History Main / AirstripOne

* Play along at home. See if you can guess which places these terms refer to before revealing the City name? (feel free to add)
** "M25 area" [[spoiler: Greater London]]

* Several cities in the Soviet Union. St. Petersburg used to be named Petrograd and Leningrad before being named St. Petersburg again.

* Also not really evil, but some in The United Kingdom. still sometimes refer to the United States of America as 'the colonies.'

* Also not really evil, but some in England still sometimes refer to the United States of America as 'the colonies.'
** And evidently [[TakeThat some in America]] still refer to the United Kingdom as "England"...

* In ''JudgeDredd'' There is Mega-City 1, Luna-City 1, [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp Sov-Cit 1 and Sov-Cit 2]]. There used to be Mega Cities 2 and 3 as well but [[DesignatedHero Dredd]] [[WhatTheHellHero]] nuked Mega-City 2 and Mega-City 3 broke away from the union [[AfterTheEnd following the Atomic Wars]], becoming Texas City instead.

** Played straight, however, with the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivory_Coast Core d'Ivoire]], aka Ivory Coast.

* ''HalfLife 2'' takes place somewhere in Eastern Europe (although everyone speaks English and the only one with an Eastern European accent is Father Grigori, which has led to arguments over its true location in the fandom), in a location known only as City 17. Probably Sofia, Bulgaria. But don't tell anyone...

* Several cities in the Soviet union. S:t Petersburg used to be named Petrograd and Leningrad before being named S:t Petersburg again.

*** To be honest, ''most'' of us are completely unaware of the difference between Britain, England, and the UK. The terms are pretty much interchangeable in conversation, even among the well-educated.
*** Roald Dahl has referred to at least one Scottish charater as an "Englishman" via characters in his story "The Green Mamba." Dahl was born in Wales. This is hardly an exclusively American phenomenon.

* This [[TruthInTelevision actually happened]] to most of Poland after it was conquered by [[ThoseWackyNazis the Nazis]], who subsequently re-named it "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Government General Government]]".

* This [[TruthInTelevision actually happened]] to Poland after it was conquered by [[ThoseWackyNazis the Nazis]], who subsequently re-named it "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Government General Government]]".

*** Poland: ''Vandalenland'' (land of the Vandals);

*** The Netherlands: ''Westland'' (self-explanitory);

*** And probably even more.

* After the Anschluss Austria was renamed Ostmark.
** Not really on par with "Airstrip One" though; Ostmark is an old name for Austria. Austria's name is Österreich, which means Eastern Realm, almost the same as the older Ostmark.
*** Essentially, Österreich (Eastern Realm) became Ostmark (Eastern March), logically following its re-inclusion into the broader ''Deutsches Reich'' (German Empire).
**** The point of renaming the country Ostmark was to deny that there had ever been an independent Austria.After 1943 the country was even further reduced in importance by being called Donau und Alpengaue.

** There were also a number of occupational regimes (the so-called ''Reichskommissariats''), of which only Ostland (the Baltic states and Belarus) followed this trope. The rest of them just used the German-language names of the countries in question. Hitler and his cronies apparently had even more of this in store if they had been able to solidify their domination over Europe. To wit:

*** The Netherlands: ''Westland'';
*** Denmark: ''Nordmark'';

Poland: ''Vandalenland'' (land of the Vandals);
The Baltics: ''Peipusland'' (Estonia), ''Dünaland'' (Latvia), ''Ingermannland'' (Ingria);
The Crimea: ''Gotenland'' (land of the Goths);
Russia proper: ''Moskowien'' (Muscovy);
The Netherlands: ''Westland'';
Denmark: ''Nordmark'';
And probably even more.

* ''NineteenEightyFour'' has the entire United Kingdom given the pitiful title of "Airstrip One," a reference to the Americans referring to it as "an unsinkable aircraft carrier" during WorldWarTwo.

*** This one is a bit obvious in hindsight because [[spoiler: that's the number of the interstate highway that surrounds the city.]]

* ''NineteenEightyFour'' has the entire United Kingdom given the pitiful title of "Airstrip One."
** Which is a reference to the Americans referring to it as "an unsinkable aircraft carrier" during WorldWarTwo.
*** Which proves exactly how thin-skinned people can be about names: the Americans meant it as a compliment.

* ''HalfLife 2'' takes place somewhere in Eastern Europe, in a location known only as City 17. Probably Sofia, Bulgaria. But don't tell anyone...