called "Kingdom of the Isles" was made-up of Viking settlers, and alternated between a territory of Norway and being an independent overlordship. The Ironborn are obvious Viking expies.

Vale = Wales. Most of it, anyway. Heavily mountainous region with green valleys.

Dorne = Cornwall/Devon (that area used to be called "West Wales") superficially, Wales in terms of almost everything else. More independent than the rest, separated from rest of the lands by a series of mountains the people call "marches", with lords on the other side of those mountains called "Marcher Lords," and ruled by a prince instead of a lord. A mountainous peninsula with a tiny population relative to how much land it takes up. It's culturally distinct from the rest of England/Westeros, though not too dissimilar. Like Dorne, Wales was attacked by a foreign conqueror who was literally called "the Conqueror", but managed to survive the first invasion unlike most of the rest of the island/continent. Also like Dorne, they were slowly conquered militarily later, but revolts inflicted enough damage that the new conquering dynasty agreed to grant some concessions and "go easy" on it.

Crownlands = London and the surrounding areas. Mostly due to the King's Landing-London comparison. One, London kind of sounds like Landing. Just had to point that out. Two, both are massive cities that were considered overpopulated. Three, London was founded by the Romans and renovated extensively by William the Conqueror, mirroring how King's Landing was founded by the Valyrians and made the capital of Westeros by Aegon the Conqueror. Four, they're both obviously the capitals of their respective kingdoms.

Land of Always Winter = Highlands. Cold, inhospitable, full of clans of Picts/Wildlings.

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>More independent than the rest, separated from rest of the lands by a series of mountains the people call "marches", with lords on the other side of those mountains called "Marcher Lords," and ruled by a prince instead of a lord.

This is literally Wales. Vale sounds more like Yorkshire / Lancashire, a part of the country known for it's numerous vales.

Fuck off back to whatever containment board you escaped from

North = Scotland. The independence movement during the WOT5K is reminiscent of the Scottish independence wars of the 14th century, especially since Tywin is clearly based on Edward Longshanks. Many of the traditions of the North are northern English/Scottish inspired, and the presence of mountain clansmen and other 'uncivilized' peoples adds to the parallel. Like Scotland, the North is clan-based, cold, mountainous, and very sparsely populated relative to how big it is. The North takes up about a third of Westeros (not counting the LOAW) yet has maybe 1/7 of the population. Scotland makes about a third of the island of Britain yet only held 1/7 of the population too for most of its history. In the Industrial Age and onward its dropped lower.

Riverlands: north-central England. Fertile and rich lands full of rivers, but lacking natural barriers they're often used as battlegrounds during civil wars and suffer a lot of damage whenever war comes to the continent/island. Their place on the map also roughly corresponds to the core areas of the Danelaw, mirroring how the Riverlands were conquered by the Viking expies of the setting in the backstory. That it also fits relative to where the North and Westerlands are is a happy coincidence.

Westerlands = northwest England, particularly Lancashire. Small and rich hilly region that has always been fairly stable. The names of locations in ASOIAF make this one pretty obvious- the LANNisters of CASTerly Rock are obviously based on the Lancasters, who were based here. One of the Lannister family members, Stafford, also takes his name directly from the modern county of Staffordshire, which is also here.

Reach = middle-south England. Not much to say here; wide open and fertile lands, and among the most densely populated place on the island/continent. The historical Sir James Tyrell hails from here, non-coincidentally.

Stormlands = southeast England, just fits well with everything else being taken.

>This is literally Wales. Vale sounds more like Yorkshire / Lancashire, a part of the country known for it's numerous vales.
It pretty much is. To be honest I made Dorne Cornwall instead of Wales on this map despite it probably being the strongest historical parallel just because it looked nicer.

>Land of Always Winter = Highlands. Cold, inhospitable, full of clans of Picts/Wildlings
What fucking time period are you setting this in
There were no picts after like 9th or 10th century and they were Christianized long before then anyway

>What fucking time period are you setting this in
Not any specific one, because Martin certainly doesn't. The Seven Kingdoms are an obvious reference to the Heptarchy and the Iron Islands are straight out of the Viking Age but otherwise he himself admits that he's mostly inspired by the War of the Roses.

Doom of Valyria = Northern Ireland

GRRM is also inspired by Robert Jordan. The Game of Thrones, is obviously a reference to Daes Dae'mar in Wheel of Time which means The Game of Houses or the Great Game.

But what's their tax policy, hmmm?